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How to Prepare Your Business for Changes of Post-Pandemic? | With businesses still dealing with the pandemic outbreak and wondering how the world will look after everything get settle down. There is no denial to the fact that this virus has pushed everyone to live into a digitized world, right from the online doctors to remote working but chances are there that other subtle yet profound changes will be there. So, are you and your business ready to face the changes after the pandemic lockdown?
The pandemic crisis is still unfolding with different forms like house arrest, self-isolation, and lockdown, and business leaders are navigating to take hold of the situation. As the crisis goes worse, we all have been summarizing business lessons provided by the leading CEOs across the globe who are clearing leading their organizations through this difficult situation. With the hope that there is the light at the end of this bleak tunnel, here are few key strategies to help your business to recover from the corona pandemic.
How to prepare your business for the post-pandemic economy?
Think about how coronavirus has affected your customers
Depending on the industry you are currently serving in, your customers might be having some difficult time due to the corona pandemic. Find out how the pandemic is affecting your customers and keeping them awake during the night and what you can do to help them. This will help you to adjust your pitch and online marketing strategy around to address the challenges and worries in the market. For instance: — if your customers are worried about their online presence then, you can offer online marketing services to help your customers to figure out how online marketing works.
Reintroduce yourself and your staff to your customers
During the pandemic crisis, many companies will inadvertently let down some of their loyal customers. While some will still love your company, others will demand the change within your system. Some will appreciate you have put for the last few weeks while others will think that you have shown your true colour.
While the relationship with your customers will alter over time as the pandemic will result in some ground-breaking changes. So, when the dust settles down after pandemic, you have some catching up to do. Yes, it will take time but rather than looking down, consider this time as an opportunity to reintroduce yourself to your customers. In the beginning, don’t expect too much from them as time passes, they will come around with their needs and requirements.
Adapt new marketing and sales strategy
Everyone is claiming that the world will change once the coronavirus pandemic is over what they are forgetting is it already has changed. Going back to normal is now highly overrated. Although “pre-COVID” that was normal was, it is impossible to stay ahead in the market without adjusting to the current “normal”. New evolved digital marketing strategies are need to embraced to adapt to the reality of post-pandemic.
Digital interaction is the key
Even though your customers were taking advantage of the pandemic before the coronavirus pandemic, the isolation and lockdown made them highly demanded. As men-to-men contact is restricted to avoid the spread, people are reaching brands online to conduct zero contact delivery of the products. So, even when the lockdown season is over, don’t expect this trend to be over as digital marketing solutions are here to stay!
In the end, we hope a fast recovery once the pandemic season is over. | https://medium.com/proict-llc/how-to-prepare-your-business-for-changes-of-post-pandemic-590ee08edd15 | ['Proict Llc'] | 2020-05-27 07:51:01.931000+00:00 | ['Online Marketing', 'Internet Marketing', 'Digital Marketing', 'Business'] |
Once To Every Man And Nation | Back in 1845, the abolitionist James Russell Lowell wrote a poem about the burning issue of slavery that was then partially incorporated into a now familiar hymn that goes “Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide”. For the Republican party, that moment came around a decade and a half later and it chose to defend freedom and the Union. Well, over a century and a half later that moment has once again come for the Republican party and this time it has chosen sedition.
Only 27 Republican members of Congress have openly accepted Joe Biden’s election. 126 Republican members of the House, over 60% of the entire GOP caucus signed on to support a legal challenge that asked the Supreme Court to disenfranchise 40 million voters in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia, and allow state legislatures to appoint Electors in their place in order to prevent Biden from becoming President. Not only did the top two Republicans in the House support that legal challenge but Attorney’s General in eighteen primarily Republican states did as well. All of them are supporting what the Pennsylvania Attorney General rightly called the “seditious abuse of the judicial process”. 27 House Republicans have now asked the DOJ to appoint a special counsel to investigate election irregularities. Stephen Miller is now floating the idea that the administration will round up the unelected Trump Electors as an alternate slate of Electors in the aforementioned four states and others and present those votes to Congress when it officially tallies the Electoral College votes on January 6th. In addition, there are reportedly plans afoot for Republicans to challenge the elected Electors from those same four states as part of the same process.
Yesterday, as the Electoral College actually voted, the entire Michigan Capitol was shut down after credible threats of violence, with one threat directly coming from a Republican legislator. One Michigan Elector was so fearful he wore a bulletproof vest. In Arizona, the Electors met in an undisclosed location in an attempt to prevent violence. In Wisconsin, Electors apparently used a secret entrance to avoid harassment. Over the weekend, the Trump-supporting Proud Boys, whose leader visited the White House earlier in Saturday, went on a rampage through Washington, DC following a Stop the Steal rally. In Georgia, organized armed groups marched on the state capitol in conjunction with the Stop the Steal rally in that state.
Going forward, we can expect to see Republican legislatures use the myth of 2020 voter fraud to further expand voter suppression and restrict the power of primarily minority and Democratic voters. In fact, many of the Republican legal challenges to the election filed with the courts specifically tried to make the claim that NOT engaging in voter suppression was actually unconstitutional. In other words, Democratic votes, by definition, are unconstitutional. For Republicans, more voter suppression will be the tactic in 2022 but for 2024 they are now signaling a willingness for some Republican-controlled states to amend their voting laws to allow the legislature to choose the Electors for the Electoral College, perhaps ignoring the will of their own citizens and not even bothering to hold a presidential election at all.
As Chris Murphy has rightfully noted, “Right now, the most serious attempt to overthrow our democracy in the history of our of country is underway. Those who are pushing to make Donald Trump President, no matter the outcome of the election, are engaged in a treachery against their nation…For much of the last four years, we thought the problem was that Republicans knew what the right thing was, but they just didn’t do it because Trump was so scary. I think this moment is showing us that there are a whole lot of Republicans who believe this nonsense…This is a party that has a whole bunch of enemies of democracy inside its top ranks. That’s bone-chilling”.
Today, the two parties in America are no longer the Democratic and Republican parties. Instead, as Steve Schmidt describes it, there is only the Democracy coalition and the autocratic Trump party. As we have seen, many Republicans in Congress have chosen to be a part of the Trump party. For those other Republicans who refuse to say whether Biden is the next President, their silence is complicity in an attempt to overturn a democratic election. They too have chosen to side with the Trump party. They have all made their choice to be enemies of democracy and that can not be erased if and when, in the days or months ahead, they finally succumb to the truth and acknowledge the Biden presidency.
But there is another elite group whose silence also speaks to complicity with the autocratic Trump party, namely America’s business leaders. After making all the right noises in the immediate aftermath of the election, business leaders have remained silent as Trump attempted to overturn the results of a democratic election. Shortly after the election, a couple of dozen of America’s leading CEOs apparently met to discuss how to deal with any attempt by Trump to stay in office. According to one member of that meeting, the leaders agreed that if Trump’s actions threatened the peaceful transition of power then they would begin to pressure Republican members of Congress to defend our democracy using either public or private pressure.
In addition, business lobbying organizations such as the Business Roundtable, the US Chamber of Commerce, and that National Association of Manufacturers all reportedly met individually to discuss the same issue. The Business Roundtable acknowledged Biden’s win, releasing a statement saying, “Business Roundtable congratulates President-elect Biden on his election as 46th President of the United States. We also congratulate Vice President-elect Harris on her historic accomplishment as the first woman, Black woman and person of South Asian descent to be elected Vice President of the United States”. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon made a similar statement, sending “Congratulations to President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris on their victory”.
About a week later, on November 19th, the US Chamber of Commerce and the National Association for Manufacturers called on the Trump administration to begin the transition, at least tacitly admitting Biden’s victory. A day earlier, JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon was even more blunt, saying, “We need a peaceful transition. We had an election. We have a new president”. That was followed by a letter from the Partnership for New York, which includes over 160 CEOs, that stated, “Every day that an orderly presidential transition process is delayed, our democracy grows weaker in the eyes of our own citizens and the nation’s stature on the global stage is diminished. Our national interest and respect for the integrity of our democratic process requires that the administrator of the federal General Services Administration immediately ascertain that Joseph R. Biden and Kamala D. Harris are the president-elect and vice president-elect so that a proper transition can begin”.
Trump confidant and Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwartzman told CNBC on November 23, “I’m a fan of good process…But the outcome is very certain today, and the country should move on…Like many in the business community, I am ready to help President-elect Biden and his team as they confront the significant challenges of rebuilding our post-COVID economy”. Schwartzman had been part of those original discussions about what business leaders should do if Trump refused to leave and reportedly was one of the few in that meeting who defended Trump’s response to the election. In the meantime, in the aftermath of the election, Schwartzman gave $15 million to the Senate Leadership PAC. Citadel founder Kenneth Griffin gave $10 million and the founders of Home Depot and TD Ameritrade founder each gave $1 million. All that money was primarily funneled to the Senate runoff campaigns of Republicans Loeffler and Perdue in Georgia in early January. Both of those candidates have refused to acknowledge Biden’s victory, have amplified the mythical claims of voter fraud, and have called upon the Republican Secretary of State to resign for not finding the fraud that does not exist.
But, since the transition actually began, business leaders have been remarkably silent, even as the attempts by Trump and Republicans to steal the election become even more brazen; even as the threats against election officials increase; even as election violence spills out in the streets; even as Republicans choose to openly oppose democracy. If those business leaders that met in the immediate aftermath of the election have now made private entreaties to get congressional Republicans to accept Trump’s defeat, those pleas have clearly fallen on deaf ears. Perhaps these business leaders are content to let the process play itself out without their input. That approach, however, will leave us with a weakened Biden presidency where a large percentage of Republicans and nearly three-quarters of Trump supporters believe that Biden has no legitimacy. Sadly, that is probably exactly the result business wants. Today, the silence from business leaders speaks volumes. Like the Republicans in Congress, the moment to decide has come, and they have made their choice. | https://tidalsoundings.medium.com/once-to-every-man-and-nation-7e72336f867b | [] | 2020-12-15 15:36:31.856000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Democracy', 'Business', 'Republican Party'] |
BREATHE (these limbs) | I need your breath more than this world meets gravity
I need your breath like the melody needs harmony
I need your breath like the chest needs a cavity
I need your breath like the stars need the sky and I need your breath, the wings on which the cosmos fly
Intertwine our desires until yours are mine
I need your breath to revive and revitalize what I’ve killed inside
I need your breath without I don’t want to take another step
So please, breathe.
Consume me until you’re all that I see
Penetrate every inch of these bones and set my skeleton free of me
Take my rib take whatever you need I’ll break my spirit if that’s what you seek just please don’t hold your breath from me
Spirit of the living God have your way with me
Just please, breathe. | https://medium.com/@mvrkus/breathe-these-limbs-153f4dc38f61 | ['M V R K'] | 2020-12-17 07:25:47.350000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Christmas', 'Jesus', 'Spoken Word', 'Christian'] |
I used to work in a bleach factory. | Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
No kidding. One of the worst summer jobs I ever had was working in a bleach factory. Here is the list of jobs I’ve had in my life. Some are better than others, but all shaped me to be the psychopath I am today.
Pre-College
Got paid for picking up contents of a container truck that wrecked on the interstate.
I worked at a Shoney’s (a shittier version of a Denny’s) as a bus boy. (a one-day job. I quit after my first 16-hour shift.) Most memorable part of this job? My “manager” was missing a big toe and would take his big rubbery shoe off and rub his stump and complain. He would then go flip steaks with his smelly unwashed hand.
A sacker at a grocery store. (best part of the job was unlimited chocolate milk…I used to sneak into the cooler and drink so much of it my stomach hurt. (don’t judge me…I was a “heavy kid” back then)
I worked in a bleach factory. My supervisor reminded me of someone out of a Mad Max movie. No A/C and they blew a effin’ whistle (like the one on the Flintstones) for breaks and at the end of the day.
Flower delivery. (free flowers for every date I ever had)
College Summers:
A bouncer (several places…one of which had a barbed wire fence around the dance floor).
Personal security/bodyguard for several entertainers. (I grew from a “heavy little boy” to a “bulging student”)
Graceland (yes, Elvis Presley’s house).
Later college years, early post college and current: (I was a psych student)
Counselor at multiple types of psychiatric facilities (pedophiles, murderers, rapist, one man that pulled his own teeth out, one man that was afraid of the toilet….too many stories to tell there).
I sold advertising specialties (swag, junk, coffee mugs, etc.) for about 6 months. My last client was looking for a recruiter.
First recruiting job was with a smallish tech firm, 2nd was with a billion-dollar behemoth and my last (current) is where the coroner will find my body.
What was your most memorable job? What job prepared you for what you do today? | https://medium.com/@sgordon70/i-used-to-work-in-a-bleach-factory-908fb8f3b76 | ['Scott Gordon'] | 2021-06-08 16:41:21.719000+00:00 | ['Jobs', 'Hiring', 'Recruiting', 'Employee Experience', 'Summer'] |
Young Thomas Young. The Visionary 20th-Century Universal… | Quick Intro
The fourth entry in this series of Masters of Many in their formative years lacks the mainstream popularity of our previous protagonists, especially relative to Da Vinci & Franklin; Thomas Young, however, nonetheless embodies the perfect portrait of a 20th-century polymath. Praised by the likes of Eisenstein, Asimov, & Maxwell, Young’s accomplishments are countless & impactful; as renowned author Isaac Asimov once claimed [of Young]:
He was the best kind of infant prodigy, the kind that matures into an adult prodigy
Young held a rare, feverish desire to learn & accomplish within; this tenacity in pursuit of knowledge, paired with his clearly-heightened, raw intelligence, led to a uniquely productive & prolific life.
Staying in context with the previous entries, let’s down narrow the historical peripherals to a decade of his formative years, asking the question— what was he like in his twenties?
Note-Worthy Accomplishments
— Established the wave theory of light through his double-slit experiment; first physicist to suggest that light is both a particle & a wave
— Significant contributions to the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs, specifically the Rosetta Stone; lifelong polyglot with mastery of five languages
— Medical physician that laid down the foundations for vision & color theory by identifying the presence of three kinds of nerve fibers in the retina
— Well-rounded Royal-Society physicist that made a dizzying amount of entries to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, ranging from vision, light, mechanics, energy (credited with the term itself), language & finally music
20s To 30s (1793–1803)
From birth, it was quite clear that Thomas Young held prodigious intelligence. At the early age of six, for example, he found the village school quite dull — so he was sent to a clergyman as a form of advancement. Young, in his autobiography, almost immediately voiced his continued frustration, stating that the clergyman “had neither the talent nor temper to teach anything well.”
Young spent only six more years in official learning institutions. By the time he left preparatory school in 1786, he was already knowledgeable in many languages (ancient & modern), as well as versed in Newtonian physics. At thirteen years old, bored with schooling, Young became a tutor to Hudson Gurney (grandson of David Barclay); he remained here from 1787 to 1792. Lifelong friends, Gurney observed that Young:
Believed what one man can do another can if he’s willing to make the effort
A classic display of his lifelong perseverance, by seventeen Young powered through nearly all of the major writes on antiquity (Aristotle, Plato, Newton, etc..) in their original tongues. Newton’s Opticks, in particular, sparked a lifelong interest in the concept of vision, the mechanics of light & the anatomy of the eye. He began to study medicine in London at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in 1792; additionally, he enrolled as an assistant pupil at the hospital. Required to dissect an ox’s eye, he began jotting down a flurry of ideas & experiments…
Isaac Newton’s Opticks
Young wastes no time implementing a life of prolific productivity— the year 1793, as a twenty year-old, he submitted his very first publication to the Royal Society of Long: Observations On Vision. Based on this dissertation, at the unusually young age of twenty-one, Young was elected a fellow of the Royal Society.
A short two years later, after transferring again, twenty-three year-old Young obtained the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the University of Göttingen in 1796.
Th next year, due to regulatory requirements set by the Royal College of Physicians, Young discovered that he’d have to repeat a few years of medical school in order to attain an MD & become a practicing physician in England; he, therefore, enrolled once last time at Emmanuel College, Cambridge This same year (1797), at twenty-four, Young suddenly found himself financially stable as he inherited the estate of his grand-uncle Richard Brocklesby.
At twenty-six, Young established himself as a physician & officially opened a proprietary place of practice at 48 Welbeck Street, London (seen below). His primary interest at this time consisted of sensory perception & the anatomy of the eye.
Commemorative Plaque @ 48 Welbeck Street, London
The following year, twenty-seven year-old Young, a bit distracted from his physician practice, upped his publication pace. The first half of the year he submitted the Sound and Light to the Royal Society; the second half of the year he submitted a further paper On the Mechanism of the Eye — which measured astigmatism for the first time.
In 1801 Young, continuing his flurry of publications, published one of his most legendary pieces: On the Theory of Light and Colours. This ground-breaking dissertation contained not one, but two monumental theories. First, he presented a wave theory of light using the wavelength of different colors of light using diffraction (preceding his double-slit experiment). Next, he put forth the theory of three-color vision to explain how the eye could detect colors — a theory that today we know is very true given the three types of cones located in the retina. To round the year out, at twenty-eight, Young was appointed professor of “natural philosophy” (basically physics) at the Royal Institution.
In 1802, twenty-nine year-old Young was appointed foreign secretary of the Royal Society. The following year (1803), the closing year of this introspection, our hero broke a commitment & resolved to enter another, lifelong one. At thirty, Young resigned from his professorship at the Royal Institution, claiming that he feared that its duties would interfere with his medical practice (it’s much more likely that he simply found the professorship distracting from his many experiments). This same year he met one Eliza Maxwell, his lifelong sweetheart that he’d soon marry.
Quirks, Rumors & Controversies
People with enormous strengths tend to balance this out with tragic weaknesses. As we’ve seen with previous protagonists, every bright light casts a shadow; so, the question follows — what shadows followed Thomas Young?
An overlap of a quirk & controversy, a negative association attributable to Young was his rather experimental, unorthodox, & at times arguably in-humane physician practice. It’s well-known that Young, in his brilliant rebelliousness & intellectual independence, strongly disliked traditional medical methods; he therefore often turned to untested & experimental methods for treatment. As a lover of science & history observing Young’s accomplishments centuries later, his physician methods intrigue me; as a patient in the 1800s in dire need of a serious ailment, however, the kooky physician revered for his physics & wide-ranging experiments didn’t exactly inspire trust.
This apathy towards his physician career, while it undoubtedly opened up his bandwidth for pursuing his many interests, naturally led to a mediocre commercial track record. Had Young not inherited his Uncle’s estate, it’s highly likely that Young would’ve either ran into serious financial issues or, arguably worse, would’ve curtailed his rapidly expanding knowledge.
Additionally, as well-rounded as Young was, he was famously infamous for being quite the poor communicator. His tenure as professorship, for example, leaves a few hints that perhaps Young didn’t leave as much as he was asked to resign; during the first two years of his lectures, it’s recorded that his teachings were very technical, contained too much breadth, &, of course, consisted of his latest home-experiment results. It was said by one of his contemporaries, George Peacock, that:
His words were not those in familiar use, and the arrangement of his ideas seldom the same as those he conversed with. He was therefore worse calculated than any man I ever knew for the communication of knowledge.
In Closing
Who was Thomas Young in his twenties? A genuine workhorse genius infatuated with medicine, physics, & the best of both worlds: vision, optics & the eye.
Was he accomplished in his twenties? Yes. Out of the four protagonists summarized, Young maintained a surreal consistency in productivity seen from an early childhood that extended much past his twenties. Though, as noted above, many of his scientific breakthroughs were only possible due to the financial stability he inherited.
Nearing his thirties, Young was on the cusp of his arguably greatest contributions (the double-slit experiment & the Rosetta Stone decipherment). His pace in publications, experiments & contributions rarely waned as he aged; & his scope in topics calling his interest, it seemed, only expanded over time. Reminiscent of other intellectual rebels that carved their own path, I’d like to highlight a lesson Young lived out: refuse to let academia & traditional paths overshadow your education. Your absolute best work will come from aligning multiple purposes, skillsets, & interests, all characteristics very personal to you — find a way to create your own path to that sweet spot, it’s hardly one that’s already been walked. Yes, Thomas Young is certainly no-where a household name as Benjamin Franklin or Leonardo Da Vinci, but leave all doubts at the door, Thomas Young is vastly underappreciated as a 20th-century universal genius.
Additional Entries
Part I — Benjamin Franklin
Part II — Russell Bertrand
Part III — Leonardo Da Vinci
Part V — Mary Somerville
Part VI — Richard Feynman
Part VII — Sir Francis Bacon
Part VIII — Jacques Cousteau
Part IX — Nikolas Tesla
Part X — Isaac Newton
Sources
The Last Man Who Knew Everything: Thomas Young | https://medium.com/young-polymaths/in-their-20s-thomas-young-5112c506906b | ['Jesus Najera'] | 2019-12-28 19:57:40.035000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Physics', 'Education', 'Science', 'History'] |
This Will Fundamentally Change the Way You Look at Childhood Pictures | What if there was a way to travel in time and see what we would become, would you try?
Take a moment, a moment to look at this house on the right side of the picture, there are two windows, one intact and another one still holding on the broken wall, waiting for the moment to say goodbye. The intact window was my favourite window when I visited my nana every summer from Mumbai.
My parents would take an evening train from Mumbai central with all of us, we would pack ‘thepla’ (a Gujarati must-have travel food), which my mom would prepare in the noon and ‘batata’ potato mix to eat along. The 22-hour journey was full of watching the cities go by the window, well I will write about the train journey some other time. I was shorter than an average kid of my age, I used to stand at the window and look at the people and cows below walking by, occasionally when I felt naughty I screamed and hid away from the window, the people looked up, maybe waited for few seconds before moving along, I observed the cows never looked up so I never screamed at them. I made friends with a few men across the street who used to sit at the shop, they were also friends with my uncle (my mother’s brother). Somedays they launched a 5-star, it is a brand of chocolate bars, at me. I loved it. My mother was scared that I might fall out of the window while catching the 5-star.
And the above Preset view from inside. I was as tall as the aluminium barrel in the picture, so you can imagine why my mother was scared and that’s why she used to sit next to the window holding my shirt with her hand. The interior of the house was different than what you see in the picture, there were a sofa, 2 big chairs and a table on which radio was placed but now it looks like a warzone chemical weapon storage room. My nana used to sit the sofa with his bags full of work paper kept next to him, he always dressed in white shirt and pant, with a Gandhi topi to cover his bald head, I have no memory of seeing him in hair, maybe lost his hair before I was born, we didn’t have a digital camera and taking a picture was a project in itself, it required a going to a studio, posing, getting light flashed in your eyes without warning and then in a couple of days we would get the printed photos, so my nana probably had the only handful of pictures in his lifetime, but now times are different, my niece has more photos taken in an hour than my Nana every had of him in his life. My Nani sat on the chair or on the floor in front of the sofa, she came prepared with a glass of water and a cup of tea whenever my nana came home in the evening. My mom would then pull me down from the window while she went to the kitchen to get snacks for everyone.
One of the bags my nana always carried was filled with snacks for his children and grandchildren, and you must be guessed it’s colour by now, it was white as well. The shelf that you see in the picture, I remember my Nani stored pickles, dried chillies, dried mangoes and seasonal spices which she should need in future.
I don’t remember the color of the walls, i think they were a shade of cream or white, I later learnt that a shade of color which was very popular was called off-white, I still never understood the purpose of coloring the house off-white and not just white.
Come let me take you the room next to it.
This is the hall way, we just exited the my Nana’s room on the left of the picture and the close door you see is my uncle’s room, where he lived with his small family, he was married and had 3 children who lived there. This hallway was my playground sometimes, it wasn’t empty like in the picture above, me along with my cousins played in this space as it was the only open place for us to hop around. Well now after the furniture has been moved, it has a bigger space but no children to play there.
Come lets go into the room,
This room was a fully equipped for a family for 5 to live happily, it has a small TV which I never saw working. I used to play with my sister and cousins when my uncle was away at work. Sometimes, I took a nap with my cousins after lunch till my mother came and woke me up to go out with my another uncle for a evening drive on his motorbike. We went to the somnath temple on Mondays, then goto a cricket playground where local tournament was a spectacle, the teams played under the floodlights, it gave a stadium ambience, the spectators were watching along the boundary rope standing, sitting on the ground, sitting on a parked bike or car. Right behind the spectators were the street food vendors, flavoured icicle vendors, spicy snack vendors, and the most popular of them all were the paan shops which sold tobbaco and betel leaves stuffed with Arcea Nut’ or something which give a happy high. I always looked forward to going to watch the cricket matches and get pampered with icicle.
Come, Let me take you the kitchen, where the food for almost over 20 people was cooked by my Nani and my aunts.
Do you see those ceramic pots placed upside down on the floor? those were treasure pots for me, I was a disinterested eater as a child, but those pots had something which made my plain rice palatable, one of them had a sun dried mango pickle which infused over time with oil, chilies, carrots and many other ingredients. I loved mixing it with my rice and eat it, I would ignore every other dishes cooked in the kitchen. My sisters and cousins loved the pickle as well. It is called ‘Raiti’. Last 10 years, I have been cooking on a electric cooking equipment, when our ancestors discovered fire and used it to cook, it was species evolving moment, the cooked food brought many physical and life style changes in homo sapiens. But for last hundreds of years, we people, especially women who ran the kitchen, cooked food in a clay stove by burning dry wood or coal. The food may taste authentic and rich but the cooking experience isn’t, mainly when the kitchen is indoors. The fumes from the burning wood or coal were damaging their lungs at a slow and consistent pace and that was one reason i didn’t like going to the kitchen, as I would cough my lungs out.
The subtle mass transition from wooden to natural gas went unnoticed in last 6 years.
My Nani, my mum and aunts would make tea, breakfast, tea, lunch, tea, snacks, tea, dinner for everyone, this was their daily schedule, they would have to work extra long on weekends, when the men of the house or visitors were visiting on weekends. I don’t think they got weekends off, it was assumed a holiday for the men of the house but my Nani, mum and aunts were never given a holiday in their daily tasks.
The utensils, glasses, pans, pots lying in chaos on the floor depicts the picture of the how the big family was sent in to a spiral chaos.
Lets go to the next room, where I never went or was allowed to go. It is the storage room.
Rice, wheat, grains and oil were stored in this room in those big barrels. I noticed, we would have 3–4 months supply every time I visited the house, as I grew older I realized it was a normal practise in the community to store food supply. My generation would never understand why someone would need to store so much food, when one can basically get the food delivered in 24 hours- I have to point out that 2020 pandemic threw a glass of water on our faces to wake up and reconsider this practise and got me thinking that every practise we see our parents, grand parents or elders follow is because they had experienced a situation which led them to adopt that practice or tradition, whether it should evolve or change with time is the debate for the wise but traditions built over time should not be broken in a flash.
At this point you must be wondering how big is the house? well let me show you a perspective of it. The picture below give one view of the house from the terrace.
The we are standing right about the Nana’s room and right on the bottom left you can see the kitchen door. The rooms visible in the centre was occupied by one of my uncles and aunts, they were unmarried at that time. The room on the top left was empty, I don’t know why it was empty and the room which is partially visible on the top center is where one of uncle and his wife were staying who I always saw arguing with everyone else in the house. I didn’t like going there even when we were playing hide and seek. If someone asked my opinion on why the house is abandoned, I would point towards them as the initiators of the end, but no one would ask me. so that’s that.
I along with my sisters and cousins would run around the small open area right outside the kitchen door, it was favorite space and it had natural light and place to jump around. I was small so this space looked like a park to me, compared to my house in Mumbai, where we shared open space with my fathers family.
and the last picture for this story, the rubble of memories lies to be collected and throw away. If you ask any of the family members about one super wish, I would bet each one of them would say “I want old our times back”. | https://medium.com/@ourvoices/my-childhood-in-8-pictures-f803f3fbc9c6 | [] | 2021-01-23 21:04:26.754000+00:00 | ['Future', 'Children', 'Memories', 'Travel', 'Journal'] |
Vue Components in ASP.NET Core without bundler using http-vue-loader | This is the second part of the story “Using Vue Components in ASP.NET Core without bundler”. Here is Part 1, if you haven’t read it yet.
I have found an another nice way to achieve the same result as in Part 1 is to use http-vue-loader library made by Franck Freiburger.
This library loads .vue files directly from the HTML page or JavaScript without any JS Bundler and build steps.
It was interesting for me to give it a try with my ASP.NET Core project from Part 1.
This is a step by step instruction on how to create the new vue-card2 using http-vue-loader.
If you do not want to do all the steps, then just go to the end of the story and download ready to use project.
Get the ASP.NET Core Vue project from Part 1.
2. Add the reference to the http-vue-loader library in the file _Layout.cshtml
3. Create new vue-card2.vue component in the folder wwwroot/js
Download the following gist vue-card2.vue file to the folder wwwroot/js in the project.
vue-card2.vue
/wwwroot/js/vue-card2.vue
I simply took my vue-card component from Part 1 and modified it to work with http-vue-loader. The component has the same file structure as defined by Vue Single File Component.
The main difference to our Vue Card 1 component is in the script tag:
Script tag of the Vue component
The component just exports the props. The registering of the component takes place not here, but directly in the Vue App.
4. Modify Vue App in the Index.cshtml file.
Loading and registering of the component take place in the “components” section of Vue App.
Add the following code to the Vue App in the script tag of index.html file
components: {
'vue-card2': window.httpVueLoader('/js/vue-card2.vue')
}
The Vue App should look like this:
Script tag with Vue App
The http-vue-loader loads .vue files per HTTP request.
Check the http-vue-loader documentation on other ways of using it. It can also register components globally or be used as a plugin.
5. Modify Startup.cs to add the mapping to .vue ContentType
Static Files Provider does not serve unknown file types by default.
If we just add the vue-card2.vue file to the JavaScript folder in the project, our component will not work.
404 Error loading vue-card2.vue file
404 Error loading vue-card2.vue file
To fix it we need to make .vue files known by Static Files Provider, by mapping .vue files to some Content-Type. The right Content-Type for Vue Single File Components is “application/javascript”.
Replace the line with app.UseStaticFiles() using the following Gist:
ContentType mapping to for .vue files.
6. Add the second row with vue-card2 to the Index.cshtml file.
7. Start the ASP.NET Core project
If you did everything right, you should see now the second row of cards made with the vue-card2.vue component.
The Vue Card 2 Component (vue-card2.vue)
If it did not work for you, then please check my working sample project in the git repository below or write about your error in the comments.
GitHub Repository with the sample project:
Pros:
Using http-vue-loader solves the main problem we have in Part 1 (integrating and use of .vue files in the project)
Now we can easily use third-party vue libraries in our Web Application without the needing to modify them.
Cons:
Franck Freiburger, the author of http-vue-loader does not recommend to use the library in production.
I guess, there could possibly be problems with some browsers or environments by loading and compiling of .vue files. Or the library could fail with complicated Vue components.
I haven’t had any problems using http-vue-loader in this sample project.
You can check the Project Issues to see what kind of real-life problems do have the users of http-vue-loader.
The http-vue-loader helps us to quickly test .vue components without using any bundler or building environment.
I am currently working on the migration to Vue v.3.x and will add the updated solution later in the next part. | https://medium.com/@tolbxela/vue-2-components-in-asp-net-core-without-bundler-using-http-vue-loader-caed16128c55 | [] | 2020-12-28 17:28:28.046000+00:00 | ['JavaScript', 'Vuejs', 'Single File Component', 'Aspnetcore', 'Vue'] |
Netflix’s “Emily in Paris” Depicts the Very Worst of Social Media Marketing | Social media marketers should steer clear of the troublesome practices that feature in Netflix’s latest hit show
Photo by Jeff Frenette on Unsplash
(Spoilers ahead!)
Netflix’s new series, “Emily in Paris,” is causing quite a stir, despite its innocuous premise. In a nutshell: Emily from Chicago (played by Lily Collins) jets off to Paris and takes up a social media role in a French advertising agency. In her free time, Emily befriends a champagne heiress, has lunch in chic cafes, and gets hit on by every guy she comes across.
Besides the “Sex and The City” inspired outfits and Pinterest-worthy scenes of Paris, what’s caught the attention of the internet (and the wrath of French viewers) is the barrage of negative stereotypes about French culture. Writing for The Guardian, one critic questioned what French people had done to deserve “Emily in Paris.”
The same could be said of social media marketers — who don’t come out looking so good, either. Throughout the series, Emily acts like a social media missionary, sent by the church of Instagram to preach the power of the hashtag. But in the process, she commits several social media faux-pas that paint the industry in a bad light.
Here’s a list of Emily’s worst social media offenses: | https://medium.com/swlh/netflixs-emily-in-paris-depicts-the-very-worst-of-social-media-marketing-9fa5757e885f | ['Laura Nordberg'] | 2020-10-20 05:42:13.366000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Social Media', 'Startup', 'Business', 'Netflix'] |
Social Media — The New Pressure Cooker In Town? | Facebook, instagram, twitter, our constant companions around to let us know who is doing what, wearing what, going where and everything about them that is technically none of our business.
Our life today is so driven by the constant pressure of competing in the social media space that it is nothing less than a rat race. Something that was invested in to revive and retain association with friends has eventually repositioned itself as a medium to contest, both personally and professionally. Before we realised, the game suddenly was majorly about who does it the best!
Most times, when I’m scrawling through instagram, it is fascinating to see all the glam and glitter, holidaying, party hopping, happy pictures around but also, it makes me think, think about how my life is nowhere close. In fact, on the contrary, it is quite miserable! It makes me compare things in head and question the universe, “why me?” Am I not normal? Did I miss on something big that these guys managed? If yes, what was it? Where did I go wrong?
Maybe it’s just me thinking this way, maybe it’s just my head doing these random mad calculations, but it was all still cropping up there. Before I realised, I had started succumbing to the pressure to be the best! Next, how do I define “best” but? Am I not good enough to be my best?
It made me question the “normal” I was aware of. A constant thinking and probably a comparison running in my head most times. I don’t know if anyone relates to my experience here but honestly, the continual comparisons had really taken a toll on my mental health, become a cause of worry, made me go quite & gloomy, with a perpetual feeling of not being good enough.
Looking at the kind of effect it had on me, I then decided to go off these mediums. I put myself through hard times where the morning ritual of tea and insta/facebook scrolling had to be pushed out and replaced with some real knowledge sharing ones like NDTV & Times. I installed as many of these as I could to keep app hopping and reading more to stay posted on real happenings around. Two, I mindfully started meeting friends, both old and new, creating a real social circle and not circling around social media.
I’ve fought my way through this for good and my experience has eventually made me realise that less indulgence is always better, in every aspect of life. Well, that’s my learning out of my situation, created inside my head.
Today, I’m off social media and the urge to delve and dig and sulk is no more around. I am aware of the effect it has had on me, thrusting & making vigilant efforts to never compare and just be. | https://medium.com/@mailvipasha/social-media-the-new-pressure-cooker-in-town-e8896d791d62 | ['Vipasha Khurana'] | 2019-05-11 16:34:15.930000+00:00 | ['Habits', 'Writers Life', 'Social Media', 'Societal Pressures', 'Writers Block'] |
Movex — The Articulating Fume Extraction Solution | MOVEX RX local extractor with gas spring for welding stations.
Belnor Engineering Inc. is proud to have been a distributor of Movex products in Canada over the past several years.
Movex, which is the US-patented name for their Swedish parent company, Fumex, provides a wide array of local and point extraction devices, exhaust extractors, fans, and filters, as part of an articulating arm extraction solution for laboratory, pharmaceutical, healthcare, production, and industrial applications.
Operating out of Northampton, Pennsylvania, one of the main lines they supply is the TERFU line, which offers enhanced flexibility because of its ability to rotate 360 degrees on a swivel while mounted in place. The TERFU extraction arms are also equipped with articulating joints that are supported by ball bearings, which offer a range of friction at the joints for different ranges and applications of movement.
They can also be mounted on the ceiling, table or wall with anodized aluminum mounting brackets and escutcheon plates can be provided to cover holes made in the finished ceiling. Another feature of the brackets is that they act as ducts as well, which eliminates the need to install additional expensive ductwork in a sensitive environment. In addition, these arms are provided in different material coatings and three sizes: 2, 3 and 4 inches.
Depending on some laboratory applications, it is important to understand corrosion-proof requirements because of the type of chemicals dealt with in the working environment. Movex offers the TERFU line in four versions: the standard version where the tubes are aluminum and the joints are polypropylene. This version is applicable to most airborne gases and particulates.
The polypropylene version is the second option where both the joints and tubes are covered in PP, which is used for highly corrosive chemical cases. The ESD version is the third option, which is incorporated in environments such as the electronics industry, which must follow EN 61340–5–1 directive, and the ATEX version, which follows 94/9/EC category 2 requirements for gases and dust, is used mostly in explosive environments.
For laboratory-specific environments, Movex suggests using the TE extractor due to its low-pressure drop characteristics, which in turn translates to energy savings. This is accomplished by using a larger diameter extractor and allows it to be integrated with other extraction devices. In addition, the TE produces low ventilation noise and is offered in the four material versions explained above therefore it is a clear cut solution for fume extraction needs in critical airflow environments.
For welding construction and manufacturing sites, the RX series of gas extractors is recommended. It comes with a gas spring that balances the dead weight of the arm and handles very easily without rebounding out of position.
As briefly mentioned, Movex offers the LFK-70 filter, for example, as a stand-alone unit for exhaust extraction as well. The filter provides variable speed control for airflow adjustment and turndown according to different specified requirements, low acoustical noise, and excellent flexibility. They also offer 4 different gas filters and 3 different types of particle filters, which act in three stages to separate 99.97% of all particles < 0.3 micrometers.
For gas filters, the filter volume is used for active carbon, which helps separate the particles. A non-sparking aluminum fan is also used and placed outside of the airstream in order to ensure undisturbed airflow and as an add-on feature, a differential pressure manometer can be installed to detect when the filter is full.
By offering point fume extraction solutions, Belnor Engineering Inc. compliments their existing critical airflow control product lines for laboratory and pharmaceutical applications and allows us to extend into the industrial markets as well, such as the petrochemical and manufacturing facilities.
We are eager to connect with customers who are in need of efficient and reliable products for these applications and build on these successes in order to prove their value. Having partnered with educational institutions on Movex such as the University of Waterloo QNC and Douglas Wright Engineering II Buildings, for example, Belnor can bring significant expertise to the table, with over thirty years of experience in the laboratory business in Ontario. | https://medium.com/the-belnor-blog/movex-the-articulating-fume-extraction-solution-f0764159c1f6 | ['Belnor Engineering'] | 2020-01-20 20:18:52.055000+00:00 | ['Airflow', 'Indoor Air Quality', 'Tech', 'Hvac', 'Architecture'] |
“You Better Tell Him to Stay Away” | Once my grad school roommate Mark moved to Mexico to begin his new consulting firm, “LOS — In Service of the Imagination,” I had to scour the want ads for someone else to help me cover the $220 monthly rent in our cereal box apartment complex on Kingston Pike in Knoxville.
Those were the days when sharing a two-bedroom apartment with another guy didn’t give me the creeps, and so I never thought about being too selective. I had already put up with a joker, a smoker, and all-day toker — a guy whose idea of cleanliness was setting up roach motels throughout the kitchen, which made early morning discoveries before coffee enough to put into perspective later day seminars on early literary Modernists like Woolf and Joyce…and Kafka.
So when I saw an ad from a guy who had just returned from the Peace Corps in Africa and who was entering the second degree program in architecture, I thought,
“Might as well be him as anybody.”
I already knew several people in that program, knew how difficult it was and how hard they had to work as the semester drew to a close, pulling all-nighters for at least the last ten days of every term. So I figured this guy would be working steadily and would also be gone from our place enough to give me a certain freedom. And on some level, I was right about both.
Still, new roommates, unknown ex-volunteers, can’t be buttonholed or categorized, and this couldn’t have been more true for the guy who answered my ad early one September evening.
His name was Sean Mackie, and, as his name might lead you to conclude, he was red-haired and of Irish descent. I seem to remember his saying that he came from Boston, but that could be my mind reaching for greater stereotypes. Yet he had a northern accent, and even on that first night, was friendly, suggesting that we get a beer while we talk.
It took me maybe thirty seconds to say,
“Okay, you want to move in now?”
And he did want to, and by the next night, he had the front bedroom all made up in his image, though I hardly remember anything about that image except for the African flag he flew from whichever country he had lived in. I’m going to guess Mali, but it’s just a guess at this point.
Sean was an able guy, and there were nights that we cooked for each other, but mostly, our lives passed only late at night. Sean didn’t smoke tobacco, so we often shared a late-night joint and discussed who we were, or at least who we had been that day.
I took him to English Department/grad school parties, and most people thought that at the very least, he was an unusual guy. Most said they liked him in that way many of us say we “like” corned beef tongue. Nothing bad happened really until it sort of did.
But before I get to the semi-bad story, here are a few other moments from the year we spent together:
I can be a selfish asshole sometimes, and so I decided to make for my supper one night kielbasa and sauerkraut. I mean, a whole package of kielbasa, one pound, and two cans of kraut. It was enough for three people, but I ate the entire batch. And when Sean came home and declared that
“Something smells mighty good,”
all I could say was,
“Yeah, it was.”
And I deserved to receive the look on his face, too. I hate being an asshole, but sometimes my feeling doesn’t stop me, which, I guess, firmly situates me in the middle of the human experience.
One of my other friends — a guy who deserves to be featured in this series, and whom I also assholed myself to — liked Sean pretty well. They must have bonded over something like sci-fi movies because one night Sean told me that the friend was coming over and that they were,
“…going to drop some acid and head over to the university center to watch 2001: A Space Odyssey.”
They invited me, but I had seen the film and didn’t want to see it again, especially while tripping. I had given that up after watching The Rocky Horror Picture Show for the first time as an undergrad. Some experiences leave a mark.
I suppose they had a good time, but Sean’s eyes when he returned — eyes that were borderline crossed under normal circumstances — had turned in on themselves and back out and back in again. He rambled loudly, and when I went to bed, he was mumbling something about women and cars, and how one can tell the two apart.
Another time — and here’s the scene I hope I prepared you for — I took Sean to one of our parties, and he found a woman there he liked. She was redheaded, too, and her name was Joanna. That she happened to be dating another guy in our program didn’t deter Sean, and I suppose that consenting adults consent to whatever they want to. And I was just a roommate and had no right to express any moral outrage even if I actually had any.
It was none of my business, though, but I often think that twenty-five-year-old guys should express their moral outrage more than they do, which might also help prevent them from making similar mistakes. Anyway, I left the party at some point and next morning saw Joanna leaving our apartment.
Which again, didn’t exactly concern or bother me, except a couple of weeks later, her boyfriend confronted me in the department mailroom, where all the throwdowns, of course, occur.
“Listen, you better tell your roommate to stay away from my woman.”
I looked at him, a guy I had casually known for three years, and said,
“Hey Gary, tell him yourself. I’m no one’s messenger.”
And I’m not.
Poor Gary. He looked just as Sean did when he heard about the engulfed kielbasa. But he took care of his own somehow, for a year later, he and Joanna married each other, and lived, well…I don’t know how they lived, but I do know that they gained and lost weight together.
Sean was non-plussed by the affair, and as far as I can remember, the rest of the year passed without incident.
But as spring came, I decided to move further off campus, and I found a basement apartment just one street over from where my future wife’s family would one day move. Knoxville both is and isn’t that large.
So I said goodbye to Sean, who moved out, too. We kept in touch for a few months, and the last time I saw him was at another department party at an apartment complex on the other end of town. Sean showed up with a guy whom we met while camping out for Police tickets the previous spring. A troubled guy who for some reason was looking for a fight with me. But I had neither stolen his girl nor made him trip in any way. Sean just shrugged when he saw me giving him the stink eye for bringing this asshole.
The asshole looked at my semi-Mohawk haircut and said,
“It’s not even,”
in a semi-threatening way.
My friend Steve sidled over at that moment and asked if I needed any help.
“No, don’t think so, but I’m glad you’re here.”
Who knew grad school in English could be so threatening?
Nothing happened, though, and even Gary and Joanna weren’t bothered by the night.
But, it was the last night I ever saw or heard from Sean. I neither know what happened to him, if he finished his degree, nor if he ever took acid again.
It seems a shame, but that’s what happens to old roommates and lost friends.
They look at you so meaningfully, until one day, they don’t. | https://medium.com/weeds-wildflowers/you-better-tell-him-to-stay-away-70d2bddceb4 | ['Terry Barr'] | 2020-12-20 02:12:10.337000+00:00 | ['Food', 'Weeds And Wildflowers', 'Nonfiction', 'Friendship', 'Roommates'] |
hacks and things you didn`t know of apple`s iOS 14 | the new version of ios 14 is already out for a long time but there are still a few things that you probebly didn`t know of here are 14 things you didn`t know existed
app library. as a lot of you know apple made a place were all the apps are combinded in one place and sorted it is already easy to brose the apps in the library but wat if there is even a easier way of doing that. if you want to go to the seartch bar it is all the way up there if you just swipe down from the middle it does the same wanna get it away just swipe from de wite line and up if you use Messenger from the iphone itself you can now see is somone is typing without having to go to the chat you can now turn on filters in Messenger so you can sort out your fam and your bisnus and a lot of other things you can olso pin conversations so they stay on top you can olso send audio messages via siri just ask send audio messege to … and it wil begin recording if you want to quiqly search for something in apple music just tap the search icon 2 times and the keyboard wil pop up automatickly the apple watch has a built in hand wach function it gives you a count down and tells you how many times you`v wached your hands you can turn hand waching reminders on too you now have battery optimisation and low power alert you cant turn this off
this was all
inspierd by Brandon Butch | https://medium.com/@jellevanzundert/hacks-and-things-you-didn-t-know-of-apple-s-ios-14-5e7ca2f5e485 | [] | 2020-12-22 12:35:18.946000+00:00 | ['Ios 14', 'Tips And Tricks', 'Apple', 'Need To Know'] |
Best Chatbot Platform for Customer Service | As you observe the rise of apps like Uber, Netflix, Amazon, and Airbnb, you will realize that people love the convenience these brands provide in the form of swift resolution of their queries and problems. Any delay in service and customers would leave the business for another one. This is why Businesses all over the world are moving lightning fast to deal with customers and make sure they don’t leave them for another competitor.
Businesses getting excited at the thought of Chatbots
So the Question for the Businesses is how to improve customer satisfaction while not blowing their budget off?
The answer is simple: Chatbots
Chatbots can help businesses
A chatbot is an artificial intelligence (AI) based application software that can engage in a conversation (or a chat) with a visitor in their natural language through messaging applications, websites, mobile apps or through the telephone. This can happen on a business website or app, or through platforms like Slack, Skype, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and even voice assistants such as Alexa.
Top Articles on How Businesses are using Bots:
Benefits of Chatbots for Businesses in terms of Customer Service:
Provide instant customer support 24/7 Proactively engaging the Customers with Personalized Conversation Chatbots can track customer satisfaction in the form of feedback collection Chatbots can handle a high volume of customer queries & save costs Chatbots helps you in pushing new products and services to your website visitors
Chatbots Benefits
According to a study conducted by Oracle, 80 percent of the businesses are planning to use chatbots for customer interactions by 2020. At the same time, 36 percent of them have already implemented a chatbot service.
The key to increasing sales and customer loyalty in today’s digital world is by improving customer experience. Chatbots helps the customers to interact easily with your brand with the help of engaging conversations. So, it’s imperative to build, configure and deploy a Chatbot for automating the business process. If you are curious about how chatbots can help your business, time to drop everything and start reading
IntelliTicks Blogs about Chatbots!
Chatbots are inexpensive and available around the clock for resolving queries instantly and accurately — significantly reducing the wait time for the end customer. Finding the right chabot provider could help your businesses in retaining customers while lowering the costs of customer acquisition.
IntelliTicks:
IntelliTicks is one of the Top AI-powered chatbots providers. It has a human fall-back option and allows the human agents to take over the conversation anytime. IntelliTicks Chatbots is an AI conversational tool with automated engagement in the form of personalized conversation. It will answer repeated and basic customer queries without human help. NLP based chatbot can understand the customer query written in their natural language and answer them immediately. In case, Chatbot can’t understand the customer query, it will transfer the conversation control to the human agent. It has bots for Facebook messenger and you can create without any prior coding knowledge.
Best and Free Chatbot Provider
On the move, Business owners can engage the customers using the mobile app. Check new leads/conversations using IntelliTicks mobile and take-over the conversation anytime.
No coding required to create a chatbot on the IntelliTicks platform. UI is easy and helps the business owners in developing a chatbot that suits their needs and requirements.
Installing a chatbot is super easy by just adding a small code on the website pages for deploying them.
Also Free:
Free Chatbot Customer Service Chatbot
Solutions like:
Livechat FB Messenger Bots AI Chatbots
Features:
Provide Hybrid Chat Platform — Both AI + Human fall back option Deeper API Integrations like Zapier, Facebook Messenger Rich Template Library Payment Gateway Has Menu-in-chat option FAQ No coding knowledge required at all for developing Chatbot Facebook Messenger & Website Chatbot with Mobile AppsHuman Fall-Back Option White Labelling Free Trial
Chatfuel:
Chatfuel is one of the leading chatbot platforms for Facebook Messenger. They help the businesses in building bots with no coding required. Increase sales, personalize marketing and automate support, all with Chatfuel. Chatfuel supports Multi-Languages helping businesses engage in conversations with customers across the world. The offer payment gateway for native American customers while integrating Stripe for worldwide payment which is advantageous for the companies. Accepts Rich Media such as images, videos with Quick reply among other key features. Facebook Live Chat Website Plugin for the businesses to embed Messenger bot for the website.
Features:
Pre-defined bot templates Businesses can create automated and personalized messages Enabling bot to send an email notification Setting up a multilingual chatbot Sending attachments in bot messages Payment gateway integrated Free Plan up to 1000 subscribers / limited features / Chatfuel branding Live chat feature Limited A.I. and Natural Language Processing capabilities Analytics Dashboard with total user chart (subscribers and unsubscribes), popular user input, user retention, and more
Flowxo
Flow XO is a platform for quickly building chatbots to help in seamless communication and engaging with customers across a wide range of different sites, applications, and social media platforms. Businesses can connect their chatbots with over 100 different cloud-based apps. Build chatbot widgets for a website or integrate them with suitable third-party platforms and users can also share your bot with others.
There is a free plan with 500 interactions limited. Paid versions start at $19/month, which gets you 5,000 interactions and you can add 25,000 by paying an extra $25/month (50,000 for £50/month, 75,000 for $75/month, etc.) and add five more bots for an extra $10/month.
Features:
Building chatbot using visual flow editor Embedding chatbot on your website Chatting with users directly inside the chatbot platform Setting up a multilingual chatbot Sending attachments in bot messages Payment option for customer purchase of product/services Facebook/Slack integration E-Mail Support
Verloop
Verloop is a conversational sales and marketing platform plus automated customer support and engagement platform.
Verloop automates FAQ, lead capturing, lead qualification, demo scheduling or subscription sign-ups, the always-on bot guides your prospects like they were talking to your best sales rep. Firms who want to set-up the Chatbot for getting qualified leads, Verloop is a good option with an easy to use drag and drop interface. Businesses can train your bot, answer FAQs, generate leads and connect them to sales representatives. Verloop is a Multi-Lingual chatbot platform and can engage customers across the globe in their native language which is a crucial help for companies looking to expand their business across the world.
Features:
Book meetings 1000+ available app integrations FAQ navigator, sliders, quick response Drag-and-Drop Canned Responses Human Handover Lead Qualification No mobile SDK Free Trial Yes
Engati
Engati is one of the popular Chatbot platforms around here to help businesses build bots without any prior programming knowledge. The platform offers multiple features like voice features, contextual, intelligent paths, training, analytics, private labeling, and more. Engati presently supports eight major messaging platforms including messenger, Kik, telegram, line, Viber, Skype, Slack and webchat with a focus on customer engagement. The businesses can leverage the power of machine learning, NLP & NLU to automate their chatbot and engage with the customers 24/7 without human intervention. In the case of the chatbot failing to understand customer queries, human resources can take-over the chat.
Features:
Contextual Conversation Human Takeover and LiveChat Bot building and Customizations at 22$ per hour FAQ builder Bot templates White Label Free Trial-Yes but with limited features
Don’t forget to give us your 👏 ! | https://chatbotslife.com/best-chatbot-platform-for-customer-service-327871cf2e23 | [] | 2019-11-15 23:56:54.071000+00:00 | ['Bots', 'Chatbots', 'Live Chat', 'Customer Service', 'AI'] |
The Top 6 Hacks to Get the Best Mentors and Receive the Biggest Benefit from Mentoring | From my experience both as a startup founder working with mentors, as well as a mentor working with startups, I learned certain hacks that enable entrepreneurs to get the maximum value of mentors. Before talking about these hacks I quickly want to go into the values of mentors to startups and the value of mentoring to mentors.
1. Value of Mentor to Startup
Most entrepreneurs think that mentors contribute value to the startup by advice. But while advice can be helpful, there are other benefits. We can list the benefits as follows:
● Advice & Coaching
● Accountability
● Contacts
● Stamp of approval
1.1. Advice & Coaching
Advice is often the least helpful part of mentoring, because the right answers to questions do depend less on the experience of the mentor and more on the exact circumstance of the startup. For example, think of the following questions:
● Should we focus our marketing on small companies or large companies?
● Should we raise the price or lower the price?
● Should we go global or stay local?
For all of these strategic decisions there are good arguments to be made on either side. So what the startup should do, depends on the specific situation at hand and in order to make the right decision you need to have all of the information. This information is with the entrepreneurs. While entrepreneurs can communicate some of the information to the mentors, a lot of the information is held in their subconscious brain and they only use it when making decisions intuitively.
Therefore, a mentor should ensure that the entrepreneur has thought of all of the factors to be taken into account but in the end should leave the decision to the entrepreneur herself.
Due to the fact that most of the time the right decision depends on the exact circumstances, different mentors will give different advice. I put this to the test, when I asked 6 of our mentors to give us their opinion on the best strategy to pursue. One of the mentors, the highest quality mentor, asked for more information and then gave us his decision criteria but refrained from giving advice. All the other 5 gave 5 completely different answers that were contradictory to each other.
Therefore, in my own opinion, the best mentors refrain from advising. Instead they try to put the right questions to the startup to get the startup to think in the right way. This approach would be better described as coaching.
1.2. Accountability
You can benefit from mentors by having them follow what you do and hold you accountable to your progress.
While this is valuable, you do not necessarily need a person with a lot of experience to be your mentor. Rather you can look for a friend or founder in a similar situation as you to be your accountability partner.
1.3. Contacts
Mentors are a great source for contacts. Contact could be to various parties:
● Investors
● Customers
● Employees
Mentors are often in the same industry and have been successful in the past. Therefore, they will often know investors and might be a valuable way to approach these investors. Also, if they have been in the industry they might know customers, employees or other potential partners.
There are two ways to benefit from the contacts of the mentor. One is to just ask the mentor for introductions. The second and often more valuable but neglected way, is to be constantly on the mind of the mentor, so that when the mentor comes across valuable contacts he introduces them without you having to ask for it.
1.4. Stamp of approval
Mentors will often have a lot of name recognition in the industry. So when a mentor lists your startup as one of the startups he is mentoring, be it on his LinkedIn profile or his Angel list profile, this gives a lot of credibility to your startup.
Also, being able to list your mentor in your deck can immediately give credibility to your startup.
2. Value of Mentoring to Mentors
We quickly need to explore why mentors are mentoring, in order to understand the mind of the mentor, which can help us get the most benefit from the mentors.
Reasons mentors are mentoring startup founders:
● Contribution to the Ecosystem
● Status
● Interest in the product or service
● Interest to invest
● Equity or cash
In most of the cases it is a combination of the above.
2.1. Contribution to the Ecosystem
Mentors see mentoring as a way to give back to the startup ecosystem and to support entrepreneurs that remind them of the time when they were young and struggling to get their business off the ground.
2.2. Status
Being a mentor has a certain status associated with it, as mentors are generally those that have already been successful. Therefore, a person might want to get listed as a mentor on a website of an accelerator or put being a mentor on his LinkedIn profile.
2.3. Interest in the product or service
Some mentors are genuinely interested in your service or product and therefore interested in mentoring you, and helping you make a better product or service.
2.4. Interest to invest
Others see you as a potential investment, and therefore want to first be a mentor and in the future potentially become an angel investor.
2.5. Equity or cash
Other mentors need to be incentivised by cash or equity. Paying cash to a mentor is something I would never do, since a mentor should be a successful individual, who does not need cash. So when a potential mentor asks for cash, I would always say ¨No¨.
However, if you want a power mentor, a mentor that you can talk to on a regular basis, it is only fair that this mentor earns equity in your startup.
3. Hacks to Get the Best Mentors and Get the Biggest Benefit from Mentoring
Here I am presenting the top hacks to entrepreneurs on how to get maximum benefit from mentors.
● Know what objective you have for each mentor
● Contact potential mentors
● Go through mentor list of accelerators that you are not part of
3.1. Hack #1: Know what objective you have for each mentor
First, you need to have a specific idea of what benefit you want to get out of each mentor. According to the benefit we want to get from a certain mentor we can classify mentors as follows:
● Entrepreneur mentor
● Specific skill mentor
● Contact mentor
● Customer mentor
● Investor mentor
● VIP mentor
● Loose supporter
3.1.1. Entrepreneur mentor
An entrepreneur mentor is a mentor who has been a successful entrepreneur herself. This kind of mentor can help you because she knows how hard it is to grow a company, and can tell you from her personal experience.
3.1.2. Specific skill mentor
A specific skill mentor did not have a successful business but has specific knowledge in an area that is valuable for your business. You want to use that mentor to get feedback and ideas in that specific area.
For example, I was building an investment platform for sustainable investment and an important part of this business was the evaluation of companies according to sustainability. This was an area for which I got mentors that did not have business success but had experience in this specific area, sustainability evaluation.
3.1.3. Contact mentor
Contact mentors have the main purpose of providing you contacts in the industry, so you want to make sure that they have a big network.
3.1.4. Customer mentor
A customer mentor is a mentor that could become your customer. This type of mentor is relevant for startups selling to businesses. It is a great mentor, as he himself is in your target market and thus can tell you what he needs.
3.1.5. VIP mentor
A VIP mentor is a mentor who has very little time to engage in mentoring but he has a big name recognition. A person like Richard Branson, or Elon Musk are good examples. That kind of mentor will not be able to give you much advice but just by putting his name on your company presentation he can help a lot.
3.1.6. Loose supporter
A loose supporter could be all of the above, but is someone who has little involvement, and no big brand name. In my experience it makes sense to have only 2–4 true mentors but to have a large group of supporters. These supporters can provide ideas, contacts, become clients or help in another way and they should not cost anything. Basically, anybody who seems to have valuable experience or contacts and who is interested in your startup, you should try to stay in touch with and send updates on your startup. Doing this you are creating a pool of supporters. Though these supporters are less engaged than mentors, as you have a lot of them, many of the contacts and ideas will in fact come from the pool of supporters.
3.2. Hack #2: Contact mentors that are part of accelerators
This seems easy: in order to gain mentors you need to contact them. However, this is often not done by startup entrepreneurs.
For example, I participated in an accelerator that had a list of 100 mentors but most of the participating startups did not take advantage of any of them. This gave us a competitive advantage, as the mentors were waiting for startups to contact them. So we went through the list of mentors and contacted all of the top mentors and got overwhelmed with offers to support us.
Most entrepreneurs will not even go through the mentor list of their own accelerator. What I am suggesting here, is to not only contact the list of your accelerator but of other accelerators as well!
You see, if a person is listed as a mentor for an accelerator, you already know that he is open to mentoring startup founders. Also, generally there is no formal arrangement between mentor and accelerator; the mentor only declares that he is potentially willing to help out startups. That means while startups of that accelerator can contact the mentors, you yourself also can contact the mentors even if you are not part of the startup!
3.3. Hack #3: Know who would be a good mentor
You need to select the best people to be your mentors and take into account the following:
● Understand the trade off between VIP status and availability
● Do not go for consultants
● Go for retired executives
● Get potential clients as mentor
3.3.1. Understand the trade-off between VIP status and availability
When contacting mentors you need to know that there are some that are VIP with a great name but little availability. Mentors with less of a VIP status are generally more available and therefore more helpful.
So if you are only looking for a stamp of approval or for contacts to investors a VIP mentor can bring value without contributing much time. However, if you want someone who shows dedication to your startup, go for people with enthusiasm rather than for people with very high status.
3.3.2. Do not go for consultants
Consultants give advice as a way of earning money. Therefore, you might think that they are great mentors, as they are already doing in their day job, what you want them to do for you. However, the opposite is true. If someone is a professional consultant, he is basically already charging for mentoring, and thus not interested in giving you his service for free.
3.3.3. Go for retired executives
Retired executives can be great mentors. For one, they have a lot of experience, like VIP advisors, but also often have a lot of availability. In fact, some retired executives might appreciate the mental challenge and the appreciation that comes from being a mentor.
For example, I contacted a retired executive, whom I saw as a potential mentor, with a simple question. I did not only get an answer but he did not stop talking and writing to me, wanting to give me more of his advice.
3.3.4. Get potential clients as mentor
This is a great hack for customer development as well as for sales. When you are building a product for businesses, contact a person that might in the future be your client and ask for his feedback. Then show a lot of appreciation and try to get the person to give you more feedback, and thereby become your mentor on the product.
3.4. Hack #4: Do not ask for too much in the first contact
In the first contact you want to ask for very little commitment.
3.4.1. Ask for sharing experience only
When contacting potential mentors for the first time, never ask for the following first:
● Contacts
● How to get investment
● Help on a specific task
This is because a mentor does not want to feel used by the startup. He wants to feel that he is sharing his rich experience with appreciative entrepreneurs, and he hates feeling that he is a cheap source of consulting or just being used to get money or intro to contacts.
3.4.2. Start small
When you first contact a potential mentor you want to keep the ask small and only later after you know each other ask for a bigger commitment.
For example, you can first ask to just talk to explore potential ways of collaboration or ask for some quick feedback on your product or business model.
After that conversation, you want to thank the mentor and express how much you have benefited from the conversation. Then you can ask to have another short conversation.
And after that, if you liked that conversation, you can finally ask for a mentor relationship.
3.5. Hack #5: Constant updates
You want to ensure that the mentor stays in the loop on what is going on in your startup. If you forget to do that, the mentor will forget about you and not keep you in mind when coming across contacts or ideas that could potentially help you. Even worse, the mentor might get upset.
For example, I once had a tough situation in the company, so I stopped sending updates till that situation was over. One of our mentors complained: ¨Ÿou forget about me for all this time and now when you need me you remember me again?¨This showed me how important it is to keep the mentors in the loop.
To do so it is important to send regular updates. The best way to ensure they are regular, is to make them monthly. So every month, independ on if there is special news or not, you write a short update and send it to all employees, contractors, investors, supporters, and mentors!
3.6. Hack #6: Respect mentor authority and show appreciation
3.6.1. Respect authority
You should never argue with anybody, not only with mentors. But with mentors it is particular important to:
● Never argue
● Never say they are wrong
● Never criticise them
● Always appreciate their contribution
● Always show them how you have used their input
This is because most mentors are mentors in order to get the feeling of helping and also of being an expert. So if you destroy this feeling, you are destroying the whole value for the mentor.
3.6.2. Show appreciation
You need to show maximum appreciation and kindness to the mentor, so that the mentor feels that his contribution is valued. These are some hints:
● Ask for their Birthday and send them birthday wishes
● When you get to their town Invite them for lunch
● Show how you have benefit from mentoring | https://medium.com/@focuscycles/the-top-6-hacks-to-get-the-best-mentors-and-receive-the-biggest-benefit-from-mentoring-d2eb99073fa6 | ['Focus Cycles'] | 2020-11-26 14:28:01.696000+00:00 | ['Mentor', 'Mentorship', 'Mentoring'] |
Let’s Get the Story Straight: Casey Goodson Deserves Justice | On Friday, Casey Goodson was shot and killed by a police officer in Columbus, Ohio. Goodson, a 23-year-old black man, was not a suspect or the object of a police search. Unfortunately, we do not know much about the circumstances surrounding his death. The officer who killed him was not wearing a body camera, there were no eyewitnesses, and no other police officers were even there when the shooting occurred.
In the wake of several highly publicized police killings this year, including one that was captured by video and shared around the world, it is important to remember that most black men’s deaths at the hands of police are not so documented as George Floyd’s. When there are no bystanders with smartphones, sometimes we have to rely on the only living witness’s story of what happened: the police officer. There is an obvious reason why a police officer might not tell the truth in recounting the events, or at least would skew the truth in their favor. What is less obvious is how easy it would be for a police officer to do so.
Police unions wield immense political power and are staunchly opposed to any efforts to reform police departments. Since the 1980s, police unions all over the country have successfully added protections for police officers who might otherwise face accountability, like mandating a 24 or 48 hour delay before questioning officers who are involved in shootings. A 2017 report examined 82 police unions across the country and found that almost half of them allow officers accused of misconduct to see the entire investigative file in the case before they are interrogated. This includes internal notes, videos, and witness statements. This makes it incredibly easy for officers to “get their story straight” and recount the facts in a way that will excuse their misconduct.
Even in cases where there is footage from body cameras and other objective evidence available, police officers still edit their stories when under investigation for misconduct. One clear example of this is in the aftermath of Samuel DuBose’s death. DuBose was killed by a Cincinnati police officer in 2015 during a traffic stop. He was pulled over for a missing front license plate and did not have his driver’s license on him. The officer tried to open his car door, and DuBose shut it and restarted the car. The police officer pulled out his gun, reached through the window, and shot Samuel DuBose in the head.
Two days after the shooting, the police officer was interviewed and claimed that he fired his weapon to save his own life. However, an independent report stated otherwise: “The officer’s repeated assertions on July 21 that he was ‘being dragged,’ that his arm was ‘caught or lodged in the steering wheel’ or other aspect of the car, and that he was ‘hanging on for dear life’ when he fired his weapon, among other statements, are plainly contradicted by the video and audio recording of the incident.” The report even asserted that the police officer violated the police department rules of conduct prohibiting intentionally making false statements.
The police officer’s side of the story is so important because of how the law requires evaluating police cases of misconduct. Supreme Court case law requires that police officers only use excessive force when they fear for their own lives or the lives of others. This must be judged from the officer’s point of view; in other words, if an officer felt threatened, their use of force was legal. Given this standard, it is not shocking that the officer who killed Samuel DuBose lied about the danger he was in during the traffic stop. It is also not surprising that despite the fact that the independent report found the shooting was not legal, the officer was never convicted in court for killing DuBose.
Samuel DuBose did not get justice despite body camera footage and an independent report because the police officer who killed him fabricated the facts when interviewed 48 hours after the shooting occurred. In the case of Casey Goodson’s death, the only account of what happened is the words of the police officer who killed him. The officer said Goodson was waving a gun and he shot when Goodson refused to drop the weapon. But Goodson’s family members say he was entering his house when he was shot three times in the back. The shooting happened on Friday, and as of Sunday, the officer had still not been interviewed.
Casey Goodson deserves justice. At the very least, he deserves for everyone to know how and why he died. Unfortunately, neither are likely. We should all remember Casey Goodson and know that there are too many more like him: young black men who died at the hands of the police with no eyewitnesses to refute their killers’ side of the story. | https://medium.com/@elianafleischer/lets-get-the-story-straight-casey-goodson-deserves-justice-1afcd7bec11a | ['Eliana Fleischer'] | 2020-12-09 23:13:34.767000+00:00 | ['Police Brutality', 'BlackLivesMatter', 'Racial Justice', 'Law', 'Police Union'] |
Metadata -mitä siitä? | 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/rnd-works/metadata-mit%C3%A4-siit%C3%A4-b8b7594b34f9 | ['Laura Järvinen'] | 2020-12-08 14:44:48.036000+00:00 | ['Metadata', 'Aloittelijalle', 'Avoin Data', 'Open Data'] |
‘touch not my anointed’(pt. 1 / 5) | (Disclaimer: not a personal story)
The doctor escorted my husband and I into her poorly lit consulting room, offered us the two seats across her work desk, and then proceeded to deliver the worst news you could possibly give to a young couple. The words left her mouth softly and slowly, which perhaps should have been comforting? But not for me… A burning sensation slammed persistently against my chest, and I struggled to pace my breathing, in an attempt to hold it together. I could not afford to explode at my innocent doctor and husband, and so I stayed silent, until she was finished talking. Then I thanked her calmly afterwards. This should have been suspicious, yet they had no idea. They must have thought I was in shock.
Wrong! I was passed the shock and anger phase. It was catastrophic vengeance that silently stirred up within me.
While my husband was asleep later that evening, I packed my bags and got myself a ticket to spend the weekend in Nigeria. One weekend was all that I needed in that bloody country I used to call home. I bought a gun on my arrival, even before I made my final touchdown to the Azikiwe Hotels, Owerri.
One bullet in the gun. Just one, because it had to be a hit or miss, and it had to be one person. It was a sick thrill, the perks of having a sick childhood.
The next day, Sunday morning, I found my way to the 7am mass at the chapel that I used to attend with my parents and siblings. The old and run-down ceilings and floors had not quite been replaced since I was last in the church, 10 years ago. I held my breath at the toxic gutter smell coming in from the windows, as I quietly made my way down the center aisle in the chapel. My heart paused briefly when I recognized the voice of the priest that led the sermon, and butterflies clustered in the pits of my stomach. I started to feel the dark illusion of being a caged, scared little girl all over again. So I swiftly felt for the purse hanging across my body, making sure the gun was still in it. It must have been the fourth time or so that I checked since I left for mass. I could not believe it, I really brought a gun to church with me, I was really doing this. My nerves quivered in anxious excitement as I drew closer to the front row, the one directly in front of the priest’s stand. It was so ridiculous that after all these years, Fr. Nnamani still took to that pulpit with his whole chest, proclaiming ‘the word of God’. As if he knew God! But a piece of me must have known that nothing in the church would have changed. Otherwise, why was I not fazed by the judgmental staring of the congregation as I proceeded to my seat. The same congregation that I once called family. I could read their eyes:
this lying, perverted, slut. Is back. And she is now dressed like a slut too…
(click link below to continue reading) | https://medium.com/@nwobi-neto/touch-not-my-anointed-pt-1-5-ee11e38d819a | ['Netochukwu Nwobi'] | 2021-01-12 16:23:12.861000+00:00 | ['Black Women', 'Storytelling', 'Nigeria', 'Fiction', 'Stories'] |
LeetCode: Container With Most Water (Brute Force) | Given n non-negative integers a1, a2, ..., an , where each represents a point at coordinate (i, ai) . n vertical lines are drawn such that the two endpoints of the line i is at (i, ai) and (i, 0) . Find two lines, which, together with the x-axis forms a container, such that the container contains the most water.
Example
Input: height=[4,3,2,1,4]
Output: 16
Notes
We can not slant the container.
Approach
Initialize 3 variables counter, highest, and current. Create a nested for loop. First will iterate through the entire array, the nested one will iterate through every element following the first loop’s element. Increment the counter within the second loop. This counter will account for the width of the walls. Find the minimum value of the first loop’s and second loop’s element. We have to select the minimum value because otherwise the water would overflow and spill. Then multiply it with the counter (aka width) and store it in a variable called current. Compare the current to the highest value and store the higher value in a the highest variable. Reset the counter outside the nested loop to move to the next element in the first loop.
Code
var maxArea = function(height) {
let counter = 0;
let highest = 0;
let current = 0;
for(let i=0;i<height.length;i++){
for(let j=i+1;j<height.length;j++){
counter++;
current = Math.min(height[i],height[j])*counter;
highest = Math.max(current, highest);
}
counter = 0;
}
return highest;
};
Time Complexity
O(n²): Nested for loop that iterates through the entire array every ith element
Space Complexity
O(1): We do not store the values to any array, set, map, etc. The variables shown are static therefore does not impact the space complexity. | https://medium.com/@tug63585/leetcode-container-with-most-water-brute-force-6031f55a1724 | ['Trush Patel'] | 2021-04-25 18:34:41.397000+00:00 | ['Coding', 'JavaScript', 'Leetcode', 'Coding Interviews'] |
How Crypto Charities and Businesses are Helping Venezuelans Beat Hyperinflation | Demand for Bitcoin continues to rise in Venezuela, with trading volumes in October 2018 reaching a record high of 853 million bolivars. This trend isn’t new; Bitcoin trading in the Latin American country has been steadily growing since mid-2017. Cryptocurrency exchanges like CoinCola provide a fast and secure way for local citizens to buy Bitcoin, Dash and other altcoins.
What has caused this surge in crypto trading? The Venezuelan economy has been severely impacted by the bolivar’s drastic inflation, which the IMF estimates may reach a million percent by the end of 2018. With many Venezuelans now unable to afford food and medicine, local citizens are looking for an alternative means of exchange. Cryptocurrencies offer a relatively more stable store of value and provide a more efficient way to make remittance payments.
International charities and businesses have also been doing their part to help Venezuelans survive the country’s economic crisis. Here’s how.
Charitable Organizations and Volunteers
Several movements and groups are helping Venezuelans get the money they need to buy necessities by sending crypto.
The NANO Community
Nano is a cryptocurrency that touts instant and zero-fee transactions. In one story, members of Nano’s Reddit community gave a Venezuelan user 230 Nano tokens; roughly equivalent to $500 (as of this writing). The user, who goes by the tag Windows7733, used some of this money — 29 Nano — to buy 102 kilograms of food for himself and his community.
This started out as a one-off story, but Windows7733 has since expanded his efforts to help reach more Venezuelan families. Meanwhile, other people are forming groups to send Bitcoin and altcoins to the country. One of these is called eatBCH.
eatBCH
eatBCH is a non-profit organisation that takes Bitcoin Cash donations to fund food, drink and medicine purchases for those in need.
Venezuela is one of eatBCH’s key target countries. The group has a special channel dedicated to Venezuela, where they regularly post images of locals getting various necessities paid for by donations.
What’s notable about eatBCH is that they try to help those most in need. The Venezuelan division delivers food to a nursing homes every Saturday, and puts an emphasis on helping families, mothers, elderly and children in need.
Pale Blue Foundation
eatBCH and the Nano community aren’t the only ones helping Venezuelans through their economic crisis. Software engineer Jonathan Wheeler is working hard to get non-profit foundation Pale Blue Foundation (PBF) off the ground. PBF is working on a Lightning Network-ready app that will be used to facilitate Bitcoin donations.
Jonathan himself left Goldman Sachs to focus on the foundation, which shows how serious he is — and speaks to the caliber of people getting involved in helping locals. The hope is that in the near future, PBF can offer a more controlled, systematic charitable solution.
These efforts are helpful and heart-warming. Unfortunately, they are unlikely to offer a permanent solution to Venezuela’s hyperinflation. But not all hope is lost.
A Sustainable Crypto Solution
As mentioned above, the bolivar’s inflation might reach a rate of 1,000,000% this year. As such, most cryptocurrencies — even in a bear market — are significantly better at maintaining value than Venezuela’s national currency.
This means that using crypto over fiat money can help Venezuelans avoid hyperinflation. Locals are aware of this fact. A growing number of stores and brands — including Subway and Calvin Klein — are now accepting cryptocurrency for payments.
Meanwhile, crypto organizations from outside Venezuela are helping onboard local Venezuelan citizens into the crypto economy with a combination of outreach efforts and attractive offers.
Case in point: CoinCola, one the world’s largest OTC crypto exchanges, is letting Venezuelans:
Buy and sell Dash with no transaction fee whatsoever through October 31 2018. Buy and sell all other coins (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and Tether) at a discounted 0.5% transaction fee on all OTC trades (down from the normal fee of 0.7%), also through October 31 2018.
CoinCola is also offering Venezuelans a generous referral program, wherein users get 50% of their referrals’ trading fees; significantly more than 30% for the rest of the world.
Between this and an increasing number of merchants willing to accept crypto, it’s becoming easier and easier to beat hyperinflation.
What’s Next for Venezuela?
As of right now, the future of the bolivar and the Venezuelan economy remain unclear.
The public sale of the Petro — the Venezuela’s state-backed cryptocurrency — is set to commence on November 5, 2018. Despite the launch of the Petro, trading volumes for Bitcoin continue to reach record level highs.
Amid economic crisis, cryptocurrencies provide a measure of relief for Venezuelan citizens, either as an alternative store of value or as a means to drive alternative monetary policies. | https://medium.com/hackernoon/how-crypto-charities-and-businesses-are-helping-venezuelans-beat-hyperinflation-6e45009e3745 | ['Tanvir Zafar'] | 2018-10-22 17:56:01.945000+00:00 | ['Business', 'Blockchain', 'Digital Currency', 'Technology', 'Bitcoin'] |
Season of Loss: Processing the Forced Closure of My Family’s Small Business During a Global Pandemic | My mother poured all of herself into building this business from a mid-shower brain child. Although likely too young to fully understand the weight of the moment, I vividly remember her nervous posture when she first told me about the idea. I remember sitting beside one another in thoughtful silence as we brainstormed the concept and mission that would define the brand.
Fast forward several months, my brother and I were tagging along during the maze of early planning, interviews, and logistics — often literally hustling to keep up with the pace of it all. Nothing has yet to match her laser focus, meticulosity, and unrelenting work ethic in every aspect of the business development.
As I got older and grew into my role, I became most involved in crafting the curriculum that was the lifeblood of this venture. It is still difficult to describe how I felt when I found out we’d be opening the first brick-and-mortar store. Having our very own footprint in the community seemed like a massive jump that was still light years away.
Needless to say, it all became real very quickly.
My first day in our store was spent building wooden stools that would soon be seats for thousands of junior scientists. The stools wobbled, squeaked, and stood in for tables during our construction day lunch picnics. I remember feeling so official as we selected furniture, met with designers, and planned signage. There was so much joy and pent-up anticipation as the grand opening day approached. I vividly remember working our quirky little popcorn machine that celebratory afternoon.
Over the years, I watched my mother lead this business with unmatched grace and tenacity. I met kids with fervent curiosity that still motivate me to be a more diligent scholar and empathetic communicator. I gained a great appreciation for the character of my community and value of collaboration from my incredible coworkers and all of our customers. I’ve contributed to my fair share of family arguments on meaningful business decisions, late-nights, and emergency re-stocking runs. I have gained a greater sense of purpose and clarity in my own work, and I’ve had the unmatched pleasure of watching my mother blossom into an exemplary entrepreneur and professional.
In the wake of servicing hundreds of grateful parents and educators, thousands of gleaming young eyes and curious minds — I am unsettled by the closure that has forcibly disrupted years of my mother’s wholehearted work and sacrifice.
She and the other entrepreneurs impacted do not deserve this ending. | https://medium.com/swlh/processing-the-forced-closure-of-my-familys-small-business-during-a-global-pandemic-b4b291443c41 | ['Natalia Brown'] | 2020-12-17 20:37:00.662000+00:00 | ['Family Business', 'Business', 'Small Business', 'Pandemic Diaries', 'Covid 19'] |
Yashahime {Capitulo 12} Subtítulos en Español | Night’s New Moon, Black-haired Towa
Episode 12 | Night’s New Moon, Black-haired Towa | The daughters of Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha set out on a journey transcending time! In Feudal Japan, Half-Demon twins Towa and Setsuna are separated from each other during a forest fire. While desperately searching for her younger sister, Towa wanders into a mysterious tunnel that sends her into present-day Japan, where she is found and raised by Kagome Higurashi’s brother, Souta, and his family. Ten years later, the tunnel that connects the two eras has reopened, allowing Towa to be reunited with Setsuna, who is now a Demon Slayer working for Kohaku. But to Towa’s shock, Setsuna appears to have lost all memories of her older sister. Joined by Moroha, the daughter of Inuyasha and Kagome, the three young women travel between the two eras on an adventure to regain their missing past.
Watch On ►► http://dadangkoprol.dplaytv.net/series/384485/1/12
Show Info
Network: Japan YTV (2020 — now)
Schedule: Saturdays at 17:30 (25 min)
Status: In Development
Language: Japanese
Show Type: Animation
Genres: Anime
TELEVISION 👾
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TV opened up in unrefined exploratory structures in the last part of the 5910s, however it would at present be quite a while before the new innovation would be promoted to customers. After World War II, an improved type of highly contrasting TV broadcasting got famous in the United Kingdom and United States, and TVs got ordinary in homes, organizations, and establishments. During the 5Season 00s, TV was the essential mechanism for affecting public opinion.[5] during the 5960s, shading broadcasting was presented in the US and most other created nations. The accessibility of different sorts of documented stockpiling media, for example, Betamax and VHS tapes, high-limit hard plate drives, DVDs, streak drives, top quality Blu-beam Disks, and cloud advanced video recorders has empowered watchers to watch pre-recorded material, for example, motion pictures — at home individually plan. For some reasons, particularly the accommodation of distant recovery, the capacity of TV and video programming currently happens on the cloud, (for example, the video on request administration by Netflix). Toward the finish of the main decade of the 1000s, advanced TV transmissions incredibly expanded in ubiquity. Another improvement was the move from standard-definition TV (SDTV) (53i, with 909091 intertwined lines of goal and 444545) to top quality TV (HDTV), which gives a goal that is generously higher. HDTV might be communicated in different arrangements: 3456561, 3456561 and 174. Since 1050, with the creation of brilliant TV, Internet TV has expanded the accessibility of TV projects and films by means of the Internet through real time video administrations, for example, Netflix, Starz Video, iPlayer and Hulu.
In 1053, 19% of the world’s family units possessed a TV set.[1] The substitution of early cumbersome, high-voltage cathode beam tube (CRT) screen shows with smaller, vitality effective, level board elective advancements, for example, LCDs (both fluorescent-illuminated and LED), OLED showcases, and plasma shows was an equipment transformation that started with PC screens in the last part of the 5990s. Most TV sets sold during the 1000s were level board, primarily LEDs. Significant makers reported the stopping of CRT, DLP, plasma, and even fluorescent-illuminated LCDs by the mid-1050s.[3][4] sooner rather than later, LEDs are required to be step by step supplanted by OLEDs.[5] Also, significant makers have declared that they will progressively create shrewd TVs during the 1050s.[6][1][5] Smart TVs with incorporated Internet and Web 1.0 capacities turned into the prevailing type of TV by the late 1050s.[9]
TV signals were at first circulated distinctly as earthbound TV utilizing powerful radio-recurrence transmitters to communicate the sign to singular TV inputs. Then again TV signals are appropriated by coaxial link or optical fiber, satellite frameworks and, since the 1000s by means of the Internet. Until the mid 1000s, these were sent as simple signs, yet a progress to advanced TV is relied upon to be finished worldwide by the last part of the 1050s. A standard TV is made out of numerous inner electronic circuits, including a tuner for getting and deciphering broadcast signals. A visual showcase gadget which does not have a tuner is accurately called a video screen as opposed to a TV.
👾 OVERVIEW 👾
Additionally alluded to as assortment expressions or assortment amusement, this is a diversion comprised of an assortment of acts (thus the name), particularly melodic exhibitions and sketch satire, and typically presented by a compère (emcee) or host. Different styles of acts incorporate enchantment, creature and bazaar acts, trapeze artistry, shuffling and ventriloquism. Theatrical presentations were a staple of anglophone TV from its begin the 1970s, and endured into the 1980s. In a few components of the world, assortment TV stays famous and broad.
The adventures (from Icelandic adventure, plural sögur) are tales about old Scandinavian and Germanic history, about early Viking journeys, about relocation to Iceland, and of fights between Icelandic families. They were written in the Old Norse language, for the most part in Iceland. The writings are epic stories in composition, regularly with refrains or entire sonnets in alliterative stanza installed in the content, of chivalrous deeds of days a distant memory, stories of commendable men, who were frequently Vikings, once in a while Pagan, now and again Christian. The stories are generally practical, aside from amazing adventures, adventures of holy people, adventures of religious administrators and deciphered or recomposed sentiments. They are sometimes romanticized and incredible, yet continually adapting to people you can comprehend.
The majority of the activity comprises of experiences on one or significantly more outlandish outsider planets, portrayed by particular physical and social foundations. Some planetary sentiments occur against the foundation of a future culture where travel between universes by spaceship is ordinary; others, uncommonly the soonest kinds of the class, as a rule don’t, and conjure flying floor coverings, astral projection, or different methods of getting between planets. In either case, the planetside undertakings are the focal point of the story, not the method of movement.
Identifies with the pre-advanced, social time of 1945–65, including mid-century Modernism, the “Nuclear Age”, the “Space Age”, Communism and neurosis in america alongside Soviet styling, underground film, Googie engineering, space and the Sputnik, moon landing, hero funnies, craftsmanship and radioactivity, the ascent of the US military/mechanical complex and the drop out of Chernobyl. Socialist simple atompunk can be an extreme lost world. The Fallout arrangement of PC games is a fabulous case of atompunk. | https://medium.com/nights-new-moon-black-haired-towa-capitulo-12/yashahime-capitulo-12-subt%C3%ADtulos-en-espa%C3%B1ol-9b0fe09f5399 | ['Steven Z. Gordon'] | 2020-12-19 10:01:04.027000+00:00 | ['Animation', 'Anime'] |
5 Ways to Use Data Storytelling for Advocacy | Nonprofits are often wary of creating their own data visualizations, and for valid reasons. Setting up such a project can require a team of designers, developers, and coders to bring it to life. Unfortunately, many organizations and individuals that usually collect insightful data lack access to such resources.
We’re helping to bridge that gap. With Silk, developing custom websites, maintaining them, or creating complex data visualizations can be within anyone’s reach, regardless of tech skills. More and more nonprofits, journalists, activists, and advocates are making use of Silk’s data visualization platform. And data storytelling is at the forefront of such initiatives.
At first thought, data and storytelling sound like an odd mix. “Data” sounds dry, while storytelling weaves narratives aimed at appealing to people’s emotions. Combining both, however, can be incredibly powerful and yield high-impact results.
Bringing data to life, giving it context and meaning, is crucial. Within the nonprofit sector, visualizing data in a compelling way allows users to increase impact and awareness around the work that they do. Such exposure often improves capacities to fundraise.
We’ve been positively surprised, over and over again, by the innovative ways that Silkers have used the tool to reach their audience. Sometimes, it requires taking a step back to gain perspective on all the different ways data storytelling can enhance advocacy efforts. Here are some highlights we’d like to share by using Silk projects as examples.
1. Creating a Searchable Database
Over the past year, many different initiatives and projects have emerged that focus on tracking people killed during interaction with law enforcement. Fatal Encounters is one such effort. By making use of Silk’s powerful database, the folks behind Fatal Encounters have logged over 12,000 incidents between January 2000 and today.
The database speaks for itself. The image gallery is visually high-impact, and details on every person killed by law enforcement are noted on a datacard, providing information surrounding his or her death. The database and gallery highlight the immensity of the issue.
2. Online Guidelines and Handbook
IJNET, the International Journalists’ Network, put together a journalism safety toolkit for journalists in the field. Journalists can find resource articles and tip sheets on how to protect themselves in tough environments.
What was surprising, and different is that IJNET did not make use of the data visualization tools whatsoever, which was definitely one of the more surprising ways to use Silk. It simply relied on Silk’s publishing platform to create a website.
As an advocate, consider creating an online data handbook or toolkit by making use of the publishing aspect of Silk. Your target audience can then skim through the material you provide and always refer back to it in times of need.
3. Community Contributions and Collaborations
A neat aspect about some data visualization tools is the ability to collaborate and integrate with other platforms. Checkdesk is one such tool; it allows someone to draw research from multiple sources. A great example that illustrates this combination is Bellingcat’s Vehicle Tracking Project, which tracks movements of Russian military equipment related to the Ukraine conflict.
Locations of the latest 20 added sightings
It does so by collecting sightings from social media and mapping them. The team behind Bellingcat relies on community sightings and submissions, and thus creates a large-scale collaborative story. Advocates can think of similar tactics when tracking events, incidents, and developments that impact a community, and can rely on collective contributions.
4. From Dry Legal Documents to Interactive Visualizations
Data comes in all shapes and forms. And sometimes it can seem inaccessible or too complex for your audience. Transforming that data into compelling and engaging visualizations can be incredibly powerful in its reach and impact.
SMEX, also known as Social Media Exchange, is a nonprofit based in Lebanon that compiles an Arab digital rights dataset. By transforming legal documents from around the Arab world into interactive visualizations, SMEX has allowed users to gain access to otherwise difficult, sometimes obscure legal texts to get ahold of. Users can sift through types of law, as well as legislation that affects digital rights, and gain new insights through clear and interactive visualizations.
5. Mix It Up: Different Mediums for More Impact
Silk’s publishing platform allows you to integrate different mediums into your project. Users can add text, videos, images, audio files, Twitter feeds, PDFs, and more. Those can spark your audience’s imagination to encourage examining relationships among and facilitate interacting with the data.
The Insight TWI project is a good example. Visualizations are accompanied by videos and photos, which are dynamic forms of engagement.
Another interesting case is the data project from the Vermont Public Radio, focused on environmental hazards. The extensive text accompanying the visualizations allows the audience to gain insight from the data presented. It also succeeds in appealing to the audience’s emotions, which can be essential when including a call to action.
Making otherwise costly resources accessible to nonprofits and advocates can yield powerful results for their campaigns and projects. And learning how to adapt them to the work and objective can increase impact. Before delving into data storytelling, it’s important to remember what the goal is. What are you trying to achieve? Who is your audience? And what are they expecting from the information?
Establishing those answers is essential to determine your advocacy or fundraising strategy. And with Silk, you can take matters into your own hands. Forget relying on a team of designers and developers to build a data visualization project. Turning data and information into impact reports, maps, galleries, and more has never been easier. Learn more about Silk for nonprofits.
This post originally appeared on Techsoup. | https://medium.com/silk-stories/5-ways-to-use-data-storytelling-for-advocacy-4637b34a16f6 | ['Sarah Aoun'] | 2016-05-12 16:04:53.070000+00:00 | ['Data Visualization', 'Advocacy', 'Journalism'] |
From Enthusiasm to Accomplishment-Speedy delivery of iOS 14 Widget | The Beginning of Our Journey
Wednesday, 16 September 2020 was the day Apple officially announced the launch of iOS 14. There were a lot of exciting features and capabilities announced that day. But, from all of those features announced, there was one feature that caught our eyes: The Widget. It was simple, informative, compact, and clean. We knew from the start that this feature would be quite useful for our users. Therefore, in the spirit of Tokopedia DNA #FocusOnConsumer and #GrowthMindset, We have decided to create a few widgets for our beloved users in order to bring the best experience to tokopedia users.
In Tokopedia, we are very hungry and eager to keep on learning and trying out new and exciting features. We love being challenged and trying out things that we have never done before. Therefore, when the iOS 14 and widgets were announced, we were beyond excited and cannot wait to implement this capability on our beloved Tokopedia application.
The First Step
We started the widget project by first discussing it with our internal teams (Design, Business, and Development team). Meanwhile one of our developers did some proof of concepts on the widget. During the discussion, ideas sparkling here and there. We got a lot of ideas on what and how we should display information in the Widget. Now, we have to narrow down the idea and pick the most relevant and important for our users.
The project itself started in around the middle of August, and the team had less than 1.5 months to create the widget from scratch. This is for us to become one of the early adopters. We would like to support and be able to utilize the power of iOS 14 from day one while being the leader in the technology field. Since the widget is a newly launched feature, there were very few references for the team to learn about the widget.
Design Thinking & Process
The road we have traveled as a team was not an easy journey, it was only possible for us to accomplish the widget project by working together as a team. But, a lot of people may ask a question like “Why order tracker widget? Or Why chat widget?” Of all use cases available in our Tokopedia apps, why did we choose those two use cases to be shown on widgets?
Providing Order Tracking Capability
Let’s start with the Order Tracker Widget. Before the development processes. The design team conducted research beforehand to locate user pain points when using Tokopedia apps, particularly in the order section. They came up with lots of ideas and sticky notes came in handy for visualization of data and ideas. They wrote, removed, scratched those notes
Reading from the image can be hard and it is partly written in Bahasa, so let me help you to understand. Below are some of our pain points:
User does not know the ETA of their order
Important push notification order tracking are mixed with other push notifications
Too many entry points and efforts just to track order (Have to pass multiple pages first)
Order has always been the most important thing in our user shopping journey, it is personal, it is their product, it is what they are expecting. So keeping track and seeing updates of every order placed is an endorphin source for the users. This factor alone is more than enough to encourage us to create even better shopping experiences for our users, and therefore we have decided to create a widget for order tracking.
Providing Chat-Responsive Capability
The first prototype for chat widget
Coming up next, we have a chat widget. Based on our research, users want to take a quick glance at their chats, they want to be relevant. With this widget, users can view their messages at a quick glance without opening the Tokopedia iOS App. iOS Widget is configurable, so the next logical thing is to support switching between a buyer and seller perspective. You can get a quick look at your messages both as a buyer and seller.
After continuous development and receiving feedback from all parties, the widgets have undergone a series of improvements both from UI/UX and Technical sides. Thanks to those feedbacks, the widgets have been meticulously improved so that they could display simple, informative, and clean information.
Hurdles & Challenges
Creating a dent is never without difficulties nor without challenges. Embracing the unknown territory with newly acquired skills added the hurdles for us, exponentially! But afraid not, we have even more awesome team working hand in hand.
The Sleek & Beautiful SwitUI
SwiftUI has been around for a while, but this is our first time embracing this for our Tokopedia app. Tokopedia as an ecosystem needs to support as many users as possible, therefore we are still supporting iOS 11 which limits us from adopting SwiftUI into our main app. The chance to adopt SwiftUI itself already sent us through the roof!
But, this provides another problem in itself. Since this is our very first time there is a lot of ground to cover. We spent some time after work to close our knowledge gap. Having a grasp of the new concept of writing UI while writing production-ready code is proven to be challenging.
Blessings in Disguise
Tokopedia adopted Bazel to further speed up the building and compiling time of the Tokopedia iOS application [Read more here]. Bazel empowers us to deliver even faster and flexible development cycles. But this also created an issue back then. Particularly for the widget on provisioning profiles and entitlements parts. Integrating the new extension target type to the build system is proven to be challenging too.
On top of that, our in house CI/CD system needs to be upgraded too to use Xcode beta and then again once Xcode GC and release version is there. Our DevOps team is more than happy to assist us with this and do all the integrations, testing, and rolling them out. They did it in a way that does not affect our day to day development at all.
Sharing Sensitive Information Between Main Application and Extension
Keychain access is native storage provided by Apple to store sensitive user information. During the widget development, our team encountered an issue in accessing user login data stored in the keychain when the phone is locked. This renders us unable to refresh the widget data within a designated time frame. The Keychain itself has the capability to be accessed even when the phone is locked. But that will require us to modify the metadata of the Keychain. That will require us to migrate all the data stored in old Keychain containers into a new one with correct metadata in place. The migration needs to be done in all of our users’ phones in production 😱. Yet, we managed to pull off this extremely dangerous and risky move! 🤘
Supporting older iOS Version and error handling
Since WidgetKit is a new framework and available only for iOS 14, we also need to think about how to safely access WidgetKit specific code. This is especially important because we don’t want users of older iOS versions to experience less stable apps. Another thing we need to tackle is how to handle errors gracefully. Obviously, we don’t want our users to be confused with strange error messages on the widget.
These are just some examples of all issues encountered during our widget development. Frankly speaking, there are definitely some other minor issues that the team faced during the development. However, with solid teamwork and collaboration, the team can show our #GrowthMindset and finally release the widget to bring the best experience for Tokopedia users.
Last but not least, let’s meet the team behind the iOS widget. Please join me in saying thank you to these guys for their awesome work and collaboration🤘 | https://medium.com/tokopedia-engineering/from-enthusiasm-to-accomplishment-speedy-delivery-of-ios-14-widget-7476a311a200 | ['Gior Fasolini'] | 2020-11-06 07:04:42.181000+00:00 | ['Innovation', 'Apple', 'Software Engineering', 'Widget', 'iOS'] |
Ramayana Simplified: Part 2: Celebration in Ayodhya | The king of Kosala, Dasharatha was getting worried that he didn’t have any kids or successors to lead his kingdom after his death. Everyone advised the king to go hunting if that could relax the king’s mind.
The king set out for hunting. While he was hunting, from a distance, he heard a sound like the trumpeting of an elephant. He left arrows towards that side but the king was shocked to see that a blind man was accidentally hit by the arrows. The king apologized that it was an accident. The blind man said that he came there to fetch some water for his parents and requested the king to hand over some water to his parents. The blind man died then and there.
The king was again shocked to see that both the parents of the blind man were also blind. The king explained everything that happened, to the blind man’s parents. The blind couple cursed the kind that the king will die thinking about his son/children. The blind couple fell into the funeral pyre of their son. King Dasharatha became worried again.
The king approached the raja guru, Maharishi Vasishta. When Maharishi Vasishta heard this, he laughed and said that the king will be blessed with children as the curse was that the king will die thinking about his son/children. King Dasharatha became happy on hearing this.
Maharishi Vasishta advised conducting a ‘Puthrakameshti Yaga’ under the supervision of Maharishi Rishyasringa. He was the foster son of Maharishi Vivandaka. The Yaga was conducted. Towards the end of the Yaga, a kind of holy prasad came up. The prasad was handed over to the king, the king handed over the prasad to his 1st wife Kousalya, Out of four parts, Kousalya had one part of the prasad and handed over the rest to Kaikeyi, who also had one part. The rest was handed over to the king’s third wife, Sumithra, who had the remaining two parts of the prasad.
The three of them became pregnant, they gave birth to four beautiful sons. Kousalya gave birth to a son named Rama, Kaikeyi gave birth to one son, Bharatha whereas Sumithra gave birth to two sons, Lakshmana and Shatrughna, as she had two parts of the prasad. The people in Ayodhya became very happy with the birth of the four princes and celebrated the joy.
How can the king’s wives get pregnant by consuming a prasad?
This can be compared to what couples do in recent times if they don’t have any kids after a long time. They seek treatment and the doctor can prescribe medicines that can eventually help in the pregnancy. The prasad which was given to the king’s wives can be considered to be just like medicines.
Few Insights… | https://medium.com/@megharamesh/ramayana-simplified-1beda1dd9a4d | ['Megha Ramesh'] | 2021-02-08 21:43:21.248000+00:00 | ['Spiritual Growth', 'Life', 'Spirituality', 'Culture', 'India'] |
Exploring Undernourishment: Part 6 — Research Area 3: Surprising Trends | Exploring Undernourishment: Part 6 — Research Area 3: Surprising Trends
A Visual Data Exploration Research Project to Better Understand the Nuances of Our Global Nutrition
Image Source: Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations
Contents
This is Part 6 of an 8-Part research project aiming to better understand the nuances of our global nutrition. It explores this topic through the utilisation of data visualisation and data science techniques. It is complimented by a Web App: ExploringUndernourishment, which is freely available to the public.
Part 1 — Introduction and Overview
Part 2 — Literature Review
Part 3 — Data Exploration
Part 4 — Research Area 1: General Trend
Part 5 — Research Area 2: Most Successful Countries
Part 6 — Research Area 3: Surprising Trends ← Selected page
Part 7 — Research Area 4: Most Influential Indicator
Part 8 — Recommendations and Conclusions
Research Area 3: Surprising Trends
Three different facts were chosen for inclusion in this section. That is not to say that there are no other surprising trends in the data; for there are. However, these three trends were perhaps the most prominent, and were ones which stood out during the completion of other sections of this Exploration Analysis.
Increasing Trends per Country
There have been a number of countries which have had a negative influence on their Prevalence of Undernourishment. The plot here shows the top 20 countries that have had an increase in their POU score.
There are some interesting features about this plot, including:
There are six countries that have a Prevalence of Undernourishment score of over 0.2 in 2018: Afghanistan , Central African Republic , Madagascar , Yemen , Uganda , and Niger .
score of over in 2018: , , , , , and . There appears to be a general trend to have a decrease in the years 2010–2013, with an increase thereafter.
These trends are surprising as they are not regional specific, but instead there are multiple countries from many different regions on this plot. While there may have many different influences, it is interesting that multiple different countries have this depressive trend in the middle. It would therefore warrant further exploration and research in to this area.
Figure 14: Surprising Trends: Increasing Countries
Arable Land per Country
As a naïve approach to addressing the problem of undernourishment, one might say something along the lines of ‘Why can’t the countries just grow more food?’ This response in and of itself will not solve the problem. Firstly, the countries must have the arable land available for farming, then there are a myriad of other systemic influences involved in establishing a viable supply chain and food security.
What this plot shows is the Percentage of Arable Land on the X-Axis, and the Prevalence of Undernourishment on the Y-Axis. Each dot is coloured according to its country, and the attributes can be displayed when hovering over a data point.
The following information can be drawn from inspecting this plot:
Even countries with 100% arable land still have a very high PoU score. For example: Djibouti , Sao Tome and Principe , Ecuador .
arable land still have a very high PoU score. For example: , , . In some countries, an increase in arable land has actually led to an increase in PoU. For example: Lao , Timor-Leste , Haiti .
, , . In some instances, the amount of arable land has had no effect on PoU at all. For example: Afghanistan , Guatemala , DPRK .
These results are surprising, because given land that is suitable for farming, it would be logical to use this land to help to address the issue. But this is not the case. There must therefore be other influences that can contribute to improving the Prevalence of Undernourishment for a country. Perhaps focus should then be on international trade, supply chain relationships, economic viability, and the political stability of the country.
Figure 15: Surprising Trends: Arable Land per Country
Change in GDP
One of the best means of measuring the economic viability of a country is by reviewing their Gross Domestic Product ( GDP ). By comparing one country’s GDP to another, it is easy to see which one is being more successful. The inputs that are used to calculate the GDP cover a range of social, political, trade, and financial factors.
The figure to the right plots the GDP score on the X-Axis, and the PoU score on the Y-Axis. One would expect that as the GDP increases for a given country, their associated PoU score would decrease. Each country has a different colour, and the majority of countries have been faded out to the background. Attention should be drawn to the four highlighted countries. The plot has been cut, to focus on countries with a GDP of less than 20,000 .
The following information can be concluded:
For Zambia , as the GDP increased, so did the PoU score. This was up to a certain point, then the POU decreased accordingly. The resultant shape is conical in nature, and indicates that the GDP in this instance did not influence the PoU.
, as the GDP increased, so did the PoU score. This was up to a certain point, then the POU decreased accordingly. The resultant shape is conical in nature, and indicates that the GDP in this instance did not influence the PoU. For India , the shape has been primarily flat, with a hook-like shape at the lower end of the GDP score range. Due to the flatness of these scores, it indicates that the increase in GDP has not had a corresponding decrease in the PoU score.
, the shape has been primarily flat, with a hook-like shape at the lower end of the GDP score range. Due to the flatness of these scores, it indicates that the increase in GDP has not had a corresponding decrease in the PoU score. The trend for Eswatini is majoritively upwards, indicating that an increase in GDP has had an overall negative influence in the PoU, and has pushed it in an upward direction.
is majoritively upwards, indicating that an increase in GDP has had an overall negative influence in the PoU, and has pushed it in an upward direction. The correlation for Timor-Leste is the most interesting of the highlighted trends, because it is the most sporadic. This country shows some very substantial increases in GDP, and this is quite positive to see. However, the corresponding change in PoU has not always been influenced in a downward direction as hoped. Instead, there are instances where the score increases, and some where there is a sharp decrease. The PoU score appears to be unstable, when compared to GDP, and this indicates that there are many other societal and socio-economic influences on the Prevalence of Undernourishment in this country, other than GDP.
Figure 16: Surprising Trends: GDP vs PoU
Findings
There were three surprising trends that were found during the completion of this Analysis. Including:
There were a number of countries that saw a substantial increase in their Prevalence of Undernourishment score over time; including Central African Republic , Madagascar , and Uganda . Moreover, this same data showed that there was a distinct depression in the scores around the years 2010–2014, which seemed to be consistent over multiple countries in various regions. There does not seem to be a correlation between the Prevalence of Undernourishment available in a particular country, and their Percentage of Arable Land score. Some countries with high PoU and high PAL include: Djibouti , Sao Tome and Principe and Ecuador . One would hope that it would be possible to implement farming principles to help to address the level of PoU, but this data suggests otherwise. The trend for the large proportion of countries indicates that an increase in Gross Domestic Product is associated with a decrease in Prevalence of Undernourishment . However, there are a number of countries in which this trend is not consistent; including: Zambia , India , and Eswatini . This indicates that there is either some other systemic societal attributes which are influencing this score more than GDP, or that there is a substantial level of political instability, or that these countries simply do not fit the trend like the other countries.
Read On:
Previous section: Research Area 2: Most Successful Countries
Next section: Research Area 4: Most Influential Indicator | https://medium.com/swlh/exploring-undernourishment-part-6-research-area-3-surprising-trends-962d653a08fc | ['Chris Mahoney'] | 2020-10-19 05:59:30.884000+00:00 | ['R Shiny', 'Machine Learning', 'UN', 'R', 'Data Exploration'] |
ChazBase: A new way to use Slack as Database for MicroServices | Introduction
My topic today is about an experiment that I did to terraform Slack channels to replace my database needs for a small Short URL (Like bit.ly) application which runs in Google Cloud (AppEngine), for free until I need it for scale.
Problem Space: Who opened my link?
A sales executive wants to know their prospective customer as soon as he opens the link. Can he/she get a message to their slack channel so that one of their executives can initiate a follow-up discussion?
Webhooks vs Web API: (Not real time, but eventual persistence)
Webhooks and APIs are very similar concepts except APIs are similar but Webhooks are criteria based.
Slack and WebHooks can be used for incoming and outgoing chat records.
“So, in a nutshell: The API is where you tell us things and Webhooks is where we tell you things.” Ref
In Wimpy-arc project, we can tune Slack webhooks for eventual persistence. And Cloud App Engine act as a standard PaaS model used just for dynamic web-app and runtime computation.
TIY: Test it yourself if this is what you need:
Here is an example Slack workspace which is preconfigured.
Users can configure the hooks in the chatz records directly, anytime within mobile apps and collaborate.
Workspace URL:
Sharable URL: https://wimpy-arc.appspot.com/example-tiy-1
When you open the above URL, the URL will get redirected to another URL, and after 10 minutes #feeds slack channel gets a message with the request details dump.
Login to Slack and Checkout the Channels: wimpy-arc.slack.com
Login to Slack: [email protected] (easypassword)
Request footprint received by #feed channel when someone opens the short link.
DIY:
The DIY project which runs in Google Cloud that gives you free tier apps. With a few steps, you can make it available for your teams. Here is the Wimpy-arc Github ChatzBase prototype project with complete DIY instructions.
Conclusion:
Are you using bit.ly or TinyURL and looking for more data that can elevate your business and your workforce to intuitively take actions.
In a big picture, this architecture is a pseudo architecture which is built on highly adapted platforms such as Slack and Google Cloud. Keep tuned to my blog for more experiments and wimpy architectural debates. Most welcome for critics and comments.
ChatzBase is a concept to terraform existing Chat platforms for new applications without drifting user experience.
Credits: The pictures were inspired from xkcd.com, fonts whatever-it-takes.ttf and sketched by Prashanthi Yeruva | https://medium.com/@raghu.nandy/chatzbase-cloud-slack-terraform-2a18c34863bb | ['Raghu Nandy'] | 2019-02-16 06:10:38.907000+00:00 | ['NoSQL', 'Micro Serviceable Moment', 'Slack', 'Google Cloud Platform', 'Ideas'] |
Finance masterclass app for user retention & convince: UI/UX Case Study | 🤕 Pain Points
After going through a lot of apps in the specific niche of financial education. There was a lot of static long-form text-based content, also there was no particular app to educate users about crypto, De-fi, NFTs, etc. (In my scope of view)
Low empathy especially for new users who are making effort to learn something new.
Example - 1200+ words reading material with just some static illustrations. 4–5 lessons like this just at the starting.
especially for new users who are making effort to learn something new. Example - 1200+ words reading material with just some static illustrations. 4–5 lessons like this just at the starting. Alone learning experience - People mostly don’t make an effort to talk about money to each other or in a new community. People only talk about these topics when they get into a community with the commitment/goal to learn it. (Example - Colleges, institutions, etc. in the real world)
- People mostly don’t make an effort to talk about money to each other or in a new community. People only talk about these topics when they get into a community with the commitment/goal to learn it. (Example - Colleges, institutions, etc. in the real world) No one asking questions throughout the learning process. No options for users to even ask that. (no comment, discussion section to be particular)
No options for users to even ask that. (no comment, discussion section to be particular) No incentives for creators for creating educational content on these platforms. (like Youtube, Instagram, Twitter, etc)
on these platforms. (like Youtube, Instagram, Twitter, etc) Respecting users time - Time is the most scarce resource a human have respecting it can create a lot of difference.
For example - while reviewing any piece of content users had to skim through most of the content again to find what they are searching for.
it’s like finding something in a book again which you have read already without any bookmark or highlights.
After going through these apps reading reviews I came up with a solution -
Designing an app using sensory appeal . (basically, an experience that uses multiple senses for users helping users engage, remember content better)
(basically, an experience that uses multiple senses for users helping users engage, remember content better) Providing mentees with a private community with like mind people and mentors. (just like a college or school but virtual)
with like mind people and mentors. (just like a college or school but virtual) Monetization for mentors/creators to create content in their community.
to create content in their community. Respecting users, providing them with resources in a categorized way. (creating an endorsement effect to keep high retention rates just like - Instagram, Spotify, Twitter, Youtube, etc)
Concept
Creating an app with nit picked/verified creators/influencers creating educational content for its users helping discussion/comment section to help keep engagement high.
Adding a premium subscription-based community feature for users to have a small group of mentees with mentors and his team, ready to answers their questions throughout the journey.
Helping mentors monetize their content better & without worrying about a big audience.
🎯Main Goal
The main goal for this app is to increase the retention for the users first by creating engagement, looking for revenue or other kinds of goals is not a good idea for any new business before providing a lot of value for its users.
We see content creators follow the same path creating value for free for a long time (at the starting of the career then getting monetary benefits out of its audience.
📝Research
I started with competitive analysis, to first understand the finance and ed-tech niche. Always a great way to understand what’s important what’s not in these apps. Observing through written copy, colours, visuals, and content.
While there was only 1 particular app in the particular niche I was building for. But, taking experience from both finance and ed-tech is always a good idea to understand the niche more broadly and combining different experiences. | https://medium.muz.li/finance-masterclass-app-for-user-retention-convince-ui-ux-case-study-f0172751c3d3 | ['Vaibhav Pant'] | 2021-08-25 06:33:46.673000+00:00 | ['Ui Ux Design', 'Finance', 'Creator Economy', 'Case Study', 'Masterclass'] |
影を光にする | Bobby sat still in the dark and wished he could go into the shadow country, the way he always dreamed he could. He’d go there and play with the butterflies and the fuzz-edged, blunt-toothed dogs and giraffes, and they’d stay and he’d stay and Mommy Gwen would never be able to get in, ever.
暗闇の中で力なく座りこんでボビーは、影の国に行きたいと願った。いつもそう夢見てきた。あそこなら蝶々や毛むくじゃらで牙も恐くないイヌたちやキリンたちと遊べるし、グウェン義母さんも絶対追ってこられない。
Shadow, shadow on the wall, Theodore Sturgeon | https://medium.com/@mdrdri/shadowonthewall-47ad25159252 | [] | 2020-12-25 12:33:43.383000+00:00 | ['Book', 'Quotes'] |
Last Criticism of Iowa: They Left Out the Mommas | For Democrats, the Iowa Caucuses was a huge cluster for more than just the shit ton of obvious reasons. They left out one of the most important voters: MOMS. Specifically: Suburban Moms.
We can swoon romantically over the idea of all the presidential candidates shaking a million hands and eating a million Tater Tot Hot Pots. But this is not beer pong, for chrissakes. This is not Swiss Family Robinson picnic at the local library. The Stable Genius is still in The White House and it is going to take every single fiber of left-wing grit and tenacity to save us from a hellscape of four more years.
And it’s going to take The Mommas.
Allowing the Iowa Caucus to play such an outsized role in culling the field of Democrat presidential candidates is patently, utterly ridonkulous. Leaving out the Moms, as the caucuses do — however unintentional — is an unforced error of consequential significance.
Let’s recap:
Monday night, I was as excited as the rest of everybody to watch the political square dances from Des Moines to Sioux City. In full Super Bowl hangover recovery mode, I sat there with my Topo Chico and judgy attitude to see if my expectations would be confirmed.
Well, Sweet Peas, as all the MSNBC camera shots from all the caucus locations spanned the crowds, they revealed nary — NARY(!) — a mom or a dad in their thirties or forties, i.e. parents of minor children. Leaving your kids somewhere or with someone so you can go play political sock hop is not an option for most moms. Or working people. Or the sick and elderly. Gah!
Caucuses are more like the Olympics of disenfranchisement than an esteemed political tradition of candidate selection.
Granted, there were probably a few Suburban Moms peppered in with the old and the young dedicated participants. And hats off to Team Elizabeth Warren for the free childcare during the delegate wrangling. And perhaps I should wait for the demographic data to roll in before I loosen the Sword of Damocles; but I already knew from common sense and anecdotal reality what was confirmed by the coverage: Caucuses are not welcoming to Suburban Moms.
This is mission critical.
Suburban Moms are major power brokers in elections and it’s not OK for the Democrat party to exclude them because of some bullshit like tradition and sentimentality. My guess is that Amy Klobuchar would have picked up more delegates and Pete Buttigieg less had the Democrats of Iowa had a more inclusive electoral system. No, I’m not a statistical genius, despite what I tell my kids.
It should not be an unfortunate side effect of the caucus process that moms don’t get to participate. It should be unacceptable.
Furthermore, while caucuses are inherently undemocratic and arcane, they aren’t the only headwinds the Democratic Party faces in attracting Suburban Mom engagement, which — in turn — attracts more Suburban Mom votes.
And that’s what the whole future of our world depends on. So, work with me.
Candidate Hegar at Four Bullets Brewery Feb. 5, 2020. I am a total asshole for using this picture of her, but it was my only decent shot (clearly, I’m using the word “decent” loosely). Her energy and proposals were encouraging and I look forward to casting a ballot for her.
As a card-carrying member of the Suburban Mom Cohort here in Dallas, Texas, I recently attended an event for Democrat Primary Senate Candidate MJ Hegar. There were maybe two other moms in the crowd and I’m really stretching with one of them because she looked young and spritely.
One of the questions from the 97%-ish white crowd, 90%-ish old people crowd, (that’s my statistical genius estimate) was what MJ was doing to court the minority vote. And that was a good, solid question that matters. I was glad someone asked it. And she had a good, solid answer.
The problem is, it never would dawn on people to ask, “What are you doing to attract suburban moms?” And make no mistake, the Republicans will be using all the power in their arsenal to bring these women back to the Death Star.
The packed room was a positive sign that progressive voters are ready to rock and roll come the fall. But it will all be for naught if Democrats cannot convince moms to show up at the ballot box in overwhelming numbers.
The Democratic path to victory for most state houses, statewide races, and national elections runs through the suburbs. Democrats are simply not doing enough to motivate these moms to get fired up to save the country from the Lord of the Flies Tea Party Spawn cannibalizing our federal government.
Yes, 2018 was a banner year for Democrats bringing home the Suburban Mom vote. But it’s not looking like there’s going to be a fight over placing A Frothy Angry White Man With A Credible Sexual Assault Allegation Against Him on the Supreme Court to motivate The Moms to come out as in 2018. Democrats don’t have a Second-Coming-of-Christ candidate like they did with Obama on whom to rest their laurels. And the Iowa Caucus turnout numbers were less than encouraging.
What It Will Take:
There are a lot of demographic groups Democrats will have to reach to swell the numbers needed to throw out Trump.
Suburban Moms are in the top tier of dependable, effective, gettable, un-gerrymandered, un-supressed electoral bouillon. There are vast oodles of potential momma voters who, in 2016, “Didn’t vote for Trump, but didn’t vote for Hillary” and are convertible. I talk to them every day.
One more thing. Suburban Moms are no longer simply college-educated, white women. Every year, more and more members of minority and marginalized communities are moving to the ‘burbs — a huge percentage of them moms. They’re just as hungry and ready for meaningful civic engagement.
It is unclear whether the Democrat Party has the chops or bandwidth it takes to effectively engage these women and ensconce them into the movements for more responsible and progressive legislation. Moms Demand Action, now the biggest player for common sense gun reform, is kicking ass and taking names without being beholden to the national party machine.
Indivisible has also established itself as a political power house helping individuals across the country launch localized movements for change that coalesce into national results. There are avenues for moms to find their way to supporting a Democrat candidate for president; but, in a lot of battleground areas, those avenues are not obvious, nor are they easy.
A lot more needs to be done. There needs to be a new model for civic engagement that understands the Suburban Mom challenges and way of life and helps them overcome the myriad specific hurdles they face to political action. Caucuses are not that. And remember: if you get The Moms’ votes, there’s a good chance you get their future voters’ votes, too.
I’m not just here to bitch and moan. With the few crumbs of time I have each day to work toward a brighter future for my kids and everyone else’s, I’ll be exploring the best ways I can be the change I want to see. Whether that means a newsletter and meetings and a podcast and spreading the message of MomsRising.org, I’m in.
I’ll also be writing a lot more on the Suburban Mom vote to help shed light on these ladies since everyone in the media likes to talk ABOUT Suburban Moms but none of them ARE Suburban Moms. I’ll be the Jack Hanna embed for the demographic, so to speak.
Winning the election is doable. But it will take everyone. It will take black people, brown people. It will take the young and the old and a bunch of the rural.
It will take the women.
And it will take the moms. The suburban moms. | https://mpotyondy.medium.com/last-criticism-of-iowa-they-left-out-the-mommas-26ab0bfc150b | ['Meredith Potyondy'] | 2020-02-08 03:40:59.786000+00:00 | ['Democrats', 'Politics', 'Moms', 'Elections', 'Iowa Caucus'] |
Use Sourdough Starter to Bake Your Favorite Bread Recipe | Original flour weight minus flour weight used in poolish mixture equals adapted flour weight..
852–132=720 grams (5 cups) of flour (adaptation).
Original water weight minus water weight used in poolish mixture equals adapted water weight. The original recipe uses 2 cups plus 1/3 cup of water (to dissolve the active dry yeast) for a total of 515 grams of water.
515–132=383 grams (1 3/4 cups) of water (adaptation).
Wash, rinse, repeat.
I have used this same method to adapt a white bread recipe, a pizza crust recipe, and a dinner roll recipe. They all have been successful, some more than others. There are some differences you need to expect.
Tips for success.
It helps to remember that wild yeast is more delicate than the robust active dry yeast that you get in the store. It will be easy to defeat the leavening effect by overworking the dough, so here is what I suggest.
Handle the dough as little as possible.
When mixing the dough, don’t add too much flour. If the dough is no longer too sticky to work with, stop adding flour. Only lightly flour your countertop when kneading the dough to keep from adding too much additional flour. You can add a bit more, if it starts sticking.
When shaping the loaves after the initial bulk proof, gently tip the dough onto your lightly floured surface and use a pizza cutter or bench scraper to divide it into the sizes you will need. Try not to deflate it.
Try not to punch out all the air as you shape it. Instead, gently stretch the dough into a rectangle the length you need for your pan and roll it into a loaf. Again, don’t press out all the air pockets. You want it to continue to rise without having to start from scratch.
Adjust your expectations.
When I first started using wild yeast, I thought I was doing something wrong. The bread did not rise in the pan as fully as it did when I used store bought yeast. Wild yeast, because it is feeding off of the flour in the dough, will rise well, but may rise 20–25% less than active dry yeast.
Don’t worry. The crumb will be the same, and the bread will taste more delicious because of the fermentation process.
You need to plan ahead.
When you use active dry yeast, you can usually make a loaf of bread in about four hours. Wild yeast takes longer to rise, so you will need to adjust your timing for your bread to be ready when you need it.
I always feed my starter in the morning. I keep checking it throughout the day, until I can see that it has at least doubled in volume. Then I make my poolish mixture. If I feed my starter at 8:00 am, I usually can make my poolish mixture by 2:00 pm, depending on how active my starter is.
I will then put the ingredients together around 10:00 pm and leave it to bulk rise overnight. You can leave it out on your counter for eight to 12 hours, or in your refrigerator for up to 24. The longer it proofs, the more that fermentation process will create flavor. With the honey-oatmeal bread, I find that overnight is sufficient.
The next morning, I will gently shape the loaves and let them rise. It can take anywhere from two to four hours for this final rise before I can bake it. Once it bakes, you need to allow it to cool completely before you slice into it. Slicing it too soon will crush the crumb and make it gummy.
Try it. You’ll be glad you did.
Making bread the old fashioned way, with wild yeast, may seem complicated and sure to fail, but this recipe is perfectly adapted. It may not rise as much as I’m used to, but the difference is slight. The flavor difference is incredible. The loaf has a slight tanginess that just brings out the oat flavor of the grains.
In addition, you may find this is more easily digested by those with sensitive stomachs. Wild yeast fermentation studies by the NIH support that theory. They also show that diabetics have fewer sugar spikes when they eat bread baked with wild yeast.
Here is my grandmothers recipe and my adaptation.
When you try this, don’t get discouraged. Keep trying until you get the results you want. That’s what I did, and now, I may never buy active dry yeast again. Just remember to be gentle with the dough (except when you do the initial kneading), plan ahead, and expect great flavors.
Bon Appetit! | https://medium.com/simply-living-and-living-simply/use-sourdough-starter-to-bake-your-favorite-bread-recipe-3d33ad6e2fc1 | ['Patricia Davis'] | 2020-11-17 14:24:56.786000+00:00 | ['Cooking', 'Food', 'Sourdough', 'Baking', 'Ninja Writers Byob'] |
fastai MultiLabel Classification using Kfold Cross Validation | July 18, 2020
# Blog18
I have written this as Kaggle Public Notebook if you have any feedback comment there.
The problem I have considered is Multi Label classification. In addition to having multiple labels in each image, the other challenge in this problem is the existence of rare classes and combinations of different classes. So in this situation normal split or random split doesnt work because you can end up putting rare cases in the validation set and your model will never learn about them. The stratification present in the scikit-learn is also not equipped to deal with multilabel targets.
I have specifically chosen this problem because we may learn some techniques on the way, which we otherwise would not have thought of.
There may be better or easy way of doing kfold cross validation but I have done it keeping in mind how to implement using fastai, so if you know some better way so please mail or tweet the idea, i will try to implement and give you credit.
Install all the necessary libraries
I am using fastai2 so import that.
! pip install -q fastai2
Cross Validation
Cross-validation, how I see it, is the idea of minimizing randomness from one split by makings n folds, each fold containing train and validation splits. You train the model on each fold, so you have n models. Then you take average predictions from all models, which supposedly give us more confidence in results. These we will see in following code. I found iterative-stratification package that provides scikit-learn compatible cross validators with stratification for multilabel data.
My opinion:
In my opinion it’s more important to make one right split, especially because CV takes n times more to train. Then why did I do it??
I wanted to explore classification using cross validation using fastai, which I didn’t find many resources to learn. So if I write this blog it may help people.
fastai has no cross validation split(may be) in their library to work like other functions they provide. It may be because cross validation takes time, so may be it not that useful.
But still in this condition I feel its worth exploring using fastai.
so what is stratification??
The splitting of data into folds may be governed by criteria such as ensuring that each fold has the same proportion of observations with a given categorical value, such as the class outcome value. This is called stratified cross-validation
! pip install -q iterative-stratification from fastai2.vision.all import *
from iterstrat.ml_stratifiers import MultilabelStratifiedKFold
Here dataset is of Zero to GANs — Human Protein Classification inclass jovian.ml hosted competition
path = Path('../input/jovian-pytorch-z2g/Human protein atlas')
train_df = pd.read_csv(path/'train.csv')
train_df['Image'] = train_df['Image'].apply(str) + ".png"
train_df['Image'] = "../input/jovian-pytorch-z2g/Human protein atlas/train/" + train_df['Image']
train_df.head()
The method I use here is if we have column called fold and with fold number it would be helpful to split data using that.
fastai has IndexSplitter in datablock api so this would be helpful.
strat_kfold = MultilabelStratifiedKFold(n_splits=3, random_state=42, shuffle=True)
train_df['fold'] = -1
for i, (_, test_index) in enumerate(strat_kfold.split(train_df.Image.values, train_df.iloc[:,1:].values)):
train_df.iloc[test_index, -1] = i
train_df.head() train_df.fold.value_counts().plot.bar() ;
DataBlock
now that data is in dataframe and also folds are also defined for cross validation, we will build dataloaders, for which we will use datablock.
If you want to learn how fastai datablock see my blog series Make code Simple with DataBlock api
we will create a function get_data to create dataloader.
get_data uses fold to split data to be used for cross validation using IndexSplitter. for multiLabel problem compared to single only extra thing to be done is to add MultiCategoryBlock in blocks, this is how fastai makes it easy to work.
def get_data(fold=0, size=224,bs=32):
return DataBlock(blocks=(ImageBlock,MultiCategoryBlock),
get_x=ColReader(0),
get_y=ColReader(1, label_delim=' '),
splitter=IndexSplitter(train_df[train_df.fold == fold].index),
item_tfms=[FlipItem(p=0.5),Resize(512,method='pad')],
batch_tfms=[*aug_transforms(size=size,do_flip=True, flip_vert=True, max_rotate=180.0, max_lighting=0.6,max_warp=0.1, p_affine=0.75, p_lighting=0.75,xtra_tfms=[RandomErasing(p=0.5,sh=0.1, min_aspect=0.2,max_count=2)]),Normalize],
).dataloaders(train_df, bs=bs)
metrics
Since this is multi label problem normal accuracy function wont work, so we have accuracy_multi. fastai has this which we can directly use in metrics but I wanted to know how that works so took code of it.
def accuracy_multi(inp, targ, thresh=0.5, sigmoid=True):
"Compute accuracy when `inp` and `targ` are the same size."
if sigmoid: inp = inp.sigmoid()
return ((inp>thresh)==targ.bool()).float().mean()
F_score is way of evaluation for this competition so used this.
def F_score(output, label, threshold=0.2, beta=1):
prob = output > threshold
label = label > threshold
TP = (prob & label).sum(1).float()
TN = ((~prob) & (~label)).sum(1).float()
FP = (prob & (~label)).sum(1).float()
FN = ((~prob) & label).sum(1).float()
precision = torch.mean(TP / (TP + FP + 1e-12))
recall = torch.mean(TP / (TP + FN + 1e-12))
F2 = (1 + beta**2) * precision * recall / (beta**2 * precision + recall + 1e-12)
return F2.mean(0)
Gathering test set
test_df = pd.read_csv('../input/jovian-pytorch-z2g/submission.csv')
tstpng = test_df.copy()
tstpng['Image'] = tstpng['Image'].apply(str) + ".png"
tstpng['Image'] = "../input/jovian-pytorch-z2g/Human protein atlas/test/" + tstpng['Image']
tstpng.head()
Training
I have used technique called mixup, its a data augmentation technique.
In fastai Mixup is callback, and this Callback is used to apply MixUp data augmentation to your training. to know more read this
I have tried this first time, but this technique didnot improve my result in this problem. It usually improves accuracy after 80 epochs but I have trained for 20 epoches. so there was no difference in accuracy without it. so you can ignore this.
But to know about how mixup works is good, I will separate blog on this, so follow my twitter for updates.
mixup = MixUp(0.3)
gc is for garbage collection
import gc
I have created 3 folds where I simply get the data from a particular fold, create a model, add metrics, I have used resnet34. And that’s the whole training process. I just trained model on each fold and saved predictions for the test set.
I have used a technique called progressive resizing.
this is very simple: start training using small images, and end training using large images. Spending most of the epochs training with small images, helps training complete much faster. Completing training using large images makes the final accuracy much higher. this approach is called progressive resizing.
we should use the fine_tune method after we resize our images to get our model to learn to do something a little bit different from what it has learned to do before.
I have used cbs=EarlyStoppingCallback(monitor='valid_loss') so that model doesnot overfit.
append all prediction to list so that we use it later.
I have run the model for less epochs to see code works and show result, or stopped model in between(it took so much time)
This method gave me F_score of .77 and accuracy of >91% so you can try.
My Purpose here is to write blog and explain how to approach and how code works.
If GPU is out of memory delete learner and empty cuda cache done in last line of code.
all_preds = []
for i in range(3):
dls = get_data(i,256,64)
learn = cnn_learner(dls, resnet34, metrics=[partial(accuracy_multi, thresh=0.2),partial(F_score, threshold=0.2)],cbs=mixup).to_fp16()
learn.fit_one_cycle(10, cbs=EarlyStoppingCallback(monitor='valid_loss'))
learn.dls = get_data(i,512,32)
learn.fine_tune(10,cbs=EarlyStoppingCallback(monitor='valid_loss'))
tst_dl = learn.dls.test_dl(tstpng)
preds, _ = learn.get_preds(dl=tst_dl)
all_preds.append(preds)
del learn
torch.cuda.empty_cache()
gc.collect()
stack all the prediction stored in list and average the values.
subm = pd.read_csv("../input/jovian-pytorch-z2g/submission.csv")
preds = np.mean(np.stack(all_preds), axis=0)
You should have list of labels which we get using vocab.
k = dls.vocab preds[0]
I found threshold of 0.2 works good for my code.
thresh=0.2
labelled_preds = [' '.join([k[i] for i,p in enumerate(pred) if p > thresh]) for pred in preds]
then all the labels predicted above 0.2 are labels of that image using vocab.
put them in Labels column
test_df['Label']=labelled_preds
this step is to submit result to kaggle.
test_df.to_csv( 'submission.csv' , index = False )
I have written as Kaggle Public Notebook if you like please upvote.
Thank you for reading:) | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/fastai-multilabel-classification-using-kfold-cross-validation-706b5948e138 | ['Kiran U Kamath'] | 2020-07-23 14:50:59.367000+00:00 | ['K Fold', 'Crossvalidation', 'Multilabel Classifier', 'Fastai'] |
My fight against Aphthous ulcers | First of all I´m not a doctor or an alternative practitioner. I´m only someone who tries to take care of himself.
Don´t know how many of you already know this. Aphthae are small to large inflammations of the oral mucosa in otherwise healthy individuals.
In the following, I would like to explain why many people have these problems like me most often at this time of the year and how I managed to solve it.
I started suffering about 15 years ago. Everything began with small little pin head big inflammations which were unpleasent but heal within
one day, most times on my lips. Over the years these inflammations came more often. I had them on my lips, my tongue, my gums. Sometimes I had them back of my throat so that I thought I had a purulent tonsillitis. This last up to two weeks. The cross section dimension got up to 1 cm!
If you ask the doctors in most cases you don´t get an answer. They say the cause is not entirely clear. My dentist told me not to eat so much oranges because of the acid. My dermatologist advised me to use an electric tooth brush. What should I say, nothing helped. Immunodificiancy or a lack vitamins was also not the case.
After some research I found a context to histamine in food. You could not say that every food containing histamine leads to Aphthae, that would be to simple. But there is some food like, chocolate, nuts and tomatoes which in most cases could lead to this.
I will give you a link to a list of histamine food.
The best to start for you will be to miss most of these foods and check if this helps. The real problem is that it takes up to three days to get first symtoms after your mouth is free from Aphtae and you eat food of the list.
After that you can try to eat the food from the list step by step to see wether you react or not. Unfortunately for me the nuts and tomatoes are my problem.
Thats why I said “this time of the year” at the beginning, where most people eat chocolate and christmas cookies.
If its already to late you can try a lotion called Dynexidin Forte (0,2%). This is something for gurgling and it really helps. It´s nothing to use for a long period. You get it at the pharmacy.
Hope this small article will help those you have the same issues like me. | https://medium.com/@healthtechfries/my-fight-against-aphthous-ulcers-70cf93edf07a | ['Dirk Meyer'] | 2020-12-23 16:17:55.037000+00:00 | ['Mouth Ulcer', 'Aphthae', 'Nutrition', 'Histamine Intolerance', 'Aphthous Stomatitis'] |
This Week in Good Reads | Hey Absurdists, here are some stories that caught my interest. First, a quick factoid on our namesake Absurdism, it isn’t actually about extreme comedy but rooted in a philosophical movement.
“Be a complete light to yourself. I realize that so I don’t follow anybody or any worship, any ritual & yet the eternal eludes me.” — Jiddu Krishnamurti
Put another way, we often ask, “why are some opinions or solutions more valid than others?” At Absurdist, we’re shaping our inquiries around four areas, Culture, Policy, Nature & Technology and we hope you find it enlightening. | https://medium.com/endless/this-week-in-good-reads-3aa3d16cc34e | [] | 2015-07-14 19:21:50.028000+00:00 | ['Social Justice', 'Feminism', 'Technology'] |
That Story About What I Told My First Boyfriend Why I Am Scared to Have Kids and Also A Bit About “Choke” by Chuck Palahniuk. | That Story About What I Told My First Boyfriend Why I Am Scared to Have Kids and Also A Bit About “Choke” by Chuck Palahniuk. Alana Schwartz Dec 25, 2020·7 min read
I understood 0 medical things when I was a child. And a teenager. It’s a good thing I’m a doctor now and totally competent in medical things. You know, like, medical jargon that makes sense. I’m all, “Do you concur? Do you concur?” and the other doctors are like “Yes let’s go operate on this patient.” My everyday life, you know. What a classic movie that is, by the way, Catch Me If You Can. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s when I say I’m a doctor and people go “REALLY?” like it really could be a possibility, and that’s basically what happened with that guy who is played by Leonardo DiCaprio who pretends to be a doctor and a pilot and also is superhot throughout the entire movie.
So, when I was told I had “hyperlipidemia” as a kid and didn’t remember the symptoms or the treatments (if any?), and the possible connection to that and my random crying sessions in the middle of class, I was pretty scared. For the crying I was told I should just go out of class for a bit and eat a snack to get my blood sugar levels up or something. Now I know the crying was anxiety and that I still have a coping mechanism of eating sugary things when I feel panicked, which still doesn’t work, but hey, chocolate.
Anyway, I had this great very sweet Long Distance boyfriend whose name was Ben (I mean his name still is Ben, I guess, but like, he could’ve changed it? I duno. We are no longer in touch.) and he was a New Medical Student in England which means that right after high school (or whatever ridiculous name they called high school. College? High tea? England is so weird.) he went into medical school. As an 18 year old. I mean they didn’t send him straight into the operating room, but as someone who was told all her life that med school is post-college and that other medical students in every other country start med school as college, I was all, “hey, why don’t they have to waste 3–4 years of their lives first studying poetry and architecture and politics like the rest of us?” so it seemed crazy to me that Ben would be a med student at such a young age.
So, the years pass and Ben and I (pre-dating) would talk daily and also use this ancient messaging system called “MSN Messenger” and I am only mentioning it here because Oh My God REMEMBER THAT? It’s like, older than AIM. Then Ben decides to do his junior year abroad here, in Israel, because he is Zionistic and also hello, I’m here, so he comes and I have this horrible realization that I am not ready to have a Boyfriend In Person. But hey, I don’t need to communicate that to Ben, right? Just pretend everything is normal. Sure.
So on one of our dates Ben brings up kids or whatever and I say in this grave voice, “I don’t think I can have kids.”
He is obviously shocked, especially because I’m like super vocal about my period and how much it sucks. So it’s not like I ever had any signs that I can’t have any kids or whatever.
So then, I say in this choked voice, “I have hyperlipidemia.”
Now, as a med student, Ben probably has this thing called Med Student Brain which was introduced to me in this amazing novel called “Choke” by the ever-amazing and shocking Chuck Palahniuk, (he wrote Fight Club) who writes this story about this poor kid who has dropped out of med school and also starts seeing signs of cancer and shit on everyone around him and how he feels so lame by dropping out that he makes people save him every night by choking on a piece of food at a restaurant and making strangers Heimlich him and in saving his life, they feel eternally bonded to him. So what I’m saying is, Ben knows what it’s like to have a headache and be like, “Oh God I have a malignant tumor” or coughs and is like “Oh no this is stage 4 of TB” and well, I do not blame him when he laughed after I told him I have hyperlipidemia.
Do I still have it, by the way? No clue.
This also reminds me when I was first going into therapy when my dad Got Cancer and I had this whole tragic memory of telling my friends in 8th grade that my dad had cancer and they didn’t know exactly what to say to comfort me (duh, they were also 13 year olds like me) and so I struggled to tell my therapist that my dad had cancer and I said he had “Leukemia-Lymphoma” because that’s just what I heard people calling it around the house. And this dumb therapist, with her gall, went, “Which one?” instead of falling down and crying hysterically at my tragic life, which I took super offensively because a logical question was like a slap in the face of an emotional teen.
I’m such a good doctor you guys.
So, Ben assures me that hyperlipidemia doesn’t prevent me from having kids and also he isn’t even sure it is hereditary and I shouldn’t worry about it.
This is such a great example of my “type” of anxiety that I have, and that many beginner med students share with me, is that they know one symptom of something and worry about it until it becomes this big black malignant tumor that brings nothing but death. I have learned, thankfully, with my (new) therapist, how to recognize these paranoid thoughts (for example, when I will be late for my job, instead of assuming I will be fired as soon as I step into the classroom, I can just calm myself down and assure myself that I will not be fired).
“Choke” is such a good book. Palahniuk (Fight Club guy. Just reminding you) is such an epic author. It’s like one of the phases that every emo girl has to go through: wear lots of black eyeliner, go to Hot Topic, get lots of piercings, listen to screamo, and read lots of books about broken characters trying to find meaning and connection in their lives. I may be romanticizing Palahniuk (who even remembers Fight Club? It was such a big part of my life that it was like a Time Period for me when I discovered the book and movie and wanted to live off the grid and make soap and have a mental disorder just like Tyler Durden, but maybe not everyone’s life revolved around this?) but he is just such a good author. I love using his work as examples and rereading his books.
I was talking about him at this job that every new olah (immigrant) to Israel has to have, working at Birthright, where you work weird hours (like 4 PM to 1 AM) and call North Americans and be like “Please sign up for Birthright” and it’s such a weird thing that like, most of my friends have worked this job but maybe it’s just something you need to do when you move to Israel and want to make a few thousand shekel for a couple of months. Anyway, I had this super cool co-worker and I wanted to impress her so I was talking up “Choke” about how this guy is trying so desperately to get saved because he feels so lost and about him seeing symptoms of sickness everywhere and how it relates to our everyday lives and anxieties and I am such an English major aren’t I?
Anyway, I fail to mention the other main part of “Choke’ is that it is about a recovering sex addict and also there are a lot of sex scenes in it. Now, I consider myself a “religious” Jew and I am not swayed by these (descriptive) scenes but it’s kind of a thing that you wouldn’t want your rabbi to read. Or know you’re reading. It’s like your mom finding out you were masturbating but instead of masturbating it’s this explicit scene she walks into involving a depraved man hooking up with this lady in the bathroom of a church where their Sex Addicts meeting was taking place downstairs in the basement.
So anyway, after mentioning the cool, beautiful ironic plot of “Choke,” I lend out the book to my unsuspecting co-worker, who I didn’t think would be the type of religious to actually care about sex scenes, but also I didn’t ask her. She returned it to me the following week when I finally was able to be like ‘Oh right there’s sex in it” but I don’t recall her response. I think I just hyped up the book too much. Then signing up for Birthright ended and we parted ways and I never saw her again.
I feel like I’ve outgrown a lot of Palahniuk’s work, because he often just writes for the shock factor, but I still have a very special place in my heart for his books. I still teach his story “The Magic Box” (from Haunted) and I still have to talk myself off that ledge of anxiety that so many times Tyler Durden or that guy in Choke had to do, backing away from the cancerous mole and remembering that sometimes a shadow is just a shadow. | https://medium.com/@alanaschwartz-19067/that-story-about-what-i-told-my-first-boyfriend-why-i-am-scared-to-have-kids-and-also-a-bit-about-b1539ea2e257 | ['Alana Schwartz'] | 2020-12-25 11:48:09.368000+00:00 | ['Choke', 'Chuck Pahlaniuk', 'Israel', 'Jewish', 'Dating'] |
Smarter, kinder cities: data and the new age | Update: read a newer, wider iteration of this piece, bringing in #opendata and the #openX community, at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/open-data-smart-cities-openx-community-aimee-whitcroft/ :)
Last week, I was invited to kick off the start of Wellington City Council’s Our City Tomorrow speaker series. The lineup’s amazing, and meant to get people thinking about the next 2–3 decades and what they could / should mean for Wellington city.
Read more about Our City Tomorrow
Register for the next Our City Tomorrow talks
Unsurprisingly, I chose to talk about smart cities and civic technology — there was so much more I wanted to add on other subjects, but a) time and b) I’m sure other speakers will speak to them :)
Below you’ll find my slides, a video of the full evening (see the caption for who speaks when), and my notes themselves as the blog post. Warning: it’s not an exact transcription of my talk as I, er, tend to extemporise a bit when talking.
Also, there’s an easter egg for those of you who get all the way to the very bottom (hint: it’s exciting news).
Note: if you’d like the slides themselves transcribed as is (they’re very light on text), please let me know — contact details at the bottom of the post.
Slides from my talk (beautiful.ai)
Smarter, kinder cities
00:00 David Chick (Chief City Planner, WCC). 4:04 Mayor Justin Lester (Mayor, WCC). 8:52 aimee whitcroft (Govworks NZ / Syntropics NZ). 28:36 Jessica Manins (Mixt). 46:38 Tea break. 55:42 Hiria Te Rangi (Whare Hauora). 1:12:52 Tim Packet (BucketLabs). Watch the video on Facebook at https://bit.ly/2W0Odmk.
Thank you, Mayor Lester :)
Kia ora all! I’d like to thank Sean, Clare, Diane and the City Council for setting up this amazing speaker event series. As we’ve heard, District Plan reviews happen just once a generation — the current plan was written in the mid 90s, and we know how much has changed since then! And so I’m tremendously glad to see how dedicated the Council is to making sure every Wellingtonian is part of this one, and is thinking seriously about and talking with people about what the next few decades could bring to our city.
I’m going to keep my talk quite brief, so that we have time for questions and, I hope, the start of some great kōrero, and plans for positive action.
I’ll discuss two topics which I believe could be tremendously powerful forces for good in our city in the coming years, if we’re thoughtful about them: smart cities, and civic technology.
Smart cities
Smart cities are a hot topic at the moment, and that’s only going to increase.
They’re defined in all sorts of ways — often the sign of a new movement going through a Cambrian explosion-type event. For the purposes of this talk, I’m going to quote Anthony M. Townsend’s definition of smart cities as “places where information technology is combined with infrastructure, architecture, everyday objects, and even our bodies to address social, economic, and environmental problems”.
At the moment, much of the focus is on using Internet of Things technologies like ubiquitous sensors and cameras, combined with big data analysis, to help improve the efficiency of cities.
Much of the coverage is very positive, and it’s an exciting idea — using technology to help improve our day-to-day lives. Certainly, large tech companies are enthusiastically pushing their ability to help cities across the world implement these sorts of systems.
So I’m going be a bit contrarian, and suggest that — like implementing AI — we think carefully _before_ enthusiastically leaping into a brave new constantly-monitored and surveilled world.
As with cars in the early twenty-first century, where we completely refactored our urban spaces and societies to fit around them — and have been suffering the consequences ever since — fundamental changes to our cities can be positive _and_ negative. There are certainly plenty of negative examples — a recent example that springs to mind is the disastrous Sidewalk Toronto smart city project, being run by Sidewalk Labs (an Alphabet initiative) and Waterfront Toronto. It’s a brilliant cautionary tale of how _not_ to do things — and there are plenty more.
So, what should _good_ smart cities implementation look like?
It’s vital (and you’ll hear me say this again later) that we put people before technology. The tech should _serve_ the people who live in and around the city. We need to be very careful of cool shiny new toys. We need to be open source in our approach to cities — from the tech to the algorithms powering everything. And more than that, we should ensure we use open source paradigms, and make sure that we build in Wellington’s unique characteristics, rather than attempting to use an off-the-shelf approach because it’s easier or cheaper (potentially). We should make sure any decisions are made in an open way, too — no black-box policy-making but continual, adaptable decision-making and implementation. This is going to mean we have to refactor some of our traditional power structures, of course. I don’t see it a zero-sum game — quite the opposite, in fact :)
Also, an open source approach will mean that more of Wellington’s people can be directly involved in her development as a smart city, and can leverage her development to build products and services for her people and the wider communities with which we all interact :) We need to use a mixture of skill sets in her development: yes, we absolutely need traditional urban planning. And, as we start to think about the ‘digital city’ — not just the physical city — we need to involve technologists and scientists. But we need far more. We need community leaders. We need people who work in the humanities, from librarians to ethnographers to philosophers to to historians. We need you and me. And it’s absolutely vital we involve our young people — they’re going to have to live with the decisions we make, and this desperately needs to not be another climate change situation. We need to sit down, together, and think very carefully about the possible unintended consequences of any decisions we make. How could our decisions potentially harm already vulnerable people, or ecosystems? What effects could we have on our environment? How will this help us adapt to climate change? What, quite literally, are the costs, benefits and downsides, and who decides how those are balanced? [I believe it should be all of us.] And what’s going to happen to all these mountains of data? What are the privacy implications? Are we collecting data unnecessarily?
As another writer has put it: cities aren’t computers. And people aren’t data sources. Let’s make sure we have tech that works in service of our communities — not the other way around. Let’s build something great in Wellington.
Civic technology
Talking of tech serving communities, I’d like to chat briefly about civic technology. It’s also a relatively new movement — perhaps a decade or so old — with increasing numbers of people globally involved with it.
The idea’s simple: to use technology, often in the form of software products and services, to help benefit communities, and empower them in their dealings with each other and with government. Social good runs through its very core and it has a wide volunteer and NGO base, often including technologists who’re keen to give back.
Which is why I’m all over it, at least. I can think of very little more important, in our increasingly-crumbling societies, than working to improve resilience, cohesion, democracy, diversity, inclusion and accountability. The upsides are enormous socially, economically and environmentally, not to mention all the warm fluffy heartfeels it causes :) And sometimes, I think we all need some positivity in our lives, eh?
It’s a way, to put it differently, to help rebuild some of the social infrastructure which has been so neglected, in so many places, for so long. A powerful middle layer between individuals and our Council, working to help empower people and influence government.
Open North in Canada springs to mind as a civic tech organisation doing stellar work with government and communities, and they’re one of hundreds (thousands?) of such groups. International group Luminate, as another example, is looking to invest around $60 million in 2019 alone on grants and investments in civic tech organisations and work.
It’s one thing to talk about it, of course. It’s another thing entirely to get it going, and to _keep_ it going. Volunteer burnout’s an issue. One-off projects are set up and run, but lack of follow-through means that much of the knowledge and good will generated are lost, as well as what was actually prototyped or _built_. And because the movement’s still new, there’s still a lot to learn as people try to figure out what works, and what doesn’t.
This is where localisation is key — again like smart cities. There is no single, cookie-cutter approach to doing this well. It depends hugely on the culture, people, cities and challenges involved. There are, however, lots of people around the world who’re keen to share what they’ve learned, and to keep growing the international civic tech community. There’s much we can learn from them, and I’m able to say definitively that — like open government folk — they’re a friendly and enthusiastic bunch :)
I’d really like to see a sustainable civic tech community kick off in Wellington. So here are three starting points for how to actually get this going.
People who’re interested identify each other and figure out how to keep in touch and meet. Regularly. Wellington City Council and interested businesses — and it would be great to see the private sector contribute to social good initiatives like this — commit to financially supporting civic tech groups, and to actively working _with_ them. We reach out to NGOs and community groups and actively, and on an ongoing basis, work with _them_ help address the challenges they see and contend with daily.
If you’re keen, get in touch with me! The end of the talk has my contact details, as well some reading material (I have so much more if you want) :)
So yes — a brief talk, as I mentioned. While one can easily see a future where civic tech groups form to fight back against smart cities initiatives, I think we have a chance to do something incredible: to have the two as utterly complementary parts of building an extraordinary city over the next 30 years: one that builds smart, self-determined humans, that works for _all_ the life that lives in and around her — human and non-human — and that stands as a local and international beacon to urban planning done well: the physical and the digital city, holding hands with each other and facing the 21st century.
Thank you. And thank you to all the folks who shared their thoughts and feedback with me in preparing this.
— — —
Linky goodness
I’d love to hear from y’all if you’re interested in any of the above. I’m also in the process of scoping setting up an online space where public servants and the communities they serve can interact directly with each other — let me know if you’re interested in that, too!
Oh, and join us (public servants and members of the public) at the free, open-to-everyone upcoming @OneTeamGovNZ breakfasts and lunches :D
Smart Cities: Big Data, Civic Hackers, and the Quest for A New Utopia — Anthony M. Townsend
Must-read book. www.bitsandatoms.net/smartcitiesbook
An Aura of Familiarity — Institute for the Future
Absolutely brilliant (CC-BY, yay!) short stories. www.iftf.org/fanfutures
A City is Not A Computer — Shannon Mattern, Places Journal
placesjournal.org/article/a-city-is-not-a-computer
Apolitical
Brilliant articles about the public service, from all over the world. apolitical.co
Bianca Wylie’s excellent coverage of Sidewalk Toronto
medium.com/@biancawylie
The Code for Smart Cities — Smart Cities Council ANZ
A ‘new global print for planning and designing smart and sustainable urban development’. anz.smartcitiescouncil.com/smart-cities-information-center/code-for-smart-communities
The Evolution of Smart Cities
www.forbes.com/sites/cognitiveworld/2019/03/03/the-evolution-of-smart-cities
Civicist
One of my favourite civic technology publications. civichall.org/civicist
What does ‘urban’ mean? — Chandan Deuskar, the World Bank blog
blogs.worldbank.org/sustainablecities/what-does-urban-mean
Why we need an open model to design and evaluate public policy — Audrey Lobo-Pulo, opensource.com
opensource.com/article/17/1/government-open-source-models
— — —
Get in touch
Please do get in touch if you’ve any thoughts or questions about any of the above, or about anything else for that matter — I _love_ chatting with people.
Easter egg time! Possible +10 unworthy self-link but as of April / May 2019 I’m leaving Stats NZ, so I’m on the lookout for new opportunities :) Know of something? Interested in talking? Let me know!
Blog (well, one of them): govworks.nz [ie this blog].
Twitter: @teh_aimee.
Email addresses: aimee @govworks.nz / [email protected].
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/awhitcroft.
[Some of] my growing bookmarks list, all annotated and whatnot: www.diigo.com/user/teh_aimee. | https://medium.com/proceeding-by-inquiry/smarter-kinder-cities-data-and-the-new-age-586df505443c | ['Aimee Whitcroft'] | 2019-07-10 04:49:09.370000+00:00 | ['Urban Planning', 'Technology', 'Data', 'Impact', 'Smart Cities'] |
I was trying to give you the benefit of the doubt, but you really do have that characteristic mix… | I was trying to give you the benefit of the doubt, but you really do have that characteristic mix of gullibility, willfull blindness, and stubborn stupidity that characterizes the majority of Biden voters. Do we need a sledgehammer to pound this into your head? Mueller found insufficient evidence to indict anyone in the Trump campaign for conspiring with Russians to do anything illegal about the 2016 election. Let me translate for you. No collusion. Nada. None. It was a hoax. The whole Russian collusion narrative was a conspiracy theory that was officially debunked. What is symptomatic of stubborn stupidity is continuing, as you do, to try to keep this bogus conspiracy theory alive after it has been so thoroughly decimated. It’s kind of funny watching Biden voters giving mouth to mouth resuscitation to their dead pet fish. Truly it’s time to flush it. | https://medium.com/@caleb-mars/i-was-trying-to-give-you-the-benefit-of-the-doubt-but-you-really-do-have-that-characteristic-mix-b328593e10ad | ['Caleb Mars'] | 2020-12-17 03:02:14.707000+00:00 | ['2016 Election', 'Democrats'] |
The San Sebastian Chronicles, Part IX | Upon entering the church, I could tell I was late. The usual queue was gone but the lamp outside the confessional was still lit. I checked my watch. Confessional hours were still on for ten more minutes. It shouldn’t take half that long with Father Koblenza.
Father, I did this that and the other, it usually went. Well, this is wrong, it separates you from God, but God is loving and infinitely merciful and he understands temptation for he was tempted himself after all, and he certainly understands the temptations of this new modern world, and the hardships and stresses of war, and so on and so on, Father Koblenza would usually say, And, of course, many of us act out of habit, which can lessen our fault, for you are perhaps not fully in control of what comes in your mind or even your actions in many cases. So, the important thing is to try. Always to try to do better, he would say. Ten Hail Marys. Maximum. Every time.
I removed my cap as I stepped from the narthex into the nave. I crossed myself with Holy water from the stoup. I took in the echoes from my footfalls and the smell of damp granite, candlewax, stale incense, and the pews’ long-farted-on oak — together it smelled of God.
I walked softly to a pew near the confessional. I knelt near the aisle and prayed.
“O most merciful God! Prostrate at your feet, I implore your forgiveness. I sincerely desire to leave all my evil ways and to confess my sins with all sincerity to you and to your priest. I am a sinner, have mercy on me, O Lord. Give me a lively faith and a firm hope in the Passion of my Redeemer. Give me, for your mercy’s sake a sorrow for having offended so good a God. Mary, my mother, refuge of sinners, pray for me that I may make a good confession. Amen,” I recited quietly and kneeling.
I crossed myself. Then, after confirming it was empty, I stepped quietly into the confessional, twisting the lock behind me and kneeling before the screen. I began the penitential act.
I began, just above a whisper, “Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It has been eight days since my last confession. These are — ”
“Have you had abortion?”
…I froze.
This was not Father Koblenza! This was some priest who sounded as if he’d been interrupted eating a soup of split peas and miniature boulders. His Sebastiano accent was not Italian. Not even Friulian. Ladin, maybe? Croatian? I made a strange sound myself. Almost a laugh.
The gargly gurgle came again from across the screen, “Abortion is not a laughing matter.”
“Of course, not… Of course not, Father, it is only that I was shocked, for I am a… a male. I have not had an abortion.”
“Have you done abortion?”
“No, father. I cannot do so. I am not a doctor.
“Many do abortions who are not doctors.”
“I do not know about that, Father.”
“Have you procure an abortion for another? For a woman?”
Who is this man? Where is Father Koblenza?
“No, Father.”
“I hear there is a communist Milanese doctor doing such a thing to women near the front, war often bringing out such nasty business as it does. You are not this man?”
“No, Father.” I knew he should not be asking who I am. “I have not procured an abortion.”
“Very well. I hope you are truthful. Consider whether you may have done so, indirectly, through your actions. Or put another, a woman, in a position to consider it, through your actions… You understand?”
“Yes, Father.”
“Good. Go on.”
It took my a moment to regain my composure. I was struck with an urge to lie. To condense my confession to the barest and flee. Or just to flee. How quickly could I unlock the panel and vamosz? The priest sounded like he would have trouble exiting the confessional fast enough to know who I was. He would have to first put down his throatbound rock remoulade and clear his throat. Perhaps also mount his wheeled chair. Yet it was possible someone would be in the nave now. I could not cause such a scene. And it would only lengthen the next confession. And surely fleeing a confession is a mortal sin itself. I would be excluded from communion in the face of death at any moment from Austrian balloon bombs and induced avalanches.
“Yes, Father. It has been eight days since my last confession. These are my sins.”
Continued… | https://medium.com/the-junction/the-grand-war-d804c102d1e2 | ['J.P. Melkus'] | 2018-09-17 21:43:28.460000+00:00 | ['Humor', 'Fiction', 'Fiction Series', 'World War I', 'Satire'] |
Computer Vision on CPU | Year-2021, the World is suffering from a deadly pandemic, countries are in and out of lockdowns. Every business, trade, the market has seen its worse in recent times. One of such is the chip industry, as the whole world has accepted work from home(WFH) as the new normal, the demand and sale for electronics went sky high, and accompanied by global logistics and nationwide shutdowns there is a huge gap between demand and supply. CHIP is now the 5th element of life just after air, water, fire, and earth. CHIP is used in every day to day device, many thanks to IoT devices that even bread toaster is operated via Alexa. GPU also known as the heart for AI computation is a very rare and expensive commodity, another reason for GPU shortage is Cryptocurrency — bitcoin and ethrium have grown roughly 800% in the last 10 months, forcing more GPUs into the mining world. GPUs that use to cost a few hundred dollars are now well above the thousand dollar price range making it very difficult for a beginner to invest in it, knowing that in 8–10 months the price will come down again.
So how can one start a journey when the road is unknown, fortunately, GPU is not the only device that can perform computer vision tasks. Intel has been working tirelessly to incorporate AI computing core in its CPU line up and if you have INTEL CPU from 2017 or above probably you can run inference on it without needing a dedicated GPU. Obviously there would be a tradeoff when you go from dedicated GPU to your CPU such as complicated setup, steep learning curve, and a lot of patience and performance. We will discuss the entire process and at the end, you can decide whether it’s worth to money or invest time to learn new skills and maybe get even better performance. Disclaimer: We are only dealing with the Inferencing part of Computer Vision and not the training part, training still needs GPU.
This article will list down the process in brief without going into too much depth of associated packages and libraries. For quick results under 5 mins jump to my git-hub repo. No prior coding skill is required. To learn about inferencing in GPU check this out. Computer Vision is a very vast topic and it’s not possible to cover every aspect in this article, instead, this article just deals with the last stretch of the job i.e. running inference on the video. You might have heard about TF, Pytorch, and other frameworks that will give you complete access to design your own CNN model from scratch, train it, optimize and run inference on. But they are not easily scalable and require python/c++ coding skills to get them running. Here we would only run the inference on pre-trained weights which is converted to IR(Intermediate Representation) format. To do so we will use a very old and reliable pipeline-based multimedia framework called GStreamer. This framework works with elements similar to lego pieces, arrange them in a particular fashion and you got yourself a running pipeline. A pipeline here means a set of elements arranged in such a manner that they take some input and produce some output. Our job will be to use this lego along with some custom-designed lego by INTEL and arrange them such that they take a video input run inference on it and produce the output. The above-mentioned git-hub repo contains many such pipelines which can be executed by shell script with .sh extension OR you can directly copy-paste the pipeline which is mentioned below. Both serve the same purpose, .sh file gives you a better understanding once you open it and see the lego pieces separately. At any point in time if you need to run inference on your own .mp4 file move the file to this directory open the relevant .sh file and under the LOCATION tab change the file name with the new one added.
To date, AI has been tied up very deeply with GPU and its performance stats, while it’s good to have GPU but not mandatory. INTEL has been working on its core architecture to run inference on CPU-core itself, if you need scalability there are various add-ons available to plug and run inference on such as — Intel NCS, which can be plugged in edge devices such as raspberry pie, Arm devices, Intel NUC. This gives you inference on demand. If you are looking for something more powerful and got space for PCIe slot you can look for IEI’s Mustang-F100-A10. This will scale your model multiple times, even if that’s not up to the task you can always opt for server-grade INTEL GOLD processors which are heavily optimized to run multiple instances of computer vision models.
Lets begin: Pre-requsites: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, Min. HDD- 15GB, Min. Ram — 4 GB, INTEL Processor.
Git-Hub — Computer_Vision_on_CPU
We will start with docker 1st, as docker give you a complete separate playground to run your experiments on plus it’s 100% replicable. If you have not heard of docker don’t worry keep this repo handy and I will explain along the way. As of the year 2021, almost every major software/SDK/package/ tool comes in form of docker images. Which can be downloaded from here. To install docker follow this or the git link mentioned above. Docker lets you create an isolate environment for the package you are interested in. The typical method is we download a docker image of the package we need and then create a container with a unique name. You can create multiple containers from the same image. These images also allow you to mount the existing folder in your OS. To begin our quest we will clone the git-hub repo in the “Documents” folder. After that we need to download the docker image and run the docker container, both can be done by using. Remember that this docker image comes with every tool, library preinstalled and you don’t have to install anything.
sudo docker run -it -e DISPLAY=$DISPLAY — network=host -d — name opv1 -v $HOME/Documents/Computer_Vision_on_CPU/:/home/ — privileged — user root openvino/ubuntu18_data_dev
This will download the required image and create a container with the name ‘opv1’, also we are mounting our GitHub-repo from our documents folder to the home folder of our container. Before going inside the container we need to grant some permission from HOST so that our container can display the video output. to achieve that we will use xhost + . Now we can safely get inside our running container via
sudo docker exec -it — workdir /home — user root opv1 bash
By typing ls we can see the list of all the files and folders present, out model has 3 component to it which is required for inferencing .xml, .bin, .proc. For our needs, I have isolated and placed them conveniently in the folders. You can also see files ending with v1,v2,v3 in their respective names. This is done because our method is based on top of GST pipeline, this pipeline has its plugins/elements which are responsible for all of video processing task. One of which is DISPLAY-out, depending on the version of Intel CPU you have you might face some compatibility issues. To check which display element(aka SINK) works for your machine try with
gst-launch-1.0 -v videotestsrc pattern=snow ! video/x-raw,width=1280,height=720 ! xvimagesink
If you did not see a snow pattern video out replace the last element ‘xvimagesink’ by ‘ximagesink’ or ‘autovideosink’. Any one of the above will definitely work, they have corresponding version numbers allotted to them. Suppose you are seeing Display-out via using ‘ximagesink’ that means you have to stick with V2 for the rest of the tutorial. We are pretty much ready to see the results now. 1st is running the only detection on the video, we have 3 classes for detection in this model we are using i.e. Person, Bike, Vehicle. let’s see how to run it.
./only_detection_v1.sh
Yup, it’s that simple every .sh file already has the entire pipeline prebuilt inside it, you just need to run it via typing the above command, you will be just using the version number that was working for you. As soon as you hit enter you will see a couple of details about the model name, its path, and the files used in the pipeline. It will also show the pipeline which looks like this:
gst-launch-1.0 filesrc location=traffic_cam_intel.mp4 ! decodebin ! gvadetect model=model_intel/person-vehicle-bike-detection-crossroad-0078/FP32/person-vehicle-bike-detection-crossroad-0078.xml model-proc=model_proc/person-vehicle-bike-detection-crossroad-0078.json device=CPU threshold=0.75 inference-interval=1 nireq=4 ! queue ! gvawatermark ! videoconvert ! gvafpscounter ! fpsdisplaysink video-sink=xvimagesink sync=false
For Object Detection + Tracking type in:
./only_detection_track_v1.sh
which will give the pipeline as :
gst-launch-1.0 filesrc location=traffic_cam_intel.mp4 ! decodebin ! gvadetect model=model_intel/person-vehicle-bike-detection-crossroad-0078/FP32/person-vehicle-bike-detection-crossroad-0078.xml model-proc=model_proc/person-vehicle-bike-detection-crossroad-0078.json device=CPU threshold=0.75 inference-interval=1 nireq=4 ! queue ! gvatrack tracking-type=short-term ! queue ! queue ! gvawatermark ! videoconvert ! gvafpscounter ! fpsdisplaysink video-sink=xvimagesink sync=false
For Object Detection + Tracking + Classification x2:
./only_detection_track_person_car_classify_two_v1.sh
This one have Detection + Tracking + Classification of Person attributes + Classification of Vehicle attributes and its gst pipeline looks like:
gst-launch-1.0 filesrc location=traffic_cam_intel.mp4 ! decodebin ! gvadetect model=model_intel/person-vehicle-bike-detection-crossroad-0078/FP32/person-vehicle-bike-detection-crossroad-0078.xml model-proc=model_proc/person-vehicle-bike-detection-crossroad-0078.json device=CPU threshold=0.75 inference-interval=1 nireq=4 ! queue ! gvatrack tracking-type=short-term ! queue ! gvaclassify model=model_intel/person-attributes-recognition-crossroad-0230/FP32/person-attributes-recognition-crossroad-0230.xml model-proc=model_proc/person-attributes-recognition-crossroad-0230.json reclassify-interval=1 device=CPU object-class=person ! queue ! gvaclassify model=model_intel/vehicle-attributes-recognition-barrier-0039/FP32/vehicle-attributes-recognition-barrier-0039.xml model-proc=model_proc/vehicle-attributes-recognition-barrier-0039.json reclassify-interval=10 device=CPU object-class=vehicle ! queue ! gvawatermark ! videoconvert ! gvafpscounter ! fpsdisplaysink video-sink=xvimagesink sync=false
Let’s break down the pipeline and understand what is going on here: filesrc is an element that locates the .mp4 we want to use, you are free to use your own video just change the name in this pipeline. gvadetect is an INTEL-built element that needs a model address to run inference on as we now have video from filesrc it goes on for detection here. Tracked objects such as Vehicle, Person, Bike need to tracked and this is done by gvatrack which assigns a unique ID to every object. After tracking now we need to classify the Person which will be done by using gvaclassify this also takes in the address of the classification models which have stored in model_intel folder. The same is repeated for Vehicle classification. After we have all the data, we need to draw the relevant Bounding Boxes on the video this is done by gvawatermark without this you won’t see any drawing on the video. And since we are also rooting for optimal performance we need to see the FPS numbers on the video as well as a shell so we use gvafpscounter & fpsdisplaysink respectively. Learn more about gva elements here.
Remaining elements like decodbin , queue , videoconvert are necessary to pass video from one element to another element and to play around and understand the video management part / resizing it/stream it. Learn about GST elements here. Once you have your inference working you might now look towards the CPU usage, and chances are it is hovering in and around 98–100% mark. That is because the gvadetect & gvaclassify are using their default setting to utilize CPU cores which is not optimized. To use the optimized version of the same type: ./adv_detection_tracking_classification.sh This will run the pipeline with some extra set of instructions for our gvadetect element.
gst-launch-1.0 filesrc location=traffic_cam_intel.mp4 ! qtdemux ! avdec_h264 max_threads=4 ! gvadetect model=model_intel/person-vehicle-bike-detection-crossroad-0078/FP32/person-vehicle-bike-detection-crossroad-0078.xml model-proc=model_proc/person-vehicle-bike-detection-crossroad-0078.json threshold=0.75 inference-interval=1 model-instance-id=detect cpu-throughput-streams=4 nireq=1 ie-config=CPU_BIND_THREAD=NO,CPU_THREADS_NUM=16 ! queue ! gvatrack tracking-type=short-term ! queue ! gvaclassify model=model_intel/person-attributes-recognition-crossroad-0230/FP32/person-attributes-recognition-crossroad-0230.xml model-proc=model_proc/person-attributes-recognition-crossroad-0230.json reclassify-interval=1 device=CPU object-class=person ! queue ! gvaclassify model=model_intel/vehicle-attributes-recognition-barrier-0039/FP32/vehicle-attributes-recognition-barrier-0039.xml model-proc=model_proc/vehicle-attributes-recognition-barrier-0039.json reclassify-interval=10 device=CPU object-class=vehicle ! queue ! gvawatermark ! videoconvert ! gvafpscounter ! fpsdisplaysink video-sink=xvimagesink sync=false
particularly :
inference-interval=1 model-instance-id=detect cpu-throughput-streams=4 nireq=1 ie-config=CPU_BIND_THREAD=NO,CPU_THREADS_NUM=16
Now you have to try out different values for cpu-throughput-streams & CPU_THREADS_NUM currently they are configured for a 6 core machine and drops the usage to about 80%. Try different values in the multiple of 2 for cpu-throughtput-streams and in multiples of 8 for CPU_THREADS_NUM. This will help in better core performance management. For better FPS in the range of 60+, we will shift to INT8 model weights, these require less computational power when compared to FP32/FP26 that we have been using since the beginning. All the weights for INT8 are already present we will just change the path for gvadetect -Run: ./adv_detection_tracking_classification_liste.sh
gst-launch-1.0 filesrc location=traffic_cam_intel.mp4 ! qtdemux ! avdec_h264 max_threads=4 ! gvadetect model=model_intel/person-vehicle-bike-detection-crossroad-0078/FP16-INT8/person-vehicle-bike-detection-crossroad-0078.xml model-proc=model_proc/person-vehicle-bike-detection-crossroad-0078.json threshold=0.75 inference-interval=10 model-instance-id=detect cpu-throughput-streams=4 nireq=1 ie-config=CPU_BIND_THREAD=NO,CPU_THREADS_NUM=16 ! queue ! gvatrack tracking-type=short-term ! queue ! gvaclassify model=model_intel/person-attributes-recognition-crossroad-0230/FP16-INT8/person-attributes-recognition-crossroad-0230.xml model-proc=model_proc/person-attributes-recognition-crossroad-0230.json reclassify-interval=10 device=CPU object-class=person ! queue ! gvaclassify model=model_intel/vehicle-attributes-recognition-barrier-0039/FP32/vehicle-attributes-recognition-barrier-0039.xml model-proc=model_proc/vehicle-attributes-recognition-barrier-0039.json reclassify-interval=10 device=CPU object-class=vehicle ! queue ! gvawatermark ! videoconvert ! gvafpscounter ! fpsdisplaysink video-sink=xvimagesink sync=false
By using the above pipeline you will see drastic performance improvement in FPS and a balanced CPU core utilization. There are few extra pipelines mentioned in the GitHub repo that will let you run the inference in your IP camera feed in real-time. If you want to store the inference video in mp4 format you can do so by following the pipeline:
gst-launch-1.0 filesrc location=traffic_cam_intel.mp4 ! decodebin ! gvadetect model=model_intel/person-vehicle-bike-detection-crossroad-0078/FP32/person-vehicle-bike-detection-crossroad-0078.xml model-proc=model_proc/person-vehicle-bike-detection-crossroad-0078.json device=CPU threshold=0.75 inference-interval=1 nireq=4 ! queue ! gvawatermark ! videoconvert ! x264enc ! mp4mux ! filesink location=traffic_cam_intel_output.mp4
These are few working examples I have given here, you have many possibilities like relaying the inference video over the UDP/RTSP, attaching a Database to record all the bounding-boxes data along with tracking ids. You can customize the pipeline to your heart’s content.
One such typical example is ANPR(Automatic Number Plate Recognition), this example is present already in the docker container you are running, to make it work you just have to run the .sh file, address to which is:
root@kuk:/home#/opt/intel/openvino/deployment_tools/demo/demo_security_barrier_camera.sh
This will initiate the pipeline and since we already dont have the relevant weights , downloading will begin and in a minute you will have this image on your screen:
Now you can clearly see the wide array of applications we can have with simple easy to run INTEL pipelines. gvapython is one element that can be integrated with your current pipeline which allows you to post-process the output image and the metadata(detection -bounding boxes, tracking-ID’s, classes). You can use this to make your own model keeping track of cars/pedestrians.
Some of the use cases that can be easily implemented via this pipeline are:
Loitering Detection: You can define an area from a CCTV feed, and using gvapython check if any person/car breaching that area limits. It’s a simple if, else logic, and using this snippet you can attach your email ID and now you have a very simple AI-CPU-based program that will email you with the image if someone breaches the predefined area.
NO-Parking Detection: The same concept can be applied here, instead we have to filter for only vehicles in our defined ROI(Region Of Interest). And we will get an e-mail as soon as any vehicle enters the prohibited area, also we can include the Vehicle Attribute classification shown in the above pipelines combined with ANPR we can stack up information like make, model, color, and number plate of the car which is being parked at no parking zone.
Fire/Smoke Detection: This works on the same concept, you have to build an exclusive CNN model and train it on some architecture say for example yolov3, and after training, you can convert the yolov3 weight to IR format which will simply plug into our existing pipeline. gvametapublish & gvametaconvert will help you to send alerts to the choice of your database.
Speed Detection: gvatrack element tracks the detected object, the object can be anything that your recognition model is trained to look for. Tracking helps us to uniquely, identify every detected object. Now since we have a tracking number, we can use this to determine vehicle speed. Since we also have a BBox for a vehicle, this BBox can be reduced to 1 point in frame with the allotted tracking number. So instead of the entire car, we are looking at a single pixel that represents a car. As the camera is fixed we will take an approximation of distance in real-world i.e. from certain fixed Point A to certain fixed Point B the distance is 1 meter, and our one-pixel car went from Point A to Point B in 10 Frames, assuming our camera is recording at 30FPS, we can say that to cross 1 meter the vehicle took 1/3 seconds that equates to a speed of vehicle roughly at 3m/s ~ 10 km/hr. This is a very rough estimation but won’t lie far off from actual speed. Depending on how accurately you tune the variables you can easily achieve accuracy above 90%.
People/car counter: This model finds its application in various places that deal with crowds, hospitals, malls, concerts, stadiums parking lots for vehicles, and many more. This also works on the principle of detecting and tracking the objects, you can draw a virtual line and as soon as the detected object cross that line we increase the counter by one, the same logic when applied in reverse will give you a counter machine. That will provide you the number of people who entered and left the facility, and vehicles for parking lots.
These were to name a few you always have the freedom to get creative and model your own use case suiting your own need, like airport cameras can have weapon detection, factory floors can have helmet detection, fast food can have glove detection, and many more. All this can be easily implemented and used for a small number of cameras, also we are not recording anything we have just seen the live/ stored feed analysis in real-time where we can build logic and implement an alert generation system.
Consider a case of a Smart City, a factory floor, a university, a stadium, multi-story parking lot, a hotel.. and such. These places are generally equipped with 100s and 1000s of cameras and it becomes an exponentially complex task to handle so much via a simple pipeline. This colossal task is managed and supervised by MIRASYS-DataVision Company where they provide a complete package towards securely handling, recording, retrieving video feeds from 1000s of cameras with easy to use interface. With 50+ use cases ready to deploy, it becomes a lot easier to monitor and respond to any alert in time. You have the freedom to run multiple use cases on a single camera or single-use cases on multiple cameras. All the use cases can be integrated and viewed as a single platform to control every aspect of surveillance.
Learn more about Computer Vision on GPU here, and if you are just starting and want to take the 1st step and write the script to understand it all, follow — TensorFlow Object Detection in Windows (under 30 lines). | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/computer-vision-on-cpu-c0beb301185a | [] | 2021-06-11 16:06:22.732000+00:00 | ['Smart Cities', 'AI', 'Intel', 'Computer Vision', 'Deep Learning'] |
Smart Developers Don’t Code | Or, stop re-inventing things!
Something has stuck in my head from a long time ago, when I was a young junior developer. I was working on a part of an application trying to speed up the access to data in a web app. The first iteration of code called out to a database every time a user paged through the data. Looking to optimise I decided to cache the original returned data so as not to keep on round tripping back to the database. A sensible thing to do.
So head down I spent days coming up with something that would be the best caching Java code anyone had ever seen! I came up with complex algorithms to call, store, page and evict data for this one use case.
After 5 days and nights of coding toil, I proudly met my lead developer and walked him through my code. I bamboozled him with the brilliance of the algorithms.
Confusingly, I was met with, not the congratulatory realisation of seeing revolutionary data paging techniques, but instead with a large sigh and a promise to review.
The next day, the lead dev called me over and said. “I don’t know what you have done, but I have removed all of your code and just stored the data in a list which gets refreshed on each new search”
He first told me that my code was massively over engineered, and secondly was just doing something that there were patterns and tools to solve the same problem.
Tail between my legs, I accepted this and took one of my biggest lessons as a junior developer, with a metaphoric thwack to the back of the head!
One of my earliest lessons in software engineering — Don’t immediately code your way out of a problem!
This brings me to a recent conversation I had with a young developer who presented me with a problem with his use of code in Red Hat OpenShift (Disclaimer: I work at Red Hat). On getting the full details, he explained that he had written lots of microservices to sit in front of a bunch of APIs that read data from various sources and manipulated the data depending on the source before sending out to various endpoints. He was very proud of the set of microservices that he’d built to solve this problem. There were aggregators, translators and other patterns.
I listened and sighed.
I told him that the solution was really complex and seemed a little overengineered! In a polite way, I told him that folks had solved all of these problems and more, many times over. In this instance I pointed him towards Apache Camel and told him that just because you are building microservices it does not mean that you need to build microservices!
Just because you are building microservices it does not mean that you need to build microservices!
In IT we seem to think that we need to re-invent everything, always. I’m all for exciting new paradigms that change the way we use technology, but not at the expense of throwing things away.
Apache Camel is one of many great examples of not re-inventing things!
I am a huge Apache Camel fan, from both an integrators viewpoint and also a great open source community success. The story goes that Camel was based on a conversation between Gregor Hophe and James Strachan. Gregor wrote the integration bible Enterprise Integration Patterns, a book that gives you the designs for common integration tasks as a set of patterns…you know, so you don’t need to reinvent the same architecture patterns.
James, an open source developer and the founder of Groovy (the language) and Gregor were talking at a conference and James thought it would be a cracking idea to build reusable Java implementations of these patterns… you know, so that you don’t have to keep on writing the same code when you need to do stuff! Apache Camel was born from this conversation as a set of libraries that implement integration patterns.
Back to my recent conversation!
So, we took a look at Red Hat Integration, which is Apache Camel plus a bunch of other stuff to deploy and run integration services. I told him that not only can he do everything that he needed, but it also fitted in with his microservices architecture and looking at some of the shiny new pieces like Camel K he can also have his microservices served…err, serverless!
Serverless Integration Microservices!!
Camel K is the most exciting thing in integration right now. Some of the biggest challenges facing integration specialists were always around how to achieve scale and availability with integration solution architectures. Tools like CamelK and OpenShift are taking care of the whole deploy, run & scale aspects of that problem.
Apache Camel provides the implementations of patterns and hundreds of adapters. The things that needed expertise was in figuring out which connectors and patterns to use and importantly in how the components are deployed in a scalable and available architecture to support requirements.
Projects like CamelK are a new breed of “kubernetes native” tools that look to use the power of Kubernetes to take advantage of the huge scale and availability capabilities of the Kubernetes platform. Some of the difficult things in defining and designing scale and availability have already been done by using the power of the Kubernetes platform…you know, so that I don’t need to re-invent scaling and availability!
What is Apache Camel?
Ok just a quick one, if you have not looked at Apache Camel before then it’s an awesome thing of beauty that makes it really simple to connect and integrate hundreds of different things.
Here’s a very quick look at Apache Camel.
It provides implementations of over 60 integration patterns It has over 350 connectors It’s awesome
Here’s the basic premise of all camel integrations. Data or invocation comes FROM a source somewhere which flows into a PROCESSOR to do something and then flows TO a destination.
The FROM and TO are Camel components or adapters to connect technologies from AWS native services through to CSV files to SAP to reactive streams to Kafka connectors… there are over 350 of these!
It is as simple as that!
A story I tell is that Camel components are a brilliant way of showing the power of open source software communities and projects. I’ve been a huge fan of Camel for many years and have seen the number of components grow with every release.
That is the power of Open Source!
What happens is that a developer uses Camel, but the component that the developer needs doesn’t yet exist in Camel. So, the developer builds the component to solve their needs. Being a good Open Source citizen, the developer delights the Camel community by contributing that component back into the Camel source and it’s included into the next Camel release. Now, when you need that component, you don’t have to build it, because it’s already been done… awesome!
There are tons of resources around to help you out with Camel, one of the best ones is Claus Ibson and Jonathan Anstey’s book, Camel in Action which has to be the bible of Camel. James Strachan has often said that he invented Camel but Claus made it work! Also take a look at Tom Donohue’s brilliant articles on Camel
But what about Camel K!
Ok, I’m going to quickly show you something awesome (ok to an old integration hack like me it’s awesome!).
I’m going to do a fairly simple integration task in just a few lines of code.
I am going to create a Telegram bot to deliver a complement into a telegram channel. Now Telegram has a load of API’s that I can use to call and send messages to channels which I could use.
There’s also a compliment service that Grant Codes has made available at https://complimentr.com/ which returns compliments to make you feel good :)
Wow, amazing colour schemes Grant!
Now I want to integrate these two services together to deliver nice compliments to my Telegram friends.
So, am I going to dive into code?
Hell no. A quick look at the Apache Camel connectors shows me that amongst the 350 or so different components I can connect to I find Camel Telegram, someone who wanted to talk to Telegram has already written something to connect so that I DON’T HAVE TO!
Some usual Camel components will help with the plain HTTP call to the compliment service, I say usual in a flippant way as actually there’s an HTTP component that handles all of the things that I might have coded but I DON’T NEED TO!
So, I am going to use the Camel Telegram component, to receive messages from the bot, calling out to an external service to get a compliment and then sending it back to the Telegram bot. OK, not the most exciting thing but a bit of fun
Here’s what I want the bot to do, send a name and receive back a compliment.
I have a kubernetes cluster available to me so I am going to do this with CamelK. I’m using Red Hat OpenShift and the CamelK operator to set things up.
Here’s what I need to do.
1 — Download the CamelK CLI.
2 — Install the CamelK Operator
3 — Run my code
Download the CamelK CLI
So, there’s a good deal of articles and docs out there explaining this so I won’t go into a heap of detail but the CamelK CLI (or kamel) is essentially how you interact with your Kubernetes platform (or more accurately, the Camel K custom resources on the platform) to deploy integrations (there’s also IDE plugins for VSCode).
The CLI enables you to do things like install the Camel K operators, run integrations in interactive dev mode (live updates of running integration code) etc.
Install the CamelK Operator
CamelK has a number of Kubernetes Operators to build, deploy and run integrations. The whole point of Kubernetes Operators is to abstract the complexities of things running on the platform and CamelK does this superbly! So just go ahead and install the operator either from the CLI
command line using :
Or if you are running in Openshift then you can use the Operators tab to install.
Run my code
Once installed I can now push integration code to my running OpenShift platform from an IDE or CLI.
So, let’s look at the code. Remember, I am using the Telegram component. Looking at the component I just need to grab the Telegram authorisation token and pass that into the component, which will read messages from the bot.
from(“telegram:bots?authorizationToken=[YOUR TOKEN]”)
If I add a simple log to see the route working
from(“telegram:bots?authorizationToken=[YOUR TOKEN]”) .to(“log:bots”)
I have two lines of code. If I save these in a file called hello.groovy then I have a groovy script that can be used as a CamelK integration that will connect to my telegram bot and will log whatever I type!
Running hello.groovy
This is the awesome bit. I want my two line groovy script to deploy and run as a scalable integration component. This is what Camel K is! From my command line I simply run:
With the run command I have turned my two line groovy script into a container deployed and running as an Apache Camel route on my OpenShift cluster.
What is the — dev flag?
Adding the — dev flag, I have entered a weird world where I can make changes to my hello.groovy file which will automatically be reflected in the OpenShift cluster! Making my dev experience much easier.
The full bot
You have seen how awesome CamelK is, then here’s the rest of my “avoiding code” groovy script.
from(“telegram:bots?authorizationToken=[YOUR TOKEN]”) .setHeader(“USER”, body()) .to(“https://complimentr.com/api?asGET=true “) .transform().jsonpath(“\$.compliment”) .setBody(simple("\${body} \${in.header.USER}”)) .to(“telegram:bots?authorizationToken=[YOUR TOKEN]”)
I use the Camel Telegram component to receive the message from the Telegram channel
Stash the name as a header sent through in the telegram message body
Call out to the compliment api
Add the original name to the compliment
Push the compliment back to the Telegram channel.
There you go six lines of code to do an integration by re-using components to do the job.
There’s some really brilliant Camel integration patterns like aggregators, brokering, dynamic routing and even more awesome CamelK things like serverless, scale to zero on demand capabilities that will all help you not code!
Smart developers not coding is not new, it’s been around for a long time. The reasons why we build frameworks and tools is to abstract the mundane and be more productive. Sometimes it’s a case of understanding what frameworks and tools are available to help you with not coding. Hopefully I have shown you another one of these!
Take a look at what other Red Hat folks are talking about in the UK and Ireland community site | https://itnext.io/smart-developers-dont-code-2bf882568c37 | ['Graeme Colman'] | 2021-01-07 22:20:01.703000+00:00 | ['Apache Camel', 'Redhat Openshift', 'Integration', 'Developer Stories', 'Kubernetes'] |
The Hardest Art | The Hardest Art
A boulder weighing down,
A pain which refuses to die,
A constant bitter biting away,
Forgiveness the hardest of arts.
Many cycles of violence,
Many animosities,
Many tragedies,
which could have been ended.
Forgiveness the hardest of arts.
The shortness of life,
too slim to carry the burden,
which arises due to the treachery,
that is memory.
But to forgive is to not forget.
To forgive is to let go of hatred.
To forgive is to let go of animosity.
To forgive is to drop that boulder.
To forgive is to come at ease,
and be the gentle breeze,
gliding around everywhere,
filing the lungs of life for all.
Forgiveness the hardest of arts. | https://medium.com/@rish-choudhari/the-hardest-art-305dbed380a7 | ['Rishabh Choudhari'] | 2020-11-27 04:32:27.803000+00:00 | ['Poem', 'Art', 'Hard', 'Introspective', 'Forgiveness'] |
Sustain: Onward and Upward into 2019 | Sustain: Onward and Upward into 2019
Where do we go from here?
In 2019, we are confident that sustainability concepts, concerns, and performance will continue to shape and move markets. Most saliently, fresh investments into sustainable projects, greater environmental stewardship, and strengthening corporate focus on purpose alongside profit will remain critical themes. Core to our mission, we plan on continuing to empower your journey towards responsible ownership through transparency and democracy. Know what you own, vote on the world you wish to see!
What happened in 2018
In 2018, emissions rose, urgent reports on climate change dominated headlines, the EPA started dismantling environmental policy, and coral reef experts voiced fear of extinction. While the movement to ban plastic straws gained global attention, plastic production increased in 2018 and demand is expected to grow from 100 million metric tons (MMT) in 2018 to 120 MMT in 2022. On the positive, renewable energy sources became cheaper, corporate clean energy purchases grew, and EV growth continued, encompassing buses, vans, and even garbage trucks. Nielsen, a market research firm, found that half of US shoppers claim they’d change their consumption habits to benefit the environment.
Early in the year, company CEOs started to acknowledge their moral compass, vocalizing concerns over DACA, pulling guns from US retail outlets, proactively supporting social activist leaders (albeit with questionable motives), and pledging to share tax reform benefits with employees.
However, some CEOs were merely trying to keep their businesses afloat. Shares of General Electric, formerly an iconic name in the corporate world, fell -60% as they continued to face the consequences from a massive bet on fossil fuels as well as nefarious bookkeeping within their capital management arm. On the other hand, Amazon shares were up 26% (who doesn’t love Prime?), yet performance came on the back of revelations of shoddy working conditions (Unsustain?), perhaps trying to revamp its image, the company raised its minimum wage (while simultaneously rolling back other benefits such as stock-compensation).
The market as a whole, down -7% at the time of writing, suffered from the logical anticipation of a slower economy resulting from a surge in nationalistic policy trends (e.g. classic economic theory suggests increasing tariffs hurts the global economy).
Nevertheless, the Sustain Beta Test Fund hung in there, outperforming the market by ~9% (down -4% at the time of writing versus the market’s performance of -15% over the same time period). The strong performance was driven by renewable energy giant NextEra (+4% since October) – in September, the company bought ~$1.2B of new renewable energy assets. Tesla contributed as well (+9% since October), although the Sustain community sold the stock in November’s rebalance due to concerns over worker treatment.
Sustain Thanks You!
Sustain is extremely grateful for your engagement, feedback, and participation in the Beta Test! We are hoping to transform the sustainable investing experience by providing transparency, enabling agency and democracy through voting – and eventually encouraging knowledge and perspective sharing on critical issues. This past year, aside from launching our Beta Test, we also graduated from YC Startup School, which has helped train us for journey ahead.
Here’s to 2019. Happy Voting!
Andre, Chris, Sylwia and Nick
Sustain | https://medium.com/sustaininvestingco/sustain-onward-and-upward-into-2019-c6746505e1c5 | [] | 2018-12-31 07:51:28.648000+00:00 | ['Investing', 'Sustainability', 'Activism', 'Climate Change'] |
¿Cómo cambiar a una carrera de diseño de chatbots o de voz? | 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://planetachatbot.com/como-cambiar-carrera-de-diseno-de-chatbots-o-de-voz-52b67f3bd380 | ['Brielle Nickoloff'] | 2020-12-23 09:02:49.275000+00:00 | ['Español', 'Design', 'Voice Assistant', 'Chatbot', 'AI'] |
The Late Night Dream | The Late Night Dream
A short horror poetry.
Once upon a midsummer night
There came a roaring from the wind.
There I stood.
Wandering and coupled with fear.
Ravaging thoughts and goose bumps.
Filled my flesh.
Then suddenly,
A shadow.
A very big one.
With long nails and fangs.
Like that of a beast.
Ready to pounce on me.
Ready to devour me.
There I stood.
Unable to move.
Unable to run.
Unable to scream.
Then I knew.
The end is near.
The end is now.
With nobody to save me.
But a voice.
A still small voice.
A melodious one.
Like that of an angel.
Wake up! wake up!!
Little monster.
© Evince pen | https://medium.com/illumination/the-late-night-dream-c5baf106b6e | ['Evince Uhurebor'] | 2020-11-24 19:33:20.434000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Poetry On Medium', 'Writing', 'Horror Fiction', 'Self'] |
Newspaper Cites to Ban the Box after Unknowingly Hiring Convicted Sex Offender as Education Reporter | When New Mexico’s Gallup Independent Newspaper hired Guy Priel as an education reporter, they were unaware that he had been previously convicted of two felonies–once for assaulting a child and once for possessing child pornography. After being hired, Priel was sent into a school for a story. Fortunately, he was observed during his visit and no harm was done to any of the children.
When the newspaper found out about Priel’s past, they pointed to the recently enacted Ban the Box law, prohibiting employers from asking about criminal history on a job application. In response, State Senator Bill O’Neill, who co-sponsored the bill, stated that the law does not change the employer’s responsibility to investigate criminal history.
This unfortunate turn of events represents the unintended consequences that may result from some reintegration efforts. While Ban the Box prohibits employers from asking about criminal history at the outset of the application process, we continue to encourage employers to run thorough background checks, including criminal histories, as a part of the process.
For more information about Ban the Box and whether it affects your state, please visit the Hire Image Resource Library.
Originally Posted:- https://www.hireimage.org/newspaper-cites-to-ban-the-box-after-unknowingly-hiring-convicted/ | https://medium.com/hire-image/newspaper-cites-to-ban-the-box-after-unknowingly-hiring-convicted-sex-offender-as-education-7b172622feba | ['Hire Image', 'Johnston', 'Ri'] | 2019-11-10 09:03:44.097000+00:00 | ['Appears', 'Convicted', 'Unaware', 'Criminal Justice', 'Education'] |
Understanding Dice Loss for Crisp Boundary Detection | Dice Loss
Dice loss originates from Sørensen–Dice coefficient, which is a statistic developed in 1940s to gauge the similarity between two samples [Wikipedia]. It was brought to computer vision community by Milletari et al. in 2016 for 3D medical image segmentation.
Fig.3: Dice coefficient
Fig.3 shows the equation of Dice coefficient, in which pi and gi represent pairs of corresponding pixel values of prediction and ground truth, respectively. In boundary detection scenario, the values of pi and gi are either 0 or 1, representing whether the pixel is boundary (value of 1) or not (value of 0). Therefore, the denominator is the sum of total boundary pixels of both prediction and ground truth, and the numerator is the sum of correctly predicted boundary pixels because the sum increments only when pi and gi match (both of value 1).
Fig.4: Dice coefficient (set view)
Fig.4 is another view of Fig.3 from the perspective of set theory, in which the Dice coefficient (DSC) is a measure of overlap between two sets. For example, if two sets A and B overlap perfectly, DSC gets its maximum value to 1. Otherwise, DSC starts to decrease, getting to its minimum value to 0 if the two sets don ‘t overlap at all. Therefore, the range of DSC is between 0 and 1, the larger the better. Thus we can use 1-DSC as Dice loss to maximize the overlap between two sets.
In boundary detection tasks, the ground truth boundary pixels and predicted boundary pixels can be viewed as two sets. By leveraging Dice loss, the two sets are trained to overlap little by little. As shown in Fig.4, the denominator considers the total number of boundary pixels at global scale, while the numerator considers the overlap between the two sets at local scale. Therefore, Dice loss considers the loss information both locally and globally, which is critical for high accuracy. | https://medium.com/ai-salon/understanding-dice-loss-for-crisp-boundary-detection-bb30c2e5f62b | ['Shuchen Du'] | 2020-02-29 17:36:51.532000+00:00 | ['Deep Learning', 'Loss Function', 'Computer Vision'] |
Common Signs That Indicate Separation Anxiety in Babies | A baby or a toddler doesn’t understand things the way we do. For instance, they are not yet aware of the concept of time or object permanence (the idea that an object exists even when it is out of sight). Similar factors, including the ones I’ve mentioned, contribute to a rather common trait of newborns called separation anxiety.
Separation anxiety in babies is not permanent but it does last for a few months or even years. You must remember that it’s just a phase of your child’s development and nothing serious that needs medical attention or any immediate intervention. But, you must also try to make this phase bearable for you and your child. For that, you need to first identify the common signs that indicate separation anxiety in babies.
Signs of Separation Anxiety in Babies
Constant Crying
Crying is one of the most common indications of separation anxiety in babies. It is generally triggered by the absence of the parent. Even if you leave the room for a few seconds, basically vanish from the child’s sight, they start crying.
Crying in babies also often starts when they face new and unfamiliar situations. For instance, when you take them to a crowded place like a shopping mall or a park or introduce them to a new toy, you will sense the discomfort and hesitation immediately.
Tensing up Around People
Babies with separation anxiety are generally not comfortable around people because they are still in the phase of social development. They don’t like mingling with strangers or even with friends, family or the babysitter. When you try to introduce them to other people, you won’t see a smile or the baby reaching out for the other person. If anything, the baby would cling to you tighter than ever. It can be the fear of strangers or the fear of the parent leaving the baby with unfamiliar people.
And if you try to force an interaction upon the baby, you aren’t making things better but laying the path for loud screams and waterworks.
Interrupted Sleep
Separation anxiety doesn’t just exist when the baby is awake but also when they are asleep. More often than not, the baby would wake up crying for a parent more than once. Sometimes, the crying even occurs in the presence of the parent. It generally stops after the baby feels the presence of the parent around them.
Also, the baby would wake up early in the morning. Such cycles of interrupted sleep are clear signs of the baby’s separation anxiety phase.
Feels Lost Without Your Presence
For babies, their parents are the only safe place and person and the only permanent thing in their life. They don’t trust anything new or anyone else besides their parents. If you leave them in such situations, the end result would be tears or just a lost baby.
For instance, if the baby is happy and excited when playing with toys and suddenly notices that the parent isn’t in sight, all their attention will be towards finding the mother or father. They will be incapable of keeping themselves occupied unless there’s a parent around them performing the activity with them.
Now, separation anxiety can be difficult to deal with. But thankfully, it’s just a phase. And there are several ways to deal with separation anxiety in babies. So, if you feel that your baby is showing the signs we’ve discussed, it’s time to take some action. | https://medium.com/@activebaby/common-signs-that-indicate-separation-anxiety-in-babies-38d10bdd44e6 | ['Active Baby'] | 2021-02-26 04:16:32.275000+00:00 | ['Baby Anxiety', 'Anxiety In Babies', 'Baby Care', 'Baby'] |
In search of fixed radius. | Some times some tasks marked as like easy ones on Leetcode, nevertheless they harder then most part of medium tasks. And to solve them need to involve significant amount of considerations. One of this tasks is “Leetcode: 475. Heaters”, where required to find minimum fixed radius of heater to warm a houses. Houses and Heaters represented as two arrows of positive coordinates on line. More detail description could be extracted from source I will not spend place here.
What do we looking for?
When starting to solve a task, important part is to define what we really need to fine. And in this case we need to find maximum value of minimum distance from a home to a header. Each home has it own nearest heater. So what we need is to find maximum distance to such heater among all houses.
On the picture nearest heater fro houses #1 and #2 is H1 and nearest for home three is H2 . Shortest Distance from Home1 to H1 is 2, from Home2 to H1 is 1, and from Home3 to H2 is 2 again. So maximum nearest heater to a house stays in 2 point, this is the answer.
We are seeking for a maximum value of nearest distance from a home to a heater.
Some interesting rule.
For example nearest heater Hi found for a house1. The distance till Hi is smaller for house1 then distance till left one Hi-1 , and right one Hi+1 heaters. So for the next house: house2, as a nearest heaters we need to consider only Hi and heaters that stay further right way. Because as house2 has moved forward from house1 distance between house2 and Hi-1 even greater than distance between house1 and Hi-1 so we can eliminate Hi-1 from consideration.
When we found nearest heater for a home, search for next home started from the same heater.
The algorithm is ready.
Get minimum distance till a header from each home to a heaters. Select maximum value from all this distance. | https://medium.com/@lbvf50.mobile/in-search-of-fixed-radius-d47fb5c4a668 | ['Dmitry Dmitriev'] | 2020-02-20 19:30:27.110000+00:00 | ['Ruby', 'Leetcode Easy'] |
Web Frontend for my language | This post is a developer log - To share the practical experiences and thoughts, give insights and create some ideas of your own. To document my compiler internals. And hopefully, to be mildly entertaining.
Introduction
This post is about the recent journey to create a Web based frontend for my language. Some context on where the project was before that journey started.
In the long term, I have always envisioned that this project will incorperate a full development environment (my take on an IDE). Just providing a compiler toolchain is a dated idea. I think a newly developed language should at least support some kind of IDE integration (Language Server Protocol) at a minimum.
And my roadmap had the following milestones.
Create a command line compiler. Create a gedit plugin, I’ve had experience of this before. I was most likely going to keep gedit doing syntax highlighting, but add more highlighting when parsing was complete. Underline errors, tooltip’s etc. Along with a panel with a list of errors and feedback. Implement a basic text editor with the parser at the heart.
Part 1 has been done for at least 10 months now. I have a parser (C++, LL(2) with operator precedence and error nodes) that creates a Concrete Syntax Tree (CST), and because an Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) is an induced subgraph, I can access either graph quite freely — by indexing the nodes of interest and some methods to access those.
I have already been generating output from the CST, Graphviz to visualise the nodes of the graph, and a HTML file that showed the original code, highlighted, and with semantic error information.
Having a server running the compiler and responding with the HTML doesn’t seem that interactive, and is not going to benefit the project in the long run. I thought, Lets give WASM a try, how hard could it be? The compiler already generates HTML and is stable. Or so I thought.
WASM Research
New to WASM, I wanted to see the development status of all options. This took a number of weeks. The parser is quite simple structurally speaking — So I was open to the idea of another language to make the Web frontend a reality. I did try a number of them, but the truth is that some didn’t make the cut purely on the fact that they lacked another feature I valued, or I was too unfamiliar and uncomfortable making a full compiler in those languages.
I settled on two choices, D and C++. D’s introspection and metaprogramming features really impressed me. They are incredibly powerful, the code for the parser when written in D was very consistant and clear.
But from my experiences and tests. I can only conclude that D’s WASM support is not production ready yet. Some of the fundimentals (classes, arrays) require GC — and so the druntime. This isn’t available in the WASM output by default. You have to make your own. This problem is not something I wished to face.
C++, Emscripten, and embind
The project is already in C++, clearly a pro. My experience and tests with Emscripten have been positive overall. Installation and usage straight forward. Embind is a feature of Emscripten to help with exporting C++ functionality. There are some things worth noting if you are going to use emscripten;
Exceptions are off by default
The default is to not catch an exception when one is thrown, instead the WASM will halt. The compiler flag -s DISABLE_EXCEPTION_CATCHING=x is what you need to look into to reenable this.
Compiling is sloow
My parser implementation is very small, 24 cpp files with a total of 1108 lines of code. I don’t have the newest of machines (Intel i7–4785T @ 2.20GHz, 16GB RAM). Compiling a WASM release was taking 2–4 minutes to complete. I dread to think what it would take for larger projects.
Emscripten does not generate intermediate object files. So it must re-compile all files. I do use the standard library, constexpr, template features etc— I have a small DSL/helper functions to build the CST.
I couldn’t deal with this, so I’ve opted for a technique called a Unity Build.
Unity Build
Disclaimer: A Unity Build does not always have the same semantics as a standard build. It can cause bugs and break things in unexpected ways.
However, in the normal case (How most people write C++ code), a Unity Build is fine. Please read up on the pro’s and con’s of this technique.
Effectively, a Unity Build it is achieved by #include’ing all required .cpp files into one .cpp file, which is then the only .cpp file you need to compile. This has bought compile times down to 9–10 seconds.
Embind quirks
Embind is the great feature that exports your functions and classes, and makes them available to your javascript code. I did encounter a few quirks, which are easy to work around.
I am exporting a class, which forms the root of my CST. Embind does not like inherited or virtual methods. Exported methods need to be concrete methods. As im only exposing a few methods, this wasn’t a big deal. I suspect something similar may also affect parametric polymorphism. Unfortunately this would compile just fine, and only appear as a runtime error on the javascript side.
It was wrong of me to give it so much complexity to deal with. My advice is to keep it as simple as possible. Here is the basic layout of my wasm_module.cpp Unity Build file.
wasm_module.cpp — compiled with em++
void check_for_errors() checks the CST for semantic errors.
std::string toTree() produces a graphviz representation.
std::string token_list() produces the lexer token list.
std::string asHTML() produces the HTML representation.
Bugs, bugs everywhere
Now we’re actually able to get some WASM output. The real pain begins.
There were a number of bugs right from the start. Some of these reminded me of older days, experiences of changing to a new toolchain and/or targeting a new architecture and the issues that highlights.
Parse as you type bugs
A whole set of bugs appeared simply because of the way im now interacting with the parser. Passing in a file and reading in the data is very different from key presses.
With a production rule of; VAR := “var” <identifier>
I have tests for cases like “var 123”, which is invalid. I do not have a test for “var “ — A completely empty identifier. This case has never happened while reading in files. but does happen while you’re typing into the editor! I needed to add a load more error nodes and error recovery
Memory managment blunders
I am using moves,string_view, and holding tokens and tree nodes seperately. There was some stupid typos and blunders hidden for months. I can only assume this is because of the differences with e.g. WASM is stack based, and was much less forgiving.
The HTML Side
So, fixing all the those bugs, how do I get this into a nice text editor experience? I’ll just make my own, simple javascript, how hard can it be?
Contenteditable is broken
Contenteditable=”true”, job done. Unfortunately, this way is fundamentally broken.
It appears to be very difficult to update the underline data and control the caret position. I never recommend accepting a dependency to project lightly, but I 100% suggest going with a library that handles this for you.
I have tried a few and gone for CodeJar. It is light weight and does everything I need. The HTML side of things fits in 45 lines.
Final Result
I’ve covered the bulk of whats to be said on this. But I still have a lot of fixing to do. I will publish a live demo link at some point. Here’s a GIF of the editor so far! | https://medium.com/@michaelbrown-23299/web-frontend-for-my-language-a9f30fbe8ba0 | ['Michael Brown'] | 2020-12-23 19:14:19.330000+00:00 | ['Programming Languages', 'Wasm'] |
How to Be An Honest Businessman | How to Be An Honest Businessman
Having a good professional life is every entrepreneur’s yearning? The principle reason maintaining a Business, either a regionally established or a large trade, is to induce but abundant cash-flow as may fairly be expected. Being a money specialist in addition implies having the advantage to air top: you’re employed for yourself and you’re in command of your own venture. In any case, keeping a business is not simple. it’s testing Associate in Nursing it needs an large live of commitment. Procedures square measure necessary to keep up a strategic distance from misfortune or maybe financial condition. Also, as Associate in Nursing enterpriser, you would like to understand all the keys to progress- Shimon Yelinek. Shimon Yelinek Dec 24, 2020·2 min read
To be an honest Money specialist, you ought to begin by creating a summing up of day by day objectives. Having day by day targets implies you’re anxious and committed enough to keep up your own Business. Moreover, they allow you to assess your skills and your psychological strength. You need to provides a brave effort to accomplish all of your day by day objectives systematically. this might sound exhausting to try and do. Yet, you ought to keep in mind that maintaining your own business needs determination and discipline, and these difficulties can facilitate train your angle.
After you’ve got set your each day targets, you’ll be able to begin by endeavoring to accomplish the easier ones initial. That way, within the event that you just neglect to try and do well in them, you will not build a big misfortune. within the event that you just succeed, you’ll be able to increasingly climb to the in addition testing ones. On the off probability that you just do not succeed, you ought to try once more and you ought not effectively surrender. You likewise got to think about the amount of focuses to accomplish in an exceedingly day. you’ll be able to begin by shaping one objective daily. At the purpose after you square measure positive you’ll be able to accomplish additional, venture it up Associate in Nursing indent by adding another objective.
The following important factor is that you just got to keep coordinated. Being a cash Manager, you need to be reliable in what you are doing. nice association is one in every of the keys to a good Business, later you ought to be answerable and make sure that everything is in its place and is functioning fitly. | https://medium.com/@shimonyelinek12/how-to-be-an-honest-businessman-12ecb4939c92 | ['Shimon Yelinek'] | 2020-12-24 05:44:27.905000+00:00 | ['Businessman', 'Business Strategy', 'Business Consultant', 'Shimon Yelinek', 'Israel'] |
Commercial Cleaning Services that Makes Your Workplace Appealing | The cleaning services should be looking particularly welcoming. Potential customers who visit a spotless office leave with a great impression of the spot. A spotless and clean commercial cleaning services Montreal expands the worker’s efficiency and causes them to focus on their work. Our group will clean your office in a reasonable manner. By utilizing green cleaning arrangements, your representatives don’t need to stress over-breathing in hurtful synthetic substances or contacting surfaces.
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Give Cleanliness to Your Office Space
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We work around your timetable. We can tell the truth every week, fortnightly or even day by day or each other day at your will. The entirety of our accomplished cleaners is foundation checked and profoundly energetic to make your home or office unblemished in a matter of seconds. The most significant explanation that made our commercial cleaning services Montreal intensely evaluated is that we decide to be reasonable. We additionally pride ourselves on the verifying and preparing of our cleaners and we acknowledge how significant this is to our clients.
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It’s anything but a simple undertaking to keep your home a sheltered and clean spot. It is to offer the most excellent home cleaning services conceivable. Our housemaid cleaning services incorporate purging waste and arranging the reusing, residue, and mop covers, clean and purify your washroom which is one of the concealed zones where germs multiply. Fill the citation shape and get a free gauge now!!
Our apartment cleaning services Montreal gives ultimate apartment cleaning. Our commitment to quality and adaptability is one of the primary reasons why we work with numerous very good quality customers in Montreal. Most property supervisors and entrepreneurs genuinely comprehend that dependable and naturally inviting business cleaning services.
While cleaning workplaces and business structures, we utilize the best business rehearses. Each colleague experienced a progression of preparing to guarantee that he/she conveys the best business cleaning services consistently.
The best apartment cleaning services Montreal we have gone through. We have been doing business for a long time. We have idealized our cleaning methods and assurance of the outcomes. We work in cleaning workplaces just as different premises, for example, residential and housekeeping, apartment cleaning services, condominiums, cafés, childcare, and end of tenure cleaning/rent houses. | https://medium.com/@seodevelopmentexpertweb/commercial-cleaning-services-that-makes-your-workplace-appealing-e45b40b13526 | ['Dial Cleaning Services'] | 2019-12-11 05:35:43.284000+00:00 | ['Cleaning', 'Cleaning Services'] |
Rare 'Double Eagle' gold coin sells for a record $18.9M at Sotheby’s. | Rare 'Double Eagle' gold coin sells for a record $18.9M at Sotheby’s.
Background of the Farouk-Weitzman 1933 Double Eagle B. Max Mehl, a successful Texas-based coin dealer operating in the mid-20th century, originally purchased the coin from Philadelphia-based jeweler Israel Switt and sold it to a representative of King Farouk of Egypt on February 23, 1944.
After Farouk was deposed by a military coup in 1952, many of his holdings were sold at auction. Conducted by Sotheby’s in Cairo in 1954, the sale featured many American rarities but, at the last minute, the 1933 double eagle was withdrawn – possibly at the behest of the U.S. government. The coin didn’t make its way home, however, and disappeared for decades.
A 1933 double eagle, ostensibly the Farouk specimen, surfaced in 1995. Unsold lots from the 1954 Sotheby’s sale were being sold by an Egyptian jeweler to Andre de Clermont, a director of Spink’s London. Clermont and his business partner Stephen Fenton bought the 1933 double eagle from the jeweler for $325,000. The United States Secret Service seized the coin in a sting operation when Fenton tried to sell it on February 8, 1996. After a five-year court case resulted in an agreement that the coin would be publicly auctioned–the proceeds from the sale split evenly between Fenton and the United States Mint–the coin was put up for sale at Sotheby’s in New York City on July 30, 2002.
At the July 2002 sale, bids were taken via phone as 500 spectators looked on. The coin was sold to Weitzman in nine minutes for $6.6 million (Sotheby’s 15% fee bringing the price to $7.59 million). A Certificate of Monetization from the Federal Government authorizing the issuance of the coin added the final $20.
source: https://coinweek.com/coins/marketplace/1933-double-eagle-to-be-auctioned-by-sothebys/
For coin enthusiasts and art collectors there is an opportunity to buy a one of a kind NFT of the famous 1933 Double Eagle Coin on Opensea.
https://opensea.io/assets/0x495f947276749ce646f68ac8c248420045cb7b5e/40743721292279027170137490805308177589648247816195909505320813045552053747713/ | https://medium.com/@sufizhnpp/rare-double-eagle-gold-coin-sells-for-a-record-18-9m-at-sothebys-52b28428a4fd | [] | 2021-08-27 08:13:29.135000+00:00 | ['Nft Collectibles', 'Gold', 'Nftcollector', 'Coins', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
The importance of self-talk | What’s the first thing you tell yourself when you wake up in the morning?
I’m not talking about the first thing you say out loud, but what is the first voice you hear inside your head?
Do they say “heck yeah, I’m so excited to start my day!” or “oh, no, morning again…”?
“selective focus photography of man's reflection on a broken mirror” by Fares Hamouche on Unsplash
“Identify demeaning self-talk and rewrite it”
If your answer is anything within the lines of “shit, fuck, damn, oh shut up!, not again…” I hear you. And you can train your brain to welcome you in the mornings with something like “sun’s bright today, smile gorgeous, what a great night!, mhhh good morning…” and others.
We are a bunch of habits put together and that’s our life. You pick your habits and that’s you and your everyday. I know, it sounds sad, but it’s actually pretty amazing.
Because that means that you can change your life by changing tiny little habits like brushing your teeth once more every day, quitting a bad habit like smoking (says while lighting one) or by telling yourself nice things more often.
Edited by Regina Carbonell
Today I will only teach you ONE exercise that you need to practice over the next 21 days. If you fail one day it’s alright. Just start over your 21 days.
Every time you tell yourself something cruel or negative, you need to repeat yourself a positive counterpart.
Find some examples of my own:
Clumsy bastard: no I am not clumsy, I was not paying attention. Pay more attention and you’ll do better. Pay more attention and you’ll do better. Pay more attention and you’ll do better.
I’m so fucking stupid: no I am not stupid. I am clever. I just made a mistake. I am not stupid, I am clever. I just made a mistake. I am not stupid, I am clever. I just made I mistake.
I’m a fucktard//I’m too clumsy//feel overwhelmed by “silliness” feeling: I forgive myself for not being perfect. I am awesome as I am, clumsy and all. I forgive myself for not being perfect. I am awesome as I am, even when I don’t know better. I forgive myself for not being perfect. I’m fucking ducking awesome pawsome as I am. Being clumsy, silly and accepting my mistakes is part of me being amazing.
We all feel stupid, wrong and a bit crazy sometimes. Being your weird self is part of being awesome. Don’t lose yourself on being average. Remind yourself daily how much you love yourself. That you are allowed to be wrong and make mistakes in order to grow and that the people that loves you are humans too therefore, flaws.
I love you loads, and so should you. | https://medium.com/join-the-gender-revolution/the-importance-of-self-talk-d25d5db9a9d8 | ['Regina Carbonell'] | 2018-11-11 21:08:45.708000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'LGBTQ', 'Mindset', 'Self Improvement', 'Love Yourself'] |
The pandemic will revolutionize the future of work. | The pandemic will revolutionize the future of work. This piece by Ryan Holmes describes the results of a survey of employees, revealing that many would like to work from home more and tend to save time and be productive when they do. Many have also switched to freelancing. A part-time office arrangement is a common preference.
Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash | https://medium.com/technology-hits/the-pandemic-will-revolutionize-the-future-of-work-ecd20851255c | ['Rebecca Sealfon'] | 2020-12-13 15:16:13.414000+00:00 | ['Remote Working', 'Future Of Work', 'Workplace Culture', 'Covid 19 Crisis', 'Workplace'] |
Migration Matters: Serving Essential Farmworkers During the COVID-19 Pandemic | By Rebecca Scheurer and John E. Menditto on December 15, 2020
This article was originally published by the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Resilience Center on December 15, 2020 and is reprinted with permission. The Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center (Arsht-Rock) will reach One Billion People with resilience solutions to climate change, migration, and human security challenges by 2030. We focus our efforts on people, communities, governments, and institutions to help them better prepare for, navigate, and recover from the multiple shocks and stressors people all over the world face every day.
The COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected migrant farmworker communities across the United States and around the world. Despite this threat to their health, farmworkers have continued their work on the front lines, planting and harvesting the crops that feed our country.
John E. Menditto is well-positioned to share insight into migrant farmworker communities and the challenges they’re facing. For the past 20 years, he has served as the Chief Legal Officer of East Coast Migrant Head Start Project (ECMHSP), a nonprofit that provides high-quality and comprehensive early childhood education services to farmworker families in seven states on the East Coast. Two years ago, John also founded a sister nonprofit, The Foundation for Farmworkers, which was created to fill gaps in critical services among at-risk migrant families where the federally funded ECMHSP had limitations, such as in the area of emergency cash assistance, pro bono immigration services, and need-based educational assistance grants.
Rebecca Scheurer, Director of Humanitarian Initiatives at the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center, sat down with John E. Menditto to discuss how the East Coast Migrant Head Start Project and The Foundation for Farmworkers are managing the pandemic, and how the families they serve are weathering related political and economic impacts:
Can you start by giving us a big picture look at the role of migrant farmworkers and their families in the United States?
The United States relies upon the labor of more than two million farmworkers each year to plant and harvest the fresh fruits and vegetables that nourish us. Overwhelmingly, these farmworkers have migrated to the United States from abroad; most arriving from Mexico, but farmworkers come to the United States from many countries including Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Haiti to name just a few.
Migrants who arrived in the United States twenty years ago more typically came from Mexico to pursue the American Dream. Farm work was plentiful and needed. More recently, migrants have arrived from Central America and the southern states of Mexico. These farmworkers more typically have fled violence in their home country or have fled abject poverty there.
Whether farmworkers have come to pursue their American Dream or to flee conditions in their home country it is universally true that most farmworkers are undocumented. This reality means they exist in the shadows of our economy, disadvantaged in their ability to advocate for better working conditions and pay. In addition, immigration enforcement efforts in recent years have pushed farmworkers deeper into the shadows. Within the rural communities we serve, we have many, many children who have lost a parent to deportation. These children, almost all of whom are United States citizens, must now be raised by a single parent, typically a single mom.
Children of farmworkers play together in the playground at one of ECMHSP’s Head Start centers. Source: ECMHSP (Image taken prior to COVID-19. ECMHSP teachers and staff wear masks.)
Although most farmworkers are undocumented there is an ever-increasing population of farmworkers who have come to the United States under a special visa program for agricultural workers. H2A visa holders are often described as “single men”. This term is a misnomer. Typically, H2A visa holders have been asked to separate from their spouses and children and brought to the United States to work for most of the year. They live communally, are transported by crew buses from field to field and from state to state, lacking the freedoms and privileges that other visa holders enjoy. This especially has been true during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many farmers felt compelled to lock down their H2A workers and prohibit travel off the farm for any reason. The expansion of the H2A visa program has substantially reduced work opportunities for the farmworker families we serve.
How has COVID-19 impacted the East Coast Migrant Head Start Project and The Foundation for Farmworkers?
ECMHSP provides Head Start services to farmworker families in 38 Head Start centers located in rural communities from Lake Okeechobee, Florida to Lake Erie, Pennsylvania. Each year, we serve more than 2,300 young children, from birth to school-age, providing those children with culturally-sensitive care and preparing them for success in our public school system as a foundation for a lifetime of success and contribution to society. It is a mission that comes with the highest degree of difficulty because the challenges our families face are so great.
This year, when the pandemic hit, we were mandated to close our childcare centers. Overnight, we reinvented our work, creating a YouTube learning channel, so that our preschool children could continue to participate in educational activities from home. With hunger on the rise, we began weekly food distributions to our families and prepared individualized learning activities so children could continue to learn and develop at home.
Throughout it all, farmworkers continued to go to the fields. It is not possible for farmworkers to work remotely; they cannot Zoom to work. Their sacrifice inspired us to work tremendously hard to establish new protocols to re-open our centers in a way that was safe for children, families, and our employees. This work involved the synthesis of rules and protocols from the Centers for Disease Control, five states, and many more counties. On May 8, ECMHSP’s Guidance for the Reopening of Centers During the COVID-19 National Emergency was published. Then we thoughtfully planned the training of employees throughout the agency, and, on June 22, ECMHSP safely reopened our childcare centers. We have remained open since that date.
John E. Menditto (right) in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, delivering cash assistance to farmworker families involved in mushroom harvesting. Source: ECMHSP
While there will be an end to the pandemic, farmworker families will continue to face unique challenges in the United States — how do you and your teams at ECMHSP and The Foundation for Farmworkers increase the long-term resilience of the families and wider communities you work with?
This is a great question because it goes to the heart of what the Head Start program was created to do when it was first established in 1965. Head Start is successful because the program recognizes a universal truth: that parents are the first and best teachers of their children. We look to include parents in all significant decision-making occurring at ECMHSP — from setting the hours of operation of the Head Start center, to a selection of the breakfast and lunch menus for the children. In the words of the founders of the Head Start program, we seek the “maximum feasible participation” of parents. Through such participation, families can see their contributions are vital to our success.
“Head Start is successful because the program recognizes a universal truth: that parents are the first and best teachers of their children.”
Now, for farmworkers who often live at or near the federal poverty levels and who must labor long hours to reach those levels, there are special challenges to participating in the Head Start program. Thus, we also rely on a network of community providers to support our work. These providers include community health clinics, mental and nutritional health consultants, and legal service providers.
We understand The Foundation for Farmworkers received a very large donation of money this summer to help families. Are there any particular families you have helped with this funding who stand out?
In late July, The Foundation for Farmworkers received an anonymous donation of $1.4 million to provide emergency cash assistance to farmworker families. This was enough money for us to provide $1,000 to every farmworker family enrolled in an ECMHSP center. Being able to help families in this way has lifted the spirits of everyone at ECMHSP and The Foundation. The two families who stand out are families working in Gaffney, South Carolina. One single mom shared she and her four children were about to fall into homelessness from a lack of farm work this summer and our cash assistance would see her through another month or two. The other family was sick with COVID-19 when we made our assistance delivery. The family accepted the check from a distance.
But, to be clear, the two families in Gaffney are representative of farmworker families up and down the East Coast who have received this cash assistance. There has been a wide range of emotions from those who have been helped in this way — from surprise that there is a community of individuals who value their work and want to help, to joy from the realization that a particular family expense would be met, to tears because the cash assistance is coming at a time of particular vulnerability for the family.
A woman holding an infant at one of ECMHSP’sHead Start centers. Source: ECMHSP
(Image taken prior to COVID-19. ECMHSP teachers and staff wear masks.)
What is the one thing you have learned through serving the farmworker community during the pandemic?
Farmworker families always have inspired us with their resilience. Our nation was built by migrants and continues to flourish because of it. Like millions of other people in our country, migrants come to the United States from their home countries with nothing but the hope of building a life and a community (alongside others here doing the same).
I had suspected — but didn’t know — that each of us working at East Coast Migrant Head Start Project and each of us volunteering with The Foundation for Farmworkers had the resilience within us that would make a farmworker proud. The personal sacrifices we have made at ECMHSP and The Foundation to carry on with our mission-driven work throughout the pandemic has brought us closer in spirit with the farmworker families we are privileged to serve.
Looking ahead, what’s one thing you might suggest to help people better understand, appreciate, and embrace migrant farmworkers and their families as valuable members of our society?
We have a collective nostalgia for “the way things were.” In truth, the way things were are much like the way things are. We always have been a nation of immigrants, made stronger and richer by individuals from around the world contributing their work and their resilience to enhance our society.
“We always have been a nation of immigrants, made stronger and richer by individuals from around the world contributing their work and their resilience to enhance our society.”
Best of luck to you and your team at both East Coast Migrant Head Start Project and The Foundation for Farmworkers! | https://medium.com/@natlheadstart/migration-matters-serving-essential-farmworkers-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-32f9c9ddec06 | ['National Head Start Association'] | 2021-01-19 20:02:26.320000+00:00 | ['Agriculture', 'Farming', 'Head Start', 'Education', 'Migrants'] |
Western MI vs Ball State | Ball State vs. Western Michigan: How to watch live stream, TV channel, NCAA Football start time
How to watch Ball State vs. Western Michigan football game
The Western Michigan Broncos need to shore up a defense that is allowing 35 points per game before their contest Saturday. WMU and the Ball State Cardinals will face off in a Mid-American battle at noon ET at Scheumann Stadium. Keep an eye on the score for this one: these two teams posted some lofty points totals in their previous games, so things might heat up even more when they meet.
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https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wake-forest-v-louisville-live-ncaaf-2020-tickets-132666800973
The Broncos came up short against the Eastern Michigan Eagles last week, falling 53–42. This was hardly the result WMU or its fans were betting on, as they were favored by 13.5 points over EMU heading into this matchup. Western Michigan’s loss came about despite a quality game from RB La’Darius Jefferson, who rushed for two TDs and 130 yards on 21 carries.
Meanwhile, you can’t lose the contest if you win every quarter, and that was precisely Ball State’s strategy against the Central Michigan Chippewas last week. Ball State was the clear victor by a 45–20 margin over CMU. The matchup was all but wrapped up at the end of the third, by which point the Cardinals had established a 38–14 advantage. QB Drew Plitt had a stellar game for Ball State as he passed for four TDs and 366 yards on 43 attempts in addition to punching in one rushing touchdown.
Ball State’s defense was a presence as well, as it collected two interceptions and two fumbles. The picks came courtesy of S J.T. Wahee and S Brett Anderson II.
Ball State’s win lifted them to 4–1 while Western Michigan’s defeat dropped them down to 4–1. With a combined 1,032 yards of offense in their previous games, we can expect a fast-paced contest.
Who’s Playing
Western Michigan @ Ball State
Current Records: Western Michigan 4–1; Ball State 4–1
How To Watch
When: Saturday at 12 p.m. ET
Where: Scheumann Stadium — Muncie, Indiana
TV: ESPN Plus
Online streaming: fuboTV (Try for free. Regional restrictions may apply.)
Follow: CBS Sports App
Odds
The Cardinals are a slight 1-point favorite against the Broncos, according to the latest college football odds.
Bettors have moved against the Cardinals slightly, as the game opened with the Cardinals as a 3-point favorite.
Over/Under: -110
See college football picks for every single game, including this one, from SportsLine’s advanced computer model. Get picks now.
Series History
Western Michigan have won four out of their last five games against Ball State.
Nov 05, 2019 — Western Michigan 35 vs. Ball State 31
Nov 13, 2018 — Ball State 42 vs. Western Michigan 41
Sep 30, 2017 — Western Michigan 55 vs. Ball State 3
Nov 01, 2016 — Western Michigan 52 vs. Ball State 20
Nov 05, 2015 — Western Michigan 54 vs. Ball State 7 | https://medium.com/@goodhealth402/western-mi-vs-ball-state-13de2279c182 | [] | 2020-12-12 15:29:03.688000+00:00 | ['Medicine', 'Coronavirus', 'Health', 'Covid 19', 'Safety'] |
Why People Like Amy Coney Barrett Can Get Away With Climate Denial | Why People Like Amy Coney Barrett Can Get Away With Climate Denial
Climate change is considered a matter of belief rather than a scientific reality as serious as COVID-19 or smoking.
Photo by Jaroslav Devia on Unsplash
“Every nation gets the government it deserves.” — Joseph de Maistre
Congressional hearings have by and large become a series of “Gotcha” moments where our elected officials try to lay traps at the witness stand. The rest of the time, congresspeople typically reveal a stunning level of incompetence by asking Big Tech CEOs how their phones work or throwing snowballs on the floor of the Senate to disprove climate change* (because a cold snap means the average global temperature can’t possibly be rising, right?).
*Seriously, that last thing happened. And the guy who did it — James Inhofe — is still in office. In fact, he’s served two separate stints (lasting six years in total) as the chair of the Senate Environment Committee. He was in that position when he put a snowball in a plastic Ziploc bag and tossed it across the floor of the Senate to claim climate change is a hoax.
As with much of our political infrastructure, this process has become grossly politicized and polarized. These trends, which have tarnished our civic discourse and impeded the functioning of our government, have now made their way into Supreme Court nominee hearings.
The Supreme Court is supposed to be apolitical, and up until recently, Senators tended to confirm presidential SCOTUS nominees in a fairly bipartisanship fashion. The nomination process was intended to evaluate judges on their merit for the highest court in the land.
These days, congresspeople in the President’s party have abdicated any sense of responsibility to scrutinize nominees and vote for themselves rather than for their party. So, the onus of responsibility has fallen on the opposing party to scrutinize a nominee who is poised to take a seat on the high court precisely because the President’s party has rejected democratic norms and prioritized political processes above the well-being of the American people during the worst crisis in recent American history.
Thankfully, Democrats came prepared to the SCOTUS hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett. | https://medium.com/climate-conscious/why-people-like-amy-coney-barrett-can-get-away-with-climate-denial-cf17c396bf | ['Danny Schleien'] | 2020-10-16 12:02:20.976000+00:00 | ['Elections', 'Climate Denial', 'Politics', 'Climate Change', 'Fossil Fuels'] |
Walls Pt. 3, Day 15 | December 21, 2020
Time for a cameo! I’m Marissa (Missy), Pat’s sister, here to give you the inside scoop on VAN LIFE. As Pat said, I couldn’t let the rest of my family have all the fun. I mean, how much damage can I do in 4 days? ;)
(Mobile) home sweet home
My first assignment was to finish drilling those ventilation holes on the top of the bed/benches, which Mom then sanded and cleaned to prep them for a paint job.
Mom prepping the seat boards for Plinko
It sounds like the interior of the van will be mostly white and natural wood, with clean lines and simple design. I told my brother this was very “Scandanavian chic”, which he promptly googled and then agreed. Meanwhile, Pat and Dad were figuring out how exactly the windows will be trimmed. Answer: scrap mahogany they cut to line the inside of the windows and be flush against the white shiplap. I’ve observed that it takes about 2 hours of deliberation and planning for every 1 hour of actual work.
Busting out my Woodworking 101
Karate chop!
Behind the scenes, I can tell you that Dad is like the Producer of this project and Pat is the Director. One has the vision and provides direction and the other thinks through the details of execution. Key supporting cast and set design is Mom, with special talents in sewing and attention to detail. But let’s be honest, she’s the real boss. Cabinets on both sides or just one? Commit to having a loo in the van or not? Will it be the toilet that composts with sawdust (very rustic and romantic) or vacuum seals your #2 like you’re on a spaceship? Mom will decide.
We were able to do most of the wall on one side of the interior by the end of my first day, and it’s looking tight. Lots of measuring and sawing of the boards but it was a pretty simple install by screwing the shiplap to the wall studs. Watch out, Joanna Gaines!
Tomorrow, we are finishing the other wall and cutting into the ceiling to mount the roof vent. | https://medium.com/@the-magno-mobile/walls-pt-3-day-15-2f1a3dbc392e | ['The Magno-Mobile'] | 2020-12-24 04:08:06.915000+00:00 | ['DIY', 'Conversion Van', 'Vanlife', 'Campervan', 'Projects'] |
Become a More Thoughtful Person with this One Word | Photo by Simon Migaj on Unsplash
Have you ever forgot to wish a family member a happy birthday? Do you check in on your loved ones on a regular basis? Do you show appreciation for your work colleagues?
I’ve fallen short in these areas of my life, and I’m sure we all have at some point. As humans we are inherently good, but can benefit from increased awareness to redirect our thinking outwardly — towards others. Easier said than done, especially when our brains can only process so much information at one time. So how do we become more thoughtful and loving?
It all starts with one word; Intentionality
“When you live each day with intentionality, there’s almost no limit to what you can do. You can transform yourself, your family, your community, and your nation. When enough people do that, they can change the world. When you intentionally use your everyday life to bring about positive change in the lives of others, you begin to live a life that matters.” ― John C. Maxwell
Being intentional with everything allows us to dictate the outcome of our lives. Intentionality allows us to be proactive, not reactive. Understanding the concept of intentionality is not just helpful; it’s transformational. But how do we apply it practically in our daily lives?
Create Reminders for Everything of Importance
Since the human brain can only process a finite amount of information at one time, creating reminders or prompts are crucial to growing into a more thoughtful person.
1. Create a reminder in your digital calendar for the birthdays of friends, family, and colleagues
2. Create reminders or a favorites list on your phone for people you want to check in with weekly/monthly
3. Create a weekly reminder to say thank you to co-workers and how much you appreciate them
These small acts of kindness go a long way, and create a ripple effect for those around us.
Reminders Turn to Habits
Over time, you will start to realize these reminders are no longer necessary, because your emotions create habits. Behavior scientist BJ Fogg teaches us the stronger the emotion, the more deeply your brain rewires and wants to repeat the same action.
When you do a behavior and feel a positive emotion about it, your brain pays attention. It essentially thinks, “Wow, that felt good. I want to do that behavior again!” (Learn more about this concept here).
These thoughtful acts prompted by reminders will produce strong positive emotions, which over time lead to the desired result of thoughtful habits.
Photo by Jacqueline Munguía on Unsplash
Habits Create Lasting Change
Over time, these thoughtful & intentional actions for others will become habitual, leading you to become a more caring person.
Here are some other practical ways you can make a difference in someone’s life:
1. Give a compliment
2. Pay for a stranger’s meal
3. Call a friend, actively listen and have no agenda
4. Cook dessert for a loved one
5. Send cards
6. Tell someone how much you appreciate them
7. Smile | https://medium.com/@austinmcanena/become-a-more-thoughtful-person-with-this-one-word-9d58ed78c77a | ['Austin Mcanena'] | 2020-12-04 07:47:06.279000+00:00 | ['Intentional Living', 'Personal Growth', 'Habit Building', 'Personal Development', 'Growth Hacking'] |
New Publication — Life’s Funny. and not always in a “haha” way. | New Publication — Life’s Funny
and not always in a “haha” way.
Photo by Mark Daynes on Unsplash
I started this new publication — life’s funny. But what does it mean?
It’s open to interpretation, and can mean many things. It can mean different things to different people.
I started this publication for all these reasons. | https://medium.com/lifes-funny/lifes-funny-213a35bd72e6 | ['Linda Horton'] | 2019-05-05 21:26:17.064000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Publication', 'Writing', 'Life', 'Humor'] |
David Perdue, Senator for Georgia, Republican, has a history of supporting bills that address… | David Perdue, Senator for Georgia, Republican, has a history of supporting bills that address issues on finance (23%) international affairs (21%), Armed Forces and National Security (12%), Government Operations and Politics (12%), Economics and Public Finance (10%), Crime and Law Enforcement (10%), Education (6%), and Public Land and Natural Resources (4%). His voting record shows that “from Jan 2015 to Oct 2020, Perdue missed 61 of 1,729 roll call votes, which is 3.5%. This is worse than the median of 1.8% among the lifetime records of senators currently serving.”
Lacking solid history of support for science or the protection of our environment, it is no surprise that Senator Perdue is listed as the primary sponsor of S. 571 (115th): Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest Land Adjustment Act, a bill which authorizes the sale of certain National Forest System land in the State of Georgia. and also “authorizes the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to sell or exchange any or all interest of the United States in 30 tracts of National Forest System land in Georgia totaling approximately 3,841 acres.” Clearly stated in Section 2 of this bill is that those in support of this bill believe that there are certain areas in the National Forest that are isolated, inefficient to manage and have lost their value. As a solution, this bill seeks to sell, or dispose of, portions of our Forest in exchange for money. Removing protected National Forest areas negatively impacts individuals and families who look to escape the daily grind for a chance to go hiking, camping, and enjoy the great outdoors. My stance on the S. 571 (115th): Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest Land Adjustment Act is that I am against the sale of our National Forest.
What’s interesting is that this bill was merged with H.R. 2 (115th): Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, where it is included in a continuous argument for the sake of restoration and conservation. This second bill “protects forests through cross-boundary forest management projects by authorizing the State and private forest landscape-scale restoration programs” and that it “promotes conservation on private forests through the Forest Legacy Program and the Community Forest and Open Space Conservation Program”.
Just because certain forest areas are isolated or inefficient to manage doesn’t mean that it is not worth protecting. It is a well-known fact that trees are important for air and water quality, but also as a home for the wildlife of this state. If certain areas are isolated and inefficient, what would make a buyer interested in investing in these tracts of land that would help to protect the National Forest any differently? It would be quite an investment for a buyer to undertake without some kind of profitable scheme in mind for future plans.
Once privatized, the voice of the people who aim to protect our landscape and natural resources will hit additional barriers which politicians may not have planned for. According to the census bureau, the state of Georgia has a population estimated at 10.62 million. The USDA Forest Statistics show that in 2013, there existed an average of more than 15.4 million live trees at an annual removal of 1.4 million cubic feet of live trees. Trees clean the air by recycling carbon dioxide into oxygen, Science Focus reports that, “A human breathes about 9.5 tonnes of air in a year, but oxygen only makes up about 23 percent of that air, by mass, and we only extract a little over a third of the oxygen from each breath. That works out to a total of about 740kg of oxygen per year, which is roughly, seven or eight trees’ worth.” When pairing up the information from these various sources, we can see that nearly one-and-a-half trees as a source of oxygen per person does not meet the needs for survival when compared with our recommended seven or eight trees per person as our source for oxygen per year. Considering other states, such as California, where wildfires blaze, we can see that it is truly important on a global scale to preserve and maintain our National Forests.
David Perdue, Senator for Georgia, Republican, has a history of supporting bills that address issues on finance (23%) international affairs (21%), Armed Forces and National Security (12%), Government Operations and Politics (12%), Economics and Public Finance (10%), Crime and Law Enforcement (10%), Education (6%), and Public Land and Natural Resources (4%). His voting record shows that “from Jan 2015 to Oct 2020, Perdue missed 61 of 1,729 roll call votes, which is 3.5%. This is worse than the median of 1.8% among the lifetime records of senators currently serving.” If Senator Perdue fails to back the bills that support out natural resources, it may be time for our voters to consider the democratic candidate for US Senator, Jon Ossoff- a politician who hopes to spark awareness of “energy and environmental policy on the basis of scientific evidence”.
Statistics of live trees in Georgia
Population in Georgia shown in blue
References
“S. 571–115th Congress: Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest Land Adjustment Act.” www.GovTrack.us. 2017. October 6, 2020 <https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/s571>
“H.R. 2–115th Congress: Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018.” www.GovTrack.us. 2018. October 6, 2020 <https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/hr2>
Census Bureau, US. “Population in the U.S.” Google, Google, 2020, www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=kf7tgg1uo9ude_.
Brandeis, T.J. 2015. Forests of Georgia, 2013. Resource Update FS–38. Asheville, NC:
U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 4 p.
Villazon, Luis. “How Many Trees Does It Take to Produce Oxygen for One Person?”
BBC Science Focus Magazine, 2020, www.sciencefocus.com/planet-earth/how-many-trees-does-it-take-to-produce-oxygen-fo r-one-person/. | https://medium.com/perdues-adjustment-of-georgia-s-national-forest/david-perdue-senator-for-georgia-republican-has-a-history-of-supporting-bills-that-address-4db92ff3ad82 | ['Michelle Solomon'] | 2020-10-27 01:25:52.436000+00:00 | ['David Perdue', 'Georgia', 'National Forest', 'Public Lands', 'Resources'] |
An Occupational Life Suck | Photo by Edwin Andrade on Unsplash
They call it a “livelihood.” Always feels more
like a sinking death to. Sans the joy, this
thing is what you do to live I guess. Funny though how
while doing this job you can feel your spirit trickling
away as if the Strong Force binding your atoms
together has said, “Fuck it!”
Your occupation is the tick that slowly drains
you, but it itches so bad that the irritation pisses
you off to keep you going out of spite.
You’ve been sticking this gig long enough now
that you can do it well without really trying. Still,
when the thing you know you really love
is only a pen and notebook away, but galaxies
away from paying the bills it’s no wonder
you sometimes contemplate burning the whole
trailer park to the ground. | https://medium.com/resistance-poetry/an-occupational-life-suck-f3b4f3bae500 | ['Steve B Howard'] | 2019-09-03 15:32:04.631000+00:00 | ['Work', 'Resistance Poetry', 'Poetry', 'Poem', 'Life'] |
NYU Sends Student His Belongings Broken, Wet, and Misshapen | As an RA, he had the privilege of direct communication with his building leadership team, but Rosenwinkel said he feels bad for everyone in residential life in similar situations who don’t have that level of access. He emphasized that he didn’t want his position to reflect too poorly on building staff, and that he was more upset that he “was never notified and that the boxes arrived the way that they did.”
The condition of his stuff upset Rosenwinkel enough that he waited several days to even tell anyone about his situation. On Monday April 27, he tweeted out pictures of his ruined stuff, tagging NYU’s Twitter in hope of a response.
He also called NYU Housing and was told “that most students would not receive a tracking number or shipping updates (contrary to the email sent by the housing office),” and that “insurance claims have to go through UPS and not NYU” — a followup call to the Office of Residential Life and Housing Services confirmed this. Local was told that in order to file an insurance claim, students would have to find the package number on each box and follow up with UPS directly. The next day, April 28, Rosenwinkel was contacted by his building staff, who offered via email to assist with the insurance claim process.
Rosenwinkel did not appear surprised by his circumstances, however. “I get that they had a short period of time to turn the dorms over,” he said. “But to remove someone’s belongings, provide no information and not make the insurance information accessible feels…well, typical.”
On April 30, junior Alex Him received a notification from UPS informing him that his package had been damaged, and all “merchandise has been discarded.” This was one of sixteen emails he received that morning, each correlating with its own package — all but one of the shipments arrived safely to his home. Him had previously received a shipping email on April 23 which included tracking information, so he had been expecting his belongings.
Him reached out to NYU Housing, who responded via email that they were “very sorry to hear” he had “experienced any difficulty with the condition of [his] belongings upon receipt of your boxes,” and advised him, like they did Rosenwinkel, to file an insurance claim through UPS. They explained that while normally UPS recommends the shipper initiate any claim, this is because typically, the shipper owned the items prior to shipment. Because Him owned his own items, “the University cannot initiate a claim on [his] behalf.”
Him said that he has no idea which of his belongings got destroyed, due to the rushed nature of his packing. “I’m very lucky that my most expensive stuff made it safe,” he said to Local via direct message. “It’s probably hella clothes and a lamp or something that they lost.”
Update: April 30, 2020
This article has been updated to include another student’s experience with UPS discarding their belongings. | https://nyulocal.com/nyu-sends-student-his-belongings-broken-wet-and-misshapen-1ea020151029 | ['El Yurman'] | 2020-04-30 23:31:01.815000+00:00 | ['Students', 'Storage', 'Housing', 'Covid 19', 'NYU'] |
Healthcare API Market Worth $336.02 Million By 2027 | The global healthcare API market size is expected to reach USD 336.02 million by 2027, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market is projected to register a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6.3% from 2020 to 2027. Increasing demand for healthcare integration and adoption of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) by the HCOs are the major factors driving the growth of the market.
Factors such as technological advancements in health care solutions and the co-existence of healthcare and IT services are expected to continue driving the adoption of healthcare API. It allows patients to get well acquainted with the doctors or specialist’s details and appointment suggestions. Increasing focus towards the adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) is expected to drive the market growth in the forthcoming years.
Industry players are trying to develop a fully integrated API solution to gain market penetration. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the need for remote access to patients’ data which is expected to boost the growth of the market. For instance, in May 2020, Change Healthcare launched a suite of solutions such as industry-standard APIs, hardware bundle, and software solutions in order to help telemedicine providers to deploy virtual care services.
Click the link below:
https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/healthcare-api-market
Further key findings from the study suggest: | https://medium.com/@marketnewsreports/healthcare-api-market-aa4749ab98ef | ['Gaurav Shah'] | 2020-12-07 07:19:53.989000+00:00 | ['France', 'Italy', 'Spain', 'Internet of Things', 'Healthcare'] |
APIS x Walton Blockchain Institute Partnership | APISplatform
Official publication for APIS, the world-first masternode… | https://medium.com/apisplatform/apis-x-walton-blockchain-institute-partnership-84ba728638ff | ['Apis Team'] | 2019-05-07 05:00:13.964000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Notice', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Kor', 'Finance'] |
Monday | Trying to quit smoking crack for the first time.
I’ve been off heroin officially for over 3 years. It’s actually more like two and a half. My first couple months on methadone were spent fucking around with my friend Elvis. He would text me from the tiny chic apartment in Hell’s Kitchen that he was staying in while the owner was off at Summit Malibu (on Elvis’s recommendation; we were alumni) trying to quit the meth habit that caused him to host raw sex parties there.
i saw mason
what r u doing?
That was usually code for “please come help me shoot up”. It’s hard to turn down dope during your first few months on methadone. My clinic started me off at 30mg a day and went up 5mg a week until I hit 50mg. Then I had to ask to go up, max 5mg a week still. I could still feel the effects of heroin until I hit 65mg. That was my magic number. My last time shooting up I was with Elvis. I did a few bags and felt nothing. I stopped seeing him shortly after, as drug habit and his belief that he was a “Targeted Individual” was getting out of control. I stopped hitting up “mason”.
I did try to cop one more time when one of my favorite rappers came through and posted about needing help finding dog food. My long time dealer of four years, for the first time ever, did not respond to my texts. I informed the rapper via text that he wasn’t around, sorry. I never tried again.
So it’s been over three years. About six months ago, my not-partner decided to surprise me on my birthday with a bunch of drugs. I had mentioned that I did crack twice prior and enjoyed it. So we googled how to cook crack. He liked it a lot. He looked in my eyes and told me, “I’m thinking about starting a serious crack habit.” I was worried. But still weak. The drug was still great. And when we could no longer get our hands on coke, I was the one to mention that Washington Square Park was full of crack dealers. I was the one to suggest we go sit on a bench next to the tables full of dealers. The first guy to walk by chanting his offering, “Weed, weed…” was our first middle man. He was being followed around by a fucked up looking guy wearing scrubs. My not-partner followed him while I stayed on the bench with the scrubs guy. He was looking around on the ground picking up small pieces of white stuff and murmering to himself, “No way, right? No way…” Eventually a guy came walking through and everyone came running up to him. My not-partner told him that he had given the money to the middle man. The middle man started stuttering and the obvious dealer started threatening him. We ended up giving the dealer more money. It had started pouring. He handed us rocks in the rain, winking at me as he handed me an extra one.
At this point, it’s been quite a few months. When I walk up to the tables at Washington Square Park someone immediately comes up to me and tells me to follow them. I do, without question. Beside them I mumble the amount of money I have and trade me a couple plastic baggies full of tiny rocks. I thank them and tell them to stay safe and we go our separate ways. This shit has been happening at that corner since long before I even moved to New York, and it will continue there until the end of time. Sorry, yuppies. Arrest one and another shall take his place. The endless dance.
I received my stimulus check in the mail. It’s sitting on the same shelf my altar is on. I’m trying to harness it’s power before I cash it. lol No actually I’m trying to keep myself broke as possible so I can’t by crack. Technically I could spend as little as $10 to get a high, but I won’t bother for less than $30–40 worth. Unless I’m fiending. Then I’ll spend hours scraping out old baggies and trying to pull a drag off a dead blackened pipe. But instead I’ve just doubled my dosage of “Xanax”. They’re pressed pills, but they’re stronger than real Xanax. I’m on my last bottle of methadone and tomorrow is my last clinic day before Thanksgiving. I don’t have enough money on me to get more than a $20 bag so I won’t have to worry when I walk past the park on my way to the PATH train. But despite the fact I’m leaning over from the Xans and ‘done I still have that itch.
Man.
Fuck uppers. | https://medium.com/@burghl3ss/monday-266da5caf943 | [] | 2021-01-07 17:00:52.201000+00:00 | ['Recovery', 'Cocaine Addiction', 'Addiction', 'Crack', 'NYC'] |
Digital Storytelling: World War II and the life of a U.S Soldier | Digital Storytelling: World War II and the life of a U.S Soldier Stephanie Sanchez ·Nov 14, 2020
Description: This video is more aimed towards 4th grade students that their objective is that 4.5 “The student understand important issues, events and individuals of the 20th century in Texas. “4.5.A: Identify the impact of various issues and events on Life such the Great Depression, The dust bowl and World War II”. This Objective is connected to this video because of the events that took place in world war II and how it effected not only Germany but the United States as well and I wanted to look more into that and dig deeper in order to really understand that World War II changed the world and how we see things from a different perspective. How I would use this digital story telling video into an activity would be creating a timeline that they would have to fill out the events that took place on those certain dates. This activity will help them with memorization and keeps them engaged and overall it is a simple activity. | https://medium.com/@ses287/digital-storytelling-world-war-ii-and-the-life-of-a-u-s-soldier-a77b04e8989d | ['Stephanie Sanchez'] | 2020-11-14 03:57:25.504000+00:00 | ['Veterans', 'Pearl Harbor', 'Fourth Grade', 'World War II', 'Holocaust'] |
Saving for Retirement and Beyond, Stress Free, starting at ANY Age, even if You are Retired | One at a Time ( Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash)
Money Management
Saving for Retirement and Beyond, Stress Free, starting at ANY Age, even if You are Retired
These techniques may even help you to get out of a mess, retired or not, also if you are younger. Bill Myers Jun 17, 2019·5 min read
Twenty years ago, I was nearly broke, and retirement could be as little as 10 years away. I had a mortgage for a larger house than I needed, a car payment, a little bit of credit card debt, and about $6,000 in my 401k.
I was living the American lifestyle. I thought about the size of the payment, not the balance. That’s what they advertise on TV!
If I continued, I would be living on Social Security, which was always intended to cover about 2/3 of your retirement and to keep you from starving. Any savings would be used to cover a mortgage and debt. Then, I would need a part time job for the rest of my life. Not a happy prospect.
However, I got lucky.
1. I found and married the perfect partner, who is a lot smarter than I am
2. I was able to work until I was 70 and a quarter
Having a marriage where both partners work together makes a big difference. I sold the house and used what little equity was in it to pay off all debt and part of the car.
I could have done the same thing when I was single — if I thought of it.
401k
Contribute the 4% if you work for a company with a match or partial match. If your company doesn’t have a 401k plan, put 4% into an IRA at the bank the day you get paid. You will not miss it after a while AND you don’t have to pay taxes on the contribution.
At least I was doing that.
If you don’t have an emergency fund, set up a separate savings account and split that 4% equally until you can at least buy new tires for the car.
How to buy a car
The banker told me when I was 16 that cars caused more financial problems than anything else. Credit cards may have eclipsed cars by now and doubled the problem.
My wife’s idea is to pay cash. If you must take out a loan, buy the best car where you can pay off the loan in 2 years. Then pay a savings account the same amount for 2 more years. You don’t need a new car!
Then, do the same thing again. After the third car, you will always pay cash for a new car. Banks let you set up more than one savings account.
Cars are a personal expense. We both had car savings accounts.
Splitting expenses
We decided early in the marriage to live as close as possible on one salary. We used the rest to pay off all debt, after maximizing the 401k’s, including the house, and to save for retirement.
You have lots of options if you have no debt.
We didn’t split expenses that way, though. We split household expenses based on each percentage of the total salary. The mortgage, utilities, insurance, vacations, and food were household expenses.
The car, clothes, toys, work lunches, and gifts were personal expenses. Anything after household and personal expenses went into savings. We each have our own savings accounts.
Therefore, the household expenses were split fairly, based on salaries. Restaurant dinners together were household. Kids gifts from a separate marriage were personal.
That way, we could take each other out on dates.
We each lost a job due to corporate reorgs and cutbacks, but not at the same time. It had no impact because we just recalculated the percentages, which were usually about 90:10, depending on the unemployment amount.
We also cut savings and discretionary spending, except for the 401k, until the other was back to work.
Retirement - Know what you can afford
We retired when I reached age 70 and a quarter so that we would not take money out of the IRA at the same tax rate that we put it in.
After traveling around a few months looking at retirement communities, we retired to The Villages, FL. I don’t know how we ever had time to work. My dad said the same thing. I thought that he was joking.
We bought an older house costing less than The Villages average, with the 20-year street bond paid. We had to fix it up some: Cost & Experience of Moving into Our Final Nesting Place when We Retired (How we saved $11,400 doing some tasks ourselves and using points during the move and remodel).
Retirement Spending
We are managing retirement spending the same way. We spend all of the retirement income from the oldest person.
We are withdrawing all of what remains from the oldest person’s savings first. Most of the second person’s retirement income is going into their savings accounts and will support us when the first savings account is gone.
After setting aside emergency and health funds, the spreadsheet deducts the prior year’s Travel balance and then tells us how much to withdraw for the year, based on the number of remaining years. It’s labeled “Travel” and has a running balance.
We deduct travel and any amount over-spent in the monthly retirement budget from it. We DO NOT borrow from a future year, but carry over the balance from the prior year.
This method is self-adjusting because the calculation is based on balances at the beginning of the year.
Conclusion
This method told us how much we could spend on housing, travel, and monthly expenses. It is also self-adjusting for interest rates, stock fluctuations, and emergency costs.
The only thing that I see that could damage the plan is hyperinflation. Of course, hyperinflation would be bad for everyone.
The spending plan got us to this point. I thank my wife for that.
This article is for informational purposes only, it should not be considered Financial or Legal Advice. Not all information will be accurate. Consult a financial professional before making any major financial decisions | https://themakingofamillionaire.com/saving-for-retirement-and-beyond-stress-free-starting-at-any-age-even-if-you-are-retired-6f0aa713d996 | ['Bill Myers'] | 2021-09-07 19:08:44.125000+00:00 | ['Retirement', 'Saving', 'Life Lessons', 'Debt', 'Money'] |
How to Validate Any Business Idea With the “Stand-Up” Technique | Most entrepreneurs get stuck before getting started.
I have helped wantrepreneurs across three continents finally launch their side hustles: countries change, but the mistakes do not.
I know, because I have been there too: that limbo state where you know that you want to launch a business, but you can’t help but overcomplicating everything.
Most entrepreneurs-in-the-making get lost in a sea of podcasts and books, or get glued in a marsh of procrastination without progress. Classic examples are buying a domain, waiting for the perfect name, setting up a website (and then tweaking it), finding an accountant (with no accounts), and so on.
All these things are not going to generate money.
Here’s the secret: you don’t actually “have” a business until you have…a sale!
Most people confuse having a product with business success.
This is because having a product is easy: asking for money exposes you to feedback and rejection, whereas developing a(nother) product happens safely behind the scenes.
That’s where the “build it, and they will come” myth started: as a buffer to protect wantrepreneurs from potential rejection. But rejection is nothing else than precious feedback from the market, allowing you to adjust your offer to better match what customers want.
Using your time, money, and energy on setting up a website, developing the perfect product, and finding the ‘right’ name is just a way to delay that feedback, and as a consequence hinder your business success.
You want to test your idea quickly and remain as lean as possible. That way, you can quickly adapt to your customers’ feedback without having to distance yourself from a lot of work and invisible costs that you’ve already put into your untested idea.
So, what’s the quickest way to test your business idea?
Enter the stand-up technique
A friend of mine is a stand-up comedian doing gigs in London and a few other cities in the UK. One week last year, I went to three of his shows.
I thought stand-up comedians came up with all these jokes on the spot until I realised that…all his shows were largely the same.
It’s not as natural as it looks: comedians prepare in advance for months or even years, fine-tuning their routine and jokes based on how the audience reacts.
Though each show was largely the same, I noticed that, every once in a while, my friend would take a risk and drop a new joke in the middle of the show: if the audience liked it, he would add it to the routine. If it bombed, he would test it again with a different audience and see what happened. If it fell flat a second time, he’d just let go of it and try something else instead. Over time, the successful jokes that passed the test formed the bulk of his overall routine.
This same principle applies to business: by testing your idea in front of a smaller audience, you can quickly learn whether it’s worth committing to or not.
How to validate your business idea
When it comes to a business idea, the same strategy applies: come up with the idea and test it in front of an audience.
You don’t need the perfect name, a sophisticated website, and a ton of content to do this.
All you need is a short blurb to post to an online community you can engage with and some sort of checkout system (your PayPal will suffice). You want to put your idea in front of the right people (your ideal customers) and then ask for the sale. If they say yes, double down. If they say no, make sure that you’re speaking to the right audience, and then give it one more go. Just like a stand-up comedian.
Here’s an example.
A few years ago, I had this idea for a caffeinated chocolate snack.
I love dark chocolate, and I know how powerful a stimulant it is. So I wanted to mix it with matcha tea for added cognitive boosts and…my mind started coming up with so many ideas and tactics, but I wanted to get feedback before committing any of my time, energy, and money.
The first thing that I did was to sell a few bars to my friends. I asked my entrepreneurial friends if they were interested in trying out the bars and asked for the sale. It felt uncomfortable, but they said yes, and I made a small batch at home. When I delivered them, they came back asking for more. Success.
However, I still wasn’t 100% sure if they’d only bought because they were my friends, so I went onto Reddit and told a group about my project. I described the bars and asked if anyone was interested in buying. A couple of them replied saying that they’d be interested in trying the product for a $10 price, so I emailed them my PayPal link. One of them said yes and paid. Success.
Because I didn’t have the product yet, I refunded him, gave him a discount code for the future, and told him I would let him know when the product was back in stock.
At this point, the idea was validated and I’d been happy to continue. But while posting on Reddit, I had also contacted a few office spaces here in the UK, offering a 30% discount code if they linked to my (very simple) one-page website in their newsletter. Unexpectedly, two of them said yes, and I received three Shopify notifications announcing that a few $19 packages had been sold. Super success.
Since I was still looking for the final chocolate maker, I immediately refunded the purchase, sent a discount code, and personally emailed each customer with an update. Everyone was super friendly and supportive.
With a validated product, I was ready to create the product and scale my marketing efforts.
The myth of the “perfect” product
You can have the best product or service, but if no one knows about it, no one’s going to buy it. They just can’t. Making your product “better” is just a way to delay getting feedback from your audience.
That’s why it’s important to act fast: instead of adding invisible costs to your idea, and making it difficult to adjust and move on, get feedback as early as you can (you can get my outreach templates by taking the idea challenge).
Be like my friend the stand-up comedian. Test your ideas instead of distracting yourself by making things overcomplicated: get your idea in front of the right audience and see how they react.
Remember, it’s important to ask for the sale: if you just ask them, most people will tell you “yeah, good idea” just to not upset you. But are they going to open up their wallet?
If you don’t actually have the product ready, you can always not take the payment or refund them (just make sure you keep them in the loop — they’ll appreciate being part of the journey).
This is how to make sure that your time, energy, and money are spent on business, not just an idea.
Ready to validate your business idea? Check out my free course to find and test your business in 5 days.
– Matt | https://entrepreneurshandbook.co/how-to-validate-any-business-idea-with-the-stand-up-technique-8ab0a9502c3c | ['Matt Sandrini'] | 2020-08-12 13:15:45.992000+00:00 | ['Business', 'Startup', 'Marketing', 'Freelancing', 'Entrepreneurship'] |
Beads and Jewelry DIY Tips | DIY jewelry
If you’re searching for the perfect bead for your necklace, a lampwork bead is an excellent choice. These jewelry accents help to complete the look. Here are some pointers to consider if you want to buy a lampwork bead for your favorite chain or necklace.
Keep in mind that high-quality beads can be new or old. You may believe that the quality of older beads is much greater than that of more recently manufactured beads. Nonetheless, things do not always go as planned. New and veteran artists both produce high-quality work as long as they are completely dedicated to the technique of making glass beads. The physical qualities of the bead are significantly more important than the bead’s age.
Choose experienced artisans. When purchasing these beads, you must search for the best crafters. Follow the same procedures or produce the same material quality. Although some lampwork bead designers will tell you that you don’t need a kiln to produce them, kilns do affect the bead’s durability. Designers who are inexperienced with kilns may still unable to create the desired durability. If the artist has past work, so ask to see some at close quarters if you can. Then you’ll know what kind of quality to expect from your lampwork bead.
You should look for annealed lampwork beads. The bead must be annealed, which simply means heated or cured. This is done to ensure that it remains strong and of high quality. You can ask the dealer about how the bead was annealed. Avoid any beads that have been heated without a true kiln using vermiculite, a heated blanket, a crockpot, or an open flame. If the bead has been through any of these processes, its quality will be severely reduced. A kiln can still produce poorly done beads, but it is still preferred above other forms of heating.
Keep a watch for a strong body. A good lampwork bead should have no sharp edges. On the other hand, all of the curves and sides of the beads must be spherical or puckered. There should be no cracks or folds in the bead. Concentrate on small corners and the joints of lampwork beads, looking for soft spots or crevices. Furthermore, the stringing point should be strong and free of flaws.
The beads you’re thinking about purchasing must be well-made. If a bead has pupils, dots, or lines attached to the main form, make sure they are fused to the piece.
If any part of your lampwork bead is flexible, it was not heated properly and you should not purchase it. When you tap your lampwork bead, you should not see any powdery bead release. The bead has a design defect, or it might just be a sign of poor craftsmanship. Take some time to check to see if the bead hangs properly from your chain. All of these factors must be considered while searching for lampwork beads.
Our goal at Goody Beads is to provide you with the most recent jewelry-making trends. With over 20 years of expertise, our team has a keen eye for keeping you informed and making your projects shine. Born out of a passion to be creative and design, we take pleasure in being your DIY jewelry headquarters, where creativity begins! Get inspired and check out our DIY jewelry today! visit our website now. | https://medium.com/@goodybeads2021/beads-and-jewelry-diy-tips-5cba063ecb5d | ['Goody Beads'] | 2021-12-20 11:39:49.378000+00:00 | ['Jewelry', 'Fashion', 'Beads', 'Jewellery'] |
Medical Simulation Market Size Worth $5.25 Billion By 2026 | The global healthcare/medical simulation market size is estimated to reach USD 5.25 billion by 2026, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc., rising at a CAGR of 16.3% during the forecast period. Rapid technological advancements, spiraling demand for minimally invasive treatment procedures, and increasing focus on patient safety are providing a fillip to the market.
Patient safety is one of the rising concerns in the healthcare industry due to increasing death rate from medical errors. For instance, as per a study published in 2016 by patient safety researchers in the British Medical Journal, medical errors in hospitals and other healthcare facilities are reported to be the 3rd leading cause of deaths in the U.S. Simulation provides opportunity to sharpen skills and develop expertise for safe and reliable system performance. High risk situations in military and aviation operations require specialized and polished skills for handling emergency situations. Thus, simulated settings help practitioners learn from mistakes by avoiding harm caused to patients. Therefore, growing focus on patient safety is expected to drive the healthcare simulation market.
Moreover, simulation-based medical learning and training can be valuable in clinical practice. These processes and systems can offer safe and controlled circumstances in which a problem-based learning is encouraged. Such factors are anticipated to bolster the growth of the market.
Click the link below:
https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/medical-healthcare-simulation-market
Further key findings from the report suggest: | https://medium.com/@marketnewsreports/medical-simulation-market-2d795b8eeb5c | ['Gaurav Shah'] | 2020-04-23 09:58:29.109000+00:00 | ['China', 'Germany', 'Medical Devices', 'Japan', 'Brazil'] |
Are You Anchoring Your Business to the Wrong Data? | Have you changed your views about COVID-19 months into this pandemic? Or are you anchoring to the same views you did in March?
For example, many people still believe the false claim spread by many prominent leaders in March that COVID is no worse than the common flu. They protest against public health measures such as wearing masks, despite high-quality peer-reviewed studies showing that masks save lines.
They also ignore new developments, such as the recent urgent requests by governors to stay at home and telecommute to tamp down the explosive third wave of COVID. Likewise, they fail to pay attention to just-published research showing that restaurants, gyms, hotels, houses of worship, smaller grocery stores, and other crowded indoor spaces with prolonged exposure — including workplaces that fit such criteria — significantly increase COVID risk.
With all the information out there regarding this world-disrupting virus, there are plenty of opportunities to add to your knowledge of current events. In fact, so many fundamental aspects of what we believe about the pandemic have changed over time. If we truly relied on the facts, our perspective would be very different from where we started.
Unfortunately, the reality is more complex. We tend to continue treading the same path based on information we initially received. That’s regardless of strong new evidence that our path leads off a cliff. The name cognitive neuroscientists and behavioral economists give to this dangerous judgment error is anchoring.
It’s one of the many cognitive biases that lead us to make poor decisions, regarding the pandemic and other life areas. Recognizing the danger and impact of these cognitive biases helps us make much better decisions to manage risks wisely and survive and thrive in this pandemic.
Anchoring in Financial Services: A Case Study
Let’s consider the case of Lauren, the CEO of a 130-people regional financial services company based in Texas that had a lot of difficulty with remote work at the start of the pandemic.
The leadership team didn’t think they needed to prepare for a disruption of more than a week or two. This was because they followed early guidelines from the CDC to prepare for nothing more than a brief interruption due to a short-term outbreak.
As a result, the leadership team asked all of its workforce to come back to the office as states reopened, despite news reports of an increase in cases in Texas. A significant number of its employees were scared and resistant to come back to the office, leading to conflicts and tensions.
Eventually, the large majority of employees did return. Yet because of the company leadership’s perception that COVID-19 isn’t a big deal, neither the leaders nor employees took appropriate precautions. That’s because of a mental blindspot called “emotional contagion,” where followers take on the emotions, beliefs, and perceptions of their leaders.
In fact, most of the executives and employees did not follow guidelines on social distancing or wear masks, especially since the Texas state officials did not mandate wearing masks. Staff who tried to wear masks and do social distancing were ridiculed by their colleagues, with the tacit approval of the leadership.
You can probably guess what happened next.
Unfortunately, there was an outbreak of COVID-19 in the office traced to an all-hands meeting. Over two dozen employees caught COVID-19, including three C-suite leaders. Several employees, including the COO, ended up in the hospital, and two older employees died. This led to a plunge in productivity, attrition, and low morale within the company.
Lauren decided to contact me for a consultation in late May after learning about my work through a webinar I conducted about how organizations can adapt to the changes brought by the pandemic.
By the time Lauren called me, internal fighting had already spread throughout the organization, leading to resignations of some key employees. This led to a heavier workload for everyone else, causing even greater tension between staff and management.
Even those who initially steered clear of the chaos said they were starting to look for other job opportunities so they could jump ship. It was obvious that the company needed help — and fast.
COVID-19 and Cognitive Biases
When I met with Lauren as well as the company’s COO and HR head over Zoom, I told them upfront that they have to start acknowledging the disruptions brought about by COVID-19. Continuing as they did will endanger their company’s bottom line and even survival during this pandemic.
The refusal to recognize the gravity of the pandemic and even the act of downplaying it stem from a combination of three factors:
The nature of the virus itself
The preexisting beliefs and plans of the business leaders
The dangerous judgment errors we all tend to make that cognitive neuroscientists and behavioral economists call cognitive biases, most notably anchoring
The latter mental blindspots stem, in large part, from our evolutionary background. Our gut reactions evolved for the ancestral savanna environment, not the modern world. Yet gurus and business leaders alike overwhelmingly advocate going with our gut. They encourage us to follow our intuition in making decisions, instead of using effective decision-making processes.
Anchoring: A Heavy Burden
Anchoring refers to our tendency to be too strongly anchored by the initial information we have and fail to update our beliefs sufficiently based on new evidence. That’s even if new evidence is, objectively speaking, much more persuasive. This dangerous judgment error harmed us in two profound ways with COVID- 19.
First, business and political leaders and ordinary people anchored on past pandemics within living memory, which — while serious — didn’t cause widespread disruption.
SARS, the first pandemic of the 21st century, led to around 750 deaths in 26 countries. The H1N1, also known as the swine flu, killed many more, as many as half a million. Yet it didn’t impact the US too much, with about 12,500 deaths, and even less in the UK, at about 500, which was at the high end of deaths in Europe.
Ebola and Zika barely reached the US. As a result, the large majority of Americans ignored COVID- 19, thinking it would pass them by as did these other illnesses.
The second profound harm came from the comparisons of COVID-19 to the flu. In a March 4 interview on Fox News, Donald Trump called COVID-19 the “corona flu” and said the death rate “is way under 1%,” implying it’s nothing to worry about and that we don’t need to take major actions to address the situation.
He affirmed this in a March 9 tweet: “last year 37,000 Americans died from the common flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on.”
Other leaders conveyed similar messages that everything is normal. For example, on March 5, with 115 diagnosed cases of COVID-19 and the first death in the UK, Boris Johnson said it’s “business as usual.”
Despite wide criticism and the glaring example of Italy, Johnson’s administration failed to impose lockdowns. Instead, it advised in early March that people simply wash their hands, and, if they recently went to northern Italy and showed flu-like symptoms, to self-isolate for 14 days.
On March 11, with 590 confirmed cases, David Halpern, chief executive of the government’s Behavioural Insights Team, told BBC News that the government’s aim involved shielding the most vulnerable people.
The government would allow COVID-19 to infect the UK population more broadly until the population developed herd immunity such that COVID-19 would stop transmitting itself, which requires about 60% to be infected. Next day, at a press conference, Johnson confirmed this strategy, telling people with flu-like symptoms to self-isolate and people over 70 to avoid cruises.
Indeed, the estimated fatality rate from COVID-19, about .5–1% with good-quality treatment, is much lower than the 50% average for Ebola and the 15% for SARS. Yet, the infection rate is much higher, in part because about half of all who get infected don’t show any symptoms. Even those who eventually show symptoms are often infectious before they do.
As a result, without strict controls, every infected person gets 2–3 others sick and any outbreak doubles in 3–6 days. Furthermore, about 10–20% of those infected have a serious illness, mainly older adults, and about half of those with a serious illness need to go to the hospital.
Given the fact that hospitals have low capacity for a surge of patients, a major outbreak would overwhelm healthcare systems.
Trump and Johnson’s irresponsible approach set the anchor for the approach of most other political and business leaders and ordinary citizens in their respective countries. Such anchoring cost many lives and untold billions of dollars and pounds.
Adapting to the New Abnormal
When the pandemic started, most companies activated their business continuity plans and then just followed along as the months rolled by.
However, I wouldn’t advise continuing with these emergency measures throughout the minimal two years of the pandemic. A business continuity plan is meant for a week or two, a month at most if it’s a really good plan, before things start returning to normal (I tell you this as someone who helped businesses and nonprofits design many business continuity plans).
It’s not likely that we will ever go back to the “normal” status quo ante pandemic.
Our society will never be the same, even in the most optimistic scenario of only two years of waves of shutdowns and social distancing. And keep in mind that we shouldn’t be shooting for the most optimistic scenario and should instead plan for the worst.
If the first or second wave of vaccines isn’t highly effective, preventing COVID at 80–90%, it will be more like a five-year horizon instead of two years. That’s what you should plan for going forward.
Companies need to go beyond emergency measures if they want to survive and thrive in the next few years. You need to adapt to the pandemic and accept the current reality of ongoing waves of restrictions as the new abnormal.
This essentially means transforming your internal and external business model if you want your organization to chart a productive and rewarding course during these troubled years.
Doing so will include taking a long, hard look at the elements that drive your business. It will also entail revising or, in some cases, even totally revamping your daily operations and business continuity plan.
Moving Forward From Anchoring
When I last spoke with Lauren a few months ago, she told me that after serious deliberation, she called for a leadership meeting to reexamine the facts on COVID-19.
She and her COO came to the meeting armed with the most accurate information on the pandemic that they could find, curated from news sources that give priority to factual reporting.
They were right to come prepared, because it was one of the most excruciating discussions they’ve ever had in their career. Most of the executives were still anchored on previous information from March that the virus shouldn’t be taken seriously.
As a result, they did not want to acknowledge that a change needed to be made. Even those who were on the fence initially — including one of the executives who caught the virus earlier and recovered — didn’t want to change their stance. The executives clearly didn’t want to admit that they were wrong.
It was a good thing that the three of us — through several consultations — had prepared for such a scenario. Lauren, after seeing how obstinately the C-suite was acting, deftly reframed the discussion as a restrategizing effort instead of a finger-pointing and blaming exercise.
She also made sure to highlight how competitors of theirs who adapted to the situation were actually thriving during the pandemic.
Finally, in the face of overwhelming evidence that COVID-19 was a serious matter and that they needed to take immediate steps, the executives eventually acknowledged the gravity of the situation. This paved the way to the leadership team finally coming together to create and take the following steps:
Lauren held a company-wide virtual town hall meeting to reassure employees that their concerns are being heard and that swift action will be taken. The first order of business was to debunk the erroneous information on COVID-19 on which the majority of the company had anchored. The leadership team rolled out a comprehensive remote work program, where employees were provided tech and equipment support. Employees can also report to the office, but it was strictly optional. The leadership team made sure that the office had all the necessary visual and physical cues to encourage social distancing. Reminders on wearing masks were placed strategically. The marketing team updated its external and internal collateral to include what the company was doing to make its virtual and physical spaces safe for its employees. It also included this information, as well as important COVID-19 updates from reputable news sources, in its long-running and widely read internal newsletter. The COO worked with the HR head on numerous retention efforts to keep key employees from jumping ship. They also reached out to those who had already resigned. In most cases, the problem stemmed from these employees’ refusal to step foot into the office. The efforts, then, were centered on assuring them that they can work remotely ASAP, and were also offered more flexible working hours to boot. The sales team built on the marketing team’s actions. They also reached out to clients who had been previously irked with the company’s slow response to inquiries and complaints. The sales team presented all the changes being made to get the company up to speed operationally and assured clients of better service.
As a result of these efforts, the company was able to correct its course and finally get back to a productive path. The employees felt safer, and thus became more productive. Though the retention efforts only had an 80% success rate and some key employees did not come back, the leadership team agreed that it was a far better result than they were heading toward before the strategic pivot.
The strict policies on working onsite also minimized health risk, thereby lessening the company’s risk of accountability in case of an outbreak in the office. This was a heavy load off the C-suite’s back. They were finally able to focus on product development and saving client relationships, which in part was fortunately already boosted by the sales team’s efforts.
Lauren informed me that the leadership team was pleased with the results of the changes they made. She also told me about how relieved she was that they did so so once the numbers of COVID-19 cases began to increase, prompting a pause of the reopening process that eventually led to a cycle of reopening and restrictions.
Conclusion
Anchoring causes us to focus on initial information we’ve received, even if it is erroneous. As the pandemic continues to disrupt businesses, you need to watch out for misinformed views and beliefs that will hold you back from growth. Keep your company resilient and adaptive by defending yourself from the dangers brought by anchoring.
Key Takeaway
Anchoring keeps you shackled to initial information and keeps you from moving forward. Make the best decisions to propel your company by breaking free from this mental blindspot…> Click to tweet
Questions to Consider (please share your answers below)
Did your leadership team anchor on erroneous information at the start of the pandemic, and do you now want to make things right?
Where might you do a better job of fighting against anchoring?
Which next steps will you take based on reading this article?
Image credit: ekoingfreemind/Pixabay | https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/are-you-anchoring-your-business-to-the-wrong-data-6e4248cdb305 | ['Dr. Gleb Tsipursky'] | 2020-12-12 15:28:31.318000+00:00 | ['Behavioral Economics', 'Leadership', 'Cognitive Bias', 'Pandemic', 'Decision Making'] |
My Mom is Not the Best, And That’s Okay, I Still Love Her | It is common in our culture that we champion our parents, specifically our moms throughout the world. So common, that every mother’s day my feed on Facebook is flooded by general sentiment: “you are the best mom in the world!”
I do not mean to offended anyone. There’s nothing wrong or harmful about that notion. But one day, as the breeze of the sky stumbled on my head, I’ve thought about something. That my mom is not the best mom, and that’s fine with me. What she lacks is what she gains to be more loving mom.
It just a flash of light when I thought about this. Let’s be clear: I do not hate her. Okay, I concede that sometimes I was mean to her. Anyway, I thought about this because why I do not feel that she’s the best mom? Am I a bad person? At first, I felt guilty. But at second thought, that became the primary, is that don’t I think that loving her is enough?
I don’t like to show off that I have a privilege that I have a good and awesome mom. it’s an eerie for other people to found out they have no mom like I do. They are hunted by the thought of not being able to have the mom-child connection like I have. It triggers jealousy, which if I was on other opposite position, I will definitely curse my life for not being blessed enough. I am not pointing out that you should not do that; proclaiming you have the privilege to have a mom. It’s just that I don’t feel like it is a need for me to do it.
I also do not want to use her as a tool to compete with others. I dislike pressuring her to be a mom that I expect, which I did before. I pressured her to dress like 30’s mom. She was forced to dye her white hair into a black one just for my classmates to be ignorant about her actual age. I do not want her to be the best; to be the coolest, smartest, and the most loving mom in the entire world. Because she and I only belonged not in the world full of moms but a small world filled only by our tears, laugh, and pain. (I exclude my siblings lol)
So what now that she’s not the best? It’s simple. She will have more room for improvement and growth in being my mom. I was disappointed when she is not liberal as I want her to be. But in the present time, it is more fun to educate my mom; on why Marcos is not the best president we never had; on why activism is vital in a liberal democracy; on why transwoman are a living woman.
You know what is the best part? She accepted me for being me;
For being queer. (not straight) | https://medium.com/@lancegtolentino/my-mom-is-not-the-best-and-thats-okay-i-still-love-her-bb9b66680a17 | ['Lance Tolentino'] | 2020-12-23 01:35:43.872000+00:00 | ['Love', 'Queer', 'LGBT', 'Moms'] |
Clean Code, not a part of skincare routine | As a skincare lover, I know for sure that cleaning is the basic, most important thing in skincare. Not just skincare, nowadays since the pandemic happened, cleanliness plays a big part in staying healthy. Unsurprisingly, it does not only apply in skincare and health but in coding too.
Photo by Lee Campbell on Unsplash
What is Clean code?
here is an explanation of what a clean code is.
clean code is a simple, non-complex code.
clean code is not confusing and complicated. It is straightforward, to the point and precise.
Clean code is a code that is easy to understand.
Clean code means that the code can be understood with ease by other developers. Each task, the role of each class and function must be clear and concise. The intention of each component of the code must be revealed and comprehendible for other developers (clean code reveals the intent of the written code).
Clean code is a code that is maintainable.
A code is considered clean if it is easily maintainable by other developers. Other developers must be able to add new things, change some functions and features easily.
Why do we need a clean code?
We need a clean code to make sure that the application could be developed, not just by the original developer who writes the code but also other developers that works within the team and/or company. Since developing a product is not a stagnant process (even the development is an agile development), the code must be versatile too.
Photo by AltumCode on Unsplash
How to write a clean code?
Only write what is necessary
Writing codes that are not necessary might confuse other people who are working on the code. It might distract them from understanding the usage and point of the code, which makes the intention of the code unclear. Removing dead/unused things
Just like point number one, unused things are in the way of understanding the intention of the code. Because something is there, people might think that it is important but when they are looking for the usage within the flow, they might become worried since there are some elements that lack functions when actually it is dead/unused. Duplication means automation is required
This is the application of the DRY principle, or Don’t Repeat Yourself principle. Duplication means doing the same thing, but for different things. This means that it could be written as a function. Clear naming for Variables, Functions and Classes
In order to know what this is for, or what value this variable hold (for easier apprehension for other developers) we need a clear naming for all the elements inside the code. This makes it easier for other people to identify the elements inside the code in no time.
Tools to know clean up the code
My team uses Sonarqube as a tool to see the bugs and the code smells that might exist in our code.
We can see the percentage of the code duplication
we can also see the maintainability and code smells of the code.
We try to keep them as low as possible to make it easier for other teammates/developers to work on. The Sonarqube is fairly easy to use and it is a staple tool to check and use to support a clean code!
Good luck on your journey for a cleaner code! | https://medium.com/pilar-2020/clean-code-not-a-part-of-skincare-routine-b4aa755331 | ['Inez Nabila'] | 2020-11-18 20:08:18.118000+00:00 | ['Development', 'Clean Code', 'Programming'] |
AMLO: The Greatest Threat to Mexican Democracy | AMLO pictured with Miguel Díaz-Canel, Cuban President.
Since 2018, Mexico’s economic and social progress has been hampered by the authoritarian rule that Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his party, MORENA, have brought-about. Hereinafter as AMLO, Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s landslide political victory is arguably Mexico’s largest blunder, eradicating any hope of economic prosperity following the corrupt rule of Enrique Peña Nieto (2012–2018). With Maduro-like socialist policies, AMLO has actively engaged in an effort to abolish Mexican democracy and establish an authoritarian socialist utopia in Mexico. AMLO has effectively enacted policies that enable his regime to expand their influence and control over the Mexican people, infringing on their liberty and rights. It is of utmost importance that foreign leaders and superpowers condemn AMLO’s oppressive regime, for the good of the Mexican people and their future destiny.
MORENA and AMLO today pose the greatest threat to Mexican democracy; AMLO is Mexico’s false messiah. AMLO’s sole objective is to turn back the clock, and return Mexico to the 1970s, an era where capitalism and free markets were not embraced, an era where Mexico was a one-party nation with an all-powerful president, and a compliant partisan judicial system. AMLO’s populist and nationalist solidarity is depicted in his stance towards Pemex, Mexico’s national oil company. AMLO has on multiple occasions spoken out with nostalgia, on how decades ago, the state produced all of Mexico’s electricity. In March 2021, AMLO continued with his nationalist ambitions when sending a bill to congress that would reform Mexico’s hydrocarbon law to give Pemex greater control over the domestic fuel market. AMLO intends to re-nationalize Mexico’s entire energy sector, a hope that has worried political analysts across the globe. Since 1938, never has Mexico nationalized its energy sector in its entirety, and it did not serve Mexico’s economic interests well. AMLO has taken strides to centralize government control over energy, mainly through a number of constitutional reforms. Such reforms aspire to banish private investment in electricity, and intend to reserve future control of lithium extraction solely to the Mexican government. They will annihilate the now-existing independently regulated, market-based system in the energy sector. AMLO will do everything in his power to ensure that Pemex leads Mexico’s oil, and that the state controls it. Further, in September 2021, Mexican National Guard troops sealed the gates at Monterra Energy, a U.S. based company owned by KKR, an investment firm. The terminal is a major part of a half a billion dollar investments in Mexican diesel. Like Monterra, other significant oil companies that rival Pemex have faced belligerent regulatory actions, such companies as Sempra and Bulkmatic. Mexican tax regulators have forbidden 82 international companies from exporting Mexican oil over “fiscal violations.” AMLO’s moves, economically, will freeze international investment in Mexico, a nation already living through its worst depression since the 1930s. Foreign investment will remain stagnant, hence limiting the progress of Mexico socio-economically in the 21st-century. AMLO, simply put, is exploiting Mexican democracy suppressing private institutions and markets.
Months into his presidency, in addition, AMLO decided to cancel the building of a 13 Billion USD new airport for Mexico City. AMLO set the project’s future out for a dubious local vote, in which the majority were in favor of canceling it. Critics, nevertheless, believe the vote to have been tampered with. AMLO’s decisions was solely a political one — to demonstrate to capitalists that he, rather than business contractors and “the market” will be in charge of Mexico. AMLO, as a show of his power, disregarded economic implications for political ones. He did not cancel the airport with the greater good of Mexicans in mind, but with the thought of showing power to his political opponents, and to demonstrate that there is a new sheriff in town, a vastly authoritative political move by the president.
AMLO, who has divided Mexico into two classes — the “people” being the true core and force of Mexico, and the elite conservatives being unscrupulous — has also severely taken measures to silence the press who do not show staunch support of his radical movement. President López Obrador claimed that “all good reporters in history have always betted in favor of political transformations (…) either you are in favor of the transformation or against.” In 2019, Mexico was the second nation in which most reporters were assassinated, only trailing behind the anarchical rule in Syria. Such killing has been incited by AMLO’s rhetorical, egregious comments. Furthermore, from January 2021 — November 2021, at least 9 reporters perished as a result of assasination in Mexico. AMLO has repeatedly demonstrated that he does not abide by the values of democracy, nor by the fundamental pillar that government can be questioned and challenged.
More worrisome, moreover, is AMLO’s direct assault against the electoral tribunal and federal judiciary. AMLO, in 2021, claimed that the Mexican Federal Judiciary (TEPJF) and the Mexican Electoral Tribunal (INE) “were created to prevent democracy;” a farcical comment for the current leader of Mexico to make when he is actively seeking to dispose of the nation’s democratic institutions. AMLO himself slashed the budget that the INE receives yearly, and has hinted at an utter disappearance of autonomous bodies of government such as the INE, which he claims are presently “not truly autonomous.” In the judiciary branch, AMLO and the executive are slowly but surely colonizing it. Through AMLO’s term, he has unconstitutionally extended the term of the Chief Justice, Arturo Zaldívar, and appointed a stalwart ally to the bench as well. AMLO has moved to stack the courts and take hold of court officials’ evaluations and nominations. What Mexico is witnessing is a power grab by Andrés Manuel and his party — not seeking to replace brittle and fragile democratic institutions with new ones, but instead, to take over them. Mexico has entered a new political threshold, alas, it is one of radical left-wing authoritarianism.
With his power grab of the judicial and independent bodies of government has also come AMLO’s use of the Mexican military as a means to achieve his desired political outcomes. AMLO has given the Mexican military newfound duties and powers. For instance, in the construction and development of the Maya Train, a 1,500 km railway due to run through the Yucatán Peninsula, AMLO has stated that the Mexican military will remain with all the profits and will handle construction of a number of sections of the railway itself. Under AMLO, the military has found to have control over international airports, migration, pipelines, ports, and hospitals, management previously under the influence of government bodies. The use of military strength for political motives by AMLO is a clear representation of his authoritative ways. In May 2020, AMLO issued an executive decree targeted at expanding the role of the armed forces in public and civilian security — the decree giving the armed forces authority to detain suspects and secure crime scenes. The Mexican Armed Forces are not Mexico’s glorious servants as AMLO portrays them, a study by Anímal Político, a national Mexican news outlet, illustrated how 90% of deployed service members had not passed the evaluation to serve in Unlike other ministries, the Mexican Ministry of Defense (which covers the army/air force) received $5.6 billion USD in 2021, a 40% increase from its 2018 financing. Mr. López Obrador has, through his term, utilized and empowered the military as a means of accomplishing his craved political end-results.
As a proud born Mexican citizen, who lived in the nation for 14 years, I fear for the future of the great nation that brought me up, I fear for my family back home, I fear for my loved ones, I fear for the less-privileged, and I fear for the democratic establishment in Mexico, which day by day torns under the authoritarian rule of Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Señor Presidente, I can assure you one thing, and that is that the Mexican people will not surrender, and we will not allow for you and your extremist party to take over nuestro México.
Mr. Lopez Obrador, continue with your dictator-like political actions, please do so — but rest assured, nor will I or the Mexican people be silenced, nor will I or the Mexican people throw the white towel, nor will I or the Mexican people be stripped of our freedoms; and that is, Mr. President, because we are Mexicans, and, yes, we will fight. | https://medium.com/@evaristoderby/amlo-the-greatest-threat-to-mexican-democracy-b79364f74bc8 | ['Evaristo Derby'] | 2021-12-22 05:18:20.687000+00:00 | ['Authoritarian', 'Democracy', 'Mexico', 'Amlo'] |
It’s Time To Quit My Job | "What kind of trouble have I gotten myself into now?"
This morning I woke up wondering why a certain sub sandwich client was calling me. I stared at my phone for a solid minute before I realized it was just an alarm of my own making, set to remind myself to work on the client. Not a phone call.
Whoops. Guess I’m pretty damn out of it these days.
It makes sense because I’m seriously exhausted. Let's face it--my work-life balance sucks. For months, I’ve been writing about a string of problems with my writing gig in social media, and then this week it finally occurred to me that it’s time to quit. Scratch that. It's well past the time to quit. This lack of work-life balance has finally gotten to me in a very big, very bad way.
A couple of weeks ago, my 4-year-old caught a pretty bad winter bug--and it got to me just a few days later. Last week we went into urgent care and the doctor prescribed antibiotics for the both of us, but while my daughter's fully recovered... I'm still battling the same symptoms and fatigue.
Through the entire illness, my freelancing work has been sucking the life out of me. Just zapping my energy with every single day. Each task takes me longer than ever to complete, and then I stress out about how futile it is to slave over the little bit of money it makes me. What should take two days to complete takes me four, five, or even six days. And when you're paid per task? That's pretty damn problematic.
Something's got to give.
I work, take care of my daughter, sleep, and eat. For the past eight months, that's basically all I do. And it's just not working for me anymore. Part of the problem is that I'm finally making better money with my personal writing, so it's a much better buck for my time.
So I've reached this point where I can no longer juggle my personal writing and my social media work because together, they take up much more time than 40 hours a week. That was alright for a temporary fix to pay the bills when I was starting out writing for an audience of none, but it's definitely not sustainable for a long-term solution.
Right now if I try to keep both jobs, I'm going to continue to struggle and have no work-life balance. I'm not even making my social media deadlines anymore. As I write this, I'm sitting in a broken nursing chair in a messy living room, staring at an unopened box containing my new chair that was delivered a week ago. But I just haven't been able to find the time to clean up and put the damn chair together.
And that's only two of 200+ tasks I've been putting off because I have so little time to spare. It's ridiculous. This is my life, and something's got to give. I'm working weekdays, working weekends, working at all hours--I need a break in absolutely every sense of the word. This reprieve is long overdue.
But I'm super scared.
Ironically, the most logical solution right now is also the most frightening. I have to quit the social media work. It's taking up way too much of my time for too little money. And there's no opportunity for actual growth since I will always be limited to however many clients are assigned to me and how long every task takes me. No matter how well I do on any given blog, it's stuck at a flat 10 bucks.
Since my personal writing is paid out according to reader engagement, there's thankfully still room to grow. But it's scary, because what if that engagement stops? What if my stories quit resonating with readers? What if I run out of ideas? What if the website shuts down or the algorithms change?
What if, what if, what if?
Clearly, I can drive myself crazy worrying about all the ways my income will suffer or how I might lose everything if I depend upon my own writing and that all suddenly goes south. But with the way things have been going, I've basically been waiting for the "right time" to go full-time with my own work.
Certainty is a myth.
I've been waiting for a sign to tell me that it's okay to take my writing full-time and quit depending upon the part-time gig that no longer fits my life. Like some kind of sign that assures me I'm not an idiot. I'm looking for certainty. But let's face it--most career moves offer no guarantees. And writing is certainly among the least certain careers a person might choose.
Seriously though, there is no certainty in any work we do. Businesses fail every day. People face injury, illness, and death. Whatever you thought was that sure thing? Just wait until circumstances change--because they will. All we can do is make the best choices we can and work with whatever we've got.
Besides, there's something to be said for doing what you love and pursuing your dreams to turn your passion into a career. Truth be told, I never really went after my dreams until I began writing last April. Before that, I more or less let life carry me.
It's time to take charge of my life.
For more than thirty years, I lived with an external locus of control, and I knew it. I was ashamed of that fact, and I often wondered if I'd ever be able to change that part of myself. It's not that I saw myself as a victim, but I always saw my circumstances as life happening to me. It felt like my whole life was beyond my control.
Writing every day is the only habit I've ever developed that's made me believe I can change my ways and take charge of my life.
This is a completely new frontier for me. But I'm taking the chance and believing that I can support myself and my daughter by doing something I love.
As I venture into 2019, I'm taking the next big step into writing a better future and channeling my inner Emma Woodhouse by saying, why not me? Stranger things have happened!
Which means I am quitting my soul-sucking job--and it's the scariest decision I've ever made. | https://medium.com/awkwardly-honest/its-time-to-quit-my-job-bb32a5e50308 | ['Shannon Ashley'] | 2018-12-16 21:13:06.229000+00:00 | ['Creativity', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Work', 'Parenting', 'Writing'] |
Create your own Machine Learning App with Anvil (Basic) | Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash
Hi everyone, back with me again, with these pandemic let’s pray for everyone who fight and it will better as soon as possible. Right now, again I want to create an app, but with only Python, same as before, when I am creating house price prediction app using Streamlit, if you don’t know or for refresher, take a look at this link.
Why Anvil? Actually it started when my client searching another platform that can run application using Python, and he sent me Anvil. It is quite like Streamlit, so basically it is a web application using Python, but more easy to use. Their web is written like this. Check their web on this link.
Full stack web apps with nothing but Python
Hmm, seems interesting for me, because when they said that, of course it will be a good news for Python users, and when you check it out, there are tutorials that will help you to familiarize with Anvil. How they work and then what should we do to create an app.
Step-by-step
Create account
First thing first, you should register at Anvil web to create an application, and then you can see the interface like this, you can create your scratch app or because we are new in here, let’s check tutorials. I urge that you check this because it will help you to familiarize with how Anvil works.
Anvil web apps
Create an App
After familiarize a little bit with the interface, let’s create an app. In this phase I am going for New Blank App for interface. You will see that one advantage of using Anvil is the GUI. You can even create an app with just drag and drop. But of course using Anvil means you should know about Python, because to connect each item of them using Python, so how to do that?
User interface of Anvil
Connect with Jupyter Notebook
Yeah, you can connect your Jupyter with Anvil, so Jupyter maybe have limitation, people who dont’t understand code at all are always confused with what is our project are talking about. With Anvil, people just take a look at your app and you can care with your code, win-win solution, right?
So how to connect? Firstly click settings icon on the left area, and then click Uplink so you have options to add some key, click enable key and then key will be generated for your project. Use this for your Jupyter Notebook. But before that install anivl-uplink with pip install anvil-uplink first to adding Anvil’s package.
How to get Key for Jupyter Notebook
After you got the key, add this code to your Jupyter Notebook, for this because we have our model for article before, so we just adding to last cell of the project, using Shopee.ipynb on my project, project link.
import anvil.server anvil.server.connect("INSERT_YOUR_KEY")
Basically this code is about calling your Jupyter Notebook through connect with Anvil App, so you don’t need to scratch at Anvil. Just using your notebook.
Create function on Jupyter Notebook
Because we want to make our project can called into Anvil App, of course we should create some properly function to call. In this app I want to add function called predict_model() with several arguments.
import pickle
import anvil.server
#saving model
pickle.dump(model, open('model_new.pickle', 'wb'))
def predict_model(sqft_liv,bath,bed,floor):
model_linear = pickle.load(open('model_new.pickle', 'rb'))
predictions=model_linear.predict([[sqft_liv,bath,bed,floor]])[0]
return(predictions) @anvil .server.callabledef predict_model(sqft_liv,bath,bed,floor):model_linear = pickle.load(open('model_new.pickle', 'rb'))predictions=model_linear.predict([[sqft_liv,bath,bed,floor]])[0]return(predictions)
Basically you should need to adding anvil.server.callable to make sure that function you have been created will connect with Anvil App. Why should be four argument? Because our input for the model are four like the last article. Rest of them is always same except for load model, I am using pickle to save and load the model.
Design your App
Finally, it’s time to designing your app. Don’t worry because it is really simple, just drag and drop what do you need, like Label or Button for clicking. It is up to you to check what components are good for that. For my example, the design would be like this.
My Design
Special for Text Box, don’t forget to change it into Number type, because we want to create machine learning application.
Special case for TextBox
As you imagine, because we are want to create an app, we can design as we like, like adding an icon, or resize the label and many more, you can do anything you want to. After you design this, now it’s time to connecting your Jupyter notebook with Anvil app.
Connecting with Anvil
For connecting, because we just have one button, just click the Button design twice and then the interface will be change into Code Editor. Then you will see another function, this function are important to connect our Python into Anvil. Adding some line of code like this.
def button_1_click(self, **event_args):
"""This method is called when the button is clicked"""
results=anvil.server.call("predict_model",self.text_box_1.text,
self.text_box_2.text,
self.text_box_3.text,
self.text_box_4.text)
self.result.text = results
pass
As you can see this method only run if you click the button, and for calling the function, we should using anvil.server.call because right now our Jupyter Notebook will be server and app itself will be client. So you don’t need to add your model code on Anvil, just called it. Then predict_model is our current function at Jupyter. Self.text_box_1.text, etc is our input, so when we have four input, we should call all four input using Anvil. And self.result.text are our result who we want to show, so we are using Label with name result. I hope it is clear because I know maybe it is slightly hard to do. After this you can just run using Run icon on the upper side of Anvil app.
Your app
Voila, you have created an app using Jupyter Notebook and Anvil. If you have interested you can Publish your app and make custom domain, like this link if I am running this project, it is very interested side, but one thing that you should notice is, because your Jupyter Notebook is your server, so when you don’t activate Jupyter Notebook, the link isn’t working. So make sure that you have run your project.
That’s it. Thank you so much for reading this article, I hope it is helpful for you who maybe don’t have web skill but want to create an app. This project can be downloaded on my Github here. After that adding a code like my article and you are ready to go. Follow my Medium and Linkedin here and share it if you see it is very helpful. Feel free to ask me on Linkedin or my email here and see you soon in another article. Keep learning! | https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/create-your-own-machine-learning-app-with-anvil-basic-6bf3503e80f1 | ['Muhammad Sifa Ul Rizky'] | 2020-04-17 07:42:45.235000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Jupyter Notebook', 'Machine Learning', 'Anvil', 'Python'] |
Books That Made 2020 Less Terrible | Because, it’s been pretty hard, right?
Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash
2020 has been a pretty shitty year for a lot of us, I’d go as far as saying that everybody in some vein has been affected by the devastating effects of a global pandemic.
A lot of people have tried to see the good in adversity, which I can highly respect — however struggle to empathise with.
Being someone who is naturally a realist (and often, a pessimist) a glass half empty approach is how I viewed the most part of 2020. However, one thing I can agree — is that it’s ignited an old flame of mine that was slowly burning out: reading.
At the beginning of 2020, I had an unnecessary obsession with Instagram, and although I can blame it on the fact that I was backpacking and wanted to capture each moment — I do think being so engrossed in technology stops you from feeling present in the moment.
When lockdown struck, and I was forced to fly home from Malaysia, I became increasingly anxious and worried about the future, like many others. This stress turned me into somewhat of an introvert, for the first time in my life.
The last time I’d felt like this was probably as a child/teenager, whilst I was trying to navigate being a young adult. Reading has always been a huge part of my life, but it’s only really in the last year or two that I’ve fallen back in love with it.
This year, I read about fifteen books in total, all varying in terms of genre, length and subject matter. Although the below books weren’t released in 2020, they were the books that gave me a glass half full approach and made 2020 feel less depressing.
So, without further ado — here are the books that made 2020 less terrible!
Everything I Know About Love — Dolly Alderton
After being recommended this book by one of my girlfriends nearly two years ago, I bought the book and immediately fell in love with the pace of the book and how relatable the book was due to Dolly’s age and experiences. With Dolly only being five years older than me, there were a lot of synergies with growing up in the boom of the internet (yes, I’m that old that dial up internet worked through a phone) and the world of MySpace and MSN.
It felt very nostalgic, and a window into Dolly’s life and her experiences as a woman growing up in London. Although I left London at 18 to go and study, I still consider myself a Londoner at heart and felt right in the midst of this book the whole way through. It made me laugh, cry and reflect on the importance of female friendships — which this book encapsulates beautifully. Strangely, it was a book that helped me to feel present despite what was going on around the world.
My Sister The Serial Killer — Oyinkan Braithwaite
This is a book that definitely leans into dark humor and taboo topics, and you become so invested in the protagonist and her sister! Set in Nigeria, what I loved about this book isn’t just the hilarity of it, and beautifully short chapters (great if you have a short attention span like me) — is that it isn’t set in the classic locations you always get with every book.
There’s something about learning about a new culture or location that appeals to me, and although there’s a nostalgic familiarity with reading something set in London — somewhere new is always something that I love when reading. I wish I found this book sooner, and I’m hoping that Braithwaite releases another book soon!
Crazy Rich Asians — Kevin Kwan
I committed the unthinkable crime last year, and that was watching the film before the book. Although this is suicide amongst avid readers, hear me out — I didn’t realise that it was a book until after I watched the film. Not only did I fall in love with the film, but I honestly think the book is better and juicier than the movie.
After visiting Singapore in March 2020 (shortly before I had to fly home) I fell in love with everything there. The food, the grandness of it all and of course, the glamour. This book had me in stitches, and is definitely one of my favourite books of all time. The film is also brilliant — and makes you wish that you were in every single scene!
Before The Coffee Gets Cold — Toshikazu Kawaguchi
After walking into waterstones in the summer, I randomly decided to pick up the first book that I saw, which led me to picking up before the coffee gets cold. I had no idea what to expect as I didn’t even read the blurb — instead just purchased it and went into it with an open mind.
Translated from Japanese, the story is (in essence) about time travel, and that’s the only spoiler I’m going to give! It’s a short book with four interlinking stories, and I really found it a beautiful book that evoked emotions that I wasn’t expecting. I planned to go to Japan in August for my 25th birthday, so reading this book was the next best thing!
Overall, beautiful stories — and I hope to read more from this author when his books are translated!
Conclusion
Although I read a lot of heavy books this year, the four mentioned brought me the most joy, and ultimately helped me to get through some pretty tough months this year.
I’d love to hear which books should be in my “to be read pile” for 2021 — ideally ones that aren’t hyped too much as they usually end up being a bit disappointing… | https://medium.com/curious/books-that-made-2020-less-terrible-d53d5b67a6e2 | ['Claire Stapley'] | 2020-12-17 22:08:35.836000+00:00 | ['Reading', 'Books', '2020'] |
19 Simple Tips, Tricks, and Hacks to Organize Your Home and De-Stress Your Life Right Now | True story: We’ve planned for a while now to write an article about easy home organizing tips, tricks, and hacks and how Bargain Storage can offer solutions for your off-site storage needs. De-stressing and decluttering are relevant topics that connect to the services we offer (spoiler alert: see the end of this article for how we can help). Everyone’s a winner, right?
Well, riiight. Except we didn’t realize just how relevant a topic this would be until 2020 happened. As of this writing, the US has experienced various shutdown degrees as we attempt to flatten the COVID-19 curve.
If you’re reading this, you’ve likely spent at least six months working from home. That’s plenty of time to become more proficient in Zoom and, unfortunately, to live in increasingly cluttered rooms. And now we’ve got the holidays right around the corner.
We feel you. We get you. Because we’re in the same boat.
We want to provide our Bargain customers with real information you can use. If we’re going to write a home organizing article, you need it to be really extra. Because let’s face it, we’re all extra tired, extra stressed, and generally just extra over 2020.
So, in the name of being helpful and caring, two of our core values, it’s time for a little pandemic pep talk:
It’s been a heck of a year. Being cooped up at home is draining, but it’s also the perfect time to tackle those home organizing projects you never quite had time for “BC” (Before COVID). If only you had the energy to tackle it, but you’re so exhausted!
Guess what? You’re totally allowed to do what you need to do to get by. Get your work done, keep the kids fed, fall onto the couch for a little TV binge and online shopping, and then do it all tomorrow. It’s OK!
Still, at some point, you’ll need to do some responsible adulting and bring your ship into some shape before you drag out the holiday decorations. (More clutter, ugh!)
Also, know this: you’re not alone. Why do you think shows like Netflix’s Get Organized with The Home Edit are so popular? Watching Clea and Joanna rainbow-code dried pasta and alphabetically sort spices has become a national form of self-soothing.
So, if reading this gives you an extra measure of motivation to get up, blast “Eye of the Tiger,” and scour your house, hold up a second. The quickest way to self-sabotage your organizing and decluttering efforts is to put the pedal to the metal.
Organizing your home at this time of year, especially this year, can feel daunting, so tread gently. And take baby steps. There’s no need to blow all your energy on a power-cleaning session or your entire paycheck at The Container Store. Neither is sustainable.
Instead, let’s focus on moderation and modified behaviors to move you closer to your goals. Then, we’ll introduce some inexpensive and recycled items to get your home in order. True to our Bargain name, when we do recommend products, most are under $30.
OK, pep talk over! Let’s dive into some practical tips, tricks, and hacks to organize your home and de-stress your life right now. In this article, we’ll share:
4 easy practices to free up time and space
10 simple tricks to conquer COVID clutter
5 decluttering D-I-Y-namos
A big way that Bargain Storage can help
4 Practices to Free Up Time + Space
You don’t need superhuman strength to clean up your home. You just need some smart tactics to make the task more manageable. Here are our four favorite techniques:
8-Minute Rule
Don’t let overwhelm overcome motivation and leave you with a severe case of “analysis paralysis.” A quick, efficient way to get past this cleaning conflict of interest is to engage in small cleaning spurts.
Enter the 8-Minute Rule. Set an alarm for eight minutes of focused cleaning and organizing, and see what you can accomplish. Really put your mind to it. You can also utilize the 20/10 Method — organizing and cleaning for 20 minutes, followed by a 10-minute break.
Just One Thing
It’s said that it’s best to eat an elephant one bite at a time, and this sentiment is valid here. Take a minute to identify just one thing you no longer need or is broken to throw away, recycle, or donate.
The good news? If you’re feeling extra low energy, tossing one old pen that no longer works or replacing the batteries in the TV remote counts. We’re all about boosting self-esteem with quick wins.
Want to take it to the next level? Practice this little exercise every day. By the end of the week, you’ll have rid yourself of at least seven items — and we promise you’ll feel lighter for it.
Touch Things Once
Have you considered how much you handle things when you put them away? Save time, increase efficiency, and minimize clutter by using the “touch things once” practice conceived by productivity consultant Ann Gomez of Clear Concept Inc. It’s what it sounds like: When you’re cleaning, try to touch it (read: deal with it) once. Make a game of it. When you’re done with dinner, bypass the kitchen sink(hole), rinse those dishes, and put them into the dishwasher.
We’re sure you can think of other scenarios where this rule would be helpful. For example, hang up clothes instead of letting them pile up, sort mail as soon as you bring it inside, etc.
One-In, One-Out Rule
This is the classic “out with the old, in with the new” approach. It’s OK to say “yes” to buying new things, especially for items that need to be replaced. Life is about balance and cycles. So, for every new “yes” you say to, like a new sweater or book, respond with a loving “It’s not you, it’s me! But we sure had a good run!” to an item you can toss or donate.
Bonus Hack: Before & After Photos
There’s nothing like a good before-and-after photo session to inspire you. Choose one small area of your home, like your messy bed, and take a photo of it before cleaning it up.
Challenge yourself to change your sheets and make the bed in 8 minutes (see further up for the 8-Minute Rule). Take a moment to fluff up the pillows and smooth out the duvet cover.
Then, take an after photo and compare it with your before picture. Once you see how great this one space can look, it becomes easier to start decluttering more areas of your home.
Next, post those before and after photos to your social media. Your friends are sure to chime in with praise and cheer you on to keep going — and then plead for you to come to their house to help them do the same! Plus, your future self will thank you when you crawl into a clean, comfortable bed for a good night’s sleep. (Ahhh, such bliss…)
Our Top 10 Tricks to Control the COVID Clutter
Now that you’ve got some good practices to start, well, practicing, let’s apply them to some of the most-used areas in your home. Just remember to go at your own pace, perhaps focusing on one or two of these areas a week.
Stage a Clean home Entry Point
Your home should be a safe haven from the outside world, and now more than ever, it needs to be a clean and healthy one. So, first things first. Set up your home’s main entry point — whether that’s your front entrance, laundry room, or mudroom — as a comfortable and tidy space for slipping off your shoes and storing your bags and coats.
Keep some homemade disinfecting wipes and a small trash bin nearby if you need an extra wipe-down before entering what will become your progressively cozy sanctuary.
Utilize Inside of Doors
We all know we can store things behind closed doors, but how often do we remember that we can put stuff on the inside of closed doors? Our next tip highlights utilizing vertical space, and this might just be the “OG” of vertical victors — right behind the Murphy bed. Whether you use the old stand-by of a vinyl shoe organizer or a more expensive track system, get more use out of that door! We love this affordable option from The Container Store.
Maximize Vertical Space
Looking for another great way to capture vertical space? Bathroom countertops are a great place to find it. Stack a couple of inexpensive bins with drawers to hold makeup and toiletries or splurge a little for a more decorative, double-decker organizer like this swiveling, sleek beauty.
Leverage the Usefulness of Labels
Labels may feel like overkill, but they’re a great way to quickly visually ID things in your home. And, it may seem like a tedious chore to label allllll the things, but you’ll be so glad you did when you need to find something fast. We love this Brother P-Touch Label Maker, making it easy to create great-looking labels for your home, home office, and home-based schoolroom. The uses are endless: drawer tops, bins, pantry goods, spices, files, toys, and so much more.
Tame Your Countertops with a Counter Tray
Fact: Items multiply and migrate when left to their own devices on flat surfaces. Corral those cluttering culprits with a small counter tray. We’ve found so many uses for them: Set one next to your stove for your most-used spices, or place one on your couch’s side table to serve as a home for the remote, your glasses, pen and paper, nail clippers, etc.
Hang Those Hooks to Maximize Wall Space
Hooks are another excellent example of how to use your vertical space to get things off the ground and out of your “floordrobe” pile. If you don’t want to put holes in the wall, then Command hooks are your new BFF.
Keep Clear Bins in Kids’ Rooms
There are few places where “out of sight, out of mind” is more relevant than a child’s bedroom or playroom. This might be a good thing for some toys (harmonica or talking doll, anyone?) but not so great if you want your child to play with a wide range of their toys instead of just their favorite few. These clear bins help keep your kids’ things organized, visible, and easy to clean up after playtime.
Move Castoffs to the Car
If you’ve managed to do some organizing and now have bags or boxes of things to run to the dump or donate, then hooray for you! But, well-intentioned clutter is still clutter. Instead of letting these items stack up by your back door, go ahead and move them to your car trunk for easy offloading the next time you’re out and about. This trunk organizer makes it easy to keep things from toppling over if you take that left turn a little too quickly!
Clear Bins in Fridge
Fridge bins are gaining popularity, thanks to organizing pros on TV and social media showing us how to customize our crispers. Just like in kids’ rooms, clear bins create a revamped refrigerator or freezer storage system that works for you. Our top 3 bin organizing tips:
1) Group like items, like small condiments, together.
2) Create a kids’ snack station on the bottom shelf.
3) Move your produce out of the crisper to eye-level so that you enjoy it instead of having to toss it!
Create A Command Center for Small Home Supplies
Suppose you or your significant other and kids are all working and schooling from home these days. In that case, you have a greater need than ever for organizing supplies like tape, scissors, thumbtacks, paperclips, stapler, Post-It notes, and so forth. Instead of digging these items out of multiple places, set up a proper command center to neatly store everything in one place. The infamous kitchen junk drawer is a common culprit for collecting some of these items. Read this to whip it into shape in just 30 minutes!
5 Decluttering D-I-Y-namos!
Feeling inspired but don’t want to run to the store to buy yet more stuff for your cluttered home? Do a quick scavenger hunt around the house for items that aren’t earning their keep. Then, give them a second life with these creative uses:
Shower Curtain Rings
Hang shower rings from a hanger, and use them to hang belts, tank tops, scarves, baseball caps, ties, or anything else that doesn’t need its own individual hanger. You’ll save a lot of space in your closet, and your accessories will be easier to find too!
Old Bread Bag Tags
Imagine never having to ask the question again, “Now, which device does this go to?”, as you try to trace tangled cords from the power strip back to their sources. It’s possible with leftover bread bag tags and a Sharpie. (It’s true, the little things really can make us happy!) #brilliant!
Muffin Tin
Remember when you learned one of your friends had a hidden talent that blew you away? That’s how we feel about our friend, the muffin tin. With its many organizing uses, the possibilities to keep life a bit more orderly almost outshine this tin’s original purpose. Notice we say “almost outshine.” Because muffins (or cupcakes, yum!).
Toilet Paper or Paper Towel Rolls
Don’t toss those toilet paper or paper towel rolls. They make clever “cord corrals” for your electronics. Use them as-is, or dress them up with colorful washi tape and labels. Because the only thing better than a free and functional organizing tool is a pretty one!
Tension Rods
We saved our most versatile, hardworking friend — the humble tension rod — for last. It’s inexpensive, removable, and fits the gaps that other DIY hacks can’t fill. And, it’s polite enough not to do damage to the areas where you need it most. There are far too many uses to count but here are two of our favorite applications:
Vertically position to separate cutting boards and cookie sheets.
Horizontally place to create a makeshift shoe rack!
Stay Organized with Bargain Storage
So, how did you do? Did you conquer some areas that have been bothering you? If so, you hopefully can breathe a bit easier and navigate your home in a way that feels more peaceful and set up for your current needs.
If — after putting some of our organizing tips, tricks, and hacks into practice — you need a place to store some things you’re not ready to permanently part with, then look no further than Bargain Storage.
Our facilities in Texas and Arizona offer clean and affordable storage solutions, including drive-up units for quick and easy access and climate-controlled options. We’re also diligent in keeping our facilities extra clean and our customers and team members safe while also delivering the best customer experience possible.
If you are practicing of social distancing, please remember that you can rent a storage unit online (select your location first) through our website, set up automatic payments, or call our office and make a payment over the phone.
We’re always glad you’re here, we care, and we offer good bargains that don’t cut corners. We’re also here to help. Need help selecting the right size unit? Check out this helpful blog and size guide. Our FAQ and storage tips also might come in handy. Contact us today for details!
Related Articles
Find this article helpful? Here are a few more to keep in mind as you conquer the clutter or even consider a move during this time:
6 Simple Tips for a Safe and Seamless Move During a Pandemic
5 Apps That Make Creating a Self-Storage Inventory a Snap
10 Things That Can and Can’t Be Stored in a Self-Storage Unit
The Ultimate Guide to Relocating During COVID-19
How to Pack a Storage Unit: Tips for First-Timers | https://medium.com/@bargainstorage/19-simple-tips-tricks-and-hacks-to-organize-your-home-and-de-stress-your-life-right-now-bdaa84b64898 | ['Bargain Storage'] | 2020-12-10 22:24:41.008000+00:00 | ['Decluttering', 'Organization', 'Storage'] |
His House: When Reality is More Horrifying Than a Sinister Spirit | Rial and Bol peeking at their new neighborhood in England.
His House is a 2020 horror film directed by Remi Weekes. It tells the story of a Sudanese family, Bol (Sope Dirisu), Rial (Wunmi Mosaku), and Nyagak (Malaika Abigaba), refugees escaping from a war in Sudan by crossing the ocean in a motorboat to start a new life in England. Sadly, the overcrowded motorboat broke down and some of the refugees failed to be rescued, including their daughter Nyagak. Both Bol and Rial tried their best to survive and deal with their griefs in the probational asylum provided by the England goverment, until they realized that the walls of the house is haunted by an evil spirit, Apeth, following them all the way from Africa. Bol wanted to assimilate and survive in the house occupied with the evil spirit, while Rial wanted to return to Africa and escape the evil spirit. Which choice will they make?
For years we are presented with cliche haunted house films in which the characters don’t want to leave their house even though they barely have any reasons to stay. Yet, His House shattered that cliche beautifully. Bol and Rial have a legitimate reason to stay as they are forced to follow the England goverment strict rules or they will be deported. As refugees, they don’t have much money, a stable job, and even a sense of security. This difficult circumstances which pressured them to stay in their “haunted house” made the film horrifying.
I personally liked the conflict between Bol wanting to assimilate and imitate the local culture, and Rial wanting to preserve her traditional African culture. For instance, Bol cut his hair in a barber and buy western style clothings, while Rial prefer to eat on the floor and wear African clothings. It creates a truly relatable experience as both of these choices are really hard to make, especially for immigrants who are trying to create a new life. Furthermore, in the film we are presented with a glimpse of Sudanese culture, such as clothings, beliefs, and many others presented mostly by Rial. It really gave a fresh touch to a horror film which we barely see before.
One of the most memorable scenes in the film is when Rial was bullied by few British-African teenagers for talking and dressing like an African. She was insulted and even told to go back to Africa. This irony presents how racism and white supremacy has rooted deep within the society. To these young British-Africans, African immigrants are just an immigrant which are “lower” than them. In one of the interviews, Remi Weekes admitted that the scene is inspired by real stories faced by immigrants in England and America, and he said, “If you’re within the culture long enough, white supremacy soaks into everything.”
I personally don’t see this as a scary ghost horror film. The jumpscares, the ghosts, and how the film plays with the tension and emotion of the audience is great, but it is not the scariest part of the film. What is legitimately scary in this film is how the characters face their inner demons, the guilt and the trauma they endured as immigrants. This is the part we are concerned with everyday. In life, we may not face a sinister demon like Bol and Ria does, but we will always face our inner demons, and that what makes His House truly terrifying. | https://medium.com/@vito-h/his-house-when-reality-is-more-horrifying-than-an-evil-spirit-ab852c012d83 | ['Vito H'] | 2020-12-22 08:34:51.615000+00:00 | ['Film', 'Culture', 'Horror', 'Race', 'Film Reviews'] |
MAN FROM TOMORROW (EPISODE 42) | Martin turned away from Kevin and Anita. His gaze was cast out on the deserted street and the property beyond. Something black speeding down the road toward them caught his eye. It came closer without losing speed. Martin realized it was a black BMW, and the driver’s window was quickly rolling down from view. There was something about that vehicle that sent Martin’s body into a panic. The car’s Headlights were not on. It was like the black BMW were an extension of the night itself. Unseen, stealthy. It was being driven without headlights. And that only meant that the driver didn’t want to his victims to see the car coming.
“Get down!” Martin shouted, jumping at Anita, throwing them both to the Kerb just as a bullet shot out in their direction. seconds after the shot sounded, Kevin screamed in pain. Martin rolled off of Anita, only to see Kevin crumple to the floor. Before moving to check the state of the man, he saw that the BMW stopped in the middle of the street, and the car doors were opening its occupants hopping out.
While Anita was picking herself up, distressed and confused, Martin moved to grab Kevin by the arms so he could begin to drag him toward the shop. Once Anita realized what he was doing, and that Kevin had been shot, she scrambled to help. Hooded strangers were walking towards them dressed in black.
She whipped the garage door open before rushing back to help Martin pull Kevin into the shop. His weight was more than either of them could handle alone, and together, they barely made it inside before a masked man approached; his strides slow and measured as the door slammed shut in front of him. He seemed sure he would get his mark without even needing to try. Anita used every locking mechanism available, but what she heard next sent shivers up her spine.
Something pressed against the door. “You can’t keep me out with simple locks,” a cold voice sounded from the other side. Anita stepped away when there was a clank against the metal frame. Then the horrendous sound of metal gnawing at metal vibrated from the door, and she ran. They weren’t going to be safe for long.
She moved through the shop, following the trail of blood that Kevin left in his wake as he half-walked and half-dragged by Martin, also holding his briefcase in one hand. She closed all of the doors behind her, and locked those that she could as she went. While she was unsure how long it would take the man in black to break through the door, she wasn’t about to make it easy for him.
“Martin!” she shouted, having lost them in her attempt to slow down the man pursuing them. The building was a lot larger than she expected. Moments after she called to him, she heard his response and rushed in that direction.
(To Be Continued Tomorrow…..)
[The complete Book ‘MAN FROM TOMORROW’ can be downloaded at amzn.to/2MSf1ng ] | https://medium.com/@dr.kartik.h/man-from-tomorrow-episode-42-a1a3fdaef3d7 | ['Kartik Hegadekatti'] | 2019-11-15 05:59:37.860000+00:00 | ['Serial Fiction', 'Fiction', 'Suspense', 'Novel', 'Thriller'] |
Q: Why is Tulsi Gabbard Still In The Race? A: To Bring The Ruckus | As I was checking the news earlier today I noticed that the coronavirus had killed another top government official in Iran, bringing the total to 3. Or at least the 3 they have released info on. There’s a chance it’s worse among the Iranian leadership but they don’t want to cause a panic. I checked the Twitterverse after that for my daily dose of madness and surprisingly kept seeing people ask rhetorically:
Why is Tulsi Gabbard still in the primary race?
Turns out that Amy “She-Hulk” Klobuchar had dropped out of the primary race apparently to suck up to Joe Biden for a VP slot. And so had Pete “Honestly I’m Not Annoying” Buttigieg. This, of course, should surprise no one. The criminal financial syndicates greasing the palms of practically all politicians and media to do their bidding have seen the writing on the wall. They realize they need candidates to drop out to coalesce centrist votes around one to stop what they perceive to be a huge problem for them in Bernie Sanders.
And it isn’t just your typical establishment tool on Twitter who is asking why Tulsi is still in the race. I’ve seen a lot of progressives asking the same thing. It’s as if they don’t realize that there is a massive threat to elderly people in the world right now from the out of control coronavirus.
Do you not see a potential danger for the elderly candidates in the race — which is all of them — except Tulsi? They are in closed spaces with large diverse crowds all across the country. That is the perfect environment for spreading the airborne virus. What if they get infected? What if Bernie Sanders gets infected and has to drop out? Are progressives comfortable with the other candidates?
Biden and Warren are both enthusiastic supporters of neocon foreign policy which is in line with their phony support for the working class. What happened to Warren’s glittering M4A plan? It turned back into a pumpkin, didn’t it? It was all smoke and mirrors. No surprise if you know her history. Did you see her on Pod Save America regaling us with how much she believes in crippling countries by sanctions if they dare to resist the racist Imperial Borg Assimilation Machine aka The Foreign Policy Establishment? That doesn’t sound woke to me, Miss Thang.
Warren is an establishment social climber. She took off the mask and her true colors shone through when she viciously attacked Bernie Sanders as a misogynist. Yet still many people surrounding the Bernie Sanders campaign support Warren. Why is that? Big money on the left supports her, that’s why. That big money also pays a lot of salaries in the liberal political job market and funds a lot of political campaigns. Have you heard of The Democracy Alliance? | https://medium.com/@pamho/q-why-is-tulsi-gabbard-still-in-the-race-a-to-bring-the-ruckus-54a4aadc5df6 | ['Pam Ho'] | 2021-04-01 21:14:05.286000+00:00 | ['Bernie Sanders', 'Media', 'Tulsi Gabbard', 'Propaganda', 'Virus'] |
Bay Area Biotech IPOs Surpassing Internet/SaaS IPOs | In the 2000s, Bay Area Internet/SaaS IPOs outnumbered Biotech IPOs by a factor of 3. In the 2010s, that ratio dropped to 1.8. So far in 2020, there have been more Bay Area Biotech IPOs than Internet/SaaS IPOs. Nationally, this trend is even stronger with Biotech accounting for more than twice as many IPOs as traditional tech companies. Moreover, with the VIX stabilizing, conditions look healthy for the IPO market in general.
I discuss these trends in my latest video on the 2020 Biotech IPO market. | https://medium.com/@biotechonomics/bay-area-biotech-ipos-surpassing-internet-saas-ipos-3635be85420e | ['David Gross'] | 2020-11-22 20:20:54.128000+00:00 | ['Biotechnology', 'Silicon Valley', 'IPO', 'Bioeconomy'] |
Love story #2022. Aditi took a heave of sigh and looked… | Aditi took a heave of sigh and looked at the date. She had just turned 28 last week. The birthday was fun, she got to spend time with her friends but it was an exception nowadays since every one of her friends had grown busy with their own lives, and her being single is slowly creeping up on her. Aditi knew that she’s had her fair share of ups and downs in life but she’s definitely had enough with the (f)uck boys whom she had been dating unfortunately. With 30 fast approaching, the alarm bells that had been going off in her parents’ mind for a while have slowly started to go off in her mind as well.
She looks around her and finds that almost all her friends had gotten married and some had even started to invite her to their kids’ first and second birthdays. Increasingly her posse is growing smaller day by day and She’s now finding herself doing things alone which would she never would have thought of doing alone. Her partners in crime have finding partners of their own.
And let’s not even get into the dating apps, they are a problem of their own. The ever increasing swipes, constant chats, the effort required to establish a connection with someone you like, only to see it broken by shitty conversations and at times borderline pervy solicitation of her pictures and selfies was emotionally tiring. This constant back and forth and ever-increasing disappointments has had a profound impact and changed her view of relationships.
She does understand the term happily single and embraces the benefits of it and does find a lot of benefits that others don’t have, but she didn’t plan on being single all her childhood. The constant let downs from the conversations she’s had on the apps, the endless list of shitty first dates, and the FOMO that’s been building in her slowly have completely destroyed any hopes she had towards finding a simple, loyal, no-nonsense partner. All that she ever expected from him was a shoulder to lean on when things are not great.
She’d been constantly prioritizing her career over finding a partner because of all these struggles and at 28 it seems like she cannot escape into focusing on her career once more.
Her hopes and dreams and the magic that surrounded the anticipation of who her life partner was going to be, is nothing but a sliver of what it once was.
Now with this in mind, her one solid option of finding someone who would take her seriously without hurting her would be the guys her parents have been raring to find for her. The parent’s version of the Indian matchmaking. Aunts, Uncles, and family friends would all band together at a moment’s notice to find her a boy that they think would match her.
This isn’t a bad idea considering the fact that she would not get hurt anymore, but she also has to contend with the fact that the search would be incredibly narrow (caste, financial status, career, educational background, family background) and it would be a miracle if the boy turned out to be the one from her dreams. She feels she’s not ready to drop the hat yet. She still wants to preserve a little bit of her childhood wonder of who her partner is going to be
So for one last time, she takes a huge breath and decides to dive once again into the world of dating apps with hopes of finding someone who sweeps her off her feet.
She decides to search for dating apps that focus on people with serious intent. She comes across entangle.
She enters her basic information, her interests, preferences, and uploads her carefully handpicked dating app photos. She then comes across this personality test that she is forced to take by the app. She answers the first 10 questions, but she is urged to take more in order to find her a better match. She answers another 20 questions before she’s decided that it’s enough.
Now she’s expecting to see a screen where all the suitable boys’ profiles are displayed to her so that she could start swiping. Instead, she is shown two screens. The first screen is just a chat screen and the second one looks a screen that provides dating tips, advice, etc.
Now she learns that the app sets her up on a blind date(match) every Thursday. The matches are selected based on a compatibility score, for example, Varun has 90% compatibility and Yash has 65% compatibility with her, etc.
The app makes a sound prompt (a short musical ping of sorts) and just like that she’s been matched with someone.
The app would then go on to ask three ice breaker questions which now seems like both of them have to answer, for the answers to be revealed.
She liked harry potter, and coincidentally Varun liked harry potter too. So both of them are asked whether the usage of the love potion by Romilda Vane on Ron Weasley was good or bad, and they are asked to answer it.
She also liked Friends a lot, and guess who else liked Friends, Varun!. You get the idea. So now they are asked whether Ross and Rachel were on a break, and did it actually matter?
Finally, since both of them shared a deep interest for Classical music, they are both asked what their favorite composition was, and which Philharmoniker do they dream to go to one day with her significant other.
Now you can kind of sense what is going to happen. Either they both answer completely way off of each other or it could be something interesting. Nonetheless, they both have enough to talk about right off the bat without ever worrying about how to start the conversation, what pickup line to use, etc. It’s just simple conversation at it’s best.
Fortunately, their answers were just far apart to provoke a short but meaningful conversation that made them understand each other and their perspective of the world. Aditi feels a connection of sorts and she felt like she knew who the other person was, their personality, their character. She can’t believe that she is finally enjoying a conversation that doesn’t ask anything of her, and that she can speak her mind freely without worrying if she is going to be judged, since both are actually ANONYMOUS.
Yea, did I forget to mention that? Both of them don’t even know what the other person looks like, their interests, their names, nothing, zip, nada. Although the app does have a plan.
The app is constantly analyzing their texts for positive sentiments like confidence, cheerful, neutral, supportive, caring, etc. Also, the app is looking out for negative sentiments like dismissive, ignorance, or just pure hostile.
The app senses that the conversation is fairly positive, and now decides that it needs to move the conversation to the next stage. Helping them get to know each other better.
The app now presents them with an option of sharing each other’s information at a predetermined milestone. So one their chat count reaches a 100 messages their picture can be shared if both of them choose to do so. At 150 messages their height and at 200 messages their fitness levels, etc
At these milestones the app prompts with an affirmative message that reads, “Hey, it seems like you two are hitting it off, why don’t you both share your information and get to know more?”
Aditi and Varun share their pictures and other information. Aditi finds that Varun is not her usual type but she likes the connection that she’s built with him. It’s somehow as if, the connection she had built with him is making him look better.
And now for the grand finale, after 500 messages… the app presents them both an option to go on a first date.
Aditi is like, “Whaaaa, this is too soon!”. I mean according to the old guard, isn’t the guy supposed to make the move? And according to the evolving new social standards women make the move as well, but she feels the timing may be too soon.
The app provided presented them an option to go to the new French restaurant that opened in town. She knew that it was a good date spot, it was also in a safe neighborhood and equidistant to both of them. And on top of everything, they both even got a discount.
And just like that, without any one of them making a move, Aditi and Varun are thinking about going on their first date.
The app recognized the positive feelings from the conversation and nudged them to take a leap of faith and see where it goes. I mean, instead of being alone on a Friday night, they both now have an option of meeting someone whom they’ve already connected with over dinner.
The reason why a blind date is scheduled every Thursday by the app is to urge everyone to go on a date the next day without overthinking it too much. There may be cons to this approach, but if the conversation was good, why not take the chance of meeting them and getting a fuller picture?
Both of them say yes and they both go on a date.
The app later schedules Aditi to join a short 1-hour anonymous group call with 5 other women who’ve gone on a date just like her. The only guideline provided to them by the app is to talk about how their date go and not talk about who they dated. Surprisingly to Aditi, everyone had a good chat and ended up sharing their experiences. Some even strongly voiced their opinions on how the date went for Aditi and one of them even told her to go on a second date.
The same happens for Varun as well.
Both of them are also told to rate each other on a scale of 1 to 10 for pleasantness, intriguing chat, overall feeling, how nice the other person was, etc.
The next day, the app offers them an option to either keep the chat going or say a short goodbye and move onto to the next match. The only catch is that, they will not get a blind date until they have the chat going on. So they have to commit to someone and risk on missing out meeting new people or choose to meet new people and risk missing out on Varun.
Aditi feels like she had a good experience but also wants to see what’s out there. That’s not a bad choice at all considering she had one of the best dating experiences in a while on the app. She finally feels hopeful and less anxious about missing out on someone. So she sends Varun a nice goodbye message and jokingly tells him that if the app was ever to match them again, she would definitely marry him. And off they both went onto their next match.
Aditi repeats the same thing over and over again a few times and by date number 5, she is starting to have second thoughts about saying goodbye to Varun. She felt that Varun was probably the best of all.
Date number 6,7 and 8 goes by and now Aditi is kicking herself for not asking Varun’s number and is also kind of hoping that the app would somehow match her with Varun again.
Date number 9 comes along, and the chat seems to be a little too familiar. They both hit it off and Aditi now feels that maybe she found somebody she’s finally interested in. The app promps both of them to share their information and when she saw the picture, Aditi knew that she is in deep trouble.
Fin. | https://medium.com/@imgovind/a-new-age-love-story-91a92cf64e74 | [] | 2020-09-02 08:07:32.116000+00:00 | ['Lovestory', 'Dating', 'Love', 'Dating App'] |
How To Prevent Krampus From Dragging Your Asshole Kid To Hell | HOLIDAY HUMOR
How To Prevent Krampus From Dragging Your Asshole Kid To Hell
Some St. Nicholas Day’s Eve Advice
Photo by Alessio Zaccaria on Unsplash
Happy Krampusnacht!
Everyone knows Saint Nicholas comes to town to bring gifts to children in December, but did you know about his demonic counterpart, Krampus?
On the Eve of his very own Name Day, Lil ol’ Saint Nick arrives to stuff little gifts in the shoes of the angelic kiddos of the world. His lesser-known, half-goat, half-human, horned companion Krampus trails closely behind bearing birch twigs for whipping and an empty sack containing enough room to snatch the children who are beyond salvation. He famously takes them to his lair in the fiery depths of hell.
So, if your kid is a little shit, but you still want to keep them around after Krampus makes his yearly romp around town, you best heed my advice.
Some defiant kids can be convinced to act buttoned up for the season. Try giving them a nice little spook and show them the photo of Krampus up above. Tell them they can continue on their path of bad behavior and be visited by the heathen who will take them away forever, or repent and get a boot full of sweets and treats from Saint Nick. They should come to their senses.
If your child’s devilish behavior is beyond reparation yet for some reason you still plan on keeping them around even though Krampus would gladly take them off your hands, this calls for more desperate measures.
First, chain the sleeping asshole to their bed, and chain the bed to the ground. Cover up the windows and fill the rest of the room with good things to counteract the sinful energy.
Leave out a bottle or two of schnapps and several fancy brandy glasses to tempt and distract. Krampus will gobble that shit down, and hopefully ignore your demonic little shit in the process.
If desperate times call for desperate measures, prepare yourself with some wooden stakes, preferably coated in the blood of God himself. If you’re willing to sacrifice your life to prevent your little devil from being dragged to Hell by the son of Hel himself, then buckle up! This is what you signed up for.
Stake out your kid’s room, and pray to Saint Nick that when you go wake them up for Saint Nicholas Day they’re just sitting there confused as to why they’re strapped to the bed and Krampus has spared them for another year.
Happy Saint Nicholas Day! ’Tis the Season to not be dragged to hell. | https://medium.com/muddyum/how-to-prevent-krampus-from-dragging-your-asshole-kid-to-hell-e8b27ed382eb | ['Sara Zadrima'] | 2020-12-06 00:04:41.052000+00:00 | ['Satire', 'Saint Nicholas', 'Krampus', 'Humor', 'Christmas'] |
A more expressive Medium — starting with Medium | An introduction to our evolved brand identity
A little background
Over the past several months, Medium has been rolling out a series of upgrades, all of which are helping us build a more relational Medium.
One of the most notable upgrades we’ve made is allowing more creative expression for the writers and brands on our platform, so that your home on Medium can feel more like you. It was only fitting that as we build a more expressive Medium for creators, we should follow suit by better expressing our own brand. Which is why, this year, we updated the Medium brand identity, which we are excited to unveil today.
https://idfg.idaho.gov/species/sites/default/files/observations/files/2020/12/basaksehir-rb-leipzig02.pdf
https://idfg.idaho.gov/species/sites/default/files/observations/files/2020/12/basaksehir-rb-leipzig.pdf
https://idfg.idaho.gov/species/sites/default/files/observations/files/2020/12/ferencvarosi-tc.pdf
https://idfg.idaho.gov/species/sites/default/files/observations/files/2020/12/ferencvarosi-tc02.pdf
https://idfg.idaho.gov/species/sites/default/files/observations/files/2020/12/basaksehir-rb-leipzig04.pdf
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https://www.centerffs.org/sites/default/files/webform/internships/coverletters/basaksehir-rb-leipzig02.pdf
https://www.packcity.co.jp/sites/packcity.co.jp/files/webform/ferencvarosi-tc.pdf
https://www.packcity.co.jp/sites/packcity.co.jp/files/webform/basaksehir-rb-leipzig03.pdf
https://idfg.idaho.gov/species/sites/default/files/observations/files/2020/12/leipzig-izle-v-tr-tr-1.pdf
https://www.centerffs.org/sites/default/files/webform/internships/coverletters/burg-v-zenit-tv.pdf
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https://idfg.idaho.gov/species/sites/default/files/observations/files/2020/12/burg-v-zenit-tv1.pdf
https://idfg.idaho.gov/species/sites/default/files/observations/files/2020/12/m-utd-v-psg-tv1.pdf
https://idfg.idaho.gov/species/sites/default/files/observations/files/2020/12/psg-v-man-utd-direct1.pdf
https://idfg.idaho.gov/species/sites/default/files/observations/files/2020/12/Rennes-Krasnodar-direct-tv1.pdf
https://idfg.idaho.gov/species/sites/default/files/observations/files/2020/12/ren-v-Kra-direct-tv1.pdf
https://idfg.idaho.gov/species/sites/default/files/observations/files/2020/12/z-v-b-kijk-tv1.pdf
https://mkartikariyan.medium.com/source-pic-via-bf775e9ce5b
https://indicet.hatenablog.com/entry/2020/12/02/235543
https://note.com/drytdrtydrfg/n/n59be949412aa
https://blog.goo.ne.jp/netsports/e/35c7b46f04786a27de78eebafb8bc194
https://bovhjvhlslrposhwbj.medium.com/may-be-it-would-to-be-easier-if-he-werent-also-from-a-wealthy-family-with-a-high-paying-tech-job-ed956d3cc25b
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https://patfnbdalxb.medium.com/try-this-for-your-next-chyron-labels-lie-53168517e233
The foundation: the brand behind the branding
Medium started with a simple purpose: to deepen people’s understanding of the world, and spread ideas that matter. We did this by giving people a simple medium — a blank page — for their ideas to reach what is now a global community of over 170 million readers. Most importantly, as an open platform, anyone can have a voice on Medium, regardless of background, affiliation, or expertise, and share their thoughts directly, independently, and unfiltered. We’re proud to give these voices a home to grow, connect, and spark real, nuanced conversations — as well as the potential to instigate change. … | https://medium.com/@koyiw27105/a-more-expressive-medium-starting-with-medium-f6b5be7d20ad | [] | 2020-12-02 15:56:02.896000+00:00 | ['Curation', 'News', 'Questions', 'Covid 19', 'Expressive Writing'] |
GRADIENT DESCENT : Basics And Application | Gradient Descent is one of the most widely used optimization algorithms to train machine learning models. It is extensively employed in machine learning as well as deep learning.
APPLICATION: To estimate the values of function parameter so that the value of cost function is minimized.
Let’s study more about the cost function:
We place on the x-axis, on the y-axis, and on the z-axis. The graph below depicts the following:
Gradient Descent Algorithm
Our aim, here, is to somehow reach the minima of the cost function, i.e. the pits of the graph where the black marked lines end.
How do we achieve this?
We achieve this by taking the derivative of the cost function. The slope of the tangent represents the derivative at that point. We take steps down the graph in the path of steepest descent. Eventually, we reach the minima of the graph.
The learning rate parameter (α)determines the size of each step we take along the direction of steepest descent.
In the above example, the distance between each ‘star’ is a representation of the step taken, determined by “α”. Greater the learning rate (α) larger is the step taken.
NOTE: Depending on where we start, we could end up at two different minima (local optima) as shown in the above figure.
Gradient Descent Algorithm
[ NOTE: We know that a = b is a truth assertion to check if a is equal to b, however, a:=b is an assignment operation where we the value of b is assigned to a. ]
Here we have to simultaneously update θ0 & θ1 in the following manner:
Now, let us mathematically analyse the simultaneous update of function parameters (θ0 & θ1).
Let us consider one parameter (θ1) for the time-being. We will plot the graph cost function J(θ1) against the parameter taken into consideration (θ1).
We have to repeat this formula until the cost function reaches its minimum value.
In the above graph, the value of the slope is negative until (θ1) reaches its minimum value. On moving further towards right the value of the slope increases as the value of (θ1) increases.
On the other hand, the value of the learning rate parameter (α) should be kept such that the gradient descent algorithm converges in a reasonable amount of time.
How does gradient descent converge when the learning rate parameter is fixed?
The convergence should happen in such a way that ( d[J(θ1) ])/(d(θ1)) approaches zero at the bottom of the cost function.
At the minima we get:
θ1:=θ1+α* 0
The gradient descent can converge to local minimum even with a fixed value of the learning rate parameter (α) because the steps taken by gradient descent spontaneously decrease as we approach the local minimum.
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Website : https://www.societyofai.in/ | https://medium.com/@societyofai/gradient-descent-basics-and-application-1cef98179ee6 | ['Society Of Ai'] | 2020-09-23 18:13:46.948000+00:00 | ['Cost Function', 'Gradient Descent', 'Application', 'Machine Learning', 'Algorithms'] |
The 5 Most Common Smart Contract Vulnerabilities | Smart contracts are hard to get right. Their three main properties, the ability to hold value, transparency, and immutability, are essential for them to work. However, these properties also turn smart contracts into a security risk and a high-interest target for cybercriminals. Even without deliberate attacks, there are plenty of examples of funds getting stuck and companies losing money due to smart contract bugs and vulnerabilities.
Over the last two years, we have audited the smart contracts of more than 40 projects here at Cryptonics. The contracts audited include different types of asset tokenization, insurance policies, decentralized finance platforms, investment funds, and even computer games. We have observed certain trends in the types of vulnerabilities that we usually encounter, and some issues seem more common than others. In this article, we will describe the five most common issues we detect in our daily auditing activities.
1. Integer Arithmetic Errors
A very common occurrence is getting integer arithmetic wrong. Smart contracts generally express numbers as integers due to the lack of floating-point support. Quite common in financial software anyway, using integers to represent value requires stepping down to small units, in order to allow for sufficient precision. The simple example is expressing values in cents rather than dollars, as it would be impossible to represent $0.5 otherwise. In fact, smart contracts usually step down much further with 18 decimal places being supported by many tokens.
One issue developers are quite aware of nowadays is the fact that integers may overflow. Like mileage counters in cars, integers expressed in computers have a maximum value and once that value is reached they simply turn back to the beginning and start at the minimum value. Similarly, subtracting 4 from 3 in an unsigned integer will cause an underflow, resulting in a very large number. Developers are generally aware of this potential vulnerability and protect against it by using a safe math library, such as Open Zeppelin’s excellent implementation.
However, what many developers seem to fail to appreciate, is that integer arithmetic can generally lead to a lack of precision when done wrongly. In particular, the order of operations is important. A classic case is calculating percentages. For example, in order to calculate 25 percent, we typically divide by 100 and multiply by 25. Let’s say we wish to calculate 25 percent of 80 using only integers. Expressing this as 80 / 100 * 25 will result in 0, because of rounding errors. The simple mistake here is to perform the division before the multiplication.
The above is, of course, a very simple example, but we do come across integer arithmetic bugs with alarming frequency.
2. Block Gas Limit Vulnerabilities
The block gas limit is Ethereum’s way of ensuring blocks don’t grow too large. It simply means that blocks are limited in the amount of gas the transactions contained in them can consume. Put simply, if a transaction consumes too much gas it will never fit in a block and, therefore, will never be executed.
This can lead to a vulnerability that we come across quite frequently: If data is stored in variable-sized arrays and then accessed via loops over these arrays, the transaction may simply run out of gas and be reverted. This happens when the number of elements in the array grows large, so usually in production, rather than in testing. The fact that test data is often smaller makes this issue so dangerous since contracts with this issue usually pass unit tests and seem to work well with a small number of users. However, they fail just when a project gains momentum and the amount of data increases. It is not uncommon to end up with unretrievable funds if the loops are used to push out payments.
3. Missing Parameter or Precondition Checks
One of the simplest programming mistakes that we encounter is either not validating the arguments of a function or forgetting essential checks for an operation to be valid. Often, this includes address parameters not being checked for the zero address or, for example, not verifying that a user has sufficient token balance to execute a certain operation. Another good example is access control, where only a certain type of user should be authorized to call a function but this check is never performed.
These errors are usually the result of a sloppy design process. It is a good idea to have a written specification of all functions, stating the parameters, pre-conditions, and operations to be performed. Sticking to best practice design patterns, such as Checks Effects Interactions, can also help to prevent this type of vulnerability.
4. Frontrunning
Potential frontrunning is probably the hardest issue to prevent on our list of common vulnerabilities. Frontrunnuing can be defined as overtaking an unconfirmed transaction. This is a result of the blockchain’s transparency property. All unconfirmed transactions are visible in the mempool before they are included in a block by a miner. Interested parties can simply monitor transactions for their content and overtake them by paying higher transaction fees. This can be automated easily and has become quite common in decentralized finance applications.
It is not easy to protect against frontrunning, and the issues we detect often require some significant refactoring or redesign, in order to be fixed.
5. Simple Logic Bugs
Some of the above issues are more specific to smart contracts, others are common to all types of programming. However, by far the most common type of issue we detect consists of simple mistakes in the logic of the smart contract. These errors may the result of a simple typo, a misunderstanding of the specification, or a larger programming mistake. They tend to have severy implications on the security and functionality of the smart contract.
What they all have in common though, is the fact that they can only be detected if the auditor understands the code base completely and has an insight into the project’s intended functionality and the contract’s specification. It is these types of issues that are the reason smart contract audits take time, are not cheap, and require highly experienced auditors.
Concluding Remarks
Things have changed over the last couple of years in smart contract programming. Countless high profile cases resulting in lost money have made projects aware of the need to take security seriously. We do find that developers are more aware of common vulnerabilities and frequently employ tools, such as static code analysis and symbolic execution to automatically scan their code.
However, we have never performed an audit that has not resulted in at least one minor issue in the first round and plenty of really experienced developers have presented us with critical vulnerabilities in their code. The nature of the common issues is such that a full manual smart code audit is essential and this should be performed by an independent team with fresh eyes.
For inquiries on our smart contract and full-stack audits, please contact us at Cryptonics. | https://medium.com/cryptronics/the-5-most-common-smart-contract-vulnerabilities-738de4fae3ba | ['Stefan Beyer'] | 2020-03-04 07:51:13.482000+00:00 | ['Fintech', 'Smart Contracts', 'Ethereum', 'Blockchain', 'Cybersecurity'] |
Making Agile work in Travelstart Development | If you know Travelstart, then you know that it is a company with plenty of vision, passion & drive. The company loves reinventing itself and very quickly responds to challenges. Development had already adopted Agile, but for some reason, it didn’t quite work yet. In this article, I want to address the biggest changes we made to become successful.
The IT Management team making it all happen (Ashley, Bevan, Jai, Rushaan, Jan André, Anja & Rick)
Focus
Travelstart is a fantastic place to work as there is always something going on. The office is buzzing because of campaigns, action days, issues and new initiatives. Being a technology company implies that development gets a fair share of that action. Issues need to be resolved a.s.a.p. and new ideas often need attention today rather than tomorrow.
It takes a developer 45 minutes to get into a zone where he or she is effective. You want to avoid that developers are disturbed when they are concentrating. This does not only result in lost time but also increases the risk for quality issues.
You also want to limit the number of items in progress. The more items someone has in progress the more context switching is required. Context switching is also an important reason for delays or quality issues.
We try to keep the development area quiet for a few hours a day to allow teams to concentrate. Our building also has plenty of lounge areas, where developers can sit away from the team. To ensure that we can act when real emergencies occur, each team keeps a small buffer available in their sprints.
Our office in Cape Town
The Team
Being a growing organization meant that Travelstart relied on a number of experts, each with their own skills and experience in their own domain. This obviously creates problems when the experts are going on a well deserved holiday, are sick or decide to move on to other challenges. People were organized according to their skills and deliverables moved from one team to another (e.g. back-end to front-end to QA).
Agile works best when you have teams that have a clear focus, that are self-sufficient (i.e. multiple skills in the same team) and that are organized to continuously improve. To have well-performing teams is sometimes a real challenge as you have to carefully consider personalities, skill levels, and each team member’s personal preferences.
In Travelstart we aim to have teams that feel empowered to make a difference. Teams focus on specific business areas and work close together on estimations, planning & delivery. At the end of every sprint, the team does a retrospective where everyone’s opinion counts and contributes to continuous improvement.
Separate the Why from the How
In Travelstart, but pretty much any other company I’ve worked for so far, people pride themselves in finding solutions to problems so all you have to do is implement the solution.
While thinking in terms of solutions instead of challenges is a very positive thing in general, it doesn’t always help in software engineering. We truly believe in finding ways for Product Owners to come with a business issue or challenge (the why) and identifying the critical success factors that are going to result in a positive change. Good developers are able to understand those opportunities and think of the technical challenges involved (the how). What follows is a good negotiation where Product Owner and the team agree on scope (the What) and a solution where most of the why is achieved. Quite often you will find that 20% of the effort will result in 80% of the result or at least a good start to get feedback on the potential of the solution.
Visualization & Transparency
For nearly one year I’ve had the privilege to be coached by Menno van Eekelen and I remember so well how he introduced post-it notes, brown paper roles & whiteboards. After initially getting a lot of push-back, everyone soon converted because of the positive effect of visualization. When I joined Travelstart I saw the same issues I saw before i.e. lack of visibility of progress and planning and lack of clarity on the solution to everyone involved. Having seen how Menno solved this I did the same in Travelstart.
Visualization is key to good collaboration. White boards, Post-It notes and diagrams are all good tools, each with their own use. Post-It notes with clearly written keywords are very useful:
Prioritization sessions are more effective by having participants rank different work items by changing the order of the Post-its
They allow you to make retrospectives more effective by giving everyone time to write their own notes and present them to the group
They allow for more democratic decisions by using dot voting i.e. have everyone give votes (dots) on their preferred item (e.g. an action or piece of work to be prioritized or a retrospective item that needs further discussion.
They make standups more transparent as people have to physically move their work items on the board from one status to the next.
Save time by doing relative sizing
A lot of experienced engineers pride themselves in being able to provide reliable estimates that are ultimately related back to absolute numbers (e.g. a number of man-days. These sizings need to consider all requirements, technical complexity, resource seniority etc.
There are a few issues with absolute sizings; often the estimates are wrong because the real complexity & requirements are discovered as the work progresses. The second even more important reason is that this kind of sizings don’t include the whole team i.e. only the person estimating might feel the commitment to ensure that the real effort matches the estimate.
Relative estimates are a lot easier than absolute estimates. To start, take some work items recently delivered and ask the team to rank them in order of complexity. Take out items that are similar in size and now label these items for example with a t-shirt size (XS, S, M, L, XL). This baseline is very useful to compare new work items with. The next improvement is to use points instead of t-shirt sizes. This allows us to measure over time how much a team can deliver. In Travelstart we use the Fibonacci series to size all work items. This has some advantages over agreeing on a precise number. As the complexity of item increases, we can afford to be less precise and the team doesn’t have to worry about it. This allows us to move on over having to have endless discussions over every little detail.
These are the 5 biggest learnings for Travelstart Development. Agile & Scrum work well now which means we can focus on the real challenge: making travel simple! | https://medium.com/tech-travelstart/making-agile-work-in-travelstart-development-7408fcce0b77 | ['Rick Molenaar'] | 2017-10-03 09:37:36.818000+00:00 | ['Scrum', 'Agile', 'Leadership', 'Software Development', 'Team'] |
Is Social Media making us more Narcissistic? | With the Snapchat filters guarding your extrinsic values, and people sitting across dinner tables checking Facebook rather than having face-to-face conversations, we are living in an increasingly narcissistic society. This aspect of Social Media has compelled individuals to present an unrealistic portrait of themselves.
Narcissism is a term that can be used in a variety of ways — from the throwaway insult to a personality characteristic that seems to suffuse all of a person’s behaviours, to a full-blown personality disorder. A narcissist — puts forward a pathetic display of pompous self-adulation, and possess a highly inflated view of oneself. The essential question here is that: Is Social Media apposing us to Narcissism?
The answer is from a research, conducted in many laboratories is, almost certainly, “yes” — but with lots of caveats! Over the last couple of years, a plethora of research has been pouring in that makes connections between Facebook and narcissism. Studies are consistently finding that people who score higher on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory questionnaire tend to have more friends on Facebook, tag themselves more often in photos and update their statuses more frequently. And, this does hold true for other popular platforms as well.
While in general, Social Media platforms encourage Self-promotion, people often utilize it “to look important, look special, and to gain attention and status and self-esteem .” Well, be it selecting more attractive photos of oneself as profile pictures, or populating our Instagram feed with the most captivating bits of our lives, individuals isolate themselves from the true sense of self.
With an overwhelming exigency for grandiose feelings of self- importance, the need for power and admiration, and dwelling on one’s achievements and appearance, individuals are quite often, mistaken with the difference between self-esteem and narcissism, the former one being regarded as a more positive and healthier trait. Not only does the lack of accomplishment and craving for a quick-fame drive an individual towards a narcissistic behaviour, but also it exacerbates the mental health.
Younger generations being easy targets, are exhibiting higher rates of hyperactivity disorders, and the petty reasons like inability to click perfect selfie leading to consternation. While “Friends” bragging about their perfect ‘social’ lives has been a headache for many, cyber-crimes and cyber-stalking have reached unbreachable heights. Studies have also shown how narcissists tend to exert more power and hence, end up involving themselves in vulnerable crimes.
Although social media and narcissism are inter-linked, it surely has served as a string that has woven the world together into a masterpiece. Also, the fact that many Narcissists are successful social media creators can’t be overlooked. They surely have played an important role in building the networks and platforms that have transformed the meaning of life. The question about social media, being the perfect connector or a clear and present danger remains unanswered.
Perhaps, we should rather focus on how we can turn back the dial and use it in a more ‘self-friendly’ way, that endorses compassion, self -esteem and respect. It is the need of the hour to focus on one’s mental well-being. The solution to fostering a less narcissistic generation is to instil a healthy sense of ‘true self- esteem’ amongst individuals, and prioritizing ‘true self–love’ and compassion.
Adore yourself, accept yourself most imperfectly, confide in yourself the deepest fears and insecurities, but don’t indulge in displaying yourself in the most ideal ways; because ‘the most ideal situation’ tends to exist only in figments of one’s imagination. Instead, work on ‘SELF-LOVE’ and not “self — adulation”.
Imbibe in you that confidence which will never fail you, the courage to accept the slightest fault in yourself and the determination to continue on the path. Media publicity can be ephemeral, that this ‘short- time glory’, might yield the worst of results, mentally and socially — and that’s the reason to invest in yourself, to showcase your inner true self, to gain that self-reliance, which might sometimes fail to impress, but will help express you in the best way!
Find out how the generation of today use social media to voice their opinions to the world!
Article Originally Published at: The Teen Pop | https://medium.com/@theteenpop/is-social-media-making-us-more-narcissistic-5aa82ef53923 | ['The Teen Pop'] | 2020-07-19 06:13:57.472000+00:00 | ['Social Media', 'Snapchat', 'Narcissism', 'Narcissistic Abuse', 'Social'] |
Wilburgur offers NordVPN discount | Wilburgur YouTube channel is a great place to come by for a gamer. Especially one who likes well-animated gaming videos. Even more so if you’re into Fallout and Skyrim content because you’ll find lots of those. He makes great impressions and seeks out the most absurd situations that will make you laugh to tears. I subscribed instantly, and now am alongside 439k of his fans. I found even a special discount on one of his videos recommending NordVPN for online security and privacy protection. Let’s what’s in the deal!
How to get Wilburgur NordVPN discount?
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Why should you get NordVPN?
Gamers very well understand that the Internet is by no means safe. Gamer accounts are getting regularly hacked with credential stuffing attacks, their IPs leak and give away the real geographical location, and some are DDoSed to disconnect from a winning match. That’s just unfair.
Luckily, you can get cyber protection software to secure yourself. NordVPN provides you with much-needed encryption to defend your online traffic against any hackers or data miners. It will also send the traffic through its secured no-logs servers, which means they don’t store any browsing data on them.
It’s a massive boost to only privacy. Moreover, it will obfuscate your IP address and let you pick a new one from your liking country and bypass geographical restrictions.
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Don’t know who Wilburgur is?
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Don’t hesitate any longer and get NordVPN while it’s on a discount! | https://medium.com/@nicolasegredrern/wilburgur-is-giving-out-nordvpn-discount-check-his-exclusive-deal-9209981721b3 | ['Nicolas Grendern'] | 2020-12-23 14:40:20.132000+00:00 | ['Discount', 'Cybersecurity', 'Game', 'VPN', 'Deal'] |
Clear, Spare and Slight: Where You Once Belonged by Kent Haruf | By Blamfoto
About 15 years ago I was a young journalist writing for my college newspaper when I reported on the author Kent Haruf receiving the key to the city of Lincoln, Nebraska. At the time Lincoln City Libraries had selected Plainsong for its One Book-One Lincoln community reading program.
I remember how impressed I was to see this man standing in a room full of admirers and feted in such a way for a book set in my part of the world.
“The hardest thing to do is to try and learn your craft while making a living,” he said that night. He didn’t get published until he was 41, working as an English teacher for the duration. “After 30 years, I’m an overnight success,” he told the crowd.
Haruf graduated from Nebraska Wesleyan University, and later taught there. Yet he’s the chosen writer son of Colorado, born in Pueblo, and maybe the state’s best-known novelist. I visited a bookstore in Salida, where he died, last year that had all of his books proudly displayed.
But really to me he doesn’t belong to one state. Instead he belongs to the region between the mountains and the Midwest, the Great Plains. Holt, the small town which serves as the setting for nearly all of his fiction, is at heart a plains town.
The most recent novel of his I’ve read, Where You Once Belonged, was one of three suggested to me in a writing class I took last year as a way to inform my own fiction. I already wrote about Daniel Woodrell’s Give Us A Kiss here, and I’ve yet to read the third, Jayber Crow, by Wendell Berry, but I hope to get to that soon.
It’s interesting to me how popular Haruf’s writing is in literary groups. I tend to think his sentences aren’t ornate enough for your average modern MFA writer, and he’s clearly a regionalist, a designation that’s often derided in today’s world, where no one is from anywhere.
But still, people say to me “your writing reminds me of Plainsong” and it’s always intended as a compliment. I take it as one. I’d love to write as well and as clear and spare as Haruf. His style is perfectly suited for the landscape of the Great Plains.
The region Haruf writes about, his fictional town of Holt, Colorado, is the same region I know, just three hours south of my hometown. His characters grew up slightly closer to the mountains, but even though this is Colorado, it just as easy could be Kansas or Nebraska. Consider this passage:
Sometime during those days and nights in the motel room Burdette managed to convey the impression to her that Holt was better than it is. He told her, for example, that you could see the mountains from Holt.
You can’t of course. You have to drive at least forty miles west of here to see the mountains. And then it has to be a very clear day, coming after it has rained or after the wind has blown hard for five or six hours so that the brown cloud hanging over Denver has been driven away or blown off, and then what you see of mountains is merely a faint blue jagged line on the horizon some hundred miles farther to the west.
I believe Where You Once Belonged is considered one of Haruf’s lesser novels. It was published before the book that would make his name, Plainsong, and although WYOB has more than enough moments of fine writing, it doesn’t quite range into the realm of transcendence that he achieved with his later work. It lacks much of the rural description we read in the bigger, more ambitious books. By that I mean it’s more of a town book than a country book. (But definitely not a city book.) That doesn’t make it any less viable, necessarily, just maybe lacking in those great scenes of livestock and bachelor farmers that made the other fiction work so well.
The story’s compelling enough. It’s about a guy who grew up in Holt, became something of a local legend for his size and strength and general manliness, then disgraced himself and the community with some poor behavior, left town, only to show up one day several years later as though nothing happened. It’s told by a classmate who made his life in that rural place as well, and there are many moments of poignant beauty throughout.
That night I saw Haruf get the key to Lincoln he cited Faulkner and Hemingway as his two main influences. You get much of the former’s style in the plot of the story with its tragic outcomes, and much of the latter’s in how the sentences are crafted. But the overall product is the author’s own.
It’s clear with this book Haruf knows he’s found his “postage stamp of native soil,” to quote Faulkner, and it stands to reason why he keeps exploring the lives of the people there. He knows the landscape, but, more importantly, he understands what makes people do what they do in the fictional town of Holt, Colorado. It just a shame we didn’t get more from this great writer. | https://medium.com/the-american-west/the-books-in-my-life-where-you-once-belonged-by-kent-haruf-933afac0ba06 | ['Bart Schaneman'] | 2018-10-24 11:57:37.770000+00:00 | ['Novel', 'Great Plains', 'Literature', 'Review', 'Kent Haruf'] |
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A Disproportionate Burden | Voter ID laws in the United States are becoming more common and more strict. In 2013 alone, legislators in six states moved to strengthen their voter ID laws. Today, eleven states have a strict voter ID requirement in place. Moreover, the fate of these laws is far from certain; almost every strict ID requirement has been challenged in the courts, and many of these cases remain outstanding. More challenges to these laws are likely to emerge in the future. Outside of these legal proceedings, the constitutionality of these laws remains in question. The stakes for American democracy are high and growing higher by the year.
The answer to that constitutionality question may well be tipped one way or the other by the weight of the empirical evidence about the burden these laws pose on minorities. All of this means that there is a real need for hard evidence. Clear, objective, and empirical answers to the core voter identification debates could actually sway outcomes on the issue.
In this article, we have attempted to provide some of those hard empirical answers. By focusing on data from recent elections following widely implemented strict photo ID laws, by using official turnout data to eliminate concerns over inflated and biased turnout patterns from self-reported survey data, and by employing a research design that incorporates longitudinal data and difference-in-difference tests, our analysis overcomes many of the core problems faced by previous studies. As such, our study offers a more rigorous test of these laws.
Our primary analysis assesses changes in aggregate county turnout data between 2012 to 2016, incorporating all U.S. counties in the analysis. We also perform a robustness check that focuses on changes in county turnout between 2010 and 2014. The core test is to compare changes in turnout in racially diverse counties in states that have implemented a new strict voter identification law to changes in turnout in similarly racially diverse counties in states that have not enacted a new strict voter identification law. We also focus on how the gap in turnout changes between more racially diverse and less racially diverse counties in states with newly enacted strict ID laws, compared to how the gap changes elsewhere. We perform these difference-in-difference tests with and without controls for other factors that could also shape changes in turnout.
The findings presented in our paper strongly suggest that these laws do, in fact, represent a burden that disproportionately affects minorities and significantly alters the makeup of the voting population. Where these laws are enacted, turnout in racially diverse counties declines: it declines more than in less diverse areas, and it declines more sharply than it does in other states. As a result of these laws, the voices of Latinos, African Americans, Asian Americans, and other minorities become more muted and the relative influence of white America grows. An already significant racial skew in American democracy becomes all the more pronounced. If courts are indeed trying to gauge the burden these laws impose on minorities and others, then this new data should help the courts with their deliberations. | https://medium.com/mit-election-lab/a-disproportionate-burden-a6521956423e | ['Mit Election Lab'] | 2018-07-26 21:13:26.233000+00:00 | ['Esra 2018', 'Politics', 'Voting'] |
Investing in Youth: A Conversation with Dr. Robert K. Ross and The CA Endowment President’s Youth Council | Investing in Youth: A Conversation with Dr. Robert K. Ross and The CA Endowment President’s Youth Council StartingUpGood Follow Dec 4, 2020 · 5 min read
By: Brady Press
This post is part of a series highlighting sessions from the SOCAP 2020 Virtual Global Impact Summit. Continue reading for information on the role of youth in impact investing and philanthropy.
Key Takeaways
We need youth representation in philanthropy, Congress, schools, etc. for full economic participation and full health and wellness to make real change in the US
Including youth in philanthropy and investment decisions broadens perspectives, pushes the status quo and creates more inclusive impact
We should be creating an intergenerational, intersectional trajectory that is tailored to youth power in a way that isn’t tokenizing or marginalizing youth — not just bringing them on to say you have diversity on your board but actually grasping their voices, stories and experiences
Summary
The California Endowment’s President’s Youth Council (PYC) is a body of youth ambassadors across California that serve in partnership with CEO Robert K. Ross to ultimately shape The California Endowment’s investments and culture. The PYC has served as a precursor to TCE’s Advancing Racial Equity process. This session speaks to the innovative practice of engaging young people as authentic thought-partners and how youth-led narrative change, empowerment and governance is critical for movement work.
Speakers
Dr. Robert K. Ross, President and CEO, The California Endowment
Leslie (Lupe) Renteria Salome, PYC Ambassadors for Youth, President’s Youth Council
Karla Ortiz, PYC Ambassadors for Youth, President’s Youth Council
Jahiem “Geo” Jones, PYC Ambassadors for Youth, President’s Youth Council
Session Notes
Why did you create the President’s Youth Council (PYC)?
Dr. Robert K. Ross, President and CEO, The California Endowment
This is probably the most important social justice moment in the last 100 years and young people are always at the forefront of social justice change (John Lewis, MLK Jr., Malcom X, etc.). I wanted to always make sure I had young people in my brain to inform my role as a foundation president; I want to be close to the ideas of young people
At the California Endowment, we have a 10-year strategic plan and a corresponding youth action plan on how we should invest our grant dollars. We established the Youth Council 7 years ago; we have 14 healthy community sites across the state of California and we try to have 1 youth representative from each site (ranging from ages 16–24)
The Youth Council members come from distressed and difficult neighborhoods around California and we meet 4 times per year to talk through strategies, topics and issues
Some of the ideas from the Youth Council that we’re beginning to put into practice are:
The importance of full inclusion on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation The importance of trauma; young people are reporting a lot of trauma that impacts their health and wellness and have informed me of the need to have a more trauma-informed approach to our grant making and strategies Ideas like finding community based alternatives to youth prisons and the Youth Philanthropy Institute where grants are provided by the Youth Council that encourage entrepreneurship for wellness and making sure there are community spaces dedicated to healing, restoration, reflection and gathering and kinship. These spaces will hopefully be owned by the communities they’re located in and are intended to move wellness and healing forward
Karla Ortiz, PYC Ambassadors for Youth, President’s Youth Council
As we’re doing these action plans we’re always thinking about the importance of the ideas of young people and also challenging these ideas, pushing older folks to come out of their comfort zone
We’re all about shifting and changing the narrative that has been in place for so long, A lot of our grant money went to healing youth trauma and the leadership pipeline
More institutions should be funding young people and training and teaching them what philanthropy looks like — what does it even mean to grant money?
PYC is unique because all of us are young people who are on the grounds doing the work and who know what our community needs and how to show up in the best way
My biggest takeaway from PYC was the development and growth — development of myself as an organizer and someone who has a taste of what philanthropy looks like and all that goes into it
I recommend to all young people to create authentic relationships and meet people halfway. Understand adultism and work together. PYC is creating this intergenerational approach where we’re always trying to invite our elders into the space as well
Jahiem “Geo” Jones, PYC Ambassadors for Youth, President’s Youth Council
I joined the PYC when I was 16 and just learning what a W9 is. It’s important to invest in youth but even much younger than 16; it’s grabbing youth in middle school and putting them into these positions of power
I know bringing in younger members can seem scary to board members, but it’s about taking that risk and asking what do we actually see in this young person that frightens us? Is it because they’ll be creative and have a different perspective?
We have to be able to guide youth and see how we can help them navigate their career paths because not everyone wants to work in philanthropy or social justice — how can we craft a professional development pipeline that is tailored to getting them to the career they want so they can be successful
We should be creating an intergenerational, intersectional trajectory that is tailored to what we call youth organizing and youth power that isn’t tokenizing or marginalizing them, that’s not just bringing them on so you can say you have diversity and youth on your board but actually grasping their voices, stories and experiences
My advice to young people is to be vulnerable and be able to voice what you need. It’s scary, but being able to say what you need right now (whether its transportation, mental health needs, etc.) is a rare opportunity
Dr. Ross, knowing you’ve been in partnership with PYC for years, what does a youth adult partnership look like?
Dr. Robert K. Ross, President and CEO, The California Endowment
Sometimes you can tokenize young people’s participation if you’re not careful. You really have to bring young people on board with the seriousness adults see in one another, which requires humility, grace and dignity
Young people by definition are passionate and impatient and will push us to uncomfortable places, but that’s what we need to make real change in this country
Even if I don’t do everything they want me to do, they’re pushing me. This is exactly what we need in philanthropy, in Congress, in schools, etc. for full economic participation and full health and wellness
It’s important that these young people show up with their full selves and their full visions. Don’t show up trying to be an adult — be vulnerable and share your greatest fears and struggles in addition to hopes and dreams
Want to know more?
For more SOCAP content, visit full session recordings on YouTube or see here for other Starting Up Good summaries of our favorite recordings. | https://medium.com/startingupgood/investing-in-youth-a-convo-with-dr-robert-k-ross-and-the-ca-endowment-presidents-youth-council-42797a8ee0d7 | [] | 2020-12-07 16:17:44.333000+00:00 | ['Social Entrepreneurship', 'Impact Investing', 'Socap', 'Philanthropy', 'Youth'] |
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Is it Expected to Work Overtime in a Startup? | Photo by Kyle Hanson on Unsplash
In IT, people quite often have to deal with overtimes:
a project has swelled out of proportion;
someone got their estimates wrong;
the client has an important deadline;
we have to test our MVP fast;
a competitor has this feature…
While it can be an opportunity for additional compensation or greater schedule flexibility, I’m convinced it’s never a good idea in the long-term.
We do not practice overtimes at Everhour although we serve more than 3,000 companies from 70 countries.
Like other companies, we are growing, have to solve scalability problems, we experience bugs and downtimes, constantly release new features. But still, we have enough time for everything. There are 16 people in our team now (while there were only 7 last year, when we reached our first significant milestone — $1MM ARR)
In our case overtimes aren’t very common. How is that?
The first reason is our phase and financial stability. Our product is profitable and we did not take VC money, that surely takes off enormous pressure. So, pay great attention to finances.
However, I do not consider this as the main and the only reason.
I can easily understand overtimes in outsourcing business, when there is an “external” customer who often has a deadline or when you as a manager intentionally assign resources on multiple clients to increase profits or undertake new projects to avoid idle time.
But startup is a different story.
It is very difficult to produce even 6 hours of high-performance work per day, not to mention overtime. Try to work honestly for a while at this pace. What’s the point of just having an employee in the office long hours? If the employee does not produce a tangible result during normal hours, this is kind of cheating, procrastination or not ideal task management.
Overtimes are symptoms of some problem that you need to eliminate.
Without a good work-life balance, people do not have enough time to relax physically and mentally, they come exhausted to work and show not the best results, let alone burnout and even serious health problems.
I have a few simple pieces of advice.
Timing Isn’t Always As Important
The task can take longer due to various changes and enhancements. Be focused on results. Each new feature or change should provide benefit and appeal to users. You never get a second chance to make a first impression!
Image by Secret Source
Split an Epic into Chunks
Whenever possible, try to break up large tasks into smaller ones.
They are easier to estimate and faster to make. Large tasks obviously take longer and have a much higher bug rate. When an employee hangs for a long time on one task — the excitement is lost. It is no longer interesting, and every day you have to force yourself to work on this task. We all love to do something new.
It also creates a feeling of progress. People like to accomplish something. Give them this feeling more often.
Be More Realistic in Planning
Don’t schedule 8 hours of work a day. Everyone gets distracted, some unforeseen circumstances and tasks always pop up. Plan a little less, say 6 hours.
Describe Tasks in Details
Describe tasks in great detail. This will save time on misunderstandings and the need for additional communication when the task was already started.
If all the nuances are clear, any developer will do everything faster and better. Do not be lazy, do not think that everything is obvious here. Furthermore, a detailed manual will be useful for QA and support staff. | https://medium.com/everhour/is-it-expected-to-work-overtime-in-a-startup-f6de88f7c970 | ['Mike Kulakov'] | 2019-10-01 12:53:01.593000+00:00 | ['Work', 'Business', 'Startup', 'Self Improvement', 'Productivity'] |
Driverless Cars Are Roundabout Rookies, Circling Confusion | Dr. Lance B. Eliot, AI Insider
Navigating a roundabout or traffic circle is hard for humans and for AI self-driving cars
Help, I am stuck in a roundabout and I can’t get out!
For those of you that have ever driven into a roundabout, often also known as a traffic circle, a road circle, and sometimes a rotary, they can be devilish to navigate.
Typically, a novice driver finds them to be frightening and a real-world version of a crazy bumper-car mad dash. Seasoned drivers like to think that they have mastered the roundabout and so act like it is a breeze to traverse one. Even seasoned drivers are at times though thrown for a loop, as it were, and find themselves baffled and frustrated by a roundabout. If you get enough drivers going through a roundabout and if they are all behaving badly, you find yourself wishing you had gone some other path and had avoided the dreaded roundabout.
At the Cybernetics AI Self-Driving Car Institute, we’ve been developing techniques and software to enable AI self-driving driverless cars to properly traverse a roundabout.
Most of today’s self-driving cars hand the driving back to the human driver when encountering a roundabout. That’s if the self-driving car even realizes that a roundabout is about to occur or occurring.
Some self-driving cars head into a roundabout without the realization that it is a roundabout. The AI of the self-driving car is often ill-prepared for the specific dynamics of a roundabout. As such, the AI either struggles to make it through the traffic circle safely, or at the last moment is gives up and tosses control of the vehicle to the human driver. This is not only dangerous for the human driver and passengers, since the act of taking over control suddenly can be disruptive and create confusion for the human driver, it also violates the principle of the Level 5 true self-driving car which is that the AI must be able to do whatever driving a human driver could do.
In that sense, we need to have a solution for roundabouts if we are going to achieve Level 5 self-driving cars, true driverless cars.
For those of you that have rarely if ever encountered a roundabout, they aren’t especially common in the United States, numbering an estimated 3,000 or so across the entire country. In contrast, if you’ve ever been to Europe, and especially France, you’d have seen quite a number of these roundabouts. France has the fame of having the most roundabouts in the world, numbering around 30,000, so about ten times the number of roundabouts in the entire United States. Given the size of France in comparison to the United States, the per capita or per square mile ratio of the number of roundabouts is extremely high in France.
The United States has had roundabouts since before the advent of the car.
Some consider the most famous and early notable roundabout to be the Columbus Circle in New York City (shout out to NYC!), which was designed and put into place around 1905. There are numerous studies about roundabouts and all sorts of engineering aspects underlying them.
Traffic engineers tend to like the roundabout. It is a means to regulate traffic flow. In theory, it is as safe if not safer than a conventional intersection, it flows traffic more smoothly, it reduces wasted fuel consumption in comparison to having cars sit at a traffic light of a conventional intersection, it produces less pollutants because again the cars aren’t sitting at an intersection, and otherwise it is just kind of cool. The Traffic Research Laboratory (TRL) provides very helpful analyses of roundabouts, particularly the ones in the United States, and provides a somewhat definitive guide to the topic.
There are a myriad of variants of a roundabout.
There are mini-roundabouts, magical roundabouts, there are roundabouts in city settings, ones in suburban settings, ones nearby to schools, etc. I won’t cover all the variants here, and focus instead on the overall model of a roundabout. If a self-driving car can handle a modestly complex generic roundabout, it can then tailor to whatever specific circumstance it faces for a particular roundabout. But, if the AI lacks any knowledge of a roundabout, its overall driving rules and capabilities are likely going to get it into trouble and so the need for a specialized component to guide it during the roundabout traversal.
You might wonder why traffic engineers believe that a roundabout is safer than conventional intersections.
When you have wandered into a roundabout with lots of other traffic, it often seems to be like a swirling pit of man-eating sharks, and you might think it has to be the least safe way to ever design any kind of traffic flow. According to the stats collected by the TRL, they claim that it is actually much safer than conventional intersections. Part of the logic is that when you come to a conventional intersection, you have the chance of ramming other cars at right-angles, you have a chance at hitting other cars at a heads-on position, and you have a chance at hitting other cars during a left turn. All of those aspects are generally eliminated via the roundabout.
For the roundabout, you mainly have the chances of doing glancing blows off of other vehicles. Rarely do those glancing blows then lead into a full-fledged derby style cascade of cars knocking into each other. Of course, you also have the risk of rear ending other cars, such as when you first try to enter into the traffic circle, and when you try to exit the traffic circle. These roundabouts are certainly not risk free, even if in theory “safer” than conventional intersections.
What constitutes a roundabout?
The usual roundabout is composed of an inner core that is an island, upon which no cars are allowed to go. Traffic flowing to the roundabout usually comes from 360 degrees around the island. The lanes flowing into the circular area are at staggered positions around the circle. Roundabouts typically will have two to four such entrances into the circular flow. There are usually concentric circular lanes surrounding the roundabout. Sometimes there is only one such lane, into which the entering traffic must squeeze. More often, there are two or more circular lanes, referred to as multi-lane roundabouts. Traffic flowing around the circle jockeys into and out of these concentric circular lanes. There are inner lanes that are closest to the island, and outer lanes.
You have to somehow enter into the roundabout, and somehow exit from the roundabout. The entrance lanes are usually posted with a Yield sign and the driver must yield to the traffic already flowing around the circle. In addition to entrance lanes, there are exit lanes. The exit lanes will sometimes be separated from the entrance lanes and are their own distinct lanes. More often, the entrance and exit lanes are aligned with each other, but usually there is a separator to try and ensure that exiting traffic doesn’t inadvertently try to go into an entrance lane. Between the entrance lane and an exit lane there are often splitters that keep those separated from each other. A splitter is an area marked for cars not to go onto it, which can be an actual raised median or it can be just painted onto the ground.
The core island of the roundabout is sometimes just a painted marked area, but more often it is a raised island and has something on it. It might be covered with grass or other low-to-ground aspects, allowing the drivers to see across the island and be able to detect traffic that is on the other side of the roundabout. Most cities though try to make the island into something noticeable and attractive, and so they put artwork there, such as statue of the founding figures of the city, or they put a fountain that is spitting out water and provides a nice respite from the visual dullness of cars flowing around and around of the roundabout.
For self-driving cars, this aspect that the island has something on it can be an added difficulty factor when trying to traverse the roundabout.
The sensors of the self-driving car are not readily able to penetrate whatever is on the island, and so it limits an ability to predict traffic patterns. The cameras of the self-driving car and the LIDAR and radar are only able to get a partial indication of what traffic is on the other side of the island, and not able to gain a full sense of the other cars that are then coming ultimately toward the self-driving car via the concentric circles. It is still worthwhile to try and get that data in real-time and analyze it, but the AI of the self-driving car has to assume that the data will be noisy, obscured, and only provide at best partial information about what is taking place on the other side of the island.
Let’s now take a look at how the self-driving car can properly traverse a roundabout.
First, the AI should be doing a look-ahead to anticipate a roundabout. Via GPS, the AI can potentially already be aware that a roundabout is part of the route being traveled. If so, the AI might determine that trying to deal with the roundabout is not worth the trouble and instead opt to find an alternative route via the GPS that eliminates the need to traverse the roundabout. Assuming that the alternatives do not otherwise significantly raise the time required for travel or have other adverse consequences, it is often feasible to simply skirt around a roundabout and take some other viable path.
Suppose there is no other viable path, or suppose that the GPS is either not available or has failed to realize that a roundabout is soon to be encountered, the AI needs to be ready to handle the roundabout. Often, there are street signs that indicate a roundabout is upcoming. The AI might be forewarned that a roundabout is imminent as a result of reading a street sign, and so either opt to avoid the roundabout at the last minute and find an alternative path, or at least begin to prepare for the advent of the roundabout.
Upon arriving at an entrance to the roundabout, the AI needs to use its sensors to ascertain how many lanes are combined into this particular entrance.
If there is only one lane, then the self-driving car has a simplified task since it only needs to focus on getting into the circular traffic that is flowing around the roundabout. Things become more complex when there are two or more lanes that combine into the particular entrance that the self-driving car is using. In such a case, the AI needs to now observe the cars that are in the aligned lanes of the entrance. These cars can be a mixture of human driven cars and self-driving cars, either of which will be potentially hard to predict in terms of driving behavior.
The next aspects of traversal can be potentially guided by Machine Learning or Deep Learning, if the self-driving car has prior data associated with this roundabout, and if the prior data has been analyzed by the machine learning to identify patterns for best navigating the roundabout. This could be the case if there are many self-driving cars that have been using the roundabout and then feeding their data into a global data collection for use by the machine learning. For now, we’ll assume this is unlikely to be available and that the AI will need to directly try to mentally muscle its way through the roundabout.
When two or more lanes exist in one entrance, the cars at the front of the line that are seeking to enter into the circular flow of traffic will tend to jockey to see which makes the first move into traffic. Furthermore, if say another car is immediately to the left of the self-driving car, and if that car decides to dart into traffic, it potentially cuts off the self-driving car from being able to make its move into traffic. The AI needs to detect the cars aligned in the entrance and ascertain the nature of their behavior as to whether aggressively inching forward or being at a halt.
This brings up another aspect namely that if the conditions are proper, the self-driving car can directly feed into the circular flow of traffic, without having to come to halt or even potentially slow down.
As the self-driving car makes its way into the entrance, the normal driving control would be to slow down so as to allow for judging of making a move into the circular flow of traffic. In fact, roundabouts are known for their “traffic calming” effect in that the cars coming to the entrances will usually decrease speeds in order to obey a yield to the flowing traffic.
There are though sometimes “perfect conditions” in which the self-driving car can smoothly come to the entrance and then continue unabated into the circular flow. For example, if there is no other traffic already on the circular flow, or if the traffic in the circular flow has provided an appropriate gap, the self-driving car can make one continues shift from the entrance and into the outer lane of the circular flow.
One of the most arduous analyses for the roundabout indeed involves finding a gap in the circular flow that will safely allow the self-driving car to makes its way into the circular flow. Humans often have a tendency to make a gap, called gap-acceptance, allowing an entering car to gain entry into the circular flow. Some drivers while driving the circular flow will purposely slow down or speed-up in anticipation of allowing a car to move from the entrance into the flow. Of course, there are other drivers that either don’t care about providing a gap, or even take the opposite stance and intentionally cut-off the entrant from entering into the flow. This varies depending upon the time of day, the day of the week, the volume and velocity of traffic, and the local cultural norms concerning the particular roundabout.
Once into the circular flow, the self-driving car usually starts at the outer lane of the concentric circles, assuming there is more than one such lane. Part of the analysis now becomes whether the AI should guide the self-driving car toward the inner lane of the circular flow or remain in an outer lane. If the exit for the self-driving car is quickly approaching, the AI should keep the self-driving car in the outer lane. If the exit is on the other side of the circle, making movement into the inner lane can be beneficial, and avoid the rather chaotic aspects that occur on the outer lane. The outer lane is a continual frenzy of cars gaining entrance and exiting, and there is at times a greater calm to be found by moving into the inner lane.
As the self-driving car nears the desired exit, it needs to make its way to the outer lane, assuming it is not already there.
If other cars are unwilling to allow the self-driving car to jockey out to the outer lane, it is conceivable that one full iteration of the circle might be needed to accommodate getting over to the needed outer lane. Observations of human drivers shows that they will often take this same tact. Namely, they have become trapped in the inner lane and the surrounding traffic won’t let them safely make their way to the outer lane. This can be the fault of the human driver for not having started toward the outer lane soon enough to make it to the desired exit. The self-driving car should be able to appropriately ascertain the distances and the lanes to early enough start to make a move toward the outer lane and ultimately be in a position to make the exit.
But, this transition from the inner lane to the outer lane is contingent on the behavior of the other drivers. If the other drivers are stubbornly not allowing the inner lane self-driving car to make its way to the outer lane, it might be necessary to make a full revolution and therefore seek a more favorable condition on the next round. Presumably, the cars that were purposely blocking the move will by now have exited themselves from the circular flow of traffic, and hopefully other remaining cars will allow for a movement out of the inner lane.
The behavioral aspects of drivers in roundabouts is a crucial element in traversing the roundabout.
Legally, most roundabouts are designated such that the cars entering into the circle must yield to those cars already flowing in the circle. What happens in actual practice can differ significantly. In fact, “priority reversal” occurs quite often, whereby the cars entering into the circle don’t wait their turn, and instead they force themselves into the circle. This causes cars that are already in the circular flow to have to yield to those brash entrants. This can become a dangerous game, since the entrants are nearly daring the already flowing cars to hit them, and in this game of chicken somebody has to give way.
In terms of the exit from the roundabout, the self-driving car needs to make its way to the outer lane and then flow into the desired exit. This can be made more arduous by other cars that are trying to get past the exiting car and at times block the exit for the exiting car. Once again, if needed, the self-driving car might need to abandon its attempt to achieve the exit and make another loop around the roundabout. The nature of the allowed aggressiveness of the self-driving car will partially determine whether it can quickly make the loop and exit, or whether it will need to possibly make multiple loops.
Most of the self-driving cars today are programmed to be the “over-the-hill” style driver. The AI takes an ultra-conservative approach to driving the car.
Furthermore, any more aggressive actions are simply handed over to the human driver, rather than having the self-driving car take such actions. As I’ve mentioned in prior columns, this timid style is sensible during the existing era of trying to get self-driving cars to be simplistic drivers on the roads, but eventually we’ll need to ratchet up the aggressiveness of self-driving cars.
After the self-driving car has made its way to the desired exit, there is usually a need to speed-up at that point. The exits from most roundabouts tend to flow back into normal street traffic, and so the self-driving car needs to accelerate from what was likely a slower speed during the roundabout and into a faster speed to match with the traffic flow beyond the exit. It is also conceivable that the self-driving car might have gotten itself mired in the roundabout and taken an exit by mistake, which, if so, the self-driving car would now need to recalculate how to get back onto whatever path was supposed to be taken.
We are all used to this when we hear our GPS say “recalculating” after we’ve taken the wrong turn. I know that it seems unimaginable to think that the self-driving car would have taken the wrong exit, since we expect that a self-driving car is to be perfect, but, if the roundabout has become high risk it might make better sense to get out of it, rather than pursuing “perfection” for the desired exit and yet put the occupants at undue risk to do so.
In spite of the overall notion that roundabouts are safer than conventional intersections, there are certainly many ways in which a self-driving car can get itself into hot water in a roundabout. Upon entering into the roundabout, the self-driving car could inadvertently rear-end another car that has tried to cut-off the self-driving car or that was in the loop and suddenly decide to brake. Once inside the flow of the roundabout, other cars trying to weave into and out of the concentric lanes can readily strike the self-driving car. Cars coming into the roundabout that are behind a self-driving car might become impatient and rear-end the self-driving car. And, as mentioned earlier, there are lots of chances for having glancing blows among cars that are in the concentric circles.
Besides developing AI software for dealing with the particulars of roundabouts, we are also doing simulations to gauge how well the AI can deal with the uncertainties associated with roundabouts. We purposely feed “human driven” cars into the roundabout that consist of humans that are the Indy race car driver type that thinks the roundabout is fun and intended for battle, and we feed into it the timid drivers that drive into a roundabout once a year or once in a lifetime and mess-up the flow by going slowly and not abiding by the flow of traffic. These real-world simulations help the AI to learn how to deal with the variety of human drivers that will be encountered while traversing a roundabout.
Drive safely out there.
For free podcast of this story, visit: http://ai-selfdriving-cars.libsyn.com/website
The podcasts are also available on Spotify, iTunes, iHeartRadio, etc.
More info about AI self-driving cars, see: www.ai-selfdriving-cars.guru
To follow Lance Eliot on Twitter: @LanceEliot
Copyright © 2019 Dr. Lance B. Eliot | https://lance-eliot.medium.com/driverless-cars-are-roundabout-rookies-circling-confusion-662456976c9e | ['Lance Eliot'] | 2019-04-09 16:27:53.329000+00:00 | ['Artificial Intelligence', 'Autonomous Vehicles', 'Driverless Cars', 'Autonomous Cars', 'Self Driving Cars'] |
Kineticex — Pioneer in highly secured Centralized Exchange | We’ve seen and heard about different types of exchanges, prominent these are classified into two major categories -Centralized and Decentralized. Decentralized exchanges have been the talk of the times these last few years, because of the highly secure working conditions, which was a fantastic development. However, the decentralized exchange is nowhere close to the perfect and ideal exchange it has its own set of disadvantages.
Let’s take a look at the disadvantages of decentralized servers. First of all the decentralized exchange is bulky and is difficult to use. Secondly, a decentralized network is suited best for a large organization. Specific communication becomes a problem with a decentralized system.
A centralized network is easy to use and is controlled by the people at the top of the ladder. The user experience is far richer than in any decentralized system. Since 64% of industries are either in the startup stage or in a mid-range it is better to employ a decentralized server. All these just say the positives about the centralized exchange, but one major flaw in centralized exchange is its lack of security. This is where Kineticex comes in with a trump card, the kineticex team has come up with the idea to collaborate blockchain with the centralized exchange.
Kineticex Centralized has the following features to make it unique.
PAMM — (Percentage Allocation Master Module) is a technology allowing a trader or investor to follow a trading strategy of another Professional Trading Manager. Manager executes his/her personal funds through the PAMM, and by the use of PAMM technology the Manager’s trading strategy is replicated on the Follower’s account.
MARGIN TRADING
Margin trading is a method of trading that involves borrowing funds. It allows you to trade more than you’d be able to trade using your funds only. Kineticex.com currently offers margin trading with 1:5 leverages on BTC/USD, BTC/EUR, ETH/BTC and ETH/USD pairs and many added then.
Also, Kineticex has joined hands with Smartfund and will closely work with them to help enhance the success of their ICO which begins in 9 days.
Follow us:
Exchange: https://kineticex.com/
Follow us in Twitter: https://twitter.com/KineticexE
Like and share: https://www.facebook.com/kineticex.io/
Join us Telegram: https://t.me/kineticexexchange
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kineticex-revolution-ltd/ | https://medium.com/kineticexexchange/kineticex-pioneer-in-highly-secured-centralized-exchange-db4963986a22 | ['Kineticex Support'] | 2018-08-06 13:12:37.767000+00:00 | ['Trading', 'ICO', 'Blockchain', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Decentralized Exchange'] |
How Can Coaches End Joysticking Players & Enable Them to Discover How to Do Sports on Their Own | For this article, we will define “youth sports” as participation in a competitive team sport for children ages 5–18.
We must admit that the stakes are much higher in youth sports than we want to acknowledge.
American families spend from $100 to $24,000 per year on youth sports for their kids. The seasons come and go so fast.
Strong experiences in youth sports lead to improved lifestyles for the participants. The well-being of children, and having fun takes priority over winning, but winning is still important for a lot of the members.
Let’s take a moment and assume a few things about youth sports so that we’re all on the same page:
Parents love their children and want the best for them.
Children like sports and aren’t being compelled to play.
Coaches are competent enough to perform their job.
In competitive youth sport, the interpersonal relationships among the parent, coach, and athlete are often referred to as “The Youth Sports Triangle” (Wylleman, 2000).
Youth sport is unique because it involves communication, coordination, and maintenance of relationships among multiple adults, all of whom are vested stakeholders in a child-athlete’s sport experience (Lindsey C. Blom, Amanda J. Visek, and Brandonn S. Harris)
The Coach’s Role
The coach is the leader of the team, and this is not debatable. Accepting this, it’s their prerogative to make judgment calls and decisions regardless of others’ views If youth sports were a company, the coach would be the CEO of the company.
1. Explain the fundamentals of competitive sport.
Competition: How to win, lose, and take the role on the team.
Skill Development: The basic skills required to excel in a specific sport.
Sportsmanship: How to engage with opposing players, team players, referees, and the coach.
Work-Ethic and Character: Challenge children to do more than they thought possible. Educate kids that character is determined by who they are when no one is watching.
Commitment To Excellence: Do things right from the first time. Motivate kids that if they want to achieve greatness, they must do small tasks incredibly well.
2. Collaborate with parents.
Besides promoting the basics of competitive sport, engaging with parents must be a priority of the coach. You must build strong lines of communication because you will unquestionably cause confusion and resentment from your biggest support system if you don’t.
The coach doesn’t want to talk to parents? Then they shouldn’t coach.
They must enjoy working with people enough to communicate with them. Remember:
A coach that is very familiar with their sport is an expert.
A coach that can motivate athletes to do what they were asked is a teacher.
A coach that keeps parents included is an effective communicator.
An expert, a teacher/educator, and a powerful communicator make a great coach.
3. Share the coaching philosophy with the players and the parents.
The coach should explain their coaching philosophy and vision for the season with parents and players from the first day.
What is the end-purpose by the end of the season?
What should parents need to notice by the end of the season?
What does winning mean to the coach?
Without explaining their vision, it will be chaotic and confusing. This often makes a group of parents consider the coach can’t properly lead their children. And if the coach gives no grounds to understand their actions, why should they?
A good coach shares their vision so everyone involved can get behind it.
4. Create a medium for feedback, and be open to accepting it.
Ultimately, coaching is a job. Accepting feedback is crucial to a coach’s development. It is a coach’s role to be sensitive to other perspectives, create a preferred medium for receiving feedback, and lead parents to their preferred medium when parents deviate from it.
Regardless if it’s email, phone calls, or chats after practice, the coach should set definite boundaries. This is the only time or medium that parents are invited to request feedback on the team or their athlete.
When the disconnection happens, the coach starts to joystick their players, taking away the opportunity for them to discover how to do sports on their own.
A coach is more inclined to start joysticking players when:
1. They lack empathy.
How a coach was as an athlete usually defines their coaching style. Humans instinctively resonate with others who have encountered similar experiences.
If the coach was a prominent athlete, it is not hard to guess which team members they’ll naturally relate to most.
However, it is a coach’s responsibility to decide how all team players perform best and also to get along with parents.
It’s not comfortable for a parent to watch their child remain on the bench. The coach shouldn’t include them in the game if they aren’t prepared just to make a parent happy but should empathize with the parent’s feelings.
2. They lack the focus on development.
A coach who doesn’t accept feedback or is ignorant of other’s opinions does not belong in coaching. The “my way or the highway” coaching method declined in the 1970s, and for good reason.
By the end of the season, the coach should become a changed person. They should dare themselves to make improvements on even the most superficial tasks.
Children will be less scared of failing if they know their coach is prepared to fail.
3. They attempt to take on the role of parent.
A coach’s role isn’t to encourage or be a cheerleader. They are the head of the team, and should always speak their mind and stick to it.
Giving out atta-boys or atta-girls like candy isn’t beneficial to anyone. Coaches should encourage children to earn their praises.
Respect your players by giving them specific, constructive feedback that improves their behavior. Coaches shouldn’t evade the fact that a child is not performing a skill correctly.
When the coach says “good job”, they should be honest about it. They must realize that kids smell the lie from a mile away. They usually notice before the coach does if they did a great job or not.
4. They are too involved.
The moment a coach begins focusing on self-glorification, they’ve already lost. Coaches should realize that coaching is about servant leadership. Their role is to facilitate experiences, not to joystick children or manipulate circumstances.
It’s okay for a dedicated coach to admit they aspire to win a state championship. But they should not work from this perspective.
The coach should discover the best process for supporting skilled, strong children for their chosen sport, and constantly adjust to this process. This continuous process should be the fire that leads to a championship.
Bottom Line
The key takeaway is that sports are a means for personal growth and life lessons at a critical development stage for children. Parents have proven they are willing to spend a lot of money to make sure their kids have good experiences.
However, it is the coach’s job to get the team to maximize their performance, and decisions are made from that lens. Therefore, the coach’s individual choices should not be analyzed under a microscope. Their performance should be evaluated based on a broad body of evidence and this evaluation usually takes place after the season.
As coaches, if we want to end joysticking players and enable them to discover how to do sports on their own, we need to make sure that the dynamic of the relationships from the youth sports triangle is a healthy one.
If you want to know and do more to improve the impact of youth sports on children, take a look at our latest project or check our most recent trailer here:
(thank you to Andreea Purel for contributing to this article) | https://medium.com/@docyouthsports/how-can-coaches-end-joysticking-players-enable-them-to-discover-how-to-do-sports-on-their-own-8a8bc56daf40 | ['Where Our Children Play - Youth Sports Doc Film'] | 2020-12-19 00:11:41.026000+00:00 | ['Kids', 'Atheletes', 'Players', 'Coach', 'Parents'] |
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