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The sad case of my country, Greece. | The sad case of my country, Greece.
Ten years in recession. Let’s think about that for a second. What that does to a country, to its people.
And now let’s go back in time, to see how it all started.
Most people think of Greece, as this beautiful paradise with sandy beaches and nice, hospitable people. And its true. It really is a beautiful country with warm, good hearted people. Kind, compassionate people. Greeks have been through a lot. Wars, poverty, and building it all up again from scratch. Strength is in their DNA.
During the 80’s is when the shift started to happen, at the time I was born. Greeks never had a lot, but they were happy and free. I believe it mostly started in the cities. The western influence on the one hand, the mentality of the quick buck that gave birth to corruption, and greed. That my friends, was the opening of Pandora’s box. I’m not sure if it started from the government and bled to society or vice versa, but you could see it was every man for himself.
By the 2000’s we were living the life. Everyone wanted the luxury cars, the big houses and would go to extreme measures to get it. Soon, the banks were handing out loans to everyone, regardless if they could afford it or not, and that’s how the bubble was created. That bubble we swept under the rug for years and years. Until one day, it blew up in our faces. And boy, it was a big bang.
By 2010, it was clear it was all starting to fall apart. We could no longer pay our bills. The older people couldn’t get their pensions, the public sector couldn’t pay its employees, it was all crumbling down. And that’s when we turned to the European Union for HELP. Some fellow Europeans we laughing at us. It was so sad to watch. We created that mess, that’s the worst part. But I had no idea how bad it was gonna get.
For the last ten years, I have watched my beautiful country kneeling. Loans by the EU that were given with such strict and heartless conditions. I have seen people dumpster-diving at night, and proud families that I know are struggling to put food on the table. Greeks have lost their spirit.
It’s one thing to fight off a conqueror, but how do you deal with this? How do you accept that the future generations will be paying off these loans for years? How do accept your land is being sold for nothing? Our land is no longer ours, our country is no longer OURS.
If this is help, why does it feel like we are being stolen from? | https://medium.com/@kyriakou-kat/the-sad-case-of-my-country-greece-2f96829f2731 | ['Kyriakou Katia'] | 2020-12-21 22:21:57.880000+00:00 | ['European Union', 'Greece', 'Bankruptcy', 'Finance', 'Greece Crisis'] |
Is it still profitable to mine at the end of 2018? | The price of digital money has significantly decreased, and the complexity of the network, on the contrary, increased. Cryptocurrency mining has become less profitable, but you can still earn money on it.
The total capitalization of the cryptocurrency market over the past ten months has dropped almost fourfold: if in January it exceeded $ 830 billion, in early November the industry costs $ 200 billion. Most of the largest digital money also fell: the price of Bitcoin, for example, fell by 68%, from $ 20 thousand to $ 6.5 thousand, and the rate of Ethereum completely failed by 85%, from $ 1.4 thousand to $ 200.
Entrepreneurs have ceased to be interested in the extraction of coins, since its profitability has become much less. Ready-made mining farms began to sell off, and their value dropped by 40% during 2018. In the late August, representatives of the company Nvidia said that they received five times less profit from the sale of video cards for the extraction of digital money than they expected.
Problems
In July, the head of the Vietnamese mining company Sky Mining Le Min on Facebook reported a drop in business profitability, apologized to customers, and then disappeared with $ 35 million. The equipment of the company was taken out by unknown people, and its office was closed. The leaders of the startup promised to take measures and try to pay damages to the victims, and also reported that they had already contacted the police, where they proved their innocence.
Other companies are also experiencing serious problems due to reduced mining profitability. In mid-August, the Icelandic firm Genesis Mining began to force customers to switch to five-year premium contracts, since other options were no longer profitable. Contracts that bring less than their daily service were closed in October.
Another large mining pool — BitPico — closed in the summer — its leaders wrote in Twitter, that they are gonna sell all the equipment and mined bitcoins, as the business stopped produce a profit. At the same time, representatives of the Japanese GMO Internet said that the company will pay less attention to the extraction of digital money and will focus on selling ASIC devices, and Hashflare has completely suspended
work equipment.
Also, let’s not forget that cloud mining services can also be
attacked by hackers. And all the funds that you did not have time to withdraw — will be in the hands of scammers I highly recommend you bypass services with too much period of return of funds or conditions that impede immediately transfer assets to your account. None of the major cryptocurrency companies escaped hacker attacks, and the platforms for cloud mining are no exception, they were losing tens of millions of dollars belonging to customers. The largest mining firm Nicehash lost $ 78 million in December 2017, after that it had to suspend work, and by September of this year, users got back only 60% of their coins.
Cloud mining
Taking into account the current situation on the market, buying video cards or ready-made farms is not the most profitable occupation: even the best devices with cheap electricity will pay for themselves at least six months later. To do this, you need to find a special place with certain conditions, because the equipment produces a lot of noise and requires special temperature conditions, as well as compliance with all security requirements and the uninterrupted Internet.
Large companies can receive special conditions for renting premises, purchasing equipment, and paying for electricity. For them, the extraction of digital money can be more profitable and have a certain capital, they can afford not to sell the extracted cryptocurrency to cover costs, but to keep assets in anticipation of their value growth or hedge risks in every way. But private miners are forced to get rid of the mined coins in order to pay for electricity and rent.
Therefore, mining companies began to produce or acquire equipment for the extraction of digital money, and then sell it to customers, this is called cloud mining, said co-founder of the EXMO cryptocurrency platform, Edward Bark. There are more than 1.5 thousand of such firms in the world. They take over the maintenance of equipment, its configuration, the cost of electricity and internet connection. But, as in the case of the classic, cloud mining is also becoming less profitable, he added.
This method, despite the obvious advantages, such as the absence of the need to purchase equipment, etc., has its drawbacks. Bark warned that the company may turn out to be unfair, as with the growing popularity of cloud mining, the number of scammers who sell non-existent facilities, receive money from customers and do not fulfill their obligations to them has increased.
“That is why I recommend using only proven services with numerous recommendations and not falling for the promises of crazy interest. If you are offered an income of 400% per year, then most likely it will turn out to be a fraud’’, the co-founder of the EXMO platform is sure.
Crowding private miners
The situation in the digital money market has led to the institutionalization of mining.
It is not profitable for entrepreneurs to work in this industry, therefore they are crowded out large companies. Companies benefit from economies of scale; in mining, this advantage becomes decisive. Half the hash capacity on the Bitcoin network is now controlled Chinese mining giant Bitmain.
Individual miners are forced to work together, one of ways are mining pools in which equipment owners combine their hashing capacities to increase efficiency. Another way is cloud mining that allows participants to buy some of the capacity in an already established farm without the need to immerse yourself in technical subtleties. Cloud mining has become fertile ground for scammers — on the one hand, full lack of government regulation in this area, on the other — a large the number of people who do not have extensive knowledge in the field of cryptocurrency and mining in particular, but very afraid to miss the opportunity to make money in this market. This phenomenon is described by the term FOMA (Fear of Missing Out) — fear of missing benefits when investors and users buy a particular asset exclusively
in order to make money on the growth of its price. Many experts explain this a sharp and not objective increase in the value of digital money in 2017. Cryptocurrencies bought for quick money, and when their value declined, they sharply sold out, which caused a further drop in price.
Such moods at all times were on hand to scammers. One of the manifestations fraudulent actions are often the usual financial pyramids, within which you actually receive funds from the contributions of new members, and not for income account from mining. There is also a risk of financial loss due to non-attentive acquaintance with the contract that does not protect the rights of the investor.
Is it still profitable?
Mining today is an occupation that requires serious investments in equipment, access to cheap electricity and considerable knowledge in cryptocurrency areas.
There was a period when the cost of cryptocurrency production was significantly lower than its market price.
Actually, a similar dynamic of the discrepancy between cost and market
course is observed very often in other markets. For example, in 2011 the average cost of gold was approximately $ 850–950 per troy ounce, and its price at this time, rising to $ 1800- $ 1900. When there is such a profit, many new “producers” are starting to enter profit margins, in our
case, in the cryptocurrency market — miners.
So there comes a time when the market price of an asset stops growing, and the number of manufacturers continues to increase due to inertia. At one moment there comes “market saturation” — the course begins to level off with cost price. The industry is becoming very unstable for manufacturers, because that at the slightest decrease in prices the most unprofitable producers go bankrupt.
This is exactly what happened in the first half of 2018 in the blockchain industry: cryptocurrency rates began to fall and many of the managers were ruined. Slowly, the cryptocurrency market is starting to return to its normal state functioning. Cryptocurrency prices are already less volatile and new miners it’s easier to figure out whether to start work now. Get rich only on mining is already quite difficult. Therefore, for an investor, it is better to compare the profitability of mining with other investment projects and make a conclusion for yourself redirect money to mining.
With the right approach, you can earn on mining, however, the margin is already significantly lower than that in 2016 and 2017.
Share your thoughts in comments. Thank you. | https://medium.com/exmo-official/is-it-still-profitable-to-mine-at-the-end-of-2018-d38ddea93fdb | [] | 2018-11-28 16:51:00.863000+00:00 | ['Crypto', 'Btc', 'Blockchain', 'Bitcoin', 'Mining'] |
Piano, violin, drums: is it worth it to teach your child music? | All babies are born with musical potential, are mostly enthusiastic about music and songs. Hearing of newborns develops immediately after birth, so they respond to music very early. Encouraging your child’s natural passion can improve your relationship with him or her, can help develop language skills, and explore a world full of learning fun.
A child’s brain is developed to learn and perceive music, as it is intended to learn a language, notes Daniel Levitin, Ph.D., author of This Is Your Brain on Music. Children experience a period of “noises” before they learn to speak, this also applies to music.
“Your child can make up small songs and teach himself to hear and create various musical ideas,”
says Dr. Levitin. Singing to a baby or swinging to music can help strengthen the neural connections that are responsible for the perception of music.
What kind of music to choose?
You can give preference to any music, because the baby will be happy, when music is interesting to you. Children are very sensitive to it.
Also, kids who move rhythmically to music, smile more, calm down more easily and learn better than children who just listen.
How does playing music influence a child’s speech?
If music is always present in your life, the child may speak earlier. There is a good online store Mybuy24 where you can find interesting musical instruments and accessories for babies, and also toys that make white noise — very calming for kids. Studies have shown that children who make music with simple instruments such as drums (!) Use more communicative gestures, for example, pretend that banana is a phone, than those who passively listen to the music.
Songs also help to learn new words and poems, and the rhythm of the music improves reading skills in older children.
So, it’s worth listening to and creating music, but it doesn’t have to be a violin or a piano (if the child himself or herself does not want to). Passive acquaintance with music, accompanied by rhythmic movements of the baby and simple musical instruments will help the development of speech and a better understanding of the world. | https://medium.com/@kvitka.mail/piano-violin-drums-is-it-worth-it-to-teach-your-child-music-f8c6dc49248b | ['Kvitka Martsynyshyn'] | 2020-01-09 14:00:09.173000+00:00 | ['Speech Development', 'Baby', 'Learning And Development', 'Music', 'Brain'] |
Top Core Values for Building a Successful Organizational Culture | This article is written for UC Berkeley’s IEOR 171: Technology Firm Leadership (Fall 2020) class.
From having done a couple of internships in the past in domains ranging from finance to tech, I have experienced some different company culture styles. Based on my former experience from working at these places, I believe the top 5 core values that help guide a successful organizational culture are:
Passion Collaboration Transparency Bias for Action Meritocracy
Fundamentally, passion is the glue that brings and holds a culture together. Emphasizing that shared vision and objective is what enables people to come together to collectively solve a problem or accomplish a mission. By understanding this shared passion, collaboration, then, enables these people to work more effectively and efficiently; it’s the understanding that no one person can do it all. For successful collaboration, an organization should embrace a culture of transparency as it fosters trust amongst people. Next, having a bias for action (a personal favorite from when I interned at Amazon) is the idea of taking calculated risks and taking action more quickly. When an organization is growing, it is important to maintain speed and avoid stasis. Encouraging people to take these calculated risks more boldly helps maintain that speed. Finally, meritocracy awards people based on their impact and not on their tenure. People should never feel they can’t make an impact just because they don’t have a big enough leadership title. Meritocracy ensures that everyone can make a big change and get rewarded for it.
Some redlines to avoid within a company culture are closed-mindedness, prestige, and exclusion. A culture of closed-mindedness prevents an organization from growing and enables competition to quickly take over. Additionally, nothing good comes with having prestige or ego. This results in infighting and comparison among people and people will start working to fuel their own ego rather than working towards the organization’s mission. Finally, a culture of exclusion doesn't enable creativity. It is through the diversity of people’s background, experiences, and skills that result in innovation and growth. | https://medium.com/@siddharthkumaran/top-core-values-for-building-a-successful-organizational-culture-eb798dbb2578 | ['Siddharth Kumaran'] | 2020-11-22 18:34:45.649000+00:00 | ['Leadership', 'Organizational Culture', 'Business'] |
Engineering Principles at Preply: Our recipe for technology in hyper-growth | Introducing the Preply Engineering Principles!
1. We balance product optimization vs. innovation
There is a constant trade-off of exploration vs. exploitation. We believe that these two directions go hand-by-hand and can be executed in small, data-driven iterations. Our growth engine for optimization is A/B testing.
We expect innovations to grow from within the teams. To fuel that we organize hackathons, involve developers in product planning, and focus all of the organization on some features that we believe are strategic. When we are talking about innovation, that does not mean that we are not A/B testing them. Rather that we are ready to open new niches and lines of the product instead of optimizing existing ones.
Examples of recent product innovations in Preply:
Preply Vocabulary
Preply Methodology
Preply Enterprise
Preply Space
Preply Mobile app
Preply Referral Program
Technical innovations:
Server Side Rendering with Next.JS
Async data synchronization with Kafka
Image recognitions and ML using AWS Rekognition
Infrastructure as a code
AWS Lambda
GraphQL federation
2. Data is a new oil and a defense barrier for Preply
We have a limited number of data extensive product features. This status quo is not an option. We believe in the Preply flywheel:
driven by data, great team and enough of investments we build the great product for the customers more customers are using our product and it helps us to speed up both optimization(A/B testing on the scale) and innovation phases (Preply Labs). we have more data on what is needed for customers(A/B testing) and are able to optimize a product for customers more precisely (personalization) a better product attracts more customers as we leverage network effects and economy of scale this drives revenue to the company company is wisely investing revenues into marketing, hiring great people and supply given we understand the math and unit economics of our business driven by data, great team and enough of investments we build the great product for the customers (and back to #1)
We are committed to building data expertise within the company. Machine Learning and AI should be one of the defense barriers for Preply.
3. Flexibility is required for growth
At Preply we understand that with growth and expansion, comes evolution, adaptation and change. Regularly strategic, sometimes reactive, occasionally chaotic, we expect change and adapt to it and support each other through it with understanding and empathy.
Stability is important, even in a changing environment, and our stability comes from strong and lean shared processes. We are not afraid of embracing low-friction processes and tools that help us stay fast or provide common standards and structures for our working life. Our attachments to these tools are loosely held and we favour adaptation and experimentation on tools and processes, over a bureaucratic adherence to them.
4. Ownership and trust
At Preply we believe that trust and full ownership is one of the most crucial parts of the team relationships. As a part of these principles, we grant an Employee Stock Ownership Plan to every team member. It’s the most direct way for every employee to be an important part of company success.
As an engineering team, we believe in the approach “You build it, you own it”. Every engineer takes full ownership over certain areas of responsibility from inception to completion. Also, we strongly encourage you to take initiative in product discussions, to share your ideas and turn them into life.
Our codebase consists of the monolith and some services around it. Right now the process to decide if something should be a service is Architectural Council.
We as a company, believe in a customer centric approach. So we encourage every engineer to follow this principle and to be involved in communication with our customers. Following this approach, we could get deeper insights about customer needs and translate them into our experimentation framework.
5. Connected Team
At Preply, engineers or their squads don’t sit in silos. Successful engineers and engineering teams at Preply work as connected nodes. They are connected to their customers and they are connected across disciplines, from data, customer support, research to design. And of course connected to their own team members and their colleagues in other teams.
We recognise that we work across different locations but that we strive to keep these locations connected and supported as one engineering chapter, growing together. | https://medium.com/preply-engineering/engineering-principles-at-preply-our-recipe-for-technology-in-hyper-growth-3fbef4d04a15 | ['Anthony Hughes'] | 2020-10-01 10:15:20.613000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Engineering', 'Culture', 'Growth', 'Vision'] |
Palm Oil, Consumption & the Sumatran Tiger | Dubbo is the first major stop after our meeting in Newcastle. We are camped by the Macquarie River and enjoying the outdoors. We have decided to spend two days at the Dubbo Zoo, donating a few dollars to conservation and learning about the work they do there. The Sumatran Tiger catches our eye partly because neither of us has seen this beautiful big cat in the wild. As we listen to the zookeeper talk, we learn a little more about how Palm Oil is destroying the habitat of animals such as the Sumatran Tiger and the Orang-utan.
We learn that Palm Oil is the most widely consumed vegetable oil on the planet. It is also the highest yielding vegetable oil but its very efficiency is resulting in the loss of habitat for animals such as the Sumatran Tiger as land is cleared in Sumatra and Malaysia to grow more of this crop. I hadn’t realised that 50–60% of our supermarket products contain palm oil, from beauty products to pizza dough, packaged bread, detergents, paint and bio diesel. Most of us are unaware of the fact that even the shampoos we use daily contain palm oil — check the labelling for sodium lauryl sulphate.
More recently, some of the growers have committed to growing Palm Oil more sustainably and you can look for the acronym RSPO (Round Table for Sustainable Palm Oil) identifying it as having been cultivated in an ethical manner. We learn there are many ways to being an informed consumer including installing the Palm Oil Shopping Guide application on your IPhone. Simply checking the labelling on the back of the products we buy is not sufficient as often in Australia Palm Oil may be identified as vegetable oil.
The talk at the zoo brings home to me once again how important it is to make conscious choices about everything we purchase. While most people would not condone destroying the habitat of the Sumatran Tiger, by not bothering to understand the labelling of the products we buy could mean we unwittingly do so. Choices such as this are always left to the consumer to figure out with little education in the press or media to highlight the problem. Wouldn’t it be great to have governments implementing serious policies that ensure we don’t have products on our supermarket shelves that are destroying the habitats of species such as the Sumatran Tiger? | https://medium.com/ecovillage-journeys/palm-oil-consumption-the-sumatran-tiger-94d94af478f3 | ['Nilmini De Silva'] | 2019-02-26 20:14:08.014000+00:00 | ['Travel', 'Consumerism', 'Climate Change', 'Food Systems'] |
Spring is coming | 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/chalkboard/spring-is-coming-db97e7ec5229 | ['Georgia Lewitt'] | 2020-12-13 15:56:19.731000+00:00 | ['One Line', 'Writing On Medium', 'Pandemic', 'Fiction', 'Poetry'] |
Preseason Drafting Guide | Preseason Drafting Guide
Hey everyone! We’ve seen a few changes heading into the 2019 season, Dark Harvest changes and the early-mid game focus being the two most significant, and as such, have had a few champions that we thought were lost to the meta forever, resurface. I’m sure these changes, as well as a few others, have made some of you wonder just which champions should be your priority picks when drafting. Whether in solo queue or competitive, please allow us to take you on a journey through the draft phase heading into 2019!
As Dark Harvest has been nerfed, we won’t touch on the champions that it makes viable this time around. In fact, we’ll be looking at a few picks that will serve you well in your drafts this season regardless of the state of runes, as well as potential counters you could pick up should they be on the other team. Additionally, there are four champions that are typically banned in almost every game at the moment, Irelia, Aatrox, Akali, and Urgot, and therefore, we won’t look at those this time, but a few options with which you can potentially counter them if they make it through the ban phase.
Remember, if you’re red side you can give away one overpowered pick if it means securing two for yourself. But if you’re blue side, you can force the red team to ban some of these champions regardless, because they know you will be able to freely pick at least one. So, get ready. Here are some champions worth putting some time into learning (or banning)!
Alistar
First up on our list of champions to draft is a support that’s been omnipresent immediately following every patch in which his ultimate has been even slightly changed. I am, of course, talking about the raging bull, Alistar.
Renowned for his engage potential, a mini-Malphite ultimate on a ten-second cooldown in the Headbutt-Pulverize combo, and the fact that he can stay in fights or under towers for ridiculous amounts of times, Alistar’s strength in all facets of the game cannot be underestimated. Phenomenal roaming, ganks, and teamfighting as a result of his insane crowd control ability means that teams looking for a high-impact priority pick (that isn’t hard-countered by many champions) should secure Alistar as soon as possible as either their first or second pick.
Should the enemy team pick Alistar, your best bet is Braum who has comparable tankiness, the ability to peel for your botlane partner should he be jumped on, and some of the best disengage in the game. This means that an Alistar that engages too overzealously could find himself immediately punished and either isolated in a teamfight with no followup or rendered completely useless without cooldowns. Braum’s trading potential in lane is also significantly better than Alistar’s, if only because Winter’s Bite, Braum’s Q, can be safely fired from range and allows the champion more choices in picking an engage without fully committing his body (or two of his spells).
Another option into Alistar is Zyra, who offers not only some of the best disengage potential in the game, but a fantastic laning phase in which she is renowned for practically 1v2ing the enemy botlane with her legions of plants. Zyra’s ability to manipulate the waves in botlane with a well-timed Q (Deadly Spines) means that she can freely push and coordinate a tower dive onto whichever AD carry Alistar has left alone while roaming, or simply push in the cow himself to deny him any chance to leave lane with more than 50% health at any given moment. Her relative immobility means you have to be careful, however; as no amount of disengage potential from E roots and Stranglethorns can save you from a Flash-Headbutt-Pulverize from out of the fog of war.
Ezreal
With one go-to champion out of the way, let’s head on to the next, another stalwart presence in the botlane for multiple seasons in the past, with a recent resurgence and an even more recent mini rework, the next focus of our attention is the Boy Explorer, Ezreal!
A phenomenal marksman and somewhat-middling mage and a unique caster-esque heavy poke playstyle that can transition into great all-in is something only Ezreal brings to the table in his role. Add a completely retooled W, Essence Flux, that was often neglected in the past (a one-point wonder, where you would only skill it to function as an extra Sheen/Spellblade proc) has given him even more poke, trade, and (perhaps most importantly) tower-pushing potential.
A very safe pick that scales well into the late game, Ezreal’s ability to play back and harass opponents from distance before moving in for either a kill or to siege really augments any composition. His Ultimate Ability, Trueshot Barrage, even had its damage reduction on multiple targets hit dramatically reduced this patch, thereby bringing him further into the spotlight this season and for seasons to come. His early trading in lane is not even limited to his Q, Mystic Shot, alone, since his passive, Rising Spell Force, gives him enough attack speed (that most players don’t even account for) to trade blows with even the most fearsome of threats (Miss Fortune, Jhin).
Ezreal really only has two glaring weaknesses, both of which actively contribute to the pick being relatively useless while behind (though most poke champs generally are) and the first of these is the fact that his item thresholds early are fairly clunky in comparison to the more standard, raw-attack-damage-focused builds of other champions in his role. Tear of the Goddess gives him an undeniable power spike, or at least the lead to one (Muramana), but by the time you complete that and your Sheen, you are already down 2000 gold on what is effectively a larger mana pool to farm and occasionally trade with until you can upgrade your items quite a bit later. However, despite the delay, Ezreal’s two item power spike with Muramana and Trinity Force/Iceborn Gauntlet, is one of the strongest in the game, and he can put up a solid fight around the 20-minute mark.
Ezreal’s other glaring weakness is especially notable when he itemizes for the more aggressive Trinity Force, rather than the more utility-focused Iceborn Gauntlet — and that’s his innate lack of waveclear compared to other AD carries. Yes, he pumps out more than decent poke and single target damage, but that doesn’t help break a siege or immediately clear hoards of minions — leaving him and his team vulnerable to being sieged upon if they don’t find themselves safely ahead at the mid game mark.
Ezreal is, again, fairly unique in his position at the moment, simply because he doesn’t really have a counter. The pick is safe enough that he can hang back and farm from a distance, and he can really snowball his leads through aggressive trading, thanks to his utilization of the Kleptomancy rune. If you are looking to punish him early, choose someone that can really dominate the laning phase. Miss Fortune, Jhin, or even Draven can make sure Ezreal never even has the chance to come online to begin with. A word of warning, supports typically just give Ezreal free Kleptomancy gold, simply because he is so hard to lock down due to both his range and mobility.
Read more on our blog…
About DreamTeam:
DreamTeam is the ultimate teambuilding and skill-growing platform that solves problems for hundreds of millions of gamers who want to find teammates, improve skills, manage teams, and earn money.
Stay in touch: Facebook CS:GO |Facebook LoL | Twitter | Reddit | FAQs | https://medium.com/dreamteam-media/preseason-drafting-guide-ab10851a7f09 | [] | 2019-01-31 16:06:35.649000+00:00 | ['League of Legends', 'Esport', 'Games', 'Gaming', 'Game Development'] |
On the Threshold of Intimacy | I’m really good at being open- to a certain extent. I can give honest answers to what’s going on in my life and share my personal experiences online without breaking a sweat. I can share intimate moments with strangers and I can love people freely. But when things get real (and real being someone who wants to love me, or someone I want to love), I clam up. Apparently being open isn’t a direct correlation to openness with vulnerability.
When a relationship gets too intimate my brain starts making me feel things- and not the pleasant, hormone-induced kind. It’s more like a barricade is placed around my heart with walls so thick very little love is able to be given and even less is received.
The level of discomfort is heightened and I begin to pull away from my prospective partner. I start to listen to the uneasy feeling in my chest. I can’t feel the love anymore and what’s left is uncertainty. Uncertainty if I should really let this person in. If whatever this relationship is, or could be, is really ‘right’. This manifests as a feeling that there’s something wrong with them because they’re causing me discomfort. It can’t be a ‘right’ relationship if I’m uncomfortable.
The funny thing is they haven’t changed. They’re the same person they were- kind, supportive, loving- before we realized there might be something ‘more’. Something with longer potential. Something that has the possibility to hurt me at the end.
Once we cross the imaginary line of my comfort level I’m the one who’s changing. Who’s putting up barriers, sabotaging my relationships, and letting fear dominate my decisions. | https://medium.com/roaming-romantic/on-the-threshold-of-intimacy-9f6eeb4d37f6 | ['Emily Rose Schmidt'] | 2019-04-27 03:31:20.131000+00:00 | ['Intimacy', 'Relationships', 'Vulnerability', 'Digital Nomads', 'Love'] |
Why I kept to the Alkaline Diet for the last 20 years. | Author: Ian Blair Hamilton, Founder, AlkaWay
I’ve always loved the story of Louis Pasteur and how he discovered that rats passed on the plague via fleas.. and the story of his invention of pasteurization that led us to the free flavoured mild at morning school break. (Come to think of it.. it was pretty sweet-awful and often warm!)
In retrospect ~ I wonder if he’d have released his milk saving secret if he knew he’d be sentencing most of the world to foggy brain, stiff joints, low circulation and all-round lack of energy?
Pasteur is regarded by many as the man who initiated germ warfare. No, not THAT germ warfare.. warfare against germs.
Kill ’em before they kill you.
Most people learnt about Pasteur.. but very few would remember the ‘other guy’ with the conflicting theories: Antoine Bechamp. he and Pasteur did NOT get on. Probably because Bechamp rubbished Pasteur’s theories.
Bechamp (if you bother to investigate him) said it’s not the germ, but our body inner environment that actually makes us sick. He was ‘out there’: in the face of Pasteur’s simple explanation, he went the other way. He said that the acid/alkaline balance of our body was the deciding factor in determining future health, that an unbalanced, excessively acidic body gives the perfect place for germs and diseases to grow.
He said that if your body is more alkaline than acid, you can repel any germ that tries to get at you.
These two oppositional approaches fanned a major uproar among scientists… a bit like Trumpists and Leftists today.
If you were a Pasteurian — you attacked the germ. If you were a Bechampian., you watched and supported your body.
Like the Supreme Court in the USA right now, the medical supremos believed they had to endorse one of these approaches.. but not two.
Yes, they supported Loius and left Antoine out in the cold. And perhaps they had minds of future profits even then because Pasteur’s theory came with a huge payoff.
Simply put: germs cause diseases.
Create germ-killing medicines.
.. and patent them
Voila! Instant billionaires.
Just think about this today as one company vies with another for the biggest payoff in history with their Covid Vax.
Bechamp’s approach — on the other hand — had no big payoff. anyone could keep the body in healthy acid-alkaline balance by eating the right healthy foods, remaining calm, walking the dog.. all for free. Using no drugs.
With no drugs to patent — Bechamp’s breakthrough research and discovery was actually ridiculed!
Of course, he wasn’t completely forgotten. Some very significant advances in what became known as self-health came about through his inspiration.
Dr. Linus Pauling , who announced to the world — some 70 years later… a received a Nobel prize for his work. He said:
“You can trace EVERY sickness … and EVERY ailment to a mineral deficiency”
, who announced to the world — some 70 years later… a received a Nobel prize for his work. He said: “You can trace EVERY sickness … and EVERY ailment to a mineral deficiency” Dr William Howard Hay , whose groundbreaking book, A New Health Era, stated:
“All disease is caused by auto-toxication (self-poisoning) due to acid accumulation in the body.”
, whose groundbreaking book, A New Health Era, stated: “All disease is caused by auto-toxication (self-poisoning) due to acid accumulation in the body.” Dr. Theodore A. Baroody, author : Alkalize or Die , who shook the scientific community :
”The countless names of illnesses do not really matter. What does matter is that they all come from the same root cause: Too much acid in the body!”
These doctors, scientists — and many others — confirmed the simple, fact that when your body is too acidic — you’re setting yourself up for illness!
And when you are in your natural alkaline state?
You are able to repel and even overcome just about any health problem including:
, who shook the scientific community : ”The countless names of illnesses do not really matter. What does matter is that they all come from the same root cause: Too much acid in the body!” These doctors, scientists — and many others — confirmed the simple, fact that when your body is too acidic — you’re setting yourself up for illness! You are able to repel and even overcome just about any health problem including: Joint stiffness
Weak heart
Poor digestion
Sore muscles
Constipation
Blood sugar imbalances
Poor circulation
Sluggish immunity
Premature ageing
Skin outbreaks
Premature wrinkles
Abnormal cell growth
Excess acid basically ‘rusts’ in your whole metabolism.
Go to your doctor and he or she will give your condition a name.
But no matter what it’s called, Bechanp said that it is all because of the precursor of excess acid.
Too much acid can promote…
Skeletal Degradation
Your bones are a prime target. Your overworked, acidic body is burning up and drastic measures are called for. It decides to take all available calcium, sodium, potassium and magnesium that was headed for your bones!
You can feel it!
Bones that scrape. They lead inevitably to inflammation and bone loss!
Bone loss… joint pain… and even “widow’s hump”!
Traffic Jam Arteries
Acid eats away at arterial lining. Acid crystals in the blood scrape their way around the circulation system, your body shouts for help and creates more cholesterol to form plaque and patch the cuts and slashes! Suddenly we are talking about degraded arteries with your health practitioner.
Pulmonary problems!
The American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine published a surprising warning sign of an impending asthma attack: High acid levels. Well, well, well.
Dr. Benjamin Gaston and his team say that prior to bronchial attack, acid levels in the lungs rose as much as 1,000-fold! This contributed to inflammation in the bronchial airways — which preceded the attack!
Too worn out, too thick-headed
According to the book, The Chemistry of Success — high acid levels limit oxygen uptake. Yes, oxygen. You have to breath more because you’re getting less. It appears that acid overload literally chokes the life out your cells — leaving you with mental fog.. fatigue.. weakened muscles.. low libido.. and od man’s skin — and that’s just the shortlist.
Compromised pancreas, lungs, liver and blood sugar.
In the Journal of Diabetes Care:
Norwegian scientist Dr. Lars Stene posited that people with high acidity from drinking tap water were FOUR TIMES more likely to develop glucose and insulin problems.
Now can you see why I’ve been alkalizing as a daily practice for 20 years? I’m 74 and PUMPING!
OK. So about now, most people will try to sell you their alkaline water system, or convince you to go vegan, eat lots of fruit and leafy greens.. yada yada yada.
If I sound sceptical, I am!
In fact I am, if truth be known, a little angry, because I’ve watched these two decades trot out the same old theories year after year, on website after website.
Why? Because it’s so very easy to get enough alkaline minerals, and although I drink alkaline water, I’m no longer drinking it for the alkalinity. I’m drinking it for its purity and for its molecular hydrogen.
I’m also having a Greens smoothie every day.. but it’s not like the run-of-the-mill greens powder because it’s designed specifically to be low in the ingredient none of these vendors ever mention. This hidden nasty has never been talked about before, and it has profound effects of our body’s inflammation by loading up our fascia with tiny oxalic acid crystals. They stay there until you decide to diet to remove them.. and as long as they stay, they create inflammation. No wonder inflammation is the most common ongoing health challenge virtually anyone has — even if they don’t know they have it!
So all those lovely spinach pies, spinach smoothies, sweet potato pies, — they’re all loaded with oxalates! Acidifying oxalates. (and many, many other foods on those free acid/alkaline food charts you downloaded!)
BTW our own Alkaway Greens are formulated to be lower in oxalates than the usual Greens.
Why do I even Bother with Greens
Because Greens are wonderful immunity builders. And a greens powder ‘tops up’ my daily requirement to maintain adequate immunity.. especially in these times!
So how do I ensure I’m getting enough alkaline minerals?
I take a teaspoon of Alkaline Booster every day. In that teaspoon is all the alkalis I need: Sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium. All in a synergistic form of the correct ratios.
If I’m travelling I take either my AlkaSachets, or my drop-at-a-time AlkaBalance.
Too simple.
Alkaline water?
Unless you’ve been hiding 500 miles from everyone else, it’s likely a multilevel marketer has found you, made friends with you, and tried to sell you their $6000 alkaline water machine. They have all the quotes you’ve seen here, and will always tell you how drinking their water has changed their life.
(Of course it has! They get another $1000 in the bank every time they sell one!)
If you encounter one of these ‘independent distributors’ ask them whether their alkaline water is buffered or unbuffered.
’Buffered’ means the water derives its pH level on a pH meter from alkaline minerals dissolved in the water. Drink this water and you’ll immediately replenish your alkaline reserves, and the minerals will donate their alkalinity fully to neutralise excess acids.
’Unbuffered’ means there is a variance between the actual ability to neutralise acids and the reading you get with a pH meter. This is because thewater has been artificially ‘boosted’ by passing electricity through it (thus elevating the pH reading but not the alkalizing ability).
Unbuffered water may appear alkaline on a pH meter — but will only ever contain the alkaline minerals that were already in your tap before it passed through your machine.
It will almost immediately lose any alkalizing ability when it encounters acid in the body.
Many distributors of these machines won’t be able to answer your question anyway. They are newcomers beating the bushes for prospects to pay off their own $6000 ‘investment’.
Can a natural water ionizer give buffered alkalinity?
It can because it holds its own supply of dissolvable minerals like magnesium and calcium, which are donated to the water as it is filtered.
(And the big news is that you’ll still have over $5000 in your pocket when you get your own natural water ionizer.)
I know I’ve probably talked too much, and I know I’d love to tell you about maintaining alkaline levels in the body, the true causes of acidity, and much more, so if you’re still here, and still want to know more, go here (bottom of the page) to receive my HealtheMail, or here to access the hundreds of articles we’ve created over the years about this very important health strategy.
If you have a particular question, this is our library resource page.
Or if you’re on fire and need immediate answers, call on us. We’re always happy to help.
AU NZ USA SG CA UK | https://medium.com/@ianblairh/why-i-kept-to-the-alkaline-diet-for-the-last-20-years-e6fce44e7830 | ['Ian Blair Hamilton Alkaway Founder'] | 2020-12-21 00:30:52.163000+00:00 | ['Pharmaceuticals', 'Drugs', 'Greens', 'Water Ionizer', 'Alkaline Diet'] |
Reflection on Amal Totaky | Amal totaky are really helpful in our routine life and enables us to deal with problems and failures by developing a growth mindset.And having a growth mindset is important because it can help you overcome obstacles you may face when learning something new or developing a new skill. Growth mindsets understand the importance of persistence and determination. By changing the way you think, you can change the way you learn and you can get a better version of yourself.
Self Talk:
Don’t be a victim of negative self talk_Remember YOU are listening.
Self talk is the way you talk to yourself, or your inner voice.Positive self talk about showing yourself some self-compassion and understanding for who you are and what you’ve been through.It’s really important because it sees our internal narrative switching to ideas like ‘I can do better next time’ or ‘I choose to learn from my mistakes, not be held back by them’.
Be mindful of the self-talk.It’s a conversation with the universe._David James
This Amal Totka helps me a lot to increase my self-confidence and curb all the negative or harmful thought patterns that bring me down.Positive self-talk helps me to re frame the way I look at stressful situations, understanding that I’ll approach challenges with the best of my ability and that whatever the outcome,at least I did the best I could do.So whenever I get stressed I do self talk and reflect on my actions and try to remove all the negativity and change it to positive thoughts and encourage myself to build a new hope for the new day.
Get out of your Comfort Zone:
Everything you ever wanted is one step outside your comfort zone.
Getting out from the comfort zone is the main key to develop a growth mindset.In this way you embrace changes around you and try to say yes to something.When in your comfort zone, your brain doesn’t want anything to change.Getting out of your comfort zone from time to time creates just enough good stress to ramp up your focus, creativity, pace, and drive, and it helps you respond to life stress when unexpected things happen.
You never change your life until you step out of your comfort zone; Change begins at the end of your comfort zone._Roy T. Bennett
From this totka I try to change my fixed mindset to a growth mindset.I’m trying to think in a new more better way and give some space to changes in my life by switching up my routine, by accepting my mistakes and by taking risk to learn new skills, to discard my fears and to build inner self stronger.Now I’ve realized that how much dangerous the comfort zone could be If I stay there more.Because I wouldn’t be able to achieve my goals until I take a step forward out of my comfort zone.
Create New Habits:
Successful people are simply those with successful habits._drain Trancy
One way to develop a growth mindset is by changing or creating new habits.Not only are habits important but they grow stronger and stronger over time and become more and more automatic. So make sure you have the right ones!.Habits shape your life far more than you probably realize because our brains cling to them at the exclusion of all else — including common sense.More than 40 percent of the actions you perform each day aren’t actual decisions, but habits.So We’ve to create new and good habits that can bring positive changes in our attitude and personality.
Depending on what they are, our habits will either make us or break us.We become what we repeatedly do._Sean Covey
By following this Amal Totka I’ve created some new habits of getting my work done at a proper time and I’ve started noting down all my weakness to improve, all my strengths to grow more, all my achievements to get motivation.I’m developing a growth mindset using this totka by trying to get stuck with my new good habits and to get rid of some of my bad habits.
Ask for help:
Offering to help is easy.Asking for help is the hard part._ Jen Mueller
Asking for help can be a challenge , even outside of a pandemic .Often we feel ashamed while asking for a help because we start overthinking about it ,what the other person will think and say that I can’t even do a small thing or I haven’t the ability to cope with a small challenge.But In fact this is called getting out of comfort zone and take a risk to ask for help without looking week.Asking for help allows us to surround ourselves with people who can make us feel good and facilitate further development. These people create optimism and hope that we are able to deal with challenging situations, which improves our resilience.
Ask for help not because you’re weak, but because you want to remain strong._ Les Brown
I’m already following this Amal totaka. I always try to ask for help from those I’m sure enough they can understand and help me out to getting things done. I’ve learnt that we can’t do everything alone by ourselves.Many times we face difficulty to do something and often get a hard time so at this moment it’s better to ask for help from your close ones or your team members because with their helps you can achieve your goals easily.
Fake it Till you Make it:
This English aphorism has a meaning that by imitating confidence, competence, and an optimistic mindset, a person can realize those qualities in their real life and achieve the results they seek.Action seems to follow feeling, but really action and feeling go together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not.If our spontaneous cheerfulness be lost, is to sit up cheerfully, to look round cheerfully, and to act and speak as if cheerfulness were already there. If such conduct does not make you soon feel cheerful, nothing else on that occasion can. So to feel brave, act as if we were brave, use all our will to that end, and a courage-fit will very likely replace the fit of fear.
Fake it Until you make it! Act As If you had all the confidence you require until it becomes your reality._Brian Tracy
I feel this totka really helpful in my life.Whenever I got depressed I follow this and act like I’m so normal and happy and while acting like this with others eventually I can find my own happiness in others happiness.Whenever I thought I can’t do this or this is something beyond my reach I follow this totka and replace my thinking by saying that ,This is nothing I’ve enough confidence to achieve this one day. Same like this whenever I’m going to give a presentation I look more confident even if I’m too much nervous.It gives me a sense of motivation and encouragement to accomplish the task efficiently.
My favorite tip is Self Talk and Ask for help.Because self talk is like self reflection and self realization which is the Amal’s principle of progress called “Khudi” and help me to get to know about myself and to improve by bringing positive changes in myself.Ask for help is really helpful for me because it leads to a good team where everyone help each other to do their projects and give strength to the team and to the every team member also. I’ve already started implementing both these tips in my life to get success and achievements.And I’ll try to follow all these Amal Totaky to develop a growth mindet by learning new skills ,by facing all the challenges bravely, by taking my failures as an opportunity , by getting feedback from others , by embracing changes and by believing in myself.
Thanks Amal Academy. | https://medium.com/@muneeba.khaliq201/reflection-on-amal-totaky-8a8ca35087ad | ['Muneeba Khaliq'] | 2021-08-20 12:07:14.494000+00:00 | ['Amal Fellowship', 'Amal Totkay', 'Amal Academy'] |
Cara menggunakan Preferences DataStore | Always curious and always want to continue learning in many ways | https://medium.com/@iandamping/cara-menggunakan-preferences-datastore-ddb2333173b5 | ['Ian Christian Adolfian Damping'] | 2020-12-24 06:00:08.965000+00:00 | ['Android App Development', 'AndroidDev', 'Preferences Android', 'Indonesia', 'Sharedpreferences'] |
Renovate Bot. Automated Dependency Updates | Renovate Bot
Generally when we are going to start a new project, we will use the last dependencies, but over time these dependencies will become outdated. if we do nothing, and we leave them on outdated version, we will go through several things:
- Security issues fixe
- New feature
- Performance improvement …
All this because we have not updated our dependencies, the day we will realize it will be difficult to catch up .
In fact, doing updates manually is a bit boring and it takes us a lot of time, one of the solutions is to use Renovate Bot, and this is the subject of our Article, this tool will allow us to automate the process of updating our dependencies.
How we can use it ?
Renovate offers us two possibilities to install it, we can install it directly on our repository as a plugin or we can install it in our machines in self hosting mode.
In this article we will talk about renovate in plugin mode, if you want to install it directly in your machine this link should help you https://docs.renovatebot.com/self-hosting/ .
Use Renovate in github (this is valid for gitlab, bitbucket ...)
As we have just said, we can use renovate as a plugin, we will find it in github marketplace, by clicking on the renovate plugin, we will be taken to the description page which contains the installation link and the configuration access.
Github Marketplace
After the installation, we will have to be configure our bot , at the beginning you have to choose the repository which we want to activate renovate, after this step, you will receive a “Configure Renovate” Pull Request for each repository for which you have activated renovate, you should to merge this PL, in order to activate Renovate, and that’s all you need to work with Renovate.
How does this tool work ?
Now that we have installed Renovate, it’s time to understand how it works, In fact it’s really easy, this diagram will summarize the workflow of Renovate
Renovate workflow
Firstly, renovate will launch a job which will scan our dependencies, in case it finds an obsolete dependency, it will systematically create a branch with the name of the dependency to update, then it will update this dependency and will create a Pull Request.
Update by Renovate Bot
If the PR is approved, Renovate will remove the orphan branch, this is Basically how Renovate works, there is another type of Pull request created by Renvoate called pin dependencies, this PR should be merged at the beginning , pin dependencies is a global update of all dependencies.
The question running through your mind now is: “everything you just said is great but is it enough to automate the process of updating our dependencies?” is the answer is not really, in fact what is being done at this point does not allow end-to-end automation.
We have activated Renovate with the default configuration, and as we saw in Renovate workflow there is always human intervention to approve the pull requestion.
How can we optimize Renovate's workflow so that it can be automated from end to end?
Well to do that we can we can overload the default configuration through the renovate.json configuration file, this file is created during the “Configure Renovate” pull request, at the beginning it will look like this:
renovate.json file
There is so much we can do with this config file, We have the possibility of authorizing the automerge on minor version, patch … there is even a way to make automerge on marjeur version but it will be a little “dangerous” to do that, here is an example of a renovate configuration which allows to do that:
configuration to automerge update forminor/patch version of a dependency
Through this configuration, we can say that we have taken a step towards our goal of automation, but this is just for the minor and patch version, as we said for the other versions it is still “dangerous” to allow automerge but it’s possible by carrying out controls on the PRs we will see how, we can also configure Renovate to launch jobs in a specific schedule.
this configuration will allow us to tell Renovate to launch the jobs between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., and every weekend for 24 hours.
Run checks for each Pull Request before doing automerge:
This is the best part, we can create a job (with gitlab, Travis CI, Jenkins) which will trigger automated tests after each renovate pull request or build our project, we can go even further, we can configure your renovate.json file so that it allows automerge on the Pull Requests that have passed our check of our CI job.
Renovate workflow after the CI Job
By doing this, we can say that we have automate the process of updating our dependencies, in case the checks do not pass, it is necessary to change things in our source code and these things Renovate cannot do it unfortunately.
Conclusion:
In my opinion working with a tool like Renovate bot for the automation of the update process, should become necessary, this will prevent us from wasting our time doing this manually and especially avoid making migrations each time.
If you are wondering what else you are able to do and automate with the GitHub apps and actions just have a look at its Marketplace.
I hope you liked it,if you’ve got any questions, suggestions, or feedback in general, don’t hesitate to reach out on any of the social networks or by mail. | https://medium.com/@yousssef-elhayanii/renvate-bot-bda1c5c6ca61 | ['Youssef Elhayani'] | 2020-12-20 21:50:00.597000+00:00 | ['Updates', 'Bots', 'Github', 'Git', 'Dependencies'] |
Crouch, Bind, Set | Herrrrrrrre’s Jamie!
Scrum is something that will often come up during your job searches. I’m sure you’ve seen the banal statement on many a linkedin message from creepy recruiters, “we practice Scrum methodology”.
Outline of the Scrum framework
Scrum is an agile framework used mostly in software development, which is convenient as we are software developers. Agile is also a bit of a buzzword nowadays, it basically just means “small incremental changes to continuously deliver software”. It’s pretty neat to be honest, the basic premise means that through a focus of communication with the client and within the team you can easily adapt to changes in requirements… ohhh that’s why it’s called agile.
Fast boi
It works on the basic agile sprint methodology. A sprint is a timeboxed iteration, absolutely no longer than a month but commonly around two weeks.
It starts with a planning session with the product manager and team leader where they set out the tasks for the sprint, and it ends with a sprint review and retro where you talk about what did and didn’t go well in that sprint.
A big feature of scrum is the daily standups or.. you guessed it, scrums. These are short meetings to help track progress, bring up any blockers and re-plan if necessary. They start on the dot, same time, same place, every day. These are really supposed to be 15 minutes but they can be 5 minutes on a good day or an hour if someone inadvertently breaks prod. But at that point it’s less of a stand up and more of a group whinge.
Owen Farrell thinking about what he’s going to do today
The basic format is this:
this is what I did yesterday .
. this is what I’m going to do today .
. these are any blockers I’m facing/am likely to face.
And that’s it. Usually it’s a good idea to keep things from getting overly technical to stop your responses from getting too verbose and sending your team members to sleep.
At the end of the sprint the team will hold a review and a retrospective
yayyyy we reviewed our game and we did pretty good!
In the review you.. review the work that was completed and what you didn’t finish and demo what was completed to the stakeholders, ie your boss. Or the client. We kinda do this at Flatiron with the little project show and tell at the end of project week.
Minor setbacks.
And finally in the retro you look back on the sprint, you agree on actions to improve the sprint process and how you plan to implement them, usually asking yourselves the questions: “What went well during the sprint? What did not go well? What could be improved for better productivity in the next sprint?”.
There are some more things to consider with Scrum including how to manage a backlog, but assuming that you use something like Jira to manage your tickets these are fairly straight forward.
And that’s.. it? Scrum is really not all that big of a deal and unless you’re the Scrum Master (sigh.) your main goal in a scrum is just do as your told and stay chill. | https://medium.com/@sam.barrie/crouch-bind-set-4da2ff7aaa9e | ['Sam Barrie'] | 2019-07-10 14:11:44.860000+00:00 | ['Agile', 'Flatiron School', 'Scrum'] |
Meditation Insights from the Bhagavad Gita | by Hardik Kathuria, Meditation Trainer, M. Sc(Environmental Management)
Know the one ‘Who’ Meditates
If I ask you for your introduction, you’d begin by speaking your name and then your credentials. But if I ask you, did you exist before you were given this name? You’d spring up in the affirmative. That means your name is an adopted identity. It does not define you.
Let’s try another experiment. Slow down for a moment and try to feel from within your body parts. Whose limbs and senses, are they? You’ll say without hesitation, ‘This is my hand, my stomach, my leg, my body.’ This is similar to speaking ‘My watch, my shirt, my shoe’. We don’t say ‘I heart, I belly’, essentially speaking, we are the proprietors of the body but not the body itself. Then who are we?
Vedic scriptures emphasize that we are spirit souls, whose symptom is consciousness. Spirit souls come from the Supreme Soul who is the Supreme Consciousness. The soul lives inside and carries this body. Unbeknownst, we identify ourselves to be this body, thereby always living in bodily consciousness.
How Meditation takes you beyond — Positive and Negative?
Living in this world, we experience all sorts of tribulations and dualities — happiness, distress, heat, cold, honor, dishonor, fame, infamy, justice, injustice to name a few. Since we think we are this body, anything spoken/announced to our name or experienced by our body disturbs and agitates us. And as we get affected by these conditions, we become morose.
Meditation helps us to raise our consciousness from a bodily level to a raised platform. Just like how big trees seem insignificant like ants when viewed from an airplane flying up high. Similarly, raising our consciousness with the help of meditation can make our problems, either big or small, appear childlike to us.
The characteristics of a meditator are mentioned by Lord Krishna in Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2, Verse 56. This happens through gradual practice and training the mind. Meditation is a forceful process. We have to do a lot of effort, in the beginning, trying to control our mind. Still, the mind is not easily convinced.
The mind travels on a different plane. Thoughts rush in our minds just like racing cars whizzing past spectators in an F1 race. Every car that passes by excites and entertains us. But if we try to chase after every car that rushes past us, we will definitely end up tired and frustrated. Because we will not be able to catch hold of any car if we simply keep switching cars as they rush past us.
Don’t you think a similar thing happens to us? The mind is bombarded with an uncountable number of thoughts moving at unimaginably high speed in all the different directions, and in our pursuit of satisfying the senses and mind by obeying each thought, we end up tired, morose, and even angry.
Meditation helps us by giving us the required peace of mind. We understand that we don’t require to run after each and every thought that comes by our mind. Meditation teaches us the art of restraining ourselves and not getting involved in everything that provokes, excites, anger, and saddens us. By learning that we have a separate identity from these thoughts and that we are not these thoughts, our internal peace is restored and serenity prevails.
Meditation is not only about getting away from these troubles. Because we need some higher engagement to leave the lower one. By changing our perspective and focussing on God, His names, form, qualities and activities, we can experience unending and unparalleled bliss. Why focus on God and His names?
Training is troublesome, time-taking, and not at all pleasing. But gradually, it brings positive results. By training the mind through the proactive process of meditation, we can gradually bring it to a state of minimized restlessness — a condition where the monkey mind’s activity of jumping on different branches of past and future is significantly reduced.
Once the mind starts experiencing the taste of comfort through this process of meditation, it will be tamed and will come under our control. Then it will be possible for us to engage the mind in the area of our work or interest rather than being engaged in what the mind instructs us to do. The fruit of meditation will ripen when the mind starts enjoying the process.
The journey is not easy though, because the mind throws a lot of thought bombs in the process to slow us down or to deviate us from our goal. How to deal with thoughts during meditation will be the subject of our next article.
Control that Wanderer Mind
Meditation is a forceful process. We have to make a lot of effort in the beginning trying to control our mind. Still the mind is not easily convinced.
Mind travels on a different plane. Thoughts rush in our mind just like racing cars whizzing past spectators in an F1 race. Every car that passes by excites and entertains us. But if we try to chase every car that rushes past us, we will definitely end up tired and frustrated. We will not be able to catch hold of any car if we simply keep switching cars as they rush past us.
Don’t you think a similar thing happens with us? Mind is bombarded with an uncountable number of thoughts moving at unimaginably high speed in all the different directions. And in our pursuit of satisfying the senses and mind by obeying each thought, we end up tired, morose and even angry (irritated).
Meditation helps us by giving us the required peace of mind. We understand that we don’t need to run after each and every thought that comes in our mind. Meditation teaches us the art of restraining ourselves and not getting involved in everything that provokes/excites/angers/saddens us. By learning that we have a separate identity from these thoughts and that we are not these thoughts, our internal peace is restored and serenity prevails.
Meditation is not only about getting away from these troubles because we need some higher engagement to leave the lower one. We can do this by changing our perspective and focussing on God — His names, Form, Qualities and Pastimes, we can experience unending and unparalleled bliss. | https://medium.com/@iskcongurugram/meditation-tips-from-the-bhagavad-gita-c05982b2e042 | ['Iskcon Gurugram'] | 2020-12-19 13:57:00.639000+00:00 | ['Calm', 'Bhagvad Gita', 'Soul', 'Meditation', 'Spirituality'] |
How to Write All Your Business’ Marketing Copy by Only Writing Your Weekly Blog | What if you could write everything you needed for your small business at one time each week? Imagine all the time you could spend actually running your business if you didn’t have to worry about your next blog post topic or how many more times you wanted to post on Instagram that week. Oh, and don’t forget about your weekly email newsletter!
Small businesses require a lot of content. From blog posts to social media posts to email newsletters, the words you write to promote your business directly affects your business. Small businesses also require a cohesive content strategy that helps potential customers get to know, list and trust you before and after they buy your products or services.
Implementing a cohesive content strategy can sound like an upheaval battle. But it doesn’t have to be.
Running a business is hard enough. Here is how you can make your words work for you.
1. Create a content calendar.
During the last week of every month, write down your business goals for the next month. Ask yourself:
What’s happening in my business that I want people to know about? What am I working on next month that will be available to customers soon? What lessons have I learned recently that I think other people could benefit from? What do clients ask me about the most?
Write down everything that comes to mind. The more ideas, the better! Looking at your answers, you might see a few patterns. Maybe you are prepping for the holidays, creating new products or services or adjusting how you do business to become more efficient?
Congrats, you found your blog post topics for the next month. Make a plan to tackle one of these answers each week.
Next, slot these topics in a calendar. And that is that. You’ve created your content calendar!
2. Write your weekly blog post.
Whether you write a blog post a week or devote one night each month to knock out all four of them, make sure you at least write your weekly blog post one week in advance. Not only will this relieve some of the pressure from your schedule, writing ahead of your “last-minute plan” will help you create a cohesive content strategy and brand for your business.
Because blog posts are longer, more detailed than email newsletters and social media posts, they are an excellent outlet to share your thoughts, experiences and tips with your readers, without character or formatting restriction.
So write your heart out!
Your weekly blog post will be your content’s home base. Be sure to optimize your blog post for SEO purposes.
3. Turn your blog post into the body of your email newsletter.
Your weekly (or biweekly or whatever weekly) newsletter tends to be the second-longest piece of content you send to your readers/clients/customers regularly.
The good news is you’ve already written the body of the email you’re sending to your email list! By tweaking the introductory paragraphs and summarizing (or teasing the readers) with the body of your blog posts is a quick way to repurpose your blog post as your email newsletter.
Here are some ideas:
If your blog is talking about a lesson you learned last week, your email can focus on how you are solving that challenge with new products or services.
If your blog is about a new service you’re launching, your email can promote how that new product can help your clients.
Link to your weekly blog post at the bottom of your newsletter. Not only will that get more eyeballs on your blog post, but you could increase your number of subscribers to your blog!
Just be sure to make sure you highlight exactly what you want your readers to know is happening in your business that week. Don’t forget to include any sales/specials/new products you want your customers to know about!
4. Convert your blog post into social media posts
Social media posts can be short, quick reads, or they can be longer and elaborately set a follower up to read a more in-depth piece of content such as your blog post.
You can easily turn your weekly blog post into engaging social media posts. You can do this by breaking down your blog post into bite-sized pieces of content that allow readers to easily digest your business’ expertise and knowledge without feeling overwhelmed.
Here are some ideas:
create “microblog” posts by dividing your blog post into bite-size posts
ask your followers about their experience with what you’re talking about
do a behind-the-scene (BTS) post on the topic you’re focusing on
make graphics from quotes in your blog post
promote your blog in one post (create a graphic in Canva to promote your new post!)
5. Tweak and repeat.
Every small business is different. From customer/follower preferences to business goals, what works for one business might not work for another.
And that is great. There is always time to tweak your content approach to better suit your business’ needs.
Before you create your content calendar for the next month, review your social media posts’ Insights (likes, comments, shares, etc.) and keep listening to your customers about what they want to read and learn about.
If you need help creating a cohesive content strategy for your small business, shoot me an email, and we can get to work. | https://medium.com/@mkmcgowan93/how-to-write-all-your-business-marketing-copy-by-only-writing-your-weekly-blog-bb09a16b1c28 | ['Mk Mcgowan'] | 2020-10-19 22:51:53.736000+00:00 | ['Content Strategy', 'Small Business Blogging', 'Content Marketing', 'Small Business Marketing', 'Copywriting Tips'] |
NFT-YAY OR NAY? | NFT-YAY OR NAY?
NFTs are becoming everyone’s favorite topic to discuss in the current times. It is not common knowledge, but NFTs have been around since 2014, and only now they are gaining immense popularity because they are a convenient alternative to buying and selling digital artwork. NFT or Non- Fungible Token is a digital, non-interchangeable token.
They are forever linked and encrypted with the creators’ signature. There is a significant rise in the number of NFT stores, applications, and businesses. It's a type of a digital resource that can represent real art, music, video, and in-game data.
Non-Fungible Tokens are generally encrypted with the same software as other cryptos and traded on the market online, often with bitcoin. The biggest advantage of NFT is the fact that they are unique. The NFT market has become extremely competitive. One must devote time to conducting thorough research of their niche and then determine what problems their technique can solve.
There are several ways that you can earn through NFT. Let's take a look at the top 5 business ideas for entrepreneurs.
NFT Artist
If you have a creative mind and always wanted to shift your focus to digital art, now is a perfect time. NFTs were created in part to help artists make more money in a digital market that hasn't always treated them fairly. Bear in mind that you will have to face a strong competition though, so make sure that your work stands out.
Alas, there is just no single source of truth on how to create revenue-generating content. Our major piece of advice enjoy.
NFT Cryptocurrency
Crypto protocols concentrating on NFT shopping, interactive media, art, and other similar fields are becoming increasingly popular. Our advice to you is that understanding the niche, providing value, and engaging consumers are the most difficult aspects of this platform.
If your cryptocurrency doesn't have a meaning, a simple "NFT" prefix won't guarantee rapid success.
In less than a year, AXS coins went from zero to $70. In Axie Infinite, an NFT-based online game, the AXS currency is utilized to swap, in-game creatures. Even though video games are the primary motivator for AXS coins, the cryptocurrency has proven to be a consistent source of income for the protocol's creators.
NFT Online Course
As you learn more and more about NFT, you will see that even though everyone is talking about it, there are only a few who actually understand it fully. If you think you have gained enough knowledge about its services, and how to produce and sell them, you can also create a channel and dedicate your time to creating and uploading training sessions and creating your own brand. You can charge them according to your desire.
NFT Marketplace
Do you want to stumble into an NFT goldmine? Start NFT auctions. NFT marketplaces use the standard auction method. You will notice that their business strategies are also built on traditional markets. Each and every sale that is made through the NFT shop is subject to a predetermined fee deducted by these platforms. Given the rapid development of NFT art, starting your own NFT marketplace is one of the most promising business ideas for the coming days.
NFT Collectibles
Your innovations are only limited by your creativity when it comes to NFT collectibles. It goes without saying that the more creative you are, the more money you will make. Action figures, collector cards, comic books, paintings, and whatever else limited edition item you can think of, bring them to the NFT platform and start distributing. Bring fresh ideas to the marketplace and gain popularity.
Non-fungible tokens(NFT) have been around for a while, and the trend does not seem to be going away anytime soon. You will notice that the big sellers on the NFT right now are images(digital), GIFs, videos, and songs. And just like everything else, supply and demand are driving the price.
Since NFTs are scarce, and collectors want them all, they’re willing to pay a lot of money for them. Some people are also seeing them as an investment at the moment because they have the option to resell the NFT for a higher price later on. If you have a unique skill set and you still haven’t put that to use, don’t waste any more time. | https://medium.com/@nisa.samar93/nfts-are-becoming-everyones-favorite-topic-to-discuss-in-the-current-times-6d358cd60db0 | ['Nisa Samar'] | 2022-01-06 07:21:08.961000+00:00 | ['Nft Course', 'Nft Marketplace', 'Nft Collectibles', 'Nft Blog', 'Nft'] |
Dark before Light before Dark | Just before the rain lifted it got
darker as though the
damp hem of a long black dress was
drawn across my face, then the
clouds were torn into great
unmoored battleships slipping with the tide
downstream to destruction or escape,
swept there by a
wind that left the sky almost
albino with seldom-seen stars. | https://medium.com/@fridayam/dark-before-light-before-dark-4531420ee48f | [] | 2020-12-24 19:25:06.455000+00:00 | ['Poem', 'Poets On Medium', '2020', 'Winter', 'Poetry'] |
Noopl helps you hear what’s important | Anyone over 40 has probably had trouble understanding what a companion is saying in a noisy restaurant or bar. Noopl, from a new company of the same name, is an Apple MFi Certified accessory that, in conjunction with an app dubbed Noopl Listen, is specifically designed to address this problem.
Mentioned in this article AirPods Pro See it Using technology licensed from the National Acoustics Laboratory in Sydney, Australia, Noopl plugs into the Lighting port on an iPhone or iPad. It has three digital MEMS (microelectromechanical system) microphones arranged in a triangular array, a sophisticated digital signal processor (DSP), and a head-tracking system that works with Apple AirPods Pro earbuds (more in a moment). Using a technique called beamforming, the microphones amplify sounds coming from a particular direction while reducing the level of sounds from other directions.
[ Further reading: The best headphones you can buy ]The app provides a super-simple user interface that lets you control the width and direction of the beam as well as the volume of the output. In Automatic mode, Noopl establishes two-way communication with one or two Apple AirPods Pro earbuds and tracks your head movement, adjusting the beam direction to stay in front of you.
Noopl The Noople hearing assistant plugs into the Lightning dock on an iPhone 7 or above. An Android version is in the works.
You can also select manual mode, which works with any headphones or earbuds. In that case, the beam direction does not move with your head; instead, you manually point the beam on the app screen. In both cases, you can also adjust the width of the beam. The DSP also automatically detects if the device is being held in the hand or sitting on a table top, which changes the acoustics.
During a Zoom meeting at the Pepcom Digital Experience during CES, the company played a recording of Noopl’s CEO, Tim Trine, using the system while surrounded by speakers simulating a noisy restaurant. One of the speakers played someone talking to him, while the others played the background noise you’d hear in such an environment. When he looked at the speaker carrying the conversation, you could clearly hear what the person was saying, but when he looked away, you couldn’t hear it at all. Very impressive!
High-end hearing aids often have a similar feature, but it typically doesn’t work as well as Noopl, because hearing aids are very small, so they can’t have widely spaced microphones to facilitate effective beamforming. Even worse, hearing aids can cost thousands of dollars, while the Noopl will retail for $199 when it becomes available in early February. There will be an Android version by the third quarter of 2021. I look forward to reviewing this one!
Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details. | https://medium.com/@summer62658440/noopl-helps-you-hear-whats-important-3ec998a2bf6f | [] | 2021-01-16 03:19:05.728000+00:00 | ['Cord', 'Mobile Accessories'] |
Top 3 vacuum cleaners for car use 2021 | What is the best vacuum cleaner for 2021. The most important thing is the size to power ratio as well as filter strength to see how much dirt the vacuum can handle.
Types of filters used for vacuums are water filters and Paper filter. The water filter is the best but requires a big machine the paper filter is a machine part that needs to be replaced once used up.
The Workx vacuum cleaner is suitable for car use with light power cord that can be plugged in the car when charging the machine of 106W. The item next to blue brush is the filter made from plastic and paper.
This is the newer release of The Workx vacuum cleaner with a metallic design. Even more powerful with 110W. Recommended surfaces are Upholstery and Carpet.
CHERYLON Portable Car Vacuum Cleaner High Power 150W. Has a water dispense to remove stain quicker, is the more powerful than the first two option and the most affordable at $30. | https://medium.com/@mngz636/top-3-vacuum-cleaners-for-car-use-2021-773b6c4423eb | ['Dion Matthew'] | 2020-12-20 03:05:45.665000+00:00 | ['Size Power Ratio', 'Vacuum Cleaner', 'Cars'] |
Rescue Fantasies | Rescue Fantasies
I was at a dinner for the staff and crew who worked the conference circuit. We were somewhere in Florida, when I had a job on the conference circuit, when a married father of one seated to my left announced that he “would never understand how some women have rape fantasies.”
It was, admittedly, an extraordinarily heavy topic, especially in a conference room with views of palm trees and one of five swimming pools, but this particular member of the production crew was known for being blunt — and drunk — at these events, and he also worked a great deal on true-crime documentaries, which were, admittedly, screwing with his head.
“I don’t understand how any woman could want that, or think that’s sexy,” he pressed on. “Now that I have a daughter, hearing about the things women go through seems ten times worse, and I can’t understand how anyone would want that. Really, if someone could explain it to me, that would be great, because it’s sick, is what it is. I don’t know anyone who would ever have them.”
I raised my hand.
“Jesus,” another guy said, and I realized why he was surprised.
“No, I don’t have them!” I snapped. “But you asked if someone could explain. And I read Dorothy Allison in college.”
The magnificent Miss Alison has a short story called “Rape Fantasies,” which reveals a group of girlfriends revealing their secret sexual fantasies. The fact of it all, of course, is that the “rape” isn’t in fact unwanted, and the rapists don’t employ viciousness or violence. The root of the fantasy involves being overpowered, but willfully so, thus negating the non-consent element. It’s definitely a story built for feminist, sex-positive academia, and it had sparked plenty of discussion, the highlights of which I shared with my co-worker in the hopes of spreading the good feminist word.
“It’s a power fantasy, like the teacher/student or the boss/employee,” I explained. “It’s like BDSM — scary from the outside, but ultimately the ‘weak’ one is in control. If you read Dorothy Alison’s story, the scenarios read much more like a porn scene then a Law and Order one.”
“So it’s not really rape then.”
“Right. It’s play acting.”
He seemed understanding enough of this, to the point I hoped we could move onto something lighter.
But in that pause in the conversation he turned to look at me without saying a word. I could tell he was past tipsy into drunk, and I chuckled and said “what?” to which he responded “what?”
“You’re looking at me funny,” I said, and he snorted.
“I’m looking at you funny. Like I would want to look at you. Yeah, you’re really something in that floral dress.”
I what the helled? at the utter disgust in his voice. I certainly didn’t think I’d implied that “looking at me funny” meant he was attracted to me, or that my long-sleeved, high-buttoned dress was somehow a vehicle of sexual temptation. It was new, my dress, a dark navy with small white and orange flowers, selected for me by a far more fashionable friend. It was shorter than I normally wore, but I liked the dress. I could relax in it without worrying I was showing too much boob for a work event, and it slimmed in on my waist while allowing plenty of room for my hips. I’d felt good in it, the way clothes that fit make you feel — not a tempting bombshell by any means, but business-casual for sure. I had been flown in to work a major event for a major company, and I wanted to present as professional.
I also couldn’t wrap my head around how such an in-depth feminist conversation with a perceived “ally” had suddenly turned to another man insulting another woman’s looks without thought. I’d thought I was promoting the cause, engaging with a genuinely curious peer. I was revealing State Secrets and glad to do so, thinking it would further his understanding.
I’d cast myself in the role of strong, empowered, yet approachable female, but the second I was lobbed a softball insult, I clutched my glove and went home.
Back in my room, I cried, partly from hurt, even more from anger and frustration. At this point in my life, armed with endless hours of therapy, bolstered by medication, professional, semi-accomplished, I wanted to believe I’d react with cool, steely confidence, and calmly and methodically put him in his place. The fact that he’d flustered me enraged me at myself, as did my failure to anticipate the coming insult. It’s a bizarre protective measure, but I sort of pride myself on thinking of all the terrible things someone could say about me, so that if someone were to say them, I wouldn’t be taken by surprise, but could smugly say “yeah, I know.” It felt like punishment, having worn a new dress, one I liked a great deal, and felt good in, and now I was being punished for my moment of confidence.
This also made me angry, that in the face of someone being rude, my first instinct was to retreat right back into old ruts and say well, it was my fault. I said something. I was being vain. I was engaging a person who was known to be rude, and only got worse the deeper he got in his cups. I puffed up like a pigeon and a great big pin came along and popped me.
That just wouldn’t do. Still tipsy but edging toward sober, I sat down and started an e-mail that would take him to task. I write a lot of emails I never send, or I only ever wind up sending tiny pieces of, so my Drafts folder is unusually full. It’s my own little safe space, where I can wail away all my hotblooded Italian fury, and then, the next day, copy and paste “let’s discuss further in person,” the rage dissolved.
But I didn’t want to senselessy rage — I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, to break down the moment he reached for an insult as the exact problem he’d so eagerly and genuinely wanted to discuss. I made you uncomfortable, and your first thought was to reach for a hurtful comment on my appearance. You wanted it to be clear that you find me unattractive, because in our society, an ugly woman is a powerless one. The greatest gift you could give your daughter is to learn to stay your hand, so she never overhears her father degrading a woman’s looks just because he didn’t like something she said.
All that therapy had done something, as had all that higher education. But as with all emotional upset, having clarity in the mind didn’t necessarily connect to the heart. I cried when I packed the dress away, and I cried in the shower, feeling grotesque and angry at myself for letting some drunk-ass get to me that way.
The note sat in my inbox, where I edited and re-edited, but the moment had passed, and I already knew what the excuse would be — I don’t remember that. I was drinking. If I pressed the issue, I’d just be the stuck-up feminazi who couldn’t take a joke, or let a bro off the hook. I couldn’t address it in person, knowing for sure I’d cry, then hate myself for crying, which would make me cry farther, the fastest and easiest way to wipe the shit out of your credibility.
Then work happened, hard and fast, and I didn’t have time to look over what was in my Inbox. When I saw him across a room I nodded, but made no efforts to be friendly other than to smile when gave a casual wave. Work has always been a balm on a bruised ego, and after ten plus hours of it, I didn’t have the energy to reignite the rage.
In truth, I was too scared to send it. I was scared it would lead to a confrontation: or worse, it wouldn’t: that instead, it would be mocked by the mostly male staff behind my back, and scared that he’d corner me drunkenly at the next dinner and berate my over-sensitivity. I was scared that someone who barely knew me had landed such a perfect and direct hit, and I knew I’d need time, and my Drafts folder, to craft a worthy response.
When the work week ended and the crew boarded celebration shuttles to an off-site party, I wasn’t on them. I bought a half-bottle of white wine, put on sweats, and watched videos on Youtube while sharing Real Housewives gifs.
At the airport the next morning, I read and re-read my e-mail. With the promise of distance between us, it seemed easier to send my rebuke. I admired those who stood up for what they believed, even when they were afraid, and if I were to call myself a feminist, and ardently work for the cause, shouldn’t I attempt to state my belief and challenge sexism where I saw it? Isn’t the pushback part of the struggle? Didn’t our foremothers face far worse berating than the inevitable half-assed apologies of a habitual drunkard?
I didn’t care about this man’s opinion, but I was still frightened of him and his emotional bullseye. I’d dared to feel good about myself in my clothes, a rarity, and even only knowing me casually, he’d known exactly where and how to knock the confidence out of me. If he could do that in a drunken state, what could he do in a sober one? And how did I emotionally guard against it? And why had I assigned myself the role of feminist madonna when he had plenty of women in his life to call him to Jesus?
I thought again of his daughter, and Dorothy Allison, and all my male bosses, and then I copied and pasted the latest draft of the email and sent it to my therapist, with a note “remind me to discuss.” Then I stood for boarding, feeling hesitantly confident in my new jeans. | https://medium.com/the-pink/rescue-fantasies-6fb0d8737c92 | ['Laurel Bowery-Hill'] | 2020-12-06 06:52:45.192000+00:00 | ['Rape', 'Feminism', 'Depression', 'Personal Essay'] |
Thoughts On New Year’s Resolutions | A new year is a new chapter for many people. We wait very eagerly for the next year to come, hoping that it will bring new and exciting possibilities. We can call that a “New year, new me” mindset. But think about it, what it is that actually changes? Why do you hope that something will be different because the earth completed its next usual circle around the sun?
Do you want to know the secret behind being successful and accomplishing all your new year’s resolutions? Okay, here it is:
There are no secrets, and nothing changes, except for the motivation to change something, and it lasts for a couple of days or couple of weeks at most.
Isn’t that what’s really happening? Just think of the past new years when you set some resolutions, did the changes that you were trying to make actually stick?
What I’m trying to explain here is that you should be living with this mindset not only on some special parts of the year but literally every day of the year. If you want to make changes in your life that matter and grow you, you should be living from the above-mentioned mindset every day.
Just think about it, why are you motivated to change something right now, and not in the middle of summer, or at the end of fall, or at the beginning of spring? Why now?
I want you to realize that the motivation that you feel right now is not grounded in anything real and will fade away very quickly. You can’t be depended on motivation when you want to change something.
Do you know what is the difference between amazing visionary people and ordinary mediocre people?
Vision and discipline, not motivation.
Vision is the thing that sources motivation. If you don’t envision your future clearly, and if you don’t fully buy into your vision, you’re almost guaranteed to fail.
Discipline is the ability to do the things that you know you should be doing, even though you don’t want to. It’s is the key to real-life changes. If you can’t do it, it’s almost impossible to make dramatic shifts in the way you live, because the tendency of your system to stay the same way it’s always been is just too strong.
“If Resistance couldn’t be beaten, there would be no Fifth Symphony, no Romeo and Juliet, no Golden Gate Bridge.” — Steven Pressfield
Your mind and your body will do everything to not achieve the goals and plans that you set yourself for the new year. If it was that easy, the levels of consciousness and ways of living would be much better in society then it is today.
Progress is slow (from a human perspective) because everything around you wants to be the same, including you of course. It’s good and bad news at the same time, because that tendency keeps you alive, but also keeps you stuck in life. And if you want to help yourself, you will have to go through the battle with your mind and body, to “Tame the Gremlin”, as Richard Carson would say in his book called, yeah you guessed it right, “Taming Your Gremlin”.
“I free myself not by trying to be free, but by simply noticing how I am imprisoning myself in the very moment I am imprisoning myself” ― Rick Carson
So again, I will tell you as directly as I can:
If you want to achieve something in 2021 that you were not able to achieve in 2020 (or whenever you read this, doesn’t matter), you probably won’t, if you don’t change your strategy.
You have to consider the power of your mind’s resistance. And you have to think about the fact that you don’t really want to change. And I mean it seriously, deep down, you don’t want to change, because you are afraid of change.
After all the negative things I said, let’s talk about some good news.
And the good news is that you can accomplish much more than you think even in a single year. But also, the following quote has some truth to it:
“Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.” — Bill Gates
You just have to do the following, very briefly:
Figure out who you are right now
Figure out what you want to be
Figure out the skills and traits you need to become that version of yourself
Figure out how to develop those
Work on their development every day
Just forget about motivation, cultivate discipline and struggle through bad days and emotional roller-coasters that are inevitable
Learn about your mind and it’s resistance patterns. For that, you have to cultivate observation practices such as meditation, contemplation, journaling, etc.
Visualize your envisioned self every day, review your goals every day, reflect on your progress every day, for the whole year.
Go through the process of trial and error, get comfortable with feeling uncomfortable and confused, surrender to the fact that you have to go through emotional labor to change anything worthwhile.
On your worst days, when you truly want to quit, remember that it won’t always be this way, because nothing stays the same.
Try to enjoy the process, have a positive attitude, and be grateful towards yourself that you are taking responsibility for your life.
“Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance” — Steven Pressfield
That’s basically how I see it. Do you want to truly change something in your life next year? Just remember the points I listed above and do them. Yeah, that’s hard work, but remember, we are trying to go against the behavioral patterns that are deeply rooted in us, that don’t allow us to be the best possible versions of ourselves. It’s a feature, not a bug. You have to be smart and approach the problem of accomplishing your goals strategically, because if you don’t, you might as well don’t set any goals and just go with the flow, and nothing’s wrong with that.
If you want to know why it’s hard to change, I recommend reading an article I wrote a couple of months ago, called The Truth About Truly Changing Yourself.
In the end, try to enjoy the process of trying to become a better human being in any way possible. Because in the end, it all comes down to enjoyment and being okay with whatever you have or whoever you are.
“If you are aware of telling yourself you should change, your gremlin has got you buffaloed. Should, ought, and must are gremlin terms that dampen the spirit of experimentation. Instead, simply change for a change. Play around. As you become aware of an outdated concept or an old habitual behavior, consider playing with changing the behavior.” — Richard Carson
So, accept the way you are right now, be okay with it and then get out of your cushy little comfort zone and get to work. | https://medium.com/@bazera/thoughts-on-new-years-resolutions-7785f76e0638 | ['Giorgi Bazerashvili'] | 2020-12-27 00:12:46.708000+00:00 | ['New Year', 'New Year Resolution', 'Motivation', 'Discipline', 'Personal Development'] |
The day my life story went viral | This is the introduction to my book, The Internet is My Religion, which is available now in paperback, and can also be shared for free online because internet.
I’d just flown into New York. I was staying at a random stranger’s apartment near NYU that I’d found through Airbnb after Facebook informed me that we had three mutual friends. The wi-fi password was not on a sticky note in the kitchen like it was supposed to be. I texted the owner, but she didn’t know what the password was. Why was this not a big deal? If the water wasn’t working, that would be a crisis, but I could do without a shower before I could do without internet!
I was a little high strung. Crazy nervous, really. In two days I would be giving the most important speech of my life. Standing in front of 800 of the most influential political and technology professionals in the world, I was going to tell a deeply personal story about religion that I wasn’t even sure I could get through without crying. I had no idea how they would react, and I was terrified that I’d be booed off the stage.
The morning of the Personal Democracy Forum, I sat between Ben Rattray from Change.org and Jay Rosen from NYU in the first row as I waited for my turn to speak. It felt like I was the only person in the entire room not staring at a glowing screen. Instead, I was staring at the floor reciting the speech over and over again in my head. Then three friends — Lea, Ramin, and Jesse — walked in and sat behind me. They were the only ones who knew what I was about to do
Micah Sifry, the conference organizer and a great friend, called me to the stage. I repeated the first line of the speech in my head, Growing up I had two loves: Jesus and the internet. And then I started.
In the Christian faith, giving one’s testimony about how Jesus saved your life is the necessary rite of passage. It’s the personal story of transformation that spreads the Good News from person to person, one by one, to every corner of the earth. These stories of faith in Christ formed the basis for the infrastructure behind the most powerful movement in human history. So on that day, I shared my struggle with faith, my story of transformation, my testimony — with a twist.
Towards the end, people started clapping. I waited, but then everyone kept clapping and started standing up! It was the last thing I expected. I finally got my head together and motioned that I had one more thing to say, just one more thing.
When I finished, the place erupted again. I had managed not to cry, just barely. But, looking around the room, it seemed like others hadn’t. Completely exhausted, totally overwhelmed, and fully unable to process what was happening, I snuck out through the side entrance of the auditorium. A couple people from the audience ran after me. More people kept coming, but my friends finally found me and steered me away. Alone, we stared at each other in disbelief.
“What just happened?!”
“Um … I think you just started a religion.”
“Oh my God, I forgot this was being livestreamed.”
And then Ramin asked, “Did you see Twitter?” That got everyone’s attention.
There were thousands of tweets.
Within a couple days, the video had been seen 300,000 times and I had a major publisher offer me a $100,000 book deal. Agents were crawling all over me. They told me I could sell my story for a million dollars if I wanted and there would be a hundred copies in every bookstore.
But what no one knew was that Lea and I had been working on a book for over a year. It was through that process with her that I’d come to discover what I really believed, and why I knew — and knew I had to tell — my story.
I was an activist and a geek. I saw my strength as building technology infrastructure for leaders and had just started a new company, NationBuilder, to do exactly that. But I’d learned about the power of stories while producing documentaries. The stories we tell create our culture. They illuminate our worldviews. It took me a long time to accept that possibly the most important thing I could offer wasn’t something I would build, but was simply telling my story.
I believe that there is a new worldview. One based on internet values and the connectedness of all humanity — where instead of waiting for a savior, we create the future. And I now know that I’m not the only one who feels this way.
I turned down the book deals and told the agents to go away. We’re publishing this on the internet, for free. For this story, there really is no other way. I have faith that you will share it with your friends, family, and community — that’s the only way it will exist in the world. But most importantly, I hope that you will share your own story, your testimony, your faith in what’s possible when God just happens. | https://medium.com/galleys/the-day-my-life-story-went-viral-4f5fb96ee854 | ['Jim Gilliam'] | 2015-08-13 19:27:35.735000+00:00 | ['Storytelling', 'Religion', 'Internet'] |
Creative and Critical Use of Complex Networks | A network diagram offers a “common language” that is both visual and mathematical. So, from a network map, we can get qualitative information by reading its actors and relations, as well as do quantitative analysis by computing its connection structure. In fact, we can use this common language to study systems that may differ widely in their nature, appearance, or scope. For example, rather three different systems 1) devices sending messages to each other, 2) film actors connected through taking roles in the same movies, 3) organizations connected through partnerships may have exactly the same network structure. While the nature of the nodes and the links differs widely, each network has the same graph representation, consisting of 4 nodes and 4 links. We can use this simple method to begin studying a variety of complex systems.
Why is network logic significant today?
Let us look at why do networks matter today, although they existed in every society in the history. It is known that ~3000 years ago the ancient Phoenician and Greek colonies formed their trade routes and built network of harbours in the Mediterranean Sea. Whereas today, in the same geography, submarine cables carry messages and enable a global communication system. What we have today, is not just networks as analog or bare life happenings, but networks that are digitized, like the way many aspect of life is digitized. Thus, networks matter today, because electronic and software based communication systems made networks measurable. Only in this day and age, networks are able to reach a global scale and infiltrate into every part of our life. With today’s advanced information technologies the metrics of network effect have become trackable and measurable even in one’s daily course of life, at the same structuring the social world as such.
~3000 years ago Phoenician and Greek colonies formed the trade routes in the Mediterranean Sea. Map Source
Today, in the same geography, submarine cables are enabling a global communication system. Map Source
Only in this day and age, networks are able to reach a global scale and infiltrate into every part of our life. Map Source
Use of complex networks
In fact, we all experience the network effect, from email to e-commerce, from social networking to banking, from telecommunication to transportation. We all acknowledged the fact that the world is complex more than ever. It feels both flat –one can email anyone any time– and chaotic –our inbox is inundated with information coming from all directions. Sometimes we are opportunistic about the internet, talking about it as a global good, other times we are pessimistic knowing that we are all under surveillance all the time. In such an antagonistic world that is at once flat and chaotic, the question arises again: Where does power reside and circulate?
Photograph of Obama and NYPD experts investigating the links of the suspect of a bombing attempt in Times Square. Image from an New York Times article “Police Find Car Bomb in Times Square”, May 1st 2010.
Additionally, the state’s tactics in partnership with certain corporations to monitor its own citizens through what has been called “the big data”, the NSA leaks and so on and so forth have also attracted our attention towards an inaccessible but quite magical tool of knowing and predicting of what people want. This indeed was possible through understanding the interrelated or linkable structure of the information generated by many, but as said only open to the reach of a handful of institutions. In other words, network logic have been mystified in the eyes of the public. Only experts in certain fields have been aggregating large amount of data and using scientific tools for mapping and analyzing it on relational basis. Neither the relational data nor the mapping and analysis tools are accessible to the average user.
Photograph from a Graph Commons workshop with NGOs. Representatives from two organizations in France and Turkey present the shared links between their organizations.
However, it is a myth that common people has no access to data. We are the data for the governments and corporations who continuously sense our activity. In fact today, a wide array of people pursue projects containing complex data. All such people would benefit from structuring and interlinking their information. Connecting our discrete data sets would generate new knowledge, render complex issues visible and generate crucial discussions that impact us and our communities. The Graph Commons platform is a step to allow you to do so.
Conceptual drawing for the idea of Graph Commons.
Graph Commons
Graph Commons is the first collaborative online platform for making and publishing interactive network maps publicly. It is dedicated to investigative journalism, civic data research, archive exploration, creative research, and organizational analysis.
On Graph Commons, you can collectively compile data about the topics you are interested, define and categorize relations, and transform your data into interactive network maps, discover new patterns, and share your insight about complex issues using a simple interface.
The platform serves both producers and consumers of graphs by linking entities together in useful ways and thereby creating a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. Graph Commons members collectively experiment in the act of network mapping as an ongoing practice: Search across variety of graphs, invite collaborators to their work and ask to contribute to theirs.
We believe everybody will find a unique way to use Graph Commons in their own connected world. We invite you to join us, and join one another in connecting partial information to explore complex relations that impact us and our communities. | https://medium.com/graph-commons/creative-and-critical-use-of-complex-networks-412fe9eddecb | ['Burak Arikan'] | 2017-08-08 10:28:19.718000+00:00 | ['Productivity', 'Data Science', 'Creativity', 'Big Data', 'Data Visualization'] |
Worship. The. Masculine. | But Serena…what about the rape, the abuse, the dominance, the betrayal, the destruction…
I get it. I hear you. We’ve been in a 5000+ year distortion of the Masculine energetic so I understand your triggers + honor your resistance.
⚡️HOWEVER- I’m here to activate you into new realities, so here’s what I say:
It’s time to stop the blame. It’s time to stop the fear. It’s time to stop living in the past.
It’s time to create your reality based on the future you want to experience.
👉If this includes orgasmic loving relationships, a boss babe business and healthy boundaries ( which I know it does 😉)…
𝙏𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙞𝙩’𝙨 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙩𝙤 𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙙𝙚 + 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙡 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙥 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙈𝙖𝙨𝙘𝙪𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙚.
Within yourself
Within the men in your life
Within the collective
🔺Who is the Divine Masculine?
He is Truth. He is presence. He is leadership. He is protection. He is safety. He is structure. He is FREEDOM.
He is the provider, the helper, the fixer, the protector, the giver.
He is within you. He is within me. He is within 𝘼𝙇𝙇 of us.
The Masculine has been shamed so He is hiding.
As the Divine Feminine continues to rise we must also create space for the Divine Masculine to rise 𝙨𝙞𝙢𝙪𝙡𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙚𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙡𝙮.
It’s not one over the other. It’s about creating the 𝙎𝙖𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙙 𝙐𝙣𝙞𝙤𝙣 of both energetics.
🔷From this space, your relationship with not only the men in your life will blossom, but 𝙔𝙊𝙐 𝙒𝙄𝙇𝙇 𝘽𝙇𝙊𝙎𝙎𝙊𝙈.
👑 Serena
@serenavamoroso
PS — Wondering HOW to do this? Join me in Feminine Magnetism. Mod 5 is focused on healing + embracing your masculine energetic. DM for info. | https://medium.com/@serenavamoroso/worship-the-masculine-23bc4f196fa6 | ['Serena V Amoroso'] | 2020-12-22 22:40:30.047000+00:00 | ['Masculinity', 'Spiritual Growth', 'Relationship Building', 'Relationship Advice', 'Self Love'] |
‘Bridge builders’ are hastening a global shift toward the work of the future: human work | iStock/waraphorn-aphai
By Jamie Merisotis
Nations everywhere are grappling with how to prepare for the work of the future, and finding new reasons for optimism as the global economy digs out from the wreckage caused by COVID-19.
Some of this effort reflects what I found while writing my new book, “Human Work in the Age of Smart Machines.” In the book I argue that artificial intelligence, automation, and other technology, far from creating an apocalyptic loss of jobs, will likely increase opportunity — for those with the education and training to embrace the kinds of work that only people can do.
I think we’ll see growth especially in four categories of uniquely human endeavor: the “helpers” who excel in customer service and human interaction; “integrators” who synthesize knowledge and apply it in personal ways, as teachers and social workers do; “creators” who combine technical skills with deep creativity (architects, game designers); and “bridgers” who combine tech knowledge with people skills (IT help desk professionals, car-repair managers).
“Bridge Builders” needed
I like the metaphor of bridges as a way to think about linking human needs and social resources. For example, the need to build bridges between our siloed education and work systems is a key theme in a new report from Lumina Foundation and Strada Education Network called “Bridge Builders: How Intermediaries Can Connect Education and Work in a Post-Pandemic World.” The report makes it clear that the global pandemic, resulting economic distress, and concern about racial inequity have highlighted the need for coordination between education and work.
Countries are addressing these issues in different ways, but what they often have in common is the use of intermediaries — bridge builders — to fill the crucial role of connecting employers, educators, current workers, and prospective workers.
These intermediaries help spur lower-cost, shorter-term training with a local focus. They simplify and promote paths to quality employment with an emphasis on advising, apprenticeships, and internships for students at all levels. And they push education providers and employers to communicate more effectively — with one another and with learners in general.
Some examples:
New Zealand established Workforce Development Councils to determine what skills and training are needed for the workforce of the future. These councils set standards, develop qualifications and shape curriculum, and advise on investment in vocational education.
In England, the Civic University Commission was created to determine how the country’s universities can best serve nationally and globally in the 21st century.
Singapore has built SkillsFuture, a national movement that gives people the opportunity “to develop their fullest potential throughout life, regardless of their starting points.” Emphasizing the idea of continuous learning, the program boasts that “no matter where you are in life — schooling years, early career, mid-career or silver years — you will find a variety of resources to help you attain mastery of skills.”
The Australian Industry Group has created its “higher apprentice” model that, in one case, combines 22 weeks of study at Swinburne University of Technology and 26 weeks of hands-on training at Siemens, one of the world’s largest producers of energy-efficient technologies.
In the United States, Detroit Drives Degrees, a group led by the Detroit Regional Chamber, is trying to raise the proportion of adults with post-high school education to 60 percent by 2030. Its three-pronged approach is to advance access to post-high school opportunities, boost student success, and retain local talent while attracting new talent.
The Mobile Area Education Foundation works with school districts, business and civic leaders across Mobile County, Alabama, to increase the chances that students will graduate ready for college and careers.
Hard, but it can be done
Ultimately, intermediaries are leaders, not only connecting education and employment but holding everyone accountable for the results. Their role is central to changing systems to align with the work of the future — work that requires empathy, compassion, ethics, collaboration, and communication.
“The work is hard,” the Bridge Builders report says. “But experiences from around the world show it can be done.”
“Whatever particular problems a given city, region, or community is trying to solve, intermediaries that tailor efforts to the unique needs of time and place — individual, institutional, and economic — will have the best prospect of lifting these places to more prosperous futures.” | https://medium.com/todays-students-tomorrow-s-talent/bridge-builders-are-hastening-a-global-shift-toward-the-work-of-the-future-human-work-213f39645706 | ['Jamie Merisotis'] | 2020-12-18 15:15:05.272000+00:00 | ['Higher Education', 'Technology', 'College', 'Jobs', 'Students'] |
Did The Founding Fathers Smoke Weed? | America wouldn’t be America without the Founding Fathers, but did they have a little bit of fun on the side?
America was founded in 1776 by a group of leaders who united and created a new form of government, that would then go on to initiate the revolutionary War and fight for America’s independence from the reigns of Great Britain. That group of leaders was known as the Founding Fathers of America, and they went on to create many of the documents which continue to shape America to this day.
The Founding Fathers had the incredible foresight and capabilities to not only overthrow the world’s primary superpower but to also create a long-term, sustainable vision for how their country would look in the decades to come, eventually turning America into a superpower itself. Now, America largely considered the world’s final remaining superpower.
As incredible as their resumes and legacies are, there is, however, one question that persists surrounding the Founding Fathers:
Did the Founding Fathers smoke weed?
Let’s find out more about the Founding Fathers and whether or not they liked to spark up a bit of the good stuff.
Who Were The Founding Fathers?
The Founding Fathers of America were a group of individuals who coalesced around the common goal of separating from Great Britain. Many of the Founding Fathers were from a diverse range of socioeconomic backgrounds, and some even lacked political experience entirely.
The term “Founding Fathers” is often used to describe different groups. Some refer to those 39 signers that signed the Declaration of Independence, though more commonly, the Founding Fathers are considered to be seven men: John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington.
These seven men are primarily given the title of Founding Fathers due to their formative roles in shaping the United States as it exists today. Together, they played crucial roles in developing the Declaration of Independence and the Federalist Papers, leading the Revolutionary war and ultimately, creating the Constitution. These events and documents helped create the bedrock for a nation that provides “inalienable” rights to the individual, as is “endowed by their creator,” rendering all men to be “created equal.”
But what about weed? Was the idea for emancipation from Great Britain sparked by a spliff?Did the Founding Fathers Smoke Weed?
Interestingly, the question of whether or not the Founding Fathers smoked weed is a common one. This is predominantly due to the Founding Fathers’ affinity for hemp plants, which are, of course, a cousin to marijuana.
This involvement with hemp included Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and James Madison who each cultivated hemp plants themselves. However, this wasn’t entirely out of the ordinary, as some Americans were encouraged to grow hemp during the early Republic due to the plants’ bountiful industrial value in constructing clothing and fabrics.
Though the Founding Fathers did certainly appreciate the benefits that hemp had to offer, as Thomas Jefferson received the United States’ first patent for a hemp threshing machine, and in 1794, George Washington wrote in his diary: “I am very glad to hear that the Gardener has saved so much of the St. foin seed, and that of the India Hemp.”
“Make the most you can of both, by sowing them again in drills. . . Let the ground be well prepared, and the Seed be sown in April. The hemp may be sown anywhere.”
"The hemp may be sown anywhere."
Though among all these truths surrounding the Founding Fathers and their relationship to hemp, there has been a lot of misinformation.
Many have claimed that the Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper, which is false. The truth is still quite interesting, in that it is believed the first few drafts of the Declaration were indeed written on hemp paper as it was a common form of paper during the time. Though the Declaration of Independence itself was written on parchment made from animal skin.
Additionally, there is a quote floating around, that hemp is “of first necessity to the wealth and protection of the country,” which has been falsely attributed to Jefferson. While this quote was real, it instead belonged to Governor Morris, a fellow Founding Father who said the statement in a letter to Thomas Jefferson to reiterate the benefits of the hemp plant.
Moreover, even if we grant a lot of these hemp falsehoods to be true, it doesn’t confirm that the Founding Fathers were into smoking weed. Hemp plants don’t contain high enough amounts of THC to get users stoned, and there is no evidence that the Founding Fathers liked to partake in smoking marijuana.
In conclusion, while the hemp plant is literally woven into some parts of America’s history, it doesn’t look like the Founding Fathers were rolling joints and looking at the stars in their spare time.
This article originally appeared on The Green Fund — APAC region’s leading source of cannabis information. | https://louisarthuroneill.medium.com/did-the-founding-fathers-smoke-weed-b2acd2cd2bb2 | ['Louis O Neill'] | 2020-05-26 10:58:19.648000+00:00 | ['History', 'Founders', 'Cannabis', 'Politics', 'America'] |
Learn From Your Mistakes If You Want to Find Your Version of Success | Learn From Your Mistakes If You Want to Find Your Version of Success
It is possible to build a business or career despite hurdles and challenges like a mental or physical illness
Photo by krakenimages on Unsplash
I would blame my failure to stay focused this past week on the election, but the deeper I overthink the mystery, the more I see it’s the nature of who I have been in life that threw me for a loop.
I tend to jump from one thing to another, which has been a significant problem for me.
Take the last week, for instance.
Do you notice that I often write about my mental health? It is only because my illness’s severity keeps it top of mind. Here I am writing a book during NaNoWriMo about blogging by finishing an essay or article per day. More often than not, I’m writing about how illness makes it difficult to complete anything.
I intended to have a central theme where I would talk about the business of blogging and create a timeline that lasted two months through the end of December 2020. It would outline the rise or fall of my writing and blogging business as I push myself to find the success that eludes me.
But I find I want to talk more to the many people who follow me for one specific reason.
Many of you are so much like me that it’s scary. You battle illness daily, whether it be the horror of diabetes or the pain and fear you get from depression and anxiety. I have people who write to me with PTSD and OCD, which are debilitating, and they find writing almost an impossibility.
I find I want to talk more about building a writing or blogging business when you have too many challenges to mention. What about those who have to push themselves to produce and have to somehow find a way to focus when demons are dancing on their Medulla Oblongata?
I am figuring out that a more interesting book I could write would exist to help people with mental or physical challenges build a business and find success, whatever our definition of that word is.
The problem is that I jump from thing to thing, and I don’t want to waste any more of my valuable time spinning my wheels if I can help it. I’ve learned that if I want to be successful at anything, I have to stick with one thing and focus.
Why am I like this? | https://medium.com/free-thinkr/learn-from-your-mistakes-if-you-want-to-find-your-version-of-success-83345fa28893 | ['Jason Weiland'] | 2020-11-08 18:11:27.730000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Mental Health', 'Success', 'Failure', 'Mistakes'] |
Let’s Build A Better Tomorrow. Happy New Year From Dentech. | Hello ,
I know by now you are probably familiar with all of the end of year thank you’s; But this year seems different. I think this year has been a fight. Some people fighting for rights, others fighting for their businesses, and others for life itself.
2020 has shed some light on the many issues that occur when large organizations control too much, and I am proud to be a part of a business community that still symbolizes the independent hard working American. More importantly, I am honored to support the thousands of independent dental practices that transcend our American landscape today. You are the ones that truly make this industry hum.
This is a defining period for our industry. Disruption has always been a part of our business. Yes, today our normal lives have been upended. The challenges are new. But I know that dentistry overall, has overcome many challenges in the past with tenacity and resilience. The culture of innovation fostered over the ages will help us to pivot and transform.
Despite the immediate challenges, Dentistry will emerge stronger and more resilient than ever before. I look forward to working with you as we build a better tomorrow. Stay safe and have a Happy New Year.
Jane E. Kaminski
Chief Operating Officer | https://medium.com/@dentech/lets-build-a-better-tomorrow-happy-new-year-from-dentech-ca9b1b971b35 | ['Jane E. Kaminski'] | 2021-07-23 17:28:43.284000+00:00 | ['Dentistry', 'Practice Management', 'Dental Care', 'Dental', 'New Year'] |
InvArch’s Intellectual Property Sets (IP sets) solution — a review | Hello everyone,
Today I’ll make a quick review of one of the new features InvArch is looking to implement and utilize as part of its Intellectual Property Modules (Pallets) product– the Intellectual Property Sets (IP sets).
Before we start, if you are still not fully familiar with the project itself or hear it for the first time, don’t lose more time and go to https://invarch.io/ or https://invarch.medium.com/ to educate yourself and learn more about the innovative ideas the team is about to bring to the Polkadot ecosystem in the near future.
In brief, the team behind InvArch is looking to create an open ecosystem where users can create, own and manage their ideas before they start taking the form of a product or service. Currently there aren’t blockchain protocols offering the needed protection for intangible assets like ideas, concepts or product designs in any of their forms known from the “real” world.
InvArch is the universal IP-management protocol that is set to launch its own parachain on Polkadot in Q1 2022. The parachain will then be used for minting and managing all new IP files and checking them for plagiarism, is also used for staking and governance.
The already mentioned IP Modules are the core components of the InvArch infrastructure and the team will be using the full potential of the Polkadot blockchain and Substrate to bring their ideas to live. The Substrate-based pallets enable developers to build purpose-built blockchains and decentralized applications by composing custom or pre-built components and integrate them with similar blocks on a completely new protocol.
InvArch is presenting a group of non-fungible components:
· Intellectual Property Sets (IP Sets) that represent the idea. An IP Set is viewed as an idea, which consists of one or more components (IP Files) that help to strengthen and describe that idea. Very much like a unique NFT collection.
· Intellectual Property Files (IPFs) that will represent the non-fungible components of an idea. IPT tokens will be completely programmable, and creators of IP Sets will be able to define the utility and the use case for IP Tokens. Their number for each IP Set is defined by the creator, but it can be changed later by IPT holders via voting.
· Intellectual Property Tokens (IPTs) where tokens will represent fractional ownership over an idea. The same way ultra-expensive NFTs are being fractionalized and sold on auctions to hundreds of investors or speculators who cannot afford to spend the full amount and buy the NFT itself.
A finite and preset number of fungible IPTs may be assigned to a single intellectual property set. The value of a single IPT will be determined by the total amount of the network’s native currency bonded to the IP Set, divided by the total number of IP tokens.
Intellectual Property Sets (IP Sets)
As already mentioned, an IP set is a combination of multiple product idea or implementation files. Complex developments rarely use just one idea or concept, but are usually a combination of constantly evolving thought models. In InvArch you will be able to re-organize several IP sets into bigger IP sets or use the same IP File in multiple IP Sets.
The process flow is straightforward but is highly customizable as well. In general, when an idea is born it can be documented with all its features and underlying principles or core elements. The newly created IP files can be merged into an IP set, which can be then used for minting IP tokens to grant ownership or allow multiple ways to incentivize participants while keeping the idea secured and ready for the real development phase. The IPTs are programmable, which means they can be given with different attributes to meet the creator needs.
All of the above will be facilitated by VARCH — the native token of the InvArch protocol. It is just one of the built-in purposes of the token alongside paying transaction fees, on-chain governance, staking and distributing rewards.
The VARCH token generation even will happen on Statemint — the common-good parachain of Polkadot
The token can be then used to gain exposure over different IP sets. Users can buy portions of an IP set and receive the underlying IPFs. Every project will have a predefined cap for this option, for example, “X% IPT in exchange for Y VARCH in fees”, so when it reaches a limit, this option will be unavailable.
On InvArch projects and creators can finance their operations by selling portion of their IP sets just like any other asset. They will also be able to receive royalties for selling rights to use their creations, similar to NFTs.
They will also be able to build and manage larger projects or sub-projects in one secure place built specifically for that purpose.
Follow me for more insights and reviews coming straight from the Polkadot ecosystem and InvArch in particular.
Also, don’t forget to visit InvArch on their social media channels to receive all the latest news and updates. | https://medium.com/@futurebchain/invarchs-intellectual-property-sets-ip-sets-solution-a-review-6b09ff5f37eb | ['Future Blockchain'] | 2021-12-27 14:06:39.728000+00:00 | ['Intellectual Property', 'Kusama', 'Polkadot', 'Blochcain', 'Invarch'] |
How To Succeed At Anything | How To Succeed At Anything
3 Simple (non-negotiable) Steps…
You want to know how to succeed at anything? —
It’s simple.
Start, keep going and don’t stop until you succeed.
That is how to succeed at anything. Three steps. A beginning, a middle and an end.
We don’t like to think about an ‘end.’ It seems too practical and measurable and perhaps even shallow. Thinking of ‘success’ as a ‘destination’ tends to conjure images of horrendous personal cost and regret at the lost family time — a life of failing to stop and smell roses.
So let’s preempt the conversation about the ‘journey’ versus ‘destination’ models of success by suggesting that success is a journey through many destinations. The end always dovetails into new beginnings. But the ‘ends’ are real.
So, back to the simple three-step plan —
1) Start, 2) Keep going, 3) Succeed
This is how you learned to read.
This is how you learned to drive a car.
This is how you balanced your finances.
It’s how you created everything you’ve ever made.
It is both simple and infinitely complex.
We have an industry devoted to drilling down into each of these steps and dissecting the nuance, mitigating the pitfalls, refreshing, re-imaging and repackaging them for each generation — each cultural moment in time.
I’m not here to criticize the ‘self-help’ industry. Far from it. Don’t shun it. Engage with it.
But not today.
Today I want to take a step back and work with simple thoughts. Simple thoughts set boundaries that give us space to live. A simple definition gives us clarity.
The clarity of a simple framework can cut through noisy details that distract.
Again,
1) Start, 2) Keep going, 3) Succeed
The beginning — Start
Let’s start with the start. You will not succeed unless you start.
I used to be overweight and physically lethargic. When I set about getting fit I didn’t have a detailed plan. In fact, if I had waited until I had all the boxes ticked I would have been overwhelmed and never started.
When I started I had a simple understanding that I was unfit. I wasn’t strong. I couldn’t run very far and I was overweight. The only thing I knew to do was to start jogging. So I did.
I started.
The interesting thing is that on some strange level I thought I knew everything. There was a kind of dangerous confidence that had the potential to lead me into big mistakes. But the overconfidence (can I call it ‘courage’?) was necessary to get me started.
Over time I was to learn that calories matter. Diet matters. Nutrition matters. Over-training and injuries are a real thing. Being strong in all of your body means learning and doing a variety of exercises.
But if I had waited to learn all of these things before I started I would still be waiting.
There is a saying “when the student is ready the teacher appears.” This is not a once in a lifetime event. Nor is it an excuse to be still and do nothing. It can happen every day. In a sense, life is your teacher and when you are ready you will notice things. The ‘teacher’ can appear every day.
There are things you cannot learn or anticipate until you have progressed toward your goal. There are things that life cannot teach you until you are moving. You learn what you need as you go.
Becoming “ready” is not a passive thing. It involves action. We can become addicted to “getting ready” so don’t focus on it. Focus on starting and the “getting ready” will happen. Start.
The middle — Keep going
You will not succeed unless you keep going.
Sometimes the only thing you know for sure is ‘keep moving.’ Sometimes the next thing is not clear and the only thing you know for sure is that standing still will not get you any closer.
We stop because we fear failure. But we look at failure the wrong way. We want to understand a thing and become an expert in order to avoid all forms of failure. But, the fastest way to understand a thing is to fail at it a number of times. Failing forward is an art we all need to master.
When you hit roadblocks keep moving. You may need to alter course to navigate around. You may need to dig deep and go underneath. Or you may need to learn an unexpected skill like mountain-climbing or road-block-dismantling.
You may get weary. By all means, rest. But then get going again.
You may lose your sense of purpose. If appropriate, revise the goal. If not, maintain your course. You can revisit your purpose once you succeed. But whatever you do, don’t stop.
The End — Succeed
Finish. Get in the habit of finishing.
You have to call it.
You have to look at what you did and say, “I succeeded.”
There will always be more. There will always be something you could have done better. But you need to acknowledge what you have achieved. Celebrate a little. Don’t let it go to your head, but give yourself permission to be happy.
When you do succeed, there will usually be a nagging sense of ‘not quite having arrived’. That’s okay. There is never as much fanfare as you expected. But if you never take a moment to bring closure to a goal it will always remain a burden.
And now — start the next adventure.
So — if, like me, you occasionally become anxious that all of your life goals are not being planned and tracked with the rigorous accuracy of a NASA space flight, take heart. If you haven’t started — start. And if you have begun — keep going. You will succeed. | https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/how-to-succeed-at-anything-d597500f4c0a | ['Arthur Holmes-Brown'] | 2018-12-29 17:04:59.703000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Success', 'Life', 'Planning', 'Goals'] |
Word2Vecで辞書を作成して見ました | このタスクは「文字レベル」、「単語レベル」、そして最近「文レベル」にもできるようになってます。
文字レベルと単語レベルの方はGloVeとWord2Vecなどの方法があります、今日はWord2Vecでシンプルな辞書をPythonで作って見ましょう。
注意: 自然言語処理では辞書の最適化によってタスクにかなりの改善も見られますが、今回は一旦デモができるレベルの辞書にはなれます。
必要な材料
パソコンで2–3GBぐらいの容量(cloudとColabでもできますが、今回はローカルにします)
以下のライブラリ
MeCab, wget, gensim, jaconv
import MeCab
import wget from gensim.corpora
import WikiCorpus from gensim.models
import Word2Vec from gensim.models.word2vec
import LineSentence
import jaconv from multiprocessing
import cpu_count import os VECTORS_SIZE = 50
wiki_file_name = 'jawiki-latest-pages-articles1.xml-p1p106175.bz2' ja_wiki_latest_url =
'https://dumps.wikimedia.org/jawiki/latest/jawiki-latest-pages-articles1.xml-p1p106175.bz2'
次元数は文字レベルの場合に20辺りでもいいかもしれませんが、単語レベルで行う際には50次元最低はオススメです。
その以下であれば(自分の経験で）言葉の意味が捕まえきれてないケースが多いです。
データを手に入れよう
さて、まずはデータを大量に必要ですので、wikipediaをダウンロードしましょう！
if not os.path.isfile(wiki_file_name):
wget.download(ja_wiki_latest_url, bar=wget.bar_adaptive)
今回は一部をダウンロードしています、役15分かかりました。全ての記事をダウンロードする場合は、3GBと3時間ぐらいが必要となります。
日本語の場合、同じ言葉や文字が全角か半角だったりするケースがあります。ローマジの場合、大文字と小文字のほとんどの場合に同じ意味を持つ(ｗａｔｅｒとwater) ここで、jaconvのライブラリを使い、すべてを全角に統一します。
def normalize_text(text):
return jaconv.h2z(text, digit=True, ascii=True, kana=True).lower()
半角に統一したい場合、jaconv.z2hとメソッドを利用できます。 辞書を利用する際、同じように統一する必要があります。
上記のメソッドを利用して、以前ダウンロードしたwikipediaデータを全角に変えながら、普通のtxtファイルに保存しましょう。
wiki_text_file_name = 'wiki.txt' def read_wiki(wiki_data, save_file):
if os.path.isfile(save_file):
print('Skipping reading wiki file...')
return
with open(save_file, 'w') as out:
wiki = WikiCorpus(wiki_data, lemmatize=False, dictionary={}, processes=cpu_count())
wiki.metadata = True
texts = wiki.get_texts()
for i, article in enumerate(texts):
text = article[0] # article[1] は記事名です
sentences = [normalize_text(line) for line in text]
text = ' '.join(sentences) + u'
'
out.write(text)
if i % 1000 == 0 and i != 0:
print('Logged', i, 'articles')
print('wiki保存完了') read_wiki(wiki_file_name, wiki_text_file_name)
ここでは、gensimのWikiCorpusを利用して簡単に解読できます。これで学習できるデータが揃いましたので次のステップに行きましょう。
単語トーケン作成
こちらはメカブの出番です。
def get_words(text: str, mt: MeCab.Tagger) -> List[str]:
mt.parse('')
parsed = mt.parseToNode(text)
components = []
while parsed:
if len(parsed.surface) >= 1: # EOSを覗くためにあります
components.append(parsed.surface)
parsed = parsed.next
return components
get_words のメソッドを利用して文書を単語(トーケン）に分けることができます。MeCabのparseToNode(text)メソッドの結果にはsurface とfeatureの二つのものがありますが、ここではsurfaceしか利用しません。
では、先ほど作成したwikipediaのデータをトーケン化しましょう。
token_file = 'tokens.txt' def tokenize_text(input_filename, output_filename, mt):
if os.path.isfile(output_filename):
print('出力ファイルがすでに存在しています。')
return
with open(output_filename, 'w') as out:
with open(input_filename, 'r') as data:
for i, text in enumerate(data.readlines()):
tokenized_text = ' '.join(get_words(text, mt))
out.write(tokenized_text)
if i % 1000 == 0 and i != 0:
print('Tokenized ,', i, 'lines')
print('トーケン作成完了')
tagger = MeCab.Tagger('-d /usr/local/lib/mecab/dic/mecab-ipadic-neologd') #neologd がなければ、別なものを使ってもOK
tokenize_text(wiki_text_file_name, token_file, tagger)
Wikipediaの記事ごとをトーケンに変え、半角スペースを入れ、またファイルに出力しています。メモリーにもつのもありかもしれませんが、RAMを結構使うケースが多いために、ファイルに出力させていただいてます。
ベクトル化
いおいおベクトル作成の時がきました。コード的には簡単にかけます。
vector_file = 'ja-MeCab-50.data.model'
def generate_vectors(input_filename, output_filename):
if os.path.isfile(output_filename):
return
model = Word2Vec(LineSentence(input_filename),
size=VECTORS_SIZE, window=5, min_count=5,
workers=cpu_count(), iter=5)
model.save(output_filename)
print('ベクトル作成完了。') generate_vectors(token_file, vector_file)
GensimのWord2Vecで、上記のように定義された50次元のベクトルが作成されます。min_count_は辞書に含まれるための最低回数です。使ってるデータに応じて編集してみてください。
ベクトル作成もかなりの時間かけますので、ローカルで行う場合、一晩中学習させてもらう感じではオススメです。また、google datalabやawsで実装してみた方が良いかもしれません。
お試しタイム！
これで作成できましたので、どうやって使えばいいのか、、
from gensim.models import load_model model = load_model(vector_file)
model = model.wv print(model['東京'])
print(mm.most_similar(positive='東京', topn=5))
で試してみてください！
辞書の結果、多少違っても大丈夫です
今回はベクトル辞書の作成について説明いたしました。wikipediaのデータで学習し、MeCabを利用してトーケン化して、最後にWord2Vecのベクトル辞書の作成を行いました。
この辞書の結果がEmbeddingとしてニューラルネットにも使えます。でもそちらはまた別に機会に。
トップの写真はこちらからいただきました: https://www.pexels.com/photo/black-and-white-book-business-close-up-267669/
また、こちらも参考になりました。
今回のコードは以下です | https://medium.com/in-pursuit-of-artificial-intelligence/word2vec%E3%81%A7%E8%BE%9E%E6%9B%B8%E3%82%92%E4%BD%9C%E6%88%90%E3%81%97%E3%81%A6%E8%A6%8B%E3%81%BE%E3%81%97%E3%81%9F-6d9d24bd5595 | ['Sharat Chinnapa'] | 2019-03-26 09:32:13.399000+00:00 | ['AI', '自然言語処理', '機械学習', 'Word2vec'] |
Disordered: Week 1 – August 30 to September 5 | Disordered: Week 1 – August 30 to September 5
For my first four nights on Mirtazapine, I was instructed to take just half a pill as I built up to my regular dosage. While normally I’d say to hell with how my body reacts — I tend to push myself physically — my trepidation stemming from even beginning this course of treatment urged caution.
In just the first few days, I’ve experienced the soundest sleep I’ve had in what seems like many, many years. I’m now waking up when I hear my alarm, not just before it, not an hour or two before it. I’ve gone running for the first time in five months, and I’m even starting to believe I can do all of the things my team and company need me to be doing at work. These things I like.
It’s certainly possible that this quickly I’ve started experiencing some of the positive effects of Mirtazapine. It’s possible that this has been purely placebo effect. It’s also very possible that having wallowed in such a sunken place I’m feeling better because I couldn’t conceivably have gone anywhere but up.
And if feeling and being so low was catalyst enough to turn things around for me, maybe I didn’t need the Mirtazapine at all. I don’t know, and I guess I won’t. I question this decision, but I don’t question it enough to regret it. I simply wonder, and I think I will continue to wonder. | https://medium.com/@mlboykin/disordered-week-1-august-30-to-september-5-f5cbec17e3fb | ['Michael Boykin'] | 2020-12-28 20:13:32.033000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Mental Health Awareness', 'Personal Development', 'Mental Health', 'Psychology'] |
A letter to those who fear having no friends to hang out with this vacation: | Image by Anthony Tran from Unsplash.com
Guess what, if I’m writing about this, it’s because I’m in the same situation. It’s a situation that’s hard emotionally, especially if you lack in confidence. You want busy days and wish something was scheduled every day of the week during vacation. This story is here to help you get through the unsatisfactory lack of, well… a life really and make the most out of it so that you won’t ever face this problem again.
Make sure to space out those precious activities you planned so that you don’t have a short period of high mood and energy followed by the negative extreme: low energy and mood. If you believe those few days will boost your energy enough to make the next few days just as good, go for it.
What can you do “Post-vacation” to avoid having too few friends to go out with in the first place?
If this is a fear, you probably don’t have an intense presence during your regular social gatherings like school or work. People are less interested in you with that attitude and it’s tough to make friends. It may have been this way for a while because you haven’t developed enough secure friendships or simply confidence that will continue to cherish outside of the imposed social gatherings.
Don’t force anything too much but try to speak your opinion more times than only the perfect occasion; every moment is an opportunity. Remember to smile and give people “good vibes”, as in having a good mood. It naturally attracts others to your company, instead of having a closed off image and acting too reserved. That’s honestly a fundamental technique to build a life, especially in high school, as that is the source of these empty holidays awaiting us. All I’m asking is for you show a happy, present image who speaks more often than he usually does. At first your classmates / coworkers or any person in a social gathering will be a bit surprised but they will quickly get used to your more intense presence and start talking to you more often. Just avoid pushing it too hard, you wouldn’t want to be fake.
Applying these rules as early as possible would be ideal for finding and deepening connections to the point where you can go out with them or network.
When the break has already started
If it’s too late, make the most out of the friendships you already have without seeming desperate: little people enjoy the company of a desperate person. Before you go out with ‘em, put yourself in the best mood possible so the person will want to spend more time with you.
The thing is, the situation is delicate and the fact that it effects your mood is a burden because your friends might not see the same you during vacation and become more distant so just hang in there, don’t people please to much but just enough and be the best version of yourself whenever there is a social interaction with potential friends or opportunities. You are most likely to be surrounded by family so take advantage of it. A deep relationship with a family member brings a lot as you see them often. It’s basically a time to make the most out of your free time and the opportunities that are given, as you have more moments to focus on them. You can stop there, but if you ever want something, you’ll have to go and get, not wait for it.
This is slowly becoming a letter to myself…
Stay active and use the free time to your benefit.
The holidays slow your rhythm. Being active becomes harder as a result of the passivity. Don’t see it as avoiding a vicious cycle of depression and therefore wasting your precious vacation but see it as making the most of these holidays and transforming this relaxing time in a period of growth.
That comes back to keeping positive thoughts, working out,… Just keep a minimum of activity that you can build off of. Stay in there and hold on to the beauty of life, despite the loneliness! | https://medium.com/@henrycad/a-letter-to-those-who-fear-having-no-friends-to-hang-out-with-this-vacation-b98d9368ada0 | [] | 2020-12-23 21:01:32.191000+00:00 | ['Fear', 'Loneliness', 'Self Improvement', 'Social Life', 'Vacation'] |
Implementing Action-Domain-Responder Pattern With Symfony | Photo by Ben on Unsplash
Action-Domain-Responder can help you keep your architecture clean, have better separation of concerns, and make your code more reusable.
But what actualy is an Action-Domain-Responder pattern?
Action-Domain-Responder Pattern
It’s an architectural pattern that is a an evolution of a MVC Pattern. It was proposed by Paul M. Jones few years ago. It was created with request-response cycle in mind. It’s based on 3 components:
Action — Takes the input and orchestrates calls to the Domain.
Domain — Contains all of the business logic. Modifies state of the domain.
Responder — It is passed the response from the Action. It’s only role is to create output based on what is returned from the Action.
Why not MVC?
Most of Web Application Developers use MVC architecture pattern to create applications. But when we dive into history, we discover that MVC was proposed way before Web Application were even taken into consideration. It was proposed in 1979 by Trygve Reenskaug. It was designed to handle small parts of desktop applications — a button, textbox, etc. Not a whole application or a whole page. Time passed, this pattern evolved and got adapted to Web Development. We have classes that are suffixed with “Controller”, that operate on some domain objects (Model) and return a View. Sure, it works, but we can do better.
What do we gain by using ADR?
We have well segregated code
We have context agnostic code. The same Action can be called from the console, by Http Request or event by some other action. It’s actually just a service.
Code is cleaner and easier to change. Aligning with business changes is significantly faster.
Reusability
Let’s do some coding
We will make a simple Web App that for the sake of simplicity is only to create an user.
Let’s start with plain symfony/skeleton application.
composer create-project symfony/skeleton adr-example
After installing, change PHP Language level to 7.4.
At first, we have to do some cleanup. Let’s get rid of the src/Controller directory and remove from services.yaml what is below:
App\Controller\:
resource: '../src/Controller/'
tags: ['controller.service_arguments']
We will declare our actions as callable services (with __invoke method).
Now let’s make new directory structure:
src/
Action/
Input/
Output/
Domain/
Infrastructure/
Responder/
ParamConverter/
Action Directory will hold our Action classes
Domain will hold all of our Domain logic which should be completely framework agnostic.
Infrastructure will have ties to our framework.
Responder catalog will hold classes responsible for parsing Action output to desired response formats.
ParamConverter will convert HttpRequest into a DTO.
We also have to make our services public by default (If we want to use autowiring to register our services), so actions can be used as controllers. And add excludes to Input and Output directories. So, services.yaml should look like this now:
services:
_defaults:
autowire: true
autoconfigure: true
public: true
bind:
$salt: 'some_salt' App\:
resource: '../src/'
exclude:
- '../src/Kernel.php'
- '../src/Tests/'
- '../src/Action/Input/'
- '../src/Action/Output/'
- '../src/Domain/Model/'
- '../src/Infrastructure/Exception/'
Now we can get into coding. Let’s create User class. We will make it as a Rich Domain Model, instead of classic Anemic one with getters and setters. You can read more about this in my other article.
Domain
Before we create an action, we need to have Domain objects that we can operate on.
First, we need to create few classes (Click to follow to gists, I don’t want to paste it directly because it could make this article less readable):
User [Our User Class]
Users [Repository Interface]
UserFactory [To create Users from DTOs]
InMemoryUsers [InMemory Implementation of repository, this article does not cover Doctrine usage. You can use anything as persistance layer.]
PasswordEncoder [Interface of Password Encoder]
Md5PasswordEncoder [Implementation of Password Encoder]
Action
Now, when we have our Domain objects ready, we can create an Action that covers our Use Case of Adding an User.
AddUser Action
Besides Action, you must also add Input and Output classes:
AddUserInput [Contains Input of an Action]
AddUserOutput [Contains Output of an Action]
With this, you can already write a Unit Test testing the action! You do not even have to bootstrap Kernel to do this, or even use any of framework components.
Autowire will take care of injecting proper services in places of Interfaces. Thanks to Dependency Inversion, you can switch implementations whenever you will need to.
ParamConverter
To use ParamConverter we need to install SensioFrameworkExtraBundle
to do this, run this composer command:
(For the time for installing this bundle, you have to create src/Controller Directory so the Symfony Recipe executes properly)
composer require sensio/framework-extra-bundle
Now let’s create our converter. We will create generic converter for all our inputs. It will consist of:
ParamConverter itself
DataValidator [Validates the data, explained below]
InputFactory [Transforms Request into our Input DTO]
AddUserInputFactory [Creates our input from Request]
InputFactoryProvider [A contract for a provider of all InputFactories]
For implementation of InputFactoryProvider, we will use a Service Locator. What is nice about it and worth mentioning, is that a Service Locator is lazy loading services. If we would just tag all of the InputFactory Services, and add it using !tagged_iterator, all of the factories would get instantionated every time ParamConverter is called.
ServiceLocator InputFactoryProvider Implementation
Service Locator is lazy-loading Services that are inside of it. But to do this, we first have to add two thing to our services.yaml :
This will tag all of our services, that are instances of InputFactory Interface, with a tag named app.input_factory
_instanceof:
App\Infrastructure\ParamConverter\InputFactory\InputFactory:
tags:
- {name: app.input_factory}
This will inject ServiceLocator with tagged services. What is more, it will use our static method supportedInput as keys for our collection.
App\Infrastructure\ParamConverter\InputFactory\ServiceLocatorInputFactoryProvider:
class: App\Infrastructure\ParamConverter\InputFactory\ServiceLocatorInputFactoryProvider
arguments:
- !tagged_locator {tag: app.input_factory, index_by: 'key', default_index_method: 'supportedInput'}
There’s one thing about ParamConverters that is worth mentioning. If you use autowire, and register a lot of ParamConverters in your application, you can encounter performance issues because by default, all of the Converters are added to a stack and checked one by one if they support the given value. To skip this, we will register our InputParamConverter explicitly in services.yaml. Add this to your services.yaml :
App\Infrastructure\ParamConverter\InputParamConverter:
tags:
- {name: request.param_converter, converter: converter.action_input, priority: false}
What did we do? First, we registered our ParamConverter and named it, so we can use it directly on our Action. By setting priority to false, it will not be registered in the ParamConverters stack, so it won’t be checked if it matches in other situations.
Now, unfortunately, we must use Annotations on our Action. I have ambivalent feelings towards Annotations, but this is the only way to do this. Let’s add this Annotation to AddUser Action:
/**
* @ParamConverter(converter="converter.action_input", name="input")
*/
public function __invoke(AddUserInput $input): AddUserOutput
converter — Name of the registered Converter
name — Name of the variable that ParamConverter will take action on
InputValidaton
As we do not want to mess our Action with the request validation, we will do this in the ParamConverter using Symfony Validator and return any validation errors by throwin an error and catching it with kernel.exception event. But remember, it’s just a defensive validation, you should also guard your domain state inside your Domain Model! But in Domain, you can just throw Exceptions to prevent code from executing, not caring about informing the user what went wrong.
We will use Symfony Validator Component for this job.
Run this command to install it:
composer require symfony/validator
But instead of using it directly in ParamConverter, we will use DataValidator interface created before. We will create:
SymfonyValidator [Performs validation using symfony validator and throws an Exception with errors]
SymfonyViolationListConverter [Converts ViolationList to array of errors]
DataValidationException [It will be used to throw validation errors]
DataValidationExceptionHandler [It will handle the exception and convert it into a Response]
Now, when we have these building blocks, we have to register DataValidationException handler as kernel.exception event listener. This event is thrown, whenever there is an unhandled exception inside a Kernel. To do this, add this to your services.yaml
App\Infrastructure\ExceptionHandler\DataValidationExceptionHandler:
tags:
- {name: kernel.event_listener, event: kernel.exception}
Now we have to assign some validation rules to our DTOs. We can do this using annotations or yaml. In this case, I think annotation is better because it will be easier to maintain. But you can use YAML if you want to.
Example validation rules assigned to a DTO
You will now have your object validated before framework passes it to an Action.
Responder
Our Action already exists. It takes an input and returns a response. But to make it work as Http Endpoint, we need to create a Responder that will convert our plain DTO into a JsonResponse.
To create a Json Responder we will use Symfony Serializer Component. We will use it in a class that will be listening to kernel.view event.
Install it via composer:
composer require symfony/serializer
After installing, register this normalizer in services.yaml
get_set_method_normalizer:
class: Symfony\Component\Serializer\Normalizer\GetSetMethodNormalizer
tags: [serializer.normalizer]
This normalizer is faster than default one, that uses Reflection. But to use this, you have to keep get{FieldName} method names convention. Of course, you could serialize it any way you want — this is just an example!
Now we need to create a JsonResponder, that will handle parsing our DTO into a JsonResponse:
JsonResponder
We check Request Content-Type, to see if it is a desired format. If it is, JsonResponder will serialize DTO using Symfony Serializer and put it into a JsonResponse. We could also create some mechanisms to dynamically assign Status Codes, but for this example, we will leave it as is.
We also need to register it in services.yaml as an event listener:
App\Infrastructure\Responder\JsonResponder:
tags:
- {name: kernel.event_listener, event: kernel.view}
If you need to create response in other format, you just create another Responder that handles parsing into another format and register it as above.
The last thing we have to do, is to add our route declaration to routes.yaml file:
add_user:
path: /user/add
controller: App\Action\AddUser
Implementing Symfony Console Command using the same Action
Our Action [Use Case] is call agnostic. We can use it in our console command. We just have to create a Responder that will write our response data to OutputInterface instead of serializing it to json.
First, we need to create a contract for a ConsoleResponder:
ConsoleResponder
Now we can create an implementation of ConsoleResponder. This will be a simple one, that just serializes an array [without nested ones for simplicity] into an output:
TableConsoleResponder
Note that this is a simple implementation of ConsoleResponder. If you want to create more sophisticated one, dive into it! This is just to show a whole concept.
We also need to add additional method to UserFactory:
UserFactory method
The last thing we have to do is to create our method that will handle input, pass the input to an action, and then pass the output from action to a Responder.
Console command for handling user input
Summary
As you can see, with this implementation you end up with a well separated code, where the application layer is separated from infrastructure and the domain layer is separated from the application layer, and infrastructure. Application Layer and Domain Layer are Framework agnostic. You are less coupled to the framework. Even if you will never change the whole framework, it will be easier in the future to upgrade to newer versions of Symfony. You have less places that interact with the internals of the Symfony.
If you are creating a simple CRUD app, this may be an overkill. If you are completely, completely, sure, that you will never ever have to use the same action in other context, you may choose to use more traditional approach. Just separating controller actions into class per action services (Services with __invoke method) may be just enough. But if your application and the domain are more sophisticated, in the long run you can really benefit from using Action-Domain-Responder architecture pattern. It makes it really flexible and stable.
Here you can get working example project | https://medium.com/swlh/implementing-action-domain-responder-pattern-with-symfony-606539eea3a7 | ['Marcin Dźwigała'] | 2020-12-08 11:59:01.243000+00:00 | ['Software Architecture', 'Symfony', 'Software Development', 'PHP'] |
The Spectator | The Spectator
Esports is the next frontier in the realm of competition. It has everything you could ever ask for in modern sports: governing bodies, dedicated venues (the Esports Stadium Arlington being a recent example), organizations (names like Cloud 9 and Team Liquid) analogous to the New England Patriots or the New Orleans Saints, players, coaches, owners, etc. The whole infrastructure is there and thriving…and waiting.
But why wait? Well, for a long time, video games have been considered a very niche, counter productive hobby and was highly frowned upon. Those of us who enjoyed playing games more than our “culturally appropriate” fair share felt forced to hide our gaming habits for fear of being ostracized and made fun of.
It wasn’t until a few years into YouTube’s life cycle that videos of other people playing games (termed “Let’s Play”) became popular. Of course, videos of professional play was likely difficult to find (I can’t guarantee this, since I’ve only become super invested in esports in the past few years), but the rise of streaming services, both on YouTube itself and Twitch has helped professional play become accessible to avid spectators everywhere. As more money gets invested in the industry, mostly from tech and traditional sports ownership, the viability of esports, and a competitor’s ability to make a true living from it rises.
I’m not here to give a history of the entire esports industry, others have done that already in some form or fashion. But what I am here to do is to fill a void Medium has in the esports category: actual esports news (roster changes, results of important matches, etc.) from the perspective of a spectator. I’ve been writing (academically, then for business) for almost 12 years, and I’ve been watching esports for three; it’s time for me put my knowledge and skills to good use.
The Finals of the KeSPA Cup between Gen G and Griffin will be January 1st at 5pm KST. Later today I’ll have a breakdown of the teams, what I see as their strengths and weaknesses, and their paths to victory. Keep a look out, you won’t want to miss it.
Author’s Note: A previous version of this story stated the finals match would take place on December 31st in Korea. This was incorrect. | https://medium.com/@MajorCastleman/the-spectator-1ce64e27f87f | ['Major Castleman'] | 2018-12-30 08:03:37.956000+00:00 | ['Esports', 'Gaming', 'League of Legends', 'Competitive Gaming'] |
We Design Reality With Words | Before a pandemic chewed through our livelihoods and collective mental health, summer used to be silly season. News slowed down to a crawl, trivia and oddities took their place, and life read a little easier for a while. But now? It’s been surreal season for so long constant overwhelm is the new normal. If words matter to you and you’re concerned about the political climate, you may have come to regard writing with suspicion and doubt. Is there no other way to earn a living with words than by oozing fear, greed, and anger in print or riding the coat tails of celebrities who behaved badly? Recycling the worst of the zeitgeist ad nauseam is no way to improve it, defunding dumb may be more effective.
If there’s no financial incentive to produce garbage then the trash will eventually take itself out. Meanwhile, the internet is a dump, digital detritus abounds, and everyone is scavenging for meaning.
We don’t have to be seagulls. | https://asingularstory.medium.com/we-design-reality-with-words-761e1e89bf77 | ['A Singular Story'] | 2020-08-28 09:24:20.258000+00:00 | ['Media', 'Social Media', 'Writing', 'Creativity', 'Philosophy'] |
We should stay positive about climate change | We should stay positive about climate change
Strike for the climate, Halifax Nova Scotia, September 27 2019
In a speech made by Greta Thunberg in October of 2018, the young activist said “the climate crisis has already been solved. We already have the facts and solutions. All we have to do is wake up and change.”
Greta is bringing up a really important idea, a simple one, and one we shouldn’t forget: we can do better. The solutions to so many problems are within reach, we just have to stretch a little farther. In other words, the problem isn’t what we have — it’s how we use it.
The climate movement isn’t in short supply of solutions for climate change, there are tons of alternatives available for fossil fuels and plastic packaging.
The one thing we are lacking is optimism.
Young activists give in to climate fatalism all the time. We see more people saying things like they won’t have kids because of the crisis, and dictonary.com named existential the word of the year for 2019.
Tweet from April 2020
The idea that there are solutions to climate change should cause excitement. We should be bursting with enthusiasm, not just for preventing climate catastrophe, but for what the world could look like after. We should be talking endlessly about what our post climate change world could look like. Our protest signs should read like writers room pitches for a Star Trek episode.
‘Imagine how safe green sector jobs would be compared to the gas sector! Picture the slick, eco friendly technology of a post climate change world! Imagine the beautiful landscapes we could preserve by slowing deforestation! Imagine what an economy could look like that is based on justice and safety rather than endless, unstable growth!’
History has shown us that good activism is about having a dream, not having a nightmare. Of course, dreaming is getting more and more difficult. In 2019, Greta Thunberg said “I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to Panic.” It’s really easy to feel this way, but is it productive?
Greta makes an important point again: we should have urgency, but we should also be cautious of where panic could lead us. Maybe we will get more done if we have an idea of what we want earth to look like, not just what we don’t want it to not look like. If we keep the idea in our minds that we have the solutions, and we let those solutions guide our eyes into the future, we can access our secret weapon against climate change: optimism.
The truth is, like solutions to climate change, optimism is abundant in the climate movement. If climate activists really had no hope, none of them would bother taking to the streets or protesting, there would be no incentive to strike, there would be no movement at all without optimism.
As Noam Chomsky says in his book Optimism Over Despair: “We have two choices. We can be pessimistic, give up and help ensure that the worst will happen. Or we can be optimistic, grasp the opportunities that surely exist and maybe help make the world a better place. Not much of a choice.” | https://medium.com/@adam-inniss/we-should-stay-positive-about-climate-change-3f00c440cf85 | ['Adam Inniss'] | 2020-04-25 01:19:06.742000+00:00 | ['Greta Thunberg', 'Activism', 'Climate Change', 'Politics', 'Optimism'] |
Effective Communication | In previous posts, we spoke about Empowerment and Teamwork. Both of these concepts share a need for a key factor: Effective Communication.
Communication is present and very relevant in human relationships. A person, by nature, requires relationships with other individuals in order to satisfy their needs for affection and socialization.
Sharing information is something we do on a daily basis, and we do this through communication. When it comes to a work environment, communication is the structural basis of any organization. Effective communication is accomplished when relationships between employees are created and maintained, through a good internal communication plan. The following are some examples of such plan:
· Induction manual: It guides and allows employees to be efficient, effective and productive since their first day of work.
· Monthly all-hands meetings: They are a strategic communication tool, as they bring the entire organization together to share updates and ask questions. It ensures everyone receives the same information and message.
· Internal magazine or newsletter: This is a dynamic source, open to the opinion and collaboration of employees. When it’s well managed and organised, it can be highly reliable and allows employees to stay up to date with the latest developments in the organization.
· Instant messaging platforms: They are highly used tools in business communication, thanks to their immediacy and possibility for your team to collaborate and coordinate their work no matter where they are.
Organizational communication is a factor that allows business management to be carried out successfully; good management of this can make the organization persist.
Companies that give a special place to communication and information are those that stand out. This can only occur once they understand that by doing this, they contribute enormously to the improvement of the company’s work environment and increase their competitiveness.
‘Effective teamwork begins and ends with communication’ — Mike Krzyzewski
In addition, you must also consider that not only good internal communication is important, but also the external communication that the company has with its customers, partners, distributors etc. Promoting and reinforcing the company’s image, publicizing its projects or activities, knowing who you are addressing, getting the participation and interaction of your participants, or making other people get to know your organization will reflect a positive image of your company. How we are perceived is very important, as well as how we want to be perceived.
There are two key points we can use to determine whether communication is being effective: active listening and assertiveness. Never forget that the most important thing in a communication process is not what you want to say, but what the other person understands. The meaning of a message you want to convey can vary with a slight change in tone of voice or due to facial or body expressions.
A message expressed clearly and through an adequate communication channel will be converted into an action by the receiver; on the other hand, an imprecise and ambiguous message can cause problems in an organization.
The bottom line is that good communication isn’t just about presenting information and ideas more accurately and concisely. Effective communication is about finding a solution, satisfying customers and improving the quality of productivity. | https://medium.com/arionkoder/effective-communication-3ab92ce05e19 | [] | 2020-12-15 19:22:51.343000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Communication', 'Software Development', 'Effective Communication', 'Human Resources'] |
‘Father Brown’: S06.E01-E10. “Series Six” | The Father Brown sixth series premiere, Paul Gibson’s The Tree of Truth, doubles as the 2017 Christmas Special. Father Brown, Bridgette McCarthy, and Lady Penelope “Bunty” Windermere all audition for the local amateur pantomime.
The pantomime auditions, for a production of the folk tale Cinderella, don’t go well. Father Brown, Mrs McCarthy, and Bunty don’t get the roles they expected. The Tree of Truth, further to the pantomime, revolves around the discovery of a skeleton the woods. The discovery, even though Inspector Gerry Mallory would rather focus his attention elsewhere, leads the local police inspector to re-open a seven-year-old murder case.
Benny Clough, seven years earlier, was convicted of murdering a young woman. Could this have been a mistake? The episode features everyone’s favourite chauffeur. Sidney Carter, having spent some time in Northern Rhodesia with Lady Felicia Montague, returns to Kembleford.
Lady Felicia has written letters for Father Brown and niece Bunty. There is also a special Christmas present for Mrs McCarthy. Inspector Mallory and Sergeant Daniel Goodfellow, wanting to keep a close eye on the thespians, are cast as the ugly sisters.
When an accident happens during rehearsals, noting a distinct link between the murder case and cast members, Father Brown realises the truth lies within the theatre.
Katherine Corven, a character series fans will recall from The Eagle and the Daw, makes a return in Gary Williams’ The Jackdaw’s Revenge.
Mrs Corven, scheduled for execution, sees a surprising reprieve when her former housekeeper confesses to have murdered Mr Corven. Father Brown, on receiving the troubling news, justifiably fears Mrs Corven will take revenge on his friends.
Former prison wardress Frances Whittaker, not long after Mrs Corven’s release, is found hanged in a locked cottage. Mrs Corven, being in training as a postulant at a local convent, is provided an alibi by the Mother Superior.
A local reporter, Eddie, openly accuses Father Brown in the press of impropriety with Mrs Corven. When Lady Penelope “Bunty” Windermere goes missing, coupled with Father Brown being blackmailed to confirm the story, her life hangs in the balance. A Jackdaw flying in the church gives Father Brown the clue to the death of the wardress.
Curiously, even though Vicky Entwistle plays Frances Whittaker in The Eagle and The Daw, the character doesn’t have an on-screen presence in The Jackdaw’s Revenge.
Kembleford Station, in Christiana Ebohon-Green’s The Kembleford Dragon, is threatened with closure. British Railways, having discovered the village railway station is not profitable, dispatched Deepak Chatterjee to Kembleford so that he could deliver the bad news.
The village residents, especially stationmaster Ben Webb, Father Brown, Bridgette McCarthy, and Lady Penelope “Bunty” Windermere, don’t take the news well. The closure news causes Mr Webb to experience a heart attack. A fate is quickly organised to save the station.
Not long after the fate begins, when blood is observed leaking from a trunk, Mr Webb’s dead body is soon discovered. What could anyone have against the now dead stationmaster?
The murder is complicated by the fact that Mr Webb died from drowning. Father Brown, seeing an opportunity for investigative work, learns from Mr Chatterjee that Mr Webb had a negative reputation with his fellow British Railways colleagues.
Mr Webb, a philanderer of the worst kind, had been playing away from home. Pandora Pott, St Mary’s new cleaner, is hiding a secret. Father Brown, after connecting certain unmistakeable dots, realises the truth.
Freda Knight, in Niall Fraser’s The Angel of Mercy, dies in her sleep at a care home. Mrs Knight had been one of Bridgette McCarthy’s closest friends. Father Brown, noting a distinctly unusual odour emanating from the body, suspects foul play.
Mrs Knight, before her death, had been engaged in a relationship. Her relationship with Charlie Coulter, because Seth Knight saw it as an affront to his father’s memory, was not looked at favourably by everyone. Mr Knight believed Mr Coulter’s interest in his mother stemmed from his desire to take her estate.
Father Brown’s suspicions increase when Mr Coulter dies in his sleep. After this second death, even though Inspector Gerry Mallory didn’t initially believe Father Brown, Mr Knight is arrested. Father Brown isn’t convinced Mr Knight has any involvement in the recent deaths. The only thing that connects each victim is the fact they were all terminally ill when they died. A single white feather is discovered next to each body. What could this possibly mean?
Lady Penelope “Bunty” Windermere’s friend and former nanny, Ellen Jennings, is terminally ill. Mrs Jennings, with only the use of a wheelchair to get from place to place, goes missing. Bunty fears the worst after finding a white feather in her room.
Lady Felicia Montague and Sidney Carter, with Monty being in London, take advantage of the situation and pay a visit to Kembleford. Lady Felicia, in Christiana Ebohon-Green’s The Face of the Enemy, finds herself being blackmailed by MI5 agent Daniel Whittaker.
Mr Whittaker, knowing Benedict Northam is a Russian spy, wants Lady Felicia to retrieve a roll of film from her not so secret lover. It is Mr Northam’s intent to deliver the film to the Russians. Not everything goes to plan. Lady Felicia has to choose between lover and husband.
Father Brown, Bridgette McCarthy, Lady Penelope “Bunty” Windermere, and Sid, fearing Lady Felicia might be in serious trouble, crash Mr Northam’s party. The party ends with sculptor Alfred Lane being shot and killed.
Mr Whittaker, to Inspector Gerry Mallory’s chagrin, makes his presence felt. The MI5 agent orders Inspector Mallory and Sergeant Daniel Goodfellow to treat Lady Felicia as a prime suspect.
The Catholic priest becomes involved with spies, British and Soviet, not knowing who is friend or foe, traitor or patriot.
Inspector Gerry Mallory, in Niall Fraser’s The Devil You Know, is taken off a case because he was present at the time the crime was committed.
Alec Frobisher, deputy commander at Scotland Yard, is garrotted at Kembleford Bowls Club. Inspector George Ironside, placed in charge of the investigation, seeks to step into Inspector Mallory’s metaphorical shoes as Kembleford’s senior policeman.
Mr Frobisher, formally with the War Crimes Commission, had been pursuing Nazis that had tried to hide in plain sight. War time memories for both Father Brown and Inspector Mallory, when it is discover Eric and Christina Worcester are hiding a secret, rise to the surface.
Whilst Mr Worcester had apparently been a member of the SS, noting the tattooed number on her arm, his wife is apparently a concentration camp survivor. When Mr Worcester commits suicide, as Father Brown digs a little deeper, the Catholic priest discovers clues pointing him towards Mr Frobisher’s murderer.
Father Brown, Bridgette McCarthy, and Bunty, in Piotr Szkopiak’s The Dance of Death, attend a ballroom competition. One of the contestants, Lucy Dawes, is murdered. Miss Dawes’ her blind dancing partner, Alexander Walgrave, believes he knows who the murderer is and seeks help from Father Brown and Bunty. Could he be right?
A necklace Lucy was wearing is missing and Inspector Mallory arrests Lucy’s fiancé Oliver when he is found in possession of it. Father Brown realises the answer lies some time ago when Alexander was blinded when pushed downstairs. To continue his investigation Brown, Mrs McCarthy and Bunty join the competition.
Piotr Szkopiak’s The Cat of Mastigatus was originally televised in the British Isles on Wednesday, 10 January 2018. Series co-developers Tahsin Guner and Rachel Flowerday, when it comes to addressing tricky issues, don’t shy away from doing the right thing.
The episode opens with Father Brown, Bridgette McCarthy, and Lady Penelope “Bunty” Windermere attending Kemble Martyrs’ end-of-term fête. A pupil from the neighbouring St Saviours School for Girls, Mary Lewis, is discovered unconscious in the boiler room of the adjoining boys’ school.
May, with a significant head injury, is rushed to the local cottage hospital. Father Brown, after doing a little investigative work, finds the weapon used to attack May. The weapon, a cricket bat, belongs to Kemble Martyrs pupil Daniel Gates.
Daniel, May’s boyfriend, is not surprisingly arrested by Inspector Gerry Mallory. May, when still at the hospital, is attacked for a second time. It is assumed St Saviours School gardener Jack Coll attacked the pupil.
Shortly thereafter, when seeking answers to important questions, Father Brown and St Saviours School deputy headmistress Sheila Barnett find the gardener’s dead body.
he Roman Catholic priest, uncovering years of bullying at Kemble Martyrs, is shocked to discover a modified cat o’ nine tails had frequently been used.
Father Brown and Bridgette McCarthy, in the opening scenes to Gary Williams’s The Flower of the Fairway, can be seen with Raylan Reeve at his new golf course. Mr Reeve, obviously conservatively minded, is an ostentatious American.
Father Brown, even though he is gifted a membership to the new golf club, believes the Scottish sport spoils a good walk. During the inaugural competition, The Flower of the Fairway, it is quickly revealed Lady Penelope “Bunty” Windermere is a serious rival to aspiring golfer Morgana Reeve.
Miss Reeve, a St Saviours School for Girls pupil, is Mr Reeve’s granddaughter. The teenager had been taken out of school so she could compete in the competition. Bunty, as the competition progresses, finds a body in the reeds. Inspector Gerry Mallory, hoping to secure a membership at the new golf club, arrives on the scene shortly thereafter.
Curiously, after a gunshot is heard, Mr Reeve is discovered dead in his study. He had been shot in the head. Inspector Mallory, because of a dispute with Mr Reeve over him diverting water away from her property, seeks to arrest Hermione Harvey on suspicion of murdering the American.
There was clearly no love lost between Mrs Harvey and her new neighbour. The Roman Catholic priest, when investigating father, daughter, and granddaughter, discovers a dark family secret.
Paul Gibson’s The Two Deaths of Hercule Flambeau sees the return of a series fan favourite. Father Brown, when reading the newspaper, discovers something most disturbing.
Hercule Flambeau, everyone’s favourite French master thief, apparently died in Italy. Flambeau, before his death, wrote a letter to the Roman Catholic priest. A woman claiming to be his wife, Lisandra Flambeau, wants the key her late husband had sent to Father Brown. The key is stolen while the presbytery is empty.
omething else that catches Father Brown’s eye, also referenced in a newspaper article, the Iron Crown of Lombardy is on display at Gloucester Cathedral. The crown apparently contains an actual nail from the True Cross.
Father Brown, becoming part of an elaborate plan to steal the crown, quickly realises the French thief isn’t dead. Mrs Flambeau, understanding she had been double crossed, injects Father Brown with a slow-acting poison. Is Father Brown doomed? | https://medium.com/father-brown/father-brown-s06-e01-e10-series-six-37f10c0fdc3f | ['Shain E. Thomas'] | 2020-12-18 16:43:02.330000+00:00 | ['Television', 'BBC', 'Recaps', 'Period Drama', 'Father Brown'] |
Walk The Elephant — A Skeleton In The Closet | Walk The Elephant — A Skeleton In The Closet
A heavy heart deprived of air, on the shoulder of a 23 year old fresh graduate shouldn’t be one of a 30kg barbell.
Stepping up, striding with a square hat on the head, congratulated and photographed. The next moment of truth wasn’t a smile but a frown!
One month into a new job, the reminder from the bank in pursuit of Money overdue. The credit card bill with a 2% interest and a $35 fine for overdue was eventually costing me 200% more for what I paid for.
Mistake we all make, some more than others, but for a fresh graduate full of fresh knowledge and hope, all in vain when the first lesson on Money landed squarely 30 days after the graduation day.
You think you learnt from your mistake! Think again.
Have you managed your peers, your 5 best friends make up who you are.
Recognition, self-consciousness, hunger for approval all that mind matters are just crap. Eat into you alive and you won’t even know it.
Are you ready with a technique to due with your emotional swings. Occasional resistance, hold-backs made no sense.
Burden of money is everywhere because that’s the reality created by mankind.
What the school taught me just a waste of time and that mediocracy instilled stinks until now.
DESIRE
Teach me ego and teach me greed. All the biology, math and chemistry didn’t stop me getting into debt. The 4 years of college and $200,000 later…. failing me even at 50 year old. Don’t be fool what you do because nothing you learn in school will prepare you.
Ephiphany
Teach me mindfulness and teach me mind. The rest to follow later don’t worry. Root in spiritual training and grow forever from there. The canopy you shelter others will bring more joy and happiness.
My Plan
Focus on energy and discard self. Build up the momentum and let it flow. Attract money to buy Karma. Such is my plan for next 30 years.
MY ACHIEVEMENT
Wake up to a starry darkness in the mind and experience the chaos with your eyes. It is like a war of sparkles in trillion or more. Glad I have accomplish the Samathi to blur them all. Without THE Wisdom, a blanket of sheets of snow freckled and textured in unordinary greys, the stars that sparkle hurried the mind bring chaos likened to hell.
MY TRANSFORMATION
The end may be near but the fear isn’t here. That journey into the next depend if you are ready. The impending and immortified mind is less ready than the billion year cells inside of your brain.
Join me hand in hand we travel next. In search of ceaselessness in happiness and emptiness. | https://medium.com/@talkbodymind/walk-the-elephant-a-skeleton-in-the-closet-8f2cc2d08146 | ['Norman Chen'] | 2020-12-29 12:56:08.553000+00:00 | ['Mindfulness', 'Money', 'Transformation'] |
Zero to Dream Job in 90 Days! | Zero to Dream Job in 90 Days!
Day #35 Evelyn
Picture from unSplash
Tomorrow is the birthday of a dear friend that has been through many ups and downs along the bumpy roads of life, with me. Thirty seven years ago, I wrote the following poem for her, to celebrate that birthday and here I offer it to her again, looking for another thirty seven.
Evelyn
As the sea lavender grows through summers’ reach
Time converges along the beach,
Adults become children and play by the shore
Remembering and living a time before.
Birthdays bounce in the curling seas
You can hear them as they laugh and tease,
They trumpet forth to celebrate
Another year measured by this date.
You’ve cast your imprint on this Earth
With a lilting giggle, you’ve added mirth,
The musical notes of Evelyn
Are something akin to a mandolin.
A rare precious treasure, your friendship to me
Always has been and always will be.
I wish you a year of flower strewn roads
A shoulder to lean on, a hand to hold,
A heart-fire burning, to shield you from cold.
KB 1984
55 Days to Go! | https://medium.com/@kathyblackwell-43108/zero-to-dream-job-in-90-days-1a9fb4870742 | ['Kathy Blackwell'] | 2021-07-17 17:55:34.510000+00:00 | ['Friendship', 'Inspirational', 'Hopes And Dreams', 'Joy', 'Life'] |
Reflections | Reflections
Overall, my experience in Emergent Design was very eye opening. While there was a lot of content, and a lot to learn, the content was of good quality and beneficial. Through the journey, I learned a lot of new terminology, technology, and future trends. I wish I would have spent more time researching and really going down some rabbit holes; however, I believe I got a good chunk of knowledge and understanding under my belt in order to truly be able to apply it in the future. Given Covid, there were many missed opportunities that could have provided more design capabilities and further exploration of futuristic possibilities. That being said, I feel there was some material and experiences that could have worked even better through more flexibility of tools and/or time.
My peak experience in Emergent Design was a group project on an informational AR experience. Our design provides specific information about the Design Department and faculty. The experience resolves confusion or unknowns regarding professors, Design Department, and/or location of offices. The process was a bit of a spiral. Through brainstorming, discussion, and a lot of trial and editing, we were led down a staircase that took us directly to our amazing outcome.
Photo by Fabian Fauth on Unsplash
Key Points Learned
Reality-Virtuality Continuum
Virtual reality (VR) immerses a user into a simulated artificial environment.
immerses a user into a simulated artificial environment. Augmented reality (AR) is an enhancement of the real world.
Mixed reality (MR) is the merging of real and virtual worlds.
is the merging of real and virtual worlds. Extended reality (XR) is a term that encompasses all immersive technologies that combine real and virtual worlds.
XR Experiences
Understanding audiences, XR Implementation, supporting technologies, strengths, and improvements.
Metaverse
AR Cloud: allows for information to be organised at its origin.
Magicverse: technology should serve individuals, not the other way around.
Mirrorworld: to be fully online, everything needs a digital twin and a 3D model of physical reality.
Cyberverse: the technology will build a virtual world that’s integrated with the real world to provided new service that’s valuable.
Planet-scale AR: the real, physical world blends with augmented reality.
Spatial Computing: proposes hybrid real/ virtual computation that dissolves the fence between physical and ideal worlds.
World Effects
Understanding camera space and world space, plane tracker, target tracker, target markers, and best practices.
S.L.A.M. & Tracking Technology
Tracking: used in describing dynamic sensing and measuring of augmented reality (AR) systems.
Degrees of freedom (DoF) is the amount of ways an object can move through 3D space. There are 3 DoF and 6 DoF.
Devices’ 3D positions: calculated through spatial relationship between itself and several keypoints, called Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (S.L.A.M.).
Photo by James Healy on Unsplash | https://medium.com/@tyanaackerman/reflections-265e9ea5f369 | ['Tyana Ackerman'] | 2020-12-09 20:44:42.212000+00:00 | ['VR', 'AR', 'Design', 'Design Thinking', 'Reflections'] |
What’s New in The Steem Blockchain Velocity Update [Hard Fork 20] | Steem Velocity Update — Hard Fork 20
This update was named Velocity, prominently it makes the Steem scalable and the most advanced freemium blockchain in the world.
Here is a partial list of what’s new in the latest update —
Resource Credits
The Old Way — Bandwidth Algorithm
Every action: post, comment, upvote etc. on the Steem blockchain is a transaction. Every transaction takes up some physical resources to complete.
In the earlier version it was assumed that all the cost incurred in physical resources for transactions are correlated to one resource type: Transaction size. Which means that the true cost of a transaction was not calculated precisely.
In that system, the less active users were compensating for the more active users. Under the old bandwidth model, a follow was underpriced because its computational cost to the blockchain is born over time, whereas a transfer is dramatically overpriced since it requires a lot of resources at the time of the transfer, but virtually none over time. Yet, under the bandwidth model, token transfers are 24 times more expensive than a follow. The RC system fixes this by accounting for a wider variety of consumed resources thereby creating more accurate internal pricing.
The New Way — Resource Credits
The resource allocation system efficiently allocates blockchain resources and accurately measures the true cost of running the Steem blockchain.
It introduced a new unit called Resource Credits (RCs). Every transaction costs a calculated amount of RCs. The system now assumes that all the physical resources are correlated to three factors: blockchain size, state size, and computational load.
Your RCs depend on the Steem Power your account holds. Depending on your Steem power you get a limited number of comments, upvotes, and transactions to perform on the blockchain. If you exhaust your RCs, they will recharge linearly in 5 days.
You can check your RCs on Steemd.com —
Votes and transfers require relatively few RCs, while comments consume far more RCs. This is based entirely on the amount of computational resources these activities consume.
Resource credit is the key change in this update. For detailed technical overview, please refer to this blog post by Steemit.
Subsidised Account Creation
The account creation on Steem costs less with this new update. The blockchain subsidised account creation reduces the cost from earlier 7 Steem to now 6.1 Steem. Now developers got new method to create new accounts using RCs.
Manabar
The way voting power is now tracked is via a “manabar”.
Your max mana depends on your Steem Power, delegations, and active power down. Mana regenerates proportional to your max mana and is updated whenever there is a change to your max mana or a vote takes place.
These are changes in HF20 that mostly affect the Steem users. Apart from this, there is a long list of all the changes made that you may read in this blog post. | https://medium.com/hapramp/steem-blockchain-velocity-update-hardfork-20-simplified-b3afc0731696 | ['Rajat Dangi'] | 2018-10-09 08:53:56.148000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Technology', 'Social Media', 'Blockchain Startup', 'Steemit'] |
Why Samples, Why Now? | Many of you know me — either as an architect or as the CEO of Anguleris — and my focus on aligning building product manufacturers with the way architects work. You know that I love problem-solving, value creation, and the challenge of building something new from the ground up. (You also know that I bristle at the status quo and refuse to play by rules that don’t work — ask my school teachers.)
You’ve been along for the ride as we got our start making industry-leading BIM content. You witnessed as we built BIMsmith into the leading BIM content platform and then stood by our side as we launched Swatchbox in 2019. Again, most recently, we integrated BIM with specification writing through Masterspec.
This week, our team announced yet another groundbreaking tool for the AEC community. The launch of Swatchbox Pro brings the best building material brands together onto a single platform to give architects an easy way to source multiple product samples at the same time.
Building materials speak a language of their own that can’t be heard in a digital environment. Samples provide a physical connection to products and materials that we otherwise may only experience digitally or on the building site after it’s too late. It’s vital that in the ever-faster spinning flywheel of digital transformation, we as architects find ways to get away from the screen, touch the physical, and then translate it back to the project. That’s what we aimed to do with Swatchbox in 2019 and now what we’re taking to the next level with Swatchbox Pro.
I think back to my days as an intern and an associate where I’d spend hours if not days trying to wrangle all kinds of manufacturer reps and web forms just to get the samples I needed for the projects I was tasked with. I’d spend all that time only to be disappointed when a product never arrived. I now see the time of our young professionals, who have so much more to offer, getting wasted week after week, month after month. Swatchbox Pro is for you. We hope we can play a small part in delivering you inspiration.
I’ve never been more proud of my team and the surrounding tribe that helped make this all a reality. I am humbled and ecstatic all at the same time. To all of you, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I love this industry and the community that surrounds it. Swatchbox Pro is for you.
To those of you who don’t yet know my team and me, we hope you’ll reach out and join us as we continue on the journey of changing the construction industry, not for the sake of disruption, but for the sake of a better built environment.
Cheers,
Ben | https://medium.com/@bglunz/why-samples-why-now-6cf44416bd7a | ['Benjamin Glunz'] | 2021-07-22 18:33:15.679000+00:00 | ['Technology News', 'Technology', 'Construction', 'Design', 'Architecture'] |
Magic Mirror on the Wall, | Oh blessed be this day, this faithful day, that we can all join in arms to celebrate the coming and passing of the day we adore, and dread, most: Presentations. Brothers, sisters, and all of those who care to lend an ear, please do so, as in this moment of solidarity we stand in utter awe.
In all seriousness, this blog post will not be like most others. There will not be progress report. There will not be a part five. There will not be a continuation.
But that does not mean this is the end! This blog post merely marks the end of one journey and the start of another. Our time here in security was short, but the knowledge we gained was vast, and we hope to share our heartfelt story with anyone who chooses to read this post.
So valued reader, from the four of us at Team Snow White: Aaron Murray, Hana Ra, Jeremy Ho, and Vincent Le, we graciously thank you for sticking around for this wild ride. Many tears were shed, much blood was lost, but we persevered through it all. We hope you enjoy our final installment of Team Snow White’s blogs, see you around. | https://medium.com/cyberdefendersprogram/magic-mirror-on-the-wall-1cdd93fadb22 | ['Vincent Le'] | 2018-08-19 05:29:57.543000+00:00 | ['AWS', 'Cloud Computing', 'Cybersecurity', 'Summer Internships', 'Identity Management'] |
The battery that charged the battery that charged the battery | Defeating the purpose of power cuts
What’s ironic is that if usage of inverters during power cuts becomes universal in India, it could theoretically lead to more power being consumed overall. That’s because inverters increase electricity consumption during power uptimes when they are used to store energy in inverters, and there's additional energy losses during charging and discharging of batteries.
This would defeat the objective of load shedding. The only reason it still happens is because commercial establishments get shut down during power cuts as they need higher power than inverters can supply, and not all industries can afford to invest in expensive diesel generators.
The battery that sparked a thought
Coming back, my bluetooth headset had run out of juice. Since its battery is tiny, I have to charge it in low power mode, and I can’t use the usual phone chargers lying around the house. Incidentally, I learned that the hard way when my first bluetooth headset died after just a year. The service mechanic informed me it was designed to be only charged with a low power USB port, which is what you normally have on your laptops and PCs. Fortunately, my power bank has a feature by which a double press on its on/off button causes it to charge in lower mode (a slow blinking light indicates low power charging).
So that’s how I connected my power bank to charge my headset, only to notice it too was drained. It was as I connected the power bank to the wall socket that I realised that my solar panels were charging my inverter, while it was charging the power bank, which in turn was charging my bluetooth headset.
I found the whole idea pretty intriguing.
Energy loss and batteries go hand in hand
Logically, it’s more efficient to run something directly from the mains, than through a battery as there is always some energy loss in charging a battery. Think about it. Don’t phone chargers usually feel warm? Some energy is being wasted as heat while charging a device’s battery. So when one battery is charging a second which in turn is charging a third, it’s incredibly inefficient.
Of course, the power usage of batteries on my phone, power bank and bluetooth headset are negligible. So it’s not like it’s going to make any perceptible difference in my electricity bill or anywhere else.
Except possibly, inside my head.
Is it just me? Or should the world rethink how it uses batteries? Considering the billions of portables devices in use worldwide, the savings in energy on all those tiny batteries might just add up to a lot.
I was curious so I decided to do the math.
Putting a dollar value to energy loss
According to statista.com, there are about 5 billion mobile phones in the world. Most phone users have additional portable battery powered devices. Like I have a MacBook, an iPad, a power bank, and random bluetooth devices… never mind! For simplicity’s sake, let’s assume each phone owner has one portable device, which means there are 10 billion portable devices/batteries in existence.
According to this 2013 Forbes article, it costs around $0.25 to power a phone for a year, and $10/year for a phone-tablet-laptop combination. Phone screens have got larger since 2013, and may need a bit more power. This Indian site makes it like 5 units per year, which would be ₹35 (or around 50 cents). To keep it simple, let’s stick with $0.5/year as the average phone’s electricity consumption cost.
Is the energy loss while charging a battery significant? To quote the above site:
Mobile phone chargers as well as many other battery chargers have transformers that convert AC (Alternating Current) to DC (Direct Current). Transformers not only convert electricity but they also consume it. They have 50–90% efficiencies in using electricity (source: EPRI). In fact they consume electricity even when cell phone is not connected to the charger and the switch is on.
Can we put a dollar value to this energy loss? Let’s take the loss while charging as 20%. That means 20% of the yearly 50 cents spent on electricity to charge my mobile phone is actually being wasted in battery inefficiency, like in the charger getting heated up. In other words, a mobile phone wastes 10 cents a year in battery charging inefficiency.
As all my portable devices are usually within reach of an wall outlet during use, I should be able to run on mains at least half the time I use them. Now let’s imagine a new generation of portable devices allows me to use the mains. This means I can reduce energy losses via battery charging during half the time I use the device. So instead of wasting 10 cents every year, a phone that can bypass the battery will waste only half that amount, or 5 cents a year.
So if there are ten billion portable devices, configuring each of these devices to work by bypassing the battery will save us 10 billion x 5 cents, or $500 million.
That’s a mind boggling half a billion dollars a year saved for Planet Earth.
Is it practical or not?
Can all future portable electronic devices have built-in parallel circuits to run directly on the mains? This is not impractical as it sounds. My old 17" MacBook Pro’s battery failed sometime ago. I didn’t bother to replace the battery, and now use the MacBook exclusively on the mains.
Of course, there are other factors like the cost of rewiring future devices to bypass the battery. This will bulk up portable devices, which is against the current trend but may be an acceptable trade for the win for our environment. Besides, to bypass batteries, all future homes will have to be built with wall USB outlets as standard fittings at all power outlets. There’s a positive side too as batteries (and devices) will last longer when the battery is used less.
The same applies to those home inverters. If the Indian government wants to really reduce power consumption at homes, it should figure out how to supply homes with enough power to keep fans and lights running (while being insufficient for high power equipments like pumps, irons, mixies, grinders, ACs, etc). This way, people won’t be tempted to invest in inverters. That’s a lot less dead batteries to pollute our long suffering planet.
The above are just thought starters, and probably as full of holes as a piece of cheese. However I’m sure specialists can come out with far more effective ideas. But for it to work, someone in big business needs to take the lead.
Any takers? | https://medium.com/hackernoon/the-battery-that-charged-the-battery-that-charged-the-battery-289ab584cafd | [] | 2019-02-07 09:01:04.050000+00:00 | ['India', 'Innovation', 'Environment', 'Battery', 'Phone'] |
Making Things Together | I do many things at Singly, but first and foremost, I am a creator. Ranging from full scale product & company creation on down to hacking on the weekends, I bring things to life for a living. This idea is a big part of how I think about personal data — it’s about more than just ownership, access, and control, it’s first and foremost a platform for creation, for Making Stuff.
A platform for creation could mean almost anything, so to get started we thought about what it would feel like to create using personal data with most (if not all) of the many pain points lifted — authentication, aggregation, collation, deduplication, storage, indexing…the list is long and often deflating. I believe incredible things will happen with those obstacles out of the way and we’ve been building like crazy to make that a reality. Our first version makes it super fast and easy to create powerful, yet lightweight HTML+CSS+JS apps that leverage an extensible set of your personal data without the need to run a server or write any backend code to solve the problems on the aforementioned Long List. We are beginning to send out invites and are so excited to see what sort of Stuff you Make.
.
With that, the only thing better than Making Stuff, is Making Stuff with Friends, so last Thursday we reached out to some friends, new and old and all gathered at our space here in the mission to experiment and Make Stuff Together (over beer and pizza, of course). In the course of only about 3 hours some really awesome things were created!
Beau Gunderson made Excessive Mapper, an app to see your locations (checkins, geotagged tweets and photos, etc) over time on a map:
All my checkins on Excessive Mapper (can you tell my girlfriend lives in NYC???)
Max Schultz made DragPhoto, an app to see your photos how you used to as a kid — a stack of polaroids that you can drag around:
Drag Photo shows your photos as a stack of Polaroids
I actually unfollowed two of these accounts after seeing this!
Chris Hannam extended the Foursquare connector to pull in your badges.
Soon, we will be sending out more invites to developers to get an account and start building things. Sign up at singly.com to get on the list and be sure to put in your GitHub handle if you are a developer. If you are as excited as we are (improbable, but I’m open to the possibility!) and want to get in as soon as possible, there are a few ways to get (extra) early access:
Come to a Singly event (details to come on Twitter, but expect another Make-a-thon in early January)
Join us in IRC — #lockerproject on freenode
Join the Singly developer mailing list
Write some Locker Project code (this will get you invited right away!)
I am so excited for the community we are building around this idea and can’t wait to meet as many of you as possible in the future! | https://medium.com/pde-cc/making-things-together-eabde01b2f82 | ['David E Alexander'] | 2017-01-10 18:44:01.431000+00:00 | ['Events', 'News', 'Developers', 'Maps', 'Making Stuff'] |
The Deliberate Rat Crisis of 1902 | The Deliberate Rat Crisis of 1902
A creative retaliation against white supremacists
Vietnam during the French occupation (Public domain/Wikimedia Commons)
When the French came to Asia, they were determined to bring white civility to the unfortunate locals through the use of superior science and technology. After conquering Indochina, which included what is now Vietnam, the French made Hanoi into the capital of their new colony. They were positive that this city would become a testament to how white man’s modernity could solve every one of the indigenous Vietnamese people’s shortcomings.
The city that was once filled with narrow alleys was transformed so that it now had shady trees and luxurious mansions lining the broad roads. Meanwhile, the natives were herded into the Old Quarter — ninety per cent of the population was crammed into less than one-third of the land they had previously occupied.
Of all the innovations the French brought with them, nothing rivaled their state-of-the-art plumbing system. Running water and flushable toilets ensured that the residents of the European Quarter lived in a state of constant luxury. Clean water could be gathered with almost no effort at all, and the removal of waste was just as simple.
While the French people were congratulating themselves for liberating the Vietnamese from their backward lifestyle, the locals were less than enthusiastic when it came to welcoming their white overlords. Europeans had indoor plumbing installed into their own homes, but the Old Quarter was only given public fountains.
Although these water fountains made a slight improvement over their previous way of life, the downsides of this new plumbing and sewage system hardly made the convenience worthwhile. The French had already spent so many resources making their own drainage network that the Old Quarter was left with a system that was woefully inadequate. Water would carry human waste down the sides of the streets until the gutters emptied into a nearby lake. This not only polluted the waters that surrounded a temple, but the lake would overflow once a year, filling the streets with sewage.
However, when a Frenchman flushed a toilet, he could be assured that superior technology ensured that his feces disappeared forever — at least, so he thought.
The Crisis Begins
Few people realized that these advanced sewers would soon become the ideal breeding ground for rats. The dark tunnels not only kept the rats safe from predators, but they served as a network of roads that would lead them into homes of every European family. The rats began pouring out of the toilets and into the bedrooms of even the wealthy elite.
The council responded by deploying a team of rat-catchers into the sewers to eliminate the infestation. But of course, no self-respecting Frenchman would voluntarily enter a sewer. Because the entire city of Hanoi had been built by employing the locals to perform manual labor, it only made sense to have the Vietnamese people climb into the filthy underground tunnels.
The French reasoned that they were employing the locals and providing a source of income for these unfortunate neighbors. And, indeed, the Vietnamese people were so impoverished that when the city council offered one cent per rat killed, an army of men rose up to take the job.
In the first week, the rat-catchers killed over 1,000 rats per day. After a few weeks passed, and the laborers became more efficient at their trade, they were able to amass 4,000 rat corpses per day. A month into the crusade, rat catchers were consistently reporting having killed over 10,000 rodents in a single day. Because the sewers seemed to produce an unlimited supply of rats, the Vietnamese laborers eagerly descended into them. A day’s work could yield enough to buy fifty measures of rice — but of course, this had to be shared among the laborers.
But as tens of thousands of rodent corpses began accumulating in the streets, the wealthy Europeans began complaining about the ghastly sight and stench. When the locals emerged covered in sewage and carrying buckets filled with the bloody remains of rodents, the residents of the white community began insisting that the indigenous people were as filthy as the rats they hunted. They needed to be kept off the streets.
This was the final straw for the Vietnamese people. They had labored to build this marvelous city but were not allowed to enjoy any of its luxuries. Now, they were being coerced into filthy — not to mention dangerous — working environments. But to be banned from sight was unreasonable.
The rat-catchers went on strike. Within a few weeks, the rodent population had grown exponentially to the point that the city council was willing to offer a fourfold increase in the workers’ wages. Additionally, the laborers were to dispose of the corpses on their own, they only needed to provide the rat tails to receive payment.
At first, the natives grumbled. But then, someone proposed a brilliant plan.
Now that they were supposed to enter and exit the sewers unseen, there was no need to risk exposure to diseases and wild animals when they could receive four cents per tail by farming rats. When it came time to harvest the tails, the rats were allowed to live and continue to breed. Soon, the Old Quarter was harvesting thousands of tails each day. Rats became a valuable commodity, and some locals even began importing rats from the surrounding villages.
But of course, the rats in the sewers only continued to multiply. When the city council realized that there was no reduction in the number of rats pouring out of their toilets, they became suspicious. When they began to see a few stray tailless rats running free, they became so upset that they canceled the rat-catching program altogether.
The locals canceled their farms, and let all their rodents go free — presumably into the sewers of the European Quarter.
Sources | https://medium.com/history-of-yesterday/the-deliberate-rat-crisis-of-1902-91520ee230bc | ['Philip Naudus'] | 2020-12-29 09:03:00.366000+00:00 | ['White Privilege', 'Humor', 'Karma', 'History', 'Racism'] |
>>The Croods: A New Age!! Круд 2 2020 целият филм^^ | From the daily application of high-tech lotions and potions to non-surgical procedures such as botox, fillers and peels, the beauty industry is booming like never before.
With more products and treatments available there is also a growing pressure around how people feel they “should” or “shouldn’t” look. So whether it’s fake eyelashes, tattooed eyebrows, manicured nails, body waxing or lip fillers, the chances are we all know someone who has these — and often we view these types of treatments as “normal”.
The sociologist Dana Berkowitz, has pointed out the increasing normalisation of botox. In her book Botox Nation she says:
The fact that Botox injections are temporary, repetitive, addictive, and marketed as preventative has made it such that these injections are fast becoming regular body upkeep, just like teeth cleaning and haircuts.
Sociologist Meredith Jones has also argued that cosmetic surgery is already normalised. She claims it will be “the absolute norm” for women by the middle of the 21st century.
While it is still the case that only a small percentage of women — and an even smaller percentage of men go under the knife — many more would like to. And the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons has reported a rise in what has been termed the “daddy makeover” in a recent report:
There has been an epic rise of 20% in male liposuction and a 13% jump in “man boob” reductions.
Growing old grey
Growing old gracefully is increasingly seen as a failure to make the best of yourself — and even shows a lack of respect for the self and or for others. It is to “let yourself go”.
In my book Perfect Me!, I track the increase in what is demanded to meet minimal standards of presentation. And I look at routine practices such as hair colouring. I argue that while women in their 60s and 70s may be grey, very few in their 30s, 40s, and 50s consider grey hair an option. In fact only the young can be grey — which is more of a fashion statement — and grey for young women is high maintenance because it requires near constant colouring.
In my book Perfect Me!, I track the increase in what is demanded to meet minimal standards of presentation. And I look at routine practices such as hair colouring. I argue that while women in their 60s and 70s may be grey, very few in their 30s, 40s, and 50s consider grey hair an option. In fact only the young can be grey — which is more of a fashion statement — and grey for young women is high maintenance because it requires near constant colouring.
Shame is also often cited by doctors as part of the reason why women are wanting a labiaplasty — surgery to reduce the size of the flaps of skin either side of the vaginal opening. According to statistics from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, labiaplasty procedures spiked 39% in 2016, with more than 12,000 procedures in the US alone.
Never enough
This shift in the way beauty is increasingly defining people means it is functioning as an ethical ideal — in that it is the standard we use to judge ourselves and others, whether good and bad. And all of this has a significant impact on how people feel about themselves.
Recent studies, have revealed how much this is affecting people — particularly girls of a young age. The Girls’ Attitudes survey has shown how body image worries affect many aspects of young girls lives — stopping them wearing the clothes they like, having their pictures taken, taking part in sport and speaking up in class.
The survey reports that 47% of girls aged 11 to 21 say the way they look “holds them back”, while 69% of girls age seven to 11 feel like they are not good enough. It is with this in mind that the Youth Select Committee’s recent consultation focused on this topic.
This culture of beauty obsession is making young girls feel they are failures and that they don’t measure up. To many of these girls, this feels like a “moral failure” — they have “let themselves go” and are ashamed of their very selves.
This is very different from past beauty ideals and recognising the depth and intensity of body shame — and understanding its moral nature — is vital. Because while the demands of what we have to do to be “normal” or “just good enough” continue to rise, there has also been a marked increase in anxiety and body shame in young women — which surely isn’t just a coincidence. | https://medium.com/@metillasni/the-croods-a-new-age-%D0%BA%D1%80%D1%83%D0%B4-2-2020-%D1%86%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B8%D1%8F%D1%82-%D1%84%D0%B8%D0%BB%D0%BC-cf6cb5233554 | ['Metil Lasni'] | 2020-12-24 07:47:36.214000+00:00 | ['Animation', '2020', 'The Croods A New Age', 'Bulgaria', 'Anime'] |
Fingers and Toes — A Poem-prayer | Fingers and Toes — A Poem-prayer
This too shall pass
Photo by Monica Gozalo on Unsplash
You who feed me fingers and toes
to play, walk, touch, dance, hug,
Let not sorrows of the past hold me back -
Help.
Let not sorrows of the present hold me back -
Help.
Let not sorrows of the future hold me back -
Help. | https://medium.com/age-of-empathy/fingers-and-toes-a-poem-prayer-632c15c648f | [] | 2020-12-18 16:38:58.003000+00:00 | ['Poetry On Medium', 'Spirituality', 'Mindfulness', 'Poetry', 'Prayer'] |
Residential Energy Storage — Development opportunities accelerate in 2024 | A new marketsandmarkets analysis projects global residential energy storage demand to grow 22.8% per year through 2024, driven by key trends in the dominant energy industry, such as:
declining cost of batteries
regulatory support and financial incentives
the need for energy self-sufficiency from consumers
The 3–6 kW segment is projected to be the largest market during the forecast period. This is mainly because of the increase in the need for power backup during natural disasters. Furthermore, consumers and governments install small storage solutions that can be utilized in times of need to avoid a major electricity crisis, which is also contributing to the growth of the market.
The customer owned segment is expected to account for the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The growth of this segment can be attributed to the increasing need for energy self-sufficiency and rising demand for power backup. This is expected to increase the demand for the residential energy storage market during the forecast period. In addition to this, there is a rising demand for modular energy storage infrastructure in residential areas in developed countries such as the US, the UK, Germany, Norway, and China, which is driving the growth of the residential storage market.
In this report, the residential energy storage market has been analyzed with respect to 5 regions, namely, North America, South America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa. Asia Pacific dominated the global residential energy storage market in 2018, owing to the installation of storage solutions for residential end-users. Over the past few years, this region has witnessed rapid economic development as well as the growth of renewables and demand for energy self-sufficiency, which has resulted in an increase in the demand for energy storage options. Countries such as Australia and some parts of India and China are also providing subsidies and financial incentives to residential consumers. This movement toward solar and storage is resulting in grid stabilization and greener countries with lower carbon emissions, thereby driving the residential energy storage market.
Want to Learn More?
Residential Energy Storage Market by Power Rating (3–6 kW & 6–10 kW), Connectivity (On-Grid & Off-Grid), Technology (Lead–Acid & Lithium-Ion), Ownership (Customer, Utility, & Third-Party), Operation (Standalone & Solar), Region — Global Forecast to 2024 is now available from MarketsandMarkets. The report identifies and addresses the key markets for the market, which would help various stakeholders such as assembly, testing, and packaging vendors; companies related to the energy storage industry; consulting companies in the energy and power sector; electrical distribution utilities; EV players; government and research organizations; inverter and battery manufacturing companies; investment banks; organizations, forums, alliances, and associations; low- and medium voltage distribution substations; residential energy consumers; solar equipment manufacturing companies; solar panel manufacturers, dealers, installers, and suppliers; state and national regulatory authorities; and venture capital firms. | https://medium.com/@pprathmesh367/residential-energy-storage-development-opportunities-accelerate-in-2024-d2d095f753e5 | ['Prathmesh Patil'] | 2020-12-10 07:59:43.742000+00:00 | ['Residential Energy', 'Power Grid', 'Energy Storage', 'Renewable Energy', 'Distributed Energy'] |
Architecture as a Graph | We turn now to the generation of adjacency graphs. Instead of using any form of procedural or rule-based technics, we prefer a Bayesian approach. This field of statistics is generally described as:
“the study of the conditional probability of an event based on data as well as prior information or beliefs about the event or conditions related to the event”.
For us, a Bayesian approach offers the opportunity to study and model the underlying set of relationships (causes) that condition the existence of rooms in a floorplan, as well as the potential existing connections between them. For instance, the existence of given rooms can cause the existence of another one, and condition the existence of connections between rooms. This reality can be captured using Bayesian statistics, across our database of 500+ floorplans.
We model rooms and connections as nodes and hope that our Bayesian model will help us infer the existence of causal relationships between them, as well as the relative weight of these inter-dependances. | https://medium.com/spacemaker-research-blog/architecture-as-a-graph-e7b3387cd3c5 | ['Stanislas Chaillou'] | 2020-03-11 14:57:17.966000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Data Science', 'Bayesian Statistics', 'Architecture'] |
(Friendly) Ghosts of Christmas Past — The Trashy Turquoise Twinkly Tree | “I’m going to run out of money before the end of the year,” I thought. Whatever would I do?
It was the winter break of my final year of university, and I had run out of money. I didn’t own a credit card, and had tapped out all of my student loans. I was at a loss to know what to do.
Christmas was coming, but my financial woes ensured I would not be able to get into the holiday spirit anytime soon. I was living a frugal student lifestyle, so I had no extra funds at the best of times. Years of university life had tapped out all of my cash, even though I had worked part time to try to keep up with the heavy expenses.
Pondering my situation, I started cleaning my residence for what would be my final year there. When I went out to deposit the garbage inside the shed that held the bins, I noticed that someone had thrown away a small, ragtag, artificial Christmas tree. It had seen far better days and reminded me of the Charlie Brown Christmas tree I’d seen on the animated TV movie. To top it off, it was a hideous hue of bright turquoise. I didn’t mind the color, though it seemed more than a little garish for a holiday tree.
In any case, I felt sorry to see the poor tree lying there. It looked about as sad as I felt that holiday season. Since I was broke and wouldn’t be buying any decorations, I decided to save the tree and put it up in my place. How bad could it be?
And so it was that I came to own a bent up, trashy turquoise Christmas tree. After I straightened it up a little, I plugged it in, only to find to my amazement that all the lights still worked. Looking around my place, I found some old keychains and other doodads to hang as impromptu decorations. Overall, it didn’t look too bad, blending in with the décor of my makeshift, student apartment.
I propped the tree up on top of my TV so the twinkly bulbs would reflect against my dormitory window. Then I left the lights on to look at from outside, as I headed across campus to the library. Once outdoors, I was amazed to notice a group had gathered outside the dorm, looking up at my window. As raggedy and small as it looked indoors, from down below, it appeared to be the top section of a tall, elegant tree. On that dark snowy night, it was stunningly beautiful. In that unexpected magical moment, the tree and I were both transformed.
The resurrected tree immediately made me feel better and calmer, enough so that I could finally sit down and begin planning my finances for my last school term. I started filling in applications for credit cards, as well as several student bursary grants. Through it all, my turquoise tree twinkled warmly at me. It was starting to feel more like Christmas.
Soon afterwards, a credit card arrived in the mail, as well as two bursary checks. I was stunned at my good luck, suddenly finding myself with enough funds to scrape through the rest of the school term. What a relief! And I owed it all to my trashy, turquoise twinkly tree. I certainly could feel the warm Christmas cheer now.
The rest of the year passed quickly, and as I planned to move on into the working world, I gave away the odds and ends that passed for furniture during my time as a student. But I couldn’t bring myself to get rid of that turquoise tree that had helped me through such a desperate, rough patch.
That tree was the catalyst that marked a turning point in my life. My epiphany came when the twinkly tree inspired me enough to change my attitude and plan my way through diversity.
So now, years later, my family still puts up that trashy turquoise tree, reminding all of us to stay as humble as possible, and that it’s often a just a slight change of attitude that can get us through a very tight spot.
Every Christmas, it holds pride of place within our home and has always been a great conversation piece over the holidays. We love our turquoise tree. | https://medium.com/@donnarobertsphd/friendly-ghosts-of-christmas-past-the-trashy-turquoise-twinkly-tree-bd08038f7478 | ['Donna L Roberts', 'Phd', 'Psych Pstuff'] | 2020-12-24 10:00:26.596000+00:00 | ['Christmas Tree', 'Christmas', 'Memories', 'Family', 'Culture'] |
Armed man opens fire on protesters in Somali capital | Armed man opens fire on protesters in Somali capital
An armed man without uniform has opened fire on protesters in the Somali capital Mogadishu. The protesters were against President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo.
The opposition Wadajir Party Leader Abdirahman Abdishakur Warsame has linked the man to the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA).
“President Farmajo & the NISA director have deployed plain-clothed armed men into the streets to suppress the people. This man who was firing at the protesting youths r among those armed men. If they r firing live bullets at peaceful protesters, why is it wrong to defend ourselves,” Warsame said as he shared a video of the incident on Twitter.
An alliance of opposition presidential candidates has been organising protests against the government amid a dispute over the 2020/21 electoral process. | https://medium.com/@oceanstar843/armed-man-opens-fire-on-protesters-in-somali-capital-30ef3b2d61d8 | ['Bigocean Star'] | 2020-12-27 14:36:55.814000+00:00 | ['Elections', 'Somalia', 'Africa', 'Protest'] |
Higher-Order Function pada Kotlin | Knowledge comes to those who crave for it.
Follow | https://medium.com/easyread/higher-order-function-pada-kotlin-3e5db329e3de | ['Mahesa Iqbal Ridwansyah'] | 2019-03-08 09:31:19.854000+00:00 | ['Kotlin', 'Functional Programming', 'Programming'] |
Twelve Terrific Stories From Writers Worth Your Time | I got to know Aimée from devouring her posts and realizing they resonate. Deeply. Editor of Age of Empathy, I love her intuitive approach to writing. A piece she has shared with us is one of her many strong suits — fiction.
Melissa brings positivity and cheer through her pieces and that’s what makes you gravitate toward her. She shares other writers’ works in her Engaged Writers series, and I would love to pay it forward.
I admire his drive and discipline when it comes to writing. What’s charming about him is that he’s hilarious but is oblivious to it. He writes many inspirational posts, but here he has shared one humor piece you need to read for a good laugh.
Ryan is a sweetheart. And a machine. I think he is one of the youngest writers on Medium but the most prolific. I don’t know how he does it, but he consistently writes quality content daily on every topic under the sun. One area he does well with is true crime.
I linger on the words she writes because they’re beautiful. If you are easily moved to tears, get tissues ready for this story about losing her brother. Real, raw, and honest. This is the kind of stuff I love to read.
I had the pleasure of working with Roz once. She is self-proclaimed “worth every penny,” and I can attest to that. A writing coach with many years under her belt, I have learned and continue to learn much from her. She makes Medium fun, as you can tell from her voice. She also loves the word “wombat.”
Susan is the type of person who wants everyone to grow and succeed. Strong, supportive, and caring; she helped me early on with words of encouragement. I know she can help you, too, with her wisdom!
From fiction to poetry, a writer of her caliber can light your screen on fire. I love her work and recently purchased her book Quintessence, waiting for it to brighten my mailbox. This piece about coming out will tug on your heartstrings. | https://medium.com/age-of-empathy/twelve-terrific-stories-from-writers-worth-your-time-bdfce332b807 | ['Tracy Luk'] | 2020-12-30 14:23:43.916000+00:00 | ['Inspiration', 'Writing', 'Aoe Prompt', 'Reading', 'Engaged Writers'] |
Convergence Conversation: Unpacking Knowledge Management with Dr. Annie Green | People and Knowledge Management
Deb: Your experiences are a convergence of different perspectives. Where does the human perspective come in?
Annie: When you deal with artificial intelligence and knowledge management systems, every single different perspective counts, because we’re emulating man through digital representation.
When I first got into knowledge management systems, I took the position that operations run an organization. Operations consist of processes, which means that process engineering is key at the beginning of a digital transformation. Many leaders who I worked with early in my career would assure me that they knew what really matters in their organization. My feedback to them was that they were putting the cart before the horse. How could they manage what they did not yet know? They had not engineered knowledge, so how were they going to manage it?
Over time I began to realize the difference between process and knowledge. Process runs the operations of the organization. Knowledge is what people gain from operations so they can improve on it. Knowledge is what is shared with people. The dynamics of the input, output, people, and technology all need to be known so you can make the right decisions around how to improve your organization. Process uses knowledge to improve the competencies of people and the structure of the organization so that it is as efficient and effective as possible. It also helps identify innovations. Knowledge is above or wrapped around the organization. It is a separate process, fed from all the other processes within the organization. Knowledge is a people process.
Deb: What about the knowledge that’s inside individual people within an organization? Each person has inherent experiences and unique knowledge they have gained outside the organization. How is that useful inside an organization?
Annie: That’s part of the dynamics. Most organizations look at their employees as liabilities because they pay them, rather than looking at them as assets because of their contributions. Knowledge within individuals is an intangible asset that must be captured. It is important to somehow represent employees in a way that is valuable to the organization. That value might come from their personality, experience, or education. In any case, you must consider what the organization needs first. Then you ask what you need to know about each person, and then you can identify who has the right assets and begin to utilize them throughout the organization.
The process is knowledge management. Locating experts within a company is a good example. You may have people within the organization that have knowledge, experience, or credentials that may not be known but that can be of value to the organization. Losing one of these highly qualified people creates risk for the organization. Or it might create unnecessary costs because the company hires or contracts someone with the needed knowledge, now knowing that is already exists in-house.
Knowledge Management Technology
Deb: What’s one of the biggest things that businesses are missing when it comes to advanced technology implementation?
Annie: What I believe they are missing is knowledge, specifically, about the technology itself. It is an oxymoron. For some reason, many people do not feel they need to go back and refresh their skills or knowledge. Technology is changing rapidly. People need to keep up. This does not exclude leaders like CEOs. It is just like how doctors must refresh their skills and knowledge continually, taking certain tests or getting certified for specific procedures. Doctors understand a lot of the new procedures, tests, etc., within their discipline and their need to keep up with these changes. It is no different for business leaders. A lot of executives do not understand the technical terms or technical language necessary to develop a digital twin of their enterprise. They hire contractors because they believe they are experts and provide them the proper guidance or information to make decisions. How can you trust someone when you do not know what it is you’re looking for or understand what is necessary to effect the change within your organization?
Holding Knowledge and Managing Knowledge
Deb: Many of today’s leaders grew up believing they are supposed to know everything, without having to relearn or refresh. Obviously, that’s untrue. How do we get around this mental hurdle to help them to gain useful new knowledge?
Annie: I ponder this question quite a bit. It’s an uphill battle. If you’re unaware of what you need to be learning or unaware of what someone is telling you, you might succumb to certain influences that take you down a wrong path. I’m not certain how we fill this gap. It’s not going to be filled by bringing in the younger generation, which knows the technology but doesn’t have the experience to understand things that fall outside of normal organizational boundaries. It is a hard problem with potentially severe consequences if leaders aren’t willing to step out of their comfort zones to do what they need to do. I am concerned about our businesses because of this.
One way to gain knowledge is by supplementing existing capabilities. But before you do, you must make certain that you have selected the right person for the job. Many times, the person who comes in has the skills and experience but isn’t given the guidance, scope of requirements, or context of what is needed from executives. When this happens, the contractors have no other choice but to be driven down the path they know instead of implementing a solution for the unique organization. This gap places the leaders and support/development staff at a disadvantage.
We’ve got a human problem. And we’ve got a knowledge problem. I think those in the senior level ranks need to realize that they’re not going to be punished because they need to go back and gain or refresh certain skills. I don’t think that they should be sent back to get a degree because they lack a certain knowledge area. What I do think works is going to universities that have continuing studies or certificates that build on what you already have. You don’t have to spend ten years getting another degree. Sometimes even two weeks to go somewhere so you can gain a clearer understanding of technology will fill the gap. Once you have this understanding, a leader is better qualified and positioned to be able to talk to contractors about what they are really looking for from technology. If a leader does not have tentacles within and beyond their enterprise, it will be difficult to guide a digital transformation.
I was working with an organization developing scorecards and they asked me to assess them. After spending some time with what they were doing I went to the leaders and explained that the organization’s data was not coming from any system within the organization. And what data they had was being arbitrarily placed into spreadsheets. They were aware of this. There was no reason why the data wasn’t tied to systems except they didn’t know it needed to be.
Knowledge management ties to operations. Measures need to be established. Value areas must be defined. Data must be captured and rolled up for executives to have a scorecard that is functional against the organization. Many leaders still don’t understand this concept.
System of Systems Thinking in the Organization
Deb: How important is understanding the system of systems thinking within an organization?
Annie: The organization is complex, especially when considering that data represents an organization. Everything that is needed to be known must be digitally transformed and represented within the digital twin of the organization. Data must be accurate, mapped, and interdependencies identified to understand if things are going well or wrong within the organization. Think about our bodies when something isn’t right. The doctor starts by checking our vitals first to tell us what is happening with the major biological systems within the body. Then the doctor proceeds to drill down and check other important subsystems. In the same way, the organization needs to identify the vital components first. How do they do this? They need the ability to filter back down into the different data sets and individual components to trace the problem to its source. This process is complex, and systems thinking is required.
The Risks and Upsides of Technology
Deb: What is your thought about the ethics of technology?
Annie: I truly believe technology can improve us. But I think where we fail is we don’t insert it properly into the way we work. We don’t look at what is the responsibility of the computer and the responsibility of the individual. This consideration takes us right back to the importance of system and process thinking. If we decompose the way we work, it is easy to see the areas that best fit automation, as well as the areas that are best served by people. For some reason, people will listen to a computer and say that the computer is right, even though they don’t know the algorithms that have been designed or developed for them to follow. We don’t just need to augment. We need to train.
People are fearful of losing their jobs. The problem is not necessarily them losing their jobs, it’s that they are being displaced. People need supplemental skills so that they can transfer over into other areas of importance. A perfect example of this is secretaries and administrative people. They were wonderful. They did what they were trained to do. When computers came about, these positions were eliminated but many of the tasks they did were still of importance, just digitally represented. They used to maintain paper documents in folders in file cabinets, and with computers, the file cabinets became directories, the folders became digital folders within the directories and the paper documents became digital files.
The digital transformation of the filing system still required the knowledge of the secretary/administrative expert, who (by the way) could have contributed to the knowledge about who had access to the files — the security that should have been included in the digital representation of the filing system. Administrative personnel needed new skills to know how to set up those folders and how to put data into digital folders for use by people. Instead, they were replaced by technical administrators. The ethical approach is to recognize the contributions of the existing employees and systematically identify where the new value-added capability will emerge and train versus replace. This is just a single use case of ethics, there are so many more to be cognizant about.
Deb: You stated concern about the future of business. What are your concerns?
Annie: My concern is for their digital transformations. They need to represent their organizations using technology. And I’m not sure that they have the skills or the ability to do that. A lot of organizations are hiring data scientists to develop algorithms. But what happens is the data scientists aren’t familiar with the industry or the business and how it actually operates, and the organization ends up being misrepresented. Leaders need to step away from egos to realize that they need new skills and learning to make sure they incorporate technology into their organizations in a meaningful way. It was Albert Einstein who said you must first learn the rules of the game and then you must play the game better than anyone else. We are learning a model of the world where the rules of the game are unknown — this is where the problem lies. Many organizations haven’t changed processes in 15 or more years. Incorporating technology that represents the past is not going to help them be successful in the future. Leaders need to understand there is a new game emerging and they need to be a part of defining it, not just trying to play it.
One person can’t do it all. You need to structure your strategic team in a way that makes sure the specific areas within the organization are covered. Those areas should be aligned with the vital components of the organization. For example, you might have a chief human capital officer to oversee employees/staff. This chief human capital officer should be equipped with technology to answer questions — like why are valuable people leaving the organization. It’s the same consideration as if I’m sinking a lot of money into technology but performance is not improving. The chief technical officer, who oversees technology, should be equipped with technology to help strategic leaders understand why, so they can fix the problem.
Future Focus
Deb: What’s your greatest hope for the future?
Annie: My greatest hope is that we build cognition into an organization. That it extends from the internal to the external so we can have visibility into what we’re doing and the impact we’re making. I hope that we can know the rules of the knowledge game and when they’re being broken. I hope that we know things are fair and distributed evenly and that we’re leveraging the growth of people, as opposed to holding them back or not allowing them to bring all of their capabilities forward. I would like to see people educated about the potential of AI to support them so they understand the shifting dynamics and can move into the next position without losing their job and having to start over again. Leaders can help people understand how technology is going to change their jobs. They can explain to people, “you are still going to do this, but now we’re going to shift over and you’re going to be doing it this way.”
I want to see computers augment us — not supersede us. I do not want to see them being used in ways that we don’t need them. They are here to enable us. If that means that they can think faster than us, then let them think faster and provide information. But people are the ultimate decision-makers. I know many people are fearful of computers. I’m not fearful of technology. I’m fearful of the morality of man. | https://medium.com/@deborahwestphal/convergence-conversation-unpacking-knowledge-management-with-dr-annie-green-dd64d17a19b7 | ['Deborah Westphal'] | 2021-06-20 13:37:54.785000+00:00 | ['Artificial Intelligence', 'Knowledge Management', 'Systems Thinking', 'Technology', 'Conversations'] |
How to Connect to Your Readers Right From The Start | I used to start my articles by getting right to the point of the piece. Most of the time, I’d begin them with a question because it was what English teachers taught us in school.
Do you want to learn how to hook your readers right from the start? If you do, you’ve come to the right place.
I cringed while writing that.
Just a few months ago, I wrote an article for Thought Catalog called 5 Reasons Why You Should Pursue Your Creative Dreams. This is what I wrote in the beginning.
screenshot: author
There’s nothing wrong with that work. It’s motivating, but it’s not the way I should’ve started it.
I may be giving my readers inspiring words, but they’re not connecting with the beginning. They get regurgitated words that don’t provide them with something relatable to grasp on to.
And that’s the main reason we read — to feel less alone, to relate, to connect. | https://medium.com/the-brave-writer/how-to-connect-to-your-readers-right-from-the-start-da43739987f | ['Itxy Lopez'] | 2019-10-03 01:54:00.103000+00:00 | ['Creativity', 'Creative Writing', 'Advice', 'Writing', 'Writing Tips'] |
Homesickness | Homesickness
All deserve these things
A community that cares
A roof o’er their head
Walls that keep the cold out, and
Food on their table — A Home!
In the United States, the number of homeless people was well in excess of half million before COVID-19. Approximately two-thirds of those humans are individuals, and the remaining third are families.
Due to the pandemic, at least 12 million people are still without a job and, lacking a source of income, are unable to pay for their most basic needs. There is currently a federal moratorium on evictions through the end of 2020, but this protection ends on December 31. The moratorium did not relieve the renter or mortgage holder from the obligation to ultimately pay what they owe — just delayed it. So the size of the debt they owe continues to grow.
Homelessness has never been an easy problem to solve, but lacking government action to address the needs of those hardest hit by the economic fallout of the coronavirus, the homeless crisis is about to get significantly worse — a gross understatement!
The extraordinary pictures of “food lines” (in cars and on foot) that have been documented all over the country signal the desperate times so many people are already experiencing. If you can afford it, please donate to organizations that provide food to the members of our human community who are hurting.
This is not a crowded airport parking lot. These cars are in line at a food distribution center in San Antonio, TX. Some of these people seeking food today may be on the brink of homelessness tomorrow. (Image Credit)
©2020 HHThorpe. All rights reserved.
Inspired by Deborah Christensen’s poem, “Body and Soul” and prompt, “home.” Thanks also to the rest of the House of Haiku team! | https://medium.com/house-of-haiku/homesickness-fdbd64452e3c | ['Harper Thorpe'] | 2020-11-19 08:52:27.695000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Politics', 'Homeless', 'Life', 'Coronavirus'] |
Expectations: The Robber of Joy | Photo by Yasin Yusuf on Unsplash
Expectations: The Robber of Joy
When others tell us who we should be
I just finished watching this is PARIS, a documentary of Paris Hilton.
To be honest, I saw it on my YouTube feed a while back, but never decided to click into it because I wasn’t really fond of her.
Growing up in the same period as her, I saw plenty of stories about her and her actions. She struck me as someone shallow, stuck up, fed with a silver spoon, selfish, and unambitious.
Why would I want to watch a documentary about someone who I really didn’t respect her way of life and choices?
This time, though, I thought I would be open-minded and see what she had to say, and I am so glad I did. Not only was it well-produced, but the story was compelling and struck a nerve in me.
She talked about playing a persona, putting up a façade, and erecting a lot of shields.
This is all due to her parents sending her away to “emotional growth school” when she was in her teens. It was both about the time in the school and the way she was sent.
At her most vulnerable when she was sleeping, Paris was woken up by two strange men essentially kidnapping her. She was screaming for help at the top of her lungs while not knowing what was happening, and seeing her parents standing by and not doing anything.
I can only imagine the terror and betrayal she must have felt when that happened.
All because she was “out of control” and her parents wanted her to act a certain way. To be prim and proper. To espouse the values she and her sister learned in etiquette classes.
Not that expectations are bad; after all, there has to be a standard level of humanity.
But what Paris was doing was normal teenage rebellious behavior. She came of age in New York, a place where all forms of self-expression and creativity was explored. And it was there, in the clubs, that she found her livelihood. She wasn’t thinking about her family image; she was simply free, in her own skin, bringing out who she was as an artist, and not who others expected her to be. | https://medium.com/curious/expectations-the-robber-of-joy-102ccd0733bf | [] | 2020-10-06 01:41:45.983000+00:00 | ['Expectations', 'Mental Health', 'Trauma', 'Self', 'Healing'] |
The End of the Beauty Trap: Opting for Eccentricity | I hate to contemplate the number of hours I have devoted over the years to trying to beautify myself. Preening is a part of the lives of numerous animals, but the human species, especially females of the human species, have taken the practice to extremes. I wore dungarees from childhood through my twenties, never wore makeup until well into my thirties, and to this day I have never had a manicure or owned a pair of real high heels, so I sometimes pretend that I have not succumbed to the cultural pressure that encourages women to pay unhealthy attention to appearance. But there’s no denying the truth that, even when wearing exclusively jeans and T-shirts, I have cared a lot about how I look.
All my life I’ve adored clothes. I remember my excitement as a young girl when a Willy Loman-style traveling salesman would visit us with suitcases of children’s clothing. We would gather in the living room, my two sisters, my mother, and I; and he would remove one outfit at a time, his meaty hands suddenly delicate as he laid the clothing across the sofa back. I remember in particular a matching pale blue shorts-and-top ensemble — a playsuit? — edged with frills around the pant legs and collar. It was nothing at all like the dungarees and T-shirts I favored, but sitting there in the living room I saw those clothes as magical, garments with the power to transform me into a different girl. My mother bought some of those girlie outfits, but once we owned them they lost their allure — they seemed babyish and I left them languishing at the back of my drawers.
In high school I had such a reputation for being fashion-backward that one of my friends, a skilled seamstress, made me a dress. It was a pink Dotted-Swiss A-line dress with bell sleeves. It fit beautifully, but I couldn’t bring myself to wear it. As a young feminist, I eschewed pink, thinking it infantilized women. That dress, too, hung at the back of my closet, worn only once.
Throughout college my hair was long and ragged. I prized that hair, loved feeling it graze my back and arms, loved the way it spun out as a flag in the wind. Brown, with hints of auburn, it was wild woman hair that could be easily teased witchy at Halloween. And I was aware, though I wouldn’t have acknowledged this even to myself, that it attracted male attention.
My perspective shifted when I moved to New York City and entered the world of film. I was still dressing in T-shirts and jeans, but I knew it was time to do something about my hair. Someone recommended a salon on the Upper East Side. As soon as I entered, I knew I didn’t belong there. It was filled with ladies in immaculate clothing carrying designer bags. Once in the chair, I told the hairdresser I wanted to change my style. “Honey,” she said, “You don’t have a style.” She was right, of course, but she soon rectified that. I left the salon with a feathered, shoulder-length cut that made me feel like Farrah Fawcett, and I received more catcalls on my walk home than I’d ever gotten before. A feminist, yes, but I was not immune to the flattery of catcalls. I knew I looked good.
That was the beginning of what I’ll call The Improvement Period, in which I realized there were steps I could take to make me look more, dare I say, conventionally alluring. I consulted with a few friends about makeup. I experimented with a variety of haircuts and with something called Magi-gloss to make my hair shiny. I began shaving my legs. And, being in one of the fashion capitals of the world, I realized I didn’t always have to restrict myself to jeans and T-shirts. I began dressing up more often in dresses and skirts, and exploring what colors and cuts flattered me. Don’t get me wrong: I didn’t go whole-hog into beautifying myself with facials and manicures and daily makeup, but I was no longer eschewing the girlie, culturally-approved activity of trying to improve my appearance. I kept myself fit and wore daily sunscreen, largely in service of my appearance; I occasionally visited the Bloomingdale’s cosmetic counter, sampling the products like a stranger in a foreign land; I evaluated my reflection in storefront windows as I passed. I had joined the ranks of American womanhood.
During the daze of my son’s young childhood thoughts about my appearance were relegated to the back burner. My son and I passed those years covered with sand, mud, finger paint, ice cream, and I never felt the least bit apologetic. When he started school, I returned to graduate school, and suddenly it dawned on me that I had entered a new phase. Wrinkles and gray hairs had begun to make their unwelcome appearance. When had this happened? Did this mean I was no longer young? It was time to fight back against these incursions if I wanted to maintain my looks. Time for hair color and night creams. Time to toss out the cellulite-exposing short skirts. Time to accept that entropy had set in, and I was past my physical peak. I had entered what I will call The Maintenance Period. I stepped up my intake of vitamins, tried to eat well and make sure not to slack off on exercise or sleep. I was willing to do whatever might stave off decrepitude. Most of it was a hope and a prayer.
It eventually seemed I had reached some kind of appearance plateau. I was by then living in the Pacific Northwest, a place less attentive to physical appearance than New York. My clothing choices were more rugged — Athleta, Title 9, REI — but still selected to flatter. There were no streets to walk with rows of storefront windows reflecting back my image, which made for less self-consciousness, but that didn’t mean I stopped caring about how I looked. In fact, it was here that I began to have my generous eyebrows waxed into a more pleasing shape, a vanity that would have made me laugh in the past. More than ever, I began to enjoy accessorizing with the earrings and scarves I’d collected over the years.
Then the pandemic hit. You know what happened. For over a year, like many Americans, I wore mostly sweats and a robe. I showered less frequently, washed my hair only once a week. It felt like camping, and I reveled in the lack of inhibition I felt, along with the extra time served up. No time wasted choosing outfits, fixing my hair, assessing myself in the mirror, maybe changing my outfit a second or third time. An unexpected gift.
The pandemic coincided almost exactly with my voyage to an ALS diagnosis. Locked up, out of view of the public, I was becoming a different person, not only someone who wasn’t attending much to her physical appearance, but also a person with a changing body. My voice was becoming growly, largely incomprehensible to people beyond my husband and close friends. The weight I was losing made my skin sag like an exhausted balloon. One side of my face had begun to droop, and my mouth often sucked and gyrated as if I was missing dentures. Since these developments occurred slowly, I have adjusted to them. I’m not embarrassed. There is even a bit of humor in the situation. I am now the drooling woman who people might gawk at, the person I myself might once have gawked at, the person most of us can never imagine becoming.
These changes have made it clear that striving for Self-improvement, or even Maintenance, are doomed goals. As the disease progresses it will rob me of more muscular strength, possibly making it impossible to smile, or comb my hair. It isn’t clear exactly what will happen (it’s different for everyone), but someday I may not be able to attend to my physical appearance at all.
So I am developing a new approach to self-presentation. I’m beginning to refashion myself as an Eccentric, the woman who wears crazy hats, and cat glasses, and garishly-colored mismatched clothes. I hope my Eccentricity will elicit humor and thereby draw attention away from my physical oddities. I’ve been making baby steps in this direction. I recently purchased a striped T-shirt the color of goldenrod, a rich color I’ve always loved, but have avoided wearing for the way it pales me. What the hell, I thought, if I love that color I should wear it. I paired it with orange shorts and felt a surge of rebellious elation, as if I was finally giving the finger to all those beauty constraints and conventions I’d followed over the years. I donned a brimmed hat and took a walk, reveling in my Eccentricity, following in a time-honored tradition of aging ladies.
I am not trying to tell you that I’ve bucked every concern about how I look — I’m still coloring my hair and getting the occasional pedicure — but from now on I’m going to style myself my own way, embracing my difference, my oddity. It will take time to move into public spaces as a full-blown Eccentric, but the challenge is in front of me and, like others before me, I’m ready to engage. | https://caiemmons.medium.com/the-end-of-the-beauty-trap-opting-for-eccentricity-ed38267de781 | ['Cai Emmons'] | 2021-07-26 16:16:47.144000+00:00 | ['Eccentricity', 'Beauty', 'Clothing', 'Self Improvement', 'Women'] |
Top 5 Frameworks for Node.js | Top 5 Frameworks for Node.js
Best NodeJS Frameworks
Fastify is twice as fast as Express
First, of all, a framework is intended to help you overcome some common development challenges in building a web application from scratch. What are things that one should consider before choosing a Node.js framework for myself? To help you to answer this question, today, I will go through 5 Best Node.js frameworks.
Let’s start now.
Express.js — the fast, un-opinionated, minimalist web framework for Node.js
If you’re a Node.js novice, this is the framework you should start with. It is one of the best-known frameworks of Node.Js.
What are features offered by Express.js?
Express is a minimal and flexible Node.js web application framework that provides a robust set of features for web and mobile applications.
It allows you to plot both single and multi-page, along with different web applications.
It comes with MVC (Model-View-Controller).
Allowing users to render large HTML pages dynamically, it also allows you to respond to HTTP requests by setting up middle-wares.
It is actually a routing table, i.e., a set of routing libraries. These sets of libraries perform a variety of web actions based on HTTP methods.
It also comes with a multiple view support system. Users are impressed with the extremely fast I/O and it’s robust API making routing easier and faster.
It supports 23+ template engines, easy HTTP methods, asynchronicity, it always focuses on performance.
How to install Express.js?
You can install Express.js as a package dependency with the command as follows.
Alternatively, you can use the express-generator command-line tool to quickly create an application skeleton.
For example, the following creates an Express app named myapp . The app will be created in a folder named myapp in the current working directory and the view engine will be set to Pug .
Read further…
Here is some useful Express.js links.
Koa.js — the next-generation web framework for Node.js
It designed by developers who built Express.js with a focus on a library of methods not offered in Express.js. In fact, it improves the quality of web applications and error management.
What are features offered by Koa.js?
Koa.js can be used to develop potential web-based applications and APIs. It offers features as follows.
It comes with more options for customization.
Allowing the use of generators that limits the use of callbacks which in-turn offers developers a better error handling system.
It doesn’t pack any bundle of middleware in the core. That makes server writing with Koa.js faster and more enjoyable.
Some useful strategies for general tasks such as freshness of cache, content negotiation, proxy-support come by default with Koa.Js.
It supports syn/await keywords and helps to manage your codes neatly. Koa can always clean up any mess caused in your code due to any callback.
How to install Koa.js?
Koa requires node v7.6.0 or higher for ES2015 and async function support. You can quickly install a supported version of node with your favorite version manager.
Read further…
Community links to discover third-party middleware for Koa, full runnable examples, thorough guides and more! If you have questions join us in IRC!
Hapi — the simple, secure framework
Hapi designed with a similar architecture to Express.js and a focus on writing less code. Although Hapi.js is an open-source framework for the web application, Hapi.js is also a server framework
What are features offered by Api?
It helps build powerful, scalable applications, with minimal overhead and full out-of-the-box functionality.
It provides users with routing, I/O validation, and caching.
Fixing bugs and adding new features with Hapi.Js is fast and smart by providing a powerful plugin network that offers you to enjoy these features.
It allows users can use it with MySQL, MongoDB, and Postgres to create potential and static websites.
It help users by forwarding request from its main API to other sources.
It also allows users to enjoy real-time chat applications and other social apps.
It allows for rendering dynamic content has been easier.
How to install Hapi?
Create a new directory myapp , and from there:
Run: cd myapp , this goes into the created project folder.
Run: npm init and follow the prompts. This will generate a package.json file for you.
Run: npm install @hapi/hapi , this will install the latest version of hapi as a dependency in your package.json file.
Here is a very basic hapi server.
Read further…
Here is some useful Hapi links.
Fastify — the fast and low overhead web framework, for Node.js
Fastify is a Node.js framework inspired by Hapi and Express. It is proudly powering a large ecosystem of organizations and products out there.
What are features offered by Fastify?
Enter Fastify. Fastify is a web framework highly focused on providing the best developer experience with the least overhead and a powerful plugin architecture. It is one of the fastest web frameworks in town. Fastify is twice as fast as Express.
How to install Fastify?
Get fastify with npm.
Then create server.js and add the following content.
Finally, launch the server with.
and you can test it with.
In Fastify, you write less code than you normally would in Express. For example, in Express you need to import an additional package to handle JSON requests and responses. In Fastify, you simply work with object literals and the JSON part is handled automatically by the framework.
Read further…
Here is some useful Fastify links.
Restify — the future of Node.js REST development
Restify is a well-known REST API framework of Node.Js.
What are features offered by Restify?
Node.js web service framework optimized for building semantically correct RESTful web services ready for production use at scale. restify optimizes for introspection and performance, and is used in some of the largest Node.js deployments on Earth
It is one of the earlier frameworks of Node.Js.
It works in direct harmony with HTTP actions, cycle requests, and the response.
It also offers automatic support for DTrace.
It offers bi-directional communication to both web and client-side components. It also helps you to broadcast and store data.
Restify lets you handle error immediately and systematically. It offers multiple error trapping functions that hook the errors that take place.
How to install Restify?
Get restify with npm.
Setting up a server is quick and easy. Here is a barebones echo server.
Read further…
Here is some useful Restify links.
Node.js frameworks have been playing a vital role in the progress of modern applications. You should try with a list of the best Node.js frameworks in this article.
Useful, right? | https://medium.com/javascript-in-plain-english/top-5-friendly-node-js-frameworks-for-developers-eee4a9d3ffa8 | ['Trung Anh Dang'] | 2020-05-29 11:13:37.712000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Framework', 'Programming', 'Nodejs', 'JavaScript'] |
New smart home gadgets you need to see | Sure, you can control your lights from afar and answer the doorbell when you’re not actually there with your current smart home setup. But what if you could make that arrangement even better? It’s possible, given how the market for smart home gadgets keeps expanding. That’s why today we’re rounding up these new smart home gadgets you need to see.
Enhance your smart home setup with some of these cool new IoT gadgets. If you’ve already been connecting your lightbulbs, doorbells, and speakers for some time, you might be wondering just how you can add to what you already own. Luckily, many of these new smart home gadgets you need to see work with popular voice assistants and smart home setups of all sorts.
Related: The best of home security gadgets-April 2021 edition
From a smart air freshener that lets you set aroma schedules to a motion sensor that can turn on the lights the moment you step into a room, these gadgets won’t just make your home more convenient; they’ll transform it into a spot that truly anticipates your needs.
Roku All-in-One Streambar Pro
For cinematic sound, look no further than the Roku All-in-One Streambar Pro. With 4K streaming, it gives you dynamic sound, sharp resolution, and lifelike colors. It also comes with Dolby Audio and works with AirPlay, Alexa, Hey Google, and HomeKit.
Roku Express 4K+ UHD Streaming Device
Want an easier way to control your entertainment? Go for the Roku Express 4K+ UHD Streaming Device. This device comes with the Roku Voice Remote and lets you turn on the TV, adjust volume, and more with your voice. It’s also compatible with AirPlay, HomeKit, Hey Google, and Amazon Alexa.
Pura Smart Home Diffuser Frozen 2 Set
The Pura Smart Home Diffuser Frozen 2 Set made our list of new smart home gadgets you need to see because it’s an aroma diffuser for the tech age. Adjust the scent’s intensity, set schedules, and use the away mode with the handy app. The Frozen-inspired scents are kid and pet friendly.
Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Pro
Upgrade your home’s security with the Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Pro. It stops would-be intruders in their tracks with ultra-bright LED floodlights. And the two-way talk feature with Audio+ allows you to let anyone know you’re home, wherever you are.
Epson EpiqVision Ultra LS300 Smart Streaming Laser Projector
The Epson EpiqVision Ultra LS300 Smart Streaming Laser Projector is a new smart home gadget you need to see because it comes with built-in Android TV with wireless connectivity. What’s more, the ultra-short-throw design lets it produce a picture up to 120 inches in size, even when the projector is close to the wall.
Nooie Cam Indoor Security Camera
It’s super easy to manage the Nooie Cam Indoor Security Camera. This smart home gadget works with Alexa and Google Assistant via voice command. So you can simply tell it what you want it to do. And with 1,080p Full HD live streaming, you can keep a lookout on anything in real time.
ecobee3 lite Smart Wi-Fi Thermostat
Want to lower your heating and cooling bills? Then the ecobee3 lite Smart Wi-Fi Thermostat is the gadget for you. It automatically heats or cools your home when electricity is cheaper and cleaner. It even learns your routine and can make recommendations about your energy use.
Eve Weather Climate Monitoring Device
The Eve Weather Climate Monitoring Device is one of our favorite new smart gadgets you need to see because it gives you an in-depth weather report at a glance. So the weather, temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure are all on one screen. And since it works with Siri and HomeKit, it’s easy to integrate into your routine.
SensorsCall CareAlert Well-Being Monitor
Know that your older parent is safe with the SensorsCall CareAlert Well-Being Monitor. Just plug it into an outlet for a hands-free way to communicate with your loved one. Learning sensors let it detect motion, sound, air quality, and more.
Shelly Motion Wi-Fi Sensor
The Shelly Motion Wi-Fi Sensor is a new smart home gadget you need to see because it detects motion in less than 200 milliseconds. This lets it trigger an action immediately, like turning on the lights. And smart scheduling lets you turn on the lights dimly if you need to get up in the middle of the night to get a drink of water.
Hex Home DIY Security System
Protect your home with the Hex Home DIY Security System. It gives you whole-home coverage and is easy to set up. Once you have it up and running, the connected mobile app lets you manage things like sensitivity levels. Best of all, its digital technology can see through walls and wrap around corners.
Opro9 Smart Air Purifier
Make your home smell better and reduce the time you spend cleaning with the Opro9 Smart Air Purifier. It minimizes odors and dust thanks to its rapid air circulation and automatic air purification. So you really don’t have to do anything to enjoy a cleaner, better-smelling home. Oh, and it works with Siri, Alexa, HomeKit, and Google Home, so controlling this smart air purifier is a breeze.
These are some of the best new smart home gadgets out there right now. From a cinematic soundbar to a smart thermostat, it’s never been easier to manage your home. Let us know which of these gadgets you’d love to own in the comment section.
Want more tech news, reviews, and guides from Gadget Flow? Follow us on Google News, Feedly, and Flipboard. If you’re using Flipboard, you should definitely check out our Curated Stories. We publish three new stories every day, so make sure to follow us to stay updated!
The Gadget Flow Daily Digest highlights and explores the latest in tech trends to keep you informed. Want it straight to your inbox? Subscribe ➜ | https://medium.com/the-gadget-flow/new-smart-home-gadgets-you-need-to-see-bf63515e6544 | ['Gadget Flow'] | 2021-04-18 18:11:54.316000+00:00 | ['Tech', 'Internet of Things', 'Home', 'Gadgets', 'Smart Home'] |
Between the Darkness and the Dawn | “In this moment there is nothing which comes to be. In this moment there is nothing which ceases to be. . . Wherefore the absolute tranquility (of nirvana) is this present moment.” — the T’an-Ching, Tr. by Alan Watts (Image by dbelgard)
In those moments of the morning
between the darkness and the dawn
before the first clear-whistled tune of white-throated sparrows
and cascading melody of wrens
announce a symphony of harsher songs
after owls and whippoorwills have flown to roost
and all the creatures of the night
have taken shelter in their dens
from the coming storm of light
the world is so quiet
and the air so still
I feel as though the earth has stopped in space
as though the world were weary of its never-ending race around the sun.
I know of course
that I’m the one
grown weary of the pace of life.
Always on the run
to be some other place.
Always running late.
Never time enough
to be completely here
here in this holy place
this place of power
to be completely now
now in this sacred time
this time of peace.
But listen!
A sparrow’s song!
Soon the wrens will be along.
And after that the noise
of traffic on the road beyond the gate.
And I must run! Or I’ll be late!
Run! Run! Run!
Or I’ll be late. . . | https://medium.com/poets-unlimited/between-the-darkness-and-the-dawn-30bca9f2c0fe | ['Dewain Belgard'] | 2019-03-24 14:01:46.958000+00:00 | ['Mindfulness', 'Meditation', 'Poetry', 'Poets Unlimited', 'Zen'] |
Turning my Google UX internship into a full-time position | Internships are an incredible opportunity to grow your professional and interpersonal skills. Some internships can act as launching pads for a career within the company and beyond. Many interns start their internships with one goal in mind: securing the coveted return offer.
For many students, the pressure to perform well and land the return offer comes with high anxiety and stress levels. I embarked on my Google internship journey aspiring towards receiving a full-time offer and, while at times stressful, having this long term goal motivated me to excel at work throughout the summer.
With the summer well underway, and many of you interning remotely, I’m sure that landing the full-time offer has in the very least crossed your mind. I mean, how great would it be to land a full-time job in these uncertain times? With that said, I want to share a list of actionable items I’ve derived from my internship experience at Google to help you turn your summer internship into a full-time gig. Because everyone’s internships will differ, I’m going to frame these steps in the broadest sense possible to reframe them accordingly.
As I mentioned before, the conversion process differs across companies, professions, and industries. For example, the conversion interviews’ format and topics as a UX Design intern at Google differed from my engineer counterparts. As you might have inferred, Google’s conversion process involves interviewing, whereas, other companies, extend return offers based solely on your internship performance. Nevertheless, the conversion process at Google was the same across most intern groups involving the following (in order): work performance & manager evaluation, two conversion interviews, hiring committee approval, and finally, the team matching process.
With all that said, I’m dividing the list into two sections — team-related pointers and extracurriculars. While your internship projects are crucial to your final evaluation, the work and connections you make outside of your internship project can prove invaluable in the conversion preparation process, and your future career.
Team-Related Action Items
This list is all about excelling within your project area, building relationships, and showcasing your work ethic. These steps helped me build rapport with my colleagues and demonstrate my contributions as a potential full-time team member.
✅ Connect with your colleagues
Hopefully, you’ve already checked this item off your list since your internship is probably underway. Otherwise, now is the best time to do it.
In my first meeting with my internship manager, she encouraged me to take the time to schedule one on one meetings with my colleagues to get a better sense of the product goals, the UX and team culture, and introduce myself alongside my career goals.
Meeting with your colleagues is an excellent opportunity to dig deeper into their roles and get a sense of their business goals. If you are talking to team members within your function, ask them about the team culture, their daily work life, and share your interests and goals. These meetings will help you build connections and helps demonstrate your interest in the team.
At Google, a lot of the interns receive return offers from their former internship teams. Therefore, it is never too early or too late to start building relationships and getting your name out there. If anything, I wish I had taken the time to meet more colleagues in those first weeks.
✅ Get to Know Your Manager
Think of your manager as your closest liaison throughout your internship. Taking the time to establish a relationship of openness and honesty allowed me to keep a fluid line of communication and feedback with her that never felt uncomfortable.
To nurture this relationship, begin by scheduling weekly one on one meetings with your manager. You need to assess your manager’s personality from the start so you can better engage them. Both of my managers and I had a very informal relationship, so I always felt comfortable sharing my problems and concerns with them.
However, other managers prefer to keep formal relationships. I’ve known interns who prepped for their manager syncs beforehand with detailed agendas and meeting goals. Other interns I’ve known sent weekly recaps of their goals and achievements to their managers to keep them in the loop with their work progress.
Regardless of your communication style or work approach, your manager will likely play a key role in your evaluations and, therefore, decide whether you get a conversion offer. Consequently, you must be proactively documenting your work and communicating with them regularly. Remember, you should not wait for your manager to schedule meetings with you. Take the initiative and foster this relationship as if you were a full-time employee already.
✅ Showcase a strong work ethic
Understanding intern expectations at your company is critical to doing well. For example, at Google, interns are treated like full-time employees and work on real projects. Therefore, you should be performing with a full-time employee mindset, and your work ethic should reflect that.
At Google, you can interview with various teams and, hopefully, you have a genuine interest in your team’s product area. Assuming so, share your passion and curiosity with your team. If your colleagues are under the impression that you’re genuinely passionate about the product area, they’ll be more likely to ask you to come back.
You can showcase interests by asking questions about the product, sharing ideas, digging into the projects and team structure, asking how the product generates revenue, taking on side projects, etc. A great platform to ask these questions is your one on one meetings with your colleagues and team jams. For example, during my internship, I volunteered to make a poster for an internal job fair, which was a great way to showcase my graphic design skills, add a side project to my internship portfolio, and get to know people outside of my team.
Timelines, collaboration, coordination, self-sufficiency, passion, and excellent communication are all skills that will help you convey to your team that you can succeed as a full-time colleague. At many companies, promotions are given based on whether you perform at the following level in your career ladder. Moreover, if hired at an entry-level, you need to demonstrate that you are working at an intermediate caliber before promotion. Keep this in mind throughout your internship and ask yourself: am I performing at a full-time employee level of expectations?
Extracurricular Action Items
This list is about exploring opportunities beyond your team and internship project, developing a network of mentors, and developing interpersonal and leadership skills by sharing your knowledge and experience with others.
✅ Network beyond your team
Getting to know your colleagues is one piece of the networking puzzle. However, as an intern, you have access to countless individuals throughout your company. Think about your intern badge similarly to a student ID. Your student ID gets you into places and discounts not afforded to the general public. The intern card works the same — by introducing yourself as an intern, you will find people are more willing to have coffee or meet with you that might’ve otherwise been too busy.
Many companies also have buddy or mentor programs that place you with colleagues outside of your internship team. These groups range from diversity and inclusion related communities to professional mentorship initiatives. Extracurricular groups provide another venue to meet colleagues across the company, learn about their work, and get an insight into their teams. Likewise, these groups can serve as support communities that can help you further your career goals and provide insight into a particular aspect of the company culture you may want to learn more about before deciding to join full-time.
Beyond professional opportunities and career growth, these programs allow you to discuss your internship experience with colleagues outside your direct team. Having a mentor outside of your team is an excellent opportunity to share concerns and receive advice from someone not directly related to your internship evaluations. As we will discuss further down in the article, these new connections can also prove invaluable in helping you prepare for your conversion interviews and transition to full-time.
✅ Prepare for conversion
Depending on where you’re interning, you may have to go through an interview process before converting to full-time. While your internship project, your manager, and colleagues are great resources to help prepare you for your interviews, I found practicing with colleagues outside of my team just as valuable.
Leverage the network that you’ve built up throughout your internship and hone your interview skills. Ask for practice coding challenges, whiteboarding exercises, and behavioral interviews to develop and grow these skills from people who have firsthand experience interviewing others. Regardless of whether you have an interview conversion process or not, these practice sessions can help you with other companies’ interviews down the line.
Also, keep a record of all the work that you’ve done. Document the events that you’ve attended, the independent projects you’ve pursued, and the impact you’ve had throughout your internship. Prepare a deck with all of your accomplishments and share that with your team and potentially with your interviewers. Treat your internship as a portfolio and a pitch deck that you can share with your team at the end of the internship.
✅ Teach & lead
Think of your internship as an extensive system full of nodes and networks that you can impact. Your team is one node within a more extensive network that you can explore. Therefore, taking the time to explore opportunities beyond your team can showcase how your interests scale beyond your product area and have company-wide impact.
There are many entry points to exploring the world beyond your internship team. Some of them we already touched on, such as potential mentorship programs and extracurricular communities. To better understand the reach and influence as a student intern, it is critical to acknowledge how much knowledge and insight you have accrued through previous work experience and your academic career.
At my Adobe internship, I had the opportunity to collaborate with a coding initiative teaching high school students to code. I received an invitation to speak about the UX process and participate in a panel to answer college and landing internships questions.
Opportunities like these are great platforms to showcase your leadership skills and your desire to teach and share your experiences. A willingness to teach is an invaluable skill that translates easily to your everyday work life as a full-time employee and can showcase the positive attitude and spirit you would bring to your team. Every company is different, but at Google, this would fall under the often ambiguous term of “Googleyness.” I am very inspired by this Maya Angelou quote and use it as a guiding life principle:
When you learn, teach, when you get, give.
Don’t let being a student or an intern keep you from teaching and sharing what you know. These experiences will help develop your interpersonal and communication skills but, most importantly, sharing and teaching are great ways to enrich yours and others’ lives. | https://medium.com/design-bootcamp/how-to-turn-your-internship-into-a-full-time-gig-8b059aa7853e | ['Ricardo Hernández Pérez'] | 2020-12-10 04:43:27.890000+00:00 | ['Careers', 'Jobs', 'Work', 'Internships', 'Tech'] |
5 Important Lessons To Improve Your Emotional Stability | 1. Accept that you can’t control everything
Not being in control is a scary thing. We love planning ahead and avoid surprises whenever possible. Because of that, we often try to control everything. The problem is, we can’t.
We set expectations of what might happen, but when the outcome differs from our expectations, we get frustrated, stressed, and anxious. Worst of all, we tend to blame ourselves for this problem, rather than accepting that it was out of our control.
You can urge a loved one to stop smoking. But you shouldn’t blame yourself if they don’t listen.
The moment you feel negative emotions coming up due to a failed plan or a missed goal, you need to grow indifferent to this situation. You can’t help it. Getting angry or sad about it won’t change the situation and will only cause you stress.
An urge to control often stems from underlying feelings of helplessness. Especially if you grew up in an environment where everything was out of control, the uncertainty can take a huge toll on your wellbeing.
It’s important to take a deep breath and accept the outcome. You can try again if you want, but you need to remind yourself of doing so without any unreasonable expectations.
Whatever happens because of other influences lies outside of your control. And that’s not your fault.
2. Don’t trust your feelings too much
Emotions don’t always make sense. Sometimes they are too strong. Sometimes they are irrational. But they always control our thoughts.
When you’re overcome with fear, anxiety, sadness, or depression, this will reflect in the thoughts that cross your mind. You will start imagining bad outcomes more than good ones and thus tell yourself that your chance of success is lower than it really is.
Not every thought you have is automatically true. They are just a small number of possibilities in an endless ocean.
You need to dissect your thoughts and separate important ones from those that only hinder your capabilities. Understand that these thoughts are not the cause of how you feel, but the opposite: Your feelings are dictating your thoughts.
You need to distance yourself from these emotions. Put them aside. Try to keep your thoughts strictly evidence-based. If a thought you have amplifies your emotions further but has no reasonable base to stand on, it’s likely caused by a strong emotion.
Don’t give in to anger, fear, or sadness as a direct response. Acknowledge the feelings, but don’t act upon them.
Fear means you may be in danger. But don’t blindly search for the emergency exit. Stay calm. Anger may arise when someone hurts your ego. But don’t give in to an impulse for revenge. Only a weak ego needs to protect itself.
Learn to keep your thoughts clear of your emotions.
3. Don’t base your decisions on emotions
If we’re upset, we tend to resort to personal attacks and insults. We blame the other party directly for whatever may have happened. And when we’re desperate, we often give in to any demand, even if it leaves us at a huge disadvantage.
Every time we base our decisions on our emotions, we are subconsciously aiming for short term goals. We might get what we want now, but in the long run, we put ourselves up for failure.
If we insult someone in an argument, we might win the fight, but we’re losing the war. And if we give the other side the upper hand out of desperation, then we’ll have to endure the consequences.
You should not let any personal insults or accusations get to you when having an argument. Don’t let the other party bait you into feeling attacked and angry. Try to imagine leaving your body and becoming a bystander who’s watching you two argue.
Just as with your thoughts, when making a decision, do not let your emotions take over. Instead of acting on your feelings, you can react with a clear mind and an objective stance.
This ensures that you make decisions without letting your emotions fog up your mind.
4. Don’t judge yourself for your emotions
Our feelings are highly conditioned. This means that they are based on our lifelong experiences, from early childhood on. They are the natural reactions we have learned throughout life, based on what happened to us.
Someone who suffered from a broken home, violence in school, or other forms of abuse, may naturally be more fearful, anxious, and cautious.
As such, our emotions are often not the result of our inherent personality, but the environment we grew up in. But too often, we tend to judge our own emotions too harshly.
For example, if a loved one goes through a tearful breakup, we understand their pain and sorrow, trying to comfort them to our best abilities. But when we ourselves go through the same thing, we tend to get angry at ourselves for showing weakness or crying.
We should not condemn our emotions. There is nothing wrong with having them. They are a natural reaction to what happened. And you need to learn to accept them as a natural and conditioned part of you.
By doing so, you can avoid spiraling into a void of sadness and hate that only hinders your functioning. Instead, you will be able to make peace with yourself, with who you are. And then you’ll gain more control over your emotions.
5. Not everything has a meaning
The uncertainty of life can be horrifying. We don’t know what lies behind the next curve, so we slow down. The same happens in every other aspect of our lives. People look for hidden meanings in everything.
They want to always have the right answer and feel smarter about themselves. But some things in life really are just meaningless noise. You don’t need to know everything.
By trying to put a label on everything and finding a hidden meaning or reason behind every event, you subconsciously put yourself into a position of anxiety and depression. Because now you try to find the reason why your spouse left you, or why your company laid you off and will most likely focus on yourself alone with a critical eye.
Your emotional stability depends on your ability to cope with these events without giving in to anxious thoughts, self-criticism, and contemplating more than is healthy.
Not everything has a meaning. Not everything happens for good reason. Sometimes it just happens.
Try to accept uncertainty as a part of your life. If you waste too much time thinking about tomorrow, you can’t focus enough on the here and now. | https://medium.com/evolve-you/5-important-lessons-to-improve-your-emotional-stability-6312ec0e775d | ['Kevin Buddaeus'] | 2020-11-11 09:45:35.721000+00:00 | ['Mindfulness', 'Psychology', 'Self Improvement', 'Advice', 'Life Lessons'] |
Many Surprising Reasons to See an Orthodontist | By: James M. Crouse, DDS, PA
An orthodontist’s job goes far beyond just creating beautiful smiles. They are an important part of the dental team for optimal dental and general health.
Photo source: iStockPhotos
Everyone knows that you need to see an orthodontist to straighten your front teeth and have a nice smile-but there are other reasons that you may benefit from a visit to the orthodontist. Here are some of them:
There are many reasons for orthodontia besides a nice smile
First, orthodontists spend as much or more time getting a proper fit of the back teeth as they do with the front teeth. Getting the posterior teeth to mesh properly is important for the longevity of the dentition.
Poorly aligned back teeth are more susceptible to adverse tooth wear. In extreme cases, repairing these worn teeth can require root canal therapy and crowns
Second, crooked teeth are more at risk for periodontal or gum disease. Conditions such as crossbites can put adverse forces on teeth that can make them become loose and cause recession of the gum tissue.
Periodontal disease becomes worse if there is traumatic occlusion. Teeth that have tipped into spaces for missing teeth also have compromised gingival health.
The orthodontist can correct the alignment of the teeth and ensure that the forces when biting are optimal.
Improving airway and jaw function
Another area that the orthodontist can help beyond a nice smile is help with a healthy airway and obstructive sleep apnea.
Many people suffer from obstructive sleep apnea. Often, the cause of the airway being closed off is due to the tongue blocking the airway.
Orthodontists can help with this condition in two ways. One is to help make sure the tongue has adequate room. People with constricted narrow arches don’t have as much room for their tongue. Orthodontic treatment to widen the arches may help accommodate the tongue.
Another way they can help is by providing oral appliances for people who are CPAP intolerant. These appliances are very similar to the appliances that we use to treat orthodontic problems. These removable appliances are worn while sleeping.
They aim to move the lower jaw forward. This is because the tongue and the associated muscles are attached to the lower jaw. Moving the jaw forward pulls the tongue forward. This opens a person’s airway so they can breathe better.
Airway issues in children
Children can also suffer from airway issues. They should not snore while sleeping.
Children who have difficulty breathing while sleeping can have a number of problems. They are often diagnosed with ADHD. They may have discipline problems in school, failure to thrive, and even bed wetting.
These children often have these issues due to enlarged tonsils and adenoids. They can also often have very narrow upper jaws.
The orthodontist can help by expanding the upper jaw. The other side of the roof of the mouth is the floor of the nose so widening the jaw not only makes more room for the tongue but also widens the floor of the nose and makes breathing easier. Jaw widening along with proper treatment by an ENT and their pediatrician can make a world of difference for these children.
TMJ dysfunction
Many orthodontists provide treatment for temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMJ) pain and headaches. Treatment may only involve an orthotic to be worn while sleeping. But sometimes more extensive therapy is necessary including the use of ultrasound, cold laser, muscle manipulation, and relaxation techniques.
In addition, for some people with occlusal conditions that may be contributing to their temporomandibular disorder (TMD), the orthodontist can correct the bite and create a healthier condition that will make the person less reliant on orthotics.
Replacing and restoring teeth
The services of an orthodontist can be very helpful prior to extensive restorative dental work. Replacing and restoring teeth is easier and results in a better outcome when the teeth are properly aligned.
Teeth tend to drift when a tooth is removed. The teeth on each side tend to tip into the space of the missing tooth. Putting a replacement tooth in this altered space can result in a compromised result.
Orthodontic treatment can move the teeth back to where they belong so that a normally shaped tooth can be inserted.
In the case of a tooth that is broken off at the gum line, the orthodontist can extrude the tooth so that a crown can be placed and the tooth saved.
The orthodontist can also close the space for a missing tooth so that a replacement is unnecessary. This is often done in the case of missing upper lateral incisors. In appropriate cases, the upper canine teeth can be moved to the lateral’s position and reshaped to take the lateral incisor’s place.
An orthodontist is useful in the case of dental trauma. Teeth that have been displaced by a blow to the facial area can be repositioned by the orthodontist and stabilized so that they can heal and be maintained.
The bottom line
An orthodontist’s job goes far beyond just creating beautiful smiles. They are an important part of the dental team for optimal dental and general health.
This story was first published on March 18, 2017. It has been updated for republication.
James M. Crouse, DDS, PA, is the owner of The Brace Place in Salisbury, Md., offering outstanding, affordable orthodontic care to children, teens, and adults. Dr. Crouse utilizes the latest technological advances in orthodontics to ensure that patients receive the most effective care possible He is a Top 1% Invisalign Provider and has treated over 1,000 people with the Invisalign appliance. This “Elite” designation places him in the top 1% of Invisalign providers in North America. | https://docweighsin.medium.com/many-surprising-reasons-to-see-an-orthodontist-e51e7c69d44a | ['The Doctor Weighs In'] | 2019-05-12 18:01:01.174000+00:00 | ['Tmj', 'Orthodontist', 'Periodontal Disease', 'Dentistry'] |
Metaverse: Egotists’, Egomaniacs’, and Schizophrenics’ New Promised Land | Lex Luthor: Kitty, what did my father used to say to me? Kitty Kowalski: You’re losing your hair. Lex Luthor: Before that. Kitty Kowalski: Get out. Lex Luthor: He said: You can print money, manufacture diamonds, and people are a dime a dozen, but they’ll always need land. It’s the one thing they’re not making any more of.*
Technically, geologically and physically, what Lex says may be accurate, but truthfully, for a few years there has been a new virtual earth that has been slowly emerging. We cannot yet feel the heat of its sands with our bare toes, nor plant, still, a banner over its land, or satiate our thirst with fresh water from its mountain rivers, yet. It still does not mean that there is a chance that this will one day be possible. Maybe it will be.
The march advances from the original internet to 2.0, to 3.0 and no one knows how many x point zero remain. It’s to be discovered which of the analog real things will pass into virtual reality and which of the virtual will invade the real realm, not as a Skynet or a Space Odyssey, but as intellectual exoskeletons.
The virtual becomes existing and vice versa, the interactions between the realities affect each other, gradual and uniform at times, polluting and deformed others. And this could be dangerous. Mixing reality with fiction in real reality is called schizophrenia, and this ‘affects a person’s ability to think clearly, control their emotions, make decisions, or relate to others. It is a mental disorder in which it is difficult to differentiate between real and unreal experiences.’
The Metaverse, the new buzzword, which nobody knows what it means, but has become widespread is coming, although it has not yet fully arrived. It seems like a liberator waiting. It is a physical place that is in virtual reality. It is a universe within another universe within another universe like generations of psalms blessings and curses. Could they be parallel and complementary universes?
To understand things, the fastest way to capture them is by playing, so entertainment is at the forefront. Electronic games and movies lead, then companies arrive, and finally the indecipherable mammoth of politics will appear to conquer and hinder.
The quintessential exemplar of unbridled ambition, Lex Luthor, is an egomaniac. His intelligence can only be equaled and even surpassed by his egotism and megalomania, which sometimes interfere with his rational thinking. Nolan Sorrento, the ‘Spielbergian’ nemesis in Ready Player One of decentralization and Luddism, falls victim to the rebellious and untamed Metaverse that he wanted to possess and dominate.
As the virtual tectonic plates move, shaping the new virtual planet, they continue to be heard behind the doors that separate reality from fiction, the mysterious voices of the soul-eaters promising whatever it is for whoever it is. What creatures will escape and what spawn will enter to integrate the animalia? Pokémon’s, Gremlins, Red Dragons, Unicorns, Trolls, etc.?
How long will you live in virtual reality? Will there be Sundays and holidays? What will be private and what will be public? What new addictions will appear? Will virtual unions be born to regulate labor dynamics? What laws will govern that cosmos? How to find a virtual psychopath hidden between blockchains? How much will ethereal virtual psychologists charge a session hour? Who will be the first forger of NFTs? Will it happen? Where will be located Bitcoin’s Fort Knox?
Metaverse according to Binance. Metaverse according to Globant. Metaverse according to Meta. Metaverse according to Ernest Cline. | https://medium.com/@pablolacasia/metaverse-egotists-egomaniacs-and-schizophrenics-new-promised-land-9c1361223706 | [] | 2021-11-20 03:06:13.788000+00:00 | ['Virtual Reality', '3D Printing', 'Real Estate', 'Fomo', 'Metaverse'] |
Hello There | I can’t describe how badly I want to be the main character. Ever since I watched Lord of the Rings, Cinderella and Pirates of the Caribbean I simply can't stop thinking about it. I get that I’m being a narcissist. I know that it’s the people in this world who aren't the main characters that are of real importance: the truckers, the nurses, the construction workers, the people who farm our food that we don't think about twice. But still, I’m writing this in hopes that some poor soul will find my thoughts interesting enough to give them attention and fulfill my need to be the main character in this world. I hope others have felt the same and overcome it. So please, join me on my journey to unlearn this terrible habit of thinking I'm the main character. Help me form habits of selflessness and contentment within my own small, but equally meaningful, life. | https://medium.com/@meghan-r-dunn1/hello-there-9d3ae4918ba9 | ['Meghan R Dunn'] | 2020-12-19 03:44:25.045000+00:00 | ['Introduction'] |
Mathematical Miracles of Quran | Exceptional knowledge
The text of the Quran is miraculous on many accounts especially the argument that it was revealed to a prophet who could not read or write yet it carried the exceptional knowledge. The Arabic text would not conform to the standard poetry and prose categories commonly expressed by other forms of written and spoken languages and therefore is attributed to the supernatural.
Today I shed some light on the numerical miracles of this divine book.
The divine balance of numbers
1. The word “Salawat” (prayers) is mentioned 5 times in the Quran, and the number of daily prayers mandatory for every Muslim is A- Subh, A-Duhr, Al-Asr, Al-Maghrib, Al-Isha.
2. The Word “Sahr” (month) is mentioned 12 times in the Quran, just as the number of the months there are in a year.
3. The word “Yawn” (day), in the singular, is mentioned 365 times in the Quran, just as the number of days there are in a year.
4. The word “Ayyam” (days), in the plural, is mentioned 30 times in the Quran, just as the number of months there are in a month.
The precise number of a word and its antonym mentioned in Quran
“al Hayat” (life), 145 times
“al Mawt” (death), 145 times
“al-Dunya” (mundane life), 115 times
“al Ajira” (the afterlife), 115 times
“Malaika” (angels), 88 times
“Shayatin” (demons), 88 times
“ar Rajul (man), 24 times
“al Mar’a (woman), 24 times
“ar Raghba (wish), 8 times
“al Jauf (fear), 8 times
“as Salihat (good deeds), 167 times
“as Sayya’at” (wrongdoings), 167 times
“an Nafaa” (benefit), 50 times
“al Fasad (corruption), 50 times
These are just a few examples of the incredible number balance in the Quran. This book is full of miracles and a call towards guidance, the more you learn from it the more it teaches you.
There are numerous scientific and mathematical miracles In Quran waiting for us to discover them. | https://medium.com/the-heart-of-quran/mathematical-miracles-of-quran-1318e5986c0b | ['Sumera Rizwan'] | 2020-05-20 21:28:31.701000+00:00 | ['Knowledge', 'Learning', 'Mathematical', 'Divine Blessing', 'Quran'] |
Navigation Featured story: https://medium.com/live-your-life-on-purpose/why-one-side-of-your-nose-always-feels-more-congested-than-the-other-78fc8fb41f8e | Why One Side of Your Nose Always Feels More Congested Than the Other
And why it’s not always the same side | https://davidbclear.medium.com/welcome-to-david-b-clears-medium-page-9ae94984acba | ['David B. Clear'] | 2020-12-26 10:46:03.490000+00:00 | ['Science', 'Explainer', 'Oh So Clear', 'Writing', 'Comics'] |
Deploy a Flask SQLAlchemy app to Heroku Postgres | db.create_all() seemed to work, but I have no tables in pgAdmin! If your database models are stored in a separate file, import them into app.py after db is initialised. It should look like this: app = Flask(__name__)
...
db = SQLAlchemy(app)
...
from app.models import *
Send data to Postgres
Run the app and submit some data through the form (or create some data in your table). In pgAdmin, right-click the table you just created and refresh, then right-click and view/edit data.
Could not send data to server: Socket is not connected (0x00002749/10057) could not send SSL negotiation packet: Socket is not connected (0x00002749/10057) Disconnect and reconnect server (right-click on server and click Disconnect Server, then Connect Server) and refresh table again. If that didn’t work, right-click on server and click Properties, go to the Connection tab and change the Host name/address from localhost to 127.0.0.1 . Then repeat step 1.
Create Heroku app
Since I prefer using Heroku directly with Github instead of the CLI, I’m not using git init here, but note that if your code is not already a Github repo you would need to use it.
In the command line:
heroku login
# If you have the Heroku CLI installed correctly, this will open a tab in the browser and log you in to Heroku.
heroku create unique-app-name
# (replace `unique-app-name` with your own name). This creates an app on the Heroku server, and it's the place your code is cloned to so that it can be run. Check that it has appeared in your [Heroku dashboard](https://dashboard.heroku.com/).
heroku addons:create heroku-postgresql:hobby-dev -a unique-app-name
# This creates an empty postgres database for your app. Heroku uses its own database, not your pgAdmin database.
heroku config -a unique-app-name
# The url you set earlier as the `SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI` points to the database you created in pgAdmin, but since your app is now going to be using Heroku's database you need a new url. Copy the DATABASE_URL that is returned.
2. Go back to the code where you set app.config[‘SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI’] earlier, and insert the new url inside the else block. It should look more or less like this:
if ENV == 'dev':
app.config['SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI'] = 'postgresql://postgres:123456@localhost/lexus'
else:
app.config['SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI'] = 'postgres://urlyoujustgotfromherokuozftkndvkayeyc:691196bfb1b1ca8318b733935b10c97a19fd41@ec2-52-71-161-140.compute-1.amazonaws.com:5432/d3pofh2b55a2ct'
If you’re working with the tutorial’s github repo, set ENV = 'prod' , otherwise set the config to use the heroku url however you want.
3. Add the following files to your root directory if they’re not yet included in your project files: | https://medium.com/@hazelg/deploy-a-flask-sqlalchemy-app-to-heroku-postgres-d495c786097d | [] | 2021-03-25 14:19:19.839000+00:00 | ['Postgres', 'Heroku', 'Flask', 'Sqlalchemy', 'Deployment'] |
Deploy Laravel application with a database to Heroku | Prerequisites
PHP Laravel knowledge.
A Heroku user account.
Heroku CLI, Composer, and Git installed on your computer.
Create a Laravel Application
The composer create-project command is one of the ways you can bootstrap a new project based on the laravel/laravel. However, I am using https://github.com/mdutt247/laravel-news which is having an Admin dashboard on the web and RESTful API for consumers in Laravel 8 — Jetstream, Livewire, Sanctum, and Tailwind.
Open the project in command prompt and type
git clone https://github.com/mdutt247/laravel-news.git
or
composer create-project laravel/laravel laravel-news
then
cd laravel-news
Assuming this project is running in your local development environment and you are at the root directory of the project.
Initialize a Git repository
It’s now time to initialize a Git repository and commit the current state, to do so run the following commands:
git init
git add .
git commit -m “first commit”
Create Procfile file
Heroku will launch an Apache/Nginx web server together with PHP to serve applications from the root directory of the project.
Laravel application’s document root is public/ a subdirectory, so you need to create a Procfile to configure the correct document root. This file must be created at the root of the project directory, the name with uppercase P.
echo “web: vendor/bin/heroku-php-apache2 public/” > Procfile
git add .
git commit -m “Procfile for Heroku”
Login to Heroku CLI
Now you need to log into Heroku to push the project. Type following command:
heroku login
Then complete the login procedure by clicking the log in link.
Create a new application on Heroku
To create a new Heroku application that you can push to, use the heroku create command:
heroku create
It will create an application with a random name.
Now deploy this project on Heroku by pushing the source
git push heroku master
After this step, you can go to the Heroku dashboard and open the application, but this will give you an error as we have not set the environmental variable. To set environment variables open the dashboard and fill in the following keys, except DATABASE_URL, for now:
Heroku Config Vars
When these variables are set you are ready to go.
Add Database
You can add any database of choice. However, I am using PostgreSQL because it is available free.
On the Heroku dashboard click on the Resources tab. Then search for Postgres:
Add database
Select and install Heroku Postgres. After successful installation, Heroku Postgres is available in dashboard resources:
Dashboard — Resource
Now come back to your terminal and type:
heroku config
From the output note down DATABASE_URL
Open config/database.php file, and put this code on the top, and set pgsql as default database like this:
config/detabase.php
And in the database connection set pgsql as below:
config/database.php
Now we are all set to push these modifications. Run:
git add .
git commit –m “Updated database connection”
git push heroku master
Now migrate the database, to do so, run:
heroku run php artisan migrate
or
heroku run bash
php artisan migrate
If during migration you are getting error migrating laravel/telescope files. You may remove it:
composer remove laravel/telescope
If you want to seed the database:
heroku run php artisan db:seed
It might give an error that faker class not found during seeding. To overcome this go to composer.json file and cut fakerphp/faker from require-dev and paste it in require and push the code again to Heroku.
If everything works fine you will be accessing your Laravel application online.
Connect: Twitter, GitHub, Linkedin
You can support by buying a coffee ☕️ here https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mdutt | https://medium.com/@madhavendra-dutt/deploy-laravel-application-with-a-database-to-heroku-9844a7598a92 | ['Madhavendra Dutt'] | 2020-12-23 16:42:44.651000+00:00 | ['Postgres', 'Heroku', 'Web Development', 'Deployment', 'Laravel'] |
The promises Boris Johnson will break in the New Year | The promises Boris Johnson will break in the New Year
New Year is a time for resolutions and hopes for the coming 12 months. Although most of us break our promises to ourselves at some point, our Prime Minister has made a lot of significant promises to the British people about our new start as a non-EU member state, which begins on 1st January.
Following on from Monday’s press conference, where we unpacked the lies told by our esteemed leader, let’s look at the bold claims he made that are sure to fail. Like everything Johnson touches, these good intentions are gonna backfire, I just know it. Some of these pre-date Monday’s speech (oven-ready deal, anyone?), but they’re all things meant to come to fruition in 2021.
Brexit
It’s the obvious one, isn’t it? At Monday’s press conference, the PM was asked if a deal was in sight. He smirked and joked with the transport secretary who was at the podium with him, and then responded thus:
“I’m just going to repeat what I think you’ve heard me say many times. I had a great conversation, by the way, with Emmanuel, as I’ve said, it’s his birthday by the way, but we vowed to stick off Brexit, because that negotiation is being conducted, as you know, via the European Commission, and that’s quite proper, and the position is unchanged. There are problems, it’s vital that everybody understands that the UK has got to be able to control its own laws completely, and also that we’ve got to be able to control our own fisheries. And it remains the case that WTO terms would be more than satisfactory for the UK. And we can certainly cope with any difficulties that are thrown our way. Not that we don’t want a deal, but that WTO terms would be entirely satisfactory. And ‘prosper mightily’ remains an extremely good description of life after January 1st either way.”
HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM, that strongly suggests to me that we are going to be on our own after 1st January, and it’s not going to be “entirely satisfactory”, nor will we “prosper mightily”. God, he was laughing the whole way through that answer. Everything the ‘Remoaners’ said would happen is going to happen. Shit.
Back to normal by Easter
“Now that we’ve got the vaccine coming in the way that we have, I think that we can certainly look forward to a very, very different world for this country from Easter onwards, as I think Chris [Chief Medical Officer] and Patrick [Chief Scientific Officer] have said before. And it’s very, very important for, not just for people’s morale, but it’s also totally realistic that we have every reason to be extremely hopeful about this country’s ability to bounce back next year from Covid. And I think that is the right thing to say then and now.”
I’m old enough to remember when Johnson said we would “turn the tide in 12 weeks” at the start of the disease’s arrival in the UK. So, how’s that going, eh? Some are predicting another lockdown by the weekend (is that the third or fourth?), hospitals all over the country are almost at capacity, and our daily deaths are back at March/April levels. If we are to be “back to normal by Easter” we need to sort our public health response out properly. We’ve had 10 months to do it so far, and we’ve still not got it right. We’ll be lucky to have a normal Christmas in 2021 at this rate.
Schools back in January
Johnson was also asked about schools — to which he replied that we’d like to get pupils back in January, but he was at least a bit more cautious on this one, saying that we’d have to base it on the spread of the disease rather than just making a wild promise on the spot. Still, it ain’t happening. Kids have just gone home for Christmas, many of them carrying the new strain that seems to spread more readily among children, mingling with their families and developing symptoms at some point around the start of term. I doubt if adults will be going into their offices, let alone sending kids to school. And I reckon there would be a big enough rebellion if the government tried to make them go back.
There is more to come…
We need to get more coronavirus testing in the community, and we need to deliver the vaccine (both doses) to the whole population. At present there are issues with supply of the vaccine and availability of tests (like there has been for 10 months, for fuck’s sake) but it doesn’t look like a total disaster yet.
We will “Get Brexit Done” on 1st January one way or another, but that doesn’t mean we’ll do it well. There are going to be consequences for many years on the economy, jobs, availability of goods, prices, travel arrangements, opportunities for young people, on science, medicine and education, funding for local projects, Britain’s international standing, and much more. The benefits of EU membership are woven in to every aspect of our lives. And although the UK left the EU in name almost a year ago, the impact on most people’s lives has been imperceptible. That’s all going to change in 9 days.
I expect there to be an array of excuses for any failings, along the lines of blaming the public for a spike in infections, and blaming Brussels for everything else. Oh, and the assertion that ‘we knew what we were voting for’.
I suspect that Boris Johnson will not remain as Prime Minister for long. He will “Get Brexit Done” and then scarper, leaving someone else to clean up the mess. But who? Although Johnson is awful, so are the rest of the potential candidates. We could have four more years of this government, and they can fit a lot of disappointment into that timeframe. | https://medium.com/shit-britain/the-promises-boris-johnson-will-break-in-the-new-year-750dc4fb3df6 | ['Katy Preen'] | 2020-12-23 23:29:34.677000+00:00 | ['Boris Johnson', 'Coronavirus', 'Brexit', 'Uk News', 'Covid 19'] |
DEx.top Bi-Weekly Report (8.11–8.24) | 1. Product Updates
a. Token classification
Promotion and Tokens with a rating will be displayed by category.
b. The new version of the contracts are under development
The new contract will allow a more transparent transaction and our users can get their currency within 30 days after the contract is stopped. User’s asset security is further enhanced.
2. Listings
a. MT Token(MT)
MyToken is an advocate for value investing and decentralization. It wishes to become the bridge connecting the blockchain technology and its users as well as investors by accelerating the transformation process in which the users get involved.
b. UNetworkToken(UUU)
U Network is a revolutionary protocol for publishing and valuing online content that helps online content platforms better align with the interests of their users.
3. Recent Activities
a. Trade to win a pool of 400,000 MT!（Concluded）
Activity details: https://support.dex.top/hc/en-us/articles/360007916214
b. Trade to win a pool of 3,223,500 UUU！(Ongoing)
Activity details: https://support.dex.top/hc/en-us/articles/360008246834
4. External Partnerships
a. From August 15th to August 16th, DEx.top have been traveling once more! This time, we arrived at the biggest city in Canada, Toronto; participating in Canada’s most renown blockchain industry summit, the “Blockchain Futurist Conference”. The summit itself attracts over 2000 blockchain enthusiasts all over the globe, and we gather for two days to discuss the future of blockchain technology.
b. In this conference, the DEx.top team popularized the knowledge of how to use DEx.top to trade and other information revolving around a decentralized exchange platform. One key feature we talked about is DEx.top’s new mobile wallet. This brand new version will allow users to quickly and easily experience our product using a smartphone. Smooth, fast, and easy-to-learn, this mobile experience will surely get the attention of our overseas friends.
DEx.top is a decentralized Ethereum-token exchange platform based on the smart contract. It introduces the innovative ROC (Replayed On Chain) trading mechanism that leverages the synchronized off-chain and on-chain ledgers to enable instant trading while making traders’ assets safe. DEx.top is committed to providing the most secure, instant, and low-cost trading experience to end users at all levels.
Aug 24th, 2018
DEx.top | https://medium.com/dex-top/dex-top-bi-weekly-report-8-11-8-24-babbbbfaa0b2 | [] | 2018-08-31 03:39:19.365000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin', 'Ethereum', 'Blockchain', 'Progress Reports', 'Decentralized Exchange'] |
Best SaaS Startup Metrics Resources | Best SaaS Startup Metrics Resources
Last updated — October 2021
A curated collection of the best startup metrics resources mostly focused on SaaS:
You can find a curated list of the best SaaS startup finance resources here
Table of Contents
Unit Economics
SaaS Metrics Definitions | By Joel York, founder & CEO of Markodojo
Finance Glossary | By Baremetrics
The Ultimate SaaS Metrics Cheat Sheet | By ChartMogul
23 SaaS metrics for fundraising + optimization | By Intercom
KPIs vs Metrics | By databox
Metrics
The SaaS Metrics That Matter |October 2021 | By David Sacks and Ethan Ruby
The Key Metrics / Key Driver for Saas Success | By David Skok VC at Matrix Partners
The Ultimate SaaS Metrics Cheat Sheet | By Nick Franklin from ChartMogul
SaaS Growth + Marketing + Sales + Customer Success Metrics | By Cobloom
16 Key Startup Metrics| By Andreessen Horowitz
16 Business and Financial Startup Metrics| By Andreessen Horowitz
SaaS Metrics and Key Drivers | By David Skok, Serial Entrepreneur turned VC
SaaS Metrics — A Detailed Guide to Measuring and Improving what Matters ++ SaaS Metrics — Detailed Definitions ++ The Key Drivers for SaaS Success ++ 12 Key Levers of SaaS Success
Marketing 101 + Payback period, CAC and lifetime value explained (Video) | By Elizabeth Yin VC
Financial Metrics (Detailed Explanation | By Aron Susman, VP Finance & Zachariah Reitano, CEO of ro
Simple E-commerce Financial Model | By Alex Taussig VC at Lightspeed
The CFO’s guide to SaaS business metrics | By Typeform CFO
The five accounting metrics for cloud companies | By VC Byron Deeter
Six Key Metrics as part of a Value Driver Framework | via OpenView
Startup’s 10 Most Important Metrics | By Tomasz Tunguz VC at redpoint
SaaS Startup Key Metrics Template | By Tomasz Tunguz VC at redpoint
The 6 Key Marketing Metrics Your CEO Actually Cares About | By Sophia Bernazzani Senior Marketing Manager at Hubspot
A KPI dashboard for early-stage SaaS startups | By Christoph Janz from Point Nine Capital
SaaS Cohort Analysis | By Christoph Janz from Point Nine Capital
Accounting for User Growth | By Jonathan Hsu from Social Capital
___________________________________________________________________
Unit Economics
A crash course in unit economics | By VC Ha Nguyen
What Are Unit Economics and Why Are They Important | By Lighter Capital
Understanding Unit Economics, CAC and Churn are critical to avoid BlitzFail |
By David Sacks — VC, Previously founder/CEO of Yammer and COO of PayPal
How to Calculate Unit Economics for Your Business | By MasterClass | https://medium.com/@ninan99/best-saas-startup-finance-metrics-resources-596a6a1b2eb9 | ['Ninan Thampy'] | 2021-10-19 14:46:06.698000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Metrics', 'Accounting', 'Finance', 'Venture Capital'] |
Get up Faster? Five Tips That Will Help You | Get up Faster? Five Tips That Will Help You
Now that it is so cold outside in the morning, it is extra lovely to stay in your bed a little longer. Bryan Dijkhuizen Follow Dec 10, 2020 · 3 min read
Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash
Tap that snooze button one more time and again … Eventually, you get out of bed too late, and you have to hurry. Another bad start to your day. These tips will help you get up faster in the morning.
1. Sleep with curtains open
We all want blackout curtains to keep the bedroom dark. But that makes it harder to wake up in the morning. It’s best to wake up with natural light!
You have unique lamps for this that you can set so that the light comes on gradually in your bedroom, to wake up as naturally as possible. | https://medium.com/illumination/get-up-faster-five-tips-that-will-help-you-6f17a865800a | ['Bryan Dijkhuizen'] | 2020-12-10 10:45:26.581000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Life Hacking', 'Life', 'Self', 'Psychology'] |
Lesson 101: Intro to Opacity Cloud Storage and File Sharing | One of the best things about the Opacity zero knowledge file storage platform is that you don’t require an email address or password to login. Protecting your privacy is paramount with Opacity and these small protections prove that. These simple omissions ensure that your details are kept private.
Most people use the same email address and password across many sites which isn’t good practice as hackers can utilize these details. With Opacity, you don’t need to worry about data breaches or your private details getting into the wrong hands. Why? Well, Opacity doesn’t hold those details for anyone to steal. It really is that simple.
Anonymity at its best.
How to Get Started
To get started, you need to head over to the Opacity home page and click on the Sign-up button. The process is very straightforward, but make sure that you read the instructions carefully, as the Account Handle and the Recovery Phrase are very important.
The Recovery Phrase is something that I’d advise you to store somewhere safe, (Warning: notepad files or email drafts are not safe!) somewhere that you can easily dig out when you need them. I use a physical notebook, which gets stored in my lockable document file. You can also use secure password managers that you trust.
Once you’ve stored your recovery phrase safely, agreed to the terms of service and proven that you aren’t a robot, click on Continue.
The Opacity Account Handle is the key to your Opacity account. Without it, you will not be able to access your files. Just like the recovery phrase, this is something that you want to store in physical form. Double and triple check that you have copied the Handle correctly, and to be double-y sure, you could copy the handle onto a notepad file and print it out and then delete the notepad file. Or use that secure password manager!
Summary
✓ Recovery Key — This is equivalent to your website username.
✓ Opacity Handle — This is equivalent to a website password.
✓ Requirements — None. You need zero knowledge of storage websites to use Opacity Storage. | https://medium.com/@aron_88459/lesson-101-intro-to-the-opacity-file-storage-platform-e696eaf244ac | ['Aron Hiltzik'] | 2019-07-26 01:33:52.600000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Technology', 'Blockchain Technology', 'Blockchain', 'Resources'] |
3. DANGEROUS CONTRABAND: | 3.1 Making, transferring or having possession of a firearm, knife, razor blade, bludgeon or other weapon, instrument, material or substance which is readily capable of causing or inducing fear of death or physical injury
You got caught with a knife, huh?
Major violation, 1 year in maximum security, 1–3 months generally below that. Possible state weapons charge, but they won’t give you more than about seven years for it. You can probably parole it in one or two, or get it run concurrent with your existing sentence and then it doesn’t matter at all. Well, if you had a significant sentence to begin with. If you didn’t, why the fuck did you have a knife?
Your best knife is made of 1/8th inch steel, the kind they make the bunk beds with. Someone makes themselves some strong string (or thin rope, depending how you want to see it) and coats it with sand so that it’s an abrasive. Gradually over time they manage to saw off a chunk of eigth-inch steel from a bunk, then they sharpen it by dragging it along concrete or cinderblock. Wrap some rags around the other end for a handle and voila, you have your premium knife.
This is tricky because at some point some guard might notice the chunk that’s been cut out of the bunk, but people definitely had those knives so someone was getting away with doing that. Generally knives are kept buried on the yard. Periodically guards sweep the yard with metal detectors looking for them, but inmates do all the landscaping and have nothing but time to plan. Bury them deep, or bury them next to something metal (e.g., any structure with rebar in it) so the detector’s expected to go off.
There are a few other ways to make a good or good-ish knife. There are various machine shops around that someone can make a knife out of scrap metal in. Structures are made of rebar and are often crumbling, and rebar can be made into a knife but it’s gonna come back kind of like an ice-pick; less likely to have an edge, more likely a good point. Usually you’re gonna be using the knife for stabbing anyway, not cutting, so it doesn’t matter too much. Fencing makes a pretty decent ice pick knife, just unravel about six to ten inches of your standard steel cyclone fence and sharpen the end.
There’s something called a stinger that they still sell to inmates last I knew. It’s a small heater coil for boiling water. You can straighten it and make it into a knife. You can make a knife out of a lighter by melting the plastic into a block and then putting an edge on it. You can make a knife out of a plastic tray similarly. Plastic hangars, too. Safety glass. You can make a knife by breaking down the razor blades we used for shaving and melting something around it as a handle. You can’t really use toothbrushes for this any more, because the toothbrushes they give you in prison now are only a couple of inches long.
Since a loose razor blade from a safety razor alone qualifies you for this violation, you can get in trouble because someone sometime in the past left a tiny razor blade hidden in an air vent or between the steel parts of your bunk bed. You can frame someone this way too; they’re tiny and concealable, and you can just toss one into someone’s cell or behind a table or locker and then tell the cops it’s there so they’ll find it. Instant consequences. If you’re high profile and this happens to you, it’s entirely likely that some guard will go tell the media about it as soon as shift change happens.
Nobody remembers this now, but someone who has since been exonerated for the murder he was in prison for had that happen to him. I think the year he spent in solitary for a razor blade he couldn’t have known was there might’ve increased the settlement he got when he sued the city for framing him. If you’re not him and you’re rightfully convicted, being wrongfully thrown in the hole for a razor blade you didn’t know about isn’t considered a meaningful a violation of your rights, though.
Other weapons are novelties. I knew a couple of old convicts who said they had guns hidden at one of the old prisons before it closed. I knew someone who tried to have a guard who’d been smuggling drugs for him smuggle in a gun, but when the guard saw the latest package had a gun in it he panicked and turned himself in rather than bring a firearm in to a gaggle of convicted murderers with life sentences.
You can make a spear or a billy club out of newspaper. Think of it as papier mache. I know how to do this but didn’t know anyone who had actually gone to the trouble, they just kept knives.
This is what it was like when I was in: a few people had knives, and they kept them hidden generally, or they made them as they needed them to use but didn’t generally hold them and especially didn’t carry them. Nobody really carried them unless they were on their way to stab someone, and they tried to have them hidden so well they’d never be found, which usually meant they were buried.
More than a decade or two ago, apparently everyone had knives. People I know said they kept them in their belts, their shoes. Boone, who you might remember from such hits as “FIFTEEN YEARS LATER”, broke his regimen down like this. He’d fight you for small points of pride or for no reason at all, just because. If there was a serious problem that came up by surprise, that was what the medium-sized knife he wore on a string around his neck was for. If it didn’t come up by surprise, he had a tomahawk made of sheet metal he could go get to kill you with. And he had a third, thin knife for wrapping in his towel to go to the shower.
Was he extreme? Slightly, but not very. Oh, and there was one guy (nickname Mountain, have no idea his real name and cannot look him up) who held the knives for a lot of the white guys at the old good prison. So, if you were one of the dudes who didn’t carry a knife and you wanted one you could just go get one from him. The only snag is apparently he loved drama, so he’d give you a knife but he’d also get really hyped up and ask if he could come with you. He didn’t even have to know who you were stabbing or why.
Mountain’s in solitary confinement and not allowed to have a cellmate until he dies, nowadays. He was before I even started doing prison time. He’s a weird legend, extreme and blatantly psychopathic even for prison, even when prison was much more violent than it is now. We’ll meet him again when we get to rule 5, HOSTAGE/RESTRAINT. | https://medium.com/@lex-sectator/3-dangerous-contraband-3ff907d1fa75 | ['Lex Sectator'] | 2020-12-21 00:45:07.994000+00:00 | ['DIY', 'Crime', 'Prison', 'Prisoners', 'True Crime'] |
Top 3 Design Tools for Interior Designers | Love decorating houses.
Want to be a professional Interior Designer?
Then this blog is for you!
As technology has grown more advanced in recent years, people worldwide are now looking for new ways that could help them become more productive and creative. Not only this, but technology advancement has eventually helped in enhancing workflow. We all have noticed the new tools in a variety of disciplines — but particularly in the field of interior designing, its niche.
Everything is digital today. And these new technologies can be very helpful in bringing up the innovations. But the question is, which is the best fit? What are the criteria to evaluate? What should be done if the current software is not living up to the needs? And, if everything is digital, why not interior design then? That’s the question. Today, even beginners are expected to be aware of every best tool to design and plan interiors. Hand-drawn designs are out of fashion now, DO NOT FORGET! Compared to the traditional methods of interior designing, we have come a long way and the output is simply amazing and hyper-realistic. Expressing ideas have now become easier as it is now possible to have innumerable iterations. We give you a list of top 3 interior design tools that will help you create one of the best interior designs.
SketchUp
Trimble SketchUp is one of the popular and the most basic 3D modelling computer program, to begin with. It is available in two versions — SketchUp Make (Free version) and SketchUp Pro (Paid version). Known for its easy-to-use and user-friendly interface, it has an online open-source library of free model assemblies called 3D warehouse that also support third-party plugins to improve its functionality. Not just this but a user can create custom 3D products and animations without using multiple tools to plan, design, create and render. Otherwise, imagine yourself hopping multiple tools and tabs! SketchUp is an ideal software for the designers who are aspiring and wish to excel their career in interior designing. The company has recently launched its updated version SketchUp 2020 that enables creativity and many opportunities to experiment with.
Autodesk 3D MAX
A popular technology company, Autodesk, on one fine day, blessed this creative world with one of the best 3D designing software called Autodesk 3D Max. Moving on with the interior design software, it provides excellent tools for rendering, simulating and visualizing interiors. And the best part is that this software is easy, to begin with, and getting used to. It gives you tons of features and flexible plugin architecture to support third-party applications. Best known for its capabilities, it is used in animations for films, motion graphics, industrial product designs and even video games. And if you are a perfectionist and want everything to be detailed, this should be your first choice as it allows you to add a range of textures and fixtures within your design like realistic fur, hair and particle simulation. This software is for those who want to focus solely on creating complex designs.
Infurnia
The most in-depth and feature-rich web-based architecture and online interior design software are, Infurnia. You’ll be surprised to know that it is the world’s first cloud-based interior design software which is built especially for professionals. With this, interior designers can create multi-story floor plans both in 2D and 3D. Interestingly, it gives all kinds of furniture options as well to add on to your creativity. You can create a detailed and realistic kitchen design by adding and customizing cabinet size, handles, racks etc. Moreover, it has a catalogue management feature that allows you to upload your furniture models, hardware models etc. Using this online design software, you can create beautiful and life-like renders with minimal adjustments. Unlike others, it has different kinds of rendering like 3D image rendering, Virtual Reality rendering, photorealistic rendering and panoramic rending. And rendering here is just a click away!
Because there are so many kinds of design software available in the market with many overlapping features and capabilities — it can feel challenged to pick the right one. However, the software that works best for you depends on the intent of use, pricing, skills and requirements. But for a complete, fast and easy to use the software, look no further than SketchUp and 3D Max which are the combination of affordable pricing, best features, minimal learning curve and no hassles.
Visit us- https://www.arkinfo.in | https://medium.com/@ramakrishna-kalahasthi/top-3-design-tools-for-interior-designers-f99c5685388f | ['Ramakrishna Kalahasthi'] | 2020-12-26 07:18:47.396000+00:00 | ['Professional Development', 'People', 'Digital', 'Interior Designers', 'Workflow'] |
Covid-19 threatens the next generation of smartphones | We denounce with a righteous indie nation and dislike men who are so beguiled and demo realized by the charms of pleasure of the moment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and trouble that are bound to ensue; and equal blame belongs to those who fail in their duty through weakness of will, which is the same as saying through shrinking from toil and pain. These cases are perfectly simple and easy to distinguish. In a free hour, when our power of choice is untrammeled and when nothing prevents our being able to do what we like best, every pleasure is to be welcomed and every pain avoided.
Globally incubate standards compliant channels before scalable benefits. Quickly disseminate superior deliverables whereas web-enabled applications.
Interactively procrastinate high-payoff content without backward-compatible data. Quickly cultivate optimal processes and tactical architectures. Completely iterate covalent strategic theme areas via accurate e-markets. Globally incubate standards compliant channels before scalable benefits.
The economy may face double recession
Leverage agile frameworks to provide a robust synopsis for high level overviews. Iterative approaches to corporate strategy foster collaborative thinking to further the overall value proposition. Organically grow the holistic world view of disruptive innovation via workplace diversity and empowerment. Bring to the table win-win survival strategies to ensure proactive domination. At the end of the day, going forward, a new normal that has evolved from generation X is on the runway heading towards a streamlined cloud solution. User-generated content in real-time will have multiple touchpoints for offshoring. | https://medium.com/@discountforall/covid-19-threatens-the-next-generation-of-smartphones-bc56fbb54c96 | ['Discount For All'] | 2020-12-23 03:27:22.133000+00:00 | ['Baby Products', 'Amazon'] |
There’s no Harm in Slowly Migrating to React.js (Start ASAP) | There’s no Harm in Slowly Migrating to React.js (Start ASAP)
For this reason, it’s always a good time to start folding your static HTML / CSS / JS webpages into a React.js web app
Image by Alvaro Felipe on ed.team
I’m not the first to admit it — I should have migrated my HTML / CSS / JS / jQuery site to React.js a long time ago. On the verge of 2021, the reasons are clear; React allows for better organization, truly reusable components, powerful routing, Server-Side Rendering (SSR), Static Site Generation (SSG), modern web features, and more.
Still, it definitely wasn’t my first thought to jump ship to React. As my site grew in complexity and scale, manually editing dozens of .html files became inconvenient, but the thought of learning a new framework was more daunting. According to computer science proverbs, if it ain’t broken, why fix it, right?
Wrong. In fact there is hardly any consequence to migrating your website to React.js incrementally, at your own pace.
Step 1: Create your React Web App
At this point, you‘re probably worried about how to set up your site in the first place. Luckily, the work is done for us, thanks to create-react-app!
Note: feel free to use Next.js for SSR, or Gatsby.js for SSG
On your machine, initialize your React project with
npx create-react-app your-website
This will populate a directory your-website with all the resources you need to get up and running. Voila!
your-website
├── README.md
├── package-lock.json
├── package.json
├── public
│ ├── favicon.ico
│ ├── index.html
│ ├── manifest.json
│ └── robots.txt
└── src
├── App.css
├── App.js
├── index.css
├── index.js
└── logo.svg
Notice that two directories are created: /src and /public.
/src is the main home of the React app itself. Here, you will write components, assemble pages, configure routers, etc.
/public is the home of all static content. This means images, sitemaps, your robots.txt and manifest.json files (as visualized), and you guessed it — static standalone webpages.
Step 2: Integrate Your Existing Webpages
Now that we’ve established /public to be the parent directory to our current static website, let’s drop in those files and directories.
Imagine I have 3 webpages: about, shop, and contact. Each is a directory that contains .html, .css, and .js files. I also have a background image, sitemap, and terms and conditions document.
Dropping these files into the public folder leads to the following structure:
your-website
├── README.md
├── package-lock.json
├── package.json
├── public
│ ├── about
│ │ ├── functions.js
│ │ ├── index.html
│ │ └── styles.css
│ ├── background.jpg
│ ├── contact
│ │ ├── functions.js
│ │ ├── index.html
│ │ └── styles.css
│ ├── favicon.ico
│ ├── index.html
│ ├── manifest.json
│ ├── robots.txt
│ ├── shop
│ │ ├── functions.js
│ │ ├── index.html
│ │ └── styles.css
│ ├── sitemap.xml
│ └── terms.pdf
└── src
├── App.css
├── App.js
├── index.css
├── index.js
Note: Remember to link any static files from inside the root index.html file, if applicable.
Step 3: Verify your Static Routes in the Browser
On your machine, start serving the web app over localhost with
npm run start
This should take you to this interface:
Resulting webpage after the command npm run start
This is your homepage. Remember the static index.html file create-react-app generated for you? That’s what you’re seeing! When your React app is built, its components will populate that index.html file, bringing the boilerplate to life.
To test your static routes, visit them through the browser’s url bar.
Remarkable! The urls localhost:3000/about, localhost:3000/shop, and localhost:3000/contact all appear and act as they did before.
This is crucial to your migration because the static standalone webpages you provided do not affect the React app itself. In other words, both styles of web development can coexist on the same domain.
Furthermore, the timeline of your site’s migration is entirely up to you. As you begin to learn more about React.js with time, you can slowly morph these .html files into React components using tag-based JSX. On the other hand, you can choose to never bother with migrating the static webpages, and simply start publishing your future pages with React. The choice is all yours!
That Sounds Great, but What’s the Catch?
I knew this process sounded too good to be true. All described above is accurate, but there is one potential pitfall: Your root webpage (www.your-website.com/) needs to be built with React.
Still, it’s not the end of the world; for most cases, this only requires changing the placeholder code in src/App.js to fit your needs. React has incredible documentation, and the web is an infinite hive of tutorials, blog posts, and other resources.
Put simply, since you’ve already committed to learning and using React.js, building your homepage with it should not stand in your way.
Conclusion
Is migrating your static HTML / CSS / JS / jQuery page to React.js a flawless process? Not entirely.
Should you still undergo the migration as soon as possible? Absolutely.
Static web development is an acceptable practice… for now. As web technologies evolve, you’re going to want your framework to keep up. For those reasons, migrating to React.js is the obvious choice.
Your static webpages are only a short term solution; slowly moving your codebase to a modern framework at your own pace will help future-proof your web application for the next ten years, with no sweat or tears involved. | https://medium.com/swlh/theres-no-harm-in-slowly-migrating-to-react-js-start-asap-b36bddccc60e | ['Blake Sanie'] | 2020-12-14 06:52:18.965000+00:00 | ['Front End Development', 'React', 'Web Development', 'JavaScript', 'HTML'] |
I’m obese and I don’t need your pep talk | Photos by: rf._.studio
Really, that’s not a way to pick up curvy girls.
Saturday night, time to have a few beers with friends, maybe even dance a little, and have some well-deserved (and long overdue) fun! Until, out of nowhere, one of the men in the room fixes his gaze upon you and decides to buy you, a full-figured lady, a drink.
Some people find it incredible that men approach you when you are overweight. But as “unbelievable” as it sounds, there are many who find us curvy women attractive. We are also beautiful just the way we are, without losing weight, without undergoing surgery. Overweight people can also be sexually appealing. Shocking, huh?
But there’s one problem that affects the entire plus size dating game: Pep talks. Maybe it’s only me, but there’s nothing I found more upsetting than a man feeling the need to talk about my weight as a way to catch my attention.
My size is not an invitation:
My extra pounds are part of how I look, but my size is not an invitation to discuss other people’s beliefs regarding obesity. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been approached by a man, attractive and otherwise, clearly interested in me at a sexual level. All goes well enough until he botches it up by spewing out something along the lines of:
“You know, I find girls your size very attractive… DESPITE the extra pounds.”
Or “I find you to be very attractive EVEN THOUGH you’re overweight.”
Or how about, “You’re so hot! I know that after losing a few pounds, you would look even hotter!”
And, for the coup de grace- “I have a thing for curves, baby. I prefer my women with some extra meat on them. You know, more cushion for the pushin’!”
Thank you! That’s all I want to hear today. A man saying how he finds my “extra” body mass appealing to his taste. Aren’t you a catch! Thank you for undressing me with your eyes and mind in public.
Look dude, you’re clearly here talking to me because you would love to take this further. You don’t know who I am, know nothing about my habits, workout routine, or hobbies… Yet you think of me as easy prey because I look different? Being overweight suddenly turned me into the devil’s reject? No thanks, bro. Take your tired, sorry-ass Casanova routine back home.
Do you really want to get some?
I know we live in a world that is plagued by Fatphobia, disguised as “healthy living.” Don’t you have self-confidence issues? Have you tried to lose weight? Well, I’m not answering such questions anymore. And here’s why.
No, you are not motivating me by telling me to lose weight.
Yes, you’re making me feel uncomfortable and triggering insecurities by being so aggressive regarding my looks.
No, you’re not seducing me by playing the “I have dated girls LIKE you” card.
By saying things such as these, in the best case scenarios, you’re only going to get the “is he for real” gaze and a fake phone number.
But I’m attracted to women with a sexy hour-glass shape….
What should you do?
Introduce yourself, make eye contact, ask questions, listen. AND REPEAT!
No matter how fetishistic you may be, no woman wants to be made to feel like an object whose attractiveness rests solely on an external quality. What do you mean when you say you like curvy women like me? Here’s my take on it: you’d date anyone just because they’re curvy. You are not seeing me as a person, but as something placed there to fulfill your fantasies.
Please, men across the globe: stop playing seduction games and start being real. We would all really appreciate it, especially us curvy ladies.
Have you scared away the curvy girl of your dreams by acting like this? Have men treated you as if you were a chunk of meat? Please, I want to hear everything about it! | https://medium.com/@nataly-u/im-obese-and-i-don-t-need-your-pep-talk-7781a846a72d | ['Nataly U'] | 2020-12-14 17:06:31.643000+00:00 | ['Empowerment', 'Discrimination', 'Dating Advice', 'Dating', 'Personal Development'] |
Supporting M&A with Operational Optimization — Part II | Supporting M&A with Operational Optimization — Part II
Welcome Back
In our first series of this blog, we talked about the wave of M&A activity and shared 7 examples of how strategic optimization should be explored to support this activity. We also talked about the elusive “size of the prize” as companies go after big value targets, but struggle to truly operationalize and achieve these synergies. In this blog post, we share examples of how operational optimization should be explored to support operationalizing benefits from M&A activity.
Operational Optimization
An operational optimization process looks for cost savings at a tactical level. It requires more frequent analysis as compared to a strategic optimization process. Normally, the output of an operational optimization initiative is customized software that makes automated optimal decisions. Some examples of operational optimization that should be explored in M&A activity are:
Inventory optimization and multi-echelon safety stock calculation. The basic models dealing with inventory optimization are EOQ (Economic Order Quantity) and Newsvendor model. EOQ model finds the optimal batch size or order quantity when demand is deterministic or accurately forecastable. On the other hand, Newsvendor model deals with uncertainty of demand, and finds the optimal order quantity plus optimal safety stock to buffer against this uncertainty. These models can be expanded to address the complexity of inventory management in the supply chain — optimizing inventory in a multi-echelon supply network. At Opex Analytics, we developed a tool to optimally calculate the safety stocks of different stocking locations given demand forecast, BOM and sourcing configuration. This tool uses an inventory optimization engine as its decision making brain and automatically calculates the safety stocks and order quantities. Transportation planning and vehicle routing in optimizing distribution operations and increasing fleet utilization. In theory, transportation optimization and planning problems like TSP and VRP are among the hardest problems to solve. In practice, these problems are also complex. However, recent increases in computing power have helped the transportation optimization. One example would be planning of the optimal multi-stop routes with consolidated loads for trucks to deliver products to customers. This will increase truck utilization and drive more benefit from truck load. Sourcing optimization. Selecting competitive suppliers and maintaining time-based competitiveness is important. Optimization models can be used to determine the optimal number of sources and the ordering lot size. The importance of transportation operations and costs in sourcing decisions highlights the value of aggregated optimization and decision making in supply chain. In addition, Multi-Objective optimization models are good tools for supplier selection based on price, delivery, lead time, quality and risk criteria.
What about Revenue and Pricing Management?
Most supply chain optimization models assume inelastic demands and start optimizing the supply operations accordingly. However, the actions taken on supply chain might change the demand process and an effective pricing optimization in conjunction with network design, transportation and inventory optimization could increase profit. Effective M&A work should include revenue and pricing management coupled with supply chain optimization to maximize profit across the enterprise.
In Summary
We are in another wave of M&A activity and there are no signs of slowing as companies across industries go after the elusive “size of the prize”. Much has been written about the difficulty in truly operationalizing and achieving expected synergies.
If supply chain leaders are brought into these efforts early enough, supply chain optimization efforts can enable the identification of additional synergies not considered, and may challenge some early cost savings assumptions that companies could struggle to operationalize. Supply chain optimization cuts through operational silos that tend to be barriers when savings/synergies are being defined, and can provide better up front feasibility analysis. In this blog series, we have provided examples of both strategic and operational optimization that could aid in going after the “size of the prize” in M&A activity. There is a lot of upside to leveraging supply chain optimization to support M&A activity beyond traditional network design. Companies will serve their stakeholders well by understanding all the potential applications of supply chain optimization to maximize customer satisfaction and enterprise value.
If you liked this blog post, check out more of our work and/or follow us on social media. | https://medium.com/opex-analytics/supporting-m-a-with-operational-optimization-part-ii-ef6b5e5fe3dc | ['Opex Analytics'] | 2020-10-09 16:26:12.490000+00:00 | ['Operations', 'Optimization', 'Logistics', 'Business Strategy', 'Supply Chain'] |
SwiftUI Dark Mode — the Easiest Way | Starting this year, when I started developing my iOS app using SwiftUI, I decided to support both light and dark modes. This tutorial will teach you how you could implement the light and dark mode user interface in SwiftUI based iOS applications.
1. Create a New Project
Let’s create a new XCode project. Select SwiftUI for the Interface.
Screenshot created by the author
2. Create the User Interface
Now replace all the code in ContentView.swift and write the following code on there. You will create a screen with two card views.
If you run the app or see the preview, you will see the app's following user interface now.
Screenshot created by the author
3. Creating Colors
Now in the XCode, select Assets.xcassets
Screenshot created by the author
Create a new Color Set named foregroundTitle1
Select Any Appearance and in the Color property, set the Input Method as 8-bit Hexadecimal, and for the Hex value, use #0974B8
and in the Color property, set the as and for the value, use Then select the Dark Appearance and use the value #E0F2FD
So basically, for the foregroundTitle1, you created a color asset with two different colors for light and dark mode.
Following the same procedure, make one more color, which we will use for the card’s background.
Screenshot created by the author
The color set name will be background1
Select 8-bit Hexadecimal value #C9CED9 for Any Appearance and #333333 for the Dark Appearance.
So you created two sets of foreground and background color.
4. Creating Color Extensions
Now create a new file Extensions.swift file and write the following code.
An extension is an excellent way to add some functionality to the existing class. Here, you created two static methods, which will return a Color instance where the Color will be coming from the color assets. In this case, you’re just using the name of the colors you created within the color asset.
5. Updating Foreground and Background Colors
Now again, remove all the code from the ContentView.swift file and write the following code
Line 15, 16 — You update the CardView view by adding two color reference
— You update the view by adding two color reference Line 25, 26 — You add the foregroundColor and backgroundColor with the previous references
— You add the and with the previous references Line 6, 7 — You pass the color references to the CardView that you created in the extension
— You pass the color references to the that you created in the extension Line 35-43 — You add two groups of views by giving a colorScheme of .light and .dark to see the previews
Now you will see the following output in the preview file.
Screenshot created by the author
If you run the app and change your iPhone/iPad's setting to light or dark mode, you will see your app automatically show the color you decided for each method.
Conclusion
This is just a simple way to show you how you can easily create light and dark mode for your iOS app developed using SwiftUI. If you build your app and want to support both color modes, you should add support or create some extensions to keep the color from the beginning. Later if you're going to update, it will be super easy to do. | https://levelupprogramming.net/swiftui-dark-mode-the-easiest-way-81e48d055189 | ['Mahmud Ahsan'] | 2021-02-21 04:16:24.782000+00:00 | ['Swift', 'Swiftui', 'Software Development', 'Programming', 'iOS App Development'] |
Machine Learning in Plain Language | Machine Learning in Plain Language
Much like living beings, machines can also learn to do things. In this case the machine is the student and the world or another being — either natural or artificial — is the teacher.
According to Tom Mitchell’s influential 1997 book, Machine Learning, there are three major parts of machine learning:
the task that needs to be learnt.
the observations for learning the task.
how well the task is going.
The tasks to be learnt include predicting knowledge or acting. How well these tasks are performed is determined by the accuracy of the predicted knowledge and the rewards and punishments resulting from actions.
According to Mitchell, machine learning occurs when a machine, as a student, gets better at the task through observing more of the world.
Learning Types
A student can predict new knowledge based on what has been observed in the world. This could include categorizing or estimating things, or understanding the possible good or bad results of actions.
Learning to Predict Knowledge
Knowledge includes a description of the current state of the world and and predicted knowledge based on the state. State can include multiple pieces of information. For example, state on an email including the sender’s email address and the text of the email. The predicted knowledge would include whether or not the email is spam based on the state.
Students can predict knowledge based on full examples given by the world or by a teacher. Full examples are those that include the antecedent and consequent knowledge. The consequent knowledge follows the antecedent knowledge. For example, the consequent knowledge of an email text (the antecedent knowledge) could be that it is classified as either spam or not spam. Using these full examples, the student finds patterns or generalized relationships, called hypotheses, that can be used to estimate future consequent knowledge with only the antecedent knowledge. This form of learning is called supervised learning.
A student can also predict knowledge without examples that include consequent knowledge. In this case the student finds patterns and commonalities in the observations that can be used to estimate consequent knowledge. This is called unsupervised learning. For example, a student can have a group of photos of objects and sort the group into categories of individual types of objects based on common characteristics — or state — in the photos. But the categories are not known beforehand. This example is a case of unsupervised learning called clustering.
Learning to Act
Students can also act based on what potential rewards or punishments can be received. The action tasks are learned through what is called is called reinforcement learning. This involves learning the desirability of states (which may be goals), and the actions that may lead to states being achieved. The student learns a policy — actions to do in certain states (i.e. situations).
For example a student can navigate a maze with the reward of reaching the end versus the punishment of running out of time. The student acts by moving from one position to another — one state to another. The desired end goal or state is to exit the maze and receive the reward.
The teacher delivers the rewards or punishments and can either be another being or the external world itself. Beings can hand out prizes; the external world can hand out punishments like rain or other natural disasters. Students learn to seek out rewards and avoid punishments, regardless of their source.
Reasoning and the Structure of Knowledge
These three forms of learning build more general knowledge from specific examples — a form of inductive reasoning. The generalizations are stored in memory and are used in new situations to either predict new knowledge or act — a form of deductive reasoning. They contain two parts of knowledge: the antecedent and the consequent. For example a policy from reinforcement learning has the antecedent as the current situation and the consequent as what to do.
Machine Learning in Practice: Algorithms
We can build machines that learn by programming them with machine learning algorithms — a series of instructions that take in inputs and produce outputs. For example, a supervised learning algorithm takes in data as the input and outputs a relationship between the antecedent and consequent knowledge. These algorithms can range from simple series of instructions to more complicated ones that even mimic the brain — which are called neural networks.
Learning as part of Artificial Intelligence
In order to function effectively, a student needs a combination of learning to predict knowledge and act. For example, supervised learning can be used to recognize situations — called states in artificial intelligence — in chess such as being in “check”. But reinforcement learning is used to figure out the most effective actions in that state to gain rewards — in this case, winning the game.
Machines have been built with artificial intelligence to handle these forms of learning, but none yet rival human ability. | https://towardsdatascience.com/machine-learning-in-plain-language-817c88a92dbb | ['Erik Markhauser'] | 2019-04-22 15:15:27.631000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Supervised Learning', 'Reinforcement Learning', 'Unsupervised Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence'] |
AWS-What is AWS | AWS in 10 Minutes | AWS Tutorial | AWS
AWS-Hey guys this is Hemant from Edureka, welcome to this session on what is AWS? So without wasting any time let’s skip on to the agenda to see what all we’ll be covering in today’s session.
Artificial Intelligence
So we’ll start this session by first discussing what is AWS
and then move on to discuss the different companies who
are using the enterprise service,
once we’re done with that
we’ll move on to discuss
why companies big or small are using AWS or any another cloud provider for that matter right so once we’ll discuss what is AWS and why AWS is important, we’ll look at some of the basic services that
AWS has to offer us and then move on to discuss the AWS doable infrastructure,
once we're
e has done with that we’ll
end this session
by discussing the various pricing options provided by AWS.
Right, so guys this is our agenda for today I hope it’s clear to you now let’s go on and discuss the first topic of Today’s session which is what is AWS so guys AWS is Amazon Web Services is a subsidiary of amazon.com
as a world leader in the cloud computing market right
was launched
way back
in 2006 when
no company had the cloud computing business model it took the risk and now today 70% of the whole
cloud computing market is residing on AWS so now you can imagine how big the professor’s right talking about companies who are on AWS let’s look at some of the companies some of the prominent companies were using the AWS infrastructure
so these are some of the very popular companies like Kellogg’s Robbie air B&B Chen electricsNetflix and Amazon which are using the AWS infrastructure for their operations now Netflix and Amazon
are completely dependent upon the AWS infrastructure now you can imagine if these two companies which are so big and though the whole world is using it even your application is going to share the same infrastructure
With these apps, so you can imagine that your application is
in safe hands right you can be assured
with that having said that
let’s move on to discuss but why do companies use AWS
and what’s the advantage of having cloud computing technology with you right
so let’s shed a light on that and for that let’s take an example say you think of you know starting a business and say your business is you think of launching the Instagram
application and you have the application ready now you have to make it available to the world so the first thing that you have to do is you have to invest some money buy some servers and upload your application on it and your application is up
and ready right so you start with a small user base and you say ok
so in one month or so I can expect that so-and-so users will be there
but your plan doesn’t go according to your will and what happens in overnight your application becomes so viral that there are millions of users were trying to access
your application now so the servers that you had and now very overburdened
with the kind of traffic which is coming in and you get very anxious as to what to do
console aws
so what you do you invest some more money by some more servers and now the situation seems to be a little normal right but guys servers are machines we should not forget about it right
and they have bound to break down so finally what happens is your servers go down they go haver and your application is
so to fix this again you had to hire a maintenance team which is now going to manage your servers
for you that is anything kind of server upgrade which
is
required
any kind of software up pass
which has to be put in and when your server goes down replacing
it with a new server all of that
is now going to be managed
by the maintenance team right to the kind of attention
that was required for
you to give to
your application
it could not get that attention because how are we our attention was towards the infrastructure side which is understandable right so these are the problems we folklore computing and one fine
day the bills came up and said but why don’t you use my servers right I have a stack of servers in my warehouse why don’t you use some of them right and the best thing about it is that you know you know
how to bias the servers from me you can just rent them from me use them for the time you wanted to
and give them any time you want to say you give tome up to five hours you just pay for the five hours time that you used it for right at the same time
certifications
you don’t have to worry about the maintenance right I will do the maintenance for my servers
and with this was like you know if the god came in
and said let me help you it was like that
so this was a very good deal
for you because now you not spend money on buying servers
and not spending money on the maintenance team everything
is being managed
by AWS and at a very cheap price of Parada pieces right
so it’s very awesome so moving forward we have understood why you know
AWS companies are adopting AWS or any other cloud platform and what exactly is AWS it let’s move on to discuss the service with now
so let’s take an example again here let’s take the example of a website so this is a skeleton architecture for a very normal web site that is there right how does it function the user first he goes onto a website he goes onto the internet
and he types in a web address right that web address then goes to a DNS server that DNS server basically gets that converted into an IP address that IP address points to a load balancer that load balancer, in turn,
you know distributing the traffic among many of the servers and you end up on any one of these servers this is how it happens right
and now this server is again connected to
a relational database
and this relational database is
basically having all the information which
is required
for your website
and also with these entities that are your database
and your servers are inside a network
AWS amazon
so that they can communicate with each other right so these are the basic entities which are there in a cloud computing world right now taking the same problem as before that you know what suddenly
a whole lot of user group comes in and your servers become overburdened now how do you take care of that
so you don’t have to take care of anything cloud computing
you know the cloud mobility model is herbs then it’ll take care of itself right so it automatically senses
that you know the servers are getting overburdened
it adds a solar automatically
and now your situation becomes normal right
so this is how the cloud computing board is going to help you out we discussed this already righ
t but now having seen this architecture how it works now let’s look at how these services or how these components will look when you took it from the
AWS perspective right so when you talk about AWS services the DNS server
that we discussed is called route 53 this
server the web servers that we discussed our issue servers the relational databases are yes the network in which these components
will be closed-in is BPC and the load balancers again load balancer and the property which increases the number of servers and know is them according to traffic is auto-scaling right
what is AWS lambda
so these are some of the basic services offered by AWS
and these are awesome values right
so these were the services that we were to discuss moving forward now let’s discuss the global infrastructure that
AWS has to offer now AWS provides these many services throughout the globe it has a global presence right and these orange dots are the regions that AWS has right each region has multiple zones and zones are nothing
but huge data centers with a lot of servers right so probably when you choose America when you choose the US so probably you will be ending here somewhere around here right
if you choose the region 1 region is this and the other region is this one zone would be one circle and this is how it functions rights in all there are 18 geographical regions around the world and in those regions
we have around 50 availability zones like I said a 50 huge stay the centers around the world that are at your disposal right
but why will he need global infrastructure is a question right so say let me take the
same example forward the website servers and these servers are
now distributed among different places throughout the world
AWS certified
now what advantage does it give you first of all it helps in the disaster recovery kind of situation
for example, this server was done you all again have these
two servers to solve your traffic
flow right so this server goes on because of a power outage or any natural calamity your application is still up because it has been hosted in different regions right this is one advantage
the second advantage is that it serves the purpose of users from different countries, for example,
you are in this country and in your trying to access your website probably
you can access it from this server right rather than having your servers at one central location which will not only have more latency that is response line if a customer is out of the country
but also it’s a very bad measure to take when we are too concerned about disaster recovery right so this is the reason that AWS has a global presence and they have a global infrastructure so it is there because
so then your Chalmers can have the lowest latency possible and also you can implement the best is ask recovery
measures all right having said that let’s now talk about AWS pricing there is now double pricing is amazing
AWS Lab
so like we discussed so we have a per our billing kind of system right
the pricing is also region-specific in the sense that each region has different pricing for different services they don’t differ much
but so they are different from each other for each region so you can choose a region according to your preference also there’s a scene called reserved instances so many choose reserved instances you save up to 90% costs
so when you say reserve this a basically means you rent the server for a particular term say a one-year term or a three-year term
and when you do that when you compare it with on-demand pricing you save up to 90% which is awesome right
and also there is an option for spot pricing as well wherein
you get incredibly low prices by bidding on servers for particular price rights you’re bid on a server for saying I want to sell for $2 if a server is available you get it right you use that server until the server price goes up
and once it goes up the server is taken automatically for
you right it could be helpful for workloads wherein
the work is not that urgent but
you want to get it done
in the minimum cost possible right
so it is helpful with that and with that guys,
we come to an end to the AWS overview thank you guys for attending to this session.
Conclusion
I hope you guys learn something new today so if you like this video please like and subscribe to our channel
and share with your friends so that they can learn more happy learning. I hope you have enjoyed listening to this Post
please be kind enough to like it and you can commentary on your doubts and queries
and we will reply to them at the earliest do lookout for more videos in our playlist and subscribe to the Edureka channel to learn more happy learning. | https://medium.com/@rishusahni27/aws-what-is-aws-aws-in-10-minutes-aws-tutorial-964ac371c449 | ['Terror Gamer'] | 2020-11-24 07:18:12.011000+00:00 | ['AWS', 'AWS Lambda'] |
Thank You to Protocol Labs for Sponsoring Offline Camp | Those who have attended Offline Camp know what an incredible experience it can be. What might not be obvious is that behind the meaningful conversations, the new friends, the learning, the campfires, and the s’mores is the support of sponsors who make Offline Camp possible. We’re very happy to have Protocol Labs as a sponsor of Offline Camp Oregon 2019—we really couldn’t have made this event happen without their support.
A discussion in the Protocol Labs lodge at Offline Camp on effective beginner-friendly messaging for the decentralized web.
Protocol Labs believes the internet has become humanity’s most important technology. They build protocols, systems, and tools to improve how it works. Today, they are focused on how we store, locate, and move information. This work includes bringing fundamental research out of the lab and deploying it quickly to communities who can use this technology. They have incubated a number of open source projects which they support and nurture including IPFS, libp2p, and IPLD.
IPFS, one of the open source projects that Protocol Labs incubated, is a decentralized web protocol which enables the creation of completely decentralized and distributed applications, using content addressing and digital signatures. IPFS helps enable end-user applications that are built for Offline First (or sometimes called “Local First”) use cases—exactly the types of applications that many Offline Camp participants are discussing or building.
Protocol Labs has joined the discussion this weekend at Offline Camp because there is still much to be done around decentralized web and Offline First / Local First applications in terms of collaboration, research, and sharing knowledge and best practices. They hope that their discussion this weekend will help make tools like IPFS, libp2p, and IPLD better through listening and supporting the needs of those building applications with these technologies. They are especially interested in bringing cross-functional communities together like we have here at Offline Camp. In fact, several Protocol Lab employees are Offline Camp alumni. The relationships built at Offline Camp can help chart a path forward that more holistically encompasses the needs of all involved.
Are you interested in learning more about the work that Protocol Labs is doing and how you can get involved? The best place for you to start is by participating in the IPFS Local Offline Collaboration (Locol) Special Interest Group. This group is focused on user research, collaborations, and features to make the knowledge and tools on the internet accessible and useful on partitioned, low-bandwidth, or intermittent networks. They meet monthly on the third Wednesday of the month. Each meeting includes 1–2 presentations by community members highlighting projects or use cases relevant to local collaboration or offline scenarios. Several Offline Camp alumni have given presentations, and the meetings are recorded and published on YouTube.
Please join us in thanking Protocol Labs for their support! | https://medium.com/offline-camp/thank-you-to-protocol-labs-for-sponsoring-offline-camp-6d99d40fbdfe | ['Bradley Holt'] | 2019-10-01 19:43:39.784000+00:00 | ['Offline First', 'Offline Camp', 'Decentralized Web'] |
Kayleigh McEnany, Trump’s Press Secretary, Spreads Lies in Exchange for Airtime | Kayleigh McEnany, Trump’s Press Secretary, Spreads Lies in Exchange for Airtime
In a time before Kayleigh McEnany was the White House press secretary, she was a paid commentator who would sometimes appear on CNN and Fox Business.
She has publicly called Trump a “showman” who is “inauthentic”. But something happened in McEnany’s trajectory that landed her in the White House for a man who she, apparently, never thought to fulfill the role of a GOP president.
At one point in time, McEnany stood for human decency. Before Trump tapped her into the White House boxing ring, she called his comments on Mexican immigrants “racist”.
Before transferring to Harvard Law School she received advice about changing her attitude toward Trump. That advice involved her accepting Trump as the candidate for the Republican party.
And that is the beginning and the end of the Kayleigh McEnany consciousness as we know it.
Since then, she’s called Trump’s remarks about white supremacy one about “love and inclusiveness”. In 2019, she told Chris Cuomo that she doesn’t believe the president has ever lied. The Washington Post counts over 22,000, but maybe that’s just a weird way to say zero these days. She has called Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic his way of putting “America first, [and that] he will always protect American citizens”. Also a funny way of saying that 250,000 Americans are dead under his administration bolstered by false notions of safety and an unwillingness to tell people to simply put their masks on.
The rest of the world has called McEnany’s words an echo-chamber for Trumpism and his lies. She apparently likes to think they’re alternative facts.
In latest news, McEnany’s echoes seem to pedal on the theory that Trump was never actually legitimately accepted as the President. Hillary Clinton conceded the day after. It is now over two weeks and Trump not only refuses to concede but declared every few hours over Twitter that he actually won the election.
A piece of the Trump legacy will provide a lasting stain to each of the members he has interacted with. Whether that is the multiple press secretaries, or the lawyers that are now in federal prison, or the members of his cabinet he fired or quit. McEnany’s grab for airtime ultimately results in a credential-less future, filled with the gaslighting and the fake news conspiracies she has twisted and tossed around in exchange for a job.
She is right in her most recent press briefing. Trump’s response to this pandemic is definitely “unprecedented”. But it hasn’t saved any lives. America leads in covid deaths, and, like most things in Trumpism, almost everything has been unprecedented.
Tearing the underpinnings of democracy is unprecedented. Spewing lies about the election and voter fraud is unprecedented.
Hiring a press secretary to help balloon those lies into a press briefing room is probably the pinnacle of that humiliation.
We keep wondering whether this is the lowest America can go. We keep thinking that, at some point, there will be a course-correction for the better. Trump has been defeated, and, yet, it’s never felt scarier to watch an idiot like McEnany continue to spew unsubstantiated words into an audience that knows it’s fake news before she utters them.
It’s time for the swamp to actually be drained. It’s time for Trump and his friends to go away. | https://medium.com/@moumj/kayleigh-mcenany-trumps-press-secretary-spreads-lies-in-exchange-for-airtime-cad61a723d64 | ['Anthony Andranik Moumjian'] | 2020-11-21 03:01:19.613000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Democracy', 'Trump', 'Donald Trump', 'Fake News'] |
Is There Still Some Potential Left in Cryptocurrencies? | Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), Monero (XMR), IOTA (MIOTA) — cryptocurrencies are the new evergreen in modern media. Spectacular success stories and profits of millions and even billions have been reported. However, what can we expect in the near future? Is there still some potential left in cryptocurrencies from an investment perspective?
Photo by Bermix Studio on Unsplash
What Is a Cryptocurrency?
“Cryptocurrency” is the terminology for virtual currencies based on the blockchain.
No banks are required for the payment transactions. Financial institutions are replaced by a decentralized network whose participants manage transactions and generate new units of the currency. All cryptocurrencies are technically being based on blockchain technology. See my article: Is The Blockchain Ready? Use Case and Real Value
The first cryptocurrencies came up back in 2008 after the financial collapse. The economic crisis has triggered the desire for a currency that is not controlled by a central instance. Thus, a currency that won’t collapse if (as happened in 2008) banks do.
Improving technology
The technology has been improved and developed since Bitcoin appeared. This paved the way for currency alternatives that offer many advantages over Bitcoin and have their own focal points.
For example, Litecoin is faster than Bitcoin, Ethereum can be used not only for currency transactions but also to conclude contracts, so-called “smart contracts” (amazing feature!), and Ripple can be used by banks to speed up regular transfers.
Bitcoin-Boom.. and Burst
Along with technological progress, the Bitcoin boom took place. By mid-December 2017, a single Bitcoin was worth nearly $20,000. In the months that followed, the value plummeted. By the end of 2018, a Bitcoin was worth less than $3,000 — an 85% drop in value. Nevertheless, the record-breaking asset value of the alternative currency made the market particularly interesting for speculation and created incentives for developing more cryptocurrencies and conducting new issues of crypto units.
New ideas, plans, and business models for cashless digital currencies are constantly emerging. Whether cryptocurrencies linked to diamonds (“Carat”) or oil (“Petro “), cryptocurrency awarded as a reward for good deeds (“Hullcoin “), or a currency that is simply a parody of Bitcoin (“Dogecoin “) — crazy.
The Bitcoin “crash” in 2017. The image was taken by the author.
Innovations go through various stages of development. The technological initial spark is followed by a phase of euphoria, which is then replaced by a phase of disillusionment. Always. When hitting rock bottom, more mature solutions with real added value emerge. That’s how it works. The blockchain sector saw such euphoria in the second half of 2017, with visionaries already dreaming of a revolution of the world. The flagship of blockchain technology at the time was cryptocurrencies. Due to the hype, these reached unimaginable highs at the time. The inevitable Bitcoin crash casts a shadow of skepticism over the blockchain sector since then. What remained, was the continuous further development of the technology. [..] Since the Bitcoin crash in 2017, blockchain technology has been viewed more critically and realistically.
— Is The Blockchain Ready?, Maximilian Perkmann, 2020
Downsides
Volatility
The value of a cryptocurrency is based on trust and acceptance. However, unlike established currencies such as the euro, the dollar, and alike, there is no control instance. There is only a technical system in which anyone can participate and for which the stability of the currency plays no role.
Between January and April 2018, all cryptocurrencies together lost about seventy percent of their market capitalization. Increasing regulatory attempts by various countries, such as South Korea, unsettled investors, and made them withdraw billions from the heated crypto market. As a result, the prices of individual currencies collapsed as quickly as they had risen.
Cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and prices can change with radical speed. So, if you really want to trade cryptocurrency, you need to invest not only capital but also a lot of time and attention in your investment. If you can keep a cool head with daily price fluctuations in the double digits, an investment in cryptocurrencies may be an interesting speculative addition to the other investments in your portfolio.
Manipulation
People who own a large stake in a currency can use it to manipulate prices to their advantage. In the case of cryptocurrencies, there are neither laws that prohibit this nor control bodies that prevent such approaches.
As a FIAT Currency
Buy coffee and toast in the supermarket with Bitcoin, Ethereum & Co? Cryptocurrencies as a regular type of payment have not become widely accepted yet, even if it is basically already possible.
Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash
Using cryptocurrencies as a regular payment system is still quite problematic, as there are no fixed exchange rates and the rates fluctuate greatly. In this respect, it is often risky for retailers to accept cryptocurrencies, for example. Nevertheless, more and more online stores are offering to settle open invoice amounts with cashless digital currencies. The page coinmap lists all stores that accept cryptocurrencies.
Crypto-coverage in Vienna, AT — screenshot was taken on coinmap.org
So far, the virtual currencies have mainly been stored in so-called “wallets”, digital purses, and secured with private keys in the form of numeric codes.
Future
The EU Commission is trying to walk a fine line. The Brussels authority wants to regulate crypto assets in the future and thereby reduce risks for the financial markets. At the same time, the new regulation called “MiCa” (Markets in Crypto-assets regulation for EU crypto-assets and their service providers) is intended to provide a reliable legal framework in which the innovative financial products can develop well. “The future of the financial world is digital”, Valdis Dombrovskis ( European Commissioner for Trade) said. In that case, it may be possible that cryptocurrencies are widely being accepted. But.. who and how can one regulate cryptocurrencies without destroying the initial idea?
Photo by Guillaume Périgois on Unsplash
Etherum 2.0
Ethereum, the world’s second most important blockchain, is now five years old and is about to undergo its biggest transformation ever.
With Ethereum 2.0, among other things, the consensus procedure is to be changed from the computationally intensive proof-of-work procedure to a so-called proof-of-stake procedure. In the long term, the changes are also intended to increase the transaction capacity from currently 15 transactions per second to several thousand transactions per second.
Blockchains that function according to “proof of work” are power-hungry. Bitcoin is criticized for this because the mining of coins worldwide already consumes as much energy as the whole of Algeria and has a CO2 emission that can be compared with that of Myanmar. Ether is also created through mining — mainframe computers crack complicated numerical puzzles, and their operators are rewarded with more and more ETH for providing the computing power.
With Proof of Stake, this is supposed to change. When blocks are written, it will no longer be those with the greatest computing power who are rewarded, but in principle everyone who participates in the network. In the process, an algorithm determines which participants are selected to validate blocks and receive the rewards for using them. The new ETH are distributed on a pro-rata basis. Simply said, if you have 1% of all ETH, you get 1% of the rewards.
To be able to write the blocks, you won’t need mining rigs anymore, just a decent computer. However, it should also be noted that a smartphone or conventional notebook won’t be enough, but you won’t have to run huge mining rigs to be able to mine ETH. This should drastically reduce power consumption. “Proof of Stake is very welcome from an environmental point of view. This solves the previous, rightly criticized problem that mining consumes an extremely large amount of electricity,” says blockchain expert Bernhard Blaha of Cryptix
The upgrade to Ethereum 2.0 is divided into three phases. With the third phase (planned to launch in 2022), smart contracts can also be used in the ETH 2 chain.
Staking
Coin staking is basically a byproduct of proof-of-stake (POS). With proof-of-stake, on the other hand, the miner is selected at random from a pool of node operators. To qualify as a node operator, the miner must deposit a certain minimum number of coins in his wallet. The number of coins can vary greatly depending on the blockchain. In some cases, the coins must also be stored for a certain period of time before they are approved for staking.
Put in simple words: by “staking” coins you receive rewards. My current stakes return about 5% to 13% p.a.
Should You Invest in Cryptocurrencies?
To come back to the title’s question. Cryptocurrencies are still really volatile and not anywhere regulated. Meaningly, investing poses a huge risk. If you are not able to take the risk, you should not invest in cryptocurrencies. Nonetheless, I think it is a good diversification for anyone's investment portfolio. I’ve tried to bring together the different outlooks of the cryptos at the moment. With the upcoming ETH2, the possibility of “staking” and the first touching point with Brussels, there is definitely some potential left
My opinion
I guess it’s only a question of time until our next fiat currency evolves based on the blockchain. The blockchain brings so many advantages and basically replaces our huge, bloated financial construct. I see the future of currencies in an anonymous, decentralized, and totally automated manner.
Also, Read | https://medium.com/coinmonks/is-there-still-some-potential-left-in-cryptocurrencies-c2459acadcdd | ['Maximilian Perkmann'] | 2020-12-28 13:16:01.387000+00:00 | ['Business', 'Finance', 'Investing', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Ethereum'] |
My Favorite Zoom Tips | How to leave a meeting quickly
Everyone knows that awkward pause. “Bye!” followed by several seconds of figuring out where your mouse pointer is and landing it on the “Leave Meeting” button.
You can make this less painful by using the keyboard to leave meetings.
First, disable the “Ask me to confirm when I leave a meeting” option in the “General” tab of the desktop app settings. This will reduce your time to leave even when you’re using the mouse.
For the keyboard, there’s a default shortcut already set up. For Windows, it’s ALT-Q. You can find it under the “Keyboard Shortcuts” tab in the desktop app settings as “End Meeting”. You can change it here, and even make it global, so you can leave the meeting even if the Zoom window isn’t in focus.
If you’re not the meeting host, using the keyboard shortcut will drop you right out of the meeting. If you are the meeting host, there’s an extra step. When you go to end the meeting, either by using the keyboard shortcut or clicking “End Meeting”, it brings up a dialog asking if you want to end the meeting or assign another host so the meeting stays open without you.
The “End Meeting For All” button is already selected, so hit enter or space bar to use that option. However, if you’re using the global shortcut, the Zoom window may not come into focus and you may end needing to switch over to the window first or click the button with your mouse.
Unfortunately, for assigning another host, there’s another dialog and a lot of tabbing around to select fields, so I’d actually say the mouse is probably easier and quicker if you want to do that. | https://medium.com/@ben11kehoe/my-favorite-zoom-tips-c944961c0191 | ['Ben Kehoe'] | 2021-04-28 23:54:53.233000+00:00 | ['Zoom'] |
Page One: ‘Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens’ (2015) | Written by Lawrence Kasdan & J.J. Abrams and Michael Arndt, based on characters created by George Lucas
This is interesting. A fellow named Tim Gray did the following:
THE ORIGINAL CONCEPT FOR THE FORCE AWAKENS OPENING WAS VERY DIFFERENT TO WHAT FINALLY MADE IT TO THE SCREEN. USING THE ORIGINAL STORYBOARDS BY J.J. ABRAMS, I HAVE ATTEMPTED TO CAPTURE WHAT THIS WOULD LOOK LIKE…
That’s an impressive piece of work by Mr. Gray!
You may read The Force Awakens screenplay here.
Page One is a daily Go Into The Story series featuring the first page of notable movie scripts from the classic era to contemporary times. Comparing them is an excellent way to study a variety of writing styles and see how professional writers start a story.
For more Page One posts, go here.
You may follow the daily conversation on Twitter as I cross-post there: @GoIntoTheStory. | https://gointothestory.blcklst.com/page-one-star-wars-episode-vii-the-force-awakens-2015-7c6fc4b33b22 | ['Scott Myers'] | 2020-12-13 12:03:35.682000+00:00 | ['Screenplay', 'Screenwriting', 'Film', 'Movies', 'Cinema'] |
Why You Shouldn’t Give Up | Yo, are you scared of messing up? Here’s the thing, you will never know if you are meant to do something until you actually do it. I’m speaking from experience.
Last semester, I tried to apply for my college’s ambassador program. I submitted my application video and I was actually pretty proud of how it turned out. I’ll link it here if you want to check it out! Anyway, I waited a few weeks and received an email saying that they liked my video and wanted to have an interview with me and I had to prepare a five minute presentation about why incoming college students should choose my college. As soon as I read that, my heart dropped. I was so excited and ridiculously nervous. My mind started racing with a mixture of positive and negative outcomes of my current situation. Lucky for me, I received the email before Thanksgiving break so I had some time to practice beforehand.
The weeks flew. The interview approached quickly and I was freaking out. I have a fear of public speaking and I’m really trying to overcome that now. I’ll let my fellow public speaking fearers out there know the secret formula for speaking in front of people once I figure it out haha. Anyway, the interview day approached and I got dressed up nicely. The day felt like it was moving so slowly. My interview was at four in the afternoon and I was more than prepared but incredibly nervous.
I remember I walked over to the interview building and I told myself I was just going to walk in with confidence. I picked up a water bottle on the way there, I was ready to go. It was all just a waiting game. The elevator doors opened and I stepped out into the waiting room. Someone did an online interview before me. My name was called and I walked in.
They had me sit down and I was asked a whole bunch of questions rapid fire. When I was in the room, I wasn’t nervous at all. I gave my presentation and I actually felt pretty good about it. We wrapped up and I left. I felt really good about everything. I called my parents and told them about it. I thought I had it in the bag.
Five to seven business days later, I get an email in my inbox that said that I wasn’t the candidate they were looking for. Not gonna lie, I was a little sad they didn’t pick me. I really tried my best. I always put 100% into everything that I do and it does sting a bit when you aren’t what people are looking for but that’s life for you.
Now, I really don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing but I’m sure I’ll figure it out. The mindset I’ve adopted is that when one door closes, another one opens. That’s the message I have to bring to whoever ends up reading this. Don’t stop trying things because one thing didn’t work out. It might hurt for a second, but eventually something will click. I haven’t found that thing that’s clicked yet, so I’m kind of teaching you something that I haven’t experienced. However, I have faith that things will eventually go the way they’re supposed to. Don’t give up. The world is scary and things won’t go your way but promise me that you won’t quit! Don’t get discouraged. Life is unfortunately filled with lots of disappointments. ):
If you have a story similar to this and just need to get it off your chest, feel free to put it in the comments. Or if you know me personally, just tell me about it on whatever platform you have. Send it randomly and I’ll know what’s up. Maybe we can learn from each other. | https://medium.com/@alliesandoval/why-you-shouldnt-give-up-9331b898e31d | ['Allie Sandoval'] | 2020-12-26 04:12:01.880000+00:00 | ['Positive Thinking', 'Motivation', 'Inspiration', 'Learning', 'Self Improvement'] |
Effective vs Efficient. What’s the outstanding difference? | The two words “effective” and “efficient” have a good number of similarities and because of this fact, they are often commonly misused and misinterpreted by a lot of people daily and in application. After this episode, you will know when to use both and maybe, get cleared on why they were used in instances you stumbled upon in a book you read or in someone’s speech.
In simple words, being effective is about reaching or achieving the goal while being efficient is about finding the fastest, easiest and least expensive way to reach a goal.
Being effective is getting to your destination successfully without considering the time and equipment used. Being efficient is putting into consideration the best tools and time management strategy to be used to get to the destination. While it is possible to be effective and efficient at the same time, it is also possible to be effective without being efficient and vice versa.
A rather simple way of explaining the differences between the two would be to consider a scenario where you have a burned out light bulb in your house which will need replacement. You have to pick within an incandescent light bulb and a LED bulb. Either light bulbs would be effective in accomplishing the goal of providing you with light at night but the LED bulb would use less energy and therefore be the more efficient choice.
Now if the bulb was turned on the entire day, then you would be wasting energy. While the bulb is still performing the task of creating light in an efficient manner, it’s performing that task at the wrong time and therefore not effective.
In the business world, you can conclude that efficiency is important for profitability and by increasing efficiency, we save both time and money while on the other hand, effectiveness is important for growth.
Now that you have understood the outstanding difference between effective and efficient, it is best to shoot for being effective first before bringing in efficiency into practice. The process works with whatever you are trying to do. Do it effectively or focus on reaching the goal first. Test and repeat the activity to increase your efficiency in reaching the goal. Try it out, you won’t be disappointed.
LINK TO PODCAST EPISODE | https://medium.com/@ceefoon/effective-vs-efficient-whats-the-outstanding-difference-13ef8dde0284 | ['Sifon Udonsek'] | 2020-07-24 03:26:30.517000+00:00 | ['Efficient', 'Effective', 'Efficiency', 'Effectiveness', 'Growth'] |
Our Bodies, Our Choice: Why WHPA is the Hero Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice Needs | We’ve said it a billion times before and we’ll say it again, just so we’re clear: abortion is a safe, essential component of basic health care and a basic human right. Period, full stop. And, as the Supreme Court recognized nearly 50 years ago in Roe v. Wade, it’s your constitutional right to obtain an abortion — regardless of who you are, how much money you make, or where you live.
Brazenly disregarding the very structural foundations of our nation, extremist state officials are ignoring this law of the land to advance their own ideological agendas. Let’s say you live in Texas where, at least 24 hours before the procedure, your provider will give you a state-mandated, medically inaccurate lecture about fetal pain and the negative physical and psychological effects of abortion (including discredited links to breast cancer and infertility).
You may live in Missouri, currently one of six states with only one abortion clinic but poised to become the first to no longer offer the procedure since before Roe. Here, without exception for cases of rape or incest or for victims of child abuse, physicians cannot perform an abortion until they have notified a minor patient’s parent and received written consent. All patients must wait 72 hours between receiving state-mandated biased counselling and actually obtaining an abortion.
Or maybe you live in Louisiana and are required to obtain an ultrasound at least 24 hours prior to your abortion. During the ultrasound, your provider is legally compelled to show and describe the image to you — but don’t worry, lawmakers were kind enough to allow you to look away.
Now, let’s imagine for one horrifying minute that the blatantly unconstitutional restrictions that have been signed into law, passed, or introduced this year actually go into effect. In 2019, at least 30 state legislatures have considered abortion bans; some laws prohibit the procedure after six weeks, before most people even know they are pregnant, while others automatically outlaw all (or nearly all) abortions should Roe be overturned. Alabama’s outright abortion ban — which includes language directly comparing abortion to the Holocaust and other crimes against humanity — extends to every stage of pregnancy and makes performing the procedure a felony punishable by up to 99 years in prison. And in Texas, Representative Tony Tinderholt introduced a bill threatening people who have an abortion and their providers with the death penalty.
This is just a snapshot of the wave of draconian abortion restrictions sweeping the nation. As if this trend wasn’t terrifying enough, the original abortion ban (the Hyde Amendment) already pushes care out of reach for countless patients despite tireless efforts to end the discriminatory policy. Hyde will continue to disproportionately impact low-income people, people of color, young people, immigrants, and LGBTQ individuals regardless of whether these new restrictions ever take effect or whether those that have already been implemented are eventually invalidated.
And somehow, this is nothing new. Anti-abortion zealots have been openly designing laws to challenge Roe since 1973, claiming that they hope to return the power to regulate abortion throughout pregnancy to the states. However, the rise of “fetal personhood” legislation tells a different story. Georgia’s six-week ban specifically proclaims that “unborn children are a class of living, distinct person” to whom the state should provide “full legal recognition.” This language enables so-called “pro-lifers” to argue that the Supreme Court should extend the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause to fetuses and enact a nationwide abortion ban declaring that “life” begins at conception.
As an advocate, as an American, as a human, I am sick, I am outraged, and I am appalled; I am dozens of other adjectives that describe a person who is absolutely disgusted by our current reality, by the criminalization of pregnancy, and by forced births. But I am not done fighting for my community, for those most impacted by these unconscionable restrictions, and for a future of equal access to abortion for everyone, everywhere.
I am inspired by those who have come before me and by those who have dedicated their lives to the reproductive health, rights, and justice movement. For over 125 years, the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) has worked to make change happen and to pursue justice for all. Our 90,000 members and supporters won’t be bullied, shamed, or punished and we won’t back down until every single person can make their own decisions about their body, family, and future. We certainly won’t stand idly by while barriers to health care jeopardize any individual’s autonomy, health, or economic security and we won’t allow lawmakers to violate one of our country’s founding principles — cemented in the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause — by enshrining one religious view of “life” into law.
Our Jewish values compel us to call for a federal law to end these dangerous, medically unnecessary restrictions and to secure full access to safe and legal abortion as basic health care. The Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA, HR 2975/S 1645) is that law. The bill would create a new tool for safeguarding access to high-quality care and securing constitutional rights by protecting patients and providers from political interference. WHPA permits health care providers to deliver abortion services without limitations that are more burdensome than those imposed on medically comparable procedures, do not significantly advance patient health or the safety of abortion, or make abortion more difficult to access. Importantly, the legislation also establishes a new test for courts to apply when considering whether a requirement impedes access to abortion services in violation of WHPA.
Together with the EACH Woman Act’s (HR 1962/S 758) permanent end to Hyde, WHPA has the power to decimate major barriers to comprehensive abortion care and to recognize fully the promise of Roe: that pregnant individuals would not only have the right to choose abortion, but would also be able to freely access the procedure. We must turn our outrage into action and push Congress to put patient health first. It’s time to show up and fight back for reproductive rights, for human rights, and for equality and justice for all. | https://srussell-91514.medium.com/our-bodies-our-choice-why-whpa-is-the-hero-reproductive-health-rights-and-justice-needs-edbe228d63c7 | ['Shannon Russell'] | 2019-06-06 17:28:06.104000+00:00 | ['Abortion', 'Women', 'Reproductive Justice', 'Reproductive Health', 'Reproductive Rights'] |
Big data: yesterday, today, and tomorrow | Our daily picks will be back on Monday! If you want to receive our weekly digest on Fridays, it’s easy! Follow our publication and then go to your settings and turn on “receive letters.” You can learn more about how to get the most out of Towards Data Science here. | https://towardsdatascience.com/big-data-yesterday-today-and-tomorrow-389de1a46cd8 | ['Tds Editors'] | 2020-07-09 13:08:44.924000+00:00 | ['The Daily Pick'] |
I Want to Hear You Say, “Mine” | As you pull me into your body for one of those long, lingering kisses that seem to last for days; as you wrap your hands in my hair and tug possessively, I want to hear you say it.
Mine.
As your mouth finds my breast, your teeth grazing just enough to make me arch my back; as your hands push my legs apart and you slap my pussy with your finger tips, waiting for me to ask for another, I want to hear you say it.
Mine.
As you slide behind me, turning me on my side, and I feel you enter me; as your teeth graze my neck and one hand finds my breast, the other clasped around my throat; as I feel you thrust deeply, I want to hear you say it.
Mine.
As I find myself face down in the pillows, my hands behind my back, your fingers making sure I’m well lubricated; as your cock pushes against my ass, slowly taking what you know damn well is yours, I want to hear you say it.
Mine.
I want you to claim me even though I’ve already given every part of me to you. I want you to acknowledge that I’m yours in a way that other men can’t have me. It’s the one thing I’m sure you’ll never say and the one thing I want to hear you say more than anything else.
Mine. | https://medium.com/sensual-enchantment/i-want-to-hear-you-say-mine-9fa6872e46cc | ['𝑨𝒖𝒕𝒖𝒎𝒏 𝑺𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒆'] | 2020-06-05 18:04:07.483000+00:00 | ['Sex', 'Poetry', 'Life', 'Erotica', 'Relationships'] |
Govt. Opens ISRO Facilities To Private Sector | With the coming up of Lockdown 4.0, the government has been announcing Economic Packages for industries, businesses, and individuals across the country. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the final tranche of the relief package in a press conference in New Delhi.
While the package is all set to bring relief to various sectors, a landmark revelation has come forward. In the press conference, the Finance Minister announced that private players in the space technology and satellite field will now be given access to ISRO’s assets for creating a level playing field.
ISRO has been India’s crown jewel, but the government understands that private companies and startups in the advanced tech space such as GIS, IoT, Big Data, Satellite-based Technology, and Space Technology need to be boosted for further growth. The government aims to provide this support through access to ISRO’s facilities and data, improved policy, and a conducive environment.
It was also said that future projects that involve outer space travel, exploration of other planets, and space travel would not be open to the private sector. The government also plans to make GIS and remote-sensing data more accessible by reducing the policy regulations and putting safeguards in place. This initiative has been taken to give tech entrepreneurs more benefits to enable innovation and economic growth. | https://medium.com/@thegeospatialnews/govt-opens-isro-facilities-to-private-sector-7190c7006e8b | ['The Geospatial'] | 2020-05-16 19:06:00.632000+00:00 | ['Space', 'India', 'GIS', 'Geospatial', 'Isro'] |
“Am I Trans?” A Roadmap To Figuring Out The Toughest Question | Long before I started questioning my gender, I had this idle fantasy where one of my best lady friends would walk up to me and say, “give it up, you’re not fooling anyone.”
If you’d confronted me about this fantasy at the time, I couldn’t have told you what, exactly, I meant by “you’re not fooling anyone.” Deep down I knew that it was probably related to gender, but my lips wouldn’t have been able to form those words. All I knew was that I was pretending to be someone I was not, in some vague, passive, and ephemeral way.
Once I self-accepted as a trans woman and started the long process of coming out , all I wanted was for someone to tell me that they already knew. “I’m so happy you figured it out,” I wanted them to gush. “I’ve known the truth for years. It was so obvious. I don’t know anyone could have ever thought that you were a boy. I’m so happy that you’ll finally get to live as your true self now.”
Nobody ever said this to me, though. My coming-out process was successful, and most of my friends were supportive, but I never got the external validation that I craved. My friends and family accepted me as trans because I told them I was trans. They hadn’t noticed that I’d spent the past two decades wearing the ill-fitting costume of a man who barely existed.
***
My good friend Lily coined the phrase “Egg Prime Directive” to describe the fact that trans people have an unspoken agreement not to tell people who are questioning their gender whether or not they are trans.
I’m sure there are some trans people out there who don’t follow the Egg Prime Directive, but I haven’t met them. It’s one of the only things that seems to unify the whole trans community, myself included. Even though I wanted my own external validation more than anything, I now see that true acceptance could have only come from within. The only person who can tell you that you are trans is yourself.
The paradox is that most closeted trans people are absolutely terrible at trusting their inner voice. When you spend your whole life with a nagging disconnect between how the world sees you and how you see yourself, it becomes easier to rely on other people to tell you “who you really are.” Even if you know deep down that all the people in your life are missing some fundamental fact about your identity, it’s nearly impossible avoid listening to oneself over others.
My goal today, then, is to give you some of the information and mental framing that helped me self-accept. I can’t tell you whether or not you are transgender, but I can point you down a path that you might be able to travel down yourself. I can’t provide the answers, but I can try to give you the right questions.
As always, please understand that I have no professional training in gender therapy . I am simply writing this from my own amateur research and personal experiences —mostly my own journey and conversations I’ve had with other trans women and gender questioners. Keep in mind that I am coming at this from the perspective of a fairly binary trans lady who transitioned in her early thirties, which means that I am still blind to a lot of the trans experience. Things are are different for trans masculine and non-binary people, as well as for many other trans women. This is not meant to be a universal expert guide — it’s just the best I can give you right now.
Consider That Most Cis People Don’t Think About Their Gender Very Much
If you’re already at the stage where you are questioning your gender — even if that just means Googling “Am I Trans?” and then slamming your laptop shut before you get a search result —congratulations, you’ve already thought about your gender more than most cis people will in their entire lifetimes.
I’ve asked many of my cis friends if they’ve ever seriously thought about their gender identity, and nine times out of ten they have not. Cis people don’t constantly wonder what it would be like to be a girl. They haven’t had daydreams about how nice it would be if they woke up in a different body. Their hearts don’t race when they think about body-swap movies. Some of them may have imagined what it would be like to be in a body with a gender other than their assigned gender at birth, but those thought experiments have been brief and purely intellectual.
There’s no ~energy~ there. Not for them. If you feel a weird kind of ~energy~ when you think about gender, that probably means something.
Consider That Most Cis People Actively Like Being The Gender They Were Assigned At Birth
This was hard for me to believe at first, but cis people actually enjoy their gender! Cis men like being men, and cis women like being women. They don’t secretly wish they had been born a member of the “opposite” gender or a genderless being or anything else, really. As we’ve already established, they don’t think about their gender much at all.
There are complications here, of course. Plenty of cis men find toxic masculinity stifling and awful, choosing to actively reject the problematic social aspects of their gender. Plenty of women are deeply frustrated by misogyny, the patriarchy, and the tyranny of classical gender roles. “Enjoying being man” does not necessarily mean loving having to bottle up your emotions in all non-NFL situations, and “enjoying being a woman” rarely means that you love getting belittled by your male co-workers or being constantly asked, “so, when are you getting married?”
Once you cut through all of that, though? Cis people still enjoy their genders. They might wish that certain aspects of how their gender is performed in society were different, but they would still choose to keep their assigned genders if swapping were on the table. Unfortunately, a lot of closeted trans people hear cis people complaining about the frustrating and problematic aspects of their gender and assume that everybody has the same low-grade dislike for their gender that they do.
Closeted trans people also assume that “I don’t hate being a man” is the same thing as “I enjoy being a man.” I can’t tell you how many of these questioning ladies tell me some variation of “I can’t be trans because I don’t hate being a man,” and then go on to describe countless little things they dislike about being seen as male, as if their gender were a pair of wet socks that they could never quite find a way to take off.
You might be surprised to hear that I didn’t actively hate being seen as a man before I came out to myself, either . Being seen as a guy wasn’t a constant source of misery for me. It just…was who I was, apparently, so I learned to just kind of live with it. A lot of people believe that you can only be trans if you feel actively hurt by being seen as a man, but that particular feeling won’t usually arrive until after you’ve started to transition and you finally know who you truly are. Before self-acceptance, your relationship with your assigned gender at birth is likely to feel a lot more like disconnection than distress.
I also can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard closeted trans women say something like, “well, I don’t hate being a man, and men have lots of institutional privilege. I don’t think I’d choose to be a woman, even if I could, because I wouldn’t want to give up my male privilege.” Male privilege is a real thing, of course, but it isn’t a reward that men get for having to endure the eternal discomfort of being men. Men enjoy being men, and they would still enjoy being men without their social privileges. If the only thing you like about masculinity is male privilege, that probably means something.
Consider That Gender Dysphoria Looks Different For Trans Women Who Haven’t Self-Accepted Yet
For years, I thought that I couldn’t be trans because I didn’t experience gender dysphoria. I was dead wrong.
One thing that kept me from realizing that I was experiencing dysphoria was the same reason that fish don’t know they’re swimming in water — it’s just what my life had always been like, so I thought being dysphoric all the time was normal human behavior. I knew that I was kind of sad and more than a little odd, and I knew that my experiences with masculinity were at least slightly gender non-conforming, but I was dealing with the pain of dysphoria every single day without having any idea what was actually going on. No matter how bad I felt, I could always come up with a good enough explanation that had nothing to do with gender.
The other problem is that gender dysphoria manifests differently in pre-acceptance trans women than it does in post-acceptance trans women. I always thought that gender dysphoria was the distress that you get from looking in the mirror and seeing a boy starting back at you instead of a girl, but that wasn’t a feeling I actually had until I started transitioning. You can’t get distressed about not seeing a girl in the mirror until after you’ve realize you’re a girl!
Before that, dysphoria manifests in dozens of other, much subtler ways. I wrote about my experience with pre-acceptance dysphoria here, in what has become my most popular essay ever. I highly recommend reading it in full if you are questioning your gender.
Consider The Null HypotheCis
In mathematics, a null hypothesis is something that is generally assumed to be true until it is proven false. It’s a default assumption, like “innocent until proven guilty.” If you’re going to convict someone of a murder, for example, circumstantial evidence just won’t do. You generally need overwhelming physical proof, or a confession, or some other obvious sign of guilt.
This excellent article by Natalie Reed argues that being cisgender (not trans) is treated as a null hypothesis by our society. We are all assumed to be our assigned gender at birth, and we feel as if we need overwhelming evidence to prove our transness. Otherwise, we continue to assume that we are cis.
This makes sense in the grand scheme of things, because there are probably more cis people in the world than trans people. As we discussed earlier, however, most people who are comfortable with their gender identity aren’t doing this kind of questioning. If you’ve arrived at this stage of self-discovery, there’s a fairly high chance that you aren’t completely cis.
The Null HypotheCis poses a simple and effective question: once you take your finger off the scale, how likely is it that you are trans? If you give the twin hypotheses of “I am cis” and “I am trans” equal weight, and you stop demanding that transness carry the full burden of proof, what feels right to you? If you start looking for proof of cis-ness the same way you look for proof of trans-ness, the whole illusion can sometimes come tumbling down.
Consider That If You Want To Be A Girl, Then You Are Already A Girl
It really is that simple. Men want to be men, and women want to be women. If you want to be a man, then you‘re a man. If you want to be a woman, then you’re a woman. If you don’t want to be either, or you want to be both, or you want to be a woman sometimes and a man other times, then you’re probably some flavor of genderfluid or non-binary.
“But you can’t just…do that!” I hear you say. But you absolutely can just do that. In fact, this is basically the one and only question you really have to answer for yourself. If you want to be a girl and you’ve always thought of yourself as a guy, then you will probably be happier living as a girl. It’s at least worth taking some steps to see if transitioning will bring you happiness, right?
Consider That Doubting Yourself Does Not Invalidate Your Possible Trans-ness
For years — decades, even — I “knew” that I wasn’t trans because “real” trans people are supposed to have an unshakable certainty in their own identity. I internalized this fictional image of a young trans woman demanding that everyone treat her like the woman she is, defiant in the face of oppression.
This is what being trans was like, I thought; bravery, courage, and absolute unwavering certainty in your identity. That wasn’t me, so I couldn’t be trans!
As it turns out, very few actual trans people feel this way before transition. Instead, we nearly all start out our journeys awash in self-doubt. That unwavering certainty does usually come, in time, but it can take months or years of self-acceptance as well as (in my case, at least) further validation in the form of hormone therapy and social transition.
But at the start, we nearly all feel like our gender is a confusing mess. We feel like we can’t possibly be trans enough to claim a queer identity, and we definitely don’t feel trans enough to transition. We worry that we are making the wrong decision, that we are overreacting, that stepping outside of our little cocoon of self-preservation is liable to be the biggest mistake we could ever make in our life.
If you feel all of this stuff, you’re in good company. My therapist even jokes that asking “am I trans enough?” is so common that it’s practically a symptom of being trans. You cannot figure out your gender identity without questioning it, and self-doubt is a normal part of that process.
Consider That Your Trans Journey Might Not Fit The Accepted, Popular Narrative
Popular culture has basically decided that there’s only one transfeminine story worth telling. It’s the story of a young trans girl who figures out her identity at a very young age. Even in childhood, she gravitates toward dolls and tea parties. She tries on her older sister’s dresses and begs her mom to buy her make-up and jewelry. She basically always looks like a girl, too — feminine facial features, short stature, thin and androgynous. If she doesn’t transition in childhood or adolescence, then she’ll still somehow makes it to adulthood still looking more or less like a woman. She cross-dresses all the time, and might even be a drag queen. She is also probably attracted to men, and might have worked a spell as a sex worker.
This is a valid and common trans narrative. I know many girls who have experienced some or all of these tropes. There’s a reason why this story is told over and over again, after all.
That said, the vast majority of trans women I know are nothing like this. Many of them had classically male childhoods, complete with toy cars, video games, and NERF guns. Many of them never cross-dressed at all, and felt somewhat repulsed by drag culture. Many of them grew up with large bodies, broad shoulders, and bushy beards. Many of them aren’t attracted to men at all, while others are bi or pansexual. Many of them did not begin seriously questioning their gender until their late twenties or early thirties. Many have no “signs” of being trans in their past. They simply spent their entire lives accepting that they were men, and that was that. Until it wasn’t.
This is a common trans narrative, but nobody really talks about it. Trans women like this — like me — have only really started to open up about our stories in the past few years. Before that? The only story you heard was the one I chronicled above. That’s why that trans narrative seems “right” and this one seems “wrong.”
But girls like us are incredibly common. This scientific study from 2003 (warning for dated language if you read it) chronicles the observations of a researcher who spent decades working with trans women. In her experience, there are three distinct groups of trans women, two of which follow the “I’ve always known” path I chronicled above, and one of which does not. According to her, “Group Three” trans women have classically male childhoods, tend not to show the normal signs of being trans, and tend to come out later in life. While some of them cross-dress, many do not, choosing to deal with their dysphoria in more subtle and internal ways. I can’t tell you how validated I felt reading that paper during my questioning phase, realizing that there were so many other trans women out there just like me.
I also believe that more trans women like us are coming out now because there’s so much more representation and so many more resources. In 1991, 2001, even 2011, the path to transition was much more difficult, and most people didn’t know any openly trans people. In this world, the only people who chose to transition were those for whom not doing so was just about impossible.
It isn’t just easier to question your gender here in 2021, it’s easier to gain access to trans communities, hormones, and other crucial resources. If I’d been born thirty years earlier, I might not have transitioned at all. If I’d been born thirty years later, I’d probably have transitioned as a teenager. Don’t worry about whether or not you’ve “always known” if this is the first time you’ve ever had the freedom and resources to truly ask yourself this question.
Consider That The Things Keeping You From Self-Acceptance Might Have Nothing To Do With Your Identity
Whenever I’m talking to a questioning trans women, the conversation eventually turns to the obstacles that she might face if she chooses to transition. “I worry that I’m too tall/large/hairy/ugly to transition” is a pretty common fear. “I worry that my family will disown me/my partner will leave me” is another worry I hear a lot. Other girls are really worried about their career, education, or college situation. Many fear that they simply can’t handle the medical bills for HRT or trans surgeries.
Everyone — everyone — doubts that they have the fortitude to deal with socially transitioning. Coming out to friends, wearing women’s clothing, dealing with transphobia…it’s a terrifying mess, especially for closeted trans women, who usually fell pretty short on resilience as it is. The whole thing can seem chronically overwhelming.
These fears often manifest in the form of self-gatekeeping. “I’m afraid that I will never be a pretty girl” turns into “I can’t be trans, because what if I’m not pretty enough after I transition?” This seems somewhat silly in a vacuum, but pre-acceptance trans girls will sometimes do anything to convince themselves that they aren’t actually trans. I definitely thought that I wasn’t trans because I simply couldn’t imagine actually taking HRT and dressing like a woman every day. That was something that brave people did, not people like me, so I couldn’t be trans!
Why do we do this to ourselves? I think it’s all about self-protection. We know that transition is incredibly difficult, and so we will try literally everything else in the world before we’re even willing to start facing the “am I trans?” question. We develop really strong self-protective voices that push back hard against the truth because then we don’t have to worry about the terror of what comes next.
Here’s the thing, though: even if you are trans, you don’t actually have to do anything about it. While I highly recommend transitioning, it’s definitely possible to self-accept and then just…do nothing. Keep your name, your pronouns, your life as it is. Or you can just change a few things, and enjoy those little pings of gender euphoria where you can.
The important thing to remember is that the truth of your identity is separate from all of the hopes and fears you have about transitioning. If you’re a girl on the inside, it doesn’t matter what you look like. It doesn’t matter what your family thinks of you. It doesn’t matter whether or not you have the means or even the desire to medically transition. Identity is a mental and spiritual thing, separate from all of this. If you’re a girl, you’re a girl.
So start there. Figure out who you ARE, regardless of what you do about it.
Whenever I talk to a questioning trans woman who is stuck on this stuff, I always try to factor out these social factors as best I can. I’ll ask hypothetical questions like this:
You are given a magical button that will permanently swap your gender, giving you an “opposite-gendered” body that is equivalent to your own in age, fitness, and attractiveness. If you press the button, everybody in your life will have always known you as a girl. They will accept you immediately. You will not lose your partner, your job, or your family. Do you press it?
Cis people would not even consider pressing this button, by the way. If you know deep down that you’d press it but are still afraid to self-accept as trans, then your sticking point probably has more to do with your fear of transitioning than it does with your true identity.
Consider That It’s Rarely “Just A Fetish.”
I cannot tell you how many trans people — including me — began exploring their gender feelings in the realm of sexual fantasy.
There are many different ways for this to manifest: gender-play with partners, enjoying transformation-related drawings, reading stories about boys who are turned into girls, or role-playing gender transformation fantasies with partners on online forums or messaging apps. There’s so much of this stuff out there, and a lot of the people who enjoy it are closeted trans women like I was.
This makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Sex is one of the few realms of human experience where it’s safe to explore gender without having to face larger questions about identity. It’s extremely possible to separate these two things in your head for years and years and years. You’re just a man who occasionally likes to fantasize about being turned into a woman. That doesn’t mean you’re trans!
Unfortunately, exploring gender this way can actually make self-acceptance harder for many trans women. While I found this sort of sexual exploration absolutely necessary in my pre-self-acceptance days, it also meant that I was able to write off my intrusive gender thoughts or daydreams as “just a fetish.” I treated them as something hidden and shameful instead of something to investigate further.
This issue is further complicated by the term “autogynephilia,” a bogus transphobic “theory” posited by a crank psychologist named Ray Blanchard. Autogynephilia posits that many people who self-identify as trans women aren’t actually women at all, but are instead creepy men who are turned on by the idea of being a woman or having a vagina. According to Blanchard, their entire transition is just an elaborate fetish game that they’re forcing the the world to participate in.
I want to be clear, here: autogynephilia is bullshit. It has been discredited by actual scientists and researchers many, many times. The entire point of this theory, as far as I can tell, was to try and get cis people to start viewing trans women as male sex predators. Thankfully, most cis people don’t feel this way, and most of them haven’t heard of Blanchard or autogynephilia at all.
Unfortunately, a lot of closeted trans women come across this stuff as they’re questioning and think, “oh, do I just have autogynephilia? Maybe I’m not actually trans.” This is doubly true for trans women who have spent a lot of time expressing their gender feelings in sexual spaces, especially if they feel sexually aroused by the idea of becoming a woman.
While this feeling of arousal is too complex to fully unpack in this tiny section of a much longer essay, I will say that this feeling is really common early on but it tends to fade as your transition progresses. Some of it has to do with the fact that if you tie gender euphoria to sexual arousal for long enough, one will express partially as the other. Some of it also has to do with the fact that being seen as your true gender, or experiencing sexual pleasure as your true gender, feels fucking terrific. Either way, it’s not “just a fetish” if your feelings go deeper than pure sexual arousal.
Consider The Broad Umbrella of Trans Identities
If you haven’t spent a lot of time in a community with openly queer people, you might not have fully internalized just how many different ways there are to both experience and express your gender.
The wider world makes it seem like the “man” box and the “woman” box are two entirely different things with a massive gulf of emptiness between them, but that’s not really true. There are a roughly infinite number of ways to express gender, both inside and outside those boxes, and your gender might be somewhere in that undefined space. I am a fairly binary trans woman, and I like being inside the girl box, but my conception of gender as well as how I choose to express it are often entirely different from other people who are also in the girl box.
There is no right way to be trans. Some trans people change their presentation but don’t change their pronouns. Some trans people change their name and pronouns but don’t change their presentation. Some trans people are okay living as their assigned gender at birth as long as they know who they are on the inside.
Many trans people don’t opt for gender affirming surgeries or hormones. Many trans people use a different name and different pronouns depending on how they’d like to be seen in a given situation. Many trans people simply forge a relationship to gender that is slightly askew from cisnormativity, plant their flag, and call it a day.
Many trans people set out to transition one way, and ultimately realize that their identity better matches with something that they couldn’t have even begun to see when their process started.
All of this is valid, and my goal by including all this stuff here is to take the pressure off. It’s harder to accept yourself as trans if you feel like self-acceptance is going to come with a whole new set of impossible expectations. In truth, one of the great joys of being trans is realizing that you are actually free from all of these narrow ideas about what gender can and cannot be.
No matter what you decide about your gender, the important thing is to be true to yourself. This sounds cheesy, but giving yourself permission to be honest about what does and does not bring you joy in terms of gender and gender presentation can be an explicitly radical act. This journey might lead you toward more comfort in your assigned gender at birth, or toward some sort of non-binary or gender-fluid identity, or perhaps you will come join me over here in the girl box (we have cupcakes!).
Whatever you choose, do it because it helps you feel more like yourself.
Consider That Transition Is Less About Discovering A Single Metaphysical Truth And More About Doing What Makes You Happy
One sticking point I come across a lot when I talk to questioning trans women is that they’ve paralyzed themselves with fear and are unwilling to act until they’ve solved the equation at the center of themselves and completely and fully accepted that they are, without a doubt, 100% trans.
Unfortunately, this is pretty much impossible to do, especially before you’ve taken any actions toward affirming your gender. There’s no blood test or brain scan that can confirm trans-ness, so you will never have unequivocal proof. I can’t tell you how many girls have messaged me weeks or months into their self-acceptance and said things like, “hey, so I actually had a good day today presenting as male. Does that mean that I’m not actually trans?”
(To answer: nope! I’ve had plenty of good days in boy-mode. I’m still a girl.)
To that end, it’s worth keeping in mind that you are not a puzzle to be solved. You do not have to perform an exact taxonomic classification of your own gender. You’re just a human with your own complex set of needs, desires, dreams, goals, fears, triggers, and a whole mess of everything else. You are a contradictory, complex, illogical being who contains vast multitudes.
This is kind of scary, but hopefully it’s also somewhat freeing. There’s no “proper” timeline to your transition. No list of things that you absolutely have to do. You can keep your name, or change it. You can get gender conformation surgery, or you can keep what you’ve got. You can wear dresses every day, or you can leave them all for me. Some trans ladies have been dressing like women since they were old enough to buy clothes, but I didn’t once wear a full femme outfit until I was already three months into HRT. There are no rules. They were all made up by people who have been dead for hundreds of years.
You also don’t have to commit to anything right away. Transition isn’t one giant leap into the abyss — it’s a series of small, willing steps. All of the early steps are easily reversible, and you never have to do anything that you don’t think will help make your life better. If you keep your eyes on your feet, you’ll cross the chasm before you know it.
I like to recommend that people who are questioning their gender pick one or two small things and try them out instead of being stuck in their head all day, waiting for more evidence to present itself. Shave your arms, your legs, or your chest. Get some nail polish. Buy a piece of female clothing. Make an “alt” account on social media with a female name and she/her pronouns and engage with the digital world as a girl. Tell a trusted friend or two that you are questioning your gender, and ask them to call you by a different name/pronouns in private to see how it feels. Even the first few months of HRT are easily reversed, if you want to see how your mind works on estrogen.
While some of these steps are probably going to make you feel overwhelmed — heck, you might feel overwhelmed just thinking about them — you might also feel a few pings of absolute bliss somewhere in the process. Little moments of “oh, oh, OH, I like this, this feels good!!”
That’s gender euphoria, and it’s a sign that you’re proceeding in the right direction. If you follow those feelings, wherever they take you, I guarantee you it will lead to so much happiness and joy.
If you still have more questions…
I’ve written a lot more about my transition here on this blog, and I invite you to scroll down and start at the very beginning. There are stories about how I chose my name, how I self-accepted, my fears about passing, my first year of HRT, and more.
You can also follow me on Twitter, where I will gladly answer your gender questions, no matter how silly, and help you begin your journey.
Lastly, the website Turn Me Into A Girl is a must-visit for anyone questioning their gender in a transfeminine direction. Go press that button and see where it leads you. | https://aninjusticemag.com/am-i-trans-a-roadmap-to-figuring-out-the-toughest-question-7bb0e809a32d | ['Cassie Labelle'] | 2021-01-12 02:59:56.881000+00:00 | ['Questioning', 'LGBTQ', 'Gender', 'LGBT', 'Transgender'] |
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