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Rik ki awaaz mai!! | He’s known by many names, and has a mini-fan base to go along with it, he’s the one who is responsible for many big launches- ladies and gentlemen presenting this month’s employee interview candidate the one and only Rikpratim Majumdar (commonly known as Rik)
First off, how would Rik describe his journey at eWards?
Rik: After being around for almost a year and a half, I would describe it as a pretty usual journey- when I joined as an intern I was shy, and had my own particular corner (we shall rename this as Rik’s spot). The analyst team consisted of Manish, Ashish, Saloni, Ritika and me, that was it and later Saloni left. Rik’s spot (as we’ve renamed it) was two places to the left of Divya and when she went on leave for her marriage, I started drifting more into the corner and ultimately made it my own spot. I hardly used to interact with the others, apart from the occasional lunch. But, even then I would purposely have lunch right after the others in order to avoid going out or having lunch with the others (quite the tactic for saving lunch to yourself J), and then one fine day I get to know that I am the talk of the town- it still remains a mystery (how just how).
This became a turning point- I finally started coming out of my shell and then Sharad joined (fresh draft in the analyst team), and as I got to know him (that he is Sharad) we became quick friends, mostly because we were the only guys in the analyst team (apart from Ashish and Manish).
There’s also this journey from Ac Market to Everest House. First we shifted to Open House where life changed- side effects included forgetting the 6:30 pm wrap up time, not leaving the office even after sunset, new work responsibilities and of course the tech team grind.
Next we moved to Everest and I really loved it- Open house did not click with me because it felt like working in a warehouse, Everest House felt like an office- with your own space and the first thing that I did was search for a new Rik’s spot. Since then the interns we worked with are filled with wonderful experiences — I’ve experienced 3 sets of interns from the Sanjana squad to Mahima squad to the present squad (interns take note).
Coming to the lockdown chapter- it started in the classic tech team way, hours and hours of calls, mails and meetings, the initial days were absolutely exhausting. Once we got a hold of it we sort of balanced the demands, whether it was sending EOD mails to Manish, or conducting regular meetings we got into it.
There’s also the journey of going from an intern to Senior Analyst- how’d it go for Rik?
When I had initially joined in Feb 2019, my Masters was confirmed and I had joined with the intention of working for 6 months and then moving on, that did not happen -I fell in love with the place because of the nature of work and people- it was diverse, you don’t have to stick to task A or task B. Due to this I deferred my Masters by a year, and now after a glorious journey I’ll be moving on to pursue my Masters (we’ll miss you L)
What are the challenges that you find while working in eWards?
I wouldn’t call it a challenge, rather I would call it my own challenge- I do get nervous when I have to talk with sir from time to time (yes, sir is aware about it too); When I came for my interview I remember Sir was in the cabin and Manish was running late, and sir took my interview. When it was over I was not expecting any offer, and then when I got my offer letter I was shocked- but it was worth it.
Communication with Sir was a challenge for me, I basically did not how to disagree with sir’s opinions and felt a little intimidated. Overcoming that was quite an achievement, the challenge does come from time to time but now I am at a level where I can communicate with Sir more openly.
Great, now what does Rik like about his job and eWards?
Firstly, everyone that works in eWards is of my same age group, the company consists of young minds which makes it a different office experience and everyone is approachable. I also like the freedom I have with regards to my work, the freedom makes it worthwhile.
Secondly, the team that works under me- being responsible for them, being responsible for work being delivered and managing them, and finally as a Product Brainiac I love the research part- it teaches you a lot.
Next, most memorable moment at eWards?
It was around May last year, when there was a mess up which required us to work a lot, we would stay and work till 12:00 or 12:30 am, and when we finally made the breakthrough we felt relieved and had a feeling of invincibility- we could do and achieve anything.
This one was a collective effort that remains a memorable moment for all of us. Also I remember Manish’s words- “You can have all the experience and skill, but in the end if you don’t have heart then you won’t stick around during tough times.”
Quite inspiring, but we cannot miss out on embarrassing moments?
Ummm….I have one, this was during last year (2019) conference when a lot of people were called to speak up- my speech was on trend reports, and while I intended to say that if you see an error you can report it to me, I ended up saying “the trend reports that you see, that is my work” which was frankly quite embarrassing. (You can imagine the crowd reaction)
Your favourite person(s) in eWards (Yes, it’s time for the real questions)
The good part- there are multiple names, the bad part- Rik had a tough time deciding on the names, but here goes.
There are a few with whom I share a very good friendship that goes beyond formal office friendship- these people are my friends on a personal level too, I can talk to them about personal things too.
Sharad is definitely on the list, followed by Karishma and Paridhi, and then there’s Shreya and Sneha. (Plays Yaaro Dosti in the background).
Plus there’s Ritika with whom I share a good friendship, and Abhishek, Radhika. I’ve learnt a lot of client communication and sales related practices from Abhishek, and when it comes to Radhika, I have a simple sentence- if I ever had to shift my team, I would choose Radhika’s silo, the way she manages her team, the way her team is united is admirable, she’s like a balance between casual and formal (Basically her leadership qualities)
If I actually ever had to shift my team I would shift to either Abhishek’s team or Radhika’s team. (There’s so much to learn from them)
If you could change anything at eWards?
In a very innocent voice- working hours and of course- AC’s in Everest House (ha ha)
What will you miss about eWards?
First off, eWards has helped me come out of my shell (overcoming shyness), helped me develop a structured approach for research, developed man-management skills, and taught me to be a leader.
I will really miss sending those messages along with the entire tech team for any closures.
And, finally as my closing words I will state that the culture around eWards is brilliant- you can approach sir, you can learn from anyone and everyone, and most importantly eWards empowers women, it’s different from a majority of the tech companies around. | https://medium.com/myewards/rik-ki-awaaz-mai-87022bdaf7fe | [] | 2020-12-23 08:05:26.697000+00:00 | ['Employee Engagement'] |
Linguistic Knowledge in Natural Language Processing | Ever since diving into Natural Language Processing (NLP), I’ve always wanted to write something rather introductory about it at a high level, to provide some structure in my understanding, and to give another perspective of the area — in contrast to the popularity of doing NLP using Deep Learning.
Stages of analysis in NLP
NLP Pyramid — Coursera Natural Language Processing
Given a sentence, traditionally the following are the different stages on how a sentence would be analyzed to gain deeper insights.
1. Morphology
At this stage we care about the words that make up the sentence, how they are formed, and how do they change depending on their context. Some examples of these include:
Prefixes/suffixes
Singularization/pluralization
Gender detection
Word inflection (modification of word to express different grammatical categories such tenses, case, voice etc..). Other forms of inflection includes conjugation (inflection of verbs) and declension (inflection of nouns, adjectives, adverbs etc…).
Lemmatization (the base form of the word, or the reverse of inflection)
Spell checking
Morphological analysis of a sentence — Spacy.io
2. Syntax (Parsing)
In this stage, we focus more on the relationship of the words within a sentence — how a sentence is constructed.
In a way, syntax is what we usually refer to as grammar — NLP For Hackers
To derive this understanding, syntactical analysis is usually done at a sentence-level, where as for morphology the analysis is done at word level. When we’re building dependency trees or processing parts-of-speech — we’re basically analyzing the syntax of the sentence.
Dependency tree of a sentence — Spacy.io
3. Semantics
Once we’ve understood the syntactic structures, we are more prepared to get into the “meaning” of the sentence (for a fun read on what meaning can actually mean in NLP — head over here to dive into a Twitter discussion on the subject ).
Some example of tasks performed at this stage include:
Named Entity Recognition (NER)
Relationship Extraction
Named entity recognition of a sentence — Spacy.io
In the above example from Spacy for example; Google, Apple and Amazon has been tagged as an organization based on it’s NER annotator. While Google and Amazon is a straightforward case, Apple is rather different since it could either be a fruit or a the company — Apple. In this case, the result given is based off of a prediction based on statistical analysis from trained dataset.
4. Pragmatics
At this level, we try to understand the text as a whole. Popular problems that we’re trying to solve at this stage are:
Topic modelling Coreference/Anaphora Summarization Question & Answering
Summary
NLP as an area of study isn’t something that’s actually new. And if one is already well versed in Deep Learning, one could also be forgiven to think that traditional NLP methods (ie. breaking texts into smaller structures, parsing, annotate meanings) are no longer needed.
However in cases where labelled data are hard to come by, and high precision is needed (for example when one is hard pressed for time with a tight deadline and the results really need to be accurate else the product wouldn’t be launched) — is where traditional NLP really shines.
Understanding the above topics aren’t really something that is needed for one to be able to solve NLP-related tasks. For me, it’s more of a way to put into perspective where does the different problems that I’ve solved previously belong to and what are the other gaps or areas where I could improve on.
Disclaimer: In writing this I did a lot of read up on Coursera’s NLP course, Wikipedia, and my latest favourite website for NLP materials — NLP for Hackers. Most likely some of the stuff you see here are a mishmash between those sources, so be forewarned that I might forget to properly reference their content where needed.
References:
[1] Natural Language Processing | Coursera
[2] Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[3] Natural Language Processing — Introduction — NLP-FOR-HACKERS
[4] Linguistic Features, Spacy.io | https://towardsdatascience.com/linguistic-knowledge-in-natural-language-processing-332630f43ce1 | ['Hafidz Zulkifli'] | 2018-08-27 13:33:42.515000+00:00 | ['Naturallanguageprocessing', 'Linguistics', 'NLP', 'Data Science', 'Machine Learning'] |
I didn't know knowledge has so much power | I didn't know knowledge has so much power
She was in my arms. We were staring at the night sky. I am talking about myself and my little niece. Few days before I told her that those shiny things in the sky are called stars.
Last night, she told the same to me, “Look there, stars,” in a proud tone. I said “Who said they are stars? They aren’t stars and all.” She got triggered and immediately slapped my face, not minding that I was holding her.
Yeah, maybe knowledge is power. | https://medium.com/everything-shortform/i-didnt-know-knowledge-has-so-much-power-84cd098ca076 | ['Pretheesh Presannan'] | 2020-12-18 09:55:29.265000+00:00 | ['Short Read', 'Funny', 'Humor', 'Creative Writing'] |
UHive a social network that pays back its users in cryptocurrency. | Please visit to download app www.uhive.com and use referral code PMHETG to get Free 300 UHive Tokens
Follow UHive on following
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I remember when I was a kid, I had to change school every 3 years due to frequent transfers of my father due to his nature of the job. He uses to be a central govt employee and had to transfer to a new location every 3 years. So in these 3 years, I use to make some best friends and at the end of the third year I had to leave and it was heartbreaking for me. The telephone was a luxury in those days. Later we too got a landline and it was somewhat better now But still, communication was limited, phone bills were huge. slowly things changed when the mobile phone came into the market.
I remember the first phone that I bought for 1500 INR. with a small display and standard analogue tunes :).
The Internet revolution, In 1995, the first time I went to Internet cafe and it was exciting, that little “e” (Symbol of the internet explorer) on the top left corner of the browser moving made it all look like a sci-fi movie scene. But the internet speed uses to be too slow, in fact, it was so slow in those days that to download a 20 KB image it uses to take around 5 to 10 minutes and had some basic messenger like MICR. So basically your 1 hour time will be lost in just loading page, and it was so frustrating.
Fast forward to 2004: Internet got much better and it became a necessity rather than a luxury. I just graduated from college and joined a software firm. Internet became part of my daily life and work because I use to develop web applications. In the meantime, I heard about Orkut, the first Social Network to reach India. I signed up and I could already see most of my friends were there. We had a lot of fun posting scraps on each others wall and then wishing birthdays and being in touch and made some new friends.
Not just that, we searched for old friends and got connected to some old friends too. It was really amazing, Another major social network too was started at the same time but it took time to reach Indian people. I myself joined facebook in 2012.
So till then, Orkut was ruling Indian internet. Then another social network platform brought many new things into a social network like pages, Groups, Games, Marketing, Business etc. In fact, a social network became an integral part of our daily life. Allot happened since then, we fought for justice, we supported campings, we shared our memories, we celebrated events and occasions.
Some Facts (How much time you spend)
The average adult spends a minimum of 30 minutes on social network
Young people between 16 to 27 age group spend a minimum of 3 to 5 hours per day on the social network.
In fact, Projections show that an adult will spend 6 years and 8 months of their life on the social network.
Time is money and its time to change :
Now we know, how much time we spent on these social network platforms, but have you ever wondered, how these social network platforms generate income? How these social network companies became the richest companies within a span of 10 years? Well, you made them rich. ask How.
Digital Advertisements: A major social network claimed no less than 40% of US digital ad revenue in 2018 and ad revenue of $56 billion,
In 2019 the same social network raised 98.5 % of its revenue form Digital Advertisements and only 1.5 % from payments and subscriptions and its ad revenue is approx $70 billion USD.
it's now even more than that. So basically users are generating billions of dollars for those social network platforms.
Now ask a simple question “What am I getting?”
The answer is simple “We are getting Nothing”, You are not getting services for free, you are paying for those services with your time. Yes, Time is money and each minute you spend on a social network site, you generate income for that social network site.
UHive A social network which pays its most valuable investors (Users)
UHive is a blockchain-based social network which pays back its biggest and most important investors. Who are the most critical investors for any social media platform? What they invest? Well, the USER is the most important investor in any social media platform and TIME is the most valuable thing which is invested by users in any social media platform.
So unlike other social network platforms, UHive pays back its user for the content created and time spent by cycling back real value via Uhive tokens in exchange for time spent on app and engagement.
Following are the statistics of UHive since its Beta launch.
Since Beta Launch
300,000 users • 8 million posts • 1.2 Billion tokens in circulation as of 18-JAN-2021
Not just that, UHhive is committed to its Free world policy, i.e, unlike existing social networks, The Free World is a place where you can express yourself anonymously. Whether it’s sharing stories, experiences or just another side to your personality, your activity will never be logged or tracked, and your data deleted forever.
No Censorship, Controlled By users, Evaluated By Users. Being a blockchain-based social network it will be a distributed system which is not controlled by any single person or organization but is managed by a community of users.
UHive (HVE) Tokens :
www.uhive.com/tokens
Every minute you spend on UHive and every engagement activity you perform in Uhive like sharing your content and liking and sharing will generate income for you in form of UHive Tokens. At the end of the day, you get your UCoins credited into your UHive Tokens wallet.
1) Users can use UHive tokens to buy spaces and space names.
2) User can transfer UHive tokens to another user in Uhive.
3) User can trade Uhive tokens in tire-1 cryptocurrency exchange platforms from March 31st 2021
The Oasis
The Oasis is a virtual social universe where you can choose a category to jump in to and in each category you can see countless spaces. You can make one space for free in each category.
Spaces:
spaces are like pages where user can share their interests with the world, if you are a story writer then you can write stories and let the world read your stories. If you are a dancer, then showcase your talent on your space by uploading videos of your performance.
Following is the sample space created by me https://www.uhive.com/z/4TTDABQ
Every new user gets 1 free space in each category when they join and then they can buy more spaces if they need more. Spaces do have value and their value increases or decreases based on different factors like real estate. User can trade these spaces in future.
Bottom Navigation Menu:
Following menu can be found at bottom of UHive app which can be used to navigate to different sections of the app.
Is global space explorer where you can see posts from different users across multiple spaces
This will show you hot and trending posts from different users in your interests or from spaces you are following.
You can use this button to create content or to upload your videos or share photos or to share Youtube videos.
This button is a shortcut to your Profile.
This button will take you to The Oasis, where you can explore the UHive universe categories and spaces in those categories.
Space Names:
Space names are a unique name that you can give to your space. Each name is unique, so if you have used some name then no one else can use that name.
For example, I used a name ABC, if another user tries to use this name then he can’t use it as I already used it. Similar to Spaces, space names do have value, a new user gets 5 free space names and if he needs more space names then he needs to buy them using UHive tokens. Space Names too can be traded.
How To buy additional spaces or Space Name?
Open the app and click on three lines on the top left corner of your app to open Menu.
As soon as you click on the menu button, the menu will slide open and you can see different options to select.
Profile:
The profile is your section of the app which will show your following personal details
No Of posts you created across spaces. Your Favourite spaces Badges you earned Your followers Tokens Spaces you own
Store:
A store is a market place where you can buy Unive Tokens and Assets.
UHive Tokens: These tokens can be used to buy spaces and space names or can be traded in exchange platforms after March 31st 2021.
Assets :
Assets are Spaces and Space names, which can be bought using UHive Tokens, These Spaces and Space Names can be traded later to earn profits.
UHive is still very young and more and more features are being added by Uhive technical team.
But one this is sure, this is a trendsetter and is going to change the concept of Social Networking forever.
Free World
Now spending time on the social network is not something just for communication and entertainment. it's all about privacy and personal freedom. The major problem with other existing social networks is privacy, they track your each and every activity and store it or use it for their benefit or sell it to other companies.
Recently I came to know that one of the major social network platforms has been tracking all my app usage data without my knowledge. i.e What apps I have been using on my phone etc.
This is something really dangerous and breaches to your privacy.
UHive in other hand sticks to its Free world policy, it won't log your activity anywhere. What you post will be with you in your account, when you delete it, it's gone forever. So with UHive, you have the power to control what you want to share with the world
Freedom of speech
UHive respects the opinion of each and every user, and it values freedom of speech of every individual user.
So, What are you waiting for? Be part of the next big change in the world of the social network, Join me here (Please visit to download app www.uhive.com and use referral code PMHETG to get Free 300 UHive Tokens)
Follow UHive on following
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Instagram | https://medium.com/@gladshoppy/uhive-a-social-network-that-pays-back-its-users-in-cryptocurrency-eb4c7fcba348 | ['Prashanth Kamasamudram'] | 2021-02-10 20:16:25.896000+00:00 | ['Free Cryptocurrency', 'Airdrop', 'Uhive', 'Free', 'Blockchain'] |
The vale of ambiguity | I am slowly making my way through the course in the Imaginal, that Buddhist teacher Rob Burbea recorded at Gaia House from his bedroom as he coped with pancreatic cancer.
It’s a rich fusion of Buddhist ideas on emptiness and visualization with the Western tradition of the Imaginal, as found in James Hillman, Carl Jung, Frederic Myers, Henri Corbin, Keats, Coleridge, Blake and so on, all the way back to Plato and Aristotle.
At its heart is the idea that our ordinary sense of reality is fabricated. It’s a fiction, a dream, a story, what Buddhists call ‘a view’.
In the freaky week after I went on an ayahuasca retreat, in 2017, I thought I was dead or in a dream, and that I was perhaps imagining everything that was happening. I could only compare my experience to films like The Truman Show, Inception, Solaris or Twin Peaks.
The belief that you’re fabricating reality is quite a standard belief in psychotic breaks or spiritual emergencies.
Last week, the actor David Harewood bravely explored a psychotic episode he’d had two decades earlier, for a BBC documentary for mental health awareness week. He says: ‘The first time I saw the movie The Matrix I nearly fell out of my chair! It was exactly what it felt like when I was in the grip of my psychotic episode. I felt like the world was an artificial construct and I wasn’t real! Fun at the movies, not so much in the middle of London.’
Several of the contributors to the forthcoming book I’m co-editing on spiritual emergencies said they’d felt the same thing: this isn’t real, this is a dream or the afterlife.
There’s some wisdom in this madness. Cognitive scientists like Anil Seth tell us that our ordinary sense of reality really is constructed. He says: ‘We’re all halllucinating all the time. It’s just that when we agree on that hallucination, we call it reality.’
The canopy of our everyday reality is nailed in with the pegs of habitual expectations. We have deep automatic expectations that our self and the world today will be like they were yesterday. The sun will rise today just like yesterday. Our automatic mind runs a model which shapes our reality. That’s what the Buddhists call a ‘view’.
In moments of mystical or psychotic experience, the pegs of habitual expectation come out. Everything seems wonderfully or terrifyingly new. We are suddenly acutely aware of how fabricated ordinary reality is. Other myths can flood in from our subconscious. It can be a moment of dissolution and terror, but also of rebirth.
Advanced Buddhist practitioners can rest in the state of emptiness, observing the magic theatre calmly without reacting, even if wrathful deities come up and scream at them.
The Theravada / Vipassana tradition which Rob Burbea was trained in, for example, aims to see all stories as empty, and to rest in that emptiness.
But Rob has moved to more of a Tantric position — we can play with the emptiness, using visualizations, images, myths and metaphors. We can imagine new realities.
The 18th century Italian philosopher Giambattista Vico said: ‘Metaphors are myths in miniature’.
Our reality takes the shape of the metaphors we use to describe it.
We are ruled by our metaphors. Nature as brutal struggle. The selfish gene. The brain as computer.
If you think of the brain as a computer, your reality will take that shape. If you think of the mind as a mirror reflecting the divine, it will take that shape.
Mystical literature offers us metaphor-maps, imaginative scripts which we can use to expand our souls into many-roomed mansions. I’ve called this psycho-technics, or soul-craft.
Learning to play with the stories and images we use to shape reality is liberating, both for ourselves as individuals and as a society.
What causes suffering, according to Buddhism and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, is fixed, rigid views: ‘I am a loser. I must be liked by you. I mustn’t show weakness. I must always succeed. I’m no good at life. I will never find love.’ And so on. We tell ourselves very negative stories, have very negative images of ourselves, and we cling to our negative beliefs and defend them furiously. ‘No, seriously, I am no good!’
In another of the BBC mental health documentaries from last week, Nadiya Begum, the adorable winner of British Bake-Off, undertook a course of CBT for her chronic anxiety. She traced her panic attacks back to being bullied by racists at her school, and said she constantly had the image of her head being forced into a toilet by the bullies. She was stuck in that image, in her self-abusing self-talk, in the fixed beliefs ‘I am no good’, ‘I am not safe’.
The Upanishads say: ‘We are like the spider. We weave our life and then move along in it. We are like the dreamer who dreams and then lives in the dream.’
We weave the cocoon of our habitual ego-construction with threads of rumination, charged with extraordinary amounts of emotion. We weave a dream-image of ourselves and of the world, which is constantly playing, while we dream and while we wake. And we scream and cry and shout in our sleep. How heavy the dream feels. How solid and inescapable.
I hope Nadiya is finally following the thread out of the labyrinth, bless her.
My friend, who developed paranoid schizophrenia when he was 16, is absolutely sure everyone is trying to kill him. He’s believed this for years. He is also certain I am Lucifer. When he trusts me, he can begin to let go of this belief a little, and say ‘but maybe that’s just my projection’. But he’s still certain everyone is trying to kill him. He refuses to countenance any alternative hypothesis. And he thinks he is the most rational person alive. We are all like him, to some extent, all clinging to very toxic beliefs, all convinced we are right.
I wrote earlier this year about the myths and stories that imprison us as a society. ‘More is good.’ ‘More for you means less for me.’ ‘GDP must grow’. ‘Nature is an inanimate resource for us to exploit.’
Can we loosen our grip on these myths, and open ourselves to other stories, as New Zealand did this week with its first ‘well-being budget’?
In our personal lives, can we become aware of the myths, the fixed beliefs, the views, which shape us and perhaps imprison us? Can we play with other views — the view we more than ‘no good’, that we are perhaps luminous Buddhas or reflections of Divine Love?
We have to be subtle and careful here. Our alternative myths can collapse into fixed views as well. We can grasp onto the view: ‘I am God!’ We can fall into the trap of specialness. We can become lost in our fictions, like the poor Theosophists wrapped up in their absurd myths like some teenage fantasy nerd in his bedroom.
We need to hold everything lightly, and open up the possibility that my ordinary ego-centric reality, which feels so heavy on my shoulders sometimes, is just a fabrication, a web weaved of light and energy and story and attention.
I am talking to you in my sleep, and you are asleep as well, but something within us hears this and smiles.
Now I want to talk about one more thing.
This week I woke up from a difficult dream, and I found I was saying ‘this is the vale of ambiguity’.
In my dream I had a sense of all the challenging things in my life (and our lives) at the moment.
I felt a desire to run away to a cave somewhere and become a hermit-monk. Wouldn’t that tidy things up nicely?
But I woke up feeling, here is where the work is, in the painful messiness of everyday life.
This is the vale of soul-making, according to John Keats, where our souls grow through painful, messy, wonderful experiences.
And it’s also the vale of ambiguity.
Things are not clear in this dimension. That’s part of the agony and excitement.
It’s like the early stage of a romance, when it’s not clear if it’s a serious relationship or not, or is it perhaps the relationship…or is it just a rush?
There’s an unbearable ambiguity. And if you’re like me, you want to collapse the possibilities into fixed certainties, to peer into the box to see if Schrodinger’s cat is definitely dead or definitely alive.
Even if that means killing the cat. Better a definitely dead cat than this unbearable ambiguity.
Part of the work of this life (for me) is to learn how to breathe and tolerate ambiguity, without rushing into fixed, rigid views.
Can I develop my tolerance for uncomfortable ambiguity, resisting the easy consolation of rigid certainties? Can I do that now, in a time of growing crisis, at precisely the moment others harden their grip on dogmas and flags?
Can we bear not knowing… if a relationship will work or not, if a project will succeed or not, if there’s a future for humanity, if there’s an afterlife or not?
I think we can. We can straighten our shoulders, slow our breathing, gather our attention and energy, focus on our physical sensations and thoughts, and just observe, without reacting, without identifying with the story we weave around us.
We can learn to rest in our awareness and enjoy it, and we can even learn to enjoy the ambiguity. Enjoy not knowing. Enjoy the gaps in the webs you weave, that’s how the light shines through. | https://julesevans.medium.com/the-vale-of-ambiguity-a97aecf01f1d | ['Jules Evans'] | 2019-05-31 11:42:55.811000+00:00 | ['Spirituality', 'Myths', 'Buddhism'] |
The Best Reads on Platforms from 2020 | Unbundling and re-bundling the Organization
The unbundling of the corporation has been a leading theme of discussion this year with the ever-growing demonstrations of how the internet continues to challenge how the organization is made. The business world is increasingly made of interfaces, sometimes programmatic — as in the terrific growth and acquisitions this year for #APIFirst companies — sometimes human ones, that can be optimized with design and technology. As always Stratechery makes a category on its own: earlier this year Ben Thompson explained how even in a world of unbundled pieces, bundling may be the way of doing business. In his “2020 Bundles” he explored how the pattern of bundling pieces together the products of Apple, Netflix and more and in his exponentFM conversations with James Allworth he later explained how Intel didn’t get bundling right and what Apple is doing with the M1.
Surely one of the most competitive organizations in the world in managing interfaces is Amazon, and this blog post from Benedict Evans explains the matter pretty well: Amazon is a now itself a bundle.
These key insights in understanding the role of unbundling and re-bundling in modern organizing have been amazingly captured lately by Packy McCormick in his APIs All the Way Down that — by borrowing an apocryphal and supposedly ancient story of the infinite stack of turtles that carries the world on their shoulder as a metaphor — explained how today’s most competitive organizations learn how to do one thing well and connect to other (specialized) third parties to complement. This essential insight on the future of organizing as a swarm of specialized entities (some of them potentially reaching incredible heights and becoming “platform of platforms”) allowed us this year to eventually extend the conversation into building networked and unbundled organizations — a debate that here at Boundaryless we are capturing, modelling and abstracting into the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Enabling Organization Toolkit — to a broader audience, beyond the champions and pioneers such as Amazon, Haier, Zappos or Burtzoorg. Corporate Rebels’ Joost Minnaar surely was a prolific writer on the topic this year — his post on the Age of Community Capitalism framing this transition in time — standing as one of the most interesting reads, echoed by a legend of Agile such as Steve Denning on Forbes calling for transforming firms into agile networks.
Certainly, as technology unbundled organizations they now tend to re-bundle around problems that are nearer to their ecosystem, more meaningful, and farther from the bureaucratic need of self-maintaining themselves. Once Clay Shirky wrote: “Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution” …well, this perspective seems to dry up more and more as time goes by and technology shortens the distance between the user and the organization. 2020 delivered to us a vision of the organization that is much more modular, contextual, and micro-entrepreneurial, where — according to Dave Snowden: “contextually unique solutions emerge and adapt based on a coherent whole.”
Of course, changes as big as the ones we’re describing — with the radical transition towards an economy of pluggable interfaces, low transaction costs — need to impact, change and even transform the way we understand the organization, innovation and strategy, and to do this a new wave of talent is needed.
Best Links on Unbundling and rebundling the organization
Further Reads from Boundaryless on the topic | https://stories.platformdesigntoolkit.com/best-of-2020-c1cacb43177e | ['Simone Cicero'] | 2020-12-23 17:55:24.634000+00:00 | ['Marketplaces', 'Platform', 'Design', 'Innovation', 'Business'] |
My projects: Which movie to watch | Writing my own projects is something I like to do in my free time. Sometimes I have a sudden idea for a small project which I write on my bucket list and when I have time I will bring it to life. One of these projects is Which movie to watch.
Which movie to watch — home page
About Which movie to watch
The main goal of Which movie to watch is to find the best movie for you that you might want to see. You can find it on https://which-movie-to-watch.backenders.eu/. Imagine you want to watch a movie after a long and hard day. How do you choose what to watch? You can use this website for it. There are around 15.000 movies that are waiting for you (half of them are from the year 2019).
Which movie to watch — movie detail
Each movie has its own detail page. You can find a movie name, description, rating, categories, runtime, poster and trailer there. The trailer is the core feature of this project because you don’t want to read about the movie, better is to watch the trailer.
Below the detail and on the home page you can find the top rated movies and newly released movies.
All of the movies are “randomly” selected for you. If you don’t want to see the selected movie, you can easily click the blue arrow button and generate a new one. You can also list movies through the categories.
Which series to watch
Which series to watch — home page
The project Which series to watch is very similar to the Which movies to watch. The only difference is there are series instead of movies. You can find it here https://which-series-to-watch.backenders.eu/.
Both pages have the same functionalities and both are localized for Czechia and English speaking countries.
Technical info
When I’m making a new project I’m thinking about two important questions for me. How much time am I willing to invest into the development? Are there some technologies I would like to try or learn? The first question is the most important for me because I’m developing all of my projects in my free time and without any financial support. On the other hand oftentimes there are some things I have never worked with before. This time it was puppeteer.
Technologies
I used PHP framework Symfony 5. Because it’s a modern web framework that is easy to use. I have a lot of experience with it and it’s “all in one” — you don’t need to create backend and frontend separately. It’s easy and fast to start / initialize the project and it’s cheap and easy to deploy it. The last version of Symfony I used before I switched to Node.js was 2.x so it was something “new” for me. I like Symfony and I can recommend it. I like the project structure or boilerplate, it‘s simple and well organized. Symfony is used by many companies and developers so you will find answers to your questions on stackoverflow or other forums quite easily. Also because of the huge community there are a lot of bundles which you can install and use. I also like the dependency injection feature which is new for me, I mean the classes are registered as a service automatically.
There were no problems on the frontend side because there is nothing special. On the backend side I would like to mention the “random movie generate” function. It’s the MySQL rand() function but there some additional filters and orders like movie release date, rating, if the movie has a trailer and categories. The other thing is the project is written as a bundle so it’s easy to include / install it to “whatever” Symfony project.
The question is — where did I get the movies from? I found a dataset on the internet with ~50k movies. I processed this huge file with Node.js streams. All the movies have the name, description, poster URL but there wasn’t the trailer URL. I found a web page where it was easy for me to get these trailer URLs but I needed to scrape the website.
I wanted to use Symfony DomCrawler but there was a problem with asynchronous tasks. The trailer URL was rendered via JavaScript so the DomCrawler didn’t return it. Then I wrote a simple JavaScript script where I used puppeteer for this job. There was no problem with puppeteer and I successfully got the trailer URLs. In the beginning I was quite confused how to use puppeteer’s selectors and expressions but it was because I saw it for the first time — I wasn’t able to use it before I read something about it in the docs. I also had some problems with the waitFor function and some cases like there is no trailer URL / trailer div / 404 and 50X errors and stuff like this. I ran the script. After hundreds of successes I started to receive errors and that was the time to kill the process, fix it and start again.
Summary
~65 hrs of development (~10 hrs — frontend, ~55 hrs — backend)
I learned puppeteer 🎉
I improved my Node.js streams knowledge
I learned how to do and use a bundle in Symfony 5
I got to know the MySQL rand() function
Conclusion
Both projects support Czech and English languages. But it’s not a problem to add translations for other countries. You can find and try them on https://which-movie-to-watch.backenders.eu/ and https://which-series-to-watch.backenders.eu/.
If you have any questions, ideas what to improve / add or bug reports don’t hesitate to contact me.
You can also check my GitHub and LinkedIn. | https://medium.com/@stefan-prokop-cz/my-projects-which-movie-to-watch-b6c767300150 | ['Štefan Prokop'] | 2020-12-24 15:26:15.108000+00:00 | ['Symfony', 'Puppeteer', 'Series', 'Projects', 'Movies'] |
Lower Back Muscle Twist & Recovery | Purpose of this Article
Just to give the readers an awareness of how the scary lower back muscle twist or mechanical back pain happens and the path to recovery.
Self- Introduction
Do a desk job & casual long distance running(try and run 3 days week, have been doing it for last 9 years).During the lock down added regular weight training(strength training) to the routine.
What’s a Muscle Twist?
It’s one of the amazing defence mechanism of the body. When the muscle thinks that a particular motion or an impact could cause a damage to the underlying bone, it twists itself preventing the specific motion or impact from traversing further, thereby protecting the underlying bone. This is identical to the fuse blowing off in the faulty line of an electrical circuit, thereby protecting the rest of the circuit.Only issue is that muscle twist can happen during an innocuous movement, due to stiffness in the muscle and various other issues. Once the twist happens it takes a while for normal movement to be restored and the recovery process will be painful especially when its occurs in the lower back
As it happend to me
Dec 17th: Had to do long hours of work in an improper posture(as always) This made the back a bit stiff
Dec 18th: Ended up driving 130 miles(up and down) which made the back more stiff
Dec 19th: Woke up in the morning ok, did a bit of warm up and started doing weight training. Everything was fine, until the final set where I increased the weight to my max limit, nothing unusual. It was all good until I finished the lifting, felt better than usual. But as I was lowering the 32.5kg barbell and placing it on the floor, felt like a shock moving across my lower back from left to right. Straightaway felt soreness in my lower back on the left side and bending down was difficult. Was a bit insane at that point and did a few more reps albeit with lower weight.Decided enough is enough and wrapped up. Slowly it became very painful even to walk-around normally. Any basic movement involving the lower body(getting up from chair, bending down a tiny bit, climbing the stairs, getting up from bed)was very painful.
Got to terms with what was going on, decided to listen to the body and respect the flare up. Knowledge gained from reading about muscle twist in the past came in handy.But experiencing the same was completely different. Did gentle stretches for the lower back twice and carried on with usual errands.Thoughts of what if it was slip disk or a more serious bone injury did cross my mind. Decided to take one thing at a time
Dec 20th: Was a big struggle to get up from bed. It was more sore than previous day, a common “delayed onset soreness phenomenon” with all injuries.The common reason for this is, healing starts to kick in next day, with blood flow coming back to normal and the nerves start to feel more . Carried on with the usual errands and did the stretching exercises twice.
Dec 21st — Dec 23rd : Similar experience as previous day with a tiny bit easing. Carried on with office work, making sure I don’t do sit for more than an hour. I couldn’t anyway
Dec 24th: Could feel considerable easing of the lower back. Was able to walk around with considerable ease. Bending down a bit felt okay.Basic movements were at ease though soreness flared up when the strain was higher
Dec 25th: Was more at ease albeit for a few specific movements involving lower back. Was glad to that recovery has progressed to this stage. Good thing is I haven’t taken any pain killers, haven’t found them helpful in the past.Decided to try out a 5km run. Was a bit difficult to in the beginning, felt easier as I progressed and manage to complete the same https://www.strava.com/activities/4514705694
Path Forward
Plan to ease back into the usual routine in a weeks time. Hopefully it takes of well
Lessons Learned | https://medium.com/@winsaravananandroid/lower-back-muscle-twist-recovery-b7e0f518e80b | ['Saravanan Sivakumar'] | 2020-12-28 10:26:41.417000+00:00 | ['Running', 'Injury', 'Rehabilitation', 'Lower Back Pain', 'Weight Training'] |
Why I took a break from music. | When I gave uni a crack second time round, it was the best thing I ever did. It was that good, I might one day soon write a post solely dedicated to it, just not today. Instead, this post is about a writer’s block that I chose to avoid.
Brewhouse (Cardiff).
I was gigging a fair bit during my first and second year of uni, earning myself slots at some amazing venues and festivals. Places like Festival №6 where you could find Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and Bastille headlining; former venues such as Sound Control in Manchester which had hosted bands like the 1975 and Catfish and the Bottlemen, or the ever so memorable Gwdihw in Cardiff. Yet, in the background, whilst all this was happening, I could feel my writing deteriorating a little as time went on, yet I refused to acknowledge it.
The last album I had released and remains the case to this day is the Waiting for Nothing — LP back in 2016. It was now 2018 and I was coming towards the end of uni, I had about 4 songs to my name which were worthy of recording, but it wasn’t enough considering it had been two years since my last release. I wanted to record them anyway, to give myself options. Normally, I would book some time off work to do this, but I was refusing to do so. The pressures of leaving uni started to kick in. I was under the impression that I couldn’t take a week off in my current job, and that I had to prepare to find some ‘real’ work ready for when I leave uni. It was at this point I started to acknowledge that I wasn’t prioritising my music. I stopped booking gigs, I stopped writing songs, I was losing inspiration.
The Masons Arms, Denbigh (Photo Credit: George Frost).
At first, I was fine about it, I thought, maybe I don’t need to write my own music anymore? Maybe I can just listen to music I like and not think about writing my own stuff, and that will be enough? But it’s funny the feeling you get when you try and distance yourself from playing music as a writer. The best way I can describe it is, it’s almost like there’s a magnetic force between your body and the instrument, with hope that when you pick it up and play, you start writing again, almost by accident. But it doesn’t always work that way. This time round, I would pick the guitar up, last about 5 minutes maximum before putting it away again. It was like someone had stolen my emotion, my vocabulary and my attention. I would frustratingly place the guitar back in the corner of the room and think to myself “just not today”. Little did I know at the time, it would carry on like that for over a year. Forcing songs out was not an option, I couldn’t do it if I tried. If you were marking me by the book, I’m pretty bad on the guitar. Because of this, it often meant, and still remains, that my writing relies on feeling, so without any feeling towards my own music anymore, I could barely play anything. So that wasn’t going to happen.
Theatre Twm or Nant, Denbigh (2019).
I’ve always worked. Before uni, during uni, and now after uni. It was never really a problem for me in the past. But there’s something about leaving uni that makes working full time different. You start trying to teach yourself to be okay with living life the way you always said you wouldn’t. Uni has its ups and downs, but what it does do is; it gives you a taste of what life can be like if you don’t have to spend 80% of your time trying to support yourself. When you leave, you start questioning why you’re investing so much time in something that you don’t enjoy, but for whatever reason, go along with said thing anyway. I convinced myself that paying the bills was nearly the most important thing to do in life at the time. What I didn’t realise is, that there’s a balance to doing that, and then doing what you love. Therefore, because I was so preoccupied with what you’re expected to do, rather than what you want to do, I didn’t even take my guitar out of its case for about 4 months solid. It’s the longest I hadn’t played a note since I began playing 10 years earlier. My passion for music was really deteriorating. This writers block was now a result of the general monotony of life distracting me from the things that I said I would never give up on, and to make things worse, I was convincing myself I was okay with that. It was almost like I was saying to myself “you’re meant to be grown up now, music isn’t an option anymore”. Sounds ridiculous doesn’t it?
With the world currently in lockdown for reasons that do not need explaining, I think a lot of people have begun to reflect on how they spend their time. I know a lot of my friends have begun pursuing their creative side, a side which I had only seen a glimmer of before, and they’re really excited about it. Life itself in terms of how we used to spend most of the hours in our days has well and truly been paused. And it’s meant that people can truly find out what they enjoy doing and make sure that they find time to do that. Who knows, when lockdown is over (if it ever will be), people may begin to really pursue the things that make them happy in life.
As of roughly 8 months ago, I’ve began writing again, hallelujah. It’s been 4 years since my last official release, and that’s still bugging me a bit. But my mind has so much more space in it now that I’ve been able to actually think about what I enjoy about living. I’ve learnt, writing is something that deserves attention from me, and I mean proper attention. This means being able to push aside the things that are falsely drilled into us from a societal point of view to be important, when these things just aren’t as important to us as we may think.
I have gathered roughly 21 demos on my hard drive in the last 8 months. This means preparation for the new record is under way, and more importantly, I feel passionate and motivated about music again. That fills me with the upmost excitement. Better late than never.
Music Links Below
Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5KpGgp3RUKppQYbAzu0iUR?si=VPTIDq5BR9qFjGSEY5uIiw
Waiting For Nothing LP https://open.spotify.com/album/4RGG4R0e4Lj2a2Fg5EsbDS?si=0rxv3_iuRcGxyiX5RS5ADQ
Instagram: garethhowatsonmusic
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/garethhowatsonmusic/ | https://medium.com/@garethhowatsonmusic/why-i-took-a-break-from-music-14c0e5eb546e | ['Gareth Howatson'] | 2020-05-17 16:36:01.109000+00:00 | ['Creativity', 'Music', 'University', 'Lockdown', 'Writers Block'] |
Shadows of an Empty Home | Shadows of an Empty Home
The loneliness that only grows
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
I wish I could tell you,
that I don’t weep at night
that those shadows in my room,
do not laugh nor stir nor echo
my internal soliloquy
of a bitter heart
I wish I could tell you,
that I’m stronger than I am
that neither palladium
nor diamond,
could shatter my bones
But this loneliness ebbs inside
bringing me to my knees,
as another dream slithers by
cradling me in it’s palace of lies
I wish I could tell
that this place,
was not a place of ghosts
that I could leave,
and never return
But I was born to tragedy,
yet smile upon all horizons,
knowing that, like the tortoise,
I will remain,
crawling on scattered skulls
of prophetic hieroglyphs
Plato was right,
and I was wrong
Reality is not made nor created,
but exists in many forms
the outer realm, absolute but impermanent
the inner, subjective, and unfortunate
that which watches the clock spin
and faces greeting merry grins
the decay of worlds upon
empty parchment.
I know,
none of this is real,
I know,
I am but a mustard seed
tossed in a garbage disposal.
I know truth
as heavy as mount Olympus
as transitory as lover’s breath
I feel and taste and touch
reality of true love that seems
at times, too much
For here in the shadows
of an empty home,
waiting to be filled,
with a fool's hope,
yet again
and again
and again
I repeat the ways
of a broken man,
who knows only
the atom
the word
the eulogy
the verse
of shadows,
death and rebirth.
© Bradley J Nordell 2020 | https://medium.com/scribe/shadows-of-an-empty-home-29924da4dde3 | ['Bradley J Nordell'] | 2020-12-28 22:42:47.012000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Time', 'Existentialism', 'Past', 'Loneliness'] |
It’s hard to watch Americans unquestionably trusting their government when time and time again it’s… | It’s hard to watch Americans unquestionably trusting their government when time and time again it’s been proven that neither is trustworthy. This is typical of an abuser/victim relationship. It’s also typical that the abuser’s mind control continues for years and years, becoming so normalized in the victim’s mind that they don’t even realize it’s happening.
We need to work hard on changing this! | https://medium.com/@larsonstoll/its-hard-to-watch-americans-unquestionably-trusting-their-government-when-time-and-time-again-33aa9083ada | ['Jane Stoll'] | 2020-12-18 15:58:45.303000+00:00 | ['Abuse Of Power', 'American Politics', 'Media Criticism'] |
How to Live With Uncertainty | How to Live in Limbo
Three strategies for getting comfortable with discomfort
Photo: Ute Grabowsky/Photothek/Getty Images
“It’ll get better,” my husband says as I review our budget, which has become tighter and tighter during the pandemic. “We just have to make it over this hump.”
But what is the hump exactly? And when does a hump become so large that “hump” is no longer the appropriate geographical designation?
At first, the hump was April. Then it was the summer. Now the hump is 2020, and probably most of 2021, too. The hump has flattened into the plateau. We’re in the eternal now, as Kelli Korducki put it in Forge — with the future so up in the air that staying in the moment is about the only thing we can do. “In these uncertain times” has already become a pandemic cliché, and stories about getting comfortable with uncertainty have become its defining literature.
Here’s the thing, though: Uncertainty will always be uncomfortable. It’s just a bug of the human psyche.
A more useful skill is learning how to be comfortable with discomfort. To be cool with it, like an annoying roommate. To sit with it.
In fact, sitting with discomfort is a more, well, comfortable strategy than trying to move past it, says Alexandra Finkel, a psychotherapist and social worker in New York and the founder of Kind Minds Therapy. “We fall into anxiety spirals when we try to push a feeling out, and then get trapped in that feeling because we can’t will feelings away,” she says. “Discomfort thrives and multiplies when we try to push it away. The single best antidote to discomfort is permission for it to be there.”
In other words, the more we can wholeheartedly accept living in a constant state of in-betweenness, the better we can manage how scary that state can be.
Identify the ways you trick yourself into feeling control
The small habits we develop to organize our lives — check email, make lists, create routines — can also function as attempts to double down on the delusion that those bigger things are within our control. “Certainty-seeking behaviors,” as psychologists call them, might take the form of asking for reassurance, craving validation, micromanaging people around you, or repeatedly checking your texts or inbox, for example.
These habits are usually benign, the behavioral equivalent of a security blanket — but addressing them is an easy, low-stakes way to practice being a little bit uncomfortable. For example, you could stop asking your spouse “Does this sound okay?” before sending every text or email. Or you could try putting down your phone and avoid checking it for the entire day (or even a few hours). The idea that you have unread texts or emails waiting for you might drive you nuts, but that’s the point: You’re getting used to the discomfort of not knowing.
Build novelty into your life
In high doses, uncertainty is always going to be stressful. But it also exists on a spectrum, and mild forms of uncertainty, like novelty, can help you ease yourself into it. Exploring the new and unknown requires forsaking some degree of comfort, but you’re doing it on your own terms, making it a nonthreatening way to build up your tolerance.
In practice, this might mean something as simple as rearranging your furniture or trying a new takeout restaurant. It might mean switching up your daily routine, experimenting with how you work and how you unwind. Or it might mean cultivating new (or abandoned) skills: learning a new type of workout, teaching yourself photography, picking up the guitar that’s been collecting dust in your living room since 2015.
Zoom out far enough so you can see the whole hump
Uncertainty may be the buzzword of 2020, but it’s not exactly a new presence in our lives. Many of the things we accept as certain are often more precarious than we let ourselves acknowledge. Layoffs, relationship tensions, financial setbacks, health problems — those have always been real. On the flip side of every good thing is the risk that it will end.
Whether we realize it or not, we’re in a perpetual state of in-betweenness. The only thing that’s truly certain is that things will always change. And in 2020, that could be a hopeful thought. “Taking time to recognize that this is not the permanent future is necessary to fight feelings like ‘this will never end,’ Finkel says. “Many, many crises have occurred before and have been resolved over time. Think about things you will look forward to when times change.”
We’ll get over this hump. And then there will be other humps. The map of life is all hump. Even the humps have humps. We don’t have to love that fact, but accepting it can help us learn to hold onto some sense of comfort even in precarious moments. | https://forge.medium.com/how-to-live-in-limbo-47f60583fcb7 | ['Kristin Wong'] | 2020-08-17 16:59:36.154000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Uncertainty', 'Life', 'Self', 'Psychology'] |
New Cool Graphics From Around the Web — DataViz Weekly | It’s Friday and we’re glad to share with you some of the most interesting third-party visualizations we’ve recently come across. Here’s what DataViz Weekly has for you to check out this time — look at these cool graphics:
Future of jobs in the regions of Europe — McKinsey Global Institute, Google, et al.
Flood risk factor database for the United States — First Street Foundation, et al.
Changes in new cases against testing — Axios
All we know about SARS-CoV-2 — Scientific American
Future of Jobs in Europe
McKinsey Global Institute conducted a new in-depth research into the future of work across Europe. Analyzing local labor markets reported to have experienced about a decade of growth before the pandemic, the study looks at how the geography of employment is being influenced by automation and other significant factors. In particular, the experts identified thirteen types of regional clusters further fitting into three groups:
dynamic growth hubs (megacities, superstar hubs, and service-based economies),
stable economies (high tech manufacturing centers, diversified non-metros, and tourism havens), and
shrinking regions (industrial bases, aging population regions, educated and emigrating areas, agriculture-based regions, public sector lead regions, and trailing opportunity regions).
Google, one of MGI’s collaborators on this research, displayed the model on an interactive map. Open the visualization and you’ll see, according to this methodology, what cluster each one of the 1,095 represented regions belongs to, its net job growth rate in the midpoint automation scenario in 2018–2030, as well as top growing and top declining occupations.
The full report is also worth checking out as it has even more to look at in terms of data, visualizations, and insights, not to mention the workplace is not being shaped by automation alone.
Flood Risk Factor Database for America
First Street Foundation, a research and technology nonprofit, published flood risk data for over 142 million properties all over the conterminous United States. Each property on the radar is assigned with a score on a one-to-ten scale, called a flood factor, which reflects the estimated chance of flooding from rain, tidal events, riverine, as well as storm surge, now and in the future.
Created in collaboration with a number of top-notch scientists within the framework of a decades-long research, the First Street Foundation’s flood risk model is reported to be unique as the first publicly shared exhaustive one for America.
Find your home, neighborhood, or town to check the flood factor and explore the available projections for your property and area in numbers and graphics.
Changes in New Cases vs Testing Counts
Andrew Witherspoon, a data visualization journalist at Axios, charted the changes in COVID-19 testing against the changes in new cases for 48 states and the District of Columbia. (Hawaii and Vermont had less than twenty cases daily so they did not get their own charts.) Although the worrying growth of the new coronavirus cases in America is often said to take place due to an increase in testing, the graphics reveal that this is hardly true for many areas, especially in the current hotspots.
Looking at the percent change in the weekly average over time from June 1 to July 5, taken from the COVID Tracking Project’s data, it is easy to notice some gaps. A total of twenty-eight states were found to get more new COVID-19 cases than new testing. The others saw less. Check out the charts to understand the situation in every state and the big picture, as well as what conclusions could be drawn based on them, in a quick article on Axios.
Inside SARS-CoV-2
Last but far from least, we cannot help recommending a new amazing piece on Scientific American. It features beautiful graphics that describe and visualize what is known about the novel coronavirus at the moment.
In the article, you can learn how the virus looks and invades, what our immune system does in response trying to neutralize its particles, how vaccines need to work, and even more. All the explanations are provided in detail, making the most important parts of the scientific knowledge about SARS-CoV-2 and the disease it causes, COVID-19, greatly accessible. | https://medium.com/data-visualization-weekly/new-cool-graphics-from-around-the-web-dataviz-weekly-75f1b41c29dc | [] | 2020-07-10 19:50:55.493000+00:00 | ['Infographics', 'Charts', 'Data Science', 'Graphics', 'Data Visualization'] |
Can You Be Imprisoned By Love? | For a man my age my life is far from typical. Though many may say this, I would wager that mine is further from normality than most.
I am twenty-nine years old, I am the full time carer for my thirty one year old sister, we live together with my sixty-six year old retired mother.
Some people might look on my situation with admiration. Others with suspicion.
What is motivating that twenty-nine year old man with the whole world at his feet to remain still, stuck in one place, physically and mentally?
Their doubts would be well founded. I ask my self a similar question most days. Often when the day is dawning and distractions are waning, I am left with nothing to confront other than the question of what my life’s purpose really is.
The experience of feeling this question saturate my presence is not pleasant. It’s heavy. Suffocating. I feel like I’m drowning and the air that I’m gasping for is an answer to the question that I don’t know. | https://antonypinol.medium.com/can-you-be-imprisoned-by-love-360f6506d6e9 | ['Antony Pinol'] | 2020-01-29 22:39:19.075000+00:00 | ['Guilt', 'Love', 'Family', 'Relationships', 'Self'] |
MTI poised to fulfil Electric Vehicle skills demand | The MIRA Technology Institute (MTI) has reaffirmed its readiness to deliver the skills urgently needed by the automotive industry to help address the anticipated future spike in sales of electric vehicles. The MTI was responding to an open letter from the Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI) calling for urgent support to address ‘the lack of EV-trained technicians.’
In the letter, the IMI’s CEO, Steve Nash and President Professor Jim Saker said that the skills challenge was one of the most significant issues affecting the UK’s ability to meet its net zero targets and deliver the government’s Green Plan. They said that currently only five per cent of the technicians working in garages and dealerships are trained to work on electric vehicles.
Lisa Bingley, Operations Director at the MTI said, “We welcome the IMI’s appeal for greater investment in this type of training. Our provision has been designed precisely to address this demand and we are already delivering training and supporting apprenticeships that will help the UK to achieve its goals.
“We offer Level 1 to Level 3 CPD courses in electric and hybrid vehicle system repair and replacement that are accredited by the IMI itself. This training has been specifically designed for the maintenance and repair technicians that the IMI has identified as in greatest need.
“The courses run every month and businesses can arrange closed sessions dedicated to their own employees. We can also provide advice on how to access support for apprenticeships including how to get the most out of the Apprenticeship Levy.”
“We work very closely with our industry partner, HORIBA MIRA, enabling us to remain in tune with the skills needs of the automotive industry. As a result, we are able to adapt our offer with agility to address the latest developments particularly in the field of electric vehicles.
“In addition, we have recently introduced two new Level 4 apprenticeship standards for engineering manufacturing and propulsion technicians that are combined with a higher education qualification. Our collaboration with Coventry University means that individuals can take advantage of our skills escalator and progress from Level 2 to PhD level with a single provider.”
The MTI is the result of a unique collaboration led by North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College, and its partners, HORIBA MIRA, Coventry University, the University of Leicester, and Loughborough University. Built with £9.5m investment from the UK Government’s Local Growth Fund (LGF) via the Leicester and Leicester Enterprise Partnership Limited (LLEP), the MTI is a specialist facility designed specifically to train the next generation of engineers in the latest automotive technology.
Marion Plant, OBE FCGI, Chair of the MTI Operations Board, and Principal and Chief Executive North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College said, “Working with our partners and the LLEP, we anticipated this surge in skills demand several years ago and are delighted now to be delivering exactly what the industry needs through the MTI at this exciting time of renewed growth for the automotive sector.”
Kevin Harris, Chair of the LLEP Board of Directors said, “Investing in skills is a major priority for the LLEP, which is why we supported MTI with such a significant sum of our LGF allocation. This latest development is particularly pleasing, as not only will the MTI be addressing an urgent skills need, but doing so in an area — low carbon technology — that is becoming increasingly crucial to our economy here in Leicester and Leicestershire.” | https://medium.com/@miratechnologyinstitute/mti-poised-to-fulfil-electric-vehicle-skills-demand-e51e9bc31889 | ['Mira Technology Institute'] | 2020-12-15 14:00:09.282000+00:00 | ['Ev', 'Electric Vehicles', 'Automotive', 'Electric Car', 'Engineering'] |
Baby on a Budget | 5 quick tips for new parents to save money on baby expenses
Photo by Damir Spanic on Unsplash
Finding out that you are expecting is one of the most exciting times in a person’s life. The anticipation of a new baby’s arrival brings joy and wonder, and it can be so much fun to begin shopping for baby products and equipment to fill a nursery.
One only needs to take a trip to Kmart to see the huge variety of baby products on sale, and it can be tempting to purchase far more than is actually necessary for a new baby. I have listed my five favorite suggestions for minimizing a new baby's expense for the frugal family who prefers to keep new baby expenses to a minimum.
Cloth nappies or diapers. With the introduction of modern cloth nappies, these have never been easier to use. After an initial expenditure to build up a good ‘stash,’ you will save loads of dollars on the disposable variety and reduce your contribution to landfill at the same time. Over the course of four babies, we saved so much money by choosing this option. Make your own baby foods. It’s easy and healthier for your baby. Homemade baby foods won't have the nasty chemicals and preservatives that store-bought baby foods have and actually taste way better. We used a blender to create baby foods for our first two children, but for our second two children discovered baby led weaning and found this worked even better (if you can deal with the mess). Don’t be afraid to buy used. Obviously, safety items such as car seats are best purchased new, however so many other items can be purchased used. Since baby equipment is used for such a short period of time, you can pick up near new goods that are in perfect condition but a fraction of new products' price. Take advantage of the free activities your community has on offer. Many public libraries offer free storytime sessions, and baby bounce playgroups that are fun for your child and provide an opportunity to connect with other mothers. Think before you buy. There are so many baby contraptions out there that are unnecessary and no longer recommended for use with babies in many cases. Baby walkers, jumpers, and babysitting supports are just a few of the items you don’t need for your baby. This type of equipment can actually be damaging for your baby’s developing bones and muscles by forcing them into positions that they are not yet ready for. Also, I am a big fan of a good quality baby carrier, but please avoid the ‘crotch dangler’ kind of carriers that do not adequately support the baby’s legs. For more information about baby equipment and safety, check out this website:
14 Secretly Dangerous Baby Products That Every Parent Needs To Avoid — HealthyWay
Why not check out my Facebook and Instagram pages, titled The Write Book.
https://www.instagram.com/the_write_book/
https://m.facebook.com/livelovereadwrite/?ref=content_filter | https://medium.com/modern-parent/baby-on-a-budget-dbf10fb19d3c | ['Kylie Tull'] | 2020-12-08 21:28:42.083000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Parenting', 'Baby', 'Life', 'Family'] |
6 Myths You Got All Wrong About Sex Work | 3. “Sex work is inherently harmful.”
Let’s dissect the ways that sex work can be perceived as harmful and shed some light on why this is not the case. One way that sex work can be perceived as inherently harmful pertains to the belief that it is degrading to sex workers. You know what else is degrading? Starving to death. Dignity in work is incredibly subjective, as referenced above. Most people do jobs they’re not passionate about because they simply need jobs. Often, the belief that sex work is degrading is closely linked to conflicting beliefs about the commoditization of sex in general.
Have you heard “sex sells?” You can see it written on all the walls of our deeply repressed, capitalist society. It’s asinine to think that Carl’s Jr. can sell burgers with sex (Carl’s Jr. CEO Andrew Puzder was Trump’s first choice to lead the Department of Labor, despite his atrocious record on exploiting laborers), but if the end-product itself is sex instead of meat, suddenly a line has been crossed. Sex is being sold everywhere — the only difference with some aspects of sex work is that the sex itself is the commodity.
Why is it harmful or degrading for sex to be commoditized? Could it have something to do with the fact that placing value on this work reinforces the value and power of female/femme sexuality (given that the overwhelming majority of sex workers identify as female/femmes)? Because there are plenty of industries that cause tangible harm and prey on male sexuality and sexual insecurities (e.g. the war industry, or the tobacco and alcohol industries) and remain socially acceptable since they ultimately still empower men — at least, the disproportionately male-dominated corporations that benefit from these ploys.
Sex work is a field where many women and femmes can uniquely exercise their own agency; they can create schedules that work for them, make higher incomes, feel good about themselves, and even offer something that is healing to people in need. We don’t tend to think of sex that way, but we probably should.
Sex is a basic human need, just like touch. Do you think paying for a massage is inherently harmful? Or is some of your belief in the inherent harm of sex work rooted in the notion that sex is sacred and shouldn’t be “tainted” by the exchange of currency? Because there are already infinite manifestations of sex and sexuality that are completely vile and institutionally acceptable in society — why should sex work be any different?
This is a trade that has been around for thousands of years and is unlikely to go away no matter how many moral judgments we place upon it. If you take issue with the notion that anyone should resort to sex work out of survival alone, then you should question the disturbingly classist and racist nature of our society, and the inaccessibility of healthcare, education and housing.
You should question why we don’t have federal employment protections for LGBTQ+ folx so that they can gain and maintain other forms of employment. You should question if and how you’ve been showing up for the most marginalized and vulnerable groups who encompass the majority of sex workers; consider whether your utmost concern is truly about dignity, and for whom.
It’s like the great sage Janelle Monáe said: | https://aninjusticemag.com/6-myths-you-got-all-wrong-about-sex-work-b16cc4ed5554 | ['Mallory Mosner'] | 2019-11-25 22:45:05.560000+00:00 | ['Sex Work', 'Culture', 'Sex', 'Feminism', 'Intersectionality'] |
Sell the Problem You Solve Frist, After That Selling Yourself is Easy | Sell the Problem You Solve Frist, After That Selling Yourself is Easy Daniel Meyer Apr 6·4 min read
We are at an interesting crossroads with small business here in the U.S. and with virtual talent from the Philippines.
As the U.S. is seemingly starting to get a handle on COVID and is getting close to being back to normal, the Philippines is still stuck in lockdown with very limited access to vaccines.
The American economy is also on the cusp of a huge boom in spending from the government coupled with pent up demand for small business growth. Projections are we may very well be back to near full employment soon. Both facts mean one thing if you are a Filipino virtual assistant, the biggest opportunity ever for home based work from the Philippines is on the very near horizon.
This has led me to rethink my business model as a virtual staffing company. We need more flexibility and need to scale quicker then possible with the traditional model of hiring employees. A more nimble, progressive approach is to connect American Small Business clients with Freelance Filipino VAs is needed.
Something not as chancy as Fiverr but not as corporate as Upwork. We need something with a trusted broker in between. So that is the next big pivot for me… diving deeper into be that talent broker, an agent for rapid, high quality and impactful growth.
So, my first step is to build up a pool of talent, ones not looking for a traditional job, but ones who have fully embraced the “gig” economy work/lifestyle. As I fill that talent pool, I also need to prepare them for my client base; entrepreneurs, coaches, speakers, trainers, authors and small business owners.
With that in mind, the 3 Things a Freelance Filipino VA needs to have before the start seeking work from American Small Business clients are:
1. A one-page PDF marketing yourself as a problem solver. Resumes might work for corporate work, don’t fly with this audience.
2. A Facebook Business Page setting yourself up as an expert in your niche. Most of the clients you will be in front of are primarily on FB.
3. A one-minute, My Story Video that demonstrates your likeability, trustworthiness and that you are someone the client would want to work with.
Armed with this, I can put them in front of hundreds and hundreds of potential clients. Clients who are mostly kind of stuck in their business, too busy to effectively scale it without help.
The most common things these clients need:
· Consistent social media posting
· Engaging graphic designs with clear calls to action
· Videos that are YouTube ready and full of binge worthy content
Beyond that, there are no two clients who need the same thing. Some combination of email management, web design, internet research, appointment setting, customer service, etc.
So this is my plan and in following my own advice, its all about solving the problem first… time.
Get out of busy ville before you end up in broke ville.
You need to focus on what you do best, so let your VA take care of all the rest.
And a final lesson to any Freelancer Filipino VAs reading this… focus on what the client needs before you talk about what you can do. You are THE answer to their pain. Take away the pain and you will both prosper.
Daniel Meyer heads both Sonic Analytics and Sonic Virtual Staffing, sister companies that deliver both data analytics solutions and virtual staffing to businesses in the United States and the Philippines. With over 20 years in Big Data and Virtual Staffing, Dan is one of the most sought-after public speakers in Asia and offers big data coaching and analytics training seminars on both sides of the Pacific.
Sonic Analytics(www.sonicanalytics.com) brings big data analytics solutions like business intelligence, business dashboards and data storytelling to small and medium sized organizations looking to enhance their data-driven decision-making capabilities.
Sonic Virtual Staffing (www.sonicva.com) brings virtual staffing solutions like graphic design, social media management, video editing and specialized virtual assistants for authors and professional speakers to small and medium sized organizations looking to scale on a budget and looking for dynamic staffing options.
When not training current and future analysts, you can find Dan championing the use of analytics to empower data-driven citizenship by volunteering his expertise with schools and non-profits dedicated to evidence-based social progress. | https://medium.com/@themightyd1-87735/sell-the-problem-you-solve-frist-after-that-selling-yourself-is-easy-ccbfc6ad8902 | ['Daniel Meyer'] | 2021-04-06 04:37:15.674000+00:00 | ['Philippines', 'Dan Meyer', 'Work From Home', 'Virtual Assistant', 'Enterpreneurship'] |
Olivia Gaudree of Fuel Venture Capital: 5 Things We Need To Do To Close The VC Gender Gap | Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us the “backstory” that brought you to this career path?
I was born into an entrepreneurial family and, from a really young age, witnessed how my grandfather and father would build entire businesses from scratch. This fueled my interest in self-starter types who went on to dream up big ideas and work hard to realize them. I knew that I wanted to do something in business.
Once I got to high school, I noticed most of my classmates drilling down in AP classes and building resumes of extracurricular activities to build impressive — but traditional — college CVs. I wanted to stand out. I took AP courses and excelled at them, and was involved in some extracurriculars, but I also applied for — and ultimately earned — internship positions at investment management firms in my hometown, while still in high school. I went to intern at Blue Shores Capital, a boutique hedge fund in Boca Raton, for three consecutive summers.
That environment and the mentorship I received there, along with a summer internship at Thomson Reuters in New York City while I was in University, taught me skills I never would’ve picked up in AP classes or on the debate team. They were crucial stepping stones to the role I have and cherish today at Fuel Venture Capital, which has grown to become one of the largest and most active VC funds in the Southeastern United States. Today, my most important mentor is Maggie Vo, who leads our investment strategy as Chief Investment Officer (and Managing General Partner) of Fuel Venture Capital. As a successful female VC who took me under her wing since the first day we met, she’s become one of the most important figures in my career.
Can you share a story of your most successful Angel or VC investment? In your opinion, what was its main lesson?
As part of the investment team at Fuel, I am intimately aware of the details that go into due diligence and the selection process of the companies that ultimately will make their way into the fund.
We are really proud of how our founders have shown leadership through the pandemic, weathering the hyper-challenging conditions that cropped up basically overnight with agility and grace. It’s a cliché, but the lesson I learned, by witnessing the madness firsthand, is that success during a normal economy is good, but success in tough times is what ultimately decides the fate of startups.
Many of our portfolio companies have seen exponential growth riding the digital tech adoption trend that took hold once traditional businesses had to close because of the pandemic, pushing late adopters to try services like ghost kitchens for the first time. But not all startups have been as fortunate, and our theory is that that’s because they didn’t pivot at the right time or move as quickly as they should’ve when things turned bad in March.
Can you share a story of an Angel or VC funding “failure” of yours? Is there a lesson or take away that you took out of that that our readers can learn from?
Luckily, my VC career to date hasn’t registered any big mistakes I’d qualify as “failures.” Nonetheless, I find it hard to label anything an outright failure because I try to live by a philosophy that views challenges as opportunities and what people call “failures,” I consider growth and lessons. It’s important to keep that kind of glass-half-full perspective in any career, especially one as turbulent as VC.
But in an attempt to answer the question at least somewhat, I’ll say this: One of our portfolio companies is currently facing some major risks and difficulties because of the pandemic. They’re in the live-events space, which has taken a huge hit. The cancellation of large gatherings and indefinite postponements of various events have led to some deals falling through, or facing major hurdles. But while the wind is currently not blowing in their favor, we don’t consider them a failure. We’re using this as an opportunity to be creative, agile and supportive.
We helped them find ways to reduce their burn rate and maximize capital efficiency, so we’re now looking at a longer runway than we were five months ago. That’s a significant victory.
From a VC fund´s perspective, we have applied a phase-investment approach, where we invest capital in phases, which are triggered when a company reaches predetermined KPIs. This approach serves us well in the current covid environment because it reduces our downside risk.
Was there a company that you turned down, but now regret? Can you share the story? What lesson did you learn from that?
Fuel Venture Capital fund follows a very structured and comprehensive, rigorous due diligence process. So honestly, no — I don’t have any regrets about companies we declined to invest in.
But when passing on investment opportunities, we make sure to maintain a good relationship with the founders. There are many factors that lead us to ultimately decline investment. But that doesn’t mean that we won’t reassess a company in the future.
Ok let’s jump to the main focus of our interview. According to this article in Fortune, only 2.2% of VC dollars went to women in 2018. Can you share with our readers what your firm is doing to help close the VC gender gap?
It’s not a coincidence that capital raised by women mirrors their representation in venture capital firms. Women really can’t have a seat at the table if they are not in the room. So at Fuel Venture Capital what we do is we hire, mentor, and promote women internally and invest in woman-led firms. I would not be here if the firm did not actively look to support, hire and promote women. The competition for my position was intense. I was up against really intelligent, experienced analysts with impressive resumes.
I say with confidence that I was not hired simply because I’m a woman. If a better, male candidate was up against me, he likely would’ve gotten the position. But I know I was given proper consideration among the pool of applicants, despite my gender, which unfortunately is not the reality all women in VC face.
Can you recommend 5 things that need to be done on a broader societal level to close the VC gender gap. Please share a story or example for each.
At a macro level, it’s really important to mentor young girls, early on — from elementary school forward. It’s hard to aspire to something if no one is encouraging you and nurturing your curiosity and interests. There are a lot of communities today, such as FemmeStreet and Female Founders Alliance, that help to support women entrepreneurs, founders, and other types of businesswomen.
But mentoring alone is not enough. It is vital to encourage investment in STEM programs that are geared towards girls. Once they are in the pipeline with the right educational tools and are being actively mentored, it’s a much easier step to actively recruit women in decision-making positions.
Law firms, accounting firms and investment firms have done many studies to determine the reason they lose great woman employees. In the end, it boils down to: Life gets messy and complicated, especially when kids are involved. Even during the pandemic, women have carried more of the burden of childcare over their partners. A firm’s ability to navigate the personal complexities of high valued employees is crucial.
Allowing employees to work from home, both male and female, is a great start. COVID has put us on a fast-track to home offices, but I think that we need to continue to have the flexibility to harness the brilliant minds of great people, regardless of their personal lives.
We have to stop leaving intellectual capital on the floor, regardless of gender, race, pronouns. We have to look outside the historical picture of what a VC employee looks like. We need to be open-minded enough to look at the minds beyond the physical appearance of body and gender.
The last point would be a better measurement of data on diversity in the VC and startup ecosystem. We can’t truly begin to analyze the space when it comes to diversity and women when we don’t have tracking of the current scenario. Really digging into the numbers and focusing on specific verticals from a regional and global level, will help us understand what the numbers are telling us.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
We know by looking at the numbers that more women are graduating now than ever before, outpacing men. So we know skilled women are out there. We also know through studies conducted by Goldman Sachs and Columbia University that companies that employ a large number of women outperform their competitors on every measure. So why are there not more women in VC?
It’s very clear, given the statistics, that women’s competence is proven. So why the disconnect? Part of the answer lies in the confidence gap. Confidence has remained elusive for many women and it has held a lot of women back. The gap that separates the sexes represents a unique challenge for women. Because we are less confident in general in our abilities, we tend to not pursue ambitious opportunities. An internal study by HP showed that, when they looked to get more women in top management positions, they found that the women would only apply when they felt they met 100% of the qualifications, whereas, for men, the ratio fell to 60%.
The thing is, confidence can be acquired and it can be taught. The gap can definitely be closed. You have to recognize your own relationship with confidence and work forward. It is not easy but it is something that is attainable and achievable. Supportive firms, co-workers and mentors go a long way to fortifying your confidence. Building your confidence does not mean you will not have failures. But does mean you can weather those failures and allow yourself to learn from them.
A lot of people enter VC once they have years, even decades of experience in a particular sector or vertical. What I did have, and still do today, is the confidence that allowed me to aim high. Learning quickly along with the solid mentorship that I get, gives me the confidence to keep pushing higher. Confidence to take the opportunities presented leads to the organic output of experience.
Teaching women to have confidence in their current and future intelligence and abilities is crucial. That’s the movement I would like to start, promoting women’s confidence and encouraging them to take risks, urging young women to join competitive teams at schools, to take leadership roles, and to take internships as early as they can. To put themselves out there, that’s the key to the future of women.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“There is always another angle.” Just look for the angles. You may be the only one who sees it so explore it and run with it.
Some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might see this, especially if we tag them. :-)
I didn’t choose a female entrepreneur or someone from the VC ecosystem, but I did pick a woman who is in a prominent position. Gwen Ifill, the moderator and managing editor of Washington Week and co-anchor and co-managing editor with Judy Woodruff of the PBS NewsHour, is someone I really admire. She was the first at many things, and she really laid the groundwork for women, especially for women of color.
Gwen was visible to young girls who saw someone who looked like them and she gave back to the community by mentoring, encouraging and promoting women in journalism. I admire that, while her journey was marked by significant racism and sexism, she was able to persevere. We can all find inspiration in that.
This was really meaningful! Thank you so much for your time. | https://medium.com/authority-magazine/olivia-gaudree-of-fuel-venture-capital-5-things-we-need-to-do-to-close-the-vc-gender-gap-4e1c380c7685 | ['Orlando Zayas'] | 2020-12-28 21:57:33.668000+00:00 | ['Business'] |
Time Series Forecasting of Solar Radiation | Solar-powered energy generation is on the rise in the United States. According to EIA, the state of Texas is planning to add 10 gigawatts (GW) of utility-scale solar capacity by the end of 2022. This means that there is also an increasing need to power management, both short-term and long-term. In this case, can we leverage solar-related data to make any kind of forecast short-term and long-term help us monitor/manage/distribute electricity generation?
Solar Irradiation is a type of property which is used to measure solar radiation. There are different kinds of measurement: Total Solar Irradiance, Spectral Solar Irradiance, Global Horizontal Irradiance, etc. Measurements are done primarily through satellite or surface sensors. In this study we will use surface sensor measurements.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has maintained several measurement sites to record daily solar radiation on the surface of the Earth. These are typical time series data and therefore we can use machine learning to make forecasts of future irradiance. Future forecasts of solar irradiance can be beneficial to estimating how much energy might be generated from solar power generator in days, weeks, or even months. This is useful in managing power distribution from different kinds of sources.
Data
Daily Surface Radiation data from 7 stations around the United States were obtained from NOAA data ftp site:
https://gml.noaa.gov/aftp/data/radiation/surfrad/
The data are available on a daily basis, i.e a total of 365–366 files per year per location. A manual download of this data is a painful task. Below I have made a small script to automate the download based on location and year, in case you are interested in using this data for any analysis:
Data Exploration
The data is available at the interval of ~17s of daily records which will make over >520,000 observations per location per year. If we use it for multiple years, this will become a big dataset. In this study, the data was resampled to hourly and daily averages which reduced the size significantly, thus allowing for a small PC to train on fairly large neural networks. There are over 28 features available with these data. However, for this study we only chose one major feature, ‘netsolar’ radiation, as a univariate time series for forecasting. Solar radiation is a seasonal phenomenon, and hence should be able to be modelled effectively by machine learning algorithms.
Below, we can see the seasonal variation of the solar radiation for 2020 averaged over the 10 days. Obviously, during the summer the radiation will be high and therefore we can observe a hump in the middle of this plot. Besides this, the radiation should also be periodic on the daily basis. And therefore, this study is focused on short-term forecasts (hourly to up to 10 days).
Modelling
My initial interest for this study was to create a model to forecast for the short term—a few hours to maybe up to 10 days. Therefore, I only used one year of data for training purpose (in this case, measurements from 2020) and used that to predict on 2021 data. But we don’t have yet the whole of the 2021 data (as of me writing this article, today is June 16, 2021), so it would make sense to make a forecast to an unknown period beyond this date. For hourly forecasts, the data were resampled to 1 hour averages and for daily forecasts, the data was resampled to 1 day averages.
Our modelling approach started with an application of conventional modelling techniques such as ARIMA and SARIMAX. However, these models did not generalize well in this data. This is perhaps because the one year of data is inadequate. Furthermore, the current data has high fluctuation in the measurements, which might add extra noise to the model. (Something to be tried is to train on a rolling average, which I haven’t done yet!). On the other hand Neural Net-like model architecture such as LSTM seems to perform very well on the time series.
Long Short Term Memory (LSTM)
LSTM are recurrent neural networks that have the ability to store memory from the past. It is for this nature, LSTM networks are very useful in predicting sequential data. The details of LSTM is beyond the scope of this article, but you can find it easily on the internet. In the next section, I will show you a preliminary results of the application of LSTM of radiation time series.
Below is an example of LSTM architecture used for the final modeling. If you are interested in full codes, I provide a GitHub link at the end of this article.
Training Evaluation
Before making any forecast, let’s take a look at how the model prediction performed on the actual dataset. For the current data, our model performed well for short-term prediction. As we increased the lag period, our model starts to perform badly.
Future Forecast
During the whole period of this study, the most challenging part was to figure out how to make a forecast for the unknown period. There are a lot of materials online that compare training and test data for predicted time series, but only few of them show actual forecasts to the unknown. Especially, code that works is very difficult to find, and honestly, I struggled with making my code work for this part. Below is an example of a function I used to make the forecast. If you want to use this code, you will have to use both blocks of code shown below:
Here is an example of what the resulting dataframe looks like:
After this you can use any kind of visualization library to plot the result. I find the plotly library especiall yuseful, because it allows you to zoom in and out, which is very handy for time series data.
Forecast Result
Finally, it’s time to look at the forecasting result. I tested a 24-hour, 10-day, and 30-day forecast with this model. Overall, the 24-hour and 10-day forecasts were reasonably good. For the 30-day forecast, the model didn’t perform well, which is expected as we only used 1 year of data for training purposes.
Prediction Result from Daily Average Data (10 days rolling average)
Zoomed Section
Prediction Result from Hourly Average Data
Conclusions
The current study shows promising results on short term forecasting and medium term (up to 10 days) of forecasting. For longer term, the model needs to be trained on more historic data. The script to download multiple years of data will be handy in handling a large amount of files, that would mean I could easily incorporate more historic data to the analysis.
The short-term fluctuation in the current data is huge, so would it make sense to use rolling-averaged data for training traditional models like SARIMAX?
Finally, there are plenty of extra features on the radiation data, and therefore it would be interesting to see if multivariate forecasting would perform better. That is something to test for the future!
GitHub link:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suman-gautam-9091572b/ | https://towardsdatascience.com/time-series-forecasting-of-solar-radiation-294b2a0c94e5 | ['Suman Gautam'] | 2021-06-17 05:05:38.921000+00:00 | ['Time Series Forecasting', 'Data Science', 'Solar Energy', 'Lstm', 'Machine Learning'] |
Best WordPress Hosting In Pakistan | Looking for the best web hosting in Pakistan to jump start your next project? In this article we will take a look at the Best Hosting Services in Pakistan. All of the providers also accept local payment gateways if you don’t have a credit card. Some of them also accept monthly payments so you don’t get locked in a hosting plan for years. Below are some of the best hosting providers in Pakistan: | https://medium.com/@swallux/best-wordpress-hosting-in-pakistan-a8a510126d34 | [] | 2020-12-24 20:52:14.020000+00:00 | ['Pakistan', 'Website', 'Web Development', 'Hosting', 'WordPress'] |
InterValue Signs Long-term Strategic Cooperation with HashStor, the Most Cost-effective… | InterValue Signs Long-term Strategic Cooperation with HashStor, the Most Cost-effective Professional IPFS Mining Machine on the Market
As blockchain technology has been taking up more and more space in the economy, InterValue has begun to cooperate with other parties and participate in the construction of blockchain ecosystems across multiple industries. InterValue and HashStor, the most cost-effective professional IPFS mining machine, officially signed a long-term strategic cooperation agreement.
HashStor is a distributed storage miner designed for IPFS mining. It uses a professionally designed chassis, CPU and motherboard for IPFS mining needs. HashStor has been engaged in the development of blockchain infrastructure and related hardware equipment for many years, providing customers with professional integration solutions about software and hardware. The specially designed Web configuration management interface makes the mining machine easy to use.
HashStor’s belongs to Hachnet Company, which specializes in the development of blockchain infrastructure and blockchain-related hardware equipment. It provides customers with professional software and hardware integration solutions.
HashStor’s family Edition is designed for home environments and boasts a beautiful appearance. It features low noise and low power consumption despite being stable and efficient. User-friendly design helps customers flexibly purchase based on their own needs. The product is suitable for different environments and bandwidths, which is a priority for IPFS mining.
HashStor’s Enterprise Edition is suitable for hosting. It has high space utilization, high reliability and flexibility. Besides, it supports cluster management and has a multi-layer protection which ensures it operates steadily for a long time. A variety of models are available, making it the most cost-effective IPFS professional mining machine on the market
The cooperation between InterValue and HashStor can be described as a strong alliance. InterValue will provide HashStor with comprehensive support for blockchain distributed storage. HashStor will also serve as a high-quality blockchain solution provider, driven by InterValue technology. The cooperation scope will gather both parties to jointly work in order to provide quality services to customers. | https://medium.com/intervalue/intervalue-signs-long-term-strategic-cooperation-with-hashstor-the-most-cost-effective-a77e5d348488 | [] | 2018-10-02 03:30:25.622000+00:00 | ['Internet', 'Bitcoin', 'Ipfs', 'Blockchain', 'Bitcoin Mining'] |
Battle of the canines. | Battle of the canines.
Photo by The Humantra on Unsplash
Sitting on the couch, I observe my German shepherds Lucy and Max fighting. At first, I think it is the normal play but no, there is a bone involved. It definitely is the cause of the fight. I didn’t react, rather I sat back and watched as Lucy and Max grappled for the bone. It got interesting as Max managed to hold onto the bone and Lucy also had a grip on it, it was truly a battle of the sexes. “Which sex will emerge the winner and go away with the bone?” I thought aloud. In the midst of the grapple, the bone fell and went under the couch; both Lucy and Max were unable to get hold of it again.
They tried but they couldn’t reach it so they forgot about it and continued playing together like brother and sister.
This battle brings out a clear picture of life about how the male and female gender are busy fighting for gender equality. No gender wants to lose the bone and be inferior to the other. We all want a share of the bone. Let us drop the bone my brethren and focus on living life as a whole unit and not as male and female. We all are unique in different ways and if we unite, we will have a good time on earth. | https://medium.com/illumination/battle-of-the-canines-a1bd02d786 | ['Alloyce Lugoma'] | 2020-12-19 20:25:43.039000+00:00 | ['Gender Equality', 'Life Lessons', 'Peace', 'Life'] |
Exploratory Data Analysis(EDA) From Scratch in Python | # Basic Data Exploration
In this step, we will perform the below operations to check what the data set comprises of. We will check the below things:
— head of the dataset
— the shape of the dataset
— info of the dataset
— summary of the dataset
The head function will tell you the top records in the data set. By default, python shows you only the top 5 records. The shape attribute tells us a number of observations and variables we have in the data set. It is used to check the dimension of data. The cars data set has 303 observations and 13 variables in the data set.
3. info() is used to check the Information about the data and the datatypes of each respective attribute.
Looking at the data in the head function and in info, we know that the variable Income and travel time are of float data type instead of the object. So we will convert it into the float. Also, there are some invalid values like @@ and ‘* ‘ in the data which we will be treating as missing values.
4. The described method will help to see how data has been spread for numerical values. We can clearly see the minimum value, mean values, different percentile values, and maximum values.
Handling missing value
We can see that we have various missing values in the respective columns. There are various ways of treating your missing values in the data set. And which technique to use when is actually dependent on the type of data you are dealing with.
Drop the missing values: In this case, we drop the missing values from those variables. In case there are very few missing values you can drop those values.
Impute with mean value: For the numerical column, you can replace the missing values with mean values. Before replacing with mean value, it is advisable to check that the variable shouldn’t have extreme values .i.e. outliers.
Impute with median value: For the numerical column, you can also replace the missing values with median values. In case you have extreme values such as outliers it is advisable to use the median approach.
Impute with mode value: For the categorical column, you can replace the missing values with mode values i.e the frequent ones.
In this exercise, we will replace the numerical columns with median values and for categorical columns, we will drop the missing values.
Handling Duplicate records
Since we have 14 duplicate records in the data, we will remove this from the data set so that we get only distinct records. Post removing the duplicate, we will check whether the duplicates have been removed from the data set or not.
Handling Outlier
Outliers, being the most extreme observations, may include the sample maximum or sample minimum, or both, depending on whether they are extremely high or low. However, the sample maximum and minimum are not always outliers because they may not be unusually far from other observations.
We Generally identify outliers with the help of boxplot, so here box plot shows some of the data points outside the range of the data.
Box-plot before removing outliers
Looking at the box plot, it seems that the variables INCOME, have outlier present in the variables. These outliers value needs to be teated and there are several ways of treating them:
Drop the outlier value
Replace the outlier value using the IQR
#Boxplot After removing outlier
Box-plot after removing outliers
Bivariate Analysis
When we talk about bivariate analysis, it means analyzing 2 variables. since we know there are Numerical and categorical variables, there is a way of analyzing these variables as shown below:
Numerical vs. Numerical
1. Scatterplot
2. Line plot
3. Heatmap for correlation
4. Joint plot
Categorical vs. Numerical
1. Bar chart
2. Voilin plot
3. Categorical box plot
4.Swarm plot
Two Categorcal Variables
1. Bar chart
2. Grouped bar chart
3. Point plot
If we need to find the correlation
Normalizing and Scaling
Often the variables of the data set are of different scales i.e. one variable is in millions and others in only 100. For e.g. in our data set Income is having values in thousands and age in just two digits. Since the data in these variables are of different scales, it is tough to compare these variables.
Feature scaling (also known as data normalization) is the method used to standardize the range of features of data. Since the range of values of data may vary widely, it becomes a necessary step in data preprocessing while using machine learning algorithms.
In this method, we convert variables with different scales of measurements into a single scale. StandardScaler normalizes the data using the formula (x-mean)/standard deviation. We will be doing this only for the numerical variables.
ENCODING
One-Hot-Encoding is used to create dummy variables to replace the categories in a categorical variable into features of each category and represent it using 1 or 0 based on the presence or absence of the categorical value in the record.
This is required to do since the machine learning algorithms only work on the numerical data. That is why there is a need to convert the categorical column into a numerical one.
get_dummies is the method that creates a dummy variable for each categorical variable. | https://medium.com/swlh/exploratory-data-analysis-eda-from-scratch-in-python-8c12c2673aa7 | ['Ritika Singh'] | 2020-09-04 06:46:58.670000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Statistics', 'Python', 'Data Analysis', 'Exploratory Data Analysis'] |
Breaking _up_relationships | Getting Back Together With An Ex There are plenty of reasons for breaking up relationships. There are benefits of breaking up and drawbacks as well.
One of the things you have to take into account when you break up a relationship is to figure out whether getting back together with an ex is worth it or not. There are some things you should and shouldn’t do if you are considering breaking up. Some reasons for breaking up relationships is because there is constant arguing going on. There are always reasons people can find to argue, but the core of the matter lies in why you two are arguing in the first place.
Is there a trust issue going on? If you cannot trust your partner, then there can be no basis for the relationship. You should be able to trust that your partner will do the right thing in a tempting situation. Perhaps your partner cheated in their past relationship. But if they have never cheated in your relationship and have never given you reason to think that they did, then you should probably continue to trust them. Trust is a virtue that must be earned, and if it is broken it will take time to rebuild that trust again. Another reason for breaking up is the lack of communication. Sometimes one or both partners completely close off from each other for one reason or another. The usual excuse is the typical "I have a lot going on." Well, if there is a lot going on, then you should talk about it. There is nothing worse than having something bottled up inside you for a long time.
Those feelings will only fester and cause you to worry even more. Partners should talk it out and try to bring a resolution to the problem. Talking out a problem with someone you trust will surely do your emotional attitude some good because just the fact that you are being heard and someone is listening to you is worth some of the best advice in the world. As you probably already know, sometimes all you need is a shoulder to cry on or a person to hug. This might be one of those times, so take advantage of it. You will know who your true friends are here. One benefit of breaking up is the fact that you can get some air. Perhaps your partner was smothering you and keeping you from seeing other people due to jealousy. With the break up complete, you can now go out and enjoy yourself. Another benefit of breaking up is to work on yourself some more. If you still need some personal growth, then now is the time to do it. Once you have better confidence in yourself and better self esteem, then there will be greater opportunities for a successful relationship between you and your future partner. Take these things into account when you are considering breaking up relationships because you just might have to apply some of this advice to your situation. | https://medium.com/@wwwvaibhavshukla123/breaking-up-relationships-bccf0ca4d7f1 | ['Tech Gadget'] | 2021-06-17 14:29:06.412000+00:00 | ['Love Advice', 'Breaking Up', 'Relationship Advice', 'Dating Advice', 'Love'] |
Addressing Immigrant Needs for Language Access during COVID-19 | Low income, limited English-speaking immigrants are at the unfortunate crux of today’s socioeconomic and health landscape. The odds are stacked against low income American immigrants, whose lives are significantly affected by a health pandemic, fear mongering anti-immigrant policies, and the outcome of nation-wide civil protests. On the health front, racial and ethnic minority communities are disproportionately affected by COVID-19. As of June 12, 2020, the hospitalization rate for Hispanic or Latino people is approximately 4 times that of non-Hispanic white people. This alarming inequity is brought to light even further, given Black Lives Matter protests advocating for racial justice. Alongside the wave of black advocacy rides ethnic immigrant communities who have also been historically underserved by the justice system.
On top of it all is a raging anti-immigrant fervor which has become increasingly mainstream over the last ten years. The current administration has focused on stricter immigration policies and executive orders, which has made life substantially more difficult for all immigrants. It is common for immigrants to feel a constant, overwhelming sense of fear and hostility, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) hovers over the doorsteps of them and their loved ones. For most low income immigrants, legal aid organizations are a primary source of protection from injustices in the legal system.
At the Stanford Legal Design Lab, we wanted to help address the needs of low income immigrant clients at legal aid organizations that are working in a remote capacity. We ask,
How might we help low-income, limited English-speaking immigrants receive access to remote interpretation when they communicate with their legal aid attorney?
Do limited English-speaking clients feel empowered to ask questions and share sensitive information with their attorneys? Are they receiving the same access to justice as their English-speaking counterparts? How can organizations adapt their interpretation services, given the current limitations of remote work?
The Viva Translate project facilitates remote conversations between low-income immigrants and legal aid staff by automatically translating their text messages in a low-tech and convenient way. The legal aid staff member simply visits the online Viva Translate portal and starts messaging by entering their client’s phone number and language. Clients send and receive text messages in their native language, with no additional setup needed.
Finding the Need: Language Access at Legal Aid Organizations
We interviewed 40+ legal aid staff and clients at a partner organization and quickly found that interpretation capacity was a huge bottleneck. The bottleneck was particularly apparent when attorneys tried to contact their clients for basic conversations such as filling out a form, scheduling an appointment, or sending case resources.
Attorneys at our partner legal aid organization estimated that 80% of their clients had limited English proficiency (LEP). When they tried to remotely contact their LEP clients for simple tasks, they had a few choices:
Ask a staff interpreter to help interpret through voice call (time-consuming) Call a phone interpreter service such as Language Line (expensive) Use Google Translate to text the client
For simple conversations, we found that many lawyers resorted to the third option: using Google Translate to text their client. This was cheaper than using Language Line and was also faster since it did not require a third party interpreter. Furthermore, clients are more responsive through text message, which makes SMS an even more convenient choice than voice call.
Increased Client Trust and Responsiveness through SMS and Automated Translation
A conversation between a lawyer and a Spanish-speaking client. Through Viva Translate, text messages are sent to the client in both the original and translated languages.
The combination of SMS text messaging and machine translation creates an incredibly effective tool for communicating with limited English speakers. As of 2019, 96% of Americans own a cellphone of some kind. Additionally, messaging through SMS elicits an incredibly high amount of trust and responsiveness. When the Hennepin County District Court in Minnesota implemented a text message reminder system, bench warrants for failures to appear rate (FTA) was reduced by 24%. The court’s success in reaching defendants is higher for texts than emails.
If we add machine translation into the mix, then we significantly increase responsiveness and trust for limited English-speaking clients. Viva Translate currently uses Google Translate (with a plan to augment it with our own legal and SMS specific improvements). Machine translation such as Google Translate allows for near-instant translation in over 100 languages, which increases access to legal aid for clients that speak lesser known languages. Staff interpreters are no longer overworked with logistical conversation and can focus their efforts on high-stakes legal conversations. By increasing the number of touch points between a low income client and a lawyer, even for a simple task of filling out forms, we foster improved trust, stability, and client outcomes.
A Convenient Interface for Legal Aid Organizations
So far, we have demonstrated that the SMS channel is the most effective channel to reach clients, but what does the interface look like for legal aid staff? | https://medium.com/legal-design-and-innovation/addressing-immigrant-needs-for-language-access-during-covid-19-589e20f23cab | ['B Mo'] | 2020-07-22 20:43:50.985000+00:00 | ['Legaltech', 'Sms', 'Social Innovation', 'Justice', 'Translation'] |
Istanbul Stop-Over with Turkish Airlines | Turkish Airlines has an awesome benefit — you choose to schedule a longer stop-over for free in Istanbul if you already have a layover there, and they will provide either a free hotel room or a guided tour of the city.
Other cities like Singapore and Taiwan, I know, do this already but this was the first time I heard of an airline doing it. If you want the hotel room instead of the tour, you will have to email them ahead so they can get that ready for you.
For the tour, just head out from your arrival gate, pick up your luggage, and go through customs. US citizens — you will need a visa and you can get one online for $20. Turn RIGHT and head all the way down to almost the end of the airport. Other people you ask might lead you all around, but don’t go up or down any stairs because I did both and it’s a LIE. If you ask any of the Turkish Airline desks, no one will know what you are talking about for some reason. I ended up walking all around the airport to find it.
There is a luggage storage facility right next door to it, which is convenient, but it will cost you around $7 USD per day, and they take cash only — which was outrageous to me.
There are a few different options of lengths of tour available, so go on over to the Turkish Airline website to find out what the latest availabilities are. For the summer, they also added a cruise and dinner tour for the evening.
Head over to the counter and show them your boarding pass and let them know you wan to take one of the tours. They’ll hand you a sticker.
Right on the dot, a tour guide showed up and went through everyone’s names to make sure everyone was here. Then we all walked on over to the bus, where a gift was waiting for us — a multiuse bandana. The whole bus ride, our guide was explaining things about Istanbul and just doing tour guide stuff.
Our first stop was a restaurant called Mihmandar Et Lokantasi located halfway between the center of the city and the airport. We had given preferences of our meal option between meatballs, chicken, and a lentil soup option. We walked over and sat down at the tables, and immediately had peach juice, nectarine juice, sodas, and a watery and salty Turkish yugurt drink called aryan. This was where I was the most impressed! To serve a meal at a restaurant is way above and beyond what I would expect from a free airline tour.
Then our bus went over to Taksim Square where we got off and walked all the way down to the Galata tower, stopping at Cicek Pasaji, Sent Antuan Kilisesi, and numerous other short stops and one long stop near Mado for free time and shopping. There are dozens of Turkish delight shops, Turkish ice cream shops, coffee shops, and chocolate shops.
This city is crawling with tourists and a number of proportionately greedy locals trying to make money off it. They will charge you more than 3x for a bottle of water or ice cream. I bought a 1L bottle of water for 2.5, and ice cream for 10. That is what the locals pay (or so the locals told me) and that’s how much you should try to pay as well.
The bus was heading back to the airport so I said goodbye and headed over the Galata Koprusu bridge with all the people fishing off the pier and the Suleymaniye Mosque (I think maybe) in the background.
Right off the bridge was the Mısır Çarşısı, a bazaar. So i walked through that seeing textiles, dishes, and lamps of all shapes and sizes. There was a locals line for a coffee shop somewhere in this maze, so I got some. No idea if it is good. I don’t even drink coffee. | https://medium.com/shiretoerebor/istanbul-stop-over-with-turkish-airlines-526452dfca98 | ['Grace E. Park'] | 2019-08-11 01:59:45.135000+00:00 | ['Turkey', 'Travel', 'Travel Tip', 'Travel Blog', 'Asia'] |
If you don’t know who you are, you will end up in the office | If you don’t know who you are, you will end up in the office AK Feb 16·5 min read
Have you ever seen a child who dreams to become an office employee, a clerk, a white collar? A kid can dream to become “a boss” which means “to be powerful like my parent” but boss is not a profession. It’s not clear what exactly you are going to do.
When you make your choice at the age of 16, you are cool. If not yet, that’s ok as well. Though if you don’t manage to make up your mind in the early years, it will be difficult to understand who you want to be as a grown up. Teenagers explore the world by testing themselves and others. Who was your hero at that time? What skills were you mastering? As a teenager I heard that sports, music, dancing, video games, and hanging out with friends could not become a job. It sounds funny now. A clear border existed between pleasure and work, i.e., life some decades ago. I made a compromise of the two and went to study foreign philology. I became an excellent University graduate and a young professional with no chances to lead an independent life. Miserable salary survival course was not a part of academic studies.
Photo by MD Duran on Unsplash
The job market was tough, and it did not need my qualification but some of my skills were in high demand. I got an assistant position in a legal bureau. I liked that my income increased. And I decided to study law hoping to make a career. The schooling went well but I resigned from my job after 18 months. It was my personal “The Devil Wears Prada” story version.
After a few months of search, I accepted the first job offer without consideration (I needed money). It was an admin position in a medium-size FMCG company. In a few months they told me I had to choose a profession. My two diplomas (a language teacher and a lawyer) did not weigh much in trade. I wanted to take the HR but was pushed to logistics because it was more critical to close the gap. Working with numbers was a pain. I felt stupid and incompetent with my very average math grade. Thanks to exaggerated perfectionism and hard work, somehow, I was managing. Eighteen months later the company was done. No, not because of me. Apparently, there were others who did not know math.
I was tired of changes and wanted to have a more stable job finally. Working in a big corporation with heavy processes, strict rules and a dress code terrified me, but I decided to give it a try. Nothing wrong happens if I work for one of those big guys. Anyway, I will learn new skills, I am going to meet new people, perhaps I will travel around the world, and they will pay me a decent salary. I am going to have a fixed desk in a warm and dry open space with artificial lights, coffee machines, and a canteen. And I got it all in a package along with a first-level manager position.
Photo by Andreas Strandman on Unsplash
I tried to fit into the corporate culture but even after many years I still felt an outsider. My interests always laid beyond business. I’ve been a rebellion against the rules and hierarchies. Small talks about a past weekend or future vacation seemed boring. Saving more money for shareholders had no impact on my well-being. I kept on asking myself, was I the only one who worked there for money?
I did not want challenging positions because the job I was doing did not match with my preferences. I declined promotions unwilling to work more. And still burnouts became regular because I was spending most of my lifetime for something, I had no interest in. Changing the office had no sense: after 10 years I could easily fit into any other big company regardless the industry. I could not feel myself anymore. I did not know who I was beyond the corporate definitions. And I felt miserable. I appreciated the experience and still felt that I gave much more in return, more than the money I received: my energy, my health, my personal life.
How did it happen? Was I too flexible, changing my professional profile according to the market needs? Flexibility helps to survive and to make life comfortable. Lack of self-knowledge makes us waste the energy and complicates the life. We accept the choices of others when we do not make our own. It is good to learn a new profession and to feel proud you manage it. Though if you continue doing a job you do not like, you will hardly become very successful. It feels much better to excel in the activity you enjoy and be a top expert in it.
Life is not perfect. It invites us to compromise to make the balance possible. All these years, working in the office, I tried to keep my natural talents and skills of teaching, guiding, and caring active. My passion started with private lessons, later I finished a school of massage, then I got trained as a group Fitness Instructor, and studied Health Coaching. My interest to the area of social and health care has been growing.
Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash
I did not quit the office (life is not perfect, remember), nevertheless the more I practiced my favourite activities, the better I felt. I started feeling happier, even my main work irritated me much less. I focused on people and relationship development more than on performance. And my business position became stronger surprisingly. In the past, I was so obsessed with my dissatisfaction with the job that I neglected my soft skills. When I re-discovered them again, I stopped negative thinking. This helped me to create warm and supportive contacts with colleagues, made my office time lighter, funnier.
From the moment I made my own choice, when I understood what my preferences are, I started moving towards my real professional goal. I will never know how it would be if I had followed my path from the very beginning. What I am sure of is that I can help others in similar situation to make their choices.
Listen to yourself and make a change when you are ready. | https://medium.com/@alonakorop/if-you-dont-know-who-you-are-you-will-end-up-in-the-office-bbc0b6c69b71 | [] | 2021-02-16 07:17:36.275000+00:00 | ['Psychology', 'Health Coaching', 'Career Paths', 'Office Life', 'Choices'] |
Live Magic | Another of my new years resolutions was to attend more live magic shows. Whilst its great to see more magic on our TV screens, nothing quite compares to seeing magic performed live.
Dynamo will soon be wrapping up his tour of The Abandoned Room, ‘Times Are Gone for Honest Men’, in Belfast before the final leg in Jersey. The Magicians Live with the talented Dave Loosley, Robert Pound, Liam Ball and Jamie Daws recently performed a new show at The Coney.
This month, Steve Faulkner will also be performing alongside Peter Antoniou and Dave Alnwick at The Greystones.
The West End Magic show at Leicester Square, with the line-up consisting of the supremely talented Diva of Magic; Romany with Dave Loosley, Christian Lee, Vicky Butterfly, Oliver Tabor, and Florian Brooks.
I’m also very much looking forward to seeing Rob Zabrecky at The Abandoned Room. Especially after reading his Astonishing Essay, The A,B,Z’s of Magic. Highly recommended reading, along with Vanishing Incs series of Astonishing Essays from the Millionaires Magician, Steve Cohen. Also both of whom you can listen to on the excellent podcast. Steve Faulkner also has now joined forces with Vanishing Inc, continuing with the Real Magic Reviews.
Andy Nyman also graces us with his expertise with another entertaining podcast from Richard Young's The Magicians Podcast. With all these magic shows in abundance, it has giving me the boost to persuade myself to get performing once again. Vanishing Incs, Andi Gladwin, ‘Going Pro’ was also an impetus to put thoughts into practice.
Serendipity has also struck, as creative magical genius and teacher, Tom Stone, will be in London next month with his Art of Magic workshop!
This is a three day workshop in London covering all aspects within the art of magic, and it sounds like an opportunity not to miss. So, I booked myself a place, after some encouragement from some dear magician friends of mine.
Social media has been excellent in making new friends in magic, and the magic community has been such a great support, I thought its time to give something in return. The Mysterious Mr Quinn. | https://medium.com/@magiquin/live-magic-e3bf9afd29c4 | ['Q U I N'] | 2019-03-03 22:53:28.576000+00:00 | ['Dynamo', 'Tom Stone', 'Live', 'Romany', 'Magic'] |
Kopi Chat Da Bao: How to build a hyper local start-up in the mapping industry? | Featuring Kopi Chat Da Bao with Ajay Bulusu, cofounder of NextBillion.AI
Contributed by Chen Yi Ting
Google Maps revolutionised the mapping landscape with the iPhone and became the gold standard for digital mapping more than a decade ago. Having been part of the Google Maps team and subsequently leading the intrapreneurship team at Grab across 9 different countries, Ajay was well-equipped with the relevant skill set when he made a mid-career venture into entrepreneurship and built NextBillion.AI, a B2B startup, which creates customised mapping ecosystems for companies.
On November 4, we invited Ajay Bulusu, cofounder of NextBillion.AI, whose role is in managing operations, sales and human resource, to give us insight into how AI can be applied in the mobility sector, and sharing on his wealth of experience as a seasoned intrapreneur and mid-career entrepreneur at the same time.
Ajay Bulusu, NextBillion.AI (left) with Soh Hui Min, NUS Enterprise (right)
Here are 5 key takeaways from Ajay.
Mapping is not as easy as it seems.
“The map gets stained the minute you make it.” Mapping is highly complex as maps change dynamically right after they are made due to planned and unplanned events like road repairs and accidents. In particular, hyper local mapping, which refers to the way in which a business is run in its locality, is even more specialised as it focuses on a particular location and vehicle type. For instance, food delivery services in the CBD (Central Business District) area in Singapore only travel on footpaths or sidewalks. Thus, an unique model with accurate estimated time of arrival predictions has to be created for these delivery services.
To do geospatial AI, all you require is data from phones.
To work on the AI for geospatial purposes, all that is required is anonymised data from our phones. A model is then built and data is placed on an open source API (Application Programming Interface) to provide a customised browsing or navigation system. While the use of API is commonplace, NextBillion.AI is the first to put out a large mapping ecosystem for large enterprises on their cloud.
Entrepreneurship requires good timing, balance and a healthy dose of humility.
Timing is important as an industry needs to reach a certain level of maturity for a good product-market fit. Loved ones and key stakeholders in your life also need to understand that a significant amount of your time would be devoted to the startup. Moreover, a good balance of skill sets has to be present in the cofounding team as well. A startup founder is the same as anyone else, without the prestige of working in large corporations, and is required to learn a lot about how the whole ecosystem works and various facets like law and banking.
Scaling across countries requires sufficient understanding of the selling process.
It is crucial to understand cultural nuances and requirements of the selling process. For instance, how to approach a company and the way advertisements should be published are different depending on the cultural norms of the country. Quoting an example — in India, SAAS is not adopted on a large scale and there are significantly lower numbers of searches for the term “software” than in US. Thus, placing ads on Google and LinkedIn in India would not give leads.
Sharing your geo-information is not all bad.
Geo-privacy is one of the biggest concerns of using AI in the geospatial industry. While Ajay understands concerns regarding location tracking and ethical uses of data, he highlights that a lot of contextual advertisements and offers for nearby events are curated based on where the device is located, providing more relevance for users.
Ajay’s next priority for NextBillion.AI include facial recognition as well as generic AI data labelling and tagging. According to Ajay, these automated content moderation tactics would be beneficial for content generation companies.
If you are keen to learn more about entrepreneurship and technology, check out similar events on NUS Enterprise website. | https://medium.com/@nusenterprise/kopi-chat-da-bao-how-to-build-a-hyper-local-start-up-in-the-mapping-industry-7263d3a6dbc2 | ['Nus Enterprise'] | 2020-12-14 05:21:40.323000+00:00 | ['Entrepreneurship', 'AI', 'Maps', 'Mobility', 'Innovation'] |
The Deadliest Female Sniper in Recorded History | The Deadliest Female Sniper in Recorded History
Lyudmila Pavlichenko a.k.a Lady Death
Lyudmila Pavlichenko in a trench, posing with a sniper rifle (Image: Devianart/@bakka)
In June 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Lyudmila Pavlichenko (1916–1974) immediately joined the Soviet army. Soon, her deadly sniper skills earned her a new nickname, the ‘Lady Death’.
After a combat injury in 1942, she traveled across the United States (US) to convince Americans to enter World War II. During her tour, she uttered one of the most badass lines in history:
I am 25 years old and I have killed 309 fascist occupants by now. Don’t you think, gentlemen, that you have been hiding behind my back for too long? — Lyudmila Pavlichenko
A beauty who refused to be a field nurse during the war
Lyudmila Pavlichenko (Image:thesun.co.uk)
As a teenager, Lyudmila heard a neighbor boy boasting about his shooting skills. Being fiercely competitive, she joined a local shooting club and became a certified sharpshooter.
Lyudmila was studying history at Kyiv University when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941.
She rushed to join the army and fight against the Germans. Recruiters looked in amazement at the twenty-four-year-old girl that looked like a model, wearing fashionable clothes and hairstyle. They tried to convince her to become a field nurse.
Nevertheless, Lyudmila insisted on joining the infantry. After displaying a marksmanship certificate, the recruiters relented, and she joined the army.
In the beginning, she didn’t even have her own rifle. Instead, they gave her one grenade and tasked her with digging trenches. After one of the fellow soldiers was seriously injured, he gave her his Mosin–Nagant sniper rifle. Soon afterward, she killed two Romanian soldiers. Now, she officially had become a real sniper.
Lyudmila achieved 309 confirmed kills, including 36 enemy snipers
Lyudmila Pavlichenko with her weapon of choice — the sniper rifle (Image: thesun.co.uk)
Lyudmila was one of the 2000 Soviet female snipers during World War II. She recorded 309 confirmed kills, including one hundred officers and thirty-six enemy snipers.
For the kill to be confirmed, an independent third party had to witness it, and this was not always possible. So, her real total is most likely around 500 kills.
She achieved all these kills in just one year of service, during the Siege of Odesa and the Siege of Sevastopol.
After she was injured, the Soviet government evacuated her from Sevastopol via a submarine. She was already a celebrity and the government wanted to keep her alive. The rest of her division died within a month at Sevastopol. Among the perished soldiers was Lyudmila’s husband, a fellow sniper Alexei Kitsenko.
Afterward, she trained other snipers and served as a public spokesperson. In 1942, she traveled to the US, Canada, and Britain to convince the allies to join the war.
Lyudmila became the first Soviet citizen to be received by a US President
Lyudmila (center) with the US First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (right), and Justice Robert Jackson (left) (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
In 1942, Lyudmila traveled to the US to convince Americans to open a second front against the Germans. During her visit to the White House, she was received by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt invited Lyudmila on a tour across the US to share her war experiences.
Interestingly, Lyudmila and Eleanor became friends. In 1957, during her visit to the Soviet Union, Eleanor visited Lyudmila in Moscow.
Conclusion
After the war, Lyudmila worked as a historian. She also wrote an autobiography about her wartime experience.
She suffered from depression, PSTD (post-traumatic stress disorder), and alcoholism. The war and the loss of her husband during the Siege of Sevastopol had left deep wounds on her soul. She died of a stroke at the age of fifty-eight in 1974.
Lyudmila never regretted killing the enemy soldiers since she saw the atrocities committed by the Germans. However, she strongly objected to sport hunting because the animals don’t have rifles. | https://medium.com/history-of-yesterday/lyudmila-pavlichenko-4fb52c3023dd | ['Peter Preskar'] | 2020-11-30 18:02:41.404000+00:00 | ['War', 'Women', 'Russia', 'History', 'Military'] |
Concepts of Tableau | While accessing Tableau basic concepts, I found it difficult to get the relevant content in a single place or in a single website, so I came up with an idea to curate it in the form of simple and yet effective reading material.
Data visualization is the graphical representation of information and data. Data visualization uses statistical graphics, plots, information graphics, and other tools to communicate information clearly and efficiently. Effective visualization helps users analyze and reason about data and evidence. It makes complex data more accessible, understandable, and usable.
Tableau Software is an interactive data visualization software company focused on business intelligence. Tableau is one of the data visualization tools which uses visual elements like charts, graphs, and maps, and provides an accessible way to see and understand trends, outliers, and patterns in data. In the commercial environment, data visualization is often referred to as dashboards. Infographics are another very common form of data visualization.
A dashboard is a presentation of any number of related views and other elements (such as text or images) arranged together as a cohesive whole to communicate a message to an audience. Dashboards are often designed to be interactive.
In this article, we will have an overview of basic concepts and terminologies associated with Tableau Desktop. The purpose is to cover limited and most important topics, not the exhaustive topics of Tableau, in a short span of time.
*The scope is not to cover all the concepts.
Tableau Query Language
The unique and exciting experience of working with data in Tableau is a result of (VizQL, Visual Query Language).
Based on the requirement, it can then be translated into flavors of SQL (Structured Query Language), MDX (Multidimensional Expressions), and TQL (Tableau Query Language, used for extracted data). Tableau automatically performs the translation of VizQL into a native query to be run by the source data engine.
The web data connector allows you to write a connector for any online data you wish to retrieve. Additionally, for any database without a native connection, Tableau gives you the ability to use a generic ODBC connection. The Extract API allows you to programmatically extract and combine any data sources for use in Tableau.
Measure & Dimension
Measures are values that are aggregated . For example, they are summed, averaged, counted, or have a minimum or a maximum.
. For example, they are summed, averaged, counted, or have a minimum or a maximum. Dimensions are values that determine the level of detail at which measures are aggregated. The combination of dimensions used in the view defines the view’s basic level of detail.
Live & Extract data connection
Live connections offer the convenience of real-time updates, with any changes in the data source reflected in Tableau. But live connections also rely on the database for all queries. With live connections, your data queries are only as fast as the database itself.
Tableau Data Extracts (.tde or .hyper file) are snapshots of data optimized for aggregation and loaded into system memory to be quickly recalled for visualization. Extracts tend to be much faster than live connections, especially in more complex visualizations with large data sets, filters, calculations, etc.
You may choose to use extracts to increase performance over traditional databases as live connection databases are not always optimized for fast performance.
Extracts are advantageous for several reasons:
• Supports large data sets: You can create extracts that contain billions of rows of data.
• Help improve performance: When you interact with views that use extract data sources, you generally experience better performance than when interacting with views based on connections to the original data.
• Support additional functionality: Extracts allow you to take advantage of Tableau functionality that’s not available or supported by the original data, such as the ability to compute Count Distinct.
Offline data access : Extract provides offline access to the data.
: Extract provides offline access to the data. Aggregate data to be used over transaction data.
Join & Blend
Joins are performed to link tables of data together on a row-by-row basis.
From Tableau 10, it is possible to join tables of data across various data connections for many different data sources.
Joining across different data connections is referred to as a cross-database join. For example, you can join SQL Server tables with text files or Excel files, or tables in one database with tables in another, even if those are on a different server.
Blends are performed to link multiple data sources at an aggregate level.
It allows you to use data from multiple data sources in the same view. Often these sources may be different types. For example, you can blend data from Oracle with data from Excel. Data blending is done at an aggregate level and involves different queries sent to each data source, unlike joining, which is done at a row-level and involves a single query to a single data source.
Data blending occurs by issuing two separate queries and then blending the aggregate results. Data blending simulates a traditional left join.
If you’re working with large sets of data, joins can put a strain on the database and significantly affect performance. In this case, data blending might help. Because Tableau handles combining the data after the data is aggregated, there are fewer data to combine.
Filter
The filtering capability can serve a variety of purposes including minimizing the size of the data for efficiency purposes, cleaning up underlying data, removing irrelevant dimension members, and setting measure or date ranges for what you want to analyze.
6 types of Filters
i. Data Source Filters are useful when you want to limit your analysis to a subset of data, used mainly to restrict sensitive data from the data viewers. These filters are applied before any other filters.
Custom SQL Filter can be accomplished using a live connection with custom SQL, which has a Tableau parameter in the WHERE clause.
ii. Extract Filter limits the data that is stored in an extract (.tde or .hyper). Extract filters are used to filter the extracted data from the data source saving a snapshot of its current state in your workbook and hence reducing the number of times Tableau queries the data source.
iii. Context Filter is a discrete, independent filter on its own, creating datasets based on the original datasheet and the preset chosen for compiling the data. Any other filters that you set are defined as dependent filters because they process only the data that passes through the context filter, and the context filter would ensure that it is first to get processed.
iv. Dimension Filter is another name for non-aggregated filters (blue pills), such as Dimensions, Groups, Bins, Sets, etc. In the filter dialog that pops up, there are four tabs for General, Wildcard, Condition, and Top.
v. Measure Filters are aggregated filters and are applied after non-aggregated filters. When dragging it on, Tableau will automatically aggregate by Sum. The second step gives four options: Range of values, At least, At most, and Special.
vi. Table Calculation Filters is the last filter applied and it applies to the filter after the view has been created. So, if you want to filter the view without filtering the underlying data, Table Calculations Filters are the way to go. Table Calculations are certain functions used when creating Calculated Fields such as LOOKUP, WINDOW_SUM, WINDOW_AVG, etc.
Quick Filters/Filter can be either Dimension Filter or Measure Filter and can control the appearance and interaction of your filter card in the view by selecting a filter card mode.
User filters secure the row-level data published in a server.
Calculations
Calculations allow you to create new data from data that already exists in your data source, as well as perform computations on your data. This allows you to perform complex analyzes and add fields to your data source on your own and on the fly.
4 types of Calculations
i. Row-level calculations - Basic expressions allow you to transform values or members at the data source level of detail (a row-level calculation).
ii. Aggregate-level calculations - Basic expressions allow you to transform values or members at the visualization level of detail (an aggregate calculation).
iii. Level Of Detail (LOD) calculations - Level of Detail or LOD is one of the types of tableau calculations. LOD expressions allow you to compute values at the data source level and the visualization level and can be computed at a level or level (dimension) using LOD.
3 Types of LOD calculations
a. Fixed - Compute a value using the specified dimensions, without reference to the dimensions in the view.
b. Include - Compute a value using the specified dimensions in addition to whatever dimensions are in the view.
c. Exclude - Compute a value not using the specified dimensions and declare dimensions to omit from the view level of detail.
The syntax for LOD calculation-
{FIXED|INCLUDE|EXCLUDE [Dim 1],[Dim 2],..,[Dim n]: AGG([Measure])}
iv. Table calculations - Table calculations allow you to transform values at the level of detail of the visualization only. It enables solutions that really couldn’t be achieved any other way (writing a custom application or complex custom SQL scripts). Table Calculations are performed after the initial query on the aggregate table of data in Tableau’s cache right before the data visualization is rendered.
4 types of Table Calculations
a. Quick Table Calculation: Quick table calculations allow you to quickly apply a common table calculation to your visualization using the most typical settings for that calculation type.
The following quick table calculations are available in Tableau for you to use:
Running total
Difference
Percent difference
Percent of total
Rank
Percentile
Moving average
YTD total
Compound growth rate
Year of year growth
YTD growth
b. Relative Table Calculation: The Table Calculation will be computed relative to the layout of the table. Scope and direction are terms that describe how a Table Calculation is computed relative to the table.
Scope options: Table, pane, and cells.
Direction options: Down, across, down then across, and across then down.
c. Fixed Table Calculation: The Table Calculation will be computed using one or more dimensions. Addressing and partitioning are very similar to scope and direction but are most often used to describe how Table Calculations are computed with absolute reference to certain fields in the view.
d. Custom Table Calculation: Custom Table Calculations is one of the most advanced concepts in Tableau. With nested table calculations, you can set Compute Using configurations for individual calculations independently.
The following custom table calculations are available in Tableau for you to use:
Meta table functions - Index, First, Last, and Size
Lookup and the previous value
Rank functions
Running functions - Running_Count(), Running_Sum(), Running_Avg(), Running_Min() and Running_Max().
Window functions - Window_Sum, Window_Avg, Window_Max, and Window_Min.
Total function - Total(SUM([Sales])) gives the same result as Window_Sum(SUM([Sales])), but Total(AVG([Sales])) will give a different result from Window_AVG(SUM([Sales])) because Total is giving you the actual average of underlying rows, while the Window function is averaging the sums.
Script functions - These functions allow for integration with the R analytics platform or Python.
Late filtering (late filter) - LOOKUP(ATTR([Dimension]), 0).
To see the percentage of the total measure for all dimensions, also exclude some from the display.
Action
An action is a user-initiated event that triggers a response from Tableau.
6 types of Actions
i. Filter - The user’s action causes data from one view to filter data in another one or more views.
ii. Highlight - The user’s action causes specific marks and headers to be highlighted in one or more views and dimming others.
iii. Go to URL - The user’s action creates hyperlinks and a specific URL gets opened (either in a browser, a new tab, or in an embedded web object).
iv. Go to Sheet - The user’s action causes navigation to other worksheets, dashboards, or stories.
v. Change Set values - The user’s action changes the value of a set. Sets may be used in calculations, filters, and on shelves to change visual attributes.
vi. Change Parameter - The user’s action changes the value of a parameter. This allows the user to visually interact with parameters.
Running Actions
i. Hover - Rest the pointer over a mark in the view to run the action. This option works well for highlight and filter actions within a dashboard.
ii. Select - Click on a mark in the view to run the action. This option works well for all types of actions.
iii. Menu - Click on a selected mark in the view and then select an option on the custom or user-defined context menu. This option works well for filter and URL actions.
I believe this article will help the individuals, who are trying to get basic theoretical knowledge and familiar with Tableau as a data visualization solution.
Reference -
• Wikipedia
• Tableau
• Storytelling with Data | https://medium.com/@duttadj/concepts-of-tableau-8e702acf098f | ['Divya Jyoti Dutta'] | 2021-07-06 15:09:08.601000+00:00 | ['Tableau', 'Dashboard', 'Dataviz', 'Visualization', 'Tableau Desktop'] |
FREE NOW: The BMW-Daimler ride-hailing venture Uber might be acquiring | One would assume that global automotive conglomerates would have a vested interest in having people buy their own personal vehicles rather than encouraging them to forego them in favour of ride-hailing apps. But, clearly, BMW AG and Daimler AG are seeing the impact of technology on the present and future of transportation, which is why they joined forces on a venture to, as they say, ‘reinvent mobility as we know it.’
The result? The FREE NOW group, which consists of ride-hailing apps FREE NOW (available in nine European countries), beat (Greece, Peru, Chile, Colombia and Mexico), Kapten (France, UK, Portugal and Switzerland) and Clever (Romania). They boast over 21 million users across their countries of operation, having shown enough market success to have piqued the interest of Uber Technologies Inc. who, just this year, indicated that they were interested in potentially acquiring this joint venture, which would greatly boost its market share Latin America and Europe. This came about after, despite high hopes and a promising reception, FREE NOW was unsuccessful in attracting additional investors or gaining significant traction due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Daimler, this joint venture aimed to focus on mobility services with BMW that respond to the mobility needs of the present and the future, with a major emphasis on digitalisation. They collectively invested roughly €1 billion into this project, which resulted in the birth of the NOW Group under which FREE NOW and their other mobility initiatives, such as PARK NOW and SHARE NOW, live. They said that ‘over time, customers will be able to use and experience additional mobility options from all-electric autonomous fleets that are available on-demand, charge and park themselves, and connect with other modes of transport beyond road and rail.’
And, just because they have shown interest in selling doesn’t mean that this joint venture wasn’t a successful or profitable one. Through strategic integration with smaller ride-hailing companies, they managed to expand to cover over 100 European countries, making them legitimate competition that even a giant like Uber can’t ignore. In June, Daimler valued its share in the operations as being in the region of €610 million which indicates that, despite the initial coronavirus-related hurdles, FREE NOW was still managing to disrupt the market with their new mobility-service offerings.
While their plans might be future-focused, without the capital, reputation and market stronghold that Uber has managed to earn since it revolutionised the ride-hailing industry 11 years ago, there is a good chance that they could soon become yet another startup acquired by Uber Technologies Inc., making this market-dominating beast even bigger and even more powerful, especially when it comes to sniffing (and buying) out any businesses that threaten their position. | https://medium.com/the-delta-studio/free-now-the-bmw-daimler-ride-hailing-venture-uber-might-be-acquiring-d148cd94eaf0 | ['Helen Wallace'] | 2020-10-21 10:47:31.673000+00:00 | ['Mobility', 'Corporate Innovation', 'Corporate Venturing', 'Startup', 'Uber'] |
The Power Of Habits | I remember it like it was yesterday.
I was a struggling college student; I was in poor health and tired all the time. I had gained 20 lbs and I was also battling anxiety and depression. I wasn’t confident with who I was and didn’t know why I was physically sick constantly.
All I wanted was to feel good about myself and wake up every day and not feel pressure. I would try to set the exercise goal of working out 5 days a week. Then I would stop. A few months later I would start again. Then I would stop.
I would ask myself, why can’t I follow through with this? I became so frustrated because I wanted to have more energy & to lose weight. Then I would have a stress flare up and go to the cafeteria and order a large pad Thai Noodle dish as big as my head… and mow it down like the apocalypse was coming.
I’d tried everything under the sun to stick with an exercise program. I would buy the program and then dread and then always brought myself back to my bad habits. Everytime I “fell off the wagon” I didn’t only disappoint myself but also disappointed people around me.I would go extreme lengths to avoid people who I KNEW were going to ask me about “that thing” I had set out to do…
To be honest, I didn’t like myself. But you know what’s the most frustrating part? I knew I had what it takes to change my life. I would tell myself, “we can do this, Shannon.”
But the problem was I was extremely overwhelmed with stress and fatigue.
The thing that makes me even more frustrated is that I would see my clients do the same exact thing. I used to work corporate wellness where employees would come into the fitness center to work out. They would come in SO excited to make a change and meet their goal.. for the wedding, the new guy, for New Years. After a few weeks I would see them not come in anymore…they had lost motivation. That’s when I knew I needed to shift my coaching methods to focus on habit methods rather than motivation.
I teach my clients the same thing that I learned which got me where I am today. Focusing on small habits which can compound into big behaviors/goals.
Fast forward 10 years now, I have participated in triathlons, half marathons, crossfit competitions, bodybuilding shows… and it all started from the one positive habit of walking everyday.
As my life moved forward I still knew that something wasn’t right, I was missing something that was important to me…
My relationship with my dad was lacking.. I knew that in part was because I wasn’t making an effort and was working all the time. I put the priority of being healthy and successful above the priority of family.
I KNEW this was the next habit I needed to focus on, to make decisions that result in a more positive relationship with my family. By following the SAME principles I followed during my health goals, I found it effective and easy to shift my thinking and build the habit of being a better daughter with certain action steps that I could take everyday.
And this can happen for you too.
If you’ve been trying everything under the sun to start positive behaviors…
If you feel like you have nothing left in you….
If you’ve sat at home and said to yourself, “I give up, I’m just not athletic.”
Or
“I don’t have the time for this, it’s too much.”
Remember that you have the capacity to build the healthy lifestyle you want on your terms….While adopting a positive attitude…And waking up feeling good!
Avoid the mistakes that cause overwhelm and stress and believe me when I say, the best project to work on is you.
Do you want to be the first to know about my Building Habits Blueprint Course being released soon? Text WELLNESS to 66866 so I can let you know once it’s out!
Liv Well,
Shannon | https://medium.com/@shannonrollins/the-power-of-habits-48ee15c2de29 | ['Shannon Rollins'] | 2020-06-10 12:56:14.896000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Habit Building', 'Healthy Lifestyle', 'Habits', 'Storytelling'] |
Round hole, square peg- or am I tripping? | Round hole, square peg- or am I tripping?
Well, I am writing for the second time. I was about to remark, “Cool, they can see me questioning my life yet again” but we’ll wait till the eighth post to knight myself with such an honor.
Lately, I’ve been feeling real square peg. I log into my work computer and after a few Zoom meetings, blocking my calendar to actually think, and answering questions that already have answers, I wonder what am I giving my energy to? Is the right fit for me? Does this organization see me as I see me? Should I engage in corporate achievements (a.k.a promotions) since I’m here?
In the 6th grade, my teacher, Mr. Alcorn, would repeatedly tell the class “Time is money and money is time.” He even had fake one dollar bills posted around the clock. He claimed that a few times a year he replaced them with real dollars to see if we were paying attention. We never noticed, probably because we were focused on the clock and when the class was going to end.
Time is money and money is time. So, if I’m spending my time at work, I should try my hardest to make moves to the most money, right? And if you’re thinking what about fulfillment and value, I dare to think you’re in the wrong chat. Kidding. Maybe. Because I think my truest fulfillment will come when I am executing on all the ideas floating around in my head. However, I don’t disagree that there is intermediate fulfillment. Be my best self in my current situation to bring that self to the next step. It makes sense but it’s a bit tiring when you feel disconnected to your current self and every day I feel more square and the hole gets rounder. Not only was a misfit from my gender and race but then to not believe the corporate world is the end all be all, I’m laying the square on heavy.
But- I’m sure I’ll figure it out soon. Because time is money, fulfillment, value, purpose, dreams, and roundness. | https://medium.com/@smithcc09/round-hole-square-peg-or-am-i-tripping-7bc3541b83b9 | [] | 2020-12-07 02:51:15.434000+00:00 | ['Corporate Culture', 'Work', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Millennials', 'Black Women'] |
This is the self-preservation society — the need for new perspectives and values | Perspective
As well as new models, Covid-19 has also brought us an opportunity to step back and re-evaluate our motivations.
The world has galvanised around a single issue driven by a million deaths in just a few months. We can now see, however, that there are other threats that are just as lethal and immediate. WHO estimates, for example, that contaminated drinking water causes 485,000 diarrhoeal deaths alone each year. It also predicts that half the world’s population will be living in water stressed areas within five years, so the problem is only going to get worse — and quickly [5].
If the world can take decisive action around the pandemic, it follows that it is equally able to take decisive action on its many other existential challenges.
As everything began to change in the spring, many people started questioning the value and costs we attach to commodities — and even what a commodity is. We have begun to think about what’s really important. If we can cut transport emissions today, why can’t we cut them tomorrow? If we can slash water usage in the fashion industry in April, why not in every month? If scientists can cooperate across borders this year, why not next?
We can take this further. Is drinkable water more desirable than a cheap pair of jeans? Is breathable air more valuable than attendance at an international conference? Are trade tariffs more important than global health?
Essentially, what value do we place on a view of the stars? | https://medium.com/@alexeidesolenator/this-is-the-self-preservation-society-the-need-for-new-perspectives-and-values-1e1e8ff86b72 | ['Alexei Levene'] | 2020-12-16 14:11:11.138000+00:00 | ['Water Crisis', 'Climate Action', '2020', 'Desolenator', 'Change'] |
Will 10,000 Hours of Practice Make You World-Class? | Image by Jorge Guillen from Pixabay
Will 10,000 Hours of Practice Make You World-Class?
The 10,000 Hour Rule Explained and Revisited
Malcolm Gladwell popularised the idea that 10 000 hours of practice can make you world-class. The 10 000 hour rule states that it takes a minimum of ten years and approximately ten thousand hours of deliberate practice to become world-class in any complex skill.
But ‘the rule’ is often misunderstood and misapplied. One such misconception is that 10 000 hours of practice is the ‘magical number of greatness’, and that if you just put in the hours you will become world-class.
The basis of the rule
In a study of chess masters and grandmasters, Simon and Chase drew one of the most famous conclusions in expertise research. There are no naturals that achieve mastery in a short time. They estimated that all the masters in their study had spent between ten and fifty thousand hours practising chess.
Since then, researchers have arrived at the same conclusion time after time in all types of domains. It takes at least ten years to master any complex skill.
The key study that the 10 000 hour rule is based upon involved violinists at the Music Academy of West Berlin. Anders Ericsson, a world-leading researcher in expertise development, found that the best players in the orchestra had spent an average of 10 000 hours of deliberate practice to reach their expert level.
In the study group, Ericsson included those who had the potential to become international violin soloists. Ericsson compared them with groups of ‘good violinists’ and ‘music teachers’. The main contributing factor to the expertise level between the groups was the amount of deliberate practice they had achieved. Deliberate practice is well-designed and means intense practice on essential aspects of the task being mastered.
When they were 18 years-old, the ‘international soloists’ had an average of 7410 hours of practice, the ‘good players’ had an average of 5301 hours and the ‘music teachers’ had an average of 3420 hours. It was estimated that the ‘international soloists’ would reach approximately 10 000 hours of deliberate practice by the age of 20. This is where the number for the 10 000 hour rule comes from.
At this point, the talented violinists were destined to become world-class, but they were not there yet. It’s estimated that they needed at least 10 000 more hours before they would reach the peak of their careers, which for violinists typically occurs in their early thirties.
Overall, the most common finding in expertise research is that there are no naturals and that you can’t reach a world-class level in complex skills without a lot of practice. It’s the amount of deliberate practice that has the greatest influence on whether you get there or not.
Ten thousand hours is just the average
There’s nothing magical about the number 10 000 however. Some people improve faster, and some people barely improve at all. In another study of chess players by Campitelli and Gobet, they found that the average time to become a master was 11 000 hours, but some did it in 3000 hours, and some still hadn’t managed to become a master after 25 000 hours of practice. They concluded that deliberate practice is necessary, but not sufficient.
Rather than just counting the hours, it’s how you practice that makes the largest difference. Some people learn and improve a lot faster than others. How you design your practice and how focused you stay during practice are two factors that significantly affect how quickly you learn.
Responsiveness to practice is one of the main attributes that influence whether someone has the potential to reach world-class levels. A person who can improve their skills to the same level in 3 000 hours that others need 10 000 hours to achieve has a considerable advantage.
In psychological research, it’s common to measure and discuss averages. But to understand what’s possible it can be much more revealing to study those that become very good in a shorter amount of time. By studying the way they practice, we can start to understand what they’re doing differently and why they’re so good. And by implementing their ways of learning, anyone can dramatically improve their rate of learning.
The competition
How fast you become world-class depends a lot upon the level of the competition. If there are thousands of people who have put in 10 000 hours of practice in a domain, you’re not guaranteed to be among the best just because you do it as well.
In domains such as music, chess and sports, it’s common to put in thousands of hours of practice. The higher the level in a given skill, the more hours of quality practice is required to become world-class.
But how do we compare domains, and where is it easiest to become world-class? How do you compare the expertise of a chess player, violinist and a chef? Maybe there are 2000 chess players who have reached the same level of expertise as the top five chefs in the world. Or perhaps it’s the other way around.
If you want to become the best in the world at something, the easiest way to do it is to start practising an uncommon skill with great determination. Paper plane building, potato speed peeling or a new card game where only you know the rules.
In between the extremely competitive domains and the obscure new game where only you know the rules — and are therefore the best in the world — we find everything else. Exactly how many hours it takes to master and become world-class at these skills is hard to say, but it’s usually way less. Just keep in mind that it’s always possible to become better, even when you’re the best in the world, and if you don’t keep practising, someone may overtake you.
Ten thousand hours is not necessary to become skilled
The 10 000 hour rule may have had some undesirable consequences. As people heard about this research, some gave up on their goals as they seemed so far away.
You don’t need to practice 10 000 hours to become very good at a skill. The expertise research only suggests that it takes a long time to become world-class in very complex skills. From my personal experience, you can achieve a lot of improvement by putting in 100 hours of practice in any skill. You can reach a level where you enjoy what you’re doing in a meaningful way. After you have reached 100 hours of practice, you can decide if that’s enough and move on to other skills or you may get hooked and start down the path towards world-class levels.
Take home message
To master any complex skill requires an enormous amount of time, practice and effort. In most fields where the level of competition is high, it will take a minimum of 10 years and 10 000 hours of quality practice.
There is nothing magical about the number 10 000 however. Sometimes it requires less practice to become world-class, and sometimes it requires a lot more. The main point, perhaps not so surprisingly, is that it takes a lot of time to become the best in the world at anything.
The amount of practice it takes depends a lot upon the level of competition and the complexity of the skill. The more complex the skill is, the more situations you need to train yourself to see and the longer it takes to master.
To become very good at any skill can be done a lot faster, however. In my 100-hour challenge projects, I’ve experienced that you can see a significant improvement in only 100 hours, in any skill you choose to learn.
Whether you want to enjoy a skill as a hobby or compete at the highest level, the improvement always happens one hour at a time.
Thanks for reading, sharing, and following! :)
If you enjoyed reading this, you may also like: | https://medium.com/skilluped/will-10-000-hours-of-practice-make-you-world-class-152bbad64078 | ['Erik Hamre'] | 2020-05-18 10:05:38.156000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Learning', 'Psychology', 'Education', 'Inspiration'] |
2021 Trends in Nonprofit Human Resources to Have Your Best Year Yet | By Jackie Sue Griffin, MBA, MS
The world of Human Resources (HR) is always changing and evolving. Even amidst the global pandemic, HR leaders are reshaping their workforce management approach to be prepared for anything and everything that the next year will bring.
Here are the top three trends in HR that can help your organization continue to navigate the current crisis while keeping employee engagement high so your people and organization can thrive in 2021:
1. The growing importance of digital communication in HR
HR handles every employee’s life cycle in a nonprofit organization — from recruiting, hiring, onboarding, training and development to termination. Despite the negative effects of the coronavirus pandemic on companies of all types and the job market, a staggering 60 percent of companies have hired at least one new worker since the beginning of the pandemic.
One of the newest challenges for HR is remote hiring and onboarding, which comes with such issues as virtually interviewing and assessing a candidate’s skills, screening for candidates suited for remote work and conveying your nonprofit’s culture during virtual recruiting and training. But HR doesn’t stop there. As organizations continue to adapt to the new normal, HR’s duty is to support employees and offer them guidance and information during the ongoing pandemic. That’s why, in 2021, one of the most important HR trends will be a greater focus on digital communication throughout an employee’s lifecycle.
2. Emphasis on employee mental health
All statistics show that COVID-19 has been negatively affecting people’s mental health for quite some time. Many employees faced remote work for the first time and have had to deal with extra responsibilities. There’s growing data showing that many employees may not be using the healthiest coping mechanisms: According to the CDC, 4o0 percent of adults in the U.S. are experiencing substance abuse or mental health issues due to the pandemic. For the past several years, and especially as we moved through 2020 and now into 2021, the role of HR has been to advocate for the health of the nonprofit’s employees, helping the organization invest in mental health and well-being initiatives and tools.
3. Data-driven insights
As more people work remotely, organizations are investing in tools to help them assess their employees’ engagement and productivity. HR leaders will have to find a way to ensure their workforce continues to meet target goals while maintaining a supportive work environment. Therefore, in 2021, the newest trend will be adopting sophisticated tools for measuring employee productivity and well-being to understand how workers are adapting and coping with the changes brought on during the pandemic.
As the future of work continues evolving, HR has a vital role in maintaining employee engagement and well-being, adapting valuable tools and offering the necessary support to ensure that your organization’s needs and goals are met. | https://medium.com/@newsyoucanuse/2021-trends-in-nonprofit-human-resources-to-have-your-best-year-yet-1fdce9fc4d12 | ['News You Can Use'] | 2020-12-21 14:31:21.132000+00:00 | ['Human Resources', 'Recruiting', 'Professional Development', 'Retention', 'Nonprofit'] |
Top 7 Trends in IoT to Look Out for in 2021 | Digital transformation speeds up rapidly, and with higher connectivity, thanks to the fastest WiFi and amazing 5G and improvements in ML and AI. The Internet of Things looks set to deepen its roots in our industries and lives. With more than 30 billion connected devices, the IoT has primarily changed the model of interaction between intelligent solutions, real-life objects like home appliances, and electronic gadgets, assisting us to improve our daily life. As technology is in its golden age, more and more companies will see IoT as a beneficial tool; this will result in mass adoption.
‘Market Snapshot- The Internet of Things’
• The Internet of Things tests market scenario was valued at $ 1107.2 billion in 2020 and projected to hit $ 6042.45 b by 2026 & rise at a CAGR of 32.34 percent over the prediction period (2021–2026). The usage of IoT tests using modern technologies has led to the highest use of distinct kinds of test tools for distinct purposes, and the market is projected to grow at a speedy rate during the period time.
• Microsoft market research says, approx. 94 percent of companies will use some sort of the Internet of Things by 2021. Core IoT verticals like retail, government, manufacturing, healthcare and transportation continue to launch new IoT solutions and apps to their everyday operations.
• As per Statista, the total dollars spent on IoT solutions globally is anticipated to almost double in 2021, up to $418b from $248b. Surprisingly, by the year 2025, that number is projected to be USD 1,567 billion. The international market for IoT end-user solutions is projected to raise to 212 b U.S. dollars in size by 2019. The technology hit USD 100 billion in market revenue for the first time in 2017, and predictions proposed that this figure will rise to about 1.6 trillion by 2025.
• Fortune Business Insights report says IoT technology holds important potential in the ICT segment with the worldwide market valued at $190 b in 2018 and hitting $1.1 trillion by 2026. The report projects that the international market will grow at a surprising CAGR of 24.7% all through the estimated years.
Progressively more organizations will recognize this potential this year, assuring development for this trend. Let us dive a little deeper and explore the IoT-related trends that will shape the digital transformation approach for businesses in 2021.
7 Biggest IoT Trends to Watch Out for 2021
1. Focus on Security to meet the Complex Challenges
Security has become a foreseeable matter nowadays, and with up-and-coming technologies, companies need to make certain the data security to retain their customer’s interest. Hence, IoT is expected to concentrate on security to meet the complicated challenges in the coming decade. With various devices, IT administrators are hostile to know how many gadgets are usually connected to their networks leaving them susceptible to attacks. Besides, connected devices remain susceptible owing to exposure to cyber-attacks. The amount of Internet-linked gadgets has shown a notable rise, and they will keep mounting in the coming decade. Therefore, extra cautions of network operators can easily stop intruders to enter the network making IoT security the most modern IoT trend.
In 2021, we would likely see an increase in the security-centric smart gadgets, counting AI-driven, automatic capacity to scan networks for IoT gadgets. Big tech enterprises are expected to lead the way in this arena. Big giants like Amazon recently announced a chain of new traits that allow users to take control of privacy and data settings. Apple and Google are also in the same race to follow suit in 2021 with a focal point around the security features marketing in IoT-centric devices.
2. Artificial Intelligence meets IoT
In addition to security, the focus is also moving to the holistic improvement of production procedures. In simple words, the combination of advanced technologies into an “Artificial IoT” mainly reduces deviations from the optimum in the manufacturing procedure and therefore ensures high performance, lower costs, and less waste. Through AI, production processes can be continuously and automatically optimized with the assistance of ML methods. Besides, AI-driven analytical solutions have the control to aggregate huge amounts of sufficient high-quality data and information; process it in real-time and draw effectual insights. Moreover, close integration of AI, smart devices, and Big Data will also contribute appreciably to give protection against security risks. So far, merely a few businesses have deployed AI Internet of Things. That will change this year.
3. Enhanced Role of Data Analytics
Data analytics plays a crucial role in well-organized and effectual business management to make a significant decision based on a detailed analysis of the gathered data. The modern AI-centric data analytics solutions, powered by Big Data technology and AI algorithms, can collect a huge chunk of information, examine it in real-time, and derive valuable insights from it. This powerful incorporation of Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, and IoT devices will allow users to make important and effectual business decisions with ease based on the information & insights collected by the data analytics. IoT not only aids in examining behavior and spit out data; it is also about rapid data processing and giving proposals based on those findings.
Leveraging data analytics will complement the data scrutiny produce and process by the internet of things solutions. When executed correctly, data analytics will allow users to pick up on trends or patterns within the information gathered by their devices. Consequently, the insight acquired by the data analysis confirms a business is well equipped with the data required to make
4. Blockchain Technology
IoT devices very often are susceptible to security breaches that make them target for DDoS attacks. Blockchain technology or distributed ledger technology emerges as a suitable tool to guarantee data safety during encryption techniques plus peer-to-peer contact without intermediaries. It is amongst the top-most IoT trends that address major IoT scalability and security challenges. Credited to its exceptional capacities and advantages, Blockchain is an information game-changer, giving a means for data to be recorded and shared by a user’s community. It is more often looked upon in the context of IoT data security.
It has become the norm for banking or financial institutions to guard their operations with the aid of Blockchain technology. Similarly, blockchain is at present amongst the top IoT trends due to its capability to confirm data protection through encryption techniques without intermediaries.
5. Emerging IoT Apps
Apps and use cases of the Internet of Things solutions are evolving at a fast pace. Presently, its apps surround smart homes, smart grids, wearable, smart cities, industrial settings, etc. With the rise and development of this technology in the upcoming future, the Internet of Things will reach more business and industry settings, leading the globe towards more digital. Knowing the Internet of Things use cases will assist companies to integrate the Internet of Things technologies into their upcoming investment decisions.
6. Edge Computing
What is edge computing? With this a distributed computing paradigm, rather than the Internet of Things devices sending all the information they gather to the cloud for investigation and extraction of insights, this work is performed straight on the devices themselves. Adoption of edge computing will become more significant for the Internet of Things devices to conquer the cloud computing drawbacks such as latency issues and low bandwidth faced in real-time data processing. Edge computing is an accurate data processing and cost-efficient method for IoT devices.
Companies should make decisions based on IoT information speedier than ever before to appreciate the true devices value on the network. With the union of 5G networks, an increase in IIoT and IoT devices, and a striking increase in the data amount we are collecting, edge computing can be turned up as significant as ever in this year.
7. Investment in IoT App Testing
Smart sensors, wearables, and connected devices will continue to alter the way healthcare is delivered, from automated homes to telemedicine help for the disabled and elderly. Besides, in situations where the risk of virus infection is strong, it will also be used to minimize unnecessary contact.
The IoT testing is all set to incorporate with other technology to make life smart and easy. If we speak about the IoT role in the banking industry or its penetration into healthcare services, growth in this technology will continue to bring great deeds across the globe. The IoT trends would bring the world together and make it victorious in every way.
As time changes, the future of IoT app tests will continue to grow. We would have the Internet of Things attached to more or less in all inventions. Let’s get ready to observe this year the creativity of automatic urban societies working with each other with zero contact.
Final words
2021 promises to be another year of trouble and uncertainty around the globe and IoT technology will undoubtedly deliver practical solutions to various complexities and challenges faced by people working tenuously. | https://blog.devgenius.io/top-7-trends-in-iot-to-look-out-for-in-2021-254063c3ace6 | ['Shormistha Chatterjee'] | 2021-04-27 20:47:59.758000+00:00 | ['Software Engineering', 'Internet of Things', 'QA', 'IoT', 'Trends'] |
Follow the Four Agreements of Dating | Follow the Four Agreements of Dating
Making these promises will help you ensure a healthy courtship.
Photo by picjumbo.com from Pexels
The Four Agreements is a classic self-help book by don Miguel Ruiz that I recommend every single chance I get. It covers agreements that you are to make with yourself in order to improve your mental and emotional well-being. The profound yet simple wisdom of this book is life-altering. It will change how you see the world, which starts with changing the way you see yourself.
That’s what I love most about The Four Agreements — that it guides you to make promises to yourself, for yourself.
Too often, we look outside of ourselves for answers and validation. This is especially true in dating and romantic partnerships. We look to our love life to dictate how we feel about our lives in general.
If someone doesn’t reciprocate our interest, we allow it to taint our self-image. We question if we’re attractive enough, funny enough, interesting enough…the list goes on. We wonder if we did something wrong that turned the person off. Ultimately, we need to know why the person we want doesn’t seem to want us.
In order to not sacrifice our self-worth on the altar of desire, it’s a good idea to have supportive principles in place when dating. Only you can protect your mental and emotional stability.
The idea of making agreements when dating likely makes you think of an understanding between two people. However, just like in Ruiz’s book, the most impactful contract is the one you have with yourself. It’s between you and you.
Why? Because you can’t control what other people choose to do. Also, because external transformation begins within. This is about your peace of mind — which is your responsibility.
I believe broad use of The Four Agreements will help you in every aspect of life. But it can never hurt to engage in a more specific application. Here are four agreements I’ve made that could help you maintain your sanity and esteemed perception of self when dating — no matter what the other person does.
Agreement #1 — Date in the Present
If it’s good, let it be good. If it’s bad, let it be bad. Looking ahead is a problematic habit that can ruin a connection or have you making decisions that aren’t based in reality.
When the dating phase seems to be going great, we’ll often self-sabotage. We try to control the relationship’s trajectory and guard against negative outcomes that haven’t happened yet. We can’t just enjoy the moment and allow it to be what it is.
What if he’s pretending to be a nice guy to get into my pants? What if she’s only after my money? Of course, it’s always beneficial to use common sense. But we won’t know the answers to those questions for sure unless we let the situation play out.
In adopting a pre-determined perspective, we’ll often conjure supporting evidence and bring to fruition the very scenario we hope to avoid. Or we’ll waste time and energy trying to turn a situation around and shape someone into a mold that simply doesn’t fit.
Challenge yourself to date in the now.
Agreement #2 — Be Authentic
You have to believe that you’re enough as you are. Yet, you can’t come to this realization if who you are changes based on who you’re dating.
Promise yourself that you’ll say what you need to say. Express your genuine likes and dislikes. Resist the urge to establish commonalities that don’t exist to make a person believe the two of you are a perfect match.
Being a dating chameleon may work for a bit. But eventually, one of two things will happen. The truth will come out and shatter the illusion of unique compatibility. Or you’ll be miserable because your needs aren’t being met.
Let people love you for you — or not at all.
Agreement #3 — Don’t Take Anything Personally
This is one of the traditional four agreements but applies directly to dating as well. A lack of romantic reciprocity can affect our self-esteem because we take it as a slight. If a date seems distracted or otherwise uninterested, we make it about us.
We don’t always consider that maybe they had a bad day or are nervous and trying not to overstep any boundaries. No. We decide that they don’t find us appealing.
Little of what other people do is about you. That’s a rule of thumb to fall back on and help avoid taking anyone’s actions personally. Even if someone doesn’t find you attractive or isn’t interested, it STILL isn’t about you. The issue rests within them. As evidenced by the fact that the next person you date may very well adore everything about you.
Agreement #4 — Trust the Timing of Your Life
Believing that your life is unfolding as it should and will evolve as you desire helps you date in the present and be authentic. It releases you from the pressure of making things happen. You can stay in the moment and not feel compelled to force a connection because you trust that love and companionship will happen for you.
When it’s time, when you’re ready, it will come. Stressing, wishing, and hoping won’t speed up the process. So, why not try trusting? Relieve yourself of your self-imposed, futile duties. It will do wonders for your mental health.
Dating can feel like a wicked game.
We only make it heavier by overemphasizing its implications and trying too hard to win someone’s adoration. Promise yourself that, above all things, you won’t allow the pursuit of romantic partnership to supersede your relationship with yourself.
Making these four dating agreements keeps that most crucial relationship front and center, right where it can serve you. | https://medium.com/hello-love/follow-the-four-agreements-of-dating-ef67e40f95b9 | ['Acamea Deadwiler'] | 2020-11-24 03:13:56.780000+00:00 | ['Dating', 'Personal Development', 'Relationships', 'Self', 'Love'] |
Cappasity 2020 Roundup: Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year! | The year 2020 brought with it a lot of hardships but also a plethora of exciting opportunities: projects and partnerships, improved versions of existing Cappasity services, and brand new products!
Exciting surprises are coming your way in 2021. But first, let’s round up the year that made it all possible.
The Official Release of the 3DShot App
We couldn’t be more excited about the release of the 3DShot app. After years of dedication and painstaking work by the Cappasity team, iOS users can now download the app in the App Store and use it to create and share interactive 3D Views and record 3D Reviews.
You can share 3D Views or 3D Reviews on websites, marketplaces, classifieds, and social media to boost sales. Shoot anything in 3D. Even a car!
To hear more about the 3DShot app, take part in exciting challenges, and become a part of the community, subscribe to the app’s official Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
New Patent
It’s been three years since the provisional application submission, and now Cappasity is the rightful owner of the “Systems and methods for creating and displaying interactive 3D representations of real objects” patent. The Cappasity 3D View format, AR Holograms, 3D Analytics, and even the 3DShot App, which were barely concepts back in 2017, are powered by the patented Cappasity technology in 2020.
Visual Content Creators & Experts That You Can Trust
The Cappasity global network of partners offers professional, quick, and high-quality 3D photography services for all product types. In 2020, we welcomed new additions to the list of content creators, and they are brilliant!
Sheriff Department Group, a high-end visual content studio, trusted by the likes of Louis Vuitton, Jacquemus, Hermès, Lanvin, Balenciaga, Dior, Saint Laurent, Paco Rabbane, Guerlain, Fenty, and many more.
360 Click, the UK’s longest-running 360° product photography studio favored by Chanel, Burberry, DeBeers, Dunhill, Gucci, Adidas, Hermès, Prada, Radley, Lexus, Volvo, Canon, Samsung, Disney, and others.
Convyr, the premier content studio for visual assets of the highest quality, that counts among its clients such brands as Kendra Scott, Manduka, Ember, MVMT, Grayson, and Frank and Eileen, to name a few.
We also organized the first-ever Cappasity 3D View Challenge, a contest meant to showcase the creativity and skill of professional photographers capable of leveraging the power of 3D visualization. All of the entrants rose to the occasion magnificently, but the winner wowed everyone: kallenberg.art, a boutique production house specializing in film and still images, took first place with this brilliant entry.
Innovators & Partners
In 2020, Cappasity became an official partner of several companies that understand the power of immersive technologies. A partnership with Cappasity helps the clients of the following innovation experts to enhance the experience they offer by introducing fully immersive 3D content:
Hawke Media, the fastest growing digital marketing consultancy in Los Angeles;
Discover, a top-performing IT solutions provider in Latin America;
Krish TechnoLabs, a leading digital commerce agency;
BVA, a leading Shopify Plus agency;
Brando Solutions, a consultancy focused on Digital Transformation;
AD-TRICK, a creative agency with 20+ years of experience;
Medialinks, a full-service digital marketing agency in the UAE.
All New Products
In 2020, we introduced:
Cappasity Holograms for Fashion. This is the first scalable format for AR with 4K quality that comes with the following benefits: 5 times cheaper and much faster content production at any photo studio, natural lighting for any product, transparent and glossy materials that look lifelike, omnichannel compatibility (web, mobile, AR/VR).
Virtual Try-On for rings and watches that can be easily integrated into a brand’s website.
We continue to actively advance R&D and in 2021 our clients will have the opportunity to use the Virtual Fitting Room.
Education
The IFA Paris Graduation Fashion Show for the Bachelor Fashion Design & MA Fashion Design 2020 has been transformed into an immersive experience with the help of the Cappasity solution. The creations of young designers from the renowned French fashion school can now be viewed in 3D and AR.
The Eisenhower Foundation non-profit now uses the Cappasity Solution to create immersive presentations for school students, while Las Positas College, a learning-centered institution focused on excellence, took advantage of the technology to enhance the experience they offer by introducing fully immersive 3D content.
Art
Cappasity partnered with Art Catch, an international art gallery, for its first global online exhibition: Anizotropia by Valentin Korzhov. The end result granted the viewer a fully immersive experience, made possible by the Cappasity solution for art.
That was possible thanks to the set of powerful tools for creating immersive experiences in art.
A SaaS platform for fast creation and easy embedding of 3D content into websites, mobile applications, and augmented reality (AR).
Easy 3D Scan — software for 3D content production in professional studios. Perfectly suited for digitizing sculptures, paintings, and other artworks in 3D.
Cappasity for Paintings — a Easy 3D Scan extension that generates a 3D View of a painting from just one photo.
New Media
The December issue of InStyle Russia was dedicated to the fashion-tech of the future: virtual materials, digital clothing, and immersive content. Cappasity partnered with the magazine to surprise its readers with a wide range of exciting immersive experiences: AR-enabled cover, immersive wish list, and virtual try-on.
Making Integration Easy for Your Business
In 2020, Cappasity released a Magento extension allowing users to showcase their products in 3D. Drawing on the capabilities of the Cappasity platform, the extension allows store owners to automatically embed 3D content from the Cappasity platform into their online store. Just a single push of a button on the product page and the retailer’s 3D content from the Cappasity platform is showcased on their website. No coding required!
Cappasity also released integration for commercetools, the world’s leading next-generation commerce software company that helps retailers create unique and engaging digital commerce experiences everywhere. commercetools’ software has been implemented by Fortune 500 companies across many industries. And now retail clients of the platform will be able to take advantage of the Cappasity solution for immersive experiences.
Get Discounts for Cappasity Platform Services with CAPP
Our technological partner continues working on CAPP. Right now, you can get a up to 20% discount when paying for a subscription by using CAPP. In 2021, we plan to add additional services that can be paid for in CAPP. The release of the 3DShot mobile app will allow us to make the Cappasity ecosystem even more accessible for SMBs and general users.
More Application Scenarios Than Ever Before
Armed with the Cappasity solution, you can digitize anything in 3D. This year we have been sharing all kinds of exciting use cases with you. Let’s remember them to give you some inspiration for 2021! Immersive Tech for:
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Yours,
the Cappasity team | https://medium.com/cappasity-blog/cappasity-2020-roundup-merry-christmas-and-a-happy-new-year-1aa4596e00c3 | [] | 2020-12-24 09:42:15.747000+00:00 | ['Cappasity', 'AR', 'Luxury Tech', 'Ecommerce', 'Product Photography'] |
The art of Living out of a Suitcase Called Home as a Freelancer | The art of Living out of a Suitcase Called Home as a Freelancer
Does the reality of digital nomadism live up to the hype?
Photo by Ali Yahya on Unsplash
When did you last take time off?
I couldn’t answer this without first going back through my archive and it’s been months.
The best thing about remote work is also the worst. Because we are no longer location-dependent and can work from almost anywhere as long as there’s Wi-Fi, we tend to.
Even on an overnight flight between Seattle and Frankfurt on no sleep for days at the end of December, I found it impossible to switch off. Because flight Wi-Fi was so affordable, I also had very little incentive to.
Instead of catching up on sleep so I’d be at my best when hugging my father again for the first time in six years, I thumbed out an essay on my iPhone between bouts of stargazing. And only because I didn’t want to disturb a sleeping passenger by retrieving my laptop from the overhead compartment.
Compressed into an economy seat on a two-hour flight between Lisbon and Paris a few weeks later, I was hunched over my laptop in mild panic mode. Every time I ride the high speed train between Paris and Amsterdam, I’m working for the duration, too. | https://asingularstory.medium.com/the-art-of-living-out-of-a-suitcase-called-home-as-a-freelancer-3d676bfe0450 | ['A Singular Story'] | 2019-11-19 19:34:42.582000+00:00 | ['Mental Health', 'Freelancing', 'Work', 'Family', 'Self'] |
Asia Pacific Bitumen Industry Size to Hit USD 60 Billion by 2027 | Asia Pacific Bitumen Industry Size to Hit USD 60 Billion by 2027 Abhigmi Dec 20, 2021·3 min read
On account of mounting product adoption, Asia Pacific Bitumen industry is estimated to observe a commendable growth by registering a substantial valuation of over USD 60 billion by 2027. Significant expansion of construction and infrastructure industry in Asia Pacific is propelling the demand for efficient construction materials in the region. One such material is Bitumen, which is a complex hydrocarbon and is largely used for road construction. It finds extensive application as a binder in road construction materials such as stones, aggregates, etc. Its superior natural properties make it useful in waterproofing and adhesives industries also.
As several countries in Asia Pacific are making hefty investments towards building the state-of-the-art transport infrastructure in order to increase the connectivity and facilitate trade activities, the need for proper roads is gradually expanding.
Speaking of which, rising public and private investments in road infrastructure across the regional emerging economies is fueling the product demand considerably.
Elaborating further on bitumen’s application in road construction, the product is being increasingly used to construct durable pavements. Pavements are designed, engineered and constructed for extreme climatic conditions and for sustaining heavy-duty traffic. Addition of polymer to bitumen changes its characteristics to make it more elastomeric, flexible and strong.
Apart from its application in road construction, bitumen is also used for manufacturing adhesives. For instance, cold adhesives consist of bitumen, solvents, fillers, fibers and stabilizers. Adhesives when bonded with modified bitumen after solvent evaporation helps in forming solvent weld.
Growing demand for adhesives in regional end-use industries is positively influencing the industry landscape. Besides, rapidly increasing population in APAC and rising income levels will complement the product adoption in waterproofing and adhesive applications. Considering these factors, adhesives segment is anticipated to record a robust CAGR of 4.3% through 2027.
With regards to the type of bitumen, polymer modified bitumen is gaining immense popularity in the industry. This bitumen grade consists of polymers added to the conventional bitumen. It is used in various end-use applications owing to its excellent properties such as extra strength, high cohesiveness, resistance to fatigue, deformations and stripping. In addition, polymer modified bitumen has better low-temperature sensitivity as compared to the traditional products, making it preferable for pavement applications. With wide product applications, polymer modified bitumen segment is projected to record a lucrative CAGR of 5.6% through 2027.
Besides the above-mentioned factors and wide product applications in numerous industries, consistent efforts undertaken by various prominent industry players such as Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil Corporation, Total S.A., and Valero Energy Corporation are also providing lucrative opportunities for the industry growth. These companies are investing in research activities and development of innovative products to gain a competitive advantage in the Asia Pacific bitumen market.
Citing an instance, in 2017, Indian Oil Corporation Limited announced the launch of its high-performance bitumen product named DURAPAVE. Reportedly, the DURAPAVE brand covers wide range of bitumen products like Polymer Modified Bitumen (PMB), Crumb Rubber Modified Bitumen (CRMB), bitumen of different viscosity-grades, and bitumen emulsions. This product launch apparently helped the company in catering to the rising regional demand and strengthening its presence in the Asia Pacific bitumen market.
About Graphical Research:
Graphical Research is a business research firm that provides industry insights, market forecast and strategic inputs through granular research reports and advisory services. We publish targeted research reports with an aim to address varied customer needs, from market penetration and entry strategies to portfolio management and strategic outlook. We understand that business requirements are unique: our syndicate reports are designed to ensure relevance for industry participants across the value chain. We also provide custom reports that are tailored to the exact needs of the customer, with dedicated analyst support across the purchase lifecycle. | https://medium.com/@abhigmi73/asia-pacific-bitumen-industry-size-to-hit-usd-60-billion-by-2027-a56bd0b80cf8 | [] | 2021-12-20 09:30:00.445000+00:00 | ['Asia Pacific', 'Asia', 'Market', 'Analysis', 'Bitumen'] |
New Defense Act Includes Provisions to Rename Military Bases That Celebrate the Confederacy | New Defense Act Includes Provisions to Rename Military Bases That Celebrate the Confederacy
Photo: Michael Duva/Getty Images
The National Defense Authorization Act is on its way to the Senate, despite President Donald Trump’s impotent threat to veto it. As CNN reports, “the House of Representatives on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a sweeping defense bill with a veto-proof majority after a veto threat from President Donald Trump sharply divided Republican lawmakers, forcing them to choose between loyalty to him and legislation that sets defense policy for the country.”
This act authorizes defense spending and sets Pentagon policy. This year, it also includes provisions on how much money Trump can designate for his border wall and “another that would require the military to rename bases that were named after figures from the Confederacy.” According to Defense News, “The House appropriators’ plan includes $1 million for ‘the renaming of installations, facilities, roads, and streets that bear the name of confederate leaders and officers since the Army has the preponderance of the entities to change.’”
The vote — and Trump’s threat to veto — left House Republicans split, but the victory was sweeping enough to be veto-proof, “a major rebuke to the president.” | https://momentum.medium.com/new-defense-act-includes-provisions-to-rename-military-bases-that-celebrate-the-confederacy-a95d260d827f | ['Amy Shearn'] | 2020-12-11 16:00:10.428000+00:00 | ['United States', 'Politics', 'Congress', 'Military', 'Defense'] |
Get People to Enjoy Your Writing, Not Just Your Content | Image from Shutterstock.
I can’t overstate how important it is to not shun away from the unorthodox while still trying to connect with a larger audience.
A lot of writers tone down their naturally elaborated or colorful speech to make better time with getting to the point. Understandable, but as someone who enjoys reading the variety of personal style, not entirely necessary.
You need to understand just how impactful it is to have your voice in your writing.
YOUR voice, not just A voice. Not just a string of words that can recited by any passing word-lancer. How else do you expect to get people to stick around if you don’t make a point to make an impression?
I understand that good content is what people want, but if your content is good and yet could also be mistaken for someone of a similar stride because there’s nothing noticeably different in the tone or syntax that you’re offering up, don’t be surprised when hungry readers don’t come back for second helpings.
If the way in which you write is on the duller side of the pencil point, you may want to consider a few things to stay sharp in the face of memory erasers.
Ask yourself:
What is it about my writing that I know is particular to me and me alone?
What do I do that I don’t see other writers doing?
How can I replicate that in a way that not only doesn’t feel forced, but evolves into something more fine-tuned and natural?
For example, in my case, I know that not everyone likes to use outlandish metaphors to make their point or even embellishes what they’re trying to say very much. Less is more, as the saying goes.
And who could blame the Advocates of the Alliterative Ax for wanting to cut through the bullshit and hack through the jungles of jumbled lettering and tangled knots of tumbleweed sentences? They’re the ones that clear the obstructions and get us to the point of it all. They are the Sherpas in our search for El Dorado. The Chiefs of the Chop chanting All Must Go. Abiding to the principles that you only take what you can carry.
Those of us that don’t naturally don the mantle of Jungle’s Fastest Slasher are leaders of a different sort, nonetheless.
Some people may offer up quick content in a cute little bow, ready and waiting for instantaneous consumption, and this may very well lead you straight into what had led you to click on the article in the first place. Headlines aren’t beartraps, after all. They’re more like You-Are-Here maps with (hopefully) a clear line as to where that path will take you, should you choose to click and go that way.
No, those of us that aren’t a part of that conga line of conclusive crusaders aren’t necessarily fans of the straight shot. We don’t like to check the map unless absolutely necessary. Instead, we prefer the unexplored terrain surrounding the literary vein.
We don’t need someone to explain exactly “How to Increase Productivity in the Morning”, or to tell us about “5 Things We Think are Bad but are Actually Good.” We want more flavor and less filling. We want to enjoy our meal and not just feel stuffed with information.
Anyone can offer up their personal slew of protein and nutrients, everything we would need to keep the body full and healthy, but in what way was the dish memorable? In what way does it stand out when compared to every other Plain Brain capable of waving a ladle? Unless you take the time to develop a signature spice, you’re going to leave a lot of tongues accustomed to the comfortable and bland, instead of sizzling from your unique cattle brand. | https://medium.com/the-brave-writer/get-people-to-enjoy-your-writing-not-just-your-content-31ec88078fc1 | ['Scott Leonardi'] | 2020-12-20 17:02:10.052000+00:00 | ['Creative Writing', 'Personal Development', 'Content', 'Self', 'Creativity'] |
The 10 best things on a mountain bike | Here are 10 reasons that show that there is no better sport than your beloved MTB bike.
Surely we all know exactly why we are on a mountain bike, but we have decided to put it on the screen once and for all. Here are our 10 reasons to go out on a mountain bike.
1. The bike You do not need to have a high-end carbon fiber machine; any cheap two-wheeler mountain bike can help you to travel five times the distance you would have walked on the same type of terrain. Whether to go to the store next door to buy milk or to take a nine-hour tour, riding a bike is always better.
2. Compete
Even before they invented the mountain bike, there were racing bikes to climb mountains. In this sport, which was born in the 70s in California, it was about seeing who was the fastest down the slopes. That has been improving up to the incredible show that we can see today in the UCI World Cup events .
Check out the final race of the season in Méribel , in which Josh Bryceland secured the title while the legend, Sam Hill, was reborn and took the final triumph in a phenomenal race. There is no simpler sport: it is about being the fastest to go from point A to point B.
3. The freak
To be a true sport you need geeks, or at least the opportunity to become one of them. Modern mountain bikes give you all the options: either by adjusting the suspension or by silencing the chain, it is good to be a geek. Just make sure to put your Allen keys always in the same order.
4. Joe Barnes During the last years it seems that things are getting serious on the mountain bike. Joe Barnes is the exception that confirms the rule. Whether it’s the Enduro World Series , the Dudes of Hazzards video web series or the incredible Madship Mrk.III, Joe is on a bike as we would all like.
5. The curves
The jumps are for the shows and the curves for the pros! Each curve is different and the art of changing direction on a bike is one of the most satisfying things in the world. Surely.
The jumps are for the shows and the curves for the pros!
6. Internet
Where are you reading this now? It’s scary, huh! Not really, but hey, leave aside the socio-political impact that the internet can have and focus on the last video that gives you the batteries to take the bike and hit the pedal.
7. Dig
You do not have to be like Dan Atherton when he digs an incredible track in Wales. Simply by cleaning the track and preparing it in the forest, we will already have the feeling of having a greater connection with the environment in which we are going to ride a bike. Once we are connected, then concentrate on going down that track as quickly as possible.
8. The Rampage
The annual pilgrimage to the lands of Utah has left its mark and shows everything that is possible to do on a mountain bike. Runners and freeriders meet under the scorching sun to make history and make the impossible possible. It is one of those events that go beyond sport itself, reaching a huge audience to amaze.
9. The slopestyle
Thanks to the FMB World Tour and the success of events such as the Crankworx Festival, Freeride has come up with a model for a viable progressive and commercial future for slopestyle. The tricks that competitors are doing today are incredible, and a few years ago were considered as tricks that could only be seen in video games.
10. Find new lines
Whether it’s following your partner’s back wheel or just trying something different, finding a new and faster line on a track you already knew well is always exciting. Sometimes it’s a bit depressing, since you’ve been doing the same thing for a long time, but when you get over it you enjoy going faster. | https://medium.com/@fuadb2244/the-10-best-things-on-a-mountain-bike-5f7ea9dac215 | ['Fuad B'] | 2019-06-17 16:10:15.311000+00:00 | ['Biking', 'Mountains', 'Cycling', 'Mountain Biking'] |
Getting Started with Bokeh for Python | Getting started with Bokeh
Effortlessly elegant interactive data visualisations in Python
Photo by Denise Johnson on Unsplash
In this article I aim to give you an introduction to Bokeh, detailing what it is, why you should be using it and how you can easily get started!
What is Bokeh?
Bokeh is a neat Python library that allows us to quickly and easily create high-performance, professional interactive data visualisations and web apps. You can check out some examples of the power and range of what Bokeh can do here.
An example of what can be done with Bokeh.
Bokeh’s most enticing quality is that it manages to balance both simplicity- with very few lines of code required to create complex interactive visualisations- and the flexibility for advanced customisation, should you require it. Whether you simply want to create prettier graphs in your Jupyter notebooks, or develop and deploy complete web applications, Bokeh is a great visualisation tool for any Python user to have.
Fundamentals of Bokeh
Plots
Bokeh’s Plot class, provides the canvas on which we can build our visualisations. To get started creating a visualisation in Bokeh we can simply instantiate a figure object:
If we were to run the above code we would produce a blank figure object, which would then be output as an HTML file, saved to the path specified, and then displayed in a new tab of a web browser. We could also have used the output_notebook() function, if we were working in a Jupyter notebook and wanted to display our visualisation directly in an output cell.
This isn’t very inspiring so far, as we’ve yet to add any data- but we’ll see in the next section how we can start building on top of our figure to quickly add detail to our plot.
Glyphs
Glyphs are the most fundamental plotting unit in Bokeh. They essentially consist of visual markers, with attributes that may be associated with our data. From simple line glyphs, to hexagonal grids of tiles (HexTile glyph), there are a multitude of different glyphs available to us, depending on our visualisation needs.
We can extend the above code, to add a glyph to our figure, as simply as:
The power of Bokeh is visible immediately. With a single additional line of code, we have added some data to our plot which we can fiddle with and explore instantly with Bokeh’s out of the box interactivity. The plot tools visible on the right of the figure enable us to drag, zoom and reset our plot. We can even save our view to an image file, using the SaveTool feature.
Exploring Bokeh’s inbuilt plot tools, with a simple line glyph.
You can explore the variety of glyphs we are able to choose from, and their associated attributes, here.
Adding multiple glyphs to a figure is no issue, we simply call all the glyph methods we require separately and Bokeh will layer them onto our figure in the order specified.
Multiple glyphs overlayed on a figure.
Data Sources
It couldn’t be easier to specify our data to Bokeh objects. Bokeh is compatible with the familiar data formats of lists, NumPy arrays and pandas DataFrames; all of which we can pass directly as arguments to glyph methods.
Line glyph from NumPy source data.
Bokeh also comes inbuilt with its own data format, the ColumnDataSource. This forms the fundamental underlying data structure used by Bokeh objects. In fact, when we supply lists, NumPy arrays, or pandas DataFrames to Bokeh, these are implicitly converted to ColumnDataSource objects behind the scenes. ColumnDataSources make it easy to share data between glyphs and link the selected data, as well as allowing us to supply additional data, which, as we will see later, can be used to add annotations to our visualisation.
We can define a ColumnDataSource in the following manner:
Once we have defined a ColumnDataSource, we can easily access data by simply specifying its column name, and passing our CDS as the source parameter of a plotting method. Below we create an example plot using one of Bokeh’s sample CSV datasets that we read into a pandas DataFrame and then convert to a ColumnDataSource.
Apple stock opening price over time (dataset from Bokeh’s sample data).
Customising Visualisations
Configuring Plot Tools
As we have seen from instantiating a figure object in Bokeh, plots come with various inbuilt interactive features. If we do not articulate these explicitly, Bokeh will provide the default suite of tools. However, should we wish, we may also define these when creating our figure object:
You can explore all the plot tool options that are available in the official documentation here.
HoverTools
One of the plot tools we have available in Bokeh, deserving of its own section, is the HoverTool class. This is a neat feature that allows us to uncover additional details from our data, simply by hovering above an object.
We can specify a HoverTool by providing a list of (label, value) tuples for the data we wish to be included.
Field names prepended with @ are associated with ColumnDataSource column headers and names beginning with $ are “special fields” corresponding to plot metadata such as $index (index of data point), $x (x-coordinate of cursor).
Adding a hover tool to our Apple stock plot.
Colour Mapping
Bokeh provides various inbuilt colour palettes for us to choose from, the full list of which can be found here. A useful feature for styling our visualised data with a specified palette is the “Color Mappers” available to us in Bokeh. These allow us to visually elucidate some property of the data, depending on its value.
For example, the linear_cmap function allows us to assign colours depending on a value’s position on a linear scale:
Example of a linear colour-mapping, applied to our previous sine plot.
Similarly a log_cmap function exists, working in exactly the same manner but with a logarithmic scale. We can even include a ColorBar alongside out plot to explicate the mapping of colours to values.
For categorical data, we can use the CategoricalColorMapper class to define a relationship between various categorical factors and a specified colour palette. Bokeh has a detailed guide for handling categorical data here, where you can read more about this should you wish.
Annotations
Annotations such as titles, legends, axis labels, data labels can also be added to plots. There are many different options to customise our plots here; I will not delve into too much detail on these as there is plenty of good documentation on what can be done here and here.
The below example shows some of the most common properties we might want to define when creating a figure:
Arranging Plots
If we have multiple plots that we want to combine in the same output, we can use the bokeh.layouts module to define how these are arranged.
Row and Columns
The row and column functions allow us to organise plots into rows, columns, or a nested layout formed of some combination of the two.
Grids
A uniform grid of plots is easy to create using the gridplot function.
Tabs
We can even display our visualisations in a tabbed layout, with the ability to toggle between different plots.
Linked Plots
To link the axes of plots, we can simply define their axis range attributes to be equal:
p3.x_range = p2.x_range = p1.x_range
p3.y_range = p2.y_range = p1.y_range
To link the selection of data in our visualisations, all that is required is for them to share the same data source:
Conclusion
Photo by Josh Boot on Unsplash
We are now well equipped with the fundamentals of Bokeh and should have everything we need to get started experimenting and creating our own custom visualisations. That said, this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Bokeh’s full capabilities as a visualisation tool.
In my next post we will explore how to take what we have learned one stage further, and transition from creating beautiful visualisations to developing captivating web applications, with even more interactivity. I’ll see you back then, but for now:
Thanks for reading! | https://towardsdatascience.com/getting-started-with-bokeh-effortlessly-elegant-interactive-data-visualisations-in-python-703249565bb3 | ['Emile Gill'] | 2020-11-10 20:07:17.794000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Bokeh', 'Getting Started', 'Data Science', 'Data Visualization'] |
Gradient Descend’e adım adım… | Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more
Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore | https://medium.com/deep-learning-turkiye/gradient-descende-ad%C4%B1m-ad%C4%B1m-ebeda7e0a58f | ['Hasan Doğukan İnce'] | 2021-03-24 09:26:20.052000+00:00 | ['Derivatives', 'Limits', 'Differential Equations', 'Gradient Descent'] |
Before we think about powertrain I think we need to think about the journey itself. | Before we think about powertrain I think we need to think about the journey itself. The majority of cars on the roads are commuters and, from my own observations every morning they are mostly being used by just one person.
Using all that energy to shift that much weight just for one person is inefficient and poor design. So what is to be done? We could make single-seater cars a thing again, but what if you need to drive the family somewhere? You will just end up with 2 cars. According to census data, only 40% of homes in the UK, a densely populated country have access to a driveway and garage so charging any vehicle at home is a no-go for the majority of the population.
What we need to do to first reduce the number of cars on the roads is make WFH a real option for most people. If we were to decouple businesses from city centres (which we could potentially transform with rewilding) and move small businesses back to the suburbs we could create a more sustainable future where our local communities are also the centre of business and employment for the people that live there. | https://medium.com/@carlstjames1/before-we-think-about-powertrain-i-think-we-need-to-think-about-the-journey-itself-888cb5396e7c | ['Carl St. James'] | 2020-11-27 10:49:34.113000+00:00 | ['Climate Change', 'Science', 'Sustainability', 'Electric Vehicles', 'Future'] |
HUBIE HALLOWEEN Review | It’s a testament to the strange entertaining moments found in HUBIE HALLOWEEN, the new Netflix/Adam Sandler offspring made for the spooky season, that the film’s main character Hubie (played by a mustachioed Sandler), a scaredy cat man-child with a voice caught somewhere between Scooby-Doo and someone’s cracked out impression of Scooby-Doo, does not drag the film into 100% awfulness. Make no mistake, HUBIE HALLOWEEN isn’t a good film, but for another slapdash entry in Sandler’s oeuvre of shrieking man children, you could do a lot worse (see: JACK AND JILL). Or a lot better (see: THAT’S MY BOY).
Set in the aesthetically pleasing autumn yellows and oranges of Salem, Massachusetts, the film follows Mr. Hubie as he takes it upon himself to save the town from potentially supernatural forces. Of course, like other Sandler characters, Hubie is a joke to pretty much all the residents of Salem, outside of his supportive mother (June Squibb), some local kids, and Hubie’s high school crush Violet (Julie Bowen) who for whatever reason wants to rock Hubie all night long. Even so, something is attacking the local residents of Salem and it’s up to Hubie and his hilariously useful thermos to save the day.
While that’s pretty much the basic gist of the story, I couldn’t help but shake the feeling that nothing actually happens in this movie. Sure people get snatched up into the darkness and a couple of red herrings on who or what is behind it all get strewn about throughout the film but by the end I never felt like there was much importance to what was going on. Even when the film does finally reveal who/what has been behind all the spooky hijinks and delivers some after school messaging on the terribleness of bullying, HUBIE HALLOWEEN basically brushes it off to rush ahead to an all smiles epilogue. But I’m missing the forest for the trees here, people are not coming to see an “Adam Sandler with a funny voice” movie for the story, they’re here to see- well, actually I really don’t know what we want to see in that type of movie. Comedy, I guess? And if that’s the case, HUBIE HALLOWEEN kind of delivers in its own unique way. Of course, there’s Adam Sandler idiotically voguing for the camera and shrieking and howling and talking like a terrible cartoon character come to life which has its strange charms here and there, and there’s also a couple of fart jokes sprinkled about, can’t forget those and uhh, there’s also people being assholes which isn’t that funny in a usual sense but if it’s done by celebrities I guess it makes it funnier (shout out to Ray Liotta donning a clown wig). So yes, there are bits of humor to be found here but much of it fails to deliver any gut busts.
And the performances aren’t bad, just kind of plain cut. Sandler, despite inventing one of the most grating voices of cinematic history, fails to bring much actual energy to his main performance as he just kind of goes through the motions and hits his predetermined marks of making strange noises and shrieking. Outside of him, his friends fail to make any impression as well despite a pretty impressive roster of actors on hand ranging from Kevin James as an alpha dunce who happens to be the town’s police chief to Steve Buscemi as man who might be a werewolf in probably the more game performance of the crowd. Whatever the performer and whatever the role, it all feels to the point and for a movie about a scaredy cat fighting off the forces of spooky evil on Halloween night, a little more zaniness would be welcome.
Despite a multitude of flaws, in a strange way, like most of Happy Madison’s other films with Sandler and his friends dicking around on camera, HUBIE HALLOWEEN kept me watching. Maybe it was in the pleasant and warm aesthetics of a Sandler film set in the cozy colors of autumn in a small Northeastern town or maybe it was in the sense of fun that’s to be found in seeing exactly that image of good-natured Adam Sandler and his friends doing dumb stuff on camera. I really can’t say, but to its credit HUBIE HALLOWEEN does try a few new things that help it stick out amongst other Happy Madison entries. Director Steven Brill, a common directing partner with Mr. Sandler, stages some decent set pieces of miniscule spooks but overall he contributes to crafting a welcoming Amblin-like sense of atmosphere screened through a more crude lens. It doesn’t always work, mainly as Tim Herlihy and Sandler’s scraggly script fails to do much with an intriguing set up, but overall Brill crafts a seasonal low brow comedy that could find staying power with a young audience.
Overall, HUBIE HALLOWEEN isn’t the best work of Happy Madison but it also is far from the worst; if it were a candy, it’d probably be like a Milk Dud: intriguing in theory, but kind of forgettable once you’ve consumed it. Try as Sandler might, a truly terrible vocal creation fails to neuter the effortless charm and entertainment that he delivers everywhere else in the film.
2/5 | https://medium.com/@justinnorris12/hubie-halloween-review-fa9dff18109e | ['Justin Norris'] | 2020-11-26 17:52:00.860000+00:00 | ['Film Reviews', 'Julie Bowen', 'Halloween', 'Adam Sandler', 'Hubie Halloween'] |
2020 A Year of Strength and Kindness — Superstar Communicator | 2020 has been a year where I have relied on strength and the power of kindness. I am certainly pleased 2020 is soon ending, however, there have been many things I have discovered about myself this year.
The year started so well. I had a very exciting diary with interesting work; challenging consultancy work; seminars; workshops. I had work confirmed overseas which was one of my aims. Then at the beginning of March everything started to disappear; or clients I was going to deliver work in April were silent. I attended an event at the House of Lords on 4th March (more about that later) I spoke to Lord Young who was hosting the event. He said to me: “Be very careful. This virus is very serious. Take care with your health and keep your head down with your business. We are in for a rocky road in the next few months”. This was before the Government was taking the virus seriously. I am thankful I was warned in this way.
But as all of my work disappeared, I discussed with my clients about re-booking within 6 months; delaying until the pandemic was over. How naive we were! I contacted one client who is based in USA, and she aggressively responded cancelling the work: she had been in lockdown for 4 weeks, but it is no way to treat a supplier….
One masterclass that still remained was located locally, and the client had already paid for the venue and he didn’t want to lose the money! However, as the date approached, individuals were being told they couldn’t attend in person. I suggested a hybrid event (thinking, gulp, I will work this one out!) then 2 days before the event, my client said “I think we’ll have to cancel the event”! I suggested we delivered virtually: something this organisation had not considered before. And so the following journey started for 2020.
Being Helpful
In two days I totally changed the content/delivery so it would work for virtual engagement. I tutored my client into using Zoom; checked the compliance and security because the organisation was within the financial services sector and practiced using the online platform. And this was key to my actions all year. At all times I was helpful to support others. I had no expectation of being paid, but we were all in this together. Throughout the year I supported organisations and businesses who wanted to receive high quality virtual training, with tuition for organisers, advice and even providing the marketing content to promote within an organisation. We have all been in this crisis together, and I believe in being helpful. It is one of my values.
Being Proactive
Once I delivered the virtual workshop; I received incredible feedback. As an organisation, they were now confident that professional development could be delivered virtually. This particular organisation had over 60 branches in UK and overseas. I decided to create 3 topics for virtual workshops that were of value for NOW. They were making an impact with communication VIRTUALLY; facilitating and participating in virtual meetings and Resilience (using my neuroscience training). I worked tirelessly to create content for 60 and 90 minute virtual workshops, that were full of content, takeaways and pro-active. From the word go I was using polls and the chat facility. I made it fun and used a lot of energy delivering the workshops, so they would be of value. I then contacted every single branch of the organisation (including the international branches) with personalised emails. I also contacted my existing clients again in case they were interested. Many clients didn’t respond but I did get some response and bookings.
Adding Value
At all times I focused on adding value. I have already mentioned that I provided support and made it as easy as possible to book, market and share the booking. In addition, I added additional blended learning material (articles, videos, podcast interviews) that could easily be accessed with nothing in return on my APP. This was a great way to support the attendees and a number of them got in contact with other suggestions to include. I knew that during the first lockdown, everything was new and very scary. I wasn’t judgemental when an organisation forgot to share the password with attendees so I was the only person on the call! But I knew that back in those early days anything could go wrong, and I was pushed out of my own session more than once! It wasn’t too much trouble when individuals contacted me with other questions. I added value. I considered the bigger picture and to be known as someone who provided excellent value with the work I did.
I have been very lucky to have two incredible interns this year. Ella Proudlock is a Cambridge University undergraduate, who was an intern with me in the summer. We worked out how to work in a virtual environment. Although her family home is 10 miles away, we have never met. And 2020 has been a year of strength and kindness and we learnt together, how best to work. Since September I have collaborated with Brunel University, and since November have had Mia Yu contributing as an Intern. Their youthfulness is wonderful: they have an invaluable perspective which is great. I have also received support from other entrepreneurs, the DIT and connections who have continued to support me.
Being Consistent
I maintained a positive message; being helpful, constructive and supportive. This was in my newsletters, social media — including blogs and podcasts. Any comments on posts were always kind and supportive: it wasn’t exclusively about me. Throughout this crazy time contacts — some of whom I haven’t spoken to for a number of years, got in touch with me because they saw my posts. And in certain cases this resulted in work.
Celebrating
This year has generated some incredible results.
I have delivered over 100 virtual workshops to attendees from over 80 countries — and counting
My connections on Linkedin has increased by over 50% since March 2020 with increased engagement with my target market
My podcast has surpassed 50000 downloads. Yes: I am putting more weight and focus on this invaluable resource for 2021
My client base has increased with incredible customers and contacts who are interested and value my work
My turnover has surpassed 2019/20 with 4 months to go, this is despite my music business generating no income
The credibility of my brand has increased with engagement from leading experts in my area
This year I have been honoured to be nominated for and won two awards. The first was the F:Entrepreneur #ialso 100 inspirational female entrepreneurs. This year has been incredible. We had a reception at the House of Lords in early March and I have received support from other entrepreneurs with lasting friendships.
The second award was from The Business Community One of my clients nominated for me; focusing particularly on the digital and tech I have embraced to move the business forward. But this nomination also highlights that I haven’t focused exclusively on the UK market. My plan from 2019 onwards was to have some international focus. My redeveloped website (in 2019) was created to reflect this. And in 2020 I really started to build these international connections and business. In fact the pandemic forced me to do this. And I achieved this target: there were virtual workshops and speeches I delivered to global companies and audiences. I am currently in negotiations for a partnership with an overseas organisation and have invested in a start up company in the Far East: I have already received my return in investment financially and am learning a lot about this market.
As soon as the first lockdown was announced in March, I set up a support system with neighbours and co-ordinated shopping for those who were self isolating
I was one of 100 seamstresses in Hertfordshire who formed the “Scrubhub”. We sewed scrubs and laundry bags for NHS staff. I also donated fabric from my stash for scrubs. It was an instant, amazing community and I am so pleased to have got to know fellow seamstresses in the area.
Set up a weekly virtual sing along with family, friends, volunteers and refugees from the charity we support. This was a weekly get together every Saturday.
Weekly virtual ‘coffees’ with other female entrepreneurs that provided companionship
Delivering complimentary virtual training workshops for schools to support their virtual learning.
Superstar Communicator has supported the St Albans Postboxes. This incredible community initiative supports and raises money for local charities. I am proud to support this initiative.
2020 is a year of strength AND kindness, and my charity work is a very strong driver for me. 2020 has not stopped me from doing my charity work. I had planned to raise money by doing the Serpentine Swim. But it was cancelled. Ditto my 1 mile swim for the Azheimers Society. However there were other activities.
So 2020 really was a year of strength and kindness
There were times that I had to dig very deep. I was as frightened as anyone else with my life. I remember going for a long walk when I was particularly stressed. I have learnt so much and achieved so much about myself, my business and my clients. 2021 is going to be another challenging year, but I look forward to 2021 more than you can imagine. I would like to thank all of those people who have supported me this year; believed in me and inspired me. Thank you! | https://medium.com/@susanheatonwright/2020-a-year-of-strength-and-kindness-superstar-communicator-e8283b7e832 | ['Susan Heaton-Wright'] | 2020-12-29 17:58:13.331000+00:00 | ['Kindness', '2020', 'Resilience', 'Being Helpful', 'Surviving'] |
Top 4 Changes I Recommend That’ll Improve Your Employee Volunteer Program | Photo by Ivan Bertolazzi from Pexels
Employee volunteer programs (EVPs) have tremendous power. They create opportunities to invest in both your employees and the community. Regardless of industry, EVPs are the most accessible form of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) that one can implement. Any company with employees can create the necessary programming to empower employees to volunteer.
That said though, as accessible as EVPs are, they continue to present challenges for even the most seasoned CSR practitioner. These must be overcome to have maximum impact for the community.
Whether you’re just starting in CSR or are a seasoned practitioner you’ve probably read other “Top” posts suggesting actions to increase engagement. This isn’t one of those posts. Rather, what I’m suggesting are four (often overlooked or undervalued) approaches that’ll improve the depth and effectiveness of your EVP.
I’ll forewarn you, most of these changes won’t be easy, nor will they come without opposition.
Image by Katie White from Pixabay
Change #1: Ditch the corporate “day of volunteerism”.
At its core, the corporate “day of volunteerism” perpetuates behaviors we must work to eliminate. I’ll explain.
Many companies (of all sizes and industries) conduct a “day of volunteerism”. For small companies this may be limited to a local market. But, for global companies this manifests in action being carried out in multiple states or even countries by tens of thousands of employees on or around a specific date and time. They’re designed with the intent to serve the community, but, are more often planned and executed with the intent to achieve employee engagement goals, even if subconsciously.
While well intended, those seeking the engagement (including leadership) add layers of complexity to an already complicated event. They often express a desire to keep their team of employees (sometimes as large as 50 to 100 people) together for “team building”. Sometimes even expressing dissenting opinions about the volunteer work they’re expected to complete. And once complete, at the end of the event, the company touts a massive achievement (i.e. thousands of employees volunteering thousands of hours in communities across the nation).
Chances are you’ve seen this. Here’s what’s wrong with the picture. The “day of volunteerism” can lead to the following;
A false understanding that “more employees and more hours served” equals “better”.
Volunteerism programming primarily designed to give employees a great experience rather than a positive social impact for the community.
A situation where the non-profit being served is overwhelmed or pushed beyond their capacity to effectively host because the group size is too large.
A scenario where the company is offering services that too few non-profits are designed to receive or use.
The true needs (and when it’s actually needed) being ignored because the event is centered around the date and time set by the company, not the non-profit.
Creation of activities that are cost prohibitive for the non-profit resulting from the volunteer opportunity being primarily focused on the demands of the company.
Not addressing the deep critical issues in society or the environment because the actions are more of a “celebration” aimed at satisfying the company’s desire to serve.
The removal of agency and voice from employees who’d rather support a different cause other than the one being supported by the company.
I could go on adding to that list, but I won’t waste your time. You get the point.
Now, of course you may ask, “Jerome, what about the media attention, marketing from our logos being prominently displayed on our t-shirts and the reputational boost we’ll get by doing this event?”
My answer? I’d kindly ask you step back into your time machine and travel two decades in the past where those perceived benefits were worth something. I’d also argue that any narrative from volunteering will always be better when done year-round and authentically with the objective being to serve the community’s needs first and foremost. If the community’s needs are met, then any marketing, media or reputational boost will be better than if pursued through a corporate “day of volunteerism” that’s designed to achieve employee engagement goals.
Here’s my challenge to CSR practitioners. Instead of creating a forced volunteer event, consider dismantling your corporate “day of volunteerism” altogether. Then connect with the same community partners and determine their needs year-round and plan to more regularly and purposefully serve.
Making the decision to dissolve such a program doesn’t have to be limited to just the “day of volunteerism”. This can be applied to other times of the year.
For example, similar tactics must be taken related to volunteerism centered around significant dates and holidays.
To have the greatest social impact, we must fight societal expectations that aren’t always helpful when serving the community.
Photo by Plush Design Studio from Pexels
Change #2: Decouple volunteerism from significant dates and holidays.
Culturally we’re wired to recognize and observe significant dates in history. We mark our calendars and pay tribute to once larger-than-life figures and historically relevant moments in time.
There’s Arbor Day, Random Acts of Kindness Day, National Volunteer Week, September 11 National Day of Service, Thanksgiving, Veterans Day and Christmas to name just a handful.
Mind you, not all of these are focused on volunteerism, yet as a society we’ve sought to couple them with volunteer service. Here’s the question I’d ask each CSR practitioner to ponder. When we couple significant dates with volunteerism, do we unintentionally cause more harm than good?
Our intentions are often genuine, however, there’s just one problem. There’s a fair chance we’re subconsciously driven by a societal expectation to give. It’s the glaring flaw often left unacknowledged; moreover, injecting volunteerism into significant dates and times almost always ignores the true needs of the community. Doing so may elevate the significant date (or the accompanying societal expectation) over the needs of those you’re seeking to serve. Don’t worry, I have a solution for this, so keep reading.
Let’s take the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday (also known as MLK Day of Service) for example. Observed each year on the third Monday in January, MLK Day of Service is the only federal holiday in the United States designated as a national day of service. But just like the charitable spirit from Thanksgiving through Christmas, there’s often an overwhelming outpour of support for non-profits. It’s estimated non-profits experience a 40 percent increase in requests to serve (some as high as 200 percent). But, let me just remind you that too much of even a good thing can be bad, here’s why.
Shortly thereafter (and for the months following MLK Day of Service) these same non-profits are left in a volunteer drought. That spike in requests to volunteer is solely centered on the societal expectation that we’re volunteering. That desire fails to account for the true needs of that non-profit. You may ask, “what happens when we elevate significant dates and holidays above the community’s needs?”, here’s what I’d say.
We assume there’s a need that can be satisfied. And while that may be the case, it may not be best fulfilled on MLK Day of Service.
We ignore the very structure of how that non-profit is designed to best provide service.
Our desire to give fails to account for when the community can be best served (if at all) with what’s being offered.
It also ignores the very fact that a non-profit may take that day off in observance of the holiday rather than engage volunteers.
This is all akin to jamming a square peg into a round hole.
Here’s the hard pill to swallow, unless you make a change, you may continue to be that square peg.
The receiving non-profit is then left with a decision to make. Turn away would-be volunteers and future supporters or alternatively risk jeopardizing the integrity of their services for the sake of engaging volunteers. Here’s what it comes down to, there are close to 25 days related to giving and service to others globally. This doesn’t include the holidays or other periods of time where people are feeling generous. However, social and environmental issues don’t work around your pretty “giving” calendar. Critical issues pop up, and we must rise to the challenge then and there.
My suggestion is to cease tying significant dates and holidays to anything related to the actions of engaging employee volunteers. Yep, you heard me, do nothing. Instead, work with your community partners and determine when they have their greatest needs. Seek to focus on the needs they express Instead of rallying hundreds of employees around a significant date in history. Additionally, in lieu of volunteering, create an internal communication and education campaign aimed at encouraging volunteerism during times of the year that’s best for the community.
Sure, this is a different approach and it’s bound to get questions. Embrace that.
I believe with every question you receive about “why” you’re doing something only presents an opportunity to further educate those asking.
Be bold, you may find that employees will respond positively once they understand the rationale.
Photo by bongkarn thanyakij from Pexels
Change #3: Fund and participate in corporate employee volunteer research.
Research is defined as “diligent and systematic inquiry or investigation into a subject in order to discover or revise facts, theories, applications, etc.” We need more of this done for corporate EVPs (and volunteerism generally). Think about this for a second. It’s my opinion that many in society arrogantly believe that because they volunteer in their own time, they’re somehow “experts” in understanding the science and philosophy of engaging volunteers.
But, let me put this in perspective with a comparison.
The understanding of volunteer engagement (by the non-experts who believe they’re experts) would be like me believing I’m an expert in global communications and public affairs because I write and blog in my spare time. That would be an absurd assertion for me to make.
Like other professions, volunteer engagement warrants a dedication to continued education, development and pursuit of knowledge. For close to 90 percent of non-profits it’s a core “business function”. It’s also an expected job function of most CSR practitioners. So, we must research this in order to advance.
But, let’s get back to the topic of EVP research.
While funding and participating in research isn’t tangible, it has greater positive contributions to the culture of volunteerism at large. That’s a good thing for those working in CSR. Perhaps by your funding EVP research you (and others) will learn how to more expertly engage in social impact programming that involves human capital. As CSR practitioners we must not be motivated solely by the desire to one-up our peers at competing companies. I’m hopeful that most of us are eager to see collective achievements and successes towards common goals.
When we fund research, we all win.
There are many benefits that include the following;
Conducting research allows the CSR field to more smartly understand trends and successful practices related to EVPs and achieving universally sought goals like the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
It allows the field to better understand the capabilities (and limitations) of specific technology platforms designed to support CSR reporting for EVPs.
Research equips the field to better coordinate and collaborate in times of disaster when engaging employees in disaster volunteering.
Research will help companies (yours included) to better understand the value in participating in peer-based corporate volunteer councils with strategic member-based organizations like Points of Light, International Association for Volunteer Effort, IMPACT 2030 and even your local or regional organizations.
Research will also help companies with a rich culture of giving to better understand the trends and opportunities around CEO volunteering.
Research can provide insight into how non-profits view, respond to and work best with EVPs. This better equips companies to bridge the divide between non-profit organizations and corporations.
Everybody wins in this scenario where research is funded and made available. While doing so, you may even have an opportunity for your company’s EVP to be profiled as a case study for others to see.
Lastly, through the results of the research, you may even find that your non-profit partners can add value back to your employees.
Photo by Dani Hart from Pexels
Change #4: Engage community partners as subject matter experts to educate your employees.
What I’m not referring to is the five-minute “rah-rah” speech given by an organization shortly before a group volunteers their time. I’m suggesting something deeper. Something that’ll connect your employees to the critical issues your company’s EVP is working to solve. Think of this as both an opportunity to more deeply serve while also investing in your own employees. I’ll tell you why.
Over the past two years I’ve visited close to 60 community partners in the Greater Washington, D.C. area. The objective was to become educated about the non-profits I serve in my role.
I recall during a visit asking “What is your greatest need? Where can we best support?”
The answer my surprise you.
Slap yourself if you think the answer I received was “more volunteers”, because you’d be wrong. Matter of fact, they had a steady stream of regular volunteers. Their answer?
“More people to know we’re here” was their response.
What they needed is for more members of the community to know they exist, know where they’re located, and be knowledgeable about the population they serve and the critical issues they’re solving.
I also learned something quite interesting during my visits. I found out some community partners would host periodic open houses. They would do this instead of recruiting new volunteers through the traditional methods focused on a call-to-action for a specific event. You see, they didn’t need people to sign up for kit-building projects, to serve food, or to staff events. They simply needed people to come through their office and learn about their mission and services. That’s it.
In an instance like this it was more beneficial to schedule employees for a guided tour rather than propose that we “do something” tangible for them.
Similarly, there are environmental organizations that provide similar programming in the form of guided boat tours and hikes of the waterways and trails they preserve. For them it’s an opportunity to connect and educate.
These opportunities present an opening to explore what I categorize as unconventional or non-traditional volunteering. Sure, it’s not contributing to the creation of a tangible item like a kit-building project. Instead, it’s advancing the mission of that non-profit by connecting employees with community partners that they may want to support in their personal time. They’ll also get a glimpse into what cause-areas the company supports. It’ll create space for employees to be educated about critical issues in the community they may have not been aware of.
The time they spend on the tour or with the community partner learning about these issues should count as volunteer time spent supporting the organization.
And really, this is a win-win scenario where this contributes to greater learning and development of your employees. They become smarter and become better as a result. And this doesn’t have to end with guided tours. With creativity these events can take on many forms; this can include panel discussions, round-table format discussions and third-person style learning activities.
That all being said, all these changes are no easy feat to implement, I would know.
But, in the long-term these changes are bound to have a profound effect on your employees and community. I’ve seen that firsthand. But don’t take my word for it.
If you’ve tried some of these and had success (or failure), I’d love to hear about your experience. Or, if you’re seeking advice on how to implement these changes don’t be a stranger.
Alternatively, if you disagree with these suggestions, let’s have that discussion.
In any instance, know I’m here in your service and with the goal to help you (and others) be Responsible AF. Until next time, be well.
Note: The thoughts and views expressed in this post reflect my personal views alone and are not those of Marriott International or any of its brands
About the author: Jerome Tennille is the Manager of Social Impact & Volunteerism for Marriott International. Jerome is also an independent consultant and advisor in the subject matter of Sustainability and Social Impact. Prior to that Jerome held the position of Senior Manager of Impact Analysis and Assessment for Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), a national organization that offers help, hope, and healing to all those grieving the death of a loved one serving in America’s armed forces. Jerome also served on the board of directors of Peace Through Action USAfor four years and also serves on the PsychArmor Institute Advisory Committee for the School of Volunteers & Nonprofits. Jerome holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in operations management and a Master of Sustainability Leadership (MSL) from Arizona State University. Jerome is designated as Certified in Volunteer Administration (CVA) and is also a veteran of the US Navy. | https://medium.com/@jdtennille/top-4-changes-i-recommend-thatll-improve-your-employee-volunteer-program-569ed7d1495d | ['Jerome Tennille', 'Msl'] | 2020-03-03 14:00:45.162000+00:00 | ['Employee Engagement', 'Volunteering', 'Social Impact', 'Volunteer Management', 'Corporate Culture'] |
A practical guide to choose a frontend dependency | “Every choice comes with a consequence. Once you make a choice, you must accept responsibility. You cannot escape the consequences of your choices, whether you like them or not.” — Roy T. Bennet.
I need to choose the best “gold-and-diamond-encrusted harmonica” in this store — by 12 Oz Mouse Wiki
Another great day working as a front-end developer. Everything is calm and quiet: colleagues are discussing new JSX transforms, QA team members are arguing about this endless Cypress vs Webdriver holy war topic, I’m investigating the Webpack v5 migration path to upgrade the project. Everything is quiet. Right until the moment our PM rushes in. We have a new page to deliver to our clients, which includes tons of different charts. Those charts are pretty generic, everybody in our market has nearly the same, but our charts should include heavy customizations, ’cause our design team wants them to be the most memorable ones among the business competitors.
Ok, sounds not so difficult: choose dependency, integrate it, and voilà. Let’s go!
Wait a second… There are 2913 libraries found on npmjs.com for the “charts” keyword… How to pick up the best one for our use case?
Creating a list of competitors
Even though we will have meaningful criteria, we are unable to compare such a large number of libraries at once. We should first create a shortlist (5–20 items) of dependencies to choose from. How to create this list?
Ask friends, colleagues, Twitter mates. The best opinion you can get is the opinion of somebody you know.
Read one of those “20 best libraries to do SOMETHING in CURRENT_YEAR” articles, like this one. Of course, those articles are extremely superficial, but they can be a good source of finding something to compare with.
Search npmjs.com by a keyword, like this.
Search bundlephobia.com to find similar packages to one another. This service was created to measure the bundle size of dependencies, but it has comprehensive “Similar Packages” functionality. For example, here are similar packages for a popular chart.js library:
bundlephobia.com is a great service, which I will come back to in the next part
So here is the list of libraries I will choose from:
Important! Even though our project is React.JS based I am not limiting myself to ReactJS libraries only. Usually, all those libraries are framework agnostic and render the chart inside a <svg> or <canvas> element.
Define the criteria
In general, people just pick the most popular dependency in terms of downloads count on npmjs.com or star count in the GitHub repository of the lib. From my experience, it’s better not to rely on popularity. There is always a chance that the most popular dependency has some huge architectural problems. Or that there is a new dependency that nobody had heard of which is way smaller and cleaner than all the competitors.
Therefore, I would like to establish objective criteria we will be comparing the libraries with. This is not a chart library comparison article, so the criteria should be generic, subject-agnostic, and should be meaningful for any frontend dependency.
A perfect frontend dependency to add to your project should be:
Extremely small in terms of bundle size
Actively maintained
Implementing functionality you need
Tested well
Bundle size
I remember the time when developers did not think about the size of their dependencies at all: 5MB bundles were quite ok. Everything has changed since then: Webpack supports asynchronous chunks now, which helps us to separate bundles between pages, all kinds of bundle profilers give us helpful insights about contents of our bundles, tools like bundlesize help us not to increase the bundle size by accidental changes. O brave new world, that has such people in’t.
I’ve already mentioned a perfect tool to measure the dependency size: bundlephobia.com. Let’s have a closer look.
Pay attention to the explicit tree shaking support symbol in the v3 beta on the version graph to the right
Pay attention to the explicit tree shaking support symbol in the v3 beta on the version graph to the right
What is important here?
Minified + Gzipped size is the most important one, if you have gzip support enabled on your server. If you do not have it enabled, then enable it, there is no excuse to have it disabled in 2020. Take a look at the composition. In this example, 59.4% of the bundle size is occupied by moment dependency. If you already have moment included in the project, only an additional 50.2KB are loaded. If your application should work fast on the low-end mobile phones, take a look at minified size also. Some of the libraries can be compressed by gzip really well (because they have a lot of recurring code blocks), but they have a huge size after being uncompressed. That means that it will take a longer time for a browser to parse and compile the JS code. If a library has a tree-shakable badge, it includes an ESM export and it declares itself as side-effect free. It practically means that if you import only a part of the library (e.g. one chart type), the bundle size of the project is increased not by the size of the whole library, but by only it’s part. Disclaimer! There are a lot of libraries, which work perfectly with tree shaking, but they do not have this badge, because a package maintainer did not add a special sideEffects property to the package.json file.
Let’s write out all minified + gzip sizes (taking into consideration, that our project does not include moment ):
Bundle size analysis is great to filter out huge dependencies. Let’s define our maximum size threshold. Our PM asked me to add 10 charts to the /analytics page. The gzipped size of the analytics page bundle right now is 354kB (I’ve used a Network tab in Google Chrome’s inspector to measure it out). So I assume new functionality can not be more than 100kB gzipped (if it is bigger, we will have more than a third of bundle size dedicated to one single feature of our webpage). And ideally, it should be no more than 35.4kB (no more than 10% of the bundle).
But let’s make it clear: if chartist is 11.49kB and frappe-charts is 17.6kB, it does not make chartist library better than frappe-charts.
The goal of this step is simple: libraries which are bigger than the maximum threshold get disqualified from our challenge . Libraries which are bigger than an ideal threshold should be considered only after those ones which are smaller.
Maintenance status
Why do we want to use a 3rd-party library instead of writing our own one? Because we want somebody to do the job instead of us. To take something ready instead of building from scratch. But nothing comes free.
By importing a 3rd-party dependency you save some time on developing a feature, but you make the maintenance of this feature to be dependent on an outside team.
There is no metric to measure the maintenance of the package. Of course, you can check how often the library is updated or you can check how many maintainers it has, but it means absolutely nothing in general.
There are no objective metrics to measure that, but anyway we should compare the libs somehow. There is a really handy tool to do that: npmtrends.com. I’ve built up a comparison list of the libs we have left in the list.
Wow! d3 has only 6 opened issues! Highcharts has very strange stats just because they have an incorrect GitHub repo link in package.json . The real stats can be checked manually.
Wow! d3 has only 6 opened issues! Highcharts has very strange stats just because they have an incorrect GitHub repo link in package.json . The real stats can be checked manually.
Each of these values does not help us on their own, but we can use a combination of this to build up some score. I’m using the following score:
Is this library popular? If the GitHub stars count is more than 10k, add 1 point.
Is this library extremely popular? If the GitHub stars count is more than 50k, add 3 points.
Is this library in use? Library that has the biggest downloads count in the past 6 months gets 1 point.
Is this library actively maintained? If there is an update in the last 1 year, add 3 points.
Is this library mature enough? If it was created more than 5 years ago, add 2 points.
Is this library problematic (relative to popularity)? Divide the issues count by the stars count. If this number is more than 0.01, add 1 point.
A careful reader can blame me for comparing absolutely different libraries: d3 is a general-purpose visualization library and all others are charts-specific libraries. So it is obvious enough that d3 is way more popular than the others. But the way my rating system is set, d3 does not get 10 times more points just because it is 10 times more popular in terms of GitHub stars or is downloaded 100x times more frequently.
The aim of this step is not to benefit the most popular dependency, but to filter out non-maintainable ones. So we should filter out:
Every dependency which got less than 5 points on this step
Every dependency which has a deprecation warning on the official GitHub page
To speak frankly, I do not count the points like this. This simplification is created just to illustrate the things I’m taking into consideration.
Functionality
We do not add a library to the project to increase the bundle size or to get a maintainable 3rd party code in the project. We add it to solve a problem and to deliver new functionality. So this is the most important step: we need to research all libraries’ documentation and check out how easy it will be to implement a chart like this:
This is the most difficult chart we have in the design: horizontal stack bars with numbers inside the bar. Take attention to the X-Axis custom labels with ticks.
This is the most difficult chart we have in the design: horizontal stack bars with numbers inside the bar. Take attention to the X-Axis custom labels with ticks.
To measure this difficulty we will use SP (Story Points). Of course this measurement is not precise enough, but we need to relatively compare the difficulty of different tasks (in our case of one task with different libraries), that’s exactly what story points were created for. Each team has its own SP grade, I use the Fibonacci number sequence from 0 to 8 (0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8).
The best library is the one that provides you with an API built with Inversion of Control principle in mind. The library should do less stuff, but should provide the consumer with a way to do that instead.
For example, let’s say I want to make X-axis look absolutely the same as in the design. And I have two libraries: Library A and Library B.
Library A has a special withTicks prop. As a consumer of the library, I should be happy: the required functionality is already implemented and ready to be used out of the box.
But what if the library specifies ticks every 25% of the chart and we need it to be every 10%? There is no way to achieve that if the author of the library did not expose the required configuration property.
Library B does not have any special options, but it has an onAxisDrawn event which can be used to customize the axis as much as you need.
Yes, it takes a little time to implement those ticks by yourself. But after I did it I will be free to customize it as much as I want.
Tests coverage
Of course, our application is well tested with integration tests using @testing-library by Kent C. Dodds. And when I import a 3rd party library I want it to be well tested. Unfortunately, there is no generic way to measure testing quality. Code coverage? Pfff… I saw a lot of libraries with 100% code coverage and it("mounts") tests.
The only way to measure the test quality is to open each library one by one and read the tests directly in the GitHub interface.
Check out the tests in the project. They can be found by locating a test , __tests__ , spec folder in the root of the project, or by locating .spec. , .test. files across the project. If the files can not be found check out the test script in package.json .
, , folder in the root of the project, or by locating , files across the project. If the files can not be found check out the script in . Read the tests. It is extremely important to read somebody else’s tests often to broaden your horizons.
Check out if the test files are updated with new major/minor releases. If not — that is a very bad sign of a project which does not use the tests.
Check out the git history of any test file. If some commit messages contain a ticket number — it is great. That means maintainers use tests to reproduce the problems.
So what about our competitors?
Remember! if the library is really awesome, but does not contain any tests, you can always spend some time, add the tests and open a PR. We live in the Open Source world, so let’s build it together!
And the winner is…
It was a long journey, let’s calculate the intermediate results.
So who is the winner?
There is no absolute winner in this game, but now the choice is easy to make: take chartist if you are bundle-size aware or take highcharts if you are development time aware. If your charts are too complex and can not be achieved with ready to use charts, think about taking d3 as your tool, or feel free to research chartist's events API. All the situations are different, and you better choose your weapon precisely in each unique situation.
Here is a list of simple rules you can always refer to while checking the dependency | https://medium.com/docler-engineering/a-practical-guide-to-choose-a-frontend-dependency-f20edf2abd2c | ['Alexander Gusman'] | 2020-11-27 09:51:22.066000+00:00 | ['Typescript', 'Dependencies', 'Frontend', 'NPM', 'React'] |
#ClimateWednesday Launch Tweet-Chat Series On #KnowYourNDCs | 2015 was a historic year in which 196 Parties came together under the Paris Agreement to transform their development trajectories so that they set the world on a course towards sustainable development, aiming at limiting warming to 1.5 to 2 degrees C above pre-industrial levels.
#KnowYourNDCs
Through the Paris Agreement, Parties also agreed to a long-term goal for adaptation — to increase the ability to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change and foster climate resilience and low greenhouse gas emissions development, in a manner that does not threaten food production. Additionally, they agreed to work towards making finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development.
Nationally determined contributions (NDCs) are at the heart of the Paris Agreement and the achievement of these long-term goals. NDCs embody efforts by each country to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. The Paris Agreement (Article 4, paragraph 2) requires each Party to prepare, communicate and maintain successive nationally determined contributions (NDCs) that it intends to achieve. Parties shall pursue domestic mitigation measures, with the aim of achieving the objectives of such contributions.
What does this mean?
The Paris Agreement requests each country to outline and communicate their post-2020 climate actions, known as their NDCs.
Together, these climate actions determine whether the world achieves the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement and to reach global peaking of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as soon as possible and to undertake rapid reductions thereafter in accordance with best available science, so as to achieve a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of GHGs in the second half of this century. It is understood that the peaking of emissions will take longer for developing country Parties, and that emission reductions are undertaken on the basis of equity, and in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty, which are critical development priorities for many developing countries.
Each climate plan reflects the country’s ambition for reducing emissions, taking into account its domestic circumstances and capabilities. Guidance on NDCs are currently being negotiated under the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Paris Agreement (APA), agenda item 3.
“Aligned with development priorities, NDCs offer an opportunity to redesign our development approach that is smarter, more sustainable and inclusive. Through the new NDC Support Programme and our work with the NDC Partnership, we will help countries make these important linkages and create an integrated approach.” — Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator
#ClimateWednesday tweet chat series on #KnowYourNDCs will be starting this Wednesday. Stay connected. | https://medium.com/climatewed/climatewednesday-launch-tweet-chat-series-on-knowyourndcs-7bef062d06d7 | ['Iccdi Africa'] | 2020-08-03 08:44:34.109000+00:00 | ['Ndcs', 'Climate Change', 'Wash', 'Renewable Energy', 'Nigeria'] |
Iowa Under Siege | Democratic Presidential hopefuls flock to the political bellwether state.
Photos taken for work of U.S. Senator and Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaking to a crowd of nearly 1,600 students at Roosevelt High School in Des Moines, IA on Thursday, January 28, 2016. (photo: Phil Roeder)
Boxing legend Joe Lewis once put it this way:
“Everyone has a plan before they get hit.”
Heavyweight champion Mike Tyson agreed, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” It has long been the sacred hymn of the battle commander that “No plan survives contact with the enemy.”
Contenders for the 2020 Democratic nomination for U.S. President may have found this old adage, and it's many applications to full contact sports like politics, to be a modern truism in 2019.
Whatever Democratic candidates might have expected in the race for President, where the lack of a clear Democratic frontrunner has produced a very wide field of contenders, they must be surprised by the continuous twists and turns of this unprecedented pre-campaign/ campaign season.
The weakness of candidate Joe Biden, not to be confused with former Vice President Joe Biden, is throwing the 2020 race to the White House into such disarray, Iowans could hardly keep the candidates strait this weekend.
To stand out, Democratic hopefuls tried everything from swag giveaways of trinkets emblazoned with campaign slogans to cookies- also emblazoned with campaign slogans. Candidates who have published books gave out their books; other candidates gave out lighted or neon placards to highlight the size of their crowds.
The weak front runner was noticeably absent in Iowa. Biden also skipped the Democratic campaign events organized by Democratic movers and shakers in Nancy Pelosi’s California district last weekend.
Forcing other contenders to vie against each other while he absents himself is a strategy that allows Joe Biden to separate himself from the rest of the pack. Whether it is a strategy that will pay off is another matter.
Democratic voters are expecting a higher degree of engagement from political candidates this year; skipping these events at the risk of being lumped in with any old candidate may backfire on Biden.
Biden’s main attraction to voters, his association with former President Barack Obama and the liberal ‘Era of Good Feelings’ that surrounded his administration, seems more and more tenuous as the race heats up.
Biden’s embarrassing ‘friendship bracelet’ post about the Obama-Biden best friendship on National Best Friend’s day hit the internet with a groan recently and went unacknowledged by Democratic darling Obama.
Obama has not endorsed Biden in the race. Though Biden claims this is at his, Biden’s, request, it still seems very odd. If they are so close, why not?
If they are not really that close, why does Biden think his loose association with Barack Obama will be enough to propel him to the Oval Office?
Stacey Abrams, and the prevalent Democratic opinion that the Georgia governor’s race in 2018 was stolen from Abrams by state Republicans and Brian Kemp, was a topic that repeatedly came up over the weekend in Iowa, with Presidential hopefuls like Pete Buttigieg making express references to her ‘stolen election’.
The Georgia governors race was close, but not that close. Nonpartisan groups, and most everyone else, have accepted the results of that election as valid. Undermining confidence in the political process by refusing to accept the results of a legal democratic election is something Democrats have frequently accused Donald Trump of doing. It is also something Democrats have heretofore condemned.
“When you try to sow the seeds of doubt in people’s minds about the legitimacy of our elections, that undermines our democracy. Then you are doing the work of our adversaries for them. Because our democracy depends on people knowing their vote matters.” —former U.S. President Barack Obama
While Democrats hoping to defeat him in 2020 courted voters in Iowa- or didn’t, in the case of Joe Biden- incumbent U.S. President Donald Trump used the weekend, and the campaign advantage of the office he holds, to cement two major wins for his own 2020 campaign for President.
Trump’s strategy of threatening to impose tariffs on Mexico may have borne fruit in the way of help for the U.S. in dealing with the swelling numbers of migrants and asylum seekers overwhelming U.S. Customs and Border Patrol resources- a win for Trump.
President Trump also presided over and/or participated in several high-profile events commemorating the 75th anniversary of D-Day, delivering a stirring speech even Trump’s critics praised, though reluctantly.
Which of the 2020 Democratic contenders will emerge from the pack to challenge the Trump reelection machine?
It is still early in the race to tell. Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s campaign seems to be gaining momentum; Beto O’Rourke’s campaign seems to be losing it. Sen. Kamala Harris has been successfully defending her record as a prosecutor and Mayor Pete Buttigieg is climbing in the polls.
Whatever the results of the Democratic primary, the election of 2020 is sure to be a history making, record breaking clash between sparring conservative and progressive forces in the U.S.
Two opposed forces that are deeply engaged in a tug-of-war on a variety of hot-button social and cultural issues like gun control and abortion access.
The standard bearer for the Democratic Party, whoever he or she may be, will have their work cut out for them.
(contributing writer, Brooke Bell” | https://munrkazmir.medium.com/iowa-under-siege-9e3e2b73555e | ['Dr. Munr Kazmir'] | 2019-06-09 21:54:28.264000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Democrats', 'Trump', 'Election 2020', 'Democratic Party'] |
A user manual to me: Covid-19 edition | COVID-19 has forced us to work differently — many have been forced into home offices, without supports like childcare, and with new anxieties and stress. Still, for many, we have to continue working. I’ve adapted a tool that has been helpful for our teams, the “User Manual to Me,” for our new reality.
One of the most important things we do at The Ontario Digital Service is setting up our multidisciplinary teams for success. Multidisciplinary teams come with multiple work styles, personalities and goals. One of the ways I love how we set up a team is through “User Manual to Me”. This work was introduced to us by Cassie Robinson. Ivar Kroghrud, a feedback strategist, was interviewed by the New York Times on his method of team building through user guides. Adam Grant talks about creating them on his podcast Work/Life.
User manuals are powerful tools for introspection about how you want to collaborate, build together, and where you struggle. While the first step is introspective, they are also intended to be shared with your team to help them work with you.
As everyone transitions to distributed teams for Covid-19, I think there is a tremendous opportunity to reset your team. But, there are additional challenges and stresses your team are struggling through, unique to this period in time. To address this, I suggest using the COVID-19 edition of the User Manual to Me, which I have adapted from Cassie Robinson’s original user manual.
I adapted Cassie Robinson’s original user manual and built a Covid-19 edition.
Download User manual to me: Covid-19 edition HERE
I recommend sharing the template and your user manual with your staff ahead of time and the template and host a meeting to allow staff to talk through their manuals.
This is intended to be a place to begin. Teamwork is an ongoing dialogue. | https://medium.com/@kelsey.merkley/a-user-manual-to-me-covid-19-edition-a6e0993bdfa0 | ['Kelsey Merkley'] | 2020-04-11 00:38:56.541000+00:00 | ['Civictech', 'Teams And Teamwork', 'Relationships', 'Team', 'Remote Work'] |
Introduction To What I Do | Recently someone asked me what I do and wanted me to explain it in-depth in a vlog and or blog so I figured I would do just that to give people a better introduction to what I’m talking about and what I do for a living. I dive into my social media marketing career and then onto blockchain technology which I got into about a year ago while still keeping a focus on the social aspect of it. I end off talking about what I offer currently and what I will be focused on for this year going forward. You can always inquire and I am able to send you much more information with visuals as needed. Just know I am here to help!
I am a social blockchain enthusiast that blogs and vlogs on all the major platforms! I’ve also just started podcasting. I’m working to help teach people on there more about it. I also spend a great deal of time helping people grow their online presence and social media base. I’m enthusiastic about cryptocurrency and try to use my social media marketing skills to help better projects I believe in. I believe blockchain social media is the next frontier and opportunity to capitalize on. The main blockchain socials I use today are Lit, Minds, SOLA, Whaleshares, Weku, and Steem and want to work on more on-boarding for social agencies, brands, and influencers
I am also a big believer in motivation, entrepreneurship, and philosophy. The main subjects I will cover are philosophy, cryptocurrency, blockchain, social media, and alternative news. Stay tuned!
I hope this gives some good insight into what I’ve done and been doing as well as serves an introduction to how I operate as an entrepreneur in general. | https://medium.com/@scottcbusiness/introduction-to-what-i-do-aa139ab467f6 | ['Scott Cunningham'] | 2019-01-23 09:05:44.233000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Social Media', 'Introduction', 'Freelancer', 'Freelance'] |
We Can Be Interesting Writers Too | We Can Be Interesting Writers Too
Photo by Alejandro Benėt on Unsplash
Perhaps this is an unpopular opinion. But, yet again, things would be pretty boring if everyone agreed with one another now, wouldn’t they?
The question “will your writing be boring if your life isn’t interesting?” is one that until today seems to have been answered incredibly well for us all. And as much as I agree that a life of abundance makes for an abundance of life within the words we writers document, I also believe that the side of the coin that currently embraces the floor has something equal to offer.
In the now echoed words of Tim Denning and Isaiah McCall:
“A writer is only as interesting as his [their] life.”
Feel free to call this piece of writing uninteresting because of this re-hashed quote alone. I’m at a time in my life where the metaphoric cardboard straws I am clutching at are soggy from someone else’s milkshake. But I’m doing my best. And writing about this subject holds great value to me.
Spellbinders are powerful speakers who captivate audiences with tales of life oftentimes beyond the wildest of imaginations. To achieve this within our writing, do we need to fill our lives with interesting experiences to base it on? Short answer: no. Let me show you why.
Writing in a time without color
Well, let’s not be too dramatic. There was color in the world at the start of 2020 but there might as well hadn't been.
“Variety’s the very spice of life, That gives it all its flavour.” — William Cowper
As much truth is held within this quote, I have found there to be safety in routine and getting what we come to expect from people — without it sounding repetitive. Because that would just grate.
There’s a difference between your writing sucking and your writing being boring. If you catch yourself before hitting publish noticing fatal writing errors, then you know what work you need to do. If you re-read for the 17th time and think the content is boring, that doesn’t mean your life is boring — it just means your style is. Your life doesn’t need to be boring for your writing to bore people. Even those of us with stereotypically exciting lives can get complacent with what they have. And just maybe this attitude might reflect in that which they choose to write. Those once captivating looking glasses for others to gather glimpses of their incredible lives become sullied in the same “this is what I did today” sort of structure that leaves audiences wondering why they bothered reading in the first place.
I for one often discover that when nothing interesting is happening in my external life, my internal life thrives. I’m able to be calm and present within myself, block out the noise and distraction, and listen to the silence. The nothingness. It’s there that I can take a private trip to the realm of “what if”, beyond the confines around me, and find the joy, the excitement, the vigor of life that I have been lacking… and then write it all out.
Our lives don’t need to be full of double rainbows and naked skydiving in order to become interesting: our imaginations can do that for us.
Don’t wait for inspiration
Think of this past year. Remember how you sat indoors at your desk. Heart racing as fast as your mind. Trying to keep your level head afloat amongst all the uncertainty, let alone even thinking about what you’re going to write next. The key is to write even when you are lacking in inspiration.
Author Brenda Ueland teaches that each one of us is talented and has something original to say. It comes out when one writes simply and freely without waiting for inspiration:
I learned that inspiration does not come like a bolt, nor it is kinetic, energetic striving, but it comes into us slowly and quietly and all the time, though we must regularly and everyday give it a little chance to start flowing, prime it with a little solitude and idleness. I learned that you should feel when writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountain top, but like a child singing beads in kindergarten, — happy, absorbed and quietly putting one bead on after another. — Brenda Ueland, If You Want to Write
I’m not going to be the one to tell you what I think counts as boring and interesting things to write about. That is entirely up to the writer and what their particular audience desires. But I will say that there is a particular formula to follow should you ever start doubting your ability to be a remarkable writer: Perseverance + Imagination = Improvement
Many authors lived seemingly boring lives
If you think an author’s life is as interesting and fulfilled as the characters they write in their stories, think again.
Stephen King did anything he could to earn money while writing and submitting short stories. Including working as a janitor, a gas pump attendant, and at an industrial laundry facility. The book “Carrie” was even inspired whilst he was scrubbing rust stains from a girl’s shower room.
Franz Kafka was employed as an Insurance Clerk by the Prague Worker’s Accident Insurance Institute shortly after law school. Across 14 years he proved himself an asset and rose the ranks, eventually becoming Senior Secretary of the Institute. During this time he produced a series of works, including his most famous: “Die Verwandlung” (“The Metamorphosis”), which was first printed in October 1915.
Charles Dickens was made to work at a boot-blacking factory at the extremely young age of 12 by his family to help aid them financially. There, for the payment of six shillings per week, he stuck labels on pots of shoe polish for 10 hours each day. He would later use that grim experience in his novels, which often focused on social and financial inequality in England.
The mere fact the lives these authors lived were dull and rooted in the “real world” actually helped them achieve remarkable things with the subject matter. Life doesn’t need to be interesting for our writing to be. At least, not in the traditional sense.
Being boring is sexy
Here are three things I think you’ll find interesting about American poet and critic, Kenneth Goldsmith:
He has never abided by the constraints of poetry from the literary sense.
“I guess what I write is poetry. But I clearly don’t write traditional poems. I’ve never written a sonnet. Poetry is so generous that it can take a hybrid practice like mine and claim it as its own and support it in a way fiction isn’t able to.” — Kenneth Goldsmith
2. He was appointed MoMA’s first poet laureate in 2013.
3. He openly calls himself a boring writer.
Goldsmith once undertook the writing exercise of retyping a day’s copy of the New York Times and then published it as a 900-page book, entitled Day. He would take a page of the newspaper, start at the upper left-hand corner and work his way through, following the articles as they were laid out on the page. Despite sounding incredibly boring, for him, it was the most fascinating writing process he ever experienced, going as far as calling it “sexy”:
“I was trained as a sculptor and moving the text from one place to another became as physical, and as sexy as, say, carving stone.” — Kenneth Goldsmith
One thing he openly urges people not to do, however, is actually read it. He thinks it would be boring indeed. But in having awareness of the story and his reasoning behind it, the writing now becomes more of a conceptual art piece, rather than just another dense book of content. And the events of Day that may have been deemed boring at the time of publishing, can be looked back on and remembered with thanks to Goldsmith’s decision to immortalize it in a book. Despite labeling himself as a so-called “boring writer”.
Goldsmith is proof that sometimes in writing, excitement — like beauty — is in the eye of the beholder: the person who set the brief. Trust in your style of writing. Be intuitive while making sure your grammar, punctuation and literary devices continue to grow and wrap their vines around this everchanging digital world. It’s sometimes ok for boring to be your new black.
Not everything is black and white
I’m certainly no literary scholar but I believe Greene was onto something.
“Human nature is not black and white but black and grey.” — Graham Greene
No one has a purely black vs white dichotomy in life. Fat vs. thin. Male vs. female. Large vs. small. All opposites are perceived by us based on what we have each been subjected to in our lifetime.
Everything is relative; everything is subject to grey. And in a world that is constantly merging lines between groups, grey has a very welcome place. Black, white and grey are put in colored pencil boxes for a reason. You can never underestimate a good greyscale sketch every once in a while to cut through all of that dizzying, colorful, creative noise. So too can be said about the presence of writing that is familiar to us (i.e. what has already been “done”). It becomes a testament to writers to be able to deliver content in new, imaginative ways and potentially introduce an entirely new generation to its wonders. So please continue to educate, influence and inspire.
Final thoughts
I personally believe that there are points of interest to gleam even within writing that might lack that initial pizzazz that garners widespread adoration at first. For the readers who seek value within words, they will undoubtedly find it, no matter how they are presented. Besides, if all writers wrote content as interesting as their lives, we would slowly but surely unlearn how to read. | https://writingcooperative.com/we-can-be-interesting-writers-too-caf65138b646 | ['Rambling Rose'] | 2021-09-01 19:40:14.842000+00:00 | ['Inspiration', 'Writing Tips', 'Writing', 'Personal Development', 'Writers Block'] |
A Faceless Company Knows Me Better Than My Own Mother | A Faceless Company Knows Me Better Than My Own Mother
I’ve been made to adore my phone over any lover
Photo by Karsten Winegeart on Unsplash
Scrolling mindlessly on my device for the fifth time today. Primed for the little red notification that will send dopamine bliss my way.
Faces of people I hardly know pass by in a pixelated blur. Alleged social connection, but within my beating chest no feelings stir.
On the street and crowded trains, heads absorbed in the blue light of LSD screen. But who am I to judge as just another participant among this sad and sorry scene?
Purchase and consume, be just like the rest. Maintain that online presence, rack up the likes, while inside you scream for redress.
Growing up in a world of deepening connection. Little did we know the digital realm possessed a dark reflection.
They say human life is priceless and not worth its weight in gold. But everything about us is now recorded, bartered and sold.
Profiters disguised as our timely saviours, have the keys to our very thoughts and behaviours.
Experiences, personalities, and now our moment by moment emotions. All abstracted and captured with zero commotion.
Human biology dissected and put on sale. A hundred engineers versus one primate, place your bets on who will prevail.
Technologies and systems designed to eliminate the decisions people make. Nudged, herded, and conditioned, is it our very humanity that we must forsake?
The dystopia painted by Orwell, blinded us to a surveillance more interested in the sell.
Steve Job’s wondrous bicycle has been attached to a hamster wheel. Peddling is all we know and resistance is futile — or so many feel.
When innovation and progress have been claimed by the dollar. What is worth fighting for and why should we bother?
Neoliberalism insists it’s all about choice, but it’s never granted true freedom a platform or a voice.
Seduced by hallowed words of democracy. “Freedom, autonomy, fairness” sacred virtues turned shallow hypocrisy.
From citizen, to consumer, now reduced to an addict. What comes next only Silicon Valley’s algorithms can predict.
We’re told the body is sacred, but our minds have long been co-opted. How many of your decisions were those a machine presented, and you adopted?
Let an artificial program shape your every want, need and desire. Spend and consume mindlessly to please our capitalist messiah.
Consciousness subdued and human weakness exploited. The social fabric begins to tear apart, civilisation disjointed.
Needless to say, the trajectory we are on is foreboding and looking rather stark. Extricating ourselves from this drama won’t be a simple walk in the park.
What once sounded like conspiracy has been revealed as unfortunate fact. And the data centres powering this business model will continue to whir unless collectively we act.
People under the banner of business own a crystal ball that can predict our every movement. This might sound like a stupid question — but I thought we were designing technology for human improvement?
Purposefully manipulating human shortcomings harms us all. Nearing the sun and heating up, need I tell you of Icarus and his fall?
I won’t insist you stage small acts of resistance. Delete social media, lock away the phone, ignore these trends and their persistence.
True change begins with awareness. Honest conversation, here lies the path to justice and fairness.
Collective human consciousness awakening to its own imprisonment. A future lies beyond this, if we have but the courage to envisage it.
Alex Trauth-Goik is a PhD candidate at the University of Wollongong, Australia, whose research focuses on attitudes towards surveillance across cultures. He strives to offer fresh perspectives on foreign affairs, tech and China (coupled with the odd analysis of human nature). | https://medium.com/digital-diplomacy/a-faceless-company-knows-me-better-than-my-own-mother-67dd359adf51 | ['Alex Goik'] | 2020-09-25 11:49:53.132000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Social Media', 'Phone', 'Addiction', 'Internet'] |
How to juggle studies and your start-up job? | Hi!
It has been a while since I first wanted to share my experiences and thoughts on Medium. I have finally decided to write my first post and I’m super excited to how this journey will turn up to be. Any feedback or comments are welcome, so I can improve my future posts :)
Many of us are thinking that when we graduate from university we will have all the answers and can make healthy decisions. In my case, I was SO WRONG.
Studying was definitely not over and time management was something that I haven’t developed enough as a student, even though I have spent hundreds of hours working part-time while being in the library every day preparing for exams and writing assignments under pressure.
Just remember even if you don’t go through the rest of my post:
‘Consistent hard work leads to success’-Dwayne Johnson
A little intro about me
You can skip this and head to ‘Face the challenge’.
My name is Emanuel and I’m currently based in London.
I have graduated from university in 2018 and been working since. My degree was in Accounting and Finance, thus I’ve decided to pursue a career as a Financial Analyst.
I have joined one of the largest companies in the world as my first job straight out of university but in less than a year I was confident enough to quit and move into the start-up world where I was hoping to achieve greater things.
Currently I’m working within the Finance team of a FinTech company and my journey is what keeps me up at night, for good reasons.
I love playing sports, reading business and philosophy books and doing photography.
Why I decided to start blogging?
I have been passionate about writing for a very long time. I have been writing short stories, novels and keeping a journal since I was 14 years old but never got into starting a blog.
However, with my current experience of juggling a full-time job within a fast pace start-up company where every day is a challenge which keeps me pushing new boundaries and my studies for an ACCA qualification, I decided to share what I have learned and hopefully be able to help someone who is in the same boat as me.
Face the challenge
We are striving for career success and pushing ourselves to achieve our personal goals, but not all of us are confident enough to face the challenges and discomfort of spending your whole day of just work and studies.
Invitation to myself: ‘Hold the vision, trust the process’ — Unknown
One thing I’ve learned after studying 3 months for each of my exams so far is that consistency is rewarded. However, there have been many tiring days or times where I just wanted to play on the PS4 or just binge watch ‘Shameless’, but my inner ‘career focused’ self kept me on track.
You need to be aware that sacrifices will be made but that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun. With my lack of time management skills I decided to improve this and read a few books on procrastination and project/time management. I have developed a schedule where I was planning my fun days in advance and allocating time for exercise throughout the week. My social life got more exciting and I never did the same thing or went to a bar twice. I was allocating time and planning in advance, so I was able to find the best place for the activity that I was doing and helped me step away from all my other responsibilities. | https://medium.com/@emanuelhristov16/how-to-juggle-studies-and-your-start-up-job-7deac4817823 | ['Emanuel Hristov'] | 2020-11-23 08:45:02.291000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Study', 'Working From Home', 'Planning', 'Time Management'] |
PHP or JavaScript headache. There are endless stories about why PHP… | Lanzarote, Green Window in Sunshine, by Vlad Madejczyk
There are endless stories about why PHP is better than JavasScript or why only JavaScript — I mean JavaScript technologies like React, Angular etc, — should be used, and PHP should die, or will die next year. Few years ago I heard that PHP is dead (Node.js developers’ opinion), and this opinion pops up frequently. However, we have year 2020 and PHP is in much better shape than ever before.
I have used in my professional work mainly Assembler (ancient times), C++ (for 3d programming), ActionScript 3, Java, Node.js, Django/Python, and PHP CodeIgniter, Yii, Laravel, WordPress. Working long time as a freelance web developer taught me to be programming languages-agnostic. Mostly it is a company, your customers, which decides what technology you can use, because this is based on budget, and they don’t care what JavaScript can (or cannot) be better than PHP. Everything is possible, but ultimately what technologies you can use to deliver solution always depends on budget.
Let’s take simple scenario with an online bespoke Content Management Service (CMS). Why — for instance — not to use Amazon Web Services, set up an Ubuntu server and start with Laravel, if we go PHP route? Laravel is much better than WordPress, and WordPress is bad (well, some developers say that). This approach looks good, but it only looks that way. Laravel looks beautiful, but it comes with its, so to speak, not polite children:
periodic not always backward compatible upgrades and unpredictable business dependency injections (like Tailwind CSS, and who knows what is coming in future, look at point 3). new stuff: Livewire vs Inertia.js, excellent, both excellent but WHY?
After your job is done, somebody, out there, in your customer’s company, has to take care about it, because CMS may (or may not) need maintenance, or some modifications and extensions from time to time. If the company has no IT department (well, because they hired you, a freelancer), it means that most probably Laravel is NOT an option, unless they can afford to have your services from time to time. Keep also in mind, that for most commercial projects Laravel cannot be used in shared hosting. I found that some companies offer Laravel hosting, but when you start using it, you will find that you need sudo permissions for some Composer stuff and — well — such cheap hosting becomes pretty much useless. In theory, you can use web hosting services like Digital Ocean, AWS or similar, and they are good and reliable, but again — somebody needs to take care about it after you deliver CMS. I found that every reliable Laravel hosting needs some server command line management skills and root/sudo permissions, and all this makes maintenance cumbersome for your customer. How many customers can afford such scenario? Well, some of them can, but not all of them.
You could use some JavaScript technology for CMS, but, if out there what you use is relational database, and there is nothing about chat or video chat, or some user interface updates in real time, using JavaScript technologies (back and front end) for CMS typically based on relational database would be overkill.
In fact, there are at least three things you should tick off before you start development:
what is your budget (how much working hours you have at your disposal) what tools are the best for the job to be done (based on point 1) choosing the right tool look at technology, look at what features it delivers out of the box
If a project is about some SPA (Single Page Application), without need to save any data in database, or save it once only, JavaScript technology like Vue.js or REACT, or even Bootstrap/jQuery with Ajax or some typical front end stuff would be much better option than pure PHP with HTML/CSS.
And how about mixed scenario, where you need classic CMS functionality, but on top of that some pages here and there, with rather advanced business logic, and high level of user interface interaction, a typical SPA, which can be done on user side (internet browser) saving server resources? I would say: use Laravel, CodeIgniter, WordPress or something similar and a JavaScript library. You can develop SPA with PHP, no doubt about it, but at the same time you degrade user experience (UI) because of server connections/page reload. Degraded UI means worse performance on mobile devices and finally lower conversion, and business doesn’t like that.
Yet another example: advanced CMS with very complex module with much ML/AI and mathematical, statistical advanced stuff in the back end. Sounds like Django/Python with some JavaScript libraries here and there on front end.
What I described above is the tip of the iceberg. Anyway, I found that mixed solutions can be very often simpler, more time efficient, easier for maintenance, more cost effective than attempts to develop a project following narrow minded one-is-best-for-all approach. For instance: use WordPress, with cashing, as some kind of advertising (blog/posts) interface - as food for SEO and content eager users, where security is not a big issue - which can be updated by company employees, and create another module based on Laravel or other PHP MVC framework, with higher security level, for managing more important data. And make — if needed — both modules talk to each other via API.
Except that, web services developed in such way that they perform nicely also on mobile devices are welcomed — you cannot get easily this functionality with pure PHP.
In my opinion, if you compare different technologies, like for instance CMSs etc. or different programming languages, the most important thing is to find what they deliver out of the box. Not, what you can develop by using them, because ultimately you can build CMS also based on assembler. Look at a library, language, CMS to find what it delivers out of the box, what it delivers now, because developing missing features can be very painful.
For long time I have been not sure what is wrong with PHP vs JavaScript, until I realised that times changed. Code is poetry is long time gone. There is no time for code is poetry, it is a bait only. The pay better for delivery, not for poetry (unless converted into song and placed on top of Billboard’s The Hot 100 chart). What we have now is rather assembly line, a kind of 2 steps development:
find what modules and/or technologies you need for your project make them working together, connect them seamlessly
Somebody somewhere have already developed and tested the bits you need for your project, so why to try to reinvent the wheel? Some PHP developers say that Laravel is much better than WordPress, and they are right, but also owners of WordPress websites, roughly 30% of all websites, where some of them make good money, are right too. It all depends. JavaScript developers say JavaScript is better than PHP and they are right, but — still — WordPress is based not only on JavaScript (it uses it heavily for good reasons) but mainly on PHP. So, PHP developers who say that PHP is better than JavaScript are right too. All this depends on context. Is CodeIgniter better than Laravel? Yes, it is. Is opposite true? Yes, it is. Without the context comparing most things doesn’t make much sense.
I develop in PHP, and “PHP is dead” Should I switch to JavaScript?
Just to give you an example: Cobol, a programming language designed in 1959, has been on a death bed for at least 30 years. It it is still not cold dead, it still delivers in many business companies, delivers reliably.
In my opinion there is a vaccine for the PHP or JavaScript sickness, and it is quite simple and cheap. If you are a back end PHP web developer, the best you can do is to keep what you already know, and learn at least one JavaScript library, like REACT, or Angular or Vue.js or something similar. This will change you into an augmented PHP developer, something like PHP^Vue.js. And this 20% upgrade of your skills, will solve you 80% of problems you face in your development. It will also solve one of the biggest issues in back end development: your work is basically not visible on front end, and customer’s private GitHub repositories where you keep your code must stay private — so, again your code is not visible. With back end stuff it is not always easy to create a portfolio, a showcase. PHP back end development has very poor visual side I would say.
There are things PHP can do in excellent way, but we have to face truth that there are things which JavaScript can do much better than PHP. | https://lanzarote.medium.com/php-or-javascript-headache-6c48176b78a4 | ['Vlad Madejczyk'] | 2020-12-01 21:22:57.359000+00:00 | ['Php Vs Javascript', 'JavaScript', 'React', 'Vuejs', 'PHP'] |
Should Rich People Like Elon Musk Create Universities? | Should Rich People Like Elon Musk Create Universities?
In late October, Elon Musk tweeted that he wants to create a new university named the Texas Institute of Technology & Science. Musk does tend to troll online, but he could be serious. He definitely has the money to fund a project such as this, but creating a university may not seem as easy as he would like to think so.
The rich being involved with the creation or funding of universities can be very dangerous. Gifts such as these tend to come with their own price. With creating a university, there is a possibility that the founder could have total control of the school’s curriculum and enforce their own rules. This could either be a good thing or a bad thing, but I am leaning more towards bad. For instance, the biggest example there is of a university created by a rich person that failed miserably is Trump University.
Donald Trump has been involved in many business and presidential ventures, but Trump University might be one of his worst ventures yet. Let’s explore this scandal and what this could mean for Elon Musk.
Trump’s Biggest Failure
Billionaires, such as Donald Trump have tried and failed when it comes to creating a university. Trump University began operating in 2005 and claimed that it offered graduate programs and doctorate programs, but it was not a university at all. It was a company that purported to be selling Trump’s secret insights into how to make money into real estate. Operating under false pretenses is illegal, so it makes sense that Donald Trump would get hit with lots of legal trouble.
There have been three separate lawsuits ranging from 2010 to 2013 against Trump University for deceptive practices. These lawsuits resulted in Donald Trump agreeing to pay a $25 million settlement to the people who attended Trump University in 2007, 2008, 2009, or 2010. There was evidence that Trump scammed many students throughout those years.
Honestly, I feel sorry for those students that genuinely wanted to learn. They were given fake seminars and scammed out of tuition money rather than receiving the proper education they sought out for. Trump University made several claims that they simply wanted to help consumers make money in real estate, but they were only really interested in selling expensive seminars to as many people as possible. An affidavit on the so-called university also states that Trump University was a fraudulent scheme and that it preyed upon the elderly and uneducated to separate them from their money.
Is Musk Serious About Launching a University?
Who knows how serious Musk is about launching a university, but his feelings towards universities seem a little too pessimistic for someone that wants to create a school. Last year, he claimed that colleges are for fun and to prove that you can do your chores, but they’re not for learning. He also said that Tesla would not have university requirements for jobs, because that’s absurd.
Personally, I disagree with him when it comes to claiming colleges are just for fun. The majority of the time, college is not fun at all. You are bombarded with assignments, readings, and exams weekly. Additionally, if you are one of the unlucky ones like me you are probably a full-time student that has a job and juggles internships at the same time. There is barely enough time to have a social life. For me and many other students, college is about learning and preparing you for your future.
I think Musk has a different mentality that does not really reflect the majority of college students out there. If he believes that college is not effective then why is he proposing to create a university? I wonder what the Texas Institute of Technology & Science would really entail. Will it reflect Musk’s ideals or be a proper university? I am not sure, but I would love to know how serious he actually is.
There is a big possibility that his university could be similar to Donald Trump’s fiasco. For all we know the university could revolve around Elon Musk’s business ideals and focus primarily on bringing graduates on to SpaceX or Tesla. Although that would not be the worst thing in the world, there should be more freedom for students to pick and choose what career path they want to take.
Do you think Elon Musk may fall into the same predicament as Donald Trump? Should the rich be involved with creating universities or funding? Let us know down in the comments!
This article originally published on GREY Journal.
This article originally published on GREY Journal: https://greyjournal.net/play/learn-culture/should-rich-people-like-elon-musk-create-universities/ | https://medium.com/@GREYJournal/should-rich-people-like-elon-musk-create-universities-85e0339fbfd4 | ['Grey Journal Staff'] | 2021-11-30 16:03:32.361000+00:00 | ['Featured', 'Cap Heavenayelegmail Com', 'Education', 'Elon Musk', 'Funding'] |
3 Scientific arguments supporting we might be living in a simulation | Original post is here
If you were like most people, at least once in a life you probably had a doubt whether the world is what it seems to be. Perhaps you thought everyone else might be tricking you like in “The Truman Show”, or perhaps you thought the world is secretly controlled by aliens and some people are aliens in disguise. Or perhaps you thought we are actually game characters living in the game, which is a simulation. In my case, it was some combination of those — I thought everyone else might be able to read my mind, and were pretending not to be able to.
But regardless of what conspiracy theories you had in mind, I bet ya it was an unfounded theory. It wasn’t based on scientific reasoning. It was just your “gut feeling”, and you couldn’t think of any ways to find the evidence. And that’s how you put that idea aside, and went on with your life.
Now what if I tell you, there are actually some scientific arguments and discoveries that support the idea we might actually indeed be living in a simulation? And what’s more, there are more and more discoveries being made supporting it recently, and more and more physicists are supporting this argument? Elon Musk said that the chance that we are not living in a simulation is 1 in 1,000,000,000. Here are three of the arguments why that might be the case.
Double Slit Experiment
Have you played or seen one of those modern 3D games which present photorealistic graphics? 3D graphics are making impressive advances every year. The thing is, 3D graphics requires a lot of computational resources — it needs gigabytes of storage to store data, enough memory to process and swap out temporary data, and fast CPU (or more often GPU) to drive processing and rendering visual data efficiently. In fact, games are the biggest motivator to push the boundaries of hardware (and some areas of software) advancement. It’s so computationally expensive that 3D graphics developers needed to think of creative ways to save as much resources as possible so that graphics are rendered efficiently.
One such way is to render only what’s necessary to render. If you’re playing a first-person shooting game, you only need to render what’s seen from the player’s eyes, and don’t even bother rendering the things behind the player. No need to render things inside a building that the player doesn’t have access to. That’s why you see weird, broken graphics in the area that glitches take you to, where you’re not able to enter by normal means.
Uh-oh. Not what you’re supposed to be looking at
Basically you save computational power by rendering only what we’re observing. Okay that’s cool and smart, but what does it have to do with our simulation theory? Has someone found a glitched area in “the real world”?
No, at least not yet. But read on.
In 1998 (although the original format of the experiment was by Thomas Young in 1801), one of the most famous and confusing experiments in human history was performed. In the “Double Slit Experiment”, scientists shot an electron beam towards a wall with two slits in the middle, and another wall behind that. As electrons were thought to be particles, the electrons that went through the slits left two lines on the wall behind, as expected. What was mind-blowing was that, when they were not observing, electrons left more than two lines on the wall, a phenomenon that can only be explained by the fact that electrons are waves, not particles. In other words, electrons were behaving like particles when we were observing it, but behaving like waves when we were not observing it. This is called “Observer Effect”.
Electrons behave like a wave when we’re not observing
This result was so mysterious that physicists had to just “accept it”, without understanding why. This concept might be more famously known as “Schrödinger’s Cat”.
Do you start to see the connection? People realized that this phenomenon resembles how we render graphics. Things change state based on whether we are observing them or not, similarly to how the things are rendered or not based on whether the player observes them or not in 3D graphics. This is the first argument supporting the world is a simulation.
Quantum Entanglement
One of modern physics discoveries is “Quantum Entanglement”. In the simplest terms, it’s a phenomenon where a pair of particles share their states, regardless of how far they are. If one particle in the pair decides its state, the state of the other particle in the pair is instantly decided.
Now let’s suppose that one particle in a pair is with us on the Earth, and the other particle is 1 billion light years away from us. Quantum Entanglement states that as soon as the state of the particle on the Earth is determined, the other particle a billion light years away has its state determined. So essentially, some sort of medium carried information between two particles much faster than light. In other words, information (that the particle on the Earth determined its state) somehow travelled much faster than the light here.
Does “travelled faster than light” ring a bell for anyone? Correct, Einstein’s Relativity Theory states that nothing can travel faster than light. No particles, no matter or energy can travel faster than light. But here what travelled was some form of information. Information travelled faster than light.
This seems to suggest that the most fundamental building blocks of the universe are not particles, but information. If the world is a simulation, where it will certainly consist of information (similarly to how computer simulation in our world consists of 0’s and 1’s), it will explain this phenomenon for sure.
One In a Billion
Let’s go back to Elon Musk. Why did he say that the chance that we’re not living in a simulation is one in a billion?
Let’s think about it for a moment. Technologies have made immense advancements in the past 100 years. We can now run photorealistic graphics that are almost indistinguishable from reality. We will continue to make such advancements unless we go extinct, and within a thousand (or more safely, a million) years, we will be able to create simulations that are truly indistinguishable from the reality, to the point where the humans in the simulation have all the neurons and freely think and act just like us.
If you ask why we would do such a thing, think games, experiments, to name a few. But ultimately, think of all the simulations we’ve created so far. Not all of them have clear purpose; we humans like to create things just because we can, even if they’re not useful.
So say we’ve created this simulation that has humans just like us, and the humans in this simulation will evolve and make technological advancements like us. Won’t these humans in the simulation also create yet another similar simulation? And it just goes on and on? This chain will repeat until the reality — the “true” reality — stops existing, probably due to extinction. And what’s the probability that we are placed in this very top of the chain, the true reality? Wouldn’t it be logical to say that it’s very, very small? This is what Elon Musk means by “one in a billion”.
Afterword
Of course, these are just speculations and that’s why I called them “supporting scientific arguments”, not “evidences”. But more and more discoveries are being made that support this theory. Furthermore, so many mysteries in science can be explained with this theory.
Also, if this is true, the afterlife presented by Christian religions (where you go to somewhere and stay there forever) may not exist, but the concept of rebirth given by some other religions like Buddhism or Hinduism may be relevant, in a sense that the data allocated to use will be “recycled”. | https://medium.com/@lee-sg16/3-scientific-arguments-supporting-we-might-be-living-in-a-simulation-52cbb660d475 | ['Sang-Gon Lee'] | 2020-12-25 15:57:33.269000+00:00 | ['Physics', 'Simulation', 'Simulation Theory'] |
Digital Culture Project #2: Primary Source | Digital Culture Project #2: Primary Source
Minority misrepresentation in media has been a controversial topic preceding film as a medium altogether. Film was invented in the 1890’s(Skylar and Cook, 2016) and in the time since its creation, social equality and empowerment movements have accomplished a tremendous amount. Yet for some reason commercial films still widely focus on an idealized figure of the past. The figure of the white, straight male dominates the film industry and evidence can be found throughout all film genres. The superhero genre specifically illustrates the most obvious examples, and in the film poster for Thor: The Dark World, the use of composition and gesture reiterates the unimportance of women while promoting the idea of white patriarchy as salvation.
Looking at the image, almost within seconds it becomes blatantly clear that Thor, the male superhero of the film takes precedence over everything else. His figure looms overhead and overtakes most of the frame. His face is stern and aloof, as he stands straight and tall directly in the center of the composition. His dominance could practically be read in braille. Aside from the placement of Thor himself, the placement of the other of the film’s characters only accentuate his superiority as they all revolve around him, forming a golden triangular shape with Thor in the immediate center. In art history, the triangle is a traditional compositional technique used to create balance, facilitate eye travel, establish a focal point, and create a visual hierarchy. The triangle also carries a religious connotation with it, representing the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In renaissance paintings the peak of the triangle is usually reserved for holy figures. Consequently, by placing Thor in this prime location the artists behind the poster leave the viewer absolutely no room to doubt his superiority.
While the poster for Thor: The Dark Night features nearly twenty characters only two of these characters are women. Jane Foster, an astrophysicist and Sif, a warrior godlike being are both featured. Although instead of bringing a sense of feminine strength or equality their gestures only depict them as weak and passive. For instance, Sif, despite being a fierce warrior and having several battle scenes in the film is posed with her arms down, chest open, and a soft — almost helpless- facial expression. Compared to the other Viking gods who all seem to be fearlessly charging into battle, she is a stagnant juxtaposition. Along with her pose, Sif is completely weaponless as her sword wielding hand is clumsily cropped off the poster edge. Her last symbol of strength, though phallic, is metaphorically castrated. Meanwhile, Jane is featured in decorative Asgardian dress, which considering most of the film takes place on earth, reflects the expectation for women to assimilate into a man’s customs no matter the circumstance. Also, while Jane does stand in the foreground, her body is completely absorbed by Thor’s frame. Illustrating her as a lustful accessory rather than an entire standalone figure.
Gerry Conway, the creator of The Punisher comics once stated “..the comics follow society. They don’t lead society.” (Rosenburg, 2013). However claiming this would mean the imagination of fiction writers is confined to the societies they have grown in. Thor: The Dark Night is the story of a mythic Norse Viking God who lives in space and wields a magic hammer and yet somehow still more convincing than a strong, intelligent, independent minority in today’s media.
Rosenberg, A. (2013). ‘Legendary Comics Creators Dismiss Sexism Critiques, Say ‘The Comics Follow Society. They Don’t Lead.’. Retrieved from https://thinkprogress.org/legendary-comics-creators-dismiss-sexism-critiques-say-the-comics-follow-society-they-dont-lead-ed26ddf4ebf0#.i5s4xhxny
Creative Commons Attribution (2016). ‘Unit Two B-Composition’. Retrieved from https://mhsart1.wikispaces.com/Composition
Marvel Studios (2013). Thor: The Dark Night. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor:_The_Dark_World#/media/File:Thor_-_The_Dark_World_poster.jpg
Pau, J. (2015). ‘Ritmes Compositius En L’Escultura’. Retrieved from http://joanipau3bvip.blogspot.com/
Sklar, R. and Cook, D (2016). ‘History of the motion picture’. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/art/history-of-the-motion-picture | https://medium.com/digital-culture-2016/digital-culture-project-2-7c60d5716a50 | ['Giovanni Centeno'] | 2016-10-27 16:43:04.109000+00:00 | ['Comics', 'Marvel'] |
Cargo Shipping Market — Global Trends and Forecast to 2021 | The Cargo Shipping Market is estimated to gain momentum after fiscal year 2018 after years of sluggish growth. Cargo shipping market is projected to reach 12.52 Billion Tons at CAGR of 3.5% from 2016 to 2021. Global economic development, commodity supply and demand are key drivers fuelling the growth of the global cargo shipping trade.
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Global economic development, commodity supply and demand are key drivers fuelling the growth of the global cargo shipping trade.
Key Players of Cargo Shipping Market:
P. Møller — Mærsk A/S (Denmark)
Mediterranean Shipping Company SA (Switzerland)
CMA CGM SA (France)
Hapag-Lloyd Ag (Germany)
Asia-Pacific: Largest market for cargo shipping trade
Asia-Pacific accounted for the largest share of the global cargo shipping trade in 2016. Developing Asian economies are driving growth in Asia-Pacific region. China is major exporter in Asia-Pacific as it is developed as manufacturing hub. Market demand, developments in port infrastructure and strong government support have enabled Asia-Pacific to achieve largest market share.
The European region has been segmented into Germany, France, the U.K., Spain and Russia. Europe is estimated to account for the second-largest share in the global cargo shipping trade in 2016. The EU countries are expected to show steady growth in near future due to various initiatives by European Union and rising global demand.
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Container Transport: A promising market
The growth in container transport will have highest growth in cargo shipping trade compared to other types of cargos. Demographic changes and the increased globalization drives the growth for container transport. Additionally, the investments in port infrastructure, global supply & demand cycle will have positive impact on container transport. Asia-Pacific region dominates the container transport followed by Europe and North America in 2016.
North America is estimated to have the third-largest market share in cargo shipping trade, by volume, in 2016. . The North American cargo shipping market is projected to grow at a promising CAGR during the forecast period. Growth in global economies will be major factor for cargo shipping trade growth as Canada and Mexico are export oriented economies.
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It covers the global cargo shipping market, in terms of volume (million tons) and value (USD billion). It explains the qualitative and quantitative aspects of the market on the basis of region, cargo type, industry type and trade route from 2016 to 2021. It also provides an overview of other important aspects of the global cargo shipping market.
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[email protected] | https://medium.com/@ankush.shukla789/cargo-shipping-market-global-trends-and-forecast-to-2021-5079a49ff14d | ['Ankush Shukla'] | 2019-04-27 09:39:50.623000+00:00 | ['Trade', 'Market Research Reports', 'Cargo'] |
Profits matter, employees don’t — New Media and Marketing | A Washington Post analysis found 45 of the 50 biggest U.S. companies turned a profit since March. The majority of firms cut staff and gave the bulk of profits to shareholders. It seems that profits are more important than employees to most companies.
With few exceptions, big businesses are having a very different year from most of the country. Between April and September, one of the most tumultuous economic stretches in modern history, 45 of the 50 most valuable publicly traded U.S. companies turned a profit, a Washington Post analysis found.
The data reveals a split screen inside many big companies this year. On one side, corporate leaders are touting their success and casting themselves as leaders on the road to economic recovery. On the other, many of their firms have put Americans out of work and used their profits to increase the wealth of shareholders.
Too many companies are failing their employees and will pay the price. Employees who are treated well tend to go the extra distance for customers because they feel they represent the brand. When employees are happy and satisfied with their work, they are also more likely to be more productive as well.
Treating employees with respect, showing appreciation for their work and being an encourager will create a desire in employees to also treat customers and clients well. It will contribute to higher productivity levels and profitability. It makes employees want to come to work and not dread it. It inspires and motivates them to work harder, produce more and become more engaged.
It’s easy to raise profits by cutting expenses (people), but most CEOs could care less about employees as they’re compensated on the balance sheet. Cutting expenses means more profits and a bigger bonus.
Here’s a radical concept-treat your employees as well as you do your best customers, and your business will reap rewards beyond your wildest imagination. Entrepreneur Richard Branson, who is celebrated for running incredibly successful companies built around happy workforces, writes: “Your employees are your company’s real competitive advantage. They’re the ones making the magic happen-so long as their needs are being met.”
Companies are coming under increased scrutiny from media, customers, investors, and other stakeholders for organizational practices that used to be hidden from the public. People now have access to information including companies’ wages and benefits, sexual harassment policies, and involvement in political issues. Plus, social media gives consumers a voice with which to speak out against companies they believe are unfair or irresponsible — and they expect those companies to listen and respond. Especially prominent individuals, those with social media followers who number in the tens or hundreds of thousands, or even the millions, can have as much influence on companies as traditional media outlets have in the past. Meanwhile, companies are trying to use social media to engage customers in two-way, personal communication, so they must address the concerns people raise and the criticisms they wield.
Brands that believe they can just let people go while profits rise are being noticed for their practices which is one reason why people are so willing to try new, smaller, brands.
Business leaders must recognize that a company’s employment practices can shape brand perceptions just as much as traditional marketing efforts. Lay off a lot of people and blaming it on the pandemic while profits rise is going to lead to consumers questioning brand loyalty. | https://medium.com/@richardameyer/profits-matter-employees-dont-new-media-and-marketing-48152010a36c | ['Richard A Meyer'] | 2020-12-27 13:48:09.647000+00:00 | ['Employee Engagement'] |
Are you Being Nickel and Dimed to Death? | I am John Abbas. I am the host of the Mentor Nation Podcast where we bring world class leaders, entrepreneurs, and people doing interesting things and we get them to mentor you by sharing their journeys, their stories, and their best advice. Think of it like having a personal mentor every week who is there to give you a tip, a kick or an aha moment so that you are more equipped in your success journey.
This is my second blog on this topic. My first one covered the big things that take money out of your pocket, but I wanted to update the blog to cover the small things that are becoming all too commonplace and crazy enough, often go unnoticed by many.
If you follow financial news or pay attention to interviews with many of the great success leaders on mainstream media these days, you will hear a common theme in their message. “The middle class is getting wiped out,” they say, or “The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.” I have heard these sayings for years but just like most “sayings,” I never really took the time to dig a little deeper into what that really means, and why it’s happening.
About 6 months ago, I set on a path to learn more after something interesting happened to me one day. I own a daycare center in TN, and I usually reserve Monday’s to run errands and do store runs. On this particular day, my first stop was Walmart. At the checkout, as I was about to pay, the computer asked if I wanted to donate to a military charity. I was like “Sure!” And donated $2 to be added on to my bill.
Next stop. Starbucks. I get my usual triple shot of espresso that comes out to $2.91 and without hesitating I leave a $1 tip.
Next stop. The ATM. I needed to grab some cash really quick for a birthday and so as I was pulling out cash, the $4 fee came on the screen. I accepted. I was in a hurry and didn’t have time to drive out of my way to my own bank. ay’s to run errands and do store runs. On this particular day, my first stop was Walmart. At the checkout, as I was about to pay, the computer asked if I wanted to donate to a military charity. I was like “Sure!” And donated $2 to be added on to my bill.
3 stops later. Panda Express. If you have ever been to Panda, you will know exactly what I mean…. Every single time you order, they will ask if you want to round up your purchase for charity. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks…. The combination of these events triggered a thought in my mind. “How much of my money is going to these small, seemingly insignificant charges without me even thinking about it?” I have no problem donating to charity or tipping and I do it all the time, but for some reason it felt like more and more businesses were asking for donations at checkout, businesses where I never used to tip were now introducing it, and it felt like I was being Nickel and Dime to death…
I had an idea…. That Friday, I decided to clear my whole day to go through my bank statements to see where ALL of my money was going. This wasn’t a random idea… 10 years ago, I was making great money but for some reason couldn’t seem to save any more than normal. During Tax Season, my taxes were a mess and I owed quite a bit more than I expected and didn’t have enough on hand to pay the bill. My CPA asked me with a straight face: “What are you doing with the money you are making?” I didn’t have an answer and so he proposed a solution. He told me to carry a little book around for 30 days and write down every penny I spent, no matter what it is or how small the purchase. He told me this would create awareness to my spending and help me decide which things were not important so that I could eliminate them. That exercise literally changed my life and my finances. I couldn’t believe how much I was spending on things without thinking about it.
Fast forward 10 years, it was time to do it again. I spent the whole day looking at the last several months of data, and I realized a very troubling sign…Aside from the big things I am going to share in a moment, the majority of my money was going to things small enough that I didn’t realize it would make an impact. Hundreds of charges for charity, fees, subscriptions, memberships, etc. Then I added up all of the money that went out of my bank account that wasn’t on something for me personally and the answer hit me like a nuclear bomb.
The answer of why the middle class was being wiped out was right in front of me, clear as day. I want to share this information with you so that you can be more “aware” and also to make better decisions moving forward. I have listed 9 things that you need to pay attention to, because they are the most dangerous things that take money OUT of your pocket if you are in the middle class. Ironically, the wealthy use most of the same 9 things to become wealthy (I will cover how in the next blog!). These 9 things are neither good or bad, it really just depends on if they are taking money out of your pocket or putting money into your pocket.
To read full Article you can click on the link Are you Being Nickel and Dimed to Death? | https://medium.com/@mentornationpodcast1/are-you-being-nickel-and-dimed-to-death-53fadcfcc566 | ['Mentor Nation Podcast'] | 2021-03-09 06:00:30.150000+00:00 | ['Podcasting', 'Mentoring', 'Mentorship', 'Mentor Nation Podcast', 'Podcast'] |
Baking Focaccia With Vivaldi | I realized with horror midway through kneading my very first focaccia this past weekend that I had yet to cover an Italian composer for this column. (The focaccia, for what it’s worth, turned out fine.) The reason for this is twofold. First, it’s essential to know that much of my favorite Italian classical music is, in fact, opera, and while I love listening to it, I’ve yet to approach it in an academic or historical context. It wouldn’t be right for me to write on it — not yet, that is. And at least I know it’s more than just vowels. The other reason is that this column is young, and there are a lot of folks I haven’t written about, and also can you believe I hadn’t made focaccia before? The world is big.
So let’s talk about Antonio Vivaldi who is, given his birth year of 1678, not at all a classical composer but in fact a Baroque composer. Baroque! New territory! This is good and exciting for you and for me. Baroque was the form of music that came before Classical but after Renaissance. Among other contributions to numerous to count here, baroque music invented an emphasis on key — i.e., playing music in one consistently and exploring it melodically — as well as gave rise to forms like the concerto in which one instrument takes the solo lead in a three movement piece of music.
One of those examples is this week’s selection, and that’s Vivaldi’s Concerto in C Major for Mandolin, Strings, and Continuo (recorded in 2010 by L’Arte dell ‘Arco). First of all, [record scratch], mandolin? Hell yes. This proto-guitar, cousin of the lute, plays a key role in a lot of Baroque music, and to a modern listener, gives it an otherworldly charm. And of all the instruments to feature in a concerto, this one felt the most different in the context of this column as a whole. There’s a new skill on display here in the almost impossible speed at which the strings are plucked. In addition, you might find yourself, in reading the name of this piece, be asking, “what to heck is ‘continuo’ supposed to mean?” Well, dummies, continuo was shorthand for continuo basso which is the harmony line in a baroque concerto. So it could consist of any number of instruments. You’ll notice that there’s some fun harpsichord in the harmony; if you don’t know what a harpsichord is, it’s the instrument that sounds kind of like, “what if piano but weird?”
There’s an easy listenability to a Vivaldi piece. Its opening Allegro movement is a buoyant piece of music. It’s repetitive, of course, because this is relatively early in terms of musical development, and this type of simplicity allows you to learn the melody as its playing out in front of you. Keep in mind that this was written during a time when music was yet to fully reflect on big capital-T Themes. This is not about Fate or Love or Loss: it’s about being in C Major and having a nice time just hanging out there. You won’t stumble across any surprises, but that’s what makes it strong and good.
The Largo is a more muted step forward. Here’s where the sparseness of the instrumentation really shows. I’ve yet to cover a piece that feels so stripped down, so plain-faced about what it is and trying to be. There’s value in the space here — in the rests, in the silence between notes. I love the uncertainty of it. It’s not sad or tragic in tone, it’s something slightly more haunting and unknowable.
But like any concerto, its final Allegro is rollicking and cheerful, like a dance. An old dance. For all its listenability, Vivaldi does feel dated in an interesting way. You know you’re listening to something older, a piece of art that existed to be groundwork for art more often valued above it. But credit where credit is due! You would not have the melodic complexity of Mozart nor the playfulness of Saint-Säens nor the lightness in the dances of Strauss without these little concertos first.
While this is the only Vivaldi piece I’m discussing this week, he’s a composer whose work you could listen to for hours on end. As I spent my afternoon baking, I left the Vivaldi album page up and just let the albums play through. The concertos are so much fun, and so short and so lovely they might as well be modern earworms. | https://medium.com/the-awl/baking-focaccia-with-vivaldi-d8f789476cbe | ['Fran Hoepfner'] | 2017-07-27 17:13:40.983000+00:00 | ['Music', 'Classical Music', 'Classical With Fran', 'Baroque', 'Vivaldi'] |
Umoja- Unity | Umoja- Unity
The Black Body is Sacred.
While many may not share this sentiment both within and outside the community, the Black Body is indeed sacred.
The following is not a superiority reflection; it’s an analytical observation from within.
History shows that the Black Body has been stolen, trafficked, enslaved, violated, and treated on a sub-human level for centuries. Because of this conditioning, we have enslaved our own, murdered our brothers & sisters, our homes have been left fatherless, and our children unsupervised, leaving the Black Family vulnerable. Within this, we have normalized a structure built on a frail foundation leaving our empires unsupported. Within our community, unity is the only thing that will reverse this generational curse. But we must understand that “a house divided against itself cannot stand”. We scoff at the humble practices of Kwanzaa as some “made-up holiday” and choose not to learn it’s fundamental principles of empowerment. When indeed all holidays and traditions are made up, yet we practice through commercial institutions without question. We drain our coin purses funding establishments that do not respect or value the Black dollar and body. The Black body continues to suffer silently through mental illness and is often misunderstood because of our psyches’ programming. The Black Female Body is hyper-sexualized and is disrespected and discarded because of it. The Black Male Body is sent out into the world without leadership and guidance, forcing them to seek refuge in toxicity resulting in incarceration or the grave. The Black body is susceptible to abuse of authority and minimal government representation in the courts and social structures. We need to restructure the unification element, police ourselves, and hold ourselves and the outside offensive elements accountable.
Brothers arm yourselves with education, economics, and the necessary means to protect your families. Sisters are called to do the same. Organization and structure are the only answer to breaking free from confinement. UNITY is Key!
Kwanzaa2020 | https://medium.com/@ravensandwriters/umoja-unity-b59a2b163e87 | ['Raven G Holt'] | 2020-12-27 10:26:19.454000+00:00 | ['Umoja', 'Kwanzaa', 'Unity', 'Blackbodyissacred', 'Americher'] |
Summary of the paper on ‘Learning to classify images without labels’ | The entire paper can be summarized in three stages :
Self-supervised learning → Clustering → Self labelling
Self supervised learning : (Mining K nearest neighbors)
A typical image classification task would involve labels to govern the features it learns through a Loss function . But when there are no labels to govern such backpropagation in a network how do we get the network to learn meaningful features from the images ?
Self — supervised representation learning involves the use of a predefined task/objective to make sure the network learns meaningful features . Let’s take a NN of 5 layers , once we have a good representation of the image (an xD vector of the 5th layer) , we can cluster them using Euclidean distance as a loss function to cluster the images . But we have no idea if this will be semantically meaningful and moreover this approach will tend to focus on low level features during backprop and hence is dependent on the initialization used in the first layer
The paper solves this by defining this pretext task
min distance ( Image , Transformed_image )
Transformed image is nothing but rotation , affine or perspective transformation etc applied to it . When the original image and transformed image are passed to the same NN with the objective of minimising the distance between them , the learned representations are much more meaningful
Clustering stage :
Great , now that we got our meaningful embeddings next would to apply K-means or any clustering algorithm to it . But naively applying K-means to get K clusters can lead to ‘cluster degeneracy’ — a state where another set of K clusters also makes sense . Also , a discriminative model can lead to assigning all the probabilities to the same cluster , thereby one cluster dominating the others . To overcome this the paper introduces Semantic clustering loss
Semantic clustering loss is the whole crux of this paper
Let’s break this down
The idea is to pass these images and its mined neighbors from the previous stage to a NN to output probabilities for C classes ( C is chosen using some knowledge initially or a guess , the paper uses the knowledge of ground truth for evaluation purposes) , something like the one shown below
The purpose of the above loss function is to make this class distribution of an image as close as possible to the class distribution of the k nearest neighbors of the image mined by solving the task in stage 1 .
This is done by the first term in the above equation which calculates the dot product of the image vector of probabilities and the its neighbors’ vector . This ensures consistency rather than using a joint distribution of classes . But in the process the class distribution can become skewed towards one class .
To ensure this the second term is used , which is a measure of how skewed the distribution is , higher the value more uniform the distribution of classes
Fine tuning using Self labelling :
The SC loss ensures consistency but there are going to be false positives which this stage takes care of . This stage filter data points based on confidence scores by thresholding the probability and then assigning a pseudo label of its predicted cluster . Cross entropy loss updates the weights of those data points which makes the predictions more certain
Training setup :
Resnet-18 arch
5 nearest neighbors are determined from the self supervised step (stage 1)
Weights transferred to the clustering step
Batch size =128 , weightage of the entropy term (2nd term ) in SC loss ( lambda = 2)
Fine tuning step : threshold : 0.99 , Cross entropy loss , Adam op
Standard data aug-mentations are random flips, random crops and jitter.
Strong augmentations are composed of four randomly selected transformations from AutoAugment
Experimental results :
The above results (last 3) show the accuracy obtained across each stage . It can be seen the SCAN loss is indeed significant and so are the augmentation techniques which make better generalizations. This need for hyperparameterizations is also one of the complexity of this approach
As it can be seen the above method achieves good accuracy wrt Supervised and significantly better than other prior unsupervised methods . The higher the no of classes the lesser the accuracy which is also the case with supervised methods
Link to the paper : https://arxiv.org/pdf/2005.12320.pdf | https://medium.com/@shyamnambiraja01/summary-of-the-paper-on-learning-to-classify-images-without-labels-a979e05b2a10 | ['Shyam Sundar'] | 2020-10-19 10:53:49.699000+00:00 | ['Loss Function', 'Self Supervised Learning', 'Image Classification', 'Deep Learning', 'Machine Learning'] |
Propaganda: A new theatre to win | Propagandas are everywhere and have existed since historical times. Every newspaper, magazine, news channel, radio station, advertisement, or any other type of mass media contains elements of such propaganda. Historically, evidences show usage of such propaganda were in politics and war.
One might be quick to text ‘LOL’ on a Sardarji joke, we can trace back the origination of this stereotype to the British Raj, whose army was comprised of around 60 percent of Sikh soldiers. The British officers were, in general, fearful and anxious of the sheer number and bravery of these Indian soldiers. The official tactic was to demean the Sikhs in the eyes of the other soldiers and the common population in general. In this context, this was the propaganda against soldiers.
One of the first known uses of war propaganda was by Alexander the Great. After being forced to retreat in a battle, Alexander the Great realized that it would be a disadvantage to show that he was weak and had to retreat. He overcame this problem by using propaganda to intimidate the opposing army. Alexander’s army made oversized armour and helmets and left them behind as they retreated. His intent was that the opposing army would be intimidated and not pursue his army because the oversized armour made Alexander’s army look like giants.
India, too has experienced such war propaganda’s with China and Pakistan. A good example of someone’s Big-Daddy; Twitter handles were hacked and in the long duration each handle’s name was changed to some Chinese fake name, unrecognisable profile picture would be uploaded, friends changed and tweets about Anti-India were posted. This was only put to end when Twitter realised this errant behaviour pattern and blocked these accounts. This trend continues on Instagram accounts, wherein the handle name is altered to insults on Hindu Gods, vulgar images are posted with aim of spreading hatred within communities.
Another example where Pakistan was indirectly found doing such funny things after India removing Articles 370 and 35A from it’s Constitution. ISI paid journalists and news channels to turn this story around and hint it towards religious discrimination as this article removal are nothing but efforts towards converting Muslim majority state to a Hindu one. Spread of such propaganda were done on social media by fake WhatsApp/Facebook messages, which our beloved aunties/uncles happily forwarding these messages with an ideology of spreading ‘awareness’.
Yes, people had noticed this. Some went with the flow and unknowingly helped bring social instability, others stayed numb, while some tried to confirm these from authentic articles, news channels, government media broadcasts. Definitely, people can cross-check the authenticity of rumours, question, if not scrutinise the hidden propaganda through local authorities, district collector or commissioner and government agencies. This can also be done by requesting these authorities for clarity, they are bound by law to provide one or maybe more than asked for. On web articles, one could try to find information of author, financiers, producers and location of the company through ‘Contact Us’ or ‘About Us’ sections.
Why Social Media education is needed?
The damage caused by these propaganda takes our Nation years behind plan. More than this, our global image gets a permanent stain. Such stains can be brought up by many when India wants to take a step ahead towards being a leader in groups of nations. So the perfect answer for why not still permanent member of United Nations? We are the world’s largest democracy, regional power, second highest population in the world; we are biggest consumers of goods and services.
Adversaries have had enough of failure and want to take it to next level theatre — Information Warfare. They had enough land fights and failures. Also cost of breeding trigger rats is increasing, thus need for new way to export terror. Here steps in Pakistan’s Green Book 2020 featuring essays by serving officers, scholars and journalists, focuses on the implications of these stains from diverse perspectives and dimensions. One of which is “war into non-kinetic domains” — information/cyber warfare, electronic warfare (EW).
Farzana Shah, a Peshawar-based journalist writes, “A single video clip or picture can change the perception of India, which it has built so painstakingly over the years… Pakistan needs to keep world attention on JK and in order to do that communication links inside the valley must be established… Indian decision of communication blackout in JK was not random, but part of the planning”.
They have succeeded in establishing The Resistance Force (TRF) in the valley with our innocent directionless youths. Found their idea recruitment rally by sending video clips, hate speaches, images, etc. On the other side Indian Army is doing its best with Operation Sadbhavana a.k.a. Operation Goodwill for spreading a good narrative to such youths — giving them a direction. Welfare initiatives under Operation Sadbhavana include infrastructure development, medical care, women and youth empowerment, educational tours and sports tournaments among other initiatives.
We all are soldiers, if Indian Army is doing its best then why not us. This article is dedicated to my fellow citizens, educate ourselves and a polite urge to spread real ‘awareness’. | https://medium.com/@avkartik2/propaganda-a-new-theatre-to-win-b541a0cfcbcd | [] | 2020-05-09 05:36:05.512000+00:00 | ['Jammu Kashmir', 'Propaganda', 'UN', 'India', 'Pakistan'] |
Budgeting: The Hybrid Method | I’ve written extensively about how I use the Bullet Journal to track my spending, as well as the different types of minimalist budgets that I’ve experimented with. Generally, I prefer analog tools over digital ones. Applications are made by other people who have different preferences when it comes to inputting, analyzing, and reading data, and there’s a slim chance that our preferences are aligned. With a pen, ruler, and notebook, you can design a system that works for you.
Recently, however, I came across comprehensive budgets that were made with Microsoft Excel — replete with colourful graphs and formulas that auto-populated cells that updated the aforementioned graphs. This led to a desire to learn more about Microsoft Excel’s capabilities and teaching myself how to properly use formulas, work across spreadsheets, and other basic tricks of the program.
My current financial operating system now incorporates both a digital and analog component. It is not necessarily more complicated but it is more sophisticated.
First, at the beginning of the month, I open Microsoft Excel. On the first sheet I plug in my budget goals for each spending category. For example, I hope to spend less than $100.00 on subscriptions and $150.00 on entertainment. When I enter these numbers, the graph on the right side of the sheet automatically inputs those numbers.
This is the template I use. The numbers are fictitious.
The next step then is the same as before: painstakingly track each expense in my notebook. I still use a Leuchtturm1917 notebook but I have also used a Moleskin before too. In the notebook, I create a simple chart using a pen and ruler, which requires that I insert the following data:
Date of expense
Item purchased
Category to which that expense belongs
Cost of the expense
Method of payment
Remaining amount in that category.
At the end of each week, I re-open the Excel spreadsheet and input the total amount spent in each category on a second sheet. The totals of each category then auto-populates on the first sheet, in the column beside the budget goals, as well as updates the chart. So, for ease of reference, I can simply glance at the graph at any time to see whether I need to slow down my spending or have room to indulge. There is also a third column, beside where it auto-populates my actual spending, that screams whether I’m presently under budget or over budget.
The totals of each category are auto-populated on the first sheet in the column beside my budget goals and in the graph.
Why not record my spending in Microsoft Excel, you ask? Because I don’t want to spend more of my time on my iPad or laptop. My notebook comes with me almost everywhere so it’s extremely convenient to jot down my expenses. I also rely on friction to curb my spending — the act of having to record all of my purchases in detail is annoying enough to make me rethink taking out my wallet.
This hybrid method of budgeting allows me to customize every aspect of my financial system while retaining the benefits inherent in both using a sophisticated digital tool, Microsoft Excel, and a good ol’ fashioned plain notebook. The mistake most of us make is that sacrificing complexity means sacrificing sophistication. I think this method of budgeting proves the contrary. | https://medium.com/simple-not-easy/the-hybrid-budgeting-method-782786bab68a | ['Jennifer Taylor Chan'] | 2020-04-01 22:04:43.194000+00:00 | ['Finance', 'Personal Finance', 'Minimalism', 'Personal Development', 'Self Improvement'] |
Summer with the Flu. Summer Work | Sniff.
Achoo.
Excuse me.
Fortunately for me, my summer did not actually consist of me struggling with the flu. Instead it was an amazing chance to work at an Immuno-pathology Lab at the University of North Dakota.
I got the opportunity to speak with Dr.Nadeem Khan (Ph.D), an Assistant Professor at the University of North Dakota, who explained the effect of Influenza and co-infection of bacteria on the respiratory system.
Experiment
In one of the experiments in Dr.Khans lab was related to testing the integrity of the epithelial(surface) cells in the lungs.
In an innate response to the virus the host will recruit monocytes, these are the soldiers of our immune system. This results in inflammation caused by cytokines that are produced by the monocytes. These cytokines will recruit more monocytes in the area, leading to more inflammation.
During this process, many of the epithelial cells functions are compromised. Tight junctions are proteins that seal the epithelial cells of the lung together to prevent the invasion of foreign substances, such as bacteria, through the intercellular space.
Because of the inflammatory response by the host, these tight junctions fail to perform their function. This allows bacteria to enter the lungs, making its way into the bloodstream, and eventually throughout the body.
This lab contained all kinds of cool, expensive tools that could allowed us to gather valuble data.
Some tools I interacted with are:
Flow Cytometry
This machine allows for the passage of a sample of cells through a small orifice (an opening, as of a pipe or tube) that is then detected by a laser beam which scatters light based on the density and granularity of the cells. This can tell us what cells and how many of those cells were produced in the host towards a response.
Western Blot
Western Blot recognizes different proteins present in a sample. The presence of specific proteins can give us information about how a cell/host is responding under different conditions
Histopathology
A microtome is a tool that is used to slice a sample of the tissue to be used on slides. These slides can give us a visual about organ structure and abnormalities at a bigger picture. Inflammation for example can be easily seen in a lung sample through the use of a simple microscope.
What is Influenza?
Influenza is a virus that inflects mainly infects mammals and birds. Similar to all viruses, Influenza is a clump of RNA enclosed by proteins. Therefore to multiply it needs a host, which is usually the cells of mammals or birds.
When influenza infects a host it starts to kill our body cell in order to reproduce which compromises our health. During infection the host may have symptoms such as:
Fever
Chills
Muscle Ache
Cough
Congestion
Our immune system is well designed to defend us against these attacks. Over-the-counter and anti-inflammatory pain relievers may help the symptoms. But letting the immune system work best by taking rest and drinking fluids will be your best bet. Taking a vaccine will also help prepare your immune system in case of attack
Conclusions
Our body is a well equiped machine. Infections such as Influenza attack our body and the symptoms we feel are the result of the death of our cells as well as the inflmation caused by the monocytes. | https://medium.com/@sbmohammed03/summer-with-influenza-5fe1835beb60 | ['Sohail Mohammed'] | 2019-10-02 21:34:28.771000+00:00 | ['Bio', 'Health', 'Summer', 'Virus', 'Flu'] |
Develop Your Writer’s Voice So Readers Listen | Develop Your Writer’s Voice So Readers Listen
Stop with the impressions
Photo by Prince Abid on Unsplash
I was a Broadcast Journalism major in college. When I first started at the university, I laughed at the number of upper-class broadcast majors that walked around with a bottle of Chloraseptic spray.
For those of you who don’t know, this spray is used mostly to numb where it hits and relieve the pain of sore throats. As brilliant college students, we thought it helped us not only with sore throats but laryngitis and anything of the sort.
By the end of school, I found myself carrying a bottle around myself on occasion.
Having my voice in top form mattered. I worked on a local cable news show for several classes I took, and at two radio stations to earn extra money. I also waitressed to make the money that actually supported me.
If my voice was not in its best shape, I would not be able to work. If I couldn’t work, my finances and my grades suffered.
It also couldn’t be distorted. In my radio jobs, my voice needed to sound like me or it didn’t resonate familiarity with the audience. Laryngitis was a constant fear. Even when waitressing — who wants to wonder just how sick the waitstaff is?
What if, for example, Samuel L. Jackson voices a commercial with his register up a few levels? He loses some of what makes him unique. You wouldn’t necessarily recognize him. He is not delivering that booming authoritative recognizable voice for which he is known.
In the same way, as we use our physical voices, our writing voice should be just as distinctive. When our voice is weak or not our norm, it confuses people. It’s like Samuel L. Jackson doing impressions of others instead of delivering that for which he is known.
The Toastmasters have taught people how to be better public speakers since 1905. One of the things they teach is to pay attention to your speaking voice. These concepts they use to change your speaking voice can also apply to your writing voice.
Voice Relaxation
Are your words stilted or natural? As you write, think about whether you are writing more to show off your great vocabulary, or so the reader connects with what you have to say. You know those great conversations you have with a friend as you just sit around and relax? Those where you share your passion for a topic and you are both totally engaged with what you have to say? That’s where you want to go. Relaxed, but not lazy.
Breathing Exercises
Sometimes you get to a place where you find yourself constantly writing. You’ll be a better writer if you take deep breaths to enjoy life and take it all in. A constant writing frenzy may produce a lot of words, and possibly even a lot of money, but it also takes you away from the real world. Take time to breathe. Writing coach Daphne Gray-Grant, who works with writers who have writer’s block, calls it “writing apnea”. She says “Breathing for writers is a habit worth focusing on. If you’re not breathing effectively, you’re more likely to feel anxious and stressed — two qualities that are not going to help your writing one iota!”
Controlling Your Pitch
Does your tone match your subject? Sometimes raising our voice register or lowering it is necessary to convey our message. Do you need your reader to feel a bit more passion or a bit of sadness? You set the mood as you pitch your writing. The Grammarly blog suggests to watch your word choice, personal pronouns, punctuation, consistency, honesty, and empathy to get just the right tone.
Projection
Sometimes our voices need to boom loudly and sometimes we need to whisper. Both can get the attention of people. Other times we just need to speak as if in normal conversation. Think this through. How are your thoughts best conveyed? Voice coach Jay Miller says “Projecting your voice is an act of relaxed confidence rather than forceful exertion. It requires you to be fully engaged and fully available. The moment you tense up or pull back, the moment you become self-conscious or unsure voice projection will suffer. As you get comfortable in your body, engage your whole voice, and connect to your message, you’ll communicate with natural authority and strength. Voice projection will be effortless, and you’ll speak with clarity, confidence and credibility.” As it works for your speaking voice, this same technique can project confidence in your writing.
Articulation
Strong writing is crisp writing. Be alert for extra words that take away from what you’re trying to say. Say it, and speak it clearly.
Watch Your Time
Attention spans are short. If you believe the old Microsoft Canada study, you have about eight seconds to hook a reader. Grab them early and keep their focus. Say what you need to say in the least number of words possible. That doesn’t mean you can’t write long pieces. Of course, you can. But think on the occasion of that torturous public speaker you heard who spoke 30 minutes longer than necessary. You still wonder why you wasted precious minutes of your life listening to them ramble on and on. They didn’t notice the whole audience was yawning and some were leaving. Don’t force people to bail before the end.
Make It Interesting
This goes without saying, doesn’t it? But how often do you read something and say, “So what?” Make sure you have a point. | https://medium.com/better-marketing/stop-the-impressions-use-your-own-writers-voice-117e002b1ee | ['Kim Mckinney'] | 2020-11-18 17:33:54.029000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Nonfiction', 'Creativity', 'Language', 'Writing Tips'] |
Body Positivity Is for Men, Too | Body Positivity Is for Men, Too
Fat acceptance has long been spearheaded by women, but larger men want dapper role models and fashionable clothes as well
In March, one week after IMG announced it had signed Zach Miko, its first plus-sized male model, American Eagle Outfitters debuted a new commercial to promote Aerie, its line of intimate apparel. The commercial featured three men lounging about at home in snug boxer briefs. In a bold break with industry standards, viewers were informed that the Aerie man wasn’t retouched. Perhaps more radical, though, was that the range of body types on display included bigger guys, doing everyday domestic stuff like taking out the garbage—all the while talking about being comfortable in their own skin. At the end, a message flashed across the screen: “The real you is sexy.”
The internet rejoiced. Mic celebrated the commercial as the “underwear campaign we’ve all been waiting for,” heralding it as a new day in inclusivity. The body positivity movement, an overwhelmingly female-focused, feminist-led campaign that has for decades encouraged women to love themselves at any size, was now extending an olive branch to men, and it came with its own hashtag: #aerieMAN.
The only problem? The ad was a joke.
On April 1, American Eagle announced that the campaign was a tongue-in-cheek parody for April Fools’ that was supposed to “challenge norms” and “make you think twice.” Twice about what wasn’t clarified, but the message was clear: The very idea of men sitting around talking about how they felt about the way they looked and learning to like how they looked, as if in some kind of Dove commercial, was a riot, full-stop. Still, American Eagle went on to insist that it’s an inclusive brand that takes body positivity “very seriously,” and whose male customers “respond to humor.”
Not all their male customers, however, thought it was funny. The same went for the models in the ad, who weren’t told up front that their participation would be played for laughs. Kelvin Davis, the black plus-sized model who appears in sea-foam green boxer briefs in the video, made it clear to the media that he thought it was a real ad promoting body confidence.
“I thought it was awesome and beautiful, and then they were like, ‘Uh, just kidding,’” Davis, 29, tells me by phone from South Carolina, where he’s a father of two and an art teacher. “It’s things like this that hurt the body-positivity community for men. We get a little hope, and it’s ripped away.”
If there is such a thing as a household name in the small but growing male-body positivity community, Davis would be among them. His style blog, Notoriously Dapper, brings in nearly 100,000 monthly visitors. His Instagram has more than 50,000 followers, and he routinely lands on buzzy lists of style tips and men to watch in the plus-sized male model community who might change the fashion industry.
The key word here is might. As compared to the women’s body positivity movement, men are lagging. As Details noted last year, plus-sized male models still haven’t walked runways worldwide, as women have, nor have they shown up in any major editorials. Women can boast Ashley Graham, the plus-sized female model who graced Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Issue this year. For men, though, all eyes are currently on Miko, whose signing to IMG is considered a watershed moment. “Zach getting signed is great,” Davis says. “But he hasn’t landed a major campaign yet.”
What the movement might also be missing is its own Lindy West, the feminist author and activist whose unapologetic fat acceptance viral screeds — “My Wedding Was Perfect, and I Was Fat as Hell the Whole Time” is one such example — have become the de facto manifestos of the movement, and hers the most recognizable face associated with it. That attention nudges perception ahead in the public eye in ways runways can’t.
It’s not like bigger men don’t face many of the same issues as bigger women: They too can’t find clothes that fit, they too see few examples of models who look like them and they too are less likely to be portrayed in pop culture as desirable. But one thing women have that men don’t is the freedom (such as it is) to openly care about how they look, and to talk about it just as freely. There’s no easy dialog for men to assert with white-hot anger how impossible it is to navigate weight in a culture that treats them with revulsion. Case in point: When I contacted the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance to find a male activist involved who could help me suss out the gender differences in the movement, they admitted they couldn’t find one willing to speak to the media.
Just after Miko signed to IMG, he told the The Guardian that the reason plus-sized male models have been so slow to catch on in the public eye is simple: “With men, there is still a lot of bravado and false masculinity to get through. You’re not supposed to care about how you look. If you have issues, you aren’t supposed to talk about it. It’s considered weak or un-masculine. Which is stupid.”
He discussed his own experiences of being bullied for being bigger when he was growing up and thinking he was ugly. Overwhelmingly, though, he never got messages that it was okay to care about how he looked. “You project those feelings onto others and that can damage relationships,” he explained to The Guardian. “It creates this vicious cycle. It could all be avoided if you opened up and said I do or don’t feel good about myself.”
Of course popular perception has long said that it’s okay for men to be fat. Bigger guys may not be held up as the ideal physique any more than bigger women are, but at least their size doesn’t exclude them from success. They can still be famous politicians and comedians, and, as numerous TV sitcoms attest, they can still land very hot, skinny wives in spite of their girth. Women, meanwhile, are still treated as though nothing they can achieve in life matters as much as being conventionally attractive.
But fat men say they grow up the object of scorn, derision and ridicule, too. They just have to punch through other deeply held notions about gender to draw attention to it — e.g., that men don’t care how they look or long to be lusted after. Or want to talk about it. And they’re carving all this out in a social-justice movement that wasn’t designed for them, and in an industry that’s been just as hostile to them as it has been to bigger women: Fashion.
“Society’s standard is that guys aren’t supposed to talk about body issues,” Davis says. “It’s not like I can go on Facebook and say, ‘I tried this on, and it didn’t fit me, and I feel so horrible,’ like women do.” Davis started Notoriously Dapper after one such incident at Express. He spotted a red blazer he liked and tried on the biggest size he could find — a 42R. When he asked the clerk for a bigger size, she told him it didn’t exist, advising him to try shopping somewhere else (i.e., a big-and-tall store).
Being frequently redirected to big-and-tall stores, which Davis says simply don’t carry the styles he would like to wear, also frustrated Bruce Sturgell, a self-described “short and wide” man who launched the men’s fashion site Chubstr a few years ago in response to his own difficulties finding clothes that fit.
“Men are conditioned to suck it up and not be open about those things,” Sturgell says. “If you’re a fat guy, you’re told that you’re less than everyone else. That you’re not as worthwhile, that you should be counted out.”
The New York Times took notice of Chubstr in 2011. While the Times’ blogger found the name “impolite,” he lauded the site’s fount of advice and happy community of plus-sized men (and often, their wives and girlfriends) looking for stylish duds for bigger guys. To that end, Chubstr and Notoriously Dapper both document bigger men’s efforts and frustrations (tailoring everything, for instance) in looking sharp but modern — bowties, tailored jackets, selvedge denim and spiffy shoes.
Sturgell says that in spite of the perception that men don’t care about how they look, fashion is actually an easier entry point to get into this community. “It’s more immediate and easier for people to talk about,” he explains. “It’s harder to talk about being bullied, problems in the workplace or fear of having to fit into an airplane seat as opposed to being able to say, ‘All I can find are Hawaiian shirts and tracksuits in my size, and that’s not my style.’”
“I do wish it was more like the women’s community,” Davis says of the men’s movement. “I’m helping people feel good about themselves, but I’m only one person. I can do a little bit of good, but we need 10 of me, 30 of me, 100 of me. The women’s movement took off because they wouldn’t be denied. They were sick of being body shamed. They were like, ‘I’m good enough. I’ve had three kids. I work full-time. My body is awesome, and I look awesome.’ And they believed it. It’s not really the same for men.”
There are, though, some small signs of incremental progress. For instance, Davis and Sturgell say trolling has decreased on both their sites. And Sturgell is looking to partner with brands in the hopes of creating his own line in the future, while Davis says he’s working on a few projects next year that he hopes will bring much greater visibility to the men’s body-positivity movement.
“There’s a thing called male beauty, it’s in the media, and guys want to achieve it, too,” Davis says. “They feel down when they aren’t slim and 6’2”, but guys have to be confident in who they are, too. Confident that it’s okay to dress fly if you don’t look like that, that it’s okay to get things tailored and that it’s okay if things don’t fit you off the rack. After all, clothes aren’t made to fit everybody.”
Tracy Moore is a staff writer at MEL. She last wrote about how to turn the office a-hole into the office hero.
More Body Image from MEL: | https://medium.com/mel-magazine/body-positivity-is-for-men-74425a06543b | ['Tracy Moore'] | 2017-02-08 22:49:06.396000+00:00 | ['Fashion', 'Body Image', 'Clothing', 'Masculinity', 'Body And Mind'] |
How to Write Conway’s “Game of Life” in Python | Writing the Grid
The constructor takes care of creating all the variables we need. It also creates the grid list based on how many rows the user wants. Notice that the constructor also calls the generate method to generate the board right away.
generate_board(self)
This method gives each cell a 33% chance to spawn as a living cell.
The lucky cells will get a living status by using the cell method .set_alive() .
draw_board(self)
First, it prints a number of rows to make sure we print a clean terminal. The number will vary depending on your setup.
Then we use a nested loop to check what kind of character we have to print for that square. We do that by using the cell method .get_print_character() .
check_neighbour(self,check_row,check_column)
Before we actually solve this one, we need to take a look at how this is built and how we can check the neighbours. These are vital for the game and we must nail them!
I’m going to write a test class called Tablecheck in table_check.py and a main.py to test the code with. This is so we can look at the theory together. The actual grid is made with list comprehension because it can be any size the user wants.
building this grid in python
If we break down the grid, we can see that there are rows and columns. If we convert this to Python you can place lists within lists to mimic this behaviour. A,B,C is the first list (self._grid[0]), D,E,F is the second list (self._grid[1]) and G,H,I is the third list (self._grid[2]).
To access the letters inside these lists, we need to get into them. The syntax would be:
self._grid[X][Y]
A lives in self._grid[0][0]
E lives in self._grid[1][1]
G lives in self._grid[2][0]
and so on.
Blue represent rows , Orange represents columns
We can write the grid layout like this in Python:
self._grid is a list with three lists in it, creating a grid-like pattern. To draw a board like this I add this to my main.py :
This prints the following:
Photo by Ali Yahya on Unsplash
check_neighbours(self,check_row,check_column)
OK, now on to what I believe is the trickiest part about the whole code: checking all the neighbours.
With check_neighbours() we have to pass in the coordinates we want to check and then we have to travel within our lists to check all the surrounding neighbours.
This means we have to jump one row back (-1), check our own row (0) and the next row (1). In Python terms that means going through a range from -1 to 2 , range(-1,2). We have to do the same with the columns.
If I want to stay true to my piece, Document Your Python Code Without Writing Documentation, I have to set start and end range as variables and make it clear how they can be affected.
# how deep I will search around the current square.
search_min = -1
search_max = 2
Cycling through a range is easy, but you’re probably already wondering how we deal with going outside the board.
When we check “A”, we don’t want to waste time checking what is outside of the board. The same goes for the other corner elements.
What we have to do here is to check if we’re working in any of the corners or any of the edges.
For the check itself, we need to cycle through the lists based on what the program puts into check_row and check_column (the parameters for check_neighbour ).
We will loop through the range we have set, search_min —search_max . Since the range starts at -1 normally we add 1, so we check the correct rows. We want to jump 1 unit back, but we also want to work on the correct index. Lists in Python start at 0
The conditions in the loops are to ignore squares outside of the board and itself.
Here’s what is going on in this function:
search depth : I want to hop one row back, check my own row and hop one forward- as we’ve already discussed.
: I want to hop one row back, check my own row and hop one forward- as we’ve already discussed. I’ll create an empty list to place all the neighbours in. It’s important that we update all cells at once, so we can’t change the status on any cell before we’ve checked everything. This will be a temporary container of cells.
We enter the row loop and loop through the columns in the row.
neighbour_row and neighbour_column are variables that make sure we’re checking the correct rows and columns in the conditions.
and are variables that make sure we’re checking the correct rows and columns in the conditions. valid_neighbour is true by default. If a neighbour is inside the board and not itself, it is a valid neighbour. That is what all the if statements are for.
is true by default. If a neighbour is inside the board and not itself, it is a valid neighbour. That is what all the if statements are for. When we are done checking, we return the list of valid neighbours.
update_board(self)
Another hard function is the update board function. This cycles through all the cells, check the neighbours and, based on how many alive cells it finds, it stores the cell it’s currently checking in either a death list or a life list.
Then, after all cells are checked, they change status. | https://medium.com/better-programming/how-to-write-conwells-game-of-life-in-python-c6eca19c4676 | ['Martin Andersson Aaberge'] | 2020-01-21 15:11:15.069000+00:00 | ['Software Engineering', 'Programming', 'Python', 'Data Science', 'Python3'] |
It Happened One Night | Photo by Dainis Graveris
The sizzle of the tires on the wet pavement was lulling me to sleep. There was no doubt about it, I fought to stay awake. Shifting and rubbing a hand over my face, I gripped the wheel tighter and shook my head to clear the fog that was developing. I knew I should have stopped earlier for the night, or at least a late dinner in the last town I had passed. The stretch of highway I drove was lonely and not even a tractor trailer had passed me in the past hour. My stomach rumbling reminded me that I was way past the time to eat. Looking over at the passenger seat, I took inventory of the road snacks I had left in the dim light from the dash and decided I’d stop in the next town.
As each mile rolled by, the heavy drops of rain began to mix with big white snowflakes, giving me another reason to stop for the night. The cross-country trip had been lonely and so far, uneventful. When a town appeared far in the distance, it looked like an oasis in the desert. The lights were a bright pool in the sea of darkness out on the cold plains. I put my signal on to take the exit ramp and when I finally reached it, I laughed at myself as I realized it wasn’t necessary. There wasn’t a car in sight in either direction.
Turning onto the town’s main street, I drove slowly looking for a place to stop. Another rumble from my stomach told me it I needed to find a diner or something quick. The tiny town had a single main drag and only one store front lit up at that time of night. Maggie’s Café looked like heaven-on-earth as I pulled up in front of it and shut off the car. The engine ticked in the darkness as the heavy white flakes that were now falling hissed after they landed on the warm hood.
Making a quick dash for the door, I paused before I pushed it open. I looked out on the lonely street again and watched the snow falling. It had started to pick up even more since I had gotten off the interstate. Shivering, I pushed the door open, and the cowbell overhead signaling my entrance, startled me. A lone couple in a booth at the far end of the café were the only patrons and I began to wonder if it was a good place to stop. Lack of patronage didn’t signal good fare but given the late hour and weather it was to be expected. Besides my stomach was yelling at me to find it something.
A young woman, maybe thirty, mopped the floor up the aisle between the two rows of tables occupying the center of the café. As I entered, she looked up at me and her face was cold. Her hard stare stopped me in my tracks.
“We’re about to close. I just cleaned the grill,” she stated flatly, as she moved the mop back and forth and lowered her head to concentrate on her mopping.
As she spoke, the older couple slid out of the booth and began shrugging into their coats. Both the man and woman wore brown barn coats and knee-high barn boots; a far cry from the attire I was used to on the east coast.
“Oh,” I stated simply and tried to keep the disappointment out of my voice as she mopped away from me. “I’m starving. Been on the road all day.” Then, I turned toward the sign on the door and politely pointed out, “The sign says you’re open ‘til eight. It’s only seven thirty.”
“With the storm coming, we’re closing early,” the brunette told me as she stopped mopping and saw my pitiful expression. Her shoulders visibly sagged. “Sit at the counter. I can make you something cold or that can be easily heated up.”
“Thanks. I appreciate it,” I smiled wearily and shrugged out of my coat as the couple passed me. I took a seat at the counter as I heard the cowbell clang over the door.
“You okay here, Megan?” The man asked.
I turned toward him then looked at the woman mopping and arched an eyebrow at her waiting for her response.
“He seems harmless. I think I’ll be okay,” the woman replied then added, “Thanks, Carl.”
I turned back to the man lingering in the doorway as he looked over at me. It was if he were studying me in case he had to give a physical description of me later to the sheriff. He nodded solemnly at me then walked out. The doorbell clanged again as the door closed behind him.
In the back, I heard mop water being dumped then water running in a sink. A few minutes later, the woman walked out of the hallway that ran to the back drying her hands on a towel. As she rounded the counter, she flung the towel over her shoulder and stopped in front of where I sat studying the menu on the wall in front of me.
“Decide yet?”
“BLT?”
The woman nodded. “I have some bacon left that I can heat in the microwave. Give me a couple of minutes.” As she turned, she asked over her shoulder, “Chips on the side is all I can offer with it.”
“Perfect.”
“Drink?”
“Water is fine. I don’t want make too much trouble for you.” I saw her shoulders relax as I said it.
“I appreciate that,” she told me as she started making my sandwich and popped the toaster down with a couple slices of bread. She hadn’t given me a choice of varieties, but I was thankful for her serving me.
“You said there’s a storm coming?”
“Yeah. Snowstorm’s moving in out of the mountains. Supposed to be a good one.” The woman filled a glass with water and set it in front of me. “Can you help me? Turn the sign on the door for me?”
“Sure.” I walked back to the door and turned the sign to closed. I noticed she didn’t offer for me to lock the door making sure she could escape in case I did, in fact, turn out to be a murderer or a rapist.
As I took my seat again at the counter, however, I did notice her more closely. She wore a pair of tight black yoga pants that hugged her form perfectly. I’d always felt that whoever had invented them deserved a Nobel prize. As she worked behind the counter fixing my meal, I noticed that the inventor also must have had her in mind when he made them. She moved easily as she worked, and I scanned her from head-to-toe, trying not to be lecherous about it. A light fabric, dark blue sweater completed her outfit and as she finished my sandwich, I noticed the shock of blue hair on the side of her brunette head. The woman was more than cute, and she had my complete attention. Too bad I was just passing through.
“There you go.” She set the plate in front of me and I dug in.
Famished, the sandwich tasted like a prime rib dinner as I reached for a napkin to wipe some tomato juice that had leaked from the sandwich and run down with my chin.
“Starving?” She laughed as I ate with gusto and it sounded magical.
“Just a little. Been driving all day and my road snacks gave out hours ago.” I grinned as I took another bite. “I’m Austin, by the way,” I told her after swallowing a huge bite. Wiping my hands on the napkin, I stuck one out for her.
“Megan.”
“I know.” Then, pointed at her name tag.
‘Right.”
“So, Maggie doesn’t care if you close up early?” I was trying to make conversation between bites. I wanted to get out of her hair as quickly as possible but was enjoying being with her. The view was incredible as she worked to clean up from making my sandwich.
“Maggie was my Mom.”
“Was?”
“She passed away three years ago. She didn’t have much but this café. It’s mine now.” She frowned at me as she worked and despite hearing her tale, I was watching her bottom move as she worked.
With just the right amount of swell to the extra on her hips, it looked incredible and I felt a twinge of guilt for checking her out as she discussed her late mother.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” I sympathized and tried to pull my mind from the gutter.
Megan shrugged. “It’s life. Sometimes it sucks. Sometimes it doesn’t.”
“Good way to look at it.”
“What brings you way out here, Austin?” With the kitchen area cleaned, she threw her rag in a bin under the counter and sauntered around the counter.
“New job on the west coast. Bigger company. The usual.” I replied as Megan took the seat a couple of stools down from me. I noted she was still keeping her distance, just like the door being unlocked and the blinds still open on the front door and windows.
“We get a lot of “usual” around here. Actually, that’s all we do get. It’s quiet here. Everyone knows each other.”
“I’ve noticed.” Finishing my sandwich, I started on the chips.
“You should have stayed in Gunnerson sixty miles back with this storm coming,” Maggie told me as she leaned on her elbow facing me.
Looking outside, the snow was still falling in heavy, wet flakes, but the streets were still only wet. “I’ll just get a motel in town for the night and saw her laugh. She had a beautiful smile to go with the rest of her.
“What motel? The next town that has one is thirty miles west on the interstate. Even then it’s not much of a place. Kind of a hole in the wall.”
I pursed my lips as I mulled over her revelation. Thirty miles. Then I did the math and estimated it would only be twenty minutes. With that figure in mind, I decided I wasn’t in a hurry just yet. A pretty girl was sitting next to me and seemed to be enjoying talking to me.
“I’m in no hurry.”
“Suit yourself. Weather can be a bitch out here when it wants to be.”
“I’m just enjoying talking to you,” I admitted, and saw her blush a little at my confession. She nodded with a smile as she looked away. At that point, I knew she was enjoying our small talk, too. “I can get down the road to that motel later, if you don’t have anywhere to be.”
“I don’t live far,” Megan told me as she brushed a lock of hair from her face and smiled at me.
That started our conversation. Three hours later, Megan had moved to the stool next to mine, and we were still engrossed in learning about each other. I had learned she was single and had been out of a relationship for a year. Dating prospects were slim that far from civilization. Megan enjoyed knitting which I had laughed at, and thought was odd for a woman in our age group. However, she had, in turn laughed when I confessed my penchant for collecting stamps. The word nerd got mentioned more than once for both of us. After three hours, I knew she was kind, considerate and owned a cat named Patches. A nagging feeling pulled at me at about the two-hour mark.
It felt like I was passing something in a fleeting minute, that perhaps I should pay attention to.
At the three-hour mark, Megan glanced around and gasped. “Look at that.”
Turning, I followed where she stared out the front window. So engrossed had we been in each other, that neither of us had noticed the snow falling faster.
“I can still make it to the hotel,” I told her confidently, as she slid off the stool and walked to the front window.
Megan peered out into the night and the falling snow as I walked up beside her. As I did, my attention wasn’t on the snow falling outside but her round bottom, that looked even more delectable now that I knew her better. We stood watching the fluffy white snowflakes fall for several minutes without speaking. The silence between us felt comfortable and natural. We stood close enough to each other that I could feel the heat coming off her. I stood a head taller than her and in the reflection from the window with the dark street behind it, I saw her looking at me with a smile. When she saw me watching her as she was me, her smile grew broader.
“Have you ever had a fantasy?”
“Sure. Who doesn’t?” I shrugged. “I always wanted to be a football player,” I grinned down at her reflection.
“Not that kind of fantasy, you goof. Another kind,” Megan smiled slyly at me. I thought I knew what she was getting at.
She took the rod for the blinds and twisted it in her fingers, closing the blinds and covering the window.
“What are you getting at?” I watched her as she stepped to the big window on the other side of the door. My eyes were again glued to the yoga pants that didn’t leave anything to one's imagination.
Megan grinned broadly at me as she closed the blinds then stepped to the door. “I've always had this fantasy about having sex in here.”
“In here? Where people eat?” I laughed as she closed the blinds on the front door and locked it. It suddenly became very clear where the night was heading.
“Right in here. It’s good to have sexual fantasies. Healthy even, I read once.” Megan tested the lock on the door.
“It certainly is.” I surveyed the empty cafe. “So, right here you say.”
“On a table, actually. In a booth.” Megan smiled sexily as waggled her eyebrows at me teasingly, then stepped towards me.
“Like this one?” I took a step away from her toward a booth and noted the table was bolted to the wall. The rounded formica bench seats were from a time gone by and I playfully leaned on the table to test it’s weight-bearing capacity. “This one here?”
“Just like that one.” Megan replied quietly. Her voice sounded almost a sultry whisper.
“We haven’t even kissed, yet. Maybe, we should do that first.”
“I agree.” Megan had stepped closer and now stood inches from me, leaning up to wrap her arms around my neck.
When her lips touched mine, it was like electricity shot through me. Perhaps, it was the romantic situation or maybe, it was that she was a virtual stranger and things like this never happened to me. When Megan’s lips touched mine, I felt that kiss through my entire body. We were pawing at each other instantly as we lost control.
My hands explored her body as both of hers reached down to grip my butt. She pressed herself tightly against me and I could feel her hard nipples through her sweater. We were both panting, and my heart was racing as we groped at each other, until I finally pulled away.
“Protection?” I gasped as I stared at her, coming to my senses. “I wasn’t planning on anything like this happening.”
Megan stepped away and I could see her mind racing. “Neither was I.” Then, she looked up at me, “You could pull out?”
“Okay.” I wasn’t going to argue. We were back on each other in seconds.
Her hands wandered around to the front of my jeans and stroked me. I was already fully hard and as Megan worked her hand down the length of my manhood, she made a noise in her throat, then pulled away. Looking down, she saw where the end of her hand rested at the tip of my erection, a considerable way down my pant leg.
“I’m kinda big,” I confessed as I followed her gaze.
She looked up at me. Her surprised look was priceless. “Umm…I can see that.” Then, she thought for a second, as if contemplating her options. “Another fantasy down,” then added, “The condom wouldn’t have fit, anyways.”
We were tearing at each other’s clothes a second later as we kissed again. When my hand wandered between her legs, I could feel her wetness starting to soak through the sexy yoga pants she was wearing. Megan moaned into my mouth as my hand probed between her legs.
“Get behind me,” she gasped as she pulled away. “Bend me over the table.”
“This part of your fantasy?” I asked as she turned away from me and bent over the edge of the table.
“Yes.”
With her bent over, Megan looked even more delectable as her hips splayed out tight and supple. My erection throbbed as I looked at her bent over the table. Working my fingers into her waistband, I worked her yoga pants over her hips and down her shapely legs. Her thong slid away next. Bared before me as I stood back up, her naked bottom was truly a sight to behold and my cock pulsed painfully. Tearing at the front of my jeans, I quickly ripped them down my legs. With one hand on her hip, I pushed my tip into her, fumbling as I tried to find her entrance.
“You’re so big,” Megan moaned as my cock’s head found her opening and pushed into her.
She reached a hand behind her to pull herself open to give me easier access. When I slid into her heated wetness, Megan arched her back like a cat then reached behind her with her other hand to separate herself even more. Fully open for me, I slid easily into her as she moaned.
“So full,” she breathed with her cheek resting on the table.
Taking her hips, I began thrusting. The table creaked and groaned as I pumped into Megan as she was bent over it. As I picked up the pace, driving her hips into the edge of the table, she reached up and grasped the sides of the table with both hands for purchase. In the reflection of the silver napkin holder, I saw her mouth hanging open as she punctuated my thrusts with a series of grunts.
It took only a minute for her to climax.
“Don’t stop. It feels so good,” Megan moaned as I drove into her.
When her second orgasm hit her, she was bouncing off the table with each rough stroke. It wasn’t my best performance but certainly my hottest as I struggled to hold back my own orgasm. She was clearly enjoying every second of me as well, judging from her moans and cries. After her orgasm subsided, she dropped her cheek back onto the cool table and I saw her grip loosen on the table edges. Reaching up as I thrust, I brushed a lock of hair from her face and caressed her cheek. She looked radiant in her post-orgasmic bliss.
“I want to watch you,” Megan moaned to me as she turned and tried to look back at me.
Pulling off me, she pushed herself wearily off the table and turned towards me. It was the first time I’d seen her naked from the front. Shaved and plump with desire, her sex was coated in her cum as she boosted her bottom up onto the table. I helped her by tearing off her shoes and yoga pants, then dropping them on the bench by the table we were occupying.
“You look incredible,” I told her and not just because she was naked, and we were having sex. She really did look radiant and beautiful.
“God, you’re huge,” Megan commented in awe as she looked down at my cock throbbing in front of me, covered in her juices. “It’s so fat.”
“Just the way I’m made,” I smiled at her as I ran my hands up her belly and pushed her sweater and bra up as she lay back. Exposing her breasts, I brushed my thumb over a hard nipple and felt her tense as the pleasure rolled through her. Leaning over, I took the turgid bud in my mouth and sucked deeply, as she cradled my head to her while I suckled her.
Straightening, I pushed myself back into her wetness and quickly found her opening again. Megan reached down and gripped the edge of the table with both hands as I entered her. Framing her bottom, she held onto the table to keep herself from being pushed backward as I started thrusting again.
“You’re so big. So, fat,” Megan repeated then add, “So huge.” Each sentence punctuated my thrusts.
I reached up and covered both her breasts with my hands as I drove into her. Megan’s orgasm arched her back off the table. She cried out as I thrust into her and I felt her pulsing clenches around me. Her comments about my size and her gripping my shaft was driving me over the edge. The pace of my thrusting quickened as I felt my own orgasm starting deep within me. When Megan wrapped her legs around my hips and pulled me harder into her, I knew I was done.
“I’m coming,” I gasped at her as I started to come.
“Do it on me. I want to see it.”
Following her instruction, I reached between us and felt my hand pressing into her wetness as I thrust. I watched us both as I reached the peak of my orgasm, pulling out at the last second. Resting my balls against her wetness, I spasmed, shooting a thick trail of semen onto her stomach. A few quick jerks with my hand and I shot several more streams of cum onto her as she watched excitedly. When I finally finished and lay my cock on her, Megan reached down and ran her small hand up the length of my cock. It sent shivers through me.
“That was amazing,” Megan told me as she set her head back on the table with a satisfied smile.
“Incredible.” I gasped, trying to slow my breathing as I looked down at her covered in my semen. I’d never seen a more gorgeous woman.
“Help me up.”
Megan reached for me with one hand, and I helped her to the edge of the table. When she hopped off, her legs looked like they were going to give out as she gripped my arm for support.
“You okay?”
“Wow. That was amazing. I can barely stand.”
“You'd better get cleaned up.”
“Yeah, I guess I better,” Megan chuckled as she picked up her yoga pants and shoes from the bench. With her sweater reaching to her hips, I watched the sway of her bottom as she walked towards the back of the café. It was the sexiest sight I’d ever seen. In all her bare glory, Megan walked away as the hottest woman I’d ever been with. The fact that we connected on every level had only made the sex even hotter. As she rounded the corner, I grabbed some napkins to clean myself up, then pulled up my jeans.
A few minutes later, Megan was back as she held onto the wall for support until she reached the dining room.
“You’re quite the lover, Austin,” she told me as she crossed the café. “I dare say that was the best sex I’ve ever had.”
“Not so bad yourself,” I replied as I followed her to the front door fearing that she was going to ask me to leave now that we had finished. “And I agree.”
Instead, Megan peered through the blinds. “Oh my,” she exclaimed then turned the rod to open the blinds.
Outside, a foot of snow blanketed the street and my car.
“Whoa,” it was my turn to exclaim as I looked at the white world outside. I wasn’t going anywhere, and my mind raced, trying to think where I could sleep besides in my car.
“Guess you’re not going anywhere,” Megan quipped with a smile, as she turned to me.
“You read my mind.”
“I live upstairs. There’s a stairway in the back. We won’t even have to go outside.” She bit her slip sexily as she grinned at me. “You could sleep over.”
Nodding, I thought over her offer. “What will people say? It’s an awfully small town,” I replied, as I shook my head in mock shame.
“It will be the scandal of the year,” Megan agreed as she smiled slyly at me. “People will talk about it for months.” Then, she offered me her hand and pulled me toward the back of the café.
I stayed that night with Megan in her bed. After fulfilling her fantasy of having sex on one of her café tables, we fulfilled several of both of ours in her bed that night.
Over the years, we’ve still not exhausted our supply of sexual fantasies with each other. I never left, never made it to California for my new job. Instead, I’ve been very content to operate a small café, in a tiny mid-western town, with the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met.
All because I stopped to eat, late one night when I got off the interstate. | https://medium.com/red-curtain-erotica/it-happened-one-night-93b6f0d53a97 | [] | 2020-12-26 18:24:36.887000+00:00 | ['Short Story', 'Sex', 'Erotica', 'Romance', 'Fiction'] |
“The Truman Show” Might Have Been a Preview of Everyone’s Lives Today | The Constant Privacy Invasion of Social Media
In 1998, more than two decades ago, the only way of keeping in touch with others was probably via the traditional phone call and potentially good old snail mail — letters and postcards.
The ever-so-convenient cellphone, Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram, and the whole works were far from even being possibly conceivable ideas. The internet bubble was yet to happen, and so this is a time when even Yahoo Messenger had only just been launched — Yahoo Messenger was launched in March 1998, while The Truman Show was released in June of the same year.
So, it is safe to say, that everyone’s life was their own — and it was shared with close friends and families, and the neighbors who in those days weren’t mere strangers living next door, but real friends and people you trusted and relied on in times of need.
If someone had a baby you'd probably only find out if they chose to inform you, or the next time you met them, which could be by the time the baby is a couple of years old. If someone had a death, you’d know either by an obituary and notice in the local newspaper, or from word of mouth, and an invitation to the funeral.
Yet, today the world is different. You have a breakup, or a new job, or are headed somewhere beautiful on your honeymoon, or you lost a loved one. The first impulse is to let the world know via a Facebook status update, or a Tweet, or an Instagram update.
Well, if you’re not in a state to do it, someone else will for you. Announce to the world how you’re grieving the loss of a loved one and would like to not be contacted. And the “likes” will start to pour in — to an announcement of death.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not against letting your near and dear ones know about the good things and the bad ones that happen in your life, after all sharing compounds joy, and lessens pain. But, does anyone care anymore?
Or is everyone like the audience in The Truman Show who is just happy to derive a variety of emotions vicariously from the lives of others? Are there any real relationships, or feelings anymore? Or are we just living in a world where everything is about external validation, and our lives aren’t really our own anymore? | https://medium.com/illumination-curated/the-truman-show-might-have-been-a-preview-of-everyones-lives-today-d4ce4ec10ef3 | ['The Maverick Files'] | 2020-12-20 16:12:47.994000+00:00 | ['Movies', 'Social Media', 'Film', 'Digital Life', 'Society'] |
The Best Way To Learn TUPLE IN PYTHON | What is a Tuple in Python?
A tuple in python has an immutable data type, almost identical to the list of pythons and duplicate members in terms of indexing. It is a collection data type that stores python objects severed by commas.
Let me show you an example with will example explain how we can create or declare a tuple in python.
So ill just show you how to declare a tuple in python.
>>> a=(1,2,3,4,5)
>>> print(a)
(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
take a variable and take few values inside the round bracket (parenthesis) and when I print we will get a tuple that is separated by a comma and inside the round bracket. But there is one more approach to this where you can also declare the tuple in python like this.
>>> a=1,2,3,4,5
>>> print(a)
(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
You simply have to mention some value separated by commas and when I print an again and getting the same value as I was getting before. So you can follow both of these approaches to actually declare a Tuple in Python.
So this is how we can create a Tuple in Python.
Let’s take a look at the next topic that we have.
Accessing Elements in a Tuple
So accessing items in a tuple works similarly to a list. And we can access elements in the list using indexes. And you can specify the index value and it will return the item that stored a particular index value.
Now talking about Indexing It is a data structure technique to effectively retrieve information from a data structure. In Python, several data types support indexing like List or string, etc. So what happens let see for example we have Tuple with five natural numbers that have 1,2,3,4,5 so indexing will start at the value 0 (zero) where 1 will be stored and it will go until the Tuple that is the number 5. And the index value at number 5 will be 4. So in Python, we can use the negative index as well to access elements in Tuple or any other data type that support indexing.
Now I’ll show you how you can use index the values to access values in a Tuple.
>>> a[4]
5
So we have a here inside the square braces I’ll just specify the index number let's say 4 over here. Because we have 5 elements so it should ideally give me number 5.
Now talking about negative indexing so if I write -1 inside square brackets. What will be the value we got? I am getting the same value as 5. So when we talk about negative indexing is will start at 5. So negative index -1 will be at 5 and for 4 will be -2 and similarly as so on.
So now this is all about indexing. Now let me talk about slicing.
So slicing is basically a technique in which we use the slicing operator which is a colon and it is used to get a range of elements from a Tuple or any other data types that support indexing for accessing elements.
So let me just show you an example.
>>> b=(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9)
>>> print(b)
(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
This time I am taking variables to be distinct. And I’ll just specify the numbers from 1 to 9. So when I print this I have a Tuple that has a value from 1 to 9.
Now talking about slicing, It works similar to indexing only it just will have to add a slicing operator.
>>> b[0:]
(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
So I’ll start that indexing number 0 and I want to go to the end of the Tuple. So when I print this, I am getting all the value inside the Tuple. So in this Tuple, the ending index is basically 8 so I’ll just write 8 over the end.
>>> b[0:8]
(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
Getting the value until the index number is 8. So you can see that number 9 not included here. So when we doing a slicing operation the index number that you write after the slicing operator.
Similarly, we can use negative indexes as well. I am getting the same values and I can use values like these also so just add -8.
>>> b[-8:]
(2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
getting the same.
This is all about slicing. Now let’s click here to look at the next topic that we have. | https://medium.com/@sumant-jha26/the-best-way-to-learn-tuple-in-python-2f1ead34325 | ['Sumant Jha'] | 2020-12-21 02:27:08.454000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Python3', 'Python Programming', 'Tuples', 'Python Tuple'] |
Can You Really Replace Your Desktop PC (or Mac) With a $45 Raspberry Pi? | Can You Really Replace Your Desktop PC (or Mac) With a $45 Raspberry Pi?
The Raspberry Pi is loved by hobbyists all over the world, but is it powerful to help run your business?
The credit card sized Raspberry Pi is a mini-computer aimed at hobbyists. It is a worldwide hit and you can even find a couple on the International Space Station. But, is it powerful enough to replace your desktop PC and to run your office on?
To test this, I ran all my day-to-day office tasks on a Raspberry Pi for a week. It is an experiment I have been meaning to carry out for some time, and I feel guilty for not trying it before. Especially as I live a stone’s throw from where they are manufactured.
In the real world, the primary reason someone would look to replace an expensive desktop PC with a Raspberry Pi, is to save money. So, in this article, we will also look at the true costs involved and some of the potential drawbacks.
All the applications I used during my experiment are listed below, along with what I thought of them. As someone who has been using Windows since the very first version of Windows, I must admit the results surprised me.
Getting Things Set Up
When you get your Raspberry Pi, you will find you need to buy a few cheap bits and pieces to complete your setup. The first things you will need are your keyboard, mouse, and monitor from your old desktop setup, so don’t throw them out.
To connect to your monitor, you will need a Micro HDMI to HDMI lead (about $9 on Amazon). Surprisingly, the Raspberry Pi is powerful enough to drive dual monitors, so you will need to order 2 leads if you want to use dual monitors.
For the initial set up, you will need a Micro SD Card and SD Card Reader. This is so you can install your operating system and store some files. For most people, a 64Gb micro SD card (about $10) is more than enough. The SD card reader is another $10 and is only used to transfer the operating system from a PC.
That is that — it is all you need to get you up and running! However, you may want to look at some optional storage solutions for extra speed and reliability.
Other (Optional) Storage Options
Note — This is an optional part of your setup. You may want to experiment with these options once you are more comfortable with your Raspberry Pi.
Micro SD cards were originally designed to hold photos and videos from digital cameras. So, they are not designed for the rapid file accessing needed by an operating system. This has caused some reliability issues for some users, but cases are rare.
Photo by Sara Kurfeß on Unsplash
Luckily, with the latest version of the Raspberry Pi (version 4) you can replace the SD card with a USB 3.0 flash drive or a USB 3.0 external hard drive. A 64Gb flash drive is about $10, but you may want to consider a 128Gb flash drive as it is just a few dollars more.
For a real speed boost, look at using an external SSD hard drive. I found my SSD drive to be at least 10 times faster than my flash drive! This can be a massive benefit if the low-powered Raspberry Pi has to process large files. A 500Gb USB 3.0 external SSD drive is about $60.
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
So, in total, you will be looking at spending $30-$80 on top of the initial $45 cost of the Raspberry Pi. Alternatively, you can buy a Raspberry Pi bundle, including the Raspberry Pi, and most of the items mentioned. These retail for around $120 upwards and (depending on what is in your chosen bundle).
What Are The Big Differences I Should Expect?
So, now you have fired up your Raspberry Pi, what are the big changes you will notice?
Raspberry Pi runs on its own dedicated operating system, which is based on the Debian version of Linux. Although it looks different to Windows, it is actually very similar. Like Windows, you navigate to the software you want to use via a start button or icons on the system tray.
If you don’t like the look and the quirks of the Raspberry Pi OS, you can install any version of Linux that you like the look of. Ubuntu Mate seems to be a very popular choice with ex-Windows users.
For most users, how an operating system looks and works are not all that important. To them, the operating system is just the mechanism by which they find software and access files. For them, the big important differences are to be found in the software and not the OS.
Office Software
For most businesses, the first software that they will need to source will be an Office suite to handle their word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, and emails. Without these basic tools, the admin side of the business would grind to a halt.
Luckily, there are several excellent solutions available to you.
Libre Office — Free / Open Source
Libre Office has become the “go-to” office suite to install on the Raspberry Pi.
It includes Writer (word processor), Calc (spreadsheet), Impress (presentations), Draw (diagrams), Base (databases), and Math (a maths formula / graphing tool). No email software is included, but I will cover options for this later in the “Other Useful Software” section.
Having installed it, the first thing I noticed was its surprising speed. When I opened the Writer word processor, it booted up in a few seconds and I could start typing almost straight away. Far quicker than Microsoft Word booting up a document on my Windows PC.
Libre Office is compatible with a wide range of document formats including Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx), Excel (.xls, .xlsx), PowerPoint (.ppt, .pptx) and Publisher. It also supports the growing Open Document Format (ODF).
The only compatibility issues you are likely to experience is if you use Word/Excel files that include Macros. Libre Office will still be able to open the files and you will be able to edit them. You just won’t be able to run the macros.
As a power user of Excel, I’ve been really impressed by the Calc application. It is far more powerful than I expected. A lot of my word processing, spreadsheet work, and studying will be done on Libre Office in the future.
Microsoft 365 (Online) — Starts at $60 a year
For those that find weaning themselves off Microsoft products is more difficult than expected, there is some good news. You can still access the online versions of the Microsoft 365 packages via your browser.
The suite includes Word (word processor), Excel (spreadsheets), PowerPoint (presentations), OneDrive (cloud storage), and Outlook (email). The exact contents of your suite will depend on the subscription you have with Microsoft.
A major advantage of this approach is that most subscriptions include 1Tb of OneDrive online cloud storage. This reduces the need for a large external hard drive attached to your Raspberry Pi.
As this is browser-based software it is not as powerful as the desktop version of Microsoft Office. For example, the use of Macros is not possible and one or two of the more powerful features are not available. However, most users won’t be power users and they won’t meet this issues.
Compared to its desktop big brother, the online version of Office can seem laggy at first (this will depend on your internet speeds). A negative that is far outweighed by the many positives offered by the rest of the package.
Google G-Suite (Online) — Free
As well as using a PC and a Raspberry Pi, I also use a Chromebook when I’m traveling for work, and as a result I’m already a bit of a G-Suite convert. G-Suite’s super power for me is, no matter what I do in G-Suite, it seamlessly follows me everywhere I go. It’s instantly on my desktop, my Raspberry Pi, my phone and on my Chromebook.
The G-Suite contains an eclectic collection of applications including Docs (word processing), Sheets (spreadsheets), Calendar (appointment organizer/scheduler), Meet (online meetings), Slides (presentations), Keep (note keeping), Drive (cloud storage starting at 30Gb) and Contacts (phone book).
Some more eclectic applications you can include in your G-Suite suite are Google Translate, Google Earth, and Google Forms.
Even more applications (website hosting, basic automation, etc) and extra cloud storage can be added by opting for one of the paid-for G-Suite subscriptions.
At first sight, each of the applications seems under-powered when compared to their equivalents in Microsoft 365 and Libre Office. However, the true power of the G-Suite applications is how integrated they are with one another and the cloud.
Everything just works together over whatever platforms you put it on. Microsoft 365 attempts this level of integration, but, in my opinion, doesn’t pull it off as well as G-Suite does.
Editing Graphics on a Raspberry Pi
Some businesses will need to occasionally use more power-hungry software in their business for things like editing graphics. There are several options for this on the Raspberry Pi.
While it is perfectly possible to edit graphics on a Raspberry Pi, it would be foolish to think your experience will be the same as someone’s on a $5,000 Apple Mac. You will be using all the processing power of the Raspberry Pi can muster, so you should expect some things to need a bit of time to process.
All of which is perfectly okay for the occasional user, but if you need to process graphics on a daily basis, it’s safe to say the Raspberry Pi is not for you!
To help speed up processing times, it is worth buying a Raspberry Pi with as much RAM as possible. The Raspberry Pi comes in 2Gb, 4Gb and 8Gb RAM flavours, each costing slightly more than the one before.
When handling larger images performance can be improved even further by using an external SSD drive.
Editing Newsletters and Organisational Charts
If you are looking at simple graphic work such as producing a newsletter, the Draw application in the Libre Office suite is more than up to the task. It can also be used for organizational graphics such as flowcharts and process maps.
Editing Vector Graphics
Inkscape is a powerful open-source package for creating and editing vector graphics. It can handle Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) and with some additional extensions it can handle PostScript or EPS files.
Editing Raster Graphics and Photos
GIMP Is the granddaddy of open source photo editing packages and is fully compatible with the Raspberry Pi. However, this is an area that the Raspberry Pi struggles with because of its lack of power. It produces results as good as the desktop version of GIMP, but you will need to allow yourself extra time to complete the work. | https://medium.com/swlh/can-you-really-replace-your-desktop-pc-or-mac-with-a-45-raspberry-pi-c076bebe3e3d | ['Sammy Jones'] | 2020-11-25 18:58:31.791000+00:00 | ['PC', 'Desktop', 'Office', 'Raspberry Pi'] |
19 Tips for Preventing Relapse during the Holidays | Sarah Lawrence for Vox.com
The holidays are usually considered fun and joyous occasions but for some individuals in recovery, they are often a struggle.
Why?
Because maintaining sobriety is not easy and during the holidays it can be even more difficult since alcohol and drugs are commonplace at some holiday gatherings.
According to writer Buddy T, “The holiday season is meant to be a joyous occasion that brings family and friends together. But even in the midst of all the holiday excitement, there are often moments of stress and anxiety. If you are recovering from alcohol addiction, this broad spectrum of holiday emotions can challenge even your best intentions for recovery.”
As a therapist and up until a year ago, I primarily worked with adults diagnosed with a co-occurring disorder, both a mental health and substance use disorder. I vividly remember many of the clients vocalizing the increase of their anxiety symptoms and their trepidation of relapsing during the holidays. I have also witnessed how being in recovery and maintaining sobriety during the holidays is often frightening and a struggle for many individuals in recovery.
Therefore, below are 19 tips not in any particular order, to help individuals in recovery maintain their sobriety through the holidays:
Do not overcommit and overwhelm yourself. Make self-care a priority and relax, pray, engage in mindfulness, and get some good rest. Monitor your thoughts and embrace positive thinking to improve your mood. Eat healthy as possible. Set clear boundaries. Focus on your blessings and not your struggles. Avoid isolation by staying in constant communication with friends and family. Use healthy coping skills (journaling, listening to music, engaging in an artistic activity, exercise, reading a good book etc.) to manage stressors. Increase your support by attending additional 12-step meetings or begin for the first time. Increase sessions with a therapist or if not seeking therapy make it a priority to do so during the holidays. Stay in constant contact with your sponsor if you have one and if you don’t think about securing one during the holidays. Watch an uplifting movie or comedy. Be of service to others. Develop a sober escape plan for all holiday events. Be okay with saying “no” and not feeling obligated to attend holiday events and if you do inform those in attendance that you no longer drink alcohol or use drugs. Limit the time you spend at holiday gatherings. Have self-compassion if you find yourself struggling. Continue to stay active in your recovery. Commend yourself for the progress you have made on your recovery journey. Remind yourself of the benefits you have received by maintaining your sobriety.
Although it is not easy to remain sober during the holidays, remember that anything worth having requires a lot of hard work, and sobriety is no different.
If you have any additional tips that can help maintain sobriety during the holidays, please leave them in the comments.
Happy Holidays! | https://medium.com/@carlajcurtis/19-tips-for-preventing-relapse-during-the-holidays-7f5f11c0a6d6 | ['Carla J. Curtis'] | 2020-12-27 01:32:47.681000+00:00 | ['Recovery', 'Self Care', 'Sobriety', 'Holidays', 'Sober Living'] |
6 Real Estate Email Marketing Strategies That Are Crushing It In 2021 | Email marketing is alive and well in 2020. With 260 billion emails opened every day, it’s not disappearing soon.
But in a world where attention is king, many real estate agents have opted out of email marketing for the more trendy social media marketing.
BIG MISTAKE.
The biggest mistake is with ownership. You don’t own the lists on your favourite social media platform and that is costly. Get shut down by Facebook and your ‘25,768 followers’ are gone.
But email is totally different. You own your lists!
The other big mistake agents make with email is that they are boring and don’t know how to engage with prospects. With lousy open rates and pathetic engagement it’s no wonder why real estate agents have moved away from email marketing.
But they shouldn’t. So let’s fix that.
According to Emma here’s how we should start:
1. Real estate email marketing strategies — start with an actionable welcome
Let’s start with the first, and most important, email-the welcome email.
A welcome email is a great way to introduce both cold and warm leads to your services. Your customer may have opted in at an open house or your website, or they may be someone you’ve gotten through a referral.
You could also send a welcome email after your first contact with your prospects. This could be after the first day of house-hunting or following an initial consultation about selling their home.
At any rate, a welcome email will thank subscribers for opting-in and give them two critical pieces of information:
What kinds of emails to expect from you in the future
Why you’re the best agent to help them buy or sell their home.
Competition is fierce among realtors, so this is your way of getting the jump on the competition and positioning your brand for success.
No matter how you design your welcome email, make sure it’s clear and actionable.
That means there should be a prominent call-to-action (CTA) to schedule a phone call or meeting, connect on social media, or even a request to be “white-listed” so that your emails don’t end up in the spam folder.
And our friends at Steppsagree:
Strong Email Subject Lines
Strong subject lines are the secret sauce of email marketing. It’s the first thing people see when they open their inbox-a first impression of your content.
A recent Sendpulse survey revealed that roughly 62% of subscribers read emails when the subject line is interesting. If your content is compelling enough, consumers won’t care too much about how often you send them emails.
That said, anything too vague will immediately get sent to spam or be deleted by the email user. Same goes for anything too direct (like an obvious sales pitch) or something that implies that the mailing is part of a big email blast.
A strong subject line can capture the reader’s attention immediately, but not give anything away in the process.
Sacha Ferrandi of Source Capital Funding gives a good example of this:
Bad — “Learn About an Amazing Property (Address) In the Centennial Park Area”
Good — “Updated Information Regarding Your Neighborhood Property Values”
Notice how the second option entices the audience to read more? The “Bad” option gives everything away immediately and users don’t need to look any further to know what this is about.
Best Practices for Email Subject Lines
Short and Sweet: Campaign Monitor found that email subject lines containing just 65 characters have hit the email sweet spot and that most email subject lines have 41–50 characters (which is about 5–9 average-length words).
Personalize it: Experian Marketing Services found that personalized subject lines-think names, neighbourhoods, listings-result in a 26% higher open rate.
Take note of the pre-header text-also known as the first 40 characters of the email. Make use of this section to expand on the email subject, and ensure you’ve strung together the characters that drive clicks.
Do A/B Testing: Test out different lengths, different sentence structures, lines that use numbers or statistics versus ones that don’t. Don’t forget to test how the subject line length reads across different devices, too. Most email service providers offer a function that allows you to preview how your email will read on iPhone, laptops, etc.
GetResponse has a feature that shows you the effectiveness of your subject line and it also has an A/B testing feature. If you haven’t yet picked an email service provider (ESP) to use for your real estate email marketing, it’s a great option for beginners.
Interesting content keeps readers… interested according to Emma
2. Add value with a newsletter full of relevant, interesting content.
Your prospects want to know that you’re an expert in the local market. There’s no better way to convey your expertise than in an email newsletter packed full of relevant, helpful information.
Not only do newsletters feature your own realty services, but they also keep you at the forefront of the prospects’ minds while they’re deciding how to proceed.
Newsletters can also keep you connected with former clients-especially the ones that might refer you to their friends.
Provide interesting, relevant content like the articles and tips found in newsletters, can be incredibly effective for your real estate business. Your newsletters should be short, skimmable documents with content that’s engaging and shareable.
Here’s a sample of one that also includes a video and visual graphics for those that want to skim for important information.
Be careful with your newsletters, though. Don’t ever send one without the permission or expectation of your prospect.
Sending newsletters to a brand-new lead can impact your chance of conversion. Here are some of the things you can include in your newsletter to educate and entertain:
Recent or upcoming events
Focus on local restaurants or businesses
New homes listed or sold
Open houses
Mortgage news/advice
Here’s an example of a variety of newsletter topics sent out by an agent:
Finally, your email newsletter is a marketing device, so it’s okay to softly sell your services through those homes bought/sold announcements or through invites to open houses.
Just don’t make it the focus of your newsletter.
Real estate email marketing strategies must be engaging.
Brandon Stewart backs up Emma’sstrategy.
By consistently sharing engaging newsletters, Brandon has built a growing, loyal community.
What started as a list of about 300 people has grown to over 3,000 subscribers. And with open rates reaching double the industry average, it’s clear Brandon is offering his subscribers something of value, while also allowing them to get to know, like, and trust him.
“Through my newsletters I’m able to bring something completely different to the real estate market,” he explains. “Most realtors only focus on sales numbers and how prices have decreased on increased throughout the year. I’m able to bring content with significance beyond just the numbers.”
3.A Clear and Concise Call to Action
Most agents send emails to convince the reader to take some sort of action. The agent is responsible for making sure the reader knows what they are supposed to do, so tell recipients what action to take on a given email and be specific about how they should use the information.
For example, ask them to request a comparative market analysis NOW or just to visit, like, or comment on your social media sites. When creating your calls to action, or CTAs, use action verbs. For example, “download your free e-book now” is more compelling than a button that just says “e-book.”
Make sure it is obvious as to what you want them to do: capture their attention with bold links, brightly coloured buttons, or even arrows to help direct their eyes to your CTA.
Be honest. There’s enough clickbait circulating the web as it is. If your CTA is just clickbait, it may appear disingenuous and turn them off. It pays to be honest. (thanks Stepps team)
4. Captivate interested sellers with emails.
Sellers want to know what their home is worth and whether or not you’re the right person to trust with its sale.
Answering both questions is important, so keep in touch with them via email to prompt them to action.
Your end goal is to meet your client in person to discuss their needs in-depth, so all emails should prompt a CTA to a meeting, or at least a phone call.
This is critical since 70% of home sellers interview just one agent before signing a contract, and only 4% of them get in touch with that agent through a website. Here’s a simple email that can get the job done:
Standing out from the crowd and forming that relationship is predicated on a face-to-face meeting, so offer a comparative market analysis of their home after an in-home assessment.
One of the best real estate marketing ideas is what this agent has done at the bottom of the email, including a CTA that offers a free guide that helps clients get more money for their homes.
The added caution here is not to overdo the listing email strategy too much UNLESS the reader is an active buyer or seller (Emma)
5. Bringing Back The Dead — Special care for former clients to promote lead generation
Referrals are the mainstay of a real estate agent’s business. The NAR states that 40% of buyers and 38% of home sellers choose realtors that have been referred to them by a neighbor, friend, or relative.
You need to plan carefully when marketing to former customers. They probably know all they need to know about the current real estate market, so include newsletters that focus on home and garden tips or local events instead.
Another approach is to forego newsletters and send personalized emails that are less frequent.
You can use the anniversary of their move to touch base with them or send holiday greetings to keep your name in the forefront of their minds. Personal greetings also let them know you value your relationship with them.
Here’s an email invite to a holiday party-a great way to get up close and personal with former clients:
If you’re an independent agent, don’t worry-you don’t have to throw a party to maintain relationships. Sending a card is just fine. The goal is to stay in touch and build trust.
Bringing back the dead is a difficult task but one that should be part of real estate agent email marketing strategies.
6. Maintain the connection using automation
You should put an automated email system in place to send transactional emails that are triggered by customer behavior.
If a prospect opts-in to your email newsletter, requests information online, or takes some other action on your website, send them an email.
Make it personal, because personalization is the key to more conversions and can increase the ROI of your email marketing campaign.
Conclusion
We’ve looked at a number of real estate marketing ideas that will boost your profile among your competitors and help you stand out in a crowded industry.
Supplying your customers with unique, relevant content and staying in touch with them every step of their buying or selling journey is critical for converting leads into clients.
And in real estate, keeping former clients connected and feeling valued is essential for earning the high volumes of referrals that are necessary for real estate success.
Email is definitely not dead and should be a major part of any real estate agents approach of keeping in contact with prospective buyers and sellers. | https://medium.com/@edigitallifestyle1/6-real-estate-email-marketing-strategies-that-are-crushing-it-in-2021-1cf0c718f4fe | [] | 2020-12-26 15:26:17.331000+00:00 | ['Marketing Strategies', 'Realestatemarketing', 'Real Estate News', 'Real Estate'] |
Beauty and the Math Beast | Beauty and the Math Beast
Why Overcoming your Fear of Math will help your Life and Career
Photo by Ryan Jacobson on Unsplash
Do you Hate Math?
Many women don’t like math. Some feel uncomfortable with it. A few have even expressed fear of numbers. By refusing to confront the math beast, though, I think they are doing themselves a disservice.
When I was a child, I read about Mary McLeod Bethune. Born in rural South Carolina after the Civil War, she saw sharecroppers being cheated. The poor black farmers were paid less than they were owed because they could not do math and had to rely on those who weighed their cotton. Not all of these were trustworthy. Ms. Bethune was able to intervene on behalf of one of her father’s friends to make sure he got full payment.
She was able to do this because she knew math.
Is Math Still Useful Today?
I think it is. I know I use math regularly. When I go shopping, I use it to compare prices and weights to make sure I get the best value for my money and to check my receipt before I leave the store. When I fill my gas tank, I calculate my mileage. Once a month I use math to balance my checkbook and check my budget and once a year I use it when I file my taxes.
Math is useful when I want to alter a recipe or a pattern, and when I tip for service. (As a New Yorker, I grew up with tipping 18% but I’ve since altered that to 20%, which has the advantage of being easier to calculate.) When I laid out my garden, I used math to determine the square footage and when I plan my day I use it to help me schedule and calculate timing to get to events.
I’ve also done calculations that have helped me determine how to make investments and whether or not it was a good idea to buy a house.
Recently, when I was in the Czech Republic, being able to run numbers in my head helped me know the dollar value of items I was buying in koruna, the local currency, as well as the exchange rates so I could trade in euros I had acquired in Vienna without being cheated.
Why Not just use a Machine to do my Math for Me?
Of course, we have technology now to help with calculations. But technology is not always fail safe. Once, while traveling in Colorado, we encountered a snowstorm that caused a power outage. We were hungry so we stopped at a Subway. The guy behind the counter told us he couldn’t serve us because how could he figure out how much we owed without power? I did the calculations on a napkin, so he sold us sandwiches and chips. We left satisfied instead of hungry because we could do math.
Could Math help my Career?
Math is not just useful in these types of day to day concerns. It’s also useful for your career. If you get an opportunity in a different city, for example, how do you know if taking it is a good decision? You can use math to determine if it makes sense in terms of cost of living and quality of life.
You can also make the case for a salary increase more easily if you are comfortable with numbers. I believe that one reason women tend to get paid less than men is that they are not as likely to negotiate for what they want. Part of this stems from a discomfort with numbers. The effects are twofold — a general unease makes it harder to broach the subject. Additionally, it’s harder to marshal good facts and figures without using formulas.
For all of these reasons, I think it behooves women (and men!) who are uncomfortable with math to get over their discomfort.
Why are you Anxious or Scared?
This might be a good question to ask yourself. What about mathematics makes it difficult for you? Is it that you were told as a child that you weren’t good at it? Is it test anxiety? Is it simply that numbers seem unapproachable and hard? Being honest with yourself and examining the cause is a good step towards accepting this part of yourself. It’s OK to be math-phobic. You have plenty of company. But you don’t want to stay there.
So, how do you conquer your fears?
Start Small.
My advice is to take baby steps. If you are nervous or afraid, pushing yourself too hard is just going to make things seem impossible. Besides, if you look at the examples above, most don’t involve complicated calculus or differential equations. Typically grade school math will be sufficient for most applications.
If you can learn to do arithmetic more easily along with some fractions and percentages… I realize for the mathematically challenged, even this might seem daunting, but it’s not a hurdle that requires genius, it just needs time and practice.
Pick up a workbook at the most basic level and set aside a time each day to practice for 10 or 15 minutes. Just work a few problems each day. Don’t feel embarrassed if you start off with your child’s first grade textbook. It’s OK. It doesn’t matter where you start, all that matters is that you try. You can gradually work up to more complex problems at your own pace.
Making it More Interesting
There is a joke my uncle told me when I was a kid. We are Gujurati. (Gujurat is a state in India). Supposedly that means we are good with money.
The joke goes like this:
A Gujurati mother was trying to help her son with his math homework. He kept failing to do the sums. “Mummy,” he said. “It’s too hard!” So she took away the papers and gave him some coins instead. “Now try it,” she said. All of a sudden, he could easily make all the calculations!
The joke is supposed to be funny because Gujuratis allegedly enjoy handing cash. While it might be offensive, I thought it actually had a good message — if you find something difficult, find a way to make it more interesting.
If doing sums in a workbook has you stumped, turn it into a game using something you have an emotional connection to.
Maybe you love shoes. Go into your closet, get all your footwear, split it up into categories — sandals, pumps, boots, sneakers — and use these to do your calculations. Or if you love cats— come up with currency using images downloaded from the net of adorable kittens.
Or just use money, if that’s what you want! Use piles of pennies, nickles, dimes and quarters. Or, my personal favorite — chocolates. As a reward for doing my sums correctly, I’d eat the “numbers”.
Note: If you decide to use beer or any other alcoholic beverage to do math, make sure you don’t drive afterwards! And you may want to have a sober friend check your work…
Find an App
There’s an app for everything these days. A friend of mine and I even found an app for staying hydrated. If there are apps for things as basic as drinking water, you know there are apps as well as online games and so on for doing math. If this is what you need to get you going, then go for it.
The goal is not to become a mathematician. The goal is to become comfortable enough with numbers so you can improve your life. You decide when you have reached that goal.
Who knows, you might decide, once you’ve conquered that challenge, that you’d like to go further. After all, some people find playing with numbers fun. Maybe you’ll take up Sudoku. Or actually take over the family budget. Maybe you’ll be someone who enjoys the beauty of mathematics.
Or maybe you’ll be someone who treats it like eating your veggies or doing crunches — not particularly enjoyable but a necessity that gives you satisfaction now that you’ve mastered it.
Whatever you feel, know that once you master the basics, you will be better able to take care of yourself. And that’s always a good feeling. | https://medium.com/swlh/beauty-and-the-math-beast-3a80e0488bcb | ["Shefali O'Hara"] | 2019-11-16 20:06:21.755000+00:00 | ['Careers', 'Feminism', 'Mathematics', 'Women', 'African American'] |
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) • 20 Years Later | Much has been said about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’s role in the popularisation of wuxia films in the early-2000s, and its legacy since. The surprise hit, with dialogue in Mandarin and subtitles in English, triggered a slew of wuxia films such as Hero (2003), House of Flying Daggers (2004), and Curse of the Golden Flower (2006) — all directed by Zhang Yimou.
What is this film’s legacy? In retrospect, the interesting thing isn’t the mainstream introduction of the fantasy wuxia genre. It’s clear, especially to western audiences that hadn’t grown up with them, that this wasn’t realistic. There were heroes and heroines climbing up walls and practicing Qing Gong on bamboo forests while fighting!
The fascinating thing is how this period drama (set during the Qing Dynasty) was also a work of fantasy, besides the gravity-defying fights. Taiwanese filmmaker Ang Lee made this as ‘China of the imagination’, which meant that, as a depiction of Chinese culture, large swathes are a mix of different period eras, making it confusing to period drama experts. The fact Lee’s fantastical vision, only representing Chinese culture, led to a huge influx of wuxia films, is ironic now. In 2020, audiences have come to expect more from films and are aware of how stereotypes can be damaging.
Even in 2000, however, there was confusion amongst Chinese audiences that resulted in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon tanking at the Chinese box office. Across the Pacific, it became the highest-grossing foreign-language film at the US box office, and then clinched a record-breaking four wins at the 73rd Academy Awards. It’s clear to say it was more popular with western audiences than Chinese ones, and has remained that way even two decades later.
The story, popular with audiences for featuring two strong female heroines, might have been a part of what made Crouching Tiger a surprise hit-but considering it came out only two years after Disney’s Mulan (1998), there should’ve been more films capitalising on the idea of a strong female Chinese heroine. You can’t say Ang Lee didn’t do a shrewd job crafting this film to appeal to Hollywood.
It’s therefore confusing for me to watch Crouching Tiger, as my understanding of Mandarin, plus familiarity with wuxia, makes me sensitive to the mistakes western audiences easily overlooked. For one, the dialogue veers wildly between traditional language (idioms, period-accurate poetry) and modern sentences — especially about love.
There’s also criticism in terms of the accents, as only Zhang Ziyi was born and bred in China. Chow Yun-fat was raised in Hong Kong (where Cantonese is the norm) and Michelle Yeoh is from Malaysia and grew up speaking English and Malay. Chang Chen is Taiwanese. This might seem unimportant to western audiences, but it’s akin to watching a film set in London while most of the main cast has Yorkshire and other regional accents. Does it matter that much? Well, in a film with a lot of talking, it does. Michelle Yeoh had to learn her dialogue phonetically, while Chow Yun-fat has said he did 28 takes on the first day just to correct his accent.
You can hear the strained pronunciation and the effort expended in speaking coherently throughout Crouching Tiger. At one point, I had to just rely on people’s faces and read the subtitles, just as western audiences did, in order to enjoy the performances. And enjoy I did, because the actors are sublime, using their faces to emote what they might’ve failed to verbalise emotionally. In 2020, we expect extra time to have been spent on dialect coaching, but for 2000 it’s pretty darn good.
Zhang Ziyi, especially, in one of her first few roles, is transcendent, using her ample screen time to lay bare the nuances of the youthful, arrogant, and yet demure Jen. She’s the string that holds the story together and keeps it chugging along, even until the end. Original choice Shu Qi (who turned it down) would have been too outwardly feisty, and it wouldn’t have played as well opposite Cheng Pei-Pei (Jade Fox), recently seen as the matchmaker in Disney’s live-action Mulan (2020).
Another universally-acclaimed segment of Crouching Tiger has always been its martial arts sequences, choreographed by Yuen Woo-Ping, then well-known with western filmgoers as the genius behind The Matrix (1999) fight sequences. Honestly, as martial arts choreography goes, it doesn’t stand out amongst the long history of wuxia films, but it’s still spectacular today due to how the main cast were doing the wire-fu. This is an uncommon sight in modern action films, where stunt doubles are used liberally.
Looking back at the film 20 years later, it’s odd to think of the decades in which Asian films worked and tried so hard to appeal to Hollywood and western audiences. Even last year, when Parasite (2019) won the Academy Award for ‘Best Film’, it was hailed as a huge validation for Asian cinema with trade magazines constantly reporting on its US box office gross. This is happening while Hollywood is, conversely, trying to break the ever-growing Chinese film market.
Can we tie this development to the legacy of the fantasy wuxia Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? To some extent, sure. There’s no doubt western audiences found a taste for wuxia after this film’s release. The kung fu genre had long ago come and gone in Hollywood, but here was another piece of (inaccurate) Chinese culture that could be consumed and enjoyed, only with strong female characters for a change!
However, international wuxia movies had lost their allure by the end of the decade, with the only interesting outlier being the Kung Fu Panda animated trilogy (currently still popular in China). At this point, the Chinese film market had already stepped up its own game, churning out many of their own domestic hits. So, while Crouching Tiger might have assisted in turning Hollywood’s eye toward China, it definitely didn’t create a huge boom in Chinese filmgoers.
In the end, the legacy of Crouching Tiger is one steeped in the idea of a Chinese film: with stellar Asian actors of Chinese ethnicity, showcasing a story with overt Chinese culture, it made Chinese period films cool in Hollywood. The Academy Award-winning soundtrack, composed by Tan Dun, is nothing but an ode to Chinese period dramas. That mattered a lot at the time, and has had a huge impact in increasing the appeal of China to Hollywood within the last 20 years.
In looking back, there are definitely some areas that could be improved upon, but considering the time in which this was made and its impact on world cinema, there’s no doubt Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a classic slice of film history. | https://medium.com/framerated/crouching-tiger-hidden-dragon-2000-20-years-later-a0b85e77a3a4 | ['Charing Kam'] | 2020-12-09 19:29:50.276000+00:00 | ['Film', 'Review', 'Movies', 'Retrospectives', 'Chinese Culture'] |
Black America, please stop appropriating African clothing and tribal marks. | Black America, please stop appropriating African clothing and tribal marks.
Yes, that means everyone at Afropunk too.
For the life of me, I need to know:
Can Black people culturally appropriate one another?
It’s a nuanced question that seems to either set tempers aflare or create vacuums of silence in a room but, after going through pictures taken at the latest Afropunk Festival, it’s definitely one that I have to ask.
And if Blacks can, why is the disgust and uproar surrounding this ongoing phenomenon only reserved for instances when White people appropriate us?
I ask this because Black Twitter is littered with countless examples of the uproar that ensues when White people appropriate Black culture. Words such as fancy dress, mockery and profiteering are thrown around quite freely, but no one seems to realize that this selfsame violation is committed against us Africans — all under the guise of tribal fashion and connecting to The Motherland.
Yes, I know that African-inspired prints are poppin’ right now and many African designers have chosen to showcase certain styles to the global fashion scene, but it appears to me and my African friends that it’s been taken a step further. I understand that, for the most part, many of my own Black American friends are well meaning when they talk about African fashion, but the end result is still the same:
You take a cultural dress, mark or trait, with all its religious and historical connotations, dilute it, and bring it out for occasions when you want to look ‘trendy’.
Ask yourself, how exactly is that any better?
I’m not trying to start a war, but I would just like you all to realize the hypocrisy of seeing someone wearing a Fulani septum ring, rocking a djellaba, painted with Yoruba-like tribal marks, all the while claiming that this is meant to be respectful. It’s a hodgepodge, a juxtaposition, a right mess of regional, ethnic and cultural customs and it screams ignorance and cultural insensitivity.
Yes, that’s right, even when worn by Black people.
I know it looks cool and the wearer looks unique, but if you look at it for what it is, it’s still cultural appropriation.
It’s basically like a White Australian guy with dreadlocks, Ta moko, wearing Batik. They are all Islanders after all. So he’s not being offensive, right?
Africans may not be as vocal as Americans when it comes to appropriation rights. And I get that Black America’s history is one marred with so many injustices that I would never claim to understand. The emergence of a unified voice that is strong and proud is one that I respect and continue to applaud, but please also understand the need for us to be heard, too. Please don’t trample our rights fighting for yours.
On the scale of global issues, I admit this is petty, but it is something that should still be addressed.
It won’t be long before Zara starts selling tribal face paints. They already sold dashiki-styled prints, so why not?
It’s time we all took a break and thought about what it is we’re wearing.
We are in an age of discourse and discussion in which Black people from all around the world can get together and discuss issues that matter to us. A phenomena that has by and large been created thanks to Black America. I don’t mince my words when I say that you’ve paved the way for intelligent discussion on things that shouldn’t have ever been but the world has taken as norms.
So now I am highlighting this:
If you’re not from an African tribe, please leave off wearing the tribal marks. Otherwise you’re participating in the very thing you vehemently speak out against.
I know the irony and how weird this sounds, because of the influence of rap, jazz, and hip hop — Black American culture, around the world. Thanks, but I’ve heard that argument ad nauseum.
My response to that is:
If it’s done to you, is it then okay to do it to me?
If you don’t dress like that everyday, or have any REAL affiliation, then please tell me how it isn’t fancy dress?
I stand by my words.
I’m sorry, it’s not futuristic, or cool — it’s our culture.
Sure we may not wear Ichafus on a day-to-day basis anymore, but that doesn’t mean their significance to us is lessened. These things are reserved for funerals, births, weddings . . . significant rites of passage — vital points in our lives that we share with our community and people. It is how we express ourselves in the collective. | https://medium.com/thsppl/black-america-please-stop-appropriating-african-clothing-and-tribal-marks-3210e65843a7 | ['Zipporah Gene'] | 2020-04-06 14:32:14.038000+00:00 | ['Africa', 'Advice and Opinion', 'Those People', 'Cultural Appropriation'] |
The 5 functions you need to know | Knowing the following set of functions helps you to describe the change in income, the growth of your company, the number of COVID-19 cases, …
Logarithmic Functions
Logarithmic functions are also monotonically increasing, but after a quick initial phase they are only increasing very slowly:
Image by Martin Thoma.
Logarithms have a base. In the example above you can see two examples with base 2 and one example with base 10. The higher the base, the slower the function grows. Logarithmic functions have two phases:
0 < x < 1: Negative phase. The closer to get to zero, the more negative the logarithms value becomes.
x = 1: The logarithm of 1 is zero for all bases.
x > 1: The logarithm keeps growing.
One invariant to know is
This means the logarithm to base b reverses the exponential function to base b.
In computer science, this kind of growth behavior is associated with trees:
A binary search tree. Image by Martin Thoma
At every node in this tree, the left subtree is smaller or equal to the node and the right subtree is bigger than the node. If you want to check if a value is there, you can make a series of checks. If that tree was a balanced tree — meaning you have the same amount of nodes at the left as you have on the right, then the number of checks you have to perform grows logarithmically with the number of elements:
1 element → 1 check
2–3 elements → 2 checks
4–7 elements → 3 checks
8–15 elements → 4 checks
16–31 elements → 5 checks
This is extremely relevant to design fast algorithms. If you see O(log(n)), very likely a binary search or a binary tree is involved. If you see O(n log(n)), very likely sorting is done.
Linear Functions
Linear functions are described by f(x)=m⋅x where m is called the slope.
Three linear functions with different slopes. A slope of 2 means the value increases by 2 with every increase of x. A slow of 0.5 means the values increases by 0.5 with every step. Image by Martin Thoma
A typical workers wage is a linear function over the time. This means the x-axis represents the time and the y-axis represents the money the worker earned. If they work double the time, they get double the income. If they work half the time, the income halves.
As a developer, one might think that a lot of the resources also show linear growth: If your website has double the amount of users, you need double the amount of machines to show a similar performance. In reality, due to caching or inefficient algorithms it might be more complicated.
A slightly more complex version of a linear function is called an affine function: f(x)=m⋅x+t —but pretty often, one does not make this distinction and calls affine functions also linear functions. The parameter t is called the intercept. The intercept just pushes the whole function up or down.
Fuel consumption for driving x kilometers is another real world example of a linear function: If you drive double the distance, you will approximately need double the fuel.
Quadratic Functions
3 quadratic functions. In computer science, you’re usually only interested in the part x>0 of the red line. Image by Martin Thoma
Quadratic functions have the form
The x² leads to the characteristic behaviour, that a doubling of x means the value increases by a factor of 4:
x ⋅ 2 → f(x) ⋅ 4
x ⋅ 3 → f(x) ⋅ 9
x ⋅ 4 → f(x) ⋅ 16
In software development, it typically happens when you need to look at all combinations of a set. For example, if you had a dating platform and you wanted to check for every pair of users if they are a good fit. This quickly grows out of hand, although today's computer can deal with astonishingly big numbers.
Linear and quadratic functions belong to the bigger family of polynomial functions. Polynomials are described like this:
n is the degree of the polynomial. A linear function is a polynomial of degree 1, a quadratic function has degree 2. The constant a_n has to be different from zero, but can be negative. All other constants a_i can have an value.
Polynomials are important in a variety of different applications in computer science and mathematics, but for describing growth it’s usually fine to just know cubic, quadratic, linear, and constant functions.
Exponential functions
Image by Martin Thoma
Exponential functions multiply their value by the base with every unit step. Exponential functions are typically used to calculate unlimited growth of bacteria and viruses under ideal conditions.
For base 2 — the red line in the image above — some of the values are:
x=-1→y=0.5
x=0→y = 1
x=1→ y=2
x=2→ y=4
x=3→y=8
x=4→y=16
You can see how this becomes extremely huge after a while. This is also visualized by the wheat and chessboard problem.
Sigmoid functions
Image by Martin Thoma
Exponential growth only describes the growth of bacteria under ideal conditions. This is true for the starting phase, but the world’s resources are limited. At some point there will not be enough food to continue growth. The curve flattens out.
Sigmoid functions capture this behaviour of limited growth. They have an initial phase where they grow very slowly. Closely around their symmetry point — at x=0 for the red and the blue line and at x=1 for the green line in the image above— they look linear.
Logistic functions are a very typical subclass of the sigmoid functions. Logistic functions are described by the following equation:
L defines the upper boundary. In all shown examples, the functions approach y=1
The function has a symmetry point at (x_0, L/2)
The bigger k, the more steep the function is
Other important sigmoid functions are the hyperbolic tangent and cumulative distribution functions (CDFs) such as the CDF of the normal distribution.
Both, logistic functions and the hyperbolic tangent are used as a core ingredient in artificial neural networks.
Summary and Outlook
You’ve just seen 5 classes of functions which are relevant when talking about growth. Logarithmic functions are always increasing, but very slow. Faster are linear and quadratic functions. Exponential growth is crazy and does usually only happen for a limited amount of time until a threshold is reached. Then the curve flattens and you see a sigmoid shape.
There are, of course, way more functions and more general properties. Let me know if you want to know more about function properties, distributions or just some awesome and astonishing functions I’ve seen during my computer science / math classes. | https://martinthoma.medium.com/the-5-functions-you-need-to-know-602e06d6b86 | ['Martin Thoma'] | 2020-08-05 18:11:26.650000+00:00 | ['Mathematics Education', 'Programming', 'Software Engineering', 'Mathematics', 'Complexity'] |
Commodication of Da’wah on the @ shiftmedia.id Account on Instagram. | As information technology advances in this digital era, activities in religion have undergone various transformations. Religious activities are now very flexible to be carried out anywhere and anytime and can also be adjusted according to needs. To get information related to one’s religion only needs to use the media they have to access it. The rapid development of increasingly sophisticated and modern communication technology makes it easier for us to communicate. At this time, social media is very appropriate for the means of delivering any content or messages to be conveyed through social media.
Today’s society is inseparable from technology because currently technology has become an inseparable part of all daily activities and facilitates the activities they carry out. In the media, a person can carry out their religious activities directly without the need to come to their respective places of worship. That way the media becomes very important for the lives of the people who access them because the media itself has a specific mission to invite Indonesians towards a better life.
The Instagram account @ shiftmedia.id is one of the da’wah accounts on Instagram that contains da’wah videos, displays Islamic studies with the theme of self-improvement and invites young people to migrate. The use of slang and the use of the @ shiftmedia.id account dakwah communication method wants to persuade followers to change attitudes or behavior from bad behavior to good behavior, this change in attitude can be called hijrah. This change in behavior is aimed at young people who are followers of the @ shiftmedia.id account. Sealin that the content material in the account was delivered by Ustadh Hanan Attaki, which has many young fans today.
Looking at the metaphor of the media as language, his attention focuses on the various ways the media format messages and frame the relationships between sender, content, and recipient. In particular, the choice of medium and genre influences important features such as narrative and the way a particular message is received and as a consequence, the media shape and adapt religious representations to certain mediums and genres. In this case the @ shiftmedia.id account through the media Instagram wants to see how the use of this popular culture of religion can be accepted by users of the media. Due to the increasingly commercialization of Instagram media in Indonesia, it has made the media popular among young people.
In the @ shiftmedia.id account, the admin wants to show that media metaphors as a language can be applied to any content on Instagram. The language used in the association of young people has distinctive features and is very prominent. The various languages of adolescents are characterized by being short, agile, and creative. It can be seen from the use of language in the account @ shiftmedia.id, the words used tend to be short, while words that are rather long are shortened through a morphological process such as in written language. a. From the characteristics of the slang above, we can find out what kind of slang teenagers use the most so that we can also understand what they are talking about. However, the slang does not stop here, teenagers continue to be creative to create the latest slang rules. This can be seen from the increasing number of types of slang that are used.
Through this Instagram account @ shiftmedia.id through communication metafora as an environment to show that this account uses the media as a center of knowledge about religion. the method used is to use da’wah communication. Mass media is currently the most widely used and most efficient medium for spreading messages. Communication in the mass media is communication aimed at a number of distributed, heterogeneous and anonymous audiences through electronic media so that the same message can be received simultaneously and momentarily.
Broadly speaking, the messages in the @ shiftmedia.id account post or call on humans to carry out Islamic teachings, obey Allah’s orders and stay away from His prohibitions. These messages are conveyed systematically based on the needs of the account’s followers. Based on what is in the @ shiftmedia.id account posting, the account admin wants to show that the communication made wants to have an impact on his followers. Each post is in line with the purpose of preaching, which is to change individuals and society for the better.
The media account @ shiftmedia.id is an Instagram social media account that has the aim of inviting followers to make a young migration. Hijrah is currently a trend 17 among Indonesian people, hijrah is not only done by elderly people with sufficient religious knowledge. However, hijrah has become a phenomenon among young people today. By using the media, someone can learn or get teachings about the teachings of the Islamic religion. Nowadays, media has become a place for someone to do religious activities. The @ shiftmedia.id account uses the media to spread Islamic teachings by using the da’wah method carried out on social media. The @ shiftmedia.id account uses the da’wah method and the use of media as a language in Instagram social media posts to invite followers to gain understanding and teachings about Islam. Through video posts with a duration of 60 seconds and the use of slang in preaching or captions, the account wants to show that this account is aimed at young followers.
By using this method of da’wah communication, the @ shiftmedia.id account wants to persuade followers to change their attitudes or behavior from bad behavior to good behavior, this change in attitude can be called hijrah. This change in behavior is aimed at young people who are followers of the @ shiftmedia.id account.
Sendy Charina Listyaningrum
(Student of Communication Studies, Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta) | https://medium.com/@sendycharina123/commodication-of-dawah-on-the-shiftmedia-id-account-on-instagram-63985fea92b4 | [] | 2020-12-26 05:22:28.982000+00:00 | ['Instagram', 'Communication', 'Technology', 'Religious', 'Young People'] |
World Happiness Reports make this Data Scientist Unhappy | Every year the United Nations release the World Happiness Report leading readers to believe that they have successfully ranked all countries by happiness. These reports always capture the attention of the media and is most certainly captivating, but the reality is that these ‘rankings’ are built on statistical misuse.
The happiness index for each country is calculated by asking citizens:
‘Please imagine a ladder with steps numbered from 0 at the bottom to 10 at the top. The top of the ladder represents the best possible life for you and the bottom of the ladder represents the worst possible life for you. Which step of the ladder would you say you personally feel you stand at this time’
And then averaging the responses to get a score between 0 and10.
This approach has already drawn some concerns from a philosophical standpoint, with some arguing that this line of questioning leads responders to overvalue income and material possessions rather than happiness. I’ll leave that line of thinking to my friends in the social sciences and for the purpose of this article I will only go over the statistical shortcomings:
Shortcoming Number 1 — The Rankings are too precise
It’s just not feasible to survey every person in each country, so the next best thing is to survey a random subset of people and use those results to represent the entire population of the country. Although the average happiness of the random sample would closely represent the average happiness of the entire population (assuming the sample size is large enough) it will not be an exact representation. Statisticians get around this by reporting a 95% percent confidence interval (CI) which means that there is a 95% chance the true mean (in this case happiness) lies in that range. For many countries, their respective sample happiness scores are very close and there is a significant overlap in the 95% confidence intervals. Consider the following example:
Spain and Saudi Arabia 2020 Happiness Score
We can see that the happiness score are very similar for both Spain and Saudi Arabia and it would be very irresponsible to conclude that Spain is happier than Saudi Arabia or vice versa.
However, in order to achieve a ranking system, this inaccurate conclusion is repeated across many countries.
In this case Saudi Arabia is ranked above Spain despite there being no data supporting this conclusion.
This is an example of over precision, meaning that the level of accuracy associated with random polling is not enough to justify a ranking system.
A more appropriate use of the data would be to categorise each country as either thriving, struggling or suffering. This is what the Gallup (original organisation that ran the poll) concluded with the data.
To illustrate the effect over precision can have on the happiness rankings, I ran 1000 simulations where each country was randomly allocated a new happiness score (and consequently rank) based on the 95% confidence interval reported. I have linked below a dashboard I have created, where for each country you can view the lowest and highest possible rank of each countries based on these simulations, as well as the span between the lowest and highest rank.
Countries with a difference span less than 5
In the above visualisation, only countries with a difference between the highest and lowest rank in the simulations being less than 5 are coloured. We can see that this only covers a handful of countries which highlights how volatile and inconsistent these rankings are!
Shortcoming Number 2 — The happiness score is biased
Since the measure of happiness is based on quantifying qualitative data rather than pure quantitative measures, it opens the door for many biases that have the potential to derail any analysis. There are many underlying factors that influence someone’s response when you ask them to rate their life out of 10. For example, many Asian cultures have a tradition of humility whereas in Scandinavian cultures people tend to be more inclined to tell others how happy they are. This could have contributed to the high rankings of Nordic countries whilst Asians countries such as Japan (62nd) and South Korea (61st) are lower than expected.
These biases unfortunately are part of any analysis, especially those involving qualitative responses, however if they are properly understood and minimised than reliable conclusions can still be drawn. For example, these biases may limit the ability to compare happiness between countries but from the data we can still conclude that developing countries are generally less happy then developed countries.
These statistical shortcomings are enough to make any data scientist cringe. What would have been more appropriate with the data at hand would have been the identification of broad categories like what Gallup produced. The world happiness report is an example of how not fully understanding the limitations of statistical processes can result in misleading and unreliable analysis.
For my simulation code please see this GitHub Link: https://github.com/jama001/World-Happiness-Rankings
My name is Jamie Ferreira and I am an aspiring data scientist majoring in Data Science and Business Analytics at the University of Sydney. Feel free to leave any comments below and connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-ferreira-942374186/ | https://medium.com/@jamie-ferreira11/world-happiness-reports-makes-this-data-scientist-unhappy-754b853e2c19 | ['Jamie Ferreira'] | 2020-12-17 12:59:19.582000+00:00 | ['United Nations', 'Happiness', 'Data Science', 'Tableau', 'Statistics'] |
Introduction | I really don’t know where to start, so I suppose a small introduction will do.
I’m a transgender woman. I’m 17, I turn 18 in 2 months. I like writing.
Being trans, I feel that a lot of things I experience are incredibly unique to me and other trans people. For quite some time I’ve feel sequestered into silence about these experiences because I really don’t have anybody to talk to about them. I’ve always enjoyed reading and writing, so I thought tossing out my life here would be a good way to diffuse my emotions.
My hope is that I can help educate others, whether they’re transgender or not. I’d like to share a poem I wrote recently:
“They say I murdered him,
that I cut him to death on a feminine pronoun, a deadname for a dead boy.
That his murder was a choice, an option.
It wasn’t.
They mourned his death. Mourned the loss of masculine possibilities, not realizing that those possibilities still existed — just wearing a dress.
They say I murdered him,
but you can’t kill something that doesn’t exist.” | https://medium.com/@christal-young/introduction-ef9a81dfb789 | ['Christal Young'] | 2020-12-25 16:30:25.187000+00:00 | ['Introduction', 'Poetry', 'Transgender'] |
Minimax Algorithm in Tic-Tac-Toe: Adversarial Search Example | Today, after years of school and a year and a half of college, I can finally say that I implemented an algorithm that can play Tic-Tac-Toe without ever losing. It is called the Minimax Decision Rule, which is a type of Adversarial Search, meaning that this algorithm faces an opponent that is playing against the machine. For example, in Tic-Tac-Toe, the AI plays against a human; the AI also knows the complete state of the game (it can see the entire situation, unlike the game of Poker), which is a requirement for the Minimax Algorithm.
Demo From My GitHub Repo
Minimax uses each state’s representation, labeling a winning condition as 1, a losing situation as -1, and a neutral condition as 0. So, getting into details might make it sound quite complicated (at least that’s how it sounds for me), but let’s imagine a situation in which you play Tic-Tac-Toe against yourself. You would probably want to maximize your score and minimize your component’s score (which is also you, lol), hence the name Minimax. The same you do when you play for the other side, picking the action to maximize your score and minimize your opponent’s score. What you would probably end up doing is you would probably start considering each and every movement you can do and the possible move your opponent might do. Calculating each and every possible outcome is the cornerstone of Minimax because that helps the AI pick the best action, which is also worst for the opponent. | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/minimax-algorithm-in-tic-tac-toe-adversarial-search-example-702c7c1030eb | ['Damir Temir'] | 2020-12-21 17:45:38.145000+00:00 | ['AI', 'Game Design', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Minimax', 'Data Science'] |
3 Things a TV Writer Can Control | Photo by Loic Leray on Unsplash
The life of a TV writer is a life of uncertainty.
You have chosen a career where you control almost nothing.
You can’t control how people respond to your work. Whether or not you get staffed on a show. If your brilliant show pitch gets bumped up the chain. If your pilot is greenlit. If your series is renewed, canceled or shelved forever.
It is a thrilling, terrifying roller coaster ride that for some reason you decided you wanted to board.
Your friends who aren’t in the business won’t understand how or even why you do it. Your parents will be even more bewildered.
They will remind you that it’s not too late to teach English or sell insurance. You will remind them you are a writer while secretly Googling “teach English how.”
It’s a career that is often disheartening. Depressing. And for aspiring writers or those getting started in their career, impenetrable.
Now some good news. Because there are some things you can control. When I feel lost, these are the fundamentals that I return to.
Your Work
You have control over your writing, both the quality and quantity.
You control what you want to write about and how you go about it.
You control how much work goes into your pilots and spec scripts and how they are executed.
You control your resarch and practice of craft and story.
You should relish this control. Because there will be a time when even the work will be taken from you. When you have networks and producers and agents who have ideas over what they think your work should be.
Your writing is the lifeblood of your career. You are in the idea business. You are paid money (or hope to be) to come up with ideas. Many ideas. Some great. Most bad. Over and over and over.
Work begets work. They better and funnier and more relatable your samples are the more likely you will be hired. It may take a while because there are so many other factors you, again, have no control over. But if you put in the work, it will happen.
And when the work gets hard, try and remind yourself that thinking up weird and funny shit should be fun. It is fun. And important. It’s your chance to connect with people, inspire and bring some joy into the world. And dear God do we need that more than ever.
Your Attitude
With the pandemic impacting all areas of the entertainment industry, there are many reasons to be down on yourself and your career.
And yet, you have no control over any of it. But you do have control over your attitude. Being positive in the face of massive uncertainty is very difficult. But really what choice do you have?
Let your love of the work movtivate you. Re-enage with projects that have languished or been ignored because they’re not ______ enough. Choose to work on them not because you think they’ll sell or because they’re splashy and will get you noticed. Choose to work on them because you love them.
Staffing has been extra tough this year. Between smaller rooms, smaller episode orders, and stalled broadcast pilots, there are so few opportunities to staff. Rooms aren’t filled with twenty writers anymore. It’s more like six to eight. You have no control over this.
I have to remind myself if I lose out on a job, that I have no control over why a decision is made. There are many variables that go into who gets a job and why.
You only have control over who you are and who you tell others you are. If you prepared for your meeting and put your best foot forward, that’s enough. You can only be you.
Your Resilience
You control whether or not you keep going.
And dissuade yourself of the notion that “keep going” is the same for everyone. Sometimes this means pressing foward with development and trying new kinds of writing. Sometimes this means taking a step back and figuring out a job that pays the bills consistently while you develop your writing on the side.
They are both forms of resilience. And resilience is a quality every successful TV writer has.
Nothing truly prepares you for this roller coaster of uncertainty and everyone at some point in their TV writing career thinks about getting out. Getting a normal job. Getting some security. Some control.
All I can say is you never know where that next job is going to come from. You have so little control over it.
So instead, of quitting, focus on what you can control.
It’s the only way forward. | https://medium.com/@andrewbarbot/3-things-a-tv-writer-can-control-c516fb2bdc38 | ['Andrew Barbot'] | 2020-12-10 21:09:49.567000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Career Advice', 'Writing Tips', 'Screenwriting', 'Creativity'] |
Machine Learning in production: Keras, Flask, Docker and Heroku | In this tutorial we will try to walk together through all the building blocks of a Machine/Deep Learning project in production, i.e. a model that people can actually interact with.
Broadly speaking, we’ll create a web interface in which a user could upload an image, then a bit of Deep Learning magic comes into play, and Bingo! 🎉 we get a text revealing what does that image represent.
I KNOW, it’s not rocket science, it’s just image recognition, I haven’t reinvented the wheel. In fact I’m going to be even lazier and .. guess what ! .. I will be using an already trained model 😜
Keep in mind that the idea behind this tutorial is not to teach you Deep Leaning but rather to explore the pipeline of DL in production. What really matters is when we’ll be creating an API to interact with our model, “Dockerizing” it and deploying it.
The codes used in this tutorial are available on my GitHub [here].
GO ! GO ! GO ! | https://towardsdatascience.com/machine-learning-in-production-keras-flask-docker-and-heroku-933b5f885459 | ['Aissam Outchakoucht'] | 2020-12-16 12:59:26.976000+00:00 | ['Herokuapp', 'Deep Learning', 'Flask', 'Docker', 'Machine Learning'] |
Sebuah Bahaya Laten Bernama Plastic Microbead | Welcome to BBPB Jogja’s Medium Page! We published short article and brief on current issues regarding plastic-waste & environment every Sunday morning. | https://medium.com/@bbpbjogja/sebuah-bahaya-laten-bernama-plastic-microbead-2124a7f41e61 | ['Bye Bye Plastic Bags Jogja'] | 2021-02-04 11:43:09.166000+00:00 | ['Environment', 'Earth', 'Waste', 'Plastic'] |
Digital Forensics Market Worth $4.24 Billion By 2026 | The global digital forensics market size is expected to reach USD 4.24 billion by 2026, exhibiting a CAGR of 12.3% during the forecast period, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Rising internet penetration, advancements in computing technology, and instances of cyberattacks are some of the key growth driving factors. Additionally, increasing demand for sophisticated cybersecurity tools to detect and investigate cyberattacks and financial frauds among large as well as small and medium enterprises is expected to drive the market growth.
Digital forensic tools assist in lost data analysis, reconstruction, and evidence collection from digital devices. Enterprises across the globe focus on adopting these tools to identify and avoid cyberattacks. The enterprises have to follow several regulations and compliances regarding consumer data privacy, such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA), and Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), among others. This is expected to encourage the adoption of digital forensic solutions and services.
The foremost application of digital forensics is found in private and criminal investigation. Factors, such as rising internet penetration, usage of electronic devices, and smart devices, among others have led to a surge in cyberattacks across the globe. Rising intensity of cyberattacks is anticipated to further propel the demand for digital forensic tools over the forecast period. Digital forensics tools are increasingly being used to resolve issues related to cyber threat in the enterprises. The tools aid in investigating data stored in digital devices, examine suspect data, and then use it as a digital evidence in the court.
Click the link below:
https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/digital-forensics-market
Further key findings from the report suggest: | https://medium.com/@marketnewsreports/digital-forensics-market-5d94a44569a2 | ['Gaurav Shah'] | 2021-06-08 12:30:42.849000+00:00 | ['Services', 'Technology', 'Internet of Things', 'Hardware', 'Software'] |
The Silent Girl!! | There were a group of girls standing,
They were talking so happily and joyfully.
A silent girl in the class joined the conversation, everyone stopped laughing and a silence prevailed.
They cleared the group and went off!
But this incident was never cleared in that poor girl’s mind.
The silent girl was good at studies, had good name with teachers and parents. But she was not liked by her fellow students for being weird, which she soon came to know by her only friend(she was talkative one ).
Many years later, when the silent girl turned into a talkative one, everyone in the troop( including those who ignored her) approached her and talked to her happily.
The silent girl was happy talking to those people and shared it with her mother that those who ignored , now started talking.
Even though , she was talkative , the silent nature inside her prevailed.
She started to think “ only if I hide my silent nature, people would start to talk me.”
She then, started to talk with everyone, became an extrovert.
At a point of time, everyone was enjoying with her , was happy with her presence.
But at the same time, they were people who criticized her for her over-friendly nature, her jokes, etc., anything they feel that they hate about her.
Hearing a lot of criticisms, she then began worrying about that.
‘Whether I be silent or talkative, the criticisms prevails, so why I can be who I am ‘ This incident changed her into an “extroverted introvert”.
She now knew where to talk and where to be silent.
Lesson learnt. | https://medium.com/@onelife-to-explore/the-silent-girl-1793cf890db6 | ['Shalini Mahalingam'] | 2021-06-01 09:08:31.955000+00:00 | ['Self-awareness', 'Improvement', 'Students', 'Self Improvement', 'Mental Health'] |
This One Simple Exercise Will Help Counter Negative Thoughts | I’m going to be the first to admit that, at least since my teens (and probably before), I’ve developed some unhealthy thinking patterns borne out of the desire to succeed or get ahead in life.
Did it make me happy? Of course not.
I was an idiot thinking being harsh on myself and supposedly being disciplined with myself would be helpful. But that’s what most of us do, right?
We associate drive, ambition, and ticking off boxes on our goal list with happiness. Yet these mindsets cultivate the very negative thinking patterns we try to undo when we realize what actual happiness is.
It’s easy to get carried away with the zeal of ambition and end up taking a downward spiral into negative thoughts and self-talk.
Albert Ellis identified that most people habitually think in ways that are self-defeating and irrational — irrational in the sense of going against our basic desire for happiness — and identified several faulty thinking patterns that we fall into on a daily basis. These insights spawned other researchers such as Aaron Beck to identify more examples of faulty thinking.
Before being able to change the way we think, we must first identify which type of faulty thinking patterns we’re most prone to. | https://medium.com/curated-careers/this-one-simple-exercise-will-help-counter-negative-cognitions-so-you-can-love-yourself-dbe59a023038 | ['Michelle Middleton'] | 2020-12-17 22:02:51.496000+00:00 | ['Mindset Shift', 'Self-awareness', 'Personal Growth', 'Mindset', 'Self Love'] |
am I Pregnant? | dad<^^>son<>mom
https://www.redbubble.com/i/t-shirt/mom-mother-and-her-baby-child-son-or-father-dad-and-her-child-baby-son-cute-funny-essential-shirt-by-INKAPRO/80423488.FB110.XYZ
VISIT MY STORE LIKE MY ART, my art is talk about love
How quickly can I know if I’m pregnant?
Pregnancy is a different experience for each woman. Some women may suspect they’re pregnant within the first few days of pregnancy, while others don’t notice anything until they miss a period. There are also some women who don’t know they’re pregnant until months after conception.
The most clear-cut way to know if you’re pregnant is to take a pregnancy test. When you take a pregnancy test, it’s measuring a hormone called human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG). This hormone starts building in your body from the moment of conception and will multiply rapidly in the beginning of your pregnancy. Despite its early appearance in the process, it takes some time for your body to build up enough hCG to register on a pregnancy test. Typically, it takes about three to four weeks from the first day of your last period before there’s enough hCG in your body for a positive pregnancy test.
When can I take a pregnancy test?
Because it takes time for the hormone hCG to build up in your body, it’s often best to wait till you miss your period before taking a home pregnancy test. Before this point, the test may come up negative, even if you are actually pregnant.
Are home pregnancy tests the best way to check for early pregnancy?
Home pregnancy tests are generally very reliable. These tests involve urinating on a small test strip and then waiting for a symbol to appear in the result window. This window will usually show a test image (sometimes this is a single straight line). This symbol appears first and means that the test is working. Always check the packaging and instructions of your test to make sure it is working correctly. Within a few minutes, the test will show either a positive result or a negative result. Some digital tests will display a word or phrase (pregnant or not pregnant).
Blood tests for a possible pregnancy are done in your healthcare provider’s office. This version of the test looks for hCG in your blood. You still need to wait for hCG to build up in your body before taking this type of pregnancy test. Your healthcare provider may recommend this option in some cases. Call your provider if you suspect you’re pregnant and discuss the best type of test.
What are the five common signs of pregnancy?
There are several signs of early pregnancy that you could experience. Not everyone will have all of these symptoms, and some women may not feel any of these things. Pregnancy symptoms throughout the entire pregnancy can vary dramatically between women. It’s important not to compare your pregnancy to someone else’s.
Common early pregnancy symptoms can include:
A missed period : The most common and clear-cut sign of pregnancy is a missed period. Once conception has happened, your body produces hormones that stop ovulation and the shedding of the lining of your uterus. This means that your cycle has stopped and you won’t have a period again until after the baby is born. However, missing your period isn’t always a sign of pregnancy. You can also miss your period from stress, excessive exercise, dieting, hormone imbalances and other factors that might cause irregular periods.
: The most common and clear-cut sign of pregnancy is a missed period. Once conception has happened, your body produces hormones that stop ovulation and the shedding of the lining of your uterus. This means that your cycle has stopped and you won’t have a period again until after the baby is born. However, missing your period isn’t always a sign of pregnancy. You can also miss your period from stress, excessive exercise, dieting, hormone imbalances and other factors that might cause irregular periods. Frequent trips to the bathroom : Before you even miss a period, you may notice that you have to urinate more often. This actually happens because you have more blood than before. During pregnancy, your body’s blood supply increases. Your kidneys filter your blood and remove the extra waste. This waste leaves your body as urine. The more blood in your body, the more you will have to urinate.
: Before you even miss a period, you may notice that you have to urinate more often. This actually happens because you have more blood than before. During pregnancy, your body’s blood supply increases. Your kidneys filter your blood and remove the extra waste. This waste leaves your body as urine. The more blood in your body, the more you will have to urinate. Fatigue (feeling tired) : Many women feel extremely tired in early pregnancy. This sign of pregnancy happens because of high levels of the hormone progesterone. Similar to other early pregnancy symptoms, fatigue tends to get better in the second trimester. However, it does come back in the third trimester for many women.
: Many women feel extremely tired in early pregnancy. This sign of pregnancy happens because of high levels of the hormone progesterone. Similar to other early pregnancy symptoms, fatigue tends to get better in the second trimester. However, it does come back in the third trimester for many women. Morning (and noon and night) sickness : Despite the name, this pregnancy symptom can happen at any time of the day or night. Nausea can happen as early as two weeks into a pregnancy or it can start a few months after conception. Not everyone experiences nausea and there are various levels of nausea. You can have nausea without vomiting — this changes from woman to woman. About half of pregnant women have vomiting. Though nausea during pregnancy is fairly normal, it can be a problem if you become dehydrated. Women who cannot keep down food and fluids because of extreme nausea could have a condition called hyperemesis gravidarum. Contact your healthcare provider if you are experiencing extreme nausea and dehydration.
: Despite the name, this pregnancy symptom can happen at any time of the day or night. Nausea can happen as early as two weeks into a pregnancy or it can start a few months after conception. Not everyone experiences nausea and there are various levels of nausea. You can have nausea without vomiting — this changes from woman to woman. About half of pregnant women have vomiting. Though nausea during pregnancy is fairly normal, it can be a problem if you become dehydrated. Women who cannot keep down food and fluids because of extreme nausea could have a condition called hyperemesis gravidarum. Contact your healthcare provider if you are experiencing extreme nausea and dehydration. Sore (and enlarging) breasts: Your breasts can become tender to the touch during pregnancy. The soreness may be similar to the way breasts feel before a period, only more so. Your nipples might also begin to darken and enlarge. This soreness is temporary and fades once your body gets used to the increased hormones. You may also notice that your breasts have enlarged and your bra is tighter than normal.
What are some less common signs of early pregnancy?
There are some additional signs of early pregnancy that aren’t as common. Just like with the most common symptoms, these signs of pregnancy may or may not happen. It’s important to remember that everyone is different and will experience unique symptoms.
Less common signs of early pregnancy can include:
Spotting (also called implantation bleeding) : Though it may seem like a bad sign, light bleeding (spotting) can be a sign that your embryo has implanted in the lining of your uterus. Implantation takes place several days after conception. Implantation bleeding will look like small drops of blood or a brownish discharge from the vagina. It can start around the time of your regular period and can last for a few days to a few weeks. Spotting can cause some women to think they have just had a light period and aren’t pregnant.
: Though it may seem like a bad sign, light bleeding (spotting) can be a sign that your embryo has implanted in the lining of your uterus. Implantation takes place several days after conception. Implantation bleeding will look like small drops of blood or a brownish discharge from the vagina. It can start around the time of your regular period and can last for a few days to a few weeks. Spotting can cause some women to think they have just had a light period and aren’t pregnant. Food cravings, constant hunger and food aversions : Food can be complicated during early pregnancy. Some women begin to crave certain foods or feel constantly hungry. While some foods and flavors may seem wonderful in early pregnancy, others might suddenly taste unpleasant. Food aversions can happen throughout pregnancy, making you dislike things you previously enjoyed.
: Food can be complicated during early pregnancy. Some women begin to crave certain foods or feel constantly hungry. While some foods and flavors may seem wonderful in early pregnancy, others might suddenly taste unpleasant. Food aversions can happen throughout pregnancy, making you dislike things you previously enjoyed. Metallic taste in your mouth : Many women say that they experience a metallic taste in their mouths during the early stages of pregnancy. It may taste like you have a pile of coins in your mouth. This can happen when you eat certain foods or randomly throughout the day.
: Many women say that they experience a metallic taste in their mouths during the early stages of pregnancy. It may taste like you have a pile of coins in your mouth. This can happen when you eat certain foods or randomly throughout the day. Headaches and dizziness : Headaches and the feelings of lightheadedness and dizziness are common during early pregnancy. This happens because of both the hormonal changes in your body and your increasing blood volume.
: Headaches and the feelings of lightheadedness and dizziness are common during early pregnancy. This happens because of both the hormonal changes in your body and your increasing blood volume. Cramping: You can also experience cramps that might feel like your period is about to start. If these cramps are felt mainly on one side of your body or are severe, it’s important to contact your healthcare provider immediately. This could be a sign of an ectopic pregnancy or other complication.
You can also experience cramps that might feel like your period is about to start. If these cramps are felt mainly on one side of your body or are severe, it’s important to contact your healthcare provider immediately. This could be a sign of an ectopic pregnancy or other complication. Mood swings: As your hormones continue to change, you could experience mood swings. This is normal and can happen throughout pregnancy. However, if you ever feel anxious, depressed or have thoughts of harming yourself, it’s important to reach out to your healthcare provider.
Could I have the symptoms of early pregnancy and not be pregnant?
Many of the symptoms of early pregnancy overlap with other medical conditions, as well as your typical menstrual cycle. Premenstrual symptoms can be very similar to pregnancy symptoms. This can make it difficult to tell the difference. You can also miss a period without being pregnant. This can happen when you exercise in extreme amounts, lose or gain a lot of weight, or even are stressed. Breastfeeding can also cause your period to stop for a while.
The best way to know you’re pregnant is to take a pregnancy test. If you have missed a period and think there’s a chance you could be pregnant, consider taking a test.
When should I call my doctor about a new pregnancy?
If you have missed a period, taken a pregnancy test and gotten a positive result, your next step will be to call your healthcare provider for your first appointment. While scheduling, your provider may ask if you have already started taking a prenatal vitamin with at least 400mcg of folic acid. These vitamins are important in early pregnancy because they help in the development of your baby’s neural tube. The neural tube will become the brain and spine. Many healthcare providers recommend that any women who could become pregnant take folic acid at all times.
If you are planning a pregnancy, a preconception appointment with your healthcare provider is a good place to start. A preconception appointment is especially important if you take medication for a chronic illness or have other medical conditions like diabetes, hypertension or lupus.
During this appointment, your provider will discuss any current medical conditions, as well as your general health before pregnancy. This appointment is meant to get you into the best place for a new pregnancy. | https://medium.com/@faysalimbrador/am-i-pregnant-5d836d113312 | [] | 2021-06-17 15:16:24.778000+00:00 | ['Baby', 'Dads', 'Son', 'Mom', 'Child'] |
An Intuitive Approach to Linear Regression | Note, this article focuses more behind the mathematics of linear regression. You will need to understand the basics of partial derivatives and some linear algebra. If you are not too comfortable with these topics, bookmark this article, watch some Khan Academy videos and then have a read. You’ll thank me later.
Have you ever felt like you never properly understood gradient descent, regression or loss functions? Did you brush these concepts aside and focus all on the coding? Yeah, me too.
To understand what’s going on behind the algorithms, we must consider the math. I’ll be honest; machine learning mathematics is difficult. However, once we break down each concept and take a step-by-step approach, it will feel like a new world of understanding just emerged!
Today we will look at a simple linear regression model to grasp all of the math going on behind the scenes. Let’s get started, shall we?
What is Linear Regression
Regression is a form of predictive analysis that examines the relationship between one or more independent variables to a dependent variable. It’s basically like functions: some value of x is inputted, that value is manipulated through certain coefficients like a slope or intercept, and finally another value is outputted.
Linear regression is a technique that is used when the shape of the dataset best resembles a straight line.
There are several use cases for linear regression. For instance, it can be used to predict the sales of a product, pricing, performance, or the salaries of prospected employees.
In fact we will learn about one of its applications today with a challenge proposed by Toby Flenderson of Dunder Mifflin.
Toby is having a hard time deciding the perfect employee to hire after meeting several people at a job fair. To gain some more insight, Toby asked us to use machine learning to help him predict the salaries of various employees. He has provided us a dataset consisting of the years of experience and salary for previous employees at Dunder Mifflin.
Our goal for this challenge is to find the equation of a line that will best fit the datapoints so that we can make accurate predictions of the salaries for new employees. Let’s take a step by step approach and see how we can solve this problem.
1. Examine the Dataset
Since we are only dealing with one feature (years of experience), we will be able to visualize our graph on a two dimensional plane.
We can clearly see that the data points follow a linear fashion. For this reason, linear regression is the best model to use for this dataset.
Unfortunately, most datasets usually won’t consist of only one or two features. Instead, it will include several features (x1, x2, x3…xn), thus turning the problem’s scope into a multi-dimensional one. For this reason, it becomes difficult to visualize the dataset. You will find yourself skipping this step most of the time since we cannot visualize anything past 3D.
2. Define your model
Remember y = mx + b? Yes, this equation will be the basis for our model with only a minor change in the name of the variables: the slope coefficient is usually captured in the matrix/vector called W and the intercept as the bias.
short form equation (source)
Why is W a vector you might ask? If our dataset had multiple features, then multiple weights will be assigned to those features. For this reason, all of the weights are usually captured in a vector to make the equation more concise. For example, the linear equation for a dataset with two features in long form will look like this:
But because Toby gave us only one feature (years of experience), we will leave w as a scalar value since there is only one weight value to be multiplied.
3. Define a Loss Function (MSE)
Ok we now know the general equation for a line. But we have no idea what weight and bias will give us the best fitting line. How can we find that?
What if we tried setting a completely random weight and bias for our line? What if there was a way to calculate the difference between the actual point on our dataset and the predicted points on our line? Well, there is! Behold the loss function:
A loss function allows us to calculate the error between our current model to the actual points in our dataset. In other words, it tells us how poorly our model is performing.
For Linear Regression, The Mean Squared Error (MSE) loss function is used. Essentially, the MSE measures the average of the squared residuals (the difference between actual and predicted values). To get a more intuitive understanding, let’s dive deeper into what each variable means.
Y = the actual data point
ŷ (pronounced y hat) = the predicted data point
n = the total amount of data points
The MSE function operates as follows:
calculates the sum of the Euclidean distances between the actual (Y) and predicted value (ŷ) squares the distance in order to get rid of any negative signs divides the sum of squares by the number of elements in our dataset (this step is done due to machine learning convention)
The key idea to note here is that the difference between Y and Y hat will give us a quantitative measure for how bad our current model is performing.
Let’s see our MSE function in action! I’ll pick 3 for our random weight value and 4 for our random bias value to calculate the MSE.
The Error for our current model with a random weight and bias
blue — actual value; Red — predicted line of best fit
Yikes! Toby will not be happy with this model. As you can see the error we received is extremely large (6.5 * 10⁹). It makes sense since the distance between the points on the line and the actual points vary greatly. But this is a decent start.
The next question we should ask is that how can we lower our error value? It would make sense to choose the weights and biases gives us the least error possible right?
Some calculus minds might be jumping onto the idea of taking the first derivative test, but hold your horses. Let’s take this idea a bit farther into the next step. Let’s talk about optimization.
4. Apply Gradient Descent (GD)
Ah! A concept that seems incredibly daunting to the untrained eye. But don’t worry, we will go through each step slowly to ensure we get maximum understanding.
Gradient Descent is an iterative optimization algorithm that finds the local minimum of a differentiable function. In other words, Gradient Descent will find a local minimum in our MSE Loss Function.
Why do we need to find a local minimum? That’s because it will tell us the optimal weight and bias used to acquire a low error value. We will then use that weight and bias in our final equation for our line of best fit.
Right now let’s focus again on our error function. Remember quadratics? let’s say we have this function:
Doesn’t this look a lot like our MSE function?
Aha! The MSE function indeed has a quadratic shape. This will allow us to perfectly visualize the process of gradient descent.
Think of a ball rolling down a hill. After the ball reaches the valley, it stops moving. Gradient descent is all about finding this sweetspot in this valley which would give us the minimum MSE value. But what if we couldn’t visually see the graph due to high dimensionality? Then, all you have to consider is the sign of the gradient.
If the gradient is positive at the point where the ball lies, then it must move left to get closer to a valley
at the point where the ball lies, then it must to get closer to a valley If the gradient is negative, then the ball must move right to get closer to the valley
Do you remember how we find the slope of a non-linear graph?
Yes, derivatives!
For those who are not familiar with derivatives yet, all you need to know for right now is that derivatives allow us to find the slope of a non-linear graph at any instantaneous point. After finding the derivative, we will check for where the slope is zero and that will signify that we reached a local max/min. In our case we are searching for a local minimum in our MSE function since we are trying to minimize our error.
You might be asking, why can’t we directly find the global minimum through the first derivative test? What if we get stuck in a valley that is not the global minimum? Why move inch by inch through gradient descent?
If we had constant weights and biases, then finding the absolute minimum would be a no brainer. However, because our weights and biases are constantly changing, it’s extremely difficult to find it. But ninety percent of the time, finding a local minimum does the job well, unless the error is significantly large.
To find a local minimum, we must first differentiate our MSE function with respect to the weight and the bias.
Original Equation
Expand Y^:
Expanded form
Differentiate with respect to w:
Hint — use the chain rule and constant rule.
differentiation process
Simplify:
gradient with respect to w
Next apply the same process for differentiating with respect to b
gradient with respect to b
Great now we can compute the gradients by plugging in the values for Y and Y^!
gradient value with respect to w
gradient value with respect to b
5. Update the weight and bias (Still GD)
After finding the gradients, we will use the following two equations to update our weight and bias:
updating our weight
updating our bias
Why do we subtract?
Because subtracting guides the model in the direction of the local minimum.
Remember if the gradient is (+) we go left (-)
if the gradient is (-) we go right (+)
2. L refers to the learning rate.
To understand the learning rate, let’s analyze a man climbing down a mountain.
When the man is steeply approaching downhill, he takes bigger steps to reach the bottom faster. However, as he approaches closer to the valley, he decreases his step size to ensure that he doesn’t overstep and end up on the other side of the mountain.
What we basically observed is that the man’s speed is proportional to the slope of the mountain.
This part is key for understanding the learning rate.
Usually the learning rate is defined to be a small number (e.g 0.001) to ensure that the regression model doesn’t overstep and create more error when adjusting the weights and biases. And since L is multiplied to the gradients, the behavior of adjusting the weight and bias will be similar that of the man climbing down this mountain.
Let’s adjust!
adjusting the value for w
adjusting the value for b
As you can see, because we had both negative gradients for w and b, our adjusted weight and bias are greater than the original ones (shifting right). This is a clear indicator that our model is headed in the right direction.
This process was one iteration of gradient descent. However, we are not done yet. Our model only improved slightly, but it’s still garbage. We want to make Toby proud not more depressed. There is one more thing we must do.
6. Perform Multiple Epochs
An epoch is the machine learning definition of iterating through the whole dataset, calculating the loss function, and performing gradient descent.
Since Gradient descent works in small stages, we will need multiple epochs to start seeing noticeable improvement in our linear regression model.
Let’s apply gradient descent 10 more times!
10 epochs
Nice! Looking better. How about 15 more times?
25 epochs
Wow! Ok lets bump it up to a 300 epochs (By the way don’t try this by hand. Use code)
Jackpot! This looks like the line of best fit.
To ensure we have the least error, let’s use our MSE function again.
Our error decreased from 1.5 * 10⁹ to 3,127,096. That is a 99.7% decrease! Even though this value might still look large, keep in mind the scale of the salary axis and the overall spread of the points. If the actual points were packed even more closer to each other, we would receive an even smaller error.
You might ask, what if we keep increasing the number of epochs? This is possible, but after a certain point the decrease in error will become extremely small and insignificant. It could also lead to overfitting or even increasing our error (overstepping). For our model, the error we received is completely acceptable. Our model has reached a local minimum.
Here we visually observe the process of running multiple epochs:
7. Choose the Optimum Weight and Bias
After running multiple epochs and acquiring an optimum error value, this is a good indicator that the current weight and bias will provide us the line of best fit for our model. Let’s find out what they are!
w = 9449.9623
b = 25792.2002
Therefore, the final equation for our model is…
optimal equation for our model
Graph of our equation
There you have it! Toby can now use this linear regression model to accurately predict the salary of a prospected employee based on his/her years of work experience.
Toby will be extremely proud!
Key Takeaways | https://medium.com/swlh/an-intuitive-approach-to-linear-regression-b127da628e45 | ['Tawsif Kamal'] | 2020-10-28 00:59:10.495000+00:00 | ['Regression', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Deep Learning', 'Neural Networks', 'Machine Learning'] |
Pro-choice Woman Talks about her “Brutal” Abortion Experience | On July 2, the New York Times ran an article by a young woman who had an abortion. Lisa Selin Davis, a self-proclaimed feminist, describes an abortion she had in the mid-90s. A gung ho pro-choicer, she did not expect her abortion to be difficult or upsetting.
Pregnant from a relationship with a married man, Davis had no qualms about getting an abortion:
This [abortion decision] didn’t seem as big a problem to me as it might have for other young women. This was the mid-1990s. Reared on protest marches, I had a NOW poster affixed to my bedroom wall. I was an unwavering believer in the fierce rhetoric of pro-choice. And now: a poster child.
She even saw the abortion is an artistic opportunity. She says, “In addition, in college I had essentially majored in experimental feminist video. I could make art out of anything.”
Davis called her boss, who referred her to an abortion clinic. Though slightly put off by the price of the abortion ($350) Davis seemed to be excited about the opportunity to have an abortion and make her film:
The money intimidated me but the mission didn’t. Not only was this the right I’d marched for, it was an opportunity. It could provide material for the kinds of film I’d voraciously consumed in college, in which women transformed their most traumatic experiences into emotionally stirring and awareness-raising images: Margie Strosser’s “Rape Stories” or “The Body Beautiful” by Ngozi Onwurah, about a mother undergoing a radical mastectomy. An abortion today, a debut at Sundance tomorrow.
So, dreaming of fame, she eagerly set forth to take advantage of her “right to choose.”
She hired a driver, and when he found out she was having an abortion, he pleaded with her to reconsider.
Davis relays the conversation:
“I have to go to the doctor,” I kept telling him. “Why? You don’t look sick.” “I have to have a procedure.” “What? What procedure?” Finally, I told him. Why not? I was proud and un-conflicted. I was exercising my right. I was making a video. He pulled over to the side of the road, right there on the Brooklyn Bridge — not only illegal but dangerous. “Please don’t kill the baby,” he said. “Please don’t kill the baby.” “What are you doing?” “Don’t kill the baby.” He wouldn’t move the car, though horns blared all around us. “Keep driving! I have an appointment!” I shook his headrest. This was not part of the script. “Please don’t kill the baby,” he said again, turning around to face me. He had beautiful big brown eyes — almost black. “I will take care of you and the baby. I work two jobs.” “Drive,” I told him. “You are going by yourself?” he asked. I said, “Drive.” He drove.
Davis squandered the opportunity to change her mind and rebuffed the cabdriver’s offer of help. She was still determined to have her abortion, still viewing it as a feminist right and a creative opportunity. When she got to the clinic:
At the clinic’s counter, the receptionist asked me what I’d come for. I said, “Um …” “Termination of pregnancy?” she asked in her best would-you-like-fries-with-that voice. I nodded.
Davis then says:
They gave me pamphlets, a paper gown and paper slippers. They sat me in a room filled with women, one of whom told me she’d been there eight times before. “They used to have terry cloth,” she said, lifting her toes in the paper slippers. It had never occurred to me that people had serial abortions, but it confirmed my expectations: abortion — safe, legal, no big deal.
Yet the stark reality of the situation, the indifference of the clinic worker, and the despair of the women around her began to trouble Davis. She began to question whether her abortion would really be such an easy thing to go through:
Yet as I looked around the room, my expectations began to shift. This wasn’t the liberating environment I’d expected to enter. The uncomplicated message of those protests led me to think that legal abortion would be light. Lite. I wasn’t prepared for the saturnine cloudiness of the room, all those sad-looking women burying their faces in tabloid magazines. The video camera stayed sleeping in my lap.
Davis originally asked to have local anesthesia, but the clinic told her they did not allow it. When she told them that she wanted to film her abortion, they told her at once that it would not be possible. Taping an abortion was not permitted “for legal reasons.”
One wonders what those “legal reasons” were. With the clinic trying to hide the reality of the procedure from Davis? Were they trying to hide the gruesome and grisly nature of abortion from their patients and from the public? They did not want anyone to see the operation.
Davis never says how far along she was, but at just seven weeks the unborn baby has fingers and toes. After an abortion, the baby, even at this early stage, is ripped apart and leaves behind recognizable body parts. So it is not surprising that the clinic workers wanted to hide the gruesome details from Davis and her potential audience.
The clinic offered no counseling to Davis, no opportunity to examine her motives. They did not ask her if she was sure abortion was what she wanted to do; they did not inform her about fetal development or the emotional and physical risks of the procedure, they didn’t explain to her what her options were. There did not seem to be any “informed consent.”
Davis describes being prepped for the procedure. She says, “My hands shook, the camera wobbling in my grasp. I was freezing inside my paper gown.”
She describes how she felt when she woke up, her baby gone:
The first thing I thought when I awoke from the anesthesia was that I’d never be pregnant again, that I had just squandered my only chance at motherhood. I was sobbing — I had arisen from the depths of the medication this way — as they rolled me into the recovery room where the other women were lying, almost all of them with a friend or partner or relative to brush their hair back or offer them ice chips. I could not stop crying, big heaves and gulps of it. The nurse came over at first to soothe me and then to quiet me. “You’re upsetting the other girls,” she said. “It hurts.” She sent the doctor over. “Sometimes we have to massage the womb,” he said, inserting his hand inside me and pressing. This did not stop the crying, but eventually it stopped the pain.
Despite going in with a gung ho pro-choice attitude, Davis had come to realize that abortion was not an easy thing for a woman to go through. She calls abortion a “brutal choice.”
Or, at least, it stopped the physical pain. The begging cabdriver and the woman on her ninth abortion and the shocking suction in my womb: It was too traumatic for me to make art of. Or maybe it was just that I wasn’t a good enough artist to transform that level of trauma into something that others could learn from and use. I had been taught that a woman’s right to choose was the most important thing to fight for, but I hadn’t known what a brutal choice it was.
Davis says that when she got home, her hands were still shaking.
This “brutal choice,” which Davis had fought for and believed in, still seems to haunt her 20 years later. She remains pro-choice, however:
Abortion rights, yes, I’ll always support them, but even all these years later, I wish the motto wasn’t “Never again,” but “Avoid this if there’s any way you possibly can, even if it’s legal, because it’s awful.”
She wishes her pro-choice friends had prepared her for how difficult the abortion would be:
I wish that someone had alerted me to the harshness of the experience, acknowledged the layers of regret that built and fell away as the months and years passed. I want my daughters to have the option of safe and legal abortion, of course. I just don’t want them to have to use it.
Davis’s story conveys the tragic impact abortion can have even on a woman who goes into the clinic without doubts or ambivalence. Deep down, Davis may have known that her baby had been taken away from her. Two decades later, she remembers her abortion as a traumatic experience in her life.
I am reminded of this quote by a clinic worker named Steph Herold. The quote was in the book Generation Roe: inside the Future of the Pro-Choice Movement by Sarah Erdreich. Herold was venting her frustration that most of her patients did not become proabortion activists:
We need our patients, who we do everything for, to stand up for us. We don’t need them to tell their abortion stories to everyone they know, although of course that would be great. We need them to fight for abortion access in whatever way makes sense to them. If one in 3 US women has an abortion by age 45, where are these women? Why don’t they stand up for us?
While the one in three statistic isn’t accurate, it is true that many women have abortions, and that most of these women do not go on to become hard-core pro-choice activists.
Many women end up regretting their abortions, and even those that never admit to post-abortion regret seem to want to put the experience behind them. They want to forget about their abortions; they do not become diehard abortion rights advocates (though of course there are exceptions).
Herold seems hardened to the reality of abortion, unaware of how difficult and traumatic it can be for women. She is frustrated that more post-abortion women do not rally to the pro-choice cause — and, in her frustration, doesn’t acknowledge the possibility that many of her patients may have found their abortions to be traumatic and difficult.
Davis’s article shows that abortion can be a very negative experience for a woman to go through, even if she is pro-choice. | https://medium.com/the-secular-seamless-garment/pro-choice-woman-talks-about-her-brutal-abortion-experience-7c208e775e45 | ['Sarah Terzo'] | 2020-12-03 01:37:52.341000+00:00 | ['Abortion', 'Pro Life', 'Pro Choice', 'Feminism', 'Women'] |
[Newsletter] Vitamin K clots blood but unclogs our brain slowing its aging — new research | [Newsletter] Vitamin K clots blood but unclogs our brain slowing its aging — new research
Plus, getting to know your stage-5 banana will help your health
Image by Bailey Garrot
My weekly three best insights from me, Medium and the web to help you live longer better.
Should you stretch before running? Seventy-seven percent of runners answer incorrectly— item #3.
We’re learning more about the importance of gut health every day. Bananas feed our gut. Even better if you know the best stage to eat one— item #2.
Cognitive fitness is essential for living longer better. Vitamin K plays a role in slowing the aging of our brain — keep reading —
From around Medium…
1. Scientists discover that vitamin K doesn’t just help our blood clot
People who regularly ate leafy greens (a prime source of vitamin K) showed slower brain aging and slower mental deterioration than those who did not.
In fact, the difference was equivalent to 11 years of aging!
We can’t synthesise vitamin K — we depend on food. It has two forms — K1 and K2, from different sources.
The dietary sources of K2 (cheese, milk products and meat) differ completely from those of K1 (leafy greens and non-hydrogenated oils).
We need to eat egg yolks and high-fat dairy products to get enough K2. Cheese is an important source and, in particular, bacteria-fermented cheese such as Norwegian Jarlsberg cheese and Swiss Emmental cheese.
You can’t really go wrong by adding leafy greens to your diet along with cheese and a good splash of olive oil.
My post: Vitamin K Keeps Our Brain 11 Years Younger — Study
👉 Here is my collection of posts about food which will help you.
2. Stage-5 bananas boost our gut health — that’s good
This week I learnt a lot about bananas from Corinne Kocher and her post — What Does a Stage 5 Banana Mean? It’s an insightful post about what drives the logistics chain between the farmer and the supermarket display.
However, my specific interest was in what a “stage 5” banana looks like, and Google found me the perfect answer, from Corinne.
There is an internationally-accepted, 7-stage banana color chart that vendors and retailers use to agree on certain industry banana standards. In general, most US produce departments aim to offer stage 5 bananas: yellow body, green tips. — Corinne Kocher.
Why would I want to know? I’m glad you asked.
Bananas contain fructooligosaccharides and inulin.
These are classified as fibres, and are not digested in the upper gastrointestinal tract (therefore, they have a reduced caloric value). They stimulate the growth of intestinal bifidobacteria, which in turn are responsible for cardiovascular and many other benefits.
Stage 5 bananas have the highest content of these starches compared to other stages of ripeness.
What this means for us: You can buy tablets with fructooligosaccharides and inulin. But I believe that real food is the best way to improve your diet and health, and bananas are an all-round healthy choice: yellow body, green tips.
The article: What Does a Stage 5 Banana Mean?
Related: Your Gut Is Stopping Your Losing Weight — It’s Not Your Fault
From the web …
3. Stretch before running? When the wisdom of the crowd fails
Forty years ago Japanese sports scientists established that athletes who stretched before competing suffered more injuries than those who did not.
Poll Runnersworld.com July 2020 | Image Credit Runtastic.com
Yet bizarrely, a recent poll at Runnersworld.com found that 77% of respondents believe that stretching is an important part of warming up. I guess that you only have to go to any gym and to see how this mistaken belief is perpetuated.
What this means for us: The Japanese scientists found that, in contrast to stretching, warming-up before competing reduced injuries.
I run every day, and I warm up with about ten minutes of mobility exercises. I stretch when I finish. I don’t believe I would be able to run daily for more than a year and remain injury-free without warming up first and stretching afterwards.
The Runners World Article: Should I Stretch Before Or After My Runs?
Related: Have a Better Shorter Warm-up With This 3D Dynamic Stretch For Your Hips, Ankles and Lower Back
Questions, just HIT REPLY, love to hear from you.
Wishing you a safe and active week,
Walter ⭑Keep Moving⭑ Adamson ⭑Top Food Writer⭑
Never miss a chance to live longer better — sign up for 👉 my weekly four best tips from a week’s reading — newsletter.walteradamson.com | https://medium.com/body-age-buster/vitamin-k-clots-blood-but-unclogs-our-brain-slowing-its-aging-new-research-f6f4001eeb3e | ['Walter Adamson'] | 2020-12-07 06:15:47.429000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Stretching', 'Food', 'Newsletter', 'Running'] |
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