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Implementing a Trading Algorithm with R | This story explains how to implement the moving average trading algorithm with R. If you’re interested in setting up your automated trading pipeline, you should first read this article. This story is a purely technical guide focusing on programming and statistics, not financial advice.
Throughout this story, we will build an R function which takes historical stock data and arbitrary threshold as inputs and based on it decides whether it is a good time to purchase given stock. We will look at Apple stocks. This article may require a certain level of statistical knowledge. University level introduction to statistics modules should be sufficient.
1. Moving-average algorithm
The moving average trading algorithm takes an advantage of fluctuations around the stocks trend. We first identify if the slope of the given time series is positive. For simplicity we designed this algorithm to work only for positively trending stocks. We then detrend the historical time series, check if the most recent fluctuation is above, or below moving average. If the current price is below moving average and we don’t have the stock in our holdings, we buy the stock. If it’s above moving average and the stock is currently in our holdings we sell the stock.
Figure 1 represents the closing price of Apple stock in the past 50 days. We detrend this time-series, so that the red dotted line is aligned with the x-axis.
Fig 1: Apple stock closing price (USD)
Figure 2 represents the detrended Apple stock for the past 50 days. Detrended time series looks stationary, that is it has constant mean and variance. If we wanted to be very rigorous, we could test for stationarity to make sure that it has desirable properties. We choose the arbitrary threshold to be +-5%. We purchase the stock if its 5 days average is 5% below the detrended time series, and sell it if it’s 5% above detrended time series. If the trade is successful, we gain 10% + any increase along the trend within this period.
Fig 2: Residuals of APPL stock time-series after detrending
2. Code Implementation
Photo by Kevin Ku on Unsplash
The function takes 2 inputs. Historic data from Yahoo’s API and arbitrary threshold for buying/selling the stock.
moving_average_model <- function( data, trend_deviation_treshold = -5) { … }
We then access our current holdings to check which stocks we have purchased in the past. Below, we check if we currently hold Apple stocks in our portfolio.
holdings <- current_holdings() if ((holdings %>% filter(stock == "APPL"))$stock == "APPL") { stock_in_portfolio = TRUE } else { stock_in_portfolio = FALSE }
We then declare the historic data as a data frame, transform row names including date into a separate column, consider only closing price and dates in the past 70 days (about 50 working days when the stock market is open). Finally, we create an additional column which gives each day a number. Most recent day will have the highest number.
data <- as.data.frame(data) %>% tibble::rownames_to_column("date") data_close <- data %>% select(date, close = AAPL.Close) %>% filter(date > as.Date(Sys.Date() - 70)) %>% arrange(date) %>% mutate(day_number = row_number())
Next step is detrending the time series. We have created a variable with increasing numbers for each date above. If we were to treat this as a separate variable and plot it agains date, this would form a straight line. Hence, we can use this variable for detrending. If we regress the stock price on this variable, this would de trend the time series. We then could work on residuals from the regression to determine if the current price is above or below the moving average.
formula <- close ~ day_number regression_model <- lm( formula = formula, data = data_close )
You may note that we do not suppress the constant term, nor consider that during further analysis. We simply care about the position of current price relative to the average. Hence, we may only analyse residuals.
recent_5 <- residual_values %>% rename("residual" = "regression_model$residuals") %>% filter(day_number > max(day_number) - 6) %>% summarise(close_mean = mean(residual, na.rm = TRUE))
First of all, we compute the average closing mean for the most recent 5 working days.
recent_5_50 <- residual_values %>% rename("residual" = "regression_model$residuals") %>% filter(day_number <= max(day_number) - 6) %>% summarise(close_mean = mean(residual, na.rm = TRUE))
We then compute the mean in the past 5 to 50 working days. Next, we compute the deviation of the average of the most recent 5 days to the average of 6 to 50 working days.
trend_deviation <- ( (recent_5$close_mean - recent_5_50$close_mean) / recent_5_50$close_mean ) * 100
We purchase the stock if the current deviation of the past 5 days is below 5 to 50 days. If we already have APPLE stock in our holdings, we sell the stock if the deviation is above threshold. We also check every time that the time-series of a given stock has a positive slope.
if ( trend_deviation < trend_deviation_treshold & regression_model$coefficients[[2]] > 0 & stock_in_portfolio == FALSE ) { decision_sell <- FALSE decision_buy <- TRUE } else if ( trend_deviation > -trend_deviation_treshold & regression_model$coefficients[[2]] > 0 & stock_in_portfolio == TRUE ) { decision_sell <- TRUE decision_buy <- FALSE }
The last step is creating a data frame, recording details of decisions made by the algorithm. We create a unique id including name of stock and date, record a run_date, the date stock price has been accessed, stock name, closing price of a given stock, computed trend deviation, threshold chosen by us, 5 days and 45 days average, decision to buy, and decision to sell.
output <- data.frame( id = paste0("APPL-", Sys.Date()), run_time = as.character(Sys.time()), stock_date = (data %>% filter(date == max(date)))$date, stock = "APPL", close_price = (data %>% filter(date == max(date)))$AAPL.Close, trend_deviation = trend_deviation, threshold = trend_deviation_treshold, recent_5_avg = recent_5$close_mean, recent_5_50_avg = recent_5_50$close_mean, decision_buy = decision_buy, decision_sell = decision_sell )
3. Summary
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
We have implemented the moving average trading strategy using R. We simply looked at the historical data of a given stock, checked if it has a positive trend, computed the current average trend deviation and made a decision based on that.
We then call this algorithm in our main trading pipeline, and record details of this decision into google sheets.
In the future, I will extend the above algorithm to multiple stocks, so that we can provide a list of stocks we’re interested in and the algorithm/pipeline automatically trades them. We could also include additional sanity checks of the inputs, and stationarity checks to make sure that the detrended time-series has desirable properties.
Note from Towards Data Science’s editors: While we allow independent authors to publish articles in accordance with our rules and guidelines, we do not endorse each author’s contribution. You should not rely on an author’s works without seeking professional advice. See our Reader Terms for details.
Appendix
Full code for the moving-average trading function | https://towardsdatascience.com/implementing-a-trading-algorithm-with-r-315a175538bd | ['Adam Gajtkowski'] | 2020-09-16 23:19:01.619000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Statistics', 'Programming', 'Trading', 'Algorithmic Trading'] |
The Coming CX/UX Correction and Shift | Expanding from my previous article on my 2-year prediction for how UX has already started splitting and will continue to split…
The Great Correction :) looks like this:
1: There are really two types/buckets of jobs in our CX/UX/UI/XD/whatever-you’re-calling-it world.
Job A is typically an order taker and production designer to “just make wireframes.” Job A might believe that “defining the problem” or “understanding customers” is a day of sticky notes in a design thinking workshop or design sprint. Job A is solution-focused. Don’t focus on the problem too much. We need those solutions! Engineering will get them to the public, and then Marketing can tell us if people like them.
Job B is a problem finder and problem solver to look at solid qualitative research (or do the research first) and go from there. Job B wants to do 200+ hours of observational and interview research and analysis… or work from it to be research-informed. R&D, R before D, business and customer intelligence from qualitative research before we shoot for solutions. You have to deeply understand people, problems, systems, environments, and more before you can hope to come up with the right/best solutions.
That will split the production designers (Job A) from the people who I like to call The Children of Don Norman (Job B). We need both of these jobs and the workers who tend to prefer each. There are places for both of these people in all companies.
Our industry is headed in two directions at once. You will need to pick your path. Photo from DepositPhotos.com showing paths in the woods splitting and going different ways.
2: The personalities required for Jobs A and B are different.
Job A typically needs highly talented and creative people who are happy to take expert care of what’s being asked of them. They feel rewarded when they can complete concrete work expected of them. Job A workers are less likely to challenge teammates’ assumptions or ideas; that type of challenging isn’t really part of the job. Job A workers might hear:
Here’s a list of requirements. Please make the best screens that match them.
Please wireframe the Product Manager’s idea.
Here’s the winning idea from a design sprint, Lean UX, or some other design by committee adventure. Please clean it up and improve it.
Please get us some screens (even though we don’t have good or any research and might not do any usability testing).
Surveys or NPS told us this, so please come up with some fixes (research and/or testing not required).
Conversions are down, so please make a better landing page (research and/or testing not required).
We know our customers, we know their problems, let’s just find fast solutions so Engineering can get them out. Then we’ll learn if they were the right solutions.
Job B typically needs highly talented and creative people who don’t want to “take orders” or “just make a thing.” These personalities are typically change agents, whistleblowers, advocates, and standing up against the status quo. Critical thinking and challenging assumptions are required. Teammates and managers might tell them:
We should create strategies and initiatives based on the business intelligence that deep customer research can provide.
Before we decide on features, we need to better understand customers and the market to decide what we should or shouldn’t build.
We shouldn’t wireframe or prototype anything without being informed by well-executed and well-analyzed observational and/or interview research.
Products and features that don’t match customers well are risky and wasteful for our business. Let’s make sure we are thoroughly researching, architecting, and testing before Engineering spends weeks or months pushing it out.
Customers don’t want minimally viable anything. How do we prioritize the most important features or changes based on real user tasks, workarounds, knowledge, and obstacles?
You get the picture.
This is why Job A is unlikely to be a starting point or gateway drug into Job B. Very often, different personalities gravitate to each job. Therefore, there’s nothing wrong with being a Senior Job A or Lead Job A who never wants to do Job B, and just wants to keep rising in the ranks of Job A. Both jobs require skill and talent, but they are somewhat different skills and talents.
There’s nothing wrong with a Job B personality who never wants to do Job A, not even as an entry-level job. Please see my February 2020 Medium article, “No, We Don’t Want To Make UX Juniors Be Production Designers,” which was a response to some (typically) bad advice from Jared Spool. He seems to think that Job A is a great place for Job B people to start, and I burn that to the ground, in detail.
Quick side note: an early version of the Job A/B concept is in my 2019 “Delta CX” book. I called Job A “Order Takers” and I called Job B “Interface Scientists.
3: The requirements for each job are fairly different. A and B candidates are assessed differently.
Job A wants X years of Figma or Sketch. You must know “how to wireframe.” Visual design portfolio required. You will be assessed by how pretty screens are. You might not be asked about process since it’s all really about using the right software and tools to produce the work quickly.
Job B might specify tools, but they will be way more hung up on the level of proficiency you show with each of your required skills. Assessing for process, approach, methodology, and the critical thinking going into those will be at the core of determining if this candidate is a fit. Employers will want to check that you have studied cognitive psych, human behavior, and/or behavioral economics. Perhaps anthropology. Accessibility training is a must, not a nice to have.
If you’re a researcher, they will want to assess how you plan, recruit, execute, and analyze research. Why do you choose certain methodologies over others?
If you’re more on the architecture and design side, they will want to see portfolio work that shows you understand information architecture, good visual hierarchy, heuristics, trust signals, interaction design best practices, etc. How did you use research insights to inform interaction designs?
4: Education for A and B are different.
If Job A mostly requires X years of Figma and a visual design portfolio, then every bootcamp is OVER-TEACHING you. You don’t need 12 weeks of anything to push out Figma things you think are nice. You don’t need months of a bootcamp or a long online course to tell you how to “design” what other teammates want to see. Learn Figma, be good at visual design (formal education is optional), get it done!
Bootcamps could instead teach you how to be a good cog in the fake Agile wheel. Or maybe someone can make a video series on that, and you don’t need a bootcamp.
Job B will require actual education and practice. It might be university education. It might be bootcamp education. It might be years of education and not weeks. It will focus on core principles, critical thinking, and problem finding before problem solving. It will require apprenticeships so that you are trained on the job by leaders and experts with many years of experience. You will have to level up a bit before you are left to do this work without oversight and without tough love work reviews.
In that case, every current bootcamp and sadly many other programs and uni degrees fall way short. They’re not getting you ready for Job B. Not even close.
This is where the correction starts happening.
We now have to correct for all of the people who took bootcamps, self studied, and got “certified” under a “previous” educational system that was mostly designed to create Job A workers. Hey, just get upskilled really fast and fill seats. Companies need people who say they do UX! You’ll get a job fast.
The industry will have to correct for all of these people who were sold the promise of a fast path to big salaries and a good job. When we have Job A and Job B more clearly defined, and we have standards for what you need to learn to do each, educational systems will have to change. Programs will have to specifically make you ready for Job A or Job B. Job A’s core education might be “learn Figma fast” or “mini art school bootcamp.” Job B’s core education might be years of a more intense program with a one-year paid apprenticeship at the end.
The correction also has to happen in workplaces.
Companies will need to figure out who they really have… Job A workers or Job B workers… and which ones do they really want. Which ones match the processes and priorities at this company? Are we customer-centric? Or are we speed over quality? We might have to “correct” for who we hired and how we utilized them.
People faking it (whether or not they eventually make it) wouldn’t be hired for Job B. Faking probably wouldn’t go over well for Job A either. Change agents (accidentally) applying for Job A would be rejected, unlike now where we hire them but try to make them Job A types.
Job descriptions will have to change. How we assess candidates will have to change. We’ll essentially have a whole new category of labor. Well, it’s an old category coming back from being hijacked, compromised, and diluted.
When job descriptions change, there will be a correction for all of the people the previous education system claimed were making “job ready.” Employers already corrected for them by making a junior/entry-level job require at least 1 year of real work experience. That shut the door on those people, but it didn’t stop the flood of them into the market because bootcamps hadn’t changed their sales pitch. It didn’t stop all of the people not ready for Job A trying to get a Job B job.
This is why there will be a series of changes and corrections when Job A and Job B are separated, clearly defined, and have shifted.
5: What we call A and B will then completely diverge.
They can’t both be “UX Design” or “Product Design.”
What are the right terms? I am still working on that. What I do know is that we have to find terms that are hard to hijack, compromise, or redefine later. For example, UX/UI meant Job B until people made it also mean Job A. Product Designer was Job B until people made it also mean Job A. Now we see people with these titles, and we genuinely have no idea if they do Job A or Job B.
Here’s where I am as of mid-July 2021.
We often think this is just a problem for “UX Designers” and “Product Designers,” but it’s a problem for researchers too. Some people calling themselves researchers just want to run surveys, ask stakeholders what we know about customers, or hold a focus group. That won’t match Job B.
Adding words like “knowledge-driven” or “task-based” might not help since Job A might imagine they are both of those. I can see those being hijacked.
I previously suggested that Job A keeps “UX” and Job B uses “CX,” but that’s imperfect. Job A could hijack “CX.” Same for “XD” and “Experience Design.” “Experience Design” isn’t different enough from “User Experience Design” to make anybody understand that someone thinks this is something different.
I’d like to give Job B titles something related to “business intelligence” or “risk mitigation” since that’s at the core of what we’re doing, but there are already jobs with those words. Same for “consumer intelligence” and “customer intelligence.” We don’t want to hijack them!
I am recommending the word “Designer” come out of Job B titles for everybody except visual designers. People hear “designer” and they assume pretty and fonts and brand and colors and please make it pretty. So many who want Job B don’t focus on making things pretty, so it’s not the right term.
“Architect” might be hard to hijack since a production designer might not have a great answer for how they are “architecting” something. I guess they could try to hijack that.
Words related to “Strategy” (strategic, strategist) and words related to “Analysis” (analytical, analyst) are hard to hijack since you can assess a candidate for: are they doing anything strategic or analytical. Job A’s perception of strategy and analysis won’t look anything like Job B’s definition of those words. The problem with calling titles “Strategist” or “Analyst” is that you imagine they are strategizing or analyzing but not necessarily researching or architecting.
Job A Titles
To be clearer and more honest, Job A should have titles like:
Marketing Researcher, for people who mostly want to run surveys, NPS, or focus groups. They would sit under the Marketing department, and have a Marketing manager.
Product(ion) Designer, for people who are doing production design. Keep “UX” and “CX” off these titles. Who manages them is more complex. If you have a department with Job B people, then they are teammates and possibly assistants to the Job B people. They would be managed within that department. If the organization has basically done away with Job B, then Job A people can sit under the Product department, and have a manager from the Product department as their manager.
That would be clear. It would be best to remove “UX” or “UX/UI” from these titles since the user is so rarely involved and so frequently guessed about. It’s not UX without U. It’s typically production design without U.
However, I believe that these jobs will continue to use “UX” since that sounds like prestige and higher pay. “Production Designer” doesn’t have that prestige sound. Therefore, I believe that these jobs should just push towards “Product Designer” so that we can keep the word “design” while making sure they don’t say UX. And most of us will know that Product Designer is short for Production Designer.
For Job B, how about…
Strategic CX Researcher
Strategic CX Architect
Strategic CX Visual Designer
Technically, if we remove CX, UX, and UI from Job A titles, Job B could keep these terms. But that’s hard because of how many years “UX Designer” has meant “production design.” We are unlikely to re-teach companies and co-workers that now a “UX Designer” is not a production designer or order taker. We have trouble explaining that now and getting companies to care about research, good interaction design, testing, and customer outcomes. We also have many Agile coaches, Scrum masters, and engineers who are sure they can “do the UX.”
I suggest we abandon our most misunderstood and hijacked titles, and find something better.
I haven’t decided on the best titles yet. I only know that jobs are really diverging. There are definitely Job A and Job B. You can’t always tell them from the job description (yet), but you can certainly tell them once you’ve been working there a month.
This shines a light on evangelism and how we try to fix the problems at our jobs.
In my May 2021 article, “UX and Evangelism: Undoing What’s Undoing UX,” I talked about how many people have brought in crap methodologies and evangelism to try to fix processes and jobs. With a fresh perspective, we can see that most of the problems at our job probably fall into two categories, stated from the perspectives of the workplace (not you or me):
We don’t understand what UX really is or does. We’re kinda a Job A organization/team. We allow non-CX/UX domains to control UX. Product, Engineering, Marketing, and Business Analysts define what UX is, who can do it, how much time we spend on it, etc. We don’t really need UX people since all of those roles can “do the UX,” but we hire them. It looks good to say we have a UX team, and it gives us someone to do grunt work like wireframes and paper prototypes. Job B people work in our Job A jobs. Those Job B people were either desperate, we sold them a false bill of job description goods, or they read our crappy description of a Job A job, and (like the change agents they are) they figured they could change our company. Even though the job descriptions give them no power or authority to create organizational change, it’s in their blood, and they hoped they could do it.
So what’s next? What do we do now? Other than coming up with better names for Job B, I have 4.5 hours of ad-free content on my YouTube channel on how we get out of this mess. You can find that as a long 2-part series (though you could listen at fast speeds):
Episode 115: Breaking The Addition To Aspirology Workshops — This is about how design thinking, design sprints, Lean UX (which is neither Lean nor UX), democratization, decentralization, and trying to train/upskill/retrofit non-UX roles into doing UX work hurts our profession, jobs, and customer outcomes.
Episode 116: Customer-Centric Agile: Making CX/UX Lean and Agile — This is about the basics of Agile and Lean, and how we can use those principles to improve our work. I cover how certain flavors of Agile and Scrum use pretzel logic to explain why they get to control us, and how our #1 priority needs to get out from under Engineering’s control. I explain how we need to use dual or tri track Agile, and how to staff/build our CX/UX teams to be more Agile and Lean (hint: it’s not one unicorn trying to do all the things in series). And I cover how to speak the business’s language so that you are more likely to be taken seriously, seen as creating value, and eventually get that seat at the table.
While these are on YouTube, the video is secondary. They work pretty well audio-only. You can find the Delta CX podcast in audio-only form, and these episodes through Google Podcasts, iTunes, Spotify, and Audible.
Coming up with better names for our roles won’t really matter if we don’t get out from under Engineering’s control, get ourselves on our own track (as every other domain is), and utilize principles of Agile and Lean (but maybe not the ones you imagine) to improve our work and efficiency.
Need help with any of this? Please contact me and let me know what I can do for your company. I’ve been coming into companies and doing various lengths (including longer and shorter) of the 4.5 hour podcast episodes as private training including Q&A, often for free. I can also help with strategizing a roadmap for creating this change on your teams or at your company. | https://medium.com/delta-cx/the-coming-cx-ux-correction-and-shift-19b23ed8af22 | ['Debbie Levitt'] | 2021-07-18 14:43:47.039000+00:00 | ['Cx', 'UX', 'UX Design', 'Bootcamp', 'Ux Jobs'] |
Python Tricks for Data Science | This image reminds me of df.explode(), probably my favourite pandas method. Credit: Robert Zunikoff
Do you often find yourself scratching your head, trying to remember that really neat bit of pandas code you found two days ago on a stack overflow post? Well, that’s what this article is for — keeping all the syntactic sugar in one place.
This article is full of code I use on a regular basis; it’s a way to keep all my favourite snippets in one place and share it with others. I’ll come back and update this article with new ones and if you’ve found it useful, please feel free to send in other useful suggestions.
How to find the exact location of null values in a pandas dataframe and see the whole row?
# Syntax df[df.isna().any(axis=1)] # Example import pandas as pd
titanic = pd.read_csv(“train.csv”)
titanic[titanic.isna().any(axis=1)]
Comes in handy if you’re trying to see nan values in context with other values in the same row.
How to check for percentages of null values in each column?
This is a pretty fast way to see how bad the damage is in each column of your whole dataframe.
How to check if a column of strings contains any numbers that have been encoded as strings?
# Syntax df[df.column.str.contains("\d+", na=False)] # Example titanic[titanic.Ticket.str.contains("\d+", na=False)]
This is a good one for data cleaning or feature engineering — say you’re trying to get numbers out of a column or replace them.
How to reliably install python packages into a Jupyter notebook?
This is a pretty basic one but I find worth remembering! It’s much handier to fire up your notebook and then install any new dependencies you need in one place.
# Install a pip package in the current Jupyter kernel
import sys
!{sys.executable} -m pip install your-desired-python-package
This installs your desired package into the same python environment you’re using in that notebook.
How to make a correlation matrix much more readable?
I find the default output of seaborn heatmap representations of correlation matrices pretty confusing to read.
Half the output is not necessary and the color scheme isn’t that easy to read on first glance; this is my preferred solution.
It’s also good to round the values and specify the font too!
How to get all possible combinations of a dataframe’s columns?
This one comes in handy if you’re testing a model accuracy and trying to find out how different features affect the model.
It’s pretty processor intensive to do that and generally too automation heavy, but can be useful if you’re interested in honing in on a few specific feature combinations.
How to read in lots of csvs and join them together to create one dataframe?
import os
import glob # Creates a list containing absolute file paths for all csvs in # current working directory sheets = glob.glob(os.path.join(os.getcwd(), "*.csv")) # Use a generator to read in all the csvs as dataframes
# Then join them all together
# This only works if the columns are the same in each csv big_dataframe = pd.concat(pd.read_csv((s)for s in sheets))
This is one I use quite a lot after scraping a website or making an API call that’s rate limited, meaning I’ll write out data to file per API call and at the end will want to join it all together into one dataframe.
How to deal with a column of lists?
The explode method creates a new row with duplicate information for each item in the list, which is pretty nifty.
While this might create some additional new data that you don’t want, it allows you to hit some new data points. In the example above, you could now find out which actors typically get the highest star_rating. | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/python-tricks-for-data-science-fd038ab838a | [] | 2020-12-31 14:10:06.256000+00:00 | ['Tricks', 'Pandas', 'Data Science', 'Python'] |
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Luxury clothing wear for kids- Beautiful mess by Ann | Beautiful mess by Ann is a luxury kids clothing brand based in Bangalore.
Founded by Anita in the year 2016 and then she opened her first flagship store in Bangalore in 2019, she didn't knew that her dream would shape up this way.
Anita was creative since a very young age and she had a huge liking for designs. In her initial days, she started with designer jewellery in diamond and golden ornaments, for which she received accolades from her near and dear ones.
The creative side of her always kept her inclined to do something unique and that's when she came up with 'Beautiful mess by Ann'.
She realized the fact that there is a void in the Indian market in relation to luxury clothing for kids. She, being a shopaholic and her love for kids made her to start off with her new venture.
She designs and curates the clothing herself and makes it super comfortable yet trendy and stylish for kids to wear, exactly the way the Millennial Moms want their kids to dress up.
However, it wasn't an easy journey for Anita since the beginning. They started out sourcing the best materials and then continued with designing and outsourcing. Her passion and dedication to come up with the best everytime was the fuel for her journey. Though her brand was founded in 2016 but she opened up her flagship store on 7th September, 2019 in Kumarapark area of Bangalore; which is one of the biggest landmark in her Entrepreneurial journey.
The interesting part which I found was the name. The name is quite intriguing and thus when enquired Anita told
"My husband and myself decided to keep the name 'Beautiful mess' because kids love to make a mess and thus the name will totally justify the way kids are"
A brand that deals with premium luxury clothing for kids with love and comfort. As we all know, how comfort plays a major role in kidswear.
The main USP of Beautiful Mess by Ann is that the collections are very unique and the designs too are very exclusively made. Sheer meticulousness is shown towards the execution of the work, keeping in mind the comfort of little one making them look stylish and adorable at the same time.
Beautiful designer dress are available from newly born to 10 years old. The clothes are not repetative with trendy and fashionable outlook.
Each designer wear is unique in its own way and has a style statement of its own.
Alongwith clothing, they are also into matching accessories to outfits, variety of stuffed toys, home decor range, gifting options as well.
Anita believes that nothing can inspire you more than your own dreams.
"Small struggles are a part of any business. However, by God's grace my journey has been quite smooth and peaceful. The learnings I have had in the past few years is immense and I am really greatful to the family of Beautiful mess, friends and customers who have appreciated us and has helped us reach where we are today." quotes Anita.
Her immense perseverance and zeal has made the brand reach to customers all across the Globe in such a short span of time.
I have linked the social media handles (i.e Instagram and Facebook) so that you can go through the collection and order one for the jolly little one in your family or you can also gift someone whom you love. | https://medium.com/@stamanna/luxury-clothing-wear-for-kids-beautiful-mess-by-ann-fce342e7f9f1 | ['Tamanna Sharma'] | 2020-12-19 16:17:13.496000+00:00 | ['Trends', 'Kids Wear', 'Clothing', 'Fashion', 'Luxury Clothing Brands'] |
Image Captioning using Luong Attention and SentencePiece Tokenizer | In this blog post, I will be explaining about the Image Captioning project I did as part of Data Mining course (CSE 5334) during MS in CS at University of Texas at Arlington.
Introduction
The aim of the project was to create a Image captioning system that would take in an image and predict the caption associated with it.
The HTML version of the Jupyter Notebook can be accessed here.
The Youtube link for the demo can be found here.
Dataset Collection and Pre-processing
The dataset used for training the model is obtained from https://cocodataset.org/#home. The 2014 version of the dataset was used, which contained approximately 82000 images, where each image had five different captions. To fit the dataset in the RAM, a subset of the dataset was used where the buffer size is 10000 images. Each pixel value was pre-processed to the [-1, 1] range, and the features were extracted using the Inception V3 model [1]. For each image, the extracted image had a shape of (1, 64, 2048). The caption was pre-processed to remove unwanted HTML markups, convert all characters to lowercase letters, convert all Unicode characters to ASCII format. After splitting the dataset, Training set had 49810 image-caption pairs, Validation set had 1311 image-caption pairs, and Testing set had 1311 image-caption pairs.
Tokenization
The vocabulary size of a language cannot be limited. It keeps growing daily. Also, if the dataset used is small, then no data can be dropped; in other words, rare words cannot be dropped. A solution to this would be to use a tokenizer that would reduce the vocabulary size and use content from the rare words. For this purpose, we use the SentencePiece model. It was introduced by Wu et al. in [2], where the authors used a data compression technique that would replace a rare word with the most frequent pair of bytes. In this project, I trained a unigram model on the captions from the training set with a vocabulary size of 2048.
Methodology
The model was trained using an architecture similar to the work in Seq2Seq architecture in [3]. The Seq2Seq model consists of 2 sub-modules: An Encoder model and a Decoder model. The Encoder takes input from one language and encodes it with Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN). The results are passed into the decoder, which then decodes it with the help of RNN to the output language and produces the result.
Fig 1. Sequence to Sequence architecture from [4]
Bahdanau et al. in [5] introduced the concept of Attention to the Seq2Seq architecture, as the normal Seq2Seq failed to work for longer sentences (more than 40 words). The paper’s idea was that each time the model has to predict the target language word, it is given relevant input and the previous output. The authors proved that this produced better results than the previous Seq2Seq model for longer sentences.
Fig. 2 Bahdanau Attention from [6]
Luong et al. in [7] provided different approach to the Attention model. The Bahdanau Attention model was considered to be a Local Attention model, whereas the Luong Attention is a Global Attention model. The Luong Attention model aims to take all the encoder’s hidden states as input for deriving context vector. The difference between the Luong Attention model and Bahdanau Attention model is that the Bahdanau Attention model takes the only output of the previous time step, but the Luong Attention model takes the output of the last Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) layer of both the Encoder and Decoder layers for calculating the context vector.
Fig. 3. Luong Attention from [7].
Hyperparameter Tuning and Results
Various hyperparameters were tried, such as Bahdanau Attention or Luong Attention. Number of layers of LSTM in decoder {1, 2, 4}.
Luong Attention model provided better results compared to Bahdanau Attention, where the Luong attention model produced an accuracy of 24.5%, whereas Bahdanau attention model produced an accuracy of 19.4%.
One layer of LSTM produced an accuracy of 20.4%, 2 layers of LSTM produced an accuracy of 24.5%, and 4 layers of LSTM produced an accuracy of 22.8%.
Application Development and Hosting
The web application was developed using Flask (python package), HTML, CSS. Since, the Neural Network developed is heavy in size and computation, the model is hosted locally. It was because pythonanywhere website was not able to execute the prediction. The Github repository can be accessed here.
References | https://preetham-ganesh.medium.com/image-captioning-using-luong-attention-and-sentencepiece-tokenizer-2658b0e6f887 | ['Preetham Ganesh'] | 2020-12-15 04:54:42.803000+00:00 | ['Deep Learning', 'Image Captioning', 'Machine Learning'] |
Day 4: The duel out west, the high flying Hawks, and much more! | POR 128 v. 126 HOU
In undoubtedly the best game yet Harden and McCollum went head to head as they each scored 44 PTS and went hit for hit with 3 pointers in overtime. McCollum is usually overshadowed by the success of Dame but last night McCollum took over the game and iced it with a 3 in OT to lead Portland to their first win.
Unless your team is the Lakers or the Nets you should want Harden on your team. Even without getting to practice, having only 9 players on the roster, and gaining weight in the off season he dropped 44 PTS with 17 AST his first game back. Not to forget Christian Wood who dropped 31 PTS in his debut as a Rocket.
ATL 122 v. 112 MEM
This free throw shooting competition ended with Trae Young icing the game and telling JA he was too small. The rest of the game was literally just free throws. The Hawks made 33 of their 38 free throws whereas the Grizzlies made 25 of their 29 free throws.
Ja got his 28 PTS and Trae got his 36. The Hawks got crucial buckets from Huerter and Hunter in the end to keep the game far away from the grasp of the Grizzlies.
ORL 130 v. 120 WSH
Again there were an insane amount of free throws this game. The Magic made 23 of their 29 compared to the Wizards making 15 of their 28. Fultz was the closer this game as he looks to turn his career around.
Westbrook after the game said “This one is on me — bullshitting around, missing these shots.” Beal dropped 39 PTS in this tough loss for the Wizards.
OKC 109 v. 107 CHA
Even with CP gone SGA is not ready to tank. He hit the game winner with 2.4 seconds remaining on the clock to round off his 24 PT night. George Hill also made 8 of his 9 shots for 21 PTS leading the Thunder to their first win even though they shot a measly 27.8% from 3.
CLE 128 v. 119 DET
I don’t care what anybody says Cavs basketball is exciting to watch. Garland and Sexton combined for 53 PTS and Drummond also put up 24 PTS 15 REB 5 AST to beat the Pistons in double over time.
In the end the difference was 3 Pt shooting. The Cavs shot 47% from 3 with Garland going 3 for 3 whereas the Pistons shot 35.6% from 3.
MIN 116 v. 111 UTA
Timberwolves just shot better than the Jazz last night. Anthony Edwards showed some of his offensive prowess scoring 18 PTS on 8–12 shooting. D’Lo and KAT did their thing and even with a injury scare for KAT they managed to eek out a victory. Utah was also careless as they had 18 TO compared to the Timberwolves 9 but only lost by 5.
SA 119 v. 114 TOR
The Spurs start off the season 2–0 as Derozan scores 27 PTS shooting 3–4 from 3 to take down his former team the Raptors. With Popovich as his coach and his robust mid range game Derozan hitting 3s consistently is scary for other teams in the west.
SAC 106 v. PHO 103
The Kings start out their season 2–0 as they take down the Suns behind 24 PTS by Fox. No one could hit a 3 to save their lives in this game. The Suns shot 25% compared to the Kings 21.7% from 3 but the Kings made 23 free throws compared to the Suns 13 to win the game.
PHI 109 v. 89 NY
Seth Curry as expected is proving to be a great addition to Philly. He scored 17 PTS shooting 6–8 FG. Embiid got his 27 and Simmons got his 17. Philly’s defense was just too much for NY to handle as Simmons held barrett in prison the whole game.
IND 125 v. 106 CHI
Sabonis is slowly developing into one of the best all round bigs in the league. A triple double from Sabonis combined with 4 of the Pacers starters scoring in double digits left Chicago reeling as they could not come up with stops on one side or score the ball on the other. | https://medium.com/@hoopletter/day-4-the-duel-out-west-the-high-flying-hawks-and-much-more-a62b46e26b0c | [] | 2020-12-27 21:24:03.401000+00:00 | ['Houston Rockets', 'NBA', 'Oklahoma City Thunder', 'Atlanta Hawks', 'James Harden'] |
Z- Statistics, T-Statistics, P-Statistics are Still Confusing you? | Z- Statistics, T-Statistics, P-Statistics are Still Confusing you?
Definitions and concepts in Statistics for machine learning
Photo by Ruthson Zimmerman on Unsplash
Understanding statistics look like a side parallel road for data science and machine learning people. But learning statistics is worth making the inferences and solutions from the data. The road not to be taken by many people should have to accept the statistics with their daily dose. Well, in this article we will discuss the Z, T and P statistics distribution and will try to learn why we use them in data science. Before diving into this concept we will discuss some basic definition and terms as shown below:
Topics to be covered:
Section 1: Types of Data, Histogram and Scatter plot
Section 2: Central Measures values and Measures of Spread
Section 3: Covariance and Correlation
Section 4: Z, T — Distributions and confidence intervals
Section 5: Hypothesis and P — Distribution
Section 1:
Types of Data
Acquiring knowledge about statistics is a need in a data science career. Before jumping we should know with whom we are dealing with oh! that is obvious “DATA”. It is not like that data will come to you and tell all the inferences, we need to find a way to deal with different types of data.
Data is comprised of numbers and words that can be in the measurable or observational form. We cannot do the same operation with all different types of data, for this we need to identify and according to that, we need to test and visualize.
Numerical Data: This type of data deals with numbers which can be in a quantitative form either discrete or in continuous.
Discrete data is like a whole number ( 2, 10, 20, 15, etc) which tells a direct specification of the quantity that we count easily.
Continuous data is like a range means the value which falls in some particular measuring range ( Kg, Km, cm, etc ).
Categorical Data: This type deals with qualitative data that we can describe. It comes in a group of two or more types of a different description.
Example: Binary values ( 0 and 1 ),
Nominal Data: They are not in order but shows some groups or category like seasons, brand names, flower names, etc.
Ordinal Data: Well these types of data are those where we give them some rating or in some order.
Histogram and Scatter plot
If data is very big then we cannot sit all day and check every line of data records to take out some information. That’s where graphs and plots of data come into the picture.
Different types of plots are Bar, Line and Pie Charts, Histogram and Scatter plots, etc.
Histogram
Histograms although similar to bar charts but in the histogram, the bar falls in some range i.e. continuous type. The bar charts can have a gap between two bars but histogram doesn’t.
Difference between Bar and Histogram Chart. A photo from mathisfun
Scatter Plot
The scatter plot shows the relationship between two variable points in the record.
Scatter plot between Time and Marks. A photo by Author
Section 2:
Central Measures value
When we want to know about something from a big record we choose one thing which is similar to all others. So, in numbers, we choose a common and around value through Mean, Median and Mode.
Measures of Spread
The Range
When we arrange the data in ascending order and make a difference from the big number to a small number is called range.
Mean Deviation
This spread tells us how far the values from the measured central value.
First, take a mean of the values.
Then make a difference from the mean value to all values.
Then calculates the spread distance from the mean.
Example: | https://medium.com/towards-artificial-intelligence/z-statistics-t-statistics-p-statistics-are-still-confusing-you-87557047e20a | ['Amit Chauhan'] | 2020-12-20 01:03:18.644000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Data Visualization', 'Data Science', 'Programming'] |
Lenin’s Revolutionary Elder Brother: Alexander Ulyanov | Lenin’s Revolutionary Elder Brother: Alexander Ulyanov
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin is a man whose name is synonymous with revolution, an incredible intellectual and masterful theorist of Marxism, brutish in his attaining of power in Russia, and a man who was the central figure in the founding of one of the major superpowers of the 20th century. A man who was also pledged into calls for revolution primarily to avenge one man, his elder brother: Alexander Ulyanov.
Alexander Ulyanov, often referred to as Sasha, had a profound influence on his younger brother, and his death, by the order of Tsar Alexander III, sent the Ulyanov family into a spiral of destruction, being publicly shamed and excluded, sending Lenin on a path to avenge his brother. Yet, Sasha’s effect and influence on Lenin is often not discussed, even though he proves to be deeply influential and evidently had a tremendous effect on his brother.
So, who was Alexander Ulyanov? What influence did he have on his younger brother? And why was he executed?
Who was Alexander Ulyanov?
Sasha was born in Nizhny Novgorod, a city located in the Volga region, in 1866. He was the eldest brother and the second born, out of a total of eight brothers and sisters. Sasha was a bright and intelligent, young man who was exceptional academically — similarly to his younger brother Lenin who was known to attempt to imitate Sasha — and often praised by his teachers for his studious attitude. Sasha’s academic excellence and studious attitude won him many appraisals, this is also reiterated by historian and political scientist Adam Ulam who has stated that:
“His natural seriousness would at times turn into melancholy. It was difficult to draw him away from his studies, even to eat…” (Ulam, Spartacus Educational)
The Ulyanov family were middle-class, their father and mother, Ilya Nikolayevich Ulyanov and Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanova were employed as school teachers. Ilya was also a Russian public figure, being appointed as inspector of public schools in 1869 and later, in 1882, being promoted to the rank of Active State Councillor, providing him with the privilege of hereditary nobility. Their family, as suggested by British historian Robert Service, was liberal, coming from a culturally, ethnically, and religiously, diverse family background.
Their father’s family history is debated amongst historians. Still, it is believed he was of possible Tatar, Kirgiz, Kalmyk, Chuvash, and Mordvinian descent. The mother, Maria, had Jewish, German, and Swedish ancestry, the aspect of her Jewish ancestry is also still debated by researchers. However, despite the family’s diversity, Ilya and Maria raised their family as Orthodox Christians and in the parameters of Russian culture (Service, Lenin: A Biography, 2010).
Graduating from the College of Simbirsk in 1883, Sasha later attended the St. Petersburg University, where he studied the natural sciences and developed a fascination on the biology of annular worms. The university was known for its intellectually rich history and it was common of the natural science and engineering students to jibe against the monarchy, which Sasha partook in. His dissertation was awarded a golden medal, a proof of his academic excellence. While in St. Petersburg he began to change, experiencing an intellectual revolution, becoming a revolutionary sympathiser, and calling for the transformation of the Russian political and social structure.
Sasha encountered some health issues in his early life, experiencing stomach inflammation, which appears to be something of a predisposed condition as many of the Ulyanov’s also later suffered from their stomachs. But these health issues did not prevent the family from pursuing revolutionary aims, as is seen by Sasha and namely with Lenin. Poor health in the family is as a reoccurring theme, even in the death of their father Ilya in 1886, due to a believed brain haemorrhage.
Their father’s death caused massive sorrow and upset which also lead Lenin to become far more disruptive and mischievous, which Sasha did not tolerate. Sasha would ridicule Lenin for his cheeky behaviour towards their widowed mother, scolding him as a father would. It could be interpreted as Sasha in some ways filling the role as Lenin’s father. But the death of their father also affected Sasha immensely, haunting him for many weeks, leaving some fearful that he would commit suicide.
Still, Sasha was far more resilient and determined than many believed, continuing his studies in St. Petersburg. In his letters home he often complained about the cost of accommodation (not much has changed then), poor food, and the unsavoury ladies. He also did not offer to drop his studies to come home and help his widowed mother as their eldest sister Anna Ulyanova did. This was primarily due to his desire to consolidate his career as well as pursue revolutionary activities, which was the very outcome his father had feared (Service, Lenin: A Biography, 2010).
Ulanyov Family, Sasha is the child standing in the middle. Credits: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/196258496237515350/?d=t&mt=login
What influence did he have on Lenin?
Sasha played an important role in Lenin’s life which according to Service, saw Lenin bearing tremendous levels of love and admiration for Sasha, always wanting to impress him. He even imitated him even to the level of eating the same food as his older brother in search of his approval. This love and respect Lenin had for his elder brother was not entirely reciprocal as Anna Ulyanova has suggested in her memoirs that Sasha said he did not get on with his younger brother Lenin, who he deemed to be far too domineering for his liking. Nonetheless, throughout Lenin’s childhood Sasha was an important figure, as he was the family’s pride and joy, the eldest brother to which all younger siblings looked up too, specifically Lenin (Service, Lenin: A Biography, 2010).
Lenin’s work What is to Be Done? also indicates the influence Sasha had over him, as suggested by historian Philip Pomper. This scholar discusses how this statement in What is to Be Done?, “The spontaneous striving of the workers to defend the students who are being assaulted by the police and the Cossacks surpasses the conscious activity of the Social-Democratic organization!” is a recalling of the experiences Lenin has with his elder brother as well as his experiences in exile. Pomper also suggests that the refusal of Tsar Alexander III to commute Sasha’s sentence later provided Lenin with the motivation to order the execution of the Romanov family due to what the Tsarist regime had done to him and his family (Leonard, The George Washington University).
The combined death of their father in 1886 and the execution of Sasha in 1887 scarred Lenin deeply, causing much pain and heartache, which left him angry and determined to avenge his elder brother, whom he admired so greatly. Lenin’s motivations to seek revenge are also supported by a Simbirsk newspaper which was reporting on the execution of Sasha and reported a seventeen-year-old Lenin as saying “I’ll make them pay for this! I swear it” (Spartacus Educational).
Lenin as a child. Credits: https://cs.mcgill.ca/~rwest/wikispeedia/wpcd/wp/v/Vladimir_Lenin.htm
His revolutionary activity and death
During his time at university in St Petersburg, Sasha was becoming a terrorist sympathiser, as were many other university students, seeking change within the Russian Empire and opposing the monarchy. In Sasha’s case, this was started due to the obscurantist attitudes towards science by the regime. He then later expanded upon his views and entered into a full rejection of the monarchy and all that it stood for, according to Service.
The officials treated students as a necessary evil and viewed them as suspects prone to subversion, causing the Ministry of Interior and Education to have a tight hold over them, only exacerbating the threat of subversion. This hostility towards students, by setting harsh regulations on the curriculum and books, all in an effort to prevent students interacting with philosophies of socialism, liberalism, atheism, and any philosophy that would challenge the status quo, also only led to an intensifying of the subversion (Service, Lenin: A Biography, 2010).
Sasha initially made friends with individuals who believed in instigating a revolutionary transformation by assassinating Tsar Alexander III. They spoke about it frequently, and gradually, Sasha became convinced and joined the group of conspirators. This group was a small faction, which had connections to the notorious Narodnaya Volya (Peoples Will), who was responsible for successful assassinations of officials, including the former Tsar Alexander II. Sasha made for a good recruit, a diligent young man that stuck to his will and decisions once he found something morally desirable. He was also a scientist with practical knowledge of chemistry, which the group wanted to exploit in the making of a nitroglycerine bomb.
Not only was Sasha’s knowledge of chemistry useful, but so were his abilities with language, making Sasha vital in the production of propaganda explaining the political aims and objectives of the group. With his scientific and linguistic talents, he often wrote about scientific law and insisted that sections of society which were oppressed all had an equal interest in the removal of the monarchy. Sasha even made use of his mastery over the German language and translated some of Marx’s work into Russian (Service, Lenin: A Biography, 2010).
The small factions, like the one Sasha belonged to, hoped that by assassinating Tsar Alexander III a full-scale revolution would be ignited, causing the end of the tyrannical monarchy. The date the conspirators chose was symbolic: 1 March 1887, the sixth anniversary of the assassination of Tsar Alexander II. The group, however, were completely unsuccessful, their plan was foiled before it could even take place. On the day of the planned assassination, two members of the group were picked up by the authorities. The Okhrana (the secret police) interrogated the two men and one by one, apprehended virtually all the would-be assassins, including Sasha.
Amongst the arrests of the conspirators, family members were also brought into custody as possible suspects, Anna Ulyanova was incarcerated despite playing no role in the plot. During the interrogation, Sasha took it upon himself to take the blame for aspects of the conspiracy which he was not even involved in. He also decided to use his trial as a stage to disseminate revolutionary aims and ideals, in a last-ditch attempt to invoke change, even if it would cost him his life, as his attempts via the printing press were to no avail due to official censorship (Service, Lenin: A Biography, 2010).
Sasha’s mother, devastated by the death of her husband, was now fearful of potentially losing her eldest son and decided to write to Tsar Alexander III pleading for his release. She claimed that her atheist son was deeply ‘religious’ and tried her utmost to prevent his hanging. Sasha, however, did not play along with his mother’s lies and admitted to the most heinous crime in imperial law, leaving Maria Alexandrovna pleading Sasha to beg for mercy, as his fellow conspirators did, for his life.
However, rather than begging Tsar Alexander III for forgiveness, Sasha implored his mother to forgive him, while refusing to plea for a pardon and accepting death as his fate. The Emperor took note of the proceeding and concluded the execution would carry on and to take place on 8 May 1887 (Service, Lenin: A Biography, 2010). During his trial, Sasha refused to be represented by a counsel and in his final address to the court stated:
“My purpose was to aid in the liberation of the unhappy Russian people. Under a system which permits no freedom of expression and crushes every attempt to work for their welfare and enlightenment by legal means, the only instrument that remains is terror. We cannot fight this regime in open battle, because it is too firmly entrenched and commands enormous powers of repression. Therefore, any individual sensitive to injustice must resort to terror. Terror is our answer to the violence of the state. It is the only way to force a despotic regime to grant political freedom to the people.” He later stated that he was not afraid to die because “there is no death more honourable than death for the common good” (Spartacus Educational).
With the refusal of the Tsar for imperial clemency, Sasha and other prisoners were awoken at 3:30 a.m. and told that they would be executed in half an hour’s time. While other prisoners slept, these conspirators were taken to the gallows accompanied by a priest and guards. The men were offered priestly consolation, but all refused. Sasha stood on a stool with a noose around his neck, a sack was placed on his head, and then the stool was kicked from beneath him. Sasha was now dead (Rappaport, Conspirator: Lenin in Exile, 2009).
The effects on the family were disastrous. Maria Alexandrovna was distraught and even considered suicide and Olga Ulyanova, one of the younger siblings, fell to the floor in despair, then leapt up shouting threats against the Emperor. The Ulyanov family became socially ostracised, considered pariahs amongst the respectable people of Simbirsk. The efforts of Maria and Ilya to integrate the family into Imperial society failed, causing them to be sentenced to the margins of society.
This lead to an intensification of the anger and hatred that Lenin felt towards the monarchy. This event deeply affected his views of the Romanov Dynasty and Russian Imperial society as a whole, from the refusal of the Tsar to show mercy, to the ostracising of the Ulyanov family. The joining of all these factors sent Lenin down a revolutionary path (Service, Lenin: A Biography, 2010). | https://historyofyesterday.com/lenins-revolutionary-elder-brother-alexander-ulyanov-1caf3de10dcb | ['Tarik Ata'] | 2020-11-11 18:02:29.902000+00:00 | ['History', 'Russia', 'Politics', 'Culture', 'Revolution'] |
Spreadsheets Revolutionizing Business Analytics | Spreadsheet Modelling
Businesses today has become data driven. Spreadsheets have become a part of business and their uses are not only manifold but also pervasive. All kinds of organizations use the Microsoft Office bundle extensively across all job roles and functional groups. Spreadsheets are fairly easy to employ, particularly for non-complex data analysis and calculations. They are also helpful tools to visualize simple tabular data via charts and graphs.
Transforming Data with Intelligence (TDWI) has published an article that examines the widespread use and adoption of spreadsheets in creating tangible business analytics. The article tackles on the metaphorical challenges posed by spreadsheets and it goes on to suggest solutions, taking a “All is not lost,” tone.
“Spreadsheets proliferate like poisonous vines, slowly strangling organizations by depriving them of a single consistent set of information,” TDWI’s former director for education and research stated. The simile rings true even as today’s challenges in spreadsheet modelling and usage persist, especially amid the existence of a plethora of layered and competing analytical tools. The poisonous vines have become terrorizing triffids that rampage through data fields. As a consequence, a trail of destruction of information assets are left behind.
By far, spreadsheets are the most popular database platform used by people in business in all analytical skills level. As far as business analytics are concerned, the collaborative nature, usability, and correctness of spreadsheets are immensely useful. From a technological standpoint, spreadsheets teach the lesson in taking the correct and augmented responsibility of data management, involving the embedding of fortified data. This will eventually enable the recording of flexible and powerful data which dovetails with the analytical and operational milieus.
Intuition is not the only thing that is required to effectively solve business problems; solutions that are based on data are also needed. A business’ success depends on business analytics that identify problems, compare, forecast, and make decisions.
Take advantage of eCornell Business Analytics program to up your ante in spreadsheet usage to come up with tangible business analytics within database management and data integration systems. This is especially useful for leaders in analytics who are looking to convert data science to data engineering.
eCornell courses are approved by SkillsFuture Singapore for SkillsFuture Credit as well as by HRDF Malaysia under its SBL Scheme.
Visit Our Website https://ecornell-genashtim.com/ | https://medium.com/@ecornellgenashtim20/spreadsheets-revolutionizing-business-analytics-dbd7dd20837d | ['Ecornell Genashtim'] | 2020-12-14 01:46:33.475000+00:00 | ['Online Learning Platform', 'Professional Development', 'New Normal', 'Elearning Development', 'Elearning'] |
terraform tempfile and adding tags to YAML files | I am working on creating a CloudFormation stack with terraform resource.
I need to define tags in CloudFormation YAML file in addition to terraform resource.
I added the following lines to YAML template file to make it work.
%{~ if length(mytags) >0 ~}
Tags:
%{~ endif ~}
%{~ for tag_key, tag_value in mytags ~}
- Key: "${tag_key}"
Value: "${tag_value}"
%{~ endfor ~} You can see all details in my following gist and check https://www.terraform.io/docs/configuration/expressions/strings.html for strings and templatefile handling.
Ismail YENIGUL
Devops Engineer | https://medium.com/@ismailyenigul/terraform-tempfile-and-adding-tags-to-yaml-files-575f1f1b8351 | ['Ismail Yenigül'] | 2020-12-17 18:29:38.100000+00:00 | ['Yaml', 'Cloudformation', 'Terraform'] |
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Please note that we only respond to articles that were properly submitted using either our form or via an email that exactly follows the instructions listed here. We don’t respond to pitches or questions already answered in our FAQs or on our Contribute page. We also ignore articles that don’t comply with our rules.
If you haven’t heard from us within the next five working days, please carefully check the article you submitted to our team. See if you can now submit it directly to TDS and look for any private notes from us that you may have missed. You should also make sure to check your spam folder.
If you just can’t reach us, the best thing for you to do is submit your article to another publication. Although we’d love to, we can’t provide customized feedback to everyone because we simply receive too many submissions. You can learn more about our decision here and submit another post in a month. | https://medium.com/p/462571b65b35#a316 | ['Tds Editors'] | 2020-11-19 01:16:58.476000+00:00 | ['Writers’ Guide', 'Tds Team', 'Writers Guide'] |
Do not fear musibah (pt 2) | بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
“And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient, Who, when disaster strikes them, say, ‘Indeed we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we will return’.” [Al Baqara: 155–156]
These ayaat contain a gift for the sabiroon. In Quran when Allah tells “Say” it means it is a command for Rasulullah SAW himself. So here Allah is telling Rasulullah SAW to give glad tidings to the sabiroon. And Rasulullah SAW is going to congratulate us personally on the day of Qiyamah if we are the patient ones.
But look at the language of Allah! Allah congratulates those who made sabr. We make sabr when something unpleasant happens. Like a disaster or a calamity struck, or something didn’t go according to the plan. We do not have to make sabr or be patient when the going is good.
Now imagine to yourself that one of us is in a situation where he/she needs to make sabr. We do not go and congratulate them. We congratulate someone when it’s a happy occasion, when things went according to plan. When things work out then you congratulate each other.
So when things do not go according to plan, or we are struck with a calamity, remember that even if it is not what we planned for ourselves, it is what Allah has planned for us. May be Allah has put us in the whole ordeal just to make us achieve one goal, i.e. we may learn sabr.
And who are these people about whom Allah says “congratulate”? We will cover that in the next part Insha Allah.
سبحانك اللهم و بحمدك نشهد ان لااله الّا انت نستغفرك و نتوب اليك | https://medium.com/tadabbur-fil-quran/do-not-fear-musibah-pt-2-c5d86ff1269c | ['The Niqabi Coder Mum'] | 2016-09-06 10:22:44.711000+00:00 | ['Islam', 'Quran', 'Al Baqara'] |
Adieu to 2020: A Letter to the WWC Community | This year marked the five-year anniversary of WWC. Since our founding in 2015, we’ve supported nearly 250 cities in building a more data-driven and outcomes-focused government through our technical assistance, Sprints, and WWC Academy learning opportunities. We’ve collaborated with over 50 cities to identify and replicate powerful solutions that address issues such as gaps in early literacy, driver’s license restoration, housing quality and stability, and economic mobility. And we have doubled the number of cities achieving WWC Certification, the national standard of excellence in data-driven local governance, with 24 Certified cities and another four cities making it to the WWC Honor Roll.
2020 Certified cities
Five years in, our mission remains to support cities in using data and evidence to tackle their most pressing challenges. So this year we created a dozen COVID-19 specific learning opportunities and produced resources specifically to help cities navigate new challenges and prioritize communities most in need. We also launched a new City Budgeting for Equity and Recovery program to ensure equity is at the forefront of the critical fiscal decisions cities are making as they manage the fiscal crisis brought on by the health crisis.
And, as part of the WWC Economic Mobility initiative, we are proud to share our new Economic Mobility Catalog, which highlights nearly 200 evidence-based programs and strategies that have been proven to help advance economic mobility for residents and provides case studies about how communities across the country have implemented these strategies.
Our WWC team is grateful for the opportunities to partner with all of you, and we hope that you will continue to tell us how we can best support you.
Looking Toward 2021
From WWC’s inception, helping cities to better serve residents has been core to our work. In 2020, as local governments grappled with the disparate effects of the pandemic that became a backdrop for sweeping protests over racial injustice, reversing course on these stark inequalities have become an increasingly urgent and visible priority.
I am hopeful that 2021 will be a year of bold leadership and inclusive partnerships across local communities, between public and private sectors, and with residents — that is what this historic moment demands. More than ever, our ability to use data in order to put people at the center of decision making will be key to building a different, better future.
The past five years have been about bringing data to city halls by building capacity to address problems big and small, and it would not have been possible without our expert partners: The Behavioral Insights Team (BIT), The Government Performance Lab (GPL), The Centers for Civic Impact (GovEx), and Results for America (RFA). While this past year has created a powerful urgency to re-engineer our government structures, it has also shown that a foundation of smart, data-driven governance is in place, and that cities are critical drivers of change. Whatever 2021 holds, know that WWC will continue to support your efforts to build a more equitable future.
Best wishes for the holidays and a brighter new year!
Your Partner,
Simone Brody
Executive Director of What Works Cities at Results for America | https://medium.com/@whatworkscities/adieu-to-2020-a-letter-to-the-wwc-community-51607235af5d | ['What Works Cities'] | 2020-12-22 21:08:34.958000+00:00 | ['Cities', 'Reflections', 'Covid 19', 'Local Government', 'Data'] |
Series 5 — Random Facts & Data Posts | There’s a high correlation between the size of the economic activity and energy consumption; at least, that was the postwar world’s dominating thesis.
Today, the only path for achieving the goals set out in the Paris Climate Agreement is reducing emissions by using fewer fossil fuels or increasing productivity in their use.
In the 1990s and the first two decades of the 21st century, developing countries have multiplied their oil and coal consumption and thus increased their greenhouse gas emissions.
In China, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh live more than 40% of the planet’s total population. The question is how to promote economic growth and inclusion while incorporating new energy sources, knowing that fossil fuels are the most accessible, cheapest, and most efficient option. | https://medium.com/datonomia/series-5-random-facts-data-posts-a247b6d2799c | ['Juan Carlos Golindano Sosa'] | 2020-12-07 19:23:12.484000+00:00 | ['Economy', 'Fossil Fuels', 'Sustainability', 'Sustainable Development'] |
Why Keep Recycling? | For many, many years, the fossil fuel industry has sold the American people a beautiful and horrible lie — recycling. It’s ok that you’re using more plastic than ever, because it’s recyclable! It can all be recycled. Just put it into a blue bin, and someone is going to come and take care of it, and take it to its new, beautiful home, and you can just keep consuming whatever you like with impunity. I’m sorry to say, that I have some bad news for you. This dream of recycling is, in fact, deeply faulty.
Source: One Green Planet
The facts are these:
In 2018, only 8.66% of plastic generated actually got recycled, according to the EPA, and only 32% of all waste was in fact recycled.
Meanwhile waste continues to increase — more plastics are produced every day, and with nowhere to put them except in a landfill, which has serious consequences for climate change.
According to a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, plastic production and disposal resulted in 850 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions in 2019 and may be responsible for up to 2.8 billion tons by 2050. To give you some perspective, a 2000 mile flight round trip emits about 1.53 tons of emissions — so it’s not a small amount.
Our waste doesn’t just have an impact on soil, water, ocean and lake life, and the general functioning of our lives, but it is actually killing us, and our planet. Essentially, after all the decades of media around how great recycling is, and how wonderful it is for our planet, it’s actually a huge lie. Not only is it causing problems, but towns and cities simply cannot manage to process the amount of waste that we create, and have little incentive to do so with such a small market for recyclables.
Until last year, a lot of our recyclables in the U.S. were bought by China, and shipped there for them to do something with, and now we have no idea what to do with them. One of the first steps is actually collecting and properly sorting our recyclables, and to me that means having a federal standard of waste management. Considering that each municipality has their own rules, it makes it extraordinarily difficult to solve the biggest problem to recycling — contamination.
Source: Rolling Stone
In most waste systems, when an item is placed into a recycle bin (usually blue — not always) but the city actually doesn’t process this item as part of their recycling then the entire bin does not get recycled. Why? Recycling essentially means taking old material, chomping it down, and selling it as new source material, so that something can be made from it. Plastic bags become park benches, water bottles become jeans, etc etc. If contamination occurs in this process, it decreases the quality of the new source material that the city is trying to sell, and compromises the whole operation. Therefore, if styrofoam gets into a blue bin (a pretty universal no-no so please stop doing it), then that whole bin goes boom right into a landfill, where it contributes to the aforementioned emissions. Having a federal set of rules that were not only established, but promoted, taught, and basically known everywhere would do a lot to help this.
But education and a single standard can’t be the only things — we need the services to back them up. This is where I believe that something called Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) comes in. While there are a lot of different ways to go about it — it may even be covered in a future post — I believe that by charging the biggest polluters, such as beverage companies, for their waste, then funds can be found to establish waste management systems that work better. This also can fund another essential part of the process — innovation.
Innovation is key, as there are new technologies being developed all the time that can advance recycling processes and create a better end product, and thus a better fresh source product, making the results of recycling more marketable. If these innovations are adopted federally, with one set of standards that everyone can hold to, then we might have a fighting chance at a recycling system that functions like it’s supposed to.
So with all of this going on — why recycle? First of all, you never know — it absolutely could get recycled. Even today, those items that you are setting aside may be a part of the 32% that gets recycled, and if you immediately put them in the trash, they definitely will not be. Also, things are changing! As more and more attention is put on the faults of recycling, hopefully it will improve. States like Maine are passing EPR laws, and other states are starting to follow suit. So keep trying, and keep advocating! Talk to your alderman, your representatives, talk to the people at your city, and find out what is going on there. And of course, keep recycling — you never know!! | https://medium.com/@headythoughts/why-keep-recycling-4e9422b8b07 | ['Virginia Head'] | 2021-09-16 00:29:00.902000+00:00 | ['Climate Change', 'Recycling', 'Waste', 'System Change'] |
Driving Insights at Scale Using a Common Data Model (CDM) on Azure Data Lake | Driving Insights at Scale Using a Common Data Model (CDM) on Azure Data Lake
Why the Common Data Model is about to be the keystone of modern data insights architectures on Azure and how to use it with Power BI dataflows together with Azure data services Patrick Pichler Apr 9·7 min read
Introduction
To begin with, this article isn’t about comparing data warehouses, data lakes, data lakehouses, data oceans, data meshes or whatever approach or naming may exist, it is about the evolution of the Common Data Model (CDM) and why it is about to be the keystone of modern data insights architectures on Azure by filling in some very important missing gaps¹. For the overall understanding it is, however, necessary to mention that many of today’s data warehousing solutions still integrate relational databases. A very common pattern over the last years have been hybrid architectures or so-called Modern Data Warehouses leveraging distributed technologies for preprocessing and staging data while relational databases are used for serving data and making it ready for analysis. The versatility and efficiency provided by new distributed technologies throughout the data integration process have been the main argument in favor of using data lakes as a complementary, especially by managing very large data warehouses which have become slow and inflexible over the time. On the other hand, driving proper reporting and critical business decisions entirely based on data lakes has still been taken with caution — often for good reasons. For instance, it would be an overkill to integrate data lakes into data warehouses consisting of only small relational data, likewise, data lakes still lack some mature enterprise features only provided by relational databases. Anyway, the technology is catching up rapidly and we can see technological advances making data lakes increasingly attractive for analytics and at least those feature aspects tend to completely disappear. Alright, enough with this small excursion, let’s jump into the link between the CDM, Power BI dataflows and Azure data services including the advances made over the time.
Common Data Model
The CDM was initially rolled out in early 2016 as a part of the introduction of PowerApps with the goal of enabling data and application interoperability through unified and standardized data models. The foundation of a CDM is lake-based, initially consisting of CSV files organized in one folder per table along with one single file called model.json for defining the metadata. This file acts as an entry point and enables applications and services to easily read and understand the actual data by obtaining different semantic information such as table descriptions, column data types or the data file locations. The CDM is generally highly integrated in most of Microsoft’s applications through different data synchronization and integration services which are nowadays covered under the term Dataverse, the formerly called Common Data Services (CDS)².
In spring 2020 Microsoft expanded the Common Data Model metadata concept by introducing the backward compatible manifest approach making it much more flexible, scalable, and performant. This manifest oriented metadata concept is richer and allows for different scenarios previously unavailable in model.json oriented metadata. For instance³:
A Common Data Model can now contain more than one manifest and/or even sub-manifest files (*.manifest.cdm.json) describing different set of tables and relationships enabling different views of data instead of having only one huge model.json file
A Common Data Model can now contain search pattern that can be used to describe partition files and dynamically discover data partition objects in collections instead of having specific URL for every new data partition added to the folder
A Common Data Model can now contain lists of known relationships expressed in the data through foreign key references aligning with the primary key values from other tables
A Common Data Model can now contain data stored in the column oriented Apache Parquet storage format additionally to the legacy CSV files allowing much better partitioning, compression and query performance — also Delta format is possible, please read on.
Power BI dataflow
Power BI has always been an important part of the CDM sphere as it enables a consolidated view of data across the enterprise. The introduction of Power BI dataflows has then even increased this importance two years later in 2018 making it a consumer and producer at the same time. Since then, Power BI dataflows enable you to author data pipelines directly within the Power BI service through a Power Query online interface backed and executed by Apache Spark’s distributed in-memory processing engine. The result is written to a (currently still old fashioned model.json) CDM compliant folder structure in a data lake and lays the foundation for datasets which is considered to be the data modelling layer in this setup, while dataflows constitute the data integration layer. This way, Power BI dataflows can meanwhile be used to build a complete star schema–designed data warehouse, including fact and dimension tables in your own data lake storage mounted to the Power BI service. This gives you full control over the underlying produced CDM and use it for different needs and purposes. By using it for analytical use-cases, for example, data can either further be imported into Power BI leveraging the tabular engine for interactive analysis or accessed via direct query providing real-time analysis which currently requires premium license⁴.
To sum up, Power BI dataflows have brought way more flexibility to create CDM opening up many new possibilities. Above all, to break down data silos and unlock new insights through an enforced standardized data model directly on the data lake. However, there are still some missing parts in order to have all functionalities usually found in data warehouses such as historical analysis or the integration of other Azure data services which were almost completely left out so far and could just act as a consumer of CDM.
Azure data services
That’s why there has been put a huge effort into enabling data exchange and interoperability through the Common Data Model and Azure Data Lake Storage by using Power BI dataflows together with Azure data services. Most of all, to make landing data in a CDM compliant format in the data lake as seamless as possible. This has been achieved by the development of a dedicated Apache Spark CDM connector. This makes it nowadays possible to not only read CDM, but actually write to it via most of the Azure data services such as Azure Data Factory (data flow), Azure Synapse Analytics and Azure Databricks, in fact, all Apache Spark backed services. For instance, data can be ingested using Azure Data Factory from both the cloud and on-premises sources and stored along with a CDM metadata description in Azure Data Lake. This staging data can be linked, for example, to Power BI Staging dataflows. Azure Databricks can then be used for complex data transformation, cleaning, and preparation tasks that can’t be done in Power BI dataflows. This result can then be linked to Power BI Transformation dataflows providing a dimensional data model for final analysis or to use it for further advanced analytics use-cases. This new Apache Spark CDM connector also entails a cost-saving benefit as it also eliminates the need for Apache Spark/Databricks cluster including their virtual tables on top of the data lake which have been serving as a kind of bridge to Power BI so far, so that it can read all the produced data properly⁴.
Now it’s becoming even more exciting, thanks to another new dedicated CDM Delta Lake connector, CDM now even supports Delta Lake storage format including most of the capabilities provided in the Databricks ecosystem and so-called Data Lakehouse architecture such as combining streaming and batch data, ACID transactions, time travels, schema evolution, etc. It hence can combine the best of both worlds which makes it a perfect fit for modern data insights architectures⁵.
Conclusion
In the early days of adopting or complementing data lakes for data warehousing there have been lost valuable metadata from databases when writing data to data lakes such as data types, constraints or foreign key relationships. This was often referred to “de-relationalize” data and it took several years to get slowly rid of this standing by increasingly catching up with many mature relational database functionalities or even introduce new functionalities on top. However, there is still a way to go and it also may require a little time to get used to work with data lakes and the way data is stored. Nonetheless, the alignment of these services and technologies provides very exciting capabilities and I look forward to see the combination of CDM and Data Lakehouse further evolving — let’s see where it may lead in the coming months —standardized data lakehouses maybe? | https://towardsdatascience.com/driving-insights-at-scale-using-a-common-data-model-cdm-on-azure-data-lake-234b9bc9b4ef | ['Patrick Pichler'] | 2021-07-15 14:01:22.601000+00:00 | ['Power Bi', 'Big Data', 'Data Engineering', 'Data Science', 'Azure'] |
How I Grow a Local Event to a Global Summit (Audience from 29 Countries!) | Engage global partners and community
In total, we have more than 40 partners to support the Summit, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, UK, Portugal, etc. I believe in the power of community marketing, especially for a global event. If you spent your marketing budget on paid advertisement, yes, it may work and bring you traffic. However, the cost will be super high, and difficult to tailor your story to people from different cultures and countries. Having the organizations and communities to be the spokesperson for you will be much more effective and efficient. In a growth funnel, the paid advertisement can do a lot in the “awareness” stage. For the other steps, you need some spokespersons for you to achieve it.
Community marketing means spreading out your message via a specific group, “Community.” What is a community? A group of people who shares the same goal and want to grow together. In this digital world, we receive thousands of pieces of information every day. How can we absorb the information and make our decisions? How can we choose the “best” thing for myself? Seriously, it is not a rational decision most of the time, and we relied on referrals a lot.
In simple speaking, the easiest way you can do is “find diverse supporting organizations to help to spread the message.” Some may say, “they just helped to share a post. What can help?”. It helps a lot compared to paying for an advertisement on social media.
At least, your message is going to your target customers directly, and they can see it. | https://medium.com/@cyronchan/how-i-grow-a-local-event-to-a-global-summit-audience-from-29-countries-9984a28a657b | ['Cyron Chan'] | 2020-12-22 14:41:54.103000+00:00 | ['Growth Mindset', 'Growth Hacking', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Growth Marketing', 'Growth Strategy'] |
Coffee IV | She stepped out of the car and began to walk down the street to their chosen meeting place. A cool breeze sent a shudder through her as she held her coat together tightly at her neck. She fretted about her hair flying about after having taken so much care to make it just so.
She was a half hour early which should have been enough to get there first — he had a knack for always arriving exactly on time. As she walked along the front window towards the door, she recognized him immediately, sitting by the window — looking at his phone.
Her heart jumped into her throat.
He’d gotten there first.
There would be no going to the restroom to fix her hair. No time to centre herself. No time to breathe. She wanted to run away but her feet carried her steadily to the door instead — there was no turning back.
She opened the door and he looked up.
Lightening.
He smiled a big smile and stood up as she walked over, trying to read him: Was that pain on his face? He seems apologetic — Oh God, she thought — he’s going to break me.
‘why didn’t you grab that spot out front?’ he mused with a knowing smile.
She smiled, half shrugging, knowing she’d been caught out.
‘hi,’ he continued, smiling gently, moving to give her a hug.
‘hi,’ she answered breathlessly against his chest, giddily registering his firm arms around her. Time stood still while she breathed in as much of him as she could in the split second they were locked together. He smelled earthy and sweet, like candied chestnuts at Christmas. His face was in her hair — she imagined him taking in vanilla before they came apart.
‘you’re early,’ he joked, stepping back.
‘you’re earlier,’ she answered playfully, smiling — and for a moment it was as if they had never been apart.
They sat down and looked carefully at one another in silence.
She knew he must be seeing the same things she did — the differences. It was still him, maybe the slightest bit weathered, but him — the dark hair she longed to bury her fingers in, the dark eyes that fixed on her like stormy seas. He wore dark wash jeans and a blue plaid button down shirt with the top two buttons left undone and the unbuttoned sleeves pushed up to his elbows, exposing prominent veins under the taut skin of his forearms — she smiled remembering that he always felt hot.
She caught herself biting her lip as she noted a bead of sweat across the top of his forehead.
Looking at him made her eyes burn. After having not laid eyes on him for so long, she’d be damned if she was going to look away.
Her eyes wandered to the exposed skin at the top of his chest, moving to his neck as he swallowed, and finally to his lips before meeting his eyes again. She suddenly realized she was holding her breath.
She had anticipated it would be hard to see him again in this way — with boundaries.
She was right.
The cafe bustled around them with the sounds of chattering people, gurgling espresso machines and whirring coffee grinders. The air was filled with the scent of coffee beans and gingerbread. Sunlight streamed through the windows. The trees that lined the street outside waved dramatically in the wind, shedding leaves and projecting a fall pantomime on the barn wood floor that creaked underfoot as she nervously shifted her weight in her chair.
She took a moment to acknowledge the fact she was actually sitting here across from him after wanting it so desperately for so long. He was here — with her.
After what felt like forever to her, he exhaled slowly and offered, ‘you haven’t changed,’ flashing the big grin that made her crazy and never breaking his gaze — a gaze she met, feeling the lightening fully and the oxygen rapidly diminishing.
‘you’re still you,’ her mouth curling into a smile, not caring that he was lying.
After another round of silence that made no indication of ending, she took a deep breath and forced herself to ask the inevitable, ‘so why the text?’ with a nervous smile.
‘you told me to,’ he answered, still smiling.
‘I did,’ she nodded, pausing, holding his gaze — then added, ‘that’s true.’
She took a deep breath, feeling like she was walking through a minefield. He was making her work and she knew she deserved it. They continued to look at each other in silence as she searched for what to say next.
She smiled and added, ‘did you need a friend?’
They broke into laughter and she was transported back to a time when they’d shared so many moments just like that one in that very space.
He got up to get their beverages — cappuccino for her, double espresso for him.
She looked around the room as she waited.
It was crowded — there wasn’t a single table available.
A service dog lounged on the floor nearby, squinting in his own personal sliver of sunlight. A toddler fingered a row of granola bars and the little bags of nuts and veggie chips that lined a large basket near the cash. The walls were lined with big black and white prints made by a local photographer. A couple sat adjacent — the woman leaning back, slumped in her chair — the man leaning forward towards her, across the table, his body tense and erect — his hand inches from hers until she moves hers to her lap. Under the table, their boots almost touch.
Her attention returned to him, back quickly with drinks in hand.
He sat down and looked at her quietly.
After a moment, he took a deep breath and put that pained, apologetic smile back on and she felt like the air had been sucked out of the room completely.
He started, ‘it wasn’t fair that I didn’t answer you…after the letter…,’ then continued, ‘that wasn’t right…I wasn’t…it’s just…’, he paused, looking lost, ‘it was a lot.’
He looked at her like she was something with sharp edges — something that would hurt him. Something he shouldn’t touch.
She felt a dull ache settle onto her chest, making each successive breath feel more and more impossible.
She thought back to the letter and all that she’d confided. How she’d gone over every detail of their past, explaining what had been invisible to him — what had been happening behind the scenes, the fear, the panic, the motivations behind the machinations that played her like a marionette, that made her push him away — that made her run.
Everything had seemed so clear when she’d written him six months earlier. She hadn’t known where he’d be in his life when she first reached out. She had hoped beyond hope that she was finding her courage and clarity now for a reason — that the timing was serendipity.
Instead she’d been brushed off, then met with a reference to his mother in law, wife and boys, then a refusal to meet, then a softening with the suggestion of writing a letter to say her peace — and then silence.
Then the text.
She looked at him sitting across from her, his brows furrowed, eyes searching.
Her heart ached for him.
She wanted to tell him it was okay. She wanted to hold him as desperately as she wanted to be held by him. She wanted to tell him she knew he didn’t owe her anything.
She wanted to tell him she knew it was her fault.
‘I know’, she whispered attempting to smile — then more quietly, ‘it’s okay…’, her voice failing her.
She felt the swift heat of a flush come over and instantly, the tears threatened to well up.
She knew she must be glassy-eyed at the very least.
‘I forgot how green your eyes get’, he said.
She was on the edge of losing control — thoughts of, great my eyes are bloodshot interspersed with don’t cry — don’t cry — don’t cry, repeated over and over in her mind.
The entire cafe and all its activity shrunk away.
She gathered herself.
‘tell me everything,’ she said, making her best effort at a genuine smile.
She tried to balance the tightrope of breathing while not looking away and still hearing what he was saying as he filled in the time that they’d been apart.
He talked about his work, getting married and his kids — each happy story a jagged blade thrust into her. He had walked to their meeting, having bought a house in this, their favourite neighbourhood — the one with the good schools and the cute shops — and their special coffee shop.
Even though she already knew it all, to hear him speak of it — the family he created without her — hurt more than she could have imagined. Despite his best efforts to soften all he was relaying, to see the unmistakable pride on his face and hear the love in his voice when he spoke of them was too much for her to bare.
She felt an immeasurable sense of loss — something she’d carried since the day they parted — a feeling that had only grown stronger with each passing day without him.
Seeing him now, in front of her, quickened that loss in a way she wasn’t prepared for.
She felt like she was drowning and life suddenly struck her as very unfair.
Nothing made sense.
She listened to him speak, taking in all of it — nodding and smiling where she could manage it — mostly trying not to cry and wondering if she’d ever feel happy again. She didn’t have much to add to the conversation — she’d said it all in her letter.
She didn’t want to wake up tomorrow.
Her gaze landed on the ring on his finger — a symbol that made her sick. She’d stopped wearing hers a long time ago. Exhausted, she couldn’t feign a smile any longer.
‘listen,’ he pleaded, reading the obvious on her face, ‘please don’t feel bad…you shouldn’t feel that way.’
Don’t feel bad …she thought…don’t feel like I threw my chance at happiness away and it’s sitting across the table from me right now.
She felt sick.
‘I want you to be happy and always be happy,’ he continued.
I will never be happy again, she thought, never, fighting back tears.
She remained silent, feeling like she might spontaneously combust — keeping still while rapidly coming undone inside — her last vestiges of hope sinking and slowly slipping under the surface of this new reality.
One tear escaped.
She silently cursed the Universe for thrusting this last indignity upon her.
He looked at her, concerned — the apologetic smile replaced by worry and unmistakable hurt. He made a move to take her hand, hesitated and rested it beside hers on the table instead.
She was like a stranger to him, she thought — something taboo.
She felt like her heart would stop.
Her mind raced as he looked at her. No one saw her like he did.
He seemed wounded and she thought she saw it for a moment — that look he used to give her — he was wide open. No one showed vulnerability like he showed her, even after being met with a closed door time after time. He had loved with everything and she had been closed off. He had run up against the walls she continually put up but never gave up. His heart was made of gold and hers was wrapped in barbed wire.
She had never been able to tell him why — until the letter — when it was too late.
She let another silent tear fall. And another.
People were looking at them now, locked together in an intimate moment in a very public space.
He looked uncomfortable. She looked fragile — like she might come apart.
Without saying anything he stood up to put his coat on and made a motion towards the door — she stood mechanically, dazed and vaguely registered him helping her put her coat on.
She started towards the door, leaving her scarf on the back of her chair. He picked it up and followed her — quickly reaching ahead to push the door open as they both exited.
Outside, he put his hand on her back as they walked without speaking, past the space they last kissed to where she had parked at the end of the street.
Upon arriving at her car she turned to face him.
She couldn’t breathe. She wanted to speak, but couldn’t—knowing that if she spoke, she’d lose it completely.
He tied her scarf around her neck and looked at her with concern — calculating how to proceed.
‘why…’, she startled herself with the sound of her own voice and couldn’t continue. She wanted to know why he’d summoned her — why, after all this time. She stared at him plaintively, her chest heaving as she desperately tried to maintain composure.
He looked at her, his breath slow — his hands still holding onto the ends of her scarf — unsure — weighing whether or not to speak.
‘the letter’, he began, ‘what you said…everything…’, he paused — she’d stopped breathing now, her eyes locked to his as he continued, ‘why…why didn’t you tell me…before…why did you wait so long…why didn’t you tell me?’
He stopped, finally letting go of her scarf — his eyes were glassy now, his brow knitted in a perplexed furrow.
She gathered her breath in a concerted effort to get her voice out, ‘I’m…sorry,’ she muttered through broken speech — there was no point in trying to keep it together now — she continued, ‘you’ll never know how much…you’ll…”, she stopped — the tears flowing freely now, stifling her voice.
‘…I’m sorry’, she repeated, her voice just a whisper.
He looked at her with a pained expression before turning away and looking down the street, breathing heavily. He looked back at her, bewildered, with a look that seemed to ask, what do you want from me?
She wanted to level his life.
And she wanted him to want her to level it.
He looked at her like she was an approaching storm and he’d missed his chance to run for cover.
He looked lost.
She had never wanted to touch someone as badly as she did in that moment. She wanted to reach through the wall between them and bury her face in his coat, feel his arms around her. Make him feel safe — and feel safe in return.
She knew she was poison to him.
To be with her would mean the end of the life he had worked so hard to build — the life he’d rightly earned — the life she knew he deserved.
She could try to sway him.
Instead, she put her hands in her pockets and said with a resigned smile and shrug, ‘I have to go’.
He looked at her, guarded.
After a moment he nodded, swallowing hard while looking at the ground — putting a reluctant hand on her shoulder and giving it a squeeze as if to say goodbye.
She blinked through her tears and smiled at him as she pulled her car keys from her pocket. He looked away again for a moment before turning back, kissed her gently on the forehead and opened the car door for her.
‘bye’, she whispered, barely able to get the word out past the massive lump in her throat as she got into the car.
He remained silent as he shut the door behind her.
She smiled and waved through the glass — turning quickly to look straight ahead as she started the car. She watched him walk away in her periphery.
The stereo engaged with the engine.
She used music to focus her feelings and the past six months had been filled with an endless parade of sad songs. After avoiding them for so long she was determined to sit with her feelings no matter how uncomfortable — no matter how desperate it made her feel. She always listened at full volume with the walls rattling and the bass punching her in the gut — as if her heart depended on the beat to push the blood through her veins.
She needed to feel. She needed to let the poison.
She advanced quickly through the playlist to find the right one: Banners, Ghosts.
Holding her breath, she waited as long as she could before letting her head fall into her hands and sobbing uncontrollably as the music blared.
I hear voices, awoken from my sleep
I’m haunted by the thoughts, I creep —
if the earth quakes now, buildings fall —
I’m pulling pictures off from our walls
till you say here, here I am
She felt that most bilious of emotions, regret, rising up in her throat, choking her breath and settling on her chest like a megaton weight. Her grief was exquisite and unfathomable — it crashed down on her in unceasing waves until she felt like she’d drown.
Overwhelmed, she shut the engine off to silence the music and, finding a tissue in the console, tried her best to clean herself up as the tears continued to fall.
She closed her eyes tightly, trying to get hold of herself — knowing she’d be reckless if she tried to drive in this state. She didn’t need another speeding ticket — but on second thought, an ill-advised drive near the bluffs sounded like a good idea.
focus….breathe…breath in…breathe out…breathe in…breathe…
RAP…rap…rap…RAP…RAP…RAP..
She opened her eyes, jarred back to reality by the sound of loud knocking on the passenger side window. Looking over in disbelief, she saw him looking through the window, motioning for her to open the door.
Him.
Dazedly, she unlocked the door and he quickly got in.
She looked at him, completely stunned as he turned to face her — her reddened eyes blazing green, her flushed cheeks, tear-stained and marked by mascara.
Without hesitation, he leaned in, took her face in his hands and kissed her — softly at first and then with such ferocity the racing of her heart made her dizzy. Eyes closed, her lips received his and she was home. His hands slid down her shoulders and around her back, pulling her to him with an intensity that said he could never pull her close enough — her arms finding their way under his coat and around his body, taking in the warmth of him — both of them moving to answer the savage need that consumed them.
She opened her eyes to find him looking back at her and they remained like that for a beat until he rested his forehead against hers and the rest of the world didn’t exist.
Words weren’t needed.
She brought her hand up to trace the side of his face, to run her fingers through his hair — to finally touch him like she had longed to for so long.
He put his hand over hers and looked at her with the desire she remembered — knocking the breath out of her once more.
He remembers, she thought, her eyes locked to his — and in that moment she realized that that’s what she had wanted more than anything — to know that he remembered.
Everything seemed clear again.
‘take me somewhere,’ she said breathlessly. | https://medium.com/the-coffeelicious/coffee-iv-4ba8bf76136d | ['Marika Bianca'] | 2016-12-19 00:10:18.601000+00:00 | ['Serial Fiction', 'Love', 'Fiction', 'Relationships', 'Short Story'] |
How to Significantly Improve Your Life in the Next 30 Days | Authenticity Is the Key
“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” — George Bernard Shaw
If you board a ship and embark on a journey without setting a course first, you’ll end up wherever the wind blows you. And the winds of life often don’t blow in the direction you want.
Lots of people don’t consciously choose their trajectory in life. They end up in jobs they hate and relationships without spark. They spend their time and money on pointless distractions. They sit there, slumped together and teary-eyed, wondering why their life is empty of meaning but full of activities they don’t enjoy. And the reason is that they aren’t authentic.
Psychological research shows that authentic people are more satisfied with their lives for obvious reasons.
They walk their own path, do what comes naturally to them, and follow their calling. Their clear and strong sense of self lets them be themselves, instead of bending to other people’s will. They build deeper and more meaningful connections because people value them for who they are, not for who they pretend to be.
Authenticity means to know yourself, own yourself, and be yourself — in that order.
Know yourself. Explore your values, practice mindfulness, reflect on yourself through journaling, and ask if your beliefs make sense. Knowing yourself is key to finding purpose and meaning in your life.
Own yourself. Take responsibility for your life. Whatever situation you’re in right now, you’re the one responsible for making a change. Stop blaming others for your misery because it won’t improve your situation one bit. Take charge instead.
Be yourself. Act on your values and the conscious decisions you made. Think hard, consider other’s opinions, but do what you think is right. Stop people-pleasing — you can’t attract who’s right without pissing off others. This is your life and yours alone. Go and live it.
Two weeks ago, I decided to quit my Master’s degree close to completion. I studied at one of the best business universities in Europe, and it would’ve been my ticket for a wild ride on most corporate career rollercoasters. Except, I didn’t want any of them.
Working a 9 to 5 isn’t in line with my values, my passions, and who I am. It would’ve made me miserable, so I opted out. Needless to say, most people didn’t understand my decision. There’s no guarantee that it will work out. It’s a risk, but what matters is I got to know myself, took responsibility for my life, and acted in an authentic way. And that’s why this decision feels so damn good.
Being authentic isn’t always easy, and you’ll face a lot of resistance. But it’s the first crucial step you have to take. You have to set the trajectory for your life before you start walking. There’s no point in running faster if you’re headed in the wrong direction. | https://medium.com/live-your-life-on-purpose/how-to-significantly-improve-your-life-in-the-next-30-days-8656f2c0e049 | ['Moreno Zugaro'] | 2020-11-16 12:08:36.283000+00:00 | ['Personal Growth', 'Life', 'Self Improvement', 'Advice', 'Inspiration'] |
Building Go App with Gitlab Runner on Azure |Part 1 | ggm🤩
Hello fellow techies and non-techies, for this post we would be looking at the following tasks:
Setting up an Azure VM Opening a port on Azure using NSG (Network Security Group) Installing Docker and Golang Building a simple Golang web server Setting up and Installing GitLab runner Creating a pipeline on GitLab with the web server created in point 4
Let’s assume you are a developer building an application and you consider writing test for this application, there is a high chance of you making mistake when you write them manually. An automated test can only bring out their true potential when you run them continuously and for every change so as not to allow it works on my machine issues. With the help of Continuous Integration (CI) tools, problems such as this are easily detected and reported, it also makes it easy to get the application ready for deployment. Examples of CI tools are GitLab, Jenkins, Semaphore, TravisCI, Circle CI, TeamCity etc.
Setting up an Azure VM
feeling_when_using_azure😌
Let’s discuss what Azure is before setting up a VM in Azure.
Microsoft Azure popularly referred to Azure is a cloud provider that offer cloud computing services, this service ranges from servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, intelligence and more, over the internet (the cloud).
Creating an account on Azure is quite easy, visit Microsoft Azure and fill in the required information and you are good to go, also if you have a student email you will be able to access services on Azure free of charge.
For this post, we will be creating an Ubuntu VM on Azure and I will guide you on how to do this and also include images.
Once you have your account created on Azure, sign in to Azure portal then you should be redirected to this page and of cos without the recent resources:
Azure_home_page
The first step is to create a resource group
A resource group is like a box that houses resources required for an application in a single manageable unit. For example say you have a web server using a database, virtual machine and some sort of storage set up, rather than creating this in various resource group you can easily put them into one resource group and you can manage the application collectively.
Click on the ➕ icon to create a new resource group and the next page that will be displayed to you is:
creating_rg_azure
Since we will be working with Ubuntu Image, select Ubuntu Server 18.04 LTS and you should have this displayed on your screen:
new_hub_create
For my Azure account am using my Microsoft Learn Student Ambassador account, to learn more about becoming an MLSA, visit here. With this account, I was given a Subscription because using Azure requires an Azure Subscription which gives authenticated and authorized access to Azure products and services.
Click on the drop-down to select your Subscription or create one if you can’t find any since we don’t have any resource group, click on Create New and give your resource group a name, I will be going with gitlab-prac.
Also, I will be giving my virtual machine a name and for this post, I will be going with gitlab-vm, you should note that the virtual machine name as to be unique as you will see in the image below that there’s a green check-mark which indicates that the name is unique, I decided to use West US region for this post, you can as well use any region of your choice and I left other option as default.
Region is a geographical area on the planet that has one or more data centres and Azure has 54 available regions in 140 countries
vm_setup
The next line of action is to create how you will connect to this virtual machine (VM) and with Azure, you can connect either using SSH public key or Password. For me I already have one SSH key created called adefemi-mind, but you might need to create a new one by giving any preferred admin username for the VM, for the SSH Public Key Source, click on the drop-down and select Generate new key pair and then give the key any name of your choice.
To connect to this VM, you will need to allow some port to be opened especially port 22, by default this port is selected because it allows you ssh into the VM and for the image below I also opened port 80 and 443 to allow HTTP and HTTPS.
vm_port_opening
With all this filled, click on Review+ create, you will also need to download your Key and depending on your browser settings, you should find it in the Downloads section of your PC.
You can as well add some additional settings on the disk tab, networking, management, advanced and tags, but for this post, I will be going with the default settings. You will need to wait for a few minutes for the resources to get created and you should get the output below
azure_vm_success
Click on Go to resource and you should this output, Azure create a virtual network, public IP address, nsg, network interface and a disk just like the image below, you should note that the name will be different
azure_gitlab_rg
Next step is to SSH into the server you created, firstly click on the VM name, mine is gitlab-vm and at the tab click on connect, select SSH and the next step is to ensure you have read-only access to the private key you download. navigate to where the key was downloaded and in your terminal run the following command:
changing_pem_key_access
Then connect with the VM using the following command as well:
vm_ssh
With this, you should have the output below
success_vm_ssh
Yeah, you are now running an Ubuntu Server in Microsoft Azure cloud
cloud_nine😎😎
Take some time and spread your wings😌🤪. It doesn’t end when one creates a new VM, best practice is to update and upgrade APT repositories and to do that run this command in your server:
apt_repo_update_upgrade
With these steps, we are done setting up Azure VM.
Opening a port on Azure using NSG
nsg_bounced😩😩
For the Golang web server, it will be running on port 7000 or whatever port you specified in the code. From the previous step, while we were trying to open up SSH access, we specified a port 22, if this port was not specified we would be like the kid trying to get out without a key😩. Therefore, to have access to port 7000, we need to create it using Azure Network Security Group (NSG).
door_break😂😂😂
Azure NSG allows filtering of network traffic to and from Azure resources in an Azure virtual network, the NSG contains security rules that allow or deny inbound traffic to or outbound traffic from, various Azure resources and for each rule you specify the source and destination, port and protocol.
Since we are opening port 7000, navigate to the Azure portal, then click on Network security groups select the name of your VM’s nsg and click on Inbound security rules since we are allowing traffic on 7000, click on ➕Add depending on your settings but for this post I will be leaving the Source As Any, Source port ranges As *, Destination as Any, set Destination port ranges to 7000, Protocol As Any, Action As allow and Priority As 350, give the port a name, called mine port_7000 and also a description.
nsg_port_7000
Just like the man kicking the door down, you just got access to port 7000 on your server 😉😉. That was not so hard right?
Installing Docker and Golang
docker🐋🐋
For GitLab runner, you need to provide runner executor that can be used to run your builds in different scenarios. And various executors are ranging from SSH, VirtualBox, Docker, Kubernetes and you can also create a custom executor, for this post we will be using Docker as our runner executor hence the need for us to install it.
To install Docker and enable Docker, run the following commands in your terminal
install_enable_docker_command
After running these commands you should have this output:
install_enable_docker_output
And to exit, simply click on q and you should be back to your shell.
Next step is to install Golang
gopher_gif
Golang is an open-source programming language that makes it easy to build simple, reliable, and efficient software. Since this post is not about Golang, to learn more visit their webpage. Installing Go is quite straightforward and for this post am using go1.15.5. To have Go installed, run the following commands:
At the end of the command you should have an output like this:
golang_version_output
And with this, you should have both Docker and Golang installed on your server.
relax_chill
Yeah, you should relax and chill cos we’ve just concluded the first part of this series.
A quick recap on what was done
We looked at setting up a VM on Azure We opened port 7000 using Azure NSG for the VM we created Lastly, we installed Docker and Golang on our server
In the next post, we will be looking at the last three tasks to complete this project. | https://medium.com/@adefemi171/building-go-app-with-gitlab-runner-on-azure-part-1-5e2a21c47876 | ['Adefemi Micheal'] | 2020-12-22 13:12:50.516000+00:00 | ['Gitlab Ci', 'Cloud', 'Golang', 'Gitlab', 'Azure'] |
Food Trends 2021 | What will hit the shelves and what will hit the mainstream
Photo by Benziad on Unsplash
The health megatrend is only just getting started, but the lines between nutritious foods and supplements are already blurred. It leads to nutrient-dense products that feature functional health benefits to support consumer wellbeing. According to ADM research, 31% of consumers buy products to support their health, and 50% state a preference for products with naturally occurring beneficial ingredients.
Buzzwords
Adaptogens, functional ingredients, probiotics, superfoods
Reimagined Basics
New takes on staples, such as pasta, sauces, blended spices, and baked goods due to new shelf-stabilizing techniques and repurposed ingredients such as hearts of palm pasta, applewood-smoked salt, and meat flavored vegetarian products. The omnipresent chickpea will continue to lead this reimagination in alt-foods such as tofu, chips, flour, and cereals.
Baby food for grown ups
While Soylent may have been a decade too early, the category is getting a makeover with products focusing on adults’ health benefits. Think of a fruit mousse with ingredients such as fruits and flaxseeds.
Upcycled foods
Brands and food manufacturers are continuing to find new ways to upcycle ingredients that would’ve previously gone to waste, “we’re seeing a huge rise in packaged products that use neglected and underused parts of an ingredient as a path to reducing food waste. Upcycled foods, made from ingredients that would have otherwise been food waste, help to maximize the energy used to produce, transport and prepare that ingredient.” according to Whole Foods.
Buched-up — Boozed down
While hard seltzer burst onto the scene in 2018, alcoholic kombuchas are a big trend in the beverage category despite the onset of non alcoholic RTD cocktails and beverages. Kombucha’s USP, it is gluten-free, it is bubbly and probiotic cultures can be added for further product differentiation.
Protein Power
Protein trend goes mainstream, formerly reserved for gym members and pro athletes, it has already found a foothold in the yogurt aisle by emphasizing and rebranding dairy products
Pro Brands Protein Chips with Sea Salt Flavor
Spicely Organics Organic Italian Protein Seasoning
Take Two Barley Milk: Vanilla
Plant Power
Tulsi , an Indian basil variant, said to reduce metabolic stress, primarily used in tea
, an Indian basil variant, said to reduce metabolic stress, primarily used in tea Noni , a superfruit and antioxidant that contains more than 100 vitamins and minerals, originally from the South Pacific Islands, supply may be constrained
, a superfruit and antioxidant that contains more than 100 vitamins and minerals, originally from the South Pacific Islands, supply may be constrained Achacha , high in Potassium and Vitamin C, is originally from Bolivia, but has seen commercialization in Australia
, high in Potassium and Vitamin C, is originally from Bolivia, but has seen commercialization in Australia Rambutan , one more superfruit that is relatively common in South East Asian, its similarity to Lychees and a possible take off in travel in 2021 could propell this hairy fruit onto the mainstream
, one more superfruit that is relatively common in South East Asian, its similarity to Lychees and a possible take off in travel in 2021 could propell this hairy fruit onto the mainstream Calamansi, South Korean, and popular in beauty products already, but also used for lemonades, it could cross the Pacific as part of the ongoing interest in the K-Pop — culture export
Adaptogens
Drinks that can help you focus, cereals that make you tired, sodas that lift the mood. Products containing adaptogens most commonly have such claims, and consumers, especially in North America, love it.
What else ?
Meat and dairy alternatives will continue to progress, but have reached mainstream acceptability, therefore I did not include them as such. Cultured meat, such as recently announced by Eat Just, still faces a long road towards industrial production and regulatory scrutiny.
Adapotgens may see a bit of PR backlash as most products claim effects that have not been backed up for their particular recipe, rather that just one of the ingredients.
Alternative Proteins, various startups are working on them, and have recently discovered previously unknown ones, but as with most new ingredients, it takes time until they can be commercially produced and sold.
So I will close this piece with two already available products that are representative of the aforementioned trends.
Table of Plenty
Ginger Honey and Coconut Immunity Plus Porridge
Chobani Complete
Advanced Nutrition Greek Yogurt Shake: Vanilla
Eat healthy and nutritious everyone, and have a great 2021. | https://medium.com/@marcroger/food-trends-2021-9da6c5ebdda2 | [] | 2020-12-18 21:35:10.962000+00:00 | ['Retail', 'Food', 'Health', 'Nutrition', 'Trends'] |
How should bots speak to humans? | BotSpeak database — 1 human, 200+ bots, 892 bot dialogs
TL;DR — Designing great bot dialog is tough but crucial to increase engagement. We talked to over 200 Facebook Messenger bots to extract conversation dialogs for your reference: BotSpeak. Evaluating the output from bots, we adopted a pure data approach for lexical improvements and anecdotal advice on better presentation of the bot conversations.
How do you feel about conversations with bots so far? Are they engaging, disappointing or interesting?
For bot makers, there are lots of challenges in crafting more engaging bots. Among others, these two are the most obvious and painful:
Challenge 1: Getting inspiration for how to build your bot based on how others built theirs. You can’t just search for bots based on the meta details in conversations, because there isn’t such a database.
Challenge 2: Ensuring that the bot dialog is great and captivating. Other than what you know/think your audience will like, there’s no easy way to see best practices across a wide range of bots.
As you can imagine, it’s pretty hard to get to know other bots that well unless you spend lots of time talking to bots, and have your Messenger inbox entirely flooded with bot conversations.
So, in order to tackle these two problems head-on, we talked to 200+ bots for research, and documented the conversations. We called this project BotSpeak, and we present all the conversations we had on BotSpeak in a searchable table format for you, so you don’t have to, yourself. Enjoy the 🎁!
You can contribute to BotSpeak database by inputting your bot’s conversations of up to 8 outputs here: https://goo.gl/forms/TFy2UTEdSAFS3ZzN2
Bot selection
We chose bots based on their popularity, based on total views of the bot on Botlist. Other than top bots by views, we also selected bots across a range of categories to ensure that most of the major types of bots are represented in this study. This ensures that the sample is not only comprehensive across categories, but also filtered by popularity; the assumption is that popular bots have more chance to develop best practices over time.
Bot category classification is taken from Botlist for each bot we tested
As you can see, “Personal” bots are heavily represented due to the proportion of popular bots that are classified as such.
Methodology
Every research begins with scoping down a right methodology. In order to do this right, we came up with a bunch of parameters which we feel would be really useful to analyze. The starting point of the study was based on textual data from our conversations with bots. To get the most meaningful data, we engaged the bots in conversation, pressed buttons to receive output for record and analysis, and went through every bot experience in general.
Collection of data
As there are no publicly available sources of data for bot conversations, we started out by using the collection of bots on Facebook Messenger indexed on Botlist (great database and resource for discovering the best bots across all platforms).
Knowing that we might be talking to over 200 bots and Facebook might classify the activity as suspicious, we created a new account to talk to the bots. After going through about 20 conversations, we realized that Facebook has blocked my account from sending new messages to bots. Hence, I used that as a cue to 1) start recording the conversations, 2) deactivate the account, 3) create a new account to talk to new bots.
For this exercise, we had to create about 10 new accounts and deactivated as many. (Sorry Facebook, but it probably took no notice to this small blip in user churn anyway.)
One of the accounts which we spun up to test bots and shut down after
8 accounts created for bot testing under — Brian, Doug, Connor, Mathew, Al, Wayne to name a few
In recording the conversations, we ignored the cards, images and media that the bot was displaying in the analysis records to focus on the text. The reason we approached it in this manner is because we felt that the creatives are unique to brands and bot developers should use brand- or use case- appropriate visuals. Plus, it would complicate the recording on a Google Sheet table! However, we did note some general comments on creative presentation and you can read about this later on.
As much as possible, we tried not to use too much free-form/natural language to allow the bots to provide us with the ideal experience as defined by the developer. Being harsh to bots is definitely not part of this exercise for recording and discovering best practices; but, in our own experience, some people are mean to bots.
Analysis of data
After the data was collected and organized in a table structure, we began analyzing the conversations in bulk with text analysis tools.
We visualized the data for anyone to be able to use and access on BotSpeak. There are filters for names and categories, which you can use as terms to search for what you need. Since categories were set by the developer (or Botlist posters), we chose not to reclassify the bots despite some cases where categories were not representative of the bot.
BotSpeak database of bot conversations logged
Limitations — There are many well-designed bots with multiple paths and possibilities. Due to time constraints, we did not do a full audit of all paths and may have missed some of them. In the future, we hope to dedicate more resources to obtain more complete “Bot maps”. This limitation is especially so for story bots, as scripts can go up to 2500 dialog outputs and so we have limited them to ~8 outputs. (Besides, you should try them yourself, most of them are pretty fun.)
For the purpose of this study, we felt that the number of conversations and data collection was sufficient to form a robust initial representation set for use.
Areas of improvement: Lexical/Semantics
Based on all the conversations with bots we’ve analyzed, here are some semantics-related improvements we feel could significantly improve bot experiences. Each of these points are also marked with the total observed instances across bots.
A. Take note of extra words / Modifier phrases / Grammaticality (347 instances)
E.g.: “Red sunglasses are very trending, would you like to see some?” — can be edited to be: “Red sunglasses are trending, want to see some?”
B. Avoid rambling starts (44 instances)
E.g.: “To become a wiser human being by reading the secrets posted by my friends, please tap once on the menu button shown below and select READ A SECRET” — can be edited to be: “Become a wiser by reading secrets from friends by tapping READ A SECRET below”
C. Use emojis for engagement (119 instances)
E.g.: “Sorry, didn’t get it” — can be edited to be: “Sorry, didn’t get it 😕”
D. Consider using active voice instead of passive voice (89 instances)
E.g.: “You have been matched to Colin.” — can be edited to be: “I’ve matched you to Colin.”
E. Replace rare/complex words with simple words (146 instances)
E.g.: “The least agonizing itinerary flies from SJC to HNL.” — can be edited to be: “The least painful itinerary flies from SJC to HNL.”
Areas of improvement: Presentation
The visual cues of a bot are just as important as the script and functionality. The bots that we talked to had some areas where they could improve in terms of visual hierarchy, contrast, and appropriateness. (These are our observations, and not part of the Botspeak database.)
A. Use buttons where you can to aid users
People enjoy doing easy things over hard things. Hence, buttons can (and usually is) the preferred mode for people interacting with bots. Instead of the hassle of typing common requests like “Yes” or “What else can you do”, you can just press a button. It’s also easier to lead users down the experience, constrained by the buttons shown.
B. Take advantage of the Messenger platform’s functionality
Options like quick replies and logins can be used to enhance the ease of using the bot. Wherever it’s possible to simplify choices to just a few clickable options, you should do that. If there’s a potential of streamlining the experience with customer details through login, you may want to try it. There are lots of other functionalities you can choose to use, so explore and make full use of them, where it makes sense.
C. Use attractive menu images
Many bots are heavily dependent on their menus, and this means that most users will end up seeing the menu about 30–50% of the time. Hence, menu images should be representative of your bot (and the company or product it represents), and made to be as attractive as possible.
D. Send interesting images as part of your responses
It can be really interesting for users when you send creative visuals as an attachment together with bot responses. You can even use gifs as part of your quick replies, adding small points of delight within your bot.
Poncho is a good source of inspiration for delightful visuals
E. Make sure you have a welcome message
Only 70% of bots we tried included a welcome message. What happened to everyone else? With bots still a relatively new interface for the majority of (non-tech, non-startup) users, it’s important to present the bot and its functionality clearly, so users are properly guided through the experience and achieve success in what they were trying to do.
Having a good, well-crafted welcome message sets your bot users up with the right expectations, so they know what not to expect from the bot, preventing disappointment or perceived failures.
Main takeaways
Testing is crucial: You’ll need to test and continuously improve the bot scripts based on feedback from your users. Lots of bots are not designed to handle common edge cases, such as users swearing at bots (more common than we’d like to think) and common backstory questions like “Who made you?” Cross-category learnings are applicable: A database like BotSpeak is useful for developers designing bot dialogs as there are many common use cases, and lots of things can be applied from other bots. For example, a productivity bot can easily learn a few tricks from a social bot in scripting fun experiences. People like simplicity & familiarity: The best bots are designed with users in mind, and with bots supposed to be the user-friendly and easy conversational interface it is, stick to easy and familiar words. The most used words by bots are visualized below (after removing stop words):
Word cloud of non-common words most used by the 200+ bots — fashioned as R2D2
How to use BotSpeak
You can leverage the knowledge we’ve gathered on Botspeak to filter by categories or the bots that you want to reference.
With this, you can look at examples of how other bots have been scripted and what their various output options are. You can use this as a guide for your own bot planning process.
Also, a simple CMD+F (Ctrl+F for windows) can get you a search by actual dialog words — for example, I looked for “book” and found the ShelfJoy bot delivering hand-curated book suggestions.
Searching by name of bot on BotSpeak
Future work
How should bots behave?
Options: Mimic human behavior (e.g. delays in conversation, having a name, being funny, using active voice) or being a more command-line experience (i.e. instant response, organization/product name identity, using formal tone/words). From the BotSpeak database, one can find that out of the 200 bots, about 10% of the bots told users their name. Other platforms
We want to continue updating the database with additions from contributors, as well as adding other platform bots in the future. One obvious platform that we wish to figure out how to test is Slack. Given that a free team may not be best way to do so, we’ll have to find a creative (but still reasonable) methodology to use. Perhaps the extension of the project could be used by Slack as a way to advise users how the bot flows should look like. Comprehensive data on flows
Interaction steps for this project is limited by the amount of time we spent with each bot. Some bots have over 100 programed interactions as part of a story, while others are focused on a search experience that ends when user demands are fulfilled. Over time, we will get a better idea how to craft the ideal experience for each category with data.
All a-bot the future
We are definitely only beginning to test and learn from different use cases of bots across multiple verticals. There are lots of other examples that you can see on BotSpeak, so go ahead and explore them yourself. With a database like this, which we hope you’ll add to, we can all start developing a sense of what would work best for bot-human interactions.
Keep improving your bots and if you like BotSpeak, share the link (and this piece) with your users and friends!
Shoutout to Joseph Tyler (Linguist), Erik Nilsen (Bot developer), Ben Tossell(Botlist), Philippe Dionne (Dialog Analytics) for reviewing this post and tool!
Post was first posted on the KeyReply blog: https://keyreply.com/blog/How-should-bots-speak-to-humans/ | https://chatbotsmagazine.com/how-should-bots-speak-to-humans-d10b2dc3e954 | ['Spencer Yang'] | 2016-11-11 07:43:38.484000+00:00 | ['Bots', 'Messaging'] |
Alternative Way to Perform OR Query in Cloud Firestore | If you are using Cloud Firestore for your project’s database, you may have tried performing OR query but soon realized that there’s no function for that. I also encountered the same problem. As a matter of fact, many of us had encountered the same problem and here’s the proof. At the time of writing this article, Google hasn’t provided OR, IN, NOT IN operators for WHERE query.
Therefore, the only approach now, though unpleasant, is to run several queries in a loop and then merge the query results on the client side. I would show you how to achieve this in java. For javascript, use Lim Shang Yi’s approach here.
Cloud Firestore
So here in my database, I have books collection, and each document has three fields- author , genre , and title . In this example, I want to retrieve books from more than one genre. So here we go:
This actually does the job, but it’s not quite efficient because it uses more resources on the client side. I hope Google will provide a more efficient way of doing this soon.
By the way, I used the result to populate this RecyclerView
Books App
…and here’s the source code.
I would love your feedback! Thanks for reading! | https://medium.com/swlh/alternative-way-to-perform-or-query-in-cloud-firestore-d4cccf43dbbd | ['Mendhie Emmanuel'] | 2019-07-17 11:07:47.218000+00:00 | ['JavaScript', 'Java', 'Firebase', 'AndroidDev'] |
THE ETERNAL PARTY: Understanding My Dad, Larry Hagman–By Kristina Hagman | When you have a very famous father, like mine, everyone thinks they know him.
My dad, Larry Hagman, portrayed the storied, ruthless oilman J.R. on the TV series Dallas. He was the man everyone loved to hate, but he had a personal reputation for being a nice guy who fully subscribed to his motto: DON’T WORRY! BE HAPPY! FEEL GOOD! Dad had a famous parent, too―Mary Martin, known from many roles on Broadway, most memorably as Peter Pan. Off-stage she was a kind, elegant woman who maintained the down home charm of her Texas roots. Both were performers to the core of their beings, masters at crafting their public images. They were beloved. And their relationship was complex and often fraught.
My father never apologized for anything, even when he was wrong. But in the hours before he died, when I was alone with him in his hospital room, he begged for forgiveness. In his delirium, he could not tell me what troubled him, but somehow I found the words to comfort him. After he died, I was compelled to learn why he felt the need to be forgiven.
As I solved the troubling mystery of why my happy-go-lucky, pot-smoking, LSD-taking Dad had spent his last breaths begging to be forgiven, I also came to know my father and grandmother better than I had known them in life.
KRISTINA HAGMAN is an artist who has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, People magazine, Closer magazine (UK), and more. She is the daughter of Larry Hagman and granddaughter of Mary Martin and lives in Santa Monica, California.
You can purchase your own copy of The Eternal Party on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or at your local indie bookstore. | https://medium.com/carol-mann-agency/the-eternal-party-understanding-my-dad-larry-hagman-the-tv-star-america-loved-to-hate-by-bede5c38ee46 | ['Carol Mann Agency'] | 2016-09-27 17:49:38.436000+00:00 | ['Books', 'Celebrity', 'Television', 'Love', 'Family'] |
Should I Stay or Should I Go? The Ultimate Relationship Litmus Test | Should I Stay or Should I Go? The Ultimate Relationship Litmus Test
The long-term relationships we choose have greater impact on our happiness and well-being than any other decisions we make. Here’s a simple, 10-second, yes or no test to help us decide.
Photo credit: Shutterstock
By Thomas G. Fiffer
Should I stay or should I go now?
Should I stay or should I go now?
If I go there will be trouble
An’ if I stay it will be double
So come on and let me know
— Should I Stay Or Should I Go, The Clash
♦◊♦
New relationships are the best, right? We all know that special thrill. We meet someone fun and attractive, everything is fresh and exciting, and we experience the joy of discovery as we learn intimate details about another person and start to feel safe sharing our own. Companionship sure beats loneliness, and we feel fortunate and blessed to have found someone who finally understands us. And then there’s the magical bliss of infatuation, the sprinkle of sparkly fairy dust that dispels all doubt and makes us feel as if we’re perfect for each other.
And then … reality bites.
He steals a glance at the blonde one table over. She orders a third drink. He snores. She falls asleep without brushing her teeth. He gargles religiously for five minutes every morning. She leaves a tampon in the toilet. He confesses he didn’t really like Bridget Jones’s Diary. She confesses she doesn’t really like Thai food. He admits he was only pretending to like cats. She starts to “upgrade” his wardrobe. And so on.
The progression from la-la land to love it or leave it is normal as a relationship grows and evolves, and with a core foundation of shared values and interests, sexual chemistry, solid communication skills, and dedicated commitment to making it work, many couples survive the drop-off of the booster rocket at the end of the honeymoon period and launch into the difficult but immensely rewarding orbit of building a long-term, loving relationship. Understanding what happens in our subconscious when the dream state wears off is key to making a sound and healthy decision about staying or leaving.
♦◊♦
As time goes by — one month, three months, six months — a strange thing happens. We begin to feel, on the one hand, more confident and comfortable and less afraid of being ourselves around our partners. Yet at the same time, having invested a quarter or half a year of our lives in being with another person, we begin to worry about the what-ifs, especially the big one: What if we’re wasting our time on someone who isn’t “the one”? And how do we know if this one is the one? This confusing dichotomy of increased confidence in and comfort with our partnership bond accompanied by decreased certainty of our partner’s rightness occurs naturally as we move closer to shifting from a short-term, easily escapable relationship, to a long-term, committed, often legally-sanctioned and possibly life-long partnership with another person. Just as we start to let our guard down, our protective instinct kicks in to ensure we’re getting in bed — literally and figuratively — with a partner who is safe and will treat us well over the long term.
♦◊♦
The confounding push-pull of these conflicting feelings leads to those seemingly random outbursts of emotion, crying jags, scary statements such as “I don’t know if I love you,” and the need for a “break” or “time off to sort things out” before moving forward.
At the same time, partners experience an unsettling set of fears that spur irrational behavior. There is the fear of fucking up, of ruining the relationship and losing a loving companion. There is the fear that we don’t deserve to be loved, that we will be dumped as soon as this is discovered, so we might as well end it ourselves to avoid being dumped. Finally, there is the fear of losing “the one,” the person who is meant for us, and living an unfulfilled life with substitutes because we stupidly lost “the real thing.”
These fears result in the following unhealthy behaviors:
the self-imposed pressure to agree with our partner and conform to his or her ways of doing things;
a tendency to accommodate and compromise;
avoidance of confrontation even when our principles are at stake;
and reluctance to draw boundaries for fear of upsetting, alienating, or driving our partner away.
While these behaviors seem rational in the short term, as they smooth out early rough spots in the relationship, they are unwise for the long term, as they gouge deep potholes that partners will need to navigate around down the road to avoid damaging the relationship.
In this confusing mess, the questions arise: Is he or she the one for me? Is it meant to be? Can we make it work? How do I know?
♦◊♦
Fear of making a mistake also results in testing, which can take the form of obnoxious or disrespectful behavior to see how a partner reacts or manifest as requests for proofs of love and commitment. Isn’t love grand?
Perhaps the most memorable marriage test appears in the movie Diner, when Baltimore Colts fan Eddie, played by Steve Guttenberg, administers a 140-question football test to his fiancée Elyse to determine if she is marriage material. Even though she fails by two points, he still walks down the aisle with her.
In retrospect, couples who have been together for a long time often say, “We just knew,” but hindsight has a way of shrouding what really happened in a haze of false memory, revisionist history, and wishful thinking. Few people remember exactly how they knew or what they were thinking at the time. And everyone offers a different tidbit of advice.
♦◊♦
While it’s nearly impossible to be objective about love — after all, we’re dealing with feelings here — it’s crucial to be aware of the factors that influence our decisions. It’s also helpful to have a simple, yes or no, blue or red litmus test (as opposed to a 140-question sports quiz) we can use to determine whether our relationship is destined for long-term happiness or headed for heartbreak. Here are 10 tests that don’t work, and one that does.
He always tells me he loves me. (Saying it doesn’t make it so.) She says she accepts me exactly the way I am. (She may actually want some changes — we all do.) We always make up in the bedroom. (Sex doesn’t engender intimacy; intimacy engenders sex.) We never fight. (All couples have disagreements.) He’s nice to my parents. (It could be an act.) She’s good to my kids. (It could be an act.) We never run out of things to talk about. (You may not be communicating about the important stuff.) He/she always puts my needs first. (No one is a saint; there may be resentment building.) We like all the same things — books, movies, foods, activities, places to go. (Life will get boring if neither one of you ever pursues an independent interest or takes the other out of their comfort zone.) He/she says we’re soulmates and I’m the one. (If this is true, it never needs convincing.)
♦◊♦
Here is the one test that does work.
How does your partner treat you when you’re wrong?
When it turns out you’re mistaken or had the wrong idea about something, does your partner jump on you, go for the jugular, pound the point home, spike the ball in the end zone, gloat in victory, take joy in your defeat, self-congratulate on superior intellect, and act smug about being right?
Or does your partner act respectfully towards you, give your points fair consideration, try to help you see where your judgment might be inaccurate or flawed, show forgiveness and understanding, treat your discussion as a learning experience instead of a conquest, and employ communication skills not to weaken you but to strengthen the relationship?
♦◊♦
To me, this is the ultimate test. Because inevitably, we will all be wrong. And when we are, we do not want to be made to feel small, stupid, ignorant, and worthless. We don’t want to feel that our standing has been diminished by “losing.” We don’t want to feel squashed or stomped on.
We simply want to be treated fairly and with … respect.
—
This story was previously published on The Good Men Project. | https://goodmenproject.medium.com/should-i-stay-or-should-i-go-the-ultimate-relationship-litmus-test-f7201e771617 | ['The Good Men Project'] | 2020-11-07 01:42:33.879000+00:00 | ['Relationships', 'Commitment', 'Divorce', 'Marriage', 'Life'] |
Global On-board Charger Market Growth, Demands, Sales Volume, Opportunities, Product Capacity, Applications and Forecast Up to 2024 | A Report Titled On-board Charger Market, this report provides an overview of comprehensive research and growth in markets around the world. Describes key market drivers, trends, limitations, and opportunities to provide extensive and accurate data, and scrutinizes growth in the overall market development that is needed and expected. In addition, we analyze the facets that plague the world market, making appropriate choices in dissection.
This report uses a variety of essential and selective research strategies to gather quantitative and additional subjective information about global and local fronts. A wide range of industry-leading science strategies separate these vast market intelligence measurements along these lines, limiting them to the points of interest that are of greatest interest to organizations working or entering the market.
Request for Sample of this Report@
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competitor segment of On-board Charger Market
• Panasonic
• Lear Corporation
• Anoma?
• Exide Technologies
• Flextronics International
• HindlePower?
• Jeckson Electronics
• Lester Electrical
• Minwa Electronics
• Accutronics?
• Minn Kota
• Delphi
• NOCO
• Mando
product type of On-board Charger Market
• Lower than 3 kilowatts?
• 3–3.7 kilowatts
• Higher than 3.7 kilowatts
Application segment
• Electric Vehicles
• Boats
Covers following regions:
• USA
• Europe
• Japan
• China
• India
• South East Asia
Some Main Reasons for buying This Report:
• Analyzing the outlook of the market with the recent trends and SWOT analysis
• Market dynamics scenario, along with growth opportunities of the market in the years to come
• Market segmentation analysis including qualitative and quantitative research incorporating the impact of economic and non-economic aspects
• Regional and country level analysis integrating the demand and supply forces that are influencing the growth of the market.
• Market value (USD Million) and volume (Units Million) data for each segment and sub-segment
• Competitive landscape involving the market share of major players, along with the new projects and strategies adopted by players in the past five years
• Comprehensive company profiles covering the product offerings, key financial information, recent developments, SWOT analysis, and strategies employed by the major market players
• 1-year analyst support, along with the data support in excel format.
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Table Of Content
• About the On-board Charger Industry
• World Market Competition Landscape
• World On-board Charger Market share
• Supply Chain Analysis
• Company Profiles
• Globalisation & Trade
• Import, Export, Consumption and Consumption Value by Major Countries
• World On-board Charger Market Forecast through 2024
• Key success factors and Market Overview
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CMFE Insights caters to clients’ needs by elucidating the power of innovation, thus thriving on business innovations. Our mission is to guide global businesses through our comprehensive market research reports. Through our infrastructural competence of digital transformations, we orchestrate escalated market efficiency for our clients by presenting them with capable growth opportunities in the global market scenario. Through the experienced eye of our research associates we help our clients to envision a flourishing future.
CMFE Insights techniques is a perfect blend of both qualitative and quantitative modes, on basis of which we provide our clients with syndicated research reports to further enhance their strategic organizational decisions. CMFE Insights helps clients to build a pragmatic future in the innovative market industry.
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www.cmfeinsights.com | https://medium.com/@amarsontakke2016/global-on-board-charger-market-growth-demands-sales-volume-opportunities-product-capacity-c57877899dc8 | ['Amar Sontakke'] | 2019-12-12 21:04:52.092000+00:00 | ['Economics', 'Charger', 'Charger Manufacturer', 'Board Charger'] |
Open Letter to Bill Maher | I saw a Bill Maher clip yesterday that makes me want to individually batter each of my brain cells against a wall in horror.
He suggests we’ve gotten a bit ‘neurotic’ with all the hand washing and masks and ‘fear’ of the virus. He said our immune systems are designed to handle microbes and we should let nature take its course and stop buying into some fear-based narrative.
I have had it. With. STUPIDITY.
IF YOU BELIEVE WE DON’T NEED TO REACT TO THIS VIRUS PLEASE DO THE FOLLOWING:
Stop drinking water from the tap, or bottled water, and begin drinking from creeks and rivers only. You see, the dysentery that kills millions in third world countries is shielded from you with great cost and COLLECTIVE effort. Every day disease is PREVENTED from INFECTING you.
But since you’re a believer that nature should takes is course, and death happens anyway, and that’s what the immune system is for, BACK IT UP. Start acting with integrity and live by your principles. Or SHUT UP.
Which means you’ll be defecating in your living room or yard. Toilets weren’t invented because we needed a place to sit, we already had outhouses. Plumbing was invented because of the incredible number of deadly microbes that live in feces. But hey, cholera is just another of countless microbes, we can’t go freaking out about it or what kind of life would we have?!
Honestly, digging 8 feet underground on EVERY street in EVERY town and laying pipe under EVERY street and into EVERY house and running all that water through massive filtration systems is such a waste of time and effort and money because death happens anyway and we have immune systems for that stuff!
I mean my god, the SUSTAINED EFFORT and ORGANIZATION we put forth because some FEAR-BASED PROPAGANDA has taken hold that our own feces could kill us?!
What is more natural than pooping?! Our own bodies must be designed to handle being around their own insides, so enough with this COMMUNIST collectivization and ENFORCED social behavior. You’ll shit when I want, where you want, and won’t be conned into using plumbing.
You’ll also be ceasing use of your refrigerator. Your impoverished mind has probably forgotten, but lettuce didn’t stage a national campaign to get out of the heat. Refrigeration was invented because of maggots and rot that comes from leaving food out, which is another way of saying microbes.
The ONLY reason you have a fridge is FEAR. You’re so shit scared some tiny part of nature will infect you that you take every piece of food and put it in an electrified box and sniff it every few days because you are a pathetic, terrified, media warped sheeple. STOP IT. STOP buying into the fear. Leave your milk and burgers on the counter like NATURE INTENDED and your immune system will handle it. Ok, probably not, but honestly, you’re gonna die someday anyway.
As far as smallpox, measles, mumps, and polio, you’ll be receiving a smoothie with all of them. Because the reason you don’t have them isn’t because of YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM.
Society was NICE ENOUGH to put a mask over those diseases decades ago by inoculating the entire population. But since you think taking action to prevent viral, microbial infections is a bunch of media hogwash you can visit select third world countries to prove how much you believe in the natural course of things and how the immune system needs no ARTIFICIAL PROTECTION.
Once you’re infected with them you can smugly report back how you obliterated smallpox, measles and polio with your immune system. I breathlessly await your demonstration of standing up for what you believe in.
Plus, guess what?! You can save a bunch of money when you go because you won’t have to buy malaria medication. Malaria is just another of all the microbes out there, but your body will be fine with it. Well, probably will be. Actually, only maybe. Ok, probably not. But you know what, death happens anyway, so why would you take a prophylactic drug (a mask) to prevent getting it? FEAR is the enemy, not a deadly disease you’d catch without prevention.
And you’ll have time to go because you’re free from all those pesky doctor appointments!
I mean, if you think wearing a mask is an over the top violation of the natural order and death’s destiny, you’ll probably be canceling your chemo appointments, now or at any time in the future. I mean if you think a 3 X 5 piece of terry cloth is too much effort, I doubt you’ll be getting an MRI! Those things are like 20,000 masks at once!
And phew, no heart valves or stints or heart operations of any kind. Your body can deal with plaque buildup, those are just RNA strands after all, exactly what Coronavirus is, your body is made to handle those.
In fact, since your immune system is designed to handle nature without aid or intervention, you won’t need to take any vitamins, supplements or medications of any kind. No high blood pressure meds, nothing for your stomach ulcers or migraines; my god, it’s actually scary how much you’ve already given in to FEAR when you think about it! You’re probably chucking all your prescriptions right now.
Think of it, you’ll literally never have to go to the doctor again because they’re advice is just fear mongering, and you have an immune system, and if something comes along that you can’t beat, well you’re going to die anyway. So why try to prevent it?!
Really, your whole life will change when you start showing me up by living according the principles you claim to uphold, I’ll look like such an idiot!
You’ll get to stop brushing your teeth and flossing (such BS), and when a staph infection from your cavities ravages your jaw, you’ll be able to laugh it off because those are just microbes!
You’ll be able to hang your necklaces on the toilet paper rack (you’re not dumb enough to fall for the whole corporate TP racket).
And most importantly, if you were to get Coronavirus, YOU WILL NOT ENDANGER DOCTORS AND NURSES BY GOING TO THE HOSPITAL.
You made your choice, your immune system can handle it, and if not death happens anyway. Only a democrat liberal commie socialist would violate their own integrity and go to get help for something they swore needed no prevention.
I, truly, cannot wait for you all to show me how right you are.
***
Can we please, please, please dispense with the lunacy that proactive reaction to the virus is an anomaly from our way of life.
The monumental structure of science and prevention that protects us every day is one of the things that made America great. We were a first world country. A place where the diseases that killed most people throughout most of human history had been suffocated and walled off so we could survive.
Clarity: Infant mortality rates throughout human history were almost 50% until modern medicine.
The human immune system is NOT designed to survive nature. We have modified our behavior and our technology to survive, that is what we do.
Coronavirus should be another in a long list of microbes we defeated to make a safer world.
Except that we have allowed the lazy, unscrupulous disease of entitlement to warp our perception so meticulously that every single adaption and invention that we CHOSE and MADE and ADMINTESTERED to make a safer world has been taken for granted and forgotten.
The idea that masks and distance and focused sanitation habits are somehow beyond the pale of what we can do is the most moronic, ludicrous, babyish, bratty, uneducated, stupid, arrogant, thoughtless gibberish since…well, maybe just ever. | https://medium.com/@montanacarter/open-letter-to-bill-maher-f3633217b215 | ['Carter Roy'] | 2020-05-20 21:36:36.256000+00:00 | ['Coronavirus', 'Bill Maher', 'Satire', 'Masks', 'Political Commentary'] |
My 2-Year Journey to Black Decaf Coffee | My 2-Year Journey to Black Decaf Coffee
How I reconciled my love of coffee with my desire to be free of unhealthy habits Adam Hughes Apr 19·6 min read
Image credit: EvilWata
If I were marooned on a desert island and only allowed to bring one thing with me, it would be coffee. I’ve been drinking it like it was water for 15 years.
But between 2016–2018, part by choice and part happenstance, I gradually transitioned to black decaf coffee. With each step of the journey, my body responded positively. It shed light on the various ways that coffee, and the crap I put in it, had affected me without even realizing it.
Below I outline the four stages of my coffee journey, the benefits gained at each, and just a smidge of the science to support it.
Step 1: No Sugar
One morning in 2016, the break room at my job was no longer stocked with flavored coffee creamers. Up until this point, I put CoffeeMate Irish Cream in coffee every day. Instead, all they had was Dominos sugar packets and milk. With my mom being recently diagnosed as diabetic, I decided to avoid the sugar packets and go with just milk. At first, the taste was an issue. I’d always loved the taste of coffee, but maybe I really just loved the taste of sweeteners.
Benefits
An immediate benefit of cutting sugar was balanced energy levels. I’d always gotten really sluggish around noon, and needed more coffee as a pick-me-up. What was assumed to be a caffeine crash turned out in reality to be a sugar crash. This is obvious in hindsight, but somehow it had never crossed my mind. After dropping the sugary crap, the need for a second cup by noon vanished, and my energy levels were more even throughout the day.
If your coffee “wears off” within a few hours, you’re probably experiencing a sugar crash (image source)
It’s also important to realize that sugar and flavored creamers, when taken daily, are hazardous to health. They cause a large blood sugar spike, which contributes to weight gain, insulin resistance, and ultimately diabetes.
Step 2: Half-Caff
Drinking too much caffeine has always been a concern. I also really like to drink coffee at night, an unfortunate residual grad school habit. And while I was able to fall asleep easily, caffeine certainly was impacting the quality of sleep. So at some point, I started mixing decaffeinated brew at a ratio of about 50/50.
Benefits
The reduction in caffeine had noticeable benefits, which I’ll discuss further in Step 4. However, half-caff itself has a great perk: it tastes like regular coffee! It is a great way to ween off the hard stuff since coffee drinking is habitual. For me, it was much easier to dilute than to actually drink less. This can be a strategy towards full decaf: slowly decreasing the caffeine ratio until it’s gone entirely. As this publication describes it, caffeine intake is linearly proportional to caffeine absorption in the brain.
Plots show the concentration of caffeine vs. the proportion of blocked adenosine receptors in the frontal cortex. In other words, the absorption of caffeine in the brain is roughly proportional to the concentration ingested. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2967/jnumed.112.105114
Step 3: Black Coffee
In summer 2017, I was exercising regularly but not losing much weight. So I tried out an eating pattern called intermittent fasting, which basically restricts calorie intake to an eight-hour daily window. So for example, I could eat between 1–9 p.m. but otherwise was restricted to zero-calorie beverages like water and black coffee. Black coffee was extremely intimidating. I’d always assumed that it was rough on the stomach, as well as tasting boring. But I sucked it up and gave it a whirl.
Benefits
The first benefit of black coffee was that it didn’t upset my stomach. In fact, sudden and urgent morning bowel movements, which I’d always attribute to just “bad guts”, were actually caused by the additives in my morning coffee. Removing cream, sugars, and eventually, caffeine, stopped the aggravation of my digestive system. Sure — black coffee will still stimulate the bowel, but in a much less aggressive/unnatural way.
A second unexpected perk was that my taste buds evolved. Without the overpowering of sugar and cream, they tuned into subtle notes of flavor. Suddenly black coffee took on a taste all its own. For example, I’d always preferred Starbucks to Dunkin, but after going black, my opinion flipped. It turns out Starbucks has a distinct burnt flavor, which became more pronounced in black coffee.
Step 4: Black Decaf
Although I’d switched to half-caff, I was still drinking a lot of caffeine. I didn’t realize just how much until one day in summer 2018 when my wife and I were traveling and I went 36 hours without it. It was almost like a divine intervention — every place we stopped was out of coffee, and the pot in the place we were staying was broken.
At the 36-hour mark, it was stunning just how debilitated I felt. I was exhausted, irritable, had a massive headache, and couldn’t stop fantasizing about coffee. Sure, I always knew I was addicted, but imagined it as more behavioral than physical. Boy was that wrong.
The withdrawal was so galvanizing that I decided to see how long I could go without caffeine, and how long it would take for this to wear off. I estimated it at three or four days — nope, it took three weeks for the tiredness and headaches to completely disappear. To get to this point was such an arduous journey, that the prospect of going back was too scary. I decided to tough it out and see how long I could last on just decaf.
Benefits
The first month after going cold turkey, I slept like the dead.
“The primary mechanism of action of caffeine is antagonism of adenosine receptors in the brain. Adenosine is a sleep promoter, increasing melatonin production in the pineal gland, a small neuroendocrine gland located in the brain. When coffee is ingested, it blocks adenosine from binding to the receptor.” (Source)
I also found it much easier to wake up. On caffeine, I remained drowsy until that first cup. But with decaf, once out of bed and moving, I generally feel fully awake and more productive.
Another win is that my caffeine sensitivity is back. So on the rare occasions when I do need caffeine, it has a noticeable effect. For example, before an important presentation at work, a small cup of regular coffee feels like a rocket blasting off.
A final note: caffeine dehydrates. Staying well-hydrated and avoiding caffeine leads to enumerable health benefits such as weight loss, toxin reduction, and regularity (yes — talking about bowels again). | https://betterhumans.pub/my-2-year-journey-to-black-decaf-coffee-d213b264e8d8 | ['Adam Hughes'] | 2021-04-19 19:48:30.122000+00:00 | ['Habits', 'Self Help', 'Coffee', 'Caffeine', 'Improvement'] |
Who are you and what have you done with my friend? | Who are you and what have you done with my friend?
Suddenly the man who talking,
Doesn’t sound like the friend I’ve come to know and love.
Who are you?
What have you done with my old friend?
Is this the new you, here to stay?
The friend I know, never would be saying these things.
I’ve never seen you quite like this.
Just a short time ago you wouldn’t be talking like this.
I’ve never seen you like this…
Vulnerable, romantic, and with your heart wide open.
If this new man is here to stay,
I could get used to him.
This new you, might be a better man.
Who are you, and what have you done with my friend? | https://medium.com/@hemolo/who-are-you-and-what-have-you-done-with-my-friend-f6ca6ce2fb25 | ['Kevin Costa'] | 2020-12-23 04:10:52.691000+00:00 | ['Ramblings', 'Therapy', 'Hemolo', 'Poem', 'Writing'] |
MongoDB Realm Multi-Threading in Swift | MongoDB Realm is the leading offline-first synchronizing platform for developing collaborative cross-platform applications that do not require continuous connectivity. It is a real-time client side database that allows mobile or desktop apps to synchronize data to a MongoDB Atlas cluster. The Beta version of MongoDB Realm was released in June 2020, and has steadily been improving ever since. This platform is truly transformational because it is ushering in a whole new class of computing — notably collaborative software — where multiple users access shared data in a structured architected fashion.
At Cosync, Inc we are building a number of collaborative extensions on top of the MongoDB Realm real-time database. In the process of implementing our products, we have had to resort to multi-threading to optimize performance and increase responsiveness. Fortunately, MongoDB Realm is designed with multi-threading in mind, and handles concurrency very well. The same cannot be said for Apple’s new Swift language, which tends to hide traditional multi-threading constructs behind the callback structure of the language itself. The rules for multi-threaded programming within MongoDB Realm are fairly explicit, and any deviation from those rules generally results in a runtime exception. This article aims to elucidate what those rules are and how to enforce conformance to them within the Swift programming language.
In MongoDB Realm, a specific client side implementation opens a Realm by specifying a partition key value. All objects with the same partition key value are said to belong to the same Realm. All object collections in Atlas that are synced through MongoDB Realm specify a partition property. The mapping between Realms and MongoDB Atlas is explained in more depth in the Realm documentation section on how to Partition Atlas Data into Realms.
Insofar as multi-threading with MongoDB Realm on iOS is concerned, there are only three rules that the programmer needs to remember:
A call to Realm asyncOpen() always opens a Realm on the primary thread, regardless of what thread it was called on. When opening a Realm on a secondary thread, the programmer must use a synchronized open “try! Realm(configuration: configuration)” to open the Realm. If a Realm is opened on a secondary thread, all objects read and written to that Realm must take place on that same secondary thread.
For a more in depth review, the threading model for MongoDB Realm is documented here. The thing to remember about Realm is the Las Vegas motto — whatever happens on a thread, must stay on that thread.
The Swift programming language extensively uses function callbacks as a control mechanism for handling asynchronous coding. Although Swift is not a functional language per se, it has adopted passing functions as parameters as one of its best practices. In the case of blocking functions, the callbacks often occur on secondary threads that are different from the primary thread upon which they were called. In other words, Swift tends to optimize your code under the hood for multi-threading. Furthermore, the recommended multi-threading technique in Swift is to use Grand Central Dispatch or Operation Queues as a means of offloading work onto secondary threads. The problem is that both of these mechanisms employ thread pools and there is no guarantee as to which secondary thread is assigned the background task. In the case of Operation Queues, this problem is not even solved by setting the maxConcurrentOperationCount to 1. When it comes to multi-threading, Swift is very much like a fully automatic car that prevents a racing driver from having full control over the gears.
In a typical MongoDB Realm application, the programmer opens Realms on the primary thread because that is where the user interface is operating out of. The data garnished from these Realms is used to populate the user interface. Since MongoDB Realm requires data access to be done on the same thread upon which the tread was opened, it follows that this must be done on the primary thread exclusively.
For this reason, one of the most commonly used constructs within a Swift Realm application is the DispatchQueue.main.async call to force execution back on to the main thread.
DispatchQueue.main.async {
self.initRealms(onCompletion: { (err) in
if err==nil {
UploadManager.shared.setup()
}
completion(err)
})
}
Although the Swift Dispatch Queue has a mechanism for forcing execution upon the primary thread, it provides no such mechanism for forcing execution on a specific secondary thread in particular. The Dispatch Queue mechanism is somewhat military in its orientation. There is one officer in charge (the primary thread), and there are a number of interchangeable privates (the secondary threads) who carry out whatever tasks the officer has ordered. Unfortunately, the secondary threads because of their subordinate nature are not even given the privilege of being distinguished from one another. It is the operating system that decides which private cleans the latrine, and it could be a different soldier depending on the day of the week.
In most Swift programming scenarios the automatic transmission approach to multi-threading is actually a blessing. The programmer does not have to worry about thread synchronization: specifically semaphores, mutually exclusive critical sections, and triggers. Grand Central Dispatch handles all the load balancing between secondary threads auto-magically. On the downside, it makes handling multi-threading with MongoDB Realm particularly problematic — given rule 3 listed above.
While implementing our Cosync Storage product that bridges the gap between MongoDB Realm and Amazon S3 for image and video assets, we discovered a workaround to this dilemma. In our toolkit, we needed a secondary thread that would read upload requests from Realm, process them, and upload image and video assets up to Amazon S3. After uploading the assets, it would then write an asset object into Realm with the associated URLs of the image cuts of that asset. The Cosync Storage product will be available to MongoDB Realm programmers later this month.
Given rule 3 listed above, the first thing that we needed to do was explicitly create a thread to handle the uploading tasks. To this end, our Upload Manager declares a private member variable to store the thread object.
private var uploadThread: Thread?
The next thing we do is to create an entry point for the thread that creates a runloop thread, so as to handle outside requests from the primary thread or block callbacks.
@objc func uploadThreadEntryPoint(uid: String) {
autoreleasepool {
Thread.current.name = "CosyncUploadThread_\(uid)"
let runLoop = RunLoop.current
runLoop.add(NSMachPort(), forMode:
RunLoop.Mode.default)
runLoop.run()
}
}
We then create a function to terminate the thread, that is executed within the thread itself.
@objc func uploadThreadExit() {
Thread.exit()
}
Lastly, we add code in the Upload Manager setup function to actually create the thread and launch the setup code.
if let uid = RealmManager.shared.currentUserId {
if self.uploadThread==nil {
self.uploadThread = Thread(target: self, selector:
#selector(uploadThreadEntryPoint(uid:)), object: uid)
self.uploadThread!.start()
}
if let uploadThread = self.uploadThread {
perform(#selector(setupBackground),
on: uploadThread,
with: nil,
waitUntilDone: false,
modes: [RunLoop.Mode.common.rawValue])
}
}
The perform(#selector(setupBackground) function will call the setupBackground member function on the uploadThread that was created above.
@objc func setupBackground() -> Void {
if let user = RealmManager.shared.app.currentUser,
let uid = RealmManager.shared.currentUserId,
let sessionId = AssetManager.shared.sessionId {
self.userRealm = try! Realm(configuration:
user.configuration(partitionValue: uid)) if let realm = self.userRealm {
let results = realm.objects(CosyncAssetUpload.self)
.filter("uid == '\(uid)' && sessionId=='\(sessionId)' && status=='initialized'") self.notificationToken = results.observe { [self] (changes: RealmCollectionChange) in
switch changes {
case .initial:
for assetUpload in results {
self.uploadAsset(assetUpload: assetUpload)
}
case .update( let results, _, _, _):
for assetUpload in results {
self.uploadAsset(assetUpload: assetUpload)
}
case .error(let error):
// An error occurred while opening the Realm
fatalError("\(error)")
}
}
}
}
}
The @objc attribute is needed because the Thread support for Swift is actually implemented using the ObjectiveC runtime. As noted above, the Realm is opened on the background upload thread using a sync open, and not an async open. This is critical.
Terminating the thread from the primary thread is done by calling the following:
if let uploadThread = self.uploadThread {
perform(#selector(uploadThreadExit),
on: uploadThread,
with: nil,
waitUntilDone: false,
modes: [RunLoop.Mode.common.rawValue])
self.uploadThread = nil
}
In conclusion, MongoDB Realm does support multi-threading very well, but the important thing is to keep Realm access in a secondary thread confined to that secondary thread. It should be noted that Realm objects cannot be shared between thread — even for reading! In order to enforce confinement to the secondary thread, the programmer should use the Thread object directly rather than rely on Grand Central Dispatch or Operation Queues.
To all my fellow developers, happy Realming. | https://medium.com/swlh/multi-threading-in-swift-using-mongodb-realm-8c403b9993e4 | ['Richard Krueger'] | 2020-12-29 19:47:56.037000+00:00 | ['Swift', 'Mongodb Realm', 'Threads', 'Mongodb', 'iOS App Development'] |
Creating an Elasticsearch to BigQuery Data Pipeline | Fancy pipeline
TL;DR: Creating an Elasticsearch => Dataflow => BigQuery data pipeline with Airflow in Kotlin and Python is simultaneously simple and extremely difficult. Here’s the code: https://github.com/bizzabo/elasticsearch_to_bigquery_data_pipeline
Why?
Good question. I was unable to find any description of an Elasticsearch to BigQuery pipeline online, only the opposite direction.
The purpose of the pipeline is to enable data exploration and drill down using tools which require the data to be stored in RDB form.
Networking
AWS
The Elasticsearch cluster storing the data I needed to get to is hosted on AWS EC2, and as you know BigQuery is a GCP product. That proved to be the first of many complications.
I wanted to reach the Elasticsearch cluster from outside the network so I used Route53 (AWS’s DNS service) to create a Record Set to bind a domain name to the underlying Elasticsearch cluster.
Creating a new record set in Route 53
But that wasn’t enough, the Elasticsearch cluster is located behind a firewall and is inaccessible from outside of the network. Hello there second complication.
To tackle this, I needed to know which IP addresses were going to access the Elasticsearch cluster. Let’s head over to GCP to see what we can do there.
GCP
Dataflow workers are created and run on ad-hoc VMs and cannot be bound to pre-specified VMs. This poses a problem because it is impossible to control which IP addresses the worker VMs will use to access the Elasticsearch cluster. Third complication of the bunch.
The solution I found was to create a new GPC VPC network dedicated solely to the pipeline.
Creating a new GCP VPC
The created VPC needed to be linked to a NAT gateway (Cloud NAT). A new NAT gateway was created and configured to use a number of static IP addresses for any egress traffic.
Creating a new NAT gateway. After creating a Cloud Router, static IP addresses may be allocated to the NAT
Linking the VPC with the NAT gateway would ensure any traffic originating from the VPC would be routed through the NAT gateway and out to the Internet through the NAT’s static IP addresses. This was done via Cloud Router.
Creating a new Cloud Router
Now that I knew which IP addresses would be used by Dataflow to connect to Elasticsearch, they need to be added to the correct Security group in AWS.
Back in EC2, I added a new Security group to the relevant Elasticsearch instances. The security group was configured to accept inbound TCP traffic from the static IP addresses used by Dataflow.
Creating a new rule in a Security group
To recap:
1. Dataflow workers run on ad-hoc VMs.
2. Running Dataflow on a VPC guarantees that the created workers and their VMs are created inside said VPC.
3. This ensures that all of the worker’s outgoing connections will be routed through your static IPs.
Steps:
1. Create a VPC for Dataflow
2. Create a NAT gateway with static IP addresses
3. Link the NAT to the VPC via Cloud Router
Pipeline Overview
I wrote the pipeline in Kotlin using Google BigQuery and Apache Beam libraries.
The code basically does 3 things:
1. Reads documents from Elasticsearch
2. Transforms the Elasticsearch documents to BigQuery rows
3. Writes the transformed documents to BigQuery
The rest (argument loading and mapping, query writing and logging) is fluff.
Reading from Elasticsearch
Reading from Elasticsearch
After creating the pipeline, fetching documents from Elasticsearch and injecting them into the pipeline is quite straightforward.
Reading from Elasticsearch is done using ElasticsearchIO (part of Apache Beam SDK) which requires a number of properties (source, index, type, connection timeout, socket and retry timeout, batch size) and finally a query.
Applying Transformations to the Data
Applying Transformations to the Data
The next step would be to convert the retrieved Elasticsearch document, which are in JSON format, into something that resembles a DB row.
This is achieved by mapping the returned elements according to the required schema. The JSON is parsed using Gson and any relevant keys and their values are extracted and set in the returned TableRow object.
Writing Data to BigQuery
Writing Data to BigQuery
Writing to BigQuery is the last step in this pipeline. The TableRow object created in the previous step must match the schema of the table we will be writing to.
Writing to BigQuery is done using BigQueryIO (also part of Apache Beam SDK), which requires the table schema (fields).
Dataflow job row
Dataflow
Each time the pipeline is run, a job is added to Dataflow. Clicking on a job reveals a treasure trove of information. Every aspect of the job is visible: a short summary, autoscaling, metrics, pipeline options and logs: | https://medium.com/inside-bizzabo/creating-an-elasticsearch-to-bigquery-data-pipeline-afe7c3f97369 | ['Zohar Fischer'] | 2019-09-29 07:45:56.925000+00:00 | ['Elasticsearch', 'Airflow', 'Gcp', 'Kotlin', 'Bigquery'] |
"View the past in any location from a computer screen" | "View the past in any location from a computer screen"
this might sounds Scifi Fiction, but the reality is it can be done through massive computer power and special algorithms, just like movies and Games are created.
To keep things simple for the into, I will use simple examples. For an example, if I think many of you have used your laptop or PC to view digital photos of your past. By clicking on different pictures, the screen in front of you show the image you took in the past.
Now I want to ask you what got changed when you select different image? The only thing that got change was the pixels in the screen, thousands of pixels changed there colors depending on the picture. If we take a basic computer screen, it has 1024 columns and 768 rows. So basically there are 1024 * 768 pixels (tiny dots) in a computer screen.
So how many image/videos you watch on the screen, this number of pixels doesn’t gets changed. Only each pixels colors gets changed.
Now this is the Intresting part, consider you have all the images of the past to present in a folder, and computer is displaying one by one. So for each picture in past, only the pixels color gets changed!
So all your life’s pictures are just a pixel color combination. All the pictures from past to future is inside a 2^(1024 * 768) number of combinations (back & white photos).
Now the power of 2 into (1024 * 768) is and un imaginable amount of combinations (larger than the amount of stars in Universe).
So how you are going to find the correct combination pixels to se the image of the past? Well, this is where the special algorithms I developed in past 8nyears comes in. Without those algorithms, it’s like searching for a needle in a ocean (but the ocean is huge as the universe).
I will write about the algorithms on next articles. Until then, keep in touch. | https://medium.com/@danleerichardson/view-the-past-in-any-location-from-a-computer-screen-this-might-sounds-scifi-fiction-but-the-ec9d8d75343 | ['Dan Lee Richardson'] | 2020-12-20 09:11:45.864000+00:00 | ['Time Machine', 'View Past', 'Image Processing', 'Future Technology'] |
Garbage in, insights out: What every city can learn from Durham’s composting prototype | Tenita Poole had never separated her kitchen food waste for composting before. But when the innovation team in Durham, N.C., where she lives, approached her about trying it out for two weeks as part of a prototype, she was eager to give composting a try.
Poole’s family of nine does a lot of cooking with fresh greens, and there’s always a lot of table scraps that go into the trash. “I thought composting would be a wonderful idea,” she said. “I hate to waste food, and composting is really good for not wasting food.”
The children picked the practice up quickly, Poole said, scraping their plates into bags that filled quickly with bits of green beans and corn cobs, along with other compostable items like tissues and cardboard toilet paper rolls. Everyone in the family enjoyed it, Poole said, although the odor of old food in the house became a problem. “My only downside is the smell,” she said. “I had to put it out on the porch.”
Poole’s family is one of eight households that participated in the Durham i-team’s prototype this summer. Their feedback will be critical as the city builds a service it’s never offered before: curbside compost pickup. When all is said and done, the city hopes to divert as much as a third of its waste away from the landfill and then use it to produce a nutrient-rich soil amendment that local farmers, landscapers, and backyard gardeners can use to grow more food.
[Get the latest innovation news from Bloomberg Cities! Subscribe to SPARK.]
Developing a service like this from scratch is a pretty complex endeavor, requiring cooperation from residents, waste collectors, and others. That’s why the Solid Waste Management Department teamed up with the i-team, City Hall’s in-house group of innovation consultants. Funded through a grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the i-team is known for using collaborative strategies like prototyping to co-create policies and programs with the very people intended to use them. While Durham’s composting program still has a way to go before it launches, there’s a lot that cities everywhere can learn from the city’s use of these human-centered design techniques.
The effort, a partnership with the Duke University Center for Advanced Hindsight, started with interviewing Durham residents in their homes. Some of those interviewed already compost food waste in their backyards or through a private service, while others have never done it before. Either way, said Shannon Delaney, an i-team design strategist spearheading the compost work, the point was for city leaders to learn how residents deal with their food now — before they build out a whole new set of expectations.
Next came a survey circulated through social media and neighborhood listservs. Nearly 4,500 residents responded, yielding a trove of data about public perceptions and knowledge of composting. The survey not only confirmed an interest among residents in launching a municipal composting service but also began to build a constituency and support network for getting it started.
A resident survey yielded a trove of data about public perceptions and knowledge of composting in Durham.
“We hit a nerve,” said Muriel Williman, Solid Waste’s point person on the composting project. “A good number of people who are not currently composting are interested in learning — and those who already compost are interested in teaching others how to do it. Tapping into that wellspring of interest, desire, and knowledge — all this incredible social capital — is what’s going to make this program fly.”
[Read our explainer on prototyping]
Before they could do that, however, Williman and Delaney needed to see for themselves how Durham residents would respond to separating food waste in their kitchens. So they ran a two-week prototype with just eight households. Unlike a pilot — which would roll out a more complete version of a program — the prototype was intended solely as an experiment to gain feedback and learn from residents. The idea was to tinker in a low-stakes way before investing time and money in building out a more fully functional composting service.
To get started, the i-team reached out to some people who had taken the survey and others who had not, making sure to engage residents who reflect Durham’s racial and ethnic diversity. Every participant was given bags and buckets to put food waste in, along with a guide laying out what other items, like napkins or popsicle sticks, can go in the compost. The i-team used the messaging service WhatsApp to connect with everybody over the two weeks, both to answer any questions and to encourage them to keep photo diaries of their experiences. | https://bloombergcities.medium.com/garbage-in-insights-out-what-every-city-can-learn-from-durhams-composting-prototype-32e4982fc778 | ['Bloomberg Cities'] | 2019-10-15 14:30:35.585000+00:00 | ['Innovation', 'Prototyping', 'Human Centered Design', 'Cities', 'Composting'] |
Day 7 at Leiths Cookery School: Fish | Fish is one of my favourite things to eat, so I was very excited about Day 7 at Cookery School — Sea Bream and Plaice.
Cooking Fish
Although I rarely cook fish for myself, when I have cooked it, I have always thought it to be quite ‘easy’. I’ve never felt scared by it or perceived it to be demanding. However, from our lesson today, I realise I have been missing a few tricks.
In fact, throughout my time at Leiths, I can see how comfortable and satisfied I have become with my own standard of cooking. It’s a bit like training at the gym. You do what you’ve always done and always get the same results.
When I cook at home it can taste good, but it’s difficult to see when I am doing something half measured; with just a few changes in the method and understanding, you can elevate your cooking to a different level.
Cooking Fish was tonight was a good example of this. We cooked Sea Bream fillets. Pan fried. I crisped up the skin on one side and then turned it over. It looked good, crisp and golden; I felt comfortable with it. But when it came to tasting, my tutor said that I could have gone a bit further with the cooking of the skin.
It’s funny because I thought it was as far as I could go, but a chef knows when it can take just a little bit more…and that little bit more is often the difference between a ‘good’ dish and a ‘great’ dish.
Another big lesson for me from today’s class is the importance of detail and attention when it comes to cooking meat and fish. This sounds obvious doesn’t it? But unlike pastry and meringues (which we have covered in previous lessons), you don’t just let the oven do the work and walk away. Oh no! With meat and fish, you need to become a temperature controller. You need to check the cooking process. You may need to change it. Timings and temperature are up to you.
We cooked the Plaice under the grill and this was tough. The grill feels fierce and the fish is delicate; I timed the cooking and decided that after a couple of minutes (as per the recipe) mine should be cooked. Unfortunately, when I plated up, it was just under.
I could have easily prevented this by checking the internal temperature before I called service. As chef, I was in control of checking and adjusting. What’s the harm? After all, it can go back under. Instead, I was applying my baking mindset and because I knew the plaice had been under the grill for the time it needed, I assumed it would be cooked. No. Not the case. Check check check. Meat and fish is not as regimental as baking. It might be a different size and thickness. It might need more cooking than the recipe suggests. It might need less. Do’t be scared to check it.
Filleting
We tried our hand at filleting tonight. The Plaice is a flat fish, so easier to work with. You make 4 cuts:
1. Start with the skin side up and run your filleting knife down the long, middle bone.
2. Then you can cut across the tail.
3. A diagonal cut by the head/gills.
4. a cut down the side to get another fillet shape from the other side
A filleting knife is critical for this. Using the bend of the knife, run down against the bones to remove the flesh, trying to include as much flesh as possible within your fillet. Using long strokes and holding onto to the fillet as you cut, it will slowly come away from the bones…and it is very satisfying when it does. After your fillets are off, remove the skin, using your knife to pinch some skin and then pull it away. It can be tricky, but if you get the right grip, it should come away quite easily.
I really enjoyed it. I felt like a surgeon. But a good, sharp filleting knife is what makes it possible. Without it, it turns into a bit of ‘hacking’ job. Once you get used to the strokes, long and smooth, you should not lose much of the flesh.
Choosing fish
We were given a few tips about buying fish and what to look for to check it is fresh:
Clear eyes Gills — red, not brown or purple Scales in tact Slime — shows that it is good and healthy Smell — should not smell strong, if anything it should smell of the sea Firm
There you go! Day 7 done, a little disappointed with my own cooking of the fish. My mark wasn’t good for this, but I learnt a lot and really enjoyed working with the ingredients tonight! | https://medium.com/@Lucyskitchendiary/day-7-at-leiths-cookery-school-fish-cb3b4181e572 | ["Lucy'S Kitchen Diary"] | 2020-01-24 12:35:56.296000+00:00 | ['Cooking', 'Chefs', 'Diary', 'Fish', 'Learning To Cook'] |
Some Stories About Moms | Randy Rooibaatjie for Unsplash
For Mother’s Day
For those of us who are lucky enough to still have our moms around, our relationship with our mother speaks volumes about our character, in my opinion. When I make a new acquaintance, I like to inquire about this. The answer often sheds light on not just our character, but our lifestyle, as well.
I once dated a man very briefly who didn’t want to continue to see me in part because his parents were gone, and I am still involved in my parent’s lives. Another area where our lifestyles didn’t match was that I have grown children, and he had none. Maybe he just didn’t like me, but he did have a point with regard to our lifestyles being very different.
I meet many men in my age group who still have one or both parents. I am 56 and am one of a rare few who still have both of my parents.
Just last week I came in contact with three stories about men my age and their mothers. Rich was 64 and his 91-year-old mother lives with him and his family. His Dad had died 50 years ago from MS. Rich is thrilled that he gets to sit down to dinner with his mother six nights a week.
Andrew’s mother is 82 and just had her hip replaced. She still works as an executive assistant to a high school principal. She survived the loss of her high school sweetheart when her husband died suddenly of a heart attack at age 44, 40 years ago. She also lost two sisters and a brother to cancer. She still has one sister. All six of her children have lived past the 50-year mark.
Jeff told me he still has his mother at age 55. I wondered if she lives alone at 89. He told me she has a lot of people around on “staff”.
I’m taking my mother to a destination spa this week for Mother’s Day. I want to celebrate the fact that she is still with us and relatively well after being diagnosed with stage 3 ovarian cancer at age 83. She did 20 rounds of chemo, lost her hair and a lot of weight, had major surgery, and is now in remission at 84.
Someday my children will tell the story about how their mom survived a serious stroke while she was pregnant, gave birth while she was still hemiplegic and raised them with a disability.
If you have your mom, don’t forget to celebrate all she has survived. | https://medium.com/recycled/some-stories-about-moms-c56b7b3fc178 | ['Victoria Ponte'] | 2020-05-04 15:15:01.088000+00:00 | ['Relationships', 'Gratitude', 'Mothers Day', 'This Happened To Me', 'Mothers'] |
Between Lying Democrats and Crazy Republicans | America’s elected officials are directly and personally responsible for nearly 600,000 deaths since the start of the Covid-19 Pandemic.
Most, at least half a million, were preventable.
Thousands of healthcare workers have died trying to fight a virus the federal government pretends to be at war with, but in fact long ago surrendered to.
They were betrayed, just like the thousands of soldiers who died in the insane “War on Terror” were betrayed in their own turn by a generation of political leaders who have turned America into a laughingstock with their pointless partisan civil war.
At every turn, Democratic and Republican politicians and their allied partisan media outlets have actively politicized a simple scientific phenomenon to further their own petty interests.
Both Donald Trump and Joe Biden made the deliberate choice to downplay the dangers of the pandemic and the effectiveness of their response. One is obviously a self-obsessed fool and would-be fascist, but Joe Biden’s tragic failure to make good on repeated promises he and surrogates made to the American people about tying reopening to quality science throughout the absolute disaster that was the 2020 Presidential Election puts him on almost the same level as his predecessor.
Scientists have pointed out for a year now that Covid-19 was especially hitting Black, Latin, and Indigenous communities for an array of reasons, most of them boiling down to the toxic combination of pernicious racial bias in American society and the adoption of neoliberal economic dogma by the wealthy caste that dominate American politics.
Put simply, white Americans tend to be wealthier, so in our broken money-dominated political system some still dare to pretend is a “democracy” they tend to have an easier time influencing politicians. Because they will never — can never — fully appreciate what it is like being not a white American, they don’t advocate as strongly for equal rights as they do things that impact their own personal well-being.
This effect is ultimately the reason for it being so damn hard for serious problems like the epidemic of police killings of Black men to get the focused political attention it deserves. It ought to be a basic principle of a free democratic society that no one has to walk around afraid a police officer might wind up killing them after mistaking their gun for their Taser. (if we can’t defund the police, how about just disarming them for pete’s sake!) That this doesn’t automatically outrage white people as much as everyone else is evidence of a deep sickness in society.
Ultimately this is why both Republican and Democratic leaders chose to prioritize the interests of the business lobby and the sensitivities of the kinds of people who can’t understand that being required to wear a mask is the exact same thing as having to wear clothes. They know where their $ comes from. And it isn’t the communities where huge numbers of people can’t afford clean water or live in the shadow of a carcinogen-emitting oil refinery.
If you look at the pattern of the actions taken by leaders in both parties across the United States, the single clearest signal is that once they realized who was most likely to contract and die from Covid-19, they immediately gave up trying to eradicate the disease. In March, when hospitals in Northern Italy, Spain, Britain, and New York City began to fill up, no one knew for certain (though they should, based on reports already flowing out of Asia, which was hit first and later contained it) how bad things would get. Even politicians were contracting the virus — they and their wealthy patrons were scared.
But after the first wave peaked, the science was in: frequency of contacts was the key driver of infection rates. If you could isolate yourself from others well enough, you would be shielded until a vaccine arrived.
And so the national narrative — on the federal and state levels — turned towards “re-opening.”
Because the stock market was going nuts. Fear of an imminent economic collapse worldwide was rising. And because they feared the consequences of an extended lockdown, politicians in America did what they always do: cherry-pick the science they listened to in order to justify actions taken to assuage the concerns of the business lobby.
They knew the consequences: people in essential jobs, which to keep a country running is everything from factory workers to hospital staff, would be at substantially higher risk of exposure than white collar workers who could work remotely. And because people constantly go from work to home, they would inevitably bring the virus back with them, infecting others.
Do you really think that if it was their family members working those jobs the politicians would have acted with such callous disregard? Even those who downplayed the severity of Covid-19 eventually masked up and were first in line for vaccines when they came out. They knew, despite what they told their supporters, exactly what was up.
They aren’t (completely) stupid — the truth is much much worse.
They’re simply callous.
Governors of Blue States like Andrew Cuomo, Gretchen Whitmer, Gavin Newsom, and Kate Brown have all proclaimed on a daily basis that they were “following the science” in their reopening schedules.
But the only science they ever cared about was a kind of political science — how the pandemic could be spun to their political gain.
Conservatives, at least, have the decency to tell you to your face that they don’t care. Liberals prefer to make excuses for their incompetence that somehow make it your fault.
“We’re all in this together,” they’ll say — baldly ignoring the fact that in a deeply unequal society like America’s this can never be true.
You’ve got to fix the inequities before you can pretend everyone is remotely the same.
America’s political leaders, Democrat and Republican each to their own degree, abandoned hundreds of thousands of Americans to their fate. Sure they’ve passed huge government spending programs — that disproportionately benefit the wealthy and will eventually drive up inflation rates whose impact will be felt most by the less wealthy. But this wasn’t done out of particular concern for regular Americans, but to prop up businesses and keep the stock market from tanking.
The simple tragic truth is that a two-party system is never truly democratic. It always functions as the equivalent of a one-party system, just like China’s.
Sure, “debates” happen out in the open, but real decisions — like Joe Biden being the torchbearer for the Democrats instead of Kamala Harris — are controlled by power-players within the parties who game it out to guarantee their interests are covered no matter who wins.
A state-by state primary process where only registered partisans get to vote and candidates are winnowed by a media-driven process with commentators and editors are able to substantially bias everything is fundamentally undemocratic. Iran and China both have similar rigged systems that function as a “selectorate” guaranteeing those outside the ruling clique are kept out of contention, and most observers rightly call them authoritarian regimes.
If you take a close look at both parties, the most vicious conflicts tend to be between insiders and outsiders. In 2016 Trump, an outsider, beat the odds thanks to Republican party’s decay and the Democrats’ incompetence. The media and many old hands in both parties never forgave him — and hijacked the fake “resistance” to make the 2020 Election a simple re-run of the last, fixing the only real problem senior Democrats decided cost them 2016: the gender of their candidate.
But the entire time the majority of senior Democrats have fought desperately against a rising group of young, brash women of color now known as The Squad. AoC, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley represent the soul of Progressive politics in the contemporary United States — and witness the scorn heaped on them by failed leaders like Nancy Pelosi, aided by friendly editors in the fawning pro-Democrat media.
The racist and sexist treatment of these four has been utterly disgusting. Even worse is how the Democratic leadership — Bernie Sanders included — uses them as part of the grand game now underway to pretend the Democrats are more Progressive than they truly are.
Since Biden’s inauguration, there has been a devoted media blitz dedicated to selling the idea that his actions and proposals are deeply progressive, in the vein of FDR. This is happening because the Democrats are in deep trouble, and the leadership knows it.
But the Party elders, old hands from the Clinton days, are dedicated to making the Democratic Party be seen as the only legitimate political party in the United States. In 2020, the Biden campaign made the fateful choice to portray his bid as a referendum on Trump, and explicitly framed the election as about saving Democracy.
This destroyed any chance of making the election about ideas or recovering from Covid, and backfired catastrophically: the Democratic House majority declined and the Senate wound up split 50–50. Biden’s ability to pass legislation depends on either unity with Progressives or winning over the small number of centrist Republicans who remain.
Following the old, tragic logic of triangulation (simply: in two party system you must always be in the middle), the Democrats are actively working to keep Progressives on-side through a marketing blitz while simultaneously trying to convince a few Republicans to break ranks with their now-extremist, Trump worshiping cult. But this is almost guaranteed to fail, because too many people no longer trust the messenger.
Hypocrisy is deadly in an age of cheap communication, so it is no longer as easy to promise everything to everyone like old-school politicos like Biden instinctively do. Unity was hard enough to achieve simply to knock Trump out of office — it can’t be relied on in the future.
Thanks to new voting restrictions and the natural tendency for midterms to swing against the new President, in 2023 the Republicans will most likely control the House and maybe the Senate too. At that point the revenge game begins, and America is utterly paralyzed for two years.
Then, with progressives in dismay and feeling betrayed, it won’t matter how hard the Dems market or stoke fears of Trump. He’ll be back, and this time, his people will know exactly what levers to pull to transform America into a formally apartheid state.
The American political system has failed. It is fundamentally broken, the Constitution stolen from the people by craven hacks who don’t care about anything but their own power.
America’s leaders have killed hundreds of thousands of their own people. This is America’s Chernobyl, and Biden is the new Gorbachev.
The future is now wide open — everything from the final dissolution of the Union to a true democracy is possible in the next decade. The pent-up rage of millions of Americans who have lost loved ones or spent months battling Long Covid will out — and it won’t be pretty when it happens.
The truth is, America is due for a total reboot. Powerful people are working right now to make sure that what rises from the ashes serves their interests — as the nation always has.
They have allies across the media, shills writing for the New York Times, Washington Post, New Yorker, Atlantic, and other “thought leader” style publications.
They are dedicated to selling you a new edition of the American Myth: that everything is ok, a new Progressive Age is dawning.
It is a lie, just like it was a lie that America’s elected leaders were going to “follow the science” — meaning the science they preferred. Scientists too are vulnerable to letting their work be pulled into the maw of partisan politics, and it is notable that authorities like Dr. Fauci speak quite differently abroad than they do at home.
America’s futures, ranked best to worst, look something like the following, based on my own systems-informed (but still sadly heuristic since I don’t exactly have the funds to build the necessary models to make this quant) forecasting method:
A reform movement emerges that coalesces into a viable Third Party. Beginning with a Progressive defection en masse, it unites with Black and Latino voters disenchanted with the Democratic Party’s fake concern for their well-being to dominate the West Coast and parts of the Sun Belt. The Democrats become centrist party focused on wealthy white suburbanites. They cooperate to prevent Republicans from taking power but encourage up to half to defect by either the Democrats or Progressives embracing localism and seizing the anti-DC outsider mantle. The new tri-party system stabilizes the system and allows for a slow shift to a true multi-party system. The Red states begin to split into regional chunks without a coherent nationalist message, the Republicans slowly becoming the main Third Party. Joe Biden resigns in early 2023, allowing Kamala Harris to run as an incumbent in 2024. This changing of the old guard brings notable Progressives directly into the administration, giving her the credibility to run in 2024 on a future-focused platform emphasizing both economic growth and social justice. The party embraces cuts to bloated federal spending areas like the Pentagon and establishes national investment zones which are given direct input into the budget process as opposed to leaving spending in the hands of elected representatives. Non-partisan media investments build out a political social media platform designed to be both engaging and avoid political thought bubbles. Narrowly winning the 2024 election thanks to widespread anger at Republican-backed voting restrictions, the country gains another 4 years of respite and time for demographic change to take the wind from the sails of the increasingly virulent Republican Party. Donald Trump dies, leaving the Republican Party in disarray for 2024. A vicious inter-party fight results in a fragment joining with Libertarians and Independents to run a spoiler campaign in several Western Red States. Despite Democratic Party incompetence and its own miniature collapse, a candidate emerges capable of keeping enough Progressives and Democrats on board in enough states that no candidate wins the Electoral College. Congress is forced to decide the result of the Contingent Election, a brutal and unprecedented process that nevertheless ends with a solid majority of state delegations choosing either the Democrat or rebel Centrist. Many Republicans riot and allege a stolen election, but most accept the Constitutional result and the country moves on, deeply divided and possibly forced to divide in the future but still alive. Donald Trump wins the 2024 Election thanks to a campaign of aggressive voter suppression in a few key states widely decried by the international community. It soon emerges that Russia and even China have covertly supported his campaign, angered by Biden’s attempts to act tough during his difficult four years in office. Many Democrats call for the election results in Georgia, Arizona, and Wisconsin to be rejected, relying on the fact they have retaken the House to try and control the election certification process and trigger a Contingent Election. Violence breaks out between pro and anti-Trump demonstrators, and right wing militias begin attacking demonstrators in Atlanta. State governors, driven by popular sentiment in their mostly Red or Blue electorates, begin to take sides — some choosing Biden, others Trump. It is as if the escalation that began in 2020 simply picks back up where it left off, only with both sides feeling desperate and ready to escalate.
Personally, I see #4 as the most likely at this point.
If the United States cannot fundamentally reform, and quickly, it is very likely to go the way of the U.S.S.R. before the end of the 2020s.
Thresholds have been breached, lines crossed that never should have been.
America’s political class has failed. And one way or another, they will suffer the consequences. Because another truth is this: America’s internal and external borders are arbitrary, as are those of all settler-colonies.
The feds have failed, and the states have failed too. And if nothing breaks the two-party doom loop, something like this may well be the map of America in 2030: | https://medium.com/@andrewmtanner/between-lying-democrats-and-crazy-republicans-139c01e4c784 | ['Andrew Tanner'] | 2021-04-15 19:14:15.253000+00:00 | ['The Squad', 'Kamala Harris', 'Joe Biden', 'Pandemic Response', 'Politics'] |
After I Drowned | After I Drowned
A short story
While I lived, I took many things for granted.
I had not realised the comforting warmth of the summer breeze during the vacation with my parents, nor did I cherish the presence of my loved ones. I did not dwell on their thoughts. I believed that perceiving the world negatively, in the dull shades of black-and-white, was all I lived for.
I believed the world to be an ugly, snarling creature. In my mind, life was an adventure full of greatness, infected by undefeatable darkness. When I held out my hand for someone, only death — no, the thought of death — took it with such irresistible gentleness.
It was all I had.
Nobody understood, I thought. I had not shared my feelings, but others should have known.
While I lived, I took many things for granted.
I believed that my interests and hobbies defined me, and I worked towards it. It was my only encouragement and life I strived to achieve, but I shattered it. I turned at the possibility of rejection, and I ran from opportunities that could have brought me somewhere.
Too late; I was dead.
It was a rash decision, but it had seemed so intelligent. The promise of death corrupted me like a virus, seizing hold of my life with such intensity. I gave in with too little of a fight.
While I lived, I took many things for granted.
Most of all, however, I took myself for granted.
I had a life before me, one that still could potentially become beautiful. I made a reckless, ridiculous decision and dove deep into a welcoming ocean, noticing its vile intentions too late.
That day, I braided my hair and wore my favourite outfit — a comfortable and enchanting dress sewn by a talented individual who undoubtedly spent hours with their delicate fingers. I had so many clothes in my closet, purchased by my parents with a sigh.
A nauseous wave of hesitation bit at me as I stood atop a bridge. Stretching deep into the earth and beyond my vision was a massive ocean that would soon claim my life. A knot had formed in my throat, tightening my throat and restricting my breathing. If only I gave in to that, instead of the stupendous body of water. I had imagined arms erupting from deep inside the ocean and gesturing for me to jump.
It will be quick, said the ocean. Or was it my mind that voiced it? It will be over in a second.
I closed my eyes for a moment, listening to the sound of waves crashing the rocks with such delight. Listening to the squalling of birds as they travelled with their kind alongside them. Then, I diverted my attention to the smell that surrounded me — fresh and salty. I inhaled, taking it all in.
I smiled, possibly for the last time as a gentle breeze caressed my face, as soft as a feather’s touch.
Then, I opened my eyes, and the world crashed down on me again—the loss of hope, the realisation that nothing mattered, the negativity.
I beheld the sight of the glistening sun, hurling rays of gold onto the earth. It painted me with specks of light, whispering incessantly that my life was worth more than the challenges I faced. If only I gave in then.
A quiet sob escaped my mouth as I leapt.
I imagined it to be a relief. I believed jumping meant the end of everything — my life, challenges and problems.
Yet, all I felt was regret.
I regretted everything.
As the ocean engulfed me, I realised how much I had lost instead. Then, I wished for nothing more than to be back home, surrounded by the people who loved me. I thought of their faces, grief-stricken when they heard after hearing what I had done.
I was worth so much more but was too blind to notice.
The image of my family flooded my mind just as the water washed away my life. It showed me my loved ones, weeping with overwhelming despair. They asked the world for the reason I took my life as though they were blaming themselves, as though they were not the people I cherished the most. I wondered about how much I enjoyed writing and how I would never touch another pen again. Anguish haunted me as I allowed myself to think about everything I had and left behind.
I thought nobody would notice after I was gone. Perhaps, there would be those who were glad of my absence.
I discovered how wrong I was only after I felt my life drain.
All that resounded in my mind was a litany of how much I did not want to die. My life was all I had, yet I surrendered it to the ocean as a bargain for peace. It was a trade that had once sounded intelligent.
I learnt too late that I wanted to live and feel the summer breeze again, to love, to breathe. There was silence about me that carried not serenity, but chaos. I struggled as the water claimed my life, second by second.
As sudden as a terminal disease, I realised how much my life meant to me and how careless I was to hurl it into the ravenous and brutal sea.
While I lived, I took many things for granted.
I wish I hadn’t. | https://medium.com/illumination/after-i-drowned-8947869f50a9 | ['Jayzel F.'] | 2020-12-26 18:44:24.138000+00:00 | ['Drowning', 'Suicide Prevention', 'Short Story', 'Fiction', 'Short Fiction'] |
CodeChain Seminar Week 3 | CodeChain Seminar is already halfway through. The topic of the week was blockchain storage and Jingyeong Jeong and Juhyung Park walked us through storage related topics such as Transaction Format, Merkle Patricia Tree, Merkelized UTXO, etc.
Jingyeong Jeong, Engineer
Juhyung Park, Engineer
You can check out the presentation slides here.
Future Seminar Schedule
Place: SK Telecom T Tower 4th Floor Supex Hall
Time: 7 PM — 9 PM
[4th Week] June 14th (Thur)
Topic: Smart Contract
- Bitcoin Script Language
- Solidity/EVM
- CodeChain Script Language
- Script Language Use Cases: Atomic On-Chain Swap, Payment Channel, Escrow, etc
[5th Week] June 20th (Wed)
Topic: Sharding + Interchain
- Ethereum Sharding
- Cosmos
- Polkadot
- CodeChain Sharding
And continued from the CodeChain seminars, there will be the CodeChain Connect event in Seoul at the end of June. Stay tuned! | https://medium.com/codechain/codechain-seminar-week-3-72f5ea1a249e | ['Kiyun Kim'] | 2018-08-28 08:08:05.173000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Events'] |
Trump Is Now Calling COVID-19 “The Chinese Virus”. But If The Global Economy Melts Down, That’ll Very Much Be A U.S.-led Phenomenon | Latest briefing: “August, could be July, could be longer than that…”
Trump Is Now Calling COVID-19 “The Chinese Virus”. But If The Global Economy Melts Down, That’ll Very Much Be A U.S.-led Phenomenon
How can banks possibly figure out who to lend money to?
Quick answer: they can’t.
In order to know that they’d have to have some idea of how much deeper the disruption of daily life in America is going to go.
And to know that they’d need to know how many people the virus is going to impact physically. And how many are already infected.
And how long will businesses have to be shuttered, at least temporarily? And how many people will lose their jobs? And how many people (and small businesses) will stop being able to pay their bills? And for how long: a little bit of time, or forever?
Time frames keep getting longer. Answers keep changing. The White House now seems to be going with a projection by infectious disease modelers and analysts in Britain. Their report shows Coronavirus deaths in the U.S. peaking in mid-June after rising sharply in May, and not really falling off until the end of the summer. And that’s the worst case scenario. With mitigation and/or suppression, cases might not peak as dramatically, and would likely spread out over many more months. Until development of a vaccine, the virus would likely spike from time to time, leading the medical analysts to suggest rules might at times be relaxed, but then reinstated as infections rebound. Leading us to envision something like the color-coded terrorism threat levels we saw after 9–11.
The chart we’re showing here is the worst case scenario in terms of number of people dying. Which might not happen if people take preventative action. Still, it seems to show an extended time frame no matter what.
The same report shows impact lessened significantly by rigorous adherence to school closings, work from home, and strict quarantine if infected. And additional “social distancing” for those over 70 years of age. Interestingly (unless we’re reading this wrong), while the White House recommends gatherings of no more than 10 people, the British analysts posit: “Stopping mass gatherings is predicted to have relatively little impact.” So much so that they don’t even include it as a variable in their findings. They say that’s because the time people spend at those type of events is relatively small to the amount of time they spend at home, school, work, or in bars and restaurants.
Trump seems to be referring to that report in his latest briefing:
“It seems to me that if we do a really good job, we’ll not only hold the death down to a level that is much lower than the other way had we not done a good job. But people are talking about July, August, something like that. So it could be right in that period of time. Where I say ‘it washes through’. Other people don’t like that term. But where it washes through….We’ll see what happens, but they think August, could be July, could be longer than that…”
So despite the President’s customary vagueness, there may be more about the virus that’s becoming a little more predictable (of course we won’t actually know for sure if the projections are right before they do or don’t happen), and that’ll be absolutely necessary for the economy to get back on to any kind of path to recovery as well. Apple for instance has reopened stores in China because there are good counts now of Coronavirus cases there, with seemingly credible evidence the rate of infection is going down. (At least credible enough to convince Apple.) But the U.S. still really has no idea how many cases it’s got.
Yes, banks assess risk all the time as part of their normal course of business, but this is so far beyond that. And when they can’t use the tools they’re familiar with to determine what’s likely to happen in the future, banks freeze. And the economy locks up.
Which is why — as we’ve discussed in our last few columns — the Federal Reserve has been working so hard to stop that from happening, and should not be lambasted — at least not right this sec — for “taking care of bankers and no one else”. Because the Fed is pretty much alone so far in trying to take care of a broad swath of American society, at least in terms of preventing economic collapse.
For banks to lend money to people (or small businesses), they have to have a reasonable assumption those people are going to pay them back. But right now they have no way of knowing that. Zero. Even if it’s someone who’s been a good customer before. And a lot of people are going to need money at least to tide them over for a few months, maybe even more.
So part of what the Fed’s recently been trying to do is make it very easy for those banks to push those loans out a couple of months at least, even if they don’t get paid back right away, without hurting them too much.
In some ways it’s similar to what public health officials are trying to do with the virus: help “flatten the curve” so some people will hopefully be getting back on their feet again by the time others get sick, or in this case in dire financial straits. And while some will fail, if those failures are more spread out, the economy shouldn’t all come crashing down at once.
What we’re also seeing is it’s extraordinarily hard to convince banks to do this. They’re more inclined to do “social distancing” of their own: that is, distance themselves from making loans that may potentially turn out bad.
Which means the Fed can’t ultimately succeed without the timely help of Congress and the White House. Yet here is where you may start to see some naked inequity in who gets helped and who doesn’t. Airlines will get bailouts. Are they too big to fail? Probably not, but transportation is essential to the global economy. (Trump has said he hopes this virus will compel people to travel less overseas in the future and spend more vacation time — and dollars — in the U.S.) Cruise lines will also get help, probably. Should they really? And you can bet casinos will get lots of federal dollars: Trump’s good friends with several casino owners, some of whom are his biggest supporters. And Democrats too have a powerful figure protecting that industry in the form of former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who’s from Nevada.
Will some of this just be flushing away money on people and businesses who don’t really deserve it? Yes. But in some ways it may be best to just cut those dollars loose, because as long as some of the money is well-spent, big cash influxes can only do more good than harm to the economy at this exact moment in time. At the same time, why not at least also boost industries that could really do some good right now, even if they’re not as deeply troubled, but might need to shift their business models a bit to really be helpful: like shippers and freight forwarders still suffering from a shortage of goods from China, which might be able to adapt some of their know-how and equipment to ensure supply lines in this country stay open, even in the face of looming curfews and possible lock-downs? (And shortages of medication and medical equipment, a lot of which comes from China).
We also think Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney’s idea of quickly giving every American $1,000 is great. Not because anyone can live on $1,000 for a long time, but because put in the hands of individual American consumers, it would likely be spent and not wasted. Unlike the piles of cash big corporations and financial institutions may be sitting on, but are too afraid to do anything with other than sit on it. Or may get from the government and may spend unwisely in a way that does not most directly benefit employees. The pushback on Romney’s idea is mostly along the lines that a lot of people don’t need $1,000, and a lot of people need a lot more than $1,000.
But you know what? Instead of sitting around talking about it, get that money out there and give people the opportunity to use it to take care of each other and do right by each other. We’re already seeing some truly remarkable individual efforts in a lot of situations: like this doctor in Michigan who’s figured out a way — maybe — to provide ventilation for 4 patients off a single ventilator. She admits it hasn’t been tested, but says it’s been done in Las Vegas following the mass shooting there several years ago. This kind of ingenuity is just remarkable, and cannot be legislated.
Trump’s preferred response of a reduction in payroll taxes (which he wanted to do anyway, long before the Coronavirus was on the horizon), is not such a great solution: because it doesn’t help people who lose their jobs and thus are not on a payroll. And it doesn’t help many service employees who are paid mostly in tips.
And one thing we need to always remember in all of this, the U.S. is already running a record budget deficit. So all this emergency money will just be added to that, and make it a lot worse. But it has to be done. What didn’t have to be done is the $1.5-trillion tax cut Trump and Republicans giddily pushed through when the economy was booming. Regardless of what happens in the coming weeks and months, we — and our children, grandchildren, etc. — will be paying for that for years and decades. Had the U.S. come into this situation with a budget surplus, which it could’ve, given how robust the economy was at the time the tax cut was passed, a lot of what has to happen now could’ve been done with fewer inevitable dire economic consequences down the road.
Yeah, that’s water under the bridge now. But also — to paraphrase the eloquent words of one of our readers who sent us a note today — it all adds up to: “money blowing over a waterfall to depths we cannot fathom”. | https://ericjscholl.medium.com/trump-is-now-calling-covid-19-the-chinese-virus-63ed4eebd522 | ['Eric J Scholl'] | 2020-03-17 14:44:20.070000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Health', 'Donald Trump', 'Medicine', 'Economy'] |
Creative places put the ‘unity’ in ‘community’ | In a year when the country has often felt pulled apart, some Iowans found ways to work together.
During the Iowa Creative Places Exchange, a conference the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs recently hosted online, leaders from nearly 50 Iowa communities discussed ways to use local art, history and culture to make their cities and towns more equitable and inclusive.
“Equity is really an approach to addressing past injustices,” said the keynote speaker, Jeremy Liu, an artist and community planner from Oakland, California. “Every community has folks who feel like they’ve been slighted. Promises have not been fulfilled, or challenges have occurred that have prevented communities from fulfilling their potential.”
That’s especially true when times are tough, he said, as 2020 has turned out to be.
“We all feel the need to retreat to what feels safe,” he said. “But what if you didn’t feel like there was a place for you?”
Liu has helped communities across the country tackle stubborn challenges related to housing, transportation and immigration. He often encourages leaders to enlist help from local artists, early in the planning process, because their creative problem-solving skills can strengthen the results.
The Iowa Arts Council, a division of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, has offered grants to encourage communities to team up with artists and designers from Iowa’s three state universities to help solve civic challenges. The town of Plymouth, for example, received an Arts Build Communities Grant to team up with student artists to make a bus-stop shelter both safer and more attractive. Ottumwa used the grant to produce a fashion show to celebrate the city’s growing diversity. Fort Dodge is using art to improve the way it collects garbage and recycling.
Student artists in Ottumwa produced a multimedia fashion show in 2018 to celebrate the city’s diversity.
“The best public art isn’t just frosting on the cake. It’s actually baked into the batter,” said David Schmitz, who leads the Iowa Arts Council. “The earlier that artists get involved, the better.”
Often, he said, the planning process can bring people together just as much as the final product. And the process can reveal other problems that may be more urgent than the ones leaders were trying to solve in the first place.
Brianne Sanchez, who directs nonprofit relations for the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines, said even the best intentions to include underrepresented groups can go wrong. A nonprofit that builds a new gazebo in a struggling neighborhood, for example, and then asks neighbors what color to paint it might be surprised by their response.
“They’re like, ‘Wait, I need a new roof. I don’t want a gazebo,’” she said.
Liu, the keynote speaker, challenged representatives from Iowa Great Places as well as Iowa Cultural and Entertainment Districts to listen to the quieter voices in their communities, the ones that have been excluded or ignored.
“If someone wanted to learn about Iowa’s values, I bet you could give them a really terrific orientation through the [Iowa] Great Places. If someone wanted to learn about Iowa’s history, likewise,” he said. But “what if someone wanted to learn about Iowa’s future? How would you make someone new to Iowa feel comfortable?”
— Michael Morain, Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs | https://medium.com/iowa-arts-council/creative-places-put-the-unity-in-community-aeb922482f76 | ['Iowa Culture'] | 2020-12-01 05:15:16.002000+00:00 | ['Equity', 'Diversity', 'Arts And Culture', 'Inclusion', 'Community'] |
On Masculinity and Intimacy | By Jared Scharf, Lead Operations Coordinator
When we hear “men” and “intimacy”, what often follows is “romance” or “family.” Western society, in particular, expects men to hold intimate relationships with partners or family members (to some degree, anyway), but amongst ourselves? C’mon. When do you consistently hear or see stories of adult friendships between men exploring openness and vulnerability with one another?
One example of representation that comes to mind for me isn’t even men in the U.S., it’s in the music video Virile by the French DJ duo The Blaze. In the music video, two guys are dancing, drinking, and showing affection for one another in a living room. That’s the entire video. They never state whether the guys are gay or straight — it’s up for interpretation — but it’s certainly a music video filled with joy along with the tender connection. By leaving it up to the viewer to decide, I think The Blaze breaks new ground by pushing the boundaries of “standard” cis-gendered friendships between men. Solely the question that arises from the video — whether this is a raw take of incredibly deep love through friendship, with no romance — creates a fresher perspective than what society shows us today.
By the way, I love that their relationship depicts vulnerability, not stemming from connecting through shared suffering, but through pure joy. I think that’s a form of openness that too often flies under the radar. I found this mutual vulnerability in a different, unlikely place as well: on the front page of Vogue’s December issue. Harry Styles, boy-band One Direction frontman and extremely successful solo artist, spoke of his deep friendship with personal stylist Harry Lambert. Vogue writer Hamish Bowles documents how the two men call each other “Sue and Susan” while looking through a “Gucci man-bra” that Styles models in his shoot. Their relationship over time has been pinned together (sorry) through clothing; Lambert’s recommendation of Styles’ Rubik’s Cube cardigan created a viral trend on TikTok in February, and the original will land in London’s Victoria & Albert Museum in their permanent collection
As much as I’m curious to rock a norm-bending man-bra recommended by a personal stylist and become an international rockstar, I’d say that intimacy in friendships with the men in my life looks a bit different. I spoke on the phone with a friend the other week — it had been a while since we had caught up. Our conversation began with the impossibly strange question of “how are you?” and laughing at the absurdity of the greeting. We compared notes and reflections on COVID and the election, sharing some of our thoughts on the state of our country and the world. After a bit, he asked me, “What else is on your mind, man? What’s new?”
In my relationships, this is a question built on trust, the real “How are you?” After almost a decade of friendship, I knew I could be vulnerable with him, and I was. I explained that I think I’ve been wrestling lately with a fear of being alone and that I noticed my natural impulses lately have been to fill up my time in aversion to my feelings of loneliness. I’m sick of mindlessly scrolling on my phone… but it must be easier than dealing with 2020, right?
He laughed and told me he has been feeling the same way but was having trouble articulating it. We talked about how we cope: running, meditation, hiking, turning off our phones. The conversation moved on, but the sense of connection remained. It’s nice to feel understood.
This is what male intimacy in friendship can look like for me. I believe this intimacy, or lack thereof, can have profound implications for people who identify as cisgender men, particularly as they age. In Western cultures, we are raised into a set of cultural norms and expectations about masculinity and manhood that are outdated and harmful not only to our own mental health, but also to our relationships and those around us. Men are consistently more likely to report existential isolation — the subjective experience of feeling fundamentally separate from other human beings. Researchers speculate it is because men are less likely to endorse communal values, a pretty inevitable conclusion considering that traditional masculine values are built on self-sufficiency and independence. There’s also a slew of research in older adults chronicling the serious health effects of loneliness on health: heart disease, stroke, premature death, the list goes on.
The absence of representation of intimate friendships affects men because it doesn’t leave us with a whole lot of options for knowing how to act. Yes, we should educate ourselves to recognize the ways we hurt ourselves and others regardless of what society shows us — I would never say otherwise. However, it’s always hard to go against cultural norms, particularly with something as deeply ingrained in us all as the patriarchy. If modern role models of masculinity only portray tough dudes with no feelings with no need to talk to other people, then all these insecurities and fears get channeled into pretty harmful behavior, like following leaders who champion physical and emotional dominance over others as integral to the definition of being a man.
For those men reading this and shaking their heads: is it because you don’t have fears or insecurities, or you don’t desire social connection? That’s like, amazing. I’m not scared of climate change or pandemics or secrets or letting my guard down either. Maybe it’s just me.
*rolls eyes*
The good news is that this is changing. I believe men are learning to be intimate and honest with each other about their lived experiences, and I wanted to write about how that evolved for me. Before sharing my journey, I have two notes:
Intimacy can be tough for anyone, and I certainly think it’s a journey I am learning more about overtime. It’s always tough to get good at being truly vulnerable, particularly in situations where society dictates it isn’t socially acceptable. I’m all for intimacy and vulnerability… as parts of the greater whole of our relationships. For myself, particularly being someone who can spend a lot of time in the deep end of thoughts and feelings, I really appreciate that my friends bring out other parts of me too — competition, goofiness, perspective. Balance is key.
That being said, I think there are three things that helped me become more comfortable with intimacy in my male friendships over time.
The first has been meditation. I am inspired by what spiritual traditions often depicted as a “warrior” — someone who derives strength from compassion and presence for self and others. Sitting with myself — my feelings and thoughts — often feels like a form of bravery to me. When I first started to sit in meditation, I didn’t even do all the breathing instructions. I just set a timer and closed my eyes, willing myself not to get up. Over time, I have become more comfortable with my own discomfort, and therefore am more willing to explore it with others and vice versa. No, I haven’t found inner peace, I’m finding it fairly FICKLE to be candid. But I’ll keep you posted.
The second is therapy. My therapist helped me challenge my negative thoughts, re-energize and re-define my integrity and perceptions of what it means to be a man, inspired me to become more confident with my own value system, and helped me learn vocabulary and questions to share with and receive while connecting with others.
The third is people. I have men (and women) in my life who challenge and care about me. Our relationships are made up of mutual respect, gratitude, and authenticity. I’m lucky, and I also know that there are other men out there who find meaning in defining their friendships beyond outdated norms and toxic perceptions of manhood.
I’ve been tossing over this thought in my head, in the midst of such political and cultural divisiveness: what does healing look like, on what scale, and where do we start? It almost feels naive to entertain unity in society today. But then again, I’ve always been an idealist. Obviously, there’s no one right answer, but I do feel like one of them lies with men. We gotta get better — at knowing ourselves, figuring out how to bring balance to our relationships and communities, and sitting with the discomfort that is inherent in intimacy and vulnerability. I think one way we can do that is, simply, together, and I think we have to if we want to make the world a better place. Our mental health, and our interconnectedness with those around us, depend on it.
If this inspires you, or makes you think, or — god forbid — makes you feel something that you want to talk about — reach out. There are organizations that facilitate these kinds of conversations across the nation, whether it’s working through your mental health difficulties with a therapist or men’s groups that focus on discussions to redefine and rebrand manhood and masculinity. Below are a few examples.
See you out there. | https://medium.com/quartettech/on-masculinity-and-intimacy-e0b88b2fa1c8 | ['Quartet Health'] | 2020-11-17 15:03:49.661000+00:00 | ['Healthy Masculinity', 'Mental Health Awareness', 'Intimacy', 'Mental Health', 'Masculinity'] |
The Duggars’ beliefs help explain their behavior | The Duggars’ beliefs help explain their behavior
Until May of last year, there was a show on TLC (which used to be an abbreviation for The Learning Channel) called 17 Kids and Counting, then 18 Kids and Counting, and finally, 19 Kids and Counting. On a Thursday in late May, in classic “you bury news before a long weekend” strategy, the oldest of these 19 kids (Josh, 27 years old), his wife, and parents took to Facebook to admit that allegations reported by InTouch magazine were true–namely, that Josh, as a minor, had molested 5 other minors including his sisters.
To catch you up
In 2003, Josh had confessed this abusive behavior to his parents who waited a while, reported it to their church elders, then sent him away to work with a “guy they knew in Little Rock who is remodeling a building” for whatever good that would do, then told the police. The state police officer to whom they spoke gave Josh a “stern” talking-to which started the clock ticking on the statute of limitations. That police officer was later convicted of possessing child pornography and sentenced to 56 years in prison before any other law enforcement took a look at these allegations against Josh Duggar. Oh also, police destroyed records pertaining to the case. In 2006, when the Duggars were set to appear on Oprah, an anonymous tip about Josh’s behavior was sent to the show which then cancelled the appearance. Since then, message board users have openly discussed the Duggar molestation allegations. Yet, the Duggars have remained professional baby-makers for almost a decade.
As an old-school hater of “reality television,” I’ve never seen any of these shows but was aware of their existence. Like you, I thought, “what crazy religious beliefs led these people to have 19 children?” Unlike you, probably, I looked into it. A lot.
Because of the nature of the subjects that interest me and the books and articles I read about them, Josh Duggar’s semi-confession last year didn’t especially surprise me. Obviously nothing can excuse his behavior (and certainly not the behavior of his parents, church officials, and law enforcement who all covered it up), but the details of the family’s beliefs may help explain their behavior: the abuse and the cover-up.
Typical of coverage of the Duggars is CNN’s description: “The Duggars are known for being devout Christians.” This is misleading. The Duggars aren’t merely “devout Christians.” The Duggars subscribe to a set of beliefs known as the “Christian patriarchy.” And, as one might infer, there’s something real…patriarchal about the Christian patriarchy.
The Patriarchy
Christian patriarchy believes that men hold absolute authority over women (to the extent that daughters are under their fathers’ authority until their own marriage), that women should not have careers outside the home, and that families should have a whole bunch of kids. In some cases, this patriarchal teaching extends to forbidding women to vote or seeking higher education.
This subservience to men is the defining characteristic of the movement. For example:
Christian Patriarchy holds that women must always be under male authority (or headship). A woman is never to be independent of male authority. First, she is under her father’s authority, and then under her husband’s authority. (A widow would be under her son’s authority, or, if she had no sons or her sons were young, she would return to her father’s authority. If is not possibles possible [sic], some argue that widow should place herself under the authority of a church elder or pastor.)
Unsurprisingly, this breeds daughters who know nothing but subjugation to male authority:
Daughters of Christian Patriarchy are essentially servants in their own homes, but this does not mean they are necessarily miserable and unhappy. While some daughters of Christian Patriarchy rebel and inwardly resent how they are being raised, most don’t. Most accept what their parents teach them as true, and look forward to their wedding day as the beginning of their lives. This was me. I was perfectly happy to help with my younger siblings and cook for a dozen and do load after load of laundry. At age ten, twelve, or fourteen, I was being trained to be a “helpmeet” to my future husband, preparing for my life’s role by working alongside my mother and serving as junior “helpmeet” to my father. I dreamed of my wedding constantly, and thought of what a wonderful wife, mother, and homemaker I would be. A wife and mother was all I wanted to be, because any dream of anything else was nipped in the bud before it ever took root. I truly believed that this was what God wanted of me, and that serving my family and raising my siblings was serving God. And I gloried in it.
And because wives in the movement fall under the authority of their husbands, they sometimes get spanked. Yes, grown women are spanked in an non-sexual, disciplinary way by their husbands.
More than a movement, it is a “patriarchal cult” according to Vyckie Garrison who writes the No Longer Quivering blog about her escape from the movement.
Implosion
But this movement is imploding. Despite the poor timing of a 19 Kids marathon running Thursday evening as news of Josh’s admission reverberated across the internet, TLC cancelled the show the next day. The Duggars were the movement’s highest profile followers but they aren’t the first to get swept up in controversy.
In October 2013, Douglas Phillips, the president of Vision Forum Ministries (a vocal advocate of Biblical Patriarchy) resigned when news of an extra-marital affair surfaced. In November, the board of Vision Forum shut down its ministry operations. In April of 2014, a lawsuit revealed that this was more than an “extra-marital affair.” The lawsuit claimed that Phillips “repeatedly groped and touched [his accuser] inappropriately and masturbated on her, ‘against her wishes and over her objections,’ over a period of years.” The lawsuit claims Phillips’s victim had been “methodically groomed” to be his wife since she was 15 years old. He told her this was possible since his current wife “was going to die soon.”
In 2014, Bill Gothard, another vocal advocate of the “Quiverfull” movement (which is sort of, mostly, the same thing as Christian patriarchy), was suspended from the Institute in Basic Life Principles (the homeschooling program the Duggars use which Gothard founded) after allegations emerged that he molested an underage woman in the 1990s, sexually harassed others, and failed to report child abuse.
What Fundamentalism Leads To
Depending on your personal convictions, you may read these stories with a jaded eye and think they all concern “crazy religious nuts” or you may read them with compassion and worry how people go so far astray. But I suggest a nuanced reading that the issues in these stories concern people who are neither crazy nor astray. They are simply acting as their beliefs have led them to act.
No belief absolves Josh Duggar, his parents, church, law enforcement officials, or these other abusers mentioned. But if you teach a child since birth that a holy order exists in which men are the authority on earth over women, how do you also teach that child that he isn’t right to explore his hormonal development with the girl over whom he is an earthly authority? You can’t brainwash a child and then expect him to behave responsibly. Likewise, you can’t raise girls to believe that the boys and men in their life are their sole protectors and providers and then wonder why they don’t speak out about abuses.
In the Duggar family, they used “the buddy system” to help parent their children: “The older children mentor the younger ones….They will play with them or help them pick out the color of their outfit that they want to wear that day, and just all of those types of things.” How far a stretch is it to see that a pubescent boy–taught that women are subservient to women, and placed in charge of his sisters to the extent that he is helping raise them–would act out?
And who could doubt that his victims would stay quiet:
Many evangelicals use the rhetoric of “male headship” but see it as merely spiritual or figurative. For Christian Patriarchy, though, being under male authority includes obedience. This obedience is absolute; a woman is only excused from obeying if her male authority orders her to do something illegal and immoral (some dispute this, and argue that she is still required to obey, but that God won’t hold her accountable for any sins she commits at the order of her male authority).
Let’s look at how belief affects a victim through another case, the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart in 2002. Ms. Smart was abducted from her family home in the middle of the night. Nine months after her abduction, she was found walking down the road with her captor and his wife, only a few miles from her home. This case is especially pertinent since it caused Dave Chappelle to ask “How old is 15 really?” in a serious comedy bit:
What Dave most likely did not know–because most of us didn’t know this, because the mainstream media never reported it–is that Ms. Smart was a Mormon of the LDS (Church of Latter Day Saints) variety and her captor was a Mormon Fundamentalist. As John Krakauer argued in his book Under the Banner of Heaven: “Raised to obey figures of Mormon authority unquestioningly, and to believe that LDS doctrine is the law of God, [Elizabeth] would have been particularly susceptible to the dextrous fundamentalist spin [Brian David] Mitchell applied to familiar Mormon scripture.” After kidnapping her, Smart’s captor forced her into a polygamous marriage arrangement. Krakauer explains that when he bullied her into submitting to this, “he used the words of Joseph Smith…to phrase those demands.”
In other words, Smart’s beliefs made her more vulnerable. Her beliefs made her a victim. They provided a framework of thought that her captor could exploit.
Some months before he kidnapped Elizabeth Smart, Brian David Mitchell enchanted another young woman to whom he presented a written marriage proposal with the explanation that God wished her to become his plural wife. This woman declined the proposal explaining to Krakauer, “everything he said was stuff I was raised on….” If she’d been as young and impressionable as Smart, “There’s no telling what I would have done.”
That children’s beliefs have supplanted rational thought should come as no surprise when the adults in their lives defer to belief before reason as well. As in the case of the Duggars, Smart’s father called the president of his LDS stake about his daughter’s kidnapping before notifying the police.
Leaning in
Beliefs don’t absolve actions because beliefs only exist for the subject. They aren’t universal truths. Children don’t possess the capacity to understand this. They haven’t build up enough cause-and-effect evidence to evaluate the world for themselves. “Because I said so” is still a valid reason for them to believe a thing. And “because I believe it” is still a valid reason for a thing to be true.
And while they help explain horrific actions, beliefs can also help predict actions. When Oprah and The Learning Channel and the Arkansas State Police and all the viewers of the Duggars started to learn about their beliefs, everyone could have wondered, “what do these beliefs lead to?” Patriarchy has always led to the abuse of women. Any system in which a group of people arbitrarily exist in authority to another leads to abuse. This is predictable.
It is also predictable that so strong a belief system causes individuals to use it to cover-up a crime. That so biblically-raised a son would molest his sisters must be an aberration, they think. Adults, as proven in this complex story, are completely fallible–another reason “because I said so” should never be accepted as law.
Beliefs are interesting in how subtly they become truths for us. Even as adults, the more we affirm our belief in something, the more we brainwash ourselves that we’ve found the truth about an issue. Those beliefs then become habits that influence our behavior. When beliefs lead to actions that create destructive ends (as victims or criminals), believers ought to reconsider the man-made foundations of their beliefs. Yet most trying times cause all believers to lean in, to double down on the system that made them vulnerable to begin with.
Or as the Duggars affirmed: “That dark and difficult time caused us to seek God like never before.” | https://medium.com/hey-todd-a/the-duggars-beliefs-help-explain-their-behavior-3cb5f2f1ed65 | ['Todd A'] | 2017-09-12 20:40:58.559000+00:00 | ['Belief', 'Mormon', 'Reality TV', 'Religion'] |
imposter | Most of us have a tendency to feel out of place when we try to prove ourselves or our ideas in a new territory. It’s common to think we’re an imposter because, as good intentioned as our efforts might be, we are unsure of the outcomes we are trying to create. We think, who are we to speak up with a new idea, to step outside the status quo, or to lead with revolutionary action?
We say we want to get rid of this feeling, but the thing is, you don’t want to. Feeling like an imposter is just a symptom of being on the verge of creating a better outcome by leading into new territory. It is important that in those moments, we show up and decide to lead. We’ll never be sure of the outcome because it hasn’t happened yet, but it is that intention, effort, and willingness to step into the unknown that has a tendency to change the world. Take these feelings as a good thing, it means we’re leaning into the work.
Improving upon the norm never happened without someone feeling out of place. So, embrace the feeling to create the change you want to see. | https://medium.com/@ryancrossfield/imposter-bfd24094bd7d | ['Ryan Crossfield'] | 2020-12-02 18:04:09.036000+00:00 | ['Imposter', 'Imposter Syndrome', 'Choice', 'Action', 'Change'] |
Sex Is The Most Important Thing To Write About | Sex Is The Most Important Thing To Write About
Because it’s never really just about sex.
Image by Marisi26 from Pixabay
I was once on a hike with my parents when we came across a donkey. One of the grey ones, with a cross on his back. And so, naturally, I began to sing the Christmas Carol Little Donkey to him, which he appeared to enjoy because he got a huge hard-on. Leading to an awkward silence between my family and me, and all of us to scuttle off precipitously, very red-faced.
The point of this awkward anecdote is not to share my knowledge of how to seduce an equestrian (please do not use this fact for evil), but to illustrate the fact that Sex isn’t just a sacred and glamourous topic, that we shouldn’t discuss too much in order to preserve its mystique, but also an incredibly awkward subject that we really don’t know how to handle.
We are not very good at talking about sex, but we need to be. Maybe not with our parents or four-legged friends, but with our partners and amongst ourselves as a society, there are countless discussions to be had, because a lot of people aren’t having the best sex, and in many cases, sex reinforces social inequalities and is actually harmful where it should be pleasurable.
Will talking about it too much take the magic out of it? I’m not really worried about that, because there are no words to describe a proper orgasm, and sex will always have its mysteries.
But talking about still feels awkward and hard, a lot of the time. Writing about it is easier, and more effective because it reaches a wider audience.
We need to write about sex for its own sake. Because Sex today is messed up, and we need to make it better. We need to learn to treat our partners with more respect, to be more honest, not to trick them. We need to learn to value women’s pleasure and not just men’s in the bedroom. We need to learn to have open conversations about consent, and about our sexual preferences.
Sex is an important aspect of most adults’ lives and can have a big effect on mental health, in one way or the other.
Bad sex can be upsetting, or even traumatic. It can make you feel like your desire has no importance or like someone has disrespected your body.
Good sex can be a good way to connect with others, connect with one’s own body, find pleasure in a completely non-consumerist and healthy activity, and a place where mindfulness can be found by delving into the sensorial aspects of the experience. The warmth of another’s body. Kisses and closeness. The tingles and rollercoaster of orgasm.
In a time when capitalism is making the most of our inability to talk about sex and trying to sell us solutions to our suspended conversations and unanswered questions, writing about sex is important if we are to make sure that the changes that come are beneficial rather than harmful to people’s sex lives and wellbeing.
But the real reason why writing about sex is so important is because an article about sex is never really about sex. It is about human interaction, about the relationships we build our lives around, about gender issues, about social inequality. Sex is such a central part of human’s lives, that it underscores everything we do. So talking about sex can really be talking about anything else.
Obviously, gendered issues come up a lot when writing about heterosexual sex, because it remains a space of strict gender roles and scripts, which neglects women’s pleasure and puts the mental charge of “performing” onto men.
But sex is also about race and class, because stereotypes abound in our sexual fantasies, and are kept alive by pornography. From BBC to MILFs, plumbers to bosses, porno depicts cliched and harmful tropes, that reflect the dominations present in the world of today.
I’ll let Oscar Wilde summarise:
“Everything in the world is about sex except sex. Sex is about power.”
Since a lot of people like reading about sex, it can also be a good way into serious topics. I noticed that my articles about sex did a lot better than any of my other work here on Medium. Which makes me smile. I guess I’m not the only one who likes discussing doing the rumpy-pumpy. But through my articles on sex, I have discussed the male gaze, how harmful it can be for women of colour to be sexualised as “exotic creatures”, why we shouldn’t look down on one-night stands and should treat the people we sleep with better. Sex can be a doorway onto a lot of topics, and help make important things be more evocative to the reader.
I like the fact that humans are still so obsessed with bonking — it brings us back to our more natural, instinctive way of being. The evolutionary purpose of sex is reproduction, which makes it important to us as a species, but as individuals, non-reproductive sex, heterosexual or homosexual, with one partner or many, has equally important purposes. It is a way to connect with others and an incomparable source of pleasure.
Sex is central to our lives, and so deserves to be central to our writing. | https://starkraving.medium.com/sex-is-the-most-important-thing-to-write-about-821bace13ed5 | ['Stark Raving'] | 2019-04-08 11:39:29.875000+00:00 | ['Sex', 'Sexuality', 'Writing', 'Equality', 'Mental Heath'] |
Can Andrew Yang Save the World with Human Capitalism | TaraElla: Welcome to the TaraElla Report, where I chat with my friends about cultural and political issues. All of us are individuals who are simply looking for more freedom, and many of us have been confused by so-called leaders from all sides, offering non-solutions with hidden agendas attached. I believe that it is only through amplifying the conversations of everyday individuals that we can cut through the nonsense and bring back freedom.
In this episode I continue my conversation from last time with Katie, an old friend of mine who identifies as a progressive, but also has plenty of questions about the current direction of progressivism. In recent years, there has been an increased questioning of our economic system from both the left and the right, in light of the system failing everyday individuals. Old ideas from protectionism to communism are getting another hearing, while numerous newer solutions are also being proposed from all quarters. Personally, I believe that old ideas that were consigned to the dustbin of history in the 20th century should remain there, because they failed for a good reason. As for the newer ideas, I wholeheartedly welcome all the brainstorming and all the discussions that are happening, and I think we should look at each idea from the basic perspectives of individual freedom and equal opportunity. I also see that many 2020 candidates have very interesting proposals. For example, I really like the idea of Human Capitalism, proposed by Andrew Yang.
Katie: We do live in extraordinary times. I think you are right that people looking for outdated solutions is really a sign of desperation. Knowing this, doing nothing and just sticking with the status quo is not an option anymore. I think we need bold and big ideas going forward, and we need to think outside the box. For too long, the debate has been between ‘capitalism’ and ‘socialism’, two terms that are rooted in 19th century ideals and 20th century history, two terms that are not only vaguely defined in our modern context, but also necessarily restrict our thinking. It’s like you either embrace 20th century style capitalism or 20th century style socialism, when neither are going to serve us very well going forward.
TaraElla: I actually suspect that those playing the capitalism vs socialism game want us to have to choose between the two 19th century visions. For example, by limiting the options, certain activists can channel young people who are disillusioned with capitalism as it stands into becoming sympathetic towards communist thinking. I think a good way to escape the capitalism vs socialism trap is to look at the alternatives, to mainstream the discussion of newer, more 21st century economic models. Luckily, we actually have a good opportunity to do just that in the next two years, with the help of some of the 2020 candidates and their platforms.
Andrew Yang is perhaps most well known for his proposal for a Universal Basic Income (UBI), which he calls the Freedom Dividend. But this proposal is situated in a wider framework he calls Human Capitalism, which he defines as follows. Firstly, humans are more important than money. Secondly, the unit of a Human Capitalism economy is each person, not each dollar. Finally, markets exist to serve our common goals and values. I guess that’s quite a profound statement to make. I mean, we all theoretically agree that humans are more important than money, and that markets should serve humanity rather than the opposite, but our system does not live up to these values at the moment. Let’s face it: an increasing number of young people in the West, many who are very well educated, are turning to communism, and many older adults are increasingly alarmed. Many older politicians are desperately trying to put the lid on this problem, but I think their approach is simply wrong. Rather, I think we should take the radical left’s success as a wake-up call, that many people don’t think the economic system is working for them.
Katie: It amazes me how many people throughout history have thought that a problem would go away if they simply suppress those expressing dissent. History has taught us that this never fixes things. Teaching the people to love a status quo they simply can’t accept will never work. The head in the sand approach will only end in the destruction of everything we hold dear.
TaraElla: Everything we hold dear, indeed. What is at stake is the foundations of classical liberal social contract itself. If we can get the system to work for individual liberty and equal opportunity again, I think young people will come to see the value of the market system. If not, then they naturally won’t. After all, you can’t get people to love the market for the sake of loving the market. What we actually want is individual freedom, and an equal opportunity to be competitively innovative. I believe human beings are naturally ‘competitively innovative’, in that we like to compete against each other, and competition inspires us to do our best. We thrive in such an environment, but only when there is truly fair competition. However, in our current system, the playing field is titled towards corporates and extremely rich people, and everyday individuals don’t actually get a fair shot at many things. It is impossible for most people to believe in something they can’t actually get a fair deal from.
Katie: I think you’ve raised an interesting point. I suspect many of those people who keep saying how we are living in ‘late capitalism’ don’t necessarily want the market system to collapse. They don’t seem to be actually committed to Marxism as an ideology. Using words like ‘late capitalism’ is a way they express their utter frustration with the way things are currently. It’s essentially a cry for change. I think they sense that there is something wrong with the current system, but they don’t actually know where it’s gone wrong.
TaraElla: I actually think that Andrew Yang has identified one of the reasons why our system is not working. Let’s look at the second point of Yang’s proposal, ‘the unit of a Human Capitalism economy is each person, not each dollar’. If you think about it, a system that is measured in dollars is going to be inherently unfair. Let’s look at this issue in a broader context. As a Moral Libertarian, I believe that a moral society requires each individual to have a maximum and equal amount of freedom and opportunity. To achieve that, the system needs to be based around the unit of individual humans, not other things. I have argued against the Left where they propose to divide society into classes or identity groups, for this reason. A society where the basic unit is the class or the identity group will never have freedom or equality, because in such a society individuals will have grossly unequal influence. But the same can be said for a society where the basic unit is the dollar, especially where some individuals have many more dollars than the rest of us. By reforming the economy around individuals rather than dollars, we return equal opportunity and agency to the 99%.
That’s all for today. I’ll be back next time with another conversation. Subscribe if you want to follow our story. The transcripts are available on my website, and my Medium profile. And remember to resist the hive mind and stay individualistic. The world depends on it. | https://medium.com/taraellas-liberal-conversation/can-andrew-yang-save-the-world-with-human-capitalism-58774473bcb1 | [] | 2019-04-04 13:39:31.587000+00:00 | ['Liberalism', 'Politics', 'Liberal', 'Andrew Yang'] |
How to focus on virtual classes | Currently, I am a final year engineering student and realizes that people now are struggling with virtual meetings, classes, and conferences. People might find it is hard to focus on those activities because we usually get used to the face-to-face study environment.
Photo by Stefan Cosma on Unsplash
Here’re a few tips on how to focus on virtual classes:
Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash
1. Have a study environment
Study environment should be place in public space with minimum distraction in your home. Public space will make us more discipline and not waste time just laying on our bed.
Photo by Oladimeji Ajegbile on Unsplash
Prepare early
Be prepare all the lecturer material ahead of time will help you to switch into study mood. You will be more motivated to study and pay attention on the lectures.
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
Take note
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
Interact with the lecturer and classmate
Photo by William Felker on Unsplash
Eat food that boosts your brain
Switch off all distraction
Photo by Damir Spanic on Unsplash
Drink a lot of water
Hope those tips can help you in focusing on either school classes or meeting.
Thank you for reading my blog and appreciate your support. | https://medium.com/@cheonghoukhit/how-to-focus-on-virtual-classes-1655bcaa78c9 | ['Hou Khit'] | 2020-10-21 05:05:26.738000+00:00 | ['Zoom', 'Study Tips', 'Focusing', 'Virtual Classroom', 'Meetings'] |
When Humanity Fallen Apart From Society? | When Humanity Fallen Apart From Society?
1 . Humanity has fallen from society as society has forgotten that it is formed by human beings to look after the day to day crises of every human being,
2 . Humanity has fallen from society as Society has forgotten that purpose of the society is to look after issues of its member and not to force its members to start “Rat race” to prove better than other.
3 . Humanity has fallen from society as society has forgotten that goal of the existence of society must be -security, each and every member of it and not categorize own members as more important & less important than each other to make members of society vulnerable and victims of circumstances.
4. Humanity has fallen from society as Society has forgotten that, society must lead every member to its happiness and fulfilment and not to deprivation and despondency.
5. Humanity has fallen from society as, Society has forgotten that the need of society must be to establish order among its member and not to be a reason for inventing chaos, loot, and injustice.
6 . Humanity has fallen from society as society has forgotten that each and every life of its member is important and must be protected from getting lost due to any neglect or excessive use of power
7. Humanity has fallen from society as society has forgotten that it must be the reason for the atonement & redemption of each and every member of it and not to be the reason for dejection and deniability.
Millions in Bengal had died, due to artificial feminine invented by British Prime Minister -Mr. Winston Churchill during World War-2, but not a single authority in the world took notice of it, This is the best example, why humanity is fallen from society today or how humanity is used to fall in any time of human history.
From : Dr. Nilesh Jaybhaye
[1]
Footnotes | https://medium.com/@nileshjaybhaye9999/spiritual-light-11-a59f1f648c75 | ['Nilesh Jaybhaye'] | 2021-07-05 09:24:23.969000+00:00 | ['Human Rights', 'Humanidade', 'Humanitarian', 'Humanism', 'Humanity'] |
Your Freelance Advice Sucks | Where are you from
For real. Where do you hail from? It may seem like a baseless question, but it is central to the story. Once you consider where you are from, then ask yourself what language is spoken there? Good. Now we are on the right track.
If I may hypothesize, would you let a foreigner work for your writing company, yet it is in your native language? The probability of you going to such lengths would be very slim if you are not too confident with trusting distant strangers over the internet.
Now with all these in mind, we can apply the situation to the world of anglophiles. I seldom see writers mentioning the different struggles that a non-native English speaker from an “obscure” third world country would face when seeking these jobs.
According to the demographics of the people who speak English, many English speakers are not native speakers. What does this lead to in the market of freelancers seeking lucrative prospects mostly from western clients? From my experience and that of many more than I could mention, the situation is bleak.
This is what I term as the native advantage. A simple look at your profile that shows any indication of being a non-native immediately puts off many potential clients. The reason is justified; there is always the probability that the freelancer has sub-par English. The opposite could also be equally true. | https://medium.com/the-brave-writer/your-freelance-advice-sucks-86465371458d | [] | 2020-12-21 17:03:30.078000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Writing Tips', 'Freelance Writing', 'Article Writing', 'Freelance'] |
Five Former Players Open NBA Play Wednesday & Top 5 Storylines for NBA Season | Four are group individuals from in any event one season while one will start his newbie year in the class.
Garrett Temple will uncork his eleventh year in the NBA, having played 576 games. He will uncork with flipside group this season, marking with the Chicago Bulls after averaging 10.3 focuses, 3.5 vellicate when per games and 2.5 helps per game last season with Brooklyn.
Sanctuary played on two SEC Championship groups at LSU (2006, 2009) and was a starter as a first year recruit on 2006 NBA Final Four group.
Sanctuary and the Bulls will unshut Wednesday at home versus the Atlanta Hawks, home of the most up to stage NBA part, Skylar Mays.
Mays, an individual from LSU’s SEC Championship, and NCAA Sweet 16 group in 2019, was drafted in the second round by the Atlanta Hawks and marked a two-way contract a month ago with the group. Mays played in three of Atlanta’s preseason challenges.
The two-way contract permits him to partake in NBA, games yet in wing get playing time in the NBA G-League once or if that season starts. Adjusted standards permit two-path players to show up in up to 50, games this season.
Additionally, marking flipside two-way undear this year is Boston’s Tremont Waters, who played on 2019 NCAA Sweet 16 group also. Waters was the G-League Rookie of the Year in 2019–20 and invested energy in the air pocket with the Celtics in the NBA resumption. He played in 11 games for the Celtics and found the middle value of 3.6 focuses, 1.1 vellicate when and 1.5 helps.
The Celtics will have the Milwaukee Bucks on TNT at 6:30 p.m. CT.
Naz Reid was undrafted without the 2019 LSU season, however was one of the stars of the NBA summer group, and marked a four-year manage Minnesota. He will be in his second year with the group when they unshut Wednesday at 7 p.m. at home versus Detroit (NBA League Pass). Reid played in 30 games last season, averaging 16.5 minutes per game, 9.0 focuses and 4.1 vellicate back.
The №1 pick in 2016 NBA Draft, Ben Simmons, enters his fourth NBA season with the Philadelphia 76ers. Simmons, returning without a knee injury during the 2020 season, have played in 217 NBA games and is averaging 16.4 focuses, 8.3 vellicate when and 8.0 helps for his profession.
The 76ers will unshut at home versus Washington in a 6 p.m. start on NBA League Pass.
Of the five groups, the Celtics will be just one with a previous LSU player on the Christmas Day plan as Boston has Brooklyn at 5 p.m. on ABC.
Top 5 storylines for NBA season
I have no stock in the rings culture; I once think LeBron James is a biggest unsurpassed player than Michael Jordan regardless of the number of titles he winds up with. However, for many individuals, rings are the thing. Jordan has six. LeBron has four.
Considering LeBron will wind up besting Jordan in well-near each measurable classification, to avoid mentioning the way that he’s just a greater, biggest competitor with a far progressively different range of abilities, that two-title hole, as of now, speaks to the last join of texture — as I would like to think — in Jordan’s GOAT case.
At the point when LeBron was stuck on three titles and the Durant-Curry Warriors were all the while lording over the class, the possibility that LeBron could reservation Jordan’s title check had shrink fantastical. Less any longer. He got №4 in the air pocket, and the Lakers are the top choice to win then this season.
It won’t be simple. The Clippers are as yet stacked. So are the Bucks and Nets. However, on the off chance that LeBron and Anthony Davis remain sound, when you squint at the Lakers program, it’s nonflexible to envision them not winning it all once more. That would be №5 for LeBron, who’s giving no indications of easing back down. You crunch the numbers.
We just got 24 standard season games out of Zion Williamson last season outperforming the New Orleans Pelicans blazed out in the air pocket, however that was progressively than excruciating to personize his remaining as one of the most hazardous, amazing powers in the association at only 20 years of age.
Williamson is practically relentless when he gets moving downhill, and he has a skill for setting up his force off the stammer and the catch. As a shaper, he makes unpretentious movements to get to one side hand outperforming the cleverness shows up. He has a veteran’s subtlety with regards to setting up his turn move. He comprehends the estimation of early situation in the post, where he has gigantic footwork to supplement his beast gravity and physicality. His hurl science with Lonzo Wittiness is once dialed in.
Zion is well-near to overwhelm the NBA, and the Pelicans are must-see TV considering of it.
Kyrie Irving may be an exclusive Broadway show off the court, however he looked as supernatural as excessively on the justice in restricted preseason activity, shooting 58 percent from the field and 55 percent from 3 in his two warmup games outperforming the genuine games start, whence Tuesday night versus the Warriors.
Talking about the Warriors, Durant’s first game when without year and a half off rehabbing a torn Achilles is versus his previous group, and he looked terrific during the preseason, too. New Nets tutor Steve Nash says Durant is when tropical to 100%, yet the best way to know he’s genuinely as far as possible when is to see him in genuine, customary season activity.
On the off chance that Irving and Durant are undoubtedly sound and when to the tallness of their forces, the Nets are a monstrous issue. They have peerage shooting with Durant, Irving, Joe Harris and Landry Shamet. They have optional playmakers in Caris LeVert and Spencer Dinwiddie, who can play at an All-Star level any given evening. They are adjusted, profound and persuaded, the last an expansion of their two weightier players. Durant needs to demonstrate he can win a title without the Warriors. Irving needs to demonstrate he needn’t bother with LeBron.
Gracious, there’s still risk they add James Harden to the blend.
4. When, and where, will James Harden be exchanged?
A wagering man would be a simpleton to bet one single dollar that Harden will complete this season in Houston. He’s gone. The possibly questions are when will it occur, and where will he end up? It very well may be the 76ers, Heat, Raptors; it very well may be anyplace, truly, with ongoing reports demonstrating the Rockets are currently investigating three-group exchanges search of their ideal bundle.
Solidify has two ensured years left on his arrangement, which gives Houston all the influence it requires to wait for the correct arrangement, yet this will get truly awkward rapidly. My speculation is an exchange happens sooner than later, and when it does, the title picture could squint totally extraordinary.
I picked Damian Lillard to win MVP, however Luka Doncic, one could attest, is obviously the biggest wagered. The Mavericks were this tropical to taking the Clippers out in the first round marvellous Denver did it in the second round. The Kristaps Porzingis launch in Game 1 returned everything. Without Game 3, Porzingis was out of the arrangement consummately without tearing his meniscus, and Doncic was on a bum meander himself.
I’m not saying the Mavericks would’ve won that arrangement had Luka and Porzingis been sound, or had that pseudo launch not occurred, yet I am stating that Luka Doncic was the weightier major part in an arrangement that highlighted Kawhi Leonard. He is so incredible. His size and strength with the cleverness is amazing. The manner in which he controls safeguards, getting them on his hip, downshifting as he gets close to the edge, completing one time down, zipping a cross-court pass to a corner shooter whenever, it’s verse. There’s not a safeguard in the class who can get him off his movement.
With Doncic chief the game, getting anyplace he needs to jump on the court, and Porzingis giving his shooting and dividing, the Mavericks, who made maybe the weightier under-the-radar move of the offseason in acquiring Josh Richardson, can play with anybody. I would not be astounded the slightest bit to see them in the preparing finals giving the Lakers all that they can deal with. | https://medium.com/@trenda321/five-former-players-open-nba-play-wednesday-top-5-storylines-for-nba-season-7e09f3147ea9 | [] | 2020-12-23 06:20:29.279000+00:00 | ['NBA', 'Basketball', 'NBA Finals', 'NBA Playoffs', 'NBA Draft'] |
I Saw “The Chamber” on Netflix | I Saw “The Chamber” on Netflix
Photo by Sora Shimazaki from Pexels
I recently watched “The Chamber” on Netflix. “The Chamber” is a 1996 film based on the John Grisham novel (1994) of the same title. It follows a young attorney, Adam, practicing at a Chicago law firm, Kravitz & Bane as he takes over a pro-bono case of a Ku Klux Klansman and convicted killer, Sam Cayhall, who is on death row. Sam Cayhall turns out to be Adam’s grandfather, disowned by the family for the same crime that earned him a death sentence: the bombing and killing of a civil rights lawyer and his two children.
I liked the movie because it’s an honest retelling of White history in the United States. Everything from Adam’s sorry attempts at saving his grandfather’s life and the excuses he employs, “The very things that make him so monstrous are the very reasons that mitigate against this state murdering him. He was raised by his family and by this state to become the man that he became. By the time he was old enough to choose, he didn’t have a choice. This is the tragedy for Sam Cayhall.” to the alcoholism that his aunt, Sam’s daughter, develops in order to cope with White guilt are as disappointing as they are authentic to what you can expect in 2020.
After being inundated with superhero movies, where White characters interact with aliens so as to side step having to deal with racism in the United States (also convenient is to create all Black or all Asian casts), this was a refreshing story, one that delved into the intergenerational trauma White people inflict on themselves and on others for the glory of White supremacy. In short, while this movie was clearly racist AF, I think White people should make more movies like this one rather than dressing up in capes or as a mall cop. | https://medium.com/365-ally-for-black-lives/i-saw-the-chamber-on-netflix-982c7bc8bb4e | ['Jee Young Park'] | 2020-12-07 14:38:48.565000+00:00 | ['White Privilege', 'John Grisham', 'White Supremacy', 'Anti Black Racism', 'Netflix'] |
Your Personal Motivation And Vision Unmatched Power | Your personal motivation and vision Unparalleled Power Motivation can make you go further, but if you find your vision first, it can make you go further. Your vision will inspire you and guide you towards success and achievement.
Having a clear vision of what you want to achieve will only make you go around in circles and ultimately disappoint you.
In order to develop your vision, you need to look at yourself. Vision comes from within, from the mind or the subconscious, no matter how you call it. Everyone has a unique vision, and you are no exception. It is difficult to understand your personal vision and how it affects your personal incentive plan.
Your vision will most likely not appear suddenly. Like lightning that falls from the sky, it will arise from your experience, talents, dreams and desires, so take your time. Instead, stay motivated and let your vision flow through you. Daily Motivation
You can take the following five steps to effectively realize your vision:
(1) Learn to listen to your inner voice.
Since your vision starts from the inside, you need to learn to listen to and feel what you really want in your mind and heart. What is your biggest wish that touched you? What is your aspiration? If you believe that what you want to do does not really come from deep in your heart, then you will. For him, it is difficult, if not impossible, not to give up before success.
(2) Be mentally prepared.
Your vision starts in your mind and heart. It burns in your soul. It should be more than all your past memories, mistakes, and achievements. When you know what your vision is, you will have meaning and will not get lost in your journey. This is the result of lack of accurate vision. If you don’t know where to go or how to get there, the journey seems to be longer and more difficult.
To find your vision, go to a quiet place. A place where your brain can think creatively and focus on your vision.
(3) Look for other motivated visionaries.
Scale determines scale, so seek the company of others who can appreciate and support your vision. Rely on the winner to motivate them. Daily Motivation
(4) Have a notebook and pen ready.
As the American inventor Thomas Edison said, when looking for a vision, people often forget that 90% is inspiring. With this in mind, you never know when your vision will come. So in order to achieve results, carry a small notebook with you, even if you put it on the bedside table while you sleep, and write down what you think of, even if it seems stupid to you. One hundred and one may be the vision you have been looking for. Don’t try to edit now, just write what you can think of.
(5) Don’t try to fully understand your vision.
It’s okay to call you in a way you don’t quite understand. Follow your vision as much as possible, and more will be revealed over time. All truly successful people have a vision to follow, no matter what challenges they face on the bottom line. Start from today to implement the above steps to make your vision come true, and remember that unless you know what your vision is and how you will pursue it, you will never achieve truly lasting success, and when you combine your personal vision with When the visions are combined, you will not stop having healthy vision. Dose of motivation.
I Hope You Enjoy our best collection of Your Personal Motivation And Vision Unmatched Power… Useful, don’t be stupid to share collections with your friends. Daily Motivation | https://medium.com/@viral11392/your-personal-motivation-and-vision-unmatched-power-fb7d15a70f54 | ['Viral Patel'] | 2021-06-08 09:34:04.212000+00:00 | ['Notebook', 'Pensamento', 'Power', 'Motivation', 'Vision'] |
Think Again | What is the path to God?
We often try to approach God by transforming ourselves.
By doing good.
By being good.
By getting a bit better each day.
But, ironically, the path that ends up at God,
ㅤthe path traveled with God,
ㅤwith God as Father,
Mostly involves getting it wrong.
We are like the child of a prodigal father.
A father who shares his fortune with us.
We may respond dutifully…
A dependable son who does everything right,
ㅤbut never really opens up.
Never vulnerably experiences life with the father
Or we may be self-focused…
Demanding our father’s fortune,
ㅤbut attempting to enjoy that fortune apart from the father.
Eventually finding ourselves broke and broken.
This condition of poverty,
ㅤthis brokenness,
ㅤfinally frees to us approach the father vulnerably.
And in this we discover,
ㅤwe experience,
ㅤHis extravagance,
As he celebrates us as his beloved son.
For we are dearly loved children.
This is the point of origination of our path to him.
With him.
The indispensable,
ㅤnon-negotiable,
ㅤpoint of origination.
We must begin from,
ㅤin,
ㅤthat love.
Any other starting point is a lie.
A deceptive and inauthentic beginning that points to us instead of him.
This gospel logic of God’s love leads to…
ㅤtrust in God.
ㅤrest in God.
And ultimately, a desire for…
ㅤobedience to God.
This transformation based on God’s love,
ㅤbeginning from acknowledging,
ㅤbelieving in,
ㅤour identity as God’s child,
Becomes visible in us.
In our actions.
For our belief orients our life,
ㅤgives direction to our will.
Ultimately our belief influences,
ㅤand is reflected by,
ㅤour behavior.
The closer our belief is to truth,
ㅤto reality,
The more we find ourselves able to live well.
To have the fullest experience of life.
To avoid the deception of self
ㅤand the consequences thereof.
For on our own, we are prone to look at truth and ignore it.
We choose self over truth,
ㅤa life lived in deception.
Or we see truth and simply fail to respond.
Eventually, we become unable to see,
ㅤto discern,
Truth.
Imagine the pain,
ㅤthe ultimate horror,
ㅤof being numb to truth,
And worse, the regret,
ㅤof making the choices that lead to that disconnect from reality.
Living with that disconnect produces self-indulgent,
ㅤself-destructive, behavior.
A life lived according to a faulty story-line.
A faulty narrative revealed by,
ㅤconcealed in,
Our private moments…
The public life of success,
ㅤbehind which self-medication lives.
The glamourous fashions of the day,
ㅤcovering the self-inflicted wounds of the night.
Escaping this dichotomy requires conceding the truth.
Confessing our brokenness.
And transformation begins…
As God turns our love around.
Redirects our hearts,
ㅤour affections,
Enabling us to pursue the right things.
To unlearn life according to me.
Allowing me,
ㅤleading me,
To consider a greater truth.
The progression…
Accepting the possibility of this truth.
Believing this truth.
Confessing this truth.
Leads to…
Knowing this truth.
His Truth.
And being transformed.
We are invited to,
ㅤand we must,
Participate in the transformation.
Commit ourselves to new practices.
Practices aligned with the new heart,
ㅤthe new life,
ㅤwithin us.
Lord, today I step out of my old-life tendencies,
ㅤand I put on my new identity in you…
Your child, in whom you find delight.
Today I will be loved…
ㅤinto a new way of thinking.
ㅤinto a new way of believing.
ㅤinto a new way of living.
Today I intentionally step into life with a prodigal Father,
ㅤwho is waiting to lavish extravagant gifts on me. | https://medium.com/psalming-sermons/think-again-3ea0438a7617 | ['Steve Frank'] | 2017-11-22 15:48:51.664000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Bible', 'Christianity', 'Life', 'Transformation'] |
Des lézards et des serpents en hibernation interrompent la construction de la “gigafactory” de Tesla à Berlin | 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/opresse/des-l%C3%A9zards-et-des-serpents-en-hibernation-interrompent-la-construction-de-la-gigafactory-de-f472866ea836 | [] | 2020-12-10 16:05:39.899000+00:00 | ['Opresse', 'Tesla', 'Biodiversité', 'Animaux', 'Protection Animale'] |
DraftKings Week 15 High Stakes Ownership Report | Looking at the sharpest plays to learn from week 15
In daily fantasy sports, ownership is a key consideration in tournament lineup building. Reviewing lineup construction and player ownership at the highest stakes reveals valuable information regarding trends that we can take advantage of in the future.
Typically, high stakes players focus on the optimal lineup, or, simply put, the team they believe projects for the most points. With this in mind, we can infer that the popular players in high-stakes contests likely had the strongest overall value when measuring cost against projected fantasy points.
This article series will analyze ownership numbers from a low stakes, large field DFS contest (the $10 Fantasy Football Millionaire) and compare them to the ownership in a high stakes contest (the $62,500 Fantasy Football World Championship). As many would expect, the Fantasy Football World Championship will have significantly sharper players than a $10 contest, making both the individual lineups and overall contest ownership quite valuable to study.
$62,500 Fantasy Football World Championship Leverage Leaders
With Drew Brees back, Alvin Kamara’s $7400 salary presented one of the top values on the slate, given the 26% target share Kamara saw with Brees under center in weeks 1–10. In what was a surprisingly low-scoring game, Kamara largely failed to generate many big plays and backup RB Latavius Murray scored on a 24-yard TD catch, making Kamara one of the more unlucky DFS plays in Week 15. If Brees continues to start, this season has shown us that Kamara is a solid value at any price point under $8000.
Sunday morning’s injury news contained a few surprises, namely the entire Dolphins receiving core being ruled out and Cowboys RB Ezekial Elliott also being declared inactive. Lynn Bowden had already been seeing his playing time increase over the last few weeks, and with no Devante Parker, Jakeem Grant, or Mike Gesicki, Bowden played 90% of the Dolphins snaps and added 8 targets and a carry. His final DraftKings score left a lot to be desired, but Bowden saw the playing time and the volume that many assumed he would given the inactives.
The Cowboys RB news opened up what can only be called the biggest leverage opportunity of the season for DFS players at all stakes. Since the vast majority of DFS players spend their Friday and Saturday evenings researching and making lineups, a consistent trend is that many players (especially at low stakes) are hesitant to adjust their teams based on late-breaking news. The Ezekial Elliott news proved this to be true, as Pollard went from completely unplayable to the best value on the slate, but was only 12% owned in the $10 millionaire. Pollard offered a 15-touch floor, has proven over the last two seasons he’s more efficient than Zeke, and had nobody else on the team in contention for RB work on Sunday. This was a layup, but the vast majority of DFS players completely missed it.
Similar to Alvin Kamara, both Tre’Quan Smith and Emmanuel Sanders offered great value with Drew Brees returning and star WR Michael Thomas inactive. Neither Tre’Quan nor Sanders came close to posting respectable scores, largely due to Brees’ abysmal passing performance, logging an 84.7 passer rating and a truly awful 46.0 PFF passing grade. Brees admitted postgame that he was playing hurt, and it certainly seems possible he could be rested these last two weeks to get healthy for the playoffs. Something for fantasy players to monitor these final couple of weeks.
Kyler Murray+DeAndre Hopkins both proved to be very popular in the Fantasy Football World Championship, and the sharps proved to be right in this case as the pair combined for 72.1 DraftKings points. With Murray running the ball 8–12 times per game and Hopkins seeing 25%+ of the Cardinals’ targets, this duo competes with Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams for the largest amount of offensive production we can get from a QB/WR combo.
$10 Fantasy Football Millionaire Ownership Leverage Leaders
Low stakes players drifted towards Derrick Henry more than their high stakes counterparts, and Henry posted a solid 28.2 DK points at a slate-high $9500 salary. At that score and price tag, you didn’t need Henry to win, but it certainly helped. Henry also massively exceeded his rushing expectation, scoring 11.8 more DraftKings points than his usage indicated he should have. Teams obviously don’t want to tackle Henry late in the season, but fantasy players can’t count on the big guy continuing to run this good, especially as one of the most expensive RBs on a week-to-week basis.
Cam Akers posted a depressing 7.2-points in the Rams stunning loss to the New York Jets. Underperforming like this in your team’s worst game of the season shouldn't cause too much concern going forward, as Akers still largely dominated the backfield touches and snaps. Coming off such a bad game, their could be a pretty solid edge in rostering Akers at low ownership in Week 16.
Russell Gage was a solid value without Julio Jones in the Falcons lineup, and he capitalized on the extra work, posting a 91% snap share, 10 targets, and 1 TD. Week 15 led to virtually the entire Falcons offense being underutilized by DFS players, and Gage was no exception. Even offenses that have struggled for a month straight can still pull it together and win us a GPP, and that’s something we all need to keep in mind when we submit our final lineups on Sunday.
TY Hilton and Jonathan Taylor were both popular options from the Colts, as both players were coming off recent great performances and facing a relatively soft HOU defense. Taylor posted a solid score, playing 70% of the snaps and seeing 16 carries, largely leading the backfield throughout the game. Hilton, on the other hand, fell victim to Phillip Rivers spreading the ball out. Rivers’ targetted 8 different Colts’ pass catchers, and Hilton saw just 6 targets, which tied with Zach Pascal for the team lead. Taylor could certainly consistently get 20+ touches if he can securely take over the IND backfield, Hilton’s touches will, unfortunately, be much more sporadic with Rivers under center.
Last but certainly not least, we once again see the week’s most expensive defense (Los Angelos Rams) as the most popular D/ST play among low stakes players. If there is one thing high stakes pros have shown us this season, it’s that it’s almost always a mistake paying up for defense. A D/ST like the Rams, against an offense like the Jets, may seem like a sure thing, but defensive scoring is so volatile that it’s almost always best to roll the dice with a cheaper D/ST. In Week 15, the Cowboys D/ST was nearly $2000 cheaper than the Rams and outscored them by 11-points. Don’t pay up for defense. | https://medium.com/the-intelligent-sports-wagerer/draftkings-week-15-high-stakes-ownership-report-bce46a2d2ae6 | [] | 2020-12-21 20:34:23.023000+00:00 | ['Fantasy Football', 'NFL', 'Sports Analytics', 'Sports Betting', 'Fantasy Sports'] |
Friday the 13th wear a mask… | There’s more to laugh at here: AndyAndersonCartoons.com
If this cartoon made you laugh, share the laughter with a friend, and follow AndyAndersonCartoons publication for new cartoons each week. | https://medium.com/andy-anderson-cartoons/friday-the-13th-wear-a-mask-cartoon-8ce5262b2721 | ['Andy Anderson'] | 2020-11-13 13:37:11.532000+00:00 | ['Humor', 'Face Mask', 'Comics', 'Friday The 13th', 'Funny'] |
Review: Game of Thrones — “The Iron Throne” | I’ll try not to get too deep at the beginning here, but I can’t help myself. It’s over. Game of Thrones is over. I don’t know how to feel. I’ve had no sleep and this review will arrive in your hot hands kinda late, but I just need to let the idea that it’s over sit with me. I need to breathe.
Am I getting too deep? Perhaps. But I’d ask you to think of what you were part of. A cultural phenomenon that conjured so much between us from theories, to reviews, to intense discussions, crying, fighting and watch parties. I’ve spoken to people I’ve not spoken to in years who come out of the woodwork to discuss the show. We’ve formed such small, personal communities. We were part of something incredibly special.
But that’s not why you’re here! You’re here to read about and discuss the final episode of Game of Thrones. So let’s run it back.
“The Iron Throne” is truly the byproduct of a rushed, rushed final season. It’s an episode that has the potential to be truly exceptional and emotionally charged but a few of its emotional beats deserved to be explored further in, you know, more seasons.
I think that’s a sentiment shared by a lot of people; Game of Thrones probably shouldn’t have ended here. Season’s 7 and 8 should have been 10 episodes a piece that way the show is given enough breathing room to really pay off its new and old relationships. Instead, we get a rushed (x3) final season that had some truly shining moments, but left me relatively unmoved once it came to a close.
The episode opens on the result of Dany’s handy work to King’s Landing. Tyrion steps through the carnage, the quiet and the ash. Davos and Jon trail behind him and offer the assistance of some men to follow him to confront her. The quiet in all this is eerie and rather effective at conveying the sheer destruction she has caused.
Meanwhile, Dany gets her moment atop the stairs to the Red Keep. She’s conquered the Seven Kingdoms. Her journey truly is complete. Emilia Clarke’s performance throughout this was absolutely stunning, but this particular speech to the Unsullied and the Dothraki had me glued to the TV. Dany OWNS that fucking screen and that moment and it’s emphasised by a (on the nose, I’ll admit) fucking sweet shot of Drogon’s wings behind her.
And yet there was something missing here. This whole sequence in King’s Landing was felt mostly devoid of a proper tension. Dany’s threat to conquer the entire world gave us a moment where, perhaps, Tyrion or Jon would do something drastic, but the episode never really pushed us that way. However, we all knew she wasn’t going to make it far beyond that promise to her army.
This leads me to a scene that is a shining example of the rush job of the last two seasons: Jon Snow’s assassination of Daenerys Targaryen. This is a moment that could have hit perfectly, but our connection to Dany and Jon’s relationship is non-existent and artificially inflated because the show wanted to wrap things up quickly. Dany’s death didn’t feel big or at all emotionally charged, and I just cannot buy into Jon’s complete and total love for her being the motivating factor in driving the emotion of that betrayal.
Again, that’s not to say all deaths must be big and significant, but this is pretty much the ONLY moment we get where someone betrays another here. It’s the final knife for the show. It’s also Daenerys Motherfucking Targaryen. Yes, her arc is complete. She got what she wanted. But, man, what a flop of a moment between those two.
Two good things this scene has: (1) Emilia Clarke, who turns it the fuck on here, her eyes wide as she slowly approaches the Iron Throne. The look of accomplishment she shares with herself was really satisfying to see and; (2) Drogon melting the Iron Throne, but I’m only saying it’s good because it looked terrific and Drogon is just fucking sweet.
Let’s stay in King’s Landing, because the fallout to Dany’s death is quite significant. Why? C’mon, you fucking know. It’s because Bran is now the King of the Six Kingdoms. Elected by committee, Bran sits there like the useless sack of shit he has been for the last few seasons and says, “Yes, it’s why I’m here.” Yeah, okay, big guy.
My initial reaction to Tyrion’s suggestion of Bran becoming king was one that just said, “Wat?” But I sat there for a time and continued to look at the candidates for the throne and I got nothing. Edmure Tully stands up in an attempt to give a rousing speech but is promptly shot down by everyone because where the fuck has he been (captured and forgotten about) and he’s also a terrible shot.
I was a tad confused with Yara’s total 180 after shouting at everyone that Jon should be punished for his crimes. Yara being upset here feels justified, but once Tyrion talks about Bran and his journey she’s more than happy to say “AYE” and have Bran assume the mantle of king. I mean, fuck it, why not. If she says no then we need to work out how to keep the scene going, but at this stage the Greyjoys are nothing so whatever.
I literally have nothing for this decision. I guess it makes sense given the candidates were mostly trash, but this, again, presents another moment where I could have been moved and wasn’t. Bran’s arc over the course of the series was so interesting, especially his travels with Hodor and Meera to discover himself, but he’s not given us much since finally assuming the role of Three-Eyed Raven.
I had a discussion late last night with my friend, Dan, who didn’t understand why people hated Bran and I think the key point to people’s hate is that Bran hasn’t been given much to do ever since assuming the role of white-eyed useless sack of shit. He’s not offered much to me, personally, and I truly can’t see what he offers the Six Kingdoms which I think is a result of the show not being totally sure of what Bran is and what they want him to become.
I would absolutely be happy to hear anyone’s suggestions when it comes to who should rule, because I want you to look at the council in that Dragon Pit and tell me there’s someone better to take the lead. I just can’t see it, as much as I think Bran becoming king is fucking hilarious and kind of a joke.
The episode ends with a montage of sorts, following those that survived the battles prior. Brienne adds to Jaime’s history in the book of knights; reminding us of her relationship with him, but also reminding us of what the show did to his arc at the last minute — I actually really loved this moment from Gwendoline Christie who sold her respect and love so well while writing Jaime’s history down. Holy hell, I’m glad she survived. We get to see Pod as a knight! Tyrion forms his own small council as he’s selected as Hand of the King. The council that’s formed consists of Samwell Tarly, Davos Seaworth, Brienne of Tarth and Bronn of the Blackwater.
I’ll admit it’s very sweet seeing Sam become a full maester, but really not cool dumping a big book that says, “A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE :)” on the table. I felt that was a bit tooooo meta… especially for a show that doesn’t do meta. Yet, the Small Council scene was rather sweet because we’ve been entrenched in their histories compared to those before them. I’ll miss them terribly.
And after all that, we end the episode with the closure of the Stark children. Arya heading west, Sansa becoming Queen of the North, Jon heading out with the Wildlings after being served with a pointless life sentence to the Night’s Watch.
Arya heading west to explore and discover what’s not mapped feels like a solid end for her. She’s a character that has gone from girl-in-training to an unstoppable and almost unflappable force of nature, and her ties to the land of Westeros feel appropriately undone by her travels around the world over the course of the series. I’m truly, truly going to miss her.
I’m also fine with Sansa claiming independence for the North. Sansa’s not been given much to do over the the season and after Littlefinger’s death, so her purpose, really, was to unite the north and fight for its independence. This might have been something that I cared for on a deeper level if I was given more glimpses into her struggle to gain that right for her people, but we’re robbed of that because the show cheated its way to the end. I’ll miss her (I think John might be mad that I said that.)
Jon’s life sentence to the Wall has little weight, because the Night’s Watch doesn’t exist, but also why doesn’t he just wait until Greyworm and Co. took off to sea? I mean, it takes all of, what, 15 minutes for ships to sail far enough away for it to not matter. But I guess Jon is true to his word and loyalty and honour, so he might as well continue that line into the sunset. Plus! He gets to see Ghost and Tormund again, so that was really nice!
Although, am I missing something here? Jon’s bloodline has been such an important through-line for the show for so long only for it to be kinda glossed over as the episode came to a close. If the show is going to place so much weight in that particular piece of information then I’d probably recommend that it’s covered in those final moments.
I guess it’s undone by the fact that the monarch is selected by committee and not by lineage, and we all knew that Jon was just going to say, “No lmao,” anyway. It’s just… the show doesn’t do a very good job of selling the “dawn of a new era” with no reliance on bloodline; it just abandons it so all that work and build up and reveal over the last two seasons has mostly resulted in fucking zip. Still, despite how much of a dumbass that dude is, I’ll miss Jon terribly.
I don’t want these reviews to end. I really don’t want to press the “Publish” button. I truly don’t. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of Game of Thrones moving forward (until the prequel series’) so the reviews are now done. This has been such a superb personal experience watching and reviewing the show from day one, talking to my roommates about it, meeting everyone at netball and telling them to “SHHHH” because I haven’t seen it, going dark on Facebook and Instagram and having people message me about the episode anyway.
Game of Thrones is finished and it may not have gone out as superbly as I’d hoped, but I’m so truly glad that I had 8 years to share something with people around me and around the world. The Rains of Castamere, The Battle for Winterfell, Hardhome, the Bombing of the Sept of Baelor, The Viper fighting for Tyrion’s life, Tywin and Arya’s moments together in Harrenhal; all of these moments and more are part of a truly large and (mostly) wonderful story.
I can’t thank everyone enough for their support and continued reading over the last 8 years. I want to thank John, Emma, Sampson, Hugh, Tom, Sarah, Liz, Dan, Jess, Jazz, the Taviani family & the Collins’ family for their continued scheduling their time around the podcasts and also feeding me and paying for my Ubers to their places at 10pm at night. It meant the world.
There won’t be a show like this again. So I ask you cherish and remember the best moments of this show, remember the bad, remember your reactions, share the stories and theories you have moving forward and looking back. As Tyrion said here, stories unite people and nothing beats a good story. Sure, this particular story lost its wheels before the finish line, but the journey there has been one that united all of us for 8 years.
It’s been a journey I won’t ever forget. | https://medium.com/the-after-thought/review-game-of-thrones-the-iron-throne-e2c43b6b0bb8 | ['Nick John Bleeker'] | 2019-05-21 03:28:45.940000+00:00 | ['TV', 'Game of Thrones', 'Review'] |
Reset MySQL Root Password on MAC | MySQL verison: 8.0.22
Step1. Stop MySQL Server
Make sure the status of MySQL Server located in macOS System Preferences Panel is in red(means stopped). If it is in green(means running)，you must top it by clicking the ‘Stop MySQL Server’ button.
Green means the MySQL Server is running
*If Stop MySQL Server has no response, try:
/usr/local/mysql/support-files/mysql.server stop
Now, the MySQL Server has stopped
Step2. Skip grant tables in Terminal
cd /usr/local/mysql/bin sudo ./mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables
Input system password, not MySQL’s.
Step3. Alter root password in Terminal
Open another terminal window,
cd /usr/local/mysql/bin ./mysql -u root mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES; mysql> ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED by 'new_password';
If it occurs errors like :
ERROR 1819 (HY000): Your password does not satisfy the current policy requirements
We need to adjust the values of the password policy and length.
The new version MySQL doesn’t support the password function anymore. Instead of using ‘validate_password_policy’, you should imply ‘validate_password.policy’.
“The validate_password.policy value can be specified using numeric values 0, 1, 2, or the corresponding symbolic values LOW , MEDIUM , STRONG . The following table describes the tests performed for each policy. For the length test, the required length is the value of the validate_password.length system variable. Similarly, the required values for the other tests are given by other validate_password.xxx variables.”
For example,
#set password level
mysql> set global validate_password.policy=0; #set password length
mysql> set global validate_password.length=1;
Then, you can set the new password.
Other, ways to start, stop, and restart MySQL database server via the command line: | https://medium.com/@jennyttt/reset-mysql-root-password-on-mac-d767d0cc6e29 | [] | 2020-12-22 22:45:43.310000+00:00 | ['MySQL', 'Passwords'] |
How To Manifest Money Effortlessly Using The Law Of Attraction. | Manifesting Money March 30 Day Challenge Part 11.
Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash
Welcome to Manifest Money in March 30 Day Challenge. I am creating this challenge for the sole purpose of helping you and myself to manifest whatever amount of money we want this month. Of course you can carry on this challenge for the rest of the year as well.
Step 11.
11. Donate some money today.
This is actually a practice you should keep up whenever you get new money. Always donate a portion of it.
Some people insist that is must be 10%. However donate the amount that you are most comfortable with. If it is 5%, go with that. If it is 1%, then donate that amount. No one has the right to tell you how much money you can give away as a donation.
To make sure that you don’t forget to do this, as soon as you get new money, set aside the money you are going to donate. You can make your donations online these days. So jump on the task right away.
Come back tomorrow for part 12 of this manifesting money challenge. Remember we are both in this together.
________________________________________
Right now my books are on a $0.99cents March Madness sale.
1. How To Attract Your Sweetheart In Time For The Holidays? How You Can Use The Law Of Attraction To Manifest A Special, Specific Person; Manifesting Romantic Love (Dating And Relationship Advice For Women Only) — https://amzn.to/38gIyyO | https://medium.com/manifesting-desires/how-to-manifest-money-effortlessly-using-the-law-of-attraction-85997d74a0ce | ['Shana Jahsinta Walters'] | 2020-03-11 06:01:01.128000+00:00 | ['Law Of Attraction', 'Finance', 'Manifestation', 'Money', 'Debt'] |
🤑 #DeFi Vault Airdrop — Earn 5 VAULT token $ 52.50 and 0.4 VAULT $ 4.2 per invite 🤑 | 🤑 #DeFi Vault Airdrop — Earn 5 VAULT token $ 52.50 and 0.4 VAULT $ 4.2 per invite 🤑 Renny Rodriguez ·Dec 18, 2020
🤑 #DeFi Vault Airdrop — Earn 5 VAULT token $ 52.50 and 0.4 VAULT $ 4.2 per invite 🤑
Very simple tasks, Telegram and Twitter, your email and your ETH wallet from TrustWallet.
Join here:
Don’t have #TrustWallet Ethereum Wallet for Airdrops yet?
Create it here: | https://medium.com/@rennyrodriguezgil/defi-vault-airdrop-earn-5-vault-token-52-50-and-0-4-vault-4-2-per-invite-9129eb07d1ad | ['Renny Rodriguez'] | 2020-12-18 02:30:58.420000+00:00 | ['Vault', 'Freee Token', 'Airdrop', 'Defi', 'Defi Vault'] |
September 11… It’s 20 years today. | Today marks 20 years of that event that changed the course of history.
Do you remember where you were on that day?
I remember I had finished teaching a class at the University of Lagos and went to the HOD's office to rest when I saw on television the bombings. I was initially confused about what was happening. Then I became shocked and sad. It was later I learnt the attacks has been to the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Northern Virginia, and the fatal crash in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, of an aeroplane en route to an unknown target in Washington, DC.
Source: Statista
September 11, 2001, is a reminder of the capacity of evil men. It should be one of the days described as Ọjọ́ burúkú èṣù gbomi mu. A total of 2,996 people from 78 countries were killed in the 9/11 attacks.
The day is also a celebration of the selflessness and bravery of the people who risked their lives to help others during the attacks. Humanity was on display and showed that we are better than our evil nature.
The Employee Angle
When hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the North and South Towers at the World Trade Center (WTC) many people got killed. A number of them were employees. There were:
343 New York City firefighters
23 New York City police officers
37 officers at the Port Authority.
These are employees who left their families to resume work that day. They met their untimely death while during their jobs.
The wickedness of men killed these hardworking and dutiful men and women who tried to save lives after the crash.
Workplaces are not supposed to become centres of death. But wicked people killed these professionals while at work. May we not suffer injury, harm or death at work or anywhere
Not again
On this 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, I pray for global peace; I pray that the wicked will change their ways; I pray for strength and help for the surviving family members of those that died in the incidences.
These attacks were driven by hate, revenge, wickedness and a lack of respect for humanity. We should all live by the love code and remember to remain our brother's keeper.
Never again will we see such cruel and senseless wickedness in our world | https://medium.com/@afawehinmi2/september-11-its-20-years-today-9ecd0f2db858 | ['Abayomi Fawehinmi'] | 2021-09-11 14:34:06.834000+00:00 | ['Employees', 'Workplace', 'Heroes', 'September 11', 'Hazard'] |
The misbuttoned shirt… what can you learn from it? | Your life is like a misbuttoned shirt
Emotional intelligence, emotional maturity… the end of suffering, the end of life in hell is all a result of the misbuttoned shirt life
Fiction, good fiction, allows you to have intimacy with people you never knew. And what we miss most in life is intimacy. Knowing the other, being known and accepted.
It’s hard to be intimate in real life, it takes two people, two people who were hurt, maybe abused as children, so it is nearly impossible.
I listen to the partner call (from the Playground) and wish they read fiction. Reading fiction, especially children’s books, is very healing.
At least for myself.
You cry, and you don’t even know why, but you are healing.
I have watched the movie: Saving Mr. Banks… and sobbed through… some movies are also good for healing. Then I bought Mary Poppins, the book. Then I watched the movie with the famous Olsen twins It Takes Two (1995).
I loved it… Then I watched the 101 Dalmatians, then I got all the books, including the original by Erich Kästner and Mark Twain… because when I do something I drink deeply from the cup… not just a sip here and there.
“A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again.” ~ Alexander Pope
If you are someone with troubled childhood, do yourself a favor and start reading, maybe even binge on children’s books that will talk about feelings that you haven’t felt, have no words for or have been afraid to access, express, remember… because they are too confusing and too painful.
Why is it important that in some form you revisit your incidents that have more to do with who you have become than your genes?
Puzzling question, isn’t it?
For me it took, essentially, two sessions, two healing sessions.
The incidents, interestingly two incidents feeling like one: First I was raped by a drunk stranger and left to die at age three and a half. And then, not much later, my father made me perform oral sex.
I have shared before, but I think it will teach you something if I repeat how I healed, one session after the other, even though, even though, in reality, about 15 years passed between the three healing sessions.
First: in 1987, I managed to look at the “oral” incident from the outside, and noted that “horrible” was just one possible vantage points… it looked different from the sideways view.
Second: in 1996, I was asked, by a healer, to recount the incident, backwards and forwards, many times, each time adding more details, colors, smells, sounds, touch perceptions, backwards and forwards.
Third: in 2008, I was asked, by a BEST chiropractor, if I knew anyone of the same age as I was then? I did. My oldest grandniece was about that age. Then the chiropractor asked to get present to my grandniece and look what I would say to my niece if she were in that same or similar incident.
I could feel her smooth skin, her soft body, even though I’ve never met her. But I knew she was innocent. And I felt deep love and compassion for her.
And… and then I turned that towards myself. I wept, but this time with love.
When who you are, for yourself, was defined from only one vantage point, others, you are condemned to not be able to love yourself.
When through the work of the Playground you can change your vantage point on command, at will, you can manage to see your innocence, and you can start loving yourself.
Being able to love yourself is what starts your path to human being. Nothing else you have ever done or can do before that.
But, as I just read in Rob Brezny’s weekly column,
“So much of what we learn about love is taught by people who never really loved us. So much of what we learn about love is taught by people who were too narcissistic or wounded to be able to love very well; and by people who didn’t have many listening skills and therefore didn’t know enough about us to love us for who we really are; and by people who love themselves poorly and so of course find it hard to love anyone else.
As long as you love yourself poorly, you cannot love anyone else.
You only experience love when it is YOU who loves, and when you love well.
Don’t expect to be loved. At the current evolutionary level humans are, they are unable to love, or love well.
But you can always love yourself… once you find the you who you can love.
I now can love myself.
When you love, committing to something, and fulfilling on it becomes easy.
It becomes who you are.
It even becomes easy or easier to commit to integrity: being true to your Self.
I am, occasionally starting to hear that on the Playground partner calls. Occasionally.
It took me 15 years. It may take you a year, or more than a year, but if you do the Playground as the Playground needs to be done to be effective, then you’ll get there.
If you do the program as it needs to be done.
Step by step…
If you miss a step, especially if you miss the first step and try to do the higher steps, you will NEVER get to the stage where you can love.
Bummer, eh?
Everything in today’s world suggests, all the marketeers suggest that you can jump to a high level in anything… with what they are selling you.
Whether it is a spiritual or healing course, or about beauty (just put this cream on your face), or about health (just take this tablet, superfood, whatever), or abundance (let’s do away your negative beliefs)… they are all lying to you.
Unless you change your fundamentals to be aligned with self-love, unless they are aligned with growth, and then, when the foundation is done, build whatever you want on that foundation, you are going to be stuck in the unbridgeable gap of low living, high desires.
The desire trap. The misbuttoned shirt phenomena.
There is no desire trap for the person who can love themselves.
A person able to love themselves well will be able to see that life is a process of building up to big accomplishments, not a jump.
There is nothing as horrible as the desire trap. Or the resignation and regret when you don’t even have enough energy to desire. When you are a walking dead. Not dead yet but also not alive.
And you can be like that at ages 18, 24, 28…50–60–70, any age. I can see it on my students before and after they come alive.
It actually takes a lot of work, from them and from me.
No one teaches how to do it or how to teach it. Even though there is a science to it: just reverse what your parents, your teachers, your friends, your society packed on you.
What took 10–20–30–40–50–60 years to build, you cannot unbuild in a week… And even in a year, in the Playground, you can only unbuild it if you do it step by tedious step. In the partner calls.
Or if you get lucky, in an occasional one-on-one call with me.
I have never taken a course where most of the class was sent back to the beginners class. Instead, what teachers do, is let everyone pass, and then declare the course done, and successful.
B.S. This is one of the reasons courses have a success rate around 1%.
I promised one of my underachiever students that I was not going to leave her behind… The hardest promise I have ever made. Totally counter to my natural inclination. I used to be the Firing Queen after all… lol.
But my word is my word. And she isn’t doing well. She, and eight other students are back at the starting point. So they can attend to what they have forgotten to attend to… the first step.
Like they say in Hungary: if you mis-buttoned your vest, you need to start over again… or you’ll never succeed.
What is the first step, you ask?
It is the same as the first step I took back in 1987: seeing the incident from a sideways view. We call it the Martian’s view. If you don’t do that step, if you skip it with any incident, every story, everything you do afterwards won’t set you free.
Why? Because only the sideways view takes you to reality.
And only in reality you’ll see that there is never any drama, never any suffering, never anything wrong in reality.
There may be pain. There may be grieving. There may be beating. There may be being left on the street corner. There may be a busy mother, or an overpromising drunk father. But if you saw it in a movie, would you suffer? No. you wouldn’t.
Your incident was horrible only through your own eyes.
I knew I was out of the woods, when I could see the Holocaust, Hitler, Stalin, Donald Trump without feeling that OMG, it’s horrible. This is the result of a sideways view: taking yourself out of the picture… or better said: inside and outside of the picture… Bilocating, I call it.
It’s a skill, and it is difficult to learn.
I am not emotionless. I still grieve my niece’s passing a few years ago. I still grieve that my little brother doesn’t want to talk to me. I still grieve that some of my students are not doing the work.
It is happening, but it isn’t happening to me… I am happy much of the time able to experience fun, joy, aliveness most of the time.
And that is the most a human, or a human being can expect from life. Even though a lot of desires are unfulfilled, and will remain so.
The next Playground will start on Saturday, May 18. if you want to be in it, you can sign up, or request a brief call with me, where we can decide if it is the right thing for you.
Get into the Playground
Module 1 teaches the method of separating reality from unreality and makes you practice it. If you do it right, this is all you need to live in the light.
Related Posts:
Author: Sophie Benshitta Maven
True empath, award winning architect, magazine publisher, transformational and spiritual coach and teacher, self declared Avatar View all posts by Sophie Benshitta Maven | https://medium.com/@mavensophie/the-misbuttoned-shirt-what-can-you-learn-from-it-96257a014e09 | ['Sophie Benshitta Maven'] | 2019-05-09 15:10:49.540000+00:00 | ['Human Behavior', 'Emotions', 'Psychology', 'Emotional Intelligence', 'Self-awareness'] |
Roku Streambar review: A very good streamer inside a pretty good soundbar | The diminutive Roku Streambar is not one of the world’s great soundbars, but there’s plenty of value packed into its 2.4 x 14 x 4.2-inch enclosure (HxWxD) for the audience that Roku is targeting. The Roku Streambar not only sounds better than the speakers built into most TVs—including some of the higher-end models—it also features Roku’s 4K HDR streaming hardware and operating system.
Our cord-cutting expert, Jared Newman, just reviewed the new-for-2020 Roku Ultra for us, so I’ll focus primarily on the Streambar’s audio experience here.
If you’re of a mind to, you can expand the Streambar with Roku’s wireless subwoofer and surround channels—although doing so will take your initial $130 investment north of $500—at which point you’re probably not Roku’s target audience and should consider buying a higher-end speaker instead. But if you want to start small now and expand over time, the option is there. That can’t be said of most audio products in this price range.
This review is part of TechHive’s coverage of the best soundbars, where you’ll find reviews of competing products, plus a buyer’s guide to the features you should consider when shopping for this type of product. Michael Brown / IDG The Roku Streambar has two front-firing 1.9-inch drivers, and one at each end set at oblique angles to widen the speaker’s sound stage.
[ Further reading: The best soundbars ] Mentioned in this article Roku Ultra (2020) Read TechHive's reviewMSRP $99.99See it The Streambar’s cabinet is fabricated from a blend of neutral-sounding polycarbonate and ABS plastic and is wrapped in black fabric on the front and sides. Its top is covered with a rubbery soft-touch surface without any buttons. The Roku logo on the front of the speaker is considerately painted black and doesn’t draw much attention to itself.
Two of the Streambar’s four full-range drivers are mounted in the face of the enclosure, and the other two are mounted at oblique angles in the left and right end caps, an arrangement that endows this soundbar with a wide soundstage that belies its size. The 1.9-inch (48mm) paper cone drivers feature neodymium magnets, and each one is powered by a discrete Class D amplifier producing 8 watts RMS each (total output of 32 watts RMS or 64 watts peak power).
Around back you’ll find the typical inputs and outputs, leading with HDMI 2.0 with support for ARC (audio return channel), HDR10, and HGL high dynamic range information pass-through (but not Dolby Vision); an optical digital audio (Toslink) input; and a USB 2.0 port that can be used to access music and video files stored on a USB drive (more on that later). Another use for the USB port is to plug in an optional ethernet adapter if you have weak Wi-Fi, but are blessed with ethernet cable in your walls. (Speaking of Wi-Fi, the Streambar has a relatively quick 802.11ac adapter onboard.)
[ Further reading: TechHive’s top picks in smart TVs ]Finally, there’s a barrel-type power connection. Roku uses an inline power brick—death to wall warts!—and provides enough electrical cable to reach a two-prong outlet up to 7 feet away. Most people will set the Streambar in front of their TV, but the cabinet is outfitted with a pair of M6 x 8mm threaded mounts if you choose to hang the 2.4-pound speaker on the wall beneath your TV. Roku doesn’t sell a mount of its own, but you’ll have no problem finding compatible third-party options.
Michael Brown / IDG The Roku Streambar provides (left to right) Toslink optical digital input, HDMI with ARC, and a USB port for streaming from local storage.
The Streambar has no analog audio inputs or outputs, which leaves Roku’s wireless sub as your only choice if you want bass reinforcement. There’s a Bluetooth 5.0 radio onboard, so you can stream music from your smartphone or tablet, but Roku has apps for all the most popular music-streaming services—including Spotify, Tidal, Pandora, and Amazon Music—so I think most people will stream music over Wi-Fi. But if you have a favorite service for which there is no app—Qobuz, for instance—Bluetooth provides the means.
The speaker comes with Roku’s voice remote, so you can use voice commands to search for content to watch, music to listen to, and to control the speaker in general. Ask for a specific song or artist, though, and Roku defaults to streaming from Pandora. When I spoke to the remote and said “Play ‘Dire Straits’ on Spotify,” this message appeared onscreen: “Sorry, music requests are not yet available on Spotify.” I got the same response when I asked to play music on Tidal. The remote can also turn your TV on and off and control its volume (including mute). It doesn’t have a headphone jack for private listening, like Roku’s top-of-the-line remote does, but you can stream audio from the speaker to the Roku app on your smartphone and listen with wireless headphones.
The remote is just the right size for the average-sized hand, and it puts the most commonly used navigation and transport buttons within thumb’s reach. My review unit had four buttons dedicated to Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, and Sling respectively. In my house, only that last button is wasted (because they can’t be remapped in software). The buttons for volume up, down, and mute are also each to reach, although they are on the right-hand edge of the remote versus its face. Again, you can read Jared’s review of the Roku Ultra for a deeper dive into the Roku remote.
Michael Brown / IDG Roku’s remote can also control your TV’s volume and power, but those advertising buttons will be useless if you don’t subscribe to those services—they can’t be reprogrammed.
Playing local media filesGiven the seemingly infinite universe of entertainment available for streaming, playing content from local or network storage just doesn’t have the appeal that it once did. But I’m glad Roku continues to provide the option, even if it doesn’t excel at it. The Streambar can act as a UPnP client and it supports all the mainstream container and file types you could want, including ALAC, FLAC, MKV, MP3, MP4, PCM, and WAV. It is limited, however, to a maximum of 24-bit audio at a 48kHz sampling rate (it has enough onboard processing power to downconvert as necessary).
Mentioned in this article Roku TV Wireless Speakers Read TechHive's review$199.99MSRP $199.99See iton Roku Using the Roku Media Player app, I had no problem playing 16-bit, 44kHz FLAC audio files from a USB hard drive, and I was able to use the same app to stream similar files over my Wi-Fi connection while connected to a TwonkyMedia server on a WD MyCloud Mirror NAS box. I didn’t have the same luck when the speaker connected to a Plex media server on the same box. The same files I used with TwonkyMedia appeared in the Roku Media Player as MP3s, and I experienced audible dropouts every two seconds. I’m not sure if the server or the client app was trying to do the real-time transcoding, but it was failing.
Michael Brown / IDG A FLAC file streaming over Wi-Fi via TwonkyMedia server.
Movie soundtracks on the Roku StreambarI connected the Roku Streambar to the ARC input on a Samsung One Connect breakout box that was connected in turn to 55-inch Samsung Q7F QLED TV. In addition to streaming content from various services, including Netflix and Amazon, I also played the 4K UHD Blu-ray disc of Mad Max: Fury Road on a Cambridge Audio CXUHD Blu-ray player. I’m more accustomed to listening to a full 5.1-channel surround system with an Onkyo A/V receiver, Klipsch reference-series towers and satellites, and a vintage Boston Acoustics subwoofer, so I didn’t have the highest expectations for this tiny soundbar.
To set a more reasonable bar, I cleansed my sonic palette, so to speak, by first watching about half the movie using just the speakers built into the TV. Samsung does a great good job with TV audio, given the thin chassis its engineers must deal with; in fact, I’ve found the audio on this TV superior to several low-priced soundbars. That wasn’t the case here. Although the Streambar is outfitted with just four full-range drivers, it is capable of decoding Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks and doing meaningfully things with it. You’ll never mistake this speaker’s impressively wide soundstage for true surround sound, but it did a good job filling my 13 x 19 x 9-foot (WxLxH) home theater with the movie’s music and sound effects.
What I found lacking, no surprise, was bass response. The scenes in which Immortan Joe’s War Boys pound the massive truck-mounted kettle drums while in pursuit of Furiosa just didn’t have the same impact, for lack of a better term. Enabling “bass boost” in the Streambar’s sound mode setting helped (your other choices are “normal,” “reduce bass,” and “bass off”), but there’s only so much a 1.9-inch driver can do.
Michael Brown / IDG The Roku Streambar provides several options for processing soundtracks, including two that enhance voices.
If you watch TV or listen to music late at night and don’t want to disturb other people in the house, there’s a “night” mode that suppresses the higher frequencies that travel longer distances. A “leveling” feature, meanwhile, can be turned on to clamp down on sudden increases in volume, such as often happens with commercial breaks. Those features are effective in their missions, but I left them turned off during my review.
As is increasingly popular, Roku also offers settings designed to make dialog and other types of speech more intelligible. “Speech clarity” boosts the frequency ranges in which human voices reside by a little or a lot (the third setting is off). And if you’re watching streamed content, I can also recommend enabling the feature that displays closed captions whenever you rewind a scene (you can also enable closed captions full time, of course, but that’s much more intrusive).
Unfortunately, the user interface doesn’t allow you to make any of these changes while you’re listening to music. You must exit out of the app, navigate to settings, make your adjustments, and then navigate back to the app you were using—hoping that you’ll be able to remember what the speaker sounded like before you tweaked it.
Listening to music on the Roku StreambarThere’s some interesting audio processing going on under the Streambar’s hood. All four of its drivers and amplifiers are identical, but they don’t sound that way when you listen to them up close. Playing the track “Wildfire” from the Mandolin Orange album Blindfaller, the vocals and bass were routed in stereo to the front left and right drivers, but the higher-frequency sounds of the drummer’s cymbals and the signature mandolins emerged from the drivers mounted in the end caps, resulting in the same broad sound stage that I noticed with movie soundtracks.
But without the distraction of action on the screen, my ears paid much more attention to the Streambar’s audio shortcomings. Singer-songwriter Andrew Marlin’s vocals came across with just enough distortion as to be slightly grating on the ears. It’s not something you’d notice if you’re just playing the speaker for background music, but you’d grow fatigued after long sessions of critical listening.
Michael Brown / IDG Spotify’s user interface on the Roku Streambar.
Bottom lineIf you’re in the market for both a media streamer and a soundbar, but you’re working with a tight budget, the Roku Streambar is excellent on the first count and very good on the second. It’s not quite as good at streaming as the Roku Ultra (which supports Dolby Vision as well as Dolby Atmos, and it has an ethernet port, a remote finder, two programmable buttons and a headphone jack on its remote, and even headphones in the box).
On the audio front, there are better-sounding soundbars in this price range, but none that incorporate a full-fledged media streamer. It’s a great combination for your second and third TVs, a TV in a vacation house or an RV, or anywhere else you’ll willing to compromise just a bit on audio performance in the name of savings and convenience.
Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details. | https://medium.com/@Juice38126005/roku-streambar-review-a-very-good-streamer-inside-a-pretty-good-soundbar-be6e0f42bf23 | [] | 2020-10-17 09:12:59.115000+00:00 | ['Music', 'Connected Home', 'Cord', 'Home Tech'] |
ANU#62 — New Wallet Screen, Backup and Restore Options | Welcome to the AppCoins News Update, ‘ANU’ for short. This week, we bring you many new updates to the AppCoins Wallet, which are detailed in our latest release, and more!
Welcome to this week’s ANU, where we explain the major changes that are in the works. This includes an improved way to show AppCoins Wallet details, as well as some changes on how to ‘Backup’ and ‘Restore’ a wallet.
Upcoming release
This week’s update isn’t backed up with a release per se. However, our upcoming release is arriving soon and it’s packed with new updates!
Here are the upcoming changes we are testing and improving for the AppCoins Wallet:
Wallets Screen
We understand the importance of a wallet address, hence we thought it should be one of the first things users see when entering the wallet. For that reason, we are now removing the access to the wallet from ‘Settings’ and you can now find it in the ‘Balance’ view, which is accesible from the bottom navigation menu.
We still provide the balance details of the selected wallet, as well as the total amount of funds that the user has in the wallet.
Now, the wallet address will be shown right below the balance of your wallet, and it will have quick actions, such as copy/paste, available. In the bottom there is a quick overview of how many wallets the user has created and the total amount they contain.
When swiping up (where it says the number of wallets) users will be able to pull up their list of wallets. There they have a quick view of the balance of each one of their wallets, access to the ‘Restore’ option (previously known as ‘Import Wallet’), as well as the ‘Create New’ wallet option.
In this list of wallets, users can also access the details of each wallet by clicking on the wallet they want. Once users are in the wallet they want, they can see the backup option and remove options for all.
However, users, please note that the wallet you are checking is not the active one as we don’t allow the removal of the active wallet. Users can also click the button on the bottom — ‘Make This Wallet Active’ — to change the active wallet.
Backup Wallet
While making changes to the ‘Wallets’ screen, we decided to take one additional step and improve the backup process of a wallet. When presented with the new wallet ‘Backup’ screen, users will be able to see its balance so that they can make sure they are backing up the wallet they really want.
Users can then add a password to that backup and store it someplace safe. They will then be able to share it with the channel they prefer or save it in their phone, as of now the backup is stored as a file instead of text.
The main objective with this change is to turn the backup into an easy process and not expect users to have prior knowledge on how to backup their wallets.
Restore Wallet
Since we made changes to the ‘Backup’, it was only natural to make changes to the ‘Restore’ process too. Now users are able to use it the old way; by adding a keystore or private key or importing the backup file generated in the new backup process. We will only request a password when needed.
Other Improvements
Support notification
As you know, our support channel is very important to us. It not only provides essential feedback from our users, but also allows us to quickly reply to users that reach out for help.
We’ve put extra effort into making sure that when we answer on a support chat, the user receives a notification letting them know that their question has been answered.
Support channel in settings
Still on the support train, we’ve made another improvement by updating the access to the support channel in ‘Settings’. Many of our users tried to reach our support through our ‘Github Issues’ page, however, unfortunately Github does not have the same attention as our dedicated support channel.
So, from now on, the support channel will be available through ‘Settings’, where users should direct messages for a faster and more personalised response.
Onboarding landscape
Our journey through the landscape world continues; our focus lays on making a better user experience for the horizontal orientation. This time, we’ve added the changes we’ve shown you in the previous ANU. More features will be included soon!
Design Update
Landscape Top-Up
The improvements to the landscape orientation are something we have been focusing on to make sure that all our users have the best use of the AppCoins Wallet — regardless of the device they choose.
One of the screens that required such an update was the ‘Top-Up’ screen. This screen is often used by our users and, because of that, it should be easy to navigate and not require UI shortcuts to work properly in landscape mode.
Check our design suggestion for this update:
Access to Backup and Restore
Enhancing the user experience changes in the ‘Wallets’ screen, as well as in the ‘Backup’ and ‘Restore’ wallet features, can seem a bit disruptive. We don’t want to alarm our users when they can’t find the essential functionalities right away.
For that reason, we are working on providing two of the most common actions in a standard place, and as the main action. Lets us know what you think about the new location for the ‘Backup’ and ‘Restore’ actions, as well as the new flow:
As always, you’re invited to follow our work regarding all of the products we’re working on:
Published artifacts:
At the time of writing, the current market cap is close to $3,270M USD, with $1,786M USD in volume in the last 24 hours across these exchanges: Binance (95.60%), Huobi (4.30%) and HitBTC (0.01%).
Since the last ANU, APPC value has witnessed a high of $0.036 USD on May 19th, and a low of $0.028 USD on May 10th. You can see more info about APPC markets at Coinmarketcap.
Name: Duarte Botelho
Role: Python Backend Engineer
Bio: Duarte’s adventure at Aptoide started almost two years ago, when he was a part-timer finishing his Master’s degree.
He has worked in various Aptoide teams before landing his current position as Python Backend Engineer.
In his spare time, Duarte enjoys reading and playing online racing and FPS games!
Missed one of our previous publications? Not to worry. You can read them right here:
ANU#61 — Landscape Orientation and Layout Improvements
ANU#60 — New AppCoins Wallet Release and Pay As A Guest
ANU#59 — Local Payment Updates and User Incentive Bonus | https://medium.com/@appcoins/anu-62-new-wallet-screen-backup-and-restore-options-99033ab17b7 | ['Appcoins Official'] | 2020-06-01 14:22:57.752000+00:00 | ['Restore', 'Wallet', 'Appcoins', 'Release', 'Backup'] |
Heidi Yu, Chief Everything Officer | Heidi is the CEO & Founder of Boostinsider and BOOSTO, Serial entrepreneur. MBA graduate from Seattle University. After exiting e-commerce platform Pocomaru, she founded Boostinsider at the end of 2014, providing in-depth data analytics for 350,000 active social media influencers covering 2 Billion followers. In Oct 2017, Boostinsider launches SocialBook: the world’s most comprehensive influencer data analytics platform with AI technology. It allows brands and influencers to view the demographics and psychographics data of the audience of any YouTuber and Instagrammer, do social media listening and competitors tracking. | https://medium.com/boosto/heidi-yu-chief-everything-officer-ae2d44dc9b89 | [] | 2018-08-07 02:48:17.736000+00:00 | ['Social Media', 'Team'] |
EPISODE 7: Diversity & Inclusion Q&A | EPISODE 7: Diversity & Inclusion Q&A
EPISODE 7: This month, I had the privilege of speaking with Head of Engineering, Johanna Belfrage. We discuss the importance of establishing a culture based on trust, inclusion, transparency and not being afraid to make mistakes — “If something is a challenge, just go for it and think what is the worst thing that can happen?”
Johanna shares some fantastic tactics for dealing with adversity and managing work/ home/ family life during a pandemic. Along with some great advice for anyone wanting to transition from a hands-on developer to hands-off manager and the mindset shift required.
Check out our full video interview here: https://youtu.be/AhG3TANXrFg
Johanna, thank you for joining us and welcome to our Diversity and Inclusion Q&A initiative! We are so excited to hear your story and would love if you could please share a little bit about what it is that you do and what a typical day as a Head of Engineering is like for you?
“I’m working at Avanza, we are an online bank revolutionising our industry, working to help millions of people to have a better future.
We have around 24 tech teams and as the Head of Engineering, I am responsible for the Engineering Department which consists of a just over 100 people.
In my team, I have 7 Engineering Managers and 3 Agile Team Coaches. I am also part of a management team where I collaborate with our Head of Products and CTO. We are responsible for helping our teams work in the best way, ensuring we have the best possibilities.”
What does a typical day as Head of Engineering look like for you?
“I’m currently working from home, the day starts with morning meetings with my teams. We have sprint planning and take the same approach to planning as the tech teams. We take time to look at our board and assess: What have we done? What should we focus on right now? How can we be the most effective?
My day will consist of a lot of meetings that could typically be:
Workshops: A team or domain might become too large and we need to look at how and if we need to split the team. Do we have the right set of teams? How are we looking at that?
Strategy: We previously had a big technical change with our Frontend Development, we went from our native development into progressive web apps so at that time I had a lot of meetings regarding the strategy/approach/vision.
Interviews: We are currently hiring!
Frequent 1:1’s — With the Managers and Coaches that I am responsible for, helping and supporting them as maybe they have some challenges and obstacles.
Every day is very different, as you can probably imagine and I really enjoy that, it keeps it exciting.”
It’s great that you can mix things up. What do you enjoy the most about your position?
“I really enjoy helping people and teams grow within the business. Also, I enjoy that I work at a company that I’m proud of. We are value-driven, have a great culture a genuinely nice way of working and everybody has a focus on how we can help our customers and each other, which is very important. For me, working with system development and in the tech industry as a whole has always been super fun and enjoyable.”
Awesome! What do you think makes a great culture?
“I think it’s important to have a culture where you can be yourself, you can trust people and you give freedom.
At Avanza every team has a mission, and I think it’s important that you let the team decide themselves how they can reach that goal? Let the team do the work and trust them.
Also, to embrace a culture where it’s ok to make mistakes. To be creative and innovative you need to let people make mistakes so they can learn from their experience. In general, my ideas on culture are very aligned with Avanza’s and their values.”
On the topic of values, how would you define Avanza’s?
“We trust people, include people and embrace the mindset that it’s ok to make mistakes. We are very customer-focused, so always looking at “How can we help each other at Avanza to make the best for our customers?”
To us, it doesn’t matter what team you are in, you do not only work within that team but for the whole of Avanza and our customers. Everybody’s very motivated and inclusive.”
Sounds great, I can see the reasons why you’ve stayed at Avanza for nearly six years!
You have an extensive background in technology. How would you define your technical expertise?
“I have a Master’s Degree in Engineering and for several years previously worked as Java Developer. Now, I’m working a lot closer to “How can create and establish great product development? How can we create a great organisation and teams?”
Having spent over 7+ years working 100% with hands-on development, how was the transition to management?
“I really enjoyed coding because to me, it is so much fun. Initially, I struggled to let it go because I didn’t want to. Unfortunately, I’ve noticed that many women go from coding to other positions, so this was a struggle.
I do enjoy working with people and I soon realised that I was good at it, so made the decision to continue with it. I realised that if you can reach a point in your position where you can help teams get to what you believe in, then you can help and contribute even more by getting the right culture and having the right possibilities and so on, so that realisation also helped me with the transition to purely management.
After being a developer, I worked for some time as a Scrum Master and after that Team lead and System responsible at H&M. I joined Avanza as an Engineering Manager and for the first few months, I worked very closely with our Head of Engineering at the time. Unfortunately, a few months after I started, he left the company. I was then responsible for the teams in an acting ‘Head of Engineering’ position together with another manager colleague. A few months later I got the official position as ‘Head of Engineering’ which was exciting for me.
I’ve stayed at Avanza for nearly 6 years because my role has changed so much, it’s so fun. In the beginning, we had 6 teams and now we have 24 teams!”
Incredible growth! Are you still able to code in your current position?
“Right now, I’m no longer coding. At first, I found it hard as I missed it a lot, but now I have gotten used to it.
In the beginning, not at Avanza but my former position, I tried do both coding/leading when I had a leading role, but it was too hard because, there are so many different things to focus on.
I still really enjoy being close to the development side of things and listening to the tech teams and so on. It’s nice that I know what my tech teams are talking about and I try help out where I can.”
What would be your advice to someone who has reached a peak in their development career, who wants to take the next step into management, but is scared and nervous about letting go of coding?
“If you work in a tech team that is working Agile, you can start with trying to be a Scrum Master because your focus moves onto the needs of the team members and those they serve (the customer). Allowing you to try some form of leadership.
I’d say it’s just a case of you starting. Don’t be afraid, try it out, take help and talk to other people that have that role. Look to get a mentor and just go for it, have the confidence in your abilities!”
Thanks for sharing some great advice. Would you say you are still learning daily?
“Absolutely! I hope I will never stop learning because then I will probably need to change my job. Constantly learning more all the time is something that drives me.
At work I’m always learning from such inspirational, talented people — It could be within technical/leadership stuff, when holding or being part of a workshop you learn something new every time.”
Constantly learning drives you, so how else are you furthering your career development?
“A way for me to develop myself is to collaborate with others and learn from them. So I’m always trying to find interesting people (and it’s not hard) who share their stories and I can work close to.
I want to continue to learn all of the time and over the years, I have had mentors, coaches, networks and have been included in leadership courses and so on.
I also listen to Podcast’s. In Sweden we have something called Karriärpodden which is a podd where you can listen to inspirational women who have gone far in their careers. They have over 150+ episodes! And of course, I listen to podds delivered by men that I have learnt a lot from as well.”
What else would you like to learn this year?
“In our department both on the IT and business side, we’re working Agile. So, I’d like to learn more about how we can get the whole company (every department) to work Agile.
Another focus for me has been continuing to learn more about product development & product discovery. For example: How can we get the whole team to be included in product discovery?
Many companies are now doing transformations, we have done several too and now I’d also like to learn more about what is our next step as a business to get even better and take us to the next level?”
Thank you for sharing Johanna. You mentioned mentorship earlier, what would be your advice to women who are seeking a mentor? What approach should they take to find one?
“I initially went into a mentor program, but I’ve also always tried to find mentors myself. I’ve had supportive mentors which have always been a great learning experience.
You can start by joining networks — I’m involved in different women-focused networks for example Women For Leaders. Ask around, do your friends or colleagues know anyone that they think could be very good for you?
If you’re impressed by someone and you want to learn from them, reach out to them. Get talking, build a relationship and ask them “Would you like to be my mentor?” You will be surprised by the number of people that will be willing to help you.
So, join a network and talk to people because it’s good to have a mentor and it’s also good to be a mentor because there will be so much that you can learn as it works both ways.”
Thank you for sharing. What have been some of the biggest challenges that you’ve faced on your journey to becoming ‘Head of Engineering?’
“There have for sure been different challenges.
For example, when I became an Engineering Manager and then suddenly one day, I was responsible for a much larger team and department and at the same time, I was responsible for on boarding another Engineering Manager who just started. That was tough.
I think the only way that I learnt was to just throw myself into the position and responsibilities, take one thing at a time and do things in my own way.
Something that was very important to me was to uncover: What is my stand in this? How do I want this to be? And then to make small or bigger changes along the way to make it the way I envisioned it. And of course, if you have your ground values work with them and collaborate with people.”
I can imagine it’s been a real journey of self-discovery for you?
“Yes, and it has not always been easy!
It has been a personal struggle in the past, as someone who works by the Agile values to join different companies (before Avanza) and meet different people, who are not necessarily working by the Agile values and have different views on it.
Trying to convince people what you believe in (Agile values) is tough when those people are so used to the way it was before and do not want to let that go of that.
Each challenge is a lesson learnt, take time to reflect and keep moving forwards!”
If you dig deeper into the challenges you’ve faced so far. What are your five leadership lessons that you’ve learnt and why?
“One lesson that I took from being a developer is stealing with pride -
If you find someone is doing something that you think is good from a workshop or anything, copy this and try to use it yourself!
I’ve learnt that trust is really important. Also, to include people very early on with transparency. For example, a few years ago we did a transformation at Avanza. We heard that some people thought that it was a struggle, and should we really be doing the transformation?
We heard these concerns a lot so decided to create an open survey on Mentimeter so everybody could do it in real-time — We had over 100 people in a room.
From the results, you could see that only 4% were against the transformation. This was surprising to us, as we thought it would be a lot higher because of the concerns voice before. This was a real moment confirming to us that we need to include people and be transparent.
When we did the transformation, we told the teams early on that we’re going to do a change, we don’t have all the answers, but we will learn along the way and we need you! We did lots of workshops including all the teams.
Another lesson learnt is — Ask for help. I believe in teamwork so take help from co-workers or the leadership team. You can share your thoughts and when you’re planning to do things, they can challenge you and because of that, the results of that will be better.
Take help and include people. Also, don’t be afraid to make mistakes and think if something is a challenge, what is the worst thing that can happen? Try it out and you will learn from it. Don’t hesitate too much.”
Thank you for sharing! What would has been a really proud moment throughout your career?
“A proud and fun moment for me was when we did something called ‘Self-Selection’ during our transformation at Avanza.
We decided we would have 11 teams for the transformation and picked the Product Owner, who then pitched what the teams mission was and what they will be doing.
Then we had a 1.5-hour workshop on ‘Self-Selection’ — Meaning we had 11 teams, and everyone could freely choose what team they were going to join.
Of course, we were a bit hesitant before the ‘Self-Selection’ like will this work? Will every team get members? How will we know that the right people are in the right team?
It was a very proud moment when the ‘Self-Selection’ worked and a great feeling seeing all 11 teams achieve this in and only one and a half hours. It all comes down to putting trust in the teams, and you need the courage to be able to trust.
Our other option was management selection, the traditional way, management would select who would be in what team, but it felt right and we found that it was more effective giving people the freedom to choose their team, the motivation is a lot higher.”
Allowing that level of flexibility and freedom is brilliant. Did you always know that working in technology was what you wanted to do?
“I’ve always been interested, but maybe I didn’t know in the beginning that it was a career that I would pursue. I always thought it was easy to read the technical mathematics and those kinds of subjects.
My dad was also a programmer, so I learnt a lot from him. He included me in a lot in technical stuff, so it didn’t surprise me when I chose to go back to study coding after being been abroad for two years.”
Cool that your dad was already working in programming. Who else inspired you to get in the space?
“I’ve always had a lot of people around me who have inspired me throughout my studies and work, like great developers, both men & women developers. I’ve also had some very talented managers who have supported me.
For me, I’m not sure if it was a specific person, it was more the fact that technology is something that moves fast, and I wanted to be a part of that movement. I could see the future within tech and loved that it offered so many possibilities and different areas. For example, now I’ve been working in the banking industry, retail and telecom.
Also, I guess inspiration come from wanting to show that a girl can do as well as a guy within this space. For me it’s just a fun challenge!”
The possibilities really are endless in tech! Have you had any women role models or mentors throughout your career?
“When I studied, I had women around me who were really good and interested in tech. But I wouldn’t say I had any specific women role models.
I think it’s more that from the beginning I felt that I had the same possibilities as the guys working in tech and because there aren’t that many women role models, it made me even more determined to make a positive impact in tech. I think that’s something has had always triggered me.”
I love your drive, belief and passion Johanna! What would be your advice for other women wanting to become leaders in their career?
“Talking is key — It can be with leaders, friends, and in general people that work within tech. Ask them how their own experiences have been transitioning to management, learn from this & study it.
Approach different companies ask them if you can have some kind of internship within leadership or if they have any mentors in leadership. Just go for it, don’t overthink it, you will learn so much just by doing, especially if you have the right support and encouragement around you.
Tell your current manager and the team that you want to become a leader let them know “This is the direction I want to take. How can you help me learn more in this area? Are there courses that I can go on? Can I shadow someone with leadership experience in the company? Because if your company knows that leadership is the path you want to take, they will hopefully, help you get there and it will open up possibilities. If you don’t say anything then it’s hard for people to know.”
So do not be afraid to speak up! Have there been any specific books, podcasts, courses that you’ve experienced throughout your career that have been a huge game-changer for you?
“A book called Five Dysfunctions of a Team is really good, especially if you want to know how a management team can work in a good & efficient way. I can also recommend Management 3.0: Leading Agile Developers, Developing Agile Leaders.
I also attended a one-week course called The Human Element, where you work both in groups and individually and explore your limitations and the tendencies you have when interacting with others. This was a game-changer for me, because if you’re going to be a leader, you need to really get to know yourself and what your values are.”
Thanks for the recommendations. Earlier, you mentioned that you’ve been working from home. Can you please share some advice on how to best work from home while balancing the needs of family life?
“Good question…I have 2 kids. Fortunately, they have been able to go to school so are not home most of the time that I’m working.
My advice is to try to find a room where you can have your own workspace. Be sure to get outside and move, maybe go for a daily walk or something but look to establish a routine as soon as you get up in the morning.
For example, I love yoga, so I do this in the morning before work and it starts my day in the right way.
Be sure to take breaks, especially at the end of the day to change your mindset from work to family mode.”
Thank you for sharing some helpful tips, allowing yourself a break and being disciplined with that is so important. How do you balance work and in general family life?
“Both my husband and I have been working full-time all the time. Something that helped us is that we share everything, both taking care of the children and the other responsibilities around the home.
Also, take help from family/friends when you need it.
It’s certainly hard to get the balance. You can’t do everything at the same time, so you need to find a focus, especially when the children are younger.
Now my kids are 10 and soon to be 13, they’re getting older which means I get a lot more free time than what I had before.
Try to get the best balance that you can specify to your circumstances, set the right expectations of yourself. Remember, everybody does it in different ways, there is no winning formula.
Finding the balance is so much easier if you find a job that you enjoy as it will give you energy.
A struggle for me is to keep energy left for my family and not to use it all at work. Because, when it’s fun at work, you kind of go full speed and then you realise when you’re going home or end your workday “oh, I don’t have that much energy left.” So that’s something I worked on — How can I get some breaks during the day? So I have energy left as well for my family.
Find what a good break is for you, it could be only for a few minutes, it could be talking to a friend, having a food break. Just do something that will shift your mindset and focus.
Especially now with working from home, I find that I get quite tired looking at the screen all of the time, especially when you have workshops/conference calls with several people. It can take a lot of energy. It’s so important to give yourself some breaks from the video, do a walk and talk for example!”
What are your tactics for dealing with adversity? How do you get through a tough day at work?
“Of course, there are tough days — I always try to talk to people and take help. I tell myself “Just take one thing at a time and I will get through it.” Have the belief that the next day things will get better and easier for you.”
Thank you for sharing that, it’s important to remember that not every day is perfect, we all have our struggles and that’s ok.
How we like to round off Part 1 of our Q&A is by uncovering a fun fact about you and some hobbies that you are into…
“Not an easy question! I lived in Ireland for 2 years, but that was nearly 20 years ago now, so I’m not going to say how old I am :’)
I enjoy running, yoga, horse riding and being with my family and friends.
I also really enjoy singing; we actually have a choir at our company so we can sing together. But of course, now with the pandemic, we haven’t been able to do this for over 6 months. But before this, it was super fun to meet up and sing together once a week.
We talked about culture earlier and this is something that I think is so important, letting people at work meet each other in different ways.”
Johanna, it’s been an absolute pleasure speaking with you, thank you for sharing your story! I look forward to tuning in next week where we will discuss all things diversity, inclusion and explore ideas on what more we can do to attract and appeal to women in tech. ✨
— — —
Are you a woman in the technology field too? How has your experience been similar or different? Do you have any questions for women in the technology industry? Would you like to get involved in this initiative? We would love to hear from you, please contact me on LinkedIn. | https://medium.com/@ekdiversityintech/episode-7-diversity-inclusion-q-a-18ce4bf600a0 | ['Ellie King'] | 2021-02-23 23:57:26.884000+00:00 | ['Diversity', 'Leadership', 'Women In Tech', 'Development', 'Diversity In Tech'] |
North Shore Towing nightmare: Hiring quality private parking companies | North Shore Towing nightmare: Hiring quality private parking companies
Every towing and patrol company isn’t created equal
Photo credit: NeONBRAND/Unsplash
Unless property managers want to deal with the hassle of random strangers and neighbors parking in their private lots all day, a private parking patrol company will be a necessity. But every company that can tow doesn’t necessarily do the best at being good at their jobs. Anyone who has lived on property that is not fenced-in or has a private garage has seen this happen before — the towing company inexplicably tows authorized cars, the towing company never seems to be around to tow unauthorized cars (who park in the lot for hours), the towing company claims it does 24/7 patrolling but you’ve never seen them on your security cameras, and the towing company suspiciously changes their rates when you come to pick up your car.
Now imagine dealing with all four instances at once. That about sums up the experience with Evanston’s own North Shore Towing company. But unless you know off-hand other people who use the service (or read Google and Yelp reviews), it’s much more difficult to know this kind of stuff before hiring any private towing company. Before hiring a parking patrol company and/or towing company, know that anyone can slap copywriting phrases like “highly trained and knowledgeable dispatch team” and “ready to help with any emergency” on their website. It is up to the property manager(s) and/or condo board to figure out who really is the “best” towing service around.
Tips for finding quality parking patrol companies
Skip the vague answers and get actual patrol numbers. If the customer service dispatchers claim that they do 24/7 patrol, ask for a ballpark number of how many times they can come by your property daily. In a world where everyone has a smartphone to text, take pictures, emails and/or call, this company should be able to provide some kind of documentation. If you cannot “see” their stops, just ask for a couple of times that they’ve driven by on any given day. Then check your surveillance cameras. If you’re really willing to take a risk, allow an unauthorized car in the lot. See how long it stays there. Unfortunately, this was involuntarily tested twice. A bright red truck stayed for three hours and another car stayed for one hour — not one patrol car went by to ask them to move. Both vehicles stayed there until the drivers were good and ready to leave.
Be prepared to not be put on a regular patrol schedule. If you’re really worried about authorized cars being towed, you may be better off with a call-only contract. Anytime you have 24/7 patrol, you take the risk that a private patrol company can tow your car that’s just outside “for a minute” or is a guest of someone who “didn’t think they’d come by.” In all fairness to towing companies, if they’re on a regular schedule where you know the exact time they’re coming by, that means nearby neighbors will also be able to take note of when they’re coming by. And guess what happens? They’ll know when the towing company left and when they have enough wiggle room to park in your lot. For that reason, the spontaneous patrolling makes sense — but only if the towing company is actually doing it. If you notice a pattern of owners complaining about not being able to get into their spots, start taking down popular times and days. If the towing company refuses to come by during these times, you are better off just calling the police to give them a ticket and terminating your agreement with the towing company until you can find one who is willing to work those hours.
Make sure the tow pricing matches the sign(s). Towing company rates should be consistent for the company, no matter where the property is. So imagine how confused one condo unit owner was when a car was towed from the property and he went to pick up the car with the specified amount on the sign. Although he didn’t deny that the car was in the wrong spot, the towing company made the pickup process more difficult by giving him a much higher rate and mentioned they “changed” their prices. This is an easy way for towing companies to hustle car owners.
If the automobile owners want their cars back and to not pay for overnight storage, they don’t have much choice but to pay whatever the price is. But that unit owner came back to the board to ask about the price change. Upon finding out that the rate was different, companies like North Shore had no excuse for why they hadn’t come back out to that property to update their signage, proving that the rates had indeed increased. This is when unit owners, condo boards and property managers need to work together to make sure the towing company stays honest. Be prepared to sporadically confirm that the rates are the same a year or two later, too. If it changes, so should their signs — immediately.
Photo credit: Adam Griffith/Unsplash
Never let the towing company be a substitute for surveillance cameras. If you hire a towing company that works with several independent contractors, be prepared for them to not always be in communication. Should an independent contractor claim that your “sticker wasn’t visible” or your “guest pass could not be seen,” unless you can prove it, it’s your word against theirs. Now if you know you had no business parking in someone else’s spot or didn’t have a sticker or guest pass to begin with, that’s your fault.
But if you are absolutely certain that you are parked correctly and there was no rational reason to tow your car, ask the condo board or property management company to send you camera footage of your car being towed. (Try to narrow down the time and day. Don’t just ask them to look at surveillance footage all week.) Try to get a good look at the tow truck driver, the towing company vehicle’s company name, the license plate of the vehicle, how your car is parked and where your authorization sticker is. If you can provide valid proof that your car was legitimately parked, you would have a much easier time should you decide to take the legal route. If the property does not have surveillance cameras, click a few time-stamped pictures of your own car beforehand.
Update your password occasionally, and make sure all authorized parties know what it is. It was quite the battle to have someone in my own parking spot and not know who to contact (as an owner before joining the board). The towing company would not authorize a tow without a password. The board had no idea what the password was. And the property manager was nowhere to be found. In your next board meeting, owners should ask the board who to contact if an unauthorized car is in their spot. And board members should contact the property management company to make sure they’re on the same page regarding what the password is. At no point should the password only be with one person who can disappear off the planet while the unauthorized car owner is just hanging out in your spot. The towing company will only know whatever authorized users they are given and the password that is supplied. All car owners in a private lot should know exactly who to contact to get an unauthorized car out of the lot. It should never be a guessing game.
Call in as a customer before you hire the towing company. As in any industry, there are some folks who apply for a job and act like you should roll out the red carpet because they answered the phone. You ask them to spell their name and get responses like, “Oh my gawd!” Or a hangup if the questions require them to do anything besides stare aimlessly out of a window. Or you get snippy responses like, “We ain’t security guards!” (Again, all responses from North Shore Towing, but they’re not the only tow truck company that does this.) Hiring the first towing company with cheap rates or one that is near your area is an easy way to end up regretting it later. A “respected” and “competent towing service” will want to make sure their dispatchers and office managers are top-notch. They will read customer surveys, they will “ask every customer to share written feedback about their experience” and they will read every response for improvements. They’ll also make sure their dispatchers provide basic professionalism. If you do a test call and get all attitude and little class, look elsewhere. Let them roll out the red carpets in their living rooms, not on your parking lot. | https://medium.com/homegrown/north-shore-towing-nightmare-hiring-quality-private-parking-companies-6e098318a07 | ['Shamontiel L. Vaughn'] | 2020-11-18 01:44:30.163000+00:00 | ['Parking Lot', 'Private Parking', 'Towing', 'Condominiums', 'Condo Board Association'] |
Heaping Tables, Long Aid Lines | Terry H. Schwadron
Nov. 23, 2020
Amid all the hoopla surrounding the safety this year of Thanksgiving get-togethers, what persists is the imagery of a table glutinously laden with food, so much more than the gathered family can eat that there are pictures of the leftovers too.
Every year, those pictures and over-concern with more and more food makes me uncomfortable, but in this year, in which a global pandemic is creating long lines from food need alone, they seem highly inappropriate. We’re busily swapping recipes, building bigger desserts and photoshopping our latest meals to post on social media while the numbers of those without day-to-day supplies are building.
Not to be a buzzkill here, but why can’t we tamp down the overload to remember that one of four American households have experience food insecurity this year.
Even before the pandemic hit, NPR reminds us, 13.7 million households, or 10.5% of all U.S. households or 35 million Americans experienced food insecurity at some point during 2019, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Job loss and furloughs from the pandemic’s effects have worsened that situation.
One estimate by researchers at Northwestern University says food insecurity more than doubled this year, hitting upwards of 23% of households. Perhaps we should be seeing more images of the lines at food banks and food drive-through pickup locations to drive the point home.
The medical establishment is making Thanksgiving all about necessary public health precautions, warning us to stay in our own homes and avoid travel. The political world is pitting perceptions about rugged American individualism and choice against government rules to govern our behavior.
But what persists here is a reality that hunger is growing — and we’re not paying sufficient attention.
Trump Policies
There’s been more concern through the Trump years of cutting food stamps than there has been for ensuring that people are eating. This administration’s answers to all have revolved around tax cuts, reduced government services and hope that the marketplace provides both jobs and support for those who cannot work.
At one point, the administration was moving to strike recipients of food stamps for not being able to work — amid shutdowns prompted by local governments responding to the pandemic. This is not only ineffective government, but cruelty.
The current continuing impasse over a coronavirus aid package only underscores a Republican belief, despite the obvious, that the pandemic is receding amid prospects for emergent vaccines, and that the economic is snapping back into shape in a sharp V-shape that is as fantastic as the idea that Trump won the election.
Meanwhile, food lines grow. In my own Harlem neighborhood, there are multiple church-front food sites, all volunteer community efforts, to hand out food in an area where 40% of the small businesses have closed or face extinction.
Among the biggest issues facing New York City in re-closing public schools this last week was the prospect of losing at least one hot meal a day for a million students.
Those USDA figures from before the pandemic show that Black and Brown neighborhoods disproportionately affected, with 19% of Black households and 16% of Hispanic households experiencing food insecurity as compared with a half that among Whites. There are similar disparities among those without high school diplomas as compared with graduates of high school or college.
About 19 million Americans are charted as living in food “deserts,” lacking transportation to larger grocery stores and paying higher prices for worse food.
Thanksgiving 2020
The holidays this year will prove difficult for all with the pandemic. But it will be worse for those who are worried that getting food the day before and the day after Thanksgiving has become a chore.
The same is true across the globe, of course, where hunger figures also are doubling.
Food insecurity — a lack of consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life — had been steadily falling before pandemic. But now, as economic instability and a health crisis takes over, new estimates point to some of the worst rates of food insecurity in the United States in years.
Yet the magazines and television images of holiday meals are not suggesting any restrictions. The imagery continues to promote the outdated notion over over-flowing tables with endless, day-long eating.
It would be a good signal for our leaders to use the holidays to suggest thinking about our neighbors.
But caring about eating is probably a lot like promoting the use of masks. For many, caring about one’s own independence and tradition tops thinking about others.
How about we Make America Eat Again and just donate the cost of the meal to those who need it most.
##
www.terryschwadron.wordpress.com | https://medium.com/@terryschwadron/heaping-tables-long-aid-lines-c4a7cb5962ef | ['Terry Schwadron'] | 2020-11-23 12:07:55.014000+00:00 | ['Unemployment', 'Table', 'Thanksgiving', 'Coronavirus', 'Hunger'] |
Binance + Decentraland = Blockchain Gaming | Binance is supporting blockchain-driven gaming innovations by working with Decentraland. Under this collaboration, you can use Binance Coin (BNB) to participate in Decentraland’s upcoming auction for virtual land parcels, called LAND.
You can then use Trust Wallet, Binance’s official crypto wallet app with a built-in dApp browser, to take part in the LAND auction. The auction will begin on December 10, and Trust Wallet users will enter the chance to win LANDs and MANA prizes. What’s more, Binance will host a couple of Decentraland-related events.
Part 1:
Binance will host a trading competition for Decentraland’s MANA token from December 4th, 0:00 AM UTC to December 11th, 0:00 AM UTC. A total of 1.875 million MANA will be given away to top traders during the contest, with the biggest winner also taking home a Binance-branded virtual LAND parcel.
Part 2:
Binance will host a second contest, which will reward users who spend the most on LAND during the LAND Auction through Trust Wallet. The top 4 participants who spend the most on LAND at the auction will earn:
First place: 1 LAND parcel worth 100,000 MANA
1 LAND parcel worth 100,000 MANA Second place: 1 LAND parcel worth 50,000 MANA
1 LAND parcel worth 50,000 MANA Third place: 1 LAND parcel worth 20,000 MANA
1 LAND parcel worth 20,000 MANA Fourth place: 1 LAND parcel worth 15,000 MANA
In addition, 50 Trust Wallet participants who purchase LAND at the auction will have a chance to win 10,000 MANA each.
Here are more details of the collaboration.
BNB expands use case to LAND auctions
We have brought multiple use cases for Binance Coin, which currently can be used in more than 100 ways beyond scoring 25% discounts on Binance trading fees. Right now, our Binancians can spend their BNB beyond the trading world — on real-world purchases such as tours, restaurant meals, flights, and even whole planes.
Now, we’re expanding BNB’s use case into virtual world, thanks to Decentraland accepting BNB in its upcoming LAND auction. To further integrate the Binance ecosystem into the virtual world, the auction can be accessed through the dApp browser of our Trust Wallet, once again proving that the crypto wallet app is at the forefront of pushing for the adoption of blockchain technologies.
Decentraland is a platform for building and sharing 3D content by giving its users ownership of their digital space, measured through virtual land parcels called LAND. During its upcoming LAND auction, Decentraland will offer 9,300 unowned LAND parcels for sale.
How to join the LAND auction with BNB and Trust Wallet
If you want to own LAND in the burgeoning virtual landscape, here’s a step-by-step guide on how you can use BNB and Trust Wallet in the auction:
Install Trust Wallet now! (Available on Android and iOS.)
Load some BNB and/or MANA on your Trust Wallet. You will use this for the auction.
Use Trust Wallet’s dApp browser and go to market.decentraland.org.
Click the Auction page, browse for LAND and select one (or many) that you’d like to buy.
At the bottom of your LAND cart, select BNB or MANA, and proceed with buying LAND.
When you use BNB to purchase LAND, 5% of your BNB will be burned, thus removing it from circulation. The rest is automatically exchanged for MANA, which is also subsequently burned.
If that doesn’t convince you to use BNB and Trust Wallet during Decentraland’s LAND auction, how about this: get a chance to win several LANDs and a total of 500,000 MANA when you use BNB through Trust Wallet during the auction.
But that’s not the only thing in store for the collaboration between Binance and Decentraland. We also have a MANA trading competition for the traders.
Join Binance’s MANA trading competition
From 2018/12/04 0:00 AM (UTC) to 2018/12/11 0:00 AM (UTC), Binance users who trade MANA will get a chance to win bonus MANA tokens. We are giving away 1.8 million MANA to the top 100 Binance users ranked by effective trading volume in MANA during the contest. The 1.8 million MANA will be split based on how much MANA each user traded, in comparison with the total trading volume for the top 100 users.
Become the top MANA trader during the promo, and win one Binance-branded parcel of LAND alongside your bonus MANA.
And if you weren’t able to be part of the top 100, you still get a chance to be one of the 10 lucky Binancians who get 7,500 MANA each. You become part of our lucky draw for MANA if you traded at least 30,000 MANA in total effective trading volume during the competition.
Cryptocurrency trading is subject to high market risk. Binance is not responsible for any direct, indirect or consequential losses as a result of the trading competition. Please make your trades with caution. Binance reserves the right to disqualify trades which are deemed unfair or display attributes of market manipulation. | https://medium.com/binanceexchange/binance-decentraland-blockchain-vr-ef3c3bebf419 | [] | 2018-12-04 10:54:33.478000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Decentraland', 'Binance', 'Trust Wallet'] |
PowerTalkie smartRadio vs. Gotenna Mesh photon / wave shootout! | I’ll be updating this article throughout the day:
My PowerTalkie Smart radio just arrived from the IndieGogo campaign and I’ve been stoked to do a shootout between the PowerTalkie and the GOtenna Mesh to see who had the biggest gun in town. How would the GOtenna’s Mesh device, purportedly highly-tweaked for low bandwidth and high noise resilience, hold up against the PowerTalkie with enough bandwidth to send voice? Is the sacrifice of no voice for GOtenna worth it for the increased range? Is there a new Sheriff in town? Can Power Talkie give the range and the advanced voice / text / gps features?
After a few days of testing out PowerTalkie, I like it. For an initial launch, it’s surprising how stable and non-crashy the app is. Not a single crash yet. No errors. Seems to solidly send messages. NOT at 20 miles, but at a decent mile or so (each at ground level) with non-clear LOS. The buttons are not quite intuitive. Turning it on seems a little eh… and getting to connect may be a bit of an annoyance sometimes. But overrall, once connected, seems to be very stably connected. Tested on a 2014 Note 10 and a 2018 Note 8 — both seem to work just fine.
The PowerTalkie seems much more sensitive to positioning in your vehicle. Even though both the GOtenna and the PowerTalkie were on the shotgun seat, 6" below window level (within the Faraday cage of my car), the GOtenna continued to work, while the PowerTalkie could not confirm receipt of message Tx / Rx. Not surprisingly, much better range if holding it out the window (or velcroed to the dash or carabinered to the rearview mirror or sunshades). PowerTalkie also seems to have slightly subpar building penetration relative to the Gotenna Mesh. Mesh seems to work from inside the house, while the PowerTalkie required a walk to the window to get a signal. However, the PowerTalkie was able to get signal, when switched from the 4ish inch rubber ducky antenna to a Nagoya 771 (BaoFeng style) through the interior of the building. That’s definitely an advantage to PowerTalkie on providing the external antenna connection. I wish Gotenna would follow-suit on their Mesh model like their Pro model and allow for external antennas. But, the internal Mesh antenna is not too bad :)
In sum, the Gotenna and the PowerTalkie seem to have almost eerily identical range, the Gotenna does seem to be a more mature platform / app, with slightly higher intuitiveness and ease of use. For example, Gotenna Mesh app immediately shows transmission and indicates visually that the confirmation has or has not returned — making it much easier to use. In contrast, PowerTalkie only indicates (with some delay) if a message has failed to go through.
Obviously, PowerTalkie, without any mesh / repeater / or rebroadcasting features, has a lot less heavy-lifting to do relative to the GOtenna’s ability to rebroadcast the message up to 6 hops through the network and out, via Twilio’s SMSrelay to any phone number in the world OR via the SDK or Mesh Developer Toolkit for gateways / data uplink to the internet. While PowerTalkie and GOtenna only seem to offer miles of range on direct transmissions, the 6X mesh repeat, the unlimited nature of backhauling seems to give the advantage to GOtenna. The more interesting shootout will be between GOtenna Mesh and the Sonnet Labs Mesh (out ANY TIME!)
Certainly, GOtenna is the more patriotic choice for domestic use in the United States as GOtenna is a Made in America company, founded by some local kids after Hurricane Sandy hit NY and now supplies their Gotenna tactical mesh devices to every single U.S. military branch and practically every agency in Homeland Security. Gotenna is literally Q-branch, dropping some 007 style comms devices in non-threatening purple lipstick-size cases without apparent antennas or anything.
Now that GOtenna, is no longer a small fish / startup, and has firmly established itself as a solid government contractor with tens of millions invested from both BBG Ventures and Walden Venture Capitol — not to mention the substantial investments from IQT, DHS, DOD, DOJ, CBP, and FEMA… , GOtenna should stand up and honor their commitments and promises to help provide some emergency backup communications for Puerto Rico made back in 2017. Respectfully, if GOtenna is going to walk away from Puerto Rico, they should at least re-donate the thousands of dollars they accepted to someone who will apply that money towards disaster relief. Maybe RedCross? The people that donated deserve some transparency. It’s been two years and the organizers of the fundraiser have made no publication of any of the promised 300+ GOtenna mesh devices or how to use the Text911 service.
INITIAL REVIEW OF POWER TALKIE BELOW:
I wanted to get my thoughts out immediately so people who may want them can order before Hurricane season and the tropical storms.
PowerTalkie advertises 20 mile range for text / gps / aprs (about 128 bytes per message payload) and 10 mile range for Voice live or recorded with pretty good fidelity. A bit of skepticism is warranted. But, at 462MHz with SMA antennas and 2 watts, line of sight (LOS) at altitude, I’m expecting more like a few miles. I will update as soon as we’ve got some hard figures. So far, only about a mile, at most on range. But seems to be rock solid. No flakeouts or loss of connection, everything pretty much gets through.
First impressions are that the software is easy to use and download in the Android Play store. Only about 11MB. Allows for anonymous / airplane mode registration (simulating a network down offline .apk install) and was pleasantly surprised that everything can be accomplished offline in theatre.
Two devices, so far, the Samsung Note 10.1" 2014 version and the 2018 Note 8 were able to install the app and establish contact (text, gps, and voice) 10/10 would recommend. Both devices came with stub antennas, I upgraded via the SMA connector to add bigger after-market antennas (compatible with the BaoFeng antennas, e.g., Nagoya 770 / 771 and 701.
The PowerTalkie Devices are waterproof IP68 Milspec and have a giant 6000MAh battery with full size USB-A host charger and micro-usb charging input so they can either charge your phone, or be charged by your phone, or any micro-usb phone charger.
Contrary to the advertised 2.4Amp and 2.1Amp advertisement, I’m only seeing about 420MA (.42 A) output / input… buy my ammeter / multimeter may be malfunctioning?
Will be very interested to see if BaoFeng / Yaesu / FRS / GMRS / SDR radios are able to hear the voice transmission? At 462 MHz, I believe it would be legal for any ham or walkie to listen in that GMRS range, and broadcast (within power limits) during an emergency. This may be better than Gotenna in the fact that the comms *MAY* have an outlet to non-proprietary devices. It depends, I’d imagine if the audio is encoded or analog? I’ll be updating as soon as I have results.
The GPS / aprs / civtak / ctak / atak type offline maps are decent, and seem intuitive. Unlike GOtenna (Made In The USA), however, this appears to be a Chinese comms company and some of the privacy / national security concerns about DJI and HuaWei may be relevent here as well. Also, unlike Gotenna, these PowerTalkies will obviously not have access to actual Civtak / ATAK or APRS without plugins?
The physical user-interface is perhaps over-simplified. Only two buttons: ON and SOS. No knobs, dials, volume… reading the user manual will be helpful. But the App seems simple enough to use.
Importantly, and differently from Gotenna, you must actively enable Map / Location Sharing if you want to be seen by other users in the vicinity. Then the user must approve connection before any transmissions?
I will provide updates as we go. I do not believe the Text or GPS messages are encrypted. So I don’t think HIPAA data may be shared unlike Gotenna.
SOS, Group, and 1:1 messaging (voice / text) and GPS offline map team location sharing is enabled and seems to be working without a hitch.
Early version of the app may have the bluetooth persistence problems that GOtenna suffers and seems like, on the Note 8, at least, that connection must be re-established manually occassionally.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/powertalkie-the-advanced-off-network-comms-device#/ | https://medium.com/@frankbryan/powertalkie-vs-gotenna-mesh-photon-wave-shootout-d1dbf17cdef2 | ['Frank Bryan'] | 2019-06-10 21:59:18.716000+00:00 | ['Decentralized', 'Ham Radio', 'Internet of Things', 'Amateur Radio', 'Gotenna'] |
Two Weeks with a Teen Entrepreneur | Two Weeks with a Teen Entrepreneur
The Lessons
Photo by Garrhet Sampson on Unsplash
3/30/20 — The Start
1:00 A.M. — Normally I publish my articles on Sunday but I ran a little late yesterday because I’d been working on my drop shipping website all week. I debated doing it the next day, but decided to publish it at 1:00 A.M and finished around 1:30 A.M. I normally write my posts a day or two before, which just leaves publishing it when the time comes. I prefer it this way because then I am able to look over the post once more before I publish it.
8:00 A.M. — I woke up for my first class but was waiting for the stock market to open. I could already tell today wasn’t going to be a good day for me because I had put most of my money in Cannabis, and most of the Cannabis stocks were down pre-market.
8:30 A.M. — I was proven right, the stocks began dropping right off the bat. HEXO, one of the stocks that I owned dropped about 10 percent initially, but kept on spiraling lower.
** For most of the day today I did school work, I checked in a few times on my dropshipping site, one or two views, I plan to begin marketing it within the next day or two **
3:30 P.M. — For the day I booked around $300 losses and told my self that if I lose $150 more the next day I am going to sell all the stocks that I own in Cannabis
6:30 P.M. — I added more to my email marketing list, I am around 100+ emails currently. My goal is to be around 200 before I release, and add 25–50 per day. I believe the key to the success of the drop shipping is marketing, I may include a discount code for anyone who read my blog, www.ramenfreefinance.com, but the hope is to grow both of these platforms.
9:30 P.M. — I began looking for another way to make money online. This is how I arrived at blogging on Medium and drop shipping (investing was shown to me from my dad). Something that I am thinking about getting into is affiliate marketing, but I am not sure if that is worth the time that I will put into the marketing. Maybe if I tie it with the drop shipping that could help, but trying to sell too many things to a buyer is definitely going to reduce sales.
12:00 A.M. — Published this article.
Lesson of the Day: Don’t hold a stock before its earnings. It is definitely going to be volatile so make sure that if you do this, you know exactly what you are doing. Instead, I would wait until after the earnings and try to spot a trend.
3/31/30 — A Stock on Pause
9:00 A.M. — I wake up and log onto the stock market. I am making about $100, so even though I have not made back the $300 I had, it is something. There’s only one slight problem, of the stocks that I have $500 hasn’t changed at all. At first, I thought that maybe it’s just neutral today and not changing, so I don’t do anything about it. The company is CannTrust, ticker being CTST.
10:00 A.M. — I know something is up. The stock hasn’t changed in an hour and a half and so I dig around and there’s this article by PR Newswire that says “CannTrust Obtains Initial Order under Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (Canada).” I’m not going to pretend like I know what that means, but it sounded good for the company, so I really couldn’t understand why the stock was closed.
12:00 P.M. — My profits are beginning to decrease, from up $100, I’m now up $50. Still nothing on CannTrust. I really haven’t done anything for the blog yet, I’m going to write it later for my Wednesday post. I also want to try and finish my homework before tomorrow to focus on my dropshipping and blog email list, and create the email I want to send out.
2:00 P.M. — My profits continue to dwindle, I am at around $35, and it’s still dropping.
4:00 P.M. — An article comes out by Benzinga stating “CannTrust to be Delisted From NYSE and TSE.” That’s when I felt a bit panicked. Was I just going to lose the $500 that I had in it? I did some research and honestly really wasn’t any more satisfied with the answer I found. I’m going to wait until tomorrow and see what happens with the stock.
6:00 P.M. — Added a few more emails to my marketing list for launch tomorrow.
9:30 P.M. — Began writing my next article, “Dropshipping: A personal Guide” which you can check out at this link: http://ramenfreefinance.com/2020/04/dropshipping-a-personal-guide/
11:00 P.M. — Checked up on crude oil prices and the Dow Futures, which both were down 1 and 4 percent respectively but only tomorrow morning will tell the way the market is going to turn.
Lesson of the day — Another stock market lesson is to pay attention to warnings. I know this sounds obvious but there were a few rumors the CannTrust would be de-listed, and one of the requirements is that your share price needs to be above $1, and CannTrust was way below this, and I took arish because I thought I could win big. If any of you guys are investing just keep that in mind, don’t try to play poker with the market.
4/1/20 — The Fall Continues
12:00 A.M. — I posted my dropshipping article, to read it check out my profile. I then made two posts on LinkedIn, one with my blog article and the other with a link to my Shopify store, as a means to grow the audience.
4:00 A.M. — Finished my post for the Financial Journal publication and published it, and then went to bed
11:30 A.M. — I ended up going to bed quite late last night, so I woke up really late. I had an internship meeting from 1–2 to attend, so I checked stocks, ate breakfast, went for a shower and got ready for the meeting.
1:00 P.M. — I attended the internship meeting which talked about what our final project was to be. I had been doing this internship for the majority of the year, which was helping coursestars, a tutoring company with their marketing. Now it was time for the final project.
3:00 P.M. — I’d been so I checked the market and saw that I was losing $120 and there was no news on CannTrust. I considered selling but decided that I would wait one more day. If things are bad tomorrow I’m out of Cannabis. I took a risk and it obviously has not been paying off at all.
4:00 P.M. — I added some more people to my email list. I now have six lists with varying numbers, but my biggest has about 80 emails so there is really good progress being made there and hopefully it is enough for the launch tomorrow. I am trying to go to 300 emails for tomorrow, as an initial launch.
7:00 P.M. — Worked on the email for the launch. My thought process is this, the email needs to be simple but also convey a message that doesn’t make me look stupid. I’ve known most of these people as teachers, friends or students, which is why this is incredibly important, especially if I want them to continue checking out my website and buying things from my store. The email is not yet done, but it should be by tonight.
12:00 A.M. — I am going to have a Facetime for school at 8 A.M. tomorrow morning, so I posted the article and decided to go to sleep.
Photo by Chris Lawton on Unsplash
4/2/20 — The Postponing
8:00 A.M. — I woke up because I had a math class. I looked through some of the news in the morning. The coronavirus cases were reaching 1,000,000 cases worldwide, and there were some 6.6 million people that filed for unemployment benefits. The world and the United States were not in a good shape.
12:00 P.M. — I had a couple more classes and the works but I started adding emails to my email list.
1:30 P.M. — I ended up adding 150 emails within this time frame, and was really excited to send out the email within the hour. This led to a problem, I remembered that I did not have my email done. At this point, I had two options. I could either rush and finish it and then hope that it had a good impact on my intended audience, or wait until Monday and have a better email to send. I’d been waiting all week to send out the email today. I was psyched that hopefully at least 50 people would check out my dropshipping website, and maybe even a few buy some things. But, I thought about it for a bit, and realized that if I did not make a good impression on these customers, there was no chance they would come back. Hence, I decided that I would finish the email over the weekend as you know the saying “quality over quantity.”
4:00 P.M. — I checked the market and I made $50 in Cannabis today. Compared to my losses of some $300+, it is not a lot, but at least it is a start. My cannabis investing lives to see another day.
7:00 P.M. — I did some more investigating into Covid-19. One of the kids from my old school made a post about how people need help with their businesses now more than ever. I thought about some things that I could do to help, but also actually start my first small business. This is something that I had thought about for a while, but I never really got around to it thinking it was too hard or that I did not have enough time. Sadly, we did not come up with any ideas today. To me, it seems that everything is already taken, so I’m going to need to do a lot more thinking, especially if I want to help people during Covid-19.
12:00 A.M. — I didn’t really do much in business and finance I realize, but I know that this weekend is going to be a grind because I want to make 6–7 different emails to target different groups of people in my email list. Right now, I’m probably going to watch a movie and then call it a night.
Lesson: I think a really big lesson I learned is don’t try to hurry something up. I get if you had deadlines that you have to meet then of course, but if you’re doing something as a personal project, the quality is just more important.
4/3/20 — Epiphany?
10:00 A.M. — I woke up and looked at the market. Cannabis started the day up, so that looked like a good sign, and then I began scrolling through Medium. I looked at this one article on success, and there was this thing that successful people usually wake up early. I thought about that, and I was like, I’m waking up at 10 every day, does that mean I’m not going to be successful? I thought it couldn’t be true, so I did some research, and it turns out that most successful people wake up early. But, here’s my take. Most people don’t want to have billions. They think they do, but honestly, what are you going to do with billions. The chances of you being able to use a billion dollars are quite slim, if you think of a 1, followed by NINE zeroes. Let me put that into perspective. A common house item that I think most people have is a TV, and the average cost of one is $500. That means you can buy 2 million TV’s for that 1 billion. Personally, I don’t know what I would do with 20 TV’s, let alone 2 million. So the rich of the rich might wake up very early, but there are a lot of millionaires out there. For example, the people who made millions of Bitcoin didn’t seem like the people to have the same work ethic as the rich of the rich, and they are still doing quite well for themselves. That might have been a bit difficult to follow, but I think that waking up early doesn’t define success. Thank you for listening to my Ted Talk.
12:00 P.M. — I added about 70 more emails to my list, I’m really excited about the launch on Monday. If you have any questions reach out at [email protected].
2:00 P.M. — Added another 60 emails. It was a really good idea to add emails because even though it takes a long time, it’s a really good way to reach people and make what you’re saying heard.
8:00 P.M. — Finished the email, and have a picture linked below. I kept sending a test email to myself but I could not find it. I sent three more, and still was wondering why it wasn’t sending. Then I checked my spam mailbox, and they were all there. At first, I thought it would be an easy fix, but then realized that I would need to do a lot more digging, after seeing three was something called the CAN-SPAM Act, and some other rules. This is going to take longer than I thought.
Lesson of the day: Always expect some things can throw you of course. I know this sounds like another thing everyone should know, but I’ll give you some more. See sometimes the things that take you of course, are what you need to think about and potentially re-focus too, and then maybe you shall have the clarity you need.
4/4/20 — Re-Thinking
1:00 P.M. — I woke up just now. If you want to know why I wake up so late, check out my last article: https://medium.com/@aryandgandhi/4-3-20-epiphany-8612db76b8e. Anyway, the stock market wasn’t open so I just chilled in the morning and then went for a shower. During my shower, I thought about some business opportunities during this pandemic. About a year ago, I started my own blog, and then a few days ago my own store. At a time like this, the world does not need another blog or another store, hence the brainstorming. I am sad to report that today was not fruitful in thinking of anything, but I am going to continue. I also encourage you to think about what kind of businesses you could start to help the world during the Covid-19 outbreak.
4:00 P.M. — I wrote my blog post for tomorrow, No B.S. Kellogg, which analyzes the company Kellogg and talks about a few interesting facts about it. It will be up by the end of the day tomorrow.
6:00 P.M. — Added a few more emails to my list in anticipation of the release on Monday. If you want to be added to the list, just fill out the form below or comment your email. I thenbegan creating the email and finished, but ran into a small problem. When I was importing the people into the email it did not work, and so that is something that I am going to figure out. Another thing is that the email is being sent straight to spam so that is something that I need to work on.
10:00 P.M. — Tried figuring out the spam and the uploading the people, but it did not work, I am going to spend the next day figuring that out.
Lesson: Take the opportunities around you and make the best of them. This global pandemic is horrible for everyone, but there are always things you can do to help and opportunities to act on. Always keep that in mind.
Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash
4/5/20 — Ready Set Go!
12:00 P.M. — I woke up and went through Medium and checked the live Covid-19 case count. I usually check this 4–5 times in a day to see what is happening around the world in terms of this pandemic. I would recommend this to everyone as well, as it keeps you aware of what is happening and can allow you to act accordingly.
1:00 P.M. — I really wanted to figure out the problem that I talked about in my last article, and so I worked on Mailchimp for a while. I sent the email to a few friends and it did not go in their spam, which was a good sign. I sent the email to myself 4–5 times, and 2 of those times it went into my spam mailbox. I also changed up the font and parts of the email. As it turns out, pictures are sometimes blocked when sending such emails, so I edited my content to make sure that none of the pictures were referenced.
3:00 P.M. — Finished the email and uploaded the contact in anticipation of sending out the email tomorrow. I will let everyone know the statistics that arise after I send out the email tomorrow.
5:00 P.M. — Published my article No B.S. Kellogg which looks at the company Kellogg during this pandemic, and talks about the stock price and the future of the company.
9:00 P.M. — Thought more about what business to start during the pandemic. I thought about two ideas. One was a type of toilet paper business, but that seemed unsustainable. People were very hyped up about it for a brief time, but the hype has or is in the process of dying around it. The other idea has something to do with a cure for Covid-19, which would be very lucrative, but I do not have close to enough experience in anything related to biology and diseases.
11:00 P.M. — I added a few more emails in preparation of tomorrow, and got ready for school as I had my 8.00 A.M. class.
Lesson: The lesson for today is persistence. To me, the Mailchimp email that I was going to send out really annoyed me. I was really close to deleting it, but decided against it because I had put in a lot of work. Turns out after one more hour spent I figured everything out and was ready to test. Sometimes if you are close to giving up, then just look at the problem from a different angle and chances are it will work out.
4/6/20 — The Calls
8:00 A.M. — I woke up to sign in to math and then after class I went to sleep.
10:30 A.M. — I woke up again for my Advanced Programming class which started at 11 and showered before.
12:30 P.M. — I started my college counseling meeting.
2:30 P.M. — I finished my college counseling meeting and sent out the emails to 120 people.
5:00 P.M. — A few days ago someone reached out to me on Linkedin and asked to set up a time to talk to me about the opportunity. I called him at five and we talked about who we both were, and he started off by giving me a homework assignment and a book to read. At the moment, part of me feels like this is not really a legit opportunity, but at the same time if it is, I don’t want to lose it. I am going to continue to work with this person and see where it leads me.
5:30 P.M. — As it turns out, I got 111 opens, which is quite impressive. Over 90% of the people that I sent out the email too opened it, which to me is quite impressive. On the other hand, only seven people clicked on the links that were in the email. This was not as high as I had hoped, but I shall learn more in terms of how to create better and more directed email campaigns.
7:00 P.M. — Similarly, another husband and wife pair reached out to me and we did something quite similar. We talked about each other, our backgrounds and then went into talking a bit about our personal lives. At the end of the call, the wife sent me a document by email that I should read which would explain to me different aspects of the business world. While it seems interesting, I am still a bit skeptical on where it is going to lead.
9:00 P.M. — Added more emails from another school to an email list. I am very excited about this emailing idea, it seems like a very good way to market.
Lesson: Never close a door (in terms of opportunity). Almost 60% of me feels like these two calls are fake and they have some ulterior motive. Don’t get me wrong, they are very nice people, but that is a gut feeling I have. At the same time, on the 40% chance that I am wrong, this could be an amazing opportunity for me. As long as you are not putting yourself in danger, always try to keep all your doors open.
4/7/20 — The Day of the Mindset
10:00 A.M. — I woke up and wrote my blog post for tomorrow, called The Mindset. If you want to read it check back in with my profile tomorrow, but here is a quick summary. I was recently reached out via LinkedIn and asked to read A Business in the 21st century, a book by Robert Kiyosaki. The book was recently interesting, but I want to talk about one thing that really stood out to me, called the Cashflow Quadrant. The Cashflow Quadrant is split into four parts, E, S, B and I, each which represents a different type of job that people hold. All jobs/ work titles can be put under one of these four parts of the quadrant. I wrote about this because I found it really informative, and wanted to share what I thought about it. I am nowhere close to an expert on it, so I also wanted to know people’s thoughts on the Cashflow Quadrant, and their experiences with it.
1:00 P.M. — I added another school with emails to the list.
3:30 P.M. — I sent out another mass email to 103 and recipients. About 25 of them were friends, and the rest were faculty at a high school. I will report the numbers soon. The stock market started up over 900 points, but by the end of the day ended down 26 points. The market is very volatile right now and what’s happening with Covid-19 does not show signs of slowing down, so investing is very risky in my opinion.
5:30 P.M. — I think I am going to make a book of all of these at one point. I think it can offer insights into mistakes and how I am growing the business that I want to. I am not sure how or when I am going to begin combining them, but it is just a thought at the time.
9:00 P.M. — Thought about some jobs that I could get over the summer. I was an intern at Caterpillar last year, but I don’t know how that will fare this year. One option I have is to work at Hy-Vee, but I’m not sure if my parents will let me apply due to Covid-19.
Lesson: Work smart, not hard. I read a little bit of the book and then had then watched a youtube summary on it. A book that would have taken me 7+ hours, I finished in under an hour, and I got the general meaning of. Don’t be afraid to take a shortcut at times, there is a reason they exist, and they aren’t all too bad.
4/8/20 — The Second Meeting
10:00 A.M. — I woke up and told my self I would put my business projects on hold until I finished studying for my math test. This was the one class that I had to worry about, so I put all my work into studying for the next few hours.
2:00 P.M. — I added the Dunlap Grade school to an email list, and I sent out another email to 100 teachers between two elementary schools. I am going to start sending out emails every three days as opposed to every day and add one school a day to an email list.
4:00 P.M. — I publish my post called The Mindset. Check it out here, it talks about what I learned from Robert Kiyosaki’s Business in the 21st Century.
5:00 P.M. — I had a few school meetings and hung out with the family.
9:30 P.M. — I had my second meeting with my “mentor,” and it was quite interesting. First, we only planned on going from 9:30 P.M. — 10 P.M. but went until 10:45 P.M. as I wanted to hear more about this opportunity. It was a multi-level marketing opportunity, where I would start a business and the team supporting me would make a profit through a company called Amway. This company seems legit, but I still have a few doubts. First, why me? I’m a high school student, and this man is spending 2–3 hours a week working with me, so why. Wouldn’t it be easier to work with an adult as opposed to me? Then, of course, is this team he keeps saying I am going to meet. He said in a week or two I would get to meet the team, so I am not going to make judgments yet, but if this opportunity is legit, I will be very excited.
4/9/20 — The Haircutter
8:00 A.M. — I wake up for my first class, as I have classes all morning.
12:00 P.M. — I took a shower, but here is the thing, I decided to cut my own hair. It was a spur of the moment decision, my dad had one of those hair clippers, and I took it and shaved everywhere but the top. The obvious reason? I was bored and wanted a change, but this got me thinking. Before I started cutting my own hair a few months ago, I would always go to this one Asian male at Great Clips. We would always have productive conversations because he was an art teacher who was also very interested in doing side hustles. I know one of the things he did was illustrate the images in a Chemistry textbook which netted him around 2–3 grand. While I was cutting my hair today, I realized that he really did have an influence on me. He was a married man with kids, but he still found time to cut hair, be an art teacher and illustrate a chemistry textbook. That’s how I know that at this age especially, the side hustles that I want to accomplish are possible.
3:00 P.M. — Added another email to the list, I am going to send out an email tomorrow marketing the blog to around one hundred more people. Take a look at this article: to know how my last email session went.
6:00 P.M. — I was supposed to have a meeting with another MLM person, but thanks to the advice of Prickly Pam and Kim McKinney, I was able to avoid what could have been a huge waste of my time. Thank you!
9:00 P.M. — I looked through my portfolio, and it was quite concentrated in Cannabis. I decided that sometime next week I would t my losses of some $400, and put it into Boeing or United Airlines. I see a strong rebound in airline stocks, so I am waiting to see if Covid-19 will become worse and invest based on that.
Photo by Eugene Chystiakov on Unsplash
4/10/20 — Pyramid Selling
12:00 P.M. — I woke up and fixed my hair and showered.
2:00 P.M. — I did more research on network marketing. In my other articles I talked about my personal experiences, but here is what I found. Multi-level marketing (can be called pyramid selling) is a marketing strategy in which you sell products, and receive a commission for every person whose products you sell that you recruit. To me, this sounded very much like a pyramid scheme, but as it turns out, there is a difference. A pyramid scheme is where more emphasis is placed on the recruitment of others, as this makes more and more money for the people at the top. Multi-Level Marketing is when more emphasis is placed on selling, and recruitment just happens along the way. Looking at it, they both seem to be very similar and so I believe that I made the right decision by staying away from such a scheme.
5:00 P.M. — I added another school to my email list, as I planned on sending the email out, but between cutting my hair and showering I decided that I would do it Monday.
7:00 P.M. — With AP tests coming up and also wanting to pick up juggling, I decided that I would take the weekend slow. I will still publish the next two days, but there won’t be much to report because I realized with all this time on my hands I want to pick up some new stuff. Dancing is also on my list, I suck at it, but I want to get much better. Let me know what you guys want to improve on below.
Lesson: This more advice than a lesson, pick up something to do. I don’t care what it is, magic, investing or cup stacking, pick something and learn it. I can guarantee that this will make you feel good and will also keep your brain on edge, as you keep learning.
4/11/20 — Mass Emailing
12:00 P.M. — I woke up.
4:00 P.M. — As I said, I was going to take it easy this weekend, so I decided to just add emails to my list. As I was adding them, I thought about how there had to be an easier way to do this. I mean, thinking about it, I could write a pretty basic program to scan a website and get the emails. I’m nowhere close to a good programmer, so I thought of just looking at the string with the @ symbol on the page and then printing that. While this would take a lot of time initially, by the end of the week or two it should be much easier to extract emails.
7:00 P.M. — Wrote my article for tomorrow, No B.S. Las Vegas Sands. In the article, I focus on three main topics: a brief description of the company, of the stock price and then a few interesting facts. If interested, it will be posted by 3:00 P.M. CST.
Lesson: Take breaks. This morning I fixed my lawnmower, and did some outdoor work and it felt really nice. Don’t always be on the grind, or you’re going to fail soon.
4/12/20 — Las Vegas Sands
10:00 A.M. — Woke up and lied in bed.
3:00 P.M. — Published No B.S. Las Vegas Sands, it was an interesting company to learn about.
5:00 P.M. — Worked a bit on my email program, but manually added 70 emails to my list.
Lesson: For today, it is more of a recommendation, but something I was watching on Netflix was called Dirty Money, which is a show about corruption and lying in money.
4/13/20 — Easter Monday
11:00 A.M. — I woke up, and was going to send out a mass email, but since schools are closed I decided to wait until tomorrow. Below is a screenshot of my email:
1:00 P.M. — As today is Easter Monday, I decided that for this article I would put together a list of my most interesting facts from my no B.S. section, which analyzes a company and gives investing recommendations.
Here I have compiled a list of facts of multiple companies and articles to them:
Aurora Cannabis:
The largest Cannabis acquisition in history occurred in mid-2018 when Aurora Cannabis purchased Canni-Med for $1.1 Billion.
They have a market valuation of $1.7 Billion.
The company was founded in 2006 by Terry Booth, Steve Dobler, Dale Lesack and Chris Mayerson, of which Booth and Steve Dobler each invested $5 million+ of their own capital
AMD:
So far, AMD has had 5 C.E.O’s, of which three have been electrical engineers, the longest being Jerry Sanders, who was the founder from 1969–2002
The market capitalization of A.M.D is $54.3 Billion
There are 200 million+ gaming consoles that AMD powers, so chances are, one of your gaming consoles are AMD powered.
British Petroleum:
In 1967, BP spilled some 32 million gallons of crude oil into the Atlantic, and gaining the title of Britain’s largest oil spill.
BP has a market capitalization of $131.6 billion.
With a revenue of around 307 million and 75,000 employees, BP has a revenue of 4.1 million per employee.
Cheesecake Factory:
In 2010, it was rated the worst family restaurant in America by Men’s Health magazine because it served high caloric and high-fat foods.
The Cheesecake Factory has a market capitalization of 1.75B.
The company donates more than 500,000 pounds of food each year to the Harvest Food Donation program and works with Feeding America and the Salvation Army to provide an annual Thanksgiving Day Feast for those in need.
Delta Airlines:
It actually applied for bankruptcy on September 14th, 2005, because of the rising cost of fuel, but in April of 2007 managed to last for two years and was re-enlisted in the New York stock exchange.
The market capitalization is $38.98 Billion
As of December 5th, 2019, Delta was the leading airline in terms of revenue serving 200 million people and taking customers to 300+ locations in over 50 countries.
Eventbrite:
Eventbrite hosts events in 170+ countries, which means it’s in 87.1% of countries in the world
The market capitalization of Eventbrite is 1.9B
Eventbrite was founded by 3 people, two of whom were married, Julia Hartz and Kevin Hartz.
Fitbit:
The 10,000 step fit-bit goal isn’t random, if the goal is met, then the person did at least 30 minutes of physical activity that day, which adds up to the CDC’s recommended 150 minutes per week.
The market capitalization of Fitbit is 1.74B.
The founders of Fitbit were inspired by the ability of the motion sensor on the Nintendo Wii to track movements of people as they played in games such as Just Dance.
General Electric:
Two employees of GE, Irving Langmuir and Ivar Giaever, won the Nobel Prize in 1932 and 1973 respectively.
The market capitalization of GE is 106.99B.
In 2011, GE was ranked as the 14th most profitable company in the world out of the Fortune 500.
GrubHub:
In 2006, Maloney and Evans won first place in the University of Chicago Booth School of Business’s Edward L.
The market capitalization of GrubHub is $4.22 Billion.
GrubHub is in over 3,200 cities and growing.
Hexo:
With over 1,100 employees, Hexo is the fourth largest compared to other Cannabis companies.
Hexo has a market capitalization of $310.392 million.
Hexo hopes to bring its earnings to positive as Cannabis 2.0 becomes more and more widesprea
Harley Davidson:
They recently began construction of a new plant in Thailand in 2018, its fourth international plant.
They have a market capitalization of $3.23 billion.
For about two decades, from the 1960s to the 1980s, Harley Davidson actually produced three and four-wheel golf cars.
Intel:
Intel has its own museum that is located in its headquarters in Santa Clara California, with over 85,000 visitors per year.
They have a market capitalization of $196.015 billion.
Intel has a philanthropic branch called the Intel foundation that has donated $80 million to California schools and nonprofits.
JCPenney:
The founder of JCPenney actually started a butcher business before he founded JCPenney.
JCPenney has a market capitalization of $123.36 Million.
The founder of Walmart, Sam Walton once worked for JCPenney.
Kellogg:
Almost all of their cereal boxes are made from recycled paperboard, which is similar to cardboard, except with only one layer.
They have a market valuation of $21.78 Billion.
The mascot of Kellogg, Tony the Tiger, was actually created in 1951.
Photo by Daniel von Appen on Unsplash
There you have it, stay tuned for more!
Check out the blog: http://ramenfreefinance.com/
Get a free e-book: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdoY3-hEG5vG4l_ryfMN9L-RFJjsRadxdIOD9aD1e4e4-wg2g/viewform?usp=sf_link | https://medium.com/never-fear/two-weeks-with-a-teen-entrepreneur-3ae5822c760 | ['Aryan Gandhi'] | 2020-05-19 19:00:48.421000+00:00 | ['Business', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Startup', 'Life', 'Finance'] |
Automating Multi-Environment Kubernetes Virtual Clusters with Google Cloud DNS, Auth0, and Istio 1.0 | Kubernetes supports multiple virtual clusters within the same physical cluster. These virtual clusters are called Namespaces. Namespaces are a way to divide cluster resources between multiple users. Many enterprises use Namespaces to divide the same physical Kubernetes cluster into different virtual software development environments as part of their overall Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC). This practice is commonly used in ‘lower environments’ or ‘non-prod’ (not Production) environments. These environments commonly include Continous Integration and Delivery (CI/CD), Development, Integration, Testing/Quality Assurance (QA), User Acceptance Testing (UAT), Staging, Demo, and Hotfix. Namespaces provide a basic form of what is referred to as soft multi-tenancy.
Generally, the security boundaries and performance requirements between non-prod environments, within the same enterprise, are less restrictive than Production or Disaster Recovery (DR) environments. This allows for multi-tenant environments, while Production and DR are normally single-tenant environments. In order to approximate the performance characteristics of Production, the Performance Testing environment is also often isolated to a single-tenant. A typical enterprise would minimally have a non-prod, performance, production, and DR environment.
Using Namespaces to create virtual separation on the same physical Kubernetes cluster provides enterprises with more efficient use of virtual compute resources, reduces Cloud costs, eases the management burden, and often expedites and simplifies the release process.
Demonstration
In this post, we will re-examine the topic of virtual clusters, similar to the recent post, Managing Applications Across Multiple Kubernetes Environments with Istio: Part 1 and Part 2. We will focus specifically on automating the creation of the virtual clusters on GKE with Istio 1.0, managing the Google Cloud DNS records associated with the cluster’s environments, and enabling both HTTPS and token-based OAuth access to each environment. We will use the Storefront API for our demonstration, featured in the previous three posts, including Building a Microservices Platform with Confluent Cloud, MongoDB Atlas, Istio, and Google Kubernetes Engine.
Source Code
The source code for this post may be found on the gke branch of the storefront-kafka-docker GitHub repository.
https://github.com/garystafford/storefront-kafka-docker.git git clone --branch gke --single-branch --depth 1 --no-tags \
Source code samples in this post are displayed as GitHub Gists, which may not display correctly on all mobile and social media browsers, such as LinkedIn.
This project contains all the code to deploy and configure the GKE cluster and Kubernetes resources.
To follow along, you will need to register your own domain, arrange for an Auth0, or alternative, authentication and authorization service, and obtain an SSL/TLS certificate.
SSL/TLS Wildcard Certificate
In the recent post, Securing Your Istio Ingress Gateway with HTTPS, we examined how to create and apply an SSL/TLS certificate to our GKE cluster, to secure communications. Although we are only creating a non-prod cluster, it is more and more common to use SSL/TLS everywhere, especially in the Cloud. For this post, I have registered a single wildcard certificate, *.api.storefront-demo.com. This certificate will cover the three second-level subdomains associated with the virtual clusters: dev.api.storefront-demo.com, test.api.storefront-demo.com, and uat.api.storefront-demo.com. Setting the environment name, such as dev.* , as the second-level subdomain of my storefront-demo domain, following the first level api.* subdomain, makes the use of a wildcard certificate much easier.
As shown below, my wildcard certificate contains the Subject Name and Subject Alternative Name (SAN) of *.api.storefront-demo.com. For Production, api.storefront-demo.com, I prefer to use a separate certificate.
Create GKE Cluster
With your certificate in hand, create the non-prod Kubernetes cluster. Below, the script creates a minimally-sized, three-node, multi-zone GKE cluster, running on GCP, with Kubernetes Engine cluster version 1.11.5-gke.5 and Istio on GKE version 1.0.3-gke.0. I have enabled the master authorized networks option to secure my GKE cluster master endpoint. For the demo, you can add your own IP address CIDR on line 9 (i.e. 1.2.3.4/32 ), or remove lines 30–31 to remove the restriction (gist).
Lines 16–39: Create a 3-node, multi-zone GKE cluster with Istio;
Line 48: Creates three non-prod Namespaces: dev, test, and uat;
Lines 51–53: Enable Istio automatic sidecar injection within each Namespace;
If successful, the results should look similar to the output, below.
The cluster will contain a pool of three minimally-sized VMs, the Kubernetes nodes.
Deploying Resources
The Istio Gateway and three ServiceEntry resources are the primary resources responsible for routing the traffic from the ingress router to the Services, within the multiple Namespaces. Both of these resource types are new to Istio 1.0 (gist).
Lines 9–16: Port config that only accepts HTTPS traffic on port 443 using TLS;
Lines 18–20: The three subdomains being routed to the non-prod GKE cluster;
Lines 28, 63, 98: The three subdomains being routed to the non-prod GKE cluster;
Lines 39, 47, 65, 74, 82, 90, 109, 117, 125: Routing to FQDN of Storefront API Services within the three Namespaces;
Next, deploy the Istio and Kubernetes resources to the new GKE cluster. For the sake of brevity, we will deploy the same number of instances and the same version of each the three Storefront API services (Accounts, Orders, Fulfillment) to each of the three non-prod environments (dev, test, uat). In reality, you would have varying numbers of instances of each service, and each environment would contain progressive versions of each service, as part of the SDLC of each microservice(gist).
Lines 13–14: Deploy the SSL/TLS certificate and the private key;
Line 17: Deploy the Istio Gateway and three ServiceEntry resources;
Lines 20–22: Deploy the Istio Authentication Policy resources each Namespace;
Lines 26–37: Deploy the same set of resources to the dev, test, and uat Namespaces;
The deployed Storefront API Services should look as follows.
Google Cloud DNS
Next, we need to enable DNS access to the GKE cluster using Google Cloud DNS. According to Google, Cloud DNS is a scalable, reliable and managed authoritative Domain Name System (DNS) service running on the same infrastructure as Google. It has low latency, high availability, and is a cost-effective way to make your applications and services available to your users.
Whenever a new GKE cluster is created, a new Network Load Balancer is also created. By default, the load balancer’s front-end is an external IP address.
Using a forwarding rule, traffic directed at the external IP address is redirected to the load balancer’s back-end. The load balancer’s back-end is comprised of three VM instances, which are the three Kubernete nodes in the GKE cluster.
If you are following along with this post’s demonstration, we will assume you have a domain registered and configured with Google Cloud DNS. I am using the storefront-demo.com domain, which I have used in the last three posts to demonstrate Istio and GKE.
Google Cloud DNS has a fully functional web console, part of the Google Cloud Console. However, using the Cloud DNS web console is impractical in a DevOps CI/CD workflow, where Kubernetes clusters, Namespaces, and Workloads are ephemeral. Therefore we will use the following script. Within the script, we reset the IP address associated with the A records for each non-prod subdomains associated with storefront-demo.com domain (gist).
Lines 23–25: Find the previous load balancer’s front-end IP address;
Lines 27–29: Find the new load balancer’s front-end IP address;
Line 35: Start the Cloud DNS transaction;
Lines 37–47: Add the DNS record changes to the transaction;
Line 49: Execute the Cloud DNS transaction;
The outcome of the script is shown below. Note how changes are executed as part of a transaction, by automatically creating a transaction.yaml file. The file contains the six DNS changes, three additions and three deletions. The command executes the transaction and then deletes the transaction.yaml file.
> sh ./part3_set_cloud_dns.sh Old LB IP Address: 35.193.208.115
New LB IP Address: 35.238.196.231 Transaction started [transaction.yaml]. dev.api.storefront-demo.com.
Record removal appended to transaction at [transaction.yaml].
Record addition appended to transaction at [transaction.yaml]. test.api.storefront-demo.com.
Record removal appended to transaction at [transaction.yaml].
Record addition appended to transaction at [transaction.yaml]. uat.api.storefront-demo.com.
Record removal appended to transaction at [transaction.yaml].
Record addition appended to transaction at [transaction.yaml]. Executed transaction [transaction.yaml] for managed-zone [storefront-demo-com-zone].
Created [https://www.googleapis.com/dns/v1/projects/gke-confluent-atlas/managedZones/storefront-demo-com-zone/changes/53]. ID START_TIME STATUS
55 2019-01-16T04:54:14.984Z pending
Based on my own domain and cluster details, the transaction.yaml file looks as follows. Again, note the six DNS changes, three additions, followed by three deletions (gist).
Confirm DNS Changes
Use the dig command to confirm the DNS records are now correct and that DNS propagation has occurred. The IP address returned by dig should be the external IP address assigned to the front-end of the Google Cloud Load Balancer.
> dig dev.api.storefront-demo.com +short
35.238.196.231
Or, all the three records.
echo \
"dev.api.storefront-demo.com
" \
"test.api.storefront-demo.com
" \
"uat.api.storefront-demo.com" \
> records.txt | dig -f records.txt +short 35.238.196.231
35.238.196.231
35.238.196.231
Optionally, more verbosely by removing the +short option.
> dig +nocmd dev.api.storefront-demo.com ;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 30763
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1 ;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 512
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;dev.api.storefront-demo.com. IN A ;; ANSWER SECTION:
dev.api.storefront-demo.com. 299 IN A 35.238.196.231 ;; Query time: 27 msec
;; SERVER: 8.8.8.8#53(8.8.8.8)
;; WHEN: Wed Jan 16 18:00:49 EST 2019
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 72
The resulting records in the Google Cloud DNS management console should look as follows.
JWT-based Authentication
As discussed in the previous post, Istio End-User Authentication for Kubernetes using JSON Web Tokens (JWT) and Auth0, it is typical to limit restrict access to the Kubernetes cluster, Namespaces within the cluster, or Services running within Namespaces to end-users, whether they are humans or other applications. In that previous post, we saw an example of applying a machine-to-machine (M2M) Istio Authentication Policy to only the uat Namespace. This scenario is common when you want to control access to resources in non-production environments, such as UAT, to outside test teams, accessing the uat Namespace through an external application. To simulate this scenario, we will apply the following Istio Authentication Policy to the uat Namespace. (gist).
For the dev and test Namespaces, we will apply an additional, different Istio Authentication Policy. This policy will protect against the possibility of dev and test M2M API consumers interfering with uat M2M API consumers and vice-versa. Below is the dev and test version of the Policy (gist).
Testing Authentication
Using Postman, with the ‘Bearer Token’ type authentication method, as detailed in the previous post, a call a Storefront API resource in the uat Namespace should succeed. This also confirms DNS and HTTPS are working properly.
The dev and test Namespaces require different authentication. Trying to use no Authentication, or authenticating as a UAT API consumer, will result in a 401 Unauthorized HTTP status, along with the Origin authentication failed. error message.
Conclusion
In this brief post, we demonstrated how to create a GKE cluster with Istio 1.0.x, containing three virtual clusters, or Namespaces. Each Namespace represents an environment, which is part of an application’s SDLC. We enforced HTTP over TLS (HTTPS) using a wildcard SSL/TLS certificate. We also enforced end-user authentication using JWT-based OAuth 2.0 with Auth0. Lastly, we provided user-friendly DNS routing to each environment, using Google Cloud DNS. Short of a fully managed API Gateway, like Apigee, and automating the execution of the scripts with Jenkins or Spinnaker, this cluster is ready to provide a functional path to Production for developing our Storefront API.
All opinions expressed in this post are my own and not necessarily the views of my current or past employers or their clients.
Originally published at programmaticponderings.com on January 12, 2019. | https://garystafford.medium.com/automating-multi-environment-kubernetes-virtual-clusters-with-cloud-dns-and-istio-885e598b345b | ['Gary A. Stafford'] | 2019-01-20 19:17:14.407000+00:00 | ['Istio', 'Google Cloud Platform', 'Kubernetes', 'Microservices', 'Cloud Native'] |
Is the gold bull run about to resume? | Trading outlook:With a negative steer from the dollar re-engaging, gold is once more struggling to regain its safe haven bias. However, the technical correction target has been met and response to a breach of support has been encouraging for the bulls. We still look for confirmation of renewed bull control, but signs are beginning to look encouraging once more.
Fundamentals/Newsflow
We posed he question of whether gold was regaining its safe haven status yesterday. It seems to have been too early in this suggestion, as yesterday’s sharp intraday move lower amidst a risk sell-off would attest. What is more notable from our charts is that there is a battle of safe haven versus negative dollar correlation for gold right now. With the dollar acting as a safe haven, this is pulling uncertain moves on gold versus its correlations.
There is little real reliable correlation for gold with the US 10 year Treasury yield. This would suggest that gold is not trading as a safe haven, for now.
The correlation of gold and equities has been broadly positive in recent weeks. Gold fell over last week and this has begun to be met by weakness in equities. Both trading higher today suggests that there is a continuation of the positive correlation, which shows little sign of ending yet.
Moves against the dollar look to be back in negative alignment in recent sessions.
On relative performance, gold picking up again today as the risk end of the forex major spectrum outperforms today (especially AUD and NZD), would again suggest that gold is not trading as a safe haven, but more on a negative correlation to the dollar.
Even though the slide back in price has begun, we see the risk is still only of a near term correction which we would see as a chance to buy. WE REMAIN MEDIUM TERM BULLISH ON GOLD. With real yields expected to remain low and negative with the massive easing of monetary policy, we expect gold to remain supported.
Support
$1679 — intraday low, 22nd April low
$1671 — near term pivot, old 7th April high
$1660–21st April low
Resistance
$1702 — old March key high — pivot
$1717–17th April high
$1738–16th April high
Technical Analysis
The drift lower on gold has continued early this week, but a positive reaction this morning will have the bulls sitting up and taking notice.
We have been discussing support from a pivot at $1671 recently. This was breached on an intraday basis yesterday, but this move appears to have been a false breakdown. A continuation of a move higher this morning is putting pressure on the key pivot resistance at $1702 once more. Given the recent run lower, whilst the market remains stuck under $1702 resistance, there will still be a corrective bias. However, we have been looking for renewed buy signals recently, and something could now be close.
We remain medium term buyers into near term weakness. With the implied target of $1666/$1671 from a top pattern completed below $1706 now having been achieved, the next technical signals are forming. This gives rise to the potential that the corrective move may now have played out in its entirety. The fact that the market breached the pivot support at $1671 and then reacted almost instantly higher is encouraging. The daily chart stopped short of forming a bull hammer yesterday but the candlestick closed well off the day low and implies a potential turning of sentiment. However, there needs to be a break back above $1702 to really suggest the bulls are back in control again.
This is a market that needs confirmation that the corrective move is done. Hourly RSI is edging higher again, but needs to be consistently above 60 (and ideally above 70) to reflect bull control. Furthermore, hourly MACD lines need to be decisively and consistently above neutral. But most important is the price breaking out above $1702 again (and holding the move). This would confirm the break of a run of lower highs and change the near term trend positive again. | https://medium.com/@HantecMarkets/is-the-gold-bull-run-about-to-resume-9545e162c36c | ['Hantec Markets'] | 2020-04-22 11:02:32.887000+00:00 | ['Trade', 'Technical Analysis', 'Gold', 'Currency Exchange', 'Forex'] |
Bill Gates, I Want the Following in My Vaccine. | Bill Gates, I Want the Following in My Vaccine.
I hear you’re going to change my DNA and track me. I have some requests.
Photo by CDC on Unsplash
Hi Bill! Big fan of the computers. And the vaccine. Big fan. Look, I’m not here to talk to you about privacy and stuff. I already know I have none. I have an iPhone and Facebook and an Alexa and Google and probably some other shit I’m not aware of.
So I’m not worried about you “knowing” stuff. In fact, good for you. You seem late in the game. It’s nice to see you coming into your own.
Anyway, a man I knew who was living illegally in Nicaragua and got a tattoo in an outdoor bar with a dirt floor — who never used condoms because he said they were too small and hurt him — has alerted me to the fact that you are going to put tracking devices in the vaccine. You might even change our DNA.
So I have some requests.
I know you’ll have the real info, but can you like, pretend I go to Bali every summer? Can you do me a solid and just make it look like I’m going to super cool places all the time? I really just go to work and go home. On Fridays, I hang out with friends. Saturday, I go on Tinder and meet up with someone who I will be disappointed in and refuse to fuck.
Just spice it up. You know, make it seem like I have a really fun life.
Also, I have another feature request. Please alter my DNA for the following:
Risk of breast cancer on my mom’s side. Please remove at your earliest convenience.
Mental health issues on both sides. Please remove my anxiety and the occasional bouts of depression that make me feel like a walking ghost in my own life.
Alcoholism on my dad’s side. You know, I thought they were just really fun, but as I get older, I think some of them might have a problem.
The tendency I have to cry after sex. I don’t know if there’s a gene for that, but just go ahead and lop that off. Also, when I drink, I tend to want to swim in the ocean and set things on fire. I’m not entirely sure, but I’m pretty sure it’s the same gene. So just switch that up, because I think something is loose in the “fun gene” department.
Male-pattern baldness. I’m a woman, so it probably won’t effect me, but you know. The children I might have.
I might think of some others. Please take this request seriously, as I truly do want the vaccine to protect myself from COVID, but, you know, if I can take care of multiple things in one go, I would love to.
And don’t tell me you can’t. The YouTube video shared to me by a woman who transports cocaine to music festivals via her vagina was very convincing. | https://medium.com/are-you-okay/bill-gates-i-want-the-following-in-my-vaccine-63f516648066 | ['Lisa Martens'] | 2020-12-18 16:06:44.488000+00:00 | ['Vaccines', 'Satire', 'Covid 19', 'Humor', 'Bill Gates'] |
Handling stress as a full-time caregiver | by: E.B. Johnson
Life throws a lot of curve balls our way, and there are few events least expected than becoming the full-time caregiver of a partner or a parent. It’s not really a role we think about much as we’re growing up, or falling in love with someone. Blame it on our humanity. It’s much easier to stay focused on the positive, instead of preparing for a future we’d rather not imagine.
Although you didn’t plan for it, you may have found yourself caring for a loved one who is no longer able to care for themselves in a full way. This is one of the most noble roles we can take on, and it transforms us (and our compassion) in innumerable ways. Being the full -time carer of someone is not an easy task, however. If we don’t also take care of ourselves, we can wind up burnt out, miserable, and broken in our own ways.
Caring for self is caring for others.
Becoming someone’s caregiver is a hard choice that is sometimes made out of necessity and always out of love. We have to care for someone deeply to take care of someone on such a real level. After all, taking care of ourselves is a full-time job on its own and one that many of us struggle with. There are few things more noble than committing to being there for someone in this way, but it’s a hard road to travel…especially when you don’t look after yourself well.
In order to be the best possible caretaker we can for our loved ones, we have to remember to love and care for ourselves. As caretakers, we are responsible for both someone else’s welfare and our own. Just because you’ve committed to putting things like a job on hold doesn’t mean you can stop taking care of your body and your spirit.
Failing to commit to a self-care routine, or failing to ask for help, can result in a serious level of burnout that’s hard to overcome. When we burnout, we become emotionally volatile and physically weak. We can’t be as present as we need to be for our loved one, because we’re not even present inside. There’s nothing wrong with taking time for yourself and recharging. It’s the only way, in fact, that you can last for the long-haul and ensure that your loved one has the care they need to lead a happy life.
Undeniable signs of caregiver burnout.
Are you beginning to lose interest in the things you once loved? Are you diving into risky behavior in order to hide unhappiness, or even just to keep your head above water? You could be experiencing caregiver burnout. If you want to keep helping the one you love, you have to confront it and find ways to work through it.
Losing interest in joy
What is your life like on a day-to-day basis? A great deal of your time will be spent looking after your loved one, but what do you do for yourself? Do you still have things that you’re passionate about? Hobbies you pursue? Losing interest in joy and the things (and people) we once loved is one of the most common and telling signs that we may be confronting caregiver burnout and a need to nurture our physical and emotional bodies.
Insomnia and sleep issues
Insomnia and sleep issues are a common sign of caregiver burnout. Think of stress and hardship as a computer program that’s frozen and just won’t close. Although you may have ordered the computer to shut down, it’s frantically trying to work through all its processes first so it can close out the program permanently. Your brain works the same. When you’re worried about something, it frantically works to resolve that thing, but it can’t. Your sleep becomes impacted as the cycles in your brain increase anxiety and activity.
Increased risky behavior
Have you noticed any new behaviors in yourself since becoming a caregiver? As the stress mounts, have you increased your spontaneous purchasing? What about gambling, drinking, or recreational drug use? There are all kinds of risky behavior we can find ourselves getting involved with as we fall into a burnout spiral. We might use these activities to numb or distract ourselves, but they rarely work long and leave us with even bigger problems to resolve.
Dramatic changes in appetite
Stress isn’t something which simply lives in the mind. It lives in the body too. As the cortisol in your system builds up, you can notice a number of physical reactions and responses. Namely, you may experience changes in appetite such as a loss of appetite or a dramatic new hunger which is hard to quell. This inability to eat (or tendency to overeat) wreaks havoc on our bodies, our relationships, and our lives.
Feelings of hopelessness
Feelings of hopelessness and anxiety are a common sign of caregiver burnout, and one which can be devastating if ignored. You’re carrying a heavy load, and there’s not always a lot of reward on the other side. As these negative feelings add up, they start to affect your mental health in ways that will do nothing to improve your ability to care for your loved one. Depression sets in and your job becomes that much more difficult. Happiness helps you thrive, no matter where you are.
Dramatic overreactions
Our moods go a long way to dictate the quality of our lives and the quality of our relationships too. When you walk around in a good mood, you experience a greater amount of positive feedback from your environment — and it feels good. Bad moods, however, elicit a slightly different effect. The constant stress of caring for someone else can lead to shifts in mood, which in turn lead to dramatic over-reactions and blowups which can push others away.
Strange shifts in personality
What is your personality like? Have you (or others) noticed a dramatic change since you shifted into a full-time care-giving role? The stress and responsibility is a heavy load to bear, and it changes not only physically but mentally and emotionally too. A once bright and cheerful personality can become something entirely different when you learn to see the world through the eyes of disability and chronic illness.
How to beat the burnout and deal with your stress.
There is no shame in becoming rundown by the pressures of your role. It’s a tough place to inhabit, and not one that everyone can manage. You need to be kind to yourself and start caring for yourself just as much as you care for the other person in your life. Self-care will transform you from the inside out, but you have to commit to it consistently.
1. Reshape your view of self-care
Take a second to think through your self-care routine. How often do you take time out for yourself? Do you leave the house on your own? Regularly have time to be quiet and present with your feelings? We all need time to rest and recharge ourselves physically and emotionally. It’s the way our bodies are wired. You have to take time out of your schedule to nurture both your physical body and your internal emotional world.
Reshape your view of self-care. It’s not selfish to take a step back and take some time for yourself. It’s not self-centered or wrong to ask someone else to take over your duties for even 15 minutes so you can walk away, quiet your mind, and quickly re-center and process.
Self-care doesn’t have to be a trip to the spa. It doesn’t have to cost you a lot of money, or even take up a lot of your time. The perfect self-care routine is one which we can do daily or weekly, in no more than 15 minutes (though you can take as much time as you wish). Write in your journal before bed. Take a bubble bath every Sunday night. All it needs to do is help you relax and re-balance your inner sense of calm and energy.
2. Set some self-care goals and routines
If you’re new to the self-care game, then you may need to take some time really thinking about what a self-care routine looks like to you. Before diving into the deep end, you need to look inward and really consider what’s going on. Where are you feeling most burnt out? Is it your energy levels in general? Are their feelings of sadness, resentment, or anxiety involved?
Look at yourself and then use that to set some self-care goals which will then help you establish a routine. If you’re simply physically tired, perhaps you’ll set yourself a goal of getting a 20–30 minute nap at lunchtime every day. If your emotions are running high, maybe you’re looking for a goal of finding someone to talk to once a week.
There’s no right or wrong way to go about setting these goals. They are all unique to you and your specific circumstances. Be honest with yourself and don’t try to start out with anything too complex or grandiose. If your self-care is running every day, don’t sign up for a marathon when you haven’t even run around the block in a decade. Look for little ways you can improve your internal happiness slowly, each day (or every week).
3. Limit what’s getting in the way
Figuring out what you need and then setting up a routine, you may find that you come up against some barriers and setbacks. Maybe your schedule isn’t as fixed as it once was, or perhaps you struggle to get up (or going to bed) the 15 minutes earlier. When it comes to setting ourselves a new habit of any kind, we should always seek to make things as easy as possible on ourselves. By getting out of our own way, we find our self-care routines thrive.
Keep a journal of your self-care time and write down any instance in when your self-care routine slips. Why didn’t you take that time before bed? Why didn’t you go on that run, or call that friend? Look at the mistake and then work backward. What factors got in the way of your self-care success?
Identify the factors and then do what you can to limit them. If you set a goal of a morning run — but you regularly fail to meet that goal — perhaps the early starting time is the barrier for you. Rather than giving yourself another hurdle (waking up earlier than your body wants to) make it easier on yourself. What other time of the day can you run? What about a walk? It’s up to you. You can find a solution or you can continue to get in your own way.
4. Take it easy on yourself
Even if you do everything right and carve out tons of time for yourself, things are going to go wrong. You’re going to fall asleep before that massage you booked. You’re going to forget to write in your journal in the morning, or forget to do a meditation before you go to sleep. Mistakes happen and life moves fast. Sometimes there’s not enough time to get to your self-care routine. That’s okay.
Don’t break down every time you mess up with your self-care routine or fall back into your old patterns. We’re human. We can’t be perfect. It’s not possible. We all make mistakes and we all get things wrong. There simply aren’t enough hours in the day sometimes, and we have to put ourselves second.
Take it easy on yourself and keep looking forward. When you’re forced to prioritize the care of your partner or loved on over your own comfort, embrace it and accept it. Then, make a note to take some extra time for yourself once they are comfortable and ready again. While there may not be enough hours in the day, we have plenty more time ahead of us in which to nurture ourselves.
5. Find a way to ask for help
How often do you ask for help when you’re feeling low or like you can’t go on? Do you open up to others? Do you let them see the tired person who lurking beneath that shield of armor? Because make no mistake — breaking down, needing help, feeling like you can’t go on — these are not signs of weakness. You’ve already proven that you are one of the strongest people alive. These are simply signs of exhaustion, and even the greatest heroes needed rest.
If you are the sole caretaker of an elderly loved one, or someone who is chronically ill and disabled, then it’s important that you build up a support system. Beyond finding people who can support you emotionally, you need to find people who can help you with your loved one (even if that help is only sitting beside them while they sleep so you can take a quick nap).
Find people you can confide in. People who don’t judge you and people who open up their hearts to the fact that you’re hurting and in need of compassion. Let down those walls and let go of all those preconceived notions about the image you need to present to others, or the face you have to show to the world. Everyone around you can see that you are human, just like they are. Let them in and let them help you and the person you love.
Putting it all together…
Although we rarely plan to become the full-time caretaker of someone that we love, it’s a situation that occurs more often than we think. Caring for someone in such a complete way is taxing, and it can take a serious toll on our mental and physical health. In order to remain the best possible support we can, we have to make sure we are supporting ourselves and finding healthy ways to resolve our stress and burnout.
Change the way you see self-care and know that there is nothing self-centered or selfish in it. You can’t be the best caretaker if you are not the best version of yourself. You need to reground and recharge. Set yourself some self-care goals and then use those goals to design a routine you can lean into easily and without resistance. Limit the hurdles you have to jump to get some time to yourself and make it as easy as possible to commit to. Take it easy on yourself and remember — there’s going to be mistakes, setbacks, and times when you just can’t get away. That’s okay. Don’t be upset. Just give yourself some extra time later down the road. Hold compassion in your heart and build a support system you can lean on. The road you travel is hard, but it will transform you if you let it. | https://medium.com/lady-vivra/caregiver-stress-bd77cc652d5a | ['E.B. Johnson'] | 2020-12-10 09:29:53.856000+00:00 | ['Mental Health', 'Psychology', 'Family', 'Self', 'Nonfiction'] |
Big O Analysis and the Top Talent Fallacy | Big O Analysis and the Top Talent Fallacy
How basic analysis can trump over-engineering
A long time ago when I was a junior engineer I worked at a place that claimed to hire top talent. You know the place. Almost everyone had gone to MIT, Carnegie Mellon or had some intimidating subset of the alphabet come after their name. It seemed requisite to get in. I learned a lot while I worked there, but not always what I expected to.
The algorithm I worked on involved a fair amount of statistical analysis. At the heart of one of our data analysis modules was an algorithm that needed to build up a sorted linked list of items. This portion of the algorithm went something like this pseudocode:
val items:List[Node] = List() while(itemGenerator.hasMoreItems()) {
val item = itemGenerator.nextItem()
val head = list.head while(head < item) {
head = head.nextNode
} head.nextNode = Node(item, head.nextNode)
}
Quite simply loop through the list until you found the correct place to insert the new value and just do the insert. The algorithm would then analyze this list to give its final output.
The overall algorithm was slow. It took almost half a day to run on only a few hundred thousand data points. This was including distributing the workload to four nodes and doing a map/reduce operation. Much to my surprise, this was just an accepted fact of the nature of “large and complicated” data. Not only that but the top engineers were advocating some seriously heavy solutions to speed up the algorithm. Think data compression algorithms, Approximation algorithms and the ilk. I brought it up in one of our retrospectives that this particular part of the algorithm was an O(n^2) algorithm that was probably a big bottleneck.
Much to my surprise, according to the engineers, I was wrong. This clearly was not an O(n^2) algorithm because we start with an empty list, and we probably don’t always do the worst case of adding a new element to the end of the list on every iteration.
Ok, so maybe I was wrong. I figured as a learning experience it was easy to take a stab at seeing where I had went wrong. So I set out to see where the proof would fail.
This problem can be expressed as looping over a list, doing an O(1) compare for each element and then an O(1) insert at the end. Doing this once is clearly an O(n) algorithm and doing this N times is seemingly O(n^2). But our list starts out very small and grows with each pass of the algorithm. How can we account for that while using big O?
Well let’s just think of how many comparisons we need to do to insert an element while maintaining sorted order in the worst case. Worst case we’ll need to examine every element. At first, we simply insert the first element into an empty list. Then we do one comparison with the first element. Then the number of comparisons grows for each element we add to the list. How can we express this mathematically in a form we can analyze?
We just have a simple arithmetic sequence at this point. This can be expressed fairly simply with summation:
This still doesn’t give us something useful to do big O analysis on. But oftentimes in mathematics, its just a matter of perspective. Let’s rewrite the above in reverse order and compare it to what we originally wrote:
Now something interesting becomes apparent. What if we were to add the first two terms of each summation to each other? And then the next two? In the first case we have n+1, for the second term we have 2+(n-1) which just so happens to equal n+1. It turns out of we just add each term of the two sums, we wind up with (n+1) for each term. Thus we wind up with:
Now what happens when we do the same thing over and over n times? Easy, that’s just multiplication:
Now we can just divide by two to get a succinct formula for 1+2+3+…+n:
Now let’s be generous and assume the average case where we only have to insert halfway into the list. We’ll divide by two and do the big O on the resulting value:
So I wasn’t wrong. We arrive at this algorithm being O(n^2) quite easily with some very simple algebra. When I took the linked list out and replaced it with a more appropriate data structure, the program sped up almost 100 percent.
Once this was presented to the other engineers, of course the algorithm was changed right away. Later on I was able to chip away at other similar inefficiencies leading to a drastic speedup, again, without any crazy algorithms. Just old fashioned bottleneck analysis.
It turns out the algorithm was pretty fast to begin with. It was just poorly executed by the same top talent who thought further algorithmic complexity was the solution instead of basic analysis.
Lessons learned
Despite there being some very smart people on the team, as evidenced by their degrees and titles, the extreme over-engineering and lack of execution was astounding. Moreover the willingness to brush aside someone’s valid concerns without any real thought into the problem at hand was also disconcerting. Sadly, I feel like this is a general problem in the tech industry, one I’ve had to deal with and one I’ve seen others have to deal with.
I think being humble is a key to being truly successful at the level of a leader. Its always important to realize that no matter how smart or talented you are, you’re going to miss things. You’re going to get things wrong. Sometimes very wrong. That should be perfectly ok. Having other people there, regardless of their experience level or depth of knowledge who can catch your mistakes makes you stronger as an individual and as a leader. Not only that but it makes the person who saw your errors that much stronger and wiser as well. Even if you wind up being right, it can be an extremely valuable lesson for both parties.
I think a lot of people in that position and level tend to get an opinion of infallibility about themselves. Its easy to get overly cocky about your abilities. Especially if your opinion is validated because you’re “top talent”.
Top talent is a lie that managers tell themselves to sleep better at night. Mathematically, you can’t hire “top talent” consistently by virtue of it being an extremely small subset of the population. Furthermore, what qualifies one as “top talent” is an inherently immeasurable metric and can vary from person to person. If you apply arbitrary metrics for what “top talent” means — prestigious degree — PhD — you’re potentially setting up yourself for disappointment. Instead focus on metrics that really matter — positive results. | https://medium.com/coding-with-clarity/big-o-analysis-and-the-top-talent-fallacy-4b1d841f47f | ['Matt Fowler'] | 2015-12-04 02:07:52.323000+00:00 | ['Algorithms', 'Mathematics', 'Programming'] |
Although I’m Horribly Scared, I Just Wanna Party [Short, But Not That Sweet] | Six Years of poetry-only publishing, PoetsUnlimited was a diverse, engaging and authentic poetry magazine. For most of that time a daily publication, it was always diverse and original, and free-to-read by all.
Follow | https://medium.com/poets-unlimited/although-im-horribly-scared-i-just-wanna-party-short-but-not-that-sweet-b27d3881d9c0 | ['Markus Russin'] | 2017-02-28 09:37:09.770000+00:00 | ['Fatalism', 'Party', 'Carpe Diem', 'Reflections', 'Poetry'] |
Women In Tech: Celebrating International Women’s Day 2019 #BalanceForBetter | International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women as a global community. This year’s theme, #BalanceForBetter, strives to increase gender balance in all industries for a better working world. How can we achieve this balance? Bring awareness, motivate others and take action. Everyone can do their part.
Happy #IWD2019.
By empowering women through technical education it can help bridge the gender gap and open up opportunities for more women in tech. Some organizations that work to nurture women’s tech talent are Girls Who Code (USA), Black Girls Code (USA & South Africa) and Kizcode (UK).
Girls Who Code, founded by Reshma Saujani, has made the gender gap and tech education more visible by recruiting high profile ambassadors — most notably Supermodel Karlie Kloss to raise awareness. Girls Who Code has reached almost 90,000 girls and aims to contribute to gender parity by 2027.
Kimberly Bryant set out to create Black Girls Code to prove that girls of every colour can code. Through workshops and after school programs, Black Girls Code provides underprivileged girls in underrepresented communities the opportunity to learn and master their technical skills. Their goal is to train 1 million girls by 2040.
Müjde Esin created Kizcode to open doors for Turkish and Kurdish speaking women in the UK who faced domestic violence and forced marriages in their patriarchal societies. It is difficult for these women to integrate into UK society because they face language difficulties and unemployment. Kizcode aims to equip these women with skills to improve their quality of life through education and nurturing their skills. By empowering these women with code, tech and computer skills, it provides them with an opportunity for a career, to reach their goals or simply sell their handmade products and recipes online as a means of income.
You don’t have to set up a coding organization to make a difference. Two women that are fighting for diversity and balance in the workplace for women are Laura Gómez and Laura Weidman Powers. Through the people analytics tool, Atipica, Laura Gómez helps companies use data to strategize hiring and build more diverse workforces. Laura Weidman Powers, who served as a Senior Policy Advisor to the Chief Technology Officer in the Obama White House, is an advocate for young Black and Latino Engineers, and works to ensure that they’re proportionally represented in the field.
When empowered with knowledge and mentored, girls and women can make the world a better place.
A group of girls from San Fernando High School in Los Angeles teamed up with DIY Girls, an organization supporting girls in STEM, to create lightweight and portable solar powered tents for the homeless. Homelessness was close to their hearts as Daniela Orozco, one member of the group who then was a senior of San Fernando, came from a low income family. Within only four years, the girls saw the increase of homelessness in their community and wanted to create a solution. Their solar powered tents has the potential to help many different people worldwide, including refugees or victims of natural disasters.
Thato Kgatlhanye from South Africa launched her company, Rethaka Trading, when she was only 18 years old. Disadvantaged children face many challenges such as lack of school supplies like school bags and being exposing to the risk of getting hit by cars while walking on unsafe roads on the way to school. Rethaka repurposes schoolbags filled with retro-reflective materials to increase visibility for the children’s walk to and from school. These bags are fitted with a solar panel that charges as the child is walking to school and when they get back home, they can use it as a light to study. “We are offering dignity, safety and access to light.” — Kgatlhanye
Although young, these women have shown great contribution to our society, much like blockchain. Blockchain technology is still maturing, but we’ve seen the impact it has already made on the world. If it wasn’t for the development of blockchain, STK Token and other cryptocurrencies, exchanges and wallets wouldn’t exist. It’s also opened up a new type of job for women in tech, Blockchain Developers.
STK’s former Blockchain Developer, Natalie Chin, who is still in school at McMaster University for Computer Science, is already making an impact in the space. Chin has been very actively involved in the blockchain community; volunteering, organizing, mentoring, and speaking at hackathons — including DeltaHacks and STACKATHON to name a few. Her talent has taken her to ETH San Francisco, where the STK team & friends won the top 3 prizes. Chin continues to work in tech in Toronto, and as a Blockchain Professor at George Brown College, where she shares her knowledge and experience to guide the next generation of Blockchain Developers.
Former STK Blockchain Developer, Natalie Chin teaching the next generation of developers.
In all these examples, we can see that when women are empowered, supported and represented in tech, they accomplish incredible things. This is one of the reasons to strive for #BalanceForBetter.
Is there a woman in tech that inspires you? Do you know someone we should profile? Leave your comments below! | https://medium.com/stk-token/women-in-tech-celebrating-international-womens-day-2019-balanceforbetter-932a7be54755 | ['Stk Token'] | 2019-03-08 15:36:14.030000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Women In Tech', 'International Womens Day', 'Technology', 'Fintech'] |
MAGA-Hatted Woman | Photo Credit: Amazon
Quick grocery run — dog food and batteries,
Express lane for the hurried
Flanked by women of color —
The one ahead hands me the divider
A thank you and smile from me,
You’re welcome and smile from her,
We both look ahead.
More-than-middle-aged woman in front
Pauses checking-out to look at us —
The woman in the Russian red hat,
The Make America Great Again hat,
She sneers at us both,
A haughty smirk —
Turns to face us
And insolently touches the brim of her hat,
As if to say
Look at me,
I voted for him,
The one who will
Make America White Again.
Black woman looks down
Avoiding confrontation
Like her shackled ancestors
From long ago
Like her silenced ancestors
From not so long ago.
I look hard at MAGA-Hatted Woman,
She tips her head in my direction
As if to say
Do you see what I’m wearing?
Do you see who I am?
An evil grin to me,
A stony stare at the black woman
With head bowed.
A gasp from the woman behind,
Woman the color of ripe chestnuts,
She backs up, distances herself,
Like a doe preparing to run.
Cashier catches the subtleties,
Her smile disappears,
Her body tenses —
I shift ever so slightly toward
MAGA-Hatted Woman —
A light move toward action
Unnoticed by me until
A coffee-brown finger gently touches
My hand, soft as a butterfly’s wings,
A long beseeching glance at me,
A silent plea for silence —
Don’t make waves for I will be
The one to drown,
Not white you
But black me —
Don’t, please don’t!
MAGA-Hatted Woman
Cackles her disdain
And walks away,
Turning for one last
Hate-filled stare
At us —
Us, who said nothing to her,
Us, who did nothing to her,
Us, who are shopping on an
Ordinary Sunday that is
No longer ordinary.
Woman the color of morning coffee
Mouths “thank you” —
A thank you silenced by a fear
I didn’t know
Until now.
This is America today. | https://medium.com/resistance-poetry/maga-hatted-woman-53e54490d447 | [] | 2018-08-06 11:34:13.012000+00:00 | ['Hate', 'Confrontation', 'Trump', 'Resistance Poetry', 'Racism'] |
Rosenfeld Media’s 2020 Retrospective | A quarterly review
Our 2020 started and ends on high notes, with a deep, dark, dank valley in between:
Q1: Who’s invention’s mom again?
We launched our third conference, Advancing Research, in late March/early April. Five weeks prior, we’d sold it out. Three weeks prior, we scrambled to convert it to a hybrid event — both in-person and virtual. Two weeks prior, we realized that we’d have to go fully remote. Rube Goldberg would have been proud of how we contorted ourselves to virtualize the conference (livestream goes here, Zoom there, Slack there), but what choice did we have?
Really, it was a huge success thanks to our team, our speakers, and our sponsors. And the conference received very positive attendee reviews, giving us the confidence that we were on the right track with our virtualization efforts.
But there was no time to catch our breaths, because…
Q2: Nuclear spring
…we then tumbled off the cliff, careening from Q1’s growth mode to hanging on for dear life. Like everyone else, suddenly we were reinventing everything: our products, our business processes, and our operations, moving our team from mostly in-person to mostly remote. We were also renegotiating everything, from massive deposits on conference venues to the lease on our office space.
It wasn’t all bad though. We manged to scale a huge learning curve for virtualizing our public workshops, which seemed to go quite well. And we had a huge dollop of gratitude for that ancient of ancients, the book: really, it was a banner year for publishing, with six new titles (crammed mostly in Q2), and book revenue helped keep us afloat.
Q3: Making bets
Summer saw retrenching — aligning all aspects of Rosenfeld Media around the new normal of all-remote and, more importantly, accepting the distressful queasiness of business planning against a backdrop of extreme and constant uncertainty. Yes, we accept it — do we have a choice?—but we’re still not used to it, and I doubt we’ll ever be.
It’s also hard to get used to investing in the future when the time horizon appears, at best, only a few weeks out. Investing begins to feel less deliberate and evidence-based, and more dependent on intuition. More like bets, really.
We think we’ve come close to cracking the nut of virtual conference Zoom Fatigue.
Given how important conferences are to our business, we decided to double down on the bet that virtual conferences could offer an experience that was the equal of that of in-person events. We experimented with two innovative solutions for combatting Zoom fatigue — sponsor programming and attendee cohorts — at both Enterprise Experience 2020 and the 2020 DesignOps Summit. These innovations showed even greater potential than anticipated — I can tell you that conference attendees absolutely love participating in cohorts, and sponsors were excited to take to the stages we “built” for them. We also began a long-awaited transition to a WordPress 5-based web environment to support all these innovations. A huge lift, but so far, so good.
Q4: What is “normal”?
As I write this, 2020 is just about in the can. We’ve published six books, virtualized our three conferences and ten workshops, dramatically changed how our team works, and even moved into a new office (which we occasionally get to visit). Over recent weeks, we’ve been able to get back to making the “normal” investments that a publisher typically does, like signing new books and workshop instructors.
But even those investments are different in 2020. In the year of George Floyd, we realized (and, to be fair, had it pointed out to us) that our rosters of authors, workshop instructors, and conference curators all looked a lot like… me. Too much so.
Small publishers like Rosenfeld Media are powered by personal relationships, and that lack of diversity correlates with the makeup of my personal network. So, in Q4, we’ve begun the legwork to change that: having conversations with BIPOC, Latinx, and other industry people to grow and diversify the group of people we know and we work with, one person at a time. This is a must, given how much influence we have over who gets to write UX books and present at UX conferences. And the investment is already starting to pay dividends with the rosters of our curation teams, workshop instructors, and soon, authors. | https://medium.com/rosenfeld-media/our-2020-retrospective-48d8a71ae7b9 | ['Louis Rosenfeld'] | 2020-12-29 15:59:21.323000+00:00 | ['Books', 'User Experience', 'Conference', 'UX'] |
3 Proven Ways to Fail With Your SaaS Product | What I would tell my younger self if I could travel back in time.
Match almost burning out — photo by Anne Nygård on Unsplash
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So, you have decided to pursue that business idea you’ve been pondering for so long and build a SaaS. Good for you!
To develop your own software can be one of the most rewarding endeavors out there, especially when you get that initial traction and your first customers. Finally, all those evenings and weekends you spent on endless problem-solving instead of watching Netflix are paying off.
But beware — while it’s easy to realize your software concept in theory, it might be just a little bit more demanding in real life. … | https://medium.com/@rashedpagol/3-proven-ways-to-fail-with-your-saas-product-4ba6590b558f | [] | 2020-12-17 18:35:55.934000+00:00 | ['Soccer', 'Live'] |
Final project on Reactjs w/ Redux with Rails API | The end is finally here! It’s been what feels like a long journey with Flatiron School. It’s been nearly a year since I first stepped foot inside the Manhattan campus. I am ready to close this chapter and begin the next phase — job search!
Before I get ahead of myself, I guess I should share a bit about my final project. This blog will be a high level overview of how I went about to create my app and the things I learned along the way. Since this is the final project I will focus more on the Reactjs w/ Redux portion. This project encompasses Ruby on Rails API for the backend and Reactjs w/ Redux for the frontend. I’ve incorporated CSS and Material UI for the look and feel.
This application, a Todo App, allows a user to create an account or login if already a user and create lists. Each list can have as many todo items as needed. Each item can be marked off as complete and deleted too. Now I know a lot of people start off with creating a simple todo app when learning a new language. However, time management and staying organized is essential as a wife, a mother, a student, etc. For me, keeping list is useful and practical.
Demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcjrj4w5e4c
Let’s get started…
Rails API
I started with creating the rails backend API with the following command:
rails new back-end-todolist-app -api -T — database=postgresql
In the backend, the database has three tables — User, List, and Item. A user has many lists. A list has many items and belongs to a user. Items belong to a list. Be sure to run the following commands:
rails db:create && rails db:migrate
I’ve set up the models and controllers as well — see below.
User Model
List Model
Item Model
Here are my routes:
Rails Routes
Authentication & Authorization
As part of implementing an authentication, I’ve applied JSON Web Tokens (JWT). It is stateless and token-based authentication. Thus a user’s information is not stored in the database but is a token. A token is sent along with every authorized request from the client(browser).
Here is my AuthController, so an authenticated user can access their lists.
AuthController
The Application Controller contains methods for authentication and authorization with JWT. These methods become accessible to the other controllers by way of being in the Application Controller.
ApplicationController
A bit about the methods here in the Application Controller. As mentioned above, these methods are essential to JWT. Before these methods are ran, a macro before_action :authorized has been placed in several of the other controllers. If a request has been made to that macro, then the authorized method in the Application Controller will be called first. After the authorized method is called, it will start a chain of events and work its way up through the methods. Essentially, a user must have logged in, in order to create, edit, or delete a todo list because the macro before_action is added to specific controllers.
This flow chart below is a simple representation of how JWT authentication works.
JWT Authentication Flow
Reactjs w/ Redux
A high level overview of Redux → the redux store dispatches an action to the reducer. Then the reducer uses that action to make changes to the state, which in turn re-renders the new data for that component.
There is some basic setup with react-redux, which I will just briefly mention below.
To install react-redux in your react application, run the following: npm install react-redux. React-redux provides <Provider /> allows the rest of the application to access the redux store.
Index.js
React-redux also provides a connect function, which allows the component to connect to the redux store. Be sure to include import { connect } from ‘react-redux’; in your components that incorporate redux.
connect to the react-redux store
connect() function
App.js is the entry point into my Todo App. App.js renders the homepage, user login, user signup, and mainComponent. The homepage renders the the user who’s logged in. The user login page displays the form that includes username and email in order for a user to login. Once the user clicks the “enter” button then an action is dispatched to the redux store. The user signup page renders a form which includes username, email, and password. The mainComponent renders both listform and alllists. The listform renders the submit for the list. The alllists component displays all the lists for a user.
Redux store
The redux store is where all the state is held for the application. In order to change the state, an action must be dispatched. The store is an JavaScript object. In order to create it, pass the root reducing function to the createStore.
Redux action
An action is a plain JavaScript object that contains the type field. An action is similar to an event that describes something that happened in the application. The type field provides a description of the action and is a string. Below you can see dispatch calls and action with type: “LOAD_GET_CURRENT_USER”.
Action
Redux reducer
In createStore, I passed the reducer as an argument. Reducers are functions that take in current state and an action, both as arguments. The reducer returns the new state. Every reducer starts with some initial state. (state = initialValue, action). Action is a JavaScript object that has a type property that describes an action. Should you need to edit the data in the store, you can not directly change it. There is a process that takes place. First, dispatch an action to the reducer. The reducer takes an action, then changes the state based on the action. Following this, state can be updated.
REDUCER
Redux thunk
Redux thunk is middleware that lets you call action creators that return a function rather than an action object. The returned function receives the store’s dispatch function, thus dispatch can have multiple actions. The actions include having the state in a loading state and the other is to update the store with the returned data.
Redux-Thunk needs to be installed with the following: npm install — save redux-thunk. Index.js is where redux-thunk is imported into the createStore as arguments. The middleware is included as such: import thunk from ‘redux-thunk’.
Index.js
While this todo app is far from perfect, it does provide basic CRUD functionality. I plan to implement more functionality, such as adding a calendar feature.
Please provide comments below. | https://medium.com/@ericabasak/final-project-on-reactjs-w-redux-with-rails-api-5127487a897b | ['Erica Ann Basak'] | 2021-03-23 00:42:18.740000+00:00 | ['Reactjs', 'Redux Thunk', 'Redux', 'Rails', 'Final Project'] |
Why Millennial Men Don’t Go to Therapy | Why Millennial Men Don’t Go to Therapy
The most depressed generation won’t get help despite having more access than ever before
About eight years ago, Eugene was in the midst of transferring colleges when he noticed how his mood sagged, seemingly at random times, triggered by the smallest things. He had spent the previous two years at a California State University “smoking, drinking and playing computer games” before realizing that he was treading water and wasting time. He felt envy toward friends who had a career path, but also contempt for other students who were either coasting or were just plain dumb.
Eventually, Eugene dropped out of school, aiming to transfer to a more prestigious private university. But over the next few months, daily routines like pulling himself out of bed and getting dressed loomed over him with daunting effect. “I just didn’t feel great,” he says. “Everything looked bad, and I couldn’t shake it. Then you wake up one day and think things like, Why don’t I just fucking kill myself? That made me step back, and wonder what was really wrong.”
It took conversations with a therapist for Eugene to realize that changing schools was more of a bandage than a solution to his slump. Sometimes he’d lay awake at night, wondering if a millennial hitting his prime in a post-recession economy could ever achieve real, lasting success — or what that success even looked like. He also mulled over his new diagnosis of chronic depression, which needed to be managed with medication and more talk therapy.
Eugene, a Korean-American, felt especially lucky that his mother was “very liberal” about accepting his struggles. “What’s really harmful in my case is that we as Asian-Americans are taught that it’s not mental illness, it’s just a normative challenge in life. And in Eastern Asian culture, the idea of functional mental illness isn’t really a thing. It’s called ‘get over it,’” he says.
“At the same time,” he muses, “how do I fix this problem? It’s a product of culture.”
It’s a question the entire millennial generation, defined roughly as those born between the early 1980s and early 2000s (currently 18 to 35 years of age), is grappling with. Search the web for information on millennials and mental health and the headlines flow forth: “A Generation on Edge”; “Why Millennials Are Struggling with Mental Health at Work”; “Millennials are Facing a Mental Health Crisis, and It Was Entirely Preventable”; “Millennials and How They’re Helping Destigmatize Mental Illness”; and even “How Memes Taught Millennials to Talk About Mental Health.”
More formal research paints a similar picture, especially for millennials navigating the muddy waters of college. Between 2009 and 2015, enrollment in U.S. colleges grew an average of 6 percent, but saw a roughly 30 percent increase in the number of students visiting counseling centers, according to the Center of Collegiate Mental Health. Last year, a major survey of 63,000 students at 92 schools found that almost 40 percent of respondents felt so depressed that it was “difficult to function”; 61 percent said they felt at least one instance of “overwhelming anxiety” in the prior year, per the American College Health Association.
A patchwork of issues is contributing to the generation’s anxiety, though it’s hard to pinpoint the driving force. Is it a fast-paced modern lifestyle? Shifts in parenting styles? The peaks and valleys of an unpredictable economy? Anxieties about student debt and not being able to afford a home? Being the first generation to grow up with the internet and the toxic culture of social media? A debilitating addiction to avocado toast, rosé or all things pink?
On one hand, there’s nothing new about young adults struggling: The expert consensus suggests that this age group is hit with higher rates of stress and self-questioning in every generation, not just millennials. But the difference here is that there’s also growing evidence that millennials are suffering from higher-than-usual rates of mental health disorders, with some major factors unique to the culture and lifestyle of the 2000s, according to Morley Winograd, author of Millennial Momentum: How a New Generation Is Remaking America and a professor at the University of Southern California.
“The ‘snowflake’ insult is a creation of Fox News and the like, but because of the way millennials were raised, with support and attention from helicopter parents who have worked to build kids’ self-esteem, they haven’t encountered as many difficulties in life, broadly speaking. This doesn’t make them any less resilient. Remember, the GI generation was called ‘mama’s boys’ at the start of World War II,” he explains.
Regarding resiliency, a study released in January surveyed 40,000 American, Canadian and British college students and found that millennials are suffering from “multidimensional perfectionism” in multiple channels of their lives, setting unrealistically high expectations and being hurt when they fall short. Researchers say the findings (published in the journal Psychological Bulletin) correlate with increasing rates of anxiety, depression and eating disorders in millennials, too.
“Millennials tend to be more isolationist,” says Reef Karim, who has seen a swell of young people walk through the doors of his Beverly Hills outpatient clinic The Control Center, where he and the staff help treat mental health and addiction issues. “They’re idealistic at the same time, but as much as they feel like they want to connect more through volunteerism, activism and social media, they tend to have less emotional armor. As great as social media is, in many ways, it’s almost preying on the vulnerabilities of some people in terms of creating perfectionistic behavior. And young people feel overburdened.”
For millennial men in particular, a major challenge is understanding that they’re suffering from disorders in the first place — and finding someone who can help shoulder the burden of their struggles. A major British study found that the odds of male “friendlessness” nearly triple between the early 20s and late middle age, with married men especially reporting that they don’t have a close friend to turn to for support outside of the home.
Meanwhile, professional therapists could fill an empty space for men who need to talk about what’s bothering them, but men are often reluctant to buy into the premise that a stranger can, or should, be trusted to fix their problems, Karim says. “The women we see tend to come in on their own accord, thinking, Hey, there’s something going on with me, so I’m gonna do an intake and see if I need help. Whereas a lot of the men are coming in because of their spouse, girlfriend or mom,” Karim says. “Someone else is generally convincing them to go. We definitely see a stigma playing out.”
Part of the problem is that parents often don’t talk to boys about mental-health struggles, and have difficulty with their own understanding of mental illness. A survey by the charity Age U.K. found that 70 percent of adults 55 years or older believe it’s harder for older people to discuss the topic because anxiety and depression weren’t recognized as illnesses when they were growing up. In fact, three-quarters of respondents said they were raised with a “stiff upper lip” attitude, and 22 percent said they feel talking about mental illness would only make it worse.
That silence definitely impacted Nick Muellerleile, 29, who struggled through high school and college before realizing that his lack of happiness and energy wasn’t a phase. Eventually, he booked an appointment with a psychiatrist. The diagnosis — clinical depression — surprised him at first. Then, as he walked through memories from years past, it clicked. He cringes while recalling some of the manic Facebook statuses he posted on his page as a younger man (“I thought I was keeping it together, but people must’ve known”) and surviving for so many years under the sagging weight of consistent unhappiness.
Talking about it, however, didn’t feel like much of an option. Only a chance encounter with some paperwork led him to open up to his parents: His father was sorting through bills when he noticed a medical charge for Muellerleile, who admitted it was from his psychiatrist. “He came across the room, shook his head, and told me, ‘Me too.’ It made things click in place, when I realized there’s a family history, but any time before that would’ve been a better time to tell me,” Muellerleile says. “He hadn’t been open about it at all. Looking back, I realized he had several pill bottles that I never bothered to investigate.”
Shawn, a 29-year-old in Seattle, also struggled to find a support system when he first began navigating big swells of anxiety about three years ago. He had coped with the feeling as a teen, but this was different — a strange and unsettling obsession over his future self, one that didn’t make any sense. He was secure in the fact that he is, by every account, a straight cisgender man. Yet like a shadow in the corner of his eye, Shawn couldn’t shake the sensation that one day he’d wake up, realize he was transgender and lose his hypothetical family and life. At work, at home, at play, the premonition lingered.
After several months of holding it in, Shawn began seeing a mental-health counselor for the first time and received a diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder. Today, he lives with the understanding that his episodes can be managed. Finding consistent support from his social circle, however, proved more elusive, even though Shawn tried to practice being more open to his male friends in particular. “I’ve been lucky to have some super receptive male friends, but others, I can’t tell if they’re uninterested or if they feel gross talking about it,” he says. “I think the issues revolve around my identity as a man. I’ve never had any doubts about my maleness. But the question of man-ness is…”
He gathers his thoughts.
“I enjoy things and experience emotions that are described in society as feminine, but they’re big parts of my personality,” he continues. “If I suppress those things, does that make me more of a man?”
A major social debate among millennials about gender, including the idea that it isn’t a binary decided solely by our sex birth, is changing the way we define what a man is, and what, if any, traits are “masculine.” But “manhood” remains an elusive goal that men feel pressure to achieve, however they define it, with research suggesting that the inability to capture it leads to aggressive and stress-ridden responses.
Satya Doyle Byock, a Portland, Ore.-based psychotherapist who exclusively treats millennials at her practice Quarter-Life Counseling, has seen a heavy current of disillusionment in her patients, including men who feel lost in their careers and personal lives. Some may seek help after feeling suicidal thoughts or a panic attack, but many more choose to co-exist with a simmering unease they can’t ignore.
“The mid-life crisis, what used to happen in the late 30s or 40s, is happening earlier for young people today,” she explains. “The breakdown often has to do with the question of one’s ‘unlived life,’ and young people are coming to the conclusion that something about society doesn’t work. The problems might be in dating, binge drinking, anxiety or depression, but those things usually have a larger question underneath them.”
One of Byock’s theories is that while older generations often used religious services or intimate community gatherings to reflect on their lives, many of those meditative spaces have been removed from modern life. “Even churches are more like mega-churches now, not for quiet thought,” she says. “It’s created a gaping hole where young people need something to find nourishment.”
They’re not finding it at the office either. Specifically, work-life balance has become harder for a cohort of millennials who matured into the workforce during the dregs of the Great Recession, with shiny college degrees in hand but few employers to court them. More than 50 percent of college students graduated with a job offer in hand in 2007. That number fell to less than 20 percent two years later. And those who did get jobs saw lower starting salaries, with a 2010 study showing that a 1 percent increase in unemployment in a given year meant a 6 to 8 percent drop in starting salary for a college graduate, impacting lifetime savings and benefits. “This cohort of millennials that graduated amid the recession, in the worst of the job market, we’ve got this idea to work so much harder to make up all that was lost,” says Muellerleile.
There’s at least some solace in the fact that millennials are seeing this experience reflected in pop culture. TV shows as diverse as This Is Us, BoJack Horseman, You’re the Worst and even Saturday Night Live have rendered mental-health crises in a stark, heartbreaking and cathartic fashion.
And depression memes are a major currency on social media, with relatable punchlines that poke fun at the hardship. Plus, an increase in resources on campuses and in some workplaces has made it easier to find convenient venues for help. Even the pharmaceutical industry has jumped on an awareness boost, marketing more medications that make it easier to manage moderate and severe disorders.
Yet the question of whether this shift has encouraged more millennial men in particular to seek and stick with professional help remains up in the air. Byock stresses that both men and women are negatively impacted by their interpretation of traditional gender roles, but says, “There’s a lot of work that needs to be done to normalize emotional work for men and women, but definitely more men. We’ve trained society to think women are more emotionally equipped, but we’re also training our boys to lack emotional language. Men and boys have a deep desire to be emotionally intimate, but they don’t have permission. The women in their lives might not think they can go to those intimate places because of how they’ve been trained to think about men.”
The early history of psychotherapy and mental institutions in America created and perpetuated these stigmas. Over the course of the mid- and late-19th century, men committed thousands of women who they deemed “crazy,” with research showing that they were diagnosed as insane for minor faults like “religious excitement,” or inexplicably, “suppressed menstruation.” The power imbalance lasted into the 20th century, and contributed to many men viewing psychotherapy as a sign of weakness.
Cultural differences impact the way people view emotional intimacy and mental health counseling, too, pushing some men even further from the help they need. African-American men, for instance, are 20 percent more likely to report serious psychological distress than white men, but consistently more apprehensive about seeking professional help, according to the nonprofit Mental Health America. Asian Americans also suffer from stigmas about treating mental health issues, despite elevated rates of suicidal ideation — nearly 19 percent of Asian-American high school students report considering suicide, with almost 11 percent actually attempting it, which is significantly more than white students (15.5 percent and 6.2 percent, respectively).
That’s a big factor in why Eugene didn’t want his real name used for this story. “I don’t want my mom to deal with the shame of her son’s mental health being in a fucking feature story,” he says with a short laugh. It also explains why, despite preventative mental health being covered by insurance more than ever in the U.S., men still choose to cope on their own. Case in point: A 2016 study found that women are more likely to accept clinical treatment for mental disorders — and to see greater improvement at the end of their treatment — than male clients. “You feel these kinds of rules that you’re a man, so you need to be able to get through these problems yourself. Especially in America, we value independence and overcoming adversity, even though it really takes a village in reality,” Eugene says.
Today, Eugene admits he’s “pretty shitty” about seeing his therapist on a regular basis, but he’s accepted that when things go south, at least there’s a person he can — and should — call. Otherwise: “You don’t wanna look like something is off, so you keep it to yourself,” he muses. “There’s still a shame and a silence. That’s what somehow needs to change.”
Eddie Kim is a staff writer at MEL. He last attempted to fight a robot faster than Floyd Mayweather.
Most popular stories on MEL: | https://medium.com/mel-magazine/why-millennial-men-dont-go-to-therapy-e6c377a78be3 | ['Eddie Kim'] | 2018-05-14 22:36:07.397000+00:00 | ['Mental Health', 'Pyschology', 'Therapy', 'Millennials', 'Depression'] |
April 2021 (1) — when the weather mirrors your mood | This has been an even shorter week as I’ve taken Friday off to finalise the remaining coursework for my masters. Once I’ve done that, it’s ‘just’ a 10,000 word thesis to go. . . It’s been a busy short week of ups and downs — positive and brilliant stuff from across lots of different teams, and some frustrations/set backs — sort of like the sunshine and snow, and my mood has shifted up and down with it.
So what 5 things happened this week?
We ran an all hands on how we’re going to have informal conversations about the shape we’d like to be in going forwards. We’ve got 5 workshops coming up which people are signing themselves up for, to look at different questions that we’re asking ourselves. It feels really good to be thinking ahead and designing how we want to be in the future, but there’s a responsibility to do this well, and in a way that enables everyone to engage which also felt heavy this week.
I listened in to the great Tenants and leaseholders show and tell along with over 70 other people. It’s so good to get engagement from across a wide set of teams and the team working on this strand had lots to show as well. The whole Modern Tools for Housing programme is really motoring now and the steering group we had last week reflected that.
The core data theft team held a retro this week — we’ve been making really good progress and working well together across a multidisciplinary team. And this is hard work — it’s complex, and emerging, and we’re adding new team members as we move into a new phase. The feedback in the retro reflected that, and I found it hard not to go into a spin of self criticism* of what I could have done differently.
I met Lewis and Silvia, both of whom have joined our delivery management team — it was great to learn a bit more about them, hear their positive experiences of onboarding virtually (thanks to Philippa’s focus and to Darren for a great onboarding trello board), and to talk about the wider picture at Hackney – our culture, our focus on learning as well as pace, and what we want to do next.
There’s been Sunshine — I don’t do winter well. So although it’s been cold, practising yoga in sunlight in the early mornings, swimming in a lake in the evening and lunch* this week in Highgate with Nick (IRL!) in the sunshine have all lifted my mood a lot.
What did I read this week?
This interesting piece from Amelia Pape about trust and network mindsets:
This great blog post about operating in new spaces from Nour Sidawi:
And this about octopus shaped*** organisations: | https://weeknot.es/april-2021-1-when-the-weather-mirrors-your-mood-4bedfc2751b5 | ['Cate Mclaurin'] | 2021-04-09 12:23:19.476000+00:00 | ['Leadership', 'Digital Transformation', 'Local Government', 'Change'] |
Beneath the Eyebrows | For $10 at the salon off 205th street, I get my eyebrows waxed at least once a month. I’m just a teen, self-conscious yet self-absorbed yet nowhere near self-actualized. I scurry into the back room and recline in a massage chair. Calming instrumental music plays, a comical contrast to the procedure to come.
The woman spreads hot wax across my upper face, offering to attend to my lip area at no extra charge. I politely decline. “You have lot eyebrow,” she comments, a hint of surprise in her tone. I mutter a sound to acknowledge her observation, annoyed from hearing same remarks from my peers day in and day out.
My mother always told me I had Brooke Shields eyebrows. Glamorous, gorgeous, envied by all. I was at a pizza shop in New York and saw a picture of the supermodel when I told this to my date. We waited for our slice in the 12 square feet of space in front of the counter. He said he could see the resemblance.
That was a great first date. Although things didn’t work out much longer after that, I’m sure the girls from middle school would love to know that despite the near-unibrow upon my face, some body still wanted to dance with me. | https://medium.com/@macymay/beneath-the-eyebrows-3337e73a1d71 | ['Macy May'] | 2020-12-24 04:51:15.866000+00:00 | ['Eyebrows', 'Coming Of Age', 'Fiction', 'Personal', 'Beauty'] |
Dealing with the Short Attention Span on Social Media | Photo by lisegagne on iStock
Social media is often blamed for people’s short attention span. However, it can also be turned the other way around: people’s short attention span is modifying the way we communicate on social media. In fact, in our shaped-by-smartphone world, consumers value immediacy, relevance, and convenience. So how can social media marketing adapt to this kind of audience? There are tactics to adopt in both content and format to achieve good performance for your company’s social accounts, or those of your clients. In this article, we’re going to have a look at some techniques that adapt to today’s audiences.
1. Keep it simple and clear
On social media, everything moves fast. For this reason, a post shouldn’t require too much thinking to trigger liking, sharing or commenting. Don’t confuse “keep it simple” with the type of tone you use. Those are two separate things. In fact, if you’re managing the account of a bank, you often can’t have a light-hearted and casual tone — but can still use simple syntax. The Twitter account of the National Bank of England is doing a great job at this:
Credit: Official Bank of England Twitter account
Overall, their phrasing is simple and clean, but at the same time, they use a tone that is still suitable for a bank.
2. Keep it short and sweet
Something also to point out is the length of the text. Shorter posts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have higher engagement than longer ones. People look for easy content to read and something that engages without too much effort, therefore, these platforms have features that allow an immediate way of communicating. Twitter offers a “thread” function, which means you tell stories or messages through a chain of tweets. You can immediately guess why threads perform better than a pre-scheduled tweet. It’s about immediacy and relevance. It catches attention because people want to see what comes next in the story, and they’re easy to consume, just like videos. Here’s an example of how a thread works.
Instagram offers “stories”, an immediate and ephemeral way to communicate with followers. This platform is mainly centered on the visual impact, thus it is suggested to spend time on an entertaining video/picture rather than writing a great caption underneath. Therefore, even if the character limit is 2,200, social media experts suggest to keep it around 125 characters. This is due to the fact that captions longer than that aren’t shown completely, and one would have to tap on “read more”, which is highly unlikely these days.
Facebook behaves in a similar way. Experts at BuzzSumo point out that “Facebook consumption is extremely passive, and attention spans are short. You need to be able to grab people’s attention quickly and effectively if you want to be noticed.” They suggest to use catchy pictures and keep the caption under 100 characters. Let’s not forget though that longer posts are good for SEO, and that you should always test what works for your own audience. If there is already a certain level of loyalty, as people know that your long posts are high-quality and they know that there’s an intrinsic benefit from reading them, then the length shouldn’t be reduced. When you form a trust relationship with the audience, it’s easier to get high engagement with long posts too.
For LinkedIn, the dynamic is different mainly because it’s a social platform designed for professionals who want to share knowledge and news. Writing long posts is actually recommended in the best practices for Linkedin: “People like to read long-form content on LinkedIn — 1,900 to 2,000 words long” says Noah Kagan, social media expert. However, there’s a certain type of content that is favored: how-to posts and list-style posts. The reason why these two formats perform well, it’s because they’re easy to consume and understand. “How-to” titles trigger the attention because people immediately associate the post with an intrinsic benefit from reading it. They could learn something new from it so extract further benefits. The “list-style” posts are designed in a way that is appealing to the human brain: short points that are easy to mentally process and integrate in one’s pre-existing knowledge about the topic.
3. Use video content
Videos have demonstrated to be highly engaging on social media, because of the ease of information consumption that they allow and the emotions they trigger. Emotions are the way to connect with people on social media, what else could be more powerful than them? Therefore, videos have to tell a story, trigger oxytocin in the brain, the neurochemical responsible for empathy. Think about John Lewis’ Christmas commercials: these videos are real tear-jerkers! The high engagement on this tweet says it all.
Credit: Official John Lewis Twitter account
Emotions and immediate access to them are key to the success of social media. Think about Instagram stories: the most used function of the platform, growing 15x over feeds. Their success has not only to do with the format (short video) but also with their perceived genuineness. “Stories feel real, immediate, and intensely personal” claim Hootsuite experts. Many big companies are adopting stories to make people feel closer to their brand because it’s a highly flexible functionality and can serve different types of business (from serious corporations to hand-made jewelry shops).
So, it’s a fact: video content helps to catch the attention and often leads to higher engagement on social media, however, there are contraindications too. For instance, videos that automatically start playing on the home page can annoy people, rather than engage them. In this case, one needs to tailor the video usage according to the type of audience and social platform.
These were some of the suggestions to deal with today’s social media audiences. The attention-span is probably going to worsen in the near future, so social media platforms are metaphorically racing against the clock, and we’ll see what new tricks come out. THE RELEVANCE HOUSE social media team is constantly updating methods and strategies to keep algorithms happy and numbers green. | https://medium.com/the-relevance-house/dealing-with-the-short-attention-span-on-social-media-49e5e0b39c62 | ['The Relevance House.'] | 2019-09-09 07:54:22.471000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Psychology', 'Technology', 'Social Media', 'Digital Marketing'] |
What are you Reading? | Pandemic Diary Day 3
March 27th
A few shelves in my library
I find solace in books and have a library that is around 2500 books. Since San Francisco began Sheltering in Place, every morning I climb on my exercise bike face the library and ruminate on what I have read, what I liked, and what I should pull down from the shelf and crack open as I pedal off to nowhere.
The problem is I also have a 30 book Tsundoku. For those not familiar, that is a Japanese word for saving books by your bed for later reading. And, yes I do see the irony in the fact that one of those 30 books is The Japanese Have a Word for It by Boye Lafayette De Mente.
So for now I am reading the biography of Margaret Bourke-White by Vicki Goldberg. There is a fun story behind the choice of this book, and even more importantly it has led me to add another element to this diary.
The book was recommended to me by my friend Jacklyn Spainhour who is the Director of the Hunter House Victorian Museum, Vice President of The Victorian Society in America AND a great mom to an adorable special needs son. (One of my super heroes).
She knows that I am a photographer, with a handful of shows to qualify me as a fine grain of sand more than an amateur. One day we were discussing the fact that over the last two years I had been moving towards, concentrating on, and loving, shooting all Black and White and she insisted I pick up this book.
You may not know the name Margaret Bourke-White, or even her work but you may know the iconic photograph taken by Oscar Graubner of Margaret Bourke-White atop the Chrysler Building. The picture shows her taking a photo of the city’s skyline while sitting on one of the 61st-floor eagle ornaments.
The breadth of her work is unlimited and her personality is as unique as can be. The book is 365 pages long, so it is most likely going to be a while before I add another book to this diary, but if we stay under SIP for as long as some are saying, there will be more books.
So, as I mentioned, this has lead me to add another element to this diary. I am going to go outside once a day and take a photo of my surroundings. Some may be boring as I capture empty streets, but I hope to catch other things out there that have become more obvious with those empty streets. I will share them with you good or bad, I promise.
So that is what I am reading. I do hope that you go look around your house, find a book you have been meaning to tackle and realize, there is no better time than now to listen to that amazing sound and wonderful smell when you open a real live book and dive into the wonders it holds and the places it will take you. How, at night when your eyes hit half mast and you slip that bookmark between the pages, you know there will be more characters, more plots and more pleasure the next day, and how, someday you will be casually discussing this very same book and find someone was as in love with it as you. I hope for you that this leads to a new friend, a great conversation, or simply a recommendation made because you liked and read the book that is sitting waiting for you.
Please feel free to share in the comments, books that are helping you get through this. I for one can not think of a better place to hide right now than in a book.
Trivial Things
My Horoscope for today: No sooner do you decide to move forward with a financial matter then another option materializes. Don’t get distracted right when you’re finally on the right track.
The NYT Crossword Puzzle: Medium Hard — favorite answer Cave Canum
San Francisco weather: 55 degrees and cloudy
NYSE Dow opened at : 21898
Italian word of the day: libro — book (that was a fun coincidence)
Spanish word of the day: atardecer — dusk
OED word of the day: wallydraigle
Days under Shelter in Place: 13
My Black and White Picture of the Day
This is Folsom Street in the South of Market area of San Francisco. If you are not familiar with this area it is filled with small start up tech companies. These streets are usually filled with workers and this street should have so many cars on it that I would never be able to shoot it without one. And lastly, there is something in this photograph that one never sees in San Francisco, empty parking spaces.
If you enjoyed this post, please clap and let me know. Thank you. | https://medium.com/@cindycasey3/what-are-you-reading-949a1efd545 | ['Cindy Casey'] | 2020-05-27 16:27:29.795000+00:00 | ['San Francisco', 'Pandemic Diary', 'Diary', 'Covid 19', 'Books'] |
Confidence intervals for time series data: SharpestMinds Slack chats | By popular demand, we’ve decided to open-source some of the conversations between professional data scientists and their mentees on SharpestMinds’ internal Slack. We hope this will let more people benefit from the expertise on SharpestMinds, even if they don’t have access to the community directly.
When most people start learning data science, the data they work with is time-independent. They predict the survival probabilities of passengers on the Titanic, identify hand-written characters in the MNIST dataset, or carry out. some other, similar task.
To solve these problems, you usually begin by *randomly* assigning each of your samples to one of two different datasets: one that will be used to train your model, and another that will be used to validate its performance. That validation step is important because it’s what allows you to make claims like, “I expect this prediction to be accurate to within 10% of the true value, 19 times out of 20.”
That doesn’t work for time series data, though: if you’re trying to predict seasonal effects, stock market fluctuations or customer churn behavior, you’ll quickly realize that randomly assigning data to training and validation sets destroys the information that was contained in the original dataset’s time ordering.
So how can you provide confidence intervals (AKA: prediction intervals) for your time series predictions?
Or, as a SharpestMinds mentee recently asked on our internal Slack community:
Chiemi had previously found this approach, but it works only for gradient boosting regressors. She wanted a more general solution.
The first great suggestion came from SharpestMinds mentor Ray Phan, who’s a genuine data science Slack superhero:
Here’s a clickable version of the link he provided. I’ll be honest, I did not know about this function, and it looks incredibly handy.
Next came SharpestMinds alum (and now data scientist 🚀) Khai Win:
The Jason Brownlee post she’s linking to is here (highly recommend!).
Finally, mentee Christian Fagan also proposed a really interesting strategy based on Bayesian intervals — it’s more advanced, so worth checking out if you’re adventurous and a lover of math:
(again, here it is in clickable form).
And that’s it! Just a short one today, but I thought all the different perspectives and tools that were suggested here would be helpful if you’re taking a look at your own time series problem.
Until next time 🙂 | https://towardsdatascience.com/confidence-intervals-for-time-series-data-sharpestminds-slack-chats-4b05e211943a | ['Jeremie Harris'] | 2019-11-22 22:50:31.208000+00:00 | ['Predictive Analytics', 'Towards Data Science', 'Time Series Analysis', 'Data Science', 'Machine Learning'] |
The essential freshness of Archana Menon | “By primal, I don’t mean primitive, I mean essentialism,” says Archana Menon (M.F.A., furniture design), founder of design studio primal-forms. “Simplicity can facilitate reflection and joy.”
Strolling coffee-in-hand through Savannah’s tree-lined Pulaski Square, Archana is ostensibly on break between academic quarters. In reality, the graduate student has just finished organizing the shipment of her furniture collection to New York City, where the undulating five-foot-long ebonized ash bench and two accompanying ash and alabaster lamps will be displayed during ICFF 2021. She’ll be there too, appearing on WantedDesign Manhattan’s Emerging Design Showcase panel. Then on to Design Miami, where the designer will discuss her work as part of the Whitewall panel Design Impact: Creating for a More Sustainable Future on November 30.
“I trained as an architect in Mumbai, then worked in interiors and hospitality, and doing residential architecture work in India,” Archana says. “During that process, I realized I enjoyed designing furniture and felt that was my calling. SCAD offered me a good scholarship, and I came here to study for a master’s degree in Fall 2019 — my first time in the United States. Everyone has been so welcoming and supportive, students and faculty. SCAD furniture is family.”
Professor Frederic Spector, SCAD associate chair of furniture design, initially encountered Archana in FURN 715, Methods in Furniture Fabrication. “Archana designed and built a tri-legged table with beautiful sculptural tapered turned legs and a curved top,” Spector says. “She taught herself how to use the lathe and how to incorporate 3-axis CNC milling, processes typically not covered in that class. In a subsequent graduate studio, where the project was to design and build a work-from-home desk, she designed a desk system where work surfaces, legs, and privacy panels lock in. This whole system was both well-engineered and sculpturally beautiful. She has an amazing eye for form and proportion, and a keen understanding of trends.”
The freshness of Archana’s approach is due in part to circumventing the dominant Western design repertoire. “What if there was a more open, pluralistic environment, where we find inspiration in incorporating different cultures into our design?” she asks.
A keen admirer of the artist and landscape architect Isamu Noguchi, Archana designed and built her primal-forms lamps “Lighting I & II” informed by the ancient monolithic columns of Hampi, India. Her bench “Seating I” nods to Eastern cultural traditions of sitting closer to the ground; per its catalog description, the bench “aims to step away from rigid ergonomic standards and promotes fluidity of interpretation.” As Archana says: “You can sit on it however you want!”
Having won the 2021 Hospitality Design/West Elm Student Product Design Competition for her “Bloom” lighting collection, Archana received a $5,000 prize and will have her winning design produced and sold by West Elm — a significant, palpable step towards manifesting her design philosophy in the retail space.
“The multi-cultural aspect of SCAD is something that drew me here,” Archana says. “I don’t treat SCAD as a school, I see it as a start to a professional journey.”
Archana Menon (M.F.A., furniture design).
Written by Peter Relic. | https://medium.com/@scaddotedu/the-essential-freshness-of-archana-menon-bb8c0a95852c | ['Scad', 'The Savannah College Of Art'] | 2021-11-30 16:57:21.366000+00:00 | ['Education', 'Design', 'Scad', 'Furniture', 'Art'] |
Which Deep Learning Framework is Growing Fastest? | Which Deep Learning Framework is Growing Fastest?
TensorFlow vs. PyTorch
In September 2018, I compared all the major deep learning frameworks in terms of demand, usage, and popularity in this article. TensorFlow was the undisputed heavyweight champion of deep learning frameworks. PyTorch was the young rookie with lots of buzz. 🐝
How has the landscape changed for the leading deep learning frameworks in the past six months?
To answer that question, I looked at the number of job listings on Indeed, Monster, LinkedIn, and SimplyHired. I also evaluated changes in Google search volume, GitHub activity, Medium articles, ArXiv articles, and Quora topic followers. Overall, these sources paint a comprehensive picture of growth in demand, usage, and interest.
Integrations and Updates
We’ve recently seen several important developments in the TensorFlow and PyTorch frameworks.
PyTorch v1.0 was pre-released in October 2018, at the same time fastai v1.0 was released. Both releases marked major milestones in the maturity of the frameworks.
TensorFlow 2.0 alpha was released March 4, 2019. It added new features and an improved user experience. It more tightly integrates Keras as its high-level API, too.
Methodology
In this article, I include Keras and fastai in the comparisons because of their tight integrations with TensorFlow and PyTorch. They also provide scale for evaluating TensorFlow and PyTorch.
I won’t be exploring other deep learning frameworks in this article. I expect I will receive feedback that Caffe, Theano, MXNET, CNTK, DeepLearning4J, or Chainer deserve to be discussed. While these frameworks each have their virtues, none appear to be on a growth trajectory likely to put them near TensorFlow or PyTorch. Nor are they tightly coupled with either of those frameworks.
Searches were performed on March 20–21, 2019. Source data is in this Google Sheet.
I used the plotly data visualization library to explore popularity. For the interactive plotly charts, see my Kaggle Kernel here.
Let’s look at the results in each category.
Change in Online Job Listings
To determine which deep learning libraries are in demand in today’s job market I searched job listings on Indeed, LinkedIn, Monster, and SimplyHired.
I searched with the term machine learning, followed by the library name. So TensorFlow was evaluated with machine learning TensorFlow. This method was used for historical comparison reasons. Searching without machine learning didn’t yield appreciably different results. The search region was the USA.
I subtracted the number of listings six months ago from the number of listings in March 2019. Here’s what I found:
TensorFlow had a slightly larger increase in listings than PyTorch. Keras also saw listings growth — about half as much as TensorFlow. Fastai still isn’t showing in hardly any job listings.
Note that PyTorch saw a larger number of additional listings than TensorFlow on all job search sites other than LinkedIn. Also note that in absolute terms, TensorFlow appears in nearly three times the number of job listings as PyTorch or Keras.
Change in Average Google Search Activity
Web searches on the largest search engine are a gauge of popularity. I looked at search history in Google Trends over the past year. I searched for worldwide interest in the Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence category. Google doesn’t provide absolute search numbers, but it does provide relative figures.
I took the average interest score of the past six months and the compared it to the average interest score for the prior six months.
In the past six months, the relative search volume for TensorFlow has decreased, while the relative search volume for PyTorch has grown.
The chart from Google directly below shows search interest over the past year.
TensorFlow in blue; Keras in yellow, PyTorch in red, fastai in green
New Medium Articles
Medium is a popular location for data science articles and tutorials. I hope you’re enjoying it! 😃
I used Google site search of Medium.com over the past six months and found TensorFlow and Keras had similar numbers of articles published. PyTorch had relatively few.
As high level APIs, Keras and fastai are popular with new deep learning practitioners. Medium has many tutorials showing how to use these frameworks.
New arXiv Articles
arXiv is the online repository where most scholarly deep learning articles are published. I searched for new articles mentioning each framework on arXiv using Google site search results for the past six months.
TensorFlow had the most new article appearances by a good margin.
New GitHub Activity
Recent activity on GitHub is another indicator of framework popularity. I broke out stars, forks, watchers, and contributors in the charts below.
TensorFlow had the most GitHub activity in each category. However, PyTorch was quite close in terms of growth in watchers and contributors. Also, Fastai saw many new contributors.
Some contributors to Keras are no doubt working on it in the TensorFlow library. It’s worth noting that both TensorFlow and Keras are open source products spearheaded by Googlers.
New Quora Followers
I added the number of new Quora topic followers to the mix — a new category that I didn’t have the data for previously.
TensorFlow added the most new topic followers over the past six months. PyTorch and Keras each added far fewer.
Once I had all the data, I consolidated it into one metric.
Growth Score Procedure
Here’s how I created the growth score:
Scaled all features between 0 and 1. Aggregated the Online Job Listings and GitHub Activity subcategories. Weighted categories according to the percentages below.
4. Multiplied weighted scores by 100 for comprehensibility.
5. Summed category scores for each framework into a single growth score.
Job listings make up a little over a third of the total score. As the cliche goes, money talks. 💵 This split seemed like an appropriate balance of the various categories. Unlike my 2018 power score analysis, I didn’t include KDNuggets usage survey (no new data) or books (not many published in six months).
Results
Here are the changes in tabular form. | https://towardsdatascience.com/which-deep-learning-framework-is-growing-fastest-3f77f14aa318 | ['Jeff Hale'] | 2020-01-28 13:19:53.368000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Data Science', 'Technology', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Deep Learning'] |
Human Conveyor Belt! | Photo credits to blissful motivation
As I approached the hospital gates, my heart was heavy, my spirit weary. I worked in a baby manufacturing plant. A human conveyor belt. That’s what my perception had become. But it wasn’t always this way. It started as a dream. A dream to make a difference. But one day I woke up and realized I hated the nature of my work.
As a junior doctor, I was sent to work in the busiest maternity hospital in the city. It was known then, as a filthy, overcrowded hospital with poor quality of care and inadequate facilities. Patients who delivered there went for lack of choice.
I arrived on my first day- on a chilly Monday morning- bright eyed and bushy tailed with anticipation in my chest. I had heard all the gory stories about this place but I was determined not to let it get to me.
I walked in through the front entrance and was met with the familiar putrid smell of antiseptic. The reception area was poorly lit with no one in sight. The peach concrete floors were littered and wet with stains of blood signifying the recent passage of a bleeding patient. Further in, I got to a place with a flurry of activity. A nurse was escorting countless women to a bench on one side of the corridor. They seemed to be in great distress-these women.
I turned to see where they had come from and I was horrified by the sight. To my left was a large endless room with a flurry of activity. I peeped in and felt someone grab my arm.
“Wewe ni nani?” A middle-aged nurse asked me.
I introduced myself and explained to her that this was my first day and I was there for orientation. She pointed to a door next to where the agonizing women sat. “ Go in there. It’s the operating theatre. You will find a doctor to take you round, but it’s really busy.”
The orientation was as brief as the life of a fly. I walked into the OR and found a tall, lanky male doctor chugging down milk from a packet. What happened to cups, I thought. After brief introductions, he got up and took me back to the corridor, then from one central point, pointed to the different areas in the hospital. He looked exhausted and kept asking me when I was set to start. “In a nutshell, you only need to know three things. One, you will either work in labor ward or the operating theatre alone for your shift. Two, eat before you come in or you will be forced to survive on two packets of milk for the twelve hours. Three, there is a call room upstairs-you will never use it.” He then introduced me to a few members of staff and that was it. The disquiet within me begun with that description. Just how bad was this place? It didn’t take long to find out.
I started work officially a week later. It wouldn’t be that bad, I thought. I was there an hour early, ready to set up and get started. This time I met one of the nurses stationed at labor ward. She took one look at me and said, “ That will not do.” As she pointed at my outfit. I was clad in a pristine pink blouse, collars well pressed, black trousers and office shoes. “ Go and get some scrubs, gumboots and a mask from theatre.”
When I got back, she gave me two packets of milk. “This is for you to keep up your energy.” I didn’t think I would need the milk so I shoved it in my bag. She then took a large, blue, translucent polythene sheet and fashioned it into an apron for me-what we ideally call a Macintosh and told me it would protect me from the splashes of various fluids coming my way. With that we got started.
Labor ward was a market-place. The women looked like the cast of a poorly choreographed play in utter disarray. Some were singing dirges, others were dancing to self composed songs, others were contorted in inhumane postures, yet some just sat quietly bearing the pain. How was I supposed to manage all these patients? There was clearly no time to continue being a curious onlooker. The nurse was joined by her colleague and we constituted what we needed for the ward round. It was as dramatic as they come. By the end of that day, I could barely speak. I found the milk at the bottom of my bag as I was leaving. There was no time for decorum. I latched onto the milk packet like a newborn and emptied the contents into my mouth.
Weeks later, this work, begun to quench the fire of change I had. I became mechanical. I started to watch the clock and would leave promptly when my twelve hours were up. Taking a break to drink my milk and go back to work. I was mentally drained.
If I thought, labor ward was bad, then the OR was worse. In theatre, we were conditioned to operate at the speed of lightning. Be fast enough yet careful enough to do as many cases as you could. The pressure was immense. My scrubs would be drenched in sweat after a few hours because of the adrenaline rush. We would be on our feet for thirteen hours straight. Cut, open, deliver, suture, dress, repeat. The work never stopped, the emergencies never ended. The conveyor belt kept moving. And then the day I dreaded came.
I was in theatre operating on a patient. I had just made the cut that opened the abdomen when the nurse rushed in saying that there was a cord prolapse. This is a complication where the umbilical cord drops through the open cervix into the vagina ahead of the baby. The cord can become trapped against the baby’s head. It’s an obstetric emergency, because the cord is at high risk of compression, blocking oxygen and blood flow to the baby; leading to fetal death. Ethics dictated that I could only attend to the patient on the operating table at that time. There was the choice to refer the patient but all the bureaucracy that surrounded the referral system would take so much time. By the time we got the ambulance and rounded up staff to accompany her to another facility, I probably would be done with the patient on the table. I tried to get my colleague to help by opening another theatre but it had no anesthetic equipment. Sigh. I called my senior colleague to inform him about the situation and instructed the nurse to put her in a knee chest position to avoid compressing the cord.
I composed myself and steadily operated as fast as I could while trying to be as careful as possible. They say misfortune does not travel single-handedly. As soon as I got the baby out she developed post partum hemorrhage. I knew then I had to make a decision concerning the other patient. There was no telling how long this would take. I asked them to organize a referral for her as I tried to control the bleeding. There was no blood available at the hospital and alas the ambulance had no fuel. By the time I was done with the bleeding patient, and she was stable, the ambulance had not been released yet. I asked them to quickly wheel the next patient into theatre but when I felt the cord, it was no longer pulsating. The baby was gone. To say I was destroyed, is an understatement. I was knocked sideways and I still had to deliver her, and explain to her what had happened. I hated the feeling of playing God. The feeling of helplessness this work came with. The fact that even after all that, you still had to pick yourself up and keep working until your shift was done. I steeled myself for the remainder of the shift.
In the morning I got into my car and drove home and never went back.
I am ONLY one. I can’t attend to more than one patient at a time. My hands were tied and because of several glitches in the system, we lost a baby and it was not the last. That was just a preamble in the daily life of a Kenyan doctor.
I have since recovered and moved on but with a drive to change more than one life at the same time through my writing. | https://medium.com/@medroomeyes/human-conveyor-belt-471da09cc84b | [] | 2020-01-15 02:47:25.164000+00:00 | ['Birth', 'Health', 'Doctors', 'Decision Making'] |
The International Olympic Committee: Dr. Jekyll at Day, Mr. Hyde at Night | The International Olympic Committee: Dr. Jekyll at Day, Mr. Hyde at Night
Greenwashing in sports
Photo by Zdeněk Macháček on Unsplash
I want to present to you two different headlines from the world of sports that I read on the same day. Both concerning soccer, the world’s biggest sport and also a part of the Olympic movement. However, I could have easily picked a headline from another sport. What you are about to read makes no sense but that’s how the world works at this point.
1) Arsenal defender Hector Bellerin invests in the first carbon-neutral soccer club Green Forrest Rover
2) News came out that the German national team was flying from Stuttgart to Basel
When I read those two statements I was completely confused. It is the responsibility of sports organizations, like any other organization, to act socially responsible and for decades sports have played a very conflicting role when it comes to ecological sustainability.
On the one side, sports has a huge carbon footprint. Flying an estimated 28,500 athletes and staff to Brazil for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio generated more than 2,000 kilotons (kt) of greenhouse gases (GHG) — not to mention the 2,500 kt of GHGs associated with bringing in about half a million spectators (Rio 2016 Carbon Footprint Report). More concerning, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the most prominent sports organization has been repeatedly accused of greenwashing.
On the other side, it has been acknowledged by the UN that sports is an important facilitator of sustainable development. From sustainable sport fashion labels such as Patagonia to the IOC’s sustainability initiatives and now the founder of an ‘all green soccer club,’ there are plenty of examples where sports and its context have pioneered the ecological sustainability movement. Going one step further, studies have shown that individuals who regularly engage in outdoor recreation, physical activity, and sports have an increased awareness of environmental problems.
Sports have shown promising approaches towards a more sustainable future.
This article will evaluate how the biggest sport organization (IOC) has implemented sustainable practices into their actions and how they plan to adapt to the increasing importance of sustainability in today’s world.
Furthermore, I want to present possible solutions for more sustainable sports events and, more importantly, ways to control the federation’s behavior.
Greenwashing
One issue that proves to be quite a problem for pro-environmental organizations such as Green Forrest Rovers is the increasing number of organizations that seldom use green communication for greenwashing purposes.
But what is greenwashing? Even though no generally accepted definition of the term exists, Seele and Gatti (2017) define it as: “a co‐creation of an external accusation toward an organization with regard to presenting a misleading green message.”
Greenwashing can serve as a valid communication strategy since even organizations that do not have a green image can enhance their attraction for applicants by communicating sustainable practices.
As discussed earlier, a prominent example of an organization that is currently under scrutiny for greenwashing is the IOC.
The IOC is heavily communicating its sustainable image ever since the 2000 Olympic Games (OG) in Sydney without embracing significant environmental principles. While the IOC has made great efforts to improve its sustainability in the late 1990’s following environmental protests of the host regions, this effort has not been sustained over the long-term. Two of the last three OGs (Beijing, 2008; RIO, 2016) have been highly criticized for their unsustainable legacy.
One example of the unsustainable legacy of the IOC was the OG in Rio 2016. Examples range from unsafe water conditions to failed promises. For instance, to offset carbon emissions, the city had vowed to plant 24 million trees by 2016, but only 5.5 million were planted (ESPN, 2017), showing a significant gap between sustainability communication and action. And there are more examples. The Organizing Committee for the OG in London 2012 dropped its pledge to offset their carbon footprint when it could not find any carbon offset projects in the United Kingdom. Way to go IOC.
The question of responsibility
Historically, the level of commitment towards sustainability was dependent on the host state of the OG. The Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer in 1994 is a perfect example. There were many environmental concerns before the games, and under the leadership of the Norwegian politician Harlem Brundtland, the Games were a prime example with regards to sustainability.
However, this success can not be attributed to the IOC; it is solely the result of a national organizing committee that had sustainability as one of their priorities. That is why other environmentally aware countries such as Australia could host environmentally friendly games. On the contrary, nations like Brazil whose government is not prioritizing sustainability staged events that were not sustainable.
It remains to be seen if the IOC chooses to implement only minor adjustments to the existing strategy but leaves the responsibility to the host country, or if they begin to take that responsibility on themselves. A potential first step could be the commitment to a transparent sustainability report and the encouragement of innovative ideas on how to stage sustainable mega-events.
The final chapter will discuss three potential solutions for greater sustainability in the Olympic movement.
Solutions for more sustainability in the Olympic Movement
1) Certifications and sustainability report
A potential solution for the IOC could be the extended use of independent certifications such as ISO or BCorporation. Third-party certifications could help in the assessment of the organization’s green practices. Besides, it could be made mandatory for the IOC to publish a sustainability report conducted by an independent third-party. The IOC could use this third-party to hold itself accountable. It needs to be clarified what happens if a target is not met like in the prior tree-planting example. In this case, penalties should be handed out to the organizing committee.
It should not be possible for the IOC to break promises like the planting of 24 million trees without consequences. Whenever the IOC commits to certain ecological goals, there must be penalties if the objective is not reached. While this is easier for short-term goals, the controlling of long-term goals is just as important. The best-case scenario would be the implementation of an independent working group that controls the IOC.
2) Switch OG to one place/allow regions to bid
Another prominent proposition is the installment of permanent hosting sites for the OG. There has been extensive coverage of structural and social problems, such as the case of unused facilities. By having a permanent hosting site, many of those structural problems could be solved. While this solution comes with its disadvantages, there is another promising approach to be explored: allowing regions to bid.
One region that is already preparing its official application for 2032 is the Rhein-Ruhr area in Germany. Many cities have already agreed to the ambitious plan. The vision of the privately financed initiative “Rhein-Ruhr City 2032” is to host a:
“supra-regional, community-based, economically and ecologically sustainable concept for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in the metropolitan region Rhein-Ruhr.”
The fifth biggest metropolitan region in Europe comes with many advantages. 90% of the needed sports facilities are already available, and within the small radius of 60km, the region can provide space for 641,000 visitors without the construction of new buildings.
3) Simply cut sports
It may sound a little drastic at first, but once you consider certain sports’ ecological footprint, it gets more reasonable. The winter disciplines are under special scrutiny. When researchers at the University of Waterloo calculated the impact climate change has on the Winter Games they estimated that nearly 50 percent of the last host countries will be unable to host the games in the future due to the increasing temperatures. Additionally, all water sports need a certain amount of water quality. It is estimated that 1.15 to 2.41 million tonnes of plastic are entering the ocean each year from rivers. While the bad water quality in Rio has been an outlier so far, the problem of bad water quality could be a more frequent and concerning issue going forward.
Conclusion
Much like the two headlines I presented in the intro, sports has two faces when it comes to sustainability. The biggest issue I see at this moment is that the IOC as sports biggest organization can not act as a leader. Due to the (rightful) greenwashing accusations the IOC is not seen as a trustful organization even though they have made continuous effort to focus more on sustainability.
In their new Sustainability Strategy, the IOC has targeted to change many structures within their organization. It will take time to evaluate the success of the IOC’s strategy. They have identified five focus areas that they want to improve in the near future: infrastructure and natural sites, sourcing and resource management, mobility workforce, and climate. So far, they have only achieved 40 percent of their goals from their 2020 agenda.
IOC Strategy Agenda: http://extrassets.olympic.org/sustainability-strategy/executivesummary/8-1
However, the IOC has also identified three spheres of responsibility. And many of the aforementioned achievements lie in the first sphere. While it is much harder to improve their actions in the second and third sphere this will determine whether we will read headlines like the investment in Green Forest Rangers in the future or if we will continue to see sports teams and organizations not care about the future of our planet. The IOC has acknowledged their responsibility and it is their task to make the necessary adjustments to the bidding process and hosting of the OG. However, it is our responsibility to monitor their success and hold them accountable for their failings and successes.
Sources:
Babiak, K. (2010). The role and relevance of corporate social responsibility in sport: A view from the top. Journal of Management and Organization, 16(4), 528.
Bowen, H. R. (2013). Social responsibilities of the businessman. University of Iowa Press.
Boykoff, J., & Mascarenhas, G. (2016). The Olympics, sustainability, and greenwashing: The Rio 2016 summer games. Capitalism Nature Socialism, 27(2), 1–11.
Cunningham, G., McCullough, B. P., & Hohensee, S. (2020). Physical activity and climate change attitudes. Climatic Change, 159(1), 61–74.
Seele, P., & Gatti, L. (2017). Greenwashing revisited: In search of a typology and accusation‐based definition incorporating legitimacy strategies. Business Strategy and the Environment, 26(2), 239–252.
United Nations General Assembly (2015). Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Division for Sustainable Development Goals: New York, NY, USA. | https://medium.com/climate-conscious/the-international-olympic-committee-dr-jekyll-at-day-mr-hyde-at-night-c39388806464 | ['Tom'] | 2020-10-07 14:45:18.997000+00:00 | ['Olympics', 'Sustainability', 'Climate Change', 'Sports', 'Climate Action'] |
Minding the Garden: What is Light Therapy? | How can connecting with nature improve our mental health? What parts of the natural world can help us connect to calm, peace, and serenity? Connecting with the earth by gardening and spending time among plants does wonders for our mental health, but so does another natural wonder — the sun. Spending time outside in the sun is an obvious mood-booster, but bright, warm weather isn’t always available to us. Just like how indoor gardening towers make gardening year-round possible, there are now solutions to help us reap the benefits of sunlight whenever we need to.
Light therapy, also called heliotherapy or phototherapy, uses light to treat illnesses or for therapy. Treatments involve exposure to sources of light (such as LEDs or sunlight), and there are different types of techniques depending on the condition being treated. It compensates for a lack of exposure to sunlight, which is often linked to depression and low mood.
Humans have always felt a connection to nature, but scientists and doctors have only started to note how this connection can link to science and therapy in recent times. Spending time in the sun is undoubtedly a mood-booster, and it’s easy to see how it could translate to treatments; in fact, light therapy has been practiced in various forms for centuries. It had long been believed that light can help with mood or various illnesses, but it was first pioneered as a scientific treatment by Dr. Niels Ryberg Finesen, who received a Nobel Prize in 1903 for his work using artificial light sources for therapy.
Spending time in the sun, or enjoying sunlight, can have amazing effects on our mood (source: Nutritower Instagram & Pexels).
There are widespread applications for treatments that harness the power of the sun. Even as we depend more and more on technology, the benefits of nature — such as the happiness we get from a sunny day — never fade. Light therapy can affect brain chemicals that are connected to our mood and sleep, and can ease negative mental health symptoms. For example, it can help with depression or sleep disorders and can be used to treat seasonal affective disorder, which is a type of depression that occurs seasonally (usually in darker months, such as fall or winter). I personally have friends who use “SAD lamps,” which are LED lamps used to treat seasonal affective disorder, also known as SAD. These lamps are light therapy boxes which mimic natural outdoor light by emitting a bright light; you sit or work near a box so it enters your eyes indirectly. Light therapy can also help with jet lag and even dementia. There are mild risks to light therapy, such as eyestrain, headaches, or nausea. However, it is usually seen as safe with few side effects. Although light therapy is likely to ease symptoms and increase energy levels, it won’t completely cure you. It may be more effective when combined with other treatments such as counseling. And of course, it is always a good idea to consult a doctor before seriously undertaking light therapy.
There is concrete evidence showing how light can help our mental health. Several studies have found that just one hour of bright light therapy improves depressive symptoms, and that consistent light treatment can significantly reduce depression. One study looked at 15 patients with untreated seasonal affective disorder, who used sad lamps for a trial period. Using them not only resulted in a significant improvement in mood compared to what they felt before, but researchers even found that using the lamps for longer (40 compared to 20 minutes) helped even more.
SAD Lamps like the one in this photo can fit easily into any home and lifestyle (source: Nutritower Instagram & Daniel Foster).
Similar to horticultural therapy, light therapy is an accessible and safe solution to mental health concerns. It can be especially effective when combined with other treatments, or it can be used as a simple way to help lift the mood and clear the mind by itself. It’s easy to see how it could also make you feel subliminally calmer or happier, as it mimics sitting or basking in the sun. Enjoying bright weather and sunshine is also something that often happens when gardening, which is great for mental health too. Light therapy is connected to horticultural therapy and gardening practices in multiple ways; light and the sun are central to gardening and healthy plants, both treatments mimic or involve the outdoors, and both replicate the calming effects of connecting with nature.
The efficacy of both horticultural and light therapy demonstrates how useful gardening and spending time in nature can be for mental health, and how accessible solutions are available. Indoor gardening systems and SAD lamps are among some of the readily available tools for bettering mental health. But keep in mind what these tools can accomplish — although the Nutritower, an indoor gardening tower, bright lighting to grow plants, it is not meant for light therapy, just as many top-selling SAD lamps may not be the right light source for growing plants indoors.
Light columns in the Nutritower help your plants grow; different types of light can benefit human or plant health.
Finding the right solution for mental health issues can depend on what kind of problems you’re experiencing, what you want to spend time doing, or what solutions appeal to you. With accessible options that help you feel connected to the earth and allow you to receive nature’s benefits year-round, there are many ways for you to strengthen your mental health more than ever. You can garden year-round and benefit from light indoors, but also spend time in the sun and engage with nature — there are plenty of options, so make sure you get out there and connect with the earth!
Author: Lauren Jelinek | https://medium.com/@nutritower/minding-the-garden-what-is-light-therapy-9095dbea5c56 | [] | 2021-07-13 18:53:40.950000+00:00 | ['Gardening', 'Lighting', 'Therapy'] |
Self-Love Is The Best Love | Laughter echoed in my backyard, we were hosting my husbands' cousin sister and her husband. They are very close to us, and we have a great friendship.
She said, “It's getting cold, we should move inside”. Her husband held her hands in his own and said, “I got you, I am your personal heater”. They smiled and gazed at each other. Immediately uncomfortable, I broke the silence by saying, “This cold will get me stiff”. To which her husband teased, “Well, hope your husband gets stiff and hard too, that will be fun for you tonight”. Everyone laughed at the sexual innuendo, my husband replied, “That is why our bedroom is so far from yours, so you don't hear us and vice versa”. I looked at him, he was laughing heartily. Cracking a sexual joke comfortably, pretending to be the most normal happily married couple. It seemed to come naturally to him.
My head was spinning.
I was brimming with anger, resentment, and heartache. I held my breath as that feeling passed. I felt thankful for the control I had…a couple of years ago this kind of thing would have pushed me to the edge. There would have been tears, and me walking away or some huge drama afterward. I rejoined the conversation, secretly admiring my acting abilities and my husbands’. We have been doing this for years now, the pretending, the joking, portraying a perfect picture.
But every single time, it gets me.
I only hide it better now, I have learned…the hard way. It's futile to try and change someone…especially someone who can’t see you at all, even though you are so close. It's better to change your own self (or at least pretend to have changed, as they say, ‘you fake it till you make it’).
But still when the conversation moves to intimacy, sex, etc. Hits me hard, like a jab in the ribs. Takes my effing breath away.
I wonder sometimes, about my husband. Does it come easily to him, or does the pretending hurt him too? I secretly wish it does, but I know it doesn't. I am pretty sure it doesn't even strike him that these things could be hurting me.
I guess the fault lies with me, for being so fragile. For being unable to harden myself even after so many years of the same thing. I try, to be tough, to appear calm and unaffected, to seem normal. I think I succeed fairly well, but inside…Oh don't even get me started on what goes on in my heart.
It's a mess.
Scarred, battered, broken, pieces stitched together raggedly. Barely hanging on…Yes that's how my emotional health looks like, or as we say…my heart.
I could spend days crying if I could. But I am afraid I wouldn't be able to come out of that state of mind. I know this because I have been there. I have been depressed, unable to get out of bed, and all else that comes with it. I got out of it, and swore never to go back in that place…its dark there, and scary.
I had written something when I was suffering, it was very dark but I saved it. To remind me how low I had been, and how far I have come. Remember this… The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
— Robert Frost I changed it to… The woods are lonely, dark, and scary…
And I have nothing left to seek.
Can I just go to sleep?
A forever and ever sleep… I know it sounds bad, depressing. But what does one do when they feel done. Like not a medium or rare, but a well done, overdone…burnt, charred done. That is how I felt in 2017, but am better now. Whatever happens, nothing seems to affect me as badly anymore. I still feel everything deeply. I am still in the same situation, but I have grown.
Love, Loss, Heartbreak, Grief, Rejection…all these things change you. My marriage and the constant slow burn of all that is wrong with it has also changed me. It broke me first, but then I rebuilt….
Stronger, Better….and a hell of a lot Sexier.
So whatever you are going through in your life, your good or shitty relationships…remember this. There is one love which is above all, the LOVE you feel for yourself.
SELF-LOVE.
Learn to love yourself more…and you will make it.
No matter how low you are, how much the world beats you down, You will rise, You will shine…trust me, coz I did. | https://medium.com/hello-love/self-love-is-the-best-love-21c7e68773d3 | ['Wistful Writer'] | 2020-12-18 07:41:03.208000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Marriage', 'Heartbreak', 'This Happened To Me', 'Self Love'] |
Design A Highly Available PostgreSQL Cluster With Patroni In GCP — Part 1 | Design A Highly Available PostgreSQL Cluster With Patroni In GCP — Part 1 Bhuvanesh Sep 16, 2019·5 min read
Patroni is the new age HA solution for PostgreSQL with cloud-native features and advanced options for failover and failback. PostgreSQL is one of the world top open-source databases but the worst part is, it doesn’t have inbuilt automatic failover. Still, I remember my old days, fighting with repmgr for HA and its very hard for me to add the failed master back to the cluster. But later pg_rewind made that process more simple. The world is moving very fast to adopt the cloud. So some vintage HA solutions like DRBD, corosync + pacemaker, repmgr, and a few other technologies are out of date.
Problems in traditional replication:
The default replication mechanism will not support the Failover. Disk-based replication, sometimes ends with data corruption. Using external tools for failover may need additional effort to keep them up and running and monitoring. Automatically adding the failed node back to the cluster, its a nightmare (but still scripting geeks can do this). Handle the Split Brain situation.
The Bot approach:
Credit: Zalando
I learned this concept from a conference by Zalando. PostgreSQL will take care of its own process, but we need something to monitor the PostgreSQL service and its replication status in distributed systems like etcd, zookeeper or Consul. But PostgreSQL can’t to DCS directly right? So if PostgreSQL went down, then the bot will start electing a new master. Also if the old master came up, then the bot will add them back to the cluster. Here BOT refers to the Patroni. Patroni is the successor of compose governor.
The Patroni:
Credit: Zalando
Its developed by Zalando.
Completely Python based and 100% Open source.
Maintain the cluster status in DCS(etcd, zookeeper, and Consul).
Rest API — get the state of the node and etc.
While adding a node to the replication, we can use the custom method to archive this(barman, Wal-E, your own scripts).
You can prevent some nodes(the nodes that you want only for reporting)to become a master.
You can decide, while adding a new node to the replication, from where to sync(from which node) the data.
Hooks — Trigger some actions once the bootstrap or when PostgreSQL starts, stops, Failover.
Manual switchover during the maintenance window and integration with HA proxy.
And a lot more features.
ETCD:
ETCD is a distributed control system. We’ll use ETCD to keep the PostgreSQL cluster’s health, node state, and other information about the cluster. The other important thing is, etcd also will be in a High availability mode. So either you can use it on GKE clusters or create a cluster on Compute engine and put a load balancer on top of it. But unfortunately, the GCP’s HTTP load balancer will support port 80 as a Front end port. But no worries, it won’t affect anything.
Credit: Zalando
Do we need HA Proxy:
To use Patroni, we need at least 3 nodes. In case of failover, we need some Virtual(or floating) IP address to make the application continue to access the database. To reduce this dependency, the HA proxy will always talk to the master node. Here is how HA proxy knows who is the master. In HA proxy, we need to give health check port. 8008 is the default Patroni rest API port. HA proxy will send a GET Request to all the nodes in the cluster in 8008 port. Only the Master node will give 200 OK status. Other nodes will return 503 Server Unavailable .
But as I mentioned above, its a Cloud Era. All the cloud providers have their own load balancers which work better than HA proxy(in terms of scalability, customization, availability and etc). Patroni provides feasibility via Rest API to determine the role of a node. On each node, we can trigger a Get Request to /master and /replica URLs. If the node is master, then the /master will return 200 OK. On the replica’s it’ll return 503. Similarly /replica will return 503 on replicas and 200 OK on slave nodes.
GCP Internal Load Balancer:
This feature will help us to deploy the GCP TCP load balancer to talk to master and slaves. We can create 2 load balancers.
Writer LB — Add all the PostgreSQL under this LB. In the health check use /master as a path. Reader LB — Add all the PostgreSQL under this LB. In the health check use /replica as a path.
Lets say if you have 3 node cluster, then the Writer LB shows 1/3 nodes are healthy meantime Reader LB shows 2/3 nodes are healthy.
Standby Cluster:
Credit: Zalando
Patroni is good for HA, but if you have some DR servers on a different Region or Reporting Replica with minimal hardware configuration, Automatic failover should not promote these nodes as a Master. Or if you have any delayed replica, that node also won’t become a master. In this case, we can define which nodes should be eligible for master.
Final Architecture:
In GCP, I have designed the below architecture for Patroni. | https://blog.searce.com/design-a-highly-available-postgresql-cluster-with-patroni-in-gcp-part-1-dfb6ed277806 | [] | 2019-09-16 08:49:00.327000+00:00 | ['Data', 'Postgresql', 'Google Cloud Platform', 'Patroni'] |
My Week: The Power of Yoga and Meditation | I have OCD and ADHD. What does that mean? It means you have no excuse! But seriously, let’s make this the last “self-help” article you read about the benefits of yoga and meditation!
Obviously, you know this stuff is good for you. Unless you’re Patrick Star and grew up under a rock, we all know yoga and meditation has a slew of benefits. I was able to scrape together 20 minutes every day to make my mental health a priority and you can too!
I started with a 10–15 minute yoga session and finished off with a 5 Minute Guided meditation:
Monday Night
Before:
I don't want to do it. Hence why I am procrastinating this Yoga Meditation and writing in Medium instead. I am going to do some laundry and check back…
After:
…I feel incredibly antsy. Possibly more so. Maybe I am more aware of feeling antsy? I don’t feel better. I don’t feel worse.
Pexels: Pixabay
Tuesday Night
Before:
I am feeling less annoyed about doing this tonight. I am not wanting to do it. But I am also not dreading it.
After:
It was much more relaxing than last night. During the meditation point, I felt very peaceful and I almost thought about doing the 10 minutes one too! Plus my partner joined me, which was nice.
Wednesday Night
Before:
I didn’t feel like doing yoga again tonight. But I was excited about the meditation.
After:
My partner joined me again. I think he is getting roped into my routine without realizing it! This is very beneficial because he struggles with some anxiety himself. I think the fact we are doing it together is a great sign!
Pexels: cottonbro
Thursday Night
Before: Nada.
After: Zip.
I thought about lying to you in this post and saying that I did it on Thursday. But the truth is I didn’t. I wanted to include this reality because I think if we try and do everything too extreme and then beat ourselves up for not meeting an expectation we are setting ourselves up for failure. So Friday? I got right back up on my horse.
Friday Night
Before:
I actually could not wait to meditate. I was less excited about the yoga.
After:
I felt so much better afterwards. My partner joined me again. He likes the rhythm of it. He says he feels nicely stretched out and more flexible afterwards. He also said that he “can’t turn my brain off” during the meditation.
Pexels: Cottonbro
Saturday Night
Before:
This time my partner reminded me about yoga!
After:
Afterwards, we felt really relaxed and ready for bed. The next morning I was driving in my car and noticed I actually felt more relaxed and calm. I was less anxious and I also felt like my thoughts were not moving a mile a minute.
Sunday
Before:
I had finished with a long walk and was excited to stretch out, but mostly excited to meditate!
After:
I was actually excited about being done with the whole challenge. I shared some of my observations and thoughts below!
Thoughts
I don’t think I will do yoga every day. I like writing, running, walking, and I don’t have time to squeeze yoga into my daily routine. I think I will treat myself to a longer yoga session every Sunday morning though. Maybe crank the heat and make a mango smoothie and just relax into the Sunday morning with some self-care.
I absolutely want to keep meditating. I am terrified of being bored and having to do 10 minutes every day. But I also think I am ready for the 5-minute increase. Meditation is not a fitness hobby. It’s mental health maintenance and I need to add this to my daily routine.
Running, yoga, and meditating every day has helped my mental health so much. I think this year is the year to utilize everything mental health experts are saying, and do those things to the fullest. This challenge showed me it is possible to incorporate into my routine.
I think yoga is so enjoyable and I want to add it to my self-care weekly unwind routine. I think, especially after a run!
Meditation and yoga helped some of my restless thoughts. I found it was easier to relax in-between sessions. It's something I want to keep working at and I think everyone would benefit from even a five-minute practice like I did! | https://medium.com/in-fitness-and-in-health/my-week-the-power-of-yoga-and-meditation-792e18b15439 | ['Sadie Lee'] | 2020-12-15 21:40:26.083000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Challenge', 'Yoga', 'Mental Health', 'Meditation'] |
What is Quantum Computing? | Just imagine a computer whose memory is exponentially larger than its apparent physical size; a computer that can manipulate an exponential set of input concurrently or you can say a computer that computes in the twilight zone. Quantum computer is like a tanker that breaks off brick wall which thousand of tennis balls are unable to accomplish. Much of the recent century knowledge on consumer electronics & highly advanced technologies is due to & based on man’s growing understanding of Quantum mechanics. What does quantum computing mean? Let’s have a brief discussion over it!
Quantum Computing
Quantum computing is the use of quantum-mechanical phenomena like superposition and predicament to perform the calculation. A quantum computer is used to perform this type of calculation and can be implemented either theoretically or physically. Relatively few and simple concepts from quantum mechanics are needed to make quantum computers a possibility. The field of quantum computing is actually a sub-field of quantum information science, including quantum cryptography and quantum communication. A quantum computer had the potential to resemble things that a classical computer could not have. There are many of the challenges that the system we have today will never able to solve. To solve this high level complexity, a new kind of computing is needed.
Then what is the big deal about quantum computing? Take an example of retrieving a thing which is left on the desk of office building having hundreds of offices. To get that in a simple way, you need to walk through the building roaming through every door. A simple computer functions in the same way making its way through long strings of 1’s and 0’s until it arrives at the answer. Now take the case of searching that thing by creating copies of you similar to the rooms in building to peek in all offices. The one who find the thing will remain as real you and other will disappear. Quantum computing are built based on this peculiar reality.
Bits and Qubits
The classical computers which we use everyday uses memory that is made up of bits i.e. either 0 or 1 as on or off. Whatever functionality computer performs, from playing games to sending mails, comes from manipulating those one and zero. A quantum computer is a new type of computer that uses the unusual properties of quantum physics to solve problems that are impossible for regular computers. They do this by using qubits instead of bits. Similar to bits, qubits can represent a one or zero. What makes them special is that a qubit can be one, zero or superposition of both. This means that qubit can be both one and zero at the same time- making quantum computers exponentially more powerful than their conventional computers.
Quantum Computers
Earlier researches have proved that a full blown quantum computer could factor even the largest numbers in seconds, which is an impossible approach for conventional computers. Rather than using 1 & 0 computing that traditional computers use, quantum computer uses superposition, status of matter that can be both 1 & 0 at once. The thing is as you increase the number of qubits, you need to perform all sorts of tweaks and improvements, because the delicate quantum states that are created have to be manipulated, moved and stored without being destroyed. The scalable architecture of quantum computer allows you to think about creating larger qubit computers with relatively low technologies. Quantum computers dramatically outperform classical computers in calculations involving large number of equally possible solutions. Because of their strength at analyzing combinations, quantum computers will most likely to be applied for breaking codes & optimizing complex systems. These are able to accurately model events at the molecular scale, providing a powerful tool for science research.
Though superposition is powerful, mysterious and delicate. But the problem in building fully functioning quantum computers is that qubits must be held in super -cooled, isolated state otherwise they decohere & lose their quantum magic. While quantum computers are successfully created by developers but it is unable to get enough quibits working at the same time to realize their full potential.
Applications of quantum computing
Quantum computing is a best way to solve improbable complex problems which conventional computers can’t achieve. Due to increase in the complexity, need of powerful processors continues to increase and thus we require more computing solutions. Quantum computers have some of the major applications.
Machine Learning: Quantum computers could entrust machine learning by enabling AI programs. Artificial Intelligence is one of the primary applications of quantum computing. AI is used to pull from large datasets of image, video & text. Artificial Intelligence is an ideal candidate for quantum computation. Molecular Modeling: Molecular modeling is another example of using quantum computing. The chemical reactions are quantum in nature as they form highly complicated quantum superposition states. This quantum chemistry is so complicated that only simplest molecules can be analyzed by today’s digital computers. Biomedical Simulations: With the help of quantum computers, we can create, simulate and model molecular structures. Researchers keep on using the quantum computers to solve various puzzles. Cryptography: Quantum computers can perform factoring related to online security which conventional computers find difficult to factor large number into primes. The time required to make code cracking expensive and absurd. It is also being assured that quantum encryption methods being developed using this nature of quantum computing. Weather Forecasting: A classical computer takes time to perform weather analysis than it takes actual weather to unfold. Quantum computers are able to help in building better climate models that can provide more intuition into how humans are impacting the environment. These models are built on our future estimates of climate and we can determine which steps needs to be taken to prevent disasters.
Quantum computing has endless applications. From machine learning to optimization to biomedical and chemical simulations, all these could help to land more discoveries and research new medical treatments in record time. | https://medium.com/@biteofnews08/what-is-quantum-computing-9a887fa95424 | ['Bite Of News'] | 2019-07-29 08:08:00.500000+00:00 | ['Quantum Computer', 'Science', 'Quantum Computing'] |
‘You Had No Father, You Had The Armor’ | by Melanie Laura Brown
Modified from flickr / Mark Mauno
When did you first split open? Did you spill into your own hair? Did you ever find the pieces? How does it feel to look at yourself and wonder if you’re really there?
At the long end of 1986, two households emerge and I absorb the remnants of the home that split four people open. After my parents’ separation, I am always looking around for the rest of me, making sure I am still there. I am several parts of one body, holding two homes and four people’s memories.
When the phone rings at my mother’s house, my father’s berating increases to make up for the fact that he can no longer yell at her in person. Instead of embodying different parts of myself with each parent, I begin to present all of me with my mother and a shadow of me with my father. When I am with him, I am a mistake to be corrected. Most of what comes out of my mouth is wrong, so I eventually stop talking.
In my sixth year I learn that I should never have to go to the bathroom away from home. When I need to, it’s very bad and it upsets my father, but I do not know how to stop. He asks me why I don’t go before we leave, but I don’t have to go then or I do and then I have to go again. I do not know why my body works this way, but it must be wrong because he gets very irritated and lectures me for a long time — whether we find a public restroom quickly or not.
Dinners at his house feel like sharp teeth on me. He picks at me for how I eat, how much I eat and the baby fat I gain in adolescence. I come to realize he is using meal time to poke at my brother and me; asking us questions that no kids could answer, only to laugh at us then lash out at us for getting them wrong. Eventually my brother loses patience with the picking and starts to respond back. This results in a Ping-Pong game of verbal confrontations that bounce back and forth between them and latch onto my skin, assaulting me. I want to escape to the basement or the attic but my limbs are stiff against me. My body is still though I am slowly floating away from me.
In my 13th year, my brother begins to taunt me. We are at my mother’s kitchen table when he smiles, insisting I am holding my fork wrong and people will shun me for it. I melt into my plate and realize I am being eaten down to the core of me. When I look for myself in my body, I can barely find a trace of me.
How old were you when your face fell through? Did you hold it in your hands? Did you catch it in your skin? Did you lose track of where they end and you begin?
In my 17th year, I am in my first year of college when I meet Daniela* — the older cousin of one of my best friends. She becomes part of our friend group and we’re envious when she starts dating the cute guy we’re all curious about, until we find out he pulls her hair by the root when he’s angry.
We are parked in front of the house Daniela grew up in when I notice my skin becoming heavy, as though I am falling out of myself. I feel a draft in my body as though a door has opened that cannot be closed. It is on this day that I learn from my friend, that Daniela’s brothers used to throw her down the basement stairs when they were angry. I look up and stare at the house, as if for the first time, and something cracks in my bones.
I am ripped open and that tear becomes the catalyst for my sociology project — women rappers using art to discuss gendered power dynamics and abuse. When I take the risk of telling my brother and father about it, I do not mention the door of the house, the staircase or the hair pulled from Daniela’s head. I do not tell them the focus is on Eve’s Love is Blind. I simply say that I did a presentation on women rappers using music to illuminate social issues. I explain that I worked really hard and I know my professor doesn’t care for hip-hop, but I have the sense that she might be able to look at the genre in a different light after this.
For a moment, neither of them are saying anything, but they’re both smiling and they eventually begin to laugh. They make fun of me for thinking I had an impact on my professor and I begin to disappear into the length of my hair. I sail away to all those nights at the dinner table, the staircase at Daniela’s house, and the distance from the top of that first step to the basement floor.
I imagine the door to my father’s basement, the safety of his attic and the way edges of houses hold somelittle girls together, but pull other ones apart. When I float back, they’re still laughing. I know how quickly they erupt when disagreement is present, so I draw a smile on my face too.
Were you tangled in your words, when your flesh fell to your ankles? Could you see yourself around? Were you stuck inside your own sound?
In the last week of my 28th year, my agoraphobia and sensory processing disorder spill out on either side of me. Preparing to get on a plane for the first time since high school, I am terrified. I am washing my hands in the airport bathroom when my mother appears, telling me it’s time to board the flight.
I check my hair and make-up and walk back to where she and my brother are sitting, only to find him exploding at me. I try to figure out what I’ve done, but I am fading down to the seams of me. I am transported back to the ’90s to the small apartment we shared with my mom. My skin snags on the image of him shouting in my doorway. I remember the shape of the bedroom door, the contour of his mouth, and the screams that shook my skin out. I think back to the day I found my room trashed and the way I held the damage like souvenirs. I recall the string of punches that came after I interfered with his business call; I remember the rhythm of his fists hitting my arm.
When I drift back to the airport he is still yelling, grating me down to my ankles. Apparently, my having to pee was very selfish and those two minutes I took to look myself over meant that the three of us could’ve missed our flight. As the screaming tapers off, I find the edge of my abandoned body, pick it up by the shreds and drag it onto the plane.
In the coming months I begin to wear my silence like armor. It becomes the protector of me. I find that the only way to be around my brother and father is to be a ground down version of me, an acceptable facsimile; it stands in for me as a way to survive. This makes me feel like I am not a real person or they are not real to me. I start to feel like I don’t really have a father or a brother. The two of them are essentially strangers to me, flaming things that mostly know how to rage at me.
Do you live inside the skin of you? Are you the girl behind the face? Did you find yourself in the shadow box? What’s left of you after the chase?
As my twenties begin to evaporate, I begin to part down the length of me. I feel enamored with men, but when they’re standing in front of me, it seems like there’s a wall between us. I think there must be something wrong with me that cannot be fixed or reconciled, so I eventually stop dating them — but the pull towards them remains.
When I tell my therapist about it, she asks if I am more attracted to men’s or women’s bodies. I tell her that is not the right question. I ask a friend for advice and they tell me that if I enjoy having sex with women, then I am queer. I know that is not the right answer. I feel drawn to men inside my bones, but when I get close to them, it feels like the best parts of me drop out of my body. I know there must be a reason why thinking about it makes me feel like I am holding my breath. I know there must be a reason why they light up so many parts of me, then leave me split up in messy piles.
On the raw edge of my 29th year, my long-term partner starts transitioning and something is pulled up and out of me. I begin thinking about the way people both transcend and encompass gender. I think about the way I am absorbing and categorizing gender and I begin to ask what I mean when I say I cannot connect with men. I begin to ask if I mean that I cannot connect with cis men. Like my other relationships at the time, there is unwarranted anger and an inability to show up for difficult conversations. But when I think about all the ways he is different than my recent partners, the most obvious difference on both a superficial and spiritual level is that he isn’t a girl.
I freeze into myself when I think about the way our relationship took shape. We are best friends and it is New Year’s Eve — one week after my 27th birthday.
He’s coming from work as a bartender, but I’m the one who’s been drinking. He starts a violent argument with me in the public hallway of my apartment building and I fall out to the edge of me. His words draw a fence around me, yelling that he can no longer play this “friend role.” I am confused and tired, but I understand he feels I’ve wronged him and now I owe him a right. I am drunk and drowning in this hallway. I just want it to stop. I cannot imagine losing him, so I have sex with him. When I come, it’s the kind of orgasm I wish I could take back.
I know there must be a reason why men light up so many parts of me then leave me split up in messy piles.
Five years after the waves rush out and over our relationship, I read Jenny Lumet’s letter to Russell Simmons, and I am cut through to the other side of me. Her words are gentle but unapologetic and I am reminded of the intimacy that is having patience with Black men, even after experiencing harm at their hands. I wipe my face with my ownhands and count how many years I’ve held on to things for fear that the men who have hurt me, would feel some of the same hurt if I use words to say what they have done to me.
She talks about making a trade — ”just keep him calm, and you’ll get home” and I am yanked down to the tightest threads of me. I think about the way silence and sex turn into offerings when men decide you owe them something. My eyes spill out to my formative years and then back to adulthood. I remember the weight of being covered by flesh that never asked.
I think about all the times my eyes stood still while my body stiffened into a “no” because my words couldn’t do it. I’ve been making trades with trauma since I was 14.
Did you make oceans with your eyes, when your legs dropped out from under you? Do your recognize your body, when you split right down the length of you?
In the wake of 4:44, I awoke — 30 years after I first swallowed my mouth closed. Three decades after one house became two, I widened out like unfolding fists. When I heard those words, “You had no father, you had the armor,” it felt as if they lived inside my fingers. When Jay Z says, “You got a daughter, gotta get softer,” I am holding both lines in both hands; I am holding the child me and the grown-up me in the skin of my palms.
I consider the way the world conflates hyper-masculinity with Blackness and vulnerability with femininity. I think about the way self-reflection is conceptualized as something men do in honor of daughters — but not wives. I remember my mother’s ability to hold my father’s rage. I think about the length of my emotional intelligence and how little I was when I learned to shut my mouth. I consider the way abuse patterns wrap around us like rope.
Of all the things that tried to split me, it was the juxtaposition of having a white mother and a Black father and the pain of being accepted by her and rejected by him that ultimately severed me in half. It was the confusion of not being Black enough for my father and feeling like I was supposed to partner with men who acted like him in order to prove that rejecting his abuse does not mean rejecting my Blackness. It was the cut of feeling so guilty; I would see his face in other people and believe I could undo what had been done to me by having it done again by them.
Feeling like men were in charge of me made me feel like my body wasn’t mine long before I knew what words like consent meant. So when it came time for me to say yes or no to a man, I would tighten into my mouth and fall out of my skin. I would later attribute it to my Selective Mutism, my Non-Verbal Learning Disability, and a confusion around my sexuality.
But my tendency to lose my words was born out of a trauma that developed from being unable to speak freely in my home as a child. And my difficulties with non-verbal communication were informed by a childhood that left me feeling like I was safer when I didn’t speak.
In my 36th year, I learn about the R Kelly sex cult accusations and several memories converge as if on cue. The idea of a man controlling women so much that he has power over their eating and going to the bathroom makes me fall backwards into my six-year-old self. I realize that I have spent my entire life being unsure if it is ok for me to speak, eat, go to the bathroom or do anything that reveals me as human around men.
You are not a shadow box, an after-thought or a vacant sketch of you.
My father did not get softer, as a result of having me. He simply reproduced what had been done to him as a child. And my brother’s ability to replicate my father’s abuse came from absorbing my parents’ dynamic and being able to identify more with losing yourself to a fit of violence, than being able to identify with the body that holds the scars after the fit.
I know now that people rage when they are disconnected from their person. Having so much rage projected onto me eventually resulted in my belief that I am too much of a person. Men regarded my most basic needs as something to get rid of. So I believed that if I wanted to be with a man, I’d have to get rid of myself.
When I was able to connect with queer and lesbian people, I thought it meant there was something queer about my attraction to masculinity. I started to think there was something inherently queer about me — something internal that exists outside of my attractions. But as my queerness became wider, it felt like the puzzle was being solved outside of me. The more I tried to grow into these understandings, the more I seemed to grow out of me.
When I learned I was dating a man, I simply thought the way in which I was attracted to men had revealed itself as a different shape. I thought my attraction to him could explain why my chemistry with cis men never translated properly. But I left the relationship still feeling like there was something wrong with me.
It is only now after spending years of my life depriving myself from relationships with all men and then cis men specifically as a way to protect myself, that I realize the only relationships I’ve ever had were replications of the abuse that led to the repression.
And most of the sexual experiences I’ve had with men reinforced that my body was theirs. So I became averse to the abuse and called it an aversion to men.
As I thaw out into the larger part of me, I know that the thing standing between myself and other people in relationships is not their gender. It’s the way my body viscerally responds to gender, since my early understandings of masculinity and intimacy were tied up in abuse. It’s about the way my skin translates injury, after years of experiences taught me to anticipate blood instead of love from men.
I am finally starting to ask if I am truly a poor fit for cis men or simply not attracted to men who act like my father and brother.
You are real raw love and gorgeous flesh. You deserve to be held like the entire shape of you.
In the aftermath of the home that broke open, I know that girls like Daniela* and I will have a steeper climb towards finding home in the arms of a man, because of what happened at the hands of men in our homes. I know that relationships aren’t about breaking somebody down or taking away their person, as a way to regain yours. I know that intimacy doesn’t feel like being trapped inside a house. I know that love doesn’t feel like the wrong side of the basement door.
When I look at the place inside me that split, I can see the wound and feel it closing. I know that people are neither good nor bad, but in a constant state of becoming. When they engage in harmful behaviors it’s because they’ve been profoundly hurt and they’re perpetuating that learning. I know unlearning is a process. I know I’ve survived both my child and adulthood due to my ability to read people who were so checked out from their person, they didn’t care if what happened next froze me out of my person.
I know that brain structure, systemic and familial post-trauma can complicate the ability to say or hear a no. I know that doesn’t make it a yes. I know the thing that causes people to control and rage is the same thing that allows them to keep going during a sexual act, after a face has gone blank. And I know I don’t owe it to anyone to be an emotional punching bag while they work through their trauma superficially through me.
On the long end of my 36th year, I figured out why that complex, primal, physical and emotional longing for men never went away. It is part of me, but it is no longer a gash on me. I am learning how to stop the blood. In the wake of my healing, I know that trying to love people in similar pain as me was an attempt to grow the skin over the cuts that once divided me.
I am not broken, but I have existed in pieces and I know that being deeply harmed during childhood is a particular kind of bruise. I have a higher level of empathy because of it and I know that empathy will translate into the highest level of love for myself as I continue to learn that I cannot love the rage out of a person. And if you are navigating that kind of trauma, you deserve to learn it too.
You deserve to be loved like survival, like the spelling of your name, like the softest whisper and the loudest yell that sounds like the entire length of you. And you deserve to hear it over and over again until you know it’s true. | https://medium.com/the-establishment/you-had-no-father-you-had-the-armor-e2deea6b0554 | ['The Establishment'] | 2018-09-04 05:41:01.175000+00:00 | ['Fathers', 'Sexuality', 'Abuse', 'Family'] |
Three Ways to Start Building Your Email List | Writers need email lists.
I can’t state that any more plainly.
If you are a writer, you need a way to connect with your readers. You need to start thinking about that now. Today.
I mean, it would be nice if you thought about it ten years ago.
But if you didn’t, then today is next best.
I wrote about why you need an email list and also the two things you need to get started. In case you missed those posts, here they are:
Once you’re convinced you need an email list and you’re set up to start building one, the next question is how to find readers who want to give you permission to connect with them.
Because what we’re talking about is permission marketing. It’s showing up in front of people who have asked you to be there. Not spamming unsuspecting folks who probably will never open one of your emails anyway.
Email marketing has changed in the last few years. A lot. Remember when people used to eagerly open their emails? That doesn’t happen so much anymore. So even a well curated email list full of people who asked to be there and actually want the information will have what feels like a dismally low open rate.
If half of the people on your list actually open your email, you’re absolutely killing it. Average is closer to 20 or 25 percent.
But as you work on your email list, as you connect with your readers, you’ll notice something happen. You’ll have a subset of readers who always open. Who always click your links. Whose names you see come up again and again in comments on your posts.
Those are your true fans. And when that starts to happen, it’s so exciting.
But you have to get started with your list building if you want to connect with them.
Today, I’m going to share a few relatively easy, obvious ways to start adding folks to your email list.
Ask people who already like you.
Obviously, right? Start with the low hanging fruit.
Text your friends. Let them know that you’ve started writing about (your topic) and you thought they might be interested. Ask if they’d like to join your list.
If they say yes, send them a link to a sign up form. (This post shows you how to do that.)
Post on your social media feeds. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram — where ever you already connect with people.
Add a simple call to action to your posts.
Write a short bio to add to the bottom of all of your posts — here on Medium, on your own blog, or where ever you write. Add a line that asks folks to follow you to stay in touch.
I mean, eventually you want something more effective than “let’s stay in touch,” and in a minute I’m going to show you how to do that. But for now, even that simple line will get your ball rolling.
Shannon Ashley uses something very similar and has built her email list to 600 in just a couple of months.
Don’t be afraid to ask people to do what you’d like them to do. In this case, join your email list so that you can stay in touch with them.
Come up with one high-value, easy-to-digest thing to send in exchange for an email.
When you’re ready for something a little more sophisticated (and effective) than “let’s stay in touch,” it’s time to create something to give your new followers.
Your thing should be something that your readers can use right away. Something that’s a no-brainer — like getting ketchup with your fries. Something that won’t make readers feel like they’re committing to a huge amount of time or effort.
When I first started doing this, I tried to use an eight-week novel-plotting course as my give away. It didn’t work. It was too big of an undertaking for people who don’t know me.
So I pulled out the very first exercise. It’s my favorite anyway. Thousands — tens of thousands — of people have joined my email list in order to get that exercise.
In my bio at the bottom of my email posts, I give away a secret weapon.
That’s it. One simple exercise. One tool. I’ve used the two of them for three years and they are still effective.
Occasionally, I’ll come up with something that ties directly into a specific post. For instance, maybe you’d be interested in signing up for a free seven-lesson anti-blogging for creatives class — since you’re clearly interested in connecting with readers.
Or I might have a printable or some other sort of tool that I think some readers might find interesting.
WARNING
It’s so tempting, as a fiction writer, to offer a free short story or a chapter of your novel as your opt-in.
Unless you already have a following, that’s unlikely to work very well.
Ask yourself when the last time was that you gave up your email address in exchange for a short story from a writer you don’t already love. (Or even one you already love. Be honest!)
You should be writing (blogging) about something other than your own fiction writing. No one wants to hear all about your process. I know that’s harsh, but it’s true. Your opt-in needs to tie into that.
A short story is a good opt-in to put at the back of a novel. It’s not a great idea for the bottom of a blog post. You’d do better with “let’s stay in touch” because at least that promises more of the kind of post your reader just read — and doesn’t obligate them to read your short story.
If you remember that your reader is the most important part of this whole equation, you’ll do fine. | https://medium.com/the-write-brain/three-ways-to-start-building-your-email-list-5dca9b584ecb | ['Shaunta Grimes'] | 2019-04-19 18:42:31.908000+00:00 | ['Email', 'Work', 'Writing', 'Marketing', 'Success'] |
[Programming!] Let’s easily talk about…Class and Constructor! | To the programmer, “class” is not unfamiliar, right? 👌
In the previous article, I had written very simple concept of “class” and “object”.
The link is below 👇
https://medium.com/ponpon841028/programming-class-object-new-c7924f712478?sk=b8c06c7a948349134bca611176f02e77
In this article, I would describe about “class” in detail. | https://medium.com/ponpon841028/programming-lets-easily-talk-about-class-and-constructor-3393ae6ed727 | ['陳芃諭 Bonnie Chen'] | 2020-11-17 14:03:08.272000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Program', 'Object Oriented', 'Programming Languages', 'Csharp'] |
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