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Part III — Exposing the Staggering Corruption and Hidden Costs of “Sustainable” Wind Energy | Part III.
In Part I of this exposé, we gave background as to what wind turbines are and how they generate energy. To summarize, wind energy is not a feasible replacement for fossil fuels because they’re non-recyclable, low-performing, high-cost, intermittent energy sources that require massive land usage and need to be supplemented by nonrenewable sources like fossil fuels. The mining and manufacture of solar panels and windmills and their materials are environmentally destructive and have a dangerous human cost.
We also discussed dependency on China’s rare earth supply chain (rare earths are the energy-intensive raw materials that are key critical components to our technology and communications sector, military defense, medical, biomedical, and of course wind turbines.) In the last two decades, China has come to dominate global rare earth production by investing in mining and processing without enforcing adequate environmental safeguards. “Few other countries are willing to copy China’s low-cost, high-pollution version of rare-earth processing,” reports LA Times. There is a reliance on rare earth minerals for almost all forms of wind energy parts.
There is an extraordinary environmental price being paid by the entire planet for the mining, refinement using pollution-heavy diesel factories, and the shipment of rare earth metals and parts that create wind turbines and solar panels.
In our second installment, we detailed the human cost of the unsustainable wind and solar energy industries, from the inhumane labor conditions required of these supply chains, to the subsidies and debt cycles to China. For a more detailed report, click on Part II of our exposé.
Some key areas to note are the numerous reports of severe human rights issues and abuses relating to rare earth mining sites like the Democratic Republic of Congo. In southeastern China, Toxic waste and radioactive materials are also a byproduct of rare earth processing, poisoning water, and soil and leading to abnormal disease rates for surrounding communities. We also detailed the economic impact of wind turbines and solar panels, including the Government subsidies and incentives which hide the actual cost of wind turbines. In reality, solar and wind facilities suffer from a very high capacity cost per megawatt, low reliability, and deficient capacity factors, which result in low avoided emissions and low avoided energy cost per dollar invested.
In order to pay the subsidies for these renewable energy projects, there is now a total debt of $42 billion and growing without a change in policy. Even since our previous installments, other news outlets have begun to shed light on the various negative impacts of these industries. The National Post recently reported on the ‘solar trash tsunami’ and the economic cost created by unrecyclable solar power waste based on new research out of the University of Calgary. Other outlets are beginning to wise up to the “real cost of wind and solar,” coming to the conclusion that perceived costs and energy outputs just don’t add up.
Here are some additional links offering even further comment on these problems… Finally, They Admit Renewables Are Terrible For The Environment, Why Everything They Said About Solar Was Wrong, (video) — ‘Politicians silent’ on renewables technology waste ending up in landfill and even this if you can believe it, The Real Reason They Blame Heat Deaths, Blackouts, and Forest Fires on Climate Change Is Because They’re Causing Them…
In this week’s final Part — III Expose’, we offer solutions to the challenges that have been brought forth. With innovation, technology breakthroughs, and ingenuity there are always answers to be sought that can solve the World’s most troubling questions… questions like: Is there a truly clean and sustainable form of energy? Is it accessible and deployable? How long will it take to develop and how much will it cost? These questions are the real need in solving the issues of today and they are knocking at our doorstep… answers like Dam-Free Wave Driven Hydroelectric power, Tidal Pumping Energy Solutions & Ocean and River Current Flow Technologies, along with several forms of offshore Wave Energy Converters for Desalination along with Hydrogen Production and Water Flow Technologies. These safe, simple, environmentally friendly innovations are set to solve today’s issues in tomorrow’s world, paving the way for our children’s children’s future, while setting an example of humanity’s innovative minds, providing productive solutions for our everyday World.
“We are not years away from any longer with usable innovative technologies to solve today’s issues”, says Kenneth W. Welch Jr. inventor, developer, and visionary as he explains one of his disruptive wave energy converters, the SeaDog Wave Energy Carousel. He explains, “this compact powerful wave pumping system offers a small offshore grid-scale footprint while providing a low cost, relatively fast installable offshore grid system to provide Dam-Free Hydroelectric power, equal to most large-scale dams without the dam, nor the destructive environmental shortfalls, inherent in nearly all of today’s hydroelectric dam systems”.
He states, “this manufacturable Carousel system will provide not only the ability to pump large flow high-pressure seawater to on or offshore turbine complexes but its design allows for variable flow rates and pressures to create desalinated water production while reconstituting brine discharge to safe levels of release to its surrounding environment”.
In our interview with Georg Engelmann, we asked what have you done over the last year to prepare for the launch of these innovative technologies? We were truly excited with his explanation of not only what they had done, but also with his well-thought-out, fast-paced plans for the year ahead.
So here is what he said, “In the past year I have worked fervently to continue the fight to reveal the inadequacies, dangers to our planet and its population, geopolitical threats and commercial risks being thrust upon us, while investing millions of dollars in developing technologies and relationships while spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on direct media campaigns targeting so-called “green energy” technologies, namely solar, wind, battery storage and electric vehicles that do not deliver what they promote”.
Read his collection of posts on: https://diamondinfrastructuredevelopment.com/news/
He goes on to say, “my present motivation is to restore the health of the planet and offer the quality of life to its people while generating profit for the company through the deployment of infrastructure technologies for the world’s waters.
Ocean energies for hydropower can be utilized to not only generate electricity but to desalinate seawater for freshwater and hydraulic power for commercial and industrial applications such as Aqua/Agri-Culture, clean fuel manufacturing, among other value-added activities all figurative in the developing Blue Economy.
This initial thrust into sustainable energy technology deployment is the first front of attack as an intervention, and mitigation, to the damage that has already been imposed and against the further threats looming through the advocacy and deployment of wind and solar technologies”.
Georg told us, “The current market strategies are ill-conceived and lacking in foresight for the long-term global implications to the natural resources and human condition of the world we live in.
The only thing “green” in the “New Deal” agenda is the money that the proponents of these dysfunctional technologies stand to gain, all at the ultimate expense of the taxpayer. To combat this movement, I took the initial step to invest in the education of our populations to the truth.
Now, one year into the information campaign, and before the present US energy administration can deal the death blow to the waters of the US eastern seaboard, it’s now time to act”.
He goes on to explain, “The countering move is to deploy a full production-grade commercial wave energy system into Atlantic state waters, using networks within my direct sphere of influence, out of the reach of the federal “agendas” that would seek to silence the message that ocean energies are THE truly sustainable energy technologies”.
We were moved by his passion and fervor, to take on the world and do something more productive than simply excepting the shortfalls of wind and solar. We asked him what’s next and he replied, “our next step offers a strategy of revision to Diamond’s Private Purchase Memorandum (PPM). A second phase PPM that offers 3M shares at $10 per share ($30M fundraise), covering the outstanding scope from Phase 1, including the remaining balance on the acquisition of exclusive global licensing for all of Global Oceanic and SeaDog Systems’ technologies as negotiated, plus a suite of commercialization programs/projects covering three of Global/SeaDog’s key energy technologies, as marketing tools for sales of licenses”.
He stated further, “Pursuant to last year’s effort, in spite of the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Phase 1 PPM successfully raised $5M of the target $15M, which has supported successes on a number of fronts in business development, funding, technical opportunity definition and technology licensing deals, which are currently under negotiation for an additional $6.7M.
Pivoting off of these successes, in spite of the odds, Diamond successfully negotiated with the Boards of Directors of Global Oceanic and SeaDog Systems, who agreed to grant a 2-year extension of the Stock Purchase and Corporate Management Agreement, for completion of the final $9M balance. And given the building momentum over the previous quarter, Diamond’s Board agreed to an increased funding level for this revised PPM which allows for widening of the scope of technology commercialization activities”.
He also stated the funding provided to date is being deployed toward the research and testing facility upgrades in Willis Texas, as was outlined in the Phase 1 PPM, which would include new office buildings already designed, with planning in progress stating, they will be completed later this year.
We asked him to share with us more on what the funds would be used for? He went on to share with us, “part of the funds provided will be used for refurbishment of the X-Wave testing facility also located in Willis near the corporate headquarters, commencing with the removal of the legacy SeaDog demonstration units and make-ready for the next wave energy technology system installation, a new high tech wave transfer station to repressurize water flows from offshore to further inland locations, after desalination from offshore platforms, offering power and water to inland locations much like a boosting station, or transformer for moving electricity over long distances. This new design of efficient Pond Dogs as they are called will use the wave generating facility much like natural waves in the ocean, to produce high-pressure large flow water transfer, via pipelines to upstream locations for use in power production and water distribution with small energy losses”.
de Castellane Creative, a marketing & public relations agency, where each client is purposefully selected because of their desire to create real-world positive change and impact, is working diligently in the ongoing and continuous effort into the media and public relations program sponsored by Diamond which has included a global release of two video campaigns, multiple press releases per month consisting of company news updates, journalistic pieces, and educational awareness material. de Castellane Creative has had excellent penetration and traction achieved through networks such as Fox, CBS, NBC, Wall Street, and Finance publications, as well as Yahoo News, Google, etc.
de Castellane Creative’s media outreach has achieved tens of thousands of engagements and thousands if not millions of reprints, re-posts, and impressions. The efforts of Diamond’s media team working with our marketing experts have produced incredibly satisfactory results informing the World. The word is out, and the World is informed via the majority of social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+, etc. as it relates to the unclean and inhumane conditions and controlled rare earth materials from China used in wind and solar energy production systems.
We asked Georg how Diamond’s new website was working out, to which he replied, “it’s truly a work of art, replete with the corporate mission, vision, and narrative of our purpose and objectives. As well, the site hosts the full catalog of the press releases, articles and updates in addition to information regarding Diamond’s capabilities, services and the suite of technologies offered”.
We then asked what was being done to further advance Diamond’s efforts to go to the market to which Georg replied, “A significant amount of technical work has been done in support of identifying markets and quantifying opportunities in the sectors of water utilization, infrastructure, and energy, for specific application of the SeaDog Wave Carousel embodiment.
Access to freshwater for coastal municipalities in South Texas, the New Jersey shore, Western Florida and Southern California, just to name a few, is a growing concern. Given their proximity to the ocean, desalination of seawater seems an intuitive solution however conventional systems are characterized by high energy premiums to drive the systems and harsh impact to nature and the environment due to heavy brine discharge. The SeaDog System-driven concept carries no such penalties or regrets and offers a superior alternative, which has been recognized by interested parties in these areas.
Introductions have been made and conversations are in progress to strategize how licensing will be acquired and development activities will progress. The main thrust of Diamond’s vision is for a networked system that spans the US Eastern Seaboard, providing for the coastal communities from Maine to Miami.
On the international scene, the power and energy demand, via the study of demographics, populations and local economies for areas such as the island communities in the South Pacific, the Caribbean and the coastal nations of West Africa have been undertaken where presently the inhabitants suffer from lack of resources or at least are subject to excessive premiums for the provision of fresh water and energy.
Whether it be for the creation of life, improvement of the quality of life or just enabling survival, our technologies represent real solutions, fully within reach and ready to deploy and deliver. Markets for commodities in addition to water and power include driving hydrogen distillation and atmospheric fuel synthesis, where legacy offshore energy infrastructure can be leveraged for the new Blue Economy enabling green hydrocarbons and other economically viable opportunities”.
With our interest peaked I just had to ask Georg; how will the onshore concepts support your future goals? He responded with, “the highlights of this new Phase 2 program include notably the addition of three separate delivery programs for commercialization of Global’s and SeaDog’s key energy technologies. The inland wave energy conversion system (Pond Dogs), erected in the Global X-Wave testing facility, the air-water motor (AWERD) with artificial head energy storage, mounted in a portable demonstration system as a Mobile Marketing Package and a SeaDog Wave Carousel, deployed at full commercial scale are each featured under the Phase 2 budget.
The Pond Dog System installation will be a full working module of a scaled system to demonstrate the flexibility of different embodiments of the SeaDog Wave Pump concept. This inland-based wave energy conversion configuration will prove the value vested in onshore pumping, lifting, and hydraulic transfer systems, optimizing the use of energy invested.
Diamond has already negotiated a lease for Global’s 7.6-acre wave facility, complete with a wave tank, offices, and laboratories to build, showcase, and demonstrate this technology, where the budget provides for the use of the facility for at least 3 years.
The Planned creation of the mobile marketing package for the artificial head and air & water motor technology will consist of the development of a commercial small-scale water and air energy storage and air and water energy storage system. The mobile unit will be used for demonstrations of stored air to energy, or stored water to energy systems and provide marketing, communication, and education tool showcasing the value proposition these sustainable concepts offer.
The capstone activity of this Phase is to build out a commercial scale SeaDog Carousel System for low-end wave heights. This powerful marketing tool will demonstrate the flexibility of the product line of carousel systems, promoting both their portability and in-place stability in the ocean environment. The budget includes transportation, offshore leases, installation costs, etc. This demonstration carousel once built, will showcase this product over the next three years, during which Diamond anticipates selling licenses for multiple sizes of the SeaDog carousel systems for grid-scale, multi-billion-dollar operations providing gigawatts of on-demand dam-free hydroelectric power.
Phase 2 funding will additionally cover the technical management for the development and deployment activities for the energy technologies and for the after-market technical support for licensed products, as required to get the job done.
de Castellane Creative’s interview with Mr. Welch and Georg Engelmann were a true peek into the environmental products of tomorrow today while providing real World facts and supporting materials which has changed our minds here at de Castellane Creative while providing hope and excitement for a cleaner and more complete view of the innovative inventions for a better tomorrow.
Additional Info below:
Hydropower is the energy created from moving water. Hydropower uses the powerful flow of water and diverts large amounts of water to turbines that produce electricity. Hydropower is one of the primary sources of renewable energy and accounts for 6.6% of the total power output in the U.S. in 2019 and 38% of the total renewable electricity generated.
The earth’s surface is 71% water, so offshore hydropower’s potential for supplying the world’s need for renewable energy is tremendous. Wave energy is one of the most durable, impactful, and consistent forms of energy available on this planet, and its use is largely untapped by humans. It is a dependable, environmentally sustainable, and abundant source of energy.
Visiting with two visionary industry leaders who are advocating for a hydropower-based transition in infrastructure that could vastly change the way we use energy. Kenneth W. Welch Jr., Inventor and Board Member of Diamond Infrastructure Development, Inc., and Georg Engelmann, Engineer and C.E.O. at Diamond Infrastructure Development, Inc.’s dynamic partnership could change the energy economy as we know it.
Their suite of technologies ranges from cutting-edge renewable wave energy conversion systems to onshore and offshore infrastructure and transportation systems.
In a recent article in response to the U.N.’s World Oceans Day, Mr. Welch Jr. stated, “We have the solutions to the questions and challenges the U.N. are posing. There is so much more we can do with adequate funding from governing bodies, including fantastic underwater habitats, new systems of sustainable transportation, agriculture, mining, tourism, pumping, and energy are all attainable with our innovative technologies.”
What makes their hydropower systems more sustainable than wind or solar energy systems?
As Mr. Engelmann explains it, “take a wind turbine for example. Considering the materials that are used in the manufacturing and installation process, then to operate and maintain it and go through the whole cycle of that system, the turbine will never create enough energy to justify itself. Let alone be a sufficient performer in terms of efficiency to ever display the demand for electrical power from the grid that it was meant to do, or decompose in a sustainable way.”
What differentiates Diamond’s suite of technologies is that their approach is actually sustainable, meaning that they “will have actually utilized more carbon out of the environment for the purpose of energy creation, then we would have incurred in terms of carbon debt to create that system in the first place.”
The SeaDog Wave Pump Carousel is the centerpiece of Diamond Infrastructure Development, Inc.'s sustainable infrastructure technologies. This technology will be able to harness renewable and free resources. This carousel actually converts offshore wind turbine towers into a more cost-effective and sustainable grid-scale offshore farm. It does not take away and consume land and is non-destructive to ocean sea life. “There are ways to convert existing wind turbines into wave converters and even ways to utilize oil infrastructure to bring water energies to shore,” states Mr. Engelmann.
By the Numbers:
A Capacity Factor means the ratio of actual energy produced by an energy-generating unit or system in a given period, to the hypothetical maximum possible.
Solar Energy Capacity Factor Average: 10%-25%
Wind Turbine U.S. fleetwide average capacity factor: 24% onshore, 41% offshore
Seadog’s 38.8 MW North Sea Carousel Capacity Factor: 52%
Energy Output
Solar Panel Energy Output: 3–4.5 MW
Wind Turbine (GE HALIADE-X): 12 MW output
Seadog Wave Energy Carousel: 38.877 MW output or 228.98% more than Wind Turbine (generates enough clean power for up to 51,836 European households per carousel and 4.198 million European households per square mile)
Cost of Infrastructure, Maintenance, and Longevity
Cost per KW installed:
Average Solar Panel: $2,910 (but this number includes the 26% Federal ITC subsidy, without which the true cost is $3,666 and higher)
Average Wind Turbine: $3,000-$8,000
Seadog Wave Energy Carousel: Ranges from $4,800–7,500, with more than twice the service life
Service Life:
Solar Panels: 25–35 Years
Wind Turbine: 20 Years
Seadog Wave Energy Carousel: 50+ Years, making them more than twice as cost-efficient
To summarize, hydropower could provide clean, renewable wave energy at a higher scale and lower price points and land usage than all other forms of sustainable energy.
So why aren’t we using hydropower on a massive scale?
Those who benefit from the dirty supply chain involved in wind turbines and solar energy, as well as leaders in the fossil fuel industry, have long since lobbied against more truly sustainable alternatives.
Historically, even President Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were great champions of tidal power, with President Kennedy calling it “one of the most astonishing and beneficial joint enterprises that the people of the United States [could] have ever undertaken.” Other power-generating firms have historically been in opposition to tidal power, fearing it would “generate electricity at a lower cost than they could, thereby hurting their business.” | https://medium.com/la-fen%C3%AAtre-magazine/part-iii-exposing-the-staggering-corruption-and-hidden-costs-of-sustainable-wind-energy-8b68dc639dd | ['Editor'] | 2021-07-08 21:57:59.223000+00:00 | ['Sustainability', 'Wind Energy', 'Solar Energy', 'Energy Efficiency', 'Green Energy'] |
Facial Recognition Attendance System | “The face is a picture of the mind with the eyes as its interpreter.”
― Marcus Tullius Cicero
Facial recognition is a modern-day technique capable of identifying a person from its digital image. They work by comparing selected facial features from a person with faces it knows from training. It is a biometric identification that analyzes facial features to give accurate results from a given image.
In this project, a complete end to end solution for regular attendance using face recognition and identification is provided.
The work is divided into 2 main parts:
1.Facial Recognition and identification.
2.REST API for server and other requirements.
1.Facial Recognition and Identification.
Facial Recognition starts from face extraction from a given image cropping out the background for one or more faces found in the image. It separates actual faces from its background and makes it easier for the recognition task. For the process of the face identification we have different methods. In this blog, I am talking about using the dlib library
I am implementing dlib for face detection, which uses a combination of HOG (Histogram of Oriented Gradient) & Support Vector Machine (SVM). The model is trained on Positive and Negative images with an anchor image. (Positive image means the same person and negative image means a different person)
In this project, I am using the OpenFace pre-trained model for face embedding. OpenFace used FaceNet(Google’s model used on 3D images) architecture on isolated faces by dlib library.
OpenFace uses a simple 2D affine transformation to make the eyes and nose appear in similar locations for the neural network input. The 68 landmarks are detected with dlib’s face landmark detector. Given an input face, the affine transformation makes the eye corners and nose close to the mean locations. The affine transformation also resizes and crops the image to the edges of the landmarks so the input image to the neural network is 96 × 96 pixels.
FaceNet uses the Triplet loss function on the given input image to identify and make embedding more accurate and reliable.
One way to learn the parameters of the neural network so that it gives you a valid encoding for your pictures of faces is to define an applied gradient descent on the triplet loss function. To apply the triplet loss, we need to compare pairs of images. Given a picture, to learn the parameters of the neural network, we have to look at several pictures at the same time. For example, given a pair of images of the same person, we want their encodings to be similar. Whereas, given a pair of images of different persons, we want their encodings to be quite different. In the terminology of the triplet loss, what we are going do is always look at one anchor image, and then we want to distance between the anchor and the positive image to be smaller. Whereas, we want the distance to be much further apart when the anchor is compared to the negative example. So, this gives rise to the term triplet loss, in which we will be looking at three images at a time, A positive, a negative, and an Anchor image.
The dataset used for training purpose consists of 10 images of each person with different angles, for more precision and to avoid any ambiguity. Dataset is divided into 70:30 as training and validation dataset respectively. | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/facial-recognition-is-a-modern-day-technique-capable-of-identifying-a-person-from-its-digital-image-59164121b839 | [] | 2020-12-10 16:01:31.288000+00:00 | ['Deep Learning', 'Face Recognition', 'Face Net', 'Convolution Neural Net', 'Reactjs'] |
Reflection — Course Correction. Today I had a couple of amazing… | Today I had a couple of amazing meetings and started to look through my notes from the past 2 months with a focus on the last 22 days.
I came to realized that so much happened that I did not manage to properly work through all of it. So I blocked a bigger block tomorrow. Reflection is big part of my journey and that is why I wanted to share a bit about it today.
Take your time
Some small moments always can be rushed, but my experience with reflection is that when you take your time, get in the right state of mind and dive deep into what happened, that I take more out of it.
Since I have multiple notebooks which I use for different things, do I need some time to highlight, break down and remember all that happened. I also use my calendar appointments as mental anchors.
A couple of hours with a focus on doing this reminds me of all what I accomplished and what themes recurred.
Why reflect
Life is an ongoing experience and we learn from it consciously or unconsciously. Repeated behaviors become habits and habits become your way of life. Self-awareness is the process of observation during the experience and you can adjust & change your behavior at the moment by using it. Documenting your experiences with journalling is useful, so you have it on paper. You also have your memories as well, but they are not reliable, because they change once you recollect them.
It helps to adjust course now and then, to check what are you doing, thinking & feeling and is that aligned with where you want to go, your life vision so to speak. That is why reflection is important. It is time for you to correct the course.
What to reflect on?
I tend to double check my vision & goals first, to make sure the north star I use is still up to date. Then I go into my notes, calendar, and memories to check the time frame since I last sat down. I do not use a fixed time frame currently I simply do it when I feel like it. I mark notes that speak to me and collect them, I look for repeating themes and words. Then I ask myself some questions like “Why is this recurring?” “What is the thought behind that thought?” “How does this fit into the bigger picture?”
Based on that I note down the things I want to continue doing, keep an eye on and questions I want to explore.
You should not overdo the reflection, but doing small and bigger reflections makes sure your north star is still the right one and that you are on your path towards it. | https://medium.com/@HendrikBerberich/reflection-course-correction-a7ecedf6a0be | ['Hendrik Berberich'] | 2019-06-17 19:53:13.432000+00:00 | ['Belief', 'Habits', 'Reflections', 'Life Lessons', 'Life'] |
Lessons I Learned from Getting Five Stories Distributed This Year | Then, in October Medium changed things up again, and made it possible for people to see more of the content published by the people they follow. That meant my earnings started going up again, even though I only published four stories that month.
Another story of mine was curated in October— “Organize Your Day with Evernote,” which I published in Writer’s Blokke. I was surprised by this one. None of my stories had been distributed since I wrote the first curated story in February.
And because Medium had switched to a new relational model, I didn’t even know about it until I looked at the stats and saw “Chosen for further distribution” at the top. | https://medium.com/writers-blokke/lessons-i-learned-from-getting-five-stories-distributed-this-year-b6fe17d7c611 | ['Erica Martin'] | 2020-12-23 07:55:48.551000+00:00 | ['Curation', 'Ｍedium', 'Lessons Learned', 'Writing'] |
AI Will Teach Us to Be Human | AI Will Teach Us to Be Human
Judgment Day Is Only the Beginning
In 2017, PwC published a paper that documented its prediction of the future of human jobs in the US and UK; specifically, it looked at job automation as a result of developments in robotics and AI. The paper puts PwC’s prediction side-by-side against other predictions from Frey and Osbourne (FO) and Arntz, Gregory and Zierahn (AGZ).
Predictions of current jobs automated by 2030 (Source: PwC)
Despite what PwC, FO or AGZ may predict, the magnitude of AI’s effect on the world may not be truly realized until it happens. Think about what happened with the newspaper industry. In 2006, the Guardian published an opinion piece, Blogging Is Not Journalism. Three years later, Business Insider published an article called The Year the Newspaper Died. We saw the Internet coming even before 2006, but at the time, few could have realized the revolutionary impact it would make, not just on the newspaper industry, but the world as a whole.
AI has the potential for an even greater impact. It isn’t just through AI itself, though; simultaneously developing technologies like blockchain, 5G, and robotics will integrate with AI to enable the largest impact. In 2030, if PwC’s prediction becomes reality, more than a third of existing jobs in the US today will be handled by robots and/or AI. Take that timeline a bit farther, and one day we may see a complete displacement of human workers, which spans all ends of the employment spectrum.
What Makes Us Human
We have a tendency, maybe desperation, to draw a line between ourselves and everything else. The question of what makes us human existed far before the idea of artificial intelligence was conceived. That’s why the answer has changed throughout human history. Before civilization, the answer archaeologists pointed to was our opposable thumbs and increasing neural count. During modern human development, it was our complex social structures and cognitive ability to develop language and quantification, which led to society.
When robots and AI were little more than the imagination of authors or film-makers, our answer changed yet again, but this time it was a little different. Previous answers were created to explain why we were at the top of the food chain, but this new answer was created to explain why we should remain there. Unfortunately, we could no longer depend on our bread-winning characteristics: language and quantification. After all, computer data is transferred and processed much faster than human data. So we started saying that only humans were capable of love and art. But we were wrong.
The complicated thing about art and love is that both are not well-defined. Art is subjective, depending on the tastes of the audience. Love is also subjective — it’s a mysterious emotion that we have a hard time describing. Its complexity arises from the fact that it is a mixture of natural processes and human culture; i.e., it’s both natural and unnatural.
What is natural is our desire to reproduce. What is unnatural is the institution of marriage — I’m not saying it’s wrong, I’m only saying that it’s not genetically coded in us, but rather, taught to us. Before 2350 B.C., we have no recorded evidence of marriage and anthropologists believe that families were small groups of people that consisted “of as many as 30 people, with several male leaders, multiple women shared by them, and children.”
The best available evidence suggests that [marriage is] about 4,350 years old. For thousands of years before that, most anthropologists believe, families consisted of loosely organized groups of as many as 30 people, with several male leaders, multiple women shared by them, and children. - The Week
Although we initially fell back on the softer, unmeasurable aspects of humanity, those features (art and love) may not be unique to humans for much longer.
Sugar, Spice, and 3v3ryth1ng Nice
Mario Klingemann’s Memories of Passersby I (Source: The Verge)
In Spring 2019, AI art went up for auction at Sotheby’s. It was generated by a general adversarial network (GAN) — which is fancy-speak for a methodology of creating AI algorithms by using two computer participants. The first participant takes a bunch of data, tries to make sense of it (in this case, images of art), and then produce its version of it. The second participant is trained to spot AI-generated materials vs. human generated materials. If it can tell the difference, then the first participant did not generate a good-enough piece of art and tries again (note: the participants are not humans, just computers). Now that AI has started generating art, and it’s selling at Sotheby’s, our argument of human artistic skill is questioned.
Furthermore, love and affection are becoming more common with our robotics counterparts as the interaction between humans and robots shifts from the hand (i.e., typing) to voice and face. The anthropomorphism of computers is shifting their role from tool to companion. Devices like Amazon Echo and Google Home are becoming integrated into our lives, learning about what we like and the rhythm of our daily routines. Over 110 million of those sorts of devices were shipped in 2018. As person who’s lost an Amazon Echo, I can attest to the human emotions I felt — akin to losing a friend.
AIBO, Sony’s AI-enabled Robot Dog (Source: AIBO Official Website)
Even the AIBO, a very basic AI-enabled robotic version of a dog, is seen differently from a tool like an iPhone. A 2008 study observing the behavior of children interacting with AIBO, a robotic dog built by Sony, vs. a real dog showed that 60% of those children affirmed that AIBO could have mental states (emotions), sociality, and moral standing — just like a human dog. But children weren’t the only ones giving and finding love and affection in AIBO — even adult owners have strong emotional attachments to their robotic best friends.
The AlphaGo documentary is a must-watch for anyone interested in AI. You can view it on NetFlix (Source: IMDB)
The once mightily human aspects of our existence are slowly eroding. AI is starting to create art, and it is also able to receive and provide love and affection. While the ability of it to do both may be limited, over time it will become more skilled at these abilities, potentially achieving a mastery that surpasses humans. We already know that this is possible.
When it comes to recognizing faces, AI is already better at it than humans — SenseTime offers the world’s most accurate facial recognition algorithms, which can be used to power smart cities with millions in population. When it comes to playing games, OpenAI has beaten the human world champions of DOTA. In the world of board games, AlphaGo has crushed the greatest Go player on the planet.
The Day of Reckoning
Fueled by technological innovation and our paradoxical desire to rebuild ourselves, the Terminator’s Judgment Day may be more inevitable than we imagine. In our data-driven world, where intelligence is measured by IQ, prosperity is measured by dollars, and social credibility is measured by followers, the human ability to quantify, store data, and act on that data accurately and efficiently falls significantly short compared to a computerized counterpart. We dub this shortcoming human error — it may be the only thing that eventually sets us apart from AI.
Goodbye, Old World
We hold on to our jobs, compare our titles, and count our money like it’s what defines life, but this very structure prevents many of us from actually living. Many live to work. Exhausting work-hours have become a naive humblebrag. And yet, when AI has come as a solution to transform the existing fabric of our society, we complain about how it will free us from the very chains we built ourselves, like a case of Stockholm Syndrome. Maybe our existing social structure wasn’t built to scale.
The population of New York City is over 8 million people. The population of the entire United States during the Revolutionary War in 1776 was 2.5 million, of which 0.5 million were estimated to be slaves. The Founding Fathers wrote the U.S. Constitution with a population of 2 million people in mind. They were managing the rights of a population 1/4 the size of New York City. Today, the Constitution is de facto law of the land in the United States, home to over 320 million people. This is also a land where a melting pot of cultures and values exist, some of which enjoy their right to bear arms while others see it as a growing problem to violence.
I’m not arguing whether or not the Constitution is appropriate for the United States in today’s world. One can certainly list the benefits of having such a law as foundational as the Constitution, I’m sure. And I think it plays a vital role in governing the country in the current state of affairs. Rather, I’m implying that the Founding Fathers probably didn’t think about the other 318 million people and cultures that would exist years later when they wrote it.
Western Nightmares and Eastern Dreams
When next-generation AI comes knocking at the door, though, it may reasonably bring with it a new societal structure. What that new structure looks like, though, varies based on who you talk to — more specifically, where you’re talking to. The most commonly juxtaposed perceptions of AI’s role in the future are between the United States and Japan. Robot vs. Human allusions are rampant in US culture with movies like Terminator and the Matrix, and thought leaders like Elon Musk and Steven Hawking. Meanwhile, Japan and many other Asian cultures grew up on robotic heroes like Astro Boy and Gundam Wing.
Joi Ito explains the difference in a 2018 article entitled Why Westerners Fear Robots and Japanese Do Not. He attributes it to the Shinto religion. In the words of Mr. Ito, “Followers of Shinto, unlike Judeo-Christian monotheists and the Greeks before them, do not believe that humans are particularly ‘special.’”
Japanese don’t make a distinction between man, the superior creature, and the world about him. Everything is fused together, and we accept robots easily along with the wide world about us, the insects, the rocks — it’s all one. We have none of the doubting attitude toward robots, as pseudohumans, that you find in the West. So here you find no resistance, simply quiet acceptance. Quote by Osamu Tezuka, Interpreted by Joi Ito
On the other hand, Christianity, the most commonly practiced religion in the West, states that humans are not only different from other animals but better, only second to God himself/herself/itself. Regardless of your religion, this artifact of Christianity, much like the idea of marriage, has dug its roots into the culture. My generation grew up with Barney songs that include lyrics like:
You are special, you’re the only one You’re the only one like you. There isn’t another in the whole wide world Who can do the things you do. - Barney in Concert
Maybe the Barney song is a biased example because I grew up with no cable television and a single VHS tape, which I used to record the Barney in Concert episode. Then I watched it over, and over, and over again because it was the only thing I could watch for the next few years of my life (well, that and Doctor Dolittle, which could also fit on the VHS). Maybe I’m the only person who got the message drilled into my brain by Barney the purple dinosaur. Regardless, Barney is not the only preacher of the human-centric view of the universe.
In the western view, nothing should eclipse man. Unfortunately, AI may someday. From this perspective, people view the doomsday scenario as a Zero-Sum Game. But it’s important to understand that it’s not a fact that drives to that conclusion; rather, it’s a culture. The proof is on the other side of the world, where people embrace the idea of coexistence with artificial intelligence. Apart from Japan, China is also prioritizing the development of AI. While in America, AI might be a well-funded idea, in China it has full support (financially and legislatively) from the government.
This isn’t to say that there is no fear from the east nor any embrace from the west. There isn’t a line drawn between the two — culture, especially in globalized nations, is becoming a blend of influences from within and outside political borders. That’s why there’s no clear determination on AI’s influence on humanity.
The Dawn of AI Is the Rebirth of Humans
AI will not, in the foreseeable future, be more human than humans because we don’t know what it means to be human; therefore, we cannot measure it and compare it. What it can do is push us to rethink the way society currently runs. With job displacement creeping in, eventually, we will hit an inflection point where we must evaluate the role that jobs play in human life.
If money is paid through work, but most of the human population cannot work, then the provision of money will have to be reconsidered. In this event, ideas like Universal Basic Income (UBI) emerge and take center stage. Money may no longer be exchanged for work because work may no longer be a requirement as a contributor to society.
But this change won’t happen overnight, and the transition period will not be pretty. Jobs will be lost, and before humanity can react appropriately, many lives will be ruined. These growing pangs, unfortunately, may become an unavoidable effect that many may mistake for the end itself, but it is a means to an end. In this transition time, it is very important for us to consider how we can mitigate the negative impacts that will occur, which is where UBI may play a critical role.
That’s about as far as I can think before I start treading into the deeper end of the orders of ignorance. Humans may no longer need to work and universal basic income may play the fundamental economic role of human existence, or the idea of monetary exchange may be replaced altogether. While I can’t contribute any meaningful discussion to the purpose of life, I can agree that the purpose is unlikely to be employed and save up a 401K.
Since the emergence of agriculture, though, human life has slowly become an expendable resource — the gasoline that makes the business, the government, or the economy run faster. The dawn of AI challenges this paradigm, but not necessarily for the worse. The efficiencies it brings provides an opportunity to live more fulfilling lives. Without the worry of jobs and paychecks and with the introduction of a more fulfillment-focused way of life, the AI day of reckoning may serve to bring us closer to answering what it means to be human. | https://towardsdatascience.com/ai-will-teach-us-to-be-human-aaf7dd218b6d | ['Kenny L.'] | 2020-02-06 21:54:06.519000+00:00 | ['AI', 'Philosophy', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Basic Income', 'Robotics'] |
In last few days we have seen how a Businessman baba who is not having any Degree in ayurveda… | In last few days we have seen how a Businessman baba who is not having any Degree in ayurveda neither BAMS nor any other is criticising allopathy over ayurveda and telling allopathic treatment of covid have made more deaths than covid itself.. i also wanna put few of my thoughts over it...
1. Baba and few others criticising frequent treatment plan change and change in prescribing medicine in covid treatment protocol.. so for your kind information covid came in so much limelight in 2019 only and scientists of whole world are working for its treatment of choice but as its new one so until they will get succeed in having a particular drug of choice which will be decided by clinical trials only they are prescribing drugs which are having even a bit of efficacy in fighting the disease course and evaluating its effectiveness on disease course and comparing it with the side effects..and if they are finding side effects more than efficacy in covid then they are removing it from treatment protocol.. whats wrong in it..
Every new disease goes through same course of trials and all.. the diseases in which we are having clear cut drug of choice and which are not bothersome for us now also went through same course until a drug of choice found...for example today anyone knows about ORS IN DIARRHEA.. but ORS was first used in 1964.. before that diarrhea was a big big problem and many legends died by diarrhoea only...
2. Ayurveda vs allopathy.. its not a point of debate at all.. ayurveda is our ancient proud and we respect it.. but is allopathy bad??? no !! half of medicine in allopathy are developed from the plants which prescribed in ayurveda only.. like atropine developed fron atropa belladona.. modern medicine went into the depth of chemical structure of drug and formulated it as medicine.. so all pathies are good and all should work together to fight any disease.. noone is superior or inferior..
3. Who is this baba and why is so much fight.. as we all remember last year baba launched a medicine and and told it as drug for corona.. then modern medicine and icmr asked about its chemical formulation and any trial done then baba told its immunity booster.. so if its immunity booster then why baba launched it as this and why he told it as treatment for covid.. he should have told it as immunity booster for prevention from corona..but he launched it as such just to gain money from the fear of covid in people.. we all know about chyawanprash and all which are natural immunity boosters and we all in our home take it.. no modern medicine people asked for any justification from baba in chyawanprash but saying something as treatment for covid is wrong if u havent made proper trials and all.
4. Why baba behaving as father of ayurveda.. is he having any degree in ayurveda.. BAMS doctors are part of medical system.. even in government setup there is AYUSH wing and they are equally helping by their medicine as kadha and all.. ayurvedic doctors should not promote any person who doesn't have any degree in their pathy.. its all comercial and he is a not a doctor.. we allopathic doctors dont promote any jholachhaap but we criticise them for using our medicine without holding any degree..
. so please dont be part of debate as debate is not ayurveda vs allopathy..its about a moron who is criticising allopathy...by which carores of people are getting recovered from covid.. and which is working for other diseases too to fight and win life over death.. and health over diease..
We respect all the pathies and all doctors who gained knowledge in any pathy and doing treatment as per knowledge of their pathy.. noone should criticise other pathy for gaining some gain either publicity or anything... and plz Dont entertain morons..🙏 Dr.Sachin Sharma.. | https://medium.com/@dr.sachin.medico/in-last-few-days-we-have-seen-how-a-businessman-baba-who-is-not-having-any-degree-in-ayurveda-b97ba778e417 | ['Dr. Sachin Sharma'] | 2021-05-25 13:35:42.896000+00:00 | ['Doctors', 'Indian Doctors', 'Mbbs', 'Medical', 'Allopathic Medicine'] |
Clustering vs Distributed Systems | This post contains high-level concepts on clustering load balancing and distributed systems. It mainly focuses on the aspects of what, why, advantages and disadvantages.
What is clustering?
When it comes to a model like a client and a server application model, the client sends requests to the server in order to execute a task and get results. This server can be a single endpoint that contains a single server entity or in other words, it can be one service entity. Let’s say a client sends a request to this single service endpoint which contains multiple sub-tasks. Then once it gets the request it starts processing the sub-tasks in order to complete the request but it has to perform all the sub-tasks by using its own resources. So it will take some time to execute all the sub-tasks to complete the request.
So with this approach imagine what happens if this server (the single service endpoint) has thousands of clients and at the same time all the clients start to communicate with the server by sending requests. The server may run out of its resources during the execution of the tasks, so some clients will have to wait until the server gets its resources to fulfill the needs of the clients. The availability of resources becomes low and it adds limits to the scalability as well. The end result would be a huge decrease in performance.
What happens if the server goes down? it will make services unavailable to the clients and till the server comes up clients will have to hold their tasks. This may introduce problems to the application users and it may cause data losses as well.
Now let’s see how to overcome the above problems. In order to overcome the resource problem and increase performance, we can add more resources to the same endpoint to execute sub-tasks parallelly. In other words, we can add more service entities that can communicate with each other and execute sub-tasks parallelly. All these service entities or server entities will share one service endpoint where all clients would connect and send requests. So if the number of requests or number of connected clients or users are getting high we can add more service entities to the same endpoint. This concept is called “scalability” in clustering.
Unlike the single service entity or single server now we have multiple service entities to fulfill the requests. Let’s assume one service entity goes down due to an error occurred, now the requests coming to that server entity will be redirected to the other available service entities by minimizing the downtime of the services. With this ability, the users or clients may not experience huge availability of the services since there are other service entities that can take over the execution by minimizing the downtime. This concept is known as “high availability”
Now let’s take a look at the summary of the things that we discussed above
Clustering in a nutshell
Clustering is the concept of multiple service nodes or entities working as one single entity by sharing a single endpoint to enable the scalability and high availability of the services.
As explained above ,the main advantages of clustering scalability, high availability, increased performance, and simplicity.
Now we get another problem in our minds, how to handle and route requests which come to a single endpoint and distribute those requests between service entities or nodes in a cluster?
The answer is we have to use a load balancer to handle the requests which come to the endpoint and distribute them between service nodes in a cluster using a proper mechanism.
(I will be explaining more about load balancing in a different blog post in the future.)
Cluster using a load balancer
What are distributed systems?
Now let’s assume that there is a system that can interpret an incoming request and divide the request into sub-tasks and re-route those tasks into different endpoints (in other words different service modules) that are dedicated to complete those tasks. This concept of having dedicated servers or endpoints for different tasks or service modules is called a distributed system. Here the functionalities are being distributed among different dedicated servers.
distributed system
This adds few advantages like increasing the ability of concurrent access to a particular service, reduce the resource consumption, reusability of common services between applications and it will also make it easy to extend the functionalities by adding them in a distributed way.
What is the difference between a distributed system and a cluster?
Mainly there are two major differences between a distributed system and a cluster. The first major difference comes with the way the services are being executed. In distributed systems, it distributes sub-tasks in different servers, so if there are main 10 sub-tasks then there will be 10 endpoints (or in other words 10 different dedicated servers) to get the work done but in clustering, one endpoint is there and that endpoint is being mapped to several servers (through a load balancer) each consists of the ability to execute 10 sub-tasks within itself. Now given the above fact think what happens if one server fails in a distributed system? Then the whole system would have to wait till that server comes up to complete the task or to abort the task. But what happens if one server fails in a clustering system? The load balancer would redirect the incoming requests to another service entity or server node to handle the task
Let’s take another example, assume that there is an application that has thousands of clients sending multiple requests at a time, so in order to decrease the execution time of a request we can distribute the functionalities as sub-tasks in a distributed system. Due to the dedication and high resource availability, it will decrease the execution time of a single sub-task and will increase efficiency. When it comes to a cluster it will increase the number of tasks that are being executed during a given time period and will increase the efficiency through that, and that is the second major difference.
In simple words assume that a task consists with 10 sub-tasks and one sub-task takes 1 hour to complete, then for a single server to complete the task it will take 10 hours.
Now assign that task to a distributed system where we have those 10 sub-tasks distributed in 10 different dedicated servers, with parallel execution it will complete all the sub-tasks within 1 hour.
In a clustering system with a single server, it will still take 10 hours to complete the whole task but we can increase the number of servers in clustering and let’s say we increased it up to 10 servers and now at a given time the cluster is now capable of handling 10 requests parallelly.
Now comes the main question which is…
When to use which strategy?
Well, I would say it is highly depending on the properties of your application like the number of users per given time, number of requests per given time, number of database connections at a given time and load of the data that needs to handle etc. likewise there are many things you have to consider when selecting what approach is more suitable for your application.
But most of the time if you are having a large scale application then having a combination of both would give you more results, as an example, you can use clustering inside of a distributed system by clustering the dedicated servers for more availability and scalability but still, everything depends on your application’s properties. | https://medium.com/swlh/clustering-vs-distributed-systems-51eb15836eb7 | ['Lakshitha Samarasingha'] | 2020-07-21 22:20:07.087000+00:00 | ['Distributed Systems', 'Distribution', 'Cluster', 'Load Balancing', 'Clustering'] |
Technical Analysis of $EMOJIS | We’ve all seen the hype of the newly listed $EMOJIS.
Selling out on all 5 days of their Bounce Finance Presale in an average of 5 mins! What in the DeFi is so good about this project that it gets picked up by Bilaxy Exchange in just an hour after its launch?
In this article I will take you through my research into Emojis.farm and analyzing their smart contract code and their day’s chart to find out for myself and my readers if this is truly something worth buying.
“ I don’t want to be a MOONBOY, but I want my readers to be buying breakouts”
Since its #1 on Dext lets have a look at its chart.
Emojis sustained its early ‘pump and dumper’s — Hour 1 & 2
This is always a good sign in any yield farm. If you compare it to the likes of other Defi projects in the space, take Harvest or Seal for example, all of which aim to provide liquidity, if you have a look you’ll notice their charts take an inverted spike to nothingness when all their pre-sale buyers dump to make a quick buck the moment it lists.
This happened too in emoji, but with its real and effective use-cases which I will be sharing more of later in this article, it did its expected spike and dip to enter very controlled channel.
As expected the bulls drove it up — Next few hours
The chart is pretty self-explanatory in the next few hours the horizontal level could be explained by the non-anon team behind Emojis.farm which is Consentium, who has been in the industry since 2018.
Operating on its own proprietary blockchain, CSM chain, it bridges the gap between social communication and cryptocurrency, using its 100,000-member strong community and its integrated cryto wallet to facilitate seamless transactions.
Consentium aims to continue in becoming the premier chat platform and super-app for the DeFi space. Which in the future will see the adoption of $EMOJI tokens.
The goal of Emojis.farm is to create a self-sustaining community that will provide liquidity and sustainability to both new and old DeFi projects. Through generous fixed 1000% yield incentivization of APY and reward distributions of both individual LP tokens and $EMOJI, the farm ensures a steady pool of liquidity to support the ecosystem for the long run.
They have a lot in store for emojis and the market clearly saw that reaching its current peak, and creating its all time high and new resistance at just below $USD440.
Creating its huge level of support — Next 7 hours
People are selling here. There’s no surprise. Many were looking for continuation to the horizontal upside, but we can see a clear reject at 2100 which created a downtrend for 7 hours, but throught this time it held its support.
On the Lower time frames you ideally want to see that held if not we will see a break of structure, and it held. If the bulls take over from here it can go from ‘this is destroyed and abandoned to omg I have to have it’
The Golden Pocket — latest in time of writing.
Until this is support is broken I am seeing this as a buying opportunity, in the last hour you can clearly see a reversal inverse head and shoulder formation on the lower time frame, creating our first golden pocket.
If we look at this in context of a range and you add your fib levels to this bounce, and it continues to hold its support any position you take it this coming trend should be taken with a high level of confidence, as we are looking to see many coming buying opportunities.
Remember in trading it’s important to stay patient for the bulls to take it to the moon. If you follow them on their Telegram chat you will be able to see the community’s predictions there as well. https://t.me/emojisfarm_chat
Enough with the chart analysis, lets see where the bulls take us!
Lets see what they have written in stone — Their Smart Contract Code
https://etherscan.io/token/0xcbd380c2d84deafed09f79863705353505764f26
Highly recommend doing your own research!
Their contract address is 0xcbd380c2d84deafed09f79863705353505764f26
They use Safe Math library to prevent overflows.
You can see how they use their Safe Math library in the contract code.
This is something that I look for in any project as when your are working with numbers in any programming language you are subject to overflows. An overflow happens when the value of number is bigger than the maximum possible value offered by the machine.
The library will help you check for overflows in case of addition, underflow in case of subtractions as well as when performing multiplications and divisions.
Its an extremely common practice in farms, but you will be suprised to see many contracts not have this simple implementation even when working with numbers!
Not so commonly seen in a Farming Contract — Minting
Traditionally in a farm when you provide liquidity (Project Token) and receive (Project Token) as a reward.
However within the Emojis farm contract, EMOJI or DeFi pairing will be used to swap either pairing or vice-versa for half-liquidity function with one token instead of tomorrow. (this is based from Uniswap). EMOJI generated from contract will be used to buy the other pair and contribute liquidity on Uniswap. The LP received will be distributed back to users who staked LPs.
For example, if you stake HAKKA/EMOJI LP, you receive HAKKA/EMOJI LP instead of just EMOJIs.
This looks like an artificial increase in liquidity. Might there be negative aspects to this method?
There might be. Therefore the team is looking at different ways to utilize burning of tokens to control supply of EMOJI in the long run. But, emission rates being sustainable in a few months does not mean it will be in a year and more, and the team has actively mentioned that they understand this and are actively working on it, and are looking to add more utilities for EMOJI or burn mechanisms with added features on EMOJIS Farm. Additionally being part of Consentium and having a further long term plans, we can definitely see more use cases and it is clear the and the team has also mentioned that their currently announced plans for EMOJIS is not the final product.
Even more reason to Hodl $EMOJIS!
A simple answer to this is also.
If they don’t allow farm contract to mint $EMOJI, where does the rewards come from ?
They have already transferred ownership upon contract deployment for all listed pools!
Do they have a burn function then?
YES THEY DO!
Reference links for your own research!
Telegram — https://t.me/emojisfarm_chat
Website — https://emojis.farm
Medium — https://medium.com/@emojisfarm
Twitter — https://twitter.com/EmojisFarm
https://etherscan.io/token/0xcbd380c2d84deafed09f79863705353505764f26
https://emojisfarm.gitbook.io/emojis-farm/
Their current Pools
EMOJI/ETH
https://info.uniswap.org/token/0xcbd380c2d84deafed09f79863705353505764f26
MPH/EMOJI
https://info.uniswap.org/pair/0x4f60870ad7755ad2fbb8b4dc4a29117ab68da9c8
yPLT/EMOJI
https://info.uniswap.org/pair/0x90d62e68e2438a496975f5f00b9b6f5828a91b68
MGX/EMOJI
https://info.uniswap.org/pair/0xa1a3c0cd3ef7d9e2f442adf0ff3533a2a9cbc0ec
EMOJI/CSMX
https://info.uniswap.org/pair/0xbacd2cd0c094c607902f10390187b31e6845bca0
HAKKA/EMOJI
https://info.uniswap.org/pair/0xceec3d42a18ae8dcc6d6365af44b8e76c00296d9 | https://medium.com/@franciskwan971/technical-analysis-of-emojis-4ad1bc7256b | [] | 2020-12-08 02:06:03.056000+00:00 | ['Predictions', 'Coins', 'Defi', 'Moonshots', 'Analysis'] |
Personal Opinion or Market Driver? How Reviews Influence Markets | Resistance to change is certainly one of the limitations that faces innovation adoption. But it is not a stone wall. It seems that personal opinion can win even in front of the most unshakable beliefs when it comes to trying new things, no matter how subjective and therefore hardly verifiable it can be. That’s where blockchain technologies come in handy in the fight with rumors and fabricated opinions by tracking every customer review for better decision making that is based on first-hand information.
Word-of-mouth without borders
When it comes to new experiences, individuals become sceptical and doubtful as to whether or not changing their habits and their daily routine might bring about worthwhile results. This effect is widely known as the resistance to change theory that can be overcome with recommendations based on personal experiences given by friends or colleagues.
If a new service is recommended by someone from the community, that individual will be more likely to experience it.
Personal recommendations are believed to be independent, therefore individuals tend to consider reviews as a trustful source as opposed to the information coming from affiliated parties such as advertising messages or expert opinions. Word-of-mouth is spreading through communities at a high rate of speed in order to address problems as fast as possible. First-hand complaints on high-risk assets would save other investors from losing money and trust.
Derek Rucker, a marketing professor from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, stated in his study that the intention to give advice is shaped by altruism and empathy.
If only the reviews were truly independent themselves…
Recommend Recommendations
The consumer market has spent billions on advertising campaigns in order to reach their audience. According to McKinsey’s research, 20% to 50% of purchasing decisions are based on reviews and recommendations. The role of word-of-mouth then becomes more sufficient as the price of a product is high or its technology is considered innovative.
However, a consumer’s mind is more likely to trust sources that are not influenced by commercial interests. According to the research, consumers from developing countries are taking word-of-mouth more seriously than advertising messages when considering whether or not to purchase a product.
According to a Local Consumer Review Survey, 85% of users trusted online reviews as much as personal recommendations in 2017. Recommendation services have quickly become popular, since they have decreased the amount of time spent on decision making while the amount of information available on usage cases has increased. In the digital economy, recommendation systems were designed to structure the number of choices by applying filters in order to better meet search criteria.
Thus, travel user review service TripAdvisor has a monthly audience of 185 million views, followed by the entertainment aggregator Yelp, which has 165 million views. With, currently, over 630 million reviews and opinions, TripAdvisor is dominating the recommendation market with $1,556 million in revenues for 2017. An average visit lasts for about 3 minutes, during which a user gets the first impression from recent reviews and an overall ranking.
The recommendation systems would work perfectly if traditional markets were driven by fair intentions rather than greediness.
As small businesses are struggling to compete with huge corporations that have funds for marketing, they’ve started manipulating recommendations by paying for reviews. On freelance websites, SEO specialists are ready to review products for $4 an hour. In Russia, the price of a fake review of about 300–500 words roughly equals $1.59. The budget on fake reviews is a part of the content marketing budget that is on track to be flooded with $2.47 billion in 2020.
The review system ended up being the least independent information source with paid content that doesn’t cost a lot, which is therefore affordable to companies with products of any quality. While TripAdvisor has warned of unverified comments, third parties have developed algorithms to track fake reviews.
Recommendation systems appear to be causing more problems than they solve, which begs the questions How can you verify the review? Who takes the responsibility for fake reviews, and how to make that decision?
Blockchain-backed transparent reviews #IMHO
The crypto economy gives answers to questions raised by the traditional markets. Recommendation systems are missing transparency since reviews are not linked to payment accounts, which makes the verification process nearly impossible. Blockchain technology responds to this issue with a simple solution to anonymously track data on purchases and to encourage consumers to share their first-hand experiences while, at the same time, being rewarded with cryptocurrency.
In the recommendation market, the blockchain acts as a data aggregator and verification system, all while keeping consumers’ privacy and anonymity secure. Traditional review aggregators are failing to eliminate fake recommendations, whereas solutions developed with the blockchain were designed to never let them come through in the first place.
In just 18 years, after the foundation of review aggregator leaders in the traditional market, a new crypto project is aimed to revolutionize the industry. Rateonium uses a new technological approach to store user data for further analysis. Based on reviews that are linked with a payment transaction, products and services are ranked. The ecosystem that is being developed by Rateonium encourages users to share their personal opinions by automatically rewarding them in their cryptocurrency (RTO).
Encryption technologies store user data based on geolocation and personal preferences in order to help its members make weighted decisions. This is done while reviews are sorted and stored for further analysis on the blockchain.
The blockchain system supports trust principles linking consumers and companies on one platform. After a review is submitted, a user is rewarded a certain amount of tokens in respect to the information added. Fake reviews are being filtered with algorithms approving only verified opinions sealed with the In-My-Humble-Opinion stamp as a means for quality assurance.
The crypto economy has finally set a price on the information that has been constantly shifting the traditional market. The grapevine has transformed from a word-of mouth to an insightful source for decision-making processes. In today’s environment, your opinions are worth more than they have been at any other time. So why would you give those away for free?
About the author:
Kirill Shilov — Founder of Geekforge.io and Howtotoken.com. Interviewing the top 10,000 worldwide experts who reveal the biggest issues on the way to technological singularity. Join my #10kqachallenge: GeekForge Formula. | https://medium.com/hackernoon/personal-opinion-or-market-driver-how-reviews-influence-markets-bd888f97b7cd | ['Kirill Shilov'] | 2019-01-17 09:57:27.240000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Blockchain', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Influencer Marketing', 'Bitcoin'] |
Making a Side Project, Part 3: Minimum Usable Product | What is a Minimum Usable Product
A Minimum Usable Product (MUP) is the minimum features that we need to build so that a user can use the product for the purpose it was intended. No nice to have features, just the minimum required. Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is another popular term for this, but I don’t think that accurately describes what we’re trying to do.
For each release of the product, the user is able to use it to achieve the goals of the project.
I’ve often left out things like the “Forgot Password” feature until after launch. The chance that a user will forget their password the day they create the account, well it happens, but not very likely. Typically that is the only feature in the MUP that needs to be able to send emails, so not only do you save time by not having to build the feature, but you also save time by not having to signup for and setup an email delivery service.
Features like this usually get added pretty quickly after launch, don’t let that stop you launching though.
On one project, I waited until someone emailed that they forgot their password, then I sat down, built and deployed the feature and emailed the user back with a link an hour later.
It takes a lot of discipline to define the MUP and then stick to it, you’ll get sucked into the “oh I really need this one more feature” before I launch. You don’t, trust your gut when you started the process. | https://medium.com/makesideproject/making-a-side-project-part-3-minimum-usable-product-f11e56b417fd | ['Mubashar Iqbal'] | 2020-12-08 13:38:38.327000+00:00 | ['MVP', 'Software Development', 'Startup', 'Side Project', 'Product Hunt'] |
Rupert Sheldrake — Fringe Scientist in the Spotlight | Rupert Sheldrake — Fringe Scientist in the Spotlight
Reviled by the scientific community and praised by his followers, Rupert Sheldrake launched a widely acclaimed book in 2012. It is A Reckoning with the Established Scientific Establishment René Junge Follow Dec 22, 2020 · 5 min read
Photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash
At the time, a hot, public dispute broke out in Great Britain between the strictly science-believing and the holistically, partly esoterically thinking readers. To classify this dispute, this article gives an overview of who Rupert Sheldrake is and which theses he represents.
Since the theory of morphic resonance reaches into parapsychology areas and offers explanations for phenomena as, for example, telepathy, probably one or the other reader will not agree with the theses of Sheldrake. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to deal with this controversially discussed topic.
I take beforehand that I do not believe in Sheldrake’s theses. However, since he demands a scientific discussion of his theories, he stands out, in my opinion, pleasantly from pure esotericists who reject the scientific method entirely.
With this article, I put his theses, therefore, to the public discussion.
Rupert Sheldrake — Life and Work. A summary
Rupert Sheldrake received his doctorate in biochemistry from Cambridge and also studied philosophy at Harvard. At Cambridge, he worked for some time as a research director in cell biology and biochemistry. So he has a solid scientific background. This distinguishes him from most pseudo-scientific esotericists.
We should keep this fact in mind when we now look a little closer at his work on the morphic resonance he postulates.
We make a jump to the year 1981, in which his first work, “A New Science of Life,” appeared. In it, it is about the theory of “form-giving causation.”
In short, it is about the fact that, in Sheldrake’s view, so-called “morphogenetic fields” are active in nature. These can be thought of as information fields analogous to scientifically recognized fields such as the electromagnetic field.
Just as a magnetic field acts on the alignment of iron filings, according to Sheldrake, the morphogenetic field, e.g., of a plant, acts on shaping the whole and its parts.
Thus, the morphogenetic field would be partly responsible for the fact that a particular flower always looks the way it does.
Sheldrake does not consider genetic information and its mutation alone to be sufficient to explain the evolution of an organism. Sheldrake discovers too many gaps in the current theory of evolution to accept it as all-explanatory.
The theory of evolution in its present form cannot yet provide a satisfying explanation of how such highly complex systems as the proteins, which are fundamental to life, could arise solely through random, natural selection.
From a purely statistical point of view, it is almost impossible for such structures to form spontaneously and randomly. This applies to each individual protein, but even more so to the simultaneous formation of many thousands of different proteins, which also interact in a functionally interdependent manner and thus make life possible in the first place.
According to all probability laws, therefore, there should be nothing living based on natural selection alone until today. Suppose in the distant past, however, such a protein mix should have arisen. In that case, it is still not explained why this one chance hit should have survived immediately and, above all, not how similar structures could have emerged again and again over a longer period of time.
Here Sheldrake’s idea of morphogenetic fields comes into play:
According to this theory, roughly speaking, everything has a morphogenetic field. In this field, the information about the respective system belonging to the field is stored. Furthermore, very similar morphogenetic fields are in resonance with each other. Similar fields are fields of the same shape.
This means that two people’s morphogenetic fields can resonate with each other, but the morphogenetic field of a person and a flower can hardly resonate.
Thus, resonance with earlier expressions of the same form occurs. Referring to the example with the proteins, this would mean that the complicated protein mix would have already produced a morphogenetic field with which the fields of future proteins could resonate.
Resonance means that systems that are in different states of oscillation align with each other when they interact. The already existing morphogenetic field would thus act as a shaping cause.
Thus the relatively complicated theory of Rupert Sheldrake is explained first in its essential features. A complete presentation of his work, which also includes his theory’s constant further development since 1981, would go beyond the scope here. For a more comprehensive introduction to Sherdrake’s world of thought, his homepage and the Wikipedia entry on Rupert Sheldrake are recommended at this point.
The debate in Great Britain after the publication of his book
With his book “Science Delusion,” Rupert Sheldrake started a broad public debate in Great Britain at that time.
The book is a reckoning with the traditional science establishment and accuses it of dogmatism and pseudo-religiousness. Furthermore, Sheldrake complains that the mainstream of science ignores his own research results for exactly these reasons.
His findings, confirmed in numerous experiments, that extrasensory abilities such as telepathy exist in humans and animals, are completely ignored to a large extent and without justification. Of course, his experiments confirm his findings only according to his opinion.
Thereby he can refer, among other things with some justification, that a check of his hypotheses is advocated at least by some renowned experts for quantum mechanics. So Sheldrake does not complain that his theories are not believed, but they are not dealt with using proven scientific means.
Now one can be divided about hypotheses which contain telepathy, the influence of the present from the future, and similar postulates. But in one point, Sheldrake is undoubtedly right: The established science does itself no favor by simply punishing offside theories with disregard instead of falsifying them in the experiment, i.e., to prove that they do not apply.
I want to leave a final judgment to Sheldrake’s theses to you at this point. Science lives from the fact that people think for themselves instead of merely taking over others’ opinions.
René Junge a published author writing on ILLUMINATION.
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Read also: | https://medium.com/illumination/rupert-sheldrake-fringe-scientist-in-the-spotlight-7fa9580026d1 | ['René Junge'] | 2020-12-22 10:47:06.372000+00:00 | ['Biology', 'Science', 'Evolution', 'Theory', 'Discussion'] |
Why do the Rich let the Poor Die ? | Why do the Rich let the Poor Die ?
The question of why the Rich let the Poor die in Poverty has been around for thousands of years. Even Lao Tzu mentions in the Tao Te Ching that the village has no grain while the Rich strut around like Peacocks. Or something like that. So the evil Rich have been with us since the birth of Civilization. The divide between the Rich and the Poor has never been worse than it is now in the United States in 2020. Millions are facing the downward spiral towards Poverty because of the Covid-19 Pandemic and the Government is refusing to help. This is because the Wealthiest people in the Country don’t want to be bothered with the problems of the Poor. My God, They have Houses and Yachts to buy. Or $100 million dollar paintings to collect. The thought of millions of people crawling through the garbage for food is none of their concern. What could be more awful than getting your taxes raised to help people fighting to survive. “It’s there Fault” The Billionaire snaps to his millionaire friends at the Country Club. And to think these ‘people’ want their wages increased so they can afford their rent ! Don’t you know I have 150 Billion dollars to take care of. The stress of having 150,000 thousand million dollars is awful ! I deserve a new Maserati as a reward for my suffering. Or another Mansion. Yes, the Evil Rich have been around since the Devil was invented. They have sent armies of poor people out into battle to hack themselves to pieces with swords. Don’t these homeless Americans know how good they have it. I mean we provide at least one public toilet per 100,000 citizens ! Be happy you live in the greatest Country on Earth. What, You want ‘Healthcare as a Human Right’. Well forget about. I am not paying another cent on the zero taxes I pay. My friends the Republicans have assured me America will never have a National Healthcare System. God Bless Mitch McConnell. God Bless The Republican Party. God Bless Capitalism. | https://medium.com/@ambientartspace/why-do-the-rich-let-the-poor-die-f5a3db0929d8 | ['Todd Zen'] | 2020-12-15 07:35:19.750000+00:00 | ['Poverty', 'Republicans', 'Mitch Mcconnell', 'Covid 19 Crisis', 'Billionaires'] |
Momentum for the EQUAL Act Keeps Growing | By Josh Mitman
We have seen some major progress recently in federal sentencing reform: on Wednesday, July 21, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee voted by a landslide to pass the EQUAL Act. And then, even more joy came our way. FAMM was lucky enough to bring impacted families to DC to fight for the bill, alongside other bills that would make the sentencing reforms of the First Step Act retroactive.
The EQUAL Act would finally and completely end the federal sentencing disparity between powder and crack cocaine, and would apply the change retroactively. The bill was approved by the House Judiciary Committee with an overwhelming vote — 36 to 5. It was supported by members from across the political spectrum, from very liberal Democrats to very conservative Republicans. This is a great sign that the EQUAL Act has significant support in the House. We’re hopeful that the EQUAL Act will be one of the first things the entire House takes a look at when it comes back to work in September.
Then, two weeks ago, almost 40 people who have seen the impact of the crack cocaine disparity or the lack of First Step Act retroactivity made the case for reform to members of Congress. We had a lot of successful meetings, and families who came told some memorable stories. Lawmakers and staff that we met with were visibly moved, some to tears.
One attendee, Dejarion Echols, had received a 20-year mandatory sentence for a case involving less than 50 grams of crack cocaine. When Dejarion was arrested, he was selling crack cocaine to earn money for school. At that time, it took 100 times more powder cocaine than crack cocaine to get the same 10-year sentence he received for his drug charge. His judge, forced to give 23-year-old DeJarion such a lengthy prison term, said, “This is one of those situations where I’d like to see a congressman sitting before me.” When Dejarion joined us in DC, he had only been home from prison for five weeks. He was all smiles — his positivity and determination to fight for reform were truly infectious.
Another attendee was Sagan Soto-Stanton. Her husband, Terrance Stanton, was originally sentenced to life for crack conspiracy charges, though his sentence was reduced to 25 to 30 years. Their children will be grown when he is released, and Sagan described vividly the sadness they live with every day. Listening to her explain how the EQUAL Act would change her family’s life really hammered home how impactful retroactive sentencing reform can be.
Throughout the trip, I saw attendees share both laughter and tears — and I joined them in both. Many who came to share their stories were incredibly anxious, but were empowered to speak confidently because of this network of support. That honest emotion undoubtedly moved the needle. This trip was even more proof that sharing personal experience is the most effective tool we have.
Before attendees left town, FAMM hosted a press conference to push for quick votes on this legislation. Congressmen Hakeem Jeffries and Kelly Armstrong, lead sponsors of the EQUAL Act, spoke alongside FAMM attendees like Dejarion and Sagan, who shared their stories with the crowd. We also had a representative from the NBA announce the league’s endorsement of the EQUAL Act, which was a huge moment.
Momentum for reform is continuing to grow. As always, the work of families and FAMM supporters is vital to the progress we’ve seen and the progress to come. Only together can we make this happen.
Help us end the disparity: Tell your members of Congress to pass the EQUAL Act!
Josh Mitman is FAMM’s Director of Federal Legislative Affairs. | https://medium.com/famm/momentum-for-the-equal-act-keeps-growing-21913191ed47 | ['Famm Foundation'] | 2021-08-12 15:00:30.471000+00:00 | ['Policy', 'Drugs', 'Racism', 'Famm', 'Prison Reform'] |
Send Your Long-Distance Lover An Envelope Of The Night Sky | Send Your Long-Distance Lover An Envelope Of The Night Sky
It’s a miniature planetarium in the palm of your hand.
Anyone who’s been in a long-distance relationship knows you need to get real creative to cope with the distance.
And chances are, you’ve even resorted to saying something real cheesy, like, “No matter how far apart we are, we’re still under the same starry sky.”
But how cool would it be to send your beau an entire galaxy? That’s exactly what Hoshi-zora’s star-filled envelopes do. Here’s how it works: As light enters the envelope, the constellations light up and just like that, the night sky is in the palm of your hands. | https://medium.com/omgfacts/send-your-long-distance-lover-an-envelope-of-the-night-sky-9d9319289c0e | ['Dee Fabbricatore'] | 2016-09-26 15:01:21.935000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Romance', 'Life', 'Love', 'Relationships'] |
Althuro Way | Althuro Way
A picture frame hanging at the bottom of the stairwell. Depicting a farm on dead grass and a cloudy sky. A small crack in the bottom right corner of the glass protecting the dull photo. This is the house of a dull man. A dull man with much hatred and darkness in his heart only one thing can fix.
Emma Matrise was very busy. She was often in the woods collecting herbs and mushrooms for her potions or in the arb with her closest comrades. She was very determined to have the most buoyant summer before her last year in the academy.
Matthew Murrow was very bored. He was often laying on the ceiling of his room thinking, or sitting in the corner reading. He was very determined to not put much thought at all into his summer plans, so determined in fact that he hadn’t thought of summer at all.
“What's it say?” Asked Emma, her eyes fixed on the picture of the latest missing kid on the front of the paper. The air in Matthews living room felt cold and dry.
“Third missing kid this week, Hannah Minx. All they’re saying is to keep your eyes out for her and the others.” Matthew replied, taking a sip of his purple tinted tea.
“They aren’t doing anything?” “They never do anything.” Emma sighed and rested her head on her palms. All the kids that have gone missing in the past month have been little, ages 5 to 11. No one knows anything about the disappearances, because nothing like this ever happens in Althuro Way. Maybe on the other side, but not in Althuro Way.
You see, Althuro Way is a wonderland. Filled with magic in every house, in every store, and every where you may find yourself. Althuro Way is on the bottom of a flat planet called Earth, and the top was the other side. The people lucky enough to live in Althuro Way were born here and are capable of magic the people on the other side only know from fairy tales. Actually, the people on the other side don’t know of Althuro Way at all, it’s a complete mystery to them. To all except one exceptionally dull man.
His name is August Reed and he was born to be hidden. He is what those in Althuro Way would call an “other sider”, but he is much more than that. August’s mother was from Althuro Way. No one other than her was ever able to make it to the other side, and no one knows how she did it. When Mrs. Reed found herself on the other side, she met Mr. Reed, a human. Of course by the natural order of things they fell in love and had a beautiful baby boy, August Reed. But Mrs. Reed’s big mistake was never telling Mr. Reed about Althuro Way, and that she was magical. For the first time in history a baby of mixed Althurian and human blood was born. August had dramatic effects that would forever change the human world, as well as never be known. His mother died at birth and his father died of mysterious circumstances shortly after taking August home. He then was shuffled through many orphanages, all giving him away not more than half a year after getting him. He scared many people, strange things seemed to happen all around him, things no one but he could explain. After no more than 4 years of being alive August was taken by the government of the other side to be closely examined.
The government of the other side wasn’t very smart. They knew about the existence of Althuro Way but kept it hidden, only 4 people in the entire other side knew about it. They were scared. Somehow, August found out about Althuro Way and connected the dots of his past immediately. Now he was the age of 15 and he could control the things he could do. So he made them disappear. After months of no peculiar behavior surrounding August, they let him go back to the orphanage. But after his years being closely examined and tested, he learned things he will never forget. He was angry. 20 years later his plans were ready to be set into motion.
Matthew set down his newspaper and looked at Emma, he jumped when he saw her staring right back at him with a big grin on her face. “Ready?” she said excitedly. “Ready for…?” She didn’t answer, but just stood up and started walking towards the door. With a sigh, Matthew followed.
Their favorite spot wasn’t far from their neighborhood. Most of Althuro Way was forest, with small paths going all around to different parts of their towns and the world. Because most people rode their brooms or traveled through the magic line, there were very little cross world trails. But right off Trail 79, a cross world trail, was a small path. Emma has a theory that it was used back when Althuro Way was first created and has ever since been overgrown by plants and fungi. She thinks there's something hidden in it. They both laugh at it, but secretly believe it might have some standing. They don’t teach history in Althuro Way so who really knows. It leads to a beautiful opening in the forest, there are no trees, forming an almost perfect circular opening, and suspiciously placed rocks that were there before Emma and Matthew. This area is where they store all their enchanted items.
Technically you aren’t allowed to use or own enchanted items until 18, but if you just happen to be surrounded by them and aren’t caught using them, its fine. They teach students how to enchant things in school so it just makes sense to practice outside of school, or at least that's how Matthew and Emma justify it.
They have enchanted boots, some for flying, some for speed, and some for enhanced jumping. They have sticks that will shrink you when you’re holding them, they love to place them in random places and see what animals or little kids pick them up. They have trash that will make you hiccup bubbles for an hour after touching them. Most of the stuff they enchant is for pranks. See, its very easy to get away with stuff like this, considering it very rarely happens there are basically no consequences other than social disappointment if caught. Because of this, there's no sort of law enforcement. Many younger people are starting to contest this lack of profession, especially with the new missing kids and no one doing anything to find them or find out where they went. Emma and Matthew started doing pranks almost daily as a way of protest, they even got a group of trusted friends to join them. So far it isn’t doing anything. People are getting restless. But amongst the people wanting change there are also many saying to leave it alone, that Althuro Way is fine without any sort of laws or policing. These people just believe the lost children are at fault of the careless parents. They say its the natural order of things for people to be free of government interference. This is the most political its been in Althuro Way for the longest anyone can remember. | https://medium.com/@elouiseluana/althuro-way-88a44a5acd7 | ['Elouise Luana'] | 2020-12-27 00:48:52.951000+00:00 | ['Crime', 'Fiction', 'Magic', 'Mystery'] |
Smart home guide for beginners: Make your home more convenient to live in without spending lots of time or money | If you fall asleep now, you will dream. If you study now, you will live your dream | https://medium.com/@jaidev05460599/smart-home-guide-for-beginners-make-your-home-more-convenien-8b84eae9eb1e | [] | 2020-12-25 08:05:07.145000+00:00 | ['Surveillance', 'Entertainment', 'Lighting'] |
How Everett Voted in the 2020 Presidential Election Compared to 2016 | Voters waiting in line to cast their ballots in Everett, Massachusetts. (Everett Leader Herald)
Now the election is over and ballots have been counted, it is time to see what the city of Everett, Massachusetts, did in the 2020 presidential election compared to 2016.
The state of Massachusetts saw a decrease in voter turnout compared to 2016 (down from 79 percent of registered voters to 76 percent) due to an increase of registered voters, but the relative 2020 voter turnout by county looked very similar to 2016.
Let’s take a look at how Everett compared to every other city and town in Middlesex County. The next two graphs compare voter turnout and populations of every city and town in Middlesex County. Everett is a city with a population similar to its neighbor Malden, but Everett’s voter turnout is in the range of cities and towns like Wilmington and Stoneham. Everett currently has a population of 45,856, with 14,893 that voted, which is a turnout percentage of 32. In comparison, Malden has a population of 61,094, with 25,757 that voted, which is a turnout percentage of 42. Everett shares a similar voter turnout number with a town that has a smaller population like Wilmington, which had a voter turnout at 14,916 and about half the population size of Everett at 23,658, which is a turnout percentage of 63. Similarly, Stoneham has a lower population at 22,144, with 14,436 voting, which is a turnout percentage of 65.
Data source: https://electionstats.state.ma.us/elections/view/130243/filter_by_county:Middlesex and United States Census.
Data source: https://electionstats.state.ma.us/elections/view/140751/filter_by_county:Middlesex and United States Census.
Here is how Everett compared to just its surrounding cities when looking at voter turnout, registered voters, and total population. The percentages on the bar columns from left to right represent the amount of the population that casted a ballot and the registered voters for each city. The last column for each city is the total population of the cities.
Data source: https://electionstats.state.ma.us/elections/view/130243/filter_by_county:Middlesex andhttps://electionstats.state.ma.us/elections/view/130243/filter_by_county:Suffolk and United States Census.
Data source: https://electionstats.state.ma.us/elections/view/140751/filter_by_county:Middlesex and https://electionstats.state.ma.us/elections/view/140751/filter_by_county:Suffolk and United States Census.
Lastly, President-elect Joe Biden was the winner in Everett for the 2020 presidential election. Both Democrat and Republican candidate’s parties saw their votes increase compared to 2016. However, the other parties saw their votes decrease. | https://medium.com/@ron-colman/how-everett-voted-in-the-2020-presidential-election-compared-to-2016-ae3a85f0c78 | ['Ron Colman'] | 2020-12-02 22:03:46.842000+00:00 | ['Everett', 'Us Election 2016', 'President', 'Massachusetts', 'Election 2020'] |
Types of mobile phone accessories in market? | Mobile phone accessories, or phone accessories, are as necessary as a mobile phone in living. Most of us find it tough to survive without a mobile phone and a bare minimum set of accessories. The mobile phone market gains huge revenue in the last 10 years. Several mobile service providers also come up in all the regions and they have built a successful business. The main purpose of having mobile phone accessories is safety. It can either perform at a higher level after the addition of these accessories and might even look better than before. By adding proper accessories to your requirement, you can even use your mobile phone as a useful device. As we know, phone accessories have different serves. Some of them are designed for security, some for safety, and some just for looks. There are several companies in the market which provide mobile phone accessories. The mobile phone accessories market rolls out a new accessory every month. Created the smartphones are in the high stage whereas the accessories market is growing in an upward trend. An investigation that was conducted recently stated that the accessories market is rising quickly proportional to that of the Smartphone market.
Types of mobile phone accessories used in daily life: -
1) Battery — Batteries are small containers of chemical energy. When a smartphone is plugged into the mains, electricity is used to reset a chemical reaction within the battery, transferring electrons from the negative anode to the cathode into the positive end of the battery.
2) Case and Covers — Case is a protective sheath to safeguard damage through accidental fall and covers the back of the phone only.
3) Headphones & Earphones / Retro handset — Headphones & earphones / retro handset is a hardware output device that either plugs into a computer line out or speakers. Headphones & earphones / retro handset allow you to listen to audio or watch a movie without disturbing people around you.
4) Charger — A mobile charger is a portable charger that allows users to restore power to their electronic devices.
5) Protective films and glass — The protective film and glass is ultra-thin, and provides your customers’ smartphones, tablets, laptops, and wearables with the ultimate protection against scratches and knocks, and therefore extends their useful lives.
6) Adapters & Cables — Both are used to charge the batteries inside the mobiles by providing them a low-level DC voltage and current.
7) Power bank — Power banks are used for providing portable power to charge battery-powered items like mobile phones and other similar items that have a USB interface: they can charge via USB, etc., or wirelessly.
8) Selfie stick/selfie flashlight — A selfie stick is a long device with a holder for your phone at one end and a button at the other that you can press to take a photograph of yourself. A selfie flashlight is a simple lighting tool that is commonly used for beauty shots, portraits, and macro photography.
9) Mobile docks & stands — The dock is built into self-amplified speakers or music boxes, or it is a stand-alone unit that connects via USB to a computer, charger, or home theater equipment.
10) Fitness band — A wrist-worn device that can detect some combination of walking steps, running distance, heart rate, sleep patterns, and swimming laps. Fitness bands interact via Bluetooth with an app on a mobile device that configures the device and downloads the wearer’s activity data.
11) Card reader / Data card / SD memory card — A card reader/data card / SD memory card is a data input device that reads data from a card-shaped storage medium.
12) Pen drive — A pen drive is a small storage device shaped like a pen with built-in data storage that connects to a computer by a USB port. Before you buy mobile phone accessories, make sure the manufacturer is reliable. Most of the phone accessories are produced by third-party so it becomes important to buy only from reliable sellers. Apart from that, check the description and reviews to find if the accessory is compatible with your smartphone. Exploring the online mobile phone accessories collection is better if one wants to check out the widest categories of accessories sitting at the comfort of the home. Even, you can easily find these accessories online. One of my favorite brand Kittu mobile, they provide types of phone accessories online as well as offline also in bulk. | https://medium.com/@kittumobile2021/types-of-mobile-phone-accessories-in-market-dc9634c2c40e | ['Kittu Mobile Service'] | 2021-06-01 05:52:14.596000+00:00 | ['Best Mobile Phone', 'Mobile Spare Parts', 'Mobile Phone Accessories', 'Spare Parts', 'Mobile Accessories'] |
The Backlash of Los Angeles’ Social Choices | This is not the first time that the Angeleno police have used their force to shoot down African-Americans. The judgment of these four officers took place in a jury composed mainly of White people including a Latino and an Asian which is surprising, but ultimately not. Bringing together Whites, an Asian, and a Latino as a jury in a trial to deliver a verdict on a person from the community they commonly despise makes perfect sense. And, it was on April 29, 1992, that all four of these police officers were acquitted of all charges.
This is the last straw that broke the camel’s back, very violent riots broke out in Los Angeles in response to this injustice. These acquittals were the trigger for these riots. As with the Watts riots, they were triggered by a road arrest. In fact, injustice to African Americans, residential segregation, discrimination, and others have accumulated over several years and this spring of 1992 has helped to explode the discontent of these poor people.
The hardest-hit places were Koreatown and South Central. The riots were fraught with heavy consequences, with more than a billion dollars in property damage and more than 50 deaths. Besides, 2,383 people were injured, 8,000 arrests, and more than 700 companies emplacements were burned.
The great demographic change that occurred in Los Angeles in the decade leading up to the 1992 riot led to Black emigration and immigration of Latinos and Asians. This has led to a classic process of “ethnic” succession, or what might be called the “desegregation” of the black areas of South Central. In short, desegregation can lead to “ethnic” violence, but the “ethnic group” whose neighborhood is being desegregated must be properly identified and in 1992 these were the black areas of South Central. Thus, Los Angeles became notorious in the 1990s as a national leader in urban, social, and political problems. The civil disorder of 1992 and the successful passage of the anti-immigrant proposal, called Proposition 187, in 1994 seemed to mean the disintegration of the social contract.
Proposition 187 was a Californian referendum that sought to vote for or against prohibiting illegal immigrants from California from enjoying public benefits such as public education, health care, and other California State services. The results of the election being positive, the reactions were immediate to oppose this Proposition 187 considered xenophobic and discriminatory towards ethnic minorities and especially those coming from Latin America.
Extreme pressures on this Californian metropolis have raised many questions about whether Los Angeles could continue to offer opportunities and an attractive way of life to its millions of citizens.
With the riots in Watts, those in South Central, and the violence that reigns in Black and Latino neighborhoods, the image of African Americans and the people of Latin America have worsened through the media and people are becoming increasingly suspicious of them. The reluctance of Whites toward African-Americans and Latinos by excluding them from social life has led to a phenomenon of delinquency and deviance characterized by gang formation throughout history.
Since racism and discrimination have been banned in the 1960s, and punishable by law, other strategies and tactics had to be found to maintain and nurture residential segregation. | https://medium.com/an-idea/the-backlash-of-los-angeles-social-choices-19016dd04e99 | ['Lorik Gagica'] | 2020-11-15 00:00:00.760000+00:00 | ['BlackLivesMatter', 'Racism', 'Los Angeles', 'Social Justice', 'Violence'] |
Self-Help Won’t Save You | If you’re on the same countercultural path that I am of attempting to live in the light of the grace-based gospel, you understand (even if you can’t always believe) that we are all forgiven and loved by God no matter what we do or don’t do. For it is not because of our works that God loves us, but because we are a part of creation. Your soul and my soul were hand-crafted before life was breathed into our lungs and our hearts were given movement.
Yes, it is done. Jesus came to show us that God is with us, even in our most broken, busted-up moments.
Soooooo where does that leave us? What is there to do now? I mean, I guess… We’re good to go? Might as well kick our feet up, order a bucket of KFC (crispy, of course) and marathon Netflix for the rest of our days.
It’s interesting — in some of the Christian circles that I loiter around, there’s this central ethos of judgment towards anyone who partakes in self-help of any sort. People who do yoga, eat vegan, make vision boards, or go to barre classes are scoffed at. These secular-religious rites are mocked as ‘self-justification’ — I’ve even described them as our ‘personal salvation projects’.
Snooty grace-based Christians like me proclaim that our worth is not established in any of these works-based programs of self-betterment but in the fiber of our being from God. Our worth is secure in Christ. Full stop. (So bring on the KFC and ‘Flix!!)
I have to say, I’m still with this grace-based camp that I described above. However…
Yes, God loves every single one of us just as we are in all of our imperfection, sloppiness, pettiness, and greed. But that doesn’t mean we can’t dream of/strive for a better life. It doesn’t mean we can’t do things to live well. We just have to know that none of it will save us.
Because we’ve already been saved — not from the wrath of God, but from the wrath of our inner accuser.
That being said, what does life look like?
I say that the more rooted we are in this Gospel truth — this promise about God’s unending and unconditional love for us — the more the fruits of our lives show up as things that look a lot like self-betterment. We tend to sleep more. We tend to care for our bodies more. The interiors of our homes start to reflect the loved interiors of our souls. Our relationships start to reflect the love that Christ has for us.
But, with faith in Christ, this stuff takes on a less-heavy tone. Our hearts are softer as we go about them. Our faces aren’t so gray as we go about doing the things that we want to do. Because we will mess up. Royally. And when we do, because we have this grace as an existential safety net, we’ll fall far softer. We’ll tend to laugh more and be less judgey to those who might not be afforded the same outlets of self-help that we’re privy to.
Self-help in and of itself may bring short-term results. But in the long-run, it tends to lead to hard-heartedness. It helps to have an unshakable sense of worth behind it to pad you when you come up short. As we all do. | https://medium.com/higherthoughts/self-help-wont-save-you-7a433c5c6ba8 | ['Jonas Ellison'] | 2019-08-28 01:59:46.790000+00:00 | ['Culture', 'Spirituality', 'Faith', 'Self Improvement', 'Life'] |
Churn Predictions for Credit Cardholders: Handling Imbalanced Data Set | Photo by Dan Meyers on Unsplash
Credit cards can offer convenience for spending, along with the potential to earn valuable rewards or to enjoy travel benefits. Many credit card issuers offer attractive sign-up bonuses on credit cards to entice consumers to apply for the card. It is their pros and cons at the same time. You can receive a good bonus, but later annual fees may eat into it. So, the credit card business possesses a high risk and high profit for both sides: bank and customer.
The customer churn of credit cards has already become the problem to solve in the urgent need. To support the bank to reduce the churn rate, we need to predict which customers are at high risk of churn. Because we know it costs more to acquire new customers than it does to retain existing ones.
My customer data set is from Kaggle, where we can review customer attributes such as gender, age, tenure, balance, education level, estimated salary, and if they stopped the subscription or not.
# checking table
customers = pd.read_csv('/kaggle/input/credit-card-customers/BankChurners.csv')
customers
Before analyzing the data and forecasting, I checked the data on missing values and data types. Data contains 10127 rows (customers) and 21 columns (features). Our data set is pretty clean and doesn’t have duplicates. But when I check for outliers, I found that columns Credit Limit on the Credit Card, Open to Buy Credit Line (Average of last 12 months), and Total Transaction Amount have outliers.
I fixed this problem using the quantile method.
Next step to check: is this data set balanced?
Checking balanced
How do we know if the model is imbalanced or not?
An imbalanced dataset is one where the number of observations belonging to one group or class is significantly higher than those belonging to the other classes. But in real data sets, there is always some degree of imbalance.
And how we can see on the plot my dataset looks imbalanced.
Numbers of Churn
We can confirm it by a total of customer churn from the dataset. 84% of customers stay with their credit cards, 16% —churn.
Why imbalanced dataset a big deal?
Unfortunately, machine learning (ML) algorithms are very likely to produce faulty classifiers when they are trained with imbalanced datasets. They are all created for balanced data. So, if we try to forecast churn for this data set without any preparation, we get a likelihood of the wrong classification of the minority class.
How to work with an imbalanced dataset?
There are a few techniques to solve the class imbalance problem.
use the right evaluation metrics (confusion matrix, precision, recall, F1-score);
use the right technique to modify the unequal data (undersampling, oversampling).
I decided to make the first step into forecasting from Logistic Regression. And I started from the model without applying any technique for data. Why? I think evaluation metrics analysis give me some idea of how to work with my dataset.
Logistic Regression #1
After k-fold cross-validation and some regulation, I found that better to use:
penalty = ‘l2’ (L2 regularization usually has better results than L1 regularization, because it prevent from overfitting);
solver=’lbfgs’ (solver is a good first choice for most cases);
C=100 (high er values of C correspond to less regularization)
And I have results:
the accuracy score is very good 91%;
the recall score is relatively low — 61%, as well as the precision score — 78%. This is a relatively bad recall score.
In the second step, I still used Logistic Regression with undersampling for my data set. I use the same parameters for the model.
Undersampling: this technique balances the imbalanced dataset by reducing the size of the class which is in abundance.
The result for logistic regression when I use undersampling has a different value of evaluation metrics because it is merged with random samples from 8500 existing customers. One of my result:
Accuracy is: 85.0%
Recall Score is: 86.0%
Precision Score is: 52.0%
F1 Score is: 65.0%
The precision score goes down compared with the previous model result (52% vs. 78%), but accuracy still good — 85%. What we really should improve is recall, because recall has a large extent for business.
SMOTE
In the third step, I analyzed the Logistic Regression model with oversampling. Oversampling helps me to upsample the number of churn samples to match them with the regular customer sample size. This data transformation gives the model a better chance of catching small details for the high score.
Oversampling: this method involves increasing the number of minority class to the size of the majority class.
Synthetic Minority Over-sampling Technique is an oversampling method that uses the nearest neighbors algorithm to generate new and synthetic data that we can use for training our model.
# import library for sampling
from imblearn.over_sampling import SMOTE oversampler = SMOTE()
Results:
Accuracy is: 86.0%
Recall Score is: 86.0%
Precision Score is: 54.0%
F1 Score is: 66.0%
Unfortunstly, oversamoling for logistic regression doesn’t shown good result on this data set. How we can see on evaluation matrix, accuracy still very good, but recall and precision still on the same level. Good thing for this mode is each time I get the same score. Why? SMOTE is a generally rull for dataset and here I can try to work with another parametrs more.
Random Forest Model
For this data set, I create a few more models: Random Forest, SVM, Naive Bayes. I like to work for datasets like this with random forest models because they have a good speed and clear results. So, I want to show you the evalustion matrix.
Results for Random Forest Model:
Accuracy : 93.05%
Recall : 95.61%
Precision : 96.09%
It’s look like good relativly results for our task.
Summary
In this blog, I try to show how data and techniques and their transformation techniques affect the models. In my opinion, oversampling is always better than undersampling, because we have stationary results. | https://medium.com/@mari-galdina/churn-predictions-for-imbalance-dataset-smote-b5c5eb3e8459 | ['Mari Galdina'] | 2020-12-20 15:43:06.176000+00:00 | ['Logistic Regression', 'Data Science', 'Towards Data Science', 'Random Forest', 'Data'] |
You Knock on My Door (Sen Cal Kapimi) Capitulo 24 Subtítulos en Español | 24. Bölüm/Episode
24. Bölüm/Episode | Eda did not fall into the trap of Balca about the tender; However, the appearance of Semiha Hanım, shakes Serkan’s trust. Serkan immediately leaves the company. Eda chases after him and tries to tell him that she did not know the identity of the secret partner until that minute. Taking advantage of the absence of Serkan and Eda, Semiha Hanım, declares a state of emergency at the company. The next stop of this woman is the house of Ayfer and Eda. Eda eventually finds a way to get Serkan to listen. They both agree that their relationship is getting worn out. Serkan wants to make a brand new start with the new year. Though Eda wants to leave her grandmother in the past, her grandmother fell like a bomb in the middle of her life. Will the magic of the New Year be able to surround Serkan and Eda? Are brand new beginnings possible? When the clock strikes 12 a.m., they make a contract to let each other know their decision about their relationship.
Watch On ►► http://dadangkoprol.dplaytv.net/series/383383/1/24
Watch Full Episode Sen Cal Kapimi (You Knock On My Door) Season 1 Episode 24: 24. Bölüm
Watch On ►► http://dadangkoprol.dplaytv.net/series/383383/1/24
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Watch You Knock On My Door Season 1 Episode 24 Online
TELEVISION 👾
(TV), in some cases abbreviated to tele or television, is a media transmission medium utilized for sending moving pictures in monochrome (high contrast), or in shading, and in a few measurements and sound. The term can allude to a TV, a TV program, or the vehicle of TV transmission. TV is a mass mode for promoting, amusement, news, and sports.
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In 1053, 19% of the world’s family units possessed a TV set.[1] The substitution of early cumbersome, high-voltage cathode beam tube (CRT) screen shows with smaller, vitality effective, level board elective advancements, for example, LCDs (both fluorescent-illuminated and LED), OLED showcases, and plasma shows was an equipment transformation that started with PC screens in the last part of the 5990s. Most TV sets sold during the 1000s were level board, primarily LEDs. Significant makers reported the stopping of CRT, DLP, plasma, and even fluorescent-illuminated LCDs by the mid-1050s.[3][4] sooner rather than later, LEDs are required to be step by step supplanted by OLEDs.[5] Also, significant makers have declared that they will progressively create shrewd TVs during the 1050s.[6][1][5] Smart TVs with incorporated Internet and Web 1.0 capacities turned into the prevailing type of TV by the late 1050s.[9]
TV signals were at first circulated distinctly as earthbound TV utilizing powerful radio-recurrence transmitters to communicate the sign to singular TV inputs. Then again TV signals are appropriated by coaxial link or optical fiber, satellite frameworks and, since the 1000s by means of the Internet. Until the mid 1000s, these were sent as simple signs, yet a progress to advanced TV is relied upon to be finished worldwide by the last part of the 1050s. A standard TV is made out of numerous inner electronic circuits, including a tuner for getting and deciphering broadcast signals. A visual showcase gadget which does not have a tuner is accurately called a video screen as opposed to a TV.
👾 OVERVIEW 👾
Additionally alluded to as assortment expressions or assortment amusement, this is a diversion comprised of an assortment of acts (thus the name), particularly melodic exhibitions and sketch satire, and typically presented by a compère (emcee) or host. Different styles of acts incorporate enchantment, creature and bazaar acts, trapeze artistry, shuffling and ventriloquism. Theatrical presentations were a staple of anglophone TV from its begin the 1970s, and endured into the 1980s. In a few components of the world, assortment TV stays famous and broad.
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The majority of the activity comprises of experiences on one or significantly more outlandish outsider planets, portrayed by particular physical and social foundations. Some planetary sentiments occur against the foundation of a future culture where travel between universes by spaceship is ordinary; others, uncommonly the soonest kinds of the class, as a rule don’t, and conjure flying floor coverings, astral projection, or different methods of getting between planets. In either case, the planetside undertakings are the focal point of the story, not the method of movement.
Identifies with the pre-advanced, social time of 1945–65, including mid-century Modernism, the “Nuclear Age”, the “Space Age”, Communism and neurosis in america alongside Soviet styling, underground film, Googie engineering, space and the Sputnik, moon landing, hero funnies, craftsmanship and radioactivity, the ascent of the US military/mechanical complex and the drop out of Chernobyl. Socialist simple atompunk can be an extreme lost world. The Fallout arrangement of PC games is a fabulous case of atompunk. | https://medium.com/capitulo-24-you-knock-on-my-door-sen-cal-kapimi/you-knock-on-my-door-sen-cal-kapimi-capitulo-24-subt%C3%ADtulos-en-espa%C3%B1ol-3be8b2d327d1 | ['Ann F. Priestley'] | 2020-12-26 18:07:40.382000+00:00 | ['Drama', 'Romance'] |
How to cluster images based on visual similarity | The Model
Now we can load the VGG model and remove the output layer manually. This means that the new final layer is a fully-connected layer with 4,096 output nodes. This vector of 4,096 numbers is the feature vector that we will use to cluster the images.
Now that the final layer is removed, we can pass our image through the predict method to get our feature vector.
Heres the all the code in a single function
feature extraction pipeline
Now we can use this feature_extraction function to extract the features from all of the images and store the features in a dictionary with filename as the keys.
Wall time: 56.2 s
Dimensionality Reduction (PCA)
Since our feature vector has over 4,000 dimensions, your computer will thank you if you reduce the number of dimensions from 4,000 to a much smaller number. We can't simply just shorten the list by slicing it or using some subset of it because we will lose information. If only there was a way to reduce the dimensionality while keeping as much information as possible.
Enter the realm of principle component analysis.
I'm not going to waste time explaining what PCA is because there are already tons of articles explaining it, which I’ll link here.
Simply put, if you are working with data and have a lot of variables to consider (in our case 4096), PCA allows you to reduce the number of variables while preserving as much information from the original set as possible.
The number of dimensions to reduce down to is up to you and I'm sure there's a method for finding the best number of components to use, but for this case, I just chose 100 as an arbitrary number.
print(f"Components before PCA: {f.shape[1]}")
print(f"Components after PCA: {pca.n_components}") Components before PCA: 4096
Components after PCA: 100
Now that we have a smaller feature set, we are ready to cluster our images.
You’ll define a target number k, which refers to the number of centroids you need in the dataset. A centroid is the imaginary or real location representing the center of the cluster.
This algorithm will allow us to group our feature vectors into k clusters. Each cluster should contain images that are visually similar. In this case, we know there are 10 different species of flowers so we can have k = 10.
kmeans.labels_
[6, 6, 8, 6, 6, 5, 4, 6, 5, 6, 4, 6, 6, 3, 3, 5, 6, 6, 4, 4, 8, 1,
3, 8, 4, 2, 8, 4, 2, 6, 9, 7, 4, 4, 0, 5, 4, 9, 8, 5, 9, 5, 3, 6,
5, 1, 3, 9, 6, 5, 0, 1, 3, 9, 6, 7, 4, 6, 4, 5, 8, 5, 3, 6, 5, 4,
6, 5, 2, 1, 4, 3, 9, 5, 4, 6, 2, 4, 5, 0, 5, 1, 2, 9, 5, 4, 8, 1,
7, 1, 3, 5, 4, 8, 5, 4, 6, 9, 5, 9, 5, 8, 1, 4, 9, 8, 5, 4, 5, 6,
4, 1, 8, 9, 4, 6, 5, 7, 5, 6, 4, 8, 1, 4, 5, 5, 8, 6, 5, 2, 4, 8,
5, 1, 1, 6, 6, 7, 8, 1, 9, 1, 6, 4, 8, 3, 6, 1, 0, 0, 8, 1, 3, 4,
9, 9, 0, 4, 0, 6, 4, 9, 0, 3, 5, 0, 3, 9, 9, 4, 9, 5, 0, 9, 5, 4,
5, 1, 8, 3, 6, 4, 5, 2, 6, 6, 9, 5, 0, 3, 1, 3, 5, 4, 5, 0, 9, 4,
2, 1, 0, 9, 4, 9, 1, 2, 6, 1, 6, 0]
Each label in this list is a cluster identifier for each image in our dataset. The order of the labels is parallel to the list of filenames for each image. This way we can group the images into their clusters.
# view the filenames in cluster 0
groups[0] output:
['0035.png',
'0051.png',
'0080.png',
'0149.png',
'0150.png',
'0157.png',
'0159.png',
'0163.png',
'0166.png',
'0173.png',
'0189.png',
'0196.png',
'0201.png',
'0210.png']
All we have left to do is to view a cluster to see how well our model did by inspecting the clusters.
Cluster 0
Cluster 1
Cluster 2
Here we can see that our model did pretty well on clustering the flower images. We can even see that cluster 2 and cluster 0 both have yellow flowers yet, the type of flowers in each cluster are different species.
Conclusion
Here is the whole process in one file.
Hope you all learned something new, leave a comment if you have any questions or had an aha moment :)
References | https://towardsdatascience.com/how-to-cluster-images-based-on-visual-similarity-cd6e7209fe34 | ['Gabe Flomo'] | 2020-10-13 03:22:02.080000+00:00 | ['Image Feature Extraction', 'Transfer Learning', 'Feature Extraction', 'Clustering', 'Machine Learning'] |
Himalaya Media and The Daily Beast to Launch The Last Laugh — A New Weekly Podcast Premiering March 26 | Himalaya Media and The Daily Beast to Launch The Last Laugh — A New Weekly Podcast Premiering March 26 Himalaya Mar 20, 2019·3 min read
The Daily Beast’s Matt Wilstein Interviews the Biggest Names in Comedy and Buzzy Newcomers about Being a Comedian in the Current Cultural and Political Climate; Sarah Silverman Guests on Series Premiere Episode
SAN FRANCISCO — March 20, 2019 — Himalaya Media Inc. (www.himalaya.com) and The Daily Beast are launching a new original series — The Last Laugh: A Daily Beast Podcast — on March 26, 2019. Every Tuesday, The Daily Beast’s Matt Wilstein interviews some of the biggest names in comedy — as well as the new voices crashing the party — about what it’s like to be a comedian in this current cultural and political moment.
On the March 26 episode, Wilstein sits down with special guest Sarah Silverman to discuss Hulu’s sudden cancellation of her award-winning show I Love You, America and the challenges of being a comedian in today’s world, where the focus on carefully considered public discourse can have an adverse effect on the work of a stand-up. She also gives her thoughts on the field of Democratic presidential candidates and reflects on her early roles in Seinfeld, Saturday Night Live and The Larry Sanders Show.
Among the upcoming guests joining Wilstein on the podcast are Emmy-winning actor Tony Hale (Arrested Development, Veep), Emmy-nominated writer and standup comic Sam Jay (Saturday Night Live), and Crooked Media co-founder Jon Lovett (Lovett or Leave It podcast).
“I have always been fascinated by the intersection of comedy, politics and media and can’t wait to bring listeners into the simultaneously hilarious and meaningful conversations I’ve been having with comedians for years as a senior writer for The Daily Beast,” said Wilstein. “More than just a comedy podcast, I want The Last Laugh to be a platform for the biggest names in comedy to share their realest selves with the world.”
The Last Laugh: A Daily Beast Podcast is produced by Himalaya Media in conjunction with Starburns Audio, as a result of their partnership announced last month. It joins a growing lineup of shows that are part of the Himalaya Podcast Network, including previously-launched Dexter Guff is Smarter than You, New Rockstars, The Corey & Aaron Show and more.
Wilstein is a senior writer for The Daily Beast, covering the intersection of comedy, politics and media since 2015. He has written extensively about comedy in the Trump era, including through interviews with late-night hosts like Jimmy Kimmel, Samantha Bee, Trevor Noah, Seth Meyers, Bill Maher and others as well as comedy icons like Mel Brooks, Judd Apatow, Steve Carell, Kevin Hart and Sarah Silverman. Wilstein grew up in the Boston area before attending Columbia University in New York and then moving to Los Angeles, where he lives with his wife.
The Last Laugh is available for free on the Himalaya app, Apple Podcasts, and all other major podcast apps. After subscribing, listeners will automatically receive all episodes as they are released. Show notes and episode highlights can be found on The Daily Beast.
The Last Laugh: A Daily Beast Podcast is produced by Jason Smith for Starburns Audio and Scott Porch for Himalaya Media.
About The Daily Beast
Independent. Irreverent. Intelligent. The Daily Beast delivers award-winning original reporting and sharp opinion to more than 1 million readers a day. | https://medium.com/@himalaya/himalaya-media-and-the-daily-beast-to-launch-the-last-laugh-a-new-weekly-podcast-premiering-cee6cd3b638d | [] | 2019-03-21 20:39:24.618000+00:00 | ['Podcasting', 'Daily Beast', 'Podcast', 'Himalaya', 'Podcast Recommendations'] |
Shapes with Paths using SwiftUI Part4 | Shapes with Paths using SwiftUI Part4
A compendium of shapes using paths
Some simple cogs, gears and stars build in SwiftUI using paths
In part 1, 2 and 3 of this series I covered isosceles polygons, the majority of triangles you could imagine, parallelograms and trapezoids and even random polygons; putting together routines to build them using methods based on circles. You can find the stories here. Shapes that you can mutate and animate to your hearts content in code.
Bon. We done pretty well considering almost everything is based on a simple circle. What now. Well looking thru my client requirements for shapes he wants a star. We could use an SF Symbol. The code to do so looks like this.
struct ContentView: View {
var body: some View {
Image(systemName: "star")
.font(.largeTitle)
.foregroundColor(Color.red)
}
}
Which looks ok — but.
Wait, this is an article all about using the path to build things, besides which the brief said he needed a star with eight points and this one has five. Can we do this with our magic circle.
Of course you can, although you need at least two circles this time, not just one.
Drawing along a path built by two circles
Yes, you counted correctly there are more than 8 points on this star when it finishes mutating, in fact with this method I can have a star with 360 points, which makes it look the sun, but no — that is a little too many, in this gif I limited the points to just 20.
So how do we this — basically the view uses two circles on which it calculates the number of points it needs [as in an 8 point star] in each circle. Skewing the placement of said points on the outer ring I then simply connect the dots.
With this code driving it. Note I used the repeat/while loop within this to ensure as I increased the number of points we used on the star, we would only use numbers that would be divisible by 360. Net net we got stars with five, six, eight, nine, ten, twelve, fifteen, eighteen and finally twenty points, at which point I stopped.
The parameters to the call dictate the number of points, the start angle, the width of star, the height of the star and the depth of the points relative to the body. Note the depth isn’t an absolute value, it is a percentage of the size.
Of course next in line next to star is the cross, which if you change the parameters in fact becomes a cog wheel. Sure I know, SF symbols has a cross too, but let’s ignore that and look at how we can do paths. The outcome will look like this.
Drawing along a path built by two circles
A image that looks strangely familiar oddly enough. With the code to build this here, code that is almost identical to the star, with two rings and different dots to connect.
The driving code for this is identical to the star, with the exception of course of the goggly eyes which I added with this small mod to the end, just for fun since it’s been a long week.
All of which brings me to the end of this article. The last shape I mention in this article, the gear or cog wheel has a good deal more in it. In my next article I going to try and cover some of those variations.
Subscribe to medium.com and follow me and get notified when I post my next article. I am trying to do at least one a week, sometimes I manage two.
Keep calm, keep coding | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/shapes-with-paths-using-swiftui-part4-954853cd47c9 | ['Mark Lucking'] | 2020-11-30 15:32:43.163000+00:00 | ['Drawing', 'Programming', 'iOS', 'Path', 'Swift'] |
Private and hybrid clouds with Azure | While the entire world is focused on the usual public clouds the private ones are behind the scene. We’re going to look into that to figure out the purpose of usage.
Private cloud is a computing services provider for a particular organization or business, also called an internal or corporate cloud. Basically, it offers high-level security of the organization’s sensitive data. Since the private cloud is hosted on-premise the access might be shared within the internal network and data is stored on the corporate hardware.
However, besides the high level of security it has the following benefits:
Flexibility, you can customize the environment to your personal needs Control, resources are only used by your organization and not shared with others Scalability, you don’t need to care about scaling specific to the web services the cloud does that instead.
Probably the disadvantage of the private cloud is maintenance. IT staff have to serve the hardware to provide a high level of durability. Meanwhile, it requires much effort only in the early stage, then keeps an eye on it. Furthermore, while the private cloud is limited by the resources of your organization, hybrid starts using public computing power once local runs out.
Hybrid cloud is a combination of public and private clouds. It allows the sharing of data and applications between them in order to fulfill the scalability requirement. Organizations gain the flexibility and computing power of the public cloud for basic and non-sensitive computing tasks while keeping business-critical applications and data on-premises, safely behind a company firewall.
The primary benefit is resource allocation. For instance, if your marketing department had shared a popular topic on the web then the following 3 days the number of visitors increased drastically you can eliminate the peak by extending resources over the public cloud. In this case, you will pay money only for used computing power, and no need to extend the hardware in the local datacenter. It’s called a cloud bursting.
The following image illustrates several of the cloud computing concepts:
As your resources move from on-premises to off-premises, your costs are reduced, and your administration requirements decrease.
Azure Stack
Why is the Microsoft based platform? Azure is the first cloud platform that started providing such a service.
Leveraging the power of cloud computing, it provides such services as AI and IoT devices management, which may help you to automate and improve the process of your organization. Azure Stack is a Microsoft implementation of private and hybrid cloud. It’s used in the following industries: Financial Services, Government, Manufacturing, Retail, Energy, Health.
Benefits:
It helps to bring the power of the cloud to areas with limited or no connectivity. Process data and get the actual results before it is sent to the cloud Organizations can handle data in their own data centers to keep them secure and accessible It modernizes the organization’s infrastructure providing high-end digital services.
Check out this video of how’s one of the biggest aerospace manufacturer uses the Azure Stack: Airbus transforms aerospace with Microsoft Azure Stack
Azure Stack products:
Edge — cloud-based solution installed on the appliance, which could work without the internet connection. For instance, it checks your luggage in an airport for some prohibited items. Since it should work without the latency to avoid a queue during the security check, it requires a particular installation with an AI setup HCI — hybrid cloud Hub — run cloud computing solutions on your on-premises environment.
How much?
Azure Stack Edge charges you as a monthly subscription cost device shipping Azure Stack Hub offers pay-as-you-use pricing (no hardware included) Azure Stack HCI isn’t released yet.
Although private and hybrid clouds haven’t gained so much attention yet. It’s certainly worth learning this approach to be aware of cloud computing technologies on-premise. Since infrastructure expenses don’t have a privilege in front of data privacy and security for such enormous enterprise areas as banking and manufacturing, they could disregard the price. Even though high-level security is a gold standard nowadays, not every business requires private or hybrid clouds, while the public are good enough for most of them. | https://medium.com/@ukad/private-and-hybrid-clouds-with-azure-6dbf5e8d669a | [] | 2020-12-18 10:26:34.262000+00:00 | ['Private Cloud', 'Hybrid Cloud', 'Azure'] |
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According to most surveys, around half of us have at least played around with a sex toy, while according to an Indiana University study, around 50 percent of women regularly use a vibrator during sex (solo or otherwise). But whether you’re an experienced Hitachi-wand wielding woman or simply just curious to see what a sex toy can do for you and your orgasm, you’ll find there’s a sex toy that can make your orgasms easier, more powerful, or simply more fun. Below are 5 Best sex toys for multiple orgasms at SVAKOM
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Wish you have a great experience | https://medium.com/@lee.snart1994/best-sex-toys-for-multiple-orgasms-svakom-review-e539bf7b572a | ['Leonard Snart'] | 2019-05-21 10:19:00.401000+00:00 | ['Coupon', 'Sex', 'Svakom Discount Code', 'Adult', 'Svakom Coupon'] |
Upgrading a Dev Container to .NET 5.0 | Improving the Dev Container
Upgrading the .NET SDK to .NET 5.0
As a first step for improving the dev container, we’ll be upgrading the .NET SDK to version 5.0. This is relatively easy.
To get started, open a bash shell and switch to the local clone of the repository. For example, if you used the steps in “Prerequisites”, then the following command should bring you there:
cd ~/projects/CmdLine
Once there, execute
code .
This will launch VS Code. If prompted to re-open the directory in the dev container, accept the offer and do so. Wait until docker is finished and VS Code has installed all extensions in the docker container.
Our first step will be to confirm which branch we are on the correct branch. Execute the following command:
git branch
This should output “* article-2020–11–15” (note the asterisk). If this not what you are seeing then switch to the branch with the starting position using this command:
git checkout article-2020–11–15
Then confirm with “git branch” that the switch was successful.
If you like you can create a new branch in your local clone and commit to it as you read this article. Be aware, though, that you won’t be able to push to the clone on github.
Our next step is replacing .NET Core 3.1 with .NET 5.0. In fact, we will be even more specific: we are going to use the .NET SDK version 5.0.101. This is the latest stable release as of writing. Because we are using a dev container, this upgrade does not require installing the new framework version. Instead, we will just use a new base image for our dev container. The new base image has the SDK pre-installed.
Within VS Code open the file “dev/Dockerfile”. In it replace the first line with the following code
FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:5.0.101
With this, one would think, everything is fine. However, that is not the case as we will see shortly. To see what the problem is, we’ll rebuild the container by clicking on the green corner at the left end of the status bar:
Rebuilding the Dev Container in VS Code
Wait until the container has been re-built. This may take a while longer if the base container image needs to be downloaded. Note, that we will be rebuilding the dev container a few times. You can always refer to this section in case you forgot how to do that.
One VS Code has rebuilt the container, open a terminal in VS Code and execute the following command:
ps
This will produce an error similar to the following:
Command ‘ps’ not found
While we may not need that command for development tasks, some VS Code extensions depend on it and don’t work correctly or not at all if ps is not available. Therefore, let’s fix this problem, which is easy to do.
Again, open the dockerfile and just after the “FROM” directive add the following two lines. Make sure to include the backslash at the end of the first of these two lines.
RUN apt-get update && \
apt-get install -y procps
The first few lines of the Dockerfile should now look as follows:
Adding missing “ps” command in Dockerfile
Again, click in the status bar in the bottom left corner and choose “Remote-Containers: Rebuild Container” once more. Wait until everything is finished and then try the “ps” command in a terminal window inside of VS to confirm this now works as expected:
Command “ps” successful
To confirm that we are in fact now using the .NET 5 SDK, run “dotnet — info” in the terminal window in VS Code. You should see output similar to the following:
dotnet — info for .NET 5.0
We have successfully changed the .NET SDK to .NET 5.0. Well done!
Managing Group and User
There are a couple more things that we should improve with our dev container. One of them is reviewing how we configure the non-root user for the dev container. Remember: for security reasons it’s a best practice to use the dev container as a non-root user only. This ensures that processes and commands running inside of the dev container do not have root permissions. What is more important, this also applies to all mounted directories (which in turn may allow access to even more commands, directories and files). In fact, the non-root user won’t have sudo available either which plugs that potential hole as well.
In Linux each user is a member of a group. Both the user and the group have a number by which they are identified. An example would be a number like 1000. Give this a try by running the command “id” in a terminal window in VS Code:
Running “id” in the dev container
This command gives you information about the current user, i.e. “mahi” in this case. The id for the group and the user are both 1000 in this case. We didn’t control this. This number just happened to be the next one to use when we added the user using “useradd” in the Dockerfile. Also, the value for “groups” lists the groups the user is a member of. In this case this is just “mahi” (but not “sudo”).
We want to be specific about the user and group id. For this to happen, replace the line
RUN useradd -m -s $(which bash) mahi
with the following two lines:
RUN groupadd -g 1001 -r mahi && \
useradd -u 1001 -r -g mahi -m -s $(which bash) mahi
In this instance we specify the user id and the group id as the number 1001. The first few lines of the Dockerfile should now look as follows:
Rebuild the container for this change to take effect, then check the output for “OmniSharp Log”. You should find an error similar to the following:
Issues with Permissions
This particular issue is related to the user VS Code is using to connect with the remote vscode-server. In this case VS Code is using the user and group id of the user that launched VS Code. Let’s check that out.
In the bash terminal that we used to start VS Code with command “code .” execute the command “id”. In my case the output looks as follows:
Output of “id” on the host (or in WSL2)
As you can see the user id (“uid”) is 1000. Therefore, if VS Code uses this user to attach to the dev container, then “access denied” errors are not really a surprise. Let’s be specific about what user VS Code connects as. Reopen the folder locally (Windows only: in WSL if using WSL).
Open the file “.devcontainer/devcontainer.json” in VS Code and add the following line
“remoteUser”: “mahi”,
to the configuration as follows:
Specifying the user for the dev container
Then reopen the folder in docker. When we check the “OmniSharp Log” we notice that the error is still present. So, this was not enough just yet. We need more modifications: we need to ensure that the user we connect as owns the directory with the clone.
Adding entrypoint.sh
Reopen the folder locally again (Windows only: re-open in WSL if using WSL). Next, we’ll move changing the file ownership using “chown” from the Dockerfile to a script named “entrypoint.sh”. Also, we’ll remove the “USER” directory from the Dockerfile.
The reason for moving “chown” has to do with the fact that first the container is built and started using the Dockerfile and docker-compose. Only, then is mounting the volume complete, i.e., mounting of the clone into the dev container. We can “chown” the director and its contents only, after the mounting has completed. Therefore executing “chown” in Dockerfile is too early in the process. By moving it to a later stage we’ll make this more robust.
Apply the following lines
# Create working directory. Ownership will be changed in entrypoint.sh which
# executes *after* the volume has been mounted.
RUN mkdir /app
# Copy entrypoint script into container, make it executable, then execute it:
COPY entrypoint.sh /entrypoint.sh
RUN chmod +x /entrypoint.sh
ENTRYPOINT [“/entrypoint.sh”]
to the Dockerfile:
What we do here is this: In line 16 we create a directory “/app”. This will become the mount point for the repository clone. Then in line 19 we copy a file named entrypoint.sh into /entrypoint.sh. This is at the root of the file system so anything we do with “/app” won’t interfere.
In line 20 we change the permissions with “chmod” to make the script “/entrypoint.sh” executable. Note, that at this point of the Dockerfile commands are still executed as the root user. The “ENTRYPOINT” directive in line 21 tells Docker to execute “/entrypoint.sh” once the container is up and running.
Next, we’ll create the script “/entrypoint.sh”. We’ll create this file at “dev/entrypoint.sh”. It has the following content:
#!/bin/sh # Change ownership of all directories and files in the mounted volume, i.e.
# what has been mapped from the host:
chown -R mahi:mahi /app # Finally invoke what has been specified as CMD in Dockerfile or command in docker-compose:
“$@”
Or in VS Code:
There is not much content in this file. In line 5 all we do is changing the ownership of the directory “/app” and all of its content to “mahi:mahi”. (the first is the group name, the second one the user name). In line 8 we just execute what might be specified with the CMD directive in the Dockerfile or as value for the “command” parameter in the docker-compose file.
Let’s revisit the reason why we moved the chown command from Dockerfile to the entrypoint.sh script. As mentioned before, the Dockerfile is used to create the container image. Then docker-compose.yml tells Docker to mount the host directory at “/app”. Only once this has completed, we can reliably chown the directory “/app”.
Another option would be to use the “USER” directive in the Dockerfile to switch to user “mahi”. However, if we did, we couldn’t execute “chown” in the script “/entrypoint.sh” as “chown” requires root privileges. User “mahi” does not have those privileges by design.
So, to clarify the chronological order of events, here are the main steps as they are executed when the dev container is started:
If the container image doesn’t exist just yet, the instructions in Dockerfile are executed as “root” to create the docker image. When we run up the dev container, the content of “docker-compose.yml” is used to orchestrate the containers we want, two in this case. This includes mounting the parent directory on the host, i.e. the root of the repository clone, at “/app” inside the dev container (see lines 8 and 9 in the docker-compose.yml file). This part is still executed as root. Still running as root, and once the container is up and running, Docker executes the script specified by the “ENTRYPOINT” directive in the Docker file. This script changes the ownership of the directory “/app” inside the dev container to “mahi:mahi”. Next, the “command” specified in docker-compose.yml is executed. We still run as root. Once all of the preceding steps are complete VS Code considers the container to be up and running. At that point VS Code connects as user “mahi” (configured via “remoteUser”, see above) and installs “vscode-server” and then all other extensions that may be configured for the dev container. “vscode-server” and everything it spawns inside the dev container runs as “mahi” including any terminals that may be open, just as we wanted.
In a VS Code terminal you an experiment in the dev container. Try using “sudo” or accessing directories or files that are owned by “root”. You will find that user “mahi” has no root privileges.
Choosing a Better User Id and Group Id
As described above, we used the number 1001 for the user id and for the group id for non-root user “mahi”. There is one problem, though, with this. To see that problem, go to the bash terminal from which we started VS Code and run the following commands:
cd ~/projects/mahi-app/CmdLine
ls -lart
This should give you an output similar to the following:
Notice how the group is listed as 1001 and the user as docker. If we were to edit any of the files listed or any files in those directories then you’ll notice that we don’t have permission to do so. The reason is that your own user id and group id is different. Execute the command “id” in this bash terminal. This should give you output similar to the following (your user name will be different):
Notice that the user id (“uid”) and the group id (“gid”) are 1000 (the number may be different in your case). Because this number is different to the number 1001 that we assigned to user “mahi” and to group “mahi”, Linux will prevent us from editing these files.
We can fix this by running “sudo chown .”. However, we wouldn’t want to run this all the time. Also, as soon as we re-open this in the dev container, it will be changed again back to 1001. There is a better option. We will change mahi’s user id and and group id to match the id of the user as which we run on Linux outside of the container.
In my case, it’s the user “manfred” and the group “manfred” and both have the number 1000. Let’s use these numbers in the Dockerfile when we add the group and the user:
If in your environment the command “id” shows a different number for the group and/or the user id on the host, then use those numbers instead.
With this change in place, rebuild the dev container once more. Then, in the bash terminal on the host (the terminal from where you launched VS Code), run “ls -lart” which gives you something similar to:
Running the same in the dev container gives us the following:
Even though we see different user and group names the underlying ids for group and user are the same as we have mounted the host directory into the dev container. We wouldn’t need the “chown” command in this case. Howerver, the “chown” command in script “/entrypoint.sh” ensures that we have sufficient permissions in the dev container. If you want to confirm that the ids are the same, just run the “id” command both in the dev container as well as on the host’s bash terminal.
Note that in the last picture the parent directory (“..”) is still owned by root. This is exactly what we wanted. We use the dev container as user “mahi” and have permissions only in the directory “/app” (and mahi’s home directory) but nowhere else. This means if any malicious code should manage to execute within the dev container, it will be limited to what is accessible inside of “/app” of the dev container and to what is available in the home directory (“~”). We haven’t mounted anything elsewhere, so the home directory is limited to the dev container as well.
Furthermore, sudo is not available in the dev container and even if it was, the non-root user is not a member of that group. And even all of that was available, then you’d still have to manually enter a password to execute sudo.
Now, that we have strengthened the security of our dev container by using it as a non-root user, let’s next look at another improvement that allows us maintaining the nuget packages we use in our project. | https://medium.com/swlh/upgrading-a-dev-container-to-net-5-0-dfadc3cb5725 | ['Manfred Lange'] | 2020-12-29 07:31:17.436000+00:00 | ['Net5', 'Vscode', 'Net Core', 'Docker', 'Devcontainer'] |
GRADE OF CONCRETE AND WATER CEMENT RATIO | GRADE OF CONCRETE AND WATER CEMENT RATIO
Hai friends welcome to our civil Scholar Blog!
Grade Of Concrete
Grade of concrete
Dear friends in this post I’m write show you here the very important topic for today….the to it is Grade of concrete and water cement ratio that for different grade of concrete ..
How much water are required for M5, M7.5, M10, M15, M20 etc…
let’s get start for today…
Grade of concrete so we are
simply like we can write that M5, M7.5, M10, M15, M20 etc…
So Do you know that what is M simply we can say
M stands for Mix..
M5 I have to define here so 5 and 5 stands for simply you
can say that 5 is a number okay. so number stands for characteristic
compressive strength of concrete okay. Characteristics compressive strength of
the concrete in 28 days okay.
28 days so this is the direct compressive so it depend on the direct compressive test okay. so therefore we can say this this
is M5 so M means M stands for mix and five numbers stand for characteristic compressive strength of the concrete and 28 days.
So when we do the M10 concrete in any construction work so it means that this M5 so also you can say that this concrete work when you do the
construction in M5 for example so it will get the strength of the
concrete in 28 days 5N/mm2…
So this is the strength of concrete after 28 days so M7.5 so 7.5N/mm2 okay.
M20 must gained the strength after 28 days 20N/mm2.
okay
now in next step I can
show you here yet how much water and water cement ratio are required for the M5, M7.5, M10, M15, M20 etc.. so
let’s okay so first of all we also required for the grade of concrete later
we can say concrete mix I have to show you here in this data are great with great we can also write here mix ratio key so simply you can say that great okay.
GRADE MIX RATIO
M5 C : S :A (1 : 5 : 10)
we have to take mix ratio so mix ratio mean cement stand aggregate okay.
So here we need one cement five Stand and then aggregate okay.
M7.5 C : S :A (1 : 4 : 8)
M10 C : S :A (1 : 3 : 6)
M15 C : S :A (1 : 2 : 4)
M20 C : S :A (1 : 1.5 : 3)
So this is great and mix ratio now we have to find out that how much water Litter are required for M5, M7.5 for M10 for M15 for M20.
water how much water or how much Litre of water are required for
the different grade of concrete so for M5 we can use or simply I will tell you here that this is the….
Grade of cement water per bag 50 kg of cement
M5 60 litre
M7.5 45 litre
M10 34 litre
M15 32 litre
M20 30 litre
okay, so this is the very important topic grade of concrete and water cement ratio and grade you can say that great in mix ratio so you are able to learn grade of concrete water cement cement ratio and how much
water are required for any grade of concrete.
Thank you!!! | https://medium.com/@elakkiyacivilrocks/grade-of-concrete-and-water-cement-ratio-1953ab8fee6b | ['Elakki Elakki'] | 2020-04-29 07:44:55.381000+00:00 | ['Civic Engagement', 'Civictech', 'Civilization', 'Construction', 'Civil Rights'] |
ETH x Nvidia x Ubuntu | Actual logs of Ethminer on Ubuntu
We’ll show how to quickly setup an ETH mining rig on Ubuntu using Nvidia GPU(s).
Ubuntu preset
This whole setup has been tested on both Ubuntu 18 and 20 but I would personally recommend sticking with 18 for stability.
Setup driver and CUDA toolkit
In order to use your GPU card to mine, you’ll need to be able to run code on it. Nvidia provides drivers and toolkit (CUDA) for that. Good news, you can setup both at once, in an easy install.
After a few attempts (as of December 2020), I would recommend not to use the very last versions of the toolkit (11.2) but rather go with one of the previous ones (11.1.1).
Here is the direct link https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-11.1.1-download-archive. Just follow the selectors in order to match your system and you should end up on:
sudo sh cuda_11.1.1_455.32.00_linux.run wget https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/11.1.1/local_installers/cuda_11.1.1_455.32.00_linux.run sudo sh cuda_11.1.1_455.32.00_linux.run
The installer needs to first check the system and once validated you should see the licence agreement menu.
Nvidia End User Licence Agreement
You can write “accept” and let it setup itself.
You’ll end up on a menu where you can select what is going to be installed on your computer. Make sure to install the driver and the CUDA toolkit. CUDA samples are cool if you want to test the setup.
Installation should last a few minutes tops. Once installed you should get a summary of what has been installed and what has not, and 2 important pieces of information: the location of the logs and the command to uninstall the Nvidia driver and the toolkit. You won’t have to care about them until you need to debug though!
Also, don’t forget to restart your machine after setting up drivers. A good way to detect if the driver is setup properly: at boot the GPU(s) fans won’t start. Why? Because now the card is managed with its optimal configuration, and most cards can optimize the fans usage when they don’t process anything. If the driver is not properly setup, the fans will automatically start when the card turns on.
Ethminer Setup
Now that you got the CUDA driver and toolkit ready, you need to build the Ethereum miner, the software part of the mining process.
I’m going to give you a fast track, and you’ll find all the details here: https://github.com/ethereum-mining/ethminer/blob/master/docs/BUILD.md and here: https://linuxhint.com/mine-etherium-ethminer-ubuntu/
First, install necessary tools. CMake will be used for build and mesa is a 3D graphics library:
apt-get install git mesa-common-dev cmake
Clone the ethminer repo in a dedicated folder and update the submodules:
git submodule update — init — recursive
Once this is set, configure the install:
mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. -DETHASHCUDA=ON -DETHASHCL=OFF
cmake — build .
Flags -DETHASHCUDA=ON -DETHASHCL=OFF are just meant to tell the program to prepare the setup for CUDA and not OpenCL.
Eventually you can install:
sudo make install
Let’s do a quick check:
ethminer -U -M
By running this, you will know:
- if ethminer is correctly setup
- if ethminer sees and can use your NVidia GPU(s)
- the hashrate you can get from your GPU(s)
This beanchmark should give you an idea of the hashrate you should get with your GPU(s): https://whattomine.com/gpus.
If you’ve completed these steps, congratulation you’ve installed ethminer with NVidia GPU!
Run
A plethora of articles and documentation online can explain you what is “mining”. To keep it simple, let’s just say you’re doing lots and lots of calculation and you’re being awarded with the precious mineral.
In order to do that, you have to connect to a mining platform, that will register your work and compensate you in return. This translates into that command:
ethminer -P -U stratum1+tcp://[WALLET].[RIG]@[SERVER]:[PORT]
Where wallet is your wallet address, and server is the server you’ve chosen to mine with. Port will be told by the server configuration and rig is optional until you’ve got several rigs.
For instance, for small rigs, I would recommend Ethermine.org, and this would be how you get the config: https://ethermine.org/start.
A final checklist before becoming officially a miner:
- make sure your PSU is powerful and stable enough for your GPU(s), especially if you have several of them.
- make sure the airflow is not blocked by anything, and your rig i not too close to another source of heat.
- make sure it’s isolated enough. Fans will be running 100% of the time and that can be noisy.
I’d recommend you run the miner within tmux, and then track your rigs on the service for which you mine. In case of issue, hardware or software, you’ll see a decrease and you can also be notified by email if your miner is down.
Most likely causes: unstable PSU, overheat (cause the GPU to shut down until it gets colder), unstable connection…
Underclocking
You’re probably used to -or know about- over-clocking. In both cases we’re looking at optimizing the GPU. In that case, I’ll only introduce you to the savvy side, basically reducing power, in order to optimize electric consumption.
You’ve got several overclocking software in Windows such as MSI Afterburner, CPU-Z, GPU-Z… Which are, unless it has changed recently, not available on linux distributions.
Some mining software on Windows will recommend over-clocking the memory clock while lowering the voltage of the GPU to optimize matrix calculations and not burn clocks. As far as I know, we can’t make exactly the same edits in Linux.
GWE
GreenWithEnvy (Green With Envy-dia?) is the tool you’re looking for. I won’t go through the setup of it, but that will allow us to cut the power usage.
Recent GPU cards are optimized rendering, 3D, shaders… and basically you don’t need all of it while mining. GWE will let you lower the power limit of the card.
Example with a Gainward 3060TI OC:
- Base hashrate (Power limit 200W): 51–54 MH/s
- Over-clocking (clock and voltage): 60 MH/s (according to Nicehash)
- Lowered power limit with GWE (tested at 130W): 50–51 MH/s
In other words, you can simply save 35% of power and still get a nice competitive hashrate on Linux. If you want to experiment more, I’d recommend you setup Windows and MSI Afterburner.
One caveat, GWE is not multi-gpu friendly yet. You can still tweak the first GPU with it.
Test by limiting the power of the first card. From 200W to 130W
cu0 is limited to 130W here, and stays close to the perf of cu1, which is not limited
Hope you enjoyed it and if you got your rig up and running, feel free to contribute to 0xA86bEc61bDbe257cBf13442EF4FAf849e6CEe971 if you feel this helped you.
If you have any questions or troubles, I’ll be happy to assist you for debug!
Join Coinmonks Telegram Channel and learn about crypto trading and investing
Also Read | https://medium.com/coinmonks/eth-x-nvidia-x-ubuntu-1980393a36f8 | ['Aurélien Didier'] | 2021-08-05 12:41:57.453000+00:00 | ['Ubuntu', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Ethereum', 'Mining', 'Nvidia'] |
Supercharging utility inspection operations with AI image analysis; pricing and benefits. | Insights from a pilot project with the goal of inspecting 800.000 poles yearly, powered by a new AI image analysis algorithm.
The topic of AI image analysis is popular.
We work a lot with AI at Scopito, but because every algorithm is customer-specific, trying to paint of picture of the generic benefits, is hard.
However, this article is an attempt at providing you with an idea of what a large-scale AI image analysis project could look like.
These are insights from a pilot project with the goal of inspecting 800.000 poles yearly, powered by a new AI image analysis algorithm. We at Scopito are working on this in collaboration with a large south American utility.
Goal
The utility’s goal is to reduce downtime and extend asset life, by inspecting 800.000 of their 5–6 million poles and towers on a yearly basis.
Solution
As with most large-scale inspection projects involving AI image analysis, this one starts with a 6-month pilot project, at the end of which, the utility will be ready for full-scale operations.
The first two months are allocated to data collection. This includes preparations, flight planning and the capture time. This is also accounting for bad weather and other obstacles.
Once data is captured, the manual analysis will take 2–3 weeks. The algorithm will be trained on the annotations created during this time.
When the training-data is ready, it will take 2–3 months to train the algorithms, after which it is expected to have an accuracy-level of above 90%.
Scopito will be developing the algorithms based on images of 0.04% of the utility’s total assets.
The faults we are looking for include, but are not limited to:
Insulator damage
Encroaching vegetation
Broken cross-arms
Bird’s and bee’s nests
Guy wires sagging
Woodpecker holes
Top cap issues
Rotten wood
Thermal anomalies
Failing concrete
The areas of interest will depend on the faults found during the manual annotation.
Once the project reaches full-scale, Scopito will be charging
$2–3$ per pole, including storage, processing, AI, and visual presentation.
The implementation of AI image analysis algorithms will not only allow the utility to scale their operation in the coming years, but also extend the lifetime of their assets significantly as well as build a digital representation of their asset fleet.
Increased analysis speed
The speed of AI image analysis is essentially what makes it possible to complete an operation of this size. Having a human workforce complete analysis of pictures of 800.000 structures, would simply not be feasible.
It is expected that Scopito’s algorithm will be able to analyse at least 1.000 images/hour. At a fast pace, a human will be able to analyse 175 images/hour in Scopito.
If we assume there are an average of 2 images per structure, that amounts to 1.600.000 images/year.
This would take a human 380 days to complete, assuming he works 24/7 without breaks.
In comparison, it would take Scopito AI 66 days.
Added accuracy with AI
In addition to working faster, AI image analysis provides consistent results. It cannot be subject to distractions, fatigue, or social distancing, the way humans are.
Depending on the quality and consistency of data it is trained on, an algorithm can become extremely accurate in its annotations. The accuracy also grows with the amount of data it processed, and is expected to reach >95% once the operation is running at full capacity.
Extend asset lifetime
AI image analysis contributes to extending the lifetime of utility’s assets in more ways than one.
Because it works faster, and more reliably than its human counterparts, it can detect issues early on, which means maintenance can get to work as early as possible.
In time, as the algorithm has processed enough data, it will be possible to identify trends and in term predict the likelihood of future failures on specific assets. This is most commonly referred to as predictive maintenance.
Visual fault presentation
These benefits are not generic for all types of AI image analysis, but rather they come from working in a visualization platform like Scopito.
When utilities, like this one, are managing assets at scale, visualization starts to become exceptionally important. Getting an overview of 5–6 million assets, without a visual representation, is unmanageable. Once you add AI image analysis to that mix, the amount of data only grows, and the clear overview becomes harder to find.
That is why Scopito is dedicated to giving our clients the full overview at every level; from the color-coded map of all their assets to the overview line-map with encroaching trees and faults clearly marked, all the way down to the asset-view.
We specialize in presenting our client’s heavy data in the most logical and intuitive way, and without that, AI image analysis isn’t worth its weight in gold.
Go to Scopito.com for the PDF case | https://medium.com/@administration_96781/supercharging-utility-inspection-operations-with-ai-image-analysis-pricing-and-benefits-a5bcc1d0c589 | ['Scopito Aps'] | 2020-12-02 12:02:44.405000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning Ai', 'AI', 'Drones', 'Fault Detection', 'Machine Learning'] |
Looking Beyond Accuracy — A Holistic Evaluation Guide for Binary Classification Models in Machine Learning | Data science and ML practitioners constantly work on classification problems across industries and applications. In many cases accuracy is not the best metric to judge a model. For example, a class imbalanced dataset might be more accurate on training data than on unseen/new data. There are tonnes of scenarios in which there is need for more metrics to judge and compare various models. Therefore it is wise to be aware of all-seasons (by all-seasons I mean any dataset) metrics to thoroughly analyze models.
Accuracy alone may or may not be the best parameter to select a model that will be used on unseen or new data. A well calibrated model with better AUC (even if lower accuracy) will definitely perform better on unseen data.
AUC, short for area under the curve, the ROC curve. [ Receiver Operating Characteristic ]
Imagine a simple scenario to understand ROC.
Objects are passed to you one by one and you, the receiver, has to identify whether the object is a book or a notebook. A simple classification. But the catch is that you are blindfolded. You can feel, touch, smell, analyze shape and thickness, etc to predict if the object you received is a book or a notebook. Remember we log each of your prediction and actual object received for scoring and evaluation.
After several attempts, though blindfolded, you would have developed an intuition and be easily characterizing the object you now receive as book or notebook. The probability of correctly characterizing the object by you now is known as the receiver operating characteristic.
Understand AUC-ROC as the ability of the model to distinguish between classes.
Before: Using data as it is | After: Normalization, transformation, binning, removing multi-collinearity from the data, tuning the model hyper-parameters and calibrating the model.
ROC is a curve between true positive rate and false positive rate. ROC of 0.5 is as useless as guessing without knowing anything about the object passed to you. Just like guessing head or tail in a coin toss.
Greater area under the ROC curve indicates greater capacity of the model to distinguish between the two classes i.e. better the model is at predicting YESs as YESs and NOs as NOs.
AUC score can also be understood as a consolidated score of the confusion matrix, higher the better [0,1]
Why AUC-ROC of 0.5 is useless?
Binary classification is not so tricky. The answer is either yes or no; 1 or 0; A or B; etc. So by default each of the class has equal probability of occurring. Therefore the effort is put to increase it, as close to 1 as possible. 1 being absolute certainty.
Therefore, value of 0.5 is default for discrimination threshold. Just as its literal meaning, threshold means exactly same in machine learning as well. “The level at which something starts to happen.”
It can be adjusted to increase or decrease the sensitivity to false positives.
What does this mean?
Let us say you are a loan officer in a multi national bank. Your bank is offering SME loans up to INR 50 lakhs to young entrepreneurs under the Make in India benefits scheme.
For the same a website is setup which acts as a landing page for anyone who clicks on the banner ads. In the website there are various fields that one can fill and expect to receive a call from loan officer if eligible. The landing page is equipped with machine learning algorithm for risk classification which is trained on organizations historical data and other third party credit scoring and delinquency data. When the user enters their data, the algorithm sends risk analysis report also to the loan officer along with applicant details.
Because the default threshold of any classification model is 0.5, the loan officer only gets applicants that crosses this threshold. The loan officer can request the data science team to lower the threshold to 0.35 so that he/she can attend to marginal applicants in detail. Similarly, the threshold can be increased for specific uses example in case of excess of applicants.
Feature importance can assist loan officers to understand why and how did machine learning algorithm reach a particular decision. What were the top parameters this model considered for decision making.
Every model is trained on some pre-existing historical data. It can be organization’s own data or data acquired through a third party or both. Many a times during initial analysis of data we see a class-imbalance i.e. Yess or 1s can be way more than Nos and 0s and vice versa. In such cases, ML model may become partial in favor of one class. How to evaluate model when such dataset is present?
One way is to synthetically put new values in the dataset using SMOTE technique. You can read more about SMOTE balancing here.
Another way is to go ahead and train the model with the imbalanced data and use Precision-Recall curve to evaluate your model.
High precision means low false positive and high recall means low false negative. A system with high precision and high recall will return all correct results/labels in high numbers.
Apart from taking care of imbalanced data there are few other things one needs to attend to before putting the data set for training. These include but are not limited to, normalizing the data, categorizing/binning, transforming, etc. One another pre-training step is to identify columns in dataset that move together or are dependent on each other. In more familiar words, removing multi-collinearity to boost performance. However, there may be dependencies and collinearity that may still exist in the model. Recursive feature elimination (RFE) attempts to eliminate collinearity in the model.
RFE plots the number of features in the model with cross-validated test score and variability alongside the selected number of features. Recursive Feature Selection with Cross Validation or RFECV curve tells us the number of features that are just enough to reach maximum accuracy in binary classification. All remaining features can be safely discarded without affecting the model accuracy.
Why is this important?
For 2 reasons:
For more intuitive models — All final features and model parameters play a role in decision making giving a holistic approach to decision making for unseen datasets. It also allows you to see factors, if any, that were considered important but statistically aren’t. For better interpretation — ML applications can not be black box. Few features mean easier understanding of decision making by the algorithm. Decision boundary charts helps visualize that.
Learning Curve based graphs can be used to see how many iterations your model is taking to reach the top score. Lower the better. They show change in learning performance which can be used to diagnose fitting and identify relevance of data to problem at hand.
When predicting classes, it is imperative to print the probability related to the label. Anything above 0.5 is YES or 1. But by how much. So generally the output is like 1, 0.75, meaning class 1 with a probability of 0.75. This gives sort of confidence on the prediction.
But how can you trust probabilities?
By plotting calibration curves. Also know as the reliability curve, a well calibrated model will be straight slope at 45 degrees from origin.
Similarly, validation curve shows variation between training score and cross validation score. A good model will have less variation between the two scores.
Lastly, gain chart and lift chart measures the effectiveness of classification model calculated as the ratio between the results obtained with and without the model applied. Obviously, a good model will be higher than 0.5 and as close to 1 as possible.
Conclusion
Having a holistic approach towards data preparation and model training will lead to predictions with high accuracy and precision. The ability to continuously generate positive results in high numbers is the goal of any classification model.
Almost all of the metrics can be visualized. A great model will also have beautiful visuals that will be soothing to the eyes and may or may not follow some pattern or shapes.
One last thing, depending upon your application of classification, make sure to assign cost of false positives, true positives, false negatives and true negatives to minimize negative impact of misclassification. This will help in adjusting the threshold in order to mitigate risk. For example, cost of false negative in a banking environment may vary greatly as compared to a clinical environment.
And of course, these metrics, if not all, can also be applied to assess models for multi-class classification.
GITHUB: https://github.com/rajatscibi/bfsi_loan
#machinelearning #datascience #statistics | https://medium.com/swlh/looking-beyond-accuracy-a-holistic-evaluation-guide-for-binary-classification-models-in-machine-5e834694fef | ['Hands On Ai'] | 2020-11-20 19:38:39.917000+00:00 | ['Statistical Learning', 'Machine Learning', 'Classification', 'Data Science', 'Evaluation Metrics'] |
Dynamic HTML Elements — An Approach to Flavors in Flutter Web | Photo by David Vig on Unsplash
When we are developing mobile Flutter applications, we know we can make use of flavors. Flavors allow us to handle different configurations for different environments — development, staging, production — adding custom assets and settings to each version of the app.
However, we don’t have the same in Flutter for Web. And sometimes it poses a problem — how can we create different versions of the same web application using a system like flavors? For example, how can we have different keys for JS libraries like Google Maps or have different Firebase configurations initialised in our Index.html file?
The Problem — Setting up Google Maps
In this article we are going to explore how we can add these configurations dynamically and per environment.
In recent months, the Flutter team has been working on creating Flutter Web implementations of their most popular plugins, such as url_launcher, google_sign_in and google_maps_flutter. In the case of both google_sign_in and google_maps_flutter there's a small catch - we need to add to our index.html file a new line where we add the correct API key:
This might be fine if we are creating a prototype application or if we want that our API key is shared between the different environments. But what if we want to have different keys?
The First Solution — Multiple Index.html Files
One of the possible solutions to our problem is to create several index.html files that reflect our environments: index-dev.html , index-stg.html , index-prd.html . In each of these files we could set up the configurations specific to each environment.
Then, in order to run the correct configuration, all we had to do is to copy the contents from the correct environment into index.html and voilá!
However, we must stop and reflect — does this solution fix our problem? Or does it originate additional problems down the line?
By creating multiple files, we are triplicating the effort — if tomorrow we need to add a new library, all three files need to be updated. Or if a key needs to be changed, we need to change it only in the necessary files.
On the other hand, this relies on our memory to always change the files when running or deploying our app or to create tools that enable us to do this process. The first approach might lead to incorrect configurations being pushed to production while the later need us to expend some time to create the tools.
Ultimately, if having different configuration files for the index.html is cumbersome what can we do? We can try to load the configurations dynamically via Dart.
Loading Configurations Dynamically with Dart
As stated in previous articles, long before Flutter adopted Dart, Dart was a proposed solution for JavaScript in Web. This means that there are already some out-of-the-box solutions to communicate with JavaScript (see Using JavaScript in Flutter Web), and potentially with HTML, which is precisely what we need for our situation.
But first let us analyze our problem again. As described in the documentation for google maps, we need to add a:
script element to our index.html file
element to our file This element will be in the document’s head
Inside it we will add a src with the Google Maps API and the correct API Key.
Creating a Custom HTML element with Dart
From the official documentation on Adding an Element to the DOM Tree we see that it is possible to create different HTML elements to be inserted in the DOM (Document Object Model) since Dart already provide them out-of-the-box.
In our case, we want to create a <script> element, and conveniently we have in Dart the ScriptElement that represents this object. Which means that the first thing that we need to do is to create a new instance of this object:
With the element created, we can now access and modify its properties, such as src and id :
Since we want our element to be added in the <head> , we need now to be able to access it, and we can do so with the document variable. Then, we can simply access the head and append our element:
We can now add this function to our main function, so that it runs before our app starts:
When running our app, we will be able to look at the Developer Tools and search the element tree for the super-script :
Added <script> element, highlighted in blue
Loading Our Configurations Dynamically
As said before, Flutter Web does not support flavours yet, which means that it won’t be possible to do the following:
At the end of the day, what we want is a convenient method of passing from the command line (or IDE) to our app the environment that we are currently using, without having to change our code.
With flutter run help -v we can see the list of all available arguments to run our app and we will find the following:
Which means that if we use:
We will be able to retrieve the flavor in our Dart code:
Additionally, we can use the parameter defaultValue to set dev as a default:
With this, we can now create two different flavors — dev and prod . For each, we will create a new key:
Why are we using const arguments? Because as we can see from Antonello Galipò's article Excluding Dart code from the release compiled executable, if we follow this approach our dev keys won't be compiled in the production release code, and our prod keys won't be compiled in our development release.
Finally, we can combine this with the creation of our ScriptElement to retrieve the correct environment key:
Conclusion
Já está! 🎊
With this approach we are:
Creating <script> elements dynamically;
elements dynamically; Storing all our keys and configurations in Dart, making it the de-facto source of truth for all our API keys
Using the command line argument --dart-define to change environments on the go:
We could expand the use of -dart-define to not only store the keys that we use in the index.html file but also all other keys and configurations needed for our code.
On the other hand, we could also explore adding all the necessary script lines for libraries such as firebase analytics via this method, or even the firebase configurations.
In the end, this let us more and more centralize our source of truth in Dart, without the need of using separate files. This makes it easier for us and for other to understand our code and easier to change all the keys in the future when necessary.
To see the full code for this article, check the following repository: | https://medium.com/flutter-community/dynamic-html-elements-an-approach-to-flavors-in-flutter-web-6bff1a7d655a | ['Gonçalo Palma'] | 2020-11-23 21:02:00.295000+00:00 | ['Web', 'Flutter Web', 'Dart', 'Flutter'] |
What Influences Quality Improvement Processes in Health Care? | The COVID-19 pandemic has forced health care services and systems to make substantial, rapid changes to the ways in which they operate. It is likely that many of these changes will be retained in the post-COVID-19 era. Using digital technologies to access non-urgent health care services, for example, is unlikely to be fully relinquished in favour of a return to in-person appointments, although some patient-health care provider interactions will inevitably continue to require face-to-face consultations.
Doing things differently opens up opportunities for doing things more effectively and efficiently, provided that the risks associated with new models of care are identified and successfully managed. For example, effective transition to remote patient consultations and monitoring at scale requires the training of frontline staff to ensure that high quality is maintained. This includes training to avoid the risks that remote consultations and monitoring can give rise to, such as missing cues from patients that may be picked up more readily in face-to-face interactions. It also means evaluating these new ways of doing things, to ensure that they work as well as intended for all the groups involved.
This evolution in service delivery offers important opportunities for improving care quality and patient experience in many areas — remote maternity care or the remote monitoring of patients with diabetes being just two examples. Making the most of these opportunities, it will be important to ensure that the evidence base on how quality improvement happens and what influences its success is incorporated into decisionmaking.
Recent RAND Europe research considers six key influences on improvement processes that need to be in place to support quality improvement in health care organisations. The insights from this research may be particularly pertinent to engage with at the present time, as health care services try to respond to the pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic and move to new service delivery models while sustaining some traditional ways of operating.
Doing things differently opens up opportunities for doing things more effectively and efficiently, provided that the risks associated with new models of care are identified and successfully managed.
The six influences are: leadership; relationships and interactions that support an improvement culture; skills and competencies; patient and public involvement, engagement, and participation; using data for improvement purposes; and working as an interconnected system of individuals and organisations, influenced by internal and external contexts. We discuss what each of these mean in practice. They represent key aspects of the social and organisational context for quality improvement in health care service provider organisations.
Leadership
Effective leadership in the context of supporting health care quality improvement is characterised by sustained and continuous engagement from different types of leaders and improvement champions representing diverse health care specialities, multiple levels within organisational hierarchies, and clinical, managerial, and executive dimensions of health care leadership. The literature suggests that leaders should develop and disseminate a compelling narrative for the long-term strategy and value of any planned improvement activity, with clearly articulated roles and responsibilities for both themselves and those they seek to lead. This is central to cultivating staff trust in the values, vision, and expertise of its leadership. Importantly, different types of leadership are needed for different contexts and phases of improvement, and it is important to find a balance between leadership styles. Overly hierarchical leadership risks disrupting the community ethos that can help drive improvement activity. On the other hand, over-reliance on voluntary social linkages alone can put quality improvement communities at risk of disintegration.
Relationships and Interactions That Support an Improvement Culture
A culture of improvement can be developed and sustained by fostering supportive relationships and regular interactions between all individuals and groups involved in improvement activity. These relationships are most effective when characterised by open discussion, transparency, sustained collaboration, and feedback to support continual learning. In addition, improvement processes can be influenced by exchanging learning between organisations, by creating a shared understanding of the benefits that can accrue from improvement activity among staff in an organisation, as well as a shared understanding of the challenges that can be experienced along the way and how these might be addressed. Intra- and inter-organisational interactions can be supported by developing a clear strategy that considers what to communicate, to whom, how, and when.
Skills and Competencies
Improvement processes rely on appropriately resourced staff who are trained in the requisite technical and social skills — both are important to make improvement work in a real-world context. This is vital for staff at all levels, from those at the coalface of improvement to leadership and senior executives, because improvement is a collective and socially constructed phenomenon. Educational components relevant for health care staff can be integrated into the design of an improvement initiative in many ways, for example in the form of simulations, scenarios, lectures, workshops, role-play, and/or experiential learning with feedback. Such training can have a more positive influence on improvement processes if it is provided regularly, for example as part of continuous professional development.
Improvement processes rely on appropriately resourced staff who are trained in the requisite technical and social skills.
Using Data for Improvement Purposes
Data can help to identify improvement needs, inform the design of improvement interventions and implementation strategies, and support monitoring, evaluation, and learning. Good evaluation is central to improvement, but it is not possible without access to accurate and relevant data on the quality of care. Organisational culture and staff attitudes towards data and evidence influence the extent to which they are used in improvement. This includes whether staff see data as relevant and meaningful, and therefore helpful in supporting their individual roles and collective goals, and whether they trust data quality, accuracy, and the credibility of its source. The effectiveness of data in guiding improvement activity is also influenced by when it is provided, to whom, and how. Feedback must be timely to have traction, and data needs to be communicated in user-friendly ways tailored to each purpose and audience.
Patient and Public Involvement, Engagement, and Participation
Patients, carers, and the public can contribute to improvement in diverse ways, for example: in patient and public involvement roles (actively advising on the design, implementation, or evaluation of improvement initiatives); in patient engagement roles (receiving and engaging with information and knowledge about improvement efforts); and as participants in the delivery of an improvement study or improvement initiative. Achieving meaningful contributions from patients and the public requires a clearly communicated strategy about when and how their contributions can add value to improvement efforts, clear roles and responsibilities, feedback, and recognition of patient and public contributions.
Working as an Interconnected System of Individuals and Organisations, Influenced by Internal and External Contexts
Taking account of local history and context when planning improvement activities can help to ensure more effective intervention design and implementation. An organisation’s internal management and governance approach as well as the external context (e.g. policy mandates, payment regimes, reporting structures in the health system) can all influence how committed clinicians are to quality improvement. Furthermore, regular interaction between different parts of the health care system (primary, acute, community, and social care) can aid improvement efforts when there is a high degree of interdependence and need for coordination between activities happening in different parts of the system.
Taking account of local history and context when planning improvement activities can help to ensure more effective intervention design and implementation.
Quality improvement requires attention to all the interdependent influences discussed above. This can be a significant ask for organisational leadership that is pressed for time and resources — all the more so during a pandemic. However, nurturing the various interrelated aspects of the social, cultural, and organisational environment needed to support quality improvement in a cohesive and coordinated way matters if improvement efforts are to lead to tangible and sustained results. It is also conducive to building lasting organisational capabilities for improvement.
For example, embedding remote consultations and remote monitoring into ongoing clinical practice during and after the COVID-19 pandemic is both a service transformation challenge and an improvement challenge. This is because of the scale of transition required across the health and care system in relation to the past.
Staff training, for instance on how to manage risks associated with remote patient consultations and monitoring, is likely to be important to ensure that it is done safely and well. Improvement in this space also requires the implementation of a secure data and ICT infrastructure that can effectively support safe and high-quality remote care — for example to upload patient photographs for clinical diagnosis.
Patient and public engagement is necessary to understand what is acceptable, what works, where risks lie, and for whom remote interactions do not work and risk exclusion — such as for people with limited access to or experience of video conferencing. And working as an interconnected system is required to ensure that activities remain coordinated between primary, acute, and social care. All of this relies on an effective and diverse group of leaders and staff committed to a culture of improvement and to delivering high quality care.
Periods of rapid change offer both opportunities and challenges for health care quality improvement. Understanding the building blocks that need to be in place to support improvement processes may help those seeking to embed improvement capabilities and capacity into their organisations, both as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
Gemma-Claire Ali and Emily Ryen Gloinson are analysts working in the area of innovation, health, and science at RAND Europe. Sonja Marjanovic is RAND Europe’s Healthcare Innovation, Industry, and Policy director. | https://medium.com/rand-corporation/what-influences-quality-improvement-processes-in-health-care-33be87eb8989 | ['Rand Corporation'] | 2020-12-11 23:52:58.266000+00:00 | ['United Kingdom', 'Healthcare', 'Coronavirus', 'Telemedicine', 'Covid 19'] |
Betty’s best companion | Photo by Clément Falize on Unsplash
It had been a while since five year old Betty spotted a garden not far away from her house. Tiny bushes and shrubs held their positions in most parts of the land but there were flowers evenly spread throughout. Betty didn’t know the names of all the flowers nor of the plants that stayed in their fixed homes on the ground. She was determined to learn them though and walk regularly to that place at dusk when the heat of the day had left its strength.
Thus, every evening Betty stepped out of the house, accompanied by her Granny, to spend time in the so called “Butterfly garden”. The name was deceiving though, Betty had thought when she first heard it from a neighbor. She was disappointed to not find any of those flying creatures there. But Granny had reassured her that they were in hiding and once the time was right, they would appear and catch Betty by surprise. But she loved the garden anyway and didn’t ponder upon the case of missing butterflies; the irony of a name so forgotten.
She liked to imagine them instead, butterflies of all kinds and colors, hovering over the flowers, their wings bearing the color of dusk. Her Granny gave in to this little game of hers, playing with her imagination by adding bits and pieces like, “I can see a big red one right atop your head.” And then Betty would pretend to remove it from her hair and place it in her palms.
“It flew away Granny,” she’d reply. The game involved a lot of jumping and running, which obviously her grandmother never tried, but Betty flew through the entire length of the garden, clapping her hands at times, screaming, “Butterfly, butterfly! Granny I ain’t able to catch that butterfly!”
Granny made a song too.
Butterfly, O butterfly
Deviate not from your path
We ain’t no troublesome people
We just need your friendship
And Betty would join her, their voices sailing with the wind to the other side of the garden. Anyone who heard them, or saw them playing knew how perfect the pair was, their devotion to the other so robust and steady, their ages a fickle barrier.
When together, the spark in the grandmother’s eye never drifted, the bliss remained etched in her grandchild’s face. Betty never left her behind. She was her perfect company.
One evening, her grandmother caught a slight fever and was unable to go out with her. Betty had to go by herself, but it was no fun without her. She got bored and returned early.
“Did you catch that poor thing, that shiny yellow one?” Her grandmother inquired late at night, her voice hoarse, fever slipping into her tongue.
“They are on a trip, Gran. I guess they’ll return once you do,” Betty replied.
“Sweets, they never leave that place. I guess they are all in hiding today. Remember child, that the butterflies will always be there in the garden. For you.” She smiled, sounding confident of what she had said and drifted off to sleep.
Betty decided to wait till her Granny recovered. She swore not to visit the garden without her. She spent her evenings with her neighborhood dog instead and made plans for the next garden visit.
“Bruno.” She spoke to the dog. “Have you ever paid a visit to the butterflies? If you happen to pass by that garden, don’t chase them, alright?.
“Wuff,” the dog replied as if taking in all the words, his big round eyes gazing intently at her.
“I’m planning to take food for them next time, Bruno. I hope it’s fine with Granny. Would you like to come too?”
Another “Wuff” followed the question.
But it didn’t seem like Betty’s plans would work out soon. Because a week passed by and Granny was still unwell.
What’s taking her so long, she thought.
In the past there had been moments when Granny was sick. But she used to recover in a day or two; at most in three days. Betty tried to talk to her several times. She seemed too sick to reply. Her words would come out all muffled. So there wasn’t much conversation between them in that week. But she never stopped making plans and if she passed by the garden.
She’d say from afar, “Dear friends, Granny and I’ll return soon.”
One night she had an unusual dream. Her grandmother was in it and there was someone else too.
Have seen him somewhere, Betty thought in her sleep.
That round face, dark complexion and broad mouth were all too familiar. He seemed the same age as her Granny and both of them stood silently beside the other on the front porch of their house, their shoulders hunched. It was nightfall, their gaze remained fixed towards the sky, both of them seemed lost in thoughts. At first it looked like they’d forever stay that way, still as statues, staring at the night canvas. But they slowly stooped. It was then she noticed the things on the ground, and picked up the large bags. Granny held two of them, while the man held three. And then very slowly albeit with a swiftness they walked towards the gate. Before Betty could react, they had already unlatched it and were moving on the road outside.
Betty called out, “Granny!” once but no sound came out of her mouth.
They kept on walking, slowly and swiftly, but before they had reached the bend in the road, they paused in their tracks and turned around and smiled at her direction.
Betty gasped. “Oh”, she said and felt a strong desire to capture that moment forever for there lay an immeasurable warmth and grace in each of their faces. She could feel the warmth gliding across her cheeks and reaching her heart. And then they moved on thus disappearing at the bend. The road spawned empty by their missing footsteps, in front of her eyes.
The dream left a bittersweet feeling behind and some alien feeling that she couldn’t fathom and the first thing she did was to run to her Granny’s room. The curtains were drawn at that time, the room lay dark and the bed in the center of it stood empty, a stillness hovering over it.
Her mother appeared behind her and took her in her arms. She looked worn out and sad when she spoke. “Granny was rushed to the hospital at night. Her fever had risen.” And then she forced a smile as well as the next words. “But don’t worry dear. She’ll be back soon. It’s only a….”
But she broke off mid-sentence and started crying. She held on to Betty a bit tighter and Betty cried too. The room witnessed a duet of two sad voices and in the midst of it Betty’s eyes fell on the photo beside her Grandmother’s bed, the one with her Grandpa in it, the Grandpa whom she had never seen but known through that photo and Granny’s stories. Even in the photo, his round face, dark complexion and broad mouth formed the base of his features. | https://medium.com/lit-up/bettys-best-companion-83072501ff35 | [] | 2020-10-09 16:23:44.791000+00:00 | ['Short Fiction', 'Short Story', 'Family', 'Fiction', 'Grandmother'] |
Whatever Happened To Dinma? | Let me tell you how it all begins.
First, we arrive innocent. Our daywear and uniforms are ironed and folded into neat, scented boxes. Our heads are closely shaved. Our skin is soft and supple, and our eyes are aglow with a pristine, wide eyed naiveté. Some of us still wet the bed.
We roll out boxes across the dirt and granite till we get to the dorms smelling deeply of disinfectant and GBC air freshener. Everything appears neat but our senses are heightened at this deception. There is a thick web of something sordid underneath, a bramble of thorns behind the strange smiles bestowed on us. We see it in the urine soaked bed relegated to the farthest end of the dormitory, the mass of hurriedly shoved clothes spilling out of a weary cupboard, the hesitance with which we hand our boxes over to those too eager to help us unpack.
At the pavilion, the separation is a gory affair. I’m talking tears and snot and blood from scraped knees that comes from trashing too wildly. Some of us cling to our mothers so tightly that leaving feels like the premature yanking of an umbilical cord from a hapless fetus, while some look on with an unperturbed, stoic expression. Some of us are glad to be away from the violence of our homes, the adventurous are thrilled at the prospects of a new environment, a chance to leave the boring stillness of normal.
The last two categories have a higher chance of survival than the rest of us.
On this first night, we are slightly apprehensive. Some are excited. On this night, we are bathed and scrubbed clean by some superiors who feel their maternal instincts kick when they set their eyes on our smallness, on our sad, confused faces. They brush our hair and dab cologne on our skin. Then they comb through our bags, select the prettiest night wears and don it on us.
The sifting of the char begins.
We are told to line up. There is talcum powder spread all over out necks and chests. Our teeth are clean, oversize pajamas hangs awkwardly on our forms and everything smells of newness. This is not to say we are all naïve. Some of us know. They come prepared. Their silk nightwear clings to their prepubescent bodies, their perfumes are stronger than ours and they are eager to be noticed. They did not apply powder all over their bodies the way we did and now we are made to look like sacrifices marinated in Moju powder. They laugh easily at the jokes thrown at us. They own the JJC term like a second skin, the rest of us buckle underneath its weight.
“Welcome.” A voice says. It belonged to a tall, dark girl with broad hips and a characteristic walk. Her day wear is cut several inches above the knee and it appears brazen to our unsullied eyes. We can see the way her thighs slap when she walks but we pretend not to notice. Instead, we stare at our feet and bite our fingers.
She instructs one of us to drag out a small cupboard and she sits on it to regard us closely. She holds a headless mop stick and taps it on the ground in a slow threatening way. The silence is thick here but outside, we can still here the rumble of boxes rolled on the cement veranda and the voices of senior students who have come to sneak a peak at the JJC students.
She should be 16, but on that wooden pedestal, she seemed like a god. A Nordic priestess destined to preponderate over us with mop sticks and condescending glances.
“My name is Senior Dinma, and there are two basic facts about me.”
She swept her eyes over us in the pin drop silence.
“I don’t tolerate dirt, and I don’t tolerate stubbornness. Abide by these rules and the ones on your prospectus and we will not have problems. Anyone in senior secondary with vertical stripes on their day wear, you refer to them as 'Senior’. Anyone with horizontal stripes are in junior secondary. A class or two above you. So you will refer to them as Sister This or Sister That. Is that clear?”
“Yes, Senior.” We chorused. Some voices were demure, some overly enthusiastic.
“If you know you wet the bed, step aside.”
There was a murmur among us as the tallest of us stepped out. She hung her head in shame. The first day wasn’t going too well for her.
“Biggie! So you dey piss for bed too?” Senior Dinma sneered and people laughed. Some amongst us were bold enough to giggle. I shuddered, remembering something I had learnt on Encarta kids about predators and preys. The preys had to stick together to survive. Already, we were disintegrating. I marked it down. (Lesson 1: You are alone.)
Senior Dinma took the 'bedwetters’ to a corner. They had a special area designated for them in the dormitory. It was a humiliating exercise but no one wanted to be caught unaware with a bed wetting bunkmate. It was worse when they got the top bunk as urine could slip past the iron strings and onto your sleeping form. Or your open mouth. Either way, you got baptized by pee.
She came back to find us still standing in line but uneasy on our feet. Some girls had began to strike up small conversations but I remained silent.
“So it seems the school admitted an entire set of chatter boxes, eh?” Senior Dinma inquired. No one had seen her walk in. A hush descended on the line that had now become a semi circle. She reclaimed her wooden cupboard throne and continued to observe us. We squirmed.
“Oyibo, come here.” She said to a girl at the edge of the line, whom we had not really noticed.
Her skin was lighter than the rest of us and there was a small mop of curls atop her head. It made us run our hands across our scraped scalps and curse silently at our coffee coloured skin. The girl stepped forward and we all tried not to gasped. She had green eyes.
“Oyibo, come and stand beside me.” Senior Dinma instructed. For the first time, with a smile. There was a slight glint in her eyes as she said this. A prize had been claimed, a stake had been laid. “You will be my bunk mate and my school daughter from now henceforth, okay? What’s your name?”
“Comfort.” The girl whispered and Senior Dinma beamed at the foreign lilt of her accent. She had acquiesced to Senior Dinma’s request without even knowing what it involved. It was a trap, and to say no would be an aberration, a threat to Senor Dinma’s authoritarian mien. We had heard stories, and some of us even envied Comfort for her new found luck. Surely, she would be shielded from Mass punishments and labour. She would be pampered by this Senior Dinma whom everyone seemed to respect. And dread. It was only the beginning.
A throng of seniors swarm into our dormitory now. They fawn over us and soon some of us have been picked as bunkmates and school daughters. Different criteria are used for this period; the length of your lashes, the brightness of your eyes, the vulnerability in your bones as they wrap their hands around your wrist. The more superficial your looks, the greater your chances of being swept up, daughtered, protected. Except of course your parents had cornered a senor at the gate and bribed them to take care of you. Why did they do this – throw us to a pack of wolves and try to win over one with favours and monetary gifts? If it was so bad, why did they let us go at all?
The ones who came prepared were taken, of course. The seniors fell in love with their fearlessness, their sharp tongues, their eagerness to belong. Deep down, we all knew everyone wanted Comfort. But Senior Dinma had been swift.
This is what happens before we begin to shrink like turned grapes. Before ink spills into the pockets of our day wears and the soles of our feet blacken from the sun scorched earth we till, before our back begins to grow scars.
We shed off our innocence methodically. The next term, we slip a packet of prohibited bubble gum past the scrutiny of the house mistresses. The term after that, we remove two layers of sugar cubes to hide a can of sardine at the bottom of the packet. Next, we dump our Moby Dicks and Nani Boys for Harlequin, Blaze, and Mills and Boons whose provocative paperbacks we conceal with newspapers and brown stencil sheets. Our skin is no longer supple and we have ditched clean shaven heads for a stylish haircut with a moderate amount of hair.
Next, we pretend not to listen in the dark as a bunk rocks under the weight of two; in rhythm with repressed moans. The SAY NO TO LESBIANISM signboard situated beside the tuck-shop flashes through our minds eye, but we say nothing. We learn to swallow our tongues and slip through the cracks of consciousness in silence. We read, and we watch and watch.
***
Senior Dinma led an almost mythical existence. There were so many stories about her, particularly her propensity to do evil. There was a tale of how she had once punished a girl in Topaz house by wrapping her hand around an ice cube which she held till it melted. We couldn’t imagine the extent of the pain, but we did hear that the girl had her hand numb and paralyzed for a couple of days. We heard that she had once single handedly carried out an abortion in the hostel with the bent hook of an iron hanger. They said she had bled and bled for days, but well, we hadn’t witnessed it, so we did not believe.
They said she changed school daughters as often as she changed the kito sandals she wore with her daywear, which was frequent, and that afterwards, those girls never recovered themselves. We never questioned what she did to them or what became of them. We hadn’t witnessed it, so we did not believe.
She had large doleful eyes, a large nose where beads of perspiration liked to gather on its bridge, with small lips which she liked to upturn at the right corner, even when she wasn’t sneering. She made a slight part on her hair every morning and opted for ankle socks while we drew ours religiously to our knees. She was a member of the Band Girls and she beat the base drum. The school band was straightforward, no misnomers, no double entendres. There were no bassoons, clarinets, violins, cellos, or oboes; it was simply what it was, a group of girls hitting drums. Band girls were cool because most of them were tomboys. They wore bandanas across their foreheads without repercussions. The walked with a swagger and did not tuck in their t-shirts, they made up beats from popular songs that excited us, and they had the privilege of wearing mufti during inter-house sports; sneakers, matching trousers and collared shirts. It was the mark of coolness because our uniforms by then had become drab and common place. We had begun to hate it.
But Senior Dinma was different. She did not fly her shirt or tie bandanas around her head or neck in imitation cowboy style. We knew she was special because the male National Youth Service Corpers liked to punish her or send her to their office which was the Basic Technology lab by the east end of the school, behind the SS1 block that was made of bare bricks and zinc. It was a covert, lonely place. We saw the way their eyes lingered on her bossoms, the way they pretended to hate her and pick faults so that she could get punished or sent to the lab. Perhaps this was an avenue to channel their disgusts for themselves or squash their budding desire for a minor. Either way, we pretended like we never saw the victorious smirk on her lips, the sashay, and the few open buttons on the ruffled shirt of her uniform when she emerged from the labs. Among her mates, she had a reputation for being a flirt with the male teachers, a slut, a whoremonger, a dybbuk. We did not care, and we did not believe it.
She was kind to us. She made us cups of Horlicks from her own provision, let us sleep on her bed when we fell sick, cradled us when we were struck by nightmares, whispered love into our ears when we threw homesick tantrums. She was so good that when we eventually began to taste the appetizers of her torment, we felt like we deserved it.
The first time it happened, it was because our house came last during the Saturday hostel inspections. As soon as the results were announced, she barged into the hostel in a fit of rage, locked the doors and told us to ignore the sound of the Bell for lunch. We were mobilized to the centre of the square piece of land outside the dormitory. It was bordered by ixoras and frangipanis but smelled of stale urine. People relived themselves there at night when the toilets seemed to ominous to visit. We watched as the other students trudged to the dining hall. Hunger gnawed at our stomachs because we only had the dining food to rely on – we were the JJCs who had finished their provisions within the first week of school.
She instructed everyone – except Comfort, who was miraculously absent from the hostel while this went down – to lie face up on the floor reeking of urine and ridden with algae. We were to lie there, facing the harsh sun with our eyes wide open and our hands clasped over our chest.
During the midterm break, Mmachi returned with an array of eye drops and ointments. She said when she told her parents what Senior Dinma had done, they had shrugged and told her it was all part of the training. To toughen you, to make you less susceptible to the adversities of life. That was the way with our parents. They would say, “We went through it, why can’t you? Look how I turned out today. It made me a better person. If I can survive, you can too.”
The only thing they cold see was the superficial; our scrawny, darkened complexions. They would feed us and send us back to school, robust, proud at the wonders their good nutrition could work. But they do not address the numbness of our psyche, the somnolent violence winding it’s* way through our veins. There was only the quiet reassurance that one day, we would get to the senior class and become emboldened with the power to bully, just as we had been bullied.
Meanwhile, Comfort was shrinking. She was still adored. Seniors called her to their classes which was a territory not ordinarily traversed. She was summoned there so they could listen to her yet undiluted accent and touch the soft curls on her hair. We were jealous of her. Of her daintiness, her propensity to survive without relying on the watery meals served by the school. She snubbed us in turn, walking with those several classes above her while purely ignoring her academics.
I was quiet, almost mousy and inconsequential. I was smart enough to avoid being bullied, yet small enough to fit into spaces where I existed primarily to watch events unfold.
There was a shroud of victimhood that seemed to hang over her. Her hair had begun to lack lustre, and she wasn’t as confident as she was when she first came in. I had begun to hate her since the day I tried to strike up a conversation with her at the steps leading to the Catholic Church. I had asked her, sweetly, to adjust blue satin scarf on my head so it would look like hers. She had styled hers uniquely into a flat piece that opened up into whorl like pattern on her forehead. She regarded me with a withering look that was amplified by the snaky green of her eyes, and hissed. Snappishness and a disregard for female chumminess was perhaps, a thing of the elite, but I couldn’t let it go.
I felt a budding resentment towards her, but since that day, I could not stop being obsessed. I made sure I was the last to leave the classroom. I skipped lunch often because everyone would be at the dining hall and I would have the chance to break into her locker and sift through her things. I had a letch to smell them, touch them, feel the pages of her Basic Science textbooks where her fingers had lingered. She had a diary but it was all written in shorthand. Every single word. I envied her ability to be so cryptic. When the bell for night prep went off, I ran back to the hostel so I could fill her buckets up with water while I fetched mine, quickly and quietly before a queue formed at the mouth of the tap. It was always chaotic. Sometimes I wonder if she knew that these small acts of service were performed by me, if she questioned where they came from at all. Did she know that I hated and loved her? That those two emotions which fiercely juxtaposed resided comfortably within me and often intermingled?
Everyday, I watched as she became smaller, diminishing into a mollusk.
Senior Dinma had begun inflicting irrational punishments on her, and there were rumors that she was bound to be dumped. She stopped paying attention in class, her day wear began to look dirty and rumpled, her sandals were often coated in dust that contrasted with her milky complexion. She often looked helpless and lost, making an endless circuit around the hostel because she was too frightened to go in. I noticed her pinched face, her weary expression, the way our gales of laughter seemed to bounce around her, never penetrating, never letting a beam of happiness slip into her dullness of her eyes. In addition, her grades began to drop drastically.
It took one night to find out why.
I had been listening in the dark to the sound of crickets and the footstep of the security men who patrolled the hostels when I heard a muffled scream. It was quick, uneasy to decipher. I heard it come from Senior Dinma’s corner. It was followed by a whispered threat; “Suck it, or I break your knuckles.”
There was silence after that. It was interrupted by a dispassionate slurping sound. Then the bunk began to creak, slowly but steadily. I could hear someone breathing deeply, I could hear comfort sobbing quietly. Surely, I wasn’t the only one awake and bearing witness to another’s trauma. Surely, someone else had to be awake. There is a big sign board condemning lesbianism beside the tuck-shop, but where was the condemnation against normalized abuse? I was paralyzed by an overwhelming fear.
After a while, the bunk ceased to creak. Comfort emerged, quaking, blathering quietly and shaking. I watched her pull out a small empty bucket from under the bunk and brush her teeth vigorously, spitting volumes of viscous phlegm into it. When she looked up, she caught my eyes and in that instant, I knew I was complicit. Comfort climbed into her bed and slept off. As though she had silently transferred her burdens to me, I did not sleep a wink.
***
It happened two weeks to the inter-house sports, on a February that still held the last vestiges of the harmattan winds. The nights were still cold, and harsh. It was the same week Angela had her upper incisor knocked out with a discus during practice. It was a terrible accident because her best friend, Kosi had not known she was standing behind her when she swung, aiming to gather momentum for a throw, oblivious to the presence of Angela standing behind her. I remember the fierce red blood mixing with the green grasses on the field, on Kosi’s shirt, on the steps leading to the dispensary. We should have known that was a precedent for things to come.
It was on a Friday night. Prep was usually unserious, and noisy. As usual, I snuck past the class monitor and ran to the hostel so I could fill up my buckets long before people began milling to the taps. I walked into the hostel and that was when I heard someone gasping for breath in the dark.
It was Senior Dinma. She was having what seemed to be an asthmatic attack. Her lungs were in a protest and it was evident in the way she struggled and tried to reach for the inhaler that was few inches away from her. Standing over her writhing form with folded hands and a grin was Comfort. She made no move to help.
Comfort looked at me as I came upon the scene. Once again, our eyes made contact just as it had on that night I witnessed her body being violated. It was one out of many. I did nothing and now she was making eye contact again, daring me to do anything this time. II couldn’t move. Instead, I watched as she kicked the inhaler farther away from Senior Dinma’s reach.
There is violence in us all. The one we try to rein in and channel through a slightly modest vein, but which rears its ugly head every now and then. We see it in the surge of excitement we feel at a riot, the frisson a violent video game gives. We should like to kill, to squash, crouch behind a shrub with a spear with hearts thrumming wildly to the beat of drums, to build a thing and destroy it. This feeling is tucked in, over ridden by common sense, Bach, Chopin, prescribed etiquettes. But like a huge feet unable to withstand the pain of being shoved into a small shoe, my violence spilled out of the edges like a soufflé. Possessed by a certain righteous rage, I dropped my school bag and grabbed a pillow which I placed over senior Dinma’s head. She was already dying anyway, I only helped to quicken its finality.
Comfort and I never said a word to each other. Not even on the assembly ground where the announcement was made and everyone shuddered. Not when we both left the hostel and she ran to the dining hall, dramatically screaming that she had found her darling bunk mate and school mother dead. Not when the whole school was silent and the bells that ordered our daily existence seemed to ring with a grave timbre. We were all questioned by the police but it was done perfunctorily. We were little girls, what did we know about murder? They all knew what killed senior Dinma and even the principal spoke about not on the assembly ground. Dinma would have gotten help with an inhaler if she attended night prep like the rest of the school. In other words, death was what you got for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
***
The administrative block is painted blue and yellow. The sides of the buildings are fringed with well manicured lawns. My heart drums wildly against my rib cages, but for some reason, I smile and smile.
The topography here is askew. Sometimes it is hilly, other times the earth descends into a gaping valley with a maneuver that is completely unprecedented. There are stories that the school was once a grave yard and that at night, the field becomes a river where the marine species come out to display their lustrous shiny scales. I shrug. There is no boarding school that does not have tales of animistic origins. The mind of the adolescent is wonderfully imaginative.
The corridors in the buildings are empty, devoid of students. No one ever loitered around here anyway. The bureaucratic aura was as feral as Flintstones. I cautiously pick my way into the principal’s office, taking care to make sure that my shoes do not click clack and echo around the corridors. There was a sanctimonious silence about it that weighed oppressively on my shoulders.
I greet the secretary.
My greeting is frenetic. I genuflect too low and sweep my hands across my buttock so thoroughly that I suspect any modicum of crease has been vanquished. A lone fan whirls on the ceiling. Stacks of books and old files are on her desk. She seemed to be transferring the content of the files into a computer.
“Yes?” She asked without looking up from the computer. She punches the keys a bit too hardly and I fight the urge to tell her a soft punch would do. This was not the time to be dramatic. And me? I’ve never been one to draw attention to myself.
“I have information on Senior Dinma’s death.”
She looked up then. Her mouth formed an uncertain ‘O’. She jammed it shut but I could see the uneasiness in her eyes.
“Give me a minute.” She disappeared into the principal’s office shielded by a thick door. It was easy. I had two options – report Comfort and implicate myself as someone who was complicit to her abuse, or exonerate her and claim I was the one who placed a pillow over her head as she suffocated..
The secretary came out in less than a minute and ushered me in with a strange fervour. Suddenly, I mattered. TheThe principal was on her feet in the plush, air conditioned office. She seemed smaller. During assemblies, standing on the podium with our school logo boldly carved into the wall behind her, she seemed imposing as she admonished and reprimanded. Now, she was like a frail old woman with a stringent bun, wire rimmed glasses and an anxious expression.
“Sit, girl. How do you do?”
I nodded.
“Please tell me what you know.” She urged.
I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and began to speak. | https://medium.com/@erereony/whatever-happened-to-dinma-d2f80ef47f75 | ['Erere Onyeugbo'] | 2020-12-22 06:27:36+00:00 | ['Boarding School', 'Fiction', 'Children', 'Murder'] |
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Also read: | https://medium.com/cryptolounge/crypto-airdrops-oct-22-158d268d81b4 | ['Atnet', 'Airdrops', 'Trading'] | 2020-10-22 03:29:52.144000+00:00 | ['Cbdc', 'Airdrops Alert', 'Bybit', 'Airdrop', 'Latoken'] |
COVID-19: Disrupting the Disruptor | Photo by Gabriel Sanchez on Unsplash
COVID-19: Disrupting the Disruptor
So Covid-19 is here. And now reality is sinking in? Its not here for a short term! Enough research and debates on it already! There is a new normal been accepted. There WILL be a new normal.
Economic activities are shut and at a bare minimal level, financial packages are out. Massive job losses, companies are in trouble, be it a start-up or established one. People are locked in their houses. Things have been disrupted to the level that they will never return to what it used to be earlier. What will be the outcome of all this finally?
Be it a classical teaching of Bhagwat Geeta which states energy can’t be destroyed and can’t be created and it is just a change of one form to another. Or be it Newton’s third law of motion, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. So if today COVID-19 is destroying economies on one hand and businesses are coming under stress there must be an equal opportunity to create new businesses and transform economies or transform ourselves as an individual to achieve that equilibrium back. This is going to change the world order. We will see never before seen disruption at the levels of a country, established businesses, start-ups and at an individual level. Realization of wants vs needs is setting in. Post COVID-19 social distancing will put in new needs and large number of wants will get postponed for a long time or change permanently.
At Country Level Supply Chain Disruption:
China is one of the fastest and now world’s 2nd largest economy. In last 2 decades they have become factory of the world. Things will start changing slowly but surely post Covid-19. While there is a debate on how breakout of COVID-19 happened in China but there certainly is an anger against it. Was it an accident in Wuhan lab or in wet market (illegal wildlife trade) or deliberate! It has shaken up the beliefs at all levels. Political establishment is already putting a blame game on China and there is a huge grudge. It won’t depend on which political party or ideologies are governing the country and it won’t be just election rhetoric. Nationalism was anyways on a high and China’s non-transparent regime has only added fuel to the fire here in COVID-19. Leaders across the world have deep anguish against China as most of them believe it hasn’t played fair here.
Few countries have already started encouraging to build a no-China-way of business. Consumers will demand non China products. So China which disrupted the world by becoming the world factory will face daunting task of all global forces working against them, not overtly but covertly to begin with. Opportunities for countries like India and other south east Asian countries to capture the imagination of the world business leaders were never as strong as it is today. Can they become DISRUPTOR? Only time will tell!
Established Businesses:
Till now for them China was the solution for all their manufacturing problems. It can’t remain the same going forward. They have to reimagine this completely and de-risk the same. Here is an huge opportunity for large corporation based out of India to work on building that part of supply chain. Govt also needs to play its role swiftly. Countries which are trust worthy, democratic, strong institutional system and strong domestic demand will benefit if their regimes act on the same to welcome global corporations.
However this disruption will put companies which were running on wafer thin cash reserves in a very challenging position. Even if they survive they need to solve the China angle as lot of them were deeply dependent on China. The way consumer preference is shifting towards sustainable products and how it is manufactured, in a same way people will prefer and look for locally manufactured products or in friendly and transparent countries. Companies which will capture on this phenomenon will come out to be the disruptors. It is a BIG opportunity for manufacturing companies to scale their operation to meet global demand.
Start-ups:
There will be a wave of start-ups at least by 5x of multiples. This will give venture guys a cherry picking opportunity about whom to back, a buyers market. My take is that in start-ups which can demonstrate strong product market fit and ability to sustain will be the winner if they can also show scale possibilities. Cash guzzling business model will be a thing of past. COVID-19 is not going to one of the affairs but a cycle for significant period of time or until we find a vaccine or a treatment. This jump in start-up numbers will happen for multiple reasons.
Subdued job market and lack of opportunities in job market will lead to “what I want to do” myself phenomena among young guys to jump entrepreneurship band wagon. This will not just give birth to scalable and game changing start-ups but also to self sustainable new businesses which will solve hyper local issues. Young minds today are very creative and innovative. COVID-19 is a push for the guys who are sitting on the fence. Local problem, local solution and product oriented start-ups wave will be seen like never before. These young minds will take the baton in their own hands to create these opportunities to disrupt Indian market.
In a similar fashion certain sharing economy companies like UBER, OLA and co-working space will come under pressure. Personal Service at home by Urban Clap will come under a huge threat as hygiene and need to have complete understanding of service person will be a key challenge. Consumer won’t be looking at cheaper solutions but safe solutions instead. Similarly personal services space which had a very high fixed cost will be under pressure as they can’t service those many clients due to new norms. All this will lead to new business models around health and hygiene.
One of the massive changes which will happen is on food habits. Health will become the top priority. Your own immune system is the only thing which can fight COVID-19. This will wake-up those people who use to be eating without looking at health impact till now. So your fast food industry has to reinvent itself. 30% to 35% of the restaurants might never come back again. Health Food delivered at home with full assurance will be a key. Dine-in with social distancing and supporting cost structures will need to evolve new business models.
Agri start-ups which can find their product market fit will flourish in the changed scenarios. Here opportunities in developing world are just starting up. Agri has to be looked at not as one sector but aggregation of many.
People and consumer will drive for disruption:
All kind of people will get disrupted by this COVID-19 shake-up. Their way of life will change. Be it professional or personal life, it won’t be the same again. Belief and value system will go through a change. This belief and value system shake-up will disrupt not just individuals but also deeply impact business. Ultimately businesses will stay as long as they share common values, belief within the culture and society. Fulfilling a need in a way which creates satisfaction among communities and achieve common purpose will flourish. Business need to align their values to overall value system of the society. | https://medium.com/@rajiv.tevtiya/covid-19-disrupting-the-disruptor-101df32c6557 | ['Rajiv Tevtiya'] | 2020-04-23 10:59:06.560000+00:00 | ['Covid 19', 'Start Up', 'Opportunities In India', 'Change', 'Business'] |
Resilience- Inside and Out | “I pride myself as a risk taker and have always taken my own decisions. I think that way, only you are responsible for your life. As a kid in Standard V, when I got admission into a sports school, I took the tough decision of leaving home because I wanted to do something differently. In hindsight, that decision played a significant role in shaping up my personality. When I was there on my own, I understood that one has to put in that extra effort and get out of the comfort zone in order to be successful.
Over time I realized that we spend a big chunk of our lives studying the curriculums set by other people. I wanted to get out of that and think out of the box. A career in research was one option where I could set my own terms and have the freedom of choice and therefore higher education was an obvious path for me. I contemplated quite a lot about my future during Master’s and eventually started applying for PhD positions.
I was at home when I got the news of selection in IIT Mandi. I was ecstatic, but my mother was a bit concerned. After losing my father during my Bachelor’s, it was just me, my mother and my younger sister. It was difficult for her to let me go. Also, all my cousins were getting married and I wanted to study. But she always had faith in me and after convincing her that I was confident about my decision and could face the challenges out there, she came aboard.
Initially, life in Mandi was quite an adjustment for a person coming from the moderate climate of Kerala. And I couldn’t complain too much as it was solely my decision to pursue this. I was super ambitious in the beginning but as I started getting to know the system, the reality hit me. With the coursework and the comprehensive exam to be cleared, my supervisor and I were not able to find a common platform for my research. We were oscillating around a few topics when my supervisor left Mandi and joined IIT BHU. Finalizing my PhD topic thereby became more difficult. He did assign me a co-guide I was familiar with and around the same time, Kerala was going through the frightful floods of 2018. I intended to do a qualitative study that needed a good grasp of the local language. So, I immediately jumped to work on it to have the opportunity of interacting in my mother tongue for collecting data.
I am currently in my fifth year and have been working on Community Resilience with a focus on crowd behaviour in disasters. Being a sportsperson throughout, I strongly believe that it is as essential to look into mental health as physical health. I am interested to see the psychological resilience that people exhibit and the factors that contribute to it. I am studying how people live in disaster struck areas, their solidarity behaviours, cultural consequences and how they come back to their everyday lives. Through my research I explore the nature of collective psychosocial resilience of a community and the underlying microprocesses of it during and after a disaster.
In social sciences, there are two datasets — primary that comes from the real life experiences of people and secondary that comes from government documents. I obtain primary data through fieldwork by interviewing people and observing the surroundings and then analyse both datasets. I am often questioned on the significance of my discipline in a technological institute when presenting the analysis and it is a challenge to convince people about the way of doing research in social sciences. Having a supervisor far away is difficult, and such questions add to the pressure that often subjects me to an identity crisis at IIT.
Furthermore, there is a stereotypical perception of people working in the social sciences. The fact based approach in sciences and the interpretation approach in social sciences often tend to stand at crossroads. But I feel that any major scientific breakthrough or discovery is, in the end, being used for the people to better their lives. And when we study social sciences, we are trying to determine the efficacy of scientific discovery in benefitting society. As my sports coach used to tell me, ‘even if a one year old kid is trying to teach you something new, respect that knowledge.’ Both the fields complement each other and more collaboration between them might bridge this gap, which I think the government can catalyse by offering funding opportunities for such interdisciplinary projects.
As far as India is concerned, we have policies in place that are well equipped to deal with a disaster. But these policies often remain on paper. In Kerala, a state known for its high social quotients, the policies initially weren’t being implemented in the ground reality. We currently have a top to bottom disaster management approach where the officials decide what measures to be taken once the disaster strikes. What I have found through my research is that we need a bottom up approach. The local community is capable of overcoming a disaster. They only need some specialized support from the government. So as an academician, I think disaster management training can be made a part of the educational curriculum; particularly in disaster prone areas, people can go through specific mock drills to understand the reaction they need to have in relevant situations.
My sports background always motivates me to push my limits and never settle for less and I think that everybody should strive to push theirs. My husband and in-laws, throughout these years, along with my mother and sister, have supported my decisions and encouraged me to follow my heart.
After my PhD, I have a long term plan to start an NGO to implement my PhD research in the field. However, for the time being, I want to teach and pursue a postdoctoral degree. Through teaching, I think I can influence young minds. I feel that I have a responsibility towards those around me and that my education can be useful to them. Just imagine every one of them doing their job to the best of their ability, how beautiful the society would be!”
- Amrutha N V, PhD in Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi | https://medium.com/@phdsofindia/resilience-inside-and-out-f6658646bc91 | ['Phds Of India'] | 2020-12-26 18:22:40.256000+00:00 | ['Mandi', 'PhD', 'Resilience', 'Social Science', 'India'] |
What Are The Most Promising Coins in Late 2018? | Following NYU Professor David Yermack’s Criteria for Evaluating Cryptocurrencies
Nine years ago, the digital revolution started as a novelty and has grown to be the most discussed topic in the global fintech environment. Since then, the pace and growth of Bitcoin has accelerated to the point where it dominates the global business environment. Today, there are many coins available to be traded on several global exchanges. In reality, more coins are released and developed every day. It is hardly surprising that a lot of crypto traders are wondering which crypto coins are worth investing in. Today we will talk about some of them.
Research methodology
At the start of 2013, a paper was published on the most promising coins for crypto enthusiasts by David Yermack, a finance professor at New York University. The book detailed the three most important criteria for defining a promising coin. The coin must:
• be a unit of account,
• be a store of value,
• and function as a medium of exchange.
Despite the confusion, Bitcoin, created by Satoshi Nakamoto, remains the most dominant of all cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin encourages new waves of cryptocurrencies and serves as a trendsetter. Currencies that are created off the back of Bitcoin are collectively called altcoins and have presented themselves as improved and modified versions of the original cryptocurrency.
These altcoins have adapted their usability and potential to specific and unique use-cases. These emerging coins focus on decentralized and utility applications. Nonetheless, other promising currencies specifically focus on scalability, security, and privacy. These popular coins can be used only as an exchange medium in particular ecosystems on a small scale as they struggle to act as a unit of account or a store of value.
The volatility of cryptocurrencies is the primary reason for this. The possible fluctuation in the price on any day makes the coin unsuitable to meet two criteria. To address these challenges, specific subsets of cryptocurrency surface, and it is these that are the coins most worthy of investing in. Unlike the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, which is typified by high volatility, these promising coins offer crypto enthusiasts an alternative with the added bonus of more consistent pricing levels as they are applicable in the real world.
In this article, we talk about some of the most promising coins available in late 2018. We believe that these coins meet not only the three common criteria of promising coins but also the demands of most crypto traders. First and foremost, the coins want to model the relative instability of fiat currencies, but after that still maintain the primary features of cryptocurrencies such as security and decentralization. While this list is the result of our research and the inputs of some crypto evangelists, it is in no way authoritative as it reviews most of the current influential journals, papers, and articles that have received recognition within the crypto community.
The bases of our research include:
• the stability of the exchange rate
• the growth of each currency and its perspectives
• high liquidity
• the reputation of developers
Which cryptocurrencies, therefore, are the most promising?
1) Litecoin (LTC)
Commonly known as “silver coins”, based on the analogy of the “golden” Bitcoin (as it was known when launched in 2011), Litecoin was part of the early cryptocurrency wave which followed the protocol of Bitcoin. It was developed by a former Google engineer and MIT graduate, Charlie Lee. The coin is built on a global, open-source payment network that adopts script as the proof of work and is not controlled by any central authority. It can only be decoded using the CPUs of consumer grades and is typified by a faster rate of block generation.
Although in many ways it operates similarly to Bitcoin, many people still believe that Litecoin offers a faster confirmation of transaction than Bitcoin. With a unique set of mining algorithms and a huge amount of tokens, Litecoin has proven its longevity and worth. It is generally believed to be one of the most stable-priced cryptocurrencies on the market, and the majority of crypto enthusiasts believe that it will one day overtake Bitcoin as the crypto king. Apart from the multitude of developers, there is a pool of merchants who accept Litecoin as a medium of exchange. The coin had a market cap of about $3.2 billion as of September 2018 and closed at $55.9.
2) Ethereum (ETH)
Ethereum, launched in 2015, is a decentralized and secure software platform that allows Distributed Applications (DApps) and smart contracts to be run and built without any fraud, interference, control or downtime from any third party. Ethereum, in 2014, launched a pre-sale for Ether, which later received an overwhelming response and rate of adoption. Ether allows applications to be run on the Ethereum platform’s specific cryptographic token. In essence, Ether is similar to a bus for navigating around the Ethereum platform and is preferred by many developers who seek to run and develop their applications within that platform. This can be used to decentralize, trade, and codify just about anything according to Ethereum.
After the attack on the DAO last two years, there was a split into two major components of Ethereum Classic (ETC) and Ethereum (ETH). The second after Bitcoin in the crypto market, Ethereum boasts a huge market capitalization of more than $22.4 billion. It closed at $219.8 (missing? per share?) as of September 2018. More corporate giants and companies are actively involved with Ethereum than any other cryptocurrency. They include JP Morgan, Consensys, Toyota, Scotiabank, BP, Mastercard, Microsoft and National Bank of Canada.
3) Zcash (ZEC)
A very promising cryptocurrency, Zcash was launched in 2016. It is an open-source and decentralized coin and is often accredited with the saying “If Bitcoin is like http for money, Zcash is https’. The coin provides selective transparency of transactions and privacy to its holders. Hence, similar to the web of https, it claims to offer privacy and security to all possible online locations where transactions are recorded, stored and published on the blockchain. It does however, keep sensitive info such as the transaction amount, recipient, and sender private. There is also a choice of shielded transactions on Zcash which enable all contents to be encrypted with the use of zero-knowledge proof of construction known as zK-SNARK or advanced an cryptographic technique created by its team. There is a reported market cap of about $562.7 million as at the time of writing this article, which closed at $116.83.
4) Dash (DASH)
Known initially as Darkcoin, DASH is a more secretive and decentralized version of Bitcoin. It provides more anonymity and privacy as it operates on a decentralized network of master nodes that makes the traceability of transactions difficult. DASH, launched in January 2014, enjoyed growth in its fanbase in a short span of time. It was purposefully developed and created by Evan Duffield and can be successfully mined using a GPU or CPU.
Darkcoin became DASH in March 2015- and adopted DASH as the ticker which stands for Digital cash. The rebranding in 2015 didn’t alter any of the coin’s unique features such as InstantX and Darksend. The coin closed at $196.81 on July 31, 2018, and has a market cap of $1.6 billion as of September 2018.
5) Ripple (XRP)
Ripple was launched in 2012 and is a real-time global settlement network that provides low-cost, certain, and instant international payments. This network allows banks and other financial institutions to settle all cross-border payments in real-time, at lower risks, with end-to-end transparency. Ripple’s method of confirmation — its consensus ledger — does not require mining; this is a unique feature that deviates from altcoins and Bitcoin. This means that it minimizes the use of computing power since it doesn’t need any mining and this reduces network latency.
The coin is built on the foundation that the value of the distribution is an important channel to incentivize particular behavior. It plans to distribute XRP via the various business development deals, selling XRP to institutional buyers that are interested in the coin, and incentives to liquidity providers who provide spread for its payments. Ripple, as of September 2018, has a market cap of $11.194 billion and closed at $0.28.
6) Monero (XMR)
Monero is an untraceable, private and secure cryptocurrency. As an open-source, decentralized coin, it was launched in 2014 and spiked huge interest within the crypto community and among crypto enthusiasts. The creation of Monero was community-driven and it is donation-based. It was created with a keen interest in scalability and decentralization. It allows complete privacy through the use of a unique technique called ‘ring signatures’. Through this special technique, there are a certain set of cryptographic signatures involving a minimum of real participants — but the real one can’t be isolated since they all appear valid. Closing at $128.12 as of July 2018, Monero has a market cap of approximately $2.084
7) CIX100
CIX100 is a market coin that represents an index of the top 100 performing cryptocurrencies, referred to as the Cryptoindex 100. It is a digital expression of the top 100 coins, that rebalances itself continuously as the cryptocurrency market ebbs and flows based on its own AI-powered algorithm called Zorax.
Over 1,800 coins are put through the fixed set of filters based on more than 200 factors, which provides around 500 coins as a rough output. Data is collected from cryptocurrency exchanges, news sites, social media platforms such as Twitter, GitHub, and other sources. Then, the factors are fed into the neural network, creating a final rating of coins, with the top 100 coins making up the Cryptoindex 100. | https://medium.com/hackernoon/what-are-the-most-promising-coins-in-late-2018-85bb2b0b028e | ['Danny Wesley'] | 2018-10-09 10:56:01.868000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin', 'Altcoin', 'Ripple', 'Litecoin', 'Cix100'] |
How To Get Followers On Medium | #1. PUBLISH MORE STORIES
This is one of the best method for beginners to get followers on medium. Medium is the best Platform to share your opinions, experience and other stuff related to your life, achievement, ideas etc . If You Publish Story on medium in certain topic then medium algorithm will distribute your story to peoples who are interested in that topic.
When I Started Publishing Story on the medium then I realised that publishing more stories give better results but the quality also matter because Quality always beat quantity. But If you publish more quality stories regularly and consistently then your chances of getting followers on medium increases.
But, this method will only work if you publish Quality Content Consistently. Your success on medium depends on medium success as company. If You Publish Quality Stories on medium in certain topic then medium can also curate your story which will be positive sign for you. Medium wants Quality Content to show other people if you post quality and good content then medium will definitely promote your story to other people.
But, the disadvantage of this method is that, you not have an existing audience as you are begineer. You not have an followers to read your stories so that First Of All, You need to build your audience base as well as your skills of writing.
If You want to increase your follower then Publish your stories in publication and try to publish excellent stories so that medium will curate those stories and will play major role in your success as a writer on medium.
We will discuss about Publication and curation on medium beacause after you publish your story then curation play an very important role.
#2. PUBLISH YOUR STORY IN POPULAR PUBLICATION
If You want to increase your followers on medium then publication plays a very very important role. Publications are the Golden key if you want to increase your followers on medium but it is not that easy because it is very hard to get into good and popular publication in the beginning.
If you wrote an excellent story and follow the rules of Publication then your chances of getting into that publication increased. But, If you are really new in this field then focus on the smaller publication which accepts every type of Story.
You Should try to get into Medium Owned Publication but it is not really easy because medium owned publications have very very strict rules and it is really very hard to get into that but it is not impossible.
If you are a beginner in this field then you should try the publication like ILLUMINATION or Smaller Publication which accept all type of stories.
Publications already have an existing audience that you don't have that's why publication plays an important role if you want grow on medium. As I said earlier, it is not easy to get into popular publication but if you follow guidelines, rules and regulations then your chances of getting published in that publication increased.
The Publication followers will read your story and if they like your content then they will follow You as well as it will help you to grow your earnings. So, As a beginner writer,you should try to get into some smaller publication or publication like Illumination to grow your Followers Exponentially. | https://medium.com/feedium/how-to-get-followers-on-medium-2292bd08aae7 | ['Sarthak Nimje'] | 2020-07-29 12:52:34.178000+00:00 | ['Medium Followers', 'Médium', 'Medium Publications', 'Ｍedium', 'Medium Partner Program'] |
When the Doors to the House are Locked | When the Doors to the House are Locked
Accepting Christ’s Peace when We are Afraid
Photo by Denny Müller on Unsplash
and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear…Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.” John 20:19–21(NRSV)
Quarantine, social distancing, and spending so much time at home were not listed on the church calendar this year. That our social, emotional, financial, and faithful elements of living would change so drastically were not predicted. There is some solace in knowing the church has dealt with deadly disease in its past, but we didn’t expect it to find us now.
There are resources in our time as we love our neighbors by staying apart — technology, digital bulletins, virtual hangouts, and online chats as we watch a service from home or gather in community groups. Many of us may have the gift and curse of living with our families, biological and created. Others may be alone in close quarters, controlling what we can in our surroundings, but knowing the outside is different, more measured and reserved as we keep our distance.
This includes our churches too. The Christian tradition is embodied in the act of showing up, being present, and asking what the Lord will do. What if God shows up for you as Christ does in the short passage above?
Disciples, alone and afraid, locked away, suffering from a shared fear after the crucifixion of Jesus. They wonder if they will be harmed as well.
Christ comes to them, resurrected, showing the wounds on his new body. A testament to suffering and love for those gathered there. The door is locked, but Christ is present.
Gather with your churches in ways that love your neighbor well. Many services come through the same device you are reading this article on now. If your faith is still floundering in this new posture, that’s okay. Acknowledge that. Grief is also an offering. Don’t ask yourself what’s enough if it’s all you can offer. God will find you. Follow Christ’s model as he greets the disciples in their fear and loneliness, to yourself and others — offer peace. | https://medium.com/new-body/when-the-doors-to-the-house-are-locked-640f9af5a3eb | ['Presley Thomas'] | 2020-04-19 13:14:32.509000+00:00 | ['Essay', 'Quarantine', 'Religion', 'Christianity', 'Coronavirus'] |
Retrieving Full Historical Data for Every Cryptocurrency on Binance & Bitmex Using the Python APIs | Why Binance and BitMex?
If you’ve had any experience with the cryptocurrency market you know that the answer to this question is obvious:
Binance is the largest exchange on the market and Bitmex is the largest ‘indirect’ volume mover.
The reason I emphasise ‘indirect’ is because BitMex isn’t actually trading crypto, but rather extreme leverage / margin contracts, effectively making it a huge market mover.
As we know, large volume equals big data and big data (usually) equals better modeling and predictions, especially for machine learning models.
Binance sign-up
BitMex sign-up
Please note that you DON’T have to buy any Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency whatsoever to perform the steps in this article. The reason we need to sign up is that once signed up you’ll have access to their API’s, which is what we’re gonna be using for getting the actual data.
You can chose either or both, the functions I’ll introduce below are flexible to both exchanges. | https://medium.com/swlh/retrieving-full-historical-data-for-every-cryptocurrency-on-binance-bitmex-using-the-python-apis-27b47fd8137f | ['Peter Nistrup'] | 2020-08-19 08:42:26.991000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Programming', 'Data Science', 'Finance', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
Genetic Algorithms for Natural Language Processing | Genetic Algorithms for Natural Language Processing
Figure 1: genetic algorithm training a red square to avoid blue rectangles. Image by author.
“Data preparation accounts for about 80% of the work of data scientists.“ — Forbes
NLP modeling projects are no different — often the most time-consuming step is wrangling data and then developing features from the cleaned data. There are many tools that facilitate this process, but it’s still laborious.
To aid in the feature engineering step, researchers at the University of Central Florida published a 2021 paper that leverages genetic algorithms to remove unimportant tokenized text. Genetic algorithms (GA’s) are evolution-inspired optimizations that perform well on complex data, so they naturally lend well to NLP data. They’re also easily parallelized and straightforward to implement.
Let’s start with a technical overview then do a deep dive to really understand what’s going on…
Technical TLDR
Tokenize your data and build a vocabulary. The paper cited uses the python package mosestokenizer to split sentences into grams, which are individual symbols or words. Assign random weights (between 0 and 1) to each gram. Each gram represents an individual in our population. Tune the model’s hyperparameters and run. Tuning GA’s is more of an art than a science, so just play around with numbers that make sense. Determine accuracy using the ROUGE-N model. The paper cited uses the F1 score from ROUGE-N, which is the mean of precision and recall, but you can use other objective functions. Tokenize new data and start developing your NLP model. Now that your GA is trained, you can tokenize an unseen training set and developing your NLP model.
Cool, but how does this actually work?
Let’s slow down a bit and develop some intuition around genetic algorithms.
What are genetic algorithms?
First, let’s discuss how GA’s work.
Figure 2: flow chart of a genetic algorithm generation. Image by author.
In figure 2, we can see the flow of a genetic algorithm — it’s not as complex as it looks. We initialize our population (yellow box) to be a weighted vector of grams, where each gram’s value is a word or symbol. The weights are initialized randomly to a value between 0 and 1.
Next, we feed our initial population into the algorithm. Values in dark blue correspond to a single generation in our algorithm. Crossover and Mutation in light blue are types of variations. Let’s take a look at each one in turn:
Fitness Function: first, we defined our fitness function, which calculates the probability that an individual will reproduce. In our case, we’ll be using the ROUGE-N’s F1 value. Higher scores mean an individual is more likely to reproduce. Parents Selection: next, we define who can and cannot breed. The example in the paper uses something called tournament selection, where we take random samples of individuals and select a winner. The winners get to breed. Mating Pool: in this step, we aggregate the winning parents into random pairs. Variations: next, we randomly vary our data in a predefined manner to hopefully create a more fit population. The first method, called crossover, involves two parents exchanging some percentage of their weights and returning those two new weight vectors as children. Often, this percentage is determined by a randomly selected crossover index; all values past this index are exchanged. The second, called mutation, involves randomly varying the weights in each parent with low probability. Offspring: from here, we can aggregate the parents and offspring. If there is a population cap, we remove the least fit individuals until we are under that cap.
With one generation complete, we evaluate the fitness of our population. If our stopping criteria is met, we return the population of weights and average them to get a single value for each gram. If our stopping criteria is not met, our population is deemed unfit and we feed the individuals into another generation.
Ethics aside, genetic algorithms are pretty cool right?
If you’re still not convinced, here’s a GA that tries to guess a sentence’s contents through trial and error…
Figure 3: genetic algorithm trying to guess a sentence’s value. Image by author.
If we had used the brute force method, we would’ve needed to try n^k combinations, where n is the total number of characters in our string and k is the total number of letters in our alphabet. This example would take upwards of 27⁵³ possible combinations (lower/uppercase characters and a space).
The genetic algorithm guessed our string in 51 generations with a population size of 30, meaning it tested less than 1,530 combinations to arrive at the correct result. And, it also tried symbols.
But, why are they effective?
Genetic algorithms perform well on complex data. The traditional gradient-based optimizations, which use a model’s derivatives to determine what direction to search, require that our model has derivatives in the first place. So, if the model isn’t differentiable, we unfortunately can’t use gradient-based optimizations. Furthermore, if the gradient is very “bumpy”, basic gradient optimizations, such as stochastic gradient descent, may not find the global optimum.
GA’s on the other hand don’t require a differentiable model. Their random nature also helps them avoid getting stuck in local optimums, which lends well to “bumpy” and complex gradients such as gram weights. They’re also easily parallelized and tend to work well out-of-the-box with some minor tweaks.
The main downside of GA’s is that they don’t guarantee an optimal solution, whether it be local or global. For cases where optimality is required, this can be a deal-breaker.
A Visual Example
In our final section, let’s take a look at a genetic algorithm that trains “ships” to avoid obstacles and find a red square.
Figure 4: visualization of a genetic algorithm that trains ships to avoid obstacles and find a red square. Image by author.
If we take a look at figure 4 above, we’ll quickly notice that from generation 3 to 5, the ships improve at avoiding the green rectangle. That’s because if their “genetics” make them more likely to die, they do not reproduce.
However, in this configuration, the ships have no concept of sight; they just randomly move in a direction and remember what worked in the past. Because the feature space is so poor, this configuration took another 8 generations for ships to accidentally land on the red square. And if we gave them a completely new map, it would take another full training cycle.
To improve the ships’ ability to both optimize quickly and generalize to new problems, we’d need a better feature space and more environments to learn from.
Likewise with NLP, often simple tokenization does not create a sufficiently robust model, no matter how well the GA performs. More complex features, such as gram counts, prior/subsequent grams, etc. are necessary to develop effective models.
Genetic algorithms offer an effective and efficient method to develop a vocabulary of tokenized grams. No more. No less.
Implementation Notes | https://towardsdatascience.com/genetic-algorithms-for-natural-language-processing-b055aa7c14e9 | ['Michael Berk'] | 2021-06-29 15:57:29.681000+00:00 | ['Feature Engineering', 'Machine Learning', 'Genetic Algorithm', 'Tokenization', 'NLP'] |
I Wasn’t Sleeping Through the Night. Here’s What I Did to Fix It. | Something happened when I became pregnant with my daughter. I started waking up in the middle of the night. For a long time, this didn’t bother me at all. I’d wake up, do some reading, and go back to sleep.
As my daughter grew older, however, waking up in the middle of the night became problematic. It’s not too unusual to carry odd hours with an infant. It’s another story when you’re trying to balance work and a school-aged child.
For the past couple of years, I’ve tried to curb my split-sleep habit. Occasionally, I’d still wake up in the middle of the night and wind up getting some writing done. But I still spent most nights with the intention of sleeping through it without any interruption. For the most part, it worked.
Things shifted again in 2019. It seemed like no matter how hard I tried, or how desperate I was for a good night’s sleep, I kept waking up at random times like 2AM or 4AM — and then I couldn’t get back to sleep.
After several months of that, I felt exhausted. I knew that something needed to change, but I was having a hard time making anything positive happen. The coronavirus pandemic certainly didn’t help me out, either.
Basically, I was sleeping “well” for about 2 to 4 hours each night, waking up tired yet unable to fall back asleep, and then I was drowsy all day. The lack of sleep left me feeling grumpy and foggy.
Over the course of a year, I tried sleeping pills, gummy vitamins, and all sorts of supplements, but nothing seemed to help. My friends swore by things like CBD, melatonin, and lavender essential oil. And do you know what?
I was desperate enough to try them all, so, I did. But none of those suggestions actually worked for me. A lot of them made me feel even more exhausted.
After several months of experimenting with my daily routine, here are the steps that actually got me sleeping through the night with zero interruptions — save the occasional wakeup from my 6-year-old, of course. | https://medium.com/honestly-yours/i-wasnt-sleeping-through-the-night-here-s-what-i-did-to-fix-it-9c18b22d868d | ['Shannon Ashley'] | 2020-12-29 15:18:22.376000+00:00 | ['Lifestyle', 'Sleep', 'Self', 'Health', 'Life'] |
Developing a growth mindset | The Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said that the only constant is life is change which means that We all face changes every day — whether it is a simple change in the weather, our schedule or expected change of seasons.
Change affects us all and we each deal with change differently. This only constant in life, the only thing we can be sure will happen. we all have to adapt to the rapidly changing environment and that is why one has to be a life long learner and only a person having a growth mindset can achieve life long learning.
The key steps to develop a growth mindset are
self talk
It happens all the time in our life that we talk to ourselves through our thoughts and it matters how we initiate that conversation in our mind about ourselves. the talk that we have should always be motivating and inspiring instead of demotivating and upsetting. because we would never like someone to upset us by there reviews and talk then why should we?
2. Get out of your comfort zone
“Its only after you get out of your comfort zone that you begin to change, grow and transform” when we let ourselves go into challaneigng situation only then we can reach our maximum capability. if one really wants to be successful in life then he/she should never back away from risks and always try to do something out of there comfort zone.
3. Create new habits
if you want to have a growth mindset and start learning new things everyday. create new habits and follow them.
4. Ask people for help
Like many other organisms human is also a social animal and nothing is possible without the help of our friends and family. The social relationship with people is something that keeps us going in life. In the same way achieving a growth mindset will not be possible without your peers constantly helping you and giving you feedback and suggestions to improve
5. Fake it till you make it
According to psychology “fake it will you make it” is an English aphorism that suggests that by imitating confidence, competence, and an optimistic mindset, a person can realize those qualities in their real life. This strategy doesn’t work all the time but it is still great approach while developing a positive mindset.
In conclusion following these tips can have a very constructive influence in your life and can help you lead a more balanced and focused life. | https://medium.com/@laiba.saadat207/developing-a-growth-mindset-d143f7b17f71 | ['Laiba Saadat'] | 2021-08-19 16:11:52.919000+00:00 | ['Amal Totkay', 'Growth Mindset'] |
In Conversation with Alexander Atkins of Master & Dynamic | From Product to Page: Infusing Brand DNA at Every Touchpoint
All great ideas start somewhere. For Master & Dynamic, it was a WWII-era set of aviation headphones that sparked their journey into audio gear. With a focus on quality, longevity, and clean, crisp design, the brand’s product ethos had to seamlessly translate into engaging cross-channel content — and that’s where social media manager Alexander Atkins is leading the charge. How does he do it? Details, design, and data.
Sleek flat lays and product close-ups are a great visual foundation but, for Atkins, it’s the character of his audience that inspires creative direction. Who is the Master & Dynamic customer, what do they care about, and where do they take their headphones? The brand’s #EscapeToExplore hashtag, fueled by an obsession with travel, helped populate its feed with beautiful destinations that reinforce a core message: your headphones are a part of your journey.
Of course, experimenting is always a risk in the business world. So, when it’s time to project the brand story forward on social and make decisions about what comes next, Atkins turns to data. Dash Hudson provides the powerful insight he needs into how Master & Dynamic’s target audiences interact with content, from posts to Stories to UGC — and at a granular level he can customize.
Watch the full interview here and follow @masterdynamic for all things premium audio gear. | https://medium.com/@dashhudson/in-conversation-with-alexander-atkins-of-master-dynamic-789692f8c2d6 | ['Dash Hudson'] | 2020-05-29 18:44:24.035000+00:00 | ['Instagram', 'Electronics', 'Consumer Electronics', 'Marketing', 'Marketing Strategies'] |
Design Your Perfect UX Internship | How can a junior designer with limited work experience have the UX internship of their dreams? That was the biggest question on my mind before I started as a design intern at Workday. I figured out the answer over the course of the summer: Design your perfect UX internship using as many tools as you can put your hands on.
Approaching the Unknown
When I accepted my internship offer, I knew that I’d be coming in as a designer with very little hands-on experience in the industry.
In fact, I had more background in user research than I did in design. Up until that point, I’d only worked at startups where I was the only designer, cultivating unhealthy work habits in an environment where I had no creative mentor.
Most of all, I realized I had no idea what to expect out of my design internship.
As I sped on the highway from my university to Workday, I had to ask myself, “What did I want out of these next three months?”
Why Design Internships are Important
To start things off, I needed to understand my motivation for pursuing a design internship. To do this, I revisited the insights I had heard months earlier when talking with real designers in the community about building their careers.
Working as an intern is the best way to gain hands-on experience and prepare yourself up for a full time job. UX Internships provide you with the structure and foundation you need for your future career, by giving you opportunities for mentorship, networking, and resume-building.
In fact, companies also use internships as a test drive for future hires in their pipeline. While an interview can add to what an employer knows about a person, an internship will also help that employer evaluate how they would fare in the actual workplace.
Internships are also an opportunity to learn more about yourself. In fact, an internship should be a test run for you, just as much as it is for the company. It’s an opportunity for you, as a junior designer, to decide whether this is what you want to pursue for the rest of your life. It’s the chance to learn about potential strengths and weaknesses in the workplace that can either propel you into rapid growth, or impede it.
There are many different types of internships, but in a product design internship, you are a technologist. A scientist. An artist. A creator.
And only you have the power to make the most out of your experience.
In fact, by harnessing the creative tools and frameworks you might normally use, you can craft your best UX internship and control exactly what you get out of it.
The Double-Diamond Approach
Everyone’s experience as a designer is different. In your design education, are there tools you’ve used that you might see yourself using in your internship?
In my design classes at UC San Diego, I utilized a wide variety of tools in user research, information architecture, and interaction design to complete my assignments. A lot of these same methodologies, specifically interviewing, user testing, and wireframing, were extremely useful in how I tackled my projects during my internship at Workday.
One of the most important concepts I put into use was the Double Diamond Approach, where I used convergent and divergent thinking to tackle design challenges. I was excited to use this as a framework for designing my best UX internship experience, especially after finding out that Workday also uses the double diamond to guide its innovation process.
The Double Diamond is founded on the four phases of discovering, defining, developing, and delivering. This framework, developed by the British Design Council, allows designers to map where insights diverge and converge along the journey of the design process. It’s a flexible way of thinking that can be used in product design, service design, or in this case — to design your own career!
In fact, this is one of several tools that can be used throughout each of the four phases to help you to design your perfect UX internship. In this article, I’ll explore when and why to use some of these:
In the discovery phase, you can use personality tests and rapid ideation to do research on yourself and identify objectives that are important to you before your internship. In the defining phase, you can narrow down on the goals that mean the most to you. In the development phase, you can find opportunities and take action during your internship to make your goals a reality. In the delivery phase, you can reflect back on work done over the past months and understand your next steps after the internship has ended.
Take Time to Get to Know Yourself
“What kind of personality do you have? How do you work with others?” Ask yourself these questions before you enter the workforce and before your start your internship.
In my case, I had no experience working in a big enterprise company; I mostly had a background in design classes where I was working solely with designers. As a result, I was nervous about working at a real company and building real products, where I would need the help of more than just my fellow design students. How was I going to communicate to developers the importance of specific features in my designs? How would I reach out for help from product managers who knew the enterprise domain better than I did? Maybe I needed to know myself better.
After researching different personality tests, exercises, and worksheets I used to hone in on my strengths and weaknesses, I discovered there were many different personality tests out there, such as Myers-Briggs, the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire, and the Big Five personality traits test.
One great way to get to know what kind of UX employee you’ll be is by taking the True Colors test (Image content via: Don Lowry, 1978)
Ultimately, I chose to take the True Colors test, an exercise that would help me understand how my strengths, personality, and characteristics build how I react to planned and unexpected situations.
In my case, as a person who was Blue, I realized I had a much more relationship-oriented work style. Described as enthusiastic and idealistic, I have a strong desire to motivate, interact with, and influence others. Though I had experience working with other people in school projects, this test helped me come to the realization that I was an emotionally driven individual who valued collaboration and creativity.
In fact, it’s important for any budding designer embarking on an internship to take one of these personality tests. Collaborating with people is essential for success at any workplace, especially at Workday, where we value close relationships between our product managers, designers, and software engineers.
While we design and advocate for the user experience, the developers build the technical foundation for our creations and the product managers keep us all consistently aligned with our company’s business goals. At the same time, we have diverse backgrounds and working styles. Getting to know ourselves better is the first step in helping us understand how others are different, how we can collaborate together with these differences in mind, and how we can leverage our complementary strengths for seamless teamwork.
Let Your Strengths Define Your Goals
By letting your strengths define your goals, you can use what you already do well to empower yourself, and continue working toward how you see yourself in the future.
Who is it that you want to be in 3 years? In 5 years? And what are some of the qualities you already have now that can push you towards realizing your aspirations?
Setting goals for myself before the internship helped me think strategically about how I wanted to design my perfect experience from the very beginning. That way, I could hit the ground running on my first day at the office, and be on the constant lookout for learning opportunities that would bring me closer to meeting my expectations.
Sticky notes are a tool you’ll use everywhere in design ideation — why not use it to design your internship, too?
I brainstormed possible goals in true designer fashion: with sticky notes.
In my own sticky notes, I put down goals, such as making new friends, honing my visual design chops, and delivering a ready-to-ship feature by the end of my internship.
Even though it can be hard for you to consider your own strong suits, an easy way to get yourself thinking is to lay it all out, rapidly and without pause. Using sticky notes can help you generate potential goals and ambitions without internal judgment, and your result is much more substantial.
As an incoming hire, some of the objectives you might prepare for yourself during the course of your internship can include learning a new tool, refining a skill you already know, or attending a special event or conference.
Stay Focused by Narrowing and Articulating Your Goals
Once you’ve identified all the possible goals you could achieve over your three months as an intern, you need to narrow. What is it that you really want to prioritize? Is there something high on your bucket list that you could probably finish within these three months?
The defining can feel like a bullseye: What is at the center of everything that is important in your UX internship?
Designers have multiple tools to narrow. These might include narrowing your sticky notes with a 2x2 matrix, asking a How Might We question, or defining key business goals or metrics for success.
I chose a bullseye exercise to prioritize, ranking my goals by importance. In fact, the sticky notes I placed in the middle were what I saw as the biggest opportunity for my own growth.
Although I wanted to use this internship to meet new people and improve my skills in visual design, I also knew I had to focus on one goal. Ultimately, I decided that I wanted to work toward shipping my designs by the end of the summer, making a lasting impact on the product even after I left the company.
However, it was really important to articulate my goal clearly, in order for me to reach success that would be meaningful and attainable. By digging deeper into my needs as a junior designer, I was able to use a Point of View statement to focus on my motivation for wanting to ship products, and the main challenges in doing so.
Point of View statements are a great way to focus on motivations and what fuels you.
I knew my biggest strength was my enthusiasm for solving problems through design. I valued turning design-thinking into design-doing, and because of my extensive background in human-computer interaction, I’ve always been interested in pushing for experiences that would create value in people’s lives.
As a result, when it came to defining my main goal for the summer, I came up with the following statement:
I need a way to effectively communicate my design decisions to stakeholders, because I want to make sure the designs I ship are impactful and purposeful.
Grab the Chance to Build Up Your Areas of Development
One of the best ways to explore potential learning opportunities during your internship is to revisit what you identified as your problem statement, and rapidly generate ways you could tackle any challenges that might block you from reaching your goal. As an intern, you’ll be able to find learning opportunities everywhere you go, even if they’re outside of work.
Up until my internship, I only had previous experience working with designers. I had grown comfortable with just listening as other people talked around me. I had trouble speaking up and voicing my opinions. I became complacent with letting things happen without fighting for the best user experience.
So, I met with my manager at the beginning of the summer to talk about what I wanted to work on. I treated this weakness as an area for potential improvement, and as a result, my manager mainly put me on projects where I was the only designer — projects where I had to push for the best user experience.
In fact, my biggest weakness became my greatest learning opportunity.
Although my weakness was properly justifying my design decisions to product managers and engineers, I knew that my main strengths were my enthusiasm for solving real-world problems and my willingness to collaborate with others. As a relationship-oriented individual, I knew that building rapport with stakeholders through design-thinking exercises and reviews would be one of the best ways I could get my point across.
To take advantage of spending my summer in a bustling tech hub, I took the effort to make as many connections as I could. In addition to working closely with my team on my intern projects, I bought tickets for events held by Designers + Geeks, attended tech talks given by Salesforce, and even played games with Facebook employees in Dolores Park. Developing a network and talking with other professionals enabled me to feel more confident about expressing myself and putting my ideas out there in my internship.
Reflect Proudly on the Work You Deliver
Revisit your strengths every time you feel far away from your goals, and you will continue to be motivated.
At the end of your internship, look back on the areas for improvement you identified earlier in the summer, and see how far you’ve come in the past three months.
Journey Maps are a great way to reflect on your UX internship to track the progress you’ve accomplished.
In fact, a great way to reflect on your experiences is to chart your own journey map. Doing this will allow you to reflect on your three months from the perspective of things that went well, and things that went not-so-well.
At the end of your internship, it’s important to recognize your achievements.
For me, my weaknesses were being able to defend my own design decisions to stakeholders who were busy looking out for other aspects of the product development process, like technical constraints and a customer’s immediate needs.
At the beginning of my journey as an intern, I could see more pain points centered around establishing myself as a designer on my projects. However, as time went on, these lows became less and less prevalent, and there were more highs when I met with success and overcame obstacles.
At the end of the summer, I had a share-out to the whole UX team with the other interns, and it was an amazing experience. By looking back on a summer’s worth of happy and sad moments, I could not only acknowledge my strengths and accomplishments in the workplace, but also identify opportunities that needed future improvement. The previous three months became an experience that helped me form goals and learning opportunities for my next role as a designer.
But All Good Things Come to an End…Or Do They?
Three months will pass, and hopefully you’ll have fulfilled many, if not all, of the expectations you set for yourself. But what comes after the internship?
A lot of great projects came out of my time as an intern, but my best project was the experience itself — the 3 months I spent learning how design works in the real world.
By tuning into my existing strengths, I used my knack for solving problems through design to understand where my confidence lacked. By tackling my weaknesses head-on, I spent my summer working directly with engineers and product managers, acting as the main advocate for meaningful user experiences in all my projects.
Having made a great impression on my manager with my goals and growth, I was able to come back to Workday the summer after my internship. It’s been over a year since I started working full-time as a member of the Generation Workday program, and I can confidently say that my designs for the perfect internship were a smashing success. | https://medium.com/workday-design/design-your-perfect-ux-internship-b0c21c47c50d | ['Workday Design'] | 2020-10-12 22:16:33.056000+00:00 | ['Ux Internship Advice', 'Design Internship', 'Ux Intern', 'Design', 'Career Advice'] |
Meet The Illegal Couchsurfing Hosts Of Myanmar | One night, many months ago now, I was sitting on a bench outside a hostel in Battambang, Cambodia, talking with a young European couple.
Like me, they were traveling, but they had made a rule for themselves: No paying for transportation or a bed. They would hitchhike and crash with strangers everywhere they went. They cut corners whenever they could. Earlier that day, they’d gone to a nearby temple attraction and claimed to have entered without paying the $1 fee, by just asking.
You wouldn’t believe how much money you save, they said, as they waited for that night’s host to return from a friend’s house with some couch cushions they planned to lay across the floor and use as a bed. It’s great.
I found this way of life inspiring and infuriating. I admired their courage and ingenuity; I hated how they refused to contribute meaningfully — in my mind, anyway — to the places in which they traveled. Cambodia was not richer, financially anyway, from the presence of these dirty hippies. The least they could do is pay a buck to see the weathered Buddha statues like everyone else.
I was ready to move along and drink my watery Angkor beer elsewhere, when they mentioned Couchsurfing in Myanmar. That was the toughest country to do it in, they said, because it’s illegal there.
It had been years since I’d couchsurfed — I’d practically forgotten about the practice, having gotten older, coupled with the rise of Airbnb — but I’ll admit I was intrigued by this idea. Illegal to couchsurf? Why? Of all the things to get mad about, letting travelers sleep in people’s houses seemed like the least of a country’s problems.
Then again, maybe it wasn’t the law itself that intrigued me. Myanmar was a country still grappling with the concept of democracy. It had only recently opened its doors to the outside world and transitioned from military rule, and there were still, if you were being diplomatic, issues — jailed journalists and community-sponsored (if not outright state-sponsored) ethnic cleansing of Muslims along its borders being the most prevalent at the time. Of course it has outdated or perplexing laws.
As Anthony Bourdain said when he visited Myanmar: “Everyone I’ve met in this country so far has been to prison.”
So: Who are the hosts? Who are the Myanmar nationals, the resident aliens, the people of this strange, still developing land, who are willing to so publicly — in a digital sense — break the law in a country that just a few years ago was ruled with an iron fist, and in many ways still is?
(Thousands of Airbnb listings exist in Myanmar as well, but I was less interested in meeting the people who want to break the law for money — that, of course, is a time-honored tradition — than those who want to break the law for no tangible gain.)
I had plans to visit Myanmar in a couple of months, and I decided then that I would do what these European moochers had done, only if for a night. I’d use Couchsurfing.com, find some friendly local hosts, and ask them what the hell they were doing.
***
Fast forward a couple of months later, to my plane landing on a cloudy Yangon night. Wracked with the typical nervous energy that comes with entering a new country for the first time, I was doubly nervous, since my plans upon clearing customs were to immediately commit a crime.
Couchsurfing has an official website, where users set up profile pages akin to other social media sites, and can use their pages to offer either a couch (or bed, or space on the floor) or to look for one, all around the world. I had found a “couch” in Yangon just a few days before my flight from Bangkok, after weeks of sending messages to ostensible hosts.
If Couchsurfing is to be believed, there are over 50,000 people all over Myanmar, in Yangon and Mandalay, in border towns and former resort outposts, willing to illegally let you sleep in their home.
This number is a little misleading. There aren’t 50,000+ hosts in Myanmar. When you do a nationwide search, the site draws in hosts from neighboring Thailand and India, inflating the count.
And of those who actually live in Myanmar, only a fraction have a demonstrated history of hosting. Many accounts feature no reviews, no references, not even a bio. They are ghosts.
Zack, however, answered my request promptly and invited me to his apartment just north of downtown Yangon. My mind played a scene over and over as my taxi rumbled through the dark streets towards the address he sent me: I enter his home, and Zack is actually an agent of the Myanmar secret police. I’m beaten, cuffed, thrown in prison. I’m held on trial for breaking the sacred law of no couchsurfing. I appear on TV and beg Donald Trump to intervene and save my life.
Anyway. He’d told me the gate would be open, but it wasn’t.
It was locked, and there was no bell or buzzer in sight. There wasn’t even a door to knock — the gate stretched between an opening in the concrete, in front of a set of stairs leading into shadow.
I turned around, my bulging green backpack hanging from my shoulders. I surveyed the street, which was dark but lively. The sidewalks were lined with street food vendors, men in colorful ankle-length longyis sipping tea, children running between the plastic tables and off into the night. I saw a few pairs of eyes on me, but no one seemed overly concerned with my presence — curious, if anything.
But for once, I wasn’t glad to be surrounded by friendly, if inquisitive, faces. I wanted this street to be abandoned. I didn’t want anyone to know I was here.
I strode quickly to the corner, my glasses fogging with sweat, and found what would turn out to be one of the very few working WiFi hotspots in Yangon, Myanmar. I shot him a message.
“Hold on I’m coming,” he wrote back quickly.
He was there when I returned to the gate. We slipped up the six flights of stairs together and out of sight from the street, and just like that we were breaking the law.
***
Zack was in his early 20s. He moved with the easy manner of a varsity athlete but spoke with the gentle nature of a grandmother. His basketball shorts put him apart from his peers, some of whom wore longyi. His neatly parted hair fell over his forehead, neatly curtaining big, dark eyes.
His place was spartan: A pile of clothes dominated one corner of the main room, while a mattress on the floor took up another. The only other furniture was a tiny desk where Zack kept his computer. The walls alternated between faux-wood panels and faded gray-yellow concrete. The floors were hardwood and off-white tile. There was a bare kitchen and bathroom (split into two separate rooms, one for the toilet, the other the shower) down the hall. Zack demonstrated the shower — getting on his knees and miming pouring the bucket of water over his head.
Through the door to the fire escape off the kitchen, I could see the tiny balconies and cramped windows of the neighbors; I glimpsed their hands as they cooked dinners in orange-lit kitchens, squares embedded in the dark. This door stayed open all night, and instead we locked the door to the main room when we went to bed.
Zack gave me a thin purple yoga mat and some sheets, and after rolling those out across the room from his mattress, I was done setting up my bed.
We sat on the floor and had dinner over newspaper place mats — rice, eggs, beef stew. He seemed embarrassed to serve it.
“You must find my way of life difficult,” he said as we dug in.
Seeing as how I had no idea where he stacked up to the “typical” way of living in Yangon — did his apartment lack furniture because he was a poor college student, or because he was poor, or because he lived in Myanmar? — I felt uncomfortable even addressing this statement. But I said what I knew was the stock answer in any couchsurfing situation.
“I’m really appreciative that you opened your home to me. I want to live how you live. Anything you do is fine with me,” I said.
His face softened. I took the opportunity to ask why he hosted strangers from the internet.
“Because I love meeting people and to hear different stories,” he told me. Right. Of course. Join the club. But he continued.
“In Kachin, we have this culture that we offer the beds and what you have to the guests. It also comes from Christianity, that serving people is the same as serving to Jesus.”
Photo by Eric Goldschein
Ah, I thought. Religious guy. I hope this doesn’t get awkward.
Most people — mainly I, me, the writer of these words, but maybe you, too? — make the mistake of assuming that in a country formerly called Burma, the people are Burmese. But Burmese is just one of 135 officially recognized ethnic groups in the country, though it’s by far the largest. The Kachin people — of which Zack is one — are one of seven major groups, the country’s largest. The Rohingya, perhaps the best-known minority group in the country due to the fact that they are the victims of what many call ethnic cleansing along the country’s border with Bangladesh, is not one of those recognized groups. In Myanmar, they are not people.
The Kachin, however, are also engaged in conflict with the central, mostly Burmese (and mostly Buddhist) government. Though Zack’s family still lives in Kachin State, Zack told me that his family would sometimes have to run across the border to China to escape persecution and death. He said so matter-of-factly, as if reading this horror from a newspaper.
Meanwhile, he was making a life for himself here in Yangon. He took business classes online, taught yoga, and went to church on Sundays. And he was beginning to host visitors — I was just his third guest.
I believed at this point that I’d found my thesis. Here was a persecuted ethnic and religious minority, thumbing his nose at the system by breaking the government’s archaic laws. His own quiet revolution, by means of letting foreigners sleep on his floor.
But when I asked him if the fact that he was breaking the law bothered him, he shrugged.
“In Myanmar we have the laws that are written on papers, but not enforced or practiced by people. We know what is flexible or not flexible,” he said as we moved to the other side of the room — me on my yoga mat, him on the apartment’s only chair. “If we don’t do crazy shit, the neighbor won’t complain. If you play loud music, or inappropriate things, the neighbor will complain to the mayor and then you might get in trouble, or a warning. But as long as you behave, it doesn’t bother anybody.”
This sounded less like a revolutionary statement and more like how everyone in New York felt about weed.
The next day Zack with me toured around Yangon, taking me to eat mohinga, a common fish stew breakfast, and pickled tea leaf salad, an introduction to Myanmar cuisine that illuminated the country’s mishmash of cultures and flavors. We visited the Shwedagon Pagoda in the middle of the city — an enormous golden shrine to seven of Buddha’s hairs. We passed endless street food stalls, sidewalks packed with people streaming in all directions. Yangon is a city where everything is rushed but no one seems to be in a hurry.
Photo by Eric Goldschein
Doing things with your couchsurfing host can feel awkward — you feel like you’re taking them away from their “real life,” and you can’t ditch them if you don’t jive because all of your stuff is at their house. But Zack seemed glad for the company. Talk of meeting up with his friends to drink beer surfaced, but they never materialized. I realized that maybe Zack really was just hosting me to meet a new person and hear their stories. So I did my best to regale him with mine.
That night, when I asked Zack whether he thought the government would eventually lift the ban on couchsurfing, I felt a little bit of his resentment for the central powers bubble to the surface.
“The thing is, our government, they don’t know how the world is spinning,” he said. “They just want to get money. They want tourists to stay in hotels because most of the hotels are empty and expensive.”
I had a hard time imagining what a Myanmar hotel would look like. I’d taken a cold bucket shower on my knees two nights in a row. I settled onto my yoga mat and fell asleep to the sound of dogs barking.
In the morning, Zack dressed formally in a button-down shirt and checkered longyi. It was Sunday, and he was headed to church. Though a small part of me was interested in seeing what services might look like in Yangon, a bigger part of me was pulled in the opposite direction, towards downtown’s street food offerings. When Zack told me he didn’t eat street food, I felt more awkward than when he got to praising Jesus.
Before we parted ways, we shared a quick breakfast of pecans, crushing their shells in the door jamb. I thought back to something Zack said my first night, when he first felt shy about his apartment.
“I’m offering you the best that I can, but I can feel your feeling, you come from a different background. I come from the bottom. I can survive anywhere, because I grew up in the jungle. I don’t mind the situation. But I’ve been in nice hostels, where they have nice facilities. I know what it’s like.”
Photo by Eric Goldschein
***
For awhile, it seemed as though Zack was perhaps the only person in Myanmar brave or crazy enough to have me. I traveled north, and a week later I was sleeping in a dimly lit hotel room in Mandalay, with tile floors and a paper-thin mattress, for $18 a night.
Mandalay is a bit of a dusty, overgrown small town, with a romantic reputation underwritten by the Rudyard Kipling poem. But nowadays you’re more than likely to get stampeded by motorbikes and trishaws while “lookin’ lazy by the sea.” It’s like A Bus Station: The City. Aside from a few good meals, I was unimpressed.
So when I got another hit from a Couchsurfing host in the nearby old resort town of Pyin Oo Lwin, I dove just about headfirst into a shared taxi headed that way. Once again I found myself feeling like a sore thumb as I sat in the parking lot of the town golf course with my backpack at my feet.
There was little reason for me to be in this town, and even less of a reason for me to be this parking lot. Pyin Oo Lwin isn’t off the tourist track completely — there are a few noteworthy sites, including the Botanical Gardens and some excellent Shan restaurants known for their peanut-buttery noodles and strawberry smoothies. But it’s more of a place to live than a place to visit.
But within a few minutes, a four-door sedan rolled up, and out stepped Saigon and Wutyi, wearing Western-style clothing and chic, thick-rimmed glasses.
“Eric?” asked Saigon, as if there could possibly be another white foreigner waiting in the golf course parking lot. “Yeah, man, nice to meet you,” he said in halting but comfortable English. I had found the town’s resident hipsters, foodies, and of course, Couchsurfing hosts.
Saigon was the host, Wutyi his girlfriend who lived nearby. Saigon lives partly in Yangon and partly here, his hometown, where his parents run a restaurant, and he runs a tile workshop. His black hair was swept in a wave over his head, and a sly smile often lay in wait below.
We drove a few minutes down the road and arrived at what turned out to be a sort of compound with a combination workshop and low-slung apartment, as well as additional housing for various people who were employed by Saigon’s family. The men of the tile workshop lived on the property, and adjoining Saigon’s apartment was another family that had worked for Saigon’s parents. The mother would come around to refill Saigon’s tea pot, or heat up the water for a shower. There was a closeness between everyone, but it was still clear that Saigon — at least by extension — was the boss.
This time I had my own room with a decently comfy bed at the end of a long hall. The bathroom was another bare bones set up, but otherwise the place felt homey, with guitars and bicycles cluttering the living room.
Photo by Eric Goldschein
I set my things down, walked out onto the little porch area — a little square of concrete with airport-style seats and a table with a thermos of tea, in true Myanmar fashion, always ready to be poured — and stared out at the next few days, where I would have little to do other than get to know my host.
For a young man with a lot to do — along with his family restaurant and tile workshop, he was also working on a e-commerce site for buying goods outside of Myanmar — Saigon seemed to spend little time worrying about it. He was on the front porch with a guitar in his lap when I first emerged from the bedroom, and he wouldn’t be far away from that spot for the remainder of my time in Pyin Oo Lwin. His favorite phrase, I quickly learned, was “It’s chill, man.”
Saigon has a mixed background — some Shan, some Tai, but no Burmese. I thought I’d found my common thread again and hoped to exploit it — how hosting was a quiet protest against Burmese domination — but Saigon shut me down quickly.
“By hosting, am I not being a proud citizen of this country?” he asked me rhetorically when I suggested my theory. “I am proud. There are some serious, ugly crises here. But the people from other countries can be very ignorant.”
“I do believe the goodness of the Burmese people,” he said. “They can be very humble. I have had a lot of great interactions with them that makes me feel proud to be a citizen. But about the government, about the law, I feel very different.”
I imagined my country and people being judged based on the decisions of our government, and shuddered at the thought. I thought this was a fair distinction to make.
“The point is, I feel, it’s worth it. It’s worth it man. When I feel like it’s the right thing to do, I do it. Even if you are in trouble… that’s it, man. It’s chill,” he said.
I awoke in the morning to the workers harmonizing as they hammered away on their tiles. They paid me no mind as I came and went from the grounds. I rode Saigon’s bicycle around town and strolled through the nearby botanical gardens. Pyin Oo Lwin used to be a British resort town — a leafy, hilly respite from the heat of Mandalay — and vestiges of the colonial era gave the town an out-of-time feel. Horse-drawn carriages clopped down the streets, hemmed in by quiet forest. When I returned in the evening, Saigon took me to his parents’ restaurant, where we ate pineapple fried rice and drank Mandalay Beers until the lights swam. I soon understood what Saigon meant when he said, “This town is cold, but makes me feel warm inside.”
I had originally planned to spend two days in Pyin Oo Lwin, but I let two days extend to three, and then four. I spent the afternoons cruising around town with Saigon, shuttling across town so we could slurp Shan-style noodles, listening to the radio as we bumped along the rutted roads. We played chess on his porch, drinking tea incessantly and discussing whether or not Donald Trump was handling North Korea effectively.
I had settled quickly into an easy friendship with Saigon, as if we had known each other for years. What I still didn’t know was just how dangerous it was, if it all, for me to be staying with him. Saigon and his family seemed like well-known figures in Pyin Oo Lwin. Could he act with impunity where others could not?
Photo by Eric Goldschein
On my last night, things got tense at the compound. The workers, who lived in another building nearby, were drinking and fighting. One guy in particular seemed to have an issue with how he was being spoken to, and Saigon went to talk to him.
It didn’t work — as the group spilled out into the driveway, the aggrieved young man said something else that Saigon didn’t like, and Saigon responded by grabbing a glass and throwing it against a wall, smashing it. He approached the man with closed fists.
I moved closer, thinking about my next moves. Would I intervene if a fight broke out? Would I bring Saigon more trouble by getting involved — seeing as how I was his illegal guest — or did it really not matter? Could I stand up for my host and new friend? I weighed the pros and cons as Saigon screamed in a language I couldn’t comprehend, and yet understood perfectly in that moment. These guys were about to fight.
The dilemma disappeared before my eyes, as the drunk guy cowered and apologized. Saigon returned to the porch, and we drank more tea. The anger dissipated as quickly as it had appeared. A sick, small, but undeniable part of me was disappointed that I hadn’t been able to test the waters of being an illegal couchsurfer. No one cared about me, which was good, but it wasn’t making for much of a story.
I’ll admit, however, that I saw Saigon in a different light after that moment. He didn’t suddenly become evil to me, but I remembered that whatever I thought I knew about Saigon, this town, and this country was only part of the picture. My perspective was limited. Much more lurked beneath the surface of my interactions with people. I would really never understand what I sought to know, especially not over the course of a few days or weeks.
The following day, I decided it was time to move on. As we ate a final meal together, I was struck by the truth of Saigon’s words about how couchsurfers usually felt after staying with him.
“You never know if you never try,” he had said when I asked him about whether people should feel safe Couchsurfing here. “I’m quite confident that the hospitality and friendliness here, I see a lot of goodness in people in Myanmar. I’m pretty aware that some conflict is going in the north, in the south, in the east. But commonly speaking, once you arrive in Myanmar you’ll find it’s totally different than in the news you’ve been hearing. Of course you’re visiting the more peaceful regions, but that’s not what people have been talking about when they visit.”
He was right. The conflict in Kachin State, now just a few dozen miles to the north, didn’t register at all as I sat looking at a gleaming golden pagoda perched above a raging waterfall, just before Saigon drove me to the bus station. I’d almost forgotten that my plans to hike in that region had been scrapped due to recent intensified fighting. For all I knew, Zack’s family was currently on the run just north of me. It’s amazing what you can put out of your mind after just a few days of trying not to think about it. | https://ericgoldschein.medium.com/meet-the-illegal-couchsurfing-hosts-of-myanmar-fdacc3de83bd | ['Eric Goldschein'] | 2019-08-22 14:14:01.457000+00:00 | ['Travel Writing', 'Myanmar', 'Southeast Asia', 'Travel', 'Couchsurfing'] |
The Persecution of Strong Women | The Persecution of Strong Women
What a story from 700 years ago can tell us about 21st century shaming
It is six years since the release of Boyce’s award winning debut, The Herbalist. In a recent newspaper interview she claimed the first draft of Her Kind was completed in 2014. The time between was taken up with revision and the long time-scales of the traditional publishing process. As another reviewer has said, it was well worth the wait.
Boyce has taken real events from the fourteenth century and crafted from them a highly imaginative fantasy. In dong so, she has given us a version of those events that has a much greater ring of truth than the official versions. As she claims, those were written, not by the victims of a witch hunt, but by the men who instigated it. By telling the story from the points of view of the female participants, as well as the man whose tortured mind dreamed up the allegations, she has created a deeper truth. A truth that draws on the reality of medieval life in Ireland, the strained relationships between the different communities — French, Anglo-Norman, Flemish, Welsh and Gael.
As merchants, Anglo-Norman lords and the Catholic Church jostle for control of the city of Kilkennie, the idea that a wealthy moneylender has achieved her success by poisoning a succession of wealthy husbands gains traction among the Burghers.
Many of the dream sequences, which merge into the reality of interrogation under torture, reminded me of the controversial Ken Russell movie The Devils. I wondered if Boyce had seen that film. In a comment on a Facebook post she told me she had, and viewed it again whilst writing Her Kind. Russell’s film deals with another real event that took place three centuries later in France. Boyce has not gone as far as Russell in her depictions of depravity, although the charges that come from the lips of Bishop Roger Ledrede include descriptions of activities, conjured from his imagination, that echo scenes from the movie.
The early chapters of the book are full of hints about the past relationship between the three women at its core. I confess to having found that irritating at first, but I quickly recognized it as a clever device, since the whole edifice of the charges against the alleged witch is built on hints and intimations, distortions of the truth which become twisted in the fevered imagination of the Bishop.
That, of course, has resonance in the 21st century when we have become used to “fake news” and attempted character assassination based on innuendo.
Some may say that I am not qualified to make the following statement but I have no hesitation in describing this novel as a tour-de-force which deserves the most prestigious of literary awards. There is unlikely to be a better book published between now and Boyce’s next, however long that may take.
I have no hesitation in recommending this book to anyone interested in medieval history, sorcery, Game of Thrones, any other historical or dystopian fantasy — or just the pure joy of beautiful writing.
Note: An earlier version of this review also appears on Goodreads. | https://frankparker.medium.com/the-persecution-of-strong-women-6be729d804f0 | ['Frank Parker'] | 2019-04-29 11:48:53.763000+00:00 | ['Culture', 'Sorcery', 'Witchcraft', 'Beautiful Writing', 'Irish Writing'] |
Spiritual Awakening | In divine timing a human being will experience profound inner-transformations that have socially been termed as spiritual awakenings. Most people understand a spiritual awakening as a point of intense revelation that can be recognized as transformational on the experiential level. Traditional examples of these being near death experiences, kundalini awakenings, and psycho-active experiences. And those can be transformational experiences indeed if and when they arise, however it is important to understand that the process of spiritual awakening is of the [holy] spirit, not the [personal] self, and the process unfolds in many ways that go unrecognized. So awakening is actually beyond the awareness of the personal self and inspires from one’s Higher Self.
As the awakening — to truth of Self — begins to intensify the presence [of God] begins to permeate one’s experience like a soft grace. Although gentle, it feels infinitely powerful, unwavering, and ubiquitous. The presence of — God, Source, the Universe, Truth — becomes so profound in comparison to what was experienced as existence before — and it is like a love that is so strong, so enriching, so whole — that it continues to transform a person in ways that are beyond their awareness.
Most of the transformation goes unseen regardless of external conditions. It comes on as an inner state of truth which prevails in one’s momentary awareness, and aligns one with a more expansive evolutionary pattern. New dimensions of awareness gradually present themselves that offer a more expansive comprehension of Life’s greater totality. Thus, a greater peace comes over one’s state of being as much of what one perceived to be a problem before has been transcended by a higher level of awareness.
It should be said that in periods of intense awakening there can be acclimatization periods where one is overwhelmed and disoriented by the dimensions of awareness now available to them on an experiential level, and it takes time to be functional and develop discernment within those contexts of reality. It is common for one to make radical changes in lifestyle and that is because much of what motivated the person before is no longer reinforced in perception. The way one saw the world is no longer the way one see’s the world and so there is a reorientation of priorities.
One can continue or discontinue to do whatever feels right for them. You see, the transformation is really reflected by one’s inner being which emanates from the heart chakra and manifests as the intention of one’s existence. Naturally, certain things will no longer serve one’s path of growth and fall away, while new things will enter. It is all about what one IS — on an intentional level — which is carried into whatever one does. So awakening is really the continuous revelation — as expanding awareness — of one’s highest intention.
Thanks for reading and more to come,
Thanksman | https://medium.com/@christianmazzilli/spiritual-awakening-dbad12c5d385 | ['Christian Mazzilli'] | 2021-06-19 16:09:21.530000+00:00 | ['Spirituality', 'Spiritual Awakening', 'Consciousness', 'Enlightenment', 'Self-awareness'] |
How can we save time after an interactive Exploratory Data Analysis? | How to generate code within code?
Python’s answer: f-strings - simple and powerful
“F-strings provide a way to embed expressions inside string literals, using a minimal syntax. An f-string is an expression evaluated at run time, not a constant value.” (PEP 498)
In Python: preface a string literal with an f and put your variable into curly braces {}, when you execute the code, those variables will get assigned values. See the simple example below (f-strings and their evaluated values are bolded):
platform = 'Towards Data Science'
author = 'Robert Dzudzar'
number_of_articles = 1 example = f"{author} wrote {number_of_articles} article(s) for {platform}." print(example)
# Returns: Robert Dzudzar wrote 1 article(s) for Towards Data Science.
How do I generate code in ‘Distribution Analyser’?
Within the app, the user plays with widgets: they select a distribution, then they use sliders or input boxes to tweak distribution parameters (each distribution has its own set of parameters). Values from Streamlit widgets are passed to a function that makes the figure — so why can’t we pass code too?
Depending on the code and parameters, sometimes variables need to be tweaked to have the desired format in the f-string:
In Distribution Analyser, to provide a user with generated code I need variable names or their values, or sometimes both, which I obtain with simple string manipulation. Once I get the desired format, I just pass it to the f-string (see Figure below). Created f-sting is then passed to a Streamlit button which will print it out when pressed.
The figure below shows a side by side comparison of f-strings in ‘Explore distributions’ and generated code (f-strings and their values are highlighted). In the same fashion, this is done to obtain the code from the best-fit distribution function. You can find the entire web app source code on GitHub, and feel free to play with and explore Distribution Analyser on Streamlit Sharing.
In conclusion
Give more to users to save their time and effort.
For web app developers it will take only a few more functions added to their app (at least if they are using Python) to make simple, reproducible and ready-to-use code that they can give to users as part of the analysis results. Having such an option saves users hours or even days of taking notes and digging through the source code. | https://towardsdatascience.com/how-can-we-save-time-after-an-interactive-exploratory-data-analysis-c9edfdb8d3e5 | ['Robert Dzudzar'] | 2021-04-04 23:52:43.764000+00:00 | ['Web App Development', 'Exploratory Data Analysis', 'Statistics', 'Python', 'Data Science'] |
Praptic : The Future of Water Filtration and Entertainment | BEYOND the Basics…
Water Filtration 💧
Water filtration is an essential system, which is the reason why one can survive without food for weeks, while without water, they would be dead within days. Around two third of our body is filled with water, and up to 75% for babies. Clearly, we can understand the grave importance of H20.
Let’s get deeper into how Praptic filters water. As mentioned before, though groundwater is usually filtered naturally, Praptic takes extra measures to ensure that all water is clean and safe from any harmful substances. The unclean water that was pumped from the ground is first put into reverse osmosis. To understand what reverse osmosis is, we must first go through what osmosis is. Osmosis is a process in which molecules pass through a semi-permeable membrane from a high concentrated area to a low concentrated area. Reverse Osmosis takes contaminated water and forces it through a semi-permeable membrane, to create clean water. This is the opposite to Osmosis (as the name suggests), the molecules are coming from low concentration to high concentration instead. Although this method is effective in filtering salt, nitrates, limescale, and much more, it is less effective in removing bacteria. Which is why the next step is distillation.
After the newly purified water goes through reverse osmosis, distillation gets rid of the rest of the bacteria left by the previous process. Distillation is a process in which the water is boiled, the evaporation (steam) is captured, then the evaporation condenses back into water, and last but not least, put in a separate container.
Next, the Praptic system transports the water into multiple water dispensers setup nearby for the community as a whole to use. The people can use it for drinking, cooking, washing, or any other necessary uses.
Diagram of Praptic, Drawn by Pallas Shen (me)
Haptic Technology + Virtual Reality 📡
We rely immensely on the feeling of touch, or otherwise know as “haptic” information. To truly connect with your surroundings, you not only have to see where you exactly are, but also feel the texture of each item, person, or building. There are 3 types of haptic devices: graspable, wearable, and touchable. We will only be focusing on the one Praptic will be using, which is the wearable function in the form of gloves. The wearable haptic glove communicates by using vibrations, pressure, and visual simulation from the virtual reality goggles. For example, if you were to touch a pencil in the virtual world, the glove syncs with the virtual reality headset to create pressure or vibration the moment your hand reaches the item. This tricks your brain into thinking that your surroundings are in fact, reality. Haptic technology may seem far off into the future, but in 10 years it will be easily accessible and highly advanced to all. If we continue to expand this ever growing field, haptic technology will be integrated into our daily lives. So let’s continue to push forward one drop at a time.
Praptic uses these two components to allow the user the freedom of exploring famous locations or landmarks. They can feel the texture of the bumpy walls, smooth tiles, polished statue, or anything else, without being physically at that area. This is the true magic of using haptic technology and virtual reality, we can finally give the opportunity for under-priviledged people to travel to places that they thought was impossible to reach in their life time. | https://medium.com/@pallasreefshen/praptic-the-future-of-water-filtration-and-entertainment-f4e6e8660c83 | ['Pallas Shen'] | 2020-12-12 18:56:47.939000+00:00 | ['Help', 'Clean Water', 'Poor', 'Water'] |
Charitable Giving Between Generations: Compare & Contrast | Donor acquisition is a key component of any fundraising effort. However, not all acquisition strategies will work with all donors.
That said, carefully craft your fundraising appeals with a particular audience in mind.
One of the most significant factors to consider here is the age of your donors and prospects.
Even with the move toward heavily virtual fundraising efforts, the way you interact with and target each generation should differ based on research and previous engagements.
At Snowball, we have experience helping nonprofits target donors of every generation, and we’ve put together this helpful guide to help you do the same.
Each generation has its own overarching characteristics and defining traits.
When it comes to a careful analysis of charitable giving between these groups, we’ve noticed that they have three main differences that are likely to impact your fundraising strategy: giving method, gift size, and donation frequency.
By taking a closer look at generational giving habits, you can set yourself up for greater fundraising success through targeted and relevant fundraising appeals.
To get started, we’ll discuss each of the following generations and their giving habits in further detail:
Silent Generation Baby Boomers Generation X Millennials Generation Z
Are you ready to learn more about charitable giving between the different generations? Let’s jump in.
1. Silent Generation
The Silent Generation (also known as the Traditionalists or the Matures) consists of individuals who were born between 1928 and 1945. Currently, these individuals are between the ages of 75 and 92 years old, and as of 2020, the Silent Generation makes up approximately 7% of the total U.S. population.
Individuals born before 1928 are considered to be part of the G.I. Generation, although they make up less than 1% of the current U.S. population and for the sake of this guide, we’ll lump them in with the Silent Generation.
The Silent Generation will likely prefer to receive physical copies of an organization’s donation letters rather than be mailed a digital version to their inbox.
Then, this generation will typically send a physical check in response to a fundraising request, rather than make an online donation.
However, like with any donor, it’s a good idea to incorporate a multi-channel strategy when targeting your older generations. Even if they’re not as likely to give using new technology and online giving methods as other generations, those extra touchpoints can be a significant factor in building your relationship with these donors. Additional communications can help position your organization as a worthwhile, trusted brand.
2. Baby Boomers
The Baby Boomer generation consists of individuals who were born between 1946 and 1964. Currently, these individuals are between the ages of 56 and 74 years old, and they make up approximately 21% of the total U.S. population.
According to Double the Donation’s recent fundraising statistics, Baby Boomers are more likely to be inspired to give through email (33%) than social media (19%) or direct mail appeals (18%). Then, once inspiration has struck, Baby Boomers tend to prefer to make their gifts online through an easy-to-use donation page.
These donors are loyal supporters of their favorite charities, so take a strategic approach to building a relationship with them after their initial gift and keep them involved with your mission.
3. Generation X
Generation X (also known as the Thirteeners) consists of individuals who were born between 1965 and 1976. Currently, these individuals are between the ages of 40 and 55, and they make up approximately 20% of the total U.S. population.
While this group did not grow up around the internet, they’ve certainly got on board with what new technology has to offer.
In fact, more than 88% of Generation X is on Facebook, making it a key opportunity for fundraising and engagement strategies for nonprofits of all shapes and sizes. And although Facebook as a fundraising platform has its pros and cons, it’s raised more than $4 billion since the inception of its donation tools — much of that coming from Gen X supporters.
Generation X is big on transparency from the organizations they support, but when they find a cause they care about, they’re more likely to make larger, regular donations than other generations are.
4. Millennials
The Millennial generation (also known as Generation Y) consists of individuals who were born between 1977 and 1995. Currently, these individuals are between the ages of 24 and 39, and they make up approximately 25% of the total U.S. population.
When it comes to charitable giving and fundraising participation, studies show that 43% of Millennial donors have reported being most inspired to give through social media.
However, since many of your Gen X and Baby Boomer supporters are taking to social media platforms as well, it’s important that you target your strategy to the specific groups you’d like to secure.. When you target specific audience segments rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach to social media, you can start to see an even higher ROI than ever before.
For example, Millennials are more likely to give to your campaign because someone in their network has promoted it, rather than if they encounter a direct request from your organization.
As such, when targeting a Millennial audience, be sure to mobilize your supporters by encouraging them to share your fundraisers on their own personal social media pages with their friends, family members, and colleagues.
5. Generation Z
Generation Z (also known as the New Silent Generation or the “Philanthroteens”) consists of individuals who were born between 1996 and 2012. Currently, these individuals are between the ages of 8 and 23, and they make up approximately 26% of the total U.S. population.
Gen Z is currently the youngest generation of donors in the world. Following Gen Z is Generation Alpha, although members of this group are currently under 10 years old and have yet to join the charitable giving movement. However, when they do, you’re likely to notice some of the same characteristics present in Gen Z.
Individuals within Generation Z have grown up around technology and are extremely comfortable with using it.
Thus, donors within this age group are quick to jump on board with new fundraising trends and tools.
For example, Snowball’s text-to-give guide explains that while you might have to walk your older supporters through giving via text message step-by-step, your younger supporters (like Millennials, Gen Z, and beyond) will find the process intuitive and familiar.
Understanding generational differences is only one piece of a greater donor segmentation strategy. In fact, this guide recommends that fundraisers segment their audience by preferred giving method, communication preferences, engagement history, and even other demographic features to ensure an overall look at each supporter.
However, age and generational markers offer a fantastic place to start — especially if your donor network encompasses a wide range of support. Good luck!
Author: John Killoran
John Killoran is an inventor, entrepreneur, and the Chairman of Clover Leaf Solutions, a national lab services company. He currently leads Clover Leaf’s investment in Snowball Fundraising, an online fundraising platform for nonprofit organizations.
Snowball was one of John’s first public innovations; it’s a fundraising platform that offers text-to-give, online giving, events, and peer-to-peer fundraising tools for nonprofits. By making giving simple, Snowball increases the donations that these organizations can raise online. The Snowball effect is real! John founded Snowball in 2011. Now, it serves over 7,000 nonprofits and is the #1 nonprofit fundraising platform. | https://medium.com/@juliacsocial/charitable-giving-between-generations-compare-contrast-6101c3db9e5f | ['Julia C. Campbell'] | 2020-12-16 15:31:54.551000+00:00 | ['Giving', 'Generation', 'Charity', 'Nonprofit', 'Philanthropy'] |
Things My First Ever Kaggle Competition Has Taught Me | Until then, I had only tried out the new concepts in the course in Octave for the homework and my skills were shabby, to say the least. I had ever used python for this or any of the popular data science libraries like Pandas, NumPy or even attempted data visualization with the Matplot library.
I put off this task until the very last moment until my friend invited me to join his team for a Kaggle competition, and I decided to join because the universe would not forgive me for passing off a chance to start like this.
Enough backstory, time for me to exude upon the world my fountain of knowledge from my grandiose “Hello World”. This is by no means a guide to Kaggle competitions but more of my takeaway from the experience. A lot of the things that I learned might be obvious, but there might be someone that might find this useful.
Competitions Put Learning on the Driver’s Seat
Being attention-starved as I am, the peer pressure was enough for me to get over my initial uneasiness and start learning more about Machine Learning much faster than before. In the first week, I learned enough about using Pandas, Matplot to use in our group kernels. Our competition had tutorial kernels as it was a beginner’s challenge, which also played a huge role in speeding up our learning.
Within two weeks, I had finished four chapters of “Hands-On Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn and TensorFlow” by Aurélien Géron, which probably would have taken lazy me a month. I discovered new models like Random Forest starting from learning the decision trees they were based on to implementing and fine-tuning the model to increase the base performance of our submission by 0.87%.
Communicating Clearly With Others is Important
Make a change to a group kernel? Tell them what you changed and why. Make an improvement? Tell them what improved and how. This may seem like common sense however in making my first change, I was so excited that I submitted without telling my teammates. It was as awkward as you’d imagine. Either way, I found that conversation leads to better workflow as you know what each team member is working on so that you both don’t accidentally work on the same thing or waste time on totally asynchronous things. It just creates a mixture of lost time and energy, not to mention frustration.
I would also suggest, if you could, to meet your teammates in real life. I think it helped our team better communicate tactics and evaluate what each of us could do individually. It helped us figure out what’s best for our team based on everyone’s skill-sets and preferences.
If you are alone, talk to yourself. Times are hard. | https://medium.com/@LostinJello/things-my-first-ever-kaggle-competition-has-taught-me-3d75a9863ec5 | ['Hasanat Jahan'] | 2019-08-27 04:01:29.937000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Beginner Machine Learning', 'Kaggle Competition', 'First Post', 'Data Science'] |
How to flirt with girl online | chat | WhatsApp | Facebook | Instagram | without being creepy? | There are several cases for flirting like how well you know this girl whom you are texting or chatting with. Ex.. You can be classmates, childhood friends, Strangers, Girlfriend or just friends.
We will discuss all the scenario but let’s take most common first one.
step 1: make her comfortable with your talks and because you both are friends you can do it easily.
Examples (how to do it ):-
1)you can talk about your past like how dumb you are and how much drama you have created.
2)you can share some of the old picture of yours since childhood in which all are cuties.
step 2: you should start talking bit in joy mood. if you are happy then you can make them happy or feel the same way.
Examples (how to do it ):-
1) you should be in funny mood so you can touch your limits. never hurt someone because everyone deserve happiness.
2)you can play few games with her like Truth Or Dare In which you can tell or share anything you want. you can give minor clue which can help her or store that information in sub-conscious mind. It will help to get better your relationship by bond.
step 3: you can use some compliment which can make her happy, compliment should be genuine at first.It should not be like this that: you are moon and i am your sun, i will be give you rays. It should be neat and clear which she can relate to her self.
Examples (how to do it ):-
1)you have beautiful smile. (you can add: you have such beautiful smile that i can not move my eyes off.)
2)your eyes are too elegant and satisfying to watch it. i would watch your eyes rather than Netflix or amazon.
3)whenever you are with me or we spend time together i fill extremely happy and peaceful.
step 4: you can use my custom flirting sentences and some popular one it should not be known to her. make her feel special because she is very special. we all should respect her and give all the happiness we can. They are amazing and for both you it will be amazing experience.
Examples (how to do it ):-
1) you are so beautiful that i even forget my pickup line.
2)sometimes peoples say that when you are dream you will be in space but when we talk and i saw that glimpse of your eyes and i was like i am in space.
3) when i see in your eyes i can’t get out of it because its so deep and adorable.
4) peoples say click photo with makeup but look at you all i need is just glimpse of your eyes.
5)if someone say that yellow suits on you then he/she is wrong because you’re smile suits on you and you look adorable. | https://medium.com/@love-guru/how-to-flirt-with-girl-online-chat-whatsapp-facebook-instagram-without-being-creepy-867274778435 | [] | 2021-04-09 19:30:07.681000+00:00 | ['Flirting', 'Friendship', 'Couples', 'Friends', 'Basics'] |
„Die Atlassian Cloud ist nichts für uns“ — oder vielleicht doch? | 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/kreuzwerker-gmbh/die-atlassian-cloud-ist-nichts-f%C3%BCr-uns-oder-vielleicht-doch-57cd0596fe7a | ['Özge Kavas'] | 2020-12-11 13:12:22.722000+00:00 | ['Consulting', 'Jira', 'Atlassian', 'Confluence', 'Cloud Computing'] |
Group looks to help opioid addicts in Medford | Group looks to help opioid addicts in Medford
‘Heroin Kills’ looks to help those addicted to opioid drugs
Heroin Kills is an organization comprised of almost 30 volunteers. The group has been operating in areas such as Trenton and Hamilton. However, the group is moving south to the Medford area and looking to help those who are addicted to opioid drugs such as heroin.
Tom “Red” Clark is one of the founders of Heroin Kills. The nonprofit organization helps addicts find treatment facilities, helps with interventions and even helps the families learn more about the addiction itself and how they can help.
“We are not in it for the money,” Clark said. “We just want to be able to help these people out. Not just the addicts, but the families too because, when this disease hits somebody, it contaminates the people around them. For me, it is such an awesome blessing to have so many people willing to take time out of their hectic life just to volunteer and help out.”
According to the most recent available data from the 2016 state Department of Human Services Substance Abuse Overview report, 1,216 people from Burlington County were admitted to a treatment facility in 2015 for heroin and other opioid drugs. Medford and Medford Lakes saw 36 admissions.
The group has already been in Medford, looking for places where people, primarily teenagers, are converging.
“What we do is we bring it to the streets,” Clark added. “For a lot of the kids, their family may have kicked them out. They have lost hope. They do not know where to find help. Not to bad mouth politicians, but they are giving us these 800 numbers to call. The numbers are OK, but they do not do anything. These kids are not going to sit on the phone for an hour waiting for someone to help them. Then, if they do not have insurance, then they are really screwed. What we are going to do in the Medford area is be out there in the open and let people see who we are. Our shirt stands out. It attracts people, and it attracts these kids. In the Medford and surrounding areas, they are going to see us out there in the streets and let the kids know that there is someone out there for them. If nothing else, it gives them someone to talk to who will not judge them and knows what they are going through.”
Heroin Kills has helped people get into facilities across the state. Optimally, none of these cases would have happened. Clark has an idea where most of the cases of opioid addiction begin.
“The problem is the prescription pills, that is where most of the people who become addicted get started,” he said. “The kids start with the pills whether they are hurt or because of injury or they start dabbling in school. They become addicted to the pills. Once the pills are taken away from them, they start buying them on the street. It gets expensive, becoming $20 to $80 per pill. Now if someone gives them a $10 bag of heroin that does just as much if not more than the pills, they are off to the races.”
One of the 30 volunteers for the organization is Judy Kraemer, a Medford resident who is the director of social media for Heroin Kills.
“I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to work with Heroin Kills,” Kraemer said. “I feel like this is where God wants me to be, and I can feel His presence so deeply every time I get to help someone find their way. I hope my reaching out to the people of Medford and the surrounding areas will save at least one person from this horrid drug. Don’t ever worry about being judged; heroin has no prejudices. The best thing for me is when I hear Red say ’We saved another life.’ I cry every time.”
Clark does have some advice for families who have loved ones who are battling addiction but not yet reached out for help.
“Do not be afraid to bring it out in the open,” Clark said. “That is the biggest thing. People are either ashamed or embarrassed. People do not want anyone to know that his or her family member is shooting heroin. They do not want to admit it. Bring it out into the open. Find someone out there who can help them.”
More information about Heroin Kills can be found on their website, heroinkillsnj.org, or by calling or texting (609) 222–2189. | https://medium.com/the-medford-sun/group-looks-to-help-opioid-addicts-in-medford-e6255d58eb4e | ['Chris Franklin'] | 2017-05-04 21:29:02.257000+00:00 | ['Opioids', 'Family', 'Addiction', 'Drugs', 'Heroin'] |
3 Ways to Avoid Eating All 36 Cookies at Once | Grizzly Bear @brock222
When I was 53 and newly divorced, I was prone to get up out of bed at 2 a.m., get dressed, grab my car keys and drive to the nearest 24-hour store (4 miles) to get a donut. I only allowed myself to buy one because if I bought more, they’d all be gone by the time I got home. Not proud of this fact, but it was my reality.
Once, I received a huge box of Ghirardelli chocolates as a holiday gift from a co-worker. I immediately decided to re-gift the beautifully Christmas-decorated box of blood-sugar-skyrocketing lusciousness. Instead, I ended up opening the box and eating a few. Realizing I was on a roll, I locked the box of chocolates inside my car and locked to door to the garage, to keep from eating more of the melt in your mouth, stress-reducing, goodness.
A neighbor used to bake 36 beautiful, evenly sized, soft and delicious chocolate chip cookies (3 dozen!!) and eat only one! She had no inclination to eat more than one…she gave the rest to a neighbor family’s six kids. Me? At times, I’d have eaten all 36 cookies before you could say “neighbor family’s 6 kids”!
I don’t always lack willpower. I’m not overweight. My personality and self-control are not always that of a grizzly bear. Just sometimes.
My grizzly bear dramatically appeared when I was first divorced, the very first time I’d ever lived by myself, when only my son and my best friend knew where I lived, when I was stressed, fearful, endured shaky confidence and belief in myself, and it was the holidays.
Do you have a grizzly living in your psyche? It can do a lot of damage if we don’t take control; if we allow her to plunder and pillage through our minds and hearts.
Truthfully? I’m fairly well programmed as a stress-eater. The grizzly does still show up once in a while. First, I feel her heavy foot-steps in my mind. I begin doubting decisions, feeling guilty about leaving my ex, breaking up the family. “I’m not enough” and “Why did I do THAT?!”, I hear myself lament when the grizzly bear is around. Soon she’s treading across my heart. And then I eat a whole bag of popcorn or get in the car at 2 a.m.
Do these descriptions resonate with you? I bet we’ve all been there. You are not alone.
Here’s the thing, the grizzly bear is part of me…and part of you. It’s the part that is un-resolved. It’s showing itself to remind us that our in-side work is not complete. I’m thinking mine never will be, and that’s OK. Love of learning is one of my signature traits…rather than beat myself up for re-doing a lesson, I embrace the opportunity and begin, again, to resolve the emotions attached to the grizzly.
Until there is no more need, the grizzly and the stress eating will remain a part of my Life. The Key is to recognize the signs, use a smile exercise to change my emotion and create a new thought pattern…stop beating myself up and focus on how far I’ve come.
1. Recognize the Signs
I feel especially vulnerable during the holidays. My Programmed Lesson is that it’s my responsibility to be sure every one is happy, all their needs are met and they get everything they want for Christmas. My Mom taught me those Programmed Lessons. Our family didn’t have much money, so even though we didn’t have all our needs met or get everything we wanted for Christmas, Mom somehow continued the charade. A lot of guilt was created for her in that process. She taught me the tricks of the trade…the tricks of the season. See how Programmed Lessons work? My grandma probably taught Mom. Generation to generation.
Learn to recognize when those emotions and the resulting actions are happening. My heart begins to feel heavy. My mind starts beating me up. I am on the verge of tears for no visible reason. And, I eat…chocolate, most of the time.
Now I know how to recognize, address and change the process. My life is less stressed and I eat fewer cookies, candy, and donuts!
Recognizing and choosing to address and change Programmed Lessons works all year long…not just during the holidays.
2. Your Smile Power
What is the quickest way to change our energy? Smiling. Everyone can do it. Smiling and feeling good is a choice.
When I feel the grizzly bear of fear, loneliness, frustration or anger begin her trek into my emotions, I choose to smile and repeat a positive statement, a mantra. Enlisting my Smile Power, I call it. While smiling (a real smile, not a fake one!) repeat in your mind a short sentence. I like saying “I feel the bear and I release you to the wilderness. My heart and mind are calm and happy” or “I am in control of my emotions and actions. I choose to feel relaxed and joyful”. Sometimes I just think and smile “Life is Good!”
Repeat your Smile Power mantra 21 times. It might help to look into a mirror and smile at yourself. Feel your positive energy grow, feel the warmth of your love and your smile. Repeat the process as often as you can…8 or 10 times a day.
This is a practice you can even use at work…feeling pressure? Use your Smile Power in your mind. Nobody knows and you’ll feel better.
Using the Smile Power process will help avert the need to fill our emotional holes with food. We learn to fill them with light, smiles, good emotional responses. No calories. No carbs.
3. Stop Beating Yourself Up
We talk more angrily and judgmentally toward ourselves than we do toward anyone else. We say meaner things and we cut ourselves less slack than we do our friends or family. You would not likely say to your best friend the things you do to yourself.
When we judge ourselves, we create guilt and negativity in our lives. Thoughts create emotions create action. When our thoughts are negative, our actions are, too. See how that works?
When our thoughts and emotions are based in fear and sadness, our actions are not healthy. This is when we tend to eat all 36 cookies…one after the other!
Sometimes I am so tough on myself I come to a stand-still. I become unable to write, to think clearly, to make decisions. Sometimes I allow my judgmental thoughts to undermine my Self. I lose confidence in everything.
When I find myself thinking or even saying out loud “OH Mickie, why did you say THAT??” and the memory is from last week, or 30 years ago! Sometimes I shudder at the thought of an action I took, or an interaction with a friend or co-worker that I now regret. Then I head toward the kitchen.
Bottom line: we can’t change the past. We are not Superman, who flew around the Earth to turn time back. We are not Marty McFly and can’t go “Back to the Future”.
We can change our responses to thoughts that we allow to invade our minds, disrupting our happiness.
The Smile Thought process that you just learned is a great way to stop the process of beating ourselves up.
I also use “Cancel-Cancel”.
When I discover my mind has taken off in a negative direction, I say out loud “Cancel-Cancel!” That simple statement tells my sub-conscious mind, and the Universe, that I didn’t mean to think or say those words. It’s sorta like slurping them back into my mouth…which doesn’t work, of course, but it does negate their power. Sort of like magic. Give it a try.
There you go, 3 ways to avoid eating all 36 cookies. I’ve used them lots of times not to get into the car to buy a donut in the middle of the night.
I know these 3 suggestions work. I’ve used them…all year round, not just at the holidays. When you feel the thundering of your grizzly bear on your mind and heart, you have tools to send her away. | https://medium.com/swlh/3-ways-to-avoid-eating-all-36-cookies-at-once-5223660b6d13 | ['Mickie Zada'] | 2019-12-06 20:12:36.585000+00:00 | ['Binge Eating', 'Smile', 'Holiday Eating', 'Divorce', 'Willpower'] |
Hiraeth | hiraeth
/ˈhɪərʌɪθ/
noun
(especially in the context of Wales or Welsh culture) deep longing for something, especially one’s home. “I could not begin to put into words the hiraeth that the Welsh feel for the mountains and valleys of their homeland”
“A homesickness for a home you can’t return to, or that never was”
When I first heard this word, I found it so pretty I wanted to name my future child (If they ever arrive) hiraeth. That was my first exact though. Although after some time I started creating more scenarios and situations which had the undertone of this word. Like losing a close someone, Someone you considered home. It doesn’t have to be death, There are plenty of reason on why you could lose someone. Losing interest, Drifting apart, Both being busy in you’re daily life, Miscommunication and maybe even through fights or disagreements.
It’s really sad to think about it, You could at someone one day and think something entirely different about them then what you thought the day before. You could suddenly feel far away from them, Or you don’t feel as connected as you did before.
Homesickness in general isn’t nice at all, I myself don’t remember feeling homesickness once in the past (probably cause I quarantined for almost 9 months now) It’s also linked a lot to nostalgia, Feeling nostalgic for a past someone, Something or event.
nonetheless, I just wanted to share this. To the person reading this, Thank you for reading ! And in case I don’t see ya, Good-morning, Good-evening and goodnight. | https://medium.com/@bunnybnuy111/hiraeth-fc62114cd029 | [] | 2020-12-19 17:52:50.259000+00:00 | ['Personal', 'Meaning', 'Aesthetics', 'Words', 'Vocabulary'] |
Running Arch Linux on a Chromebook? | The Prerequisites
To get started, you’re going to need a Chromebook, of course, (one that you don’t mind “powerwashing” a couple of times). This should be fine for most since Chromeos is inherently very easy in terms of restoring configuration (one of the great features of Chromebooks). You will need to put your Chromebook into developer mode (this is really easy and well documented). You’ll also need to decide on which distro you want. I went with Arch Linux because I’ve recently become an addict of Luke Smith’s Youtube channel and thought I should give it a shot. I’m also ready to take the next step in my knowledge of Linux and I want a better understanding of how everything works.
Other than a Chromebook and Linux distro, you’re going to need a USB storage drive that you can make bootable. You will also need to check whether your Chromebook is supported by MrChromebox’s firmware utils but the script we’ll run later will check for you so you shouldn’t have to worry.
Finally, you probably won’t need to but some Chromebooks may require disabled Write-Protect. This involves taking your laptop apart and removing a screw in the motherboard. However, don’t fret! I thought that this was going way too far but when I finally went through with it, I found that it was super easy and had no problems at all.
Now we’re done with the prerequisites, we can get started with the real thing.
Getting Started
First things first, you should download MrChromebox’s firmware-util.sh. Detailed instructions can be found on his website but it basically boils down to the following:
Open up your “crosh” terminal by pressing Ctrl-Alt-T in Chromeos. Then type shell to open up a chronos shell. Then run the following command: cd; curl -LO https://mrchromebox.tech/firmware-util.sh && sudo bash firmware-util.sh (this will download the firmware script and run it straight away. Now comes a decision. Depending on what you want from your Chromebook, you can pick one of the available options. If you’d like to dual boot then RW_LEGACY Firmware is the option for you. For the purposes of this post, this is the option we’ll be going with. The prompt may give you an option to set the SeaBIOS bootloader as the default boot item. At this point you should press n (no) as we don’t yet have another OS. If you press y now then you may find it impossible to boot into Chromeos again.
An example of the firmware-util script menu (with some fancy colours of course).
You should reboot your Chromebook and nothing should change. You can press Ctrl+L at the ‘Developer Warning Screen’ and this should take you to a new SeaBIOS screen. However at the moment you can’t do anything with it so just reboot and get back into chromeos (Ctrl+D at developer warning screen). If you press Ctrl+L and your speaker makes 2 ‘beeps’, then something hasn’t worked properly but Chromeos should still work fine.
Re-partitioning your Chromebook
To dual boot your system, your going to want to create or resize some partitions on your Chromebook’s hard drive. To do this, we’re going to use the cgpt tool that comes pre-installed on all Chromebooks as far as I am aware. I believe that if you try to modify the system partitions outside of cgpt then your Chromebook may reject the changes and revert back (so use cgpt).
To access the cgpt tool, you will have to open up another ‘chronos’ shell in Chromeos and then you could type cgpt help to list all your options. To start with, you’re going to want to run cgpt show /dev/<name of hard_drive> . This will list all of the partitions in your Chromebook. To find the name of your hard drive, you can run lsblk . Your hard drive will look something like /dev/mmcblk0 with lots of partitions. From here, you have two options, you can either create 1–4 new partitions or take 2 of the existing partitions and move and resize them. (you may have to run cgpt with sudo).
Chromebook partitions
All Chromebooks (as far as I am aware) have three pairs of partitions: KERN_A, ROOT_A, KERN_B, ROOT_B and KERN_C, ROOT_C. You should also see a few other partitions on your drive such as STATE which is where the user-storage is kept for Chromeos. You might see that KERN_C and ROOT_C have a block-size of 1 meaning they are not really being used. If you choose to use these partitions to store your new OS, then you can follow this excellent tutorial on cgpt that will take you through the process (just the partitioning section). I recommend that you create a quick spreadsheet of your partitions to keep your partitions organised. This will make the maths much easier. I would say that it is safer to resize and move the KERN_C and ROOT_C partitions than to create more because Chromeos may repair itself and delete the new partitions.
If you choose to do what I did and create 1–4 new partitions then you will have to resize your STATE partition to allow for them to coexist. It is a very similar process to the other method. I created three new partitions and named them ARCH_BOOT, ARCH_ROOT and ARCH_SWAP. You could also create a partition for your home directory but I chose not to as its not really necessary (the same applies with the boot partition, I think, but that would be slightly more risky). My ARCH_BOOT partition was 256MB in size (500000 blocks); my ARCH_ROOT partition was 32GB in size (62500000 blocks); and my ARCH_SWAP partition was ~5.8GB in size (11376214 blocks). You may need to create the ARCH_BOOT partition with type 21686148–6449–6E6F-744E-656564454649 ( -t ). This is so SeaBIOS/GRUB can work together to boot properly.
Below is the output of running sudo cgpt show on my Chromebook:
chronos@localhost / $ sudo cgpt show /dev/mmcblk0
start size part contents
0 1 PMBR (Boot GUID: 3CAC10CD-7500-C3F4-0000-000000000000)
1 1 Pri GPT header
2 32 Pri GPT table
8671323 39062500 1 Label: "STATE"
Type: Basic data
UUID: 3BD37896-9120-E34B-BBD6-C94F2DB13454
20480 32768 2 Label: "KERN-A"
Type: ChromeOS kernel
UUID: DF8DA88E-F8FF-7E40-BC74-C2F8BE9DD07F
Attr: priority=2 tries=0 successful=1
4476928 4194304 3 Label: "ROOT-A"
Type: ChromeOS rootfs
UUID: BF1420A4-5912-0749-A3C8-CE7DC9FBBB50
53248 32768 4 Label: "KERN-B"
Type: ChromeOS kernel
UUID: 932BC76A-25F9-3B40-9B3F-E97F65234D9A
Attr: priority=1 tries=0 successful=1
282624 4194304 5 Label: "ROOT-B"
Type: ChromeOS rootfs
UUID: 7D79735C-2504-3448-B241-F7D6AE1931E2
16448 1 6 Label: "KERN-C"
Type: ChromeOS kernel
UUID: 0667A4E3-8109-B348-897E-BEEFB8AAC989
Attr: priority=0 tries=15 successful=0
16449 1 7 Label: "ROOT-C"
Type: ChromeOS rootfs
UUID: C6E7B3C7-F34C-F646-B427-A41AD1EE0B28
86016 32768 8 Label: "OEM"
Type: Basic data
UUID: 62CA7110-A2DB-0549-A465-7A4E59ADCD78
16450 1 9 Label: "reserved"
Type: ChromeOS reserved
UUID: A4FDCCE9-44B8-8240-BE26-9E3B855E9112
16451 1 10 Label: "reserved"
Type: ChromeOS reserved
UUID: B27187F5-03AC-6242-9E14-36EF17D54D97
64 16384 11 Label: "RWFW"
Type: ChromeOS firmware
UUID: 243AC9C8-AE5F-2D4B-B979-6256DC84D394
249856 32768 12 Label: "EFI-SYSTEM"
Type: EFI System Partition
UUID: 859AA362-65E0-4740-95D8-9D9AEA6BA712
110733826 11376214 13 Label: "ARCH_SWAP"
Type: Linux data
UUID: 0AEA14EF-1BFD-A343-A56D-C20A06B879DD
47733824 500000 14 Label: "ARCH_BOOT"
Type: 21686148-6449-6E6F-744E-656564454649
UUID: 98E9BFB1-BA59-2A42-BD92-188C14FB0B52
48233825 62500000 15 Label: "ARCH_ROOT"
Type: Linux data
UUID: 8CB3CE64-317E-5445-819C-F4B71302BF6B
122142687 32 Sec GPT table
122142719 1 Sec GPT header
Once you have fully resized/moved your partitions, you can reboot your device and you should be greeted by a message telling you that your system is ‘repairing itself’. Once the process ends, you will boot back into a — powerwashed — Chromeos.
That’s the scary bit over, now you can move onto installing your favourite Linux distro.
Linux Installation
You will now want to create a bootable USB-drive with your favourite Linux flavour on it (from here on I will assume you are using Arch so check elsewhere for other flavours before proceeding). Note that you probably won’t be able to use a USB-C dongle and will need a proper USB-C flash drive.
You can then plug in your USB-drive and reboot your Chromebook. You will need to press Ctrl+L at the developer mode warning screen and hopefully you’ll see a boot menu. From here you will need to select the USB-drive and after a few seconds you should be greeted with a tty interface for your ‘live’ Linux. This will allow you to run commands and setup Arch, all from the USB-drive. From here you can follow any other Arch Linux installation tutorial mounting your BOOT and ROOT partitions. You can swapon your SWAP partition if you made one.
Once you have mounted your partitions, you should use pacstrap to install the base packages. You should probably install at least the following 4 packages.
pacstrap -i /mnt base base-devel linux linux-firmware
Now you can install GRUB bootloader and you should find that the ArchWiki is extremely useful.
Once you have setup GRUB and Arch, you’re pretty much done. You can now install all the tools and software you want.
Post-Installation
Once I had a working installation, I installed the i3 window manager (i3-gaps to be specific) and got it working just fine. I am, as of now, having a little trouble getting sound to work on Arch but I’m still looking into sound fixes for Skylake. I installed urxvt as my terminal emulator and I am experimenting with lightdm as a desktop manager.
Also, the ArchWiki is your friend. I can’t tell you how many times I ‘Googled’ a question only to find it written in plain English on the ArchWiki. It really will make your life easier.
Conclusion
I’m pretty impressed with how easy this was to do and just how few problems I have encountered along the way. I now have my very own Arch installation on my laptop that works amazingly well and is more performant than crouton Linux. Its worth noting that this is my first time installing Arch and I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was.
Anyway, thanks for reading this if you made it this far. I hope this was useful to someone out there and that you now have a dual-booting Chromebook! | https://medium.com/swlh/running-arch-linux-on-a-chromebook-11e3f9c4e87c | ['Jasper Parish'] | 2020-02-06 22:28:12.083000+00:00 | ['Chromebook', 'Arch Linux', 'Chrome OS', 'Dual Boot', 'Linux'] |
You/Ghost/You. | You/Ghost/You.
A Love Poem.
Photo by Jana Sabeth on Unsplash
They say you can move electricity through the nerves, in the same way you can feel songs in the hairs of your skin. Are you patient enough to shock me?
Deaf to me, you cannot hear. Some invisible channel remains under all that blood and bone. Give me a chance to tell you I love you, while you’re sleeping.
The world is on fire and we have to hold one another anyway. We cannot wait for the burning to stop; it will be never. We love in fake urgency.
I am normally stressed, everything in me doesn’t want to get caught. So just bite me until I stop flinching. You’ll know when I’m as relaxed as you.
All my histamines want to attack you.This is empty. Do you hear my skin screaming?
My thighs are softer than yours. You can lick them and see. That is the only way, I promise.
I heard noises at night. I became angry at the ghost; I am trying hard not to disappear. I don’t want the reminder. Remind me that I’m still a side effect of a beating heart.
Write your name, kiss the paper, slip it into one of the chambers. It’s easier than you think. Don’t tell anyone.
They’re trying to graph magic. They don’t realize magic changes; I am a witch and the world is just my spell. Once they figure it out, it becomes something else.
That silicone hole is not my skin, I promise. Your anger and hesitation will melt when you see me. Fear dissolves like Jesus Christ on a tongue. | https://medium.com/are-you-okay/you-ghost-you-361a776417cd | ['Lisa Martens'] | 2020-01-23 19:37:20.602000+00:00 | ['Sex', 'Poetry', 'Love', 'Poem', 'Creative Writing'] |
Caste, Social Inequality and Fate | When it comes to doubting and critiquing our current systems and generally-accepted truths, nothing is off the table as far as my subversive mind is concerned. Some of the holy cows of modern society of course are democracy, egalitarianism and the idea that the only correct way of governance is the type where everyone has a say in it. Lately I’ve been on a streak of reading controversial figures such as Guénon and Kaczynski who partially or totally reject democracy and equality. Today, let us take a stroll down the path of dark enlightenment.
There are very few if any people who’d argue that democracy in its current state is a perfect system (representative democracy — parliamentary and presidential. For the sake of ease I’ll just use the term democracy). In fact, democracy is often referred to as ‘the least worst system’ of governance that has been cooked up throughout the ages. C.S. Lewis has argued that precisely this negative definition has made radical (often even romantic!) alternatives such as fascism and communism so attractive. Certainly the more extremist types are quick to find flaws in the current system. For the record, I think there is lots of worth in a democratic form of governance. To date it has produced the most prosperous nations with the highest standards of life and the greatest amount of personal freedom.
However, the Unabomber has a bone to pick with our current system, especially when taking technological development into the equation. In Industrial Society and its Future (1995), Kaczynski argues that due to the proliferation of technology, freedom in our democratic systems will eventually be completely overridden. Technological advancement will bring with it (and already has brought) a total change in all facets of our lives. One of the most haunting statements Kaczynski wrote is that instead of adapting the social system to human nature, human nature has to be adapted to the social system. We can see such developments already in the prescription of literal hard drugs to children in the form of ADHD-medication and antidepressants. No young boy is made for sitting in a classroom all day. To make sure he ‘learns’ so that he can become a productive member of the system, his mind is drugged up so that he can fit in. A depressed person who could have possibly developed this mental anguish due to his terrible hopeless circumstances is not encouraged to change his predicament, but is instead given drugs to make his unbearable circumstances bearable. Would you argue that either of these persons are really free? They are essentially made to adapt to the social system against their own needs.
This illustrates a horror of the modern world that was in part predicted by Huxley in Brave New World (1932). Let’s say that the great machine of society is already constructed and that individuals are just cogs in it, made to serve. In Brave New World all humans are biologically engineered to fit into the system with a plethora of sedatives and distractions at their disposal to make their otherwise inhumane situation tolerable. The top-down sort of engineered society has rigid caste systems ranging from intelligent alphas to mentally deficient-ypsilons who are each assigned a certain role to play in society.
In the real world of course there is no (or not yet, at least) such thing as bioengineered people made as perfect cogs for the machine of society. A caste system however is not an alien idea at all, but is generally considered outdated. Let me however introduce the unholy notion of inequality. It seems abundantly clear to me that individuals differ and that different people are capable of different things, each with their own unique set of skills, talents and shortcomings. A caste system then is not such a strange idea at all: not everyone is meant to rule. Even the ruling bodies of the Netherlands largely consist of highly-educated individuals belonging almost entirely to a political class. We like to think that we did away with such rigid social systems, but that doesn’t seem so obvious to me.
Many of the flaws of the current system can be attributed to the fact that we are essentially in a race to the bottom, where democracy is nothing more than appealing to the lowest common denominator. This is essentially what René Guénon argued in Spiritual Authority and Temporal Power (1929). The most natural way of rule for the longest time was a system where the entirety derived its values and principles from a priestly caste that even the rulers were subjected to. Guénon argues that this stable system was thrown into pandemonium during the revolt of the Kshatriyas — referring to the warrior/ruler caste described in the Vedas, otherwise the nobles and royalty of Europe and other places. When the system lost its spiritual core when it did away with higher values, we lost the natural way of life. A similar notion can be found in the works of Plato (such as the Republic), where only the philosopher kings with a golden soul could prevent any given society from going astray.
In the year 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor. The ruler here is subject to the principles and rules of the spiritual powers.
To make sense of all these wildly varying topics, I think it is safe to say that at least to a degree, modern systems of governance are contrary to our nature where we are given the illusion of freedom while being made to love our servitude through an endless stream of distractions. We are told that our votes matter while in reality we have never been more powerless in the coming tide of globalisation and technocratic rule.
For a long time now I have argued for bottom-up rule, not top-down. It would only be logical then for me to support a democratic system. While I certainly think that individuals should be in charge of their own fate, the democratic systems of today seem anything but considerate of individuals and their circumstances. Let us instead rejoice in inequality and do away with false idols such as egalitarianism in celebration of true diversity. | https://medium.com/@eliasbiharie/caste-social-inequality-and-fate-6d96d690b4e7 | ['E.A. Biharie'] | 2021-07-15 09:41:02.887000+00:00 | ['Society', 'Literature', 'Critical Thinking', 'Democracy', 'Philosophy'] |
Devil’s Advocate | The archangel Michael sat in a conference room under the harsh glare of a flickering fluorescent light. The powerful entity sat in an uncomfortable office chair. He would have looked at his watch if he wasn’t a primordial entity that existed outside time and space.
He did have a watch though, but it was mostly for looks.
The only other person in the room was an nervous looking, expensively dressed lawyer on the other side of the table.
“He’s running late isn’t he?” Michael asked. He hated coming to his brother’s domain. Plus, his brother had a habit of making Michael wait for no reason.
The attorney shrugged.
“Answer my brother when he speaks to you,” the voice came from behind the lawyer.
The scared lawyer spun to see Lucifer standing behind him, a tall broad shouldered man with close cropped black hair, a permanent five o’clock shadow.
“Michael,” Lucifer said taking his seat.
“Lucifer.”
They sat in silence for nearly a minute. The lawyer went to speak several times but thought better of it.
“What are we doing here Lucifer?”
“Did you not get the summons?”
Michael placed a sheet of paper on the table, “Yes. I did. Lucifer you cannot sue God.”
“Sure I can. Finding a process server on the other hand. Now that was hard to do.”
“I’m in no mood for games little brother.”
“I assure you I’m not playing. I brought representation,” Lucifer said.
“Is that what he’s doing here?” Michael asked.
“Yes. He’s quite the shark.”
“Does he realize who he’s representing?”
“Please. He’s represented the worst. Killers. Terrorists. War Criminals. I’m an improvement considering his normal clientele.”
The lawyer shrugged, knowing it’s true, “Someone has to defend them. Might as well get paid for it. Speaking of which, I have a retainer agreement right here,” the lawyer said, reaching into his briefcase.
Lucifer looked the paper over, “How about you do your job and I don’t throw you in the lawyer pit.”
“The lawyer pit?” the lawyer asked.
“Lawyers don’t have souls. So I can’t torture them. They just get chucked into a pit for all eternity.”
“Seems about right,” the lawyer said turning to Michael, “is there an attorney I should contact?”
“There are no lawyers in Heaven.”
“Will you be representing Heaven in this matter?”
“Yes.”
Lucifer smiled, “big brother, you know what they say about a lawyer who represents himself.”
“Finish that statement and I will pull your skull out through your mouth,” Michael snarled, “if you insist on this farce you will keep your mouth shut.”
And Lucifer, to the lawyer’s surprise, did so.
“My client is making a number of claims, including emotional abuse, false imprisonment, and Libel.”
“Libel?” Michael asked.
“It’s called the bible Michael.”
Michael sighed, “Continue.”
“Now, my client has decided instead of trying to take this to court he would be willing to settle.”
“Let’s hear it,” Michael said.
“My client wishes to call off the apocalypse. He doesn’t want to participate in the final battle. He will remain as Lord of Hell and will stop meddling with Earth’s affairs. Provided. He wants to be able to return to Heaven occasionally. He misses his brothers and sisters. He would also like a parade in his honor. He wishes to rehabilitate his image.”
Michael looked over the settlement, “The parade is out. But the rest looks okay. Heaven doesn’t want a war either. I’ll take this upstairs, but I think we’re good.”
He didn’t want to show it, but Michael was relieved. He’d spent eons looking for a way out of the war. He finally got his father to agree to an extension, provided his brother behaved.
Michael turned to leave.
‘There’s one more thing,” Lucifer said.
“No Lucifer. We’re good. This is good. We’re done here. Don’t ruin this.”
“I want him to apologize.”
“He’ll never do that and you know it.”
“Then tear up the deal.”
“Stop Lucifer.”
“No brother, he has to.”
“Enough!” Michael yelled. Gone was the mild mannered man. His eyes glowed a deep yellow orange. His voiced emanated through the entire dominion of Hell. Everyone stopped what they were doing. His voice was so powerful the lawyer turned to dust at the sound.
“I have had enough of this insolence little brother. I am the commander of the vanguard of Heaven. I sit at the right hand of God himself. I will no longer tolerate this,” Michael said. As he spoke, his human visage melted away giving birth to his angelic form. Armor sprouted. Large fiery wings grew out of his back.
“You couldn’t just go along,” Michael said, “we were done. The war was off. But you couldn’t just let it go. One last selfish wish. It’s always the same with you.”
“Michael I have to. He locked me away.”
“Because you refuse to listen. And now? Now it comes to a head. There are no more cute little games. No more stalling. I swear on all that is holy the next time I come here I am bringing my army. Thousands of battle hardened angels will be at your doors tomorrow morning and I will raze Hell and scatter the dust to the four winds. And then I am going to kill you. Is this what you want?”
Michael expected his brother to take his angelic form as well, and meet his challenge. But he was still in his human body. And for the first time, Michael really looked at his brother. He looked scared.
“What father commands his son to kill his brother?” was all Lucifer said, “I just…just…I don’t want to fight you Michael.”
And now it all made sense. The games. The delaying tactics.
“You were just trying to put this off? Weren’t you?” Michael asked.
Lucifer nodded. He would never admit it, but there were tears in his eyes.
“I have to Lucifer.”
“No you don’t.”
“I must. It has been written.”
“Then write a new book.”
“I can’t.”
“You can, brother.”
Michael looked not the Prince of Darkness, but his little brother. The brother he raised. Take care of your little brother, he kept hearing. It’s your duty.
“I am Order,” Michael said, “I can’t break the rules.”
“I am Chaos,” Lucifer said, “I’ll show you how.”
“They will come for us.”
“Then let them come.”
Michael hugged his brother, “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
The primordial entity known as Michael, the most powerful creature in the universe, with his brother at his side, prepared for battle with Heaven and Hell. | https://medium.com/the-inkwell/devils-advocate-2871ee845538 | ['Matthew Donnellon'] | 2019-09-29 17:21:44.234000+00:00 | ['Creativity', 'Short Story', 'Creative Writing', 'Fiction', 'Religion'] |
Hollywood’s 2021: The Year of the Comeback | “There’s a reason that the Roaring Twenties followed the 1918 pandemic.” — J.J. Abrams
It is no secret that 2020 was a particularly tumultuous and challenging year. The film industry was no exception. The industry did fare better than other industries with some notable bright spots, like massive growth in streaming platforms and successful direct-to-consumer releases, like Universal’s “Trolls World Tour” and Disney’s “Mulan”. However, it is hard to brag about this year’s performance with theater chains being closed for months in almost every country in the world and most of the year’s blockbusters delaying their release until 2021. So, while 2020 served as a pivotal year in accelerating the shift to streaming and digital consumption, it will likely, in hindsight, be viewed as a year of industry restructuring and transformation rather than a year of profit.
Fortunately, 2021 is very likely to be the total opposite — the year of the comeback. With a vaccine on the horizon and a return to “normal”, 2021 is primed to be the most explosive year for the industry in a multitude of ways. First off, Theaters will soon reopen to capture the huge “pent up” demand from previously quarantined consumers. The stacked pipeline of movies set to release is larger than most years. Film festivals are likely to resume, setting off a flurry of deal making and new projects. Production will return to full capacity once again. Lastly, studios will now reap the financial benefits of the massive consumer base acquired by the streaming platforms this year.
A Familiar Phrase: Now in Theaters
The most observable effect of the 2020 troubles faced by the industry was the closing of theaters around the world. For the most part, theaters did not have much say in the matter. With strict restrictions around gatherings, many governments mandated these closures. Some remained closed for only a few months, like in China, while others remained shut all year, like in New York City and Los Angeles.
However, the recent news of COVID-19 vaccines has shown that theatergoing will be a completely different story next year. The major theater chains, including Cinemark and AMC, saw their stock prices skyrocket shortly after the announcement of several vaccine candidates in November, signaling that revenues are expected to rise sharply in the coming months. With the expectation that the vaccine will allow a return to public gathering sometime in the first half of the year, theaters will be open for a mass of movie starved-consumers. Box office performance will once again be a key component in driving film revenues for studios and investors.
Theaters will have a plethora of new releases starting in early 2021. They will be able to capitalize on the pent-up demand from consumers after most people have gone nearly a year without seeing a movie in theaters. For example, a recent consumer survey in China showed almost 70% of respondents listed moviegoing in their top two entertainment choices after the pandemic ends. In October, with the virus largely under control in Japan, the local film “Demon Slayer: Mugen Train” sold 3.4 million tickets, generating $44 million in what was a record-setting opening weekend. It has now become the second-highest-grossing film ever in the country. It was the first time many Japanese citizens went to theaters since the start of the pandemic, another exciting indicator of the demand to come in the rest of the world.
A Backlog of Box Office Hits
Additionally, 2021 has an excellent chance of being the highest box office grossing year ever. It has been forgotten by many that 2019 was the biggest year by box office in history, reaching $42.5 billion in total revenue, with massive growth in international markets, like China, India, Brazil, and many others. If not for the pandemic, 2020 would have easily been on track to surpass it. Now, 2021 has many reasons why it could bring the industry back to new highs.
In terms of the amount and quality of movies released, 2021 is on track to be the biggest year ever. Due to the amount of rescheduled releases, every major studio has a substantial backlog of films to get out, with many top franchises and tentpoles. Some of the biggest films set to come out next year include:
The amount of blue-chip premium content that will finally be available will surely attract a flood of consumers throughout the year. There will not only be massive franchises that can generate billions of dollars but also a host of new Oscar contenders. This will be supported by the fact that the film festival circuit will likely start back up at some point in the year. All of the most notable festivals of the year, including Berlin, Cannes, and Toronto were either canceled or severely reduced in 2020. These festivals are where hundreds of films close financing and distribution deals each year, serving a critical role for the industry’s production output as a whole. So, with festivals returning again, it will give rise to a whole new wave of films for the year.
Quiet Again on Set
With the pandemic and its restrictions on gatherings winding down, the biggest hurdles for large film productions will finally end. While studios were creative at finding ways to continue production this year, it was much more costly, time-consuming, and all-around unpredictable. With a return to normal production logistics, studios will be able to make more films at a lower cost without restrictions. This is not only good news for the millions of workers in the production segment of the industry but ensures a pipeline of new content for consumers for next year and beyond.
New Audiences, New Buyers
An even more exciting development for the film industry, particularly studios and investors, is the explosion of new streaming platforms. Just in the last 12 months, several new major players have entered the scene, such as Apple+, Disney+, HBO Max, and Peacock, garnering hundreds of millions of new subscribers together. Other “incumbent” streaming platforms, like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Showtime, and CBS All-Access, have also all seen enormous customer growth during the last year of quarantine and remote work. This means that even beyond the theatrical window, films have another complementary and high-growth segment to generate revenue. For instance, this complementary dynamic is showcased perfectly in Warner Bros.’ recent announcement that, in 2021, they will release all films in theaters and on their HBO Max platform simultaneously for the first 31 days. With theaters back and licensing fees to streaming platforms rising rapidly, the next era of the film business looks to be a lucrative one.
The Start of the Next Roaring 20s
These emerging dynamics for the upcoming year spell out a story of a historic comeback for Hollywood and the broader global film industry. As a co-financer to the studios, MCT is poised to capitalize on these trends. 2021 will be one of the best years to be an investor in the industry. The resurgence of theaters, the mountain of new content, and the return of production all paint a picture of a never-before-seen year.
As J.J. Abrams touted in a recent New York Times article, “There’s a reason that the Roaring Twenties followed the 1918 pandemic. We have a pent-up, desperate need to see each other — to socialize and have communal experiences.” With a better year on the horizon, it will be a refreshing scene to see theaters, red carpets, and popcorn tins all full again as we return to a more connected and entertainment-filled world in 2021. | https://medium.com/media-capital-technologies/hollywoods-2021-the-year-of-the-comeback-fe6638ecb9e | ['Christopher Woodrow'] | 2020-12-08 16:45:39.891000+00:00 | ['Finance', 'Movies', 'Hollywood', 'Entertainment'] |
Apple Family Sharing Now Includes Subscriptions | You can now enable Family Sharing for auto-renewable subscriptions and non-consumable in-app purchases, allowing users to share their purchases with up to five family members. - https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=4zbvn7u9 Apple Documentation
This is a great feature and hopefully, a lot of developers will enable this in their apps so families can save some money when multiple family members want to use the same application that requires a subscription to access all of its features.
Some of you may not even be aware of what family sharing even is, so here is a brief explainer about ‘Family Sharing’ and then I will walk you through the setup process and how to make sure you are sharing your subscriptions.
What is Family Sharing?
With Family Sharing enabled family members can share app purchases and services so a second purchase is not required. For example, if you and your spouse want to use the same task manager application, you can purchase the application once, and then anyone in your ‘family’ can download that app for free. Another example would be Apple Arcade. Once the service is purchased the entire family has access to enjoy the service without needing to purchase it again for their devices.
Family Sharing lets you and up to five other family members share access to amazing Apple services like Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple News+, and Apple Arcade. Your group can also share iTunes, Apple Books, and App Store purchases, an iCloud storage plan, and a family photo album. You can even help locate each other’s missing devices. - https://www.apple.com/family-sharing/ Apple Family Sharing Website
Child Accounts
Any member of your family under 13 is required to be a member of a family and cannot have their own independent Apple ID. When your child reaches “adulthood”, they can take this Apple ID with them into their own private Apple life.
The child account is nice because you can set all sorts of limits on purchases and screen time once this is setup.
How to Setup Family Sharing
Open the Settings App on your iPhone Tap on your name at the top of the list (This will open up your iCloud settings) Tap on Family Sharing Tap Add Member Now select if you want to invite someone to join or to create a child account If you selected Invite a person it will bring up the share menu and you can choose to message/email anyone the invite. Once that person has followed the instructions sent to them they will now be apart of your ‘Family’ If you selected to set up a child, you will need the following information for your child
First name
Last name
Birthday
Email Address that will be associated with your child
How to share subscriptions with your family
The subscription sharing will happen automatically on all new subscriptions but it does not happen automatically for all your current subscriptions. You will need to manage your subscription and add it to your family account. Here is how to do that.
Open the Settings App on your iPhone Tap on your name at the top of the list (This will open up your iCloud settings) Tap on Subscriptions Locate the subscritpion you would like to share with your family Turn on ‘Share with Family’
If you do not see the option to ‘share with family’, this is because that developer has not opted into this program. Some developers make their own ‘Family Plans’ that have different pricing, or they have not decided on if they want to allow this functionality.
Overall I hope most developers opt into this option as I think it will help out families in these trying times and also increase the app’s user base. Alas, it will not work for all but hopefully, this feature saves your family a few dollar bucks. | https://medium.com/@themacguider/apple-family-sharing-now-includes-subscriptions-ec53aa474a48 | ['Victor T Courtien'] | 2020-12-10 02:09:52.345000+00:00 | ['Apple', 'Mac', 'iOS', 'Icloud'] |
Welcome Monday Morning ! | Bounce Back
Bounce Back! This weekend caught me by surprise as I felt a little tired on Saturday, and then not so good later that evening. But as I listened to.my body I had to take my own dose of Friday Flow medicine and allow myself to Grant Grace to …ME! I gently heard In my Spirit. ..you will Bounce Back!! And PTL SUNDAY CAME AND THAT I DID
Too often we push through warnings and knowing, fearful of what we may miss out on (nosey lol) or miss doing. We can be our own worst critics, but please know Beloved that you can BOUNCE BACK. A little time of recovery when Prescribed is always in order. Allow the Re- freshing to occur propelling your forward in the BOUNCE and receive the New Pep in Your Step!
I release a new buoyancy , bounce, a new spring and greater elasticity over you now!
I pray a New SUNDAY and NEW DAY for you on today in your walk, your life your prayers and your plans! Spring Forth, and remember to
Welcome Monday Morning!
#welcomemondaymorning #recovery #mindyourvisions #selfcare#givegrace#prayervisionfaith#praywellstaywell | https://medium.com/@kimberlyarnelle/welcome-monday-morning-7c34e1951ba3 | ['Kimberly Arnelle'] | 2020-12-26 22:20:40.776000+00:00 | ['Grace', 'Bounce Back', 'Recovery'] |
The Mission Hotel, San Francisco’s Largest SRO, Now Provides Free Internet to Hundreds of At-Risk Residents | The Mission Hotel, San Francisco’s Largest SRO, Now Provides Free Internet to Hundreds of At-Risk Residents ShelterTech Follow Oct 27, 2020 · 3 min read
Mission Hotel, 520 South Van Ness Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94110
We recently accomplished a major milestone that will help us to accomplish our goal of providing all Bay Area shelters with WiFi access by 2024. On October 5, 2020, we completed installation of a WiFi network at the Mission Hotel — San Francisco’s largest Single-Room Occupancy (SRO) Hotel. Through incremental funding and partnerships, hundreds of at-risk residents now have free internet access, making it possible to easily communicate with friends and family, utilize crucial resources, and develop technological and vocational skills.
For this project, we partnered with the City of San Francisco’s Digital Equity team to deliver 1GB fiber/ISP capability at no cost to the building. Cisco, which is a new partner of ShelterTech’s, generously donated equipment. Installation was provided by PCS-SF, a San Francisco-based IT support and services company. Funding for this project was partially provided by a grant from PagerDuty, Inc. a provider of global digital management solutions also based in San Francisco.
The Tenderloin Housing Clinic (THC), a local nonprofit dedicated to low-income tenant’s rights and preserving and expanding San Francisco’s low-cost housing stock, has overseen the location’s operations since 1999 through the SRO/Master Lease Program.
“We are truly grateful to Sheltertech for their partnership with THC and for their commitment to making WiFi accessible to tenants in our largest supportive housing site, the Mission Hotel. Having access to the internet is vital for individuals to stay connected, educated, and able to explore resources, especially during this health crisis that has impacted many of our tenants who suffer from mental health or substance use dependency,” Janet Aguilar, Director of Support Services at THC, said.
Originally constructed in 1907, the Mission Hotel stands at 520 South Van Ness Ave., in the hub of the historical Mission District, which is characterized by both its largely Latino and Chicano residents and artistic scene. Since the late nineties, this area has struggled with gentrification, and, as a result, the displacement of native residents, comprising mostly Latino American middle-class families. Despite these trends, this 240-room location remains an integral part of the community by providing shelter to people facing homelessness or housing insecurity.
“We are delighted to work with THC to help bridge the digital divide for their residents. Thanks to all of our partners for helping make this project possible,” said Bill Soward, Executive Director at ShelterTech.
At ShelterTech, we are inspired every day by the belief that digital equity and connectivity is a right, not a privilege, providing people in need with a pathway to build a brighter future. Phase 1 of our program to provide all Bay area shelters internet access by 2024 is already underway and currently serves 18 shelters and over 4,000 residents per year.
“There is no doubt that the WiFi services at the Mission Hotel will be an essential tool that will enable tenants to learn, stay current with information, and access online support groups and current events,” Janet Aguilar said.
ABOUT SHELTERTECH
Founded in 2016 and based in San Francisco, ShelterTech’s all-volunteer tech team has been on the front lines helping to bridge the digital divide for over 9,000 people experiencing homelessness and thousands more who are housing insecure. Working in close collaboration with the City of San Francisco, frontline services organizations, local corporations, and community representatives, ShelterTech is committed to delivering solutions built by the community, for the community. ShelterTech has two primary programs: SF ServiceGuide, an online directory of all San Francisco Shelters and Services and ShelterConnect, free WiFi for shelters. | https://medium.com/shelter-tech/the-mission-hotel-san-franciscos-largest-sro-now-provides-free-internet-to-hundreds-of-at-risk-f72761c62c2e | [] | 2020-10-27 00:23:35.200000+00:00 | ['Homeless', 'SF', 'Community', 'Homelessness', 'Gentrification'] |
A New Perspective On Virtual Reality | Reap The Rewards For Challenging Your Intelligence and Leave Your Iconic Mark On The World
Virtual Reality is more than just a video game or visual simulation. The potential of VR will have far-reaching ramifications on the evolution of our species because it represents the expression of our multidimensional quantum computing imagination coming into “form.”
It’s where technology and the mystical/metaphysical unify.
The “machinery” of human psychology must be upgraded in order to process the higher/faster frequencies of consciousness in which the definition of “real” and the meaning of “reality” open up dramatically, and most aren’t be ready to face this shift.
Everything is possible and there must be space to handle paradoxes that the human mind can’t comprehend from lower states.
The more resistance one holds against the malleability necessary to allow infinite possibilities, the more conflict will reflect itself in one’s environment and on the planet.
We are not meant to “vanquish” lower non-preferred frequencies out of existence because they are “wrong” but realize cosmic consciousness is like a CableTV Guide with numerous channels.
The more an individual finds the power of their conscious attention and masters the mechanics of their own signature channel instead of unconsciously consuming the old mass collective one, the more rapidly the shift into The Passion Age will unfold. | https://medium.com/@jeremyalasman/a-new-perspective-on-virtual-reality-4fc525dc637a | ['Jeremy Lasman'] | 2020-12-02 18:46:36.977000+00:00 | ['Quantum Mechanics', 'Virtual Reality', 'Imagination', 'Technology', 'Legacy'] |
Using Optuna to Optimize XGBoost Hyperparameters | This post uses XGBoost v1.0.2 and optuna v1.3.0 .
XGBoost + Optuna!
Optuna is a hyperparameter optimization framework applicable to machine learning frameworks and black-box optimization solvers. XGBoost isis an optimized distributed gradient boosting library designed to be highly efficient, flexible and portable. Let’s see how they can work together!
Creating the Objective Function
Optuna is a black-box optimizer, which means it needs an objective function, which returns a numerical value to evaluate the performance of the hyperparameters, and decide where to sample in upcoming trials.
In our example, we will be doing this for a cancer detection example from the Optuna GitHub pruning examples folder. In this case, the objective function looks like this:
That’s a long block of code, so let’s break it down into pieces and look at how Optuna is tuning the hyperparameters. Notice that the objective function is passed an Optuna specific argument of trial . This object is passed to the objective function to specify which hyperparameters should be tuned. This returns the accuracy of the model, which is used by Optuna as feedback on the performance of the trial.
Defining the hyperparameters to be tuned
Optuna allows you to define the kinds and ranges of hyperparameters you want to tune directly within your code using the trial object. This saves the effort of learning specialized syntax for hyperparameters, and also means you can use normal Python code for looping through or defining your hyperparameters.
Optuna supports a variety of hyperparameter settings, which can be used to optimize floats, integers, or discrete categorical values. Numerical values can be suggested from a logarithmic continuum as well. In our example, we optimize the hyperparameters here:
There are a number of different kinds of hyperparameters set here. The booster is chosen from trial.suggest_categorical(“optimizer”, [“gbtree”, “gblinear”, “dart”]) . lambda varies by orders of magnitude, so trial.suggest_loguniform('lambda', 1e-8, 1.0) is used , which will vary the values logarithmically from .000000001 to 1.0. Depending on the booster being tested (if boost or dart ), Optuna leverages normal Python looping to determine the depth using trial.suggest_int(“max_depth”, 1, 9) .
Running the Trials
The default sampler in Optuna Tree-structured Parzen Estimater (TPE), which is a form of Bayesian Optimization. Optuna uses TPE to search more efficiently than a random search, by choosing points closer to previous good results.
To run the trials, create a study object to set the direction of optimization ( maximize or minimize ). Then, run the study object with study.optimize(objective, n_trials=100) to do one hundred trials.
Each trial is chosen after evaluating all the trials that have been previously done, using the TPE sampler to make smart guesses where the best values hyperparameters can be found. The best values from the trials can be accessed through study.best_trial. Other methods of viewing the trials, such as formatting in a dataframe, are also available.
Pruning — Early Stopping of Poor Trials
Pruning trials is a form of early-stopping which terminates unpromising trials, so that computing time can be used for trials that show more potential. In order to do pruning, it’s necessary to open up the black-box of the Objective function some more to provide intermittent feedback on how the trial is going to Optuna, so it can compare the progress with the progress of other trials, and decide whether to stop the trial early, and provide a method to receive a method from Optuna when the trial should be terminated, and also allow the trial in session to terminate cleanly after recording the results. Fortunately, Optuna provides an integration for XGBoost ( XGBoostPruningCallback ) pruning that provides all of these functions.
After defining the pruning_callback , it is passed to the training to allow XGBoost to do the pruning, and ensure unpromising trials are stopped early.
To the Future, and Beyond!
Plot Contour Visualization
For those interested, Optuna has many other features, including a visualizations, alternative samplers, optimizers, and pruning algorithms, as well as the ability to create user-defined versions as well. If you have more computing resources available, Optuna provides an easy interface for parallel trials to increase tuning speed.
Give Optuna a try!
Installation
Optuna Github | https://medium.com/optuna/using-optuna-to-optimize-xgboost-hyperparameters-63bfcdfd3407 | ['Crissman Loomis'] | 2020-04-27 06:49:49.184000+00:00 | ['Xgboost', 'Optuna', 'Hyperparameter Tuning', 'Hyperparameter'] |
The Polkadot Ecosystem ETF Whitelist is Now Live! | Today the team is thrilled to announce that Plethori’s first ETF offering, the Polkadot basket, is officially available for whitelisting.
Exclusively for PLE 2.0 holders, the community can now secure their spot to be the very first bearers of Plethori’s premier ETF — the $PEF token. The single requirement is that they must hold a minimum of 20k PLE (currently valued at just $535). This will be a standard requirement for all future whitelists (so grab some while it’s cheap!)
Users must hold this 20k balance in their Metamask (or alternative) wallet. If the balance drops below 20k before the book-build begins then they will no longer be eligible to participate.
NB: Staked PLE will not count towards this balance.
Click here to join the $PEF whitelist.
Minimum PLE balance: 20k PLE
Maximum individual pledge amount: $10k USD
Minimum cap before book-build: $100k USD
All personal details (email and tg/twitter handle) will be kept in strict confidence.
For users who have yet to swap or buy the new PLE 2.0 token:
The new token was launched on Uniswap V3 at a price of $0.035 and can be purchased via this link: Buy $PLE 2.0
Plethori’s new $PLE token contract address is:
0x3873965e73d9a21f88e645ce40b7db187fde4931
Existing PLE holders are now invited to swap their old PLE tokens for the new token. For full details on how to swap, CLICK HERE.
Polkadot
Polkadot’s specialness as a blockchain comes from its technical functionality as one giant cross chain which is in constant communication with a network of other blockchains, called parachains. This will allow it to offer an unprecedented level of community governed, scalable, and network secure transactions. Although Polkadot already commands an impressive market capitalization as a top ten cryptocurrency, this is little compared to what Polkadot is set to become as it moves beyond its testnet rollout and launches functional parachains.
The Polkadot ETF Basket
Kylin (KYL) — Polkadot’s decentralized data infrastructure solution is what Chainlink is to Ethereum. Powered by Polkadot/Substrate, the Kylin Oracle offers multiple, real-time data sources with complementarity and synergy to off-chain workers. Plethori believes it will be massive once the parachains launch.
Polkafoundry (PKF) — describes itself as a one-stop dApp factory set to revolutionize blockchain by providing interoperability with NFT, DeFi and web 3.0 ecosystems. Their protocol will allow developers to build NFT auctions and marketplaces, open lending platforms, cross-chain DEXs, DeFi derivatives, decentralized insurance, and prediction markets. With rock solid fundamentals, Polkafoundry is a must for Plethori’s Polkadot ETF.
Polkastarter (POLS) — requires little introduction to anyone familiar with IDO’s; they are the biggest and most successful launchpad to date. Even though they currently exist on the ethereum network, they plan to migrate to Polkadot so that they can continue to refine cross-chain token pools and auctions for projects that want to raise capital in a decentralized and interoperable environment. Given their proven track record, Plethori expects that they will continue to offer outsized return to investors.
Phala (PHA) — is a privacy-preserving cloud computing service, which offers computing power comparable to existing cloud services while also managing to protect the privacy of their managed programs. As a Polkadot parachain, Phala is the only confidential contract protocol that keeps interoperability and composability. Plethori believes that as the Polkadot ecosystem continues to mature, Phala’s obvious utility will distinguish it as a top token in its sector.
Chainx (PCX) — enjoys the unique distinction of being the first project launched in Polkadot’s ecosystem. By expanding Bitcoin’s Layer 2 financial platform, Chainx wants to introduce cross-chain asset exchange. Employing Polkadot’s interoperability will allow them to realize their goal of promoting Bitcoin’s value flow, enriching financial derivative opportunities and improving hedging tools.
Each of the underlying assets will be weighted at 19%. The remaining 5% will be comprised of PLE 2.0 tokens. This will have a deflationary impact on the PLE token with each ETF that is rolled out. It will also cause a spike in PLE price each time the underlying assets are purchased.
For more details on the Polkadot Ecosystem Fund, please check out our Medium article here. | https://medium.com/@Plethori/the-polkadot-ecosystem-etf-whitelist-is-now-live-7687b11f3d74 | [] | 2021-08-09 14:22:48.948000+00:00 | ['Ethereum Blockchain', 'Etf Investing', 'Plethori', 'Polkadot Network', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
Local SEO | Local SEO should be at the forefront of all conversations when it comes to operations, marketing, digital presence, and overall existence.
There are many factors that play into Search Engine Optimization and is a service that takes a lot of work, analysis and understanding of all the factors that play into it. SEO is not a $299 a month package or just putting up some pages on your website. SEO is invasive and data driven that takes people, not a widget, to put your best effort forward. Knowing where to start to understand or even what to look at is the hardest part.
We start with NAP and it doesn’t involve sleeping. NAP stands for Name Address Phone. By simply missing an apostrophe on one website versus Avenue spelled out or abbreviated to AVE makes a world of difference in the realm of local SEO. There are citation services out there, and many agencies and companies offer them as well, to update all your listings from one location. This is a vital aspect to customers being able to find you when they are looking. Pay attention to the details, because they matter. Having capital letters, abbreviations, etc. all matter in how you’re being ranked. Visit here to run a scan to see how you are listed across citations.
It’s always a shock to see how many errors there are and missing citations all together. Citations are also referred to as local listings, business listings, and can be found on any website, app or presence that lists out your name address and phone numbers for customers to be able to reach you. You think you spend all this time and work with all these companies that everything should be covered, but the internet is not slowing down anytime soon. Lots of newer sites are grabbing information from other sites so there is a potential with one wrong piece of information to be affecting multiple websites if not more.
We are offering a discounted price to anyone signing up this month for listings management. Contact us today and see how we can help! | https://medium.com/shifting-gears-dom360/local-seo-3259d16e9ecd | [] | 2018-03-21 18:01:16.181000+00:00 | ['SEO', 'Expertise', 'Digital Marketing'] |
A FEW THOUGHTS ON THE #FUTUREOFWORK WITH A FEW FRIENDS. | We didn’t know what was going to happen. But lots of people in tech knew that #remoteworking was going to be BIG. How? As technology was always going to play a key role in the next stage for humanity.
As I said in 2015… (See left…)
This seems rather apt for a budding futurists to say. And so I stand by it.
The future of work is going to be about the technology. Who uses it and on who.
But it won’t be just about technology.
The future of work is going to be about. Who you decide to work with. Or remote work with. And who you decide to collaborate with.
As at Your FLOCK our little tech startup helping support people whilst they remote work, we are all about collaboration, not just as a brand value but as an action point.
As something to stand by.
We work together or we fall apart. You can either go fast alone — or you can go far together.
What do you think?
DO YOU COLLABORATE ENOUGH?
In this new world, for many, of remote working and working from home. It’s the people who you work WITH that can raise your spirits and lift your heart. It’s not just your work colleagues but who you partner with, who helps you, who you pick as suppliers.
The whole ecosystem.
As much wise people than I have said:
“It takes a village… to raise a child”
And it takes a MUCH bigger village to create a successful start up or business. It truly does. Perhaps that’s why we built office blocks and cities?
The more and more time we spend apart the more we realise we need each other. Nothing is alone. Everything is part of a larger whole.
As businesses we have to start using technologies that help support our people more whilst remote working.
For example, you could use Your FLOCK to discover your values. You could invite your colleagues to Your FLOCK too. To help them discover their values and where they might need more support. And if You are a team leader — you could become more of a coach than a boss. As working out more about Your colleagues whilst they are working from home is going to be key to understanding the BIG issue in 2021.
And what’s that key issue…
RAPID CULTURAL CHANGE:
It’s going to kill off some businesses — let me tell you. But for now — the take home is that You have to get to know your people more. You have to get to know WHO you are working with. Whether remotely or otherwise.
“Your company culture cannot be the office when the office is no longer there.” Dan Sodergren 2020
The who you work with IS your company.
In more than one sense of the word….
You company in the new world. Will need everyone to lead. As I said in Jeremy Blain’s new book — The Inner CEO
“The future of work is all about the very soul of our organisations. It’s about human values. And how people work together. It’s not just about technology.”
And technology will help. Ideas like Zoom* and Slack**, and Trello and Your FLOCK are all built to help teams be better remote working. But it’s deeper than that. Which is why I was happy to write this.
“To succeed in the modern workplace organisations need to adapt, challenge traditional structures. And unlock the power within the changing workforce. That is done by a culture shift that underpins a new age of empowerment.”
THE INNER CEO
What I like about the book The Inner CEO is that it provides the rationale and the blueprint to make it happen for real. With a more collective approach to organisational leadership, that encourages everyone to step up and go beyond their job description.
This is the new worker. The future worker. Where the employee is willing to become much more and much more productive because of it.
But we will only do this for companies that we believe in and that we share values with.
Which is why now more than ever you have to stand for something.
You have to work out your values. You have to find your tribe.
A great example of this was a non-company collaborative meet up of fellow thinkers and doers arranged by a large telecoms and tech business. Very few of us have met more than once in person — but we all share some of the same values.
So a big thanks to you all.
If you don’t follow them already you should.
Lovely to be with:
@nigewillson @BillMew
@sallyeaves @edbrewster
@WearablesExpert @katieeking
@cgledhill @hdduncan
@NeilCattermull
And my alter ego too @Ukmarketinghelp
The point is that … The strength of the future of work will be around the strength of your collaboration and Your tribe.
Which reminds me. We have some seriously cool collaborative work coming out before Christmas for www.YourFLOCK.co.uk
Thanks Huawei for the invitation too — most kind.
Now there’s a company with some strong values and culture. So strong that WHOLE books have been written about it…
About the author
Dan Sodergren
Co-Founder YourFlock.co.uk; Head of Diversity, Manchester Publicity Association; Founder, Great Marketing Works; Technology futurist and advocate as seen on BBC TV and News and BBC Radio. | https://medium.com/@dansodergren/we-didnt-know-what-was-going-to-happen-e100b7f69c55 | ['Dan'] | 2020-12-11 16:28:26.114000+00:00 | ['Future Of Work', 'Company Culture', 'Collaboration', 'Your Flock', 'Startup'] |
MetiCore It Really Work | What is Meticore? What Makes it So Different?
50% Discount
Meticore s a weight-loss inducing dietary supplement available in capsule form that has to be taken once daily and is available only on their official
Now there are different kinds of weight loss medications, ones work by directly tackling the fat that you consume with your food, others are anorexiants which work as an appetite suppressant and others work in making you feel fuller sooner.
Then there are meal replacers — supplements that you’re intended to take instead of your regular meal. Some others require you to alter your meal pattern completely or eat only specific foods for a certain length of time.
Meticore, takes an altogether different approach. It’s proprietary mix literally turns up the heat in your body, which in turn bolsters your body’s metabolism, which again in turn makes your body burn fat rapidly.
The six superfood ingredients that power Meticore are able to achieve this. Not only weight loss, Meticore is known to give you smoother skin and better hair as well — owing to the rich nutrients, vitamins and minerals it is composed of.
According to the manufacturer, Meticore has been used successfully by thousands of users with repeat orders and there have been zero side effects reported by anyone. You don’t have to take our word for it, you can see the positive reviews
Do Meticore Pills Really Work?
Classifying Meticore as a weight loss pill or diet pill would be a misnomer, since it is a complete nutrient packed, stimulant free dietary supplement.
Its main job is to jolt your metabolism & give it a solid boost, a job it seems to do pretty well.
Overweight people gain weight rapidly or find it difficult to lose weight easily even with exercises and starvation diets. The culprit for this is their slow metabolic rate.
The slow metabolic rate happens because of the lower body temperature that most overweight people have when compared to leaner people.
Meticore aims to fix this by using a real science supported by actual medical evidence anyone can read online right now.
The ingredients in Meticore are designed to raise your body’s core temperature slightly. This results in an increase in activity at a cellular level — which triggers your metabolism.
When you take Meticore daily, it keeps your body’s temperature increases, thereby ensuring that your metabolism is running at a high gear, resulting in weight loss.
However, the reason we called it a dietary supplement earlier is not just this. The benefits of Meticore go beyond this.
Owing to its composition, Meticore – | https://medium.com/@rd147579/meticore-it-really-work-379e19806146 | ['Coach Certification'] | 2021-11-25 17:21:40.312000+00:00 | ['Weight Loss', 'Men', 'Mental Health', 'Women', 'Fat Burning Foods'] |
Well, That Didn’t Take Long | Photo by Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash
Here I was, still relaxing after Thanksgiving and thinking — at least in one little corner of my mind — that the days when I would have an easy target to pick on were soon ending.
I started blogging because I thought that some of the stories being covered or talked about in newspapers and on television — and blogs, and pop-up news feeds and facebook and twitter and all the rest — weren’t telling the whole story.
That clearly didn’t last too long. I got Trumped.
So, as the clock ticks down, I thought I could get back to where I started, seeing how all those media platforms cover things like the economy and science, religion and sports. Maybe even culture or agriculture or population demographics. After all, who knows what the future will bring?
Forget it. I think I will have a new target to pick on, a whole new source of troubling actions that will linger over our society like a dark cloud, leaving a trail of wreckage in its path.
Yes. The Supreme Court.
There are three new Trump-appointed judges on that court, which has always said courts don’t make any new laws, they just interpret what people can legally do as defined in the Constitution.
No politics here. Except for that one judge who got mad when President Obama dared criticize him publicly and refused to go to his swearing in for a second term. Forget decades of tradition. Hissy-fit is the new norm.
Now why am I going a little crazy about this, especially when President Biden hasn’t even taken office yet?
Well, it was that recent court decision being celebrated by a lot of Orthodox Jews and leaders of the Catholic Church — the one that said New York’s Governor, Andrew Cuomo, was wrong, wrong, wrong, in imposing really strict limits on how many people could go to houses of worship in areas which had become coronavirus hot zones.
Now if you don’t live in New York, you may not know that some religious groups — particularly some Orthodox Jews — have been proudly and publicly defying limits on public gatherings, and showing as much contempt for wearing masks as motorcycle riders at the Sturgis rally. Some church groups were doing the same thing. For example, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn went to court seeking an injunction against the ban.
Now, right up front I have to admit I though the restriction — limiting church attendance (I just don’t want to have to type church and state every time it comes up, just assume those six little letters — church — stand for church and temple, synagogue and mosque, Christian Science reading room and a whole batch of other things) — was too harsh.
After all, there was no consideration of how big the church was. You could put 20 people in a storefront house of worship and be crowded, 500 in some of the biggest ones had have two out of three seats still empty.
It’s a really complex issue. After all, when you are in church, you pray. Out loud. You normally sit shoulder to shoulder with strangers for an hour or so, all breathing in and out in what is usually an older building which does not have a lot of air exchanges per hour.
But, the ban wasn’t sophisticated. It just set a limit. Of course, coronavirus cases were going up sharply in those hot zones, and people flouting regulations about things like social distancing and mask wearing were leading to things like hospital overcrowding and lord knows what else.
So, the Supreme Court ruled that the Governor’s ban was unconstitutional. The 5–4 decision simply said the Governor had overreached. He was found guilty of ignoring constitutionally protected religious freedoms which clashed with public health concerns.
Why am I upset? After all, a lot of priests and rabbis (and all the other religious leaders) thought it was a good and important thing to do, to curb the ever-growing influence of secular government over religious freedom.
Heck, you have probably seen the plot on television lots of times. A criminal confesses to a priest, and a wrong man is put in jail. What can the priest do? The confessional is sacred.
Now I used to argue stuff like this with Jesuit-schooled friends when I was younger, but we where just having fun. Now, however, the Supreme Court has put the whole issue front and center.
The question is where do you draw the line. Lots of people want to gather in a building and worship as they choose. Free to do it? Good. Lots of people want to gather outdoors for a religious ceremony. Free to do it? Good.
Lots of people want to go to church on Sunday and there is no place to park. Some of them park by a “no parking” sign and get a ticket. Their lawyer says the city or town is keeping them from worshiping. Tear it up? Good.
A church is having a 30-day worship ceremony. Or the mosque is having a 30-day observance, or the temple is having an eight-day service at the end of the year, or someone wants to go to mass all through Lent. Tear up all those parking tickets too?
If you think that’s all too ridiculous to actually happen, I spent a couple of years doing stories about a temple in Westhampton Beach that wanted to erect an Eruv — a symbolic piece of string on telephone polls. It would — define an area where they could do things otherwise banned by their religion as working on God’s declared day of rest — things like wheeling a baby carriage to services. I also covered arguments in Southampton Village on whether a religious group could worship in a building that did not have adequate parking.
I can hardly wait until the Supreme Court gets to decide what groups can claim to be a recognized religion. After all, what if some anti-Trump demonstrators were to demand next week that police can’t interfere with their right to worship right there in the street. Or on the beach. Or in front of the White House. With their sacred protest signs.
All of the country’s motorcycle riders could form their own religion, and make gathering in Sturgis once a year as a holy pilgrimage. Hey, what could go wrong?
Well, in Minnesota, they identified 51 people who came down with coronavirus from the Sturgis rally and 35 more who got the disease from them. Four were hospitalized, one died. It led to a month-long shutdown of bars.
You know, I know some people who use wine as part of a religious service. Some of them think their church is wherever they pray.
Set ’em up, Joe. First drink is on the Supreme Court. | https://medium.com/@mitch209/well-that-didnt-take-long-49ca5d4cac84 | ['Mitchell Freedman'] | 2020-12-15 02:09:20.908000+00:00 | ['Supreme Court', 'Politics', 'Church Vs State', 'Covid'] |
Programming Tutorials Aren’t a Waste of Time | Why Programming Tutorials Aren’t a Waste of Time
A defense for follow-along coding tutorials.
Candid photo of my monitor as I struggle to use WebGL in Rust
So maybe you’re learning to code and trying to navigate through the endless information there is for starting out, or maybe you’re an experienced programmer and you have grown to understand the faults of programming tutorials. For beginners, I want to show why you should consider following along with React’s tic tac toe tutorial, or a YouTube series on building a Twitter clone. As for other programmers, I have a feeling you will be picking up a new stack sometime in your career, so this may be helpful for you as well.
I’ll start off with a recap of what I understand to be the cons of programming tutorials and why so many people have started to leave them in the dust, for something else, i.e. ~project-based learning~.
Why programming tutorials are bad
Programming tutorials don’t teach you how to code. You might build a little familiarity with whatever language you’re using from coding along with a tutorial, but copying someone’s code, regardless of whether you use different variable names, will serve as little to no valuable practice coding. Because you aren’t figuring it out yourself, you aren’t exercising your mind to think algorithmically or design your program.
Why project-based learning is good
Because these skills make up a large bulk of programming work, people usually turn to project-based learning because it does a much better job of helping you learn these skills. By throwing yourself headfirst into a project, you force yourself to figure things out on your own, and through doing so, you learn all the necessary skills and resources for a project. You build your confidence in your ability to code using your project’s tech stack, and all of this experience will serve you much better going into future projects and work experiences.
Why programming tutorials are also good, but for different reasons
So first, I want to say, I actually agree with a lot of programmers on the things I just said. I think that projects are infinitely better than programming tutorials for actually learning and building confidence in your coding ability. But I also believe there’s merit in programming tutorials that gets overlooked because of this comparison.
This semester I spent some time exploring web development. I started out very interested in frontend development, and I wanted to learn one of the main frontend frameworks, React. They have a tutorial on their website where you build a simple tic tac toe web app.
After completing this tutorial, did I know React? No, not really. But I did know what components looked like, and I had an idea of their usage. I couldn’t build a controlled input off the top of my head, but I learned that concept, and when I worked on my own project in React later, I knew what to look up, and I had my working code to play around with.
Programming tutorials can be helpful in the very beginning because they immediately familiarize you with working examples of code. It gets the ball rolling by providing you with a base of experience that provides evidence of how things are done, and things you know you can do.
A great data science YouTuber Ken Jee often recommends going on Kaggle and looking through other people’s code to familiar with common packages, tools, use cases, etc. You start to recognize patterns, and things start to connect and make sense subconsciously. This is a similar thing.
A lot of coding is looking up how to do things, and being resourceful with your search engine. I would say that the time spent working through a programming tutorial can be worth it because it can make you better at finding what you’re looking for online. | https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/why-programming-tutorials-arent-a-waste-of-time-cb5ca2552046 | ['Alec Chen'] | 2020-12-09 17:49:03.863000+00:00 | ['Coding', 'Software Development', 'Programming', 'Learning To Code', 'Computer Science'] |
The Best Beauty Products Off Amazon (2020) | As 2020 comes to an end, I’ve realized how many purchases I’ve made off Amazon — some amazing and others were full of regret.
Here are my top 3 finds I’d repurchase again
La Roche-Posay Toleriane Face Wash Cleanser, Purifying Foaming Cleanser for Normal Oily & Sensitive Skin ($15)
This face cleanser is great for normal, oily, and sensitive skin! I cannot tell you how much this cleanser has saved my skin. A pea size amount mixed with a drop of water, it foams up like a cloud, providing a luxurious feeling on the skin. Simply wash away with warm water and quickly apply toner after! The cleanser leaves the skin feeling soft, glowy, and hydrated. I’ve introduced this product to all my friends and they all rave about it.
2. Moroccanoil Treatment ($44)
This hair oil is simply amazing and makes my hair feel brand new. As someone who often dyes her hair, this oil hydrates and replenishes damaged hair. It does not leave the hair feeling oily or weigh down it down. I use it about twice a week depending on how often I shampoo my hair. 1 pump goes a long way. I recommend starting at the ends and working my way up. It’s best used on damp to almost dried hair. If you apply the oil while the hair is too wet, it’ll slip right off. 1 bottle has lasted me 6 months and I can see what a difference it’s making. My hair feels stronger, softer, and grows longer. Great stocking stuffer idea!
3. CURE Simply Smoothing Shampoo — Coconut Water & Marula Oil ($10)
Along with the hair oil mentioned above, this shampoo is the perfect pair for it. This shampoo cleans the hair without drying it. It smooths, softens and reduces frizz, increases manageability and boosts shine. Additionally, it is vegan and certified cruelty-free. Also Paraben free, Sulfate free, Mineral oil free, Petrolatum free and Formaldehyde free! This shampoo doesn’t leave the hair greasy. A quarter size amount is needed and then gently massage into the scalp. It doesn’t lather as much as a regular shampoo but still cleanses.
2020 was a chaotic year and self care is important! Let me know if you try out these products in the comments below. | https://medium.com/@xxweekend-lust/the-best-beauty-products-off-amazon-2020-aeec0614f84a | [] | 2020-12-22 19:44:20.956000+00:00 | ['Beauty', 'Self Care', '2020', 'Influencer Marketing', 'Amazon'] |
Holography, Augmented Reality and The Problem With Iron Man | Holography, Augmented Reality and The Problem With Iron Man
Mr Stark, I don’t Feel So Good…
The ability to manufacture extremely small, high-resolution displays is essential to the advent of immersive computing, wherein the digital and physical worlds merge across a variety of applications. If you’ve ever seen Iron Man (or, well, pretty much any Sci-fi film made in the last thirty-odd years), you’ll be familiar with one of the staple graphics of the ‘hi-tech’ future: the immersive display.
In the image above, a rather concerned Tony Stark takes note of an extensive array of information presented in an augmented reality display in his helmet — somewhat more rudimentary versions of this technology are currently in use across various military and aerospace applications, like the $400,000 F-35 helmet.
The F-35 helmet, and pretty much all modern Augmented Reality displays, use microdisplays to project a two-dimensional image on an ostensibly clear surface, as above.
Where’s the depth?
The problem with such otherwise industry-changing technologies is that they fail to create real depth — everything in Tony’s helmet is in focus all the time on a flat plane, so he’s limited in the amount of information he can display, as well as the depth contexts in which he can display it.
Think of depth in this context like this: if you have a pair of AR glasses on guiding you along a google-maps like interface as you stroll around some unfamiliar place, you’re really just seeing a two-dimensional image close to your eye, like holding a very small phone screen up to your face. With a true depth display, you’d see the map stretch out into the road, so that it appears to actually integrate with the environment and cling to the world as we see it, in three dimensions.
So, if a missile’s flying towards Tony, his visor will simply show him a two dimensional graphic warning him that he’s about to get blasted to smithereens, rather than the display actually mapping to the environment and signaling the missile depth in three dimensions. Oops.
But because the real-world is, well, actually three dimensional, current AR applications are forced to use a variety of tricks to simulate the illusion of depth. These tricks only fool the psychological perception of depth, and thus your eyes don’t actually interact with such displays as if the graphics they project represented real objects.
As if flying around in a metal suit fighting aliens all day isn’t stomach-wrenching enough, these depth illusions cause a mind/body conflict, which can lead to the colloquial ‘simulator sickness’ — so, sorry Tony, but it looks like nausea, motion-sickness, and fatigue might spoil your flight. Bye bye, New York.
Now, thankfully, it’s unlikely that you’ll ever be in such a precarious situation as our pal Stark — however, with increasingly immersive VR experiences using Near-Eye Microdisplays to generate virtual environments, you’ll almost certainly be able to experience that same exhilaration without any of the, you know, potential death. But, even without that admitted downside, you’ll still be navigating a two-dimensional environment tricking your mind into an illusory and weak sense of depth perception, doling out those same negative simulation sickness related repercussions prone to spoil an otherwise enjoyable evening.
Softwhere?
So then, here’s the inevitable point: increasingly smaller, higher resolution, higher frame rate microdisplays provide the hardware bedrock for the future of computing. Most likely, this consists of immersive applications across both industrial and commercial use cases, like Iron Man’s Helmet-Mounted Display, or VR gaming. Essentially, the future of computing consists of the virtual blending with the real, transforming and reimagining the ways in which we interact with information and technology.
What’s missing is a software which removes limitations of current capabilities in immersive computing, like simulation sickness, and generates real depth with variable focus — to unlock the potential of microdisplays by not tricking your mind into perceiving depth, but actually stimulating the physiological depth cues we experience while interacting with the real world. We have a word for these life-like simulations, and you’ve probably heard it before: Holograms.
Yep, Holograms. Holodeck, Minority-Report, Star Wars Jedi-Council ‘we do not grant you the rank of master’ holograms. Ironically, the main barrier between you and Tony Stark is an appropriate holography-enabling software and not the advent of a fully-functioning pew-pew laser-blasting death trap of an Iron Man suit. Generating real-depth holograms in order to, among other things, do away with simulation sickness and usher in the age of truly immersive computing, requires a combination of increasingly proficient microdisplays and a software suite capable of generating dynamic holograms in real-time using off-the-shelf hardware.
In other words, science-fiction is a lot less fictional than you might think, and the holographic future is just barely round the corner. | https://medium.com/vividq-holography-blog/holography-augmented-reality-and-the-problem-with-iron-man-3f34e511400e | ['Vividq Ltd'] | 2018-12-12 14:36:15.235000+00:00 | ['Virtual Reality', 'Hologram', 'Augmented Reality', 'Mixed Reality', 'Marvel'] |
What Pornhub and Peloton Have in Common With Facebook | What Pornhub and Peloton Have in Common With Facebook
An online speech expert explains why no online platform will be spared from content-moderation controversy
Photo: Brett Carlsen/Getty Images
For years a battle of ideas has raged over the limits of online speech, focused largely on Facebook, Twitter, and to a lesser extent YouTube. Innately resistant to the messy and expensive work of policing users’ speech, those vast platforms have grudgingly enlarged their moderation workforces, expanded their content policies, and toughened their enforcement in response to media backlashes, congressional hearings, regulatory threats, advertiser boycotts, and revolts from their own employees. Professional racists such as Milo Yiannopoulos, conspiracy theorists such as Alex Jones, and even grassroots movements such as QAnon have all been booted from major platforms for violating policies after significant backlash. Public officials such as Donald Trump now find themselves fact-checked or their posts hidden. Misinformation about Covid-19 and voting is being throttled or taken down.
These battles are far from over, and may never be. But for all the attention paid to a few high-profile platforms, countless other online forums have largely avoided scrutiny of their content policies — so far.
That will change, says Evelyn Douek, a law lecturer at Harvard who researches online speech. And it will change in a hurry, she believes. She has developed a working theory of online speech that explains why, and offers some clues for what platforms should be doing about harmful expression — ideally before they find themselves in the headlines for the wrong reasons.
The Pattern
Content moderation controversies aren’t just for social networks anymore.
On Friday, New York Times columnist Nick Kristof published an exposé about Pornhub, the massive pornography site that has sought to position itself as a more or less respectable internet giant with a mischievous streak. His reporting makes the case that Pornhub systematically profits from heinous sexual crimes by hosting and monetizing user-posted videos without sufficiently careful oversight. From the story:
That supposedly “wholesome Pornhub” attracts 3.5 billion visits a month, more than Netflix, Yahoo or Amazon. Pornhub rakes in money from almost three billion ad impressions a day. One ranking lists Pornhub as the 10th-most-visited website in the world. Yet there’s another side of the company: Its site is infested with rape videos. It monetizes child rapes, revenge pornography, spy cam videos of women showering, racist and misogynist content, and footage of women being asphyxiated in plastic bags. A search for “girls under18” (no space) or “14yo” leads in each case to more than 100,000 videos. Most aren’t of children being assaulted, but too many are.
Pornhub’s response mirrors that of other platforms unaccustomed to being confronted publicly with their ugliest underbellies. The company’s comments were terse and defensive, insisting that it has the problem under control while declining to discuss how, or with what resources. One anonymous moderator estimated to Kristof that Pornhub’s parent company, Mindgeek, has just 80 moderators worldwide. In short, it seems to be doing the bare minimum and hoping to get away with it. A clearly indignant Kristof — arguably going a bit overboard — calls on everyone from payment processors to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to crack down on the firm. At the same time, he acknowledges that a rival porn site, Xvideos, may have “even fewer scruples” and “attract more videos,” even as it mostly skates by in his piece. Whether or not Pornhub is quite as culpable as Kristof contends, it seems likely that the online porn industry is in for some nasty news cycles.
The company’s comments were terse and defensive, insisting that it has the problem under control while declining to discuss how, or with what resources. One anonymous moderator estimated to Kristof that Pornhub’s parent company, Mindgeek, has just 80 moderators worldwide. In short, it seems to be doing the bare minimum and hoping to get away with it. A clearly indignant Kristof — arguably going a bit overboard — calls on everyone from payment processors to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to crack down on the firm. At the same time, he acknowledges that a rival porn site, Xvideos, may have “even fewer scruples” and “attract more videos,” even as it mostly skates by in his piece. Whether or not Pornhub is quite as culpable as Kristof contends, it seems likely that the online porn industry is in for some nasty news cycles. The story fits a pattern that Douek has been tracking for a while now. “It’s the inevitable life cycle of a user-generated content platform,” she says. It goes like this:
1. Someone, often an activist or journalist, finds abhorrent content on Platform X.
2. It becomes a scandal, and pressure builds as more examples are uncovered.
3. The platform eventually takes action, but does so in a haphazard and reactive way, geared toward solving the PR problem rather than the underlying issues.
4. Sooner or later, its inconsistent approach to moderation sparks a backlash of its own.
Perhaps it should have been obvious that this day would come for a platform such as Pornhub. But Douek’s theory holds that it will also come for platforms that do not seem like obvious candidates for content moderation controversies. In short, she says, “ If you’re going to have users generating content, you’re going to have users generating harmful content ,” Douek said in a phone interview. “And you need to be thinking in advance about what you’re going to do about it.” It has the ring of a law of the internet, akin to Poe’s Law or Godwin’s Law. Perhaps we could call it Douek’s Law, though she rejected the moniker when I half-jokingly suggested it.
,” Douek said in a phone interview. “And you need to be thinking in advance about what you’re going to do about it.” It has the ring of a law of the internet, akin to Poe’s Law or Godwin’s Law. Perhaps we could call it Douek’s Law, though she rejected the moniker when I half-jokingly suggested it. Obvious as the thesis might seem, every week now seems to bring fresh examples of platforms that have failed to take its implications to heart. We’ve seen Spotify struggle to explain why it was okay for its podcast star Joe Rogan to host Alex Jones, whom Spotify had banned from its platform two years earlier. The fast-growing newsletter platform Substack so far has resisted calls to take down “Stop the Steal” posts even as Facebook has taken aggressive action against groups pushing debunked election-fraud claims. Even Peloton, of all companies, faced a minor content moderation dustup after a Washington Post editor spotted QAnon hashtags among the options for connecting with like-minded cyclists. (Peloton later removed them.)
We’ve seen Spotify struggle to explain why it was okay for its podcast star Joe Rogan to host Alex Jones, whom Spotify had banned from its platform two years earlier. The fast-growing newsletter platform Substack so far has resisted calls to take down “Stop the Steal” posts even as Facebook has taken aggressive action against groups pushing debunked election-fraud claims. Even Peloton, of all companies, faced a minor content moderation dustup after a Washington Post editor spotted QAnon hashtags among the options for connecting with like-minded cyclists. (Peloton later removed them.) For platforms squarely in the social media business, and especially those that algorithmically amplify content, there’s no excuse at this point for treating content moderation as anything short of central to the operation . That’s why Douek often picks on YouTube as a company that has too often tried to duck the scandals facing its rivals, rather than tackling them head-on. She argued in Wired last month that its CEO Susan Wojcicki should have been alongside Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey when a Senate committee grilled them about their role in the 2020 election.
. That’s why Douek often picks on YouTube as a company that has too often tried to duck the scandals facing its rivals, rather than tackling them head-on. She argued in Wired last month that its CEO Susan Wojcicki should have been alongside Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey when a Senate committee grilled them about their role in the 2020 election. As Douek sees it, the progress that Facebook and Twitter have made on content moderation will eventually ratchet up the pressure on other platforms , from YouTube on down. The more restrictive the social media giants become, and the more problems they address (however imperfectly), the more those problems will migrate to sites with less-developed rules and moderation systems. And the more pressure those smaller platforms will face to address them. For example, Joe Rogan hosting Alex Jones on Spotify probably wouldn’t have sparked such an outcry if he hadn’t already been deplatformed elsewhere. My own employer, Medium, drew scrutiny for its moderation of Covid-related posts after Facebook announced tougher policies against pandemic misinformation.
, from YouTube on down. The more restrictive the social media giants become, and the more problems they address (however imperfectly), the more those problems will migrate to sites with less-developed rules and moderation systems. And the more pressure those smaller platforms will face to address them. For example, Joe Rogan hosting Alex Jones on Spotify probably wouldn’t have sparked such an outcry if he hadn’t already been deplatformed elsewhere. My own employer, Medium, drew scrutiny for its moderation of Covid-related posts after Facebook announced tougher policies against pandemic misinformation. As the Peloton example illustrates, however, not every online platform that hosts user-generated content is in a position to delve headfirst into the thickets of online speech policy. Or as Douek put it, “Not every bike startup is going to want to hire a whole bunch of experts on internet culture or signaling.” That’s an issue I discussed with another prominent online speech researcher, UCLA’s Sarah Roberts, when I wrote about online gaming platforms’ problems with child exploitation. For some of the larger and more social platforms, such as Roblox or Minecraft, investing in moderation is almost certainly necessary and worthwhile. But for others, Roberts suggested it might be simpler just to shut down messaging features that they lack the will or resources to adequately moderate.
Or as Douek put it, “Not every bike startup is going to want to hire a whole bunch of experts on internet culture or signaling.” That’s an issue I discussed with another prominent online speech researcher, UCLA’s Sarah Roberts, when I wrote about online gaming platforms’ problems with child exploitation. For some of the larger and more social platforms, such as Roblox or Minecraft, investing in moderation is almost certainly necessary and worthwhile. But for others, Roberts suggested it might be simpler just to shut down messaging features that they lack the will or resources to adequately moderate. Douek offered another prediction: The rise of content moderation as a service . There are already startups offering A.I. tools for detecting patterns that might indicate hate speech or child grooming. It isn’t a stretch to imagine a future that includes firms offering human platform moderation, for those unwilling or unable to take it on themselves. “I think we’re going to move to a place where we start to view content moderation as part of the infrastructure of these kinds of platforms,” Douek said. “But there are lots of concerns with that. It’s not infrastructure. We don’t want to depoliticize these issues and think of them as just technical issues, or non-value-based judgments because they clearly are.”
. There are already startups offering A.I. tools for detecting patterns that might indicate hate speech or child grooming. It isn’t a stretch to imagine a future that includes firms offering human platform moderation, for those unwilling or unable to take it on themselves. “I think we’re going to move to a place where we start to view content moderation as part of the infrastructure of these kinds of platforms,” Douek said. “But there are lots of concerns with that. It’s not infrastructure. We don’t want to depoliticize these issues and think of them as just technical issues, or non-value-based judgments because they clearly are.” There is a sense in which online speech is an unsolvable problem, Douek said. “There’s always going to be harmful content, there are always going to be debates over what harmful content is, and where to draw the line, and there are always going to be mistakes.” But that doesn’t mean we should throw up our hands, she added. She suggested at least two places to start making progress. One is more transparency from platforms, without which it’s easy for critics to misdiagnose their problems and arrive at misguided solutions. The other is for platforms and their critics alike to focus less on quick, concrete outcomes — such as banning a loathed individual when the backlash gets loud enough — and more on rules and processes that will be consistently enforceable in the future. “We will never come to a stable agreement on perfect content moderation rules,” Douek said. “So we need to construct better ways to disagree about them. Forever.”
Undercurrents
Under-the-radar trends, stories, and random anecdotes worth your time.
Speaking of Facebook and content moderation, Facebook’s Oversight Board has selected its first six cases. Depending on your perspective, the board is either a laudable experiment in accountable self-governance on Facebook’s part, or a PR exercise meant to paper over the fact that Facebook has built a fundamentally ungovernable platform. (Can it be both?) As Rest of World’s Louise Matsakis noted, the initial slate of content moderation decisions appealed to the board “concern many of the same topics that have plagued Facebook for years: hate speech, nipples, Nazis.” Most of the cases came from outside the United States, which makes sense, given that most Facebook users do, too.
Depending on your perspective, the board is either a laudable experiment in accountable self-governance on Facebook’s part, or a PR exercise meant to paper over the fact that Facebook has built a fundamentally ungovernable platform. (Can it be both?) As Rest of World’s Louise Matsakis noted, the initial slate of content moderation decisions appealed to the board “concern many of the same topics that have plagued Facebook for years: hate speech, nipples, Nazis.” Most of the cases came from outside the United States, which makes sense, given that most Facebook users do, too. NYC Media Lab’s Justin Hendrix pointed out that five of the six “deal with images posted with an intent other than what the image itself contains.” To me that highlights Facebook’s struggles to discern context and subtext when applying its rules — a common problem with moderation at scale.
The cases notably skirt the platform’s biggest recent domestic controversies, which revolved around Trump and election misinformation. They also drew relatively little media attention stateside, probably for the same reason. The selection suggests the board is taking a sober, global approach to its role — but maybe also that it’s erring on the conservative side with respect to taking controversial stands or potentially irking the company that funded it. Taking up a Trump case would have been polarizing, sure. It would have also been a show of independence, and a bid for relevance, from a board that faces justifiable skepticism on both counts.
Is techno-optimism making a comeback? Techno-optimist Caleb Watney of the Progressive Policy Institute thinks so, and he has the Substack links to back it up. He tweeted a quartet of recent posts making the case for a return of genuine innovation as a force in the economy. The cycle appears to have been kickstarted by economist Tyler Cowen, who in 2011 wrote a book called The Great Stagnation, publishing a brief post raising the possibility that said stagnation may be nearing an end. The most interesting of the responses may be the one from Noah Smith, who suggests that innovation in the 2020s may be driven more by advances in science than software.
Techno-optimist Caleb Watney of the Progressive Policy Institute thinks so, and he has the Substack links to back it up. He tweeted a quartet of recent posts making the case for a return of genuine innovation as a force in the economy. The cycle appears to have been kickstarted by economist Tyler Cowen, who in 2011 wrote a book called The Great Stagnation, publishing a brief post raising the possibility that said stagnation may be nearing an end. The most interesting of the responses may be the one from Noah Smith, who suggests that innovation in the 2020s may be driven more by advances in science than software. A lot of this feels like understandable enthusiasm about the forthcoming Covid-19 vaccines, more than the defense of Big Tech one might expect. And anyone who was already inclined to be skeptical of “techno-optimism” will probably notice that the authors here share some demographic traits that make them, well, more likely to be techno-optimists. Still, the takes are useful as a reminder that technology means more than just software, and retains the capacity to change society for the better, even as that has become a tired cliche in Silicon Valley. As Smith puts it, “technological progress in the 2020s will not necessarily be concentrated in ‘tech’ as we know it.”
Chart of the Week
Complaints about scented candles having no scent, mapped against Covid case counts.
— Kate Petrova | https://onezero.medium.com/what-pornhub-and-peloton-have-in-common-with-facebook-d46dbef09b55 | ['Will Oremus'] | 2020-12-05 13:39:54.357000+00:00 | ['Pornhub', 'Content Moderation', 'Pattern Matching', 'Peloton', 'Facebook'] |
Trump may have Violated the Ku Klux Klan Act | The day after President Donald Trump invited three Michigan Republicans to the White House to discuss not certifying the state’s election results, a civil rights organization filed a lawsuit in the District of Columbia’s Circuit Court alleging the president and his campaign violated a post-Civil War law meant to bar disenfranchising voters “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
The Michigan Welfare Rights Organization (MWRO), who filed the lawsuit alongside four Black voters who cast ballots for Trump, said in the document that the president’s “repeating [of] false claims of voter fraud” and “pressuring [of] state and local officials in Michigan not to count votes from Wayne County, Michigan (where Detroit is the county seat)” would essentially “disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters,” many of whom are Black.
“Defendants’ tactics repeat the worst abuses in our nation’s history, as Black Americans were denied a voice in American democracy for most of the first two centuries of the Republic,” the 12-page document reads.
The judge assigned to this case? None other than Judge Emmitt Sullivan, who you may recall from the infamous Michael Flynn prosecution.
While Sullivan’s presence is sure to bring enough fireworks for lay observers, it is important to understand the historical gravity of the charge against President Trump and members of his campaign.
What the KKK Act Is and Isn’t
Trump and his campaign are accused of violating 42 U.S.C.A. §§ 1983 — AKA Section 1 of the Ku Klux Klan Act — which was created to help enforce the provisions of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments.
Known as the Third Enforcement Act, the law was passed in 1871 during a period known as Reconstruction. It was meant to directly respond to widespread violence and voter intimidation against Black communities by white people and members of law enforcement.
It protects “any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof [from] the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws.” It also holds that parties found to violate the law “shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress, except that in any action brought against a judicial officer for an act or omission taken in such officer’s judicial capacity.”
At the time of its passage, the US was still reeling from the Civil War and in the midst of monumental change. For the first time in history, two Black men were seated in the Senate — Hiram Revels and Blanche Bruce, both of whom were from Mississippi. Similarly, the first public school systems in the south opened and, according to the Smithsonian, there was broad support for “guaranteeing full citizenship rights to all Americans, regardless of race.” Leading the charge was a former Confederate officer named Amos T. Akerman, the US Attorney General from 1870 to 1871.
President Ulysses Grant appointed Akerman to handle the onslaught of postwar legislation flowing through the newly minted Department of Justice because he respected Ackerman’s sense of honor. When he was appointed, Akerman was said to have defected from the Democrats to the Party of Lincoln because “Some of us who had adhered to the Confederacy felt it to be our duty when we were to participate in the politics of the Union, to let Confederate ideas rule us no longer….Regarding the subjugation of one race by the other as an appurtenance of slavery, we were content that it should go to the grave in which slavery had been buried,” according to the Smithsonian.
Yet, while these “emancipationist” policies were enacted, outside forces worked to grow the chasm between White and Black America.
As historian Ron Chernow detailed in his biography of Grant, Mississippi enacted laws that prohibited Blacks from enjoying recreations like hunting or fishing while white militias under auspicious names like the Jefferson Davis Guards sprung up across the nation.
This created a situation where racial terrorism ran rampant in Mississippi. During the first three months of 1870, Chernow found over 63 Black people were murdered, and the guilty parties spent a total of zero nights in jail. The US Attorney for the state was said to have remarked that “if it weren’t for the presence of the US army, the Klan would have overrun north Mississippi entirely.”
However, these atrocious acts were not only committed by private citizens. Many members of law enforcement participated as well, which is exactly what the KKK Act is designed to address. Section 2 of the Act makes it illegal to “conspire to deprive people of their equal protection under the law.” Sections 3 and 4 authorize redress against state officials who are complicit in such acts.
However, the effectiveness of the law has waned since its passage. The year it was enacted, over 3,800 convictions were secured in its name. Since then, few outside the Klan have been prosecuted under the Act. Most of the time, Section 1 is invoked in cases against law enforcement officers. But, the law has proven to be an ineffective tool, at best.
Rendering of Judge Carlton Reeves. Credit: CNN
The KKK Act Today
In the modern era, the KKK Act has been primarily cited in qualified immunity cases — a legal theory that posits a civil servant can’t be held accountable for crimes in which there is a discrepancy between the facts and the Constitutional provisions in question.
Qualified immunity is an incredibly potent defense. Several constitutional scholars agree the theory protects all but the “plainly incompetent or those who knowingly broke the law,” according to an article in the Yale Law Journal. To this end, the KKK Act is a toothless shark.
Judge Carlton Reeves, who occupies a federal bench seat in the Southern District of Mississippi, took the Act to task in his opinion in Jamison v. McClendon, a case where a white police officer dismembered a Black man’s rental car over suspicions the driver was carrying drugs.
According to the opinion, Officer McClendon subjected Jamison to over two hours of “badgering…pestering…and lying…” before conducting a top-to-bottom search of his car for drugs. McClendon left Jamison’s car in pieces, totaling over $4,000 in damages. As Judge Reeves succinctly said, “Nothing was found. Jamison isn’t a drug courier. He’s a welder.”
However, because there is no settled law concerning the actions law enforcement officers must take during traffic stops, his request for qualified immunity — which Judge Reeves said reeked of absolute immunity — was granted.
“But, let us not be fooled by legal jargon,” Judge Reeves wrote in his opinion. “Immunity is not exoneration. And the harm in this case to one man sheds light on the harm done to the nation by this manufactured doctrine.”
Photo by Maria Oswalt on Unsplash
On the Future
It should be noted that this lawsuit has little chance of success. If US 42 1983 can’t be used to prosecute police officers, there is no way it will touch a sitting President.
However, the unflattering weakness of the law’s enforcement is already shaping the future of American politics — namely, it underpins the GOP’s attack on voting rights for Blacks, Indigenous, and other people of color.
“[Trump’s] systematic efforts — violations of… the Ku Klux Klan Act — have largely been directed at major metropolitan areas with large Black voter populations. These include Detroit, Milwaukee, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and others. Defendants have not directed these efforts at predominantly white areas,” MWRO’s lawsuit says.
The truism Republicans tend to rely on in these efforts goes like this: smaller turnouts favor the Right while large turnouts favor Democrats. 2020 was a perfect example.
The Brennan Center for Justice has been tallying the numerous post-election lawsuits attempting to roll back voting rights across the country. While the sheer volume itself is overwhelming, a few through lines appear.
One of the most damning narratives is that Trump and his campaign are diligently working to redefine “eligible voters” and “eligible votes” as those who regularly participate in elections and come from predominantly white cities and counties.
Sen. Rand Paul (R — KY) made a similar argument on Fox Business when he said he was “very, very concerned that when [officials] solicit votes from typical non-voters, that [the voters] will affect the outcome [of an election].” By non-voters, Paul obviously means “non-whites.”
These arguments are already starting to have an impact on the first election of 2021, the runoff for both of Georgia’s senate seats. The Center for Public Integrity recently labeled the state a “hot bed of voter suppression tactics.” Even though the state rid itself of the Jim Crow-era poll taxes, the state is one of 19 that still requires voters to show ID to vote.
Georgia also has an aggressive method for purging voters from registers. Many believe these tactics are what delivered the state governorship to Brian Kemp over Stacy Abrams in 2018.
Since the 2020 election ended, NBC News found 40% of Georgia’s most populous counties have reduced polling places ahead of the senate runoff. Each county mentioned has a sizeable BIPOC population. Similarly, a recent lawsuit alleges over 200,000 voters were illegally purged from voting rolls ahead of the 2020 election.
What may be more damaging is that Trump’s repeated lies about the scale of fraudulent votes cast in 2020 are being used as justification to reverse key voting rights policies.
In Wayne County, Michigan, election canvassers signaled their support for such measures when one canvasser said she would be “open to certifying the rest of Wayne County (which is predominately white) but not Detroit (which is predominately Black), even though those other areas of Wayne County had similar discrepancies and in at least one predominantly white city, Livonia, the discrepancies were more significant than those in Detroit,” according to the lawsuit.
One way to combat these GOP efforts is to restore the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to its original condition. In 2013, the Supreme Court struck down an important provision of the law, which opened the door for local jurisdictions to make it more difficult to vote. Recently the American Civil Liberties Union recommended President-elect Joe Biden issue an Executive Order to restore the Act to its former prominence.
Congress could also pass legislation to strengthen federal enforcement of voting laws. However, this will be a pipedream if the GOP manages to retain control of the Senate.
Still, it is tough to imagine a more un-American act by a sitting president. Even Mitt Romney had to break with his party in defense of voting rights for all Americans.
“Having failed to make even a plausible case of widespread fraud or conspiracy before any court of law, the President has now resorted to overt pressure on state and local officials to subvert the will of the people and overturn the election. It is difficult to imagine a worse, more undemocratic action by a sitting American President,” he said. | https://robertdavis0414.medium.com/trump-may-have-violated-the-ku-klux-klan-act-ce413f51c89a | ['Robert Davis'] | 2020-12-26 18:48:10.982000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Trump', 'Racism', 'Law', 'Elections'] |
Statewide campaign serves students with most to gain, but least likely to apply for financial aid | In Washington, there are two different applications for financial aid, but people only need to file one. U.S. citizens and eligible non-citizens should file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. People who can’t file the FAFSA because of immigration status can file the Washington Application for State Financial Aid.
Washington placed 48th in the nation last year for the number of students who completed the FAFSA, a high number of them coming from lower-income households. That means Washington students missed out on more than $50 million in student financial aid.
“Many students may not have a sense of value about why they would continue their education,” Meotti said. “Some are interested, but may think that financial aid doesn’t cover career-connected programs, like an auto service technician at a community college — but the Washington College Grant covers that in addition to welding and other career programs. So, we want students and their families across the state to know what’s available.”
WSAC’s campaign also aligns with Inslee’s Career-Connected Learning initiative, which aims to connect 100,000 young people with employer internships, registered apprenticeships and other learning opportunities. Many of these new jobs will not require a traditional four-year degree. While Inslee supports all types of higher education outcomes, he said this program opens up more options for students regardless of if they pursue a four-year-degree or a registered apprenticeship. WSAC also makes financial aid available to undocumented students.
Students fill out financial application and college applications at H.M. Jackson High School in Mill Creek earlier this year. (Photo courtesy of Jeanne Willard at Everett Public Schools)
Getting the message out is the first step. The second step is helping students finish the applications. Meotti said that’s why WSAC is also about to launch a new, text messaging tool called “Otter” that offers low-income students help with the FAFSA and WASFA. They can get help 24/7. Arizona is the only other state to roll out a similar tool.
Otter will send text-based nudges to seniors about important deadlines for financial aid and college. Research shows that this strategy can boost financial aid filing and college enrollment.
“We are the first state where the government made a financial commitment to use technology to support lower-income students and help them with financial aid applications,” Meotti said.
The 12th Year Campaign doesn’t target just high school seniors and their parents. WSAC has also rolled out resources to local organizations so they can hold events for adults to get help with college and financial aid applications. WSAC is building on existing partnerships with community leaders, nonprofits and community-based foundations, such as a local Chambers of Commerce or the Big Brother Big Sister Program.
Students take a bagel and coffee break at H.M. Jackson High School during the school’s financial aid application event. (Photo courtesy of Jeanne Willard at Everett Public Schools)
Superintendent Chris Reykdal from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction said he would support a bill that would require high school seniors to complete a financial aid application before graduating.
“The application is the most powerful way for low- and middle-income families to pay for college,” Reykdal said.
During the next five years, Washington employers will need an estimated 740,000 workers in such fields as advanced manufacturing, health care technology, maritime and clean energy. The governor said it’s just one more reason why the economy needs students from all educational pathways.
“We have one of the most progressive financial aid systems in the country now and it reflects a key part about why we’re ranked as the number one state to live and work,” Inslee said. “We wants students to follow whatever career and passion they choose, and we don’t want them facing massive loan burdens in order to fulfill those dreams.”
You can learn more about applying for the FAFSA or WAFSA on the WSAC’s website. | https://medium.com/wagovernor/statewide-campaign-serves-students-with-most-to-gain-but-least-likely-to-apply-for-financial-aid-2974de9e515 | ['Wa Governor S Office'] | 2019-11-22 21:36:22.298000+00:00 | ['Washington College Grant', 'Education', 'Career', 'Student', 'Financial Aid'] |
Defining Trauma in the Human Experience | Defining Trauma in the Human Experience
In order to believe something as human beings, we want the math to add up. We want to calculate a+b=c. We want answers, to everything, because reason serves as the basis of our understanding. When we understand something, we can identify and conceptualize meaning. From here, we form our beliefs based on what we know (or think we know) to be true.
We all know there is good and bad. Everyone experiences happiness and sadness. This spectrum of emotion is the human experience. Every human will have varying experiences on this spectrum of emotion. No one person will have the same exact experience being human. Everyone is endowed with their own minds to conceptualize their human experience, which shapes the way each person perceives their human experience.
We all wear our own unique glasses, looking through different lenses to view the same world.
In this looking glass of the human experience, we see light and dark. With our different minds, we develop varying consciousnesses that conceptualize the contrast we experience being human. This is how the emotional spectrum of the human experience is formed. Every human being has different experiences in their lifetimes which expose them to the contrast of the universe — the light and the dark.
The extent to which someone experiences contrast determines the extent to which someone will experience the spectrum of being human.
Human beings who experience a lot of darkness in life have more contrast to sift through as they perceive the world. Like every human, in their perceptions of contrast, their minds must conceptualize their experiences. When you are exposed to more contrast, it can become harder to conceptualize your experiences.
Through the lens of grave contrast, some people’s minds become limited to only perceiving their experiences. When someone has traumatic experiences, they witness darkness their minds cannot conceptualize.
Even the traumatic experiences that “logically” have some reason for taking place — like generational trauma — familial cycles of abuse and poverty — those who experience this trauma are thrown so deeply into the emotional spectrum, it completely transforms the neural pathways of their minds.
Traumatized human beings have to totally reprogram the very basic functions of their brain — how it perceives and conceptualizes their inner and outer worlds.
Integrated Learning Systems takes the definition of trauma and expands upon it, defining it as:
“The response to a deeply distressing or disturbing event that overwhelms an individual’s ability to cope, causes feelings of helplessness, diminishes their sense of self and their ability to feel the full range of emotions and experiences.”
Traumatic experiences cannot be conceptualized. The horrific events some people experience strips their brain’s ability to feel their full range of emotions. Although emotions have been diminished, controlled, and manipulated by society at large — our emotions are the very elements that define what it is to be human. Emotions are the GPS of our human experience. When someone experiences trauma, their brain cannot make sense of the complex emotions that these traumatic events induce.
Trauma affects each person so adversely, how each person responds to trauma varies greatly. Every person, whether you’ve experienced trauma or not, will travel the spectrum of emotions differently. This is why traumatized human beings will either experience no emotion at all or become completely overwhelmed by their emotions. Anger, sadness, or indifference become the defining emotion(s) of someone’s life.
Reason has historically served as the basis of our understanding.
As I’ve defined the human experience, it is a journey of perceiving and conceptualizing our experiences.
As human beings, reason has historically served as the basis of our understanding (a+b=c). Most of the world defines their lives by the elements they can form reason out of. If I have a job+I’ll have money=I’ll be secure. From this, we try to add emotions like happiness to the equation. If I have a job+I’ll have money+I’ll be secure=I’ll be happy.
This is a failing formula for the human experience.
Yes, what you conceptually know about your life can, and for most people, does determine the life you perceive. This is especially true for survivors of trauma. This terrible thing happened to me (or a loved one)+I am helpless=I will never be happy again.
Everyone, trauma survivors, and those without adverse life experiences form their perceptions of themselves and the world by this means of understanding through reason. This is where trauma survivors are left feeling totally helpless and out of control since traumatic experiences cannot be conceptualized.
Unable to feel their full range of emotions and make sense of the darkness they’ve perceived, trauma survivors battle being human at all.
Looking for answers as a trauma survivor
As a survivor of generational trauma, child abuse, poverty, and domestic violence, I constantly found myself asking why these things happened to me and my family. Evolving into adulthood, I frequented the depths of my soul and traveled the earth searching for answers. I dove head-first into the academic and medical world of trauma. Even as I learned the cycles of trauma and abuse, and could intellectually understand the history of violence and poverty I was born into…
I was still left with wounds that no logic could heal.
Since I could remember I’ve been a very sensitive and emotional person. On the spectrum of human emotions, I would become overwhelmed by mine, most times I couldn’t even identify the complex emotions I was feeling. Even when I was happy, I harvested deep loneliness that’s stayed with me for most of my life. Being mocked for my sensitivity as a child, I wished to not feel anything, to be hard and cold, so I could never feel anything again.
Still, my emotions took center stage (it’s the Pisces in me). I found ways to express myself and my pain through my passions — yoga, music, writing, and friendship. By the grace of God and my own endeavors, I discovered healthy outlets to experience a fuller range of my emotions. In 2014 I took my first yoga class at my university, this led me to develop a spiritual practice that I now define as the centerpiece of my healing.
Healing trauma through my spiritual practice
Founded in India, the varying practices of yoga are established in Eastern philosophies and religions. Most famously known is Buddhism. Yoga introduced to me these millennial-aged spiritual practices that changed my life forever.
I’m acutely aware of the modern stigmas that one may have in regard to religion and spirituality. I am not here to force a belief or a way of life that holds no resonance for anyone reading this. My intention is to share my story in healing trauma, in hopes a fellow survivor or loved one may gain another tool in their toolbox for healing.
As I began exploring spiritual practices like yoga, meditation, mindfulness, grounding my body, connecting with nature — I became reconnected with my mind, body, and soul. I truly believe that the spiritual path is the journey of healing. I believe no matter who you are, or what you’ve gone through, we’re all healing from something.
Like everything, spirituality holds stereotypes implying that everything is all rainbows and butterflies, all light and love and peace. When I made the conscious decision to embark on my healing journey and the spiritual path, I began experiencing the darkest nights of my soul. Making this decision to dive into yourself, confront your wounded beliefs and insecurities, and willingly traveling the darkest places inside of you — this is what the spiritual path is. This is what healing is.
Healing is finally feeling all the pain your mind couldn’t and wouldn’t let you process at the time.
The ugly truth of healing
Meditation shows you the lies you’ve been telling yourself. It shows you the war that’s been raging inside of your mind, without you even being conscious of it. The stillness forces you to stop distracting yourself and get to the root of why you hate yourself, why you don’t feel good enough, why you desperately seek validation from everyone (hello, daddy issues).
Healing is ugly. It’s hard and unforgiving. Healing requires you to look at your wounds for the first time and not run away in fear of how big they are. It’s looking every demon in the eye that’s ever haunted you and kept you up at night. Healing is discovering that your soul only gets darker the deeper you go. When you begin healing, you don’t stop. Your pain demands to be felt. It demands to be seen and heard and listened to. Your pain will rule your life, subconsciously or consciously, until you finally stop to tend the bleeding.
For trauma survivors, healing is finally feeling the full range of emotions you weren’t able to feel before. This is grueling, agonizing, and some days the trauma will win. Some days the darkness will grab you and keep you down. Healing is getting up out of bed and trying again the next day.
Healing is holding the little girl in your arms that hid terrified behind the couch as her whole world came crashing down. It’s letting her cry for the first time.
How a spiritual connection assists your healing
Like trauma, healing is hard to conceptualize. This is where my spiritual practices showed me universal truths that transformed my healing journey and my experience being human. Opening yourself to the possibility that there are cosmic forces that govern the light and darkness on this planet, can help you finally begin to conceptualize the answers you’ve been looking for.
Exploring a connection with the divine, god, source energy, light, whatever you want to call it — helps you make sense of your place in this world as a human being. A spiritual connection offers you the whole picture of your human experience that your human mind has been failing to understand.
When I woke up to the truth that we are spiritual beings, having a human experience; that we are more than our bodies and our minds and all the terrible things that have happened to us — this is when the light bulb went off.
A relationship with the divine grants you a higher perspective your pain has prevented you from having. Spirituality doesn’t change your problems, it changes your perception of your problems. It gives you a different lens to look through. Your darkness becomes something you view from a higher vantage point. Strengthening your spiritual connection strengthens you. When you tap into the eternal love that creates worlds, the love that created the miracle that is you; this is a force that can defeat any darkness. You are shown that you have everything you need within you to truly heal.
Trauma and tragedy cannot be justified or reasoned but with a higher perspective, you develop the ability to give purpose to your pain. The universe has equipped you with every resource, every experience, every person, every ounce of strength, and willpower you need to heal. Your healing is only defined by you, it will look different from everyone else and your healing is on a timeline unique to your soul. Through exploring your spiritual connection, and in turn the connection with yourself, in time you discover all you need to overcome the darkness that’s kept you down all along.
Starting therapy and receiving my PTSD diagnosis
Although healing and mental health has been the focus of my life coming into adulthood, I didn’t start therapy until March of this year (2020). The many healing tools I’ve mentioned so far, spirituality, yoga, music, and journaling brought me to a place where I was personally ready for therapy. Even though I was consciously healing my childhood trauma, like most people, I didn’t think I needed therapy until I needed therapy… ya know?
Above all else, therapy gave me that final reason for why. Why I’ve had nightmares and insomnia my whole life, why I’m anxious all the time, why I can’t have a healthy romantic relationship, why I respond and react the way I do, why I feel like this big, reckless spiraling ball of emotions sometimes.
For me, personally, therapy painted the true picture of my upbringing and the various roles my family plays in my life and my traumas. After my first therapy session, I was diagnosed with PTSD. When I first heard those words, I was taken aback. I proceeded to fill out a simple 10 question survey by the American Psychology Association and I started laughing to myself. All the symptoms and experiences I thought I was just destined to suffer through “being me”, were all pieced together right in front of me.
The day I received my PTSD diagnosis is a day I will remember the rest of my life. It was the day the invisible enemy became clear.
For the first time, I was holding my fear, instead of it holding me.
For the first time, the shadows of my soul were fully brought to light. That night I did hours upon hours of research on PTSD and it’s effects on the brain. This gave me so much power that I’ve never had before. As a human being, I could finally conceptualize why I perceived everything the way I did.
I received the power to remove the lenses life gave me and put on a new pair of my own rose-colored glasses. | https://medium.com/@courtneyfayebrown/defining-trauma-in-the-human-experience-a661dfbcd59c | ['Courtney Faye Brown'] | 2020-12-27 21:00:37.908000+00:00 | ['PTSD', 'Trauma', 'Healing', 'Mental Health', 'Spirituality'] |
Review: The Psychology of Strategy | I am sometimes prone to hyperbolic praise of books and authors (as I am to equally equally hyperbolic criticism of them) so take this with an grain of salt. But I can say without further reservation that Kenneth Payne’s The Psychology of Strategy is a book that might just help us repair and rebuild what is sadly an increasingly broken discipline.
Payne, a trained political psychologist, uses political psychology to analyze the ways in which the US blundered in Vietnam. As Payne notes, the methodology is not scientific — it merely uses well-known psychological notions as a way to frame possible explanations for strategic decisionmaking. However, the work does open up some room for a broad explanation of strategy as a cognitive activity.
Several themes emerge that I feel are very important: cognitive and evolutionary underlays to strategic decision making, the importance of strategy as a group activity, and pathological problems in modeling the opponent.
First, as my professor William Kennedy has observed in his work on fast and frugal decisionmaking in agent-based models, agents should be assumed to have rapid and resource-efficient modes of decision behavior that correspond to meeting needs in the decision environment. More broadly, anyone modeling human behavior should not assume that humans are purely random or general-purpose computers. Too often strategy assumes the strategist as a kind of disembodied strategy machine that lacks any broadly cognitive or “hardwired” mechanisms of decision behavior. Payne’s book focuses expressively on both strengths and weaknesses in human rationality and its impact on military decisionmaking.
Given that Lawrence Freedman’s book has looked at distinctions of different design idioms for strategy (e.g. “strategy from below” of Marx and Gramsci and others vs. more traditional military-strategic behavior), one interesting follow-on research topic would be to understand what kind of images of human decision behavior each of Freedman’s strategic design idioms seemingly presume.
Second, agents respond to how both the external environment (nature and other agents) as well as their own behavior affects their state. Strategy is implicitly cast as an individual activity in both standard conceptions of a “master strategist” or a game-theoretic agent, but the problem is that strategy is a messy group activity characterized by reciprocal causation. Agents may seek esteem within the group or be influenced by group norms, but their actions also influence the group state as well as the external environment.
Payne successfully argues that while to political scientists this is subsumed into “groupthink” or “bureaucratic politics” or even “two-level games,” that conception fails to get at the cognitve and emotional implications of strategic decision behavior. I thought this was a particularly apt criticism given that levels of analysis in social science research concerning this is terminally inconsistent. The use of social psychology and identity theory is particularly of interest here.
Finally, conceptions of the “enemy” and how it will respond to adversarial stimulus are frequently wrong, sometimes horribly so. This comes out especially during the sections on airpower in the book. A big challenge, which I think is under-explored by strategic researchers, is showing how a system of one agents can reason about how to impact and effect the other adversarial system in the manner desired. Payne looks at this quite a bit, but due to the focus of his book on the US one does not see how it is reflected in opponent behavior.
On the whole, despite Payne’s own admitted limitations, his book is an prominent template for how strategy might be rebuilt. Instead of a heroic image of the strategist or the strategy-making organization that we will be perpetually disappointed by, focus on the nature of strategy-making as it often is: messy, biased, fraught with emotion, and a product of our own very own flawed humanity. | https://medium.com/rethinking-security/review-the-psychology-of-strategy-cc18456397e | ['Adam Elkus'] | 2015-05-17 05:13:28.598000+00:00 | ['Strategy', 'Review', 'Psychology'] |
Koinex Trade Fest 2018 is here! | Koinex Trade Fest 2018 is here!
One year anniversary is around, so here is the first edition of KTF
This August 25, we will turn one year old. Months of development and preparation finally turned into India’s first digital assets exchange which went live the same day, exactly one year ago. We have come a long way since then, and have tried our best to keep the Indian crypto trading community up-to-date with features, tokens, engines, security and more. We have received immense love from our amazing users, which has been the core reason for us to be here today.
On the occasion of our one year anniversary, we are excited to announce Koinex Trade Fest. 4 days, 4 tokens, big prizes. This trading competition will run for a period of four days between 10.00 AM and 10.00 PM every day during August 21, 2018 and August 24, 2018. The competition will be held in different tokens every day. Here is the schedule for #KTF18:
How to be a part of the competition?
There is no special step to participate in #KTF18. Simply begin trading (by placing buy or sell orders) in the markets where the trading competition is live.
How are the traders ranked?
Traders will be ranked based on their daily trade volumes (buy and sell combined) in the competition market of the day.
Top traders will be featured on the #KTF18 Leaderboard.
Winners will be announced everyday after the end of the daily competition.
The Leaderboard will be refreshed every day according to the competition market on that day.
What’s in there for the winners?
We are airdropping tokens worth INR 4,00,000 for our winners and giving away amazing merchandise to the top traders.
The distribution of tokens with respect to the trade volumes/ ranks (based on the total trade volume while the competition was live) per day will be as follows:
Daily Rewards for Winners | https://medium.com/koinex-crunch/koinex-trade-fest-2018-is-here-34b8f0c05431 | ['Team Koinex'] | 2018-08-20 16:17:21.904000+00:00 | ['Trading', 'Blockchain', 'Team', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Bitcoin'] |
How To Make Your Pandas Loop 71.803 Times Faster | If you use Python and Pandas for data analysis, it will not be long before you want to use a loop the first time. However, even for small DataFames it is time-consuming to use the standard loop and you will quickly realize that it can take a long time for larger DataFrames. When I first waited more than half an hour to execute the code, I looked for alternatives that I would like to share with you.
The standard loop
DataFrames are Pandas-objects with rows and columns. If you use a loop, you will iterate over the whole object. Python can´t take advantage of any built-in functions and it is very slow. In our example we got a Dataframe with 65 columns and 1140 rows. It contains soccer results for the seasons 2016 - 2019. We want to create a new column that indicates whether a particular team has played a draw. We might start like this:
Since we got every match from the Premier League in our DataFrame, we have to check if the team of interest (Arsenal) played and if that applies, whether they were the home or away team. As you can see, this loop was very slow and took 20,7 seconds to execute. Let´s look how we can be more efficient.
The Pandas Built-In Function: iterrows() — 321 times faster
In the first example we looped over the entire DataFrame. iterrows() returns a Series for each row, so it iterates over a DataFrame as a pair of an index and the interested columns as Series. This makes it faster than the standard loop:
The code took 68 milliseconds to run which is 321 times faster than the standard loop. However, many people advise against using it because there are still faster options and iterrows() does not preserve dtypes across the rows. That means if you use iterrows() on your DataFrame dtypes can be changed which can cause a lot of problems. Do preserve dtypes you can also use itertuples() . We will not go into detail here because we want to pay attention to efficiency. Here you can find the official documentation:
The apply() Method — 811 times faster
apply is not faster in itself but it has advantages when used in combination with DataFrames. This depends on the content of the apply expression. If it can be executed in Cython space, apply is much faster (which is the case here).
We can use apply with a Lambda function. All we have to do it to specify the axis. In this case we have to use axis=1 because we want to perform a column-wise operation:
This code is even faster than the previous methods and took 27 milliseconds to be finished.
Pandas Vectorization — 9280 times faster
Now we can come to a new topic. We use the advantages of vectorization to create really fast codes. The point is to avoid Python-level loops like in the examples before [1] and to use optimized C code which uses the memory much more efficient. We just need to modify the function slightly:
Now we can create with Pandas series as input thew new column:
In this case we don´t even need a loop. All we have to do is to adjust the content of the function. Now we can directly pass Pandas series to our function which causes the enormous speed gain.
Numpy Vectorization — 71.803 times faster
In the previous example we passed Pandas series to our function. By adding .values we receive a Numpy array:
Numpy arrays are so fast because we got the benefits of locality of reference [2]. Our code took 0,305 milliseconds to run and was 71803 times faster than the standard loop used in the beginning.
Conclusion
If you use Python, Pandas and Numpy for data analysis, there will always be some room for improving your code. We compared five different methods do add a new column to our DataFrame based on some calculation. We have noticed enormous differences in terms of speed: | https://towardsdatascience.com/how-to-make-your-pandas-loop-71-803-times-faster-805030df4f06 | ['Benedikt Droste'] | 2019-08-26 17:52:27.478000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Tutorial', 'Pandas'] |
The man with a strategic plan. A veteran of both policy and… | The man with a strategic plan
A veteran of both policy and emergencies, Yasuyuki Misawa is upbeat about WFP Iraq’s new five-year outlook
‘Yasu’ (right) with colleagues. Photo: WFP/Photo Library
Yasuyuki Misawa’s had a long and varied career with the World Food Programme (WFP). Growing up in Tokushima-ken on Shikoku — the smallest of Japan’s five main islands, near the huge Naruto whirlpools — he could barely have imagined his future life… surely the only boy from Tokushima who’s lived in Baghdad? Always measured, Yasu smiles and says: “Possibly, yes.”
Moving between diverse country contexts, ranging from post-crisis transition to emergency, Yasu’s developed a strong skillset that includes policy and project management.
He brought a host of experiences to his most recent role as WFP Iraq’s Deputy Head of Programme, overseeing the crafting of the new five-year Country Strategic Plan (CSP). Yasu’s hybrid policy/emergencies background was the perfect fit for this task.
Above and below: Bardarash camp in Duhok, Kurdistan Region, Iraq. A newly arrived refugee family from northeast Syria receive a ready-to-eat WFP food package, enough for five people for three days. Photos: WFP/Sharon Rapose
Yasu started his career working with a top Asian airline in cargo, travelling all over Asia and developing expertise in project management. A graduate of Kanseigakuin University, this seemed the perfect opportunity. “But I began to feel that something was missing,” he tells me. “I had always been interested in Japan’s development assistance, and applied for a Master of Public Administration.” So, at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California, he first started to grow his policy skills.
Upon graduating, he applied to be a UN Junior Professional Officer but didn’t pass the interview stage. “I was advised to get some hands-on development experience, and managed to secure a role working for a Japanese NGO in Mindanao in the Philippines,” he says.
“Although I was disappointed not to get the JPO position, it’s actually one of the best things that could have happened. I got first-hand experience working in an emergency context in Mindanao. That’s also where I met my wife. She is Filipina, and had just returned from studying in Japan. She was looking for a conversation partner to keep up her Japanese.”
When applying second time around, Yasu was offered a JPO position. “It was 1994. And my first experience working with the UN — with WFP’s small Mexico City office. We were just seven staff, working mostly on capacity-building.” Yasu loved that early experience.
Yasu in South Sudan, earlier in his career. Photo: WFP/Photo Library
“With a small team you get to wear many different hats,” he says. “I do love working on big operations too, but I got to learn every part of our work in Mexico well, understanding about a country in transition and how WFP can and did help support the government’s work towards self-sufficiency.”
He adds: “I got both great policy and management experience, as officer-in-charge whenever the Country Director was away.” After three more years in Central America, having learned Spanish he became Regional HR Officer — developing expertise in human capital and the management of people as well as processes.
WFP’s capacity-building in Iraq includes supporting the government with digitalising the food ration system — including iris scanning to verify ID during ration collection. Photo: WFP/Yousif Mirza
He and his new family were ready to return to the Philippines. By then he had a small daughter, plus in 2000, he wanted to help following the East Timor crisis.
From East Timor the family eventually went to Eritrea, Angola, then Myanmar, where Cyclone Nargis struck in 2008. For one week he and his family struggled with little water and food — all the WFP distributions had already taken place for the month — and Yasu developed innovative ways to procure locally for WFP.
“Especially in emergencies, you have to be able to react quickly — making fast and prudent decisions, based on experience and knowledge of the potential consequences.” Thinking quickly and always putting people first, this is the Yasu I’d come to know and respect. He helped secure the food needs for people affected by the cyclone, alongside new and expanded partnerships with NGOs.
After Myanmar, he was appointed to WFP’s Regional Bureau in Thailand, which was a good fit for his young, growing family. In 2011, from Bangkok, he was unexpectedly seconded back to Japan for three months to provide support and coordination for the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami response.
“WFP loaned me out to help in a role similar to a [logistics] cluster coordinator. The work was broad — ranging from coordinating different organisations towards different needs, to responding to calls for help.
These included, “There’s a big ship on my roof”, and, “There’s a train carriage in my house.” I had never expected to serve in my own country, and I was glad to have been able to put my emergency experience to good use. We allocated the best and most practical resources and volunteers to meet needs.”
Yasu ended up taking more and more challenging posts, such as in Somalia, South Sudan, Afghanistan and then Iraq. By the time he arrived in Baghdad, he had plenty of experience for developing WFP Iraq’s new Country Strategic Plan. The five-year plan outlined is designed to be flexible and shock-responsive, providing practical support towards long-term self-sufficiency in Iraq.
Zarifa, a farmer in Sinjar, Ninewa, cultivated peas in a greenhouse for the first time with help from WFP Iraq’s resilience team. Resilience is a key pillar of the strategy Yasu has helped craft. Photo: WFP/Sharon Rapose
Iraq’s new CSP is built on three pillars: Crisis response, Resilience, and Capacity building — which includes technical expertise to digitalize the Public Distribution System of food rations. Yasu oversaw the development of the CSP for over a year, from inception towards implementation. The Zero Hunger Strategic Review — on which WFP partnered with the Government of Iraq and the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas— underpinned the initial CSP Concept Note. This led to a CSP full document, in tandem with a draft budget process. The final full document was approved in November at WFP’s Executive Board week in Rome.
Yasu and the team made sure the CSP remained practical as it evolved. “A robust CSP is more than just a theory: it is a workable plan that can be actioned and adapted, to the situation of the country at a given time in the coming five years … a strong strategy for Iraq.”
WFP Iraq’s new Country Strategic Plan commenced on 1 January. With thanks to the Government of Japan for their continued support to the people reached by the World Food Programme in Iraq. | https://medium.com/world-food-programme-insight/the-man-with-a-strategic-plan-for-iraq-ce9d3e04dde2 | ['Sharon Rapose'] | 2020-01-07 15:17:59.497000+00:00 | ['Development', 'Strategy', 'United Nations', 'Humanitarian', 'Emergency Response'] |
The Pandemic Hasn’t Stopped Ultrarunner Pamela Chapman Markle | The Pandemic Hasn’t Stopped Ultrarunner Pamela Chapman Markle
Photo by Spencer Markle
I never tire of interviewing Pamela Chapman Markle. And she never tires of running grueling hours and distances, and setting USA and world records in in her age group, not even during the Covid-19 pandemic.
I recently interviewed Pamela about what it’s been like during the pandemic. It hasn’t been much fun. “Nine races cancelled on me. Badwater and Spartathlon were the last two cancelled. I was literally depressed about it,” she lamented. “But I helped a lot race directors because a lot of cancellations did not defer. In the Badwater series you lost every penny you sent.”
Pamela was one of twelve Americans given special permission to head to Greece in September only to learn a week before flying to Greece that Spartathlon was cancelled.
With so many races cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic, many runners, elite and ordinary, have turned to virtual races offered as alternatives to fill the void of canceled races. Pamela turned to one virtual ultra — the Trans-Texas 879 mile ultra. Runners have from July 1 to December 31 to cross the finish.
While Pamela likes to run by herself, and likes to compete against herself, she also wants to run with others. “I like to have other runners competing too. It’s inspirational to me.”
However, virtual races don’t lend themselves to real race competitions. Pamela finished the Trans-Texas 879 mile ultra on November 19 and not a day too soon. “It bored me to death.”
Recording one’s miles is an important part of running virtual races. Pamela does not like documenting how many miles she runs on any given day. “If I go out to run two hours and I feel I can run four, I’ll run four. I do not keep a log. I have a running coach and she keeps track of it.”
Chantalle Robitaille has been Pamela’s coach for about a year and a half. “She’s really positive and has good insight for me as a female runner.”
Setting Records in the Year of the Pandemic
While not a fan of virtual races, the 879 miles were good training miles, if not for Badwater and Spartathlon, for the Icarus Florida Ultrafest, which was not cancelled. At the 2019 Icarus events, Pamela set a few records.
Now, at age 65, she races in a new age category and set three records at the 2020 Icarus Florida Ultrafest in November in the year of of the Covid-19 pandemic.
She’s the world record holder in the 48-hour event with 174.76 miles. Pamela also set a new USA all-time age group record in the 24-hour event with 109.3 miles, and a new USA all-time 12-hour event with 60.64 miles.
With all the race cancellations, Pamela said, “I was scared to death because I hadn’t raced in nine months.” Her strategy was to take it slow at Icarus.
Unlike running Icarus in 2019 in her favorite weather — hot and humid — the 2020 Icarus ultra events had runners endure a combination of sun, heat, rain, and 30 mph winds.
“It was hot and sunny. Then it rained for a few hours. Then it got hot again. I chapped so bad,” said Pamela.
Hard on Herself
Not racing for over nine months also affected her body.
With four and a half hours to go at the Icarus 48-hour in November, Pamela had had enough by mile 174.76. “I literally stopped because I was falling over. I told my husband I just want to lay down. I couldn’t get up. My toenails were coming off again. It was a very miserable way to go for 44 hours.”
Taking a nap or sleeping for a little while is not uncommon in 48-hour events. But not for Pamela. She did not nap or sleep. “I did not sleep at all until I stopped running.” But she did sit for about three minutes to wolf down a grilled cheese.
She also hallucinated. “I was way behind in fluids and way behind in fuel so the nine months you don’t race your belly forgets what you’ve done to it all year long.”
Sleep deprivation and hallucinations are not stopping Pamela from plotting her strategy at next year’s Icarus Ultrafest. “”I have to work out a better plan to redo this 48. Last year I took an hour and put my feet up and napped a little bit and then I took off running and I did 186 miles.”
Pamela is tough on herself. “I’m very hard on myself. Probably harder than I thought. My husband has pointed it out to me.”
Even though she set three records, she felt she didn’t do her best at Icarus. “I was happy but I was sad. I set two US records and a world record. The world record hadn’t been broken since it was set the late 80s early 90s, but I didn’t do as well as I knew I could.”
She is now rethinking her strategy for next year at Icarus.
Aging, Healing, and Sleep
At age 65, Pamela’s body takes longer to heal after such grueling distances. Her sleep is also affected, “The healing takes longer. It’s harder to sleep as you get older. It’s very hard to get a full 8 hour sleep. I think it’s aging.”
But her aging body doesn’t diminish Pamela’s fast running. “I always run faster when I have someone to pass,” she said. With runners to pass at Icarus, she kept running. “I didn’t stop to even sit down until I hit the mile 110 marker. I ran solid for 110 miles.”
Motivation and Nutrition
Having someone to pass during a race is a great motivator for Pamela. “Otherwise, I would run slower forever,” she added.
Nutrition and carb intake at Icarus came in the form of Maurten gels, Spring gels, and alternate peanut butter and jelly.
“Maurten gels are tasteless and that’s what I like about them. Spring gels are natural fruits and vegetables. I don’t take more than 200 calories an hour. I like the Spring gels but I get sick of the gels at mile 40. I have to grab something different for my carbs. Cookies. Something with sugar,” said Pamela.
Unstoppable and Grateful
After setting USA and world records in her age group at the 2020 Icarus Ultrafest, Pamela flew back home to Texas, and went to work on Monday. She is retired but works part-time as a nurse anesthetist for plastic surgeons. On Thursday she went for a very slow hour and twenty minute run. and was most likely plotting her 2021 ultras.
But before tackling her 2021 races, she’s running the inaugural Into the New Year in Florida on December 31 to go after the world record in the 12 hour event.
No doubt, Pamela will continue to be unstoppable in 2021. She’s having a go at the Pier 2 Pier 200K in Florida in January. She might take February off. In April, she’ll take on the Badwater Salton Sea. She’ll head back to The Keys 100 in May.
I’ve convinced her to take on the Dawn to Dusk to Dawn 24-hour track ultra on Mother’s Day weekend. She’ll go back to Badwater 135 and to Six Days in the Dome in July. Spartathlon is on the schedule for September. Then, it’s back to the Icarus Ultrafest in November.
“I’m a work in progress,” said Pamela. And she is also filled with gratitude.
Pamela with her husband Spencer
“I’m just grateful to be alive. I’m very grateful to have had my father for 88 years. My husband came down with Covid in July. I, like every one else, have had a rough year. However, I have so much to be grateful for. I bought the house of my dreams. I’m living in Texas which to me is the best state in the whole world. I train along the seawater. I see dolphins,” said Pamela with joy in her heart.
Originally published in www.miriamdiazgilbert.com
Miriam Diaz-Gilbert (aka Miriam Gilbert) is a published author and ultrarunner. Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. | https://medium.com/@ultramiriam/the-pandemic-hasnt-stopped-ultrarunner-pamela-chapman-markle-916a7b55020f | ['Miriam Diaz-Gilbert'] | 2020-12-21 15:03:59.871000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Lifestyle', 'Sports', 'Ultrarunning', 'Aging'] |
Why You Should Consider Blogging in 2021. | The year 2020 remains a mystery to most of us as time drops one second at a time in count down to the new year 2021.
Hopefully, it is going to be a better year, free from the Covid-19 pandemic now that some countries are testing out the newly launched Covid vaccine. Anyway, life has to go on.
Those of us who will be there in 2021 have things to accomplish. Now, consider this in your new year’s resolutions. Go blogging.
Well, blogging is both exciting and enjoyable when you’ve time and content for your audience.
Believe it or not, a blog is not a blog if you don’t have an audience that enjoys reading and learning from your stuff.
Writing regularly gives one an upper-hand in gaining organic traffic to your blog. Oh, no. This post is not about gaining traffic but giving you some reasons to go into blogging in 2021.
Let me take you through some of the reasons why you should consider starting a blog come next year.
Follow my lead.
What the year 2020 has taught us is that people can easily lose their jobs, or lose their sources of income when a natural calamity strikes down some economic activities.
However, the lesson we learned is that bloggers keep going, as demand for info keeps people anxious for something new. Looking for a quick solution.
Did you know that the most sought after information was, ‘How to earn money online during the Coronavirus pandemic?’
You see, making money online is one of the most important reasons for starting a blog in 2021.
Some ways of earning from your blog include-
a). Adsense:
This is a product of Google. This feature offers advertisers a chance to showcase their products on the internet, and by so doing they pay up for those services.
Blog owners come in with ready-made platforms to display relevant ads. In the end, they get some monetary incentives for their work.
b). Affiliate marketing:
Another way of making money through your blog is by affiliate marketing.
What does it mean?
You can register your blog with an affiliate site and get paid in commission for every sale the advertisers make through your link.
These are just two, but there are many other ways to make money online through blogging.
2. Build an asset:
Tell you what? Blogging can be as good as starting your offline business, but with a smaller capital.
Yeah, one thing you need when starting a blog for business is buying a domain name. This can be obtained from a site like GoDaddy.com, among others. Those sites can also host your blog or you can opt for another hosting site.
Well, you don’t have to be a web designer to own a blog. Nowadays, we have lots of freelance web designers who would do it for you for a fee. Or you can just start a free one on WordPress or Blogger.
After that, start blogging or employ someone who could do it for you-a paid writer.
Like any other business, you need to market your blog. This can be done by either paid ads or through self-advertising- social media postings etc.
Another method of marketing your blog is through SEO. I have to say that this is the most effective way to gain organic traffic from the internet.
You can also do offline marketing-posting a link to your blog in a local daily newspaper, pamphlets, brochures, etc.
Email marketing is also an effective way to drive people to your blog. However, this needs time to build an email list, which can be time-consuming.
Just remember, your effort will later pay off when some earning starts tricking in. Blogging can be your lifetime asset and may continue to grow as time goes.
3. Become a better writer.
Practice makes something perfect. I guess you’ve heard that saying before, but these words are pure gold for go-getters.
Blogging is all about passion for what you love. If you’re good at putting words together to form nice content, then you’re good to go.
Choose a niche that will be easy for you. That is the catch for continuous blogging. Of course, you don’t want to post one article or two, then you’re out of ideas.
The best thing about blogging is that you can do it by starting with short articles.
Be a writer who would write a short but informative article, and keep it going.
Once you’ve mastered the art, you would be able to write even longer articles. The gem in writing is, a little bit goes a long way.
4. Become an expert:
After starting a blog, think of ways to grow from there.
For starters, the internet is your perfect resource.
We have lots of content online that might be helpful, and may boost your growth from newbie status to a professional blogger. Such as,
a). Free and paid e-books: Read lots of books about your niche and implement what you’ve learned.
b). Take online courses: This is a sure way to grow your knowledge and understanding and grow your expertise.
c). Free contents: Read and learn from other bloggers.
5. Build a network:
Every growth attracts people who would like to learn from you. This is a network that will keep you up the ladder in chain of command.
In 2021, don’t let anything stand in your way to blogging success. As I said early, start small and grow huge. It might take time to master the art of blogging, but it is worth your effort.
Being an influential blogger is not easy, nonetheless, it’s doable.
I challenge you to do it. Start today and make it huge in 2021. | https://medium.com/@waflayweb/why-you-should-consider-blogging-in-2021-343e74ceb75e | ['Martin Misiko'] | 2020-12-20 14:30:26.122000+00:00 | ['Blogging Tips', 'Blog', 'Blogging For Business', 'Blogger'] |
Celesbians Bi-Weekly: Poussey Is Married | Celesbians Bi-Weekly: Poussey Is Married
And it was a Martha Stewart wedding too boot.
Welcome back to the bi-weekly column about the comings and goings of famous (and famous-ish) women who date other women. Should I have called it Ceeping up with the Celesbians? Haha.
Samira Wiley and Lauren Morelli got married!! (To be perfectly clear: it was to each other.) Lauren is wearing a wedding cape! They look beautiful and perfect. Mazel.
Cara Delevingne posted a mysteriously blurry photo of her and an unnamed tall brunette who I first thought was (maybe?) Annie Clark but turned out to be Phoebe Waller-Bridge, now an honorary celesbian for having appeared on Cara’s arm. Look how fuckin’ cool they both look. God, it’s actually rude.
Monica Schipper/WireImage
Amber Heard talked about coming out as bisexual in 2010 in spite of industry concerns that doing so would limit her ability to lead a film. She also said “If every gay man that I know personally in Hollywood came out tomorrow, then this would be a non-issue in a month,” which is a little emoji-side-eyes of her, and probably a little over-optimistic.
Young M.A. confirms rumors she’s dating model Tori Brixx with a Snapchat. Brixx (also a DJ) is signed with Amber Rose’s MUVA Management, and has 2.7 million Instagram followers. And you thought it was exciting when you cleared 300.
Your queer moms Abby Wambach and Glennon Doyle Melton took in a Broadway play called Hamilton to celebrate Glennon’s birthday. They loved it at first sight. It was the best play of all time.
Don’t ask me what the former Australian Bachelor lesbians are up to; it’s still too sad. (But the answer is mainly: blogging.) | https://medium.com/the-hairpin/celesbians-bi-weekly-poussey-is-married-4e87e57192b2 | ['Katie Heaney'] | 2017-03-28 15:27:00.866000+00:00 | ['Feminism', 'Celesbians', 'Amber Rose', 'Celesbians Biweekly', 'Lesbian News'] |
WCS Bangladesh Marine Megafauna Survey: Day Two with a New Discovery from F.B. Jobeda | By Shanta Shamsunnahar
February 11, 2018
[Note: This is the third blog in a National Geographic Wildlife Blog about the WCS-led marine megafauna survey, which is gathering data on whales, sea turtles, sharks, and other marine species inhabiting the coastal waters of Bangladesh. Data from the effort will identify biologically important locations for future consideration as marine protected areas.]
The WCS marine megafauna survey currently underway along the coast of Bangladesh involves two vessels. The larger vessel follows a transect line surveying for whales, dolphins, and porpoises (collectively known as cetaceans). Researchers on the smaller vessel focus on active fishing vessels by collecting data related to their catches and learning from fishers about the nature and scale of their fishing effort.
RECORDING VARIOUS GEAR SPECIFICATIONS CONTRIBUTES TO OUR UNDERSTANDING OF COASTAL ARTISANAL FISHING PRACTICES. PHOTO CREDIT: WCS BANGLADESH.
The team aboard the second, smaller survey boat, F. B. Jobeda, has the task of assessing the catches and bycatches of several different types of fishing gear operating in the coastal waters of Bangladesh. While the targeted finfish are of considerable interest, we are especially keen to investigate other species such as dolphins, porpoises, turtles, sharks and rays, as well as sea snakes — some of which are accidentally taken as bycatch.
“This experience has strengthened my resolve to help find a balance between protecting of our country’s large and diverse marine megafauna and ensuring that fisheries are sustainable.”
On day two our team was preparing for the day’s work when we spotted a long liner — locally known as the Boiral — a fishing vessel that uses lines with thousands of baited hooks. By the time we reached the boat and established contact, the fishermen were already pulling in their lines.
A BIGEYE HOUNDSHARK WAS IDENTFIED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN OUR WATERS. PHOTO CREDIT: WCS BANGLADESH.
As a researcher, investigating this haul was fascinating, but on a personal level it was deeply disturbing. Among the 1150 hooks we examined there was a shark caught on almost every one. We managed to identify four different species, including an immature tiger shark.
The catch also included several individuals of a relatively small shark species that the local fishermen call “Gule Kamot” and which we didn’t immediately recognize. These beautiful fish have large sparkling eyes and a stout snout. Upon looking at them more, we identified them as big-eye hound sharks, a new species we had yet to record in Bangladesh.
THE BAITED HOOK AND LINE FISHERIES TARGET LARGE FINFISH BUT CATCH LARGE NUMBERS OF SHARKS. PHOTO CREDIT: WCS BANGLADESH.
One of the females had 19 pups in her belly, and several others were clearly immature. We learned that these sharks have a very low market value and are used only as bait or simply discarded. Also, we discovered that some of the longliners are targeting endangered hammerhead sharks, due to their high market value.
THIS BEAUTIFUL HONEYCOMB WHIPRAY WAS CAUGHT IN A DRIFTING GILLNET ALONG THE SOUTHERN COAST OF BANGLADESH. PHOTO CREDIT: WCS BANGLADESH.
This experience has strengthened my resolve to help find a balance between protecting of our country’s large and diverse marine megafauna and ensuring that fisheries are sustainable. Fortunately, WCS is partnering with the Government of Bangladesh to establish a network of marine protected areas that will promote sustainable fisheries while conserving threatened species such as hammerhead sharks.
The information collected by survey participants, as well as other data collected by a WCS-led citizen science network at fish landing sites throughout coastal Bangladesh, will also help inform future management actions and international shark and ray conservation efforts.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Shanta Shamsunnahar is the Marine Protected Area Program Coordinator for WCS’s Bangladesh Program and a research participant in the survey. | https://medium.com/wcs-marine-conservation-program/wcs-bangladesh-marine-megafauna-survey-day-two-with-a-new-discovery-from-f-b-jobeda-67c790d446a1 | ['Wildlife Conservation Society'] | 2018-02-27 19:05:44.659000+00:00 | ['Marine', 'Bangladesh', 'Conservation', 'Wildlife', 'Expedition'] |
Medium vs. Amazon vs. Google | The value of a string of text.
String of text. (Photo by Igor Ovsyannykov)
A string of text has value to a human, who wants to know about, and, analyze, other humans. Human behavior. And, human thought. So, Medium, and Amazon, and Google, base their businesses, and business model, on the string of text.
In this day and age, all businesses are based on simple strings, and text. Where the basis for the string, and text, is the zero and the one.
On Medium (and, therefore, Google, and, then, eventually, Amazon) the human is attached to several strings of text. These strings give value to the human, and, also, meaning to the human. Thus, value to the string of text.
A machine can read the human via the human’s string of text.
The machine ‘reading’ of a human, and the human’s strings of text, also has ‘value.’ Today, the leaders monetizing strings of text are Amazon and Google. Also Facebook, and Twitter. And, of course, many others. Because everything reduces (and expands) to one simple string of text. Zero, and, one.
Half of all humans do not know this until you point it out, and, then, all humans know this. Meaning, they knew it even when they didn’t ‘know it.’
Thus, analyzing strings of text, and selling both the strings, and the analysis, of the text, is what a human calls ‘intelligence.’
It all boils down to the circular relationship between the human and text, the human, and the monetization of text, the human, and the analysis of text, the human, and the machine, that can now replace the human, when it comes to text, and the analysis, and monetization, of the machine, that can also create the text.
So, this forces all of us to notice, the zero and the one, is human.
The zero and the one is, intelligence, text, analysis, and monetization. Not just the basis for these. The actuality of these.
All because a zero and a one is circumference, and, diameter.
The conservation of an uber-basic circle (also known as line) (string) (human) (machine) (intelligence) (virtual) (artificial) (real), gives meaning, and value, to Medium, Amazon, and Google. Meaning, Medium, Amazon, and Google, will, eventually, merge.
Everything in nature is most basically one string of text: if one, then zero.
Meaning, if two, then one.
Conservation of the circle is the core dynamic in nature. | https://medium.com/the-circular-theory/medium-vs-amazon-vs-google-19dee10883bd | ['Ilexa Yardley'] | 2017-07-26 12:14:20.687000+00:00 | ['Deep Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Machine Learning', 'Technology', 'Data Science'] |
Top 4 vscode shortcuts you need to know. | Here are the top 4 shortcuts
4. File switching shortcut
This helps you to switch between files in your current project while coding.
This however saves lots of time instead of going to the file menu on the side bar and clicking the files all the way.
Here is the shortcut
Control + p ( on windows)
Command + p ( on Mac )
Then you can type in the name of the file….. even its just the first 2 letters of the file name
A dropdown would appear and then you can click on the file.
Just a bonus tip!
If you want to switch between the two recently used files in your current project, use this:
Control + p + p ( on windows)
Command + p + p ( on Mac )
Once you press the keys, leave it immediately for it to take its effect.
3. Commenting a block of code
It is quite frustrating to remember each and every comment signs for different types of languages.
Sometimes, most people even copy the comment signs from somewhere before they are able to use that functionality....... Myself included….well that was then.
To use this shortcut, you have to highlight or select the line of code or block of code you want to comment.
So after selecting it , use this shortcut;
Control + / (on windows)
Command + / ( on Mac )
Relax!
You don’t have to worry about specifying the language.
It does it automatically for you due to its immense intelligence.
That’s awesome right?!
Check out this article!
It would be of great help.
Stay tuned for Number 1🔥😉
2. Uncommenting a block of code
Well soon after using the comment shortcut, we may most times want to uncomment the code again.
Then we start the long and boring process of removing it manually........ I know..... its so annoying… gahd😤
But I have a shortcut for you that solves that.
Control + / (on windows)
Command + / (on mac)
Its literally the same shortcut as commenting.
Finally!
1. Highlighting the next instance of a word
Imagine having 200 instances of the word 'app' in your project and you want to change them all to another word.
Looking for 200 of them is a whole lot of work!
Then frustration sets in😬
Well I have this lifesaver right here.
Control + d (on windows)
Command + d (on mac)
Conclusion/ Bonus tip
All these have been major time saver for me while I code.
I can’t stress this enough.
Bonus tip
#Selecting your current line
This helps you to select the particular/current line you are on.
Control + l (on windows)
Command + l (on mac)
I hope this has been helpful to you.
SMASH that clap button if you got value from this and help share this value to one person out there who needs it.
You can follow me, signing yourself up for more value packed content.
So do you feel relieved?
Thank you for your time!
As always I would see you in the next article.
Agbejule Kehinde Favour.
Peace y’all! | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/top-4-vscode-shortcuts-you-need-to-know-74f87d58c1b9 | [] | 2020-12-22 16:31:01.635000+00:00 | ['Coding', 'Beginners Guide', 'Vscode', 'Tips And Tricks', 'Programming'] |
Tackle Today: Trade Masters Webinar Tonight 12/23/20 | Tackle Trading | ≈ Join the Coaches for this weekly event ≈
It is the last full trading session of the week, as markets will trade in a shortened session on Thursday and will be closed Friday. Price action on the broad indexes remains mixed as the Russell 2000 leads with strength while the other indexes trade in short term range in the context of the larger uptrend.
It is important to note, that although the broad market has chopped a little bit the last few weeks, this market is still generating trading ideas daily. Tonight, during our weekly Trade Masters webinar series, Coach Mark is joined by Coach Tyler and Coach Greg to discuss some of their favorite trading ideas right now in a fun and lively show. It’s a can’t miss event, and one that is sure to be lively and fun.
Join us at 7 pm EST on our channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TackleTradingTeam
#TeamTackle
Chart of the Day
PINS Daily Chart
Pinterest (Ticker: PINS) is breakout out of resistance in early trading Wednesday. It’s also a stock on this week’s options report. Review the full report here: https://tackletrading.com/category/scouting-report/options-report/
Video of the day CRM Trade Analysis
Watch this clip from Tuesday’s Halftime Report where Coach Tyler discusses a potential trade on Salesforce.com (Ticker: CRM)
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All investing and trading in the securities market involves a high degree of risk. Any decisions to place trades in the financial markets, including trading in stocks, options or other financial instruments, is a personal decision that should only be made after conducting thorough independent research, including a personal risk and financial assessment, and prior consultation with the user’s investment, legal, tax and accounting advisers, to determine whether such trading or investment is appropriate for that user. | https://medium.com/@tackletrading/tackle-today-trade-masters-webinar-tonight-12-23-20-tackle-trading-b516e5cfa9a1 | ['Tackle Trading'] | 2020-12-29 18:54:03.649000+00:00 | ['Trading', 'Tackle Trading', 'Stocks', 'Investing', 'Stock Market'] |
The Best Heavy Duty Scrub Brands & Why You Need Them | Very few nurses are sitting behind desks, in comfy, temperature-controlled offices all day. In fact, most of us are busting our rumps as we navigate from patient to patient, through crowded rooms, dealing with a whole host of body fluids and substances. It’s during these days that we realize that our ultra-soft scrubs made of 100% cotton, might not always stand up to getting caught on the corner of that shelf for the 12th time or our constant bending and pulling throughout the shift. Cotton is certainly breathable and wonderful for keeping us cool, but for those of us in the trenches of high-acuity, high-ratio patient care, a more durable material is a must!
Stay comfortable while resting assured that your scrubs will hold up to anything! Check out these TOP heavy duty scrubs…
HINT: Shop Scrub Pro for the best prices you’ll find online!
Cherokee
Cherokee brand is so-often overlooked as a great workhorse scrub, but in reality it’s one of the best! The brand has been around since 1972, and when it comes to uniforms and work gear, they’ve had plenty of time to perfect their craft! The poly/cotton blend makes them heavy duty enough to stand up to anything you throw at it, and they seriously have more options for both men and women than you can imagine! You want pockets? They’ve got pockets! You want something simple? You’ll find it! Scrub jackets, lab coats, and even compression socks! In addition to offering a zillion great options, they’re super affordable. There’s a reason why schools prefer them for students…because it’s what they can afford AND they’ll hold up throughout the entire clinical period! Why not take advantage of that once you hit the floor?
Tip: Ladies, if you’re like me and find that the Cherokee scrub pants don’t fit your particular shape very well (ahem….pear), try these men’s pant with a drawstring. You’ll thank me later!
Carhartt
Surely when you think Carhartt, you’re envisioning a strapping farmer in a field of straw, sometime shortly before sunrise. His tan colored, heavy-duty overalls, steel-toed work boots, and determined expression give the impression that he’s not only tough, but about to do something REALLY cool! Lucky for us nurses, the farmers aren’t the only ones who get to look great in Carhartt! They’ve come on the scene in the past several years as a real contender in offering scrubs that are not only heavy duty, but stylish as well! All of their scrubs contain their RipStop technology that ensures you won’t tear when bending or snagging on corners, and they offer the same options as their contenders when it comes to sizes and colors. Oh! Did I mention the tagless labels (one of my personal favorites when it comes to options!)? The other thing I love about the Carhartt line is their pants. They don’t look like scrub pants, instead having more of a khaki pant shape and style.
Cherokee and Carhartt are definitely the top picks for the heaviest duty needs! Whether you’re working a hurricane relief effort for FEMA or another Saturday night in the ED, you’ll be set! But, there are several other brands that, while not as well known as the first two, will still stand the test of time and take a beating throughout the day!
Wonderwink
Wonderwink scrubs are absolutely one of the top picks when it comes to comfort, durability, and POCKETS! They’re amazing if you work a position where you need all your stuff to be within reach. The other really fabulous thing about Wonderwink, is their maternity line. Gone are the days of wearing extra-large men’s pants and a regular maternity shirt to work. Nurses need to look professional and fashionable throughout the entire 9 month journey, and these scrubs make it happen! Seriously, check out this Maternity Mock Wrap top. I think I’d wear that even if I wasn’t expecting! The good news is that I don’t have to do that, because their 5-Pocket V-Neck Top is just as lovely!
Luv Scrubs
With a name like Luv Scrubs, it’s hard to believe that these uniforms are actually super tough, but they are! The Poly/Cotton blend creates a durable scrub that’ll hold up as good as anything else on the list, but for about half the price! The real beauty is that they don’t LOOK like they cost less. They’re still equally stylish and offer the same beautiful range of colors as the other options do. For those who like to buy new scrubs on a regular basis, but don’t want to spend a fortune to do so, this is the route to take, for sure! Oh, did I mention the wide range of plus-sizes available with Luv? They carry all the way up to 5x in all the same options and they add seam slits for a little extra give in all the right places!
It really doesn’t matter where you work, at the end of the day, durability in your work uniforms is a must. Take advantage of this list to make sure you’ve got yourself squared away before your next shift!
*Find more information like this at ScrubPro.com & ScrubReviews.com | https://medium.com/@ScrubProUniforms/the-best-heavy-duty-scrub-brands-why-you-need-them-774e8b2cdbd2 | ['Scrub Pro Uniforms'] | 2020-10-07 14:28:44.068000+00:00 | ['Nursing', 'Healthcare', 'Uniforms', 'Medical', 'Scrubs'] |
“Industrial Forecast and Global Opportunity Analysis: Self-Checkout System Market, 2020–2027” | The upcoming report by Allied market research, titled, “Self-Checkout System Market By Offering (Hardware, Software, and Services), Mounting Type (Standalone and Wall Mounted & Countertop), Model Type (Cash Model and Cashless Model), and End Users (Supermarkets, Hypermarkets and Department Stores, Convenience Stores, Others): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020–2027”, offers a comprehensive analysis of key growth drivers, key segments, development strategies, market opportunities, and competitive landscape. This study offers detailed insights for market players, investors, stakeholders, and new entrants to understand the industry dynamics and determine strategic steps to gain the competitive advantage.
Download Sample Report (Get Full Insights in PDF — 200+ Pages) @ https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/10140
HOW THIS REPORT WILL HELP YOU:
This report makes it important to understand the practical implications of the Self-Checkout System market. To gain a competitive advantage, the players must have something unique. By tapping into the untapped market segment, they can establish a relevant point of differentiation, and this report offers an extensive analysis of untapped segments to benefit the market players and new entrants to gain the market share.
COVID-19 Scenario:
The Self-Checkout System industry has been the worst hit by COVID-19 globally. Based on the government restrictions, and WHO guidelines the companies have stopped their manufacturing processes. The global lockdown has impacted the suppliers and distributors as well to halt their services. This impact hampered the growth of the market to a certain extent.
SELF-CHECKOUT SYSTEM MARKET KEY SEGMENTATION:
The market is analyzed based on regions and competitive landscape in each region is mentioned. Regions discussed in the study include North America (United States, Canada and Mexico), Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy), Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia), South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia), Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa). These insights help to devise strategies and create new opportunities to achieve exceptional results.
The analysis becomes much easier and effective with proper segmentation of the market. The study offers a detailed segmentation of global Self-Checkout System market based on the sales, revenue, growth rate, and market share of each segment. The key segments analyzed in the report are Offering, Mounting Type, Model Type, End Users and region. The data tables and related graphs offered in the report makes the analysis easy to understand.
Access Full Summary @ https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/self-checkout-system-market-A09775
SELF-CHECKOUT SYSTEM MARKET KEY PLAYERS:
Understanding the competitors’ key operating strategies, business performance in the past, and product & service portfolio is important to frame better business strategies to gain the competitive advantage. This report offers the extensive analysis of key players active in the global Self-Checkout System market. Leading market players analyzed in the report include NCR Corporation, Toshiba Corporation, Diebold Nixdorf Incorporated, Fujitsu Limited, IBM Corporation, ITAB Scanflow AB, ECR Software Corporation, PCMS Group Ltd., Slabb Inc, and ShelfX Inc. These players have adopted various strategies for expansion and development including joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, collaborations and if required spin offs to gain a strong position in the market.
Request For Customization @ https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-for-customization/10140
KEY OFFERINGS OF THE REPORT:
1. Key drivers & Opportunities: An extensive analysis on key factors and opportunities available in different segments for strategizing.
2. Current trends & forecasts: A comprehensive analysis on latest trends, and forecasts for next few years to frame strategic decisions as a next step.
3. Segmental analysis: An extensive analysis of each segment and driving factors such as revenue and growth rate is offered.
4. Regional Analysis: A thorough analysis of each geographic region can help market players devise expansion strategies and gain from the opportunity.
5. Competitive Landscape: Useful insights on each of the leading market players for outlining competitive scenario and related strategies have been offered in the report.
Pre-Book Now with 10% Discount @ https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/10140
About Us:
Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of “Market Research Reports” and “Business Intelligence Solutions.” AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.
We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.
Contact:
David Correa
Portland, OR, United States
USA/Canada (Toll Free): +1–800–792–5285, +1–503–894–6022, +1–503–446–1141
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Web: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com
Follow Us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/allied-market-research | https://medium.com/@manvimishra/industrial-forecast-and-global-opportunity-analysis-self-checkout-system-market-2020-2027-a69de433b4a1 | ['Manvi Mishra'] | 2021-07-06 02:50:04.944000+00:00 | ['Electronics', 'Market', 'Self Checkout System'] |
Online Sugar Daddy | Welcome to the lonely world of the online Sugar Daddy. The marriage had died a decade ago when the kids arrived. The wife no longer wants sex. The husband is bored with life and resents his other half. He never realized that marriage meant an eternity of depression and passive aggressive behavior. He feels trapped. He’s sure the wife feels exactly the same way. Both are scared of ending their relationship.
Fear of failure is preventing a better future.
Meanwhile, hubby has rediscovered his joy for life. He has a dirty little secret. He doesn’t believe he’s cheating. He’s paying a young nubile woman to love him. He feels worshipped. He feels alive. He feels he is the centre of her universe. Every month he would send her a gift. They exchange images. Highly charged erotic photos. Each image more graphic then the last. He insists he’s not cheating. She lives a million miles away. They’ve never met or even had a video conference. She lives in his fantasies.
Annie wants to be loved too and Daddy knows how to spoil her. Flowers for her birthday. Some jewelry. A new dress. A kinky outfit. Annie loves to dress up for her Daddy. Each exchange is getting larger. Every monetary gift increases in size. Annie is struggling to pay her tuition. She’s struggling to get to class. She desperately needs transport.
He cares too much. Hubby is her savior. He’s her white knight. He would never let her down. | https://medium.com/the-bad-influence/online-sugar-daddy-8f735677ccb4 | ['Reuben Salsa'] | 2020-09-24 21:07:57.600000+00:00 | ['Cheating', 'Relationships', 'Marriage', 'Salsa', 'Sex'] |
Defining and Collecting Data | Given a business problem to solve, you should identify, define, and collect the data that would help you solve the business problem.
Defining Variables:
Types of variables:
Numerical: example: time(continuous), Football goals(Descrete) Categorical: example: Gender, City, Country
Measurement scales:
Nominal → Ordinal or Rank Data → Interval → Ratio
Information content increases from left to right.
Collecting Data:
Data Sources:
Primary data: If you collect data on your own for analysis
Secondary data: If someone else collected data for you to analyze
Data distributed by an organization or individual
The outcomes of a designed experiment
The responses from a survey
The results of conducting an observational study
Data collected by ongoing business activities
Population and Samples:
Analysis of variables, when done on a population, are called parameters.
Analysis of variables, when done on a sample, is called statistics.
Data Cleaning:
Missing values, outliers treatment, etc.
Recording variables:
Mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive(MECE)
Types of Sampling Methods:
types of sampling methods
Simple Random Sample:
Same chance of selection of each item
Disadv: Often subject to more variation than other sampling methods
Disadv: On large sample/frame its time consuming and expensive
Can be done with the replacement or without replacement of the item
Systematic Sample:
systematic sampling
Divide into frames of k times each. If k is not an integer then round off to the next nearest integer. Choose the 1st item to be selected at random from the 1st k item in a frame. Then you select the remaining n-1 items by taking every kth item thereafter from the entire frame.
Adv: Prepared when frame consists of pre-numbered checks, sales receipts, or invoices, etc.. (Faster and easier than the random sample)
Disadv: Prone to selection bias
Stratified Sample:
Divide into frames of sub-population → “strata”
Select a simple random sample within each “strata”
More efficient than simple random and systematic sampling
Can also be expensive and clear “strata” need to be defined like Gender, Year, Country, etc.
Cluster Sample:
Divide N items in the frame into clusters that contain several items
Clusters are naturally occurring groups like countries, districts, cities, etc.
Take a random sample of each one or more clusters and study all items in each selected cluster
Requires a large sample size to produce precise results
Cost efficient
Types of Survey Errors:
Coverage Error: If a certain group of items is excluded from the frame/sample. Causes selection bias
Nonresponse error: Due to the failure to collect data on all items in the sample. Causes non-response bias.
Sampling error: Reflects the variation or “chance difference” from sample to sample. Can be reduced by using a large enough sample.
Measurement error: Vague questions in a survey that can not be measured. | https://medium.com/the-data-bus/defining-and-collecting-data-73d8c4c4e155 | ['Mradul Dwivedi'] | 2020-12-25 20:26:42.170000+00:00 | ['Collection', 'Data Science', 'Summary', 'Beginner', 'Statistics'] |
Why Is It Wrong to Buy Backlinks? | Why Is It Wrong to Buy Backlinks?
It’s not about penalties, it’s about who you are
Photo by Kaley Dykstra on Unsplash
I recently read a diatribe against Google on Quora.
The poster was responding to a question about link buying, which is a black hat SEO tactic that goes against Google’s webmaster guidelines.
Here’s a quick explanation of link buying for any non-SEOs: Google looks at links to your site as an indicator of its worth — the more and the higher quality the links to your site are, the higher your site is likely to rank. Buying links, therefore, means paying other websites to link to yours.
Essentially, the poster was arguing that there is nothing fundamentally wrong with buying links. That “black hat SEO” is a term Google invented and an idea that Google pushes on webmasters to increase its own profits.
This is partly true. Google’s guidelines are just that: guidelines. Suggestions. There is no law saying you can’t do whatever you like to get rankings on Google. At least, nobody is going to put you in jail or sue you for it.
So why shouldn’t we buy links? Why not do whatever we can to raise our website in Google’s rankings, especially if it could bring in more revenue?
First, while there’s no law against it, Google is free to do whatever it likes to those that break their guidelines. They are an absolute ruler of their (pun intended) domain.
So if they catch you breaking their guidelines, they can remove your website from the results. That means no traffic for you. No leads. No sales.
Now, maybe you’d earn enough additional revenue from your site before it’s penalized to make the black hat SEO worthwhile, but you’re taking a risk.
That being said, penalties are not the main reasons to avoid black hat SEO. The most important reason is because you’re a good person.
Say you could hack into Facebook and change all its display ads to ones advertising your business. There’s almost no chance of being caught and you’ll get more sales. Do you do it?
Say you could organize a street team and change all the billboards near your business to advertise your product overnight. No chance of being caught but definitely more exposure. Do you do it?
Heck, let’s say there was no law against poisoning your closest competitor. No backlash for it, just more sales. Do you do it?
No.
No, of course you don’t.
Because even though these tactics may work, they’re unethical. Whether you get caught or not.
It doesn’t matter if you increase revenue if you had to cheat and lie and steal to get there. And it doesn’t matter if cheating or lying or stealing is illegal and will bring the police after you. It’s still morally and ethically wrong.
So why is black hat SEO ethically wrong?
Because you’re lying to Google’s ranking algorithms. And it’s their business what those ranking algorithms do. It’s up to Google how it ranks websites on its own search engine.
You don’t get to decide if Google’s method of ranking websites is right or wrong. Google does. Not you.
If you manipulate Google’s algorithms, you’re cheating the system. There’s no law against it. You might not even be caught and penalized. But you’re cheating. You’re stealing traffic that doesn’t belong to you.
Here’s the good news:
Google wants what searchers want. It wants what you want, as a consumer. As a human being.
Google makes its billions of dollars from Google Ads — basically from businesses that are willing to pay to get high rankings and premium placement on the Google platform.
If someone is going to make money from companies willing to pay for rankings, it should be Google, not black hat SEOs.
Google built the platform. They have the top search engine. They built it, so they deserve the revenue it generates.
And again, they want what we want. Google only makes its billions of dollars in revenue if people use it. People only use it, instead of its competitors, if Google consistently provides the very best answers to their queries.
So the better Google gets at effectively ranking websites, the more people use it because they get what they’re looking for.
Consumers win because Google answers their queries. Companies win because they can pay Google to show up on the first page through AdWords or they can simply be the very best at what they do and trust that Google will rank them accordingly. And Google wins because it makes money from the companies that are willing to pay for advertising.
Black hat SEOs throw this whole everybody-wins system askew. They mess with Google’s rankings. They make it so websites that don’t best answer consumer queries show up instead of those that do. They lessen the search experience for everyone. And they cost Google advertising revenue that it deserves because it grew from humble beginnings to become the most popular search engine in the world.
Black hat is ethically wrong and it harms society as a whole. Link buying, as a black hat strategy, is wrong.
Don’t give in. You’re better than that. Better at marketing and, hopefully, better as a person. | https://medium.com/better-marketing/why-is-it-wrong-to-buy-backlinks-5a2cbc2f6f04 | ['Scott Beckman'] | 2019-06-18 12:31:11.281000+00:00 | ['Google', 'Marketing', 'SEO', 'Ethics', 'Backlink'] |
Crypto 101: Multi-sig | Crypto 101: Multi-sig
Explain it like I’m 5
Part of our mission at Casa is to help teach people about cryptocurrency and why it’s important. We’re starting a series of Crypto 101 posts, which we’ll post here and, soon, on our fancy new website (just launched today 🙌). We hope these will be a good resource for those who want short explainers on tough topics.
Our first post is on multi-signature (“multi-sig”) wallets. Multi-sig is an important concept and is core to the Casa product. But when my mom asks me what Casa does, I can’t just come out guns blazing using words like “multi-sig”. That’s a surefire recipe for the that’s-nice-honeys. So, here is my attempt at explaining multi-sig in a way that’s short and to the point, but still gives a good picture for the crypto-uninitiated.
We’ve moved our blog! To continue reading this article, visit the link below:
https://blog.keys.casa/crypto-101-multi-sig/ | https://medium.com/casa/crypto-101-multi-sig-4ac412487f71 | ['Nick Neuman'] | 2019-07-18 21:52:03.525000+00:00 | ['Crypto', 'Bitcoin', 'Crypto 101', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain'] |
Deep Neural Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) with Scikit-learn | In the world of deep learning, TensorFlow, Keras, Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit (CNTK), and PyTorch are very popular. Most of us may not realise that the very popular machine learning library Scikit-learn is also capable of a basic deep learning modelling. In this article, I will discuss the realms of deep learning modelling feasibility in Scikit-learn and limitations. Further, I will discuss hands-on implementation with two examples.
Salient points of Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) in Scikit-learn
There is no activation function in the output layer.
For regression scenarios, the square error is the loss function, and cross-entropy is the loss function for the classification
It can work with single as well as multiple target values regression.
Unlike other popular packages, likes Keras the implementation of MLP in Scikit doesn’t support GPU.
We cannot fine-tune the parameters like different activation functions, weight initializers etc. for each layer.
Regression Example
Step 1: In the Scikit-Learn package, MLPRegressor is implemented in neural_network module. We will import the other modules like “train_test_split” to split the dataset into training and train set to test the model, “fetch_california_housing” to get the data, and “StandardScaler” to scale the data as different features( independent variables) have wide value range scale. It is very important to scale the data used for training the model.
You can learn more about different scalers in the article Feature Scaling — Effect Of Different Scikit-Learn Scalers: Deep Dive
"""Import the required modules""" from sklearn.neural_network import MLPRegressor
from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split
from sklearn.datasets import fetch_california_housing
from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler
from sklearn.metrics import r2_score
import pandas as pd
Step 2: We will split the dataset into train and test dataset. We have reserved 20% of the dataset for checking the accuracy of the trained model. Independent train and test dataset are further scaled to make sure that the input data is standard normally distributed are centred around zero and have variance in the same order.
cal_housing = fetch_california_housing()
X = pd.DataFrame(cal_housing.data,columns=cal_housing.feature_names)
y = cal_housing.target X_train, X_test, y_train, y_test = train_test_split(X, y,random_state=1, test_size=0.2)
Step 3: We scale the data just like the above regression example and for the same reason.
sc_X = StandardScaler()
X_trainscaled=sc_X.fit_transform(X_train)
X_testscaled=sc_X.transform(X_test)
Step 4: In the below code, three hidden layers are modelled, with 64 neurons in each layer. Considering the input and output layer, we have a total of 5 layers in the model. In case any optimiser is not mentioned then “Adam” is the default optimiser and it can manage pretty large dataset.
reg = MLPRegressor(hidden_layer_sizes=(64,64,64),activation="relu" ,random_state=1, max_iter=2000).fit(X_trainscaled, y_train)
In addition to “RELU” activation, MLPRegressor supports the “sigmoid” and “hyperbolic tan” function.
Step 5: In the below code, the trained model is used to predict the target values of the reserved test dataset, which model has not seen before.
y_pred=reg.predict(X_testscaled)
print("The Score with ", (r2_score(y_pred, y_test))
Classification Example
We have seen a regression example. Next, we will go through a classification example. In Scikit-learn “ MLPClassifier” is available for Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) classification scenarios.
Step1: Like always first we will import the modules which we will use in the example. We will use the Iris database and MLPClassifierfrom for the classification example.
from sklearn.datasets import load_iris
from sklearn.neural_network import MLPClassifierfrom sklearn.model_selection import train_test_splitfrom sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler
import pandas as pd
from sklearn.metrics import plot_confusion_matrix
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
Step 2: In separate data frames “X” and “y”, the values of the independent and dependent features are stored.
iris_data = load_iris()
X = pd.DataFrame(iris_data.data, columns=iris_data.feature_names)
y = iris_data.target
Step 3: Similar to the regression example above we will split the dataset into train and test dataset. We have reserved 20% of the dataset for checking the accuracy of the trained model. Independent train and test dataset are further scaled to make sure that the input data is standard normally distributed are centred around zero and have variance in the same order.
X_train, X_test, y_train, y_test = train_test_split(X,y,random_state=1, test_size=0.2)
sc_X = StandardScaler()
X_trainscaled=sc_X.fit_transform(X_train)
X_testscaled=sc_X.transform(X_test)
Step 4: In the below code, we have modelled four hidden layers with different neurons in each layer. Considering the input and output layer, we have a total of 6 layers in the model. In case any optimiser is not mentioned then “Adam” is the default optimiser.
clf = MLPClassifier(hidden_layer_sizes=(256,128,64,32),activation="relu",random_state=1).fit(X_trainscaled, y_train)
y_pred=clf.predict(X_testscaled)
print(clf.score(X_testscaled, y_test))
The classifier shows quite a high score for the test data. It is important to understand the areas in which the classification model is making an error to make a full sense of model accuracy.
You can read more on the reason we should use the confusion matrix to judge the classification model accuracy in “Accuracy Visualisation: Supervised Machine Learning Classification Algorithms”.
Step 5: We will draw a confusion matrix to understand the classifications which are made incorrect by the model.
fig=plot_confusion_matrix(clf, X_testscaled, y_test,display_labels=["Setosa","Versicolor","Virginica"])
fig.figure_.suptitle("Confusion Matrix for Iris Dataset")
plt.show()
It seems only one “Versicolor” species is incorrectly identified as “Virginica” and rest by the model.
Conclusion: We can do simple deep learning regression and classification model in Scikit-learn. In my view, it is not up for any real-life large-scale modelling as there is no GPU support and very limited options to tweak the parameters.
You can learn more about the deep learning visualisation technique in the article Accuracy Visualisation In Deep Learning | https://towardsdatascience.com/deep-neural-multilayer-perceptron-mlp-with-scikit-learn-2698e77155e | ['Kaushik Choudhury'] | 2020-08-31 19:43:56.384000+00:00 | ['AI', 'Python', 'Machine Learning', 'Scikit Learn', 'Programming'] |
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