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How veteran media entrepreneurs can catch this 2021 cannabis tsunami | Republicans Are Red, Democrats Are Blue
Have you ever watched the show Shark Tank? When veterans will come to pitch their ideas to a group of proven financial influencers like Mark Cuban in hopes of partnering in business? If you have, how does it make you feel when you see their ideas and say, “Why didn't I think of that?”
As we stick together here to get through the dark winter life must go on. Many veterans who have socially distanced the ranks prior to the pandemic have invested their hard-earned savings into their dreams. Many of those veteran brick and mortar businesses have closed. Due to the pandemic restrictions.
Meanwhile, according to Sports Illustrated NFL veterans like Tom Brady reportedly received close to a million dollars in PPP loans. Another example of the haves, and have nots. How does Tom Brady’s business need financial assistance during the pandemic again?
When it comes to the color green however all pockets don't matter. The same goes for the budding cannabis industry. With more states legalizing during the most recent elections the American people’s voice still matters, too.
With moguls like Jay-Z and Snoop Dogg investing their green into the cannabis industry, could this be a sign of a fully federally legalized financial tsunami on the horizon in 2021? Not equally among demographics though.
Years before she played a key role in creating the cannabis industry in Colorado, Simply Pure CEO Wanda James hunted submarines as a commissioned U.S. naval officer. Then, she managed congressional campaigns and worked on Barack Obama’s National Finance Committee. H/T Cannabis Dispensary Mag
The Green Rush
I have followed Marjuana Moment on Patreon for almost two years. Every morning around 4 am I receive an email on the state of the union. When it comes to all things legislation of the cannabis industry.
Since legally obtaining my medical cannabis card in WA state I learned you can also grow your own green. Im talking about medical cannabis here not cash. You can do that when you combine both as a media entrepreneur.
Colorado and Washington state legislators combined had some vision just over 8 years ago. Initially creating The Green Rush wave on this budding industry. Which many Americans now have finally began to buy into.
Removing marijuana as a schedule 1 drug with the WHO was a start most recently. Then the Marijuan Research Bill as I write this today. Will the More Act tsunami financial tide fiannly come with the Senate in 2021? Or is it an eminant front? Who knows. Get your boats in the water now veterans.
One thing is for sure, Maclom Gladwell’s Tipping Point is near. As this financial tsunami is set to create financial opportunity for all. Eventually. Can you can see the Green Rush tsuanmi forecast? In addition, surfing Uber Eats to a whole new elevated wave of Uber Weed equality. Essential workers right?
How can media entrepreneurs like you and I as veterans get our boats in the water? Timing is everything. You are definitely not too late. Now is your opportunity to think like a Shark instead of pitching to one on their show.
Vertical Integration
During the last 2 months of 2020 I have been sharing with you how to leverage the internet of things. The goal is to make money in your sleep. Something currently very challenging to do for veterans with brick and mortar businesses during the pandemic.
The world is currently encouraging those creative types like you and I to take advantage of this isolated state. A media entrepreneur is any veteran with an internet connection and a device he/she can create from. No excuses.
Many social media platforms fight for our very short attention spans. Flip their strategy upside down, and make it go to work for you instead. Invest your time into creating something that will provide a ROI. While you sleep.
While sleeping horizontally on your back tonight make sure during the day your mental health is focused vertically. Not just on cannabis either. The kind of vertical digital brand you can begin building online. Media entrepreneurs.
A term I want us all to get more familiar with. Why? Well,Why not? Working smarter than harder has always been a motto of mine. There is strength in numbers. I am sure you can agree with me. Lets align vertically as a result.
This is an example of how you can get your boat in the water today veterans. Next time you’re watching Shark Tank learn from others mistakes. Stop asking yourself why didn't you think of that. A financial tsunami is on the GPS.
If you found any value as a veteran today please follow me Barry Gipson on Medium. Using my unique value proposition I want to invite you to join my newsletter “Weekly Smoke.” Every Monday you get a freshly rolled packed cannabis content email in your inbox. Burn it with your cup of joe shipmate.
When the tsunami hits will you your media boat be in the water veterans? | https://medium.com/@barrygipson/how-veteran-media-entrepreneurs-can-catch-this-2021-cannabis-tsunami-c035ed8c9444 | ['Barry Gipson'] | 2020-12-19 16:08:13.052000+00:00 | ['Veterans', 'Money', 'Politics', 'Media Entrepreneurship', 'Cannabis'] |
WTM new partnership with Polecat intelligence in Data Analytics | Passionate In Analytics | To help organizations manage the increasingly perplexing dangers they face, Willis Towers Watson (WTW) has gone into an organization with social business insight and information investigation firm Polecat Intelligence.
Through the association, the two organizations will create protection arrangements that will assist organizations with reacting to the quickly changing difficulties they currently face, an organization release said. Specifically, Polecat’s information will be utilized to help WTW’s answers in territories their core problems, for example, life sciences, reputational, and item review hazard, just as D&O. The information will be gotten from unstructured information prepared through Polecat’s machine learning and artificial intelligence.
“The association with Polecat empowers Willis Towers Watson to offer customers continuous understanding to general assessment through investigation of online media,” said WTW head of worldwide business sectors P&C center Garret Gaughan. “By working with an accomplice ready to dissect unstructured information progressively we can plan and actualize hazard relief systems for our customers.”
“Polecat exists to give premonition to corporate sheets and chief authority groups to settle on better choices on arising dangers and openings,” said Polecat co-CEO James Lawn.
Grass added that corporate sheets and chief initiative groups are searching for protection and innovation that permits them to deal with their dangers — and Polecat’s association with WTW empowers that.
“The association between Willis Towers Watson and Polecat, flags another age of imaginative danger the board arrangements consolidating AI-controlled information examination, consultancy, and protection in one spot,” said Airmic CEO John Ludlow.
according to a new study from Willis Towers Watson Demand for predictive analytics is on the rise as life insurers look for new ways to boost business performance and customer relations in a tight market. Sixty-eight percent of insurers surveyed agreed that predictive analytics had a positive impact on increased sales and cross-selling, and 41% reported that predictive analytics helped reduce issue/underwriting expenses and claims costs.
However, the survey found that while some life insurers are making progress with their predictive analytics capabilities
Willios Tower Watson’s new partnership with polecat intelligence is for new opportunities and they believe that the winners will be those organizations that apply digital technologies to be connected, analytic, and agile. | https://medium.com/@maxed-blog/wtm-new-partnership-with-polecat-intelligence-in-data-analytics-passionate-in-analytics-7873e80d2290 | [] | 2020-12-27 06:12:13.952000+00:00 | ['Analytics', 'Wtm', 'Willis Towers Watson', 'Data Analytics', 'Polecat Intelligence'] |
5 Considerations While Availing Loan for a Child-care Business | Applying for a childcare center in a particular region poses great challenges from multiple regulations. One cannot escape these elements of initiating a startup. Especially, when it comes to early child development and care, the sensitivity of these services never allows you to be careless.
What do you think is needed to start a child-care business? Human resources, marketing strategies, finance? Do you think, without finance, you can ever assemble all the other factors of input? No chance!
So, here’s a list of considerations you need to keep in mind before availing loans from a vendor.
Points to be Considered
Educational Curriculum
The curriculum of a childcare center provides services not only for caring but also for education for the children. Accordingly, this requires investment in an extra set of resources to cater to the different age groups admitted.
Human Resource Qualification and Experience
It’s up to the preferences of a childcare center if they need a highly qualified and experienced human resource. The financial requirements of the business are directly proportional put the number and qualifications of the people operating.
Licenses and Regulations
Here we are talking about the start-up cost of all the points mentioned here. Other than human resource, physical equipment, the overall premise features, material are marketing expenses, the start-up cost include licensing from the state and the country. Every country poses some regulations for every industry. As a parent, no one would want to send their children to non-licensed forms and put them at risk even if it is of the utmost quality.
Location
The location of a business has a great influence on startup costs. Every location can have different prices even if it belongs to the same region. For example, buying a piece of land in the US can cost differently.
It’s not only the availability of space to operate but also the quality of employees residing in a certain radius of the business. As we accumulate the factors of input from the society, location plays a huge role.
Interest Rate
One cannot neglect the rate of interest on the loan. The decision to borrow can be shaped differently if the lender is asking for too much. So, if the interest rate is low, the childcare center can afford to stretch its budget a bit as the amount to pay at the end will be lower.
Marketing Techniques to be Applied
If the marketing techniques require huge money, the loan required would be of a higher amount and vice versa. It’s as simple as that. However, the expenditure on marketing is not directly proportional to its effectiveness. Remember, you can always engage in economical marketing and still obtain immense results.
With all these factors influencing the decision for borrowing, a childcare service near me is a balance of all these expenditures. | https://medium.com/@eva16martin/5-considerations-while-availing-loan-for-a-child-care-business-628fb81f626a | ['Eva Martin'] | 2019-12-02 06:23:21.915000+00:00 | ['Business', 'Child Care Center', 'Childcare', 'Education', 'Baby'] |
How I Boost My Productivity as a Programmer | Keep Balance
There should always be a middle ground in your productivity, as everywhere. It’s important to keep your eagerness to learn but still prevent yourself from burning out.
To do so, remember to have rest and balance between your work and life. A fresh mind always remembers better.
This habit was very important to me. When I started learning to program, without any knowledge of it at all, I spent almost ten hours a day practicing and studying. Of course, I was focused on finding my first job, but I made a rule for myself: Once a week I would toggle programming off and do whatever I wanted that wasn’t related to coding.
It helped me avoid burnout, continue learning in that tempo during the next couple of months, and get my first job in IT.
I now work full time as a front-end developer, but I’ve continued practicing that habit. Usually, I switch the toggle for the whole weekend. However, during the week, I usually spend an extra hour or two studying and practicing new things. | https://betterprogramming.pub/how-i-boost-my-productivity-as-a-programmer-2de4d954aa53 | [] | 2019-08-12 00:20:29.164000+00:00 | ['Productivity', 'Programming', 'Efficiency', 'Boost Productivity', 'Work Life Balance'] |
lonely communications | i really don’t want to talk to anyone
well i do, but my efforts equate to none
because i find that i can’t talk to strangers
when i’m feeling like i’m in emotional danger
there is a pretty girl standing here at the shop
and suddenly all my lacking confidence drops
every cell of my body hopes she won’t talk to me
walk near me, point near me, or even look towards me
instead i want to turn and run like a gun
but then i’ll only stand out like the bright sun
and that’s the opposite of what i am trying to achieve
so i walk straight ahead and my heart bleeds
maybe we don’t talk to people for the same reasons
reasons that don’t vary from season to season
we’ve got a low self-esteem
we don’t think that we can look clean
unconfident in our ability to hold a conversation
hearts thrashing around like a new medical compilation
i just don’t want to embarrass myself
but then again, that requires not being myself
she’s a pretty girl but what if she be dating
hating
faking
maybe even playing
a massive fear of countless rejections
feeling my heart go through innumerable palpitations
i can’t even look at her so i just look straight — heartbreak
it seems once again i am avoiding my chosen fate
society is more toxic than a lion’s den
cause people only care when it benefits them
and that has got to be the completely worse kind of sin
but it’s just a by-product of the capitalist utopia we live in
the more i try to talk the more i fail
as every attempt withers and pales
like a dying flower on its last legs of life
or a heart stabbed straight through with a knife
and every person that i can’t talk to
the less and less i want to talk, and so
i retreat into my sheltered cocoon, more and more
my mind is blank, and my cold heart sore
perhaps this results from societal ignorance and apathy
a lack of sensitivity that drives us to insanity
a level of toxicity beyond that of any natural source
and yet there fails to be even a flash of remorse
society is broken for the socially uninclined
our emotions stripped bare and our minds mined
it was built by the extraverted for the extraverted
but now people just ignore the quiet introverted
there is a girl standing over there, she is beautiful
eyes prettier than the leaves in the autumn fall
except she hates everything about the way she looks
from her face to her waist, to her legs to her chest
and she was taught to by society, taught to by the book
she suffers from low self-esteem
because doesn’t understand that she’s pristine
that she is absolutely wonderfully flawlessly beautiful
and so, i find me falling for her while she just continues to fall
this is the sad picture of global reality
why can nobody hear our constant pleas?
it’s because we are too covered in social debris
and so, we just stand there, silent and lonely
fearful that we’ll never achieve holy matrimony
and our trust becomes something we never give away
watching our lives turn grey and our minds sway astray
we stand alone in a corner of silence
hiding from the timeless tyrant of shyness
any defiance becomes compliance, an alliance with reliance
as we fall tragic pray to our biological science
this is not the life that we dream of
our lives fall into a labour of love
a mismatched criss-crossing of time
i feel like i will never find someone to be mine
our society so fucking ill-fated
unintentionally forcing the introvert to be underrated
abandoned in the night like a child at the orphanage
standing there with an utter absence of courage
my silence is damning
my brain keeps on spamming
the thoughtless thoughts of a mindless mind
with nobody left in our entire fucking world to find
the pretty girl ain’t there anymore
i have no damn clue what i do this for
all i ever do is stand on my own
pretending to be consistently checking my phone
life is like the water, dripping away
splashing across a dangerous icy motorway
the epitome of a complete disappointment
everything is like a feral fly in the ointment
i’m just alone and i feel like i will be forever
the day i find true love appears to happen never
my mind’s in a constant state of damn denial
as i dream of the day I will walk down the aisle
but dreams are different to our reality
for one turns me into an escapee
dancing and prancing from the truth that hurts
meanwhile society pushes me to the outskirts
For the truth that hurts is that i am alone
always falling and falling as the wind comes a-blowing
so i’ll just stay here silently and quietly in the corner
alone, unable to even raise a puny murmur
but i’m fine guys
don’t worry about me
i’ll be right here where you left me
on the brinks of our society
Lonely Raindrops
BY Bradley Sachse
Hi everyone, I really hope you enjoyed this poem. I spent and absolutely huge amount of time writing it. As such it would really mean a lot if you could give me any tips and suggestions, as I am always looking to improve my writing. Your thoughts as well aha. I actually spent a large brunt of writing this in bunnings cause we were out, so that was fun.
Thanks for reading and stay safe
Brad | https://medium.com/@bradsachse/lonely-communications-64d6a07b1b19 | ['Bradley Sachse'] | 2020-12-27 13:16:53.659000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Poem', 'Loneliness', 'Poetry', 'Love'] |
Surfshark coupon code by Nile Wilson — get the VPN discount | Nile Wilson Is a British artistic gymnastic, who won a bronze medal in 2016 summer Olympics. He is not only a well known gymnastics but also a vlogger. With his blog Nile wants to show how amazing gymnastic sport is. His videos show his daily trainings, gymnastic memes, challenges, weird gymnastic tricks and everything entertaining about the sport Nile loves.
Recently Nile Wilson partnered with Surfshark VPN in order to educate their network about online security and provides them a discount code for the services.
How to get the discount presented by Nile Wilson
First of all go to Surfshark website here, insert the coupon code “nile” and continue the purchase. Also you can just follow this link with the coupon code already inserted in: https://surfshark.com/deal/coupon?coupon=nile
Why Surfshark is a good choice
Surfshark is a non logging VPN provider based in British Virgin Islands. They have many fast servers worldwide and uses newest technology encryption. With Surfshark you will be secure and anonymous online. Surfshark will also make web open for you and bypass any geo-restrictions. It also works with many streaming platforms and has a built in ad-blocker. And last but not least they support unlimited devices and have a friendly customer support that will help you 24/7.
Watch Nile Wilson Youtube channel
Get Surfshark discount here | https://medium.com/@brandyfl47/surfshark-coupon-code-by-nile-wilson-get-the-vpn-discount-477132737f16 | ['Brandy Flaster'] | 2019-05-06 11:40:18.962000+00:00 | ['Gymnastics', 'Coupon', 'VPN', 'Discount', 'Sports'] |
Black History Month: A Reflection on Head Start History | Often when we think about Head Start’s early history, we recall the White House Rose Garden Ceremony on May 18, 1965 in which President Johnson announced Project Head Start. But this was only the beginning. Following that historic day, it took the work of determined community leaders, many of them Civil Rights advocates ready to challenge the status quo, to build Head Start into the life-changing force we know. This was no easy feat. Launching an integrated, anti-poverty program at the peak of the Modern Civil Rights Movement was met with resistance in some communities, and we owe the leaders, teachers, and parents who persisted in overcoming that resistance a wealth of gratitude. This Black History Month, we will take a deeper look and reflect on just how deeply intertwined Head Start’s history is with that of the Civil Rights Movement.
In her book, A Chance for Change: Head Start and Mississippi’s Black Freedom Struggle, historian Crystal Sanders explores the history of the Child Development Group of Mississippi’s (CDGM) Head Start program. A community action program that was part of the new Economic Opportunity Office — Head Start’s original home office in the federal government — CDGM brought together many SNCC and NAACP activists in its leadership. These leaders had the experience and the desire to put the goals of the Civil Rights Movement into action through this new early childhood program. “They translated a grassroots educational endeavor into an opportunity to better themselves, their communities, and their children’s futures,” Sanders writes.
Urban League Head Start, Los Angeles, 1991. Photographer: Guy Crowder
From the beginning, family and community involvement were at the foundation of Head Start’s model. In Mississippi in 1965 this meant that parents, Black mothers in particular, had unprecedented opportunities to shape their children’s education and improve their own circumstances.
“Black parents in Mississippi wielded authority in the education of their children, an opportunity denied to them in the public school system that was under white supervision,” Sanders writes. Not only were parents able and encouraged to play a role in their children’s education through CDGM, but many also gained employment as administrators, teachers, and cooks, which they saw as an extension of their earlier Civil Rights Movement work.
Of course, there were also obstacles to be overcome at every turn. In that first year, for example, not one school superintendent rented out school buildings or buses to CDGM, leaving them to source resources elsewhere in the community and build from scratch. And if that message wasn’t clear enough, the largest local newspaper printed an editorial saying that, “on the face of this undertaking … it appears to be the most wholesome and humane.” But, it went on, “Here is one of the most subtle mediums for instilling the acceptance of racial integration and ultimate mongrelization ever perpetrated in this country.” Despite these institutions’ unwillingness to embrace integration and progress, Head Start persisted.
Cape Girardeau’s Head Start program, 1967. Photographer: Unknown
A couple of states away, Darren Walker, now President of the Ford Foundation, was a student in another Head Start program in its inaugural year. “I was raised by a single mother, and I and my sister lived in the early 1960s in a small town in East Texas called Ames — what one in those days called the colored community,” Walker recalls. “The scene is a little dirt road with a modest shotgun shack, and a woman approached my mother and me on the porch and told my mother about a new government program called Head Start.” More than five decades later, Mr. Walker believes his own work aligns with that of the Head Start program that gave him his start — both in the business of hope and of opportunity.
Darren Walker is a prominent example, but just one of many examples of Head Start’s impact for low-income Black children who grew up in the 1960s. We know that the work of Civil Rights leaders running CDGM, the work of women like the one who approached Darren Walker’s mother, the work of countless others has made an impact because we see Head Start alumni leading in every field, in every community today.
Head Start owes its birth and early development deeply to the determination and tenacity of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Throughout Black History Month, we invite you to follow along as NHSA continues to reflect on the relationship between Head Start and the Civil Rights Movement, and how this legacy lives on today. | https://medium.com/@natlheadstart/black-history-month-a-reflection-on-head-start-history-4c273d391c42 | ['National Head Start Association'] | 2021-02-01 17:04:34.623000+00:00 | ['Education', 'Head Start', 'Black History Month', 'Civil Rights', 'Equity'] |
Chord Coldplay A sky Full of Stars Chordtela | [Intro]
Am F C Em x2
[Verse]
Am F C Em
Cause you’re a sky, cause you’re a sky full of stars
Am F C Em
I’m going to give you my heart
Am F C Em
Cause you’re a sky, cause you’re a sky full of stars
Am F C Em
And cause you light up the path
[Chorus]
Am F C Em
I don’t care, go on and tear me apart
Am F C Em
I don’t care if you do
Am F C Em
Cause in a sky, cause in a sky full of stars
Am F C Em
I think I saw you
[Instrumental]
Am F C Em x3
[Verse]
Am F C Em
Cause you’re a sky, cause you’re a sky full of stars
Am F C Em
I’m wanna die in your arms, oh
Am F C Em
Cause you get lighter the more it gets dark
Am F C Em
I wanna give you my heart
[Chorus]
Am F C Em
I don’t care, go on and tear me apart
Am F C Em
I don’t care if you do
Am F C Em
Cause in a sky, cause in a sky full of stars
Am F C Em
I think I see you
Am F Em
I think I see you
[Instrumental]
Am F C Em x4
F G Am C x2
[Outro]
F G Am C
Because you’re a sky, you’re a sky full of stars
F G Am C
Such a heavenly view
F G Am C
Such a heavenly view
F G Am C x3
(you can end on a C) | https://medium.com/@puttri-cittra/chord-coldplay-a-sky-full-of-stars-chordtela-79b42ab0fb06 | ['Puttri Cittra'] | 2020-12-18 08:37:47.272000+00:00 | ['SEO', 'News', 'Music', 'Videos', 'Love'] |
Doing Data Analysis and Linear Regression for IBM’s Maratona BTC competition | Doing Data Analysis and Linear Regression for IBM’s Maratona BTC competition
Motivation
Back in August 2020, IBM launched the event “Maratona Behind The Code” for Latin America in which participants would solve business challenges using IBM’s services, create predictive models, etc. One of the challenges was for “Digital House”, a coding school requesting for a Machine Learning model that can predict how much time their students need to find a job after they have finished one of their courses. I managed to rank 48th.
Link to the Digital House challenge on GitHub
Introduction
In this article, I go through different steps needed for a complete ML project using a dataset from real competition.
This article will be divided into 3 parts:
Exploratory Data Analysis Preprocessing the data Model exploration and evaluation
First of all, we download the dataset:
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
df_training_dataset = pd.read_csv(‘r’train_dataset_digitalhouse.csv’’)
df_training_dataset.head() !wget — no-check-certificate — content-disposition https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vanderlei-test/654986294958/master/train_dataset_digitalhouse.csv df_training_dataset = pd.read_csv(‘r’train_dataset_digitalhouse.csv’’)df_training_dataset.head()
Removing useless id column “UNNAMED: 0”:
columns=[‘Unnamed: 0’]
df_training_dataset_1 = df_training_dataset.drop(columns=columns, inplace=False)
df_training_dataset.shape #Output: (8995, 10)
We have to predict the continuous variable “DIAS_EMP”.
Some quick observations before exploring the data:
There are many categorical variables.
The data appears to have many missing values.
Exploratory Data Analysis
Let’s get some general info on the data:
Some things to consider when doing exploratory data analysis:
Try to understand the different features and their relationship with each other.
Look for variables that may help predict the target.
Visualize numerical data
Now let’s look at the correlation between numerical variables:
import seaborn as sns
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
%matplotlib inline num_features = [“EDAD”, “AVG_DH”, “MINUTES_DH”, “EXPERIENCIA”, “DIAS_EMP”]
cat_features = [“GENERO”, “NV_ESTUDIO”, “ESTUDIO_PREV”, “TRACK_DH”, “RESIDENCIA”]
target = “DIAS_EMP”
df_training_dataset_1[num_features].corr()
Now let’s plot the numerical features against each other, that way we can more clearly see their relations with each other:
sns.pairplot(df_training_dataset_1)
Some observations:
Most features are already normally distributed, so we may not need to deal with that.
There’s a clear relationship between the column pairs [EDAD, EXPERIENCIA] and [MINUTES_DH, AVG_DH], which suggests we may be able to find a non-linear function that describes one feature given the other one.
Although MINUTES_DH and AVG_DH are correlated, they both have a low correlation with the target variable, so dropping them may be worth considering.
Visualize categorical data
We start by using count plots with our categorical data:
fig, ax = plt.subplots(1, 5, figsize=(20, 5))
for variable, subplot in zip(cat_features, ax.flatten()):
sns.countplot(data = df_training_dataset_1, x = variable, ax=subplot)
for label in subplot.get_xticklabels():
label.set_rotation(90)
We now study how the feature varies across the different categories:
fig, ax = plt.subplots(1, 5, figsize=(20, 5))
for variable, subplot in zip(cat_features, ax.flatten()):
sns.kdeplot(data = df_training_dataset_1, x = target, ax=subplot, hue = variable)
for label in subplot.get_xticklabels():
label.set_rotation(90)
g = sns.PairGrid(df_training_dataset_1, y_vars=”DIAS_EMP”,
x_vars= cat_features,
height=5, aspect=.5)
# Draw a seaborn pointplot onto each Axes
g.map(sns.pointplot, scale=1.3, errwidth=4, color=”xkcd:plum”)
sns.despine(fig=g.fig, left=True)
for ax in g.axes.flatten():
ax.tick_params(rotation = 90)
Some observations:
The target (“DIAS_EMP”) varies greatly across the features “GENERO”, “NV_ESTUDIO”, and “ESTUDIO_PREV”.
The target varies very slightly under “RESIDENCIA” and “TRACK_DH”, so we will drop them.
df_training_dataset_1.drop(columns = ["RESIDENCIA", "TRACK_DH"], inplace = True)
Data preprocessing
In this step we will:
Impute missing data. Do feature engineering.
The danger of dropping missing values is that our model may not learn all the features properly. Let’s see how many rows we’re getting rid of if we just drop any row with nulls:
df_training_dataset_1.dropna().shape #Output: (2863, 8)
We would lose two-thirds of our data by dropping all rows with null values.
Imputing missing categorical values
The most popular ways of imputing categorical values are:
filling missing data with the most frequent one
filling missing data with another category (ex. “missing”)
predict them based on other variables
In this article, we’re going to try only the first two strategies, plot them to visualize results, and try an early LR to check performance.
#Print some metrics
from sklearn.metrics import accuracy_score,mean_squared_error, r2_score def model_metrics(y_test,y_pred): #Calculate some metrics for the model
mse = mean_squared_error(y_test,y_pred)
print(“Mean squared error: %.4f”
% mse)
rmse = mse/2
print(‘RMSE score: %.4f’ % rmse ) #Since this is a regression problem, we'll use an LR predictor inside a function for easy testing the changes
#It just tests the basic LinearRegression model on demand
from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split
from sklearn.linear_model import LinearRegression
from sklearn.model_selection import cross_val_score def test_lineal_regression(features, target, model = LinearRegression()):
#Divide the data set for testing
X_train, X_test, y_train, y_test = train_test_split(features, target, test_size=0.25, random_state = 133) #Create and fit basic LR model
model = model.fit(X_train, y_train)
scores=cross_val_score(model,X_train,y_train,cv=5,n_jobs=-1) #Evaluate model
y_pred = model.predict(X_test)
#print(str(len(model.coef_))+" features: "+ str(model.coef_))
print("Cross Val R2 Score: "+ str(scores.mean().round(4)))
model_metrics(y_test, y_pred)
Let’s first run a Linear Regression Model with the categorical variables, but dropping all null values to see the performance we could be looking up to.
#First trainning without any missing data
#from sklearn.preprocessing import OneHotEncoder
cat_features = [“GENERO”, “NV_ESTUDIO”, “ESTUDIO_PREV”] df_cat_impute = df_training_dataset_1[cat_features].copy()
df_cat_impute[target] = df_training_dataset_1[target]
df_cat_dropna = df_cat_impute.dropna()
cat_dropna_target = df_cat_dropna[target]
df_cat_dropna = df_cat_dropna.dropna()
df_cat_dropna = df_cat_dropna.drop(columns = target)
#df_cat_dropna2 = OneHotEncoder().fit_transform(df_cat_dropna[“GENERO”].values.reshape(-1,1))
df_cat_dropna2 = OneHotEncoder().fit_transform(df_cat_dropna)
test_lineal_regression(df_cat_dropna2, cat_dropna_target) """
Output:
Cross Val R2 Score: 0.7339
Mean squared error: 8.5234
RMSE score: 4.2617 """
Not a bad performance considering it using only the categorical features. Let’s now impute with the “most frequent” category:
from sklearn.impute import SimpleImputer
cat_imputer = SimpleImputer(strategy = “most_frequent”)
df_cat_impute2 = pd.DataFrame(
data = cat_imputer.fit_transform(df_cat_impute),
columns = df_cat_impute.columns ) #Now to visualize it's results:
df_cat_impute2[target] = df_training_dataset_1[target] fig, ax = plt.subplots(1, 3, figsize=(20, 5))
for variable, subplot in zip(cat_features, ax.flatten()):
sns.countplot(data = df_cat_impute2, x = variable, ax=subplot)
for label in subplot.get_xticklabels():
label.set_rotation(90)
Let’s try and train this one:
df_cat_impute3 = df_cat_impute2.drop(columns = [target])
df_cat_impute3 = OneHotEncoder().fit_transform(df_cat_impute3)
test_lineal_regression(df_cat_impute3, df_training_dataset_1[target]) """
Output:
Cross Val R2 Score: 0.5737
Mean squared error: 13.2366
RMSE score: 6.6183
"""
So we’ve got a difference of -0.16 in the r2 score, a really big one considering we have almost half of the dataset with at least one value that was filled. Let’s now try with imputing by creating another category among the variables. (null values are replaced with the constant “missing”).
#Now fill with "missing values"
df_cat_impute = df_training_dataset_1[cat_features].copy()
miss_imputer = SimpleImputer(strategy="constant", fill_value="MISSING")
df_inputed_missing = pd.DataFrame(data= miss_imputer.fit_transform(df_cat_impute), columns = cat_features)
df_inputed_missing_encoded = OneHotEncoder().fit_transform(df_inputed_missing)
test_lineal_regression( df_inputed_missing_encoded, df_training_dataset_1[target]) """
Output:
Cross Val R2 Score: 0.618
Mean squared error: 12.2891
RMSE score: 6.1445
"""
This model shows a -0.12 difference in the r2 score, it’s still a big difference but this is the superior one compared to imputing with the most frequent value, so we’re going to stick with this one.
Imputing numerical values
There are multiple strategies we can try, for example:
Fill with Mean
Fill with Median
Fill with Mode
Predict them
As before, we’re going to try train a model without any missing values to have a starting comparison, then we’ll try the different strategies described above
#Try predict without any missing value for numerical features df_num_impute = df_training_dataset_1[num_features].dropna().copy()
num_impute_target = df_num_impute[target]
df_num_impute.drop(columns=[target], inplace=True)
test_lineal_regression(df_num_impute, num_impute_target) """
Output:
Cross Val R2 Score: 0.182
Mean squared error: 26.1434
RMSE score: 13.0717
"""
So far a very poor performance, which we’ll improve definitely once we mix the categorical features with the numerical ones. Now we try the different approaches, visualize the effects on the dataset, and train the model.
Filling null values with mean and visualizing:
#Fill missing numeric features with with mean values
df_num_impute = df_training_dataset_1[num_features].copy()
mean_imputer = SimpleImputer(strategy=”mean”)
df_num_impute = pd.DataFrame(data = mean_imputer.fit_transform(df_num_impute), columns = num_features)
sns.pairplot(df_num_impute)
By looking at the distribution plots and the plots between the pairs [EDAD, EXPERIENCIA] and [MINUTES_DH, AVG_DH] we can see that there’s something wrong, the existing patterns are disrupted. This was done only by imputing with the mean, if we use any other constant value (like the mode or median), we'll get a similar result. Let's find the performance for this one:
num_mean_target = df_num_impute[target]
df_num_impute2 = df_num_impute.drop(columns = [target])
test_lineal_regression(df_num_impute2, df_training_dataset_1[target]) """
Output:
Cross Val R2 Score: 0.16
Mean squared error: 27.0971
RMSE score: 13.5485
"""
A difference of -0.022 in r2 score, not so big but let's see what the other strategies offer. Since we've seen the effect of imputing with a constant, let's jump straight to training with them.
#fill with constants for mode and median
df_num_impute = df_training_dataset_1[num_features].copy() mode_imputer = SimpleImputer(strategy="most_frequent")
median_imputer = SimpleImputer(strategy="median") df_num_impute_mode = pd.DataFrame(data = mode_imputer.fit_transform(df_num_impute), columns = num_features)
df_num_impute_median = pd.DataFrame(data = median_imputer.fit_transform(df_num_impute), columns = num_features)
df_num_impute_median2 = df_num_impute_median.drop(columns = [target])
df_num_impute_mode2 = df_num_impute_mode.drop(columns = [target])
print("MODE: ") test_lineal_regression(df_num_impute_mode2, df_training_dataset_1[target])
print("MEDIAN: ")
test_lineal_regression(df_num_impute_median2, df_training_dataset_1[target]) """
Output:
MODE:
Cross Val R2 Score: 0.1595
Mean squared error: 27.0820
RMSE score: 13.5410
MEDIAN:
Cross Val R2 Score: 0.1598
Mean squared error: 27.0864
RMSE score: 13.5432
"""
A somewhat similar performance compared to filling with mean.
Let's try by using a predictor, in this case, the KNN Imputer from scikit. Since the pairs ["EDAD", "EXPERIENCIA"] and ["MINUTES_DH", "AVG_DH"] only have a high correlation with each other, we're going to predict only between those two and join the results.
#fill with imputer
from sklearn.impute import KNNImputer
imputer = KNNImputer() cols_to_impute = [“EDAD”,”EXPERIENCIA”]
df_edad_exp_filled_knn1 = pd.DataFrame(data = imputer.fit_transform(df_training_dataset_1[cols_to_impute]), columns = cols_to_impute) cols_to_impute = [“MINUTES_DH”,”AVG_DH”]
df_dh_filled_knn2 = pd.DataFrame(data = imputer.fit_transform(df_training_dataset_1[cols_to_impute]), columns = cols_to_impute) df_knn = df_edad_exp_filled_knn1.join(df_dh_filled_knn2)
Visualizing it:
df_knn[target] = df_training_dataset_1[target]
sns.pairplot(df_knn)
Now the plots don't show any weird effects, as the missing values were predicted. Let's see its performance:
df_knn2 = df_knn.drop(columns = [target]) test_lineal_regression(df_knn2, df_training_dataset_1[target]) """
Output:
Cross Val R2 Score: 0.1689
Mean squared error: 26.6045
RMSE score: 13.3023
"""
This model has an improvement of +0.009 in the r2 score over the previous approaches. We’re going to stick to this change. We proceed to do some feature transformations.
Feature Engineering
Here we apply some transformations over the numeric data in an attempt to improve performance. We have seen the relationship between EDAD-EXPERIENCIA and MINUTES_DH-AVG_DH, both of them appear to apply a polynomial Transformation, which we can see using a reg plot:
We can simulate this effect with scikit’s PolynomialFeatures, using a degree of 3 respectively. However, we must do them separately, since we are not using “EDAD” to predict “MINUTES_DH”.
Since this is the final transformation we also call a Standard Scaler on the numeric features:
from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler
from sklearn.preprocessing import PolynomialFeatures df_knn_imputed = df_knn2.copy()
df_knn_imputed = pd.DataFrame(StandardScaler().fit_transform(df_knn_imputed),columns = df_knn_imputed.columns) df_knn_imputed_1 = pd.DataFrame(PolynomialFeatures(degree = 3).fit_transform(df_knn_imputed[[“EDAD”, “EXPERIENCIA”]])) df_knn_imputed_2 = pd.DataFrame(PolynomialFeatures(degree = 3).fit_transform(df_knn_imputed[[ “MINUTES_DH”, “AVG_DH”]])) df_knn_imputed = df_knn_imputed_2.join(df_knn_imputed_1, rsuffix = “E-”) test_lineal_regression(df_knn_imputed, df_training_dataset_1[target]) """
Output:
Cross Val R2 Score: 0.1766
Mean squared error: 26.1464
RMSE score: 13.0732
"""
With Polynomial Features we have an improvement of +0.007 in the r2 score over pure imputations. Now we join the datasets with categorical and numerical features to see how it performs with all the improvements done.
df_full = df_knn_imputed.join(df_inputed_missing_encoded) test_lineal_regression(df_full, df_training_dataset_1[target]) """
Output:
Cross Val R2 Score: 0.8122
Mean squared error: 5.7783
RMSE score: 2.8892 """
A fairly decent performance, let’s continue with model exploration.
Model Exploration and Evaluation
Here we will use different scikit models for regression and compare them, then we also use our custom LR model to compare it.
Scikit’s models
from sklearn.linear_model import ElasticNet
from sklearn.linear_model import Lasso
from sklearn.linear_model import Ridge
from sklearn import svm
from sklearn.ensemble import RandomForestRegressor
from sklearn.neural_network import MLPRegressor mlp = MLPRegressor()
regr = RandomForestRegressor()
svm = svm.SVR()
en = ElasticNet(random_state = 0)
lasso = Lasso()
r = Ridge()
models = [mlp,regr,svm,en,lasso,r, LinearRegression()] for m in models:
print(“ — — — — — — “)
print(m)
test_lineal_regression(df_full, df_training_dataset_1[target], model = m)
From all the models seen, the basic LinearRegression() and Ridge() linear models are the strongest ones, let’s further analyze the Ridge model by tuning its hyperparameters using GridSearchCV. We’ll use the r2 metric for scoring:
from sklearn.model_selection import GridSearchCV params_Ridge = {'alpha': [100,10,1,0.1,0.01,0.001,0.0001,0],
"fit_intercept": [True, False],
"solver": ['svd', 'cholesky', 'lsqr', 'sparse_cg', 'sag', 'saga'],
"tol": [0.01, 0.005, 0.001, 0.005, 0.0001]
} Ridge_GS = GridSearchCV( Ridge(), param_grid = params_Ridge, n_jobs = -1, cv = 5, scoring = 'r2') Ridge_GS.fit(df_full, df_training_dataset_1[target]) df_results = pd.DataFrame(Ridge_GS.cv_results_)
Select and display the top 15 parameter combinations:
pd.set_option('display.max_rows', 500) df_results2 = df_results[["param_alpha", "param_fit_intercept", "param_solver", "param_tol", "mean_test_score", "std_test_score", "rank_test_score"]] df_results2.sort_values(["rank_test_score"]).head(15)
A high mean test score means the model accounts for a higher percentage of the dataset, a low std test score means our model is unlikely to be overfitting. Let’s see the best model:
Now that we got the best hyperparameters for our model, let’s see some other metrics and visualize the results:
X_train, X_test, y_train, y_test = train_test_split(df_full, df_training_dataset_1[target], test_size=0.25, random_state = 133) model = Ridge(**Ridge_GS.best_params_).fit(X_train, y_train) y_pred = model.predict(X_test) model_metrics(y_test, y_pred) """
Output:
Mean squared error: 5.7713
RMSE score: 2.8856
"""
Let’s graph some results to compare the predictions vs the actual values:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt inicio = 0
cant = 50
y = y_test[inicio:inicio + cant]
y_p = y_pred[inicio:inicio + cant]
x_ax = range(len(y))
plt.figure(figsize=(20, 4))
plt.plot(x_ax, y, label="original",marker='o')
plt.plot(x_ax, y_p, label="predicted",marker='o')
plt.title("Digital House")
plt.legend()
plt.show()
Custom LR model
In our custom linear regression model, we do some exploration over the “iterations” and “learning rate” hyperparameters:
class LinearRegressionByHand(): def __init__(self, learning_rate = 0.0001, iterations = 10000):
self.learning_rate = learning_rate
self.iterations = iterations
def compute_loss(self, y, y_true):
loss = np.sum(np.square(y — y_true))
return loss / ( 2 * self.m) def predict(self, X): #return y = b + w1x1 + w2x2 + … + wnxn
y = self.b + np.dot(X, self.W)
return y def gd(self, X, y_true, y_hat): #Compute the derivatives from the loss function
db = np.sum(y_hat — y_true) / self.m
dW = np.sum(np.dot(np.transpose(y_hat — y_true), X), axis=0)/ self.m
return dW, db def update_params(self, dW, db):
self.W = self.W — self.learning_rate * np.reshape(dW, (self.n, 1))
self.b = self.b — self.learning_rate * db def fit(self, x_train, y_train):
y_train = y_train.values.reshape(-1,1)
self.m, self.n = x_train.shape # m is # of rows. n is # of features
self.W = np.random.randn(self.n, 1) # params
self.b = np.random.randn() # bias
losses = []
for i in range(self.iterations):
y_hat = self.predict(x_train)
loss = self.compute_loss(y_hat, y_train)
dW, db = self.gd(x_train, y_train, y_hat)
self.update_params(dW, db)
losses.append(loss)
return losses
Iterating over its hyperparameters:
results = pd.DataFrame()
iterations = [1000, 10000, 100000]
learning_rates = [10e-4, 10e-5, 10e-6] for i in iterations:
for lr in learning_rates:
print(“Training iter “ + str(i) + “ alpha “ + str(lr))
model = LinearRegressionByHand(iterations = i, learning_rate = lr)
model.fit(X_train, y_train)
y_pred = model.predict(X_test)
r2, mse = r2_score(y_test, y_pred), mean_squared_error(y_test, y_pred)
results = results.append([[i, lr, r2, mse]]) results.columns = columns
results.sort_values(["R2"], ascending = False)
The best custom LR model’s performance is comparable to the one we have from scikit.
Additional:
If you want to deploy your model with IBM’s ML services directly from the Jupyter notebook, I recommend looking at the following tutorial.
Conclusions
We have done Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) over a dataset from a data science competition, we’ve come up with decent strategies for imputing missing data and further data transformations, all based on observations we’ve gathered from looking at different plots of the data. After we were done with the data we did some model exploration to find the best possible one and we have also built a custom LR model that has comparable performance to the one from scikit.
Further things that could be done to improve the current performance:
Explore the correlation, or a similar metric, between categorical and numeric features.
Find a way to predict missing categorical data, if only to compare to the current model.
Use another ML model to predict the numerical features, like a Linear Regression with Polynomial features, instead of a simple KNN imputer.
Find interaction variables between numerical and categorical features.
*All images used in this article are direct screenshots from a jupyter notebook authored by me, the notebook with everything in this article can be found here. | https://towardsdatascience.com/doing-data-analysis-and-linear-regression-using-maratona-btc-dh-dataset-155efa0784de | ['Abraham Lemus Ruiz'] | 2020-12-09 06:04:08.115000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Linear Regression', 'Exploratory Data Analysis'] |
Natalia Tane Bio — You need to see some facts about her here | Natalia GastiainTena (born inch November 1984) is a British performer and performer. She performed NymphadoraTonks at the Harry Potter movie Collection, and also the wildling Osha at the HBO show Sport of Thrones. Tena may be your lead singer and accordionist of all Molotov juke-box. Their next studio record, Tropical Gypsy (20–16 ), has been produced on April 1–5, 20–16, also has been preceded with its lead one,”pine-apple lady”. It had been encouraged about the group’s Tropical Gypsy Tour at April and May 20–16.
Natalia GastiainTena was created in London, the girl of Spanish Mom and Dad María, a secretary, also Jesús, a magician. She actually is of Extremaduran warrior on her mum’s side along with Basque descent in her dad’s aspect.nataliatena She analyzed in the grooming college, Bedales. Tena was taught the piano with her own mum in yrs of age, determined by Chuck Berry’s new music. Subsequently, in 18, Natalia transferred back into London and also busked around the London Under Ground. While dealing together with a theater group named knee-high, at which these were authorized to select a tool to perform with, Tena made a decision to know that the accordion. Natalia produced her professional debut since Ellie at in regards to a Lady (2002), also commenced acting fulltime in 2003. She’s played roles in period adaptations of all Attended Earth at 2004, also Evenings in the Circus at 2006. Natalia reprised the Part in its own sequels Harry Potter along with also the Halfblood Prince,’’ at ’09, Harry Potter along with also the Deathly Hallows — Portion Inch at 2010 along with Portion Two at 2011. She hosted on a featuretteentitled ”TrailingTonks” to its following DVD and bluray series, also can be credited as director and producer of this featurette, by that she performs a first Christmas-themed midnight tune on guitarwhich she wrote while still employed like a busker around the London Under Ground.tracyspiridakos Back in 2011 she played with a lead part within the Film You Rather . She appears as Osha at HBO’s Sport of Thrones. Back in 2015, Natalia surfaced because the direct, Jennifer Preston, at the British Mini Series Residue. | https://medium.com/@gadeharish35/natalia-tane-bio-you-need-to-see-some-facts-about-her-here-18fd1b5148b0 | ['Harry Charles'] | 2020-12-11 03:46:59.667000+00:00 | ['Bio', 'Celebrity'] |
Writing A Diary During Lock down | I’ve always been awful at writing a diary. I’ve tried so often its embarrassing, from the age of around seven, every year, I’ve made an attempt at the practice, and it never stuck. I’d write one entry, feel very proud of myself, put the diary in my desk and promptly forget about the whole business until the next year.
Yet, over this whole business (I refuse to use the ‘C’ word) I have discovered the joy of writing in a diary. I am highly aware this is not news to anyone, diaries and the records of people have existed just as long as the human race has. Funnily enough, it was at the beginning of the first lock down that I made my initial attempt, writing quite miserable ‘I suppose now is a good time to start writing a diary’, the date at the top of the page, the 14th of March. I then promptly but the diary in my desk and crawled into bed for three months and fell into a state of permanent misery. It was only once lock down was partially lifted, and I was out of my depression cave and back at my university home, that I actually started the whole business up again.
It was early August, I’d begged my parents to drop me back at Sheffield, having convinced them that I’d find a job and work until University started up again. Much to their surprise, I did find a job, serving ice cream and slushies at a dinosaur theme park, and that was when the diary began. I worked out that the only way I’d manage to keep it up was by putting no pressure on myself, so I made a rule that I only had to write one page of my A5 notebook a day. It would take less than 10 minutes. The earliest days looking back are fairly robotic, the news of the day, the petty drama of work (there’s a lot of petty drama when you work at a theme park), the friends I was making, the joy of being out of my parents house and back in civilization. The months I spent working after lock down were not easy, the days were long, the commute arduous, but I was so happy to just be out of the prison of my parents house and working I felt like the happiest girl alive. My new work friends, and now current best friends, really connected with me and I felt loved and accepted, I had a purpose, a great group of people around me, and I was enjoying summer, it felt like a reward for the hardest months of my life. Having my diary, to be able to look back and see those days, those complex memories written so simply, its like looking back on a past self.
I think my diary became more important during the second lock down, that was when I truly started to write in the diary. During summer I had kept my diary as a record of my life, during the second lock down, it turned into a confidant. There were days that I wanted to scream, to throw things, to make a scene, to beat my hands against the wall until they were bloody, but, I couldn’t. I would pull out my diary, and sit at my desk, and I would scribble it all out. Everything, every feeling, every petty piece of anger at the world, at the government, at the situation we have all found ourselves in, all the ugliest thoughts that I wouldn’t tell my closest friends, they all went into the diary. It also started to include a previously unincluded information, the news and updates on the news. I felt like it was important to include, when I look back on everything, I want to have it in the context of those announcements, of those countless press briefings and long election nights.
What I found most interesting was that it wasn’t the beginning which I wanted to write about, because what would I write? I think the prospect of writing a diary in which every entry is an account of me arguing with my parents, the daily death count and my hatred of the lack of a lock on my door would get pretty tired pretty fast. Because that’s what lock down was, it was boring. It was the same thing day in and day out, waking up late, bleary eyes looking at university assignments that felt pointless, watching the daily death toll. I couldn’t stomach writing it down, it didn’t feel worth it. It feels worth it now. | https://medium.com/@gwynnienaylor/writing-a-diary-during-lock-down-63fed8b3d0f7 | ['Gwynnie Naylor'] | 2020-12-20 06:35:20.084000+00:00 | ['Lockdown', 'Diary Writing', 'Covid 19', 'Mental Health', 'Writing Tips'] |
Which Jane Austen book should I read first? | Which Jane Austen book should I read first?
Wondering where to begin reading Jane Austen?
There are 163 years between the year Jane Austen died and the year I was born. She lived in a cottage in England and wore bonnets; I was a moody teen growing up in India and wearing a scruffy tee and a pair of old denim cut-offs. We couldn’t have been further apart or more different, and in the summer of ’94, I was about to make my first foray into one of her books.
Taking Pride and Prejudice off the shelf with a shrug, I flung myself down on the bed and cracked it open. By page 2, I was sitting up, delighted to discover the writer with whom I’d have a lifelong love affair.
All of us have a few authors we’ve always meant to read but haven’t really gotten around to yet (hello, Proust!) for a variety of reasons. But if you’re here, it means Jane Austen is that author for you.
She is one of the gods of literature and I’m envious that you’re about to discover her delightfulness. She’s funny, perceptive, caustic, and always amusing. I can’t wait to help you discover her! Let’s dive right in, shall we?
Northanger Abbey
In this book, Jane Austen creates Catherine Morland, a delightful naïve girl who is a hyper-imaginative, a little dramatic, and very optimistic. She has read one too many Gothic novels and cannot wait to meet a dark, brooding hero and be the heroine of a romantic tragedy.
Catherine is invited to stay at Northanger Abbey, the home of a friend, for a few weeks. She dreams of exploring the mysterious ruins and haunted chapels, but when she arrives, she is disappointed to find that this abbey is bright, well-maintained, and definitely not haunted.
Undaunted, Catherine begins to investigate the untimely death of her friend’s mother, Mrs. Tilney, looking for some drama and intrigue. But instead of uncovering a scandalous murder and providing eternal rest to the wandering spirit of Mrs. Tilney, Catherine makes a fool of herself in front of those who have become precious to her.
If you have read and enjoyed Gothic novels, you’ll smile at the way Austen mocks the tropes and pokes gentle fun at Catherine’s tendency to dramatize her life, even with no reason.
She also creates some incredibly funny moments. My favourite scene from the book is one that always makes me laugh out loud — a breathless Catherine discovers what she thinks is a clue from beyond the grave, but it has an underwhelmingly prosaic denouement, much to her embarrassment.
Of all Austen’s characters, I think Catherine is the most endearing in the way she rushes through life, trying to find dark secrets in a mundane world that is dictated by strict social rules. Even though you know Jane Austen would never write about ghosts, you’ll find yourself saying, “Come on, Jane! Just give the poor girl a headless horseman or something.”
If this is your first time reading literature from the 18th century, you might take some time getting used to the language, the longer sentences, and the social norms that govern the stories. Northanger Abbey is the shortest Austen novel and it moves pretty quickly too, so it should be easier for you to get used to Austen’s style.
If reading is not your thing, listen to the Amazon Audible of Northanger Abbey narrated in the plummy voice of Emma Thompson.
Emma
If not for Catherine, Emma would’ve been my favourite Austen character. She is blessed with good looks, talent, fortune, a loving (if somewhat painful) father, and immense charm. But Emma’s greatest flaw is that she knows all this about herself.
Emma decides to use her superior abilities to improve and control the lives of the people around her. She prides herself on her excellent match-making abilities, so she meddles in the affairs of some of the single men and women she knows in the village, with disastrous consequences.
Over a series of social gatherings, balls, picnics, and dinners, she sets up couples who don’t want to be together, gets a marriage proposal from a creepy social climber, and even falls in love with a newcomer in town.
Like any good narcissist, she is completely lacking in self-awareness and puts her own rosy spin on things that happen around her, even when the truth is quite different. She meddles and schemes, and you go along with it, carried by her blithe assurance, until one day, everything falls apart, surprising you just as much as Emma.
This book is fun because Emma is such an unreliable narrator. When Jane Austen was working on Emma, she wrote to her sister to say that she was creating a heroine whom “no one but myself will much like”, but I disagree. Emma may be vain, impatient, totally self-absorbed, and even petty sometimes, but that’s why it’s so amusing to be inside her head.
If you would rather listen than read, let Emma Thompson tell you the story in her inimitable style, with the Amazon Audible Emma book.
Pride and Prejudice
Way back in college, when our literature professor announced that the class would be watching the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice, which consisted of six hour-long episodes, everyone in class groaned, except me and a couple of other nerds.
On the day of the screening, I sneaked snacks into the auditorium in my satchel and settled in comfortably for six blissful hours. And this was before I knew of the bodice-busting moment that Colin ‘Wet Shirt’ Firth would be treating us to.
Pride and Prejudice is the first Jane Austen book I ever read, and it will always be special to me. You just know that Elizabeth Bennett is the kind of girl you would love to have a beer with. She’s spirited, intelligent, has a side-eye kind of humour that would crack you up, and has the courage to stand up for herself, even when she knows it might not win her any brownie points.
In this novel, Jane Austen creates not just one memorable character but a whole cast. The servile and bumbling Mr. Collins, the painful Mary, the indiscreet Mrs. Bennett — they will annoy you with their mannerisms and their speech. Lady Catherine De Bourgh will make you seethe with red hot anger just as Elizabeth does. You’ll see instantly how well-suited Jane and Bingley are and will root for them from the very beginning. But Elizabeth is the darling of the book, and when she is heartbroken, you will want to kick Mr. Darcy and yell at him to get his act together.
This book is the reason I worship at the altar of Jane Austen. It has the most perfectly formed characters, the most perfect pacing, the most believable character arcs, and the zingiest of dialogues.
I love the Amazon Audible book of Pride and Prejudice, narrated in the clipped British accent of Claire Foy (from The Crown).
Persuasion
Frederick Wentworth and Anne in Persuasion have the most swoon-worthy chemistry and my favourite love letter in all of literary history is in this book.
They fall in love but are persuaded by people and circumstance to break up because he doesn’t come from a moneyed family. Frederick Wentworth goes away heart-broken and joins the Navy, determined to make a success of himself.
Anne dries her tears and waits for her puppy love to fade, as her family tells her it will. But years later, when Frederick returns as the successful, self-made Captain Wentworth, Anne feels the same sparks.
She worries about meeting her ex as an older and more sedate woman, without the bloom of youth that he last saw. Side note: Anne is the oldest heroine in Jane Austen’s books (she’s only 27 but in Austen times, this was ancient!) so it is quite interesting to read her point of view.
Both Captain Wentworth and Anne have to deal with their own demons, their regret of years lost, the opinions of those close to them, various romantic rivals, and their feelings for each other.
The couple barely touches fingertips but the chemistry is so intense that you feel like you’re eavesdropping on private conversations. I have read the book dozens of times and I know exactly how it ends, but when Captain Wentworth slips her the above-mentioned letter during a social gathering, I put my hand to my heart like an old lady and worry about what she’s going to say.
Florence Pugh does a terrific job of narrating this version of Persuasion in an Amazon Audible book.
And now you’re on your own…
One of my greatest pleasures as a reader is ambling through a bookstore or GoodReads or Amazon in search of my next book, and I wouldn’t want to take that pleasure away from you. After you’ve read these top 3 Jane Austen books, you’ll be inducted deep enough into Austen-land to choose your own path. You’ve still got Sense and Sensibility, and Mansfield Park to go.
This post contains Amazon affiliate links and I may earn a small commission when you click on the links, at no extra cost to you. | https://medium.com/@mishanakhot/how-to-start-with-jane-austen-789815f68c64 | ['Mishana Khot'] | 2021-01-12 05:23:08.799000+00:00 | ['Readinglist', 'Book Recommendations', 'Literature Fiction', 'Jane Austen', 'Book Review'] |
The Importance of Knowledge | The Importance of Knowledge
The Brain. Image by Annelise Lords
Listening to a mother and son arguing.
“Your bread machine is still under warranty. When you opened it trying to fix it, you voided the warranty.”
“I didn’t know that?” her son admits.
“Didn’t you read the manual?” she asks calmly.
“No,” he answers.
“Where are the screws? I just fixed it for you, but I need the screws to put the top on.”
“I… I,” he stuttered.
“You don’t know where they are?” she asks. She continues when he didn’t respond, scolding, “I told you to secure them because I was going to fix it.”
“I think I put them on the Tv stand,” his memory recalls.
“They aren’t there,” she said in frustration. “Without the screws, I won’t be able to put it back together, and you won’t be able to make the delicious bread you enjoy so much!”
“Mom don’t argue with me about screws. It’s not that important.”
“A few days ago, when you were hungry and had no bread to make your sandwich, it was important!” she erupts.
“I put them on the TV stand, and that’s the last I see of them,” he explains.
“You didn’t think to secure them?”
“Mom, you are overreacting.”
“You don’t think what you did was stupid or wrong?” his mother vents still angry.
“No mom,” he said. “Screws can be replaced.”
“I know, but for me to replace them, I must know what they look like and their size.”
Maybe she was overreacting, but not for me.
Lesson #1: Always read what the warranty covers for everything you buy.
Lesson #2: Never attempt to DIY anything you own while it’s covered by warranty.
Lessons #3: Secure the screws from everything you open, especially if your DIY attempts are incomplete or unsuccessful.
Lesson #4: All acts of stupidity come with a cost, and sometimes, innocent bystanders suffer because of our actions, choices, or decisions.
Every bit of knowledge is important to someone. The more we know, the better we grow. The man who learns only for himself limits his potential and his ability. While the man who shares his knowledge opens the door to limitless possibilities.
If we refuse to acknowledge our mistakes, then we lose valuable lessons that will increase our wisdom and give us the power not to repeat them. By acknowledging our mistakes, we will learn something important. Then we can share our knowledge with others, thus helping someone from not repeating our mistakes. Big or small, simple or complex, life lessons are in everything we do daily.
I learn from everything I do, right or wrong. Doing the right things build confidence. While doing the wrong things cause pain and disappointment, but after lessons learned, the pain goes away.
Thank you for reading this piece. I hope you enjoyed it. Please enjoy more from other writers on this platform.
https://mediumauthor.com/@thisisanneliselords
https://mediumauthor.com/podcast
medium.com/illumination/interview-with-annelise-lords-421238e49b9f
https://twitter.com/ThisisAnneliseL
https://medium.com/authors-peeps/authors-peeps-interview-d43e38e53898 | https://medium.com/afwp/the-importance-of-knowledge-4b89bd6e20f0 | ['Annelise Lords'] | 2020-12-20 15:32:10.188000+00:00 | ['Knowledge', 'Learning', 'Sharing', 'Life Lessons', 'A Few Words'] |
NVIDIA GPUs and Apache Spark, One Step Closer | NVIDIA GPUs and Apache Spark, One Step Closer
By: Andy Feng, Thomas Graves, Robert Evans, Jason Lowe, Gary Shen
While RAPIDS started with a Python API focus, there are many who want to enjoy the same NVIDIA GPU acceleration in Apache Spark; in fact, we have many at NVIDIA. When RAPIDS first launched, we had a plan to accelerate Apache Spark as well as Dask, and we want to share some major accomplishments we’ve made over the last couple of months. Apache Spark is a leading big data platform, and our vision is to make NVIDIA GPUs a first class citizen. In addition, we want to empower the community to seamlessly choose their accelerator for data processing and machine learning workload across languages. With GPUs, users can exploit data parallelism through columnar processing instead of traditional row based reading designed initially for CPUs.
Four Accomplishments
Working with industry leaders in the open source community to lay the groundwork for our vision, we have:
submitted a proposal (SPARK-24615) and worked with industry leaders to upstream GPU-aware scheduling. This will enable users to natively schedule Apache Spark jobs on GPUs and available in Apache Spark 3.0.
started stage-level resource scheduling (SPARK-27495).
contributed a columnar processing proposal (SPARK-27396), that has been approved, and we are working on making the code changes to make the feature available in Apache Spark 3.0
released RAPIDS XGBoost4J-Spark package to GPU-accelerated end-to-end XGBoost pipelines on Apache Spark. You can follow the progress here. This will allow:
XGBoost users to have native support for RAPIDS cuDF. You can follow the progress on this effort here. GPU isolation and assignment on multi-tenant GPU Cluster. This has been submitted to DMLC XGBoost library here External memory support in the future for XGBoost training on GPUs. Follow our progress here.
As always, our goal is to upstream these modifications into the appropriate libraries. Our goal is to build more bridges, and contribute to standards in the big data ecosystem.
Why Did We Start with XGBoost?
XGBoost is a popular gradient boosting library that solves many data science problems in a fast and accurate way. XGBoost4J-Spark is a leading mechanism for enterprises to conduct distributed machine learning training and inference. XGBoost4J-Spark enables XGBoost to train and inference data on Apache Spark across nodes.
What’s in the Release?
We are pleased to release RAPIDS XGBoost4J-Spark to accelerate end-to-end XGBoost pipelines on Apache Spark. With a single line code change, an existing Spark XGBoost application will be able to leverage GPUs to perform Spark data loading, XGBoost data conversion, and model training and inference.
Built upon the latest DMLC XGBoost code, RAPIDS XGBoost4J-Spark will contribute the following performance enhancements to the project:
Enable Apache Spark 2.x clusters (YARN, Kubernetes, Standalone) to execute end-to-end XGBoost tasks on GPUs. This is early access to our GPU-aware scheduler. You can follow our progress here. Load datasets from a variety of sources (HDFS, cloud storage) into a RAPIDS cuDF DataFrame using our GPU-accelerated Apache Spark reader API. This is a sneak peak into our columnar processing SPIP. Convert RAPIDS cuDF DataFrame directly into XGBoost’s native DMatrix for GPU-based training and inference.
This release of RAPIDS Spark XGBoost provides data scientists and data engineers early access, and allows us to gather valuable feedback from the community. Eventually, all these enhancements will be merged into Apache Spark and DMLC XGBoost projects. We are excited that the GPU-aware scheduler enhancement has been accepted and merged to Apache Spark repo for Apache Spark 3.0 release. GPU dataframe support is being added through the Spark proposal here.
Benchmarking RAPIDS XGBoost4J-Spark:
XGBoost has integrated support for running across multiple GPUs, which can deliver even more significant improvements. We see an 8x performance improvement benchmarking XGBoost on GPUs comparing 2 NVIDIA T4 GPUs to 50 vCPUs with 300GB RAM on a Yarn cluster. We use RAPIDS cuDF reader to load CSV data into GPU memory directory. We then perform zero-copy conversion within GPU memory from cuDF Dataframe to D-matrix format. This eliminates host memory to GPU memory transfer. Finally, we train the XGBoost model in GPU.
How Do I Download and Use Distributed XGBoost4J?
Before you get started, please review our list of prerequisites for using the XGBoost4J-Spark on GPU package.
Hardware Requirements
NVIDIA Pascal™ GPU architecture or better
Multi-node clusters with homogenous GPU configuration
Software Requirements
Ubuntu 16.04/Ubuntu 18.04/CentOS 7
NVIDIA driver 410.48+
CUDA 9.2/10.0
NCCL 2.4.7
Spark 2.3.x/2.4.x
Get started using distributed in-memory training across multiple nodes and multiple GPUs using popular cluster manager frameworks on Spark such as YARN, Kubernetes and Standalone, refer to documentation links below for instructions.
We have made GPU accelerated XGBoost artifacts available at a public maven repo. You simply need to add the following dependency in your pom.xml. Classifier enables you to select the JAR based on your OS and NVIDIA CUDA version.
<dependency> <groupId>ai.rapids</groupId> <artifactId>xgboost4j-spark</artifactId> <version>${xgboost.version}</version> <classifier>${xgbClassifier}</classifier> </dependency>
To see how XGBoost integrates with cuDF and Apache Spark, check out these sample applications and notebooks. Mortgage example notebook applies Fannie Mae data to predict mortgage delinquency (a classification problem). Please follow our readme instructions to build sample Spark XGBoost applications either by spark-submit or using interactive notebooks.
Give Us Your Feedback:
Given this is a beta release please help us by providing feedback on what you like and what you want to see in future releases so we can adjust our roadmap accordingly. Submit issues and join the conversation! | https://medium.com/rapids-ai/nvidia-gpus-and-apache-spark-one-step-closer-2d99e37ac8fd | ['Karthikeyan Rajendran'] | 2019-06-27 06:10:49.135000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Open Source Software', 'Xgboost', 'Apache Spark', 'Data Science'] |
21/12/20 (A rainy Monday) | 21/12/20 (A rainy Monday)
Hey Everyone!
I wanted to start journaling my life. I think sometimes it’s nice to reflect on the past, it makes you realise that you’ve grown into a more matured person. With this being said, I’m not the best writer or story teller so please be patient with me. :)
This morning I woke up around 8:40am, which is usually late for me but because now Im working late shifts my body clock has decided that it likes to be lazy and sleep in. I usually like to wake up early but I have more of the day to complete daily tasks and better my health. That being said, it’s sometimes nice to sleep in. I was in a rush since I had to do some last minute Christmas shopping for my Aunt. She’s doing ok, but she’s just recovering from a surgery at the moment, so my family is doing our best to help her out. I got her the doll presents that she requested, sadly there were a few items that I was not able to get, which was extremely annoying but that’s December for you. Some really good advice is to do your Christmas shopping in March. I’m telling you, the earlier the better because your going to be more organised. You seriously want to stay away from the shops in December, not the mention that everything is FULL price. Your girl is on a budget mkayyy.
I got back in time for lunch. My Dad is super awesome, he always cooks amazing meals. We had sting-ray burgers. Before you say anything, when we go fishing that’s what he catches so we eat it ;). It tasted AMAZING, I was so full after that though. Then I went to work, nothing too special. But because I work in retail and I’m fairly new to this company, I ended up learning how to print the price labels which I was super happy about. I had to make a price label for these really cool vases that look like drums :). | https://medium.com/@briggskr/21-12-20-a-rainy-monday-db3045b79f9e | ['Kayla Rae'] | 2020-12-21 14:49:22.586000+00:00 | ['Diary', 'Reflections', 'Journal', 'Journaling', 'Christian'] |
Power Shift: The Battery Revolution Has Begun | He’s right. While the complex engineering that drives the grid in Australia (and every other country) may be impressive, it’s based on a concept that was already outdated — and being overtaken by technological changes — when Australia’s interconnected national grid was completed in 1998.
Disruption was coming from many angles: the growing use of renewable energy, like wind and solar, being connected to the grid, adding intermittency; the rapidly falling prices for solar panels, which triggered a boom in solar rooftop installations and made solar farms viable; and the voracious demand for laptop computers, which accelerated the development (and lowered the cost) of energy-dense batteries like lithium-ion, eventually creating a secondary market for large-scale storage. Meanwhile, computers and high-tech electronics in industry and in homes were changing the way energy was used, unbundling what had for decades been a neat and predictable pattern of usage.
Those effects were just beginning in 1998. Twenty years later, the disruption is so immense, electricity grids are having trouble coping.
Take Australia, for example. In 2018, the number of rooftop solar power generators on Australian homes passed two million, compared with just 20,000 a decade before. There are now, on average, six new household solar installations every minute in the country.
In total, 8,900 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of Australia’s power currently is generated from solar rooftops — more than the 8,000 GWh generated by the Liddell Power Station near Muswellbrook in regional New South Wales, once the biggest power station in Australia. Another 766 GWh of electrical energy was produced by large-scale solar farms (versus zero in 1998) and 12,668 GWh by wind turbines, compared with just eight two decades ago.
That’s a good thing, right? Yes — and no. Australia’s national grid was designed to cater for centralised power from large-scale hydroelectric, coal and gas-fired generators. It was created not just to ensure power was easily transferable from one side of the country to another, but also to drive prices lower. If there were too many plants producing power but not enough being used, prices would fall, encouraging the most expensive generators to drop off the grid. Conversely, spikes in demand did the reverse: pushing prices higher and encouraging more generators online, which eventually lowered prices across the grid.
This worked nicely when competition was between big coal, big gas and big hydro. But solar and wind have become such a low-cost way to produce electricity, and are now so widespread, that they have forced prices lower on the grid — and, paradoxically, higher.
Australia’s national electricity grid, consisting of 40,000 km of transmission lines and cables supplying 200 terawatt hours of electricity to five of Australia’s six states — around 80% of the country’s consumption .(Australian Energy Market Operator)
When solar and wind generators are in operation, they are so cheap that large-scale coal and gas cannot compete, so these dial back production or shut down. However, power from renewables is intermittent — it can rise and fall with little warning, such as when winds abate, or clouds diminish the intensity of sunlight falling on solar panels. Hence, if supply falls off suddenly, and demand stays the same, prices on the grid spike up to encourage more generation and avoid blackouts. That brings the big generators back to cash in.
Problem is, these coal and gas behemoths are inflexible; they take from several hours to a whole day to go from standstill to full power. Even when running hot, they cannot easily or economically vary output up or down fast enough to meet sudden peaks in demand, such as during a heatwave.
Because all generators on the Australian grid are paid for the power supplied in five-minute blocks (known as the spot price), the price of electricity sold on the national grid can vary wildly — on rare occasions, as high as A$14,000/MWh, and as low as minus A$1,000/MWh. But prices stabilise over the year. The average spot price in 2018 was around A$111/MWh in South Australia and A$100/ MWh in Victoria, for example.
Nevertheless, it’s obvious that energy storage is the missing link in this whole shebang. It would allow the power generated by any technology — solar, wind, coal, gas — to be amassed when demand is low, and discharged when demand rises.
And it’s not like energy storage isn’t used. Globally, there are 70 dams, with a generating capacity of at least 2,000 MW each, where water is stored then released gradually to drive turbines and generate electricity. But hydroelectricity, while renewable and flexible, is enormously costly (monetarily and environmentally) to build, and limited by geography and access to reliable sources of water. While those 70 dams have a total energy output of more than 1.2 million GWh, they required the flooding of more than 70,000 square kilometres of land to create them.
“There was a huge lack of imagination,” recalls Skyllas-Kazacos of her discussions with industry giants in the 1990s, when she was trying to commercialise the VRB patents she’d taken out for her employer, the University of New South Wales (UNSW). “People in the electricity sector didn’t seem to be aware of what technology was out there. But also, everyone was looking after their own interests, unfortunately. They weren’t looking at the big picture.” | https://medium.com/discourse/power-shift-the-battery-revolution-has-begun-bc3f750e8c89 | ['Wilson Da Silva'] | 2020-10-09 14:03:57.785000+00:00 | ['Energy', 'Technology', 'Climate Change', 'Science', 'Climate'] |
Sports To Try This Summer — Sporforya | Not sure which sports to play this summer? Want to try a new sports, but are confused?
Well, let’s be real, this is no ordinary summer. I am sure most of you are desperate to go out in the sun, enjoy the beaches, get-together and play some sports, but but but…you have got to be realistic now. That’s not happening anytime soon, is it? At least in the way we know it.
So what does that mean? No sports this summer? Netflix and chill all day? That’s a big no. I don’t need to tell you how bad that is for you and your children. Read more about it here.
While you might not be able to enjoy football, volleyball and other contact sports, that doesn’t mean you can’t do any sports at all.
If you are not sure as to which sports you can try, then have a look at the list below.
I have 2 more for you. We consider training the mind as a sport too. How about the below:
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The team here at SPORFORYA is always keen to hear from you and invites all readers to comment, like and share.
Our mission is to play, learn and enjoy sports activities anywhere, at anytime, by connecting people and amateur sports providers all over the world.
We want to create opportunities for people to participate in local sports services, and events, while helping community organizations prosper and grow.
We would be delighted for you to sign up for more insights and articles sent directly to your inbox! Visit the blog to sign up.
Thank you!
Team, SPORFORYA. | https://medium.com/@sporforya/sports-to-try-this-summer-sporforya-a298c868167e | [] | 2020-06-24 15:51:56.109000+00:00 | ['Local Sports', 'Sporforya', 'Summer', 'Sports', 'Play Local'] |
Ghost Justin Bieber Lyrics in English | [Verse 1]
Youngblood thinks there’s always tomorrow
I miss your touch on nights when I’m hollow
I know you cross the bridge that I can’t follow
[Pre-Chorus]
Since the love that you left is all that I get
I want you to know that
[Chorus]
If I can’t be close to you
I’ll settle for the ghost of you
I miss you more than life (More than life)
And if you can’t be next to me
Your memory is ecstasy
I miss you more than life
I miss you more than life
[Verse 2]
Youngblood thinks there’s always tomorrow (Woo)
I need more time, but time can’t be borrowed
I’d leave it all behind if I could follow
[Pre-Chorus]
Since the love that you left is all that I get
I want you to know that
[Chorus]
If I can’t be close to you
I’ll settle for the ghost of you
I miss you more than life (Yeah)
And if you can’t be next to me
Your memory is ecstasy (Ohh)
I miss you more than life
I miss you more than life
[Bridge]
Woah
Na, na-na
More than life
Full Lyrics Visit Now : https://www.lyricsofnewsongs.com/ghost-justin-bieber-lyrics-in-english/ | https://medium.com/@john432/ghost-justin-bieber-lyrics-in-english-e8d0f5cfc486 | [] | 2021-03-22 15:11:01.690000+00:00 | ['Songs', 'Music', 'Songs Lyric', 'Lyrics', 'News'] |
For future Halloween plans! | For future Halloween plans!
Im posting this for many reasons. And here is my list of reasons.
1) To show that no one tradition or religious group stole nor borrowed any tradition to add to their own by making a whole new tradition or holiday.
2) To show my fellow Christian's that you All can relax and enjoy Halloween for what it is without worrying about it being the day of Satan. Why would you give the enemy that much credit?
Everything that makes up our modern day Halloween? It's a perfect blend of everything from the past, (as far back as recorded), drawing from every tradition that believed itself to be truly original, and much of it was natural so to speak, along with additional views and beliefs that were necessary to be included by the Christian movement.
Halloween, simply put, is translated into meaning "Saint's Evening". We will come back to that but first let's take a look at past traditions and how they are still thriving today.
Samhain:
Celebrated on October 31-November 2
It marked the "summers end". As they didn't feel inspired to note Autumn or "Fall". But the end of summer, begining of winter.
This "Darker Half" of the year that approached as the seasons transitioned made the ability to sense & interact, many times even see, spirits and or fairies during this time where the veil was wanning to the thinnest.
These spirits, entities, fairies were seen as deities or many times lesser deities of nature, and since fear was heavy on humanity's mindset at this time we everyone was a farmer and held crops. They were seeking with heavy eyes as a means to make any sort of deal, pact or exchange with these spirits that made themselves known at this time. These exchanges were made in hopes to be blessed with abundant crops and that the harsh winter wouldn't essentially cause their death by keeping them from seeing the sun return to them once more with life, warmth and a promise of regeneration and finally rebirth.
With that said, Samhain wasn't entirely ever truly seen with a positive lens. It was a desperate time and any hope the people held was all dependent upon spirits of mischief.
This among other facts of the holiday no matter how you see it can and will always have the ability to be seen with the modern lens of "Trick or Treat?".
Before we go further I want to longer here for a moment & say that if we are all honest regardless if you or I are religious, no matter if we aren't one bit spiritual, and also no matter if we are pagan, christian, satanist, etc, this far when taking all into consideration. We all can agree on the fact that the feel in the air during this time is noticably different. Even if it doesn't stay cool or it's already cold depending on where we are?
The chill in the air during this time has a certain bite to it. A thin chill so to speak. If you dare pay closer attention one could even sense the giggle, the playful season approaching, however we can also note that we can also feel a dread approaching.
And as we sense these spirits so to speak we can also sense another side, another set of emotions passing us by as they take leave.
Which would be the summer spirits or fairies if you will.
The temperamental, hard working, heated, argumentative even, and perhaps with high libido that is nearly an end or a restful sleep in the air.
No one can deny these vibes. Whether you see them as spirits of nature, or the ambient energy of our own motions in mid transition as well as the animals as our habits change with the seasons? It's truly all interconnected and is easily viewed as the same.
It is worthy to mention; Jack Santino, a folklorist, writes that "there was throughout Ireland an uneasy truce existing between customs and beliefs associated with Christianity and those associated with religions that were Irish before Christianity arrived".
I believe this statement says much of what I believe the holiday is about while looking through the lens of "the big picture". Halloween, whether in the past when the movement and awareness of Christ began or thereafter til now? There has always been a sense of an uneasy truce felt in the air amongst the other natural spirits we feel on this night and a few nights after. And I would say this truce is felt on every holiday from Halloween through all other holidays (past and present) all the way up until the following Halloween in the future.
Halloween, up until this moment, and in this blog entry, it has essentially stated that the traditions that were seen as a holiday in the past were mere natural occurrences that humanity took witness in whether we benefited or not. We took part in and we will always take part in the comings and goings of all things whether felt and unseen or seen and known.
In this sense?
I feel like all religions, traditions, views and beliefs were brought together on All Saints Eve. Whether we saw it as Samhain, Halloween, Saints Eve, or Devil's Night? We each took art in this celebration by chosing to seeing the truth of what was before us, behind us and moving us.
Which was and always will be the combination of the realm of the dead, whether those that have passed on are saints, martyrs, or those in Hell or Hades, maybe even in pergutory and walking the Earth--we all honored and honor them whether silently or aloud.
We each also continued to take part in old traditions such as dressing up as devil, witch, angel, or zombie. This tradition is a recognition of the fact that we each are all the same. We are all children of the night. Children at heart. And we each wear a mask whether it's Halloween or not. Though on every other day we are usually wearing our most personable, percieved to be civilized mask. Most of all of us never want to show the wrong sinful face (no matter if you call it sinful, dark half, shadow self) especially when we aren't in control of the reveal!
We put our best face forward and most days we are so caught up in the comparison and competition of who is the smartest, fastest, most forgiving, or most bravest, most honest, or most real and genuine, or even worst the most superficial, etc. Every other day of the year we are lost in the game of life trying to survive and we trick ourselves into believing we are doing the right things.
On Halloween? When we put on our costumes it is as if we are being honest for the first time in the year however it's happening towards the end and just before we rest our sunshine face. We are released from our busy spring and summer and told to rest within our fall and winter. Usually our emotional states are influenced also during this Darker Half of the year.
This is why we each, pagan, witch, satanist, atheistic, agnostic and or christian should realize what Halloween truly is all about. A blessing in disguise!
A revealing of the truth of who we really are, what the nature is around us, and what change really is. How the transition from Summer to fall truly means. And how it is on All Hallows Eve where we truly are united on a level where as we aren't on the following holidays even on Christmas.
We simply haven't spotted it yet. It is subtle yet so very loud!
Again the theme, trick r treat. This speaks on everything about us that causes us to bicker, fuss and fight. It's nearly as if the holiday itself was planted and expanded by a more just, wise and over seer God who is truly much more benevolent than any other lesser deities, spirits or fairies we as humanity saw as normal and natural to pray to by offering something that was demanded of us by some less than powerful and malevolent deity.
If we (who believe in deities in any way shape or form) must give something oof ourselves or something that belongs to us in exchange for some deity or entity to protect our crops, our homes, our families etc due to the change of the season that is felt from our very home on earth?
That deity isn't benevolent and isn't powerful. No deity needs something from us in order to promise to protect us. However a wise and just deity?
Will do what he can to his fullest power to protect and care for us in whatever way we ask for. The only catch? We must also protect ourselves and be as wise as we can by learning how to be wise from a wise deity.
Humanity doesn't learn how to get long on the most contraversial of holidays however you spend it. There is still a sense of unity that exists and many times we spend out holidays fighting against that natural sense of unity that is demanded of us even compelled.
Halloween is here to remind us that we all start from the same place. We are all fallen. We all have secrets. We all have gambled with what's sacred. We are all corrupt in some way. We are all capable of being monsters. We can be angels one day and monsters the next and many times no one can tell except on Halloween, so to speak. Except when that veil is the thinnest.
When that murky fog of corruption thins itself out, ya know the moments when suddenly truth is clear and you cant imagine how you didn't see it before?
These moments? That is Halloween. The so called Devil's night, where yes he too is revealed and can be seen the most clearly if wished for, but at a equal and more powerful level?
The Saints who have departed? The martyrs? Whom come from all of our families regardless of division and percieved truths?
Those blessings in our lives and the spark within us that is ready to do the work to shine blamelessly with our own saint flag flying high!
It is only when we allow the darkest most fearful possibility to enter our lives and relate to another human being do we realize our true potential in being the person we know we are meant to be beneath all of our inequities.
We may be the devil's children and Satan himself may be the true God of their world and heir of this earth. Whether we believe it or we pretend.
Trick or Treat
It is only at the blackest night can a star shine bright for everyone to see.
Come together at our worse. And stay together. We are never at our best unless we are clear about our weaknesses. Only then can we build one another.
From Halloween we then approach all the rest of the holidays and traditions. Hand in hand. No matter our differences.
So you see my fellow people.
Everyone is able to celebrate their own tradition during every holiday as do others.
If the holidays hold everyone's sacred tradition? This means there is reason for the tradition and perception behind it. However the perception beyond the holidays? Should be studied for the rest of the days of the year not only one day or a few of the year.
This is what traditions are here to teach us.
We take our big lessons from these days and apply it to the rest of our years. And every year we build more and more layers with each perception and experience we gained...only to realize the over seer who have built all of it?
That is for you to witness when the time comes.
Trick or Treat?
We each hold the answer. One and both. And know the repercussions.
Think it to be a child's holiday? Or a day of commercial consuming of candy and bullshit?
What happens to our children? Happens to us and vice versa. Family. Unity and division. Darkness and malvolant intent is out there. That's more important than you think. Because it proves the existence of Light, Goodness and Truth beyond your comprehension.
So no matter your stance?
Lighten up. Know you're moved by the season, spirits and forces no matter the strength of your stance. No matter the stillness of your stance.
A fearful christian who hands out bible scripture on Halloween? Your choice. But know that you are here to be a silent protector and a tender to the darkness more than you are here to oppose it or blatantly teach it words it already knows and didn't invite. Know when to spread scripture and when to not.
We all know Halloween is coming. And it isn't even the devil's night. It is the Saints Evening.
Enjoy our holidays see Christian's. Without Christianity the veil everyone sees whether pagan, witch, friend or foe? They wouldn't be able to see even the slightest as well as they do now if it weren't for the light of Christ. They do not have to fully believe such as you to see. However they must in order to see Christ as we do.
But Halloween isn't a day for pushing scripture. It is want to blend in by our true nature's. To do the opposite as we normally do.
Push scripture to the accusers on the rest of the days of the year. But from Oct 31-November 2?
Be and know we are all one of them and they are one of us. There isn't any us versus them.
Same goes for all of you pagans, witches and satanists! Do not support division if you don't like division. Do not confront if you do not lie confrontation. Do not assume that since you do not understand or it once hurt you that means you've seen the truth of it.
Halloween is about allowing yourself be surprised by whatever you receive by using wisdom to know it could be a trick or a treat but you're going to find it, face it and accept ythe fate of your choice.
Trick or Treat!
Spend your future Halloween to the fullest unlike you ever did!
God Bless you all!
Amy
The ‘Make Believe' Catholic
Podcast coming soon! | https://medium.com/@7saintseviin711/im-posting-this-for-many-reasons-and-here-is-my-list-of-reasons-a56ba47b4e16 | ['Amy Smith'] | 2020-11-13 13:45:00.222000+00:00 | ['Halloween', 'All Saints Day', 'Christianity', 'Holidays', 'Samhain'] |
Getting Closer To Mega Project | Poor People Getting Education In Pakistan
Pakistan is a developing country and its economy is weak. Pakistan is facing many problems including lack of general awareness, illiteracy, poverty and hunger. All these problems are directly related to lack of quality education in the country.
The private schools that are providing quality education has high fee structures. The paradox is that private schools are better but not everywhere and government schools ensure equitable access but do not provide quality education.
There are so many intelligent little minds who are wandering and begging on roads. They do not have general awareness. They do not know how to behave, how to speak. They don’t know about manners and etiquettes and most importantly they do not have basic education and that’s why they are deprived of their basic rights.
Child beggars on roads
Education is the building block of national development. It enhances the sense of responsibility of the citizens. Through education, people can achieve their individual, societal and national rights. Education promotes general awareness and economic development and make people stable and competitive in the society.
Problem Statement: Currently, the quality education is not accessible to everyone in Pakistan so the people who can’t afford it, can’t get their dream jobs and can’t contribute to the betterment of their family and society as well. If we provide quality education to poor people at a very low fee structure then they will be able to access jobs that can help them economically and to make an impact in the society.
Children who haven’t access to education and want to study
My Strategy Related To This Issue:
Well, I want to provide a platform where quality education will be available in a very affordable fee structure to those who can’t afford those private institutions and ended up getting an ordinary education or begging on roads. For this purpose, I am thinking to rent out a place through fund raising and to organize an event through which I can raise awareness in public related to my initiative and insights. I will gather a team of qualified teachers who are committed to the same cause as I am and agree to teach poor people with me. I also want to provide necessary professional skills to my students so that they can be able to compete within this growing world.
I talked my friend related to this issue because he is running his own NGO named ‘The Investors Foundation’. He has guided me in this regard.
E xperience From This Activity:
This experience empowered me to take initiative on my own. I have gained my strength to help people. This was the idea that was in my heart and if Amal academy does not ask me so I will never start thinking to work on it. | https://medium.com/@syeda-yumnah174/getting-closer-to-mega-project-68d8dbf688e6 | ['Syeda Yumnah'] | 2020-12-27 05:36:17.822000+00:00 | ['Problem Solving', 'Education'] |
New Partnership Announcement: Colu Partners With Metaco | Colu has formed a strategic partnership with Metaco, an established blockchain company in the European market based in Switzerland. With its long experience building digital wallets and custodian solutions for cryptocurrencies, Metaco has developed SILO to overcome the technical challenges encountered by institutions dealing with cryptocurrency storage. SILO delivers military-grade secure cryptocurrency custody and payment processing to banks and other financial institutions.
Metaco, being a financial gateway, can help scale the Colu Local Network by connecting consumers and merchants on the Colu Local Network to traditional banking services. CLN interoperability with Metaco will help streamline and facilitate crypto payment processing that will push the crypto payments space forward.
Colu has been a pioneer in the blockchain space since 2014 and is well known for creating the Colored Coins protocol. Since then Colu has released the Colu Local Wallet which is now in use in four communities, located in Israel and the United Kingdom, with over 100,000 users. A subsidiary of Colu is currently developing the Colu Local Network, a payment network that aims to utilize the power of cryptocurrencies to create an open and transparent infrastructure for processing payments, that can offer a competitive alternative to credit card companies and closed-network payment providers. The Colu Local Network is expected to be integrated with Metaco by the end of 2018.
“Metaco and Colu have known each other for a long time and have both been active in the blockchain field for years. Metaco is an established financial gateway and we believe they can help us scale the Colu Local Network. We believe that we share a vision for the future of payment processing and we are anticipating future cooperation with one another.” Mark Smargon, VP Blockchain, Colu. | https://medium.com/colu/new-partnership-announcement-colu-partners-with-metaco-3233f6ddf8eb | [] | 2018-02-14 09:58:53.257000+00:00 | ['Finance', 'ICO', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Bitcoin', 'Blockchain'] |
The Extremities of the #BlackGirlLuxury and the Abundant Lifestyle Trend | Two women living their best lives. Source: Pinterest
#BlackGirlLuxury, with 68.8 million views on TikTok, has been influential in inspiring many young black women to aspire for all good things that they are passionate about and claim it boldly.
My first exposure to and immediate love for luxury living began with Jackie Aina’s online presence and bold affirmations encouraging me as a Black woman to confidently choose myself and treat myself with good things and overall a good and prosperous life that is genuine and free to me.
Now, I never saw Jackie’s luxurious lifestyle outside the context of her career as a renowned Beauty Youtuber and cosmetologist with over a million subscribers. I would watch her luxury videos with caution, reminding myself that if I went along and buy her recommended perfumes or skincare products (because Jackie could recommend me anything and I’d buy instantly because of how credible and honest I find her reviews), I’d be making poor spending choices because my income bracket does not match the prices of recommended products.
Nonetheless, I’d still aspire and look forward to a life of luxury, and having Jackie’s recommendations as a forever resource helps me be patient with my journey to that lifestyle. But Jackie’s online luxurious presence isn’t the only motivation for me.
Skylar Marshai’s travel content and all-around creative lifestyle encourage me to boldly aspire to live a life I truly want: to travel and enjoy the diversity of many cultures and cherish the support of loving relationships throughout the journey.
I can talk about my favorite luxurious creatives all day, but my issue isn’t with them or the new wave of Black women finally being in their bag and claiming what’s theirs in their luxurious lives. My concern is with the unintended consequences of the black girl luxury lifestyle being excessively promoted as a trend.
A few weeks ago, I came across a TikTok video where a woman inquired from #BlackGirlLuxuryTikTok (paraphrased): “what do y’all do for a living?”. Her video was then stitched with a video response by a Black woman who mentioned that she works as a Cardio Sonographer.
Another Black woman stitched her video response to the inquiry, mentioning that she worked in Tech.
I appreciate many women being transparent about the work they do and the income they earn behind the scenes of their aesthetically pleasing lifestyles.
So, what’s the issue?
In the comment section of these TikToks are women willing to take on these career prospects simply because they want a luxurious lifestyle and because this trend has unfortunately portrayed an aesthetic and expensive way of living as the symbol of true worth, simplicity, and happiness.
Here’s the thing. There’s ABSOLUTELY NOTHING wrong about a Black woman being in her bag. It’s about time we have more Black women recognizing their worth and going after what they want and, most significantly, spending money on themselves! I also love how this lifestyle is becoming more accessible to all Black women regardless of wealth status. We’re surrounded by women who have made it and are now blessing us with the advice we need to thrive.
But this luxurious way of living has been skyrocketed and worshipped to the point that it has become a worldwide trend. And when lifestyles become trends, we see people doing whatever it takes to profit off of it, often at the expense of others.
As #BlackGirlLuxury grows as a trend, I began seeing videos on how to achieve this luxurious lifestyle on a “budget.” In such videos, creators recommend buying expensive-looking products and gadgets at low prices from Amazon in order to achieve the perception of luxury. Now, we are no longer interested in real luxury, but rather the perception of it — how aesthetically pleasing it looks.
To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with wanting an aesthetically pleasing apartment or environment in general. WHat’s toxic about this push to live luxuriously on a budget is that it subconsciously appeals to consumerism and unhealthy spending habits — all for a lifestyle that appears to be a sign of success and worth.
We then see this consumerism manifested in how videos with the hashtags #backgirlluxury would feature women with outfits that look expensive but are mostly sponsored by Shein, Fashonnova, and other fast fashion brands. This consumerism and over-investment in fast fashion brands and delivery services like Amazon for the sake of a highlight reel or perception of wealth by social media’s standards grossly impact lower-income communities (who have individuals dependent on working for these companies for little to no money and harsh working conditions) the most. And the majority of those impacted in these communities are women of color.
Another consequence of this unhealthy pressure to be on #BlackGirlLuxuryTiktok is that it creates a negative feedback loop between us and the workforce.
In light of the global pandemic in 2020, a lot of workers boldly resigned from their places of work in order to actively not dream of labor and pursue a life that truly brought happiness and abundance. This wave against the capitalist structure of the US inspired many YouTubers to talk about breaking free from the chains of capitalism with the title “I don’t dream of Labor” or “I don’t have a dream job”. In this trend on YouTube, I came across a YouTuber who simply desired to work as a barrister and recommended readings to help foster a larger conversation about pursuing our dreams outside the boundaries of capitalism.
With this new revolutionary approach to pursue our passions and not merely a paycheck, we are confronted with more videos on how we can have it all and encouragements to develop an abundance-mentality. But once this aspiration for abundance and freedom from capitalism began to have an aesthetic and pictures and videos of these revolutionary lives showcase them as easy and ideal, we then find ourselves more attracted to how easy and freeing such a lifestyle is for those with the privilege to live that way and are thus pressured to consider careers that we might not necessarily like but because of the pay may guarantee us the abundant and luxurious lives that are marketed to us via social media.
See the pattern?
We can go on about wanting a lifestyle that’s real, fulfilling, abundant and authentic. But until we really step out of the trends and unconscious bias towards the physical appearance of a good life and really ask ourselves if taking on certain career paths with a whole new set of workload and burdens that we aren’t called to take on is worth living a life that at the end of the day is merely nice for a Pinterest mood-board.
Yes, think outside the boundaries of capitalism and dare to aspire for a life and career that has meaning. But also be mindful that success and achievements (capitalist-driven or not) requires a lot of hard work and responsibility. So, it’s not enough to simply switch to Tech or Medicine or Youtube or Content Creation to have financial support for your dream life. It’s about being inspired by Black women and other people living in luxury and abundance while giving yourself the freedom to decide and be patient with what a luxurious and abundant lifestyle will look like for you.
We can have it all. But at the end of the day, we are all different and need to give ourselves to step out of the boundaries of trends and freely aspire for the lives we want to live, bearing in mind that we will need to sweat for it nonetheless. | https://medium.com/@chisomonyekwere/the-extremities-of-the-blackgirlluxury-and-the-abundant-lifestyle-trend-b47f36a2fcd8 | ['Chisom Onyekwere'] | 2021-09-07 01:15:58.196000+00:00 | ['Abundance Mindset', 'Black Women Entrepreneurs', 'Consumerism', 'Black Women In Tech', 'Labor And Wealth'] |
Как застейкать EOS через прокси и получать 2% — 4% в год | 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/everstake/%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%BA-%D0%B7%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%B9%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%82%D1%8C-eos-%D1%87%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B7-%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%BA%D1%81%D0%B8-%D0%B8-%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%BB%D1%83%D1%87%D0%B0%D1%82%D1%8C-2-4-%D0%B2-%D0%B3%D0%BE%D0%B4-d75a9ec31c0b | [] | 2020-11-17 14:12:15.266000+00:00 | ['Блокчейн', 'Eos', 'Крипто', 'Стейкинг', 'Криптовалюты'] |
Why is my model performing poorly? | Why is my model performing poorly?
Photo by Dana Vollenweider on Unsplash
Are you sometimes struggling with your model performance? Is your model performing well during training but when you apply it to new data, it fails? Or do you even struggle finding a good model in the first place because it just doesn’t seem to learn enough from the data you provided?
If any of the statements above apply to your situation then your model might be either overfitting or underfitting the training data. If you continue reading, you will learn the necessary knowledge on how to identify these phenomenons and be provided with tools and remedies on how to overcome them and finally increase your models performance — the true goal of every machine learning engineer. We will be looking into this topic from the Regression perspective with code examples provided in Python and scikit-learn. Please note that this article is highly inspired by the excellent book “Hands-On Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn, Keras, and TensorFlow, 2nd Edition” which is a great ressource for boosting your machine learning knowledge.
Basics
As an introduction we will start by briefly looking into examples of models which are underfitting, overfitting and performing well. To do this, let’s start with the simplest possible regression model to visually illustrate what over-and underfitting means: linear regression.
Underfitting
Imagine we have some non-linear data based on a quadratic function:
import numpy as np n = 100
X = 4 * np.random.rand(n, 1) - 2 #Quadratic Function: y = ax^2 + bx + c
y = 0.6 * X**2 + X + 3 + np.random.rand(n, 1) #adding random noise
It is clear that a simple linear model will never fit this quadratic data properly, but let’s do the exercise for demonstration purposes:
from sklearn.linear_model import LinearRegression
linear_reg = LinearRegression()
linear_reg.fit(X,y)
Linear model underfitting quadratic data — Image by Author
You can see that the linear function was able to detect the general trend of the data but the non-linearity is (as expected) not captured at all by the model. The model is clearly underfitting the data and doesn’t depict the underlying relationship. The models performance is low.
The “perfect” fit
Let us therefore try out a polynomial regression which is able to capture more complex relationships in data. The easiest way of implementing a polynomial regression is to simply add powers (in our case square because we used a quadratic function) of each feature as a new feature and then apply the same Linear Regression function we used above.
from sklearn.preprocessing import PolynomialFeatures #add power of two to the data
polynomial_features = PolynomialFeatures(degree = 2, include_bias = False)
X_polynomial = polynomial_features.fit_transform(X) #print initial feature
print(X[0]) [-1.52521333] #print feature after applying polynomial transformation
print(X_polynomial[0]) [-1.52521333 2.32627571]
We can see that X_polynomial now contains the initial feature (-1.52521333) as well as its square (2.32627571). If we feed this in our Linear Regression function we end up having a Polynomial Regression. Let’s see how it fits to the data.
polynomial_reg.fit(X_polynomial, y)
Polynomial model fitting quadratic data — Image by Author
We can inspect the estimated coefficients of the model and compare them to the coefficients we used during the definition of our quadratic function.
polynomial_reg.intercept_ array([3.51521119]) polynomial_reg.coef_ array([[1.01029724, 0.61907757]])
The models performance is very good! The polynomial regression estimated coefficients that are very close to the real coefficients, only the intercept was not well captured by the model due to the noise we added in the beginning.
Estimated model coefficients
Real coefficients of quadratic function
The general assumption is that a polynomial regression will fit the data much better than a simple linear regression. Let’s look at another example and use a higher degree polynomial model to fit our data.
Overfitting
As can be seen in the image below, a higher degree (100) polynomial model is highly overfitting the data. You can clearly see how the model wiggles around at the edges trying to fit the training data as good as possible.
Higher degree polynomial model overfitting quadratic data — Image by Author
It is clear that from our three examples (linear, polynomial degree 2 and polynomial degree 100) our 2nd degree polynomial model performed the best because the underlying data was created using a quadratic function.
However, normally we don’t know what function represents our data in the best way possible or what model might be the best fit for us. So how do we find the best fitting model and what signs can we follow to judge a models performance?
Finding the clues
Photo by Austin Chan on Unsplash
Option 1: Diverging Cross validation and training errors
You might be familiar with this option since it is one of the most frequent you will find in literature: Cross Validation. Here the general idea is to split your training data set into k smaller subsets (folds). Subsequently you train your model on k-1 of these subsets and evaluate the models performance on the remaining subset. You repeat this procedure k times and end up with k evaluation scores. To get the overall cross-validation score you can simply take the mean value of the k scores.
In scikit-learn this method is called K-fold cross validation and the underlying idea is to check how the model performs on the training set as compared to the cross validation scores. If a model performs well on the training set but the cross validation scores are low the model is overfitting. If the model performs poor on the training set and equally poor according to the cross validation scores, it is underfitting. The capability to correctly predict new data the model has never seen before is often referred to as generalization in literature. Let us go through some examples!
Root mean square error of the simple linear regression
Firstly, let’ us compute the root mean square error (RMSE) of our linear regression model predictions on the training data.
from sklearn.metrics import mean_squared_error
np.sqrt(mean_squared_error(y, linear_reg.predict(X))) 0.7736957615287954
This means that our models prediction on average diverges from the real data by about 0.77 which is our training error. Let’s compute the cross validation scores of our linear model. In this example we will be using the cross_val_score implementation in scikit-learn with 10 folds.
from sklearn.model_selection import cross_val_score lin_reg_scores = cross_val_score(linear_reg, X, y, scoring = “neg_mean_squared_error”, cv = 10)
What we get as an output are ten output scores measuring our models scores during cross validation. Each of these models was trained an a different subset of 90% of the data and evaluated with the remaining 10 % of the “unseen” data. In total this was done 10 times:
array([-0.71517651, -0.83664222, -0.631302 , -0.550304 , -0.55877713,
-0.56387244, -0.73492102, -0.55389454, -0.49322261, -0.67008695])
To get the aggregated models cross validation error which we can compare to the root mean squared error during the training, we can simply take the square root and subsequently the mean of the scores:
np.mean(np.sqrt(-lin_reg_scores)) 0.7917563622242139
Finally we get to a mean cross-validation RMSE of 0.79. If we compare this error to the training set error we can see a difference of about 0.02. It is normal that the cross validation error is higher than the train error, but is 0.02 good or bad? Is it high or low? How can we tell? Hang on for another example and you will know!
Root mean square error of the 2nd degree polynomial regression
Let us do the same exercise for our 2nd degree polynomial regression and see how these errors compare to the errors of the linear model.
np.sqrt(mean_squared_error(y,polynomial_reg.predict(X_polynomial))) 0.2741445060567453
Wow! 0.27 is much lower than the 0.77 RMSE we calculated from the linear model. We can clearly see that the linear model was clearly underfitting the data because its training error is much higher than the training error of the polynomial regression. Let us now compute the cross validation error of the polynomial regression:
poly_reg_scores = cross_val_score(polynomial_reg, X_polynomial, y, scoring = “neg_mean_squared_error”, cv = 10)
np.mean(np.sqrt(-poly_reg_scores)) 0.28120221324092176
For the polynomial model we get a cross validation RMSE of 0.28 which is only off by 0.01 to the training data RMSE. We can therefore conclude:
The linear regression RMSE is much higher than the RMSE of the polynomial regression in our example. Furthermore, we can see that the difference in RMSE between the training data and the cross validation is higher for the linear regression (0.02 > 0.01). This two signs yield the conclusion that the the linear regression is underfitting the data.
Root mean square error of the higher degree polynomial regression
Last but not least, let us look at the error of the higher degree (100) polynomial regression which gets an RMSE of stunning 0.24 on the training data which is even better than the second degree polynomial RMSE above!!
np.sqrt(mean_squared_error(y,higher_polynomial_regression.predict(X_higher_polynomial))) 0.24841856155222344
But how does the cross-validation RMSE look like? Yep, its a jaw-dropping RMSE of 1020471.12. The model is heavily overfitting the training data (it has the lowest RMSE of all models) but performs horribly on unseen data as indicated by the unbelievably high cross validation RMSE. This is a text book example for strong overfitting. In machine learning terms the model therefore has a poor ability to generalize.
higher_poly_reg_scores = cross_val_score(higher_polynomial_regression, X_higher_polynomial, y, scoring = “neg_mean_squared_error”, cv = 10)
np.mean(np.sqrt(-higher_poly_reg_scores)) 1020471.1265272169
Interpreting the signs
Below you can find a summary on how you can interpret the errors and draw conclusions if your model is potentially over- or underfitting the training data:
High Training Error & Even Higher Cross Validation Error → Sign for underfitting
Low Training Error & Slightly Higher Cross Validation Error → Sign for a good fit
Very low training Error & Very high Cross Validation Error → Sign for overfitting
Option 2: Learning Curves
Another possibility, on how to detect over- and underfitting models is to look at their learning curves. Learning curves visualise the relationship of the models performance in regard to training data size. Let’s look at two learning curves to explain the basic principle behind this analysis. For this part we will be using the same data from above ,which were generated using a quadratic function.
Underfitting Learning Curves
Let’s first divide our training data into a smaller training and validation set.
#split training set into training and validation set
X_train, X_val, y_train, y_val = train_test_split(X, y, test_size=0.2, random_state=4)
train_errors = [] #append training errors for plot
val_errors = [] #append validation errors for plot
Now let’s loop through the observations in the new training set, starting with only one observation. Based on this, we will train our linear regression model and evaluate its performance using the entire validation set. We will do this iteratively and add another observation to the training set each round, followed by a retraining of the model and another evaluation with the validation set:
#loop over each observation and iteratively compute RMSE for the new training and the entire validation set
#in each iteration add one more observation to the training set
for i in range(1, len(X_train)):
linear_reg.fit(X_train[:i], y_train[:i])
y_train_predicted = linear_reg.predict(X_train[:i])
y_val_predicted = linear_reg.predict(X_val)
train_errors.append(mean_squared_error(y_train[:i], y_train_predicted))
val_errors.append(mean_squared_error(y_val, y_val_predicted)) plt.plot(np.sqrt(train_errors), “r-”, linewidth=2, label=”trainining set”)
plt.plot(np.sqrt(val_errors), “b-”, linewidth=2, label=”validation set”)
plt.legend(loc=”upper right”, fontsize=15)
plt.xlabel(“Training / Validation set size”, fontsize=15)
plt.ylabel(“Root Mean Square Error”, fontsize=15)
Let us have a closer look at the produced graph and start with the RMSE on the training set (red line). Initially with only a few instances the training error is very low because the linear model can fit one or two instances very well, but once the training set starts to get bigger, the RMSE starts to rise very quickly until it reaches a constant level at about 30 instances. At this point the algorithm stopped learning what it could (remember that our data is quadratic and our model is linear) and increasing the training data size doesn’t help anymore. The validation set error (blue line) is initially very high because the linear model is only trained on a handful of instances. However it rapidly gets smaller and smaller with every new instance that is added to the training set until it quickly reaches a plateau at a slightly higher level than the training set error. These types of curves are characteristic for models that are underfitting the data.
Learning Curves for an underfitting model — Image by Author
Overfitting Learning Curves
Let us do the same exercise but by replacing the linear model with a higher degree polyonimal regression. When we look at the new curves it is hard to really tell a difference but we have to look for the subtle sings that tell us that our model is overfitting: The training error of this model is generally much lower than the training error of the previous linear model. Furthermore, for a very long time there is a larger gap between the red and blue line— as already discussed above, this is one of the main signs that your model is overfitting: A high validation error and a low training error.
A very interesting detail however can be seen on the very end of the blue line: With more training instances the validation error starts dropping significantly and ends up being quite close to the training error — resulting in a much better model in the end.
Learning Curves for an overfitting model — Image by Author
What can I do when my model is over- or underfitting?
This might be maybe the most important questions and luckily I can leave you with a set of strategies that will hopefully help you building better performing models.
Overfitting:
Use more data! As we could see on the last learning curve example, if you keep adding new features to your training data set, the validation error will eventually go down and the model will stop overfitting. Ofter however your training data set is limited so you will need a different strategy.
As we could see on the last learning curve example, if you keep adding new features to your training data set, the validation error will eventually go down and the model will stop overfitting. Ofter however your training data set is limited so you will need a different strategy. Regularization: In other words, put some constraints on your model and lower the degrees of freedom.The more constraints you put on your model (the fewer degrees of freedom your model has) the harder it will be to overfit the data. In our example this means lowering the polynomial degree for example. In terms of regression, you should also look into Ridge, Lasso or Elastic Net Regression which put different constraints on their model weights.
Underfitting:
Use more data! Yep, also in this case more data will very likely boost your models performance to a certain extent. However, if your assumptions about the data are wrong and you decide to use a classifier that is not able to capture the real nature of the data, then simply adding more data wont cut it!
Yep, also in this case more data will very likely boost your models performance to a certain extent. However, if your assumptions about the data are wrong and you decide to use a classifier that is not able to capture the real nature of the data, then simply adding more data wont cut it! Increase the complexity: In the case of underfitting, putting less constraints on your model and increasing its complexity will very likely result in a better model. Increasing complexity could mean going beyond a simple linear model and making use of polynomial models, or maybe even tree based models.
Of course there is more strategies to overcome this, but data amount and model complexity can be seen as the smallest common denominator of the most of them. Before you however start switching models and changing their complexity, you should first check if your model is over- or underfitting so you can start heading into the right direction. By now you should have the necessary tools to do so in your backpack!
Photo by Holly Mandarich on Unsplash
If you want to learn more on this, please visit the links below where I have place some excellent literature and articles on this and related topics.
Further material: | https://towardsdatascience.com/why-is-my-model-performing-poorly-b4be05ad3ec6 | ['Martin Šiklar'] | 2020-12-14 19:17:09.370000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Data Science', 'Regression', 'Machine Learning'] |
Mother and Daughter Unite After 17 Years. | What would happen if everyone added “kindness to their to-do list for today?
What if everyone followed through?
Wow! We would all have a fantastic day. I am sure we could use a wonderful day. I sure could.
Well, everyone that reads this could make a fantastic day for someone else. Right? Yes, we can.
We are writing about inspiring moments of kindness. And I have a terrific moment to share. Before I share what happened, allow me to challenge you to create a new moment for someone to write about.
We can go out today or tomorrow and do random acts of kindness to change the world for someone.
Are you ready to make a difference as my friend did?
My story is about a young lady I met at church. Let’s call her Mandy. Mandy loved a rough life. Very rough. Nothing had gone right for Mandy since her childhood.
Mandy’s mother had given her away as a child. Mandy moved from foster home to foster home. Mandy also suffered from severe abandonment and low self-esteem.
Mandy’s circumstances continue to spiral at age 16 with the use of drugs. Mandy begins to abuse drugs while in the shelter and performs sex acts for money.
Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash
Eventually, Mandy is kicked out of the shelter with a bus ticket to wherever she wants to go. Mandy calls a friend who is in a women’s shelter in Texas.
Mandy heads to Texas and asks to stay at the shelter of her friend. The shelter agrees to allow Mandy to remain there for a few days. At the shelter, Mandy finds a loving environment with some kind people. This type of environment is strange for Mandy.
She has never been loved and accepted by anyone.
Mandy requests to become a client of the shelter. The rules are strict but fair, and Mandy begins to experience personal healing and hope. The staff and counselors dig into Mandy’s life, and they discover a troubled but talented young lady.
Mandy is slowly changing. Mandy finds her spiritual life and connects to God. Her new God connection is another step of healing in Mandy’s rehabilitation and spiritual transformation.
Mandy opens her heart to the staff. In her vulnerability, she begins to share about her mother. She shares the story of how her mother abandoned her and left her with CPS.
The shelter staff follows up on Mandy’s childhood and begins to search for Mandy’s mother.
One of Mandy’s commitments is attending church. Mandy loves her church family and is a regular attender. Mandy does not miss church.
Back to Mom.
The shelter finds Mandy’s mother. The big surprise — the mother lives 30 miles from the shelter. What? Yes.
The staff at the women’s shelter contacts Mandy’s mother and invites her to see Mandy. The mother agrees to see her daughter. Mandy and her mom have had no contact for 17 years.
The story gets better.
Mandy’s mother is invited to meet Mandy at church. Not only at church, but at church during a service. The plan is for the pastor to call Mandy up for prayer. | https://medium.com/change-your-mind/mother-and-daughter-unite-after-17-years-f3b30992dedc | ['Thomas E. Mcdaniels'] | 2020-11-18 13:03:02.493000+00:00 | ['Happiness', 'Family', 'Emotional Wellbeing', 'Transformation', 'Spirituality'] |
Georgia GOP Schizo Voters & January Run-off Decides US Senate Balance of Power | Trump is set to hold a rally today in the Peach Tree State — Georgia. Some Republicans are cringing at that idea. Mainly because Trump, who has not conceded the election to Biden yet, might be more of a liability than a benefit. The two senators, Kelly Loeffler, and David Purdue are fighting for their seats against Democrats Reverend Raphael Warnock and Joel Ossoff, respectively.
In an op-ed for The Washington Post, former Republican National Committee (RNC) communications director Douglas Heye wrote,
“the president’s baseless allegations could depress a part of the Republican base that seems primed to believe that the election was rigged, and even that Trump-supporting Republicans had a hand in it.”
For whatever they are worth — which pundits across all media say is not much, the polls have the Democrats up by about 5 points for Warnock and 2 points for Ossoff.
Many pundits and strategists are saying that for Trump to support the two Senatorial candidates, he would have to admit defeat. His message would have to be one of concession. For example, “we lost this, let’s work together to keep these senators in the office to continue the work I’ve done. If we don’t, we will lose all of that.”
Many wonder if Trump is capable of that messaging. Most believe he will use the bully pulpit to further ramble on and air his grievances about a stolen election ad nauseum. If that happens, he will undermine Republican voters’ confidence in the Georgia run-off election and jeopardize the GOP’s chances of winning.
Heye gives the perfect take away here:
“And by convincing his die-hard supporters not to trust the electoral process and backing a string of unfounded lawsuits while clinging to conspiracy theories, Trump will exact a cost on American democracy, and his actions may have an immediate political cost: the Republican-controlled Senate.”
Trump is shooting the Republican party in the foot. I don’t like to gloat, but having no soul and selling out the American people for a criminal — this is what you get. I hope all the Republicans in Georgia stay home on election day in January because they believe their vote won’t count. Enough of Trump and his flying monkeys. | https://extranewsfeed.com/georgia-gop-schizo-voters-january-run-off-decides-us-senate-balance-of-power-9ccceb24db42 | ['Jennifer Friebely'] | 2020-12-06 16:07:26.888000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Trump', 'Georgia', 'News', 'Republican Party'] |
Deploy a Machine Learning model to production in 10 minutes using MLflow | datacenter
I’ve run into MLflow around a week ago and, after some testing, I consider it by far the SW of the year. This can be very influenced by the fact that I’m currently working on the productivization of Machine Learning models.
Thus, I’m going to show you how to setup up MLflow in a production environment as the one David and I have for our Machine Learning projects.
Tracking Server Setup
The tracking server is the User Interface and metastore of MLflow. You can check the status of any run through this web application and centralize the model outputs and configurations in just one place.
The first thing we need to configure is the environment.
Environment
Let’s create a new Conda environment as it will be the place where MLflow will be installed:
conda create -n mlflow_env
conda activate mlflow_env
Then we have to install the MLflow library:
conda install python
pip install mlflow
Run the following command to check that the installation was successful:
mlflow --help
Postgres
We’d like our Traking Server to have a Postgres database as a backend for storing metadata, so the first step will be installing PostgreSQL:
sudo apt-get install postgresql postgresql-contrib postgresql-server-dev-all
Check installation connecting to the database:
sudo -u postgres psql
After the installation is successful, let’s create an user and a database for the Traking Server:
CREATE DATABASE mlflow;
CREATE USER mlflow WITH ENCRYPTED PASSWORD 'mlflow';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE mlflow TO mlflow;
As we’ll need to interact with Postgres from Python, it is needed to install the psycopg2 library. However, to ensure a successful installation we need to install the gcc linux package before:
sudo apt install gcc
pip install psycopg2
The last step will be creating a directory in our local machine for our Tracking Server to log there the Machine Learning models and other artifacts. Remember that the Postgres database is only used for storing metadata regarding those models (imaging adding a model or a virtual environment to a database). This directory is called artifact URI:
mkdir ~/mlruns
Run
Everything is now setup to run the Tracking Server. Then write the following command:
mlflow server --backend-store-uri postgresql://mlflow:mlflow@localhost/mlflow --default-artifact-root file:/home/your_user/mlruns -h 0.0.0.0 -p 8000
Now the Tracking server should be available a the following URL: http://0.0.0.0:8000. However, if you Ctrl-C or exit the terminal, the server will go down.
Production
If you want the Tracking server to be up and running after restarts and be resilient to failures, it is very useful to run it as a systemd service.
You need to go into the /etc/systemd/system folder and create a new file called mlflow-tracking.service with the following content:
[Unit]
Description=MLflow tracking server
After=network.target [Service]
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=30
ExecStart=/bin/bash -c 'PATH=/path_to_your_conda_installation/envs/mlflow_env/bin/:$PATH exec mlflow server --backend-store-uri postgresql://mlflow:mlflow@localhost/mlflow --default-artifact-root file:/home/your_user/mlruns -h 0.0.0.0 -p 8000' [Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
After that, you need to activate and enable the service with the following commands:
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable mlflow-tracking
sudo systemctl start mlflow-tracking
Check that everything worked as expected with the following command:
sudo systemctl status mlflow-tracking
You can now restart your machine and the MLflow Tracking Server will be up and running after this restart.
In order to start tracking everything under this Tracking Server it is necessary to set the following environmental variable on .bashrc:
export MLFLOW_TRACKING_URI='http://0.0.0.0:8000'
Remember to activate this change with:
. ~/.bashrc
Serve a Machine Learning model in production
Once the tracking server is up and the MLFLOW_TRACKING_URI is pointing to it in the .bashrc, it’s time to put your model into production.
Let’s start creating the production environment to run the ML model:
Environment
conda create -n production_env
conda activate production_env
conda install python
pip install mlflow
pip install sklearn
Then, let’s clone an example from the official repository to show how to ramp up a model:
Github Example
mlflow run [email protected]:databricks/mlflow-example.git -P alpha=0.5
This run will generate a new entry in your tracking server http://0.0.0.0:8000 alongside with a new folder in which the model and the configuration is stored (~/mlruns/0/some_uuid). Let’s check it:
ls -al ~/mlruns/0
Get the uuid related to the execution from the previous output and substitute the string “your_model_id” with it in the following line (of course you could do that searching for the uuid in the Tracking Server):
mlflow models serve -m ~/mlruns/0/your_model_id/artifacts/model -h 0.0.0.0 -p 8001
What you have just done is serving your model as an HTTP endpoint in your server IP and port 8001 (be careful not having any service listening there), so that it is ready for receiving incoming data to return predictions. You can then query your model with a simple curl command:
curl -X POST -H "Content-Type:application/json; format=pandas-split" --data '{"columns":["alcohol", "chlorides", "citric acid", "density", "fixed acidity", "free sulfur dioxide", "pH", "residual sugar", "sulphates", "total sulfur dioxide", "volatile acidity"],"data":[[12.8, 0.029, 0.48, 0.98, 6.2, 29, 3.33, 1.2, 0.39, 75, 0.66]]}' http://0.0.0.0:8001/invocations
Python using the requests module or any programming language is also fine for getting predictions, since HTTP protocol is language agnostic:
import requests host = '0.0.0.0'
port = '8001' url = f'http://{host}:{port}/invocations' headers = {'Content-Type': 'application/json',} # test_data is a Pandas dataframe with data for testing the ML model
http_data = test_data.to_json(orient='split') r = requests.post(url=url, headers=headers, data=http_data)
print(f'Predictions: {r.text}')
Production
Finally, if you want to serve it in production the only thing you need to do is adding the systemd configuration:
[Unit]
Description=MLFlow model in production
After=network.target [Service]
Restart=on-failure RestartSec=30
Environment=MLFLOW_TRACKING_URI=http://host_ts:port_ts
Environment=MLFLOW_CONDA_HOME=/path_to_your_conda_installation
ExecStart=/bin/bash -c 'PATH=/path_to_your_conda_installation/envs/mlinproduction_env/bin/:$PATH exec mlflow models serve -m path_to_your_model -h host -p port' [Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Originally published at https://thegurus.tech on June 16, 2019. | https://medium.com/datatau/how-to-setup-mlflow-in-production-a6f70511ebdc | ['Pedro Muñoz'] | 2020-07-03 10:23:21.979000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Mlflow', 'Data Science', 'Training', 'Python'] |
How to Build an Accounting System using SQLite | How to Build an Accounting System using SQLite
Photo by Science in HD on Unsplash
Scratch your own itch.
This is the advice that I always give whenever someone asks me how to learn programming. Practically, it means that you have to solve things or choose projects that are relevant to you — either in your work or personal life.
Mindlessly going to tutorials in Youtube, reading programming books, copying code from Reddit posts, etc. will get you nowhere if you’re starting to learn programming.
The Best Way to Learn SQL
In this post, I’m going to show you how to build a crude accounting database using SQLite.
So, why create an accounting database? Why not just copy public data, shove them to SQLite, and practice from there?
The reason is that creating an accounting database is advance enough to cover all the aspects of databases and SQL — from queries to joins to views and CTEs.
Coming from an accounting background, I think that this is the best project to learn SQL. After all, programming is a tool to solve problems. Hence, might as well “solve” a difficult one to fully learn SQL.
I got the inspiration to create an accounting system using SQL by observing how Xero works. For those who are not familiar with it, Xero is a cloud accounting software originated in New Zealand. It has now expanded to Australia, the US, Canada, and the UK.
The good thing about Xero is that it has a nice clean interface and a lot of apps to choose from to extend its functionality.
Disclaimer: I’m not an engineer nor developer at Xero and these observations may not exactly correspond to how the system works as it is always updated. Certainly, the SQL presented here is not the exact SQL design that Xero use as their system needs to scale. But this is a very interesting project so let’s do it!
Accounting 101
Before you get excited too much, let’s have a crash course first on accounting.
The fundamental accounting equation is
Assets = Liabilities + Equity
That equation has basically three parts
Assets are all the resources of the entity.
Liabilities are what the company owes.
and Equity, the accumulation of all the owner’s investment, drawings, profit or loss.
The right-hand side describes how the assets were financed — either thru Liabilities or Equity.
We can expand the above equation to break down the Equity
Assets = Liabilities + Beginning Equity + Revenues — Expenses
These 5 accounts — Assets, Liabilities, Equity, Revenues, & Expenses — are the account types that you typically see in an accounting system.
Then there’s the concept of Debit and Credit. I could go on and discuss these two in-depth but for this post, all you need to know is that in every transaction:
Debit = Credit
These two equations generally govern what’s happening in the whole accounting cycle. These two equations will also serve as a guide in creating our own accounting database.
Coming from an accounting background, I think that this is the best project to learn SQL. After all, programming is a tool to solve problems. Hence, might as well “solve” a difficult one to fully learn SQL.
Xero’s Implementation of Accounting
The important thing to remember is that Xero is designed in such a way that it will be useful to business owners (not accountants) in the day-to-day operations of the business.
As such, it designed around transaction cycles and internal control.
Transaction Cycles
The basic transaction cycles are the following
Sales Cycle
Purchases Cycle
Cash Cycle
Xero implements these cycles as follows
Sales Cycle
Sales are entered into Xero using Invoices. Imagine the business issuing actual paper invoices for sales (cash sales or on account). This is the exact thing that Xero wants to replicate.
The invoices can be printed directly from the software and they are automatically numbered in increasing order.
Under the hood, invoices increase the Sales account and Accounts Receivable (AR) account.
Purchases Cycle
Bills are entered into Xero using Bills. Again, imagine the business issuing actual bills for purchases (cash purchases or on account). This is the usual case for utilities and Inventory. This is also the thing that Xero wants to replicate.
The bills can be printed directly from the software and can be used to supplement any approval procedures done by the business.
Under the hood, bills increase the Purchases account and Accounts Payable (AP) account.
Cash Cycle
This involves all transactions pertaining to Cash. There are 4 types
Invoice Payments — payments of the outstanding Invoices
— payments of the outstanding Invoices Bill Payments — payments of the outstanding Bills
— payments of the outstanding Bills Received Money — cash receipts that are not invoice payments. This may involve cash sales but if you’re going to issue an invoice, use the Invoices feature.
— cash receipts that are not invoice payments. This may involve cash sales but if you’re going to issue an invoice, use the Invoices feature. Spent Money — cash disbursements that are not bill payments. This may involve cash purchases but if you’re going to issue a bill, use the Bills feature.
That’s the on the transaction cycles part.
Internal Control
For internal control, you need to understand the concept of system accounts.
Xero has a comprehensive article for understanding system accounts here. But for our purposes, we’re only going to discuss the following system accounts
Accounts Receivable
Accounts Payable
Bank Accounts (linked to Bank Feeds)
These accounts cannot be used in Manual journals. This means that Xero wants you to use Invoices, Bills, and Cash Transactions (Invoice Payments, Bill Payments, Received Money, and Spent Money) to support the balance of these accounts. This is Xero’s implementation of internal control if you will.
Of course, you can use the non-system version of the AR, AP, and Bank accounts by creating them in the Chart of Accounts (COA). However, you cannot use the AR, AP, and Bank account types for them.
The important thing to remember is that Xero is designed in such a way that it will be useful to business owners (not accountants) in the day-to-day operations of the business.
Caveat: We’re Not Going Down The Rabbit Hole
Designing an accounting is really complex. It will take multiple blog posts just to cover this topic. Hence, for simplicity, we’re going to create the following assumptions (not exactly how Xero implements these)
Invoice and Bill Payments
Invoice Payments can pay two or more invoices wholly. Meaning, we’re not going to allow partial payments. The same is true with Bill Payments.
Invoice Payments can pay two or more invoices wholly. Meaning, we’re not going to allow partial payments. The same is true with Bill Payments. Inventory
We’re not going to use inventory items here. For sales or purchases, we’re going to use the Inventory account directly rather than create inventory items that mapped to the Inventory account.
That’s it for our assumptions. After designing our database, the reader can lift these assumptions and try mimicking Xero as much as possible.
SQL Basics
Now before reconstructing our version of Xero’s database structure, let’s have a crash course on databases.
A database is a collection of tables. Each table consists of rows of data called records. The columns are called fields.
The program to work with a database is called a Database Management System or DBMS. As a simple analogy, DBMS is to Excel program, database is to Excel workbook and table is to an Excel worksheet.
There are two main differences between a database and an Excel workbook.
Data presentation is separate from data storage.
Meaning, you cannot edit data in a database by going over the directly to the data and editing it. (Other DBMS programs have GUIs that allow you to directly access data in a database and edit it like a spreadsheet. But under the hood, that action issues an SQL command).
Tables are usually linked to each other to form a relationship.
Relationships can be one-to-one, one-to-many, or many-to-many.
One-to-one relationship means “a table row is related to only one row in another table and vice versa”. An example would be employee name to tax identification number.
This kind is usually included in a single table Employees as there’s really no benefit of separating the data into two tables.
One-to-many on the hand means “a table row is related to only one or more rows in another table but not vice versa”. An example is Invoices to InvoiceLines. An invoice may have multiple lines but an invoice line belongs only to a particular invoice.
And as you might have guessed it, many-to-many means “a table row is related to only one or more rows in another table and vice versa”. An example would be a system that implements partial payments.
An invoice may be paid partially by different payment transactions and a payment may pay different invoices partially.
How would a database knows these relationships?
It’s simple. It’s through the use of primary and foreign keys.
Primary keys are necessary to distinguish one row from another. They uniquely identify each row of data in a table.
Foreign keys, on the other hand, are primary keys from another table. Hence, by relating the primary keys and foreign keys, the database relationships are persisted.
For one-to-many, the “one” side contains the primary key and the “many” contains this primary as its foreign key. In our above example, to get all the lines belonging to an invoice, we query the InvoiceLines table where the foreign key equals a particular invoice number.
For many to many, the relationship is broken down into two one-to-many relationships through a use of a third table called the “joining” table. For example, our partial payment system will have the Invoices table, Payments table, and InvoicePayments table as the joining table. The primary keys of the InvoicePayments table will be a composite key consisting of the primary keys for the Invoices and Payments table as follows
Tables for implementing partial Invoice payments
Take note that the joining table does not contain any other data as it does not have any other purpose aside from joining the Invoices and Payments tables.
To get the invoices paid by a certain payment transaction, say PAY 1 , we join the Invoices and Payments tables through the joining table and query for the payment_id = “PAY 1” .
That’s it for the basics of a database. We’re now ready to design our database.
As a simple analogy, DBMS is to Excel program, database is to Excel workbook and table is to an Excel worksheet.
Designing our Implementation of Xero
Now that we have a basic understanding of Xero to start creating a rough sketch of its database structure. Take note that I’m going to use Table_Name format. That’s is capitalized-first-letter words separated by underscores. I’m also going to use pluralized names for the table names.
For the Sales Cycle, we’re going to have the following tables
Invoices
Customers — a customer can have many invoices but an invoice can’t belong to many customers
— a customer can have many invoices but an invoice can’t belong to many customers Invoice_Payments — remember our assumption for now that there’s a one-to-many relationship between Invoice_Payments and Invoices respectively (no partial payments)
— remember our assumption for now that there’s a one-to-many relationship between Invoice_Payments and Invoices respectively (no partial payments) Invoice_Lines — this is the joining table between Invoices and COA. An account may appear in multiple invoices and an invoice may have multiple accounts.
— this is the joining table between Invoices and COA. An account may appear in multiple invoices and an invoice may have multiple accounts. Chart of Accounts (COA)
For the Purchases Cycle, we’re going to have the following tables
Bills
Suppliers — a supplier can have many bills but a bill can’t belong to many suppliers
— a supplier can have many bills but a bill can’t belong to many suppliers Bill_Payments — remember our assumption for now that there’s a one-to-many relationship between Bill_Payments and Bills respectively
— remember our assumption for now that there’s a one-to-many relationship between Bill_Payments and Bills respectively Bill_Lines — this is the joining table between Bills and COA. An account may appear in multiple bills and a bill may have multiple accounts.
— this is the joining table between Bills and COA. An account may appear in multiple bills and a bill may have multiple accounts. COA — same with the above in the Sales Cycle. Just putting here for completeness.
For the Cash Cycle, we’re going to have the following tables (Payment tables we’re already created above)
Received_Moneys — may have an optional Customer
— may have an optional Customer Received_Money_Lines — this is the joining table between Received_Moneys and COA
— this is the joining table between Received_Moneys and COA Spent_Moneys — may have an optional Supplier
— may have an optional Supplier Spent_Money_Lines — this is the joining table between Spent_Moneys and COA
Conceptually, our database structure is as follows
Accounting database model
This diagram is called Entity-Relationship Diagram or ERD in the database parlance. One-to-many relationships are designated by 1 — M and many-to-many by M — M.
The joining tables are not shown in the above diagram as they are implicit in the tables with many-to-many relationships.
Implementing Our Version in SQL
Now it’s time to implement our model in SQL. Let’s start by defining some conventions first.
The primary key will have field/column name of id , and the foreign key will have the format table_id where table is the name of the table of the “many” side in singular form. For example, in the Invoices table, the foreign key will be customer_id .
Time for the SQL code. Here it is.
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `COA`; CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `COA` (
id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
name TEXT
); DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `Customers`; CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `Customers` (
id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
name TEXT NOT NULL,
contact_person TEXT,
email TEXT,
phone TEXT,
fax TEXT,
address TEXT
); DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `Invoice_Payments`; CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `Invoice_Payments` (
id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
tran_date DATE NOT NULL,
description TEXT,
reference TEXT,
total DECIMAL(20,2) NOT NULL,
coa_id INTEGER NOT NULL, -- automatically Bank
FOREIGN KEY(`coa_id`) REFERENCES `COA`(`id`)
); DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `Invoices`; CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `Invoices` (
id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
tran_date DATE NOT NULL,
due_date DATE,
description TEXT,
reference TEXT,
total DECIMAL(10,2) NOT NULL,
status BOOLEAN,
customer_id INTEGER,
invoice_payment_id INTEGER,
coa_id INTEGER NOT NULL, -- automatically AR
FOREIGN KEY(`customer_id`) REFERENCES `Customers`(`id`),
FOREIGN KEY(`invoice_payment_id`) REFERENCES `Invoice_Payments`(`id`),
FOREIGN KEY(`coa_id`) REFERENCES `COA`(`id`)
); DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `Received_Moneys`; CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `Received_Moneys` (
id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
tran_date DATE NOT NULL,
description TEXT,
reference TEXT,
total DECIMAL(20,2) NOT NULL,
customer_id INTEGER,
coa_id INTEGER NOT NULL, -- automatically Bank
FOREIGN KEY(`customer_id`) REFERENCES `Customers`(`id`),
FOREIGN KEY(`coa_id`) REFERENCES `COA`(`id`)
); DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `Invoice_Lines`; CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `Invoice_Lines` (
id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
line_amount DECIMAL(20,2) NOT NULL,
invoice_id INTEGER,
line_coa_id INTEGER NOT NULL,
FOREIGN KEY(`invoice_id`) REFERENCES `Invoices`(`id`),
FOREIGN KEY(`line_coa_id`) REFERENCES `COA`(`id`)
); DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `Received_Money_Lines`; CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `Received_Money_Lines` (
id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
line_amount DECIMAL(20,2) NOT NULL,
received_money_id INTEGER,
line_coa_id INTEGER NOT NULL,
FOREIGN KEY(`received_money_id`) REFERENCES `Received_Moneys`(`id`),
FOREIGN KEY(`line_coa_id`) REFERENCES `COA`(`id`)
); DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `Suppliers`; CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `Suppliers` (
id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
name TEXT NOT NULL,
contact_person TEXT,
email TEXT,
phone TEXT,
fax TEXT,
address TEXT
); DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `Bill_Payments`; CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `Bill_Payments` (
id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
tran_date DATE NOT NULL,
description TEXT,
reference TEXT,
total DECIMAL(20,2) NOT NULL,
coa_id INTEGER NOT NULL, -- automatically Bank
FOREIGN KEY(`coa_id`) REFERENCES `COA`(`id`)
); DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `Bills`; CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `Bills` (
id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
tran_date DATE NOT NULL,
due_date DATE,
description TEXT,
reference TEXT,
total DECIMAL(10,2) NOT NULL,
status BOOLEAN,
supplier_id INTEGER,
bill_payment_id INTEGER,
coa_id INTEGER NOT NULL, -- automatically AP
FOREIGN KEY(`supplier_id`) REFERENCES `Suppliers`(`id`),
FOREIGN KEY(`bill_payment_id`) REFERENCES `Bill_Payments`(`id`),
FOREIGN KEY(`coa_id`) REFERENCES `COA`(`id`)
); DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `Spent_Moneys`; CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `Spent_Moneys` (
id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
tran_date DATE NOT NULL,
description TEXT,
reference TEXT,
total DECIMAL(20,2) NOT NULL,
supplier_id INTEGER,
coa_id INTEGER NOT NULL, -- automatically Bank
FOREIGN KEY(`supplier_id`) REFERENCES `Suppliers`(`id`),
FOREIGN KEY(`coa_id`) REFERENCES `COA`(`id`)
); DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `Bill_Lines`; CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `Bill_Lines` (
id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
line_amount DECIMAL(20,2) NOT NULL,
bill_id INTEGER,
line_coa_id INTEGER NOT NULL,
FOREIGN KEY(`bill_id`) REFERENCES `Bills`(`id`),
FOREIGN KEY(`line_coa_id`) REFERENCES `COA`(`id`)
); DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `Spent_Money_Lines`; CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `Spent_Money_Lines` (
id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
line_amount DECIMAL(20,2) NOT NULL,
spent_money_id INTEGER,
line_coa_id INTEGER NOT NULL,
FOREIGN KEY(`spent_money_id`) REFERENCES `Spent_Moneys`(`id`),
FOREIGN KEY(`line_coa_id`) REFERENCES `COA`(`id`)
);
A couple of things here:
SQL commands are not case-sensitive, CREATE TABLE is same as create table
is same as The IF EXISTS and IF NOT EXISTS are optional. I’ve just used them to prevent errors in my SQL commands. For example, if I drop a non-existing table, SQLite will give an error. Also, I put IF NOT EXISTS on the create table command so that we don’t accidentally override any existing table.
and are optional. I’ve just used them to prevent errors in my SQL commands. For example, if I drop a non-existing table, SQLite will give an error. Also, I put on the create table command so that we don’t accidentally override any existing table. Be careful with the DROP TABLE command! It will delete an existing table without warning even if it has contents.
command! It will delete an existing table without warning even if it has contents. Table names can also be written all caps or not. If table names have spaces, they should be enclosed with backticks (`). They are not case-sensitive. SELECT * FROM Customers is same as select * from customers.
Even though SQL is a bit relax with regards to syntax, you should strive to maintain consistency in your SQL code.
Take note also of the relationships shown in the ERD above. Remember also that the foreign key is on the many side.
Order is important as some tables serve as a dependency to another because of the foreign key. For example, you have to create first Invoice_Payments first before the Invoice table as the former is a dependency of the latter. The trick here is to start with the edges of the ERD as those are the ones with the least number of foreign keys.
You could also download a sample database in SQLite with no content in this link.
To view it, you can use the free and open-sourced SQLite Browser. Download it here!
Adding Contents to Our Database
Now that we have the sample database, let’s input data to it. Sample data can be downloaded from here — just break it down to CSVs as needed.
Take note that credits are shown as positives and credits as negatives.
For this post, I just used DB Browser’s import feature to import CSVs from the above Excel file. For example, to import Customers.csv
Select the Customers table
Go to File > Import > Table from CSV file and choose the Customers.csv
Click Ok/Yes to all succeeding prompts to import the data.
If you issue the following SQL command, it should show all the Customers in our database
Creating Financial Reports from Our Database
To prove that our database works as a crude accounting system, let’s create the Trial Balance.
The first step is to create the transaction views for our Invoices, Bills, Received_Moneys, and Spent_Moneys transactions. The code will be as follows
DROP VIEW IF EXISTS Invoice_Trans; CREATE VIEW IF NOT EXISTS Invoice_Trans AS with recursive itrans as (SELECT
'INV'||i.id as `tran_id`,
i.tran_date,
i.coa_id as ar_account,
-- ABS(total) as `total`,
'Accounts Receivable' as `coa_name`,
i.total,
il.id as `line_id`,
il.line_coa_id,
il.line_amount,
ip.id,
ip.coa_id as bank_account,
'Business Bank Account' as `bank_name`,
i.status
from Invoices as i
left join Invoice_Lines as il on i.id = il.invoice_id
left join COA as c on i.coa_id = c.id
left join Invoice_Payments as ip on i.invoice_payment_id = ip.id
) select
itrans.*,
c.name as `line_coa_name`
from itrans
left join COA as c on itrans.line_coa_id = c.id; SELECT * from Invoice_Trans; ******************************************************************** DROP VIEW IF EXISTS Bill_Trans; CREATE VIEW IF NOT EXISTS Bill_Trans AS with recursive btrans as (SELECT
'BILL'||b.id as `tran_id`,
b.tran_date,
b.coa_id as ap_account,
-- ABS(total) as `total`,
'Accounts Payable' as `coa_name`,
b.total,
bl.id as `line_id`,
bl.line_coa_id,
bl.line_amount,
bp.id,
bp.coa_id as bank_account,
'Business Bank Account' as `bank_name`,
b.status
from Bills as b
left join Bill_Lines as bl on b.id = bl.bill_id
left join COA as c on b.coa_id = c.id
left join Bill_Payments as bp on b.bill_payment_id = bp.id
) select
btrans.*,
c.name as `line_coa_name`
from btrans
left join COA as c on btrans.line_coa_id = c.id; SELECT * from Bill_Trans; ******************************************************************** DROP VIEW IF EXISTS Received_Money_Trans; CREATE VIEW IF NOT EXISTS Received_Money_Trans AS
SELECT
'RM'||rm.id as `tran_id`,
tran_date,
coa_id,
'Business Bank Account' as `coa_name`,
total,
rml.id as `line_id`,
rml.line_coa_id,
c.name as `line_coa_name`,
rml.line_amount
from Received_Moneys as rm
left join Received_Money_Lines as rml on rm.id = rml.received_money_id
left join COA as c on c.id = rml.line_coa_id; SELECT * from Received_Money_Trans; ******************************************************************** DROP VIEW IF EXISTS Spent_Money_Trans; CREATE VIEW IF NOT EXISTS Spent_Money_Trans AS
SELECT
'SM'||sm.id as `tran_id`,
tran_date,
coa_id,
'Business Bank Account' as `coa_name`,
total,
sml.id as `line_id`,
sml.line_coa_id,
c.name as `line_coa_name`,
sml.line_amount
from Spent_Moneys as sm
left join Spent_Money_Lines as sml on sm.id = sml.spent_money_id
left join COA as c on c.id = sml.line_coa_id; SELECT * from Spent_Money_Trans;
In the first two statements, I’m using a CTE (with the keyword recursive ). CTEs are useful as I’m combining 4 tables to get a single view for Invoice transactions and corresponding payments. You could learn more above CTEs in SQLite here.
After executing the above command, your database should have the following 4 views.
Transactions views
Finally, we create the code for the Trial Balance or TB for short. Note that TB is just a collection of the balances of our transactions taking note of the rules we laid down when we designed our database.
The code is as follows
DROP VIEW IF EXISTS Trial_Balance;
CREATE VIEW IF NOT EXISTS Trial_Balance as
-- CREATE TB
-- select all sales
select
line_coa_id as acct_code,
line_coa_name as acct_name,
(case when sum(line_amount) > 0 then sum(line_amount) else 0 end) as debit_bal,
(case when sum(line_amount) < 0 then sum(line_amount) else 0 end) as credit_bal
from Invoice_Trans
group by line_coa_id -- select all purchases
union all select
line_coa_id as acct_code,
line_coa_name as acct_name,
(case when sum(line_amount) > 0 then sum(line_amount) else 0 end) as debit_bal,
(case when sum(line_amount) < 0 then sum(line_amount) else 0 end) as credit_bal
from Bill_Trans
group by line_coa_id -- select all received money
union all select
line_coa_id as acct_code,
line_coa_name as acct_name,
(case when sum(line_amount) > 0 then sum(line_amount) else 0 end) as debit_bal,
(case when sum(line_amount) < 0 then sum(line_amount) else 0 end) as credit_bal
from Received_Money_Trans
group by line_coa_id -- select all spent money
union all select
line_coa_id as acct_code,
line_coa_name as acct_name,
(case when sum(line_amount) > 0 then sum(line_amount) else 0 end) as debit_bal,
(case when sum(line_amount) < 0 then sum(line_amount) else 0 end) as credit_bal
from Spent_Money_Trans
group by line_coa_id -- select all AP
union all select
ap_account as acct_code,
coa_name as acct_name,
-(case when sum(line_amount) < 0 then sum(line_amount) else 0 end) as debit_bal,
-(case when sum(line_amount) > 0 then sum(line_amount) else 0 end) as credit_bal
from Bill_Trans
where status = "0" -- select all AR
union all select
ar_account as acct_code,
coa_name as acct_name,
-(case when sum(line_amount) < 0 then sum(line_amount) else 0 end) as debit_bal,
-(case when sum(line_amount) > 0 then sum(line_amount) else 0 end) as credit_bal
from Invoice_Trans
where status = "0" -- select all bill_payments
union all select
bank_account as acct_code,
bank_name as acct_name,
-(case when sum(line_amount) < 0 then sum(line_amount) else 0 end) as debit_bal,
-(case when sum(line_amount) > 0 then sum(line_amount) else 0 end) as credit_bal
from Bill_Trans
where status = "1" -- select all invoice_payments
union all select
bank_account as acct_code,
bank_name as acct_name,
-(case when sum(line_amount) < 0 then sum(line_amount) else 0 end) as debit_bal,
-(case when sum(line_amount) > 0 then sum(line_amount) else 0 end) as credit_bal
from Invoice_Trans
where status = "1" -- select all received_money
union all select
coa_id as acct_code,
coa_name as acct_name,
-(case when sum(line_amount) < 0 then sum(line_amount) else 0 end) as debit_bal,
-(case when sum(line_amount) > 0 then sum(line_amount) else 0 end) as credit_bal
from Received_Money_Trans -- select all spent_money
union all select
coa_id as acct_code,
coa_name as acct_name,
-(case when sum(line_amount) < 0 then sum(line_amount) else 0 end) as debit_bal,
-(case when sum(line_amount) > 0 then sum(line_amount) else 0 end) as credit_bal
from Spent_Money_Trans order by acct_code
The above code contains multiple SQL queries joined by the command union all . I’ve annotated each query to show what each is trying to achieve.
For example, the first query tries to get all the credits for the Invoice transactions (mostly Sales). The second one for the debits of the Bill transactions (mostly Purchases) and so on.
Executing it should result in the following TB.
You can put this in Excel to check that debits equal to credits (which I did). Total debits and credits are 14115 and -14115 respectively.
Hooray! You’ve Made It
Creating an accounting system is really complex. We essentially explored the whole gamut of database design — from concepts to ERD to creation to querying it. Pat yourself on the back for reaching this far.
Take note that we deliberately limited our database to focus more on the concepts. You can lift these and try to build another one without the restrictions.
That’s it! You’re now an SQL ninja! Congratulations!
Photo by Ian Stauffer on Unsplash
Check out my second book Accounting Database Design soon to be published on Leanpub!
Check out also my first book PowerQuery Guide to Pandas on Leanpub.
Follow me on Twitter and Linkedin. | https://towardsdatascience.com/how-to-build-an-accounting-system-using-sqlite-2ce31f8b8652 | ['Kenneth Infante'] | 2020-11-17 00:02:43.196000+00:00 | ['Sql', 'Accounting System', 'Accounting', 'Database', 'Xero'] |
Could better bank regulation have averted the 2007 United States crisis? | After the Financial Crisis of 2007/2008, leading economists met up at Squam Lake to make a report which gave a thorough description of the crisis in the US, also making some recommendations on how a crisis of the same caliber could be avoided in the future
To start we need to look at the principal agent problem In financial markets, this shows us how there were many conflicts of interest in the financial markets. Returns are unpredictable and volatile. In most companies, if the company is doing well, everyone wins and is happy and vice versa. But in Financial markets, according to efficient market theory, it probably has to do with luck and not skill. It means then if the company is doing badly, it’s hard to tell if that’s because of the agent or external circumstances. In financial institutions, traders can get giant bonuses but if things go badly, it can be blamed on the market, no bonuses but also no consequences. These guys are incentivised to place gambles with the shareholders money. This is a conflict between the managers and the shareholders. Secondly, if a bank suffers a big loss it can do two things, it can shrink its balance sheet, or it can raise more capital i.e. we want our shareholders to put more money in. Banks prefer to sell assets, the idea is that if they put in more money into the company, most of the benefit of this is going to the bond holders. Bond holders have first claims on the new assets. So if the bank goes bankrupt, the money will go to the bondholders, this leads to a situation known as ‘debt-overhang’, a situation where shareholders don’t want to recapitalise their company because they’ve got too much debt. This is a conflict between the bondholders and the shareholders. Finally, when banks make profits they hang on them, privatising gains. But once they make losses, governments have to come in and bail them out. The losses of the banks are socialised. This is a conflict between the banks and the society.
This bailing out of banks has to do with the notion that some banks are ‘too big to fail’. We can describe these banks as a systemically important bank. A bank has failed to meet its obligations, it can’t give money back to its creditors. If there is a small institution, it’s not a big deal. Depositors are hurt, bond holders are hurt. When the institution is entangled with another institution and can’t meet its obligations, the entangled institutions will also fail, leading to a domino effect which is what happened in 2007. One institution fails and then either the entangled institution will fail too or… people will start to suspect that they might fail. Confidence becomes a big issue, you had no complex derivative positions and nobody was quite sure who owed money to who, and if they were at risk of losing money.
As a result then, when you have systemically important banks, you are going to have some implicit government insurance. You have a situation where we have small depositor insurance, usually up to 100k, and the idea is then that any other bank creditor is crediting at their own risk. In practice however, when a government steps in, it will meet all these banks obligations. This leads to excessive risk taking with the people’s money. By seeing these conflicts of interests exist and the incentives of investors to gamble we can clearly see there wasn’t adequate regulations in 2007.
Bankruptcy is a legal process involving the transfer of the company from the shareholders to the creditors. This is very disruptive to the company’s operations. Not suitable for banks, because of the negative externalities of those dependent on the bank. With large banks, as was the case in the US, with very complex trades involving over the counter derivatives, trading with each other etc. we saw that they had lots of ‘special purpose vehicles’, off balance sheet entities to save on capital. These were implicitly backed by the banks but they were there to take on big trade. In 2007, this was prevalent in mortgage backed securities which wouldn’t appear on the bank’s balance sheet itself. These banks usually had big overseas operations and so you had these rehypothecation of assets of collateral that people put up, moving across several jurisdictions. This issue of who is incharge of judicating these international financial institutions is another aspect of the crisis that should have been addressed well before the crisis.
Banks have always faced the risk of runs, they are highly leveraged institutions, relying a lot on short term debt. So if people suspect something is wrong, they run in a take all their money out. This was a problem with banks right up to the great depression before small depositor insurance. What we saw in 2007 was a run in wholesale markets. So you had banks borrowing from other banks, and these creditor banks looking to take their money out in a big hurry. Something that had never happened before. This seems like an obvious result of systemically important institutions but safety measures were not put in place.
Traditional banking regulation had been aimed at small retail banks. We then saw these very large investment banks appearing in the US, which were not formally banks, so they were not regulated by the federal reserve. In the US then, because of the size and complexity of these banks they ended up being regulated by many different agencies. Some of the biggest disasters ended up occurring without any regulation. Reserve Primary, started making very big loans to Lehmann, this was not being regulated. With Lehman, we saw the big difficulty that these guys had when they went under was that they had these very complex derivatives positions. So effectively, they had placed very complex bets on different financial institutions and other companies all around the world, and again, there were no regulations. These guys then had very large international operations making it harder to regulate due jurisdiction. Again we have the problem of who is meant to be regulating these firms, instead of a division of regulators, there should have been specialists looking in particular at this powerful sector.
In my opinion, the big failure of 2007 was the lack of regulation on systemic risk. Bank regulation is all about ensuring banks have enough capital to handle losses on their loans. Banks should have enough capital on hand to deal with any potential losses in the 3 month period. The focus then is on the individual bank. But, what this meant that you are looking at institutions in isolation, ignoring the impact they might have on other institutions. Goal of regulation should have been to force systemically important banks to internalize the potential bailout costs they can inflict on society.
According to the Swan Lake report, if you have large institutions and they have illiquid assets, trading these over the counter derivatives. These institutions need to hold a lot more capital than normal banks are required to. The next thing is you should have closer regulation of their asset and liability positions. So there is a clear need for specialist regulators who are looking across the entire position of the investment banks and similar institutions.
Secondly is the idea of a living will, that banks will specify that they have particular operations that they are undertaking and then if under specific circumstances, for example, these special purpose vehicles, if they start taking losses of a certain amount, the bank will stop it turning into a big problem.
Thirdly, is the idea of hybrid securities. These institutions issue a fairly large amount of large bonds, these are 5 to 10 year bonds. What happens in specific circumstances, such as if the banks have lost a certain amount of money that the central bank thinks there’s a chance of a systemic crisis, is that these bonds then convert into equity. The bank automatically generates new equity for itself in difficult situations.
Lastly is deferred compensation. Investors have big incentives to make big risks. The idea is you only pay bonuses after several years… that is traders only get compensation on the trades that actually turned out to be profitable. | https://medium.com/@dylangoode/could-better-bank-regulation-have-averted-the-2007-united-states-crisis-892b9d61df5d | ['Dylan Goode'] | 2020-12-09 11:07:56.730000+00:00 | ['The Great Recession', 'Banks', 'Regulation', 'Incentives', 'Bank Regulation'] |
POMprompt # 19 | POMprompt
POMprompt # 19
Things that go ‘bump’ in the night
Y’all knew this one was coming. It’s Fall, October, the owls calling out in the night. That freaky Netflix show, The Haunting of Bly manor. Halloween on the horizon of a hilltop moonlit night. It’s all eerie. Eerie, indeed.
It’s time to embrace the creepy, the freaky, the weird things that go bump in the night…this one’s about fear.
When I was a child, lots of things frightened me. Being an anxious child who couldn’t sleep — even worse. I was wracked with nightmares, sleepwalking and sleep staring (whatever that is) and all of the nervous energy between. There were creepy things beneath my bed. Behind the closet door. Tapping on the window. I was afraid of a lot as a child, even going to school. The grocery store, parking lots, white vans, men with red hair — yeah, the list was long and I had a wild imagination.
There. That place beneath the bed in the dead of night — that’s where I want you to go. Feel that fear a bit. Whatever frightened you terribly as a child, or even now, is great material for poetic expression.
USE IT.
And write your poem. Use language that sets the mood. Let us feel the fear and mystery with you. Scare us too.
This time you won’t be alone.
Your poetry prompt for POMprompt #19 is Things that go ‘bump’ in the night Now, let’s see those super-creepy, scary, and mysterious poems!
Happy Halloween, Y’all!
Poetically yours,
Christina M. Ward, EIC of The POM | https://medium.com/the-pom/pomprompt-19-78709b95129 | ['Christina M. Ward'] | 2020-10-20 00:05:35.120000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Creativity', 'Pomprompt', 'This Happened To Me', 'Prompt'] |
From Forbes: 6 ways COVID-19 will change the workplace forever | Remember when everyone suddenly got a 2-week off from both school and work and thought that was the most amazing thing that ever happened? Yea, we do too. Then it turns out to be one of the most traumatic, unstable and life-changing experiences that we all share.
As controversial as this may sound, it has been a once in a lifetime event. COVID has made both negative and positive changes in ways that we could never imagine. And one of the biggest changes would definitely be the workplace.
1. Corporate flexibility. People quickly figured out how to work from home. When the pandemic subsides, WFH will remain popular with professionals, and that will force companies — even those that were not the biggest proponents of having a virtual workforce — to become more flexible. Now that more people have had a taste of it and proven their productivity, it will be hard for companies to take it away from their talent. A Gallup survey revealed that 54% of U.S. workers would leave their current job for one that allowed them to work remotely.
And while professionals were celebrating their 30-second commute, it became clear to companies that the huge line item on their spreadsheets for real estate may not be the best way to spend their money. Having people work from home — even if it’s not everyone all the time — is proving to be profitable.
Yet we won’t see a wholesale move to remote work. Flexibility will be the new mantra — where people will be given more freedom to choose WFH. Some professionals actually missed the commute and cherished their in-person connections. So the new normal will be increased flexibility.
2. Headquarters 2.0. Your corporate office will look and operate differently. Apple CEO Tim Cook said that when workers go back to work, temperature checks and social distancing will likely be implemented. And that will persist for a while. But offices will be more about interaction and community than about heads-down focus on individual productivity now that vaccines are available.
Conference rooms, meeting spaces and video studios will take up a lot of office space. The workplace will become a far more social environment, not a “lock myself in the office” scenario. It will be designed to foster and promote interaction and community engagement — taking advantage of the times talent is collocated in one place. Our humanity and connection are what separate us from robots and COVID-19 has made us appreciate those interactions more than ever.
3. Work-ready homes. Many professionals found WFH a challenge not because of isolation, but because they didn’t have the ideal space or a dedicated home office. One of the biggest challenges people experienced while WFH was internet performance. WhistleOut, a company that provides information about mobile phone and internet services, performed research on adults who transitioned to WFH. 35% of those surveyed said that weak Internet has prevented them from doing their work at some point during the Coronavirus crisis and 43% said they have had to use their phone as a hotspot during the crisis.
Internet in homes will improve drastically and quickly. Home offices and even home video studios will become a priority. As new homes are built or existing ones are remodeled, WFH considerations will be the top priority for many. Technology will be developed to create an environment that more closely resembles a WeWork than a suburban townhouse.
4. E-learning for everyone. We all know that learning is now front and center, and many organizations realize that upskilling and right-skilling are essential for innovation and strategic advantage. But post COVID-19, e-learning will become a bigger part of ongoing learning. In-person learning programs won’t go away, but they’ll be reserved for certain functions and certain populations within the company. Ramping up their e-learning platforms, companies moved quickly to ensure that their people were still building important skills and developing professionally.
5. Business attire is retiring. We got comfortable with getting comfortable. You may have dressed up for work before COVID-19. And even if you got dressed up every day while WFH, it’s unlikely that you would put on a suit or heels. Sure, Anna Wintour likely won’t walk into Vogue in sweats (unless that’s the new fashion sensation) and maybe some people in Finance will keep the button-down and tie or the blouse and pearls, but the trend toward casual attire will accelerate quickly. Already, some consulting firms and other organizations have “dress for your day” policies where if you’re not meeting with clients, you can leave the suit at home. Besides, people working in tech have been wearing shorts and flip flops to work for decades.
6. Video virtuosos. Video is at the heart of many of the changes above. The developers behind Zoom, WebEx, Hangouts, Skype and other video communications tools made the grand WFH experiment possible. Video became fully integrated into the work experience in an astonishing variety of ways. Queens-based real estate brokerage Modern Spaces created a group TikTok channel, where its marketing team took on TikTok challenges, creating funny, light-hearted videos to make the agents smile.
As supervisors and staffers have gotten used to seeing each other in their natural habitats, the line that separates work life and personal life has faded. Ironically, technology has made this transition possible, but it has also led to a decidedly low-tech reality: this new corporate world has made us value our organic, non-robotic humanity more than ever before.
While the pandemic is coming to an end, the life and the office that we once knew will be more different than ever. While COVID has brought workers all kinds of difficulties and obstacles, it has taught everyone a good lesson on customized and creative workplaces that we can create and have as our new office. It may no longer be a cubicle or high-rise office, nor will it be your kitchen table or sofa couch. It may not be standard meeting rooms but rather technology-advanced conference rooms. The possibilities are endless. Companies will have to find what is the best option to ensure maximum productivity and guarantee human interaction and innovation while also minimizing costs and adapting to employee needs.
Afterall, what we want the most is to end this chapter of COVID because only once that door closes can another (office) door open.
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Sources: Article edited from Forbes: 6 ways COVID-19 will change the workplace forever: https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamarruda/2020/05/07/6-ways-covid-19-will-change-the-workplace-forever/?sh=24abee3323e7 | https://intl.jobhopin.com/from-forbes-6-ways-covid-19-will-change-the-workplace-forever-28ab97938d1e | ['Jobhopin Asia'] | 2021-06-17 03:09:33.366000+00:00 | ['Management', 'Online Learning', 'Covid 19', 'Work From Home', 'Work During Pandemic'] |
2018: Why the Crypto Market Is Still Down and Why You Better Hang on Tight | The price of bitcoin plummeted last week, falling over $500 (around 5%) in a matter of minutes on September 5th to break through the psychological $7000 threshold. Following immediately in its wake, the value of ripple, ether, EOS, and bitcoin cash took an even larger hit, with all these major cryptocurrencies dropping nearly 10%. While this kind of volatility is not uncommon in the market, it is still unsettling to investors when they see the price of their assets plunge so suddenly. So why are these wild swings in valuation still occurring, and what does the rest of this year likely have in store for crypto investors?
Why These Steep Declines?
Many experts have tied the latest round of steep drops to regulatory uncertainty. Later this month, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is expected to decide whether or not to open a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). Because the SEC has previously rejected such approvals, investors may be getting nervous about it doing so again. In addition, Goldman Sachs, which had indicated an interest in opening a cryptocurrency trading desk, may have moved these plans further down their list of priorities, at least given the current environment of regulatory uncertainty.
Another reason many believe the crypto market has performed poorly in 2018 is because of the widespread hype of 2017 and the failure of the market to live up to that hype. The hysteria surrounding ICOs last year led to the failure of over 1000 ICOs this year. Some were complete scams from the outset, designed to rake in money with no real intention of producing a legitimate product or service. According to some estimates, this may have represented over 80% of all ICOs. Others were abandoned by well-meaning companies when the reality of the business environment didn’t stack up to expectations. Many were simply shut down by the SEC due to failures to meet regulatory requirements. Research indicates that only 8% of these companies went on to actually trade on an exchange and deliver to some extent on their promises. Regardless of the reason for all these failures, it was the investors who took the hit time after time after time. It makes sense then, that investors are more wary now of how they throw their money around. Nevertheless, investors have remained ready and eager to put their money into new ICOs this year. In fact, ICOs have raised nearly $12 billion this year, nearly three times as much as was raised in all of 2017!
What’s Coming During the Remaining Months of 2018?
What’s in store for the market during the remainder of this year? For one thing, there are many, many reasons to be optimistic. The failure of many ICOs has led to a great deal of scrutiny on the industry, which is a good thing. Investors are more likely to do greater due diligence on prospective ICOs rather than simply bow to the hype and jump in feet first, eyes closed. Secondly, the market continues to mature. This means that newer companies are entering the space more carefully and more conscientiously than before — putting strong management teams in place, allying themselves with expert outside advisors and consultants, partnering with already-successful companies, creating products and services with significant value, and moving ahead at a more realistic, less chaotic pace. Next, the regulatory environment is bound to stabilize as governments finally establish meaningful frameworks for managing this space. Lastly, there is growing public and industry-wide acceptance of the cryptocurrency market, which opens up new avenues for growth and value.
Strong Positive Trends
Some suggest that the cryptocurrency market valuation will top $1 trillion by the end of this year. Others remain optimistic about bitcoin, confidently stating that it will top $25,000 by year’s end. What are some of the trends underlying this optimism?
For example, LINE, the hugely successful messaging app, recently announced the birth of its own cryptocurrency named LINK. It would be used to pay for content, goods, services, and discounts. In doing so, LINE has become one of the first publicly-trading companies to make such a commitment.
On another front, JP Morgan, the world’s largest investment bank, and Ripple may be in the early stages of establishing a partnership. How this might affect JP Morgan’s existing Quorum blockchain is unclear, but Ripple’s bank-friendly technologies would be a perfect fit for any institution looking to increase both the speed and accuracy of initiating and reconciling its business transactions. But JP Morgan is only one of many prominent banks that see lucrative business opportunities in this market.
While the SEC may not approve its first crypto ETF this year, it is considered to be inevitable, with a 2019 date seen by many as more realistic. This event may not be essential to the continuing success of the crypto market, it would likely have both a profound short-term and long-term effect. In fact, it remains at the forefront of the thinking of most institutional investors, and it is believed that when it occurs, it could well be the catalyst for the market’s next bullish run-up.
If you’re interested in cryptocurrency and blockchain, come take a look at our project, Snowball. It is the only platform that is democratizing access to the best crypto fund managers and crypto index strategies for the 99%. Learn about it and register to be one of our first users at www.snowball.money
About Snowball
Snowball is the first Smart Crypto Investment Automation (SCIA) platform that enables access to professionally curated portfolios, empowering everyone to invest like accredited investors.
Written by:
Parul Gujral, CEO-Snowball
| https://medium.com/snowball-money/what-the-hecks-going-on-with-the-crypto-market-in-2018-4fa72a50dc24 | ['Parul Gujral'] | 2018-12-19 19:58:13.317000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Technology', 'Bitcoin', 'Investing'] |
Can You Smoke Marijuana In Las Vegas Hotel Rooms? | Marijuana is now legal in Las Vegas for both recreational and medical use. This has some specific regulations surrounding it regarding how much you can purchase or possess at any time, the difference being that medical card holders can buy and possess 2.5 ounces and recreational users can only buy 1 ounce. This is generally not a big deal, because an ounce of marijuana will last an average user more than a week. There are many laws surrounding where you can actually smoke or use marijuana products, over and above the purchase. To buy it, you have to patronize a licensed dispensary and you have to be over 21 years old with an ID. If you have a medical card you have to be over 21 with an ID. To use it is far more complicated, and that’s where the majority of the legal trouble is happening currently. People come to Las Vegas thinking they can buy marijuana and smoke it anywhere they want to, simply because it is legal. There is nothing further from the truth, and not knowing the law can land you in jail or with fines of $1,000 or more.
You are not allowed to use marijuana in a car, and you are not allowed to drive under the influence of marijuana. The legal limits that are currently recognized by the state as DUI are very low, and most recreational users will actually test positive and over the limit even days after they have used it. This is a serious issue, and the laws of the state need to be re-evaluated n order to more appropriately address what constitutes a marijuana DUI. The marijuana that you buy must be inside an airtight container and out of the reach of the driver or any minors in the car. This means if you are driving home and it is on the front seat, you could technically be arrested. The suggestion from Las Vegas marijuana lawyers is to keep it in the trunk.
You are only allowed to legally use marijuana in Las Vegas inside of a private residence. This does not include casinos or nightclubs, which are private property but usually do not allow it. You cannot use marijuana in any public place, on the street or in a store. This poses an issue for tourists who do not know anyone in Las Vegas, because you cannot technically use the product you have legally purchased. If you smoke marijuana inside your hotel room, you can expect a call from security or even the police. You also cannot take the marijuana home with you, because transporting it over state lines is a federal crime. While these laws are vague and difficult to understand, the best way to stay safe and within the law is to ask if you are allowed to use it. If you are in a residence and are told that it is all right, then you may use it at your discretion. Anything else can land you in trouble with the law. | https://medium.com/@bigbulldogseo/can-you-smoke-marijuana-in-las-vegas-hotel-rooms-49606e827b1 | ['Raymond Santopietro'] | 2019-01-11 02:02:05.097000+00:00 | ['Marijuana', 'Las Vegas'] |
Nowhere Man 13 | The Rainbow Warrior was gone. I’d never know the like of her again.
I’d seen her as few ever had, lying at rest under a sinking sun, sailing through storm torn skies, when lightning was so sharp it stitched clouds together. She was not mine of course, she belonged to the world, a symbol of mans hope. Now, whenever I sit on a windy shoreline, looking out across any ocean, it all comes back, the sense of smell, long after the burning has gone, yet still lingers in my nostrils.
“Lay still, lay absolutely still, Greg.” It was the voice of my friend, Steve. Tears falling down his face.
“Steve, I can’t feel my legs.” He was holding my head against his knees.
“You must lay still, do you understand?” Sirens sounded in far off streets. The hissing of steam filled the air. As if someone had placed a red-hot poker into water just behind my head.
“What happened, Steve?” I whispered.
Steve didn’t answer. My fingers were burning with cold. I saw myself in the reflective glow of a fire burning in his eyes. It occurred to me I might be dying, right there in Steve’s lap. I began to think of all the things I wanted to say, so as not to die unforgiven.
“When my son has grown, Steve, tell him I love him.”
“Listen,” he said, “you’re going to be all right. Don’t think about anything else. We dragged you from the water. You’ve got a chunk of metal in your back, do not try to move — do you understand?”
And there was no more to be heard.
I woke up in a hospital. For four months, I lay still while surgeons played around with my spine.
Katie had made the long, worrisome flight to my bedside. She wouldn’t look at me. The eyes of the woman I loved stared blankly at my broken body. I was loved deeply. She could not look at me in pain. It is something I was never to forget.
Katie was not going to be loved this way. No man was going to occupy a place in her life, her heart, or the lives of her children and risk himself for ideals.
Philip’s birth had changed her perspectives.
Her eyes were saying. ‘You have no place in my life. You are an intruder.’ This is what she would tell me when I was stronger, if she didn’t weaken.
Why was I so bloody difficult? Why couldn’t I just love her like other men love their women? Adore her the way other men adore? Lust like other men lust? But that was never my way.
Katie had sailed into my life like a storm-christened rigger, taking my breath away. She had shown me, proved to me that she was an by exceptional person.
It was all too much. What if I never knew her smile again, her strange words, the predictability of her in my life? She would have to say something — but of course, I was all I said and my truth affected her and touched her. She placed her hand in mine, resting her head on my chest and sobbed.
“Come home, Greg” She whispered.
I lay still, knowing her pain, feeling her heartbeat heavy in her breast. I wanted to be with her forever, to stand at her side as real as a mountain. I wanted to hold her, fire a blue and white electricity into her hurting emotions and make them better.
“You’ll walk. I just know it, Greg. I just know it, and the doctors say you will.” She kissed my cheek and turned away, tearful.
I watched until she turned the corner. That disappearance broke every barrier that was holding up my dignity and pride. Sobs rose from my stomach and caught in my throat. They were there, when a minute later she walked back toward me. She took a tissue from her bag and held it to my face.
“I’ve never seen you afraid before.”
There was no wild fury left. I was indeed afraid.
“It’s done, Greg. Your time is done. No more. We are your life now. You come home and you stay. You stay, Greg. You are a father and a husband. You will not put us through this again.”
Katie had walked away without saying it but now, returning with new strength, said what she had wanted to say for a year or more. She held my hand and kissed my mouth.
“No more, or we cannot make it.’”
She turned and walked briskly away. I never saw her tears but I knew her heartbreak was unimaginable and fierce.
The surgeons played it right. After the fourth month of treatment, I walked out of there.
The French had bombed and sunk the Rainbow Warrior, killing one friend.
Goliath had come for David and won.
I don’t know why, when I look out to sea, it should all come back to me so vividly. Not when there are so many beautiful memories of the Warrior, so much achieved. The Rainbow had her failures, of course, but how she had handed me so many friendships and adventures.
Katie and I walked out together on the bend of Tobermory. Our son was growing fast, and our second son, Daniel, was on the way. | https://medium.com/illumination/nowhere-man-13-b857a6e0b218 | ['Harry Hogg'] | 2021-03-23 18:13:18.589000+00:00 | ['Fiction Series', 'Life', 'Fiction', 'Writing', 'Fiction Writing'] |
One of the most commonly asked question by a diabetic patient is, “Can I have fruits?” | One of the most commonly asked question by a diabetic patient is, “Can I have fruits?” The answer to this is not a simple “yes” or “no”. Although diabetic patients can include fruits in their diet, but there are some factors that the patients need to keep in mind when choosing a fruit, the most important being the glycemic index.
WHAT IS GLYCEMIC INDEX?
Glycemic Index is a number which tells us about the effect of food on a person’s blood sugar level.The Glycemic Index has a scale from 0 to 100, where 100 is pure glucose. Low GI foods do not raise blood sugar level to a considerable extent like high GI foods do. So, fruits containing low GI are highly preferable. Roughly,
-GI value below 50 is considered low.
-GI value between 50 ‐60 is considered average.
-GI value above 60 is high.
-Here are the GI scores of some of the commonly available fruits: black jamun (25), cherries (20), pear (38), apple (39), orange (40), plum (40), strawberry (41), peach (42), guava (32)
LOW GI FRUITS THAT ARE IDEAL FOR DIABETICS:
1 . Strawberries
Apart from providing a mouthwatering luster to a delicious dessert, strawberries bear a name of super food for diabetics. They are enriched with potassium (which helps in keeping blood sugar level in check), antioxidants, and vitamins. Moreover, they have low GI level. So strawberries have a lot to offer from their indulging taste to added topping of value.
Nutritional value: 100 gm strawberries has 33 Kcal calories and 8 grams of carbohydrates.
2 . Black Jamun
This fruit holds a special significance owing to its numerous qualities. Every part of jamun holds wondrous properties to fight diabetes. Its seeds can be powdered and consumed each day in morning with an empty stomach. The fruit pulp and bark are rich in vitamins, antioxidants and have low GI value.
Nutritional value: 100 grams contain 60 Kcal and 16 grams of carbohydrates.
3 . Apple
Apples are also loaded with fiber and a good source of vitamin C and have a low gylcemic index which makes them a good option for diabetics. . Don’t peel your apples, though,the skins are the most nutritious part, full of antioxidants.
Nutritional value:100 grams contain 52 Kcal and 14 grams of carbohydrates.
4 . Guava
Guava gives you yet another reason for not depriving yourself from healthy fruits. It is mostly advised to eat without its skin which reduces sugar absorption in the blood. Guavas are high in vitamin A, vitamin C and dietary fiber. This fruit has a reasonably low GI making it a part of a diabetics’ must have fruits plate.
Nutritional value: 100 grams of guava has 51 Kcal and 12 grams of carbohydrates.
5 . Peach
Peaches contain vitamins A and C, potassium, and fiber and are delicious on their own or tossed into iced tea for a fruity twist. You can also add them to your salads or desserts as a delicious topping.
Nutritional value: 100 gram of peach contains 39 Kcal and 10 grams of carbohydrates
6 . Orange
Orange is a powerhouse of vitamin C. It has a low GI and is rich in folate and potassium, which may help normalize blood pressure. You can have it as a mid-day snack or carry it in your bag for that glucose punch that you may need when you are at work or travelling.
Nutritional value: 100 gram of orange contains 47 Kcal and 12 grams of carbohydrates
THINGS TO REMEMBER
-It is best to have low or moderately low GI fruits.
-When you choose a low GI fruit, you can have a bigger portion, but when you choose a high GI fruit, you need to take a small portion. For example in high GI fruits, you can have 1/2 a banana, 1/2 cup mango, 1/3 cup chiku, 1 cup melon.
-You should consider GI, total calories and carbohydrate content when picking a portion of a fruit. For example 1 whole guava and 1/2 cup of banana will have almost same calories and carbohydrate content.
-Fruits should be eaten raw. Avoid juices or fruit drinks which have added preservatives or sugar. | https://medium.com/@cartoonbox777/one-of-the-most-commonly-asked-question-by-a-diabetic-patient-is-can-i-have-fruits-368118231104 | ['Chirag Roakde'] | 2020-12-23 11:28:49.121000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Diet', 'Diabetes', 'Healthcare', 'Fruits'] |
Your selfie face is not your real face! | Your selfie face is not your real face!
Have you ever observed the differences between your selfies and the photos that your friends tagged you in ? Semi Sentient Sentinel Sep 3·2 min read
Notice the difference between the above pictures of President Lincoln ? Feels weird right? Well, It shouldn’t!
Our friends, family don’t really notice this because of The mere exposure Effect.
The mere exposure effect says that just becoming familiar with something makes us like it more.
We are more familiar with seeing backwards because most of the time we see our faces in the mirror or on the selfie cam on our phones , so what we see is reversed from what other people see. The right side of your face looks like it’s the left side, and vice versa.
This really matters because human faces are not perfectly symmetrical. which means that we keep seeing our asymmetrical features on the wrong side of our face.
But when you look at a photo someone else took, you’re looking at yourself the way the rest of the world sees you. And those little asymmetries
are enough to produce a slightly different face than you’re used to.
That’s why people tend to prefer reversed images of themselves over images from someone else’s perspective. It’s just more familiar and certain.
In a 2015 study of female plastic surgery patients, 73% preferred looking at
mirror-reversed photos of themselves.
But this should not be a concerning to you. Just because you aren’t used to it doesn’t mean your friends think your face is ugly. In fact, since our friends have more exposure to seeing our faces the real way, they tend to prefer non-selfie photos of us.
Familiarity makes us feel warm and fuzzy. The same mere exposure effect happens with words, basic shapes, photographs, and sounds.
One of the oldest tricks in the marketing playbook is that repeated exposure to a product makes people feel more positively about it.
So, the next time when you see the un-flipped version of your photo, Don’t feel sad instead smile remembering how you thought you’d appear to the world.
If you want to learn more about this:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1u7Fw2t2D0RziSrKGmHFZOoVoTMSR7V9_jDaAokTZm9g/edit?usp=sharing | https://medium.com/@semisentient/your-selfie-face-is-not-your-real-face-f51c076dcf5c | ['Semi Sentient Sentinel'] | 2021-09-03 04:21:07.079000+00:00 | ['Photos', 'Psychology', 'Observation', 'Beauty'] |
Monitor firebase cloud functions in realtime | Firebase supports different types cloud functions like http, timer, firestore, realtime database triggers etc. Only way to find if something goes wrong in cloud functions is checking logs in firebase/GCP console.
In order to monitor the performance issues and errors occurring in cloud functions, we have developed agent module and that collect metrics in realtime and shown in https://nextapm.dev dashboard.
creating cloud function monitor in https://nextapm.dev
Install agent module in your application.
npm i nextapm
Include the following snippets in main file of cloud funtions.
// this should be in the first line
import { config, setFunctionName } from 'nextapm';
... your app imports ...
config({
licenseKey: 'xxxxxxxxxx',
projectId: 'xxxxxxxxxx',
});
...your cloud functions...
functions.firestore.document(path).onWrite(async () => {
setFunctionName('SendMail'); // call in all cloud functions
....function logic....
})
To track exceptions, use following agent API.
import { trackErr } from 'nextapm';
try {
... your app code ..
} catch (err) {
trackErr(err);
}
If setFunctionName api used then mentioned function name will be shown in transaction name. If not then firebase operation functions names will be shown.
Nextapm Dashboard
Please check it out and give feedback about this. | https://medium.com/@charnzet/monitor-firebase-cloud-functions-in-realtime-220b31cb7662 | [] | 2021-06-17 07:35:32.212000+00:00 | ['Firebase Cloud Functions', 'APM', 'Monitoring', 'Observability', 'Serverless'] |
On Not Loving the World | “ Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life — comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.” 1 John 2:15–17,NIV
In a world filled with visual beauty, it feels impossible not to be caught up in material means, people, money, and temporary pleasures. It is far easier to focus on what we can see on the outside — the way someone looks, how rich we are, or the number of colorful photos on someone’s social media profile.
I had a friend call me up to confess that she has been feeling empty lately. She told me that she fills her days with jealously, looking through people’s profiles. At their happy smiles, their airplane tickets, and their designer homes. When will she feel the sense of contentment and joy that they thought? She anxiously asked me if I had ever felt the same despair.
The truth is that I had. And I continue to fight the material attractions of the world every day. As humans, we often forget to check in with ourselves. Someone may have a busy, prosperous life — but do we know how they truly feel? Are they content? Do they feel a sense of connection to themselves and God?
I have learned that the more we indulge in the love of the world, the more disconnected we feel with ourselves, our soul, and God. When we run after what we see, we forgo how we think. A day spent being grateful for all that will not make us rich or famous.
We feel the urge to compare our lives with others and be “productive,” — so how can we allow ourselves to stop and take a breath? However, when we connect with God, we experience inner peace, grace, and joy.
The will of God lives forever
You might make the mistake of thinking that this means you can never pursue worldly attractions. Every human craves a sense of security and well-being through their wealth and social circle. The problem arises when we make these attractions our purpose — our goal — rather than see them as the supporting structures in our journey towards God.
God made all that we see, feel, sense, and experience in any way. He created a world filled with lust and material attractions. There’s no question that he knows the effect these have on us — which is why it’s so easy to fall prey to not feeling good enough.
That is why the command is to “not love the world.” Do not love it, even though it is tempting. Even though you cannot see God, you must love him and do His will — because that is forever. And that is the test. Only when you experience it for yourself, do you come to realize how rewarding it is.
The world and its desires pass away
When we love the creator rather than the creations, our perspective shifts; the world and its desires come and go because they are temporary and unreliable. In the blink of an eye, we can lose all we have spent a lifetime collecting: our wealth, our friends, our homes.
What remains underneath the once shiny exterior is our love for God and our connection with him. And if we never invested any time in cultivating that connection — the loss of worldly means leaves us feeling empty and disconnected — the way my friend was feeling.
To have the feeling of desire is human. God created that, too. However, to have a passion for the world — a fleeting concept of which we have no control — is detrimental. By telling us that the world and its desires pass away, God is telling us that the desire to connect with Him is what makes us feel fulfilled.
We must channel our need to feel content and “enough” in the direction of God. It is the only connection that never passes or fades. It exists independently of the material world — it resides within the realm of our soul.
Clear your heart to make space
The love for the world cannot exist alongside the love for a higher power. It is draining and burdensome and leaves us feeling incomplete. I told my friend what I often tell myself — to take a deep breath and focus on how I feel inside.
The disconnect stems from a lack of real, authentic connection with the one who created our soul. The jealousy emerges from a place of criticism of our own being: why can’t we feel happy like they do? But the truth is, we can. And we don’t need to wait for a picture-perfect life to feel joy.
I can feel content with what I have — because what I have is a connection to my higher self and God. There’s no way for me to compare this bond with anything and anyone else — hence it is entirely and utterly my own — and so my heart is full. You can experience that joy also. | https://medium.com/koinonia/on-not-loving-the-world-8a1afcad7522 | ['Gayle Kurtzer-Meyers'] | 2020-10-15 18:22:15.156000+00:00 | ['Love', 'Scripture', 'Koinonia', 'Christianity', 'Awareness'] |
CoinLoan Review 2021 | Is it Legit and Safe for you? | In this article, we will review CoinLoan, a crypto-lending platform founded in 2017 and currently licensed under Estonia Financial Authority.
They offer instant loans and up to 12.3% interest on cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and FIAT. You can also buy, sell and swap assets. The platform is completely secure.
Originally publish at CoinCodeCap.
CoinLoan Review: Summary
CoinLoan is a P2P European Crypto-lending platform.
is a P2P European Crypto-lending platform. They allow you to earn daily compound interest up to 12.3% on eighteen supported cryptocurrencies, stable coins, and FIAT.
CoinLoan offers Crypto-to-Fiat Loans, Crypto-to-Crypto Loans, and Fiat-to-Crypto Loans with unique features such as no lock-ins, flexible repayment schedule, and no credit history checks.
You can buy, sell and swap assets. They also support FIAT transfers through SWIFT, SEPA, Visa, MasterCard, Wire Transfers, and AdvCash.
CoinLoan provides its native token CLT.
They offer a user-friendly platform that supports Android and iOS.
They use various techniques to secure their platform and are completely transparent about their security practices.
Coinloan Interest Account
CoinLoan allows you to earn compound interest by depositing your fund in the Coinloan interest account.
Features
Your funds are never locked, and you can withdraw them whenever you want.
The minimum deposit period is one day.
The interest is paid in the same currency in which you deposit.
Interest is deposited daily at 14:00 UTC. Compounded interest is credited to your account on the first day of the month at 15:00 UTC.
The funds you deposit are used to fund collateralized loans, which helps CoinLoan pay you the interest.
The following table shows the interest rates of all the supported cryptocurrencies. The rates include a 2% CLT staking reward.
CoinLoan Borrow
CoinLoan offers loans against cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and fiat. The loans are approved instantly. No paperwork or credit history checks are required since the collateral assets is the only thing that matters. It is mandatory to complete KYC verification before applying for loans.
The LTV ratio can be 20% ,35%, 50% and 70%. The lower the LTV, the higher is the extent of collateral fluctuations. The collateral amount can also be increased during an active loan decreasing the LTV.
Your collateral is held safely at the custodian. The interest rates vary from 4.95% to 11.95%, according to the LTV ratio.
The minimum loan period is one month, and the maximum is three years. The minimum loan amount varies for all the assets. You can take an unlimited number of loans. All the information about your loans will be under the “My Loans” section.
You can repay your loan faster by paying interest only for the used time. It is not mandatory to repay the loan in the same cryptocurrency you had received the loan. There are no fines or lock-ins.
You will receive notifications and emails according to your payment schedule. CoinLoan will try to make an automatic repayment if you cannot pay the loan if you have funds in your CoinLoan wallet. If there are no funds, they will liquidate a part of your collateral to complete the repayment.
CoinLoan Crypto Exchange
CoinLoan Crypto Exchange provides buying, selling, and swapping of assets. They offer competitive exchange rates.
FIAT transfers can be completed using any of the following four options –
SWIFT (Available globally) SEPA (For Euro and Eurozone citizens) Visa and MasterCard (Available globally) AdvCash (Available globally except the USA)
CoinLoan also supports USD Wire Transfers in some of the countries.
CoinLoan Token & User Experience
CLT is the native token of CoinLoan and according to CoinMarketCap, its current rank is 3046. CoinLoan offers a user-friendly platform. They also have a mobile application to help you manage your funds on the go. They support both Android and iOS.
CoinLoan Review: Security
CoinLoan stores the majority of the funds in cold multi-signature wallets. The private keys are not stored in network-connected devices. All the withdrawals are processed manually, and this may cause a minor delay but improves security.
All the transactions are signed offline on offline devices, which involves several people. All the operations performed by CoinLoan comply with Cryptocurrency Security Standard (CCSS).
All the assets are stored in BitGo, with insurance of $100 million from Lloyds.
The encrypted part of the keys is stored in geographically distributed banks’ safe deposit boxes. This safeguards the keys from any natural disasters such as floods, fires, earthquakes, and more.
To encrypt all the client traffic to the server, they use SSL with TLS 1.3, DNSSEC, HSTS.
They use Time-based One-time Password (TOTP) for two-factor authentication for each login attempt, fund withdrawal, password reset, and other essential actions.
The infrastructure is monitored 24/7 for identifying abnormal activity and system errors. Their servers are not connected directly to the internet. Additionally, the Bug Bounty Program helps them to analyze vulnerabilities or bugs.
CoinLoan Fees
1. Deposits
CoinLoan deposits in cryptocurrencies are free. FIAT deposits are also free except using Visa/MasterCard 2 EUR + 4.2% (from deposit amount) is charged.
2. Withdrawals
CoinLoan Withdrawals in FIAT and cryptocurrencies are free.
3. Liquidation
CoinLoan liquidation fee is 7% of the liquidated loan collateral.
4. Borrowing Fees
CoinLoan borrowing fees is 1% of the principal amount. If you pay using CoinLoan Tokens (CLT), you will get a 50% discount on the borrowing fee. The remaining amount is converted into CLT according to the market value.
CoinLoan Review: Customer Support
You can write to them at [email protected] and [email protected] have an interactive Telegram community.
You can also connect with them on Twitter.
Additionally, they have two helpline numbers — +372 634 6411 and +1 (657) 220–1706
CoinLoan Review: Pros and Cons
Pros
High-Interest rates High LTV ratio Flexible Repayment options Available worldwide Support FIAT transfers through SWIFT, SEPA, Visa, MasterCard, Wire Transfers, and AdvCash. Easy to use
Cons
It is a relatively new platform.
CoinLoan Review: Conclusion
CoinLoan is a regulated crypto lending platform. The instant loans with unique features attract users. They offer a high LTV ratio with flexible repayment options.
Additionally, they also provide high-interest rates on parking your funds with no lock-ins. CoinLoan uses various measures to ensure that the platform is completely safe.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Is CoinLoan legit?
CoinLoan is a crypto lending platform licensed under Estonia Financial Authority. They have insurance of $100 million from Lloyds, and assets are stored in BitGo. It is a secure platform and is safe to use.
What kind of loans does CoinLoan offer?
CoinLoan offers Crypto-to-Fiat Loans, Crypto-to-Crypto Loans, and Fiat-to-Crypto Loans.
Is it mandatory to complete KYC verification for performing any transaction in CoinLoan?
Yes, CoinLoan is a regulated platform, and it is necessary to complete KYC verification to perform any transaction. It takes only a couple of minutes to complete it.
Does CoinLoan support FIAT transfers?
Yes, CoinLoan supports FIAT transfers through SWIFT, SEPA, Visa, MasterCard, Wire Transfers, and AdvCash.
Does CoinLoan perform any credit history checks for loan approval?
No, CoinLoan approves loans instantly based on the collateral. No credit history checks or paperwork is required.
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Also, Read | https://medium.com/coinmonks/coinloan-review-18128b9badc4 | ['Gaurav Agrawal'] | 2021-07-29 10:54:27.360000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Savings Account', 'Banking', 'Investing', 'Saving Money'] |
Terrace Martin Lays 2020 to Rest: Village Days Album Review | Village Days — A Terrace Martin Project
The 2020 holiday season is getting upstaged. Twinkling light displays and planned gift exchanges feel secondary to the blossoming glimmer of hope that accompanied the arrival of the Covid-19 vaccines. This holiday season is less a celebration and more a sigh of relief that after 200-plus days of quarantining, Animal Crossing excursions and Zoom meetings, normal life — or a new normal — is just around the corner.
As such, typical holiday music doesn’t sound right. There’s no place for strolling through the mall, bopping along to Mariah Carey or Frank Sinatra while shopping, or listening to Michael Buble while you wait to be seated at a restaurant. It all feels insular, like the jingle bells have been hollowed out and left to rot.
In lieu of the traditional sounds of Christmas, Terrace Martin dropped the fittingly introspective Village Days, a seven-track EP that is part spoken word, part g-funk reorchestration, and part Christmas album, The Los Angeles composer’s saxophone ties it all together, sealing the project with a handful of complementary features that help Martin usher out 2020 in the still of the night.
In contrast to July’s Dinner Party, which kept a healthy tempo thanks to percussive nudges from 9th Wonder, Village Days is calmer fare. “The Voice of King Nipsey’’ eulogizes the Crenshaw artist through a haunting piano and sax tribute that is equally fitting for laying 2020 to rest. “Money Up,” which features Berkeley’s Rexx Life Rajj, deploys a squeaky guitar that drops the pretense of a highly polished project. Though Martin is no stranger to fine-tuned music, the raw energy of Village Days — the untempered percussion or the subtle, organic pauses during spoken word sections — keeps the album grounded in the realism that governed the rest of the 21st Century’s 20th year.
The intro and outro are the project’s most diverse songs. The former, “Neighborhood,” sets the final seconds from Ty Dolla $ign’s “Juice” to a track detailing the ills of Martin’s hometown stomping grounds before dialing in the drum set to support a downtempo synth and vocal cut. The latter is Martin and Alex Isley’s rendition of Robert Wells and Mel Tormé’s “Christmas Song,” swapping the harmonious string sections for a keyboard and sax track that leaves the album off on a hopeful note.
Village Days isn’t driven by the lovestruck cohesion of 3ChordFold. And it’s unlike Velvet Portraits, which was as much a musical playground for Martin as it was for the names in his seemingly unending Rolodex. Village Days is a return to a simpler time, when artists made Christmas covers and people weren’t governed by the existential crisis presented by an airborne virus. Village Days is an exhale, signaling that no matter how bad things are, there’s still light at the end of the tunnel. | https://medium.com/the-gleaming-sword/terrace-martin-lays-2020-to-rest-village-days-album-review-be1a0ff204db | ['Brandon Johnson'] | 2020-12-17 01:29:47.185000+00:00 | ['Jazz', 'Album Review', 'Terrace Martin', 'Music', 'Christmas Music'] |
What’s Driving the Future? | “The future is already here — it’s just not evenly distributed. ― William Gibson
In the introduction to this series, I described how the future is created by a continuous interplay between forces of continuity and forces of change. ‘Forces’ may sound mysterious, but that’s really just a word I use as a catchall for the underlying factors — whether social, economic, technological, or ecological — that encourage or discourage behavior in people — that is, in us.
Although the world is changing constantly, the status quo has its own inertia. That inertia is sufficient, usually, to prevent all that ongoing change from spreading quickly or evenly — or sometimes from even catching on at all. The future, it turns out, has a strong status quo bias.
For example, consider how 2020 played out. Advances in digital communications technologies had provided the ability to collaborate remotely from almost anywhere on earth well before the pandemic struck. But this particular force of change was held in check by more powerful forces of continuity that preferred to keep things the way they were. Before the onset of the coronavirus crisis in March, both the private sector and the public had soured on the notion of remote work.
It took an exogenous shock like the pandemic to loosen continuity's grip, presenting government agencies and corporate boards around the world with little choice but to embrace the change they had only just recently shunned. But in a telling example of continuity’s reluctance to give in even when forced to accept the necessity of change, many organizations this past spring tried to simply replicate their normal, in-person work practices remotely — with uniformly frustrating results. It took months for more traditional office cultures to adapt to the distributed, asynchronous, and necessarily more informal nature of remote work. Some offices never managed to adapt at all. For those that did, telepresence and remote collaboration quickly became indispensable, so much so that some now go as far as to project that we might never return to the office.
Too many would-be futurists fixate on one particular piece of emerging technology, a hot new startup company, or a disturbing geopolitical trend, and are then frustrated when their maximalist projections based on those things are wrong. Others falsely exaggerate the strength of the status quo, thinking that what exists now is more permanent than it is.
To exercise practical analytic foresight, you must account for both the forces of change and continuity.
Identifying Key Drivers
“Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward. They may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.” ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Photo by Patrick Perkins on Unsplash
Another word for forces is ‘drivers,’ and they’re what this installment is all about. I look at drivers a bit differently than others. Where some use the term almost synonymously with ‘trends,’ I prefer to think of drivers as those forces exerting influence on the behavior of individual actors within complex systems. In this sense, it is the drivers that actually create the trends.
U.S. President Donald Trump, for example, is not a driver — though the sort of bomb-throwing, paradigm-breaking disruption he personifies is certainly a trend. The key drivers that encouraged Americans to elect Trump by a slim margin in 2016 will remain in effect once he departs the White House on January 20th, 2021, which is one reason why U.S. President-Elect Joe Biden’s appeals for a return to normalcy after four turbulent years are unlikely to succeed.
Key Drivers are those that stand out by the degree of influence they exert on the larger structure of the situation or problem being analyzed. Depending on the level of analysis you’re working at a Key Driver might be as generic as “climate change” or “artificial intelligence” or as specific as “the rate of sea-level rise” or “the capability of computer vision to identify cats.” No matter what the scope of your analysis is, though, identifying the Key Drivers is foundational to any exercise in analytic foresight.
As with the Key Assumptions Check, we do so by first gathering a group familiar with the issues being discussed, along with some select outsiders who can bring invaluable fresh perspectives.
What are the factors that we think are driving change? What about those driving continuities? Each participant gives an answer or writes it on a sticky note or on the whiteboard. It doesn’t matter exactly how you do it, as long as everyone’s answers are heard on an equal footing. It’s often helpful to use a facilitator who will read each answer aloud, prompting questions and sparking conversation within the group. Participants are encouraged to critique and build upon one another’s ideas.
Next, group the individual drivers that have been identified into affinity groups. Pick a word that describes each grouping. Discuss which groups are the best candidates for Key Drivers — those that represent or suggest a critical variable that’s certain to influence how the situation under consideration will evolve.
You don’t need an exhaustive list of drivers; a handful is more useful and much easier to work with. Once you’ve identified a good number of them, you can monitor them over time as they interact to create the future. You can also ask the question, how might we disrupt negative drivers or encourage positive ones?
Divergent Options
“The future is plural.” — Peter Schwartz
Photo by Adi Goldstein on Unsplash
Perhaps the most helpful thing we can use drivers for is generating scenarios. Scenarios are one of the most effective means we have of thinking about plausible futures because they simultaneously expand our thinking and sensitize us to the importance of uncertainty. Many participants in scenario-generation exercises find a good scenario exercise to be far more helpful than being presented with a slide deck or a lengthy white paper that they don’t have time to read.
Scenario-building will serve to challenge inherited assumptions and break the worn conceptual pathways we’re used to, allowing us to consider scenarios that may otherwise be thought unlikely as plausible under certain driver-influenced conditions. When building scenarios, you may identify discover that your drivers aren’t drivers at all, or are themselves being driven by other, even more foundational drivers.
Scenarios aren’t predictions, they’re merely potentials. Instead of trying to estimate the most likely future — and always getting it wrong — scenario development allows us to construct a framework of various plausible futures, within which the most likely one can be found. The more plausible scenarios that you develop, the better your sense for outlier scenarios that involve both high risk and great opportunities will become.
Ok, that’s about it for drivers. Next time, I’ll talk more about how we use drivers to generate scenarios through which to analyze alternative futures throughs simple 2x2 matrices. Don’t forget to like, clap, share, and subscribe if you’re enjoying this series and want to see more. | https://medium.com/predict/whats-driving-the-future-a1d21581d704 | ['Zachery Tyson Brown'] | 2021-02-26 03:26:41.398000+00:00 | ['Thinking', 'Future', 'Strategy', 'Analysis', 'Futurism'] |
Active Learning: Why Some Data Are More Equal Than Others and How You Can Use it to Your Advantage | Artificial Intelligence is a technology that thrives on two kinds of fuel — computing power and data. Their increasing affordability is the driving force behind the recent AI boom. In fact, many of the key ideas behind artificial neural networks have been around for decades. However, it took democratization of compute resources and the availability of large training sets to enable the kind of rapid progress that we have been witnessing in deep learning. It is true that data has never been so cheap to produce and store — but, one thing remains costly: the data annotation.
Data annotation can take many different forms: sorting photos into piles of dogs vs. cats, selecting which passage in a text contains the response to a given question, or identifying every pixel of an ultrasound image that corresponds to a malignant tumor. One attribute that all of these have in common is that they all require an actual human being to carry out the annotation task. The costs of human labor only go up with time (fortunately for the world we live in!), and to complicate matters further, unlike computing infrastructure, humans do not scale particularly well. On the other hand, the general trend in state-of-the-art deep learning is building deeper and larger networks — which require more data than ever to be trained!
If you cannot label all the data that you have at your disposal, the choice of which subset of training instances to annotate may well be of paramount importance (the fewer labeled instances, the more so). Active Learning is an approach where you enlist the help of the model itself to figure out which instances would be most beneficial to have labelled. It relies on the fact that not all data will be equally useful for your training, and that notion is what we are going to explore in today’s post.
Let’s say you’ve got a cat vs. dog classifier to train. Imagine you are in no shortage of photos, but you are operating on an extremely tight labelling budget. Your goal is to reach a certain level of performance for your model (say, 90% accuracy on a balanced test set), while labelling as few images as possible. How would you go about it?
Well, you might want to start building your model iteratively: first you label some batch of photos (chosen at random from your unlabeled dataset U). Add these to your labeled training set L. Now train the classifier on L and measure its performance on your validation set V. Not good enough? Repeat the steps: move another batch of images from U to L by labelling them, and see how far your model can get to now. Stop once you reach 90% on your validation set: hopefully, before you run out of your labelling budget! Speaking of which, here are a few traps to watch out for to make the most out of your hard-earned annotation money:
Alert # 1: the duplicates
Say, among the photos that you labeled in your first batch, you have this little fellow:
cute_kittie.jpg
You train the classifier on this batch, and proceed to label the next batch of images for the second iteration. Here is a twist: in real life, you can often find duplicate instances (photos, in this example) inside your dataset. And you might just happen to find two files with the same photo of the orange tabby kitten in your second batch of images to be annotated:
kitten03.png
101547.jpg
It would do your model absolutely no good to have the duplicate images labeled again (if anything, it would be giving extra weight to certain training instances, which may not necessarily align with your end goal). So at best, you are throwing money away, and at worst, you are hurting your model’s performance while you are at it. How can this be avoided?
Quite simply, actually! Once you have trained your model on the first batch of images, cute_kittie.jpg included, the model would be well-fitted to that batch, outputting a strong cat prediction for our little orange guy. Since kitten03.png and 101547.jpg correspond to the same input tensor, they too will be classified as cat with the same high degree of confidence. All you have to do to avoid re-labelling duplicates in your dataset is take the trained classifier, use it to get predictions on your unlabeled dataset U and exclude all inputs whose confidence scores are close to 1 from the pool of images to be labelled.
Alert # 2: data augmentation got you covered
Consider a similar scenario, that you also often encounter in real-life problems. The cute_kittie.jpg has been labelled, and its duplicates have been removed from the dataset, but now we start getting images like these:
Look vaguely familiar, don’t they? Sure, they are technically different images, but they are all related by image transforms of some sort (e.g. rotation, translation, and/or zoom). These types of variations we can get for free by making use of data augmentation techniques to artificially increase the size of our training set. Thus, there is no value to be gained by annotating each of the bunch of photos of the orange tabby kitten that are related to each other by a geometric transform. Can we avoid it? Yes, in the exact same way that we got rid of the duplicates! All you have to do is add data augmentation into your data loading pipeline, train the model, and exclude whatever inputs you get a confidence score of close to 1.
Alert # 3: but we already learned this!
You carry on your training and annotating, happy that you only end up labelling images that are unique in the set. Let us say that you have already labeled hundreds of various orange tabby cats and kittens of all shapes and sizes, and still have more to go:
etc…
Should you label these? Sure, you could: it would not hurt, in fact it can only help — but, are there better ways to spend what is left of your labelling budget? If by now your model got a pretty good idea of what constitutes an orange tabby feline, it may be more helpful to provide it with labeled photos of black and white persians and german shepherd puppies — or whichever category of cats or dogs your model has not seen enough of during training. How do we avoid labelling images that the model feels confident about? That’s right, by excluding those that get high confidence scores yet again.
So what should we label first?
So far we saw that there are certain instances, labeling which is not of much use to us. We can exclude them and choose others out of what remains at random, but we can also do better than that. For instance, instead of excluding instances with high confidence scores, we can prioritize those with low scores. Since the model learns from new data at every iteration, the scores will be updated to reflect what the model has learned up to date. You can look at this as the model actively querying you for certain labels, which is where the method’s name comes from 😉
In our case of binary cat vs. dog classification a low (top) confidence score basically means that the model cannot tell whether it has been presented with a picture of a cat or that of a dog.
Can you blame it?
Querying the annotator to label photos like this focuses on the decision boundary between the two classes. In turn, this leads to better performance of the model over the next iterations.
This sounds like a great way to both save on the data annotation costs and get better final accuracy for the classifier. However, as is often the case in the world of machine learning, the reality turns out a little more complicated than that. In addition to duplicates and multiple versions of the same instances, most real-world datasets also contain plenty of noise. For the cat vs. dog classification example, noise may mean photos that contain neither of the two, blurry photos, or just plain noisy images where we cannot make out the contents.
Both of these would likely get assigned low confidence scores by our classifier-in-training, but are not the best options to have labeled
Thus, in reality, Active Learning is a little more complicated than simply picking out the instances that the model is the least sure about. | https://medium.com/@ODSC/active-learning-why-some-data-are-more-equal-than-others-and-how-you-can-use-it-to-your-advantage-14d9b9945035 | ['Odsc - Open Data Science'] | 2020-10-06 13:02:08.381000+00:00 | ['Open Data', 'Active Learning', 'Data Science', 'Machine Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence'] |
The Truth On Trump’s Recent Firing Of My Wife | Source: pic via
I was working out on Tuesday morning when I got the call from my mom. She doesn’t usually call in the morning unless something is happening.
She said, “Hey. So just a heads up. Your dad is leaving a bit early. There’s something breaking on Twitter right now.”
I got off the phone and thought, “Here we go.”
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Three years ago, my dad took the job as the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence. He oversaw a number of big agencies. The heads of the National Security Agency (NSA), The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and others, reported directly to him. That all ended on Tuesday night at midnight.
I wanted to clear up a few things because my world has been blowing up over the past few days. | https://medium.com/@jabajcme77247/the-truth-on-trumps-recent-firing-of-my-wife-1ab3efeae641 | ['Jabajc Me'] | 2020-12-17 19:31:12.205000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Covid 19', 'Health', 'Python Programming', 'Life'] |
Man’s search for meaning | 2020: The true page-turner
If I were to use the title of book — ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ — that’s exactly what we seemed to be doing in 2020 — searching for meaning.
I infer this from Amazon India’s declaration of the number one bestseller in the country this year. It is ‘Ikigai’. Ikigai, as you may be familiar with, is a Japanese concept as ‘reason of living or waking up every morning’. It is also number one bestseller in the non-fiction category. The number two bestseller in the same category is ‘The Power of your Subconscious Mind’.
If I look at the fiction category, the top seller is our Chetan Bhagat’s ‘One Arranged Muder’. But the books that follow have story plots with a familiar tilt to those in the non-fiction category. They’re about man’s quest and discovery of the inner self. ‘The Alchemist’ and ‘The Monk who sold his Ferrari’ are at number two and three. At number five, there is ‘Life is What You Make It’ by Preeti Shenoy.
Also, since I mention about ‘The Monk who sold his Ferrari’, I’ll add a nuget about another book with ‘monk’ in its title. Ellen DeGenres says, ‘Who better to help you find meaning in your life than a monk?’ in it’s review. The book is ‘Think Like a Monk’ by Jay Shetty. Both DeGenres and Shetty were in controversy of sorts some while ago yet the book is Top New Release of the Year.
It’s evident that the readers don’t seem to mind that. All that mattered is some serious soul-searching of sorts this year. The reading choices say so.
And why not? 2020 has been a ‘page-turner’ so to say.
If I were to rely on the same list, I would say that people seemed to be more empathetic and concerned. They seemed to reach out more for each other’s well-being. How? ‘Ikigai’ and ‘The Alchemist’ were the most gifted books in the country.
One may ditch the above round-ups as frivolous or shallow. But it’s interesting to see these kinds of end-of-year statistics. If nothing else, at least they expose us to some good reads. This year’s titles can lead us to some healthy introspection. We can assess how we’ve been living thus so far and, if we’d like some change for the better.
In fact, if I were to use the title of a popular series, I’d say the books — good books — can serve as ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’. | https://medium.com/@imaulik/mans-search-for-meaning-df1da6d1f395 | [] | 2020-12-26 09:35:36.392000+00:00 | ['Books', 'Book Review', 'Pandemic', 'Amazon', 'Reading'] |
Military Encounter with a UFO | I was surprised when he said two aircraft, and I asked, “Are you serious?” And he replied, “Yeah”.
I thought a moment then said, “Midair collision?” But, much to my astonishment, he said, “No” .
I then asked, “What do you mean, no midair collision? How, then, could they lose two airplanes the same day?”
I noticed that he didn’t seem to want to go into detail for some strange reason. This was not normal for him. Normally, this man, a dedicated sailor and skilled technician, would have been eager to tell me anything he could about an aircraft mishap including his own speculations. But, not this time.
The navy would lose a plane somewhere ever so often and we would usually get word of it very quickly through unofficial channels in the naval aviation community-and personnel were usually eager to pass on what news they could. I knew my shipmate had friends in that squadron from previous visits he had made to Roosevelt Roads Naval Air Station or, “N.A.S. Rosy Roads”, as we always called it. But, it was unusual to hear of two planes being lost in one day and even more unusual for it not to be due to a midair collision. And, as if that wasn’t enough, it was becoming even more unusual because he was being reluctant to talk about it. I pressed him.
“Well, what happened?” “Oh, I can’t really talk about it” , he said. “There’s an investigation still ongoing…”
That had never stopped any of us before from spreading news of an aircraft mishap. Suddenly, I got the impression that he had been told not to talk.
But, I asked, “Well, can you tell me anything else”?
He basically added only that the two planes were lost at apparently the same time-definitely on the same day, for sure. And that it was-for some strange reason-very “hush-hush”. This didn’t make sense to me. We aviation maintenance guys had a “grapevine” that was fleet-wide. Anything significant to know about would be spread pretty quickly. Usually, whenever one of our navy aircraft squadrons would lose a plane, we would find out about it quickly then wait for details to come in later. And, usually, the information was pretty reliable. But, apparently nothing was coming out regarding this incident. I had hoped that maybe I would hear something, later. But, after considerable effort to find follow-up information over the next few weeks, I realized that the investigation had indeed been handled as top secret.
This was unusual. I often wondered what must have happened. And, although, in the next few years, I found myself visiting the base at Puerto Rico for a few weeks at a time on a number of occasions, I never thought to ask anyone on the base or in that particular squadron what had happened to those two aircraft on that fateful day. With all the distractions of navy life, I simply did not think about it very much over the following years.
Alan at Roosevelt Roads Naval Air Station Puerto Rico
In 1992, I was discharged from the US Navy and went back into civilian life after 10 years of service total. In the following years, I had my first recognizable UFO sighting and by 1999 had decided to become a UFO investigator. Around 2007, I was skimming through a UFO book and happened to notice a UFO case involving two US Navy F14 fighter planes. I didn’t even make a connection at first, but then, I suddenly remembered the incident back at Cecil Field where my shipmate had told me of a squadron losing two F-14s at the same time but not due to a midair collision. Was the incident in 1988 really a UFO incident? I read on. I saw in the book the exact date and location of the incident and realized that this had to be one and the same.
The author stated in his book that on December 28, 1988, at approximately 7:45 pm, a large triangle craft roughly the size of a baseball field was seen moving steadily along in the region near the naval air station in Puerto Rico, according to many witnesses (over a hundred). Three F-14s intercepted the moving UFO and apparently tried to force it to change its course. As the navy fighter planes engaged the large craft, it slowed down its forward speed almost to a standstill. One plane, in particular, stayed mostly to the right of the UFO and another stayed behind the UFO making close approaches at times. The third plane apparently stayed a bit farther out. The F-14 in the rear came close to the object, but as it flew either over or under the object, it was not seen again. Small red lights were also seen at times flying outside the large craft and may have served to protect the craft. It was as if the fighter plane had somehow been drawn into the large craft. The second aircraft made a sweep closer to the large object and was seen by one ground witness-using binoculars-to suddenly disappear-possibly being taken in by the UFO. The third F-14 reportedly high-tailed it out of the area on afterburner with glowing red lights chasing after it apparently in pursuit, according to ground witnesses. | https://medium.com/@caballodetroy/military-encounter-with-a-ufo-c27d389c7527 | ['Galán Vázquez'] | 2021-09-04 22:18:07.454000+00:00 | ['Extraterrestrial Life', 'Aliens', 'UFO', 'Ufology', 'Alien Life'] |
Why the products will never be eternal | All structures are based on available materials, processing technologies, as well as methods of synthesizing the function of the product. It all influences the shape and appearance. Processing technologies and achievements of the main function are changing, while materials, in many ways, remain static.
Recreation of the products in old forms using modern ways it’s pointless because this solution leads the products to a dummy replica.
Those products that were created decades and centuries ago were created in these ways due to the technological capabilities of that time. Modern product design should be based on the most promising technologies that should move into shaping. Reproduction of original products of the past in modern technologies turns them into a remake, losing their functional and historical meaning.
One of the problems of modern design is defining the most promising materials and technologies which is a push for experiments and the search for new forms.
In carrying out conceptual design projects, we are always set up for experiments. Our team is constantly studying and applying new approaches to material processing. | https://medium.com/@verdestadesign/why-the-products-will-never-be-eternal-60f6a14a4bc4 | [] | 2020-12-14 11:19:35.154000+00:00 | ['Product Management', 'Engineering', 'Design', 'Product Development'] |
Develop JavaScript to use decision making and looping statements | LABORATORY OBJECTIVE:
1. To be able to develop JavaScript programs using decision making statements.
2. To be able to develop JavaScript programs using looping statements.
3. To be able to understand the structure of an HTML document, HTML elements and attributes.
Decision Making Statements
Decision Making in programming is similar to decision making in real life.
in programming is similar to decision making in real life. A programming language uses control statements to control the flow of execution of the program based on certain conditions.
JavaScript’s conditional statements are:
1) if
2) if-else
3) if…else…if
4) switch
1) if statement
if statement is the most simple decision making statement.
is the most simple decision making statement. It is used to decide whether a certain statement or block of statements will be executed or not.
If a certain condition is true then a block of statement is executed otherwise not.
Syntax
if ( condition )
{
// block of code to be executed
}
You can omit the braces if there is only single statement in block.
2) if…else statement
The if-else statement has two parts if block and else block.
has two parts if block and else block. If the condition is true then if block (true block) will get executed and if the condition is false then else block (false block) will get executed.
Syntax
if ( condition )
{
// block of code to be executed when condition is true
}
else
{
// block of code to be executed when condition is false
}
3) if…else...if statement
The if…else…if statement statement is an advanced form of if…else that allows JavaScript to make a correct decision out of several conditions.
statement is an advanced form of if…else that allows JavaScript to make a correct decision out of several conditions. All the if conditions will be checked one by one. If any condition is true out of given then that block will get executed and other blocks are skipped.
Syntax
if ( condition 1 )
{
// block of code to be executed when condition 1 is true
}
else if ( condition 2 )
{
// block of code to be executed when condition 2 is true
}
else if ( condition 3 )
{
// block of code to be executed when condition 2 is true
}
else
{
// block of code to be executed if no condition matches
}
4) switch statement
The objective of a switch statement is to give an expression to evaluate and several different statements to execute based on the value of the expression.
is to give an expression to evaluate and several different statements to execute based on the value of the expression. The interpreter checks each case against the value of the expression until a match is found. If nothing matches, a default condition will be used.
Syntax
switch (expression)
{
case c1: statement(s)
break;
case c2: statement(s)
break;
...
case cn: statement(s)
break;
default: statement(s)
}
Looping Statements
Looping in programming languages facilitates the execution of a set of instructions/functions repeatedly while some condition evaluates to true.
in programming languages facilitates the execution of a set of instructions/functions repeatedly while some condition evaluates to true. For example, suppose we want to print “Hello World” 10 times this is possible with the help of loops.
There are mainly two types of loops:
1) Entry Controlled loops: In this type of loops the test condition is tested before entering the loop body. For Loop and While Loop are entry controlled loops.
2) Exit Controlled Loops: In this type of loops the test condition is tested or evaluated at the end of loop body. Therefore, the loop body will execute atleast once, irrespective of whether the test condition is true or false. do-while loop is exit controlled loop.
In this type of loops the test condition is tested before entering the loop body. For Loop and While Loop are entry controlled loops. In this type of loops the test condition is tested or evaluated at the end of loop body. Therefore, the loop body will execute atleast once, irrespective of whether the test condition is true or false. do-while loop is exit controlled loop. Following are the types of loops in JavaScript:
1) while loop
2) do-while loop
3) for loop
4) for…in loop
1) while loop
A while loop is a entry-controlled loop that allows code to be executed repeatedly if the condition is true.
is a entry-controlled loop that allows code to be executed repeatedly if the condition is true. When the condition becomes false, the loop terminates which marks the end of its life cycle.
The while loop executes ZERO or MORE times.
Syntax
while (condition)
{
// Statements to be executed
}
2) do-while loop
A do-while loop is a exit-controlled loop that allows code to be executed first and after that checks for condition and depending on that it executed repeatedly.
is a exit-controlled loop that allows code to be executed first and after that checks for condition and depending on that it executed repeatedly. When the condition becomes false, the loop terminates which marks the end of its life cycle.
The do-while loop executes ONE or MORE times.
Syntax
do
{
// Statements to be executed
} while (condition);
3) for loop
A for loop is a entry-controlled loop that allows code to be executed repeatedly.
is a entry-controlled loop that allows code to be executed repeatedly. It provides a concise way of writing the loop structure.
Unlike a while loop, a for statement consumes the initialization, condition and increment/decrement in one line thereby providing a shorter, easy to debug structure of looping.
The for loop executes ZERO or MORE times
Syntax
for (initialization; condition; increment/decrement)
{
// Statements to be executed
}
4) for…in loop
JavaScript also includes another version of for loop also known as the for..in loops.
The for..in loop provides a simpler way to iterate through the properties of an object.
loop provides a simpler way to iterate through the properties of an object. This loop is seen to be very useful while working with objects.
In each iteration, one of the properties of Object is assigned to the variable named variableName and this loop continues until all of the properties of the Object are processed.
Syntax
for (variableName in Object)
{
// Statements to be executed
}
SAMPLE PROGRAMS
Develop a JS program to display numbers from 1 to 10.
<html>
<head>
<title>Display Numbers from 1 to 10</title>
</head>
<body>
<h3>Numbers from 1 to 10 are</h3>
<script type="text/javascript">
var a = 1;
while (a <= 10)
{
document.write(a + "<br />");
a++;
}
</script>
</body>
</html>
Output: Display numbers from 1 to 10
2. Develop a program to demonstrate working of for…in loop.
<html>
<head>
<title>Demonstrate use of for...in loop</title>
</head>
<body>
<h3>Demonstrate use of for...in loop</h3>
<script type="text/javascript">
// creating an Object
var languages = { first : "C", second : "Java",
third : "Python", fourth : "PHP",
fifth : "JavaScript" };
// iterate through every property of the
// object languages and print all of them
// using for..in loops
for (itr in languages)
{
document.write(languages[itr] + "<br >");
}
</script>
</body>
</html> | https://medium.com/@rahultamkhane/develop-javascript-to-use-decision-making-and-looping-statements-9d6875e2a0a3 | ['Rahul Tamkhane'] | 2020-12-26 10:00:23.661000+00:00 | ['Looping Statements', 'For In Loop', 'Decision Making', 'While Loop', 'Do While'] |
Seize The Scheduled Drugs And Live Incoherently Ever After | Seize The Scheduled Drugs And Live Incoherently Ever After
I can’t remember if this is fiction. Which one is which again?
Image courtesy Brittishstar at devientart.com
The first lurch woke them both up. Then some swaying. They were lying there not sure if they were high or a big truck was driving by.
BOOOOM!
Their bodies hurled from lying prone on their mattress into the air. The building and the earth beneath it shook straight up and down landing hard. It was the worst earthquake either had ever been in. The few possessions they owned and themselves caromed around the tiny gaff.
After what seemed like forever but in reality took less than a minute, the shaking subsided enough for them to attempt to stand up.
The emergency lights flipped on. Their wide eyes focused then locked on each other’s.
This is it.
Ltowns pulled up his shoes as Phil got the backpack that had been strategically packed left by the door every night for over 7 years. The door was stuck but a hard front kick by Phil opened it enough for the pair to slide out.
The water from the solar panels on the roof turned stairs into a waterfall but they needed to get to street level as quick as possible.
Other residents of the building cried out from behind their doors. They waded through the water trying to keep their footing. They flew down the 5 flights of stairs before anyone else had could crowd the stairwell.
They jammed out the entrance of their apartment building. It was just before dawn and residents of the surrounding buildings were piling out of them. There were hundreds of people in a daze or worse trying to get away from the buildings in case they toppled.
Except for two. Phil pressed play on the speaker as the boys broke into a wide gate jog up the sidewalk.
After Froggering past dazed evacuees, the boys hooked a right at the end of the street. They made a right into the alleyway after the 7–11. Their eyes locked onto the black steel door 100 feet ahead. The light in the window was off meaning the alarm should be too. Phil took a strap off and unzipped the bag. He handed a pry bar and a fabric grocery bag to Ltowns. Go time.
“You go high!” Phil said as he muscled his pry bar into the bottom of the steel door.
“Pull!” As they both pushed the pry bars towards the building. It moved!
Ltowns called out as he yanked, “Heave! Heave! Come on! Fuck this door! Come on bitch!’ Yeah! Little more! Hee-” With a satisfying crunch the door popped open.
“Fuck!” Said Phil as he flailed his hand around the empty backpack. “Toss me a light!”
Ltowns reached in and pulled out a flashlight he lobbed at Phil. He then grabbed the wire cutters and snipped the alarm incase the power to the building came back.
They had made it past the potential hazards and now came the fun part.
“I’ll take the drawer you get the shelves!” Ltowns screamed through a huge grin as the satisfaction of a plan decades in the making came to fruition.
Ltowns went to the locked drawer to the left of the counter. With his heart racing he somehow put his pry bar in between the drawer and the counter on the first try. He jammed it and with a hard yank with all his weight behind it he popped the front of the drawer off. He scooped every bottle from the C2 drawer into his bag.
Phil had a mini oogie orgasm shake. Then he cleared the shelves of all diazepines, muscle relaxers and stimulants.
Ltowns was working from the other side. And chose a reverse alphabet strategy as planned. Zopiclone, Zolpidem, Viagra, Triazolam, Temazepam! Hundreds of each! All theirs!
“Bruh! I’m the pharmacy now!” Ltowns hollered.
“I’m full after the Lorazepam!” Yelled Phil.
“Stop fucking with worthless drugs! Grab a jug of lean and let’s bounce! We’re out!”
The boys left the pharmacy using the same door they came in with their arms full of bags full of bottles full of narcotics. That was it. 7 years in making and less than 5 minutes after the earthquake started it was done.
No one’s sure what happened to them after the heist. Not even them. That was their last memory.
They could be dead.
It’s possible they’re still blacked out on their feet walking around mumbling to no one particular still to this very day.
They lived incoherently ever after. | https://medium.com/the-junction/seize-the-scheduled-drugs-and-live-incoherently-ever-after-29b01863a322 | ['Hogan Torah'] | 2020-12-23 12:00:50.093000+00:00 | ['Action', 'Drugs', 'Earthquake', 'Crime', 'Fiction'] |
7 Skills of Highly “Effective” Programmers | 1. Learn How to Read Other People’s Code
Everyone but you writes terrible code.
That is why a great skill that has multiple benefits is being able to follow other people’s code.
No matter how messy or poorly thought out a previous engineer’s code is, you still need to be able to wade through it. After all, it’s your job. Even when that engineer was you one year prior.
This skill benefits you in two ways. One, being able to read other people’s code is a great chance to learn what bad design is. While you are looking through other people’s code you learn what works and what doesn’t. More importantly, you learn what type of code is easy for another engineer to follow and what code is hard to follow.
You need to make sure you gripe as much as possible as you are reading over other people’s code. That way, other engineers understand how much of a superior engineer you are.
Make sure you bring up points about the importance of maintainable code and good commenting. This further shows your dominance in the area of programming.
Your code should be so well-designed that it requires no documentation. In fact, you shouldn’t document any of your code if you are a good programmer. This is just a waste of time and you need to spend your time coding and in meetings.
Being able to read other people’s messy code also makes it easy to make updates when needed. This occasionally means updating code you lack experience in. For instance, we once followed a script from Powershell to Python to Perl. We had limited experience in Perl, but we still had enough context to figure out what was going on and make the changes needed.
This comes from having a decent understanding of all the code as well as being able to read the Perl scripts.
Reading other people’s code makes you valuable because you can follow even over-engineered systems that might stump others. | https://medium.com/better-programming/7-habits-of-highly-effective-programmers-563ee3b63f33 | [] | 2020-02-09 07:03:26.944000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Humor', 'Software Development', 'Personal Development', 'Work'] |
Cryptocurrency Investments Are More Profitable Than It Seems To Be | There is a common opinion that cryptocurrency is not a safe kind of investment and can be even a speculative instrument. The fact that authoritative regulators are talking about the serious impact of cryptocurrencies on the modern financial market, and the launch of the national digital currencies definitely confirm that fact. Financial market is now at a stage of development when it is difficult to imagine a serious investment portfolio without cryptocurrencies.
Below we will explain why.
Cryptocurrencies are more stable than stocks
Investing in Bitcoin is more profitable than investing in shares of the world’s largest banks. This paradoxical conclusion was reached by Messari — the company specializing in cryptocurrency market research. “They say a picture is worth a thousand words. But this is worth five: Long bitcoin, short the bankers ” — commented Jack Purdy.
What does this graph say?
If you’d invested 1 BTC in the shares of any of these banks 5 years ago, and you sold your shares in order to buy BTC again today — you would get about minus 89.5% profit (i.e., money from the sale of shares JP Morgan today cost now equivalent to buying 0.1 BTC). It turns out that in the long run it is more profitable to invest in BTC than in shares of traditional banks.
Bitcoin is so-called “digital gold”, implying its attractiveness as a protective financial asset. “The key characteristics of bitcoin (censorship resistance, verifiable ownership, immutability make it an attractive alternative to today’s instruments for hedging against inflation or storing one’s wealth without risk of seizure,” says Bitcoin’s Delphi Digital study scarce, disinflationary characteristics make it an attractive alternative to gold.”
Bitcoin stands ahead of gold by many characteristics, such as censorship resistance, divisibility, portability, verifiability, and fiat currencies are far behind — which confirms its attractiveness as a financial instrument.
The graph below indicates that a steady correlation has been observed between the exchange rate of BTC and gold since the beginning of the summer. It suggests that investors Buy and Sell BTC in the same period as gold, thereby recognizing its investment attractiveness.
Let’s summarize: Bitcoin is a more stable investment for the long run than investments in gold. Chasing the course and winning on volatility no longer seems such a profitable strategy. Add bitcoin to your portfolio, have patience and wait.
While traditional markets are falling, Bitcoin (BTC) is growing
World markets reacted sharply to the news that the US Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 25 basis points: for example, oil broke a nine-year negative record in one hour, and the second national bank went bankrupt in China early in August. Against this background, the Bitcoin exchange rate has grown — and this story is not repeated for the first time (for example, the news of the harsh US sanctions against China coincided with record drops in stock indices and an increase in the rate of Bitcoin early in May).
Can cryptocurrencies be used for money laundering? You’ll be surprised!
Traditional fiat currencies are used for money laundering much more often than digital currencies — this conclusion was made by experts of the same research company Messari, based on the data from Chainanalysis and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. For every dollar spent in the darknet on money laundering using bitcoin, there is $ 800 “laundered” using fiat currencies.
So, the reputation of Bitcoin, as the main means of payment in the criminal world, is greatly exaggerated.
Crypto as a national currency is possible in the near future
National governments and world leaders are talking about the possibility of creating national cryptocurrencies. The European Parliament Committee on Economics and Currencies has taken up the issue of introducing national currencies of the central banks of the EU countries. “Each new maximum of leading cryptocurrencies leads to their even greater distribution, which will ultimately make BTC and ETH ideal defense mechanisms,” MPs rightly believe.
Cryptocurrencies are rapidly moving towards becoming a generally accepted financial instrument. Until this happens, it’s time to add them to your portfolio to be at the peak of the trend.
Is it true that cryptocurrencies are not applicable in the real world?
Meanwhile, cryptocurrencies are gradually strengthening their position as a means of payment in everyday life. It’s not only about countries with limited access to traditional financial instruments or if the population invests in crypto due to the catastrophic devaluation of national currencies.
For example, people from Zadar (Croatia) can exchange BTC, ETH, Stellar, Ripple, XRP or EOS for fiat as simple as buying a postage stamp — you just need to fill out a form and scan the QR code in one of the city’s post offices.
Citizens of Fortaleza (Brazil) can pay for public transport via Bitcoins. However, there are many such examples in Brazil: crypto became popular due to the weakness of the national currency.
It is expected that despite the high volatility of the courses, digital money would be widely used in the near future as a convenient and attractive means of payment.
Whether we like it or not, cryptocurrencies are already becoming a part of everyday life. And this is only the beginning. Do not hesitate: further situation will change it even more!
Where to Buy crypto: TOP-platforms review
Experienced investors no longer doubt that cryptocurrencies should be present in a modern investment portfolio. You can consider them as a long-term investment or Buy/Sell making money on the volatility of courses. Whatever strategy you choose, first you need to decide which platform will you trade on.
When reviewing and evaluating cryptocurrency exchanges, the emphasis should be on reliability and security, note that trading volume and number of active traders are also important. We have compiled a small rating of exchanges, which is worth paying attention to a novice crypto-trader. | https://medium.com/exmo-official/cryptocurrency-investments-are-more-profitable-than-it-seems-to-be-f3dd73f9232e | ['Valeriya Kolomiychenko'] | 2019-10-25 13:01:40.253000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency Investment', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Crypto', 'Bitcoin', 'Investing'] |
Top 3 sexist things my mother tells me | Top 3 sexist things my mother tells me
Listen, I’m conscious that some of these phrases will sound outrageously archaic for some of you. Especially for those living in well-developed countries or are simply privileged.
Believe it or not, these are still very much fashionable in many countries from the third-world. (Even the notion of third-world is quite outdated. Honestly, no one has come up with a better one yet).
They are popular at least in my country : Algeria.
Algeria is, for those of you who don’t know, a proud North-African country.
Thus, “my mother” in the title not only represents my own mother but the mothers of a dozen of other women who shared their experiences one-to-one with me.
Let’s state the obvious : We all love our mothers. But, they are human and imperfect. And sometimes, they will say hurtful words that can’t be at all for our own good.
Interestingly enough, those words are only the reflection of a set of beliefs and social stigmas that have come down to them themselves, from their own mothers and their mother’s mothers.
Here, I’ll explore some of these innocently violent phrases that any woman from my society has at least heard once in her life if not everyday.
1) You need a degree to find a husband nowadays
This isn’t pulled straight from a Jane Austen novel, I promise. It-is-a-reality. Mothers here take whole-heartedly upon the mission to find the perfect fit for their daughters. After all, to marry them is to save them ! What a noble quest.
Preferably before their thirties though, or the young women will start to be whispered about. Poor woman is the woman who doesn’t marry at all. Oh she shall suffer. The spinster can only ever collect either pitiful looks or severe looks from, you guessed it, women. There’s no in between.
Now that you have a clearer picture of what is at stakes, you will understand that Marriage is an idealized country with a very difficult visa to get while the visa is the young woman’s degree. The higher the degree, the more opportunities men-wise she can get. How absurd is that? Go ahead and laugh.
Vocational training graduates constitutes 25.7% (354,000)of the working population, while higher education graduates constitute 24.9% (344,000 people) at 11% for men (99,000) and 51, 1% for women (244,000).
These stats show that 1 in 2 women would easily trade her diploma for marriage. I can’t believe those same graduates are unconscious or delusional. That’s just how strong the fear of being labelled a spinster is.
In my country, degrees can’t help with finding jobs, their original main purpose. Let alone find the right partner to share your life with. I don’t know much about marriages. Although, I’m sure, um, love (remember?), trust and loyalty should take centre stage. Alas! how far we are from those Shakespearean days.
2) Take that off! It makes you look like a man
The way you dress is the most controversial subject in Algeria. We’re a conservative and mostly Muslim people. Naturally, we have customs and dress codes that both women and men have to abide by, if they are to live in harmony.
I will not delve into the specifics. It’s beside the point. Though, I can try to sum it up for you : the less skin shown the better; the less tight-fitting the clothes are the better; I believe head-coverage is, at this point in 2020, optional in the biggest cities.
It’s funny. I’m 20 years old and I still have to survive my mother’s scan before I can head out. I have always been quite conservative innately myself. It’s what makes me feel the most comfortable in my skin. Thus, what I’m usually criticized about is not my excessive display of feminine features but my remarkable lack of it.
I’m the last born child and the only girl with three older brothers. Growing up, you could say I was Mowgli raised among a pack of wolves. Though, I’m not sure to which extent I’m a wolf myself. All I know is that my mother absolutely can’t stand the smell of wolves in me and she will let me know!
My mothers’ vision on femininity is quite, um, boring. In a word, she likes dolls. This is not a metaphor, it’s something she says. Her eyes light up when she speaks about a woman she admires. And she always starts in the same way: “Do you know this woman ? A real doll…”
I guess I figured early on that you’re better off as a boy in the world. So I’d drown my frail little girl’s body in my brothers’ large sweaters and hoodies. I did it during adolescence (extreme tomboy season). I still do it to this day when I’m outdoors by myself. Which leads us to…
3) You can’t do any outdoor activity alone (go preferably with a man)
Spend one day in the capital and you’ll observe how women are rarely seen alone in the streets. This may not be an issue in small mountain villages where a sense of appropriation and security is stronger.
They go about their businesses in packs of women or joined by a male. Like lionesses. Although, this policy may vary according to the outdoor activity we’re talking about. For clarity purposes, I’ll give you only one example: working out, and particularly running.
Going for an early morning run or walk is a privilege. I can’t afford to do that, even though it would suit my lifestyle best. It’s possibly a life or death situation. If I don’t end up in some ditch, I’d probably die from heart attack : the heart races as I run and from the anxiety of what might happen during the run. I don’t think I’m fit enough to handle both.
The climate of insecurity is what feeds those parental fears. I understand that. What bothers me is not being able to go for a run when the sun’s well high in the sky. During the week, me going or not going on a run depends 99% on my brother’s whims, my beloved knights! The 1% is generously attributed to the weather.
The solution ? Either I wait around for the weekend to come so I can go along with my father (a more disciplined creature thus a more reliable one).
Or, I can always run in athletics tracks which I dislike for two reasons. First, they ain’t free. Secondly, running is a whole lot more than just running. It’s a full-on visual, auditory and olfactory experience. I won’t dive into it but I’ll say this : I enjoy minimal change in scenery and being strictly a bird not a caged bird. Now is that too much asking ?
Some honorable mentions, include :
“You have to learn X skill (usually revolves around housekeeping) because your future in-laws won’t be merciful.”
My first point in its older form: “ You don’t need a degree, your future husband will provide anyway.”
Or worse, the threat: “If you drop out, I’ll have to marry you, young girl!” Such a classic. | https://medium.com/@bensaada-amina-nardjes/top-3-painful-sexist-things-my-mother-tells-me-almost-everyday-2b3258cbf791 | [] | 2020-11-11 13:19:15.235000+00:00 | ['Feminism', 'Women', 'Sexism', 'Gender Equality', 'Myths'] |
“Enjoy Your Life” — A Guide by Lady Donli | Much like her sound, Zainab Donli is a fusion of many cultures. The influence of her early life in Kaduna and Abuja before transitioning to Lagos and then Canada, is evident in her sound which, while diverse, is true to what one might describe as “Nigerian soul” music. Her road to stardom has been long but ultimately rewarding; from an “alté” artist with two mix-tapes released to being picked as one of the many artists for the Empawa Africa program.
Lady Donli has retained a distinct musical personality that sets her apart from the crowd, while remaining true to her style. After the release of CASH , her first single of the year (2019), she began teasing the release of her debut album , ENJOY YOUR LIFE. Donli fans (now dubbed Ladybugs by the President herself) waited with bated breath for the release date, which came shortly after the release of her second single SUFFER SUFFER. On the 9th of August, Lady Donli birthed her debut album into the world.
ENJOY YOUR LIFE sounds exactly as the name implies. The album embodies what Lady Donli is — fun, feminine , soulful & Nigerian t- and is sprinkled with samples of Nigerian classics.
Donli welcomes us into her world with ZAMAN LAFIYA, which is reminiscent of the distinctive call-and-response singing style of the Zumunta Mata (a collective name for female choirs across apostolic churches in Northern Nigeria). The call “mene ne mu ke so” (what do we want?) is responded by “mu na son zaman lafiya” (which loosely translates to “we want to feel alright) and this sets the tone for the beautiful chop-life-centric body of work. Up next, Donli seemingly juxtaposes the titles CASH & SUFFER SUFFER, but the songs carry a single message - “I’m addicted to cash” because “I didn’t come here to suffer”. Iconic. SUFFER SUFFER is, interestingly, a Fela-inspired ode to Mama G’s hit song “National Moi Moi”. TAKE ME HOME ft. BenjiFlow samples the hit song, “Gbono Feli Feli” by Dbanj. Donli craves a mental connection on this “sapiosexual” anthem, asking who’s going to take her home not sexually, but intellectually. The Cavemen provide a beautiful background melody to Donli’s sweet crooning and BenjiFlow, a hook that fits the song like a glove.
On BOOMERANG, which is faster-paced than previous tracks, but no less elegantly handled, Donli promises an ex-lover who “treated her like a fool” that she won’t be coming back. Tomi Thomas joins Donli on WITH THE KINDNESS is a promise ring to changing the world with sheer goodwill, irrespective of naysayers. Donli crowns herself queen and vows that “sleepless nights shall never be in vain” on AROUND, which is produced by Tay Iwar. Although she shouts out to the capital on this track, the melody sounds more southern, with what could pass for an Igbo ogene as part of the instrumentals.
My favorite element of this entire project is Donli’s commitment to collaborating with female artists. TEMS lends her magical drawl to the chorus of GOOD TIME, even as Donli surprises us with her rap skills, resulting in a musical chemistry that is nothing sort of amazing. The twins, VanJess come in on CORNER, a timeless tune that would have fit as well in the 70's or 90's as it does in 2019. This, combined with the masterful musical ministrations of The Cavemen, results in a catchy tune that is magnetic, even in its simplicity. FLAVA is an empowering song about black women and the flavor in their essence. Donli, SOMADINA & Amaarae are a fusion of sugar, spice and everything nice on this track. Amaarae touches on the last verse with her signature feather-light voice, which sounds like honey and love-making all at once. CONFIDENT/FEELING COOL takes us back to Donli’s Northern roots in style and language, with a surprise beat switch that the breathtaking SOLIS serenade on its tail.
As she rounds off her masterpiece with BITE THE DUST, Donli assures us that this is only the beginning. Her speaking voice is as spellbinding as her singing, as she recounts her childhood dreams of being a star, just as the album comes to an end.
There is something to be said as to how she brilliantly fused several cultural influences into this body of work, while still retaining its “Nigerianness”. Mixed by GMK, ENJOY YOUR LIFE blurs the lines between music and art and will, dare I say, stand the test of our time. All hail Zainab Donli, G.C.F.R Federal Republic Of Enjoyment and Jollification.
Edited By: Gloria Akor | https://medium.com/@emeke/enjoy-your-life-a-guide-by-lady-donli-747460bfa838 | [] | 2019-09-10 10:37:44.508000+00:00 | ['Alte', 'Music', 'Album Review', 'Soul'] |
Top 10 Most Valuable Types of Collectibles in the World | Top 10 Most Valuable Types of Collectibles in the World
Collectibles are a passion for many people. From multi-million dollar collectible cars to Star Wars action figures to rare collectible coins, the genres of collectibles are many. Doculife Dec 2, 2020·8 min read
One thing that is consistent however is the passion collectors have for the act of finding, organizing and displaying their collection of treasures.
Below is a list of popular collectibles and some of the most valuable items within each genre.
1. Comic Book Collecting
A 1938 copy of Action Comics #1 sold in 2014 for $3.21 million on eBay. Action Comics #1 featured the first appearance of Superman and originally cost only 10 cents. It is easily the highest amount paid for a comic book in history.
In 1962 Marvel Comics released Amazing Fantasy, №15, the last issue in the series, featuring the very first appearance of Spiderman. The comic originally cost 12 cents. In 2011 a comic book collector paid a reported $1.1 million for the right to own a copy.
Collecting comics is a fun hobby and passion. Many comic book collectors focus on a character they identify with or a brand like DC or Marvel. Displaying your comic book collection online is a great way to share your collection with other comic book collectors far and wide.
2. Coin Collecting
In 1894 the San Francisco Mint produced only 24 Barber dimes, named after its designer. This is one of the rarest coins to collect and even more rarely come up for sale. For reasons that cannot be verified the mint superintendent chose to only strike 24 and share them with banker friends. The dime was not scheduled to be minted for that year. At a January 7, 2016 auction by Heritage the finest example to date sold for $1,997,500.
Collecting coins is a great hobby shared by many. There is many unique currencies around the world to collect. Putting your coin collection online to share with other coin collecting enthusiasts has never been easier.
3. Stamp Collecting
Stamp collecting has fascinated collectors for decades. The rarest of collectible stamps typically come from mistakes or short run, rare proof sheets. The rarer the stamp — combined with its age — the more valuable it is to collect.
This 24 cent stamp pictured above was produced in 1918. It is appropriately nicknamed the “Inverted Jenny” for its upside-down biplane. Only 100 were made. Most recently one sold in 2016 for $1.35 million.
Organizing your own stamp collection into stamp collecting books is a great way to preserve and showcase the collection. Taking pictures of each stamp combined with a written history in a digital album is a great way to showcase your stamp collection online to other collectors around the world.
4. Trading Card Collecting
Even those who have never collected a baseball card know the Honus Wagner tobacco card. It’s fame exceeds the sport and hobby into the mainstream due to its scarcity and value.
In 2016 a 1909–11 T206 Honus Wagner baseball card fetched $3.12 million making it the most valuable baseball card in history. Reportedly, fewer than 200 copies of the card were ever made.
While this is an extreme example of a valuable baseball card, baseball card collecting is a massively popular hobby with multiple baseball card companies producing cards and limited edition sets. Baseball card collecting shows are still popular from coast to coast. Most display their collection in 9 pocket plastic sleeves in a 3-ring binder, or acrylic baseball card holders.
Sharing your trading card collection online in a digital form has never been easier. Display your most prized and valuable cards for other collectors to see and enjoy, along with certification and back history if desired.
5. Movie Collectibles
Movie collectibles are highly sought after items due to their scarcity and attached story. Typically the collectible is a movie prop, one of only a few made if not the only one, and used or worn by someone famous.
For example in 2014 the original costume worn by the Cowardly Lion in the wildly popular classic “Wizard of Oz” sold at auction for $3.1 million, and is said to be made of real fur.
Harrison Ford’s BlasTech DL-44 blaster prop from “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi” sold for a whopping $550,000 at auction in 2018 to the museum chain Ripley’s Believe it or Not!.
Movie collectibles come in all forms however, from props to costumes to movie posters to autographs. Often times a fan of a movie collects everything they can about that one movie. Other enthusiasts collect items they like according to genre like horror or science fiction movies.
Share your movie collectibles collection online with movie collectible enthusiasts everywhere. Add notes to the history of a piece along with articles of authenticity and even video clips where the movie collectible is featured.
6. Collectible Watches
Collecting watches can be a great investment. They can also make you look stylish and trendy, while being functional. Watches are one of the rare collectibles that you can actually use from time to time, at the right occasion, unlike many of the other items featured on this list. Collecting watches is a fun hobby and passion. Watches are typically valued by the materials used, scarcity of the model, and its maker’s history. Below is an example of the very valuable, rare collectible watches.
The most expensive wristwatch ever sold at auction is the Patek Philippe Ref. 1518 in Stainless Steel for just over $11 million. Cased in high-grade stainless steel, the 1518 is the first in a limited edition four-piece series by Patek Phillipe.
7. Collectible Wine
Thomas Jefferson was said to be America’s first wine connoisseur. Before becoming president he was Minister to France in 1785 until the start of the French Revolution. After his return he would order wine for himself and George Washington from France, asking the bottles be marked with their initials.
This particular bottle was found behind a bricked up cellar wall in an old building in France. Its preservation was near perfect. There are almost no preserved examples of 18th century wines, so the 1787 bottle of LaFite with the initials “Th. J.” was a great find for the world of wine enthusiasts.
The bottle sold at auction to the son of the Forbes magazine empire for $157,000, the highest price ever paid for a bottle of wine.
Wine collecting is a great passion, one in which you can enjoy through drinking when the time is right. Sharing your wine collection online is very satisfying. Wine has such a rich story history with regards to how and where it is grown and the history of the winery itself. Adding all this context to the collected wine can make it even more valuable.
8. Antique Collectibles
This 900 year old bowl fetched $37.68 million at auction in Hong Kong. Its price is due to its age and rarity. The kiln with which it was produced ran for only a couple decades, and produced these striking pottery with a blue green finish and ice-crackle pattern throughout. The bowl measures only 13cm and was used for washing brushes.
You never know what you might find at that next yard sale. During the summer of 2007 in New York State a small white bowl was purchased for a mere $3. Little did the buyer know, and would soon discover, the Chinese porcelain bowl was 1,000 years old and eventually sold at auction for $2.2 million.
9. Collectible Cars
One of the longest cars in the world is also one of the most expensive. The 1931 Bugatti Type 41 Coupe, also known as The Royale, measured 21 feet from bumper to bumper. It featured a massive 12.7 liter V8. It sold at auction in 1987 for $9.7 million, worth more than $20 million in todays dollars. It was sold again in 2001 to an anonymous buyer. Only 6 were ever produced.
Ferraris are one of the most collectible cars for the rich and famous looking to make an investment. For example a 1964 Ferrari 275 GTB/C Speciale sold for $26.4 million at auction in 2015. Ferraris make up 22 of the top 30 most expensive cars ever sold.
Showcasing your car collection online for other car collector enthusiasts around the world to enjoy has never been easier. Display photos, notes on history, sale documents, previous owner profiles and more to make your car collection complete.
10. Collectible Hand Bags
One might not think a purse or handbag to be that valuable, but here are some stunning examples of them worth hundreds of thousands and yes, millions.
Hermés, one of the most famous fashion accessory brands out of Paris, partnered with jeweler Pierce Hardy to create the Kelly Rose Gold bag. Only 12 were made and feature 1160 diamonds and is made of solid rose gold. The bag is valued at $2 million.
Another bag by Hermés worth $1.4 million was designed by Japanese designer Ginza Tanaka. The Hermés Birkin bag is made of platinum and features 1000 diamonds with an 8-karat removable diamond that can also be worn as a broach accessory.
While not all bags are worth millions, many are worth thousands to hundreds of thousands. Showcasing your collection online has never been easier. Share your handbag collection with other collectors around the world. | https://medium.com/@doculife/top-10-most-valuable-types-of-collectibles-in-the-world-a2b39e7fc503 | [] | 2020-12-02 16:28:50.160000+00:00 | ['Productivity', 'Collectibles', 'Productivity Tips', 'Organization', 'Productivity Hacks'] |
How systems thinking saved my life? | Every day we face different kinds of decisions that we have to make and those decisions build our future, as Edwin Markham says “Choices are the hinges of destiny.”, so for a long time I’ve been trying to figure out how to make the right decisions, I encountered myself reading amazing books, such as Principles by Ray Dalio, Thinking fast and slow by Daniel Kahneman and the undoing project, like many others. But after spending time trying to improve my decision-making process I realized that decision-making is highly related to perspective and perception.
Therefore, I wanted to understand how perspective and perception are created, and how can I apply the knowledge that comes from understanding that knowledge.
After talking to some people about it, my teacher recommended me to read The fifth discipline by Peter Senge, honestly after I read the book for the first time I found myself with more questions than answers, but I enjoyed it because it challenged my approach to problems and situations.
The first thing that I realized is that “Doing the obvious thing does not produce an obvious outcome”.
Then, I found some useful principles that helped me (and I hope them to help you) to integrate a small portion of systems thinking into my perception:
-Today’s problems come from yesterday’s solutions, which means that the cause or causes of a problem have a time gap (also known as a delay).
-The harder you push, the harder the system pushes you back.
-The cure can be worse than the disease.
-Faster is slower.
-Cause and effect are not closely related in time and space.
-Small changes can produce big results-,but the areas of high leverage are almost the least obvious.
-Dividing an elephant in two doesn’t produce two small elephants
-There is no blame.
Now, let’s talk about how these concepts saved my life.
I would say that before being introduced to systems thinking and complexity I was blind, what I would call “Living without really living” because I was unaware of the fact that “we’re are controlled by forces that we don’t understand yet” as Peter Senge states, so I discovered the magic of learning and trying to understand our reality, the power of creating knowledge with people working on other disciplines, using dialogue and going to the “frontiers of knowledge”, which helped me to be changed my perception about my career and make more accurate decisions, thereby migrating from thinking in terms of snapshots(cause and effect) to focusing on relations, which also helped me to analyze and reflect (or at least try) in every moment of my life.
Immersing in the discipline of systems thinking presented a lot of challenges for me, I’ll talk about them in another article, but I’m sure that it’s worth a shot because one thing is clear and it’s that I’m just getting started and the journey has been amazing, also I know that the road ahead would never end and probably that’s the most exciting thing.
Finally, I just want to invite you to discover the amazing field of complexity, chaos, and systems thinking, because in my opinion, it could change your life and the life of people around you, the main reason is that probably you could understand your reality more accurately, therefore, adapt in a better way to it, and design a decsion making process that “works” for you. As Hypatia remarks “Life is an unfoldment, and the further we travel the more truth we can comprehend. To understand the things that are at our door is the best preparation for understanding those that lie beyond.”
Thank you santiago rios olaya for your comments :) | https://medium.com/@nicolas-diaz27/how-systems-thinking-saved-my-life-9648aa9f1386 | ['Nicolas Diaz'] | 2021-03-10 19:42:45.764000+00:00 | ['Systems Thinking', 'Personal Growth', 'Decisions', 'Community', 'Life Lessons'] |
Albert Einstein’dan 10 Hayat Dersi | 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/t%C3%BCrkiye/albert-einsteindan-size-yol-g%C3%B6sterecek-10-hayat-dersi-b29d8101ca19 | ['Fatih Saruhan'] | 2020-12-19 19:55:09.865000+00:00 | ['Blog', 'Girişimcilik', 'Hayat', 'Türkçe', 'Türkçe Yayın'] |
New Role, New Challenge. | This week I’ve taken on a new role at the strategic design agency Nacar. From here, I will be embedded within the airline Vueling, part of the IAG group. I will be leading the Service Design initiative within their Innovation Lab working across the airline. In practice, this means I will help combine the business needs and innovations in technology with human-centred design. My main focus will be to assist Vueling in becoming a fully fledged customer-focused and design-led organisation while leading the in-house service design team to ensure best-in-class experiences across Vueling products and services.
Embedded within the Innovation unit I will be applying my skills within a large organisation that has startup tendencies. This is a new chapter in my career that I’m greatly looking forward to. Having been in a consultancy/agency role for the last seven years, I’ve been lucky enough to learn how to work around the constraints of big organisations. But now is the time to put all that experience into practice, by working directly within one.
I will be working across different horizons on products and services that could range from things like the current check-in processes passengers go through at the airport to developing a more environmentally friendly airline of the future. The teams that create these will have design and research capabilities embedded within them. To deliver great service design, we need to be proactive in providing the right conditions for good human-centred design to flourish.
As I’ve written about in the past a strong focus on people is key to the success of Service Design. By that I mean not just considering the customers but also partners, employees, and other relevant stakeholders. Applying this focus from the outset helps uncover unique insights and opportunities that may otherwise be missed. Vueling’s users are people with all levels of needs and capabilities.
The best way to understand this diverse set of people is to actually interact, speak with and immerse yourselves in their lives. That goes for both customers and the staff members involved in the delivery of the services.
To give you an example, front line ground staff within airports often get the brunt of customer/passenger frustration, often unfairly. In many cases, it’s likely the legacy systems and process that are to blame, not the humans trying their best to work with them. If they had better processes and tools in place, they could provide a better service to the passenger. Only by working with people like ground staff, understanding their position from a human perspective, can we in turn design best-in-class services and experiences across the organisation.
We’re designing services, so it’s vital we consider the context in which these services are being used by people. Are they first time flyers, or do they fly regularly for work? Are the fully enabled or do they have some form of impairment? Are they tech savvy or do they still rely on paper tickets? Are they new to the job they are carrying out, or have they been in that role for a number of years? Context is key, and utilising ethnographic research as part of a service design approach is the best way to uncover these details. | https://medium.com/@adamwalker85/new-role-new-challenge-44cdb3a86b0f | ['Adam Walker'] | 2019-06-06 07:50:59.370000+00:00 | ['Design Thinking', 'Mobility', 'Strategic Design', 'Innovation', 'Service Design'] |
Shadows Upon Water | POETRY
Shadows Upon Water
Poetic reflection
Photo by Farsai Chaikulngamdee on Unsplash
We are shadows upon water
moving in unison
an illusion upon an illusion
dancing together | https://medium.com/contemplate/shadows-upon-water-bcfb3303b8ca | ['Tima Loku'] | 2020-11-30 23:53:43.144000+00:00 | ['Micropoetry', 'Spirituality', 'Contemplation', 'Reflections', 'Poetry'] |
Jenkins Tutorial — Part 4 — Post Actions | In this part of the Jenkins tutorial, I will explain Jenkins Post Actions and show you how you can write post actions for your pipelines. If you didn’t read previous articles, read them first. So let’s get this party started.
Jenkins Tutorial — Part 1 — Pipelines
Jenkins Tutorial — Part 2 — Pipeline Variables
Jenkins Tutorial — Part 3 — Parameterized Pipelines
What is Jenkins Pipeline Post Actions?
Post Actions are just like other normal stages but that running in specific conditions. Jenkins supports 10 special action conditions which are running when these conditions meet. They are related to run status and can be defined in the post block both for the whole pipeline and per-stage.
always runs always as its name says. This post action is not bound to any specific build/run statuses. Some actions like sending notifications and saving logs can be done within this block.
changed runs only when the status of the current build is different than the previous one. Some actions like sending notifications and running another pipeline to investigate the pipeline can be done within this block.
fixed runs when the current build status is successful, and the previous build failed or was unstable. Some actions like sending notifications or triggering another pipeline can be done within this block.
regression runs in situations that the current build status is failure, aborted or unstable, and the previous run was successful. Some actions like rollbacking, for example in CD pipelines, can be done in this post block.
unstable runs when the current status is marked unstable. For example, when the tests are failed, or application code coverage is less than the desired percent. Some actions like trying other tests and running lazy canary environment can be done within this block.
aborted runs when the build process is aborted, usually manually. For example, everything that happened before aborting the pipeline should be reverted with this post action.
failure runs when the current status of build is failure. Some actions like sending alerts, rollback CD pipelines, deleting intermediate artifacts, etc, should be done within this block.
success runs when the current status of build is success. Some actions like saving artifacts, uploading them, and triggering the CD pipeline must be done with this post action.
unsuccessful runs when the build status is anything except success. This condition is a mix of failure, aborted and unstable status. You can do related things that are done within those blocks in this block.
cleanup always runs after all other conditions are evaluated. All cleanup processes like deleting intermediate artifacts, logs, temp files and etc should be done with this action.
The complete Jenkins Post Actions example: | https://itnext.io/jenkins-tutorial-part-4-post-actions-e5d0ef1e3c39 | ['Saeid Bostandoust'] | 2021-08-27 12:58:49.681000+00:00 | ['Jenkins Pipeline', 'Ci Cd Pipeline', 'Cicd Pipeline', 'Jenkins', 'Cicd'] |
Creandum Series A Deck Template | This deck was designed as a guide to help you build your Series A deck. Every company is different, so I encourage everyone to deviate from this template and elaborate your own personalised Series A deck that represents your company even better. Feel free to make a copy to use as a template and share.
You can, of course, use this as a rough guide for other stages (e.g. Series B), in particular the core structure of the deck, which should remain similar. In a seed round, you’d have fewer details and metrics to show and in a Series B, you’d typically add extra info and metrics in an appendix.
Link to the deck
Structure of the deck
A Series A deck normally consists of around 20 slides plus sometimes an appendix (~5 slides). The range is typically 15–30 slides in total. I would avoid going beyond 30 pages to prevent it becoming too lengthy. We recommend the following structure to cover the important boxes VCs want to check when reading through the deck:
🌰 Cover + exec sum
Cover + exec sum 🤦🏻♂️ Problem
Problem 💡️ Solution
Solution 📱 Product
Product 🌎 Market
Market 🚀 Company today (metrics & financials)
Company today (metrics & financials) 👨👩👧 Team
🔮 What’s next
What’s next 🧐 Appendix
This is an order I recommend, however the flow can vary depending on your business. If there is one dimension that stands out and is remarkably more exciting, you should consider putting it earlier in your deck. One example of this is the market section: If your market is massive and growing very fast (and there is already VC excitement around your market) it might make sense to put one slide about the market directly after the problem section or to even start with it after the exec sum.
Some components such as user testimonials or deep dives on parts of the business model have no fixed spot but, in general, the earlier the reader understands the core of the business, the more likely it is that your traction and achievements will create excitement.
Building the deck
Put the right effort into building your deck, get multiple rounds of feedback on it from your existing investors and other entrepreneurs.
Make it look nice. Have a designer in your team help with that or consider spending a few $ on a freelancer to polish it. If your deck has very poor design, what will an investor think your product looks like?
If you want to make it really nice, consider Figma for polishing or building your deck. Some of the best decks I see are the result of the power of Figma. Pitch is also a good option that more and more founders are using instead of PowerPoint or Google Slides.
Cover + exec summary 🌰 | https://blog.creandum.com/creandum-series-a-deck-template-21a6df9c1ac4 | [] | 2021-03-23 12:42:03.531000+00:00 | ['Resources', 'VC', 'Template', 'Series A', 'Fundraising'] |
Team Zero Weekly Newsletter | Wallets
Cryptoforge is making some great progress on the new desktop wallet, and there have been a few sneak peeks released already as some may have seen. We’ll keep you updated as we have firm dates on this particular release.
(The UI is also looking super sleek, and thanks to MuphDiV3r @Amazon too for the contribution on this one!)
Our web wallet is also now alive and kicking, and it’s great to have had the assistance from @H_tchet on Telegram to get this one over the line.
The mobile wallet that was submitted this week to the team came admittedly as a surprise, but we are thankful nonetheless. We are reviewing this wallet in the background, and will formally announce further details once this review is completed.
In terms of tutorials for our new suite of wallets, Ingar and Rick will have some handy helping points available shortly for a clear and concise approach to running the wallets. This is great to have as the community organically increases, and we can all no doubt pick up some great information from this initiative. | https://medium.com/zerocurrency/team-zero-weekly-newsletter-2bc4ee5292ce | ['Zero Currency'] | 2018-05-28 11:58:23.740000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Computer Science', 'Blockchain', 'Internet', 'Bitcoin'] |
Amazon Echo, Kindle, and Fire TV: All on Black Friday sale, all Editors’ Choice winners | Action is the foundational key to all success (Pablo Picasso) | https://medium.com/@michell61887794/amazon-echo-kindle-and-fire-tv-all-on-black-friday-sale-all-editors-choice-winners-ad47e478d4f5 | [] | 2020-12-27 08:21:10.051000+00:00 | ['Surveillance', 'Music', 'Tvs', 'Audio'] |
My Four New Year’s Resolutions | Welcome to another another part of my English homework😸 Today I’d like to share with you my New Year’s resolutions — goals, that I want to achieve in 2020. Let’s go!
In the next year (actually now it’s already present year😅) I’d like to…
1) Stop being late anywhere. Actually it was my main “small goal” for the whole life. One of my biggest disadvantages is my tardies. I can late for just a few minutes, but practically anywhere. The thing is that I always spent to much time on checking my house: is the light off everywhere? is the refrigerator door tightly closed? does the tap water flow? is the gas stove definitely off? are all electrical appliances unplugged and the TV and computer turned off? is the apartment door closed? DID I FINALLY TAKE ALL MY THINGS OR DID I FORGET SOMETHING??? — all these questions are always in my poor head every time I leave my flat. Recently, in some article I read that such an obsessive desire to check everything can be one of the signs of schizophrenia… after that, I want to quit this habit, check everything only once, and finally get to university on time. I promise myself that!✋
2) Finish the family tree. As I said once in my presentation, I’ve been creating my family tree on the site MyHeritage.com since the beginning of last summer. That was when I realized two fundamental truths at the exact same time. Firstly, I realized that unfortunately, my grandparents are not eternal. And even if now they all are still alive (thank God), this will not last forever. They’re a living memory of their parents, grandparents and ancestors. I decided to talk a lot with them on this topic and to take up a collection of biographies of my ancestors, while there’s still time. And the second truth that I realized was that I suddenly wanted to leave any spiritual or cultural legacy to my descendants. However, I’m not good at singing, drawing or creating sculptures, but during my preparation for Unified State Exam in history, I loved this subject very much. Studying history, I saw how important it is — to leave something valuable after you (I mean not only material inheritance of course), something good and useful, for which you will be remembered by posterity with a good word. For myself, I decided that this «something» after me will remain a family tree and the memory of my ancestors, since the beginning of the 20th century. Of course, I hope that I will be remembered by my descendants not only for this family tree, but also for many other good deeds, but at the same time I hope that among them there will be someone who will continue my «life’s work».
Well, moving back to our topic…
3) Don’t go to bed so late and go to bed on time. Of course I know that students life includes 3–5 hours of sleep (#stereotypes😒) but when I sometimes have to sleep for 5 hours, I do not recover at all and go all day tired😴 So, my goal is to get all my things done on time, start getting ready for bed at 23:00 and fall asleep at 00:00 to get at least 7 hours of healthy sleep. That would be enough😌
4) Walk more. Just because it’s healthy🤷♂️ I live just a 15-minute walk from the University, but I still get to it every morning by transport, because I’m often in a hurry or I’m just too lazy to go uphill (or it’s too cold outside💁♂️). Now I try to get home after university on foot and I hope that this spring I will walk by foot in many beautiful places in Nizhny Novgorod, for example on the Volga embankment and and the Chkalovsky stairs. It is very beautiful there at any time of the year🙂
So so so that were My Four New Year’s Resolutions, I hope you find them meaningful (at least not stupid, let’s say😅) Thank you for reading this and as always I’m sorry, if I’ve made any mistakes, I’m always tryna do my best😉
See you in my next tomorrow’s blog (oops, #spoilers😹)
Bye-bye! 👋
P.S.
Happy Old New Year to everybody🌲❤️
S.Bar | https://medium.com/@barutkin-stepan/my-four-new-years-resolutions-7cb71b2d013 | ['Stepan Barutkin'] | 2020-01-16 09:53:52.384000+00:00 | ['University', 'Family Tree', 'Lunn', 'New Years Resolutions', 'Productivity'] |
Is Your Company Growing Efficiently? Sales Efficiency Benchmarks for SaaS Startups | Follow me on Twitter for my thoughts on startups and venture capital.
I recently published a post on revenue growth benchmarking for startups. The data is helpful to benchmark whether your company is growing fast enough to be on the path to IPO. The data on its own, however, ignores how much is being spent for that growth. It is easy to grow by spending wildly on sales & marketing (S&M), but growing quickly and efficiently is difficult to accomplish. This follow-up post is focused on helping put into context the revenue growth benchmarking so you can understand how fast your company should be growing… relative to how much you are spending on S&M.
Sales Efficiency Benchmarking for SaaS Companies
This analysis focuses only on SaaS companies as the consumer dataset was fairly noisy. In order to normalize sales efficiency across all companies, I created a ratio that takes both forward revenue growth and sales & marketing spend into account. While some companies may have different target customers (e.g. enterprise vs SMB), sales cycles, and rep ramp times, this formula still provides a good proxy for efficiency across all companies. The metric is a bit of a spin on ‘magic number’ but uses forward revenue growth which ties to my prior post (more on that in a minute).
Let’s put this formula to the test so you understand the methodology:
Company A: Generated $20M of revenue in 2017 and $40M of revenue in 2018 (100% Y/Y growth), spending $10M in S&M in 2017 (50% of revenue on S&M). The resulting sales efficiency ratio would be 2.0x (100% / 50%).
Generated $20M of revenue in 2017 and $40M of revenue in 2018 (100% Y/Y growth), spending $10M in S&M in 2017 (50% of revenue on S&M). The resulting sales efficiency ratio would be 2.0x (100% / 50%). Company B: Generated $100M of revenue in 2017 and $140M of revenue in 2018 (40% Y/Y growth), spending $80M in S&M in 2017 (80% of revenue on S&M). The resulting sales efficiency ratio would be 0.5x (40% / 80%).
Generated $100M of revenue in 2017 and $140M of revenue in 2018 (40% Y/Y growth), spending $80M in S&M in 2017 (80% of revenue on S&M). The resulting sales efficiency ratio would be 0.5x (40% / 80%). Note: S&M excludes stock-based compensation expenses
I applied this formula against all SaaS companies that have gone public over the last decade. This includes sales efficiency ratios from 96 companies, representing over 275 data points. The chart below allows you to benchmark the sales efficiency of your company against all other SaaS companies that have gone public since 2010. Where does your company stack up?
How to interpret the data: if your company generated $50M in revenue in 2018, a ratio of 2.0x is considered the 90th percentile. This means that if you spent $20M in S&M in 2018 (40% of revenue), you would need to grow by at least 80% growth in 2019 to have 90th percentile efficiency. Similarly, if your company generated $50M in revenue but spent $50M in S&M in 2018 (100% of revenue), you would need to grow by at least 200% growth in 2019 to have 90th percentile efficiency. There’s a higher bar for growth when you spend more on sales and marketing.
The special group of SaaS companies that had 90th percentile efficiency during their growth phase includes, but is not limited to:
Combining Revenue Growth and Sales Efficiency
It becomes really interesting when we combine the revenue growth benchmarking from my prior post with the sales efficiency benchmarking from above. Below is a map that looks at every SaaS company that has gone public across both dimensions. Because these metrics may move around annually, this is a snapshot of how each company looked in the year prior to its IPO.
Note: Data for each company based off the year prior to IPO
The Impact of High Growth and Sales Efficiency on Valuation
To more easily visualize the chart, I shaded the 90th (dark green), 75th (light green), and 50th percentiles (yellow) as well as the bottom 40th percentile (red). The best companies sit above the 50th percentile on both dimensions and are rewarded in the public markets, with double-digit NTM revenue multiples. See below for averages of multiples and market cap at IPO and as of May 10, 2019.
Note: Based on averages and current multiples exclude companies that have been acquired
The special group of companies that exhibited both 90th percentile growth and efficiency traded on average at an 8.6x NTM revenue multiple at IPO and currently trade at a whopping ~17x NTM multiple. Each of these companies is worth at least $10B today and combined represent over $250 billion in market value. Conversely, the companies in the bottom 40th percentile on both dimensions traded on average at only 3.4x NTM revenue at IPO. Few of these companies are worth more than $3B today and many have been acquired for modest amounts.
Another way of demonstrating valuation is by plotting each company’s percentile rank before IPO against that company’s NTM revenue multiple at IPO.
For the X-axis, I’m showing the product of both percentiles. For example, a company at the 90th revenue growth percentile and the 80th sales efficiency percentile would be displayed at 72% (.90 * .80). There’s a strong positive correlation. Companies above 75% trade between 6–12x at IPO, companies between 25% and 75% trade at between 2–8x, and those below 25% trade at between 1–6x. There was a stronger correlation between growth and valuation than between sales efficiency and valuation which highlights that public market investors place a stronger emphasis on revenue growth. It’s clear though that success on both dimensions is the holy grail.
How to Achieve 90th Percentile Metrics?
Nakul Mandan of Lightspeed wrote a great post discussing how to scale in hyper-growth. He discusses that B2B companies are often constrained by 1) market awareness, 2) sales capacity, 3) deployment and implementation capacity, and 4) capital. In his view, a company can push through these constraints to achieve non-linear growth by either 1) going self-serve or 2) having a large enterprise motion from day one. These go-to-market models create leverage on sales and marketing resources, which is the key to efficient, non-linearity. It is no surprise that the companies in the ~90th percentile on both growth and efficiency fell into one of these two categories:
Self-Serve / Bottoms-Up / Freemium: Slack, Atlassian, Twilio, Elastic, and Zoom took advantage of bottoms-up distribution models, whether that be from building developer mindshare and/or having a free/freemium product that penetrated within a company over time.
Slack, Atlassian, Twilio, Elastic, and Zoom took advantage of bottoms-up distribution models, whether that be from building developer mindshare and/or having a free/freemium product that penetrated within a company over time. Enterprise from Day One: Workday, ServiceNow, Veeva, and Palo Alto Networks all sold into the enterprise early on.
It goes without saying, but reaching the 90th percentile also requires a strong product, large market, and incredible execution over many years.
It’s Your Turn
Now that you are armed with revenue growth and sales efficiency benchmarking data, see where you stack up. Here are links to two calculators for more precise figures:
Sales Efficiency: Type in your company’s annual revenue and S&M figures to benchmark your sales efficiency ratios. ( LINK )
Type in your company’s annual revenue and S&M figures to benchmark your sales efficiency ratios. Revenue Growth: Type in your company’s annual revenue to benchmark your revenue growth rates. (LINK)
Take these benchmarks to your next board meeting and have a discussion on where and how you can improve. Good luck!
If you found this post valuable, please clap and share on social media. Special thanks to SunTrust for providing valuation data. | https://medium.com/parsa-vc/is-your-company-growing-efficiently-sales-efficiency-benchmarks-for-saas-startups-2270676ac404 | ['Parsa Saljoughian'] | 2020-08-12 20:34:12.456000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Efficiency', 'Startup', 'Sales', 'Growth'] |
Adoption of engineering standards at Typeform | Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash
How we’ve influenced organizational behavior with discussion, alignment, and tooling.
Authors:
Members of the Engineering Intelligence Team: César Lugo, Kao Felix, Javier Gómez, Andrei Danilov.
The story is old: An engineer sees an opportunity for improvement. Maybe it’s the logs that look wildly different across every service they maintain, making everything harder to debug. Or it could be the error handling that is inconsistent: sensible in one service, confusing in another, and missing altogether in yet another. Turns out people are tired of repeating the same comments in code reviews spending time arguing about the form instead of the feature. “We should make it consistent” and “this should be a standard” are common reactions in this scenario.
In small teams with a few dozen repositories, adopting standards might require the work of just a couple of motivated engineers. However, in the context of a growing organization with hundreds of engineers split between dozens of teams, working across hundreds of repositories — with conflicting priorities and communication overheads — motivation alone won’t do the trick.
At Typeform, we have been tuning up for more than a year an inclusive framework for technical organization change. This framework involves the whole lifecycle: proposal, discussion, approval, tracking, and accountability.
The flow of a standard, from proposal to reporting on adoption.
Starts with the standard proposal
Anyone can submit a standard proposal. Having an open process encourages people with different roles and perspectives to participate. A proposal could come from platform engineers, product engineer leads, infrastructure, and even managers. This open process also helps to find possible drawbacks, blockers, and improvements. Comments could come both from the engineers implementing the changes, and the stakeholders of any potential improvements in quality, velocity, reliability, and so on.
Lifecycle of a proposal:
Draft: Collaborative stage where authors work together to bring a proposal to life. They follow a template that guides them in creating a proposal that:
Is well reasoned.
Is supported by data.
Has considered and compared alternatives.
Has a plan for implementation.
Has a strategy for measuring adoption.
2. Feedback: The proposal document is ready for async review by domain experts, and to be commented on by anyone that is interested. Observations, support, improvements, and objections are raised at this stage, shaping up the final version of the proposal. When enough feedback has been received, and all points have been addressed, the proposal moves to the next stage.
3. Final Decision: This stage is a meeting with the final decision maker (by default, our Director of Platform), the author(s) of the proposal, and any specialist in the area when needed. Pros and cons are weighted, feedback is reviewed, and a decision is made: Moving forward or Not for Now.
4. Moving Forward:
The decision is communicated during the Engineering All Hands meeting.
The documentation describing how to adopt the standard is rolled out.
Plans and objectives for adoption are set.
The tracking of the adoption is implemented and displayed in an open dashboard.
A screenshot of our standard proposals board lifecycle, with some examples.
Set your adoption metrics
The evaluation of a new standard is defined and implemented in code.
A dashboard with the visualization of the adoption rate of all standards over time is open to all in the organization.
Company-wide and team metrics are available.
The adoption rate is communicated frequently in all hands, and in weekly scheduled notifications.
Our Engineering Intelligence team has put in place a system to evaluate, visualize and communicate the state of standards adoption over time. This avoids approved ideas from falling under the rug of day-to-day work and important new features. The dashboard also gives us a way to quantify our accumulated technical debt and maintainability costs, which leads to more data-informed decision-making.
A screenshot of one of the tiles of our dashboard. It shows the progression of the adoption of several standards over time.
A key part of the success of this evaluation system comes from the fact that if a team owns a domain, this team also has the ownership of the code that evaluates a standard in that domain.
For example, one of our Platform Teams proposed and implemented a standard to migrate our repositories from Travis CI to Github Actions. The Intelligence team provides the infrastructure and the system for the evaluation to take place but, the Platform team owns the specific code to measure the adoption of this migration, and they also provide support to other teams to comply with this standard.
A code extract of our Travis CI -> Github Actions migration evaluation.
Report what matters
Adoption rate objectives are set by management
Capacity and roadmap planning is done by teams
Progress is updated in recurring ceremonies
A screenshot of one of the tiles of our dashboard. It shows the overall adoption of all standards.
Rolling out a new objective needs to be done with enough time and visibility so teams have a good head start to comply with it. Initially, standards were required as soon as they were approved, but we received push-back from teams with lots of new features and priorities on their plate. So we reached a sweet spot: if a standard is approved in 1 quarter, it will be required for all teams to comply with it by the end of next quarter. This has worked well so far. We have a stream of new standards becoming mandatory each quarter, and teams are fully prepared to work on them.
Without the technical leadership behind this framework, no amount of effort would move the needle. Our leadership team has bet on reserving capacity, aligning stakeholders, giving clear communications, and setting the stage for teams to report and track their improvement. This allows us to impact the behavior of the engineering organization in a consistent, coherent, and measurable way. | https://medium.com/typeforms-engineering-blog/adoption-of-engineering-standards-at-typeform-f17f2b61bd39 | ['Cesar Lugo'] | 2021-09-13 16:13:44.139000+00:00 | ['Organizational Change', 'Github', 'Data', 'Quality Assurance', 'Software Development'] |
Positive energy / Good Vibes Only | Positive energy / Good Vibes Only
There are two types of energies:Negative and Positive.
When you meet a person you feel their energy. A person who is open to have a conversation gives you positive vibes and makes you feel comfortable and it makes it easy to interact. But if you are getting negative vibes from a person, it will be hard to interact with such people and you do not want to hang around such people.
Surround yourself with people with positive energy that will help you to grow. They will always support you in a positive way even if something wrong happens, they will have a positive approach to deal with the situation. So what it does is makes it easier to deal with the situation.
If you are stuck somewhere and stay calm and positive you will get through the situation easier compared to you react negatively and carry on that way you are going to make more mistakes and make things worse.
It doesn’t help when you work with someone who has negative energy they will always attract bad things and it makes it harder for you because you have to hear about it as a coworker.
But you do not have to hear about it as an individual you can deny to listen to that and you will be much better without it. So what will happen is if you are clear about it and explain to them that you have your own personal life to deal with and you can not listen to their stories. It will make it awkward once and it will make your life easier after that. Otherwise you will be hearing that everyday and there is nothing you can do about it. You need to stand up for yourself.
How do you keep energy positive?
Remember This Too Shall Pass. If you are going through tough time, remember it is not forever and it will pass. So deal with it with a positive attitude. It will make it easier for you and whoever is involved in it.
Read positive books, you can find them in self help category. Look up Some good books and start reading them on regular basis. I read Dr. Wayne Dyer’s books. It helps me to deal with anything positively.
Some people are not into reading, so what you can do is find audio podcasts or audio books. Good thing about audio content is you can listen to that anywhere, on your travel in the train, while driving, going for walks, at home. It is good to listen to some good positive audio content before going to bed instead of using the phone for social media.
Connect with people with positive energy.
It will be great to hang out with people with positive energy, you will enjoy their company more as you have the same energy. There’s nothing wrong if you can not find someone who is the same as you, you can hang out on your own. You will meet people when the time is right. Do not rush things, just chill and do what you have to do. | https://medium.com/@dickee/positive-energy-good-vibes-only-41c252ae10b0 | ['Inspo Blogs'] | 2020-12-26 08:47:23.683000+00:00 | ['Positive Thinking', 'Energy', 'Universe', 'People', 'Positivity'] |
Intelligent Decision-Making Isn’t What We Think It Is | Feeling good about your life isn’t out of reach.
A problem I ran into when I was trying to figure out how to make my life one I was enthused to live was that I didn’t know what that actually felt like. I’d been denying my true desires for so long that I had no context for judging whether choices I made were good ones. What does “good choice” even mean? Maybe you’re familiar with this type of confusion, where you cease to be able to differentiate between decisions that are good or bad for you. It’s a common result of trying to convince ourselves that we actually want to do things we don’t. You may be thinking, “I never do that,” but if you are struggling to figure out what makes you happy, you probably do. Don’t feel bad about it. Our social conditioning is to sublimate ourselves to some extent to familial, work, and societal demands. But if life isn’t returning to you what you put into it, it may be time to take a closer look at your decision-making process.
The real challenge, you see, isn’t the things we know we don’t want to do. Sometimes we feel we have to do things we don’t want to, but if we are clear on the compromises we are making, we at least can make decisions for ourselves with full knowledge of that. The damage accrues from continuing to do things we don’t want to do and playing mind games in order to make that kind of life acceptable. Any time we tell ourselves “It’s not so bad,” or “This has a bright side,” or “Maybe things will change,” or the worst, “This is just what life is,” we are clouding our capacity to know what our personal good and bad are. We are teaching ourselves to ignore our signals. And this results in an eventual inability to make good decisions for ourselves.
There is a way to be more intelligent about choices, but it’s a counterintuitive process that contradicts what we usually think of as smart decision-making. Raise your hand if you think intelligent choices involve careful and thoughtful evaluation. *Waving my hand vigorously*. This is how I made decisions for years. With lists of pros and cons. By considering all angles. You know the drill. It seems obvious that this is the intelligent way to make important decisions. And it’s not a bad way to make decisions. Except we use it indiscriminately when it’s meant for a specific type of context and outcome.
When the results that matter to you are ones that can be measured and quantified, especially if outcome is the most important thing, this kind of decision-making works great. For example, I used this process before embarking on getting my PhD. I carefully and thoughtfully worked out my reasoning using indicators like my skill set and professional goals. I really covered my bases in terms of the forethought I put into the decision. Like, really. And lo and behold, I now have a PhD that qualifies me for several different career paths. Success! Good decision-making! Except, if you’ve read anything else on my blog, you know what actually happened. I got super burned out and stopped wanting to be alive. So…not good decision-making?
I thought it was a good decision. I thought it was what I wanted to do. I figured that if there were things I didn’t like about it along the way, it wouldn’t matter, because it was a good decision and would take me to good place in life. What I didn’t realize was that I was already so used to denying my true desires that I genuinely didn’t have a good understanding of what I wanted out of life. I was using the wrong type of decision-making process. I was thinking too much, being too “smart” about things. I don’t regret my decision to do a PhD, but I’ve certainly learned my lesson.
Intelligent decision-making isn’t about being smart. It’s about knowing what kind of decision-making process is appropriate for a specific context. An analytical, rational process may work well in situations where you have full information and can make reliable predictions about outcome. But it often won’t work very well in the personal and social realms. There are just too many complex variables, unpredictable factors, and unknowns. When it comes to making life decisions, all we can really know with authority is what something feels like to us now. We can know if something gives us a feeling of expansion and excitement inside, or if it causes us to tighten up and feel small and scared. If it inspires us or fills us with a sense of dread. If we can’t wait to jump right in and experiment, or if the only thing we feel really enthusiastic about is an outcome. When the outcome appears to you in technicolor and surround sound while the steps to get there are murky, that’s something to pay attention to.
When I was trying to figure out what to do with my life after I finished my PhD, I decided that I would only do things I felt good doing. Not what I thought I wanted, not what I might want in the future, but what actually felt good to do right now. I’ve used that principle every step of the way, slowly building up my creative business from nothing. So if you’re wondering what someone with a PhD in international relations is doing running a creativity website — well, exactly. All this started from a kernel of nothing. None of it was planned or predictable. I simply decided to listen to how I felt about things. And when something felt good, I did that thing. This means that I’m genuinely enjoying the process of building my business, and as a result, my life feels fulfilling and meaningful. It’s a night-and-day difference from my experience getting my PhD — which I’m sure looks like the greater accomplishment to the outside world. But you and I know that the real accomplishment is feeling good about life. For me, that has never been a given, and for a very long time I thought it was something that would forever be out of my reach.
Kendra Patterson is a writer and creativity coach based in north-central Florida. She helps fellow creatives work through blocks and burnout to reconnect with their creative spark. You can find her at www.kendrapatterson.com. | https://medium.com/@kendrapatterson/intelligent-decision-making-isnt-what-we-think-it-is-a9e270bfe361 | ['Kendra Patterson'] | 2020-12-23 17:22:11.312000+00:00 | ['Creativity', 'Personal Development', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Life Lessons', 'Decision Making'] |
7 Benefits of The Keto Diet | When you hear about the ketogenic diet, the first thing you perhaps think of is what could possibly make it as good as people say. The answer is, there are enough benefits to change your life.
What exactly is a ketogenic diet?
The keto program recommends a diet that is low on carbs, moderate on protein, and high in fat. The idea is to fine-tune nutritional intake in order to send the body into a metabolic state known as ketosis.
The body enters a state of ketosis when it no longer has stores of glycogen sugar to fuel its energy needs. With sugar out of the way, the body has no choice but to tap its stores of fat to get by. The liver converts fat reserves into ketones to present to the body as an energy source. This is why the keto program is a good way to lose fat.
If you are looking for the best Ketogenic diet on the market, you can check out Custom Keto Diet.
7 benefits of the keto diet
Unlike other diets that offer practitioners a weight loss benefit and little else, the keto diet comes with several benefits.
Weight loss
Without a doubt, weight loss is the primary goal of the keto diet. It works because it makes the body look to its fat reserves to power its metabolism. It can be interesting to go deeper into the process, however.
When the body is deprived of carbs, it enters a state of ketosis. Blood sugar and insulin levels fall when that happens. As the body taps the energy in fat cells, they release considerable quantities of water, making for some great weight loss. The fat cells are then able to enter the bloodstream and make their way to the liver, where they are turned into ketones for energy processing. As long as your diet allows you to stay in a caloric deficit, you get to enjoy the weight loss benefits of the keto diet.
It takes the edge off your appetite
When your diet isn’t heavy on carbs, you’ll find that you don’t crave as much food as before. Many people who get on the keto diet are able to fast most of the day, and only eat at mealtimes. They are simply not as hungry as before.
Improved ability to focus
When you choose a regular diet that puts carbs into the body, your brain has to deal with the rise and fall in sugar levels that happen as a result. Inconsistent energy levels can make it hard for the brain to focus. With the keto diet, however, the energy source is constant and consistent. The brain is better able to stay focused.
You feel more energetic
When you are on a regular diet, your body is always on the verge of running out of energy. You need to constantly eat and refuel. With a keto diet, however, the body taps its fat reserves, a nearly unending energy source. The body, then, is able to maintain constant energy levels throughout the day. The result is, you end up feeling a lot more energetic.
It helps you fight diabetes
When you suffer from Type II diabetes, your body experiences high levels of insulin. Since the keto diet takes excess sugar from your diet, it helps stabilize HbA1c counts and reverse Type II diabetes.
You get improved levels of good cholesterol
HDL cholesterol helps get rid of the body’s bad cholesterol reserves. When you’re on keto, your body’s triglyceride levels fall and your HDL cholesterol levels rise.
You get better blood pressure
When you’re on the keto diet, it drops your blood pressure. Many people on the keto diet find that they are able to stop taking blood pressure medicine altogether.
The keto diet can change a person’s life. It isn’t a difficult diet to get on, either. There are plenty of great recipes for the keto diet. All it takes is the willingness to give it a shot.
If you are looking for the best Ketogenic diet on the market, you can check out Custom Keto Diet. | https://medium.com/@arwenale/7-benefits-of-the-keto-diet-71b5acc84b21 | ['Alexandra U'] | 2020-12-26 19:29:32.648000+00:00 | ['Keto', 'Weight Loss', 'Diet', 'Keto Diet', 'Fitness'] |
E1: How to Come Up With a Story Idea | Clap, Follow & Share!
This is episode one’s transcript, you can watch the video here or listen to it on Spodify!
Hi everyone! My name is Amelia Arrows and welcome to Ask Amelia! On this podcast, we talk about everything writing, from the formation of the idea to the publication process of your book. If that’s your cup of tea, feel free to stick around, give this episode a like and subscribe.
I upload an episode usually once a month on a Wednesday. If that seems like a very long time, don’t you worry! I have a lot of stuff for you to read, follow my Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram at Amelia’s and check out the first link in description for bonus content.
If you’re watching this podcast on YouTube and rather listen on the go check out the first link in the description for the podcast version. If you have a question about writing and would like me to answer, leave a comment down below and I’ll feature it in a future episode!
All right, let’s talk about idea creation!
Before you write a novel, a short story or a poem, you will need an idea, a concept to base your story around. Your idea can be either description of the main character, the fictional world, or even the theme of your story. To help you create ideas, here are seven ways I used to form ideas.
Note: These are not the only ways to come up with an idea for your story, but these are the ones that helped me when I want to come up with a story.
Number one: Genre and Audience
Each genre and audience have their own stories and tropes. For example, in fantasy a popular story trope is the chosen one. Most chosen one stories have an impending doom or form of magic or even a secret royal heritage. In addition to tropes, different genres have their own age range that have their own themes within them.
For instance, a story in middle grade would have themes such as growing up identity friendship crushes and family relationships. Knowing your genre and audience will guide you to the common tropes and themes found in that category, providing you with a template to work with.
For instance, if I were to come up with a middle grade fantasy story, I would look at the common themes and build a story from there. So taking the theme of family and this trope of the secret world heritage, my story would follow a poor girl who then discovered that she has magical ability, the same kind of abilities that the royal family has. This will kind of start this quest of her trying to discover her origin, trying to discover her family, things like that. It’s not perfect, but you get the idea. Looking at genre and audience will not really give you everything, but it will definitely give you the foundation that your story needs.
Number Two: Consume Books TVs and Film
There’s a saying that what you read is what you write. It’s the same thing with TV shows and films. Reading and watching shows can be a great way to get ideas for a story. Please note that I am not saying that you should copy the story beat by beat, instead you should only use it for inspiration. Perhaps you love the concept of animals being the main characters or that the world is not a sphere but a bunch of flying islands. Whatever you liked about the existing story, take it and then put your own spin on things to make it your own.
For example, for my first Wattpad story Alley cats Runway, I was inspired by the book series Warriors written by Erin Hunter. The series follow a bunch of cats living in the forest and I thought wow that’s cool! So I ended up writing my own novel that followed cats who lived in the city showcasing the gang life of those cats and showing how harsh life is for strays, and it ended up being one of my best work on Wattpad.
Number Three: Draw From Your Experience
If you are leaning towards a more original concept, I suggest that you look into your own life experience. You may think that your life is not that unique, but trust me, it is everyone has an individual experience to life. It does not need to be full of explosion and drama as long as you pick something that has a lot of emotion tied to it. Without that initial emotion, you as a writer will be bored with it, and if you’re bored your readers will be bored as well.
For instance, my book Fish Out of Water is a collection of stories that are based on my first year of university. How I got lost, How I managed a subway, and how I overcame loneliness. While that book is more of a non-fiction, this tip can work with fiction as well.
Number Four: Dreams
For some people writing a story based on a dream is something that happens only once but when it happens, it’s usually crazy and whimsical and kind of hard to use the thing is people dream all the time but it’s a matter of remembering that dream in order to use it. I suggest that you have a notebook or a phone nearby so when you wake up you can write it down. For those thrillers and horror writers out there, writing a story on a nightmare is also a great idea if you’re running out of ideas to use tip number five.
Number 5: Take a Walk or Shower
These two don’t work for everybody. I can’t think straight when there’s so much noise distracting me when I walk, but when I take a shower an idea doesn’t just come to me straight away. Normally, I have to draw it out. To do that I talk out loud, I remind myself of the story and eventually an idea pops in, usually to the question of what if. Playing the “what if game” really helps with brainstorming, which leads to number six.
Number 6: Share and Brainstorm
You can’t brainstorm with one brain, you need at least two. So grab a friend or family member, or at least someone who loves to read and write and pose your idea. Be flexible with the feedback because when it comes to idea creation all things are possible, you don’t want to settle on one idea at the beginning stages, when there’s a better one around the corner.
Number 7: Write What you are Passionate About
Finally number seven, write what you’re passionate about. It may not be much of a surprise, but writers who write about their passions will not only find it enjoyable, they will also find that they have a lot to say on the topic. For example, as someone who is familiar with the disabled community, writing stories about self-acceptance is a theme that I tend to return to.
So after forming your ideas, you need to put them somewhere. Nothing is worse than coming up with a cool idea if you’re going to forget it the next day. Trust me, you do not want that to happen! Have an open document, voice record them, or even have an idea box. Remember, there are so many ways to form an idea, it’s just a matter of finding what works for you. Let me know how you form ideas down below!
Next up I’ll be continuing our conversation on idea creation by answering the timely question of how to come up with a good story idea is there such a thing as a bad idea I’ll answer it in the next episode to subscribe that you’ll be the first one to know when it is up.
Thank you for tuning in to the first episode of the Ask Amelia podcast! This podcast has been on my mind for the last couple of months, and now I’m happy to be finally doing this! I promise to not disappoint, I’ll upload once a month on a Wednesday. If you have any questions about writing anything at all leave a comment down below and I’ll answer it in the next episode, this is the ask Amelia podcast, and I’ll see you soon! | https://medium.com/the-ask-amelia-podcast/e1-how-to-come-up-with-a-story-idea-30aedfd7ab5e | ['Ameila Arrows'] | 2021-01-05 16:35:49.200000+00:00 | ['Advice', 'Writing Tips', 'Writing', 'Novel'] |
Server-Side Rendering a React App Using Express.js | Server-Side Rendering a React App Using Express.js
Photo by Science in HD on Unsplash
You have setup and created your react app (using create-react-app, other boilerplates, or even creating it from scratch). Now you’re trying to serve it to the web so people can experience your app. Sure, for easy deployment and minimal setup you can go for the already established platforms such as Netlify, Heroku, Firebase Hosting, Github Pages, or many others. This article, however, is not about that. This article is about setting up your own server and deploying your site/app using good ol’ Express.js.
Why, you may ask? For learning purposes, of course. Having an understanding of how servers deliver your app/site is beneficial for your programming fundamentals. It may also aid in your future work in deploying (and configuring) your sites.
In this article, I will focus on how server-side rendering works in serving a react app using Express.js. I will first explain the concept then dive into example project code. To gain a better understanding, you should also check out how client-side rendering works as a comparison. That way, you will have a much clear understanding of how each method works and gain a whole view of both client-side and server-side rendering solutions. I have written an article on client-side rendering. So check it out:
By the end, you should have a clear understanding of what server-side rendering is and how to apply server-side rendering solutions with Express.js. In addition to that, you should also gain a general understanding of how servers work and how sites/apps are deployed to servers.
Server-side Rendering
As opposed to client-side rendering, server side-rendering renders the react component in the server before being sent to the client. In a server-side rendering process, the steps from the initial request to the app being available for interaction goes like this:
Request for the page is sent to the server from the client. The server responds by rendering the react component in the server before being sent to the client. Client receives the html (with the react component) and displays it in the browser. Client also download the required JavaScript file (containing the react app). After the JavaScript file is downloaded, it will rehydrate the html that is currently in display with the react app from the JavaScript file.
Notice that in the second step the react component is rendered in the server before being sent to the client. Hence, there will be no “white page” when waiting for all the needed JavaScript files to be downloaded which typically happens in a client-side rendering process.
The biggest upside of having a pre-rendered React app in the server is SEO (search engine optimization). When a typical search engine crawls a website, it will index the html response from every URL it crawls. Search engine crawlers generally skip the JavaScript code or files. That’s why having a client-side rendered React app may be damaging for SEO.
At the time of writing, only Google search engine is known to crawl, parse, and index JavaScript (with limitations). According to an article in moz.com from 2017, the JavaScript indexing performance of several search engines are as follows:
The Project
You can use your existing React app if you already have one, or you can start a new one using create-react-app and leaving the main code inside src directory as is (as we’re focusing on the back end). I , however, suggest you try and start a React app from scratch which can enhance your understanding of the bits and pieces that goes inside a React app.
To learn how a React app is built from scratch, you can follow the link below and read my earlier article:
I will use the code from the article above where the React app is created from scratch. If you’ve followed along, your project directory should at least have the following folder structure and files:
react-app/
|--public/
| |--index.html
| |--bundle.js
|--src/
| |--app.js
|--babel.config.js
|--package-lock.json
|--package.json
|--webpack.config.js
This article will assume that you already have a basic understanding of JavaScript, Node.js, Webpack, Babel and React. If not, for basic setup (with Node, Webpack, Babel, and React), I recommend you (again) to follow the link above to start a React app from scratch.
Webpack Configurations
We will first edit and configure the existing webpack.config.js file. Inside the file, an object with the keys entry , output , module , and devServer is defined and exported as a webpack configuration. This webpack configuration, however, is specifically to configure, transform and bundle our client-side React files to be presentable by the browser.
For server-side rendering, we also need to configure, transform, and bundle our server files as it’s using the latest ES syntax and React JSX. So instead of exporting an object as our webpack configuration, we will be exporting two objects. One for the server files configuration and the other for client files configuration. In both objects, we will keep the entry , output , and module configurations more or less the same.
Client configuration
The client configuration for webpack compilation in this project should be the same as the default React web configuration as specified in our ‘create react app from scratch’ article. There you should find the explanation for setting up a React webpack configuration. In this project, we wrap that configuration in an object called clientConfig :
client configuration
Server configuration
server configuration
As I’ve promised, the entry , output , and module configuration is more or less the same. However, we need to change the entry and output files. We point the entry file to ./server/index.js and the output file to ./dist/index.js . You may notice that we do not yet have a server directory with index.js file inside. We will create this later.
Beside entry , output , and module keys, we also need to define the target , externals and node keys. The target key specifies the target environment in which our file will be compiled to. In our case, because it is a server file, we set the target environment to node . That way, webpack will compile the file for usage in a node environment (our backend). When compiling, no built-in modules (such as fs or path ) will be touched.
The externals key provides a way to exclude any dependencies we wish to not be included in the output bundle. Why? because of size concerns. Instead, the output bundle relies on that dependency to be present in the consumer’s (any end-user application) environment. In our case, we specified the externals to be the webpack-node-externals library. This library creates an external function that excludes all node_modules dependencies.
The last key that we need to specify is the node key. The node key specifies the configuration of certain node global variables. In this case we configure the __dirname variable. Setting it to false will ensure that dirname behaves normally in a node environment (aka it will return the absolute path of the output file).
Export webpack configuration
After we specified both server and client webpack configuration, we export both objects as follows:
configurations export
React Codes
From our previous project, we only have one file for our React code: src/app.js . Inside that file, we specified both the component ( App ) and the rendering of that App component:
src/app.js
We will now separate the component and the rendering into two separate files. The first file ( src/hello.js ) houses the <Hello /> component, whereas the second file ( src/app.js ) houses only the rendering of our React component ( <Hello /> ).
src/hello.js
src/app.js
Notice that instead of ReactDOM.render(...) , we use ReactDOM.hydrate(…) . The hydrate method is the same as render , but is used to hydrate a container whose HTML contents were rendered by ReactDOMServer in the server (explained later). The use of render method to hydrate server-generated container (instead of the hydrate method) may be slow and will be removed in React 17.
Server Code using Express.js
Now, we will create our backend server code using Express.js in a file called server/index.js . Express.js styles itself as “fast, unopinionated, minimalist web framework”. Express is a go-to JavaScript framework if you’re building a back end for your project. To install Express.js, run the following command:
npm install express
After installing Express, create a new directory at the root of the project named server .
mkdir server
This directory is where we will setup the Express back end. By now, you should at least have three directories at the root called public , src , and server .
Inside the server directory, create a file named index.js :
touch server/index.js
Your server directory should now look like this:
react-app
|-server
| |-index.js
|...
In server/index.js , add the following code:
server/index.js
We require the express module and call the top express function, express() . We also set the desired port number, which is 3000. We instruct express to start the server and listen to the port that we’ve set. The console will output ‘Server now listening at http://localhost:3000.
That is the basic setup for our Express server. To render our React app to the server before sending it to the client, we add the following code between the global variable assignment ( const port = 3000 ) and app.listen(…) :
Server code inside server/index.js
Between port variable definition and app.listen() , we need to code the actual request handler and the response to be sent by the server.
First, we need to further require and import several global variables: path , ReactDOMServer , React , and the Hello component. path is a built-in node module for working with file and directory paths, ReactDOMServer is a React object to render components to static markup typically used in a node server, React is the default React JavaScript library, and lastly the Hello component is the component to be rendered in the server that we created inside the src directory earlier.
Two things that need to be highlighted here are the ability to use React components and ES6 import in our backend server code. Both are supported because this server file will also be transformed and compiled using webpack and babel to a JavaScript file that can be read in a node environment. We have set the webpack configurations earlier.
An Express.js application is basically a series of middleware and routing functions. Middleware functions tell Express.js what to do with incoming requests. Whether to transform the request data, sending back response, or passing it to the next middleware. The express().static middleware instructs express to serve static files from a specified directory. Here, we specified the /static route to serve static files from the public directory. The public directory is where our client-side React file that has been compiled and transformed by webpack lives.
Lastly, we specify the home (‘/’) route where the server will send back the server-rendered Hello component wrapped inside the basic html template assigned to the html variable. After the Hello component has been imported, it is rendered into an html string using the renderToString() method of ReactDOMServer . The Hello component string is then interpolated inside the basic html template. That way, the server doesn’t return only the basic html template (as is in client-side rendering), but also with a React component that has already been rendered in the server (hence the name ‘server-side rendering’).
Another thing to note is the script tag inside the html template. The script refers to the file from the ‘/static’ route that we defined earlier as our static file path. Because the script tag is called from the client browser, it won’t be able to access file directly to the filesystem inside the server. Instead it could only access files through valid routes that we have defined in the server.
Nodemon
Nodemon is a tool in developing Node-based application that helps to automatically restart the said application when file changes in the directory are detected. That way, we would not have to manually cancel and restart our express server every time we want to see how the changes we’ve made takes place. Install Nodemon globally (recommended) by typing the following command:
npm install -g nodemon
You can now use Nodemon on other projects in your machine as it is installed globally.
NPM Scripts
To make our development easier we need to define several npm scripts. Npm scripts are defined inside package.jsone at the root of our project folder. The existing scripts that we already have are as follows:
existing scripts
We add another script to start our express server named ‘serve’. The script will start our server using nodemon. We will not directly use our server file from server directory as it contains React and ES6 code that could not be run inside a node environment. Instead, we will use the server file that has been transformed and compiled using webpack and babel. That file lives inside the dist directory.
edited scripts
Running the Server
Before running the server, we should build and compile our server and client code (from src and server directories respectively to public and dist directories). To build and compile, type npm run build command in the terminal. After running the command, our folder structures should look like this:
react-app/
|--public/
| |--bundle.js
|--dist/
| |--index.js
|--server/
| |--index.js
|--src/
| |--app.js
| |--hello.js
|--node_modules/
|--babel.config.js
|--package-lock.json
|--package.json
|--webpack.config.js
Now, to run the server, we type npm run serve command in the terminal.
npm run serve
Open up the browser and go to ‘http://localhost:3000’,
localhost:3000
Voila! Our React app should appear. How do we know that our app is being rendered server side? To find out, open the browser developer tools. If you are using chrome, press ctrl + shift + I on your keyboard to open up chrome dev tools. Click the sources tab. On the left, click (index) to open up the source html for our home page (http://localhost:3000/).
home (‘/’) source html for server-side rendered app
As you can see, our Hello component (underlined) is present inside the html code sent from the server! This is different from client-side rendered app, where the html sent from the server only contains the container element (in our examples is the div element with the id of root ). Components inside the root container would then be rendered by the client browser only after all the bundled React code have been downloaded.
home (‘/’) source html for client-side rendered app
Summary
In this article, I gave a little bit of background on server-side rendering and dived into actual React and Express.js project code to explain server-side rendering process. Before sending back the html response, React component(s) is(are) rendered to html in the server. We do this by using the renderToString method of ReactDOMServer . | https://javascript.plainenglish.io/back-to-basics-server-side-rendering-a-react-app-using-express-js-6fab99db5770 | ['Putra Aryotama'] | 2020-11-28 07:28:19.806000+00:00 | ['JavaScript', 'Web Development', 'Expressjs', 'Programming', 'React'] |
Interpreting Cox Proportional Hazards Model Using Colon Dataset in R | Simple Cox proportional hazard model (Univariate)
Since the data was from a randomized clinical trial, I will assume that the randomization process was effective (e.g the characteristics of the patients between the three groups were similar). Hence, in theory, there isn’t a need to adjust for confounders for a clinical trial that has effective randomization. I will proceed on to plot the survival curve stratified by the treatment regimens as well as generate the Cox proportional hazard model with treatment regimens as the predictor. This is done using the survminer package and the following code is implemented:
graph <- survfit(Surv(time, status == 1) ~ rx, data = colon_1)
OS_plot <- ggsurvplot(graph, xlab = “Time in days”, risk.table = TRUE,
pval = TRUE)
Interpretation: The log-rank test state that the p-value is < 0.0001. This indicates that there is an overall difference between the three groups (Observation, only Levamisole and Levamisole + 5-FU) in terms of overall survival. From the graph, it shows that while there seems to be no difference in overall survival between the observation group and Levamisole group, there is a difference in overall survival between Levamisole + 5FU and the other two groups. The graph also suggests that there is no violation of proportional hazards assumption as the lines do not cross each other (explained in the later section).
Following which, I implement the following code to generate the Cox proportional hazard model and the hazard ratio:
model <- coxph(Surv(time, status == 1) ~ rx, data = colon_1)
summary(model)
Interpretation: The hazards of dying is 1.5% lower for patients who were given only Levamisole as compared to the observation group (95% confidence interval: 0.799–1.22). This difference is not significant (p-value = 0.888). In contrast, the hazards of dying is 40.1% lower for patients who were given Levamisole + 5-FU as compared to the observation group (95% confidence interval: 0.475–0.756). This difference is significant (p-value < 0.01).
The conclusion in the model corresponds to the survival curve, that Levamisole + 5-FU improves overall survival of patients with colon cancer. | https://medium.com/swlh/interpreting-cox-proportional-hazards-model-using-colon-dataset-in-r-fda1f9901292 | ['Conan Koh'] | 2020-10-23 12:01:01.804000+00:00 | ['Rstudio', 'Regression', 'Survival Analysis', 'R Programming', 'Cox Proportional Hazards'] |
10 Amazing Tips For Using Adobe Photoshop in 2020 | Like a brush is to a painter an important talent within the field of graphic style in Adobe Photoshop. The code offers redoubled productivity further as flexibility. The options embrace aspects like file browser, vanishing purpose tool, sensible sharpen filter, noise reduction filter, sensible objects, further as camera progress enhancements. adobe Photoshop offers skilled pic writing options, digital imaging, further non-damaging writing.
There are such a big amount of hidden options and insights to code, that it’s typically not possible to understand all of them.
1. There’s the hidden possibility of mistreatment that you’ll be able to simulate daring and italic information designs for fonts that don’t have these choices. Click the button on the kind tool choice to say the character palette. Then choose the text and click on the arrow within the higher paw corner of the palette menu wherever fake daring and italics are gifts. but you’ll not be able to warp sort once information has been applied.
2. One will quickly flip through mix modes whereas attempting out effects by mistreatment the keys shift+ to vary to next mode and shift- to travel to the previous model. once a painting tool is active this route can modification the mix mode of the painting tool. However, if something is highlighted then the route won’t work. you’ll have to press ESC and so use the route keys once more.
3. The photo merge feature is wont to seamlessly mix multiple pictures to form a panorama. This feature is accessed from the alter menu. you’ll be able to even refine the composition mistreatment tools like rotate, zoom, pan, and set vanishing purpose. | https://medium.com/@ks1947ad/10-amazing-tips-for-using-adobe-photoshop-in-2020-c7c906c1e94c | ['Kushal Singh'] | 2020-12-10 08:51:24.469000+00:00 | ['Useful Tips', 'Adobe Photoshop', 'Tips And Tricks', 'Adobe', 'Photoshop'] |
There’s abundance for you out there. Realign Your Thoughts | There’s abundance for you out there. Realign Your Thoughts
Negative thinking is a big obstacle in your journey. You can still succeed when you do not believe in things or yourself, but it makes it really hard. You stop a lot just to think again whether it is worth it or not. You need a peace of mind. You want to follow your journey and let it take you where it takes you.
You can not be confident in your journey if you are not certain to achieve what you are heading for. People are scared to take risk, they always think about what if this doesn’t work, need to think of a back up plan.
It is not your fault, it is the human nature. It is how we work or i should say it is how we are taught to operate.
The Process
There is abundance of everything out there. You will never run out of things like money, food or whatever basic needs you have. All you have to do is believe in your self and follow your dreams and put a lot of work in it.
For example, if you have a product you need to work on it for 100 hours for example. So the quicker you complete that task the quicker you can head to the next task.
It doesn’t mean that you can take shortcuts. You need to do what it takes to get there. It’s with anything, if you start learning cooking from scratch it will take you a certain amount of time to be confident and cooking without looking for recipes and everything.
You can learn anything, if you ever thought that it is impossible. Erase that though you can make it happen. All it takes is patience and consistency. When you don’t see any results people get frustrated and then they stop.
This is the story of 90% of people, they can not be bothered. But later on you will regret and think i wish i had done it. Time goes quick, but remember it’s never too late to do it now.
What you need to do now
Write down your goals and work on them everyday. Consistency is the key. A little or more done everyday will bring you to your destination.
Only you know how much time you have got in your hands. See how many hours per week you can contribute for your project.
Do not waste it on Netflix everyday, once in a while you need to entertain yourself. If you can work with something playing in the background that’s a win win . But if you have trouble concentrating, listen to some music, background peaceful sounds of nature etc. or keep it quite.
If you are only in it for the money, it might not work. Even if it does work you might not enjoy it. Follow your passion and do what you love doing. You will make enjoy what you do and that way you will end up making more money. It is all about having fun. | https://medium.com/@dickee/theres-abundance-for-you-out-there-realign-your-thoughts-e2bef9c75e67 | ['Inspo Blogs'] | 2020-12-26 08:56:13.407000+00:00 | ['Money', 'Truth', 'Goals', 'Dreams', 'Love'] |
The Blindfolded Archer | Once a Zen master gathered his disciples in the yard. He asked one of the disciples to blindfold him. The disciple did what the master had asked him.
It was time for archery. It thrilled every disciple to see that the master would teach them something unusual that day.
Photo by Alireza Sahebi on Unsplash
The master aimed and shot the arrow as everyone looked in wonder.
But to everyone’s utter disappointment, the arrow missed the target.
The master uncovered his eyes and turned to face his disciples without even once looking at the target and asked, “So what do you think?”
They were embarrassed. No one knew how to tell the master that he had missed the target.
One of them gathered some courage and said with hesitation, “Master, you missed the target.”
The Zen master replied, “Oh yes, I know that. Why is that shocking and embarrassing for you?”
The disciples looked at each and said, “We thought you were trying to teach us to hit the target without looking.”
Photo by Immo Wegmann on Unsplash
The Zen master laughed and said, “No, my dear students! I intended to teach you how stupid it is to aim for something without focus.
If you don’t have a focus in your life, then leave alone an arrow; you can’t do anything right.
If you want to become successful, then you have to have all the focus on the target.”
The smile on the long faces of the disciples returned as they understood this crucial lesson. | https://medium.com/soultouch/the-blindfolded-archer-980ee3af2cd9 | ['Ruchi Thalwal'] | 2020-08-26 06:48:47.086000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Life', 'Education', 'Fiction', 'Short Story'] |
Could You Use an Extra $2,779 Right Now? Here’s How You May Be Able to Get It | The Motley Fool | Could You Use an Extra $2,779 Right Now? Here’s How You May Be Able to Get It | The Motley Fool Staff Follow May 21, 2020 · 3 min read
With the COVID-19 crisis occupying so much of the news, it’s easy to let a matter like taxes fall by the wayside, especially since the IRS pushed back the filing deadline for 2019 returns to July 15, 2020. That means you have close to two months to deal with your tax return, and if you’re grappling with unemployment, reduced working hours, or the balancing act of working while caring for children, you may be grateful for that delay.
On the other hand, if you’re in a tough spot financially right now and could use extra money, filing your taxes as quickly as possible makes a lot more sense if you think you’re due a refund. So far, the average refund this year is $2,779, up $50 from 2019. If you normally get a refund from the IRS, it pays to get moving on your taxes — especially if you’re desperate to get your hands on extra cash.
IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES.
Submit that return immediately
Though many Americans have already seen their $1,200 stimulus payments hit their bank accounts, many recipients were quick to blow through that cash in the course of paying their bills. But if the refund you’re due is anything like the average refund that’s been issued so far, you could be looking at more than twice your stimulus payment within weeks of submitting your taxes.
That’s why it makes sense to file your 2019 return as soon as you can. Not only will getting your taxes done take one potentially stressful and time-consuming task off your plate, but it could help you avoid a scenario where you’re forced to rack up debt in the course of paying for essential expenses.
How long will your refund take?
Normally, refunds for electronically filed tax returns take about three weeks to hit your bank account, assuming you sign up for direct deposit. But initial data shows that refunds are taking longer to process this year, so the sooner you get your taxes done, the sooner you can expect that money.
If you’re filing a paper return, however, your refund could be delayed for months. The reason? The IRS isn’t operating at normal capacity right now due to COVID-19, and as such, the agency has been unable to process paper returns. We don’t know when standard operations will resume, so your best bet right now is to file electronically, even if you’re used to submitting a paper return. Not only will you get your refund much faster, but it’ll also reduce your chances of making a mistake.
A lot of people are having a hard time making ends meet right now. If that’s the boat you’re in and you haven’t yet filed your taxes, carve out some time to get them done. In a best-case scenario, you’ll get your refund sooner. And if it turns out you owe money, you won’t have to pay the IRS until July 15, even if you submit your return tomorrow.
The majority of tax filers who submit returns wind up with a refund, but if you’re in the minority, knowing what you owe will help you plan for that bill so it’s not overwhelmingly stressful during an already trying time. | https://medium.com/the-motley-fool/could-you-use-an-extra-2-779-right-now-heres-how-you-may-be-able-to-get-it-the-motley-fool-c50dbf5e1a83 | [] | 2020-05-22 01:57:17.232000+00:00 | ['Taxes', 'Coronavirus', 'Money', 'Covid 19', 'Saving Money'] |
The world’s third-highest mountain is located in the Himalayas | The world’s third-highest mountain is located in the Himalayas
Kanchenjunga, also spelled Kangchenjunga or Kinchinjunga, Nepali Kumbhkaran Lungur, the third highest mountain in the world, with an elevation of 28,169 feet (8,586 meters). It is located in eastern Himalayas on the border between the state of Sikkim, northeastern India, and eastern Nepal, 46 miles (74 km) northwest of Darjiling, Sikkim. The mountain is part of the Great Himalayan Range. The Kanchenjunga massif is in the form of a gigantic cross, extending its arms north, south, east and west.
Kanchenjunga is composed of rocks of Neoproterozoic (Late Pre-Gambrian) to Ordovician age (i.e., about 445 million to 1 billion years old). The mountain and its Glaciers Get Heavy snow during a hot summer monsoon season and lighter the winter during a snow fall. The Individual Summits connect neighboring peaks with four main RIDGES, from Which four Glaciers flow — the Zemu (NORTHEAST), the Talung (southeast), the Yalung (SOUTHWEST), and the Kanchenjunga (northwest).
The name is derived from Kanchenjunga four words of Tibetan origin, usually made Kang-Chen-dzo-Nga or Yang-chhen-dzö-ray and Interpreted in Sikkim from “The Five Funds of the Great Snow.” The mountain plays the ‘important place in the mythology and religious Ritual of the local inhabitants, and its certainly fainic Slopes Known to boys and traders for centuries before it was an roughly surveyed.
Rinzin Namgyal, the first Known map of Kanchenjunga, wasnt made by one of the pandit ( “learned”) explorers in the mid-19th century, made a circuit sketch Verity. In 1848 and 1849 Sir Joseph Hooker, a botanist, wasnt the first European to visit and describe the region, and in 1899-mountaineer explorer Douglas Freshfield traveled around the mountain. In 1905 the Anglo-Swiss party attempted the route of the proposed Yalung valley by Freshfield, and four Members died by plane.
Mountaineers later explored the other faces of the massif. A Bavarian tour led by Paul Bauer in 1929 and 1931 inevitably attempted to climb from Zemu ‘s point of view, and in 1930 it was an attempted by German — Swiss climber Dyhrenfurth Günter O. from the Kanchenjunga Glacier. The Highest altitude reached during a These explorations was an 25,263 feet (7,700 meters) in 1931. Two of These trips made the mountain cnaipe for extraordinary danger and difficulty. No one else Until TRIED to climb it in 1954, was an Focused Attention When, partly Because of the Sikkimese, on Yalung’s face, Which is in Nepal. Gilmour Lewis’s visits to the Yalung in 1951, 1953, and 1954 led to a 1955 British tour led by Charles Evans, under the auspices of the Royal Geographical Society and the Alpine Club (London), Which stopped Within cur yards of the meeting. ACTUAL crowns. ACCORDING to the Beliefs and religious Aspirations of the Sikkimese. Other Kanchenjunga climbing Milestones Include the first woman to reach the summit (Briton Ginette Harrison in 1998), the first solo ascent (Frenchman Pierre Béghin in 1983), and the first ascent without the Use of Supplemental oxygen (the British Peter Boardman, Doug Scott , and Joe Tasker in 1979). | https://medium.com/@tbox28121993/the-worlds-third-highest-mountain-is-located-in-the-himalayas-c2c94d518548 | ['Madhav Rabadiya'] | 2021-01-22 03:41:51.938000+00:00 | ['Travel', 'Himalayas', 'Tourism', 'Traveling', 'Mountains'] |
Are Sellers Becoming Obsolete? | Just a month ago, virtual assistant firm Vaiot created a new platform that was able to sell car insurance without any human assistance. This is a big deal. Until now, digital technology has been used to optimise some parts of the sales process. However, human touch has always been required at some stage of the sales cycle. Now, they have managed to do so without any human involvement in the complete end-to-end sales process.
Does this mean that B2B sellers are going to be replaced by AI and robots? Not likely. So why are such developments still a threat to our profession? The straight forward answer is “encroachment”.
What Is Encroachment?
The term content creation first existed in 2001; still in the early days of the internet. Since then, it has exploded with currently over 2 million blog posts and articles being published every day. The proliferation of the internet and social media has helped democratise information in a way that has placed more power in the hands of people to educate themselves.
Back in the 80’s and 90’s business buyers relied on vendors and their sellers to help educate them on the decisions they should make and the suppliers who could help them. This is no longer the case. in 2011, CEB (now Gartner) rocked the B2B sales world with their findings that buyers are on average 57% of the way through their buying cycle before they engage with a salesperson. This released a whole host of fear and speculation about the increasingly commoditised role of the seller and their waning influence on the buyer. The reality is that this didn’t mean sellers couldn’t be part of the influencing process. It meant that sellers had to adapt to how they did so. They needed to leverage different types of methods to place themselves where buyers’ attentions were.
What Did The Pandemic Do?
Fast forward to 2020, and the pandemic dramatically shifted buyer behaviours, again. It forced our society to advance digitalisation to such an extent that we saw technological maturity accelerate. Digital developments that were expected to take years took only months. This has meant that buyers have new expectations. They want more of the buying process to be digitalised and automated. Even the purchasing process, right at the end of the sales cycle, is being automated with tools such as DocuSign allowing for less human engagement with buyers.
The Hidden Danger You Don’t Realise Is Coming
You might think that if you are selling a complex solution that you would be safe from becoming obsolete. After all, the more complex the sale, the bigger the impact for the buyer requiring more need for human interaction. Unfortunately, this is not so, and there is a risk that you are probably not seeing.
The problem isn’t complete “obsoletion”. The problem is having more and more of your influencing eroded. There is also a hidden danger. As buyers are less willing to engage with us, this means that digital technologies, AI, and Machine Learning are being used to inform your buyer and distance you from them. Buyers are now trying to find ways to circumvent sellers. They are not doing so maliciously, but purely to save themselves more time and to place more of the buying process on their terms. The result is less involvement for us.
Even when we are involved, buyers are less tolerant. In the past, they would have been more open to approaches such as “current state” analyses and hypothesis. We would begin conversations by sharing findings from our research about the buyer’s company, and we would spend time in Discovery and Diagnosis to understand more about their challenges and goals. Buyers are now less tolerant of this. They frankly expect you to have done your homework and acquired most of this information. They are also not willing to waste their time confirming information that they “live and breathe” daily. And, they certainly don’t want to waste their time answering questions that they feel you are asking to lead them to a sale.
There Is Good News!
As with most changes in our society, change doesn’t necessarily mean “obsoletion”. It means that we have to adapt. Do buyers want to remove all seller interactions? No. What they want to do is limit and remove valueless interactions.
The one thing that AI and digitalisation cannot do that humans can is to “see around corners”. Big data, AI, and Machine Learning can significantly help us make sense of trends and uncover insights hidden within oceans of data. But, what they still can’t do is create reliable scenarios about the future. You can guess what might happen in the future because you have strong intuitions about cause and effect. Your brain is designed to observe how your environment works. It then uses such experiences and knowledge to consider the likely outcome of how your environment is developing. A computer, on the other hand, finds such causal reasoning hard. They can spot correlations, but they can’t explain why a particular event should follow another one.
Become A Business Advisor
How does this information help you have more engagement with buyers? The answer is that you can give them something that machines cannot: the ability to assess the future and make smart decisions.
Now, more than ever, sales is less about Discovery and Solution-Mapping and more about being a Business Advisor that your buyers can trust. This is more than being a Trusted Advisor. People still equate being a Trusted Advisor with someone who is providing buyers with exemplary customer service. The problem with customer service and being a “firefighter” is that you are still in the commoditised space. At some point, such value will taper off and reduce as your buyer’s world evolves.
Your buyers are always seeking to understand how the future will look and what their place needs to be in that future in order to thrive. We are inundated with stories of once bellwether companies now going bankrupt and industries being disrupted by players who we would never have associated with that industry. The task of the entrepreneur and business leader has never been so tense. Even with all the data, AI, and Data Science at their disposal, the job of deciding for the future still falls on the human business leader. This is not an easy job at all. That is where you must play as a seller. You must bring value where machines and AI cannot. You must provide your buyers with information about the future that they either do not see, do not fully understand, or do not appreciate its magnitude. Your job is to help:
Inform buyers of potential problems that they are missing; and/or
Inform buyers of potential opportunities that they may miss if they do not act.
You then advise them of the decisions they should consider and present your offering as a solution to help them. That is how you create value, and it is also how you create urgency in your buyer.
You Are In A Position Of Power
A lot of sales professionals have an inferiority complex. They believe that the balance of power lies with the buyer, and they need to tread carefully to make the sale. This is absolutely not true!
For over 6 years, I led a division that sold high-end advisory services to Chief R&D Officers of multi-billion dollar organisations. These were individuals who sat on the executive boards of these big businesses and responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars. You would think that they have too much knowledge and experience to gain value from someone like me, but you would be surprised.
In an average week I would have about 20 conversations with a Chief R&D Officer or an SVP of R&D. In a year where I was working 36 weeks, that meant that I was having about 720 conversations with such job titles and responsibilities. Do you know how many conversations the average Chief R&D Officer would have with his/her peer in a year? 5. That’s it, just 5! That meant that I had 144 times the interactions than they did. I had so much insight that I became an incredibly valuable window into their world and could share both best practices and bad practices. They looked to me for information about the trends in their job role and what was happening in their world. I was able to give them insights and advice on the decisions they are making and what would be the likely outcomes.
This is a fantastic way for you to start becoming a Business Advisor to your buyer. You have more conversations with your buyers in a week than that buyer has with their peers in a year! What knowledge and insights are you sitting on that would be invaluable to them? What information do you hold that can help them make better decisions? How can you help them better understand things that they can’t see that would impact them?
You don’t need to come up with such insights yourself. Talk to your manager and your sales peers. Collectively you may have thousands of conversation to draw insights from. You can also gain a lot of insights from your Marketing partners. They may have a wealth of data and trends at their disposal. You should also liaise with your technical and product partners. What are they seeing from a product and delivery perspective that could help you either convince a buyer to shift from their current provider to you or convince them to seriously consider your solution?
Finally, the best people to talk to are those in your own company who have the same job title as your buyers. This was one of the most valuable activities I undertook, and it is something that the best performers I interviewed all have in common. Get to understand your buyer’s world. What does the average day, week, and month of your buyer look like? Do you even know how they are measured? This is a critical one. I am still shocked at how little sellers know about the very people they sell to. When I ask my clients to name the top 5 metrics in their buyer’s performance reviews and job responsibilities, only 2% can confidently answer that question. If you don’t know how your buyer will be assessed in their annual performance reviews, how can you possibly know what will be valuable to them or how to articulate your value in a way that aligns with their career prospects?
These are the questions to ask yourself and the insights that you must learn. There is more to becoming a Business Advisor that your buyer can trust. But, what I have shared with you is a powerful start to that journey. It will help you differentiate yourself from other sellers. It will help you position yourself as someone so valuable that your buyers will want to engage with you, and you will be less prone to becoming commoditised by new technologies. | https://medium.com/@moeedamin/are-sellers-becoming-obsolete-58b380f0cb18 | ['Moeed Amin'] | 2020-12-11 12:58:31.057000+00:00 | ['Sales', 'B2B', 'Business', 'Professional Development', 'Sales Training'] |
Penis Pioneer, Vagina Voyager: an exploration of my sexuality, as it were | At 19 years old, I decided to write a collection of short stories detailing my journey through sex and relationships. I’ve been told by my friends that my life is a bit like a sit-com, that all the drama in my life is plain hilarious, especially as it is all a product of my own creation. The time my one-night’s housemates played a prank on me, when a guy asked me to choke and slap him during sex, getting choked by a Louis Vuitton belt, my first lesbian experience and numerous tinder dates. It is also important to note that, due to my being the town crier that I am, will be telling you all about it and about why exactly I no longer give a sh*t.
When trying to determine the starting point of what I would call my “deviance” i.e. the term for things that only come out in drinking games with your friends weeks later, I find it difficult to decide. Was it when […]. No, it was when I left the club to have sex with a third-year student at my University. My audacity honestly astounds me because I had never before acted [good similie] before, and I don’t think I ever will again. I think I used up my life’s supply bucket of bravery when I caught eyes with this guy across the club and attempted to do some kind of sexy body wave but just basically just ended up wobbling through the air like a boiled asparagus. Thankfully, his standards were even lower than my dancing abilities.
I remember smiling at him through the movement of people between us, still dancing within the circle my friends had formed. What happened next was triggered by me jerking my head sideways indicating to him that we should leave the crowd which he obliged to do. I won’t bore you with the details of our initial conversation, him offering to buy me a drink and then me suggesting we go back to his when we realised how long the wait at the bar would be, but it was when we were stood together in his kitchen, my lower back pressed against a counter watching him filling up a glass of water that it crossed my mind that I could be dicing with the possibility of my murder. At this point in the night, however, I was beyond the point of caring and decided that if he was planning on killing me, at least I would be well hydrated, and my death wouldn’t be much of a burden on the judicial system as the crown court and prison were located just at the end of the street from his house. If I were to become a ghost tied to the location of my death, it would mean I could easily haunt him. Drift down the street and pay him a visit in wing-A.
For context, I was still practically a virgin at that point. I had had sex once with my ex-boyfriend at 17 who I, along with the rest of my family who had met him (not during the act, might I had), believe him to be a closeted homosexual. In fact, apart from a few get-withs in clubs, Louis* was the first guy I had met since. Even so, I was suprised at how calm I was being. Stood in the kitchen, glass of water in hand, making small-talk with this guy who had just the beginning growth of a mullet which, unfortunately was destined to become a standard hairstyle at my university, alongside simply going bald. The outbreak of COVID-19 didn’t help boys’ hair situations. Sequestered alone in the house for months on end, without parental guidance or the rationalising presence of wanting to pull to stop them, many boys simply decided to take clippers to their hair and go to town. The sheer number of guys who did this left the female university population with little choice left than to either become celibate, gay or accept ‘the new normal.’ I became bisexual so I could have better options until sense kicked in and their hair grew back.
“So, would you like anything to eat?”
“No, I think I’m okay,” I responded, knowing how I didn’t want to stand around in his kitchen for half an hour while I waited for some chicken nuggets to finish cooking, as well as risk his house mates coming back early and be treated with the same treatment I gave to the people my own house mates brought back. A raised eyebrow, a knowing smile, slowly walking away after a few minutes strangled conversation…So, we went upstairs.
The sex was interesting.
While I had little previous experience to judge it off back then, I realise now that I had little to offer in bed. I still don’t back myself now, but at least now I have increased my movements in bed to more than a starfish clamped to a rock. Maybe it was the almost-getting-it-up-the-arse moment when I climbed on top which led to him asking if I was a virgin, or the fact that it only lasted about five minutes.
Sitting on the toilet in the most disgusting bathroom I had ever seen — a bathroom would only come to mirror the boys’ bathroom in my own house next year— I realised that I had just had my first one-night stand. I hadn’t come to his house with that thought in my mind. Truth be told, I was too drunk to really be thinking like that. However, Louis had been respectful and attentive to my clear lack of sexual prowess (he should have realised that with my dancing) and had asked me if I wanted to continue when I yelped at the fact that his penis was half-way up my arse. It was in the few minutes that I had to myself in that bathroom, illuminated by the pervasive glare of white light, listening to the poorly suppressed giggles from downstairs from who I assumed were his flatmates, that I had a few minutes to digest what had happened.
I don’t know what I expected to see but my body still looked the same as it had done previously— my feet, legs, my vagina between them, my stomach. I knew something had changed, nothing necessarily positive or negative because I felt very neutral. The realisation that I felt no particularly strong emotion about it was important in how I conceptualised this experience. While I may not necessarily have thought that sex was something shameful before, I definitely didn’t now. While I may not necessarily have agreed with the weight society imposed upon sexual relations, I definitely didn’t after that.
I went back to Louis’ room and we fell asleep together till 6am when I suddenly awoke and realised I didn’t know what time would be appropriate to leave. For the record, 8/9am is fine because you don’t want your shag to have to join you in a 20 minute hunt for your misplaced shoes before the sun has even come up.
“Where’s my shoes?” I asked, my eyes scanning the carpet in front of the door where I sworn I had left them the night before. I turned and looked down the corridor. They weren’t there. Stood in his zebra-striped boxers, Louis confirmed that he had no idea either. “Are you sure you didn’t take them off in my room?”
“No…Definitely didn’t,” I replied, trying to avoid staring at his ridiculous underwear choice.
It was only until we had practically ransacked the living room and kitchen in search for my trainers that it dawned on me that their disappearance might have had something to do with the laughter I had heard from downstairs when I was in the bathroom.
Turns out, his housemates had come home after us and had hidden my shoes on top of a curtain rail as a joke.
I darted out the house and ran home like a zebra-striped panty thief in the night— which is also something I probably didn’t need to do.
I almost cried when my tinder date pulled me closer and kissed me on the forehead. It was if he loved me, or could love me but, of course, that could never be true. By sleeping with him on the first date, I knew that I and my body had become demystified. Maybe by kissing my forehead he was trying to make himself believe that he could love me one day instead of the girlfriend he was still in pieces over. Maybe he could recreate that intimacy with me. Maybe not. Maybe I almost made him cry when I held him on my chest and stroked his hair like I once did with the boyfriend that I could not shake.
as if that we hadn’t just met up to exchange the currency of our bodies. At least that’s how it was for me; paying with my body for sex to be held afterwards. | https://medium.com/@rougemoulin/penis-pioneer-vagina-voyager-an-exploration-of-my-sexuality-as-it-were-976d5b9d2312 | [] | 2020-12-17 00:14:14.397000+00:00 | ['Sex', 'LGBT', 'Relationships', 'Comedy'] |
4 Steps for Making an Excellent 3D Model With a Drone | 4 Steps for Making an Excellent 3D Model With a Drone
Jeff Foster, an expert in 3D modeling, share his best practices
By Anya Lamb, Marketing Manager @DroneDeploy
As we found in our Commercial Drone Industry Trends, more and more people (30% of our users!) are using drones to make 3D models. It’s simple to make a 3D model with DroneDeploy, and in fact, every map includes a 3D model view — but to make a high-quality model that looks great from every angle, there’s a bit more to it.
To help you learn how to make better 3D models, we talked to an expert and asked him to share his tips and tricks.
Jeff Foster, Co-Founder of Sound Visions Media and Editorial Director of Drone Coalition is no stranger to 3D modeling. He’s been doing 3D modeling, rendering and animation since the early 90s and has even written 10 books on the subject. In 2012, Jeff was working with the Pro Video coalition writing articles on GoPro cameras when he was contacted by DJI to review their new drone. He got one, took it out, and thought, “this changes everything”.
When he first began making 3D models with his drone, Jeff used desktop software to process the imagery. Then he found DroneDeploy.
“It’s so much faster and cleaner. The models themselves, and to be able to show them to people with the link — have just been phenomenal.” — Jeff Foster
Today, Jeff flies a DJI Inspire 1 with X3 and X5 cameras, as well as a DJI Phantom 3. In this blog post, Jeff will walk through the steps he took to create a 3D model of the abandoned Navy dorms on Treasure Island, near San Francisco, using his Phantom 3 Professional drone.
Step 1: Pick a Time to Fly
According to Jeff, one of the most important steps in using your drone to make a 3D model is to pick a good time to fly. Besides avoiding high winds or rain, it’s also important to pick a time with good lighting.
“If it’s an overcast day, that’s best because there aren’t strong shadows”, said Jeff. “I usually pick sometime around noon where there are the shortest shadows possible, but you don’t always get a chance to choose that.” [Click to tweet]
The worst time of day? Too early or too late in the day because that’s when the shadows are longest and will have the greatest affect on the outcome of the model.
When flying at the abandoned Navy dorms, Jeff flew around 10am on a partly-cloudy day.
Step 2: Capture Nadir Imagery
Jeff likes to start by capturing nadir imagery, photos captured from directly above looking down, using the free DroneDeploy flight app (iOS or Android). He simply outlines the area he wants to fly on a base layer map, and the app generates a flight plan. Following a safety check, the drone automatically takes off, flies along the automated flight path capturing images and then lands.
“I’ve been flying for a few years and other mapping software that I’ve played with is a little scary because it doesn’t always do what you expect it to do. The DroneDeploy flight app has been really solid — it’s really phenomenal.” — Jeff Foster
Step 3: Circle the Structure to Capture Oblique Imagery
If you’re making a 3D model of relatively flat terrain, an overhead flight might be sufficient to make a good model. However, if you’re modeling a structure or rock formation with steep, vertical or concave sides, overhead images don’t capture a good view of the sides of the structure. For this reason, Jeff recommends flying two additional orbital flights around the structure capturing oblique imagery to improve the quality of your model. [Click to tweet]
“Getting the manual oblique images, in addition to the automated ones on top, gets me a lot better results than just shooting from the top” — Jeff Foster
Inclusion of oblique imagery in the 3D model on the right dramatically improved model quality compared to the model on the left.
Jeff captures manual obliques by tilting the camera 45 degrees and flying around the structure at a fixed radius at the same altitude as the original nadir flight. “Then I’ll come down about half the altitude and angle the camera close to 90 degrees and circle the structure again,” said Jeff.
When capturing oblique images it’s important to avoid capturing the horizon within your images. When Jeff makes these two orbital flights, he manually triggers the camera shutter to take each picture. However if you’re just starting out, you might experiment with flying very slowly and setting the camera through your drone’s flight app to automatically capture images every 3–5 seconds.
In some cases, where the structure is more intricate or includes overhangs (such as the eves on a house), Jeff may even do a third — possibly handheld — orbit from an even lower angle, pointing the camera up to 90 degrees.
Diagram showing the four flights made to model the abandoned Navy dorms
At the abandoned Navy dorms, Jeff made three additional flights to capture oblique imagery. One at 150 feet with the camera angled 45 degrees, and another at 70 feet with the camera angled at approximately 80 degrees. Then he did a final overview pass at about 30 degrees at around 230 feet to capture the entire area. The four flights, including obliques and nadir, took about 45 minutes total and covered approximately 10 acres.
Example imagery from three of Jeff’s four flights
Step 4: Process the Imagery to Generate Your 3D Model
Once he finished flying, Jeff uploaded 504 photos from all four flights to DroneDeploy and chose to process the imagery as a “structure.” After a few hours, DroneDeploy’s cloud-based processing stitched all the images together and the 3D model was complete!
This view in DroneDeploy shows the coverage of photos used to generate the model. Images from the nadir flight are outlined in yellow, oblique images are outlined with pink dotted lines.
Explore the Completed 3D Model
Explore the interactive 3D model (below) or watch the fly-through video (further below).
Watch a 3D fly-through video of the abandoned Navy dorms.
The Most Common Mistake
Jeff said that one of the most common mistakes pilots make is that they’re “not consistent with what they’re shooting — it takes time to get proficient in flying and some don’t take the time to learn.” Elaborating further, Jeff said that novice pilots “may not get enough overlap between images or cover enough area if they’re flying manually.” [Click to tweet]
How do you avoid this mistake? “Practice, practice, practice!” Jeff recommends practicing in big wide open spaces or with flights way above the tree line. To ensure sufficient overlap between images, err on the side of taking images more frequently and covering more of the surface of the structure.
Commercial Applications for 3D Models
Drone enthusiasts aren’t the only ones using drones to make 3D models. Construction sites commonly use 3D models to evaluate the topography of a site, identify earthmoving needs, and to monitor progress of projects against project schedules. Other industries using drone-based 3D modeling include mining and inspection.
Jeff is excited about the potential uses for drone-based 3D models in environmental conservation. He has been experimenting with using drones to measure and model high and low tide along the bay. “You can see differences in 3D. You can see urbanization affecting erosion along the wetlands — that has important intrinsic value here and now,” said Jeff.
Jeff’s 3D Model of Refugio Creek, in Hercules, CA
Where to Learn More
To learn more about how to make 3D models with DroneDeploy, check out the 3D modeling with drones in our support documentation. Drone Coalition and Flite Test also include tutorials showing how to make 3D models with DroneDeploy. If you still have additional questions about making great 3D models, ask other flyers within the community forum.
Make Free 3D Models with DroneDeploy
It’s easy and free to start making 3D models with DroneDeploy. Just signup for an account or download our flight app on the App Store or Google Play. | https://medium.com/aerial-acuity/4-steps-for-making-an-excellent-3d-model-with-a-drone-25dc35f1df62 | [] | 2016-10-28 16:42:45.257000+00:00 | ['Construction', '3d Modeling', 'Drones', 'How To'] |
Sex with God | We Protestants didn’t talk about the book of Sirach, maybe because the Catholics liked it? It’s in the Septuagint (LXX), the Greek translation of the ‘scriptures’ as Jesus knew them.
Jesus seems to quote or works off Sirach, including in the Beatitudes and the Lord’s Prayer. Can it be dismissed?
To turn to the usual text of Sirach 51:13–30, admittedly, there isn’t anything too sexy. Here is the Greek version of v.19–20:
My soul has grappled with her,
And in the performance of the law I was exacting.
I spread my hands on high,
And I thought about ignorance of her,
I directed my soul to her,
and in purification I found her. (NETS)
In the Dead Sea Scrolls, however, a version in Hebrew—the sexual version—was discovered. What to do?
T. Muraoka, the great scholar of Hebrew, notes his puzzlement in a 1979 paper, “Sir. 51, 13–30: An Erotic Hymn to Wisdom?”
“The Greek is totally innocuous and puritan in spirit, entirely free from any signs of offensive, obscene language,” he says.
Is the sexual version ‘offensive’ and ‘obscene’? A phrase like “my hand forced open her portals,” he notes, “could hardly be understood otherwise…”
I love the idea of a vagina as a portal—here to Wisdom, to mystic insight of God, and of fellow humans.
Muraoka adds even more sexual suggestion. The phase translated, in v.19d, “never weary of extolling her,” might be, he thinks: “in the moments of her exaltation [i.e. orgasm], I will not let up…”
Wisdom is orgasmic, but the spiritual seeker doesn’t stop. He wants God to remain in that heightened state, and he develops the skill to keep her there?
Spiritual insight and understanding continues to flow from their coitus. | https://medium.com/belover/sex-with-god-9d8f11dd03c | ['Jonathan Poletti'] | 2020-05-02 06:20:15.728000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Feminism', 'Sex', 'Christianity', 'Religion'] |
Your inner software and outer hardware. | Your inner software and outer hardware.
1 October 2021|Balance and Buildings
What about you? You have software; your mind, emotions, thoughts, feelings… And you have hardware; your body and organs… How do they interact efficiently or how can they interact for you optimal benefit and well-being? Is your most popular operating system your brain or your heart? This is my take on your reality…
Who am I and who are you? Are we the hardware that surrounds us? Our bodies, our skin, and our organs…The physical… all that we can see and touch… our fingerprints…our uniqueness, our skin colour, the wrinkles on our eyes that form as we smile deeply… or the tears that dance out of our eyes when we feel intense emotion… Or are we that emotion…. … those thoughts that flow through our minds. Simply “software” that is coded in our DNA, telling electricity to flow through and stimulate different parts of our brains, for example, the hippocampus. This is a part of our brain strongly associated with memory, and therefore can initiate and start the chain or code of flow of sadness or happiness throughout out being. The “feeling centre” of the brain is the amygdala. But what initiates these feelings? Is it thoughts or memories? And if so what initiates those thoughts and those memories? Science has many explanations of it, and one of them is the concept of the subconscious mind…
“Neurons release brain chemicals, known as neurotransmitters, which generate these electrical signals in neighbouring neurons. The electrical signals propagate like a wave to thousands of neurons, which leads to thought formation. One theory explains that thoughts are generated when neurons fire.” – – Lina Begdache, Ask a scientist
But what initiates these neurons to release brain chemicals? Are all our thoughts simply just a heavy concoction of chemical energy turned electrical energy? Is that why we are how we are, and we think the way we think?
I’ve tried to simplify these concepts by thinking of the way hardware and software interact in the machine world… Different bits, carry different voltage levels, which ultimately just control the electric current flowing through the computers’ electric circuit board. Or instruct one path to open and another to close. It’s just as simple as turning a light switch on and off. Hardware “carrying-out” instructions therefore simply means the central processing unit sending electricity through one path instead of the other, which in turn results in an operation occurring… Just as neurotransmitters in our brain simply send electrical signals down one pathway instead of the other.
Hence, if it is this simple why are we not then just as easy to understand as machines. Where does the humanity come in? This is a question many people battle with, myself included… What makes a meaningful life? Is it to understand who we are or why we are here? Or is it to find ourselves both friends with life and death… Where does the harmony come in where both inner software and outer hardware interact in the most optimal, way with the most optimal understanding of beyond both of them?
Someone who tackles these questions gracefully is neurosurgeon and neuroscientist Paul Kalanithi in his book When Breath Becomes Air. Paul states in his book that “Lucy and I both felt that life wasn’t about avoiding suffering. Years ago, it had occurred to me that Darwin and Nietzsche agreed on one thing: the defining characteristic of the organism is striving.”
Maybe that statement simply is the answer to the question: to ask questions. To strive to be the best versions or latest update of your personal software and hardware. Although true perfection is found in accepting imperfection, the striving can be compared to chasing something just as the asymptote in mathematics does. Knowing well it will never be reached. You still run towards it whole heartedly, and mindfully, embracing all numbers and co-ordinates you find yourself in. Until you come so close, that the gap between the line and the asymptote cannot even be seen with the naked eye. To be curious and to struggle to find that balance of life, purpose, understanding, truth and ultimately the reality that encompasses all understanding. To make peace through finding hardships. And to understand the delicacy of thought through the arbitrariness of some electric flow.
“You can’t ever reach perfection, but you can believe in an asymptote toward which you are ceaselessly striving.”
― Paul Kalanithi, When Breath Becomes Air | https://medium.com/@connect_76762/your-inner-software-and-outer-hardware-9dc95c50aaf2 | ['Aaliyah Sacoor - Nce'] | 2021-12-20 15:32:35.865000+00:00 | ['Hardware', 'Software Engineering', 'Curiousity', 'Enlightenment', 'Flow'] |
Business Reputation Checker offers Google Reputation Score | These days just about everyone looks for customer reviews and consumer complaints before buying a product online or from a local business or hiring a new service provider. And for good reason: online reviews, testimonials and customer ratings offer reliable information on goods and services and offer consumers an easy way to compare products and services.
How Do You Check the Online Reputation Score of a Business or Brand?
Checking the reputation of a brand or business is typically done online using a search engine such as Google or Bing. Entering the name of a business + “reviews”, or “complaints” and carefully examine the first few pages of search engine results is the method used by most people to check out a company before buying its products or services.
Free Business Reputation Checking and Scoring Tools
Online reputation management companies and search engine optimization professionals have developed sophisticated methods to manipulate search results. As a result, searching Goole, Bing or Yahoo may not give you an accurate illustration of a businesses reputation or trustworthiness, however.
For this reason, new web tools have surfaced that offer advanced reputation search features. These new reputation search engines are referred to as Reputation Checkers. Use of Reputation Checker tools is increasing as consumers look for more accurate ways to gauge the trustworthiness of businesses, brands and products.
Top Online Reputation Checkers
RepCheckr is a free business reputation search engine and checking tool that allows visitors to effortlessly generate online reputation reports by scanning the web for negative content, consumer complaints, bad reviews, ratings, etc. and presenting relevant information in an easy to reputaiton report.
Checking the reputation of a business or brand is easy with RepCheckr. Simply go to RepCheckr.com, type the name of the business, brand, website or product that you’d like to perform a reputation check on, click submit and you’re presented with a reputation report and Google reputation score.
RepDigger
A reputation checking tool that allows visitors to conduct advanced searches for complaints, ratings, lawsuits, reviews and other negative content. RepDigger.com is similar to RepCheckr, however, in addition to business reputation scorecard reports, RepDigger.com also offers advanced search features to check people’s reputations and the reputation of phone numbers. | https://medium.com/business-reputation-check/business-reputation-checker-offers-google-reputation-score-5a5333dba205 | [] | 2017-01-18 03:55:35.695000+00:00 | ['Due Diligence', 'Business', 'Public Relations', 'Digital Marketing', 'Online Reputation'] |
A Peculiar Tune | Quatria
Upon issuing forth from the cave mouth through which he had escaped the Black Water and Stone Sea below, Benda became immediately drowsy.
The sun shone down on him, and he blinked dumbly to see its rays again. It took several moments for his eyes to adjust to natural light again, and his limbs felt incredibly heavy. The cool breeze rose up from what he could now see was a large body of water not far off. He looked around. The cave opened onto a rocky ledge. And without climbing down, or otherwise exploring further his surroundings, he promptly returned to the cave mouth and dozed off for how long he did not know, half in the shade of the cave, half in the sun’s rays.
He slept the sleep of the dead, but he knew he was not dead, and despite being nearly (or even possibly) turned to stone, he had returned to the land of the living. Or at least one of those lands…
What roused him finally was not the smell of the sea nearby, the crashing of waves, or the cry of the sea birds. It was the strange sound of a flute, horribly out of tune, arythmic, almost broken sounding, which roused him out of slumber.
He stretched, and opened his eyes, rubbed his ears, and his face, his cheeks, and his forehead, blinked once hard, and then again.
“What a horrible racket!” he muttered to himself. Gathering himself, he got up to search for its origin. A thin rocky trail descended the rocky ledge from the cave mouth. As it wound downward, there was revealed a green but scrabbly field, and beyond it a sea which Benda did not recognize immediately.
Round the final bend of his descent, the broken horrid tune grew significantly louder, until stepping out onto the grass, Benda thought he spotted its source. He sensed there was someone behind a boulder of medium height, too tall to easily see over. He crept over to behind where the boulder lay, taking care to stay out of the line of sight of whoever — or whatever — might be on the other side.
Try as he might though, Benda could not surprise the strange but wise little fellow who had sat down there to sit in the shade and play his flute. As Benda approached, from the far side of the boulder the music — if you could really call it music — stopped abruptly, and there was silence. Benda, crouched there, suddenly felt a bit foolish for hiding and stood up.
“Hullo there,” he said over the rock, and strode out around it. But he did not realize, that from the other side, the little fellow had also gotten up to get a look at the visitor who was trying to creep up on him unawares. And so, when each reached the other side, they found it empty.
“Most peculiar,” said the little figure wearing a wide brimmed hat, top slumped to one side. Most peculiar indeed. He held in one of several hands (actually, technically, rootlets) his little reed flute, which he had carved himself from a special type of reed that only grew alongside the Great River. Over his shoulder was slung a simple pack. “Most peculiar indeed.”
“I say,” Benda began, circling back the way he had come. Likewise, the little brown lumpy figure did the same in the opposite direction on his thin stalks-for-legs. Once again, they each found an empty space the other had just vacated. “Hold still!”
The little figure did so, and finally revealed himself bodily to Benda, bowing low in a pretentious and awkward but nonetheless charming manner. Benda couldn’t help but smile ear to ear at this ridiculous creature.
“Tob the Gobble, at your service,” he said, removing his purple hat with a flourish, and using the butt end of his flute to simulate the cane of a gentleman.
“Benda, at yours,” he said.
Returning his cap to his brown lumpy head, Tob remarked, “Just Benda?”
Benda shook his head, “Just Benda.”
“Hmm! Then, Benda the Just we’ll call you! Everyone needs a second name, don’t you agree?”
“I’ve had too many,” Benda admitted, still smiling at the peculiar little fellow. “Now I’m just me.”
“What’s one more for good measure?” the gobble said, twirling around merrily. “Hmm, that reminds me of a song,” he began, holding up his flute to what seemed to pass for a mouth on the little creature. He exhaled into the instrument with a strange sort of hooofting sound.
“Please, let’s just… talk for a while first,” Benda interrupted him, hoping to break off another long horrible peculiar little tune like that which had roused him from his sleep and brought him to this place.
Tob seemed to eye him from the many small root buds which speckled the surface of his hard-looking skin, and lowered his flute. “Music critic, eh? I see. What about jokes? Got any good ones? Don’t worry, I’ve got quite a few! Let’s see…”
“I’m sorry,” Benda said. “I’m sure they’re quite funny, and I don’t mean to be rude, but I’m not really much in the mood for joking or music. I’ve lost my friends, and I don’t know where even really I am. I’m just trying to get home to see my family again.”
“Tough crowd,” Tob quipped. “Let’s see then, a tale! A tell all! Whoohoo!”
Benda groaned, he realized, audibly. But Tob didn’t seem to notice or care, and just went right on going.
“A tale it is then. It’s settled. It’s been a while. Let’s see… I’ll tell you a tale, not a tall tale, but not quite a small tale — let’s call it a little bit more than ‘little.’ A little bit (much) like me. In fact, it’s my tale, and I’ll give it to you, and then you, dear friend, can regale me with yours.”
“This sounds like it might take a while. Is there somewhere we might sit down?” Benda asked. “Somewhere out of the sun?” He looked up again at the sky, nervously beginning to remember the prying eyes from above, the eagle and shape-shifter Murta who had hunted him and his party like prey, driving them under-ground.
“Why, yes! I know just the place, Benda the Just, for just such a tale! Hooray! Follow me!” And off he went, playing his flute and dancing as they walked, stop only once briefly to interject, “A song for a walk, I always say! Hey, hey!”
Near the edge of the sea, where the rock ledge jutted out, they rounded a bend, and there was a grove of low trees. Benda sheltered down in it, out of the sun, and braced himself for what he suspected might be a rather long-winded tale from his peculiar, yet oddly charming new friend, Tob the Gobble. | https://medium.com/quatrian-folkways/a-peculiar-tune-791568412dbf | ['Timothy S. Boucher'] | 2019-09-19 02:48:08.833000+00:00 | ['Fiction', 'Fantasy', 'Writing', 'Science Fiction', 'Quatria'] |
How to Find Inspiration for Your Business Even in Toughest Times | Getting your business up and running is a tall task. It means countless hours of your precious time and hundreds of sleepless nights invested in something unknown. Although it’s very fulfilling to work for yourself, this moon has its dark side — you’re left alone with the problems and have to go through the rough times by yourself. When an employee can weather the storm by simply changing the workplace, you have to find the mental force to cope with turmoil and put your business back on the rails.
If you’ve clicked on this article, I assume you’re a grown-up who is well aware of how to deal with problems. Such advice as “analyze what went wrong and try again” is surely what you’ve tried and is probably not worth noting in the first place.
But what can really be done if the project has hit a dead-end and there’s no feasible way to escape this trap? Here are some of the more or less obvious things you should try out to get your mojo back on track and drop the weight of the world from your shoulders: these won’t fix the bugs in your code but will give you a look at how to get an impulse for coping with such things.
No mentors, do it yourself
Well, the Number 1 rule is to avoid “mentors” whose services cost real money but have no real value. Trust me, you can get all these platitudes for free on the Internet: paying for the “get over it” phrases is not the way to prosperity. There are almost no real psychologists among “trainers,” but their paycheck implies they’re Oxford graduates.
Ironically, the person who has probably inspired the most people, Shia LaBeouf, who made an arbitrary “Just do it” with a big portion of humor, can’t even fix his own life now. Each person is unique, so don’t expect someone to come up with a ready decision for you, seek the inspiration yourself!
Physical activity
It’s not about building muscles — getting up and moving proves to be a great way to alleviate stress.
Physical exercise is the clear victor here: it’s a great way to get your blood going, which will stimulate the brain to work. This will also help your mental state: sports are a great way to fight depression. And I’m talking about casual stuff like walking, swimming, or ping-pong — something to keep you relaxed and engaged at the same time.
Meditation and yoga are no longer exotic and require a minimum commitment unless you want to become a pro, which is not the case. While yoga is more about making you balanced and patient, meditation can help you focus on the things you need: figuring out the main issues is easy when nothing else distracts you.
Music and ambience
Although Chopin is arguably the best composer to listen to while working (according to the TV series “Dexter”), you can pick any of the music greats to become energized. If all you need to rock is to hear a motivational speech, then maybe choose… rock? It’s a less stressful way to hear the words you need, plus it will rhyme on top of having great instrumentals. The human brain is more susceptible to soaking up info when it is neatly packaged, so it’s okay to avoid monotonous speakers in favor of a lovely melody with a life-affirming message.
Some people don’t even need the words: like long-time family members, they can be content with silence. So, some classical pieces are often what could make your brain come up with stellar ideas — Sherlock and his violin will not lie.
Some active and rhythmic music can also be a motivator; its fast tempo can set the pace for your mood and ideas, hopefully becoming the driving force towards accomplishing your goals.
Setting up the ambiance is an important thing in general: music is an essential part of this and it can be complemented nicely by cozy furniture, relaxing colors, and even maybe some pictures that will motivate you — that’s where it won’t hurt to throw in some inspirational quotes.
Balanced eating
Forget about tons of food. Seriously, it’s not about fat-shaming or something similar; eating is a great short-term solution for the anxiety but it’s also one of the signs of depression. Not only does emotional eating distract from the real problems but it is also time-consuming, and unless you prefer consuming lots of junk food, this is not the way to go either.
Your brainstorming sessions may also suffer from those who feast before the event — try to keep it modest prior to such meetings.
It’s a proven fact that it’s better to make intuitive decisions when not being well-fed, especially when you need to come up with an original concept.
But we all like to eat and it often makes us happy, so just eat the food you could benefit from. Although broccoli, being the champ of useful food, isn’t the tastiest of things, fish can become your choice — even the fattier species are well-refined and stimulate the brain to work. Olive oil will be a great assistant in making your dishes fancy, and nuts will help you keep fed on top of being great for neural activity.
Get enough sleep
Sleeping is one of the best ways to fill yourself with energy. An entrepreneur’s life is dense and hard to predict, but sleeping for 7–8 hours a day is what will keep your morale high. Your brain needs to rest, so let it chill for a while and refresh in order to solve problems and escape the dead-end status of your project.
A lack of sleep is the main cause of all sorts of angst and depression, so don’t worry about going to bed instead of watching another mindless show or newscast.
Imagine that your PC or laptop has been turned on for several weeks and is lagging behind at all sorts of tasks. But when you press the “reset” button, it starts working just fine. This is pretty much how our brain works; just be kind to it and give a break — it will pay you back with more processing power!
Mastermind group
Here is some harsh advice: be the dumbest person around. This sounds bad for your self-esteem, but hold on — it’s a fine way to become inspired. If you surround yourself with people who are smarter, more active, agile, and resourceful than you, it will give you a nice impetus to move forward and overcome the tough times.
Although it may look like an AA group, having a group of people who can listen to you and hold you accountable for further activities is a good tool in your well-being arsenal. This can be a group of your peers who you meet every 2 weeks and are around 6–8 people, so it’s not too crowded or too small at the same time. Sure, you’re a strong person if you decided to be an entrepreneur, but having someone to lift you up is simply too good to ignore.
Combination of cool things
Like a generous Walmart discount, try to get 2 things for the price of one. For example, take a long walk while listening to “Dust in the Wind” or go to the beach if there’s a seashore — a river bank is a nice option, too.
Or just go crazy and visit a foreign country with some extra side trips. Whether it’s Nordic fjords or mid-Europe canals, there’s a ton of places that will reinvigorate you to unwind and get inspired for new triumphs.
The pioneers of the past used to draw inspiration from their environment — even during the mid-project stages, they took long walks, granted there was no Internet. At its basic level, the human brain hasn’t changed much since; just keep your eyes fresh so the mind can capture ideas that may become a solution for you later. | https://medium.com/hackernoon/how-to-find-inspiration-for-your-business-even-in-toughest-times-da702a200eec | ['Valeriy Bykanov'] | 2018-12-17 09:22:06.320000+00:00 | ['Productivity', 'Inspiration', 'Motivation', 'Startup', 'Business'] |
The End of Wow, The Beginning of Beauty | UNESCO World Heritage Centre
The End of Wow, The Beginning of Beauty
The great reckoning presents a huge opportunity: Facebook must transform — and so must we as business leaders.
When even in Silicon Valley the future doesn’t look all that bright anymore, it is fair to assume that things in the rest of the business world are not too rosy either.
The recent Cambridge Analytica/Facebook scandal has shattered the data-driven digital economy at its core, both the reigning tech juggernauts and those aspiring to compete or at least catch up with them. While the erstwhile path to utopia was certainly bumpy and not without disappointments, the Promised Land itself appears to be dystopian now. On top of fake news, we are confronted with fake business models (e.g. Theranos) and the false equations of the gig economy that propel an asymmetry between the value creation for workers (who increasingly find themselves in a ruthless race to the bottom) and that for platform owners. As a recent New York Times op-ed by Steven Hill pointed out, Uber, despite its new leadership, still not only threatens the taxi profession, but also congests our city streets and air, and undercuts public transportation. A bad corporate citizen reducing our citizenship to mere convenience, our agency to user experience, is not exactly what the sharing economy had set out do to.
Digital disenchantment
The disenchantment is profound: We dreamt of flying cars and got 140 characters, as Peter Thiel famously stated (we also dreamt of responsible investors and got Peter Thiel — who may be indirectly connected to Cambridge Analytica, according to recent reports). We were hoping for a more connected, democratic world — real human progress — and what did we get? Facebook.
In light of the recent scandal, Yale management professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld has launched a scathing attack on Mark Zuckerberg himself, chastising him for arrogance and lack of leadership. But, leadership missteps aside, Facebook may simply have become too big not to fail. Exponential growth has led to exponential problems. To slightly paraphrase Andrew Keen, it turns out that the Internet is not only not the answer, it might very well be the problem.
Consequently, the call for more effective governance of digital platforms, for stricter regulations is gaining momentum. Regulators in the US and Europe have summoned Zuckerberg to testify. Tim O’Reilly calls for restoring trust in our political and societal institutions to reverse our over-reliance on the ‘invisible hand’ of market forces. Martin Reeves and his colleagues from the BCG Henderson Institute reflect on “who’s watching the algorithms” and make an economic case for what they call a “referee strategy.” Others reckon that the problem is not aberrant behavior, but systemic flaws, rooted in what Zeynep Tufekci calls the “Facebook surveillance machine.”
Facebook’s vision has of course always been a contradiction in itself: a connected borderless world, but within the Walled Garden of the company’s “Facebook-is the-Internet” ambition. It’s now becoming apparent that even the underlying philosophical concept might not be desirable. As this riveting exchange between New Yorker technology writers highlights, we are beginning to realize that connectivity might potently spread our deeply human vices and be the disease rather than the cure. What if the assumption that we’re all kind and well-intended was fundamentally wrong?
Carlos Gomes da Silva, the CEO of Portuguese energy conglomerate Galp, recently proclaimed that relationships are our most exponential technology — a beautiful line if you look at in isolation, but a frightening thought if you think about the potential of manipulation, not only by malicious cyberattacks, but the seemingly benign and ‘user-friendly’ psychological stimuli that Umair Haque bemoans when he refers to the “Dopamine Economy.”
“You cannot not manipulate,” I overheard someone say at conference last week, in a subtle nod to Watzlawick’s famous claim, “You cannot not communicate” — a statement that is exponentially more relevant in the data-driven digital economy. The Great Persuaders have made way for the Great Manipulators. Product and marketing managers from tech and non-tech firms alike are becoming masterful at the ‘Manipulation Matrix’ that is fueled by algorithms amounting to one big feedback system designed to change our behavior: “Are we all just part of one big A/B yest?,” Sunil Rajaraman wonders.
So where do we go from here?
Let’s make no mistake. We’re facing a fundamental crisis of trust (with trust levels in business already low and stagnant for years, according to the Edelman Trust Barometer), and in order to restore it and re-earn its license to operate, business must over-deliver.
Instead of seeking the next wow, we business leaders must learn how to appreciate the beauty of things that don’t scale, we must celebrate incrementalism instead of exponentialism: small acts of generosity and kindness, humility and honesty, a purpose-over-profit mentality, sustainability and long-term thinking, as well as deep connections with colleagues and customers. The difference between wow and beauty is the difference between useful and precious, between merely engaging customers and truly touching them emotionally.
Let’s start by truly putting them first (note that only drug dealers and IT call their customers “users”), as humans, and not just in our interactions, but our intentions. This implies we design for our their (our) full selves instead of creating ‘human-centered’ experiences based on convenience and efficiency, which, as Tim Wu put it, are all “destination, no journey.” It also implies that we ultimately give our customers full data sovereignty. A first step in this direction are the Open Banking standards in Europe that now require banks to share aggregates of all their customer data with third parties for the sake of a flourishing developer ecosystem and better products for us all.
Business isn’t a supermarket
Moreover, let’s expand algorithmic accountability to algorithmic beauty. Let’s not just deliver but serve, not just ship but arrive. The writer Anand Giridharadas said, “democracy is not a supermarket.” Well, business isn’t either, even though Amazon and other apostles of radical convenience might want you to believe so. Commerce is a social performance, a platform for making deep connections rather than just seamless transactions. As the philosopher and business ethicist Robert Solomon wrote, “market systems are justified not because of efficiencies and profits, but because humans are first and foremost social and emotional beings, and markets provide a sympathetic community for social exchange.”
While corporate work may have been a hamster wheel for many for many years, dataism has now turned it into a rat race for everybody. It doesn’t have to be that way. Let’s liberate ourselves as well as our customers and employees from the iron cage of the Quantified Self regime that aims to track all our data to maximize and optimize all our behavior. Let’s not do the data thing — let’s do what is beautiful and do it beautifully, even if that means defying the data, acting against the data. ‘Don’t be evil’ is no longer good enough, and not even the Golden Rule is. Let’s over-deliver and create beauty with every single one of our actions.
Let’s create organizations that are movements, not machines, vibrant and colorful, diverse and inclusive, especially of those who can’t or don’t want to belong to them. Let’s nurture companies so they celebrate life by fostering rituals rather than processes, and allow for multiple, fluid identities which we can use to perform our dreams and desires in a much wider playing-field.
Beauty is not a feature, it must be the code
In a recent Korn Ferry survey, the majority of CEOs worldwide considered technology to be their biggest asset (the workforce didn’t even make it to the top 5). This is a concerning trend. At the end of the day, any organization’s biggest asset is not technology, it’s not even the workforce either — it is something uniquely human: hope.
Hope is not in infinite supply, as we’re finding out these days, with so many promises broken. Beauty, the writer Stendhal said, is the promise of happiness. For today’s and tomorrow’s businesses, this means: Beauty is not a feature, it must be the code. It must be embedded in every single piece of our software stacks, in every single act of value-creation, in every aspect of our culture, in the way we think, communicate, and gather.
From the dorm room of Harvard, Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook have written history by becoming the biggest social network of our times. Imagine what example Zuckerberg would set if he disrupted his own disruption and transformed Facebook once more into a new guiding star? What if it reinvented itself as a shining example of what a company, in pursuit of its best and boldest version of itself, might look like in this new human-machine age?
What if Facebook were not only an exponential, but a beautiful business? | https://medium.com/predict/the-end-of-wow-the-beginning-of-beauty-e0f4f6f41e53 | ['Tim Leberecht'] | 2018-10-22 11:28:08.335000+00:00 | ['Silicon Valley', 'Digital', 'Future Of Work', 'Facebook', 'Leadership'] |
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Build a Command Line Interface(CLI) Program with .NET Core | Scenario
We have a web application. The application is for companies in the construction industry to manage their delivery tickets. The application is a modern web application built on the MEAN stack with a well designed RESTful API. The API is consumed by the in-house built web portal and the Android/iOS app. The API is also open to any third-party program for integration.
Everything looks good. More and more customers signed up to use this application. One of the most requested functions from customers is to export the tickets in a certain format and import into their accounting system for billing purposes.
We thought the open API was enough. But challenges here are:
Almost every customer uses a different accounting software. Some of them prefer XML. Some of them prefer CSV. Very few like JSON.
Most of those accounting systems are still on-premise software installed in their local network.
Even if some customers are using the same accounting software, they could ask for a different format with different data fields.
Most customers don’t have in-house developers
We decided to build a CLI program to fill this gap. Even though we could build every export format into the customer web portal with configurations, we always find it is not flexible enough to meet customer’s all kinds of requirements with the export format. Also, some customers want to automate this process in their local network. A CLI program is perfect for this scenario. With the CLI, we could write a script to automate the process and customize the export data format with the customization settings saved locally.
Ideas
What is Command-line Interface(CLI)? See the wikipedia.
Some great examples are:
Why CLI?
Programs with command-line interfaces are generally easier to automate via scripting.
Why .NET Core?
Obviously .NET Core is not the only option to build a CLI. And it is not even the most popular one at this moment for sure. Python or Node.js could be the better option if you are familiar with them. But compare with .NET, .NET Core at least has met one of the most important requirements: cross platform.
Development environment
Windows 10
Visual Studio 2017 Community Edition
.NET Core 3.1
Programming
Create a new project choose [Console App (.NET Core)]
Edit Project File by right clicking the project
In the project file, change
to
LangVersion enables async main , you can use latest
RuntimeIdentifier enables publishing self-contained deployments.
AssemblyName specifies the output exe file name.
Configuration
We use the appsetting.json file to save the configuration in .NET Core.
Generic Host
.Net Core 2 introduced the Generic Host.The host is responsible for app startup and lifetime management.
A very good document about the Generic Host here.
Install-Package Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting
By using the generic host introduced in .NET Core recent version, it will make it much easier to configure the logging, dependency injection etc.
Logging
Serilog is one of the most popular logging libraries for .NET Core.
Install-Package Serilog.Extensions.Logging
Install-Package Serilog.Settings.Configuration
Install-Package Serilog.Sinks.Console
Install-Package Serilog.Sinks.File
We use the appsetting.json to configure the serilog
.ReadFrom.Configuration(Configuration)
Putting the configuration in the setting file rather than in the code makes it easier to change the logging behavior without modifying the code. The configuration above uses a rolling file for each day.
Inside ConfigureServices , it enables the ILogger interface available for injection by providing the SerilogLoggerProvider as the Logging provider.
Dependency Injection
The HostBuilder’s ConfigureServices passes the IServiceCollection , which can be used to configure the dependency injections. For example,
Command Line parser
One of the challenges of writing a CLI program is how to parse the command line. We can always write the parser ourselves from scratch but this is too time consuming even though it is a very interesting task for a coder. There are a couple of popular command line parser libraries available for .NET Core:
The dotnet/command-line-api has a very interesting story behind. And it is somehow related to natemcmaster/CommandLineUtils. You can read the story here. Hopefully it can be included in .NET Core someday. Read through it’s document is very helpful to develop a CLI program.
Also, understanding how the windows command line involves is very helpful and interesting.
We eventually chose to use https://github.com/natemcmaster/CommandLineUtils, We like it’s
API syntax design Dependency injection support with the generic host Support the async execution
Install-Package McMaster.Extensions.CommandLineUtils
Install-Package McMaster.Extensions.Hosting.CommandLine
await builder.RunCommandLineApplicationAsync<iStradaCmd>(args);
This line of code will use the class iStradaCmd as the main/root command to start the command line parser and execution with the dependency injection built in. It works perfectly with the generic host.
There are three important concepts in this library: command, option and argument.
Those concepts came from the unix world Command line structure
Option is a name/value pair, and argument is just value. That simply means, option can show up in the command line in different places because the name can tell what option it is. The argument , on the other hand, has no name, so it has to appear in a certain place in the command line.
The CommandLineUtils library supports the sub command. For example,
git commit -m “initial”
git is the main/root command, commit is the sub command.
The CommandLineUtils library uses the attributes to map the command/sub command to class, and map the option and argument to class property. This bridges between parse results and functionality. The type of the command class property can be String, Boolean, Byte, Int16, Int32, Int64, UInt16, UInt32, UInt64, Float, Double, Uri, DateTime, DateTimeOffset, TimeSpan, Array, Enum, HashSet, List, Nullable, Tuple , etc. It heavily relies on the reflection to do the mapping and parsing.
A good example can be found here. [https://github.com/natemcmaster/CommandLineUtils/blob/master/docs/samples/subcommands/inheritance/Program.cs]
A complete code for the program class:
Root Command
For our CLI program, we implement two sub commands for the first version.
istrada login
istrada list-tickets
login will allow user login with their credentials. The credentials will be saved locally as part of its profile so that user does not need to login again next time.
list-tickets will fetch the tickets from the web service.
We have class iStradaCmd for the main command, class LoginCmd for sub command login and class ListTicketCmd for sub command list-tickets. Also I will have all my command classes inherited from the base class iStradaCmdBase . That will be helpful since all the command class might want to have some common information like user profile and some common functions like http request/response processes.
Here is how class iStradaCmd looks like:
The CommandLineUtils library’s attributes are pretty much self-explained.
Login Command
Login will save the credentials locally in a file, also, it will verify the credentials using the istrada’s api once saved so the user is aware of if they entered the right credential information or not.
the credentials can be passed in through the option -u and -p, or if not presented, the program will ask the credentials input at run time.
Here is how class LoginCmd looks like:
Command login has three options: username, password, and staging. Those three options are mapped to properties on the class through the attributes. In the method OnExecute , it checks if the username or password is passed in through the command line. If not, it asks the user to input this information since those options are required in order for command to continue to run.
Class Prompt is a helper from the library that takes the input from console. Prompt.GetPasswordAsSecureString will display asterisks when user type password from the console.
It writes the user profile to a file under the user’s folder. So next time, the program will load the profile from the file and user does not need to enter this information every time. The password is encrypted when saved in the local file for security.
It then call the API to try to authenticate.
Login support multiple profiles. You can login in as different user and specified a different profile name. Multiple profiles will be saved locally. Later, all other commands can pass the proflle option to specify which profile to use for that command execution. If option profile not specified from the command line, it will default to profile ‘ default ’.
List Ticket Command
List Ticket command retrieves the tickets from istrada.
It accept start-date and end-date options to filter the tickets. If those two options are not presented on the command line, it will prompt the user to enter those options. It then format the url and call the iStrada API to retrieve the tickets. The returned data is in json format. It call OutputJson to output the data. Currently iStrada API always return data in json format. OutputJson is a method on the command base class. The base class iStradaCmdBase will handle how to output the data. FileNameSuffix is also a property on the base class. FileNameSuffix will be used to format the filename’s suffix if output the data to a local file.
Base Command class
All the command classes are derived from the base class iStradaCmdBase . The base class holds
some common options that applied for most commands, for example, Profile , OutputFormat , OutputFile , XSLTFile .
, , , . some protected properties that used by inherited command classes, for example, _logger , _httpClientFactory , _console and FileNameSuffix .
, , and . some common methods that are useful for all other inherited classes, for example Encrypt , Decrypt , OnException
Here is how the code looks like:
When the class ListTicketCmd retrieved the tickets, it will calls OutputJson
OutputJson(tickets, “tickets”, “ticket”);
This is because currently the iStrada API can only return data in JSON. OutputJson is a method in the base class, the method will check option output-format , the option default to json , if the output-format is xml , it will convert the data to XML format using the Json.NET library’s JsonConvert.DeserializeXNode and then call method OutputXml . In method OutputXml , it will check if the command line passed in option xslt , which points to a local XSL file. If so, will use the XSL file to transform the XML data to another format (xml, html, csv, etc).
The reason we want to support the XSLT transformation is that every customer wants to export the data to their own specific format, even though they might use the same vendor accounting software. By supporting the XSLT transformation, we don’t need to hardcode the data transformation in the code, rather, the transformation file is saved in a separate file that we can modify it without changing the program code.
We also pass a XSLTExtension object as the XSLT extention to the XSLT transformation. As the .NET only implemented XSLT 1.0. We can use the class XLSTExtension to implement some features XSLT 1.0 does not support or hard to achieve. The class XLSTExtension looks like this:
After we transformed the data, now we can output the data. We could output the data to the console as default, or if the command line passed the option output with a file path, we will save the data to the file.
Methods Encrypt and Decrypt provide the function to encrypt the password of the user profile. It uses the AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) with the key related to the username of the OS. So that, if you copy this file over to another PC or use it under another user, it wont work. This improves the security, but It is not a good enough practice strictly speaking.
iStradaClient
iStradaClient is just the wrapper class of iStrada RESTful API.
The HttpClient passed in is created by _httpClientFactory that injected in by the dependency injection from the command class. Here explains why.
Exit Code
When the program exits, it returns 0 for success or 1 for failure. We can define more codes to indicate the exact reasons of the failure. This code is called exit code. We can define the exit code however we want in the program. But use 0 for success is a broadly adopted convention. If we manually run the program, you can get the exit code by type echo $? in bash or echo %errorlevel% in windows command. On Windows/DOS, a pseudo environment variable named errorlevel stores the exit code.
This exit code some time is important when it is returned to the parent process and the parent process wants to use the exit code to test if the cli command is executed successfully or not. Here is an example in c# on Windows:
Automate
With the CLI tool in place, using a script to automate this process becomes a relatively easy task. For example, on Windows platform, we can write a PowerShell script to automate this process if a customer wants to run this task daily to extract the ticket and save to a local file automatically. And then use the windows scheduler to set up the schedule to run it.
Here is an example
Distribution
When a lot of users use the CLI tool, one challenge will be how to update the software to the most recent version. Squirrel.Windows is a great .NET solution for the windows desktop software distribution. It handles the installation and update seamlessly.
https://github.com/Squirrel/Squirrel.Windows
Afterthought
It is a very simple program. But it does indicate the necessary parts to build a CLI program. As a developer, CLI is more developer friendly than the rich GUI. When we manage our cloud solution on AWS or Azure, or use some framework like .NET Core or Angular 2+, we try to use the command line interface as much as we can to avoid using the more user friendly portal. Those experiences will definitely help us understand how a well-designed CLI program works and some important conventions of the syntax design. | https://medium.com/swlh/build-a-command-line-interface-cli-program-with-net-core-428c4c85221 | ['Hongbo Liu'] | 2020-06-19 11:49:47.085000+00:00 | ['Net Core', 'C Sharp Programming', 'Programming', 'Cli'] |
A Celebration of Culture | Article by Helen Lao, Founder, and CEO of Clear Path Solutions
My family is originally from China but fled to the island of Taiwan during the revolution. While their stories were different, many of the details mirrored one another. My father tells me about how my grandparents were forced to decide between their one suitcase or their youngest son boarding the final flight. I’m certainly glad they chose my dad. My mother was separated from her own parents for three decades, living in Taiwan. There was little to no communication between them.
My father became an ex-pat so I was given the gift of visiting mainland China during my most formative years: middle school and high school. Every summer of those years, I went back and learned a culture I saw only in my own home. I realized that running water, flushing toilets, and transportation were all privileges.
Back in the US, we lived in Massachusetts. I grew up in a friendly suburban area, very much removed from what my family experienced. However, their background had a huge impact on how I was raised, and the person I have become.
I only spoke mandarin until I was nearly 5-years-old. I went to a nursery school and still couldn’t speak English. I was even put in a special education program. Despite initial concerns, the teachers told my parents that I’d be able to attend public Kindergarten. They assured my parents that immersion was the quickest way to learn the language.
In China, parents are often measured by how successful their kids are. Judgment comes from friends, society, and, even more so, fellow family members. When you compound this with the fact that my parents came here with so little, it heightened those pressures you hear about.
Don’t misunderstand, my parents always ensured we had the things that mattered and I always felt loved. Yes, my childhood was regimented and disciplined. But it became an advantage later on.
For example, my mother had a very strong scarcity mindset. It goes back to her survival mentality from escaping the war and being separated from her family. The importance of saving and not squandering was learned from an early age. I started maxing out my 401K right away at 21-years-old and never looked back.
We also received very candid feedback when we were younger. There was no beating around the bush about how we were doing. I learned to be very honest with myself, even if it was discouraging, at times. I know when I’ve reached my ceiling on something and need help. This has paid huge dividends as I’ve seen so many people barrel forward when they don’t know what they are doing, become opportunistic, or worse, overplay their hand which can lead to being perceived as a “fraud.” I know when to pause, ask for feedback, and surround myself with people much smarter than I on any given subject. It has become one of my greatest strengths. I surround myself with people who complement me.
As I look back at my journey, I don’t see myself as a clone of the culture I come from but more an extension of it. There are so many things I do differently than people might assume. For example, as a child, report cards were this constant source of dread. It was where the judgment was at its most harsh. I haven’t been nearly as live-or-die about report cards with my own children. Education is still very important and I push them to achieve their fullest potential. But I take a broader approach in teaching them about life.
I’ve certainly inherited a bit of the protectiveness from my family, though not as intense. For example, I don’t allow my children to do sleepovers, for a number of reasons. This was a rule I hated as a child and often led to, “but everyone else gets to sleepover.” It frustrated me that it always fell on deaf ears. I came to appreciate it. Perhaps my children eventually will too. Many of the things I disliked as a child later fed my underlying values and motivation.
On my 40th birthday, my dad gave a speech, joking that the reason I have so many shoes today is that they couldn’t afford shoes because of how quickly my feet grew as a child. Even my cake topper was a high heel shoe. So many people in our family have made great strides in their lives. At one point, some family members were making $20 a month working in China. They’ve all done so much better today and have grown and succeeded.
I’ve come to believe in hard work as the great differentiator. The harder I’ve worked, the luckier I’ve seemed to get. If that comes from my background, great. But I have never led with “I’m Asian.” It is just part of who I am but it doesn’t define who I am. I’ve tried to pass on what wisdom I’ve gained from my culture.
I have several phrases I’ve passed on to my children such as, “Life doesn’t serve up an apple pie.” And, “Life is a game of chess, not checkers.” The obvious lesson being, you can choose to react to things that happen to you or make what seems like an easy decision or choose to look ahead and do your best to plan outcomes. You should think several steps ahead, expect surprises, and be prepared that it will likely be more difficult than you think. Things are not always going to go your way; in fact, they normally don’t happen as you anticipate. I have continued to reinforce this message with my children and even my team.
With my team, we are at the center of information — a lot of information. Information is nothing if we cannot connect the dots. It’s our job to connect the dots to make the most informed and educated decision. I don’t think I’m a great leader but I’m very empathetic. I believe people are good and want to do good things. Everyone has a different journey, but I believe, given the chance, encouragement, and support, most will do their best not to disappoint. I’ve had team members tell me I have a bleeding heart. I don’t, but I do choose to see the good in people just as many mentors throughout my career did for me.
It wasn’t always easy though. Early in my career, at a respected company, I was asked to lead a diversity initiative. I still bristle at that thought. I remember thinking they only pinned this on me because I was in Human Resources and the only Asian person. I wasn’t prepared nor qualified. I had to stand up in front of this high-powered executive committee and pitch why diversity was important to the organization. I’ll never forget one particular executive. He challenged me and my ideas to the point of humiliation. At that moment, it would have been easy to feel like a victim, to feel set up for failure, but I chose to learn. That experience also informed me of how I wanted to treat people.
It all comes back to the strong focus on the family that I grew up around. Recently, someone shared a “tent” analogy with me that really resonated. The “tent” has limited space, focus on a group of people who mean the most to you, and make sure you take care of them. I try not to treat the business as this zero-sum game where each person is part of the machine. People matter. Teamwork matters. My family and my team are under my tent.
But business is also a place I went against cultural norms. My parents came from a different generation, the emphasis was always on education and that came with extraordinarily high expectations. The only career paths worth recognizing were doctors and lawyers. I was never talented enough to achieve that level of academic excellence. However, I’m proud to be an entrepreneur and small business owner. I am out there as “Helen on the Move”. I’ve built a team of strong of intelligent, capable and diverse individuals within my company, ClearPath Solutions.
My entrepreneurial spirit certainly has ties to my cultural background. That extends to how I parent my children. For example, schools don’t teach personal finance, which was a huge deal in my family. My parents had a strong appreciation for money and what money means. I’ve made it a point to both save for my children’s education and also educate them on the important money and the ability to provide basic necessities. It’s such a huge part of life and it’s crazy that schools don’t teach it.
My kids now joke that “Not everything needs to be a business.” But it’s an important mindset to demonstrate for them. My children are at this inflection point in life, one in college and the others soon going to college. I’m excited to see how their journey plays out. I know they will stumble and fall, and I’ve tried to prepare them for that, but there are never assurances, and they will need to learn on their own. I can only hope that each finds their way and that I have provided them with the foundation needed to navigate their futures.
I know my children will need mentors and guidance along the way. I’ve always learned from each of the bosses I’ve worked with along my career journey. Every boss has something to offer. But I’ll always remember one boss who would always ask me how I was doing. It was such a simple gesture but perhaps it was because I’d just had my first child, my daughter Brooke. I was getting through the demands of first-time parenting while also aggressively pursuing my career. He volunteered flexibility in spending time with her while meeting the demands of work, and I’ll never forget that. It reinforced my belief that our people are more than their jobs and should be respected as such.
Overall, my husband has been my greatest mentor, by far. He’s brilliant, kind, supportive, and is simply a great partner. We can give each other honest feedback and respect each other’s expertise. I think it goes to show the importance of finding a good partner in life. If you and your partner can be mentors to each other, you are going to be ahead of the curve. | https://medium.com/@getgleamed/a-celebration-of-culture-718d3c8d7519 | ['Gleam Network'] | 2021-04-28 17:35:06.305000+00:00 | ['Culture', 'Hospitality', 'Leadership', 'Restaurant', 'Mentoring'] |
Citrus Extract Market Size Worth $7.8 Billion By 2027 | The global citrus extract market size is expected to reach USD 7.8 billion by the end of 2027, as per a new report by Grand View Research Inc., expanding at a CAGR of 4.2% from 2020 to 2027. The market is expected to be majorly driven by growing demand for healthy and nutritional beverages across the geographies.
Paradigm shift towards healthy lifestyle supported by growing awareness regarding health and nutrition is expected to create significant growth opportunities for the market globally. Citrus fruits including lemon, lime, orange, and grapefruit are popular for their high vitamin C content and several health benefits, such as weight management, immunity boost, and personal care. These factors have significantly boosted the product consumption in the form of extracts mixed in the food and beverage industry for carbonated soft drinks, fruit beverages, functional beverages, sports beverages among other applications.
The market is expected to witness an increase in demand from North America and Europe, where countries such as U.S., U.K. and Germany are among the early adopters of healthy and balanced nutrition lifestyles. Furthermore, growing consumer inclination towards natural and bio-based flavoring agents owing to rise in concerns regarding the negative impacts of synthetic ingredients over human health has accelerated the market growth over the past few years. Asia Pacific countries such as India and China are expected to witness lucrative growth in future supported by the ease of raw material availability and traditional consumption of the citrus products.
New product launches with innovative flavors is one of the factors driving intense competition and diversification among the end users. This has amplified the product demand among beverage producers. Regulatory norm compliance on national and international levels for sustainable production and distribution has increased the acquisition of certifications, such as GMP and USDA, among the manufacturers involved in domestic as well as offshore businesses. Positioning in high-growth regions, investments, cultivation expansion, operating fully optimized supply chains, and sustainable and organic production are some of the prominent operating strategies amongst market participants.
Natural calamities and climatic fluctuations that negatively impact plant cultivation are expected to pose as a significant threat to the market. This threat is expected to be widened by the trade halts, supply chain disruptions, and industrial shutdowns caused by the impact of COVID-19 in some of the major economies, such as U.S., U.K., France, India, and China, which is further likely to project industry challenge in 2020.
Click the link below:
https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/citrus-extract-market
Further key findings from the study suggest: | https://medium.com/@marketnewsreports/citrus-extract-market-1201618d9195 | ['Gaurav Shah'] | 2020-08-13 09:21:48.509000+00:00 | ['Germany', 'Brazil', 'Italy', 'USA', 'China'] |
Health Benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar: Clear Skin, Weight Loss, Energy, Detox. | Health Benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar : Clear Skin, Weight Loss, Detox, Energy
I think I may have just discovered the holistic health secret to shiny hair, spotless skin, and toned abs: Apple Cider Vinegar.
What the heck is Apple Cider Vinegar??? Apple cider vinegar, known as cider vinegar or ACV, is a type of vinegar made from cider or apple and has a pale to medium amber color. Unpasteurized or unfiltered ACV contains the “mother of vinegar” which makes the vinegar look thicker and amber colored.
Apple Cider Vinegar is made by crushing apples and squeezing out the liquid. Bacteria and Yeast are added to the liquid to start the alcoholic fermentation process, and the sugars are turned into alcohol. In a second fermentation process, the alcohol is converted into vinegar by acetic acid-forming bacteria. Acetic and malic acid give vinegar its sour taste.
Organic Apple Cider Vinegar (AVC) is rich in minerals. There is a long history of its use in medicine dating back to 400 B.C., when Hippocrates used it to treat his patients. AVC is considered to be a potent remedy for illnesses and overall health. Apple cider vinegar’s strong suit is balancing pH levels, and creating a healthy, alkalized state when you eat or drink it — or use it a skin-care product. (You want to be more alkaline than acidic for a trillion health reasons, some experts say.)
It’s also pretty renowned in natural-health circles for curbing digestive issues, spiking weight loss, promoting great skin, and banishing a handful of other pesky afflictions.
And in the medical community, small research studies point to its promise for lessening symptoms of diabetes and obesity.
Want to know other incredible ways this wonder drink can help you? Here are a few more Health benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar:
Rich in potassium, a mineral that is often times lacking in adult diets. This mineral is key for growth, building muscles, transmission of nerve impulses, heart activity etc. It also helps to prevent brittle teeth, hair loss and runny noses.
Rich in acetic acid. This acid is said to slow the digestion of starch which can help to lower the rise in glucose that commonly occurs after meals.
Rich in ash which gives ACV its alkaline property. This aids your body in maintaining proper pH levels for a healthy alkaline state. (It is particularly important if you drink a lot of coffee or wine.)
It can help regulate blood pressure and reduce bad cholesterol.
Rich in malic acid which gives ACV its anti-viral, anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties.
May help improve bowel irregularity and helps to remove toxins from the body at a faster rate (hello detox drink!)
It can help clear up skin conditions and blemishes.
ACV helps with weight loss by breaking down fats so that your body can use them rather than store them.
A few lab studies have found that ACV may be able to kill cancer cells or slow their growth.
What kind of Apple Cider Vinegar do you buy?
Get the good stuff. By “the good stuff,” I mean raw, organic, unpasteurized apple cider vinegar. If you’ve got a good bottle of apple cider vinegar, you should see some strand-like sediment floating at the bottom. No, your vinegar hasn’t gone bad — that gunky-looking stuff at the bottom is the most important part! It’s called “the mother,” and it contains raw enzymes and gut-friendly bacteria that promote healing. Clear vinegar is processed and doesn’t have any of the benefits that raw ACV has. There are different brands out there but I use Bragg’s Apple Cider Vinegar, which I find at my local organic market or Whole Foods. If you want to buy more in bulk at cost, I recommend looking into buying your ACV on Amazon.
How to add apple cider vinegar to your diet
Drink it! Mix 1–2 tablespoons with a cup of water or herbal tea. (Apple cider vinegar is quite strong, and when taken straight can be harsh on the esophagus, so you’ll want to dilute it). Some people recommend taking 2 tablespoons before every meal, but if you are new to drinking it, I would start with 2 tbsp in the morning before your day begins. I like fixing up a “Apple Cider Vinegar Detox Drink” to get my day started with the benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar:
Apple Cider Vinegar Detox Drink Recipe
Caroline’s “Apple Cider Vinegar Detox” Drink Recipe
1 glass water (12–16 oz.)
2 Tbsp. Bragg Apple Cider Vinegar
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 dash cayenne pepper (optional but I use it! )
1 packet stevia
This recipe detox drink will help your body burn fat, lose weight, fight diabetes, and glow with health. Lemon juice helps balance blood sugar and has an alkaline effect on your body helping to regulate ph. It contains vitamin C. Cinnamon is one of the best anti-oxidants on the planet. It is the number 1 spice/herb for balancing blood sugar. Cayenne pepper has been shown to drop blood pressure and increase . Stevia is an all nautical sweetener made from the stevia plant and is a great replacement for any artificial sweeteners.
Mix up this morning elixir and kick start your body for the day!!
Mix It! Apple Cider Vinegar is a classic salad dressing ingredient, which you can definitely get a little creative with! While olive oil, the most commonly used oil for salad dressing, you can mix your ACV with flax oil and lemon or orange juice, and perhaps even whirr it all together in a blender with a clove of garlic and a bit of onion. I even like to just drizzle it on my salad plain! If you want to experiment with a salad, try this raspberry vinaigrette recipe:
Ingredients:
Instructions: 1. Combine all ingredients into a food processor 2. Blend until smooth 3. Pour into a storage container, such as a recycled bottle of salad dressing 4. Enjoy over a salad…Yum!
I strongly believe that combined with a clean diet, regular exercise regimen, and happy lifestyle, Apple Cider Vinegar has the power to provide incredible health benefits. Have you heard of any other great uses for apple cider vinegar? Let me know in the comments below!
Hope you enjoy these recipes — I’m off to drink my daily Apple Cider Vinegar detox drink!
Caroline
Want to build a balanced body? Check out my book, Balanced Body Breakthrough and get your mind, body, and spirit in great shape so you can love your life.
Please SHARE this with your friends on Facebook, twitter, or email. Everyone deserves to be healthy and live a life they love. | https://medium.com/thrive-global/health-benefits-of-apple-cider-vinegar-clear-skin-weight-loss-energy-detox-70fbd877e1bc | ['Caroline Jordan'] | 2016-12-30 13:27:07.997000+00:00 | ['Wellbeing', 'Energy', 'Recipe', 'Detox', 'Weightloss Recipe'] |
How do deal with bad friends | photo: huffpost
I’ve been going through this friendship breakup for the past month and I wish I’ve listened to everyone that was telling me how bad of a friend she was.
This girl, we will call her Destiny, went behind my back for the past months and I found out through Snapchat, imagine finding out your best friend is hanging out with people you hate the most THRU SNAPCHAT.
Anyways we were friends for 3 years and we had this friend group with 5 friends. Last summer we fought with one of them so the group got even smaller, and this summer we fought with another girl so we remained 3 but another girl joined us so 4.
We were never the same since I got a boyfriend, I have a long term relationship of almost 2 years so of course I’m going to spend most of my time with him. Because of the pandemic we didn’t hang out so much so now it began the fallout of our friend group.
In the course of these months I got in 3 fights with Destiny regarding her attitude. The 3rd time was the last big and awful fight. My mistake was treating her like shit with our other friends but keep in mind, they didn’t know we fought.
So one night my friend texted me saying if I see what she sees and I was very confused and she was really angry and she called me on FaceTime telling me to check Snapchat and to check our ex friend’s story. So I didn’t think much of it I just thought it was the usual drama nothing worse and when I go to check I see Destiny with our other two friends we got in a fight.
I was in the state of shock and I couldn’t believe what she’s done I didn’t get why she’s done what she’s done I mean I get our two other friends because they were angry with us but I don’t know why she did it.
So we called our other friend through FaceTime and I started crying, bawling my eyes out because she knew they wronged me in the past and then I told them to leave the group chat on Snapchat.
So of course her being such a bad friend didn’t text me and but instead she texted the friend that told me to check the Snapchat story. This friend is like the nicest one in our group she’s can be easily taking advantage of and she is usually the nice one. And she texted her saying why she talks behind her back and why she told told me that she went out with them but she forgot that our ex friend put that on her story.
And she had this bad bitch attitude towards this friend and told her that she is now happy with them and she’s grateful for making that decision. So I was so angry I wanted to text her and all that I could think of is I’m going to be the shit out of her. I was really hard broken because she knew that her hanging out with them it’s going to hurt me and I still don’t get what I did so wrong towards her.
Just think about the fact that she agreed completely with our decision to kick our ex friends out of the group and she was always the one that started trouble and started talking crap about them after leaving a group. I’m not going to say that I’m a saint and I didn’t talk crap about them too but I didn’t go back to them pretending we’re friends because I’m not that person if you’re wrong me I’m not going to come back and ask for you to be my friend.
And then this friend told me that she texted her a couple days ago asking her if she wants to make up with one of our ex friends and she told me she acted weird telling her that I am nothing to her and I don’t mean nothing we’re just simply colleagues. So she did all this just to hurt me and she wanted me to leave the group.
So I’m not going to keep on telling you what this girl did to me because there are three years worth of “trauma”, only if you want me to.
So my advice is to not respond back with hate the most hurtful thing in my opinion is ignorance, if you ignore someone that is going to hurt the most. Just pretend that you don’t care and just act like she doesn’t mean anything to you just like my friend acted. Don’t go telling other people what she did or telling her secret that’s not a nice behavior. And if a number of people tell you that this is not good for you and that this friend is not good for you please listen to them because I didn’t and in the end I realized that they were right and I should not lower my standards just because I don’t want to lose a friend that is toxic to me.
Be careful what kind of people you surround yourself with and always be the bigger person. | https://medium.com/@rebecakovacs02/how-do-deal-with-bad-friends-120b1a6ecfa0 | [] | 2020-12-21 12:54:57.553000+00:00 | ['Teenagers', 'Drama', 'Fake Friends'] |
All that glitters, isn’t necessarily Gold | For large parts of the past decade, silver has been regarded as “always the bridesmaid, never the bride” with its comparison to gold. In the past few months, it seems, it has started to shine. The precious metal has rocketed in price, outperforming most alternatives. And with investors worrying about the global economy, with central banks printing money like there’s no tomorrow, the price could get a lot stronger yet before this bull run is over.
In January 2015 silver was trading at $16.50 an ounce. In January this year it was trading at $17. Over five years, it slowly moved 50 cents one way, and then usually went back again. And then in March it started to race upwards. Over the course of the next couple of months it went from $17 an ounce to a high of $28. In sterling terms it has done even better, rising from £13 an ounce to £21. It was last at those levels in 2011 when it briefly spiked up to £21.
By any historical standards, it has been a very dramatic rally. According to Deutsche Bank, the 34 per cent rise in the silver price in July, compared with 10 per cent for gold, was the metal’s strongest single month since December 1979. It was more than four decades since the market had seen anything like that kind of price action in silver: the last time was when the Hunt brothers famously tried to corner the market in the late 1970s, at one point owning a third of world’s supply before losing a billion dollars when the price collapsed again.
silver is, just like gold, a traditional safe haven. It has been in and out of fashion as a monetary metal for the past couple of thousand years, and it is not an asset central banks store in their vaults as they do with its yellow rival. Even so, it has more or less held its place alongside gold as a way of storing wealth over many hundreds of years.
As Covid-19 plunged the world into a deep recession, government deficits soared and central banks started printing dollars, pounds, euros and yen by the hundreds of billions, alternatives to paper money became ever more attractive. A precious metal has always been a hedge against an inflationary spiral and all of a sudden that seemed more attractive than ever. Gold started to rise strongly, and its junior partner did even better.
Gold isn’t used for much except wedding rings or storing wealth. Silver, by contrast, is also a significant industrial metal. Overall, global demand hit 991.8 million ounces last year, up from 988.3 million ounces in 2018. The two big drivers of that were silver for solar panels and for use in electric vehicles. Both of those were already growing strongly as the world turned its attention to climate change, but the Covid-19 crisis has accelerated that growth. Just about every government in the developed world has launched a recovery programme and ‘green technologies’ are at the heart of most of those. There will be a big switch to solar power, and electric cars are going to dominate the roads (which is why Tesla is now the biggest car company in the world by market value).
The result? There is going to be a lot more demand for silver, and that means the price will go up.
Over the past month, silver has started to stabilise again. It is back to $23 an ounce, and the price is moving within a modest daily range. Even so, it is back on investors’ radars. It has delivered spectacular returns so far this year, and has started to make up for a decade of poor performance. | https://medium.com/@fvptrade/all-that-glitters-isnt-necessarily-gold-347527f4048b | ['Fvp Trade'] | 2020-10-13 05:28:08.517000+00:00 | ['Silver', 'Metal', 'Economy', 'Gold', 'Finance'] |
[Leet Code] Range Sum of BST | Leetcode: https://leetcode.com/problems/range-sum-of-bst/
Given the root node of a binary search tree, return the sum of values of all nodes with a value in the range [low, high] .
Example 1:
Input: root = [10,5,15,3,7,null,18], low = 7, high = 15
Output: 32
Example 2:
Input: root = [10,5,15,3,7,13,18,1,null,6], low = 6, high = 10
Output: 23
Constraints:
The number of nodes in the tree is in the range [1, 2 * 104] .
. 1 <= Node.val <= 105
1 <= low <= high <= 105
All Node.val are unique.
Solution: | https://medium.com/@matthewboyd123/leet-code-range-sum-of-bst-291cb05ec94e | ['Matthew Boyd'] | 2020-12-27 18:02:55.475000+00:00 | ['Leetcode', 'Data Structures', 'Leetcode Solution', 'Algorithms', 'Leetcode Easy'] |
What Is Panch Phoron? | What Is Panch Phoron?
Panch Phoron is a spice blend commonly used in the Bengali region of Eastern India, Bangladesh and Nepal.
NOTE: You will also see Panch Phoron spelled as Panch Phoran.
India is rich not only in family traditions but has numerous cuisine traditions that vary widely across the continent. There are countless aromatic and mouth watering dishes with exotic tastes and smells. From scorching hot to mild and everything in between. The not so secret key to this amazing variety of tastes are the variety of spices they use.
One well known Indian spice blend is Panch Phoron.
What Is Panch Phoron?
Panch means “five” and phoron means “flavour” or “spice.” An English translation of Panch Phoran is “Indian Five-Spice Blend.”
I don’t know about you, but I prefer to call the spice mix “Panch Phoron” … it sounds a lot more exotic than Indian Five Spice Blend!
Where Did Panch Phoron Originate?
“Panch phoron is a whole spice blend, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used especially in the cuisine of Bangladesh, Eastern India and Southern Nepal. The name literally means “five spices” in Bengali (pãch phoṛon), and is also known under these names in different regions: Maithili (paanch phorana), Nepali (Padkaune Masala), Assamese (pas phoṛôn), and Odia (panchu phutana)”— Wikipedia
What Are The Ingredients?
Panch Phoron consists of seeds … which are NOT ground into a powder. Though the spices vary slightly, the most common ingredients are:
fenugreek seed
nigella seed (also called black cumin)
cumin seed
radhuni (or celery seed or brown mustard seed)
fennel seed
Some versions also include anise which imparts a slight licorice flavor.
If you use each of the above spices in equal parts, you will have an easy version of Panch Phoron. Many cooks use a smaller amount of fenugreek seeds because of their bitter taste.
Panch Phoron is often made with radhuni, or brown mustard seed. Since radhuni is difficult to get in North America you can confidently substitute celery seed which has a similar flavor.
What Does It Taste Like?
The spice mix has a distinctive bitter and nutty flavor. The fenugreek is what gives Panch Phoran its bitter flavor and many cooks tone this down by using a smaller amount of fenugreek in the mix.
The nigella seeds add a light pepper flavor and the cumin adds it distinct earthy quality. Radhuni (celery seed) also has it’s own unique and intense flavor.
How Is Panch Phoron Used?
A recipe made using Panch Phoron typically starts by frying the spice mix in ghee or the more pungent mustard oil. This causes the seeds to pop open. Once the popping stops, other recipe ingredients are added to the fried spices.
You will typically see Panch Phoron used in chicken or lamb curries as well as with a variety of vegetables and lentils.
My Favorite Panch Phoron Recipes:
OK … calling these “recipes” is a stretch. Once you read through them you will get the idea … EASY!
I DO recommend having a spatter screen handy. This will keep your stove and floor from getting covered with seeds.
If the seeds are popping high enough to land on your floor, take your skillet off the burner because it is too hot!
Roasted Chicken With Panch Phoron
In a small skillet, add two tablespoons of ghee or coconut oil. Heat on a medium burner and add two tablespoons Panch Phoron seeds. Let the seeds sizzle until they start popping open. Take the skillet off the heat before they start to burn … the rest of the seeds should pop open from the leftover pan heat.
Roll 4 chicken thighs (skin on) in the spice mixture, pressing down so the spices coat the chicken.
Roast for 20 minutes at 350F or until the juices run clear when pierced with a sharp knife.
Fried Veggies with Panch Phoron
In a small skillet, add two tablespoons of ghee or coconut oil. Heat on a medium burner and when the skillet is hot add two tablespoons of the Panch Phoron spices. Let the seeds sizzle until they start popping open.
Add veggies and stir until they are covered with the spices. Cover the skillet, turn the heat to low and fry veggies until soft.
Veggies: green beans, cauliflower, cabbage, sweet potatoes, carrots and parsnips.
Soup with Panch Phoron
I often make a huge vat of veggie soup that lasts me a week or more. On one of my soup days I will change the soups flavor profile by frying and popping a tablespoon of Panch Phoran seeds and mixing them into the pot — delicious.
This article was originally published on the sugar-free-zone.com
Melanie Rockett has been a freelance writer for over 40 years. About 15 years ago she was diagnosed with Diabetes — and began a long journey of discovery. Today she lives a sugar-free life and has lost 120 pounds. Her website Sugar-Free-Zone.com is all about living sugar-free and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Do YOU want to live sugar-free? Get regular story updates as well as fabulous sugar-free recipes by joining the Sugar Free Zone on Medium newsletter.
If you enjoyed this article, you might also like: | https://medium.com/sugar-free-zone/what-is-panch-phoron-e17de478c94f | ['Melanie Rockett'] | 2019-11-28 19:27:07.027000+00:00 | ['India', 'Cooking', 'Culture', 'Recipe', 'Food'] |
Redux Rematch — State Management. Explore Redux Rematch — Powerful State… | Explore Redux Rematch — Powerful State Management For React.
Redux Rematch — KPITENG
Rematch is an enhanced version of Redux with added few more features, clean architecture, less boilerplate for React Developers. Rematch uses the same redux concept and also has a persistor to persist store data.
Please download full source code from our GitHub.
Let’s look into architecture,
Redux Rematch Architecture
Redux Rematch Architecture — KPITENG
Provider -
Provider contains an argument store. Here, we need to pass our store object in store argument to initialize Rematch Store.
Store -
To initialize a store we need to pass models, plugins, redux, etc. Let’s check the syntax,
Models — Models contain state, reducer and effects in one instead of separate like Redux.
Plugins — Plugins contain Loading Plugins, Persist Plugins.
Redux — Contains middleware to perform some action in middleware between store & frontend.
Models -
Models are the core part of Store. Model contains state variables, reducers, effects. Frontend will dispatch action, which executes in effects and once effect computed task it will dispatch to reducer and reducer is responsible for updating state variables. So whenever the state variable is updated our component is also notified.
As you can see in Image, when UI Dispatch action it executes effects in model, once effect completed its execution it dispatches to reducers and reducer is only responsible to update state. Once the state gets updated it will re-render the UI Component.
Plugins -
Rematch allows various plugins, you can set Loading Plugins, Persist Plugins.
Loading Plugins -
When we dispatch any action, we have to wait for a fraction of time until we receive results (API Call, Local Operation). Redux in-built having plugins that manage and return us loading = true which effect (action) being in-progress.
You can create Loading PlugIns using createLoadingPlugin, and pass your model name/actionname in the whitelist. As you can see we have taskList (model), fetchTaskList (action). So after this code, whenever the fetchTaskList operation is in-progress we will get loading as true, once it’s completed we get loading as false.
Persist Plugins -
Persist Plugins contains all required configuration like, whitelist, blacklist, version, storage, transforms, Let’s discuss each in details,
whitelist — Specify a list of models which you want to store in storage, even though you kill an application, restart application.
blacklist — Specify list of models which you don’t want to store in storage, so next time it will load with initial state, instead of saved state.
version — version of store,each to you deploy new application increase the version number, which help to migrate data from older version to newer version.
storage — Specify the storage when your store data is saved, for mobile applications ideally we prefer AsyncStorage, while in web we prefer default Web Storage.
transform — Specify Filters, many times you are required to blacklist a model (don’t want to store state value/ persist state value) but you want to store a few key/pairs only. So you can create whitelist filters for a few keys, and pass the model name in blacklist. So Rematch will only store key/pairs which you have sent in the whitelist.
Redux -
Redux contains middlewares, you can specify middlewares. You can create your own middleware to perform some action between UI Component and Effect which action dispatch by UI Component.
For example, let’s specify logger as middleware, so when you dispatch action, it will log in the console to track actions, same way whenever reducer updates the state at the same time logger also logs in console to update users about Rematch actions.
Now Let’s take an example of a Model and dispatch actions from the Component.
Model — TaskList.js
Component — Tasks.js
As you can see in Tasks Component, We are dispatching fetchTaskList on load of Component. Will call effect in TaskList.js model. Once fetch operation completed it will dispatch setTasks (action), which calls function in reducers, and reducer will update state variables of arryTasks, which in result re-render our Tasks Component.
Please download full source code from our GitHub.
Thanks for reading full article!
Read More Technical Articles
KPITENG || [email protected] ||DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Connect Us — Linkedin | Facebook | Instagram | https://medium.com/@kpiteng/redux-rematch-state-management-95ee60d7ea3e | [] | 2021-09-02 15:46:42.550000+00:00 | ['React', 'Redux', 'Mobile App Development', 'Rematch', 'React Native'] |
Savory Deceits: The Price of Deception (Volume 2) | “Love is when he gives you a piece of your soul, that you never knew was missing”
-Torquato Tasso
~NAIMA~
“What’s that?” I asked her. “What?” Nena said, looking at me. “On your neck.” I said, studying the large red bruise near her collarbone. Seemingly alarmed, Nena touched her neck, as if to cover the mark. “It’s nothing, probably a mosquito bite.” She said, without looking at me. “Come on, you ready?” She then asked, stooping down to grab her end of Kylee’s new dresser. Without a word, I lifted my end of the white dresser covered in pink lilies and then pulled, while Nena pushed. When we reached the corner of the room, opposite Kylee’s crib, I set my end down, and adjusted it to my liking. “What do you think?” I said, with my hands on my hips. While I looked over at Nena, I noticed her glancing at her watch, yet again.
With a frown, I watched the expression on her face, as she seemed to be deep in thought. It was almost as if she could not wait to get out of here and run off to God knows where again. Just then, her phone went off and she quickly reached into her back pocket to retrieve it. That raised my suspicions too. Ever since her trip to Virginia, she and her phone were practically like Velcro. She rarely set it down and always seemed to nearly jump out of her skin whenever it went off. Not to mention, the mysterious ‘bug bites’ she’s been coming home with lately on odd places of her body which very much looked like hickeys. Now, I looked on as she responded to her text message and fought the urge to snatch the phone from her hands. It was clear to me what was going on here, and it pissed me off that she took me for a fool with her evasive behavior. When she stopped tapping at her screen, she finally looked up at me. “I’m sorry sis, but I have to go. More errands.” She lied. “That’s okay, go.” I said, studying her. “Thanks.” She said, quickly leaving the room and I followed her.
Right away, she headed for the door, and I then said, “You don’t want to keep Chris waiting.” When she stopped, I knew. Then, she turned to face me and I shook my head at her. “What are you doing, Nena?” I questioned, and she hung her head. “I love him,” She whispered. “That is not love! It’s an addiction, and if you don’t stop, it will destroy you!” I warned, practically fuming. I could not believe we were here again. This endless cycle had to stop. “You don’t understand, Nai,” she began, still looking down. “Oh, I understand perfectly well. You’re sick!” I judged, getting angry. Nena closed her eyes, and when I saw her tears, I stopped, and took a breath.
“Nena,” I began, in a much softer tone. “He’s a wanted criminal. You do realize that if you know where he is, that is aiding and abetting and you can go to jail for a very long time for it.” I said, hoping to scare some sense into her. She then looked up at the ceiling, and shook her head as if to indicate that I could not identify with how she was feeling. When she said nothing, I shook my head at her again. “What is wrong with you, Nena? Are you crazy?” I waited for her response, but she remained silent, avoiding my glare. “Fine,” I said, giving up. “I can see that you’ve clearly made your choice. This can only end badly for you, and when it does, I do not want you anywhere near my baby or me. Go. Get out! And don’t come back!” Finally, she looked at me with tears streaming down her face, and I fought back my own tears. This was hurting me more than I was willing to admit to her. Crossing my arms, I stared back at her, and then she nodded her head. When she turned around to leave, I fought the urge to stop her. Sadly, I watched, as she slowly made her way towards the door and silently cried, wiping away each tear as they fell. By the time Nena reached the door, she stopped, and then turned to look at me. “I love you, Nai.” She said, and then left. I shook my head and silently prayed for her. It killed me to let her go, but I could not save my sister, if she did not want to save herself.
~NENA~
After my fight with Naima, I drove straight to Chris’ hideout careful not to let anyone follow me. I purposely made a few detours, and when I saw that the coast was clear, I was finally pulling my car into the shrouded parking structure behind the club. Quickly exiting my car, I hastily made my way to the rear entrance, used my key to enter, and speed walked down the staircase to the hidden door below. Lastly, I opened the door to find Chris lying on the bed half-naked. “Hey,” he said, getting up. Immediately, I dropped my purse and keys, ran to him, and then threw my arms around him, pressing my lips against his. Chris held me tight as he kissed me back, and I began to tear at his clothes with determination.
As he pulled my pants down, I reached into his boxers and grabbed his dick. It was already erect, and I got down on my knees pulling his boxers down with me. Naturally, I took most of his thick, ten-inch penis into my mouth and he nearly gasped. “What the… ugh! Shit!” He cried, falling back onto the bed sitting up while I continued my voracity on his member. With a fist full of my hair, Chris eased my head further down and groaned even louder when my tongue circled the tip of his shaft. “Damn, baby, I love you!” He cried, as I sucked the tip like a pacifier.
Then, as if he could not take it anymore, Chris suddenly stopped me. “Come here.” He excitedly said. He then pulled me up to him and kissed me hard, as I climbed into his lap. Carefully sliding down onto his shaft inch by inch his penis filled my tiny orifice with domination. “Oh my God!” I cried when I began to ride him, feeling his monstrous rod move inside me. Chris gripped my hair again and brought my face to his, seizing my mouth with his own. He met my movements with his own thrusts, and I lost myself once again in his lustful influence.
My failed marriage no longer mattered to me, and neither did my sister’s disapproval. I was ready to give up everything if it meant that I could be with Chris forever. He was now a part of me that I did not intend to let go — not for my sister, Tony, or anyone. Suddenly, Chris flipped me onto my back, now wielding the power to control my anticipated climactic peak. This intensifying love affair possessed the very core of me, and in a second, I was reaching that orgasmic euphoric bliss. “Deeper!” I commanded him with my eyes closed, biting my lower lip. “Yes! Oh, yes!” I cried again, as he fucked me harder. With my eyes rolling into the back of my head, I soon found myself uncontrollably exploding my juices onto his shaft.
Straight away, Chris fell on top of me, his body shuddering at his own release. As I stared up at the ceiling, I ran my hands over his muscular back and then kissed his shoulder. I could feel his heart beating against my breasts as he slowly caught his breath. Inadvertently, I did my Kegels, with his penis still inside me. “Mm,” he moaned, giving me a mock thrust. Giggling, I squeezed my muscles around his shaft again, and he flinched. “Does that hurt?” I asked him with a smile. “No, it just feels too damn good.” He said, and I laughed again.
“Remember the first time we made love?” I asked him, still staring at the ceiling. Then, Chris lifted his head to look at me. “How can I ever forget?” He said, with his piercing green eyes burrowing into mine. “Your dick scared the shit out of me when I first saw it.” I said with a chuckle. Chris laughed too, and then kissed me on the lips. “Now, look at you,” he began, wiggling himself between my legs. “You’re practically a pro now.” He said, kissing me again. “Practically?” I asked with a smile. “Yes, practically.” He challenged. “I see how you still clench up when I put it inside you.” He said, wiggling himself again. “Oh give me some credit.” I said, laughing. “I can take it a lot better now than I ever could before, because I own it.” I said, challenging him with my eyes. “Oh really?” He said, giving me another slight thrust.
Now, I could feel his penis rising inside me, and I slowly gasped as he pushed it further into me. “That’s what I thought.” He said, retreating. Then, I quickly grabbed his ass and held him in place. “Fuck me.” I whispered, looking into his eyes. Chris raised his brows at my directness, and then I cupped his face, and kissed him fervently. His slow and steady thrusts came with such passion that the pleasure mound between my legs tenderized under his power. “Harder!” I cried, determined to prove him wrong. “You want it harder?” He asked, pumping into me like a jackhammer. “Yes!” I cried, my thighs clenching around his waist. Though his thrusts hurt like hell, I was so whet that he unrelentingly glided in and out of me, with ease. “Okay. Be careful what you wish for.” He said, and then suddenly pulled out of me.
“Turn around!” He ordered, slapping my thigh. Smiling, I rolled over on my hands and knees, and he pulled me closer to the edge of the bed. Standing behind me, he entered me again and grabbed my waist. “Oh God!” I cried feeling his massive penis invading my insides once again. “You still want it hard?” He said, ferociously pumping into me. “I said fuck me, didn’t I?” I urged, tightening my grip on the sheets beneath my palms. Then, I heard him chuckle, and he immediately grabbed hold of my hair, forcing my head back. “Ah!” I cried feeling elated. “Is this hard enough for you?” He said pounding into me incessantly. “Oh yes, baby! Please, don’t stop! I’m coming! Oh God, I’m coming!” I screamed, on the brink of falling face first into the mattress. “Shit! I feel you baby! I’m coming too!” He cried, going faster. “Ugh!” He groaned, when he released his semen inside me.
Then, we both fell onto the bed enervated as our bodies intertwined with one another. Chris spooned me, and kissed the back of my shoulder. “I stand corrected.” He said when he caught his breath, and then we both laughed. “We keep this up, and we’re going to have a village full of children.” He joked. “How many do you want?” I asked him, getting serious. “Two, maybe three.” He said. “Boys or girls?” I asked again. “Boys,” He began. “At least two, though I wouldn’t mind having a little girl.” He said. Then, suddenly, my niece came to mind and I now wrestled with whether or not to tell him about her. If I told Chris about Kylee, he would want to stay in the country even if it meant risking going to jail for the rest of his life. The thought scared me, and I could not let him throw his life away like that. As soon as we were safely out of the country, I would tell him then. I could hear his labored breathing now, as he tightened his grip around my body. “I love you.” He said, and then went to sleep. | https://medium.com/@mizzbttrflychic7/savory-deceits-the-price-of-deception-volume-2-caaf8fcbd8b3 | ['Skye Heart'] | 2020-11-10 14:07:20.662000+00:00 | ['Rape', 'Erotic Romance', 'Violence Against Women', 'Thriller', 'Fiction'] |
I am a time traveler begging you to stop what you are doing | It started with expensive safes, then began to include bodyguards, and today, “earlies” (our term for early adapters), as well as those rich whose wealth survived the “transition” live in isolated gated cities called Citadels, where most work is automated.
Most such Citadels are born out of the fortification used to protect places where Bitcoin mining machines were located. The company known as ASICMiner is known here as a city where Mr. Friedman rules as a king.
In my world, soon to be your world, most governments no longer exist, as Bitcoin transactions are done anonymously and thus governments can’t enforce taxation on their citizens.
Exchanges of services are nearly all online, totally decentralized and anonymous.
Most of the success of Bitcoin is due to the fact that Bitcoin turned out to be an effective method to hide your wealth from the government. Whereas people entering “rogue states” like Luxembourg, Monaco and Liechtenstein were followed by unmanned drones to ensure that governments know who is hiding wealth, no such option was available to stop people from hiding their money in the blockchain.
Governments tried to stay relevant by buying Bitcoins, this made the problem worse, as it increased the value of Bitcoin further.
Governments did so in secret of course, but the generation’s “Snowdens” have become greedy government employees who transferred Bitcoin to their own private wallet, and escaped to anarchic places where no questions are asked as long as you can cough up some crypto.
The four institutions with the largest still accessible Bitcoin balance are believed to be as following:
ASICMiner: 50,000 Bitcoin
The IMF’s “Currency Stabilization Fund”: 70,000 Bitcoin
Government of Saudi Arabia: 110,000 Bitcoin
The North Korean government: 180,000 Bitcoin
Economic growth today is about -2% per year.
Why is this?
If you own more than 0.01 Bitcoin, chances are you don’t do anything with your money. There is no inflation, and thus no incentive to invest your money. Just like the medieval ages had no significant economic growth, as wealth was measured in gold, our society has no economic growth either, as people know their 0.01 Bitcoin will be enough to last them a lifetime.
The fact that there are still new Bitcoins released is what prevents our world from collapse so far it seems, but people fear that the decline in inflation that will occur during the next block halving may further wreck our economy.
What happened to the Winklevoss twins? They were among the first to die. After seeing the enormous damage done to our society, terrorist movements emerged that sought to hunt down and murder anyone known to have a large balance of Bitcoin or believed to be responsible in any way for the development of cryptocurrency.
Ironically, these terrorist movements use Bitcoin to anonymously fund their operations.
Most people who own any significant amount of Bitcoin no longer speak to their families and lost their friends, because they had to change their identities. There have been also been a few suicides of people who could not handle the guilt after seeing what happened to the bag-holders, the type of skeptical people who continued to believe it would eventually collapse, even after hearing the rumors of governments buying Bitcoin.
Many people were taken hostage, and thus, it is suspected that 25% percent of the “Bitcoin riches” actually physically tortured someone to get him to spill his wallet.
Why didn’t we abandon Bitcoin, and move to another system? Well, we tried of course. We tried to step over to an inflationary cryptocurrency, but nobody with an IQ above 70 was willing to step up first and volunteer.
After all, why would you voluntarily invest a lot of your money into a currency you know would continually decline in value? The thing that made Bitcoin so dangerous to society was also what made it so successful.
Bitcoin allows us to give in to our greed.
In Africa, surveys show that an estimated 70% of people believe that Bitcoin was invented by the devil himself.
There’s a reason for this, it’s a very sensitive issue that today is generally referred to as “the tragedy”.
The African Union had ambitious plans to help its citizens be ready to step over to Bitcoin. Governments gave their own citizens cell phones for free, tied to their government ID, and thus government sought to integrate Bitcoin into their economy. All went well, until “the tragedy” happened. A criminal organization, believed to be located in Russia, exploited a hardware fault in the government-issued cell phones. It’s believed that the entire continent of Africa lost an estimated 60% of its wealth in a period of 48 hours. What followed was a period of chaos and civil war, until Saudi Arabia and the North Korean government, two of the world’s major superpowers due to their authoritarian political system’s unique ability to adapt to the “Bitcoin challenge”, divided most African land between themselves and were praised as heroes by the local African population for it.
You might wonder, what is our plan now? It’s clear that the current situation can’t last much longer, without ending in a nuclear holocaust. I am part of an underground network, who seek to launch a coordinated attack against the very infrastructure of the Internet itself. We have at our disposal about 20 nuclear submarines, which we will use to cut all underwater cables between different continents. After this has been successfully achieved, we will launch a simultaneous nuclear pulse attack on every dense population area of the world. We believe that the resulting chaos will allow the world’s population to rise up in revolt, and destroy as many computers out there as possible until we reach the point where Bitcoin loses any relevance.
Of course, this outcome will likely lead to billions of deaths. This is a price we are forced to pay, to avoid the eternal enslavement of humanity to a tiny elite.
This is also the reason we are sending this message to your time.
It doesn’t have to be like this. You do not have to share our fate. I don’t know how, but you must find a way to destroy this godforsaken project in its infancy. I know this is a difficult thing to ask of you.
You believed you were helping the world by eliminating the central banking cartel that governs your economies.
However, I have seen where it ends. | https://medium.com/cryptolinks/i-am-a-time-traveler-begging-you-to-stop-what-you-are-doing-ab33e335e2ca | [] | 2020-04-12 16:58:08.031000+00:00 | ['Satire', 'Future', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Bitcoin', 'Economics'] |
Katie Ponder’s whimsical illustrations evoke art deco imagery with a modern twist — Muse Factory | Written by Ilona Nakshun and Lera Nakshun
Ponder’s work was featured in Greek Myths, a recently-published anthology of ancient Greek stories by Jean Menzies.
Katie Ponder’s illustration of Pandora featured in Greek Myths by Jean Menzies. Image credit: Katie Ponder and Mendola Artists
London-based illustrator Katie Ponder’s artwork reimagines vintage imagery for modern audiences. Ponder’s work, with its lifelike contrasting textures and static posturing, is heavily influenced by art deco, theatre, and a taste for the gothic. Her characters, unmoving in their statuesque poses, seem frozen in time — furthering playing up the nostalgia of her old school theatre references. Despite the two-dimensional visuals that make up her artwork, Ponder is very much influenced by music and dance.
Members of The Royal Ballet in The Rite of Spring. Photo credit: © Dee Conway/ROH 2011 and The Royal Ballet
“As an art student, Stravinsky’s ballet Rite of Spring was a huge source of inspiration. I made a series of work based on it.” Ponder said in a statement to Muse Factory.
Although ballet often conjures up images of fluidity and grace, Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring is characterized by the abrupt and angular movements performed by its dancers. The Rite of Spring is an imaginative ballet centered on pre-Christian Slavic society during springtime. Originally choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky, the dancers are often seen holding steady, unchanging positions with their faces turned to the side, showing their profiles to the audience.
Below, the illustration Moon Beam Dancer demonstrates the way in which Ponder’s work mimics the same angular dance positions and also incorporates The Rite of Spring’s focus on the extension of the dancers’ hands and fingers.
Moon Beam Dancer by Katie Ponder. Image credit: Katie Ponder www.katieponderillustration.com
This type of posing is also found in work she created for YouTuber and author Jean Menzies’ Greek Myths, a new retelling of the original Greek Myths for children and young adults.
“Even now when considering body language for an illustration I like to imagine how a dancer would express a pose or a mood. I find ballet very inspiring.” Ponder told Muse Factory.
Whether it is an illustration of a Greek god, an animal, or a human, each figure in Ponder’s work is distinctly sharp. Each structure is made up of intersecting lines and clear contours. A lion’s claws, animals’ tails, and the waves of the sea are made up of lines that lead up to a point. Most of her characters are shown from the side, their arms at ninety-degree angles and fingers outstretched. In characters that are forward-facing, their faces are perfectly symmetrical, reminiscent of theatre puppets.
In many ways, Ponder’s illustrations are evocative of art as far back as ancient Egyptian wall paintings, where bodies are characteristically depicted from the side standing upright, static yet in motion.
“The banquet: fragments of wall painting” from the tomb of Nebamun, 1350 BC. Image credit: The British Museum
The similarities are seen even in Ponder’s rendering of hair, many hairstyles drawn as simple shapes until each strand is then separated from the other. In the image of The Banquet from the tomb of Nebanum, figures are shown sitting and standing, facing one of two opposite directions and arranged based on societal hierarchy. The arrangement of characters in space on a linear two-dimensional plane is also present in Ponder’s illustrations. The adornment of headdresses and jewelry in old Egyptian and Greek works are given a modern update in Ponder’s renderings.
There is also a kind of symmetry present in the ancient works that Ponder replicates. Ponder’s illustrations in Greek Myths follow a pattern of shapes and symmetry as well. The wreaths, helmets, and other headgear are made of simple shapes and clean lines. The temples’ columns and roofs are shaped like perfect triangles while the decorative borders on the edge of the pages are symmetrical.
A spread featuring the gods Ares and Athena from Menzies’ Greek Myths. Image credit: Katie Ponder and Amazon
Her work in Greek Myths is consistent with her style elsewhere. Even when depicting naturalistic forms like flora and fauna, Ponder creates a kind of synthetic symmetry that wouldn’t necessarily exist in reality. In Sunflower Pattern, the flowers have a softer shape to them and are missing the same sharpness that her other works have, and yet, the flowers are identical on each side. The leaves and stems follow the same design and seem to intersect in a way that wouldn’t be possible in the natural world. In Temperate House in Kew Gardens, the image consists of clean lines, squares, and rectangles building upon one another to create the structure. The building is entirely symmetrical which even in architecture is slightly jarring due to the lack of symmetry most of us are used to.
Most recently, Ponder participated in the 2020 TLC Deck of Cards Charity Art Auction, which sought to raise money for Transplant Links, a charity with a mission to teach kidney-transplant skills to medical workers in developing countries. | https://medium.com/muse-factory-magazine/katie-ponders-whimsical-illustrations-evoke-art-deco-imagery-with-a-modern-twist-muse-factory-b7b8145d474e | ['Lera Nakshun'] | 2020-12-23 02:46:45.963000+00:00 | ['Digital', 'Illustration', 'Culture', 'Art', 'Creative'] |
3 Ways How Society Makes Us Feel Lost — And How Dance Can Reconnect Us — LSL Dance Co | 2. We’re Alienated from People
The human brain was built intimate contact with each other, this is how we’ve survived as a species against the elements and dangerous animals.
You can see the craving for relationships in the rise of ‘Social’ media, a place for social interaction in the palm of our (smartphone) hands. Social media is becoming toxic to the youngest generation z and addiction is becoming prevalent.
Without natural counseling, advice and emotional interaction between humans, our mental and physical health is being affected.
Recent studies in 2019 have shown that depression in children is on the rise.
3. We’re Alienated from our Work
We’re alienated from our work. A lot of people in modern societies have successful careers in finance, banking, law, retail and get paid a good salary. However, these jobs also have no meaning to them personally.
Most people do work which they are told to do in order to get paid and escape their work periodically on their holiday break. They buy a car or a house because they’re told to do so by their parents who did the same because they were told by their parents. Is that all there is to life? To work to go on working?
Many industries take advantage of people’s devoid of purpose and they sell us substitutes for our lost purpose. We get hung up on how we look and how we come across to other people.
4. We’re Alienated from Ourselves.
We’re alienated from ourselves, our intuition our innate gut feeling. Women tend to be strongest with a gut feeling, Ever met a woman who didn’t know her man was lying about something?
As babies are intuition is at its strongest, we know what we want and aren’t shy to express it. Do you know any babies that bare their hunger until they’ve left the post office with mum?
At some point in growing up, we learned to shut down our intuition and value logic in all things. Though feelings are the part of us that’s kept us safe as a human animal, when we ‘felt’ the dodgy intentions of a new person in a small group, we kept an eye on them. Or when a mother feels a little too quiet in the other room where her children are, she knows they’re up to no good.
However, at work, it’s unlikely that you would get fired the unsuccessful launch of a new product if you have made a logical decision (stats and numbers) in opposed to following your gut instinct after talking with a few previous customers.
Our brains are naturally wired for empathy and we care for the people around us even if we don’t know them. At a London tube station, I once witnessed a lady trip on her heels and stumble towards the edge of the platform. Instantly 4 to 5 people (including myself) instinctively extended our hands to grasp her, however, she regained her balance and walked on.
Nobody thought about what they were doing, it just happened. The emotional processing part of our brains moved our bodies unconsciously through our empathetic filter, we imagined her pain and wanted to prevent it. This is why watching the news can be very stressful for us, even though we don’t know any of the people on the screen.
See Dr. Gabor Maté 5 minute speech on feeling Lost.
4 Points to How Dance Can Help Us to Not Feel So Lost
So how can dance help us to not feel so lost in our society which is increasingly shutting down our innate human spirit? We’ve highlighted 7 benefits that’ll reconnect you.
1. Dance is an Organic Experience
When you dance, you’re totally in the moment. Being present in the moment is beneficial because we’re so often thinking of things in the past or in the future which stresses us out and causes anxiety.
When you’re focused on the sound of music, the meaning of the lyrics and timing your body to the beat, we have no time to think about anything else. We’re totally there with Bruno Mars and our getting down and funky movements.
2. We’re Exercising
Dance is often vigorous and requires us to exert ourselves. When our heart rate is increased our brains release dopamine our happy chemical which increases our good mood and general well being.
3. We’re together with people
Dancing is often done together, at a party, a dance class, on stage. It brings a sense of comradery that we’re seeking in everyday life, to act together in common interest.
Whether in choreography or dancing with a partner, because we’re united are brains release Oxytocin the fulfillment chemical, which leads to the feeling of completion that we seek validation from other people and things.
4. Dancing with people builds a tribal sense
The acknowledgment that we’re dancing with other people and sharing the experience of music and good times brings us closer together.
Just like soldiers on a battlefield who see the people next to them as brothers in arms who are sharing the same experience, dance can unify people as a tribe.
If you look back in history, many tribes danced around a fire or a maple pole at times of celebration. Was it the tribe that united to dance or the dance that united the tribe?
5. Creativity and Self Expression
During freestyle and choreographed dance, we’re self-expressing our creativity. Humans are creative beings, we think things into reality and everything around us was once someone’s thought.
We crave to express and create and dance is a perfect way to manifest our expression at the moment.
This philosophy is taught in Interpretive Style Dance, where dancers are told to create any movement that they ‘feel’ from the music that they hear. Nothing is planned or thought, it’s an organic, natural, feeling experience.
The Lost Spirit Lounge Dance Company was founded on the idea of reconnecting us through dance, to bring people together and spread awareness through this means of creativity.
We’ll share with you places where you can start or continue your dance journey with reconnecting yourself in mind:
Here’s 5 London Dance Studios that you can walk in and take a class
(In no Ranking Order) | https://medium.com/@lostspiritlounge/3-ways-how-society-makes-us-feel-lost-and-how-dance-can-reconnect-us-lsl-dance-co-f795b734449f | ['Lost Spirit Lounge Dance Co'] | 2020-02-04 01:44:02.068000+00:00 | ['Society', 'Performing Arts', 'Dance', 'Lonely', 'Lost'] |
D3: .enter, .exit, and .merge. Data joining with D3. | D3: .enter, .exit, and .merge
Thinking with Joins
Before you do anything, check out this post by Mike Bostock, the guy behind D3.
I’ve just been racking my brain for the last week trying to understand what in the world .enter , .exit , and .merge mean in D3. I mean, they’re arguably the most important aspects to D3 development (they’re the engines behind data joining, which is the engine behind D3, really), but their names are just so confusing! “Enter”? “Exit”? Why not just “add” and “take away”? I feel it’s important for me to take some time and try to explain what’s going on in my own words, if anything to prove to myself that I get what is happening.
D3 Joining
Suppose we have a bunch of data , (x, y) points, that we want to plot in a scatter plot of circle s. Check out this code adopted from Bostock’s post, linked above:
var svg = d3.select("body")
.append("svg")
.attr("width", w)
.attr("height", h); var circle = svg.selectAll("circle")
.data(data);
circle.exit().remove();
circle.enter().append("circle")
.attr("r", 2.5)
.merge(circle)
.attr("cx", function(d) { return d.x; })
.attr("cy", function(d) { return d.y; });
This syntax … Mike … Mike … whys?
A New Way of Thinking
Before we go any further, I need to make some important points (as Mike does in his post)
D3 does not have native ability to create or add multiple DOM elements svg.selectAll("circle").data(data) creates a connection, not an object
Okay, at first glance it just doesn’t make any sense. But, once you realize the thing I’m about to say, I think everything falls into place a bit better:
First, D3 defines the relationship between individual data points and individual visual elements. Then, it maintains that relationship for all data and all visual elements.
And finally, the most important point I think
To D3, a data point cannot exist without its visual element counterpart. They are essentially married, bound eternally.
That said, from here on in, I will refer to data and visual elements together as sets of individual pairs or atomic relationships. I’ll call each individual data point-visual element pair “a data binding” or “a binding” for short.
what D3 sees
This is the overall picture of what D3 is looking at any time a script is called, and it’s a good way to think about the naming convention for these joining methods. So, if there are bindings with new data that need to enter the SVG we use .enter , or existing bindings that need to be updated with new entered data in the SVG we use .merge . We can update data simply by updating the attr attributes. And, if there are bindings with surplus visual elements that need exit the SVG we use .exit . These are the only three possible states for a binding.
.enter : In the data, not on the screen
: In the data, not on the screen .merge : Changed in the data, Not Changed on the screen
: in the data, on the screen Updating attr s : Changed in the data, Not Changed on the screen
s : in the data, on the screen .exit : Not in the data, is on the screen
In another way, we can think about an individual binding like this:
It took me far too long to make this …
Now with this in mind, let’s go through each part of the above code, step by step with our new interpretation of what is going on:
var svg = d3.select("body")
.append("svg")
.attr("width", w)
.attr("height", h);
Before we can do anything, we need an SVG element in which to place our visual elements (which are each bound to some data point). We give this SVG some attributes like width and height of the visualization outline. svg , here, is our connection or reference to the SVG element in the DOM. Everything else that follows further defines that connection as it pertains to the relationship between our data and our visual elements. Let’s continue through the code.
var circle = svg.selectAll("circle")
.data(data);
Read it as “For any individual circle to exist” (hence the .selectAll ) in our svg , define the binding between each circle and each individual data point (in data ) as follows …
circle.exit().remove();
In the exit state (the corresponding visual element no longer exists), simply remove the binding from our SVG. Note: Here, we could have had a transition, or we could have had something happen with another binding in the SVG, but we chose to stick with just one particular action-to-do in the exit state, namely remove .
circle.enter().append("circle")
.attr("r", 2.5)
In the enter state (the binding’s corresponding data point is new, not represented by any visual element in the SVG), append the corresponding circle with radius 2.5px (i.e., the "r" attribute or attr ) into the SVG. Note: Think about it here that we’ve already created the binding between the new data point and its circle, we just haven’t defined exactly what to do with that (abstract) circle when it’s new to the SVG until enter .
.merge(circle)
.attr("cx", function(d) { return d.x; })
.attr("cy", function(d) { return d.y; });
Finally, if there is already a visual element represented for that binding’s data point in our SVG (we’ve seen that data and that particular circle before), you may need to make changes to its visual elements because of changes in the other elements (e.g., less bars in a bar plot). You can use merge in this case to make any necessary updates (e.g., above, the center of the circle , ( cx , cy ) should be defined by the data point’s x and y attributes, d => d.x and d => d.y ). Note: We’re using function notation, as we do always in D3, because we’re defining a relationship, not an actual scalar value.
Then boom! We have a visualization that makes people tear up with joy!
Object Constancy
As a final note, it is a good idea to maintain object constancy in all of this. Just using the .data(dataset) syntax doesn’t guarantee that data points are bound exactly to their corresponding visual elements (though, in some simple cases, it’s enough for the viz to work fine). In fact, it only binds the data and the visual elements by the order in which they occur; but things can change, which means the order(s) can change, independently. So, we use keys to keep things bound correctly. In this way, you’d typically write something like
var bar = svg.selectAll("rect")
.data(dataset, d => d.id); // Unique IDs for the visual | https://medium.com/@johnson.leon.t/d3-enter-exit-and-merge-7794f9079835 | ['Leon T Johnson'] | 2020-05-16 19:18:03.767000+00:00 | ['Data Visualization', 'SVG', 'D3', 'Data Science', 'D3js'] |
Merger Approval Procedures | In a previous article, we have discussed merger negotiations and what happens in a merger negotiation process. After the negotiation stage, a merger needs to be approved in able for it to happen. Today, we will talk about merger approval procedures.
Adopt Resolution
Each state in the United States has a statute that authorizes the mergers and acquisitions of corporations. Sometimes, the rules differ for domestic and foreign corporations. After the negotiation and both board of directors of each company reach an agreement, they adopt a resolution approving the deal they agreed to.
Now, this resolution should always state the names of the companies involved in the deal. It should also include the name of the new company. Additionally, the resolution should also include the financial terms of the deal and other relevant information. Relevant information such as the method that is going to be used to convert the securities of each company into securities of the surviving corporation.
Moreover, should there be any changes in the articles of incorporation, any changes in the articles of incorporation, it must be referenced in the said resolution.
At this point in the deal process, target companies should be taken to the shareholders for approval. Shareholder approval is required if the bidder is financing the offer using 20% or more of its own stock, NYSE, NASDAQ, and AMEX.
According to recent research, when bidders issue as much as 20% or more of their shares to acquire the target company, the bidder should experience a 4.3% increase in their announcement returns.
This could be related to greater expected synergies and a less chance of overpayment, or so it is presumed. Additionally, the researchers have found that this effect was concentrated among acquirers with greater institutional ownership. These usually are the investors who are in a better position to evaluate the deal.
Friendly Deals
Typically, shareholders are the ones who approve friendly deals. After the shareholders’ approval, the merger plan will now be submitted to the relevant state official. Usually, this is approved by the secretary of state.
Once the state official is satisfied with the proper documentation and determines that all documentation has been received by the state, it issues a certificate of merger or consolidation. A proxy solicitation should be accompanied by a Schedule 14A as per SEC rules.
The 14th item of this schedule sets forth several specific information that must be included in a proxy statement when there will be a vote for approval of a merger. Additionally, it should also include the sale of substantial assets or liquidation or dissolution of the corporation.
This information should also include the terms and reasons for the transaction. It should also state the description of the accounting treatment and tax consequences of the deal. This is true for all mergers.
Moreover, it is also required to present the financial statements, a statement regarding relevant state and federal regulatory compliance. Not only that, but it is also required to include more documents such as fairness opinions and other related documents. Fairness opinions will be discussed later.
Once the deal is completed, the target company or the registrant must then file a Form 15 with the SEC. This terminates the target’s public registration of its securities. Here are some more important details that come into play when it comes to merger approval procedures.
Special Committees of the Board of Directors
When it comes to mergers and acquisitions, the board of directors has the right to choose or form a special committee. The aforementioned special committee will then review the proposed merger. For instance, directors who might personally benefit from the merger should not be members of the said committee. To explain further, directors who will benefit when the buyout proposal contains provisions that management directors may potentially profit from the deal.
There are higher chances of a special committee to be appointed the more complex the transaction gets. However, the committee cannot do all the evaluations by themselves. We also need legal counsel assistance. The legal counsel will help guide the committee on legal issues.
These legal issues can include the fairness of the transaction, the business judgment rule, and other legal issues they might face. It is paramount that the committee and the board itself carefully considers all of the relevant aspects of the transaction.
Otherwise, they might overlook important details in the decision-making process and later on be scrutinized by the court. The same happened in the Smith v. Van Gorkom case where the court found the directors personally liable because it thought that the decision-making process of said directors was inadequate.
Fairness Opinions
Earlier, we mentioned fairness opinions, but what does it really mean? Well, this phrase can mean different things. When it comes to mergers and acquisitions, fairness opinions focus on the financial fairness of the consideration paid by the bidder to the target.
On the other hand, in connection with a divestiture, a fairness opinion focuses on the fairness to the corporation as opposed to the stockholders of the company. Additionally, the fairness opinion could also focus on fairness to the holders of the seller’s shares if, and only if, the shareholders directly receive the buyer’s consideration.
Deal Closing
Now, we move on to the closing of a merger or an acquisition. This often takes place after the agreement has been reached. Why? Simply because there are plenty of conditions that have to be fulfilled prior to the eventual closing. This may include the formal approval of the shareholders.
Additionally, it may also be required for both parties to secure regulatory approvals from government authorities. These government authorities may include the Justice Department or Federal Trade Commission as well as regulators in other nations if it is a global firm. In a lot of cases, the final purchase price will be adjusted in accordance with the formula specified in the agreement.
That is it for Merger Approval Procedures. Check out our website to learn more about Mergers and Acquisitions. | https://medium.com/@mcpartners1/merger-approval-procedures-64abe2d4d7c1 | ['M C Partners'] | 2019-12-16 04:15:07.750000+00:00 | ['Startup'] |
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