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A snapshot biography of Dr. Anandibai Joshi | Anandibai Joshi journeyed from India to the U.S. to pursue a medical school education in 1883. Prior to leaving, she wrote her sponsor, a wealthy woman from New Jersey who over years of correspondence had become akin to family, “You have reason to think that this very distant voyage will be hazardous for a girl of 18 because the world is full of frauds and dangers, but dear Aunt, wherever I cast my glance, I see nothing but a straight and smooth way. I fear no miseries. I shrink not at the recollection of dangers, nor do I fear them.”
This was Anandibai. Fearless. Staunch in the pursuit of her goals. By eighteen she had already overcome much. Married at the age of nine, at fourteen she endured the loss of her child ten days after giving birth. And then she spent much of her late teens in poor health, suffering from a multitude of maladies including weakness and frequent headaches.
But education was important to her. It had been for much of life. Born into a wealthy family, her father went against customs to have his daughter educated and her husband supported Anandibai’s studies as well.
In the U.S., she was admitted to and attended the Women’s Medical College. After graduating in 1886, she traveled back to India in hopes of practicing medicine there. But she became ill shortly after her return, passing away in 1887 from tuberculosis.
Sources:
1. https://www.thetriangle.org/snowball/the-graduates/
2. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/19th-century-lady-doctor-ushered-indian-women-medicine-180964613/
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anandi_Gopal_Joshi
4. Photo taken by Caroline Wells Healey Dall, Drexel University College of Medicine (http://xdl.drexelmed.edu/item.php?object_id=001128) / Wikimedia Commons | https://medium.com/a-moment-in-history/a-snapshot-biography-of-dr-anandibai-joshi-62fbacd3ac90 | ['Roman Mikhail'] | 2020-12-17 18:31:52.556000+00:00 | ['Biography', 'Medicine', 'History', 'Feminism', 'Nonfiction'] |
Principles of spacing in UI Design (Part 2) | In the left, if you equalize spacing for all input fields, it seems tight and not look actively bad. The label doesn’t have a visual hierarchy. Moreover, the user can’t quickly scan them. The problem with the first card is the spacing of that labels don’t have breathing room necessary and divide the system-level sizing.
In the right, it seems perfect more and improves the legibility of the user. My approach is to start designing something with too much spacing, then remove it until you have an eye-catching design. You need to notice that you should have some difference between the spacing and divide the least three formats in your design (small, medium and large spacing) ( I mentioned it in part 1). In addition, they can support you to define the system. 16px is a great number to start because it divides nicely ( 4px = 16 x 0.25, 8px = 16 x 0.5, 12px = 16 x 0.75, …)
You usually start to add a bit of white space. If something is too cramped, you will add a bit more spacing until everything looks better in your design. By this way, you only have a minimum spacing. So you need more space. This way will take a lot of your time and not have a good result. One of the ways to have an elegant design is your design should start with too much white space. | https://medium.com/dwarves-design/the-principle-of-spacing-part-2-e3cf31b909fa | ['Anna Tran'] | 2020-05-29 13:19:30.975000+00:00 | ['Accessibility', 'Design', 'Typography', 'Ui Ux Design', 'Front End Development'] |
The WAZIHUB project launches the second edition of its Innovation Competition | After a successful first edition, the Wazihub consortium funded by the European commission under H2020, dedicated to the creation of affordable IoT solutions in Africa by young entrepreneurs, launches the call for applications for the second edition of its Innovation Competition.
The initiative, the first of its kind in Africa, puts into competition teams from six (6) different Tech Hubs, partners of the project in six (6) countries namely Ghana, Kenya, Senegal,South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania.
The WAZIHUB (www.wazihub.com) project aims at enabling startups and entrepreneurs to innovate and build low-cost, IoT prototypes using the WAZIUP (www.waziup.org) technology. WAZIHUB’s main objective is to empower affordable and open IoT solution adoption in Africa. The project consortium is formed by 10 African partners and 4 European partners and provides free capacity building and low-cost end-to-end technology.
In the first edition, a total of 117 applications were received (representing more than 400 entrepreneurs) and 31 teams were selected to join the competition.
The selected startups covered a range of sectors such as Agriculture and Farming, Construction, Covid-19 response, Security and Disaster prevention, Health, Smart city and Home automation, with vast potential to create positive change in their communities.
For this second edition, the 30 selected teams will be supported for 15 weeks by the partner hubs in their business development, but also in the technical aspects, particularly development of minimal viable products. Entrepreneurs will learn how to build working prototypes or improve on their solutions with the technical support of our trainers.
Each selected team will receive a Waziup IoT development kit and €200 voucher for any additional requests. These kits will be used to develop their minimal viable products.
Applications are open to developers, engineers, and IoT enthusiasts until december 10th with their existing IoT prototypes or ideas.
A cash prize of €1,000 will be given to the best team of each hub.
Application link: https://forms.gle/qxBxuaAyyGpBJuzPA
For further information contact: [email protected] | https://medium.com/@wazihub/the-wazihub-project-launches-the-second-edition-of-its-innovation-competition-4fb14d3d0d5d | ['Wazihub Iot'] | 2020-11-25 21:43:07.600000+00:00 | ['IoT', 'Prototyping', 'H2020', 'Wazihub', 'Waziup'] |
Want Real Life, Real/igion? | Want Real Life, Real/igion?
Go ahead — one more newsletter won’t hurt you…
At least, this one won’t.
Look: I don’t believe that every random word I write is platinum.
But if you follow Real Life, Real/igion, you’ll get the word when there’s something holy enough to laugh about, human enough to rant about, or something else indescribable.
Because this is real/igion for the rest of us.
We are the congregation of the real world.
RevDrSparky | https://medium.com/notes-on-the-way-up/want-real-life-real-igion-e18f6b90b0e7 | ['Rev Dr Sparky'] | 2020-10-16 17:22:54.713000+00:00 | ['Spirituality', 'Life', 'Humor', 'Religion', 'Community'] |
When Holiday Traditions Become Burdens | Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay
Among the Christmas ornaments I unbox every year are a few handmade gingerbread men, a hole punched through their foreheads with a loop of colorful ribbon threaded through it. My mother made them from balsa wood painted a glossy brown accented with white “frosting,” modeling them after the cookies we made together every year, and sent them out as holiday cards. There’s a cheery holiday greeting penned in silver marker in my mother’s distinctive capital letter print on the back.
My mother adored Christmas, and baking gingerbread men was just one of the cozy rituals she carried out around the holiday — ostensibly for my brother and me, but they fed her too. She kept up the Santa Claus fiction for years after we were old enough to see through it, exclaiming with feigned indignation, “Do I look like an old fat man in a red suit?” when we insisted we knew she was the one filling the stockings. On Christmas Eve she’d read us “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” and then we’d stay on the couch and gaze at our tree for a while in silence, waves of contentment and joy almost tangibly emanating from her. These traditions reinforced our bonds as a little family, which she might have felt was even more important given her unusual (in the mid 70s) status as a divorced woman and single mom struggling to support us on her own.
For years she tweaked the cookie recipe, seeking the Platonic ideal of gingerbread men. Another tablespoon of cloves, light molasses rather than dark, shortening instead of butter — gradually she honed in on her perfect formula, writing down instructions on lined notepaper and copying it for anyone who asked. The cookies — with frosting faces, buttons, mittens, and socks expertly piped in perfect curlicues, zigzags, and buttons — were her holiday calling card, layered with wax paper and packed into tins and gift boxes.
Sometimes family rituals die off slowly. Kids grow up, move out, start their own families, and pick up new traditions that don’t leave room for the old. Parents get older and don’t have the energy to deck the house out in thousands of lights anymore. But sometimes rituals end abruptly. That’s what happened to us. My mother died of cancer about a month after Christmas, right after my 16th birthday. My brother and I went to live with a family friend and his children (our alcoholic father having been rightly deemed unable to care for us), and our little family’s Christmas traditions were no more.
Not that I didn’t try to keep them up. For the next 20 years or so, through living with our uncomfortably blended family, moving into my first apartment on my college campus, and in a series of apartments as a young adult, I was committed to making those cookies every year. I religiously followed my mother’s recipe, dutifully measuring out endless cups of flour, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. I put plates of them out at holiday parties I hosted, brought them as hostess gifts, gave them away to friends, offered them at office holiday potlucks.
And every year I was disappointed. No one seemed to appreciate or enjoy the cookies like I wanted them to. Of course they wouldn’t — for them they were just a holiday treat, not a symbol of a bittersweet memory and a tragic lost childhood. I vividly remember a former boss taking a bite and offering “Great gingerbread!” in a tone of exaggerated enthusiasm, which made me cringe. Was my neediness that obvious?
Even to me, the gingerbread men didn’t seem to taste as good as in my memory. And I had to admit that I found making them boring and annoying. I resented the time it took to shop for the ingredients, mix the dough, roll it out, cut out the cookies, bake the cookies, and frost them, one by one. I got irritated when the cut-out shapes stuck to the cutting board, and I hated cleaning flour and hardened dough off the countertop.
Most significantly, instead of being a comfort, making the cookies only reminded me of everything I had lost. The ritual rang hollow because I was desperately trying to make my holidays into something they weren’t — a facsimile of the lives my peers had, in which they returned to homes with childhood rooms still festooned with posters and stuffed animals, family photos hung on the wall, and parents who made them cocoa and asked what time they should expect them back from the bar, so they didn’t have to worry.
So instead, several years ago, I decided to make gingerbread cake, using a recipe I found on the web. It was much less labor-intensive than the cookies, and in my opinion, more delicious — moist and spicy, ultra-decadent adorned with whipped cream or spread with sweet butter. I started bringing them to family gatherings and parties, and slowly the cake became my own signature and eagerly anticipated treat. One year, distracted while doubling the recipe, I made a mistake with the ratio of wet ingredients to dry, but the luscious result was even better than the original — my own inadvertent modification.
Isn’t that what happens to a lot of holiday food traditions, in a time when family members often scatter far from home and more people live on their own? We adapt them to our own tastes and requirements, giving in to the realities of limited free time and the difficulty of tracking down particular ingredients in the part of the world where we end up. I figured that even with my fairly radical reworking, I was still keeping up the heart of my family ritual — baking something I enjoy and offering it with love and gratitude.
Christmas will always remind me of loss — the loss of my mother, the life we had, and the life I thought I was going to have. I still get a live tree every year, just like we did when I was growing up, and I tear up as I unwrap the oldest ornaments, remembering the stories behind them. And yet I am compelled to have a tree and make the gingerbread, year after year. Because traditions and rituals not only connect us to the past, they also link us to the future, setting the stage for a time when we’ll be remembered in a bite of spicy cake, the swirl of an icing flourish, or the snap of a cookie.
. | https://medium.com/@heatherkenny/when-holiday-traditions-become-burdens-10d48fffb41d | ['Heather Kenny'] | 2020-12-22 17:01:41.759000+00:00 | ['Personal Essay', 'Tradition', 'Baking', 'Holidays', 'Food'] |
How To Send Images Into Flask API via URL | After a little introduction, let’s start our project without wasting time. First of all, we will need some Python libraries to do our operations.
pip install Flask pip install pillow
After installing the necessary libraries, let’s design an API endpoint that will take as a input the image URLs with the HTTP-POST method.
By using the “<path:url>” specifier, we ensure that the string that will come after “send-image/” is taken as whole.
If you run this script and test it on your browser, the result will be as follows. | https://medium.com/python-in-plain-english/how-to-send-images-into-flask-api-via-url-7d4be51e8130 | ['Burak Şenol'] | 2020-12-18 19:07:16.123000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Python', 'Flask', 'Image Processing', 'API'] |
I’m Now More Aware of TV Show and Movie Ratings | I’ve always been a goody-two-shoes type person, always following the rules, doing what I was told. Of course, there were times I deviated from this, but whenever I got into trouble, I would always feel guilty and full of dread. One thing I eventually refrained from doing was cursing. A lot of people around me did it but for some reason I always felt uneasy whenever I heard it or spoke it and I didn’t understand why I was so sensitive to it. When it came to violence and sex on TV, I would cringe, but in my teens and early twenties, I began to question whether this made me childish. No one else seemed to have an issue with these things, at least not the people around me, so what was my issue?
Eventually, I started to sink into watching whatever caught my fancy, even if this included an abhorrent amount of violence and sex. If I’m an adult, I should be mature enough to watch Mature Adult rated content, right? As I exposed myself to more TV and movies, I began to become desensitized to flashes of vulgar images and frequent cursing. But there was always something in the back of my mind that told me this didn’t quite match my morals, that this was somehow tainting my spirit. Still, I brushed these thoughts aside and continued watching whatever caught my interest, regardless of ethics.
I don’t believe this is a good thing. Does being a mature adult mean you should be okay with watching gratuitous sex and gory violence all the time? For me, the storyline is the most important thing, yet now I feel I can’t watch a lot of MA-rated TV because I have to weave around images I’d rather not take into my dreams at night. All throughout my life I have wished to be less sensitive and, as a result, I’ve spent a lot of time trying to force myself to be desensitized so I could “fit in” with my age group, but all I’ve done is sacrifice my own morals.
I told myself it’s just make-believe, it’s just an escape from the real world, but in reality, we take what we watch inside of ourselves and it can and does change us. In recent years I started to become more aware of the ratings of everything I watch. I even scroll to the parental guidance on IMDB before I decide to watch a movie, or even watch the trailer to see what vibe I get before deciding to sink my head into someone else’s fantasy. What is okay for someone else may not be okay for my spirit and I think this is important. People consistently want to fit in and be seen as mature and cool but when you go deeper, what really are you doing to yourself by allowing society to make decisions for you?
When going to the movies was a thing (not anymore), I realized how strong the impact became for me. Theaters are designed to take you away from the real world, which is what we want. The screen is so large you feel yourself falling inside it and the sound is so loud you feel like the voices are directly next to you. We are transported away for a couple hours to forget about our trying lives. When I left the movie theater, I always had this sort of drunken stupor type feeling. If I went in the afternoon, the strike of the sun would bore into my dilated pupils and I’d squint, finding it hard to shuffle my feet forward as I “regained consciousness” into reality. I realize, I don’t like that feeling, even if the movie was good. This feeling was magnified when I watched movies with an excessive amount of violence and I realized I would sometimes have nightmares. For example, I could get into John Wick 1 and 2 and overlook the violence but when I saw 3 in theaters, it completely shocked my spirit. I’m not saying everything has to be G-rated, but I don’t believe things have to be so extreme all that time and I don’t believe that you are mature just because you can sit in front of a screen and watch a series of violent images and near constant cursing.
Take the Netflix original TV show, Siempre Bruja. I was watching it with my mother and sister when we realized that the show was automatically dubbed in English and included curse words that were not in either the Spanish dubbing, subtitles, nor the English subtitles. Perhaps Netflix wanted to appeal to the younger audience since it’s imperative that the F-word be dropped in everything to prove its worthiness nowadays. Siempre Bruja was not MA-rated so I suppose Neflix had to make up for that? I don’t know. This is just my opinion on the matter, and I felt it was unnecessary. If there’s no point cursing, if it doesn’t move the story forward in any way, to me it’s just offensive and isn’t realistic. If shows and movies aim to include all walks of life, not everyone curses every two words.
A lot of things shown and heard in MA-rated TV and R-rated movies are unnecessary and are just for shock value. Have we come to the point where guarding one’s spirit is pointless? Should we disrespect ourselves just because society says we’re mature enough to take it? I find that I can enjoy things better if I don’t have to be on guard, wondering what will be thrown in my face without regard to my morals. Panning the camera away from severe violence isn’t a bad thing, we still get the picture, but for some reason this isn’t a thing anymore since we’re supposed to be more mature than people were back in the day, able to show and take on whatever, despite the harshness of it.
I realized that the message of whatever I’m watching is the most important thing to me. Toy Story 4 had a great message about moving forward from the past, Zootopia delved into the repercussions of prejudice. These child movies hold important advice for any audience without splashing it with over the top content. The world has somehow taught us to abandon our innocence as adults, that as a child our innocence is meant to be protected but once we reach adulthood that innocence must be disregarded. I don’t know why that is and I’ve realize that I don’t want to go along with it. Every adult’s innocence should still be preserved because it keeps us human. When we go around watching all this stuff, playing video games where killing isn’t a big deal, we’re being desensitized, becoming less aware of the compassionate part of being a human being.
So, when I see all of the streaming services’ MA-rated TV shows, I don’t rush to watch them because I know what I can and can’t handle. I will do deeper research to see if I want to try it out and then decide if it’s for me. I no longer view myself as childish for choosing this route. If anything, it’s mature to make your own decisions about what content is good or bad for you rather than allowing society to make this choice for you.
If I have to fast-forward to get to the storyline, it’s not really worth it to me. It’s all about why you’re watching something. If mature adult content helps you disappear from your life, then by all means, do what you gotta do, but if it’s just a distraction that you don’t agree with, you don’t have to put yourself through it. In the end, it’s about knowing who you are and standing by that even in a world that tries it’s hardest to alter your perception and meaning of life.
Note: This post was originally published on December 15th, 2020 on my blog https://jordanthedreamer.com/ | https://medium.com/@jordanthedreamer/im-now-more-aware-of-tv-show-and-movie-ratings-aa18f2008931 | ['Jordan Anderson'] | 2020-12-21 19:04:35.540000+00:00 | ['TV Shows', 'Reflections', 'Netflix', 'Movies'] |
Can NBA Star Players “turn it on” In The Playoffs? | As seen from the graph, it is extremely difficult for top players on a playoff team to actually improve their performance in the playoffs. Every player except for seven, experience a drop in PER once they reached the playoffs.
My calculation is based off of the change in PER for each year separately, and then averaged. This provided an accurate representation of whether a player could improve from their regular season to the post season, rather than a career comparison of regular season PER and playoff PER.
All things considered, a decrease in players PER should have been expected. The main reason for this being that the competition is far stronger in the playoffs. Firstly, players are playing against the best opposing teams and players in the league. Secondly, a playoff series gives more time to scout opponents, thus improving defense as a whole.
To further prove this I also looked at a statistic called Efficiency (EFF). This is a very simple all encompassing statistic which is essentially a summation of counting statistics.
NBA’s efficiency rating: (PTS + REB + AST + STL + BLK − ((FGA − FGM) + (FTA − FTM) + TO))
Considering that players in the above group averaged 33 and 35 regular season and playoff minutes respectively, we should see an improvement in the playoffs to all their counting statistics and their EFF. As seen from the graph below, that is not the case for most star players in the NBA today.
There are two things that really stand out when looking at this figure. One is that even though 18 out of 20 players on this list saw an increase in minutes in the playoffs, only six increased their EFF. And second, players 2pt and 3pt field goal percentages are significantly lower. Giannis Antetokounmpo is shooting more than 5% worse from two, Damian Lillard, and Lou Williams are shooting more than 5% worse from three, and Steph Curry, Kevin Durant and James Harden are all shooting over 3% worse from three. It is surprising to see some of the leagues all-time efficient players (besides Lou Williams), become more human in the playoffs.
For Draymond Green and Lebron James there is feasible explanation as to why their EFF was able to improve. These two players are notorious for “dogging it” in the regular season before deciding to play harder in the playoffs. Since there is quite a wide spread agreement by NBA media on this issue, I accepted it as a plausible explanation.
Kawhi Leonard on the other hand is an anomaly. It seems he is one of the only star players to actually raise the level of his game in April. Kawhi has been able to improve his 2pt and 3pt shooting efficiency in the playoffs. It is incredibly impressive to think Kawhi was able to do this shooting more 2-pointers, 3-pointers, and free throws per game in the playoff than in the regular season, before the start of the 2020 season.
In the 2019 playoffs, only 51% of Kawhi’s three pointers were assisted while shooting 38% fg. In the regular season, 66% of his threes were assisted while shooting 37%. Kawhi managed to improve his three point percentage taking more threes overall, but even crazier, taking more pull up threes.
Since it is now clear that it is a difficult task for players to raise their game in the playoffs, it is time to check how my man Kyle Lowry fared in the playoffs compared to his peers, to determine if he has misstepped in the playoffs.
Below is the same group of 20 players career on-off statistics during the playoffs.
On-off is a teams net rating while you are on the floor vs. off of the floor. For example, Lowry’s career playoffs on-off is 12.7. That meant that the Raptors net rating was 12.7 points better when he was on the floor. To the contrary, Demar DeRozan’s career playoff on-off is -12, meaning the Raptors had a 12 points worse net rating when he was on the court.
In my view, this graph is what actually paints the correct picture of the Kyle Lowry playoff experience. Although Lowry’s statistics suffered in the playoffs, the Raptors were always a better team when he was on the court. He ranks fourth in this elite pool of players. Lowry is doing so many things to contribute to winning that are not effectively captured in most statistics. This list effectively captures how important a players is to their own team. There is an argument to be made that Lowry is more important to the Raptors than the players below him have been to their respective teams in their career. Kyle Lowry has always been an unbelievable playoff performer, and his championship run in the 2019 playoffs only helps confirm this case. | https://medium.com/the-sports-scientist/can-nba-star-players-turn-it-on-in-the-playoffs-490b0c4d0fcc | ['Danny Leese'] | 2020-05-16 19:11:50.776000+00:00 | ['NBA Playoffs', 'Nba Analytics', 'Analytics', 'Basketball Analytics', 'Kyle Lowry'] |
Neha Kakkar is an Indian Musical artist whose songs are most viral among the people. | Neha Kakkar is an Indian Musical artist whose songs are most viral among the people. Neha gained popularity when, she appeared in season 2 of Indian Idol. Thereafter, she got success & started her journey as singer. As per find information, she had also judged Singing show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa L’il Champs & Indian Idol.
Today Neha is rocking in Bollywood whose many songs crossed million views on Youtube. In the further article we are going to create a list about such as songs of Neha Kakkar which are most popular among the people. You can download these all songs through given sources.
Neha Kakkar New Hit Songs List 2018–19
O Saki Saki — Batla House
O Saki Saki is one of the hit sing by Neha Kakkar which official video has been published on 14 July 2019. Today this song has crossed more than 114 Million views on Youtube. The song is sung by Neha Kakkar & Tulsi Kumar & B Praak. Tanishk Bagchi panned lyrics of this song & Norah Fatehi playing belly dancer role in this song. You can download O Saki Saki Mp3 song through Gaana, JioSaavn, Pagalworld, etc.
Mile Ho Tum Hamko
Mile Ho Tum Hamko is one of the most popular song by Neha Kakkar which has crossed more than 795 Million views yet. This song is sung by Neha Kakkar & Tony Kakkar & Kiran played flute in this song. Tony Kakkar panned lyrics of this song & given music of this song.
Chamma Chamma — Fraud Saiyaan
Chamma Chamma is one of the most viral song sung by Neha Kakkar, Romy, Arun and Ikka. Elli Evram starring in this song who played an item girl role in this song. This song was published on Youtube by Tips Official on 15 January 2019. As per source, more than 154+ views crossed on this song. You can download Chamma Chamma Mp3 song through Gaana, JioSaavn, Pagalworld, etc.
Dilbar Dilbar — Satyameva Jayate
Dilbar — Dilbar song also listed in the list of one of the best song by Neha Kakkar. This song is sung by Neha Kakkar, Dhvani Bhanushali, Ikka & lyrics have written by Shabbir Ahmed, Ikka & music given by Tanishk Bagchi. Naveen played flute in this song while Shomu Seal played Guitars for this song. You download Dilbar Dilbar Mp3 song through Gaana, JioSaavn, Pagalworld, etc.
Coca Cola — Luka Chuppi
Coca Cola is also one of the famous song by Neha Kakkar which is sung by Neha Kakkar & Tony Kakkar. This song is from Luka Chuppi movie in which Kartik A & Kriti S starring. Tonny & Mellow D panned lyrics of this song & Tanishk Bagchi recreated music of this song. To download Dilbar Dilbar Mp3 song you can visit at Gaana, JioSaavn, Pagalworld, etc.
Maahi ve — Wajah Tum Ho
Maahi Ve also listed in the “list of Best Neha Kakkar Song”. This song was published on Youtube on 22 December 2016 which has crossed 106 Million views yet. Zareen Khan playing lead role in this song & its lyrics have written by Kumaar & music given by Gourav Roshin. To download Maahi ve Mp3 song you can visit at Gaana, JioSaavn, Pagalworld, etc.
Oh Humsafar
Oh Humsafar also is one of the most viral song by Neha Kakkar which official video has been published by T-Series. This song was published on 17 April 2019 which has crossed more than 277 Million views yet. This song’s music given by Tony Kakkar & lyrics written by Manoj Muntashir & song directed by Sunita Radia. To download Oh HumSafar Mp3 song you can visit at Gaana, Itunes, JioSaavn & Wynk music.
Gal Ban Gayi
Gal Ban Gayi is a Bangra Rap song which was published on 7 September 2016. Urvashi Rautela & Vidyut Jammwal are starring in this song & song has crossed more than 100 Million views yet. This song is sung by Meet Bros Ft. Sukhbir & Neha Kakkar & Honey Singh rapped in this song while Kumaar panned lyrics of this song.
Note: You Can Download all Songs of Neha Kakkar through Wikilistia. | https://medium.com/@wikilistiaa/neha-kakkar-is-an-indian-musical-artist-whose-songs-are-most-viral-among-the-people-193bfa60a7aa | ['Naveen Kumar'] | 2019-08-09 05:16:07.227000+00:00 | ['Indian Songs', 'Song', 'Bollywood', 'Hit Hindi Song', 'Neha Kakkar'] |
This is Why It’s Hard to Form Good Habits | This is Why It’s Hard to Form Good Habits
Photo by Toni Koraza on Unsplash
You can form a positive habit in 66 days, according to a study from a European Journal of Social Psychology.
Individuals may take longer, while some may never form a healthy habit. Your actions come from the subconscious mind, and it’s philosophically questionable if you have any control over your habits. But sticking to popular science, you can form a new habit if you try hard and iterate your day-to-day behavior.
Your bad and good habits come from repetition and the environment.
Forming a good habit is not impossible when you have the right support system. Imagine if reading books is as socially cool as alcohol or cigarettes? Would people read more? Would you read more?
The world has a powerful support system for toxic behaviors, which easily builds into destructive habits.
You are your worst enemy. Nothing can hurt you as much as you can hurt yourself, and forming bad habits proves that it’s easy to fall into this trap.
Most people soon become aware of how their destructive ways create personal problems for themselves and people close to them. Addicts steal and lie just to fulfill their needs. Cheaters lie to cover their tracks and seek further excitement that leads to wrecked homes and families.
Smokers would light up a cigarette at the lung cancer ward.
Photo by Michael Kilcoyne on Unsplash
Do you have to live in a spiral of self-destruction?
The answer is no. You don’t.
You can escape the rat race of bad habits and questionable decisions. The strategy to crack down on bad habits is simple, but its practice is beyond complex. Most people fail soon, feel bad, and then give up to avoid the feeling of inadequacy.
Giving up on your decision is a power move against yourself.
Power moves are instant gratification that can only lead to more bad habits and overall destruction. Conversely, positive habits are a long game. Change comes from repetition, and you have to iterate something every day until you’re ready to change.
Religiously, meticulously, passionately, and crazily you’d have to practice what you want to see in the mirror every day, with no days off.
Do you know why?
Because you’ve been practicing the bad habits the same way. Smoking? Hell yes. Alcohol? Hell yeah, with some more. Porn? Hell yes, that too. Pornhub’s stats have to come from someone ridiculously watching porn.
You’ve been practicing your bad habits regularly, and that’s an obvious pattern. You’ve conditioned yourself to like all the bad habits, and your body rewards you with the constant urge to do some more of it.
Practice makes perfect goes both ways.
Concept loosely borrowed from “How Habits Work” by Charles Duhigg
Break the cycle and commit to building the person you’d love to see in the mirror every morning.
Building healthy habits is easier said than done, but it’s possible.
You have the power, even though it doesn't feel that way all the time. Focus on repeating one good habit you're trying to form every single day. Exercise in the morning, study a new language, read books, practice gold swings and fishing throws.
Avoid triggers that spiral your down a destructive path and build on triggers that invoke the habit you’re trying to form.
“It is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them.” ―Benjamin Franklin
Your body will start craving the healthy habit after a few months of continual repetition.
Lose weight, read more, create more, and live a happier life.
Get a gym membership, and exercise every day. You may feel bad at first, but after two months, you start craving weights, running, and physical activity.
I read every morning and have a kindle next to my bed. Reading is a cool habit, and I enjoy it more than ever before. Today, I crave my 20min reading sessions before I get up and punch the day in the face.
Otherwise, I’d feel unaccomplished and drawn to alone time.
I stopped smoking cigarettes after 10 years of being an addict. Smoking was torture, but giving up on it was hell. I’m still craving the nicotine and the feeling of holding a cigarette, and still get triggered to light up a cigarette when I see someone enjoying one.
I change environments when I feel myself craving bad habits.
Practice makes perfect, and sometimes it pays to stay away from the devil.
I don’t drink anymore, and that habit was easier to drop with COVID restrictions. | https://medium.com/better-advice/this-is-why-its-hard-to-form-good-habits-5f1f8208433e | ['Toni Koraza'] | 2020-12-23 10:47:48.382000+00:00 | ['Personal Development', 'Habits', 'Advice', 'Life', 'Personal Growth'] |
How to add link inside text in iOS | You might have built Terms of Service page, or Privacy Notes, or Help Center screen in your Android app using the article I wrote a while ago
however you just remembered your company has also an iOS app and now you need to build the same feature there.
Here’s what we’re going to build
You might already come across other popular articles on that topic, and perhaps know two possible approaches to take:
1) UILabel
2) UITextView
Handling clicks on text with UITextView approach is a bit simple and UITextView itself has a more complex API so going UILabel way would be slightly easier.
So here’s what you gotta do:
First, add label. Use stroryboards, add views programmatically or possibly SwiftUI. Doesn’t matter.
Once you get it, you’re ready to set a text to it.
let text = "Need help? Visit the "
let link = "Help Center"
let fullText = "\(text) \(link)"
let attributedString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: fullText) label.attributedText = attributedString
You label now shows a text but it looks plain… yet. NSMutableAttributedString will allow to style text to have a link-alike look.
let linkRange = NSRange(location: text.count + 1, length: link.count) attributedString.addAttribute(
.foregroundColor,
value: UIColor.blue,
range: linkRange)
Using .foregroundColor attribute, you can color a part of the text of the label in the color you like. I calculated the range to color by splitting my original text into two pieces so it’s easy to find a beginning of the text and the length however there could be a number of ways to do that.
The last thing is to make the same part that is colored to respond on click events. UILabel doesn’t have similar to UIButton convenient click handling API so you’d need to do some extra work which is adding a gesture recognizer and setting label to be able to react on user interactions.
label.addGestureRecognizer(UITapGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: #selector(handleLabelTap)))
label.isUserInteractionEnabled = true
Adding the gesture recognizer will make the entire label react on click so here we need to write a little logic to detect if the point user touched with the finger belong to one of the characters/glyphs that are part of the text that should behave like a link. Here’s the code.
@objc func handleLabelTap(gesture: UITapGestureRecognizer) {
if gesture.state == .ended {
guard let attributedString = label1.attributedText else { return } let textStorage = NSTextStorage(attributedString: attributedString)
let layoutManager = NSLayoutManager()
textStorage.addLayoutManager(layoutManager)
let textContainer = NSTextContainer(size: label.bounds.size)
layoutManager.addTextContainer(textContainer) let location = gesture.location(in: label) let characterIndex = layoutManager.characterIndex(for: location, in: textContainer, fractionOfDistanceBetweenInsertionPoints: nil) if characterIndex >= linkRange.location && characterIndex < linkRange.location + linkRange.length {
doWhateverYouWant()
}
}
}
NSLayoutManager here is the class that allows to access to the position of the character (with a help of two additional classes: NSTextContainer that essentially defines an area on the screen text is rendered in, and NSTextStorage that allows to hook attributedString to the layout manager). Knowing the point from the gesture we can tell if it’s one of the characters inside the range we used for the coloring link and if so, invoke a method that would perform help center action or anything else you’d need that label to do.
private func doWhateverYouWant() {
print("The link was tapped, and I can do whatever I want now!")
}
That’s it! If you need to have a working code, I have a little github repo with what I have written here (+bonus UITextView implementation of the same feature that used to work until I broke it so feel free to propose fixes if curios).
Hopefully now you can build clickable texts in both iOS and Android. Thanks for the read! | https://medium.com/@kirillsuslov/how-to-add-link-inside-text-in-ios-21733acb6ea1 | ['Kirill Suslov'] | 2020-12-14 03:37:53.527000+00:00 | ['iOS', 'iOS App Development', 'Development', 'Xcode'] |
How to Build a Resilient Mindset | Photo by Torsten Dederichs on Unsplash
Resilience is a word that gets thrown around a lot these days but the concept isn’t particularly new. Throughout human history we have had to face many types of adversity and rely on our resilience and grit to survive. Whether it’s been running away from sabre-tooth tigers, facing natural disasters, dealing with food shortages, fighting wars or recovering from vicious diseases, human beings are actually pretty good at facing up to these challenges.
One of the key qualities that has allowed us to flourish as a species is resilience — this is essentially the ability to deal with difficult situations and overcome adversity. Here’s one of my favourite quotes that sums this up nicely:
“You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!” Rocky Balboa
In the modern world resilience is something that we should all seek to cultivate. There are certainly plenty of challenges associated with modern life so thinking about how we can increase our ability to handle setbacks and difficulty is a wise use of our time.
In my opinion, one of the finest examples of how to build a strong resilient mindset can be found within the philosophy of Stoicism.
Stoicism and resilience
The Stoic Philosophers of Ancient Greece and Rome were experts on resilience and they had a wonderful approach to developing it. The Stoics used to practise adversity in order to prepare for future adversity. They would deliberately expose themselves to difficulty so that they could “toughen up”.
We know that going to the gym can help us to train our bodies, but where do we go to train our minds? The Stoics came up with creative ways to challenge themselves in order to do this. They would expose themselves to the cold and heat. They would fast from food and water, sleep on hard surfaces and push their bodies with physical activity too. In fact, there was one particular Stoic Philosopher (Cato) who would deliberately wear outrageous clothes to practise feeling shame. He would do this as a way to test his mind and focus on how he responded to feeling embarrassed.
The concept is quite simple. The more we expose ourselves to discomfort and challenging situations, the more comfortable we become with being uncomfortable. Ultimately, doing difficult things makes us more resilient.
How challenges can help us to grow
We can have a lot of fun with this idea and start to push ourselves in creative ways just like the Stoics. Along with pushing our bodies in the gym (and the great outdoors), we should also think about how we can push our minds. I believe that by completing a balanced mix of interesting challenges, we can become more resilient people.
Here are some Stoic challenges for you to try:
1. How about taking a cold shower? Working with your mental resistance to the cold can be tricky (which is actually great for our mindsets). Too easy? How about an ice bath?
2. Why not wear something outrageous (like the Stoic Cato) and strut around trying not to get embarrassed?
3. What about sleeping on the floor to test your ability to endure discomfort? No pillows, no duvet, just the cold, hard floor… The Stoics would be proud of you!
4. Why not skip the odd meal and try intermittent fasting? Dealing with hunger can be quite the challenge and a great way to push ourselves.
Taking it further
These Stoic challenges can be further developed by looking for interesting ways to leave our comfort zones. Every one of us is different and therefore will be challenged by different things. For example, if you have a fear of spiders, why not play around with this fear and exposure yourself to spiders? You can turn this into a challenge. If you have a fear of heights, working with this fear and spending time in tall buildings/high places can be a great way to mentally challenge yourself too. Think about what things you would find difficult and deliberately seek them out.
I’ve personally used this method of self-development to great effect in my life. I used to be riddled with severe and debilitating anxiety and was constantly battling panic attacks. This was a very difficult time for me but using challenges as a way to learn more about myself completely changed everything and helped me to rebalance my mind. I’ve actually written a book about this whole journey. It’s called How to Be Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable — 43 Weird and Wonderful Ways to Build a Strong Resilient Mindset.
In the book I share the Stoic-inspired challenges I have been doing. Here are a few examples — I ran my first marathon, completed an obstacle course and climbed mountains. I learned how to solve a Rubik’s cube in under a minute, fold complicated origami models and pick locks. I slept in unusual places, ate strange food and queued for absolutely no purpose other than to test my mindset. I’ve also been learning Japanese and can now have a conversation in the language without my brain hurting too much (well, almost). I’ve taken ice-baths, swam in the British sea in winter and have started to meditate. I’ve fasted, got up ridiculously early and faced a massive fear of needles by getting acupuncture.
Completing these challenges (and many more) has helped me to change my relationship with my anxiety. I’ve learned what tools and tricks work for me and have practised dealing with adversity and discomfort in many settings. If I can stop myself from freaking out whilst hanging on a rope 200 meters above the ground, I now know that I can do the same in a less intimidating environment. The art of challenging myself has completely changed my life.
The Stoic Philosophers have laid the groundwork with this concept and it’s now up to us to take it further and bring it into our lives. I truly believe that stepping outside of our comfort zones is a fantastic way to build resilience and I would highly recommend that you give it a go. Why not create a list of your own challenges right now and start working through them?
I’m confident that you can have a lot of fun with this whilst learning loads in the process. Good luck! And don’t forget:
“We prepare for adversity by practising adversity.” | https://medium.com/@ben-aldridge/how-to-build-a-resilient-mindset-99da74d58fbd | ['Ben Aldridge'] | 2020-12-17 17:19:26.453000+00:00 | ['Stoicism', 'Resilience', 'Philosophy', 'Challenge'] |
Econometrics 101 for data scientists | People in data science are typically interested in working with micro-scale data to advance domain specific business problems. However, there is a huge opportunity for them to break into economics and social science problems at a macro scale which are traditionally subject matters of social science disciplines. Econometrics is probably the closest domain for data scientist to get in that direction. The purpose of this article is to introduce — to data scientists coming from different backgrounds — some basic concepts and tools used in econometrics and how they relate to data science practices as we know it. This is mostly an introductory post scratching the surface but if there is enough interest I might write more posts with specific tools and use cases.
What is econometrics?
There are basically two kinds of economists: those who develop theories and those who test those theories. Econometricians are the latter kinds of people who use statistical techniques to understand and explain social phenomena that has economic dimensions.
One example of econometrics use case is testing the hypothesis that the length of education has anything to do with wage rate and to be able to quantify that relationship using a combination of economic theory and data. Another example would be measuring price elasticity of gasoline demand — i.e. sensitivity of gasoline consumption to a change in market price — using historical data.
What problems typically econometrics solves?
Econometrics deal in the domain of all the societal problems that has anything to do with economics. The domain largely deals with macro-economic phenomena such as employment, wage, economic growth, environment, agriculture, inequality etc. Here’s just a small sample of such macro-economic issues from the Journal of Econometrics:
The econometrics toolbox
With some exceptions, most things in econometrics toolbox should be familiar to data scientists or any computational scientists. Here is a sample of some commonly used tools:
Descriptive statistics (measures of central tendency and dispersion)
Inferential statistics and hypothesis testing
Time series modeling and forecasting
Regressions of all kinds
Causal inference methods
In addition to statistical models, economists use a wide range of mathematical models too. In fact, economists are often “accused” that they are using too much mathematics in modeling human behavior. There is widespread criticism of the discipline that they try to mimic deterministic models of natural systems to describe complex human behavioral problems that are rather unpredictable or probabilistic, to say the least.
And last but not least, arguably the most important and powerful tool in econometrics toolbox is the Panel Data Models. This topic deserves a separate post but I will briefly touch upon below.
Panel data models
If you haven’t heard about “panel data” or “longitudinal data” before then here is some description if it. A panel data is basically a multi-dimensional data of an observation that is measured repeatedly over time. In other words, it’s a dataset where multiple variables are measured, over time, on the same units — such as individuals, organizations, households, city, country.
This is how a panel data looks like. [source]
So as the name suggests, a panel data model is a statistical tool that provides information on the difference across individuals and over time. The following 4 are the most popular kinds of panel data models:
Pooled OLS
Fixed effects
Random effects
Mixed effects
Understanding each of these models require some discussion and mathematical formulation. This link provides a nice discussion on these modeling frameworks.
Some resources for data scientists
Econometrics with R: an open source book with theories along with R implementation of econometrics models
Principles of Econometrics With R: another book with R implementation. I think this book might be more accessible to beginners in this field
In this source there are panel data modeling related resources in one place
Those who likes to watch rather than read, here’s a couple of YouTube channels on simple explanation of panel data models, their estimators and associated codes in R
Last words
Data scientists have a great edge in diving into social and environmental issues that society is facing today. They should not feel worried that this is a domain of economists and they are the outsiders. I’d rather say, data scientists with diverse background and outside box thinking capability are rather better positioned to describe and predict societal problems than people trained in traditional disciplines.
I’m on Twitter if you want to get in touch with questions. | https://towardsdatascience.com/econometrics-101-for-data-scientists-584f4f879c4f | ['Mahbubul Alam'] | 2020-02-06 03:12:46.511000+00:00 | ['Statistics', 'Machine Learning', 'Economics', 'Data Science', 'Modeling'] |
5 apps to champion Knowledge Management and why they didn’t play out for an architecture company | 5 apps to champion Knowledge Management and why they didn’t play out for an architecture company
And what we did about it
Knowledge Management is important in the success of your company. As Forbes says in this article:
It facilitates decision-making capabilities, builds learning organizations by making learning routine, and stimulates cultural change and innovation.
Behemoth companies have famously invested in KM solutions and their projects are now taught in the best business schools. See CEMEX Way.
If you are a growing startup or a team with remote collaborators and this concept does not ring a bell it’s time to get on with it! Little time invested in knowledge sharing may go a long way if done right.
A bit of context.
Earlier this year the company I work for was struggling. BIMmx, a small architect of record company of 1 year, had been withstanding steady growth and developing loads of new systems to contain ongoing projects. Communicating new solutions within the team was getting harder by the day.
After an interesting thought and design process we arrived at a decision. Finding or developing a central management system for managing company knowledge was necessary to enhance information flow within the team. Read more about this process here.
This is not your typical list post.
The following analysis serves a specific purpose: reviewing existing tools to find out if they could solve our KM needs. By sharing this I wish to convey thoughts we had while considering alternatives to later develop a solution.
These are the features deemed important for our solution and the ones considered in the evaluation.
UX
Considers usability and function. How quickly could a new user onboard the platform? Is the solution clear enough that someone without context understands it?
Flexibility
Know-how exists in several formats. Some popular ones for an architecture office are .dwg, .rvt, and .skp files (all generally in large files). A flexible platform would allow management of any kind of file formats: video, GIF, file, spreadsheet, link, and more.
Organization
In the KM platform, are documents organized by file type? By service? By department? By date of creation? Having the possibility to manage know-how by several layers helps users in the retrieval of data.
Scalability
How likely is it that this tool scales into something else? APIs, integrations, and internal tools are great to keep developing the system.
Maintenance
How is data updated? Is bulk-changing it possible? All documents will be in a constant feedback loop so being able to edit, save, and keep track of changes is essential.
Feasibility
Economic and engineering aspects of the solutions come in this part. Would everyone need a new account to use this? Could this platform work connsidering our current team?
The contenders.
Next up are the top 5 solutions considered and why they didn’t work out for us.
Trello | https://medium.com/swlh/5-apps-to-champion-knowledge-management-and-why-they-didnt-play-out-for-an-architecture-company-49a30449530a | ['Sebastian Murillo'] | 2020-01-29 17:22:26.096000+00:00 | ['Knowledge Management', 'Innovation', 'Design Thinking', 'No Code', 'Airtable'] |
An Excerpt from Light on the Pond Scum: A Memoir | “You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.” Anne Lamott
To My Inner Child
Several years ago, I decided to do some “inner child” work in an attempt to heal some of the hurts that I still carry with me from my past. This was an activity recommended in the book Reconciliation: Healing the Inner Child by Thich Nhat Hahn, a teacher that I had been following for a number of years. The healing practice “combines the two practices of writing a letter and listening to what the child has to say. In doing this practice, it’s helpful to ask the child, ‘How did you feel?’ rather than reviewing the details of all that happened to you as a child. And also to ask, ‘What do you want from the adult that we’ve become?’” [1]
I started by writing a letter to my four-year-old self. At that age I had already experienced a great loss as this was the year that my mother, my brother, and I had left my father behind in South America. My fatherless self continued to suffer for many decades, and I hoped healing was in my future if I did this exercise.
I wrote to young Julie that I was alive, that I was a mother now, that I was a teacher, and that I was doing OK. I wrote that I knew her life had been hard, but life has gotten easier in my time. I asked her if there was anything that I could do for her.
Then I sat down a bit later and allowed her to write back to me. I just let my pen flow without much intentional
thought, and she wrote through my pen onto the paper, “Hello, I’m glad you are alive at that age. In fact, I am shocked that you are alive! I really didn’t think you could be. I am glad that you have taken care of us. The one thing you could do for me, I’d like a stuffed animal on the bed. I didn’t get to have one in my time. Can we have one?”
I was stunned. I felt bad that I didn’t have a stuffed animal on my bed, but I also felt like my young self was proud, proud of what we had done, that we had survived so many decades. So, I put a wonderful stuffed Teddy Bear on my pillow that day.
Growing Up
Some people never really grow up and some people don’t get to be children at all. Many of us have been raised in
homes that were not so conducive to becoming healthy and successful adults.
When parents are not there to help children grow up, there is a significant impact on their psyche, self-confidence, and self-acceptance. Parents who are absent, distracted, and even neglectful can create trauma because children grow up feeling unloved, struggling to deal with chaos, inconsistency and stress. One Reddit forum called Raised by Narcissists has 622,000 members and adds around 10,000 new members each week. Many adults raised in such a home feel as though they are most likely ruined for life. They have very little hope of change or improvement as they get older because they believe it’s too late to get what they needed as a child. Many feel stuck, and they tend to repeat the same patterns over and over again with relationship, career, financial, and lifestyle issues. Even when they reach out for help, there may not be anything out there that feels like a solution.
I speak from experience.
I grew up in a world of crazy moves, changes, and loss, which often made me feel completely invisible and
unimportant. I was twelve years old when I learned that my mother had gotten married over the weekend, had not told me, and what I thought was a family trip was actually her honeymoon! I felt so betrayed, and I remember thinking,How could she get married and not tell me?I literally shut down. I lost all faith in her. Emotional walls went up and stayed there. I didn’t have a real conversation with her for the near four years they were married. All I could think was, How could you? I am compelled to write my story because I’ve many other women who were hurt, damaged and discouraged by the type of upbringing that I grew up with and experienced. I hear these types of stories many times a year from the clients that I work with now as a life coach.
Often people tell me of their mother wounds or difficult marriages, terrible loneliness and feelings of not being
enough. When I speak about ways to become who you want to become in spite of your past, I speak from experience. I grew up with many different feelings that kept me down, lost and discouraged for years. I grew up afraid, feeling alone and unloved, invisible and unimportant and betrayed. There are many reasons for this, as you will learn. To some extent, this came from my parents’ own needs to be who they are. I now see my story with more compassion than I ever did. With forgiveness, and understanding. But it wasn’t always that way.
Even though some time periods in life seem like they are about just getting by, we can use the ‘mud’ of those hard times to create the “lotus flowers” of our next era or phase. The mud represents the hard stuff, the struggles when we don’t know what we are doing or where our lives are going. The lotus flower symbolizes the good times, the gifts that arrive when we least expect them. We learn from what we endure, if we are willing to look deeply at ourselves and at what has been our trial.
A Case for Hope
In spite of how you might feel, I believe that your upbringing, your losses, don’t have to determine the rest of your life. I know now that with a hand to hold, a mentor or a coach, and people to look to for help, we can crawl out of the darkness we’ve experienced and come out the other side much better off than we ever believed possible. We can surprise our four-year-old selves!
Many intelligent, creative, capable people feel stuck either in the past or in life because of their own experiences. The world needs these strong, courageous folks today, and I believe if we can transform, we can get unstuck and grow into the people we want to be.
Change takes work and persistence, but we aren’t doomed to remain as we are forever. I now work with women who have suffered and are trying to get unstuck in their lives so they can move forward. As a wellness coach, I focus primarily on issues of well-being for businesswomen, helping them learn effective self-care that will support their accomplishments in their businesses. It has been so powerful to see what listening and being there for someone can do.
My lesson from this life and these years of self-discovery can be summed up in this concept from Buddhist philosophy — the idea that where there is no mud, no lotus flower grows. It is harder to grow and blossom and emerge as a precious gift to the earth without having lived in some form of mud. This struggle and suffering is what makes you unique and even more valuable to your fellow beings and to yourself.
For over twenty years, I have been learning and gathering tools to pull down some of the solid walls that I have carried with me for decades. I have worked with mentors and read many books. I have done a great deal of work on my mental outlook, self-talk, and the stories I tell. One part of my process has been to write this story.
I now see that my life has unfolded in three distinct phases. When I was a youngster, before the age of twenty, I was focused on survival in my own life and in my mental health. As a young adult, before the age of forty, I focused on becoming as independent as possible, on having a life of my own. This meant I created distance between my new life as an adult and my old one as a youngster. Over the last two decades, from age forty-one to sixty-one, I have been working on the tenets of compassion, forgiveness, and understanding found in the teachings of Thich Nhat Hahn, as well as many other spiritual teachers. This phase has made it possible for me to reach out to my family after almost twenty years of silence. For a while, distance and silence felt absolutely necessary for self-preservation. Now I can show compassion once in a while in a way that felt impossible a decade ago. This feels like powerful progress to me.
From My Story to Yours
This book is for all those who have dealt with — or know someone who has dealt with — the aftereffects of childhood trauma of any kind and feel lost in their life, their career, or their relationships. This book may help you to see a way forward, a way to let go of the things that have held you back in the past.
If you feel like you are alone, as though your life experiences have left you feeling stuck, invisible, or unimportant, I hope you will see your own story somewhere in these pages and discover that we are all visible, important, unique treasures who have something to share with this planet and the people on it.
Welcome.
I hope you enjoyed this post — if you enjoyed it and want to connect, you can reach me here via email ([email protected]_ or connect with me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Jlittlehealth) or my website (jlittlehealth.com). Also, you can find my book on Amazon — here is the link to buy it: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1636765858.
1. Thich Nhat Hanh, Reconciliation: Healing the Inner Child (Berkeley: Parallax Press, 2010), 161. | https://medium.com/light-on-the-pond-scum-article-series/an-excerpt-from-light-on-the-pond-scum-a-memoir-5782cce5554e | ['Julie Little'] | 2020-12-23 19:58:06.328000+00:00 | ['Healing Emotions', 'Spiritual Growth', 'Wellness', 'Family', 'Wellbeing'] |
A safari in Yankari | Entrance to the Yankari Game Reserve. All images by Ikechi Ugwoeje
The Yankari Game Reserve (Bauchi State) is one of Nigeria’s best known travel destinations. I was there sometime in 2014, and the memories still stay, including the sights and sound one experience on the way there. But rather than tell you another story, I wanted my travel buddies to do the talking. So this is a mini-guide for what you’re likely to see — and feel — when you visit or stay there — through the eyes of those who’ve been there and done that
I have always wondered what the Yankari Game Reserve looked like, especially considering its reputation as one of the most popular tourist attractions in Nigeria. It covers an area of more than 2,000 sqkm. The serenity could not be mistaken; neither will tourists fail to appreciate the tranquil ambience of the reserve.
We settled quickly into the business of wandering around. The reserve boasts of one of the most well stocked artifacts museum, well curated and information nicely presented to capture the highs and lows of the game reserve: hoofs of exotic birds, skins of wild animals; tools of poachers who used to trouble the reserve. I was impressed with the guides and staff who showed us around.
And what is a reserve without the wildlife? We drove through the picturesque wild, came across a jubilant tribe of monkeys. On our way to the legendary pre-historic caves, it was a beautifully weird experience, realizing that behind those small holes, a long gone civilization had existed. Our journey literally came to halt at the Wikki warm spring. I couldn’t help but get a dip, relishing its therapeutic effect — Anefiok Akpan
Wikki Warm Spring
The journey from Bauchi State capital to the Yankari Games Reserve is about 1hr30mins, covering a distance of 110km. We visited the museums and saw preserved skins, skulls and skeletal system of animals such as the wolf and cheetah. The reserve has hostel accommodation for researchers and tourists. A truck took us into the reserve (natural habitat), where animals are allowed to reproduce naturally without any human interference or aid. We met a handful of animals — from Impala to Monkeys — which depend on a stream that runs through the reserve.
Our group was taken to the Marshall Caves, named after the person who later proved that humans once lived in the caves. The caves are carved in rocks close to the stream, which served as a source of water for the inhabitants hundreds of years ago. The safari was as scary as it was exciting — unsurprisingly only our guide was relaxed.
The road networks in the reserve are not paved and you could feel the refreshing expanse of nature. Bridges in the reserve are made of woods and stones. Sadly, we didn’t see the ‘’big five’’ — Lions, Tigers, Leopards, Giraffes and Elephants. It’s either poachers have reduced the animal population in the reserve or they were sleeping/ grazing far away. All in all, it was a trip worth every minute spent there — Chukwuemeka Ekenaka
Wildlife at Yankari Game Reserve
I won’t forget the experience of visiting the Yankari Games Reserve in a long time. I felt the natural breath of fresh air for a couple of hours at a stretch. The reserve is one of Africa’s finest tropical forests; within it there is a museum, which consists of preserved remains of wildlife (elephant, leopard, crocodile, lion, tiger to mention but a few); it was the first time I saw some of the wild animals in their natural habitats, roaming freely in search of prey.
There are also shackles used by the colonial masters on our forefathers during the slave trade era. The wiki warm spring was another pleasant experience, because I had never set my eyes on a spring before. It was pure and clean, a fine specimen of the finest of waters. It’s impossible to describe the allure of the reserve to those who have not been there; but I can say that you’ll be thrilled when you visit. Also, visiting the Marshal Caves, where the early men lived was another mind blowing experience on its own. The caves, as small and as deep as they are, were very cold inside-out — Samuel Igbomiye
Going to Yankari Game Reserve was a dream come true. For so many years, I wanted to visit tourist attractions in Nigeria. Apart from seeing these places, It’s an opportunity to identify with the hidden treasures embedded in Nigeria, which have not been tapped into by the various state governments.
The opportunity to see the animals in their natural habitat made me so happy. The Wikki warm spring added flavour to the visit as it was discovered that one could swim in water that is constantly warm anytime of the day. Visiting the museum was also a very memorable experience. Seeing guns and traps seized from poachers was fantastic. If I have an opportunity to visit again, I will lodge in the reserve’s nicely built chalets with my family — Adeniyi Philip
A section of Marshall caves
My visit to the reserve will forever remain etched in my mind. The whiff of the dry forest and other natural sights were too good to forget. The pageant of wild animals and nature, especially the bluish warm wiki spring, thrilled me on end: I swam like a toddler — Abel James
It was an opportunity for me to go to Yankari Game Reserve and experience what most Nigerians travel outside the country to experience. We can have all the money in the world to throw around, but something is paramount here, which is to visit some extraordinary local places and see wonders of the world and the handiwork of God. YGR is one of those places one needs visit to appreciate God, the creator of the world. Truly, Yankari Game Reserve is a reserved place for all and sundry — Miracle Umoh | https://medium.com/9th-mile/a-safari-in-yankari-4dae115b7519 | [] | 2020-12-05 06:05:22.704000+00:00 | ['Yankari Game Reserve', 'Museums', 'Caves', 'Wildlife', 'Spring'] |
Letters to Alix: A Trans Coming of Age Story | [A selection of makeup brushes and color palette]
The events in this piece are written as I remember them. Names have been changed, except for my own (given and chosen).
Warning: Very personal content; read at your own risk.
3/27/00
Dear Alix,
Happy fifth birthday! What did you get? I got some cool stuff on my birthday. Mom and Dad got me a Hot Wheels set. Uncle Ted got me a dinosaur puzzle. Some people got me girlie things. That made me upset. Grandma gave me a Barbie. Aunt Betty gave me a pink sweatshirt. When I unwrapped the doll I said, “I do not like dolls.” When I saw the sweatshirt I yelled, “I hate pink!” Mom told them it was okay. It was not okay. She told me not to say things like that. It is not polite. Say thank you.
I need to have manners. Like when I burp loud and mom says it is not lady like. I did not want the pink sweatshirt or the Barbie. It is the truth. Sometimes people burp loud. That is also the truth. Birthdays are for getting gifts you like, not for getting the wrong things.
I think your mom does not have tell you to be polite. I bet you never get any dolls. I bet you never get anything pink either. Your grandma probably gave you LEGOs. Maybe your aunt got you some blue shoes, the kind that are good for playing tag on the playground.
Later at my birthday party, I heard mom explain to some people that I am a tomboy. I know this means I am a girl who likes boy stuff. I don’t know who Tom is though. I call myself an Allisonboy instead.
Alix, how do you feel when all your presents are good? Do you smile all day? Do you high five all your friends really fast? Are you so excited that you blow your cake candles out in one breath? That is my goal for my sixth birthday. I missed one this year.
Your friend,
Allison
8/7/04
Dear Alix,
It is hot here. Yesterday I read eighty degrees on the thermometer. My brother, Kyle, and I played outside on our slip and slide all afternoon until it was time for dinner. We took turns seeing who could slide the furthest. I’m pretty sure I won. Grandma and Grandpa watched us while they did crossword puzzles on the deck.
I was doing the slip and slide in my gecko shirt and soccer shorts. Then, when I was done I wanted to take my shirt off like people do sometimes when it’s hot outside. I could dry off my skin faster that way and my shirt could dry on the deck in the sun. I thought that was a smart plan.
When I took off my shirt and set it on the deck my grandpa chuckled at me. I looked at him and then he said, “Ladies aren’t supposed to take their shirts off.” I felt confused because he was still smiling even though he said I did something I’m not supposed to. After a second he said, “But it’s okay for you.”
I thought about it later and decided that he said it was okay because I am only nine years old. I realized that I never see older girls have their shirts off. It’s okay for girl babies but then it is not okay when you are older. I can’t figure out when it stops being okay. I think I better wear a shirt from now on to make sure I don’t get in trouble.
I don’t like finding out I’ve been doing something I’m not supposed to without even knowing. I try my best to follow the rules and be good. I also think it is hard to follow the rules if no one explains them to you.
Sincerely,
Allison
2/1/06
Dear Alix,
I hope you are as excited as me that the Seahawks made it to the Super Bowl this year. I love to play football just as much as I love to watch it. Since I am a girl I don’t play on a team even though fifth grade is old enough. Instead I play with Dad and Kyle in the backyard. Dad throws the ball to us while we defend each other. There are some close games, but I usually win. I feel excited and satisfied after I win.
Since it is winter now it is sometimes too stormy to play outside. Also, sometimes Dad and Kyle aren’t home so I have no one to play with. This was what happened yesterday after the Seahawks won the NFC Championship against the Carolina Panthers. Dad and Kyle left to go to a movie. The game was good and I felt energetic. I started doing drop backs and tossing the ball lightly to myself. I was also saying out loud what was happening in my imaginary game.
Mom was watching me. I thought I didn’t care about that. I changed my mind when she asked, “Do you wish you were a boy so you could play football?” She was smiling like it was a joke. I quickly said no. It was kind of a lie, but I didn’t feel like explaining. Instead, I will tell you.
I daydream a lot about playing football for the high school team someday. I know this wouldn’t be allowed and I would probably get hurt with all the tackling by the bigger boys. That’s why it’s only a daydream. Right now, I can play touch football at recess, but those are not real games. Mom was kind of right because I do wish I could also get big and strong so I could play high school football. But I don’t wish I was a boy because then I wouldn’t be me. I like being me. If being a girl is part of me then I will accept it.
Are you going to play football in high school? I want to be your biggest fan if you do.
Sincerely,
Allison
3/30/07
Dear Alix,
Have you heard people say “for better or for worse…”? It’s for when you have to accept something so people pretend it doesn’t matter if you like it or not. I think that it’s like lying. People shouldn’t be afraid to say what they don’t like. So here goes: for worse, puberty is here.
First of all, I had to go buy bras with my mom. It was so embarrassing. I only wanted to get bras because the sports one help make my chest look flat like it used to.
If bras weren’t bad enough, I am really writing to you now because of what happened this week. When I went to the bathroom before lunch at school I saw a brown spot on my underwear. I couldn’t figure out how it got there at first because I was 99% sure didn’t poop my pants or anything. When I wiped in the front and saw reddish-brown on the toilet paper it hit me than this was a period. It was so gross! I asked the universe, ‘why me?’ I felt like this was supposed to happen to other girls, but not me. Just like having to wear a bra. I stuffed toilet paper in my underwear to soak up the blood for the rest of the day.
Instead of paying attention to book report presentations after lunch, I thought about last week’s language arts lesson about conflicts in stories. We learned that conflicts have protagonists and antagonists. I started thinking that if I was in a story, I would be the protagonist and the antagonist would be making me have a period. I tried to think of who the antagonist could be, but my only idea was that it was my own body. I got this idea because in health class we learned that it is natural for a girl’s body to have a period when they are about my age.
Thinking about my body being the antagonist made me worry. If I tried to win the conflict against my body, wouldn’t I also be attacking myself? I don’t want to attack myself. That doesn’t make any sense. Are you confused yet? Help!
Your scared friend,
Allison
6/25/07
Dear Alix,
Apparently it isn’t okay to be a tomboy in middle school. My soccer teammates and I all used to wear sweatshirts and sweatpants to school, but now they wear tight jeans and fitted Hollister t-shirts. I want to keep wearing my sporty clothes, but it seems like there are some new rules against that.
These rules were vague at first, like my friends were just making hints, but last weekend cleared up a lot of the confusion. I was over at Sarah’s house for her birthday party on Saturday night. She got a couple of makeup items and people wanted to try them out. Eliza unpackaged some mascara and suggested giving me a makeover, but I shook my head and said no with a strong voice. Everyone else liked the idea though. Eliza brought the mascara brush towards my face and Sarah grabbed my head to steady it. I tried to run away to the upstairs, but they followed me.
“You’re going to look so pretty,” Eliza said when she tracked me down. Sarah pinned my arms against the rug while Eliza tried to brush makeup onto my eyelashes. She mostly ended up poking my eyes because I was squirming. When tears started gushing out of my eyes, Eliza stopped and told Sarah to let go. I played the tears off as irritation from being allergic to makeup. Actually, I was crying out of fear.
Alix, I don’t feel safe. My friends don’t want to let me be different. I don’t know why. I don’t know why every girl has to dress girly and wear makeup starting in middle school.
I don’t think it’s an option to keep being a tomboy even though I want to. I would rather feel safe than be myself. Everyone wants me to act like a girl so I guess that is what I will have to do.
Your girl,
Allison
11/1/08
Dear Alix,
I feel like we are getting too old to dress up and go trick or treating for Halloween. Since we’ll be in high school next year, this is probably my last time.
My friends all went as fairies, but I had no interest in joining them. Instead, I dressed up as a boy. I tied my hair up into a high ponytail and tucked it under a baseball hat. I wore my dad’s jeans, white t-shirt, and navy blue short-sleeve button-up, undone. His clothes didn’t fit me exactly right, but I thought the baggy look was cool.
Despite our distinct costumes, the fairies invited me to trick-or-treat with them. At one of the houses we visited, a woman complimented my friends’ costumes. “What a beautiful group of girls,” she smiled. “ — And guy,” she quickly added when she laid her eyes on me.
As we walked away from the house, my legs felt squishy like gummy worms and I got this goofy smile on my face. Luckily, no one noticed because it was dark and they were looking at their candy stashes anyway. I couldn’t tell whether the woman was just going along with my costume or thought I was actually a boy trick-or-treating without a costume. I wasn’t sure which option would be better, but I felt happy the woman noticed that I was something different than a colorful fairy.
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about getting my hair cut short. Even though I know I’d look good from the times I tuck my hair under a baseball hat at home, I haven’t done it because I’m scared of what people will say at school. I’m scared that people would think I looked too much like a boy since my clothes are mostly baggy and I don’t wear earrings or makeup. The length of my hair is what lets people know I’m a girl. It’s like my safety blanket.
I figured that Halloween would be the safest time to show off my short hair. You’re supposed to look different on Halloween, so no one will be surprised when you do. I don’t know what the point of this letter is other than to tell you I liked wearing my costume this year. If it is my last year trick-or-treating it was a good way to go out. Hopefully I can hear about your costume sometime. Talk to you later.
Your boy (for a day),
Allison
6/4/17
Dear Alix,
Are you still there? I think it’s been about seven years since I last wrote to you. By now I’m 22 years old and about to graduate from college. I’m embarrassed to say that as of a year ago I had all but forgotten about our correspondence.
Let me introduce this letter by quoting Rebecca Solnit’s book, The Faraway Nearby: “Elaborate are the means to hide from yourself, the dissociations, projections, deceptions, forgettings, justifications, and other tools to detour around the obstruction of unbearable reality…” I was first faced my forgettings about a year ago when I heard a personal story from a transgender person for the first time.
I was listening to a podcast called Snap Judgment when I heard Tristian Whiston’s audio diary about his transition from female to male. Tristian opened his piece by talking about his childhood. He fought against his mom over how she dressed him, recalling how “mortifying” it felt when she tried to make him wear a barrette to preschool. After feeling rejected by his peers during adolescence, Tristian had to face that he was a girl, and not a boy. He lived with this as fact until his mid-thirties when he started to question and explore his gender.
Tristian’s childhood experience was eerily similar to my own, but I felt that I had heard his story too late. I had left my tomboy ways behind long ago and was comfortable being a woman by that point. Sure, it took me all of high school and a couple years of college, but you’d be surprised to know that by now I’m not afraid to rock a dress, earrings, and a little bit of makeup. I resigned myself to the fact that the opportunity had passed for me to figure out that I was transgender.
I shoved Tristian’s story into the back of my mind until a couple of months ago when I set out to write a personal essay about rejecting feminine social norms like marriage and motherhood. I included many of the moments that I remember writing to you about so long ago: hating dolls, not wanting to wear makeup, dressing up as a boy for Halloween. As I assembled all those stories into the narrative of my experience with gendered social norms, it became impossible for me to avoid the thoughts that I had pushed aside as I listened that podcast.
I chewed on a hangnail nervously as I focused on forming a forceful closing for my essay. I finally pried one out of my brain: “Just because you were born a girl, doesn’t mean you have to act like one; it’s okay.” It sounded great; the paper was ready to submit. I just wanted to proofread it one more time. The final sentence reached out of the screen and punched me in the diaphragm. With my breath held and my jaw clenched, I realized how that last sentence should read: “Just because you were told you were a girl, doesn’t mean you have to live as one; it’s okay.”
When I landed on that sentence, I gave myself permission to explore my gender identity. I gave myself permission to reconnect with you. Embrace you. Be you. I wrote to you because you were the version of myself I imagined I might be if I were free from others’ ideas about my gender. For more than twenty years I assumed you would always be a figment of my imagination. I never thought it would be possible to become you. But here I am. Because I heard Tristian’s story, because I took that writing class, because my old pen pal refused to be forgotten.
Alix, it’s great to finally meet you.
Sincerely,
Alix (they/them/theirs) | https://gender.medium.com/dear-alix-a-trans-coming-of-age-story-56987ca57257 | [] | 2019-08-29 20:20:11.345000+00:00 | ['Transgender', 'LGBTQ', 'Personal Essay', 'Creative Non Fiction', 'Nonbinary'] |
The Deep Magic of Mexico | Illustrations by Patricio Betteo, Nexos Magazine, Mexico City
A steady client I met the second time I visited Nancy’s clinic is Marta Flores, a short, stout woman in her mid-fifties who holds on to Nancy for strength and comfort. Nancy has helped Marta feel entitled to happiness.
Marta is a traditional mother and wife. The first six years she visited Nancy, she got advice on how to put up with her first husband, a man who tortured Marta psychologically. He is gone now, and Marta is happily remarried. Now she comes to mend the lives of her three grown sons, Enrique, Francisco, and Raul, and their families.
I became close to Marta and visited her several times in her modest apartment, where we talked about faith and choices in life. Marta first visited Nancy in 2003. She had visited several healers and brujas through the years, but she believes Nancy was the most powerful. “She’s helped me to treasure the happy moments in life,” she said.
Marta and her family live in a small apartment in a working-class neighborhood north of the Basilica, the shrine to the Virgin of Guadalupe, in the northern part of Mexico City. For thirty-three years she was married to Marco, a violent and taciturn man who worked as a bus driver. Marco barely provided enough money for the family, but Marta was never allowed to work outside the home. “Sometimes we did not have money for dinner,” she said. “We were always short.”
Her weekly visits to see Nancy at the time helped her find patience to put up with her life, which, she said, was gray and dull. She was always depressed. Then, in mid-2010, tragedy struck the family. And that tragedy freed Marta.
Marco had been having seizures and he apparently got dizzy and fell from the entrance to the second floor apartment. He died immediately. She did not love him, but she mourned him.
Almost a year after Marco died, Marta met Toño, a muffler repairman who worked at a shop near Marta’s house. Toño started flirting with Marta, but she was afraid to reciprocate. “I had met my husband when I was seventeen. And I was married to him for thirty-three years,” she explained. “I did not know what to do.” She liked the man, but thought that women her age do not get second chances. She went to see Nancy and posed a question: “Should I listen to Toño ?”
Absolutely, Nancy said.
Today, Marta and Toño are married and live in the modest, two-bedroom apartment where Marta lived with her first husband. Toño moved his muffler shop into Marta’s garage. They share the house with Marta’s thirty-one-year old son, Raul, the youngest of her children. “Toño is a gift from God,” Nancy told her. “You have to cherish the opportunity.”
One Saturday morning I visit Marta at home. I enter the house crossing Toño’s car shop, where soot covers the floors and walls and mufflers are lined up like decorations. An unpainted staircase leads to the second floor apartment.
Marta built this apartment ten years ago, on top of a one-floor house she inherited from her father. For years, she and her children and husband slept crowded in one room in the area where the muffler shop is located today. Her first husband had been opposed to building the new apartment. But Nancy gave Marta the impetus to borrow money and rebuild the apartment anyway. Marta said she began the house renovation because a ghost started appearing to her children, a ghost that came after a jealous neighbor spread cemetery dirt in front of her house and on the roof.
Marta’s challenge today is keeping her family safe from crime and promoting the education of her grandchildren. Her oldest son, Enrique, lives in another small apartment, which she built for him on the second floor next to hers. Enrique is only thirty-three, but he has two teenage boys because his girlfriend got pregnant when he was seventeen.
Without an education, Enrique had difficulty finding a good job, but he finally found work — with Nancy’s help, according to Marta. He is a warehouse attendant at a local supermarket. His wife, Lorena, works as an assembler in a nearby textile factory. Marta has helped raise their two sons, her grandchildren.
Marta’s second son, Francisco, lives in Chalco, another low-income neighborhood in Mexico State, where he works as a truck driver. Marta sees little of him because his wife does not get along with her. But every time she sees Nancy, she asks the cards about Francisco.
Lately, Marta has been more concerned with her youngest son, Raul. A reserved young man, Raul has finally found a girlfriend. But the relationship is complicated.
Raul’s girlfriend used to live with an enforcer for a local drug gang, called La Familia. The group is originally from the state of Michoacan, but they have a large presence in Mexico State, especially in Los Reyes and nearby municipalities, where they engage in drug dealing, extortion, and theft.
One day, in front of Nancy’s clinic, Marta shows me a computer printout of an Instagram photo. A young, pretty girl with long black hair is smiling — and holding a large revolver. She is fifteen.
“This is the daughter of my son’s new girlfriend,” Marta tells me.
Raul fell in love with the girlfriend while the ex-husband was in jail. And now that the ex-husband has been released from prison, Marta fears he will attack her son. The day she showed me the photo, she had come to see Nancy, seeking protection for Raul. | https://medium.com/thebigroundtable/the-deep-magic-of-mexico-2bf1b341d1a1 | ['Ana Arana'] | 2017-04-21 18:45:27.268000+00:00 | ['Fiction', 'Short Story', 'Big Reads'] |
Connecting the Past, Present, and Future of Re-Using Data to Advance Societal Goals | Connecting the Past, Present, and Future of Re-Using Data to Advance Societal Goals
THE THIRD WAVE OF OPEN DATA
by Stefaan Verhulst, Andrew Young, Andrew Zahuranec, Susan Ariel Aaronson, Ania Calderon, Matt Gee
Photo by Christopher Burns on Unsplash
Our world faces many challenges ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic to the threat of climate change to growing economic inequality. Faced with these serious and persistent challenges, many policymakers have turned to data. Through open datasets, both high-ranking officials and the public can improve their ability to make decisions. They can become better aware of their situation, understand cause and effect, improve their predictive capabilities, and better assess the impact of policies.
In July, The Open Data Policy Lab launched the Summer of Open Data. A three-month initiative undertaken in collaboration with the Digital Trade & Data Governance Hub, Open Data Institute, the Open Data Charter, and BrightHive, the Summer of Open Data brought together data experts to make the open data movement more collaborative, responsible, and purpose-driven. Over the course of ten panels, we heard from data professionals in government agencies, international bodies, and private companies talk about the challenges and opportunities they see everyday.
The release of “The Emergence of a Third Wave of Open Data” by Stefaan Verhulst, Andrew Young, Andrew J. Zahuranec, Susan Ariel Aaronson, Ania Calderon, and Matt Gee represents the culmination of those discussions along with several years of hands-on experience. Inspired by conversations throughout the Summer of Open Data, the paper identifies the achievements and deficits in current and past approaches to open data and charts a new way forward for the movement that builds on lessons learned. In doing so, the piece sets out an agenda for a new approach: the Third Wave of Open Data.*
The Future of Open Data
The paper begins with a description of earlier waves of open data. Emerging from freedom of information laws adopted over the last half century, the First Wave of Open Data brought about newfound transparency, albeit one only available on request to an audience largely composed of journalists, lawyers, and activists.
The Second Wave of Open Data, seeking to go beyond access to public records and inspired by the open source movement, called upon national governments to make their data open by default. Yet, this approach too had its limitations, leaving many data silos at the subnational level and in the private sector untouched..
The Third Wave of Open Data seeks to build on earlier successes and take into account lessons learned to help open data realize its transformative potential. Incorporating insights from various data experts, the paper describes the emergence of a Third Wave driven by the following goals:
Publishing with Purpose by matching the supply of data with the demand for it, providing assets that match public interests; Fostering Partnerships and Data Collaboration by forging relationships with community-based organizations, NGOs, small businesses, local governments, and others who understand how data can be translated into meaningful real-world action; Advancing Open Data at the Subnational Level by providing resources to cities, municipalities, states, and provinces to address the lack of subnational information in many regions. Prioritizing Data Responsibility and Data Rights by understanding the risks of using (and not using) data to promote and preserve the public’s general welfare.
Photo courtesy of Surfing Croyde Bay.
Riding the Wave
Achieving these goals will not be an easy task and will require investments and interventions across the data ecosystem. The paper highlights eight actions that decision and policy makers can take to foster more equitable, impactful benefits. They are:
Fostering and Distributing Institutional Data Capacity, which can break down silos within organizations and allow data to support decision-making across institutional operations and priorities;
Articulating Value and Building an Impact Evidence Base, which can demonstrate the real-world impact of data sharing for policymakers who determine organizational priorities and institutional budgets;
Creating New Data Intermediaries, third parties who can lower transaction costs for data efforts by matching data suppliers with organizations demanding data;
Establishing Governance Frameworks and Seeking Regulatory Clarity, which can incentivize data reuse and create safeguards that mitigate risks;
Creating Technical Infrastructure for Reuse, including privacy-preserving technologies, security technologies, and access-control technologies;
Fostering Public Data Competence, which can disrupt power asymmetries and ensure anyone can fully participate in data efforts;
Tracking, Monitoring, and Clarifying Decision and Data Provenance, tracking key decision points impacting data’s collection, sharing, analysis, and (re)use; and
Creating and Empowering (Chief) Data Stewards, responsible data leaders within organizations empowered to identify opportunities for data sharing and seek new ways of creating public value through cross-sector collaboration.
Future Work
Over the coming months and weeks, the Open Data Policy Lab and its partners will collectively seek to spur the changes needed to realize the Third Wave of Open Data. We will engage with public and private partners on re-using data responsibly. We will also develop tools and resources that practitioners need to make these recommendations a reality.
In the meanwhile, read the full report here. Contact us with any comments or feedback through email at stefaan [at] thegovlab.org or andrew [at] thegovlab.org.
* This piece uses the metaphor of “waves” to capture how open data could build on its previous successes and failures. While this concept is fundamental to the piece, the authors note that, in the time since they began developing this paper, the term “wave” has become synonymous with the increasing surge of COVID-19 cases. Though this paper refers to the pandemic and the need to use data to address it, this similarity in language is unintentional. We extend our sympathies to all those affected by the pandemic and are committed to advance the responsible reuse of data to counteract its worst effects. This post was originally posted on 28th of October, 2020 on Open Data Lab’s blog. | https://medium.com/opendatacharter/connecting-the-past-present-and-future-of-re-using-data-to-advance-societal-goals-298d8dad36f5 | ['Open Data Charter'] | 2020-12-01 15:36:47.578000+00:00 | ['Open Data', 'Data', 'Policy', 'Governance And Tech', 'Governance'] |
Docker under the Hood — 3. User space, Kernel, Syscalls, Permissions, setuid, setgid, and Capabilities | This article is part of my “Docker under the Hood” series. For your convenience, here’s the list of my previous articles of this series:
A container is just a Process
Photo by Thais Morais on Unsplash
You might think: what does Linux permissions and capabilities have anything to do with docker?
Truth is, every container is, in fact, just a running process, as we shall prove now.
You can download the needed vagrant file from this GitHub repo so that you can do all the experiments mentioned in this series of articles yourself.
As you shall see in the above experiment:
before we run anything, there is no process named “hello” in the host (in this case, a virtual host which is a vagrant box)
we started a container (with a very simple hello world app written in golang, see here if you are interested in it, if not, there is only a “/app/hello” file in the contaienr)
after the container is started, you can see it’s up and running by docker ps
then there is also a new process running, in the host, named “hello”
So, to summarize, under the hood of docker, a container is not much more than a mere process.
This is all important, because: containers run Linux processes that are visible from the host, as we demonstrated above. A containerized process, just as any other Linux process, uses system calls, and needs permissions. And that is why all the traditional Linux stuff like system calls, namespaces, control groups, permissions, capabilities are all related to docker. It’s going to be helpful to understand some of the fundamental features of Linux so that we can see how they affect security, and in particular how they apply to containers.
And in this article and the next few ones, we are going to focus more on the Linux part. In this article, I’ll cover system calls, file-based permissions, and capabilities. If you’re familiar with these concepts, feel free to jump to my next article which I haven’t written yet. | https://medium.com/devops-dudes/docker-under-the-hood-user-space-kernel-syscalls-permissions-setuid-setgid-and-capabilities-3a5c58584b4f | ['Tiexin Guo'] | 2020-06-08 13:59:25.592000+00:00 | ['Software Development', 'Docker', 'Linux', 'DevOps', 'Security'] |
Startup environment in a big company? It’s possible, believe us | Usually, great startup founders know that developing a positive and innovative company culture should be on the top of their priorities. Creating that in the startup phase is not that hard, but creating a culture that evolves along with its growth and keeps its roots is a huge challenge.
This article covers some questions such as: how do you create a startup culture in a big company? Or how to keep the original, innovative culture along the way as you grow? After answering this, I’ll illustrate our explanation with Xpand IT’s example, the company I currently work for where we think it’s a success case.
What does it mean in a startup environment?
First, what is a startup? What makes a company a startup, and when does it graduate? By Wikipedia definition, a startup is a company or a project initiated by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a business model.
By this setup, the startup’s work environment has a constant mindset to try new things every week. When you don’t know if the product that you’re building is right, when you don’t know where your customers are, when you don’t know the correct pricing or business model, you need to try fast, fail fast and move forward. But you need to learn along the way, it cannot be just failing for the sake of failing, you need to learn and improve your next experiment, never repeating the same mistake. That way, you will move forward.
This idea sets the scope for the company’s culture that needs to be highly innovative, always testing new things and moving forward very fast. Then, according to Forbes, when you find a business model and a product/service that is right for the market, the company stops being a startup and graduates to an enterprise.
How to build a startup culture in a big company?
As the company grows along the way, having a stable product/service, a business model that works, and important customers, the startup mode’s warp speed tends to slow down to cruise speed. The fear of failing kicks in, and you do not try new things the same way you did in the startup phase because now, doing something wrong may have a high negative impact, so usually, you try to play safe.
The problem is that the market and competition move incredibly fast (specially in tech), so, or either you keep the innovation speed or if you play safe you will end up not being relevant as a company.
There are some ideas and guidelines that help companies to keep their startup DNA and keep the fast innovation pace, Xpand IT is a good example of that implementation.
To build or keep a startup culture in a big company, we can use the summary list created by Sahar Hashemi:
Be the customer Get out of the office and talk to customers Attack bureaucracy Don’t let expertise blind you Don’t suffocate curiosity Act on small everyday ideas Don’t let perfectionism slow you down Encourage failure Don’t think of ‘No’ as a stop sign Create a more human work culture
Xpand IT startup environment and base DNA
Xpand IT is now a company with more than 300 people and 17 years in business with a very solid portfolio of products and services across multiple markets. How do we try to keep the startup environment and DNA that made Xpand IT so successful?
Well, we keep the focus on the customer, and we treat them as we like to be treated when we are the customer. We measure customer success in different ways, but we believe that nothing beats a good direct conversation with a customer for honest feedback to help us to keep improving.
We try to be as lean as possible. We keep working teams small, and we have a very shallow hierarchy as we promote a culture where any person can speak up or access any C level executive very quickly to share their ideas and feedback. Any person in the company is a message away in our internal chat system. We empower teams to make their own decisions.
The company is composed by many experts, but we try to keep curiosity alive, keep the learning curve, always going to tech events, meetups, having coursers and sharing knowledge internally and externally. Like Steve Jobs said, we try to “stay hungry, stay foolish” being humble and understanding that we always have something to learn is very important in the company culture and allows us to keep learning and improving.
The customer is a priority for us, so we also have the fear to fail and harm the customer. However, we created internal mechanisms to keep innovating, trying new things, and failing without harming the customers. By the end of the day, it’s like Jeff Bezos (Amazon) said: “Innovation is simply finding a solution to a customer problem.” So Xpand IT keeps the innovation pace and the “try new things” culture’s alive not only in each and every team but also with a dedicated R&D group. Xpand IT is an innovative company with a startup DNA by design and not just by default.
Key differences between working in a startup or a big company with a startup DNA
I’m a serial entrepreneur. In the past, I created, failed startups, and I also worked for other startups helping them to build their business models and finding product/market fit. The startup world was my home for more than 5 years, and now I ended up in a big company like Xpand IT, why? Because as part of the R&D group, I get all the startup excitement without the startup pains. In the startup world, it is a rush against the time because building a company is a “jumping off a cliff and assembling the airplane on the way down” (Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn’s co-founder). Here I can focus on building an excellent product for a customer need.
Coming from the startup world to work in a company like Xpand IT, it’s not just a big challenge but also a great responsibility. When we have the resources like us here, you need to deliver, no excuses.
Trying new technologies or building new products/services at Xpand IT brings the same pressure to try test, fail fast in the quest to succeed. It’s a daily challenge. But you have the resources you need, the expertise you need, and the experience you need to innovate. It’s easy to bring experts from different areas like business intelligence, big data, UI/UX, cloud platforms, mobile, and cutting-edge technology stacks together. This environment gives you a great head start for any new product or service. This is not possible in a startup, and this is what makes the startup environment at Xpand IT an excellent setup for innovation.
Do you have to choose between an energetic startup environment and well-established core values? Choose both! Welcome to Xpand IT.
Nelson Pereira | Product Engineering Manager @ Xray by Xblend
References:
https://sifted.eu/articles/how-to-build-a-startup-culture-in-a-big-company/
https://www.inc.com/entrepreneurs-organization/5-ways-to-infuse-startup-energy-into-an-established-culture.html
https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/startup-vs-corporate-culture
https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2018/04/24/when-is-a-startup-no-longer-a-startup
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/02/linkedin-co-founder-reid-hoffman-says-starting-a-company-is-like-jumping-off-a-cliff.html | https://medium.com/xtechportugal/startup-environment-in-a-big-company-its-possible-believe-us-5a8faaba7f63 | ['Nelson Pereira'] | 2020-12-09 14:48:14.154000+00:00 | ['Company Culture', 'Careers', 'Startup', 'Tech', 'Business'] |
Is it really so difficult for you to consider that having EVERYONE in public wear masks reduces… | Is it really so difficult for you to consider that having EVERYONE in public wear masks reduces contagion due to the limitation masks provide to the distance that droplets are expelled by the mask wearer? If you have an honest interest in this topic do a little searching yourself and I promise that you will find plenty of good studies in this regard. Just Google something along the lines of “peer reviewed studies supporting everyone wearing masks”. Youtube also has many interesting slow motion videos in environments where droplets are visible which show direct evidence of masks limiting the distance droplets spread.
Here’s an example of a good study about the benefits of having everyone wear masks:
Leung, N.H.L., Chu, D.K.W., Shiu, E.Y.C. et al. Respiratory virus shedding in exhaled breath and efficacy of face masks. Nat Med 26, 676–680 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0843-2
If you have any issues with the data presented in this study, let me know.
If, instead, the idea of mandating mask-wearing by everyone in public just bothers you politically then please be up-front about that.
Because focusing on masks primarily as a block to droplets being dispersed by the wearer instead of a filter of particles from being inhaled by the wearer (more common in a medical setting), you might not find many of these good recent studies actually peer-reviewed yet. You have to realize that that in the past asymptomatic carriers have not been a big concern, and the R0 levels of the flu is not as high as for coronavirus, so officials have not been as willing to mandate everyone wearing a mask as they are now. If the President of the United States can ramble on and on for hours in a manner much less coherent than I am capable of about non-peer-reviewed treatments, then why should you be so demanding of peer-reviewed proof from a fellow citizen about masks, which on the face of things (pun intended), appears very logical? By the way, it is interesting to note that Hong Kong’s coronavirus response (including everyone wearing masks) also led to a sharp drop in flu cases. | https://medium.com/@casamurphy/is-it-really-so-difficult-for-you-to-consider-that-having-everyone-in-public-wear-masks-reduces-e29448857034 | ['Michael Murphy'] | 2020-05-09 05:02:28.055000+00:00 | ['Masks', 'Coronavirus'] |
Industry Expert on Semantics of Blockchain | Nic Carter, a co-founder of Coinmetrics.io, says that the meaning of ‘blockchain’ has been diluted to the extent that the word now defies the English grammar itself by refusing to have an article. It is not theblockchain, neither is it a blockchain. It is just capitalized Blockchain.
‘Blockchain’, Nic explains, is now a marketing tool for countless ICOs and IBMs of the world that have little to nothing to do with actual ‘chains of hash-based proof-of-works’, which is the precise term Nakamoto used in the whitepaper.
With that said, the Bitcoin data structure is in fact a chain of blocks in that it is a linear collection of data elements each referencing its predecessor. But this is not the only defining criterion of a blockchain. The more important aspect of a blockchain is the proof-of-work network consensus that makes such architecture resistant to any unilateral attempt to change or censor it, whereas enterprise, private and permissioned ledgers fail meet this criterion.
Dive deeper into the semantics of ‘blockchain’ by reading Nic’s full article on Medium.
Earlier Finrazor brought clarifications on the definition of a blockchain by collecting industry experts’ opinions. | https://medium.com/finrazorcom/industry-expert-on-semantics-of-blockchain-ddb5af0f3993 | ['Finrazor Team'] | 2018-10-10 12:26:51.427000+00:00 | ['Fintech', 'Blockchain', 'Crypto'] |
Growing the Leaders of Tomorrow | Where do we find the leaders of tomorrow?
Some might say in MBA programs. Others might say in poly-sci departments or law school.
But I think those answers are too limited.
My belief is that we’ll find the leaders of tomorrow anywhere we invest in helping young people develop confidence.
Earlier this year, I had what I would call an “Epic Week” full of amazing insight, inspiration, and incredible opportunities to meet and guide some of tomorrow’s leaders.
Here’s what I learned about confidence and the leaders of tomorrow.
Future Leaders at Girls, Inc
First stop in my epic week was the Central Coast Girls, Inc. chapter in King City, California. I spoke for one hour to 30 high school girls at King City High School. This chapter invited me to speak to the girls on how to have confidence and communicate effectively when giving a 2-minute speech for their graduation from Girls, Inc.
I had full participation the entire hour. So much that I had to put down my prepared talking points and dig in to their questions. It was beautiful to see them be so concerned about conquering their fears so they can get ahead. I have to tell you, I didn’t have this curiosity when I was in high school. They truly are the leaders of tomorrow.
Building Confidence Through Coaching
During my time with these girls, I was able to do some mini-coaching around three key areas:
Showing them that they are worthy. Every human being is worthy just for being alive. Looks, status, and imperfections don’t ever take away your worthiness. Helping them understand how they could feel their own worthiness and feel good by working on new thoughts and beliefs about themselves. Giving them tips for their speeches, such as practicing it over and over out loud. This might sound obvious, but there’s so much power when you know your stuff.
One of the most impactful things I did was to share with them my own experience around speaking. I told them that when I shoot a video for a blog, or for my ads, or even for Facebook live, I practice over and over beforehand. Sometimes 10 times for a one-minute video!
Even though I know my material, the more I say it, the more I get comfortable in my skin, and that gives me more confidence and less worry about getting judged.
They appreciated hearing that even though I’m a business owner with decades of experience, I still need to practice my material and boost my confidence before speaking.
Women Leaders for the World
Second stop, attending an event in San Francisco, California to honor 19 new Women Leaders for the World (WLW) who are starting businesses or growing their young business to a new level so they can stand up for women’s justice in their countries.
Can I just say “Wow?!?!” These ladies are in a league of their own. They are definitely leaders of tomorrow.
The annual event is sponsored by the organization How Women Lead. This is one powerful organization in supporting women’s personal brands and their missions in life.
My role in this event and as a sponsor to How Women Lead is serving as a Global Advisor to one of these fine ladies for one year. I will help one of them deal with her ups and downs in achieving her 2019 goals for her business.
In this capacity, I’m more of a business advisor than a coach. But I know that my coaching skills will come in handy. The truth is, growing a business requires more than knowledge- you have to have the confidence to take action.
Especially if you’re creating a big change, as my advisee is. She’s leading a nonprofit called Hope WorldWide Kenya. This organization helps young girls in Kenya attend college. Talk about women helping women lead!
Leaders of Tomorrow in the Workforce
Third stop, working over the phone to prep my nephew who lives in Arizona for his first big job interview of his career. He’s about to graduate from college and was asked to apply to a large national company.
I’d been helping him prepare for a few weeks, and now it was time to put the final touches on his game-day plan for his interview.
All the preparation gave him the confidence to deliver thoughtful answers in the interview and even demonstrate vulnerability by asking to take time to give an answer, as well as asking the interviewer to repeat questions.
He told them this was the first big interview of his life. He wasn’t pretending to be something he was not. It worked in his favor, as being human allowed him to connect better with the interviewer. And that’s what you want.
Guess what? He nailed it. He moved on to the 2nd round to interview with the VP of the department.
Confidence is King for Leaders
Of course I’m thrilled that my nephew nailed his interview, but I’m even more thrilled that he’s taking the skill of confidence into the workplace with him.
As a team member, employee, and eventual leader, I know that he’ll believe in his own worthiness, just like the young women I spoke with at King City High School.
And I know he’ll follow his passions and work for change, just like the woman leading Hope World Wide Kenya.
Our leaders of tomorrow show up in all shapes, sizes, and colors. They speak different languages and come from different backgrounds and countries.
But what they have in common is the confidence to step out and make a difference.
I’m passionate about instilling this confidence in all of our leaders. Because when leaders are truly confident-not arrogant or controlling-they help bring about positive change.
Whether you want to lead in your career, your volunteer organization, or even on the political stage, you must have confidence. When you’re confident, you can…
Know your own worth, like I was helping the young women of Girls, Inc. to do.
Work to make a huge change that goes against tradition, like my business advisee is doing.
Be vulnerable, like my nephew when he was completely honest and asked for what he needed in his interview.
I encourage you to reach out and help-men, women, groups-that need support to build confidence in their endeavors.
If you need your own confidence boost, let’s talk. My coaching skills can help you let go of the thoughts that are keeping you playing small, so you can lead with confidence! Schedule your free Strategy Session and start growing your confidence today! | https://medium.com/@bj_83092/growing-the-leaders-of-tomorrow-a411480e262 | ['Bj Gray'] | 2020-03-04 20:43:27.159000+00:00 | ['Growth', 'Personal Development', 'Leadership', 'Career Development'] |
How to brand for the modern-day Chinese consumer? | Coronavirus, aside.
China is going through a consumption revolution. In the past, function and price were important factors in the buying decision buying behavior however this has become more complex and Chinese consumers are taking increasing criteria into account when making a purchase. Brand awareness is becoming increasingly important and marketing is starting to play a key role in attracting Chinese consumers with advertising and research techniques. As we know, a brand is the ‘intangible sum’ of a product’s attributes — so how are brands differentiating themselves?
A feeling of collectiveness has more prominence in Chinese society over the individual. Thus, the standards, preferences, and norms of the group to which an individual belongs have a huge influence on buying habits. Many Chinese consumers are fairly concerned with national needs and as a result of geopolitical issues — brands that are under a Western influence are often associated with Western ideals — which in recent times, have been perceived negatively. Brands that confuse ‘westernization’ with ‘modernization’ are losing out.
What does this mean?
Brands that are catering to Chinese consumers need to customize themselves more than ever. Remember that video featuring a customer trying to eat burgers with chopsticks launched by Burger King? Yea, that set Burger King back a hefty couple of millions. Dolce & Gabbana suffered a similar fate after the company posted a video of a model trying to eat pizza and spaghetti with chopsticks, a move which ultimately led to a boycott of their products in China. Brands need to be careful of monumental Chinese festivals in order to build loyalty and not isolate customers.
Here are some brands that did a stellar job this year:
Gucci
For Chinese New Year 2020, the year of the mouse — Gucci partnered with famous actress Ni Ni to create a playful take on the holiday. In spite of recent events, the light-hearted, American directed video showcased the world’s most playful mouse and some of the most iconic pieces of the fashion powerhouse’s CNY collection!
Nike
If you haven’t heard of this one… well — you should have. Nike played with the Chinese tradition of giving “Hong Bao’s” a.k.a. Red Packets in their Chinese New Year advertisement this year. They used cultural aptitude with a twang of humor to elegantly showcase their Nike Zoom product line. Check out the video below:
Durex
As always, Durex is known for being audacious with their branding and marketing nuances. This Chinese New Year was no different. Durex cleverly used their product to relate directly to the year of the mouse and embed it at the center of a Chinese New Year Poster.
Durex Chinese New Year 2020
In conclusion, cultural sensitivity is paramount in China. Given the stereotypes that still exist and a lot of the racial discrimination that occurs on a daily basis, it’s no surprise that this group of customers has every right to be discerning of Western brands. Chinese consumers are increasingly savvy, independent and particular in how and what they purchase.
Brands looking to enter the market need to make a real emotional connection with customers as always and be mindful of the existing bias that exists to showcase an understanding of societal traditions and nuances. A one-size-fits-all strategy will undeniably fail in China given their diaspora of consumer profiles. | https://medium.com/@komalnarwani/how-to-brand-for-the-modern-day-chinese-consumer-689581614a23 | ['Komal Narwani'] | 2020-03-03 17:04:43.214000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Branding', 'Consumer', 'China', 'Chinese'] |
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📣 Successmode Presents SCHOOL OF INTERNET | If you’re looking to skyrocket your online career…
Or for ways to start and grow multiple streams of online income for 2021…
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What to Do When You Don’t Have the Answers | 6 ways to approach making hard decisions when the answer isn’t clear.
Your business is going well.
You start to get “comfortable.” Maybe you splurge and buy yourself something nice:
A Tesla. Some Jordans. Guac at Chipotle.
Then boom! Pandemic.
What do you do?
Good to Great didn’t have a chapter titled “Shelter in Place Management 101.” Come on Jim Collins.
How do you approach being a leader and driving growth in this environment? It’s unprecedented and uncharted waters.
Here’s the framework I’m using to navigate my strategic decisions at this time.
Disclaimer: No clue if it’s going to work.
1) Over Communicate to Your Team
As I put myself in my team’s position, there are lots of questions they might have. Are we good? Am I good? Wait, do I need to beef up my resume? Your mind can wander down a dark path. That sucks. It impacts your mindset, mood, and performance. My move: Be transparent and open in your team meetings with good or bad info. Increase communication frequency. Bring people in early on strategy.
2) Learn From History
There have been many smart people before us that have gone through some sort of a crisis. Dot-com bubble. Housing crisis. Spanish Flu. While the details are different the strategic approach can be similar. I did my own research on how businesses responded with this one: What Founders & Marketers Should Do in a Downturn?
3) Seek Advice from People Smarter Than You
There’s a tendency to turn inward when things get hard. Do the opposite. Talk to people. If you believe that you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with then lean into that. For business, I have taken this concept to heart and created an informal board of advisors. Some of them know they’re on it and others don’t. Here is my “Phantom Board of Advisors” and the specific value each person/group adds.
A Bootstrapped Founder: Great for comparing notes with someone going through the same struggles: Cash-flow, hiring, strategy, etc.
Great for comparing notes with someone going through the same struggles: Cash-flow, hiring, strategy, etc. A Marketing Executive: Great for bouncing our growth strategy off someone that’s managing growth at a publicly-traded company.
Great for bouncing our growth strategy off someone that’s managing growth at a publicly-traded company. An Executive Coach : He holds us accountable on our first principle strategy, org process, and OKRs
He holds us accountable on our first principle strategy, org process, and OKRs An Agency Mastermind: For industry insights and expertise, my agency community helps me have a finger on the pulse and offers new ways to approach problems specific to my industry.
For industry insights and expertise, my agency community helps me have a finger on the pulse and offers new ways to approach problems specific to my industry. My Executive Team: Extremely proud of the team around me that constantly offers strategic solutions.
4) Have Extreme Focus by Saying No
As the world was ending, I started putting a plan together to combat this new environment. It was amazing. It included everything from ABM and SEM to community marketing and webinars. Then I realized I wouldn’t be able to do any of it. We trimmed down our efforts to 3 main objectives we can do in an accelerated time frame. I would rather do a few things well than half-ass everything.
5) Be Decisive
A decision by indecision might be the worst way to go down. Have a biased towards action and quick iterations. Don’t sit behind your computer polishing a perfect plan that drags out into weeks or months. Now is the time to be decisive and move swiftly. That’s the way I want to go down. It’s no longer about annual plans or quarterly goals. We’re thinking in 1–2 week spirits and iterating.
6) Default to Kindness
This will pass. People will remember (good or bad) how you lead. So don’t be a greedy jerk. No blindsiding. People have rent and families to support so give them as much insight as you can regardless of the outcome. Be human first.
Summary
Here are the six main takeaways from what to do when you don’t have the answers. | https://medium.com/@JimWHuffman/what-to-do-when-you-dont-have-the-answers-a739f26c4ec3 | ['Jim Huffman'] | 2020-04-23 12:46:01.194000+00:00 | ['Executive Coaching', 'Founders', 'Decision Making', 'Leadership', 'Startup'] |
Dream’s to Never Wake Up To | (alarm blaring)
“Fuck”
(I snooze my alarm; 30 minutes pass)
(alarm blaring)
(turns off the alarm rolling over)
“Shit, what day is it?”
Pulling my phone closer to my face I know there’s nothing to look forward to today. Three emails, five texts, and one reminder: each is a reason not to get up. In addition I have class in 30 minutes and it’s a 45 minute commute to get to school. A list of excuses run through my mind. Covid-19? I got in an accident? My father isn’t doing well? I just wanted to find a way to patch this already broken day and move on.
“Here we go…” I mumble as a roll out of bed.
Once on my feet I realize that class was not an option for today. How many days have I missed? Six? I know there has to be some type of attendance policy, but I paid for this shit and it’s a pandemic. I always use phony justifications to cope with my problems in life or they’d accompany me forever. So, what’s the harm in a day off? Plus, if I take the day off, I can relax with a four hour gaming session.
“Siri, call Ke.”
“Calling Ke.”
Yaketsuku or Ke and I have been best friends since we were in grade school. Our relationship has always been unique as we are completely different, yet so similar at the same time. Over the years after high school we began to drift apart, each going our separate ways. He was never the school type, but I encouraged him to go to college regardless; instead, his passion resided in fashion. Creating a startup clothing business, he’s the type of person to jump into something without any prior knowledge and within seconds feel comfortable in that space. Despite having a ton of other friends, Yaketsuku was like blood to me, someone I wanted to be, but even more, he was someone I wanted to grow with. This is why, despite our distance, we never let anything falter our friendship. Gaming, dreaming, and weed were our main ways of connecting, and when they came, together we were an unstoppable force.
(I call Yaketsuku)
“Yoooooo, what’s good?” I ask.
“Shit, you know the vibes, hop online,” Ke replies.
“Bet, I’m already on,” I say.
“On my way,” Ke says before hanging up.
Grabbing hold of my controller I slide the headphones over my head. I feel the weight of the day wash away; it’s gaming time, and my character needs work.
(I enter the game chat)
“Whattssssss good, nigga? What are we getting into? I’m tryna catch some dubs,” I exclaim.
“Shut yo dumbass up, we all know you ain’t on shit,” Ke as laughter filled his voice
“You right, you right.”
“Swear, you ain’t got class today?”
“Not even bro, how about you?”
“Hell yeah I gotta log on now. This online shit is cake bro.”
“Yeah I don’t know about it, I miss the human interaction forreal I am struggling to find motivation.”
“I get that, bro, you be having your shit right regardless. Always on that nerd shit.”
His words cut deep as I know I barely got up for class at this point. My past actions have propelled me to heights I could never imagine, also serving as a double-edged sword bringing me lower than I have ever been. I was a living lie; I was a nerd that doesn’t even show up to class.
“Yeah bro, I be doing my thing.”
We game all day, letting the hours pass as if we’re kids over summer break; it’s the only thing that takes me away from the burdens of the day. By the time I look up at the clock it’s already 4:00 P.M. and I have yet to accomplish anything productive. I mean, I did get my character from level 45 to 50, but sadly in our society those are numbers to distract us from the ones that actually count. Whether it’s a percentage for a grade or the revolving check you get from selling your life, numbers dictate success. Success, the biggest burden which lay on my shoulders. It is what I always dreamed of as a kid and chased in my young adulthood. But to what end?
This means it’s time to get at it. With two quizzes and a project on the line, how else could this day get any better? | https://medium.com/@keyshawn62599/dreams-to-never-wake-up-to-898e56fed33c | [] | 2020-12-25 15:02:33.757000+00:00 | ['Short Story', 'Life Lessons', 'College', 'Life', 'Fiction'] |
The Cat Food War has Ended | When JJ, my $3,000 street rescue, took me hostage in 2005 she was possibly six months old and pregnant. After she had her litter of five, I began feeding her tiny cans of Fancy Feast because those hungry little fiends were sucking the calories out of her as fast as she could inhale them. If either my partner or I moved in the general direction of the kitchen, a gray blur would whip past us and if we actually went into the kitchen we would find Miss JJ on the counter on her hind legs with her front paws on the cupboard door.
I told the veterinarian about this and she chuckled. “That stuff is kitty crack.”
Weaning the kittens was a walk in the park compared to getting JJ off the counter. Eventually, she calmed down and resigned herself to the dry kibble she and her roomie, Alice, had as their regular diet.
I know. I know I’m supposed to be feeding my cats wet food. Preferably something that’s mostly meat with little to no grain additives. I’ve read all the articles and been lectured at by experts including my vet. But I absolutely cannot tolerate the general insanity that opening a can of wet cat food engenders in any cat.
Nope. Not doing it. I did it for the six weeks the kittens were nursing and we’re done, thanks.
We always had cats and dogs when I was growing up. And in all those years of all those animals, my Mom always and only fed them all (dogs, cats, and toddlers alike) Purina cat chow. And, yes my little sisters loved the stuff.
Even my old girl, Puss, the kitten I stole from a drunken house party in the latter part of the last century, ate nothing but dry kibble for most of her 22 years. In her last months, however, I began feeding her canned tuna. She turned her nose up at wet cat food but she liked tuna.
Alice and JJ rule the roost / Photo Credit — Remington Write
Years passed and the girls got rounder and rounder. I’d take them in for routine check-ups and the vet would shake her head.
That began our quest to limit their food. To establish mealtimes, to get their weight down. Trying to control feeding times and amounts for two cats was ridiculous. We did the best we could and hoped something would work. Then Alice passed away three years ago and I thought that might simplify things. Yeah, right.
The vet shook her head and chucked JJ under her chin about a year ago.
“She’s up a quarter of a pound from her last visit. 16 pounds is just too heavy for such a little girl.”
Back to the drawing board. Switching brands, limiting portions, limiting daily amounts allowed, buying catnips toys as a bribe, games with the laser pointer that bored her after the first ten minutes. One thing that did improve slightly after JJ became The Only Cat Standing was that she didn’t vomit as often. When there were two cats, both would bail into their food as if it was the only food left on the planet and if they didn’t eat it quickly enough the other would get it. And then they’d vomit.
JJ on her own would still gobble down her twenty pieces of kibble when we’d feed her and then would still occasionally toss it back onto the floor. Just not as often. Charming.
AleXander (who doesn’t understand why people allow animals indoors) often took it upon himself to make sure JJ only got the allowed amount at the allowed times. It became this insane dance where any movement at all in the apartment invited a meowing cat to entwine herself underfoot. And we have danced this dance for many a year.
Then came the virus
I’ve been unemployed since October and so we’ve been home together a lot but it wasn’t until our current Please-Stay-Home-We-Beg-You-And-Wash-Your-Hands-Again situation that the whole feeding thing became completely intolerable.
It’s one thing to manage a cranky, vocal, demanding feline day in and day out when it’s still possible to leave home. No more.
Last week we broke. JJ won.
Now her bowl never gets left empty. There’s always as much dry (low carb, high protein) food as she wants when she wants it. And suddenly we have this lovely, laid back, content pussy cat who has only yakked up her dinner once all week. She watches us walk to the kitchen (if she’s awake which is only about four non-consecutive hours daily) and moves not one muscle. She saunters on over to her bowl when she feels like it, has a few bites and moves on back to one of her spots for some shut-eye.
Please don’t offer any helpful tips on how to improve this situation. JJ is 16 years old and we’re all stuck in this 500 square foot apartment together for many weeks to come. If we all eat ourselves into diabetic comas, well, there are clearly worse fates.
Now, at least, she’ll die a natural death and not risk being thrown out the fifth-floor window (kidding!).
© Remington Write 2020. All Rights Reserved. | https://medium.com/the-partnered-pen/the-cat-food-war-has-ended-febac480593e | ['Remington Write'] | 2020-04-08 21:35:54.352000+00:00 | ['Pets', 'Cats', 'Relationships', 'Diet', 'Control'] |
Hidden Hate: | Hidden Hate:
(Jaelynn Harris/ Siren Magazine)
By Victoria Ginzburg
“What’s your number?” He said jokingly. I was slightly confused, as this question is not unheard-of at a typical college party, but I had never met him before let alone talked to him. Yet he approached me and asked me for my number? He repeated himself “what’s your number?” but this time, he pulled out his arm and pointed to the inside of his wrist. I then understood that his evil was not in objectifying me as a woman but as a Jew.
I have always stood proud of my identity as a Jewish woman. Living amongst a loving Jewish community in the Bay Area during the formative years of my childhood created a sense of security and warmth that I always carried with me. I felt understood. There was no need for me to explain who I was to those around me. I, of course, was not naive to the realities of anti-semitism but also had never experienced it first hand.
In October of this past year, I was confronted with blatant hatred that I had never fathomed experiencing before. I was verbally attacked for being Jewish. It was unprovoked and occurred in only an instant — a short few sentences, but its impact continued to linger over me for many months after. This person who came up to me decided to take something I cherish so deeply, something I feel so proud of, and place upon my identity shame and disgust. His words brought a new and unparalleled pain into my being. Soon after this incident, I began to feel so alone. It was hard for me to explain to people why this attack on my identity hurt so much, why it was impacting me in such a heavy way. I longed for the familiar security of the Jewish community that had sheltered me for so many years. I began to feel isolated from the ones around me, from my surrounding settings. I retreated.
This remark was hurtful because it took a personally sensitive topic and perverted it into a joke. It dismissed the gravity and horrors that had occurred in the Holocaust. I found myself in constant shock and tears by the idea that someone had thought that turning the death of my family into a joke was an okay thing to do. That it was funny and that I would laugh along too. The Holocaust is something I think about almost every day whether intentionally or not. The reason I am alive is that a few select relatives from my family survived while the rest of my family perished. This is not an occurrence I take lightly.
(Jaelynn Harris/ Siren Magazine)
I had never been faced with hatred before nor did I think when choosing the University of Oregon that this would be a reality for me or my friends. People often attribute the American college experiences to be the best years of one’s life. This utopian dream created by pop culture and the media is not necessarily all true. The school’s support of its diverse community is well advertised and buildings continue to be adorned with “all are welcome here signs”. Yet, in reality, many people lack the education and awareness needed for a truly accepting community to be fulfilled. The lack of inherent radical acceptance and understanding among all students is why we must aspire to be better.
The experience of being harassed based on my religion is something I think about often as I encounter a diverse range of people in my life. It opened my eyes to the tenderness of identity, especially in an environment in which one might feel uncomfortable or misunderstood. As students here at the University of Oregon, we were selected to make up a special community to both personally grow and collectively enrich each others’ experiences. In this community, each person holds a unique identity and cherishes specific parts of who they are. An unsolicited attack on these sacred parts of oneself can be so damaging. Hate is so counterproductive for this community. It should not be tolerated no matter the influence one is under, the person they are addressing, or the audience they are a part of.
Originally Published in the Allyship Issue of The Siren Feminist Magazine | https://medium.com/@victoriaginzburg/hidden-hate-a76c971a1d00 | ['Victoria Ginzburg'] | 2021-06-08 19:16:38.064000+00:00 | ['College', 'Allyship', 'Anti Semitism', 'Judaism', 'Kindness'] |
Quantum theory of Evolution | Classical theory of Evolution
Charles Robert Darwin was a English naturalist and biologist who presented the theory of evolution in his book On the origin of Species in 1859. Darwin’s scientific discovery is widely credited theory of life sciences, explaining the diversity of life.
He defined evolution as “descent with modification,” the idea that species change over time, give rise to new species, and share a common ancestor. The mechanism that he proposed for evolution is natural selection.
“Variation is a feature of natural populations and every population produces more progeny than its environment can manage. The consequences of this overproduction is that those individuals with the best genetic fitness for the environment will produce offspring that can more successfully compete in that environment. Thus the subsequent generation will have a higher representation of these offspring and the population will have evolved.” -Charles Robert Darwin
Natural selection acts to preserve and accumulate minor advantageous genetic mutations. Suppose a member of a species developed a functional advantage (it grew wings and learned to fly). Its offspring would inherit that advantage and pass it on to their offspring. The inferior (disadvantaged) members of the same species would gradually die out, leaving only the superior (advantaged) members of the species.
Natural selection is the preservation of a functional advantage that enables a species to compete better in the wild. Natural selection is the naturalistic equivalent to domestic breeding. Over the centuries, human breeders have produced dramatic changes in domestic animal populations by selecting individuals to breed. Breeders eliminate undesirable traits gradually over time. Similarly, natural selection eliminates inferior species gradually over time.
But the things got complex when we observe such a natural diversity at cellular level and even more deeper. Many evolutionist and biologist contradicts with the Darwin’s theory of evolution or natural selection. Darwinism led science astray by assumption, not by observation.
Repeatedly, evolutionists impose their view of the world and how complex traits emerge and progress over time onto biology as a dogma. But when they actually look in detail at organisms, they are surprised. Enough anomalies can kill a paradigm, even if it survives for over a century by the willful belief of an entrenched ideology.
Quantum theory of evolution: A new perspective into cellular dogma of life
Classical physics which many of us may know, following the Newtonian conceptual realms fails or at least doesn’t work at deep atomic level. And here at deepest of atomic world, quantum phenomenon comes into action. Biological systems are the living counterparts of the physical known universe of cosmos. They are made up of molecules, atoms, subatomic structures, and strings of energy and therefore should obey the same laws/regularities of quantum physics and relativity. Few years ago, it was suggested that quantum mechanics may play a substantial role in functioning of biological systems at atomic level.
We believe people that way, would be splitting hairs, as both points of views represent a continuum in the evolutionary process and it all is consistent with the current Darwinian evolution point of reference.
Apparently classical Darwinism is opposed by quantum theory of evolution, because it states that mutation mechanism in DNA is random. Which occurs randomly in clusters of species and only those survive which are beneficial for survival resulting in the extinction of those which doesn’t survive those mutations and that’s how Darwinian evolution progress over the period of time. On the other hand, Quantum theory suggest that mutation mechanism somehow follow the systematic way.
Quantum evolutionary theorist suggest that at the quantum level, similarly to the wave-particle superposition concept, the DNA (made up of atoms and subatomic particles) is also held in a superposition of states, which eventually unfolds in a mutation that is “helpful” to the organism.
Over a long period of time, all these beneficial random mutations accumulated and persisted leading to a system, which in its whole, also exhibit features of quantum evolution.
Classical Darwin’s theory leading ultimately to a system that obeys the laws of quantum entanglement/evolution theory.
Chaoyang Lu (left) and Jian-Wei Pan of the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei led a recent experiment that tested quantum Darwinism.
Recently three separate experiments were conducted by three separate teams located at Italy, China and Germany to confirm the accuracy of quantum evolution theory.
Since long scientists are trying to balance these two theories of evolution i.e. Classical Darwinism and Quantum Darwinism.
Quantum theory of evolution which is topic of discussion of this article, is firstly proposed by the Polish theoretical physicist Wojciech Zurek in 2003.
One of the stranger aspects of the quantum world is superposition, the ability of a quantum system to exist in more than one state at one time. The system seemingly only snaps into one state or the other — moving from the quantum world to the classical — the moment we observe it.
That process is called decoherence, and quantum Darwinism is an attempt to explain it.
According to Zurek’s theory, quantum systems have “pointer states”. These are specific measurable characteristics, such as a particle’s location or speed.
When a particle interacts with its environment, all the superposition of those characteristics — alternate locations or speeds — decohere, leaving just the pointer state, which many people can observe because it “imprints” replicas of itself on the environment.
That’s where the idea of Darwinism comes into play: only the “fittest” state — the one best suited for its particular environment — survives the process of decoherence. | https://medium.com/the-21st-century/quantum-theory-of-evolution-2c829796a54c | ['Hamza Abdullah'] | 2020-12-21 15:14:54.184000+00:00 | ['Biology', 'Quantum', 'Life', 'Evolution'] |
Confessions of a Slightly Exhausted Overwhelmingly Grateful New Writer | I must confess something. I am a writer and I am exhausted.
Well, okay. It’s more complicated than that. But. This is the start of my third month actively pursuing my dream of being a writer. I mean, that is to say, of actually claiming the identity and working ways of ‘writer.’
I love it. I absolutely love it. I love waking up, writing, going about my day, writing, getting ready for bed, writing, dreaming about writing, waking up, repeat.
I love writing. I love improving. I love the feeling of knowing that this new piece was better than my last. And I do not like the feeling of this new piece is not as good as, will never measure up to, my previous piece, etc. etc. and so on.
So, it is complicated.
The thing exhausting me are the things that go with the writing that are not exactly writing. The social media blitz. The marketing learning curve. The anxieties over how much I do not know about email lists, blogs, pitching, freelancing, followers, clients, publishing. The self-doubt, impostor syndrome, fear of rejection dreads that might sometimes paralyze me.
I want to write. I am writing. I am a writer.
But I realize this requires more than my willpower, more than my affirmations. It requires massive attention to getting myself out there. To being seen.
I prefer being found. But in our modern internet social media online frantic culture, being found or stumbled upon, is not common.
Everyone is out there jumping up and down with a “LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT WHAT I DID! LIKE WHAT I DID! SHARE WHAT I DID! SHARE ME!” sign in their hands. And this jumping is tiring.
I know I am not alone in this. It is the way of our gig economy. It is the way of our artist community.
See, I don’t know if you know this, but I guess some people think writing is an extra, or optional thing. Or something that is common, typical, anyone can do it.
So, we are all out here trying, giving, sharing, proclaiming and taking up space, rightfully. And those seekers of our wares are rare. And are often other writers. Because writers are readers, and readers sometimes, not always, just so happen to be writers.
I am not meaning to sound melancholy, or to complain. As mentioned, I love this life. I simply adore it. I am where I belong. I feel it. But there’s so much I don’t know how to do. How to handle. How to prepare for. I can write. I can read. Let’s do this, right?
But writing and reading exist in the context of a market, currently. They are art. They are passion. They are necessary for life. But this market is often sink, swim, float or drown.
And let’s face it, we all spend some time drowning.
However, here’s the part that matters.
Here’s the part I want you to hear.
Here’s the part that saves us.
The hands that pull us up out of these feelings of overwhelming exhaustion are often other writers. Every time I have felt not good enough, every time I have felt not certain, other writers have reached for me, grabbed my hand, yanked me out of the whirlpool, and said: Hey, girl. It’s okay. Here’s how you do this.
So, now I have to Alanis Morrissette this piece by saying thank you to Sarah DeVries for giving me the push I needed to start writing for real.
Thank you to B. Michael Logan for being so kind and helpful in all things.
Thank you to Christina Ward 🌼for being a poet Goddess mentor.
Thank you to Frank McKinley for reaching out and checking in.
Thank you to Zarina Dara 🥀💃🏻for being an inspiration and a cheerleader.
Thank you to Bill DuBay Jr. ⚡️and Dirty Harry Wizard for thinking of me.
Thank you to Manas Kala for including me.
Thank you to Nikki Kay for fangirling about me.
Thank you to Kristi Keller for creating community.
Thank you to Kamga Tchassa for messaging with me about haiku.
Thank you to Deborah Christensen for welcoming me into her House of Haiku.
Thank you to Jun Wu for being a role model in writing.
Thank you for Reggie for saying I had a nice writing voice and for helping me edit out a few commas.
Thank you to E. Scott Alighieri for always being the first to respond to my new poems.
Same for Greg Prince, Randy Shingler, Wendell McQuary, Sean Michael, Giovanni Sonier, Greg Thomas, and Thomas Plummer.
Thank you ShaRhonda for reading that poem and liking it.
Thank you Johnzelle Anderson for your responses, and for your enthusiasm in your writing! Thank you Hawkeye Pete Egan B. whose Medium profile name I couldn’t remembers started with H not P or B, but who is always one of the first to find my new stuff and like it.
Thank you Susan Brearley for the opportunities in connection.
Thank you Thomas Gaudex for letting me Scribe with you.
Thank you to Ryan Fan and Heidi Franklin for being supportive and helpful from the start.
Thank you Sarah Dee and Agnes Louis and Adam, Diabetic Cyborg and Jim Woods and Michelle Marie Warner for sharing and caring.
Thank you to all of you who write and create and inspire and motivate. Thank you for the light of your bravery in the powerful expression and continuous risk taking in writing what you think, feel, observe, notice, wish for, seek to change or save.
Thank you to the countless others who have noticed me who have done what I have dreamed about, who have found me. I hesitated to name names because I cannot name everyone, but this is a start. Just a start.
Everyday I exist as an actual official finally real writer is a day I exist in connection and community with you all.
I am a hand for you too, as I learn, as I grow, as I pay it back and pay it forward, as I find others.
We exist only in community, only in relation, only in connection. We exist in this as writers and also as workers. Writing is work. But, because we are writers, because we value the art and the craft, because we play around with words, rules, the imagination: we can engage in the real and the make-believe, simultaneously, weaving in and out with ease.
We can write and write and write, as we do. Day in, day out. With passion. With intensity. With work to get our words out there.
And, we can take breaks, take naps, spend time to just read each other’s work. We can take time to just write without the social media wildfire that we have to try to fan into existence.
We can pretend we are in Paris, circa 1922. In a salon. Without wi-fi. Without phones or computers. Just sharing our work, pen to paper, thought to word, with each other. Just letting it be. With coffee, tea, wine, and plenty of discussion, inspiration, and appreciation for who we are and what we bring to the world of writing. | https://medium.com/swlh/confessions-of-a-slightly-exhausted-overwhelmingly-grateful-new-writer-bb384c1a96dc | ['Jenny Justice'] | 2019-08-15 01:37:28.908000+00:00 | ['Writers On Writing', 'Writer', 'Gig Economy', 'Writing', 'Community'] |
Easter Bunny Cupcakes — Super Easy! | (Image: Bella Jones)
Are you searching for delicious Easter cupcake recipes? You just found the perfect one!
Easter is that special time of the year. Family and friends get together. You’ll want to make sure your table is packed with these irresistible Easter Bunny Cupcakes. Take your dessert table to the next level. These cute and adorable Easter cupcakes are the perfect dessert to serve after a big holiday dinner. They are super simple to make, and kids will LOVE them.
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 medium eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
2 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup whole milk
3 Cups Shredded Coconut (sweetened or unsweetened depending on your preference)
6 regular sized marshmallows
Buttercream or Cream Cheese Frosting
Pink sugar
Step 1: Making the cupcakes
Preheat the oven to 350° F and prepare a 12-cup standard muffin tin with cupcake liners.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.
In another bowl, beat the 2 large eggs and sugar with an electric mixer for approximately 2 minutes.
Pour in the melted butter and vanilla extract and mix together in a circular motion until combined.
Add half the dry ingredients and continue to mix until just combined.
Then add the milk and the rest of the dry ingredients.
Mix until just combined. Make sure you do not over mix.
Divide the batter evenly into the prepared cupcake tins.
Bake for approximately 20 minutes. Gently stick a toothpick into the cupcake. If it comes out clean, your cupcake is done!
Remove from the oven and allow the cupcakes to cool completely on a wire rack.
Once cupcakes have cooled, frost using a piping bag or small offset spatula/knife.
Step 2
Take a shallow dish and pour in the shredded coconut. Lightly roll the top of each cupcake in the coconut. Make sure you completely cover the top of the cupcake.
(Image: Bella Jones)
(Image: Bella Jones)
Step 3
To make the bunny ears, take a sharp knife, and cut each marshmallow in half at a diagonal.
(Image: Bella Jones)
Step 4
Dip the flat side of each marshmallow half into the pink sugar.
(Image: Bella Jones)
Step 5
Gently press the two marshmallow “ears” on the top of each cupcake.
(Image: Bella Jones)
Super easy and delicious bunny cupcakes! | https://medium.com/@abcguides/easter-bunny-cupcakes-super-easy-ab7f5a4fb906 | [] | 2020-12-24 09:46:51.772000+00:00 | ['Recipes For Desserts', 'Kids', 'Easter', 'Recipe', 'Cupcakes'] |
Are we giving our children the best of parenting? It’s time to LET THE BIRD FLY | Are we giving our children the best of parenting? It’s time to LET THE BIRD FLY Abubakar Sadiq Umar Jan 24·3 min read
“Everybody’s a genius. But if you judge a fish by it’s ability to climb a tree, it will live it’s whole life believing that it is stupid.” – Albert Einstein
Why do parents encourages a fixed mindset in their children? If you look, virtually our entire schooling system is built around ability-praising and labeling (judging) children based on their exam scores (smart or stupid). Parents don’t care about what’s in their childs head or the real knowledge of what they are learning. All they do care about is good results. This is why majority of parents unknowingly establish and reinforce a fixed mindset in their children.
The perspective that skills and talents won’t get you far in life is a detrimental thought. In searching for what’s best for their children, parents force them to study or do what they want because they consider their choices as better for a successful future. I say; WRONG NUMBER. Let’s look at an example; parents force their children to take either science or commerce in school because, according to them, if you become an engineer, or a medical practitioner, or a chartered accountant, you will be successful in life. I’m sorry, it doesn’t work that way.
We are in the 21st century, we must leave the stereotypical thinking behind. The most important thing is to focus on your child’s strength and weakness even if it doesn’t have to do with school. We are all aware of what people with skills have achieved and are achieving in life. I believe knowledge is underrated.
From clenching a tiny fist to crawling on all fours, to slowly tottering on unstable legs, the child is always passing from one stage of skill of development to the next. Without the gradual transition of each phase into the other, no human being will ever be able to cope or develop into a fully functional human being. Each stage is necessary, each skill is necessary in order to grow and be something more than you were.
For a child entering formal education, the development of these skills must become an even more essential part of their life, whereby they do not spend a single day without learning something new that they can carry on with themselves. The development of skills and talents is a form of free expression, when a child is allowed to pursue what truly interests or pleases him or her, this liberty promotes a sense of self-esteem in accepting oneself for his or her own talents and strengths, as opposed to their ability to cope and obey what they are told or expected of.
A child who is allowed to develop skills in their area of interest would naturally do better than a child who is coerced into learning or participating in the field they are not interested in. The former would feel more satisfaction, a happier standard of living, while the latter will spend his or her days trying to satisfy the wants and expectations of others. Also, in an increasingly competitive environment, in which the wants and needs of people are constantly changing, and the patterns of growth are constantly evolving, the need to excel in newer fields, adapting to situations, bringing to forth new ideas and imaginative solutions that change the conventional norms is becoming more and more necessary in order to excel or grow in any field whatsoever. Be it in the field of engineering, or manufacturing, or teaching, the need for novelty and innovation is persistent and never ending.
Doing your job as a parent is to raise a child who is comfortable enough to depend on himself, and impact lives positively. They are not yours to keep, but to teach them to soar on their own. The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence. But in doing so makes sure you work on their character because it’s no doubt, children are keen observers and they learn from their parents activities. Therefore, parents have to change their behavior to show good seeds in their children. The point is to maintain a cordial and harmonious relation at home. And in such conditions, the seeds sown, grow well and strong. | https://medium.com/@iamasadeeq/are-we-giving-our-children-the-best-of-parenting-its-time-to-let-the-bird-fly-6a2b3cb36d9f | ['Abubakar Sadiq Umar'] | 2021-01-26 22:35:49.385000+00:00 | ['Homeschooling', 'Parental Advisory', 'Parenting', 'Children', 'Parents'] |
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free iphone 11 giveaways real. | https://medium.com/@linoyom630/get-a-free-iphone-11-pro-today-giveaways-iphone-real-be96a49898a2 | ['Iphone Pro Giveaways Free'] | 2020-12-12 13:46:53.840000+00:00 | ['Iphone 11', 'Free', 'No Survey', 'iPhone', 'Giveaway'] |
Turning Masculinity into a cage | Much has been said and written about how societal constructs enslave and demean women, but little on how men are also victimised by the social cult of masculinity.
Many Nigerian feminists skirt around this, because to perennially depict men as oppressors fits with their playbook. Chimamanda Adichie herself has said:
“We have been so conditioned to think of power as male … We judge powerful women more harshly than we judge powerful men.”
True, except that in our society, power is not conditioned on just gender. It is also hinged on politics, ethnicity, socio-economic class and religion. To handpick gender while ignoring the complexity of the currency of power in our society is a disservice.
While there are several differences between men and women, there are some cultural stereotypes attached to masculinity that place men in a harmful straitjacket. For example:
1. From young ages, many males are discouraged from showing emotion. We are told not to show affection or pain because these are “feminine” attributes.
Without a culturally approved outlet for these feelings, they are bottled up, leading to higher incidents of unhealthy coping mechanisms (e.g. alcohol and drug abuse) in men.
Men are afraid of being seen as physically “weak,” so they overcompensate when they feel threatened. Some try to assert their masculinity by harassing and being aggressive towards women or men they deem to be “weaker.”
The cult of masculinity compels men to reject their real, natural selves based on genetic and environmental factors and push them into ready-made cages constructed by the society.
2. Although we don’t have a precise estimate in Nigeria, it has been said that between 10 to 38 per cent of victims of sexual assaults are male. But our society makes it difficult for these male victims to speak up or seek therapy because only females are expected to be victimised by men. This stereotyping makes male victims feel emasculated.
Stories of male sexual assault seldom elicit mass condemnation in public spaces; they are usually minimised or derisively dismissed. Even in most comments on foreign media, male rape is often reduced to off-colour jokes or clichéd musing of the victim having “enjoyed it.”
Fredrick Nwabufo, a journalist, shared his experience with sexual harassment, and he said:
“I have lived with the anguish and dirtiness of that experience for years. It has been a mammoth burden. I sometimes ask myself, ‘Do I look gay?’ I have questioned my sexuality a number of times. It is psychologically overwhelming.”
This statement offers a glimpse into the inner guilt imposed on men by the cult of masculinity. These victims are accused of “not responding to their abusers in a manly way” i.e. punching them in the face or “having invited the sexual harassment in the first place.”
The small minded folks who peddle such narratives fail to realise that sexual assault is more about power and control than physical looks or sexuality.
3. Males are taught that having multiple sexual partners is what defines masculinity. To argue for the contrary is to be labelled as being sexually inept or not “manly enough.”
Many males are taught that sexually conquering women is what earns them respect. Hence, male ego is artificially tied to libidinal prowess.
I was on Nairaland forum the other day, and was amused to read the posts of otherwise healthy youths who were hooked on using Erectile Dysfunction drugs to impress ladies in bed.
In 2015, the Lagos State Fire Service had to be called in to a hospital to remove a patient’s sex enhancing metal ring which had made his penis swell up terribly. I can bet his “joystick” will no longer the same again after that ordeal. And he is even fortunate.
Many men have dropped dead right in the line of duty because they wanted to dazzle a woman in the sack. The problem that phallic anxiety has brought to the world of men is unspeakable.
4. Men are placed under undue pressure to “show” the society that they have more money. Male teens steal money from parents to impress female dates.
Men become seriously indebted over weddings, child naming ceremonies, school fees, rent or mortgages, family upkeep and some resort to crime all in a bid to measure up with societal expectations.
I believe the recent cases of male suicides reported in the media – if examined carefully – are tied to failure of the men to meet up with burdensome financial obligations in their families.
Our culture measures men’s worth by how much money they have, but life is complex and it doesn’t always fit in all the cute boxes.
5. The cult of masculinity denies that men suffer physical and emotional abuse in the hands of women. Once the story of a couple’s fight gets to the public space, the man is already judged guilty before his side is heard.
Tonto Dikeh and Olakunle Churchill’s story, is a case in point. People on social media viscerally took sides with the lady and stoned the man because of the conditioning that only men physically abuse women.
Even when a man defends himself against a violent woman, the woman still receives public sympathy because that is what the society expects.
6. A medical textbook says that more men commit suicides than women. That’s because men are taught to “shut up” and “take it like a man” and indeed, many of us have shut it up and absorbed it instead of saying “I need help.” This has resulted in stress, depression and psychological burn outs
One popular Nigerian pastor (whom I used to think was urbane) said in his devotionals that it’s “effeminate” for a man to express any of his problems to others. But when his own marriage crashed amidst ear-tingling allegations, I could see how well his teaching has worked out for him.
When men are placed in cultural cages, it makes it difficult for them to seek mental, emotional or spiritual help.
7. African culture generally has an archetypal image of a “good father” – one that is gruff, detached, quick to use the whip and bound to his family only by a sense of duty.
That’s why many Africans have a warped idea of God – as a person who is aloof and quick to strike detractors with lightning bolts. They inadvertently project the attributes of their earthly father onto God.
Psychologists say that a father’s active involvement in his child’s life helps him/her to play, gain confidence, a healthy self-esteem and prepares the child for the world of men. Many adults today are yet to recover because they missed this aspect in their upbringing.
I was at a place recently where a woman rashly said to a father, “Did they assign you to always carry your child around like a monkey?” The people there found it comical, but I found that statement ignorant. No one has the right to interrupt a father’s healthy bonding with his own child.
Ordering us to “all be feminists” can’t be the solution because many feminists are just as sexist and exploitative as the men they decry.
First, every man needs to be seen as a unique individual. We are genetic and environmental varieties, and society should stop judging us collectively. Many men don’t speak or act for me. To each his own.
We also need to question certain cultural stereotypes that force men into rigid boxes and brand them with negative labels once they don’t fit it. Cultures were made by people, and if they impede societal progress, they should also be changed by people. | https://medium.com/@victorayeni40/turning-masculinity-into-a-cage-d1c37322c63 | ['Victor Ayeni'] | 2020-12-21 09:06:12.090000+00:00 | ['Society', 'Male Sexual Assault', 'Masculinity', 'Feminist'] |
What is Dash (DASH)? The Beginner’s Guide | DASH is a digital currency with a high level of anonymity, which was originally created as an alternative to Bitcoin. The main motive for launching DASH was to improve BTC and solve those problems that the world’s first cryptocurrency couldn’t. It is decentralized, which means the absence of a central issuer and equality of network participants, while its production does not need such high capacity as in the case of BTC.
Decentralization in DASH does not end with a simple “equality” of participants. Each member of the network can contribute their own ideas for the development of cryptocurrency or vote for other initiatives. The idea of Decentralized Governance or DAO is fully implemented.
Evan Duffield
The name DASH was not immediately attached to the altcoin. When Evan Duffield, a senior developer of this network, launched a crypt in 2014, it was called DarkCoin. Soon the grim name was changed to XCoin, and then another rebranding was carried out and the name DASH was taken. According to one of the versions, this name means “jerk up” or “rapid movement up” and at the same time is an abbreviation of Digital cASH.
Evan Duffield, talking about the creation of a new cryptocurrency, emphasizes that for him the main point was and remains anonymity. Initially, the developer became interested in Bitcoin and proposed to make changes to the protocol of the world’s first cryptocurrency. They did not listen to him, and this became a catalyst for the creation of DarkCoin in 2014.
In the first two days of the existence of a new cryptocurrency, 2 million coins were mined, which is approximately 10% of the possible maximum (16–22 million). Criticism in the crypto community collapsed on DarkCoin because of such a voluminous instamine. Duffield even suggested restarting or rolling back the network, since instamine was the result of an error in the algorithm, but the participants refused. The mined coins quickly sold on the exchanges at low prices, and the situation stabilized.
DASH is convenient to use for making everyday payments, as there is an instant transaction function in this cryptocurrency. It works using the InstantSend service (until 2016 InstantX). As a result of this, Dash Core, a company that deals with the development of Dash, in October 2017 signed a strategic agreement with the online banking platform Wirex. This agreement provides for the integration of cryptocurrency into the banking system, which will allow Dash holders to pay at 40 million VISA card acceptance points in more than 210 countries of the world.
Dash, like Bitcoin, has a blockchain, it is mined, traded on exchanges. But between these cryptocurrencies there are conceptual differences:
Availability of InstantSend service at DASH for instant transactions; Availability of PrivateSend service for additional anonymity of operations; Mining does not require such powerful installations; In the full less decentralized network in which each participant affects its development; Several cryptographic encryption algorithms are used at once; The whole system is two-level.
We will talk about these differences in more detail in a separate section of the material.
DASH Features
We noted several times that the network of this cryptocurrency is two-level. Let’s see what it is expressed.
In the Bitcoin peer-to-peer network, consensus is reached at the level of peers supporting the blockchain. In simple words, these miners whose activities protect the network from double spending through the Proof-of-Work protocol. A similar mechanism is in DASH. Mining DASH occurs according to the X11 algorithm, which is a combination of 11 other cryptographic algorithms or hash functions.
However, this cryptocurrency has a second level, in which masternodes plays the central rol. Masternode is a member with a fully downloaded DASH blockchain. This system uses the Proof-of-Service (PoSe) mechanism. There are InstantSend and PrivatSend services in Dash, thanks to masternodes. Full nodes have the right to vote on network development issues and receive 45% of mined coins; another 45% get miners, and 10% goes to the development of the network (often the remuneration of developers).
The InstantSend service can also be used by the owner of a full DASH wallet, as well as owners of lightweight programs and clients for mobile devices. Transactions in this mode are performed in a trusting format, since it takes time to complete their confirmation (about 2.5 minutes). However, the system is built in such a way that for each operation its own trusted “gateway” is blocked, which is checked by the supervisor. This guarantees protection against double spending.
The PrivateSend service based on the CoinJoin mechanism. It is responsible for mixing payments, which makes it very difficult to keep track of them. Everything works as follows:
Denomination: the transaction is split into equal parts (0.1, 1, 10, 100 dash), which prevents the tracking of individual amounts; Partial anonymization with mixing of coincident particles; each mix is performed by a new masternode; The amount goes to anonymous addresses instantly without additional waiting for the completion of the process.
DASH retains the status of “the most decentralized digital currency” by implementing a decentralized DAPI software interface. It is an open environment where companies and developers can create wallets and software to interact with the network.
If you are interested in cryptocurrency, then you have heard of the term DAO, which refers to the decentralized management mode in the platform or literally “decentralized autonomous organization”.
DASH was the first among other cryptocurrencies offered this system. This mode is called not DAO, but DGBB — Decentralized Governance by Blockchain. As we noted above, such a regime allows nodes (masternodes) to submit their proposals or vote for new reforms of the DASH platform. It was by a vote that it was decided to change the block size from 1 MBto 2.
Differences DASH from Bitcoin
The key difference between these two cryptocurrencies is the platform architecture. If Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer network based on the Proof-of-Work protocol and individual developers are working on the development “behind the curtain”, then DASH is a much more democratic and decentralized network with two levels at once. Here there are Bitcoin elements in the form of the Proof-of-Work protocol (miners) and an additional level in the form of DGB with Masternotes (nodes).
The latter feature allows DASH to fully implement decentralized autonomous network management with internal voting on all key issues. And also introduce features such as instant transactions (InstantSend) and additional anonymity (PrivateSend).
DASH is a more open currency to innovate, thanks to DAO. Each node has the right to make their own proposals for the development of the platform.
There are differences in mining and distribution of rewards. First, DASH uses its own X11 algorithm, which combines 11 hash functions at once, and does not require such capacity as in the case of Bitcoin mining. Secondly, the reward after receiving the block is distributed in a specific proportion.
The implementation of DAPI, an open road map with ambitious plans for the future, can also be considered to be what distinguishes DASH from Bitcoin. Duffield and his team are serious about creating a user-friendly cryptocurrency that even a child can use. Signing an agreement with Wirex is another step along the way.
DASH application
The DASH team has set a goal to become number one among all other cryptocurrencies in non-cash payments. And taking into account the peculiarities of this platform, this development is quite real.
Created as an alternative to Bitcoin, DASH has managed to go its own way and is significantly different from a number of other cryptocurrencies. Whether it will be super successful and whether the future will show will DASH become the “digital cash” or not. | https://medium.com/@crypto_info/what-is-dash-dash-the-beginners-guide-c591ead1a3c7 | ['Crypto Info'] | 2019-05-17 16:15:18.206000+00:00 | ['The Beginners Guide', 'Dash', 'Blockchain', 'Bitcoin'] |
I Would If I Could | If only I could —
I would have
take away that pain
shove it in a box
seal it, wrap it, lock it
throw it into the ocean
and let the waves eat it whole.
If only I could —
I would have
erase the memories
haunting you in your dreams
tailing you like a shadow.
I would — take it down, scrub it clean
so you can paint it with your own colours.
If only I could —
I would have
shield you
keep you far and away
from harm, from hurt
cocooned you with love
clothe you in warmth.
Alas, it is not to be.
I can’t — shield you from pain, hurt, harm
I can’t — keep you away from the ghosts of the past
I can’t — protect you from the evil within, without
So I do what I can.
Catch you when you fall
Give you — a shoulder to cry on
a pair of ears for you to unload
words of comfort to soothe your soul
I would if I could —
But I can’t —
So I do what I can —
I’ll do my best
to make you see, feel, know
that you are not walking alone
that you don’t have to do it alone
I am here.
I am here with you
— for you. | https://medium.com/scribe/i-would-if-i-could-63cc921375fb | ['Agnes Louis'] | 2020-09-09 08:33:17.723000+00:00 | ['Strength', 'Poetry', 'Life', 'Love', 'Compassion'] |
Is Psychedelic Assisted Therapy Legal? It’s Complicated | Throughout the 1950’s and 60’s, psychedelic research was abundant. However, federal government regulation made research nearly impossible in the following decades. Fortunately, this area of study has recently been making a comeback. There is a new generation of scientists looking to address some major public health problems-and the controlled use of psychedelics has resurfaced as a solution.
Naturally occurring substances like psilocybin, along with synthetic substances like LSD, MDMA, and ketamine have emerged as psychedelics with therapeutic potential. These benefits can last for years and can be prolonged with continued therapy, though some people experience complete relief after a single session.
Psychedelics have been demonstrated to help alleviate anxiety, depression, compulsive behavior, PTSD and cPTSD, and addiction. In many cases (notably addiction models), psychedelics far outperform conventional therapies.
What is Psychedelic Assisted Therapy?
Combining psychedelic treatments with psychological support has a range of benefits. It’s generally difficult for a user to wrap their head around an experience so new and unfamiliar. The effects of these substances are varied and can include enhanced sensory experiences and personal reflection and insight. These experiences can be categorized as either frightening or positive and meaningful-or both.
However, there is a distinction between psychedelic integration and psychedelic assisted therapy. Psychedelic integration helps an individual make sense of their journey with these substances, typically before and after, but not during the experience (this is 100% legal). Alternatively, psychedelic assisted therapy is the actual use of the psychedelic substance under the administration and supervision of a licensed medical professional.
Both psychedelic integration and assisted therapy can contribute to long term healthy psychological functioning. Psychotherapy often helps to evaluate emotional experiences, which leads to lasting benefits.
Interest in psychedelic assisted therapy has been growing in recent years, and not without cause. Rates of mental health disorders are on the rise, yet production of new medications has fallen short. Mental health practitioners have begun to again explore alternative ways to address issues like depression and anxiety. While further study is needed, existing data suggests that psychedelic assisted therapy is a promising treatment for a variety of different conditions.
But sufferers and skeptics alike have one question: is psychedelic assisted therapy legal? The short answer is that, with the exception of ketamine, it’s not-not yet anyway. But that doesn’t mean that people aren’t taking advantage of hallucinogenic healing. Below we discuss three popular psychedelic substances, their therapeutic use, and their legal status for use in psychedelic assisted therapy.
Treating Mental Disorders with Psilocybin
Psilocybin has been the psychedelic drug of choice in modern psychological research. Recent work demonstrates its ability to increase sense of wellbeing. This is one of its main signs of potential for treating mood and anxiety disorders. Treatment-resistant depression and anxiety sufferers may find relief, with particular benefits for cancer patients.
When given to healthy individuals, psilocybin is safe. Not just safe, psilocybin at therapeutic doses actually provides mildly pleasant feelings. In fact, many people view an encounter with psilocybin as one of the most meaningful experiences of their lives.
While consuming psilocybin may be enjoyable, its use in treatment goes beyond the 3 to 6 hour trip itself. Psilocybin’s clinical potential to address depression, anxiety, addiction, and OCD arises from the controlled design in which it’s given. Psychological support sessions before and after the consumption of psilocybin contribute to its therapeutic value.
Psilocybin has been decriminalized in five cities; Denver, CO; Santa Cruz, CA; Oakland, CA; Ann Arbor, MI; and Somerville, MA. In fact, Oregon is the first state to vote on legalizing psilocybin assisted therapy with the passing of Measure 109 .
It’s also worth noting that psilocybin has recently been considered a breakthrough therapy by the FDA. With clinical trials fast tracked to finish in a couple of years, this could mean legalized therapy soon after.
Decriminalization is not the same as legalization, but it does provide a bit more protection from prosecution compared to other places in the United States. Unlike legalization, which establishes a regulated legal market, decriminalization simply removes the threat of criminal prosecution.
This protection extends only to personal possession or use. It does not extend to possession with intent to distribute according to the decriminalization bills in any city. In this way, decriminalization is intended to be more of a harm reduction measure than a full solution of its own.
Since decriminalization doesn’t open the same legal doors for professional therapeutic use of controlled substances, legal psychedelic therapy isn’t yet available in Ann Arbor, Denver, Oakland, Santa Cruz, or Somerville. That said, these cities are good places to be if you’d like to participate in a clinical trial.
Ketamine Therapy Clinics
Unlike psilocybin, whose therapeutic potential has been studied for decades, ketamine has formerly only been used as an anesthetic. As such, it’s been FDA approved for this purpose. Unlike other psychedelics, ketamine is a Schedule III drug with “ medically accepted uses.”
While it is legal for use as an anesthetic, even ketamine’s “off-label use” is legal in treating mood disorders when administered by a licensed medical professional, such as a Psy-D (Doctor of Psychology) or MD (Doctor of Medicine).
It is important to note that ketamine produces temporary psychomotor impairment, and ketamine clinics may also have Nurse Practitioners and medical staff onsite to implement harm reduction protocols and increase user safety. They may also have therapists available to provide integration and therapy sessions before and after the psychedelic-assisted therapy.
Ketamine shows the most promising potential for depression treatment, but some may find it helpful for a range of conditions including OCD, PTSD, and anxiety. In recent years, hundreds of ketamine therapy clinics have opened up around the US. These clinics are qualified to use ketamine as they see therapeutically fit.
This means that ketamine can be legally used in psychedelic assisted therapy. However, treatments tend to be very expensive, and may need to be repeated multiple times to elicit lasting effects. For more information, visit our article on how to find a ketamine clinic near you.
MDMA Assisted Psychotherapy
While not considered a “classical” psychedelic drug, we will see a lot of changes with MDMA as it relates to therapeutic use in the coming years. Before 1985, therapists had successfully used MDMA in marriage counseling. Today, researchers are looking at its potential uses with autism and alcohol addiction. However, it’s success in treating symptoms of PTSD and cPTSD has received the most attention recently.
MDMA was recently designated by the FDA as a breakthrough therapy to treat PTSD. This means a fast-tracked process for its potential approval to be used for legal medical and therapeutic instances. For its use with PTSD patients, MDMA is now entering the final stage of development. This means that if licensed by the FDA in 2021, it would become a medicine and legal treatment could soon follow.
However, it is currently unclear whether MDMA would move down to a Schedule III (currently Schedule I), or removed completely from the FDA’s list of federally scheduled substances. Through its Expanded Access Program, some patients are now able to access treatment in the US and elsewhere.
So, Is Psychedelic Assisted Therapy Legal?
For the most part, psychedelic assisted therapy is not legal. MDMA, LSD, DMT, and psilocybin still remain Schedule I drugs. While scientists have been able to access these drugs for research, the same can’t be said for individuals seeking psychedelic assisted therapy. Researchers at New York University and Johns Hopkins University provide one of the few ways to legally consume these substances- clinical studies.
Aside from ketamine, the legal use of psychedelics currently only takes place in clinical trials. However, this doesn’t mean that these substances aren’t used in psychedelic assisted therapy. A legal psilocybin-assisted therapy program will come online in Oregon as early as 2022. And around the world, therapists are following in the footsteps of indigenous people who have been using psychedelics for millennia. Underground psychotherapy sessions are being practiced in many countries, including the US.
For therapists uncomfortable with the idea of using psychedelics, alternatives have been used to reach non-ordinary states of consciousness. Holotropic breathwork can lead to effects of self-awareness, similar to what’s found in psychedelics. Meditation and sensory deprivation are other methods to supplement therapy. While these techniques are certainly helpful, their benefits may be limited when compared to psychedelics.
Good news for sufferers, the legality of psychedelics is changing-and it’s changing rapidly. Ketamine is currently being used legally in a therapy setting and MDMA & psilocybin are soon to follow. There is a push by the scientific community to continue advancing research in the therapeutic benefits of LSD.
Where Do We Go From Here?
Countless improved lives and decades of research indicate tremendous potential for psychedelic assisted therapy. The trend of decriminalization, legal clinical trials, and ongoing research show a promising future for legal psychedelic assisted therapy. Some therapists are leading the march towards legalization by practicing underground-changing lives in ways that could be punishable by law.
While some take advantage of these therapy sessions, others are exploring legal options that do not include consuming psychedelics with the practitioner. These people are consuming psychedelic substances on their own, and then working with an integration coach before and after the experience to make lasting changes in their life. It is worth reiterating that psychedelic integration work is 100% legal. And in decriminalized cities, the legal risks of consuming psychedelics are quite low. That’s what allows us to offer guiding and trip sitting services in these areas.
At Psychedelic Passage, we offer preparation, trip sitting, and integration services that provide you with actionable steps to reduce risk of harm and get the most value out of your psychedelic experiences. We offer our services to help those in need until there are more legal psychedelic treatment options available. We can all take comfort in the fact that although therapy using psilocybin, LSD, or MDMA is currently out of legal reach, it appears that won’t be the case for much longer. | https://medium.com/@psychedelicpassage/is-psychedelic-assisted-therapy-legal-its-complicated-9d50ecf1a9e | ['Psychedelic Passage'] | 2021-04-05 19:48:49.231000+00:00 | ['Therapy', 'Entheogens', 'Psychedelics', 'Hallucinogens', 'Psychedelic Therapy'] |
The Definition of Home and Normal | Rural Rajpura is full of Indians.
This makes perfect sense. The city is plopped just southeast of Central Punjab. In the heart of it, you won’t see anything taller than a four-story building and on the outskirts, all you‘ll find are sprawling fields, crowded houses, and wandering bulls.
When I was there I was so surrounded by Punjabi’s, the first time I saw another white person in India — in a hotel near the golden temple — I gaped, I had nearly forgotten that there was a world in which I wasn’t the only foreigner within a 50 mile radius.
Growing up in the US, I mastered the art of trumpetless arrivals and subtle exits but after landing in Punjab, I was noticed even though I couldn’t say a word. This was a very different world, a world in which every conversation turned towards me when I entered the room.
I was an oddity to be examined. Markedly different by birth.
I knew I had arrived back when I could blend into the crowd and no one would know who I was. I had arrived back when I showed up in the airport and instead of mutterings of “ghora — foreigner” and the shocked faces when I could respond in Punjabi, I heard only English and the words had nothing at all to do with me.
After my eight months were up, the anonymity more than any other thing was what made me aware I had finally made it home. | https://desotaelianna.medium.com/the-definition-of-home-and-normal-9ff4a2192f62 | ['Elianna Desota'] | 2019-05-01 13:34:53.637000+00:00 | ['Travel', 'Relationships', 'Change', 'Life', 'Philosophy'] |
Stan Lee’s Chakra Nft Dropping Is Off To A Flyer: Report. | The much-awaited 3-day Chakra NFT Auction began on December 28, 2021. BeyondLife.Club, along with Stan Lee’s POW Entertainment and Orange Comet, takes care of this high-profile launch.
Chakra NFT
Since its foray into the NFT space in mid-2021, BeyondLife.Club has become a notable NFT launchpad, especially in the celebrity and brand ecosystem. When they launched the legendary Amitabh Bachchan, they also set Indian NFT space on a global scale. Everybody in the sector might say the same! In that launch, they harnessed a whopping USD 9,66,000 through the sales of categorical NFTs. And when BeyondLife.Club announced that it would collaborate with Stan Lee’s POW Entertainment and Orange Comet to bring Stan Lee’s Chakra (The Invincible) into the NFT space. Ever since, Stan Lee’s Chakra NFT dropping has become the talk of the town.
🔦The unparalleled Day 1
Chakra NFT launch hadn’t had everything in its place; instead, it received a high volume of backlash (during the announcement). But now, the day 1 of the launch witnessed two sold-outs; one in the form of the Loot Box and another in the Jumbo Juke Box, thanks largely to valiant efforts of the creators.
As the hype around chakra NFT collection has grown, BeyondLife.Club still witnessed good traction barring the backlash. The chakra NFT collection stood out as a much-awaited comic NFT launch in the NFT space. With the usage of technologies like animation, AI, and, of course — the NFTs, the NFT launchpad remained relevant. Meanwhile, it also watched the NFT space evolve in a very short period of time. In a way, it’s come to look like the traditional art world he came up in.
The Chakra Art Punk Loot box sold out just in less than a minute, precisely 54 seconds. The users have raided 6865 unique NFTs in the Loot box from the word go! The Chakra NFT Drop is an exclusive sale that has various categories of NFTs, and the Beyondlife platform hosts the sale.
🔦The fun is on Closing Day!!
I guess the reason BeyondLife.Club opted for a 3-day auction is to ensure that none miss out on their investment dream. They’ve cleared the technical hiccups they witnessed during Amitabh Bachchan’s NFT launch. Also, they’ve retained their much-acclaimed Loot Box, which guarantees a unique chakra NFT whenever the user purchases it for a set price.
Kick start the New Year with a value-added access to the Treasure box, which holds the x-factor in this launch. The launchpad’s website says that the buyer of 5 NFTs or more can unlock the lucrative ‘Treasure’ box, which can include any surprising reward. Well, you must be prepared for that sweet surprise!!
The marketplaces act as an eBay for NFTs, where people can either place bids for NFTs or outright buy an NFT. BeyondLife.Club (the NFT launchpad) is planning to establish their dedicated marketplace, where the #AmitabhNFT holders and Chakra NFT holders can list, sell, and monetize their tokens. The launch date is yet to be finalized, but I guess it would be around somewhere in the second week of January 2022.
🔦Wrapping up
NFTs have become a sudden boom (in 2021) even though they have existed since 2014. The players like BeyondLife.Club play a vital role in facilitating the NFT projects.
With the chakra NFT launch almost done, it remains to be seen what project BeyondLife.Club kick starts their 2022 with!!
Join Coinmonks Telegram Channel and Youtube Channel learn about crypto trading and investing
Also Read | https://medium.com/coinmonks/stan-lees-chakra-nft-dropping-is-off-to-a-flyer-report-844e11cfe932 | [] | 2021-12-30 11:28:55.430000+00:00 | ['Chakra Nft', 'Nft Collectibles', 'Nft', 'Nft Marketplace'] |
Create cross-platform UI animations with After Effects and LottieFiles | There are two ways to acquire Lottie animations for use in your app. One is to make it yourself, and the other is through LottieFiles marketplace.
LottieFiles marketplace
Similar to picking stock footage or photography, you can probably find a motion graphic that works for you if you just look long enough. Lottie animations can be purchased from the marketplace or used for free — as long as the license allows it. Check for the license at the bottom of each Lottie animation.
Each Lottie animation specifies the usage license at the bottom of the preview
However, as anyone who’s looked for stock content before knows, stock content will rarely ever be as good as something custom created just for your specific brand, product, or feature. This is also backed up by research — according to a 2019 Venngage Marketing Survey:
In 2018, original, custom graphics drove 3.3X more engagement than stock photography.
For the most part, it’s better to create your own custom animations that are consistent with your company’s established illustration style and portrays fresh imagery in exactly the way you want.
Steps to create a Lottie file
1. Create your graphic assets
Depending on the complexity of your animation, you may want to storyboard out your desired animation beforehand. Sometimes I’ll sketch on paper first or go directly to my design software to start putting a sequence together.
Next, create your graphic elements using vector-based software such as Sketch, Figma, Adobe Illustrator, or Adobe XD. As you polish your graphic assets, keep in mind which pieces need to be animated separately from one another.
Before proceeding to the next step, simplify your graphic assets into as few layers as possible by creating compound shapes from shapes of the same color. This will not only help keep your After Effects composition more organized, but it will also make the motion graphic file size smaller.
Flatten layers in your design software to keep yourself organized
2. Import your graphics to After Effects
The importing experience varies depending on which software you used to create your graphic assets.
Importing from Sketch or Figma
Graphic assets sitting in Sketch or Figma can be imported to After Effects through the AEUX plugin/extension, which is installed individually in each program. The download packages are available here.
To install the AUEX plugin for Sketch:
Double-click to install AEUX.sketchplugin
Access AEUX through the Plugins menu at the top
AEUX plugin for Sketch
To install the AUEX plugin for Figma:
This plugin is not yet available on in the Figma plugin library so installation requires a few manual steps. The AEUX has an installation guide specific to Figma here.
Once installed, access AEUX in your page by right-clicking through Plugins>Development>AEUX.
AEUX plugin for Figma
Next, you’ll need the After Effects AEUX extension to receive the graphic assets sent by the Sketch or Figma AEUX plugin.
To install the AEUX extension for After Effects:
Download ZXP Installer
Use ZXP Installer to install the AEUX.zxp
Restart After Effects and access AEUX through Window> Extensions
AEUX extension for After Effects
Finally, make sure the AEUX plugin is open in Sketch or Figma, and the AEUX extension is open in After Effects. Return to Sketch or Figma, select your shapes then click “Send selection to Ae”.
Some tips on this process:
I found it’s more effective to manually simplify shapes beforehand than to use the “Flatten shapes” function included in the AEUX plugin since I prefer more control over layer naming and what’s getting flattened into what.
Usually I leave the default options alone in the After Effects AEUX extension because I prefer to import my graphic assets into new comps instead of mucking up my current one.
Importing from Adobe Illustrator
Illustrator and After Effects are part of the Adobe suite, so importing works natively. Simply save your graphic assets as an Illustrator file, then drag the file into After Effects to import.
Importing from Adobe XD
Adobe XD and After Effects are part of the Adobe suite, so importing works natively. Simply select your shapes, then go to File > Export > After Effects.
Limitations of each import method
It’s worth mentioning here that some import experiences are better than others.
Figma’s AEUX plugin is newer, so it doesn’t have full support for every type of graphic. Expect these importing limitations:
No gradients
No compound shapes like words
Masks can come out wonky
Doesn’t handle importing several layers at once well
On the plus side, all my work is already in Figma so this is the one less step in the process. For graphic assets that I really need that the AEUX Figma plugin doesn’t transfer over, I’ll copy and paste the graphics into Sketch and use the Sketch AEUX plugin.
Even though importing from Adobe Illustrator works natively, I don’t prefer to use this to import my graphic assets because saving the graphic asset as an entire Illustrator file before being able to import into After Effects bloats my computer. Furthermore, it’s a pain to look for the Illustrator file to drag it into After Effects.
I haven’t heard of any limitations with the Adobe XD import experience, but cannot confirm this since my work is in Figma and not in Adobe XD. The reasons for why Figma is my design software of choice as opposed to Adobe XD is a topic for a whole other article.
3. Create your motion graphic in After Effects
Now that you have all your graphic assets in After Effects, you can create your final motion graphic! There are a few limitations of Lottie rendering that will affect how you create your motion graphic in After Effects.
Some commonly used functions that work:
Parenting
Masks
Track mattes
Pre-comps
Some commonly used functions that don’t work:
Images; anything that’s not vector-based
Anything from the Effects & Presets panel (no glows, shadows, etc.)
Helpful actions during this process:
Using pre-comps to independently update graphic assets and animations separate from your main comp
Flattening shapes and objects to have as few layers as possible
Using color coding to keep track of each layer
Color coding layers helps keep you organized!
4. Export your motion graphic to a JSON file
Your final motion graphic in After Effects can be exported as a Lottie file via the LottieFiles extension or Bodymovin extension.
Export with the LottieFiles extension
Despite being an official extension provided directly from the LottieFiles website, I don’t use this because it’s kind of slow and much worse to use than the Bodymovin extension. The problems begin when you first open the extension panel in After Effects:
It’s a hassle to have to login to use this; clicking “Login to LottieFiles” will open the LottieFiles website in your browser with the prompt to log in. Once logged in, it looks like you can select and export a comp:
However, either clicking the settings icon or the right arrow to render a graphic just causes the extension panel to hang.
Clicking the settings icon:
LottieFiles extension loading screen to show settings for a comp
Clicking the right arrow to render:
LottieFiles extension loading screen to render a comp
I have a vague memory of getting this to work once before, but more often than not this extension hangs interminably at the loading state. If you have better luck using this, please let me know. Otherwise I recommend using the second method outlined below to export your motion graphic.
Export with the Bodymovin extension
Opening the Bodymovin extension presents no fussy login screen — only your comps ready to be exported along with several available actions.
Bodymovin extension
Clicking the settings icon next to a specific comp shows a variety of export settings:
Bodymovin extension settings for each comp
However, as far as I’ve found, you don’t need to touch settings for any platform — not even the “AVD” option to export an xml for Android’s animated vector drawable. iOS developers will need Lottie files that use PDF files or images with x2 and x3 prefixes; this should already be checked by default under “Rasterized assets settings (jpg, png)”.
Select the composition you want to export and specify the file location:
Bodymovin extension allows you to specify a save location
Click the big green “Render” button:
Bodymovin extension rendering JSON file
When rendering is complete, you’ll see the JSON file at the save location you specified.
5. Test the JSON file
Test your JSON file to make sure it works correctly on the intended platform before handing it off to developers so issues can be fixed before they make it into the app or product.
Test your JSON file for web
Login or create an account on LottieFiles.com.
Drag and drop your JSON file to preview your animation.
LottieFiles animation preview
Test your JSON file for native apps
Download the Android or iOS LottieFiles native app.
Drag and drop your JSON file on the web to preview your animation.
Scan the QR code from the preview with the LottieFiles native app on your phone.
If something doesn’t look right, it may be because you used an After Effects function that isn’t supported by the Lottie animation library. Check again:
Are you using any gradients or special effects?
Are your layers are flat as possible?
The Lottie Editor also allows you to make adjustments to your motion graphic after the fact.
“Edit Layer Colors” in the LottieFiles animation preview opens the Lottie Editor
Click on “Edit Layer Colors” to go to Lottie Editor and adjust parameters such as duration, frame rate, background color, playback speed, and even replace grouped colors. Your edits will be saved as a separate Lottie file.
Lottie Editor
6. Hand off to devs
Finally, it’s time to hand off your motion graphic to the developers for implementation in your app or product. The only thing you need to give to the developers is the Lottie Animation URL from the web preview.
Lottie Animation URL from web preview
If you’re working with a developer who isn’t familiar with Lottie, direct them to the Lottie documentation which explains how they can implement a Lottie file in each platform. The documentation is useful not just for developers but also for designers who want to dig a little deeper into Lottie animation attributes that can be changed with code. Some that are really useful for having a developer adjust during implementation are:
Adjusting the background color
Adjusting the speed
Setting loop = true/false if you want your motion graphic to only play once
Adjust the size
A benefit of testing beforehand and providing documentation is that minimal back-and-forth is required between you and your developer to get the perfect Lottie implementation. And that’s it — you’re done creating a cross-platform motion graphic without a single line of code! | https://medium.com/design-bootcamp/create-cross-platform-ui-animations-with-after-effects-and-lottiefiles-ff4da85cbb0b | ['Karen Liu'] | 2020-09-09 22:46:50.517000+00:00 | ['UI', 'Motion Graphics', 'Prototyping', 'After Effects', 'UX'] |
To The Medium Writer Who Inspired Me The Most | To The Medium Writer Who Inspired Me The Most
Photo courtesy of Shannon Ashley.
Medium is a platform designed to encourage community.
Nowhere on the Internet have I seen it to this extent. Even though Medium is a huge place, people are very connected. There’s mutual learning, exchange of ideas, getting inspired by each other’s work… And these are not just empty slogans.
I’ve personally witnessed and experienced all those things via this platform. I made friends. I had conversations full of care, encouragement, and understanding with people I met through Medium.
Within this community, there's one person whose vulnerable sharing inspired me in a special way. This person is Shannon Ashley.
There were times in my journey when the “who do you think you are?” voice was really persistent. I questioned whether I was qualified to write at all since I was such a mess. These were the moments I wanted to give up — not just on writing, but also on myself.
That’s when Shannon’s voice was a liferaft.
Reading about her struggles — her mental and physical health issues, religious and childhood abuse, chasing her writing dreams while raising her daughter alone, being up against the fat-shaming culture, and much more — always put my own problems in perspective. With each story I read, I understood that living a meaningful life was never supposed to be about perfection.
Rather, it’s about being honest — with others, but first of all, with yourself. It's about soberly assessing your resources right now, and then doing the best you can with them.
And, trying to love yourself for who you are already.
Shannon, you were an inspiration and source of hope to me more times than I could count. You helped me in ways I didn’t know where possible just by reading someone’s words online.
I know that Shannon helped a lot of people in many ways. She voiced our collective concerns, fears, and anxieties when no one else was willing to. She held space for topics that few people would be brave enough to discuss.
Now, she needs help to fund her lipedema surgery. Lipedema is an under-recognized disease of which the main symptom is an irregular distribution of painful fat and swelling in the legs, hips, and butt. Note: This isn’t the same as being overweight. The cure isn’t diet and exercise.
In Shannon’s case, it’s her legs that suffered most. And in the last year, it’s gotten worse to the point that she’s now struggling with everyday chores, work, and taking care of her daughter.
I’ll let Shannon speak for herself:
“My lipedema keeps progressing, and I am miserable. It zaps my energy, and my life keeps shrinking. I do less and less, but hardly know how to talk about it. I can’t keep up with my housework, and do myself a great disservice by not admitting to myself (and others) that lipedema is ruining my life. I haven’t been honest about the extent of my pain over the past 16 months or so. My calves hurt constantly. There are sharp, stabbing pains, and dull but heavy, achey ones. The skin often feels sunburnt or painfully cold. The cold sensation is tingly and interrupts my sleep. Hypothermia of the skin is another lipedema symptom. My sleep is suffering because my calves are much more tender than they used to be. My calves are now 31 inches around, and much of that skin is hard, extra sensitive to pressure, and in certain spots, scaly.”
The way out for Shannon is lipedema surgery which gives very good, lasting results when done well. The problem is, to cover the expenses, she needs $60,000. Like most of us, she doesn't have this kind of money in her bank account.
This is a request to support Shannon’s fundraising campaign and help her pay for the surgery. She helped so many of us by talking about the issues that would otherwise be treated with an awkward silence at best. Let’s return the favor and help her this time.
You can donate to Shannon’s campaign for the surgery below. Also, please share it with others. Feel free to copy-paste and/or reproduce this post in any way you see fit, including in social media posts, a Medium story, your newsletter, or any other place.
Here’s the link to the campaign:
Let’s see if the Medium community can join forces and help one of its best and most honest writers. | https://medium.com/writers-blokke/to-the-medium-writer-who-inspired-me-the-most-a36407db294 | ['Marta Brzosko'] | 2021-07-05 14:20:16.193000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Helping Others', 'Fundraising', 'Medium', 'Inspiration'] |
Running The | Shortly after moving to Perth I decided to set up a local Code Dojo. It is a great way to improve as a programmer, learn, share with others and be part of a community (which gives you a warm fuzzy feeling).
Previously I had been a member of the London Code Dojo and had ran dojos as a way of training TDD and programming practices for clients. In this post I will share my experiences in attending code dojos and some tips on how to run your own.
Code Dojos are targeted at professional programmers and college / university graduates. This is unlike the ‘CoderDojo’ initiatives, which have gained in popularity and aims to teach youngsters to code. It is great to see this development on the concept being used by a non-profit group set up to help the next generation. This is certainly something I have enjoyed participating in with my own daughter.
DEFINITION OF A CODE DOJO
A Coding Dojo is a meeting where a bunch of coders get together to work on a programming challenge. They are there to have fun and to engage in Deliberate Practice in order to improve their skills.
WHAT HAVE I PERSONALLY GOT OUT OF ATTENDING DOJOS?
I like seeing the way others approach a problem. Pairing up with new; like-minded developers and seeing how they work. At the different Code Dojos I attended I gained exposure to different programming languages and tool sets. Often participants are more than happy to show people their ways of working share tips from their domain. As a professional programmer you can refine your skills and get a chance to mentor others.
You can practice the katas used in Code Dojos on your own, but I recommend finding your local Dojo (or starting one) and getting involved.
THE PERTH DOJO
The Perth Code Dojo was started in 2014 and focused on software craftsmanship and XP practises (TDD, Pairing and a little bit of refactoring). The process of setting up the dojo was fairly straight forward, although it does take some time commitment and put me out of my comfort zone a couple of times, which in itself was a form of deliberate practise. I had to promote and seek sponsorship and learn to speak as an authority on programming practises in-front of a crowd of strangers (most of whom where decent programmers). I gained some great experience in logistics for running events, speaking in public, group facilitation and got to know some of the best developers in town, as well as improve my own programming skills — what’s not to like!
SOME TIPS RUNNING A CODE DOJO
SAFEY
As the facilitator of a dojo you must foster a safe environment so people feel comfortable to ask questions and reach out for help. Make it clear that the purpose of the dojo is to provide a place to learn away from the usual business pressures of delivery. When sharing code amongst the group be watchful of people being too critical, especially if it is not constructive, and applaud and appreciate everyone’s attempt at solving a problem. Remember we were all new to programming once and any good programmer will always have an open mind and a lot to learn. No one likes a know it all!
If need be, take individuals aside and ask them to be a bit more forgiving and concentrate more on helping others in the correct manner.
THE HOST
You do need to have a good understanding of TDD and general programming practise. But you do not need to be the best programmer in the room to host a successful dojo. I found it a great way to improve my own skills by facilitating and taking part.
I recommend you do the kata yourself beforehand, so you can experience the challenge and provide people with guidance. By doing the kata in your own time you can also push yourself a little further as you are not time constrained. This means you can try out new languages or techniques. You also have more time for research and reviewing your own approach with what others may have done online.
DO NOT ASSUME PEOPLES SKILL SET
Skilled programmers often do not like admitting they are stuck or do not understand something. I recommend being a little obtrusive at times, ask to see peoples code and especially unit tests; if practicing TDD. I have found that sometimes the most vocal members of a dojo might be missing a crucial point and this can lead them to not gaining as much as they otherwise would from the exercise. A vocal person such as this can also lead their pairing partner down the wrong path and instil the wrong types of practices. Do not be afraid to challenge people in the right way. The key is being respectful and making sure your intention comes across correctly — you are there to help and not criticise.
WALK THE ROOM
A good way to do this is to visit each pair shortly after the kata has begun and ask to see their tests. Ask questions such as;
Did you write your test first? — Programmers who are not used to TDD can find writing the test first very difficult and jump straight into the code
Is that the simplest test you can write? — Learning to break down the problem is crucial to good TDD flow. People may need guidance.
Is that test too simple? What is verifying? — Often even programmers with a good understanding of TDD can find themselves writing tests that verify a null is returned. I have been guilty of this myself in the past, but it is not a good starter test as it doesn’t actually verify anything apart from a method exists with the name you have chosen.
THERE ARE PLENTY OF KATAS OUT THERE
You do not have to reinvent the wheel when running our own dojo. It can be nice to dream up your own katas and also give back new ideas to the community but there are plenty of pre-existing out there that you choose from. This keeps the down complexity as an organiser.
Some great resources include:
Dave Thomas’s Code Kata Website — codekata.com
TDD Kata by Garora on Github — github.com/garora/TDD-Katas
John Jagger’s Cyber Dojo is another a great source of Kata and a pretty interesting tool in itself — cyber-dojo.org
SleepyFox’s collection of London Dojo examples on Github — github.com/sleepyfox
DEAL WITH ANTI-SOCIAL ISSUES
Sexism, racism, homophobia and bullying are all toxic to any the learning environment. Nip anything like this in the bud immediately. I recommend encouraging wider participation of different demographics, as having people from a variety of backgrounds creates the right atmosphere for learning. An alpha male sausage sizzle is not conducive to great learning. Encourage people to get to know each other and swap pairs.
THE FORMAT
For the Perth Codo Dojo I took the format used at the London Code Dojo and SleepyFox kindly assisted me with some advice on setting up. The details are below;
Give people 15 minutes to arrive, grab a drink and say hello to their fellow code crafts people
Begin with a round robin asking people to introduce themselves as an ice-breaker. An interesting fact about themselves or something they got up to at the weekend. This is crucial as it helps the other members to get to know each other and by having individuals speaking early on encourages participation — much the same as it does with any workshop or retrospective.
Start with a brief intro explaining the concept of the dojo and the format for new arrivals and as a reminder to old hands. Explain the rules and ask people to be respectful of everyone’s commitment to learn and turn their phones to silent.
Provide an introduction to the chosen kata then ask people to pair up. Give them 15 minutes to discuss and set up their environment: Language of choice, IDE, test framework, etc. If there is an odd number than a group of three is fine.
Use the Pomodoro technique, with 25 minutes focused time on the kata and 5 minutes down time — I find this works great for paired programming and not just Codo Katas. Generally, three Pomodoros is a nice time to spend on a kata before people begin to lose interest or you might find some people finish simple challenges. Ideally you want the challenge to remain unfinished for all; they can always finish or polish it after.
Leave time at the end for a mini retro and sharing exercise. Ask pairs to volunteer and hook up their machine to a big screen to run through their approach. People are often willing to share and this discussion at the end is very valuable for socialising learning amongst the group.
Get some pizza — if you have some sponsorship. Sharing food is another great way to encourage a group atmosphere where learning is encouraged. And people like pizza. Plus, it is a convenient food to eat when trying to work.
Prize — a nice touch if sponsorship permits. Doesn’t have to be anything super expensive
CHECKLIST FOR THE VENUE
A big screen or projector to present the format, kata and sharing code at the end
Plenty of desk space for people to pair with adequate power points for laptops
A sign on the door and directions so people can find you!
LINKS TO GITHUB / SLIDES
My code examples can be found on GitHub
The slides can be found on SpeakerDeck and are re-usable under Creative Commons
Thanks to @sleepyfox and our sponsors — Kiandra IT, Ajilon, Robert Walters and Spacecubed | https://medium.com/@will.webster_80623/running-the-467d3954be6b | ['Will Webster'] | 2019-06-17 06:11:56.983000+00:00 | ['Deliberate Practice', 'Programming', 'Extreme Programming', 'Agile Methodology', 'Dojo'] |
Health, Wealth, & Chutney on the Side | Health, Wealth, & Chutney on the Side
Kaitlyn Hickmann, Colorado College
Who said an independent study needs to be a paper? Film and Media Studies major, Kaitlyn Hickmann (Colorado College ’19), proves that ethnographic work can be dynamic, visual, and undeniably artistic. Her documentary, “Health, Wealth, & Chutney on the Side,” showcases her talent and, we imagine, will put her on the map as a budding filmmaker. We caught up with her for a short conversation about film production, social theory, studying abroad, and the need for hard drive protectors.
What inspired this project?
Kaitlyn: I knew I wanted to make a documentary while I was in Madurai. There are too many incredible potential film subjects (raincheck on “A Day in the Life of a Female Rickshaw Driver”)! The subject of this documentary ended up being more a matter of circumstance than anything else. When I got to India, one of my most significant initial struggles I faced was continually being overfed and having nowhere to go for runs. I was surprised to discover a western-style gym in Madurai, and also surprised to discover the extent of my host mom’s knowledge about medicinal food and health. I was also surprised to find that pizza and corn were considered luxurious foods, and I wondered why billboards around town featured cheeseburgers and white women working out. I made this film to delve deeper into my curiosities, to examine intersections of gender, class, and health, and because Dr. Ted thought it would be interesting. He was right!
Watch Kaitlyn’s documentary film:
Health, Wealth, & Chutney on the Side
Why did you decide to make a film instead of writing a project?
Kaitlyn: I am a Film and Media Studies major at Colorado College. I love visual storytelling. I knew that no matter how much I wrote, I would not be able to convey, in words, what I wanted to convey and could with video. Madurai is a place of vibrant colors and sounds. I wanted to be able to immerse a viewer, as best as I could, in that world. I also wanted to challenge myself as a film student. Before this project, I had never attempted a film on my own, had never produced a film in a different country, and had never attempted to make a film with my own (minimal) equipment.
This film was produced in conjunction with the classes Ethnographic Methods & Theories and Research in Madurai. How did those classes impact the film making process?
Kaitlyn: All the required classes at SITA — Ethnographic Methods & Theories and Research in Madurai, as well as Functional Tamil Language — helped me tremendously in understanding the ethical implications of filmmaking abroad. I didn’t want to exotify and “Other” the community of Madurai. Ethnographic Methods & Theories helped me to understand the importance of participation in research. I was a member of the communities in which I was filming; I took a Bollywood dance class at Youforia Dance Studio, I ran on the treadmills at Maverick Fitness almost daily, and I lived and ate with my host family. I didn’t anticipate any of these communities being subjects of research before I felt immersed in them. Being able to speak basic Tamil significantly enhanced my ability to feel like I could belong to and understand these communities better. Ethnography doesn’t lend itself to one specific medium; by nature, it is versatile. For the question I sought to research, a film felt like the best medium through which to explore and share my findings.
There seems to be a lot of theory subtly embedded within the images and commentary of the film. Did you think about this during the filming and editing process?
Kaitlyn: I did think about theory during the editing process. The main thing that I thought about was not wanting to restrict the complexity of the story I was trying to tell and the peoples’ lives I was trying to represent. This meant including statements from women about the unique obstacles they faced to be healthy, and including footage and comments pertaining to the intersections of health and socioeconomic status. I hoped to show the intersectional nature of health, gender and class throughout the film in a more implicit, integrated way than with an outright statement.
How is this film different than ones you’d produce at Colorado College?
Kaitlyn: First, this film was different in that so many new, potentially exciting or beautiful stories were available to me in Madurai than are in Colorado! Often, I struggle to come up with a film idea, but in Madurai, I found that I had more ideas, questions, and curiosities than could ever be satiated by one project. I’d love to return and make another film or ten. Second, this film was different in which resources were available to me. At CC, I’m lucky to have a wide selection of equipment and a crew of other film majors eager and available to help on films. This was the first film I had ever undertaken by myself, and the only equipment available to me was the equipment I brought: a DSLR, a tripod, a mic, and three hard drives. I did not anticipate the incredible amount of honking that would be present in the background of ALL of my interviews (lavalier mics would have been a great idea, as would have a camera with a headphone jack). I also did not anticipate that I would drop one of my hard drives from the top bunk of a night train (bye bye college photos) and lose two other hard drives to weird, deathly clicking noises. There were definitely some low and lonely moments in the filmmaking process, and I would not have been able to complete the film without help from SITA friend/soon-to-be associate producer Helena Kleiner or without guidance from Dr. Ted, but overcoming those lows to make something I could be proud of felt amazing.
What advice would you give a film student looking to study abroad?
Kaitlyn: My first piece of advice would be, seriously, to buy hard drive protectors. And bring an extra hard drive or two. Prepare to have low moments, so that when you inevitably do, they don’t deter you from believing you are capable of creating something. Embrace the struggle. Aside from that, my advice would be to follow your curiosity and be open-minded when it takes you somewhere you may not have expected. Like I said, there were so many incredible topics and opportunities in Madurai; I expected to make a film about women and Hinduism… or Dalit activism… or climate change… or any of the other hundred stories I came across. The health & fitness story sort of just fell in my lap, and in hindsight, I’m glad it did. In hindsight, I’m also very glad I went to a place like Madurai, where I knew nothing of the culture, because it inspired so many questions in me. And I’m very glad I chose SITA, because this film never would have been possible without the independence offered by the Research in Madurai course and the incredible amount of support SITA offered through translation help and community partnerships. I am so, so grateful to have had the opportunity.
. . .
Follow SITA on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Learn more and apply at sitaprogram.org. | https://medium.com/sita-blog/health-wealth-chutney-on-the-side-68591c650a70 | ['South India Term Abroad'] | 2017-05-08 18:00:18.308000+00:00 | ['India', 'Health', 'Research', 'Study Abroad', 'Filmmaking'] |
How to sell a startup for $20M with zero paying customers | How to sell a startup for $20M with zero paying customers
6 smart moves every founder should learn from the history of well-known platform NoTech Ana Jul 13·5 min read
Once upon a time, one founder loved to write stuff. Surprisingly, what he was writing was not a code, — he was a founder without a technical background, you see. Still, he was inspired but tech-related things and that’s exactly what he wrote about: startups, new products, cool useful applications. He frequented Hacher News, where he was one of the contributors, Twitter…
His name was Ryan Hoover (@rrhoover). And that’s how the story of Product Hunt began in 2013. This is what Ryan Hoover did next:
1. Launch a Mailing list
Hoover’s approach to building a startup — be fast and iterative. He wanted to build a community of founders, offer a platform for indie hackers to showcase, but he had no idea how to do it technically. So he just put together a landing page and offered people a free subscription.
It took me 20 minutes. And in several weeks, I had several hundred subscribers. — Ryan Hoover
Actually, PH is not the only example of a successful community startup that was initially a mailing list — that’s exactly how AngelList started, too. It might prove to be the best strategy for community-based startup MVP — launch a mailing list and see how it goes.
2. Get next 2000 users
Ryan was writing a lot before Product Hunt. He also helped Nir Eyal with his book “Hooked. How To Build Habit-Forming Products” and did more writing there — step by step he was building a little but supportive audience.
People around just have heard my name a lot, so when I announced PH launch on Hacker News they just, like — Let’s go see what this Ryan is doing and give it a try. That brought me next 2000 subscribers or so. — Ryan Hoover
3. Upgrade from mailing list to a platform
However, PH would have remained just another mailing list if not for YCombinator. The famous accelerator admitted Ryan 6 months after PH was launched. How did a non-tech founder get there? Ryan believes he was just confident, convincing, and passionate about what he did. Having obvious product-market fit did a good job either.
YC helped Ryan in several aspects:
✅ formalize strategy
✅ build a vision (PH as “a place on the internet for makers, a place to discover all these products are being built”)
✅ raise Series A
✅ find a CTO Andreas Klinger
4. Build a Distributed Team
Up to now, Ryan was a solo founder. After Series A was raised, he hired 10 first employees. Primarily, engineers from Europe — as that’s where the new CTO’s network mostly was. PH was one of the first companies in tech run by a distributed team.
Very fast Ryan realized that there’s a couple of huge advantages here.
You don’t need to hire people just in San Francisco or people who want to move here.
It’s very expensive to hire in SF, of course, the cost of living here is dramatically higher than it is in Bulgaria. It’s also very competitive when it comes to hiring, especially for an early-stage startup when you’re trying to take someone from Google or Facebook. They’re getting paid $200,000 with beautiful cafeteria lunches. You as a seed-stage or pre-funded company, it’s harder to convince them to come on board. — Ryan Hoover
5. Use “Wizard Of Oz” Technique
In the early years, when PH was moving slowly from the mailing list to a community, lots of onboarding had to be done manually. Ryan used a lot famous Wizard Of Oz techniques, where you have to do all the jobs behind the scene to show a customer a nice and clean UI. For instance:
➡️ products were uploaded and “launched” by Ryan and the team
➡️ they created an engagement around the product (comments, feedback)
➡️ next step — reach out to a product owner on Twitter and say “Hey, people are discussing your stuff on PH. Would you like to come here and answer the questions”.
This created the impression of an active maker-to-maker and makers-to-customers interaction on PH. And it was there! It just did not happen on its own.
6. Take the Deal
In 2016 Ryan was approached by AngelList founders who liked what he was doing and were very much interested in the community he’s managed to build. By the end of the year, PH was acquired for $20mln.
And know what? The company has not made a cent by then! First $ in its history PH made in 2017 when it introduced paid feature Ship — a service that allowed founders to “launch” their products on PH. Here’s to say for profitability and “paying customers” that you’re supposed to have to get funded!
Monetization
By now PH has gone on a long journey of trials and errors (like, “podcast hunt” project that was killed in 2017) and found a model that works for it. So, how do you make money on a community of startup founders?
PH Ship — offer a tool to showcase. Make sure there’s a reputable service behind it and charge a fee per launch
— offer a tool to showcase. Make sure there’s a reputable service behind it and charge a fee per launch PH Jobs — connect talents to employers and charge the searching side
— connect talents to employers and charge the searching side PH Events — promote events for founders for a fee
— promote events for founders for a fee PH Product promotion — charge for promoting a product on a platform and in the newsletter
Sum up:
🔥 You can build a successful startup in tech without a tech background How? Build a community first.
🔥 Aim globally: hire across the globe, tap on global talent, reach out to global audience.
🔥Test ideas fast with less expenses — even Ship was tested for 2 years before it was launched. During tests, PH used no code and low-code tools (like Mailchimp and Typeform).
🔥 Get admitted to the accelerator, keep on building the network around the idea.
🔥 Sell the business to a stronger player to get access to its resources. | https://medium.com/@notechana/how-to-sell-a-startup-for-20m-with-zero-paying-customers-428114a649df | ['Notech Ana'] | 2021-08-18 13:30:28.112000+00:00 | ['Product Hunt', 'Startup Exit', 'Startup', 'Mailing Lists', 'Community Engagement'] |
Coordinating goroutines with errGroup | Coordinating different goroutines to achieve a single goal
Photo by Hunter Harritt on Unsplash
In a previous article I talked about how we can use the context.Context struct to share data and group distinct goroutines. One thing that’s missing from that article, is how to synchronise that group of things. Synchronise concurrent tasks means either wait for all of them to finish before doing something else, or cancelling all of them in case things go wrong. That’s where the sync/errgroup comes to the scene. Here are the official docs for the package. The package name conveys two things: used to synchronise, and we are going to be dealing with errors . That pretty much matches what was mentioned above, right? The name errgroup may sound a bit weird as the mechanism to synchronise goroutines, but bear with me, it will make sense later. Essentially you will be registering goroutines to that group and wait for them to finish, one way or the other. The main struct inside the package is the errgroup.Group .
To create a new Group you can call errgroup.WithContext that will receive a context.Context as parameter and return a pointer to a new group and a new context.
There are two methods you will use in this struct:
(*errgroup.Group).Go — register a function to the groups and start it as a new goroutine;
— register a function to the groups and start it as a new goroutine; (*errgroup.Group).Wait — waits until all registered goroutines finish or an error occurs in any goroutine of the group. That’s why it uses the error as the synchronisation mechanism. If an error occurs, the context (that one that was returned by the errgroup.WithContext ) gets cancelled and the error gets returned. One thing to pay attention here is that the goroutines that have already started executing will continue to do so, so it’s important to get the context passed along to the goroutine and check if that got cancelled inside the goroutine (usually that’s a simple thing to achieve with the select statement);
This is extremely useful for “scatter and gather” type of problems. As an example, when you receive a request you need to fetch different information for that request from different external sources. In order to improve performance, you can fetch data from each source in a goroutine. That will benefit from concurrency and execute multiple things while waiting for the external source to respond. Here’s an example of a little program that fetches data related to a user email. We fetch the user name from a Name Service, and the loyalty points from an internal mapping (that simulates a database or memory cache). You can check the full implementation on my github. However I’ll add snippets to the relevant bits and explain what’s happening.
I’ll start with the main function and then we will dig down into the actual fetching functionality.
The first is step is to determine how we are going to store the data returned from those goroutines. In this example we will fetch the data and store the results into a buffered channel, a very common pattern. In order to make it work, we need to create the context we will be using (with timeout, to spice things up, of course), the results channel, and the actual Group.
PS: I’m also firing the nameservice.StartServer() in a goroutine just because I wanted it to be an external service and I was too lazy to do anything fancier 🤷♂.
We will also configure all the fetchers we want to use, I’ve created an interface and a helper decorator for that, just to reduce the boilerplate and focus exactly on what we want to fetch and how.
Now we can run the each of the fetchers using the g.Go . That will register our fetchers and execute them in separate goroutines.
After firing our fetchers we now wait for them to complete, with errors or not. In terms of handling results (and errors) I’m just printing them to stdout . Obviously in a real application you would want to do something with it, but for this test, that’s enough.
This is the fetcher interface and the helper method.
This helper simply fires the underlying fetcher in a goroutine and selects whatever happens first:
the provided context gets cancelled (either by another goroutine of the group returning an error, or because of the timeout we set); the fetcher actually finishes the job and sends something on the result channel; or the fetcher errors out.
I used multiple channels to make it easier to select what happens. The select statement will wait until any of the used channels return something. Once that happens it will move on.
It’s important to notice that in case some error happens inside the underlying fetcher, we only log it and do not return that error to the Group. This means that we won’t abort the execution of other goroutines for this Group when an error occurs, we will only ignore that we couldn’t get the result and move on. In various cases it’s better to have some data, than no data at all. If you want to abort the execution in case any error occurs, you can simply return the error in line 38.
Here’s what the NameFetcher looks like:
This is quite simple. We only make a HTTP request to the configured name service and deserialise the response into a struct. The only important thing here is that we are passing the context.Context that was provided to the actual HTTP request. That is useful in case the context gets cancelled midway through the request, as HTTP client will take care of closing it properly without any additional code.
What I called the PartnerFetcher is much simpler. Just a lookup in a map. There’s a time.Sleep to simulate some time spent in a call. That’s useful as we can configure the context timeout to be less than a second in main and see that the output of that fetcher is not present on the responses, as well as a timeout error. Here’s what the output should look like:
{name {ricardo linck}}
{loyalty_points 20}
In case we tune the timeout to 500 milliseconds for example, the output will look like:
{name {ricardo linck}}
2020/12/13 12:51:20 context deadline exceeded
exit status 1
Note that as things are running concurrently in goroutines the output of the error, that is printed out inside the Fetcher appears after the actual results printing.
Closing Thoughts
Very often we need to use concurrent programming to boost performance in our applications. Which is not always an easy task to begin with. But then, we need to go a step further and synchronise these concurrent things. Which can be even harder. The sync/errgroup package simplifies that task. There’s still quite a lot of design decisions you have to make around how you want your application to behave. The package brings a lot of flexibility and takes away some boilerplate and complexity of having to do that manually.
There are many applications that require synchronising concurrent tasks. We focused on one of a kind, which is very common with distributed systems. Other examples could include bringing up multiple long-lived services that need to be shut down gracefully when a signal is received, or when some critical error happens. Doing things in parallel usually require synchronisation too. There are many different scenarios where this technique is useful. | https://levelup.gitconnected.com/coordinating-goroutines-errgroup-c78bb5d80232 | ['Ricardo Linck'] | 2020-12-15 17:12:54.625000+00:00 | ['Distributed Systems', 'Concurrent Programming', 'Golang', 'Software Development', 'Software Engineering'] |
DO’S and DON’TS in Communication Between Developer and QA Engineer | After years of being a QA Engineer, I decided to share some tips about communication with Developers. Here are my observations regarding that.
❌ DON’TS
Don’t distract a developer if it’s not urgent. Don’t come over to its desk right away. Ask via messenger first or schedule a meeting in advance. I realized that once I started coding myself. When you go with a flow and someone distracted you it takes a lot of time and energy to deep dive into this state of mind again. Such interruptions don’t add productivity at all.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help. You cannot know everything, and it’s OK to ask because it’s better than pretend you’re cool! Just make sure you understood the answer and don’t ask the same question twice. We are on the same boat and it will be good for everyone if each person has a paddle and we can move on to one direction.
Don’t trust a Developer’s words. You need to find evidence to a Developer’s confidence of “everything should be fine!”, or “I changed one string in the code, it won’t break anything”.
Don’t blame. It’s a road to anywhere. Don’t stick to the negative, try to solve the problem. Later we can decide how to avoid a particular case in the future. No one is perfect. Mistakes are inevitable. The main goal is to have the ability to react healthily and do your job.
Don’t assign a particular Developer to a defect. The same way as Developers close tickets without QA’s approval, it might piss off, period.
Don’t micro-manage Developers. “Did you check the defect?”, “How about now?”, “When you will fix the bug?”. It’s annoying and they don’t solve the problem faster. Just put yourself in Developers’ place.
Don’t take things too close to your heart and grow thick skin. Being emotional in a bad way is the shortest way to burnout. Don’t allow your feelings to be over good sense. You might stumble with arrogant people that you have to deal with. It can be applied to anyone actually. That is why thick skin is a must as well as tactfulness.
✅ DO’S
Exchange knowledge with a Developer. Let them know about your testing approaches, find the “access_key” for every Developer you have to work with. Provide information about how you are going to test the product. It can help to avoid part of bugs. However, it’s not always possible for a couple of reasons. First, lack of time. Second, company processes don’t allow to do that. And lastly, the Developer’s unwillingness to cooperate with someone for many reasons. But, if you could find the “access_key” I mentioned above it will be easier to maintain a healthy relationship and quite good product quality in a long run.
Learn to convince. It’s a useful skill if you want to work in an environment that can be improved a little bit for QA needs. Find support and bring your plans into reality. However, if you feel lonely in your statements, perhaps the idea you want to incorporate is not that great. So, don’t convince for a sake of convincing. Accept the fact you’re not always right and learn to listen and hear people around you.
Be honest. Otherwise, it will destroy your reputation very quickly. Or eventually. That depends on how a good liar you are. Won’t recommend it.
Be ready to defend defects you report. Sometimes you have to defend the importance of defects that need to be fixed. But you have to be sure in your statement. Through time it gets better as you bring up some real facts and reasons why the defect must be fixed. The ability to see a few steps further can help to save the company’s money.
Stay cold-minded under pressure. I know, it’s hard. When everyone keeps rushing you or your team it is difficult to resist against authorities. However, to say “No” is a part of our job, even if it’s not a popular opinion. This rule doesn’t work if someone pushed you to a wall or pointing a gun at your head.
Discuss test cases with the Developer. From my experience, it is very difficult to do. It requires time and dedication from both sides. As well as charisma and the ability to convince from the QA side. I’ve been up to this for a while and yet I couldn’t incorporate this approach. I see a huge benefit from such talks with a developer. However, I might not see something else that would tell me the opposite. What do you think?
Be precise in the defect description. Speak in the developer’s language if you can. In other cases keep your writing as simple as possible. It should be “lagom” in a Swedish way. Good sizing, structure, informative for a Developer and sufficient enough to remember what is a bug about and test the fix by the creator or any other tester in the team.
Encourage teammates to have a deep understanding of the product. Such awareness in the team will reduce the amount of silly defects. From my experience, silly bugs drain a lot of energy to report them. It’s better to predict those and focus on the more important stuff. Instead of reporting about wrong font-size test edge cases, security, performance, etc.
Be patient. Not everyone is pleasant, learn to cope with difficult, narcissistic people. It’s a general rule applicable to anyone. | https://medium.com/@kuprii-yuliia/dos-and-don-ts-in-communication-between-developer-and-qa-engineer-901a6843a675 | ['Kuprii Yuliia'] | 2021-08-16 14:41:49.213000+00:00 | ['Development', 'QA', 'Communication', 'Team', 'Product'] |
The success of Go heralds that of Rust | Looking at Go from a bird’s eye view, it’s quite hard to understand its tremendous success.
Go is, from a theoretical perspective, a very bad language, even when compared to an old language like C++ or Ada.
It lacks a lot of compile time checks and compile time logic. Its lack of destruction logic leads to a lot of boilerplate and runtime errors. Its interfaces aren’t very expressive. It has first-class-citizen data structures (slices and maps) that can’t be replicated as a library using the language itself. It forces mutability upon the user in many situations where mutability isn’t needed. It comes with a pseudo dependency manager that lacks independent versioning for separate projects. It’s very slow compared to most other popular system programming language, namely C, C++, Ada, Fortran and Rust.
And that’s just the stuff I can think of right now and easily lay out for you. Once you dig deeper into Go, you’ll find it makes some inherently flawed design choices, it’s a language built for 1980, not 2020.
In spite of that, as anyone who used Go can tell you, it’s a very good language. I count myself among those people, if I were to be stranded on an island with only 3 programming languages, I’d want Go to be one of them.
In spite of all of its flaws, it allows you to write relatively error free code that performs well. Adding a dependency to a Go program is usually much smoother of a process than adding a dependency to a C++ program.
Why Go is good
This leaves me in a very weird position. On the one hand, I could talk for hours about how horrible Go is. On the other hand, Go is obviously a very good language.
To figure out why this is true, we need to go back to one of those cliche analogies of languages as tools and programmers as problem solvers.
A lot of the modern world’s problems seem to revolve around efficient network communication, around safely making use of all your hardware threads and around easier development and deployment.
Finally, there’s been a steady trend of good open source libraries trickling into our lives, most of them being concise and simple, fit for a single purpose. Most Node or Python projects have hundreds of such dependencies, whilst most C and C++ codebases have under a dozen. C and C++ lack any standardized package management, so libraries tend to be all-encompassing monoliths (see QT and Boost), since adding new dependencies is time consuming.
Open source libraries are an important part of a modern developer’s life, but all popular system programming language lacked package management.
From this perspective, Go had a few central features, which are so amazing, they out-weighted all the bad.
Go utilities allow you to easily download and use packages. Static compilation makes porting code between various environments and setting up a development environment really easy. Native asynchronous I/O mechanisms allow you to easily write high performance networking code. Built-in channels allow for easy to implement and relatively safe data transfer between [g|c]oroutines. The standard library and package ecosystem contains most libraries a developer could ask for. It’s “fast enough” for almost all usecases. Seemingly hitting a sweet spot between easy-to-use single threaded language like Python and Node and blow-your-brains-out ancient but fast behemoths like C++ and C.
Or, to put it plainly. Go is a language designed for the age of open source libraries, large-scale parallelism and networking.
Every other popular language lacks in one of those three categories.
All the remaining issues with Go stem from three design choices:
It’s garbage collected, rather than having compile time defined lifetimes for all its resources. This harms performance, removes useful concepts (like move semantics and destructors) and makes compile-time error checking less powerful.
It lacks immutability for all but a few (native) types.
It lacks generics
Fix those things, and Go essentially becomes the language of the future. But, due to various problems, some related to prior design decisions and some related to the designers’ opinions, those issue will remain mostly unsolved.
For example, generics are likely coming to go 2.0, but the current implementation overlaps with other features (e.g. Interfaces) and manages to be both annoying to use and lacking in features (e.g. not usable as return types).
Or, we could find a language that “checks” all the right boxes, but doesn’t suffer from those poor design decisions.
Enter Rust
Rust just happens to be a language that is well known for acing all the things that Go can’t do.
Due to its implicit move semantics and borrow checker, it ends up being on the safest, fastest and easiest to reason about language in terms of resource management. Catching a host of errors at compile time.
The combination on templates and traits give it compile time programming capabilities close to those of C++, and often better.
Finally, Cargo is one of the best package management systems out there. Allowing easy access to a host of useful libraries, with build-in versioning and complete separation for every individual project.
In other words, Rust succeeds with top grades where Go utterly fails.
But what about the things that Go does oh-so-right ?
go get and go mod are well matched by Cargo. cargo build uses the static compilation route by default much the same way go build does. This is the sticking point, Rust doesn’t yet have a native async i/o mechanism. But said mechanism is coming soon~ish. It won’t be quite as seamless as that provided by goroutines, but it will be similar with the more well-known syntax used in Node and Python. Not only does Rust have native support for channels between threads, it also has a robust compile time thread-safety checking mechanisms. Which means there’s no risk of concurrency errors no matter what data sharing mechanism you chose to use The standard library of Rust is just as rich as that of go, except for (again), some missing asynchronous networking functionality. The package ecosystem of Rust, at this point, matches that of Go in many aspects. Despite Rust being the far younger language. Finally, in terms of performance, Rust is a tad bit slower than C and C++ in various scenarios. But its design choices means this is only a “temporary” setback. Go is burdened with its lack of compile time logic and GC based design forever. Thus, the already huge performance gap between Go and Rust will only get bigger.
The Go effect
Once the async/await is merged into the stable release of Rust, I think we could call Rust a superior language to Go in, quite literally, every single way possible.
I don’t think people quite realize the amount of testing, debugging and crashes Rust saves them from up until they push their code into production.
The more Rust and Rust related concepts enter the programming world, the more familiar with its syntax and concepts become. The lower the barrier to entry gets.
I think Rust has passed the “critical” period in its lifetime, it has wide enough adoption to be a mainstay on the programming stage. Further more, it’s almost bullet proof when compared side by side to literally any other programming language. It’s simply a better language than any other for most use cases.
But inertia is not to be trifled with, the largest roadblock for widespread Rust adoption is convincing developers to switch.
Here, I think the reasons why Go’s popularity skyrocketed, will apply to Rust. The language is getting closer and closer to a sweet-spot.
It will be able to please C&C++ devs that want a language suited for the “modern” style of programming.
At the same time, it will be the best choice for people that want to switch from a scripting language to a system programming language, giving them safety and performance, while allowing them to still have package management and a familiar syntax. | https://george3d6.medium.com/the-success-of-go-heralds-that-of-rust-73cb2e4c0500 | ['George Hosu'] | 2020-01-13 21:10:03.289000+00:00 | ['Rust', 'Developer', 'Go', 'Programming', 'Programming Languages'] |
Seasons of Transition: One College Student’s Pandemic Experience (Part 1/2) | As a SoCal native who moved to Boston three years ago for school, I’ve developed a fixation with seasons. Compared to the eternal, listless, dry heat I grew up with, the drastic changes in weather are fascinating to me. My favorite seasons in Boston are Fall and Spring, which The GLOBE Scientists’ Blog describes as “seasons of transition” that “[hold] onto memories of the season before while providing glimpses of the season to come.” Usually I spend these seasons enjoying the mild weather and preparing for the harsher months to come.
But this past year, these “transitions” meant something entirely different. In Fall 2020, Boston was looking back on a summer with extremely low COVID-19 cases, while the worst spike was just around the corner. In Spring 2021, over half of residents were fully vaccinated and the city was heading “back to normal.”
Note: These pieces were written in Fall 2020 and Spring 2021, and reflect my emotions and experiences of each time period. Many things have changed since then, and I wanted to acknowledge that every “pandemic experience” is different due to factors like age, location, and privilege. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy!
FALL 2020
We walk to the Prudential Center, where Eataly’s empty patio looms in the damp air, and a giant randomly placed ornament lolls on its side. That’s kinda depressing, one of us says. On the news we hear of a sad, scraggly Christmas tree being taken down in Brighton, Faneuil Hall isn’t getting a tree this year. Facebook mommies cry, please, that tree is the one good thing we get this year, please, for the Christmas Spirit, please for the love of God, please. A cute, tiny, baby owl is found in the Rockefeller tree, and Facebook argues over whether it’s a symbol of human destruction of nature, or hope and optimism for the new year.
We step quickly into the revolving doors, and for a second as we’re jostled inside to warmth and light it feels normal. But only for a second; I remember not to touch the escalator banister and wobble a bit as I catch my balance.
Being inside a mall reminds me of the impending public health crisis of Black Friday.
Every morning, shortly after I wake up, I tap on Safari and type “cov” into the search bar. I click on the first suggestion, “covid-19 massachusetts.” I see the little graph looking like a little Richter scale and glide my thumb over the jaggedy line. I check April, June, August, November as if the numbers will change.
Friends graduate silently, slipping away from campus alone. Friends slip into depression, gripping the edges of their office chairs because there’s nothing else to hold onto.
We plan for next year with a series of “ifs,” heck, we plan for next week with “ifs.”
Every Sunday before church we walk to the testing center, two of us walking briskly ahead, ponytails swishing, two of us lagging groggily behind. Open, place, open, insert, rotate, remove, insert, rotate, remove, insert, break, close. Have a nice day, I say. My friend Erin, the redhead, works at the testing center and is doing a crossword printed on computer paper every time I see her. I love your glasses, she says this time. The testing center fills me with a strange comfort and anticipation — the fast-moving, organized queues, the garbled voices through plexiglass asking for my date of birth — I almost stick my hand out to receive my “It’s My Birthday” pin.
I tell my therapist that staying in so much is making me anxious. He asks if I’ve been interacting with people enough.
I tell my therapist that seeing too many people is making me anxious. He tells me that staying in and staying safe is the right decision.
My therapist asks if his Microsoft Teams background is too distracting. No, I say, fiddling with my AirPods case so my hands have something to do. It’s a bright yellow silicone happy-face thing that I found at Urban Outfitters for maybe nine dollars. As I remove the case and put it back on again, over and over, as I talk, its smiley face gloats up at me.
My beloved, eternally happy AirPods case.
I take long walks alone around Boston, savoring the city with Noah Kahan blasting through my ears. I clutch at the grey fence surrounding a community garden, I run my hands along a brick brownstone wall, I caress a sequin-y dress meant for a NYE party I wouldn’t even be invited to pre-pandemic. I touch too many things. I am afraid they will disappear, or become meaningless, which is irrational, I know. I’ve been reading too many post-apocalyptic novels. But they are solid in a world of ambiguity and mush. I anchor myself to these things, this infrastructure and consumerism, human-made things that I know won’t save me.
A picture I took on one of many walks around Boston. (Newbury Street, around dusk)
On my flight back home to LA in March 2020, I kept touching my face accidentally, compulsively. As it happened I felt my anger toward myself grow like a pressure cooker.
I’m still simmering today, angry at my human flesh yearning for those awkward handshakes or bear hugs I would give friends up and down Comm Ave, angry that I’m ungrateful and unhappy back on campus, angry that the weight of so many that I’ll never know suffering knocks me out from time to time, rendering me useless.
I’m angry that I’m angry at others, angry that I am human.
Moments of joy fall through the cracks — unexpected belly laughs, the slap of cards on plastic folding table as my suitemates play Nertz, the fresh smell of fall leaves and new books that I can still catch through my mask, sudden inspiration to write at 2AM and the damn dam of writer’s block finally breaking loose, a floodgate opened. | https://medium.com/@alyssayeh3/seasons-of-transition-one-college-students-pandemic-experience-part-1-2-b2213ec483e7 | ['Alyssa Yeh'] | 2021-09-07 15:17:12.517000+00:00 | ['Covid 19', 'Seasons', 'College', 'Pandemic'] |
An Introduction to GraphQL | Application programming interfaces (APIs) enable the developers to build efficient applications allowing software to speak to each other and to conversate via requests most of which are Representational state transfer (REST) APIs. Over the last decade, REST produces stable and reliable APIs thus becoming the standard of today. Operations done with REST require many HTTP endpoints that return fixed data structures which can easily result in excess data.
GraphQL was designed precisely for the need for more flexibility and efficiency in client-server communication. GraphQL uses types and fields to describe data and schemas. Queries to API result in precise, predictable results without anything excess. This is done by exposing only one HTTP endpoint because of a very flexible data structure.
GraphQL is a query language for APIs and a runtime for fulfilling those queries with your existing data. GraphQL provides a complete and understandable description of the data in your API, gives clients the power to ask for exactly what they need and nothing more, makes it easier to evolve APIs over time, and enables powerful developer tools.
A comparison with REST
Let’s see a simple use case to illustrate the major differences between REST and GraphQL when it comes to fetching data from an API.
In a travel blogging application, an app needs to display the titles of the posts of a specific user. The same screen also displays the names of the last 3 destinations travel by the specific user.
REST API would typically gather the data by accessing multiple endpoints. In the example, these could be:
1. /users/{id} endpoint to fetch the initial user data.
2. /users/{id}/posts endpoint that returns all the posts for a user.
3. /users/{id}/destinations that return a list of traveled destinations per user.
In GraphQL, you’d simply send a single query to the GraphQL server that includes the specific data requirements. The server then responds with a JSON object to realize the solution.
What problems does GraphQL solve?
Prevents over or under-fetching: REST responses often contain too much or too little data thus creating the need for another request. GraphQL solves this efficiency problem by fetching the specific and cumulative data in a single request.
Rapid Product Iterations on the Frontend: With every change that is made to the UI, there is a high risk that now there is more (or less) data required than before. One of the most obvious benefits is that less code is required to perform frontend functions. Moreover, it is easier to understand because developers can analyze the object and know what to expect the API to return. This results in a faster project turnaround for both the frontend and backend teams.
Customizing requests to your needs: As it was mentioned, REST API documentation explains individual endpoints, their functions, and the parameters a developer can pass to them. Describing the data types, fields, and the interaction points between them, GraphQL API enables developers to tailor the request to get the information they need.
No need to maintain API versioning: REST API documentation explains individual endpoints, their functions, and the parameters a developer can pass to them. Describing the data types, fields, and the interaction points between them, GraphQL API enables developers to tailor the request to get the information they need.
Other advantages include but are not limited to Insightful Analytics on the Backend, autogenerating API documentation, strong schema, and type system, subscriptions, etc.
What are some disadvantages?
Although GraphQL is a decent alternative to REST, it’s not a replacement yet. This is due to some limitations, for instance:
Caching complexity: A REST API enables easy web caching configurations, by providing many endpoints, to match certain URL patterns, HTTP methods, or specific resources. Due to having only one endpoint with many different queries, it’s complex to use this type of caching with a GraphQL API.
File uploading: Since GraphQL doesn’t understand files, a file uploading feature is not included in its specification.
Complex queries and performance issues: When it comes to accessing multiple fields with one query whether it is requested in a RESTful architecture or GraphQL, the varied resources and fields still have to be retrieved from a data source. So, it also shows the same problems when a client requests too many nested field data at a single time.
Resource driven apps: REST can be also a valuable approach for connecting resource-driven apps that don’t need the flexible queries offered by GraphQL.
Conclusion
In comparison, between REST APIs and GraphQL, there’re unique interaction scenarios in which one or the other fits better.
In situations when a requester needs the data in a specific format for a specific use, data formats and the relations between them are vitally important GraphQL provides an elegant and efficient solution.
Analyzing all the tradeoffs that go into each design style such as — use cases, programming languages, architectural landscape, environment, financial implications — architects and API designers can pick the one that’s going to fit the project best. | https://medium.com/@apoorv-bhargava/an-introduction-to-graphql-f57f4373d716 | ['Apoorv Bhargava'] | 2020-11-24 17:31:30.511000+00:00 | ['GraphQL', 'API', 'Software Engineering', 'Integration', 'Rest'] |
A Conundrum of Time | it is a conundrum
a plundering of maelstroms
in a time as dark and ageless
not to be called ‘middle’ or even ‘later’
until we are ancient and nameless
time doesn’t mind our puzzlement
no befuddlement could stop the circle
old young life death
a body itself no greater than any imagination
we have thought of it and never understood
we are so much bigger on the inside
only big enough for time to see
a sight back and back
introspection cannot give us this view
a conundrum to live it and never understand | https://medium.com/literally-literary/a-conundrum-of-time-fe9320723680 | ['Abigail Siegel'] | 2020-12-05 05:32:27.492000+00:00 | ['Universe', 'Time', 'Poetry', 'Philosophy', 'Poem'] |
How $7 of NFC Tags + iPhone Help Me Easily Track Vitamin D and Water Consumption | I knew that I should be drinking more water and taking a daily vitamin D pill, but was I? Usually. Maybe? I remembered to take a vitamin D pill most mornings, but sometimes I’m in a rush. You know how it is. Did I forget to take one this morning? Don’t know.
Keeping track of how much water I drink is even more of a chore. A friend gave me a water bottle, which was great, but I kept losing track. Did I drink two bottles today? One? Three?
NFC to the rescue!
NFC is the technology used with contactless payments, and iOS 14 Shortcuts lets you detect when your iPhone is near a NFC tag. You can buy 50 NFC tags off Amazon for about $7, so could I use those to track vitamins and water consumption?
How might that work? Each tag has an unique ID, and you can associate a tag with particular actions. Apple call it triggering an Automation. Don’t worry about the weird name.
Wouldn’t it be good if I could tap tags on the top of vitamin D and water bottles with my iPhone, and add records to Apple Health? How hard would it be?
It isn’t hard at all, because everything can be done with Shortcuts in a single step. I had to put my thinking cap on when it came to the water bottle though.
Oh, you need to spend $7 on NFC tags. They’re on Amazon. I’ll wait.
I’m now tracking vitamin D and know how much water I drink without having to think about it. You can too. I’ll walk you through the process.
What you’ll need
I assume that you have an iPhone 6 or later and NFC tags.
Your iPhone should be running iOS 14 or later, because that has the version of Shortcuts that detects NFC tags.
You don’t need to buy any apps.
Photo by author
What are NFC tags?
An NFC tag is a little chip embedded in plastic card. Something called inductance is used to sense the presence of a tag. That caused a problem with the water bottle, but I worked my way around that. See later.
Each tag has a small amount of memory (504 bytes in my case), which can be used to store useful information such as a contact or a WiFi password. You need an app to do that, but we just need to take advantage of each tag having a unique ID.
The gist of how to do it
Pick out a NFC tag.
Run the Shortcuts app on iOS14 or later.
Add a Personal Automation that triggers when the iPhone is close to our chosen NFC tag. (Not as tricky as it sounds.)
Label the Automation to show its purpose.
Select an action that will log data in Apple Health.
Did you get the tags?
Logging how much water you drink
Apple Shortcuts
Pick out one of your new trove of NFC tags. Run Shortcuts on your iPhone. Tap on the Automation icon.
Tap on the + sign on the top right, and choose “Create Personal Automation”.
Scroll down until you see NFC. Tap on that.
Adding an Automation (image by author)
Identifying the tag
The NFC detector on the iPhone seems to be at the top of the phone. Tap “Scan” and place the top of the iPhone on the tag. The iPhone will recognise it, and ask you to name it. Call it “Drink Water”. Tap “OK”.
Identifying a NFC tag (image by author)
Choosing the action
Tap “Next”, and you’ll be asked to choose an action on the next screen. Scroll down and choose “Log Health Sample” Tap on “Type”.
Choosing a Log Health Sample Action (screenshot by author)
Adding sample to Apple Health
Search for “Water”, and you’ll be asked to give permission for Shortcuts to access Health data. I gave it both read and write access.
Choose the value to use for the Water sample. My water bottle holds 500ml of water, so the sample size is 500ml.
Choose the current date and time, so that you know when the sample was made. Tap next.
Configuring the Health Sample (screenshots by author)
Ready to Go
Disable “Ask Before Running”, because you want it to happen automatically when you tap your chosen NFC tag. You’re done, so try it out.
Complete Automation Set-up (screenshot by author)
Attaching it to water bottle: once last challenge
Great, it works! I’ll stick the NFC tag to the top of the water bottle, and I’m set! Not so fast. The bottle top is made of metal, which stopped the iPhone detecting the NFC tag.
I guessed that it was something to do with the induction NFC uses to communicate with a NFC reader. What to do? Cardboard! I needed to shield the tag from the metal bottle top.
I tore off several pieces of card from old Amazon packaging. It took three layers of card to protect the NFC tag, but it worked. I cut the card to shape and wrote H2O on the tag. I glued the cardboard and the tags together, and it all works nicely.
Water bottle with NFC tag protected by card (image by author)
How to use it
This isn’t going to be a long section.
Fill up the bottle with water. (I like it chilled.)
Drink the water.
When the bottle is empty, tap your iPhone to the top of the bottle.
Repeat.
Run the Health app, tap on Browse and search for “Water”. Tap on it, and add it to your favourites. Every time you run the Health app,”Water” will be listed. Tap on it see your history.
Logging Vitamin D
This works in the same way. Pick out another NFC tag and create an Automation justs like you did for Water. Instead of searching for Water, search for vitamin D.
As before, set the value and date. Each of my tablets contain 1000IU of vitamin D, but IU is not one of the listed units. A quick Internet search revealed that 1000IU is equivalent to 25mcg, a unit that is listed.
I stuck the NFC tag on the bottle top, and since the bottle was plastic, not metal, it just worked.
Configuring vitamin D sample (screenshots by author)
How do you use it? Each morning I take a vitamin D tablet, and tap the tag with my iPhone. Couldn’t be easier.
Apple Health
Run the Health app on your iPhone to see everything you log. Use the “Browse” tab to find the Water and Vitamin D categories. Make them favourites, so that they appear on your summary screen. Now they’ll be easy to find when you launch the Health app.
What Apple could improve
The main limitation of Apple’s Shortcuts NFC implementation is that you have to create an Automation for every tag. It would have been much more useful if a Shortcut could read the tag identifier and then decide what to do at runtime. Maybe in iOS 15.
Friction-free tracking
Tracking your health has real benefits, but it’s a chore. The only way it’s going to work is if it requires no thought at all and it’s right there in front of you. It also helps if information is put somewhere useful.
NFC can deliver most of that. As long as you have your phone handy, you can quickly collect data, and Shortcuts ensures your health record is updated. You can use it with anything that you can stick a tag on, and I’ve shown you how to get around the problem of metal containers.
Let me know about what applications you some up with in the comments. | https://medium.com/swlh/how-7-of-nfc-tags-let-me-track-my-vitamin-d-and-water-consumption-in-apple-health-64c6b1064336 | ['Will J Murphy'] | 2020-12-28 07:14:34.655000+00:00 | ['Gadgets', 'Apple Health', 'iPhone', 'Nfc', 'Lifestyle'] |
Violence Against Women Should Be Treated as a Hate Crime | I shouldn’t have to repeat the statistics. The World Health Organization’s 2017 report on this issue indicates that roughly 1 in 3 women have experienced intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence. 38% of murders of women are committed by a male intimate partner. The latter statistic is higher in some countries than others; but even in highly-developed countries with more gender equality, this is sitting around the 24% mark.
This is a huge percentage. And yet, as a society we tend to make excuses for this behaviour: the woman must have deserved it, somehow, or the man was mentally ill/going through a rough time/shouldn’t be defined by this one action. We’ve been conditioned to see women as liars and to believe in the authority of men; that’s why many people won’t believe survivors unless they hear a confession from the man.
It makes me horribly sad to see the types of things that people say about women who have been a victim of violence. What was she wearing, why didn’t she leave him, she shouldn’t ruin his life (because her life is unimportant compared to his, right?) and the like. And there will be others, the pseudo intellectual misogynists who cry “CITATION NEEDED” every time you try and recount any instance of violence against women, because they’ve never personally witnessed it; therefore they’re convinced that it either doesn’t happen or can’t be as bad as you say. The fact that it literally happened to you/your friend/someone you know isn’t “proof” to them.
It doesn’t help that the media often skews things in favour of the men: violent men are characterized as “nice guys” who just got mad and shouldn’t be punished for this small misstep because they have such a bright future ahead of them. Women, on the other hand, are mentioned as passive participants; violence is just something that happened to them, as if violence slipped on something and bumped into them by accident. | https://medium.com/an-injustice/violence-against-women-should-be-treated-as-a-hate-crime-491147ca47e1 | ['Ashleigh Hume'] | 2020-07-28 22:34:10.321000+00:00 | ['Violence Against Women', 'Hate Crimes', 'Women', 'Violence', 'Crime'] |
How Google Tackles Frontend Load Balancing | What is DNS Load Balancing
Google uses several layers of load balancing, the first of which is DNS load balancing. When a client looks up for an IP address using DNS, simply returning multiple A or AAAA records and letting the client arbitrarily pick IP addresses would not be optimal. Not only there isn’t enough control over the behavior of the client, but also the client cannot determine its closest address. The mitigation of these problems (if possible) leads to having a more complex server implementation and costly maintenance.
As noted in the book, the three important implications of DNS load balancing are the following:
Recursive resolution of IP addresses
Nondeterministic reply paths
Additional caching complications
The recursive resolution has a problem that the IP addresses seen by the authoritative nameserver belong to the recursive resolver and not to a user. It only makes reply optimization possible between the resolver and the nameserver. EDNS0 extension includes the information about the client's subnet in the DNS query sent by a resolver, allowing the nameserver to return an optimal response from the user’s perspective.
Another implication arises when serving millions of users across different demographic regions. An example is a large Internet Service Provider which might run nameservers for its network from one datacenter, and still have network interconnects in each metropolitan area. As a result, ISP will return a response with the IP address according to their datacenter despite having better options.
Responses are usually cached and forwarded by recursive resolvers within time-to-live (TTL) field limits of the DNS record. That may cause a single authoritative reply to reach a single or thousands of users. Google fixes the problem in two ways: Firstly, the list of DNS resolvers with the approximate user base is constantly updated, which allows tracking the impact on a resolver. Secondly, the geographical distribution of the user base is tracked, which increases the chances of directing users to the best location.
The last implication is related to caching. DNS records need a relatively low TTL, as nameservers cannot flush the caches of resolvers. It puts a lower bound on propagating DNS changes to users. Unfortunately, we can’t do much about fixing this problem.
Despite all these problems, DNS is the most effective way to load balancing before a user’s connection starts. However, as there is a 512-byte limit for DNS replies, there exists an upper bound on the number of addresses we can have in a single DNS reply. Virtual IP addresses come in handy here. | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/how-google-tackles-frontend-load-balancing-a176e1080ed6 | ['Ismayil Shahaliyev'] | 2020-11-27 16:42:29.837000+00:00 | ['Google', 'Frontend', 'DNS', 'Front End Development', 'Load Balancing'] |
Eve | Christmas Eve. Parents had hushed their children to sleep hours ago, only the brave midnight mass attendees dared stay out in the night. Just as the priests across the land began their annual liturgy, something subtle changed. Something unnatural.
It began in the forests and on the hills. It always did. Shadows demarcated by the moon grew darker. Nocturnal animals paused their never-ending game of hunter and prey and fled to their burrows and nests. The silent night air dropped a few degrees in temperature.
On the twelfth strike of the church bells, they emerged.
Several years had passed since they had first made their appearance. That fateful night thousands of people had disappeared, with many thousands more bearing witness to their terrifying taking. Terrorism was initially blamed. Then it happened the next year, and the next. No government agency was safe from them, no matter the sophistication of their weaponry.
And so the population had no choice but to huddle in homes and churches, not daring to come out again until the late appearance of the winter sun. That blessed orb chased away the cold, the shadows, the dulling fog. It heralded the resumption of nature, and the realisation that Christmas Eve had been survived for another year.
Temi had bucked the trend of mass emigration from this land. Millions had moved away once they realised that nothing could be done about that one terrible night of the year, but Temi had fallen in love with Oscar, love had usurped fear, and she moved to this cursed country to be with her beloved.
Her new home was another reason that both she and Oscar had decided to move out here to the English countryside. It perched halfway up a wooded valley with a spectacular view to the wide river below. Before those…things had made their first appearance, this home would have been laughably outside of their budget. But, in the years since, the property market had fallen as fast as the general population. Both Temi and Oscar arrogantly believed that their lives would be untouched by this terror.
For 364 days of the year, Temi lived a life of rural luxury. All she had to do was survive tonight. For the first time, though, she’d have to do so alone. It had been a sudden death — a car accident which had taken her Oscar away in early spring. Temi still felt his presence in this house. She couldn’t leave this place, she couldn’t bring herself to face the reality of where he was now.
From a cupboard she pulled out a torch, a lighter, some candles, and some duct tape. On the television a government spokesperson was making what had become the standard Christmas Eve announcement.
‘It is one minute to midnight. Please stay indoors. Stay away from windows and doors. If you haven’t already done sone, get your torch and blankets now. If you go outside there will not be anyone who can help you. Sunrise is in 8 hours and 6 minutes time. Again: do not go outside. Good luck.’
A few seconds later the screen hissed with static, immediately followed by the electricity going off. Temi didn’t bother seeking out the trip switch. Nothing was wrong with the fuses. This was just all part of the terror of tonight.
She went around lighting candles until the room flickered with a dull yellow glow. The curtains were drawn and so she couldn’t see the dense fog creep up the valley and envelope the house. She was, however, able to feel the sudden drop in temperature. This wasn’t a result of the heating switching off — it would have taken much longer for the residual heat of that to disappear — but simply because they preferred to move about in sub-zero temperatures, and adjusted the environment accordingly.
If they simply appeared, moved quietly about outside, then vanished with sunset, then Christmas Eve would be tolerable. But their arrival was announced first by the silence of animals, then the eerie crunk of earth being slowly torn asunder. Temi knew what came next. Silence once again, followed by staccato tapping at windows and doors.
This clicking, insect sound taunted cowering humans through the night. But at least that noise meant that they were kept outside, it was when it stopped and there was the sound of skittering to one part of the house that really bothered Temi. It meant that they had found a possible way in and Temi had to rush to ensure there wasn’t a way in. But that wasn’t the worst of it.
Once or twice over the years Temi had endured the sound of some poor, idiotic soul being caught outside. After that fateful first year when they appeared, they had once found their way into a church full of people, who were never to be seen again. That church had been many miles from here, yet the screams carried far and wide.
In the first few years, people decided to escape this isle so that they were far away from the creatures on Christmas eve. But, inevitably, the price of train, plane and ferry tickets rose exponentially to the point where getting away even a month before the annual haunting became prohibitively expensive to all but the wealthiest.
Tap tap tap tap…tap tap…tap tap tap…….
It was 03:49, they had been terrorising Temi relentlessly all night. But now, silence. Temi thought she heard them rushing to an upstairs window and so she grabbed the torch and the tape, then fled up the stairs. There — in the spare bedroom — a curtain twitched erratically. She pulled it aside and was momentarily frozen in terror as a dozen faces stared back at her. Faces that were once human, but were now coloured a deathly blue, with hollow eyes and mouths wide open as if in a perpetual scream.
Although the wasted faces now appeared far more grotesque than they once had, the bodies were even further removed from what they used to be. Spindly arms and legs, with thin, strong fingers and toes that allowed the creatures to scurry up walls. Some fingers had poked a hole through a rotten part of the window frame, and more and more were trying to widen the gap. Temi shook off her terror, pulled off a length of tape and secured it over the gap. Then another length, then another and another.
All the faces turned to her with rictus grins. The creatures scuttled off and resumed their tapping elsewhere. Before Temi fled back to her candlelit living room, something below in the garden caught her eye. The blanket of moonlit fog was broken by a dark figure, which was being pushed up from the ground. As soon as it had fully emerged it was surrounded by the nightmare beings and carried to below where Temi stood.
This was her worst fear. But she had been expecting it. Many people who had lost a loved one in the year since the previous Christmas eve had endured this particular torture. The creatures passed the figure amongst them and clambered up the building so that they could hold it directly in front of Temi.
Oscar leered at her from eyes wide with abject dread and misery. The double-glazed window couldn’t keep out his tortured howl. Mud caked his hair, his mouth spat earth with every new scream. Temi looked wretchedly back at him. This could be her fate, this could be the fate of all who made the mistake of passing away in this tormented land. Dragged beneath the earth to endure the hell of being buried alive in a living death.
Whatever these things were, they had the power to overturn mortality and resurrect the recently deceased in order to taunt and tempt out more potential victims. Temi knew this. She knew why they had plucked Oscar from the ground and dangled him in front of her like a carrot. Yet, despite this knowledge, she found herself heading outside to try to rescue him.
What could she do? Grab that crossbow, take that welding torch, arm herself with every legal weapon she’d been stockpiling since Oscar’s passing. Thus armed, Temi opened the front door.
The extreme cold grasped her with bony fingers and thrust itself down the back of her throat. The heavy mist began dewing on her clothes. There was neither sight nor sound of the creatures. They wanted her to venture further away from the house, which is exactly what she did.
Out here, a couple of dozen steps away from the front door, Temi felt extremely vulnerable. She was certain that she would just become another statistic, another victim of those nightmarish creatures, another idiot who couldn’t just stay indoors for one night. But there was no way she was ever going to allow them to continue tormenting her Oscar.
Two grotesque hands thrust up from the earth and grabbed her ankles. There then followed a most hideously exultant shrieking as the creatures began scuttling over to her. The welding torch swiftly dealt with the shackling hands, a few well-aimed shots from the crossbow gave the marauding creatures pause. Temi went on the offensive.
Three more creatures were quickly dispatched by the crossbow. Now within arm’s length of them, she unsheathed an antique sword, sharpened to a wicked edge, and beheaded one, two, three. They clearly weren’t used to such behaviour from their prey.
Perhaps that’s why this new horror appeared. It wriggled from the ground, a thick, giant, white worm with a perfectly round head bristling with needle teeth and blind eyes. The faces of tormented souls pressed against its belly — tonight’s harvest so far. Emboldened creatures gathered around it, carrying a wailing Oscar.
Temi paced slowly to one side, keeping some distance between her and the enemy. Any creature which breached that distance was swiftly dealt with by the crossbow. There was, however, just one bolt remaining. Temi raised the crossbow, found her target in the crosshairs and squeezed the trigger.
Shrieks more fearsome than any beast of the night ensued. The bolt had hit Oscar directly in the middle of his forehead, tearing through him and putting him out of this agony once and for all. The creatures were furious and scampered towards Temi. Again, she was expecting this.
A century ago, a small outhouse had been built at the edge of the house’s property. It was into this that Temi now fled. She slammed the door behind her, and the creatures immediately crawled all over the small building, trying to find a way in. But Temi had checked the door, reinforced the windows, and ensured that the walls and roof were intact.
In a small armchair she had positioned in the corner yesterday morning, Temi sat and wept. Putting that bolt through Oscar’s brain had been the toughest thing she’d ever had to do. But it was the right thing to do; killing him in this way guaranteed that the creatures could never resurrect him. And so Temi mourned again.
Dawn was only an hour away and yet the enraged creatures didn’t cease in their efforts to breach the little fortress in which Temi sat. She began to doze, thinking that she may have, somehow, survived the night. It was the thump that came from beneath the floorboards which woke her. | https://medium.com/@ollybeckett/eve-1c12d750bbae | ['Olly Beckett'] | 2020-12-24 18:50:26.780000+00:00 | ['Fiction', 'Horror', 'Christmas'] |
Money Lessons to be Learned from Another Generation | After Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger III skillfully splashed US Airways Flight 1549 into the Hudson River on January 15, 2009 — saving all 155 passengers and crew in the process — he had a simple, yet compelling, explanation. “One way of looking at this,” he said, “might be that, for 42 years, I’ve been making small, regular deposits in this bank of experience: education and training. And on January 15 the balance was sufficient so that I could make a very large withdrawal.”
There is a wealth of information to be gained from the life experiences of older generations. The world may have changed, and the challenges may feel far more compelling now. But their success, and their failures, provide invaluable insights into what to do, and what not to do, when it comes to managing our money.
Take my best friend’s parents for instance. Talk about setting #lifegoals and they’ve excelled at it. They put their head down, worked hard and set up a booming business. With no financial support from their families, their success is entirely their own. Now they live life on their own terms, not dependent on anyone else. They’ve saved enough to last their lifetime and then some. They holiday where they want, with their children and grandchildren in tow. That’s the kind of role models our generation needs.
If this pandemic has taught us anything, it is to always have some money to spare. Be it medical bills, or hoarding provisions, having easy access to a contingency fund is absolutely needed, It has also taught us about managing risks. We could get a pay cut tomorrow, or lose our jobs, or far worse, lose the earning member of our family. We could have money when we need it, but not be able to access it, because it’s tied up in real estate or some long-term fixed deposit.
I’m not saying we should live our lives in constant fear of something going wrong. We need to live our lives now and enjoy the good things it brings. But now is also the time to work hard, set goals, save money. If our parents didn’t figure out their financial life, we’d be spending our money taking care of them now. Is that where we’re headed?
“It is not about what today was. It is about what tomorrow could be.”
I believe a slight shift in our attitude can set us on the right path. Instead of thinking of it as something we have to do, think of it as something we get to do. Remember the joy of getting your first paycheck? It symbolized maturity, freedom and pride in your achievement. That’s the feeling I’d like to carry all the way through to the finish line.
Nothing good stands without the right attitude. You may know how to do it, but if the attitude is negative, all you can say is “I could have done it”.
Let’s spare a moment to think things through.
The adage “look before you leap” comes to mind. Granted, our parents did not have to face the challenge of instant gratification; of everything being just a click away. Nevertheless, debt was not something that generation took lightly. It wasn’t easy to access loans as it is now either. So they bought things they could afford. There’s a lesson to be learned here. Instead of buying now and paying for it later, we can set the goal ahead of time and save up for it. The shift here is clarity of your financial goal and a positive attitude towards saving money.
Let’s not think of it as spending less, we’re simply saving more.
As financial planners we are always telling our clients to save up an emergency fund. That you never know when you’ll need it. The last year has convinced us just how unequivocal the advice is. When you think of it as earning more or spending less, it feels like a task. Instead, assign a goal, or a reward, to every penny you save. Not all goals will seem important, or particularly rewarding, at the time. But with some help, and some planning, you can start saving towards your life goals.
Let’s appreciate the choices we have.
Our generation has a big advantage over our parents. They had to be satisfied with investing their hard earned money in fixed deposits and post office products. And of course, the shining star of that era, real estate. We, on the other hand, live in the golden age of investment avenues. We have products that offer structure and clarity. They cost far less and have the potential to earn far more. And you don’t need a whole lot to get started. So there really is no excuse to not invest and let your money work for you.
Let’s be open to asking for help.
Unlike the older generation, we have an abundance of information at our fingertips. To weed through them and find the investment that is right for you can be challenging. To that I say, get professional help. They are professionals for a reason. So instead of trying to do something you don’t know enough about by yourself, you put your skills to test and find a good professional fit for you. And go a little old school and focus on building a relationship.
Let’s not compromise the ‘now’ or the future.
Another challenge of our generation is thinking long-term. We are so focused on living in the now that we hardly spare a thought for the future. The ‘now’ is important, but so is the future. Yet another lesson from our forefathers — think ahead. They believed in creating an estate they could leave behind for the next generation. When you save money, you need to have an objective and the objective defines how and where you invest. When you have a longer period to achieve a goal, you can take more risk in your investments & vice versa.
Let’s know when to take risks and when to protect what’s ours.
The older generation may have shied away from risk and uncertainty, but we may not always have the choice. Our goals may warrant taking higher risk to earn higher returns. And paying a premium to transfer risk by way of insurance. Finding the right balance is what is important. You may have to invest in equity but the risk can be reduced considerably if you invest for a long period. We work to build our wealth slowly and steadily and in the meantime, we make a choice to protect our families, our assets, and our life’s work, through insurance. It helps a great deal to stay optimistic as we forge ahead. Look at every high as a win and every low as an opportunity and you cannot lose. | https://medium.com/planning-your-finances/money-lessons-to-be-learned-from-another-generation-3ff365466d03 | [] | 2020-12-25 06:02:28.148000+00:00 | ['Money Management', 'Generation Z', 'Personal Finance', 'Financial Advice', 'Financial Planning'] |
Keeping corruption on the global agenda | Theresa May and Shinzo Abe at previous G20 Summit (Flickr)
As the G20 leaders gather in Japan, GSK’s Nick Hirons and Robert Barrington of Transparency International UK ask what priority will be given to the challenging subject of corruption. This joint blog from the combined perspective of the private sector and civil society looks at how tackling corruption can help remove a major block to achieving Universal Health Coverage.
World leaders have many things on their minds at present; and so do citizens. For citizens, as we see daily in the media and social media, corruption is an issue high on the agenda. But how high on the agenda is corruption for the G20 leaders faced with challenges like global security, climate change and an increase in protectionism?
Many in Civil Society and the private sector are strongly committed to supporting realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the related goal of Universal Health Coverage (UHC). Naturally, countries are at very different stages of health system development and the UN assumes each country will need to set its own priorities and timelines towards the SDGs and UHC.
Sadly, it is often said that one of the main barriers to achieving UHC is corruption. TI’s recent analysis of corruption as ‘The Ignored Pandemic’ reinforces this view. Notable examples include skewed contracting processes for medicines or equipment, falsified medicines making their way to patients, misuse of health budgets, opaque tendering and procurement resulting in substandard purchases and an expectation of bribes. It is a complex area but one that demands attention and action.
Ordinary people often feel powerless in the face of corruption; however, there is much that G20 leaders could be doing to improve the situation and remove corruption as a barrier to UHC. With corruption increasingly a transnational phenomenon, and all countries sensitive to not being disadvantaged by taking unilateral action, there are compelling reasons to act collectively in an international forum.
Here are four suggestions for commitments that could be made — or reinforced in cases where they have already been made:
Introducing national Beneficial Ownership Registers, as valuable anti-corruption mechanisms and key enablers for investment, and making them widely accessible to all stakeholders. Helpfully, the G20 has already agreed this within its High Level Principles on Beneficial Ownership Transparency and last year the B20 made a specific call to all G20 countries to implement public registers. Adopting and properly enforcing appropriate anti-corruption laws that criminalise the bribery of foreign officials and so help to create a corruption-free level playing field for global trade. Implementing open contracting — and encouraging more companies to embrace open contracting by providing them with adequate reassurances regarding the protection of genuinely commercially sensitive information in public tenders. Here, the recently developed CGD Principles represent a valuable contribution to the debate. Routinely incorporating anti-corruption provisions in trade agreements to help drive global trade and investment.
Citizens expect a high level of integrity from those working in health care, and rightly so. The private sector itself has a responsibility for setting the right standards, for encouraging the reporting of misconduct and for taking firm action if misconduct is identified. G20 Governments can help support these efforts by creating a level playing field through fair and transparent processes and fair, effective law enforcement which, collectively, will also help address areas such as inappropriate sales practices and regulatory capture.
Much of this can be helped along by e-government solutions, as a means of reducing the opportunities for corrupt behaviour and backed up by more effective whistleblower protection.
For the first time in G20 history, the Finance and Health Ministers are having a joint meeting. That is a positive — and extremely welcome — sign that some G20 working groups are starting to work effectively together, and offers the Anti-Corruption Working Group (ACWG) an opportunity to break some historical siloes. Our hope is that G20 working groups can discuss the challenges and solutions in partnership and that, with the support of the private sector and civil society, tangible progress can be made.
Since 2010 the G20 has adopted more than 60 anti-corruption resolutions, reflecting an important focus on this area. Indeed, several G20 leaders have recently come to power with a specific anti-corruption agenda. As such, this year’s Summit gives the G20 an opportunity to announce on the global stage that together they will drive transnational action to reduce corruption with visible results — turning words into action.
Such action will not secure UHC by itself; but tackling corruption in ways like this, which benefit both governments and business, will undoubtedly help reduce corruption as an obstacle to UHC and improve the lives of ordinary people. In taking such action, G20 governments should remember that there are allies in civil society and the private sector with expertise, resources, and the will to help turn commitments into reality.
Nick Hirons is Senior Vice-President for Global Ethics and Compliance at GSK. Robert Barrington is Executive Director in the UK of Transparency International, whose G20 advocacy can be found here. | https://voices.transparency.org/keeping-corruption-on-the-global-agenda-1e94f47c58bd | ['Transparency International Health Initiative'] | 2019-06-25 11:57:16.650000+00:00 | ['G20', 'Corruption', 'Universal Health Coverage'] |
Wayside Denizens | When the hard road sidelines dreamers,
bypassed time and again by fortune’s favorites,
keeping faith in fairness is the hardest thing of all.
On the weary and crowded line of strivers’ row
the air is choked with equal doses
of longing, despair, panic at time slipping away.
Endlessly frustrated aims prompt doubt
in the minds of even the most confident,
increasingly uncertain of their merit and mettle.
Experience mars innocence, envy erodes goodwill,
and it’s all they can do just to carry on, hoping to live
to see themselves vindicated, pleasantly surprised.
Strange how they cherish and cling, even while
dispirited and brokenhearted, to inmost aspirations
safeguarded against outrageous slings and arrows.
Even when they quit they keep going,
cheating on their conceding,
unwilling or unable to surrender once and for all.
Always their best is never good enough,
yet always their best gets better and better,
itself a meaningful feat fueling further struggle.
Then one day, half asleep in the heat, the dazed glimpse
through dissipating haze at a space opening wide
for them to merge and mingle among smiling passers-by.
The on-ramp to success abruptly unobstructed,
they put on some speed and leave defeat in their dust,
bitter years of yearning blotted out amid skid marks. | https://medium.com/the-scene-heard/wayside-denizens-22fe1b036a46 | [] | 2017-09-16 15:31:18.143000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Thesceneandheard', 'Success', 'Failure', 'Life'] |
The Pandemic and Albert Camus’ ‘The Plague’ | Albert Camus opens his famous 1947 novel by describing the routine business of life of the people of Oran, a port-town on the Algerian coast,
“The truth is that everyone is bored, and devotes himself to cultivating habits. Our citizens work hard, but solely with the object of getting rich. Their chief interest is in commerce, and their chief aim in life is, as they call it, “doing business.” Naturally they don’t eschew such simpler pleasures as love-making, sea-bathing, going to the pictures. But, very sensibly, they reserve these pastimes for Saturday afternoons and Sundays and employ the rest of the week in making money, as much as possible. In the evening, on leaving the office, they forgather, at an hour that never varies, in the cafes, stroll the same boulevard, or take the air on their balconies.”
In a town laden deep in monotony and stagnant lifestyles and whose banality seems to be an endless overhaul to nothingness, the sudden arrival of the pestilent ‘plague’ of the title is no less a cause for hysteria.
The banality of this town’s normal life was not very dissimilar to our modern existence — until the pandemic happened. If somehow we collectively were (dis)illusioned into thinking that the nature of time and life is to move forward only in cyclical repetitions of every day, the Coronavirus Pandemic came as a timely blow to refute the claims that modern existence bases its foundations on. With the pandemic, life came to us stripped down to its sheer fragility and unknowability — a sudden rift in the hitherto linear progression of life, a break in the predictability of what is to come, an existential problem of sorts. And because it happened on a global scale, the impact made itself even more profound; without doubt, emotionally and psychologically the humanity has evolved.
Now whether the pandemic was for the good or worse is the eternally irresolvable question of whether the glass is half empty or half full. It has undeniably been a crisis and a most dreary one at that, but it is also true that the world will not ever be the same again and there is something positive to it. It is as if the usual affairs of chasing ambitions, recklessly fretting over unfulfilled expectations, putting up a pretence of a personality, degeneration of relationships — things that had adopted a garb of ‘normalcy’ — all came to an abrupt halt.
Albert Camus, in writing about the Oran plagued by disease and decay, anticipates most of what has been occurring since the past 10–11 months — quarantine, social distancing, the vulnerability of the frontline workers, panic-stricken populations, prevailing feelings of uncertainty and isolation, escalating death rates and of course, the furious spread of the plague itself that affects first the rats, and subsequently the population of the town of Oran — all this occurs in Camus’ fictional account, just as the virus is sapping the life out of people presently.
One can then, put stress on the terrifying yet, striking similarity that this brilliant piece of existential fiction offers with contemporary times. Camus wrote this narrative in the 1940s as a scathing critique of the Nazi occupation of France; he wrote to represent that trivial markers of class, caste, race, religion that had resulted in severely horrid wars are actually so futile, for we are all basically trapped in the same existentialist limbo. Our foremost identity is that of being a ‘human’ and our shared existence, its sufferings and our common fate of impending death transcend the categories that we have created to divide us. Without any moralizing indictments, Camus tells us and rightly so, that the disease strikes all, it does not discriminate and there can be no better testimony to why ‘human’ concerns supersede that of any other. The pandemic similarly revealed to us that in a world that is decaying from outside, we can choose to cultivate the soils within. It has taught people to pause, introspect and acknowledge the impact that they have had on the environment, on one other and on themselves. It has compelled us to look at ourselves as a society, in the mirror and acknowledge our own doings, the goods and bads of its consequences. And now when we are already living the new normal, although little seems changed — but there is indeed, a positive transformation.
Albert Camus’ fictional epidemic culminates in a similar strain. As he writes,
“Silent as ever by day, the streets filled up at nightfall with the usual crowds of people, now wearing overcoats and scarves. Cafes and picture-houses did as much business as before. But on a closer view, you might notice that people looked less strained, and they occasionally smiled. And this brought home the fact that since the outbreak of plague no one had hitherto been seen to smile in public.”
Collectively, we have evolved to be more compassionate, empathetic and desirous to form real humane connection. Despair, death and decay is what then, has resulted in a rejuvenation of life, a revived hope and most of all, it has exhumed the buried humanity from the fertile soils of the heart. Evil and destruction are a feature of this world that we reside in and although evil never wins but neither does it end forever. As long as there is human existence, there will also be evil, suffering and destruction — at times active, at times dormant; but as Camus seems to suggest, none so powerful will ever overpower the redeeming potential of human love. Human love, in all its essential forms — kindness, generosity, care, compassion, empathy, nurture, — is at the centre of life and is its governing principle; it is in fact, life itself and without the possibility of it, life itself is impossible. Indeed, it is human love alone that made possible the bearing of the many epidemics that have occurred in various forms and the many that are to come. | https://medium.com/heuristics/the-pandemic-and-albert-camus-the-plague-f2637537c08f | [] | 2020-10-12 07:01:26.288000+00:00 | ['Covid 19 Crisis', 'Pandemic', 'Creative Writing'] |
Lullablock | Baby devices face an additional challenge, which is that so many of them are controlled by the cloud for no particularly good reason. I do not want our child to become someone else’s data source any more than necessary—it was jarring enough that literally the first thing the baby experienced after birth was a full accounting of his measures. We do not need to train artificial intelligence on our growing bundle of natural intelligence. Having one less device that requires a connection to the open internet also feels like a good thing.
All of that and a spare Raspberry Pi Zero was enough to inspire Lullablock, which is a RPIzero-powered pink noise maker. It’s a little blue box with a big yellow button. Bop the button to start the noise; give the dial a spin to turn it up or down. Noise will play until the user-configurable timer runs out.
The device runs python (overkill, I know) so there’s a simple web app built in that allows it to be controlled from another room—or the sofa when your arms are filled with baby. The app also allows a few more controls to be snuck in, like the ability to select a different audio file to play on loop.
Originally my partner and I thought it would be a “great idea” if we trained the baby to sleep with cafe noises. Think how well the child will sleep while we’re out and about, we naively speculated. Turns out babies don’t work like that, and this country’s response to COVID was bungled enough that spending afternoons in busy cafes is not happening any time soon either. | https://medium.com/@bryan/lullablock-6c37d821e695 | ['Bryan Boyer'] | 2021-01-25 16:54:45.948000+00:00 | ['Hardware', 'Newborn', 'Sleep', 'Open Source', 'Raspberry Pi'] |
Data Secrecy in Online Payroll Outsource Services | Payroll data security threats can come from outside, inside or develop from pure error. Personal information such as account numbers of banks, home addresses, social security numbers and pay rates are necessary to process payroll and tax forms and cannot be compromised. Strengthening your defense strategy means upholding technology protocols and security measures as well as administering proper staff training in your company payroll department.
Our global online payroll services can be highly useful for international clients as they might not be aware of data secrecy for our clients as well as all legal formalities, documentation, procedure required for India. So, as a leading payroll company in India, MME helps with the legal formalities required in payroll management process. Our services may include Attendance and Leave Management, Payroll Management, Provident Fund, ESI, Income Tax (TDS), Medical, Employee Insurance etc., Salary Slips, filling taxes, Employees Grievances, Payroll Administration on ERP package and other activities related to payroll administration, which can be highly helpful in managing payroll process for our clients.
DATA SECRECY IN ONLINE PAYROLL SERVICES
HOW MME PAYROLL PROTECTS YOUR PAYROLL DATA?
MME Payroll is not only a leader in HR and payroll technology but we are experts at keeping your payroll data and personal information confidential and secure. We are an ISO Certified payroll services in India and well known for our quality of online payroll services in India as well as abroad. Due to the quality only, we are sustaining in industry from last more than two decades of years. More than 500 clients worldwide take help from MME in payroll management processing, so that they can focus on their own core business.
Detection and prevention system
With our online payroll services in India has network and servers are housed in enterprise-class data centers with the ability to detect patterns and signatures with a malicious purpose. MME infrastructure has continuous live backups that guarantee data reliability and consistency.
Better security
It not always possible for the companies to keep an eye on the methodology that is followed to conduct payroll management services. This may lead to data pilferage as well as popping up of loopholes that give the hackers a golden opportunity to get into the system and extract sensitive information. Outsourcing online payroll management services will negate all these possibilities since the specialized agencies have foolproof security systems that control any such possibilities.
Industry leading encryption
With the Online payroll services in India MME ensures that your data storage is encrypted at every endpoint. With disk level encryption, we can prevent files from being transferred from stolen company devices like laptops or servers. Also, MME encrypts data at the file level to prevent online database breaches.
Reliable & reduce risk factor
Most of the payroll outsourcing companies in India uses their own payroll software. It provides convenience to its clients and employees. It is easy for the employees to track their salary records with this software. They can check their salary slips and deductions with this. It improves the reliability of the company.
Vulnerability scanning
Our dedicated security team performs vulnerability scans and penetration tests across our entire network. In addition, we rotate third party software companies to perform scans on our network twice per year to ensure best-in-class security.
Advanced threat detection
MME advanced threat detection feature stops zero day viruses that the cyber security community have yet to discover. This feature uses behavioral analytics such as file access patterns to proactively isolate the infected endpoint before a data breach occurs. | https://medium.com/@mmehrconsultancy/data-secrecy-in-online-payroll-outsource-services-84d90a522386 | [] | 2021-12-21 07:25:43.225000+00:00 | ['Outsourcing', 'Payroll', 'Cloud Services', 'Payroll Services'] |
Three Sets | Spiritual Tree
There are three sets of people in our world.
Those who get more than what they WANT!
Images by Annelise Lords
Those who get all of what they WANT!
Image by Annelise Lords
And those who get some of that they WANT!
Image by Annelise Lords
Then from all three sets, someone complains that they never get what they want.
Thank you for reading this piece. I hope you enjoyed it.
https://mediumauthor.com/@thisisanneliselords
https://mediumauthor.com/podcast | https://medium.com/spiritual-tree/three-sets-e25efb384bea | ['Annelise Lords'] | 2020-03-15 22:11:23.942000+00:00 | ['Spirituality', 'Satisfaction'] |
BEST WAY TO HAVE A BITCOIN WITHOUT ANY HIGH END PC | The most recent couple of years have seen sensational development in the realm of cryptographic money, with new stages and monetary standards showing up constantly. In spite of changing patterns and newbies on the lookout, the originator, Bitcoin, stays the most significant decentralized digital currency by a long shot. However, as its worth develops, does likewise apply to the way toward getting it? Is Bitcoin mining beneficial nowadays?
Indeed, mining Bitcoin is productive in 2021, however there are obstructions to get to. It requires specialized information that regularly deters new diggers from endeavoring to construct their own Bitcoin mining PC. All things being equal, mining keeps on filling in scale and proficiency, which implies there are better approaches to acquire Bitcoin, for example, yield cultivating, which influences existing crypto resources for create a return.
We’ve assembled a report on the province of Bitcoin, digital currency, and blockchain industry patterns to assist you with beginning. We’ll likewise give a few hints on the most proficient method to bring in cash with cryptographic money and the stuff to construct a PC mining rig.
Bitcoin mining runs Bitcoin’s blockchain. BTC digging is liable for completing exchanges, just as for moving Bitcoin from the resource’s greatest inventory into its flowing stock. Bitcoin mining is the shared interaction of adding information onto Bitcoin’s public record to confirm and get an agreement. Gatherings of recorded exchanges are accumulated in squares and afterward added onto the Bitcoin blockchain.
To put it plainly, excavators everywhere on the world hope to address complex riddles on their BTC mining machines in a robotized style. These machines all contend to discover puzzle arrangements. At the point when a riddle is tackled, a square is mined and the solver is compensated a set measure of Bitcoin. Another Bitcoin block is mined at regular intervals by and large. Electrical costs and different angles influence Bitcoin mining productivity.
A Bitcoin mining rig is a PC equipment arrangement assigned for BTC mining, though a Bitcoin mining ranch is a gathering of mining machines. Mining pools additionally exist, shaped of gatherings of diggers pooling their assets toward a common mining objective and a common mining reward.
but the capital for mining bitcoin is quite expensive, you need large capital just to mine 1 bitcoin. the greater the fees you spend, the more likely you will be paid for the amount of bitcoin you get. there is one other way to mine without having to spend a large capital one of which is mining cloud
Cloud mining allows the use of computing power for data processing centers and mining cryptocurrency without the need of buying special equipment, software, spending on electricity and so on. The main idea of cloud mining for Bitcoin, — which is also called cloud hashing — is that the user buys some computer power of the machinery set up in such data centers after agreeing on a cloud mining contract and do mining via cloud. Cryptocurrency cloud mining has many advantages for those who are not so technically skilled and are not ready to compile the equipment and set the special software. Besides that, this is a great opportunity for people living in countries with a too high cost for electricity to set up their own mining farms.
There are several site or application providers that can be used on your smartphone or laptop without having to spend a lot of money.two of them are hashshiny and cryptotab browser this site is fairly trusted because I have proven it myself.
so what are you waiting for just one click then you can mine with your own cellphone..!!! | https://medium.com/@urang.halus7/best-way-to-have-a-bitcoin-without-any-high-end-pc-3262a2ca9eb3 | ['Muhammad Fauzan'] | 2021-07-07 04:24:54.543000+00:00 | ['Cloudminning', 'Cloud', 'Bitcoin', 'Earn Money Online', 'Mining'] |
When I went to the grocery store | When I went to the grocery store
I didn’t come for biscuits.
In the aisle near the door,
there was biscuit on the floor.
And all over his mother screamed,
Removing her face mask
come what hell brings.
“Biscuit!” she shouted out loud
Sputtering her sputum
into that hot crowd.
“Biscuit!“ she did shout again
Because repetition to her
was no grievous sin.
“Mama!” Biscuit shouted in return
He ran through the store
Like a fever does burn.
I’m sorry I don’t know how
This story ends,
But I hope I survive
To come again.
— DavidRaffin.com | https://medium.com/@davidraffin/when-i-went-to-the-grocery-store-742b5c8ac183 | ['David Raffin'] | 2020-12-21 02:55:16.495000+00:00 | ['This Happened To Me', 'Journalism', 'Humour', 'Poetry', 'Humor'] |
Povo Gaming-NFT Airdrop Is Now Live, ($25K WORTH) Povo Tokens Reward | Total Reward: $25k
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Distribution date: 25th Aug
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When Airdrop Campaign starts?
POVO Gaming airdrop campaign will be live on Aug 10th and ending on August 20th.
When Airdrop Distribution?
POVO will select the winning participants who completed all steps for the POVO Airdrop campaign. The list of winners will be announced on August 25TH.
Social Links: | https://medium.com/@povofinance/povo-games-nft-airdrop-is-now-live-10k-worth-povo-tokens-reward-4eadbfd9039d | [] | 2021-08-13 13:44:58.299000+00:00 | ['Bsc', 'Airdrop', 'Nft', 'Staking', 'Defi'] |
John: All About Jesus | John: All About Jesus
Recordings, notes and application questions
Each week, we produce notes, discussion points and application questions for the Sunday talks — helping you go deeper into everything we’re looking at together and resourcing our Small Groups during the week. Use the embedded player to listen to the talk, or click here to visit Soundcloud and download it on a PC. You can also subscribe to Oasis podcasts on Spotify, iTunes or Podbean for listening on the go, and you can find the accompanying Powerpoint presentation for this week’s talk here.
Key Passages
John 20:30–31
John 21:24–25
Notes
John’s gospel is at its heart a proclamation of the “good news” about Jesus — the story of his life, death and resurrection which has changed everything for John. Through the story, he is inviting us to an encounter with Jesus that will change everything for us too.
He’s really clear about his motivations for writing — he wants you to believe in Jesus, and find the abundant life that he offers to each and every one of us. Each of the gospel accounts provides a different angle on Jesus’s life; none are any less truthful, but each emphasise different aspects of his character, his mission, and his place within Israel’s story, in order to reach out to different audiences and speak truth into different situations. John’s gospel, in particular, is written with a smaller number of more in-depth, extended encounters with Jesus, compared to Matthew, Mark and Luke. He isn’t trying to tell us lots of stories about what Jesus did. Rather, he is giving us a few carefully selected portraits that we are invited to sit with, ponder, and delve more deeply into. Ultimately, that’s because of his goal; he isn’t trying to get Jesus’s life into books, he’s trying to get Jesus’s life into you!
Because of that, he has structured his gospel around a number of portraits of Jesus’s encounters in different situations — most of which have a link to Jewish cultural symbols, or Jewish festivals. In doing so, he provides a pointer to how Jesus reshapes and reinterprets all of these as being about Himself, his life, death and resurrection. That’s the point. In each of the stories, we are invited to meet Jesus again, and answer his question to us: “Who do you say I am?”
It’s also important to note that John was writing in the midst of community. His community pop up in Chapter 21 to put their stamp of authenticity and authority on his work, but the whole book is written to be known and enjoyed by us together. So it’s okay when we don’t understand everything about it — none of us has all the answers, and all of us are going to be confused by some of the confusing things Jesus sometimes says! That’s okay! We are instead invited into mystery and depth as we explore them together.
So let’s join this adventure together over the next few months — an adventure to discover who Jesus is afresh, to allow him to come and meet with us and to reshape and redefine everything we think we know about his identity, and what that means for us, our community, the whole world, and beyond. Are you ready? Here we go!
Application Questions | https://medium.com/oasis-church-birmingham/john-all-about-jesus-9060d894ade4 | ['Oasis Church Birmingham'] | 2019-10-15 15:46:21.982000+00:00 | ['Bible', 'Resources', 'Faith', 'Jesus', 'Christianity'] |
Linear Regression for Dummies With Implementation in Python. | Now, if I have to find the price of 9.5 kg of apple then according to our model mx+b = 5 * 9.5 + 0 = $47.5 is the answer. By now you might have understood that m and b are the main ingredients of the linear equation or in other words m and b are called parameters.
Unfortunately, this is not the machine learning problem neither linear equation is prediction algorithm, But luckily linear regression output the result the same way as the linear equation does. The main purpose of the linear regression algorithm is to find the value of m and b that fit the model and after that same m and b are used to predict the result for the given input data.
Predict housing prices
Now we are going to dive a little deeper into solving the regression problem. Look at the data samples or also termed as training examples given in the figure below.
Source: Coursera, Andrew Ng machine learning course
A company name ABC provides you a data on the houses’ size and its price. The company requires providing them a machine learning model that can predict houses’ prices for any given size. Let’s say what would be the best-estimated price for area of 3000 feet square? If you are thinking to fit a line somewhere between the dataset and draw a verticle line from 3000 on the x-axis until it touches the line and then the corresponding value on the y-axis i.e 470 would be the answer, then you are on right track, it is represented by the green dotted line in the figure below.
Let’s do it in another way, if we could find the equation of line y = mx+b that we use to fit the data represented by the blue inclined line then we can easily find the model that can predict the housing prices for any given area. In machine learning lingo function y = mx+b is also called a hypothesis function where m and b can be represented by theta0 and theta1 respectively. theta0 is also called a bias term and theta1,theta2,.. are called weights. See the blue line in the picture above, By taking any two samples that touch or very close to the line we can find the theta1 (slope) = 0.132 and theta zero = 80 as shown in the figure. Now we can use our hypothesis function to predict housing price for size 3000 feet square i.e 80+3000*0.132 = 476. $476,000 could be the best-estimated price for a house of size 3000 feet square and this could be a reasonable way to prepare a machine learning model when you have just 50 samples and with only one feature(size). But the real-world dataset could be in the order of thousands or even in millions and the number of features could range from (5–100) or even in thousands. At that time our intuition won’t be useful to find thousands of parameters just by looking at a dataset that’s why we need a machine-learning algorithm to carry out such a complex calculation. Grab a cup of coffee, refresh yourself and come back again because from now onwards you are going to understand the way the algorithm works and you will be introduced to a lot of new terminologies. Get ready!!
Cost Function
Cost function
Note: (i) in the equation represents the ith training example, not the power.
If the terminologies given in the above figure seem like aliens to you please take a few minutes to familiarize yourself and try to find a connection with each term. If you know to some extent let’s move ahead. Once the parameter values i.e bias term and theta1 are randomly initialized, the hypothesis function is ready for prediction, and then the error (|predicted value — actual value|) is calculated to check whether the randomly initialized parameter is giving the right prediction or not. if the error is too high, then the algorithm updates the parameters with a new value, if the error is high again it will update the parameters with the new value again. The algorithm continues this process until the error is minimized. To minimize the error we have a special function called Gradient Descent but before that, we are going to understand what Cost Function is and how it works?
Cost function mathematics
Here in the cost function, we are trying to find the square of the differences between the predicted value and actual value of each training example and then summing up all the differences together or in other words, we are finding the square of error of each training example and then summing up all the errors together. The output we get is simply the mean of squared error of a particular set of parameters. Ok, no more words let’s do the calculation. For the simplicity of calculation, we are going to use just one parameter theta1, and a very simple dataset.
Understanding loss function
We have three training examples (X1=1, y1=1), (X2=2, y2=2), and (X3=3, y3=3). figure on the left is of hypothesis function and on the right is cost function plotted for different values of the parameter.
Try other values of theta1 yourself and calculate the cost for each theta1 value. Once you plot these all dots, the cost function will look like a bowl-shaped curve as shown in the figure below.
From the figure and calculation, it is clear that the cost function is minimum at theta1=1 or at the bottom of the bowl-shaped curve. The purpose of all this hard work is not to calculate the minimum value of the cost function, we have a better way to do this, instead try to understand the relationship between parameters, hypothesis function, and cost function. Please make sure you understand all these concepts before moving ahead.
Coding Cost Function in python:
Hope you enjoyed reading, now you are one step closer to understanding linear regression. Please Check out the second part of the tutorial | https://medium.com/swlh/linear-regression-for-beginners-with-implementation-in-python-3f99fe470ef3 | ['Ravindra Sah'] | 2020-12-07 05:25:10.940000+00:00 | ['Cost Function', 'Linear Regression Python', 'Gradient Descent', 'Predict Housing Price', 'Linear Regression'] |
lost. | Opportunity
took him by the hand:
together, they strolled
through the pebbled grounds
of her garden’s maze,
lost in the comforts
of a wildly adventurous
but risky love, for romance. | https://medium.com/chalkboard/lost-3650154d5a64 | ['Efe Nakpodia'] | 2017-11-23 19:36:31.962000+00:00 | ['One Line', 'Poetry', 'Relationships', 'Love', 'Chalkboard'] |
Your Donations Mean the World | Most individuals believe that donating property to a charity is for the abundant. This simply is not true. I have actually worked individuals, charities, and also tiny firms for many years with contributions process. For many individuals and also firms is concerning the ability to free themselves from unwanted residential property. They easy desire out. They are tired of building tax obligations, insurance expense, and obligation exposure.
California is a state that has many diverse needs. Both individuals and charitable organizations are in great need throughout the Golden State, which means a California property donation may be ideal for willing donors in the state. A California property donation is a great way for businesses and private property holders to gift their unused or unwanted real estate property to a well-deserving charity so that it may either be repurposed or utilized to generate a stream of income that can then be used to support a needy and deserving organization or individual.
Do you have a house you are having trouble selling and are tired of paying taxes on it? Consider making a charitable house donation. Perhaps, you own undeveloped land, commercial property, rental property, industrial property, or even farmland you are considering donating to a cause you believe in.
You may be wondering how to donate a real estate to charity in a way that benefits our communities and to those who are truly in need. Real Estate With Causes has an established charitable mission that helps those who are in need. Real Estate With Causes will assist you in making a worthwhile charitable contribution and is a nonprofit charity that can fully utilize your donation to give back to those who are reaching out for a helping hand.
Simply fill out the online donor contact form to start the real estate donation process. Real Estate Estate with causes is a vehicle for multiple types of real estate donations.
Real Estate With Causes is a branch of the Giving Center, is an IRS certified 501(c)3 nonprofit charity. You are able to donate property to Real Estate With Causes and avoid capital gains exposure because you are gifting — not selling — your house.
Talk to your trusted CPA about all the ways a charitable real estate donation can get you a great tax benefit.
Real Estate With Causes will go the extra mile to make sure you have everything you need for an enjoyable donation process. | https://medium.com/@katie-givingcenter1/your-donations-mean-the-world-40cb9e1decda | ['Katie Givingcenter'] | 2020-10-19 22:35:56.105000+00:00 | ['Helping Others', 'Nonprofit', 'Donate', 'Charity'] |
David Genetti of Astarte Medical: 5 Things We Must Do To Improve the US Healthcare System | Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
My degree is in Molecular Biology, but I have spent the bulk of my career building and running financial services technology companies. While fascinating and challenging, I felt compelled to return to my educational roots and put my experience to work in a way that can make a lifelong and profound impact on our most fragile patients, preemies. Helping babies thrive in the first 1,000 days is a career path that checks all of the boxes.
I have known the founder and CEO, Tracy Warren, for over 20 years and having the opportunity to join forces on an exciting and impactful project was a perfect fit for the next chapter in my career. We bring different elements to the table and are able to learn from each other on a daily basis.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
It is a cumulative experience. We have been incredibly fortunate to speak with the brightest minds in our field. While there is convergence on how we should provide nutrition to our most fragile patients there is not a unified consensus. The amount of variability in the decision-making process and the application of the standard of care is incredibly interesting. We believe we can advance this with our analysis.
In many ways this is not surprising. Medicine is making fantastic advances in being able to allow babies born as early as 22 weeks gestational age to survive, but now need to help them thrive. This is ground breaking territory and the science behind how to feed this new category of patient is evolving as expected and we hope to provide solutions to support that evolution.
Being at the table as this discussion is taking place is definitely one of the most interesting things that has happened to me, not only since I began with Astarte, but possibly in my professional career.
Can you tell our readers a bit about why you are an authority in the healthcare field?
I am not a doctor, but I do have a scientific background as well as a technology background in highly regulated, complex industries, including healthcare. I believe that the future of healthcare is going to increasingly rely on cross functional solutions from diverse and talented contributors. The intersection of approaches that have proven effective in other industries and progressive medical practitioners will be a powerful movement.
What makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Astarte Medical is the only precision medicine company using software and predictive analytics to improve outcomes during the first 1,000 days of life, with an initial focus on preterm infants. NICUtrition® by Astarte Medical supports feeding protocols, practice and decision-making in the neonatal ICU with a suite of digital tools and diagnostics designed to standardize feeding, optimize nutrition and quantify gut health.
We are building one of the world’s largest libraries of poopy diapers — along with clinical data and sequencing. That is not something most companies can say.
Can you share with our readers about the innovations that you are bringing to and/or see in the healthcare industry? How do you envision that this might disrupt the status quo? Which “pain point” is this trying to address?
We are applying machine learning to the largest library of longitudinal microbiome sequencing data combined with clinical data factors to provide risk scores that can inform care givers and dramatically change the course of care and outcomes for the tiniest of babies. We are not taking care out of the hands of doctors and nurses; we are empowering them with insights that are only available through our technology. We are doing this without the need for sequencing in the clinic, resulting in real-time decision support at a greatly reduced price point. Simultaneously we are providing clinical tools to improve satisfaction and quality for patients, care givers and parents.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why.
This is my fourth start-up, so I had a pretty good idea what I was getting into, and to be clear, I joined a company that Tracy Warren and Tammi Jantzen had started. Having said that:
Just because you have started companies before doesn’t mean you’ll have all the answers. Every day I am reminded that I have a lot to learn, from those around me and from my routine mistakes. There is no place for smugness in the face of new challenges. Working with smart successful people also illuminates the shortcomings of some of the approaches I have taken for years. Be humble and open to learning new ways of tackling and solving problems and accept that there may be better techniques. Remain coachable. There is still a gender gap in VC and VC funding for women led companies — you’ll be surprised. I was surprised to see the depth of this gap having worked with strong female leaders and seen the impact of gender diversity in leadership throughout my career. Tracy and Tammi both had venture capital careers before launching Astarte Medical and have been successful in raising money. They are powerful forces and are actively changing that dynamic. I am fortunate to be teamed up with two successful and strong women, but I have now witnessed first-hand an ongoing gender gap in the VC and VC funding space. I may have been naïve coming into this company. As Tracy has said, no CEO or founder should have to lead with “I’m female” — focus on the business, the opportunity and commit to maintaining the same expectation of return that other (male-led) ventures aspire to. The field we are opening is even more fascinating than I thought — don’t get distracted. This is great on the one hand, but there are not enough hours in the day to chase down all of the exciting ideas we are generating. As some of our first sequencing data was coming out of analysis, we had to consciously control how deep we would let our team members that were not on that part of the project dive into the discoveries. The need to stay focused and keep the team focused in the face of exciting science and results will be an ongoing task that I did not anticipate having to tackle. My own curiosity requires self-discipline as well. When exciting things are happening in other groups, we can congratulate them, then get back to the tasks that need to be tackled. All Start-ups are not created equal. Many principles are universal — it is going to be hard work, long hours, and challenging problems that need to be tackled with limited resources. A small team all pulling in the same direction is a powerful force. There are also dramatic differences. Astarte is not only building software; we are also performing novel research in the lab. The combination of these two projects that seem diverse are actually coupled and that dynamic has created massive opportunity but also unique challenges. A clear need and a perfect solution are not enough. We have identified a clear medical need and have developed a perfect solution that routinely praised by practitioners and our potential customers. That is not enough, there are many hurdles that need to be cleared. You cannot settle for having solved the problem that you identified in your business plan. Execution requires fighting through an endless list of intermediate challenges that do not make it into the plan.
Let’s jump to the main focus of our interview. According to this study cited by Newsweek, the US healthcare system is ranked as the worst among high income nations. This seems shocking. Can you share with us 3–5 reasons why you think the US is ranked so poorly?
Interoperability is a big issue. We have mountains of electronic medical record data, but the ability to liberate it to allow for innovation is incredibly limited. Even within a single hospital system it can be a major challenge to effectively share data. Innovation is stifled when institutions do not have the capability or capacity to provide useful access to critical information in a timely fashion. The US market is dominated by a few players and there has been a successful effort to sequester the data within their silos. The current reimbursement system is primarily reactive — treatment as opposed to prevention. It also creates a system where a sick patient is now thrown into a financial quagmire in order to receive the treatment that is required, and the incentives to provide or deny that treatment are at odds with each other across stakeholders. Greater incentives for routine and preventive health measures will pay dividends. Quality of Care is not a primary driver. While there is a movement by some institutions and organizations putting an emphasis on quality it is not a universal driver in the current system. Our medical professionals are overburdened. The introduction of medical records systems held great promise. The results have been mixed. The need to “chart” effectively has been abdicated to technology that is not always effective. The burden of using some of these systems simply to record the basic data removes clinicians from the bedside for too long and does not result in better care and often does not result in better charting. There is a sense that adding traditional annotations or notes to the extensive clinical data that is required would be too much and the sense is that future shifts can simply look at the EMR data. Americans are bad patients. Medicine is intensely personal and when it comes to our own medical treatment or that of family members, cost is no option. Additional tests or treatments are often demanded. Clinicians are increasingly compensated by their institutions based upon patient satisfaction survey results. Denying a borderline diagnostic to a demanding patient may have a significant impact on that patient’s satisfaction. We like our bigger houses, our bigger cars and our bigger medicine more than most of the other countries in this report.
You are a “healthcare insider.” If you had the power to make a change, can you share 5 changes that need to be made to improve the overall US healthcare system?
Support Innovation — We have some of the brightest minds on the planet, but the barriers to entry for even moderate improvements through innovation solutions that can change healthcare are extremely high in the US. Mandate interoperability standards. The current state of data sequestration is unhealthy. We have worked with significant institutions where they did not have a resource on their team that was capable of navigating their own EMR data in a way to provide fairly simple data extracts for innovative projects and reporting. Bring the regulatory approval processes up to speed with technology. The regulatory machinery is well oiled for devices and pharmaceuticals, but Software as a Medical Device is still an immature field for regulatory bodies and once again creates a time and cost barrier to bringing new solutions to market. The amount of uncertainty creates a massive split between incredibly well financed, large organization and innovative small companies that could make a big impact if they had a clear roadmap to success. Return the power to practice medicine to the doctors and their patients, reimbursement rates and schemes are often prime drivers of treatments. Support this relationship with quality decision support tools. It has been demonstrated that standard protocols and check lists improve results. Clinical decision support takes this one step further by incorporating real time information to support a provider’s own training and intuition. It also can support conversations with patients regarding unnecessary treatments or diagnostics. This is a more effective technique than having to navigate the financial impact of a particular course of action. Focus on Quality care. The goal should be to provide the best quality care possible, and while I firmly believe that our medical professionals strive for this, the financial incentives are not always aligned and are occasionally directly opposed to this standard. You will get what you measure. If reimbursements are tied to length of stay, you will get increased length of stay. If payments are tied to outcomes, you will get better outcomes. Value based and risk sharing models have strong promise to help re-align incentives.
Thank you! It’s great to suggest changes, but what specific steps would need to be taken to implement your ideas? What can individuals, corporations, communities and leaders do to help?
We need to support and advance The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. Most importantly we should be supporting, or even requiring that EMR providers make open accessible API’s actually available within the context of the HITECH Act. While many may claim that there are available, they are really claiming that they exist — access is a practical issue requiring financial commitments and a registration process that can take up to 18 months. The availability of useable API documentation is often hidden behind this process, making the art of “what is possible” for innovators a guessing game. Standardizing and publishing API documentation would go a long way towards allowing innovators to develop solutions that can improve outcomes, reduce cost, raise satisfaction levels and reduce burden on our clinicians.
What are your favorite books, podcasts, or resources that inspire you to be a better healthcare leader? Can you explain why you like them?
I am a big fan of not only scientific research, but also the history of science itself. Understanding those that made breakthroughs in the past is inspiring. The drive, tenacity, and genius, that they applied to the problems of their times, often in the face of opposition and adversity, serves as a tremendous source of inspiration. I recently introduced my son to an old favorite, Longitude, by Dava Sobel, which is fantastic history of one scientist’s 40-year quest to solve a complex scientific problem in the face of political and mechanical challenges. We need to continue to challenge the status quo and not give up when the rest of the world appears to be opposed to our ideas. | https://medium.com/authority-magazine/david-genetti-of-astarte-medical-5-things-we-must-do-to-improve-the-us-healthcare-system-5636acec61b0 | ['Carly Martinetti'] | 2020-12-23 13:18:12.097000+00:00 | ['Healthcare Technology', 'Startup', 'Wellness', 'Healthcare', 'Leadership'] |
Successful Coaching Leads to Great Results | Here at the-Coaching Blog-run by Gerard O’Donovan, our aim is to constantly bring value to those seeking to improve their lives. Therefore we have a policy of publishing articles and materials by guest authors whom we value and appreciate. Today’s guest author is Gary R. Gasaway (USA).
Most successful organisations consist of managers that have great coaching abilities. These managers are considered great coaches because they can motivate, inspire, influence, overcome obstacles, transform risks into rewards, vision into realities, and values into actions. In other words, they use teamwork to lead their people to great results. But before teamwork, there is team building. One must come before the other. For successful teamwork, effective team building must take place.
Let me define teamwork verses team building:
Teamwork is the ability of two or more individuals to work together towards a common vision or goal.
Team building is the foundation that creates teamwork through effective communication, trust, encouragement, mutual respect, enthusiasm, flexibility, positive attitude, and recognising the diversity of individual talents required to accomplish peak performance.
In other words, successful coaches know they must build a team before teamwork to achieve. As a coach, your job includes evaluating the different talents and skills of all your team members and then using each person’s unique strengths to the advantage of the entire team. At the same time, you are expected to motivate and inspire team members and help them stay on track toward achieving team goals.
Successful coaches have abilities to produce achievement in others. They keep the team focused while building members’ confidence, commitment, and trust in themselves and each other. By following enhanced coaching techniques, they can become a better leader and simultaneously assist their team members to reach peak performance.
Coaches are paid to achieve results. To accomplish that, they have at their disposal three resources: time, finances, and people. Since time and finances are limited resources, that only leaves people. Each one of the team members offers untapped experience, strengths, and talents. The key is learning how to tap into each resource and make the best use of each resource.
Let me explain each resource and its importance to the coach:
YOUR TIME
True leadership means getting things done through others. It’s your job to lead your team as a coach. You must depend on your team members to perform. If you try to do too much of the work yourself or if you think only you can do it right, then you’re cheating yourself and your team. Furthermore, the team’s results will suffer because you are spending precious time performing routine tasks that your team members should do.
YOUR FINANCES
Your pay is a direct result of how well your team members perform — not specifically what you do. Because your team members actually do the work, they are responsible for the team’s results and ultimately, your pay.
YOUR TEAM MEMBERS
Your people are the unlimited resource. It’s a fact that you need your team members more than they need you. Your job is to lead. Because your time is limited — you cannot conceivably do everything. You need everyone’s help to achieve the team’s goals. Have faith in your team to reach the goals you set.
Using all three resources effectively will lead you and your team to great results.
To create team building, a great coach encourages collaboration. They understand that members of a team working collaboratively with one another can achieve more than working independently. Working in a team building environment allows for effective communication, resolving conflict, direction, focus, setting unified goals, and structure. Coaches realise that in most cases, the use of teamwork leads to desirable performance improvements such as: peak productivity, effectiveness, and higher quality.
Here are (12) components of team building to transform into successful teamwork:
Listen to the other team members first, then decide how to respond — this builds trust & mutual respect. Recognise that everyone has an opinion about almost everything — this builds open communication. Acknowledge differences of opinion — this builds flexibility and support for one another. Use effective conflict resolution methods — this builds team confidence to overcome obstacles. Anticipate and adapt to changes — this builds initiative, desire, and a willingness to accept new challenges. Act and communicate in a positive manner — this builds a positive environment. When in doubt about anything, seek clarification — this builds complete understanding. Assumptions are risky; make them only when you have to — this builds commitment to high standards. Clarify where your responsibility stops and starts, and how it fits with that of other team members — this builds purpose and clear roles. Update team members who need to know what you know — this builds a sense of community. If you have an issue or point of disagreement with a team member, tell them, not others — this builds honesty, integrity, and trust. Use a strong sense of collective power — this builds synergistic harmony and enthusiasm.
THE BEST TEAMS ARE BUILT!
It is clear that true high performing teams are built on a foundation of valued components, including: communication, trust, encouragement, mutual respect, enthusiasm, flexibility, positive attitude, and recognising the diversity of individual talents required to accomplish peak performance.
Think of these same components as ingredients of a recipe. If one ingredient is missing or if you measure too much or too little of an ingredient, your results will not be successful. It is with the right combination of these ‘ingredients’ and the correct ‘measurements’ that are the keys to successful results in building teamwork.
If the coach takes the necessary time to get to know and understand all their team members — more importantly, learn what motivates them, they will be well on their way to personal and professional achievement and successfully coaching their team to great results.
About Gary R. Gasaway
Gary R. Gasaway is an author, keynote speaker, trainer, and a certified professional life coach
As a retired manager from Southern California Edison, Gary used his natural talent for coaching and became a “corporate coach.” He has previously published: The Coach’s Chronicles — A Journey Through Life’s Trials and Triumphs and The Coach’s Chronicles II — It’s Your Story! Start Writing it! Gary’s third book: The Coach’s Chronicles — Everything Matters will be released in the fall of 2017.
Gary has a Bachelor of Science degree in Organisational Management and a Master of Science in Leadership and Management. Gary is the founder and owner of Conflict Coaching Solutions
Read more here and don’t forget to subscribe to get free coaching reports to my coaching blog site: https://www.coaching-blog.com/successful-coaching-leads-to-great-results/
Please visit our site and subscribe to get a free edition of our coaching magazine: http://www.international-coaching-news.net/ | https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/successful-coaching-leads-to-great-results-3e6847d84ba7 | [] | 2019-02-06 14:16:18.340000+00:00 | ['Coaching', 'Results', 'Executive Coaching', 'Successful', 'Leadership'] |
Lesson 21: The Strategy Pattern | The pattern belongs to the behavioral category of the design patterns.
Idea
Define a family of algorithms, encapsulate each one, and make them interchangeable. Strategy lets the algorithm vary independently from clients that use it.
Explanation
Wikipedia says:
In computer programming, the strategy pattern (also known as the policy pattern) is a behavioral software design pattern that enables selecting an algorithm at runtime.
In plain words:
Using the strategy pattern, it lets the algorithm vary independently from clients that use it.
Class Diagram
The class diagram will be:
Example
The task:
Let’s consider to create an index service that should sort indices by a certain algorithm.
Let’s define a strategy specification:
public interface Strategy {
int[] sort(int[] indices);
}
We need to define an index service:
final class IndexService {
private Strategy strategy;
public IndexService(final Strategy strategy) {
this.strategy = strategy;
}
public void setStrategy(final Strategy strategy) {
this.strategy = strategy;
}
public int[] sort(int[] indices) {
return strategy.sort(indices);
}
}
Let’s create different strategies:
final class BubbleSort implements Strategy {
@Override
public int[] sort(int[] indices) {
int index;
for (var i = 0; i < indices.length; i++) {
for (var j = 0; j < indices.length - 1 - i; j++) {
if (indices[j] > indices[j + 1]) {
index = indices[j];
indices[j] = indices[j + 1];
indices[j + 1] = index;
}
}
}
return indices;
}
} final class InsertionSort implements Strategy {
@Override
public int[] sort(int[] indices) {
int j, index;
for (var i = 1; i < indices.length; i++) {
index = indices[i];
for (j = i; j > 0 && indices[j - 1] > index; j--) {
indices[j] = indices[j - 1];
}
indices[j] = index;
}
return indices;
}
}
And then it can be used as:
var i = 0;
final var service = new IndexService(new BubbleSort());
for (final var index : service.sort(new int[]{10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1})) {
assertEquals(++i, index);
}
// Additional code
var i = 0;
final var service = new IndexService(new InsertionSort());
for (final var index : service.sort(new int[]{10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1})) {
assertEquals(++i, index);
}
More Examples
Links | https://medium.com/it-lessons/lesson-21-the-strategy-pattern-16db58aa875f | ['Andrey Karazhev'] | 2020-12-03 06:52:01.745000+00:00 | ['Tutorial', 'Design Patterns', 'Strategy Pattern'] |
Green biotechnology | Green biotechnology
Green biotechnology related to plants of improving both the quality and quantity of plants. The main goal of green biotechnology is the production of an improved variety of plants, with the help of biotechnology-based techniques that should be environmentally friendly solutions.
The main aim of green biotechnology is to tackle food security issues and reduce the environmental footprint of the industry. Green biotechnology can improve the global food situation.
17 Most Important Applications Of Green Biotechnology :
1. Micropropagation
One of the most important applications of green biotechnology is the micropropagation of plant species. this technique has attained the status of a large plant-based industry. Micropropagation is the true type of propagation of selected genotypes using small pieces of tissues which can stay as an important technique for rapid production of many commercially important plants like fruit trees and medicinal plants.
2. Production of virus-free plants
Most of the crop plants especially those propagated by vegetative means are systematically infected with one or more pathogens which affect the yield, and quality, and vigor of the plant. Therefore eradication of these pathogens is highly desirable to optimize the yield, and also to facilitate the international exchange of the germplasm. Eradication of virus has been an outstanding contribution of tissue culture technology which involves culturing of meristem tips.
3. Production of Haploid Plants
Haploid plants are unique genetic materials since they permit the expression of recessive genes, and doubling of a desirable haploid can from homozygous diploid in a single generation. These fertile homozygous plants can be used for producing the inbred lines required for hybridization programs.
4. Protoplast culture and somatic hybridization
One of the most significant developments in the field of plant tissue culture has been the isolation, culture, and fusion of protoplasts. This technique has far-reaching implications in plant improvement by cell modification and somatic hybridization.
5. Embryo Rescue in sexual hybrids
The major application of embryo culture has been the rescuing of zygotic embryos formed as a result of interspecific and intergeneric crosses thereby raising rare hybrids. In many interspecific and intergeneric crosses, fertilization does occur normally and the embryo shows early development but embryos abort thereafter because of many factors. One of the important factors is the failure of the endosperm to develop properly which causes premature death of the hybrid embryos.
6. Production of synthetic and artificial seeds
Synthetic seeds offer a potential technology towards the use of somatic embryogenesis for large scale propagation of plants through automation. Somatic embryos are extremely suitable materials for large-scale propagation as a large number of somatic embryos of the same age can be produced in a bioreactor. An artificial seed is therefore analogous to true seeds in which a somatic embryo is encapsulated with a coating material, which protects the embryos against desiccation and mechanical injury.
7. Production of secondary metabolites
Production of diverse secondary metabolites like anthocyanins, alkaloids, carotenoids, tannins, flavones, steroidal, etc from plant cell and tissue culture is yet to achieve at industrial level status.
8. Production of transgenic plants for varietal improvement
With the use of biotechnology-based techniques, we can develop genetically modified crops. Transgenic plants are aimed at improving the productivity and efficiency of crop plants. This technique also improves the nutritional value of the storage of protein by protein engineering. Transgenic plants are possible to target crop plant improvement.
9. Biofertilizers
Biofertilizers are microorganisms based fertilizers that are eco-friendly by nature. Biofertilizers enhance the availability of nutrients like Nitrogen (N), and Phosphorus(P). They are low in cost and they do not pollute the environment. They promote plant growth and protect plants from soil pathogens.
10. Transgenesis
Transgenesis is a process that involves the insertion of required DNA into other organism’s DNA for introducing new genes into the original organisms. Transgenesis helps to create a new variety of plants with desired traits.
11.Biopesticide
Biopesticides are biological agents that are used to control weeds, insects, and pathogens. The use of biopesticides is helping to reduce the applications of chemicals for the control of the disease in plants.
12.Improve nutritional content
Under green biotechnology, techniques have been used to improve the nutritional value of crops. With help of these techniques, we can produce crops with a higher concentration of vitamins.
13. Mutagenesis
Mutagenesis is a process under which mutation occurs in the DNA. In agricultural biotechnology, the mutagenesis process helps to induce random mutation to create variety within crops with required traits.
14. Genetic engineering
Genetic manipulation carried out in plants for the production of transgenic plants is to improve the crops, with the desired traits. With the help of genetic engineering, we can introduce resistance to biotic stresses, resistance to abiotic stresses, improvement in crop yield, improved nutritional value, etc all are varieties can be introduced in required plants.
15.Genome Editing
Genome editing help to generate and modify the DNA directly within the cell. This type of technology helps to develop herbicide-resistant varieties in crops.
16. Chloroplast engineering
Chloroplast engineering is an important and exciting field in biotechnology. Due to this technique, a high level of transgene expression is possible in the plant cells. The multigene transfer can be conveniently carried out by this technique.
17. Germplasm conservation
Germplasm is the hereditary material that is transmitted to the offspring through germ cells. It helps breeders to develop various crops. So, conservation of germplasm assumes significance in all breeding programs. The main objective of germplasm conservation is to preserve plant or genetic stock for its use at any time in the future.
Conclusion
The above discussion proves that Green biotechnology is very important for the improvement of plant health. It is required to enhance both the quality and quantity factors related to plants. As a result, all of this ultimately beneficial to our natural health too. | https://medium.com/technology-hits/green-biotechnology-28076569448f | ['Kiranjeet Kaur'] | 2020-12-26 11:04:27.810000+00:00 | ['Green Biotechnology', 'Biotechnology', 'Agrobiotechnology', 'Advanced Biotechnology', 'Plant Tissue Culture'] |
What If You’re The Problem — Not Them? | 1. You Are Controlling
Photo by Felix Mittermeier on Unsplash
I’m someone that’s very picky about friendships. You should be picky with the company you keep. I just make it more complicated than it needs to be.
It means don’t approach me, let me approach you.
I’m like a turtle that snatches back in its shell when someone tries talking to me first. I can’t explain it. I found my friendships last longer if I was the one that executed the initial approach. I’ve also been able to sense someone’s energy and if our energy’s clash, it’s not going to last.
As a result, my circle of friends consist of very few people. And we’re still friends to this day. And they don’t know this is why I chose them which makes it fun. It also, unfortunately, makes me sound creepy and pathetic. I swear I’m not a creeper. Honest to God, I wasn’t always this way and life experiences made this sound more appealing. No friendship has failed this method. I’m being myself, approaching someone and with the fire of anxiety on high, I still pursue the friendship. I’m proud of myself every time.
It’s the romantic relationships I have been failing horribly.
I used to be the type of girl that would express my interest first in a guy. That is something I steer away from nowadays. Thinking about my days transitioning from teenager to new adult trying to seem mature and not care about gender roles in the dating realm is cringe. What I believed was okay came off desperate and in my honest opinion, annoying.
I’ve never been desperate for companionship ever, but when I became interested in someone it was a disaster. I would always find myself rejected, hurt, and confused by the result. This has also caused me to be cold as ice and completely dismiss a pass made at me in later situations. This is cruel, I’m aware of this because who you meet in the future is not responsible for who hurt you in the past. I had to learn the hard way that there is only so much I can control.
2. You Overthink
Photo by Anthony Tran on Unsplash
The next reason you could be sabotaging a lot of your relationships is because you overthink. Who doesn’t overthink a situation on occasion? Overthinking is something even the most confident person in the room can relate to. I’ve been juggling this quote in my head since I decided I would write this article:
Overthinking can ruin you. It confuses the situation, twists things around, forces you to worry, and often makes things far worse than it actually is — marcandangel
Overthinking comes from one of two things: Your intuition or your anxiety. It’s a 50–50 chance of you being right about your friends or romantic partners. Ive had many episodes where I felt my friends didn’t like me, were annoyed with me, or couldn’t wait for me to leave the room. I would imagine sometimes that they would talk so low about me, call me everything but a child of God. I know it’s ridiculous and I don’t bring it up because my friends are real to me twenty four seven. If they have something to say about me they’d say it to me. | https://medium.com/illumination/what-if-youre-the-problem-not-them-e91b1c0503f | ['Bambzi Ellis'] | 2020-12-10 09:54:51.552000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Accountability', 'Evolution', 'Relationships', 'Friendship'] |
How Hi-Tech English Schools Train Teachers | Online education is is becoming more and more popular with this market growing by up to 30% every year. In particular, online language learning is booming which means increased demand for English teachers willing to work remotely. Some language schools are ready to invest in their staff and understand the importance of hiring as many native English speakers as possible.
Skyeng is one of these EdTech companies. It’s the biggest online language school in Eastern Europe. Over the course of 8 years, it grew from a small startup founded by 4 students into a hi-tech educational platform. At the moment Skyeng, employs about 7,000 teachers from Eastern and Western Europe, USA and other countries. Most of them are professional teachers of English as a second language and are not native speakers.
Along with that, Skyeng hires about 10 native English speakers every month, and some of them continue to work for the company for many years. How does Skyeng train new hires and what does motivate them to stay, besides compensation?
How It All Starts
First thing first, each newly hired teacher has an onboarding session where they learn how to work with the Vimbox platform.
Vimbox is an in-house platform that hosts all individual classes. It’s more just a video chat, it’s an actual online classroom. It stores all lesson plans and educational materials and allows a teacher to make notes during the class, do video presentations, stream video clips, give tasks and grade them in real time.
Despite the abundance of features, the platform is really easy to use thanks to the user-friendly interface. Teachers have no problem learning how to use it. But getting familiar with the platform is just the first step in the training process.
Teaching online has its own peculiarities. And of course Skyeng helps its teachers to get used to them. New hires first attend a workshop where they learn basic methods of online teaching. Then they conduct a practice lesson with a teaching methods expert as a student. The expert gives the teacher feedback and tips, and after that the teacher is ready to work with actual students. Teaching methods experts supervise classes regularly (as all classes are recorded), see if teachers have any difficulties and help them.
How Skyeng Trains Highly Qualified Professionals
After getting familiar with Vimbox, teachers can upgrade their skills in an in-house educational center — SkyTeach. It regularly hosts courses on various aspects of teaching, like Digital Technologies in Online Education, Preparation for International Exams, Teaching English to Children, Productive Lessons Online, and English for Teenagers.
Teachers can study individually online through pre-recorded courses or join live workshops with teaching methods experts. Upon completing the course, teachers get a state-recognized certificate that they can use later during their career.
At Skyeng, teachers don’t have to face their problems alone as they become a part of an international teaching community and can turn to their colleagues for help at any time. But there’s even more than just communication — Skyeng regularly organizes workshops and master classes for the community. Besides, it’s a great opportunity to get to know colleagues from all around the world — Skyeng employs teachers from Russia, USA, Canada, Australia and many others.
What Teachers Say About Skyeng
Ephraim Domingo: “I have been working at Skyeng since 2014 with more than 3,600 lessons conducted since then. I’ve stayed this long because of convenience of the nature of job as well as the compensation I get, which is significantly better than what I used to receive from working at a university. Furthermore, it is actually difficult to leave because of my students. I’d never thought I would meet such amazing and interesting people like my old and current students here. They’ve become my friends and while they learn English from me, I learn a lot of valuable things and lessons from them in return. I got exposed more in different fields that my students are expert in from marketing to management, to human resources, to oil and gas industries, to information technology and programming, to aeronautics and a lot more. Sometimes I even get to ‘tour’ cities in Russia and Belarus while having a lesson with my students. Because of these, I consider my teaching vocation at Skyeng not only as a well-paying job but also as a learning experience”.
Nastasha Sale: “My journey with Skyeng started late 2011 with one student, no platform, no lesson plans and a very ambitious team of colleagues. At the time, the idea of online teaching was so foreign to me.
Well, look at us now almost 8 years later, I am close to 5000 conducted classes, an ever evolving platform, with an enormous team and the greatest support I could have ever imagined.
Online teaching has come a long way and our school has, in my opinion, set the bar very high. Covering every aspect of teaching with great attention to detail, our lesson plans and systems really are hard to beat. I feel the needs of the teachers are increasingly met too, with new incentives and more support the teachers are able to enjoy the perks of not having to spend too much time planning lessons and marking homework. Really giving you time to focus on the students needs and to make sure they are met”.
Sarah Grierson: “I’ve really enjoyed my last 2.5 years working for Skyeng. The wide variety of courses and topics keeps it interesting and the questions given in the lessons allow for some rather deep conversations about important social and business issues.
I find that it’s easier to assess and monitor the progress of my individual students in Skyeng in comparison to teaching in large classrooms with a lot of students to manage at the one time. Moreover, I often feel that I actually contribute more towards my students’ progress, as they receive 100% of my attention in class and I can immediately tailor my lessons and future topics to their individual needs. Overall, I think that teaching online can offer more flexibility at the time of teaching lessons, particularly having the internet and the Skyeng resources at my fingertips.
Finally, I love how I can manage my own schedule and go to yoga classes in the middle of the day!” | https://medium.com/skyeng-school-blog/how-hi-tech-english-schools-train-teachers-5e4206945f70 | [] | 2019-06-17 13:11:42.273000+00:00 | ['Online Learning', 'Edtech', 'Education', 'English Language', 'Online Jobs'] |
Bringing the best out of Jupyter Notebooks for Data Science | 3. Notebook Extensions
Extend the possibilities
Notebook extensions let you move beyond the general vanilla way of using the Jupyter Notebooks. Notebook extensions (or nbextensions) are JavaScript modules that you can load on most of the views in your Notebook’s frontend. These extensions modify the user experience and interface.
Installation with conda:
conda install -c conda-forge jupyter_nbextensions_configurator
Or with pip:
pip install jupyter_contrib_nbextensions && jupyter contrib nbextension install #incase you get permission errors on MacOS, pip install jupyter_contrib_nbextensions && jupyter contrib nbextension install --user
Start a Jupyter notebook now, and you should be able to see an NBextensions Tab with a lot of options. Click the ones you want and see the magic happen.
In case you couldn’t find the tab, a second small nbextension, can be located under the menu Edit .
Let us discuss some of the useful extensions.
1. Hinterland
Hinterland enables code autocompletion menu for every keypress in a code cell, instead of only calling it with the tab. This makes Jupyter notebook’s autocompletion behave like other popular IDEs such as PyCharm.
2. Snippets
This extension adds a drop-down menu to the Notebook toolbar that allows easy insertion of code snippet cells into the current notebook.
3. Split Cells Notebook
This extension splits the cells of the notebook and places then adjacent to each other.
4. Table of Contents
This extension enables to collect all running headers and display them in a floating window, as a sidebar or with a navigation menu. The extension is also draggable, resizable, collapsible and dockable.
5. Collapsible Headings
Collapsible Headings allows the notebook to have collapsible sections, separated by headings. So in case you have a lot of dirty code in your notebook, you can simply collapse it to avoid scrolling it again and again.
6. Autopep8
Autopep8 helps to reformat/prettify the contents of code cells with just a click. If you are tired of hitting the spacebar again and again to format the code, autopep8 is your savior. | https://towardsdatascience.com/bringing-the-best-out-of-jupyter-notebooks-for-data-science-f0871519ca29 | ['Parul Pandey'] | 2018-12-21 04:57:36.724000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Towards Data Science', 'Jupyter Notebook', 'Programming', 'Ipython'] |
The Commercialization of Christmas | The Commercialization of Christmas
I wrote this blog last year around the holidays but it feels just as relevant today and the only difference is we won’t be traveling this year at least not til February. We may also travel by car within 3-5 hours away and explore and find some adventures closer to home.
Several years ago I remember asking my children if they remembered what they had been given for Christmas the year before, to my surprise they could not even recall one thing. When I was little my parents had next to nothing. I remember I dreaded going back to school after holiday breaks- other kids had new clothes, coats, shoes, and toys, and I had to pretend I had gotten the items I had wished for from Santa, but the reality was that I didn’t. I was always understanding and accepted that my parents were young and struggling, that Santa wasn’t real, and I never felt too bothered by it. To this day I am a very humble person and money is not something that impresses me, while it is nice to have enough of it to support yourself and your family. I just remember as I had gotten older and had kids of my own that I had to work extra hard to make extra money to check things off of their Christmas list and in under 12 months time they had completely forgotten. I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel disappointed by that, as I remembered how rough the holidays had been for my family growing up. The holidays at the salon are extra busy and stressful as well as adding Christmas shopping, sports, band concerts and wrapping presents. While most people enjoyed the holidays- I have always felt overwhelmed by the demands. That’s when I began to wonder- if it was all worth it? As my children kept piling things on their Christmas list, I began to feel no matter what I would get them it would never be enough. We live in a society that bases their value on superficialities such as how much money someone has, what brand they are wearing, what their education level is, and how attractive they are, where they live, and their ethnicity. The real truth is that happiness is internal and can not be ever achieved more than temporarily from external things. This led me to my evaluation and conclusion that Christmas had become something entirely different than it was meant to be. I decided from that point forward my family and I would take vacations for Christmas instead of buying a bunch of stuff we really didn’t need. Now when I ask my boys about Christmas they remember the memories we made and the new places we explored. I’m not saying I cut out all gift giving and Christmas traditions but I did make huge changes. Our vacations are still on a small budget but I knew how much I had been spending on gifts for Christmas each year and it was more than enough for a getaway. We still do a lot of baking leading up to Christmas, put up and decorate a tree and buy thoughtful gifts as well as make homemade gifts! I also like to get my boys pajamas, socks, gloves, a few other small things that I made or that really stood out to me and I always give them each $50.00 cash to spend on vacation. I can honestly say I have no regrets and we are in year 5. I encourage everyone to remember the holidays are about spending time with those you love and making memories- everything else is just a bonus. I try to help those in need always, but especially during the holidays and I encourage others to do the same. I also give the gift of my time, services, community support and inspire creative people and creative projects. I am thankful to have made changes to what society thinks is appropriate for Christmas and I honestly could not be happier. I wish you all a Happy Holiday Season! Thanks for checking out my blog!
Written By: Angel Vaughan | https://medium.com/@modernmoongirl/the-commercialization-of-christmas-6e3d58f0a57a | ['Angel Vaughan'] | 2020-12-18 03:46:58.623000+00:00 | ['Kindness', 'Christmas', 'Commercialization', 'Holidays', 'Family'] |
Guide — APIS Masternode Earlybird phase 9 | Please note!
1. Before Earlybird starts, deposit/withdrawal and other Masternodes join will be temporarily suspended.
Due to platform stability issues, deposit/withdrawal and other Masternodes join will be temporarily suspended.
- APIS platform deposit/withdrawal and other Masternodes join suspension
Dec 18th 11:00 — Dec 19th 15:00 (UTC+8)
* Deposit/withdrawal and other Masternodes join/cancelation can be normalized sooner or later than expected and there will be a further announcement in such case.
2. Users can join Earlybird phase 9 with the APIS they allocated on Earlybird phase 8.
The amount you allocated on Earlybird phase 8 will be lifted before the phase 9 starts on Dec 18th and you can review the allocation.
You can find your cancelation record on [My asset — History — joined products] and the reward for the last period will be distributed normally on the due date.
* Other Masternodes cancelation will be unavailable from Dec 18th 11:00 to Dec 19th 15:00 (UTC+8). So we recommend you to cancel before phase 9 starts if you’d like to join with the amount allocated to other Masternodes.
3. You can’t cancel APIS Masternode for 24 hours after Earlybird starts. | https://medium.com/apisplatform/guide-apis-masternode-earlybird-phase-9-70f239beedcb | ['Sophie Ha'] | 2020-12-17 06:13:03.709000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Eng', 'Blockchain', 'Notice', 'Finance'] |
How to Massively Upgrade Your Organizing Skills With Miro | Objects
Elements you place on your board are referred to as objects. Miro comes with a variety of objects. Let’s have an in-depth look at them.
Text
One of the simplest objects in Miro is text. To create a text object, click the T on the side menu or hit t on your keyboard.
Create Text, screenshot by author
There are many ways to change the text object. Click the object and edit it from the menu that appears above it.
Font
Size
Bold, Italic, Underline
Alignment
Lists
Links
Text Color
Background Color
Outline
Opacity
Different text formatting options, graphics by author
Sticky notes
If you have seen Miro before, you have most likely seen pictures of the post-its, sorry… sticky notes, on the boards. It is iconic and widely used.
To create a sticky note, click the icon on the left menu or hit n on your keyboard.
Create a Sticky Note, screenshot by author
Sticky notes also have some options.
Text size
Text type
Alignment
Preset Size
Tags
Emojis
Link
Sticky notes in action, screen capture by the author
The sticky notes tool has a bulk option which allows you to add multiple notes in one go.
When you click the sticky notes icon on the left menu, select bulk mode at the bottom. This is a brilliant way to add several sticky notes if you know what you need beforehand.
when you click the sticky notes icon, you can quickly select a color or use bulk mode, screenshot by author
Adding objects is very easy, screenshot by author
Sticky notes added to the board from the input during bulk mode setup, screenshot by author
Shapes
Shapes is one of my favorite functions. You can add a variety of shapes to build your node trees or if you simply need a shape to assist your board in any way.
To create a shape, click the square icon in the left menu or hit s on your keyboard. (If you replace the square shape, the currently selected shape will replace the shape icon in the menu)
Create shapes, screenshot by author
When you click the shape icon, you are shown a preset thumbnail list. Pick one from the overview or click all shapes to see all available shapes.
find the shape you want to use, screenshot by author
When you find a shape you like, select it, and click-drag on your board to place it.
shape added to the board
Connection Line
A beautiful thing about Miro is that you can link almost any object to another. The connection line menu lets you create a few different arrows you can use to connect objects.
To create a connection line click the arrow icon on the left menu (remember that this changes based on your last selection) or hit l on your keyboard.
You can link objects by dragging a line directly from one object to the other so this tool is not something I use frequently.
To link two objects at any time, simply select the first and grab one of the blue dots. When you click-drag this dot, you can drag a line between one object to the other. Drag it to the object you want to connect it to.
When you select an object you can see the blue connection dots, graphics by author
Student connected with its constructor, graphics by author
There are many places you can connect the lines, you don’t even have to hit another blue dot, graphics by author
Pen
You can use the pen tool to draw on the whiteboard. This works best with an actual pen, like Wacom or the Apple Pencil, but you can use your mouse as well.
To use the pen tool, select the pen icon from the left menu or hit p on your keyboard.
There are several options for the pen tool.
Pen
Marker
Smart Drawing
Eraser
Lasso Select
Type and Color
Here is a gif showing you how the pen tools work.
Gif showing how the pen tools work, recording by the author
Comments
The little speech bubble on the left menu is the comment tool. Click it or hit c to use the tool. Click anywhere to drop a comment on your board.
Write your comment and hit enter. Your comment is now created and others can reply to it. Tag team members using the @ symbol.
the comment dialog box, screenshot by author
When you are done discussing a note, you can mark it as resolved by sliding the resolve slider to the right.
Upload
Miro has an upload function where you can add material from several sources. Normally, I drag-drop from my computer, but you can link Miro to cloud services if you like and browse material you have stored online. | https://medium.com/swlh/how-to-massively-upgrade-your-organizing-skills-with-miro-7e2e72507c00 | ['Martin Andersson Aaberge'] | 2020-12-07 22:49:52.690000+00:00 | ['Learning', 'Software', 'Tutorial', 'Miro', 'Organizing'] |
Ghost Forests: There’s Nothing Scarier Than Climate Change | What are ghost forests?
A ghost forest can be succinctly defined as the watery remains of what was once a thriving forest. Typical features include protruding dead trees, flooded areas and a general lack of greenery.
A striking indicator
Much like a melting glacier, ghost forests are a real and visual representation of the effects of climate change. Whereas dwindling glaciers represent the melting of our ice caps, ghosts forests represent the places where verdant forests used to flourish. Unlike the glaciers, however, some communities have a front seat view to rising sea levels.
Much like a melting glacier, ghost forests are a real and visual representation of the effects of climate change.
The problem is urgent; today, ghost forests are forming at a faster rate than ever before. Forest retreat rates are approximately three times larger than prior to the Industrial Revolution. This is a significant marker as it is often thought of as the period when human-caused climate change really took off, leading to our current climate crisis.
How are they formed?
There are four contributors to the creation of ghost forests.
1. Sea level changes
Sea level rises often cause coastal regions to become flooded. As this happens, seawater takes over the freshwater trees need to live. The seawater poisons living trees, thus creating the ghostly remains of a forest.
2. Tectonic activity
Sometimes, as tectonic plates attempt to slide past one another they become stuck and locked in place for centuries while tension builds. This tension then forms into a vertical uplift of mountains on the coast, a phenomenon termed an ‘orogenic uplift’. Hundreds of years later, the tension is released. As this happens, the coastline drops down to below sea level making it susceptible to tides. Areas of the coastline can be inundated with sea water, creating ghost forests.
3. Tsunamis
Similarly, tsunamis resulting from large earthquakes can cause the coastline to be inundated. Tsunamis also push seawater inland, leading to large scale forest die-off.
4. Climate change
Climate change facilitates ghost forests through the three aforementioned channels and more.
Firstly, climate change worsens the problem of rising sea levels. Currently, data shows water is rising by up to 5mm every year in some locations. For reference, the global average is 3.1mm.
Likewise, climate change increases the frequency of natural disasters and aggressive, powerful storms. These contribute to the issue by pushing seawater inland, thus killing the trees.
Lastly, global warming is resulting in increasing activity from damaging species. Most prominently, scientists have seen spikes in mountain pine beetles, or Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins. These problematic critters spend most of their lives as larvae feeding on and attacking the inner bark of pine trees. Eventually, the trees die. As such, climate change and subsequently mountain pine beetle increases can mean the demise for Whitebark and other pines.
USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Region, State and Private Forestry, Forest Health Protection. Photo by J.M. Miller, 6 August 1924. Via archive.org.
It is worth noting that when forests die out, marsh takes over. This is not necessarily a bad thing. After all, marshland is associated with many environmental benefits including acting as a carbon sink by sequestering and storing more carbon than the trees they replace. Unfortunately, marshland, like forests, can also be submerged. This is problematic as it results in a net loss of land and more carbon in the atmosphere.
Nevertheless, the most pressing problem isn’t the transition from forest into marsh — it’s how ghost forests and rising sea levels affect coastal communities. | https://medium.com/pollen/ghost-forests-theres-nothing-scarier-than-climate-change-8b087b2ea6b3 | [] | 2020-11-26 00:25:13.200000+00:00 | ['Nature', 'Climate Change', 'Activism', 'Environment', 'Environmental Issues'] |
Review: DeepLabv1 & DeepLabv2 — Atrous Convolution (Semantic Segmentation) | 1. Atrous Convolution
The term “Atrous” indeed comes from French “à trous” meaning hole. Thus, it is also called “algorithme à trous” and “hole algorithm”. Some of the papers also call this “dilated convolution”. It is commonly used in wavelet transform and right now it is applied in convolutions for deep learning.
Below is the equation of atrous convolution:
1D Atrous Convolution (r>1: atrous convolution, r=1: standard convolution)
When r=1, it is the standard convolution we usually use.
When r>1, it is the atrous convolution which is the stride to sample the input sample during convolution.
The below figure illustrate the idea:
Standard Convolution (Top) Atrous Convolution (Bottom)
The idea of atrous convolution is simple. At the top of the figure above, it is the standard convolution.
At the bottom of the figure, it is the atrous convolution. We can see that when rate = 2, the input signal is sampled alternatively. First, pad=2 means we pad 2 zeros at both left and right sides. Then, with rate=2, we sample the input signal every 2 inputs for convolution. Thus, at the output, we will have 5 outputs which makes the output feature map larger.
If we remember FCN, a series of convolution and pooling makes the output feature map very small, and need 32× upsampling which is an aggressive upsampling.
Also, atrous convolution allows us to enlarge the field of view of filters to incorporate larger context. It thus offers an efficient mechanism to control the field-of-view and finds the best trade-off between accurate localization (small field-of-view) and context assimilation (large field-of-view).
In DeepLab, using VGG-16 or ResNet-101, the stride of last pooling (pool5) or convolution conv5_1 is set to 1 respectively to avoid signal from decimated too much. And atrous convolution is used to replace all subsequent convolutional layers using rate = 2. The output is much larger. We only need to have 8× upsampling to upsample the output. And bilinear interpolation has quite good performance for 8× upsampling. | https://towardsdatascience.com/review-deeplabv1-deeplabv2-atrous-convolution-semantic-segmentation-b51c5fbde92d | ['Sik-Ho Tsang'] | 2019-03-20 15:57:31.370000+00:00 | ['Deep Learning', 'Convolutional Network', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Machine Learning', 'Data Science'] |
Rise of the Reducer. In recent years there’s been a strong… | In recent years I’ve observed a strong trend towards using reducers in software architectures. While this is not a new pattern, its recent prominence in React / Redux and other platforms offer benefits to software quality worth discussing.
In this article I’ll go over the role of reducer functions in state management and talk about some of the main benefits it offers. Finally, I’ll close by discussing some tradeoffs I’ve seen in Reducer-centric architectures.
I’m going to leave discussion of Model View Update (MVU) to a future article in order to keep this article narrowly constrained to the idea of using reducer functions for state management.
Reducers 101
Let’s look at an example reducer from an Angular NgRx application:
And another from an F# Elmish.WPF application:
Both of these examples illustrate various flavors of reducers, but both take in a starting state and an action and return a single new version of that state.
At it’s core, this is what a reducer does.
In this article, we’ll explore what’s so powerful about this and the problems this helps solve.
Meeting Reducers for the First Time
A few years ago I was doing some very heavy single page application (SPA) development in Angular. I built an Angular Single Page Application. And then another. And another.
I loved the framework (and still do), but pretty soon I began to notice difficult to manage complexity when working with multiple asynchronous operations at once.
This is a point that many in the Angular community have gotten before where rare state management bugs emerge and the order of operations and network latency can introduce a large degree of complexity.
The Angular community rose to the challenge with some reducer-based state management libraries like NgRx. This library was based off of the popular Redux state management library commonly associated with React.
Note that Redux is commonly associated with React because both are managed by Facebook, but Redux isn’t actually part of React. Put simply, Redux is a powerful reducer-based state management library for JavaScript applications. It’s commonly seen integrated in React via the React-Redux library, but there’s nothing intrinsically React-specific about Redux itself.
Based on what I now know about reducers, the shift in the Angular community to use reducer-based state management systems once state management hits a certain complexity threshold is the right one.
Power to the Reducer
Let’s take a look at why reducers are so good for software quality.
Pure State Transformations
Instead of relying on repository classes that hold ever-changing state values, reducers are pure functions that take in an action and a previous state and output a new state based on those inputs.
The term pure function means that the function can be called forever with the same inputs and always return the same output without having side effects on anything else.
This concept is extremely important to understanding the quality benefits of a reducer function.
Because a reducer is all about repeatable state transformations given specific inputs, it is incredibly easy to test.
Centralized State Management
An interesting aspect of reducers is that it puts all application state in one centralized place.
This makes it easier to look at the entire state of the application, but more importantly, it moves any manipulation of the application state into a central place. This removes the doubt as to what parts of your application are modifying your state.
This improvement is very important because a surprising number of bugs arise from inconsistent behavior in state management.
Debugging Capabilities
On top of that, if a bug arises, all you need to know is the inputs to the reducer function in order to be able to recreate and resolve the issue.
By logging state before and after reducer functions, debugging is exponentially quicker in scenarios where you are uncertain which operation resulted in arriving in an invalid state.
Note here that I’m not advocating for a specific reducer-based library or technology, but more the pattern in general.
Reducer Drawbacks
If you’ve been around in the technology world for awhile, you know that any decision has pros and cons associated with it. I can’t advocate for reducers without discussing common pitfalls and drawbacks associated with them.
Let’s take a look at those potential drawbacks now:
Learning Curve — Reducers are a little different and have a mild learning curve associated with them — particularly when starting a new project without patterns in place to emulate.
— Reducers are a little different and have a mild learning curve associated with them — particularly when starting a new project without patterns in place to emulate. Boiler Plate Code — Many reducer-based frameworks I’ve looked at have at least a little bit of what I would call boiler plate code. This is code that has little reason for existence other than the framework requires it. It’s hard to get into this without looking at a specific implementation, so just know that you may need to write some repetitive code to integrate reducers into an existing framework.
— Many reducer-based frameworks I’ve looked at have at least a little bit of what I would call boiler plate code. This is code that has little reason for existence other than the framework requires it. It’s hard to get into this without looking at a specific implementation, so just know that you may need to write some repetitive code to integrate reducers into an existing framework. Complexity — Given the complexity and overhead of reducers, they don’t necessarily make sense for small applications or applications that don’t rely much on state manipulation. Just like you don’t need a moving truck to go to the grocery store, reducers don’t always make sense in small applications.
— Given the complexity and overhead of reducers, they don’t necessarily make sense for small applications or applications that don’t rely much on state manipulation. Just like you don’t need a moving truck to go to the grocery store, reducers don’t always make sense in small applications. Large Reducers — If your reducer grows to a point where it has a lot of potential state operations, it can become a fairly large method. There are answers to this like extracting methods out for complex transformations (which I recommend).
— If your reducer grows to a point where it has a lot of potential state operations, it can become a fairly large method. There are answers to this like extracting methods out for complex transformations (which I recommend). Additionally, depending on the flavor of reducer framework you’re using, you can have multiple reducers or nested reducers. This makes things a bit more complex, but also keeps methods small and manageable.
Closing Thoughts
Overall, I am pleased with the shift towards reducers in recent years. Their construction and design makes it hard for bugs to hide.
The main drawbacks I’m seeing are around the initial mild learning curve, a rise in boiler-plate code associated with reducer-based frameworks, and added complexity.
We continue to innovate as a programming community — particularly around JavaScript frameworks. I have a high degree of confidence that over the next 5 years we will see frameworks innovate solutions around more of these common problems, reducing the drawbacks of reducers even further.
Stay tuned as I talk about the reducer’s role in Model View Update (MVU) frameworks in future articles.
If you’d like to play more with reducers in the meantime, a good starting point for JavaScript developers would be checking out Redux. | https://medium.com/javascript-in-plain-english/rise-of-the-reducer-pattern-cb38e9f32ce8 | ['Matt Eland'] | 2019-12-28 19:37:09.802000+00:00 | ['JavaScript', 'Functional Programming', 'Software Architecture', 'Programming', 'Redux'] |
Key Rotation in Google Cloud | By The Cloud Foundations Team at King
King’s journey to Google Cloud (GCP) began last year with the aim of taking advantage of the advanced tools and management services it offers. The migration of our infrastructure to GCP has enabled a huge increase in scaling ability as well as improvements in the development cycle for our products.
Securing our platform has been a top priority since we decided to move to Google Cloud. In this post, we will explain our thoughts on some of the proposed solutions for credentials rotation, describe our requirements and introduce the solution that was implemented.
“Our infrastructure needs to support hundreds of thousands of concurrent connections per second, as well as our data warehouse, and we saw that Google has the capacity to handle our needs. At the same time, we were very excited by its focus on machine learning and artificial intelligence.” - Jacques Erasmus, CIO, King.
What are Service Accounts
Service accounts are unique identities that are used to facilitate programmatic access to GCP APIs. Each service account can have one or more keys which are used to authenticate with Google Cloud. Security best practices recommend keys to be periodically rotated which involves generating a new version of a key, distributing it amongst users and removing the old version of a key. This is done to limit the risk of service account keys being used by a malicious third-party user in the event of keys being leaked. As GCP APIs are publicly accessible, key rotation limits the impact of leaked keys being used by malicious third parties.
For our particular needs at King, the focal point was securing access to the Google Cloud API endpoints using service account keys. Even though key rotation is a simple concept, implementing it to ensure flexibility and user convenience while guaranteeing the security of the system was not a straightforward task. Solutions to overcoming the initial implementation issues are company specific. Our solution to this set of issues involved implementing a custom key rotation setup and distribution mechanism that provided our organisation the required functionality.
Vault & its Secrets Engines
The Vault is an open-source implementation of a store for such things as tokens, passwords, certificates, and API keys. Vault offers a wide range of secrets engines which store, generate, and/or encrypt data. This includes stores that simply save and retrieve data from storage and dynamic stores that interface with different cloud providers’ API endpoints. The Google Cloud Vault secrets engine can be used for the provision of Google Cloud service account keys along with OAuth tokens based on vault policies. This allows users access to Google Cloud resources without needing to create or manage a dedicated service account.
“Secure, store and tightly control access to tokens, passwords, certificates, encryption keys for protecting secrets and other sensitive data using a UI, CLI, or HTTP API.” - HashiCorp
Vault was chosen as a service account storage for its security, provisioning of client authentication and architecture. This allows highly available deployment in multiple geographically isolated locations eliminating single points of failure.
Using Google Cloud services specifically, a solution based on Vault and custom key rotation services provides our users with an ability to individually manage service account properties while enforcing maximum lifetime of their keys and providing a consistent way of retrieving up-to-date keys.
Key Rotation: The Google Cloud Way
Key rotation is one of the basic rules of good security practices and Google provides some further ideas on key rotation as their documentation mentions the following method:
“A security best practice is to rotate your service account keys regularly. You can rotate a key by creating a new key, switching applications to use the new key and then deleting old key. Use the serviceAccount.keys.create() method and serviceAccount.keys.delete() method together to automate the rotation.” - Google Cloud.
While feasible, this method didn’t seem ideal to us, as key rotation could not be centrally enforced (client application is responsible for rotating its own keys) and/or due to possible privilege escalation risk.
Therefore a service account performing key rotation currently cannot be prevented from rotating another service account’s keys.
In other words, a service account performing rotation could assume the identity of another service account with different permissions in the project — creating a new key for a different service account.
Key Rotation: The Vault Way
Vault, in conjunction with its storage engines, supports dynamic secret provisioning whereby credentials are created and passed over to the requesting party. The Vault server in this scenario authenticates against GCP and makes API requests to the serviceAccount and serviceAccountKey API endpoints.
Key provisioning with Vault dynamic secrets
In the case of using the Google Cloud engine, there are some important considerations to note: Vault will by default only create up to 10 keys for each newly created service account (a Google Cloud restriction). Furthermore, Vault policy mapping which defines service account roles needs to be specified. Mapping is ideally done dynamically by referencing the organisation’s own IAM database. This can be an issue when: no mapping source is present, complex cross-project service account permissions are required or a different set of permissions in Google Cloud and in the corporate IAM database are required.
Key rotation at King
System Overview
The key rotation service consists of enrolment and operational phases. Projects that wish to use the key rotation service can enrol by setting a GCP project label. A project is enrolled into the rotation service when the Vault access token with the corresponding Vault policy is generated and sent to the project owner. In the operational phase, the owner of the project can then use the Vault token to retrieve the GCP service account key generated daily.
Key Rotation Enrolment Process
In our case, with Vault serving as a store of Google Cloud service account keys, we were faced with a challenge of authorising user access to those credentials. Before a client can retrieve a secret value from Vault, it needs to authenticate with it. In our case, a dedicated project owner role is assigned based on the project’s IAM roles. This responsible user is provided with Vault authentication tokens then used to access the most recent up-to-date key for the project.
SVC retrieval flow at King
The way this was eventually implemented for the key rotation service was to compile a list of all projects in the organization that needed to be enrolled (enrolment into the key rotation service is indicated by setting a custom project label) with the corresponding project owner. After information about the project and its owner have been collected, a new Vault access token and corresponding Vault policy are created and provided to the project owner. From that moment on, the project owner owns an initial set of credentials allowing him/her to access the path in Vault containing the project’s service account keys.
Key Rotation Operational Process
After project enrolment into the key rotation service, a user can retrieve service account keys by authenticating with Vault and reading the project’s path in Vault. The key rotation service in this mode is responsible for creating new service account keys and storing them in Vault for a client’s consumption. In line with our corporate policy, a list of service accounts with service account keys older than 24 hours is compiled, and for those new keys are created and stored in Vault. During this phase, a scan of all enrolled projects is performed, removing any keys older than 24 hours.
Cleaner Service
The Cleaner service is responsible for maintaining the consistency of secrets data stored in Vault and the state of Google Cloud IAM. Cases when cleanup might be required include a project being deleted (the Vault user token path is removed), a project being unenrolled from the key rotation service (the project label is removed), a service account, or all keys for a service account, being removed (the service account key and Vault path are removed).
Combining all above-described elements of the key rotation process allows us to: centrally manage and enforce GCP service account key TTL and provide users with a convenient way of retrieving up-to-date service account keys.
Final Thoughts
As already mentioned, while key rotation is a simple concept, its practical implementation can be complex and require custom logic. Various ways of rotating GCP service account keys exist and implementation should consider aspects like user experience and flexibility, the ability to centrally manage and enforce key rotation/expiration, and the cost of maintaining the chosen solution. Each individual solution to the key rotation process will come with its own set of pros and cons, and as always, the best solution for an organization will depend on its requirements.
Going beyond service account keys, when designing a secure platform on Google Cloud, it’s worth mentioning other ways of achieving high levels of security while maintaining user convenience. If an application using a service account is hosted on GCP, an option of assigning a service account to resources (Compute Engine, GKE, etc) exists, avoiding the issue of having to manage service account keys completely. This is an appealing option, as no rotation or other maintenance of the service account keys is required.
Looking Ahead
Last but not least, Google Cloud regularly introduces new and exciting improvements for existing services, this is something worth keeping an eye on for improving your organisation’s security posture. Here at King, we always try to encourage Google Cloud on ways to make its portfolio better by giving regular feedback on their services.
Related to contents of this article and security in general, we would like to see more granular permissions management being implemented across more services, particularly in the case of service account keys creation and deletion, where a service account having granted iam.serviceAccountKeys.create and iam.serviceAccountKeys.delete permissions, can delete and create a service account key for other potentially higher privileged roles in a project.
We are continually developing and expanding our tech infrastructure thanks to GCP as well as reaching new flexibility in scaling and development cycles in a secured environment.
Read some of our previous posts on our GCP journey: Talking big data at Google Cloud Next ’18 London & Benchmarking Google BigQuery at Scale. | https://medium.com/techking/key-rotation-in-google-cloud-3ee8ff0a7828 | ['Tech At King'] | 2019-02-26 11:40:12.170000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Data', 'Cloud Computing', 'Cloud', 'Tech'] |
A Relook at the TerraLoader Dropper DLL | The malware author responsible for the TerraLoader, who is believed to be BadBullzVenom[4] after a disagreement between the actor and customer took place on an underground forum market place, appears to have been happily updating their delivery system again referred to as TerraLoader. An excellent report was posted online by Twitter user @Arkbird_SOLG [1,5] using a sample discovered by @malz_intel. The report was well done so this is mostly an addendum of my reverse engineering notes after analyzing the aforementioned sample in the report[2] where I primarily focus on the DLL that will build and deliver the javascript backdoor commonly referred to as ‘more_eggs’.
Initial Overview
This is just a quick overview getting to the DLL portion, as aforementioned it is already covered in previous research[1].
Scriptlet:
MD5: f93fdcf5856feb254a26547dc8c2b671
SHA1: 1c038a86b337cf72663da5b6780d34ba0fb1c0c9
SHA256: 000a5e63109b3c653d63d84d03fe474242b987bfadda9aeaa200653fd2155a31
Scriptlet decodes out a DOC file and a DLL, the doc file appears to be a distraction from the loading of the DLL.
Doc: 11e54f594949a4c7f13e85b4ac2cbd555200ac34e6d61b58a71fbcfccc0497cd
DLL: fb55b26b8edee2431b35d0e28df5f223510a15344ede400a2f5c04a0d45e6b77
String Encoding Updates
The string encoding is a bit different now, the dropper DLL portion has always utilized a simple XOR based routine for bruting out its own string encoding key while also leveraging various secondary routines to use the key once found(XOR, AES, RC4). The author has moved to using RC4 for bruting out the string encoding key which makes the entire process take longer now but has the added benefit of acting as a sleep routine as well.
The sample takes three pieces of data, data that is encrypted, a starting RC4 key string and the data that will be decrypted to check that the correct key has been found.
Encrypted data:
b8e0ce81bcd3023bf5e2b37d3e1c801d99bd3f7f408c87b7923673d7840797a024f78d62552de17aba3d10c4
Starting RC4 key:
SouXRE
Decrypted data:
b92fe2de81d94d05b0431c545221cfbc23ad2f47a9279a20498948b9d4b3ffdf4b22669a1eace7a3b14862d2
The bruting routine works by simple using an iterator starting at 0 and converting the integer value into a string, appending it to the starting key, decrypting the encrypted data and checking that the output matches the decrypted data. If it doesn’t match the iterator is incremented and the process starts over again until the match is found.
If you understand how encryption algorithms work then you can see a flaw in this from a static reverse engineering perspective we can actually recover enough of the keystream data to decode out most of the strings on board without needing to brute force the key.
encoded_data ^ decoded_data = partial RC4 XOR Keystream
Using this knowledge we can recover part of the RC4 XOR keystream:
01cf2c5f3d0a4f3e45a1af296c3d4fa1ba101038e9ab1d97dbbf3b6e50b4687f6fd5ebf84b8106d90b757216
Using that data we can decode out most of the strings from the sample which all line up with previously listed strings, the malware is basically designed to build out the more_eggs backdoor for dropping to disk and detonating.
Partial strings for reference:
%APPDATA%
/B /e:jsCript
msxsl.exe
CED1712A510453BEE1F83F8AE7
a2service.exe
schtasks.exe
/Create /TN
UserInitMprLogonScript
PROCESSOR_IDENTIFIER
.ComputerName +
COMPUTERNAME
FLAREVM
USERNAME
Notepad
Data Encoding Updates
As mentioned by the earlier referenced blog post author this new backdoor is actually dropped by being encoded with the addition of computer based information added to the key, this makes it more difficult to recover the backdoor unless you know the computer name and processor information of the system it was dropped on.
We can see evidence of this in the partial strings above showing the ‘PROCESSOR_IDENTIFIER’ and ‘COMPUTERNAME’ along with ‘.ComputerName +’ which will be used by parts of the wrapper on the backdoor to decode out the backdoor. If the Dropper DLL is responsible for this piece then the backdoor must exist somewhere in the DLL:
In the screenshot above we can see a large block of data has the size calculated, memory allocated, copied into the new memory and then the string ‘CED1712A510453BEE1F83F8AE7’ is decrypted. Right after this a call to the RC4 routine takes place:
After calling RC4, labeled ‘RC4_maybe’ because this picture was taken while I was still mapping out the sample, a call to an onboard DEFLATE routine takes place. Let’s check what is decoded:
>>> key = 'CED1712A510453BEE1F83F8AE7'
>>> from Crypto.Cipher import ARC4
>>> rc4 = ARC4.new(key)
>>> t = rc4.decrypt(data)
>>> import zlib
>>> t[:50]
'\xed}kw#7\xae\xe0g\xe7\x9c\xfc\x87\x8a\xee\x9d\xb44\xed\x96\xeb\xa1g\x94\xce\xac^N\xf7\xa6\x1f\xbe\xb6;\x99\x99v\x8fW\x96\xcav\xa5\xa5*\xa5T\xb6\xe5v'
>>> t2 = zlib.decompress(t,-15)
>>> t2[:100]
'var BV = "6.6b";\r
var Gate = "https://d27qdop2sa027t.cloudfront.net/spmar/d9264";\r
var hit_each = 10'
Later in the sample we can also recover the decoding of MSXSL EXE file as well:
>>> key = 'CED1712A510453BEE1F83F8AE7'
>>> from Crypto.Cipher import ARC4
>>> rc4 = ARC4.new(key)
>>> t = rc4.decrypt(data1)
>>> import zlib
>>> t2 = zlib.decompress(t,-15)
>>> t2[:100]
'MZ\x90\x00\x03\x00\x00\x00\x04\x00\x00\x00\xff\xff\x00\x00\xb8\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00@\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\xd8\x00\x00\x00\x0e\x1f\xba\x0e\x00\xb4\t\xcd!\xb8\x01L\xcd!This program cannot be'
Also a part of the XML for task scheduling:
<Task version="1.2" xmlns="
<RegistrationInfo>
<Author>SYSTEM</Author>
</RegistrationInfo>
<Triggers>
<BootTrigger>
<Enabled>true</Enabled>
</BootTrigger>
</Triggers>
<Principals>
<Principal id="Author">
<UserId>S-1-5-18</UserId>
<RunLevel>HighestAvailable</RunLevel>
</Principal>
</Principals>
<Settings>
<MultipleInstancesPolicy>IgnoreNew</MultipleInstancesPolicy>
<DisallowStartIfOnBatteries>false</DisallowStartIfOnBatteries>
<StopIfGoingOnBatteries>false</StopIfGoingOnBatteries>
<AllowHardTerminate>true</AllowHardTerminate>
<StartWhenAvailable>true</StartWhenAvailable>
<RunOnlyIfNetworkAvailable>false</RunOnlyIfNetworkAvailable>
<IdleSettings>
<StopOnIdleEnd>false</StopOnIdleEnd>
<RestartOnIdle>false</RestartOnIdle>
</IdleSettings>
<AllowStartOnDemand>true</AllowStartOnDemand>
<Enabled>true</Enabled>
<Hidden>false</Hidden>
<RunOnlyIfIdle>false</RunOnlyIfIdle>
<WakeToRun>true</WakeToRun>
<ExecutionTimeLimit>PT0S</ExecutionTimeLimit>
<Priority>7</Priority>
</Settings>
<Actions Context="Author">
<Exec>
<Command>cscripT</Command>
<Arguments> http://schemas.microsoft.com/windows/2004/02/mit/task "> SYSTEM true S-1-5-18 HighestAvailable IgnoreNew false false true true false false false true true false false true PT0S 7 cscripT
One of the strings also stands out as I don’t remember seeing it in these samples before ‘FLAREVM’. FlareVM is a malware analysis creation system that FireEye released which allows for the quick creation of a virtual machine for malware analysis[3] and the dropper appears to be checking if the computer name is FLAREVM:
I haven’t verified if the sample will fail to infect as I am still in the process of statically mapping out the updated sample but this check function does happen before the backdoor is decoded:
References | https://medium.com/walmartglobaltech/a-re-look-at-the-terraloader-dropper-dll-e5947ad6e244 | ['Jason Reaves'] | 2021-04-09 17:11:10.167000+00:00 | ['Terraloader', 'Infosec', 'Malware', 'Reverse Engineering'] |
March — June 2020 Burn Report. During the peak of the pandemic we had… | During the peak of the pandemic we had paused our burn reports as bookings came to a halt. Now it is time to have a look at how the burn mechanism performed throughout the different stages of the crisis and where we stand now.
About the Mechanism
Every booking made on our marketplace triggers a LOC burn equal to 3% of the booking value. These are specifically bought from exchanges and sent to the parking wallet.
When the customer checks in to the hotel, we consider the booking as final and the parking wallet executes the final burn transaction. If the customer cancels the booking, the parking wallet returns the balance into circulation.
Burn Rate
The burn mechanism continuously removes LOC from the circulating supply, driven by booking volumes.
Up until February, we saw a strong upwards trajectory for the burn rate. The mechanism was just gearing up towards its potential when the unexpected Covid crisis put the entire world on lockdown.
The result was a slowdown of burns in March and a complete stop in April — at the peak of all restrictions. Most bookings were cancelled and did not yield any burns. Read about how we handled the Corona crisis here.
In May and June we saw a V-shaped recovery. How was that possible? There are two reasons for this:
While we did not see the same booking activity compared to pre-covid levels, the average booking value was higher — making up for it. The LOC price saw a drop during the pandemic, which boosted the impact of each booking on the economy. Despite the numbers being small, it presents a great case-study for the adaption capabilities of the burn mechanism.
Back in December we discussed such a behavior in our LOC Economy 2.0 announcement, where we shared a dedicated simulation for force-majeur events and their impact on the LOC economy. Who would have thought that we would be seeing a real-world example that quickly?
Cumulative Amount
Another fundamental metric is the cumulative amount that has been removed from the circulating supply.
Aside from the short slow-down in April, the overall performance seems to be unaffected by the pandemic.
More importantly, the parking wallet saw a strong growth from 645 LOC to 1,085 LOC in the first half of July. This balance is an important indicator of future performance as it represents the amount of LOC waiting to be burnt upon check-in of the customers.
Verify the Numbers
Burn Wallet
Parking Wallet
Join our Telegram Community 👇🏼
LockTrip is a blockchain-based travel marketplace that allows users to save up to 60% on their bookings by cutting out middlemen. Every booking burns LOC proportionally to its booking value, continuously reducing its total supply. | https://medium.com/locktrip/march-june-2020-burn-report-3605f665b122 | ['Locktrip.Com', 'Loc Token', 'Official Blog'] | 2020-07-16 12:48:37.084000+00:00 | ['Hotel', 'Travel', 'Locktrip', 'Ethereum', 'Bitcoin'] |
My Backlog Of Articles Is Keeping Me Afloat | When someone reaches a certain level within their organisation, it usually comes with quite a number of perks. It could either be really great benefits or even the chance to travel around for business meetings or just for work purposes.
To a certain extent, it’s no different within my organisation. Most of the time, once you reach a high enough level, you get to travel around to nice places for work. You get benefits like allowances for personal and business purposes.
Unfortunately for me, I haven’t quite reached that level just yet.
In a few years time? Maybe.
Right now? Definitely not.
Which is why my travels for work are not to nice cities or countries, rather, my travels are mostly to really remote areas. Still nice, but just remote.
And because of the geographical location of most of my travels, getting stable internet access is always a challenge when I’m travelling for work.
This week is another perfect example as I’ve had to go into a couple of my company’s estates which are all located in remote areas, deep into jungles some of them, and needless to say, connectivity has been an issue. Even the guesthouse that I’m staying in which supposedly has decent coverage is pretty bad.
It’s been hard to catch up on work emails and just doing my work in general.
Writing and publishing on Medium? Yep, that’s been hard too. If you may have noticed, I’ve not published much over the last week and that’s due to the fact that I’ve not been able to get a decent connection most of the time.
This has definitely screwed with my plans to publish more consistently this month and try to get my earnings up for the year-end holidays and early year spendings.
Fortunately for me though, I had a backup plan.
Over the last 18 months of so that I’ve been writing on Medium, I’ve probably published well over a few hundred articles. I think I’ll need to actually count how many articles I’ve published to date but what I do know that it’s definitely over 500 or so articles.
If I’m to be honest, more than half of those articles probably bombed, with many not making even a single cent to date.
But, there are quite a few that not only have helped me to make pretty decent money on the platform but have also been consistently earning despite some being more than a year old.
It’s now the 11th of the month and I’ve only published 3 articles to date (this will be the 4th) which normally would mean not so great income.
However, when I checked my earnings to date, It shows that I’ve made just over $40 so far which honestly, is not so bad all things considered. When I went into details, it shows that the bulk of it is from older articles, some published months ago. The highest-earning article for the month so far is one that I wrote and published back in October 2019, more than a year ago.
These backlog of older articles have been saving me time and time again, especially during months when I’m not or am unable to be as productive as I would like to be.
Sometimes, an old article unexpectedly takes off and goes viral for a while and brings in money months after it was published.
I have an article that earned peanuts the first 4 months it was published. Then suddenly, it took off and within a few weeks, made over $100 which was unexpected.
There have been times when I thought of deleting older articles that are not performing and this particular article was one of them. I’m glad I didn’t delete it because it did well later on and I honestly don’t know which article will take off and which won’t. I don’t know if articles that don’t take off straight away might take off later or just don’t take off at all.
It’s honestly hard to tell so I’ve just left all of my articles alone in the hope that hopefully, they’ll continue to do well or for those that have not, to someday be able to do well.
Right now, it’s these oldies that have helped keep me afloat when I haven’t been able to write as much as I would like to.
If you have a backlog of articles, keep them. Even if they don’t do well, just keep them. You’ll never know when one or a few of them (or even all of them) may unexpectedly take off and do well.
But of course, in order for you to even get a backlog of articles, you gotta keep writing and publishing.
A year from now, 2 years from now, these articles that you’ve been publishing over time may well help keep you afloat and earning even when you’re not particularly productive, just like how it is for me right now.
So, write and publish as often as you can. Build up that backlog of articles because it may well come in handy someday. | https://medium.com/the-partnered-pen/my-backlog-of-articles-is-keeping-me-afloat-a9f56970232f | ['Benny Lim'] | 2020-12-11 05:15:47.567000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Writer', 'Writers On Medium', 'Writers On Writing', 'Writing On Medium'] |
PWA — the way get rid of Electron? | You can build desktop app like build a website. And also Electron offer some awesome api help us to take advantage of native platform features.
chromium
But something seem to be redundant. Chrome build on chromium and Chrome have a full functional chromium. Every time users download this standalone app, also download a copy of chromium so that one user may have multi copy of the same stuff while app using electron-package to bundle stuff together. App become huge because chromium need a big space that handle render html/css and run V8 engine for JavaScript. It will waste user’s hard drive space. (There are somethings hard to handle to share the same Electron core between apps, learn more)
“Framework” easily eat huge space inside the electron package while using electron-packager
And you will wonder: why not just take advantage of users’ Chrome. Almost every Windows Users have a Chrome or must have an Edge (new Edge build on chromium too).
There is no soluetion in the market until PWA standard become a thing in 2015. And this feature just build into chromium core nowadays. If a web app offer PWA feature, you can use it offline (most of the cases). And Apple do it in own way, the “Apple Clips” from 2020.
But how to make it work?
First of all, you need to add a manifest reference inside your web html head. (You can search “manifest.json” in Google to get manifest generator that don’t need to write this manually)
So that chromium can create a shortcut on native platform. What’s your app icon? Where’s the address for first open? There are also some other settings for your app basic actions declared in manifest (sounded like Android).
No internet
But only these are not enough. When you added the app but disconnected from internet, you still can’t open the app. You just create a website shortcut for users.
Twitter’s sw. If you disconnected, twitter web would not shutdown in the browser but hint network error
So you also need a “fake” website server like electron does so that user can still access your website when he go offline. JS worker is here.
Chromium have a specific place for a specific JS worker, it’s the serviceWorker. If you register serviceWorker with a JS source code, this worker will be treated differently. Any network requests will be sent via this worker globally and it will be cached by chromium automatically and run at first every time you visit this website. This worker also can access the local storage that chromium offer for every website. Now, you need to take advantage of this worker to cache your website resource. If user’s device go offline, use this worker need to return cached website resource that make the website work offline.
In many modern framework, you do not need to know how to implement serviceWorker that framework will generate it for you, like React, Angular or Flutter. The serviceWorker behavior only depend on the JS code that register in serviceWorker. If you are not using framework and there are also some tool that help you build serviceWorker like workbox. And you still can modify “fetch” event handler to custom your sw behaviors. (https://blog.bitsrc.io/5-service-worker-caching-strategies-for-your-next-pwa-app-58539f156f52)
Before you transform your Electron project, you need to be aware of PWA still isn’t a full replacement of Electron. PWA have limit access features especially native platform features. Make sure your app features’ implements is available in web (You can try url or web assembly to replace features’ implements. JavaScript ability maybe beyond you think). Also many users may not know this technique exists or don’t come to agree with it. “I just browser some stuff on internet, why I need to install website in my computer” or “Why not just give me an executable file let me double click it”. So sometimes you also need to explain the website usage to your customers. | https://johngu9.medium.com/pwa-the-way-get-rid-of-electron-731d48269ace | [] | 2020-12-29 03:15:24.939000+00:00 | ['Progressive Web App', 'Electron', 'Web Development'] |
It’s not just about you! | Welcome to 1 Minute Marketing Monday!
When you’re dealing with a customer or a prospective customer, do you only ever think of things from your own perspective? You shouldn’t! Always try to see things from their perspective, and think about the experience THEY are receiving. Quite often we all have processes and/or systems in our businesses which is all well and good, but only if it improves your customer experience. Unfortunately, I’ve come across the exact opposite before which has actually stopped me buying something I’d already decided I was going to.
The other thing to watch out for is using industry terminology that you use every day but may mean absolutely nothing to someone who isn’t in your industry. It will make something sound confusing or too complicated and inevitably ends in them not buying.
So in summary; Always think of things from your customers perspective, and keep things simple and don’t use industry jargon.
Thanks
Richard
Ten Minute Marketing — Successfully market your small business. In just 10 minutes a day!
www.tenminutemarketing.co.uk
P.S. If you’re finding these tips useful, imagine how useful joining the Ten Minute Marketing Club would be! ;) If you want daily marketing training, that takes a maximum of just 10 minutes a day, head to the website to sign up or just reply to this email and ask to join :) | https://medium.com/@richardjeaton/its-not-just-about-you-a1272b802f65 | ['Richard Eaton'] | 2019-07-22 11:01:01.956000+00:00 | ['Help', 'Customer Service', 'Marketing', 'Customer Experience', 'Tips'] |
Awareness Based Systems Change: Deep Resonance | Iceberg model of Systems Thinking. Image, Presencing Institute
Awareness Based Systems Change can be described by the following three sentences. “You cannot understand a system unless you change it. You cannot change a system unless you transform consciousness. You cannot transform consciousness unless you can make a system see and sense itself.” Otto Scharmer
Where We Are
Antoinette Klatzky opened the Deep Resonance Inhale session of the GAIA Journey by inviting us all to extend beyond ourselves to connect with one another. She shared that we would hear from three speakers, Thomas Hübl, Niphun Mehta and Jon Kabat-Zinn throughout the day; a packed day with five full sessions, holding close to six thousand people.
Antoinette then gave the floor to Otto Scharmer, who shared that he would lead us through a process of systems sensing and an embodying practice. The goal was to see and sense both what might end and emerge for each of us in our small groups, and in effect, see what might emerge for us as a global community.
Our Journey. Image, Presencing Institute
Awareness Based Systems Change
Otto began with a question, “How are we addressing the situation we are currently in?” He then went on to describe the Iceberg model (shown below), grounded in systems thinking.
He explained further, “All systems thinking starts with the distinctions that you see here, Symptoms at the top, and the root issues below the waterline. The root issues include Structures and Thoughts. These types of root issues picture the evolution of systems thinking over the past half-century or so.”
The Iceberg Model
Otto continued, “ Source is the one you want. It has been emerging on the evolution of systems thinking over the past decade or so. It is the source of our intention, of our individual and collective creativity. Instead of source, we could have written awareness here. What you learn in profound systems change is that changing structures is important. That is necessary however it is not sufficient. Changing the paradigm of thought is also important. That is also necessary but not sufficient. In a really profound change we need to address all four levels. A way of summarizing this approach is Awareness Based Systems Change.”
Awareness Based Systems Change. image, Presencing Institute
Awareness Based Systems Change can be described by the following three sentences.
“You can not understand a system unless you change it. You cannot change a system unless you transform consciousness. You cannot transform consciousness unless you can make a system see and sense itself.”
The first sentence, “You can not understand a system unless you change it”, is from Kurt Lewin, the founder of action research.
The second system is a sentence that summarizes Theory U, and certainly summarizes my past 25 years of experience. “You cannot change a system unless you transform consciousness”. Another way to put it is, “You cannot change a system unless you address all four levels here. You cannot change a system unless you become aware of these deeper dimensions.”
This sentence then transitions naturally to the third, “You cannot transform consciousness unless you can make a system see and sense itself.” Otto shared, “I want to draw your attention to the second word — Sense. Traditional systems thinking would say … ‘unless you can make a system see itself’. But that is only half of it. What we believe is that the sensing part of the sentence here is critical.”
“What State of the Art Systems Thinking does is add systems sensing into the body of systems thinking methodologies. Unless I sense the pain of the collective, the grieving that we can feel, the pain of the other, unless I open my heart and feel it myself, profound change is not going to take place.”
Stuck Exercise of Social Presencing Theater. Image, Presencing Institute
Otto reminded us of the Social Presencing Theater experience we performed in the last Inhale session, and invited us to relive it with a deep resonance mindfulness exercise.
Deep Resonance
He began by asking us to replay the process on video, to watch it, feel where it resonated with us, and then articulate that resonance by answering four questions. He asked us to write the answers to these four questions either into a journal or the chat.
He reminded us to pay attention to this experience in these ways: Attend to the video clip and to your resonance with your mind and heart wide open. An open mind means not judgment, and an open heart means no separation. Not only to see what´s in there but also to sense and feel it so that the boundary between subject and object begins to collapse, as it does it in any experience of resonance.
Otto shared that “the intuition for this kind of deepened perception was, among others, articulated by the German poet and phenomenologist, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who said, “Every object well contemplated, opens up a new organ of perception within us”. That is what we are trying to practice.”
He continued with, “when you see someone else’s sculpture, it is a window into another person’s soul. But it is also a window into our own soul and into our collective soul. By which I mean our collective process of transformation that we are in here together, and that is at the core and the essence of the entire GAIA process. That’s the invitation.”
(Dear reader, if you want, you can participate in the deep resonance experience, following Otto’s instructions and writing your insights on a piece of paper or in the comments below)
Collage of sculptures 1 and 2 of SPT
The video clip began to roll, and an announcer repeated the three sentences that the people on the clip were saying while they were making the sculptures. (You can watch the video clip starting in min 37.30 of the session recording here)
Change. Surrender. Tiredness in the body / I grasp but cannot see. Free feet, grounded fly. Letting go / My hands are tied and I cannot move. It´s ok, let it come. Acceptance that we cannot just stay here / Anxiety, Heavy burden, inability to move. Yes, yes, yes. Hope / I am exhausted. Release. Stop controlling things that cannot be controlled in the physical realm / I feel scared, I cannot see the future. I am ready to move forward. Accepting this moment to notice what the future is asking from me / Tension, unstable. Peace, openness. Acceptance / I know. Reaching out. Let courage in, letting go / Discouraged, no energy. Widely open. Hoping / Suffocation. What is beyond. Being reborn. A new seed wanting to emerge / I feel small. I meet you, not below, not above, but at a high level. A movement to the collective / Don´t want to see. Available. Open up to others / I feel heaviness on my shoulders. I feel moving and I feel the energy. Sensing patience / I am confused. I am connected. Self-knowledge.
The announcer continued, “let’s stay for a moment in the resonance of what we saw, sensed, and felt. Now write in your journal or into the chat:
1) What resonated most with you in terms of the images we just saw, and in terms of the movement we saw from sculpture one to sculpture two?”
Antoinette began reading the chat with a soothing voice. From close to open. Letting go of control. The openness of the movements, the freedom. So much similarity across humanity, from constriction to release. A tremendous sense of grief, sadness on the collective. From fear to trust.
My own experience: Trapped. Going around. Freedom.
2) “How does what you just saw resonates with your own sculpture one to sculpture two practice that maybe you did on the Social Solidarity Circle, or in the last inhale? On the other hand, if you did not do any of these practices how much does it resonate with your own experience of sensing both, what is ending and what is wanting to begin right now?”
Answers from the chat. We are seemly sharing the same experience. Connecting with my longing, connecting my heart more and more. I also was closed in pain and fear and moved to freedom and emerging courage. We are not sculptures but movements. I keep seeing myself on an open field looking up totally exposed.
My own experience: I see an evolution from fear to freedom.
3) “How do you and your Social Solidarity Circle resonate with the current global situation now?”
Answers from the chat. We see the pain, don´t see how, going together going forward. Share the pain with amplified hope coming together, possibility. Going back and forward solely, keeping in mind what springs us forward. Awareness that this is a moment to shift, to pay attention to the possible.
My own experience: Deepening into my own suffering to heal it.
4) “If you really go back to the embodiment of your own experience, moving from sculpture one to sculpture two, try to connect to what allowed you to go through this metamorphosis with this journey of transition. What enabled you to make the shift?”
Answers from the chat. Connecting to the grief. Accessing our inner pain, feeling it to find the powerful center beneath. Leaving the social field of pretending for the social field of sharing and enacting. Listening and moving on the trust of what I am sensing. Sensing exhaustion and letting go to allow the tension to seek its resolution. Turning towards the pain. Letting go, acceptance.
My own experience: I stopped pushing and became aware that I could flow.
Otto closed the session by thanking each of us for our participation in this process, both in the creation of the sculptures, but also for joining this current moment to resonate with our sculptures. He shared that this process allowed us to go into the deepest co-sensing of what is truly happening in this moment.
He expressed gratitude to Arawana and the other members of the Social Presencing Theater team who pioneered the event with this methodology, stating “I believe [SPT] is very significant for which is ahead of us, for leading into this deeper collective realm that Thomas Huebl would call “walking with our shadows”, walking in the woods of Danya, those agreements that we have with each other, often unconsciously, that produce collective results that no one wants.
Then he shared his final takeaway - that he could deeply feel the collective way of seeing we all just experienced together. This experienced allowed all of us to have a window into the collective transformation that was at the heart of our community in this time together. | https://medium.com/presencing-institute-blog/awareness-based-systems-change-deep-resonance-bef9ca451749 | ['Helio Borges'] | 2020-06-30 03:21:44.520000+00:00 | ['Innovation', 'Stories From The Field', 'Insights', 'Systems Thinking'] |
On the Road, from the Postal Web to Lincoln Highway | The roads connect 450 post offices concentrated along the coastal plains and river valleys. To indicate distances, numbers appear between towns, a coding system that carried over to later road maps. Three types of roads — Post Roads, Post Roads established by Contract and Post & Stage Roads — are differentiated by shading of the connecting lines. The encoding of road types by different line styles would continue to develop in future maps.
This detail from Bradley’s A map of the United States exhibiting post roads & distances shows a series of hatched Post & Stage Roads connecting in all directions to Philadelphia, with mileage numbers between towns: 20 miles from Philadelphia to Bristol, 12 miles from Trenton to Princeton, etc.
Bradley created the diagram by combining information from commercially available maps, military surveys and distances from reports by local postmasters. The print was distributed to post offices and sold to the general public [3]. The elaborate table that fills the space off the Atlantic coast, “Progress of the Mail on the Main Line,” lists the stages connecting the northernmost town of Brewers, Maine to the southernmost town of St. Mary’s, Georgia. The chart indicates the time of day when the north- and south-bound mail arrives and leaves in each town. This gives the reader a schedule of how long it will take for a letter to travel from town to town. A letter leaving from Portland, Maine at 6 am on Wednesday will take eight days to arrive in Philadelphia the following Wednesday at 7 am.
A detail from the “Progress of the Mail on the Main Line” table in A map of the United States exhibiting post roads & distances. This part is the summer schedule for mail moving southward and northward between Maine and Massachusetts. Arrival and departure times are indicated as forenoon (f) and afternoon (a).
Show Me the Road to Get There
The examples so far have visualized overland travel as potential pathways through a network of a region’s roads. The same problem can be visualized as a single road that leads from our present location and reaches our ultimate destination. A different type of transportation diagram is needed to support a pre-determined journey following a single road.
Sabatele, a man from Tanzania (at the time German East Africa), was hired by the German scientist Karl Weule to support his travels. Sabatele drew a map of the caravan route from the inland start of their journey to the Indian Ocean, which Weule chose to reproduce in his book Native Life in East Africa [4]. In modern European practice, transportation diagrams had become an external rather than an internal representation of spatial understanding. We expect such diagrams to be a record, rather than a performance. Many indigenous peoples who lived by their knowledge of trade networks instead relied on internalized maps and performative means to support overland travel. Weule’s decision to solicit drawings from his African employees with no European education, to see what they could do, is an example of this. European literature is filled with examples of explorers expressing profound surprise when indigenous people, often at the explorer’s request, perform their spatial knowledge by drawing maps on the ground or on supplied materials [5].
“Map of the main caravan road, with its principal branches, drawn by Sabatele, a Mmambew,” from Weule [4]. In his reproduction, Weule rotates the drawing to place north on the top and puts numbers next to 15 identifiable locations.
Weule was able to decode each of the dots, circles and connecting lines in the drawing through discussion with the men he employed. Reading right to left, the visualization represents roads from several possible points of origin on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, Lake Victoria or the area between the lakes crossing rivers, swamps, mountains and deserts, to arrive at the various markets of Dar es Salaam on the Tanzanian coast.
Sabatele’s map of the main caravan routes in East Africa. Paper and pencil. This map with its southerly orientation traces the main caravan routes across Tanzania, with the terminus points placed at Dar es Salaam. Size of the original: unknown. Current location: unknown. Photograph courtesy of the Archiv Museum fur Volkerkunde za Leipzig (Neg. Af 0 1428; from the original glass plate negative). [6]
The map is oriented with south at the top and the coast on the left. In this case, the “legend” of the route map was the context of the request to visualize the caravan roads and share that knowledge through discussion. The lines connecting the circles represent the roads. The lines crossing the road represent natural barriers — rivers and swamps — while the circles inside circles represent places. In this case, the angles of the connecting lines carry useful directional information.
Detail of the cartouche for “The Road from London to Aberistwith” from Brittania. The illustration shows a team of surveyors measuring a road.
John Ogilby’s route maps of Britain are strikingly different from this East African example, yet they share many of the same informational characteristics. Ogilby was neither a caravan driver nor a great traveler. At different periods of his life, he was an English court entertainer in dance and theater, a writer of poetry and classical translation, and a major London book publisher. His fortunes rose and fell and rose again during the turmoil of the English Civil War and Restoration. His calling as an information designer came at late in his life when, at the age of 70, he held the title of Cosmographer to the King in the court of Charles II. In the few years that remained to him, he produced atlases of Africa, America, Japan, China, and Asia, then planned to write and publish Britannia, a multi-volume work that would include a comprehensive history and description of England and Wales.
Britannia, volume the first [7] was the only part of this project that was completed. When the book appeared in 1675, it was the first visualization of an English road network that had previously been described only as lists of place names along selected roads. As part of that project, he participated in a survey of all the roads in the kingdom. Distances were measured by a man pushing a perambulator or measuring wheel beside a mounted surveyor recording the distances. This measuring of the road is illustrated in his book’s frontispiece and the cartouche of several maps [8]. | https://medium.com/nightingale/on-the-road-from-the-postal-web-to-lincoln-highway-f67db92d289d | ['Paul Kahn'] | 2020-03-10 17:03:10.847000+00:00 | ['Postal Service', 'Roadmaps', 'Oregon Trail', 'Data Visualization', 'Maps'] |
Developer Envisions Bitcoin Dead Man’s Switch | Dutch developer Joost Jager believes a dead man’s switch could be made for Bitcoin holders using the Lightning Network. When someone sets up the dead man’s switch they need to confirm that they are alive periodically. As soon as they are unable to do so, the system will send a message to those inheriting the holdings using the Bitcoin Lightning Network.
Jager showcased his idea at the Advancing Bitcoin event in London. Together with a group of developers he explored building a dead man’s switch using the Lightning Network as a messaging system. This secret message can be a code to a safe, a private key to a cryptocurrency wallet or just an explanation on where to find the information that’s needed.
A dead man’s switch isn’t new. Edward Snowden used one in case he would be dead before his information could reach journalists. Also John McAfee claims to have one set in place. Building one that works through the Lightning Network means that no third party is required to keep the information secret. It allows privacy for all involved as well.
If one doesn’t want to set up their own server to act as a Dead Men’s Button and use a third party instead, it is necessary to incentivize the third party. Lightning as a payment system can serve this goal. Other useful characteristics of Lightning are that it allows the sender to remain private and the attachment of custom data to a payment. Joost Jager, Github description
Joost Jager and Whatsat
Jager has been developing on the Lightning Network for some time now. Last year he released a concept for a messaging program named Whatsat, which allows for encrypted private messaging without any storage on centralized servers. In addition everything is routed through the TOR network.
Even though the current version of the Lightning Network allows such communication to be free, it’s unlikely it will stay like this. That’s why Jager created a paid version of Whatsat. Here people need to pay 0.3 satoshis per message, giving a small fee to the nodes carrying the data. At the current rate that would be $0.00003 per message. If someone would send 90 messages per day, the messaging app would cost 1 dollar per year.
What is the Lightning Network?
The Lightning Network is a second layer on top of the Bitcoin blockchain. In this case we are talking about the Bitcoin network, but technically the Lightning Network can run on top of any blockchain. It’s a payment protocol for fast transactions between participating nodes. Many developers believe the Lightning Network to be a solution for the scaling problems that Bitcoin is facing.
What the Lightning Network does, is creating a temporary communication channel between two parties. Here these two parties can make as many transactions as they want. Only after closing the channel, the nodes can communicate the outcome of these transactions to the Bitcoin network. As a result a transaction on the Lightning Network only needs to cost a fraction of a cent. | https://medium.com/coinmonks/developer-envisions-bitcoin-dead-mans-switch-bd7ab5553fde | ['Robert Hoogendoorn'] | 2020-08-25 13:28:26.571000+00:00 | ['Joost Jager', 'Lapps', 'Bitcoin', 'Lightning Network'] |
Why I Wrote Under Another Profile | Why I Wrote Under Another Profile
I guest blogged under McGraw-Hill
From kalhh on Pixabay
As a 9th-grade special education teacher, I write about work sometimes. I do it less than I did when I started my job, but often, I’ll write about the intersections between work and mental health. On one of these pieces, McGraw Hill, the textbook publishing company and one of the “big three” educational publishers, reached out to me about whether I wanted to guest blog for their publication, and I graciously obliged.
I wasn’t paid for it, but I was glad to guest blog for McGraw-Hill. At first, when they reached out to me, I thought “McGraw-Hill? Like the textbook company?” and then weighed the pros and cons quickly before making a choice to do so. I took my time given a really busy schedule, and I’m very glad McGraw-Hill was understanding of my need to delay my submission.
I gladly took the chance to write a piece about encouraging active citizenship in the classroom, and especially in a virtual classroom during the pandemic. According to Dave at Content Development Pros, guest blogging is beneficial because it builds relationships with your audience, helps develop professional connections, and establishes yourself as an “industry expert.” As only a second-year teacher, I don’t really consider myself an industry expert, but having McGraw-Hill, a household name in education, reach out to me about guest blogging certainly raised my confidence. Plus, it looks really good on an education-related resume.
Of course, guest blogging helps build online influence and authority to the reader. For me, guest blogging was a break from writing for my own profile and own following. I’m well aware that I don’t make any money to avoid a possible conflict of interest, but guest blogging allows me to say “hey, I got published by McGraw-Hill,” which helps significantly for my credibility as an educator more than it helps my credibility as a writer and editor.
According to Vikas Agrawal at Search Engine Journal, guest blogging helps spread a brand message and wins the trust of a target audience. Although you’re writing for someone’ else’s site, guest blogging allows instant exposure to targeted traffic, so I might build an audience of people interested in reading education-related work. It also allows connecting with influencers and expanding a personal network, and helps me be more active in the education community.
Within the realm of where you’re guest blogging, you build more influence and authority, and you also build more social media following to who sees your content. After all, you are marketing yourself to a whole new network.
“By contributing to an authoritative blog, you are essentially getting them to vouch for your brand,” Agrawal says.
McGraw-Hill linked back to my blog profile, and writing for the site was a major exercise. It helped me build the skills I need to do research and write for a different audience than I normally do, and adopt a new voice in doing so.
It’s a cool thing to put that I wrote for the McGraw-Hill blog on my resume, but building connections is also a large part of guest blogging. It never hurts to have more connections. Guest blogging was simply something different to tackle, and I’m very grateful I did.
McGraw-Hill used more subheadings to improve my search engine optimization and working with someone else on the editing side helped improve my writing. According to Hallam, a digital marketing agency, the end goal of guest blogging is to position yourself as a thought leader in an industry, even if it doesn’t happen overnight. It also helps build brand awareness within a very crowded market, and promotes search engine optimization since publishing on a high quality and relevant website allows you to bring more traffic to your own website.
Before you decide to guest blog, Hallam emphasizes only guest blogging on trustworthy and relevant websites. I mentioned McGraw-Hill to a couple of people to make sure they’d heard of it too — and everyone I talked to associated McGraw-Hill as an authoritative textbook and education brand. As such, guest blogging requires a targeted approach. We all only have so much time and attention to give, and we can’t give it all. I never sought out guest blogging opportunities, but have been approached a couple times, and only accepted an opportunity when an influential brand in my field asked me.
Of course, I did wonder whether the post would do better on my own blog, but I have a lot of content already that readers find value in. Branching out to a new audience is always a fun excursion — and guest blogging was the way to do it for me. I don’t seek out opportunities to guest blogging because writing for myself and my own readers always comes first — before you make connections and establish yourself as a “thought leader” in your field, it’s important to build your own brand.
Guest blogging is just one step in the process. For me, I published under someone else’s profile because it was a nice break from the norm and great to get out of the cycle of building my own following and brand and focusing on my own writing. | https://medium.com/the-partnered-pen/why-i-wrote-under-another-profile-ae1f62b4e63e | ['Ryan Fan'] | 2020-11-08 21:24:18.976000+00:00 | ['Freelancing', 'Marketing', 'Medium', 'Business', 'Writing'] |
Microwave Oven Market Analysis and In-depth study on market Size Trends, Emerging Growth Factors and Regional Forecast to 2020 | Microwave Oven Market Analysis and In-depth study on market Size Trends, Emerging Growth Factors and Regional Forecast to 2020 Nisha Dodeja Jul 29, 2019·2 min read
Microwave Oven Market Report, published by Allied Market Research, forecasts that the global market is expected to garner $25.4 billion by 2020, registering a CAGR of 6.07% during the period 2015–2020. Increasing disposable income paired with rising number of working population has majorly contributed to the growth of market, worldwide.
Download Sample Report: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/699
The microwave oven market primarily includes three main types of ovens which include convection, grill and solo microwave oven. The convection microwave oven holds the largest market share in the global market. Whereas, grill microwave ovens occupy the second position, with 30% of the overall market share. Solo microwave ovens are used for cooking and heating purposes. However, they are not capable of providing browning and crispiness to the food as they are not equipped with grilling features. The convection microwave oven is equipped with heating element and a fan, hence is used for cooking and baking purposes. These factors would largely drive the global convection microwave oven market, during the forecast period to generate an expected revenue of $12.54 billion by 2020.
With respect to application, household segment accounted for larger market share and is anticipated to grow at a higher rate as compared to the commercial segment. Increasing propensity of consumers to spend on appliances which assist them in kitchen chores, would drive the growth of household microwave oven segment. The market has also been analysed from the perspective of microwave oven structure type. Counter top microwave oven accounts for major share of the industry. However, the built-in microwave oven segment is expected to grow at a higher CAGR of 6.9% during the forecast period. Adoption of modular kitchen and increased purchasing power of individuals would foster the growth of built-in microwave oven segment.
For Purchase Enquiry: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/699
Key Findings of Microwave Oven Market:
The global market is growing as a result of the increasing disposable income, changing living standard of consumers and rise in working class segment
Convection market is the major contributor to the microwave oven industry, growing at a CAGR of 6.54% during 2015–2020
The household microwave oven market would grow at a CAGR of 6.43% during the forecast period
North America enjoys the largest share in the global market for microwave ovens
Asia-Pacific would prove to be one of the most profitable markets, in terms of growth
Growth of the microwave oven in ndustry is supplemented by factors such as increasing disposable incomes, growing working class, and changing lifestyles, especially in the developing regions. Companies like Samsung, AB Electrolux, Life is Good (LG), are coming up with new and innovative appliances that are equipped with numerous features, consume less energy and are compact in size. Companies are adopting product launches, acquisitions and partnerships as their key strategies, in order to expand their reach and gain a bigger market share. Prominent companies profiled in the report include Samsung Electronics, AB Electrolux, Hoover Limited, Sharp Corporation, Illinois Tool Works Inc. (ITW), Whirlpool Corporation, Galanz Enterprise Group, LG Electronics, Alto-Shaam Inc. and Panasonic Corporation. | https://medium.com/@nisha.dodeja_97586/microwave-oven-market-analysis-and-in-depth-study-on-market-size-trends-emerging-growth-factors-c05c66c77afb | ['Nisha Dodeja'] | 2019-07-29 10:45:45.639000+00:00 | ['Consumer Electronics', 'Consumer Goods', 'Microwave Oven Market'] |
Help! Why is my ETH transaction stuck? | You know that feeling. If one transaction gets stuck, all other transactions get clogged up as well. No doubt it’s a frustrating experience we’ve all faced before. Here’s why it happens and how to resolve it.
Contents
1. Why is it stuck?
2. Setting the Right Gas Fees
3. Speed up/ Cancel a Transaction on Metamask
Why is it stuck?
Ethereum transactions must be verified by the ‘miners’ of the chain. Each miner is rewarded with a small sum for their efforts: the gas fees you offer. It’s an incentive program that keeps the Blockchain decentralized.
Gas fees can fluctuate based on user activity at the time. If more users are setting their gas fees high for whatever reason, standard gas fees also go up.
So if your transactions are stuck, it’s likely because your gas fees are lower than the accepted average at the time. Eventually, your transaction may be approved but it may A) Take forever, B) Result in a failed transaction. Fortunately, there are workarounds.
Setting the Right Gas Fees
Before making a transaction, find out what the accepted Gas Fees are at the time. By setting the GWEI (Gas Price) to a volume miners will accept, you save yourself the hassle of dealing with a stuck transaction.
Here are 4 Easy Steps:
Step 1. Visit ETH Gas Station to check current rates
Step 2. Start your transaction and select Advanced Settings
Step 3. Set Gas Price equal to or above Safe Low
Step 4. Hit confirm.
If you feel gas fees are too high, we suggest waiting for it to drop before making a transaction.
Note that even though two transactions share the same GWEI, their cost when converted to USD can still vary. This depends on how complicated or ‘heavy’ a transaction task is. For example, claiming a Crab NFT reward in CryptantCrab’s Arena costs more than claiming Daily Rewards, because it is a ‘heavier’ task.
Speed up/ Cancel a Transaction on Metamask
Image Source: ETH Gas Station
To declog your pending transactions, try to speed up or cancel the first transaction that got stuck. Each wallet operates differently, but Metamask is the easiest to do this on. Links are provided below for other wallet users.
Open up your browser with Metamask installed and click on the icon. Then look for a stuck transaction with the options to ‘Speed Up’ or ‘Cancel’.
Select ‘Speed up’
You will be prompted to readjust the transaction’s gas fee. Bring up ETH Gas Station again and set the GWEI equal to or higher than the Safe Low volume.
Select ‘Cancel’
You will prompted to confirm your cancellation with a minimal cancellation fee. These fees are fixed, usually much lower than your initial gas fee — which will not be charged until the cancellation has processed.
Disclaimer
Keep in mind both procedures take a bit of time to process, so it is actually possible for your stuck transaction to be approved before your speed up/ cancel request has processed.
Other wallets
How to resolve Pending Transactions on other wallets:
Trust Wallet
Coinomi
MyEtherWallet
If this article helped you, remember to clap and share! | https://medium.com/@cryptantcrab/help-why-is-my-eth-transaction-stuck-31eebdb258d5 | [] | 2020-02-10 02:32:02.036000+00:00 | ['Ethereum Blockchain', 'Guides And Tutorials', 'Ethereum', 'Blockchain', 'Ethereum Wallet'] |
中文入门资源推荐 Recommendation for Getting Started in China | 安装 Installation
历史经验表明，初学者使用Anaconda能显著提高安装成功率。本节介绍采用中国本地化网络的用户如何借助Anaconda来安装PyTorch开发环境。
Historical evidences has shown that using Anaconda for beginners can significantly increase the success rate of installations. This section introduces this approach step by step, with tricks that are particularly useful for users in Chinese mainland who can only access localized networks.
给Windows XP用户的警告：在Windows XP下无法借助Anaconda安装PyTorch。原因在于，支持Windows XP的最后版本是Anaconda 2.3，它默认使用Python 3.4。但是PyTorch需要配合Python 3.8、3.7或是3.6。
Warning for Windows XP users: The approach in this section will not work. The latest version of Anaconda that supports Windows XP is Anaconda 2.3, which uses Python 3.4 by default. PyTorch works best with Python 3.8, 3.7, and 3.6.
第1步：下载并安装Anaconda
Step 1: Download & install the latest version of Anaconda
Anaconda是用来管理Python包的软件。我们可以免费使用其个人版。本地化网络用户推荐从清华开源软件站（TUNA）下载安装包。TUNA是Anaconda官方授权的Anaconda镜像站。下载的地址为：https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/anaconda/archive/?C=M&O=D，其中URL最后的 C=M&O=D 表示将最近的更新显示在最前面。请根据文件名选择安装包，双击直接下载。如果网速还是太慢，可以考虑借助百度网盘的离线下载工具或是迅雷来加速下载。建议您下载后检查Hash值（特别是用迅雷的情况下），因为错误时有发生。
Anaconda is a software that manages Python packages, and its “individual” version is provided for free. Users of localized networks in Chinese mainland are suggested to download the installer from the website of Tsinghua Open Source Mirror (TUNA), which provides a mirror of Anaconda that has been formally authorized by Anaconda Inc. The download links for installers can be found here, where the suffix C=M&O=D puts the latest updates first. You can download it directly. If the network is still too slow, you may resort to Baidu NetDisk (Offline Download) or Xunlei to accelerate. It is also recommended that you check the hash value after downloading (especially if you use Xunlei), as errors can occur from time to time.
下载好安装包后，双击安装包就可以安装。图形化小白安装，一直按“下一步”即可。Windows用户可以不安装在C盘。安装之后还需要几个GB的空间进行后续安装。
After the installer is downloaded, double click the installer to launch the wizard. You may want to install it in other disks than C disk if your C disk is almost full. You will also need to reserve several GBs worth of free space on that disk to proceed to further steps.
第2步：设置清华源
Step 2: Configure “Tsinghua Source” for Anaconda
采用本地化网络的用户推荐为Anaconda设置“清华源”。清华源是TUNA维护的通道镜像。值得一提的是，Anaconda的软件源实际上可以有不同的通道。有默认通道，但是PyTorch需要从pytorch通道下载。清华源对默认通道有镜像，也提供了pytorch等第三方通道的镜像。清华源与原始的源相比，有一定时间的延迟。不过延迟很有限，不会超过1天。设置清华源的方法：创建 ~/.condarc 文件，写入下面的内容。
Developers with localized network in Chinese mainland are recommended to configure Anaconda channels to “Tsinghua Source”, which is a vulgar for package mirrors of conda channels maintained by TUNA. In conda system, packages can be placed in different channels. Besides the default channel, “Tsinghua Source” also maintains channels such as PyTorch. “Tsinghua Source” has limited delay (<1 day) compared to the original source. In order to switch to “Tsinghua Source”, we can create the file ~/.condarc , and put the following configurations in the file.
修改好 .condarc 后，可以在Anaconda Prompt中用下列命令查看是否设置成功。
You can verify the configuration by typing following commands in Anaconda Prompt:
conda config –show channels
conda config –show custom_channels
确认设置成功后，用下列命令更新缓存。
After the changes, execute the following command in Anaconda Prompt to flush the cache.
conda clean -i
第3步：在conda环境中安装PyTorch
Step 3: Install PyTorch in a conda environment
为了安全起见，我们会在一个全新的conda环境中安装PyTorch。我们可以用管理员身份在Anaconda Prompt中用以下命令新建一个名为 pytorch1 的环境。
I recommend installing PyTorch in a new conda environment to avoid any issues. We can execute the following commands in Anaconda Prompt as an Administrator to create a new conda environment called pytorch1 .
conda create --name pytorch1 --clone base
conda activate pytorch1
接下来就正式安装pytorch包啦。我们可以安装CPU版本或是GPU版本。要安装CPU版本，只需要以管理员身份在Anaconda Prompt中运行以下命令：
Finally, we install PyTorch within the conda environment. We can choose between either the CPU version or GPU version of PyTorch. To install the CPU version, run the following command in Anaconda Prompt as an Administrator:
conda install pytorch cpuonly -c pytorch
如果想安装GPU版本，需要先安装CUDA和cuDNN。在Windows 10系统上安装CUDA和cuDNN，建议采用以下步骤：
You may also want to leverage the GPUs in your computer. In that case, we need to first install CUDA and cuDNN. The recommended steps to install CUDA and cuDNN in Windows 7/10 are as follows:
(1) 确认机器上NVIDIA独立显卡的CUDA计算能力。首先要确定GPU型号，方法为：右击“我的电脑”->在上下文菜单中选择“管理”->在窗口左边栏中选择“设备管理器”->选择“显卡”查看GPU型号。然后在网页https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-gpus中根据GPU型号查找对应的CUDA计算能力。通过conda安装的版本往往对CUDA计算能力有要求（例如，在2020年12月发布的PyTorch 1.7.1要求CUDA计算能力至少为3.5）。如果显卡过于古老导致CUDA计算能力不满足要求，自行编译PyTorch也许能解决，不过事倍功半建议放弃。
(1) Check the NVIDIA GPU and its compute capability on the computer. Method: right click “This PC” -> choose “Manage” -> in the left column of “Computer Management”, choose “Device Manager” -> choose “Display adapters” to see what GPU has been installed in the current PC. Then check the compute capability in the webpage https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-gpus. PyTorch installed in Anaconda has requirement on compute capability. For example, PyTorch 1.7.1 (released in Dec. 2020) requires compute capability of at least 3.5. For GPU older than that, building from source may resolve the problem, but it is not recommended.
(2) 更新显卡驱动。推荐使用NVIDIA GeForce Experience更新最新显卡驱动。NVIDIA GeForce Experience可以在https://www.nvidia.cn/geforce/geforce-experience/找到。安装NVIDIA GeForce Experience后，首次运行需要登录NVIDIA账号。如果没有NVIDIA账号要先注册。登录过程会涉及reCAPTCHA验证，而中国内地本地化网络一般无法成功加载reCAPTCHA。绕过reCAPTCHA的方法：先选择第三方登录，再链接到已有NVIDIA账号。登录成功后，在软件界面里更新驱动（下载的驱动大小约为数百MB）。
(2) Update the driver for the GPU. I recommend using NVIDIA GeForce Experience to update the driver to the latest version. You can download the installer of NVIDIA GeForce Experience from here. Login is required after installation, which involves verification using reCAPTCHA. Since localized networks in Chinese mainland may not load reCAPTCHA, we may bypass reCAPTCHA by selecting 3rd-party login and linking the 3rd-party account with your existing NVIDIA account. After login, please update the driver to the latest version.
(3) 确定CUDA版本。一方面我们要确定显卡支持的CUDA版本。方法：在桌面空白处右击，在弹出的上下文菜单中选择“NVIDIA控制面板”。（如果没找到NVIDIA控制面板，可能是没有在NVIDIA GeForce Experience里更新驱动。）在“NVIDIA控制面板”窗口菜单栏里的“帮助”->“系统信息”，弹出“系统信息”窗口，选择“组件”选项卡，里面有“NVCUDA.DLL”这个条目。条目对应的值会显示推荐安装的CUDA版本号。另一方面，我们也要注意PyTorch支持的CUDA版本号。PyTorch不一定会支持最新版本的CUDA。例如，在2020年12月的PyTorch 1.7.1支持的CUDA版本包括10.1、10.2、11.0。至此我们就确定了要安装的CUDA版本。
(3) Determine the version of CUDA. On the one hand, CUDA version needs to be supported by GPU and its driver. To determine the supported CUDA version, right click the desktop and choose “NVIDIA Control Panel”. (If you do not see NVIDIA Control Panel, you probably have not updated the driver to the latest using NVIDIA GeForce Experience.) In NVIDIA Control Panel, choose “Help”->”System Information”, and then choose the “Component” tab in the popup window, and find an entry called “NVCUDA.DLL”. This entry shows the recommended version of CUDA. On the other hand, the CUDA version needs to be supported by PyTorch. Note that PyTorch may not support the latest version of CUDA. For example, PyTorch 1.7.1 (released in Dec. 2020) supports CUDA 10.1, 10.2, and 11.0 best.
(4) 下载并安装CUDA。根据选定的CUDA版本，到NVIDIA网站下载CUDA。安装文件约2.5GB。然后安装CUDA，CUDA默认安装在C:\Program Files\NVIDIA GPU Computing Toolkit\CUDA，占用约2.5GB空间。成功安装后，我们可以在普通的命令行中输入 nvcc -V 查看安装情况。
(4) Download and install CUDA. We can download the CUDA with the correct version from the NVIDIA website. The size of the installation file is about 2.5GB. The default installation location is: C:\Program Files\NVIDIA GPU Computing Toolkit\CUDA, and the installation occupies about 2.5GB space. We can use the command nvcc -V in the Command Prompt to verify the installation of CUDA.
(5) 下载并解压cuDNN。官网推荐到https://developer.nvidia.com/cudnn下载cuDNN（需要登录NVDIA账号）。不过本地化网络下的网速常常过慢以致下载失败，需要另找办法。下载的zip文件大概0.3GB。解压后大概0.6GB。解压后，观察解压得到的目录的结构，把文件复制到CUDA安装目录的对应地方。
(5) Download and unzip cuDNN. The simplest way to install cuDNN is from here, but a workaround is usually required since the localized network connection is often too slow for successful downloading. The downloaded zip file is about 0.3GB. Unzip it, and the unzipped file is about 0.6GB. Investigate the unzip directory, and copy files into corresponding directory in CUDA installation directory.
至此，我们已经安装好了CUDA和cuDNN。接下来就正式安装PyTorch。安装PyTorch只需要在Anaconda Prompt的环境里用管理员权限执行下列命令（其中 10.2 应当换为合适的CUDA版本号）：
After the aforementioned steps, we can now finish installing CUDA and cuDNN. Now we can install pytorch-gpu using the following command in Anaconda Prompt, where 10.2 should be changed to suitable CUDA version:
conda install pytorch cudatoolkit=10.2 -c pytorch
第4步：确认安装成功
Step 4: Verify the Installation
我们可以在Anaconda Prompt中运行 python 命令进入Python模式，测试PyTorch是否正确安装。
We can try PyTorch within python to verify our installation. Type the command python in Anaconda prompt to go to Python mode, and then execute the following codes to see whether it can output normally.
import torch
x = torch.rand(2, 2)
print(x)
如果安装了GPU版本，可以用下面的代码确认是否安装成功。
You can use the following codes to verify whether GPU can be used. | https://medium.com/pytorch/%E4%B8%AD%E6%96%87%E5%85%A5%E9%97%A8%E8%B5%84%E6%BA%90%E6%8E%A8%E8%8D%90-recommendation-for-getting-started-in-china-e1381bdce0a5 | ['Zhiqing Xiao'] | 2020-12-14 23:31:43.102000+00:00 | ['China', 'Pytorch', 'Tutorial', 'AI', 'Machine Learning'] |
Red and Blue Brains. What Biology Can (and Cannot) Tell Us About Political Polarization | November 15, 2020
If the 2020 historic and contested election has shown anything, it is that the wound that has ripped the nation apart has not healed at all — in fact, it has painfully deepened. For many of us, it was hardly a surprise, and not just because of the harsh political climate of the last four years: newspaper headlines regularly describe increasing dislike and animosity between liberals and conservatives, while researchers unceasingly rattle off numbers in an attempt to gauge the effects of increased polarization.
The 2020 election was the umpteenth telltale sign of how difficult it will be to bridge that gap, a feat that President-elect Joe Biden will have to take on. It is no coincidence that, in a Pew Research Center survey conducted in October, eight-in-ten voters claimed that their differences with the other side were not just about politics but especially about “core American values.”
But what if this national divide actually begins at a brain level? What can liberals’ and conservatives’ brains tell us about what we have been witnessing in this election and in several other aspects of our lives?
A group of neuroscientists and psychologists from the University of California, John Hopkins University, and Stanford University have recently tried to answer that question. In a study published in October, they found evidence of what they have called “neural polarization,” which they described as “activity in the brain that diverges between people who hold liberal versus conservative political attitudes.” The researchers asked 38 participants to watch 24 videos on six different immigration policies and scanned their brains to explore the neural processing underlying their political beliefs. Prior to the experiment, participants indicated their support for each policy on a 7-point scale. To assess the existence of neural polarization, the authors used a specific measure referred to as “inter-subject correlation,” which evaluates how similarly two brains react to the same content.
The authors were surprised to see that liberals and conservatives shared similar responses in their primary auditory and visual cortices. This finding suggested that political attitudes didn’t bias their sensory attention — something that would have confirmed the idea that people tend to pay closer attention to information supporting their own beliefs.
However, something radically different happened in their dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain responsible for the interpretation of narratives. Put simply, their brain activity showed that “conservative and liberal participants were interpreting the content of those videos differently,” Yuan Chang Leong, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California and the lead author of the study, said in a phone interview. “They weren’t literally seeing something different. What was happening is that neural responses diverged in a part of the brain which cares about making sense of information.” And among the other findings of their study, Leong and his colleagues discovered that specific terms, such as “risk,” “security,” “violation,” “harm,” and “compassion,” were more likely to be associated with “greater divergence in neural responses.” In other words, neural polarization increased when participants were exposed to moral-emotional and threat-related language.
What does this study tell us about political polarization? Certainly, it provides new, intriguing evidence on something we have known for a long time — as Leong put it, that “political beliefs have a powerful influence over how people perceive, interpret, and respond to information.”
For years, psychologists and social scientists have been trying to fathom the reasons why facts do not change the opinions we hold, highlighting how our minds tend to embrace information confirming our beliefs and reject what contradicts them — a phenomenon referred to as “confirmation bias.”
Take the pandemic. The numbers are unequivocal — according to John Hopkins University’s data, more than 242,000 Americans have died from the virus. Still, 76 percent of Republicans believe that the U.S. has done a good job handling the pandemic, a view shared by only 29 percent of those who do not identify with the Republican Party. Against this background, this new study pinpoints “a neural basis for partisan biases,” outlining how, on a brain level, those biases come into play when people with different political beliefs process and interpret identical information. That is why, according to Leong, “trying to persuade participants with more information might not be the most effective strategy.” “We actually have to make an effort to think about how to frame information so that they do not create greater polarization,” the neuroscientist explained.
However, it is equally important to recognize what this study, along with other works that explore the nuanced interplay between political ideologies and the functioning of the brain, might fall short of explaining about polarization. First and foremost, why is this happening? Why has the percentage of Americans who “would be somewhat or very unhappy if their child married someone of the opposite party” increased by about 35 percentage points over the last 50 years? How did things get so far? Is this really all about how our brains work?
Does It All Come Down to the Brain?
While Leong’s study does not go beyond the description of different neural responses between liberals and conservatives in processing information, other works in political neuroscience have even suggested that leftists and rightists, as well as thinking and interpreting information differently, also show a divergent brain structure. According to John Jost, a professor of Psychology and Politics and the co-director of the Center for Social and Political Behavior at New York University, two major studies are directly relevant to that particular question.
One was run in 2011 by a group of researchers at University College London and counts among its authors the Oscar-winning British actor Colin Firth, who had commissioned the experiment for his guest-editing slot on BBC Radio 4’s Today. Firth was curious to see if a deeper, more scientific explanation could be found for the growing political polarization that he was witnessing in the U.K.
The authors scanned the brains of a group of University College London students who had identified themselves as either liberals or conservatives and found a few notable differences. “People who identified themselves as more politically conservative had more gray matter volume in the amygdala,” a structure in the brain related to the processing of “potential threats in the environment, but also social hierarchies, socially significant information, and emotionally highly arousing information,” Professor Jost explained in a Zoom interview. On the other hand, people who identified as more liberal had more gray matter volume in the anterior cingulate cortex, which “is involved in the identification of potentially conflicting pieces of information” and determines “how you resolve inconsistencies and respond when things in the environment are not what you expected them to be,” he said.
Those findings were consistent with a study that Professor Jost, along with colleagues from New York University and the University of California, had run in 2007. Left-leaning and right-leaning participants were asked to perform a computer task that required them to learn a habitual response pattern. Every now and then, they were presented with an unexpected stimulus “to see how quickly they were able to switch from the dominant habitual response to a response that was more unexpected and surprising,” Jost said.
Liberals turned out to be better at the task — they were able to handle contradictory information and consequently adapt their behavior more easily and quickly than conservatives. “They made fewer mistakes, they were in that sense more cognitively flexible, whereas conservatives were more cognitively persistent and focused on the dominant response,” the NYU professor explained. And because the authors observed a spike in liberals’ brainwaves precisely localized in the anterior cingulate cortex, the same brain region where Firth’s study found more gray matter volume, they concluded that “even at the neurological level liberals were more attentive to the potential conflict.”
Beyond the Brain
To some extent, those works seem to confirm the “perfect conservative” and “perfect liberal” sketches accurately drawn by a massive body of literature in social psychology over the last 70 years. Right-leaning people have been described as more cognitively “rigid,” more close-minded and dogmatic, more intolerant of ambiguity, more likely to experience socio-economic fear, and, as a result, less prone to social change than left-leaning people. Moreover, conservatives have been widely characterized as much more focused on the preservation of the status quo and of “what had been acquired” — something that the German social psychologist and psychoanalyst Erich Fromm called, as early as 1947, “hoarding orientation.”
However, it is also apparent that those differences underpinning political ideologies can hardly be reduced to the size of a particular brain area. For instance, a 2015 study carried out by a group of researchers from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam contradicted the “rigidity of the right” theory, maintaining that political extremes in general, and not only right-wing voters, are likely to experience socio-economic fear and derogate out-groups. If we assumed that leftists’ and rightists’ brains are biologically different, that finding would be simply inexplicable.
That’s where more nuanced approaches to political difference come into play. In the early 1970s, the British psychologist Glenn Wilson argued that both genetic and environmental factors — such as intelligence and anxiety on one hand, and parental treatment, social class, and self-esteem on the other — could influence political orientation. A number of studies built on that theory, finding, for example, that fearful children were more likely to become conservative adults. The American cognitive linguist George Lakoff has recently linked liberals’ and conservatives’ views of the nation to their divergent approaches to childrearing. According to Lakoff, while conservatives prefer “the strict father model,” based on good manners, discipline, and respect for authorities, liberals place a greater value on a “nurturant parent model,” founded on creativity and curiosity. Other works have explained polarization in terms of moral principles, with a 2012 cross-cultural study that found progressives more likely to value benevolence and universalism, as opposed to rightists’ greater attachment to conformity, security, tradition, and power.
According to Professor Jost, each of these approaches captures “part of the puzzle.” To understand the divide, “it’s useful to think in terms of personality differences, but it’s also useful to think in terms of the contents of values, attitudes, or beliefs that differ between people on the left and people on the right,” he said. As the NYU professor put it, this interweaving of factors might be explained in terms of “reciprocal causality”: “We couldn’t say that the psychology causes the polarization or the polarization causes the psychology, but maybe it’s some of both.” And because “all those things are instantiated, in some way, in our brains, there’s going to be physiological differences presumably as well.”
In other words, not only is there no scientific basis for maintaining that an inborn, neurological difference determines people’s political attitudes but adopting a single approach to interpret polarization might end up being misleading.
After all, if biology were everything, how could we explain the geographic distribution of political polarization? It is no secret that urban voters tend to adopt liberal views, while rural voters are more likely to be conservative — a trend that the 2020 election confirmed. Does this mean that people living in rural areas have more grey matter volume in their amygdala than people living in cities? Of course, it is way more complicated than that. While some studies have pointed to the clashing viewpoints ingrained in different communities — shaped by divergent socio-economic conditions and life experiences — other works, including a 2018 Pew Research Center’s survey, have highlighted the differences in the “partisan composition of urban, suburban and rural areas.” In 2019, University of North Carolina professor Rahsaan Maxwell suggested that driven by macro-economic trends, “different types of people decide to live in different geographic areas in the first place.”
Similarly, the physiological approach doesn’t tell anything about the socio-economic and generational dimensions of polarization, with highly educated adults and millennials more likely to adopt liberal positions. Neither can it explain why political attitudes are not always constant over time — even though some studies suggest that partisanship is usually acquired at a young age and rarely changes over the life cycle. Still, if different elections might have different outcomes, that means that people’s political attitudes — regardless of their brain structure — can change.
Affective Polarization and Political Dynamics: What Biology Can’t Explain
Even more important, what biology can’t really explain is the origin of affective polarization — namely the mutual dislike between liberals and conservatives — as well as the reasons for its growth. In other words, what accounts for the fact that about 64 percent of Democrats and 55 percent of Republicans claim they have “just a few” or “no” close friends who identify themselves with the opposite party — and why has this trend become more salient over time? While there are no simple answers to that question, there must be something else beyond differences in people’s brain structure.
A 2018 paper by Stanford professor Shanto Iyengar and other researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and Dartmouth College framed the issue in terms of social identity. When people identify themselves with a political party, they tend to divide up the world into an “in-group” (their own party) and an “out-group” (the opposing party), a distinction that psychologically triggers negative feelings for the latter. But some external factors may have contributed to exacerbating the divide.
One is the high-choice and fragmented media environment and the proliferation of partisan news, which “makes those with extreme attitudes even more extreme.” But also the mainstream media coverage on polarization could very well have played a part. In 2016, it was estimated that the number of stories describing how much America is divided had increased by 20 percent compared to 2000.
This almost obsessive focus on polarization may have ended up exacerbating the animosity between liberals and conservatives. “The exposure to media coverage on polarization leads people to perceive more polarization,” Yanna Krupnikov, an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Stony Brook University, said in a phone interview. “So the more you hear about people being divided, the more you perceive that people are divided. It becomes like a circle,” she explained.
On top of that, harsh political campaigns, particularly prone to portray the competitors as “an existential threat,” may work as exacerbating factors as well. It is no surprise that, as Iyengar’s study highlighted, “across recent election cycles, people were 50–150 percent more affectively polarized by Election Day than they were a year earlier.”
Also, the fact that people are becoming more and more embedded into their own ideological online and offline communities might have played a part. Plunged into their own “bubble,” partisans are isolated from each other and more likely to encounter only “like-minded voices,” something that ends up reinforcing dislike for the other side. To be clear, there is no agreement on the fact that on social media, users are not actually “seeing” the other part. According to the sociologist Zeynep Tufekci, the real issue is that they see a caricatural and inflammatory version of it.
Whatever the case, seen through these lenses, it is no surprise that, as a 2018 study found, after the 2016 election Thanksgiving dinners where family members and guests supported opposing political parties lasted 30 to 50 minutes less than in same-party reunions. In other words, many Americans chose to cut short their Thanksgiving family parties rather than find themselves caught up in endless debates with their most politically problematic relatives. As a result, up to 34 million hours of lively Thanksgiving discussions about U.S. politics were lost in the whole country.
On the political and ideological side of the issue, Iyengar and his colleagues argue that, over the last 50 years, partisan and ideological identities have grown more and more aligned, gradually including different salient social identities, such as religion and race. Put simply, that is why White evangelicals tend to be overwhelmingly Republican, while African Americans usually identify themselves as Democrats. We could describe it as a vicious cycle where all these social identities are reinforcing themselves. As a result, people increasingly perceive members of the out-group as irreparably distant from themselves.
According to Robert Shapiro, an International and Public Affairs professor at Columbia University, polarization emerged distinctively in the 1970s after the civil rights movement, which represented the culmination of a process that made the political parties more and more distinctive on a large number of issues. Clearly, those political dynamics fall well outside the scope of the “biological” approach to political difference. “I’m not sure what the point of that is and how far that gets you,” Professor Shapiro said in this regard in a Zoom interview. “The things that are more concerning are the kinds of things that happen in real politics and that can lead to changes in people’s attitudes and behavior,” he explained. In other words, those changes would be very hard to explain if the reasons for polarization were only confined to our brains.
That is why, to analyze the current divide, Shapiro adopts a historical approach. With the civil rights movement transforming the U.S. political landscape, he argued, polarization along ideological lines began at the level of political leaders, and then slowly penetrated public opinion. But if in the past it was the public who followed the leaders, now “the leaders are constrained by the public that they have created,” he explained. In other words, “if political leaders want to moderate their views, they might have to worry about being challenged in a primary election by someone who is more extreme,” someone who “the voters in a particular district or state support.”
But what about the “Trump factor”? Shapiro believes that the current polarization would exist even without Donald Trump. “What Trump has added to this is just a heightened degree of incivility and bullying in politics,” he said. In his view, the COVID-19 crisis turned out to be an opportunity that America missed. “Some of us thought that a national crisis would pull the country together, like after World War II. We had situations like these in the past: there was the Gulf War, which in the early 1990s unified the nation briefly. There was 9/11. There was the Iraq war,” he said.
The question, now, is whether Biden, who has already presented himself as a unifier, will rise to the challenge. But according to the Columbia University professor, the hopes are slim: “The widening of the division that is occurring and the emotional level of the current division seem to be such that, at this point,” bridging that gap “might be very difficult.”
What is certain is that, if biology were everything — if it all came down to immutable differences embedded in our brain — the mission of reconciling the nation would not be just difficult: it would simply be impossible. | https://medium.com/@giuliaalicepozzi/red-and-blue-brains-what-biology-can-and-cannot-tell-us-about-political-polarization-8524a76838b5 | ['Giulia Alice Pozzi'] | 2021-06-12 07:02:18.747000+00:00 | ['Democrats', 'Republicans', 'USA', 'Political Polarization', '2020 Election'] |
12 Career Exit Strategy Self Coaching Questions | 12 Career Exit Strategy Self Coaching Questions
Here are some simple self-coaching prompts to work on in your own time.
1. How many hours a week do you want to be working?
2. How much money do you want to be making?
3. How much money can you live on?
4. What lifestyle adjustments will you need to make?
5. Do you want to be employed or be your own boss?
6. How do you want to spend your time?
7. What kind of people do you want to surround yourself with?
8. Where do you want to be living? ( city, countryside, downsize from home to apartment etc.?
9. What do you want to do to socialise?
10. What do you want to do for personal growth?
11. What do you want to do for your health?
12.What will you do now to take action on any of the above areas if it’s important enough for you?
For more self-coaching prompts and advice, see my company page on LinkedIn or my website. | https://medium.com/@paulineharley/12-career-exit-strategy-self-coaching-questions-13a351a64adc | ['Pauline Harley'] | 2020-12-21 12:24:45.424000+00:00 | ['Career Paths', 'Career Planning', 'Change Your Life', 'Career Change', 'Career Coaching'] |
Motion compensation in HEVC | The HEVC standard implements all of the above ideas that provide the best inter-frame prediction “quality”. This involves the ability to specify the prediction vector with 1/4-pixel accuracy, use one- and bi-directional prediction, vary adaptively the shape and size of the image areas being predicted, create long (up to 15 elements) reference frame lists, and use motion vector prediction algorithms so that only information about the difference vectors (mvd) is added to the encoded stream. How is this all implemented? Let’s find out.
Reference image information
It is clear that to implement inter-prediction, the encoding and decoding systems must have a memory buffer to store the decoded images. This buffer is called a DPB (from Decoded Picture Buffer). Some images in DPB are “waiting” for their turn to be displayed on the screen (in the decoding system), while others stay in the buffer to enable inter-prediction when coding other video frames. The frames that are going to be used for inter-prediction have to be tagged in some way during coding, and the information about these tags must be added to the encoded video stream. There are two types of such tags in HEVC. The first is called short-term reference. It is used to tag those images in the DPB that can be used as inter-prediction reference frames for blocks in the current frame or in the two closest subsequent video frames (in the order of decoding). The second type of tag, called long-term reference, concerns those frames in DPB that can be used to predict image blocks in frames that are more than two frames away from the current one (again, in the order of decoding). All images in the DPB that are not tagged as short-term reference or long-term reference are considered unused for reference and cannot be used at a later time to perform inter-prediction. The information about these tags is added to the header of each frame in the encoded video stream. This information is called the Reference Picture Set (RPS).
Each frame in the encoded video stream has an identifier, or POC (from Picture Order Counter). In the most simplified interpretation, the POC value can be viewed as the ordinal number of the image in the video sequence*. The information from which the POC can be determined is put into the encoded stream for each image by the encoding system. Thus, all decoded images in the DPB have unique POC values. It is these values that are used to tag short-term reference and long-term reference video frames in the DBP.
*Note. In actual fact, each frame’s POC value is not unique in the entire video sequence. Usually, an encoded HEVC stream contains frames that have been coded using intra-frame prediction, or I-frames. Reference images are of course not needed to decode such frames. When all frames that follow such an I-frame in the video sequence are predicted (uni- or bi-directionally) using only those reference frames that are located after the I-frame, the POC value for this I-frame is set to zero. Therefore, the POC values are only unique within a group of video frames related to each other via P- or B-prediction. Note also that when I-frames are being decoded or encoded, all DPB content is tagged as unused for reference — in other words, the Reference Picture Set (RPS) is cleared.
First of all, information about the POC values of those frames that are to be tagged as short-term reference is added to the RPS description in the encoded stream. Since not all reference images that have made it into the RPS are used for predicting the current video frame, each POC value in the RPS description is appended with a flag (a single bit) which, if zero, indicates that this reference image is not used in the prediction of the current frame. Accordingly, if this flag has a value of 1, it indicates that this reference image is used for predicting the current video frame.
The information about the positions of the frames tagged as long-term reference forms a separate list in the RPS. This list contains POC values (the scenarios here can vary, but let us not labor the point), each of which is accompanied by the value of a single-bit flag. This flag serves the same purpose as the one for short-term reference. If it has a value of 1, it indicates that this reference image is used for predicting the current video frame.
The POC values for the frames in the DPB tagged as short-term reference or long-term reference are used to create reference picture lists during the preparation stage of inter-prediction. When uni-directional prediction (P-prediction) is to be performed, one such list is created called RefPicList0. For B-prediction, two lists are created: RefPicList0 and RefPicList1. Naturally, these lists are only formed from the POC values of those tagged frames in the DPB that have the flag in the RPS set to 1. The lengths of these lists are transmitted in the encoded stream. The POC values are added until the lists are full. Initially, the RefPicList0 list is populated with the POC values for the short-term reference frames that precede the current frame in the video sequence, i.e. those that have a POC value lower than the current frame’s POC. These frames are sorted by POC in descending order, meaning that the lowest index in the RefPicList0 list belongs to the short-term reference frame that has a POC value closest to the current frame’s POC but not exceeding it. If the list is not full after the addition, it then is consecutively populated with all short-term reference frames that have a POC value higher than the current frame’s POC. These frames are sorted in ascending order of POC value. Finally, if the list is still not full, it is populated with frames tagged in the RPS as long-term reference.
The RefPicList1 list is formed in a similar fashion, the only difference being that it is first populated with the short-term reference frames that have a POC value higher than the current frame’s POC. As before, these frames are sorted in ascending order of POC value. Next, the list is populated with the short-term reference frames that have a POC value lower than the current frame’s POC, sorted in descending order of POC value. At the final step, the RefPicList1 list is populated with the POC values of frames tagged as long-term reference.
The RefPicList0 and RefPicList1 lists thus formed make it possible to use the reference image indexes stored in these lists inside the encoded stream as pointers to a certain frame in the DPB that should be used for predicting the block being coded in the current video frame.
Motion vector prediction
In HEVC, the result of motion vector prediction for each block being encoded or decoded is a list of two motion vectors. For each block of the image being coded, the encoded video stream carries an index valued 0 or 1 that indicates which list element is to be used as the mvp.
The main idea in forming this list is that there is a high probability that the motion vector for the current block will bear little difference from the motion vectors for the adjacent blocks coded earlier, which can thus be used as a prediction. This simple idea is augmented by another one. The reference frame list is highly likely to contain a frame that differs slightly from the current one. Therefore, the motion vector for a block located in a frame from this list at the same or almost the same position as the block being coded may well serve as a good prediction. Overall, this list is formed using two motion vectors for the adjacent blocks CandA and CandB located in the current frame and a motion vector from the so-called co-located block that resides in one of the reference frames. The index of the reference frame that contains co-located blocks for all blocks of the current image is transmitted in the header part of the image being coded.
The list of two candidates is formed as follows. First, motion vectors for the blocks CandA and CandB are added to the list if they are both available (i.e. they exist and have already been coded), are coded in the inter-prediction mode, and differ from each other. If these blocks have identical motion vectors, only one vector is added to the list. If the list does not contain two elements after adding the motion vectors for the adjacent blocks CandA and CandB, the motion vector for the co-located block is added to it. If the list is still not fully populated, the empty positions are filled with zero motion vectors.
Figure 1.Examples of candidate block locations relative to the current block being coded (shown in gray color)
The CandA candidate block is selected from two blocks, CandA0 and CandA1, that are located to the left of the current one. As already mentioned, HEVC allows for adaptive division of video image into blocks for coding. As a result, there are many possible configurations of the blocks located to the left of the current block. Figure 1 shows several of these configurations. The choice between the blocks CandA0 and CandA1 is determined by the location of two pixels denoted as PA0 and PA1 in Figure 1. CandA0 is the image block that contains PA0, and CandA1 is the block that contains PA1.
The CandB candidate block is selected from three blocks, CandB0, CandB1 and CandB2. The choice is determined by the location of three pixels denoted as PB0, PB1, and PB2 in Figure 1. CandB0 is the block that contains PB0, CandB1 is the block that contains PB1, and CandB2 is the block that contains PB2.
To summarize, the first step of forming the list of two blocks {CandA, CandB} is to select one candidate from the blocks CandA0 and CandA1 and another candidate from the blocks CandB0, CandB1, and CandB2. The selection is performed in the numerical order of the candidate blocks. In other words, when the block CandA is being chosen, CandA0 is checked first, followed by CandA1. The check verifies that the following conditions are satisfied:
The candidate block has already been coded, specifically in the inter-prediction mode. The candidate block has the same reference frame as the block to be coded.
If both conditions are satisfied, the candidate block is put into the {CandA, CandB} list in the corresponding position. For instance, if the block CandA0 has been coded in the inter-prediction mode and has the same reference frame as the block to be coded, it is put into the list as CandA. If none of the candidate blocks satisfy condition 2, the first candidate block that satisfies condition 1 is put into the list. In this case, to use the motion vector of that block as the mvp, it needs to be scaled according to the following equation:
where tb is the difference between the POC values of the frame to be coded and the reference frame of the block to be coded; td is the difference between the POC values of the frame containing the block from the list and its reference frame; and mv is the motion vector for the block from the list. The notation introduced here is illustrated in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Notation used for scaling. The example shown in the figure has t_b=25–23=2. t_d=23–19=
If none of the candidate blocks CandA0 and CandA1 satisfy condition 1, the first available block from the set of candidate blocks CandB0, CandB1, and CandB2 is put into the list as the CandA element.
As already mentioned, if the list {CandA, CandB} is still not fully populated after checking the spatial candidate blocks, the so-called co-located block is added to the list. This block is located in the reference frame whose number is carried in the header part of the frame being coded. The co-located block can be one of the two candidate blocks in the reference frame with coordinates relative to the block being coded defined as shown in Figure 3. If the candidate block containing the pixel C0 satisfies the conditions for use as the co-located block (i.e. it has been coded in the inter-prediction mode and belongs to the LCU with the same number as the block being coded), it is put in the first vacant position in the list {CandA, CandB}. Otherwise, the candidate block containing pixel С1 is put in this position — again, provided that it satisfies the conditions for use as the co-located block.
After adding the co-located block to the list {CandA, CandB}, the remaining empty positions in the list are filled with zero motion vectors.
Figure 3. The position of the co-located block
About the author
Oleg Ponomarev, 16 years in video encoding and signal digital processing, expert in Statistical Radiophysics, Radio waves propagation. Assistant Professor, PhD at Tomsk State University, Radiophysics department. Head of Elecard Research Lab. | https://videocompressionguru.medium.com/motion-compensation-in-hevc-af4437f89186 | ['Elecard Company'] | 2020-11-25 09:07:30.303000+00:00 | ['Broadcasting', 'Hevc', 'Telecommunication', 'Encoding', 'Avc'] |
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