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Mastering the Undergrad Career: Job Hunting
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Sometimes you have to sneak onto another university’s campus to attend their career fair
While I will always have strong affection towards my 4 years at the University of California, Irvine, one of the downsides of attending school in a state with the likes of UCLA/Berkeley/Stanford was the inevitable social class hierarchy when it came to job opportunities. And although Irvine’s top program (accounting) wined and dined the likes of the Big 4 every quarter of the school year, there were many of us non-accounting students who did not benefit from the resources that the university funneled into the accounting program. And because of that, there was a consistent force in every career fair or recruiting session we went into that politely reminded us: “You’re not UCLA or USC.” Sometimes it was a sneerful glance but most of the time, it was passive aggressive reminders that recruiters were here for our engineers and not the business students. Usually those reminders came in the form of the time they allotted for engineers over business students or even the budget they allocated to the recruiting sessions. However, the worst culprit of the social class hierarchy of job hunting was and always will be the ludicrous phrase that appeared on job descriptions from the top companies: “graduate of top university”.
Now granted, things have changed since my time at university, but the social class structure that has been created in the recruiting world continues to exist because of the oligopoly that controls college rankings industry. Every year, bright-eyed bushy-tailed high school seniors begin each school year with high ambitions as they cross examine the rankings of their dream schools across US News, Times Higher Education, and Princeton Review (to name a few). Ever year, millions of students around the world check these 3 sites in particular as they plan out the rest of their lives. With this much power, their influence has carried into the recruiting ecosystem, seeping into conversations between peers, classmates, and even recruiter-interviewee.
But while the challenges that this oligopoly presents to college students who do not end up attending “brand name” schools, there are ways for you to game the system. Through my time and experience at UC Irvine, I built a playbook of tricks to fight my way into contention for opportunities at Microsoft and Adobe, 2 companies in particular that did not actively recruit business students from Irvine at all.
Cold email the hell out of people that you admire — Now, you probably heard a variation of this advice from LinkedIn advocates. Request informational interviews through LinkedIn with anyone you find interesting. But here is the thing, the common joke in the working world is that the only time you see someone on LinkedIn is when they are looking for a new job. At the end of the day, cold emails continue to be the tried and true method of reaching anyone you want. But here is where you get smart about who you’re cold emailing. Lets assume that you wanted to reach Satya Nadella of Microsoft. Instead of plugging in [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected] into 3 separate emails, add all 3 of these emails into the BCC field of 1 email. That way, you don’t look desperate and your workload gets cut in half.
2. Find ways to network with the “Super Connectors” — Every community has super networkers. No matter where you are located in the world, there are people in your local community who are super connectors. Not sure what to look for? Easy, find people who meet any of the following qualifications:
They are heavily involved in the local startup scene as either an investor or advisor
Their line of work requires them to travel & meet other people frequently
When they enter a room, they command the attention of others
And while what I described might resemble that of a politician, the one thing that separates a super connector from a politician is the warmth and effort he or she puts into their relationships.
3. People find startups sexy. Get involved with their community — This trend was definitely quite active during my time at UC Irvine. No matter where you looked in Southern California, everyone was talking about a side project or tech startup ideas/concepts they wanted to test. But the common thread that existed in this community was the desire to emulate Silicon Valley. And because of that, there were members of our startup community who tried to build bridges with the startup community in Northern California. So make sure you pay attention to those types of efforts.
4. Sneak onto competing college campuses — Now this one sounds pretty obvious but it is actually something not a lot of people think about. If you attend a non “brand name” school, this should be at the top of your list of things to do the moment you become a junior. When I was a junior in college, one of the smartest things I did back then was look up the companies I wanted to work at on USC’s career fair schedule and drove my car up the 405 during non-rush hour traffic. By sneaking onto college campuses, you’re showing these companies multiple things: ambition, preparation, and hard work. After that, it’s all about the pitch.
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https://medium.com/@lixing-chang/mastering-the-undergrad-career-job-hunting-261bcc964efa
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['Li Chang']
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2020-12-08 02:30:10.338000+00:00
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['College', 'Job Hunting', 'Recruiting']
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WHAT THE FORK?!
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HARD FORKS
What is a ‘Hard Fork’?
In the context of blockchain technology, a Hard Fork (or Hardfork) refers to a fundamental change to the existing protocol that splits the blockchain into two separate chains. Technically speaking, it is permanent deviation of the existing blockchain whereby one path follows the new upgraded version and the other path continues with the existing version of the blockchain. Hard forks are not forward compatible. Nodes running on previous versions will not be accepted by the new version of the blockchain.
Reasons for a ‘Hard Fork’?
There are various reasons for a Hard Fork, by forking from the existing blockchain code, a Hard Fork can be implemented to add new functionality to the blockchain, fix security issues found on older versions or in the case of a hack, it can be used to reverse transactions.
Two examples of contentious hard forks taking place include Bitcoin Cash and Ethereum Classic.
Bitcoin Cash: Bitcoin Cash is a hard fork orchestrated by a portion of the community that wanted Bitcoin to scale better through increasing its block size from the current 1MB to 8MB. This is to allow for more transaction’s to be processed, thereby reducing fees that users’ pay and minimizing the bottleneck of Bitcoin’s network as usage increased. The hard fork resulted in the creation of a new currency called Bitcoin Cash.
Ethereum Classic: Ethereum had a hard fork to reverse the effects of a hack that occurred in one of their applications (called the Decentralised Autonomous Organization or simply, DAO). However, a minority portion of the community was philosophically opposed to changing the blockchain at any costs, to preserve its nature of immutability. As Ethereum’s core developers and the majority of its community went ahead with the hard fork, the minority that stayed behind and didn’t upgrade their software continued to mine what is now known as Ethereum Classic (ETC). It’s important to note that since the majority transited to the new chain, they still retained the original ETH symbol, while the minority supporting the old chain were given the term Ethereum Classic or ETC.
Two examples of planned hard forks taking place include Ethereum Byzantium and Monero.
Ethereum’s Byzantium: The first phase of Ethereum’s 2-phase upgrading plan, Byzantium occurred in October 2017 and represents an upgrading of Ethereum’s blockchain base for better scalability and the integration of private transactions.
Monero: In January 2017, Monero hard-forked to introduce an upgrade to its network by implementing a feature called Ring Confidential Transactions (RCT) to improve its privacy and security.
Bitcoin’s protocol is open source, anyone can view the codebase and make changes to it in the pursuit of creating a new coin with new features. One key example of this spin off type of fork is Litecoin.
Litecoin: Was a fork of Bitcoin, created from changing the codebase of Bitcoin. The features of Litecoin include changes such as: Average of 2.5 minutes block time as compared to Bitcoin’s 10 minutes; Different consensus algorithm: Scrypt instead of Bitcoin’s SHA-256; Fixed coin supply of 84 million instead of Bitcoin’s 21 million.
SOFT FORKS
What is a ‘Soft Fork’?
A Soft Fork (or Softfork) restricts block acceptance rules in comparison to earlier versions of the blockchain. Soft fork’s are forward compatible. New rules created by the soft fork allow a subset of the previous valid blocks, therefore all blocks considered valid by the newer version are also valid in the old version.
This kind of fork only requires a majority of the miners upgrading to enforce the new rules, as opposed to a hard fork which requires all nodes to upgrade and agree on the new version.
An example of a soft fork is when the new rule states that the block size will be changed from say 1MB (1,000KB) to 800KB. Soft forks represent a gradual upgrading mechanism as those who have yet to upgrade their software are incentivised to do so, or risk having reduced functionalities.
Past examples of Soft Forks are BIP 66: A soft fork on Bitcoin’s signature validation; and P2SH: A soft fork that enabled multi-signature addresses in Bitcoin’s network.
Sources: Masterthecrypto, News.bitcoin.com, Bitcoin.stackexchange.com, Investopedia.com
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https://medium.com/visionaire/what-the-fork-97eb67daa50d
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[]
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2018-04-14 06:59:49.097000+00:00
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['Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain', 'Softforks', 'Hardforks']
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Horror Vacui, the fear of white space (UX Alphabet Series)
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“There is just too much white space.”
When I started out as a designer, as soon as I would hear this phrase, all time would come to a screeching halt. I would roll my eyes in disbelief. Yes, there would be some internal cursing and disbelief in what I had just heard. I would then begrudgingly appease the stakeholder by filling all the white space with unnecessary content and end up hating the design and my life. I would think to myself, there goes another design I can’t be proud of. Does this sound familiar?
You might have seen The Oatmeal comic, “How A Web Design Goes Straight To Hell”. It’s the one where a bright eyed designer is excited about redesigning a website. Slowly but surely the client keeps asking for minor changes that take the redesign straight to hell. “There is too much white space.” is just an indirect request that adds to the demise of the designer. What makes this a sad yet hilarious comic is that the statement about having too much white space usually is the precursor to a website going straight to hell. Other statements such as, “Can you make it pop?”, “Make the logo bigger”, and “I don’t like blue” all speed up the process of a design going to hell.
Fast forward to now and I approach the statement about having too much white space as an opportunity to educate stakeholders. As a designer it is our job to help others realize why white space is an important part of design and an important part of a great user experience.
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https://uxdesign.cc/horror-vacui-the-fear-of-white-space-a-ux-alphabet-series-6ad5337a6adc
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['Rizwan Javaid']
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2017-06-20 13:27:54.583000+00:00
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['Visual Design', 'Design', 'UX', 'Design Thinking', 'Web Design']
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Higher viral load of SARS-CoV-2 found in pre-symptomatic patients
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Higher viral load of SARS-CoV-2 found in pre-symptomatic patients Scientia Follow Jul 17 · 3 min read
News | Jazryl Galarosa
Graphics by C.J. Palpal-latoc
Pre-symptomatic patients were found to have a higher viral load (VL) of 2019 novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and are at risk of actively shedding the virus more than patients with severe symptoms, a study in the American Journal of Pathology showed.
Pathologists from New York University Langone Health observed 205 patients with SARS-CoV-2 in a tertiary care center in New York and found that the amount of SARS-CoV-2 viral load is significantly lower in patients with severe symptoms. The study utilized quantitative polymerase chain reaction, a method which amplifies a DNA strand to rapidly create copies of a DNA sample, to determine viral load.
“Our findings suggest a higher shedding risk in less symptomatic patients; an important consideration for containment strategies in SARS-CoV-2,” pathologists from New York University Langone Health reported in their study.
They also found out through regression models that VL after diagnosis is “significantly lower” in patients who were hospitalized than patients who were not hospitalized. While they found an association between VL and history of cancer, they did not note a correlation between VL, admission to intensive care units, length of oxygen support, and overall survival.
“Our study should increase awareness and should prompt the adherence to strict recommendation of social distancing and mask usage to avoid transmission,” the pathologists concluded as their results support the notion that less symptomatic patients can be a source of the virus.
Dr. Alexander Young, UP’s first professorial fellow originally trained in biomedical sciences, in his talk “Demystifying COVID-19: Pathophysiology, Mechanisms of Transmission, and Environmental Origins of the SARS-CoV-2 Virus” agrees that the viral load peaks during the early stages of the infection.
“What seems to be happening is that these pre-symptomatic patients are actually shedding virus before they know that they have the virus,” Young said, citing another study on young to middle-aged people with mild symptoms which showed similar results.
He added that such estimations of the percentage of infectious asymptomatic individuals worldwide vary widely since data are incomplete without mass testing. Further studies must be done since “the information will still evolve.”
“It’s just too soon to tell since it is the first time that we had a virus like this,” Young stated.
In controlling the spread of COVID-19 in the Philippines, Young suggested that the country must practice mass testing, education on the coronavirus, and aggressive quarantine, adding that the spread of the virus in the Philippines is still controllable.
Citing Taiwan and South Korea as the countries who successfully flattened the curve of the pandemic, he said, “They learned from the SARS outbreak 20 years ago. They knew exactly how to act aggressively.”
Department of Health secretary Francisco Duque III said that the Philippines has “bent the curve in April after the March ECQ (enhanced community quarantine),” citing the case doubling time and longer mortality doubling time of the virus despite rising cases for COVID-19 and lack of mass testing.
As of July 17, the Philippines recorded 1,841 new cases for a total of 63,001 cases nationwide. Out of the reported cases, there are 39,593 active cases, 21,748 recoveries, and 1,660 deaths.
#
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https://medium.com/up-scientia/higher-viral-load-of-sars-cov-2-found-in-pre-symptomatic-patients-66c7d1f679ce
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[]
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2020-07-17 12:40:56.776000+00:00
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['Philippines', 'Viral Load', 'Sars Cov2', 'Covid 19', 'News']
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Exploring the Craft and Design of W.E.B. Du Bois’ Data Visualizations (Part 3)
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László Moholy-Nagy, “Q 1 Suprematistic”, 1923
While precursors to Modernism were present in the 19th century, the concept of modernism wasn’t established until the other ‘-isms’ had crystallized around Europe in the first years of the 20th century. France saw Cubism born in 1907, Die Brücke in Germany in 1906, Italian Futurism in 1909, Russian Constructivism in 1910, all eventually leading to the establishment of the Bauhaus in 1919.
It is with the Bauhaus and the Vienna Circle that art and design gained inspiration from science in bringing a more structured approach to the evidence of design. Walter Gropius, László Moholy-Nagy, Wassily Kandinsky, and many at the Bauhaus school stripped away the decoration from art and design to reveal a studied efficiency of form and color.
Unfortunately, most of the modernists were simply too young to have been directly inspired by the works at the Exposition. Picasso was 19 at the time, Gropius 17, Moholy-Nagy was only 5. Piet Mondrian was 28 but was living in The Netherlands. Kandinsky was 28 but had just traded a career in law to go to art school in Munich.
The fusion of science and art helped fuel the Bauhaus and Vienna Circle and certainly Du Bois was operating in a similar space two decades earlier — but as a sociologist. One can only imagine what might have happened if he and his team had found the right support at the Paris Exposition. Had the impact of The Exhibit of American Negroes been an international touchstone instead of a mere ‘success’ Du Bois might have continued to craft statistical charts and the line between this work and what was to come in art and design might have been possible. But that was not the case.
Design & Innovation
What is abundantly clear was that Du Bois was a visionary with a cause; a searing brilliance that could not be diminished, with the drive to impress his plight to a global audience. This work really stands by itself; unique in approach, execution, and historical relevance.
Many of the more unique charts are from “The Georgia Negro” series. Let’s take a look at a few of his most innovative works which also explore African-American socioeconomic growth and land value.
“City and Rural Population. 1890” 1900, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
This is one of the most unique charts of Du Bois invention. Elijah Meeks writes:
“I call it a Du Bois Spiral. It’s aesthetically compelling in the way it encodes urban to rural demographics….Du Bois knows you cannot precisely compare the lengths of those diagonals and spirals, and so he writes the number to go along with them. It provides the exact number of African Americans living in the various parts of Georgia as well as a more striking summary: the almost absurd ratio of red to any other color.”
“Religion of American Negroes” 1900, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
Another way of looking at the ‘Du Bois spiral’ above is to envision it as a stacked bar chart on an extremely long scale. Since the single red section is so much larger, Du Bois wanted a way to set it off from the other categories. Since laying it out as a single bar was not visually pleasing, he gained inspiration from another technique that was also common at the time — the “snake.”
In some of Du Bois’ other bar charts such as the “Religion of American Negros” at left, Du Bois uses a “snake” to wrap the largest bar — this time, around itself. Du Bois combines this technique of winding the largest bar into a spiral with another completely unique solution of offsetting the categories as angles to highlight the smaller values.
Of course, the main point of the chart above is to quickly convey just how many African-Americans lived in rural Georgia than in the larger or smaller cities. The large, red spiral immediately leaves an impression; a visual beacon that draws the eye in a way that few charts could.
“Acres of Land Owned by Negroes in Georgia” 1900, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
This one is a real knock-out. Not only do we see the 213.5% increase in acres of land owned, but Du Bois presents us the data in the shape of the state of Georgia itself. As the 25 red bars span the page, the rate of growth is not as impressive as the sense that Negro landowners comprise the entire state of Georgia itself.
A significant accomplishment and proof that African-Americans were prospering in Georgia, the theme of progress is central to the exhibit. Eugene F. Provenzo, in his fantastic book on the exhibit, elaborates: “Black Americans had been isolated as a social group as a result of “color and color prejudice.” They represented a group, who because of “the peculiar environment, the action and reaction of social forces are seen and can be measured with more than usual ease.” By studying the experience of Blacks, Du Bois believed that he could address questions such as “what is human progress and how is it emphasized?”
Providing the data just wasn’t enough, Du Bois needed to show the emerging independence of what he called “a small nation of people.” What better portrait could be drawn?
One of the more surprising charts in the series, the above pictogram displays the growth of African-American land value as a series of growing bags of money. By showing the millions of dollars owned, it shifts the perception away from poverty and places the African-American landholder in the realm of tangible financial wealth.
The use of pictograms was not common in newspapers at the time but they were used in scientific texts. The cover of the Scientific American at left shows three groups of pictographs in its November, 1899 edition— the month before Du Bois started his work on the exhibition.
Interestingly enough, Du Bois’ work comes two decades before the work of Otto Neurath. An economist and sociologist by trade, Neurath was a co-founder of the Vienna Circle in 1907 and became a highly influential exhibition designer. Neurath eventually developed a visual language for communication that he called the ‘ISOTYPE’ — which is the foundation for many types of contemporary infographics. His mission was to use wordless graphics to illustrate relationships and explain complex ideas to the general public, an aim not dissimilar from Du Bois at the Paris Exhibition.
“Assessed Values of Household and Kitchen Furniture Owned by Georgia Negroes”, 1900, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
Another chart in the same sequence on land value and ownership from “The Georgia Negro”, the above chart is another experiment in curvilinear charting. With the success of the ‘Du Bois spiral’ above, Du Bois uses the same concept of ‘snaking’ a traditional bar chart around itself to display an astounding 6673.2% overall growth in Negro home valuables.
Illustration of “Assessed Values…” as a vertical bar chart (by author)
To the left, I’ve represented the above Du Bois’ data as a standard vertical bar chart. Represented this way, one can see the overall growth but can also notice the individual trends. Du Bois again opts for the more flashy version, impressing his audience with his draftsmanship and overall impression of meteoric growth.
While visually exciting, this experiment in wrapping bars into a spiral is ultimately not effective in visualizing the data for accuracy. The arbitrary use of a categorical color sequence, especially with the too-light (faded?)1895 category, confuses the interpretation, leaving the 1899 red line to overwhelm the chart and exaggerate its impact.
Also of note is the damage to the work because of the fragility of the materials. Huge chunks of the cardboard are missing, prompting the Library of Congress to put all of the original work in deep storage citing “originals are too fragile to be served.” — but I’ll speak more on that in the next chapter.
“Assessed Valuation of all Taxable Property Owned by Georgia Negroes” 1900, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
Initially, I thought the above chart was a Bullseye chart, but those normally show correlations between approximate values. After mulling it over for a while I think this experiment was probably a stacked-pie chart. Six years (1875, 1880, 1885, 1990, 1895, and 1899) are depicted by circular areas representing the taxable value of Negro property. As each expands from a black core they are labeled by graphic ‘stalagmites’ showing the 149% increase over the roughly 25 year period.
I’d argue that the above is not a very good data visualization. Since the largest value — the outermost red circle — is depicted as a thin “line” instead of the largest area, it does not read as the largest category. The color selection weakens the message as the black center commands the most attention for the smallest number, and the “clear” section for 1895 reads as empty. The labels literally point to the smallest value, giving the impression that $5,393,885 is the most important number on the page.
Then again, maybe the impression Du Bois was going for wasn’t so wrong after all. By setting a baseline of more than $5 million, Du Bois provides the official financial view of a subset of Georgia citizens. Like the ‘money bags’ chart above, the swirl of multi-million dollar figures on this chart repositions the conceptual understanding of African-American value from what was presumed to be ‘nothing’ to substantial sums of money — even at its minimum.
As a result, I think it’s best to see the above chart as a work of data art. It is surprising, bizarre, challenging and most of all visually exciting. A graphic puzzle designed to lure a curious audience and challenge perceptions.
|
https://towardsdatascience.com/exploring-the-craft-and-design-of-w-e-b-du-bois-data-visualizations-part-3-b110d034fd36
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['Jason Forrest']
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2019-01-01 21:32:56.131000+00:00
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['Data Science', 'Design', 'Data Visualization', 'Dvhistory', 'African American']
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A Simple Writing Tip for the Digital Age
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Creators struggle with perspective. Sometimes, you can’t see what you’re making, as you make it.
Writers are no different. We say we’re “too close” to the material. To combat this, we distance ourselves.
Time helps. We leave the manuscript alone for a day or a week or longer. We forget some of the lines, and when we read them again, we see the text with fresh eyes.
Writers use other tactics, too, hoping to see their work in a new way. Here are some recommendations I’ve seen:
Read the text out loud
Print the document
Change the font
Read backwards (last paragraph to first)
The goal is, approach the writing from another angle. I think these common tactics are useful, and I’ve tweaked them, too. For example, I’ve asked friends to read my fiction stories out loud, to me.
Recently, I realized, there’s another easy way to see (and edit) your writing: Use your phone. On a smaller screen, the layout changes, and your sentences truncate at different points.
Maybe this tip is already out there, but I haven’t come across it before, and I think it’s very useful. (Of course, some writers write on their phones. If that’s you, try the reverse: Read your writing on a larger screen.)
I like this editing strategy because it’s simple, and it works. It’s a good way to catch clunky sentences or superfluous words.
Also, if you’re publishing online, you get a sense of how your text will appear on various devices. For comparison, look at the screenshots of my phone and laptop, below.
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https://medium.com/episodic/a-simple-writing-tip-for-the-digital-age-2a309db7a395
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['Melissa Toldy']
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2020-11-02 12:07:43.988000+00:00
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['Editing', 'Productivity', 'Creativity', 'Writing', 'Writing Tips']
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How to Manage Your Team and Your Finances During the COVID-19 Crisis?
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In this article, we provide you with a guideline on:
How to communicate the change and the uncertainty effectively in order to expect high accountability How to prepare for a remote team and manage your team effectively How to manage your finances and reducing costs to ensure business operation continuity
FIRST COMMUNICATION: how to prepare the team for the changes
The first step is to communicate the “bad news” and expected changes effectively! you can use the email template below to ensure you communicate the followings effectively:
Sharing the negative impact and the involved risk transparently How you are handling the situation: Clarifying expectations, policies and changes Clarifying how each individual can play a role during this crisis and be their own hero Clarify how you address the fear, uncertainty and psychological insecurities at the personal and individual level
The Email Template:
Dear [XXX] Team,
At [COMPANY NAME], our top priority is ensuring the health and safety of our team members, clients, as well as our business. With the recent COVID-19 crisis, we are all being impacted personally and professionally. Our business is at risk of [PLEASE LIST ALL THE RISKS AND NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF THE BUSINESS].
We are all in the same boat and facing many challenges and uncertainties which may result in fear. However, we strongly believe that if each of us play our own part, we will be able to navigate this situation effectively, coming out with an even stronger team. [MAKE SURE YOU GIVE THEM HOPE AND INSPIRATION]
In response to the situation, we are adapting our procedures and interactions as follows:
[ CHANGES IN TEAM INTERACTIONS]
[ CHANGES IN COMPENSATIONS, BENEFITS, AND ETC.]
[ CHANGES IN TEAM STRUCTURE]
[ CHANGE IN PROCESSES ]
As mentioned, this will require each of us to play a key role during this transition. We highly encourage you to take the following actions during this time:
[ ASKING FOR FEEDBACK AND FURTHER CLARIFICATIONS]
[COMMUNICATING WITH TEAM MEMBERS ]
[VALIDATING THE INFORMATION TO AVOID MISINFORMATION AND RUMOURS]
In times of uncertainty like these, our basic human need for psychological safety and security is impacted, which can trigger strong emotions such as fear and panic. In order to navigate these uncertain times, we strongly encourage you to reach out to [WHOEVER IS IN CHARGE, JALAPENO COACH, HR, MANAGER] on a regular basis. The goal is to go through the ups and downs of this crisis together and ensure we support each other by providing what you need to navigate the situation at a personal/individual level.
Let’s not forget that amidst this crisis, we as a team are still working together to [INSERT MISSION/VISION statement]. Our goal is to continue delivering value to the organization, but above all, ensuring that we remain a cohesive unit by ensuring that uncertainty is reduced as much as possible and that individuals continue to feel heard at [COMPANY NAME]. We must not let this situation get in the way of creating and maintaining a community to be proud of.
Best Regards
[NAME AND TITLE]
REMOTE WORK ARRANGEMENTS
Communications:
Have you communicated clearly what is happening in the team? With the current status of the business? Team? Have you shared the bad news transparently and clearly? Have you communicated how the situation is being handled? Are your team members clear on what the next steps are and unexpected demands/incidents? Are you providing more opportunities for video call meetings? Do you have clear guidelines, policies and boundaries on remote working? Have you clarified each individual role during this period of time? Have you clarified how each team member can support each other so they will not reach out to the manager all the time? Have you clarified expectations for :
Work hours
Availability
Checkpoints
Communication system: what type of information should be shared on what channel? how about urgent matters?
Timely meetings
Key projects and deadlines
Scheduled meetings
Respond to email
7. Do you have a platform where there could be an effective and efficient interdepartmental interaction? Can team members communicate with other departments?
8. How often is feedback going to be provided? Is there a structure in place to ask and provide feedback?
9. Do you have a virtual daily meeting? Scrum meeting? Morning meeting? Do you clarify what each person accomplished, what the primary focus is for the day and how they can support each other to complete their daily tasks?
10. How are you making sure that the right information is being communicated to the right people, ensuring that individuals are not being included in meetings that aren’t relevant to them?
11. How do you decide what information to share during each daily meeting?
Team Management:
How are you measuring success? Are you focusing on results and outcomes or processes and activities?
Are you dictating what process an individual must use or are you clarifying the outcomes and the end results you expect?
How do you try to keep your team engaged and motivated?
What support is available to your leadership team during this period of time?
Are you considering how to communicate urgent and non-urgent tasks? So you will not keep interrupting your team members from working.
Are you taking the time to understand the work style of each team member remotely? Are You individualizing your leadership style during this period of time?
Do you address team member’s concerns and uncertainties individually during this period of time?
What tools and technology will you use to ensure that communication and collaboration are done in an effective manner?
FINANCIAL CRISIS MANAGEMENT
How to reduce Employment Costs and ensure business operation continuity?
Reducing Employment Cost:
Can you delay recruitment, salary increase, a promotion you have planned for?
Review the benefits, training & allowance packages and invest only in areas that are critical during this period. Cut down any other benefits that are not critical at the moment. Is there a cost in this area that you can cut down right away?
Will you be able to reduce the salary for a short period of time? Reducing everyone’s salary by a small percentage might allow you to save money while keeping your human capital. If this is an option for your team, then you have to make sure you communicate it effectively (contact us if you need help with this)
Can you offer different payment options to your contractors? E.g. paying them on hourly rate vs fixed monthly payments.
Is there an opportunity to reduce contract labours and re-distribute work to your permanent workforce?
Can you encourage your employees to take vacation leave or any other available leave?
Can you create a new agreement with your senior and key employees to be compensated fairly later? Perhaps receiving % of profits?
Can you offer involuntary leave without/with pay to your employees to save money?
The final and the most severe option will be headcount reductions if the situation continues for a long time. (Contact us if you need additional support on how to do this without dropping the morale of your team)
Keep Your Operation Alive:
Involve your entire team to think about how they can cut down costs in their own role! How can they make it work with limited resources and budget? Can you brainstorm with your team on how to introduce new and alternate revenue streams to the business? Is there any line of credit available for your business? Can you talk to your financing partners to see what additional options your business may have? Is there any opportunity to convert your fixed cost to variable cost? Can you sell assets and lease them back for this period of time? Can you offer discounts solutions to the customers if they pay quickly? In this way, you can secure your short-term financing. This could be a viable option if bank loans and government funding is not available. Can you ask for a letter of credit from your own vendors/suppliers? Can you establish an agreement with your suppliers that both of you can live with? Can you help your critical vendor to survive by creating a new agreement considering your current status? Perhaps buy a stake in the company or receive % of the profit? Can you provide a letter of credit to your clients so they can still remain your clients but pay you later when the period of crisis is over? Can you audit your payable to ensure you are paying the necessary fees, taxes, etc for the right amount? Can you ask for discounts from your vendors and suppliers? Are you taking advantage of available discounts and promotions? How are you managing your inventory? Are your items perishable? How can you ensure to have the right amount of inventory to operate? Can you take advantage of your business insurance opportunities and policies? Can you revisit your Capital Investment Plans and assess what is really necessary and critical at this period of time? What investments can be postponed? What capital investments are necessary to gain for the rebound?
We are Jalapeño Employee Engagement, a team of strategists, researchers, designers, and web developers and diverse consultants who share a passion for making work better. Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, we work closely with companies both at home and around the world to bring our vision of a better workplace to life. We spice up companies’ performance and engagement, resulting in higher productivity and profitability for your company. We love ideas, data and helping companies uncover the hidden potential of their workforce. By using data and science, we measure the pulse on your peeps. We craft tailored, visually beautiful (you’re welcome) and easy to understand reports to make the data accessible. Then we don’t leave you high and dry; we mentor teams along the way and make sure there are accountability and movement in the right direction.
Our mission is to help companies tap into this unrealized potential of what the workplace can be and to use data to drive happier, more engaged and more involved workplaces
|
https://medium.com/jalapeno-app/how-to-manage-your-team-and-your-finances-during-the-covid-19-crisis-83b12e282e5d
|
['Samin Saadat']
|
2020-03-16 22:26:44.942000+00:00
|
['Crisis Management', 'Remote Working', 'Leadership', 'Articles', 'Finance Management']
|
It’s Time To Fundamentally Rethink Artificial Intelligence
|
Quick Summary: Neural Nets, datasets and Model Size
For those who aren’t familiar with Neural Networks, terms like Model Size and dataset, what do I mean? Let me first briefly explain Neural Nets, then I’ll explain Model Size and datasets. If you already know all this, skip to the next section.
A visualization of a simple Artificial Neural Network
Artificial Neural Networks (Neural Nets) is a software method used to build AI models. The reason the method is called Neural Nets is that the original creators of Neural Networks wanted to mimic how we learn as humans in computers. Neural Nets contain “Artificial Neurons” which allow computers to do basic tasks like recognizing a picture of a dog or do complicated tasks like driving a car. How does it work? Neural Nets go through a process called “Training”. I’ll spare you the technical details, but for a Neural Net to “learn” a task, it’s shown thousands of inputs (like images) so it can generalize to do that specific task. So for example, if you wanted a Neural Net to recognize traffic objects, you’d show it 10,000 images of a stop sign, 10,000 images of traffic lights and so on. After that, the model would practice (Train) recognizing these images for hours, days or even weeks after it got through the dataset. This is what a dataset is: A set of inputs that allow an AI model or Neural Network to learn a task.
Now that you have a brief understanding of datasets, let’s talk about Model Size. An easy way to think about model size in the context of Neural Nets is to recall the artificial neuron portion of Neural Nets. Like our human brains, each neuron has a connection to another neuron. This is similar to Neural Nets and an easy way to think about Model Size when talking about AI. Each artificial connection has a function that allows a Neural Net to make a prediction or a decision. So, Model Size can be thought of as the raw number of artificial neurons in one model.
Now that you have a general understanding of datasets and model size, let me continue explaining the pressing issue: The Compute First Era.
|
https://clevrml.medium.com/its-time-to-fundamentally-rethink-artificial-intelligence-519c07cdd52b
|
['Landon Garrison']
|
2021-01-05 23:47:27.256000+00:00
|
['Machine Learning', 'Data Science', 'Aritificial Intelligence', 'AI']
|
unload And beforeunload Events And How To Easily Debug Them Both!
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tl;dr — if you’re only here for the trick of how to set a breakpoint and actually debug unload and beforeunload event listeners, go straight to “The Trick To Successfully Debug unload / beforeunload Event Listeners” section below.
As I often do, I was looking for potential vulnerabilities in well known websites and web applications. There is a specific one that I have reasons to believe that might be vulnerable to a serious XSS exploitation.
At some point in the process, I realized that the part that might be vulnerable to XSS is executed by an unload event listener that was registered by some javascript code in the website. This was where I had to debug to be able to tell whether I found something interesting here or not.
So I set a breakpoint where the code that is supposed to be fired by the unload event is, and reloaded the page to allow my Google Chrome Browser stop at this breakpoint of mine, letting me debug it.
For those of you who have enough javascript experience, the following will not shock you at all: the browser ignored my breakpoint completely and reloaded the page normally.
That’s kind of annoying. I mean, any javascript code that is intended to execute under this event executes perfectly fine — whether it’s console.log() , localStorage.setItem() or any other standard action. So what’s wrong with my breakpoint? or placing a debugger; command? Why don’t these work?
In order to understand this behavior, it makes sense for us to first understand these events. The purpose of these events is to enable a website to execute pre-configured actions right before it, unloads and when it unloads.
Or, to be more specific, as mentioned in MDN: “The beforeunload event is fired when the window, the document and its resources are about to be unloaded” and “The unload event is fired when the document or a child resource is being unloaded”. (which means it’s not about the website as much as it is about any window that lives within the website, whether it is the top frame or an iframe )
So let’s try to list the different properties of these two events and compare them:
Order: beforeunload will always fire before unload event (makes sense, right?)
Purpose: The beforeunload event triggers right before unloading of the window has begun. unload would trigger while unloading of the window is taking place.
Cancelable: The beforeunload event can be canceled by user interaction:
The above example will trigger a popup asking the user whether they are sure they want to leave the site or not, and in case they choose not to leave, the beforeunload event will be canceled, the unload event will never even initiate, and the page will not reload. On the other hand, that wouldn’t happen for an unload event — once it is fired, there is no way to prevent the window from unloading.
Supporting objects: Both beforeunload and unload events can be registered to be listened to by window , HTMLElementBody and HTMLFrameSetElement
It is worth mentioning that the unload properties of all three (the window , the body and the frameset ) point to the same place (same goes for beforeunload ):
Oh, and for those of you who wonder “what in the world is a frameset ?” — don’t worry about it. It's this super old and deprecated element that is no longer in use at all. In fact, it is currently defined as obsolete, which means it could be gone in any new version of any major browser any time!
Prototype: Whereas unload is a normal event that inherits from Event , beforeunload has its own prototype, BeforeUnloadEvent . This is in order to implement the beforeunload event’s unique property returnValue , which allows the registered event listener to display the “Are you sure you want to leave this site?” dialog box.
So How Can One Debug A beforeunload / unload Event Listener?
And now for the cool part! As I was saying at the beginning, debugging these events is pretty tricky because, when you think about it, you’re not supposed to be able to. The purpose of the unload and beforeunload events is very clear: Execute a set of preconfigured actions before and when a page unloads. All synchronous actions are guaranteed to fully execute, but when it comes to asynchronous actions that are initiated by synchronous actions inside the event listener, the browser is more like “I’ll do my best to execute all your actions, but when the unloading event finishes I cannot promise you anything”.
But does the browser agree to execute any type of action? The answer is no. There are some types of actions that by spec are not allowed to be executed within a beforeunload / unload events listeners. alert() is one example, but the most relevant one is debugger; (neither is setting a breakpoint using the devtools).
So setting a breakpoint in the listener, setting a debugger; statement or anything else really — would all be ignored by the browser, thus making debugging of the unload / beforeunload event kind of impossible.
The Trick To Successfully Debug unload / beforeunload Event Listeners
So back to my story… After a few hours of trying to successfully debug the suspicious unload event listener, I gave up for the night as it was very late. As I clicked the small x button in order to close the tab, expecting it to shutdown, I was amazed to finally see my breakpoint work!
Apparently there is one unloading flow in which the browser respects breakpoints and debugger; statements — not a normal reload of the page, but an actual attempt to shut its tab down completely!
I still went to sleep after that because it really was late — but ever since that I can easily debug unload / beforeunload event listeners!
Tips For Researchers
Keep an extra tab open in your Chrome window — once you use the trick to debug listeners, although you’d be able to debug them, you will not be able to prevent the tab from shutting down. It is easier to repeatedly do so while working at the same window, which would only be possible if the closing tab is not the only tab in the window. Google Chrome Browser — I haven’t checked whether this trick works on other browsers than Chrome, mostly because I don’t see a reason to debug javascript code in any other browser (yeah, I said it).
It might work on other browsers though — again, never even checked. Understand your case first — if the code you attempt to debug is, for some reason, session-based, closing the session (by using the trick above and closing the tab) each time might create a different flow from what you actually try to research — take that into consideration when debugging!
Tips For Developers
No long actions inside these listeners — although practically you can synchronously do what ever you want inside the listeners, it is bad practice! Avoid long actions in order to make sure you don’t prevent the user from smooth unloading of your website. Use sendBeacon() in case you must send data before unloading — sometimes it makes sense for a website to want to send some POST data when the page is about to unload. In order to successfully do so, sendBeacon() was invented. (like, seriously, it was literally invented for this case) so make sure to use that if you want to know for sure your data is sent without expecting a response.
To Sum Up
Hope this made sense and helped you understand these two unique events, their purpose and their differences. Also, I hope you find that debugging trick useful — I sure did!
If I have missed out on anything or am wrong with anything of what I’ve said in this article, I would love to hear it so I can correct myself and keep this post as accurate and as helpful as possible!
Oh, and sorry for no jsfiddle demos.. for some reason beforeunload and unload events didn’t work very smoothly with it.
I recommend that you to just copy-paste the snippets above in Chrome’s devtools console in any website and see it for yourselves.
Edit: The builtin way to debug any registered event listeners in chrome devtools has come to my attention as another way to debug all beforeunload event listeners. It is indeed a great builtin way to do so, but:
|
https://medium.com/@weizmangal/unload-and-beforeunload-events-and-how-to-easily-debug-them-both-cb40782b0018
|
['Gal Weizman']
|
2019-08-17 17:59:53.733000+00:00
|
['Chrome', 'Research', 'Debugging', 'Web Security', 'JavaScript']
|
3 types of Facebook ads (even within budget) to increase sales of online courses
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Photo by Malte Helmhold on Unsplash
Facebook advertising is one of the best ways to promote your online course in 2022, and for good reason. With over 1 billion active users every day, customers are using Facebook in any niche.
You might be thinking, “How do you get meaningful results for a few dollars a week?” Let’s look at a real number. This is a screenshot of the campaign. These are the results from new customers
As you can see, we spent less than $ 1 on a single sale, resulting in 322 sales. This is not a typo. You’ll actually see a 3000% ROI in this campaign.
You can achieve these results by using some smart retargeting strategies, spying on competitors, interest finder, and calculating ROI in the final sales target achievement process. (course sales funnel)
These strategies are easy to implement and very cheap.
Remind people when bonuses and discounts expire
These ads are very effective at retargeting people who are already engaged with your launch in some way. This typically includes those who opened the launch email and those who consumed free content such as videos and blog posts. To set them up, you need to create some new custom audiences to help (course sale funnel). How many more sales do you imagine if Reed contacts Facebook again shortly after they sign up for your list?
Iron while hot. No need to bother exporting and importing autoresponder lists to Facebook. It happens continuously and automatically. Attract customers across multiple platforms and drive customer
Take a free PDF of my top 5 secret Facebook marketing plans
2. Testimonial Ads
Customer feedback can dramatically increase your sales. In this example, adding a testimonial text increased sales by 34%. Once you have a good testimonial to the course, the next obvious step is to add them to your sales page and checkout. But why stop here? If someone is interested in your course, please do everything possible to see your credentials. Turning your testimony into a Facebook ad is easy and you can get great results.
Make your ads stand out from the testimony traffic of a crowded feed Have you ever seen some Facebook ads that actually appear using testimony? With AdPlify’s Ad Decorator, you can create eye-catching ads in minutes. KlickKlick, done! Make your ads stand out and get your customers’ attention every time.
Take a free PDF of my top 5 secret Facebook marketing plans
3. Focus on the Facebook Ads that deliver the highest ROI
Too many people focus on using Facebook ads to buy new leads and subscribers and ignore ads with the highest ROI. Advertising Whether you have a large budget or spend only a few dollars, these are the first ads you need to create. Try it on your own course. It works on both open/closed start and evergreen courses, so there’s no reason not to give it a try.
Know exactly how much you are profiting from your advertising costs AI-based RoI calculators help you understand how much money you can make from your costs without actually spending them. This easy-to-use calculator helps you adjust your advertising costs for maximum ROI (return on investment). Make more money for every $ 1 you spend on Facebook. Check how the ROI calculator works (click here)
Finally, if you want to get a copy of the exclusive blueprint I use for Facebook marketing, click here to get it for free. It reveals five secrets of marketing on Facebook to promote your course. This includes the ads above and some additional features that I don’t normally share. There is a special offer limited to only 20 people. Download Free Gifts Now
Take a free PDF of my top 5 secret Facebook marketing plans
Thank you for reading!
|
https://medium.com/@mayorbizuworld/3-types-of-facebook-ads-even-within-budget-to-increase-sales-of-online-courses-6c090bb9591a
|
['Abizu Osas']
|
2021-12-27 04:00:29.277000+00:00
|
['Online Marketing', 'Course Creator', 'Internet Marketing', 'Coursera', 'Facebook Marketing']
|
Step by Step Guide to Become a UX Designer with No Experience & Degree
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How to become a ux designer with no experience & degree? Follow 9 simple steps to learn ux design from scratch and find a ux designer job with ease.
In the digital world, good user experience makes a website/app stand out and increases sales. That’s why an increasing number of companies place a significant amount of efforts into hiring good ux designers to enhance the ux of their products.
As a result, ux designer jobs have gradually become one of the hottest positions for job seekers.
Are you thinking about seeking a ux design job, but do not know how to become a ux designer step by step?
Here are 9 simple steps for you to learn ux design and find a good ux design job, even if you do not have any experience or an advanced degree:
First, What Is UX Design?
User experience design, also known as “UX design”, is the art and science of designing a web/app with better usability and accessibility from the very beginning, allotting users a more pleasant experience.
It requires ux designers to learn the basics of website/app design and development, master common ux design tools (such as Photoshop, Sketch, Illustrator, Mockplus and iDoc), and know how to test a web/app design for better ux.
Is UX Design a Good Career?
Yes, UX designing is 100% a good career option for job seekers. Below are the main reasons why you should choose to be a UX designer:
1. UX designer is one of the highest-paid job positions
According to Glassdoor, the average salary of ux designers is about $107,880 per year. Needlessly to say, a senior ux designer gets paid much more than this each year.
2. UX designer is one of the most promising job positions
Nowadays, an increasing number of companies have realized the importance of quality ux design and are looking for good ux designers with all their efforts, making the position of UX designer as one of the most promising job positions.
3. UX designers can freely work on their own schedules
Compared to traditional job, like office workers, UX designers can often work with a more open schedule. Especially when ux design newbies become experts in UX design after several years’ learning and practicing, they can even choose to be freelancers and accept ux design projects based on their own needs.
In fact, the reasons people choose to be ux designers vary from person to person. However, no matter what the reason is, the fact that ux designing is a good career is certainly one of them.
How to Become a UX Designer Easily in 9 Steps
Do you want to be a ux designer, but don’t know where to get started? How to learn? Who to follow? Don’t worry! Here is a step-by-step guide for you to learn ux design and land a perfect ux design job:
Step1. Figure out your motivation
Becoming a ux designer requires hard work and determination. However, without firm motivation, it is very easy for a beginner to give up. So, before you get started, it is best for you to determine own motivation.
For example, ask yourself: “Why do you want to be a UX Designer?”, “How much do you know about UX design or UX designer?”, “Which field or business do you want to break into?”or “How much do you want to be paid as a UX designer in the future?”, etc.
The answers will help you keep focus and overcome many hardships.
Step2. Read books to learn fundamental ux design knowledge
To become a great ux designer, you should first learn the basics of ux design and development. Many famous and authoritative ux design books exist to help you along your path.
Below are 5 of the best must-read ux design books:
1)Don’t make me think — by Steve Krug
The author uses simple words to explain how to create a web/app with best ux.
2)The design of everyday things — by Don Norman
Read this best seller to learn how and why some products satisfy customers. While, others only frustrate them.
3)A project guide to ux design — Russ Unger
This is a canonical book for design beginners to systematically learn ux design theories and skills.
4)101 Design Methods — Vijay Kumar
This is a step-by-step guidebook for ux design newbies to learn different design methods in detail. Every simple design step is paired with examples and explanations.
5)User Experience Elements — Jesse James Garrett This book teaches readers how to transfer design ideas into valid solutions and how to take advantage of user resources to improve a design project. Real UX examples are provided to help explain everything.
Also read 10 mind-blowing best user experience books to find more books.
Step3. Take a ux design course/class
If ux design books aren’t enough, the next step is to take a ux design course or class to learn ux design knowledge, tip and tricks systematically.
Below are 5 of the best free ux design courses you can not miss out:
1) UX design courses on Coursera (7-day free trial)
This website offers ux design courses that cover a wide range of levels. No matter whether you are a beginner or an expert in ux design, you can always find your desired courses. It also supports multiple languages.
2) Guided user experience courses on Treehouse (7-day free trial)
This website is another ideal option for ux design beginners to find a user experience design class to take online. No matter whether you are learning ux design for fun or for a career, you can surely find what you seek here.
3)Learn UX Design on Lynda (one-month free trial)
This website offers rich ux and ui design courses for newbies to learn how to create and design websites, including ux design basics. The personalized course recommendations are of great help in choosing the best course for you.
4. User experience design courses on Udemy (30-Day Money-Back guarantee)
This website includes a special “User Experience” category for users to choose their desired online ux design courses with ease. Most course videos can be downloaded and are easy to understand.
5.Free HTML, CSS & JavaScript Courses on W3School (free)
If you’re looking to learn the basics of web development, this website is a good place to start. It offers free courses demonstrating the basics of HTML, CSS and JavaScript with ease.
Read 30 best online course websites to learn ux to check out more ux design courses
In short, taking at least one online ux design course will help you learn the basics as well as getting a professional guide.
Step4. Learn and master some basic design tools
To become a gorgeous ux designer, learning and mastering some commonly-used design tools are also essential.
Below are 5 of the must-have ux design tools you should master:
1)Sketch — a basic web/app design tool for ux design beginners to draw their design drafts with a broad set of expressive drawing tools.
2)Photoshop — a photo editing tool for ux design newbies to draw and iterate their design drafts with ease.
3)Illustrator — a vector graphics editor for design beginners to create designed logos, icons, typography and illustrations easily.
4)Mockplus — a rapid web/app prototyping tool for ux designers to translate design ideas into interactive prototypes, test, share, iterate and demonstrate it with ease.
5)Mockplus iDoc — an all-in-one design collaboration & handoff tool for designers to collaborate and handoff a design to other designers, developers and product managers effortlessly.
In short, a good design tool not only visualizes your designs, but also speed up the entire design process. so, remember to learn and master some basic design tools.
Step5. Practice and improve ux design skills in real work
After mastering basic design knowledge and tools, the next step for you is to find some real work to practice and improve your ux design skills.
Here are several ideas for you to practice and improve your design skills:
*Find some volunteer projects
*Find a part-time job
*Redesign well-known projects to show your design talents
*Daily design challenge — try to complete a design topic every day
In short, just grab every possible opportunity to practice your design skills.
Step6. Create social media accounts and follow the best ux design blogs/websites
In this technological world, social media, including the well-known Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, Medium, etc, benefit ux designers a lot.
For a ux design newbie, it is necessary for you to create at least one account for all of these mentioned social media to share your own designs and browse the creative ux design works of other designers.
Sometimes, these social media can even bring you good design jobs.
Of course, do not forget to follow 20 best ux design blogs and websites to learn more and keep your design ideas fresh.
If necessary, also find some ux design experts to be your mentors.
Step7. Create portfolios/resumes online
When searching for a ux design position online, a well-designed portfolio always works better than a resume. So, be sure to build a creative portfolio demonstrating your design talents. Of course, always display your best ux design projects there.
But, as a ux design newbie, how do you go about creating a ux design portfolio?
This tutorial: Top 10 free online portfolio websites to create perfect ux design portfolios can surely help you out.
Also do not forget to create ux designer resumes for later job interviews.
Step8. Search a ux designer job and prepare for an interview
Finally, it is the time to land a ux designer job.
Below are 5 of the best online job sites for you to search and apply for good ux designer jobs:
1) Indeed.com
As the world’s largest job site, Indeed.com can help you search and apply for UX designer positions offered by companies from different countries and regions in the world.
2) LinkedIn.com
As one of the largest social networking sites in America, Linkedin.com can not only help you search jobs to get hired, but also allows you to connect with other UX designers registered there.
3) Meetup.com
As a website that allows users to create different groups and meet people nearby, Meetup.com can help you join professional UX design groups and meet more UX design experts. It may also provide opportunities to find a good UX design job there.
4) Upwork.com
As the world’s largest online workplace for freelancers, Upwork.com is also a good site for you if you also want to be a freelancer in UX design.
5) UXdesignerjobs.com
As an online site made for UX designers, you can search and apply for different UX designer jobs there based on your own conditions and needs.
Of course, also do not forget to prepare essential ux design questions for the later interview.
Step9. Never stop learning and practicing
Learning ux design from Sketch is not as easy as one might think. But, as the old saying goes:“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. You should always keep learning and practicing to improve your ux design skills, if you really want to be a great ux designer.
Hopefully, this step-by-step guide on how to become a ux designer is helpful for you.
Conclusion:
Becoming a ux designer is not a task that can be done in one day. It requires time, hard work and determination. Especially for someone with no any design experience or related design degree, it can be quite difficult. However, this does not mean it is impossible.
Following the 9 simple steps above can help you in your goals, making it much easier for you to become a brilliant ux designer.
Work hard and never give up! Follow these steps to learn ux design and find a ux designer job with ease.
Good luck!
|
https://medium.com/dsgnrs/step-by-step-guide-to-become-a-ux-designer-with-no-experience-degree-459739e8037d
|
['Amy Smith']
|
2019-03-19 01:52:02.796000+00:00
|
['UX', 'Design', 'Guidelines', 'UX Design', 'Designer']
|
Finding Your Tribe
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“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”
- Jim Rohn
You’ve probably heard this quote about a million times already, but similar to most inspirational quotes, have you actually done anything to put it into action? Have you reflected on how it applies to your life?
Your tribe is the closest few friends that you spend time with. The people that you can rely on, the people that you trust, and the people that will (likely) be with you for the rest of your life. These aren’t the convenient friends at work or school, these are the ones that you would start a life long project with. The people you would be willing to work with on something that means a lot to you personally.
The Importance of a Good Tribe
Photo by Daan Stevens on Unsplash
Having a good tribe is extremely beneficial for your long term success. If you want to be a good person but the people you spend time with aren’t, then what do you think will happen? You’ll become just like them, because what you see is what you will become.
A helpful tribe will bring you closer to your end goals and help you become better than you could ever be alone. A bad tribe will lead to negative compounding effects.
Share your goals and ambitions with your tribe often. But also tell them where you are spending your time .Your tribe keeps you accountable and ambitious. Especially in the hardest times, your tribe should be there to help support you in what you are doing. But they should also call you out when you aren’t fulfilling your potential or doing what you could be doing. A good tribe is much more beneficial than you will first expect.
Everyone in life is equally incompetent at a lot of things, but together you can make one comptetent and complete person, like pieces in a puzzle. Together you can grow and become extraordinary.
You can also rely on your tribe. When shit hits the fan they will be there to help you through whatever it is. Going through these kinds of things without a tribe will make it much harder.
Photo by Charlie Hammond on Unsplash
How to Find Your Tribe
No one succeeds alone — finding the right people is more beneficial the earlier you find them. But how do you find the right people?
Obviously, this will take time. The number one tip is to be patient. You won’t find your tribe one day all of a sudden, they take time to grow, like trees. If you rush the growth of one it won’t end up as nice if you were to just let it happen naturally.
There is obviously no cookie-cutter solution to finding the people in your tribe but there should be some things to look out for.
Are they happy for you? This applies for all friends. Your friends should be there to celebrate each other. A win for them is a win for you and vice-versa. If you ever doubt that they are truly happy for you when you do something amazing, re-evaluate.
How is time spend with them? You should definitely have good times with your friends and tribe but if most of the time your spend with them only entertaining? When you spend time with them does everyone grow in the long run?
Would you start a life long with them? If you wouldn’t want to work on a long term project with them, ask why? Whatever the reason is, make a judgement of whether it’s due to an internal reason within yourself or an external reason with them.
Do you keep each other accountable? Do you think they push you enough or have high standards for you and themselves? If you seek to be ambitious, surround yourself with people who are equally or preferably even more ambitious than you are.
Are they there when you need them? Would you be able to rely on them for something important? Do you trust them? Do they seem to be available for you and others or are theymore self-centered?
Do they align with your values and long-term goals? The people you surround yourself with should have similar values as you. Are you both striving to achieve similar things? Make a list of your core values and see if they respect or align with them.
Do you get along with them? If you don’t get along with them then why should you spend a lot of time with them? A tribe should become your closest friends that you like and want to spend time with.
Are they honest with you? This goes for anyone you meet, if you can’t trust them to be honest and open with you then when can you ever trust them? However, sometimes people may feel uncomfortable to share things so as always, be patient. Maliciously lying is a completely different thing though.
Photo by Melissa Askew on Unsplash
Key Takeaways
|
https://medium.com/@real.ewu4/finding-your-tribe-efa497abd7d3
|
['Eason Wu']
|
2020-12-19 17:11:27.849000+00:00
|
['Friends', 'Life Lessons', 'Friendship', 'Life']
|
Athene Noctua
|
foto©robcullen18122015
-
Black boughed oaks, snow whitened hills
remnants of a great wood cut for Lydney’s iron mills.
-
I searched alone, a white haired boy,
catching unclean little owls with the slow sweep
of a green wool sweater.
-
I stared long in the eyes,
of Tawnies, that in another age cured madness.
-
Jackdaws called my name from the river bank,
I saved them, from the waters rise,
wrapped them clustered close, in a dark green jerkin,
fed them and on another day let them go back to the wild.
-
I dreamt of eagles, hawks and falcons,
but Robins flew to my call, and sat still in my hand.
-
At St Anne’s strand in the West of Ireland, black Jack ravens,
clawed at my brow, trying to roost in dusks gathering darkness,
while I stood listening to the Atlantic rollers roar,
and the weeping sigh of the one I loved.
foto©robcullen01122018
©robcullen01122020
-
I realise that, in speaking and writing about trauma, this comes from almost forty years of working with extreme cases of traumatization, but I also have an understanding that, in my own experience, I have not always coped with trauma and particularly the death of someone close. These days, deaths of friends have a huge impact. Knowing this I’d rather avoid the funeral and particularly the wakes.
This poem speaks about my experience as a child, when family deaths overshadowed my upbringing. I was very much a loner, artistic and very much “into” wildlife. It was a way that I came to terms with loss.
But even then a close relative, whom I very much loved, when she asked for me as she was dying of cancer, I could not face her at that time. I left for another country. This remains a difficult memory. I wish that it weren’t so. But my memory of her remains never far away. My experience has always been at the center of my approach to children experiencing bereavement.
©robcullen11122020.
|
https://medium.com/resistance-poetry/athene-noctua-8031e7b29548
|
['Rob Cullen']
|
2020-12-12 13:04:23.486000+00:00
|
['Grief', 'Trauma', 'Resistance Poetry', 'Recovery', 'Free Verse']
|
The Nine Satanic Sins
|
The Nine Satanic Sins
A Peek into Anton Lavey’s Philosophy of Satanism
Artist Unknown, The Logo of The Church of Satan, 2011. Image Courtesy of Independent Co.
A long time ago, or so the story goes, before the genesis of Adam and Eve, God made the angels. They were pure and beautiful, the manifestation of God’s glory. But one burned brighter than the others — Lucifer, the Morning-Star. In his incandescence, he was made leader of the thousands of angels, guiding them through in all praise and worship. He did a great job, and he knew it for a fact.
Lucifer became prideful and rationalized that he was more deserving of praise than the creator himself. He was jealous of all the glory that God was given and decided that he would usurp the throne. Gathering a third of all the angels in heaven, he waged a war against God himself. Of course, he and his army were badly defeated. They were disowned and cast out of heaven onto the earth, where Lucifer was stripped of his godly name and given a new identity — Satan.
When Adam and Eve were created and given refuge in the Garden of Eden, there was peace and joy, with Adam holding the God-given authority to rule over the earth. Satan saw an opportunity to seize the power from Adam, and taking the form of a serpent, he slithered into Eden.
Deceiving Eve and instigating the pair to consume the forbidden fruit from the tree of good and evil, Satan seized the power that Adam had held, claiming authority over Adam and Eve. The war between God and Satan had been waged in heaven but now it was brought to the earth. In all his hatred and anger, Satan uses everything at his disposal in hopes to take down the mighty creator, leaving mankind caught in the middle. And so, Satanism was born, an unholy doctrine to follow for those who desire to take the side of the devil.
An entertaining story? Definitely. Truth? Not in the slightest.
|
https://medium.com/the-philosophers-stone/the-nine-satanic-sins-53efdf3f99d
|
['Abel Chan']
|
2020-02-10 14:48:34.081000+00:00
|
['Life Lessons', 'Life', 'History', 'Philosophy', 'Religion']
|
A Sky Full Of Stars By Coldplay
|
[Intro]
Am F C Em x2
[Verse]
Am F C Em
Cause you’re a sky, cause you’re a sky full of stars
Am F C Em
I’m going to give you my heart
Am F C Em
Cause you’re a sky, cause you’re a sky full of stars
Am F C Em
And cause you light up the path
[Chorus]
Am F C Em
I don’t care, go on and tear me apart
Am F C Em
I don’t care if you do
Am F C Em
Cause in a sky, cause in a sky full of stars
Am F C Em
I think I saw you
[Instrumental]
Am F C Em x3
[Verse]
Am F C Em
Cause you’re a sky, cause you’re a sky full of stars
Am F C Em
I’m wanna die in your arms, oh
Am F C Em
Cause you get lighter the more it gets dark
Am F C Em
I wanna give you my heart
[Chorus]
Am F C Em
I don’t care, go on and tear me apart
Am F C Em
I don’t care if you do
Am F C Em
Cause in a sky, cause in a sky full of stars
Am F C Em
I think I see you
Am F Em
I think I see you
[Instrumental]
Am F C Em x4
F G Am C x2
[Outro]
F G Am C
Because you’re a sky, you’re a sky full of stars
F G Am C
Such a heavenly view
F G Am C
Such a heavenly view
F G Am C x3
(you can end on a C)
|
https://medium.com/@azaniadinda95/a-sky-full-of-stars-by-coldplay-4fc990af2f86
|
['Adinda Azani']
|
2020-12-18 08:38:54.433000+00:00
|
['SEO', 'News', 'Music', 'Videos', 'Love']
|
スイスの金融局FINMAからノーアクション・レターを受け取りました
|
in Both Sides of the Table
|
https://medium.com/icovo/%E3%82%B9%E3%82%A4%E3%82%B9%E3%81%AE%E9%87%91%E8%9E%8D%E5%B1%80finma%E3%81%8B%E3%82%89non-action-letter%E3%82%92%E5%8F%97%E5%8F%96%E3%82%8A%E3%81%BE%E3%81%97%E3%81%9F-4ee0bd8c4d62
|
['Icovo Ag']
|
2019-02-10 09:11:01.483000+00:00
|
['ICO', 'Finance', 'Japanese', 'Switzerland']
|
The Testing, Inspection and Certification Market is Expected to Reach $105.99 Billion at a CAGR of 2.4% During the Forecast Period 2020–2027.
|
The Testing, Inspection and Certification Market is Expected to Reach $105.99 Billion at a CAGR of 2.4% During the Forecast Period 2020–2027. Christianj Dec 24, 2020·5 min read
Meticulous Research® — leading global market research company published a research report titled “Testing, Inspection, and Certification Market by Service, End User (Retail, Agriculture, Oil & Gas, Construction, Chemicals, Machinery, Transportation, Automotive, Government, Marine, and Healthcare), and Region — Forecast to 2027”.
According to this Latest Publication from Meticulous Research®, the Testing, Inspection, and Certification (TIC) Market Is Expected to Reach $105.99 Billion by 2027 at a CAGR of 2.4% from 2020. The growth of the TIC market is majorly attributed to factors, such as the growing global demand for regulation of materials, products, systems, and processes, stringent government regulations, the growing illicit trade of forged and pirated goods, rising awareness among consumers regarding product quality and safety, and the emergence of advanced technologies. Besides, the surge in demand for TIC services globally is also expected to support the growth of this market over the coming years. Moreover, the outsourcing of quality assurance work to third parties is expected to support the long-term expansion of the TIC market. Also, increasing corporate outsourcing of R & D activities is the new trend observed, which is expected to create further opportunities for the growth of this market in the coming years. However, diverse regulations and standards across different regions and the global impact of COVID-19 on several industry verticals have hampered the growth of this market to an extent.
The testing, inspection, and certification market study presents historical market data (2018 and 2019), estimated current data (2020), and forecasts for 2027. The market is segmented based on service, end-user, and geography. The study also evaluates industry competitors and analyzes the market at the country level.
Click here to: Get a Free Request Sample Copy of this report
Based on Service, the TIC market is segmented into testing, inspection, and certification. The testing segment is estimated to account for the largest share of the testing, inspection, and certification market in 2020. The largest share of the segment is mainly attributed to the diversified product standards across different regions, rapidly transforming medical device standards, and the governments’ increasing focus on improving the quality of various goods. However, the certification segment is expected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period due to factors such as the rising need to enhance product safety, meet international standards, and improve product value.
Based on End-user, the TIC market is segmented into consumer goods and retail, agriculture and food, oil & gas, construction, chemicals, mining, machinery, transportation, automotive, power generation, government, marine, healthcare, financial institutions, and others. Among these, the agriculture and food segment is estimated to account for the largest share of the overall testing, inspection, and certification market in 2020. The largest share of the segment is mainly attributed to the high need to ensure product quality, the consistently rising demand for organic and processed foods, and the growing need to monitor food items closely and improve productivity. However, the healthcare segment is expected to record the highest CAGR during the forecast period due to factors such as the increasing product safety standards and the rising demand for specialized medical device testing services.
Geographic Review:
Geographically, the TIC market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa. North America is estimated to account for the largest share of the testing, inspection, and certification market in 2020. The large share of this regional market is mainly attributed to the presence of major players and several emerging start-ups in the region, early adoption of the latest technologies, stringent government regulations related to drone, food, and healthcare testing, and growing trade of consumer products. However, the Asia-Pacific market is expected to witness rapid growth during the forecast period, driven by factors such as the rapidly increasing demand for consumer electronics, growing consumer awareness regarding testing and certification, the transformation of the healthcare sector, and increasing cross-border imports and exports.
Speak with our expert
Key Players:
The key players operating in the testing, inspection, and certification market are SGS S.A. (Switzerland), Bureau Veritas S.A. (France), Intertek Group Plc. (U.K.), TÜV Süd AG (Germany), Dekra SE (Germany), Eurofins Scientific SE (Luxembourg), TÜV Rheinland AG Group (U.S.), Element Materials Technology Ltd. (U.K.), Lloyd’s Register Group Limited (U.K.), APPLUS+ (Spain), AsureQuality (New Zealand), DNV GL (Norway), ALS Ltd. (Australia), Mistras Group (U.S.), and UL LLC (U.S.), among others.
Scope of the Report:
TIC Market by Service
Testing
Inspection
Certification
TIC Market by End User
Consumer Goods and Retail
Agriculture and Food
Oil & Gas
Construction
Chemicals
Mining
Machinery
Transportation
Automotive
Power Generation
Government
Marine
Healthcare
Financial Institutions
Others
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TIC Market by Geography:
North America
U.S.
Canada
Europe
Germany
U.K.
France
Italy
Spain
Rest of Europe
Asia-Pacific
Japan
China
India
Rest of Asia-Pacific
Latin America
Middle East & Africa
Key Questions Answered in the Report-
Which are the high-growth market segments in terms of service, end user, and geography?
What was the historical market size of the TIC market?
What are the market forecasts and estimates for the period 2020–2027?
What are the major drivers, restraints, opportunities, and trends in the testing, inspection, and certification market?
Who are the major players, and what are their shares in the testing, inspection, and certification market?
How is the competitive landscape in the testing, inspection, and certification market?
What are the recent developments in the testing, inspection, and certification market?
What are the various strategies adopted by the major players in the testing, inspection, and certification market?
What are the key geographic trends, and which are the high-growth countries?
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About Meticulous Research
Meticulous Research® was founded in 2010 and incorporated as Meticulous Market Research Pvt. Ltd. in 2013 as a private limited company under the Companies Act, 1956. Since its incorporation, with the help of its unique research methodologies, the company has become the leading provider of premium market intelligence in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa regions
Contact Us:
Meticulous Research®
Email — [email protected]
Contact Sales — +1–646–781–8004
Connect with us on LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/company/meticulous-research
|
https://medium.com/@christianj7887/the-testing-inspection-and-certification-market-is-expected-to-reach-105-99-7490a3cbd73a
|
[]
|
2020-12-24 10:06:56.726000+00:00
|
['Certification', 'Information Technology', 'Testing', 'Inspection']
|
Submission Guidelines
|
Submission Guidelines
Format your article properly. You need a title in Title Case, a subtitle beneath that, and a featured image. For a comprehensive Medium guide in all things formatting, check out this article.
We follow Medium Curation Guidelines and Medium Rules.
You retain the rights to your article, including the right to remove it from our publication. You are giving Exploring Wellness the license to publish your work for as long as we both agree upon. In return, we may do some light editing and we will promote your piece on our media platforms.
the license to publish your work for as long as we both agree upon. In return, we may do some light editing and we will promote your piece on our media platforms. No affiliate links allowed. We do accept a short call to action at the end of your article. Per Medium’s Curation Guidelines, please keep your call to action under 40 words. No directly requesting reader email addresses, but you can direct readers to an off-site page where they can join your email list.
We prefer articles published behind Medium’s paywall. This means you’ve joined the Medium Partner Program. These stories will be reviewed by Medium Curators and if selected, generally results in an increase of readers. However, we’re willing to include articles that are not behind the paywall.
Cite your sources. We love science-backed articles but you need to include your sources. You can either embed links into the body of your article or provide resources at the end.
Images
You must cite all images. You can find beautiful free images from sites such as Unsplash and Pixabay. Even if it’s a photo you have taken yourself, you need to cite it. Don’t use random images from the internet. You must be sure you have the rights to use your images. You can find helpful information on how to add images in the article below.
Tags
Once you hit “submit” you will be prompted to add up to five tags. These tags will help others find your story and we recommend that you use all five of them.
If you’re interested in tagging your articles to get Top Writer status, check out this article below.
Update August 10, 2020: Categories
The publication is broken into six categories. The tags you choose in your story will determine where your article appears on our navigation pages.
The tags are:
Wellness
Fitness
Food
Mental Health
Lifestyle
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Grammar
Please carefully review your story before submitting it to Exploring Wellness. We do edit for grammar or spelling errors, but we won’t change the meaning of your article.
Grammarly is a great and free tool to help you edit your stories. But it can sometimes give incorrect suggestions. Use your judgment when using an online editing tool.
Note: if we see excessive grammar and spelling errors, we may send your story back to you for further editing.
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Medium Curation
A common topic for Medium writers is getting curated. Let’s take a look at Medium’s discussion of curation.
What does it mean to be curated? When a story is curated, it becomes eligible to be distributed to readers across Medium surfaces — on the homepage, on topic pages, in our app, in our Daily Digest newsletter, and in other emails — and shared via Medium’s recommendation system. — Medium Curation Guidlines
Curation means more eyes on your work. And more visitors to our publication. Curation benefits everyone. For more information, you can see what Medium looks for when they review your articles here.
For an easy to understand break down of curation rules, check this out below.
Note: Many writers like to promote other pieces in their stories. Medium states that you will not get curated if you add a friend link in your article. Feel free to share your friend link across social media or in emails, but don’t include them in your stories if you’re hoping to get curated.
How to be added as a writer
To be added as a writer, please email [email protected]. Don’t forget to include your Medium profile.
After you become a writer
Once we’ve added you as a writer, feel free to submit your drafts directly to our publication. Go here if you need help with this.
Please give us 24 to 48 hours to publish your work. We will send you a private note if we need you to rework something in your article, or if we feel your topic doesn’t fit our publication.
That being said, we are new and evolving. We may take this publication into directions we aren’t aware of it at this writing. If you have a piece that you aren’t sure fits here, feel free to submit it anyway and we’ll take a look.
If you haven’t heard anything back from us after 48 hours, feel free to shoot a friendly email to [email protected].
We can’t wait to read what you’ve got!
Thank you for your interest in writing for Exploring Wellness. We welcome writers of all levels. We strive to be a community that supports each other’s work and provides helpful feedback. We look forward to reading all of your health and wellness articles!
|
https://medium.com/exploring-wellness/submission-guidelines-190c939cf2a1
|
['Jennifer Geer']
|
2020-08-10 14:08:34.900000+00:00
|
['Submission Guidelines', 'Exploring Wellness', 'Submission', 'Wellness', 'Writing']
|
Review: End of Q3 2020 & Mainnet One-year Anniversary
|
Dear Vite Community:
Time has flown by. As 2020 has been a whirlwind of a year for many people around the world, I hope you are in a place of safety and peace. In this letter, I would like to provide an update on Vite’s progress in Q3.
Overall, I am very proud of our team’s achievements. Let me review each item in our Q3 roadmap in turn.
Stablecoins Functionality
ViteX released the first-of-its-kind, zero-fee stablecoin swap feature with Vite’s fifth hardfork. As of now, three stablecoin pairs (USDC/USDT, DAI/USDT, BUSD/USDT) can convert at no cost. The rapid growth of stablecoins this year (standing at north of USD $10Bn) reflects a real need for storing fiat-pegged value in crypto form. In introducing this feature, we heard and answered our users’ needs. This is a big step towards fulfilling our original vision of an Open Finance ecosystem.
Free stablecoin swap brings us closer to our Open Finance vision
Vite Ecosystem Grants
We started the Vite Techie Club, a social group for community members interested in developing apps on Vite’s tech. The purpose is to educate our community on technical matters, brainstorm useful projects to be deployed on Vite, and discover new tech talent to contribute to the ecosystem. Any interesting application created from interactions within the Vite Techie Club will receive support from the Vite Foundation. Our successful kickoff event in September focused on decentralized gateways for ViteX, an important component of our plans for Vite 2.0. To participate in future Vite Techie Club events, join our Discord here.
Vite Techie Club seeks engineering talents to solve interesting problems with our tech
ViteX SDK Improvement
We released ViteX SDK (Java). This enables easy development of trading bots and deployment of trading strategies on ViteX. This is another crucial step towards our Open Finance vision that democratizes access to financial resources and systems. Check out the API in our github here.
Time to write apps that interact with ViteX
Vite App Major Upgrade
The Vite app has undergone a facelift to provide a more smooth experience for ViteX users (iOS). We created a new DEX Assets page that focuses exclusively on Vite-native assets. On this new page, we also separated out the functions of asset management and trading. Experience the new app for yourself here.
Major iOS app upgrade
Continual Coin Listings on ViteX
In Q3, our various gateways continuously added a total of ten new coins. As explained in this article, our gateways tend to look for coins with an active community, few listings on major exchanges, and a consistent pace of software development. We also launched a ViteX ambassador program, where we initially recruited three members. They will be conducting in-depth video interviews with project teams for coins listed on ViteX.
New ViteX ambassadors will both help promote coin listings and scout for worthy projects
Initial Upgrades of DApp Development Tools
Various improvements have been made to an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for Vite’s solidity++. These changes will make it easier to develop DApps on Vite. See a screenshot of the IDE here.
Environment for building solidity++ apps
New Operator Recruitment
Operators are an important component of the ViteX ecosystem. As such, we continue to onboard and support new operators. As of today, we have seven operators in total. The level of listing and trading activities on all operators varies. We are hopeful that as the awareness of ViteX increases (with more listings of gems, and inductively attraction of traders), more independent entities will apply to become operators.
Other Accomplishments
In Q3, we became more aggressive in raising awareness of our brand via various ways — partnerships (example — Banano), podcasts (example — The Blockchain Debate Podcast), and events (example — Silicon Valley Bitcoin Meetup mining panel). In addition, we continued to educate the public about our tech (see our series of tech articles), published the thoughts of our leadership via Vite Insights articles, ran regular leadership AMAs, and solicited community input for coins to be listed by ViteX gateways.
We just celebrated our one-year anniversary since the launch of Vite Mainnet. As mentioned in our tweet thread here, I would like to enumerate our very worthy accomplishments with statistics:
We now have six products, including the multi-chain Vite App that has been downloaded over 300,000 times and is being used in over 180 countries.
Our network consists of 900 full nodes. Over 130 Vite-native tokens have been issued. About 109,878 active addresses live on Vite, transacting over 127,810,946 times.
49 supernodes have mined an accumulation of 29,530,000 VITE. Note that more than 23,900,000 VITE have been burned, offsetting the aforementioned increase in circulation.
Cumulative trading volume on ViteX has exceeded 50,808 BTC. Over 100 BTC have been distributed to VX holders as dividends (for a comprehensive guide of using ViteX, check here)
Infographic for our achievements as our Mainnet turns one year old
As I have always said, our achievements would not have been possible without you. Vite is not just about the solidity++ smart contracts, its open source golang code, or our white paper. Our ecosystem is only powerful because of activities of our users, developers, investors, and enthusiasts. Thank you all for your support.
#letscreatesomethingcool,
Charles Liu
|
https://medium.com/vitelabs/review-end-of-q3-2020-mainnet-one-year-anniversary-1d5a8cb7eb49
|
['Vite Editor']
|
2020-10-01 21:28:40.921000+00:00
|
['Crypto', 'Blockchain', 'Bitcoin', 'Vite', 'Vitex']
|
Pin Stripe Bowl
|
Let’s first start with an apology and explanation. The last write up, for the Independence Bowl taking place right now, showed and discussed a line of +14.5 for S.Miss that was already +13.5 by the time the article was published. This is the first time that has happened and it is obviously not the intent to give out advice based on stale lines. These write ups take about 30–45 minutes to turn the stats and notes into a polished presentation. The number dropped in that 30 minutes. Lesson learned, will double check before publishing moving forward.
The next bowl today is the Pin Stripe Bowl. This year features a return participant in Boston College Eagles. They are facing their third straight Big Ten bowl opponent in the Iowa Hawkeyes.
The lines for this game have not really moved. They opened Iowa -3 with a total of 46.5. That 3 is still available while the total has dropped to 45.
These teams are a fairly close match and run very similar styles. The stats bear this out.
The expected points scored and allowed show that both teams do a great job of allowing far less than could be expected but, Iowa has the advantage in scoring more than expected. These numbers produce an expected spread of Iowa -6.
Looking at yards per play shows that the teams are almost even and that doesn’t bode well for BC as usually this metric leans heavily to the underdog.
According to this Iowa should be a -2.5 favorite, meaning there is only a half point of value on BC; just not that much for a three point dog.
The efficiency and defensive metrics don’t leave any room between the two teams either. No metric has more than a 5 point difference. Its hard to imagine either team pulling away here. Both teams also have a great ability to stop the explosive play on defense, ranking inside the top 40. Additionally, both have top 20 rated schedules furthering the similarities.
As far as motivation, Boston College should be pretty psyched to be here. They had their 4th winning season in Coach Addazio’s 5 seasons. This is the their 4th bowl and despite losing their first two under Addazio (one in OT to Penn St), they beat Maryland last year and should be pumped to defeat another Big Ten foe. BC won 5 of their last 6 games this season and scored more than 35 points in all five wins.
Iowa meanwhile has been to five straight bowls… and been blown out in all five. Its pretty hard to back a team as a favorite that has lost five straight bowl games AND lost to Purdue at home a month ago. Did Iowa peak after authoring one of the college football season’s biggest upsets vs Ohio St? The bet here is yes.
BC +3, -115,
Good Luck
|
https://medium.com/@BigTenWatto/pin-stripe-bowl-f2ba51d7a3ae
|
[]
|
2017-12-27 19:41:41.818000+00:00
|
['Sports', 'Sports Betting']
|
The bloXroute Scalability Solution
|
By Prof. Aleksandar Kuzmanovic, Co-Founder and Chief Architect
*This post was updated on October 23, 2020
bloXroute solves the scalability bottleneck for blockchains at its core: the network layer.
In our previous blog post we explained why scalability solutions such as FIBRE and Falcon, Compact and XThin Blocks, and Graphene are insufficient in solving the scalability bottleneck.
TL;DR:
Fibre and Falcon can increase performance of blockchains but at the cost of placing power in the hands of the network owners
Compact and Xthin Blocks increase TPS by reducing the amount of data each block contains, but initial results in a very small, controlled network show a relatively modest increase
Graphene reduces block size through a bloom filter and IBLT, but bloXroute can outperform it.
So, what is different with bloXroute?
bloXroute brings two major novelties: transaction-based neutrality and dramatic scalability advances. bloXroute is a transaction-based neutral network. This means that bloXroute by design cannot stop nodes, wallets, users, transactions, or blocks from utilizing the BDN.
A major aspect of bloXroute’s uniqueness lies in the way it helps propagate information in a blockchain network. Contrary to first-generation relay networks, bloXroute propagates transactions among blockchain nodes. By propagating transactions on behalf of users, bloXroute manages to effectively index these transactions using much shorter IDs. Thus, when blocks are propagated through the network, bloXroute utilizes such IDs, effectively compressing the amount of data that needs to be carried through the network. Additionally, bloXroute optimally streams data through a well-provisioned dedicated network infrastructure and enables the processing of a high volume of on-chain transactions.
bloXroute’s Architecture
bloXroute’s architecture is innovative at multiple levels. First, bloXroute transforms the access plane, i.e., the way blockchain nodes access bloXroute. There are two ways to access the BDN: 1. Users with a full node can run a Gateway (either a Local Gateway or Hosted Gateway) or 2. users who do not have a full node can use bloXroute’s Cloud-API.
A Gateway is a piece of open source code deployed at a blockchain node that quickly transmits transactions and blocks to and from nearby bloXroute servers. To a blockchain node, a Gateway looks no different than another peer node; yet, it enables access to the bloXroute network. Gateways help with performance since they significantly shrink the data transmitted through the access link using the transaction IDs explained above. In the network sense, a Gateway is a high-end server that is paired with a blockchain node. This is similar to the approach taken by Akamai’s CDN, which deploys edge servers close to millions of end users, thus improving their Web experience.
bloXroute’s unique architecture ensures that bloXroute by design cannot stop nodes, wallets, users, transactions, or blocks from utilizing the BDN. bloXroute does this using transaction-based neutrality, meaning it ensures all nodes are kept in sync regarding the transactions waiting in the mempool to be included in a block. bloXroute ensures synchronicity by periodically sending updates to Gateways on new transactions, of which bloXroute cannot prevent or delay from being included in the update.
If for any reason a Gateway realizes its transaction has not been included in the update, it can send its transaction to the p2p network to continue its propagation and thus not be censored. This model removes the need for data to be encrypted, which also alleviates the concern of DDOS attacks sending large amounts of encrypted data and delaying the network. Users can utilize the bloXroute BDN as a router that is optimized for blockchain technology. The protocol runs underneath the blockchain, making it the first layer-0 solution.
Implementation: No protocol changes and gradual deployment
How does a blockchain (or a cryptocurrency) community utilize the opportunity and newfound capacity provided by bloXroute? By simply adjusting the block size and inter-block time interval parameters. bloXroute requires no blockchain protocol change beyond this parameter adjustment to fully utilize bloXroute’s capacity. We will provide guidelines for each individual blockchain. The recommended scaling parameters, i.e., inter-block time and block size, will be based on the experimental results from our global testbed. bloXroute as a transport layer is complementary to the native consensus protocol used, and it is capable of boosting performance, often dramatically, for any blockchain. But again, the protocol itself does not change; the validity requirements remain the same, as is the structure of blocks and transactions, and all the messages among nodes.
Another important question is what fraction of blockchain nodes need to deploy Gateways at their machines in order for the blockchain community to scale-up the protocol parameters? In short, the more nodes that deploy Gateways the better but it is not necessary for all the nodes, or even the majority of the nodes, to deploy Gateways, in order to allow the transition. This is because bloXroute creates value not only for the first individual miner or user, but for the entire network, including those not using the BDN. When a block is mined and sent to the BDN it will reach all miners and users faster and increase the overall network speed for everyone.
The BDN not only enables scalability, but also provides network insights and performance boosting tools for everyday users and blockchain service providers via our DeFi toolsuite and custom integrations.
In the same way Akamai helps millions of Web users around the world with their vigorous server deployment at edge networks, bloXroute’s unique architecture can help every individual blockchain community. Whether they consist of hundreds or ten thousands of nodes, they will greatly benefit from dramatic scalability advances. In our next post, we will dive deeper into the topic of bloXroute’s network.
|
https://medium.com/bloxroute/the-bloxroute-solution-b293c3ee3dc2
|
['Bloxroute Team']
|
2020-11-19 20:43:33.936000+00:00
|
['Cryptocurrency', 'Ethereum', 'Technology', 'Blockchain', 'Bitcoin']
|
Building healthy homes — The new “local-global” community resilience plan
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Building healthy homes — The new “local-global” community resilience plan
In continuation with the Connected Places Catapult 2020 housing program priorities, the following blog explores how the localism is becoming a driving force in UK’s future homes evolution. Annalise Johns, Housing Lead for the Connected Places Catapult begins this discussion through this thoughtful piece on building healthy homes for the future.
The speed of response in the past four months has been remarkable and specifically the normalisation shift into a pandemic mode of conduct. Equally remarkable, is the agile business model displayed by local businesses who have maintained trading and the rise of local voluntary community service networks established literally overnight. Clearly globalisation has a role to play going forward however, the recent fervour around localism bodes well with the undertow of social-value percolating in economic and built environment circles.
The response rate, globally, is good news for climate change and timely. “In her keynote address, UN-Habitat executive director Maimunah Mohd Sharif said COVID-19 had brought into focus the relationship between health outcomes and management of the pandemic and the development of cities.”
The role of the supply chain, for food, services and essentials has been put to the test over the past 4 months and with this important stress test in many cases a localised solution has been lifesaving.
The biggest hurdle faced by this pandemic has been geographic. The logistics of social distancing has transformed how we get to work and access supplies, it has redefined high streets dependant on commuters or tourists. Yet, amid the high rate of shops closing we have also seen an emergence of pop-ups of local suppliers responding to a granular understanding of the local market demands. “The built environment is more than a reflection of economics or politics; beyond these conditions, the forms of the built environment are the product of the maker’s will”[1]
An example is the vertical farming industry, such as the Vertical Futures company in East London. Currently the largest urban farming company in the UK, the company’s intention is to support local population health, through the supply of fresh, locally provided produce using an efficient method of supply. Jamie and Marie Burrons who founded Vertical Futures, identified the need to reduce the carbon footprint of food production, and in the process increase local job opportunities. Distribution relies on London’s public transport and feeds a “range of markets and small independent shops and ventures. They can be grown to order if a chef or aspiring home cook wants. This is a highly technical business which relies on expertise from plant technologists, engineers and IT specialists, {…} creating opportunities that weren’t there before.” [2]
“In the UK there has been an upsurge in public spiritedness, with local businesses and community organisations setting up food delivery networks to get food to vulnerable residents.”
What we are seeing is a renewed approach to efficiency by capitalising on local assets, local supply chains and services. Though some company’s such as Amazon grow from strength to strength, there is a noticeable rise of decentralisation driven by localism.
More than 67% of Local Authorities across the UK have declared a climate emergency and have thereby put in motion plans to reduce CO2 emissions and improve overall local resilience. The latest webinar from the Public Practice shared findings from Tara Gbolade’s review of planning permissions. These findings addressed the required sustainability content included in an application’s successful approval. However, her findings highlighted the sustainability performance of completed developments to be negligible due to conflicting building regulations and the varying sustainability standards found in local plans. This is a clear indication that the systems that universally governs localities across the UK are not designed to adhere or enhance the assets and strengths at community level.
The plight of our many high streets and the need to invigorate the economy through carbon neutral lifestyles means localism needs to form a stronghold of any council’s climate action framework. While it is true a process to assess accountability of developers and ensure the efficiency of homes and buildings are indeed needed. I would argue there is also a geographic dilemma to the climate emergency and the solution lies at the feet of built environment professionals. Stuart Ropke, Chief Executive of Community Housing Cymru, asks “do we build different types of homes in future with integrated workspace included and do we open up our office space to local start-ups and individuals who can’t work from home?”
We are presented with an opportunity to combine siloed domains of transport and housing to create a truly sustainable approach to our climate emergency plans. The Department for Transport’s Gear Change: A Bold Vision for Cycling and Walking, needs to be matched by a similarly bold housing vision that prioritises local residents and the community specific markets to mainstream carbon neutral lifestyles. A 2020 sourcebook produced by the UN Habitat and the World Health Organisation entitled Integrating Health in Urban and Territorial Planning, is a beacon for our current situation. It adheres to, not surprisingly, a health led approach — the zeitgeist of our time. As evidenced in the NHS Healthy New Town programme, a localized approach enabling a granular reframing of social value, and an openness to address performance gaps by testing new methods, and metrics on a much smaller scale and in a much more tailored way, breeds success. Supporting localism will enable communities to address the spatial inequalities that are at the route of the cause of causes. Ropke echo’s how lasting social and economic change is lasting when it is driven by those most likely to benefit.
As stated in the Economists July 25th 2020 Editor’s note Starting Over Again:
|
https://medium.com/connectedplaces/building-healthy-homes-the-new-local-global-community-resilience-plan-57ae35cfb9e7
|
['Connected Places Catapult']
|
2020-08-14 16:21:33.644000+00:00
|
['Community', 'Builtenvironment', 'Housing', 'Pandemic', 'Local']
|
How we optimized SunRoof’s Pipedrive setup to improve reporting and sales performance
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How we optimized SunRoof’s Pipedrive setup to improve reporting and sales performance Aneta Szotek Follow Sep 15 · 10 min read
SunRoof creates beautiful, 2-in-1 smart solar roofs and innovative facades that produce power from the Sun. They operate in the Scandinavian countries, Poland, and Kenya. Their mission is to equip everyone with a solar energy source on their roof. They dream of a future where we can all thrive together with nature. SunRoof is the most efficient and environment-friendly solar roof on the market.
sunroof.se
When we first met, SunRoof had already implemented Pipedrive at their company. What they needed help with was the optimization of processes and their setup. They also needed to create a proper data structure. The team wanted to put in place the guidelines on how to use Pipedrive that would be a reference point for anyone on the team.
The team wanted to get access to the most accurate sales data possible. They needed to differentiate between high-value KPI and low-value KPI, improve reporting, and sales performance.
Phase 1: CRM audit
The first phase included an initial diagnosis of what currently works and doesn’t work in SunRoof’s Pipedrive setup. The goal was to understand how the team uses Pipedrive and how they would like their CRM to support them in the sales process.
The SunRoof team didn’t have a full understanding of the system and didn’t use all the benefits a CRM system can bring. They didn’t have any guidelines or unified rules on how to use the system.
Having performed the audit, we created a Pipedrive specification for the SoftwareSupp consultant that later took over the optimization project. This way, the client knew exactly what and how would be improved and optimized. The specification included diagnosed problems and the actions that the consultant or the team can take to optimize the Pipedrive setup.
Pipedrive specification
Thanks to the initial audit, SunRoof could identify the potential benefits for their organization. In the first phase, we discovered the most important areas that should be improved to make the CRM implementation the most effective.
Phase 2: Pipedrive configuration and optimization
In the second phase, the SoftwareSupp consultant implemented changes to the Pipedrive setup that allowed SunRoof to optimize the usage of the system. The process included creating guidelines, educating the team on how to use the system, automation, and security improvements.
During this phase, we stayed in touch with the SunRoof team to make sure the changes affect positively their workflows. We created a guide that includes all rules and best practices for using Pipedrive at SunRoof.
Deal and sales forecasting
Pipedrive sales forecasting provides a comprehensive way to plan sales activities for specific timeframes. For the forecasting to work, the team needs to add probabilities and expected close dates for every deal or stage. This way the system understands how long it would take to close a deal.
To make sure that the forecasting is possible to use, the team needs to follow specific rules while entering the data. We identified the flow and the data structure to make financial forecasting possible for SunRoof.
Deal sources and lost reasons
Adding deal sources and “lost reasons” to deals is a crucial element that lets you enable more precise reporting. If you track where your leads come from, you can optimize your marketing strategy accordingly.
Additionally, if your lost deals have the reasons why the client didn’t decide to go with your product attached to them, it’s easier for the sales team to adjust strategy and compare it with specific lead sources.
In SunRoof, the lead sources and lost reasons weren’t tracked properly. They were entered manually in several languages as the employees operate on different markets. There weren’t any rules on how to use these fields.
In consequence, reporting was ineffective. The custom fields were filled in one-by-one. It wasn’t possible to analyze data on a bigger scale and draw conclusions.
To solve the problem our software consultant created a fixed structure for these fields. For the “deal source” fields, we agreed on a set of rules that the team can refer to when they have a new lead.
Lost reasons
Both fields were predefined and the team could choose a reason from the drop-down list. The field was made obligatory so that the salesperson needs to fill this field in to be able to change the deal stage. Accurate data provides valuable insights into the sales process optimization.
Labeling
SunRoof didn’t use the labeling system to distinguish between the cold leads, hot leads, and actual customers.
Labeling allows the users to use more advanced filtering options that help them identify the leads that are most likely to buy the product.
In SunRoof, the Pipedrive funnel includes additional post-sales stages. It is necessary to supervise the solar roof installation. The salesperson is in touch with the client to support them until the roof is ready to use. They make sure that the client is content with the final outcome of the installation.
For such a funnel, the labeling system is useful because it lets the sales team filter out the deals that are still in progress and the ones that are already closed.
Labeling system
In SunRoof, we implemented labels to differentiate between:
cold leads
warm
hot leads
customers
The labeling process was automatically changed depending on the stage that the deal entered. The team didn’t need to remember any additional steps to be able to fully use this functionality.
Labeling can be used to filter out the leads that are the most likely to make a purchase as well as to perform a lead segmentation that can be used for future marketing campaigns.
Mailing
SunRoof didn’t use Pipedrive’s mailing system to track conversations with customers. The team needed to add all the information manually on the deal level. This process was time-consuming and prone to human errors.
The SunRoof team decided to upgrade Pipedrive to a higher plan and that allowed them to connect their mailboxes to Pipedrive. Thanks to this feature, the messages to and from the customer can be saved in one place. Everyone on the team can easily track the conversations. All data in the system is always up to date thanks to this automation.
Source: pipedrive.com
The salesperson’s mailbox is synchronized with Pipedrive, but it’s also possible to access the emails through the personal mailbox. The email integration doesn’t require the salesperson to use only Pipedrive to send messages. They can use their mailbox as they are used to, but they get the benefit of the messages being tracked in the system.
With Pipedrive, all emails are being tracked. The system monitors if the recipient opened the email or clicked the links included. It can help the sales team to follow up in a more appropriate way that would maximize the probability of closing the deal.
To protect the salesperson’s privacy, it’s possible to adjust the visibility settings of their emails. Thanks to that, it’s possible to make some emails private. Those emails won’t be visible to the rest of the team.
Pipedrive also offers “smart email BCC”. Every user gets a unique Pipedrive email assigned. If you add this email to BCC, the email will appear in Pipedrive and can be copied to the relevant deals. You can also use this address to forward customer emails to Pipedrive to update existing deals or create new contacts.
Another benefit of using Pipedrive’s mailing is the ability to create templates in the system. With these predefined emails, the salesperson can speed up their reply rate. They don’t have to write every email from scratch.
As SoftwareSupp, we helped SunRoof connect their mailboxes with Pipedrive and supported them in the process. Along the way, anytime the team member had a question they were able to ask it using the ticketing system on the SoftwareSupp platform.
Some of the questions that came up during the process were about the visibility of emails and email threads. The SunRoof team got the full instructions on how to solve the issues they came up with during the setup process.
Partner program
SunRoof has a network of partners that they work with. Apart from the SunRoof team, there are additional people that are involved in the sales and installation process:
affiliates
sales partners
installation partners
Because of that, the team needed an efficient way to manage these relationships and deals that the partners bring in. Together with SunRoof, we created a funnel that allows the team members to access partners’ deals and help them with the process.
Some partners have access to Pipedrive, others can submit their deals via a webform that is integrated with Pipedrive. With Pipedrive, it’s easier to manage partners’ deals and their commissions.
Security settings
To improve security and prevent data leakage, we set up Pipedrive security settings to match the organization’s data protection standards.
For the partner program, we created specific groups for every type of partner. Some of them use Pipedrive, but have limited visibility of SunRoof’s overall deals.
Data security alerts
We also showed the team how to use Pipedrive’s Security Dashboard to maximize their data protection.
Marketing integration
SunRoof didn’t use Pipedrive in the marketing process. They didn’t have any integration or a way to transfer data between the sales and marketing systems.
Together we decided to choose Mailchimp as a marketing tool. With this integration, the team can export specific groups of people to later add them to the Mailchimp campaigns. We created an automation that adds all clients that get a label “customer” to a specific Mailchimp group.
Exporting emails to Mailchimp
The labeling system also makes the marketing activities easier as the marketing team can use lead segmentation to adjust the offer that they’ll send as a win-back campaign in the future.
Website forms
For their partner program, SunRoof uses Google Forms. To allow the data to appear in Pipedrive automatically, we created a Zapier integration. This automation creates deals based on the information that the partner provides in the form.
Another web form that is necessary for the sales process is SunRoof’s calculator that estimates the cost of the project. Thanks to that, the potential customer can check how much they could save on electricity bills with SunRoof.
sunroof.se
With a Pipedrive automation, once the web form is filled in, the lead’s details are added to Pipedrive. A new deal is created and the link to the estimation is included. This automation was created using Pipedrive’s API.
As SoftwareSupp, we prepared the API keys and the process to follow for the client’s IT team. We needed to create specific custom fields in Pipedrive to transfer the information from the webform. Now the sales team can see the data entered through the form in one place.
Data enrichment
To help the sales team get to know their potential customers better, we integrated Pipedrive with Clearbit. It’s a database that lets the users check information about the company based on the domain that is used to sign up.
Clearbit allows the user to understand their customers, identify future prospects, and personalize interactions. SunRoof has instant access to the following data about the potential customer:
website
general email address
general phone number
sector
industry group
industry
sub-industry
estimated annual revenue
SIC code
Having this additional information saves the sales team’s time that they would need to spend on research. Instead, they can prepare a personalized and more contextual message to the potential customer.
Lead segmentation
Together with the team, we established rules about lead segmentation. Depending on the source, the lead gets a specific value assigned. This process helps the sales team to categorize the potential customers according to the probability of them buying the product.
Lead sources
The proper lead segmentation setup also improves the quality of reporting and data accuracy.
Optimizing Pipedrive with an expert consultant
The changes implemented at SunRoof transformed the way the team uses Pipedrive. With all customer information in one place, they are always up-to-date about their sales process. They have access to better analytics and use these insights to make better decisions. With improved security settings, they are sure that all the confidential data is safely stored in the system. They also know who has access to the information. The Mailchimp integration made cooperation between sales and marketing easier.
Implementing Pipedrive at the company is just the first step to start optimizing the sales process. Without the proper setup, automation, and adjusting the funnels to the specific industry and the company workflow, the team can’t discover all the benefits of using the CRM system.
With SoftwareSupp, you get a step-by-step guide with the actions that your team can take to improve the sales process. We can audit your current setup and match you with a consultant that will help you transform the way you operate on a day-to-day basis.
|
https://medium.com/softwaresupp/how-we-optimized-sunroofs-pipedrive-setup-to-improve-reporting-and-sales-performance-c0ca81ee3702
|
['Aneta Szotek']
|
2020-10-11 19:31:56.275000+00:00
|
['Marketing', 'Business', 'CRM', 'Customers', 'Sales']
|
Keto Diet: A Comprehensive Guide to a Low-Carb, High-Fat Eating Plan.
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You’ve probably heard a lot about the keto diet lately. Maybe you’ve seen it on TV, read an article about it, or heard from a friend that they’ve been following this plan. But what is the keto diet, and what does it do for your body?
The keto diet is a low-carb, high-fat eating plan that originated in the 1920s as a way to manage seizures in epilepsy patients. The keto diet was effective at reducing seizure frequency because it forces your body to burn fats rather than carbohydrates for fuel.
Since then, research has shown that following the keto diet can also help treat conditions like diabetes and PCOS by regulating blood sugar levels and balancing hormones. If you’re interested in knowing more about how this eating plan can benefit you, keep reading!
The History of the Ketogenic Diet
The ketogenic diet was first developed in the 1920s as a way to manage epileptic seizures. The diet is based on the idea that consuming very few carbohydrates can help manage seizures by forcing your body to burn fat for fuel instead of carbs.
Since then, research has shown that following the keto diet can also help treat conditions like diabetes and PCOS by regulating blood sugar levels and balancing hormones. If you’re interested in knowing more about how this eating plan can benefit you, keep reading!
The Keto Effect
The keto diet is a low-carb, high-fat eating plan that forces your body to burn fats rather than carbohydrates. This change in fuel source has been shown to be effective at reducing the frequency of seizures for patients with epilepsy, as well as treating conditions like diabetes and PCOS.
So if you’re interested in learning more about how the keto diet may benefit you, read on!
What Can the Keto Diet Treat?
The keto diet is a low-carb, high-fat eating plan that typically helps to regulate blood sugar levels and balance hormones.
Because the keto diet forces your body to burn fat for energy, it is effective at reducing seizures in epilepsy patients. In fact, since the diet was introduced in the 1920s, its effectiveness at treating seizures has been confirmed by numerous studies.
In addition to being an excellent treatment for seizure disorders, research has shown that following the keto diet can also help manage conditions like diabetes and PCOS. It does this by regulating blood sugar levels and balancing hormones in your body.
If you’re considering trying out the keto diet but want to know more about what it entails before diving in, read on!
How to Start a Ketogenic Diet
The keto diet is a low-carb, high-fat eating plan. While you can’t eat any type of starch or sugar, there are plenty of other foods to enjoy.
Here are some tips for starting a ketogenic diet:
● Plan your meals and snacks in advance
● Keep your house stocked with healthy foods
● Don’t aim for perfection
● Start slow and focus on consistency
In this post, we’ll cover everything from the benefits of the keto diet to how to start it successfully. To learn more about this diet and why it might be right for you, keep reading!
Tips for Managing Your Keto Diet
The keto diet is a commitment. It can be very difficult to maintain, especially if you’ve never done it before. But the rewards are worth it! You probably won’t have any trouble with ketosis at first, but as you continue on the plan, your body will adjust and become more efficient at burning fat for fuel.
Some people find that they have success by making small changes to how they eat. For example, you might try swapping out one or two of your meals per day for keto-friendly alternatives. The best way to figure out how to manage your own diet is to track your progress over time. Make note of the days when you feel well-fueled and mentally sharp, and also note when you feel sluggish or too hungry. This will help you identify what works best for your individual needs.>>END>>
Conclusion
The ketogenic diet — or keto, for short — works on the principle that when the body produces ketones, which are derived from fats, for energy, it’s naturally less hungry and sets into motion a series of hormonal changes that help keep the body slim.
Getting into ketosis takes some work and discipline, but it’s not impossible. But before starting a keto diet, it’s important to talk to your doctor about what your specific needs are and how to avoid or address side effects.
|
https://medium.com/@johnmoorejohn107/keto-diet-a-comprehensive-guide-to-a-low-carb-high-fat-eating-plan-a07f48d3d8da
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['John Moor']
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2021-12-27 02:07:08.852000+00:00
|
['Health Foods', 'Health Recipe', 'Health', 'Recipes For Cooking', 'Healthy Lifestyle']
|
Pete Buttigieg as potential China Ambassador? What to expect
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President-elect Joe Biden is considering Pete Buttigieg as his pick for Ambassador to China, according to Axios. The 38-year-old has an impressive journey. He is gay, a veteran of the Afghanistan War, the former Mayor of South Bend, a Harvard graduate, a McKinsey consultant, and a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate.
Following the report of Buttigieg’s potential Ambassadorship, Chinese social media has translated and spread the story in China, which implied that he would push the issue of LGBTQ+ rights in China.
What are the positions of Pete Buttigieg on the China issues? How would “Ambassador Pete” contribute to the worsening U.S.- China relations?
Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels
In general, Buttigieg’s attitudes of China are mixed based on his rhetoric in the 2020 campaign trail. Align with Biden, Buttigieg mentioned cooperation with China on areas of common concern, including climate change. However, Buttigieg also leveled harsh criticisms at China’s challenges to the United States, which may lead to internal rifts between the President-elect and the potential Ambassador to China.
Trade War
Buttigieg might not agree with Biden’s decision to “inherit” Trump’s trade war with China. In an interview with CNN, Buttigieg called Trump’s China tariffs “a fool’s errand” and planned to ease Trump’s pressure and end the tariffs imposed on Chinese goods. Apparently, the potential China Ambassador would directly contradict the President-elect, who just told The New York Times he will not make any ‘immediate moves’ to lift trade war tariffs with China.
Competition
Both Biden and Buttigieg called China a “competitor,” but they are different in terms of the cause of competition. Biden’s labeling of China as a “serious competitor” can be seen as a rebuttal of Trump, who called China a “foe,” or a differentiation of Russia, which he called an “opponent.” Biden’s version of competition involves the pledging to improve the relation with China.
Photo by Carlos Esteves on Unsplash
Buttigieg’s version of “competition” is on the level of political system, which seems more ideological than Biden’s pragmatism. As a presidential candidate, Buttigieg called for investing in infrastructure, education, and artificial intelligence to better compete with China and dampen the appeal of its political system.
Multilateralism
How to include (or exclude) China in the proposed multilateral world will probably become the biggest clash between the two Democrats. In a 2019 Democratic debate, Buttigieg warned that if elected president, he would “lead a worldwide boycott of China if the regime resorted to the bloody tactics against Hong Kong protesters that were used more than 30 years ago against protesters in Beijing.” He also considered boycotting the 2022 Beijing Olympics over China’s human rights abuses, which should lead to the “total isolation” of China from the free world.
Photo by Oleh Aleinyk on Unsplash
However, President-elect Biden wouldn’t embrace the multilateral policy that excludes China. As the first priority of the Biden Presidency is to beat COVID-19, the Biden-Harris plan will “restore our relationship with the World Health Organization,” and “rebuilding the CDC office in Beijing.”
Things always change
Regardless of the harsh rhetoric on China, Buttigieg may still follow the Biden administration’s general approach towards China. Not only because the Ambassador is nominated by the President, but also because of their personal relationship within the Democratic Party.
As one of the front-runners after the Iowa Caucuses, Pete Buttigieg dropped out of the Democratic nominating race in March, which boosted Joe Biden’s candidacy against the left-wing Bernie Sanders.
Also, campaign rhetoric will not necessarily become a source of policymaking. Attacks on one issue shouldn’t be interpreted as the universal negative attitude on all issues regarding China. As the President-elect Joe Biden’s China policy is unclear, now it is too early to predict the contribution of the potential China Ambassador.
Related: The Paradox of Trump’s Anti-China Rhetoric
|
https://medium.com/@drxfang/pete-buttigieg-as-china-ambassador-what-to-expect-703fb5acad3
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['Xiaodong Fang']
|
2020-12-29 02:37:32.957000+00:00
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['Politics', 'Biden', 'Pete Buttigieg', 'President', 'China']
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Waves
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Beyond the dance of our ancestors, engagement within a threshold of range,
questionable spaces between life and love appear,
sometimes, in the midst of emptying the empty deserts
filling quiet skies, loving, deserted bodies,
life-giving oxygen hath been blown into arrivals of deserted winds.
It is this, that the bequeath of will adores,
simply violets in sandy fingers, findings of joy within sandcastles,
beaches are flowing as currents idly wander by,
hushing the noises is sacred twinning,
beautified crystals within caves; love being all that matters.
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https://medium.com/a-cornered-gurl/waves-1be7eb569e6d
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['Anna Rozwadowska']
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2020-12-04 11:13:04.071000+00:00
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['Poetry', 'Humanity', 'Love', 'Ancestry', 'A Cornered Gurl']
|
‘Designing Finnishness’
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From hard to soft
While we can say Finnishness was in a sense designed along with Finland, it is also, at the same time, much older than Finland.
The Finnish language is signifcantly older. And of course the one thing non-Finns know about the Finnish language is that it is impenetrable, legendarily obscure, emblematic of an apparent hardness, or flintiness.
Perhaps as a result, Diego Marani’s idiosyncratic novel ‘New Finnish Grammar’ gives us the best contemporary insight into Finnishness. In Marani’s book, Finnishness is articulated for the reader by a frequently drunk pastor, who filters every aspect of his culture through the prism of the Finnish language as well as through copious amounts of koskenkorva. While Finnishness may be invented, he states that the language itself was not.
“(O)ther languages are merely temporary scaffolding for meaning. Not so for Finnish: Finnish was not invented. The sounds of our language were around us, in nature, in the woods, in the pull of the sea, in the call of the wild, in the sound of the falling snow. All we did was to bring them together and bend them to our needs.” (in Marani, ibid.)
At its core there are a group of ancient words — some think a few words are over 6000 years old. Small, soft words describing the body, the landscape, the weather, the world:
kuu (moon/month), suu (mouth), puu (tree), sää (weather), jää (ice), pää (head), kivi (stone), mäki (hill), joki (river), lahti (bay), järvi (lake), saari (island) …
This emphasis on the physical, the body, objects within a landscape, and their various conditions is an interesting starting point for a culture. Is this why Finnishness also focuses on objects and their material qualities, the body and the landscape? In what Marani describes as “chipped sounds, words eaten away by ice and silence” we might find the origins of a later facility with objects, with architecture, and in particular with a purist form of both, a design oriented around authenticity and the qualities of natural materials. Equally, the emphasis on the body would generate the form of humanist modernism associated with brands like Artek, who aimed to “support and nourish human beings’ physical and psychological wellbeing … blending functionalism with form and sculptural simplicity with the emotional warmth of wood.”
So hard conditions begat a hard language and a facility with hard materials. Yet those soft words also begat softness, through a comfort with the body and the ephemeral conditions of weather, flora and fauna.
Hardness also applies to the environmental conditions Finland enjoys. It is, of course, insanely cold. Yet everything is built to withstand it, from clothing to transport to the urban plan to the buildings — I have been colder in Australian or Italian houses than I ever was in our Helsinki apartment. Equally, the delights of the Finnish summer, which can be perfectly warm, if a little brief, means it is entirely possible to witness a 60-degree centigrade temperature swing across the year. Yet thanks to engineering that swing in conditions is not a problem. Conquering such conditions means that engineering itself has been elevated to exalted status within Finnishness.
Yet the next challenge is beyond engineering, beyond dealing with the hardness and difficulty of Finnish conditions, and instead dealing with soft systems, social systems.
“The idea of Helsinki is radical: a new capital for a new nation; an ideal city built from tabula rasa; an orthogonal grid laid over the topographic granite of an irregular peninsular; a window to the West and the East; a showcase and platform for a political, social, cultural, and architectural experiment on a grand scale.” (Kalliala ibid.)
Tsar Alexander I had designated, and in effect created, Helsinki as a kind of Special Political Zone (just as Shenzhen would be a Special Economic Zone for China almost two centuries later.) He designed it to be an autonomous Grand Duchy, a merging of Russian order with liberal European values picked up during his schooling in Switzerland. It was a prototype for politics.
While hard boundaries changed in largely obvious ways, the soft system of politics draped over what would become the Republic Of Finland suggested a design of decision-making itself.
Scroll forward many decades to the recent years and a practice of “strategic design” — the design of decision-making cultures — would emerge in Finland, partly courtesy of Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund. The concern here is not with the production of objects, services, buildings and cities, but with the conditions that would enable those things, in order to address new kinds of highly complex and interdependent problems. Part of a growing international movement often looking at the design of the public sector, it feels like a different form of design, focused not only on those “hard” outcomes but on the soft systems of culture, management, services, and the organisation that enables them. It is a clear departure from the obvious tangibility of what people recognise as Finnish design.
Is it possible to connect the institutions that have nurtured Finnish design to the nation’s history of designing cultures, which is barely recognised as design at all? How to train a generation capable of articulating the architecture of “wicked problems”, and not simply the architecture of buildings?
This is the first step in evolving Finnishness — dealing with soft systems as well as hard outcomes.
From silent to social
That those Finnish words are “eaten away by silence” is also important. The ‘Finnish silence’ is an essential component of Finnishness, perhaps derived from the solitude that marks much of the Finns’ existence — the giant land mass, the small population, the late urbanisation: all conspire to creating an everyday life that, only a few generations ago, was based on not seeing many other people at all, for days on end.
Daniel Dennett suggests that “talking, and not talking, is what makes us human.” Dennett means “not talking” in order to deliberately conceal or obscure. But in Finnishness it is often simply … not talking. Foreigners are often thrown by the Finn’s ability to deploy a gaping silence into the middle of a conversation — like the old theatre joke when the narrator utters “night falls” being underlined by a sudden curtain drop. This comfort with silence is appealing, in the context of cultures that revel in small-talk instead, in filling each moment with something, anything, essentially with the chaff of shallowness. Yet equally, it can reinforce the idea that Finnishness is socially awkward. Though it should be noted that this taciturn characteristic to Finnish communication is most frequently associated with the male of the species.
Juhani Pallasmaa, who has perhaps written more influentially than any other Finnish architect, recalls of his childhood that:
“Tapio Wirkkala, the legendary designer was an elder brother for me, and he taught me the importance of craft. As I had spent the decisive years of my childhood at my farmer grandfather’s humble farm, I shared a love of nature, solitude and silence with Tapio.”
This is just about the most Finnish paragraph one could imagine. Craft, nature, solitude, silence.
|
https://medium.com/dark-matter-and-trojan-horses/designing-finnishness-for-out-of-the-blue-the-essence-and-ambition-of-finnish-design-279c40d48bae
|
['Dan Hill']
|
2019-05-22 18:45:46.984000+00:00
|
['Finland', 'Culture', 'Architecture', 'Books', 'Design']
|
Quarantine Damage
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I know you had a bad Quarantine but mine might be a little worse. Lets start off by saying that I am a 15 year old white male. I spent last semester of freshmen year and the first semester of sophomore year trapped inside my two bedroom apartment with my lovely mother and my golden doodle dog, George. Now to start all the way back in March 2020, just like most kids my age I thought nothing about it I just thought it meant a just a longer spring break. After March passed and everyone started to realize that seriousness of this virus and we went into lock down, nothing big happened at first, It was as if summer began early there was nothing they could do to make our grade go down so I just coasted my way through with all passing grades. Now that we are in the month of May around the time George Floyd past away was when things started going terrible and I think a lot of people can agree with me on that. Around this time was when I first began losing friends, and not voluntarily either. Of course I only lost one or two friends in this month so I didn’t really think much about it. To save you time I will skip to about late October early November when the biggest event for my emotional health happened. About a two to three months earlier I had become pretty open about how I felt about BLM, ACAB, Trump, Thin Blue Line Flag, etc. But for some reason people didn’t seem to care to much till now. This is when all of my closet friends (least 2 years of friendship) started lashing out at me and telling me to kill myself. People who once feared for me when I was sad and home alone were now telling me to end the life they once so deeply cared about. Then I either ended up blocking them or them blocking me, bring great friendships to an end. But that wasn’t the thing that hurt the most, the thing that hurt the most was when the girl who ghosted me the summer going into freshmen year, who hasn’t talked to me sense, whom would cause me more then a year of emotional pain already added me back on snapchat to strictly tell me to delete her and everything of her I have any where. The girl who I was practically in love with and couldn’t and still can’t get over reached out for the specific reason to tell me to throw it all away. Now I know people have had it a lot worse during these troubling times but I don’t think I personally couldn’t have had it much worth.
By,
Carter Vanschoyck
12/17/2020
|
https://medium.com/@carterjv05/quarantine-damage-8150ecf66516
|
['Carter Vanschoyck']
|
2020-12-18 05:15:34.819000+00:00
|
['Quarantine', 'Highschoolsweethearts', 'Mental Health']
|
Painting Positivity Into the Holidays
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Treating Sadness as a Person
When forging ahead towards a path away from total sadness, it might be a good idea to develop a series of newly established traditions and rituals.
Think of your sadness as a person.
Total sadness has just died and to commemorate that sadness, you can set aside time to remind yourself that you’re not going to let this sadness consume you. Even if it's “dead”, you can still acknowledge the presence of sadness, with your newfound traditions.
Photo by Wonderlane on Unsplash — It sounds silly, but rituals work for some people.
Plus, when it’s all said and done, you can take time to invest yourself in more personal or professional endeavours. Again, this isn’t easy, but it’s okay to immerse yourself in something that is time-consuming and is also secretly productive.
If that means taking an online course on a topic that you are passionately interested in, then go for it. Maybe you want to learn a new language, and you find yourself installing one of those language apps.
It’s still a nudge in the right direction and is something to be celebrated.
Photo by Meritt Thomas on Unsplash — Time for a celebratory cupcake.
Maybe you want to volunteer remotely. Perhaps your sadness will transcend yourself and the people you are speaking to will feel that you are genuine. Perhaps you will be your own saviour and you will use your own experiences to help others who are drowning.
That’s pretty amazing, in my opinion.
While it sounds like a lot to do, these various activities will keep our brain busy enough that eventually, you’ll wonder how you managed to let the sadness override everything.
|
https://medium.com/accompanied-by-enervation/painting-positivity-into-the-holidays-7863d5d45774
|
['Synthia S.']
|
2020-12-25 17:32:48.187000+00:00
|
['Life Lessons', 'Emotions', 'Resilience', 'Mental Health', 'Sadness']
|
It’s official
|
It’s official
Earlier this year we launched Steps. Steps is an app helping people battle social anxiety using principles from exposure therapy. Now we got a very important product development collaboration with The Danish Mental Health Fund.
At Steps we have been working informally with The Danish Mental Health Fund (Psykiatrifonden) for several months. With them, we have discussed both our app, as well as the user experiments we are conducting, to find out how knowledge from the world of professional therapy, could be applied in a digital setting. We have enjoyed the high quality information we have received and always got expert advice, some of which we first truly understood the value from, after conducting tests which failed to meet the advise. ;)
“The Danish Mental Health Fund is working to strengthen mental health and prevent mental illness. We are very committed to developing and spreading new solutions that can reach target groups which the established methods and offers do not reach. Therefore, we are pleased to have a collaboration with Steps, due to the great potential of their product.”
- Chief psychologist Michael Danielsen
The Danish Mental Health Fund are not experts in how mental health can be improved by using digital tools, in fact no one are! That is why it is super exciting, that we now formally have established a collaboration to continue developing our digital tools, build on existing clinical knowledge and together evaluate the outcomes from our increased work and understanding of the field.
|
https://medium.com/godosteps/steps-is-in-a-relationship-with-the-danish-mental-health-fund-a9f0cb792298
|
[]
|
2017-10-09 11:06:08.015000+00:00
|
['Social Anxiety', 'Mental Health', 'Collaboration', 'Psykiatrifonden']
|
3D object detection classifier in 6 steps using kaolin and Colab
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3D object detection classifier in 6 steps using kaolin and Colab
A step-by-step hands-on 3D object detection classifier without the pre-requisite for a Linux machine or the GPU in hand
3D object detection classifier
In this article, you will learn to develop 3D object detection classifier without the pre-requisite for a Linux machine or the GPU in hand.
3D object detection is an important aspect to solve real-world applications such as self-driving cars, robots, and AR/VR applications. 3D data provides reliable depth information that can be used to accurately localize objects/vehicles.
3D Representation
Here are some of the types of 3D representation
3D representation
A point cloud is a collection of points in 3D space, each point specified by an (XYZ) coordinates, optionally along with other attributes (like RGB color). The point cloud is called raw data obtained from the sensors such as LiDAR. These are converted to other representations such as polygon mesh, voxel grid before further processing.
Point cloud (PC) representation is more preferred since the conversion PC to other formats and vice versa is easy. Point representation preserves the original original geometric information in 3D space without any discretization.
Polygon Mesh consists set of polygonal faces with shared vertices that approximate a geometric surface.
Volumetric represents a single sample, or data point, on a regularly spaced 3D grid, Voxel grids are 3D grids in which each cell or “voxel” has a fixed size and discrete coordinates.
Projected View RGB(D) projects a 3D object into multiple views and extracts the corresponding view-wise features and then fuses these features for accurate object detection.
Google Colab - Introduction
Google colaboratory a.k.a colab is a jupyter notebook with the GPU access for free. When you train your models on colaboratory, you are allowed to use a GPU-based virtual machine, where you are given a maximum of 12 hours at a time. After which access is lost to that particular virtual machine instance and connected to different virtual machine instances after 12 hours. So please save the data or checkpoints periodically. The colab is completely free.
Selecting GPU
To choose the GPU for training, select Runtime > Change runtime type choose hardware accelerator (change None to GPU).
colab is pre-installed with major libraries (NumPy, matplotlib) and frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch) and for custom installation try (!pip install).
Explore Google colab here
Kaolin- 3D deep learning research framework
Kaolin is an open-source PyTorch library developed by a team of NVIDIA, aimed at accelerating 3D deep learning research. Kaolin framework converts the 3D models into deep learning datasets with few lines of code. kaolin provides easy access to loading and pre-processing popular 3D datasets.
Kaolin framework boils down complex 3D algorithms such as the conversion of point cloud data to voxel grid, triangle mesh representation in simple steps.
The kaolin framework benefits researchers in fields such as robotics, self-driving cars, augmented and virtual reality.
Now for 3D object detection classifier we will use Kaolin framework. The git repo can be found here
In summary, here are the Kaolin features we have been looking for.
Kaolin features
Dataset
The dataset is available at princeton MODELNET. The ModelNet10.zip ZIP file contains CAD models from the 10 categories used to train the deep network in our 3D object detection classifier. Training and testing split is included in the file. The CAD models are completely cleaned inhouse, and the orientations of the models (not scale) are manually aligned by ourselves.
MODELNET 10 has 10 categories mentioned below:
Bathtub, bed, chair, desk, dresser, monitor, night_stand, sofa, table, toilet
Let’s get started…
The 3D object detection classifier
Step 1: Open google colab here and change runtime to GPU (~ 4–5 mins)
Installing the packages
Installing the packages
Step 2: Downloading MODELNET10 dataset
Visualizing the the 3D model with X,Y,Z movement
Step 3: Dataloading
Kaolin provides convenience functions to load popular 3D datasets (ModelNet10). To start, we will define a few important parameters:
model_path variable will hold the path to the ModelNet10 dataset. categories variable to specify which classes we want to learn to classify. num_points is the number of points we will sample from the mesh when transforming it to a pointcloud.
Finally, we will disable multiprocessing and memory pinning if we are using CUDA for our transform operations.
This command defines a transform that first converts a mesh representation to a pointcloud and then normalizes it to be centered at the origin, and have a standard deviation of 1. Much like images, 3D data such as pointclouds need to be normalized for better classification performance.
split='train' argument indicates that we're loading the 'train' split. rep='pointcloud' loads up meshes and converts them into pointclouds. transform=norm applies a normalizing transform to each pointcloud.
Step 4: Setting up our model, optimizer and loss criterion
Step 5: Training the pointcloud classifier (~ 15–20 minutes)
The following line of code will train and validate a PointNet classifier
epoch-training
Hurray !!!, that’s it, you’ve trained your first 3D object detection classifier using Kaolin!!
Step 6: Evaluating the trained 3D object detection model on test data
We will create a new dataloader which will load the same data as our previous val_loader but with shuffling, and take a sample batch.
Next, we setup a plot to visualize the pointcloud, ground truth label and our prediction using a small visualization function.
color-coded the results — green for correct and red for incorrect.
Visualization results
GT- Ground Truth, Pred- Prediction.
Pat your back for completion of 3D object detection classifier.
Thanks for reading…
Jupyter notebook can be found here
References URL’s
4. Google colab guide
|
https://towardsdatascience.com/3d-object-classification-in-6-steps-using-kaolin-and-colab-9ecb079143a8
|
['Gopalakrishna Adusumilli']
|
2020-09-28 15:06:27.851000+00:00
|
['Deep Learning', '3d Object Detection', 'Colab', 'Kaolin', 'Lidar']
|
1AM THOUGHTS
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It’s completely bonkers how as a world we created money, a paper, plastic thing that has completely took over our lives and shaped the society we have become as whole. The idea of being better than someone in some way or another must’ve been such a fascinating thing for people to feel. Where people wanted to be better at someone at catching their food, now people want better cars, houses and luxury items. The money truly is the root of all evil.
,Tia
|
https://medium.com/@Tiaedwards123/1am-thoughts-e760d7f3132b
|
['Tia Edwards']
|
2020-12-24 00:31:57.876000+00:00
|
['Money', 'Wealth', 'Goverment', 'Universe', 'World']
|
Introducing the Fox Pit!
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Greetings members of the Myōbu clan.
This week we have the first announcement of a F.U.R. (Fun, Useful, Rewarding) program. It’s called: “The Fox Pit”.
Imagine, if you will, that each $MYOBU token represents one fox in your army. And you are entered into a tournament, every second week, where your foxes battle against the foxes of other holders. And whichever army wins, gets a share of the Fox Hole Fund for that week! Also don’t worry, since Myōbu are celestial beings, they can’t be killed, but they can definitely fight!
Fun, useful and rewarding —That’s what the Fox Pit is
Here is how it works:
On a bi-weekly basis, every $MYOBU holder will be placed in a bracket, depending on the size of their army (amount of $MYOBU tokens).
0.5% of the total weekly volume (7 days of that week: Saturday-Saturday) from the Fox Hole Fund will be distributed to the victors. The winners are given ETH directly to their wallet.
Our charming “Myobu Foxies” will receive eligible wallets from the leadership team and they do the random draw live on Twitch via shared screen with our community (surprise surprise…Any clue who the Myobu Foxies are?). You’ll all see the wallets per bracket from which our Foxies will draw the happy winners.
Here is how the brackets work:
Top 1–50 holders “fight” for 45%
Top 51–250 holders “fight” for 30%
Top 251–500 holders “fight” for 15%
>500+ tokens holders “fight” for 10%
Only holders with a minimum of 50 million $MYOBU token are eligible for the Fox Pit. Important: Holders who sell during the week of the event are excluded from the Fox Pit.
For example, suppose total weekly volume is $1,000,000.
This means $5K — based on 0.5% of weekly volume — goes to the Fox Hole for eligible holders and potential winners. These would be paid out to one lucky holder within each bracket as follow:
Top 1–50 holders “fight” for 45% of $5k = $2,250
Top 51–250 holders “fight” for 30% of $5k = $1,500
Top 251–500 holders “fight” for 15% of $5k = $750
>500+ holders “fight” for 10% of $5k = $500
Another example with a total weekly volume of $10,000,000. This is not an unrealistic figure considering that we had more than $5,000,000 of volumes during the launch of the token on day one:
Top 1–50 holders “fight” for 45% of $50k = $22,500
Top 51–250 holders “fight” for 30% of $50k = $15,000
Top 251–500 holders “fight” for 15% of $50k = $7,500
>500+ holders “fight” for 10% of $50k = $5,000
The amount you could win will increase with the weekly volume, as the funds in our Fox Hole increases. The Myōbu team agreed to remain flexible with regards to all parameters and the occurrence of the Fox Pit event. We aim to involve community ideas for anything we are doing such that we remain open to suggestions and improvements.
We plan also with special contests created for each bracket and extra prizes given out in the form of NFTs and creative rewards once these are ready.
All you have to do to participate is hold $MYOBU, and obviously, the more you hold, the higher the bracket you will be in and the greater chance you have to win more!
May the Foxes be ever in your favor…
Join our community and become part of the Myōbu Force
Join the Telegram:
https://t.me/MyobuOfficial
Website:
https://myobu.io/
Read the Whitepaper:
https://myobu.io/files/myobu-whitepaper.pdf
Follow on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/MyobuOfficial
|
https://medium.com/@myobu/introducing-the-fox-pit-6b994981a4d7
|
[]
|
2021-07-02 09:21:44.607000+00:00
|
['Fun', 'Rewards', 'Blockchain', 'Crypto', 'Community']
|
One and only counsel I have ever listened to
|
“Low aim is the crime. In great attempts, it is glorious even to fall.” So strong, even too strong words all together. For me as a girl who loved her comfort zone very much, the concept of “change” or any attempt towards this was just bringing me a feeling of stomachache. It is pretty similar today, yet my mindset is way different now. I know that people change, relationships change, situations change, but most important of them all YOU change. When you experience that your own mind is changing, your beliefs are evolving and your emotions are not there where you just left them, you feel like you can never be sure of anything whatsoever just because you have witnessed that yourself is also not a constant in life.
Change is inevitable, life is super complicated. There are too many probabilities for you and the people in your life. The reality can change so fast that you really can’t see what just hit you. That’s why mind resists change. It loves stability and control where it can predict future and take precautions for possible dangers but the thing is, with that much uncertainties, even you as a changing environment how can you possibly predict the future? When you think about it that even if you didn’t change anything, would other people, relationships, situations would remain the same? That would be very naïve to say “yes” to it. Time fastforwards and contexts change, one thing doesn’t: Change is the only constant that will exist all your life.
To my belief, we take ourselves so seriously. Life exists for 3.5 billion years, humans are here for 2.5 million years and you only live for 20–30 years? And you really think you matter that much like can you even scale? I get this, since we can only experience our own lives, what we can do is to live our lives. So, we make ourselves the center. And I believe it is beautiful because only living in the moment and being happy is what really matters after all. This matters not for the humanity or the world or the universe but only for ourselves and if we can achieve it, it is far more than enough. However, this should remind us to question that; if we take a risk to change something in life what is it to lose after all? Think about what takes you back from living your life to the fullest and how would you feel when you grow old and look back and see that you haven’t made any mistakes but also didn’t take any risks to do something different. I totally believe in high risk yields high gain. Yes, of course it still can mean high loss but you either win or you learn. I believe regretting a mistake would have the very same dissatisfaction, if not less than not trying or not taking any risks.
There are some unpredictable people, some unexplained energies between people and some unexpected occasions. These all require some sort of change in life and just because change feels unsettling we might walk away from them. You cannot even foresee what you are missing out with not taking your chance. Of course, take care of your comfort zone and people in it, they are super worthy for your time and effort. But at times you should get out of it to grow, to explore. When I was a child I was told “Do not settle, be bold İrem” by one of my parents’ friends. I think that is the only counsel I have ever followed and it acted as a fuel for me to create change in my life when necessary. This is not about always wandering around to new places, new concepts or new people. Grass in not always greener on the other side. I also love being centered and grounded and doing these with a person or rooting to a place is just beautiful. However, what this counsel is all about is knowing your worth, always being true to yourself about who you are and what you want and then having the courage to go out to get it. So, why not take the risk of someone to take you out from your comfort zone, a place change your reality or an idea to make you follow passionately that might result changing your life forever?
Last but not least of all those abstract words; when you think of the mind as the only powerhouse that perceives the world and interprets it, how would it be if we could replace “fear” with “curiosity” about an uncertainty? That must be a gamechanger because now we would be more willing to become bolder to fulfill our potential. After all, the barrier and the enabler is the mind. Unfortunately, I am not there, at least not yet, but it gives me some sort of hope and a reminder of endless possibilities in life and my own power on creating them.
I am proud of people who have proved me that people can change, of course in a good manner. I am glad I had people who acted so bold that also pushed me to be bold. I am happy to be aware of my change too because it is the end result of all my experiences while I am trying to live my life to the fullest. The girl of comfort zone, just couldn’t go back to her ex-self. Now, I feel it terrifying to have a very predictable life. This is not inviting chaos but embracing change when it comes and also creating change to enjoy the surprises of life. Not failure but low aim is the crime. Just take the leap of faith.
|
https://medium.com/@iremark/one-and-only-counsel-i-have-ever-listened-to-1911ce74aabd
|
['Irem Arık']
|
2020-12-18 18:42:25.020000+00:00
|
['Bold', 'Risk', 'Courage', 'Change', 'Comfort Zone']
|
WHAT IS HAIR EXTENSION AND IT’S TYPES?
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Hair extensions are very popular in women especially when they look glorious while having long hair. These extensions are made up of human hair which is 100% natural hair & also of synthetic hair which are chemically processed. There are kinds of hair extensions and methods which generally used mostly by women. A few of them are:
Human Hair Extension
Hair Extension
Human hair extensions look most natural, style versatility and can be colored. Also, it required a lot of maintenance to have a luxurious finish as it comes from natural human hair. Real human hair extensions will give confidence just like natural hair and provides a glamorous look.
Clip-in Hair Extensions
Clip-in hair extensions are also known as weaves extension, which can easily put into the natural hair by pressing multiple clips into existing hair. It can be made up of human hair as well as synthetic hair too which is cheaper than human hair. Although, clip-in hair extensions can damage the roots directly. So, it has to be treated by care.
Curly hair Extensions
Curly hair extensions are also known as wavy hair extension, which do not need much styling on it. Curly hair extension gives vintage look, also its rich in styling. It’s totally depends upon how long care or maintenance is given to a curl extension.
Straight Hair Extension
Growing hair naturally is a time taken process & who doesn’t want their hair to be long & straight. Straight hair is look more natural and shiny in lights. It reflects the luxurious look while appearing in lights. Straight hair extension is like add-on in the natural hair to extend the appearance by itself.
Synthetic Hair Extensions
Synthetic hair is non human hair which is chemically processed and is made up of plastic. It cannot be colored and melt when it comes to heat them as it can cause damage to itself and user too. Synthetic hair extensions are much cheaper than human hair as these are not real or natural. But on the other hand, it is non vulnerable and reusable without need much maintenance of it.
Although, Human hair and synthetic hair both are having same properties as well but the major difference between them is cost as Human hair is highly expensive, gives more natural look & shape as compared to Synthetic hair, are non human hair that is made up of plastic fiber is cheaper in cost. For a better result, get your best hair extension of your own choice with Indique Virgin hair Extension.
|
https://medium.com/@emma-ashton03/what-is-hair-extension-and-its-types-156ca721f8c5
|
['Emma Ashton']
|
2021-12-24 07:54:12.534000+00:00
|
['Hair', 'Virgin Hair', 'Hair Extension Salon', 'Hair Extension Packaging', 'Virgin Hair Extensions']
|
From Worst to First: How To Set Yourself Apart from Other Copywriters In Your Job Search
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From Worst to First: How To Set Yourself Apart from Other Copywriters In Your Job Search Jay White Apr 22, 2019·5 min read
Recently I was watching one of those dog agility shows…
You know the type — where the pups run a course filled with steps to climb and tunnels to zoom through and poles to jump over and that weird teeter-totter thingy.
Very entertaining, especially the Corgis with their stubby little legs (partial to those little fur balls — I had one as a kid).
And while I was watching, it got me thinking…
Those agility courses remind me a lot of what you typically have to go through when answering an online want-ad for a copywriting gig.
We already know the opportunity is there. I outlined this in detail in a previous blog post. And when you find an opportunity, the next step is the application process.
But before you can even actually SPEAK to someone, they ask you to jump through a series of hoops. Usually it’s something along these lines:
“Please send us your resume and CV, along with 167 references, 44 samples of published work, a list of the last 71 books you’ve read, a 5000 word essay on your marketing philosophy, a blood sample, a vial or your urine, and a lock of hair.”
Um, okay. Anything else? My first born maybe? How about my eternal soul while we’re at it? Sheeeesh…
Now, I get it. Companies are trying harder and harder to vet their applicants and pare down to the best of the bunch quickly. But it seems like every ad wants more and more from you — which means a lot of time spent in just the application process.
And the worst part? You’re lining up with several hundred other copywriters, all vying for ONE position. So the odds are against you from the get-go.
Or ARE they?
In my many years of personally coaching copywriters, I’ve helped dozens to get jobs faster and easier using age-old marketing techniques and a few sneaky little tricks I learned along the way.
Here’s 3 things you can do to help you get a foot in the door quicker…
1) Follow Directions to the Letter: Want to know the best kept secret in the employment process? Many times, the application process is less about “who do we have here” and more about “can this person follow directions”…
Companies are quickly realizing that those who follow the applications instructions to the tee are more likely to be valuable employees. It’s all about attention to detail. So they make the hoops harder to jump through, knowing the slackers and malcontents will most likely pass — while the BETTER qualified applicants will go through it meticulously and without complaint.
So whatever they ask for, give it to them in the exact manner they ask. No ifs, ands, or buts. It could be the difference between an interview and a “thanks but no thanks” email.
2) Don’t Check Off All the Qualifications? Apply Anyway: Here’s one that I’ll bet makes you wrinkle your face say “huh?”…
If you really want a gig and know you can knock it out of the park, you should disregard any must-have qualification that you may be lacking and apply anyway. And here’s why…
In bigger companies, want-ads are usually written by someone in HR. And many times, these people don’t have clue one what a copywriter is or does.
Which means, when they receive something from the creative department that says “we need a writer”, they feel like they have to put their HR degree to good use and start throwing degree requirements and experience requirements and blah blah blah into the listing — none of which has ANYTHING to do with how well you can write.
Seriously, I’ve coached students with doctorate degrees who couldn’t write their way out of a paper bag. And I’ve coached students who never graduated high school but could write circles around me. So it’s not about college or years of experience or anything like that — regardless of what the ad says. It’s about how well you can do the job.
My advice? Ignore what they SAY they want and turn the focus on why you’re the best choice over all the other applicants by highlighting what you can bring to the table immediately, like specialized niche knowledge or passion for their business.
But how do you do that exactly? That’s where #3 comes in…
3: Go Back-Door and Reach Out to the Decision Maker Directly: Here’s where we get a little sneaky…
Once you’ve applied, do some digging and find someone who is likely to be the decision maker for this hire. VP of Marketing, Marketing Director, Marketing Manager, etc. Then reach out to them with a short email featuring these 4 things:
— Here’s who I am
— Here’s what I do
— Here’s what makes me the best choice
— Here’s how to get in touch with me
When you do this, you go one step further than the normal channels (where everyone else has stopped) and position yourself ahead of the crowd. Sort of like going from the nosebleed seats of a packed arena to front row center.
But the key here is the “best choice” part of the email. This is where you shine above everyone else, so make it good, make it relevant, and make it IMPOSSIBLE for them to ignore you.
If you do this right, there’s a good chance this person will walk down to the HR office and say “Set up a call with this person — pronto!” And just like that, you become the top recruit.
See how easy this can be?
Now, I’m sure some of you are thinking, “But Jay, what if I do all that and don’t get the job?”
Truth is, sometimes you won’t. Unfortunately, we don’t catch every fish in the pond, folks. Just the way it is…
But if you take advantage of my FREE daily email packed with 10 of the hottest, brand-new copywriting job leads for that day — then apply these techniques to your marketing — you’re going to get a LOT more attention…a LOT more interviews…and be a LOT closer to landing those primo copywriting gigs than before.
So who’s ready to ROCK this thing? Go ahead and get your FREE leads now by signing up at CopyLeadsNow.com. See you there!
|
https://medium.com/@jay_70791/from-worst-to-first-how-to-set-yourself-apart-from-other-copywriters-in-your-job-search-f878fdd89196
|
['Jay White']
|
2019-04-22 15:31:56.786000+00:00
|
['Copywriting', 'Writing', 'Freelance Writing', 'Job Hunting', 'Copywriter']
|
THE NEED FOR RADICAL CIVIC TECH.
|
The following is an outline summary and iteration of a talk given at techforgood. It is worthwhile acknowledging THIS summary builds on an important talk given by Cassie Robinson. and this must be seen as a precursor to what is outlined below..
First, I want to start by making the case for radical civic technologies. I would propose it is increasingly clear, that the sustainabilty & thriv-ability of our society is a derivative function of the capacities of our bureaucracies and thereby our means of governance of public, shared and commons goods.
Further, I would propose most of the societal civilization threatening failures we see around us, be climate change, bio-extinction, air pollution, light pollution, plastics in our global food changes, inequality etc are fundamentally a symptom of our structural failure in governance. By which I mean a failure in the institutional architectures of societies, which either structure and ennoble us or their derivative agents to preserve and enhance the public good (as opposed to optimizing private gains) or frame the equitable space of negotiation for cohabitation in an increasingly finite world.
This is the fundamental domain of operation of civic tech leaders, changing & challenging the fundamental rules of the societies which have failed us and our future generations, the deep code structures of our economy. Reimagining —
Technologies with mobilize and manifest the rights of future generations. Technologies which enable the systemic self sovereignty of nature, Technologies and bureaucracy which unleash a self owning asset future. Remaking public accounting rules and the necessary digital institution infrastructures for data preventative economics, Providing an alternative to innovation economies beyond rivalrous economics toward non rivalrous economics. Recasting the ‘private” “limited” liability company towards an Public interest & enhancement incorporation, Building the digital bureaucracy for additive warranties for an open hackable making economy, Recasting business models and structuring of value from private interest to common interest etc.
We need to reimagine these foundational structures of society for complex, contextual and emergent world — where universal, ex-ante governance built on the foundations of individuality and isolate-ability are no longer fit for purpose.
We need to reimagine the means of governance in a new age of “near zero overhead cost of bureaucracy” and linked, contingent & parametric governance design.
We need to recognize increasingly that the fundamental challenge of governance innovation is the construction and assembly of civic legitimacy, which requires new open, civic means of making.
We need to recognize that these new societal infrastructures cannot be left in the hands traditional Venture Capital and Start ups with their structural tendency for rent seeking & monopoly leverage, they need to grown as 21st century utilities funded by Utility Capital.
This future demands civic tech take up the mantle of not just fixing the edge of social & societal failures but focusing on systemically AND structuring the society itself. It needs boldness.
This future demands urgency, a movement with a vision for radical democracy, and capital on enhancing and preserving the public, shared and collective good.
This future cannot be led by state or private, it most be led foremost by citizens, for citizens and with citizens.
This future requires radical investment and investors both focused on the public good and driven to unleash the equitable justice of new societal technologies.
Civic Tech must go beyond the comfort zone, it must break free of the containment field which has narrowed and silenced civil society to the hand maidens of the party politics in power. We must be bold and embrace the challenge we face as a society and herald a great transition which is both equitable, just and thriving for all. This requires both boldness and care — boldness of the world that is possible and care that we empower and unleash the capacity & affordances of all of society.
A big thank you to Tech for Good, @NewSpeakHouse, CAST, BGV & OF COURSE the brilliant @EllieHale and Dama Sathianathan and the amazing TECHFORGOOD community which turned up at the hottest day of the Year!
|
https://provocations.darkmatterlabs.org/the-need-for-radical-civic-tech-645ef808ca17
|
['Indy Johar']
|
2019-07-28 21:20:50.537000+00:00
|
['Civictech', 'Social Innovation', 'Government', 'Innovation']
|
The Skills Matrix
|
The Skills Matrix
No one is the oracle and going to know everything. If your team is structured right though someone should know something related. Therefore, there shouldn’t be a need to mess with the unknown. But if there is a glitch in the workforce how would you know it’s there until it’s too late? And then you’re left with the choice of the blue pill and bliss ignorance of your gap in the workforce or the red pill with harsh knowledge of the added expense to draft someone in quickly.
Here comes in the Skills Matrix. A quick asset to:
Understand the current skills and experience within your team
Identify the skill gaps, where your team may be lacking skills and experience
Find the single point of failures, where you are relying on one person to complete critical tasks
Plan the way forward when trying to introduce new skills or approaches to your team
Restructure your team to improve its effectiveness
The easiest way to create one is my trusty friend EXCEL!
Create a list of skills needed in your team down your first column. Include current and future skills for your team. Across the top in your first-row list all the members of your team. Finally, tick all the skills that each member has and leave the cells blank if they don’t.
Now use your knowledge to identify gaps and high-risk areas where only one person has the knowledge. Look to see how you can distribute knowledge across areas and finally look forward to future pursuits to see if your workforce can take the challenge.
|
https://medium.com/this-web-and-design-services/the-skills-matrix-1ccbe092eb5a
|
['The Health Informatics Service']
|
2020-12-18 09:03:40.999000+00:00
|
['Team Workflow', 'Skills Matrix', 'Team']
|
CNC MACHINING IN PLASTIC INJECTION MOLD MAKING
|
The modern injection mold making shop operates under very tight deadlines, with ever-increasing complexity in the tooling requirements. More and more features are being designed into the finished plastic part that is produced by the injection mold, and these features often involve precision CNC machining.
Plastic is just about the 21st century’s most widely used materials. It is used for items of various kinds, styles, and measurements. Plastic can be used for ordinary things like bottles, bottle caps, storage containers, and furnishings. Additionally it is utilized in assorted businesses including manufacturing, retail, and aerospace. Aside from metal, there is absolutely no other material that has attained wider utilization through the years.
· china mold factory
· mold manufacturer china
· china mold maker
This material can be used because it is lightweight, and it can easily be cut and shaped. Diverse items can be done by means of plastics injection molding. Nowadays, computer numerical control or CNC routing services are common. There are plenty of ISO 9001 companies that provide this service for those who want to tailor-make plastic, wood, or metal items. However, the majority are concentrated on plastic as numerous businesses now need plastic parts and products in their process.
Each time a client wishes to have a plastic merchandise made, he needs to have the services of an ISO 9001-accredited firm that can do plastics injection molding. In this process, plastic is fed right into a piece of equipment where it is heated and dissolved. It is then fed into a molding cavity where it will cool and form the needed shape in line with customer descriptions. Materials including acrylic, HDPE, Kynar, and Radel are just of the plastic materials which they can use in this rapid injection molding process.
After the process, these plastic materials can be used in the healthcare, electronic products, and aviation businesses. To further improve the form of the items, each goes through a process called CNC routing of cutting, surfacing, and drilling. These techniques are all completed by CNC machining.
CNC routing is made easier by CNC machines because the cutting and surfacing of every plastic material can be performed by a machine. This method would be extremely tough to do by hand considering that the same accuracy won’t be achieved. It would also take days, sometimes weeks, for workers to create the items manually even if the company has several people doing this.
How does CNC machining works
CNC machining refers to any process that uses a CNC machine. This could be for routing, milling, drilling, or other types of work that is done with metal, wood or other materials. This is a manufacturing process that uses the automatic opportunity from the computer to create shapes or forms that must be precise.
Raw materials are used and they are put into a CNC machine that uses cutting tools to make these shapes. The CNC machining process involves computers that have at least one microprocessor and several units for storage. With CAD or CAM software systems added to CNC the computer can be programmed to produce the precise movements that are able to create the part.
In CNC machining the process is automated which saves the operator time and saves the business money. The operator is able to load the materials, program the machine and then the machine can work without attention when set up properly; the amount of time it is run without attention is also programmed in.
About JasonMould Industrial Company Limited
Jasonmould is a manufacturer of plastic molds- injection mold, die casting moulds, plastic blow molding, rotational molding, medical plastic injection molding, two shot plastic injection molding, insert molding, overmolding, metal injection molding, micro injection molding, powder injection molding, ceramic injection molding, liquid injection molding, husky injection molding, household mold, casting mold, die mold tool, custom molds, china moulds, rapid prototyping tooling, plastic prototyping tooling, punch press tooling, die and tooling for mobile/ cell phone parts, automotive parts, vacuum cleaners, rechargeable tools, telephones, copiers, computers, multimedia speakers, and many other electronic products and household appliances. And also a plastic product manufacturer- plastic parts, plastic water tank, plastic balls, plastic containers, plastic buckle, plastic anchor, plastic hanger, plastic spoon, plastic pipe fitting, plastic tumble, plastic tableware, plastic cups, plastic bottles, plastic tray, plastic cosmetic container, plastic case, plastic food container, plastic chairs, plastic caps, plastic cap closure, plastic tubes, plastic water pipes, plastic knobs, plastic tubing, plastic utility boxes, plastic racks and so on.
For more information visit here… https://www.jasonmolding.com/
free shipping coupon code: freeshipping on any order over 5000USD from jasonmolding.com
Contact:
Contact person: James Yuan
Company name: JasonMould Industrial Company Limited
Address: LongGang Village,LongXi Town,BoLuo County,HuiZhou City,GuangDong Province, China
Telephone: 86–752–6682869
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://www.jasonmolding.com
|
https://medium.com/@alvarad982stedk/cnc-machining-in-plastic-injection-mold-making-ed9d2e3dffb4
|
['Madhavachar Rangnekadr']
|
2019-06-18 11:47:51.107000+00:00
|
['Manufacturing']
|
He sits at his dinner table in his apartment, about to eat his dinner.
|
He sits at his dinner table in his apartment, about to eat his dinner. Retirement. After so many years of eating at his desk watching figures tumble across the screen, so many years of sucking down protein shakes in between calls to clients during his lunch break, after so many years standing at the counter of the tiny ramen shop on the train platform slurping down his dinner waiting for the last train out of Tokyo and back to Saitama. Finally, he is eating his dinner at his table in his apartment. His wife left him three months ago and took half his pension, his children now grown, won’t speak to him. He eats his dinner at his table in his apartment. Alone.
|
https://medium.com/everything-shortform/he-sits-at-his-dinner-table-in-his-apartment-about-to-eat-his-dinner-9c7a119fb4ee
|
['Steve B Howard']
|
2020-12-21 01:24:15.318000+00:00
|
['Flash Fiction', 'Microfiction', 'Short Form', 'Fiction', 'Everything Short Form']
|
An introduction to Hotwire, ActionText and Rails 6
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Generate the Application
I generated a new application imaginatively named test_hotwire :
rails new test_hotwire -d postgresql
Next, I ran the ActionText generator to create the necessary boilerplate:
rails action_text:install
After adding the hotwire-rails gem to the Gemfile , I ran the generator for Hotwire:
rails hotwire:install
This generator did a lot of things, including setting up Redis (so make sure you have a redis-server running on port 6379) and ActionCable .
To speed things up, I generated a scaffold for Tweets that generated HTML templates, as well as a model and a controller:
rails g scaffold Tweet
To make any domain model streamable, you simply have to broadcast to a namespace and reference that in your views. For the Tweet model, Rails needs to broadcast to the WebSocket when the following events happen:
Tweet creation Tweet update Tweet delete
ActiveRecord hooks are perfect for this kind of thing, so I dropped in the following code in the Tweet model:
app/models/tweet.rb
Now each time any of those events fire, Rails will broadcast to a public namespace called “tweets” .
The subscriber for these broadcasted events are set up by Turbo . To create a stream, you simply wrap whatever you need in a Turbo frame. So for the tweets stream, I did the following:
app/views/tweets/index.html.erb
On line 13, turbo_stream_from will establish a WebSocket connection to the tweets stream. The turbo_frame_tag will wrap the list of tweets and patch the DOM whenever an event is broadcasted from the back end.
In the partial app/views/tweets/_tweet.html.erb , I wrapped each tweet in a turbo_frame_tag that references its ID so edits and deletes can reference the target tweet on the DOM.
app/views/tweets/_tweet.html.erb
That’s it! In a real-life application, you would probably set up namespaces for each of the streams in your application and prefix them in some way for access control. But this tiny example goes to show how powerful Rails and its first-party libraries have become over the years.
Happy coding!
|
https://betterprogramming.pub/hotwire-actiontext-and-rails-6-be025dce7d87
|
['Shashike J']
|
2021-02-04 00:20:37.031000+00:00
|
['Rails', 'Web Development', 'Ruby on Rails', 'Programming', 'Ruby']
|
Solar hot water running costs and greenhouse emissions
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I have always enjoyed using copious amounts of hot water at home, focussing my guilty conscience on my excessive water wastage, but not sparing a thought for the energy consumption. Given that Australia and sun are synonymous for most people, you might assume that this is because I have been blissfully using solar hot water to wash away my energy worries but unfortunately you would be wrong. Everywhere I lived in Australia I used instant gas hot water, while in the USA I used an electric storage tank. This disclosure led to shock and confusion in my partner, whose family home in not so sunny Central Europe has apparently been happily relying on solar hot water for years.
Image by pasja1000 from Pixabay
Being almost totally ignorant about how these systems operate, I always associated solar hot water services with images of an adrenaline spiking adventure into potentially icy waters, rather than a green energy utopia. From the piecemeal uptake of this technology across Australia, I would guess that I am not alone in this. The most recent surveys from 2012 and 2014 suggest that only 10–13% of households have solar hot water¹ ², very low for such a sun saturated country, and quite surprising given we were at the forefront of developing this technology in the 1950s³. In comparison, solar hot water has been a success story in many other countries, particularly those that have mandated its installation in new buildings, such as Israel, Greece and Barbados⁴ ⁵ ⁶.
Solar hot water technology, though it has had low uptake in many parts of the world really is very effective at what it does.
Image by rasamoydas from Pixabay
The system works a bit differently to your standard rooftop photovoltaic solar panels and has a number of advantages. A solar hot water system uses plates or pipes to directly transfer the suns heat to water, this water is then stored in a highly insulated container until it is used. In contrast, photovoltaic cells need to convert solar energy to electricity and then use this electricity to heat the water, which is much less efficient. The storage tank is a key feature of solar hot water systems. It is insulated enough to guarantee hot water overnight and even across the next day if it is overcast. And, no fear! Almost all solar hot water systems are installed with a gas or electric back up, so you are never short of hot water, even if the sun is not shining.
Solar hot water sounds great, so why is it not popular in Australia?
Sustainability Victoria⁷ gives a nice chart to compare energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions for different water heating systems based on calculations of the average 1- 4-person household in Victoria, Australia. I made some simple summary graphs of the stats for a 4-person family.
Greenhouse house gas emissions of different hot water services. Adding a solar boost lowers the emissions of full gas or electric services.
This chart shows the minimum and maximum greenhouse gas emission produced for running different hot water systems. Emissions vary based on whether the system supplies instant hot water, uses a storage tank, or for electricity, if they it is used during peak or off-peak times. This chart shows that a fully electric installation generates by far the most greenhouse gas emissions. Solar boosted with electric is much lower, so, if you already have an electric system, adding solar hot water panels will make a big difference.
The rub is that for a system with an electric boost it still produces more emissions than gas alone and how much really depends on the details. If the electric boost is used in off-peak times, that is overnight when supplies are not needed for businesses and industry, there is no solar input into the grid, meaning the electricity is mainly produced from greenhouse gas rich coal rather than renewable sources, spiking the emissions as we see here.
Annual cost of running different hot water services. Solar boosted with gas is the cheapest to run due to currently low gas prices in Australia.
In Australia, a solar system with a gas back up is by far the cheapest. Again, a solar system boosted with electric is definitely cheaper than a fully electric system run off of mains electricity but it is not necessarily cheaper than a full gas installation. And here we can see why this technology has not been broadly adopted — why invest a lot of money up front into a solar hot water service when it may not even save you any money relative to a gas installation?
So why not change to gas?
For many people the upfront investment in solar hot water is challenging and the benefits are just not apparent. Gas seems likes a cheap, easy and even environmentally sound choice compared to electricity… at least in the short-term. However, natural gas is non-renewable and produces greenhouse gases, a lot, even if at a lower level than coal, so this is not a long-term solution. As electricity is produced more and more by renewable sources the emissions associated with electric boosted solar systems will drop, especially if other technologies like solar battery storage are successful for ensuring overnight electricity supplies. The current cheap gas prices are also not guaranteed into the future and these fluctuate quite a bit year to year as it is, though how this plays out will largely depend on government policies that either promote renewables or the mining industry.
It is difficult to provide clear incentives for adoption of renewables in countries where there are large fossil fuel supplies, as costs and energy security are not major barriers to continued usage of traditional hot water systems⁵. So far, Australia’s policies towards renewable technology such as solar hot water systems have focussed on the environmental benefits, relying on people’s commitment to going green and offering short-term rebates that differ across the country to prompt uptake. This facilitates those who are well-off and so-inclined to take up these initiatives but those who cannot buy-in pay increased energy prices to cover the gap left by solar adopters, further worsening their financial situation, leading to what is known as ‘energy poverty’⁸.
This a problem for wide-scale change but, lacking supportive government policies, for those who are in a position to invest, solar hot water will reduce the costs and emissions associated with an existing gas or electric service. Often the choice of hot water service is a rushed decision at the moment it breaks⁹. There are many pros and cons of every system and practical considerations that are unique to each home, so if this is something that interests you it is worth looking into the details now, so you can make an informed decision that best helps you and the environment.
|
https://medium.com/@patchingtheplanet/solar-hot-water-running-costs-and-greenhouse-emissions-f40111e8e8e8
|
['Patching The Planet']
|
2020-12-03 16:13:19.702000+00:00
|
['Running Cost', 'Australia', 'Greenhouse Gas Emissions', 'Hot Water System', 'Solar Energy']
|
What Just Mercy Doesn’t Tell You
|
Your Alibi Won’t Save You
A jury convicted McMillian despite SIX black alibi witnesses testifying they saw him at locations that would have made it impossible for him to commit the murder.
McMillian was convicted despite no physical evidence. No gun (or any indication he owned the type of weapon employed in the murder), no hair, no fingerprints, no bloody clothes, no recovered cash, and no satchel that Meyers said McMillian used to cart away the money and gun.
In 1990, with Stevenson serving as McMillian’s attorney, the Court of Appeals of Alabama affirmed the conviction.
Jaw-droppingly crazy.
Then, in an absolutely insane twist, Stevenson found a cassette of an interview with Meyers that had never been provided to the defense in the original case. When Stevenson flipped the tape, he heard an interview conducted months earlier in which Meyers emphatically denied McMillian’s involvement in the murder.
We learn that after this first interview, the sheriff placed Meyers — who had a horrific fear of fire arising from a childhood incident— on death row in the cell closest to the electric chair shortly before an execution. To secure a change of scenery, Meyers told the sheriff everything he wanted to hear.
Stevenson also found an undisclosed statement from an inmate who heard Meyers say he and another man had committed the murder and intended to blame McMillian and a statement from a witness who saw the victim alive at 10:30 a.m., which contradicted the district attorney’s theory that the murder happened between 10:15–10:45 a.m.
Adonis Creed K.O.’s injustice
During a hearing seeking a new trial, Meyers came clean as forcefully as he did in the original interview audio, and Stevenson also presented evidence that McMillian’s truck wasn’t “dropped to a low-rider” until six months after the murder, so the crucial detail two witnesses used to identify McMillian’s truck was provably false.
Gasp! (No, not really).
Then something happened that probably shocked the American viewing public but not a single lawyer who has practiced criminal law — the judge DENIED the motion for a new trial, concluding it could not say whether Meyers was lying in the recantation or at the original trial.
Ultimately, the Alabama Court of Appeals overturned the guilty verdict and delivered the Hollywood ending we see (to the extent being freed from false imprisonment after seven years only to suffer dementia that has you believing you’re back on death row is satisfying).
Racism or Law Doing What It’s Ordained to Do?
My visceral reaction — which I’m sure was shared by a great many — was “This is some racist bovine feces!” Perhaps. But to truly assess this, you have to understand the well-intended but manipulable procedural hurdles we set up when higher courts review judgments by juries and trial courts (and, as here, when trial courts decide whether to award new trials).
Appellate courts aren’t “do-over” courts. If you get a bad trial result— even a death sentence —nobody automatically looks at all the evidence again as if the case is new. In fact, appellate courts are forbidden from doing so.
Most criminal cases — at both the state and federal level — do not go to trial. In 2018, 80,000 federal cases were filed, 1,600 went to trial, and 320 were acquittals. But even so, because our court system is a pyramid, with a fraction of appeals court judges compared to trial judges, retrying every case in some kind of best-of-three, rock-paper-scissors tourney, would wreck the judicial branch as constituted.
“Fair is foul and foul is fair,” Shakespeare wrote in homage to Alabama Sheriff John Tate
Also, the law gives life to Shakespeare’s Sonnet declaration “the eyes are the window of the soul, and by extension, the soul itself.” We accept that a judge or jury who can hear a voice, see body language, and gaze deeply into eyes can suss out deceit better than somebody who only reads a transcript of what everybody said, which is what appeals courts do. This is supremely logical since most of our communication is non-verbal.
Thus, while each appellate court must absolutely determine whether the prosecutor presented “sufficient evidence beyond a reasonable doubt,” if you conceptualize a defendant’s true innocence as a room full of air, appellate courts are given straws to breathe through.
Maybe justice isn’t blind, but it might have an advanced case of cataracts at the appellate level.
Here are things appellate courts CANNOT do:
|
https://medium.com/@chrisworden_32552/what-just-mercy-doesnt-tell-you-6d0c72f5b456
|
['Chris Worden']
|
2020-07-10 20:12:23.763000+00:00
|
['Courts', 'Justice', 'Justmercy', 'Racial Justice', 'Criminal Justice Reform']
|
The Passive Income Wars: Rentals vs. REITs
|
Appreciation: Which Income Stream Grows Faster?
Appreciation in terms of passive income is a bit different of analysis than sheer valuation. Our goal is to keep the passive income stream growing, not simply end up with a lump sum of cash that’s no longer making us money.
Rental Appreciation
It’s great if your $200k property is suddenly “worth” $300k (because pandemic?), but is your tenant equally suddenly willing to cough up 50% more in rent payment? A quick look at the 2021 housing market can tell you that’s not the case. Renters’ payments are predominantly flat, while homeowners’ property values have spiked right through our imaginative ceilings.
Honestly, this type of sudden value appreciation can be more detrimental to your passive income than a godsend — while you can’t assume your tenant will be able to cough up for your newfound fortune, you’d best believe the city expects you to. Property taxes do, in fact, go up in this scenario, so you’ll be back to the budget sheets to tally your margins long before you’ll be celebrating.
That property tax appreciation pretty much cancels out whatever inflationary increases in rent may be acceptable to pass on to your tenants.
That said, there’s a huge value argument to be made on behalf of rental properties — namely, equity.
Now, you may be thinking, “Wait a minute, I thought we only cared about passive income. Equity doesn’t count!” Well, let’s humor the thought!
Let’s say you’re 5 years into a 30-year mortgage on a $200k property. At 5% down ($10k) and 5% closing costs ($10k), we’ve exhausted our initial $20k and are doling out, quite conservatively, $1250/mo.
Redfin Payment Calculator Example
Unfortunately, you’re not deep enough in to get a worthwhile HELOC (most lenders won’t give you more than 80% of your equity). What you could do is refinance back out to another 30-year mortgage.
The exact numbers would obviously vary by your current and target interest rates, but the overall notion is the same: you can cough up 2–5% refinance closing costs on your remaining mortgage (yeah, don’t let that sneak up on you), bringing your mortgage payment down and sending your rental income up.
But if we look more closely, after 5 years, you’ll probably still owe ~$170k. The refinance costs would be ~$15k. Your new mortgage at $170k would be closer to $1050/mo. So, ultimately, you’re coming out of pocket $15k to make $200/mo extra — and that $15k is NOT going to your property/equity-like your down payment! ⚠️
If you’re still considering that a win, well…you’re not wrong…about 7 years from then, when those extra $200/mo’s have finally clawed back your $15k. Woohoo. 🤡
M️oral of the story? Unless you put in extra capital or successfully hike your rent, you’ll be pretty much tied to whatever margins you go in with for the life of your mortgage.️
REIT Appreciation
Stocks go up and down; we know that. And more often than not, the fluctuations have absolutely nothing to do with the fundamentals of the companies.
This is me setting the stage to say: when a dividend stock price falls, its dividend does not necessarily fall with it! Rather, oftentimes you’ve just found yourself a sale!
The opposite is unfortunately also true. Just because the price goes up, it doesn’t mean you’re going to be receiving a prettier paycheck that month/quarter.
However, in the case that you choose the right REIT with a history of dividend hikes, holding the stock through high and low can likely help you see some passive income appreciation in that same 5 year period.
The obvious tactic we haven’t mentioned here is dividend reinvestment (DRIP), which is intentional. I don’t want to make assumptions about how you want to use your income (yet).
Verdict
Rentals don’t leave much room to appreciate your revenue stream outside of hiking your rent upon lease renewal and hoping the tenants go for it. REITs, on the other hand, bare the possibility of natural appreciation, albeit completely out of your control, without further investment. Because hope isn’t a strategy, though, REITs stand to be too much of a gamble when it comes to appreciation, despite the potential.
Winner: Rentals
|
https://themakingofamillionaire.com/the-passive-income-wars-rentals-vs-reits-abaa6e9f54fa
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[]
|
2021-07-20 13:09:01.112000+00:00
|
['Dividend Investing', 'Unearned Income', 'Rental Properties', 'Reit', 'Passive Income']
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Impact values on Valorant Champions
|
Hello peeps. The year is almost over, so I decided to apply my model to the Valorant Champions Tourney that happened this month. Please keep in mind that a high impactful play not necessarily means a flashy and exciting multi-kill highlight where the guy had a sheriff and somehow managed to 1v5 against rifles. It just means a situation in which that player, on that specific moment, with the loadout his team has, managed to flip the odds by a great margin. If you watched Astralis era in CSGO you will know what I mean.
#1 → Nikita “d3ffo” Sudakov
D3ffo
One of the sharpest Jetts across the scene, D3ffo brought an antonishing +866.94% aggregated impact (+50.99% per match). This more than solidifies him as a key gear in that Gambit well oiled machine.
Fun fact: d3ffo’s best match was on a 6x13 defeat!
Having a hard match where nothing is working? Call d3ffo! He brought good performances on 6x13, 8x13 and 7x13 losses. Round #18 from that 8x13 Split against Acend was a perfect example of this. Unfortunately his last kill happened when the spike already reached the 8 beeps/second mark (more than 40s since plant)
Round 18 breakdown
Round 18 showcased an intense fight between both teams, with ups and downs on probability values. Probability on K point is high because the spike 8 bps situation is such a blurry zone where not even the casters can tell if an ongoing defuse will be succeeded or not
D3ffo’s play
Unfortunately, when browsing through his 8 most impactful matches I wasn’t able to find notable flashy or clutchy highlights from D3ffo. Most of his high impact kills seems to come from things like getting the first kill, killing an enemy which has a heavy loadout, shutting down an important role at the very round beginning (an Astra for example), shutting down the enemy operator, etc. Like I said before, something like prime Astralis: quiet, but efficient
#2 → Timofey “Chronicle” Kromov
Chronicle
Another russian soldier makes it to the top. Chronicle has been proving himself as a crucial piece to Gambit’s successful 2021. In the most important VCT event of the year, Mr Timofey brought a positive impact to the table in 12 out of the 17 maps he played!
Chronicle impact table across the tourney
Players that have high impact on tight matches (11–13) generally are also able to put a good performance even on unfavourable outcomes. A good example of this was on Breeze round #12. Even though Gambit ended up losing that round, Chronicle managed to bring 3 impactful kills to the table: he killed their sentinel (keznit), their controller (Delz1k) and their initiator (Mazino), heavily shifting his team win probabilities (+45.47%) throughout the course of the round!
Breeze round #12
Another high impact play happened on Icebox round 8, vs Vikings. With a beautiful 3K (again), Chronicle killed Sutecas (+19.7%), shut down the defender’s Operator Jett (+40.2%) and killed Sacy (+24.7%)
Probability variations on Icebox round 8
Enemy got first kill on your star Operator Jett? No problem.
Last but not least, his astounding ace on Bind. You can ace against a bunch of sheriffs and inflate your KDA numbers, but you can also ace in a crucial moment during a balanced gun round where anyone can win at any moment. Before Chronicle got his first kill, the round odds were in incommensurately unbalanced: 86% in favour of KRÜ. Combine this with the fact that Keznit pushed the odds 26% down after killing sheydos, we got an ace which had an aggregated impact of fucking 111.79% (5.01% + 26.32% + 35.18% + 33.16% + 12.11%)
Win probabilities on Bind round #21
#3→ Nikita “Derke” Sirmitev
derke
Are all Nikitas born with a godlike aim? Because we have another Nikita here! (what about Nikola Kovac?) Anyway, Derke managed to step up to the plate after being questioned as a solid Jett a few weeks before Champions
Derke impact table
Derke’s amazing play
After BuZz killed Boaster (point E), attackers only had a miserable winning chance of 9.82%. But the man himself showed up when it matters and pushed that chance to the skies by landing a beautiful 4k!
That’s all, folks! Unfortunately most of this work is manually done, constantly trying to match what number tables are showing with VOD videos is not as easy as it seem and like I said in the beginning, an impactful play found by the algorithm not necessarily means a flashy highlight, which makes it harder to choose interesting clips. After all, nobody wants to watch a play where the first kill happened at 4s and the second one at 62s, but that was still impactful when aggregating the round outcomes as a whole
That being said, I’m posting the full table below!
Full champions impact table. Since impacts can be negative, I have chose to aggregate instead of average in order to reward players who went further into playoffs. Despite all the “NA BAD LUL” comments, we still have some solid american representatives here!
Extra stuff
Favorite rifle vs Player Impact
Agent pick vs Player Delta Impact per match
Due to Riot API restricted scope all my current gamestate variables are limited to only be changed through kills or abilities that are directly involved with kills, which still naturally pushes frag-oriented agents to the top (Jett) and team-oriented agents to the bottom (Skye). By the other hand, we got Sage above Reyna, which is odd an interesting. Anyway, it is nice to see agents like Sova, Killjoy, Breach and Sage making it to the top
Being honest before running the algorithm I was not expecting Killjoy to be placed so high. I think she is an agent that, after she places all her gadgets on the ground, she has her eyes mostly on the game and on the angles rather than on secondary stuff like astral map (Astra) or spy camera (Cypher). But maybe this theory is wrong and we just witnessed rock solid Killjoys having an awesome performance?
|
https://medium.com/@matbessa12/impact-values-on-valorant-champions-4d0b8050d667
|
[]
|
2021-12-25 19:24:08.962000+00:00
|
['Predictions', 'Esport', 'Fps', 'Data Science', 'Valorant']
|
CSS-BootStrap安裝
|
Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more
Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore
|
https://medium.com/minoyo/css-bootstrap%E5%AE%89%E8%A3%9D-4fc6c54226e3
|
['Mino Chen']
|
2021-01-03 01:59:06.085000+00:00
|
['Frontend', 'Bootstrap']
|
3 Things You Need to Know About Earnings Season
|
3 Things You Need to Know About Earnings Season
This week, Maconomics is all about earnings season
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
It is mid-August, and earnings season has finally begun to wind down. Last week Home Depot, Walmart, and Target shot the lights out of their earnings call and caused the entire market to rally.
If all of that went over your head, you are in the right place. In this article and Ro$$ Mac’s latest Maconomics episode, we cover the basics of earnings season and what you need to know to navigate the next one like a pro.
When is Earnings Season?
Earnings happen every three months for a company. Most companies will report earnings around March (Q1), June (Q2), September (Q3), and December (Q4). This is not a strict rule, but just a general guideline.
For example, Best Buy Q4 starts at the beginning of November and ends in February. This makes sense because they want their fourth quarter to capture all of the holiday sales.
Companies in the same industry will also usually report around the same time. Best Buy will usually report within a similar time frame as other retailers like Target or Walmart. The same can be seen as Microsoft reports around the same time as Google and Facebook.
Who are the earnings for?
Earnings are for investors and analysts. Because we are lending these companies money by buying up their debt in the form of stock, we need to know what is going on with the company. Analysts want to know what is going on too because they will use it to make stock recommendations for their firms.
A vast list of things will be reported and discussed on the earnings call, but the essential things most people are listening for is what they did last quarter and what they expect to do in the next quarter.
Important Metrics
Revenue Growth
Earnings before taxes and interest (EBIT)
Free Cash Flow
What do I want to hear?
What makes a earnings call good or bad is probably your next question.
Companies are graded on how they did compared to the expectations of the analysts. In general, what causes stocks to go up or down is speculation on what companies will report on their earnings call.
Let’s say Company A reported earnings and they reported revenue grew by 5% compared to the same quarter last year. That sounds pretty good, right? But if the company had historically been growing at 20% year over year, the analysts would have been expected the company to grow at a similar rate. Even though the company improved, it did not meet expectations, which could cause the stock to fall.
Analysts are not the only ones with expectations. Companies also announce their expectations of of future performance. This is called guidance. When a company has a great quarter that beat analyst expectations and they say we expect even more growth in the future that is called a beat and raise. That can cause a stock to rocket up in price.
The Takeaways…
You probably learned more than what you bargained for with this article, but you can never have enough knowledge when it comes to investing.
Earnings happen every three months.
Earnings inform investors about what is happening at the company.
We want to hear a company Beat Expectations and is Raising Guidance.
This article is for informational purposes only. If you have specific questions around your financial situation, be sure to reach out to a financial professional.
|
https://medium.com/maconomics/3-things-you-need-to-know-about-earnings-season-99e3a6c0941a
|
['Michael Huskey']
|
2020-08-30 14:07:09.945000+00:00
|
['Money', 'Education', 'Wealth', 'Finance', 'Investing']
|
Gold was unchanged ahead of the Fed Jackson Hole symposium
|
Gold was flat on Thursday as investors grew cautious ahead of comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell this week that could provide clues to the central bank’s plans to scale back its economic stimulus.
Spot gold was flat at $1,790.63 per ounce by 0037 GMT. Prices fell 0.7% in the previous session, their biggest one-day fall in more than two weeks.
U.S. gold futures rose 0.1% to $1,793.00.
The dollar index was steady, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both closed at record highs.
Powell is due to speak on Friday at the Fed’s annual economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where markets will seek guidance on tapering the fed’s bond-buying program.
New orders for key U.S.-made capital goods were unexpectedly flat in July amid supply constraints and a shift in demand to services, suggesting that business spending on equipment could slow in the second half after robust growth over the past year.
Holdings of the SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, fell 0.3% to 1,001.72 tonnes on Wednesday, the lowest level since April 2020.
Silver was flat at $23.85 per ounce, while platinum was flat at $996.20.
Palladium fell 0.1% to $2,426.17.
|
https://medium.com/@ipggroup/gold-was-unchanged-ahead-of-the-fed-jackson-hole-symposium-6b6a26393c43
|
['Ipg Group']
|
2021-08-27 03:49:10.059000+00:00
|
['Gold', 'Economics', 'Gold Price', 'Fed']
|
The Nuisance
|
The Nuisance
‘I tried to act as if the ghost had no possible effect on me. This seemed like the easiest device. It was actually quite hard.’
For a long time, it was almost a play we would enact every time someone new visited us. But only if they saw him. This time, a friend was visiting from London and seeing our apartment in New York for the first time. We were seated in the living room, and she came in, a funny smile on her face. “It’s the strangest thing,” she said. “I could have sworn I just saw a cat. Do you have one?”
My husband laughed. “We sort of do.” She raised an eyebrow. “You saw Francis.”
“Francis?”
He looked at me. “Charlie knows this one. He saw him too. Francis was my cat.”
I nodded, smiling, playing my part. I told the story of the first night I spent here, back when we were new to each other. David, my husband, had lived here in the same apartment for 29 years when we met. I had been walking in from the kitchen, the same as my friend, and saw what seemed to be a gray shadow flicker across the floor by the door. I had asked almost the exact same question. And David smiled the little smile I now knew so well. And he’d said almost exactly what he said now. “I called him Frankie, though. Everyone sees him but me.”
This was our little vaudeville act, carrying on as it always had. But this time, the friend from London asked us if Frankie was a nuisance ghost. And we both sat there, a little surprised.
“No,” David replied. “I mean, I can’t think of anything he does besides appear at the door.”
A nuisance ghost, if you don’t know this, is considered a relatively harmless spiritual creature. The conversation on this particular day turned to the one in the Penelope Fitzgerald novel, The Bookshop, where the main character has what she calls “a knocker,” a ghost who just enjoys knocking on the wall. They’re the most benign pranksters of the afterlife and usually just take things, eventually returning them. If you’ve ever put something down and then can’t find it when you go back for it, pulling your house apart before finding it again, that is possibly a nuisance ghost, though it is possibly also just your forgetfulness.
The friend left, but the suspicion did not. I kept thinking about the missing keys that eventually turned up, or the phone cord or wallet, more or less fine as missing things that return go, though they’d often made me late with friends, giving me a reputation for forgetfulness or lateness that I didn’t like. But then, shortly after this visit, a favorite wine key went away and stayed away. One my brother had given me, made in France, an elegant tool with a perfect heft. This was the first really personal price. Or so I thought.
A few months after that, I noticed that some new favorite shirts were missing — as if they’d never come back from the laundry. But there was no record of them there when I checked, and as I searched for them, the familiar feeling of missing new shirts came over me, and I remembered that it happened every year. Each year, I would get a few new good shirts, and they would at some point, a month or so in, just not be in the house. I had a reputation as someone who didn’t buy new clothes often, as I have some shirts that have lasted a decade, shirts that I like just fine. The new shirts were always the shirts that made me feel handsome, though. Elegant. Not average. Like the wine key.
Those old shirts, I understood then, as I puzzled over it all, predated my time in the apartment and with David. I’d moved in with them.
When I mentioned the lost shirts to my husband, he rolled his eyes. Only when I pointed out that all of the clothes that were missing were mine and not his, and then listed them off, did he really seem to take it in. Yes, how odd, he agreed. But when I blamed the laundry, he took offense and defended them — they didn’t take his shirts — at which point I observed that my missing shirts were nicer than his, which did not go over well. I apologized, and we moved on.
The news that my husband had never lost his shirts, however, began to eat at my previous somehow placid acceptance of their loss. How much money had it cost me? But also the person I had wanted to be in those clothes was gone with them. I had entered into some terrible pact with each disappearance, to accept it as a cost of my own nature. That I was to blame, for being forgetful, or stressed out, or working too hard — all true. But I lived on a track, essentially, one that I stayed on, most days, that led from the apartment to the office to the gym and back to the apartment. Most things I lost, I left in a car, on a train, or it fell from my hand as I walked. Or it was in my apartment, waiting for me to pull everything apart and find it. This wasn’t like that.
A few days went by, and a few more, and then weeks—who knows how long? Maybe a month or more. The feeling of being cheated by the nuisance ghost or even the suspicion that we had a nuisance ghost eventually faded again — it always did. I bought new shirts that were exact replacements, and they arrived and mocked me by not being lost.
The wine key was somehow the hardest to lose. Every time I searched for the wine key, and then couldn’t find it, I remembered the possibility of the ghost. I was tired of losing things, so I decided to learn, just in case, how one went about getting rid of a ghost.
|
https://humanparts.medium.com/the-nuisance-fc650fe8c031
|
['Alexander Chee']
|
2020-03-26 20:14:49.709000+00:00
|
['Short Story', 'Fiction Friday', 'Fiction', 'Nightmare Fuel']
|
Save $26 on this extremely smart power strip
|
Smart devices can add a lot of convenience to your home, but if you’re not ready to swap out all your “dumb” devices just yet, a good smart power strip can add connectivity and control to all your existing devices. And today on Amazon, the Kasa Smart HS300 plug power strip is on sale for $54, down from an $80 list price.
This power strip comes with six smart outlets and three USB ports, so you can plug in a whole ton of devices at once. Each of these outlets can be controlled independently, and you can check in on energy use with the Kasa smart app to turn off ones that take too much power. That app also allows you to control devices from anywhere, or use Alexa or Google Assistant to control with just the sound of your voice.
This power strip averages a stellar 4.7 stars out of 5 on Amazon across more than 1,700 user ratings.
[ Today’s deal: Kasa Smart HS300 plug power strip from Amazon for $54 ]
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/@peter06010169/save-26-on-this-extremely-smart-power-strip-1bfb197ae64b
|
[]
|
2020-12-24 13:23:57.688000+00:00
|
['Streaming', 'Consumer', 'Entertainment']
|
I have had this urge to start writing again for a few weeks now.
|
I have had this urge to start writing again for a few weeks now. Since my fingers have become all itchy, I thought to myself to start writing once again.
Unscripted, unedited, just raw as I’m feeling it issues about myself, life and living and anything that catches this writer’s fancy.
I’ve stopped writing for well over two years now, stopping at just documenting my experiences, thoughts and feelings in my diary and here’s why: motherhood!
I became a Mom and I find my life being so consumed with feeding her, caring for her, making sure she’s okay and what not. The only things I allow myself room for, is sleep and more sleep and that’s when I can really get that sleep and not having my head be a little someone’s leg resting stool.
No doubt it has been a rewarding experience and a gift I’m daily thankful for, it can be sometimes too much, especially when you don’t take a break from time to time.
Since becoming a mom, I started seeing other moms like super heroes because, I actual fact, we are!
This can pass for a mother’s Day post. Better later than never though.
Cheers mom, but take care of yourself and take a break sometimes!
|
https://medium.com/@bisolaoluwamakindeolubiyi/i-have-had-this-urge-to-start-writing-again-for-a-few-weeks-now-dbb959875e79
|
['Bisola Olubiyi']
|
2021-04-09 11:54:28.444000+00:00
|
['Writing', 'Baby', 'Motherhood']
|
How To Make Money As A Teenager Without A Job(THE EASIEST WAY)
|
In my opinion, all teenagers should be able to make money either with a job or a side hustle. Its easy to say “GET A JOB” ,but sometimes getting a job is not as feasible or a variety of reasons such as:
AGE
INEXPERIENCE
SCHEDULE
LOCATION etc
so what is there for a teen when they really need to make their own money ,but cant get ( or don’t want ) a job ?
Step by step ill be giving you a plan which will enable you to make your money ,not just on a short term but a long term so you don’t get broke again.when making money you must know your time is of essence ,you shouldn’t waste so much time on some certain things with little pay.
-FIRST:
QUIT TAKING SURVEYS!!!: I believe know one needs to tell you that surveys waste a lot of your time and time is of essence .the question is what is your time worth ??, is 1 hr of your time worth only 10 cents or more .A lot of people have 1 hr of their time worthing millions of dollars so, what’s stopping you !!
YOUR SECOND STEP :is finding a means to generate money and have your time valued . Have you heard of watching ads ,yes ads and NO watching ads over night isn’t going to make you six figures, but using sites that offer ads to watch and also pay for affiliate marketing is what you need !! watching ads earns you more money than filling surveys,
I know whats on your mind , how to get traffic and i have you covered just pay close attention !!!
Now your next step is finding a site that will have that option ads watching and affiliate marketing and you need a site that is legit because like i said time is of essence you don’t wanna be working and not getting paid ,lucky enough i did some research both on google and you tube and found the most legit site, people who live in USA will i must say have an upper hand but if your not in USA no problem your still covered . so GO ahead and register on the site
>>CLICK HERE<< once you’ve registered you have one last step and i promise this plan if you follow it diligently will work .
THE LAST AND FINAL STEP is to start watching ads for money and the most important part that you can earn six figures from is the affiliate market . ow to the last part traffic source ,the two best traffic sources are QUORA and FACEBOOK now how do you generate traffic
QUORA- you find people interested in whatever your promoting by searching on it .for instance “how to make money online” there are a lot of people who wanna make money and you can help them answer their question especially because the site is legit and anyone you help will be grateful. about a million people visit quora everyday and that is huge traffic so moving to the next source
Facebook- Facebook groups are also a source of money all you need do is join Facebook groups that have to do with earning money and tell them about this idea people will generally be interested provided it is legit. and there you go you can start making six millions.
Lastly i would give some extra options you can start doing for money
-BLOGGING
-BECOME AN INSTAGRAM INFLUENCER
-START SOLING PROBLEMS FOR PEOPLE
-START A BUSINESS
if you would like me to create plans on how you can be successful in this fields comment below
Good luck!!!
|
https://medium.com/@deby4realz1/how-to-make-money-as-a-teenager-without-a-job-the-easiest-way-58dde0315762
|
['Tisha Sandra']
|
2020-12-23 13:05:34.956000+00:00
|
['Money', 'Make Money Online', 'Making Money Online', 'Making Money', 'Making Money From Home']
|
Retired Numbers: Oakland Athletics
|
Oakland Athletics
The Athletics franchise began with the birth of the American League in Philadelphia. Yes, the mighty powerful team of early 1970s and the “Bash Brothers” of the late 1980s was founded on the east coast. At one time the St Louis Cardinals was the most western team in both American and National League. Relocation of the Dodgers and Giants in 1958 changed all that and opened new possibilities.
During his rein in Philadelphia, Owner/manager Connie Mack battled relentlessly to shine a spotlight on his Athletics in a baseball saturated city. One obstacle, Quakers/Phillies have been playing ball in Philly since 1883. A second hurdle, a Negro League called the Stars shared the city from 1933 to 1952. Solid and loyal legions of Cranks was established for each team. The term “Cranks” was replaced by “fans” in 20th Century. After the passionate founder and architect of A’s baseball Mack died, his family sold the team to a business owner in Kansas City.
1955 was the perfect time to move Kansas City. The Negro League folded due to integration of baseball and the Monarchs no longer exists. Mack’s vision came true, to be the only baseball team in the city. It just did not happen in Philadelphia. Poor attendance records forced ownership to relocate. This time to Oakland, where the Athletics have resided since 1968.
The Athletics franchise only has seven retired number. All seven players and all have been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Let’s explore these fine players.
Reggie Jackson
9 — Reggie Jackson — Jackson is a star among stars. This Class of 1993 Hall of Fame inductee had an immediate impact on the success of the Athletics in the early 1970s. Jackson spent 10 years in an A’s uniform where he received MVP (1973), World Series MVP (1973), and three World Series Championships (1972, 1973 & 1974). Over Jackson’s 21-year career, he was named to 14 All-Star games and reached the 500-HR club with a total of 563. Additionally, Jackson holds the unwanted record of most career strike outs in MLB with 2597.
Rickey Henderson
24 — Ricky Henderson — Known as the Man of Steal, is unarguably the greatest lead-off hitter in baseball. Henderson holds the MLB record in lead-off HRs (81), runs (2295), stolen bases (1406), and intentional walks (2,129). His career spanned from 1979 to 2003. During that time, Henderson was a 10 time All-Star and World Series champion with the Athletics in 1989 and the Blue Jays in 1993. Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2009. To top it off, he boosts a WAR of 111.2.
Catfish Hunter
27 — Catfish Hunter — James “Catfish” Hunter (224–166) was part of the dominant A’s pitching staff in the three championships seasons (1972–1974); earning a Cy Young Award in 1974. In 15 years, Hunter made eight All-Star games, had five 20-win seasons and a total of five championships. Hunter did not reach the monumental milestone of 300 win; however, he joined Cy Young, Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson as the only pitchers in big league history to win 200 games by the age of 31. Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1987.
Rollie Fingers
34 — Rollie Fingers — As another part of the A’s threepeat championships, Fingers provide solid relief pitching and was named World Series MVP in 1974. Fingers continued to have success after his time in Oakland. In 1981, Fingers won both the MVP and Cy Young Award. The one-time all-time saves leader was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1992.
Dennis Eckersley
43 — Dennis Eckersley — This well-known closer began his career as a starter. For his 24-years career on the mound, Eckersley most lucrative years were with the Athletics (1987–1995). Eckersley earned 320 of his career 390 saves and four of six All-Star games for Oakland. In the 1988 season, Eck lead the American League in Saves with 45 and won the MVP of American League Champion Series. The next season, 1989, Eck reached the top of the mountain by winning his only World Series. Three years later in 1992, Eck won a Cy Young Award and the league MVP. Finally, in 2004, he received the call to Hall of Fame.
42 — Jackie Robinson — Retired by all MLB teams in 1997.
https://sportsteamhistory.com/timeline/move-to-kansas-city-2
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/henderi01.shtml
https://baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/henderson-rickey
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/j/jacksre01.shtml
https://baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/jackson-reggie
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/hunteca01.shtml
https://baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/hunter-catfish
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/f/fingero01.shtml
https://baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/fingers-rollie
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/e/eckerde01.shtml
https://baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/eckersley-dennis
|
https://medium.com/@baseballnamesandnumbers/retired-number-oakland-athletics-4469b6b1f6e
|
['Baseball Names', 'Numbers Thomas Holmes']
|
2021-12-31 18:37:30.870000+00:00
|
['MLB', 'Numbers', 'Baseball', 'Oakland Athletics', 'Hall of Fame']
|
Odds Ratio Does What Risk Ratio Fails to Do — an Intuitive Example
|
Odds Ratio Does What Risk Ratio Fails to Do — an Intuitive Example
Understand the concept from scratch
Photo by Sydney Sims on Unsplash
Let’s begin by dropping the ultimate takeaway of this blog:
“The odds ratio is a consistent measure for both the Population & Sample statistics (Case Control studies with significant effect) where the Risk ratio shows inconsistency”
Now the question that comes to our mind is — Why is that?
I will prove this using a relatable example so that we can build an intuitive sense around it as well. But before jumping to the example, let’s see how Risk & Odds behave:
(Image by author)
Notice how Odds reach closer & closer in terms of difference to the risk measure as it gets lower. It is because of this reason Odds & Risk are interpreted similarly in the cases where the event rate(Positive here) is relatively low. In cases where the event rate is relatively high(above 0.3 or 30%), there is a significant difference in both measures.
But the point we are trying to understand here is why the odds ratio stays consistent in Case-control studies, whereas the risk ratio becomes inconsistent. Time to explain this with the help of an example — The scenario we are considering is related to the sensitive issue of depression and its dominance in Corporates:
(Image by author)
The visual you see above is the representation of the population; however, for control case studies, only samples are taken from both the affected population as well as the unaffected population. Let’s first calculate the Risk(Corporate), Risk(Non-Corporate), Odds(Corporate), Odds(Non-Corporate), Risk Ratio, and Odds ratio taking approximate figures of the population just for the sake of understanding the concepts:
(Image by author)
Risk(Corporate) = 0.8/2 = 0.40
Risk(Non-Corporate) = 2/6 = 0.33
Odds(Corporate) = 0.8/1.2 = 0.67
Odds(Non-Corporate) = 2/4 = 0.50
Risk Ratio = 0.40/0.33 = 1.21
Odds ratio = 0.67/0.50 = 1.34
You will agree that the Risk ratio measure(also known as ‘Relative risk’) is more intuitive than the Odds ratio because it conveys that a person working in corporate has 1.21 times more risk of having depression than a non-corporate one. Making intuitive sense out of the Odds ratio is not easy, but it is a consistent measure when it comes to Case-control studies(sample statistics). Let’s see how:
(Image by author)
From both the Depression(X+Z) & Depression-free population(Y+N), 1000 samples each are taken to conduct the Case-control study. The values look like this:
(Image by author)
Now we shall observe the inconsistency in the Risk ratio that we have been talking about since the start of this blog, and the sole reason for that is the under-representation of the Depression-free population in the Case-control study.
Risk(Corporate) = 285/515 = 0.55
Risk(Non-Corporate) = 715/1485 = 0.48
Odds(Corporate) = 285/230 = 1.23
Odds(Non-Corporate) = 715/770 = 0.92
Risk Ratio = 0.55/0.48 = 1.14
Odds ratio = 1.23/0.92 = 1.34
Appreciate how the Risk Ratio has changed in the Case-control study, but the Odds ratio remained the same(consistent). To find out why the Odds ratio stays consistent, let us look at its formula:
Odds ratio = (x/y)/(z/n)
A little rearrangement in the formula totally takes care of the issue of under-representation:
Odds ratio = (x/z)/(y/n)
Now the numerator reflects the split of values (Corporate & Non-corporate) in the Depression set, and the denominator reflects the split of values (Corporate & Non-corporate) in the Depression-free set, thereby computing the same value in the Case-control study as in the whole Population study.
It is because of this reason. The Odds ratio measure is preferred over the Risk ratio to make an estimate with confidence intervals in Case-control studies.
Conclusion:
When the event rate is relatively low, and there is not much significant effect between categories, only then the Risk ratio & the odds ratio behave in a similar manner. Moreover, Risk involves the process of a forward-looking scenario, i.e., After a subject is exposed to something, the likeliness of him/her developing the outcome is computed, whereas, for the odds measure, it is the opposite, i.e., Subject who has already developed an outcome, the odds of him/her being exposed to something in the past is the area of interest. I hope I am able to establish the difference/distinction between the Risk ratio and the Odds ratio with a relevant example. Make sure to visit my profile for similar intuitive and simplified blogs. Many more to come….
Thanks!!!
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https://medium.com/towards-artificial-intelligence/odds-ratio-does-what-risk-ratio-fails-to-do-an-intuitive-example-312ff89a08b4
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['Atul Sharma']
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2020-12-04 13:02:59.762000+00:00
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['Machine Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Mathematics', 'Data Science', 'Data']
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Slush & Kilometers
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Photo credit: Matthew St. Amand
Epoch: Riding.
Time: 2005–2006.
During the Winter of Riding, my life was ruled by paradoxes.
An avowed indoorsman, I rode my father-in-law’s bicycle each day during the most forbidding season of the year.
As well, after years of suffocating in the coffin-like confines of office cubicles, I couldn’t wait to find another. Applying to online job postings was a pillar of my morning, providing the illusion of productivity.
Ghostwriting the biography of a local industrialist, mapping out a life already lived, the evolution of his decades-old business, a fortune earned, adventures — African safaris, hunting expeditions in the Arctic Circle, a two-month hunt in the jungles of South America—brought to mind a phrase spoken to me often by the adults in my life when I was in my early twenties: “You have your whole life ahead of you!”
The phrase had the same benign ring as the age-old Chinese curse: “May you live in interesting times.”
The people around me meant well, of course, but the truism resonated more as an omen than a wistful cliché.
And the greatest paradox of all: the more aches and pains I experienced, the more I wanted to ride the battered mountain bike. Long out of shape and well into my thirties, my body was a symphony of gripes. Thumbscrew twinges ran up and down my legs and back, causing me to walk like a poorly programmed robot.
As an avowed indoorsman, I never had any use for weather reports, other than the necessity of resenting the meteorologist’s unworried existence. Now, I cared.
Certainly, I still envied the weatherman, begrudging his airy, carefree nature in the face of a cruel world, disdainful of his gameshow-host crispness when — doing the math — I realized, the poor bastard probably rose around three o’clock in the morning to make it to the TV studio and review his “data” before going on air to mislead us all.
No matter his forecast, I went out riding.
Each day’s ride was Groundhog Day, it was Finnegans Wake, it was the snake swallowing its tail — my route was an unending loop around LaSalle and environs, along swerve of street and bend of lane. Clad in layers of track pants and sweatshirts, against the wind, the occasional pelting sleet, ever present cold, I chugged along Malden, Matchette and Front Roads — and the web of streets, avenues and paths linking them — my clunky boots pounding the pedals for all they were worth.
As my body suckled its ration of endorphins, my mind entered the liminal space of memory, where it wandered like a blind man through an archive. As someone already given to daydreaming, there was something about the bicycle, about mechanistic distraction of my body fully engaged in the physical act of riding, that my daily trek achieved escape velocity, allowing me to journey outside of the present.
Revisiting a sleety, foreboding February morning in the late 1980s, when my dad drove my brother and I to school. As we passed over the Campbell Avenue train tracks, between Rooney Street and College Avenue, we caught sight of a figure on the tracks, approaching from the west. It was a man: the new parish priest, Father Willy, a tall, young, lean guy in his early thirties. That morning, he was in shorts and a thin long-sleeved shirt, jogging on the train tracks. It was a humanizing detail circulated among the parish that Father Willy ran marathons. He was a decent, kindly guy, who needed no softening biographical flourish, but it at least explained what appeared to be a mania.
Seeing him in that moment, from the car, he looked like a lone, forlorn figure damned to some storybook punishment, trudging outside on that dire winter’s day dressed as though he was ready to mow a lawn or wash a car. He looked at us, wide-eyed, behind his large-framed eyeglasses, his expression unreadable. No pain, no recognition, no acknowledgement. A pair of lantern eyes on a murky morning.
“Crazy,” my dad said, as we thump-thumped over the train tracks. “I hate to say it about a priest, but I think he’s nuts.”
It was hard to dispute, at the time, yet nearly two decades later, there I was rolling along the slushy edge of Malden Road with surly traffic whizzing by me. Dad went for walks and played racquetball and never experienced “the zone”, where the mind dropped through pin-prick worm-holes during a run, or as I now learned, during a bike ride. I was “there, not there”. Quite a pleasant experience, really, the mind sitting in a dime roller coaster car cascading through memory:
In the bathroom during dinnertime, when I was six or seven years old, changing the toilet paper roll. Curious how the the metal, spring-loaded tube worked, I pulled the ends apart and found the spring inside. For no particular reason, I put one of the metal tubes on my index finger and slid it down past my knuckle. When I tried removing it a second later, it wouldn’t budge.
My mind exploded with panic.
After a few frantic moments, trying to get the tube off my finger, I returned to the dinner table, in tears, terrified and repentant.
“It won’t come off!” I wailed, holding up my hand with the metal tube protruding from my index finger. I had disfigured myself for life.
My parents looked at me, bewildered. My younger brother laughed.
When my dad had no success removing the tube after soaping up my hand, he loaded me and my brother into the car and drove to the local fire station. All the firemen came out from their supper to see what I had done. One of them located a tool that appeared designed precisely for removing metal toilet paper dispenser tubes from fingers. The fireman cut it off my finger, and the clouds parted. My relief was immeasurable. That weekend, Dad had to install a new toilet paper holder in the downstairs bathroom.
I emerged from my fugue long enough to monitor traffic and road conditions, before submerging again. Watched the reef of slush at the side of the road splash apart under my front wheel.
What do they call that? I wondered. It’s a word used to describe ketchup — neither solid, nor liquid… or both at the same time.
Came to me after a moment — my mind a magnet for meaningless trivia: Yield stress fluid… Didn’t scientists for one ketchup maker calculate the optimal flow of ketchup as being approximately 0.028 miles per hour…?
My hips ached. I stood on the pedals and my quads cried out.
In those early days of riding, there were a few practical details I neglected. Such as wearing a helmet. My wife soon rectified that. Also, the height of the seat should have been raised. I just rode the bicycle as I found it. Only later did I learn the seat was too low for me.
Another dinner in my childhood, somewhere in 1977, around the time we brought home our first and only pet: a mixed breed pup whom my brother and I had named “Tara Sal”. As Dad cut a corner of meat loaf with his fork, he declared without preamble: “If we are ever in an emergency, we’ll have to eat the dog.”
We all looked at him.
Eat the dog?
“The puppy?” my brother said. He was four years old.
“Yes,” Dad said, “but only in an emergency.”
“Like if the house is on fire?” I said.
“Well, not if the house is on fire,” Dad said, “more like if there is nuclear war… if we were starving…” he trailed off.
Or, the late afternoon he called me and my brother in from the backyard. It was mid-April, the Thursday before Easter. An ice storm the night before toppled a neighbour’s tree, two doors down, across two backyards, and the tangled topmost section of the tree ended up in our yard. To kids who enjoyed climbing, it was a gift from the gods. After school, our friends came over and climbed through it with us.
Around dinner time, Dad called us into the house. Mom had gone out earlier, and I had a passing thought we’d be having a “Dad dinner” that evening: liverwurst on crackers with Tang on TV tables, watching Hogan’s Heroes. There was no sign of dinner as Dad led us into the living room. There, he sat with us on the floor. He never sat on the floor. My brother and I leaned back against the couch. Dad looked very serious.
“J.T.’s had an accident,” he said.
An instant thrill of excitement went through me. Aunt June had invited us over for an Easter egg hunt that weekend with her son, J.T. He was eighteen months older than I was. He was a genius of fun, and the leader of our games. The previous autumn, he fell out of a tree and broke his right leg. His friends brought him home in a wheel barrow. The full-length plaster cast, which ran from his toes to his hip, didn’t slow him down. On a visit to Ojibway Park, he glided along on his crutches. Later that day, at the riverfront, he gingerly pulled himself into a tree I was climbing, and sat on a low hanging bough. Still part of the action. His mother snapped a picture of us.
So, J.T.’s had another accident, I thought, wondering if he’d have a cast on his arm, time time, or a black eye.
He spent a day at our house that winter when there was a day off school and his mother had to work. As J.T. sat on our living room couch, drawing in a sketch book he had brought, I sat on the floor, examining his cast and all of the inscriptions his friends’ drew on it—scrawled in black marker, green, blue and red ink. Some drew faces. I noticed how the pant leg of J.T.’s jeans had been cut from the cuff to mid-shin to accommodate the cast. I wondered if Aunt June had cut all of his pants, or only certain ones…
“J.T.’s gone to Jesus,” Dad said.
Locked out of the house after school that day, J.T. tried climbing in through a back window. The window slid down on him as he got his head through. He was four and a half feet tall. The window was five feet above the ground. J.T. was the boy who could climb anything. There was just no way this was how he died. Yet, it was.
Riding past Sandwich Secondary school. Riding past the LaSalle Public Library. It wasn’t long before I made the trek without winding and wounding myself.
After J.T.’s death, I remember being in my bedroom, pushing up my window and bringing it down on my hand, to… I don’t really know what I was looking for.
My arse hurt and my nose was running. The world is too much with us.
The sun was out. I hated the sun on snowy days, where the world turned into endless series of blinding surfaces. It had snowed the night before, but the temperature was pleasant.
From Malden Road, I turned left onto Sprucewood Avenue. As part of my ongoing exploration the area, my idea was to cross the small bridge spanning Turkey Creek and cut through Vince Marcotte Park.
Entering the park required a 180° turn onto the narrow path that led into the Vince Marcotte Park.
Didn’t quite make it.
Got about 178° when my front tire made contact with the post of fence at the corner of someone’s property, stopping me dead.
Like somebody in a John Candy movie, I proceeded, headfirst, over the handlebars, over the fence. My body and mind slammed back together. I returned to the present like a man falling out of bed.
The moment I knew I was airborne, I tucked my chin in and went into a forward roll. Felt like it happened in slow motion. The snow drift I landed on was perfectly contoured for my body. I landed on my back on the pillow-soft snow. Hands-down the most pleasant and enjoyable accident of my life. Twenty-five years before, my friends and I would have spent the rest of the day recreating the trick.
Looking around, wondering if my pratfall had been observed, I saw no one. I lay back in the drift, closed my eyes and laughed.
The black tire mark is still visible on that white fence post. Showed it to my sons earlier this year while driving by.
|
https://medium.com/the-kilominator-chronicles/slush-kilometers-f546a5e96121
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['Matthew St. Amand']
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2021-01-18 21:26:17.822000+00:00
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['Cycling', 'Memoir', 'Mental Health', 'Self Improvement', 'Outdoors']
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My Books of 2020 — Tosin Adeoti. A detailed overview of the 44 books I…
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I read the most about Mafias this year. Three solid books. While Pino Arlacchi’s Men of Dishonor is based on the interview between the author and Antonino Calderone, boss of Italy’s Catania family — one of the most influential of the Sicilian Mafia, Alexander Hortis’ The Mob and the City is devoted to the history of how the Mafia came to dominate organized crime in New York City during the 1930s through 1950s. An eye-opening piece of literature. My pick of the three has to be Federico Varese’s Mafia Life though. Touching key mafia groups originating in Russia, Italy, Hong Kong and Japan the reader gets insights into the ordinary life with its complex challenges faced by these criminals as they run their organizations. It’s an intriguing evolve of unexpected truth.
Al Capone, who became the leader of organised crime in Chicago after Torrio’s death, had the habit of testing his own men’s priorities. From time to time he would expose them to willing beautiful women. If they failed to show interest, he would grow suspicious, and assign them less responsibility. ‘When a guy don’t fall for a broad, he’s through’, his biographer reported him saying. A gangster who is so attached to his own wife would refuse to betray her; and he is by implication weak and so easily blackmailed or manipulated.
In another year, The Laundrymen by Jeffrey Robinson would be my book of the year. An extraordinary well-researched book on the topic of money laundry. It’s difficult to comprehend the scale of money laundering in our world today until you take time to think about this stat: More money is spent worldwide on illicit drugs than on food. And all those funds need to be laundered! Great book. The Attention Merchants is a history of how advertisers have tried to get inside our heads for the last 100 years. It is a book of the media. The Away Game by Sebastian Abbot is a gripping deeply-moving narration of the joys and pains of football-talented African boys in the world of wealthy Arab sheikhs, greedy agents and naive parents/guardians.
Peter Hook, the Legendary musician and cofounder of Joy Division and New Order tells a highly readable story of Manchester’s most iconic nightclub in The Haçienda, which traded from 1982 to 1997, reinventing UK club culture in the process. Hal Higdon’s The Business Healers is about a controversial industry — the management consulting industry. I left the book perplexed at the ingenuity of men in pursuit of opportunities.
No One Would Listen by Harry Markopolos is the thrilling story of how the Harry, a little-known person uncovered Bernie Madoff’s scam years before it made headlines, and how they desperately tried to warn the government, the industry, and the financial press. The government failed the people in the case of Madoff. He had tipped the authorities off more than ten years before Madoff unraveled. In The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil, he postulates that we are fast approaching a time when humankind will meld with technology to produce mind boggling advances in intelligence. He says that by the year 2040 there will be little left of our biological intelligence. I feel he is too optimistic and treats speculation as facts. Let me warn you, it’s not an easy book to read. Definitely a book by a nerd to nerds. And of course I had to reread Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker. It was one of my three best books of 2019. It changed my life. Like Bill Gates, after reading the book I decided to not play with sleeping well again. I will always recommend this book.
Economics
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https://medium.com/@thowsyne/my-books-of-2020-tosin-adeoti-d38a35d8bf65
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["'Tosin Adeoti"]
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2020-12-27 22:12:57.164000+00:00
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['Top Books Of 2020', 'Tosin Adeoti', 'Books Recommendation', 'Book Recommendations', 'Best Books Of 2020']
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Getting to know the Lawrence Family JCC
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We are the Jewish Community Center, so it only makes sense that we want you all to know who works here at the Lawrence Family JCC! We are going to start highlighting different members of our staff and members of LFJCC so that you can feel more connected to us and each other.
What do you like most about your job at the JCC?
Watching generations of people flourish in their lives because of their connection to Jewish life and our work.
What book, movie, or music genre do you enjoy the most?
I read non-fiction books and I like reggae music.
Did you choose your profession or did it choose you?
It chose me for sure!
What skill would you like to master?
Patience.
What one thing makes you the happiest?
My children. All three, two humans and a dog.
What color crayon would you consider yourself?
Orange.
What is the last gift you gave someone?
Jewelry.
What one non-work related topic do you know the most about?
I know a little something about a lot of things.
If you were a brand, what would your motto be?
Change doesn’t happen in a day, it happens daily.
How would people communicate with each other in a perfect world?
Respectfully.
Do you consider yourself lucky?
Not lucky, fortunate. Luck would suggest that I had no role in my own good fortune. I’m blessed, no doubt, but I have worked hard to be in a place to receive those blessings.
What would you do with 10 million dollars?
Donate to the Lawrence Family JCC
Keep an eye out for more interviews and insights into the staff and members of the Lawrence Family JCC | JACOBS FAMILY CAMPUS
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https://medium.com/lawrence-family-jcc/getting-to-know-the-lawrence-family-jcc-ead1f467a7dc
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['Lfjcc Contributor']
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2019-05-08 23:29:30.071000+00:00
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['Female Leadership', 'Leadership', 'Interview', 'Community', 'Judaism']
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How I started coding, and how you should too
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I’m finally finished! I had been working for weeks on a new custom game for Starcraft 2 called Partycraft. Starcraft 2 is a real-time strategy game, where you build up armies, and defeat your enemies. Alongside that, there is a custom game experience that allows creators to build just about any type of game they see fit within the Starcraft 2 game engine (similar to apps in the app store). I was gratified that I had reached my own deadline for launching my game before the 2010 semester started. I would finally get to play it with players around the world and show off all the hard work I had done. However, the sense of accomplishment was quickly fading.
Each day I went to play my game, it was lower in the game list rankings than the day prior. When the game first launched it would get around 10–15 plays per hour, but now the host rate was down to a measly 10–15 per day, with no rebound in sight. Was the game broken? Did it just suck? Did I pick the wrong college major? Either way, the motivation to keep going was dwindling.
Then one night, everything changed. After a long shift at work serving tables, I came back to my college house with a friend of mine named John. I wanted to let him play my game to get some feedback and to see if there was something glaringly wrong with the game. As soon as we sat down, I clicked down to page 8 where the game last resided (it had fallen that far since launch). It was nowhere to be found. Page 9, nothing. Page 10, nothing. Page after page, the disappointment and shame grew.
Then John said, “I could have sworn I saw Partycraft on the first page.” How could that be true? How could a game instantly skyrocket to the top of the game list in a matter of hours? I was not prepared for the rush of euphoria and fulfillment that was about to overwhelm me. There it was. At the very top of the list. Featured by Blizzard Entertainment, a company I had admired for most of my childhood. The developers at a triple-A gaming company played my game, liked it, and wanted to share it with the rest of the world.
Partycraft, the first UMS in Starcraft 2 to be featured by Blizzard (August 2010)
Over 13,000 games hosted per hour with 10 players in each game netting 130k players per hour. These were numbers I had never dreamt of being a part of. The reassurance was quickly coming back. Maybe I can do this. Maybe the college major I am pursuing is the right one. The interviews with gaming news sites and publications came in the following days, and the taste of victory was all too sweet. This is an event in my life I will never forget, and will always look back on. I had learned very early on, that…
Opportunity = Luck + Preparation
But how did I get to this point?
Video games have been a big part of my life for as long as I can remember. From playing Sonic, Mario, and Zelda when I was very young all the way to Fortnite and Warcraft recently. Video games have engrained core characteristics in me. I had formed a genuine curiosity for how things work while shaping and developing core problem-solving skills.
In 2002, everything changed. Warcraft 3 released. This game was a masterpiece, it had it all. Not only did it have a rich single-player campaign, but it had a robust online service called Battle.net, where players could compete with one another. Part of the online service included “Custom Maps” which was a crowdsourced collection of fun highly customized games.
I became immersed in the custom game scene. Have you ever heard of League of Legends? How about DotA, short for Defense of the Ancients? That game was first created in the Warcraft 3 engine, by fellow mapmakers just like me, with similar passions and desire to create. That’s how powerful the map editor was, it was capable of constructing the foundation to a billion-dollar genre.
DOTA2 held at Seattle’s Key Arena in 2017. (DOTA2 / Instagram)
Enter the Warcraft 3 Map Editor
I had always fiddled around in the map editor, but I never created anything complicated. My curiosity continued to grow day by day, and I decided I wanted to start producing something a little more customized. I opened some of the Warcraft 3 single-player campaign maps and took a look under the hood.
I had played the campaign several times, so I had a lot of knowledge about the levels and how they worked. I started looking at the triggers (code) within the maps to see how certain aspects of the levels worked. I concentrated in particular on how in-game cinematics worked because I wanted to make one of my own.
Warcraft 3 World editor, how the sausage is made.
Working with the world editor was delightful. Everything seemed very intuitive, and the barrier to entry was low. It was fascinating discovering all of the creative ways game developers achieve certain effects within their games.
No syntax or compile errors, no documentation to read. Just select what you want
You could do a couple of major things in the world editor: Place units, modify the attributes of units, place terrain and create the environment, place regions and cameras, customize the sound, and the most powerful thing of all, create triggers.
The best thing about working with triggers within the world editor is the learning curve is very low. When using the GUI, you can’t get compile or syntax errors, there is no documentation to read, and the code reads just like English. You’re essentially clicking and dragging little pieces of logic together to create a custom experience.
I built my first custom map in a matter of hours, that was simply some cameras panning around the map, showcasing different areas, with fades and transitions. I hosted this map to the public, just trying to get some feedback. Two people joined who would end up changing the course of my life for the next year or so, Koga73 and TriggerThis.
They said the map was “pretty good for a beginner” and suggested that I join their map-making clan, so we could work together on making more advanced maps that the player base would find more engaging. From that day forward we spent a lot of time working together and recruiting like-minded map makers. We worked together, playtested each other's maps, helped create things together, and released many custom games to the public, some of which became very popular in the community.
I spent a lot of time with Koga73 on AIM (remember that chat application?), asking him questions about how to write triggers for certain things I wanted to accomplish. He would teach me things he had learned in his classes like arrays, variables, loops, conditionals, data structures, debugging, and memory management. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was learning core computer science and programming principles.
I loved it. It was addicting. Being able to create your own worlds, share that experience with other players and see the joy it brings them is something that is hard to reproduce elsewhere. I released several maps within a couple of years, and each one was more engaging, fun and complex than the last. I rose to the top of the clan, and ultimately became a mentor and leader for other aspiring map makers. Some of the most fun Friday and Saturday nights were in that chat channel, talking about making games, scheming how to take down our rivals and competitors, and just playing games together. Not once did we talk about making money, or starting a career. It was just about having fun.
I didn’t know that what I was doing was coding, or programming, let alone a career path. I just knew I was having fun creating games with a great group of people.
Well, that’s a great story and all, but how do I get started?
When I look back, there were four important keystones that helped me stay inspired and motivated me to keep going.
Having a passion for what I wanted to build. A great tight-knit community of like-minded people to grow and have fun with. A low barrier to entry, easy to use development environment. The ability to easily show off and share my creations.
I think it is important when first learning how to code, that you’re able to easily interact with what you’re creating, share it, and show it off. This was harder 17 years ago. iOS and Android development weren’t a thing. Unity didn’t exist. AWS wasn’t a thought in anyone's head yet.
I can’t emphasize enough how important a community of support is. I joined and built up a clan full of aspiring map makers who not only helped me learn the basics but motivated me every day to keep getting better. There are plenty of Discord and Slack groups of developers looking to partner up on exciting new projects.
I would recommend considering one of these ways to get started.
Gaming
There is a great development platform called Unity that I have seen several colleagues of mine, and gaming studios have a lot of success with. There are several sample projects where you can look under the hood and check out the inner workings. You have all the tools you need to make a simple prototype or the next big thing! Some notable games built with Unity include Hearthstone, Cuphead, and Ori and the Blind Forest.
Mobile
iOS or Android development. I have 5+ years of iOS development experience, both contributing and leading teams, and Swift is one of the best languages I have worked with. Swift Playgrounds, by Apple, is a great way to get started. Kotlin for Android development is following in Swift’s footsteps and is gaining a lot of traction and love from the community. Mobile is king in today's world, gaining more adoption every year and has no signs of slowing down.
Web
It’s never been easier to get into full-stack web development. You can host a website extremely quickly (and mostly free) or build a back end with a plethora of services such as AWS Codestar, Heroku, and Firebase. You can write both your front end and back end in Javascript to keep things simpler when learning. A lot of web traffic has shifted to mobile web browsing, so keep that in mind when developing on your laptop or desktop.
Or the route I took…
Warcraft 3 is getting a “Reforged” makeover on January 28, 2020. This will hopefully breathe new life into the map-making community, which will bring with it many opportunities to meet friends, and build great things together.
Happy building!
|
https://medium.com/@mattcielecki/how-i-started-coding-and-how-you-should-too-ef1464482985
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['Matt Cielecki']
|
2020-01-24 21:17:33.487000+00:00
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['Mapmaking', 'Coding', 'Getting Started', 'Programming', 'Warcraft']
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Think of Top 10 Ways To Scare Yourself
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Think of Top 10 Ways To Scare Yourself
The Top 10 Series — 1
Photo by Finan Akbar on Unsplash
In this article, I will introduce a simple reflective exercise that will help you spice up your life. How can you increase elements of excitement, novelty, adventure, and improvisation in your life?
In this exercise, you will be thinking of the top 10 ways to scare yourself. These might be new adventures, experiments, or projects. Alternatively, they might be high risk and high reward initiatives. What could they be?
High adrenaline activities that will excite you
Adventurous activities that you look forward to
Ways of taking more risk
Bucket list type challenges
Creating something completely fresh, novel, and exciting
Traveling an exotic part of the world with your beloved
Engaging in circus activities, such as being a trapeze artist
Learning about magic
Here are two more ideas from “Yes Theory” YouTube Channel: Spending 4 days in the airport and sneaking in everywhere for free:
Now, please think about your own ideas and scenarios to scare yourself. For each scenario, you can write, doodle, and visualize your ideas. Please make a list of small actions and ideas to put it into life. Please do this now — it will take just 5–6 minutes of your time; and this is totally worth your time.
Image Created by Author
Please take an action and do one of these activities right now (or today).
In your life, you need to move away from things that are irritating and taxing for you. You need to move towards things that motivate, inspire, or excite you. You need to say no to a lot of things (i.e. if it is not a hell yes, it is a clear no) and prioritize things that are adventurous, fascinating, or refreshing.
Please implement all your actions in the next month or so. Do not delay. You have one life to live and live it to the fullest!
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https://medium.com/journal-of-curiosity-imagination-and-inspiration/think-of-top-10-ways-to-scare-yourself-3ed8c52a65f2
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['Fahri Karakas']
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2020-11-10 19:20:29.310000+00:00
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['Self Improvement', 'Creativity', 'Self', 'Personal Development', 'Adventure']
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This Was The Most Traumatic Experience of My Life
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On Friday night, May 31st, 2013, I found myself in the middle of a tornado.
Ever since I was a child the weather experts always warned about being in a car on elevated roads when a tornado is bearing down on you.
That Friday night in 2013, I was highly weather-aware and was confident that the tornado that formed near Yukon Oklahoma was heading north and away from me.
I even called my parents that live in Tucson to tell them not to worry about me. About the time I got off the phone with them the storm took a sharp turn south.
I got a call from my friend Nikki warning me to run. I had decided earlier not to run away from the storm and suddenly I was faced with the realization that the apartment that I live in would not survive a direct hit from the tornado the news was describing.
The weather forecaster said,
“This is a groundscraper. You must be either underground, or you must get out of the way.”
So, I got in my car with plans to head south, effectively trying to outrace the tornado.
I immediately regretted leaving the safety of my apartment. Before I even got out of my apartment complex a wild and unpredictable wind buffeted my little Nissan car. I considered heading west instead, but I had no idea what was that way and I knew south was away from the tornado.
So, I decided to go south to the I-35 highway. I figured that I could speed away from the storm.
Unfortunately, I-35 was a parking lot. Apparently, everyone else heard the same weatherman tell us to flee the beast and now we were locked in a traffic jam.
I was maybe half a mile away from my apartment when I hear the cross-streets of where I live mentioned as the path of the tornado and it was heading directly toward me!
As the storm intensified, I pulled over to the shoulder of the bridge I was on to get close to a concrete wall. Rain was pelting my little car horizontally as the wind strengthened.
Then about 100 yards in front of me I saw a power flash as wind ripped the lines out of Moore street lights, one after another.
I looked up to see large black debris floating above me about 30 feet off the ground. Twenty yards in front of me a large heavy construction barricade was effortlessly lifted into the sky and thrown across the highway.
My heart felt like it was about to come out of my chest.
My car started rocking and I began to hear what everyone describes as the signature sound of a tornado — a high pitched banshee howl that is similar to the sound of a freight train.
So, after decades of hearing that you should not be on an elevated roadway when a tornado was chasing you, there I was…
Trapped.
Tornado overhead.
On an elevated roadway.
I had never been more frightened, but I knew if I didn’t do something my life was in jeopardy. So, I decided to take my little Nissan car off-road.
I jumped an embankment, crossed a side road and went over a curb to get my car up against the wall of the Central Church of Moore.
The storm was throwing branches and debris on top of the car and I still didn’t feel safe, so I got out of the car and ran to a doorway that was covered and halfway below ground.
By that time a steady stream of people who were trapped on the highway had followed me, parked behind me on the lawn, and were huddling with me in the covered doorway.
People who were staying in the church heard the commotion and let us in. They were there to help with cleanup after the devastating May 20th tornado in Moore.
It was an ironic and fortuitous occurrence.
In most cases, the church would have been empty on a Friday night and we would have had to take our chances with the tornado outside.
I would like to thank the staff at that church for helping me and, what may have been another 100 people that followed me off the highway, find shelter during the storm.
Amazingly, me, my car and my apartment made it through mostly unscathed.
You can see the track of the tornados in the image above. In addition to these tracks, there were reports of tornadoes all around us for several hours that evening, and I’m convinced that I experienced a mesocyclone as soon as I left my apartment too.
I can tell you that the following day was clear and beautiful, and that I had a focus and desire to achieve my goals more than I ever had before that dark night.
Hello, my name is Dirk Hooper. I have a deep passion for writing that has led me to win a few awards. I’ve had work published at Huffington Post, Slate Magazine, Business Insider, Quartz, The Sporting News, and much more.
In addition to writing, I’m a professional photographer and artist, a consultant for adult marketing and branding, and an audio talent.
My love for words extends to reading as well. Let’s connect!
You’ll see stories on writing, motivation, entertainment, life, business, marketing, art, kink, and poetry on my Medium profile.
|
https://medium.com/swlh/this-was-the-most-traumatic-experience-of-my-life-888b53182302
|
['Dirk Hooper']
|
2019-09-28 07:57:22.493000+00:00
|
['Weather', 'Life', 'Storytelling', 'Life Lessons', 'Tornado']
|
Mysuru has urbanized rapidly, now is the time to take actions
|
Urbanization beyond MCC limits
The following two satellite images show the outskirts of city of Mysuru in 2007 and in 2020.
Outskirts of Mysuru in 2007
Outskirts of Mysuru 2020
Skyline of Hootagalli, a suburb in the outskirts of Mysuru, now made a separate city, (Pic: Manju Visual Emotions on Google Maps)
Despite this massive change, the city limits hasn’t changed since 1995. Infact, the Mysuru City Corporation refuses to integrate these areas despite efforts from the MP Sri. Prathap Simha and MLA Sri. G.T. Devegowda, stating lack of funds to maintain. To be fair to MCC, the state government hasn’t released enough funds for MCC to maintain a city as big as Mysuru. Even though, MCC was the second highest revenue generator among corporations in Karnataka after BBMP.
Mysuru’s Urban Problems
A couple of twitter handles — Voice of Mysuru and My twitter handle ran a poll on two different issues related to Mysuru — Most needed infrastructure projects and major issues faced by civilians in Mysuru. Among the issues, most people said that the roads were not maintained well and illegal garbage dumping was prominent. Most people also wanted the city limit to be expanded to meet the city’s growing urban population.
|
https://medium.com/namma-mysuru/mysuru-has-urbanized-rapidly-now-is-the-time-to-take-actions-f26efc15bdd7
|
['Mysuru Civic Issues']
|
2020-12-18 14:56:02.727000+00:00
|
['Urban Planning', 'Mysuru', 'Karnataka', 'Civic Issues']
|
Coming Up For Air
|
There is a “Tired”
— rest can’t relieve
A Broken
— resisting any glue
A chain of beatings
— whose bruises —
Do…not…fade…
We sleep
— fit-less, dreamless, tossing
We rise
— brush our teeth
Say? “Things are good”
— but —
Walk out the door
— carrying a pool of tears —
So deep
— we might dive forever —
Never finding Bottom
— (watching only blackness) —
No colors or details
— to prove that Time passes…
We develop routines
— when nothing is regular
We are happy
— that we have toilet paper
Pleased
— that no one we know —
Died today…
We try to forget
— the mounting numbers
Try to ignore
— the liars and the cheats —
Speaking on our televisions
— invading —
What sacred solitude
— our homes should be
And sometimes
— for a moment —
We…make…contact
— we see friends —
Not holographic images
— zooming by —
The…real…thing
— of Flesh & Bone —
Walking by
— or in a parking lot
We…talk..
Standing masked
— six feet apart —
(The best Touch
— we can possess)
And for that instant
— we swim to the surface
Abandoning
— our dark places —
We see we aren’t alone
— we feel the joy —
Of sharing our adversities
— finding —
Things…are…not…so bad
— raising dreams —
Of pizza parties
— and laughing —
Without concern of sprays
— when touches —
Need no sanitizer
— and hugging —
Is the way
— we say, “Hello!”
|
https://medium.com/@DrRPalmquist/coming-up-for-air-85a2fa7365af
|
['Richard Palmquist', 'Dvm Gdvchm Cchvm']
|
2020-12-27 15:59:17.101000+00:00
|
['Hope', 'Recovery', 'Depression', 'Pandemic', 'Poetry']
|
A Call to Action: Helping others to learn about Scrum Guide 2020
|
Call To Action
At Serious Scrum, we believe people join this community for a reason: to learn together about how to use the framework and to help others do so too. It is certainly the main reason I am here!
There are many great posts out there from people at Guide Level certification. These help us all to read about the changes. This is very helpful of course, and Serious Scrum editors and writers are already contributing to this discussion.
However, In this post, I would like to echo a call to action from our friends in The Liberators, as I believe it captures a responsibility of serious Scrum professionals:
“This new Scrum Guide presents us — as a community — with a lovely challenge to find novel and creative ways to spread the message to those who wouldn’t go look for it on their own” Source: Christiaan Verwijs, “What 4 Key Changes To The Scrum Guide Tell Us About Scrum”
This call to action is an echo of something new in the guide itself and something that a Scrum Master is now accountable for.
Compare the wording from 2017:
“The Scrum Master is responsible for promoting and supporting Scrum as defined in the Scrum Guide. Scrum Masters do this by helping everyone understand Scrum theory, practices, rules, and values.” Source: Scrum Guide 2017
With the new accountability
“The Scrum Master is accountable for establishing Scrum as defined in the Scrum Guide. They do this by helping everyone understand Scrum theory and practice, both within the Scrum Team and the organization.” Source: Scrum Guide 2020
It is not enough for Scrum professionals to just learn about these changes ourselves.
If we are really serious, then we will need ways to help each other to learn about these changes and why they matter.
We need to help teams and organisations understand what is new, and discuss what it all means in context.
|
https://medium.com/serious-scrum/a-call-to-action-helping-others-to-learn-about-scrum-guide-2020-c823c9b98314
|
['Paddy Corry']
|
2020-11-25 07:02:47.282000+00:00
|
['Work', 'Software Development', 'Remote Working', 'Leadership', 'Technology']
|
I’m a Graduate Student. Why Am I Still Waiting Until the Due Date to Start My Essays?
|
Photo by Andrew Neel from Pexels
I’m a Graduate Student. Why Am I Still Waiting Until the Due Date to Start My Essays?
In everyday life, I am not a procrastinator.
A typical day for me includes a little bit of tidying up my apartment, getting to work early, and cooking dinner at the same time. I find time to write in between my daily work schedule and my tutoring schedule, even striving to wake up early each day just to get some extra writing in. When I don’t have any assigned responsibilities, I assign them to myself and make sure that my novel receives the 1,600 words per day that it deserves.
When it comes to schoolwork, I cannot say the same thing. No matter how old I grow and how much more responsibility I accept, I still seem to find myself waiting until the day-before or day-of my deadlines to complete my academic work. In fact, as I write this, I am supposed to be writing a paper that is due tomorrow at midnight.
Why am I such a responsible person except for when it comes to the most integral aspect of this time in my life?
It’s not as though I haven’t already planned out the essay and concocted my list of scholarly articles to use for this analysis of methodology I’ve been assigned. I have a plan and I’m ready to write it — I just won’t do it until I can begin to feel my skin crawl with tension and the ticking of the clock intensifying.
Over the years, I’ve learned that some of my best work is produced when I am under pressure. In the entirety of my five years learning at the college level, I have never written a paper once gradually over time and instead have always opted to save my work for the last minute. I faithfully believe in my ability to produce quality work under a time crunch and know that I will successfully meet all of the criteria I’m supposed to when the anxiety hits.
Isn’t that the problem with procrastination, though? The anxiety that it causes is often so stressful that it stifles us. Would I write better if I didn’t have a deadline? I was made aware of the due date of this paper roughly six weeks ago!
Fellow procrastinators, I believe that if we didn’t have a deadline then the work would never get done. If we didn’t subject ourselves to the variable fear and anxiety of closeness to the due-date, pure intimacy with the possibility of failure, we would not produce any work at all. It’s just the way that we are.
Am I going to be this way forever? Are you going to be this way forever?
Probably.
I’m working on a Masters degree and I still can’t seem to stop acting out like this when it comes to my studies, even amidst being a shining example of adulthood when it comes to everything else.
Maybe the answer is to simply stop bullying ourselves for being procrastinators. There’s a stigma to procrastinating that I know I don’t appreciate, and you probably don’t, either.
As long as the paper is getting done efficiently and correctly within excellent standards, does it really matter whether it was written over two weeks or over two hours?
No.
This is the system that works for me and if it works for you too, then relax, kick back, and remember: sometimes that saying about the journey being more important than the destination is nonsense.
|
https://medium.com/curious/im-a-graduate-student-why-am-i-still-waiting-until-the-due-date-to-start-my-essays-1b1435eaa9ad
|
['H. M. Johnson']
|
2020-12-15 02:33:35.999000+00:00
|
['Humor', 'Students', 'Writing', 'Procrastination']
|
For Chemistry Lab, Raid the Pantry for Raw Materials
|
By Charlie Cox
Editor’s Note: This is part of an occasional series of essays by Duke faculty members whose normal fall 2020 class routines were disrupted by the pandemic. These essays will examine how faculty adapted.
I teach Chem 101, and to give students a realistic laboratory experience this fall, I used a combination of simulations and at-home experiments using ingredients they might find in their pantry or the baking section of the grocery store.
Students completed simulations during the first half of the semester for the more abstract content, which included experiments and content normally not covered in the laboratory. For the second half of the semester, we gave students reagents such as vinegar, crème of tartar, food coloring, and other household items to complete experiments associated with kinetics and acid-base chemistry while at home. We designed assessments for both the simulation and at-home experiments that emphasized data analysis and interpretation because of the importance of this objective in the chemistry curriculum.
My lecture component was likewise changed to provide additional materials for students. We prepared videos for each of the learning objectives for Chem 101. We decided to make these “ShowMe” videos ourselves to provide students in-house Duke materials to ensure quality and depth. I recalibrated my lectures to include a review of the content and included problem-solving activities, since students had some familiarity with the content prior to lecture by watching the “ShowMe” videos.
In lecture, I encouraged students to participate in discussions by posting responses to the chat in Zoom and by asking questions of everyone or sending them privately to me. I tend to move slower as a result of monitoring the chat and trying to gauge student understanding during lecture. I changed my office hours to include an emphasis upon problem solving and discussion. I used a synchronous approach in lecture because of the importance of building a classroom community. The laboratory component also used a synchronous approach; we recorded all Zoom sessions, including office hours to provide flexibility for students in different time zones. We modified the grading structure to incorporate more lower stakes activities such as homework assignments, discussion problems, and weekly quizzes to lower the weight associated with each of the mid-term exams.
The result: Teaching on Zoom did have many challenges. I’ve always been a chalkboard professor, so I had to learn new technology quickly. I had students in Durham but also in Thailand and Australia; therefore, I am sure taking lectures and laboratories were quite challenging for these students given the time differences. Despite my personal struggles and struggles students may have faced, my students did very well. I had an amazing group of students who helped motivate me to go above and beyond during my first semester at Duke. Office hours using a problem-solving approach proved to be quite effective and will be something I continue to do once face-to-face instruction resumes.
In addition, we now have a set of videos that will help us create a more interactive classroom in the future that will focus teaching content and provide a greater focus upon problem solving. Finally, I’ve learned the pros and cons of using simulations in lieu of and for supplementing laboratory experiences. My research group plans to focus upon educational benefits of simulations and aid in developing evidence-based practices for incorporating simulations in lectures and laboratories.
Charlie Cox is an associate professor of the practice of chemistry at Duke University
|
https://medium.com/dukeuniversity/for-chemistry-lab-raid-the-pantry-for-raw-materials-a6005374fb2c
|
['Duke University']
|
2020-12-17 13:06:45.577000+00:00
|
['Duke University', 'Science Education', 'Covid Diaries', 'Higher Education', 'Chemistry']
|
Seven Days Without My Phone — Here’s What Happened
|
We are all addicted to our phones, that’s a fact. To feel just how addicted I am, I took on the challenge of 7 days without my phone.
The first day felt weird. Usually, the first thing in the morning involves a check of my phone as I work with people worldwide and get messages and emails overnight. This usually happens before I take the first step out of bed. On the first morning of my challenge, I felt a strong urge to quit and check my phone. I felt underinformed, and like I was missing important news. I got out of bed and into the bathroom. I noticed straight away that I was ready much faster than on an average day, as I didn’t read the news while in the bathroom.
The addiction to my phone became most apparent when waiting in line somewhere. The second I had to wait for anything, my hand went for my phone (or where it was). Phones are filling every second of spare time we have in a day. Waiting for something or someone? Everyone is getting their phones out, even though they have nothing to do. Instead, you open Instagram, Facebook, News, and scroll through it. Wasting your time, wasting the moment, and maybe missing out on something! Ever had that moment where someone in a café screamed: “Look, OMG!”. You were looking at your phone, as always, looked up, and knew right away that you missed it? Me too! Let’s be the ones saying: “Look, OMG!” and not missing out on those moments!
Photo by Daria Shevtsova from Pexels
Another behavior I noticed was the urge to photograph everything (this doesn’t necessarily include photos of people). I love the camera on my phone, and take a lot of photos with it. Usually, I have to move my pictures from the phone once a year to free up storage. I took about 6.000 photos last year, which might make some of you chuckle, but it is a lot for me! I don’t really use Instagram or Facebook; I don’t even share the photos. I try to capture every moment. But in my 7 days of phone abstinence, I noticed how taking pictures of everything takes the magic away from it. A sunset is photographed and then immediately forgotten. The image is never seen again, moved to a 5TB storage hard drive somewhere in the house at the end of the year to clean the phone's storage. The hard drive is replaced once the 5TB is exhausted and buried somewhere in the basement. The same goes for people sitting in restaurants, getting their food, and start by taking photos of it for at least 5 minutes. Every angle has to be captured. And DO NOT DARE TO FORGET THE GLASS OF WHITE WINE IN THE BACKGROUND!! #chique By the time they are satisfied with their 129 images, picked the “perfect one”, applied the best filter, changed their mind about the “perfect one” reapplied the best filter to the “new perfect one”, posted it to Instagram, Whatsapp Story, Facebook, Snapchat, and TikTok, the food cooked to perfection is cold.
My phoneless evenings started off a little “Well, what am I supposed to do now?” ish. Usually, I end my day lying in bed and fiddling around with my phone until I am too tired to keep my eyes open. This can take quite some time. I noticed how I was wasting hours of my day every evening! I love a good night's sleep, and so I go to bed around 10PM, even though I might not be tired. Instead of being productive and getting some remaining work done, I lie there and waste my time, sometimes for hours. During the seven days, I started developing a more productive and healthier evening routine. First, I started disregarding my 10PM rule. When I was tied at 9PM, I would go to bed (without my phone, of course) and try to sleep. When I wasn’t tired at 10PM, I would give myself another hour to get stuff done. I reduced the wake time in bed to maybe 15 minutes. That was a massive improvement to my routine and something I will definitely keep up!
Conclusion
I can only recommend this 7-day challenge to everyone! Getting past the first days might be challenging, but you start to learn more about yourself and your (addictive) behaviors. I learned that every task I was working on was by far slower, as my phone became a more significant distraction, the more tired or exhausted I got. Leaving my phone off helped me get more work done and gave me a lot of spare time for the things I really love. The best part: I finally found the proper time to write!
Even after the challenge, I will keep some new habits.
|
https://medium.com/in-fitness-and-in-health/seven-days-without-my-phone-heres-what-happened-96e07d92ae35
|
['Mats Bauer']
|
2020-10-24 15:47:58.710000+00:00
|
['Health', 'Addiction', 'Getting Things Done', 'Wealth', 'Phone']
|
Chalmers’ claim for philosophical zombies irritates a lot of people, including other philosophers.
|
Chalmers’ claim for philosophical zombies irritates a lot of people, including other philosophers. But I have tried to show that the subject does lead to some interesting theories about how our minds work, and how when this fails you get sociopaths. My story was written when I had not yet learned to stay more focused in my writing. Yours is nicely focused. But you might find some interesting threads to follow in what I wrote.
|
https://medium.com/@ted-wade/chalmers-claim-for-philosophical-zombies-irritates-a-lot-of-people-including-other-philosophers-15b4f5f2ab7e
|
['Ted Wade']
|
2020-12-18 18:57:13.330000+00:00
|
['Philosophy', 'Zombies', 'Materialism', 'Education', 'Consciousness']
|
What my 9-year old taught me about saving the planet
|
We all want the best for our kids.
Whether it’s teaching them to be good citizens with a sound moral compass, distinguishing between fact from fiction, or giving them a good education to set them up for success and the best possible future.
But sometimes they surprise us by teaching us a thing or two instead.
Kids are like sponges. And if you’re a parent, you’ll know to watch what you say because it comes right back at you one day — often when you least expect it.
It’s amazing how a kid’s mind works and what they choose to store. Here’s what I’ve learnt from mine:
Lesson #1: Save the polar bears! Save Christmas!
Walking home from school is typically a non-event. Apart from when your little sister decides she doesn’t want to exert her little legs.
My 6-year old daughter: Why didn’t we drive? Me: It’s only a short walk. Good exercise. My 9-year old son: Anyway, driving is bad. It releases carbon dioxide that’s bad for the environment. My 6-year old: What’s that?
Before I knew it, my son took his sister through a whole mini lesson on carbon dioxide, global warming, melting of the North Pole and saving the cute polar bears.
Although, I think he lost her at carbon dioxide. Her ears only perked up when she heard North Pole.
Obviously, it worried her when my son went on to explain it means no more Santa. And more importantly, no Elve’s Workshop, toys or Christmas presents down the chimney (the fact we don’t have a chimney is a minor issue!).
Like my daughter, many of us are often not interested enough to take any action until it impacts us personally or is felt closer to home. After all, it’s human nature to be self-interested, right?
I’m no expert on climate change. But I’m not going to dispute science and experts when they say we’re already experiencing climate change now.
Or as Professor Gail Whiteman put it at Davos 2020:
“What happens in the Arctic does not stay there; what’s at stake in the Arctic is actually the future of humanity itself.”
If we really do want the best future for our kids, shouldn’t we also be doing our part to help shape a better world for them to live in?
If the experts are right, and we don’t do enough to help slow things down now, our current world could drastically change, which affects everyone — whether you have kids or not.
As for the issue of having to walk home from school — it never came up again after that day. We don’t want to lose Christmas, do we?
Lesson #2: Have you heard about the Great Pacific Dump?
I only learnt of it recently (*guilty*).
I love family dinner conversations. It’s a great time to catch up on the day. And maybe get a lesson on sustainability from your 9-year old (I’ll thank his teachers later).
“Mum, do you know about the Great Pacific Dump? It’s as big as a continent of plastic waste in the ocean that’s killing fish. The worse thing is, there are tiny bits of plastic particles in the water making it almost impossible to clean up.”
This is what I discovered from that conversation and subsequent googling:
It’s a giant, swirling pile of plastic debris floating between Hawaii and California, three times the size of France!
More commonly referred to as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP), it’s as its name suggests, made up of garbage. Anything from fishing nets to plastic bags.
The area is the biggest ocean garbage patch but is only one of five around the world.
It reminded me of my travels on the island of Korcula in Croatia, a real hidden gem. Except for a little island we stumbled upon while sailing, which was totally filled with washed-up plastic waste.
The Great Pacific Dump must be something like this — only thousands of times bigger!
Did you know plastic can take up to 500 years to decompose?
Source: WWF
According to WWF, Australia alone produces 3 million tones of plastic a year, and less than 12% is recycled. As much as 130,000 tonnes of that plastic ends up in the ocean each year.
This explains why my son brings his soft plastics home from school.
Lesson #3: WALL-E and saving the planet
“Recycling is so important because if you have ever seen the movie WALL-E, you will know that all the people live in space. They live in space because they didn’t recycle. In the movie, the Earth is one big junkyard. Right now, there is one big junkyard and it is called the Great Pacific Dump…”
This is what my son chose to write about for his homework on “Something important I have learnt …”.
In WALL-E, mankind has abandoned Earth because it has become covered with trash. WALL-E — a garbage collecting robot — has been left to clean up the mess.
Being kept up at night at the thought of having to one day leave Earth and live out of space — exciting or scary? I can’t say I’ve had to deal with bigger worries as a kid!
While I do enjoy travelling, can’t think of anything worse than being stuck on a spaceship floating around out in space forever.
It’s up to us to change our daily habits today, to strive for a more sustainable future for all. From what we buy, to how we live, and what we choose to invest in.
|
https://medium.com/elevate-super/what-my-9-year-old-taught-me-about-saving-the-planet-16c10cfe4825
|
['Jade Ong']
|
2020-11-27 01:41:00.712000+00:00
|
['Plastic Pollution', 'Save The Planet', 'Recycling', 'Climate Action', 'Sustainability']
|
Black teachers, please don’t tear down your black students
|
Black teachers, please don’t tear down your black students
Contrary to popular belief, words do hurt
Photo credit: Create Her Stock
I looked from my classmate Kellz* to my favorite teacher. I couldn’t believe she had just said that to him. Kellz had come to class and kept talking during the teacher’s instructions. “Disrupting the class” is how report cards would’ve described it. But he and my teacher Mrs. Fossil** struggled to have a peaceful relationship from the very beginning of our fifth-grade class.
Apparently he’d gotten on her nerves one too many times that day and she blurted out, “Shut up, you little ignorant boy. You’re not going to be anything when you grow up anyway.”
And I sat there absolutely startled by this statement. By the time I’d heard Jay Z’s “So Ambitious” lyrics in 2009, I could relate to them personally — from Kellz’s perspective.
I felt so inspired by what my teacher said,
Said I’d either be dead or be a reefer head,
Not sure if that’s how adults should speak to kids,
Especially when the only thing I did was speak in class,
I’ll teach his ass.
Kellz and I were friendly enough that we could have our own little chats during recess, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say we were friends. However, up until that point, I’d admired and almost depended on that teacher as guidance both educationally and personally.
I could’ve easily been like any other student in the room and not internalized that attack as something sent my way. After all, that verbal weaponry was aimed at one particular student. But I decided from that moment forward that the whole class was collateral damage from her friendly fire. Why? His wrongdoing wasn’t worth telling my peer that he would not be “anything” when he grows up, simply from talking now. And if she’d say that to him, it was only a matter of time before she’d say it to someone else in our class.
Photo credit: Matthew Henry/Burst
Kellz took it like a champ though. He responded defiantly to Mrs. Fossil, “Yes, I will.” The class was silent for the rest of that day of class. And I was quiet around that teacher for the rest of the year.
Additionally, in seventh or eighth grade, a student named Ronald*** was told something similar by another teacher. Ronald, who was a friend of mine, laughed about it. He’d already grown a mustache, so we knew he definitely failed a grade (or two). He seemed to be content with people writing him off. I was not, and I kept insisting that he do his homework and helped where I could.
|
https://medium.com/i-do-see-color/black-teachers-please-dont-tear-down-your-black-students-6d637e5ef844
|
['Shamontiel L. Vaughn']
|
2020-05-02 18:54:42.798000+00:00
|
['Children', 'Race', 'African American', 'Parenthood', 'Elementary School']
|
Global Ballistic Protection Industry Analysis By Geography
|
Stratistics MRC’s Ballistic Protection Market report explains company profiling, key segments, market trends, top players and regional, country-level segments.
Based on application, the homeland security segment is estimated to have lucrative growth. Ballistic-resistant body armor is worn by homeland security officers while in the field to protect against specific ballistic threats. To ensure safety during any mission, homeland security officers use personal protective equipment; involve body vests, ballistic helmets, and gloves.. Homeland security officers combat systems used by are ballistic resistant as ceramics and thermoplastics reinforce them.
Browse complete “Ballistic Protection Market” report with TOC @ https://www.strategymrc.com/report/ballistic-protection-market
By geography, Asia Pacific is going to have high growth during forecast period, owing to the economic growth of countries in this region and increased defense spending in countries such as India, China, Japan, South Korea, and Australia. The governments of these countries and local industries are also joining-up with the contractors and supporting them through the procurement process by providing necessary financial and infrastructure aids. The increase in the number of insurgent groups entering the territories and using deadly explosives such as IEDs and bombs has further uplift requirement for ballistic protection systems.
Some of the key players profiled in the Ballistic Protection Market include BAE Systems, Craig International Ballistics Pty Ltd, Elmon, FMS Enterprises Migun Ltd, Koninklijke Ten Cate bv, MKU Limited, Permali Point Blank Enterprises Inc, Revision Military, Rheinmetall AG, Saab AB, Urvitec Group Limited Company.
Request a Sample of “Ballistic Protection Market” @ https://www.strategymrc.com/report/ballistic-protection-market/request-sample
Free Customization Offerings:
All the customers of this report will be entitled to receive one of the following free customization options:
Company Profiling
Comprehensive profiling of additional market players (up to 3)
SWOT Analysis of key players (up to 3)
Regional Segmentation
Market estimations, Forecasts and CAGR of any prominent country as per the client’s interest (Note: Depends on feasibility check)
Competitive Benchmarking
Benchmarking of key players based on product portfolio, geographical presence, and strategic alliances
For more information about this report visit https://www.strategymrc.com/report/ballistic-protection-market
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About Us:
Stratistics MRC offer a wide spectrum of research and consulting services with in-depth knowledge of different industries. Our research reports and publications are routed to help our clients to design their business models and enhance their business growth in the competitive market scenario. We have a strong team with hand-picked consultants including project managers, implementers, industry experts, researchers, research evaluators and analysts with years of experience in delivering the complex projects.
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Website: https://www.strategymrc.com
|
https://medium.com/@srinath.smrc1/global-ballistic-protection-industry-analysis-by-geography-ad3fc3e9300f
|
['Srinath Smrc']
|
2021-12-25 04:55:01.262000+00:00
|
['Report', 'Market Research Reports', 'Market', 'Business', 'Aerospace']
|
What does sustainable investing mean exactly?
|
What we at Vestive call sustainable investing, others sometimes call impact investing. Or they might call it socially responsible, ethical, environmental or ESG investing. There are a lot of terms for the same basic idea.
So, what does this actually mean? It means that when making investment decisions, we consider a range of environmental and social factors, in addition to financial ones. At Vestive, we score our investments on factors like carbon emissions, alternative energy, high-impact fossil fuels, women in leadership, gun manufacturers, tobacco manufacturers and labor norms violations, among others.
For issues that are having a negative impact on our world, such as high-impact fossil fuels or companies with labor norms violations, we screen companies out. At the same time, we increase our investment in companies that have a positive impact, like those in the alternative energy industry.
Some versions of sustainable investing focus on just one issue, like climate change, but we take a broader approach. Otherwise, you might end up with a portfolio that has a low carbon footprint, for example, but has a terrible track record on how they treat their workers. Evaluating a fund’s impact holistically allows your money to have the greatest overall impact.
When evaluating a company we cannot only consider the end product produced. Often a significant portion of a business’ sustainability impact is driven by secondary factors like its supply chain, workforce diversity, and corporate governance. This approach ensures that companies that use an electric truck fleet, or have a diverse workforce and leadership, for example, can score better in our book and be a bigger part of Vestive portfolios.
|
https://medium.com/vestive/what-does-sustainable-investing-really-mean-b85e67b31963
|
['Vestive Staff']
|
2019-04-12 19:42:29.162000+00:00
|
['Millenials', 'Sustainable Investing', 'Personal Finance', 'Impact Investing', 'Esg Investing']
|
What do you do quickly?
|
“Make pitch decks.”
“Organize projects.”
“Understand what people need.”
What’s the first answer that comes to your head? (You can also substitute quickly for easily if that helps.)
Since I started posing that question here some of the things I’ve heard:
Public speaking
Sales
Networking
Putting together spreadsheets
Editing
Writing
Making playlists
Cooking
Solving problems
Making friends/new connections
Designing
Creating art
Coaching
Creating timelines
Staying calm under pressure
Build spreadsheets
Manage budgets
Teaching
Writing contracts
The original question was posed to me by my friend a few months ago and those first three answers were the things we said about ourselves. My friend who posed the question told me that when she had been told to ask the question “what can you do quickly?” she found herself having no problem writing down a list of skills. This felt very different than the question, “what are you good at?” which would typically quickly conjure up thoughts like “I don’t know if I’m that good at anything” or “I definitely know people who are better than me.”
Good is tricky. Good for me might be average for you. It can be hard to assess your skills when you use terms like good or love. What do you love to do? That question has always stumped me and is right up there with the “what are you passionate about?” question. Ummm…. (Insert stressed emoji face here.)
I’ve always felt like I’ve had inadequate answers to those questions. Words like love and passion and even good are so loaded. But when my friend reframed the question I had tons of answers. I can think of lots of things I can do quickly or easily.
For example, I can manage projects easily. I don’t consider this a super specialized skill, lots of people do this and a lot of people do it better than me. But that isn’t the question, the question is quickly and easily and that I can do. I am also not passionate about managing projects, but what I do care about is taking ideas I deem important and interesting and bringing them to life.
I have a lot of friends who work on and care deeply about local food. Most of them will never be farmers and most of their quick and easy skills are pretty straightforward but those skills are needed to support farmers and increase access to locally grown food. It can be helpful to acknowledge that you might not be passionate about the things you can do quickly and easily but those skills can be used to move forward something you do care about.
So when you are thinking about what value you can bring to a team or a project or even looking for a new job your “quick and easy list” can be very helpful. Because what is quick and easy for you is not quick and easy for someone else.
Sign up for our Sunday newsletters at www.sumandsub.com.
|
https://medium.com/@jessblackstock/what-do-you-do-quickly-e609167b9179
|
['Jess Blackstock']
|
2019-11-10 20:21:04.145000+00:00
|
['Time Management', 'Efficiency', 'Easy', 'Life Lessons', 'Exercise Motivation']
|
Obituary: My Mother- Sarmistha Sahariah.
|
Sarmistha Sahariah:03 September, 1954–03 December 2019.
When her body left home for cremation, my father draped her in a beautiful saree, applied lipstick and vermilion. She looked beautiful — even in her death. But in life too she was elegant, carried a positive outlook and loved to look beautiful.
Cancer mercilessly tore her body but could not touch her spirit. She was struggling with her health for a year, was very frail; it was only five months back she was diagnosed with the dreadful disease.
Doctors instantly issued the death warrant, “she has limited time — perhaps six months,” they said; “please ensure that she lives her last days with dignity and comfort.” I and my father were devastated. Breaking that news to my mum would have instantly killed her. We withheld it after discussing with the doctor. The next five months, we saw death lingering over her head, swallowing her part by part before she succumbed during early hours of 03 December in Delhi. She was 65.
She was fiercely strong until the end. She hoped that she would be well enough to return home one day, wear her lovely sarees and attend friend’s children’s weddings and look beautiful again — simple wishes which we painfully knew could never be fulfilled.
She was born on 03 September 1954 and had comfortable upbringing in Guwahati, Assam. She was known to be fashionable since her early days. She loved travelling, was very fond of collecting sarees and decorating her home. She met my father during their university days, fell in love with his eccentric ways and got married him in 1981. A year later I was born.
My mother with her friend in 1970s
My mother had a great ability to adapt to situations and was courageous. Life threw various challenges — some really nasty ones — but each time she rose to the occasion to deal with all in different capacities as a businesswoman, teacher, mother, daughter or a wife. Her father died of cancer a week after her marriage in Calcutta; he had set up his own family business just before that — it was my mother who took charge of that business and steered it in the late 1970s, whilst her father battled cancer.
When she married my dad, she stepped into a household that was massive — and culturally, totally different. As an urban girl, my mother had rarely seen villages — let alone live in one. But she embraced her new life with optimism and joy respecting everyone and their value systems. As an outsider she was privileged but her simplicity won the hearts of many in those villages where my dad’s extended family still lives — and today, they are all in grief.
With my father
Likewise, her first job as a teacher of political science took her to a far flung and remote town in upper Assam. In those days, it was an ardours journey to get there, but she took up the challenge. She served as a teacher for the rest of her career and retired in 2014. She loved her students; her colleagues were her best friends and she remembered them until her very last moment.
All mothers dream of a good future for their children. And in that aspect, for me, she was a woman with a vision. She shaped me to have a global outlook right from my childhood. When I was ten years old, she, with a heavy heart, sent me to a boarding school. I still remember tears rolling down her cheek when as my parents dropped me off at school and handed me over to the hostel warden. She always said: sending me off to a boarding school was one of her toughest decision in life because I hardly ate then, but it was all worth. For me, my mother was a great friend. As a parent, she was never indulgent but reasonable; she guided me to be on the right path and taught me to be righteous.
January 2019
She approached problems with reason, sensitivity and diligence. People looked up to her for strength and advice; she treated everyone with kindness and compassion. She defended truth and spoke up against lies and injustice.
When dealing with person’s illness you learn a lot about life. During her final months, my mother was cared for by very compassionate nurses along with my father. One nurse, Shabnam, became her good friend. These fantastic women had their own tales of suffering. They were all single mothers dealing with terrible problems and severely let down by the society, but they had incredible strength and selfless love. It made us wonder how their vital — and compassionate — services largely go unnoticed.
These women were from different faiths and backgrounds, but they all prayed for my mother and cared for her in way I couldn’t have. My mother’s battle with life showed us the greatness of humanity over the fissiparous issues of society that have absolutely no meaning.
My mother always used to say, “there will be problems in life — like illness- over which you will have no control. But things over which you have control, do not spoil it. Keep life simple and enjoy it. If today is a good day, just enjoy it.”
A great way to pay tribute to a person is to live by the great values they teach you. I hope to do the same as her son.
May God rest her soul in peace.
|
https://medium.com/@suti011/obituary-my-mother-sarmistha-sahariah-ff27ad77379c
|
['Dr.Sutirtha Sahariah']
|
2019-12-09 02:20:07.855000+00:00
|
['Mother', 'Obituary', 'Family']
|
A Break from COVID-19: Ronald Reagan, Jesse Jackson, and Judge Robert Bork
|
St. Ronald Reagan, 1987. Image: Unsplash
Author’s Note:
This is an attempt to take a short break from thinking about, talking about, writing about, being about the Covid/Coronavirus plague which has so drastically changed our lives.
It is also a chance to take a look back, reminisce and recall just exactly what we were thinking about, talking about, writing about “back in the day.”
In 1987, I was writing for something called Syndicated Writers & Artists of America, Inc. out of Indianapolis. That now-defunct company was rather unique in that it was one of a very few black-owned and operated creative arts syndicators in the country. Indeed, it provided me with my first national exposure. This piece, however, first appeared as an editorial in the still extant black-owned/operated Indianapolis Recorder daily newspaper, another rarity.
There was no Internet back then, of course. In fact, the Internet was still just a twinkle in Al Gore’s eye.
At the time, St. Ronald Reagan was president, and Jesse Jackson was gearing up for yet another run for the presidency. Reagan’s nominee for the Supreme Court, Judge Robert Bork, went down in flames in a series of fiery and contentious Senate Judiciary Committee hearings (on which sat Senator Joe Biden, by the way)…and black people were celebrating.
For the young people:
Judge Bork
Judge Robert Bork’s failure to win confirmation by the U.S. Senate may be traced directly to Jesse Jackson’s 1984 run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. With each passing day, more Senators, particularly from the South, declare their opposition to Bork. Although southern Democratic Senators are hammering home the final nails in Bork’s political coffin, it was Jackson who gathered the wood for its construction. Their votes were considered crucial by the Reagan regime and they were expected to fall in line for Bork. Many come from states where large black voting blocks provided their own slim margins of victory. They have studied the polls and understand clearly that Blacks are virtually uniformly opposed to Bork’s nomination.
These southern Senators (formerly known as “boll weevils” and before that, “Dixiecrats”), also understand that Jackson’s 1984 run for the nomination forever reshaped America’s political landscape. In 1984, Blacks throughout the nation lined up to register to vote for the first “serious” black presidential candidate. Jackson’s extraordinary totals in the primaries, particularly among blacks, kept him in the race to its end in San Francisco, while all but two white contenders dropped out one by one.
Since 1981, these same southern Democratic Senators voted with Reagan on almost every issue as they hitched a ride on his wide popularity among whites. The Republicans took control of the Senate and ramrodded Reagan’s programs through Congress with only token opposition. These programs, as far as blacks were concerned, were more akin to pogroms in that they sought to disembowel all socio-economic advances Blacks had made over the past 30 years. Blacks were not registered to vote in any significant numbers and were therefore not a factor in white politicians’ decisions, particularly in the South. Estimates vary, but Jackson’s ’84 campaign is credited with registering from two million to four million new Black voters, mostly in the South. Although Jackson did not win the party’s nomination, his payoff came in the 1986 Congressional mid-term elections when southern “boll weevils” were replaced by “moderate” if not “liberal” whites in the Senate.
With the Iran-Contra fiasco as a backdrop, in 1987 Reagan sought to extend his political and personal influence on the body politic far beyond his tenure in office by nominating U.S. District Court of Appeals Judge Robert Bork to the Supreme Court. Bork is a true ideologue, his recantations at the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings notwithstanding. Throughout his long public career, he has made it plain through pronouncements from the bench and extralegal writings that he is against almost every civil rights measure adopted since the post-Civil War Amendments to the Constitution. He deigns to interpret the Constitution within the framework of a judicial philosophy which holds that the “original intent” of the drafters of the Constitution is the only guidepost necessary in formulating judicial doctrine. Put another way, if “civil rights” are not explicitly referred to within the four corners of the Constitution, then they simply do not exist.
As a jurist, Judge Bork has never employed a black law clerk. As a lawyer, he has never done pro bono publico work (“for the good of the public” — free). His testimony before the Senate Committee, however, revealed a curious chameleon-like characteristic in that he appeared to say what he thought the Senators (and the public) wanted to hear.
Blacks mounted a massive, organized, and persistent campaign to discredit Bork before the Committee. Former Mayor of Gary, Indiana (and Jackson’s ’84 campaign manager), Richard G. Hatcher, called Bork’s nomination to the high court “the final outrage” of the Reagan regime. It was the consciousness-raising effects of Jackson’s first campaign that afforded Blacks throughout the country as registered voters the political muscle and moxy in 1987 to confront and finally defeat a Supreme Court nominee with whom they vehemently disagreed.
If Jackson’s run in ’84 accomplished nothing else, it put white politicians on notice that the Black vote is never again to be ignored or taken for granted. His ’88 campaign will move Blacks even further along the road to political maturity and power. Jackson now is making deliberate efforts to broaden his support to include all disaffected groups. Who knows? Given his rhetorical skills and charismatic presence, he might pull it off. No? Ask Judge Bork.
|
https://hdyerjr.medium.com/a-break-from-covid-19-ronald-reagan-jesse-jackson-and-judge-robert-bork-422d59d36259
|
['Herbert Dyer']
|
2020-05-27 23:44:52.978000+00:00
|
['Supreme Court', 'Ronald Reagan', 'Jesse Jackson', 'History', 'Robert Bork']
|
How To Use AccessControl.sol
|
How To Use AccessControl.sol
Photo by Scott Webb from Pexels
Restricting access to authorized users is really important in smart contracts. With $1 Billion locked in DeFi applications, you would really hope everyone knows what they are doing.
Recently, I collaborated with OpenZeppelin to refactor the access control in their widely used openzeppelin-contracts repository. If you have ever coded a smart contract, most likely you have inherited from their code.
In this article, I’m going to give you a walkthrough of how to use the revamped AccessControl.sol to restrict access to your smart contracts. I’ll do this through three examples.
But first, let me tell you the story of how we got here. Please feel free to skip the next section if you are not interested in how this contract came to be and only want to learn how to use it.
How we got here
Getting here for me has been a process that took about a year. I first had the idea for a hierarchical role-based control contract in May 2019. I published the code in Medium, along with some references to what OpenZeppelin was doing at the time.
I reused that code for AllianceBlock and Insig, becoming convinced that the implementation offered something both unique and powerful. From the lessons learned I wrote a second article showing when to use Ownable.sol, Whitelist.sol and RBAC.sol.
To write that article I needed to research deeply into what OpenZeppelin had been doing in terms of access control. You don’t challenge the most-forked solidity repository without doing your homework.
The guys at OpenZeppelin team are really welcoming, and shortly after publishing that second article they invited me to participate in the refactor of their access control contracts. Out of that collaboration we created an access control contract that is much more flexible than their previous approach, and much more robust than my previous approach.
AccessControl.sol is available from the openzeppelin-contracts repository and I don’t keep a different codebase anymore.
As an interesting aside, and as further proof of how important is access control, a version of Ownable.sol existed back in 2016. It was Manuel Araoz’s 9th commit towards what would become openzeppelin-contracts.
In solidity years that is like digging dinosaur bones, and proves that access control is one of the very first things you should think about when coding smart contracts. Especially if you intend to code robust ones.
Story time over, let’s dive into the code.
How does AccessControl.sol work
A role in AccessControl.sol is a struct that contains a set of addresses, representing the accounts bearing that role. All roles are stored in a mapping indexed by a bytes32 identifier, unique for each role.
Each role also contains the bytes32 identifier of another role, which we call its admin role.
There are internal functions to grant and revoke roles, and to set a role as the admin of another. These internal functions have no restrictions and you can use them if you are extending AccessControl.sol, as we will do later in this article.
There are also external functions that restrict granting and revoking roles, as well as setting roles as admins of others. These functions can only be called externally by accounts that have been granted the admin role of the role being modified.
As an example, imagine that we have two roles, DEFAULT_ADMIN_ROLE and USER_ROLE. DEFAULT_ADMIN_ROLE is the admin role for USER_ROLE.
Only accounts that have been granted the DEFAULT_ADMIN_ROLE can grant or revoke USER_ROLE for an account.
Likewise, only accounts that have been granted the DEFAULT_ADMIN_ROLE can redefine the admin role for USER_ROLE.
A bit of magic worked here by nventuro was to define DEFAULT_ADMIN_ROLE as the uninitialized bytes32 variable. That means that all roles, by default, have DEFAULT_ADMIN_ROLE as the admin role.
That’s it, let me show you in more detail with examples.
Community
This contract replicates the functionality that existed in OpenZeppelin Roles.sol before.
There is a single role (DEFAULT_ADMIN_ROLE)
Anyone that has that role can grant it to others.
In Community.sol roles can’t be revoked from a different account, but accounts can renounce to a role they hold.
The address passed on to the constructor is the first account being granted the role.
pragma solidity ^0.6.0;
import "@openzeppelin/contracts/access/AccessControl.sol"; /// @dev Implements a single role access control contract.
contract Community is AccessControl { /// @dev Create the community role, with `root` as a member.
constructor (address root) public {
_setupRole(DEFAULT_ADMIN_ROLE, root);
} /// @dev Restricted to members of the community.
modifier onlyMember() {
require(isMember(msg.sender), "Restricted to members.");
_;
} /// @dev Return `true` if the `account` belongs to the community.
function isMember(address account)
public virtual view returns (bool)
{
return hasRole(DEFAULT_ADMIN_ROLE, account);
} /// @dev Add a member of the community.
function addMember(address account) public virtual onlyMember {
grantRole(DEFAULT_ADMIN_ROLE, account);
} /// @dev Remove oneself as a member of the community.
function leaveCommunity() public virtual {
renounceRole(DEFAULT_ADMIN_ROLE, msg.sender);
}
}
Administered
This smart contract implements a traditional setup with administrators and users.
DEFAULT_ADMIN_ROLE is the admin role of USER (by default).
The address passed on to the constructor is the initial administrator.
Admins can add other admins.
Admins can grant and revoke user permissions to any accounts.
The only way for an admin to lose its admin role is to renounce from it.
pragma solidity ^0.6.0;
import “@openzeppelin/contracts/access/AccessControl.sol”; /**
* @title Administered
* @author Alberto Cuesta Canada
* @notice Implements Admin and User roles.
*/
contract Administered is AccessControl {
bytes32 public constant USER_ROLE = keccak256(“USER”); /// @dev Add `root` to the admin role as a member.
constructor (address root)
public
{
_setupRole(DEFAULT_ADMIN_ROLE, root);
_setRoleAdmin(USER_ROLE, DEFAULT_ADMIN_ROLE);
} /// @dev Restricted to members of the admin role.
modifier onlyAdmin()
{
require(isAdmin(msg.sender), “Restricted to admins.”);
_;
} /// @dev Restricted to members of the user role.
modifier onlyUser()
{
require(isUser(msg.sender), “Restricted to users.”);
_;
} /// @dev Return `true` if the account belongs to the admin role.
function isAdmin(address account)
public virtual view returns (bool)
{
return hasRole(DEFAULT_ADMIN_ROLE, account);
} /// @dev Return `true` if the account belongs to the user role.
function isUser(address account)
public virtual view returns (bool)
{
return hasRole(USER_ROLE, account);
} /// @dev Add an account to the user role. Restricted to admins.
function addUser(address account)
public virtual onlyAdmin
{
grantRole(USER_ROLE, account);
} /// @dev Add an account to the admin role. Restricted to admins.
function addAdmin(address account)
public virtual onlyAdmin
{
grantRole(DEFAULT_ADMIN_ROLE, account);
} /// @dev Remove an account from the user role. Restricted to admins.
function removeUser(address account)
public virtual onlyAdmin
{
revokeRole(USER_ROLE, account);
} /// @dev Remove oneself from the admin role.
function renounceAdmin()
public virtual
{
renounceRole(DEFAULT_ADMIN_ROLE, msg.sender);
}
}
Hierarchy
This is the structure implemented in AccessControl.sol, with a minimal modification to build a hierarchy of roles safely.
The address passed on to the constructor has the DEFAULT_ADMIN_ROLE, and is by default admin of all roles. I’ll call that address root.
Root can grant the DEFAULT_ADMIN_ROLE to any account.
Any root account can revoke the DEFAULT_ADMIN_ROLE role from any other account, so better not to grant it in the first place unless you know what you are doing.
All roles exist from the beginning, as keys in a mapping. Any role can be granted or revoked by an account in the DEFAULT_ADMIN_ROLE.
In AccessControl.sol each role has an admin role (DEFAULT_ADMIN_ROLE by default). In Hierarchy.sol we allow for any account with that admin role can change the relationship and choose a new admin role. This can be used to build a hierarchy of roles, for example: DEFAULT_ADMIN_ROLE -> USER_ADMIN -> USER.
contract Hierarchy is AccessControl {
event AdminRoleSet(bytes32 roleId, bytes32 adminRoleId); /// @dev Add `root` as a member of the root role.
constructor (address root) public {
_setupRole(DEFAULT_ADMIN_ROLE, root);
} /// @dev Restricted to members of the role passed as a parameter.
modifier onlyMember(bytes32 roleId) {
require(hasRole(roleId, msg.sender), "Restricted to members.");
_;
} /// @dev Create a new role with the specified admin role.
function addRole(bytes32 roleId, bytes32 adminRoleId)
public onlyMember(adminRoleId)
{
_setRoleAdmin(roleId, adminRoleId);
}
}
It’s useful to have AccessControl.sol relevant code handy to understand what’s going on.
abstract contract AccessControl is Context {
… /// @dev Grants `role` to `account`.
function grantRole(bytes32 role, address account)
external virtual
{
require(
hasRole(_roles[role].adminRole, _msgSender()),
“AccessControl: sender must be an admin to grant”);
_grantRole(role, account);
} /// @dev Revokes `role` from `account`.
function revokeRole(bytes32 role, address account)
external virtual
{
require(
hasRole(_roles[role].adminRole, _msgSender()),
“AccessControl: sender must be an admin to revoke”);
_revokeRole(role, account);
} /// @dev Revokes `role` from the calling account.
function renounceRole(bytes32 role, address account)
external virtual
{
require(
account == _msgSender(),
“AccessControl: can only renounce roles for self”);
_revokeRole(role, account);
}
…
}
Conclusion
I’m really happy and really proud of having got to this point.
Really proud because contributing code and ideas to openzeppelin-contracts is the strongest validation possible as a smart contract developer.
Really happy because finally the access control contracts that I’ve been using have now gone through a thorough audit and have been refined by masters in their field. I can now use them with complete confidence that they are right.
And really proud and happy to contribute to the community. Giving back is the best present.
Now it is up to you to continue. As usual, if you have an interesting project and need some advice on using these features, please get in contact. BUIDL!
|
https://medium.com/coinmonks/how-to-use-accesscontrol-sol-9ea3a57f4b15
|
['Alberto Cuesta Cañada']
|
2020-08-22 14:47:42.848000+00:00
|
['Solidity', 'Smart Contracts', 'Ethereum', 'How To', 'Blockchain']
|
MongoDB NodeJS Driver
|
Next, let’s create our first mongoClient instance.
To use the mongoClient constructor, we need to prefix it with the package name which is mongoDB. This is very inconvenient.
A better solution is to use destructure assignment. We directly retrieve the constructor we need from the package and store it in a variable or constant that is under the same name.
It is very important you keep the variable or constant name the same as the constructor you want to retrieve. Also do not forget the curly brackets because destructure assignment is all about pattern matching.
Next, we prepare the connection string. The connection string is a standard universal resource identifier. We start it with the scheme name which is mongoDB.
Then we add a colon and two slashes. Behind the slashes, we add the user name and password and connect them with a colon. Then we add an @ sign and list host names of mongod processes we want to connect to. If you have more than one host name, separate them with a comma.
Behind the last host name, we add a slash and specify the database name that owns the user account we just set. Here, the database name should be admin.
If you need to set connection options, add a question mark behind the database name and set them in the form of key value pairs. For example, if we are connecting to a replica set, we use the replicaSet option to specify the replica set name. The option name and value are connected by an equal sign.
|
https://medium.com/@onlykiosk/mongodb-nodejs-driver-8eae0ac84cb5
|
['Onlykiosk Dev Tech']
|
2020-11-21 13:52:15.937000+00:00
|
['Nodejs', 'Mongodb Nodejs Driver', 'Driver', 'Mongodb']
|
Ask a Photo Editor (or Three): What Do You Want from Photographers?
|
Dustin Drankoski (Mashable): The ones most difficult for us to look at are the ones that are too personal. The photographer has gone so far in, but the viewer has gotten lost. Be careful about editing. Be careful to make sure that you’re actually telling a story.
Sarah Leen (National Geographic): There’s got to be a certain level of wonderfulness. I want to be throbbing for it — I want to be at that pitch. If it’s not that, it’s like, “Who cares?” How do you make me care? The reader care? I call it “yumminess.” How do you get that in there? Be in a community of photographers that push you to reach that level of successful yumminess. Personal projects that are too personal are like “this big,” (makes a tiny gesture) and they need to magnify.
Question #4: What happens when a photographer comes back to you and the story just isn’t there — what do you do?
Sarah Leen (National Geographic): It depends. If it’s a long term story and we catch it early, I’ll assign the story to another photographer. I have to think about the end game: this story is showing up in the magazine, and I don’t have a photographer for it.
It’s really important to nurture the next generation of photographers, so we use them in the Traveler section, with Proofs, or with Dispatches, or on our digital stories. There are a lot of different entry points for a photographer before we will assign them stories.
Genevieve Fussell (New Yorker): Generally we assign work to someone you know will deliver. But I’m also big on giving new people a shot — Max Pinkers’ story on North Korea was his first story with us. We try new people out in the front of book pieces that is at the very beginning of the magazine. If we kill work we might go to our illustration team. There are really good photographers and then there are also really good photographers that are just not good on assignment.
Question #5: In the process of putting together stories and teams, you’re thinking all the while about channels, too. Do you feel optimistic about the power of the still image, with all of this other stuff running in the background?
Dustin Drankoski (Mashable): We do everything, and we find success with still images the most. There’s something ephemeral about a photo that video can’t touch. Still photographs won’t have any less power moving forward.
Sarah Leen (National Geographic): More and more people are taking photographs and publishing them online. There’s this huge love of the photographic still image. It’s not going away; it’s just being used in different ways. The photo book market, for example, is just awesome. It’s so awesome that I’m going to go broke! I don’t feel like the still image goes away; it just changes its place.
Question #6: How imperative is it to curate your Instagram feed? Is it a sin if my nephew’s birthday party is in the mix?
Sarah Leen (National Geographic): I have hired photographers directly because of their Instagram feed. I had been following this one photographer, Brian Finke, because he only had photographs of meat on his feed; endless images of meat. And one day I was doing a story on meat, and I thought: I wonder if that guy on Instagram could be the photographer for this?
|
https://medium.com/exposure-magazine/ask-a-photo-editor-or-three-what-do-you-want-from-photographers-25af09421c77
|
['Stacy J. Platt']
|
2018-04-13 16:33:49.761000+00:00
|
['Interview', 'Professional Development', 'Education', 'Instagram', 'Photography']
|
Exit The Matrix: How Sophia Stewart Fooled The Black Internet
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Clark,
Two court cases. Look at the Utah Transcript. WB and others are a part of that case asking for money and a default judgment. This was about both incidents in Utah. You need to read and look at Doc 282 and 283 evidence. That is Bullshit what you are talking about. I own Matrix and Terminator, otherwise, I could not sell it you dumb ass. You can not sell other people’s copyrighted work. You are full of shit. I know who sent you now.
Dig for your answers. I am not sending you shit. Why your Black asses are shot by White cops. Your need to help thieves who have always stolen from us and taken Black people into slavery. You doubt my story??? You need prove my story is true.
The federal court, FBI and DOJ have already done that. They certainly do not need your help. It is true , niggers never read. You came to smear. You are full of shit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How much did they pay you?
Sophia Stewart
Now print that statement
******
I didn’t trip. I assured her that I simply wanted to put together a decisive piece that could substantiate her claims. She was like, whatever and sent a soft copy of The Third Eye.
Red flags went off while reading the introduction, there were quotes from magazines, that really didn’t support her claim. I’m generalizing, but they read like this:
“Sophia Stewart is the person who claims” — Yada Yada Magazine
“Sophia Stewart wants to tell her story” — Blahzay Blah Magazine
“Poopity scoop, scoopdiddy whoop, whoop, di scoop “ — Lift Yourself Magazine
I went through The Third Eye and found the Los Angeles Sentinel article, where she mentioned that she wanted to make a Black sci-fi movie. Beyond that, there was a screenplay, her bio and court docs (half of the book) that verified that she had filed a lawsuit against the powers that be, way back when.
I couldn’t find any creative genius in her work. While it appears that she had a science fiction film in her mental, it has absolutely no resemblance to the current Matrix films.
A 2005 Los Angeles Times article points out that Stewart used the ignorance of the Black internet and a gullible journalist to promulgate her myth. Her case was later dismissed because she and her attorneys failed to provide evidence.
In 1999, a second-year student penned the erroneous, yet viral article “Mother of the Matrix Victorious.’ The article created a hypebeast, and Sophia Stewart’s myth became legend. The internets believed she won billions. Her “victory” was nothing more than a defense against a motion to have her case dismissed.
In 2013, Rock Newman interviewed her over the phone. On some real ninja shit, she told him that she studied law, journalism, and psychology. On some Frank Dux shit, she told Newman that she was awaiting a settlement of several billion dollars. Newman said he wanted to marry her and he was going to set up an opportunity for her to come on his show to verify her claims. She never did.
A 2013 Time Magazine article mentions that the settlement or victory that she keeps alluding to, the one she mentioned in her first email to me, it was for attorney fees. Not a-milli that she claimed to get against Warner Brothers.
Sophia Stewart has made a name for herself, by suing the powers that be. She is kind of like the guy who claims he’s Jay-Z’s son. He’s using the hype around the allegations to promote his music career. The thing is, after listening to him people realize that he doesn’t have Carter flow or genius, they’re not buying his story.
Whatever, it’s 2018, my president ain’t black, The Wachowskis aren’t brothers anymore and I have been doing the knowledge to Asian women for six years.
Long and short, homegirl has made a career for herself by capitalizing on the ignorance of people who have the same complexion as me. The Black internet and people like me wanted to believe that Sophia Stewart was slighted by the industry. We wanted to believe that she had Black girl magic, that she was another hidden figure. But when I exited her matrix, I realized that she ain’t none of that.
Sophia Stewart is a fake ass ninja with Bloodsport. Most importantly, she didn’t write The Matrix.
|
https://medium.com/crownsontop/sophiastewartthemotherofthematrix-c4ead5c9797b
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[]
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2019-05-03 12:03:59.897000+00:00
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['Movies', 'Art', 'Writing', 'Life', 'Culture']
|
Global Virtual Data Room Market to be Driven by Rising Adoption of Digital Services Across Industry Verticals in the Forecast Period of 2021–2026
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Global Virtual Data Room Market to be Driven by Rising Adoption of Digital Services Across Industry Verticals in the Forecast Period of 2021–2026 Sofia Williams Dec 31, 2021·4 min read
The new report by Expert Market Research titled, ‘Global Virtual Data Room Market Report and Forecast 2021–2026’, gives an in-depth analysis of the global virtual data room market, assessing the market based on its segments like type, organisation size, business function, end user industry, and major regions. The report tracks the latest trends in the industry and studies their impact on the overall market. It also assesses the market dynamics, covering the key demand and price indicators, along with analyzing the market based on the SWOT and Porter’s Five Forces models.
Request a free sample copy in PDF or view the report summary@ https://www.expertmarketresearch.com/reports/virtual-data-room-market/requestsample
The key highlights of the report include:
Market Overview (2016–2026)
Historical Market Size (2020): USD 691.48 Million
Forecast CAGR (2021–2026): 15.11%
Forecast Market Size (2026): USD 1,608.73 Million
The global market for virtual data room is primarily being driven by the rising dependency on digital methods to streamline business operations. Virtual data rooms are highly secure store houses for critical and sensitive business information which is a key driving factor of these services. In addition to this, the virtual data rooms further allow users to access data with the speed of a click, ensuring fast operations. Furthermore, the online database allows admins to monitor access to the data room, thus ensuring confidentiality by using authentication services like passwords or biometric systems driven by incorporation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into virtual data rooms.
Industry Definition and Segmentation
Virtual data rooms are innovative, online software intended for the secure sharing and storage of documents during various operations. A VDR allows multiple parties to share and encrypted web connection.
Explore the full report with the table of contents@ https://www.expertmarketresearch.com/reports/virtual-data-room-market
On the basis of type, the market can be divided into
Software
Services
Based on organisation size, the market can be divided into:
Small and Medium Scale Organisations
Large Organisations
The market, based on business function, can be categorised into:
Legal and Compliance
Financial Management
Intellectual Property Management
Sales and Marketing
Others
On the basis of end-user industry, the market can be bifurcated into:
BFSI
IT and Telecommunication
Healthcare
Government and Legal Services
Others
The regional markets for the product include:
North America
Europe
Asia Pacific
Latin America
Middle East and Africa
Market Trends
The growth in the global market for virtual data room can be attributed to the deployment of advanced services by small and medium scale enterprises. Online data rooms are designed to store and manage information with enhanced security. In addition to this, a virtual data room significantly aids in cutting costs related to stapling, printing, copying, and storing, as a result of which, the staff can employ their time into business operations and boost productivity. Moreover, rapid digitisation and the emergence of new business models are promoting M&A activities leading to an invigorated demand for secure, on-demand, and cost-effective medium for data transmission and storage, thereby furthering the market growth of virtual data rooms.
Latest News on Global Virtual Data Room Market@ https://www.expertmarketresearch.com/pressrelease/global-virtual-data-room-market
Key Market Players
The major players in the market are Vault Rooms, Inc., Pandesa Corporation, Drooms GmbH, Citrix Systems, Inc., EthosData, among others. The report covers the market shares, capacities, plant turnarounds, expansions, investments and mergers and acquisitions, among other latest developments of these market players.
About Us:
Expert Market Research is a leading business intelligence firm, providing custom and syndicated market reports along with consultancy services for our clients. We serve a wide client base ranging from Fortune 1000 companies to small and medium enterprises. Our reports cover over 100 industries across established and emerging markets researched by our skilled analysts who track the latest economic, demographic, trade and market data globally.
At Expert Market Research, we tailor our approach according to our clients’ needs and preferences, providing them with valuable, actionable and up-to-date insights into the market, thus, helping them realize their optimum growth potential. We offer market intelligence across a range of industry verticals which include Pharmaceuticals, Food and Beverage, Technology, Retail, Chemical and Materials, Energy and Mining, Packaging and Agriculture.
Media Contact
Company Name: EMR Inc.
Contact Person: Sofia Williams, Corporate Sales Specialist — U.S.A.
Email: [email protected]
Toll Free Number: +1–415–325–5166 | +44–702–402–5790
Address: 30 North Gould Street, Sheridan, WY 82801, USA
City: Sheridan
State: Wyoming
Country: United States
Website: https://www.expertmarketresearch.com
*We at Expert Market Research always thrive to give you the latest information. The numbers in the article are only indicative and may be different from the actual report.
|
https://medium.com/@imsofiawilliams/global-virtual-data-room-market-to-be-driven-by-rising-adoption-of-digital-services-across-industry-c4e0fc7f9162
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['Sofia Williams']
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2021-12-31 10:47:49.114000+00:00
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['Market Analysis', 'Market Research Reports', 'Market', 'Market Analysis Report', 'Virtual Data Room Market']
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Seven Characteristics That Make a Boy a Man
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Seven Characteristics That Make a Boy a Man
Photo credit: iStockphoto
By Dr. Kurt Smith
The transition from boyhood to becoming a man doesn’t happen automatically or overnight. Experiences, relationships, and challenges faced along the way shape each of us into unique individuals. And all of these factors help a boy turn into a man.
While most males learn and grow on this journey, others do not. How a boy responds to the adversity along the way will determine if he matures or gets lost in an arrested development. Some males learn from their mistakes, seek wisdom from older adults and take the challenges that come at them head on.
Here are seven characteristics that differentiate a man from a boy.
1. They plan their future
Men think long term — about their relationships, career, finances, living situation and more. They aren’t just winging it. Sure, they may not have it all figured out, but they have a good idea of where they want their life to go in the next five or ten years and they are laying the foundation to get there. On the other hand, boys who are yet to become men don’t have these plans and live moment to moment.
2. They take responsibility
Men have a lot of pressure on them these days and let’s face it, we don’t always get it right. Being a man means owning up to your mistakes and taking responsibility for your actions, even if you are in the wrong. Boys, however, tend to make excuses rather than take responsibility. A common complaint of partners I hear is that their guy acts more like a boy than a man.
3. They think about the kind of man they want to be
Men reflect on their values and morals, and what kind of person they want to be. This includes what kind of partner, father, employee and friend they are and how that matches what they want. Men have put thought into their values and lead lives that reflect them. Boys aren’t sure about their moral compass just yet and don’t steer their life with such intention.
4. They know what they want
Men who are truly men have a clear vision of what they want for their future. They know what they want in a partner, career, and in life in general. For instance, men pursue a relationship with a woman instead of chasing after dates with girls.
5. They are decisive
Because men have a better idea of what they want, they tend to make decisions easier. They go after career opportunities that interest them and are willing to commit to a partner. They aren’t afraid to make a decision because they have a clear idea of who they are and what they want.
6. They practice integrity
Men have integrity. They say what they mean, they show up when they said they will, and they follow through on their promises. While boys who haven’t become men yet are flaky and don’t follow through.
7. They understand what it means to pursue love
Men may be fearful of rejection, but they will still initiate conversation with a woman, knowing that the reward can be greater than the risk. They understand what it takes to seek out a woman and they muster the courage to do so. Boys may pursue for a short time, but then give up when it gets difficult.
Two males can wear the same clothing, go to the same job, and even date the same woman. On the outside, they may look similar, but after taking a closer look, it can become clear that only one is really a man, while the other is still functioning as a boy.
—
This story was previously published on The Good Men Project
About Dr. Kurt Smith
Dr. Kurt Smith, is the Clinical Director of Guy Stuff Counseling & Coaching and writes a blog about the issues facing men (and the women who love them.) As an expert in understanding men, their partners, and the unique relationship challenges couples face today, he regularly appears on The Huffington Post, NerdWallet and PsychCentral. Dr. Kurt is a lover of dogs, sarcasm, everything outdoors, and helping those seeking to make their lives and relationships better. Check out his weekly tips on Facebook or Twitter.
|
https://medium.com/modernidentities/seven-characteristics-that-make-a-boy-a-man-747c44e0a075
|
['Agents Of Change']
|
2020-12-07 18:31:03.801000+00:00
|
['Learning', 'Growing Up', 'Life Lessons', 'Integrity', 'Men']
|
Team Dynamics: Behind the Product
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Behind most applications, codes and products, there is a team. This where team dynamics steps in. How the team communicates and work together will be the foundation of how the development process grows as time goes on.
What is Team Dynamics really?
“Team dynamics are the unconscious, psychological forces that influence the direction of a team’s behaviour and performance.” — S. P. Myers (2013)
The connections between the individuals in the team and how everyone interacts with each other is what makes up the team dynamic and what determines how the flow of work will go. The better the team dynamics, the more benefits the workflow of the team will go. It will create an environment that better encourages the creativity and productivity. Hence, each individual’s potential is brought up and ultimately, the team’s potential.
How to have good Team Dynamics
Get to know your colleagues
The first step to have good dynamics is connection. Without any connecting, the environment might get too restricting or ‘formal’ which usually leaves a small room for exchanging of thoughts and suggestions. And how will you have a connections without first getting to know the people involved? Ice-breaking or team-building activities surely won’t do any harm.
The first step to have good dynamics is connection. Without any connecting, the environment might get too restricting or ‘formal’ which usually leaves a small room for exchanging of thoughts and suggestions. And how will you have a connections without first getting to know the people involved? Ice-breaking or team-building activities surely won’t do any harm. Communicate
Communication will always be key in any kind of relationship. Communicating any problems, may it be work or personal, will definitely improve the dynamics and understanding of your team. This way, people will be aware of the work progress and can start doing any necessary adjustments to the team.
Communication will always be key in any kind of relationship. Communicating any problems, may it be work or personal, will definitely improve the dynamics and understanding of your team. This way, people will be aware of the work progress and can start doing any necessary adjustments to the team. Clearly distribute responsibilities
After getting to know your team and communicating well, everyone should have a better idea of each other’s strengths. This will help distribute tasks and responsibilities appropriately according to everyone’s strengths and hence encourage a more productive environment.
After getting to know your team and communicating well, everyone should have a better idea of each other’s strengths. This will help distribute tasks and responsibilities appropriately according to everyone’s strengths and hence encourage a more productive environment. Be observant (don’t be ignorant)
Pay attention when things don’t seem like a growth environment. This means there is little communication, less discussion and just a matter of doing each individual’s task on their own. This can also mean there is very little different perspectives, sure consensus is good, but too much could be an indication of poor team dynamics.
Pay attention when things don’t seem like a growth environment. This means there is little communication, less discussion and just a matter of doing each individual’s task on their own. This can also mean there is very little different perspectives, sure consensus is good, but too much could be an indication of poor team dynamics. Keep it fun
Lastly, I believe keeping things light and fun at times is important in keeping up moral, but only done in appropriate times and quantity. When things are not always formal, tense, and strict, the dynamics in the team will be in such a way where everyone is not afraid of expressing their suggestions and concerns. In turn, this helps in our previous point of communicating well with others.
Servant Leader
In team dynamics, it is important to have a servant leader mentality. What does this mean? What differentiates with from other leaders?
“Servant leadership is a philosophy and set of practices that enriches the lives of individuals, builds better organizations and ultimately creates a more just and caring world.” — greenleaf.org
source: axonactive.com
Servant leaders are those who see leadership as an opportunity to serve others — lead by serving. They don’t see being leaders as a rank, privilege or status. According to axonactive, servant leaders have these following habits:
Awareness and Mindfulness
This habit focuses on the habit of being mindful of what’s happening around the team. This awareness is to be without judgment in order to increase self-awareness and emotional intelligence. With this habit, servant leaders can be better at making the right decisions and actions for the greater good. Asking yourself these questions might help build this habit: Am I aware of what’s happening right now? What can I do to bring positive changes to the team? What is something I can improve about myself? Is there a bigger picture I am unaware of? Empathy and Compassion
Before being empathic and compassionate towards others, showing it to one’s self is the prerequisite to cultivate it towards other people. Showing empathy and compassion to others comes in the form of appreciating them, seeing things from their perspective, understanding their feelings and situation, and communicating with kindness. This includes having being supportive to those you serve by building them up instead of tearing them down. Listen and Observe
This habit is closely related to the first habit, it enhances the habit of being mindful. Together with the first habit, it helps generate the second and the fourth habits. Most people tend to lack the patience to properly listen and observe. The purpose of this habit is listening to understand instead of for preparing a response. Listening to understand means to also pays attention to what has been left unsaid. When you listen to prepare for a response, you are not giving space for understanding and will just lead to even more conflict. This will also help you anticipate future problems and become better prepared to face them. Humility and Respect
These habits can often be misunderstood and underestimated. Humility is an important quality for a servant leader to have for its virtuous and prominent influence on others. Sincere humility will bring forth mutual respect from the people a leader is serving. Humility and respect also involves being responsible of your own actions instead of blaming it on other people. Once this and all the previous habits are well-cultivated within a servant leader, the dynamics in a team will be sure to improve on its own and lead to a much better environment to work in.
Implementation in my team — bisaGo team
I strongly believe that my team have been working with excellent dynamics between each member. In the beginning, I got to know my other teammates through the calls and meetings we have. We have a Line group where I mainly communicate and interact with them there. As I got to know them, I found better ways to communicate with them, and always strive to cultivate a good habit of communicating with each other. We use platforms such as Line, Discord, Instagram and Google Meets to perform all sorts of communication so we stay up to date with everyone’s condition.
After everyone got along better, we automatically knew each other’s strengths and were able to distribute tasks with much ease. For example, I refused to take a simpler task because I knew that task, although simpler, was better suited for another teammate. However, even if things seem like they are going well, I strive to remain observant by asking the others if they have problems with something, or if something is hindering them from doing their tasks.
For example, when there was a task where each of us had to take, I asked about one of my teammate’s progress. It turns out, he was having personal troubles. This way, I was able to be aware of it and finally covered for him by taking on his part of the task. This further shows how I implement the servant leader habits of being mindful, observant and compassionate.
Finally, keeping it fun is what we specialize here in bisaGo. For my part, I like to send memes through the Line group and Instagram. Here is an example:
This helps keeps things between us not always about work and tasks, but also about other things. This really helped in improving team dynamics by keep the atmosphere light and not dull.
Another example of how I did my part in creating a good team dynamics is initiating a cheer up ‘operation’ for one of our teammates that was feeling down at the time by inviting the others to pitch in and buy him food:
The inspiration for me to do this was also because of how the teammate in mind has been doing so well and was helpful to myself and others. This is one of my ways of showing appreciation to that teammate.
All in all, I believe how we communicate, respect, listen to, understand and are compassionate to each other is what makes the excellent team dynamics we have now in bisaGo.
|
https://medium.com/ppl-c/team-dynamics-behind-the-product-e101cc415acf
|
['Wilson Hadi']
|
2020-12-20 15:51:50.177000+00:00
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['Teamwork', 'Servant Leadership', 'Team Dynamics', 'Work Environment']
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Switching Careers From a Career You Love
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People rarely talk about the emotional investment that is made when switching careers. Considering the myriad of different reasons someone might feel the need to change lanes, I’ve found there to be a black hole of support when it comes to the difficulty of re-directing your whole life in a different direction.
I’m 31 years old and I’ve been a musician my whole life. For about 20 of those years, I’ve been a working guitarist. In April, 2020 (the best year so far, I think we can all agree) I decided to learn how to code. I couldn’t really see myself navigating whatever the music industry is right now and continue to put food on the table.
For those of you who aren’t familiar, being an artist is just brutal to begin with. In my mind, performing has pretty much made the struggle worth it, but I have often felt a nagging reminder of the lack of longevity most musicians have. Of course I have wondered in the past if I’ll be able to do this full time for my whole life, and what it would mean to try something else if the gigs dried up. These thought experiments really never lasted that long, because I always had to snap out of it and learn the damn music for the gig I had that night.
I’d say that this year, the gigs finally dried up. I really never thought that would happen, and it’s surreal to see it in writing as I type this. I mean, who could conceptualize such an idea? Entire industries falling to their knees, seemingly overnight? It’s been hard.
|
https://medium.com/@josh-nussbaum/switching-careers-from-a-career-you-love-c4d2b075b2
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[]
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2020-12-07 00:57:30.093000+00:00
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['Self-awareness', 'Careers', 'Coding', 'Music', 'Career Change']
|
The Biggest Money Mistakes People Make in the move from India to the United States
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America is a land of opportunity and the American dream is very real. I understand, the same is very much possible anywhere on the earth but I believe it is a lot easier in a country of free thinkers. I moved to the United States almost 13 years back from India after a short 3 years stay in Japan. As much I was determined to make this country my home, I wish my younger self was educated in a few financial decisions/preparations. Recently, I came across Personal Capital (https://www.personalcapital.com/) to calculate my Networth and it questioned my last 10 years of financial decisions.
The younger me was a person of the free sprint, extremely healthy, and had no regrets or worry about his future. He loved to live by the moment and exactly believed to enjoy the present to avoid any regrets around it in his death bed. In my case, Photography was the gateway drug; I spent all my time and money in the expensive hobby collecting all new and vintage cameras. Little did he knew, it would take 12–16 years for him to get his Green card which liberates him in pursuing the photography passion as a profession. Slowly with time (during the long wait), the passion dropped and all the gears collected dust losing their value.
If I had a possibility to time travel and advice my younger me or any future Indians migrating to the United States, the following would be the rules I would recommend,
NRE/NRO Bank Account & Demat Account in India: Consolidate all your bank accounts to a single (or two) with an Institution of your choice and do yourself a favor by opening up the NRE, NRO, and a Demat account. Also, ensure a process to update the account with a US phone number as you reach the United States. And invest at a minimum of $150 every paycheck/month in Indian stocks (if you are not familiar, at least use the NIFTY 50/SENSEX 30 as reference).
Financial Education: Invest in a few good books on money management and not limited to Rich Dad Poor Dad, The Total Money Makeover, and Millionaire Teacher.
Green Card I-140/Perm Processing: Initiate the Green Card Processing, Perm/I-140 as early as possible as you start working in America. Some firms would initiate the processing after your 1 year’s stay — do not take any further delay in submitting the forms. Do not confuse the possible EB category change with any upcoming promotions; the category could be changed later but getting a priority date is key (especially for persons with their county of birth as India).
401(K) Plan Retirement Match: 401(K) Plan is a company-sponsored retirement fund with the most company’s matching 50% up to 6% of your contribution — that's free money. These are pre-tax allocation and the tax is deferred until the money is withdrawn after 65 years of age. It would help the money grow huge for the next 30–50 years being untouched. You will need to ensure the allocation is on the low-cost index fund with the couch potato allocation between US stocks, International stocks, and Short Term US Government Bonds. If possible, max out on the yearly contribution but at least up to the company’s match percentage.
IRA (Traditional/Roth): Individual Retirement Account is another retirement plan but you get to choose your brokerage firm and the exact funds. I highly recommend using the brokerage house with the low-cost index fund and use the similar couch-potato allocation but max out on each year’s contribution. You cannot go wrong with either Traditional or Roth IRA: one is taxed now vs deferred. I choose to use Traditional IRA now and plan to roll it over to Roth IRA in the later stage)
HSA (Health Savings Account): If you are healthy, I strongly recommend using the yearly high deductible health insurance plan which gives you the option to invest in the HSA. Max out of the HSA, which could literally be the medical emergency fund. Additionally, your company may as well offer a match on HSA (another free money). As the fund reaches $1000, it should go on as a variation of the couch potato allocation. Max out the HSA for at least 3 years which should bring the balance up to $21K and you wouldn't have to pay a higher insurance plan later. It is estimated that the health spends would go higher (up to $260,000) with age. The HSA would help in keeping your 401(K)/IRA undisturbed.
ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan): If your company offers options to buy stock as a part of ESOP, opt to max out on the allocation. Typically, you are given the shares at a discounted price at the end of the quarterly period. You may choose to keep the stocks in the long run or even choose to sell them the very same day you are allowed to sell but do not miss out on the discounted price.
529 Educational Plan: Invest a percentage to the 529 college plan, if you plan to pursue a college or if you have kids. College cost in America is huge and do not let that burden your child. Public college could cost up to $65K and the IVY private colleges up to $260K. There is always a debate on the usefulness of expensive college education but I firmly believe, it is well worth it — provided you had planned the funding with a 529 Plan.
Additional Savings/Investments: Few more rules/tips are
Build an emergency fund of at least 3 –6 months of your expenses
Stay with roommates (if single) reducing the largest rental expense
Live below your means / Cook your own food
Get yourself a cheaper & reliable Japanese/Korean used car — not more than $6K-7K.
Do use your Credit Card wisely and pay it off, every month
Invest remaining funds on good individual stocks (Bluechip Dividend) in the United States & India
Do all of the above for the next 15 years. You will be a millionaire and you wouldn't have to even worry about getting permanent residency in any country (including the United States of America). And your future self will thank you.
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https://medium.com/senfilm/the-biggest-money-mistakes-people-make-in-the-move-from-india-to-the-united-states-487b9151c50e
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[]
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2020-12-21 12:46:52.485000+00:00
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['Money Mindset', 'Money Management', 'Money', 'Immigrants', 'Immigration']
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Tipatuity App Launches Cashless Tipping & Digital Tip Jars
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Tipatuity App Launches Cashless Tipping & Digital Tip Jars
The team at SmartBlue Technologies is very excited to release Tipatuity, the innovative social tipping application. This all-new app is easy to use while offering on-the-go cashless money transfer and digital tip jars. Tips are transferred using electronic payments by leveraging Dwolla’s powerful payment platform.
People who work in the service industry such as valet professionals, hotel staff, outdoor event coordinators, and countless others have traditionally received cash tips. As the world continues to move to a cashless society, many of the service professionals are getting affected. Tipatuity app bridges the gap by allowing its members to give and/or receive tips on the spot and instantaneously.
While many payment applications exist, there has been a void missing for people who want to process payments for new acquaintances or strangers without the need of exchanging names, emails or cash. Also none of the apps brought forward a practical tip-share solution that allows dynamic group management and one-to-many payments. The newly released Tipatuity app brings forward those functionalities to the service industry and puts together a simple, safe and fast money transfer portal that allows members to send or receive gratuities as individuals, teams or businesses.
“Our goal is to empower service professionals with the tools they need to make the money they deserve and to bring more of the in-store tip jars online. Tippers on the other hand will find tipping easy to track and expense especially on business travel”, says Shehadi Dayekh, founder of SmartBlue Technologies and Tipatuity App.
Built in features include finding service professionals using geo-location, safely sending and receiving money, being able to rate and comment on each provided service and having the ability to create virtual tip jars that facilitate tip-share. Tipatuity also empowers its members with fast delivery of their funds and enables them to maintain a great record book for jobs well done. Tipatuity also allows sending money as Anonymous in cases such as charity and fund-raising.
Tipatuity currently operates in the US market only and can be found on the web at https://tipatuity.com. The application was recently released in Google Play and the App Store.
About SmartBlue Technologies Inc.
SmartBlue Technologies was founded in Dallas, Texas in August 2015. It is a startup that aims to bring smart ideas and technologies to life.
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2016/12/prweb13938998.htm
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https://medium.com/@tipatuity/tipatuity-app-launches-cashless-tipping-digital-tip-jars-8ad39896febf
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[]
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2016-12-21 11:11:16.521000+00:00
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['Fintech', 'Tipping', 'Business Travel', 'Hotels', 'Cruises']
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Flow State Course Review 2021
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Hey do you know what is flow state?
Flow state is also known as zone, its mental state where you are productive like ninja you are engaged in what you are doing in 100 % and other things are not important if you are in flow state.
How meditation and mindfulness relate to flow state?
Being able to achieve a state of flow, and on a smaller scale, being able to achieve even a bit of focus, is essential to achieving goals. But being able to maintain that focus and maintain that stability of mind can be challenging. That’s where meditation and mindfulness come in, because a mind that is trained to be more present and at ease with itself — calmer, clearer, and content — is more likely to experience the flow state because we are training in non-distraction and focus. “If we can learn how to apply focus moment-to-moment, then we’ll see that play out in our longer-term goals,” says Headspace co-founder Andy Puddicombe.
By definition, mindfulnes is the quality of being present and fully engaged with whatever you’re doing in the moment — free from distractions or judgment, and aware of thoughts and feelings without getting caught up in them. By engaging in meditation, we are encouraging our minds to become more present, actively creating conditions that help us observe when we get distracted, what gets us distracted, and then return to the object of focus. A flow state of mind combines the two concepts. In essence, flow state is a very active, moving meditation.
The benefits of achieving flow state
Heavy Concentration
Clarity
Lack Of Obstacles
Good Feelings
Happiness
Productivity
Increased Strenght
Benefits I Gained Personally By Flow State Exercise After One Month Of Practice
Improved sleep
More strenght
Increased testosterone
More positive thinking
Faster recovery after trainings
10 Times more focus
No more brain fog
Better Condition
More Self-Aware
What happens in a flow state experience?
The sequence of events that happen during the flow state begin with the release of norepinephrine and dopamine.
These raise your heart rate, tighten focus and improve pattern recognition.
Your brain waves move from beta towards alpha, giving you the ability to link ideas without internal obstructions and filters blocking your flow.
Your prefrontal cortex at this point begins to shut down, giving you the sense of time distorting, effortlessness and of the self dissolving into the task.
You are in a transient hypofrontality, where your inner critic has also shut up, opening you to your full potential.
Your brain then releases endorphins and anandamide, giving you the ability to dissolve away distress and pain.
Simultaneously, anandamide boosts your lateral thinking, allowing you to solve problems in an indirect and creative way.
As you flow deeper in, theta brain waves enhance relaxation and your intuition.
Concluding the experience you have oxytocin and serotonin giving you the “afterglow” feeling of trust, peace, sociability and well-being as you begin to digest the experience you have just been experienced.
The Breathing in Flow training program will trigger your optimal performance and catapult your performance levels by 300% while simultaneously boosting testosterone, improving recovery time, curing performance anxiety, fatigue, sleep problems, respiratory conditions and controlling weight gain issues.
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I will bring the mountains to you with these training exercises to simulate altitude training. Boost your haemoglobin and add this into your training program.
Learn the full power of nitric oxide and how correct nasal breathing will skyrocket your performance in training and in the bedroom.
Libido lifter… learn how breathing will boost your nitric oxide and testosterone and in return, you will have locked bedroom doors for days!
A 5 minute ancient breathing technique that will change your performance, improve your health and give you the extra to cure illness.
Unlock unlimited amounts of energy and focus. It’s like you have found a hidden well of energy with your name on it.
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How to BOOST your VO2 max like crazy… with techniques to build your CO2 tolerance.
Dont wait anymore and check more info about course here
Flow State Course
Price Of Course Is Only 15$
Flow State Course Is Available Here
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https://medium.com/@damianusek3/flow-state-course-review-2021-38552cb0f8c1
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['Damian Kowalski']
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2021-02-20 16:44:58.157000+00:00
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['Flow', 'Focus', 'Flow State', 'Productivity', 'Positive Thinking']
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Cyberpunk 2077 is a (Latin) American dystopia
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Cyberpunk 2077 is a (Latin) American dystopia
Life under the overpass, Cyberpunk 2077 concept art (Source: CD Projekt Red)
Ok, I have a confession to make: Cyberpunk 2077 is a masterpiece. Yes, the game has taken a lot of flak for the buggy, near-unplayable mess that it was upon release for the PS4 and Xbox One but I am blessed with the PC version which was clearly made with more tender loving care. The developers, Polish studio CD Projekt Red, has also taken some very deserved criticism for its excessive and at times obnoxious marketing, frequent delays, and months-long “crunch time” imposed by management on its staff, a regrettably common exploitative practice in a gaming labor market where unions are non-existent and a surplus of labor (who wouldn’t want to make a living making videogames?) means all but a handful of A-list designers are expendable. Indeed, it is the utmost of ironies that a game based around the cyberpunk premise of rapacious hyper-capitalism ended up exemplifying every bit of it, a fact that has not gone unnoticed to the majority of reviewers who have called the game out for its sub-standard quality control at time of release and impossible-to-meet hype.
But still, launch fiasco and bugs (I have only encountered a couple of rather innocuous ones) aside, I have been utterly enamored by this game despite being less than halfway through it. Firstly, it has the brilliant Hollywood-quality plot and dialogue that one should expect from the people who brought us The Witcher 3. Secondly, it actually has enjoyable combat which I felt in The Witcher 3 was a bit bland, all the more considering it adds stealth elements like having to sneak past guards or security cameras. Thirdly, the hacking elements are perfectly done. Geralt of Rivia’s “Witcher sense” has been replaced with a hacker mode where you can perform various kinds of cyber-trickery on any number of equipment around you, even enemies themselves. But even that pales in comparison to the “braindances”, essentially a detective “ghost-mode” which lets you enter other people’s memories and pick up visual, audio, or thermal clues. All this seems overwhelming at first but the game’s excellent in-game tutorials make it second nature very quickly. It’s all brilliantly done and gives you a good variety of tactical options to approach the game.
But the real star isn’t the infinitely-customizable protagonist, V, who can be a man, woman, or even transgender. Nor are the eminently likeable secondary characters such Jackie Welles, the lovable rogue who serves as your partner in crime, or Johnny Silverhand, the mysterious icon of cyber-coolness played by none other than Keanu Reeves. No, the real protagonist of Cyberpunk 2077 is without a doubt Night City, the sprawling, dystopian megalopolis which serves as the location for most of the game (along with the barren, Mad Max-inspired outskirts). If you think The Witcher 3 is the epitome of immersive open world environments, think again. Night City is a bustling place full of glitzy skyscrapers, holographic ads, seedy nightclubs and strip joints, run-down apartment blocks full of thugs, junkies, and prostitutes, and every other cyberpunk cliché you could think of. Add to this evil Japanese mega-corporations for the full dose of 80s sci-fi nostalgia. It is probably the first game in 13 years to unquestionably dislodge Bioshock’s underwater Art Deco city of Rapture as the most mesmerizing videogame environment ever made.
Western dystopia, Latin American reality
Cyberpunk has always played with Western notions of capitalism excess, visualizing futuristic societies past the event horizon in which the state has any meaningful role in enforcing the rule of law or providing public services, to say nothing of basic welfare for its citizens. But the real conflict in cyberpunk is really about the gap between the realm of possibilities that technology offers and what is delivered in terms of human well-being. The narrative of free market capitalism compels us to assume that a society where flying cars, cybernetic implants, and other technological wonders are ubiquitous would have found the solution to poverty, deprivation, and inequality and would have made a better life available for all. And yet the exact opposite is the case, as the majority of inhabitants in these societies must scrape through life by whatever means necessary (legally or, usually, illegally). This gap in what society achieves and what it can achieve is at the heart of my critique of modern progress in my book The Glass Half Empty: Debunking The Myth of Progress in the Twenty-First Century, and few genres of fiction capture this more effectively than cyberpunk.
Hustling for a living in Night City (Credit: CD Projekt Red)
Nevertheless, the imagining of a Western future on cyberpunk premises seems at times a bit far-fetched. In fact, I would argue that cyberpunk, and specifically Cyberpunk 2077, is far more illustrative of the type of societies that Latin America will see in the second half of the 21st century if they continue to be guided by capitalist fundamentalism. Already, Latin America is the most unequal region in the world and is riddled with the visual contrasts that make a place like Night City seem so dystopian to Western eyes: the squalid residential districts lying in the shadow of giant corporate or luxury high-rises is already a fact of urban life in places like Mexico City, Sao Paulo, and Bogotá. Other symbols of modernity like highway overpasses and metro lines snake through Latin American cities while street vendors and peddlers congregate in the spaces below. And unless you are lucky to have a formal 9 to 5 job (more like 8 to 7 given that most Latin Americans work longer hours than Westerners), most people even in the vaunted “emerging middle class” have one or more side gigs to make ends meet, usually informally. The gig economy may be a novelty in the West, but it’s been standard labor practice in Latin America for ages.
The makeshift nature of technology is also a characteristic of Latin America, and this is captured perfectly by Night City’s multitude of tech dealers and “ripperdocs” (doctors for your cybernetic enhancements), most of which work in shabby back alley garages. Every technology in Night City seems to be pieced together and patched up rather than bought ready-made. In Latin America, Cubans are famous for the way in which they have kept vintage American cars in working order for decades despite having no source of official car components due to the US embargo. But everywhere else, the combination of necessity and low incomes (as well as higher retail costs since so many consumer goods are imported) means many Latin Americans find ways of keeping old electronics and household goods in working order, defying age and obsolescence (planned or otherwise).
One particular aspect of cyberpunk cities including Night City is the chaotic use of the urban space. This is far closer to what is commonly seen in Latin America than in the West where land use is heavily regulated. Even the most run-down parts of Detroit or Blackpool do not have the shambolic mixture of residential and commercial spaces that you see in Night City and which are not uncommon in relatively affluent neighborhoods in Latin America even if the latter are actually less deprived. In Night City you get the sense that everyone builds whatever they want wherever they can. The maze-like corridors between apartment blocks is reminiscent of a particular 19th and 20th century style of tenements in Latin America and Spain (known in different countries as vecindades, conventillos, or corralas), the largest of which are veritable neighborhoods within neighborhoods.
Night City’s contrast between the neon glitz of its skyline and the filthy, steamy, streets is also very Latin American, where even the financial districts and rich neighborhoods have appalling street-level aesthetics. As I am prone to tell Westerners, you can tell whether a city is in the third world not by looking at its skyscrapers which may be as tall and as modern as any in the West, but by the quality of its sidewalks which would not pass the minimum standards of any Western city planner. The proliferation of shabby concrete design in Night City’s street-level visuals is also a nod to Latin America’s modernist fetish (most big Latin American cities exploded in size between the 1950s and 70s), rather than the more common industrial-age brick and steel of a Western city.
High-rise slum in Caracas, Venezuela (Credit: Jorge Silva/Reuters)
Latin America 2077
There are many other not-too-subtle hints that Night City is, at its heart, a Latin American dystopia rather than a Western one, not least the proliferation of Spanish; perhaps most amusingly by Jackie Welles who is Mexican (or Mexican-American) in all but name as evidenced by his subtle Chicano accent and profuse use of Mexican slang. Then again, Night City is supposed to be in California so perhaps it is a testament to the increasingly blurred lines between American and Latino culture more than anything else. That you start the game in a seedy bar called “El Coyote Cojo” and can ride around the city blasting reggaeton on the car stereo is as much a Miami thing nowadays as it is a Tijuana or Medellín thing.
But here’s the real test of why Cyberpunk 2077 is really Latin American at heart. Imagine yourself as a Westerner in the 1950s who had to conjure a futuristic dystopia based on the premise of technological progress and social regress. You would imagine a city of modernist skyscrapers of concrete and glass towering over aluminum-roofed slums (even mid-sized Latin American cities today have more skyscrapers than any city in the world in 1950 except New York). You would imagine a place where everyone has a TV, radio, and maybe other futuristic contraptions such as say, a portable phone with a TV screen, but still have to hustle to put food on their tables. You would imagine a society where governments are weak, corrupt, and beholden to powerful foreign corporations, perhaps you would go so far as to call these corporations “multinationals”. Ultimately you see a future where technology served not so much to reduce human needs but more to serve instant consumerist gratification.
Neoliberal Latin America in the early 21st century is surely what you have imagined. One can only hope Night City remains fiction rather than become an early warning of what to expect by 2077.
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https://medium.com/@raguileramx/cyberpunk-2077-is-a-latin-american-dystopia-648780f463bd
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['Rodrigo Aguilera']
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2020-12-27 19:38:22.815000+00:00
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['Cyberpunk 2077', 'Latin America', 'Inequality', 'Neoliberalism', 'Progress']
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Assessment of Forecasting Strategies on Univariate Time Series Data
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Report submitted for the semester project in my college.
Introduction
The expansion planning of Power systems begins with a forecast of anticipated load requirement in the coming future. Estimated ideas of the demand and required energy are integral to an effectively planned system[1]. The generation, transmission and distribution system addition capacities are determined by demand forecasts and the kind of facilities required are determined by the energy forecasts[10]. Energy forecasts are further used to monitor and manage the fuel consumption and procurement rates according the current market prices to maintain an adequate rate of return.
Load forecasting is usually made by the construction of models on relative information such as weather and previous load demand data. Such forecast is majorly reliant for short term load forecasting as long term, such as a month or a year forward would lead to error propagation[2]. In the preceding decades, a number of methodologies for power system load forecasting have been proposed such as ARIMA, AR, MA, ARMA, etc. The idea behind the approach to time series rests on the assumption that a load pattern is just a signal with known timely variations, like daily, weekly, seasonal[5]. These variations aid in presenting a rough estimate of the current load requirement at the given time frame.
There are broadly four categories of load forecasting vis-a-vis:-
Very Short term load forecasting Short term load forecasting Medium term load forecasting Long term load forecasting
Very short term load forecasting is done for a few minutes upto an hour and is majorly used for real time evaluation and security[1]. Short term load forecasting is done for a few hours to a few weeks and is aimed at regulating fuel procurement, short term maintenance scheduling, economic scheduling of required generating capacity. Medium term forecast of upto 5 years ahead are required for transmission system planning, maintenance scheduling, setting of prices, so that demand can be met appropriately. Long term forecasting of upto 20 years is required for regulation policies.
Problem Statement
We are given the problem of forecasting the future demand requirements
of electrical load on the basis of analysis done on some given past data.
The requirement to approach the problem is through a non-conventional
algorithm namely, Long Short Term Memory(LSTM). Results obtained from
some established methods like ARIMA, AR are to be compared with the
results obtained from LSTM to give a better view about our designated
approach.
Literature Survey
Nataraja.C et al. did a comparative study on Short Term Load Forecasting Models using the load data for the year 2011 and 2012 for the state of Karnataka[1]. Various models like Auto-regressive Model, Auto-regressive Moving Average, Auto-regressive Integrated Moving Average were compared against each other. The pipeline involved a multi-phase process which included steps for the initial development, the tuning and modification which was followed by the prediction and result gathering phase. The tested models had an error range from 13.03 percent to 6.15 percent. Gao Gao et al. at the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK did a comparative study of two different models namely ARIMA and ANN (Artificial Neural Network) on UK electricity market data[2]. The training was done for a data spread over a span of eight weeks in time. The comparison between these models were made on the basis of root mean squared error. The results of this paper show that Autoregressive Integrated Moving averages gives better results in comparison to Artificial Neural Network. The ANN model consisted of twenty neurons. Chikobvu et al. developed a seasonal auto-regressive integrated moving average and predicted daily peak demand of electricity in South Africa from a period of 1996 to 2009[3]. They concluded that SARIMA model produced better results. Nor Hamizah Miswan et al. compared ARIMA with regression model against the benchmark standard models namely ARIMA and regression models to forecast electricity load demand in a Malaysian city[4]. The parameters used for the comparison of the above listed models included root mean square error along with mean squared error. The results were inclined towards the combined method and thus it is a better model. Another research conducted by I. A. Iwok et al. drew out the comparisons between uni-variate and multivariate time series models[5]. A data set from Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Products were used to compare both approaches.
The parameter to evaluate the performance of these two was mean squared error. The conclusion reported that uni-variate time series analysis which is stationary outperformed the other models. A research by N.A. Abd Jalil et al. focuses on Electrical Load Demand Forecasting using exponential smoothing methods[6]. The dataset used was a half hourly demand of Malaysia for one complete year. For the comparison of forecasting accuracy a parameter called Mean Absolute Percentage Error was used. Various smoothening methodologies were applied namely Holt-Winters Taylor, traditional Holt-Winters etc. V.Venkatesh et al. studied and developed Short Term Load Forecasting Models Using Stochastic Time Series Analysis[7]. They had a dataset for one year which was split into two parts. The first six months were used to train the models and the latter six months were used to test the trained models. Approaches such as AR, ARMA, and ARIMA were developed. Nima Amjady developed a model for Short-Term Hourly Load Forecasting Using Time-Series Modeling with Peak Load Estimation Capability[8]. The main conclusion of this paper was the fact that better results were attained using this particular technique as compared to the traditional Artificial Neural Network Models or the BoxJenkins Model. Hippert et al. in a paper reviewed and evaluated traditional method using neural networks for Short-Term Load Forecasting[9]. Variuos other approaches like using support vector machine for load forecasting for a EUNITE competition[10], using fuzzy neural networks[11], using knowledge based expert systems[12] have been developed or the same analysis. Another approach develops iterative reweighed least squares algorithm for short term power system load forecasting[13]. Another research conducted by Mohamed A. Abu-El-Magd et al. drew a comparison between online and offline methods for short-term electric load forecasting. The load demand was also modelled using multivariate time series analysis [14]. G. T. Heinemann and team studied temperature sensitive and non-temperature sensitive load and did a regression analysis for the same [15].
Data Set Description
1. Fred Economic Data:- This data-set is for Industrial Production: Electric and Gas Utilities and is provided by the Federal Reserve System US. It has monthly frequency.The Board of Governers of that system provided the dataset. The data-set contains the date and the demand column.[16]
Fred Data set
2. Open Power System Data:- This is a time series data-set giving power load data, wind flow data and solar power data consumption, resources, production etc, prices in hourly manner. 6 The data is available for 37 European countries. This data set is provided by Open Knowledge Foundation. Various time series include electricity time consumption or the load, power system modelling etc. Among the many columns, the one used is GB EAW load actual so this column gives the total load for each day in England and Wales.It is published by National Grid. [17]
Open Power System Data Data-set
3. SMARD — Strommarktdsten:- A data set provided by Federal Network Agency, Germany, contains the electricity market data. This data set was created with the aim of improving transparency. The frequency of the data is daily. The data set contains the value of load for every 15 minutes per day. [18]
SMARD
4. Consumption of Household Electric Power Dataset:- This data set is provided by UC Irvine Machine Learning Repository. The data-set contains 2075259 instances for a single household with a sampling period of one minute which is located in France for a total period of 47 months. Nearly 1.25 percent of the values are missing in the data-set. The data-set contains 9 columns out of which two namely date and global reactive power have been taken in consideration. [19]
Individual household electric power consumptionData Set
5. Uttar Pradesh State Load Dispatch Data:- This is a real time data provided by Uttar State Load Dispatch Centre. The website provides real time data for schedule, draw, demand, total SSGS, UP Thermal Generation, deviation rate, etc. The data has been web-scrapped for a period of 1 day. [20]
Individual household electric power consumptionData Set
Methodology
In this section we are going to explain complete steps we followed. The methodology can be represented as the following pipeline:-
In the data pre-processing step we first removed the unwanted columns in the data sets we got. Then we removed and edited the unwanted data. we followed different steps for each data set as each of them were in different formats etc. Then we applied the following methods in each of the following section we explained each method what are those, how do they work and then we explained how we used those methods in our project.
Auto Regression
Regression is a process in which we try to predict one variable with help of one or more other variables. Auto regression is a special type of regression in which prediction of a variable is done with help of the past or previous values of the same variable. For example we can predict the price of gold annually or we can predict the load of electricity over a period of time based on their 10 previous values. Since there can be many other important factors that should be taken into account for example weather in case of electricity load prediction the values might not be absolutely correct but still it makes more sense to find a pattern over a period of time which gives a much stronger prediction.
Auto Regression Integrated Moving Averages — ARIMA
ARIMA stands for Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average. It contains two different models AR model and MA model and the I terms is number of times we differentiate the data to make it stationary. AR model is explained before the Model takes previous error residuals into account while predicting. ARMA is combination of AR and MA model. Normally we apply ARMA on stationary data. i.e when the mean and variance of the given data remains constant over a period of time. There are basically two different ARIMA models seasonal and Non-seasonal ARIMA. Both models can be used in different situations like if the data exhibits seasonality then we should use seasonal ARIMA else Non-Seasonal. We represent Seasonal ARIMA as SARIMA. The main difference between ARIMA and SARIMA is SARIMA has more parameters. Normal ARIMA is represented as ARIMA(p, d, q) where as SARIMA is represented as ARIMA(p, d, q)(P, D, Q)m, here (P, D, Q) are for seasonal part of the ARIMA. m is used to represent number of periods that are present in each season. Non seasonal ARIMA doesn’t contain P, D, Q values.
Long Short Term Memory — LSTM
Long Short Term Memory(LSTM) Networks are a special type of recurrent neural networks, which have been used for various tasks like music completion, handwriting generation among others. They are much more effective to those specific problem areas, than the standard version. RNNs appeal to computer scientists due to their ability to use recent past data to predict the near future characteristics of the system. But, the problem area is when data older than just the immediately previous plays some part in determining the future output. Here, the gap between relevant information and the point where it is needed becomes sufficiently large to be out of the scope of standard RNNs. Theoretically, RNNs can handle such dependencies, but, in practice, they fail to do so.
LSTMs, on the other hand, are capable of learning long term dependencies. They were introduced by Hochreiter Schmidhuber (1997)[21]. LSTMs were designed to solve the long term dependency problem. By their default behaviour, they remember long term information. LSTMs have a similar chain like structure like RNNs but they differ in the repeating module such that instead of a single neural network layer, they have four.
Results
References
[1] Nataraja, C. Gorwar, Mahesh Shilpa, G.N. Harsha J, Shri. (2012).
Short term load forecasting using time series analysis: A case study
for Karnataka, India. International Journal of Engineering Science and
Innovative Technology. 1. 45–53.
[2] Gao, Gao Lo, Kwoklun Fan, Fulin. (2017). Comparison of ARIMA and
ANN Models Used in Electricity Price Forecasting for Power Market.
Energy and Power Engineering. 09. 120–126. 10.4236/epe.2017.94B015.
[3] Chikobvu, Delson Sigauke, Caston. (2012). Regression-SARIMA modelling of daily peak electricity demand in South Africa. Journal of Energy
in Southern Africa. 23. 23–30. 10.17159/2413–3051/2012/v23i3a3169.
[4] Miswan, Nor Mohd Said, Rahaini Anuar, S.H.H.. (2016). ARIMA with
regression model in modelling electricity load demand. 8. 113–116.
[5] Iwok, Iberedem Okpe, A. (2016). A Comparative Study between
Univariate and Multivariate Linear Stationary Time Series Models. American Journal of Mathematics and Statistics. 2016. 203–212.
10.5923/j.ajms.20160605.02.
[6] Jalil, N.A. Ahmad, Maizah Mohamed, N.. (2013). Electricity load demand forecasting using exponential smoothing methods. World Applied
Sciences Journal. 22. 1540–1543. 10.5829/idosi.wasj.2013.22.11.2891.
[7] “Load Forecasting Bibliography”, Phase I, IEEE Transactions on Power Apparatus and Systems, Vol.PAS-99, №1 January/February 1980.
[8] Short term load forecasting using time series modeling with peak load estimation capability”, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vol.16, №3 August 2001.
[9] Hippert, H.s Pedreira, Carlos Souza, Reinaldo. (2001). Neural Networks for Short-Term Load Forecasting: A Review and Evaluation. Power Systems, IEEE Transactions on. 16. 44–55. 10.1109/59.910780.
[10] “Load forecasting using support vector machines: A study on EUNITE competition 2001”, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vol.19, №4, November 2004.
[11] “Short term load forecasting using fuzzy neural networks”, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vol.10, №3 August 1995.
[12] “Short term load forecasting for fast developing utility using knowledgebased expert systems”, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vol.17, №4, May 2002.
[13] “Short term power system load forecasting using the iteratively reweighed least squares algorithm”, Electric power system research, 19(1990) pp.11–12.
[14] M. A. Abu-El-Magd and N. K. Sinha, ”Short-Term Load Demand Modeling and Forecasting: A Review,” in IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 370–382, May 1982. doi: 10.1109/TSMC.1982.4308827.
[15] G. T. Heinemann, D. A. Nordmian and E. C. Plant, ”The Relationship Between Summer Weather and Summer Loads — A Regression Analysis,” in IEEE Transactions on Power Apparatus and Systems, vol. PAS-85, no. 11, pp. 1144–1154, Nov. 1966.
[16] Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (US), Industrial Production: Electric and gas utilities [IPG2211A2N], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/IPG2211A2N, November 18, 2019.
[17] ”Open Power System Data. 2019. Data Package Time series. Version 2019–06–05. https://doi.org/10.25832/time series/2019–06–05. (Primary data from various sources, for a complete list see URL).”
[18] ”SMARD Version 2019–19–11. https://smard.de,November 19, 2019”
[19] Dua, D. and Graff, C. (2019). UCI Machine Learning Repository [http://archive.ics.uci.edu/ml]. Irvine, CA: University of California, School of Information and Computer Science.
[20] Uttar Pradesh State Load Dispatch Centre. 2019. UP Generation Summary. 2019 Version 11–19–2019. http://www.upsldc.org/real-timedata/2019-11-19 27.
[21] Hochreiter, Sepp Schmidhuber, J¨urgen. (1997). Long Short-term Memory. Neural computation. 9. 1735–80. 10.1162/neco.1997.9.8.1735.
Co-Authors
Sai Charan Teja Tanguturu Manavdeep Singh
Supervisor
Prof. OP Vyas
|
https://medium.com/@reubenrochesingh/assessment-of-forecasting-strategies-on-univariate-time-series-data-b6e89a4588f5
|
['Anmol Singh Sethi']
|
2020-03-11 07:22:22.137000+00:00
|
['Univariate Analysis', 'Time Series Analysis', 'Machine Learning', 'Time Series Forecasting', 'Analytics']
|
The Hot Ottawa Real Estate Market Is Not Slowing Down Anytime Soon…
|
The Hot Ottawa Real Estate Market Is Not Slowing Down Anytime Soon…
Wow, when will the Ottawa real estate market slow down?
Will there be a real estate bubble in Ottawa?
Will residential and condo prices come down in 2021?
Who knows? 🤷🏿
I find it remarkable that Ottawa continues to be consistently having record home sales, especially in November where sales are typically slow. As well, Ottawa's ability to withstand the negative effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Here are some important statistics on what the Ottawa housing market did in November:
⬇️ Listings of residential properties significantly decreased by 50.2% compared to November 2019.
⬆️ Most buyers purchased residential properties in the $450,000-$800,000 price range, which accounted for 62.7% of the residential resale home sales.
⬇️ Condo units were sold much quickly on average from 34 days to 26 days on the market, which is a 24% decrease from the same month in 2019.
⬆️ Bells Corners, Greely, Manotick and Carp were the districts that received the largest average sale price increases in Ottawa year over year above 25%.
Read more details about the Ottawa’s housing market performance here: https://bit.ly/3n6xH2i
I am available to answer your questions about the market.
|
https://medium.com/@michaelbarthur/the-hot-ottawa-real-estate-market-is-not-slowing-down-anytime-soon-c93f36232269
|
['Michael Arthur', 'Mpa', 'Mcne']
|
2020-12-11 15:56:52.208000+00:00
|
['Market Research Reports', 'Ottawa', 'Housing', 'Rental', 'Real Estate']
|
Technology Innovation in Pharmaceutical Industry In 2020
|
The pharmaceutical industry has always played a key role in the progress of human lives. This blog is on what technology innovation in pharmaceutical is leading the industry to the future.
Health technologies push the boundaries of how healthcare is delivered and has the power to create breakthroughs in our understanding of diseases. More relevant in the year where there is a buzzword known as COVID-19 going on as seen per Pharma Trends on McKinsey & Company. As technology evolves gradually in every aspect of life, New Innovations in the Pharmaceutical field are showing revolutionary affects in the pharmaceutical fields itself. Its complete shift affecting everything from interaction of patients with the health systems, to the way they are being provided treatment. Certain Trends and Pharma Innovations are more often observed. Because these technology innovation in pharmaceutical are so diverse and so comprehensive, it’s a major challenge for Pharma companies to stay updated.
Not only is innovation happening but it is happening rapidly. To keep up the pace the Pharma industries are involving themselves with numerous technologies such as AI integration, Big Data, CMS, AR and VR, Digitization of Medicine through Healthcare Mobile Apps, IOT integration, Blockchain, 3D printed drugs etc. These technology innovation in pharmaceutical are providing consumers a better solution in their everyday life .
Most of the Pharma companies have been found to integrate their company websites with more new and innovative technologies mainly in administration purpose. A Large number of Pharma companies are maintaining online portal systems or ERP systems to manage their employee data and to keep track of their regular work schedule. These portals are also maintaining patient information, promotional contents or advertisements to promote the Pharma products.
Most significant technology that has been used in Pharma companies so far is the implementation of AI (Artificial Intelligence).
Implementation of AI not only impacted on drug development but also in drug supply chain that is ranging from time to safety to manpower. AI or artificial intelligent whichever is preferred can slash drug designing from years to days which is saving cost. The calculation that needed to be done in person can now be done by AI in shorter time. Also, the drug production cycle can be shortened by AI to reach patients faster which can be huge benefit to the Pharma industry. This is causing to form new trends in the Pharma Industry.
Another benefit that patients and consumers are getting from Pharma companies is they can consult a Pharma company for basic information via their chat bots (AI robots). While previously companies needed to hire employees to communicate with consumers about their products and other consultancies. In this modern era of technological innovation, the companies can easily put their basic information and most asked questions via technology that can be answered by an AI Robot. This solves any disruption which existed before regarding this matter.
Some of the Pharma industries are indulging themselves in more technology-based drug strategies. Rather than focusing on traditional drug manufacturing and marketing, Pharma companies will focus on newer approaches relying on technology and the changing trends of modern technological trends in the Pharma industry to appeal more to providers and payers.
To get aligned with the advancement of technology in pharmaceutical brain station is engaging to provide a comprehensive technology support. For a long time, Brain Station is providing different solutions to pharmaceutical industries that are working worldwide.
Content Management System -
Brain Station has been working for the German subsidiary of the US pharmaceutical giant, AbbVie for a long period. As one of the leading pharmaceutical enterprises, their sites and portals are required to be constantly updated. For this purpose, Brain Station provided a CMS platform solution, an enterprise level CMS for the best technology innovation in pharmaceutical industry. Brain Station utilized Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) for the CMS solution of choice, and the AEM professionals of the company stepped up to the plate.
Source: Grazitti Interactive
Online Portal Management using Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) -
Brain Station developed customer facing websites and portals using Adobe Experience Manager which delivers updated news and contents regarding healthcare professionals. The contents of the websites are classified according to the areas of specialties.
Source: Healthcare IT Skills
Websites for Promoting Pharmaceutical content and Products -
Brain Station is also engaged in developing websites which promote content regarding pharmaceutical industry and their products. These AEM powered sites deliver news, updates, digital product leaflets, campaigns and promotional emails. The websites also launch products in a customized manner to the millions of consumers it serves.
Learning Management System -
The term “Learning Management System” (LMS) makes an appearance quite frequently in eLearning articles, tip sheets, and beginner’s guides. Brain Station is providing support in learning management system for Pharma companies using Moodle. The users of Pharma industry now can learn about their topics and can be guided by the LMS support via Moodle.
Integration of AI chatbot inside the websites -
In order to keep pace with technology innovation in pharmaceutical, like all the other advanced industry, Brain Station integrated AI Chatbot for some pharmaceutical solutions by which they can consult a pharma company for basic information via their chat bots AI robots. By using this chatbot the consumers can ask for information regarding the website. The chatbot will response precisely about the required information by using the algorithm that is integrated inside the system.
Source: Axtria Ingenious Insights
In this technologically evolving era, as pharmaceutical industries are trying to keep pace with the rapid speed of technology like the other software companies, Brain Station is also keeping themselves updated to provide great service and technological support to the pharmaceutical industries worldwide. Where some Pharmaceutical industries are still unclear about how the new digital technologies are going to impact drug development and commercialization, companies like Brain Station are always engaging themselves to provide perfect solutions in this sector. Technology innovation in pharmaceutical is provided by Brain Station is becoming highly essential as the trend of Pharma industries change and even more relevant now, as most people are consulting Pharma companies online, being unable to have face to face interaction. The technologies developed Brain Station and implementation of AI chatbots speeds up the entire process as a whole.
Originally published at Brain Station 23- https://brainstation-23.com/technology-innovation-in-pharmaceutical/
|
https://medium.com/brainstation23/technology-innovation-in-pharmaceutical-industry-in-2020-5ce22f9d73b6
|
['Tanzila Tabassum']
|
2020-10-06 13:40:52.168000+00:00
|
['Artificial Intelligence', 'Pharmaceutical', 'Chatbots', 'CMS', 'Adobe Experience Manager']
|
Kambur Güzelin Hikayesi
|
Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more
Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore
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https://medium.com/t%C3%BCrkiye/kambur-g%C3%BCzelin-hikayesi-fa071f22cbd0
|
['Hamuş Melike']
|
2020-12-27 22:48:37.112000+00:00
|
['Kadın', 'Hikaye', 'Türkçe', 'Engelli', 'Köy']
|
Tour & Travel in India
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Why people feel so dull and want to energize themselves with great potential.They want freedom from outside(Work) and inside(Intenal peace),they want to learn and forgive their past.They want to see nature,beauty of their country or world when they interact with nature they get know about loveliness of the nature and also of their mind.India is the country where everyone want to go atleast once in their life.
Who lives in India earnestly want to go see their country and it’s beauty.India is the well set example for diversify.In each 100 k.m. culture changes,language changes,outfit changes,dish changes,standard of living changes.Who don’t want to see this type of diversify and culture.That’s why we need to know about most beautiful places of India, “The Country of Heritage”.
The energy of Indians and glimpses of India are uncountable.You need to behold Mountains,Rivers,Lakes,Royal Palaces,Mansion,and many more things that everyone love to see them.There is a place where you can get the proper guidance and whole information about the most adorable places to visit in India along with accommodation,travelling,activities,sports,yoga and etc.You can get all of these thing in one place at guidefrancophoneindia.com
I guarantee you,you would not get this level of assistance anywhere else.There you would assistance in French also.I recommend you always keep in mind when you plan for a trip.Now you don’t need to worry anymore because they give best of all version.You would fulfill your time and money with great peace and joy.
|
https://medium.com/@souravsharma0d/tour-travel-in-india-51ed3ec7705f
|
['Sourav Sharma']
|
2020-02-21 11:49:22.932000+00:00
|
['Travel', 'Tour And Travels', 'Tourism', 'Tour', 'Traveling']
|
The 2019 Happy Together Tour LIVE! at BergenPAC
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By Spotlight Central. Photos by Love Imagery
It’s a packed house at Englewood, NJ’s BergenPAC this June 18, 2019 evening for the tenth anniversary edition of the Happy Together concert tour.
As we wait for the show to begin, we chat with several concertgoers, all here to enjoy a live performance by six of the top pop artists of the 1960s and ’70s including The Cowsills, The Classics IV, The Buckinghams, The Union Gap’s Gary Puckett, Chuck Negron of Three Dog Night, and The Turtles.
Says Donna from Middlesex, “I’ve done three years of Happy Together tours, and this is the third time I’m seeing this year’s show. It’s nostalgic, and I really like it because the show moves so quickly and the performers get all of their hits in.”
Amy from Jersey City agrees adding, “This is my fifth show of this tour. After I saw it in Morristown, NJ, I liked it so much I went online at 1am to buy tickets for the Westbury, NY show. It’s just so rejuvenating — the audience is into it, there are good vibes everywhere, and it makes you feel like you’re 16 again. Plus, it’s hard to pick a favorite artist, because they’re are all so good.”
Exclaims Shelly from Greenwich CT, “These shows are like potato chips — you can’t have just one. This is my first of three shows this tour, but last year, I saw the show eight times.”
Comments Herb from Montvale, “We’ve seen the Happy Together Tour five years in a row. I love it for the memories and the music. As the announcer, Shadoe Stevens, says at the beginning of each show, ‘Just think of the best time you ever had, multiply it by 1000, and then double it’ — the show is that much fun.”
Herb’s wife, Arleen, agrees adding, “At some concerts we’ve gone to, the singers have run out of steam, but never on the Happy Together Tour. Here, you get the best of each group. There isn’t just one ‘star’ — everyone is equal. They all sing well and the sound is so good, it makes you feel good.”
Before the show starts, we also take a moment to chat with several of the Happy Together Tour performers.
Explains The Buckinghams’ Carl Giammarese, “This is the 10th anniversary of the Happy Together Tour. The first tour was in 1984 and had Gary Puckett, Spanky and Our Gang’s Spanky McFarlane, The Association, and The Turtles. Then, in 1985, they had The Buckinghams, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, The Grass Roots, and The Turtles. Ten years ago they started doing tours every year. Altogether, The Buckinghams have been on the 2010, ‘11, ‘12, ‘14, and ‘15 tours, and now we’re on the 2019 tour which has a total of 53 shows.”
Exclaiming, “It’s been great — we love the fans and the response we get,” Giammarese reveals, “We’re in Jersey five times on this tour, and Jersey fans are some the best fans anywhere — they are very dedicated to this music. We’ve been up and down the Jersey Turnpike from New Brunswick to Ocean City, and were having a lot of fun. It’s a great lineup this year — and Ron Dante is doing an especially great job filling in for Howard Kaylan of The Turtles.”
Notes Ron Dante, “I’m honored and blessed to be singing with The Turtles. It was a gift to be in The Archies, and now I get to sing The Turtles’ songs — they’re great songs.”
Adding, “I enjoy performing with Mark Volman,” Dante notes, “We mesh together really well. He’s the comedy, and I’m the straight man,” before joking, “He’s Jerry Lewis and I’m Dean Martin!”
Tom Garrett, lead singer of The Classics IV, tells us, “This is our first time on the tour. It’s awesome — we’re having a great time! To be invited is such an honor, and to be performing with people like Carl Giammarese, Chuck Negron, and the rest is unbelievable — they are all such great artists and great people. It keeps you young.”
Lastly, we chat with Chuck Negron, former lead singer of Three Dog Night, who reveals, “I’m having a ball — it’s so nice to be singing with this tour. I’m having a lot of fun; I respect these musicians and I’m so honored to be a part of the group — it’s really unbelievable.”
Inside the BergenPAC auditorium, announcer Shadoe Stevens’ pre-recorded voice can be heard counting down, “4 minutes… 3… 2… 1… 30 seconds…” before the lights dim and the members of the Happy Together band — Barry Waller on bass, Chris Camilleri on drums, Manny Focarazzo on keyboards, and musical director Godfrey Townsend on guitar — take the stage and the show begins.
Up first are The Cowsills — siblings Susan, Paul, and Bob Cowsill — who open tonight’s show with a buoyant rendition of their catchy ’67 hit, “The Rain, The Park, and Other Things” (aka “The Flower Girl”), as images of flowers dance onscreen behind them.
|
https://medium.com/spotlight-central/the-2019-happy-together-tour-live-at-bergenpac-9d057181eb7d
|
['Spotlight Central']
|
2019-07-02 11:06:39.034000+00:00
|
['New Jersey', 'Concerts', '60s Music', 'Music', 'Rock']
|
Medicating your Emotions
|
Why is it that people feel a need to hide their “bad” emotions — sadness, anger, pain? There is nothing wrong with feeling those emotions, yet our friends and other people we know are constantly medicating those emotions away, hoping that life will get better. Those emotions are there for a reason, and wishing them away with instant drugs won’t solve your problems. Instead of taking the pain away, feel the pain, and feel it strongly because it is there for a reason. We all have control over our lives to an extent, and these bad feelings are there to help us back on the right path. In fact, there have been many times where I have felt sad and hopeless, and pushed past the pain, and reached out to a few people who I had not talked to in years, because for some reason in my mind I could only talk to them when I was vulnerable; by reconnecting with those people, I was able to start building back the relationship we once had. You can always find a silver lining in every bad situation, but first you have to allow that bad situation to linger long enough for you to take action and do something about it. If we just medicate it away, we will never make those changes which are actually necessary to improving the quality of our lives.
P.S. Writer’s block + Stream of consciousness writing = Unstructured rambling :)
P.P.S. I’m not saying medication is not necessary; I’m saying it’s not necessary when it is used to hide or run away from something.
|
https://medium.com/@rohanmutalik/medicating-your-emotions-48d3926815e2
|
['Rohan Mutalik']
|
2019-06-04 18:00:06.396000+00:00
|
['Mask', 'Medication']
|
Testing In React, Part 1: Types & Tools
|
It is painfully easy to get away with writing frontend code sans formal tests. Unlike backend programming, you are naturally “testing” your frontend application continuously throughout development just by interacting with the user interface. If you add an onClick handler, you intuitively head to the browser to click on that component. When you create a new route, most likely the first thing you do afterwards is navigate to that route.
This is a form of testing, and it is both necessary and helpful. However, it servers a very specific purpose. This testing-by-doing strategy provides confirmation that the exact set of steps within that exact version of the codebase will yield the desired result. It is quick, efficient and effective in this sense, and is an obvious necessity in spite of its limitations.
Writing formal tests for your interface can help to fill the holes left behind, a few of which are:
Ensuring that the code continues to yield the desired result, and does not break with further development.
Testing for various use cases, rather than just the one that you performed.
Reminding you why code is written a certain way (to handle the finicky third-party package rendering, or ensure that functions come to completion in the proper order, etc.)
We have all been there — that place where you finally find a solve for that unique functionality you are adding in, only to realize that handling it in that way breaks something else. This is where formal testing comes in. It ensures that your app is continuing to function as expected, and can save you a massive headache down the road.
|
https://medium.com/javascript-in-plain-english/testing-in-react-part-1-types-tools-244107abf0c6
|
['Bryn Bennett']
|
2020-09-28 16:55:35.471000+00:00
|
['JavaScript', 'Software Development', 'Testing', 'Programming', 'React']
|
【文献】Urban Digital Twins for Smart Cities and Citizens
|
OpenCOVER
The user interacts with the scene through the 3D device and a 3D menu. A line coming out of the device intersects with…
|
https://medium.com/tosseto-info/urban-digital-twins-for-smart-cities-and-citizens-934c7f1d78f0
|
['Toshikazu Seto']
|
2020-08-31 08:13:34.490000+00:00
|
['Smart Cities', 'Digital Twin', 'Reading']
|
Down and Out in Jacksonville, Florida
|
Down and Out in Jacksonville, Florida
First, what is the difference between a bum and a tramp? George Orwell (Eric Blair) once wrote a “tramp” is a “native English species”, I suppose a bum is more universal in nations built on the model of capitalism (usually disguised with-in rhetoric of free-market enterprise). Here in this little essay one hopes to draw distinctions which make all the difference between the “tramp” and its American cousin (or at least) the Jacksonville, Florida, “Bum”.
Here is how Orwell describes the characteristics of the tramp: “they have no money, they are clothed in rags, they walk 20 kilometers a day and never sleeps two nights together in the same place.”
The caricature of the bum (at least here in Jacksonville, Florida): Travels from here to there with bags full of choice clothing from places like “The Church With the Red Door;” they walk from the city rescue mission to the Trinity Rescue building then to the Sulzbacher Center — usually following the meal schedules of each facility. And finally, they find a resting place — usually some abandoned parking lot of some condemned building — due to the vigilant citizenry and manic postings of “no vagrancy” almost everywhere.
Taking into account Orwell was writing during (and after) the period of history known simply as “The Great Depression” one can not miss the obvious fact: the English “tramp” and the American “bum” are the same class of people.
In this current century and Jacksonville, Florida, the bum may not travel the entire distance of the United States during the year but they will migrate from one end of the city to the other. In short, the bum, like the tramp, is a wanderer.
In today’s society, walking is the lowest form of movement; however, for the vagabond walking is the highest form of solidarity. Having no job, family, friends and no possessions — other than what they carry — finding companionship in this prison-like culture has one law: get there (wherever you’re going) however you can and don’t touch anyones “stuff.”
Like England during Orwell’s time, the United States is one of the wealthiest countries in the world. And also, like yesterday’s England, in today’s America the total number of bums is also an unknown number. (I am sure this is due to the amount of individuals which discard their government ID’s in pseudo-protest against the authority of American government.)
There is no rest for the bum in public spaces. Due to interrogation by local law enforcement — usually at the bidding of “concerned” citizens asking for “wellness checks,” — the bum is harassed anytime they decide to “camp” anyplace for a bit of rest between destinations.
For example, here in Jacksonville, Florida, there is a park named after the fallen traitors during the American Civil War.
Confederate Park allows no “lying down.”
This park is located across the street from Bethel Baptist Church, the oldest Black American congregation in Jacksonville, Florida originating in 1838. A coincidence — I think not!
Without making the vagrancy issue one of race, there seems to be an intersection here between race, class and gender (which I will return to later on).
Something like 2 out of every 10 homeless (my friend Davi-Jinda refers to them as “homefree”) is female.
8 out of 10 are Black or a “colored person”. (The euphemism “Person of color” is reverse racism, literally. Like antisemitism, racism, is caught on the tip of the tongue.)
And as stated above, all those who exist in this community is by definition of the same class.
This social observation is no Marxist critique of capitalism. However, one does notice in a post-Covid society, the internal contradiction between “forces” and “means” of production. One can not staff labor shortages with members of the unemployed for three reasons: First, they have no I-9 paperwork because it has been discarded to avoid harassment by the population and its constable; secondly, each “job” requires the applicant to complete an online survey after submitting an electronic resume; and last but not least, since walking is the universal mode of transportation, getting to and from a “job” here in Jacksonville, Florida, in a timely fashion, consistently, is damn near impossible. So it is not difficult to see why the “homeless” population exist. It is a consequence of the unnatural marriage between blockchain technology and automation. If one's identity can not be authenticated they have no right to work. This is irony of the misfortune of living and being unemployed in a “right-to-work” state is that such states exist in the Bible Belt and the Bible says “if you don’t work you should not eat.”
So it is not difficult to understand why the unemployed “bum” exist. It is not because of the nomadic heritage of ancestors but the economic system with-which we exist.
There are resources available to the unemployed, but once again to qualify, ones papers must be in order.
See, it is a vicious circle: Unemployed and living on the streets; then apprehended by police for sleeping outdoors; discarding legal identity papers to avoid being arrested; and finally unable to receive aid due to lack of I-9 paperwork.
The bum is now condemned to an existence worse than prison. At least in prison one is given work, provided consistent meals, and shelter from the elements. The freedom one finds as a bum is the liberty to wander — wander til you die.
(Permit me a small digression, Slavoj Zizek mentioned Wagner’s figure of the wandering Jew. I couldn’t help but notice the caricatures of Jews during the I and II World Wars could be drawn today to illustrate hobos, vagabonds, and tramps. Admittedly, unlike Jewishness, being a tramp or bum, doesn’t automatically make people think you can be blamed for capitalism and communism simultaneously.)
In conclusion, let's consider how much is spent on social services for the homeless and unemployed. The average cost to feed a person in America is somewhere around 11.00. Monthly this comes up to almost 350.00. However the homeless population (as mentioned above) does not have access to these benefits. Therefore, they must rely on the charity of churches (remember dear reader, unlike England, America does not have an official church) and of citizens. I do not know the exact figures of daily meal cost but observation tells me it is somewhere around 2.50 dollars. Listed below is a link to an article advocating healthy meals for the economically disenfranchised.
I have not done justice to the experience of homelessness since I have been on the streets only a week (and I have friends which have helped to feed me). But one can not deny the life of a bum is demoralizing. It is degrading. And the temptation to become a sponger is almost impossible to resist.
Mostly, the life is monotonous.
If one camps in public you will be arrested, and if you are arrested you will not find work; and if you don’t work you will be forced to camp in public. It is a vicious circle.
Returning to gender. As society changes and homosexuality is more readily accepted, the lack of communication with women is substituted for male companionship because unemployed men living on the street are cut off from desirable women. The females which have found themselves in our company are usually mothers, prostitutes, or drug addicts (mostly a combination of all three); and if both the male and female are suffering from the same afflictions it is contrary to good sense to act in ways which could result in the procreation of misery. So most bums are men which keep to themselves.
Finally, for a bum who has not offended the law, and when it is all said and done, one who is simply a victim of unemployment, is damned to live a life more wretched that the worst criminal. Freedom becomes slavery. This mentality prompts those which experience it to wish for imprisonment because at least in prison one can enjoy some semblance of comfort.
But hey, what are a few words but poor receipts for what time has stolen away.
Thanks softly,
Night-night.
|
https://medium.com/@gregsteven.gs/down-and-out-in-jacksonville-florida-e71f4d456233
|
['Greg Steven']
|
2021-09-12 16:23:14.430000+00:00
|
['Jacksonville Florida', 'Writing', 'First Post', 'Unemployment', 'Homelessness']
|
Rwanda’s Gold Exports Fetched US$522 Million in 2020 – a 754.6% Increase
|
Rwanda’s Gold Exports Fetched US$522 Million in 2020 – a 754.6% Increase
Rwanda’s gold exports are connected to gold smuggling in DR Congo, while the owners of Aldango Ltd which exports the gold, have been convicted of money-laundering and fraud. David Himbara Feb 9·3 min read
Miners at work inside Mageragere mining site in Rwanda
The World Bank’s Update on Rwanda’s economy published in January 2021 paints a depressing picture. This is highlighted by the fact that an additional 550,000 Rwandans will fall under the poverty line in 2021. Perhaps, the most troubling part the report is Rwanda’s gold exports that continue to sharply increase. Further, the source of gold and its exporter are no longer a mystery. The noted World Bank’s Rwanda Economic Update and the June 2020 UN Group of Experts on DR Congo reveal the source of Rwanda’s gold exports and the owners of the exporter. The exporter is the Kigali-based Aldango Ltd headquartered in Dubai. Meanwhile, the owners of Aldango Ltd were convicted for money laundering and fraud in Belgium in 2020.
The world Bank’s Update indicates that Rwanda exported US$522 million worth of gold in the first nine months of 2020. According to the National Bank of Rwanda, Rwanda’s gold exports shot up by 754.6 percent in 2019/2020. The World Bank names Rwanda’s gold exporter as “an Emirati gold refinery company in Rwanda in 2019.” And where does Rwanda get such enormous amount of gold to export? The June 2020 UN Group of Experts’ Report connects gold smuggling from DRC to Aldango Ltd in the following terms:
“Bukavu-based smugglers who deposited gold at Aldango Ltd during 2019 explained that they were paid in cash…Representatives of Aldango Ltd stated, in a meeting with the Group in February 2020, that the company might pay cash to individuals for small gold sales, but that commercial clients had an account.”
And who owns Aldango Ltd? The company describes itself as a Rwanda-based company with “state-of-the-art refining facilities offers the highest quality standards in line with refining, assaying, manufacturing as well as serving the mining industry on the continent.” The UN Group of Experts gives more details on Aldango’s ownership as follows:
“According to official company documents available at the Office of the Registrar General in Rwanda, Aldango Ltd had two shareholders, Hilly Metals Investment Ltd and Aldabra Ltd, each of which held 1000 ordinary shares as of last amendment in May 2019. Hilly Metals Investment Ltd was registered in Rwanda and had two Rwandan shareholders. The Group identified Aldabra Ltd in the December 2018 annual filing for Tony Goetz, a company registered on Belgian Crossroads Bank for Companies registry. The filing, which covered the year 2017, listed Alain Goetz as a direct or indirect representative of Aldabra Ltd, registered at AE151605 Rolex Tower, 26th Floor, Sheikh Zayed Road PO Box 1 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, according to the document.”
Fast forward to February 2020. The Goetz brothers who are Belgian nationals were found guilty by a court in Antwerp of money laundering and fraud. In other words, the Rwanda-based Aldango Ltd which exported US$522 million worth of gold in 2020 is owned by fraudsters.
|
https://medium.com/@david.himbara_27884/rwandas-gold-exports-fetched-us-522-million-in-2020-a-754-6-increase-ba0154017e3c
|
['David Himbara']
|
2021-02-09 11:06:31.380000+00:00
|
['Rwanda', 'Money Laundering', 'Corruption', 'Kagame']
|
Have You Treated Life as a Competition? Let Me Help You Rethink.
|
I spent my childhood sitting on a motorbike with my mom. She took me everywhere — to school, English course, markets…
She is a true bold rider. My mom always wants everything to be quick. Quick, quick, quick. “Time is money,” she says all the time. Picture some macho men bringing their shoulders and back down on their huge motorbike, that’s exactly how she looked like on hers. Except she only rides a small manual motorbike.
We used to live in a small neighbourhood where there were barely any cars passing by. Whenever my mom took me somewhere, we’d have to go through some deserted roads, a cemetery, and small forests. We reached the bigger roads after 2 or 3 kilometres, and that’s where it all started.
I began to see it as a race.
And somehow it resembles how I’ve often seen my life. As a competition.
|
https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/have-you-treated-life-as-a-competition-let-me-help-you-rethink-ac78852aff7
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['Mari Teresienė']
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2020-05-22 13:53:20.359000+00:00
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['Self Improvement', 'Insecurity', 'Social Media', 'Self', 'Psychology']
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My Journey
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I am a former corporate warrior with: A thriving family, a thriving business, and a progressive form of multiple sclerosis.
After working in the corporate world, as a business owner, and as someone living with an incurable and debilitating disease, I have a unique perspective as to how unaddressed stress hurts. I am a no bull type of guy and due not shy away from telling you the truth no matter how uncomfortable it is. I want to help you to reduce your stress, not to increase it.
With frustration, pessimism, and the risk of burnout in my life I realized that something had to change. My story has a real-world application and the sequence of events that lead to me writing this book matter and they started about 45 years ago.
I want you to benefit from my experience and my knowledge. I do not want to be your hero; I want to be your guide.
My days in the corporate world usually started at 3:00 am when it was still dark outside, but I was wide awake. Day after day. Weekends too. It was like putting my foot on the gas pedal and not being able to find the brake to slow down or stop.
My body would ache to go back to sleep for just 15 more minutes. But no, I was wide awake. The anticipation of a full day, being pulled in different directions with lots of stress and anxiety was upon me.
I was working in commercial real estate for one of the world’s corporate real estate giants. And the corporate world in New York City is well known for messing with you. platter. And while I made great money. I let the work own me. The stress was eating me alive and I was hurting. My life was overwhelming. Living this way became very familiar to me.
My own personal expectations were always at their upper limits and no part of me was immune from them. I became easily agitated, frustrated, and moody. At times I felt overwhelmed and not only felt like I was are losing control, at times I did lose control. I had difficulty relaxing. I felt lonely, worthless, and depressed. I avoided others like they were the plague, including those closest to me.
You see to add to my professional stress my health was a mess. I had hit rock bottom. At the time, I did not know exactly what was happening to me. I was hurting, hurting bad.
I had to have surgery first for my knee and then back surgery for two herniated discs.
But there was more too it. What was supposed to be a routine double discectomy turned into much more. I was asked by my doctor, a neurologist to come to his office for a follow up visit. I scheduled my visit and at the appointment he pulled up my MRI and X-rays.
What was supposed to be a “you are healing nicely” conversation turned into so much more. He started talking, but like much medical speak, things went in one ear and out the other. You see, the surgery took longer than planned and he had forwarded my records to another doctor in New York City, and for good reason.
What stuck out was his pointing out numerous spots to me and explaining that what he felt needed to be confirmed. He then said that he found what he believed were legions on my spine and that based on everything that he knew they were from Multiple Sclerosis, a term that I had heard of but knew nothing about.
My next visit was to the Corinne Goldsmith Dickinson Center for Multiple Sclerosis at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. After waiting weeks for the appointment, I finally met Michelle Fabian, MD. No further tests were necessary, you see Dr Fabian is one of the world’s best. If you have Multiple Sclerosis. Dr Fabian is the doctor that you want to see.
My primary progressive multiple sclerosis had been misdiagnosed as something else by numerous doctors for years and it was taking was taking its toll on my physical health and my mind. Multiple Sclerosis is an incurable and debilitating disease. Multiple Sclerosis is a life sentence My bottom just got deeper.
This had just been one of a long list of stressors that caused stress every day of my life. I knew that I needed to make a change and to tame my stress.
When my multiple sclerosis was diagnosed, my usual daily routine was suddenly forced to stop. The provincially mandated stop sign impacted my life significantly, especially given my young age and significant to do list that I had created for myself and not come close to finishing. Not even close.
While my life was not close to over, I had time to thoughtfully consider my journey, where I was, how I got there, and how I wished to proceed moving forward.
Through my years of working whether in the corporate world or as an entrepreneur I have experienced and navigated stress, lots of stress. Maybe you have heard me refer to it as a tsunami of stress.
Minor stress and extreme stress, both are stress, and both are impactful. I gained insight into the world of dealing with stress on my own personal front line. I experienced moments of profound joy and satisfaction, and moments of deep sadness and disappointment. As my career grew, so did my responsibilities and my stress. While my professional world around me continually changed, my personal life continued to evolve as well, but not always for the better.
As my professional achievements continued to evolve over the years, so did my levels of stress. I regularly ignored the red flags, but things only got worse.
I juggled my personal commitments along with my work and was grateful to be alive. Between early morning meetings, never-ending paperwork, and rearranging schedules my stress reached a critical level.
I routinely wished each day had one more hour, that each week had one more day and that each month had one more week. I loved my family, I loved my work, and I was fully committed to both. However, I often felt my head and heart strings pulled in different directions.
How was I going to get it all done?
Breakfast? Lunch? Dinner? Eat? Rarely, and when I did it was some sort of junk. Sleep? Barely and when I did the quality was poor. Exercise? Does walking to my mailbox or walking to the door to meet the food delivery driver count?
Can you identify with my story? Does my story sound like yours?
Even though my story has a happy ending, I would not wish the path that I have taken on you. Sometimes, to realize what we need, it takes a storm with a downpour. A storm so brutal that you have to pay attention and to make massive change.
Our world is full of stress lots of stress and some of that stress, lots for some is job related and follows us once we lease the office or job site.
Adam
www.meditationnotmedicine.com
[email protected]
|
https://medium.com/@meditationnotmedicine/my-journey-4c91e5b3177b
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['Adam Weber - Meditation Not Medicine']
|
2020-12-05 15:28:36.429000+00:00
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['Meditation', 'Stress Management', 'Stress', 'Stress And Anxiety', 'Stress Management Tips']
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When will you let a stranger stay in your home again?
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B2C Marketplace Supplier stories; Part 2; Airbnb host
I’m Lottie, co-founder of Reallm, providing reports and recommendations for marketplace suppliers. In this series, we’re shining a light on people making a living or a little extra dosh from their skills or unused assets through marketplaces.
I am sure that most people have considered using one of these platforms, either to rent out their room on Airbnb when they go on holiday or their car when they are working from home. And then thought “Is it really worth the hassle”. Well, in this series we’re presenting the real experiences of those that have just got on and done it. We’ll include top tips, funny stories and unavoidably, how everything changed in 2020.
In Part 2 of the series, we speak to Lara, who uses Airbnb to rent her Berlin flat out when she’s off gallivanting around the world (or used to be). Like many others, with less trips abroad and feeling less comfortable having people in your home, Lara hasn’t done a rental for over a year now.
When will our pshychology change back to how it was or is the way we view city travel augmented for a while to come?
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Hi Lara, Excited to hear about your Airbnb experience. How long have you been using Airbnb?
I started using it in July 2018.
Why did you decide to become an Airbnb host?
I started using Airbnb because for work and personal life I was away from Berlin alot, at least once a month, and often for a week or more. I had also started living by myself, so it was the first time I wouldn’t be imposing on flatmates or other people, which would have been a concern for me. I saw it as a way of making some extra income when I wasn’t in Berlin.
Lara’s Airbnb listing for her Berlin flat which she uploaded in July 2018
How often do you use it?
I use it much more often in the summer, when I am going away more and demand for Berlin accomodation is higher.
How do you decide on your pricing, especially for your first few bookings?
When I first put it up, I definitely put the price too low. I was following Airbnb’s recommended pricing. I have a whole apartment that is ~50sqm and I put it up at €35 per night, which seemed outrageously cheap to me. That evening all the dates I’d put up had been taken. I realised I could put it up quite a bit. I could see how much apartments in similar areas were charging and I almost always kept it cheaper than them. I didn’t want to add to the inflation of rental prices generally in Berlin. I ended at a base rate of €70 per night.
Are you now set at €70 or do you change it at all?
Yes, if I was renting it out over a weekend, I would often put the pricing a little higher, and weeknights a little lower. I’d also put it up if it was a busy time of the year. Airbnb lets you know when you add dates how many apartments near you are booked out for that particular weekend, works as a useful gauge.
In each year Lara had 5 bookings, so you can see that Lara earnt more per booking in her 2nd year
Do you ever reject guest’s requests to stay?
Yep, for sure. If someone doesn’t have any reviews or doesn’t have a photo. If they don’t have either, then it’s definitely a no-go for me. I rejected one guy and saw a couple of months later in my Airbnb inbox that his name and photo had changed. I clicked on him and saw that he had a really bad review from someone for the exact Berlin trip that he’d requested to stay at mine. It said he’d left it a tip and drank all their booze!
Wow, that was a lucky escape.
Yep, I’d rather not rent my flat out at all than rent it to someone with dodgy reviews and risk the trouble.
Following on from that, what is the weirdest part of renting out your flat?
You get some strange stuff left in your fridge, so that’s always interesting. You can see what other people have been eating. I once had some quite gorgeous looking steaks left in there once. As a vegetarian I couldn’t enjoy them, but they made a great gift for a friend.
Is there anything you leave for the guests? Any little touches to make sure you get a good review? I would sometimes leave a bottle of Sect [German prosecco] for them. If they were staying a bit longer then I might also spruce the place up with some flowers or something. I also always have a friend that comes and lets them in and gives them some tips along with a little booklet of things to do that I made as well.
“I once had some quite gorgeous looking steaks left in there once. As a vegetarian I couldn’t enjoy them, but they made a great gift for a friend.”
How has Covid changed you renting out your flat?
A combination of my job role slightly changing and then Covid really put an end to it.
Have you got any top tips for people who might be thinking about renting out a room / their house, potentially something you wished you’d known when you started?
I would say put your pricing low to begin with and get some reviews. As soon as you have some reviews, people are much more likely to come and stay.
As soon as you have some reviews, people are much more likely to come and stay.
I think the welcoming touch of having someone there to say hello helps but I have stayed at airbnbs with a lockbox and it does mean that you don’t have the pressure of meeting someone.
You also need to know the rules and regulations of your lease and your city as you are not always allowed to sublet. My landlady was fine and I cleared it with the government and got the forms I needed. Plus pay your taxes as it is also earnings — you don’t want to get stung later down the line!
Will you go back to normal once restrictions are reduced? Or do you think Covid has changed things for good?
I wouldn’t rent my flat out until the majority of people are vaccinated to be honest. I don’t want to be catching Covid from someone who has come over just for the weekend. I think the expectations on standards of hygiene are going to be a lot higher going forward.
I wouldn’t rent my flat out until the majority of people are vaccinated
I hope eventually I will go back to Airbnbing, but for now, I’m not going anywhere anyway so don’t have the chance!
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -
Reallm helps online marketplaces and their suppliers to earn more through recommendations such as price, profile and diary management.
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https://medium.com/reallm/when-will-you-let-a-stranger-stay-in-your-home-again-b3760762dcca
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['Lottie Liebling']
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2021-04-07 07:02:05.468000+00:00
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['Entrepreneurship', 'P2p', 'Side Hustle', 'Airbnb', 'Marketplaces']
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