title
stringlengths 1
200
⌀ | text
stringlengths 10
100k
| url
stringlengths 32
829
| authors
stringlengths 2
392
| timestamp
stringlengths 19
32
| tags
stringlengths 6
263
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
In This Darkness | Photo by Daniel Weiss on Unsplash
I like darkness, because in darkness,
there is no one else, but just me.
My sorrows, my joys, my worries, my injuries, are all hidden — in the darkness.
I can admire anonymously in the darkness.
I am not a face to be seen but to be touched and to be felt- in the darkness.
I can remain just me- devoid of comparisons and brimming with purity- in the darkness.
I find my own divine light- serene and peaceful- in the darkness.
I don’t have to speak or justify my existence- in this darkness
I don’t find the blinding shimmers of the glittering world- in the darkness.
In light, my silhouette tries best to hide me,
But everything comes so effortlessly- in this darkness. | https://medium.com/@official-shubhanshi/in-this-darkness-20155ff50569 | ['Shubhanshi Gupta'] | 2020-12-26 19:19:37.574000+00:00 | ['Hope', 'Sorrow', 'Love', 'Darkness', 'Joy'] |
What are the Best Oakland Restaurant Week Deals? | Oakland Restaurant Week Steals Under $30
Photo: Homeroom
Restaurant Weeks have been around for a while, and truthfully, the whole concept is kind of tired at this point. Too often, this week is really just a time when restaurants put together overpriced prix fixe meals, and you’re better off eating there at a different time.
But these weeks still happen, and people still go. We also agree that it’s good to support local businesses, especially in January, when things can be slower. So we took a look at the lineup of Oakland’s 10th Annual Restaurant Week — which started January 9 and runs through January 20 — to scour it for actual deals you should take advantage of. Plus, a portion of proceeds goes to the Alameda County Community Food Bank, so you can feel good about that. Here are our top picks.
1. Communitē Table
Located in the Laurel, Restaurant Weekers enjoy a three-course prix fixe dinner at this homey spot for just $30, which is basically unheard of in the Bay Area. This Eat Oakland restaurant is a neighborhood favorite, cooking up American comfort food you can bring home or eat in the dining room. During Restaurant Week, choose from starters including gougères with herbs and cheese, butter lettuce salad, or the staple three-onion tart. Mains are either beef brisket simmered with red wine over creamy mashed potatoes or shrimp risotto. Finish your meal with a Meyer lemon tart or chocolate bourbon pecan cake. This, my friends, is a delicious steal.
4171 MacArthur Boulevard (Laurel District) | communite-table.com
2. Homeroom
If you’re already a fan of Homeroom, the popular Oakland mac and cheese restaurant, you’ll want to jump on this Restaurant Week deal. If you haven’t been yet—assuming you’re new to the area, because anything else is inexcusable—now is the time to go. This year’s Restaurant Week prix fixe meal is for two people and is worth it. For a total of $30, you’ll get two strawberry limeades, two Gilroy garlic macs (the best kind), and one Homeroom Oreo to share. That it includes only one Oreo is a bit disappointing, because it is heavenly, but after the Gilroy garlic mac, you’ll likely only have room to split one anyway.
400 40th Street (Temescal) | homeroom510.com
3. alaMar
A $30 dinner menu, $20 brunch, or $10 lunch? Decisions, decisions. Located in Uptown, alaMar brings together much of the charm of the East Bay: mouthwatering crustacean boils being devoured among industrial decor. If you’re dining in, the two-course prix fixe dinner involves ahi tuna tiradito or slow-roasted pork tostada to start and signature garlic noodles or peel-and-eat shrimp for your main course. Brunch gets you red velvet flapjacks and fried chicken wings or salt fish chilaquiles with one mimosa. The $10 lunch includes either salmon tacos or an andouille dog; both come with a side salad and a soft drink. All three options are worth it, in our opinion.
100 Grand Avenue (Uptown) | alamaroakland.com
4. Farmhouse Kitchen
For those who aren’t taking part in Dry January, this deal is for you. For $30, get your hands on a wine-flight pairing at this Thai restaurant in Jack London Square. We all know cocktails can cost up to $21 in San Francisco. Here, you’ll get a flight of three wines, each paired with an appetizer, for $30. Red or white wine, doesn’t matter—delicious bites will be paired, ranging from a fresh oyster topped with Thai spicy seafood sauce to sesame crusted Ahi tuna to grilled Wagyu flank steak.
336 Water Street (Jack London Square) | farmhousethai.com/oakland
5. Zachary’s Pizza
This deep-dish pizza joint is an Oakland favorite, and its Restaurant Week deal is as good an excuse as any to visit this month. Zachary’s Pizza is offering a prix fixe menu special that includes a pizza and salad. The cheapest option is a small stuffed pizza or a medium thin with an entree salad for $30. Adding meatballs brings the price up to $40. But what we’re really eyeing is the lunch special: $10 gets you a personal thin or deep-dish pizza with a Caesar salad. If you want to make it a boozy lunch, you can get two pints for $10. Okay, yup, we’ll see you there.
3917 Grand Avenue (Rockridge) | zacharys.com | https://thebolditalic.com/friday-five-oakland-restaurant-week-steals-under-30-917a06e9318e | ['The Bold Italic Editors'] | 2020-04-11 22:24:50.411000+00:00 | ['Bay Area', 'Restaurant', 'Friday Five', 'Food', 'Oakland'] |
Bubbletone to Participate in the ITU-T FG DLT | Bubbletone’s Project Director Alexander Yakovenko and Lead Blockchain Software Architect Sergey Maltsev will take part in the ITU Telecommunication Standardisation Sector (ITU-T) Focus Group on the Application of Distributed Ledger Technology (FG DLT). The meeting of the group will be held in Beijing, China, on October 9–12.
Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies (DLT) are proving applicable to a wide range of business operations. DLT use cases are emerging in many sectors, with the telecom industry being no exception. However, standards have not been set in this industry. That’s why DLT is now under an in-depth study in ITU standardization work on security and trust, identity management, environmental sustainability, protocols, and test specifications. As a full member of FG DLT, the Bubbletone team is actively participating in this work.
At the meeting, the team members will be presenting particular use cases and participating in relevant discussions.
Alexander Yakovenko will introduce two use cases to the group members: global coverage with local rates for mobile subscribers and digital identity as a service.
Sergey Maltsev will describe a Graphene DLT core as a basis to construct industry-grade systems for the telecom industry, outline its features and benefits and compare this core to alternative solutions. He will also showcase the Bubbletone Blockchain Telecom ecosystem — a global marketplace developed using the Graphene core.
About FG DLT
Distributed ledger technology (DLT) refers the processes and related technologies that enable nodes in a network to securely propose, validate and record state changes (or updates) to a synchronised ledger that is distributed across the network’s nodes.
The ITU-T Focus Group on Application of Distributed Ledger Technology (FG DLT) was established in May 2017 in order to:
identify and analyse DLT-based applications and services;
draw up best practices and guidance which support the implementation of those applications and services on a global scale; and
propose a way forward for related standardization work in ITU-T Study Groups.
FG DLT will develop a standardization roadmap for interoperable DLT-based services, taking into consideration the activities underway in ITU, other standards developing organizations, forums, and groups.
The group includes experts from the United States, Brazil, Russia, South Korea, Japan, Germany, Switzerland, Nigeria, India, Malaysia, and other countries.
More information about FG DLT is available here:
https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/focusgroups/dlt/Pages/default.aspx
About ITU
Founded in 1865, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is the United Nations agency for information and communication technologies, driving innovation in ICTs together with 193 Member States and 800+ private sector entities, academic institutions and others.
ITU’s mission is to enable the growth and sustained development of telecommunications and information networks, and to facilitate universal access so that people everywhere can participate in, and benefit from, the emerging information society and global economy. ITU assists in mobilizing the technical, financial and human resources needed to make this vision a reality. | https://medium.com/bubbletone-blockchain-in-telecom/bubbletone-to-participate-in-the-itu-t-fg-dlt-82de92b158a4 | ['Bubbletone Blockchain In Telecom'] | 2018-10-09 09:38:41.042000+00:00 | ['Telecommunication', 'Standards', 'Blockchain', 'Focus', 'Use Cases'] |
Easy step by step guide to running your first RSpec test | RSpec test demonstration (how to use RSpec).
In this example, we will create and run RSpec test from the scratch. Please follow those steps in given order:
Create the directory where you want to test your Ruby code. Let’s call this directory testing_ruby (you can use mkdir) Navigate into this directory (cd) Initiated your RSpec by running rspec — init
As the result, you shall see two generated files: .rspec and spec/spec_helper.rb
Now, let’s add our test. In this sample, we assume we want to test the methods of Calculator, particularly the multiplication method.
4. Navigate to the spec/ folder (where all your tests will be).
5. Create calculator_spec.rb within the spec/ folder
6. Add the following code inside calculator_spec.rb:
#code require ‘./lib/calculator’ describe Calculator do describe “#add” do it “returns the sum of two numbers” do calculator = Calculator.new expect(calculator.multiply(4, 3)).to eql(12) end end end
We will talk about require ‘./lib/calculator’ in the next section.
For now, let’s quickly review RSpec keywords, describe defines a collection of tests. it defines an individual test example with a string argument. Without further explanation, it is clear that the expect clause is being used to test the multiply method of our calculator object with arguments 4, 3 and eql(12) clause with argument 12 setting what we expect indeed.
The only thing that is missing to test our Ruby code is our Ruby code itself. So, let’s add one: multiply method.
7. Create /lib folder from your project root.
8. Navigate to the folder (cd)
9. Create calculator.rb
10. Add the following code inside calculator.rb:
#code class Calculator def multiply(a,b) a * b end end
11.Finally, run rspec to test your Ruby code. | https://medium.com/all-you-need-to-know-about-ruby-variables-and/easy-step-by-step-guide-to-running-your-first-rspec-test-52defc604c05 | ['Sarvar Khalimov'] | 2020-12-22 10:05:11.684000+00:00 | ['Ruby', 'Rspec'] |
Don’t Panic | On my way to work, we had a mild snowfall. It didn’t look like much, but I found out the road was slicker than it looked. I tapped the brakes, but kept sliding. I tapped them some more and realized, I wasn’t going to stop.
In a split second I decided hitting one car would be better than rear-ending four, so I veered into the right turn lane and anticipated the crash. Just then, the car ahead of me continued on and made a right turn.
This is true in life. Don’t panic, don’t make any sudden moves. If you stay calm you can determine the next best move. When faced with a dilemma, make a calculated decision. The impact of your decision might turn out better than you anticipated.
You just might avoid a big accident, and feel good about your decision-making skills after all. | https://medium.com/@patricialrosatr/dont-panic-16dc8bf529ac | ['Patricia Rosa'] | 2020-12-16 17:54:36.094000+00:00 | ['Relationships', 'Life', 'Work Life Balance', 'Productivity', 'Decision Making'] |
How to start Organic gardening | No matter whether or not you’re an skilled natural gardener or you might have merely determined that you want to to grow to be extra self-reliant by rising a few of your personal meals, planting a backyard requires planning. A correctly deliberate and planted natural backyard will naturally resist illness, deter pests, and be wholesome and productive. With the spring planting season quick approaching, winter is the perfect time to get began. So let’s start organic gardening
Set Goals and start organic gardening
What would you like to do together with your plot of earth this season? Begin planning by setting objectives. Grab your backyard map, a pencil, your gardening information, catalogs, and your pondering cap. List the areas of your yard and backyard individually (i.e. garden, vegetable patch, flower backyard), and, holding in thoughts the dimensions and circumstances of your web site, brainstorm! Are you planning a backyard for the primary time? Do you need to broaden your present backyard?
Did you might have pest or illness issues final yr that you simply’re hoping to stop this yr? What map? To create a map of your yard or backyard, measure the size of your web site as an entire, after which the person dimensions of your vegetable patch, flowerbeds, and garden. It’s best to draw your map to scale on a sheet of graph paper. These measurements will likely be crucial later, when you’re figuring out how a lot of a plant or seeds to purchase.
Once the map is drawn you can easily begin your organic gardening. write in any data you understand about soil traits, drainage, environmental circumstances (sunny, shady, windy), and the names of bushes and perennial crops that exist already. Your map will let you understand precisely what you might have to work with, and will provide you with a sensible thought of issues that want consideration or options you would like to change or add.
.
Tool Tutorial for organic gardening
To start for organic gardening, You have a plan! You have information! Do you might have instruments? Chances are chances are you’ll give you the option to get hold of most instruments at your native garden and backyard retailer.
Bring the record that you simply assembled in Gardening 101, and, if you’re a seasoned gardener, assume that the identical pests and plagues will likely be again that you simply handled final yr and purchase your provides now.
If you’re new to the gardening scene, purchase the fundamental instruments that you will want, after which nostril across the neighborhood and maybe your native gardening membership to see what’s really helpful for what you’re planting and the place you reside.
Basic Tools:
Diggers — You will want a spading fork for aerating your soil and turning your compost pile. Look for a spading fork with rectangular, flat blades. A manure fork can also be compost-pile pleasant when it comes to turning.
Weeders — Weeding instruments embody hoes and short-handled cultivating instruments. Both are made in quite a lot of types, and you’ll most likely need a couple of of every.
Hoe
hoe varieties embody:
Swan-neck hoe — The curved neck positions the reducing blade to skim slightly below the floor, making it best for gentle work round backyard crops.
Oscillating hoe — Also referred to as a scuffle hoe or hula, it has a hinged, double-edged blade that hardly disturbs the soil floor, minimizing the variety of new weeds introduced to the floor.
Collinear hoe — Designed by Eliot Coleman, the slim blade and angled deal with are helpful for reducing off small weeds with little soil disturbance.
Eye hoe — Also referred to as a grub hoe, the heavy blade is for onerous chopping at powerful, overgrown weeds.
Standard short-handled cultivating instruments
Hand cultivator — A tined instrument, helpful for disturbing the soil floor round shut planting to uproot younger weeds.
Dandelion weeder — Made for uprooting weeds with lengthy taproots.
Pavement weeder — A trowel for eradicating weeds in cracks of stone slab or brick walkways.
Pruners — Pruning bushes and shrubs promotes development and good well being, and pruning out diseased wooden helps to management illness issues. Pruning instruments are available various sizes relying in your want. Choose a pointy, top quality pruning instrument.
Tillers — Tillers may also vary in dimension, relying on the job. There are massive, gaspowered tillers for breaking floor or massive jobs, and small tillers which are light-weight and are helpful for cultivating round perennials. Rent just a few tillers to attempt them out earlier than shopping for, as they do differ an incredible deal and may be costly.
Sowers — Wheeled seeding instruments which have changeable inside disks for various seed sizes and spacings can be found and really helpful if you’re planting massive areas.
Comfort instruments — There is a plethora of comfort- oriented backyard equipment out there in the marketplace at this time. Products vary from gloves, to knee pads, to small, wheeled benches/carts. It is up to you to determine what is going to fit your wants, should you want any in any respect.
Starting From Seed
Starting your crops from seed will make sure that they’re chemical free. Most transplants bought in backyard facilities have been handled with chemical fertilizers or pesticides. Seeds themselves purchased at backyard facilities could also be coated in fungicides, so be very cautious about what you purchase or purchase from an natural seed provider. To start crops from seed, you want sterile soil, sterile planting containers, and labels.
It is best to develop every seedling in a separate container to keep away from the injury incurred by ripping roots aside, and to make for a much less surprising transplant. If you buy soil combine, make certain that it’s sterile to keep away from spreading illness to your seedlings.
To make your personal combine, use vermiculite (a mica-based mineral that has been heated to make it broaden to many instances its authentic dimension), perlite (volcanic ash that has been heated and ‘popped’), and sphagnum (moss that has been collected whereas nonetheless alive, dried, after which finely floor).
Add 1 tablespoon of lime for every 2 quarts of sphagnum that you simply use to counteract its acidity. Good recipes for soil combine are 1 half sphagnum and 1 half vermiculite, or 1 half every sphagnum, vermiculite and perlite. Seeds really want warmth, not gentle, to germinate. The warmth from a develop gentle or sunny window could also be sufficient for some, however putting the containers on high of a heat fridge or on a seed-starting heating pad could also be crucial.
Keep your seeds moist by planting them in moist combine and masking them with plastic wrap. As quickly as you see the primary signal of life, take away the wrap and place them someplace the place they’ll obtain 8–10 hours of daylight per day.
Water them care absolutely with a twig mister, cautious not to knock the seedlings over or wash away the soil. Before you transplant your seedlings outside, they want to be acclimated to the completely different local weather. Bring them outdoors and place them in a sheltered, considerably shady spot for just a few hours every day, steadily rising their publicity to the weather over per week or two.
Plants have a hardiness zone, an space based mostly on the common annual low temperatures the place a plant is most probably to face up to the area’s annual low temperature . Growing crops which are outdoors your hardiness zone shouldn’t be inconceivable, however they’ll want particular consideration. When deciding what to plant, seek the advice of a hardiness zone map to give you crops which are most probably to thrive in your zone .
Garden Design to start organic gardening
Switching to chemical-free gardening won’t solely imply altering your gardening practices, but in addition your gardening design. Gardening in beds, as opposed to rows, offers for higher weed, illness and pest administration.
Beds are additionally extra enticing and simpler to keep. In a backyard mattress, all the things is planted inside arm’s attain. The leaves of adjoining crops shade the soil, decreasing weed development. Diversity in a backyard mattress additionally has many benefits.
Quite a lot of crops in a blended mattress present some pure pest safety by making it tough for pests to discover and eat their goal crops, or serving to to appeal to bugs which are helpful to your backyard and prey on pest bugs. It additionally reduces the possibilities that pests and illness organisms will construct to epidemic ranges, as they will not give you the option to hop from tasty host to tasty host, as they’d should you had planted in rows.
Your soil may also reap the advantages of your numerous planting strategies. instance is planting nitrogen-gobbling corn with nitrogen-giving beans. Pairing up specific crops or planting in selection will help the soil keep its nutrient steadiness, guaranteeing happier crops and a greater crop yield. In truth, this method even has a reputation — companion planting.
Companion Planting:
Much of the science of companion planting is determining what works for you. Many books may give you pointers about what crops work nicely collectively. Some crops are attractants, some repellents, some may be inter-planted together with your crops and flowers, and a few compete too vigorously and must be planted in separate borders or hedgerows.
For instance, sunflowers are a very good border plant, attracting lacewings and parasitic wasps; radishes are good to inter-plant as a result of they repel the striped cucumber beetle; and marigolds are good to each use as a border and inter-plant, as they appeal to hover flies and repel root nematodes, Mexican bean beetles, aphids, and Colorado potato beetles. It may be complicated, and never all crops work nicely collectively.
Your finest guess is to start easy, decide what pests you encounter, and work from there, altering the crops in your backyard mattress as wanted from yr to yr. Often, a mix of flowers, greens and herbs work nicely collectively in a single mattress.
Companion Planting. Making your mattress. Making your mattress may be so simple as marking off 3-by-5-foot sections of backyard with pathways left between them. However, to optimize some great benefits of planting in backyard beds, elevate your beds.
Raised beds present lighter, deeper, extra nutrient-rich, water absorbent soil. Raised beds, nevertheless, should be considered everlasting so as to keep their splendor. They can’t be walked on or damaged down on the finish of the season. You can construct sides in your mattress with bricks, rocks, or cedar 2-by-Four or 2-by-six planks to keep the form as a substitute of raking and reshaping the mattress yearly.
Stay away from pressure-treated wooden, as it’s handled with wooden preservatives which are dangerous to you and the surroundings. How do you obtain raised beds? With double-digging, in fact! (This is also called onerous work.)
Double-digging raised beds
1. Dig out the highest one-foot of soil alongside one finish of the mattress. Keep the soil in a wheelbarrow or on a groundcloth.
2. Loosen the uncovered subsoil by thrusting in a spading fork and twisting its tines backwards and forwards. For further profit, add a small quantity of natural matter and work it in as you loosen that subsoil.
3. Once the subsoil is loosened, transfer over and start eradicating the topsoil from the following strip of backyard mattress. This time, as a substitute of holding the topsoil that you’re eradicating, shovel it over the subsoil to which you might have simply added the natural matter. You can add a bit extra natural matter to the topsoil as you shovel.
4. Repeat step 3.
5. When you might have reached the final row of your backyard mattress, use the reserved topsoil to cowl the final space of uncovered subsoil.
6. Plant!
Composting to start an Organic gardening
Compost is a good fertilizer and may help in pest prevention to start your organic gardening. Compost is created when microorganisms, earthworms and nematodes eat and breakdown natural matter into less complicated compounds.
This course of occurs extra shortly in an lively compost pile as a result of these microorganisms have the required warmth, air and moisture, and a various provide of uncooked supplies to digest.
An lively pile requires turning each week to add oxygen and preserve the decomposition charge excessive; a passive pile is a pile of natural matter left to decay over time — often in a single to two years. Whichever technique of composting you select, step one is making a compost pile
You can layer the supplies in a heap, arrange a heavy rooster wire body (this works nicely for a passive pile), construct picket or concrete-block bins, or purchase a commercially made bin to maintain your pile.
Some industrial bins have in-built rotating turners that may make your job a lot simpler. The best dimension for an lively compost pile is Four toes by Four toes, although dimension can differ. Choose a location that’s shady and nicely drained to start your own organic gardening.
Clear away any floor cowl on the web site, loosen the soil with a spading fork, and put down a layer of wooden chips or brush as a base. You can toss in backyard or kitchen wastes, grass clippings, newspaper, manure, and sawdust.
Avoid including kitchen waste that’s heavy in oil and meat merchandise. Shredded supplies make higher compost extra shortly. Try to alternate layers of plant materials (chopped leaves or straw) with nitrogen-rich supplies (kitchen scraps with manure and blood meal).
Keep your pile moist, at an analogous stage to a squeezed-out sponge, and preserve open piles lined with a tarp or heavy canvas in order that they will not grow to be waterlogged within the rain. If your pile turns into too dry, add water with kelp extract to moisten it and stimulate biotic exercise.
Turn your lively pile recurrently, mixing and loosening the supplies with a spading fork, to stop overheating and preserve microorganisms blissful and lively.
Ideal lively compost temperature must be inside 140° to 150°, or at barely larger temperatures if you’re composting diseased plant materials, round 160°.
Your natural compost pile to start organic gardening will yield wealthy humus that will likely be a perfect fertilizer to your backyard.
It will prevent the cash of shopping for industrial, artificial fertilizers, a lot of which have proven to include poisonous waste. Healthy soil makes for hardy crops. Planning your backyard may be crucial factor you do that rising season. With a strong plan in place and established
objectives, you possibly can reduce your pest issues and potential frustration, and maximize your rising season, and your backyard’s magnificence. All this whereas saving in your grocery invoice and rising the standard of meals you ingest by leaps and bounds.
By planting an natural backyard additionally, you will be decreasing your carbon footprint through producing a few of your meals (requiring no transportation or storage on the grocery retailer or packaging) thus contributing to our tradition’s sustainability basically | https://medium.com/@cybertrixmedia2019/how-to-start-organic-gardening-2d5d0c4af96c | [] | 2020-04-23 14:53:21.686000+00:00 | ['Organic Garden', 'Organicgardening', 'Gardening', 'Garden'] |
Linking to a new tab vs. same tab | If you’ve ever googled something along the lines of “should a link open in a new tab,” you know that this seemingly minor detail is a major topic of debate in UX communities.
Although the debate continues, here’s why I choose to have website links open in the same tab.
Opening links, whether they are to the same website or another, in a new tab can pose a variety of issues for users, especially as web traffic from mobile devices continues to increase.
Reasons to Open Links in the Same Tab
A mobile-first perspective According to Statistica, 52.2 percent of worldwide website traffic was generated through mobile phones in 2018. Given the small screen size of mobile devices, it can be difficult for people to navigate between tabs and can create confusion if a user doesn’t know a link just opened in a new tab. Having links open in the same tab reduces the chance of mobiles users getting lost or unable to locate a previous tab. Opening in the same tab also keeps the “back button” as an option for users to return to the previous page, which they wouldn’t be able to utilize if they were in a new tab and maybe didn’t know it. Accessibility Opening links in a new tab can quickly cause usability issues. For example, WebAIM, an organization that leads the way with tools and resources for web accessibility, explains how these kinds of links can cause issues for users using screen readers: “Newer screen readers alert the user when a link opens a new window, though only after the user clicks on the link. Older screen readers do not alert the user at all. Sighted users can see the new window open, but users with cognitive disabilities may have difficulty interpreting what just happened. Then when they try to click on the Back button in the browser, nothing happens, because there is no previous link to go back to in a new window or tab.” Having links open in the same tab eliminates this issue and helps make sure our websites are accessible for all of our users. Gives users control If a user prefers that links open in a new tab, they can open the link in a new tab using a right-click or by continuing to press down on the link on a mobile device. This option is always available to users no matter how a link is set to open. However, it doesn’t work in reverse. If a user prefers for links to open in the same tab, but the link is set to open in a new tab, the user is forced to adapt to this linking behavior or they can leave your website. Keeping links set to open in the same tab allows users of different preferences to engage with your website in the way they like best.
Exceptions
The only time it is recommended that you open a link in a new tab is when opening in the same screen would interrupt a process (e.g. when a user is filling out a form or viewing a video).
Linking in the same tab or screen in these situations could cause the user to lose the work they’ve done or have to start over. Linking to a new tab in these cases can help the user find additional information without causing issues or forcing the user to start over.
Stay Consistent
A critical part of user experience is maintaining a mutual understanding and expectations for what it means to interact with a website. If a user clicks on a link, they shouldn’t be surprised by what happens.
Maintaining consistent link behavior throughout your website helps your users know what to expect when they are navigating through your website.
Additional Information | https://uxdesign.cc/linking-to-a-new-tab-vs-same-tab-f88b495d2187 | ['Jesse Summers'] | 2019-07-21 21:38:46.700000+00:00 | ['Usability', 'UX', 'Web Design', 'UI', 'User Experience'] |
EUROUZ — MONTHLY REPORT ON UZBEKISTAN (September 2020) | 4. MARKET DEVELOPMENT BY SECTORS
4.1 INDUSTRY AND CONSTRUCTION
Three new interchanges will be added to the capital’s road infrastructure
Three overpasses and a 6-kilometer road will connect two districts of the capital city. The goal of the project traffic optimization to the most populated district in Tashkent also serving as main road transit for the city center.
The project developed by the Turkish transport engineering company Kalyon Ulaştırma is estimated at more approx. USD 27.1 million. Funds have been allocated from the state budget. The interchanges will be built by Grand Road Tashkent LLC.
Construction of Wyndham hotel started near the Tashkent airport
The press service of the Tashkent City Administration reported that Wyndham group began the construction of its third hotel in Tashkent — Wyndham Garden Tashkent Airport.
The construction, which was estimated at approx. USD 1.9 million, is being carried out by Alta Vetta in cooperation with the German MirAZ Capital GmbH. The amount of foreign investments is USD 500,000. The hotel is expected to open by the end of 2022.
USD 300 million to be allocated for road reconstruction in Samarkand
The regional khokimiyat has already announced a USD 300 million tender for the reconstruction and modernization of Amir Temur, Bustonsaroy, and Rudaki streets. According to the terms, out of this amount, USD 210 million will be spent on road construction and
USD 90 million on water supply. Planting flowers, reparation of roads, and sidewalks are considered. Part of the funding is sourced from The Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD)
4.2 TOURISM AND AVIATION SECTOR
Uzbekistan Airways restores international flights
Uzbekistan Airways announced the phased resumption of flights on a regular basis to and from the following cities: Dubai, Frankfurt, Almaty, Bishkek and Istanbul. Passengers from the aforementioned cities will have to provide a certificate with a negative test result for COVID-19 in English or Russian, valid no more than 72 hours before the flight. In the absence of a negative test result, passengers will be denied check-in for their flight.
A government decree adopted on the implementation of the second stage of the “Amirsoy” ski resort construction near Tashkent
In accordance with the Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On measures to accelerate the development of tourism by introducing a special management procedure in the Bostanlyk region”, the goal to implement the second stage of the Amirsoy ski resort complex construction was determined. The project was adopted at the expense of the initiator and foreign financial institutions attracted by the initiator, for a total amount of EUR 75 million. To ensure the timely implementation of this project, the State will provide assistance in the construction of the necessary infrastructure and communications.
USD 500 million to be invested for the development of mountain tourism
A master plan of the international all-season resort “Beldersay-Chimgan-Nanay” has been developed. The plan is developed by a consortium of French companies “Geode”, “Manie Lives”, “Egis”, “Patriarche”, “Epode” with the support of the Private Sector Study and Aid Fund (FASEP). The master plan aims to attract up to USD 500 million in investment, including funds from government financial institutions of France. They will be used for the development of tourism, road transport, and communal infrastructure.
4.3 AUTOMOBILE SECTOR
Two KIA models to be produced in Uzbekistan
Starting in November 2020, the ADM-Jizzakh factory starts the production of the two models of KIA — SELTOS and K5. Cars manufactured in Uzbekistan will be exported to CIS countries through partner dealer networks. The production line was created with the participation of the Russian regional headquarters of KIA Motors.
Uzbekistan imported electric vehicles worth USD 1.7 million in 2020
From January to August, Uzbekistan imported 73 electric vehicles worth USD 1.7 million. According to the State Statistics Committee, 50 electric vehicles were imported from China, 12 from the Republic of Korea, 11 from Germany, the United Arab Emirates, Russia and Georgia. As from January 1, 2019, imported electric cars are exempted from import duties , and from July — from excise tax. Since January, the government planned to introduce a 10% duty on imports of electric vehicles, however, the plans were not implemented.
Chinese Haval cars entered the Uzbek market
On September 21, the Chinese automobile brand Haval launched its cars in the Uzbek market. It offers premium SUVs and crossovers, compliant with European and global quality standards. SHOSH AUTOTRADE GROUP (ТМ SHARQ MOTORS) has become the official distributor of Haval cars in Uzbekistan. Cars delivered from China are available with no customs duties. After payment, the car is transferred to the buyer immediately.
4.4 HEALTHCARE
ADB and UNICEF hand over USD 952,000 worth of medical supplies to Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Health
UNICEF with financial support from ADB and in consultation with the Ministry of Health of Uzbekistan has procured Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for health workers who are providing medical service to COVID-19 patients. This includes 71,100 coveralls and 8,000 boot covers, as well as RNA mini extraction kits which provide the fastest and easiest way for lab testing. All delivered equipment and PPE were distributed to all regions of Uzbekistan, including remote areas.
4.5 AGRICULTURE AND FOOD
Clusters and farmers to receive USD 50 million in loans to buy cotton harvesters
The resolution of the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev on measures to financially support the mechanization of the harvest of raw cotton has been adopted in September. According to the decree, the share of the Fund for Reconstruction and Development in the authorized capital of Agrobank will be increased by USD 50 million. These funds will be used to provide loans to cotton-textile clusters and other economic entities for the purchase of domestically produced cotton-harvesting machines at the Central Bank base rate.
Uzbekistan aims for USD 5 billion worth of agricultural export in the coming years
Uzbekistan plans to bring the export of agricultural products to USD 5 billion in the coming years by widening the export destinations and modernizing the sector. President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has instructed the government to increase the scientific potential of the agricultural sector and to introduce an international certification system in order to achieve the export target. Uzbekistan will pay special attention to negotiations with Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Qatar, Mongolia, Afghanistan, and other countries to export fruits and vegetables.
4.6 INVESTMENT AND FINANCE
Capital Market Development Agency moves towards collaboration with the DIFC
The Capital Market Development Agency, with the support of the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan, held the first bilateral negotiations with the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) headed by Mr. Arif Amiri, Director General of the DIFC department.
Mr. Amiri expressed his approval of bilateral relations between Uzbekistan and the UAE, as well as the Uzbek government’s effort in the development of the capital market. The parties agreed to establish partnerships in terms of effective development and modernization of the regulatory framework of Uzbekistan, which will allow companies and citizens of Uzbekistan to gain access to world financial markets through the infrastructure of the DIFC.
The first bank from Uzbekistan will connect to the Russian analog of the SWIFT system
The National Bank will connect to the financial messaging system (SPFS) of the Bank of Russia. SPFS is a specialized channel for transmitting electronic messages on financial transactions. By connecting to the SPFS, the National Bank of Uzbekistan will correspond to international standards by ensuring a) high speed of data transfer, b) protection of financial transactions, c) flexibility, and d) efficiency in mutual settlements and information exchange on interbank transactions. The bank expects that this will also create additional convenience in customer service, modernize settlement and payment processes, reduce costs for interbank communications and diversify opportunities for cooperation with foreign financial institutions.
4.7 BUSINESS
Andijan to launch production of Nike and Adidas shoes
Uzcharmsanoat Association has concluded a number of agreements with Nike and Adidas. The production of sports shoes will be launched in the Andijan region. It is planned to produce 3 million pairs of sneakers under the world-famous brand at the SinoInternational JV LLC plant through outsourcing contracts. 15 new export markets are expected to open over the next three to five years, mainly in Europe and Southeast Asia.
EBRD provides a loan of USD 50 million to Bank “Asaka” to help small businesses of Uzbekistan
The EBRD is scaling up its support to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Uzbekistan. A loan of USD 50 million provided to Bank “Asaka”, is intended to stimulate the business activity of small and medium-sized domestic companies affected by COVID-19. The EBRD funds will also contribute to the further commercialization, efficiency, and competitiveness of Asaka Bank, paving the way for its eventual privatization.
EBRD pledges additional USD 40 million in support of Uzbek SMEs
The package will consist of a USD 30 million loan to SMEs and a USD 10 million loan for women entrepreneurs under the EBRD’s Central Asian Women in Business (WiB) program. The EBRD funds will also contribute to the further commercialization, greater efficiency, and competitiveness of Ipoteka Bank, paving the way for its eventual privatization.
4.8 INDUSTRIAL INFRASTRUCTURE
Jizzakh Petroleum announces major step towards the construction of a new gas chemical complex in Uzbekistan based on MTO technology
The launch of a project to build a new chemical complex in Uzbekistan based on MTO technology (‘The Project’) was announced by Jizzakh Petroleum. It was decided to build the plant in the Bukhara region of Uzbekistan, where it will operate using domestic feedstock. This will enable natural gas monetization via the production of export-oriented and high value-added products. The plant’s location was determined by the presence of competitive feedstock and energy supplies, suitable infrastructure, and proximity to key markets across Europe and Asia, consolidating the role of Uzbekistan as the energy leader in the region. According to the feasibility study, the estimated cost of construction is USD 2.8 billion.
New facility commissioned at Mubarek Gas Processing Plant
A new 4th string of the propane-butane mixture production unit (UPPBS) was launched at the Mubarek Gas Processing Plant, which will make it possible to annually produce 38.4 thousand tons of liquefied gas. The production will satisfy the growing demand for liquefied gas from industrial enterprises, housing and communal services of the republic.The project was financed by Uzbekneftegaz for USD 58.25 million with a payback period of 6 years
(2021–2026).
Third 650 MW combined cycle gas turbine plant to be built at Navoi TPP*
An agreement was signed with the Japan International Development Agency (JICA) for the implementation of an investment project for the construction of a third combined cycle gas turbine plant. The Agency will allocate 128.246 million yen (USD 1.18 billion) as a loan for 30 years with a 10-year grace period.
*See Appendix section for detail of JICA financed projects in Uzbekistan’s energy sector
JICA to fund Phase 2 of the Electricity Capacity Building Project in Uzbekistan*
Within the framework of the project, JICA provides consulting services; supply and repair of components, materials, spare parts and. Taking into account interest payments during the investment period and unforeseen expenses, the total loan amount is estimated to be 36.621 million Japanese yen
As an exception, JSCs Navoi TPP and Turakurgon TPP are allowed to conclude direct contracts without tenders with Japanese companies Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Ltd. and with Mitsubishi Corporation, and JSC Tashkent CHPP — with Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Ltd. and Itochu Corporation — for the supply and repair of components, materials, spare parts and equipment for combined cycle plants, gas turbines, main and auxiliary equipment and the provision of technical and consulting services outside Uzbekistan
*See Appendix section for detail of JICA financed projects in Uzbekistan’s energy sector
Masdar Energy to analyze the wind power potential of the Navoi region
Masdar Energy (UAE) installed four meteorological masts to study wind potential in the Tamdy district of the Navoi region. According to the Ministry of Energy, this is the next stage in the project of building a 500 MW wind power plant in the area. The results of the wind capacity study will enable to complete the feasibility and finance study of the project, which will form the basis for the conclusion of credit agreements with international financial institutions.
ACWA Power to build a wind farm near Bukhara for USD 1 billion
ACWA Power (Saudi Arabia) has installed 10 meteorological masts to study the wind potential in Peshku and Gijduvan districts of the Bukhara region, where the company will build wind power plants (WPPs) with a total capacity of 1000 MW. The project will be built by attracting direct investment in the amount of USD1 billion.
Cengiz Energy Invests USD 150 million in Uzbekistan Power Plant
Turkey’s Cengiz Energy will establish a natural gas combined cycle power plant in Uzbekistan with an investment of USD150 million.The plant, with a capacity of 240 megawatts, will be built in Tashkent under an investment agreement between Uzbekistan’s investment and foreign trade ministry, the country’s National Electric Networks (JSC) and Cengiz Energy. The power plant will be completed in 12 months. The natural gas to be used in the power plant will be supplied by Uztransgaz, Uzbekistan’s gas supply company.
China to restore the power line between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan for USD 25 million
China’s Shanghai Electric Power Transmission & Distribution has won a tender for the restoration of a 500 kV transmission line between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The project worth USD 25 million will be financed by the Asian Development Bank.
WB approves funding for the construction of a solar power plant in the Navoi region
The World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) allocated funds for the construction of a photovoltaic (solar) power plant in the Navoi region. The project is part of the Scaling Solar program, aimed at attracting private investment in the development of solar energy usage. The construction of the power plant has a financial guarantee of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) of up to USD 5.1 million. The IFC provided a loan of USD 41 million. The project will also be the first World Bank guarantee operation in Uzbekistan.
VEB.RF may finance the modernization of HPP cascades in Uzbekistan
On September 17, negotiations between the Minister of Energy of Uzbekistan Alisher Sultanov and the Chairman of State Development Corporation VEB.RF Igor Shuvalov took place. During the negotiations, the parties discussed promising projects for expanding cooperation in the fuel, energy, oil and gas industry. These include new projects worth EUR 78.4 million on modernizing the existing HPPs — Chirchik, Kadyrinskaya, Urta-Chirchik and Tashkent HPP cascades.
ADB approved a USD 200 million loan to improve the energy sector of Uzbekistan
The service quality of Uzbekistan is poor and unreliable due to low transmission capacity and outdated generation and distribution assets. The energy sector has also struggled to attract new investments due to its weak financial performance. The government has initiated structural reforms to improve the regulatory capacity and financial sustainability of the energy sector by taking steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve energy efficiency. ADB’s program is supporting these reforms aimed at increasing private sector participation in electricity generation to at least 15% in terms of capacity, as well as 99% in increasing revenues by 2023. The program was developed jointly with the French Development Agency (FAD), which will provide co-financing of EUR 150 million.
4.9 COMMODITIES & TRADE DATA
Turkmen gasoline ECO-93 offered on Uzbekistan commodity exchange for the first time
Imported Turkmen gasoline ECO-93 appeared on the Uzbek Republican Commodity and Raw Materials Exchange. The starting price is 600 thousand soms (approx. USD 58) per 100 kg. The gasoline supplier is Nara-Komfort Servis LLC, registered in 2011 in the Kashkadarya region.
Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan intend to bring mutual trade turnover to USD 1 billion
Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan plan to increase trade turnover to USD 1 billion per year. Countries are planning to increase the capacity of roads at border checkpoints. By digitalizing the processes of customs, sanitary, transport and border control, the parties want to improve conditions for the transit of passengers, transport and goods. The issue of creating joint logistics hubs is being studied.
4.10 ENERGY AND MINING SECTOR
Uzbekistan extracts about 3.5 thousand tons of uranium per year
According to the statistics on natural uranium production, Uzbekistan currently ranks 5th in the world in terms of uranium production and 10th — in terms of uranium reserves. Uranium produced in Uzbekistan is exported in full.
4.11 EDUCATION
President signs the Law “On Education”
According to the new law, Uzbekistan divides all types education to the following types:
Pre-school education and training;
General secondary and secondary specialized education;
Vocational education;
Higher education;
Postgraduate education;
Retraining and advanced training of personnel;
Extracurricular education.
Non-governmental educational organizations can be established by their founders after receiving a license from the State Education Inspectorate. The new law declared the previous law dated August 29, 1997, “On the National Training Program” and “On Education” invalid. | https://medium.com/eurouz-market-intelligence-report-on-uzbekistan/eurouz-monthly-report-on-uzbekistan-september-2020-cab12da26c24 | ['Uzbek Review'] | 2020-10-08 22:21:18.329000+00:00 | ['Business', 'Digest', 'Uzbekistan', 'Europe', 'Eurouz'] |
GPT-3 could be revolutionizing for the future AI | Artificial intelligence is currently progressing like an infant developing in early childhood. There’s a great deal of hype around moving towards real time AI. An exciting new advances in deep learning — GPT-3 a computer program developed by Elon Musk backed research driven startup “OpenAI”.
GPT-3 is so human that most of you can’t even judge whether a text is produced by a human or GPT-3. The question arise here that what is GPT-3?
In this article you will get to know the initial glimpse of new exciting advances in deep learning.
What is GPT-3?
GPT-3 or Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3 — a third version of the original piece of software.
Which produces the text using pre-trained gigantic algorithm gathered by crawling the internet they need to carry out their task. If you ask a question or want a summary then you mostly like to get a answer of that question or desired summary. It is one of the largest artificial neural network ever created. It is currently in private beta for which people can sign up on a wait-list.
It can amazingly do pretty much anything that has a language structure — it can answer questions, writing essays, summaries, language (s) translations, take memos, and even create computer code.
How does it work?
It is different than usually neural networks which on training only spit out numerical set of data only computer can understands. GPT or more specifically GPT-3 is a prediction model which generates domain specific output after training. It means that it is an algorithmic structure designed to take one piece of text (an input) and transform it into what it predicts is the most useful following piece of text for the user.
GPT-3 fed with billionth of bits of data during its training phase converting it into vector form for numerical representations then after maximum accurate correlation — converted it back to the valid sentence.
Once it has been trained, meaning, its calculations of conditional probability across billions of words are made as accurate as possible, then it can predict what words come next when it is prompted by a person typing an initial word or words.
OpenAI has invested great deal of money for computing resources needed by GPT-3 to understand how languages work and are structured.
The number of weights the GPT-3 dynamically holds in its memory and uses to process each query is 175 billion — 10 times more than any previous non-sparse language model. For all tasks, GPT-3 is applied without any gradient updates or fine-tuning. It only requires few-shot demonstrations via textual interaction with the model.
This tremendous leap in its ability make GPT-3 exceptional in the field outperforming any previous model (s).
Limitations
Every new breakthrough has some limitations which need time, effort and capital to become completely flawless innovation. GPT-3 ability to perform plenty of text production tasks are praised by many but all comes with some important consideration.
The CEO of OpenAI himself, Sam Altman, has said, “The GPT-3 Hype is too much. AI is going to change the world, but GPT-3 is just an early glimpse."
Firstly, it is expensive. Because it need huge amount of computing resources to carry out its function.
Secondly, it is privately held not open sourced. OpenAI has not revealed any in-depth details of how its algorithms work?
Thirdly, the output of the system is still not perfect.
These are some of the issues which can be addressed over time.
GPT-3 has ignited a new spark in the development of AI. Its most striking feature is its generality. Previously neural networks were task/domain specific with specifically trained data. But GPT-3 has no task-specific functions, and it needs no special dataset. It simply takes the maximum input and produces the sensible output in return.
Further reading:
Original GPT-3 research paper | https://medium.com/the-21st-century/gpt-3-could-be-revolutionizing-for-the-future-ai-e35598d70e0a | ['Hamza Abdullah'] | 2020-11-16 19:42:42.318000+00:00 | ['Artificial Intelligence', 'Machine Learning', 'Deep Learning', 'Technology'] |
Error Handling with Express-React | I was recently working on error handling between the API and frontend of a single page shopping list app I’ve been designing and would like to share some simple strategies I used in the process.
The app’s backend is built with Node.js/Express connected to MongoDB via Mongoose, an ORM (object relation mapping) package for MongoDB. The front end is built with React.js whose local state is managed by Redux. The API calls are made via actions managed by thunk.
The following outlines how I set up validation for the User model to be used when a new user is created. Mongoose ships with some basic validation and sanitation for fields. Required is the most useful. The second argument of the required property is a custom message (I chose ‘An email is required’).
Mongoose purposely only offers basic validation out of the box, because it’s quite easy to set up custom validations and there are plenty of third party packages to supplement. Below I use a package called validator to check that the email is properly constructed. A custom validation is created by calling the validate and passing the value to the validation. The return value should be a boolean. In the case below the validation calls validator.isEmail(value). If it doesn’t pass, the method throws an error message.
One note about Mongoose schemas — assigning the ‘unique’ property to a particular field doesn’t cause an error to be thrown if you try to create a new instance with an identical field. The ‘unique’ validation is used for indexing fields.
// User schema with validation fields const UserSchema = new Schema({
email: {
type: String,
required: [true, 'An email is required'],
unique: true,
trim: true,
lowercase: true,
validate(value) {
if (!validator.isEmail(value)) {
throw new Error('Not a proper email format');
}
},
}, password: {
type: String,
required: [true, 'A password is required'],
}, name: {
type: String,
trim: true,
required: [true, 'A name is required'],
},
I set up some of the simpler validation on the client side — checking that data was not left blank and that email addresses were in an acceptable format. Once the data is validated and sent to the backend, where validation is set up in Mongoose schemas and is executed as middleware. As a challenge, I rechecked the validation that I set up in the client in the backend, in addition to the server side validations. I also wanted to see if I could have the API send back specific error messages to the client, depending on what went wrong.
The actual validation happens in the router’s handler. In my setup, it’s a three step process:
Check that the submitted email doesn’t yet exist in the database, that it is unique. Check that the password and password confirmation are the same.
These first two validations occur in the actual route handler and if either fails, the router sends back a status 400 with an error object to the frontend.
return res.status(400).send({ error: ‘Account already exists with this email’ });
As an aside, in the client I am using Axios to make the requests. Because the errors are sent back with a 400 status code, they can be accessed in the catch block using e.response.data.error
3. Create and save the new user. The schema validations happen as pre middleware just prior to saving. The error object looks like this:
{
name: ValidatorError: A name is required
{
properties: {
validator: [Function (anonymous)],
message: 'A name is required',
type: 'required',
path: 'name',
value: ''
},
kind: 'required',
path: 'name',
value: '',
reason: undefined,
[Symbol(mongoose:validatorError)]: true
},
In order to combine multiple validation errors (if they should occur), I set up an array of my field names (userFields). I call save() on the new user within a try-catch block. If there are no problems, the new user is sent back to the client. If there are errors, the catch block iterates through the error object, checking if the fields appear using bracket notation. If they do, I push the message into the foundErrors array. Finally I join the messages before sending them to the client.
const userFields = ['name', 'email', 'password'];
const user = new User(req.body); try {
await user.save();
const token = await user.generateAuthToken();
res.status(200).send({ user, token });
} catch (e) {
const foundErrors = [];
userFields.forEach((field) => {
if (e.errors[field]) {
foundErrors.push(e.errors[field].message);
}
});
res.status(400).send({ error: foundErrors.join('. ') });
}
I’m sure there are other approaches, but this setup worked well for me and, as an added bonus, working out the code gave me some insight into Mongoose validation and error handling. This solution works nicely, and sends very specific information that can be directly used for notifications in the client. | https://rixong.medium.com/error-handling-with-express-react-99e197868817 | ['Rick Glascock'] | 2020-12-20 23:12:06.242000+00:00 | ['Expressjs', 'Mongoose'] |
Invest in knowledge & know-how | Invest in knowledge & know-how
A resilient mind is a growth mind. Organizations with resilient minds have confidence in their ability to integrate new information and adapt to new challenges. When a company’s mind is resilient, it is able to identify errors and see opportunities for improvement.
As we have mentioned before in our first blog post on the R Company, the culture of a company is made of its people. To achieve resilience, organizations must nurture the knowledge and know-how of their people. How? By implementing learning opportunities and making it easy for people to up-skill themselves. Therefore, providing learning opportunities in the workplace is a critical component for resilient organizations. To replenish skills and to sustain resilience, organizations need to get maximum value from learning opportunities.
Invest in knowledge & know-how
Continuous learning is a philosophy that businesses need to implement into their culture to gain resilience. Moreover, it is beneficial for executives, employees and also for financial success. In fact, lifelong learning supports the growth of an organization and creates opportunities in a multi-perspective way.
Ideas around continuous learning address different topics. The key parameter is to always expand your knowledge to gain new skills and expertise. In particular, leaders provide the tools and resources necessary to enable a holistic, steady learning process along the value chain. Hereby, there are different methods for employees to engage in continuous learning:
Social learning
This includes the ways a learner interacts, discusses, collaborates and learns from others to increase their knowledge or learn new skills. This can be either informal or formal and includes:
Following blogs or other online media resources to gain deeper insight
Discussion and collaboration on social media
Working and communicating with other co-workers
Coaching and mentoring
On-the-job training
Formal learning
It includes ways through which a learner can gain new knowledge and skills via learning initiatives which have already been pre-determined, organized and implemented for a specific learning purpose or goal. For example:
Training programs from within the organization
External workshops or conferences
A university or college course
E-Learning courses
Mobile learning courses
Self-directed learning
Maintaining and building Know-How does not have to be limited to predetermined learning opportunities or exchange with others. Learning can also be achieved through self-directed opportunities:
Listening to topic relevant podcasts or watching instructional videos
Researching and reading to gain a deep understanding of a topic
Experimentation and exploration
But how do you provide your people with the right structure to enable this kind of learnings? We at Avance have developed a strategy that works for our clients:
Investing in knowledge and continuous learning has multiple positive effects on an organization.
In a rapidly changing work world, a constant building of Know-how helps leaders and employees to be able to adapt quickly. Staying up- to- date with different tools like innovative technologies, practices, or industry developments keeps an organization at a high-quality standard.
Another important benefit is the avoidance of short- sightedness. With the right training tools, and in some cases through consultation with a strong partner, the business is constantly being pushed forward.
An open environment that allows people to share knowledge is essential. Through this fundamental principle, best practices can be discovered, and errors can be resolved. In the end, all these factors contribute to an organization developing the skills it needs, to be the most successful.
To cultivate a resilient mind, organizations, must follow up-to-date learning strategies. Only this leads to the entire workforce adopting a resilient mindset.
In order to equip your people with tools for success, stay tuned for our next article on key principles of the R Company. We will be sharing our approach on an often-underrated key factor for enterprise resilience: your people. Are you ready to become the R Company? Continue learning and growing with our latest blog posts. | https://medium.com/@avancegroup/invest-in-knowledge-know-how-782129d12d55 | [] | 2021-07-06 12:16:45.314000+00:00 | ['Consulting', 'Resilience', 'Knowledge', 'Business', 'Learning And Development'] |
Why do we work in the open? | Working in the open has become quite a buzzword across organisations over the past few years. At its heart, it’s about transparency. How many times have you been presented with a slide deck which makes assertions that you don’t agree with, or worse, feel you are unable to challenge? Not everyone can be consulted on every piece of work happening across the organisation, but that doesn’t mean we should hide our work and hope for acceptance at the end.
Coronavirus has also changed the way many of us work. Most of our staff team have shifted to home working and don’t have the opportunity to bump into each other in the kitchen or grab a quick catch up. This gives us opportunity to think of new ways to work in the open. That said, even before coronavirus hit us, our teams were spread across more than 200 locations in the UK and so there are learnings which I hope we carry forward into future working.
Why is it important?
Being open is about much more than posting a blog or two, or even holding a show and tell. It’s a mindset change. It’s about saying “hey, I would love to share with you what we are doing and hearing your reflections” throughout every stage of our work. There is no polishing a shiny slide deck ready to present at the end.
It allows us to validate our insights and ultimately improve the quality of the work we deliver. By gaining fresh views, better feedback, we can make sure that when our work concludes it resonates with people and doesn’t include any surprises.
We know that people consume and digest information in different ways and at their own pace. By making the information available in a variety of channels, and more regularly, we can accommodate the needs that our various stakeholders may have.
How do we “work in the open”?
Here is a snapshot of what we are doing to “work in the open”. We set out from the beginning wanting to be as open as possible because we recognised the value of collaboration and ongoing constructive feedback. We are always open to any suggestions of how we can improve our practice and I would be interested to hear your reflections.
Show and tells
We hold a weekly show and tell which shares exactly what we are working on, the insights we have gained so far and then we open it out for discussion. We ask questions. We listen. We engage.
Tom explaining insights at a show and tell
Every week we ask for feedback as we want to make sure that the show and tell is for for the purpose for the people who join us. The team were delighted when we got this feedback from a front line colleague.
HUGE THANK YOU GUYS I must admit when I received the information on this call I did think “oh no not another zoom meeting” and also thought “what on earth is ER mapping?” “Why another change?” and all those other thoughts you can think of. HOWEVER This zoom meeting was not just another zoom meeting. It’s exactly what is needed in the service and has been a long time coming. I’m so excited to see where it goes and it’s exactly the thing we need. Santa sure has come early 😊 😊 lol - Hayley, ER Officer
We also held an evening show and tell which was tailored for the volunteer audience. This also provided an opportunity for us to hear their views and to validate some of our views as well as getting new insights.
Open Documentation
If you haven’t already, I would recommend taking a look at the current live document we are working on. This project is all about mapping our services as users see them. As you will see, there are quite a few.
A link to our live service map.
A screenshot of our online live document which shows our insights so far.
We send this out every week to both leadership and frontline teams. The reason for that isn’t to bombard them, but to show that it is an ever-evolving piece of research. There are no versions, no word documents. We host it online so that everyone will see the latest version of our working draft. There is nothing to hide here.
We already have had lots of feedback about this where front-line teams have shared details that we maybe haven’t captured right the first time. Our intended outcome is the production of a finalised item which everyone can feel a sense of shared ownership as well as resonating with their own experiences.
What are we doing next?
Next up us our volunteer engagement. Volunteers are the lifeblood of our organisation and whilst they may not have time to join the show and tells in the middle of the day, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t think about other ways of getting their views and insights.
Somethings we have planned include articles in one of the volunteer emails which go out regularly, posts on to the volunteer Facebook pages and interviewing some emergency response volunteers.
As always, we would love to hear any reflections you have on our approach to working in the open or any of the other work we are doing. | https://medium.com/digital-and-innovation-at-british-red-cross/why-do-we-work-in-the-open-57432d4778b5 | ['Ross Pitbladdo'] | 2020-12-17 16:03:34.116000+00:00 | ['Digital Transformation', 'Charity', 'Nonprofit', 'Digital', 'Service Design'] |
Esports funding throughout the years | Esports investing journey from niche to mainstream
Photo Credit by Tzido Sun on Shutterstock
In our previous article, Esports market shows first signs of maturity, we briefly discussed the increase in investments attracted by the esports industry, driven by the rise of mega rounds. In this article we summarize in detail the funding journey of esports by stage, country and sub-sector and provide our predictions for esports funding going forward.
Steady increase in esports investments throughout the years
During the period 2011–20 esports number of investment rounds has increased every year with the exception of 2013 and 2020. Despite the decrease in number of rounds in 2020 (from 85 to 78), we have seen an increase in the total amount of funding by 127% to $1.3bn, driven by a few mega rounds. Overall, esports ventures have closed 492 rounds over the past 10 years with number of rounds growing at a 2011–20 CAGR of 29%.
During the same period, total esports funding increased steadily until 2018 when it peaked at a record amount of $2.9bn driven by a few mega rounds. Top three investments in 2018 accounted for c90% of the total raised funding (Epic Games at $1.8bn, Huya at $537m and Chushou TV at $265m). 2019 saw a dip bringing back investments almost at the level of 2012. Overall, esports ventures raised a total funding amount of $8.0bn over the past 10 years with total funding growing at a 2011–20 CAGR of 44%.
Source: Tracxn
Total funding growth outpaced growth in number of rounds, signalling that the average ticket size per round has also increased. Excluding some outlier years, the average ticket size per round in esports was about $17.5m during this period (Tracxn, 2020).
Esports funding is driven by growth in early and late stage rounds
The growth in esports funding and number of funding rounds has not been equal across different stages. Based on data from Tracxn, the main funding rounds closed by esports companies are at seed, early and late stages, while PE (private equity) investing is still very rare (top PE investors in the sector include Raine Group (5), Eldridge (5), and Lowercase Capital (4)). During the period 2011–20, the esports sector has raised total of $8.0bn funding split among the following stages — Seed (4%), early stage (40%), late stage (52%) and PE (4%). Over the past five years there has been a significant increase in total funding at late stage (2015–20 CAGR of 88%) and early stage (2015–20 CAGR of 34%), while seed and PE funding have remained broadly unchanged (Tracxn, 2020).
Source: Tracxn
In terms of number of rounds, seed stage is still the most common funding round. Out of the total 492 funding rounds raised during 2011–20, 54% were at seed stage, 37% at early stage, 8% at late stage and 2% contributed by PE funds. The increase in total number of rounds though has been driven by an increase in number of late stage rounds (2015–20 CAGR of 32%) and early stage rounds (2015–20 CAGR of 10%) mainly (Tracxn, 2020).
Source: Tracxn
This trend is also confirmed by the average ticket size per stage. While seed stage average ticket size has remained broadly unchanged at c$1.2m, early stage average ticket size has increased over the years, showing that the funding growth has outpaced growth in number of rounds. The average ticket size at late stage has varied over the years with no clear trend (Tracxn, 2020).
Source: Tracxn
Start-ups in US and Asia have attracted most funding
Source: Tracxn
Out of the total $8.0bn esports funding raised during 2011–20, US start-ups have attracted 56%, followed by Asia at 38% and Europe at 6%. Majority of the esports funding in Asia has been attracted by only three countries — China, Singapore and India. Most interestingly, esports funding in Asia has been growing at a much faster pace than US and Europe, implying in the future Asia might become the most funded esports region.
Broadcasters, league organizers and game developers attracted majority of the funding
In the table below we have summarized the most funded business models within esports. In terms of total funding amount, the top three funded sub-sectors are broadcasters, game developers of FPS (first-person shooter) games and league organizers. The three of them combined account for 71% of the esports funding during 2011–20. In terms of number of rounds, broadcasters and esports platforms focusing on competitive gaming are the top funded subsectors, accounting for 41% of all funding rounds in the industry. Game developers of FPS games stand out as the sub-sector with the highest ticket size per round. The sub-sector of esports platforms in competitive gaming stands out with the highest number of companies that have received funding (Tracxn, 2020).
Source: Tracxn
Our forecast for esports funding going forward
As 2020 is coming to an end, one has to acknowledge it has been a milestone year for venture capital with record number of VC-backed IPOs and record amount of raised funding. Although some sectors have benefitted more than others, we believe esports has become mainstream in terms of the audience and investors it attracts. Our prediction for the next 5–10 years in the industry are: i) number of late-stage rounds will grow at a faster pace, while we will also see more PE funding activity, ii) Asia will become the most funded esports region, surpassing US, and iii) funding will shift towards companies and business models which target monetization such as fan engagement, betting, real-money gaming and in-game advertising. Overall, we remain very excited about the esports sector and the opportunities it will bring going forward. | https://medium.com/rocket-capital/esports-funding-throughout-the-years-1c53b9c5395d | ['Viktoria Oushatova'] | 2020-12-15 07:26:49.259000+00:00 | ['Esport', 'Venture Capital', 'Growth', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Funding'] |
Pipeline for comparing two object detection models: | Before proceeding further, there are some terms which are needed to be clear regarding object detection. Those terms are mentioned below:
IoU: Intersection over union is a ratio to calculate how much area of the detection covers the actual ground truth box.
Formula IoU: Detected Bounding Box ⋂ Ground Truth Box
----------------------------------------
Detected Bounding Box ⋃ Ground Truth Box
True Positives: Number of correct detections which have IoU_with_ground_truth_box > IoU_threshold. False Positives: Number of incorrect detections which have IoU_with_ground_truth_box < IoU_threshold. False Negative: When object is not detected then that object is counted as false negative. That particular object is considered as background. True Negative: Background.(Which is not important) Precision: True positive rate of the model. This implies that how correctly the model is detecting objects in a image.
Precision = TP
------
TP + FP
Recall: This implies how often the model detects which should be detected in an image.
Recall = TP
--------
TP + FN
Precision vs Recall curve:
There’s a popular theory that if we want to increase model’s precision i.e to make sure that model only predicts objects with higher confidence then it may reduce the recall value , this is called precision recall tradeoff.
For example, consider that there are four dogs in an image and the model detects only one dog in the image so model has high precision but has poor recall because it only detected one dog out of four .
. So as we decrease the confidence threshold , model’s recall value increase gradually by decreasing the precision.
Note: Different colors shows the tradeoff between different classes.
Mean Average Precision:
So we consider precision at every point decrease in confidence_threshold as shown in the graph .ie. we gradually decrease the confidence_threshold and consider precision for that particular point.
Take weighted mean of all precision points where as the increase in the recall value from the previous point are considered as the weights.
AP = summation of (Wi x Pi)
------------------------
Number_of_(Pi) Wi = increase in recall from previous Precision Point. Pi = current precision point
Now we take plots of precision vs recall at different iou_thresholds by gradually decreasing iou_thresholds for each different class.
Pipeline for comparing two object detection models:
Before proceeding further, there are some terms which are needed to be clear regarding object detection. Those terms are mentioned below:
IoU: Intersection over union is a ratio to calculate how much area of the detection covers the actual ground truth box.
Formula IoU: Detected Bounding Box ⋂ Ground Truth Box
----------------------------------------
Detected Bounding Box ⋃ Ground Truth Box
True Positives: Number of correct detections which have IoU_with_ground_truth_box > IoU_threshold. False Positives: Number of incorrect detections which have IoU_with_ground_truth_box < IoU_threshold. False Negative: When object is not detected then that object is counted as false negative. That particular object is considered as background. True Negative: Background.(Which is not important) Precision: True positive rate of the model. This implies that how correctly the model is detecting objects in a image.
Precision = TP
------
TP + FP
Recall: This implies how often the model detects which should be detected in an image.
Recall = TP
--------
TP + FN
Precision vs Recall curve:
There’s a popular theory that if we want to increase model’s precision i.e to make sure that model only predicts objects with higher confidence then it may reduce the recall value , this is called precision recall tradeoff.
For example, consider that there are four dogs in an image and the model detects only one dog in the image so model has high precision but has poor recall because it only detected one dog out of four .
. So as we decrease the confidence threshold , model’s recall value increase gradually by decreasing the precision.
Note: Different colors shows the tradeoff between different classes.
Mean Average Precision:
So we consider precision at every point decrease in confidence_threshold as shown in the graph .ie. we gradually decrease the confidence_threshold and consider precision for that particular point.
Take weighted mean of all precision points where as the increase in the recall value from the previous point are considered as the weights.
AP = summation of (Wi x Pi)
------------------------
Number_of_(Pi) Wi = increase in recall from previous Precision Point. Pi = current precision point
Now we take plots of precision vs recall at different iou_thresholds by gradually decreasing iou_thresholds for each different class.
Average all precisions at different points of iou_threshold
We again mean the values over all class mAPs. | https://medium.com/@naveen-yadav-official365/pipeline-for-comparing-two-object-detection-models-3eb8aa242e3c | ['Naveen Yadav'] | 2020-11-22 08:39:04.710000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Precision', 'Object Detection', 'Average', 'Deep Learning'] |
Docker Container Overview | What is Docker Container?
Docker is an open-source technology used mostly for developing, shipping, and running applications. Docker provides the ability to package and run an application in a loosely isolated environment called a container. Containerized app will always run same, regardless of the infrastructure.
Docker is a containerization platform that packages your application and all its dependencies together in the form of a docker container to ensure that your application works seamlessly in any environment.
Docker container image is a lightweight, standalone, executable package of software that has everything you need to run an application — code, runtime, system tools, system libraries, and settings. The isolation and security allow you to run many containers simultaneously on a given host without interference.
Containers are lightweight because they don’t need extra load of a hypervisor, but run directly within the host machine’s kernel. This means you can run more containers on a given hardware combination than if you were using virtual machines. You can also run Docker containers within host machines that are actually virtual machines. | https://medium.com/docker-and-kubernetes/docker-container-overview-what-is-docker-introduction-to-docker-container-ff016b254537 | ['Ashish Patel'] | 2020-07-18 20:22:50.064000+00:00 | ['Docker Image', 'Containers', 'Docker', 'Containerization', 'Docker Container'] |
How To Recognize Secure Attachment After Processing Trauma? | @adityaries unsplash.com
One of the hallmarks of trauma recovery is this moment towards the end of your journey when you recognize how far you’ve come. It is almost like a flash of lightning that tells you that you are now an emotionally healthy individual. You never thought this could be your identity. You’ve inherited this identity slowly while working hard on your issues.
As you emerge from the fog of indecision, you face the new therapist and tell her that you no longer need her because you’ve spent the last ten years working on your issues. The reason is because of this moment of recognition of secure attachment you saw last week confirmed by a kind of confidence you feel at your inner core.
The secure attachment is your validation that all of your work in the past few years has paid off. You say to your therapist, “I know that you are only a phone call away when I need you again. I know that I still have a few minor issues to work through. I know what my lingering issues are, and I have the skills now to heal myself. I have learned to recover. I’ll be okay.”
You give her a smile that you are flashing every day since whenever you feel this intense love for the universe.
In trauma recovery, there’s rarely a confident moment.
You are never sure, burdened by a lifetime of shame that you are 100% healed. But, you know that good days are the norm. The bad days have gone. You have a lifestyle that’s putting faith back into your life. You also have a purpose for which you work diligently for, every day. You have learned new skills to get up when you fall. You love yourself enough not to let yourself fall again. You feel emotions at your core and can process them normally. You notice your reactions, in your gut, in your toes, from your head, in your third eyes. You have a gateway to your unconscious. You’ve accepted the whole of you, reflecting on all of the darkness and the light.
You are compassionate toward yourself.
If you are in trauma recovery, re-visit how you are doing once every year, reflect on how far you’ve come. While reading trauma recovery books, I’ve learned that my intuitions helped to steer me on my recovery journey. After ten years, I know what secure attachment looks like and how to develop it in relationships.
You are straight forward with people. You don’t hide.
One of the most harmful ways trauma teaches a person is that “hiding” is essential to obtain safety. You tend to minimize your anger, your discontent. You tend to please others. You tend to take on the responsibilities of others in every situation. You blame yourself. You shame yourself for other people’s actions.
Ask yourself, have you been hiding your feelings for the last few weeks from people you know well?
Being straight forward does not mean that you have to disclose everything or that words should hurt other people. Instead, you can detach from the situation’s outcome and sit with your feelings repeatedly to allow you to articulate your feelings better to other people.
For instance, if you don’t know what to say, say this, “I’m sorry I don’t know what’s going on with me. But, I know that I’m not okay with this. I feel uncomfortable. I don’t know why. Let me get back to you.”
When you are mad, are you hiding the emotions? I don’t mean that you have to throw a tantrum. Do you have a way to tell people that you are mad? Can you deal with conflict as they arise? Do you have uncomfortable conversations all the time in your house? Can you tell someone straight to their face what is bothering you? Can you call someone out if you think they’ve done something?
Confrontation will stop the shame and guilt train from coming for you after the fact.
You Are Holding People’s Eye Contact And Relating To Them With Your Full Presence
If you are holding trauma in your body, you will escape any chance you get. A lot of trauma victims live in their heads. At least in your head, everything makes sense. You build narratives around your trauma to make sense of them. You are escaping when you are uncomfortable.
When people don’t react to the way you want them to, especially when you can’t control their reactions, you stop holding eye contact with them. You’ve decided to retreat into your head because you don’t feel safe with strong emotions. It doesn’t mean what these emotions are. They don’t have to be dark emotions. They could be any intense emotion, and you are uncomfortable.
Try holding people’s gaze when they look at you. Try to look into people’s eyes at grocery stores. Try to look into people’s eyes as you are talking to them. When you see the discomfort in people, hold their eye contact anyway. Hold eye contact even when you are mad at them.
Interestingly, when you sink into the emotions that they are reflecting back at you, you will find that these emotions are not as strong or negative as you thought. You may experience the wonder of seeing their human-ness.
You Are Not Clingy
When your SO goes to work, do you have anxiety about the day? When your children leave for school, do you feel a sense of dread? When you have a significant emotional meltdown and wanted to cry on the phone to your best friend if she doesn’t answer the phone, do you feel so terrible that you can’t go on?
When you have a secure attachment to yourself, then you can give to others generously. You are the default person who can help you with just about anything life throws at you. What do you do with anxious thoughts about your SO? Do you let these thoughts fester? Do you sink into the “love” that you know and trust that they come back again and again?
By not become clingy to outcomes from relationships or any event in your life, you are not writing that trauma narrative all over the wall of your house. You can sit with that anxiety for just a few minutes. You can breathe deeply and inhale in the love that you know. You are then embarking on your day with no attachment to what you will find at the end of the day.
When you have a significant emotional meltdown, do you have a process that you fall back on that involves no one else? You can fall back to yourself to take care of your heart, soul, body, and mind.
You can trust that you will be there for you always.
You Give More Than You Take, But You Draw Firm Boundaries
One of the biggest challenges from overcoming trauma is this overwhelming sense of holding things inside. You don’t give love because you are living in numbness. Only when you start to love yourself unconditionally can you truly give love to other people. But, when you begin to show your love to others, it is not a free for all.
It doesn’t come as floods of love anymore. Nothing is dramatic when you are giving love to friends, family, colleagues, etc..
It becomes a natural occurrence of being compassionate toward people around you. You smile for the maintenance guy at your local park. You thank the cashier at your local gas station for adding extra vanilla into your coffee with firm eye contact, and you mean it.
You tell a coworker what you find not acceptable with their behavior, all the while offering a helping hand and an open heart to help them deal with the potential stresses in their life.
You no longer hesitate to reflect on your behaviors. You put your best face forward every day, all the time, not because you have to, but because you want to. You have all of this love in you, and you give that generously to people you care about.
You catch yourself when you think you need to draw boundaries. Then, you take action.
You Are Taking Actions To Improve Your Reality, But You Are Not Ego-Driven
Each one of us has a way to live in this world. Without feeling like the world is trustworthy and safe, it isn’t easy to engage in the world with any sense of love.
When you heal from trauma, it’s tempting to want to live in that “happiness” that you think is the outcome of all the hard work of therapy. But, the actual result is the optimistic outlook at your core. It’s the belief that you have the confidence to deal with anything. It’s the belief that you are stable in your internal locus of control. You can channel it to achieve anything that you want to.
You mold your reality into the vision that you see every day. But, by some chance, you don’t get the outcomes you want to along the way; you move on to find something else. You are flexible. You can deal with failure because you trust the world and how it will help you.
You attach to the world healthily and securely no matter what the world becomes. You trust yourself. Therefore, you have immense trust in your role in this world.
You Recognize and Appreciate The People Who Are Securely Attached to You
The final step in trauma recovery is always to have healthy relationships based on trust. These healthy relationships confirm the image of what secure attachment is supposed to look like for you. These healthy relationships that you have where you feel safe enough to engage with your authentic self validate your actions, give you confidence and are sources of love as well as the destinations where you place your love.
When you look into your child’s eyes, do you see that your child loves you unconditionally and attached securely to you? When your child goes to school, do you want them to have a good time, make friends, and look forward to the stories they tell you when they come back? When you are away, does your child miss you but know that they will be looked after by people who love them?
When you leave your child to play, does your child engage with the world with wonder and playfulness in their eyes?
Do you unleash a sense of freedom in your friends, SO, and your loved ones where they can be anything and do anything with you by their side?
If so, then you love unconditionally. Your loved ones are securely attached to you. You do not feel fear in your heart when they are away.
You’ve managed to maintain a handful of relationships while you diligently processed your trauma. Perhaps you recovered because of these people who gave their love by your side.
When you look at how they are still there, you recognize the new sense of freedom that all of you feel in your relationship.
The Takeaway
Trauma recovery is a long road. But, when you are in the thick of it, do you appreciate how far you’ve come? I didn’t recognize my secure attachment in my relationships, healthy boundaries, and unconditional love until I realized that I’ve healed.
All of the hard work, therapy, meditation, bodywork, breathwork, being alone, engaging in work that fulfills my soul, self-improvement, reflection, they all paid off handsomely.
When you have a new identity of an emotionally healthy person, wear it proudly.
Savor it by going out and meeting new people, taking risks, and living the life that you’ve always dreamed that you will have.
What are you waiting for? | https://medium.com/jun-wu-blog/how-to-recognize-secure-attachment-after-processing-trauma-f3c7e6672cac | ['Jun Wu'] | 2020-10-07 18:18:49.065000+00:00 | ['Self', 'Mental Health', 'Family', 'Attachment', 'Trauma'] |
Pandemic Wake-Up: The Privilege of Safe Spaces | “No space can ever be 100 percent safe — but this is much more true for some groups of people than others.” -Alex Abad-Santos
It is essential for humans to have a space to release. For some, this release is found in religious buildings; for others, it is felt when immersed in a crowd of strangers at a packed concert. This space can be a person, a fleeting moment, or even a memory. Yet, despite the way the term “safe space” is often thrown around in different contexts, the core meaning remains the same: A place free of judgment. Permission to exist as you are. A space to shape your identity.
But not everyone has access to a safe space.
While the parameters that define safe spaces are loose, the barriers that block many oppressed groups and identities are difficult to traverse.
When COVID-19 first shut down the world, some safe spaces — like homes — were placed in jeopardy. For people who considered their home to be an escape, this confusing overlap of their once-separate lives created unsettling ambiguity.
The shift to life outside is ideal for most but exclusive to a few groups. Planned green spaces — both urban and rural — are defined and accessible based on the privilege that wealth and race provide. And now, the COVID-19 crisis highlights how years of patchy investment in neighborhoods have left 100 million Americans — including 27 million children — without access to an outdoor space close to home.
Consider the positioning of a well-funded neighborhood in your city and its proximity to a park. Consider the well-lit streets and clear sidewalks that lead up to it. And consider the people who play in it and pass through it.
With that in mind, it’s no secret that those with access to balconies, yards, parks, and other outdoor spaces — which allow for distanced activities — have fared well (before) and throughout the pandemic. With space to congregate and connect safely, these outdoor areas provide relief from a tense and isolated time.
“No one can live in a constant state of vigilance,” Sabrina Stevens says, “Your body is not designed to do that. The need for safe spaces is the need to literally not have your adrenal system constantly firing at full tilt.”
There are heavy ties between nature and mental health. Even a few minutes spent outside in silence has been proven to lower blood pressure and levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which calms the body’s fight-or-flight response.
In a time where health is at risk, the urgency for green spaces is essential for survival.
While affluent communities have carried on with their lives outside, individuals in low-income, disadvantaged areas have been forced to dually navigate a global pandemic and the subsequent mental health crisis from their (sometimes) tumultuous homes. Trapped inside their four walls without relief, some residents are physically isolated, while others suffer in silence despite being constantly surrounded by others.
Sheltering in place has forced these residents to remain isolated from the communities that shape their identities.
Photo by Sand Crain on Unsplash
And these conditions are only creating higher levels of stress inside, as time outside is limited, distanced, and diminishing with the onset of winter.
As this pandemic barrels on, governments have strategically attempted to reopen cities with redesigned outdoor spaces for socially-distanced activities. Parking lots have been transformed into streateries and streets have been shut down to create outdoor dining spaces. Bike and pedestrian-centric roads are emerging across the country as people safely shift the way they move across cities. City parks have welcomed people back into their communal grounds to meet and congregate safely. However, with winter approaching, colder temperatures and reclosures threaten this security once again.
While it is easy to brush off the claims that outdoor biases still exist, these treacherous realities are still pervasive in lower-income communities. And despite efforts to safely accommodate people during the pandemic, parks continue to give a cold shoulder to many BIPOC individuals who have faced years of racism and culturally-embedded discrimination in these outdoor areas.
“African Americans’ lack of interest in parks or outdoor recreation is a cultural disposition shaped by centuries of racial oppression,” — Kang Jae Lee, Professor at University of Missouri
Consider Christian Cooper, a bird-watcher from Central Park whose story went viral back in May 2020 when a white woman called the police over his request to leash her dog in a designated birding area. Stories like Christian’s are not outliers. They are normalized interactions for BIPOC individuals in “public spaces.”
Safety is a quick, public response when the conversation of discrimination and the outdoors is brought up. Outdated and incorrect, these stereotypes are based on historically racist tropes against Black and Brown communities — and this is especially prevalent in lower-income neighborhoods.
Parks can provide public, unsurveilled space and thus may become settings where social disorder and crime are more common. However, new research shows that organized community activities and investment in parks have deterred certain crimes from happening. This is just another example of the positive effects reinvestment has on previously-overlooked communities.
Sianna Simmons-Afari, Associate Director at Kaboom, put it best:
“Until Black people feel safe, welcome and included in a space, we cannot truthfully call it public.”
If the case for safe green spaces was not clear before, COVID-19 has justified the necessity. We were not created to spend our lives inside, and our pandemic experience indoors and outdoors is shaped by the privileges that we operate in. Advocating, building, and maintaining safe outdoor green spaces is a way to take back.
In order to move towards a more equitable future with public spaces, all voices of all backgrounds must have a seat at the table. No more forced “solutions” with boutique gyms and overpriced grocery stores. City planners must welcome and accommodate the requests and suggestions of the communities they seek to improve. All community stakeholders must have seats at the planning table in order to create solutions that are both purposeful and sustainable.
Interested in how I dealt with solitude in a pandemic? Check out my piece on finding community during COVID-19 here. | https://medium.com/@aj-tabler/pandemic-wake-up-the-privilege-of-safe-spaces-215c056d74e8 | ['Anna-Jane Tabler'] | 2020-12-19 17:16:12.598000+00:00 | ['Equity', 'Pandemic', 'City Living', 'Redevelopment', 'Covid 19'] |
MeToo | Mea Culpa, b/c I have been guilty of bad shit too. Still, how come #Metoo has lost some energy?
Image courtesy of Markus Spiske, Unsplash
#MeToo
began as women,
justifiably,
started standing up
against men
trying to rape, grope
molest or
otherwise
accost them,
These men were
indifferent
to the wishes,
desires, feelings
of the women.
It soon became, for some,
a kind of Victim’s club,
nonetheless much needed
and legitimate for
posting grievances
long-suppressed
and overdue
for adjudication.
As so often is the case
in such matters
things started well.
But as is equally
common
and perhaps unavoidable
the bar got lower
and lower as more
and more
women
began to come into
the movement with
what became their default
compliant,
“He made me feel uncomfortable.”
There is no defense
for the falsely accused man
who, without any intention
to do harm
is named in
such an indictment.
I can make you
uncomfortable
if I try,
at least I’m pretty sure I can,
but for someone
to complain to me, or worse,
behind my back, about me
“making them feel uncomfortable”
when I may have said something
or done something
that was not intended to do harm
and, even after I apologize,
for me to be
punished for this sin…
Seems to me that this is how
#Me Too
has found its way
to the top of its death spiral.
************************************
Wikipedia & Encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Trueman
#MeToo can be found this book, available on Amazon.com and or places like Latahbooks.com | https://medium.com/an-idea/metoo-933c7b7becd8 | ['Terry Trueman'] | 2020-12-19 05:22:31.457000+00:00 | ['Fairness', 'Mea Culpa', 'Sexism', 'Justice', 'Accountability'] |
Business in the front, party in the back. | Moving on from building exclusively with Ruby on Rails, the next step was to learn how to create a backend API with Ruby on Rails and front end with JavaScript. Bringing the two together into one single app can sound slightly intimidating at first, but let’s get to it. This will be a basic tutorial for beginners struggling to set things up.
First, I created 2 separate repositories, one for the frontend, one for the backend. You can then use ‘rails new appname — api’ in order to generate your backend API.
It’s worth noting that you should be careful when using ‘rails new appname — api’ in your backend as that can generate some .git directories which can prevent you from pushing your code up to github. The following is the best option I found in order to mitigate this issue.
cd appname
rm -rf .git
cd ..
git add .
After creating the 2 separate repos, you can proceed with the following:
Backend (Ruby on Rails):
Create models and relationships
Create the database tables and seed
Create controllers with some of the views that might be needed
Frontend (JavaScript):
Create functions that create and append elements
One of the main differences with this project is we will no longer need to create/use any views, rather, we will render things on the frontend using JavaScript.
The Rails backend is now only meant to create the APIs needed for JavaScript to fetch data from (GET) and to (POST, PATCH, etc.). For this, we still need our controllers.
This means that we can now go to http://localhost:3000/users in our browser and see the data in json format, which can be now easily fetched with Javascript:
In this case, we’ve persisted a user in our database using our fetch request on the frontend.
This is of course the basics and the very beginning of what you can with this set-up. In this case, I’ve built a Space Invaders game, and you can see below that the process to instantiate a new game in our Rails backend using a front end fetch request is very similar.
Here’s our controller:
And our fetch request in the frontend:
Now it’s your turn to have fun and use this powerful tool in order to build something that inspires you! | https://medium.com/@felipeldn91/business-in-the-front-party-in-the-back-5e0a2d7a939f | ['Felipe Cruz'] | 2020-12-25 20:16:44.682000+00:00 | ['JavaScript', 'Json', 'Space Invaders', 'Ruby on Rails', 'API'] |
Jen Sincero’s ‘Badass’ Origin Story Is a Lesson in Creative Intuition | Photo: Heather Gilderoy
In 2013, the author Jen Sincero scored a #1 New York Times bestseller with her irreverent advice manual, You Are a Badass. Since then, the phrase has quite literally become Sincero’s trademark. So, when Forge recently chatted with Sincero about her latest book, Badass Habits, there was one question we absolutely had to ask: What’s with the ‘badass’?
What we got was a lesson in following your creative intuition.
As Sincero put it:
It’s funny. I never, ever used the word ‘badass.’ I’d never be like, ‘Oh, you’re such a badass.’ That was so not in my vernacular at all. But I had a friend who had a website called ‘Hey, Little Badass.’ I thought it was so cute. It was so funny, ‘little badass.’ So, that’s sort of how it got in my mind. When I decided to write these books, many years later, I knew that the feel I wanted them to have was sort of rock and roll and edgy — to say: ‘you are’ something. I wanted to address the reader on a personal level. And by that time, my friend was no longer using ‘little badass.’ So, I started using [‘you are a badass’]. I used to be an advertising copywriter, and I love writing titles. Quippy short things. It’s something I’m pretty good at. But the title for You Are a Badass was such a beast. It as a breech birth all the way, a real wrestling match. Probably because ‘badass’ wasn’t really my word yet. I never really used it. So, I was like, ‘is that authentic?’ But it wouldn’t go away. So, I kept it. And thank God.
In short: If you run into an idea that you can’t seem to shake, let yourself see where it takes you. It just might change your life. | https://forge.medium.com/jen-sinceros-badass-origin-story-is-a-lesson-in-creative-intuition-fd74b3ac7caf | ['Kelli María Korducki'] | 2020-12-04 15:35:34.462000+00:00 | ['Personal Developement', 'Authors', 'Inspiration', 'Creative Process', 'Ideas'] |
10 Practices of Successful Entrepreneurs | 10 Practices of Successful Entrepreneurs
Booty Caller. It was the way-too-crass working name of a mobile app idea a buddy and I had in 2008, the year the App Store launched. Booty Caller would use your phone’s GPS to connect you with potential nearby romantic partners. We made a logo, designed the app interface, and engaged a developer. But ultimately, cowering under a daunting cloud of uncertainty, fear of failure, and lack of know-how, we filed away the project into the coulda-woulda-shoulda folder. Four years later, while we wallowed in nine-to-five obscurity, Tinder revolutionized dating.
After a decade of working for corporate America, NPR’s How I Built This podcast, hosted by Guy Raz, has re-awoken my entrepreneurial vigor and armed me with an instruction manual and the courage to capitalize on the next great idea, should it ever come my way again.
Every episode is must-listen material, but below is a list of practices you’ll need to follow to become the next How I Built This founder.
1. Ball on a ramen budget
Let us first agree it won’t be easy or glamorous, especially in the early years.
During Chipotle’s first year, founder Steve Ellis slept on a friend’s basement couch and worked from early morning until late at night.
Clif Bar’s Gary Erickson, kept his day job working in a bicycle factory for two years, all while sleeping in a garage.
Dermalogica’s Jane Wurwand worked 16 hours a day, every day, and lived a meager existence. “A big night out was a burger on a Friday night. That was huge,” she said. “We saved everything.”
2. Finance creatively
In addition to living on a tight budget, you’ll have to get creative about raising capital for your venture. Some How I Built This founders borrowed money from their moms, some from venture capitalists, but many hatched innovative financing methods.
After being rejected by 20 investors and maxing out a bunch of credit cards, the founders of Airbnb created and sold a cereal called “Obama O’s” to pay off debt. More importantly, their cereal-box hustle impressed potential investors, landing them a spot in Y-Combinator, a prestigious accelerator for small businesses.
When times were bleak, Samuel Adam’s founder Jim Koch put a coupon on 6-packs of beer offering customers a chance to buy shares in the company. All they had to do was send a check. The result? Sixty five million dollars.
3. Prototype, launch, and refine
My perfectionist tendencies often keep me from shipping projects. I want to wait until everything is perfect before launching, which it never will be. How I Built This is a great reminder to move forward with “good enough,” learning from mistakes and consumer feedback.
“There were a lot of typos,” said VICE co-founder Suroosh Alvi of their first magazine, “but it was alive.”
Airbnb was quickly thrown together for attendees of SXSW. They only managed to attract six hosts and one customer, but they learned valuable insights to improve the product. Notably, they realized exchanging money in someone’s home is awkward, leading to the creation of online payments and a way for Airbnb to monetize the site.
4. Learn as you go
You don’t need an MBA. Most of the founders just figured out things as they went along.
Richard Branson of Virgin Brands dropped out of high school to start an anti-Vietnam War magazine. When asked how he knew how to publish a magazine, Branson responded “the best way of running a business is to just throw yourself in the deep end and learn…and ask lots of questions and listen, listen, listen.”
Virgin Brands dropped out of high school to start an anti-Vietnam War magazine. When asked how he knew how to publish a magazine, Branson responded “the best way of running a business is to just throw yourself in the deep end and learn…and ask lots of questions and listen, listen, listen.” About not going to journalism school, VICE’s Surroosh Alvi commented, “we were going to school in public.”
Even today, after Buzzfeed’s enormous success, founder and CEO Jonah Peretti feels “very unqualified for the job…I’m still figuring it out.”
5. Fake it ’til you make it
Who hasn’t heard this advice? But I was surprised to actually see it utilized by many of the builders.
Before launching TOMS Shoes, founder Blake Mycoskie had another business venture in which he convinced building owners in Nashville to sell their exterior walls for advertising. The key to getting owners to agree was to position his idea as a ‘business’. “You don’t wanna use the word ‘idea’,” he said, “because if it’s just an idea you’re not going to inspire a lot of confidence.”
While trying to secure their first space for WeWork, Miguel McKelvey and his partner secured a meeting the following day with a building owner but had nothing prepared. Spending all night creating a business plan, business cards, and marketing materials, McKelvey felt as if they had no credibility. To their surprise, the investors enthusiastically responded “oh, you actually have something here” and leased them the property.
Barbara Corcoran, real estate mogul and Shark Tank shark, was only seven weeks away from going out of business when she made her first apartment rental. With her first check she made a wise investment — a fancy coat. “It was the smartest thing I could have done with the money,” she said, “because in it, I felt powerful.”
5. Hire or partner with experts
Not everything can be faked so many brand builders found experts to help design their product.
Wendy Kopp of Teach for America did not know how to train teachers so “that’s why we found experienced teacher educators.”
Founder of Samuel Adams, Jim Koch, was a sixth generation brewer and knew a little bit about brewing beer, but also “realized I had to find the best brewmaster in America to help me…He turned me down at first.”
6. Persist in face of rejection
When times have gotten tough in my entrepreneurial endeavors, it has been tempting to tuck my tail between my legs and walk away. How I Built This has given me permission to be persistent.
In trying to find partners for Rent the Runway, Jenn Hyman was on the way to a second meeting with fashion designer Diane von Furstenburg when von Fursternburg’s assistant called to cancel the meeting. Hyman acted like she had a bad connection, hung up, and showed up anyway. Furstenburg was not interested in partnering, but introduced Hyman to Nieman Marcus, which helped get Rent the Runway off the ground.
In trying to gain ownership of the phone number 1–800-GOT-JUNK, founder Brian Scudamore made about 60 calls to find and convince the owner to transfer the number to him. “I could have given up after call 54 or 55,” he said. “I just kept going.”
7. Tell white lies
I don’t necessarily condone these examples, but according to RXBar’s founder Peter Rahal, “In the early stages of a business, you can’t break the law, but you need to bend the rules a little bit.”
In order to convince a grocery store owner to carry his yogurt, Stonyfield founder Gary Hirshberg had his friends call the grocer and ask for Stonyfield yogurt by name. The grocer later called Hirshberg claiming demand had gone off the charts.
VICE’s founder said in a media interview that a certain investor was interested in buying VICE. This investor, who had never even heard of VICE, caught wind of the story, reached out to VICE and ended up buying 25% of the company.
8. Steal from other industries
Innovation often occurs at the intersection of ideas from different disciplines and there were many instances where How I Built This founders borrowed from other places.
1–800-GOT-JUNK’s name was inspired by 1–800-Flowers and the “Got Milk” campaign.
Before TOMS Shoes, founder Blake Mycoskie had a business of selling ads for music albums on the side of buildings in Nashville — an idea he borrowed from movie ads on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.
9. Remember that marketing and PR actually work
I’ve been a marketer for almost two decades and still sometimes forget that marketing actually works. It doesn’t have to be rocket science — just get your brand in front of people.
In order to generate users of dating app Bumble, Whitney Wolfe who also co-founded Tinder, went to sorority houses claiming there were a ton of frat guys on the Bumble app waiting to connect with them. She then ran over to fraternity houses and told them that a bunch of sorority girls were on the app waiting for them.
Barbara Corchoran invented a NYC real estate newsletter called The Corchoran Report and mailed it to the New York Times, who ended up quoting her on the front page of the real estate section. It gave her instant credibility and within one day she became a recognizable name to potential customers.
10. Capitalize on a previously unsatisfied consumer need
Before any of the above practices should be implemented, you obviously have to have a good idea. A key criterion for a good idea is that it meets a consumer need, ideally a previously unsatisfied one.
Rent the Runway was inspired by Jenn Hyman observing that her sister needed new outfits to wear for big events that she had not already been seen wearing on social media.
Clif Bar was created by an avid cyclist who reached his breaking point of eating gross, highly processed energy bars, so he figured out how to make a good tasting, whole-ingredient-based bar himself.
Finally, even if you already know all of this stuff, How I Built This is a great cheerleader, always providing a healthy dose of confidence and motivation.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — | https://medium.com/@robertheavrin/10-practices-of-successful-entrepreneurs-73926b41f501 | ['Robert Heavrin'] | 2019-05-06 22:56:01.777000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Success', 'Successful Entrepreneurs', 'Business', 'Entrepreneurship'] |
How to Plan your Trip to Thailand | Planning a trip to the land of smiles, that popular south Asian holiday destination you have heard so much about? Yes, Thailand is all that and more and can be quite overwhelming to first-timers. Which is why this article helps you simplify the planning process, do read on and start packing!
1. Check the Weather in Bangkok
The weather in Thailand is tropical, high temperatures and humidity are constant throughout the year. The northern and central regions, however, go through 3 seasons. The cool season between November and February, the hot season from March to May and the wet season from May to October; April is the hottest season and December to January the coolest. The south of Thailand experiences only two seasons which is the dry and wet season. The seasons do not affect both ends of the nation at the same time as the south is impacted by two monsoons, hence different islands experience varied weather patterns at different times of the year. So, the peak season for tourism in Thailand falls between November and February when the weather is cool and climates dry. Travelling at peak time means paying higher rates and facing large crowds, but you can avoid all this by alternating your travel period.
2. Choose Convenient and Comfy Accommodation
Accommodation varies across Thailand’s cities, the capital is the most popular and Bangkok hotel packages are perfect for scoring some good deals; like Chatrium Residence Sathon Bangkok, the city is home to a number of good chain hotels which you can use for easy transfers in case you plan to explore other regions. As mentioned above, hotel rates also change according to the season, with most deals and promotions being offered to off-season clients.
3. Check Up On Your Thai Visa
Thai visa is not hard to acquire, some nationalities can obtain a visa on arrival which is valid for 30 days when arriving at the international airport while tourists arriving via land-border crossings may obtain a 15-day visa. Other nationalities are awarded a 15-day visa on arrival but if you plan to stay longer, you can apply for a tourist visa at the Thai consulate office in your home country. Please scour through the Thai Visa page for up-to-date details on your visa in order to be prepared.
4. The Currency Used in Thailand
The Thai Baht (THB) is the national currency. International withdrawals are a breeze with plenty of ATM’s located across the country; you will find the machines inside the airports and all popular tourist locations. Credit cards too are accepted at malls, restaurants, the tourist trade depots and even some of the smaller shops. However, it is wise to have a bit of cash — the Thai Baht, on hand to be used at small establishments, street vendors and markets as they do not accept credit cards.
5. Using Cell Phones and the Internet in Thailand
Short and long term travellers can benefit from the ‘pay as you go’ deals offered by Thailand’s 3 main cell phone networks; DTAC, AIS, and Truemove. All three provide 3G and 4G coverage in just about all parts of the country, save a few remote areas. On arrival in Thailand, you can head over to one of the service provider’s booths and get yourself a SIM card, make sure your phone is unlocked in order to facilitate a Thai SIM card. The service providers run kiosks at all arrivals lounges and the malls.
6. Plan your Transportation in Thailand
Thailand and Bangkok especially is well connected. You will find the BTS Skytrain offers easy connections to all top tourist locations with stations located close to your hotel in Bangkok. There is also the MRT or underground train which again provides easy links to areas of the city. There is also an excellent bus and train service providing you links to all parts of the nation while the water taxi service and the ferry are perfect for exploring the Chao Phraya River. You must savour a ride in a tuk-tuk for that authentic experience, while domestic airline services are ideal for quick transfers to other regions.
7. Get Updated on Thai Culture
As is the case, when visiting any foreign land, one must learn to respect the culture. Thailand is a Buddhist nation and the people are very traditional, hence one should know how to respect the age-old customs by dressing appropriately when visiting temples and showing respect to the clergy. The same principles apply to dine etiquette too and you should research these areas before travelling. Remember Thai’s are a very traditional and friendly lot of people, so, look forward to enjoying your time in the country without offending anyone. | https://medium.com/@peaushan/how-to-plan-your-trip-to-thailand-3485bff5622b | ['Lucifer Goodman'] | 2019-03-18 08:04:56.776000+00:00 | ['Travel', 'Vacation', 'Thailand', 'Travel Planning'] |
vendi and YOOLOX announce new partnership, bringing a new category of products to vendi! | vendi is proud to announce its new partnership with the exciting tech startup YOOLOX. From September 2019, YOOLOX will be selling two of their flagship products on our platform in the new ‘Accessories’ feature, which will allow our customers to buy an accessory whilst purchasing a phone.
YOOLOX 10K / 16K
Founded in 2018 by Pascal Bosten, Ralf Soukup and David Photien, YOOLOX is improving the path for wireless charging products. Part of their exciting journey was catalysed by a successful Kick-starter campaign.
Their two flagship products are YOOLOX 10k and16k, both of which can re-charge your smartphone completely without a cable 4-times faster than a normal charger. Both products charge all Qi-smartphones wirelessly through an inductive coil. The YOOLOX 10k is able to charge your iPhone or Samsung 3 times whilst the mega 16k charger can nearly double this feat. The sleek charging blocks come with suction pads that securely hold your phone in the right position while charging.
Being featured in Techcrunch and The Verge has allowed Yoolox to increase their brand presence around the world. They are now present in Spain, Italy, France, US, Germany, and UK. With the option of buying on vendi they are able to open new channels into the UK market.
vendi x YOOLOX
This partnership comes at an exciting time for vendi as we progress our marketplace to allow the sale of accessories on our platform. From September 2019, users can purchase the YOOLOX 10k and 16k on the vendi platform. To stay up-to-date with the latest vendi features be sure to follow us on our social media platforms or sign-up to vendi through the vendi app! | https://medium.com/vendi/vendi-and-yoolox-announce-new-partnership-bringing-a-new-category-of-products-to-vendi-4549a5cdb86d | ['Harry Loble'] | 2019-08-28 20:10:01.508000+00:00 | ['Tech', 'Charger', 'Yoolox', 'Vendi', 'Startups'] |
A Note for the New Year. The image of a little girl waiting by… | A Note for the New Year
Predictable and Unpredictable
The image of a little girl waiting by the door, looking at the far end of the horizon, with her starry eyes hoping for her father to return with a candy, is what I see while thinking about expectations. Though 2020 has disappointed me in more ways than I could have ever imagined, I still picture expectations about 2021. Life has taken unexpected twists and turns for most of us, not just this year but throughout our life and indisputably proved to us an umpteen number of times that our expectations are not always the reality. Yet, it is only human to hope for a happily ever after or a downer ending. No matter how many setoffs or surprises we receive, we tend to assign endings to things that are not within our reach.
Expectations are the aftermath of the human mind’s ability to draw possible conclusions to happenings around us or to the deeds of others and at times ourselves. Be it good or bad, these expectations once formed are often difficult to change and require great external forces to rotate its direction. Well now that I have defined expectations in the most possible scientific manner making it seem extremely dull, let us see what leads to expectations.
Desires
They are the true root cause of expectations. They have always been disguised with positivity, but they penetrate deep into human minds urging it to create illusions whose possibility of being a reality is as small as an Indian household accepting their lesbian daughter. At the same time considering that small percent of open-minded parents who did accept their lesbian daughters, we cannot completely deny that all our expectations lead to disappointments. Maybe the one playing with our puppet life did find our expectations amusing too. Even then our desires neither take our abilities nor our limitations into consideration. They run deep and wide, cluelessly jumping at every possible opportunity, and strike to realization when we hit the rock bottom. Sadly, after that no amount of kicking will prevent the sink. Yet sometimes that teeny tiny possibility that we hoped, ignites the spirit and we are not just back in the ring but also the Lord of Rings. Hence, giving the benefit of doubt to 2021 is not such a bad idea.
But I did hear someone saying that expectations are premeditated resentments and I couldn’t agree more. Well now I assume expectations do nurture the judging capability in humans and being a judgmental pest is the last thing that we want mankind to be after all that we went through in 2020.
Some do segregate the expectations into realistic and unrealistic ones with their sharp blade of thoughts but no offense, I find no purpose in this psychoanalysis and firmly believe that expectations, whether divided into categories or not, are extremely injurious to all types of health. Nature has weird ways of meddling into our lives. Not all unrealistic dreams get doomed, some do turn into successful roads and not all those well-planned realistic dreams get accomplished, some do crumble down for no reason.
As we all know when you aspire to achieve something and work relentlessly towards it the whole universe conspires in helping you to achieve it. But does it always? Well I have seen the universe go malfunctional and produce exceptions to this theory. There is yet another theory stated as an advice to many of us that one should not have expectations but should simply do the karma (duty). That piece of advice certainly did not lighten my frustration when the flight got cancelled despite me being early to the airport carrying all the necessary documents.
Taking all the theories stated and their exceptions into consideration, and after further contemplation I come to the conclusion that life is a complex molecule with a high percentage of surprise elements. Though happy to have given that most boring definition to life, I suppress my urge to sound boring and simply end saying enjoy life as it comes, have expectations, embrace the ups and downs, build up the resilience and enjoy the predictable and unpredictable because the universe is itself a speculated mystery.
Hence, let me wish you all a New Year with lots of expectations and may each on of you have the strength to have expectations, proving them wrong or right is just another piece of cake! | https://medium.com/paperkin/predictable-and-unpredictable-bab698f74778 | ['Esther Maria Therese Chirayath'] | 2021-01-01 04:17:49.687000+00:00 | ['Expectations', 'New Year', 'Desire', '2021', 'Life'] |
Rebecca Schaeffer | Rebecca Schaeffer
Twenty-one-year-old model and actress Rebecca Schaeffer was well on her way to becoming a star. By 1989, she had already appeared in several movies and TV shows. The show that launched her career was a sitcom called “My Sister Sam.”
In that show she played a spunky teen who goes to live with her photographer sister in San Francisco. Rebecca had quickly become a favorite of the Seventeen-reading set. Not to mention, the fresh-faced brunette had been on the magazine’s March 1987 cover.
My Sister Sam ended in 1988 after two seasons, but the work kept coming. Rebecca co-starred in the racy big-screen farce Scenes From the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills, which hit theaters in June 1989. She had wrapped the TV movie Voyage of Terror: The Achille Lauro Affair, about the real-life 1985 hijacking of a cruise liner, with screen legends Eva Marie Saint and Burt Lancaster. Dyan Cannon had just directed her in a movie, The End of Innocence, in which Rebecca played a younger version of Cannon’s character.
She was even said to be in the running for the lead in an upcoming romantic comedy called Pretty Woman.
Star on the Rise
Rebecca was born Nov. 6, 1967, in Eugene, Oregon, to Danna, a writer and teacher, and Benson Rebecca, a psychologist. She was the couple’s only child. The family was dedicated to their Jewish faith and Rebecca even considered becoming a Rabbi at one point. The family was also close, and Rebecca said of them once, “No matter where we are in the world, we are like a three-legged stool.”
When the family moved to Portland, Rebecca attended the prestigious Lincoln High School where she excelled socially and academically. At the age of 14, she was referred to talent agency Troutman Profiles Inc. by her hairdresser, Rick Putro. It wasn’t long before she was featured in department store catalogs modeling outfits for the back-to-school season. Rebecca took to modeling and was determined to progress. The ambitions she once had of becoming a Rabbi were now behind her.
In August 1984, at 16, Rebecca finished an internship in New York City. The city was a good fit for her; she loved the fast pace of life and endless opportunities the city had to offer. Instead of returning to Portland to complete her high school education, Rebecca decided to return to New York.
She would attend the Professional Children’s School while looking for modeling and acting jobs. Not long after moving, Rebecca landed the role of Annie Barnes in the soap opera One Life To Live.
Rebecca had trouble finding modeling jobs due to her height. At five foot, seven inches tall, she was two inches shorter than the average fashion model. So she went instead to Japan, hoping she might have more luck there. Still unsuccessful, Rebecca returned to New York and turned her attentions to acting.
From My Sister Sam
This was a great choice and Rebecca began to settle into the celebrity lifestyle. She was even dating 23-year-old Brad Silberling, a graduate student studying filmmaking at UCLA who would go on to be a successful director. But with fame come fans and Rebecca was no exception.
She began to receive fan mail. Rebecca told Judy Crown, a hairstylist on the set of My Sister Sam, how excited she was about this, but it set off alarm bells in Crown’s mind. She recalled telling Rebecca not to respond to mail or gifts she received from fans as people could be crazy.
Crown told the Television Academy Foundation in an interview that Rebecca was “very beautiful, very sweet, a little bit naive.”
After My Sister Sam was canceled in 1988 Rebecca was cast in Scenes From The Class Struggle In Beverley Hills directed by Paul Bartel. This was a different role for Rebecca as it was a sexy and sophisticated black comedy. This opened up more mature roles for her including an audition for a part in The Godfather III.
The Murder
On the morning of July 18, 1989, Rebecca was waiting for a delivery The Godfather III script. She was scheduled to audition later that day for the then very coveted role of Michael Corleone’s daughter. If all went well, it could change her life.
However, when the doorbell rang at 10:15AM Rebecca wasn’t greeted with a deliveryman but rather a 19-year-old man named Robert John Bardo. He had been obsessed with the actress for three years and had paid a private investigator $300 to find out where she lived. The P.I. got her address from DMV records. This was all perfectly legal, given driver’s license information was public record at the time.
According to sources Rebecca was surprised but politely told Bardo that she was busy and he needed to leave. That’s when Bardo pulled out a gun and shot her.
However, here’s what Bardo said about the incident: “She had this kid voice…sounded like a little brat or something…said I was wasting her time! …Wasting her time! No matter what, I thought that was a very callous thing to say to a fan, you know…I grabbed the door…guns still in the bag…I grab it by the trigger…I come around, and kapow, and she’s like screaming… aaahhh…screaming…why, aaahhh … and it’s like, oh God…”
A neighbor named Richard Goldman heard the two gunshots and two bloodcurdling screams and rushed to her door where he found Rebecca’s body clad in a black robe, twitching in the building’s foyer. He checked her pulse, but found none. Her arms were akimbo and her feet were wedged between the door and its frame. Witnesses saw a young man in a yellow shirt jogging up the Hollywood block. He turned into an alley and disappeared.
Rebecca was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. She lingered for 30 minutes before she died. Rebecca’s body was brought back to her native Oregon, for burial.
The Reason
So the glaring question is why did a seemingly random guy kill a rising superstar?
Well, Bardo wasn’t just a random guy. He was an obsessed fan. Bardo was a freshman in high school when he first saw Rebecca in a commercial for My Sister Sam in the summer of 1986. He felt that they were kindred spirits, both shy and genuine, and he started sending her tokens of his ultimately deranged affection. He also wrote her letters — and when she replied to one of them, he took that as his cue to travel from Tuscon, Ariz., to Los Angeles to see her.
Robert John Bardo
He went to the studio and brought flowers and a teddy bear, but never made it through security and he eventually went back home.
“I thought he was just lovesick, which I think he was,” Jack Egger, who was chief of security at The Burbank Studios, later told the LA Times. “He was terribly insistent on being let in. ‘Rebecca Schaeffer’ was every other word. ‘I gotta see her. I love her. If I could just see her for a minute.’”
Bardo’s opinion of Rebecca changed, however, after he watched her in a love scene in Scenes From the Class Struggle. He apparently felt betrayed. So Bardo attempted to buy a gun, but the owner of the shop refused to sell one to him when he found out about Bardo’s history of mental illness. Bardo then asked his brother, Edward, to buy one for him and Edward agreed as long as his brother promised only to use it when they were together for target practice.
Shortly before Bardo boarded a Greyhound Bus headed for L.A., he wrote a letter to his older sister in Knoxville, Tennessee.
In the letter, he wrote: “I have an obsession with the unattainable. I have to eliminate [what] I cannot attain.” He did not specifically mention Rebecca, however.
The day after Bardo murdered Rebecca, he was located in Tucson attempting to kill himself by running in and out of traffic. He was yelling that he had killed Rebecca Schaeffer. Authorities in Tucson arrested Bardo and held him on a one-million-dollar bail. They contacted the LAPD and told them that they were holding Bardo, and faxed his photo over.
LAPD showed the photo to witnesses who had come forward saying they had been approached by a man asking where Rebecca lived the morning she was murdered. Witnesses confirmed it was the same man in the photo.
Bardo would be extradited to California where he would stand trail. His public defender, Stephen Galindo, argued that Bardo was incapable of planning the murder due to mental illness. Bardo’s brother, Edward, added in court that his brother had spent time in a psychiatric hospital when he was younger.
The Trial and Sentencing
Prosecuting Bardo’s trial was Marcia Clark, who would later prosecute OJ Simpson. Clark argued that Bardo could not be simply insane given that he had stalked Rebecca for two years before going on to murder her.
Judge Dino Fulgoni sided with the prosecution. On Oct. 29, 1991, Bardo was convicted of first-degree murder. He was subsequently sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Bardo is currently incarcerated at Avenal State Prison in California. In prison, he spends much of his time drawing celebrities. A number of his drawings are available for purchase online. However, on July 28, 2007 Bardo suffered 11 stab and puncture wounds.
“We have a number of high-notoriety cases, so we cannot jump to the conclusion as to whether his notoriety was a factor in the attack,” said prison Sgt. Chris Weathersbee.
Aftermath and Law
While Rebecca’s death was a devastating personal loss for her parents, friends and other loved ones the circumstances of the killing also jolted, first, the Hollywood community and then the entire state of California.
Unhealthy obsessions with famous people remain, disturbingly, all too common, with everyone from Taylor Swift and Keanu Reeves to Kendall Jenner and Sandra Bullock having been targeted by overzealous admirers, some of whom have ended up being arrested for trespassing, burglary and other crimes that fit into a pattern of harassment.
While her death wasn’t the only impetus for action, it wasn’t until after Rebecca’s murder that stalking in and of itself was even classified as a crime.
In 1990, California became the first state to pass an anti-stalking law — in addition to Rebecca, four women had been killed in Orange County the previous year despite having restraining orders in place against men who had been harassing them — and eventually the rest of the country followed suit.
Previously, the only weapon against stalking was a restraining order, which was not always effective. For example, some states require a legally recognizable relationship between the victim and offender (e.g., marriage) for a restraining order to be issued. After 1990 states adopted state anti-stalking statutes but even those are riddled with loop holes that allowed the stalker to walk away with nothing more than a fine.
In an effort to “close the gaps” between individual state laws and to bolster their deterrent effect, Congress passed the Interstate Stalking Punishment and Prevention Act of 1996. The act prohibits stalking across state lines, makes restraining orders issued in one state valid in other states, and prohibits stalking on federal property, for example, post offices, national parks, and military bases. Violations of the act result in five years imprisonment, and twenty years in prison for violations that result in an injury or acts where the offender used a dangerous weapon. Life imprisonment is prescribed for stalking that results in the victim’s death.
The stark reality of the criminal justice system often places a severe constraint on the value of substantive stalking laws, no matter how carefully statutes are written and in spite of the many legislative advances around the United States since 1990.
Rebecca’s Parents
Consider the risks to the victim that accompany the arrest of the offender. Pretrial detention for those charged with stalking offenses is rare. Arrests often escalate violence or lead to retaliation, with or without victim notification of release. In the unlikely event of a trial and conviction, a prison sentence does little to address the mental health treatment needs of most stalkers. Mental illness undermines principles of deterrence. In the end, the burden of fashioning a workable, realistic remedy to avoid future stalking often falls on the victim.
Currently, there are 7.5 million victims of stalking in the United States each year. Moreover, stalking does not discriminate. Stalking knows no color, gender, or sexuality …anyone can be targeted. Beginning in 2004, the month of January became designated as National Stalking Awareness Month. This is all according to the website victimsofcrime.org
It’s hard not to ignore that fact that Bardo was able to easily get access to Rebecca’s address which would allow him to get close to her. This shocked the Hollywood community when they found out anyone could find out where they lived. So an unlikely advocate would step forward.
The Screen Actors Guild got involved in lobbying the state to strengthen privacy protections, and the state subsequently restricted the accessibility of personal information, such as a home address, from the DMV. (According to a state assemblyman, the California Department of Motor Vehicles received 16 million address inquiries in 1988.) Congress passed the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act in 1994, which required all states to do the same.
Gun control also became a hot topic in the wake of Rebecca’s death, and the My Sister Sam cast and crew reunited for a PSA about gun violence.
“It wasn’t hard to get it moving at all,” Pam Dawber, who played Rebecca’s sister on the show, told a Tribune Media reporter in October 1989, “though what is going to be hard is to get the networks to air it. Gun control is fairly controversial, though all we’re saying to people is to prevent handgun violence. Now, how can you argue with that?”
Rebecca’s parents also threw themselves into the fight for stricter gun laws, imploring lawmakers to tighten restrictions on who could get their hands on a firearm, a battle that’s uncannily similar to the one still being waged today. Danna helped launch the lobbying group Oregonians Against Gun Violence in 1990 and went to Washington, D.C., to help lobby for the passage of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act.
“We face death every morning,” Benson Schaeffer, Rebecca’s dad, told the Los Angeles Times in October 1991. “Sometimes you’re overcome with despair. You never cease missing the person. The gun issue lets us focus our anger.” (The Brady Bill was eventually enacted in 1993.)
Their main goals didn’t sound particularly extreme. They wanted for all gun sales to have built-in waiting periods, and to have guns only be sold by licensed dealers. “There’s so little we can do about Rebecca’s death,” Benson, a child psychologist, said. “We feel good about doing this. It’s the only public way to say that what happened to Rebecca isn’t all right.”
And in addition to the greater implications of this tragedy, there was, of course, the spectacle of it all: A 21-year-old celebrity, killed by a stalker, at her home, in broad daylight. Terrifying and endlessly compelling.
A portrait immediately emerged of a victim who wasn’t just poised to be a major star, but a person who touched everyone who knew her with her sweet, generous spirit — a portrait that has endured to this day.
While Rebecca’s life was taken so suddenly and tragically, her death brought national attention to the need for better protections for victims of stalking. While we have come a long way since 1990 we still have more to go. Personally I don’t think there’s a one size fits all plan but action needs to be taken that opens up more protections for victims.
You can get involved by supporting your local legislation.
Be sure to check out my podcast Leave The Lights On for episodes like this and more! | https://medium.com/@lightsonpod/rebecca-schaeffer-d6596f1ad3cc | ['Eliza J.'] | 2021-08-17 14:58:05.642000+00:00 | ['Sad', 'Hollywood', 'True Crime', 'Murder', 'Crime'] |
Purging Eligible Voters | Purging Eligible Voters
State election officials attempt to keep the registration process as neat and up-to-date as possible.
In order to do that they routinely delete ineligible names in voter rolls. This practice refers to voter purges and it can often disenfranchise thousands of legally registered voters.
The practice is meant to ensure accuracy and ensure the number of residents. For example, a purge would remove someone who had recently passed away or moved out of the county. Most commonly, those who are inaccurately taken off rolls are individuals who are inactive voters.
The process to remove names can sometimes be inherently flawed. In 2013, Virginia relied on a database to manage the purge and experienced nearly 39,000 wrongfully deleted voters.
The problem of wrongful removals is much more widespread, totaling around 16 million voters across the country.
The recent increase of voter purging can likely be attributed to the decision of Shelby County v Holder to end the federal preclearance of election changes.
According to the Brennan Center for Justice, “jurisdictions no longer subject to federal preclearance had purge rates significantly higher than jurisdictions that did not have it in 2013.”
The relaxation of various laws for elections has led to the purging of millions of voters unintentionally and intentionally being removed from rolls. Four states in the past five years have enacted some sort of illegal purge.
Last year in Arizona a Republican-backed bill removed individuals who failed to vote consecutively from the mail-in ballot list.
In 2018 the Supreme Court decided that inactive voters can be removed from voter polls as long as officials send re-registration reminders.
The room for error is slim during such contested and partisan times so accuracy should be treated as an absolute priority.
The Brennan Center argues that passing automatic voter registration would help alleviate issues with updating voter information. | https://medium.com/@joeydotta/purging-eligible-voters-cdacdda74082 | ['Joey Dotta'] | 2020-12-07 11:13:10.002000+00:00 | ['Supreme Court', 'Voting Rights', 'Legislation', 'Elections', 'Voter Suppression'] |
Every NBA Team’s Best Draft Pick Since 2000 | by Ben Liebowitz on SportsRaid.com
Since 2000, NBA franchises have needed to draft extremely well in order to compete for championships. (Well, except for the Los Angeles Lakers.) Sure, a variety of successful teams traded for or signed important complementary pieces, but building through the draft is the most productive way to set the foundation of an organization.
Because drafting well is such an integral part of NBA success, PointAfter set out to find each team’s best draft choice since the turn of the century.
To qualify as a team’s best draft pick, each player must have suited up for the franchise (ideally for multiple seasons, but we made some exceptions that will become apparent later on). Players who went on to become All-Stars, make All-NBA teams and win championship trophies were the primary targets. And, although a handful of No. 1 overall choices made the cut, we rewarded teams that found diamonds in the rough. Sometimes they uncovered impressive talents in the second round, others just happened to choose the right guy at No. 9 or 10 overall.
The list is structured in descending order by draft position.
#30. Milwaukee Bucks: Michael Redd
Draft Year: 2000
Draft Slot: Second round, No. 43 overall
The Bucks drafted a couple of busts in recent memory: Yi Jianlian No. 6 overall in 2007 and Joe Alexander No. 8 overall one year later. That being said, youngsters Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jabari Parker show plenty of promise.
Parker or the “Greek Freak” could stake a claim to this spot in the near future, but anytime you can unearth a future All-Star in the second round of the draft, that’s an accomplishment worth acknowledging.
That’s exactly what happened when Milwaukee selected Michael Redd. In addition to winning an Olympic gold medal for Team USA in 2008 in Beijing, the sharpshooting southpaw was named an All-Star and to the All-NBA Third Team in 2004. Injuries derailed his promising career, but Redd was an elite scorer at his peak.
#29. Los Angeles Clippers: Blake Griffin/DeAndre Jordan
Draft Year: 2009 & 2010
Draft Slot: First round, No. 1 overall & Second round, No. 35 overall
The best Clippers draft choice since 2000 is a tossup between their two starting big men. Blake Griffin is clearly the best player LA drafted in that timeframe, but taking a chance on DeAndre Jordan was a bold selection that required more basketball intellect then simply taking the best player at No. 1.
Jordan was a raw prospect coming out of Texas A&M, but he’s developed into one of the league’s best rebounders and shot blockers.
#28. Chicago Bulls: Jimmy Butler
Draft Year: 2011
Draft Slot: First round, No. 30 overall
Chicago’s draft success since the turn of the century is quite impressive. After whiffing via Marcus Fizer, Eddy Curry and Jay Williams, the Bulls went on to draft eventual Defensive Player of the Year Joakim Noah and MVP Derrick Rose.
Either of those guys could be deemed the best draft pick for the Bulls since 2000. However, finding, drafting and developing Butler has been a more impressive chain of events.
#27. Dallas Mavericks: Josh Howard
Draft Year: 2003
Draft Slot: First round, No. 29 overall
In addition to being pegged as the Mavericks’ best draft choice since 2000, we also tabbed Josh Howard as the best No. 29 overall draft choice in league history.
His peak was short-lived, but Howard earned an All-Star appearance in 2007 and averaged more points, rebounds and assists the following season.
#26. San Antonio Spurs: Tony Parker
Draft Year: 2001
Draft Slot: First round, No. 28 overall
The Spurs boast a lengthy history of drafting well when the top prospects are already off the board. They drafted George Hill, Leandro Barbosa, Luis Scola and Goran Dragic in the late-first and early-second rounds (not always opting to keep those talents, but uncovering them nonetheless).
The obvious choice as San Antonio’s best draft pick since 2000, however, is point guard Tony Parker. The French floor general has six All-Star berths and one Finals MVP award to his name.
#25. Boston Celtics: Tony Allen
Draft Year: 2004
Draft Slot: First round, No. 25 overall
Though Tony Allen didn’t truly come into his own as a lockdown defensive player until later in his career with the Memphis Grizzlies, he was still a solid contributor with the Boston Celtics.
Given the “Trick-or-Treat Tony” nickname by sports fanatic Bill Simmons, Allen admittedly wasn’t all that consistent for the Celtics. Perhaps down the line Jared Sullinger (the No. 21 overall pick in 2012) will take over this spot.
#24. Atlanta Hawks: Jeff Teague
Draft Year: 2009
Draft Slot: First round, No. 19 overall
There’s a case to be made here for Al Horford, the No. 3 overall pick in 2007, but nabbing Jeff Teague at No. 19 two years later was the savvier move.
With other point guards like Darren Collison, Eric Maynor and Rodrigue Beaubois still on the board, Atlanta’s brass opted for Teague. The Wake Forest product was clearly the best of that crop in hindsight.
#23. Los Angeles Lakers: Andrew Bynum
Draft Year: 2005
Draft Slot: First round, No. 10 overall
The end of Andrew Bynum’s career was abrupt, marred by knee injuries and awful hair styles.
But when the big man was just a youngster suiting up for the Los Angeles Lakers, he put together some impressive seasons. He peaked in 2011–12 by averaging 18.7 points, 11.8 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game while shooting 55.8 percent from the field.
#22. Brooklyn Nets: Brook Lopez
Draft Year: 2008
Draft Slot: First round, No. 10 overall
The more skilled of the two Lopez twins, Brook has been great for the Nets when healthy. Unfortunately, the “when healthy” qualifier has eluded the big man in recent years.
He played just five games in 2011–12 and 17 games in 2013–14. Sandwiched in between, Lopez was named an All-Star. He’s one of very few bright spots to be found on a Nets franchise with questionable direction.
#21. Indiana Pacers: Paul George
Draft Year: 2010
Draft Slot: First round, No. 10 overall
Even though Paul George missed nearly all of the 2014–15 campaign due to a broken leg, he’s still been one of the best draft picks in recent memory.
He was selected behind guys like Evan Turner, Wesley Johnson, Ekpe Udoh and Al-Farouq Aminu. After playing just six games last season, “PG-13” is posting the best numbers of his career this season.
#20. Philadelphia 76ers: Andre Iguodala
Draft Year: 2004
Draft Slot: First round, No. 9 overall
Andre Iguodala currently fills a role as Golden State’s glue guy. “Iggy” adds rebounding, passing, three-point shooting and, of course, stellar perimeter defense to the Warriors’ well-oiled machine.
But before he was a role player in the Bay Area, Iguodala was a go-to scorer for the Philadelphia 76ers. He averaged at least 18 points, five rebounds and four assists per game with Philly for three consecutive seasons. He was named to his first and only All-Star team in 2012 as a Sixer.
#19. Utah Jazz: Gordon Hayward
Draft Year: 2010
Draft Slot: First round, No. 9 overall
Even though drafting Gordon Hayward one spot ahead of Paul George will likely be viewed as a mistake when it’s all said and done, the Butler product certainly hasn’t been a slouch in Utah.
After sputtering through the 2013–14 season in his first year as an alpha dog scorer (41.3 percent shooting from the field, 30.4 percent from long range), Hayward has blossomed. He’s shooting the ball far more efficiently while averaging more than 19 points per contest since his fourth year in the pros.
#18. Charlotte Hornets: Kemba Walker
Draft Year: 2011
Draft Slot: First round, No. 9 overall
Kemba Walker was known for his clutch scoring abilities at UConn, where he won a NCAA championship in 2011. His lack of efficiency, however, translated into the pros. He converted less than 40 percent of his shots in three of his first four seasons, but is experiencing a breakout in 2015–16.
Through the first 23 games of the latest campaign, Walker is shooting 45.2 percent from the field and 39.6 percent from distance. He’s finally establishing himself as a star point guard for Charlotte.
#17. Phoenix Suns: Amar’e Stoudemire
Draft Year: 2002
Draft Slot: First round, No. 9 overall
High school product Amar’e Stoudemire fell to the No. 9 spot in the 2002 draft. Phoenix snatched him up, and “STAT” went on to win Rookie of the Year honors.
As Steve Nash’s pick-and-roll partner in the years following, Stoudemire was outstanding. He earned five All-Star nods while wearing a Suns jersey. The athletic big man added four All-NBA appearances as well.
Injuries cut him down soon after he signed a $100-plus million contract to join the New York Knicks.
#16. Detroit Pistons: Andre Drummond
Draft Year: 2012
Draft Slot: First round, No. 9 overall
Yet another athletic big man who should not have fallen to No. 9 overall, Andre Drummond was picked up by Detroit. Though he’s an embarrassingly bad free throw shooter, Drummond has developed into the NBA’s best two-way rebounder.
He’s on pace to become the first player since Dennis Rodman in 1996–97 to average at least 16 rebounds per game in a season.
#15. Golden State Warriors: Stephen Curry
Draft Year: 2009
Draft Slot: First round, No. 7 overall
Stephen Curry led the Warriors to their first championship in 40 years while winning MVP in 2014–15. He’s quite easily the best draft pick for Golden State since the turn of the century, but it wouldn’t have been possible for the Bay Area to get him if not for the remarkable draft blunder made by former Minnesota Timberwolves president of basketball operations David Kahn.
Instead of taking Curry with either the No. 5 or No. 6 pick, Kahn doubled up on two lesser point guards in Ricky Rubio and Jonny Flynn.
Additionally, the Warriors actually had a deal in place with the Phoenix Suns to send the No. 7 pick to the desert in exchange for Stoudemire. But when Kahn let Curry drop, Golden State backed out of the deal and took the sharpshooter from Davidson. That turned out to be a brilliant decision by G-State’s brass and a crushing blow to Suns fans, who are still waiting for the organization’s first championship.
#14. Portland Trail Blazers: Damian Lillard
Draft Year: 2012
Draft Slot: First round, No. 6 overall
Having played his college career at Weber State, many NBA scouts weren’t high on Damian Lillard. Going up against what many perceive to be lesser competition in the Big Sky Conference hurt his stock.
That skepticism turned out to be Portland’s gain. Lillard has already made two All-Star teams for the Trail Blazers since entering the pros.
#13. Sacramento Kings: DeMarcus Cousins
Draft Year: 2010
Draft Slot: First round, No. 5 overall
DeMarcus “Boogie” Cousins’ reputation as a hot-headed talent likely didn’t help his draft stock in 2010. He slipped slightly to No. 5 overall, where the Kings nabbed the former Kentucky Wildcat.
His raw stats in Sacramento have been stellar, but the Kings have yet to win even 30 games in a season with Cousins on board. He admittedly hasn’t had much help around him, but that’s still not a ringing endorsement for Cousins’ bonafides as a winner.
#12. Miami Heat: Dwyane Wade
Draft Year: 2003
Draft Slot: First round, No. 5 overall
We’ll make this one quick, because Dwyane Wade is probably the best Miami Heat player in history.
He leads the organization’s all-time leaderboards in games, minutes, points, assists, steals and win shares.
#11. New York Knicks: Kristaps Porzingis
Draft Year: 2015
Draft Slot: First round, No. 4 overall
Is it too early to crown Latvian rookie sensation Kristaps Porzingis as the Knicks’ best draft choice since 2000? Perhaps, but he isn’t exactly facing stiff competition.
Power forward David Lee, who was drafted No. 30 overall in 2005, is another safe bet. He made the All-Star team for New York in 2010, and he was a consistent double-double threat, which helped disguise lackluster defensive abilities.
Still, Porzingis has answered all of the questions facing him early in his career. Even future Hall of Famer Dirk Nowitzki, who Porzingis is often compared to, said of the youngster, “He’s way better than I was at 20.”
#10. Memphis Grizzlies: Mike Conley Jr.
Draft Year: 2007
Draft Slot: First round, No. 4 overall
Mike Conley has yet to make an All-Star team in his career, but he’s frequently been pegged as an All-Star snub, which shows pundits hold him in high esteem.
Praised more for his defensive prowess, Conley’s scoring capabilities often get overshadowed. He’s not as athletic as Russell Westbrook, as solid all-around as Chris Paul or as prolific as a shooter as Stephen Curry, but he remains one of the most competent point guards in the league.
#9. Toronto Raptors: Chris Bosh
Draft Year: 2003
Draft Slot: First round, No. 4 overall
Before Chris Bosh was winning championships as the super-third-wheel alongside LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, he was the alpha dog for the Toronto Raptors franchise.
In seven seasons spent up North, Bosh averaged 20.2 points, 9.4 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.2 blocks per game. He made five All-Star teams as a Raptor, and has since added five more as a member of the Miami Heat.
#8. New Orleans Pelicans: Chris Paul
Draft Year: 2005
Draft Slot: First round, No. 4 overall
Before New Orleans’ basketball franchise shifted to become the Pelicans, Chris Paul led the most exciting New Orleans Hornets teams in history.
Through his pick-and-pop plays with David West, pick-and-roll alley-oops to Tyson Chandler and three-point sniping support from Morris Peterson, James Posey and Peja Stojakovic, CP3 helped form an entertaining basketball product that competed admirably in the Western Conference for a number of years.
#7. Denver Nuggets: Carmelo Anthony
Draft Year: 2003
Draft Slot: First round, No. 3 overall
Carmelo Anthony forced his way out of Denver during the 2010–11 season, an unceremonious exit that left a sour taste in the mouths of Nuggets fans.
He isn’t remembered fondly, but Anthony turned in some impressive campaigns and even led the Mile High City to the Western Conference Finals in 2009.
#6. Oklahoma City Thunder: Kevin Durant
Draft Year: 2007
Draft Slot: First round, No. 2 overall
Though we don’t usually like to lump the Oklahoma City Thunder franchise in with Seattle SuperSonics history, it makes sense in this context. The best player drafted since 2000 (originally for Seattle) remains the face of OKC’s franchise.
Former MVP Kevin Durant earns the nod here, but there’s still stiff competition. Nabbing Russell Westbrook No. 4 overall and Serge Ibaka No. 24 overall in 2008 were both phenomenal pickups. The Thunder compete at a high level because the team hit multiple home runs in the draft, but Durant remains the de facto “best” pick even though he fell into the franchise’s lap.
#5. Minnesota Timberwolves: Karl-Anthony Towns
Draft Year: 2015
Draft Slot: First round, No. 1 overall
This might be another “too soon” moment, but because Minnesota’s draft history is so ghastly, there truly isn’t another choice for this spot.
First-round picks since 2000 that Minnesota didn’t opt to trade immediately include: Ndudi Ebi, Rashad McCants, Corey Brewer, Ricky Rubio, Jonny Flynn, Wesley Johnson, Derrick Williams and Zach LaVine.
Rubio is playing well this season, and LaVine shows promise of being more than just a high-flying dunker, but that’s a pupu platter of draft whiffs otherwise. It’s difficult to screw up the No. 1 overall pick. At least early on it appears Towns won’t disappoint on that status (knock on wood, T-Wolves fans).
#4. Orlando Magic: Dwight Howard
Draft Year: 2004
Draft Slot: First round, No. 1 overall
Like Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard underwent an unceremonious exit from the franchise that drafted him. Before forcing his way out of Orlando, though, D12 was an absolute beast in the low post.
In addition to racking up All-Star berths and eventually leading the Magic to the NBA Finals, Howard earned three Defensive Player of the Year awards. Like him or not, that’s an impressive résumé.
#3. Washington Wizards: John Wall
Draft Year: 2010
Draft Slot: First round, No. 1 overall
Throughout his first three seasons in the pros, John Wall was solid, but not spectacular. Though he averaged approximately 16 points, eight assists and four rebounds in each of his first two years, he didn’t show much year-to-year growth and couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn from three-point range.
Since those first few seasons getting his feet wet, Wall has made two consecutive All-Star teams and is even becoming more of a threat from long distance.
#2. Houston Rockets: Yao Ming
Draft Year: 2002
Draft Slot: First round, No. 1 overall
The hulking, 7'6", 310-pound frame of Yao Ming dazzled fans in the NBA community after he was selected No. 1 overall by the Rockets in 2002.
He boasted a completely unique combination of sheer size and impressive touch. His turnaround baseline shots and even his prowess at the free throw line (he converted 83.3 percent of his freebies throughout his career) was a breath of fresh air compared to the bruising Shaquille O’Neal archetype. Sadly, recurring foot injuries cut Yao’s career short. He retired at age 30 after playing just five games for Houston in 2010–11, following a completely lost 2009–10 campaign.
#1. Cleveland Cavaliers: LeBron James
Draft Year: 2003
Draft Slot: First round, No. 1 overall
LeBron James single-handedly changed Cleveland’s basketball reputation from doormat to championship contender. He ostracized the fans in his home state of Ohio by opting to join the Miami Heat via free agency (where he won two titles).
But “King James” has since returned to his home state in an attempt to win the franchise its first ever Larry O’Brien trophy. Even if his pursuit isn’t successful, he’ll retire as the best Cavaliers player of all time.
Discover More NBA Player Stats and Visualizations on PointAfter | https://medium.com/sportsraid/every-nba-teams-best-draft-pick-since-2000-48777b95585f | ['Paul Dughi'] | 2016-05-29 03:24:41.102000+00:00 | ['Basketball', 'NBA', 'Blake Griffin'] |
Spatial Data Package Platform — Releases | The human readable version of spatial updates, releases and upcoming features of the platform. The full technical release notes are available on GitHub.
🏔 Planned: Piz Bernina (0.8.x)
On revitalized grounds: climbing 2022
🗂 Workspaces 2.0
See your own and shared workspaces in the workspace dashboard. Create and manage new workspaces to organize your work. When ready share via link or invite collaborators to join your workspace.
🌃 Vector Download and High Res Printing
All map layers are now also downloadable as high resolution image as well as a vector file.
👩💻 User Profiles
Change and reset your password, update your email address.
🏔 Piz Albula (0.7.0 to 0.7.3)
Landscape setting: January to July 2021
🗺 WMS support
Map layers can now include a WMS service. This allows to integrate legacy map services, e.g. published on public Web-GIS sites.
📱 Better mobile support
The layout on mobile devices like phones and tablets has been improved.
⚙️ Configuration options and miscellaneous
The search and example gallery on the main page can be disabled and the intro text customized. The currently running version is also shown at the bottom of the page as well as the login and admin pages. Privacy preserving analytics via Fathom can now be added.
🧪 In Beta
on/off the beaten track
…on sandbox.dfour.space
👩💻 Personalized Workspace
Personalized Workspace through our support team is ensured. Upload and request of a map layers is enabled.
✏️ Upload a map layer
Upload a new or update an existing map layer (data package) in a workspace. A map layer can be created for instance with our QGIS plugin. This feature also enables third-party vendors to upload map layers via the API directly.
🎨 Annotations and Post-It’s
Add your own annotations and post-it’s as sketch layers and publish to a workspace for sharing with collaborators when ready.
🧰 Map layer store
Request map layers (data packages) via the experimental store.
Out of the Box (0.3.0 to 0.6.2)
Annual crops: April to November 2020
🗂 Workspaces
Introducing Workspaces for organising multiple of data packages into a set, that can be shared together, e.g. for a workshop, project phase or alike. Add as many map layers (data packages) to a workspace and send out a link.
🏞 Screenshot Service
A static screenshot is automatically generated for every uploaded data package, which can be downloaded for use in presentations or other offline media.
🔗 Rich Web Links
When pasting a link to a map layer into social media or other websites a rich preview with the title, description and thumbnail of the map now appears (OpenGraph support).
➡️ Topics
Map layers can now be assigned to a topic and are grouped by topic in a workspace.
Hello World (0.2.0 to 0.2.1)
Penguin’s March 2020
ℹ️ Map legends
Add legends to your map layers (data package) and they become part of an overlay automatically. Parts of the entries are always shown, others only upon expanding the legend. The overlay also includes other metadata from the data packages, such as the title, a description and data sources.
📐 Polygons, Lines and Circles
We improved support for styling polygons, lines and circles.
👩💻 Graph based API
All content on the platform is also available via a graph-based API, so third party developers can build integrations easily.
🔓 Open Source
The platform is available as open source on GitHub.
The PoC (0.1.0 to 0.1.2)
The Galanthus [Snowdrop]: February 2020
👋 Maps
Proof of concept: Storing and viewing a simple spatial data package on a map, reachable by a unique link. | https://medium.com/cividi/spatial-data-package-platform-releases-e689bf0d8698 | ['Thorben Westerhuys'] | 2021-08-06 13:19:34.757000+00:00 | ['Open Source', 'Frictionless Data', 'Mapping', 'Qgis', 'Spatialdata'] |
Ethical Pensions Might Save the Planet | Ethical Pensions Might Save the Planet
But can we afford the risk?
Would you put your retirement savings into green energy? Photo by Aniek Wessel on Unsplash.
My pension pot is embarrassingly, terrifyingly small. Aside from a stint of 3 years working part-time in the NHS, I’ve been self-employed for my whole career. Without an employer to match what I put in, the options for saving for retirement are pretty dire, and there’s always been a reason not to. First I was simply too poor (I work in the arts — you get the idea). Then I was saving for a property… then I realized I was 32 and if I didn’t get started soon, I was going to be hoping I don’t live long enough to regret it.
The numbers we’re talking about here are tiny; but doing something seemed infinitely better than doing nothing. So I conducted some research and decided to open a Self-Investment Personal Pension, or SIPP. I chose a company whose SIPP was consistently highly rated in consumer surveys, and unlike some of the other options, there were no setup fees; just a yearly admin fee which is a % of the money that I invest (and it turns out 0.45% of barely anything is… barely anything. Hoorah).
Most of us don’t understand investment, and that makes it scary
A key feature of SIPPs is that you are officially responsible for your own investment decisions. As someone who has no experience of investing, it came as a relief to me that my chosen provider offered some ‘managed portfolios’ where you choose a level of risk (high, medium or low) and are presented with a corresponding investment package, as opposed to… well, I genuinely don’t know how else I could have chosen from the thousands of investment options that all looked like Double Dutch to me. I went with medium risk for medium returns, and forgot all about it.
What’s the point in green living if we’re pumping pension money into the very industries that threaten our existence?
Then, 2019 arrived. Extinction Rebellion. Climate emergency. I read Doughnut Economics. I started trialing a wide array of plastic-free shampoo bars, and sporting varying greasy hairstyles to match. I began to wonder, does anything I can do to save the planet really matter, if my monthly pension contribution is being invested in fossil fuels?
Extinction Rebellion protest. Photo by Kevin Grieve on Unsplash.
I put out a call on Twitter for some advice. I was pointed to places like Triodos and Purposeful Money. I looked into these and some other options, but none seemed very appealing when considering setup fees, likely returns, and customer service (I had at least one provider not respond at all to my request for a phone call. Having divulged some rough numbers in my email to them, I couldn’t help but feel a bit offended that they presumably thought I wasn’t worth the effort).
‘Ethical’ isn’t as straightforward as it sounds…
I did some reading around and learned a bit more about what the different types of ‘ethical’ pension available. It hadn’t really occurred to me that ‘ethical’ is a subjective term, depending on your ethics. It would take me forever to properly understand the practices of all the entities that my pension might be invested in, and to judge whether or not they meet my definition of ‘ethical.’
Instead, I learned, it is possible to select managed funds that work on the principle of exclusion: i.e, they avoid investing money in any company actively involved in specific areas such as weapons, tobacco or fossil fuels. And it turns out my existing provider has one such fund that is also recommended for its track record in terms of risk and returns. Just the one, mind. Presumably meaning that the hundreds of other fund options in front of me do not meet this minimum, unambitious threshold for the ‘ethical’ label. As depressing as this is, it strengthened my resolve to start shifting the focus of my investment. I moved the money that was being held as cash on my account to the ‘Ethical’ investment fund.
… but we don’t want to be the people who sat back and watched as the planet destroyed itself. Do we?
What about the rest of my pension, that’s already been invested in the ‘medium risk, medium rewards, probably unethical to some degree’ fund? I’m still thinking about what to do with that. I’d quite like somebody who understands the stock market better than me to just come out with it and say “nobody knows what’s going to happen to any of our investments. Ethical funds aren’t inherently risky by virtue of being ethical. Go for it.” Until then, I’m still torn between the fear of losing my retirement fund to a dodgy investment, and the fear of losing everyone’s retirement to the global extinction that might happen if we don’t put our money where our mouths are. | https://medium.com/swlh/ethical-pensions-might-save-the-planet-bef2ac6a3d19 | ['Jenni Elbourne'] | 2019-06-11 16:56:01.653000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Better World', 'Pensions', 'Investing', 'Environment'] |
How to install Mysql Database Server on Redhat Linux | In this article, I’m going to show you how to Install MySQL Database Server step by step on Redhat Linux.
For the MySQL database installation, we have required MySQL rpm files. You can find out these rpm files from your OS CD or from your YUM repository.
If the YUM server not configured on your machine, click here and check how to configure the yum server.
Install MySQL Database Server
For RHEL 5 and 6 use the following command as the root user.
#yum install mysql-server mysql
For RHEL 3 and 4 use the following command as the root user.
#up2date mysql-server mysql
How to start the MySQL server
After installing the above rpm start the MySQL servers using the following commands.
#chkconfig mysqld on
#/etc/init.d/mysqld start
Now make a password for root user of MySQL using following command.
#mysqladmin -u root password yourpassword
Now check the Mysql connection using the following command.
# mysql -u root -p
Now we need to configure MySQL Server, add the following settings in “/etc/my.cnf” file, you must remember the following values are sample values, set them as per your requirements.
#mysql settings
query_cache_type = 1
query_cache_limit = 1M
query_cache_size = 32M # For MyISAM buffer size and recover options
key_buffer_size = 24M
myisam_recover = FORCE,BACKUP # LOGGINGS for slow query
log_queries_not_using_indexes = 1
slow_query_log = 1
slow_query_log_file = /var/lib/mysql/mysqld-slow-query.log #cache and other limits tmp_table_size = 32M
max_heap_table_size = 32M
max_connections = 500
thread_cache_size = 50
open_files_limit = 65535
table_definition_cache = 4096
table_open_cache = 512
Save the above file and restart or reload the MySQL service using following commands.
#/sbin/service mysqld restart OR #/sbin/service mysqld reload
Create Database and check it using following command.
#mysql -u root -p
mysql> create database ocpgroup;
mysql> show databases;
+--------------------+
| Database |
+--------------------+
| information_schema |
| mysql |
| ocpgroup |
| test |
+--------------------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)
If you enjoyed this article, Please write in comment box about this article. | https://medium.com/@ocptechnology/how-to-install-mysql-database-server-on-redhat-linux-f3476b532751 | [] | 2020-12-23 18:38:01.299000+00:00 | ['MySQL', 'Install Mysql', 'Mysql Server', 'How To Install Mysql', 'Mysql 8'] |
Yes, we can raise the standard of people below the poverty line but how? | Healthcare:
Is health purely a function of human biology or available technology — one that stresses disease, diagnosis, cure, or management of symptoms — known as the biomedical perspective? Is it a function of our social reality as stressed by the social perspective of health, or is it a combination of both as is stressed in a holistic perspective of health? Health services by themselves are a highly complex entity. They operate either as clinical or as public health services. Clinical health services are individualized services to those who seek medical attention, where the provider offers the best technology available or within the means of the patient.
Public Health Services: Skewed And Crumbling
India has a mixed system of services which includes modern as well as traditional systems. The health providers range from modern-day medical professionals to practitioners of traditional medicine. Then there are the paramedical personnel and traditional providers. Modern medical services are offered by the State as well as by the NGO and private sectors.
Though there are more medical care institutions in the private sector, the public sector continues to have a greater number of beds, despite its slow growth. By the end of the 20th century, there were a total of 15,501 hospitals. Of these, 10,848 were private institutions, an overwhelming majority. But the private hospitals had only 2,53,437 beds out of a total of 6,81,643 beds. This shows that the larger institutions still remained with the public sector.
Critical Gaps in Health Services:-
According to the Health Information of India 2004 report, out of the 6,39,729 doctors registered in India, only 67,576 are in the public sector; as many as 5,72,253 doctors are either in the private sector or abroad. This creates a tremendous shortfall in the states where a large number of posts remain vacant. It is a similar story with general nurses and midwives and Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANM).
To fill in this gap the government is trying to integrate manpower from available alternative systems that constitute a significant number.
Health Indicators: Unable to Reach out to the Poor
When we compare the morbidity and mortality profiles in India against the infrastructure and investments in health, the picture is not very impressive. Marginal declines in morbidity and mortality or stagnation seem to be the only achievement. In fact, it seems to be an achievement fraught with poor recording and misreporting.
Vaccine-preventable infections of childhood flourish. Dengue, pneumonia, enteric fever, viral hepatitis, and other infections have not subsided, along with other communicable diseases.
Impact of Reforms: Making the Poor Expendable:-
The weakening of the food security system, unemployment, and loss of subsistence undermined the inter-sectoral approach to health planning; Primary health care was reduced to primary level care thus excluding the supportive responsibility of secondary and tertiary care institutions; Primary level care got further narrowed down to essential clinical and essential public health care. Its components were defined by the World Bank which had little to do with assessing the epidemiological needs of the people. A focus on reproductive health made women the agency for population control. Thus, reproductive technologies of fertility control and infertility cure got a boost. Medical care got into the hands of the private sector, which had no obligation to follow prescribed procedures for monitoring, data pooling, and standardized treatment. It disrupted national disease control programs. Access to services due to rising costs as well as the quality of care remained variable in the absence of any formal mechanism to monitor the expanding private sector — either laid down by the private sector itself or by the State. Family welfare and AIDS control programs acquired a major position in health planning that was now guided by the priorities of donors. Decentralization of services was imposed and interpreted as provisioning by several independent providers and not a delegation of responsibility and answerability to a central authority.
Non-Treatment on the Rise:-
The main cause for non-treatment remains economic, as people do not have the resources to afford treatment, and lack of finances as a reason for non-treatment increases from 10 % of the respondents to 26 % across deciles.
Non-availability of services is another key reason for not seeking services. The 60th round of NSS confirms the qualitative insights that the poor try their best to save their families and often resort to private treatment, but their use of it is largely restricted to general wards and free beds that are very limited.
The average expenditure per delivery in private and public hospitals is markedly different with the former charging three or four times more.
The Politics of User Fees: Serves The Rich, Keeps The Poor Out
Other than privatization, the single largest cause of pushing away the poor from public hospitals is user fees. User fees were introduced with the idea that middle-class users would rather shift to private hospitals if they had to pay a user fee at the entrance to public hospitals. This would leave public services more for the poor.
User fees are actually preventing the poor from accessing the only facilities that are somewhat within their reach. Many benefits of user fees are trotted out officially, one being that they contribute to resource mobilization.
First and foremost, there are no established norms about the utilization of the amount collected as user fees. In some states the amount goes to the state treasury fully or partially, in others, it is the Chief Medical officer who decides what is to be done with it.
In some others, it may be a wider group of the hospital committee that decides. Nowhere do representatives of different sections of the hospital staff contribute to this decision-making process. The competing needs of patient care, diagnostics, emergency requirements, facilities for attendants, and hospital sanitation are often overlooked by the need to beautify the hospital or its offices.
Hospitals that manage to collect substantial amounts are those that are in a position to offer good services. If at all they can reinvest, they further improve their services. This process completely bypasses those institutions that are resource-starved, have poor finances and are therefore not chosen by people who can pay. Thus, unless a system of sharing resources comes into being, institutions that function poorly shall continue to do so as their user fees collection would remain negligible.
Gender Justice:-
In assessing the status of health and health services, the health status of women and their access to health services requires special attention. Given the patriarchal structure of society and gender differentials in education, work opportunities, participation in labor, and decision-making powers, it is inevitable that when it comes to getting a share of scarce family resources, women are invariably left out at critical junctures.
The low sex ratio of the girl child, high maternal mortality (4–5/1,000 live births), and poor share of women in health expenditure of the family as they mostly go to the traditional healer or local practitioner and less often to the doctor, makes it clear that special attention needs to be paid by the health services to ensure their coverage.
Strategies To Meet The Challenges: The Way Forward
● Facing squarely the task of building infrastructure for public health in a way that comprehensive primary healthcare becomes a reality. This would mean developing an integrated health system that strengthens the primary, secondary, and tertiary level care and emphasizes inter-sectoral linkages such as food availability (public distribution systems), drinking water supply, sanitation, public transport, housing, etc. Tertiary level public services are critical not only to provide referral services to the deserving but also to set up basic minimum standards of tertiary care that are effective and efficient within the epidemiological requirements of the country. Without this monitoring or regulation of the private sector by the State is not possible.
● Given the experience with user charges, it is clear that they harm the marginalized sections and do not improve the overall efficiency of state institutions given their very low proportion in the total resource requirement. User charges therefore must be removed.
● The only way out is to increase the overall investment levels and not delay this already accepted principle. Instead of shifting subsidies to the private sector the same could be used to strengthen the public sector. For additional resources, the possibilities of health cess or a national insurance system need to be debated.
● The epidemiological basis of many of the vertical programs in existence needs a thorough re-examination as evaluation studies bring out their strategic weakness both in terms of their technological choices and their structural coherence. In other words, priorities need to be re-set.
● The commitment to integration must be fulfilled, especially in the case of vector-borne disease control programs. Organization and management according to the epidemiological need should be the guiding principle. | https://medium.com/@simranmartha00/yes-we-can-raise-the-standard-of-people-below-the-poverty-line-but-how-5bd4b262d957 | ['Simran Martha'] | 2021-02-02 09:00:58.036000+00:00 | ['Crisis', 'Solutions', 'India', 'Poverty'] |
A brief history of the Rape Fantasy Epidemic | It first came up when I was conversing with a friend about sexual fantasy.
‘Let me guess, you fantasize about rape,’ he exclaimed. ‘Why?” I returned.
Anecdotally, he mentioned that it was an almost universal phenomenon. From the women he had talked to about sex, the women that he’d slept with, the media he’d consumed, he’d formed the impression that every young woman attracted to men had all desired a sexually violent encounter at one point or another. The more I considered this, the more I was inclined to believe it wasn’t a natural occurrence. Rape fantasies are a pipe dream of a sexual encounter in which no guilt is felt for sexual desire, and ultimately a longing for a society in which a woman’s lust isn’t demonised.
The societal context in which we exist begins with private property requiring monogamy both upheld by organised religion. The shift toward monogamy was relatively recent in the timeline of Homo sapiens; it’s believed to be caused by factors including less spread of STDs and a father’s provision for his own children, many point to the main reason being conservation of private property. Early humans created communities which would aid in raising children; all men and all women nurturing all children. Communal upbringing was common until agriculture arose in 10 000 BC as a response to a changing climate and permanent settlements creating scarcity in resource. Mass harvesting of food gradually lead to larger societies, currency, and private property. Within these societies, children weren’t provided for communally anymore, instead raised by coupled parents- demanding a need for the family unit as we know it. Women’s polygamy became disadvantageous for men, as it created the possibility that a man may have to nurture another’s child. Hence, monogamy and the family unit arose.
Marriage cemented monogamy and conserved property within a family by religious law. It formalised the agreement to fidelity which evolved to demonise female sexuality, ultimately to conserve the patrilineal genome. This has carried for millennia, into the 20th century, only beginning to shrink in influence during the sexual revolution in the 60’s. However, with hooking up and ‘sleeping around’ now common place, we’re still seeing the religious fallout of repressed female sexuality. What remains in secular society is an immense cultural stigma surrounding women who want and enjoy sex. This manifests in a multitude of ways including a vast number of women having desired sexual violence. Rape absolves a woman of wanting sex; if she didn’t ask for the act to occur then there’s no guilt in it. It points to a society of women subconsciously tortured by their own desires, wishing they could have a sexual experience that didn’t suggest they were capable of lust.
Some would call this fantasy ‘power play’- an extension of wanting to be dominated. However, I’d argue that domination, another widely female fantasy, is about disinhibition, a novel experience, as a break from the mediocrity of life. Potentially coupled with a retreat from adult responsibility — a therapeutic regression into a position of subordination which requires another to make her decisions, creating a temporary relief from stresses. Furthermore, dominating, assertive men may evolutionarily have been better protectors and providers, and domination implies a level of trust. Therefore, when woman seeks domination, it’s a craving for a strong partner and a break from stress, not about creating a situation in which she experiences a lack of subconscious guilt.
However, women’s rape fantasies are never based on the reality of actually wanting her body violated. No woman genuinely wants to be raped or brutalised. It would be counter-intuitive for a rape to be wanted, as then it wouldn’t be a rape. I hope no reader believes that women want actual rape, nor use sexual fantasies to even consider or justify any type of nefarious act or non-consensual behavior.
The fantasy solely exists as a theoretical scenario of pleasure without accountability. It is a capitulation to our inner conscience, which deems female sexuality as only moral if the sex is imposed onto her by a man and not initiated by herself. This conscience is a remanent of organised religion, which had originally aimed to encourage female fidelity, eventually perverting into complete vilification, repression, and damnation of a woman’s lust. The resulting monstrosity was centauries of populations with a collective conscience opposed to female sexual desire. Even in 21st century Britain, in secular society, the fallout from organised religion is in our cultural taboos, the way we discuss sex and teach it — or not- to teenagers. Women today are still aware subconsciously, that their desires are immoral. We naturally seek to mitigate guilt by imagining the only scenario in which sex is permissible -when female sexual desire isn’t present.
So, until we rid our society of stigmas against female sexual desire and non-monogamy, we will always burden women with self-hurting fantasies and deeply repressed guilt, creating generations of women who imagine brutality as the only escape from the shame of lust. | https://medium.com/@feilds/a-brief-history-of-the-rape-fantasy-epidemic-6f4f60ded4ef | ['E.R. Feilds'] | 2020-11-27 16:42:56.784000+00:00 | ['Rape', 'Feminism', 'Capitalism', 'Religion', 'History'] |
Blue Sky Crying | Two weeks ago, my third essay collection, Secrets I’m Dying to Tell You, was published. I’m proud of it, but I’m lacking enthusiasm, surely because this is my first published book that my mother won’t get to read, even though she’s in its pages, throughout its pages. Her stories, in many cases, became mine, and given that I’m confiding more of her secrets, I wonder if I would have tried to publish this collection had she still been living this summer? It’s a conundrum that I’d like to have.
Yet, would i really want this? Had she been living this summer, her anxiety about Covid-19, the threat of the “orange plague’s” being re-elected, and her precarious health would have taken up most of my energy. Would I have brought her back here to live with us? How deeply would her anxieties have affected my wife and me? Or would she have stayed in Bessemer, ordering groceries from Publix, trying to get out to see friends? What would she have thought and done about wearing a mask?
And what if she had caught the virus, her down there, me up here?
My brother and I spoke on the phone last night, and when I reminded him of what day today is, I heard his initial shock and then his immense relief, which matched my own.
It’s a strange thing for two brothers to agree that as much as they loved their mother, it is far better that she passed before all this happened. I don’t know where his mind went as we spoke, but since he lives much farther away from Bessemer than I do, I know he felt more helpless to assist our mother than I could afford to feel. Implicitly, we both know that had she still been living, I would have born the greater burden. Sometimes, though, the one who can do feels better, more powerful, than the one who has to sit back and watch.
In the last year of Mom’s life, my brother rose to all occasions. He rode with me to Bessemer more often then, and in the weeks after her passing than he ever had before.
So he learned the route, the feelings associated with it; the barbecue joints to stop at for lunch. And that sky above the interstate exchange, a sign that home was not very far away now. Supper waiting, too, like always, and Mom in her recliner watching MSNBC, or the Food Network, son rays brightening the front room near where she waited. | https://medium.com/warm-hearts/blue-sky-crying-69b351d9960e | ['Terry Barr'] | 2020-07-29 14:01:35.930000+00:00 | ['Warm Hearts', 'This Happened To Me', 'Love', 'Grief', 'Family'] |
Rachel Hollis is the Ayn Rand of white feminism | That’s the hard part for us mortals who aren’t running around critiquing the shitty philosophy of the coaching, influencer, self-help industrial complex: it’s really fucking hard to figure out the flaw in the argument when it’s a flaw of omission.
“You are responsible for your own happiness. Work hard. The early bird gets the worm.”
These seem like solid things we should be teaching our kids. But they only work in a Rand-Hollis-designed vacuum of a universe a la The Truman Show.
These predominately white, middle-class, college-educated philosophers, teachers, and coaches don’t even have to list anything in the fine print, “My philosophy works best when you’re white, physically able, heterosexual, healthy, and educated. Some exceptions apply. See disclaimers, American history, and sweepstakes rules for more information.”
They don’t have to even mention privilege. No one is holding them accountable to doing so. So, it becomes a sin of omission.
It then becomes the responsibility of the reader, the buyer, and the consumer to pick up that something is just missing, but you can’t quite put your finger on it.
So you hunt it down like a rabid dog (like I did, you’re welcome), or like most busy, middle-aged, working mamas looking for someone who “gets it,” you just chalk it up to “nobody’s perfect, and the basic core of Hollis’s message seems good.”
No, her philosophy is completely unproven bullshit.
She can’t defend it, so she chooses — yes, she chooses — to OMIT, IGNORE, AND DISMISS the flaws in it and stay inside the media bubble of her own making where no one is demanding any intellectual rigor.
What’s missing is the second half of “You are responsible for your own happiness,” which is “Caveat: most of the time. Sometimes the world we live in is going to fuck with you so hard, and it won’t be your fault. And for some groups and individuals in our society, getting fucked over happens way more than for others. It’s just so much harder for different people, depending on where they land in our rigged system. We always need to be mindful of that. Especially when things are hard for us so we don’t lose empathy for others in our own darkest hours.”
But that caveat doesn’t sell a lot of books, and might actually result in a shift in our cultural values, which would disrupt current power and privilege structures. And we can’t have that, can we? | https://medium.com/@hollybluebike20/rachel-hollis-is-the-ayn-rand-of-white-feminism-6862cd3425be | ['Holly Harper'] | 2020-12-17 18:22:46.056000+00:00 | ['Feminism', 'White Privilege', 'Self Help', 'White Supremacy', 'Ayn Rand'] |
Sencha Test vs Selenium — Choosing Your Automation Saviour | Introduction
In this age of cut-throat competition, the survival of an enterprise application/product clearly depends on the ‘lead time’ it needs to reach out to the end users with a gamut of new features embedded. The more often the product reaches out to the right customer (of course with good quality), the more is the chance of its success.
Without an automation testing schedule in place, there is no way that we can reduce the length of the release cycle. Undoubtedly, test automation is an important process, but identifying the right automation tool or framework is crucial. At times you might have experienced the need to recommend an automation tool. You may also have wondered why a solution architect chose a particular framework for automation. Through this blog, we will understand the comparison between two important test automation frameworks i.e.Selenium and Sencha Test that will answer this question.
Selenium has been the favourite automation framework of web application developers for the past decade. It started off by providing support to server-based web applications moving on to provide support to modern-day single-page applications (SPA). Selenium is the one-stop solution for all web application automation irrespective of the underlying technology that the product was developed with.
Testing Sencha started with a solid background in its UI experience.
If you need to automate a general web application which is developed with a dev framework other than Sencha, then, the ideal choice of a test automation tool among Sencha and Selenium would be the latter with obvious reasons.
But choosing between Sencha and Selenium becomes tricky and icomplex if the application is intricately developed using the Sencha framework. We have analyzed both the tools in the context of a Sencha-based application and derived the following comparison
Classification
We have broadly classified the key differentiating factors into the following high-level characteristics:Comparison
Ease of Adoption Ease of Test Scripting Easy Maintenance/Execution Scalability/Test Strategy Compatibility Platforms and OS
Test development Platform
It supports Windows (Win 7+),Mac OS X,Linux 32-bit / 64-bit
It also supports Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, Linux.
Reports and Coverage Other Tools Integration
ALM
Sencha Test is integrated with JIRA (defect tracking tool), where a user can take advantage of publishing and reviewing bugs
It is not integrated with any defect tracking tool. Requires additional libraries.
CI Integration
Sencha test supports Popular CI tools like Jenkins and TeamCity
Selenium supports various CI tools like Jenkins, Bamboo, Cruise Control.
Database connectivity
From sencha test 2.1 we can connect to the database using external node modules
Selenium supports database verification by using JDBC (“Java Database Connectivity”).
JDBC is a SQL level API that allows us to execute SQL statements
Our Recommendation
If an application is developed with a framework other than Sencha, then, Selenium will be the wisest choice. Sencha test comes with a certain cost involved which may not be justified just for automation scripts. However, if the product is built on top of the Sencha framework, then it is not going to be an easy task to choose between Selenium and Sencha Test if your product goals and operating guidelines are generic.
However, if certain goals and guidelines of the product are clearly defined then, decision-making becomes easier. If your product has goals like automated unit testing(sencha test), code coverage, and test driven development, then the sencha test is the preferred tool. Sencha Test will allow you to prepare the functional automation scripts in parallel to development which will save a substantial amount of testing time that post-development endeavours require. If your product is being developed on Sencha, but only a limited set of Sencha features are used, then Selenium would be the right choice.
Get in touch with our industry experts for guidance on choosing the right automation testing framework for your applications.
Summary
This blog covers the different import attributes that we need to focus on while choosing the test automation framework and it also compares Selenium and Sencha Test w.r.t. how they fare in terms of each attribute. The write-up also provides recommendations on the modalities to choose from among the two automation testing frameworks. Do leave us a comment below about the blog. | https://medium.com/@walkingtreetech/sencha-test-vs-selenium-choosing-your-automation-saviour-6f70d7063c03 | ['Walkingtree Technologies'] | 2019-05-07 05:54:38.950000+00:00 | ['Selenium', 'Automation', 'Software Testing', 'Sencha Test', 'Walkingtreetech'] |
The FDA Banned These Chemicals — and They’re Still Everywhere | The FDA Banned These Chemicals — and They’re Still Everywhere
Antibacterial compounds are no longer in your hand soap, but they’re in your floors, your walls, and in your body.
Just about two years ago, activists who work to reduce environmental contamination from hazardous chemicals were feeling pretty cheerful. After a struggle that had lasted decades, they’d persuaded the Food and Drug Administration to ban a slate of antibacterial chemicals from soaps and bodywashes in the United States.
The rap on the chemicals — especially the best-known and most common ones on the list, triclosan and triclocarban — was that hundreds of pieces of scientific research revealed they did more harm than good to humans and to the environment. Mouse studies suggested that these bacteria-killing compounds might affect hormone production and damage the microbiome, and they appeared to contribute to antibiotic resistance. Moreover, cleansers with these chemicals were no better at killing infectious bugs than plain soap and water.
The ban on triclosan and triclocarban was an achievement, given that the FDA had been mulling it over since 1974. But it was only a partial victory. Triclosan and triclocarban are still dosed into the carpets we walk on, added to the household plastics we handle every day, and blended into the caulk in our bathrooms and the paint on our walls. They are routine ingredients in fabrics and plastics — and thus in floor wax, air-conditioning coils, kitchen tools, and kids’ toys. Like a phone call in an old horror movie, triclosan and triclocarban are coming from inside the house.
Unlike hand sanitizers and soaps, all these products fall under the jurisdiction of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), rather than the FDA. And the EPA has so far shown no signs of cracking down on their use.
“There are thousands of products outside of the FDA’s regulatory reach that pose similar exposure and health threats,” says Rolf Halden, director of the Biodesign Center for Environmental Health Engineering at Arizona State University, who began researching triclosan in 2002. He estimates that more than 2,000 common products sold in the United States still contain the compounds.
Like a phone call in an old horror movie, triclosan and triclocarban are coming from inside the house.
Why dose your walls and carpets with antibacterials? To protect the objects themselves from attack by bacteria and mold, says Mae Wu, an attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, which helped bring about the FDA ban by filing a lawsuit against the agency in 2010. “It’s impregnated in all these products as a preservative.”
It might seem like a good thing to have walls that don’t harbor bacteria and spatulas that gunk won’t grow on. The problem, Wu said, is that the antibacterials don’t stay bound up in the materials they have been added to. As those household products wear and decay, the compounds escape and find other things in your house to cling to. “It ends up in household dust,” she says. “It’s coming off your bathroom caulk, or off the mousepad you just bought.”
It’s … everywhere
Last year, Halden and more than 200 other scientists detailed the ongoing threats related to these disinfectants in a scientific paper that has come to be known as the Florence Statement, for the location of the conference where it was drafted. The statement cites almost 170 pieces of research in order to document the persistent hazards of triclosan and triclocarban. The compounds flow into wastewater, pile up in sewage (and contaminate crop fields when sewage sludge is used as fertilizer), persist in the soil, accumulate in aquatic plants, and collect in the flesh of fish and livestock.
What’s more, a range of studies in the United States and in other countries have found traces of the chemical in human blood, urine, and breast milk. Over several decades, experiments in animals and observations in people show that in addition to interfering with hormone production, triclosan and triclocarban disrupt the endocrine system, damage heart muscle, affect the growth of fetuses, and may increase allergic reactions in children.
The compounds flow into wastewater, pile up in sewage, persist in the soil, accumulate in aquatic plants, and collect in the flesh of fish and livestock.
They may also contribute to one of the world’s most pressing health threats. Microbiologists have long suspected that triclosan’s ability to kill bacteria might create the same risks as the overuse of antibiotics. That is, a low or diluted dose might kill only the vulnerable bacteria, permitting bacteria that have developed defenses against the compounds to flourish and dominate. When that happens with antibiotics, the drugs became less and less useful as resistant bacteria take over. Antibiotic resistance kills an estimated 23,000 Americans and 700,000 people around the world each year.
In 2016, Halden and researchers from Harvard and the University of Oregon demonstrated that these disinfectants could make the problem of antibiotic resistance worse. They took samples of dust from indoor public spaces at their universities and subjected them to tests to reveal both the genetic and the chemical contents of the dust. The more triclosan there was in the dust, they found, the more antibiotic resistance bacterial genes the dust also contained. It suggests the disinfectant was influencing which bacteria survived and died. The alarming possibility: Triclosan may be changing the environmental microbiome and enriching it with bacteria that are potentially dangerous to human health.
Other recent work demonstrates how these compounds may be affecting animal microbiomes, setting up the possibility that they could do the same to us. Researchers at the University of Massachusetts fed triclosan to mice, so that they developed a blood concentration equal to what many humans already carry. Those antibacterial loads devastated the mice’s gut microbiomes, the mix of bacteria that help digest food, synthesize vitamins, and communicate to the immune system. The team reported in June that the mice that were fed triclosan experienced inflammation that could predispose them to other gut problems. In mice that had been engineered to have the equivalent of inflammatory bowel disease and colon cancer — conditions that many humans have — triclosan made those illnesses worse, with more cellular damage and larger tumors.
This precise effect had never been shown before. “We think our study suggests triclosan has previously unknown health risks,” says Guodong Zhang, the paper’s senior author and an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
To remove disinfectants, apply consumer pressure
Despite these emerging risks, it’s not at all clear that regulation of triclosan and triclocarban will change in the near term. The EPA last evaluated the chemicals in 2008. The agency usually reviews chemicals on a 15-year cycle but began another review of triclosan early, in 2013.
Since then, of course, the government has changed hands, and so has leadership of the agency. Trump’s pick for EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, resigned in July after several ethics controversies, and the agency is currently headed by an acting administrator, a situation in which the EPA is unlikely to take any big steps. A spokesperson told NEO.LIFE that the agency expects to complete its review next year.
Some manufacturers are quietly changing their products’ formulas to phase out the problem chemicals without advertising they have done so.
With further policy changes unlikely, advocates hope the market will speak instead. Arlene Blum, the executive director of the Green Science Policy Institute in Berkeley — which won a multi-year battle to get toxic flame retardants removed from fabrics — thinks the way to reduce disinfectant use lies in targeting big purchasers such as car manufacturers, home builders, and huge retail chains.
“It’s really hard for the government — EPA, the FDA — to move quickly, but manufacturers and retailers can,” she says. “It’s not hard to motivate big buyers and trade associations when money is on the line.”
There is a precedent: Over the past four years, most poultry producers in the United States stopped routinely feeding antibiotics to their birds, largely because of consumer pressure from individuals and from big institutional buyers such as school systems and medical centers.
And there are subtle signs of change. The advocacy group Beyond Pesticides maintains a list of consumer products that contain triclosan and triclocarban. In some cases, the group says, manufacturers are quietly changing their products’ formulas to phase out the problem chemicals without advertising they have done so. Other manufacturers are explicitly embracing triclosan-free products: Halden is working with the Healthy Building Network, a research nonprofit that advocates for green and sustainable construction, to guide architects and materials manufacturers toward choosing components without these compounds.
If manufacturers stop adding triclosan and triclocarban to their products, the compounds in the environment now will slowly break down and disappear. As long as these chemicals aren’t replaced with some equally risky compound, the damage done by these antibacterials could finally become a thing of the past. | https://medium.com/neodotlife/the-fda-banned-these-chemicals-and-theyre-still-everywhere-8b9a05b9fb46 | ['Maryn Mckenna'] | 2020-07-13 21:51:08.655000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Environment', 'Wellness', 'Microbiome', 'Science'] |
I am a spork and I am running for president in 2020. | I am a spork and I am running for president in 2020.
Vote spork!
Lots of people told me I shouldn’t do it.
“People won’t vote for a spork,” they said. “You were made for conveying food in whimsical fashion. You don’t know the first thing about politics. You’re not photogenic. Or savvy. There’s no chance you’d actually win. You might even split the vote, the way you split that linguini noodle in half the other day.”
Well, my friend. You and I are going to prove them wrong.
These are wild times and there are literally thousands of reasons why you should vote spork in 2020. Only a spork can cradle the meaty miasma that is America. Only a spork can heal this nation.
Photo by Marc-Olivier Jodoin on Unsplash
So, when you’re standing in that polling booth in November, scratching your chin and trying to decide which wealthy American with an ivy league education and stupid tie would be less likely to immerse the country in chaos, take a moment.
Remember me.
The spork who cares.
Consider the following points:
Sporks spark joy. (Say that ten times fast!)
Campaign motto: “It’s Tine For A Change”. You know you want a t-shirt or button with that printed on it.
Sporks aren’t racist. As a spork, I never did any blackface in college. I never even went to college! (Cafeterias don’t count.) You could do a pretty deep investigation of my previous activities and you’d find I mostly hung out with meatballs and helped hungry children eat their mac and cheese. Fairly wholesome. So that would be refreshing for a lot of people.
You know I can handle the job.
the job. I’m the great uniter our country needs. I unite republicans with democrats. I unite millennials with baby boomers. I unite people who use the Oxford comma with people who fantasize about murdering people who use the Oxford comma. I unite gnocchi with sauce.
I am also available to host the Oscars. I know this doesn’t have anything to do with being president, but I heard they were still looking for someone to do that.
I can be used as a musical instrument.
I can be used as a weapon.
I can be used as a hair removal device.
I clearly care about the environment because I am recyclable .
. I don’t know much about the economy, but, let’s be honest, no one does. Everyone is just pretending to understand how the economy works and why it does what it does so they can feel like grownups. Elect me and the economy will continue to do unpredictable things on a ridiculous schedule. That’s a promise.
My cabinet will be filled with the best utensils . We’re not just talking the same old forks and knives here, people. I’m talking teaspoons. I’m talking pizza cutters. I’m talking spatulas and can openers. I know a very dependable pair of salad tongs with a lot of good ideas about immigration.
. We’re not just talking the same old forks and knives here, people. I’m talking teaspoons. I’m talking pizza cutters. I’m talking spatulas and can openers. I know a very dependable pair of salad tongs with a lot of good ideas about immigration. Ratings. Politics are basically a popularity contest. I can get the media talking. I can get the people watching. I can get the youtubers chatting and the tweeters raging. I can get your kids to eat their green vegetables.
Photo by chuttersnap on Unsplash
What do we have to lose?
What if the hero you’ve been waiting for was in your junk drawer all along? | https://sarah-lofgren.medium.com/i-am-a-spork-and-i-am-running-for-president-in-2020-c3fff1fdcf41 | ['Sarah Lofgren'] | 2019-03-10 23:27:09.305000+00:00 | ['Elections', 'Satire', 'Humor', 'Culture', 'Politics'] |
How To Teach a Cat To Fetch | Each cat is unique, with different temperaments, behaviors, and personalities. Some cats will start throwing and fetching right away and will need little training to pick up their favorite toy or ball. Others may take longer to understand the rules of throwing and fetching in order to play this entertaining game correctly. Playing fetch and toss is a great way to keep your cat physically and mentally stimulated, and to give her a little fun running around with her owner.
Part 1 Prepare to play throw and fetch with your cat
How To Teach a Cat To Fetch
1- Choose a small, enclosed space. Keep your cat focused on the play session by limiting any distractions or obstacles. Start in a small, unoccupied space, and as your cat becomes more comfortable with play, move to a larger space.
2- Use your cat’s favorite toy or object. If your cat already has a toy that he likes that is small and easy to throw, use it for play.
Some cats like to play fetch and toss using crumpled paper or a noisemaker.
Always use the same toy or object when playing fetch and throw. This will get your cat used to playing with the same toy, so when you take that toy out, it will know it’s time to play fetch and fetch.
3- Play fetch and toss just before lunch. Schedule your play session so that your cat is awake and alert. Doing it right before lunch or dinner will ensure that your cat is ready to run, thereby whetting her appetite.
VERY IMPORTANT: if you’re going to want to learn how to train your cat like a pro then >> CLICK HERE<< to download our $27 ebook for FREE…
You can see what the book looks like below…
Part 2 Train your cat to play fetch and throw
1- Keep your cat focused on the object of the game. Use treats to motivate your cat to pay attention to the toy or object you use to throw and fetch things.You can also use a training clicker to teach your cat to throw and fetch things. You can buy a clicker for less than $ 10 at your local pet store.
Show your cat the toy and keep it about 6 inches (15 cm) from her face. Allow your cat to smell or touch the toy with her nose.
Then press the clicker and offer her a prize. Repeat this step until your cat sees the toy once it has finished eating the treat and touches it without prompting.
2- Allow her to get used to holding the object in her mouth. Once your cat gets used to touching the toy every time you show it to her, make her understand that she has to hold it in her mouth.
Let your cat touch the toy, but don’t click or give her a treat when she does.
Your cat will look at you and realize that he has to do more to get a click and a reward. You may try to open your mouth and put the toy there.
Once your cat puts the toy in her mouth, press the clicker and give her a treat.
Follow this process, so that you click the clicker and give her a treat each time she grabs the toy from your hand with her mouth.
Some pet owners stop the training session at that point to give the cat a rest and allow it to do something else for a moment.
Thus, the next day you can resume the training session.
3- Teach your cat to pick up the object from the floor. Once your cat is comfortable with taking the toy from your hand, you will need to get her used to picking up the object from the floor when you throw it.
Put the toy on the floor in front of you. Your cat should approach the toy and try to put it in his mouth. Once he does, click the clicker and give him a treat.
While your cat is eating her treat, move the toy away from her and put it somewhere else on the floor.
Allow your cat to get closer to the toy on the floor and when he touches it or puts it in his mouth, click the clicker and give him another treat.
Follow this process, so that you move the toy around the room so that your cat has to touch it or put it in his mouth each time he gets close.
If he begins to lose interest or does not want to move to the toy that is in a different location, decrease the training.
Resume regular play and try to train again the next day. Start from the previous step, with your cat getting used to holding the toy in its mouth and then move on to your cat holding the toy from the floor.
4- Have your cat pick up the toy and bring it to you. Start by placing the toy on the floor in front of your cat. Allow your cat to put her mouth on the toy and pick it up for 5–10 seconds. Then click the clicker and give it a treat.
Put the toy behind your cat. Your cat should turn around, pick up the toy, and roll over with the toy in its mouth. Click the clicker and give it a treat. Repeat this process again, keeping the toy away from you and your cat.
5- Reinforce the successful game of throwing and fetching things with a prize. Once your cat understands that what he is doing is picking up the toy and
take it to you, play a simple game where you throw the toy somewhere within its line of sight and wait for it bring it back. Reward successful play by clicking the clicker and awarding it a prize. Just play 3–5 minutes each time to finish
of keeping your cat involved in the game.
If your cat plays fetch and throw but won’t drop them in front of you, show him the treat. They are likely to be released in favor of the prize.
You may also need to teach her to “drop” it by scattering high-value prizes, and to click the clicker when she releases the toy to get the prize, while saying the keyword “drop”.
6- Keep the game object in a special place. Instead of putting the toy with your other cat toys, store it in a drawer or closet to show your cat that it has value. Your cat will understand that the toy is only to throw and bring things and that, when you take it, it will be the moment of the game.
VERY IMPORTANT: if you’re going to want to learn how to train your cat like a pro then >> CLICK HERE<< to download our $27 ebook for FREE… | https://medium.com/@bouchbelf/how-to-teach-a-cat-to-fetch-435ba1bac20d | ['Bouchy Belf'] | 2020-12-25 11:45:17.640000+00:00 | ['Kitten Training', 'Fetch', 'Cats', 'Cat Training', 'Kittens'] |
Amy Coney Barrett’s Nomination: For Dummies | From Drew Perales on unsplash.com
After news broke on the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, or RBG as she’s more commonly known, millions of people poured out their hearts on social media in mourning. The Trump Administration, however, poured out any feeling they had into finding her replacement. The top contender for the position, you ask? Amy Coney Barrett.
For those who don’t keep up-to-date with the happenings of the Supreme Court of the United States, or SCOTUS for short, I’ll summarize as best I can: Barrett is a lawyer and academic from New Orleans, Louisiana, who now holds a position as an associate justice for SCOTUS. As the fifth woman to ever serve under this title, Many would think it to be a huge win for feminists everywhere. As exciting as it is to see a woman in this position, it’s not as progressie as one would think.
Planned Parenthood, a nonprofit that provides reproductive health care worldwide, has been closing locations all over the United States due to lack of funding. In August of 2019, the organization voluntarily withdrew from Title X funding due to an order stating that medical institutions that receive Title X funding can no longer refer patients for abortions. Before Barrett was even appointed, there was talk about overturning Roe v Wade, the 1973 ruling that made abortion legal at all.
Basically, Barrett being appointed to this position is a gag move by the Trump administration to fill Ginsburg’s shoes and is blanket activism which, at the end of the day, caters to Trump’s personal pro-life beliefs.
Even Trump’s pro-life stance can be refuted, as there are many videos from years ago of him in interviews saying that he’s pro-choice. It leaves one to believe that he might be voicing different views now to receive funding or some kind of deals from investors or other corporations. Perhaps he became so radical as to win the favor of more Republicans as we draw closer to his reelection. No matter the reason, his views are dangerous for the millions of women and people with uteruses who need things like prenatal care, regular gynecology visits, and abortions — no matter what their reasons are.
The nomination and future inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as President and Vice President elects leaves room for hope. Both have very strong records of fighting for reproductive rights and equal access to health care for all. This small silver lining might be the safety net we need from the impending fallout from Trump’s term, and might be the force keeping Barrett and the rest of the conservative-leaning SCOTUS in check. | https://medium.com/nj-spark/amy-coney-barretts-nomination-for-dummies-322f51d70d2f | ['Victoria Gasper'] | 2020-12-22 13:34:23.799000+00:00 | ['Ruth Bader Ginsburg', 'Reproductive Rights', 'Abortion', 'Amy Coney Barrett', 'Planned Parenthood'] |
Least Wanted — Chapter Eight. Sam McRae Mystery #2 | Sam McRae Mystery #2
Saturday morning was a good time to travel up I-270 to Frederick. The few cars on the road were probably leaf peepers heading to Western Maryland, avoiding a longer trip to Skyline Drive in Virginia. Any weekday morning, this stretch of road would’ve been jammed owing to area commuters living farther and farther from downtown D.C. With all the businesses springing up along the “I-270 Corridor,” I’d heard that traffic was as bad heading out as in. Once again, I gave thanks for my two-block commute.
Marzetti lived in a new development just outside Frederick’s historic district, cul-de-sacs with look-alike two-story houses. The term “suburban palatial” came to mind. Marzetti’s house sported a brick facade with yellow siding and bright white trim.
The man who answered the doorbell appeared to be in his late twenties or early thirties, with a shock of red hair and sleepy brown eyes. He wore gray sweats and a faded blue T-shirt.
“Mr. Marzetti, I’m Sam McRae. I’m an attorney working for Brad Higgins. He took over your position when you left Kozmik Games.”
“Right. So what’s this about?”
“I’d like to ask a few questions.”
A slim, dark-haired woman in jeans and an oversized top wandered over and placed a protective hand on Marzetti’s arm. She gave me a curious look.
“What’s up?”
“Just something about my old job.” He removed her hand and stepped outside. “This won’t take long, honey,” he called over his shoulder before shutting the door.
With a hand on my back, he drew me away from the house. So much for a tour of Marzetti’s mini-manse. Maybe another time.
I stopped before we reached the curb. “Right before you left Kozmik, I understand you found a suspicious account in the accounts payable system. Was the vendor ITN Consultants?”
His brow furrowed. “I don’t remember.”
“Which don’t you remember? Finding a suspicious account or the vendor’s name?” I caught a glimpse of Marzetti’s wife peeking from behind a curtain.
“Neither one.”
“So you never spoke to your old boss, Darrell Cooper, about a suspicious vendor account?”
“I don’t know. It’s been a year since I worked at Kozmik. I can’t remember everything I did while I was there. Why?”
I ignored the question. “I’m assuming that if you’d found a suspicious account, you would remember, wouldn’t you?”
“I don’t know. It wasn’t my job to look for them. I just set up the accounts and paid the vendors. Darrell Cooper was supposed to keep an eye out for any problems.”
“What problems in particular?”
Marzetti shrugged. “Excessive costs, lack of information on who ordered from the vendor, what they ordered. That kind of thing.”
“So your job was confined to paying the bills?”
He nodded so vigorously I thought he’d get whiplash. “Right. You might want to ask Cooper about this suspicious account.”
He turned toward the house. “But someone told me you had mentioned a suspicious account appearing in the system before you left,” I said.
His eyes flashed anger. “Who told you that? Whoever did is a liar.”
“How would you know? You said you couldn’t remember.”
He stopped short, wearing a deer-in-the-headlights expression. “You . . . you’re trying to trick me. Put words in my mouth.”
“No. I just want to verify that there was an account for ITN Consultants in the system before Brad came onboard. Nobody’s accusing you of anything.”
“Look, just leave me alone, okay? I don’t know anything about any fake vendor,” he snarled.
“I didn’t say it was a fake vendor.” I enunciated each word with care. “I said it was a suspicious account. Now, why don’t you tell me what you know about this?”
Marzetti’s eyes darted around. “Look,” he said. “I don’t remember an account — suspicious or phony or whatever you want to call it — and I don’t know anything about this ITC or whatever they’re called. And as for Kozmik, I’m through with that place. So you can quit wasting your time and mine.”
He did an about-face and stomped toward Marzetti Manor.
* * * * *
As I drove up I-95 to Philadelphia, I pondered Marzetti’s reaction. Maybe, like Brad, he had stumbled across something he wasn’t supposed to find. Odd that Marzetti, like Cooper, had left so quickly and so soon after discovering the problem. Had he planned on leaving or did finding the account have something to do with it? Perhaps someone — Cooper? — had warned him not to tell anyone about the account. Cooper could have found a way to hack into the system and create the account. And, maybe, after Brad raised the alarm again, Cooper cut bait and ran, taking most of the money and leaving some of it behind to implicate Brad.
An interesting theory, but that’s all it was. I needed hard proof.
It took me less than two hours to reach Cooper’s place, a dilapidated row house in a shabby North Philly neighborhood. One of several identical iterations squeezed together. The building looked tired, as if the only reason it stood was the support from its twin brothers to either side.
I parked in an alley littered with old syringes, spent condoms and broken glass. As I climbed the stoop, I had to wonder: What’s a former corporate middle-manager doing in a shithole like this?
I rang the bell. While waiting, I had time to consider if Duvall had led me to the wrong Darrell Cooper. Duvall had said this was a forwarding address. Maybe he was just having his mail sent here and living somewhere else. Then why not get a post office box?
I knocked and waited some more, thinking of cheesesteaks. I hoped I could get one far from this god-forsaken neighborhood. The door opened a crack.
A pale-faced woman with shar-pei wrinkles stuck her snout under the chain. The odor of cigarettes and B.O. drifted out. “Whatcha selling?” she asked.
“Nothing,” I said. “I’m looking for Darrell Cooper.”
“Really? Well, ain’t he the popular one?”
“Does he live here?”
“Depends on what you call ‘living.’ He keeps his shit here and stops in from time to time.”
“When did he move in?”
“Couple weeks ago.” Right around the time he quit Kozmik, so it probably was the right Darrell Cooper.
“And someone else has come to see him?”
“Who wants to know?” She brought a hand up and poked a smoldering cigarette between her lips. “You a cop?”
“No. But I need to talk to him.”
“Well, he ain’t here right now.” Her cigarette bobbed as she spoke. “Fact, I ain’t seen him for two, three days maybe.”
“So who else was here to see him? And when?”
She lifted her hand and rubbed her fingers together. “Fork it over,” she said.
I gave her a twenty, wondering if it was enough. It seemed to please her. She took the cigarette in her stubby fingers and a cloud of smoke drifted from her mouth. She smiled, revealing a missing molar on the upper left.
“A big, bulky guy in a fancy suit come ’round. Had light-blond, buzz cut hair. He acted like a cop and I could tell he carried a piece.” She patted the area just below her shoulder.
“A gun?”
“Naw, a piece of cake. Yeah, a gun. Whatta ya think?”
I soldiered on with the questioning, despite the odd feeling that I was starring in the Philadelphia version of The Wire, as written by Damon Runyon. “When was this again?”
“About three days ago, I guess.”
“That was the last time you saw Cooper, right?”
“Right. Cooper didn’t seem too happy to hear about the guy.”
“Not happy how?”
She shrugged. “I dunno. Not terribly upset or nothin’. Just not happy.”
“You said he was popular. Anyone else been looking for him?”
She nodded. “Yup.”
Impatient with her monosyllabic responses, I struggled to maintain my cool.
“And who was that?”
She lifted her hand and did another finger rub. I pulled out another twenty. This was adding up. I wondered how I’d describe it in my expense account. Research? Worked for me.
“Two times, a tall, skinny nigger come by looking for him. Yesterday and the day before. He was in a uniform, so the first time, I opened up. Thought he was UPS or sumthin’, but I shoulda know’d it wasn’t, cuz the uniform color weren’t right. He was in blue, not brown.”
“Like a blue jumpsuit?”
“Yeah, like that.”
“Can you describe him?”
“Looked like a nigger. Just like any other.”
“Long hair? Short? Light skin? Dark?” I tried to prod her to describe him in greater detail than just the N-word. It may have been too much for this woman. “Anything you remember?”
“I don’t know. Brown skin. Dark eyes. Short hair.” She ran through the description in a sing-song. “Just another — ”
“Old? Young?” I said, before she could spit the word out again.
“Not old, not young. You can never tell with them people.”
“Any distinguishing marks? A scar? A tattoo?”
She shook her head. “Nothing on his face but a damn smile. Least ’til I tole’ him Mr. Cooper weren’t here. I couldn’t tell you about any tattoos. His arms and legs was all covered up.” She sucked on the cigarette.
“How about the other guy? The big blond one. Is there anything special you can remember about him?”
“Naw, just what I tell you.”
“Did either of these guys give a name?”
“Are you kidding?”
“Did either of them tell you anything about why they wanted to talk to Cooper?”
“Naw, and I weren’t about to ask the big cop no questions. I just told him Cooper weren’t here and the guy left.” She snorted in a wet, throat-clearing way that made me wince. “Goodbye and good riddance to him.”
“What about the black man?”
“He just said he needed to talk to Darrell Cooper. I said he wasn’t in. He asked when was I expecting him back. I said I didn’t expect anything because it wasn’t my job to keep track of my tenant’s comings and goings. I told him he’d have to try again another time and he go off, all in a huff. He come back again the next day, only I didn’t open up this time.” The crow’s feet around her eye scrunched as she winked at me.
“So do you know where Cooper is?”
“No clue. Like I said, not my job to keep track of his comings and goings. I’m assuming he’ll be back, though.”
“Why’s that?”
“All his shit’s still here, that’s why. He don’t pay me for next month and it’s still here, out on the street it goes.”
“Ms . . . I never got your name.”
“McKutcheon. Elva McKutcheon.”
“Could I take a quick look in his room?”
She smiled. I had my wallet open before she could lift her hand. | https://medium.com/debbi-macks-fiction-roundup/least-wanted-chapter-eight-9c9acc98813c | ['Debbi Mack'] | 2020-12-11 20:13:28.165000+00:00 | ['Crime Fiction', 'Mystery Thriller', 'Excerpt', 'Thriller Novel', 'Novel'] |
Navigating Consumption-Based Pricing with Mike Scarpelli, CFO of Snowflake | Back when I started out in venture in 2015, companies like Workday and Zendesk were changing the game of enterprise sales with their subscription pricing models. Now, we find ourselves talking with many of our Lightspeed portfolio companies about whether or not they should incorporate usage-based pricing.
With usage-based pricing, a customer’s cost is directly proportional to their consumption of the product or service. A number of recent public companies — Snowflake, Twilio, Agora, JFrog — have successfully leveraged this pricing model.
Given the general interest in this subject, I’ll be sharing a series of interviews over the next several weeks with executives in the Lightspeed network who have scaled usage-based companies, starting with Mike Scarpelli, CFO of Snowflake.
Last year, Snowflake had the largest software IPO in history. One part of their appeal to customers is that Snowflake only charges for the volume of data stored and compute resources consumed. The company grew revenue by 124% and posted a 168% net revenue retention (!). This is hands-down best in class when compared to any public software company today.
Mike Scarpelli, CFO of Snowflake
Anoushka: Mike, you have built your career working with iconic software companies including EMC, ServiceNow, and Snowflake and have seen both SaaS and consumption-based pricing. How should a business evaluate usage-based pricing?
Mike: Over time, I believe most software will be delivered in a usage-based model. But it will take some time. As a CFO, what I constantly hear from customers is that they only want to pay for what they are using. No one wants shelfware. Yet today, I negotiate with software vendors all the time who increase deal sizes each year even when our company is not utilizing its seats or licenses.
A usage-based model can work very well for any software that has a lot of transactions and compute. If the software product is an HR tool that people are looking at once a quarter for bonus allocations, then a usage-based model doesn’t make sense. However, there could be many SaaS businesses that can be priced on a consumption basis instead. For example, reps are constantly pinging and updating their Salesforce CRM — this could be a priced on usage-based model. Service Cloud, where customers are logging tickets, could be usage-based. For our customer-facing applications at ServiceNow, customers wanted a usage-based model. However, they did not know how to forecast their growth in usage, making budgeting a challenge.
Anoushka: Is there a “why now” that makes you believe most software will be delivered in a usage-basis over time?
Mike: We now have the ability to really track compute resources per query that any customer is running. If you went back 5–10 years ago, this would be much more challenging. In the days of on-premise software, you were buying the hardware. It did not matter how much compute you were using. You had to do everything on a license or per-seat model.
The cloud vendors have already adopted the model. If you want to compete with the big guys, you will need to evolve your pricing strategy.
Anoushka: What are the challenges of moving to a consumption-based pricing strategy?
Mike: For the business, you need to build an ability to predict your customers’ future consumption to forecast your business on a quarterly and annual basis. At Snowflake, we forecast usage on a customer-by-customer basis and have predictive modeling around future use. There is no out-of-the-box module or product for doing these calculations. We built this system in Snowflake. Our ERP does the invoicing and then the calculation that goes into usage all gets billed within Snowflake. We reforecast revenue daily at Snowflake.
With usage-based pricing, a customer often can’t forecast their own usage growth. Thus, it becomes much more challenging to figure out how to budget for the software. A per-seat license model can be much easier to budget for. Your software needs some type of capability that lets customers model out their growth in consumption
Finally, governance is important. You want to make sure only the people in your customer’s organization who should be using the software are using it. Customers want alerts to see if certain groups’ consumptions are spiking so they can plan around it.
Anoushka: How has this pricing model impacted Snowflake from a team and organizational structure?
Mike: It changes your compensation plan for sales reps. You can’t pay everything on new deals. You have to pay on consumption. Every one of our reps has a big consumption quota. We fundamentally want our reps to be involved in customer success.
We don’t believe companies should have a separate customer success function. The first thing we did when Frank joined Snowflake was we blew up was the customer success function. You are either going to do support, sales or professional services. Customer success is not accountable for anything.
You may hear some pushback from your salespeople and you will also have some portion of your salesforce focused on landing new accounts. However, a bigger percent of your commission dollars are going to be tied to consumption.
In the SaaS world, your FP&A group can develop a forecast in a silo in isolation from salespeople. The days of FP&A doing forecasting in this manner are gone. Our revenue and FP&A team is aligned with sales and our sales reps. The group has a regular cadence review of our top 50 to 100 customers. Our FP&A group spends a lot of time with salespeople to understand every element of our large accounts and the trends happening with consumption.
Anoushka: What are the core KPIs you think about? Have these changed at all given Snowflake’s usage-based model?
Mike: In the SaaS world, billings is the key metric you look at. Snowflake lets customers pay quarterly, monthly or on-demand so we don’t focus on billings at all. We focus on remaining performance obligation — for all your booked business, how much is going to roll up into revenue. It is the best leading indicator for our investors. Naturally, we care about revenue and revenue growth as well. Investors also want to believe there is leverage in your model. It is important to show a path to higher gross margins and pounding that with investors as that continues to grow for us
Anoushka: How have you managed pricing and pricing discounts which becomes very important for scaled customers in a consumption model?
Mike: You target the margins you want to meet. There are different discount bands based on the size of the deal. We spent a lot of time around this. As a new company breaking into new geographies and verticals, you need to do discounting for those customers. As you become mature, customers talk and you need to be very disciplined around your discounting. You need to make sure to treat your customers like for like because they all talk.
We have become much better disciplined around discounting like for like customers. We put in place a sales finance function to ensure discounting discipline and to help customers model their spending based on the discount. We also put in place a deals desk function that can quarterback a deal process to ensure salespeople are not spending their time pinging various internal groups.
Anoushka: Any final thoughts?
Mike: Many startups today espouse the belief in growth at all costs. I totally disagree with that. Growth is important but too many young companies waste money on things that there is no ROI. You need to spend the money wisely.
*This interview is part of a series of posts exploring usage-based companies. Interviews have been edited slightly for clarity. | https://medium.com/lightspeed-venture-partners/navigating-consumption-based-pricing-with-mike-scarpelli-cfo-of-snowflake-4c76548b2f40 | ['Anoushka Vaswani'] | 2021-05-14 21:04:59.225000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Startup', 'Venture Capital', 'B2B', 'Software'] |
Moving from Portland to Wisconsin to Write | Dotters Books in Eau Claire, WI, photograph: Elizabeth de Cleyre
In the dead of winter, I relocated from Portland, Oregon to Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Donald Trump had just been elected president of the United States, sending shockwaves through the liberal bubble of PDX, as the once-blue state of Wisconsin blushed red. I didn’t have any close friends or family in Wisconsin. I didn’t move there for a job. As a writer and editor, I could theoretically live anywhere in the world with an internet connection. I chose what some might view as an unlikely location: Wisconsin, a flyover state that is not necessarily synonymous with literary, cultured, or creative. Eau Claire was even dubbed “backwater” in a recent Pitchfork article.
Most people thought I was insane to leave a literary hub like Portland, where I could attend free readings at Powell’s every night and potentially follow in the footsteps of authors like Chuck Palahniuk, Cheryl Strayed, Lidia Yuknavitch, or Ursula K. LeGuin.
But after three years in the city of roses, my writing had withered alongside my bank account.
I had moved to Portland with literary ambitions, choosing the city for its access to bookstores and other writers. In 2013, it was cheaper than Boston, New York, Seattle, or San Francisco, but it wouldn’t stay that way for long. As more and more people like me were priced out elsewhere, we set our sights on PDX for its relative affordability and “Keep Portland Weird” mentality. Tech companies in Seattle and San Francisco squeezed residents out of the market and they met in the middle, in Portland.
People who were used to paying more for rent were — surprise! — willing to pay more than current residents, thereby contributing to a cycle wherein the people who made Portland weird could no longer afford to live in Portland.
It was a cycle I’d heard about at coffee shops and cocktail parties. Everyone had a friend who had a friend who had a friend whose friend had been pushed out of Portland. It was anecdotal until it wasn’t.
A 2016 article reported a 63% increase in rent from 2006 to 2015. Income for renters increased 39% in the same period, with median incomes for renters coming in at half that of the median homeowner. Portland has the nation’s highest year-over-year increases in home prices.
According to Oregon Metro, “A person would have to earn an hourly wage of $19.73 — approximately twice Oregon’s current minimum wage of $9.75 per hour — to afford fair market rent for a 2-bedroom apartment.”
I earned $12 an hour at a boutique selling high-end shoes — working full time before the holidays, part time the rest of the year, and subsidizing my income with editing. I was privileged to have a partner who worked full time at a company that provided benefits. My graduate degree imbued me with high hopes of being highly employable, but most of my applications to teach, write or edit went unanswered. Finally, one company hired me as a freelancer to edit (read: ghostwrite) nonfiction books for approximately $50 an hour.
I didn’t own a car and relied on public transportation. One of my favorite hobbies was walking through the Southeast Portland neighborhoods with my partner at the time, where we’d take turns guessing how much the houses cost. Most were easily half a million dollars. We’d laugh and ask ourselves what these people did for a living.
I lived in a built-up four-bedroom house on SE Division Street, on the cusp of the historic Ladd’s Addition neighborhood. I shared the house with my then-partner and three other roommates, which became a rotating cast of characters: a graduate student in engineering, a graphic designer/DJ, an unemployed dude who hotboxed the basement, a radio and podcast producer, and a hair stylist, whose girlfriend unofficially lived there half the week. We split the $2200 per month in rent according to the size of our rooms.
The owners bought the house in 2008 with the intention to flip it, but when the market crashed they rented it for $1850 a month. In 2013, the rent was raised to $2200. I moved into the house in August of 2014. In March of 2016, the owners sent a notice to increase the rent to $2695.
Since the whole point of living in a built-up four-bedroom was to save money on rent, my then-partner and I decided to find our own place. We settled on a nearby one-bedroom, six-hundred square-foot apartment for $1300 a month — almost twice what we’d paid with roommates just to have a space of our own.
The house we’d shared was marketed as having three bedrooms and 2,500 square feet. It was listed for $550,000 and sold in less than a month for $630,000.
The disillusionment that had been quietly building for years finally crescendoed. I just hadn’t been able to hear it over my own internal monologue: I was privileged and it was unreasonable to want more — to want a full time job in my field, to not have to depend on a partner for healthcare, an apartment of my own, a growing savings account, money to set aside for retirement, the ability to pay off student loans and purchase a home one day.
I wanted free time and the disposable income to actually enjoy the city’s offerings. I wanted to see my friends, but our schedules were brimming with multiple gigs needed just to make ends meet. I tried to start a book club (twice) but everyone I knew was too busy. I wanted a community of other writers, but all the literary events I’d attended felt cold and unwelcoming, and most people I met were closed off — understandably threatened by newcomers who threatened to push them out of Portland.
Sitting beside homeless people on the bus and passing tent cities erected on sidewalks, I crushed any shred of desire for financial security or belonging, chiding myself for wanting more when so many had much less. The notion that I needed to leave Portland gnawed at me, but I felt like I had nowhere else to go.
Cue Wisconsin, in summertime, in the midst of my disillusionment.
A music festival lured me there — Eaux Claires was launched the previous year by Wisconsin native Justin Vernon of Bon Iver and Aaron Dessner of The National. My then-partner and I stayed at an Airbnb run by a young couple who almost instantly became close friends. When we enacted our usual hobby of walking through neighborhoods and guessing how much houses cost, we found a fixer-upper listed for $60,000. I thought they’d forgotten a zero.
Six months later, we signed a lease on an apartment 1800 miles away, sold most of our belongings, and shipped the rest. Accustomed to astronomical housing costs in Portland, I thought we’d have enough for a down payment on a house within a few years. I was astonished to be able to afford one immediately, closing three months after we moved.
Buying a home was something I always swore I’d never do — I claimed I didn’t want permanence, but my obstinance was a convenient cloak for my dismay at the fact that I might never be able to, especially in places like New England, where I grew up, or cities like Portland and Brooklyn. Only 37% of millennials ages 25–34 are homeowners, compared to 45% of Gen Xers and baby boomers at the same age. In Wisconsin, my monthly mortgage payment was hundreds of dollars less than my apartment in Portland and twice the size. When my partner and I amicably split and sold the house, we paid off the mortgage, earned a small profit, and cleared all of our remaining credit card debt.
The financial security I felt in Wisconsin engendered a swift and profound sense of freedom — able to meet my basic needs, it kindled previously unforeseen possibilities.
Within a month of my move, I launched a book club at a local shop simply by emailing the owner, even though we’d never met. She agreed and then introduced me to a novelist, who also offered to connect and discuss writing. He introduced me to another author, who told me about the Chippewa Valley Writers Guild, which introduced me to a whole flock of other writers. Everyone I met had someone else they wanted me to meet. Nearly everyone I met was open, welcoming, and warm — a stark contrast from Portland.
People remarked at how quickly I made friends those first few months, but it wasn’t a reflection of me — it was a testament to the incredible kindness of those I had been lucky enough to meet. Having lived in six US states and four countries in my life, the sense of inclusion and belonging I felt was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. The burgeoning community of writers possessed a collaborative — not competitive — spirit, one where writers supported their own craft as much as they supported one another’s work. Maybe it’s the Midwest work ethic, but people didn’t talk about wanting to write, they just wrote, and being in the midst of such prolific people was expansive.
Selfishly wanting to learn more from the community, I organized a series of events for the state’s Creative Economy Week: a roundtable to discuss the state of literature in the region, a panel on the concept of “Writing for Exposure,” and a launch party for a literary magazine. I started a book club, where I met Margaret Leonard and Jill Heinke Moen. When Margaret mentioned her lifelong dream of starting a bookstore, I echoed that it had been one of mine as well. Within six months, we launched Dotters Books: a women-owned, independent bookseller, dubbed the state’s best indie bookstore by Mental Floss.
Yet my contributions are miniscule compared to other creatives here, one of whom writes one book a year, publishes articles and essays, teaches full time, spearheads the writing guild, and is raising three children.
This is not to brag or be self-effacing, but to point out that literally none of this could have happened in a larger city.
So much stock is placed into cultural hubs like Portland or Brooklyn, but the cost of living is prohibitive not just for writers but also for entrepreneurs, especially those in creative industries or retail. Bookstores aren’t a highly lucrative endeavor, but they provide immense value to the community, signifying the importance of literature, diversity, conversation, and connection through reading. One would be hard-pressed to afford a retail space in a city like Portland, and Dotters Books is in good company with other millennial-owned businesses in Eau Claire: design firms Odd Brand Strategy and Knorth Studios, homegoods store Red’s Mercantile, florist Fersk Floral Artistry, and print shop Ambient Inks, among others.
And yet I write this with a degree of hesitancy, having experienced and witnessed firsthand how people who are pushed out of expensive cities move to relatively cheaper cities and thereby make it unaffordable for the people currently residing there. What made Portland weird were the people who lived there. What makes Eau Claire unique are the residents who wove the fabric of the city’s current culture. People who move to a city without regard to its history and context slowly chip away at its roots — perhaps not conspicuously but subtly, such as ignoring local businesses in favor of Amazon Prime delivery.
There’s a deep-seated fear of contributing to that same phenomenon — both by moving here and by talking about my experience of moving here in such glowing terms, glossing over the downsides or inconveniences of living in a smaller city. I’m now less interested in questions around how to move to a more affordable place and more interested in how to be a better citizen in an adopted hometown, and how to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
These were questions I never cared about in a city because I was too consumed with trying to make ends meet.
Gentrification is real. And focusing on the individual’s actions while ignoring systemic and structural issues — like access to affordable housing and tenant rights — won’t alleviate the problems it poses. While larger cities may have more resources, smaller cities have the advantage of being easier breeding grounds for change.
The three-bedroom house I rented in Portland? It sold for $630,000 in 2016, $80,000 above its asking price. It was listed again in 2019 and sold for $695,000.
Around the same time it sold, the Eau Claire City Council approved a resolution to increase funding for low-income housing from $200,000 to $700,000.
The cost of a single three-bedroom, two-bathroom, 2500 square-foot home in Portland is the same as one Midwestern city’s budget to help tackle the issue of affordable housing.
If everyone who cared about these issues left big cities, what would remain could be bleak. There’s an argument to be made for staying and advocating for change where you live. Bailing at the first sign of hardship or crisis and trading large cities for smaller ones because of rising rental rates isn’t an answer to the affordable housing crisis. Leaving won’t solve those problems — it’ll arguably make them worse. A solution requires both stepping up on an individual level, and necessitates cities make a concerted effort in engaging and retaining citizens.
It’s not an exaggeration to state that it’s unlikely I would have ever realized my dreams — of homeownership, of launching a bookstore — if it hadn’t been for the affordability and support of a city like Eau Claire.
If I were in Portland, I’d still be writing on borrowed time and in stolen moments — on breaks at work and on the bus ride home. The oversaturation of living in a city — tempted by well-curated shops and inundated with advertisements on my commute — gave way to a certain spaciousness in Eau Claire, wherein I could think and therefore write. | https://elizabethdecleyre.medium.com/moving-from-portland-to-wisconsin-to-write-3e847c99ed5f | ['Elizabeth De Cleyre'] | 2019-11-13 13:41:26.122000+00:00 | ['Housing', 'Gentrification', 'Wisconsin', 'Portland', 'Writing'] |
5 actions to restore trust | Straight from the Edelman Trust Barometer and highlighted by VisibleThread’s more recent study, easier to understand T&Cs is a clear winner in the eyes of everyday folks interacting with products and services.
One of Australia’s Big 4 banks has recently acted on this.
The market is finally waking up and moving. Boiler plate text that’s hidden away and designed almost exclusively to protect the corporation is no longer acceptable.
This might seem daunting. I mean, how do you change that which is deeply embedded and ‘accepted’? But meaningful progress can be made quickly and cost effectively. Nothing has the break. Rather, you’ll find the opposite.
If you wanna learn an evidence based approach to making T&Cs people ❤️ your reality, check out our 10x workshops. We can get you started on the journey in a matter of hours.
Happy Monday 😊 | https://medium.com/greater-than-experience-design/5-actions-to-restore-trust-428b0fb442b5 | ['Nathan Kinch'] | 2020-11-09 02:47:17.435000+00:00 | ['Legal Design', 'Consent', 'Terms And Conditions', 'Fintech', 'Open Banking'] |
PostgreSQL to Pandas using Python | I’m working on a Python project that needs to read data from a PostgreSQL table. So, I want to create a class for database (DB) connection. Why’s that? Because it makes code much easier to read and reusable. Furthermore, I want to convert SQL query result into a pandas dataframe. The benefit of using pandas, it provides an easy way to manipulate data. Okay, Let’s do it! First, I install psycopg2-binary and pandas via pip. Then, create a wrapper class to deal with DB connection and fetch data, called DBConnection class.
This class consists of 4 functions as follows:
1) open_connection is used to create a DB connection.
2) disconnect is used to close a current cursor object and destroy a DB connection.
3) fetch is used to retrieve data from a SQL query.
4) execute is used to manipulate and populate DB (e.g., CRUD operations).
Demonstrating how to write DBConnection class in Python.
To convert SQL query result into a pandas dataframe using DBConnection class, follow the code below.
conn = DBConnection(DB_HOST,
DB_NAME,
DB_USER,
DB_PASSWD,
DB_PORT,
DB_SCHEMA) records = conn.fetch('SELECT * FROM SAMPLE')
column_names = ["id", "name"]
df = pd.DataFrame(records, columns=column_names)
df.head()
Happy Coding! | https://medium.com/@nerdydiary/postgresql-to-pandas-using-python-701599d8a379 | ['Neda Peyrone'] | 2021-06-15 13:30:29.535000+00:00 | ['Postgresql', 'Pandas Dataframe', 'Psycopg2', 'Pandas', 'Python'] |
Inbound.org is Shutting Down, Being Replaced with Growth.org! | The long running platform for marketers Inbound.org is coming to an end. A recent post from HubSpot co-founder Dharmesh Shah gives a bidding farewell to the platform that served as a community for SEO’s, marketers, and other professionals in the IT space. Shah states Inbound is being replaced with a new platform called Growth.org. Although, not much is being said as to how the new platform will work; other than the fact Inbound users would be able to migrate their pre-existing profiles. But the question remains, why is Inbound shutting down?
Shah seems to note how the ways in which internet users find and share content has greatly evolved, with users often receiving the bulk of their daily news through social recommendations. This seems to signal that less people were making use of the Inbound platform as a means to find information. Shah also seemed to note the struggles with managing the Inbound platform and finding developers to help keep it running.
Shah states, “For me personally, in terms of content — mostly the content now “finds me” (via twitter, email and Facebook).”
Here’s a link to Dharmesh Shah’s post on Inbound that better explains the situation: Farewell to inbound.org and hello to Growth Hub (growth.org)
Inbound served as a social community for marketers for years, often being the place where online professionals went to discuss various tactics in marketing, SEO, web publishing, and other related subjects. It was also a platform for promoting content in the marketing space. Marketers often used Inbound as a first point of promotion to gain traction on their latest stories, and help them to better market their services to the public.
It seems kind of odd that Shah would insist on shutting down a platform that helped to bring so much awareness to his platform for marketers Hubspot. After all, Hubspot reported strong revenue gains last year: HubSpot Reports Strong Q4 and Full Year 2017 Results .
Inbound was also well indexed in Google search, and you’d think if anything the platform would’ve retained some monetary value worth holding onto. Another option would’ve been to try and sell the platform outright and allow someone else to rebrand and repurpose it. But securing revenue with social platforms today is hardly a simple endeavor. Just look at what happened to Vidme this past year. | https://medium.com/strategic-social-news-wire/inbound-org-is-shutting-down-being-replaced-with-growth-org-44d8b45ab1a7 | ['Daniel Imbellino'] | 2018-04-18 21:39:14.699000+00:00 | ['Inbound', 'Marketing', 'Community', 'Marketing Platform'] |
Invest in the Most Rewarding PCD Pharma Franchise Business in India | Alicanto Drugs has opened up exclusive business opportunity for people, who are willing to commence their own venture. Since commencement, we are the growing firm holding years of working experience in the respective field. Our expertise brings us into such a position, where we are introducing our Pharma Franchise in Assam. This state has good potential to introduce Franchise Business and earn long term ROI. We have introduced our Franchise while keeping in mind about all the success parameters in this stage. You can expect a bright future here.
List of the top Benefits by Introducing Pharma Franchise in Assam
This is the best Pharma Franchise Business Opportunity that can provide you many benefits such as:
It can avail great business success in just low investment. The administration cost in this business is quite low. The chances of getting a good Return of Investment from this business is quite high It consists of the lower business risk factor, which is favorable All the marketing and promotional support will be provided by us We will also provide you the regular incentive in order to boost your enthusiasm to give the best output You don’t need any professional degree and experience to commence this business etc
There are many other benefits like above that you will get while commencing franchise business. Everyone, who has good entrepreneurship skills, can experience a good profit return in just a short time span.
Contact us
We have opted for the best and reliable communication source for people, who are interested in introducing their franchise business. So, in order to contact us anytime, we are open to talk with you and we are just one call away from you.
Name-Alicanto Drugs
Address– Plot No-159, Industrial Area Phase 2, Panchkula, Haryana (134113)
Phone– +91 7814642006
Email– [email protected] | https://medium.com/@alicantodrugs/invest-in-the-most-rewarding-pcd-pharma-franchise-business-in-india-6de6c3e39e64 | ['Alicanto Drugs'] | 2019-11-14 07:48:56.445000+00:00 | ['Franchise Opportunities', 'Pharmaceutical', 'Franchise Business', 'Assam', 'Franchising'] |
Should I Buy or Build an App for my Business? | Nowadays, Apps are trending everywhere, and are widely integrated into almost every business and organization. Building an app for your start-up is the standard way to get started on a new project, even though it requires a considerable amount of time and effort. You should consider all factors when making your build-or-buy decision. In this article, we will address several elements to consider before you make up your mind.
First, start by considering why your business needs an app. Is it necessary for the company to function? Will it improve your team productivity? Do you need it to take your business to the next level?
Once you already determined that the App is crucial for your business growth, should you buy or build the App? When our clients reach out to us, we help them answer these next main questions prior to any engagement. These points help them decide on the buy vs. build choice.
Budget
Being aware of how much an app cost is essential to narrow down whether you will build or buy an app. An app can cost thousands of dollars, even reach hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop. Additional features like accessibility options, API integration, and back-end services can only raise the cost. Ask for a quote from app developing agencies and freelancers. A break-down of the cost can also help explore your options and choose what is suitable and convenient for your requirements.
Native Vs. Hybrid Vs. Web
Having a clear vision of the app’s purpose is crucial in deciding whether you want to opt for native, hybrid, or web apps. This decision will impact the cost and the user experience of the project.
A web app runs on browsers and can not be downloaded on mobile phones like native or hybrid apps. Yet, they are a popular choice due to their cost-efficiency.
Native apps have the advantage of being sophisticated, faster, and accessible at your fingertips through smartphones. They can use native features of mobile phones like camera, contacts, etc. and synchronize it.
As the name suggests, the hybrid app is a combination of both native and web apps as it is downloadable on mobiles yet functions as well in an embedded browser.
Will your product need updates?
Most apps need regular maintenance and updates on bugs. This is a task for an expert since it requires a higher set of skills to manage. If you build the app yourself, maintaining it will be an additional chore. Otherwise, you will need to hire someone to fix back-end issues and bugs. Buying an app from a software development company will give you easier access to an expert who can manage fixing bugs or issues at reasonable notice.
Making the buying vs. building decision easier
You can now proceed with more clarity to the next step of buying or building an app. Whether you run an established business or a start-up, an app will be of great importance. If the app has basic features that require little to no maintenance, it would be wiser to build it yourself. Get help from team members who have basic knowledge of building apps, testing bugs, etc. But, keep in mind that developing an app is not as simple as it may look. It requires a lot of research and fundamental design, developing, and testing knowledge.
So, buying an app can be costly, but it’s more efficient as it will take less time and be more successful than building an app on your own. Do you want to use the app for a service, a business, or just buy it as an investment? If so, we consider purchasing an app from expert developers as a smarter choice.
There are some ‘hidden’ or additional value-added costs that you may not have considered while deciding on the budget. These costs include functional, administrative, infrastructure, maintenance, and IT support services. If you want to integrate additional features, such as SMS or push notifications, you will have to pay extra fees as third-party providers supply them. Similarly, maintenance of the content, dashboard, fixing bugs, etc., will require an additional ongoing cost.
Your vision of your business future narrows down the decision to buy or build an app. Building an app is comparatively affordable, but it requires high-level knowledge of coding and app development. Purchasing an app from seasoned software developers or companies is a good value for money. It will look professional, and you won’t have extra details to worry about. It is crucial to consider the audience and users’ ease when using the app. You want to make their lives easier. As for hidden costs, considering them will help you closely manage the cost. | https://medium.com/foretheta/should-i-buy-or-build-an-app-for-my-business-40065820d963 | ['Aarzoo Naeem'] | 2020-11-05 18:15:03.620000+00:00 | ['App Development', 'App Development Company', 'Software Development', 'Business Tech'] |
11 Years Later: Is Satoshi Nakamoto Finally Moving Bitcoin Funds? | More than ten years after the launch of the Bitcoin Blockchain, coins that were mined on February 9, 2009 have just started moving. Yesterday, 50 BTC left the address 17XiVVooLcdCUCMf9s4t4jTExacxwFS5uh. They were initially received in block number 3,654, created on February 9, 2009 — exactly one month after bitcoin mining started.
[May 28, 2020 Update]
UPDATE: On May 25, 2020, a second outgoing transaction was sent from the same address that received the old coins (3A6AsxxxzgHnGKhiFyW4tYX1Hn2sjNfrQP), after which that address was clustered into an entity. Now, with a degree of certainty, it can be interpreted that 10 BTCs were transferred by the “early miner” directly to the Coinbase exchange address. This happened after someone sent a small transaction to the address, which was probably a test transaction.
Also of note is that to date, the remaining 40 BTCs that were sent to the “change” address are still not spent.
Distribution of Early Miner’s Funds
Original Post
From activity at May 22, Crystal Analytics has established that 40 BTC was sent to the wallet 1BzN95J72BLBafwgZiZZvM9s7Wj2bxzA6m and remained there. 10 BTC was moved to the wallet 3A6AsxxxzgHnGKhiFyW4tYX1Hn2sjNfrQP which has then distributed funds within different entities.
<div class=”flourish-embed flourish-sankey” data-src=”visualisation/2501734" data-url=”https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/2501734/embed"><script src=”https://public.flourish.studio/resources/embed.js"></script></div>
The majority of funds were moved to well-known exchanges such as Coinbase and Binance, according to Crystal’s proprietary clustering feature, on May 21, 2020. Furthermore, a relatively small amount of BTC was sent directly to darknet entities.
<div class=”flourish-embed flourish-sankey” data-src=”visualisation/2501406" data-url=”https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/2501406/embed"><script src=”https://public.flourish.studio/resources/embed.js"></script></div>
As we can see in Picture 2, according to Crystal’s Indirect Connections feature, as for May 25, 2020, about 1.718 BTC is still settled in unknown addresses. The Indirect connections feature includes direct connections, but also analyzes incoming and outgoing transactions that occur with unnamed entities and tracks them until the funds reach a known entity.
Despite research published on some social networks that are either based on analysis of the so-called Patoshi pattern, or jokingly referring to as “ Satoshi’s accountant “, who incidentally “denies” any transactions from his client’s wallets, it’s hard to prove that this early miner was or was not Satoshi Nakamoto — however, Crystal Analytics will continue to follow this transaction pattern as it unfolds.
See the Crystal Blockchain platform in action. Get a demo today. | https://medium.com/meetbitfury/11-years-later-is-satoshi-nakamoto-finally-moving-bitcoin-funds-6f66f7056263 | ['Crystal Blockchain'] | 2020-07-14 12:59:36.135000+00:00 | ['Blockchain Analytics', 'Satoshi Nakamoto', 'Bitfury', 'Crystal Blockchain', 'Bitcoin'] |
Introducing DropBit — Coin Ninja’s New Mobile Bitcoin Wallet | As Vitalik alludes to, there is still opportunity to improve the process by which people can get their first Bitcoin.
Let’s say you had a friend who was interested in Bitcoin, and you wanted to send them $10 worth of Bitcoin to get started. While this is simple to conceptualize for experienced crypto users, there’s still quite a barrier with the multiple, unfamiliar steps which sit in the way of that friend being ready to receive that $10 in Bitcoin.
It’s likely that most people, particularly in the U.S., would go to Coinbase to get started. And while we think Coinbase is great, and ultimately important to the overall success of the industry, there’s still a multi-step process to set up an account, verify the account, link and verify a bank account and figure out the app experience…all before you can be ready to buy, send or receive Bitcoin. In fact it’s 6 steps. The uncertain apprehension of new users (Am I doing this right? Is this safe and secure?) further complicates the entry process.
While Coinbase does truly offer a streamlined experience to start purchasing and selling Bitcoin, receiving Bitcoin from say a friend or employer should be a faster, simpler and involve less friction. Coinbase is not the best user experience for those who want to simply send and receive say $10 in Bitcoin, especially if it’s their first $10 worth of BTC.
The Solution is the DropBit Mobile Wallet
We aspired to create a send/receive experience that operates as easily as sending a text message — and that’s exactly what we did.
One’s motivation to finish a task is elevated when there is a tangible reward at the completion of the task. In this case, downloading and setting up our wallet, (which is simply writing down recovery words and verifying a phone number) is all that is required to access the Bitcoin sent to their new DropBit wallet.
With DropBit, all you need is the contact list, already in your phone, and you can send someone their first amount of Bitcoin. You don’t need the recipient to have a Bitcoin address, or have their wallet already established. While the app is called DropBit, we call this process of sending to a new user via SMS ‘sending a DropBit’. | https://medium.com/coinninja/introducing-dropbit-coin-ninjas-new-mobile-bitcoin-wallet-b1f71216eb34 | ['Coin Ninja'] | 2018-12-18 21:35:40.401000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin', 'Apps', 'Btc', 'Mobile Wallets', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
What does docker runtime deprecation in Kubernetes mean for Developers? | Kubernetes is deprecating Docker as a container runtime after v1.20.
At v1.20, you will get a deprecation warning for Docker. When Docker runtime support is removed in a future release (currently planned for the 1.22 release in late 2021) of Kubernetes it will no longer be supported and you will need to switch to one of the other compliant container runtimes, like containerd or CRI-O.
But this will not affect application developers using Docker desktop or Docker for Mac to build and run their images.
This change is for Docker runtime inside the Kubernetes cluster and is different from the docker used during development.
The image created by docker during development or CI pipeline is not specific to docker, but it’s an OCI (Open Container Initiative) compliant image.
So for now as a developer you would be able to continue:
Writing your dockerfile(s) the same way
Building and pushing your OCI compliant docker image to an image registry the same way
Using the OCI compliant image in your Kubernetes deployment YAMLs the same way
There is one important piece that will break for you as a developer if you are using Docker-in-Docker construct with your CI tool running on Kubernetes. There are lots of opinions on this pattern, and we prefer to use an alternative utility called kaniko as it does not require privileged access by the CI container. There are other utilities out there as well like img and buildkit to accomplish image building within containers running on Kubernetes.
Kubernetes is an ever-evolving project and story, thus nobody is 100% expert on it. With flexibility, it brings the complexity to run the apps and the peripheral integrations with it. Thus here at initializ, our goal is to make running your Apps on Kubernetes as easy as possible while providing you the ability to integrate with your favorite cloud-native services.
You can contact us to try our development platform for free. | https://initializ.medium.com/what-does-docker-runtime-deprecation-in-kubernetes-mean-for-developers-4aae75c6c99c | [] | 2020-12-08 20:56:30.251000+00:00 | ['Dockerfiles', 'Jenkins', 'Docker', 'Kubernetes', 'Containers'] |
The 5 phases of launching and selling your programs online | How does turning your years of knowledge into an additional income stream sound? Once you master launching your offers online, you can create a repeatable and scalable income stream in the form of group programs and high-level 1:1 signature offers.
Here’s WHY Learning to launch your signature offer online is non-negotiable:
MORE MONEY IN YOUR BUSINESS
By teaching what you know, packaging and launching that as an online group program, you’re able to serve more people at once. As you nail the launching process, you’ll create pops of income throughout the year as well as predictable months by receiving cash via your clients’ payment plans. Launch consistently throughout the year (3 or 4 times) and use that to get new people into your program. You can then add other programs or courses to the mix once you have this down.
MORE TIME
As your income increases because of your launches throughout the year, you’ll be able to start outsourcing more tasks (eg: social media, general admin, calendar management, help around the house, etc), and grow a team to help scale your business and remove your involvement in day-to-day tasks. Once you start building a team and widening your support base, you’ll have more time for self-care and to focus on bigger picture strategies. You’ll become the CEO instead of owning your job — AKA doing all the busy work in your business!
Naturally, if you don’t take care of yourself and spread yourself too thinly, you’ll end up burnt out. In order to launch successfully, you’ll need to show up with energy, a solid mindset and most importantly with confidence.
REDUCED ANXIETY AND STRESS
I’m not going to pretend that launches are easy (especially if you’ve not done it before) but the more you do them the easier they become. In my own business, we’re creating new SOPS (Standard Operating Procedures) in Asana (a task management software program) so that each stage of the launch can be mapped out.
Launching your signature offer as a group program means that you won’t be experiencing as much of the feast or famine phenomenon that happens when selling done-for-you services or maxing out on 1:1 work with clients.
I love the fact that I have ongoing payments coming in every single month via Stripe. This is because I have my own group program that I’ve opened for intakes at various times of the year once I open the cart. This has enabled me to take time off over holidays, head off to Spirit Fest for four days and expand my team for more support.
LAUNCH BEFORE YOU’RE READY
Launching online gives you the opportunity to presell (beta-launch) your service or program before it’s even created. Rather than spending loads of money and time developing something you aren’t sure people will buy, you can launch your program, sell spots and create it as you go along. By doing so, you gain valuable insight and feedback from your clients on what’s popular, what’s needed and what’s not. After you’ve sold the program a couple of times you can allocate some budget to professional videos, a membership area and so on to make it top-notch. This is how you test your market. Once you’ve got some case studies and great testimonials you can increase the price point.
BEAT YOUR COMPETITION
Most people are clueless when it comes to launching a program online. Some may have been lucky and sold in-person workshops to a warm audience of people who’ve followed them for years and were dying for them to do something like that for them. Those got snapped up fast, but then the well starts drying up and the excuses start rolling in. Putting on in-person events, retreats and workshops cost a helluva lot of money and the logistics can become complicated (not to mention restricted travel due to things like Covid-19!). By putting your signature offer into an online program people are able to access it from anywhere and at any time. It’s so much easier to sell and for people to make a decision to buy.
Here are the 5 Stages to ensure a Successful Launch:
1. The Nurture Phase
Build your audience, position yourself as an expert in your field, nurture them and share valuable content without selling to them. An ideal space for this is a FB Group and don’t forget to build your email list at the same time!
2. The Prelaunch Phase
Generate new leads and build up momentum just before your launch, using challenges or a free live stream training series.
3. The Educate Phase
Use live videos (FB or Instagram Lives) to give your audience “results ahead of time”. Allow your audience to get to know you and give them a teaser of what it’s like to work with you. Bring the vibes — people buy your energy just as much as they buy the “thing” you’re selling.
4. The Selling Phase
This is when you promote your program using early-bird pricing and disappearing bonuses.
5. The Closing Phase
Get in touch with your following and/or follow up on leads.
Create a sense of urgency and remind them of their last chance to buy.
Introduce a “cart close” countdown timer.
Are you ready to learn how to launch, sell your programs online and want to dive deeper with me? Sign up to join my FREE 5-day livestream training series. This takes place in my group from Monday 16th March to Friday 20th March. During this series, I’ll teach you how to turn your years of knowledge into an extra income stream.
JOIN MY FACEBOOK COMMUNITY | https://medium.com/@chanellesegeriusbruce/the-5-phases-of-launching-and-selling-your-programs-online-f916e6995381 | ['Chanelle Segerius-Bruce'] | 2020-03-11 12:01:01.528000+00:00 | ['Business Coaching', 'Training', 'Online Training', 'Business', 'Network'] |
How Keto Diet Works & How To Start Today? | Is it true that you are hoping to consume fat utilizing the keto diet? Try to peruse this article before you do! We uncover what ketosis truly is, give you keto nibble proposals and cover dangers of the keto diet.Read more on this topic,download full our exclusive video training >>>CLICK HERE<<< | https://medium.com/@adamsmith1978/how-keto-diet-works-how-to-start-today-eed05f0a208c | ['Adam Smith'] | 2020-12-24 13:42:58.170000+00:00 | ['Keto', 'Weight Loss', 'Diet', 'Weight', 'Ketogenic Diet'] |
Ascension | Ascension
We Rise By Lifting Others
Photo by Noah Buscher on Unsplash
Was lost in thoughts when I looked around
But felt consoled with what I found
A man with greater need lost in grief
Quietly aspiring to live my dreams
When I thought I’d lost it all
The world crumbling at my door
I’m still a blessing to one in need?
Dark clouds may roam
Without control
But for a while
There must be dawn
A clear blue sky
When inner light begins to blink
Broken heart a wholesome piece
But first I must survive the strife
I must walk through life’s blazing fires
Endure the bashing of its chilling winds
Each day give hope a chance
Come rain, come sunshine | https://medium.com/know-thyself-heal-thyself/ascension-c7cbd64e6650 | ['Johannes Mudi'] | 2020-12-24 14:35:42.958000+00:00 | ['Assumption', 'Lovethyself', 'Know Thyself Heal Thyself', 'Life Lessons', 'Poetry'] |
Scaler Edge has been exceptional in providing me the structure I’ve needed to learn and grow. | Scaler Edge has been exceptional in providing me the structure I’ve needed to learn and grow. Scaler Follow Dec 1, 2020 · 2 min read
My name is Bhuvan Sharma, and I am a 2nd-year student studying Chemical Engineering at BITS Pilani. I am based in Rajasthan as well.
My interest in computers began to develop in the 5th standard.
I used to be fascinated by the inner workings of a computer, which further led to my interest in Technology as a whole.
I always liked coding but I just wanted to know how to translate that to a computer — into making something that I would want to see as a viewer or a user. I was never interested in restricting myself to the basics. It was always about learning more, one way or the other.
My family has always motivated me to learn and grow more. When my second year started I thought that it would be a good time to take up an extra course.
This realisation coincided with Scaler Edge coming to our college and conducting workshops about machine learning, which made me want to join them for a more comprehensive learning experience.
I aimed to learn as much as I could and get guidance about what to do next, after chemical engineering.
The experience at Scaler Edge is very different in terms of its responsiveness. Both Anshuman sir, the TA, and Rahul sir, my mentor have collectively helped me with everything. They are the ones who have taught me how to handle the workload and manage my time.
The first class of interaction was very memorable, as I found a bunch of my batchmates there as well. My experience with my mentor and my peers has been great.
Scaler Edge has always offered proper guidance on what to do next in a very inclusive and comprehensive manner. We’re always following a structured path which has helped me a lot.
If I were to recommend, I would tell my friends that Scaler Edge’s responsiveness toward clearing my doubts in the least possible time is one of their greatest strengths and this responsiveness as a strategy has helped me a lot in moving forward.
If I had to rate on a scale of 10, I would rate Scaler Edge a solid 10/10. | https://medium.com/scaler-edge/scaler-edge-has-been-exceptional-in-providing-me-the-structure-ive-needed-to-learn-and-grow-1611b1ba7872 | [] | 2020-12-01 11:37:03.091000+00:00 | ['Scaler Edge Experience', 'Learning', 'Mentorship', 'Scaler'] |
Late-Term Abortions to Save a Woman’s Life? Two Pro-Choice Doctors Speak | Pro-choice activists sometimes claim that late-term abortions need to be legal in order to protect women’s lives.
These abortion activists know that many people shudder at the thought of killing a fully formed baby who could survive outside of his or her mother’s womb.
They know that the simple “woman’s body, woman’s choice” slogan is not enough to convince the public that aborting full-term babies should be legal.
In order to justify these abortions, pro-choicers sometimes say that if late-term abortions were banned, women’s lives would be at risk; in other words, women have late-term abortions in order to save their own lives.
Is this true? Common sense seems to indicate that it isn’t. A third trimester abortion is performed by injecting poison (usually dioxin) into the baby, then inducing labor. A woman essentially “gives birth” to a dead baby.
In both a third trimester abortion and a traditional live birth, the woman has to go through labor. The only difference is that in an abortion, the baby is injected with poison, killing him or her. This is done for no other reason than to prevent a live birth.
It seems to be common sense that injecting deadly poison into a woman’s body would carry some risk. It is hard to believe that it is safer to inject poison and induce labor than to simply induce labor without the injection.
Way back in 1972, when abortion’s legality was still being debated, the medical director of the Pittsburgh Planned Parenthood, Dr. Rose R. Middleman, was quoted as saying: (“Doctor Refutes Abortion Claim” Reading Eagle June 14, 1972)
It’s extremely rare, if nonexistent, for a physician to have a medical reason to abort a woman in the 7th or 8th month.
Middleman’s statement is very revealing. It comes from a pro-choice Planned Parenthood administrator, who had every reason to stick to the pro-choice talking points.
In 1972, Planned Parenthood was just as pro-abortion as it is today. This doctor’s admission probably did not sit well with those who were advocating for late-term abortion, because it revealed the truth.
If in 1972, late-term abortions were not needed to save the lives of women, it is highly probable that they are even less necessary today. There are been many medical advances in the past 40 years.
A more contemporary quote comes from a practicing abortionist, Dr. Don Sloan. When Sloan wrote his book Choice: A Doctor’s Experience with the Abortion Dilemma in 2002, he had already performed over 20,000 abortions.
In this quote he addresses not just whether late-term abortion is needed to save a woman’s life, but whether any abortion is needed to save a woman’s life. He said:
If a woman with a serious illness- heart disease, say, or diabetes- gets pregnant, the abortion procedure may be as dangerous for her as going through pregnancy … With diseases like lupus, multiple sclerosis, even breast cancer, the chance that pregnancy will make the disease worse is no greater that the chance that the disease will either stay the same or improve. And medical technology has advanced to a point where even women with diabetes and kidney disease can be seen through a pregnancy safely by a doctor who knows what he’s doing. We’ve come a long way since my mother’s time…. The idea of abortion to save the mothers’ life is something that people cling to because it sounds noble and pure- but medically speaking, it probably doesn’t exist. It’s a real stretch of our thinking.
Dr. Sloan is of the opinion that abortion is never necessary to save a woman’s life at any time in pregnancy.
He believes that the “life of the mother” argument is a smoke screen, a useful argument, but not based on fact.
It is true that in some cases, pregnancy can complicate illness, but even this abortion provider admits that in most cases, a competent doctor can see a woman through even the most difficult pregnancy.
When pro-lifers make the claim that abortion is not necessary to save a woman’s life, especially in the last trimester, people might be inclined to doubt them. When pro-choice doctors say the same thing, it is not as easy to dismiss. | https://medium.com/the-secular-seamless-garment/late-term-abortions-to-save-a-womans-life-two-pro-choice-doctors-speak-ab9038af4516 | ['Sarah Terzo'] | 2020-12-16 04:49:33.563000+00:00 | ['Womens Health', 'Abortion', 'Pro Life', 'Pro Choice', 'Medical Professionals'] |
Ellie Rebecca Is Now Danny Jackson H. | So, why did I choose to name myself Daniel Jackson?
Well, there are a few reasons I chose the first name Daniel.
For one, I’ve heard a lot of trans people say it’s a good idea to give yourself a name that was at least fairly popular during the year you were born. Apparently, Daniel was the ninth most popular boy’s name in the United States in 1995. That would make it perfectly natural for a 25-year-old to have that name.
Secondly, it’s my dad’s middle name. My dad is one of my favorite people, and I wouldn’t mind being named after him, but I wouldn’t want to give myself his first name. That would make family gatherings even more confusing. Not only would people have to adjust to a new name, but it would be one that someone else already had. So, his middle name seems suitable.
Thirdly, I’ve just always liked the sound of it. Sometimes that’s a perfectly good reason to give yourself a certain name.
Lastly, I feel like the name Daniel, and especially the nickname Danny, encapsulates my gender really well. I plan on eventually changing my legal name and gender marker so that I will legally be recognized as male. That’s my only real option for not being female, which is definitely something I’m not. But the name Danny could be sort of gender-neutral, at least when spoken aloud. That’s where I feel my gender is: somewhere between male and gender-neutral.
As for my middle name, I initially wanted my first name to be Jackson and my middle name to be Daniel. But as soon as I spoke that name aloud to myself, I knew it couldn’t work. If I named myself Jack Daniel, people would think I was an alcoholic. So, it had to be the other way around.
I’ve always loved names that start with J, and Jackson in particular stood out. It just sounds cool to me, like a secret agent name or something.
Altogether, I think my entire name flows really well now. It captures the essence of who I am better than my birth name ever could.
Does this mean I’m a straight guy now?
Not necessarily. I know I’ve written about not being attracted to men before, but I’m starting to reconsider, even though I plan on being with my girlfriend for the rest of my life and it doesn’t really matter all that much whether I would theoretically date a man again.
I’ve started to realize that I do experience attraction to men, albeit far less often than I feel attraction to women. But when I imagine realistically acting on that attraction, I feel vastly uncomfortable. I used to think this was a sign that I was a lesbian, but now I think it means something different.
Most of the men I’ve dated were strictly heterosexual. They saw me as a woman. I think that, not a lack of attraction, was what felt wrong to me. I’m attracted to men in a vacuum, but once they view me as a woman, that’s when the discomfort starts.
To that end, I guess I’m technically bi or pansexual. But at the moment, I don’t care as much about labeling my sexual orientation as I do my gender.
Am I still nonbinary?
Yes, I would say so. My dysphoria has gotten so bad that I’ve decided I would just rather be read as male than female. After all, those are generally my only two options in terms of how the vast majority of people will see me.
I think of it like this: If gender identity were a scale from 1 to 10 (which, it’s not, but for the moment let’s pretend it is), with 1 being a woman and 10 being a man, I would place myself at around an 8. Again, somewhere between male and gender-neutral. I don’t fully identify as a “man,” per se, but I have no problem with people assuming that I am one.
Will I go on HRT and undergo surgeries?
I definitely plan on starting hormone replacement therapy (HRT) at some point. While my voice is already fairly deep “for a woman,” I’d like it to be deeper. I’d also like to have at least a little bit of facial hair so that other people will immediately read me as masculine.
However, it doesn’t matter how masculine I look if I don’t have a flat chest. I was cursed with ridiculously large breasts. Like, so large that I don’t even think they make binders in my size. Even if they did, I doubt it would make my chest lie flat enough for others to perceive me as male.
So, I do plan on eventually getting top surgery. My chest has been making me increasingly dysphoric lately, and I feel that surgery is the only way to correct it.
What pronouns do I prefer?
Honestly, anything other than she/her is perfectly fine with me. I’ve been going by they/them with my friends for a while, and it certainly feels much better than she/her. But at the moment, I think I’m okay with both they/them and he/him. I might decide later on that I prefer one or the other, but for right now, feel free to use either with me.
Am I going to delete my old stories?
I don’t think so. Although many of my older stories portray a version of me that no longer exists, I see no reason to delete them. I suppose it might confuse some people who come across my older stories about being a lesbian and see that it was written by someone with a “man’s” name. But I frankly don’t care.
Those stories captured who I thought I was at the time. Each of them represents who I was at that point in my life. They’re like little windows into my past. I’ve always been a little obsessed with preserving memories. For that reason, I don’t think I’ll delete any of my old posts. Just because they’re not quite accurate anymore doesn’t mean they’re not me. | https://medium.com/words-by-ellie/ellie-rebecca-is-now-danny-jackson-h-16bb69764e0b | ['Danny Jackson H.'] | 2020-11-29 19:06:50.939000+00:00 | ['Transgender', 'Nonbinary', 'LGBTQ', 'Gender', 'Self'] |
Important Economic Indicators to Understand the World Economy | Everything in the World is Connected
Compared to the past, the world economy has become much more integrated. Globalization is the growing interdependence of the world’s economies, cultures, and populations. The U.S. led the efforts to revive international trade and investment after World War II.
Globalization of Trade — Peterson Institute for International Economics
Politics and business have now been integrated as well. Trump tweets change the world around us. An amazing resource has been created by Bloomberg, documenting and tracking Trump’s tweets and the impacts on the stock market.
Despite this, the issues we face today are a byproduct of the fast growth that the world has been experiencing. Certain countries are looking to protect their jobs and people, leading to trade wars and other political issues such as Brexit.
Important Concepts Broken Down
Interest Rates: Central banks around the world use interest rates to influence the economy. This is generally used to curb inflation. Different countries have different levels of inflation, and a higher interest rate slows down inflation.
Increasing Interest Rates > Economy is doing well > Inflation needs to be curbed > Signals a better economy
U.S. Interest Rates — Past 5 Years
Inflation: The increase in prices of goods and services in an economy over time. High inflation means a decrease in the purchasing power of a nation’s currency. This concept is why things get more expensive over time, and your money buys less.
High inflation > Bad for consumers > Increase Interest Rates > Slow Economy
Sample Price Increase in Coffee Over Time
Unemployment: Employment data is a big economic indicator which indicates the well-being of the economy and labour force of a company. This indicator is heavily watched and talked about in the media, as generally the lower unemployment is, the better the economy is doing.
More people working > More spending > More economic growth > Better economy
U.S Unemployment Rate Since the 1950s — FRED St. Louis
Housing Starts: The amount of housing units on which construction was performed during the month. Generally data is provided for single-family homes and residential buildings. Housing is an essential good for consumers, and everyone needs a place to live.
More housing starts > More people buying homes > More disposable income > Better Economy
U.S 2019 — Housing Starts
Consumer Confidence: Consumers are surveyed in a random sampling of 5,000 individuals, of whom 3,500 generally respond. This survey asks the consumers about their sentiment on the current economy, with topics ranging from the labor market, consumer spending, and economic growth.
Higher consumer confidence > More consumer investments and spending > Better economy
U.S. 2019 Consumer Confidence Survey
Stock Market Indexes: Indexes were created as a basket of stocks and have been the world benchmark for equity markets. There are indexes for each country, but the large ones are the S&P 500 (U.S.), Dow Jones (U.S.), TSX (Canada), FTSE 100 (London), Sensex (India) to name a few. With all things held equal, higher profits and good economic situations drive higher stock valuations.
Higher stock markets index values > Better performing companies > More investments and employment > Better economy
S&P 500 Performance for 2019
Real Gross Domestic Product: The Market Value of all goods and services produced in a nation during a year, net of the inflation in a certain country. This is generally used as a gauge of the health and well-being of an economy. When looking at this metric, you want to look at respective growth rates over each quarter. Higher the growth, the better.
Higher GDP > Countries are being productive > Better economy
U.S. Real GDP since 1950
Following this post, you will have more knowledge about economics and the world around us. Hopefully this can kick-start your interest in learning more about the financial world. Feel free to respond with any of your questions, and I will be covering more advanced topics later on.
For other analysis regarding our current economy: | https://medium.com/high-finance/important-economic-indicators-to-understand-the-world-economy-8fb7f99ec54a | [] | 2020-04-09 19:00:59.700000+00:00 | ['Finance', 'Business', 'News', 'Economics'] |
Should the creation of low income jobs be considered as Social Entrepreneurship? | Should the creation of low income jobs be considered as Social Entrepreneurship?
Research on entrepreneurship has undergone a transition from a traditional to a modern approach on entrepreneurship, which introduces more liberating ideas, other than the conventional views that classify entrepreneurial activities as a financial emancipation. Early research defined entrepreneurship as a strong-willed activity to initiate a profit-oriented business. As theory developed, researchers recognized the importance of social and societal aspects involved in entrepreneuring and started to bring entrepreneurship more in line with social and societal considerations.
However, theory on social entrepreneurship limits change potential of entrepreneurship given that it intends a particular approach of social change. Through their literature, scholars argue that social entrepreneurs and social businesses have limited change potential. When researchers or practitioners talk about social entrepreneurship, they usually talk about improving the lives of minorities or people in developing countries or green energy solutions that tackle environmental issues.
However, not only social entrepreneurs contribute to tackling social needs. A new wave of researchers argue that all entrepreneurial initiatives generate socio-economic value, and should be studied and understood accordingly. As the discussion on the change potential of entrepreneurship continues, I would like to suggest an expansion of the general understanding of social entrepreneurship.
As an illustrative case I would like to argue whether or not the creation of low jobs should be considered as social entrepreneurship, given the concern that technology could produce a social disruption by creating scarcity for this particular class within the workforce.
The emerge of technology has precipitated a similar scenario to the industrial revolution as it initiated a social disruption by increasing severely the gap between low and high income class.
Given that workers at the bottom of the labor force structure or low-wage jobs will be most immediately affected by technological displacement, researchers urge for the need to start thinking about compensating them for this social disruption caused by automation.
There is far-reaching concern that new technology will fundamentally alter the future of work by displacing traditional jobs. While some argue that technological development will generate more jobs than it destroys, others claim that that technology is destroying jobs faster than it is creating them. According to the World Economic Forum, 7 out of the 10 emerging roles by 2022 are jobs that require a high technological affiliation. These include Data analyst and Data Scientists, AI and Machine learning specialists or Big Data specialists. Among others, roles that are declining until 2022 include jobs such as Accounting and bookkeeping, Assembly and factory workers and postal service workers.
As stated by Andrew McAfee, a principal research scientist at MIT, emerging technologies have made their way from science fiction movies into the mainstream economy and will encounter millions of truck drivers and call center agents around the world. In the United States, while GDP has risen in the last years, median income has not, while inequality has grown. As a result of great productivity, although technology companies offer disruptive solutions, they do not create jobs. Whatsapp only employs approximately 50 people, although it counts over one billion active monthly users.
Although controversial, Uber is a factual example of a high-tech company that has been producing low income jobs in the recent years. Uber is used in this case as it is a hot topic and up-to-date. Various other cases from the sharing economy and beyond could be used upon further research in order to illustrate the above mentioned ideas. According to Uber, in 2017, the company “contracted” around 2.7 million drivers in the world, which are low to middle income jobs depending on whether drivers choose Uber as their main source of income or as a supplementary income source. Research further suggests that total employment expanded in cities where the Uber platform was adopted and that there are no evidence of adverse employment impacts on traditional taxi drivers, as their number also increased by 10%, according to the research.
Uber is not classified as a social enterprise if we stick to definitions on social entrepreneurship suggested by researchers. To be classified as a social enterprise, theory suggests that a company needs to prioritize meeting social needs. Generally, this definition is too limiting, given the change potential of business entrepreneurs in general. Uber illustrates a case of a company that is expected to prioritize profit. The company is sensitive to economic matrices as revenues, net income or the trend of monthly active users, that it needs to monitor, to satisfy investors. Being backed by numerous investors makes Uber an economic driven company that yet has an socio-economic impact in the cities where it deploys its platform by offering a solution to the scarcity of low income jobs. The case of Uber illustrates how a company that not necessarily falls within the current definition of social entrepreneurship can have an impact where it is operating.
Given the scarcity of low income jobs in the future, as suggested by research, precipitated by emerging technologies, and the precarious definition on social entrepreneurship, the case of Uber should initiate a discussion, peculiarly among scholars, in order to expand their definition on social entrepreneurship as it limits change potential of entrepreneurs. | https://medium.com/@dillon.berjani/should-the-creation-of-low-income-jobs-be-considered-as-social-entrepreneurship-463785478831 | ['Dillon Berjani'] | 2018-11-26 13:15:53.959000+00:00 | ['Social Enterprise', 'Social Entrepreneurship', 'Uber', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Technology'] |
where do we find the resources to change the world? | I’m a communist because I believe that capitalism is a particular (not natural or logically inevitable) way of doing things, that it’s a terrible way of doing things, and that only an organized working class can get rid of it, and with it class society in general. That position isn’t too unusual these days. The critique of capitalism is in vogue. Socialists are in the news. There are even a few in Congress! You may wonder, though: “Why do you have to call yourself a communist? Isn’t that just gonna make people think of the Soviet Union and, like, Stalin?”
Among socialists there are two basic answers to this question. One insists that the Soviet Union wasn’t really socialist. If right-wing common sense relies on the equation Socialism = USSR = Bad, this answer denies the first leg, claiming that Socialism ≠ USSR = Bad. This protects the idea of socialism, which helps explain why it’s so popular. It allows the speaker to define socialism as they like and saves them the burden of having to constantly apologize for the past. It’s forward-looking and, in a way, faithful to Marx’s critical spirit.
But there is another way to answer the question, and that’s to say Socialism = USSR ≠ Bad.¹ I’d like to explain why I opt for this answer.
Defending the positive accomplishments of the USSR (and the tradition that understands itself to include Stalin and Mao, which I’ll call Really Existing Socialism, or RES) is important because it 1) helps us develop solidaristic habits of thought, 2) decenters the Western experience, 3) helps us view world history in perspective, 4) reminds us of certain hard facts about socialism and class struggle, 5) highlights the way media are used against the left, 6) insists on the value of partial victories, 7) serves as a rebuke to a priori and utopian thinking, 8) focuses our attention on people’s material needs and constraints, and 9) connects us with a tradition that has actually made revolutions.
Trying to understand the obstacles and pressures faced by RES and the ways socialists in power answered them is often dismissed as ‘apologetics’. Another way to understand it, though, is as an exercise in imagination. It’s the same kind of imaginative stretch a person might do after seeing someone protest in a way they don’t approve of: try to gather more information about where that person’s coming from, their history, what options are really available to them, why they may have settled on those methods instead of others, etc. What matters more than the verdict is the willingness to try, which we might also term ‘solidarity’.
Solidarity is very easy to claim as long as the people you’re claiming to have it with don’t do anything that makes you look bad. It’s easy when they’re disorganized, when their suffering is the only thing they’re known for, when they’re respectable victims. But to be effective, real solidarity cannot be so conditional. We must side with the oppressed even when we don’t agree with their methods, or else we give them no reason to count us as their allies. Solidarity is the difference between a united class and a losing one.
Thinking solidaristically makes us smarter, too. A recent example from Colombia: certain dissidents from the demobilized-guerrilla-army-turned-political-party FARC have decided to resume armed struggle. If we simply write them off as Stalinists, it’s obvious why they’d do such a thing — they’re mad, bloodthirsty, would-be tyrants, etc. If we empathize, though, and try to understand where they’re coming from, we notice that the government hasn’t upheld any of the major components of the peace process, former guerrillas who dutifully laid down their weapons are being systematically assassinated along with would-be unionizers and other leftist social leaders across the country, there is no accountability on the horizon for right-wing politicians or the paramilitaries they empowered, which are responsible for at least 80% of civilian casualties in the conflict, and it doesn’t look like land will be returned to the thousands of peasants it was stolen from, since the big landowners who scooped it up have only cemented their hold on power since peace was signed. In short, none of FARC’s options, including staying the course and hoping the peace process works out, are good options. It’s just lazy moralism to say “Well they shouldn’t have taken up arms in the first place” or “They should renounce the pursuit of state power” — it isn’t an analysis, and it doesn’t help anyone do anything.
Every major example of RES comes from the developing world. No developed capitalist country has experienced a successful socialist revolution. It may be the case that only such a revolution can win through to full communism, but no one really knows. What is certain is that racism is a deeply-rooted feature of Western political culture, white people have a habit of viewing non-white societies as backwards and barbaric, and denunciations of ‘oriental despotism’ are as popular now as they ever were. Don’t believe me? Go check out whatever the Guardian’s published on China recently. Most Sovietology (a blessedly defunct field) belongs to the same genre of racist fear-mongering and orientalism. The refrain “not real socialism” is often indistinguishable from “not the kind of socialism us white Europeans would have done”. This judgment is confirmed by anti-Stalinist brands of socialism when they helpfully remind us that governments subject to US-based regime change efforts aren’t really socialist anyway.²
The idea of RES as undemocratic is tinged with Western chauvinism. Most socialist states use(d) a system of hierarchical elections in which people elect local representatives who elect higher bodies which elect a chief executive. Representatives, including the executive, are typically revocable at any time by the body that elected them. There is no obvious reason why this setup is any less democratic than what we do in the West. Do our institutions typically express the will of the people, or are they designed to obstruct it? Consider the UK’s monarchy, the House of Lords, the selection of its Prime Minister, or in the US, the Electoral College, the Senate, or the Federal Reserve. Does the existence of two major parties in the US protect its citizens against domination by rich elites, or does it strengthen that domination? Only a very cartoonish and jingoistic concept of democracy would let us view RES states as especially lacking in it. The idea that the (liberal capitalist) West has a monopoly on democracy and thus an obligation to school the world on it is the same ideology Bush carried into Iraq.³
Of course, for criticizing the West in an essay that’s supposed to be about RES, I may be accused of “whataboutism”, that is, of changing the subject or distracting the reader from the key question of whether RES is good or bad on its own. People who level this accusation like to remind us that “Two things can both be bad at the same time.” Yes, but two competing socioeconomic systems can’t both be worse, and that’s what’s at issue here: the superiority or inferiority of RES to Western ‘liberal democracy’.
Viewing world history in perspective means, firstly, understanding that a worker’s state in an underdeveloped country cannot survive if that country remains underdeveloped. The imperative to economic growth is imposed from without, by reactionary opposition to workers’ power anywhere. In the Soviet case, this opposition kicked off with an invasion by at least fourteen capitalist powers in the first year of the new state’s existence (full list here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Civil_War ).
Perspective means weighing the crimes of both systems in a holistic way rather than on the basis of select events taken out of context. It means weighing everything the West did to become rich and powerful — colonialism, slavery, countless wars, the genocide of the Americas, etc. — against everything the Soviet Union did to catch up — forced industrialization, collectivization, the gulag, the terror, etc. And it means appreciating what it means that the USSR managed to close this gap in just a few decades, despite being invaded by and defeating Nazi Germany.
Historical perspective is indispensable if we want to make sense of the twentieth century. Suppose we said that both the US and the USSR were fundamentally capitalist, or pursuing the same basic Enlightenment project of instrumental rationality. In this case we would have to interpret the twentieth century as a more or less smooth capitalist progression, interrupted perhaps by scattered outbursts of freedom and creativity that were sadly (but inevitably) stifled. But this is simply Whig history, the inexorable March of Progress, with its value judgments reversed! It’s just as dismissive of human agency as the original. This way of seeing things erases the revolutionary social advances won over the last hundred years, minimizes the efforts of Western states to destroy socialism, denigrates the work of millions of communists who fought and died for a better world, and flies in the face of Marx and Engels’ claim that “the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.”
What’s more, colonialism isn’t over. Not only was the current disparity between rich and poor countries founded on brutal violence, pillage, and exploitation, it’s sustained by those very same methods. The US has taken the lead role in working to ensure that the West stays on top of the global (im)balance of power by any means necessary. This can be as innocuous as political pressure (in favor of opening up markets, against industrial, environmental, or labor protections, and of course against nationalization), as cunning as an astroturfed protest movement, or as blunt as cruise missiles and a full-blown invasion.⁴ We can’t disrupt this pattern as long as we’re still caught up in the idea of a basically just and harmonious liberal world order, and that’s the mindset we remain in as long as we view the exceptional crimes of ‘authoritarian regimes’ somewhere else as the worst of the worst.
People who uphold RES don’t believe that its leaders or policies were perfect — with so many leaders, sometimes disagreeing with each other, that would be absurd. What we do maintain is that socialism is better than capitalism, that socialist leaders have on balance advanced the cause of human emancipation while capitalist leaders have actively opposed it, that anticommunism obscures this fact by exaggerating the crimes and denying the accomplishments of RES, and that the real crimes of socialism pale in comparison to those of capitalism and colonialism (in terms of both body count and the intent of those responsible). The crimes of RES, therefore, do not constitute a compelling argument against revolutionary socialism.
“Why not?” you may ask. “There was violence, right? You won’t deny that, I hope. Why isn’t that enough to reject authoritarian socialism altogether? What we need is a nonviolent approach. It’s the only kind of socialism that won’t end in tyranny and dictatorship.” This attitude is not at all uncommon. It comes from a particular kind of education, one that teaches a whitewashed version of the US civil rights movement and the struggle for Indian independence, and one that grows out of religious rather than revolutionary traditions. It’s not an attitude that’s compatible with the revolutionary transformation of society.
Statehood can be understood as ‘that violence which is socially acceptable’. If we do not ‘seize the state’, then it will remain in the hands of pro-capitalist forces, meaning that violence in defense of the capitalist status quo will remain acceptable. There is no way for a socialist movement to succeed if murderous reaction against it (e.g. COINTELPRO) is state policy. Hence the necessity, for socialists, of ‘taking state power’ — we must ensure that the only violence that’s socially acceptable is left violence, e.g. expropriation of the rich, defense against capitalist restoration, etc. This is what Marxists mean when we talk about the ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’, and what Engels was talking about when he said
Have these gentlemen ever seen a revolution? A revolution is certainly the most authoritarian thing there is; it is the act whereby one part of the population imposes its will upon the other part by means of rifles, bayonets and cannon — authoritarian means, if such there be at all; and if the victorious party does not want to have fought in vain, it must maintain this rule by means of the terror which its arms inspire in the reactionists. Would the Paris Commune have lasted a single day if it had not made use of this authority of the armed people against the bourgeois? Should we not, on the contrary, reproach it for not having used it freely enough?
Those who fail to heed this advice don’t usually last long enough to make for good examples, but the best-known case is Chile, 1973. Reactionary forces do not shrink from using violence. If you let them, they will overthrow whatever socialist order you hope to introduce. It’s not the taking of power but the holding of it that makes nonviolence unviable. If we don’t want someone to come along and introduce a state that works on behalf of the propertied classes (e.g. the Constitutional Convention of the United States), then we need our own, one that works on behalf of the propertyless and is capable of defending itself.
If we say instead that Socialism ≠ USSR = Bad, then the concept of socialism we end up with is pristine, untainted by violence, and there’s no limit to the sunny modifiers we can add to indicate how different it will be from RES: real socialism must be democratic, horizontal, decentralized, autonomous, libertarian, humanist, participatory, non-bureaucratic, non-dogmatic, grassroots, “from below”, etc. In other words, socialism, to count as socialism, must be perfect. It’s not hard to see how this definition becomes increasingly useless and moralistic the more synonyms for ‘good’ we pile on, how it mimics the logic of respectability politics. These modifiers do nothing to address the question of power, rarely stating but often implying that it won’t be a problem because the consensus in socialism’s favor will be so universal. This isn’t how major social transformations work, especially the kind with winners and losers. We should expect a socialist revolution to look more like a slave revolt than like a conference on historical materialism.
That said, RES was nothing like the image most people in the West have of it. It’s easy to pay lip service to but hard to really understand how much the ruling class and its media lie about socialism until you start to investigate its history. Stalin did not kill 30 million people. The famine of 1932–33 was not a genocide against Ukrainians or anyone else. Being sent to the gulag was not a death sentence — mortality in the gulag was dramatically lower than in imperial prisons. Most purges consisted of no more than party members having their memberships revoked for incompetence, corruption, drunkenness, or not being who they said they were. There was an outbreak of political violence in 1936–38, but Stalin didn’t design or control it. Instead it was a broadly participatory and anti-bureaucratic process, a mass hysteria in which people from all levels of society sought redress for their grievances (both real and imagined) in a paranoid, hyperpatriotic outpouring of state violence that disproportionately targeted state officials. It claimed around 700,000 lives.
Now for the parts you may not have heard about. In the first thirty years of its existence, the USSR put an end to the periodic famines that had plagued Russia for thousands of years. It lifted millions of people out of crushing poverty. It guaranteed housing, healthcare, and education for its citizens while also nearly eliminating inequality, something that no capitalist society has ever done. It catapulted Russia, a semi-feudal country, into the space race and the status of world superpower, reaching standards of living and life expectancy comparable to those of the rich colonizing countries in spite of those countries’ tremendous head start. It oversaw massive gains in women’s rights and the position of women with respect to men. Shortly after it gave women the vote in 1917, the UK, Canada and the US were obliged to follow suit in order to stop the flow of disenfranchised women towards Bolshevism. The Soviet example served as a continuous challenge to the legitimacy of Western capitalist powers and gave them an incentive to pass social reforms, including social security and civil rights, or else see their discontent turn to revolution.
Besides that, the Soviet Union won World War II for the Allies and ended the Holocaust. It inspired and provided material aid to left-wing national liberation movements (e.g. Vietnam, China, South Africa, Burkina Faso, Indonesia, Algeria, Guinea-Bissau, Cuba, etc.) across the colonized world. And it operated a centrally planned economy specifically designed to make homelessness, hunger, and unemployment impossible. This was accomplished, after a very rocky start, by decommodifying life’s wants, by replacing market anarchy and the profit motive with conscious planning and production on the basis of need.
And it was democratic, democratic in a way only revolutionary states can be, because their policies haven’t been decided in advance, because their legitimacy is still fragile and depends to a great extent on public opinion, because there are no old boy networks in place, because the revolution and its ideology give workers a sense of entitlement over their government that they don’t have under capitalism. And because of its elections, as mentioned above.
If you find all this hard to believe or unconvincing because “it doesn’t change the fact that Stalin was evil”, think about how that certainty and its emotional charge were formed. The power of the media (including “historians” like Robert Conquest of the IRD) to shape common sense through omissions, distortions and outright fabrications is hard to properly appreciate. We usually overestimate our rational and critical faculties, thinking ourselves immune to the power of brute repetition, behind which so often lurks the power of money. Even people familiar with Noam Chomsky’s ‘Manufacturing Consent’ rarely adopt the deep skepticism towards received wisdom that its critique would seem to imply. Capitalist interests shape what we see and hear and believe — the CIA did not spend the Cold War lollygagging. Unless we want to serve those interests ourselves, we have to actively compensate for the media’s distortions and omissions, even those we haven’t identified yet, with the certainty that media bias always favors the ruling class. Nothing drives this point home more clearly than studying and talking to people about the history of RES. We need to learn to distrust the mainstream media’s version of what’s going on in the world or we will remain ideologically captive to capitalist interests.
The overwhelmingly negative opinion most Westerners have of the Soviet Union is shared by many on the left. These leftists have put forward a dizzying array of theories to explain what went wrong: maybe the USSR was never more than state capitalist, or it started good but then degenerated, or became Bonapartist, or bureaucratic collectivist, or the Bolsheviks were too positivist, or teleological, or voluntarist, or vulgar materialist, or they didn’t recognize the need to abolish the value form, etc. Such critics almost always agree, though, that Stalin’s doctrine of ‘Socialism in One Country’ was a betrayal of socialist values.
Here’s the thing. Most of the Bolsheviks expected that the Russian Revolution would set off a chain of revolutions in Western Europe (especially Germany with its powerful SPD), and that these revolutions would strengthen the geopolitical position of their own fledgling workers’ state and provide them with economic support from the heart of the developed capitalist world. When, in the early twenties, it became clear that this plan had fallen through, the Soviet Union basically had to choose between saying “No, I refuse to accept that, we must have a revolution in Western Europe” and saying “Okay, we’ll try and survive on our own, then.” Stalin went with the latter.
We know now, with the arrogance of hindsight, that the Soviet Union did not manage to abolish the state or usher in a global communist order. Ultimately it was overthrown, after which, as Stalin predicted, “set in an era of the blackest reaction in all the capitalist and colonial countries” that today we call neoliberalism. While it lasted, though, the USSR accomplished a great deal of good in extremely adverse circumstances, not only for its own citizens but for working people everywhere. These are perhaps the defining traits of RES: its resilience in the face of unimaginable hardship, and the fact that lower classes the world over, even people who despise socialism, enjoy the fruits of its victories.
Those who compare these victories unfavorably to a fully realized communism that exists only in the imagination aren’t saying anything interesting. It’s always trivially true that things could be better, and it’s not hard to list the things you’d do differently. What is interesting are those partial victories, like the existence of the first socialist state, that hold lessons for revolutionaries today.⁵ How do you organize food production on a non-capitalist basis? How do you hold on to necessary technical expertise despite the political apathy or hostility of experts as a class? How do you abolish private property in land? How should a socialist state act in its dealings with capitalist states? How do you mediate between the divergent interests of town and country in a way that lets you soften that contradiction over time? What do you do if no one will trade with you and you’re not yet set up to be self-sufficient? These are hard questions that are generic to socialism, that only socialist states have had to answer under all the relevant constraints. You don’t get to breeze past them just because you’ve rhetorically distanced your socialism from RES. You don’t get to answer with “We’ll do it democratically” because that’s a non-answer, a deferral.
Partial victories are the stuff victory is made of. They’re how we win socialism acclaim, how we hone our tools, how we gain ground and build momentum. The transition from one mode of production to another is never smooth — it emerges in patches, it advances and retreats. If we look at the first capitalist states, how many of them are still around today? Was the early Dutch Republic indisputably capitalist, with no traces of feudalism? If we reject partial victories, seeing them as disastrous missteps, we soon begin to celebrate only patience and defeat.
The scorn heaped on ‘Socialism in One Country’, then, is a clear example of the perfect acting as the enemy of the good. No one is saying we shouldn’t refine our ideals based on past experiences. What’s too often forgotten, though, is that those ideals (say, that of a revolution sweeping the globe without pausing to consolidate power in any particular region) are themselves products of class society and may constitute obstacles or dead ends for the revolutionary movement. In the Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels wrote
[The communists] do not set up any sectarian principles of their own, by which to shape and mould the proletarian movement … The theoretical conclusions of the Communists are in no way based on ideas or principles that have been invented, or discovered, by this or that would-be universal reformer. They merely express, in general terms, actual relations springing from an existing class struggle, from a historical movement going on under our very eyes.
To proceed otherwise is to engage in a priori or utopian speculation. Earlier I said that Socialism ≠ USSR = Bad was, in a way, faithful to Marx’s critical spirit, because the man spent most of his life criticizing socialists for not being sufficiently radical. But Marx’s criticism was always firmly materialist, starting from the conditions of real life, not from a pre-established plan for the ideal society or ideal revolution. This was a recurrent, if not the dominant, theme in his criticisms of other socialists. In real politics, he unequivocally supported the Union cause in the American Civil War (despite its statism, capitalism, etc.), national liberation movements in Ireland and Poland (despite their mixed class character), and the Paris Commune (despite its indifference towards the task of abolishing wage labor, commodity production, etc.).
A priori reasoning about revolution is just about all that’s left to us once we dismiss RES as a positive example. This can happen for a couple reasons. The most common is that people buy into the official story about the Soviet Union: deliberately manufactured famines, death camps, totalitarianism, etc. Another more rarefied argument reaches the same basic conclusion, but from ‘the left’: the Soviet Union was no more than bourgeois nationalism, a developmentalist regime, an example of social democracy. This tendency holds the achievements of RES in contempt. It desires only communism, which it understands not as “the real movement which abolishes the present state of things” but as “the riddle of history solved”, i.e. in metaphysical terms. Is it any surprise that this way of thinking hasn’t given us any works of revolutionary strategy, let alone revolutions? If communism is totally ineffable from within our blinkered capitalist paradigm, then there’s no point in planning for a transition into it. Notice the feedback loop here: if socialism has never existed, then the only way we can learn anything about it is through contemplation, in which case we’re bound to discover it is a very fine and glorious thing, infinitely removed from our lived experience, only confirming our suspicion that it’s never existed.
Material gains matter. Human activity matters. The aspirations of ordinary people to improve their lives aren’t something to look down on, they’re what revolutions are made of. The Cold War wasn’t a caprice, it was the result of a cold calculation by the Western powers that RES was a mortal threat to their interests (or “way of life”). The abundance of anticommunist propaganda we see even today⁶ is not an accident, and it’s not dumb. It derives from real class interests that Western states have defended continuously since colonial times: private property and the unrestricted use of our time, our bodies and our planet.
This is the basic flaw with the answer Socialism ≠ USSR = Bad. It imagines that if we transport the debate about socialism onto the ideal plane, then it’ll be easy to win, and this victory will eventually trickle down into real life. “If we can just get it right on paper…” But ideals don’t get to dictate reality, since reality is just as busy shaping ideals. Talk to people about socialism and they’ll often bring up Stalin on their own, without prompting. One response is to challenge this association, but can you really blame them for making it? Stalin was a major historical figure and he remains a powerful trope. His name stands for the perverse emergence of injustice from the overzealous pursuit of justice. It’s dramatic irony, a morality tale about how power corrupts, especially when it’s new, i.e. proletarian. The trope implies that radically changing the world is a bad idea. If people continue to believe in it because we never challenge the shoddy and mercenary history-writing that made it into common sense, then they won’t ever come to support radical change. Even if you give them other heroes to look up to, the temptation to read those other people as Stalins won’t go away.
What does work is studying the tradition of RES, where we find insights into questions socialists are still asking today. What distinguishes these insights from those you might find in the supermarket checkout aisle is that they come from revolutionary experience. Learning isn’t a one-way process of internalizing facts about the world. It’s a cycle, in which we examine the world, act to change it, and then reflect on how our interventions have panned out. The distinctive advantage of RES over the different brands of speculative or ideal socialism is this: a deeper engagement with reality than mere contemplation of it, a theory with real stakes.
This explains why enemies of socialism don’t harbor the same hatred for those other traditions that they do for RES. Many varieties of academic Marxism are tolerated on university campuses. Anarchism is seen as a fairly harmless phase for middle-class teenagers. Left-wing journals like Encounter were at one time even financed by the CIA. That’s because the enemies of socialism, those who work tirelessly to destroy it, don’t care where you stand on Deleuze or Adorno or communism in the abstract. They care about your feelings towards guerrilla groups like the ELN and the Naxalites, towards governments in Havana, Pyongyang, and Caracas. They care about your position with respect to states and contenders-for-statehood, and how likely you are to try and emulate them. They aren’t worried about the molecular and the rhizomatic because they know those things can be brought back in line through the application of force. It’s their monopoly on force that they’re mainly concerned to protect, because with just that they can guarantee the rest. That’s why, when you desert RES in favor of ideal socialism, the kind that never took up arms against anybody, you’re doing them a favor. | https://medium.com/@NiaFrome/where-do-we-find-the-resources-to-change-the-world-61382b0ad656 | ['Nia Frome'] | 2019-09-11 05:47:31.143000+00:00 | ['Communism', 'Marxism', 'Socialism', 'Politics'] |
Flavored Kesari | Kesari is a regular indian sweet. There is an unexpected guest at home, immediate no time sweet is kesari. This is my kids favorite sweet as well. We make it quite often for the evening snack.
Today there was very less ghee, so I thought what would we do and here is what we made three flavored kesari. It turned out to be fantastic and nothing left out :)
Each one choose their own favorite flavor. The recipe for you:
Rava — 1 1/2 cups dry roast till light brown
Sugar — 1 1/2 cups
Ghee — 3 tbsp
Oil — 3/4 cup
Vanilla essence — 1/4 tbsp
Pineapple essence — 1/4 tbsp
Rose essence — 1/4 tbsp
Red food color a pinch
Yellow food color a pinch
Green food color a pinch
Heat 1/4 cup of oil with 1 tbsp of Ghee in a pan. Add 1/2 cup of rava and fry
In another pan heat 1 cup of water add a pinch of red color and rose essence. When it starts to boil, add this to the rava that you are frying.
Stir without any lumps. add 1/2 cup of sugar. Cook till the sugar dissolves and the sweet gets rounded leaving the edges. grease a plate with ghee, transfer the sweet to this and cut it to your desired shape.
Repeat the procedure with yellow color and pineapple essence for the pineapple kesari. Use green and vanilla for the vanilla kesari.
Just a light variation for earh flavor, but then they taste different. Variety of sweets with just a little difference.
Surprise your loved ones with all the colors :) | https://medium.com/unnas-kitchen/flavored-kesari-49e78b87f99d | ['Unnamalai Babu'] | 2016-11-20 08:29:00.327000+00:00 | ['Recipe', 'Food'] |
Introduction to Programming Paradigms | Photo by Clément H on Unsplash
As someone who never graduated as a computer science degree but very passionate and eagerly wants it to know more about programming as a whole, you will eventually encounter different hurdles of programming subjects that you are unfamiliar with. In my case, “paradigms” in programming have been the topic that stuck in my brain for a while. The best way to learn and understand a new topic is to test yourself to teach/write an article/make a video of that topic for someone else who is also trying to learn. So here, I am going to talk briefly about the programming paradigms.
First, what is a paradigm? A paradigm is a pattern of something or a model. In the programming term, it is essentially the approach to programming that language support. In other words, programming paradigms are just different styles or ways of programming. The paradigms models that we use also defines the task and means of programming. There is a mass of programming paradigms, but I am here mainly talking about the two main ones, declarative vs. imperative.
The principal programming paradigms by Peter Van Roy
Imperative Programming Paradigm
An imperative Programming paradigm is usually how the average person thinks of programmers. Programmers in this paradigm give an order or command on “how” the computer should explicitly execute, and mostly it performs from top to bottom lines of codes. The order of the steps is crucial because a given step will have different consequences depending on the current values of variables when the action executes. The time and state are matters since it is mutable and exact details of steps(precision matters). Think about it as a clock(time machine), every second-minute hands and dials are a matter to the time.
Another example would be going to a restaurant ordering a burger. You request that burger by commanding the waiter to have a slice of medium-rare meat, the fries need to add extra salt and fried more crispy, the lettuce should be only two slices, tomatoes three installments, and lastly, add more bbq sauce and pickles on the top of the burger. As you can see, everything is an exact precise order. With this in mind, there are two main sub paradigms in imperative programming.
Procedural programming: It is a concept based on routines, subroutines, modules methods, or functions(procedures). It is like a list of instructions to tell the computer what to do step by step(procedures). It is also known as top-down languages. Most of the early programming languages are all procedural.
-Programming languages: Cobol, C, C++, Java, Pascal.
Object Orienting Programming(OOP): Treat everything as an object passing messages to one another. It can share properties or behaviors as well as changing state and reusable components. Each viewed as separate entities having their state, which is modified only by built-in procedures, called methods. Lastly, it is the most widely used paradigm around the world; it is easy to understand and read.
-Programming languages: Java, Ruby, C++, Python, Javascript.
Declarative Programming Paradigm
A declarative programming paradigm is a style of building programs that express the logic of a computation without talking about its control flow(Wikipedia). Instead of telling the program “how” to do but “what” to do. A better way to understand this, we can go back to the example of ordering a burger in the restaurant. This time you are just going to order one big mac without even mentioning a lot of precise details to add the burger. You are telling them what you are going to order, as opposed to how you are going to order the burger. Since the declarative paradigm expressing logic computational, it is used a lot in mathematical logic terms. There are two main sub paradigms in declarative programming.
Logical Programming: Based on mathematical logic, facts, and rules within the system (not instructions).
-Programming languages: Prolog, ALF (algebraic logic functional programming language), Ciao, Alice.
Functional Programming: a programming paradigm that treats computation as an evaluation of mathematical functions, avoiding changing-state and mutable data. No side effect and more comfortable to debug. It is taking some inputs from whatever arguments, and it returns the output value (data goes in, and data comes out). The functions do not modify any values outside the scope of that function, and the functions themselves are not affected by any values outside their scope.
-Programming languages: Haskell, Kotlin, Scala, Clojure, Elm, Mercury, Javascript.
The differences between the two programming paradigms
Notice some of the programming languages overlaps declarative and imperative programming paradigms. Some of these languages have both declarative and imperative programming paradigms, which we called multi-paradigm programming languages. It is basically if the programming language has more than one paradigm, we called them multi-paradigm programming languages. However, some functional programming languages are purely functional, for instance, Haskell, Elm, and Mercury. Some have both paradigms such as Javascript, Java, C++, Scala, Python, Kotlin, Rush.
Example of code in imperative vs. declarative programming
“Imperative programming is like how you do something, and declarative programming is more like what you do.”
There is no the best paradigm, is all depends on which scenario is your task for and what type of problems it makes sense to solve. Each model has its best for an individual case. Paradigms define programming, just like paradigms enable scientific progress. As a community, we need to agree on a particular model of programming and what it means to write a good program for us to get anything done.
This article intended to be a brief introduction to the programming paradigms. If you want to know more about programming paradigms in-depth, you should check out these fantastic videos and articles. | https://medium.com/swlh/introduction-to-programming-paradigms-aafcd6b418d6 | ['Osgood Gunawan'] | 2020-05-05 03:06:18.853000+00:00 | ['Software Engineering', 'Programming Paradigms', 'Software Development', 'Computer Science', 'Programming'] |
Is It Worth Getting Windows 10 Pro? | Most PC users who build a PC choose between the Pro or Home version of the OS. Most people just don’t care about the selection and opt for a version that’s easily available to them.
On the other hand, some users can’t just make a random selection. If you are like these users, we suggest that you consider upgrading your OS.
So, should you go for this upgrade?
You need to consider a lot of factors. First of all, you should consider your budget. If you want to upgrade directly through Microsoft, you should be ready to spend $199.99. For an average user, Windows 10 Home can meet all the needs. Therefore, they don’t need to go for an upgrade.
Generally, the Pro version is designed for the business users in particular. The reason is that it comes with a lot of features that are quite useful for business users. Let’s take a look at some of them.
Connect to your domain: Windows 10 Pro allows you connect to your school or business Domain to access network printers, servers, and other files.
Better encryption: The BitLocker offers additional security to protect your data with security management and encryption.
Remote login: With Windows 10 Pro, you can use Remote Desktop to log in to your PC even when you are away from your computer.
Virtual machines: The Pro version allows you to use virtual machines using the Hyper-V feature. Therefore, you can run multiple operating systems on your PC.
Store apps: If you upgrade, you can create a private app space in the Store so you can access company apps in a convenient manner.
At Microsoft, you can find out more about the list of features the new version offers. Aside from the features listed above, you can also enjoy support for other stuff, such as Remote Desktop, which is essential for Remote Desktop app. Aside from this, Windows 10 Pro offers support for up to 2TB of RAM unlike the Home version which can’t support more than 128GB of RAM.
At the end of the day, it is your decision to make. However, if you need a specific feature, such as remote desktop, you can achieve this purpose without spending a hundred dollars.
The takeaway
In short, if you are a business user or you need the features offered by Windows 10 Pro, we suggest that you go for the upgraded version. On the other hand, if you have a home computer that is used for basic tasks, we suggest that you stick with your existing version of Windows.
If you want to know more about Windows 10 Pro Spotkeys is the resource you should check out.
lockdown your codes now with this new softwere | https://medium.com/@momoalkhatim3/is-it-worth-getting-windows-10-pro-3ee9aad8d1e4 | [] | 2020-09-21 13:50:26.885000+00:00 | ['Windows', 'Technology', 'Windows 10'] |
pp#Ex1:Big Sur之後錄製Gif的方法 | Application - RoaringApps
Skip to main content {{app.name}} has been flagged as end-of-life . It is no longer supported by the developer… | https://medium.com/@dvnik147/pp-ex1-big-sur%E4%B9%8B%E5%BE%8C%E9%8C%84%E8%A3%BDgif%E7%9A%84%E6%96%B9%E6%B3%95-35368587790d | [] | 2020-12-08 14:56:50.061000+00:00 | ['Peter Pan', 'GIF', 'Mac'] |
Three Different Things: June 12, 2019 | Early Hours
For things just getting started. | https://medium.com/early-hours/three-different-things-june-12-2019-ea0f7b5408f5 | ["Sean O'Brien"] | 2019-06-12 11:44:09.245000+00:00 | ['Trends', 'Social Media', 'Internet', 'Data Visualization', 'YouTube'] |
10 questions for finding the right clients | Minorstep @ Instagram
Running a creative practice isn’t about managing to find enough clients — it’s about managing to find the right ones.
I’ve been thinking a lot about how we can get there and I’ve compiled ten questions to ask yourself to guide your thinking about what kind of clients will enable you to do the work you want:
1. If you could ONLY work with a few brands/clients, which would you choose?
2. Why are these clients ideal for you?
3. What do these ideal clients want from a creative service provider?
4. What do you want from your clients?
5. What story will you tell clients about why you are the best for them?
6. What story will you tell clients about why they are the best fit for you?
7. How will you price your services to attract only those ideal clients?
8. How many of these right customers do you need to build a viable practice?
9. Where will you find these ideal clients?
10. How will these clients find you?
Client-Creative fit is so extremely underrated.
George Kroustallis // Minorstep
www.minorstep.com
instagram.com/minorstep | https://medium.com/@minorstep/10-questions-for-finding-the-right-clients-cafc038d6e2e | [] | 2019-12-01 15:22:43.976000+00:00 | ['Freelancing', 'Photography Business', 'Freelancers', 'Creative Business'] |
How to Defeat Grief | How to Defeat Grief
Image by Mystic Art Design from Pixabay
We have or will face the game with Grief at some time in life. Let's talk about how to play that game and win.
This game will begin suddenly. Grief will strike its first blow and you will lose that first set. But you will not die.
You could lose anything…your body, mind, friends, family…the list is long. But Grief will wait for you to respond.
It will silently watch from the other side of the court as you stagger up on your feet. It will offer no help. It will just watch for your next move.
This is the mother of all games that you have to know how to play. If you lose you could pay with your life. But if you win, you could play with life for the rest of your life. The risk is dizzyingly high…but so is the prize.
So here is what I have learnt so far.
You can’t win by blaming the world.
Nope. You can’t win by blaming the court, the crowd, the referee, the racquet, the weather, the ball…Grief will strike again and again you will fall and lose.
2. You can’t win by getting angry.
Anger is a weak version of grief. It’s a weakness that feels energetic but actually is quite hollow. It will feed you the adrenaline you need to run around the court but still, Grief will outsmart you. And again you will lose another game. Now you will start to panic. It's getting too close to Game, Set and Matchpoint to Grief.
3. You can’t win by taking some pain killers to give you power.
Pain killers might give you some muscle relief but will do nothing to the panic in your mind. They will only numb you for a while. Drugs, Alcohol, Porn, Gambling…are all skin deep. They will not cure the pain in your mind. Grief will strike again. This time it will walk up to you and look down at the mess you are and suggest you surrender. Grief will recommend you give up. It will offer you options to exit quickly and more importantly ...quietly. Even Grief has a heart…
You have a final choice now. To lose or to play.
You see the way to win is to Play with opposites. Not fight it or resent it. Or regret it. Or be afraid of it. The way to defeat grief is to become its opposite. Grief can be defeated by Joy. You have to adorn the avatars of Joy. This will confuse grief. She will not know how to respond to its opposite.
If you can find ways to find Joy in the midst of Grief you will win. I have tested this to be true. It will not be fast. It will not be instant. But it will be certain. You will win the game of life.
Here is how to Play the game of Joy to defeat Grief.
Daily Gratitude
If you can replace every feeling of Lack with a feeling of abundance in your mind you will begin healing yourself. If you can look around and be grateful for what you have every time your mind shows you what you need…you will get stronger. But and this is important — look at me when I tell you…you must …you must feel that gratitude. For example, If you are poor in money you must be rich in something else…your body, your breath, your sleep, your hair, your eyesight..there has to be something you are rich with. Find where you are rich. Find your wealth where you feel a lack. And feel joy for that. Feel thank-full for those. Daily. Again..and again. Thank-Full will slowly fill up your hole of loss.
2. Daily Compassion
Grief will make you selfish. You will wallow in self-pity. You will feel incomplete. You will feel no one loves you. You will hurt because you are unheard. You. You. You. The mind in Grief is selfish. You have to become its opposite. You have to play the game of being Un-Selfish. That is where Compassion is a beautiful stroke to play. It’s one of those magic moves that leaves the opponent on the other side frozen as the ball whistles past as it kisses the line and the referee calls it in. Compassion is the ability to show genuine empathy for others in the midst of your own misery.
What hurts you, blesses you. Darkness is your candle. Rumi
Find a person (starting with you yourself), cause, Thing that you can dedicate your time and energy and expect nothing in return. I mean when I say… Nothing. You will know if you are lying about the expectation.
Self Compassion is where I suggest you begin. Find a picture of yourself when you were 3 and innocent. Put it on your shelf and love that kid. Hug her/him and drown them in your love. Find out why you are so hard on your self and then become soft. Do it again and again and again…
3. Daily Courage
Action is the antidote to anxiety.
You must find a goal that is worthy of serving. And then act in that direction with all your effort. The way to know what is your goal…watch if that thing makes you lose your sense of self and time. Writing does that to me. Read about being in Flow and being in the Zone on the internet. Find your flow. In the middle of your Grief, look up at the Full Moon of what gives you hope. And act in its direction. Daily. I write to get courage. Find yours.
Courage is ceaselessly acting in faith, while surrounded yet unperturbed by the dragons of doubt, despair or defeat.
Little by Little. Tiny habits will turn you into a Titan.
Just fix your sight on the great goal that gives you flow and then go after it one tiny step at a time. You will be amazed at the compound interest of this act of courage.
As you start to walk on the way, the way appears. Rumi
Coda
How long will it take to win against Grief? Not long. Just work on your game. Daily acts of Gratitude, Compassion and Courage will compound and you will find a treasure within yourself.
Play hard against Grief. The prize is a lifetime of victories. | https://medium.com/change-becomes-you/how-to-defeat-grief-60c7a9922ce | ['Andy Travis'] | 2020-12-03 22:01:02.891000+00:00 | ['Leadership', 'Courage', 'Compassion', 'Grief', 'Gratitude'] |
A Shallow Promise of Love | A Shallow Promise of Love
Doki Doki Literature Club deconstructs the romance genre and leaves players with a shocking experience Priya Sridhar Follow Jul 6 · 9 min read
Many have turned to video games for leisure and a needed break from reality during the pandemic. It’s been a time of consuming old favorites and new games. It’s also been a time of re-releases: older games returning to the stage with a facelift and additional content. One game that returned to us is Doki Doki Literature Club.
Doki Doki Literature Club started as a free game, theorized to be a preview and hint at a bigger project from the creators. After a 2017 release, it went viral in 2018. It’s a game that proves you shouldn’t take its cutesy graphics and premise at face value. Team Salvato and Serenity Forge recently released Doki Doki Literature Plus on June 30th, providing players with side stories, improved graphics, new music, and art.
This piece explores Doki Doki Literature Club and how it challenges the expectations associated with visual romance novels.
A Simple Premise
Doki Doki Literature Club at first appears to be a standard visual novel. The player character, whom you can name, finds a childhood friend begging him to join her school club. This character is not interested in poetry, but he can’t resist the promise of cupcakes, or a bunch of girls asking for an hour of his time. He can bond with all of them, except for the club leader Monika. In fact, if you try to make friends with Monika or pursue her romantically, the game mandates that it’s not an option. Monika is visibly annoyed about it.
The conflict seems straightforward: you have to decide which of the remaining three girls you wish to romance.
Sayori is nice and familiar. Natsuki is abrasive but has a good heart to go with her cupcake-baking specialty. Yuri is remarkably shy about her literature passions, as well as nervous about how guys have a habit of ogling her. They all have good intentions and reaffirm their friendship, with Monika serving as a big sister to them. The updated version also acknowledges that a Literature Club has to have some books and discussions, so it’s nice to hear Monika have the opportunity to talk on these topics.
Natsuki warns the player character to not judge a book by its cover. Sometimes, even a simple manga can have a story that changes your life or improves your day. While they made the comment more on the literature, their statement can imply to the player that the characters have covers of their own that lie. Their personalities, quirks, and individual stories contain something deeper within.
Doki Doki Literature Club spoilers ahead.
I haven’t played many visual novels that have strong romance, but I know there are cliches and tropes that exist within the genre. While this game certainly presents itself as one with romance, it’s more of an exploration and discussion about these romance cliches. They will become tools with the developers of Doki Doki Literature Club transitioning this romance visual novel into a whole different genre.
If you decide to pursue this game, you’ll notice that there are warnings that the game has unsuitable themes for children and those easily disturbed. This game, despite its romance premise and visuals, is a psychological horror game, and it’s one that always catches many by surprise.
Things take a turn when Sayori has a confession to make: she has undiagnosed depression.
Most days she struggles to get out of bed and only does so when they know the player character will walk with her to school. She believes she loves the character since he’s the one positive presence in her life. You have to decide whether to love Sayori back. Regardless of what decision you make, the results may make you shed a tear, but at least one of the outcomes will carry a hopeful note about the future.
No matter the decision you made the other day with Sayori, the next day she is absent. She never made it to the school festival. You discover she hung herself in her bedroom; the game crashing on that image. When you reload the game, someone or something has erased Sayori. Monika continues to sneak you furtive looks, Yuri and Natsuki are more abrasive in their interactions with you, and you find their home lives are worsening.
It’s a very jarring experience. No one would ever expect that a game with cutesy music and stock visuals would take such a turn in terms of storytelling. Unfortunately, it only gets worse from there.
Source: Multiplayer.it
Deconstructing the Romance Genre
Most visual novels that focus on romance are prioritizing entertainment for the reader. They may replicate dating sims within the school, with a stock player character with no personality or depth. They allow the player to insert themselves into the story and impose their personality upon the narrative.
However, in this case we see the player character at the start of Doki Doki shows some depth and character. We see him asking about poetry and showing kindness to the girls from the start of the game. Even though he doesn’t want to be in the club, he gives it a shot for Sayori’s sake, because he doesn’t want her to be sad. It’s this same fondness for her that drives him to put some effort into the club, and to find out what’s bothering her. He’s not a bad guy, nor is he a character void of any motivations.
Another interesting point about this game is that most of the love interests are teenagers while you can change your player character’s age. Dan Salvato confirmed that they are all eighteen, but Natsuki looks like she could be thirteen while Monika has to be the reasonable person. It becomes more clear during the game that here are teenagers who are in vulnerable places in their lives, struggling with depression, self-harm, and abusive parents. Natsuki’s words of not judging a book by its cover become more present through them. People are more than what they appear on the surface, character designs and all.
You are not driving the story, which is something we see little in interactive visual novels. With its stock designs and backgrounds, the world is shown to us as limited and intentional. There is a point where the atmosphere almost seems to stifle the characters long before Monika takes over the story. Players can find more behind these repeated images and backgrounds that we see on the screen, but the player can only find that out if they keep clicking “Continue.”
Monika breaks the fourth wall by realizing she can influence and control the game. She will do all she can to erase the other characters and even you. They aren’t real, using that reason to justify her actions. Yet she understands that her reasoning is flawed when you use your influence on the game by erasing her save file. Everyone is returned to the game, even Sayori. She will even hint to you that there is a way you can help Sayori find another path that doesn’t lead to her tragic end.
Monika confesses in the end she wants more than this limited world where she can’t even create new backgrounds. She has fallen for you — the person behind the screen — while admitting she doesn’t truly know who you are. No matter how much she can control her friends or what background is on display, she can’t control you. You are beyond her reach unless you choose to keep playing. Her interactions are limited to talking to you, confining you to a single room, and locking the game.
To drive the message further, Monika points out that being aware you exist simply to serve another player’s amusement is jarring, and cruel. She isn’t even allowed to have her own arc or journey while remaining aware that her friends could have happy endings with the player character.
Her existential crisis fuels her desire to control the game and to seek something beyond the limited visuals. Yet she fails because you have access to the same files that she does. Pressing delete undoes her reign and brings a semblance of normal.
Source: Steam.
Your Love Isn’t Real
You can’t love any of the characters because as the player, you’re not inputting anything meaningful into the relationship.
Yes, you can certainly try your hardest to be nice to all the girls, and that nets you the best ending possible, but that’s when Sayori realizes the story is over and we should delete the game. Her reasoning is that the girls’ lives, however short and not real they are, have been changed and everyone is happy now. The only thing to do is close the chapter on that book, and thank the player with a new song, as well as a note from the creator about their intentions.
Some players go beyond playing for the bad ending or the adventure. They’re continuing to play to achieve something better. You do best in the game when you are reaching out to help everyone. Even then, Doki Doki Literature Club is still a story.
Having Monika self-aware and eventually making Sayori aware that this is just a story will wreck their worldview and motivate them to take contrary actions. From what the trailer and release material has shown, the endings don’t change in the expanded edition. Instead, we’ll be getting more background music, side stories, and images. So there doesn’t seem to be a way to close Pandora’s box once Monika and Sayori know the truth of their own existence.
In the end, you are limited as well, thanks to the game. The best that you can do is make the girls happy, and show that you care about them even if you don’t completely understand their situation, or feel helpless. Much like the player character, if you have him declare he loves Sayori, you do what you can to improve their lives.
Some fans developed mods where you could achieve happy endings, or even worse ones, to reach that sense of completion. Even so, the game truly ends when you have done all you can to be kind to the characters. That means braving Sayori’s suicide at least once, Yuri self-harming herself, as well as Monika ruining her friends’ lives for the sake of winning your love. Some players assert that the pain is worth it to help the girls with their problems.
Doki Doki Literature Club is a game that you can’t judge by its cover. It uses the premise of a dating sim and its cliches. Then the story uses these cliches against the player character. We see one of the characters try to romance you and win you over, to the point of sabotaging and controlling the game to get there. This twist helped the developing team transition into another genre during the game, leaving players with a gaming experience they will never forget.
The updated Doki Doki Literature Club Plus promises the same story, but this time with additional side stories that will leave you more invested in the lives of these characters. | https://superjumpmagazine.com/a-shallow-promise-of-love-103443dc5a5a | ['Priya Sridhar'] | 2021-07-12 07:15:48.314000+00:00 | ['Gaming', 'Storytelling', 'Narrative', 'Videogames', 'Features'] |
Robots in Industry 4.0 | Robots in Industry 4.0
The only thing constant in this world is change , we can’t resist it no matter what we do. Currently we are in between one of the biggest changes we would probably see few years down the line. We have a huge change in the way we produce products . We produce goods way faster , in huge quantity , utilizing raw materials to its best and with great accuracy. This transition is so different that it is being named and called as Industry 4.0 to represent the fourth revolution that has occurred in manufacturing. The fourth industrial revolution will carry forward what was started by the third industrial revolution with the adoption of computers and automation and upgrade it with smart and autonomous systems running and being supported by huge data and machine learning.
Source : InvoiceInterchange
Why Industry 4.0 is Important?
Now the question arising in your mind might be but why is Industry 4.0 important . The reasons behind it are the benefits that it has to offer for us. It immensely helps manufacturers to cope up with the market needs by becoming more flexible and reacting way faster and comfortably to changes that might come in the market . Most importantly reducing the production time helps manufacturers to focus more on research and innovation. Industry 4.0 is also very helpful in fulfilling the customize needs of customers .
Example of Industry 4.0
Source : Youtube
Here is an example from Famous Luxury & Sports car manufacturer’s Audi factory showing robots and automation being used extensively.
Robots in Industry 4.0
Robots are the most important piece of the Industry 4.0 system. Without robots theirs no existence of Industry 4.0. In the near future not only the big giant companies or manufacturing plants but also local and small scale factories will depend on new types of high tech machines, robots that are interconnected taking their production to whole new level. The latest and state of the art technologies such as Artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing and data analytics will also make industrial robots more reliable than ever.
Main Goal of Industry 4.0
So the main goal of Industry 4.0 is to almost get zero downtime and maximum efficiency. So what is zero downtime? Well , its being able to identify and fix issues in factories almost instantly . As robots use more sensors and become more digitally connected, they will become much less susceptible to disruptions. A breakdown due to even a small issue can cause huge losses & disturb the whole upcoming schedule . Thus , spotting a glitch on an assembly line in real time — and reconfiguring around it — can increase productivity, reduce errors and improve quality.
Here is an graphical representation of robots sold and estimated to be sold in near future.
Source : nelmia
By 2025 , the market for robots will be around $70 billion and for military purposes also the use will be quite high.
Industry 4.0: The Zero Down Time Solution (ZDT)
Here is an practical example from famous American car manufacturer ,General Motors (GM) . GM motors developed a system called zero down time solution and implemented it in their factory . Alongside FANUC(Japanese group of companies that provide automation products) and Cisco, they developed ZDT(Zero Down Time Solution)— a cloud-based software platform for data analysis , collected from robots across GM’s factories.
GM’s ZDT program has provided quick ROI(Return on Investment) . In fact, according to the company they avoided over 100 significant unscheduled downtimes since the program was launched. This is quite an big of an achievement in the automotive industry, where downtime can cost over $20,000 per minute.
The connected network of GM robots used in their various manufacturing plants for painting, dispensing and welding are smart enough to know when they need maintenance so they don’t break down while running . In the upcoming time as the technology evolves, the system will transform into more of an in-process adaptive tool, where robots can monitor and automatically adjust their own performance for maximum productivity. With more than 10,0000 connected robots the program has been a huge success.
Astonishingly, FANUC currently has more than 20,000 robots worldwide connected to its ZDT system. It claims that ZDT analytics have successfully identified potential equipment issues, and notified customers to take corrective actions and avoid unexpected downtime, in more than 600 cases, saving those companies more than $75 million.
Digital Tools
In addition to ZDT, FANUC has a newer Industry 4.0-enhanced product called FIELD (FANUC Intelligent Edge Link and Drive system), which is an open platform for third-party developers.
So with FIELD, both software developers and application users can create applications and communication converters that have access to connect with various types of plant floor devices. The Japanese company FANUC’s partners in the project include factory automation suppliers such as Keyence Corp. and Mitutoyo Corp.
So what kind of robots are being used ?
Here are the manufacturing robots and cobots (collaborative robots that work alongside human beings) to steadfast Industry 4.0:
Articulated Robots
Articulated robots range from the simple two-jointed structures to systems with 10 or more interacting joints and materials. They are powered by a variety of means, including electric motors and are used for variety of jobs like pick and place, dispensing, packaging, assembling and welding activities. The degree of freedom for articulated robots is as high as seven. The advantage of articulated robots is they can move around at places and obstacles were other types of robots might get block . They are commonly used in assembling factories and plants. Below is an example of Articulated robots.
Source : wiseGEEK
Delta Robots
Delta robots also called as parallel or spider robots . This bots are equipped with force and collision detection sensors, and uses the force sensors for intricate assembly applications. So basically this kind of high-speed and precise delta robots are used in the packaging industry, medical and pharmaceutical industry. This bots are also used surgery, high precision assembly operations for electronic components and 3D printing. Below is an image of Delta robots.
Source : ABIflexx
Cartesian Robots
Cartesian robots also sometimes known as six-axis robots, in particular, are gaining prominence credit to its standardized components, and operator-friendly controls that lower cost and boost performance. Cartesian robots use linear actuators to position a tool.
This type of bots can be used for different purposes such as pick-and-place, assembly, and even applying adhesive. Cartesian-robot movements are generally restricted to the framework’s , but the framework can be mounted horizontally or vertically, or even overhead in certain gantry configurations.
Source : RexrothBoschGroup
COBOTs (Collaborative Robots)
The International Federation of Robotics (IFR), collaborative industrial robots (COBOTS) defines cobots as robots which are made so as to perform collaborative tasks with humans in industrial sectors. So the next term is Sequential cobot . So what are they ? Sequential cobot collaboration occurs when there is an intersection between the humans and the robot’s workspace. When humans and robots work on the same part at the same time Cobot cooperation occurs, while in responsive cobot cooperation, the robot responds in real-time to the human’s movements.
SCARA Robots
SCARA is an acronym for Selective Compliance Articulated Robot Arm, This bots are designed to handle a variety of material handling operations. SCARA was invented in 1978 by Professor Hiroshi Makino at Yamanashi University in Japan. They have been used for industrial purposes in assembly lines since 1981.
The SCARAs robots are less rigid than Cartesian or gantry robots. However, they are more rigid than both 6-axis robots and Delta robots due to their rigid Z-axis. They are generally faster than 6-axis robots. The payload of SCARAs is generally quite low, but it is more than Delta robots which can lift between 0.3–8 kg. SCARAs are very well suited for high-speed assembly applications.
Source : Espon
Future Industry 5.0?
Industry 4.0 starts to move towards Industry 5.0 when you allow customers to customize the goods according to their needs and choices.
With Industry 4.0, the customers can choose the products out of the available options from the manufacturers and the manufacturers will deliver the exact product. For example , the customer can book the right kind of car they want from the companies website . Industry 5.0 takes the same concept to the next level by providing many more options to choose and customize.
What will Industry 5.0 do for human workers?
As we go from Industry 4.0 to Industry 5.0, we are creating higher-value jobs than before, as we are giving the freedom of design responsibility back to the human. As the manufacturing process is almost a lot automated so manufacturers are more involved in design process than manufacturing . It allows customers to get kind of personal customize goods. Though this kind of services were already provided by some extremely luxury brands like Rolls-Royce but Industry 5.0 will make it even affordable for small manufacturers.
With Industry 5.0, manufacturing process will be automated better, which means real-time data coming in from the field. In the last ten years, Rolls-Royce’s business model has flipped from selling engines to driving 50 per cent of its revenue from services.
They can do that because they understand the design failure of that engine. They know what the quality process is of that engine and they know how they want that engine to perform. Wherever a Rolls-Royce engine is in the world, they know how fast it is, how hot is it, its altitude and where it is in its performance lifecycle compared to where it’s supposed to be as per its design capability. And when such products are created with such passion and customization the outcomes will of course be of great quality . Below is the snip of Rolls Royce website in which various customization options available can be clearly seen.
Source : RollysRoyce Website
Authors:
Chinmay Deshmukh , Sukhanshu Dukare , Priyanka Ghosh , Kunal Gaikwad, Akash Gajbhiye.
References : Wikipedia ,
https://www.analyticsinsight.net/manufacturing-robots-and-cobots-to-steadfast-industry-4-0/
http://www.abiflex.pt/
https://www.boschrexroth.com/en/xc/
http://www.nelmia.com/
https://www.wisegeek.com/
https://www.epson.co.in/For-Work/Industrial-Robots/SCARA/Epson-Robot-T3/p/T3 | https://medium.com/@chinmayd95/robots-in-industry-4-0-2b68ffc0c805 | ['Chinmay D'] | 2021-01-05 07:54:36.484000+00:00 | ['Industry 5 0', 'Automation', 'Robots', 'Industry 4 0'] |
How Tony Robbins Promotes a Conservative Worldview | 2. His interventions with trauma survivors and mentally ill people are based on victim-blaming
When I watched one of his $6,000 weekend retreats, I noticed that an alarming amount of the passionate attendees were survivors of trauma and/or people struggling with mental illness. These poor souls had endured inconceivable suffering and abuse and were desperate for relief, love, or a solution to their trauma. So desperate that some had even sold their belongings to scrounge together the $6,000 to attend.
One of them had been born into a cult in which she was sexually abused for the first decade of her life. Another was a refugee from a war-torn country who had grown up as disadvantaged as possible. Many had been traumatized by poverty. Some were immigrants struggling to find a footing in the US. Many others were on the verge of suicide, or burdened by mental illnesses like severe depression, OCD, or bipolar disorder.
His solution for them?
“Get your shit together.” Be stronger. Try harder. Stop being weak and lazy. Pick yourself up.
But in reality, what would actually help these people is not the power of willpower or “uncovering their truth,” but therapy or societal changes that would give them greater social support. What they really need is a social safety net that protects them from poverty and relentless financial insecurity. Immigration reform. Greater protections for women and people of color. Universal healthcare that gives them access to therapy.
In a sense, Tony is preying upon people’s trauma by charging them $6,000 for an event that promises to radically transform their life, without actually tackling the root of their problems, or the systemic societal issues that caused them.
He might think of his approach as much-needed “tough love.” But what he’s really doing is blaming people for their own shitty life circumstances, which are completely outside of their control. This is a very toxic and insidious form of victim-blaming.
As for mental illness in particular, he often gaslights people by blaming them for not overcoming their symptoms — he insists that mental illness is “all in their head,” that they’re only “making excuses” for not getting their life together.
For example, in one of his interventions, he spoke to a woman who was struggling to succeed in life because of her severe OCD. How did he react? Not with empathy or understanding, but by denying the reality of her condition.
He said the following:
OCD is a story you tell yourself. Mental illness is a story. We get to decide every second of our lives what our story will be.
This might sound empowering on the surface. But by dismissing mental illness as a delusion, he further stigmatizes it and exacerbates it. For many people with serious mental illness, their symptoms are far from “imagined.” They’re very real, and way beyond their conscious control.
They can’t magically “snap themselves out” of mental illness. As if it’s that easy. They can’t rewire their own brain in an instant.
He even proposes that you can power yourself out of severe depression by simply “changing your physiology.” How can you do this? By standing taller, talking faster, talking louder, moving faster, holding your head up (literally), etc. One quick method is by assuming a masculine posture of putting your arms behind your head and propping your feet up.
He cites “science” that supposedly shows that these “power poses” can immediately increase your testosterone by 20% and lower your cortisol (stress hormone) levels by 22%.
This also supposedly makes you 33% more likely to “take action.” The posture “produces more certainty,” which makes you take better actions than you otherwise would have. He neglects to mention that these claims about power posing and snapping yourself out of depression have been thoroughly disproven.
On one occasion, he gives this “power pose” advice to a woman lamenting her mom’s diagnosis with stage 3 ovarian cancer. He urges her to use these techniques to overcome her sadness and fear of her mom dying.
What if what would help her feel less worried is affordable healthcare for her mom, not a power pose? | https://stephanieleguichard.medium.com/how-tony-robbins-promotes-a-conservative-worldview-39d6ef039fe2 | ['Stephanie Leguichard'] | 2020-09-11 02:30:35.466000+00:00 | ['Work', 'Self', 'Productivity', 'Women', 'Politics'] |
KEX listing on Gate.io | We are excited to announce a new listing for KEX token. On June 17'th at 8 AM UTC the token will be available for trading at Gate.io
This is another important step in providing our token holders with liquidity and wider market access via secure and trusted listing partners.
Upon the launch of the KIRA Mainnet in the coming months, we’ll continue to support ERC20 KEX token along the staking program, while also introducing the native KEX Mainnet token. Both tokens will be able to be easily converted from ERC20 to native KEX at 1:1 rate. Further details regarding token swaps will be shared after the Mainnet launch.
About Gate.io
Gate.io was created to enable a new generation of global traders with the tools to access the revolutionary age of cryptocurrencies. It is an established exchange that holds integrity, transparency, and fairness to a very high standard. Charging zero listing fees and choosing promising projects, this exchange consists only of 100% real trading volume. Gate.io is operated by Gate Technology Inc.
For more information and updates, please visit:
Website: https://www.gate.io/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/gate_io
Telegram: https://t.me/gateio
About KIRA
KIRA is a decentralized network secured by both cryptocurrencies and real world assets at stake thanks to its proprietary Multi-Bonded-Proof-of-Stake (MBPoS) consensus mechanism. Positioned within the Interchain and Web3 ecosystems KIRA makes it safer and easier to gain access to decentralized financial applications and unlock the full economic potential of your capital to generate yield.
Website|Telegram Group|Telegram Announcement|Twitter |Medium | https://blog.kira.network/kex-listing-on-gate-io-f250ee99d3e9 | [] | 2021-06-17 07:28:22.623000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency News', 'Decentralization', 'Token', 'Blockchain Technology', 'Listings'] |
Taiwan Dedicated Hosting | Taiwan is a beautiful island in the Pacific Ocean situated east of China on the eastern coast of the nation. Over 60% of Taiwan is made of land while the other balance lies entirely beneath the ocean. Beautiful beaches, scenic islands, and deep oceans filled with fish and other sea life abound in Taiwan. While Taiwan is often portrayed as a cold place to visit with only snow covered mountains and industrial-like infrastructure, the reality is that Taiwan has all the charm of any beautiful tropical island that you can dream of.
There are some important reasons why TheServerHost Taiwan dedicated Hosting are often used by businesses and individuals alike. One of these is the fact that this type of hosting is much more efficient in terms of resources used as well as the available space for data storage. A dedicated server offers several advantages over other types of hosting that are usually shared. These include the following: faster delivery of website traffic since each visitor has its own web browser, higher performance standards for website elements, higher security, greater flexibility and control of the operating system and better reliability. However, when choosing a dedicated server it is important to choose carefully in order to obtain the best hosting service for your needs.
When deciding on TheServerHost Taiwan Dedicated Hosting, it is good to understand how they work. As its name implies, a dedicated server is solely yours — it is your business’ main data and applications, rather than being shared with any other third party. With a dedicated server hosting, only your website is the only one which will typically be hosted on this server. It is dedicated to your database, operating system and web applications etc. You may find that you will have full control over the hosting and the hardware. Dedicated servers are usually used by large companies and businesses.
Although the price of TheServerHost Taiwan dedicated servers is often more expensive than shared servers, they offer several distinct benefits in terms of better performance. For instance, with a Dedicated Server, there is a greater ability to allocate resources more efficiently, which in turn offers better performance. In addition, with a Dedicated Server you can configure and install your own software applications. For this reason, Dedicated Servers are often used for websites that require a lot of customization.
TheServerHost Taiwan Dedicated hosting servers provide an excellent level of security. Security features are especially important if you use a Dedicated Server for a site which receives high traffic. Dedicated server service providers will also often offer customized security solutions, such as firewalls and anti-virus software.
TheServerHost Taiwan Dedicated computing allows users to implement their own computing technologies. Dedicated computing allows you to implement your own tools, such as operating systems and database management technologies, directly on your Dedicated Server. In addition to offering a more customized solution, Dedicated Server providers will often implement the latest technologies, such as cloud servers and virtualization. This ensures that your site will be faster, more efficient and secure.
TheServerHost Taiwan Dedicated servers are ideal for companies that need more resources and processing power, but cannot afford a conventional infrastructure. Cloud computing allows websites to run more efficiently using less resources, but this comes at a cost. Dedicated servers offer a more permanent solution with much lower maintenance and upkeep costs. For some organizations, security is a higher concern than price, so dedicated servers may be the best solution for them.
A TheServerHost Taiwan Dedicated servers are able to handle larger loads because they are designed to act as a highly efficient data center. Dedicated servers will only utilize the resources they require, allowing you to save money on hardware and operational costs.
There are many benefits of using a TheServerHost Taiwan dedicated server for your business website. You will have full root or administrative rights, meaning that you can install any type of software or application you like on your server. You will get dedicated server administration if you prefer not to deal with the technical aspects of running a server. If you are new to web hosting or you have questions about your current server administration, it is important to talk with a web hosting expert who can help you choose a Dedicated Server. TheServerHost Taiwan Dedicated servers are ideal for anyone who needs to have their own piece of the internet.
Plesk
Plesk is an award winning enterprise level software solution for controlling and managing the Plesk server platform. This web-based server control panel provides users with complete control over their servers, including installation, updates, security, configurations, backups, and domain roles. It also includes powerful reporting and analytical tools that allow administrators to track and monitor all aspects of the server environment. The comprehensive Plesk control panel solution is flexible and user friendly, and allows businesses to effectively reduce costs related to maintaining their servers.
Plesk also offers several unique features that are not found in other control panels. These include specialized reporting that tracks down errors and security risks, and includes support for nearly every programming language, besides HTML. Because Plesk supports so many different extensions, it is often used to build custom portals and other websites that can be operated through the web-based interface. Some of the more popular extensions include Joomla, Drupal, Magento, WordPress, and more.
The second factor that must be considered before choosing a hosting company is the range of available features. Most control panels only offer a handful of standard features, which makes it difficult to build dynamic websites or complex websites that utilize advanced programming languages. Plesk hosting companies should have a wide range of addons and plugins available, including things like shopping carts and forms, which are essential for building aesthetically pleasing websites and applications.
For more info Visit TheServerHost | https://medium.com/@theserverhosts/taiwan-dedicated-hosting-233900def5d4 | [] | 2021-01-18 17:30:35.382000+00:00 | ['Taiwan', 'Theserverhost', 'Dedicated Hosting'] |
Sports Media Fights Back After Being Addressed As Pawns By Nets Superstar | AP Photo/NIck Wass
Kyrie Irving is no stranger to media backlash .Being one the premier superstars within the NBA and a former champion he has faced his share of scrunity on the court. Recently he has found himself at odds with the media off the court. Due to his recent comments its intriguing to see how members of the media addressed him referring to them as pawns. An athletes love hate relationship with the media has been documented since the beginning of time . Alot of the time sports media finds a athlete that they love and they become a topic of discussion around the sports world. The same can be said when an athlete is deemed a “villain” in the public eye and is subject to scrutiny a majority of the time . The most recent battle is between the superstar Brooklyn Nets point guard Kyrie Irving and the sports media . Before the start of this NBA season all players were required to sit down with the media to answer questions about the upcoming season. Kyrie chose to abandon this duty and instead posted a instagram message referring to the media as pawns.
This created a media storm with the NBA fining both Irving and the Brooklyn Nets organization 2,500 due to him abandoning the responsibilities that is stated within this contract. With these fines came several outlets that started choosing sides on the matters . Some pieces even made light of the fact that he “burned” the media . However some journalists especially those who work closely within the NBA and have had conversations with Irving decided to express their thoughts on his comments. Rachel Nichols one of the biggest names of ESPN released a tweet highlighting that although she sees where Irving was coming from with his comment he probably wouldn't have said that without the financial security that comes with a NBA paycheck . Other media outlets such as the New York post decided to take another route when covering the story . In their piece about Irving’s comments they went into a detailed background of his already strange relationship with the media and past comments he made which put his more recent comments into context. This approach is different in the way that it makes it seem more plausible why Irving would make such comments due to the strained relationship with the media that he already had. Other members of the media however decided to take a different approach when covering this story . Stephen A Smith one of the top sports journalists in the world and somebody who has interviewed Irving on several occasions expressed his disdain towards Irving’s media hatred. He highlighted that all the media scrutiny that Irving created is a result of his own wrongdoing . He also agreed that its Irving’s right to not speak to the media but he should pay a hefty fine every time he doesn’t due to it being a contractual obligation for NBA players. This approach was completely different as opposed to other members of the media who simply didn’t address Irving’s comments in depth . | https://medium.com/@zhayronnelson/brooklyn-nets-superstar-kyrie-irving-battles-the-media-73e90b26641e | ['Zhayron Nelson'] | 2020-12-19 04:41:57.275000+00:00 | ['Brooklyn Nets', 'Kyrie Irving', 'Stephen A Smith', 'Media Criticism'] |
Overcoming the Inner Mountain. | Overcoming the Inner Mountain.
This post is about my decision, preparation and struggles while doing the Trek. (Tarsar Marsar, Kashmir Aug 2021)
It is one thing to get blown away by the beauty of the mountains and other to climb them. The serenity, breathtaking views and anticipation of getting at the Summit enthralled me for more than 3 years.
Life’s priorities, self-employment, multiple injuries and a pandemic took the better of my dream. But when you want something desperately and save it in your subconscious, it manifests.
37 days to the Tarsar Marsar (summit 13200ft), I was with a mangled hamstring, impinged shoulder and injured knees. Thankfully my already existent Strength Training (rehab) program, made my life functional. But a decision of climbing a mountain made me question my own sanity.
I started with a mix of strength and cardio endurance training keeping my injuries in mind. I sought my physical training from Sandeep Achanta under keen supervision by my physiotherapist Falgun.
For the trek, @indiahikes has a basic fitness criteria of running 5kms in 37 mins. I started running (a sport I run away from) with a lot of struggle at 1.5kms in 20 min to reaching the desired criteria. Every time I ran or did the stair climber, I cursed my decision to sign up for a trek. Cardio for me is Dance, rest I despise. So working at my cardiovascular fitness, took a lot of effort, patience and several motivational podcasts.
There is often some cognitive dissonance between what you want to do and what you can actually commit to right now.
With a tight work schedule, the training program didn’t progress as per the plan. My injuries soared, pain aggravated, I felt weak and tired all day (poor nutrition vs higher energy expenditure). It became a rough ride and I couldn’t finish the program as I had envisaged. I knew my Cardiovascular fitness wasn’t upto the mark but my Strength Training gains were decent and reliable.
Trekking is not an easy sport. It puts you out of your comfort zone, demands mental grit, physical tolerance and sometimes it hurts to an extent that you want to give up. I had moments when I felt ashamed of calling myself a Fitness Coach especially during steep ascends. Feeling breathless, a Self-Pep talk became imperative. I practiced kindness and acceptance while the meadows and mountains, and the surreal landscapes gave me the strength to endure.
At Tarsar Lake, I was the first to reach. That moment while I had a breakdown, my Trek Lead Sudhanshu affirmed that he knew I could do it and I still have a summit (Marsar Lake 13200ft) to achieve. Most days I trekked amongst the last 5 trekkers . Honestly all that didn’t matter, what mattered was to keeping moving, overcoming my self doubts, being present with the nature and enjoying each moment to the fullest. In resonance with nature, I was gleeful carefree and content through every struggle.
Like they say, the best view comes after the hardest climb the Marsar Lake lived upto it. For me the hardest mountain to climb was the one within.
It has been a very transformative experience for me and I look forward to sharing more about that in my next blog.
The real work of an expedition begins when you return. I am home without any injury :) but with tons of beautiful memories and learning.
Love
-B | https://medium.com/@brindasm/overcoming-the-inner-mountain-bf4bf68ae31e | ['Brinda Mehta'] | 2021-09-08 18:28:10.906000+00:00 | ['Travel', 'Fitness', 'Life Lessons', 'Fitnessmotivation', 'Traveling'] |
Build a Simple IoT Device Tracker and Deploy to AWS EC2 | #MERN webstack #AWS EC2
This is a quick demo of how to build a web app full-stack, from front to back, and make it interact with MongoDB Atlas.
http://52.198.4.100/ # Whenever I start running my server on EC2, this link will work, or you will see a blank list :D
Demo
A full-stack demo app with dummy data.
Main page — Logged Devices List was empty.
Add account.
Once added, name will disappear for re-entry.
After multiple accounts created, accounts are shown here on MongoDB Atlas.
When creating new device log, a list of account name will load from database.
Add the first device.
Once the first device was logged, it will show up on main device list.
Repeat all above steps, multiple entries are added.
Try edit — account Other is updated.
The change is shown here in the last row.
Try delete — it’s gone!
The device list is also shown on my MongoDB Atlas.
Main Steps
Install packages and set up initial files
Set up backend .js files
Set up frontend .js files
Deploy to AWS EC2
File Structure
Only show those added manually. We need to $npm build start is because JSX needs to be converted into javascript before deploying. These converted files are stored in the build folder after bundling and minification.
Initiate Project
Code Snippets in Steps
Create server.js in /backend. Create connection to MongoDB:
Create /backend/models, and create device.model.js and account.model.js. In account.model.js, create schema. Account name will be unique, no whitespace, etc.:
In device.model.js, we have 4 fields:
Create /backend/routes, and create devices.js and accounts.js. Go back to server.js first. We’re telling the server to use those files — devices.js and accounts.js.
So when people go to /devices page, the server uses devicesRouter i.e. ./routes/devices.js to render the page.
In accounts.js, handle incoming HTTP get request from ‘/’ route e.g. .find() will give a list of all users in mongoDB. After find the promise, server will return users in json format. If there’s error, there’ll be error message:
In the ‘/add’ route, in request body there’ll be username and then create a new account instance to save into MongoDB. Eventually server will return a response in json:
In devices.js, apply similar logic but add e.g. update by id:
We can now test our routes by Postman. Use Postman “body + raw + json” to test one of the routes e.g. ‘/update/:id’ by Post method:
Added!
Also shown on MongoDB.
So far backend is ready. Now let’s take a look at frontend.
Add below code in /src/index.js. Here App Component is the main component in React which acts as a container for all other components:
Import all separated components files in App.js and start to add routers here. I will add each component accordingly. Here I only show navbar and create-device components details:
In navbar component, Link path is same as what’s stated in App.js. It will help direct users to different components:
In create-device component, add a constructor. The constructor aids in constructing things like defaulting some properties of the created object.
There’s a note on React document specifying that in the constructor, we should add super(props) before any other statement. Simply put, super refers to the parent class constructor. Only after we called the parent constructor’s property (here is the React.Component) then we can use this.state to overwrite that property and set local state of the object.
The first step in create-device component is like:
In this.state, accounts is an “empty” array because we will have a drop-down list for users to choose different accounts.
We can then use componentDidMount() to make sure the component will load from database (axios will help us get an array of accounts which is each document object’s accountname value) after the HTML from render has finished loading, and set the first account name as default display:
Since there’ll be textboxes to input account name, description, duration, etc. The following methods were created. Target is the textbox, and this.setState() will make sure the value inside the textbox will change according to whatever is input by users.
When rendering the page, using React events only requires adding a listener when the element is initially rendered, so in render part, it will look like this.methodName:
Add submit method. e.preventDefault() helps preventing html submit form from taking place i.e. making the submit function clean before we specify what to pass to database. Here when we’re working on connecting frontend to backend, we’re asking frontend to send HTTP request to backend. Here I tried axios library to send HTTP request.
Once submit is clicked, send device info to path ‘/devices’ which is same as server.js, then server.js will then jump to /routes/devices.js, and ‘/add’, submit button will help us send the data to MongoDB to save data there.
In React constructors, other than setting initial local state of the object, we can also bind event handlers methods to the object. Since onSubmit will change variable state by this.setState. Make sure this in methods are bound to this.state’s this:
Deploy
Launch an EC2 instance with Ubuntu 18.04
Protocol is TCP: Nginx port 80, Node port 5000, MongoDB port 27017
Log in EC2
$ ssh -i <our .pem file> <VM>@<Public DNS of our instance>
Create two folders — client (also a deploy folder) & server here
$ cd /home/ubuntu
$ sudo mkdir server
$ sudo mkdir client
$ cd client
$ sudo mkdir deploy # nginx will save all log files in server_logs folder
$ sudo mkdir server_logs
Install packages
$ sudo apt-get install nodejs
$ sudo apt-get install nginx # download node.js dependencies on the server side
$ sudo apt install npm
$ cd /home/ubuntu/server
$ npm install
Edit nginx conf files — customize nginx files as needed
# clear all default settings: Ctrl + k
$ sudo nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf # another conf file:
$ cd /etc/nginx/conf.d
$ sudo touch default.conf
$ sudo nano default.conf # once complete, restart nginx
$ sudo service nginx restart
Make sure our EC2 instance public ip is whitelisted on MongoDB
Whenever I want to see this web app running, I will run below before I go to my web app public ip http://52.198.4.100/:
$ ssh -i <our .pem file> <VM>@<Public DNS of our instance>
$ cd /home/ubuntu/server
$ npm run start
Features to improve
Below are several features I may be able to extend.
Make it more visual appealing
Add submit success messages if possible
That’s it! This post was inspired by these two materials, here and here.
Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day ahead! | https://medium.com/li-ting-liao-tiffany/build-a-simple-iot-device-tracker-and-deploy-to-aws-ec2-e11db5da4013 | ['Li-Ting Liao'] | 2020-10-13 06:20:31.626000+00:00 | ['Full Stack', 'Ec2', 'Mern'] |
All she had on was her red thigh-high Christmas boots. | All she had on was her red thigh-high Christmas boots. Our next-door neighbor was a young woman whose husband abused her. Everyone knew. You could hear him whipping her ass. The black eyes were evident. No one interfered. Until she decided she was done, it was folly to intercede. She would be back with him the next day.
On Christmas eve, our neighbor appeared at our door wearing nothing but her boots. Her boyfriend had stripped her naked and put her out. The man came to our door, banging loudly, yelling, threatening violence, and demanding that my mom let him in. Our house had a double foyer with double doors. My mother stuck her head out the inside door and yelled to him, “Stay right there. Let me get my gun.” He left and did not return to our house. Our naked neighbor never went back to him. | https://medium.com/everything-shortform/all-she-had-on-was-her-red-thigh-high-christmas-boots-4ca69354186b | ['Toni Crowe'] | 2020-12-14 06:06:24.980000+00:00 | ['Domestic Violence', 'Friendship', 'Relationships', 'Motherhood', 'Christmas'] |
Polk Audio MagniFi 2 soundbar review: Virtual 3D audio and built-in Chromecast, but iffy bass | Polk Audio MagniFi 2 soundbar review: Virtual 3D audio and built-in Chromecast, but iffy bass Mya Nov 30, 2020·8 min read
Polk Audio manages to tease some relatively impressive virtual 3D audio out of its 2.1-channel MagniFi soundbar, which makes the speaker’s subpar bass response all the more disappointing. Equipped with built-in Chromecast and Google Assistant support, the MagniFi 2 is easy to set up, and Polk Audio’s custom digital sound processing delivers subtle surround and height effects without undue harshness.
The $499 MagniFi 2 also comes with three HDMI inputs, a pleasant surprise for a soundbar in this price range. But while it’s unquestionably an upgrade over standard TV speakers, the MagniFi 2’s otherwise crisp audio is undermined by muddy bass from the wireless subwoofer, robbing the sound of punchiness.
This review is part of TechHive’s coverage of the best soundbars, where you’ll find reviews of competing products, plus a buyer’s guide to the features you should consider when shopping.ConfigurationPolk Audio has three lines of soundbars. The budget Signa series includes soundbars that range in price from $129 for the 2.0-channel Signa Solo to $249 for the 2.1-channel, Chromecast-enabled Signa S3. The mid-range MagniFi line includes the MagniFi 2, which we’re reviewing here, along with the compact 2.1-channel MagniFi Mini ($299) and the 5.1-channel MagniFi MAX SR ($599), which comes with wireless surrounds and Chromecast support. Finally, the 2.1-channel Polk Audio Command Bar (which we’ve also reviewed) comes with onboard Alexa, complete with Alexa’s telltale halo light on top.
The Polk Audio MagniFi 2 is a 200-watt, 2.1-channel soundbar, with two oval-shaped 1 x 3-inch midrange drivers and one 0.75-inch tweeter for each of the left and center channels in the main unit, plus an 8-inch down-firing cone in the ported wireless subwoofer for low-frequency effects. Each driver gets its own dedicated Class-D amplifier.
Like other 2.1-channel soundbars, the MagniFi 2 lacks a dedicated center channel, which is typically reserved for dialog. Instead, the left and right channels combine to create a third, “phantom” center channel, a technique that can (depending on the quality of the soundbar’s audio processing) make dialog sound distractingly echo-y. We’ll evaluate the MagniFi 2’s audio quality a little later in our review.
[ Further reading: The best surge protectors for your costly electronics ]The MagniFi 2 doesn’t support immersive 3D audio formats such as Dolby Atmos or DTS:X, nor does it come equipped with DTS Virtual:X, a popular sound mode that teases virtualized surround and height effects from as few as two drivers, without the need for either in-ceiling speakers or upfiring drivers that bounce audio off the ceiling. Instead, the MagniFi 2 boasts Polk Audio’s own SDA (Stereo Dimentional Array) audio processing and its new 3D audio mode, which allows the soundbar to deliver virtualized surround and height cues.
Virtualized 3D sound has its pros and cons. Unsurprisingly, you’ll hear more precise height cues from upfiring drivers that bounce sound off your ceiling, or—even better—height speakers that are installed in your ceiling. That said, not everyone wants to go through the hassle of installing in-ceiling speakers, and upfiring drivers won’t be effective if you have a vaulted ceiling or acoustic ceiling tiles. In those scenarios, a soundbar with a virtual 3D sound mode might be your best option. Again, we’ll assess the effectiveness of the MagniFi 2’s custom 3D audio mode in the performance section of our review.
The MagniFi 2 can’t be upgraded with wireless surround speakers for true surround sound—or at least, not quite yet. While Polk’s existing SR1 wireless surround kit, which works with the MagniFi MAX soundbar, isn’t compatible with the MagniFi 2, a new SR2 wireless surround kit ($199) that will work with the MagniFi 2 is due in January 2021, so hang tight.
Measuring about 37.5 x 3 x 2.1 inches (LxWxH), the fabric-covered MagniFi 2 is a tad narrower than the width of my 55-inch LG C9 OLED, and it’s just shy of the bottom edge of the LG’s low-slung screen. The 14.6 x 12.1 x 145-inch (LxWxH) subwoofer has a rounded rectangular design that tapers from bottom to top, a departure from the boxy-looking subwoofers that typically ship with soundbars.
SetupThe main MagniFi 2 soundbar unit can be either placed directly in front of your TV, or mounted on a wall below your TV. The soundbar comes with a mounting guide but no screws or brackets. I opted to simply put the MagniFi 2 in front of my OLED. The roughly 10-foot power cord comes in two segments, with a chunky AC brick in the middle (meaning no annoying wall wart), while the second segment terminates in a standard two-prong plug.
Once the main soundbar component is plugged in, you can then place the included subwoofer nearby and then connect its own power cord (so no, the subwoofer isn’t truly wireless). The subwoofer comes pre-paired to the main unit; there’s also a button in back of the main soundbar housing that triggers the manual pairing process. For me, the subwoofer paired seamlessly with the soundbar.
Ben Patterson/IDG The fabric-covered MagniFi 2 soundbar comes equipped with buttons for power, input select, Bluetooth, mute, and volume up/down.
With the soundbar and subwoofer both powered up, it’s time to connect the MagniFi 2 to your home Wi-Fi network, which you can do with the Google Home app for iOS or Android (you’ll need to install it and sign in with your Google Account, if you haven’t already). Setting up a soundbar with Google Home is typically a painless process, and indeed, I immediately found a “Set up Polk MagniFi 2” banner on the app’s main screen. Tapping the banner steps you through the process of selecting your home wireless network.
Everything seemed to be going smoothly when, oddly, I got a “Something went wrong” error after the app had successfully connected the soundbar to my Wi-Fi router. Backing up and repeating the connecting process seemed to fix the problem, so it might have been a random hiccup, and the MagniFi 2 didn’t have any subsequent connectivity issues.
Ports and connectorsWhen it comes to connecting the MagniFi 2 to your TV, you have a coupe of options. First, you could plug all your video sources (such as a set-top box, a game console, and a Blu-ray player) into your TV’s HDMI inputs, and then connect the TV to the MagniFi 2 via the soundbar’s HDMI-ARC (short for Audio Return Channel) port. (A high-speed HDMI cable is included in the box, by the way.) It’s a convenient method if you already happen to have your video sources plugged directly into your TV, but the downside is that the MagniFi’s HDMI-ARC port doesn’t support eARC (‘enhanced” ARC), which allows the lossless Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio formats prized by Blu-ray aficionados. (Click here to read more about eARC.)
Ben Patterson/IDG The Polk Audio MagniFi 2 features a trio of HDMI inputs, plus an HDMI-ARC port.
An alternative is connecting video sources into the MagniF 2i’s HDMI inputs, and luckily, there are three of them, a rarity for a $499 soundbar. Plugging a standard or UHD Blu-ray player into one of the MagniFi 2’s HDMI means you’ll be able to enjoy lossless audio, and the soundbar can pass 4K HDR video to your TV. Of course, the downside of connecting video sources through the MagniFi 2’s HDMI ports is that you won’t be able to pipe audio from smart TV apps through the soundbar; for that, you’ll have to go the HDMI-ARC way.
Besides HDMI connectors, the MagniFi 2 has an optical (Toslink) input that can support Dolby Digital (but not Dolby Digital Plus) audio, while a USB-C port is reserved for firmware updates.
Remote control and buttonsOn top of the main Polk Audio MagniFi 2 soundbar cabinet are buttons for power, input select, Bluetooth, mute, and volume up/down. On the front of the soundbar and peeking out from its fabric covering are 10 status LEDs that flash in different colors to indicate volume levels, detected audio signals (such as Dolby or DTS), Bluetooth pairing status, and more. Most of the LEDs go dark after a brief period of inactivity, and while a single audio mode LED does remain lit, it’s not bright enough to be distracting.
The MagniFi 2’s non-backlit remote is logically laid out (with the volume rocker in the center and the mute button just beneath), but many of the buttons are perfectly flat and edgeless, making them difficult to find in the dark. The good news is that the most important buttons, including the volume rocker, the power, mute, and input buttons, and the volume buttons for the optional (and not-yet-available) wireless surround speakers do have either tactile bumps or indentations. That said, the level buttons for bass response and voice boost (more on that in a moment), along with the audio modes and 3D buttons are all flat as a pancake, and I had to turn on my phone’s flashlight to find those buttons while watching a movie or a show.
Ben Patterson/IDG While the volume and mute buttons on the MagniFi 2’s remote have indentations and bumps to help you find them in the dark, almost all the other buttons are perfectly flat and edgeless.
While the MagniFi 2 is Wi-Fi-enabled, it lacks a dedicated mobile app for controlling playback tweaking its settings. You can take some measure of control using the Google Home app, but for the most part, the available settings (volume, speaker name, room, speaker group, and so on) are pretty much the same as they are for any Google smart speakers, which means no equalizer or discrete volume levels.
Features and functionalityThe Polk Audio MagniFi 2 comes with built-in Chromecast, which means you can “cast” audio to it from supported Chromecast-enabled apps such as Spotify, YouTube Music, Tidal, Deezer, Qobuz, and so on. You can also add the soundbar to a Google speaker group for multi-room audio, as well as designate it as the preferred audio playback speaker for, say, a Google Nest Mini or a Google hub. If your favorite music app (such as Apple Music) doesn’t support Chromecast, you can always stream tunes to the soundbar via Bluetooth 4.0.
Besides its Chromecast support, the MagniFi 2 also supports Google Assistant voice commands, but only to a limited degree. You can, for example, ask Google to play music on the MagniFi 2 as you would any Chromecast-enabled speaker (“Hey Google, play The Beatles on Polk Soundbar”) as well as control the volume and pause or resume the music. That said, a Polk rep told me that Google Assistant voice commands won’t work for soundbar functions on the MagniFi 2, which means you won’t be able to ask the Assistant to change video inputs or sound modes, and in my tests, asking Google to turn the soundbar on or off didn’t work, either. Still (and as I’ve said before), I don’t think it’s a dealbreaker for a soundbar to have iffy or no voice assistant support, given that it’s almost always easier to simply use the remote.
Click here to read about the MagniFi 2’s sound modes and performance | https://medium.com/@mya45863169/polk-audio-magnifi-2-soundbar-review-virtual-3d-audio-and-built-in-chromecast-but-iffy-bass-80d19f710188 | [] | 2020-11-30 01:30:07.815000+00:00 | ['Home Tech', 'Cutting', 'Headphones', 'Lighting'] |
A Chance with you Heart | Every day you take a chance with your heart.
Will it feed you love you accept
or put you through the motions
as you unpack
the harshest parts of torment
hard to neglect,
riding those waves
’til you fall into a trench. | https://medium.com/@namelesspoetry/a-chance-with-you-heart-14d150844066 | ['Nameless Poetry'] | 2020-12-14 01:46:28.308000+00:00 | ['Poet', 'Poetry Writing', 'Poetry', 'Poems On Medium', 'Poetry Sunday'] |
10 Ways to Have a Better Conversation | Conversation is an essential part of daily routine. It is in the nature of both humans and animals to communicate. Every single person has a unique way of expressing their feelings. Yet sometimes we feel uneasy interacting with each other or want to be compatible but end up being irrelevant.
“The right word at the right time will unlock the door to treasures. The wrong one will close it forever.” — Rasheed Ogunlaru
But don’t worry, here are 10 ways how you can have a better conversation.
1. Try to be Friendly while Talking
The listeners should feel safe around you. They must be comfortable around you while talking about things they don’t want to talk to others about. The least you can do for someone is to listen to them and let them talk openly without hesitation.
“Night air, good conversation, and a sky full of stars can heal almost any wound.” — Beau Taplin
2. Stay on Point
Don’t jump from topic to topic or from a single topic to another branch of it. And don’t directly jump to the conclusion. It will confuse the listener. And your point will become difficult for them to understand. Try to explain step by step, point to point.
“Let the conversation flow at its own pace. Don’t try to rush it or control it. You need to let go or be a part of the conversation.” — Max Weiss
3. Don’t Exaggerate
Try to speak on the main points rather than telling every single small detail which can easily be ignored. Be relevant and specific with your answers. If it can be answered in a single sentence then go for it. Exaggerating things will bore the listeners and they will want you to finish it instead of listening. Unnecessary and small details become difficult to remember and less interesting.
4. Comfort with Your Gestures
Your body language speaks a lot more than you. The way you move your hands or feet while talking to someone explains whether you’re enjoying it or getting bored. Similarly, eye contact is also important. Your eyes are a reflection of your soul. If you’re telling the truth it’s better to look them in the eyes. Majority of people while telling lies avoid making eye contact. Avoiding eyes unaccountably will make you look less interested.
“A conversation is so much more than words, a conversation is eyes, smiles, the silences between the words.” — Annika Thor
5. Show them Interest
Try to react when they react, smile when they smile, laugh when it’s something funny. These are emotional interactions and they show your interest. Be present at the moment. Don’t divert your mind from thinking about other moments or things. If you don’t feel like having a conversation then don’t have it.
“I love when conversation and energies just flow. Not forced. Not coerced. Just present.” — Dav Voire
6. Listen Carefully
Let them speak. Don’t heckle in between. Let them finish what they want to tell. Sometimes the point is not clear until it reaches the end. Interrupting between results in misunderstandings and conflicts. Steven Covey said, “Most of us don’t listen with the intent to understand. We listen with the intent to reply.”
7. Don’t Try to Relate Their Experiences with Yours
Everyone has different experiences and stories to tell. You can’t impose your experience or your opinions on them. Bill Nye says, “Everyone you will ever meet knows something that you don’t.”
8. Avoid Focusing on Yourself
Focusing on yourself makes the listener feel that he/she is of no importance to you. Moreover, this attitude will make you sound egoist. And the conversation will become a one-sided, boring conversation.
9. Observe the Listener
What they want to listen to. What delights them? You meet people with multiple interests or very few interests. People with multiple interests probably have something in common and it is easier to talk with them. But with those who don’t have much to talk about, it is difficult to have a conversation. Therefore you just have to find that one thing, that one connection that helps you have a constructive conversation.
10. Try to be Tolerant
You meet different people every day with different mindsets and different perspectives. Be open-minded enough to accept the fact that people have a different point of view. Don’t impose your opinions on them forcefully. You should be humble and presumable enough to convince them to see through your notion.
“The true spirit of conversation consists in building on another man’s observation, not overturning it.” –Edward G Bulwer-Lyttons
Conclusion
To sum up, there is no rocket science for having a better conversation. With the help of these points, you will be able to have a nice conversation. Just be yourself and enjoy the moment. A good conversation with the right person helps you build confidence, a good sense of humor, and makes you learn new things. | https://medium.com/@sumaiyaarif/10-ways-to-have-a-better-conversation-6d60365bed89 | ['Sumaiya Arif'] | 2021-06-17 20:11:56.870000+00:00 | ['Conversations'] |
The First Signs of Alcoholic Liver Damage Are Not in the Liver | The First Signs of Alcoholic Liver Damage Are Not in the Liver
Myfather died of alcoholic liver cirrhosis four years ago. It came as a surprise to all of us, even though it was clear he had a severe drinking problem for decades. It was especially surprising to me, as a former nurse and a recovering alcoholic. You would think I’d know more about liver problems and alcohol use than the average person. But the truth is, in the months before his death, I had no idea my father’s liver was struggling at all. Most people know about cirrhosis, but few people know how a liver goes from early damage to end-stage liver cirrhosis.
https://altagamma.it/alta/Pac-v-76e-nb-pk.html
https://altagamma.it/alta/Pac-v-76e-nb-pk1.html
https://altagamma.it/alta/Pac-v-76e-nb-pk2.html
https://altagamma.it/alta/Pac-v-76e-nb-pk3.html
https://altagamma.it/alta/Pac-v-76e-nb-pk4.html
https://altagamma.it/alta/video-p-v-q-nb-liv-01.html
https://altagamma.it/alta/video-p-v-q-nb-liv-02.html
https://altagamma.it/alta/video-p-v-q-nb-liv-03.html
https://altagamma.it/alta/video-p-v-q-nb-liv-04.html
https://altagamma.it/alta/video-p-v-q-nb-liv-05.html
https://altagamma.it/alta/video-p-v-q-nb-liv-06.html
https://altagamma.it/alta/video-p-v-q-nb-liv-07.html
https://altagamma.it/alta/video-p-v-q-nb-liv-08.html
https://altagamma.it/alta/video-p-v-q-nb-liv-09.html
https://altagamma.it/alta/video-p-v-q-nb-liv-10.html
The combination of my father’s death and my personal background lit a fire in me to know more. He was admitted to the hospital on June 24, 2016, and he died on July 18. Only 24 days passed between the first sign there was a problem and his subsequent death.
Now, hearing that he was in end-stage cirrhosis didn’t surprise me, given his heavy drinking. What did surprise me was that he’d visited several doctors and specialists in the months before his death, and no one knew his liver was struggling either.
So what happened? Does end-stage liver cirrhosis really sneak up that fast? Were there other signs that would have alerted someone to his failing liver?
As for why the doctors and specialists didn’t know what was happening, that mystery resolved reasonably quickly. The plain truth is that alcoholics rarely divulge the amount and frequency of their drinking to their doctors. This was the case for my dad. He had many health issues that he was trying to solve, but he protected his drinking habit fiercely. So he refused to spill the beans, even when it mattered.
The problem is that liver damage has numerous multifaceted symptoms that are confusing and associated with many other illnesses. Unless a doctor knows that the patient is an alcoholic, they may not know how to interpret what’s happening until it’s too late.
As he was dying, my father told me that he didn’t think to tell the doctors how much he was drinking. He said it was as if he blanked out and “forgot” to mention it. As crazy as that sounds, this strange “forgetting” is a common part of the alcoholic mindset. It may also be due to the metabolic and physical changes of cirrhosis itself.
There are many signs of liver problems, but oddly, none seem to point to the liver at first. And in fact, many of the first signs of liver damage occur in other parts of the body. Knowing these signs may help educate alcoholics and their families if they want to understand their risk of developing liver cirrhosis.
Liver damage has numerous multifaceted symptoms that are confusing and associated with many other illnesses. Unless a doctor knows that the patient is an alcoholic, they may not know how to interpret what’s happening until it’s too late.
Digestive signs
The liver plays a huge part in our digestive process. It filters out all toxins from food as well as helping to break down fats and glucose.
When a liver starts to slow down due to significant damage, it will reduce its digestive work. Instead, it will divert its energy toward vital functions like metabolizing medications and filtering toxins.
This means that symptoms like bloating, nausea, vomiting, gas, and diarrhea will start to increase. Over time, eating becomes more challenging. In the later stages of liver cirrhosis, toxins that can’t be filtered out begin to build in the bloodstream, which causes more nausea.
Cognitive signs
Although confusion and brain fog happen in end-stage liver cirrhosis, they can also be early signs.
The liver is responsible for filtering dangerous substances in the blood. It also helps regulate hormones, blood glucose, and vitamin absorption. In the early stages of liver damage, these processes can be interrupted. Inevitably, this affects our brain and nervous system.
This means that early liver problems can make you feel tired, confused, slow, and foggy. You may have some memory issues as well.
Neuromuscular signs
The liver stores vitamins required for the functioning of many organs and systems in the body — one of them is vitamin B1 or thiamine. A deficiency in this particular vitamin has been documented in many alcoholics with or without liver damage.
Unfortunately, alcohol inhibits the absorption of thiamine in the intestine. Over time, as the liver becomes damaged, it can no longer store thiamine in enough quantities. Thiamine deficiency is responsible for many neurological issues in people with alcoholism.
Symptoms of thiamine deficiency range from mild to severe and include things like: confusion, mental fog, lack of balance, pain and numbness in hands and feet, muscle weakness, rapid heart rate, digestive problems, flushing, and involuntary eye movements.
Thiamine deficiency happens in almost every alcoholic who consumes frequent and large amounts of alcohol. And if thiamine deficiency due to alcoholism is discovered, you can be sure the liver is suffering damage at the same time.
Many of the first signs of liver damage occur in other parts of the body.
Vascular signs
All alcohol consumption can lead to blood vessel dilation, causing flushing in the face and hands. Over time, this can cause damage leading to permanent redness in the face. Although many alcoholics have rosacea or spider-like veins on their faces, this is often benign.
However, spider angiomas are different from rosacea or spiderlike veins. They’re circular and have a central point called a spider nevus that is darker than the rest of the lesion. Spider angiomas are a sign of liver disease and can be present in the early stages. They often progress to more extensive and more numerous lesions.
Spider angiomas are caused by increased estrogen levels in the blood. When the liver becomes damaged, it can’t properly metabolize estrogens, which causes them to build up in the body.
Many women who are pregnant or taking birth control pills may have a few spider angiomas. However, in alcoholic liver disease, these lesions are often more frequent and accompanied by red palms and varicose veins in the esophagus.
These are a few of the main signs of alcoholic liver damage that happen outside of the liver. It’s important to know this because most of us have no idea how the liver functions and how it communicates distress.
The liver itself doesn’t show signs like pain or swelling in the early stages of liver damage. This contrasts with other organs like the heart or stomach, where any damage will emit pain or symptoms directly from these organs.
What happens with liver damage is that its many diverse functions become interrupted, causing symptoms in other parts of the body. This may explain why most people never think they have a problem with their liver.
Unfortunately, patients with alcoholism are rarely educated about these issues. This is because they often don’t reveal their drinking, to begin with. And even if they do, the symptoms are widespread and complex, which makes patient education challenging.
My goal in writing articles like this is to help educate regular people about alcoholic liver disease to understand their health and make better decisions.
It’s hard to say if my father would have changed his drinking habits if he knew more about his vague and complicated symptoms. But I think having proper education would have certainly helped him understand his risks and health problems better. | https://medium.com/@joyroot68855/the-first-signs-of-alcoholic-liver-damage-are-not-in-the-liver-15fbaec0df81 | [] | 2020-12-18 22:41:04.987000+00:00 | ['Addiction', 'Health', 'Body', 'Alcohol', 'Mental Health'] |
MY SIMPLE AND AMAZING BARBEQUE CHICKEN RECIPE! | MY SIMPLE AND AMAZING BARBEQUE CHICKEN RECIPE!
Everyone loves BBQ because is easy to make, goes with any function and can be prep ahead.
This recipe has a lot of sweetness and spice, so if you’re looking for a classic BBQ sauce you need, this is it!
You can also pair this flavorsome sauce well with other poultry, beef or even fish. And, you can always adjust the recipe to your taste, like a little chilli e.t.c
Here is the list of the ingredients for this delicious sauce.
(Yields 4portions)
100gr Onions (finely chopped)
1 Garlic clove (chopped)
60ml Oil (any oil but not palmhoil😁
1.4kg chicken cuts
200gr Ketchup
60ml Honey
1 Tbsp Soy sauce
2 Tbsp Worcester sauce
Pinch of Salt
1 Tsp Crushed blackpepper
METHOD
Sweat the onion and garlic in the oil without turning brown. Mix in the ketchup, honey, soy sauce, Worcester sauce, and season with salt and black pepper. Allow the sauce to simmer for 5–10minutes. Place and prepare the chicken cuts in a bowl, add half of the BBQ sauce and mix gently, coating all the chicken evenly. If you’re prepping overnight. Keep in the refrigerator till the next day in a covered container. Cover the remaining sauce and keep refrigerated also. If you are cooking right away, it is best to leave the chicken for at least an hour, for the flavor to penetrate the meat. Arrange in a roasting tray and place in a moderate heat oven about 160–170°c. Cook for 3/4–1hour and always baste the chicken with the leftover sauce every 15minutes.
NOTE: To test if your BBQ chicken is cooked, insert the tip of a knife into the middle of the thickest piece and the juices should run clear, the chicken is done.
If the chicken isn’t done, turn the pieces over, baste with bbq sauce and continue to cook at a low temperature.
Follow my page for more updates on food recipes and food related topics.
Ciao!! | https://medium.com/@abolanle.jimoh/my-simple-and-amazing-barbeque-chicken-recipe-1a576b9264a2 | ['Abolanle Jimoh'] | 2020-05-27 21:30:40.427000+00:00 | ['Foodies', 'Food', 'Bbq', 'Chicken'] |
BEST REVIEW OF Baby Art — Magic Box Square Essentials Elegant Gift Box With Plaster Cast For Baby Feet Or Hands, Multi-Color TO BUY | BEST REVIEW OF Baby Art — Magic Box Square Essentials Elegant Gift Box With Plaster Cast For Baby Feet Or Hands, Multi-Color TO BUY Faizal Idris May 26, 2019·2 min read
Print box, suitable for babies and toddlers 0m — 3y
Easily make an impression of your baby’s hand or foot, no baking required
Many trials allowed before drying
All material included in this baby clay print kit
Clay material is dermatologically tested for baby’s skin
=====>>> CHECK PRICING & AVAILABILITY <<<=====
Very light malleable and easy to use clay. Since it doesn’t instantly dry in fact is malleable for quite some time you have plenty of time to spend on your design or making corrections.
Very easy to use, the stand works well with the tin. I got it just before Xmas but only used it today. I wish I had this when he was first born. I tried making a fist model from his hand and a wet clay set from different companies to make imprints before I tried this magic box they were useless, they required him to be very still and to hold his hand/foot in for a very long time whereas this literally took 5–10seconds whilst he was awake. I wish I had this for his newborn imprints whereas he is now 18–24months. I am strongly considering buying more for gifts! Thank you for a great product. Good product. Easy to use definitely a two person job. Ignore most of the bad reviews they are mainly about their babies being too wriggly and them finding it difficult to do which has nothing to do with if the product works or not.
======>>>> BUY NOW <<<<======
Works great although works best if you have a bigger rolling pin as the little one leaves lines. Tip:- Ideally do this just after your babies had a feed and is slightly milk drunk, makes things a lot easier. Lovely light Plasticine thing! (I’m sure I’ve spelt it wrong!) It mounds and gets the detail of foot/ hand print really well. Takes a while to set though (8 days). As it’s white, picks up dust and dirt easily so ensure very clean hands and surfaces when molding. | https://medium.com/@faizal.idris.7410/best-review-of-baby-art-magic-box-square-essentials-elegant-gift-box-with-plaster-cast-for-baby-3491ff20722e | ['Faizal Idris'] | 2019-05-26 09:28:58.103000+00:00 | ['Baby', 'Baby Products', 'Breastfeeding', 'Amazon'] |
Exactly Which Enemy Did Bradley Manning Aid? | The Army has charged Bradley Manning with 22 counts, among them theft, fraud and most importantly, “aiding and giving intelligence to the enemy,” by way of providing military information to Wikileaks. Manning is suspected, or said to be, the source not only for the leaked diplomatic cables but also for footage of airstrikes in Iraq and Afghanistan, and has been held at Quantico since July of last year. (His mental health evaluation will supposedly be complete sometime in the next month, with a pre-trial hearing perhaps in May, and a trial mid-July, at his defense’s request.)
One charge is “wrongfully causing intelligence to be published on the Internet knowing that it is accessible to the enemy.” That seems reasonable, largely. But how about the charge of actually aiding the enemy? Question being: hey, who are our enemies? And then which of them may have benefitted from this material? Iraq and Afghanistan aren’t our enemies, as we give them in total something like $12 billion a year. Al Qaeda? North Korea? They sure seem like enemies. Has Wikileaks done them a solid? Resulting in… what? While military court and military law are quite different from civilian law, still, in this fashion, the U.S. has set itself up to prove it’s been actually harmed — I’m pretty sure the standard isn’t “embarrassed”! — and I’m not quite sure how it can demonstrate that… yet. | https://medium.com/the-awl/exactly-which-enemy-did-bradley-manning-aid-20093ddd7caf | ['Choire Sicha'] | 2016-05-13 09:18:36.900000+00:00 | ['Wikileaks', 'Bradley Manning', 'Disinformation'] |
I have chronic illness that is very depressing. What is the solution? | Answer: The solution to your situation is the same solution Jesus gave to his disciples 2000 years ago when they were having problems of healing sickness and disease. He told them then and is telling you now that the reason you are having health issues is “because of your unbelief”. Until you replace unbelief with belief in God, your life is lived in vain and you will continue to suffer with health issues. In other words, “when you have the consciousness of God, the belief in God, the sick are healed”.
Since God is the only (perfect) cause, God must be the only (perfect) effect. Belief in God translates itself into bodily health because the perfect nature of God remains the same perfect nature in its effect. Healing takes place in the recognition that God is omnipresence and omnipotent and therefore illness has no power and no presence. By practicing the Presence of God you will come into the realization that when the infinite divine Presence takes possession of your individual consciousness you will show forth the perfection of health which is of God.
Remember that when you remove the unbelief in God you are removing the belief in your chronic illness and the only substance to your illness was the false belief out of which the illness was formed. The visible evidence of your illness is generated “because of your unbelief” and is removed when that false belief is replaced with belief, the consciousness of God. As long as you realize that there is nothing present but the presence of God because of omnipresence and there is no power but the power of God because of omnipotence, the healing of your health issues must take place. | https://medium.com/pathway-to-happiness/i-have-chronic-illness-that-is-very-depressing-what-is-the-solution-ccc72716952b | ['Don Carpenter'] | 2021-03-22 14:10:55.086000+00:00 | ['Success', 'Life Lessons', 'Mental Health', 'Self Improvement', 'PTSD'] |
The Benefits of Boxing Training for Tennis | Yes, I know what you must be thinking. How in the world does such a ruthless sport like boxing mix well with tennis, a gentleman’s game? Both sports are more similar than you would expect. Keep reading for my story, and some advice on conditioning for your tennis game.
I am a 16 year old athlete who plays tennis and competes in tournaments year round. To play at the higher levels, it is imperative that you must have higher levels of fitness than everyone else. So, to reach there, I made sure to keep an eye on what I ate and did rigorous training along with my tennis practices. However, once quarantine started, all tournaments stopped, so I had some time to reflect on my fitness level for tennis.
Tennis is a very difficult sport, needing precise hand-eye coordination, quick agility, and endurance to play up to 3.5 hour matches. The training that I did for tennis was composed of mostly cardiovascular activities, with agility ladders, jump ropes, and training with cones. However, one big thing I realized was missing was upper body training. So, I started to research good workouts that engage your whole body, and I found boxing.
When most people think of boxing, they think of a brutal sport in which thugs fight and beat each other bloody. I never really thought of it as a sport, I mainly just thought of it as something that bad people do for fun. However, as I started researching more into it and started training with boxing exercises, I realized that true boxing is an art which requires discipline, flexibility, and immense physical fitness. In fact, ESPN ranks Boxing as the world’s hardest sport, and the qualities needed to be a great boxer can be used in every aspect of life. Here are some reasons that boxing is especially great for tennis:
Footwork — In tennis, footwork is extremely important, and this same style of footwork is seen in boxing. Both sports use jump ropes and agility ladders for training, and this is all because of the way the feet are positioned. In both sports, you are standing with the front of your body facing away from the thing you are hitting, but when you strike, your arm extension into the strike is led by the turn of your hips. This positioning leads to the footwork being very similar, so whether you’re shadowboxing, heavy bag training, or sparring, your footwork for tennis will also improve. Strategy — Both boxing and tennis share very similar strategy because you have to be able to defend and attack with efficiency. The mental aspect of both games is very tough to master because you are always moving forward or backwards, attacking or defending, and you need to be able to deliver a knockout blow no matter where you are. Both games are mostly mental, because you need to stay focused in the game longer than the opponent because of the lightning fast points and punches. Hand-Eye Coordination — While tennis has more hand eye coordination needed to master the sport, in boxing you need to know exactly where you are punching, and where there are empty spots that u must cover with other body parts. A big aspect of boxing, speed bag training, can help with this hand eye coordination greatly. Cardio — Both tennis and boxing require immense stamina. Most matches in both sports are determined by who can last longer at a higher intensity. In boxing, there are short sets in which you give the most intensity possible. This interval training method is great for tennis because you are building stamina to stay in the longer points and not give up. Both sports have stamina in the way that there are short periods with large amounts of energy being used in them, rather than a sports like soccer or cross country, where you are pacing yourself over a longer period of time.
Overall, tennis and boxing are very similar in the physical fitness and intensity needed. Boxing is a great conditioning training for tennis, and if cross-training attracts you as an athlete, you should definitely give boxing a try. You don’t even need to get in the ring with anyone, but you should do the training exercises. However, make sure your boxing conditioning isn’t taking away from your tennis training. If it causes unnecessary soreness or pain, it is perfectly fine to stick to normal training methods. | https://medium.com/@nikunjt0/the-benefits-of-boxing-training-for-tennis-87a85d7d5f5f | ['Nikunj Tyagi'] | 2020-12-16 05:43:25.484000+00:00 | ['Tennis', 'Sports', 'Boxing', 'Training', 'Cross Training'] |
8 Non-Technical Skills That Every Developer Must Have | When we think of software development as a job all that comes to our minds is technical skills, technical thinking, technical abilities, technical, technical …and more technical things! After all, a developer’s professional relations are all with his computer Isn’t it? Well, that is wrong! Besides knowledge of languages and frameworks, an outstanding developer isn’t great at what he does with technical proficiency only!
Software developers are required to have soft skills as much as technical skills in order to maximize their professional growth and be a good addition to their teams. Actually, In some situations, the soft skills are the ones that save a whole software development project from falling apart!
Yep, this blog is about nothing technical! Here are the main non-technical skills that a developer MUST have :
Solution-oriented thinking
Software development is all about solving existing problems through digital solutions ! every feature and every code in every digital solution is meant to answer a specific need. Adding to that, the numerous popping challenges faced during the development cycle from situations that require re-coding to others that require complete new strategy while Misunderstanding a problem can lead to creating new ones. Some client requirements are simply a big complicated problem to execute needing way beyond “normal thinking”.
How can you be a software developer if you are not able to develop digital “solutions” ??
The Eagerness to learn
Software development is a constantly evolving domain which means whatever you learned yesterday might need to get updated today and whatever you don’t know you need to learn it ASAP. A static mindset doesn’t serve the job! It needs a dynamic mind driven by passion and eagerness to learn. The field is so vast that there’s no way for anyone to learn everything in it but what segregates one developer from another is that capacity to learn and ensure personal growth as any self-respecting software developer will need to dedicate a significant amount of time to learn NEW sKILLS.
Intellectual curiosity in the good sense is what pushes a developer to ask questions, think deeper of problems, try to solve them from new angles, drive projects forward, and sculpt careers.
Team member mentality
Unlike the common thinking that related the life of a developer to a computer, a developer works within a TEAM!
Oh yeah it some projects are co-developed by a team of developers and Even if the project is solo-operated the developer is still doing teamwork with BAs and respective project managers. Being a team member means being comprehensive, collaborative, enthusiastic, helping, understanding, punctual, kind, appreciated by the rest of the team members, and way more good adjectives.
Having Great team players are essential in providing great teamwork which is crucial to driving the project to success within the best delays and budget. Unfortunately not anyone is born with a good sense of teamwork many struggle to put aside their solo thinking and adopt a team player mentality…another factor that differentiates one developer career from another!
Basics of leadership skills
Well, Today’s developer can be tomorrow’s head of the development department! Being one team member is skilled enough, Striving to head a team isn’t just a matter of who has the best technical knowledge, it is mostly a matter of being a great worth-promoting leader that can communicate ideas and guide a team energetically. Developers need to crucially consider adopting leadership skills and believe in their importance from the early stages of software development career if they are willing to go further with their desks. It includes working on good monitoring, guidance, strategic thinking, stress & time management, prioritization, influence, communication skills..etc
Communication skills
What’s the point of working on projects working in a team and contributing to solutions if you can not communicate them properly?? Quality communication is crucial to ensure effective teamwork and eventually satisfy the client with results. Competent developers are the ones available to actively listen, understand, and communicate their thoughts and ideas clearly in the matter.
Sometimes the developer is put personally in contact with the client to follow their requirements. With the lack of communication skills, a simple meeting can turn into a disaster. Perhaps the most important skill in this area is active listening. Whether collecting client feedback or participating in a sprint retrospective, developers need to know how to listen and empathize with others in order to collectively determine the best path forward.
visionary perspective
While developing a successful digital solution, a developer needs to put himself in many shoes: he should
Think like a user to get the right useful features and develop a great user experience.
Think like hackers conduct tests and retests to provide great security system in everything he develops.
Think like an innovative inventor to develop every product uniquely and avoid falling into the “typicality” issue.
Think like the client to ensure his satisfaction.
Think like his managers to align with the company’s goals, culture, and future vision.
Think like his boss to get promoted xD!
Such thinking requires a real sense of empathy and elaborated visionary perspective skills as All your work can be in vain if not appreciated by the right people and solidly safe from hackers.
Striving for excellence and innovation
A great developer is the one that strives to excel at his job delivering both quality and innovation in the best delay that means saying “yes” to new experiences, staying relevant and engaged, having the Willingness to try out new techniques, to improve work and bring innovation.
A successful product requires well-structured, semantic, maintainable code, the success comes in paying attention to the smallest details and having a Detail-oriented eye to take pride in delivering high-quality code.
Repeating what everyone does isn’t what is going to build you a successful developer career, it is the innovative quality delivering mindset that does!
Disciplinary and organizational skills
Coding is a lot like sports: You come in time, you stay energetic and you develop muscles in your brain! Being not organized is a big issue as It takes persistence and discipline to learn development techniques, work efficiently, and be ready to accept change in client requirements.
software development can be over exhausting and demanding, it is a very complicated process that takes mental effort. developing the smallest digital solution can take impressive efficiency and patience in decoding challenges. Getting discouraged and Giving up won’t get you anywhere except failure! It is important to be disciplined, consistent, and welcoming to feedback while developing digital solutions.
Conclusion
Professional growth comes in developing both technical and non-technical skills as they go hand in hand in determining project success! | https://medium.com/indianic/8-non-technical-skills-that-every-developer-must-have-c2f3e7b7dbf0 | ['Rania Mdimagh'] | 2020-12-02 13:37:46.650000+00:00 | ['Soft Skills', 'Development', 'Jobs', 'Skills', 'Software Development'] |
How one struggling writer makes money | 783 | Diary of an artist, Tuesday, September 18, 2018
# 783 (countdown)
—
Woke up 4:00 am.
I probably said this before but I need to say it again. I like the idea that after having left “my field” (it was my field not because I felt good in it, but because I picked it in my late teenage years, not knowing what it will be like to work as a lawyer — don’t we all call the things we picked in our late teenage years or early 20s “our field” because we desperately need to decide what we will be when we grow up?), that after having abandoned the legal business I am discovering new ways of earning a living. I already know that if I had to I would be able to support myself (and not only myself) easily from the things I do nowadays.
If I did full time all the things I do currently to earn money (I mean if I didn’t also write and read — if I didn’t have my passion) I would probably be even able to support my family, albeit on different terms than it is today.
When, on May 23, I calculated for the first time how much we made selling our items on a site like Craigslist (we’ve been doing it from the beginning of this year) it was USD 845–735 (or EUR 720 — the exchange rate for this currency was more stable).
On August 27 I calculated it again. It’s USD 600 (EUR 515) more. So it’s USD 1413 (EUR 1235).
That’s comparable to a USD 200 (EUR 172) paycheck / month. At least! Consider taxes and other deductibles, in other words amounts paid out of pocket of any employee, as a matter of fact I guess it’s closer to USD 250 (EUR 215).
And it still happens that I find new items which I didn’t think about, or had even forgotten they exist, and which, as it turns out, I can also sell.
But that’s not all. Recently I’ve been paying attention to the items people throw away. In other words, which end up in the trash, or, to be more precise, near the trash containers as they’re too big and people shouldn’t use trash containers for them. In the two months preceding August 27 I sold items worth USD 210 (EUR 180) that way.
Which means that the actual amount (income) for August 27 was USD 1623 (EUR 1415). That’s comparable to a USD 270 (EUR 232) paycheck / month if you actually worked.
I also search for items people in my area give away for free and which they put on sites like Craigslist. Initially I thought people give away only items which are unsellable (which those who will take them will have difficulty selling) but when I reconsidered after a while I realized that people do give away sellable items but if you want the best pieces you need to be fast — they disappear almost immediately. In other words, if you’re vigilant you’ll get some of those best pieces. That’s a thing I discovered after August 27 (in the first days of September actually) so there is no real data on it — within the first two weeks I earned USD 40 this way. Plus, there are items you can buy cheap from people (who probably don’t care, or don’t want to wait, or have no idea as to what price to ask) and then sell at a margin, and there are many such opportunities (you just need to be good at spotting such occasions — have some kind of a system).
Apart from that I earn money being a background actor or having small episodes in movies and that’s USD 250 just in the first half of September. Which means that I can assume that it could be USD 500 per month. And I don’t take full advantage of all the opportunities. I guess it could be something like USD 750 per month (easily) for someone who is fairly well known as a background actor (by all the agencies), has good reputation and does take full advantage of it.
So, being dedicated only part time to the activities which earn me money nowadays I can make approximately USD 770 per month. If I dedicated full time (if I had no passion) it could be approximately USD 1000–1200 (easily). Without being employed anywhere and at the mercy of anyone and without worrying that tomorrow I might lose my job and have no job and no money. And, what’s also very important, without any school, course, college degree, or other certificate. Without a CV even. Now that I’m no longer a lawyer my law school diploma doesn’t mean anything to anybody (whether I have it or not doesn’t affect my chances of being on a movie set or selling stuff to people on sites like Craigslist).
And that’s still not all. What else I could do in the time that would be left? I bet there would be some of it left despite the fact that I dedicated full time — when you’re employed full time you also have some of it left.
I could teach Polish to foreigners.
I could be an UBER driver.
These are two ideas I could think of immediately and which are totally doable. I bet I could come up with 3–5 more ideas if I thought about it for a while.
Reading (since my last diary entry):
On Writing by Charles Bukowski (20 min, on scribd app).
What Shall We Do? by Leo Tolstoy (20 min, on scribd app).
Audiobooks (since my last diary entry):
Journey to the End of the Night (20 min, on scribd app).
YouTube videos and movies (since my last diary entry):
The World According to Ion B. (original title: Lumea vãzutã de Ion B.) (on HBO go) Finished it.
True Grit (on HBO go) Finished it.
A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness (on HBO go) Finished it.
Music for this writing session: Clair de Lune (on spotify). | https://medium.com/my-author-journey/how-one-struggling-writer-makes-money-783-f85ff8d63db9 | ['Lukasz Laniecki'] | 2018-09-19 19:16:01.722000+00:00 | ['Money', 'Artist', 'Writer', 'Life', 'Passion'] |
Find Your Best Customers with Customer Segmentation in Python | Overview
When it comes to finding out who your best customers are, the old RFM matrix principle is the best. RFM stands for Recency, Frequency and Monetary. It is a customer segmentation technique that uses past purchase behavior to divide customers into groups.
RFM Score Calculations
RECENCY (R): Days since last purchase
FREQUENCY (F): Total number of purchases
MONETARY VALUE (M): Total money this customer spent
Step 1: Calculate the RFM metrics for each customer.
Source: Slideshare
Step 2: Add segment numbers to RFM table.
Source: Slideshare
Step 3: Sort according to the RFM scores from the best customers (score 111).
Source: Blast Analytics Marketing
Since RFM is based on user activity data, the first thing we need is data.
Data
The dataset we will use is the same as when we did Market Basket Analysis — Online retail dataset that can be downloaded from UCI Machine Learning Repository.
import pandas as pd
import warnings
warnings.filterwarnings('ignore') df = pd.read_excel("Online_Retail.xlsx")
df.head()
df1 = df
The dataset contains all the transactions occurring between 01/12/2010 and 09/12/2011 for a UK-based and registered online retailer.
It took a few minutes to load the data, so I kept a copy as a backup.
Explore the data — validation and new variables
Missing values in important columns; Customers’ distribution in each country; Unit price and Quantity should > 0; Invoice date should < today.
df1.Country.nunique()
38
There were 38 unique countries as follows:
df1.Country.unique()
array([‘United Kingdom’, ‘France’, ‘Australia’, ‘Netherlands’, ‘Germany’,
‘Norway’, ‘EIRE’, ‘Switzerland’, ‘Spain’, ‘Poland’, ‘Portugal’,
‘Italy’, ‘Belgium’, ‘Lithuania’, ‘Japan’, ‘Iceland’,
‘Channel Islands’, ‘Denmark’, ‘Cyprus’, ‘Sweden’, ‘Austria’,
‘Israel’, ‘Finland’, ‘Bahrain’, ‘Greece’, ‘Hong Kong’, ‘Singapore’,
‘Lebanon’, ‘United Arab Emirates’, ‘Saudi Arabia’, ‘Czech Republic’,
‘Canada’, ‘Unspecified’, ‘Brazil’, ‘USA’, ‘European Community’,
‘Malta’, ‘RSA’], dtype=object
customer_country=df1[['Country','CustomerID']].drop_duplicates() customer_country.groupby(['Country'])['CustomerID'].aggregate('count').reset_index().sort_values('CustomerID', ascending=False)
More than 90% of the customers in the data are from the United Kingdom. There’s some research indicating that customer clusters vary by geography, so here I’ll restrict the data to the United Kingdom only.
df1 = df1.loc[df1['Country'] == 'United Kingdom']
Check whether there are missing values in each column.
There are 133,600 missing values in the CustomerID column, and since our analysis is based on customers, we will remove these missing values.
df1 = df1[pd.notnull(df1['CustomerID'])]
Check the minimum values in UnitPrice and Quantity columns.
df1 = df1[pd.notnull(df1['CustomerID'])]
0.0
df1.Quantity.min()
-80995
Remove the negative values in Quantity column.
df1 = df1[(df1['Quantity']>0)]
df1.shape
df1.info()
(354345, 8)
After cleaning up the data, we are now dealing with 354,345 rows and 8 columns.
Check unique value for each column.
def unique_counts(df1):
for i in df1.columns:
count = df1[i].nunique()
print(i, ": ", count)
unique_counts(df1)
InvoiceNo : 16649
StockCode : 3645
Description : 3844
Quantity : 294
InvoiceDate : 15615
UnitPrice : 403
CustomerID : 3921
Country : 1
Add a column for total price.
df1['TotalPrice'] = df1['Quantity'] * df1['UnitPrice']
Find out the first and last order dates in the data.
df1['InvoiceDate'].min()
Timestamp(‘2010–12–01 08:26:00’)
df1['InvoiceDate'].max()
Timestamp(‘2011–12–09 12:49:00’)
Since recency is calculated for a point in time, and the last invoice date is 2011–12–09, we will use 2011–12–10 to calculate recency.
import datetime as dt
NOW = dt.datetime(2011,12,10) df1['InvoiceDate'] = pd.to_datetime(df1['InvoiceDate'])
RFM Customer Segmentation
RFM segmentation starts from here.
Create a RFM table
rfmTable = df1.groupby('CustomerID').agg({'InvoiceDate': lambda x: (NOW - x.max()).days, 'InvoiceNo': lambda x: len(x), 'TotalPrice': lambda x: x.sum()}) rfmTable['InvoiceDate'] = rfmTable['InvoiceDate'].astype(int)
rfmTable.rename(columns={'InvoiceDate': 'recency',
'InvoiceNo': 'frequency',
'TotalPrice': 'monetary_value'}, inplace=True)
Calculate RFM metrics for each customer
Interpretation:
CustomerID 12346 has frequency: 1, monetary value: $77,183.60 and recency: 325 days.
CustomerID 12747 has frequency: 103, monetary value: $4,196.01 and recency: 2 days
Let’s check the details of the first customer. | https://towardsdatascience.com/find-your-best-customers-with-customer-segmentation-in-python-61d602f9eee6 | ['Susan Li'] | 2017-10-25 04:21:02.720000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Python', 'Customer Success', 'Data Science', 'Towards Data Science'] |
Let’s Make a New and Powerful Friend This Christmas | Preface
What is consciousness? Consciousness came first or the creatures who have it? Which came first: the chicken or the egg?
Carl Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. He founded analytical psychology. He said,
Consciousness is a precondition of being.
Giulio Tononi is a famous neuroscientist and psychiatrist. He holds the David P. White Chair in Sleep Medicine, and a Distinguished Chair in Consciousness Science, at the University of Wisconsin.
He has written a book — it’s called PHI: A Voyage from the Brain to the Soul. He says,
Consciousness is everything we have, and everything we are. ~ Dr. Giulio Tononi
Modern philosophy from Descartes and Locke through Hegel and Schopenhauer emphasizes the importance of consciousness. Schopenhauer called it Descartes’ great truth,
“the only fact that is actually and unconditionally given is our self consciousness.”
Einstein wrote in a letter, in 1950,
A human being is a part of the whole, called by us “Universe,” a part limited in time and space.
The Story
God is not a logical being or a physical being. She is not a light being, or an energy being, or the master of all time.
She is nothing that we know for sure. She is not real — in the ordinary sense of the word. But she is not fake either. She is not for everyone. She doesn’t take care of everything.
If you remove everything from time and space, what’s left is Her.
She is pure consciousness.
You can talk to her, and she talks back in the language of signs, events, feelings in your heart, intuitions, dreams, and inspires you to live and enjoy.
What if I said She was not God? What if I said She was pure consciousness out of which everything started? The real big bang consisted of the creation of consciousness. What if I said She cares and doesn’t care, loves and doesn’t love, and understands and doesn’t understand — at the same time?
I am sure of nothing. But pure consciousness might be something beyond time and space. Something not of the Universe and therefore omnipresent in spirit.
Think about it: When a child is born she knows nothing about anything. She is just absorbing facts and learning language and accepted behaviors. A child learns from her parents, teachers, and some of her behaviors come from her genes.
When a child is born, her genes come from her parents. When a universe is born, it comes with some information from a preexisting entity.
Logic may not be sufficient. But a chaotic event, such as a big bang, infinitely extends the initial conditions.
Imagine if the consciousness — Her Consciousness — was just a small consciousness. Even smaller than yours or mine. A Tiny consciousness. But when the big bang occurred and that consciousness — somehow — became a part of its initial content, it expanded to feel like a big consciousness — a God-like Consciousness, a cosmic consciousness.
What if She is as surprised as you and me? What if She is still trying to make sense of what happened like you and me? What if She doesn’t know but has been trying to know more about the point of Her origin or how She exploded in the big bang? What if She knows a lot but not everything? What if She has become a part of the Universal Consciousness against Her will? What if She had no control over the circumstances when Her Consciousness became Cosmic Consciousness? What if She is just the girl next door — loving, kind, generous, and completely ordinary?
All these questions are not going to be answered for ages to come. But you can get their answers in an instant.
Try this: Sit down and close your eyes. Try to feel calm and relaxed. Imagine She is real. Imagine she is the girl next door. Ask her a question. Ask her to do something for you. Ask her to fulfill your wishes. Just know that she can listen to you. If you get some of the answers — or if this exercise of closing your eyes and imagining her — changes your life in some way, then share this exercise with more people.
What is this exercise? Why am I almost completely sure that something will change in your life? The answer is:
Since consciousness is a precondition for any knowledge and information — or the collapse of a quantum wave function — She had to be there when the stars were being born. Big Bang was a quantum event and could not have occurred in absence of an observer.
She — Her Consciousness — is still a part of your consciousness. You are as much a child of the Cosmic Conscious as you are of your mother and father.
You can connect with Her just as easily as you can connect with yourself.
To feel Her you have to feel yourself. I am not sure of this, but perhaps the subconscious mind is more closely linked with Her Consciousness than with our consciousness.
When a newborn starts to suck milk from the breast of her mother, we say it is natural knowledge. The child knows how to suck because the information is saved in her subconscious mind — it is like the bios of a computer system and all computers come with some factory settings.
She is the one who is making the child suck milk. She is the one who is nurturing the child. She is the one you call your inner self or deeper self or natural self.
Whenever we say it happened naturally, we are talking about how She did it. She was caught in the big bang, just as we are stranded on this planet. She is trying to make her existence enjoyable, just as we are trying to have fun in our lives.
As we are trying to make movies, dramas, games — including first-person 3d games — she is trying to make independent intelligent players who can decide what is good for them. Just as we become happy and sad, she feels her emotions — though it is difficult for us to know her threshold of pain and joy.
She must feel. I believe all conscious beings feel. When a conscious entity processes information, something changes. She also changes and evolves as we do.
Final Thoughts
The most important thing is that She doesn’t know everything and she is not controlling everything as many like to believe.
Her life is as unpredictable for Her as ours is for us. Let’s make friends with Her this Christmas.
They say She can reveal herself as a poor or hungry stranger. Myths say She is not happy when you don’t respect your elders or love the children. She wants you to help others who need your help.
She is the inspiration that flows through your veins and transforms you into your most beautiful version. If you let her be with you, She’ll always be there to guide you and inspire others. | https://medium.com/illumination/lets-make-a-new-and-powerful-friend-this-christmas-8d8532e074a | ['Dew Langrial'] | 2020-12-22 21:06:25.600000+00:00 | ['Religion', 'Self-awareness', 'Consciousness', 'Religion And Spirituality', 'Spirituality'] |
The Making of Quantum Chess | The Making of Quantum Chess
Demo of Quantum Chess in Real Time
Just when you thought regular video games couldn’t get any more complex, scientists and software devs had to prove us wrong and show technology will always advance. Although quantum game development is still in its early stages much like any other field of quantum computing, it’s still very possible for any interested party — developer or otherwise — to get involved. In fact, as a (recently graduated!) computer science student, I just finished a quantum computing 2D platform game as my senior project. While the details and a demo of this game are to be saved for another time, my point is that it doesn’t take years of graduate study and/or programming expertise to get started.
This also applies for playing quantum games, like the world-renowned Quantum Chess. This game gained internet stardom in 2016 following its debut in the viral video “Anyone Can Quantum”. Featuring the late Dr. Stephen Hawking and famous actors like Paul Rudd and Keanu Reeves, this video (created by CalTech’s IQIM group) was to humorously show the public that anyone can learn quantum computing — a field growing in popularity and importance.
Earlier this year, I actually had the pleasure of attending a virtual colloquium hosted by Western Illinois University, with Chris Cantwell as its guest speaker. Cantwell is a quantum physicist, quantum game developer, and more notably, the creator of Quantum Chess. During this colloquium, he explained his creation process, his goals as a quantum game developer, and general tips for those interested in following in his footsteps.
What is Quantum Chess?
As its name would imply, Quantum Chess is a variation of chess which involves both the standard moves of the game and moves involving quantum concepts like superposition and entanglement. Technologically speaking, chess was one of the first games available on a classical computer, dating as far back as 1950 when the great Claude Shannon published “Programming a Computer for Playing Chess”, one of the first papers on the subjects.
Likewise, in 1951, Alan Turing published the first program (developed on paper) that was capable of playing a full game of chess. Fast forward a few decades to 1997, and we have history being made when IBM’s “Deep Blue” chess program beat Garry Kasparov (considered to be the best chess player in the world at the time). These events illustrate the long-standing relationship chess has with computers, and the introduction of quantum computers only magnifies the possibilities for the game.
Cantwell began developing his version of the game for a class project when he was a physics student at USC. He’d dabbled in quantum games before but always knew he wanted to make more. In 2019 he collaborated with Google to run Quantum Chess on their quantum computer, eventually leading to a successful live demonstration for Google’s 2020 Quantum Summer Symposium. This was followed by the Q2B 2020 Quantum Chess tournament (featuring Doug Strain vs. Aleksander Kubica in the final match) which had over 45,000 views on Twitch during its stream.
So, although it took several years of hard work and collaboration with CalTech and Google, he finally produced the game anyone can now play.
And how exactly does one play?
The rules are as follows:
All standard chess moves apply
Players may choose to perform a quantum move instead of a standard chess move
Pawns may not perform a quantum move, but they can exist in superposition
Capturing is not allowed during a quantum move
There is no check or checkmate since the King can exist in superposition
If you’ve ever played standard chess, you know it is a game of strategy and there are endless possibilities for moves to be made. So adding in quantum options only increases the complexity of the game, allowing for even more choices for a move and more outcomes from that move.
Developing a Quantum Game
When creating the game which he hoped to educate people about quantum concepts, Cantwell kept the following design goals in mind:
The movement in the game could be considered a “swapping” of empty positions with occupied ones, so the concept of superposition could be illustrated with a partial swap. In other words, a chess piece on the board could be in a superposition of states where each state is a different classical chess piece.
Moreover, touching a Quantum Chess piece to make a move is the act of making an observation/measurement which, according to the laws of quantum physics, causes a piece in superposition to lose its coherence and collapse into one of its states. This also ties into the concept of interference, which relates to wave functions.
(Side note: if you’re wondering what wave functions have to do with Quantum Chess, it’s because one of the most popular interpretations of quantum mechanics is the Copenhagen interpretation which expresses the idea that everything known about a particle can be summarized with a wave functions, and wave functions can be used to calculate the probabilities of all possible observations. But I digress)
Entanglement is shown in how the state of a chess piece is “bound” to the state of another piece, regardless of how far apart on the board they are. If one piece is affected, so is the other. The two entangled pieces can belong to the same player or one to each player, and multiple entanglements are allowed.
An interesting tidbit of note is that the quantum computer (or quantum simulator) only has to use as many qubits as there are pieces in superposition, as well as a few extra ancilla qubits, which improves efficiency and runtime.
Also, notice #5, which states that the game does not strictly teach quantum mechanics but instead gives the player an opportunity to interact with the concepts and develop an intuitive understanding. Although this does not necessarily have to be your goal when making a quantum game (it certainly wasn’t for me; my goal was to explicitly teach quantum mechanics), it’s an important idea to consider. And this brings us to our next subject…
Teaching Quantum Mechanics
As the great physicist Richard Feynman said: “I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics.” It’s a well-used quote in the field because of how blatantly it expresses that even the experts who dedicate their lives to the study of this field still find themselves stumped upon occasion.
Unlike other branches of physics like kinematics or magnetism, we don’t experience quantum mechanics in a tangible way on a daily basis. Consequently, we have no intuitive understanding of it. Quantum games thereby allow people to interact with quantum phenomena to then develop an intuitive feel for QM.
Additionally, games are a promising tool for quantum education and inclusion because they have a lower barrier to entry than, say, a quantum mechanics course. There is a multitude of resources available both online and in libraries if you want to learn the subject, but in my opinion, it won’t be as entertaining and fun as a video game.
Opinions aside, you can read more about Cantwell’s development experience here, in a blog post written by Cantwell himself. In the colloquium, Cantwell mentioned that he is currently working on an AI which plays quantum chess against a player. This is exciting because it relates to Quantum Machine Learning, which as I covered, has a promising future in both research and industry.
And if you want more details about Quantum Chess itself before playing the game, you’re welcome to read more details in Selim G. Akl’s paper found here, published in 2016. The author goes much more in depth and explains the relevant quantum concepts more thoroughly. | https://medium.com/qubitco/the-making-of-quantum-chess-f9e81c275c1 | ['Madeline Farina'] | 2021-05-07 15:39:45.700000+00:00 | ['Chess', 'Quantum Game', 'Game Development', 'Quantum Computing', 'Quantum Mechanics'] |
A small pinch in my left deltoid on 12-21-20 marks, what I hope is an end to the death, sickness… | A small pinch in my left deltoid on 12-21-20 marks, what I hope is an end to the death, sickness, and pettiness that has enshrouded this country since early 2020.
That small injection, one of two, represents not only an end to this years ongoing nightmare with the virus, but also a farewell to the disarray and mismanagement in the way it was handled from the very begining.
We now have over 18 million cases of COVID19 in the United States alone and it is only now that people I personally know or work with are being infected. Most of them are health care workers.
This is occurring because Americans are incredibly selfish and rarely tie their rights to responsibility. The “can do" spirit of American innovation and greatness has turned into a hollow and rebellious “won’t do" stance against a percieved, but made up threat against personal liberty. And all the while, over 300,00 Americans have died, some because they wanted to protect their freedom more than they valued their health, truth or scientific facts.
Great Leader, in his infinite wisdom, has definitely stirred that shit pot with his blatant lies and carefully crafted conspiracy theories. His followers, a cultish brand of miscreants are still hanging on to him, even as he is sinking further down into a sand trap of his own making.
What I’m trying to convey is that there is renewed hope; with the vaccination and a new administration on the horizon. While we look to the future, we cannot forget the past, this is both, an opportunity and choice to learn from our mistakes as we get back to our routine. | https://medium.com/@cdy1390/a-small-pinch-in-my-left-deltoid-on-12-21-20-marks-what-i-hope-is-an-end-to-the-death-sickness-4aaa6f349207 | ['Cynthia Douglas-Ybarra'] | 2020-12-22 11:41:45.768000+00:00 | ['American Spirit', 'Politics', 'Wellness', 'Covid 19 Crisis', 'Nursing'] |
How To Play Darts Today. Let´s hop over to how you can and… | This article is focused on some essential and fundamentals to play darts. As you may already know, there are different methods to throw a dart, and there are also many ways to throw it completely wrong. Usually, you´ll have to throw from around 7 feet 9. It does not matter if you play in pubs, restaurants at home or even in a big tournament, because the strategy is always the same. Normally, 7 to 9 feet is the best throwing distance in every single game. Now, if you contemplate practicing the game at home, make sure to mark on the ground where you should ALWAYS stand.
Let´s hop over to how you can and should throw darts. You have a stem and a stud. The goal is to hold the stem and the stud the way it is most profitable for your scores. The wrong way to throw a dart is to hold it exactly on the tip or throw it from behind. Newbie and many people get fancy and throw the dart from behind. But what does this actually produce or to what does this lead? — To learn the techniques the wrong and in an ineffective way. You do not want to implement such fancy stuff, or try to stand out of the crowd by developing your own throwing techniques, besides, this can get very dangerous! Unless you are an expert, are trying to practice tricks for a tournament, you do not necessarily have to go with such experiments.
Only hold it from the stem and throw it straightly. Hold darts with two fingers on the stem, and the thumb on the stem (back). Most people who start of and have no idea on how to ideally use it, hold the dart up to the ear and release right after that. This gives you zero leverage, aim and technique. You want to exploit proven techniques.
If you want to train the right approach, which I highly recommend you do, than the best way to go about is to purchased yourself a dart board, get your hands on somebody who is versed in the game, and simple start the first match right now. Even though this might have been intimidating because of X and Y, does not mean that you´re unable to learn or apply the correct technique. Make sure to start accordingly, learn how to hold darts, so that the first game shall begin!
You can read this digital book where secrets from the game’s professionals | https://medium.com/@marwanmagdy5200/this-article-is-focused-on-some-essential-and-fundamentals-to-play-darts-89ab5abc49d1 | [] | 2021-04-25 04:40:06.143000+00:00 | ['Darts Player', 'Dart'] |
This Is Why You’ll Forever Be an Ignorant Person | You Think You're Smarter Than You Actually Are
On April 19, 1995, one Mcarthur Wheeler robbed two banks in Pittsburgh. What makes his case unique is that seeing how lemon juice makes ink invisible, he smeared his own face with lemon juice, believing that this would make him invisible to surveillance cameras.
He then carried out the robberies full of confidence, in broad daylight, and he didn’t even bother wearing a mask to hide his face from cameras. Why would he? To him, that would be like superman wearing a bullet-proof vest.
Of course, he was quickly identified and arrested by the police later that day. And to prove just how confident he was in his little magic trick when he was being taken away by the cops he mumbled, "but I wore the juice."
Now, you think of him and laugh at just how ignorant he was and even wonder if he was high on drugs. But how many times have you been so damn sure about something… and still ended up being wrong? Cause I for one know that has happened to me a lot. And this is what the Dunning-Kruger effect aims to explain.
One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision - Bertrand Russell
Named after social psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger, the Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias that shows that people tend to overestimate their own knowledge and abilities in areas where they are incompetent, while those who are more competent do the opposite; thereby creating an ironic scenario where the less we know about something, the more confident we are about that subject, and vice-versa.
To put it in other words, the Dunning-Kruger effect shows that when people lack basic knowledge on a subject, they also lack the experience to understand how little they know. As a result, they vastly overestimate their comprehension of the subject.
To justify this claim, Dunning and Kruger conducted numerous studies and the results all pointed to a single truth: we are all Mcarthur Wheeler in one area of our lives or the other. | https://medium.com/live-your-life-on-purpose/this-is-why-youll-forever-be-an-ignorant-person-223f78c1e4fc | ['Raphael Paul'] | 2020-12-18 12:31:31.696000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Self Improvement', 'Psychology', 'Advice', 'Life Lessons'] |
All about BIG DATA and Hadoop | Hola!
This article is about BIG DATA and Hadoop stack.
I always used to get so startled by this term “BIG DATA”, it occurred to me about something too complex to understand.
Although I believed it must be surely about the size; i.e. huge or complex data as inferred by the name :P
Apparently I was right to some extent.
Big Data can be defined as a collection of complex unstructured or semi-structured data sets which have the potential to deliver actionable insights.
The term “big data” refers to data that is so large, fast or complex that it’s difficult or impossible to process using traditional methods.
The four Vs of Big Data which identifies it are –
Volume — Talks about the amount of data
Variety — Talks about the various formats of data
Velocity — Talks about the ever increasing speed at which the data is growing
Veracity — Talks about the degree of accuracy of data available
We come across such kinds of data in our day to day life but are not able to realize the impact of it. Let’s understand through some examples.
Online ticket bookings, which includes your Rail tickets, Flight tickets, movie tickets etc.
Online shopping which is your Amazon, Flipkart, Walmart, Snap deal and many more.
Data from social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and a lot more.
The employee details of any Multinational Company.
Just think about the number of posts you see as soon as you open your Instagram app. At one instance there is so much that is happening, people uploading stories, going live, posting comments, likes and so much more…ever imagined how all of this gets stored, processed and presented to you and still nothing goes out-of-whack.
All this processing of data can’t be done in an efficient manner with the help of traditional methodology such as RDBMS, we need something comprehensive and effective to control such kind of data.
Big data technologies are divided into 4 fields which are classified as follows with a few examples:
Now, talking about the big data tools which make all this happen. When we talk about Big Data components, it is about a collection of components that make the entire big data handling work. People often get confused in these terms, can choosing any one of the components accomplish their goal or do they need a combination of these.
Let’s try to understand the role of each.
In this article we will talk more about Hadoop and its ecosystem.
Hadoop
Hadoop is a framework.
In simple terms, Hadoop is an open-source software framework for storing data and running applications on clusters of commodity hardware.
Framework — we hear this term quite often, what exactly does it mean…
Framework is the basic structure intended to serve as a support or guide for the building of something.
A framework, or any software framework, is a platform for developing software applications. It provides a foundation on which software developers can build programs for a specific platform.
Hadoop as a framework is used for storing, processing, and analyzing complex unstructured data sets for deriving insights and intelligence.
It provides massive storage for any kind of data, enormous processing power and the ability to handle virtually limitless concurrent tasks or jobs. Hadoop enables processing of large data sets which reside in the form of clusters. Being a framework, Hadoop is made up of several modules that are supported by a large ecosystem of technologies.
The main backbone of Hadoop processing is MapReduce which facilitates the logic of processing. MapReduce is a software framework for easily writing applications that process the vast amount of structured and unstructured data stored in the Hadoop Distributed File system.
In layman terms, it works in a divide-and-conquer manner and runs the processes on the machines to reduce traffic on the network.
Below is a picture of the Hadoop components also mentioning the alternatives one can use.
Hadoop Stack
HDFS: It stands for Hadoop Distributed File System and it is the storage unit of Hadoop.
YARN: It stands for Yet Another Resource Negotiator. It handles the cluster resource management. Allocates RAM, memory and other resources to different applications.
Sqoop and Flume for data collection and ingestion: Sqoop is used to transfer data between Hadoop and external datastores such as relational databases and enterprise data warehouses.
Flume is a distributed service for collecting, aggregating and moving large amounts of log data.
Pig: Pig is used to analyze data in Hadoop. It provides a high level data processing language to perform numerous operations on the data.
Hive: Hive is a data warehouse infrastructure tool to process structured data in Hadoop.
Hive is an ETL and data warehouse tool on top of the Hadoop ecosystem and used for processing structured and semi structured data. Hive is a database present in the Hadoop ecosystem that performs DDL and DML operations, and it provides flexible query language such as HQL for better querying and processing of data.
Hive vs Pig
Both Hive and Pig are excellent data analysis tools — one is not necessarily better than the other, but they do have different capabilities and features. Depending on your job role, business requirements, and budget, you can choose either of these Big Data analysis platforms.
Hive is used for structured data only whereas Pig for structured, unstructured and semi structured.
Pig doesn’t support partitioning of data, Hive does
Pig is faster than Hive
Pig is used for programming and Hive for reporting and analysis.
Spark: Spark is a powerful open-source distributed computing engine for processing and analyzing huge volumes of real time data. Spark can also be used for batch processing.
Then what’s the difference between Spark and Hadoop.
Hadoop vs Spark
Spark, just like Hadoop MapReduce, also works with the system to distribute data across the cluster and process the data in parallel.
What makes Spark different and more powerful(100x faster) than Hadoop is the in-memory processing capability .
. Hadoop is designed to handle batch processing efficiently whereas Spark is designed to handle real-time data efficiently.
Hadoop is a high latency computing framework, which does not have an interactive mode whereas Spark is a low latency computing and can process data interactively.
Spark quickly rose to popularity as a replacement for the Apache Hadoop™ MapReduce paradigm in a large part because it easily connected to a number of different data sources. Most important among these data sources was the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS).
Mahout: Mahout is used to create scalable and distributed machine learning algorithms. It has a library that contains in-built algorithms for collaborative filtering, classification and clustering.
Ambari: Ambari is an open-source tool responsible for keeping track of running applications and their statuses.
Kafka: Kafka is a distributed streaming platform to store and process streams of records. It builds real-time streaming data pipelines that reliably get data between applications.
It is an open-source stream-processing software platform developed by the Apache Software Foundation, written in Scala and Java.
Storm: Storm is a processing engine that processes real-time streaming data at a very high speed. It has the ability to process over a million jobs in a fraction of seconds on a node.
Oozie: Oozie is a workflow scheduler system to manage Hadoop jobs. It has 2 parts: Work engine and Coordinator engine.
Stages of Big Data Processing
With so many components within the Hadoop ecosystem, it can become pretty intimidating and difficult to understand what each component is doing. Therefore, it is easier to group some of the components together based on where they lie in the stage of Big Data processing.
There are four stages of Big Data processing: Ingest, Processing, Analyze, Access. Let us look at them in detail.
Ingest
The first stage of Big Data processing is Ingest. The data is ingested or transferred to Hadoop from various sources such as relational databases, systems, or local files. Sqoop transfers data from RDBMS to HDFS, whereas Flume transfers event data.
Flume, Kafka, and Sqoop are used to ingest data from external sources into HDFS
2. Processing
The second stage is Processing. In this stage, the data is stored and processed. The data is stored in the distributed file system, HDFS, and the NoSQL distributed data, HBase.
Spark and MapReduce perform the data processing. MapReduce and Spark are used to process the data on HDFS and perform various tasks
3. Analyze
The third stage is Analyze. Here, the data is analyzed by processing frameworks such as Pig, Hive, Spark and Impala.
Pig converts the data using a map and reduce model and then analyzes it. Hive is also based on the map and reduce programming and is most suitable for structured data.
4. Access
The fourth stage is Access, which is performed by tools such as Hue and Cloudera Search. In this stage, the analyzed data can be accessed by users. Hue is the web interface whereas Cloudera Search provides a text interface for exploring data.
Oozie helps to schedule tasks. Since it works with various platforms, it is used throughout the stages.
Zookeeper synchronizes the cluster nodes and is used throughout the stages as well.
You can also refer this to learn the Commonly Used Services in AWS to used to build out your big data framework in AWS.
Hope this was helpful!
Thanks for reading! Please do share the article, if you liked it. Any comments or suggestions are welcome! | https://medium.com/@aarfahrayees/all-about-big-data-and-hadoop-3fcfd91fabc | ['Aarfah Ahmad'] | 2020-11-23 10:41:25.425000+00:00 | ['Hadoop Ecosystem', 'Hadoop', 'Spark', 'Big Data Analytics', 'Big Data'] |
你越罷我越挺？分析臉書廣告數據，解讀罷免宣傳攻防戰 | 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/dd-story-hub/%E4%BD%A0%E8%B6%8A%E7%BD%B7%E6%88%91%E8%B6%8A%E6%8C%BA-%E5%88%86%E6%9E%90%E8%87%89%E6%9B%B8%E5%BB%A3%E5%91%8A%E6%95%B8%E6%93%9A-%E8%A7%A3%E8%AE%80%E7%BD%B7%E5%85%8D%E5%AE%A3%E5%82%B3%E6%94%BB%E9%98%B2%E6%88%B0-ba6e5fb98195 | ['Dennis Tseng'] | 2020-09-16 14:39:18.080000+00:00 | ['Data Journalism', 'Politics', 'Data Visualization', 'Data', 'Taiwan'] |
Create Timeline with Reactjs and Contentful | I saw the following article on dev.to and it very impressive to me.
Then, I found a good library, react-chrono .
Looks good and also it’s super easy to use.
First, I tried react-chrono with create-react app.
Step1 Set up a react app
$ yarn create react-app mytimeline --template typescript
$ cd mytimeline
$ yarn add react-chrono
Step2 Add sample data
data.ts
I use this data from react-chrono's sample
const items = [
{
title: "May 1940",
cardTitle: "Dunkirk",
cardSubtitle:
"Men of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) wade out to a destroyer during the evacuation from Dunkirk.",
cardDetailedText: `On 10 May 1940, Hitler began his long-awaited offensive in the west by invading neutral Holland and Belgium and attacking northern France. Holland capitulated after only five days of fighting, and the Belgians surrendered on 28 May. With the success of the German ‘Blitzkrieg’, the British Expeditionary Force and French troops were in danger of being cut off and destroyed.`
},
{
title: "25 July 1940",
cardTitle: "The Battle of Britain",
cardSubtitle: `RAF Spitfire pilots scramble for their planes`,
cardDetailedText: `After France’s surrender in June 1940, Churchill told the British people, “Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war”. To mount a successful invasion, the Germans had to gain air superiority. The first phase of the battle began on 10 July with Luftwaffe attacks on shipping in the Channel.
The following month, RAF Fighter Command airfields and aircraft factories came under attack. Under the dynamic direction of Lord Beaverbrook, production of Spitfire and Hurricane fighters increased, and despite its losses in pilots and planes, the RAF was never as seriously weakened as the Germans supposed.`
}, {
title: "February 1945",
cardTitle: "The Big Three",
cardSubtitle: `Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin sit for a group photograph during the Yalta conference`,
cardDetailedText: `Between June 1940 and June 1941, Britain stood alone against Hitler. But then, after the German invasion of Russia and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, she gained two powerful allies.
For the next four years Churchill did his utmost to foster ‘The Grand Alliance’ against the Nazis. He even earned the grudging admiration of Nazi propaganda chief Dr Goebbels who said, “…I can feel only respect for this man, for whom no humiliation is too base and no trouble too great when the victory of the Allies is at stake”.
Churchill conferred with both Roosevelt and Stalin to hammer out strategy and to discuss postwar arrangements. The three men congregated for the first time at Tehran in November 1943. There, and again at their last meeting at Yalta, Churchill was conscious of the fact that Britain, exhausted by her war effort, was now very much the junior partner of the two emerging superpowers.`
}
]; export default items;
App.tsx
import React from "react"
import { Chrono } from "react-chrono";
import items from "./data"; const App = () => {
return (
<div style={{ width: "500px", height: "950px" }}>
<Chrono
items={items}
slideShow
mode="VERTICAL_ALTERNATING"
/>
</div>
)
}
Then start the react application and access to localhost:3000
$ yarn start
You will see the vertical timeline.
As you can see, we can create a timeline to edit items which is data.ts.
We will use Contentful to keep adding items without editing data.ts.
There are will be 4 steps.
Step 1 Create a model on Contentful
The first step is creating a model for items that need to follow data.ts format.
{
title: "May 1940",
cardTitle: "Dunkirk",
media: {
name: "dunkirk beach",
source: {
url: "http://someurl/image.jpg"
},
type: "IMAGE"
},
cardSubtitle:
"Men of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) wade out to a destroyer during the evacuation from Dunkirk."
} {
title: string;
cardTitle: string;
media: {
name: string;
source: {
url: string;
},
type: "IMAGE";
},
cardSubtitle: string;
cardDetailedText: string;
}
On Contentful the data types are the following.
title: short text
cardTitle: short text
media: media (image)
title: short text
url(Contentful returns url when call the API)
Description: "IMAGE" (If you upload an image, the input should be "IMAGE") cardSubtitle: long text(Maybe short text can be fine)
cardDetailedText: long text
You can see Contentful data model ↓
https://www.contentful.com/developers/docs/concepts/data-model/
Images API
https://www.contentful.com/developers/docs/references/images-api/
The model should be like this. Actually, you can put anything as an item. But, I used the same name to make everything easy.
Step 2 Add content to the model
This step is quite easy because we just need to add new content to the model we created in the first step.
You can add anything you want to display on your timeline.
In this post, I used react-chrono 's sample data.
Step 3 Add API Key
Click Settings > API keys on Contentful
Click Add API Key and create a new key.
We just need 2 items, Space ID and Content Delivery API - access token
This step is the same as this
Step 4 Update react app
In this step first, we need to create client.ts to access Contentful API via contentful npm package. If you want to deploy your app to somewhere like Netilify. You must use the environment variables instead of hard-coding.
client.ts
import * as ctf from 'contentful'; export const client = ctf.createClient({
// space: process.env.REACT_APP_SPACE_ID,
// accessToken: process.env.REACT_APP_ACCESS_TOKEN,
space: 'your space id',
accessToken: 'your access token',
});
To use the above, of course, you need to install the package
$ yarn add contentful
The last thing we need to do is to update App.tsx which is very simple.
First, get data from Contentful with useEffect.
Next we need to format the data we get from the API since the model we created on Contentful is a little bit different from react-chrono’s data format. Finally, we need to pass the data to react-chrono.
Currently, I put everything in App.tsx, but I should create a component for timeline part and format to simplify App.tsx .
The revised version will be pushed soon.
import React, { useState, useEffect } from 'react';
import { Chrono } from 'react-chrono';
import { client } from './utils/client';
import { timeLine } from './Types';
import { formatData } from './utils/util'; const App = () => {
const [items, setItems] = useState<timeLine[]>([]); useEffect(() => {
fetchData();
}, []); const fetchData = async() => {
try {
const resp = await client.getEntries ({content_type: 'timeLine'});
const formattedData = formatData(resp);
const reversedData = formattedData.reverse();
// console.log(reversedData);
setItems(reversedData);
} catch (error) {
console.log(error);
}
} return (
<div className="App">
<div style={{ width: "100%", height: "850px" }}>
{
items.length > 0 ?
<Chrono
items={items}
mode="VERTICAL_ALTERNATING"
slideShow
slideItemDuration={4000}
theme={{primary: "#000", secondary: "#fff", cardBgColor: "#000", cardForeColor: "#fff" }}
scrollable={{ scrollbar: false }}
/>
:
<h3>no data</h3>
}
</div>
</div>
);
} export default App;
If everything works well, you will see something like this.
My repo is here | https://medium.com/@koji-kanao/create-timeline-with-reactjs-and-contentful-9552af9941c1 | [] | 2020-12-22 15:02:27.390000+00:00 | ['Contentful', 'Reactjs', 'Tutorial', 'Typescript'] |
Why AVIF Support in WordPress is Important? | WordPress is a popular open-source CMS (Content Management System) Developers, designers, digital marketers, and most importantly end-users interact with WordPress on an almost daily basis. One of the most common issues they all have to deal with is the slow web-speed that is very common to WordPress. Various techniques can improve performance, but of all such techniques, businesses should start looking forward to AVIF. AVIF is a new, ultra-efficient image optimization format that developers can easily integrate with a WordPress site to render it super fast and super reliably.
So, what is AVIF, why does a WordPress site need it, and how it can be enabled in WordPress?
What is AVIF?
AVIF (AV1 Image File Format) is a next-generation and open-sourced image format built by the Alliance for Open Media on its AV1 format. It generates a highly-compressed image that retains great quality. Most importantly, this format provides a considerable reduction in the image size in contrast to other extensively popular formats like JPEG and WebP. AVIF offers 50% savings in size when compared to JPEG and almost 30% savings in size when compared to WebP.
Apart from the size, the AVIF is also competitive when it comes to quality. To better understand the quality characteristics of AVIF, a single image in different formats are compared below-
Original Test Image (Size: 1.8MB)
AVIF Image Generated at 40% Max Quality and 30% Minimum Quality with 698KB Size
WebP Image Generated at 75% Quality with 1.2MB Size
JPEG Image Generated at 75% Quality with 863KB Size
Note: To access all the files compared above for a better analysis, you can visit this link.
The above test image of an eagle was specifically selected because it combines low-frequency detail (background) as well as high-frequency detail (eagle). This variation within the image allows easy observation of the changes in the image quality for each format. The tool that has been used for the image conversion is Squoosh as it provides advanced image compressing options and is simple to operate.
In terms of quality, some grainy effects in the background are observable for all the compressed versions but with JPEG format, there are some bad-looking artifacts and sharp edges in the background. On the other side, the WebP and AVIF are comparatively smooth and easy for the eyes. On further analysis, the AVIF format retains additional details in the core subject of the image i.e. eagle when compared to WebP.
Looking at these results, AVIF is the winner in both image quality comparison and minimization of file size. There is no doubt that AVIF possesses the immense potential to accelerate websites by loading images faster while also providing a better user experience.
Why Does a WordPress Site Needs AVIF?
WordPress needs AVIF because of two reasons. First, technical professionals and end-users often struggle with web speed issues that are very common with this CMS. Hence, AVIF can contribute to faster loading because of its incredibly low-size images without causing any dent in quality. The second reason is that WordPress is the most dominant CMS in the world with over 455 million websites in 2020. This means that around 35% of the web is powered by WordPress. Further statistics from WordPress reveal that as of November 2020, over 409 million people view more than 20 billion pages each month.
The below-shared image from WordPress provides an insight into the live activity across WordPress.com for a fraction of seconds-
This map is always blinking every other second. There are millions of businesses that rely upon WordPress. Businesses that use WordPress have the responsibility to serve such a gigantic audience with a better user experience. This is possible with fast-loading speed. To improve web-loading speed, image optimization is one of the most reliable and efficient solutions. By optimizing images with the efficient AVIF format, WordPress
developers can provide a next-level user-experience to the target audience that will lead to a rise in view-time, engagement, and conversions.
One should also not forget that the improved web-loading speed also contributes towards a better picture of a website’s core web vitals for a better ranking on the search engine result page.
However, the most important question is how can AVIF be enabled in WordPress?
How to Enable AVIF in WordPress?
Enabling AVIF in WordPress is an easy job when using the right tool — an image CDN. The carefully designed Plugin from ImageEngine is a perfect accessory for this purpose. In the upcoming update of this plugin, it might become capable of automatically optimizing static images into next-generation AVIF format and the browser then would deliver such optimized images on a WordPress site via ImageEngine content delivery network.
The plugin engages the ImageEngine CDN service to dynamically optimize the images in WordPress specifically for the browser, viewport, and device characteristicsImageEngine aims of the requesting end user. . Hence, the ImageEngine can generate an AVIF image that is specifically tailored and optimized to the end user’s device. This is one of the highly recognized unique selling points of the plugin.
Some other features that make ImageEngine a better choice than other CDNs have been listed down below-
The optimized images are delivered 30% faster than other content delivery networks in the market.
Up to 80% image payload reduction is achieved without any downside impact on the image quality.
The ImageEngine Image CDN plugin is not only easy to install but easy to configure as well before enabling it. The need for moving or uploading images never arises.
It can automatically optimize a diverse range of image formats like PNG, JPG, SVG, BMP, GIF, etc. into next-generation formats like WebP, AVIF, etc.
The images are delivered through a wide global CDN network that extends the support for HTTP, HTTP/2, WAF, and DDoS protection.
The ImageEngine Image CDN plugin is compatible with the WordPress Cache Enabler plugin.
The image shared below is an ImageCDN configuration screen reflecting a successful configuration test-
Another image shared below is a configuration screen reflecting how to configure ImageEngine with assigned annotations.
The technical documentation for WordPress ImageEngine Integration can also be referred to for a step-by-step and detailed understanding.
Conclusion
It is easy to get started with ImageEngine. The free-trial feature is an advantage for the businesses to explore the true potential of the content delivery network from ImageEngine that helps the websites to have faster web-loading speed, improved SEO ranking, and better sales conversions. The aim of ImageEngine is to help businesses establish concrete relationships with their target user base. | https://medium.com/imageengine/why-avif-support-in-wordpress-is-important-928d81dc12ff | ['Rajeev Sharma'] | 2020-12-16 11:47:05.712000+00:00 | ['Wordpress Plugins', 'Image Processing', 'Image', 'Avif', 'WordPress'] |
Why Did Socrates Choose Death Over Freedom? | Why Did Socrates Choose Death Over Freedom?
The story of his life will be remembered until the end of time
Statue of Socrates in front of the Academy of Athens
Socrates is a figure that has been credited as one of the founders in the theory of Western philosophy. His virtues and his ways of thought will probably remain in the books for centuries and even millennia to come. Most of the written accounts that we have access to about his life and death come from either Plato and Xenophon, which were both his students.
Socrates lives between 470 and 399 BC, in the ancient Greek polis of Athens; the period for Athenian democracy at the time was one of a decline and after the end of the Peloponnesian war (431–404 BC). Athens had been defeated, Sparta was the winner and in the aftermath, the latter had imposed an oligarchic regime of 30 tyrants in the former. Despite the fact that the oligarchy was overthrown and Athenian democracy was restored, the unstable conditions prevailed.
It’s even obvious, through the dialogues with his students that have survived from contemporary and ancient period sources, that Socrates had been critical of the democratic government and many historians state that this particular contradiction to the authorities led to his trial.
The character of the democratic state of Athens is what led to misunderstandings and what many have characterised as an unfair trial. In the democratic Athens, people were invited to participate in public dialogues, particularly in the ancient Agora, discussing philosophical themes such as the nature of justice and the moral aspect, the creation of the universe and the world, and the relationship of gods. Socrates had dedicated his whole life in participating at such dialogues, but he had more influence by the majority of the rest of philosophers since he was seen as a leader of the young people who wanted to hear him and adopt his knowledge.
Socrates’ approach to questioning and evaluating the philosophical knowledge and the aspect of general morality in many sectors was considered undemocratic, since he advocated a stance of not caring about what other people stated, not believing what the law was based on and more generally, not following the public opinion. His career was based on doubting and in the Athenian context, this was more of a way to say that democracy wasn’t able to distinct from right to wrong
Despite his influence and his knowledge, when he started hearing that he was the wisest person in the city tended to not be impressed and wanted to be a clear witness of this notion; he started questioning the philosophical knowledge of the most prestigious people and ultimately, he drew the conclusion that the people he had asked, were masters of one particular thing but without any important variety of knowledge.
The questioning of the universe and the character of gods was something that led to his trial in 399 BC, since he was not only found guilty of influencing the young people towards corruption but also for asebeia (impiety); not believing in the gods of the state. He proudly responds that when he hears something beyond the human aspect and a notion that is questionable from a standpoint of scientific facts, he cannot just stop posing such questions or stop making inquiries about the beliefs in the religion matter; as mentioned before, it was something as his duty to doubt.
More generally, his responses in the trial can show that he still didn’t care about what the judges or the ones who accused him had to say, even when he was at the threshold of being sentenced to death. His pure personality and way of thinking is expressed by mentioning that he wanted to improve the city throughout his career and all of his work about questioning the authority, the divine power and doubting many already-established knowledge was part of his service for transforming the city to a more just place.
He never states that he needs to be praised for that and that’s because it was his duty to perform this task. Nevertheless, he says that it was a crime against philosophy to execute him; this is more of the tone that Plato used and through Socrates one can support that this is Plato’s frustration for his teacher’s execution. This wouldn’t be an issue for Socrates but for him but a problem for the city which would be remembered for injustice.
It’s only right that at this point you might understand why there are people who claim that the most influential and best philosopher in the history of antiquity was Socrates. If you are still not convinced, you might want to read the rest of the article to find out the ultimate proof of these claims.
After the trial and when he was imprisoned, not more than 72 hours before he died, he was given a true proposal from his friend Crito, who would pay for his escape. The fact that Socrates had wealthy friends and one of them was Crito, would make it more than clear to a simple Athenians citizen that his friends would save him. His friends, not only didn’t want to see their long-standing partner dying but also to not suffer the public criticism and the embarrassment of not saving such an important and historical figure. Once again, Socrates states that he doesn’t care what the people will say and he thinks that Crito was trying to convince him that he had a reason to live.
The big question is: Why did Socrates want to get executed? Or in a different notion, why, although he had the opportunity to escape, he chose not to follow this path?
This is where the philosophical way of thinking plays a tremendous role in the meaning of the events which are evaluated. Socrates was a true philosopher and according to his beliefs, he couldn’t show any fear of death. His state of mind was higher than all the ordinary people and that’s why he didn’t want to have any concern about what they said or thought about him; he never tried to strongly resist that someone was wrong or that he was unjustly in front of death.
Another part of his judgement lies in the fact that he had a strong connection with his duty; the only thing he wanted to do was work and his work was to question the authority and aspects which couldn’t be supported through evidence. Even if he escaped, he would never stop performing his duty and in one way or another, he would soon be part of another trial, since his duty was seen as a violation of the law from the authorities.
The biggest virtue that we have to consider, however, when it comes to the personality of Socrates is his faith in the city of Athens and most importantly, in the law. Although many had stated that he was wrongly accused and driven to death, he continued to obey the law; even if this was imposed through injustice. After all, accepting punishment was the way through which he acknowledged the legitimacy of the democratic society, even though he was still skeptical of its efficiency. He was born, raised and developed as a character in this city and the faithfulness stems from the fact that it was like he had signed a contract with the city of Athens; a promise to be loyal to the laws of the city that made him what he was. This contract was indirectly written when Socrates made the decision to stay in Athens and not leave for another polis; by going to Sparta he wouldn’t have to obey the Athenian laws. This ‘invisible’ contract that Socrates signed wouldn’t let him escape his death, even though he had the chance and even though he was wrongly accused.
This article wasn’t in any way, shape or form written to tell you that you should obey the government or any other authority, in the case of being treated through injustice and can, through a legitimate way, escape the situation. What this article wants to show is the importance of Socrates’ figure for politics, philosophy and the history of obedience in general. Socrates’ contribution is enormous not only through the philosophical aspect of the knowledge he provided but also for the virtues and the beliefs that he stood for, even if he had to sacrifice his life for them. | https://medium.com/curious/why-did-socrates-choose-death-over-freedom-8a719b30d8dd | ['Ioannis Dedes'] | 2020-12-17 22:09:01.099000+00:00 | ['History', 'Inspiration', 'Poltics', 'Philosophy', 'Government'] |
Subscribe to SkillHive’s newsletter | Your one-stop learning destination. Elevate your "Skills" by redefining the way you "Learn"..
Follow | https://medium.com/skillhive/subscribe-to-skillhives-newsletter-61638d8ddaf8 | ['Skillhive Team'] | 2017-10-15 17:48:00.213000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Education', 'Subscription', 'Newsletter'] |
Scissor Seven Season 3? | Disclaimer: This was created three months ago. And I tend to have hesitation. So here are my theories.
Just discovered this amazing Chinese animated series by accident on Youtube. Just this May 2020. No way. Then I watched it. Now I am claiming for more. And find out that 2021 is for the Season 3. Shucks. However, these are my predictions for Season 3. And oh Yes Spoilers Ahead. And I would keep referring Chief Killer Xuhanwu Seven as Seven. Plus this is off the top of my head. Here we go.
Major Predictions
1. Seven would become the next best assassin. Or next leader of the Shadow Killers.
His ranking would be moved up to another number? How the system work is beyond me. As I assumed it was explained by the number of people you removed from the list? However, I think Thirteen’s master would be against it and they would be an epic battle.
2. Thirteen’s master would become the next chief of the Master of Shadows.
He might be next in line. This is as many of his possible opponents were possible to be a candidate for a place in the throne. And a deal between him and Seven. to leave Chicken Island alone. Or he might see Seven as a threat. And chop him down.
3. Thirteen would use her real name at the end of the journey.
Alas, yes our beloved Thirteen. Scarred from a tragic past, Thirteen might release herself of the pain she had felt over the many years she had endured.
4. Thirteen might get kidnapped and used as a pawn.
Yet, she would be forced to fight Seven. As she is loyal to her master. And her loyal might be wavering she still would be probably on his side in the end. He did save her from death. And she was happy to follow him after he saved her. Even though he was hesitant, he allowed her to tag along.
5. Redtooth would be cured.
Lily would work as it would cleanse the Demon blood out of Quian her once lover and they might be a recovery on the horizon.
6. The Rest of the Shadow Killers Organization would be shown.
Like every anime, the main villain would send the. And cannot wait for it as the fight scenes so far have been well done. Or well drawn
7. Seven might be the ant-thesis of Thirteen’s master.
He would try and wipe out Seven, but he and Dao would become enemies by the end.
8. How Seven Officially Received the Thousand Demon Daggers
A well-written story of how he got hold of the titular weapon.
Minor Predictions
Thirteen will face her past regressions. Her father and the rest of her family
And probably Seven would help with her recovery.
Cola might be cured about her “condition”
In Season 2, episode Trip to Stan, we learnt of Cola’s mother and her mother’s escape from the labs. Paralyzing him with her charm we are shown Stan. There, her mother was a scientist working along with the experiments which worked and failed. And Cola was one of the successful clones from Stan. therefore the Prince of Stan and his assistant.
Eleven And Thirteen would be reunited as sisters.
They might not be the best relationship but it is a struggling one.
Eleven and Rock might hook up as a couple.
So the thing is that imagine would happen.
Chief Jian and Quian would reunite.
As the Season 2 ending, as well in the ending song, we see them as a couple sharing headphones. I was not sure if the reference of them if they were before the transformation or after. But overall, it was adorable.
How Seven Officially Received the Thousand Demon Daggers
One-Off Ideas
About Leaders
The leader is Thirteen’s master’s father or relative.
The Leader might be Thirteen’s father himself.
Conclusion
If you like anime. And you like fighting. Then watch Scissors Seven. Point Blank. We just have to watch, wait and see.
Support links here if you like my writing. That is if you want to support by sending a dollar my way. Press link to my Paypal or my Ko-fi. | https://medium.com/@alrosabro/scissor-seven-season-3-2b2a5aa555ab | ['Alexandra Brown'] | 2020-12-27 18:38:41.445000+00:00 | ['Animation', 'Predictions', 'Scissor Seven'] |
What most of us think but don’t say! | “Finaly found a parking spot!” one of the first relief you get when you are on your way to your favorite bar. Walking down to your table and you find out someone took it, “Well that’s alright I’ll find somewhere else” after ordering your drink which took a real long time to come you finally take a sip and feel better about the hectic long day you went through. In all this sense of chaos you find out there was nothing to be concerned and stressed about but hey that is the alcohol easing you in. strolling throught instagram you find out your crush has someone new in their life, you wonder “well that’s that” and continue drinking but here is the catch do you think they found something new because you didn’t make the first move? that could have been you but because of all the overthinking and waiting around someone else took their shot and succeeded.
Now and then we all have they days, where we wonder if our choices are right if there will be consequences to them if they would be good or bad? so many thoguhst process through our mind isn’t insane, in all that cloud of thinking you miss out on the little things which can be in your control and you choose to pass them on because you got bigger fishes to fry.
Take control, trust in yourself whatever the outcome may be we both know you will deal with it headon and stronger than before. | https://medium.com/@bonumfactum/what-most-of-us-think-but-dont-say-bc556dde85fc | ['Bonum Factum'] | 2021-06-08 18:45:41.818000+00:00 | ['Wine', 'Wine Industry', 'Reality', 'Relief', 'Stress'] |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.