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Strategic Relationship | There are five main players in a strategic relationship — the one I call ‘a successful relationship’; Top Talent Recruiter, Top Talent, Competition, Stockholders, and Customers.
Attracting and retaining the best partner in a relationship is as tough as it is in business, with statistics indicating a yearly high rate of, relationship failure, divorce, and break-ups.
Christina l Unsplash
The number of young and old people who continuously change partners due to the failure of their relationships is shocking. Young people seem to enter into relationships because they hope that things will turn out differently if they keep changing partners. However, it is impossible to get it right if one doesn’t know the good qualities of a successful relationship.
The number of one’s partners will never be big enough for one to understand the ins and outs of a successful relationship. Furthermore, a heart once filled with love will never be perfectly replaced, and new partners will not replace those who are leaving. Despite all the heartaches, tears and misunderstandings, you can attract and retain top talent. We all know the rule which clearly states that we should have one opening at a time for any one potential partner. Similarly, in business, we have never had one job position and hired two or more people to fill it. Why then when you get a lot of ‘applications’ you choose not to use your business acumen? Why do you end up dating two or more partners? Remember, there’s always one position only at any given relationship chance. That’s rule number one. However, some will argue that in an African culture a man is allowed to have more partners or wives. Similarly, a businessman may argue and say that a business can hire two or more employees to do the same job.
Both arguments are acceptable but not strategic. Hence many relationships –both business and personal- fail dismally.
There are seven negative factors that contribute to the failure of relationships; namely, cost, time constraints, satisfaction abuse, stress, resource constraints, conflicts and unmet expectations.
As a top talent recruiter, despite the rule, it doesn’t stop you to have more applications than what you need. However, at the end of the day, you have to make the final decision which is to accept one application only. | https://medium.com/@mitta-xinindlu/strategic-relationship-23315d4e372d | ['Mitta Xinindlu', 'Www.Mittaxinindlu.Com'] | 2020-12-28 01:20:52.868000+00:00 | ['Strategic Planning', 'Business Models', 'Recruiting', 'Strategic Relationships', 'Business Strategy'] |
Great Conjunction: Saturn & Jupiter; Jupiter embrace after 800 years | 2020 made us distance ourselves from everyone, and here, Jupiter and Saturn are doing the exact opposite. This is a bag of goodies for all the star grazers this winter solstice.
Maybe it’s the gauze and bandage 2020 is applying by a way of gifting the Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn to us! Once in a lifetime kinda event | https://medium.com/@mypandit/great-conjunction-saturn-jupiter-jupiter-embrace-after-800-years-5bbece230718 | [] | 2020-12-21 13:05:40.895000+00:00 | ['Jupiter', 'Zodiac Signs', 'Astrology', 'Conjunctions', 'Horoscopes'] |
The “Not Tom Steyer!” Blues | Billionaire dreams
a hole in his head.
Leaks like a sieve.
Brain matter drips.
Gray drops pool like rain.
He smiles. I cringe.
“More old rich men”
—his guiding mantra.
How’s that for wrong?
He will save us?
How will he hear us,
ears clutched in hand?
Throws weight around.
Dollars in the wind.
Money rules, right?
Real faceplant, dude.
Think. Learn. Start smaller.
Earn it. Respect.
Be cool. Team play.
Show, don’t tell with scratch.
Plug your leak first.
Deal with your why.
Your true deep down why.
Not greed? You sure?
Seen you before.
Antebellum weird.
Nightmare waking.
Backlash making.
Old pale face centered.
You know best. Psych. | https://medium.com/no-crime-in-rhymin/the-not-tom-steyer-blues-b0e7c9229a2e | ['Ré Harris'] | 2019-07-09 23:50:22.541000+00:00 | ['Tom Steyer', 'Poetry', 'Milk Carton Haiku', 'Presidential Candidate', 'Politics'] |
Apache Airflow for the confused | A Metaphor
It’s helpful to think of Airflow like an air traffic controller.
An air traffic controller manages a finite amount of resources (airspace and runways), orchestrating sequences of tasks (flight paths, takeoffs, landings, and taxiing) that depend on whether other tasks have completed successfully.
Airflow, like an air traffic controller, keeps detailed logs of each of these sequences: what command was given, how that command was executed, and how long it took. And if, tragically, there is an error, it knows if it needs to try again, or to notify someone else for help.
We’ll come back to this metaphor later.
Airflow Terms
Airflow uses several terms that can be unclear or jargony to new users but are actually straightforward concepts. The words can be strange at first, but we’ll flesh them out.
The four key terms to understand are: a DAG, an Operator, a DAG Run, and a Task Instance.
Let’s continue with our air traffic metaphor.
Air France flight 11 between New York and Paris is a flight route defined by Air France. It is, in essence, a sequence of tasks that gets an airplane from JFK to CDG. Air France defines how often this sequence should be run. In the case of AF11, it’s run daily.
A flight route made up of waypoints.
A flight route is made up of many different tasks: taxiing to a runway, taking off, raising the landing gear, navigating to waypoints, etc. Some of these tasks can be run in parallel, some in sequence, and some depend on others before happening.
An Airflow DAG is like a flight route. It defines a sequence of operations and how often they should be run.
In Airflow, a DAG is made up of Operators. Operators define the individual tasks that need to be done. They can trigger bash commands, run SQL on a database, transfer data between systems, listen for changes on a server, or even send an email or Slack message. Airflow comes packaged with several built-in Operators and even more are available through open source libraries.
To recap: a DAG is made up of Operators, and together they form the blueprint of a work flow. The DAG defines the sequence and schedule of operations, the Operators define discrete tasks that need to take place within this sequence.
So what happens when a DAG is executed? It becomes a DAG Run.
AF11 on September 25, 2017. A successful DAG Run.
A DAG Run is what Airflow calls an executed instance of a DAG. Airflow triggers this execution based on the schedule defined in the DAG (hourly, daily, weekly, etc.). Once triggered, Airflow orchestrates the execution of the Operators in the correct order, assigning available computing power to any outstanding tasks that need to be completed.
Airflow calls an executed Operator a Task Instance. (This is an example of where Airflow’s naming conventions could be much clearer). A Task Instance is the most granular concept in Airflow. It represents an attempted operation at a certain time, with certain parameters.
Returning to our air traffic controller metaphor, Air France Flight 11 on Monday, September 25, 2017 took off at 10:05pm EDT and landed in Paris the next day. This flight followed a sequence of operations defined by the airline to get a plane from JFK to CDG. AF11 on Sept 25 is the DAG Run to the daily AF11 flight route’s DAG.
Four core Airflow concepts.
Recap
The four core concepts in Airflow are:
An Airflow DAG is a defined sequence of operations. An Airflow DAG is a Python script that defines what should be run, how often, in what order (in sequence or in parallel), and what to do if an error might occur. (If you’re interest in the maths behind DAGs, they’ve been showing up a lot these days).
Operators are the blueprints for individual operations. A DAG is made up of one or many operators. These define the individual tasks that make up a DAG. Airflow defines three types of Operators–actions, transfers, and sensors–and provides many built-in operator classes to interact with common databases and other systems.
A DAG Run, is an executed run of tasks defined by a DAG. A DAG Run is logged, including when the run began, exited, and if any errors occurred along the way.
A Task Instance is an executed Operator. It’s log contains the exact command that was given to a server, at what time, and the detailed output of what occurred.
Why Airflow
Airflow’s primary strength is that it is language and technology agnostic.
It doesn’t care what you trigger. This means you can have scripts written in whatever languages make the most sense for your workflow. All that matters is that these scripts are granular (they only do one thing) and that they return a success or failure.
Another strength is Airflow’s configuration as code.
Because Airflow’s task definitions–DAGs and Operators–are just Python, it gives tremendous flexibility in how to define a workflow. For example, it allows a DAG to dynamically add new Operators based on files in a directory. This makes it possible to define a DAG that dynamically creates new tasks when additional scripts are added to a folder, or for several DAGs to import a collection of Operators defined in another Python file. | https://medium.com/nyc-planning-digital/apache-airflow-for-the-confused-b588935669df | ['Jonathan Pichot'] | 2018-06-27 15:07:32.248000+00:00 | ['Data', 'Airflow', 'Data Engineering', 'Open Data'] |
Cluster Feeding In Newborns | Strategy #1 — Learn to Spot Your Child’s Sleep Cues
Like the rest of us, your child has a sleep window of opportunity, a period of time when he is tired, but not too tired.
If that window closes before you have a chance to tuck your child into bed, his body will start releasing chemicals to fight the fatigue and it will be much more difficult for you to get him to go to sleep. So how can you tell if your baby is getting sleepy? It’s not as if your one-month-old can tell you what he needs. Here are some sleep cues that your baby is ready to start winding down for a nap or for bedtime:
-Your baby is calmer and less active — this is the most obvious cue that your baby is tired and you need to act accordingly.
-Your baby may be less tuned-in to his surroundings — his eyes may be less focused and his eyelids may be drooping.
-Your baby may be quieter — if your baby tends to babble up a storm during his more social times of the day, you may notice that the chatter dwindles off as he starts to get sleepy.
-Your baby may nurse more slowly — instead of sucking away vigorously, your baby will tend to nurse more slowly as he gets sleepy. In fact, if he’s sleepy enough, he may even fall asleep mid-meal.
-Your baby may start yawning — if your baby does this, well, that’s a not-so-subtle sign that he’s one sleepy baby.
When your baby is very young, you should start his wind-down routine within one to two hours of the time when he first woke up.
If you miss his initial sleep cues and start to notice signs of overtiredness — for instance, fussiness, irritability, and eye-rubbing, simply note how long your baby was up this time around and then plan to initiate the wind-down routine about 20 minutes earlier the next time he wakes up. (The great thing about parenting a newborn is that you get lots of opportunities to practice picking up on those sleep cues — like about six or seven times a day!)
Learning to read your baby’s own unique sleep cues is the first step to a more rested and more content baby.
Here’s something else you need to know about babies’ sleep cues, something that can toss you a major curve ball if you’re caught off guard:
Babies tend to go through an extra-fussy period when they reach the six-week mark. The amount of crying that babies do in a day tends to increase noticeably when babies are around six weeks of age.
You aren’t doing anything wrong and there isn’t anything wrong with your baby. It’s just a temporary stage that babies go through.
If your child becomes overtired, your child is likely to behave in one or more of the following ways (results may vary, depending on his age and personality):
-Your child will get a sudden burst of energy at the very time when you think she should be running on empty.
-You’ll start seeing “wired” and hyperactive behavior, even if such behavior is totally out of character for your child at other times of the day.
-Your toddler or preschooler will become uncooperative or argumentative.
-Your child will be whiny or clingy or she’ll just generally fall apart because she simply can’t cope with the lack of sleep any longer.
You will probably find that your child has his or her own unique response to being overtired. Some children start to look pale. Some young babies start rooting around for a breast and will latch on to anything within rooting distance, including your face or your arm! When nothing seems to be wrong (he’s fed and clean), but he’s just whining about everything and wants to be held all day, he’s overtired and needs help to get to sleep.
Learning to read your baby’s own unique sleep cues is the first step to a more rested and happier baby.
Strategy #2 — Teach Your Baby to Distinguish between Night and Day
Because our circadian rhythm (our internal time clock) operates on a 24-hour and 10-minute to 24 hour and 20-minute cycle (everyone’s body clock ticks along at a slightly different rhythm) and all of our rhythms are slightly out of sync with the 24-hour clock on which the planet operates, we have to reset our internal clocks each and every day — otherwise, we’d slowly but surely stay up later and sleep in later each day until we had our cycles way out of whack.
Daylight is one of the mechanisms that regulate our biological cycles.
Being exposed to darkness at night and daylight first thing in the morning regulates the body’s production of melatonin, a hormone that keeps our bodies’ internal clock in sync to that we feel sleepy and alert at the appropriate times.
By exposing your baby to daylight shortly after he wakes up in the morning and keeping his environment brightly lit during his waking hours, you will help his circadian rhythm to cue him to feel sleepy at the right times.
Moreover, he’ll start to associate darkness with sleep time and bright light with wake-up time — you’ll find that it works best to take advantage of sunlight (as opposed to artificial light) whenever possible.
Studies have shown that exposing your baby to daylight between noon and 4:00 P.M. will increase the odds of your baby getting a good night’s sleep. | https://medium.com/@njaffiliate82/cluster-feeding-in-newborns-6d2b250a038c | ['Life Systems'] | 2019-12-05 23:36:53.042000+00:00 | ['Feeding Newborn', 'Newborn', 'Newborn Baby', 'Sleep', 'Cluster Feeding'] |
My Exhaustive — And Exhausting — Search For The Perfect Trans Dating App | Make no mistake — dating while trans sucks. But better options are on the horizon.
January 7 was a cold morning in Massachusetts, but my heart was warm when I woke up. Grabbing my phone, I tapped over to Google Play and set about downloading Thurst, the long-anticipated “dating app for queer people of all genders,” which I’d been waiting for since its announcement in 2015. With a fully customizable field for gender identity and a wider selection of sexual orientations than any other dating app, Thurst promised to be an invaluable resource. The install completed, and I opened the app, eager to see the UI that had taken so long to perfect.
The landing screen was all but blank, offering no tutorial — and nothing worked.
I tried to upload a picture and was met with an error message that just said “Warning!” I tried to search for users and couldn’t view anyone’s profile. Attempting to get support via the “Help” button yielded no results. About the only thing I could do was update my password.
A few days went by and the first update went live. Now, instead of seeing a handful of pictureless display names during a search, I was treated to a series of warnings that overlapped so quickly as to induce seizures in small children. Joy.
How had this gone live, I wondered? Hadn’t anyone noticed these bugs during QA?
Thurst promotional image (credit: Facebook)
It was hard to keep any perspective on this disappointment. While it’s true that Thurst is, at the end of the day, just an app, what it represents is incredibly meaningful to the trans community: the chance to change what dating is like for many of us.
And make no mistake — dating while trans sucks. Many trans people have begun to entirely eschew singles bars and clubs, knowing that straight cis men can become violent when they realize a girl they think is hot doesn’t have a vagina (or has a surgically constructed one). California is still the only state to have officially invalidated the “trans panic” defense, in which a defendant claims temporary insanity upon discovering a trans person’s identity. Any trans woman who doesn’t want to end up like Gwen Araujo may justifiably decide to err on the side of caution.
Make no mistake — dating while trans sucks.
But if you don’t want to flirt with strangers in real life, the only other option is to flirt with them online, and that’s not much better. Until recently, online dating was relentlessly heteronormative, with only two gender options. Trans people were forced to out themselves in the first lines of their biographies or risk being called liars or frauds, still a common occurrence on apps like OKCupid and Tinder, which aren’t fully equipped to accommodate trans identities; Tinder, for instance, allows trans people to identify as male or female for the purposes of search results, but has no idea how to accommodate nonbinary people.
It’s not uncommon for trans people to flee to the most popular of queer dating apps: Grindr. But while transmasculine folks are well served by the app’s devotion to guy-on-guy action, it’s far less palatable to exist there as a transfeminine person. Apart from the gendered language adopted by the app itself (ads for premium “Grindr Xtra” features boast “6x the guys”), most users are there for, well, dudes, and have no interest in those who identify as women. Some are even aggressively transphobic; I remember when, early in my transition, I received a message from someone who simply wrote “You’re not a woman. Stop. I hate that shit.”
Recently, there’s been a surge of new dating apps ostensibly targeted at transgender people. Most, however, are really meant to draw in cisgender men who want to have sex with trans women, a group of people known in the trans community as “chasers.” Predictably, we have found little solace in the arms of men we found on “Transgender Dating” (which “lets you meet nearby transgenders [sic]”) or “Ladyboys Shemale Dating App.”
I tried out a service from developer Uluvit called Teadate a few months ago and was disturbed for entirely different reasons. Although seeing only old cis men for my first 50 swipes did little to endear Teadate to me, I was more concerned with their terms of use, which granted Uluvit free reign to use user information and pictures in their advertising — a usually perfunctory bit of legalese that turns sinister when you imagine what might happen to someone who was outed as a result of an ad campaign.
Thankfully, since I began this report, Thurst has improved dramatically, and there are a few very understandable reasons for its initial stumbling blocks — reasons that, it turns out, are indicative of broader issues.
When I asked company co-founder Morgen Bromell about the glitches, they pointed out that “[f]aced with the realities of the Trump administration, we thought it was best to release the app and ask for support and help, with the hope that adapting quickly with community support would allow us to surpass some hurdles.”
And, Bromell points out, it’s not like Thurst was on equal footing to begin with:
“[M]obile app testing is very time consuming and expensive…Unfortunately, we have no formal funding nor a large, dedicated engineering team, so we build what we can and commit to transparency and constant updates and improvement as we figure out what we can. We were able to reach this stage, though imperfect, on donations and many months of labor on our own. Our primary issue has been acquiring funding as a black-led startup in an ecosystem where the majority of funding is given to young, white cis men. We are a company in the legal sense but we are also young queer black and brown people hacking together a platform for our needs and dedicating the collective energy we have to make it better.”
Understanding this context is imperative, especially given the racism and classism that still plagues queer spaces. Ultimately, the blame for Thurst being an incomplete product at launch lies with the system of white supremacy that affluent white gay people have left intact in their quest for assimilation. Regardless of our disappointment, we need to support developers like those at Thurst, rather than casually dismiss them for perceived inadequacies.
We need to support developers like those at Thurst, rather than casually dismiss them for perceived inadequacies.
That’s a lot easier when you see the leaps Thurst has made since January. It still isn’t perfect, of course — its search function has no distance options, for one — but the project is rapidly moving in the direction we desperately need it to go, and there will undoubtedly be more improvements and fixes to come. The past few updates have removed almost all the roadblocks keeping the app from being usable, and I’ve started what I hope will be a wonderful flirtation with someone I met on launch day (who, it turns out, is an adorable redhead).
Even if a perfect trans dating app never arrives, we’ll take what we can get — because between you and me, our romantic options are not exactly plentiful. | https://medium.com/the-establishment/my-exhaustive-and-exhausting-search-for-the-perfect-trans-dating-app-401befabf3b | ['Sam Riedel'] | 2017-02-13 15:50:39.146000+00:00 | ['Lust Liasons', 'LGBTQ', 'Online Dating', 'Thurst', 'Transgender'] |
Getting In Touch With Your ‘Why’ and Pushing Past Your Limiting Beliefs | In this episode of Invisible Stories, I speak with diversity and inclusion entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and author Bernadette Smith. Bernadette’s work in the field of LGBTQ+ Inclusion with her company, Equality Institute, has empowered businesses through elearning, consulting, and training in the field of DEI. Bernadette is also a prolific writer, and has published three books, relating to inclusion in both LGBTQ+ wedding planning and in business.
Bernadette and I talk about our similarities when it comes to our businesses, as well as her solutions for writing and accountability. Bernadette shares: | https://medium.com/@hello_70943/in-this-episode-of-invisible-stories-i-speak-with-diversity-and-inclusion-entrepreneur-keynote-72f07321bf03 | ['Jenn T. Grace', 'Publish Your Purpose Press'] | 2020-12-15 15:30:20.576000+00:00 | ['Publishing', 'Authors', 'Diversity And Inclusion', 'Podcast', 'Gay Weddings'] |
6 Leadership Coaching Tips To Improve Business Performance | © PK Narayanan
Leading the team and business to optimal performance is a continuing challenge to CEOs and Business Leaders — especially in these VUCA times.
The good news is that today we have multiple support systems available to create, build, and enhance our leadership skills that are appropriate to face the respective challenges — including one-on-one leadership coaching with the help of a Business Leadership Coach.
Leadership Coaching helps leaders enhance their leadership presence, and helps them gain clarity to do what’s needed.
6 leadership coaching tips from my experience of working with CEOs and Business Leaders over the last 17+ years are shared here.
Enhancing leadership presence: Being present, and enhancing leadership influence are key to successful leadership — it’s also about building our ability to focus, listen, communicate, influence, and being open, curious and authentic.
Making better choices, better decisions: Leadership is about making choices and decisions — impacting many. Better leadership is about making better choices, taking better decisions.
Working around challenges: Challenges seem to be all around, and real. The equal reality is that one need not take the challenges head-on. Possibilities exist to work around the challenges — thinking around the challenges — to sail around them in a more constructive way.
Discovering blind-spots: As humans, we all have our blind-spots. Discovering them, working on them, enhances our performance, helps unleash our true potential.
Simplifying: When we simplify things get done. Complexity seems natural (!) and it takes conscious efforts to simplify. When we simplify, things get clearer to us, and to the teams.
Focusing, managing distractions: Focusing on things to do (as well as things not to do!) is key to enhancing our leadership presence. When we say focusing, it’s also building our ability to manage distractions.
CEO Coaching, Leadership coaching helps CEOs, business leaders to explore and build upon these key leadership aspects that are relevant to them, and enhance their leadership presence, improving their business performance. | https://medium.com/@pknarayanan/6-leadership-coaching-tips-to-improve-business-performance-3c73ee4983a8 | ['Pk Narayanan', 'Ceo Coach'] | 2020-12-15 07:57:22.784000+00:00 | ['Leadership', 'CEO', 'Scaleup', 'Coaching'] |
The Caveat of Loading Data to Partitioned Table on BigQuery | Table Partitioning and Why
Table partitioning is physically separating the data from the same logical table for optimisation purpose. The bigger the table, the more we can see the benefit of partitioning. Because of the same reason, table partitioning is a common practice on data warehouse, which usually hold a big amount of data. By partitioning the table, queries become more efficient and data lifecycle is easier to manage.
Let’s say we are managing a data warehouse of social media, one of the biggest table would be fact_post table which contains all posts from all users. The fact_post table is best to be partitioned by date. The most common way to partition the table is by manually separating the physical table into one table per day with table name pattern fact_post_yyyymmdd.
To analyse data in certain timeframe, we can union all tables with table name pattern so that we only read tables we need to. Managing data lifecycle is also easier; for example, to manage data retention, we only need to drop table to delete old data, which is a lot faster compare to DELETE statement with WHERE clause.
Random image so the post is less boring. Photo by Bence Balla-Schottner on Unsplash
Common Partitioning Type
Date is not the only common partition type. Some tables are too small, hence monthly or even annual partition does more make sense. Another common pattern is to partition by fields with sane number of unique possible values, e.g. country. Partitioning by customer, especially for B2C, is not that common since it will generate enormous amount of tables which leads to metadata overhead.
You will need to understand your query pattern and distribution of the data in order to decide what column you should use to partition your data. The most common column used for filtering on WHERE clause is a potential partitioning column. Try to avoid skew / hotspot on your data, e.g. partition by country meanwhile most of transactions happen only in one specific country.
Partitioned Table on BigQuery
The partitioning example I mentioned before is all manual. On BigQuery, there are a feature called partitioned table, where partition is handled as part of BigQuery feature. To quote the official partitioned table documentation (taken 1/Sep/2019):
A partitioned table is a special table that is divided into segments, called partitions, that make it easier to manage and query your data. By dividing a large table into smaller partitions, you can improve query performance, and you can control costs by reducing the number of bytes read by a query.
Having partitioned table as part of the BigQuery feature makes our life a lot easier. It is easier to query the whole table for all partition, it is also easier to specify the partitions we need to query. We can choose partitions to read by placing the condition on WHERE clause right away, e.g. using BETWEEN <start date> AND <end date>
Remember that the goal of partitioning is to optimise your query. On BigQuery, it’s a big deal as you likely optimise your cost a lot by doing partitioning. At the time of writing, BigQuery support two partitioning modes:
Partitioning by ingestion time, which means the time when you load your data to BigQuery. This means your table is partitioned by _PARTITIONTIME column, a meta column. Partitioning by date column, based on a column you specify with DATE or TIMESTAMP data type.
The Caveat of Loading Data to Partitioned Table
I had a use case to partition data by date using event_date column. Reading the documentation, I decided to try out partitioning by date column, it felt natural to do so. To understand the behaviour, I loaded the sample data using BigQuery Python client library.
As I designed my pipeline to be idempotent, I used WRITE_TRUNCATE disposition. This means, my pipeline will keep replacing the partition based on the result of pipeline. Read this for more on why idempotent pipeline is easier to manage.
And here’s the caveat. Let’s say the result of my pipeline contains dates of 1 Sep, 2 Sep, and 3 Sep 2019. I expected BigQuery to detect those three days and replace three partitions accordingly, but that was not the case. All partitions were gone, replaced by the new data, hence only three partitions remain. Maybe if I had used WRITE_APPEND, behaviour I expected would happen. But as I want my pipeline idempotent, that was not my option and I didn’t test that.
So, in order to keep my pipeline idempotent, I decided to use ingestion time or _PARTITIONTIME column, and load with table decorator $YYYYMMDD. For example, to load the data of 1-Sep-2019, I load using WRITE_TRUNCATE disposition to fact_something$20190901. This also means I have to filter my data before I load it, so that it only contains data for that date I am going to load to. This is done by using event_date = “2019–01–01” condition. | https://medium.com/@rendybjunior/the-caveat-of-loading-data-to-partitioned-table-on-bigquery-f81b6e7dceba | ['Rendy B. Junior'] | 2019-09-01 22:05:15.823000+00:00 | ['Big Data', 'Bigquery', 'Data Warehouse', 'Google Cloud Platform'] |
Top 10 Eduonix E-Degrees, Courses, and Tutorials to learn Essential Technical Skills | Top 10 Eduonix E-Degrees, Courses, and Tutorials to learn Essential Technical Skills
There are the best courses, and tutorials from Eduonix to learn programming and web development
Eduonix Learning Solutions is the premier training and skill development organization that was started with a vision to bring world-class training content and best learning practices to everyone. Eduonix aims to identify and provide the best learning and training environment.
Eduonix offers easy to understand online courses and workshops for everyday people. If you have ever wanted to learn a new skill, but don’t want to attend four years of college to do it, we have a solution for you.
Not only on the courses, but Eduonix is also offering Discounts on Deals E-degree are available now available!
Here are some of the best Eduonix degrees, tutorials, and courses for programmers and developers.
Best Programming and Web Development E-degree at Eduonix
The online degree program is a new way to learn relevant skills online. These are the best degree courses from Edonix to learn in-demand skills like full-stack web development DevOps, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and much more.
Learn how to build and maintain robust web applications. This e-degree will teach you JavaScript technologies like Mongo, Express, Node, and React which is used for easier and faster deployment of full-stack web applications.
2. DevOps E-degree
Learn how to collaborate on a common platform for software deployment, testing and infrastructure changes with the help of professional experts
3. Fullstack JavaScript Developer E-Degree
Learn how to build a product or an application from scratch to deployment. This Full Stack Javascript e-degree program will help you translate and implement user requirements to an overall architecture using tools like HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, Node, and Express.
4. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning E-Degree
Become an AI & ML expert with this exclusive E-Degree having hand-picked content from world-class instructors. This e-degree will enable you to gain an in-depth understanding of what has become the brain behind business intelligence and will cover technologies like Machine learning, Regression analysis, Tensorflow, Python, R & more.
5. Advanced Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning E-Degree
Learn how to create intelligent machines with our comprehensive e-degree program. This advance artificial intelligence and machine learning e-degree will help you learn the latest and cutting edge technologies such as Deep Learning, CNN, Computer Vision, Natural Language Processing, and Reinforcement Learning.
Top 5 Eduonix Tutorials to learn Essential Skills
Now, let’s see some of their most popular tutorial bundle which provides a bundle of highly relevant courses to learn a particular skill like TensorFlow, Docker, javascript, etc.
Master TensorFlow, one of the most popular open-source library that is currently being used for data flow programming.
Instructors: United Network of Professionals, John Bura, Eduonix Learning Solutions, Start Tech Academy
2. Docker Masterclass
A complete bundle to learn & master everything about Docker from scratch!
Instructors: Eduonix Learning Solutions, Nick Janetakis, Manuj Aggarwal, Abhilash Nelson, AR Shankar
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Ultimate Web Development Mighty Bundle For Beginners To Experts
Instructors: Eduonix Learning Solutions, Roman Gustavo Litvin, Maximilian Schwarzmüller, Academind, Code And Create, Development Island, Matthew Raymer, Angular University, Leslie Zavarella
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Instructors: Eduonix Learning Solutions, Roman Gustavo Litvin, Maximilian Schwarzmüller, Code And Create, Matthew Raymer, Angular University, Syed Raza
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Comprehensive JavaScript Bundle for Beginners and Professionals
Instructors: Code And Create, Development Island, laurence, Eduonix Learning Solutions, Eric Traub, John Bura
Top 10 Eduonix Courses for Programmers and Developers
Now, let’s check out some of the best online training courses from Eduonix which you can buy to learn programming, web development, reactjs, angular, nodejs, and many other in-demand technologies.
Dive in and learn React from scratch! Learn Reactjs, Hooks, Redux, React Routing, Animations, Next.js, and way more!
4.8 (650 reviews)
Building apps is now easy with ReactJS and Flux. Learn React JS and Flux in this hands-on project-based tutorial.
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HTML, CSS, Javascript, jQuery, Bootstrap, PHP, MySQL, Wordpress, APIs (Google , Facebook, Twitter), Mobile All covered!
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Learn JavaScript with the most Comprehensive JS course on the market! Covers ES6, OOP, Hoisting, Closures, and more!
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Learn how to connect your Angular Frontend to a NodeJS & Express & MongoDB Backend by building a real Application
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instructor: Maximilian Schwarzmüller
In this Django tutorial, you will learn how to install Django framework & how to build database-driven websites from scratch
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HTML, CSS, and JavaScript — Create 6 projects using three core technologies. Master in animations and create 3D effects.
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Learn JavaScript from basic to advanced level. Project-based JavaScript course. The Complete Guide from ES5 to ES6.
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Building apps is now easy with ReactJS and Flux. Learn React JS and Flux in this hands-on project-based tutorial.
That’s all about the best courses, tutorials, and e-degrees for programmers and developers from Eduonix. You can also visit Eduonix.com for more exciting offers and details!
All the best with your learning
If you find any other useful courses on Eduonix for programmers and developers, please share with us in comments. | https://medium.com/javarevisited/top-10-e-degrees-courses-and-tutorials-from-eduonix-for-programmers-and-developers-85c9038a2e10 | ['Asha Goyal'] | 2020-07-24 06:54:00.052000+00:00 | ['Software Development', 'Programming', 'Eduonix', 'Web Development', 'Course'] |
How I failed my #100DaysOfCode challenge | Or maybe I didn’t? | Why I didn’t had time for the challenge
I didn’t have time to finish it (nor follow up with Flutter after finishing the challenge) because I was occupied.
Besides improving my Python with Beautiful Soup and Scrapy (new tutorial series coming up this week!), I want to improve my favourite framework. The one I didn’t have time to keep using at my current job nor outside: Django.
I use Vue, I use Javascript. I want to become really good with Django.
But also I have been improving my blog by re-editing old posts, titles, improving the SEO and creating new posts and tutorials. Soon you will have available new articles and tutorials for you to learn.
I’m very ambitious about that because I want to help all of you that are reading these lines right now.
I want to provide useful content for you, like Scrapy tutorials, Flask and Django crash courses, teaching you how to use Javascript libraries, how Vue works, and more.
Also, I have been improving my Youtube channel too. I haven’t recorded any video from 6 months until I uploaded a Beautiful Soup 2-parts tutorial.
I plan to make at least two tutorial videos every week, focusing on Python and also Javascript.
If you don’t want to miss anything, subscribe to my channel here.
Also, a new re-design is in progress. New intro and outro videos, logo, thumbnails and more.
Here’s a sneak peek to the new logo: | https://medium.com/quick-code/how-i-failed-my-100daysofcode-challenge-or-maybe-i-didnt-959cc216210e | [] | 2019-09-15 07:10:07.681000+00:00 | ['Django', '100daysofcode', 'Programming', 'Flutter', 'Coding'] |
Slingbox brilliantly solved a problem that no longer exists | The news that Sling Media will soon shut down the servers that power its Slingbox devices has conjured a complex cocktail of emotions, including a shot of outrage, a dash of resignation, and strong dose of nostalgia.
Of course, those who currently own a Slingbox—a device that captures video from your DVR and “slings” it to another device, such as a phone, a tablet, or a desktop PC—are rightly furious, as they now face the prospect that in two years, their pricey players (the most recent model, the Slingbox M2 from 2015, cost $200 at launch) will soon be little more than snazzy-looking paperweights.
The resignation part follows the steady trickle of bad news coming from Sling Media about the players, first and foremost the announcement in 2017 that the Dish Network subsidiary would stop making the devices. In late 2019, Sling Media axed versions of the Slingplayer app for Android and Roku, another ominous sign. In short, the writing has been on the wall for some time.
[ Further reading: Amazon Prime Video vs Hulu vs Netflix ]The nostalgia comes for those of us who have been following the Slingbox saga since the early days. First released back in 2005—when the Palm Treo 700w was the hottest cell phone around, Netflix was still a DVD-by-mail service, and YouTube didn’t even exist (not quite yet, anyway)—the whimsical, candy bar-shaped Slingbox was nothing short of magical.
All you had to do was hook the Slingbox up to your DVR via an S-Video input (remember those?), connect the player to an ethernet cable, and plug in an IR blaster for DVR control. Then you installed a software client on your PC (Mac support came later, as did apps for the Symbian-powered smartphones of the time), and … presto! Live TV on your computer, streamed from your DVR, and it worked anywhere that you had an internet connection, from across the room to across the country. Oh, and no monthly subscription fees, either.
It’s hard to remember what a revelation the Slingbox was, partly because it’s difficult to imagine a world without Netflix (which didn’t start streaming video until 2007), Hulu, YouTube (which wouldn’t launch until the end of 2005), Amazon Prime Video, and all the other ways we stream video, both live and on demand, to any screen at our disposal. Looking back 15 years later, I have to keep reminding myself that—oh right!—you couldn’t just rent a TV show and watch it on your iPhone (there were no iPhones yet), nor could you stream CNN in a browser, mobile or otherwise.
Later versions of the Slingbox would rectify the original’s (often painful) limitations. The Slingbox Pro-HD from 2010, for example, was the first Slingbox to support HD video streaming, while 2012’s Slingbox 500 finally added Wi-Fi support. In 2014, the Slingbox M1 served up most of the 500’s features in a smaller, cheaper package. (The last Slingbox ever released, the M2 in 2015, was essentially just an M1 retread that met with a chilly reception.) And of course, Slingbox clients for PCs and Symbian smartphones gave way to SlingPlayer apps for iOS and Android.
But even as the Slingbox packed in more features, the streaming video landscape grew exponentially faster, with YouTube becoming a thing shortly after the original Slingbox launch, streaming pioneer Hulu making its debut in 2007, and Netflix jumping on the bandwagon right around the same time. On-demand streaming services were soon followed by over-the-top live TV streaming, and now, the ability to channel surf on our phones is commonplace.
Though it all, Slingbox always had a killer feature: no subscription fees, ever! (Although the boxes themselves weren’t exactly cheap, with the Slingbox 500 going for a stiff $300.) But hooking up a Slingbox to your DVR was always a clunky process, involving a tangle of cables and dependent on the uplink speed of your broadband connection. On the other hand, signing up for a streaming TV service, while pricey, is a cinch.
Dish Network’s parent company, EchoStar, acquired Sling Media in 2007. The final Slingbox—the model M2—landed in stores in 2015, the same year that -. Two years later, Sling Media stopped making Slingboxes for good, and in 2020, well, here we are.
It’s always a shame to hear a pioneer like Slingbox going the way of the dodo, and for those users who will soon be left with useless Slingboxes, I feel your pain. We’ve been writing too many stories lately about gadgets that go dark after their manufacturers lose the will to keep the lights on.
But the Slingbox was made to fill a void that’s now teeming with options, from Netflix and Hulu to Plex and Tablo. Streaming TV took off and moved on, and sadly, Slingbox didn’t move along with it.
Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details. | https://medium.com/@rachel60791797/slingbox-brilliantly-solved-a-problem-that-no-longer-exists-6258ed7383a4 | [] | 2020-12-05 05:53:01.126000+00:00 | ['Chromecast', 'Music', 'Services', 'Streaming'] |
Ads on Smart TVs, really? | Source: Home Cinema Installations — https://www.homecinemainstallations.co.uk/
I recently came across a Reddit post where a user reported that his Xiaomi Smart TV made him watch a 60 second ad when switching from HDMI 1 port to HDMI 2 port. I remember wondering if ads really got to that point. As it turns out, they did.
Samsung was the first to do this
After a bit of digging, I found out that Xiaomi is not the only one pushing ads on their smart TVs. Samsung was the first culprit, back in 2015. Their TV interface was completely ad-free until a long-planned update rolled out which laced the interface with ads. AdAge reported that the ads are relatively unobtrusive until they’re highlighted by the user, in which case they can cover up about three quarters of the screen. Imagine the size of that on an 80“ 8K TV. Anyway, the change upset TV owners, many of them whom said it does not make sense to buy a very expensive product and then limit it’s user-friendliness by pushing ads. One user wrote: „Free service plus ads or paid service plus no ads, pick one Samsung.“ Of course, you can disable these ads by disconnecting the TV from the Internet, but doesn’t that defeat the whole purpose of owning a smart TV?
I’m not sure how all of this is is reflected on other TVs who use other operating systems. I know that Samsung uses it’s proprietary Tizen OS and that most of the other smart TVs use Android OS. My TV at home is an ancient breed of a smart TV and it’s not connected to the Internet anyway so I haven’t seen any ads, and I haven’t seen ads on Sony and LG TVs. However, I do believe that the ads are coming to them as well. It’s just a matter of how they’ll affect everyday usage.
What kind of ads are displayed?
You can have those annoying ads that have to be watched and that cover up the entire screen. If you ask me, that’s a no-no. Many customers are tired of seeing ads and they will just get angry if they can’t enjoy their content. Then there are the ads that are unobtrusive, but still visible. Like what you see in the corner of your TV and that you can easily ignore if you’re not interested. If we have to have ads on our TVs, let them be like that. I believe that users can get used to that. Just don’t pause our content in order to display ads. I’m looking at you, Facebook and YouTube. So, there can be a way to make it work.
But can it really work?
Even though I’m into marketing, I don’t think that ads on smart TVs are a good idea. We already have ads everywhere — apps, games, every single webpage we visit, unskippable YouTube ads, Facebook ads, Instagram ads, they’re everywhere. If this trend continues, we won’t have any room for actual content. People get annoyed by this and they certainly aren’t happy when they see an embedded ad in the operating system of their 1000$ TV. They’ll just stop using the smart features and enjoy the TV for what it is — a huge screen to which you can plug your computer or game console if you don’t want to watch a regular program, which is in fact peppered with ads. I can get behind ads on some streaming services, but only if those services are free.
What will happen next?
Like it or not, I think that ads will arrive to all of our smart TVs sooner or later. The question is how long they’ll stay. I mean yes, we do have ads on every TV program, but the new ads will come directly to the operating systems of our TVs. If you really don’t want the ads, you have two options: a) don’t buy a smart TV, or b) don’t update your smart TV.
Sources:
Reddit — My Xiaomi TV just forced me to watch an ad
Extremetech — Samsung Smart TV Update Forces Users To See Ads | https://medium.com/digital-reflections/ads-on-smart-tvs-really-6a9c81771da8 | ['Domagoj Pale'] | 2019-02-17 21:38:35.841000+00:00 | ['Forcing Ads', 'Marketing', 'Ads', 'Smart Tv', 'TV'] |
Ten genius ways Disney’s customer experience keeps the magic alive | Magic Kingdom in Disney World is known as “the most magical place on earth.” Visitors go there to disappear from reality and live in a fairy tale. All of Disney’s parks exude the feeling of magic. There’s excitement in the air and adults can roam the parks with a sense of childhood wonder.
In reality, this is a carefully curated experience. Disney puts a lot of effort into ensuring consistency in their branding to maintain their illusion. Anyone who wants to remove the magical curtains can see the thought put forward by Disney’s Imagineers to offer guests the best possible experience.
When it comes to Disney, everything is intentional. Even the smallest details have been discussed and employees are expected to provide a certain experience to the customers. As you explore the minor details of Disney’s customer journey, it’s easy to understand why they have so many fans. They provide an experience where you don’t always acknowledge what’s happening: you just feel it.
There are thousands of details required to craft a Disney experience. While the company isn’t going to reveal them all, most are hidden in plain site. Observant fans have been able to identify some aspects of the customer experience that makes Disney stand out from other brands.
Go Away Green
Disney has given the world many inventions, but nobody is talking about their shade of green. That’s the point, because Disney wants you to ignore it. All of the unsightly objects in the park are painted in a grayish-green color nicknamed “go away green.”
Go Away Green on Club 33.
This color is designed to be the least remarkable and inoffensive color so your eyes overlook it. The parks will paint things like electrical boxes and building supports with “go away green” paint. Guests are inclined to ignore these objects and focus on the castles, characters, and costumes. Disney also has a grayish shade of blue dubbed “blending blue” to have the same effect as “go away green.”
The door to Disney’s exclusive Club 33 is painted “go away green” so the common folks overlook it unless they’re in the know.
The Not-Starbucks Starbucks
Like many other people, I love Starbucks. Part of the reason I like it so much is due to the uniformity and ease of the experience. Disney parks have Starbucks in them, but do you really think they’re going to have big green logos in the middle of a castle? Of course not.
Main Street Bakery via Disney Tourist Blog
If you go to Disney, the Starbucks will have a name that aligns with the environment. You might need to get your coffee fix at the Creature Cafe or Main Street Bakery, but Disney won’t deprive you of your caffeine. While it’s not hard to see some Starbucks branding, Disney makes its aesthetic take priority. This is a small price for Starbucks to pay considering the amount of traffic coming through Disney.
Never Break Character
You need to have a certain type of personality to work at a Disney Park, and these people tend to be very helpful and knowledgeable. Known as “cast members,” these individuals are always going to have a good attitude and be attentive to your needs. They know the world they live in, and they should always have directions to attractions and solutions to your concerns.
Joshua Sudock, Disneyland Resort, and Travel + Leisure
There is an exception, however. A person in costume assumes the role of the character being portrayed. If you see Mickey walking down the street, don’t ask him to locate a bathroom. He’ll pose for a picture, but he won’t say a word. Disney wants you to think this is the real Mickey, and they’re not going to throw away the illusion just to help you wash your hands.
Trash Cans Everywhere, Trash Nowhere
Disney is known for having clean, well-kept parks. Much of this can be attributed to their dedicated staff, but there’s also some logic to their park design. Trash cans are placed 30 feet apart, so you never need to hold onto trash for a long time.
via Laughing Place
There’s a rumor that Walt Disney followed guests around to see how long they’d hold a piece of trash before throwing it on the ground. Whether or not this is true, guests should have no problem locating a trash can. To add to the fun, the bins are decorated to match the park. Throwing away trash allows you to enjoy the scenery and keep the park clean for everyone else.
Smell the Experience
Disney’s Imagineers have always known smell is closely tied to our experiences. So, the parks are constantly pumping out scents to fully immerse guests in the atmosphere. The Smellitizer was invented to dispense a carefully crafted odor to fit each area of the park.
Candy Palace via DisneyParksBlog
If you walk down Main Street and smell baked goods, there’s probably not anything in the oven. While that might be disappointing, it’s nice to know that the damp leather you smell on Pirated of the Caribbean is not a sign of aging structures. Just remember this next time you find yourself craving popcorn. You only want it because the Imagineers have forced that smell into your nose.
Only One Mickey
Disney parks are huge, and there may be more than one cast member portraying the same Disney character. However, the parks are insistent that there is no overlap. If there are two people playing Snow White at the same time, they’re going to be far, far away from each other.
via DisneyParksBlog
For guests, it will appear there is only one Snow White. This may mean fewer people will be able to interact with their favorite princess, but it adds to the charm. Snow White is going to be popular, but seeing doubles is inconsistant with the branding. Just like the movies, a princess can only be one place at a time… as far as the guests know.
#NoFilter
The Magic Kingdom might be recognized for many characteristics, but the reddish sidewalks aren’t at the top of the list. This isn’t the main feature, but it is an intentional inclusion. The sidewalks have this reddish color simply because it looks better.
via Save At WDW
This might not be a huge deal when you’re visiting the park, but when you look back at your photos you’ll notice a difference. Red is a more vibrant color, and it makes the structures in the Magic Kingdom pop. Disney is full of color to keep the magic alive. When was the last time you saw magic portrayed with shades of gray?
Unbreakable Quality
Guests know Disney can get expensive, but kids don’t really care. Once they’re inside the park, they’re going to want everything. One of the easiest ways to grab a child’s attention: balloons.
Disney ballons via Magic Mouse Press
While you’re going to be paying a fair amount for a balloon (up to $17), they serve as a representation of Disney’s dedication to quality. If the balloon deflates or pops, you can get it replaced without any questions asked. When you’re leaving the park, you can have the balloon deflated by a cast member. This will make it easier to keep as a souvenir and carry it while traveling.
Talking In Code
While you’re inside a Disney Park, nothing goes wrong; at least that’s what they want you to think. In reality, you’re in a theme park. Accidents happen, the world gets chaotic, and some problems need to be addressed. If you’re a guest, you’re not supposed to know what’s going on behind the scenes. So, if you hear employees chatting with one another you’re not going to understand what they’re saying.
via Mickey Blog.
Disney intentionally uses indirect language when trying to resolve issues. Some of them don’t impact you, but might be upsetting to younger guests. For example, Mickey doesn’t leave the park; he goes “backstage.” This is just another way to keep the idea of perfection alive. You should be able to comfortably ignore all of these codes, except maybe “code v.” If you hear that one, it means someone threw up.
Flagship Style
At their US Parks, Disney is committed to their patriotic themes. Like many American places, this means flying the flags for all to see. Of course, Disney is also very particular about their designs and doesn’t want to lower flags or tamper with their perfect lighting. So, Disney uses fake US flags. Some are missing a star or a stripe, but they’re technically not real US flags.
via Save at WDW
This allows Disney to set their own rules. Technically, you’re supposed to lower a flag at night or keep it illuminated. When Disney doesn’t do this, it’s not a sign of disrespect. It’s a sign that they’ve thought of every detail and want to keep parks looking consistent and happy.
Keeping the Magic Alive
It’s no surprise people love visiting Disney so much. They’ve thought of everything, and once you think they’ve perfected their experience they try something new. This might be why 70% of guests become return visitors. Disney has focused on so many details it’s impossible to notice them all. That’s why they’ve created an experience. You might not be aware of what’s happening, but you know you’re experiencing it while you’re in the park.
Keen Disney fans may know a lot of the secrets. They’re not impossible to spot; it’s actually quite easy when you know what to look for. Everything is hidden in plain sight, and each detail is an intentional addition to your experience. While this can make guests feel like they’re in the happiest place on earth, and can also make them a little more generous with their money.
This isn’t to say Disney is only about the cash, but they do want you to invest in their brand. With such a robust experience in the parks, one trip isn’t enough. Millions of American families have created lifelong memories inside these parks, and children dream of going to Disney. If you want to know why, it’s because of the pure happiness you’ll find. The Imagineers have catered to your every sense. They pump you full of happiness any way they can, then they stay in character the whole time. While this may be an expensive way to put a smile on your face, you won’t be able to deny the magical feeling. | https://uxdesign.cc/ten-genius-ways-disneys-customer-experience-keeps-the-magic-alive-23d2bf70e4ce | ['Michael Beausoleil'] | 2021-04-28 14:48:19.365000+00:00 | ['Design Thinking', 'Customer Experience', 'Branding', 'UX', 'Service Design'] |
What’s your problem? | Complex Problem Solving is THE skill we need in the coming years, at least that is what the World Economic Forum says. But what does Complex Problem Solving mean? Better, what does Problem Solving mean? Even better, what’s a problem and what’s a solution?
Problem
When looking for the meaning or the definition of something, I tend to go back to its origin. Blame it on the philosopher in me. “problem” goes back to the Ancient Greek “προβάλλω” (proballo) meaning something as “thrown before”. So, a problem is an obstacle thrown before something so you cannot go forward. It can be physical (big stone on the road) or verbal, such as an argument against what you were stating. “Problem” is also used in the sense of a given task (let’s say a mathematical problem for students). There is a lot more to be said here, but you get the general idea.
In everyday use, the word problem is used for any difficulty that needs to be resolved or a question that needs to be answered. There is an obstacle (a problem to be solved) that is in your way to move forward. There are other strict, contextual related definitions such as in ITIL were a problem refers to an (unknown) root cause. Within that context Complex Problem Solving and Root Cause Analysis are almost synonymous. I think that the ITIL definition is too strict and the definition of incident does not help that much either. It does not cover all the problems you’re facing in your organization, not even on the IT level.
The Greek definition (an obstacle) gives a broader perspective for a practical definition of “problem”, at least when thinking of solutions (removing the obstacle). I use the following definition. A problem is a “subject with a deviation”, in other words, something is wrong with something. I’ll explain.
“Subject” is “a person or thing that is being discussed, described, or dealt with”. Again, this goes back to the Greeks and Romans, from “Hypokeimenon” and “Subjectum”. “Subject”, is a physical thing including persons or a group of persons, organizations etc., but can also be non-physical such as ideas, hopes, or virtual servers. “Deviation” comes from the Latin “Deviare” meaning something as “away from the way”. Nowadays it is used as “the action of departing from an established course or accepted standard” or in statistics “the amount by which a single measurement differs from a fixed value such as the mean”. So, you have a certain way (towards a certain goal) and you move away from it, for instance because there is an obstacle on the road. In other words, there is a norm and you move away from reaching that norm. In this way a deviation can only be understood if you actually know the way, the norm or the expectation.
As we are trying to solve problems here, the more specific you get about the subject and the deviation, the more clear and distinct your problem becomes. And with a more specific problem, troubleshooting becomes easier. Let’s look at an example.
Example
“Outlook is slow”. This is a problem. There is an obstacle on the road. You want to do something and the slow Outlook is an obstacle for moving forward at your desired pace of productivity. You recognize the subject (Outlook) and the deviation (slow). This is how a service desks around the world receive calls every day (“My Outlook is slow!”). But unfortunately, this problem statement (although it is subject + deviation) does not really help to solve the problem. It is too vague and it needs to be more specific. A vague problem leads to jumping to conclusions and solutions and in many cases you jump wrong.
What does the customer mean by “Outlook”, is it everything about Outlook, just the calendar or email, the startup process, what? Furthermore, what does “slow” mean? For instance, does starting up Outlook take longer than usual? Or does it take longer than promised? What norm is used (promised time or expected time) and what is the exact deviation (1 or 2 seconds, 30 minutes)?
I’m not stating that “Outlook is slow” is not a real problem. The customer actually is having the problem of a slow Outlook. But when trying to solve the problem, especially as problems become more complicated and complex, being more specific is the first step in solving the problem. And here you can be more specific about both the subject and the deviation. For instance, Outlook is slow, means starting up Outlook (subject) takes 5 minutes (deviation) and usually it is between 10 and 15 seconds (norm/expectation).
So far we have seen what a practical definition of “problem” is in solving it. It is a subject with a deviation and the more specific you get, the better you see the actual problem and cannot confuse it with something else. Clear and distinct problems are “easier” to solve. The definition of a problem as a subject with a deviation also helps to see what kind of solutions there are. I recognize 3…
Solution
First, let’s get back to those Romans. “Solution” comes from the word “Solvere” which means loosen, release or cast off, to make less tight or firm. Nowadays solution means: a means of solving a problem or dealing with a difficult situation, the correct answer to a puzzle, or products or services designed to meet a need. Recognize that “Correct answer” and “a need” are norms here. So, a solution is a means of reaching a norm. Or, when looking to the definition of a problem, solving a problem is getting rid of the deviation so the subject is at its norm. You can do that in 2 ways…
Solution 1
One way to solve a problem is to get rid of the obstacle, or to fix the deviation. When Outlook is slow, or better, if it takes 30 seconds (deviation) for an email to get out of my outbox (subject) instead of a maximum of 3 seconds (norm), the solution is to get it within the 3 second norm again. In this way, we removed an obstacle on our road.
Solution 2
Another way to solve the same problem is to move the norm (change the road around the obstacle). Just move the norm for outgoing mail to 30 seconds and you are within your norm again. Usually, this is not the first thing we think of, but it is a valid solution to any given problem. Of course, valid does not always mean desirable here :).
Solution 3
The last solution is a more academic one and as with all academic discussions we need to make it practical with an example. Let’s say you are a provider of remote desktops. You supply the remote desktops to several thousands of employees of your customer. Since the launch of the service, the employees have been complaining about very poor startup performance and they are very clear about it. From the moment they push the On-button, to the moment they can type the first word in Word it takes approximately 4 minutes. And that’s too long. Problem: startup sequence remote desktop (subject) takes 4 minutes (deviation).
The question here is, what’s the norm? The customer is very clear about that norm; it was even put into writing in the contract. Customer and supplier agreed upon an average of 1 minute of startup time. Now it seems we have a clear deviation from a clear norm, right?
Not exactly. Upon investigation, it seemed that the 1 minute norm was not based upon any technical specification, design or whatever. The norm was a “random” norm from the sales department, but technically that norm cannot be reached with the current setup. After testing, the startup sequence is not faster than 3,5 minutes. There was nothing to support the idea that the 1 minute norm could be reached. But, because it was put into writing it became a very real norm for the customer.
As the norm was never validated to be “real”, the problem itself has changed because the nature of the norm changed. It changed from a technical norm to an expectation based upon, well, nothing. And since the norm changed, the deviation changes as well. The first problem (technical) changed into another problem (a sales promise that cannot be kept). The first problem dissolved into another one and so the first problem disappeared…
End academic discussion :)
Of course, this is not THE solution to the problem for the customer. It is still the same norm and the same deviation for them. They were promised a startup within 1 minute and promises you have to keep. For the supplier, the norm was never real. They should have made sure they could deliver on their promise. To solve this problem, you need to change the deviation (solution 1: make sure you reach the agreed 1 minute norm) or change the norm (solution 2: agree upon a new norm) or both. | https://medium.com/@jaaptrouw/whats-your-problem-ff95b02710c7 | ['Jaap Trouw'] | 2020-04-23 09:07:36.612000+00:00 | ['Questions', 'Complexity', 'World Economic Forum', 'Solutions', 'Problem Solving'] |
Accepting The Transitory Nature of Life | Accepting The Transitory Nature of Life
The life lesson I learned while having to say goodbye to my favorite place on Earth
Photo by Juan Davila on Unsplash
A few weeks ago, I had to say goodbye to my favorite place on Earth — my family’s cottage of 23 years.
Saying goodbye to a property is nothing new for me, as my life has been in transit for as long as I can remember. Since early childhood, it seems like I have been experiencing one seemingly endless move.
I have lived in a range of different houses, apartments, cottages, and dorms. I have lived in many different cities, small towns, and suburbs. In the last year alone, I have lived in 5 different properties across 4 cities. It’s a good thing I invested in a sturdy suitcase, as it never seems to catch a break.
I do not share this to express grief or sadness. This transitory characteristic of my life has always been present; it is neither good nor bad, it simply just is. That is why saying goodbye to these many different places has never been difficult — until now.
Although I have said goodbye to many houses, this was the first time I have ever had to say goodbye to a home.
My home
My parents’ cottage has been the most consistent location in my life. It is where I spent the vast majority of my upbringing, being a part of my life for 23 of 27 years. No other dwelling I have stepped foot in even compares to that duration. No other dwelling I have lived I have ever wholeheartedly considered a home.
My home was beautiful. From the glistening bay waters, the fostering trees, the lake lapping loving loons, to the mesmerizing stars in the night’s sky; I could write a whole blog post solely on the detail of how beautiful it was, but for today I’ll spare the word count.
My parent’s cottage was my favorite place on this planet. It was my home. It helped me transform into who I am today.
A Transformation
When I first arrived, I was a small child — a small child who was lost in the world, uncertain of himself, and confused by the hardships around him.
As I leave, I am a man — a man who understands himself, is fit for service, and is ready to venture out into the world and affect change.
My home fostered a great transformation.
I grew up there; my home nurtured me.
I learned there; my home was a school, a great teacher, and a wise elder.
I gained peace there; my home was a place of communion.
I was safe there; my home was a stronghold, a sanctuary.
I developed and strengthened bonds there; my home was a place of gathering, a great hall, a fire circle, and an amphitheater.
I fell in love with the first love of my life there; my home was a fairy tale, the Feywild, and my own Garden of Eden.
My home gave me so much.
Holiday weekends, jumping into piles of leaves, skating on the lake, tobogganing, campfires, roasting s’mores, playing hide and seek in the woods, kayaking, canoeing, laughing, thanksgiving dinners, meditating, sandcastles, sunburns, writing, mosquito bites, reading, jumping off the dock, fishing, water-sports, late-night swims, lawn games, rainy movie days, The Goonies on VHS, ghost stories, quality time with friends and family.
I am so thankful.
Though I must admit, this process of saying goodbye has me feeling down. I have grown such a strong bond with this place, that its very existence is intertwined with my identity. Thus, having to say goodbye to it, is like having to say goodbye to a part of myself — which is what is so difficult.
Despite being on the next stage of my journey — currently living 4000 kilometres away from the cottage, and only having the rare opportunity to go there — there is a part of me that is hesitant to let it go. There is a selfish part of me, an ego-derived part, that wants this place to remain mine forever.
“Mine forever.“
Isn’t that where so much of our own misery stems from: those two words, “Mine” and “Forever”. Two words that allude to two false ideas embraced by the human ego: ownership (mine) and permanence (forever).
Neither of those ideas exists.
We as humans have fabricated those ideas as a way to contend with one of the great uncomfortable truths of reality: that life is inherently transitory and nothing is ever permanently ours.
In my opinion, the idea of permanence and ownership are silly when you think about them. Nothing is permanent, and we really own nothing at all. Everything is temporary, and everything is borrowed.
With time things are always changing, expanding and dissipating. Our meticulously built sandcastles wash away with each passing wave. The trees decay into the soil. The town becomes that of ghosts when the gold veins become empty. Our great passing heroes become relegated to books and then eventually myth. The stars explode in supernova to become the space dust. This is the thermodynamic principle of entropy applying itself — the gradual decline of order — and physics has a persistent way of not compromising.
Therefore we must accept this passing, this transitory quality of life. That all that is made will become unmade. That all that is ours will not be that way forever.
No matter the possession, whether the clothing you wear, the screen you are currently reading this post off of, the dwelling you reside, the seat in which you sit, or the body you occupy — all of these things are temporary. They are a mere temporary manifested arrangement of molecules. These molecules will not belong to us forever and — with entropy — the possessions they arrange themselves into will eventually become unmade.
The lesson I have learned upon this reflection is that as much as I may wish for something — perhaps my home — to be “mine forever”, the fundamental properties of physics simply will not grant my wish. Therefore, to be happy, it is better to accept this transitory nature of the universe instead of resisting it.
It is better to accept that the things that I consider my “possessions” are merely manifested objects that are here to serve me only for a time. That eventually they will serve some other.
My home was no different.
To Serve Another
My home served my life greatly, but only for a time.
It was there for that small, 5-year-old child who needed it. However, that small child no longer exists. That small child has grown into a man. A man who is strong, grounded and guided — a man who does not need it.
Its time for it to nurture another, to teach another, to provide peace and safety for another. Its time for it to strengthen the bonds of others, to provide a space for others to laugh and to love.
I have accepted that its time to say goodbye. It is time to move on. Its time to let go, as the longer I hold on to it, the longer I deny someone else its gifts.
Soon, what was once my home will come into someone else’s life at their time of need, just as it did mine. Soon, the arrangement of molecules that served me will serve another.
Soon after that, what was once my home and the home of future others, will eventually be claimed by entropy. In time, those molecules that made up my home will ultimately belong again to the worms and to the trees. And I have made peace with that.
Today I say goodbye to my favorite place on Earth.
Today I accept the transitory nature of life.
Today I surrender to entropy.
Most importantly, today I say thank you to my home — the arrangement of molecules in a speck of time that gave me so much and made me who I am.
Thank you.
bravenewmatt | https://medium.com/the-ascent/accepting-the-transitory-nature-of-life-7e60c89bbd81 | [] | 2020-09-14 01:56:09.711000+00:00 | ['Reflections', 'Life Lessons', 'Happiness', 'Mindfulness', 'Philosophy'] |
The Infant Killer of Tokyo | The Infant Killer of Tokyo
A midwife who killed infants for four years: Miyuki Ishikawa Nithila Follow Jun 12 · 3 min read
Miyuki Ishikawa. Source
The number of infants she killed ranged between 85 and 169, but the confirmed victims are 103.
Who is Miyuki Ishikawa?
Miyuki Ishikawa was born in Kunitomi, Miyazaki Prefecture in 1897. She graduated from the University of Tokyo and got a job as a midwife in her city. Later she got married to Takeshi Ishikawa, but the couple failed to produce any offspring. After getting enough experience she was appointed as the hospital director of Kotobuki Maternity Hospital.
In the 1940s the economic condition was at its lowest. The families with low income were suffering the most, struggling on a meal to meal basis. Since abortion wasn’t legal back then, poor families had children, who they couldn’t take care of financially. During this time, Miyuki realised that she couldn't just stand by and watch the babies, suffering in families, that were extremely poor and unable to take care of them. The charity resources to take care of the babies were also scarce, hence she decided to do the unthinkable. She decided to neglect their current needs, and save the babies from the clutches of poverty in her own twisted way.
The Killings
Her kill spree was from April 1944 to January 1948. By neglecting, she killed infants between 103 and 169. The other midwives and even the government knew about this act. Many midwives disgusted by this act ended up leaving the hospital and the government ignored this act and never took any action.
Soon this act of charity turned into one of greed. Miyuki with the help of her husband started a scheme, where the husband went to the parents, asking for large sums of money, stating that it would be cheaper if they pay them instead of struggling to raise the child. And with the help of a doctor, Dr. Shiro Nakayama, she produced false death certificates for the infants killed.
The arrest of Miyuki Ishikawa. Source
The Arrest
On January 12, 1948, remains of five infants were discovered by two police officers of Waseda precinct, Tokyo, by accident. After autopsy it was discovered that the infants didn’t die due to natural causes. An investigation was led and it brought the police to Miyuki Ishikawa, her husband and the doctor. A search encompassing the whole city was implemented and 40 bodies were found in a mortician’s house and 30 more under a temple. On January 15, 1948, Miyuki, her husband and the doctor were arrested.
During the trial, Miyuki stated that the parents were the one responsible for the death of the infants, since the infants were abandoned. A large part of the public supported her statement. During that time the Japanese law gave no rights to infants, hence Miyuki was sentenced to eight years in prison.
Takeshi and Dr. Nakayama were sentenced to four years of imprisonment. Later Miyuki and her husband were able to halve their sentences through an appeal in 1952.
This case was the prime reason the government decided to reconsider the legalisation of abortion, since there was a surge in unplanned infant births. On June 24, 1949, abortion for economic reasons was legalised under the Eugenic Protection Law in Japan.
References | https://medium.com/the-mystery-box/the-infant-killer-of-tokyo-c127c12662cb | [] | 2021-06-12 10:02:31.564000+00:00 | ['Crime', 'Mystery', 'Serial Killers', 'True Crime', 'Japanese'] |
Darryl, | Darryl,
People act in their own self interest. My point was simple: capitalism is an economic system that harnesses the energy of people to produce goods and services by appealing to people’s self interest. It will always exist and it will be restrained by shared social values according to the level each society chooses.
But when a society “secularizes” and it no longer feels bound by a set of shared values, can government moderate capitalism or does it become an extension of capitalism?
Is a socialist form of government any better? or does socialism just become another form of corruption without the benefits of capitalism which at least continues to maximize a society’s production of goods and services?
Why do all socialistic economies collapse? Is it because the “concept of socialism” simply is not based on the nature of man? And if capitalism succeeds because it is based on the nature of man, what does that say about the nature of man?
As an intellectual you need to examine the nature of man and then ask yourself how do we moderate that nature in a way that really works? I initially majored in college studying the religions of the world in a liberal college setting. It is interesting that every society in history felt a need to codify its values in its religion. What did those societies understand, that you don’t.
We can have a separate argument over the existence and nature of God, but my point was simple, without a set of shared morale values, it is unlikely that any institution be it government or business will control corruption. Corruption is not limited to the wealthy, it is value shared by everyone to a greater or lesser degree. | https://medium.com/@mschund/darryl-732933a9913b | ['Michael F Schundler'] | 2019-05-06 23:55:04.662000+00:00 | ['Capitalism', 'Morality', 'Nature Of Man', 'Corrupt', 'Socialism'] |
What is the scope of the online laundry service in India | Scope of the online laundry service in India:
The Internet has been a boon to the consumer industry. Starting from Food -Groceries -Utensils-Furniture-Automobiles-Consumer Electronics-Consumer Durables-Clothes-Laundry and you name anything it can be delivered online in a ‘jiffy’
The largest players in the e-commerce/food space are- Amazon/Flipkart/Swiggy/Zomato
Off late laundry is also making its presence in the hyperlocal delivery segment
Laundry should be done according to the worth and the market cannot be captured by giving hefty discounts like the other giants in the consumer tech space.
The biggest challenge is the logistics which is the backbone of the online consumer space
Here is a small comparison between the Delivery Processes of an E-Commerce/Food and Laundry Companies:
A. Delivery process(E-Commerce/Food Delivery)
E-Commerce:
Customer places an order — Company — Vendor/Fulfillment Centers — Customer
Food Delivery:
Customer places an order — Company — Restaurants/Cloud Kitchens — Customer
B. Laundry delivery process:
Customer places an order — Company — Delivery Executive goes to the customer (pick-up the clothes) — Process the clothes (factory) — Delivery Executive deliveries the clothes back to the customer
*There will be a lot of sentiments attached to the clothes and that is the biggest risk
So the basic driving point here is the delivery guy should go twice to a customer’s place which is same as picking a defective product from a customer in the e-commerce context i.e., ‘return product’.
Normal pickup and delivery of clothes is as good as ‘returning a product in the e-commerce’. At the time of delivery, the customer will check the quality for around 20–30 min. If there is any quality issue they will return them back and again we should deliver. So it is as good as ‘returning a product’ TWICE in the e-commerce terminology
Comparison between E-commerce/Food/Laundry Deliveries:
As per industry standards for e-commerce segment the return rate percentages are-
1. Industry standards- 30%
2. Flipkart- 15–20%,
3. return percentage for Amazon- 5.5%,
But when it comes to the online laundry industry it is 100% return all the time when compared with the e-commerce space
So, online laundry service cannot be compared to Flipkart, Amazon, Swiggy, Zomato, Uber, Ola or with anyone who provide their services online
In my view as a laundry consultant if the following points are followed judiciously then there is a lot of scope/growth for the ‘online’ laundry segment to prosper-
1. Pricing: Price your service accordingly without hefty discounts. Once the investments die down this segment cannot get back on its legs like the other e-commerce or the food delivery companies
2. Quality: Quality should be given the topmost priority without which there will be no return customers
3. Delivery Time: Promise the customer if you are only 100% sure of delivering the clothes on time. If there is any issue inform him prior to the delivery date
4. Stain Removals: The stains cannot be removed 100% but make sure that the same will be conveyed to the customers properly
The laundry industry is itself a 2.2L cr industry and the organized sector is under 5% and the rest is still unorganized. So there is definitely a lot of scope. But keeping all these constant it is time that the laundry industry shows it’s really worth to the customers.
If you have more doubts on how to get into the laundry industry (or) on how to start a laundry plant (or) invest in the laundry industry you can visit-
Website: www.pk-enterprises.com
Email: [email protected]
Call: +917569800675 | https://medium.com/@md.pkenterprises/what-is-the-scope-of-the-online-laundry-service-in-india-1c3a83aca42c | ['Pk Pkclaundries'] | 2019-11-27 11:35:30.170000+00:00 | ['Laundry', 'Laundry Startups In India', 'Online Laundry Service', 'Laundry Consultant', 'Startup'] |
5 Video Game Sequels We Can’t Wait For Much Longer | 5 Video Game Sequels We Can’t Wait For Much Longer
I mean, we will…but we really don’t want to
As someone whose primary introduction to the gaming world came in the form of the Kingdom Hearts franchise, I’m no stranger to waiting half a lifetime for a sequel to release. Unlike many other branches of the entertainment industry, video game sequels are often just as good as or even better than the original game, making it possible for a very long story to be told over the course of multiple games. I don’t know a single gamer who scoffs at the idea of their favorite solo game being turned into a full-blown series. Unfortunately, good games take time, and we as consumers are not patient, and I’m here to fan the flames of your discontent with five sequels we just can’t wait much longer for — but totally will if you insist.
Source: Nintendo.
Metroid Prime 4
This one hurts a little. The original Metroid games were classics, with iterations on the NES, Gameboy, and SNES. The end of Metroid when Samus, the armored super-soldier protagonist, is revealed to be a woman, is legendary, and still resonates with me today. The Metroid Prime story arc takes place between the original 1986 NES release and its 1991 Gameboy sequel Metroid II: Return of Samus. Unfortunately, since its original announcement at E3 in 2017, Metroid Prime 4 has been delayed significantly. Nintendo EPD General Manager Shinya Takahashi released an official video in 2019 stating that development was not progressing to their standards, and Retro Studios, who produced the original trilogy, would be taking over. Though this does mean that development is more or less starting from scratch, it also hopefully indicates that, when we do get the finished product, it’s going to be completely worth the wait.
Source: Microsoft.
Halo Infinite
Oh, Halo, you big, beautiful monster of an open-world shooter. There’s almost no argument that the Halo franchise has been one of the most influential in the gaming stratosphere, and it looks like Halo Infinite is going to just build onto that reputation even more. It was initially meant to release as an Xbox Series X launch title at the end of this year, but — well, you know. Delays are the bread and butter of 2020, and Halo Infinite was yet another casualty. Though fans won’t be getting their next adventure with the Master Chief until 2021, the delay will hopefully mean 343 Industries can refine and improve the game to be the Halo masterpiece everyone wants it to be. Despite the development snags, it’s looking like Halo Infinite is going to be a solid entry in the series, and could attract a slew of brand new players for the franchise in the process.
Source: Nintendo.
Bayonetta 3
North America was blessed with the sexy occult fever dream that is Bayonetta in January of 2010, followed by Bayonetta 2 in September 2014. With both games being released as ports for the Nintendo Switch, an entirely new fanbase was born. That fanbase was also immediately introduced to the agony of waiting for Bayonetta 3, which was announced to be in development as a Switch exclusive at the same time the ports were revealed. It has been almost three years since the announcement and teaser trailer were revealed at The Game Awards 2017, and there is still no official release date. Aside from the occasional one-line statement from Platinum, it’s been radio silence. Until more information comes out, fans are just going to have to be satisfied with trying to kill angels on Non-Stop — Climax mode and beating everyone senseless on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Source: Sony.
Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 2
Waiting for Square Enix games is at least 75% of my identity in the gaming world. The first video game I ever truly fell in love with was Kingdom Hearts. I’ve played through the first two mainline titles in that series so many times that I can recite several of the pre-boss fight cutscenes by memory. One of my favorite ways to distract myself from waiting for Kingdom Hearts III was to also wait for the Final Fantasy VII remake. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that even after it was released, I was going to have to continue to wait for it. Luckily, all signs point to a short wait, as Square Enix leadership confirmed that Part 2 was already well underway back in November 2019, so though we don’t have an official release date for the follow-up, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be the 14 years that Kingdom Hearts fans had to suffer between Kingdom Hearts II and Kingdom Hearts III. The first part of the remake was stunning, and the plot changes were subtle enough that the story was still recognizable, but not so similar that you know exactly what’s coming next. After seeing just how stunning Midgar looked on the PS4, it’s going to be pretty incredible to see just how gorgeous the wider planet is going to be when it’s running on the PS5. The original game is a classic for a reason, and the re-imagining is likely to follow right in its predecessor’s footsteps.
Source: Nintendo.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2
Zelda fans are passionate. With the release of the Switch, they have plenty to celebrate. Not only have they been gifted one of the best games in the series in the original Breath of the Wild, but a sequel was announced at E3 2019. Outside of a brief trailer that came out with the announcement, not much is known about the highly anticipated sequel. We know it’s being developed for the Switch, but that’s about it. It’s extremely likely that it won’t be released until at least 2021, though a recent pre-order listing from a UK retailer listed it as available on December 31, 2020. This is probably just a placeholder, unfortunately. Nintendo has been keeping their plans for the game close to their chest, but with all of the development delays that 2020 has brought, a holiday release for this year is unlikely. Conversely, the Breath of the Wild engine is already fully developed and ready to go, so it’s possible that there was much less work to be done on a sequel from the beginning. With over a minute’s worth of animation being available for the trailer last year, perhaps we’re closer to a finished product than Nintendo is letting on. At any rate, unlike several of these much-anticipated sequels, Zelda fans don’t have to wait for a next-gen console to release as it looks like the Switch is sticking around.
Bre is a part-time writer with a day job in the fitness industry. She is based in Orlando, FL along with her handsome fella and two cats. She enjoys writing about social issues, politics, spirituality, mental health, gaming, and, every so often, fiction. She’s still working on her personal website, but you can find her anytime on Twitter or Instagram. | https://medium.com/super-jump/5-video-game-sequels-we-cant-wait-for-much-longer-4389f8fb64fc | ['Bre Venanzio'] | 2020-08-21 12:59:59.007000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Gaming', 'Features', 'Culture', 'Videogames'] |
How To Create Your Own Python Library | Library, Package and Module
A library is a collection of modules and packages that together fulfills a specific requirement.
A python module is a .py file that has variables, functions, classes, statements etc. related to a specific task.
A package is a collection of python modules under a common namespace that is created by putting different modules on a single directory along with some special files (such as __init__.py). In order for a folder to be recognized as a package, a file named __init__.py must also be stored in that folder, even if this file is empty.
Note — A library can have one or more packages.
Procedure for creating a library
Step 1: First of all, we have to decide the basic structure of the library. Here, we’ll decide the names and number of the modules to be included.
In our case, The name of our library will be mylibrary and the basic structure of our library is shown below. We’ll create this directory any where we like in our system.
Step 2: Now let’s write the python code for all the files.
First of all, we’ll write the code for intro.py and it is given below.
Then in the welcome directory, the hello.py file will contain the following code -
And the whatsup.py file will contain the following code —
Now, in the goodbye directory, we will write the code for seeyou.py as follows-
Step 3: Since our package is ready, now it’s time to associate it with Python by attaching it to Python’s site-packages folder of current Python distribution in our system. We can import a library and package in Python only if it is attached to its site-packages folder. To find the location of this folder, we’ll open the python IDLE and will type the following command.
>>import sys
>>print(sys.path)
['', 'C:\\Users\\mav\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Python\\Python38-32\\Lib\\idlelib', 'C:\\Users\\mav\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Python\\Python38-32\\python38.zip', 'C:\\Users\\mav\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Python\\Python38-32\\DLLs', 'C:\\Users\\mav\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Python\\Python38-32\\lib', 'C:\\Users\\mav\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Python\\Python38-32', 'C:\\Users\\mav\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Python\\Python38-32\\lib\\site-packages']
The sys.path attribute gives information about PYTHONPATH and it shows the directories that the Python interpreter will look in when importing modules.
So, from the above output we’ll copy the path to site-packages directory and we’ll navigate into that. There we’ll paste our mylibrary directory.
And that’s how, we’ll associate our own library with Python.
Step 4: Now, we’ll open the IDLE and we’ll check whether our library is working or not.
So, we can see that our own custom library is working properly.
All the above code is also available in my GitHub repository. | https://medium.com/python-in-plain-english/create-your-own-python-library-c2a8464cfbc | ['Souvik Paul'] | 2020-11-27 15:13:12.733000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Programming', 'Software Development', 'Python3', 'Python Libraries'] |
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Isengard represented the Industrial Revolution: Because Tolkien hated technology | Oftentimes, when we think of allegory associated with Lord of the Rings, we give it a biblical interpretation. Gandalf is Jesus, dying for his followers, and then resurrecting as a much more powerful force, in order to complete his task. He descends, like Jesus, down to the fiery depths of Khazad-Dum, and slays the great demonic force, aka the Balrog.
While this interpretation holds well, there is another, more prevailing view that holds true throughout the story: the fall of the old world. In Middle-earth everything is in decay. And a new force is rising: the force of darkness. It becomes apparent, not only through orcs and Uruks, but through a will to supplant the old world. The method: modernization.
In both the movies and books we see Isengard, the home of Saruman the White, go from forest to factory. Why: to build an army for the dark lord Sauron, who is coming to claim the world. Where trees once rested, swords and armor are being forged deep in the earth. And in the midst of this is the enemy. Their tool of destruction is steel. And flames.
And the forest pays the price. Numerous trees are cut down and burned. Tolkien is showing that in order for this new, mechanical world to prosper, it must abolish the old one completely. Contrast this with the Elves, graceful creatures who live in the wood and are now forsaking it. Their age is now over, as the new world emerges. They can no longer shepherd the earth, as they have done in ages past: they must forsake it.
The Elves are depicted as pure and immortal. And they are most associated with the forces of nature. By contrast, the villains of the story (Saruman and co., Sauron) are associated with machines. Technology exists for the sole purpose of aiding in the destruction of Middle Earth.
Tolkien’s views reflect a hard look at modern society. England’s Industrial Revolution, the culprit, had lasted from 1760 to about 1870, creating a brand new system of labor, trade, and transportation. Rural life was fast declining in the wake of urban cities and factories. With the Industrial Revolution came a new wave of hazards as well: pollutants, sewage problems, sanitation, workplace injuries, and a plethora of various diseases.
Tolkien himself was never alive for the Industrial Revolution, but he did live in time to witness its effects. He maintained a close relationship with the countryside, where he grew up. He even said that the Shire was inspired by his old home in Sarehole, Birmingham.
We can certainly see Tolkien’s love of nature in the books. At times he goes into epic description of the trees, the hills, the roads, and river. In fact, there are times when the descriptions seem to go on and on forever. Obviously, he is very enamored by nature, having spent so much of his life in it. In Lord of the Rings, that fondness tends to manifest in his contrast between the forces of good and forces of evil.
The Shire is a place of kindred folk, happy and spirited. But most importantly it is separated from the rest of the world. It represents the idyllic, pastoral landscape that Tolkien always envisioned, unhindered by the forces of modern man.
But it doesn’t stay safe forever; modern man encroaches.
At the end of Return of the King (book) we are not treated to a warm kindly greeting when the Hobbits come home, but rather a home ravaged by industry. Saruman, in retaliation for the attack on Isengard, has come to the Shire and used his remaining army to enslave the hobbits there, turning their land into a factory ground. He desolates the Shire, both with fire and steel.
If you haven’t read it, just think about the vision Frodo saw in the well at Lothlorien in Fellowship. In the book that vision actually comes true.
Saruman has taken Isengard and brought it home for the Hobbits. What was once green is now gone: supplanted by smoke and steel. As a result, the Hobbits must band together to fight for their ravaged land.
They mount a defense and are later successful in repelling Isengard, along with its master Saruman. He is murdered, right in Frodo’s (once Bilbo’s) burrow by his servant, Grima Wormtongue. And all is saved.
When we see nature in Tolkien’s work it is usually characterized by a sense of beauty and tranquility. The mood is one of joy: friends frolic and sing; hobbits dance in the meadows.
And even the trees turn out to be living.
When Merry and Pippin meet the Ents, they are taken and cared for. Nature is a place of refuge. In Rivendell Frodo repairs from his injury (not completely); in Lothlorien the fellowship is sheltered from orcs. Nature is a sanctuary.
But it is also an angry sanctuary: one that protects itself. No part of the books more clearly illustrates this than the Ents’ march on Isengard. Here Tolkien goes from an avid lover to a militant environmentalist, so to speak.
The trees fight back after having their woods burned down by Saruman’s armies. They destroy Isengard by breaching the dam, letting nature take its course. The river floods into every orc hole, washing away their machines. And the forest triumphs.
Tolkien was opposed to modernization. He liked things simple, the way they are. Rather than driving, he preferred bikes. Rather than English masses, he preferred good ol’ traditional Latin (and even vocalized his dissent, during one service). To him the world of the country was a much more beautiful, fascinating place than the world of the city. It was a place, like the elf-wood, that flourished with memory. It was ageless, as old as the world itself. And by listening, you could learn more from it.
But nature, to Tolkien, was also a force under siege. It had to sustain itself against changing times and practices. Isengard represented those changing times. It was the wheel, the furnace: new, elaborate forces driving against the old. It was Sauron’s villainy returned to life. | https://medium.com/literally-literary/isengard-represented-the-industrial-revolution-because-tolkien-hated-technology-6ed05430ecce | ['Alexander Chavers'] | 2018-11-12 15:02:10.240000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Tolkien', 'Fantasy', 'Lord Of The Rings', 'Industry'] |
Paint Chips | Color is Everywhere
My wife and I recently had to pick out some paint. She is the one with the eye for color, so I just went along to keep her company. We went to a local Sherwin-Williams paint store. And I was bedazzled.
Their wall of paint chips has 1,200 different colors to examine. I found it hard to follow the progression from light green to slightly lighter green to just slightly lighter green. Or shades of blue, or even shades of grey.
What I found fascinating was that each and every color had a name. In the blues, there was Favorite Jeans, and Languid Blue, and Moody Blue — just to name a few variations. I found myself thinking, some actual person at Sherwin-Williams has a job thinking up names for paint chips.
To the paint store employee, Languid Blue is actually SW6226, and the chips could simply have numbers instead of names. But how much more exciting to know that Languid Blue works well with Urban Jungle, that that SW6226 is complementary with SW9117.
All in all, I’d say the chip-namer at S-W had some fun. There was Moscow Midnight, and Bitter Chocolate. Then I spied Seawashed Glass (light green), Baby Bok Choy (lighter green) and even Stay in Lime (lime green). Nice pun, that last one, but our chipper also knew her cultural references. Bohemian Black evokes the fifties, but also the band Queen. And there was Big Chill (a cold white), and Enigma (possibly the WWII decoder, or the cosmic band). At Ease Soldier was appropriately khaki. And what color could represent “Cyberspace”? I leave it to your imagination.
I know who is guilty of starting this cute color branding thing. It is Crayola. Remember Burnt Sienna? As a kid, I found that name fascinating and never forgot it. Fortunately for my sense of color orientation, the Crayola Company has largely kept to the conventional. I recently dug out a 64-color box of my grandson’s crayons, and found that white was white and black was black. Red was red, and green was green. When it came to shades, the company was reassuringly staid: olive green, brick red, red orange. Unfortunately, someone at Crayola got re-infected with the playful-naming bug, and a few outliers have crept in: purple mountains’ majesty, tickle me pink, timberwolf (gray), and one real zinger — mauvelous.
There is a serious purpose for this article: human culture has entered a dangerous period of hyper-naming. We are awash in cutesy and meaningless names that may overtax our brains — or at least crowd out more important information like who was Deng Xiaoping, or which American President said “The business of America is business.”
Hyper-naming; it’s a scourge. In 1952, my father was reassigned from Morrison Air Force Base in Florida to Ladd AFB in Alaska. He then drove our family 5,000 miles from West Palm Beach to Fairbanks. I was nine and my brother was seven. There were no Happy Meals along the way. No MacDonalds, no Pizza Hut, not even a Chuck E. Cheese. But there was Howard Johnson’s, and we kids knew that they had an astonishing 28 flavors of ice cream available when we stopped. Our favorite was Peppermint Stick, which is pretty easy to interpret, and about as wild as HoJo’s ever got.
Baskin-Robbins had just gotten started in 1953, but they pushed 31 flavors, ranging from vanilla to Rocky Road. Of those 31, thirty were pretty self-explanatory — with the possible exception of Date Nut. That was long ago. Today, Baskin-Robbins includes such puzzlers as Jamoca, Baseball Nut, and Splish Splash. Those last three are all trademarked, by the way, in case any competitor tries to offer a fake Jamoca to an unsuspecting kid.
But if you think Baskin-Robbins got a little overly creative, then you will agree with me that Ben & Jerry’s has gone hog wild. In my local supermarket I have a choice of Chunky Monkey, Caramel Sutra, and Phish Food. The puns and pop culture references go on and on, even including Everything But The… All of these names are trademarked. In including my least favorite, Chubby Hubby, which my wife is wont to call me despite trademark restrictions.
Which brings me to the third example of hyper-naming: Babies. Americans appear to take real delight in giving unique or unusual names to their children. Thus Mary and Peter Teachout named their daughter Zephyr Rain and their son Woden. My wife, an editor and publisher, carried articles by a writer named Crescent Dragonwagon. My daughter dated Burleigh Sunflower, and I went to high school with April Showers. On cable news, you can hear analysis from Krystal Ball.
This is a freedom that Americans take for granted: parents can name their children anything they want to. This was recently brought home by an incident involving a girl named Abcde Redford.
Abcde and her mother were boarding a Southwest Airlines flight to El Paso. The agent thought the girl’s name was hilarious and pointed it out to other employees, in front of the girl. The mother objected. Then the agent took a snapshot of the girl’s boarding pass and posted it on Facebook. Ha Ha. Then the media picked it up, including the Washington Post. The airline apologized: “We extend our sincere apology to the family. We take great pride in extending our Southwest Hospitality to all of our Customers, which includes living by the Golden Rule and treating every individual with respect, in person or online.”
What is interesting in this story is that everyone automatically assumed that Traci Redford could name her daughter anything she wanted to. Regardless of the certainty that Abcde will be teased mercilessly as she travels through primary school and middle school. In Ireland, Traci Redford would have been called in for a conversation with a social worker when the girl was first named. In Iceland, the name would have been forbidden, since it is not on their list of 1,800 approved names for girls. Denmark, far more liberal, allows 18,000 female names. But in the United States, anything goes.
My guess is that the hyper-naming trend will overwhelm all resistance. Parents have already tried “Superman” in Sweden, “Strawberry” in France, and “Facebook” in Mexico. All were rejected. But mark my words, these naming walls will crumble.
All in all, and whether commercial or personal, the naming bug is viral. And while ice cream names may be limited, the human eye can discern more than 7,000,000 shades of color. Seven Million! But if you think that’s the bee’s knees (a good ice cream name?) then contemplate this: every year, more than 141 million babies are born. So perhaps Abcde won’t be teased by her classmates after all, since they may be named Nutella, Escroto, and Lmnop.
Adam Corson-Finnerty is an occasional writer on politics and culture. He lives with his wife and five cats in Southampton, PA. | https://medium.com/@corsonf/paint-chips-3828578d9703 | ['Adam Corson-Finnerty'] | 2019-02-18 19:54:32.932000+00:00 | ['Colors', 'Painting', 'Humor', 'Ice Cream', 'Baby'] |
Where do you see yourself in 10 years? | “Where do you see yourself in 10 years?”
I stared at the screen. The interviewer appeared to be in his 40s sitting there in the comfort of his couch. The monotony in his tone clearly indicated his tiredness. The virtual placement interviews are kind of easy compared to the live ones. The nervousness is hugely reduced when you are answering questions, sitting in your home. But this question stumped me. I know for many it would be a piece of cake to just blabber out anything just to cater to the interviewee’s good list factors. But for me, it was a tough one to answer.
“Where do you want to see yourself in 10 years?” He rephrased but his voice were becoming feeble to my ears as I was lost in thought.
.
“Stay Relevant to the Potential Job: The most important aspect of your answer to the question is how it relates to the job you are applying for. No matter what your plans are for the next 10 years- you must communicate whatever aspect relates to the job in order for your answer to be successful.” Nisha madam explained.
Nisha Mathur was the placement training teacher assigned to our batch. She had been training students on how to appear for interviews for 5 years now. I wondered how mundane it would have been for her to teach the same stuff for 5 years.
“I am giving you a sample, listen carefully.” she continued.
“Since the start of my career, I have had my ideal career path in mind, and this company definitely supports it. My ideal career is one where my ideas are heard and in which I am making a real impact. I can see myself further developing my skill set in this role and eventually have more leadership tasks here. I see myself being even more confident in this field, with more knowledge and experiences. I hope to grow with the company and lead others in reaching their own career goals.”
“What bullshit is this!” Raj whispered into my ears.
“What? why?”
“Wait, you think this shit is appropriate to say? I mean how can you plan out your lives like that. I don’t even know what I am going to do tomorrow.” he chuckled.
I kept quiet. Raj never really cared about studies anyway. I felt sorry for him that he didn’t have any plan in life. I mean how do you not have a plan? Everyone has to had one. I had one. I had my plan.
.
“What is your plan after college, beta?” Saxena uncle asked while dipping the Parle g in the tea.
“What uncle?” I had heard him the first time, but needed to buy time for me to be able to answer the question.
“After college, what are you planning to do?” He rephrased.
“I haven’t thought that far yet” I tried to dodge it.
“He is just being shy Saxena ji, he is aiming to work for Amazon or Microsoft, the big league ones. He has already made many apps. Bete, show your apps to uncle.” My father butted in. Now I was standing awkwardly trapped in this awkward situation.
Truth was I had joined a app development course because my father asked me to because his colleague’s son was also enrolled into it. I had built one clone app of a calculator in which I basically copied code from internet.
Fighting through the embarrassment I showed the app. Saxena uncle was impressed. I looked at my father and saw him happy. I could see that the appreciation by Saxena uncle for me meant more to him than to me.
“This app is really good beta. You have started good, if you keep this up you will end up in Amazon in no time.”
“Thank you uncle.” I replied half heartedly. My head wasn’t there in the moment.
Do I even want to go to amazon? Why would I? But I looked at my parents and I got my answer. I had to.
.
“Hello? Am I audible? Hello?”
“Ye…Yes, sir”
“You didn’t answer my question. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?”
I stared at the screen again, my lips tightened. I looked behind my laptop to see my parents excitedly sitting and waiting for me. I took a deep breath. My eyes became wet, I looked back at screen and replied.
“Since the start of my career, I have had my ideal career path in…” | https://medium.com/@ashokrout2apr/where-do-you-see-yourself-in-10-years-38cac25e77fb | ['Ashok Rout'] | 2020-12-26 16:12:13.426000+00:00 | ['Short Story', 'Storyteller', 'Storytelling', 'Writing', 'Stories'] |
有適合新創4人團隊的微型辦公室嗎？多普林商務中心評價又如何？ | in In Fitness And In Health | https://medium.com/compwm/%E6%9C%89%E9%81%A9%E5%90%88%E6%96%B0%E5%89%B54%E4%BA%BA%E5%9C%98%E9%9A%8A%E7%9A%84%E5%BE%AE%E5%9E%8B%E8%BE%A6%E5%85%AC%E5%AE%A4%E5%97%8E-%E5%A4%9A%E6%99%AE%E6%9E%97%E5%95%86%E5%8B%99%E4%B8%AD%E5%BF%83%E8%A9%95%E5%83%B9%E5%8F%88%E5%A6%82%E4%BD%95-ad8ac40d4b47 | ['Tony Zeng'] | 2019-12-10 08:09:06.868000+00:00 | ['工作', 'Work', '上班族', '人生', '商務中心'] |
Are You Using the Right Words in Your Writing? | Are You Using the Right Words in Your Writing?
Proper word choice isn’t a detail, it’s a necessity
If you’re anything like me, you don’t really think about every word you use when writing the first draft of anything. You have a story in your head, something to say. So you let it flow onto the page without much filtering.
If you obsess over every single word before writing it down, you will never get anything finished. Thus, analyzing your word choice should be part of your editing process rather than your writing process.
Taking a look at your word choice is crucial if you want to make your work the very best it can be.
Every word has its primary meaning(s), but also its connotations. Many words serve multiple purposes, have multiple meanings, and might function differently depending on their linguistic environment.
In the end, it all comes down to choosing the right word in the right context. But how, you ask, can you do that?
In case of doubt, use the following two steps to find out whether you are using the right words:
1. Say What You Actually Want to Say
Oftentimes, faulty word choice will change the meaning of the entire sentence. If your sentence says something else than what you intended, take it as a sign that you might not be using the right words.
Here’s an example:
The terms Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are often used together, even though the two technologies have a few differing features.
If we were to read only the first half of this sentence, we would think that the two terms often occur together, meaning that people often talk about both of them at the same time, like you might talk about feminism and equality within the same conversation.
However, the second half suggests that there are differences between the two technologies, which is why we should not talk about them “together.” The conjunction even though is what uncovers the author’s intended meaning:
What she meant to say was that the terms are mistaken for synonyms, even though there are differences between them. I’m sure you can guess the word she should have used instead of together:
The terms Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are often used synonymously, even though the two technologies have a few differing features.
2. Use the Most Common Collocation
Choosing the wrong word won’t always compromise the meaning of a sentence, but it might still throw your reader off. A thrown-off reader is an unhappy reader who is prone to quitting.
And we don’t want our readers to stop reading, do we?
In general, always use the most common collocation. For example, we make mistakes rather than commit them, we collect data rather than gather it, we implement measures rather than carry them out, and so on.
There are, of course, rare opportunities when you want to create the effect of an uncommon word choice intentionally, but this should always be well-thought-out and I suggest you only use it sparingly.
In most cases, it’s better to just stick with the common phrase. A great resource to find out which is the correct collocation are language corpora such as the British National Corpus (BNC).
They have a specific function for searching collocates right here. Just enter any word and it will give you a list of common collocates sorted by how frequently they occur. You could even use a simple Google search to find out which phrase is the most common by comparing the number of search results for each option.
We are very lucky to have these tools today, so I suggest you use them.
Once you’re sure that your sentence conveys the intended meaning and is using the most common collocations, you are good to go. Your word-choice-check is officially complete.
Do this for everything you write. Your readers will thank you for it. | https://karintaglang.medium.com/are-you-using-the-right-words-in-your-writing-888d3f4e8a83 | ['Karin A. R. Taglang'] | 2020-12-07 10:00:18.534000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Language', 'Words', 'English Language', 'Writing Tips'] |
A Semester in San Francisco—Guaranteed Growth and Unique Perspectives | The Golden Gate Bridge. Shutterstock Image.
This past semester I was lucky enough to gain new perspectives and new experiences, learning from industry professionals in the Northeastern Semester in San Francisco program. I was blessed with the opportunity of having my first internship. Working at Wescover — an online marketplace for designers and creators — I was able to learn under an extremely supportive team and see firsthand the work that goes into an early-stage startup.
I saw how difficult it was to make decisions and learned how there really is no formula for success. It was fascinating to witness the many changes made to the company throughout my four months with the company. The changes made by understanding the customers, seeing what they want and need, and making decisions based on them. Every week I was able to sit in on weekly meetings where I was able to listen in on the overview of the week — often consisting of heavy analytical data that showed the impact of the decisions made previously.
Northeastern is all about experiential learning, and this semester was no different. I was able to learn things in my class that, for the first time, I really feel like I can clearly apply to the real world. I was able to take these things that I learned and apply them directly to my internship. While this semester definitely did not go as I had expected it would when I signed up, I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to spend my semester learning in Silicon Valley.
Overview of the Program
The program allowed me to have a full 16 credit schedule, with three classes and an internship (which served as a 4 credit course). One of my classes was a fully online class taught by a professor back in Boston, though the other two had content having a lot to do with the Silicon Valley atmosphere. These two classes — which I would definitely recommend — were Special Topics in Marketing and Innovation! (emphasis on the exclamation point). My classes each met once a week, for three hours at a time, giving me a good workload but also a good amount of free time.
In my marketing class, I learned more applicable information than I had learned in any other class I had taken before. I learned the ins and outs of what makes a good blog. I learned the little details that go into writing a promotional email. I learned a lot about website design — what works and what to avoid. I learned about more areas of marketing than I had previously known existed, and was given the opportunity to hear from an expert in each specific area through weekly guest speakers who are industry experts in Silicon Valley. If you are even slightly interested in marketing, Special Topics in Marketing is a class that you must take.
One of the many books we constantly referenced—a must-read.
The class Innovation! revolved around the question: can innovation be taught? Throughout the course, we spent time going through various leaders of innovation — from Rita McGrath to Clay Christensen. The class was a potpourri of innovation topics: we learned about the different types of innovations, innovations in startups, innovations à la Silicon Valley, among many other variations. I learned to think with a mindset that encourages innovation, but if you want to know the truth of whether or not innovation can be taught, you’ll just need to take the class to find out for yourself.
Aside from these classes, I was given a good workload with my internship, working a little under seven hours a day, three days a week. The workload varied based on the company you worked at, but I was happy that I was able to keep busy, as I wanted to make the most out of my four months at Wescover. My role had a focus on marketing and communications, and I was given tasks and learned under various heads of the department.
How this semester has helped me
Coming into this semester, I laid out a few goals for myself. First and foremost, I wanted to get a better understanding of what really goes into the marketing department. Marketing is something that I have always been interested in as I saw it as an essential part of any company, while still having a creative side to it. As I am currently enrolled in the D’Amore-McKim School of Business with a concentration in marketing, I wanted to be sure that I am on the right path.
Looking back, I definitely have a better understanding of what marketing really is, as well as the various jobs that go into marketing. Through the guest speakers I had the privilege of hearing from in my marketing class I not only learned a lot about their positions in marketing and their role’s importance to the company, but many of them actually went through their day-to-day activities and responsibilities which was really useful for me in seeing which path I might want to go down. I was able to experiment with different tasks at Wescover as well. Prior to accepting the role, I was told by the team that my role and responsibilities would shift pretty frequently, due to the changing priorities of Wescover as a startup. This proved to be true — while I had a few tasks that I continued to work on day in and day out, I was given new responsibilities of different varieties nearly every week, allowing me to build on my growing skillset.
Another goal that I had was to be able to add another perspective and to think about things in a new way. Different perspectives are something that I deeply value, and it is something that has guided a lot of the decisions I have made. It influenced me to leave California after high school and attend college on the east coast. It encouraged me to grasp the opportunity of studying abroad in London for my first semester of college. It is something I hoped to gain by learning from industry professionals in Silicon Valley. Although I wasn’t able to benefit from socializing with my peers due to the Covid-19 pandemic, I was able to gain some interesting viewpoints from my knowledgeable teachers and guest speakers throughout the semester. My class on innovation provided me with a new way of thinking about businesses and the roles that products play for their consumers. I strongly believe that the primary purpose of college is to gain new perspectives, as well as to try many new experiences, and I was definitely able to gain both of these during my semester in San Francisco.
What would YOU gain from this experience?
Any Northeastern business student should be jumping for the opportunity to take part in the Semester in San Francisco program. As much as I love Boston — I am extremely excited to return next semester — the San Francisco program is unmatched. The program provides numerous opportunities and experiences in the innovation hub of the world.
Ask yourself this: am I getting the most out of my classes right now? If you are like me, and you feel like your classes aren’t teaching you things that you feel you can really apply in the real world, the San Francisco program is perfect for you. If you want to build your professional network, gaining connections with people in your industry who have had success in Silicon Valley, then you need to seriously consider the San Francisco program. If you are eager to learn under successful entrepreneurs and gain a new perspective, then I truly believe you should consider taking part in this program. | https://medium.com/@ryanhada/a-semester-in-san-francisco-guaranteed-growth-and-unique-perspectives-e643ce8e88f8 | ['Ryan Hada'] | 2020-12-06 01:49:29.966000+00:00 | ['Study Abroad', 'Marketing', 'Innovation', 'Internship Experience', 'Silicon Valley'] |
Nerdlings: The Smart Choice For Yield Farm Aggregators | Like Dracula, But Fairer
If you’ve been in the defi scene for any period of time in the last few weeks, you’ve probably come across the term “yield farming”.
It’s become a very popular way for nascent protocols to quickly distribute their tokens to as many people as possible, as well as for “farmers” to essentially print free money out of thin air.
But as projects continue to spring up, the information cost of constantly scanning Twitter and Telegram groups to find the forsaken “alpha” continues to increase over time.
It was only inevitable that someone would come along with a solution that would automate (a portion or in its entirety) of finding pools to stake liquidity in and returning the profits to the end user.
The Dracula Protocol is largely accredited for being the pioneer of this “meta-level vampirism” as they call it. A single smart contract and unified web interface allow anyone to aggregate liquidity mining into one portal, which delivers higher profits (the sum of the total is usually greater than the parts) and mitigates the systematic risk of any single pool.
How Does Dracula (And Nerdlings) Work?
Users deposit funds into a supported liquidity pair. User then deposits the LP tokens within Dracula. (Dracula now temporarily owns your deposited funds, and is entitled to the liquidity mining rewards) When “drain” function is enabled, earned tokens from the farm are sold for ETH, and then used to buy DRC (which is then burned)
As the coin supply is reduced, DRC should in theory see capital appreciation for holders.
The Issue With Dracula
In Dracula’s current state, the protocol was easily gamed because the drain function was set to execute at clear times. This meant that users could arbitrage their market movements around these “drains”, which was further exacerbated by flash loans.
How Nerdling Fixes This
While a drain function is still implemented, the actual draining is executed at a randomized time AFTER the drain function is called. This prevents malicious actors from unfairly gaining profits during these interactions.
Another improvement on top of the DRC protocol was the infinite mint inflation issue, which we have addressed.
I’m Sold. How Do I Get Started?
Go to nerdlings.finance, and go through the steps like you would with any yield farming pool.
But this time, instead of depositing Uniswap or Sushiswap tokens, users can deposit their LP into any of the following exchanges:
Uniswap
Sushiswap
Pickle
LuaSwap
SashimiSwap
YFValue
Users simply find a pair that they are LP’ing in one of these 6 categories, and will stake like any seasoned farmer is used to. APY’s will vary of course, but some users are currently seeing several hundred to thousand APY percentage returns at the moment (11/12). | https://medium.com/@nerdlingfinance/nerdlings-the-smart-choice-for-yield-farm-aggregators-4c30049533fe | [] | 2020-11-16 23:44:36.727000+00:00 | ['Defi', 'Yield Farming', 'Decentralized Finance', 'Crypto', 'Finance'] |
Corsair Virtuoso Wireless RGB Gaming Headset Review: The Cheapest Flagship | This all makes me think that, when powered on, Corsair decided to apply some additional EQ to the headset. You can apply your own EQ settings in their iCUE software, and they also include some pre-set profiles to pick from…though I think they all sound worse than the default EQ. In fact, they’re essentially the same profiles Corsair’s been using since the original Void.
I enjoy listening to the much cheaper HS60 Pro more than the Virtuoso out of the box. That’s a sad false start for a headset that costs this much.
There is one saving grace to Corsair’s cheap flaghship: soundstage. Even without the virtual surround turned on, the stereo field is nice and wide. Perhaps that’s what they were going for with the non-standard tuning?
The wireless connection has some small digital artifacts present, so you’ll get the best audio quality either over USB-C or a standard wire. Just like on the HS60 Pro, turning on Corsair’s surround mode adds even more digital noise. Speaker positioning with surround on is good, and the headset is also compatible with the Windows Sonic spatial audio platform.
Again, this headset doesn’t sound bad. It’s just a little too cold and sharp in the midrange, and muffled in the bass, for my personal tastes, and for the price point. I was hoping for a signature closer to the DT770. That headphone has a big peak in the treble, yes, but the bass response and the midrange are both accurate and sumptuous. With a flatter bass response and a warmer midrange, the Virtuoso would have the sound quality to match the rest of its design.
I think you could still get used to these and enjoy them. But they don’t quite have the accurate sound of other audio products at this price. The AKG K361 has a similarly cold character to its mids for those who like that bite, and a more accurate everything else. It’s not wireless, and it doesn’t have its own DAC or microphone, but its $99 price point leaves you a hundred extra dollars to buy more goodies.
There’s not a ton of room inside this amply-padded cup. Photo taken by Alex Rowe.
COMFORT
Unlike the HS60 Pro, the Virtuoso uses ample amounts of memory foam padding on both its headband and its ear pads. It has a decently slow rebound and is thick enough to seal around my glasses.
The only issues here are the clamp and the lack of angled drivers. The insides of the round ear cups are flat, just like the above-mentioned Beyerdynamic DT770. Beyerdynamic gets around this by covering the inside of the cup with a soft foam, and ensuring that the pads are so thick your ears won’t really touch the back wall.
Corsair didn’t quite nail either of these things. The inside wall is unpadded hard plastic, and the cups aren’t quite thick enough to totally elevate these off my ears, so the back edge of my ear just contacts the hard wall.
The ear cups rotate laterally and vertically, which is great for comfort. Unfortunately, the lateral rotation is so stiff and robust that it basically locks into place. So instead of conforming easily to your head, you’ll have to twist them, check the fit, and repeat until you find the right angle.
Still, with some careful positioning and occasional readjustment, these are reasonably comfortable. The headband is much more cushy than on the HS60 Pro, though the weight of the aluminum used throughout the frame means I sometimes develop a hot spot and need to re-seat them after about an hour.
I can wear the headset on the 9th of its 11 clicks of adjustment, so it should have enough room for most heads.
If you want your headset to instantly fit well, or you’re sensitive to clamping force, these won’t be for you. The fitting process reminds me a little of the Sennheiser HD25. There’s a lot of fiddling you can do with the placement thanks to its adjustable frame and round cups, and once you get the sizing locked in, you’ll enjoy wearing them. But getting there is more of a process than on most other headsets.
Corsair went all-in on materials for the Virtuoso, and it’s wonderful. Photo taken by Alex Rowe.
BUILD/DESIGN
This is the category where the Virtuoso largely triumphs. It’s one of the best-built headsets on the market, at any price. In a week and a half of use, the all-metal frame and hinges haven’t uttered a single creak or squeak. There’s sometimes a bit of frame noise as parts brush past each other, particularly on the right ear cup’s vertical swivel, but that’s nothing a future revision couldn’t fix with some additional rubber damping material or lubrication.
The Virutoso is built like a figurative tank. It’s a solid, metal-infused thing that screams premium from every angle, even if you decide to opt for the cheaper plastic-cupped version. The design is similarly impressive, with a timeless pro headphone look that’s more stylish and modern than most of the competition. These look like they belong in a nice studio.
Instead of jamming huge RGB light rings into the cups, Corsair opted for a basic light-up logo in the center of each cup. On the SE version, the unique micro-perforations in the aluminum mean that the cutouts practically disappear when the lights are off.
This USB port location is fine…as long as you don’t want to listen to the headphones in USB mode. Photo taken by Alex Rowe.
The design has one single stupid flaw. The USB-C port is placed towards the back of the left ear cup. That’s fine for charging, but if you want to use the built-in DAC to listen to the headphones, the cable exits the cup then rams promptly into your neck and shoulder. Your body will constantly rub against the cable, causing microphonic sounds to enter the ear cup.
You could try routing the cable over the top of your shoulder, but that causes new challenges and still doesn’t eliminate the shoulder rubbing. The positioning of the port is baffling considering how thoughtful the rest of the design is. Hopefully a future revision will move this port either to the right cup, or to the front of the left cup somewhere closer to the mic port.
The volume wheel is smooth and the headphones can really put out volume. Photo taken by Alex Rowe.
MICROPHONE
The microphone here is fantastic. Corsair claims it’s “broadcast quality,” and while that has no actual specific meaning, I’ll allow it. It’s deep, resonant, and accurate even in the bass regions. Positioning is easy thanks to the included sidetone feature, and background noise isolation is good. The sensitivity is also high enough that you shouldn’t have trouble being heard.
Impressively, the mic sounds almost as good in wireless mode as it does wired. Here are some quick samples I recorded.
The mic has an LED to show you if it’s muted or live. Photo taken by Alex Rowe.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The Corsair Virtuoso SE is a solid attempt at a flagship-level headset for less money. The sound signature isn’t my first choice. The comfort takes a little getting used to. And the USB-C port is in a weird spot.
But, it packs in a big features list, a wonderful build, and a great microphone for about $100 less than the market norm.
The features list earns it a spot on my “keeper” shelf, but the second a better-sounding version two comes out, I’m selling it off. You might really enjoy the sound signature, and I think it’s still within the realm of “Acceptable.” It just falls short of the rest of the surprisingly solid package. | https://medium.com/@xander51/corsair-virtuoso-wireless-rgb-gaming-headset-review-the-cheapest-flagship-d881e5496349 | ['Alex Rowe'] | 2020-02-26 20:27:18.187000+00:00 | ['Gaming', 'Gadgets', 'Headphones', 'Technology', 'Audio'] |
How to be a presentationalist: audience, audience, audience | You may have noticed a trend in Medicine recently.
Hospital medics are now ‘hospitalists’.
Emergency medics are now ‘resuscitationists’.
Teachers are now ‘educationalists’.
To that end for those of us who wish to give evidence based presentations it is time to stop trying to be a mere presenter and instead claim the title of presentationalist. This is the second in a series of blogs on how to improve our presentation skills with an evidence based approach.
Audience audience audience
Now we’ve established that a presentation is more than just your slides it’s now time to actually start thinking about how to start planning a talk.
Any presentation is not about the speaker. It’s about the audience; first, second and third.
When you start planning your presentation ask yourself: who are my audience? Why are they going to be there? It doesn’t matter if you’re giving a keynote speech, presenting at a job interview or presenting an audit at your departmental meeting, starting by thinking about your audience ensures that anything you do will be aimed precisely at them.
If you’ve been asked to give a presentation ask why. It’s very common for invitations to talk to be vague; “oh we’d love to hear about that work you did”. Once again you need to be precise. Why have you asked me? What aspect exactly do you want to know?
If you’re presenting at a conference who is attending? Most conferences have a theme; something like “inspiring excellence”. Find out the theme and this will help you shape your talk.
Who else is presenting? Get in touch if possible. What are they talking about? Collaborate with them. All the while making sure you’re building a presentation with your audience first, second and third.
If you’re not sure about the group you’ll be talking to find out at the beginning. If you don’t know about them talk to people who do. Ask yourself two questions: “what do they want to know?” “What do they need to know?”
This may seem like a strange distinction to make but it’s also important. For example, I teach final year medical students. Near the end of the year in particular they are always driven by the imminent exams. What they WANT to know is anything that will be in their exams and nothing else. So when I start talking about things that won’t be in exam but will be issues when they’re doctors there’s potential to lose them. That’s the distinction. They WANT to know what’s in the exam to become doctors. They NEED to know how to stay doctors once qualified. That distinction has to be bridged. Consider if it’s suitable to bridge it there and then. If it is then you know you’re going to have to be very clear about why they need to know what you’re about to tell them. Appreciating this at the start is crucial as you begin planning your talk.
Check out where the conference is being held and try and get a feel for the place if possible. What will work? What won’t? Find out how long you have to talk. Whatever it is take 20% off. No conference runs to time. Aim to only need 80% of you allotted time. The rest will be used up. Trust me. Whether it’s other speakers overrunning or questions or delays with technology the time will be taken up. If not by finishing early you can help keep things flowing and the organisers will love you. Never overrun. Ever.
You may notice that the first two steps are about shifting away. Step One was about shifting emphasis away from slides. Step Two has been about shifting emphasis away from you to your audience. These shifts should be liberating. By not relying on slides we are encouraged to innovate with our presentations. By focussing on our audience and not us we ensure the presentation will be compelling. The point is not to be Luke Skywalker. The point is be Yoda. Yoda has a small part of the original Star Wars trilogy. Yet he opens up a whole new world to Luke which shapes what comes afterwards. Your audience may never see you again but you have an opportunity in the short time you have with them to open up possibilities they may never have known otherwise. It’s not about you it’s about them.
In order to help put our audience first is to understand the mind of an audience member. First, human beings are designed to love patterns. The first pattern we learn as newborns are faces, those of our parents and then our family and so on. This love of faces continues so much that we will find them even in photographs of Mars. More on faces later.
The next pattern we love are words. Words are patterns of squiggles (letters) with meaning. And we love them. Show your audience words and they will read them. No matter what they are. Even if it’s my mobile phone contract.
Or even if you tell people not to read.
Words on a screen are there to be read. Your audience can’t help it. Put them up there and watch your audience’s eyes move from you to the screen. As we already discussed you can’t read, listen and learn. Put words up there and you lose them. We’re addicted to words. Words are a controlled drug like morphine. We have to be careful prescribing controlled drugs. We have to have the same caution when we use words in our slides because we’re dealing with addicts.
We finally have to consider our audience’s attention span. There’s a reason TED talks last 18 minutes. 17 minutes is the longest we can hold attention. One hour long talks are simply pointless. Luckily, you can reset your audience’s attention with other things. If you’re doing a workshop break it up with an exercise. If it’s a keynote speech use a video, music, dance, whatever but break it up. Afterwards your audience’s attention is reset for another 17 minutes.
TED talks use the 18 minute limit to help focus the speaker’s message. More on that in Step 3. | https://medium.com/@mcdreeamie/how-to-be-a-presentationalist-audience-audience-audience-bdea54527980 | ['James Thomas'] | 2019-10-30 09:22:22.404000+00:00 | ['Presentation Skills', 'Presentations', 'Public Speaking', 'Presentation Design', 'Presentation Tips'] |
Replace Your To-Do List With Interstitial Journaling To Increase Productivity | Here’s the quick pitch for what Interstitial Journaling does for your productivity, procrastination, and creativity.
We weren’t built for multi-tasking, so transitions between projects are very tough. We end up getting lost in procrastination. Even when we manage to transition quickly into our next project, our brain is still thinking about the last project.
That means our second project suffers from partial attention. The science of multi-tasking says partial attention can mean a 40% or more reduction in cognitive performance.
The Interstitial Journaling tactic solves all of these normal problems. It kills procrastination, empties our brain of the last project, and then gives us space to formulate an optimal strategy for our next project.
That’s plenty of instruction if you want to just close this article and try it yourself. But, because I’m a productivity enthusiast, I’ll give you the origin story, the lessons from the people I tested this on, ways to customize this process for your own work, and the science behind the process.
Pomodoro is named for the this silly tomato shaped timer. image source
Origin story: Pomodoro on steroids
In the Pomodoro Technique, you alternate between set work intervals and set break intervals. Most people go with 25-minute work intervals followed by 5-minute breaks.
Generally, the break is your reward. You can surf the web guilt-free, get a snack, or text your best friend.
What I wondered was: what if you tried to do something productive with those five minutes?
At the time I was wondering this, I happened to be doing a deep dive on morning journaling using Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages as a jumping off point to explore all the ways you can use journaling for personal growth.
So, I put the two together.
What if you journaled for your five minute Pomodoro break? That’s basically what this tactic is. And the answer to what happens is: a lot of really good things.
The minimum journal entry
Every time you switch projects, open up your journal and enter the following three things:
Note the time. Most people will find having these timestamps to be useful to look back on. Write a few sentences about what you just worked on. “What project did I just finish? Are there any parts of that project that I’m still thinking about?” Use complete sentences rather than one word answers. “Email. Yes.” is not a valid answer. Write a few sentences about what you’re about to work on. “What is the first action of the project I’m about to start? How should I approach getting the project done?”
You can write more, and most of you will discover new things to write about, but the above is a solid format to start with.
Empty your brain
“What project did I just finish? Are there any parts of that project that I’m still thinking about?”
When you empty your brain, you can then start the next project fully focused.
My favorite pragmatic observation about genius comes from the computer science professor, Edsger Dijkstra:
The competent programmer is fully aware of the limited size of their own skull. They therefore approach their task with full humility, and avoid clever tricks like the plague.
A lot of people approach problems with hubris, hoping their brain will generate magical insight. Most often, they overload their brain by making the problem too hard. Then, their brain responds by generating mistakes.
Dijkstra’s observation is that the most pragmatic path to genius (although he merely calls it competence) is to keep the problem smaller than your brain.
This is why Interstitial Journaling calls for journaling about what you just finished working on. Often, you’re still thinking about that project. Write those thoughts down, empty your brain.
That way, when you start your next project, you’ll be bringing your full brain rather than your distracted half-brain.
First action vs. next action
“What is the first action of the project I’m about to start?”
I tested this Interstitial Journaling tactic with my coaching group. These are 500 people who treat productivity as one part ambition and one part hobby. They’re a little extreme about this topic, to be honest. But they’re always up for exploring the cutting edge.
I tried to convince my coaching group that they should update David Allen’s GTD concept of Next Action and call it First Action instead. They were split on whether this was a good idea.
In David Allen’s observation, most people write their to-do lists in terms of projects. “Change tires” would be an example of a project-oriented to-do.
The problem is when you get to a to-do list item framed as a project, you get stuck because taking action is too cognitively difficult. How does one “change tires”?
So, David Allen popularized the idea of rewriting your to-do list in terms of actions. Specifically, you should think about Next Actions so that you can keep momentum as you work down your to-do list.
In David Allen’s GTD, you would translate the project-oriented to-do of “Change Tires” to the Next Action style of “Call Tire Stores for Pricing.”
Part of your Interstitial Journal entry is to identify the Next Action of your project. The easier the action, the more likely you are to do it and the less likely you are to fall prey to procrastination. This action is the first thing you should identify when you start journaling about your upcoming project.
However, I’ve observed that many people who think they are writing a Next Action still manage to write actions that are too difficult to achieve. A poorly chosen Next Action will cause procrastination for the same reasons that a project-oriented to-do would.
In the “Call Tire Stores” Next Action example above, how do you find the phone numbers to call all these tire stores? That’s how people get stuck. Under threat of violence, you’d figure it out. But in your day-to-day, facing a Next Action like that often makes surfing the web look more appealing.
So, I asked my coaching group if we could rename Next Action to First Action.
The difference looks like trivial semantics, but the reason for this subtlety is that some people react differently to the words Next and First. Many people hear Next and think “Next Meaningful.” That’s what tricks them into writing down actions that are too hard to start or finish. Many people hear First and think “First Literal.”
So, the phrase First Action makes it easier to narrow in on a smaller action, like “Google Tire Store Phone Numbers” or even “Open Google.”
This semantic change had people thinking about accuracy and, almost always, the accurate answer to the question of Next Action is something trivial, like opening a software program.
But… not all people are the same. A different group of people rebelled against First Action because those tiny trivial actions looked boring. They needed an action that carried enough weight to feel like it was worth doing. Otherwise, they would procrastinate for fear of boredom.
People come in all flavors. I’m presenting to you specific steps as a starting point. I call this First Action now. But if you’re tied to calling this Next Action, then you have my full permission.
Mindful strategizing: do less, do it smarter, delegate it
“How should I approach getting the project done?”
At this point in the journaling, you’ve cleared your head and you have a chance to think about the best way to get your next project done.
Most often, getting the project done is a matter of scope. If you only have an hour, then you have to use a strategy that fits within an hour.
The first time I had a strategy epiphany during an Interstitial Journal entry was right before editing an article. I had five different article submissions that I could choose from, and I wanted to publish at least one of those that day.
My default mode is to think I’m some sort of editing superhero, even though I’m a complete amateur with no training. So, my impulse is to pick the very first draft and then charge through it.
In other words, I normally wouldn’t consider strategy at all.
But, in my Interstitial Journal I noted that I only had an hour for this editing work. From experience, I know that editing an article can take anywhere from 15 minutes to 2 hours.
So, breaking all normal rules of my own behavior, I opened all five articles. Then, I ordered them by which looked to be easiest to edit and chose the easiest article. Am I a genius? No. But that brief moment of mindfulness helped me pick a smarter strategy. I got the article submitted on time. And in the course of my day, projects completed on time add up to major victories.
Anyone who has ever done journaling in other contexts knows this — your journal is an opportunity for truth and honesty about yourself that you don’t normally have. I’m too ambitious about what I take on, while being cowardly about working hard. Putting those thoughts into a journal moves them from feelings that secretly rule my decisions to rational concepts that I can analyze and solve.
I think the right word for this experience is mindfulness. Journaling as you work produces mindfulness about your context, goals, mood, and skills. Honestly, many so-called knowledge workers are going through their day as mindlessly as possible. You’re really going to stand out with this tactic.
I almost never explain any productivity topic without referencing the book, Thinking, Fast and Slow.
The book covers two modes of decision making. One is a rational but effortful mode. This is what we wish ruled our life. The other is an emotional and habitual mode that sits just below our consciousness. This is what actually rules our life.
The magic of journaling is that it is almost always effective at bringing thoughts and feelings up to a place that triggers your rational mind. The net effect is that you’re rebalancing and being more rational.
Maker vs. Manager considerations
In the introductory instructions, I said I wasn’t very concerned about what tool you used for journaling, an app or a physical journal.
This isn’t completely true — the best tool for you really depends on whether you’re a Maker or a Manager.
If you’re doing project work on a computer all day, then I think you’ll prefer using an app like Evernote. There’s something about just flipping back and forth between your apps that helps keep most people in the flow.
If that’s your work day, I’d call you a Maker (this is a reference to the article Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule). Makers should keep their journal in an app.
If you’re a Manager, then you probably spend a lot of your day away from your computer in meetings. For you, I’d recommend two things:
Use a paper journal. Schedule meetings with a five minute gap in between. That gives you time to do the journaling.
If you are a Maker who works with your hands instead of a computer, then congratulations. The physical world is a rich and wonderful place, and I always enjoy turning off my computer to visit it. You should use a paper journal.
Changing projects feels like making a U-Turn. Image Credit.
Your journal is a habit for pivoting to new projects
An NBA trainer introduced me to a concept he teaches his athletes called “Next Play Speed”. The concept is that there is a transition between offense and defense, where basketball players often get lost. This is the basketball version of an Interstitial Moment.
He uses a video (below) of Michael Jordan transitioning back and forth from offense to defense. It’s actually pretty amazing to watch, because Jordan makes those transitions much faster than everyone else on the court.
What the NBA trainer, Graham Betchart, does is clue you into the habit that Jordan developed. It’s not “switch fast!” — that’s just a goal.
Rather, Jordan’s habit is that the instant the ball changes hands, Jordan plants his pivot foot and changes direction. That’s his habit.
Humans are famously slow project-switchers. Part of the problem is that it’s impossible to make a habit out of switching between projects because each project is unique. There’s nothing consistent to habitualize.
But, Interstitial Journaling is something you can make a habit out of. Finished a project? Habitually flip over to your journal, write the time down, reflect on what you just did, then reflect on what you’re about to do.
It’s the knowledge worker’s version of planting a pivot foot.
In Graham’s explanation for basketball players, he sets the goal of achieving a “Next Play Speed” of less than one second.
For your Next Project Speed let’s think in terms of a few minutes. Can you transition from one project to another in fewer than five minutes?
Upgrade option: journal everything
This tactic is focused on the interstitial moment between projects. But the obvious upgrade is to journal while you’re working on the projects as well. Basically, you journal the entire time that you’re working.
I’ve written about this in other places as an alternative way to use to-do list software. Instead of working up a complete list of what you need to do, simply track tasks as you go to build a sense of flow. Think of it as similar to the way a lawyer has to track his or her work in six-minute increments. That probably sounds like a huge chore.
But if you get into it, you end up with this massive document of how productive you were that day. When I was using this tactic, I’d routinely complete 100 or more tasks in a day. So, part of what kept me tracking the minutia of each project was simply pride.
The pragmatic benefit comes from taking David Allen’s Next Action concept and putting it on steroids (I like the steroid metaphor, apparently). If Next Action is a good tactic to get into a new project, it’s equally good to take you through every little step until you finish.
Originally, I’d taken the task-journaling concept and put it into the to-do list metaphor. So, all I ever captured was a long list of next actions in list form.
But, when I moved from a list to a journal, I realized that I could analyze myself as I tracked these tasks. There’s a particular reason to do this analysis, which comes from recent research on procrastination (summarized by Dr. Tim Pychyl in one of the first Medium Members articles).
The idea is that procrastination is often a short term mood repair initiated by your subconscious. The problem and the decision to solve it are both happening below the level of conscious thought. The solution is to find a way to identify and then solve that mood at a conscious level. Journaling is one way to do that.
So, as I moved my task-journaling into a proper journal, I started to ask myself, why did I just procrastinate? The answer was often illuminating and, more importantly, something I could overcome.
Here is a concrete example, and I want you to note the number of times I say “darn”. Those were moments of procrastination.
12:39. Edit Productivity Article [... journal about the previous project ... ] First Action: Open draft. I tested out a new copy editor and need to see if I liked their edits. Darn. I don’t like this person’s edits. Oh well. The piece is too dense. I'm going to break up the longer paragraphs. Oh. Darn. I got distracted mid-way and ended up on Twitter. I don’t even know where or how. Oh. I was on HuffPo (which got unblocked on my computer), saw a post about Chris Evan’s dog, and that somehow led to Seth Rogen’s Twitter stream. Back to work. Need to rewrite these subheadings. Darn. Got stuck again — this time rewriting a sub-heading made me flip over to easier goofing off. Caught myself right away. The problem is skill. I don’t have a “theory of subheadings” and so I don’t have any strategy for rewriting this one. Back to it and this time I'll trust my gut about what makes a good subheading. Got tripped up one more time. When I saved the piece, I saw my Medium notifications and ended up responding to someone’s response to one of my posts. Back at it. Just have to drop the article into Asana for Medium’s managing editor to publish. Checked on image rights. Had to learn how to use Google Image search via uploaded image. 1:35pm. Done.
That’s a work project that took me 56 minutes and in which I got distracted three times. The journal ended up being my safety net. It’s what I mentioned above about “Next Play Speed.” Having a journal gives me a habitual response to noticing my procrastination.
So, yes, the emphasis and the name of this tactic is on the interstitial moments. But I believe strongly that you should actually journal your entire day.
Does this really replace your to-do list?
Yes, sort of.
First of all, you need to differentiate between to-dos. There are to-dos that people keep which are just long-running backlogs of things they wish they would do some day. This journaling tactic has nothing to do with those.
Then there are the to-do lists that act as a working document for your day, which I think are more common. You constantly check these lists to figure out what to do next and then update them when new to-dos pop up.
That second, working document, should be replaced by this journaling tactic.
But, if that causes you consternation, realize that the beauty of a journal is that it has a flexible form.
I often plop a small to-do list at the bottom of my journal. If some little thing pops up that I don’t want to forget, then I just quickly write it down at the bottom of my journal.
But, regardless of what I write around the edges of my journal, the focus is on the interstitial moments. That’s the core of bringing mindfulness and focus to my work.
Influences
I generally believe there aren’t very many original thoughts — but as far as I can tell, this tactic is basically original.
Well, actually, it’s obviously a derivative idea based on journaling work by Julia Cameron and Josh Waitzkin and on the very popular Pomodoro technique.
The name came from Terrie Schweitzer, and the idea of trying combinations came to me from Scott Adams.
But other than that, I think this is an original productivity idea. I’ve never heard of other people doing anything like this in a formal way.
The reason originality is important to me is that if other people have done this, then I want to hear about it, link to it, and learn from it. So, if you’ve seen other techniques like this, please share them with me.
Also, if you try this and make your own variations, I’d love to hear about those as well. | https://medium.com/better-humans/replace-your-to-do-list-with-interstitial-journaling-to-increase-productivity-4e43109d15ef | ['Coach Tony'] | 2017-09-14 17:02:32.883000+00:00 | ['Mindfulness', 'Journaling', 'Productivity', 'Members', 'Procrastination'] |
Upskilling in Analytics, a must for Risk Management Professionals — KnoGrow | In the field of Financial Risk Management, the most important upskilling need is knowledge of Analytics. Modern risk management demands upskilling in Analytics. This is a must if you wanted to be groomed and known as a successful risk manager. Data science and analytical know-how are the risk management tool across the industry today. If you can not upskill your knowledge in Analytics, soon there is a chance to be identified as a redundant resource. Hence knowledge in data science skills is a must for a risk manager’s roster.
Please visit my previous blog to more about upskilling is the professional lifeline, I have mentioned the importance of upskilling for professionals.
Why Analytics is so important in Risk management?
Analytics extensively using data for its outcome. In previous decades risk management was majorly driven by industry experts, who were using their age-old experience and observation power in decision making. That process was predominantly qualitative with a higher percentage of chance factor. Gradually with more usage of database management and digitization in the financial industry, data capture mechanism has made a quantum leap from hard copy based manual record keeping to computerized digital record management which can be assessed, searched, and maintained easily in a cost-effective manner.
Since data capture has been more digitized and automated, the pool of data also started giving more insights on certain facts that were earlier in the dark. Perception-based risk assessment has a higher risk of mistakes and hence always goes with a potential of higher loss. New age data capture has opened the scope of data science to flourish with the advanced error-free outcome. The advent of data management and Analytical software made it easy to manage a large pool of data in quick time and gives specific need-based outcome.
Types of analytical approaches used in the risk management world.
There are two types of risks most prevalent in the financial industry.
Financial risks are mainly related to the cash flows of financial institutions, which are directly associated with financial loss and connected with the profit and loss account of the organization. On the other hand, the non-financial risk is majorly dealing in reputation risk, legal risk, and hidden capital losses which may affect financially the organization. For a typical financial institution following risks are categorized as financial risks.
Credit Risk/ Cash Flow Risk
Market Risk/ Trading Risk
Operations Risk
Counterparty Risk
Following risks are categorized under non-financial risks.
Risk from Fraudulent Activities
Money Laundering Risk
Risks from Misrepresentation of Facts
Breach of Contracts
Conduct Risk
Cybersecurity risk
Compliance risk
Regulatory risk
Reputational risk
As I have mentioned above, data are the major raw material for the application of analytics in risk management. For financial risk analysis, information on financial data, cash flow data, maturity information data, past default data, market movement data, and asset position data is being used. Analytics can be used in two ways like portfolio analysis and the development of forecasting models. In a typical portfolio analysis of financial risk, financial institutions used to perform analysis to get the possible risky asset classes, the potential losses against current asset positions. Contribution of top loss-making assets in the enterprise level loss estimation and strategies based on the outcome especially for those stocks, assets, or corporates where future investment decision to be taken.
For non-financial risk approach, past transaction records, origin and sources of funds, the intensity of interaction with geography-specific regulations, independent Audit outcome and further deep dive, hacking sensitive product identification and support decision for cybersecurity are performed. Where Analytics performs data cleaning, data sufficiency testing, outlier analysis, data management to make it ‘query language’ friendly. Data science also identifies potential offenders and helps an organization to report those cases to the regulator within the timeline.
Analytical skills of high demand
Basic knowledge and understanding that is required in analytics are quant skills and knowledge of statistics. If you wanted to develop a career in risk analytics, you must know statistical rules and approaches. In addition to that following skills are also in demand.
Knowledge of Analytical software (SAS, R, Python, etc.)
Understanding and expertise in big data management
Business understanding to perform sense check of the output
Management Information pack and presentation skill for senior management reporting
So, if you are an individual and wanted to develop your career in risk management and Analytics, these skillsets are the primary requirement for your upskilling plan. Furthermore, an analytical mindset with an interest in detailing is the most desired character that risk managers are looking for.
Comparison in risk assessment approach — Pre and current Analytics era
As I mentioned earlier, pre analytics risk assessment was purely expert-driven. So past knowledge of the industry, performance of certain flagship companies, number of years the experts covering assets of a particular sector, past observations, etc, plays a major role in decision making.
Let us take an example of traditional credit risk assessment done by experts, where five major components are evaluated named Character, Capacity, Collateral, Capital, and Condition. All these components of potential customers are evaluated by experts through their year-long experience along with some simple financial estimations. If the customer can effectively cross certain threshold values, the case can be marked as a pass, and the facility gets sanctioned.
To get more details please refer corporatefinanceinstitute web site.
Multiple level deep dive, what-if analysis, assessment of cross-functional data, analysis on likelihood through correlation, etc were not possible to perform in earlier approach. Pre analytics approach was mostly top-down based on certain recommendations. However, Analytics based data-driven approach is more bottom-up and realistic. A lot of simulations are performed against multiple scenarios to test the effectiveness of the approach. Following steps are performed using analytics to assess credit approval cases for a customer.
Assessment of historical performance
Assessment of demographic data
Assessment of income and liability status
Assess the score of the customer against internal data and the data acquired through application and mapped it against bureau score.
Finally, assign a default probability and map against certain pricing recommendation
Validation of the output with test datasets
If all parameters are passed, funding recommendations are communicated.
Changes that Analytics has made in Financial Risk World
Data science has changed the entire decision-making process in the risk fraternity. The integration from data capture to the final recommendation stage has made the entire risk management value chain more sophisticated. Today risk management is not a separate section/division in the organization that does its work in a silo, rather data-driven risk management is a culture in the organization where all sections are equally participating. Gone those days where customer level information is collected in a register manually and experts depend on their understanding and gut feeling in assessing a decision.
Analytics today design target specific products based on risk profiling of the customers. A promotional campaign for a new launch is entirely driven by data analysis. Regulators not only been reported on capital and risk assessment information, but financial institutions are also sharing the steps to arrive at multiple decision points and output of stress test outcomes
Where Analytics stands today?
Advanced analytics and Machine learning approaches are on the card to dominate the entire strategic landscape of Financial Institutions. Massive changes are happening in the data capture platform from customers. The more institutions go digital more demand for correct data and hence more demand in Analytical skillsets.
Now it is obvious that if you wanted to develop your career in financial risk management, you need to upskill yourself in Analytics and Data science requirements. The industry is moving towards fast-paced decision making where credit/investment decisions are conveyed within 2–3 hours or even less than that. Massive automation initiatives are being taken by the world’s leading financial institutions using Analytics at the center point.
Please provide comments and your opinion on “Upskilling in Analytics, a must for Risk Management Professionals” and do share this article with your friends on Facebook and LinkedIn. | https://medium.com/@chandril/upskilling-in-analytics-a-must-for-risk-management-professionals-knogrow-4c4f18ee96c8 | ['Chandril Ray'] | 2021-03-19 18:48:06.024000+00:00 | ['Upskilling', 'Professional Development', 'Career Advice', 'Analytics', 'Risk Management'] |
How to use Firebase UI to control data flow after signing in successfully(redirect or stay?) | How to use Firebase UI to control data flow after signing in successfully(redirect or stay?) Yingqi Chen Follow Aug 16 · 3 min read
To build a user authentication system, Firebase UI is a brilliant tool! Once you install and configure it properly(both in your code and in Firebase console), you get 11 beautiful and working UI for signing in automatically, for GCP(Google Cloud Platform) users, you would even have two more ways to enable SAML and OIDC providers.
Install and configure
It is not too hard to start, you can follow the documentation to install, enable the specific provider in Firebase console and configure. And since I am using it for my Gatsby(which is a framework written in React) app, I use this documentation too to set up in React.
There are two components that you can use FirebaseUI : FirebaseAuth and StyledFirebaseAuth . The difference is illustrated here in the documentation:
FirebaseAuth has a reference to the FirebaseUI CSS file (it requires the CSS). StyledFirebaseAuth is bundled with the CSS directly.
I use the latter one. And here is a basic example of a StyledFirebaseAuth from the documentation:
// Import FirebaseAuth and firebase.
import React from 'react';
import StyledFirebaseAuth from 'react-firebaseui/StyledFirebaseAuth';
import firebase from 'firebase'; // Configure Firebase.
const config = {
apiKey: 'AIzaSyAeue-AsYu76MMQlTOM-KlbYBlusW9c1FM',
authDomain: 'myproject-1234.firebaseapp.com',
// ...
};
firebase.initializeApp(config); // Configure FirebaseUI.
const uiConfig = {
// Popup signin flow rather than redirect flow.
signInFlow: 'popup',
// Redirect to /signedIn after sign in is successful. Alternatively you can provide a callbacks.signInSuccess function.
signInSuccessUrl: '/signedIn',
// We will display Google and Facebook as auth providers.
signInOptions: [
firebase.auth.GoogleAuthProvider.PROVIDER_ID,
firebase.auth.FacebookAuthProvider.PROVIDER_ID
]
}; class SignInScreen extends React.Component {
render() {
return (
<div>
<h1>My App</h1>
<p>Please sign-in:</p>
<StyledFirebaseAuth uiConfig={uiConfig} firebaseAuth={firebase.auth()}/>
</div>
);
}
}
Callback after signing in
The documentation is very clear so I didn’t plan to talk too much about this. What I care the most is the data flow because when I used in a few days ago in my Gatsby app, I didn’t see too much information. So I want to write it down just in case someone might need it in the future.
When it is configured, you can sign in with the provider and connect it to the Firestore and create a user in Authentication in Firestore . After that, signInSuccessUrl: ‘/signedIn’ is going to redirect the flow to /signedIn .
But what if you want to do more than just redirect? Then you should use a callback called: signInSuccessWithAuthResult . It should be nested in callbacks object in uiConfig . So the example in the documentation looks like this:
// Configure FirebaseUI.
uiConfig = {
// Popup signin flow rather than redirect flow.
signInFlow: 'popup',
// We will display Google and Facebook as auth providers.
signInOptions: [
firebase.auth.GoogleAuthProvider.PROVIDER_ID,
firebase.auth.FacebookAuthProvider.PROVIDER_ID
],
callbacks: {
signInSuccessWithAuthResult: () => false
}
}
Use signInSuccessWithAuthResult callback to decide to redirect or stay
The callback will be a function that takes in two parameters, authObject (usually the user )and redirectURL . So you can do more after signing in successfully.
What it will return is actually a simple boolean value. If it returns true, then after signing in, user will be redirected to the URL that is specified by signInSuccessUrl . When it returns false, the user will stay on the same page.
Take care of async request in signInSuccessWithAuthResult
Another problem I have when I play with signInSuccessWithAuthResult is that since it asks for exactly a boolean value, when I use async/await to try to fetch data from a database or an API, I got an error stating that what I return is a Promise<boolean> , which does not match exactly what signInSuccessWithAuthResult expect to receive.
To handle this problem, just use a very small trick: use .then to handle the promise inside of the function. It is just a small trick, but I don’t see too much information about it online, so I write it here. Hopefully it will help you some day.
Notes
Just try to share a note about signInFlow . There are two ways: popup and redirect . It is defaulted to be redirect so if you want to speed up the loading process, specify it to popup !
Thanks for reading! | https://medium.com/dev-genius/how-to-use-firebase-ui-to-control-data-flow-after-signing-in-successfully-redirect-or-stay-10ff238cef70 | ['Yingqi Chen'] | 2020-10-31 21:02:46.103000+00:00 | ['Firebase', 'Firebaseui', 'Signinsuccessurl', 'React', 'JavaScript'] |
How To Measure A Civilization | What makes civilization civilized? Its manners? Must we dress nicely and converse about the most interesting topics in the world while we sip a spot of tea? Well, not exactly. In fact, we have all of those nice qualities as individuals. But true civilizations, according to a man named Nikolai Kardashev, are measured by their technology and not the way they behave.
A Bit About Nikolai…
After obtaining his Ph.D. of Astrophysics in 1962, Kardashev would go on to study various areas of the cosmos. He made various breakthroughs in radioastronomy, being one of the pioneers in SETI (The Search For Extraterrestrial Life). A few of his greatest achievements were discovering the first pulsar, creating new methods of measuring deep-space radiation, and most famously, creating new theories based on extraterrestrial civilizations.
So, What Is The Kardashev Scale?
Yes, you can measure a society’s power level. (THINK ABOUT THE MEMES! XD)
A scale that was created by Kardashev (Duh…) to measure the level of a civilization based on the amount of potential energy that it would use.
Why Was The Scale Created?
While studying a particular astral body, Soviet scientists including Nikolai realized that the body was emitting a certain radio signal. This signal gave off the idea that intelligent life must’ve existed on the star, and Nikolai was inspired! Soon after this discovery, a paper was published by Kardashev that discussed his ideas of intelligent life on other worlds.
What This Paper Entailed…
Titled, ‘Transmission of Information by Extraterrestrial Civilisations’, This paper was written as a way to explain what extremely advanced civilizations could be living like while we can’t see them.
Ideas Of Measurement:
Kardashev realized that civilization and its culture depends on both energy and technology. He also realized these ideas run in parallel as more advanced technology requires a lot of energy to power it. So, measuring civilizations with their output of energy was probably one of the easiest ways to put them to scale.
The Scale:
Now here’s the fun part, we get to figure out how advanced civilization has to be to fall into certain measurements on Kardashev’s scale! (But you can’t say it’s over 9000, there aren’t enough levels for that. XD)
Quick Reminder For Scale: 1 Terawatt = 10¹² Watts
Type 0: 1,000,000 Watts (10⁹ Watts)
A civilization that can use basic tools and collaborates with itself. This can apply to everything you see in the picture above, even the guy using a laptop! Pay attention to laptop guy especially, he’ll be important.
Type 1: 10,000 Terawatts… (10¹⁶ Watts)
A fully united society that has harnessed the complete energy output of its own world and starts to pull power from other parts of the cosmos. 10,000 Terawatts is equivalent to 10 Trillion lightbulbs (100-Watts per bulb), think about standing in front of that many lightbulbs (0_0).
Type 2: 1,000,000,000,000,000 Terawatts… (10²⁶ Watts)
Harnessed its star for energy output and is fully capable of living on any part of its solar system. So we have built a Dyson Sphere around our star, enabling us to harness the 10²⁶ Watts needed to achieve type 2. This is something Elon Musk would love to strive for :). This number is so large… SO MANY LIGHTBULBS…
Type 3: 1… Okay, I’m getting a headache, but you get the idea. (10³⁶ Watts)
A society that has been united galaxywide and can control the output of its entire localized galaxy. YEA, WE’RE TALKING STARWARS!!! So, every star’s energy can be harvested and used accordingly.
How to measure your civilization, according to Carl Sagan…
Carl Sagan’s equation…
An equation made by the lovely astrophysicist gives us the ability to calculate the power level of our society. K is equivalent to the total Kardashev Level, and P is the civilization’s maximum output of energy. For all the math nerds out there, this should be easy enough to use!
The Big Question: What type of civilization are we?
So far, we are still a type that relies on its own planet to produce energy. Our ranking is even more interesting, which is a decimal. Even with powerful tools (Laptop guy) we still aren’t that advanced. We have not even achieved type one yet! More accurately, 0.73, but why is it a decimal and not a whole number?
WHY ARE WE HERE?!?!
Qualities that make us a type one:
We are able to identify ourselves as a single race rather than many, supporting other cultures, ideas, and technologies. We have the ability to communicate with each other globally, bringing single nations closer than ever. We can harness the majority of our planet’s energy.
Qualities that keep us near zero:
Some cultural groups and nations cannot tolerate the rest of the world and will either isolate themselves away from or fight against the rest of it. Distribution of energy and resources is still limited in some areas, making entire nations secluded and starved. We have the power to alter our planet’s chemistry in a negative and irreversible way; Either quickly with the push of a button, or slowly, by drowning in the wastes of our own energy.
How can we get to type 1?
Okay, no matter what, we will get there! Every year, humanity consumes more energy to power its advanced technology, and our tech is advancing pretty quickly! So now, it is only a matter of time…
When?
Many astrophysicists (Michio Kaku) are guessing between 100–200 years at the most. Considering our rapid advancements in technology, this definitely seems doable! But we must also consider how we’re going to get there.
Pollution is an issue:
85% of our energy comes from nonrenewable resources, think about all of that pollution! It’s killing our planet day by day, so we definitely need to figure out how to stop using this stuff quickly!
So we need to come up with something! The question now is… Are there any sources of energy that can beat out carbon-emitting fossil fuels?
(This article is part of a small series on alternative forms of energy, please stay tuned for the continuation of this article!) | https://medium.com/@orion.bob.h/how-to-measure-a-civilization-3ca0fef8d21e | ['Orion Harball'] | 2020-01-12 05:41:49.777000+00:00 | ['Space Exploration', 'Astronomy', 'Space Technology'] |
How to upload data from Excel to Firestore with Python | When you have to enter data into your Firestore database you are stuck with entering every document manually. This short article will show you how to use pandas and the firebase-admin sdk in Python to parse an Excel sheet and send it to your Firestore database.
I assume you already have a Firestore project. Go to your Firebase console and click on the Settings icon next to Project Overview (1.). Now you should open the Project settings menu entry (2.).
Now we have to switch to the Service Accounts tab.
Scroll down and you will see a button which says Generate new private key. Click it and download the generated JSON file.
Rename the downloaded file to something shorter like serviceAccountKey.json. Now, the last thing to do before we can start coding our python script is to create a new folder somewhere on your system and copy the serviceAccountKey.json file into the folder. | https://medium.com/@daniel-mensing16/how-to-upload-data-from-excel-to-firestore-with-python-b921d7e55bbe | ['Daniel M'] | 2020-12-18 12:17:18.602000+00:00 | ['Excel', 'Python', 'Firebase', 'Firestore', 'Pandas'] |
Creating a standing LED light with Home Assistant and NodeMCU — Part 1 | The goal is to create a minimal standing light that we can easily place anywhere. In the end, you will be able to use Home Assistant to control the devices. This is a step by step guide on how to achieve this. For newcomers to Home Assistant and LED lights, this might seem like a daunting task. But do not worry, we’ve all been there and I will do my best to provide detailed instructions so this will be a breeze.
The idea comes from the Philips Hue Signe and MINIMALAMP.
Of course these are way too expensive. So why not do it ourselves for a fraction of the price, with the added benefit of being able to customize it however we like. In the end it cost me about €50 per lamp (not including the hardware for Home Assistant and Zigbee).
What we’ll be making
Requirements
There are a few things we’ll need to create this lamp. Make sure you have downloaded and installed the required software.
Hardware
To control the LEDs we will use a ESP8266 board. This is a cheap WiFi enabled board. You can get one for about €5 on Amazon.com. Next we’ll need the actual LEDs. These are individually addressable LEDs, not regular LED strips. This will cost you about €15/meter, depending on where you buy them and how many LEDs there are per meter. A micro USB power supply is required to power the ESP8266 board (this board also powers the LEDs). The output needs to be 2.4A. Something like this one will do (make sure to buy the correct plug for where you live). You likely already have one at home. If you can solder, great. Otherwise you’ll need a breadboard and some jumper cables (which is what I’ll be using in this guide for demonstration purposes). For the final product I will solder the LEDs to the ESP8266.
Software
Make sure Home Assistant is already working, this guide will not go over how to install Home Assistant. I will only discuss how to get these lights working in Home Assistant. At the time of writing this is supervisor 222 and HassOS 3.13 (production). On the ESP8266 board we will flash WLED by Aircookie, this firmware has everything we need to control the LEDs. I used WLED version 0.10.0, feel free to use a newer release. Download *_ESP8266.bin, so in my case this was WLED_0.10.0_ESP8266.bin. Install NodeMCU PyFlasher on your computer. PyFlasher will be used to flash the required software on the ESP8266 board (available for Mac and Windows). I’m using version 4.0 on a Mac. WLED app on iOS or Android.
Once you have all the hardware and installed the required software, we‘re ready to begin!
Flashing WLED onto the ESP8266 board
Requirements for this step
You have downloaded the WLED bin
You have installed NodeMCU PyFlasher
A Micro USB cable (make sure it can transfer data, and is not just a charging cable)
The ESP8266 board
Let’s start with opening NodeMCU PyFlasher. You will be greeted with this view.
Connect the ESP8266 board to your computer with the Micro USB cable.
Select usbserial as Serial Port and browse to the downloaded bin file. Leave the other settings to their defaults.
Press the Flash NodeMCU button.
Note that I had to disable Bluetooth on my laptop, otherwise Flash NodeMCU would fail. So if you press Flash NodeMCU and it fails, disable bluetooth and hit the scan button on the top right (the two arrows). Now try pressing Flash NodeMCU again.
Logs will start appearing, the flashing is done once you see Firmware successfully flashed.
You can now unplug the board from your computer.
That’s it for this step! The firmware is flashed to the board and ready to use.
Connecting LEDs to the board
Requirements for this step
Breadboard and jumper cables (if you solder, look at how the cables are connected on the breadboard and solder them the same way)
ESP8266 board
LED strip
Let’s have a look at the LED strip first. The colors on the cables may vary, but usually black is Ground and red is 5V. The other color (in my case blue) is the cable that will tell the LEDs what to do. You can see my strip has 2 Ground cables.
Now I’ve placed the ESP8266 board onto the breadboard. Note that I have split the breadboard to easily place the board onto it.
Time to connect the strip and LEDs!
On the chip you will find VIN, G (or GND)and D4. VIN is the power supply, D4 is the pin we will use to send the data.
Connect the cables to the corresponding pins on the breadboard.
Red: VIN (or VU pin, see below if VIN doesn’t work)
Black: G
Blue: D4
And we’re done! That was pretty easy, right?
Plug in the the Micro USB power supply to a wall socket and connect it to your ESP8266 board, it should power on (you will see a small LED light). Your LED lights should turn on now as well.
What if your lights are not turning on?
Your board might not be providing power through the VIN pin. See if you have a VU pin . If so, unplug the Micro USB cable, and connect the red cable to the VU pin. Plug the Micro USB cable back in. Now it should work.
. If so, unplug the Micro USB cable, and connect the red cable to the VU pin. Plug the Micro USB cable back in. Now it should work. Check if your wires are properly plugged in.
Check if the LED on the board is on, if not the power supply is probably faulty or the flashing failed. Try a different power supply and reflashing the board.
What if not all lights are on?
You can set the amount of LEDs to turn on later, we will cover that in the next section.
Setting up WLED
Requirements for this step
ESP8266 board with WLED connected to the LED strip
Micro USB cable with power supply
A phone or laptop with WiFi
The WLED app
Go to your phone/laptop and look for WiFi access points. You will see WLED-AP, connect to it with the password wled1234
Your device will ask you to sign in to the WiFi network. Do so to go to the portal.
Tap on WiFi Settings. A the top, fill in the network name and password of the network you want the device to be connected to.
You can also rename and change the password of the AP the ESP8266 board is broadcasting at the bottom of the page.
Save these settings to connect the ESP8266 to your WiFi. You can now also disconnect from the ESP8266 AP and connect to your regular WiFi.
Just to be sure, you can unplug the ESP8266 from the power supply and plug it back in so it reboots.
Open the WLED app. Tap on the + on the top right, and start discovery. It should find your WLED. (if not, you will have to look up the IP address of the WLED in your router). Go back once it found the WLED.
Tap on WLED with its IP under it, you’re now in the control panel. Awesome, you can now play with the LEDs!
Wait, what if not all of your lights are on?
For me, I have 30 LEDs per meter. If you head over to the segments tab in the detail of a WLED in the app, you will see that you can set the amount if lights.
Calculate how many LEDs you have and set that as the STOP LED value. Click on the checkmark, now all your lights should be on.
Adding WLED to Home Assistant
Requirements for this step
Home Assistant
Go to Home Assistant, it will have probably discovered WLED already.
If not, restart Home Assistant as discovery will run on boot.
Still not found? Click on the + button on the Integrations page (bottom right), search for WLED and select it. Now enter the IP you can see in the WLED app.
Now it should be configured and ready to use.
In Part 2 we will assemble the standing light.
Sources: | https://medium.com/@vixez/creating-a-standing-led-light-with-home-assistant-and-nodemcu-part-1-cca8e24a1441 | ['Glenn Ruysschaert'] | 2020-05-15 08:18:30.861000+00:00 | ['Lighting', 'Home Automation', 'Home Assistant', 'Nodemcu', 'Led'] |
Smoothening noisy GNSS data | Most of us are fairly regular in ordering our favorite food through Zomato or Swiggy. You must have checked the tracking feature present on such apps while waiting for your food to get delivered. The route between the food outlet (source) and your home (destination) that is visible on the app is smooth and clear, and it feels great to watch the rider travel along those paths. A similar feature is present on our Simha app wherein a customer can track the entire activity (traveled path) for the day. Sometimes due to the presence of noisy points captured by the device, the travel path isn’t smooth which affects the user experience. Have a look at the example below.
To address this, we first endeavored to identify the root cause of the issue and find the possible solutions for it. After carefully observing the patterns in the data, it was clear that some environmental conditions are affecting the data captured during trips. It was quite difficult to know when such conditions might occur; the noise was completely random in nature. Therefore, we shifted focus to ways of mitigating the noise in the path. The data collected from the device is time-series data and a better way of dealing with such data is filtering.
Several filters were experimented with to find out the best one that suits our data, and finally, we found it. The Savitzky-Golay filter came to our rescue. Let’s understand this filter. The Wikipedia description for Savitzky–Golay filter is a digital filter that can be applied to a set of digital data points for the purpose of smoothing the data, that is, to increase the precision of the data without distorting the signal tendency. Before diving into it, let’s look at the example below.
The signal above is the sine wave which got distorted due to the presence of some noise. The SG filter in simple terms considers the window of points (w) and fits these points on a polynomial of degree (n) to generate the smooth data. The parameter (w) and the polynomial degree (n) are the hyperparameters and can be tuned as per the data to get the desired output.
Let’s have a look at the python-based implementation of the above example.
# Import Necessary Packages
import numpy as np
import plotly.graph_objects as go
from scipy.signal import savgol_filter # Define Noisy Sinusoidal signal
time = np.arange(0, 10, 0.1);
f = np.sin(time)*10
f1 = [np.random.randn(1)[0]+i for i in f]
# Plot the noisy sinusoidal signal
fig = go.Figure()
fig.add_trace(go.Scatter(x=time, y=f1,
mode='lines',
name='Distorted Sinusoidal Signal',
))
fig.update_layout(title="Distorted Sinusoidal Signal")
fig.update_xaxes(title_text='Time')
fig.update_yaxes(title_text='Amplitude')
fig.show() # Apply the Savitzky- Golay Filter on the noisy data
f2 = savgol_filter(f1, window_length = 17, polyorder = 2)# Compare the smoothen output with the original input
fig = go.Figure()
fig.add_trace(go.Scatter(x=time, y=f1,
mode='lines',
name='Distorted Sinusoidal Signal',
))
fig.add_trace(go.Scatter(x=time, y=f2,
mode='lines',
name='Smoothed signal'))
fig.update_xaxes(title_text='Time')
fig.update_yaxes(title_text='Amplitude')
fig.update_layout(title="Signal")
fig.show()
After applying this filter to the data with a proper set of parameters, the noise from the signal gets completely removed. The plot in red now closely resembles the sine function. We were able to get rid of the noise that was present in the signal. This approach can be extended for the traveled path data to make it smooth.
Let’s see how the travel paths were present before and after the use of this filter. First, we identify the optimal value of window size and degree of the polynomial based on our data. And then use these values in a filter to smoothen our data. This process, obviously, involved several iterations. The results obtained after the usage of filters were quite promising and acceptable. Have a look !!!
Figure 1 Distorted commute
Figure 2 After filtering
Figure 3 Patch plots of the commutes
Figure 4 Patch plots after filtering
After applying this filter, the noise from the traveled path gets satisfactorily removed. We also checked whether this filter affects the smooth travel path which is free from noise. And as expected it didn’t. Clearly, with the usage of this filter, we can definitely observe a boost in the user experience of Simha customers!!!!
References -:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savitzky%E2%80%93Golay_filter
https://aip.scitation.org/doi/pdf/10.1063/1.4822961 | https://medium.com/tech-carnot/smoothening-noisy-gnss-data-b7661170625e | ['Swaraj Patil'] | 2020-11-24 13:30:54.952000+00:00 | ['Noise', 'Geospatial', 'Path', 'Gnss', 'Smoothening'] |
Time Management for working from home and parenting | The last year has truly changed and shifted the way we work, and the way we parent. Many parents are facing working from home and having to school from home as well. This use to be something that only lived in our dreams, and now is a reality that we are quickly realizing this is a much more difficult task than we anticipated.
Time Blocking — and no this is not the old school technique. We are working with raising children and working from home. Taking your Sunday’s and opening your calendar and having time’s blocked for certain activities per day can help you and your child stay on track.
Smaller tasks and more hands on- we are putting too much pressure on ourselves to ensure that our children “stay on task”. But, this is a valuable time to teach them basics skills.
Changing your work hours- I have been a successful realtor since my son was born. If you time block your day you can designate times for your work, your kids school, and activities.
Daily outdoor activities. We are so thankful to live in a small town, but getting your child out and about is vital. They are so use to being active and playing,keeping the blood flowing is important. Now that the weather has cooled, our walks have became shorter, but we now are looking into outdoor explorations and learning about winter and the importance of it to the spring and summer growing seasons.
Doing the dishes, how to sweep and mop, cooking activities, organizing, coloring, crafts.
Meditation/Yoga- Youtube has some great kid yoga/mediation sites as well as the Calm app. We have become closer by doing these things together.
The most important thing about these times are to be kind to yourself and not focus on setting too high of expectations. Here is a daily example of my son’s and I’s day
7–8 a.m Waking up and getting ready for the day
9–10 a.m I work on my computer and he works on his school work. If he needs more help I will move my computer working back one hour.
10 a.m- 11:00 Active adventuring inside/outside movement. If the weather is crummy we will fill through youtube and find something to do inside. Most often, we are outside.
12–1:30 free time and lunch
1:30–3:30 back to work and school (if schooling is done) private play. This can be coloring, painting, lego building etc. so that is quiet enough to work.
Afternoon- cooking dinner or basic life skills.
Each day can be customized but I have found writing my days out in a paper calendar can truly help tremendously on keeping us focused and our days planned out in a peaceful, fun, and adventurous way! | https://medium.com/@ashleykblackmore/time-management-for-working-from-home-and-parenting-c8c313fd304c | ['Ashley Blackmore'] | 2020-12-26 20:42:39.668000+00:00 | ['Parenting', 'Working From Home', 'Home Schooling', 'Coronavirus', 'Time Management'] |
In the Beginning | I’m tired of being the string to your balloon.
My first experience witnessing a “no woman” attempt to avoid her fate was while working at a brewery. Linda— the director of hospitality, a mentor and my boss’ boss — attempted to translate every last minute, zany fantasies of the male founder back into reality. She pulled permits at a moment’s notice, hired for roles invented over night and razed her own prep back to the ground when it was rendered useless by a dramatic pivot.
As Ann Friedman writes, no one likes being the ‘no woman’ because “[you’re] perceived to be rather cold and rules-oriented, when in fact you are expending a ton of creative and emotional effort for far less professional glory.” Eventually her endless hoop-jumping turned to belabored rants, delivered behind the thin office door (us “no woman” always meets a singular fate in burnout). In no time at all, the C-level dynamic trickled down to the hourly employees. Company-wide she was marked as a zero-fun naysayer, something I knew to be professionally and personally very untrue.
Years later, I found myself in a job in hardware authoring the reports that explained how we, a contract manufacturer, had faltered in our assembly of customer circuit boards. Despite the clarity of my role, my performance reviews coached me on the difference between the medium and the message. “It’s not what you’re saying, it’s how you’re saying it” a female boss once said in visible pain over the irony.
As a student of communications and rhetoric the dual meaning was abundantly clear, “please be more tactful, its a real bummer for those of us that would like to stay in the fantastical space of our unlived dreams.” It was a hurtful thing to be perceived as a pessimist, a personality trait that couldn’t be further from the truth, when I thought I was just doing my job.
So why, when I found myself at the coveted conference room table, did I embrace my role as the one that says, “sorry but did you consider this” even after watching Linda scapegoated?
“Pain points” are something we speak of as opportunities to resolve a problem, and possibly even gain mileage as a result of our hard-won efforts. When given data-driven feedback on our failures, in my blinding, unflinching optimism, I believe we have a chance to do better.
In this space, I hope to expand and reflect on some issues I’ve encountered in the various industries I’ve worked in, learn how brilliant, creative people are potentially solving them and collaborate with friends along the way.
So, let’s do better together. What do you say? | https://medium.com/@sroseoxborough/pain-points-c6a7fb18da9c | ['Pain Points'] | 2020-12-19 05:14:27.738000+00:00 | ['Project Management', 'Pain Points', 'Hardware', 'Women In Tech'] |
#2 Flutter & Firebase Tutorial: Implementasi Firebase Dynamic Link pada Flutter | firebase_dynamic_links | Flutter Package
A Flutter plugin to use the Google Dynamic Links for Firebase API. With Dynamic Links, your users get the best… | https://medium.com/@galangaji/2-flutter-firebase-tutorial-implementasi-firebase-dynamic-link-pada-flutter-6f478510a918 | ['Galang Aji Susanto'] | 2020-12-07 15:47:04.539000+00:00 | ['Android App Development', 'Flutter', 'Mobile Programming', 'Firebase', 'Dynamic Link'] |
Level Up Your SQL Skills | Level Up Your SQL Skills
Image from Caspar Camille Rubin on Unsplash.
According to JetBrains’ 2020 Developer Ecosystem Survey, 56% of developers utilize or interact with a SQL database in their development environment. Even so, most developers view SQL concepts as a secondary concern, as they are often interacting via their chosen language and do not play much of a part in the design. Generally speaking, being able to connect and run basic queries will get you through the day.
At many companies, there is even a separate database team that will be handling the database design and optimization, so you will never get first-hand exposure. I think this is often the deterrent to learning more about SQL. It’s viewed as a utility that is often handled by others. Software developers have enough on their plate, right? Fair enough.
However, in our industry, having full-stack skills is always a good idea. You never know what will be thrown at you. We interact with SQL daily, so more knowledge will always come in handy. Additionally, if you end up at a smaller company that does not have the resources for a full database team, more of those responsibilities will fall on you. Being able to state that you are confident in your database skills during an interview will open up many interesting career paths.
I personally enjoy SQL development more than most. I interned early in my career with a team of outstanding database administrators and quickly fell in love. I had taken my database courses in school, so I had some basic knowledge, but what I learned during that internship has been invaluable to me. Not only did it teach me that I have a secret passion for data, but the technical understanding I gained has been a boon in every job I’ve gotten going forward.
http://ajax.actiup.com/out/Video-Columbus-Crew-Seattle-Sounders-v-en-gb-1umt-2.php
http://ajax.actiup.com/out/video-Columbus-Crew-Seattle-Sounders-v-en-gb-1nrc-14.php
Note: I have experience with Microsoft SQL Server, so that is what I will reference throughout. However, these concepts absolutely apply to other SQL DBMS options.
Normalization
If you’ve taken a course on relational databases in school, you have surely encountered the term normalization. It’s the core concept of database design. However, as a developer, here’s why you should care: It will make your life easier.
The big idea behind database normalization is to reduce data redundancy and make sure that data is stored in a clean, logical manner. The level to which a database is normalized is based on which “normal form” it achieves. To date, there are debatably up to six normal forms, but in reality, all you need to understand are the first three.
Here are the big rules in simple terms:
First Normal Form (1NF) states that a single field should store a single data point and that all rows should be unique. Don’t store a list of things in a field. Those should be individual records.
Second Normal Form (2NF) states that each table should have a single primary key column. Create unique IDs. Instead of using name and address as a compound key, just give the user a unique ID number or GUID.
Third Normal Form (3NF) states that no functional transitive dependencies are allowed. This one might be the most complicated, but essentially it means that if you have a field that is dependent on another field, it should be broken out to another table. This allows the foreign key to change — not the actual value.
The important point here is that your data should be atomic, so large tables with repeated data should be broken out into smaller tables with easily searchable keys. This makes filtering more efficient and querying more straightforward. It literally makes your job is easier!
Database Objects
If you are in a more full-stack role or with a company that doesn’t have a database team, you will likely be responsible for database development. In this case, you should have a good idea of which kinds of database objects to use in different scenarios.
In short, database objects are anything you can generate with a create script that stores or accesses data. The most obvious example is a table, which is the building block of the database. These are clearly going to be the go-to for data storage.
However, there are other kinds of objects that access and transform that data in different ways. Using the best object for the job is important. Here are the basic rules that I use when deciding which to use for a use case:
Note: Indexes are technically database objects since they affect how data is stored and accessed.
Stored procedure: This is the go-to for processing or transforming data. Stored procedures can be created and then run on a schedule if you need to make updates at certain times of the day or on a certain cadence.
View: A view is essentially a stored query and it allows you to select from a dynamic set of data. I have often replaced cached tables with views if the data needs to be fresh and possibly transformed in some way. No changes are actually being stored, but you can include calculated fields, which make views a great option when you need dynamic, up-to-date data.
With an understanding of tables, views, and stored procedures, you will likely be able to handle most database development tasks thrown your way.
Image from Benjamin Lehman on Unsplash
Indexing
The first major indexing concept you need to understand is the difference between a clustered and non-clustered index.
Clustered index: Stores all of the data in the table based on your index. There can only be one clustered index, and by default, your primary key is clustered.
Non-clustered index: Stores the indexed field separately from the table. This indexed field points to the data stored in the table, just like the index of a book. You can have as many non-clustered indexes as you want!
Note: The trade-off for more efficient queries is increased storage. Non-clustered indexes require their own storage since they are kept separate from the table data. Only index the fields that you need to filter or join on in order to find the best balance between storage and performance.
Indexing is the #1 way to optimize database performance. Indexing affects the way that data is stored in pages. By default, records are not stored in any guaranteed order, so essentially indexing a field causes the data to be stored in a predictable manner. Therefore, when you filter on that field, the query will run faster because SQL Server knows exactly where to start looking.
There are many indexes that you can set on a field for specific purposes, but if you are attempting to improve performance, you will generally be creating a generic non-clustered index.
Pro tip: If you are creating indexes, you have to maintain them. Inserts, updates, and deletes cause fragmentation of your indexes. Therefore, unless your data is completely stagnant, you will need to rebuild your indexes based on how often the data is changing. Ideally, you should do this with a scheduled stored procedure so that performance is maintained consistently.
The SQL statement to create an index is pretty straightforward. The following statement will create a non-clustered index with the name idx_orderdate on the given field of the Orders table:
CREATE INDEX idx_orderdate ON Orders (OrderDate);
Reading a Query Plan
If you are interested in understanding database performance on a deeper level, being able to read a query execution plan is a useful skill. When you run a query, SQL Server is processing it based on an execution plan. You can generate the plan upon running your query or view a cached plan if your query has been running. This allows you to see how much time is being spent on each step in the query.
There is plenty of nuance that an experienced SQL wizard can pull from a query plan. However, for the standard developer, what you need to know is the difference between a seek and a scan.
Scan: This can be an index scan or table scan, but either way, SQL Server is having to scan the entire table or index for the data.
Seek: In the case of an index seek, SQL Server is able to identify the data you are querying for based on the given index.
As a rule, seeks are more efficient. Typically, if you are looking to optimize a query, you should identify where scans are happening in your query and fix them. The easiest way to fix them is to make sure you’re joining on indexed fields.
Pro tip: SQL Server will let you know if you are missing an index that it could be using in your query. The suggestion will appear at the top of the query plan. If you right-click on the query plan where an index is suggested and select “Missing Index Details,” it will even generate the index creation script for you!
Congratulations!
You have now leveled up your SQL skills! Using these concepts, you can now optimize your database and query more efficiently. Whether you are querying from an application or building out your own stored procedures and views, these tips will make your job easier!
Good luck out there! | https://medium.com/@8jerr/level-up-your-sql-skills-e2f8f40148e8 | [] | 2020-12-13 02:02:09.064000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'MySQL', 'Database', 'Sql', 'Software Development'] |
Barrett Brown on Pursuance | Process democracy, pretty colors
Transcript of Gregg Housh Show, November 2020
Video: https://youtu.be/vSJilxRUxzo
GH: All right everyone. We are live and there is Barrett popping in
BB: Here I am popping in
GH: Look at that. Look at Barrett over there in England now, jolly old England
BB: Merry old England.
GH: All right, so let’s just jump right into things. You’re no longer here in America. It is late as hell over there isn’t it?
BB: I’ve been planning my departure for a couple years [00:01:09] and just to add insult to injury I announced my impending departure first on Russia Today a couple of years ago after the Federales re-arrested me for giving interviews to Vice and PBS when I was entirely legally allowed to do that.
And so, I left for Antigua about a month and a half ago, and I left from Antigua about a week ago, I set sail as it were, on a plane, to England and arrived here safely and now I’m an Englishman. So there you have it.
GH: So [00:01:39] we’ve got enough time here go back a little closer to the beginning of all this. There are a few people who know some of our background and most people don’t out there, and I’m sure some of the viewers will too, but I always find it interesting to kind of start out this way.
So, when I first learned of you, it was an article you had written in the Huffington Post and it was an article where you so strangely [00:02:09] said that some of the tactics that me my friends were putting together there over at Anonymous, were going to be used to take down nation-states in the future.
Whether it was us or some other entity using the strategies, and I of course, initially thought you were insane, and then I reached out to you anyways, because I loved the idea, and I sent you an email from one of our more official-looking [00:02:39] email addresses, even though of course, nothing is official, but it was Anonymous at why we protest dot net Just to kind of make the point of ‘it’s one of us’.
You responded and after a few days we got to talking and I think it was a week or so later that I invited you into some of the chats and that’s kind of how you met up with a lot of the people on our side of things, but it wasn’t that long later that we were kind of working in Op Tunisia and Op Egypt [00:03:09] actually doing what your article said. Until those Tunisians showed up in chat, I thought you were insane on that one point.
BB: Well, I might have been. I mean a stopped clock is right twice a day and if you’re a crazy clock that just hits all kinds of numbers throughout the week, you’re going to be right about a couple of things and then only those things would be remembered.
So, it’s just like cold reading. But [00:03:40] just like our opposite numbers in the military and intelligence communities of the world we, you and I, well you first, were cognizant of what the power was that existed in these new forms of collaboration and so forth. We saw they were weapons.
You guys took the lead in turning what was not yet a fully realized weapon into a weapon to an extent that the next 13 years to follow since the activist [00:04:10] portion of anonymous began, was responded to in very significant ways that I will always treasure as recognition from the GCHQ and NSA and CIA, the FBI and DOJ and Palantir and HBgary and so forth, recognition that I was right.
We were weaponized, that we did have a grasp on something that could and would inevitably be used to confront nation states and institutions that are corrupt [00:04:40] through and through on their own turf and win. And push back.
GH: You know, it definitely started on that side of things with the protest and activism stuff. But we built on top of an existing foundation that you were already aware of at that point. You just weren’t heavily involved. You weren’t sitting on the chans like some of us all day. You came around though.
BB: I dipped in here and there, and I was there for some of the Hal Turner stuff. I was [00:05:10] late to the Habbo Hotel raids, but I did get in toward the end.
GH: Those early anons really built a lot of mystique, a lot of ominous nature that we could build on top of when we went and did chanology and all of the other protest actions later on. So, shout out to everyone who put in all that effort before.
So, there we are, we’ve done operation Tunisia, Egypt, we’ve all backed out at that point because Libya’s going to hell, Syria is [00:05:40] starting and I know I ran for the hills.
You were still on some of the IRC’s for a few minutes longer than me, but I don’t think much longer because they were asking for weapons and shit and we wanted out. I did at least.
So at that point you start talking initially about some of your ideas towards taking these things that we’ve done, the tools that we’re using because at this point it’s on 50 different networks, you know, it’s these IRC servers, it’s these websites, it’s this Google [00:06:10] doc or this pad and every time someone started up a new operation, they would need to figure out 50 different tools and find them and be taught, you know, here’s where we did and you decided that was a mess.
A few of the others of us had been thinking about it and you started thinking about what it would look like to make a platform and it took a little while before like Pursuance became a real actual mission if you will with a name and everything else, but that’s what you’ve been putting a lot of [00:06:40] effort into recently or for the last few years?
BB: There’s two different threads here, one is that Anonymous thread and in terms of some of what you’re talking about, in terms of making available in one package all the tools and the concepts and all that, I can’t come anywhere close to taking credit for that. There were people pushing for that and not just pushing for that but doing it before that was my emphasis.
What I was doing prior to that though before you pulled me into the anonymous servers when op Tunisia began in very late December [00:07:10] 2010, was pursuing something alongside Michael Hastings and a bunch of very strait-laced individuals. My second-in-command for Project PM before it became what is known for, was a retired IRS attorney, to give you a sense of how mainstream I was back then.
Our emphasis had been to build these structures, and this was before I had the knowledge and the experience which has been [00:07:41] gained with difficulty over the last 10 years. How organizations work, how activists work, how movements work, how structures work, how institutions work, and what the weak points of all these things are. That was the hard-won experience that I got, starting really with Anonymous.
My prior experience had been too well organized to really learn anything from and so Project PM00:08:11] started out doing what Pursuance is now doing. It ended up becoming known for being a crowdsourced collaborative investigation into the intelligence contracting industry and a number of the intelligence agencies, our opposite numbers and their programs.
That was so successful that the FBI came and shut it down and served a search warrant listing that website and so forth and then blah blah and so we got so bogged down with Tunisia and Bahrain and [00:08:41] Egypt and so forth and then HBGary and the DOJ, and then going to prison and getting out of prison and I had set aside my ultimate goal, which was to build this platform.
I didn’t know what it was exactly back then. I had a basic premise which has been vastly improved upon as I have gotten input from people who unlike me, have a real basis in the scholarship of information theory, and some things I don’t even know the names of, and so what we have now with Pursuance, which was formally created[00:09:11] as a non-profit a few months after I got out of prison in late 2016, is this platform, this framework that is intended to be a universal solution, a very open source entirely ground up, truly democratic yet versatile solution to every problem of collaboration that we approach. It is a universal [00:09:41] thing that can be used to run a lemonade stand or whatever.
It is intended more specifically and one of the problems here is that, and we won’t go into the mechanics of it here, for those who aren’t familiar with it, I would advise reading a great Observer article. It has an embed of the presentation I gave and has a great description in the article by[00:10:11] the author there, of what some of the use cases of this are, how this would operate, what it is, which I’ve certainly done a very poor job of explaining.
That’s why we have people to help me explain these things. So we’ll skip the mechanics and we’ll just leave it at this, it is a framework that is intended to move the ball forward in ways that I think compared to 10 years ago, will ultimately reach the hype that we were getting from Michael [00:10:41] Hayden and so forth at the NSA back when he was giving speeches about how Anonymous was going to start taking over this, knocking down that, and in terms of information operations it’s entirely legal, entirely dutiful and necessary civic functions. Pursuance will allow these things to happen in a way that this time unlike Anonymous or occupy or anything else, will be vastly formidable to an extent that will prove itself when it comes into fruition.
GH: [00:11:12] So, you know as a lot of people who watch this, especially on YouTube later are going to wonder what this is all about, we’re talking about platforms, we’re talking about our old tactics and what it comes down to is this idea that there are certain ways you organize online.
There are certain ways you build an operation that’s going to be successful. There are even more confined ways in which you gather data safely from people and [00:11:42] use sources and all the other fun things that are needed all the way including from original idea to planning real life events. There are 50 steps in there and until even recently that’s been a hundred different tools you’ve got to learn to use, it’s been putting all your events on Facebook which you know, that’s fun. That’s where I want all my data.
It’s all of this work and all of these different things that you have to train new activists on when you could just [00:12:12] take all of this distilled knowledge from all of these people who have already done all of this work and turn it into a set of tools that guides you through doing these things and as I understand it that’s what you’re building?
BB: The best way to describe it I think, to the extent we don’t have visual aids, is to compare Anonymous or occupy or the civil rights movement or the anti-war movement or a hundred other things to a jellyfish.
A non-institutional movement is a jellyfish [00:12:42] in so much that it is soft, its agile, it can extend its little appendages, that’s not how jellyfish work, but let’s pretend jellyfish work like that, it can move quickly and change shape and so forth and that is a great strength, a jellyfish is also quite vulnerable. It has very little protecting itself from the say the sharks which we’re going to pretend to eat jellyfish. I’m assuming they don’t in real life and that’s a shame, but jellyfish have this great potential. People aren’t expecting jellyfish.
Which again, the [00:13:12] US military, we did see papers from 2009 in which one of the five big threats to whatever we represent to the US military was going to be these versatile, non-nation-state, non-institutional, pseudo structures. And so, if you take that jellyfish and you give it not a skeleton to make an institution or to make it a hardened and set-in stone thing that can no longer evolve but give it an exoskeleton that can grow along with it. Again. We’re pretending [00:13:42] exoskeletons do that, I don’t think they do, but something that can protect it, can keep its shape, can give it a consistent and understandable, fair and democratic ongoing shape procedurally in a way that I will describe in a bit.
Then you have something very, very potent. You have something that has not been seen before in any real form, but you’ve seen pieces of it here and there and [00:14:13] you populate that using a procedure whereby not everyone is welcome.
Fascists aren’t welcome, people who support the national security state are not welcome, people who oppose democracy and open society are not welcome and you define that. You don’t actually enforce that, you don’t have someone sitting there determining that, you just tell people, ‘Hey, here’s what we’re about and you if you are coming in with these views, you will probably not find anyone seeking to help you. In fact, you won’t, so stay out.’
You won’t [00:14:43] deter everyone who shouldn’t be in there. You won’t deter all police informants, you won’t deter all corporate intelligence operatives, but between that element, and this element of setting in stone and here is what it has been founded to be, here is the ethos around it. You do help to settle a lot of [00:15:13] unnecessary disputes in advance, especially if you have an anonymous or an Occupy Wall Street or anything else where there’s no charter and anyone is free to interpret its charter or lack thereof in any way they want.
You are freer from the splitting from the unfortunate associations one ends up having to deal with as one becomes a successful activist. You are freer from all these things that turn out to be in my opinion, or in [00:15:43] my estimation over the years, much more deleterious than anything the FBI can do.
So again, this is all very abstract, it’s very hard to sort of prove this, or to really give a good sense of how I can sit here and say this is better than this, or better than that, without visual aids, but those are available, just Google Pursuance and Barrett Brown and so forth.
It’s so important for us to address after all these struggles some of which [00:16:13] have been successful and then maybe robbed of their effects by bad actors, some were not successful, both of which we can learn from. We can take all of that and expect to have all of the good parts of this, the advantageous and necessary parts of civic collaboration using the internet, we can expect to have this kind of take off in a way that can grow exponentially, defend itself from attackers, and improve itself and maintain the ethical [00:16:43] and moral underpinnings that movements always start with before quickly losing them.
These are broad claims, I’ve made them before with more specifics. It would help I guess if everyone just assumes that everything I just said is correct, for the record that’ll make everything go easier.
GH: Of course, always does always does. So here we are. A platform is coming, the general idea of the platform is that activists will be able to honestly do activism better. But one of the things [00:17:13] that I think could come from a platform like this if implemented, would be the ability for activists who are looking into starting something, whatever their activism is, I don’t care if you plan on overthrowing the government of Eritrea, or you’re just trying to get rid of your local mayor. I don’t care what level it’s at.
BB: Both of those are fine ideas actually.
GH: Exactly. I’m just saying like, you know, there’s a ton of countries that need it but at some point you have to find comrades, you have to find people who [00:17:43] want to help and I would think platforms like this, you know, if I’m talking a perfect world, I’m going to be able to set up an operation and people on the platform are going to be able to see it or there’s going to be way for me to invite people beyond just my friends, but other people who have successfully run ops on this platform before, like is that is that a big piece of this?
BB: Yeah, it is, it is. That is one of the main pieces really. This is what this comes down to is having a pool, having a [00:18:14] framework, a medium, a shared space online, that’s accessed by an app that will be you know, used on cell phones, including ones of lower quality around the world so no one is kept out of this due to financial background.
Having that and having a protocol whereby you can expect the people that you are dealing with, the pool of people on here, you still have to use your own judgment as always as you always do, but you can have a good [00:18:44] sense, a strong sense, that the population you’re dealing with is on the whole more along the lines of your own sort of support of the open society than you would find in, say in nations like the United States, which I recall elected Trump to office four years ago and just barely got rid of him or is in the process of perhaps getting rid of him depending on what happens in the next two months.
So that’s a big thing, you know arbitration, being able [00:19:14] to have a free collaborative system or freedom of association that drives things and is a fundamental sort of right.
That is an important aspect of all this. It is the aspect that when not properly done as it, you know, never can be in a charter less system or a movement. No one’s in charge. In the absence of that it causes a massive amount of failed opportunities and threats and dangers and [00:19:44] so forth.
Being able to approach that problem and reduce it, alleviate it, not solve it, but alleviate it via ways that everyone can understand, that is a huge deal. It’s been a bigger thing to me and I’m sure to you, the more time I spend dealing with other people.
It’s one thing to sit and plan and think this is the way things would be but dealing with the other people who for whatever reason are involved in activism in your sphere, you know, there was a French philosopher once said, ‘hell is other people’ and that may be true. [00:20:14] But of course other people are also a necessity in collaboration and so to diminish the frictions and diminish the miscommunication, diminish the disputes over rights in which both sides have a point, and nothing can be solved in that sense, to diminish that would be a massive, and to me a more important goal.
So, if that was all Pursuance came to do it would be worth doing from my standpoint. It does aim to do quite a few other things which will overlap with this same sort of impulse, but that’s a good way of describing it[00:20:44] and as you said being able to find others, being able to evaluate others according to shared consensual methodology, being able to find other projects that you might want to participate in, or learn about, or learn from, or adapt, and to be able to articulate them and to build them and evolve them with others in structured ways that are not institutional but are processional, that is vastly important.
It is the most important thing we could be doing because that is how [00:21:14] we form ourselves into something that is up to the task of fighting a vast apparatus around the world, a very segmented, you know fragmented apparatus of kleptocracy and corruption and nationalism and so forth.
We have to have the best possible procedures. We can’t just win this thing on the strength of our ideals or the intensity of our feeling. Twitter will not suffice. The streets will not suffice. Nothing [00:21:44] in itself can suffice at this point and our opponents do not use any one venue, they use every single one. They engage in full spectrum warfare. We must do the same, and we must do it better than DARPA. That’s a tall order.
GH: With a lot less funding.
BB: With none. There are advantages that we have being open society people, transparency people, who police our own and try to maintain ethics, and [00:22:14] who do not believe in obscurantism because there’s very little that could be revealed about us nor should there be as in, you and I both have been hit by the feds, you’ve been sued by Scientology and so forth, and in that process, they go through everything you have.
They go through communications and so forth. In my case they went through all my Gmail accounts of eight years, my other mail accounts, you know all my IRC chats, with the intention of not just imprisoning me, but discrediting me. [00:22:44]
I’m proud to say that as a transparency activist, they were not quite able to meet that hurdle even with the advantage of having intelligence and FBI and DOJ with a couple years head start going through discovery files of my entire communications that I never had access to during this whole trial, and so that should be, I’m saying this probably to toot my own horn and to remind everyone that I should be trusted at the very least.
Not my judgment necessarily, but my character, and my intent should be trusted. My judgment, [00:23:14] you know, if my judgment were perfect, we wouldn’t need decentralized process democracy. We would just need me running secret cells of things. And that’s a lot of pressure to put on someone anyway.
So, what I’m saying is that we have advantages to the extent that nothing can be leaked about us as such, ideally. Nothing can be exposed about us. We never have to like to have a meeting saying oh no, they’re going to find out this this and this. That puts us very much the opposite spectrum of everything we’re against and so there are advantages to a free society kind of setup, people who [00:23:44] advocate for free society so long as they are willing and able that’s the key word, we’ve not been able, to police our own movement and ensure that it pursues exactly what it stands for publicly and that those two things are the same.
With a black box operation like Wikileaks or Project PM when I ran it, where essentially everyone had to trust, you know me, or Assange or any other you can think of, you never have that guarantee do you? You always have [00:24:14] someone which pressure can be put upon. That was the whole point of giving me a hundred years’ worth of charges to have to fend off, charging my mother was to get me to, you know somehow, actually I don’t even know what they wanted from me in this case because they pretty much had everybody by that point but, you know, that should never be the case.
There should never be a single person who is the leader that they go after, or a leader or whatever. There should be influencers. There should be people with ideas, but they should be in the business of influencing and having ideas, and there should be a place [00:24:44] for those ideas and that influence in all these little bits and pieces of a movements to be presented safely and securely and openly to people who voluntarily would like to take those ideas and run with them.
Pursuance is intended to do that. It is intended to give everyone regardless of if they have the charisma or the adventurism or if they just have the sheer innate criminal tendencies like you and I were born with because of who our parents were.
GH: Indeed
BB: [00:25:14] Everyone should have, not just for their sake, but for the sake of the movement, the ability to efficiently bring that to the table, whatever they have, the work ethic, the idea, a slogan, the ability to draw, the ability to put out things, the ability to understand the press, to write, to march. Everyone should be able to come to a shared space and sort out amongst themselves using the best tools possible how these things best add up and that’s what Pursuance is intended to do.
GH: So, you brought up the idea of [00:25:44] no leaders right there, people bringing ideas to the table, people bringing their thoughts, their missions, their ops to the table and hopefully others would join them, and that’s very much how we expected Anonymous to run, and how it did for a very long time and to a lesser extent how it still kind of does.
One of the things that we would always describe when asked, ‘well how does that actually work’, was very simple, you know, once you know it but very hard when you’re standing on [00:26:14] the outside looking in.
That’s this idea that just because you had the idea you’re not in charge, just because you started this off, you control nothing, you are in charge only in so much as you are here to transfer the knowledge of why you did this, who you’re doing it against, and how you want it done, in hopes that people will join you, but in the old Anonymous ways at any point the person who started it up could be run out of the op, in the old school [00:26:44] Anonymous is Anonymous’ worst enemy kind of a way.
So, with Pursuance when someone starts an operation and they kind of kick things into gear, is it possible to just ignore them at that point and move forward with other people. Do they have total control over it? Are you working on that?
BB: So, the answer to that is, and the answer to most questions along these lines is going to be, that it varies entirely on the nature of the Pursuance. So, anybody in the [00:27:14] pool of the Pursuance, of the process democracy mechanism, process democracy being the overall framework theory here, the practise, and Pursuance being the one iteration we’re building and then curating. Anyone in there can either create a Pursuance or ask to join one.
Creating a Pursuance starts out always in the exact same way and then it gets different immediately, but at the first step is always that person who creates an [00:27:44] operating Charter somewhere between DNA and you know the very beginning of an organizational charter and that person at that point has entire control over everything.
Now that person presumably wants to have other people involved. So that person has a number of methods they can proceed with by which to delineate how that happens. They could immediately create several spokes. If we visualize this in which and allow anyone [00:28:14] to come and occupy these positions and set it so that those people will be entirely equal to them or superior to them depending how the voting goes. So, when you create a Pursuance, it is a dictatorship originally just like it is when you write something on a notepad. No one has access to that until you give it to them.
GH: Or when you create a Facebook group before you add another admin, which is pretty much exactly same.
BB: The exact same thing. So that person can make an entirely Democratic one. There’s a number of ways they can do that. Just saying Democratic [00:28:44] doesn’t really give us the full spectrum of options here, one can have it so that you know, there’s seven people and they all have to have a unified vote to do any major thing or anything at all, they could do it so that anyone can fill those positions, or the positions are temporary and then they are refilled by somebody else a week later or a month later so forth, they can set it up so that so that has to be majority vote, they can set it up so that this person who created it and then two others who have to sign off on everything that person does from here on immediately and then they can [00:29:14] proceed from there, and every iteration of that.
A person can also create something that is entirely a dictatorship and people can join knowing it’s a dictatorship and to the extent people are willing to operate along those lines and some people are, in some cases, it is desirable. We don’t call it a dictatorship in that case, we call it other things, but to the extend people want to participate in that they can do that, and to the extent that they don’t, well, the person who created that is out of luck.
Now in terms of kicking someone out, probably the most [00:29:44] common alternative in Pursuance will be rather than kicking someone out of the project will be replicating the project which is one of the big features of Pursuance. Is that you build these structures, there’s a template for setting up a march somewhere or investigating a corrupt bank or something, and any person can see that and see the structure of it depending on how the system is set up in some cases they’ll be opaque and that’s something we can get into another time but suffice to say for the most part these Pursuance’s will not be high security, [00:30:14] they won’t need to be.
The average Civic business does not need to be kept secret from Bank of America’s little corporate spies, but you can if you need to, and many will.
Anyway, someone can take a copy of that structure and set it up themselves and then run it themselves and then tweak it, change it to be different so you can have different leadership with the same structure if people think that structure is great but it’s just a leadership [00:30:44] issue, they just don’t want to deal with that one person or they can take it and tweak it to make it, you know, preferable in structural ways.
That’s a big feature of this because it means a number of things. It means that people who come into Pursuance, they don’t have to sit around figuring out what Pursuance’s are and how you design a Pursuance, and what’s the best way to do that?
They just look in the data library of Pursuance’s that have existed and have been uploaded, and there will be templates and notes, saying this template or this structure we have found was good in this [00:31:14] instance for organizing a mail in campaign to a congressman here and there and also dealing with the press on it, take that as a template copy, make it your own, put in the pursuance deal, tweak it as you need be and then that evolved version, if it is an evolved version, and if the iteration you’ve evolved from the original deal seems to be better you can notate that about it. So, it’s constantly evolving.
You have constantly evolving, individual, discrete entities and templates. That’s one of the ways in which it evolves.
The other ones being [00:31:44] as more people come in, as people better associate with each other, learn who can do what, build trust relationships etcetera, so, there’re several means of evolution any one of which I think would be pretty awesome. They’re combined in a way that kind of overlaps and just solves a lot of the problems that people are going to anticipate when they think about Pursuance.
At this point I should note, and I know I’m rambling here but
GH: I love it.
BB: We spent a lot of time [00:32:14] asking and introducing some makeshift user testing and talking to a lot of NGOs, non-profits and small activist groups and reformers around the world, including west Africa and the Arab world, we asked: what is it you want? What do you have right now? What are problems you’re facing and besides the problems you identified do you think this is a problem that you may not have thought about?
We’ve done a lot of question-answering and so at this point, I’m very confident as I am at all things, that we are able to, [00:32:45] any objection any concern, any sort of reason why someone might not be on board for this even if they are interested in getting involved in civics we’re generally able to explain in our favor and that’s because we’ve done a lot of thinking and work on this, including my four years in prison, which I had plenty of time to think and work on it. I’ve had regular input from a lot of great outfits that have been around for much longer than us.
I always hasten to add that, because any thinking person who’s really interested in this [00:33:15] is going to have objections, are going to have concerns, and I just want to make sure that they’re aware that to the extent that they have one, it may be addressed online already. And if you can’t find it, I’m always available to expound on how great it is.
GH: You know relying on the knowledge of the people who came before has been something that we’ve always done, all the way back to like the beginnings of chanology, when we had the first two videos out, [00:33:45] you know related to that, the message to Scientology in the Call to Arms.
We were telling people to go out in the streets who had never really been the activist types and we talked to old school protesters to get an idea of what we might be facing with this type of a hostile enemy and they gave us a list of things, and we turned that into the third video called the Code of Conduct and so that was really important, you know dealing with the old schoolers [00:34:15] who already had a lot of this knowledge, So I’m glad to hear that’s going on.
BB: Exactly and that right there is a great example, I’m glad you reminded me, because it’s a great example of one of those many things that one doesn’t necessarily think of, is the hurdles of everyday activism when just thinking about like, you know, what does activism what does it entail blah blah in that case it was an environmental organization I won’t name just in case, I don’t know, that that approached you guys early on to find you guys, to find the command centre as it were of [00:34:45] of the chanology campaign.
They had to go through a few steps to figure things out. It wasn’t that hard I imagine. So ideally, you know, those kinds of extra efforts, on the path, that’s someone who wants to help.
Those should be facilitated, those should be easier smoother and to the extent we deal with those seemingly mundane, sometimes hard to think of little problems to the extent We create a mechanism by which people can solve not just those [00:35:15] that we can anticipate, or know of, but those in the future to the extent they have the tinker toys as it were to build and to establish and to grow and to recruit and where those recruited can know going in what they’re involved in and have certain rights that are delineated in all respects.
We get around a lot of those things, again not just the anticipated problems, not just the problems that you and I whine about all the time, me especially, but the problems that will come forward next as these things continue to evolve on both sides. [00:35:46] I’m kind of saying the same thing over and over again as I often do in Pursuance.
It’s just different ways of saying the same deals that were trying to facilitate, we’re trying to create something set in motion something that can be a unified in a way like a meta superorganism but not in a way where any one person is directing it and not where any one person can compromise it, or any one person can turn into a cult of personality. Even me.
GH: So, what’s the basic [00:36:16] timeline here? I mean, we’ve been just to say it bluntly waiting a while for something to do with the Pursuance and the last thing I got to see was just an install of Mattermost. So tell me where we are.
BB: Right. So, the last time I spoke publicly about Pursuance was in January of this year. It was an article I wrote in Counterpunch where I used to write a column, in which I sort of went over a recent Der Spiegel article as well as a not so recent NPR piece that [00:36:46] had come out, both of which were about me and Pursuance, and both of which were to me very chilling, seeing what I’ve seen.
To better convey this, before we did our Kickstarter in late 2018, you know in the run-up to that as you know, as I, you know was dealing with the DOJ and dealing with them going after my publisher, going after my editors and employers [00:37:16] subpoenaing people, seizing my money and so forth while we were navigating all this and still chugging along bringing on a board of directors establishing a non-profit doing all these things.
We were also, of course trying to explain to the public what it was we were about to build, what it was, why it mattered, why it was worth paying close attention to and not just half-assed freelancer attention to and so forth. And that went pretty well for the most part.
Then NPR interviewed me in their studio and some months later they [00:37:46] came out with this broadcast that went out to the whole country. Most people probably weren’t paying attention, but people who, when they hear Pursuance from then on are going to think of what NPR told them and what NPR chose to tell them was to me, remembering quite fully and having actually been employed as I have unless couple of years writing my life story over again for this Memoirs for Farrar Straus and Giroux and then the screenplay I’m now doing having had to go back and look at the coverage and look at how the coverage [00:38:16] affected how vulnerable we were, not just me, not just the people and other people whose names are known for all the volunteers contributors and so forth all people who ended up getting spied on illegally by DOJ as the Washington Times reported when Kevin Gallagher took them to court a couple years ago.
All the people who were raided in Norway and England and all that whose names are unknown, people whose names I don’t even know, who were hit, who were easy to retaliate against for doing things were entirely legal and necessary and helpful and aboveboard and open [00:38:46] because certain elements of the press decided for whatever reason, or for varying reasons that it would be a good idea or fun or cute or perhaps profitable or whatever to say things publicly that were not just false but sometimes insane.
So, this NPR piece among other things you may recall this broadcast, or there’s also an article about it called t [00:39:16] ‘an anarchist explains how hackers could cause global chaos’ that was the headline.
The broadcast itself compared me and you, everybody involved with anonymous and so forth and my non-profit to Russian agents attacking democracy. They attributed things that were done by a character in a show called. Mr. Robot that is based more on you than me I think, because it’s a hacker, it is only based [00:39:46] on me to the extent that they use a heroin addict who was emotionally volatile, which you’re not, and that’s why you’re not fun, because you’re emotionally balanced, they could never make a good character out of you.
I even had to give your counterpart on House of Cards a ferret to really humanise him.
GH: Guinea pig
BB: Guinea pig, right. But anyway. They made me worry again about what we were going to face and how little it would matter if [00:40:16] once again, we were to exposed those things as in FBI, you know background activity like Jennifer Emick and so forth, a lot of this stuff that’s memorized in books by Gabriella Coleman and Parmy Olson, which is to say the half-assed books, and a lot of articles since then, the things that happen to us behind the scenes and in some cases which we exposed after they were leaked or hacked.
It occurred to me that, I don’t want to go through another whole several years of this where we’re being attacked and we’re being set [00:40:46] up and we’re being framed and softened up and there’s no one I can go to and say ‘hey, please help us’, or at the very least ‘please stop kicking dirt in our face, or please correct this’, and I realized after that broadcast came out, and I started emailing the reporter saying hey, could you maybe change this because you just accused several thousand volunteers of being a part of a hacker network, which they called it, which has nothing to do whatsoever with Pursuance.
You know, I realized wow, there’s nothing about the press having re-embraced me [00:41:16] a few months after my arrest when we kind of put out the real story about here’s what the search warrants were about, here’s the companies we exposed blah blah. There’s nothing about that and the national magazine awards and all that shit that I got, that was going to stop them from doing the same shit again that they had done that already threatened all of us and more importantly threatened the work we had uncovered and put out there.
But we rolled with it, we had the Kickstarter few months after that, we barely made our goal for $48,000 and so now we’re [00:41:46] able to pay, an executive director to oversee all these things, pay some money to programmers to build a really early kind of primitive iteration of it, expenses to send people out to this this conference Ontario, to have Thomas Drake out there and Jesselyn Radack and have them present the ideas behind this.
We got that money, and over the next year I think we made good use of it. We weren’t able to produce the actual prototype, that went wrong very quickly. [00:42:16] We were working with people who had their own full-time jobs, they had their own constraints and as always, we’re not necessarily getting all of the resources that we might have liked to have given the scope of what we’re trying to do and given the difficulties in them.
But we did do a lot in terms of figuring out and Illustrating and documenting some of the more minute aspects of all this, of [00:42:46] building a process democracy and of determining the security aspects, which became more and more important to me as I saw how many of these same factors that were in play back in the bad old days of 2012, how many of them were back in action.
When you are creating something is going to be used by Arab reformers who if they get caught, they die or are tortured maybe for a few years you start to think more and more seriously about, ‘hey is this going to be [00:43:16] enough, and how much harder will the state department make this that it has to be, how much harder are they going to make this?’ and so by the time, earlier this year when Der Spiegel put out an article about me claiming I’d spent the last couple of years harassing women on Twitter without citing any examples of this and claiming in the sub headline that I was now spreading conspiracy theories without citing any examples of that.
I just, I was done. I was going through [00:43:46] a lot of difficulties in terms of PTSD and stuff that caught up with me over the years and I wrote an article in Counterpunch just making fun of the article, referring back to the NPR article citing some of the articles from some of the military funded outlets like Radio Free Europe, that came out about me years ago and just explaining, ‘Hey so my goal for the next year as I said was going to be to try to alleviate the situation to try to convince the press that it’s not worth it to do this and then [00:44:16] when that is done when I feel we are ready we will revamp Pursuance; we will get back to work on it’, and I’m happy to announce today that that time has come.
Now with me no longer being within the immediate reach of the DOJ and having I think and I’m quite proud of this quite frankly because media reform was what I really got into all this for, before anonymous and all that.
I have made it clear to the press in several countries that I’m not going to tolerate libel that exposes us to [00:44:46] criminal malfeasance by the government at all, and that just because you’re a reporter or journalist as I was when I was dragged into cages by ex-military people, back to prison for giving interviews, that doesn’t mean I can’t voice very strong opposition to the shit that you guys do in some cases.
So long as I could explain it and you’re afraid to respond to it I’m going to feel justified in making those objections very strong to the extent that a particular outlet, New York times, the New Yorker or whatever is [00:45:16] willing to, explain or defend any of the things that’s done and there’s been quite a few, to an extent that really is shocking to me. I’ve learned things over the last couple years doing this research.
And so, I do feel that having made a few moves in the last six months in particular physically and otherwise that Pursuance can now proceed along [00:45:46] the lines that I envisioned it as.
It can do so in a way we all feel comfortable telling people in Bahrain or Egypt or India or the U.S, you can use this and you can expect it to be safer, not totally safe because nothing is, but safer and better suited than anything else out there. And so Pursuance, having been on hiatus for about nine months now is now back on [00:46:16] course.
So, in terms of timelines beyond that all the time I have provided have been wrong for the most part except to the extent that I have said I don’t know so I’d prefer not to do that. I don’t want to disappoint people. I don’t want to say things. I do take full responsibility for all the delays. Some of them have been for reasons I just discussed some of them had to do with the book which I’ve been Writing, the Memoirs I signed a deal on when I got out of prison, the Memoir Manifesto thing which has been delayed for some [00:46:46] similar reasons but is now finished. I turned in this final draft, I turned in the original draft two years ago, this final draft has been turned in.
You and I did a book back in the day you remember
GH: That’s right
BB: We got some of the money at least from Amazon. I spent that money.
GH: We tried. It was fun. I love that story.
BB: So that is now done. (memoirs) The plan was always that Pursuance would launch after the book comes out because the [00:47:16] book was necessary, not just as a book, and not just as a means of me being able to support myself and continue to do this stuff, but also to neutralize some of those press elements and police elements that are out there.
The book is also because I want to explain better, ‘Here’s why Pursuance is so needed, here are the problems, here are the specifics of these problems, here are the problems that are relevant to activism itself, here the broader problems, here’s the solution, here’s the examples [00:47:46] of a solution, the real examples of how we solve things that have not perhaps been fully conveyed by us and some cases, or the press because for whatever reason, here is the scope of how hopeful this kind of activism is, and here is the thinking that has gone into this solution, and here is the extent to which you yourself as a citizen who participates in this will be able to inform that solution further’.
So that’s what the book will do along with providing more opportunities for [00:48:16] people to get involved, to volunteer. Our first lead developer got in touch with me after seeing a wired article that came out that accurately explained when I got out of prison, you know, Barret Brown is back, he’s still crazy, he’s going to go after this this and this here’s what he’s building, here’s why it makes sense, here’s the pitfalls it might face, you know, that’s how we attract people. That’s how we bring in informed participants, by accurate representations in the public.
One of the other with the other factors that has made things more [00:48:46] difficult is that my Twitter account and the Twitter account of Pursuance itself have both been removed from Twitter over the last year and a half and there’s some articles about that by David Gilmour over on Dailydot, and Facebook more recently was also taken down.
So, I’ve lost a lot of the tools that I’ve historically used in the last couple years to organize these kind of campaigns, crowd-sourced investigation, crowd-sourced civics, so that [00:49:16] was a lot big part of the picture on how we would spread Pursuance.
We’ll get around these things and I feel that when my book comes out and my author status solidifies again, and they say you can’t actually take away his Twitter, he does have some presence here. I think I’ll get those back, or at least Pursuance will.
There are all kinds of other things I could whine about in terms of here’s the problem, Here’s why it’s not my fault and all that. But the main thing is that it has been my fault. I’m a notorious [00:49:46] drug addict, substance abuser, and a lazy person and getting out of prison was tougher than being in prison for me, and the last couple years, just the things I’ve come across have been very disconcerting and we’ll just leave it at that.
I started methamphetamines about a year and a half ago, and I’m glad I did it because when on methamphetamines I really wreaked havoc on a lot of these old opponents of ours, and elements the press, [00:50:16] police agencies and I really just outdid myself in terms of just bothering them. Just making a claim like, ‘look you don’t want to start an illicit conflict with me because I’m like a rabid dog who will be biting your leg’, and you know that may make me look bad, but I’m used to looking bad.
GH: I just want to make it clear to the audience that in order to get Back at your various enemies out there and have the energy to do so do not take the Barrett Brown School of Science and [00:50:46] do methamphetamines.
BB: Or if like me you’re willing to then go to rehab as I did a few months ago because you feel like, ‘I’m done now, my work here is done. I have terrorized everybody, everybody is going to leave us alone, are not going to be helping the police come after activists for donating to my legal fund’, that’s over, then go to rehab and then leave the country if you want to take those steps then you should do it. Take all the methamphetamines you need to.
GH: I am not endorsing that.
BB: Of course you’re not
GH: you know me. I’m a teetotaller.
BB: I know. You kill me. Anyway, so that is the best I can summarize. It’s a very baroque situation as usual. That’s what the situation has been and it’s one of the reasons I haven’t put out an announcement or updated Pursuance in quite a while.
I didn’t know what to say yet because things were still in flux. Now that things have settled down, I’m able to finally [00:51:46] tell people like ‘Hey, here’s that thing you’ve been waiting for. Sorry. It’s coming, here’s the deal. Mea culpa and also fuck you because you know all those things at once’.
GH: So, there was a hell of a lot there and I’m getting asked why I’m not talking as much and it’s because Barrett can talk for hours and it’s great.
One of the best reasons to have Barrett on your show, anyone else out there is you don’t have to prepare, just give him a question and then sit back, it’s amazing.
But a couple [00:52:16] of the things you brought up there that are really important, you brought up this idea that when the powers that be, the evils in control of everything the FBI’s the DOJ’s of the world…
BB: Control is too strong of a word
GH: Sure, but when the people who believe they are in control would like to continue holding on to that fallacy you don’t have a higher authority if you will, to reach out to and say, ‘Hey could something be done about this’, [00:52:46] because you can’t ask them.
It’s like telling your bully to stop punching you, that’s just going to encourage him to keep punching you. So at that point we need other structures and activism is one of those structures. So for me Pursuance is definitely going to be heading down that direction and I’m hoping it does what I want.
I have so many questions about the tools that I know aren’t even written yet. But your general idea, you had talked about anyone being able to [00:53:16] launch one. Does that mean that your goal is still a somehow centralized system, so you get those libraries or are we getting open source that we can run on our own servers or what are we getting?
BB: The answer to that is yes, and with the with the proviso as usual that whenever we’re talking about these specific mechanics, techno mechanics, you know me very well, you have fixed my computer number of times and so you know that the specifics of that are best [00:53:46] best referred to documentation that we have some of which is still subject to change out there, some of which is not yet published, but the answer is yes.
A lot will be decentralized. So these libraries I’m talking about for instance, on a Pursuance, on a particular server of process democracy, like think of it this way; process democracy is the mechanism that I have coined as the term for this, for this this procedure that I define in certain ways, and which can be run on a pad of paper and a pen and mail if need be.
[00:54:16] But it is best run for the most part, on a server or a series of servers online, and Pursuance itself, that we curate, in which we have a mechanism for deciding who gets in, and basically anybody who applies gets in unless their answer to our question is just terrible.
So, there will be a centralized server for the data library to the extent that a particular Pursuance or so that particular iteration of a Pursuance, a structure, I’m just trying to think of another word for the actual Pursuance, to the extent that that is made accessible to it.
So some cases, but I think probably very few, it will be proper and necessary and dutiful [00:55:16] to not make the structure of the Pursuance available in any way shape or form. That will generally be doing high-end operations assessing things that bite back like Deutsche Bank, Russia or any country at all frankly unfortunately.
For the most part, yes, the generally accepted custom will be to make your structure of Pursuance available to others in Pursuance, in the universe established there.
Anyone can take the same process democracy framework, [00:55:46] the software that runs it, and run on their own server. Now that leaves open a lot of questions so I’ll set that aside unless anyone wants to ask anything in particular, but I can assure you that the implications of that are something we have thought through quite a bit as much else here and hopefully pretty much all of it.
So if anybody does have any questions along those lines we have some answers to that and sometimes the answers are unfortunately ‘that could be the case’ or ‘that is one of the problems we run into when we invent anything or create anything’, but in many cases I’m happy to say we do have some pretty hopeful answers as to those kinds of problems that do come up whenever you have a platform, whenever you bring something out in the arms race that’s going on internationally.
GH: Anonymous and all of those fun tactics that were come [00:56:46] up with by others, and me, and everyone kind of early on have been used for great things and terrible things.
The issue here is always that if you give it more structure than an idea that is put out into the world then by its very nature, you are giving it a surface area for attack, be it a single person a single server a single programmer, whatever it might be, so you have to open these things up.
You [00:57:16] have to allow anyone to take them. Your general hope with this type of stuff at least in my case, has always been when we put ideas out there that help people actually organize, and organize stronger and better and especially more anonymously, like we did early on, we hoped and prayed that more people were good people than bad people.
And so, when you put a set of tools out there more often than not it will be used for good. So in the end [00:57:46] the greater good is served. You can’t do anything in the more general sense about the fact that you’ve put out an idea and the bad guys have now decided to use that idea.
The only thing you can do is, you know, like the current fun that is being done attacking qanon where a bunch of people like Kirtaner whose name I now know how to actually pronounce good, ol Aubrey there, are starting to fight against people who are using [00:58:16] Anonymous’ tactics.
Or generally just kind of piggybacking on the name in a way that we don’t like because they are not Anonymous. They’re being attacked and this goes back to the old adage of Anonymous being Anonymous’s worst enemy, you know.
Pursuance I would imagine that there will be a day when the Nazis throw up a version of it and another Pursuance pops up literally to fight that Pursuance. We had that happen with all of our old tactics, where the bad guys would take [00:58:46] our tactics and attempt to use them and then we would use those same tactics against them. So that’s how I would see this going. I mean is that your basic assessment?
BB: I read that assessment and I would say that I take even a more pessimistic view than you do.
GH: That was my decade-old pessimism speaking. I now have lost almost all faith in humanity. So, I’m there with you now.
BB: [00:59:16] Here’s the thing. unlike inventing a weapon or nuclear submarine or a submarine with weapons on it or sharks that shoot bees out of their mouths, a reference which you don’t seem to recognize because you don’t enjoy having fun.
We’re producing something here that is a format that does have natural appeal and thus will be more utilized. We can expect that in advance without being hopeful which neither of us are.
[00:59:48] I think I can articulate. Back in the 90s especially and up until today AM radio has been the province of conservatives. There are very few exceptions.
You remember Air America Radio came out around the 2004 election al, it wasn’t successful because for whatever reason we won’t get into it here, but certain kinds of people prefer certain kinds of formats.
Some people like reading, some people like to have Vlog posts and hyperlinks proving the things that are being said, some people like their President [01:00:18] to tweet stuff out that’s nonsense over and over again.
So, you know Biden for instance, as was pointed out by Trump jr or somebody who’s sighting some kind of evidence of the electoral fraud, Biden has far fewer followers than Trump, but he’s the President now, or is about to be. So that’s a great lesson.
There are differences in format such that if we are conscious of these, we can expect to put out something with the certainty which we rarely have, the certainty that this is going to be on [01:00:48] the whole better utilized and more utilized by our side, open society people in this instance.
I think it’s especially true because it doesn’t take that many people to think of a lie. It does oftentimes take a bunch of people to figure out the truth. Crowd sourced research, which is one of the things that I’ve spent a lot of time of course on, is a collaborative effort and the things we’re countering generally aren’t.
The things we are countering although there’s other people involved, as with most [01:01:18] things, we’re generally countering black box apparatus like Palantir, the CIA, GCHQ, shit that we see glimpses of whenever someone like Snowden comes along, leaks stuff or someone hacks deals here or there.
We have a situation in which the other side has all these advantages and most of the operations are being done from these very tightly wound apparatus of course, you always have qanon people you [01:01:48] do have distributed crowdsource nonsense, and that’s the case, that’s a fact.
But I do think that given that qanon itself almost certainly came from one of these black boxes, I haven’t followed it as closely as I some of you guys have, but I do know that has been the thinking for a while, that it was conceived and then operated or whatever or taken over or whatever or some combination thereof.
GH: It was taken over very quickly by those types, but initially it was just two people on 4chan, Paul Furber and Coleman Rogers trying to sell t-shirts.
BB: [01:02:18] Another lesson which may be contradictory to my lesson here, but still a lesson.
GH: But it went very quickly. I mean it was weeks later before it was off on YouTube and the conspiracy nuts were starting to move and then higher production value started coming behind it if you will, and then you noticed, you know the change.
But early on it was literally a ploy to sell t-shirts from one of those print-on-demand t-shirt shops from a couple of guys on 4chan. Like it was an absolute joke.
BB: And as you know better than anyone else a couple of guys on 4chan [01:02:48] can end up holding a great deal of power.
GH: Yeah
BB: Because you were once one of them and so yes, that’s a great lesson right there. Qanon could be an exception almost, but also an important part of the example.
I’ve always felt I think the last nine years since the Palantir incident, Team Themis when we first started to get a glimpse at these intelligence contracting firms and how they work with the FBI and GCHQ and so forth and what that entails, we’ve always been up against a certain kind of apparatus for the most part.
To the extent we have been against these, [01:03:18] it has generally been with the active participation, encouragement, pushing, supplying by the FBI or by Palantir and so forth. We’ve always found those connections in the end, long after we suspected they were there.
So it’s a situation in which they these advantages, their black boxes. We don’t have the things we should have and by putting them out there, the scales will tip in our favor even to the extent that there’s a great deal of use of it by people who can’t really make use of it that well on the other side.
People [01:03:48] who aren’t trying to find the truth and collaborate to do so and people who already have advantages in the Mercer family and Palantir and so forth.
And the reason I go on about this so much is because it’s one of the big concerns I had for a long time, a lot of us did. How can we expect this to be any better in terms of humanity’s fate than the internet or Facebook or a thousand other things and in this case, I do think [01:04:18] that we can, and I’m always happy to have other issues brought up because we do want to address them and think about them, but I do think from what we’ve been able to examine and hear and analyze that this will be a net positive for the open society.
GH: That is the most optimistic thing I’ve ever heard you say. so, I would like to address one key thing here. You have called me not fun now three times during this …
BB: You don’t play video games, you don’t drink, you don’t smoke weed
GH: [01:04:49] Okay, all I do is play video games. I don’t know what you’re talking about.
BB: What is your what Your steam code?
GH: On Steam I’m PFF Gregg if anyone wants to send the old connection, that is my old clan from the Counter-Strike days way back when. When you knew me, I wasn’t gaming because I was too busy doing activism. I had no time. The thing that I think really spoiled you on me having fun, the last like [01:05:19] the three times we really had the most fun I would say,
BB: Oh year, working on that damn book proposal
GH: Working on the book proposal or the couple of times we got to hang out in like bars with me, you, and Michael Hastings. You guys got smashed and I’m sitting there completely not drinking just drinking water and soda the whole time
BB: We call that not fun in the western world. What you’re explaining does not refute what I’m saying
GH: I was having fun.
BB: I’m glad you were having fun.
GH: Another one of those pieces of this puzzle that I think I want to see addressed a lot more by hopefully a Pursuance is what happened with Michael Hastings.
GH: I mean if someone wants to put up a Pursuance to try and figure out how to make me have some fun out there in the world. I’d love it because I need a little more of that.
BB: Regarding Michael Hastings, I’ll just say this ,you will love the last three or four pages the book [01:06:19] because it is a verbatim email.
You’ll love the last three four pages the book. I waited a long time on this to address this in any real meaningful way publicly. I wanted to get my ducks in a row and now I have.
In this case it’s less of a question of what happened, but what happened afterwards, and what didn’t happen and what should have happened. This was a journalist who died and the way that his work and himself and I’ll be the first to say this: A journalist or an activist, [01:06:49] our lives are expendable, they are absolutely expendable. There is nothing about any of us that should be memorialized and fetishized the way that Assange has been subject to no doubt against his will for the last 10 years. We are here to serve and to fight and to die.
Michael Hastings, his life, how he regarded all that stuff is meaningless. What’s meaningful is the work he did that was important and the things [01:07:19] he was working on and the extent to which that was essentially wasted.
His work was cut off from any potential further amplification and use. That was not something that anyone on the other side could do. The only people who could have done that was the working press in this country. The press failed in every measure possible to evaluate this. [01:07:49]
I’ll tell you this, over the last year and a half until about three or four months ago I was planning on committing suicide. One of the few reasons why I didn’t was because I knew what my obituary would look like. I knew this because I’ve seen Michael Hastings. I knew that nothing would be gained [01:08:19] from that. There would be nothing gained.
This is one of the things that has affected me a great deal. It’s why it took me so long to finish the last chapter of the book, because it goes into these things, and unlike everything else; prison, having my mom charged and so forth, being in the Shu, none of those things really did anything to me. I’m fine with those things.
The base character of our most important institutions, which [01:08:49] is journalism, the base character of those who have just slid into that over the years, and the helplessness that I see, I now have in the face of that, to force people to examine it, or just get them to stop doing it, was to me terrifying and again, like I said earlier, I’m glad I took amphetamines for a year and a half. I’m glad I terrorized Adrian Chen and John Cook, and Glenn Greenwald. [01:09:20]
The FBI can do whatever, but it’s really our colleagues, my former colleagues in the press that get to decide what the meaning of it is and they have not made the right decisions I think ever. Not in our lifetimes.
GH: We hung out with Michael. We talked to him a lot. One of my kind of oddly almost morbid things that I own, that I have here in my house, is [01:09:50] I still haven’t been able to take his Rolling Stone business card out of my wallet.
I still keep it there just as a reminder of how bad things went there, and how little we truly know about what really happened at the end. But for everyone who doesn’t know, as there’s going to be people who watch this who have no idea what we’re talking about, Michael Hastings was a journalist.
He was an investigative journalist and a very good investigative journalist [01:10:20] his work got the wrong people out of places they shouldn’t have been. It got McChrystal removed from the Middle East and just many other things. His work was important, and it was always punching up.
He was going after people who were in positions of power and shouldn’t be and who were abusing those positions of power. And in the end, I do truly believe that he was killed for his reporting. [01:10:50] I don’t believe the accident.
I don’t believe the stories of him being drunk and having some kind of a car crash. I don’t believe the stories that maybe the car itself had some kind of a malfunction. I believe that his car was actually hacked in some way.
What’s funny about that belief is, at first you say that to people like right afterward, literally the day it happened, and they tell you ‘you’re [01:11:20] insane’, and then that week on national TV General Alexander, former head of the NSA goes live on TV, and when asked that exact question says, ‘Yeah, we can do that like, the NSA’s had that technology for a decade’, like yeah, I mean it might have happened.
I don’t know, but you know it goes from an insane theory that just his friends are now passing around in some kind of, almost a way to deal with the grief, then it becomes a theory that needs to be investigated and never was. [01:11:51]
The night that it happened, I was on the phone that night with the people at Rolling Stone, his director, his co-workers like we got on a phone call, but like five of us with what little information we knew from the day before and that day because I don’t know, I don’t remember our conversations right around that time, but I was on the phone with him the night before and it [01:12:21] was crazy because there was definitely no sign the night before that he was doing that.
We were talking about specifically his next piece and the big thing he was working on and when he was going to come out to the east coast again, so we could meet up and all that fun stuff and then the next day he’s gone.
The media’s reporting on it was basically about this journalist who it was sad that passed away, in a way, but not in a super mysterious way that maybe he was reporting on something [01:12:51] the powers that be think he shouldn’t have, just ah it sucks that you know, maybe it was suicide by car. Maybe it blew up. Who knows? No, I think he was killed personally.
BB: Whether or not he was and I will say that if I were in charge of whatever let’s say Booz Allen Hamilton and if I was tasked with dealing with those journalists or whistle-blowers who of course as we know have been a major [01:13:21] concern of many governments for 15 years now, and I had to figure out which person it makes the most sense for us to get rid of, who based on their past performance over last two years, can we project over the next 10 years will cause much more trouble to the national security apparatus that we all believe in for some reason, I would kill Hastings immediately.
GH: And I think they did.
BB: I’m not stupid. I don’t have a position on that. I’ll put it this way when it happened, I was agnostic. I [01:13:51] remained agnostic for a few years. I have since had back channel conversations as I’m sure you have, that led me to believe that it’s definitely worth investigating and I do think it’s more likely than not.
What kills me is the fact that I should feel uncomfortable saying that. Knowing how this kind of thing is dealt with by my ex-colleagues who have no fucking idea about [01:14:21] any of this stuff have zero ideas about this stuff and are not worth killing. Which is the meanest thing I can say about them.
The fact that they get to decide ultimately, whether or not anything gets looked into and can even punish those of us who want to look into it, who think it’s our duty when a journalist dies under unusual circumstances that it should [01:14:51] be looked into in a way based on the evidence, which has to be picked up first. It can’t be discarded.
There’s a great deal of evidence that came out months later from the FBI and so forth that contradicts the original narrative that became the permanent narrative, being the media narrative.
It’s despicable and it’s unfortunate and again the reason is not because Michael Hastings needs to be sainted or because his life had special meaning [01:15:21] it doesn’t.
It’s because he served a function and the function is not a small one. It is news and media information that determines who gets to be president, who gets to be considered president, who gets to give advice that is taken seriously by a vast apparatus in the United States and elsewhere, which countries can be invaded [01:15:51] which countries can’t, who can die in Yemen, how many weapons can we sell the Saudis. These are no small matters.
There have been more articles about me taking a bath on webcam during the Zeta thing as a joke in order to show that I wasn’t being executed by the Zetas as most the press said I would be, than there are about Hastings and his coverage of things.
There’s not a single article out there, about the fact that a few months before he died, he was on The Young Turks [01:16:21] and he talked about having been under surveillance and he had been told this by his friends at Special Forces that he was under surveillance.
There’s not one article about the fact that, contrary to the FBI’s original claim that they had no interest in him and no files on him, which they later reneged upon a few months later and then they did show they had a couple of documents with some weird wording on them.
My gag order hearing which I was legally required not to talk about my case or anything involving it like Palantir and things I investigated as a journalist for a year and a half, [01:16:53] Michael Hastings is mentioned in there and they admit to having notes on him.
He was in my e-mails, he was involved in the Tunisia thing. The day after you brought me in to the Tunisia thing, I was already in touch with Hastings via my Gmail account, it was under discovery. He was member of Project PM early on.
Project PM was designated a criminal organization by the DOJ. We all know the DOJ investigated to try to identify every single person who contributed to my wiki, my journalistic wiki, and every single person who donated to my legal fund, they did that illegally [01:17:23] and they were sued for it later on.
So, the idea that Hastings, the guy who was already on their radar obviously and already a target of any number of interests around the world would not have been someone the FBI had files on when they had files on every single other person, including 17-year old’s in Norway who wrote for my Wiki, or was in a chat room, is not just absurd, it is something that to the extent that it is voiced or maintained, the person maintaining that should have their face spat upon and beaten. [01:17:53] I just can’t even tell you how worse it’s been. I prefer the FBI to my former colleagues.
GH: The last two conversations me and him had went similar to the last conversation the three of us had together, you know, those last two conversations me and him had the day before and three days before his passing.
He joked with me as he read some of the death threats he was [01:18:23] getting from military and former military about his articles that had gotten people removed from the field of battle. He thought it was both scary and funny.
BB: As things often are.
GH: Yeah, you usually laugh in the face of fear, whether you’re actually being strong or not, it just you know, it’s a natural reaction to these things. I mean you got to find the humor somewhere.
One of the stories I’ve told a few people [01:18:54] that you might remember is me, you, and Michael in New York, and we’re at a bar and you do a very deft move of changing the focus from you because at this point it’s probably eight months or nine months before you’re actually about to get raided and be in serious trouble, but you’re already very clearly, you know, not giving a fuck about whether it’s coming or not.
BB: I had been informed that I was [01:19:24] going to prison. So, I already knew. The charges just hadn’t been figured out yet.
GH: So, I’m sitting there yelling at you to slow it down a bit because you’re going to go to jail for the rest of your life and just, not to stop what you’re doing but to just know that you’re on your way to prison here and we’d like to not lose a friend.
So, do what you can to minimize your exposure.And you’re telling me basically in the nicest terms among friends who talk to each other like this to, fuck off with that, and that you aren’t slowing down at all and you quickly, I mean, I’m like three sentences [01:19:54] in and you say well this guy is just going to get himself killed.
I’m only going to prison. And we spend the next 10 minutes yelling at Michael about the fact that he’s getting you know; three and four death threats a day from ex-military and within a year and a half in my life you’re in prison and he’s dead.
BB: You’ve always given good advice. No one’s ever accused you of not giving good advice. It’s just that you’re not that fun.
GH: Yeah, you know like I mean, it’s one of those things where you look back on [01:20:24] different times in life when you were right about something and sometimes, you’re like well thank God I was right about that. You know, this is one of those times I really wish I was wrong. I think about it a lot.
BB: This is worth mentioning here just in the greater context, you know, this is all sad shit in a way. But WW2 in which both my grandfather were bombers, you never heard of them because they were among the millions and millions of people who voluntarily went and risked their lives to fight fascism. [01:20:54]
It was standard to expect he might die, or friends might die. It was standard. No one called you a hero for it. No one said you’re brave and all that. There were no articles about every single person like there have been for me and you, particularly me as a martyr as I was going to prison. It was just basic shit as a human, as a citizen. It really does alarm me the extent to which people come to me and say basically thank you for your service.
GH: Yeah, [01:21:24]
BB: Really, I’ve gone through very little compared to what someone in WW2 did. One of the main things that we’ve done aside from frameworks, aside from learning lessons about tactics and so forth what needs to be done is, there needs to be a very self-confident, self-assertive, perhaps even bullying movement to get people to accept that [01:21:54] self-sacrifice absolutely a hundred percent will be necessary.
In the absence of a rule of law, the absence of institutions that work and are fair and are decent and can justify themselves. What happens is you have something along the lines of chivalry or feudalism. You have trust networks, which are fine things to have, you have adventurers, [01:22:24] you have a heroic age.
A heroic age sounds fun, it sounds really cool, but it is not the ideal thing and it is what I’ve been preparing for and what you have been preparing for. There is time in which we have adventures and people who strike out against, but it is not ideal but any means, and so as much as I enjoy it, as much as I enjoy being a Homeric hero, not a hero in the positive American bullshit sense, like you saved people from our plane, but the trickster Odysseus, you know, [01:22:54]. That’s just not ideal. It’s not.
I have benefitted from all this. The money I’ve made in the last 10 years, what little there’s been, and the status I’ve gained has all been on the backs of the public who have been the true victims of all the things that I’m complaining about.
I came out of this smelling like a rose. It is the public in the US and in Yemen and in [01:23:24] every other country in the world who would have better benefited from a more open and less corrupt less insane authoritarian world.
They’re the ones who have suffered due to the sins of our opponents in different spheres. And so, I try to reiterate that because there’s a certain kind of person who finds it difficult to understand.
They can’t imagine why anyone can object to injustice unless it’s because they themselves are whining about it. [01:23:55] If it seems like a weird thing to bring up because I’m thinking very clearly of a number of our colleagues and the press, I’ve become more neurotic in the last couple years I’ll tell you that. I was always pretty neurotic, but always fun.
GH: I want to kind of clear something up. When you say rule of law, you’re not talking about the general sense of there are laws and the people have to deal with it. You’re talking about the ideal. [01:24:25]
BB: I’m an anarchist who longs for a republic. Look, I’m an anarchist because I have so little faith in the ability of most human beings at this point in time and probably in all time before us to maintain the ideals that they are so ready to assume that they practice. So, I’m a conservative Anarchist. I’m an anarchist not out of utopianism but out pessimism and out of experience increasingly.
[01:24:55] To me the rule of law is a beautiful idea. Government is a beautiful idea. There’s a difference between professing something and just everyone papering over something as we did for the last 20 years before [01:25:25] the Trump thing kind of knocked some sense into people and made them realize that just saying, oh we’re a unified America, we’re the Obama speech of 2004.
We are a divided nation, and we should be. Europe was divided in 1938 and it should have been. There are battle lines. They don’t happen to coincide with national borders at this point, but hopefully some day they will. [01:25:55]
GH: Very rarely have they. I mean look at Libya as a fine example of a set of borders that don’t actually work and don’t actually maintain any level of peace. in fact, they inflict damage on the people just by where they exist. So, our national borders have always been a bit of a problem.
BB: It’s the ethos which reminds us again how important ethos is and how easy it is to establish an ethos, but our ethos of American exceptionalism, [01:26:25] and just the narrative that has been allowed to exist even after it’s been nullified and contradicted over and over again over the last four or five decades. That is such an act of violence to allow that ethos.
Contrary to all actual facts, contrary to the situation globally and domestically, that has been the greatest act of violence perpetuated in our lifetime, even greater than the Arab genocide that our country has perpetuated [01:26:55] since I was in third grade.
I say that again and it may sound like I’m getting kind of crankish because I’m going to have these weird new emphasis as I keep reiterating in strange ways. But the reason for it I hope this will be better illustrated with the book which will be coming out in a few months finally.
I hope you will be better able to understand why I’m so freaked out and why I’m so focused on this. What seemed [01:27:25] to be kind of obvious things that maybe need to be repeated.
GH: So over here in America where you have so wonderfully left me, we have Nazis in the streets and in every major city and you’re now over [01:27:55] there having fun with all the Brexiters. So it’s not like you’ve completely left this level of insanity behind.
BB: I’m loyal to the queen I’ll tell you that
GH: As loyal as Australia
BB: Fuck Australia. Here’s a great thing about England. And again, I’ve had ties to England to an unusual extent for 12 years. I started writing for the Guardian 2009 and so forth and even before that. So, I’ve dealt with a lot of brits over the years and I’ve come to admire them in certain ways.
When you come over here and you meet like the guy upstairs who is Scottish, your random neighbor, just a random guy and you start talking about politics and he is totally cognizant of things that in the U.S people have to go to IRC chat to find [01:28:55] people who are cognizant in these things. You realize that a percent of this country is on a high level of awareness and ability to articulate their views versus like maybe 20 percent in the US, you start to realize, ‘Boy I sure am glad I let Gregg Housh back in the US and came here to England. Fuck Gregg Housh.
GH: I have as much money as I always had, none. You are of anyone who is not related to me, the person I’ve spent the most money on in my entire life.
Two of the computers that [01:30:25] the government stole from you during various raids and whatnot I had purchased and so I felt like I was being stolen from as well, it was just horrible.
I will say I loved your mom. I loved the time we got to spend down in Dallas. So, one of the things I’ve told people is I love going down there and actually staying in her guest room because it’s nicer than my house. She is a [01:30:55] wonderful person.
BB: Yeah, you like the cowhide barstools? And the western cowpoke art?
GH: She doesn’t just live in Texas. She like is that Texas mother
BB: She is that Texas mother. Yes.
GH: Yeah. So, you have a book coming. You’ve been working on this for quite a while originally, we started on one long ago that didn’t end up going anywhere.
BB: So, this book, I started writing it in prison and it’s finally been completed and sent in. There’s something else. I have this whole little thing I’m executing here with this book and elsewhere in which I have chosen to [01:31:55] further fortify my position vis-à-vis the US government to the press by putting out some information about my prosecutor Candida Heath.
The same one who presided over this cover-up over Michael Hastings and his files. Someone who I resent quite a bit. We were approached a few months ago by an individual in Dallas, a black individual who had [01:32:25] had several very bizarre encounters with Candina Heath and her husband, and a third person who I won’t mention here because they are not a public figure, and who made some claims that we saw and then followed them up with some links to some things and then a video.The video was being sold on amazon.com by digital download.
It turns out the Candida Heath [01:32:55] former Assistant USDA for the Northern District of Texas and current senior counsel for the DOJ’s internet evidence division, which is to say that she is in control of vast amounts of the evidence that is used in DOJ cases, and is also involved very closely as we’ve seen in documents recently, in International security related cases involving Russian hackers.
She has a great deal of blackmailable material out [01:33:25] on her that we now have because we were given it by one of her victims. It turns out that Candina Heath, this long time DOJ stalwart who tried to get me to, for those of you who are not familiar with this, tried to get me to plead to a linking charge for copying and pasting a link to information that was stolen from STRATFOR.
Had I plead to it which I didn’t thank God, it would have allowed the DOJ to go after anybody, journalists’, researchers, whatever for copying and pasting links in the future [01:33:55] which would have been vastly disastrous as the EFF and other organizations around the world pointed out back then.
It turns out she is into secretly filming herself having sex with black men, filming without their consent. One of her victims came forward with this stuff and then his Twitter account was deleted after he came forward with it. My Facebook account was deleted. [01:34:26] Long story short we have a 25-minute video that she produced, she was involved in producing, and that was being sold under a different name. She goes by the Queen of Spades in the pornography world. Spades for those who aren’t familiar is an archaic racist term for blacks.
Audio disconnected due to shenanigans.
NOTES
AMA 1 — Heath
Heath is legendary for trying to establish dangerous precedents and engaging in overreach, most notably when I was prosecuted for the link but also in other, lesser known cases before and since. Regardless of what one thinks of the fascist little ex-Marine who was trying to give Eichenwald a seizure, Heath is a greater threat to our society than almost anyone she’s prosecuted. See the gag order hearing, when, as widely reported, Heath tried to stop me from writing due to a piece I’d done for The Guardian on the Snowden revelations having been “critical of the government” with a “tone” that was “a problem.” There’s lots more, much of which has been covered in the press, some of which will be in my book (many of the key documents are still not public).
AMA 2 — Press
Column — Friedman
Unfortunately, the mainstream press didn’t really have the gravity or the integrity of action to prevent other, even worse outlets from popping up. Had the New York Times not continued to employ Thomas Friedman even after it became clear that he was less than worthless in terms of explaining world politics, they would have more room to make their own case. Same thing with the Washington Post and Charles Krauthammer, who, as I showed in an old Vanity Fair online piece, was wrong about every U.S. military engagement since Kosovo. Those aren’t the only problems with these respectable national outlets, of course, but they’re very telling regarding the cowardice of editors and publishers who continued to promote incompetent commentators simply because they’ve made some vague name for themselves.
And of course WaPo’s failed attempt to identify some website that could sort out “fake news” is indicative of the chief fact of our press culture — that much of how it operates is haphazard at best, and that falsehoods can creep in to any outlets, regardless of pedigree, if its operators lose track of basic principles such as hiring competent people and firing incompetent ones. Personal relationships, inertia, ambition, and that sort of things are the chief problems facing our political press, rather than corporate interference or anything else of that sort.
AMA 3
To first question — that’s the most important question of our age, really, since there is a huge amount of talent, energy, and outrage that is going to waste for want of a reliable mechanism to harvest that energy. The purpose of the pursuance project, which provides a framework for “process democracy” whereby anyone may create their own civic entity for research, movement work, opposition, and the like, is to provide a better answer than currently exists. It takes some of the lessons we’ve learned over the last 15 years of net-facilitated revolutions abroad as well as effective campaigns in the West, facilitated by Anonymous and the like, and tries to maintain the fluidity, the agility, and the ability of anyone to have their ideas aired and acted upon, while also adding a degree of rigor to the process.
Check out that presentation I link to towards end of my post above and send it out to anyone else you know who’s interested in taking responsibility for the broken institutions that act in our name. | https://medium.com/@barrettbrown/barrett-brown-on-pursuance-ae7a2255b11f | ['Barrett Brown'] | 2020-12-13 19:55:57.798000+00:00 | ['Anonymous', 'Activism', 'Media Criticism'] |
My Journey Through The Year 2020 | 2020, was the year everyone will remember for their own different reasons. For some of us, it might be excruciating, and for some, it might be a bit easy to live upon. It’s been 2 months already since the new year has begun. And to think back on a year that feels like it lasted a lot longer than 12 months, surviving that was the biggest challenge for mankind.
2020: A Year That Changed Everything
Like every other upcoming year, the beginning of 2020 was also filled with new hopes, ambitions, and brand-new resolutions. I had also decided to take myself more seriously in terms of Career, Health, self-care, and finding my true passion in life.
Traveling, being my happy place to be in, I had made plans to travel to “Kerala- God’s own country”, and to my surprise, covid-19 has started spreading from there only. The virus was spreading all over the world faster before anybody could know anything about it. With that, all my travel hopes were shattered.
Just weeks into the year, covid-19 has started affecting so many lives around us. Some had to shut their businesses, people got fired from their jobs and some of us had nothing to rely on for our daily essential needs. People around me also faced so many hardships during this pandemic time and witnessing that pain was the breaking point in my life.
Challenges I Faced
The speed with which the virus was spreading scared everyone around including me. With that some challenges I had faced were:
Socializing
When lockdown began in our state and all over the country, with borders have been sealed, everyone was forced to stay indoors. Being locked in the home all day, I was missing my old life of social gatherings, festivals, and celebrations. Face-to-face interactions which were taken for granted all these past years made me value it truly.
Anxiety and Restlessness
I started feeling restless and frustrated with not going out for even a walk or exercise. So many days I had spent doing nothing and feeling anxious sitting idle during days and nights.
Resilience
Amidst all of the pandemic chaos around the world, people learned to adjust to these new normal situations and new lifestyles have been incorporated. Schools and colleges conducted their classes online, digitization got huge demand, and work from home culture got introduced. Adjusting and adapting to new changes become part of our life. We’ve adapted and we have emerged with a far greater appreciation for a way of life that can be easily taken for granted.
Wabi-Sabi
Wabi-sabi is a Japanese concept which means, accepting and appreciating the beauty that is “impermanent “ & “imperfect” in nature. This Japanese concept has taught me to accept and appreciate things as they are. My perception towards life has changed and I realized that I am the one who is responsible to create my own happiness and not the external factors of life. If you are not happy, you cannot make others happy. As the quote says: “ You can’t pour from an empty cup ” — Norm Kelly
Creativity & Passion
Reading
Reading stories and comics was something I always enjoyed since my childhood. But due to other priorities, I had ignored my passion for reading all these years. I began reading different genres in books and experienced calmness in my life.
Learning foreign language
I have been fond of Japanese culture and movies for many years. I decided to take that interest to the next level by learning the Japanese language as a skill. I am still in a learning process but I am quite enjoying it.
Writing
I discovered my passion for writing in this pandemic time and joined a writing course of Content Vidhya. I have learned so many strategies and hacks of writing in the course duration. Uma Madhavi Ma’am taught us little nuances of writing. It was an insightful learning experience for me. Because of that course itself, I had found the courage to write this article. Writing is something that challenges your creativity and makes you think about different perspectives.
Cooking
Cooking a different variety of dishes and relishing it was a daily routine in my life during the lockdown. Be it a Dalgona coffee, minimal ingredient cakes, and other regional cuisines, I had tried to prepare them all. It gave me an immense amount of satisfaction that cannot be expressed in words. Cooking helped me to stay relaxed and stress-free.
Lessons Learned
We only have the present moment. Cherish it.
Time is a limited resource, don’t waste it on the people and things that don’t add value to your life.
Practice Meditation
Happiness is self-created. Do not look for it outside of yourself.
Learn to accept the pain and it will hurt you less.
Alone does not mean lonely, love and enjoy your own company.
Indulge in creativity, follow your passions.
Be grateful for what you have while earning what you want.
Change is inevitable.
To conclude this,
Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times if one remembers to turn on the light -Albus Dumbledore
we cannot describe the adventurous year 2020 in one word and we should continue to inculcate some healthy habits such as sanitizing, social distancing, and wearing masks while going out. Even though vaccinations are in process, covid-19 is going to stay with us for a while. It’s only in our hands to make this new year better than 2020. Until then Stay Healthy and Happy! 😊 | https://medium.com/@swatigarje09/my-journey-through-the-year-2020-23f8d39f9e35 | ['Swati Garje'] | 2021-03-09 10:24:00.209000+00:00 | ['Self-awareness', 'Self Journey Of Year 2020', 'Year In Review', 'Self Love'] |
The Secret of Cute Baby Sleeping | The Secret of Cute Baby Sleeping
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Click the link - https://a7bb35m9sc4uet08eu3ftcsz3w.hop.clickbank.net/ | https://medium.com/@luckyofficial8050/the-secret-of-cute-baby-sleeping-4198fee9f598 | ['Healthy'] | 2021-09-08 06:47:46.575000+00:00 | ['Baby Sleeping Tips', 'Newborn', 'Baby Sleeping', 'Children', 'Baby'] |
Hire Full Stack Development Services Company: Jai Infoway | Why does your business need Full Stack Development Company
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Visit: https://jaiinfoway.com/custom-development | https://medium.com/@jaiinfowayofficial/hire-full-stack-development-services-company-jai-infoway-1b6438f17bd6 | [] | 2021-09-01 14:03:15.194000+00:00 | ['Full Stack', 'Full Stack Developer', 'Hire Dedicated Developer', 'Hire Developers', 'Full Stack Development'] |
Room Lighting, Simple — Modern Lights Fixtures | The right lighting can lift the mood and make you calmer and more productive. That’s how professionals do it.
Any skilled designer will tell you that lighting is an essential element in decorating a room — not the next thought that many think about us.
If you’re tempted to spend more time choosing confusing furniture or layouts, remember that lighting can completely transform a room — not only by lighting up a dark corner but by influencing your emotions.
A Brooklyn-based design studio says” known for its eye-catching LED lighting, founded by Charles Brill and Alexander Williams. “The right light lifts the mood increases productivity and motivates us. At home, light brings to life the little things — the morning routine or the moments we spend with friends.” “
Here are some modern light guidelines for creating a well-lit room.
Mix Lights
Most of our designers agree that you need more than one light source in a room. Consider layered lighting: Every room should have a combination of lighting, including ceiling lights, accents, and assignments.
Go light into the kitchen.
Where a place of bright light is more important than the atmosphere in the kitchen, people offer to fill the room by placing high hats or built-in lights on the edge of the ceiling. If you have a kitchen island, be sure to hang a pendant on it, he says, which will shine the room without taking up space you might need to eat or prepare meals. You can also “see your guests without seeing the chandelier.”
And don’t forget about the under-cabinet light: pointing the LED light strip towards the bottom of your upper cupboard is the easiest way to create a well-lit space for cooking and cooking.
Consider spatial orientation
If your room faces north without direct sunlight, you usually need to think a little deeper.
In Chicago, an interior designer installed built-in lights around the living room to the north to complement a center pendant that scatters light horizontally throughout the room. But it doesn’t stop there: she also uses a table lamp to illuminate dark corners and a pair of wall lamps to draw attention to a particular piece of art.
She uses a similar strategy for a dark bedroom: she combines a central pendant lamp with a recessed corner lamp, a night reading lamp, and two sconces above the fireplace across from the bed.
Posted: Modern Lights | Lighting Fixtures Shop | Read more About Light Fixtures | https://medium.com/@lightingshop/room-lighting-simple-modern-lights-fixtures-f02768ac3d73 | ['Kevin Periera'] | 2021-01-21 09:16:22.723000+00:00 | ['Lamps And Bulbs', 'Wall Lamps', 'Ceiling Lights', 'Lights', 'Lighting Fixtures'] |
How I hacked Facebook: Part Two | This article was previously revised by multiple parties before releasing it, and I had to get written permission to release it as well so that some names and information might be changed as a request from Facebook and its partners.
So when I found the first vulnerability in part one Facebook mitigated it after a day of reporting it.. then I had to get back to read the burp suite history and just to see how things worked.
As you can observe in the screenshot, Number 1 in blue, the cookies its ASPXAUTH, Absolutely yes!.
Have you got what I imply? — ASPXAUTH indicates 80% it’s vulnerable but first, you need several things:
validationKey (string): hex-encoded key to use for signature validation.
(string): hex-encoded key to use for signature validation. decryptionMethod (string): (default “AES”).
(string): (default “AES”). decryptionIV (string): hex-encoded initialization vector (defaults to a vector of zeros).
(string): hex-encoded initialization vector (defaults to a vector of zeros). decryptionKey (string): hex-encoded key to use for decryption.
You can read more about that here: MachineKey Class
well, I don’t have these 4 things, so how did I assume it’s vulnerable? — Okay. Actually, I didn’t but most of the application that uses the ASPXAUTH they use only email or user in the encrypted cookies with the encryption keys, and expiration time. I exploited it in other bounty programs websites using the same method many times before, and it worked.
So here I have to find a way to go around this, and I believe there’s nothing to lose by trying, after that, I proceeded to google and searched for other websites that utilized the same application — I assumed here that I will be lucky and find a website that utilizes the same application and same encryption keys and I just have to use the correct admin username.
I did that and I found another website using the same application and the registration is active and I registered using a username that is used by the Facebook admin, I intercepted the request and took the ASPXAUTH and replaced it with the Facebook expired ASPXAUTH, and guess what?
I missed this Panel for a while :) .. but yeah! I’m back into it again, now let’s have a little talk about ASP.net mistake that most developers must be careful while building their applications to secure it according to these several points::
The ASPXAUTH must be stored in the database and the application must check if it’s valid.
must be stored in the database and the application must check if it’s valid. The ASPXAUTH sometimes must contains more than the username as further validation.
sometimes must contains more than the username as further validation. The Encryption and decryption keys must be different from site to site (must change the default keys).
Conclusion 1: I was able to login using any admin account just by knowing the username, the complexity of this vulnerability I consider it very low and the impact is high, If I report only this vulnerability I will get $7500 as the first part but I wanted more.
So I just noticed something in the panel which’s the option of making forms, and there was another option which’s API trigger. So, I suspected something, mostly there’s an SSRF here with no limits at all, according to that I wrote a message to the Facebook Security Team explaining to them my suspicion there’s almost certain critical SSRF in the application, and if I can get permission to test it, and they answered me :
at this point, I was still in contact with them in the report of the first part (The account takeover), because these vulnerabilities were reported a week after the first one. As you can see Facebook Security Team still thinks that I’m claiming that I have another auth bypass and SSRF even after I explained the vulnerabilities to them with proofs. According to that, it means they gave me the green light to test the SSRF.
After a while, I wrote a small script and uploaded it to their editor, the script allowed me to send any request I want with any data (GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, HEAD, OPTIONS) to any URL — internal or/and external.
From the script backend, I was able to change the request method and the sent data, etc
at this point, I was able to escalate this vulnerability to RCE, LFI if I go a little further maybe (I’m not really 100% sure about this point, I asked Facebook later to grant me the permission to reverse engineer the app but they did not accept, and they believe I won’t be able to escalate it).
And I tried to hit the Facebook canary script :), again guess what?
I got my lucky Canary token, Now what’s next? — I have to make a new report with the full details including the scripts and PoC as they mentioned before.
Conclusion 2: By writing a script to send custom-crafted requests I was able to gain an Internal SSRF and gain access to the Facebook internal network, The complexity here I consider it low and the Impact is Critical.
The Full Impact of this SSRF : A successful SSRF attack can often result in unauthorized actions or access to data within the Facebook internal network, either in the vulnerable application itself or on other back-end systems that the application can communicate with. In some situations, the SSRF vulnerability might allow an attacker to perform arbitrary command execution. An SSRF exploit that causes connections to external third-party systems might result in malicious onward attacks that appear to originate from the organization hosting the vulnerable application, leading to potential legal liabilities and reputational damage.
.For more info about SSRF vulnerabilities check this article from portswigger.
Final Conclusion: I chained both vulnerabilities to get to one point which’s accessing the Facebook internal network (SSRF), By using the Account takeover to reach into my uploaded script inside the application which will send custom-crafted requests as I want.
Let’s talk about what I’m able to achieve by using the chain of vulnerabilities I found until now:
I’m able to access any Facebook employee account in the legal department panel.
I don’t need to explain the kind of juicy information the attacker could find after signing in.
I was able to use the SSRF to access the Facebook internal network (intern.our.facebook.com).
With a little more effort I believe I was able to escalate this vulnerability and use it to scan the internal network/servers.
we all know how critical the SSRF is especially it’s not rate limited and I can easily edit the content type and the request methods and as the Facebook payout guidelines say this vulnerability should be rewarded with a bounty of $40,000 with $5000 bonus if I’m able to edit the request content type and the request method.
After a long time of waiting, I just got this message from Facebook :
Got rewarded by Facebook $40,000 plus a $2,000 bonus (which should be $7,000 lol)
so I asked them why I did not get the full control bonus ($5000), and the answer was:
The total with the first vulnerability is $54,800
I reported this vulnerability days after the vulnerability in part one.
Report time Line:
Wednesday, September 9, 2020 — Vulnerabilities reported.
Monday, October 26, 2020 — Facebook asked me to open a new report. ~Mitigation applied.
— Monday, October 26, 2020 — Report Triaged.
Thursday, February 25, 2021 — Fixed and rewarded. ~ 6 months I know lol.
~ Friday, March 5, 2021 — Bonus $5300 rewarded.
I would like to give a Golden tip for the bug hunters, Always when you see ASPXAUTH try to get the cookies from another website that using the same application and test the same method that I did:
Create new ASPXAUTH cookies from the other website.
cookies from the other website. Test if the cookies will work on your target website.
I enjoyed this but waiting 6 months and closing reports for irrational reasons I’m very grateful but all this hard-working, and this is not the only SSRF I found, actually, I found more interesting ones but Facebook closed them as informative because Facebook signed an agreement with the vendor which it was signed weeks after the reports got Triaged which this is not my problem actually, so anyways I just won’t call it the best experience.
This is the final part and I’m sorry if anything is not clear and for the delay in providing part two, as mentioned before, I waited some time for written permission, and the report got revised, so a lot of things got removed or blurred to keep the privacy of the other parties.
you can follow me on Twitter For more write-ups and tips: https://twitter.com/alaa0x2
and you can check the write-up on my personal blog:
https://alaa.blog/2021/02/how-i-hacked-facebook-part-two/
Cheers. | https://infosecwriteups.com/how-i-hacked-facebook-part-two-ffab96d57b19 | ['Alaa Abdulridha'] | 2021-03-19 15:20:50.372000+00:00 | ['Infosec', 'Bug Bounty Tips', 'Facebook', 'Bug Bounty', 'Facebook Bug Bounty'] |
How Trump hurts eSports | President-elect Trump’s stunning upset in Tuesday’s presidential race came on the backs of the Rust Belt’s working-class. His promise to them? End free trade, renegotiate or kill trade agreements, and pull away from globalization.
If Trump delivers on his campaign pledge to increase tariffs on Chinese exports by 45%, the Chinese government will fight back by, among other things, hamstringing American companies operating within their borders. Either by law or by economics, you can expect to see companies like Valve and Blizzard unable to operate as they do today.
To say nothing of potential anti-US sentiment from a Trump-led retreat from international affairs, a trade war with China is not simply some intangible mess for economists to fret over. And what of trade resolutions with Japan and South Korea? If part of Trump tough-dealing with either country over military spending means slashing trade deals and imposing tariffs, you can expect the same frigid ties in Tokyo and Seoul. Increasing consumer and league operating costs will put an end to a flourishing international eSports ecosystem.
Globalization is here. Turning away from the economic reality to soothe a small part of our burned electorate isn’t simply foolhardy, it’s a disservice to a generation prepared for a global economy. If Trump’s tough talk wasn’t just lip-service, you might just look back on region-locking with grit teeth. | https://medium.com/@Voguekun/how-trump-hurts-esports-a5489b7d07c8 | ['Tj Huckabee'] | 2016-11-10 14:48:15.314000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Esports'] |
I Miss My Old Friends | 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/illumination/i-miss-my-old-friends-29d3ba985f4a | ['Jake Penningsworth'] | 2020-12-11 21:38:26.823000+00:00 | ['Haiku', 'Poetry', 'Friends', 'Reflections', 'Emotions'] |
ElDorado Finance | Hidden Treasure
$ELDORADO is simply put a next-generation Store of Value Token on the Binance Smart Chain.
What is ELDORADO?
$ELDORADO is a protocol built to generate long-term value to its investors. It will ultimately be used as a Store of Value token, giving considerable return of investment over time, no matter the stage of the project.
Features
There are many Store of Value Tokens on the Binance Smart Chain. What makes $ELDORADO better? The project is divided in stages, and each stage gradually changes how the Token is used, and what kind of investors are interested in it.
$ELDORADO
At the start, it’ s a very simple Token that greatly rewards early adopters. At the end, it becomes a very safe Token to invest in, with amazing long-term ROI, and full of great opportunities. During its progress through the different stages, we will see many changes affect its price in an upwards fashion.
Token Allocation on the $ELDORADO system.
As you can see the Token Allocation in $ELDORADO is as follows:
50% goes to the Pre-Sale which amounts to 5.000.000 $ELDORADO.
35% goes into the Liquidity Pool which amounts to 3.500.000 $ELDORADO.
10% goes towards the Team which amounts to 1.000.000 $ELDORADO.
5% goes towards the Foundational Reserve which amounts to 5.000.000 $ELDORADO.
STAGES OF $ELDORADO
Stage 1:
Initial Stage, Max Supply of 10.000.000 $ELDORADO, Pools and Partnerships fees disabled, Maximized Redistribution, Burn and LP Fees.
Stage 2:
Reached on 7.500.000 $ELDORADO, 25% of all tokens were burnt, Pools & Partnerships fees enabled, Lower Redistribution, Burn, and LP.
Stage 3:
Reached on 5.000.000 $ELDORADO, 50% of all tokens were burnt, Pools & Partnerships fees increased, Lower Redistribution, Burn, and LP.
Stage 4:
Reached on 2.500.000 $ELDORADO, 75% of all tokens were burnt, Pools & Partnerships fees increased, Lower Redistribution, Burn, and LP.
Stage 5:
Reached on 1.0M $ELDORADO, 90% of all tokens were burnt, Pools & Partnerships fees maximized, Disabled Redistribution, Burn, and LP.
Redistribution:
Many Tokens nowadays have Redistribution (also known as Reflection), as one of their core features.
Redistribution takes a percentage of each transaction as a fee and distributes the amount among all other holders, in a weighted fashion. This is great as a passive and easy to understand mechanism that rewards you for holding the tokens themselves, no action needed from your part.
ELDORADO also implements redistribution, but in an ever-decreasing way, until it’s completely disabled.
Burn
Another trending feature of many tokens is the Burn mechanism.
To burn tokens simply means to send these tokens to a null address, an address no one has or will ever have access to, therefore practically burning them. The effect of burning tokens is to create an artificial shortage of tokens, and so increasing the value of all other remaining tokens. There exist 2 common ways of implementing the burning mechanism of tokens: the manual way and the automated way.
Manual burns have the effect of suddenly creating a price spike on the token, letting the developers decide when the best moment to burn tokens is. Since the developer decides when and how much to burn, this also creates opportunity for mishandling the burns and effecting supply in a negative way, creating too much shortage and rapid price inflation, followed by a dump.
Automated burns have no responsibility on part of the developer, and have the effect of slowly but surely increasing the price of the token over time, in a smooth yet predictive way. We have opted to implement the automated burn, by burning part of the fee you pay for when selling tokens. However, we believe it’ s important to note that Burning can be overdone in an automated way also, creating extreme scarcity, locking all the supply.
We have implemented burning in such a way that its effect is lower over time, until it completely stops and no more coins are burnt. This is why, when ELDORADO reaches Stage 5, burning will be completely stopped, having reduced its initial supply by 90%. We do this in an automated and responsibility-free way, believing in our processes. This is the advantage of a well-tested and trustless system.
Recap:
Redistribution: When someone sells their $ELDORADO, everyone else profits from it.
Burn: On every transaction, there‘s less total $ELDORADO available, creating an upwards price trend.
Liquidity Pool: A small amount of $ELDORADO of every transaction is used to stabilize the price, creating a safer investment.
The Liquidity Pool mechanism combined with the Burn mechanism creates a slowly increasing price over time with stability. Burn alone would make it very volatile.
Pools & Partnerships:
As we discussed earlier, since the biggest LP contributor is not in the Pool, and since most people don‘t feel the need to become Liquidity Providers, it can be extremely profitable to do so and to join the Pool with your LP tokens.
Over time, the transaction fee changes more and more from Redistribution, Burn, and LP to quickstart the project, to Pools & Partnerships, to sustain it over the many years to come.
We will be looking for new and amazing partnerships, creating new pools and refreshing old ones constantly, creating amazingly profitable opportunities for all.
Stage progression:
As time goes by and as more and more investors come into our ecosystem, the more transfers are done and the more we progress into the further stages, by burning supply.
The more stages we advance into, the more we shift from a simple investing strategy to a more partnership and ecosystem strategy, extremely profitable safe and profitable for long-term investors.
Once Stage 5 is reached, the 15% fee that goes to Partnership Pools is extremely high and will without a doubt give us a lot of room for expansion into new projects.
Security:
We will perform various paid and extensive audits, for both proof of identity and code, before launching. We will test everything locally, on the testnet, on a local mainnet node, and finally launch on the mainnet.
We will perform re-locking of Liquidity Pool, the contract, and newly-generated LP tokens every 3 months. This allows for enough flexibility while providing substantial security to all investors.
We will lock 80% of Team Tokens, and release them linearly over the next 2 years and we will lock 100% of the Foundational Reserve and release it all after 3 years.
The information provided here about $ELDORADO is available at eldorado.finance. And specifically in the Goldpaper at
https://eldorado.finance/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Goldpaper.pdf
We thank you dear reader for getting this far, and thank you for being interested in our project and for giving us your trust. For personal inquiries or inquiries about the project please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected]. We are gladly accepting any feedback, criticism or dialogue coming from you.
Thanks again.
Best regards,
Eldorado Finance. | https://medium.com/@eldoradofinance/eldorado-finance-78d4ed1f2118 | [] | 2021-04-09 22:21:30.213000+00:00 | ['Crypto', 'Cryptocurrency Investment', 'Binance', 'Cryptocurrency News', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
The toolkit for the modern data ninja | Doing data analysis can be fun and rewarding. It’s something I do a lot of in my free time. Without the right tools though, it can be frustrating and extremely time consuming. I break down the process of working with data into 4 steps.
Data gathering: Finding and getting the dataset you are interested in Data cleaning: Getting data into the proper format Data exploration: Finding trends and interesting patterns Data visualization: Visualizing the awesome trends you’ve found
Data gathering
The process of gathering data has gotten significantly better in the last 5 to 10 years. It’s now possible to find a huge number of datasets online.
Kaggle
Kaggle introduced a new Datasets feature in 2016, and it has quickly become my favorite place to browse and explore datasets. It allows you to upload your own datasets as well as freely access others. Many people create their own “kernels” which are little scripts to tell a story / analysis about a certain dataset. The caveat of this source is that it’s kind of a free for all and some of the datasets aren’t well documented and the source of the data isn’t clear.
A visualization of a Pokemon dataset found on Kaggle. Don’t ask me to interpret it.
Google BigQuery
Another big player that has really come to fruition in the past few years is Google BigQuery. They host a number of huge, public datasets. Additionally, it’s easy to explore the data via SQL, often times only costing pennies.
Data.gov
Data.gov is a great place to start searching for data involving the government. I’ve found the site to be somewhat hit or miss, often linking me to some unworkable government website. The US government though is getting serious about open data, and this will be tool that I’m sure will improve with time.
Another player in the open data for government realm is Socrata. Look for large city governments to often host their data with them. Some examples include NYC Open Data and the Chicago Data Portal.
Reddit
/r/datasets can often have some very new and nifty datasets. You can also post a request for a piece of information or dataset and occasionally you will get a response.
Another hack that I use occasionally is to browse through /r/dataisbeautiful. All OC (Original Content) posts are required to include in a comment where they got their dataset from.
Awesome Public Datasets
The github repository awesome-public-datasets has links to many types of datasets, aggregated by category.
Scrapy
Sometimes the best data isn’t available via a download button or an easily accessible API. I’ve tried multiple web scrapers, and time and again, I return to Scrapy. If you have programming skills or aren’t afraid to dive into a little bit of python, Scrapy is a very approachable web scraping tool that works well and has great documentation and tooling around it.
My favorite feature is the scrapy shell <url> which will scrape a web page and open a REPL for you to run python commands against until you’ve determined the set of commands required to get the data you’re interested in.
Google
This one is obvious, but still worth mentioning. There are loads of other resources on the web. Googling whatever you’re looking for plus the word “dataset” is a good place to start.
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
Last but not least, if there is some data you really want to get your hands on, you can submit a FOIA request. This law allows you to request data from any federal agency, and they are required to hand it over, unless it falls under an exemption. | https://towardsdatascience.com/a-data-ninjas-toolkit-abfe11d38fe8 | ['Ben Rudolph'] | 2017-09-29 16:46:38.882000+00:00 | ['Data', 'Software Development', 'Data Visualization', 'Data Science', 'Data Analysis'] |
Pretty Lou Celebrates 25 Years in the Music Industry | Pretty Lou Celebrates 25 Years in the Music Industry
Written by: Julz Mancini
Becoming known as one of the biggest voices in New York City, Pretty Lou was a natural crowd pleaser from the beginning of his career. Learning and mastering his craft was imperative as he climbed the ladder in the music industry. Many of the artists, DJs, and radio personalities, whether underground or mainstream, look at Pretty Lou as an inspiration and blueprint to success. When individuals come across a highly successful professional in the business, they typically look at their present status forgetting to reflect on their journey in which helped mold them into the prominent asset they are today. Having the honor of remaining a relevant talent in the industry for twenty five years proves that Pretty Lou has earned every accolade he has accomplished.
Growing up in New York, the “mecca of hip hop”, as Pretty Lou described it, developed his captivation for music. Witnessing artists and DJs control a crowd lured Pretty Lou into his passion in which catapulted his drive and determination to be one of the most sought after people in the industry. During my interview with Pretty Lou he stated, “I didn’t want to become king in another state”, expressing that he had his heart set on remaining in New York City while striving to be recognized for his talent. New York City is a cut-throat area where many struggle to obtain recognition. However, this was not the case for Pretty Lou. He worked diligently on developing himself and creating his own lane.
Pretty Lou recalls having a phone conversation with a girl during his teen years, “What is it about my voice that you love so much?” he asked. “I just love the raspiness, the deepness of your voice. I love hearing it. You know Lou, you ever thought about doing radio in the future?” she expressed. It was after this conversation when Pretty Lou realized this was his niche. Becoming the host of “Front Stage Radio” introduced Pretty Lou to a plethora of talented artists, co-hosts, and DJs in which further enhanced his growth as a personality. With a seven year run, Pretty Lou continued to build his buzz throughout New York City, allowing him to build his foundation and accomplish anything he set his mind to.
He soon started working in local venues and street fairs in Brooklyn which allowed him to branch out obtaining opportunities to manage as well as host. Hosting became Pretty Lou’s bread and butter. He expressed, “I got a genuine high when I got on the mic in a club. If I was ever in pain from anything, getting on stage would alleviate that pain like a Tylenol.” Many of you reading this, who considers music your passion, can resonate with Pretty Lou’s statement.
It was during the early 2000s when Pretty Lou and Hollywood KO started a friendship that later transitioned into a lifelong brotherhood. While working at a strip club, Pretty Lou and Hollywood KO immediately sensed a rare chemistry with one another resulting in an unstoppable force in the club scene. Pretty Lou described his experiences in the club. “When we work in the clubs, he does the music and I’m on the mic. We never practice. It’s like we can read each other’s minds with no words.” It has been ten years since they titled themselves “The Closers”, a name that suits them perfectly as their energy controls every crowd they come in contact with. Being on the mic with well-known DJs such as Flex and Kid Capri, were memorable moments in his career. The connection, however, between KO and Pretty Lou is unmatched. Having performed at the Barclay Center twice together, Pretty Lou reflects on the undeniable stage presence the two shared with the audience, “Me and KO rocked the Barclay Center and it’s crazy because people still talk about it till this day. This is why we are so good together because we don’t even practice.”
As our conversation continued, I asked Pretty Lou about additional relationships he had built throughout the duration of his career. One person who embraced Pretty Lou was Fat Joe. “I’ve known Fat Joe for so long. I look up to him on a business level and in personal life. I tell him everything. There is so much history with us and I know I can call him anytime and he would be there for me. I love this man.” In addition to Fat Joe, Pretty Lou also mentioned Tony Sunshine, expressing that he has one of the best voices he has ever heard. “Tony Sunshine was my partner in crime. I learned a lot about the industry from being close with him.” Pretty Lou also credited DJ Enuff and DJ Camillo as two people he learned a lot from in the music business. He made it clear that relationships are crucial in his line of work. “You take 5 steps back to build a solid relationship to take 10 steps forward.” For those of you whom read my material, I repeatedly mention the importance of building strong relationships in this business. Throughout one’s career, the relationships you develop can be the game changer pertaining to success.
While hosting at Hot 97.1 and filling in at Shade 45 for the last five years, Pretty Lou has had the pleasure of speaking with profound artists in the industry. As if these accolades weren’t amazing enough, three years ago Pretty Lou was invited to become a member of the Heavy Hitter DJs family. He described this experience as unbelievable expressing that this was an opportunity he had dreamt of his entire career. DJ Enuff, the president of Heavy Hitters, surprised him with this invitation, conveying that Pretty Lou had rightfully earned his position. When DJ Enuff announced the news live, on the radio, it became one of the most memorable moments in Pretty Lou’s life.
Along with every path taken to reach success, we are met with bumps in the road. During my interview with Pretty Lou, I learned that he has been battling Leukemia for the past six years. Initially, doctors made the assumption that Pretty Lou had aplastic anemia. However, a few days after being hospitalized, he was diagnosed with Leukemia. He quickly began treatment and stated he is not in remission yet. In June 2019, Pretty Lou attended a chemo session where he unexpectedly fell into a coma. Doctors predicted that he wasn’t going to live through it. However, two weeks later, Pretty Lou pulled through. During the two weeks of uncertainty, the hip hop community could be seen sending prayers and heartfelt thoughts to Pretty Lou and his family. The biggest stars in the industry such as Cardi B, DJ Mustard, and DJ Khaled, to name a few, were there for him in prayer in addition to his loyal fans. Every year, for the last three years, Pretty Lou has put together charity events. As Pretty Lou was fighting to survive, the hip hop industry in which he has a deep love for came together and held a charity concert on his behalf. He described this moment as humbling and amazing. Till this day, he thanks the doctors and nurses who cared for him but states he truly feels that all of the prayers for him are what also helped save his life. As he continues to fight this ongoing battle, he also continues to make a difference in the hip hop community.
During a global pandemic, the human race is filled with uncertainty and turmoil. The music industry has taken a large hit, specifically being unable to hold events, tour, and network in person. Pretty Lou, however, utilized this time to develop a platform that has put him in the spotlight on Instagram. With the pandemic causing his hustle to come to a halt, his wheels began to turn. In mid-March, Pretty Lou launched his IG live show “Turn the Tables”. This show is geared toward upcoming DJs allowing them the opportunity to share their skills with the world. Having celebrity guests on his show as judges such as Fat Joe, DJ Drewski, N.O.R.E., Kelly Rowland, DJ Scratch, Ted Smoothe, and Dave East also brings a different dynamic to the amazing show. The show is built, not only to entertain and give away prizes, but to educate and inform. Every night at 9pm EST, Pretty Lou can be found on his new IG live show, “Turn the Tables”, allowing the contestants two 10 minute sets. The first set requires the DJ contestant to play music from the theme chosen that evening. The second set is related to a trivia question. The winner of the episode moves forward to the championship. The championship winner is awarded with a plaque from both Pretty Lou and Def Jam, a $2k Pioneer DJ controller, and a trip to Puerto Rico. This show has given people hope during one of the most difficult times we have faced while also providing entertainment. During my interview with Pretty Lou he stated, “I revamped myself. Now it’s bigger than radio and clubs. I need the whole industry to know I developed this kind of show. I’m hoping and praying that this season opens the door to television. Now it’s time for the world to see it.”
I was honored to have such an amazing conversation with Pretty Lou. Although he has already added so much value to the hip hop industry, I can tell he has more in store. With everything he has accomplished to what he is currently battling, he is undoubtedly one of the strongest people I have had the pleasure of speaking with. Continuing to push through while also helping others, Pretty Lou remains humble explaining, “As you get older you think of and evaluate life differently.” I am eager and excited to see where his new path leads him. He will continue to leave his mark in the world of hip hop.
To become a witness to history in the making, be sure to follow Pretty Lou on Instagram and tune into “Turn the Tables” every night, Monday through Friday 9pm EST.
FOLLOW PRETTY LOU ON INSTAGRAM! | https://medium.com/@yourdailyjulz/pretty-lou-celebrates-25-years-in-the-music-industry-a3a5d5855909 | ['Julz Mancini'] | 2020-12-15 07:06:34.966000+00:00 | ['Hot 97', 'New York', 'Hiphopnews', 'Hip Hop', 'Hip Hop History'] |
Gangster or an Imposter. | The city of Mumbai had been reeling under a massive spurt in crime. Police had lost all the will power to enforce law and order. There were regular cases of shootouts between rival gangs. One of the gangs stood out in ruthlessness and sophistication to commit crime. It was the black cobra gang.
Rarely any of the members of the gang was ever convicted. There were rumors floating in the city that it had penetrated its tentacles in the government machinery and the judiciary and could influence any decision.
It had become more of a mafia providing protection to the industry and collecting money from them in return. This money was used to bribe judges and the government officials to get their work done.
There were reports in newspapers that one of the police officers had been raided by the Central bureau of investigation and crores of rupees were unearthed from his residence. He had properties in every part of the country.
On investigation it was revealed that he was on the payroll of the black cobra gang and used to act as conduit for their messages, often passing department secrets to them. Whenever a plan was made to arrest any of the gang member, he used to tip them off and they in turn used to be alerted;hence never been caught or hid their ill gotten wealth.
Every industry felt the presence of the gang, the film industry in the financing of movies, real estate, corporate houses, dance bars, drugs, kidnapping, illegal migration; you name any illegal work and its hand was involved. But they were so smart that they never used to be caught due to their influence.
Soon a black day arrived in the annals of the city. All the newspapers carried the headlines that the commissioner of police had been shot at and was fighting for his life in a city hospital.
He was considered to be one of the most honest and upright officers and since his transfer to Mumbai a year back; the gang had begun to feel the heat due to his persistent crackdown on their business and many of their gang members were being eliminated in encounters.
After a day it came to light that the younger brother of the police commissioner had gone missing and their father had died due to the resulting shock.
A meeting was being held in the outskirts of Mumbai in a big Farm house. People had assembled around a table and all of them were in a black dress with the tattoo mark of a black cobra on their right arm.
Twenty persons were present in a room. They were all waiting for their boss, a man in his fifties.Soon a bald man arrived; he was in black coat and tie. All the gangsters stood up as a mark of respect.He raised his hands and gestured them to sit.
Quickly he arrived at a seat at one end of the table and sat down. All the gangsters were quiet, eagerly waiting for him to begin the talk. He was playing with a paper weight lying on the table spinning it again and again. All of a sudden, he looked at one of the gangsters and spoke;
“Peter you were negotiating for the land of empire mills. Has the owner agreed to sell?”
“We were willing to pay Rs 200 million. But he is not willing to settle for anything less than 400 million.Any amount of threats is not working.” Peter replied.
“Anyone who does not listen to us has no right to live in this world. Just send our best trigger man to bump him off.” Christopher Sharma, the boss authoritatively ordered and Peter nodded in agreement.
He now turned towards Michael “Has the film producer agreed to sell us the rights to the territories of his next movie. After all we will gain a lot as he is the best producer in town”
“He was refusing but when we took out the bean shooter he got a shock of his life and agreed to our terms.” Michael replied.
“And what about the heroine for the movie. I want that babe Sandhya to star in the movie.”
“He has agreed to all of our terms.” Michael replied.
“Very good Michael. We require more men like you in our gang.”
The boss now turned towards Cyril. He had joined the gang three years back and had become the blue eyed boy of the boss. His competence lay in dealing with the police and the government department. Any graft or dough that had to be passed onto the police or the government officials; he used to come in handy, as he had built good relationship with them.
“This police commissioner Vijay Kumar has become a pain in our ass. I don’t know how to deal with him.He doesn’t accept any bribe and doesn’t leave us in peace. He survived attack on his life by our chopper squad. This has made him all the more determined and he is after our skin.
The government has increased his security. His actions against our gang members have made him the darling of the public.I want peace in my business. Cyril, I wonder if you can work out a deal with the commissioner.”
“He is believed to be a man of principles. They say his father brought him up in such an atmosphere.He would prefer to die than bend against anyone. But you wishes are my order. I will try to do anything to bring him to the negotiating table.” Cyril replied raising level of confidence in Christopher.
“This is what I expect of you. I know you have never failed in your dealings. Let’s see how you deal with the situation. You can have all the money you want but do try to bring him to the negotiating table. In the end if he does not agree, we would have to eliminate him at any cost. This time there would be no mistake from our side. He would straightaway meet the gods either in heaven or the hell. The only thing is we don’t want enmity with the law, if we can turn them in our favor, the much better.” Christopher completed his sentence.
“I understand boss” Cyril replied.
“I have not heard you playing the flute for a long time.When I hear you play it brings peace to my soul.”Christopher demanded with a smile.
Cyril took out a flute from his pocket and for five minutes played the instrument. All were spellbound and clapped after he stopped playing.
Soon the meeting was over and the gangsters dispersed after discussing all the things on their agenda.
Cyril now got busy with the work. He had to arrange a meeting of his boss with the police commissioner or either try to thaw the relationship between the police and the gangsters. All the resources were there at his disposal. He could use any amount of money that he required, but since the commissioner was considered to be incorruptible man money was of no use.
He began to try to reach the commissioner through a network of informers and began to impress on the police that a meeting would be good for the peace of the city.
Vijay Kumar agreed to meet Christopher and a meeting was arranged at a five star hotel. Being a punctual man he was there 15 minutes before the agreed time. He had reached there with two of his trusted policemen. They were now waiting for Christopher, the gang boss.Music was played around and a dancer was performing to the beats of the music.
At sharp 8:00 PM, Christopher entered the room and proceeded towards a table at the corner of the room. Reaching there he shook hands with the commissioner of police.
“It is my good luck to have met the commissioner of Mumbai police. I have become a great fan of yours after reading of your honesty and straightforwardness.”
“How can you be my fan? If you were my fan you would not have ordered for my shooting”Vijaykumar was blunt in his talks.
The blunt and honest remark hurt the boss where it mattered the most “Let bygones be bygones. We can become good friends. We have always had friendly relationship with police in the past. You can ask for any amount of money. It would be not a constraint. We can instantly make you a multimillionaire.
If you don’t like money we can always donate the money for noble cause; for the policemen who have laid their lives for the good of the society. But please don’t interfere with our work. All the previous police officers have had good relationship with us.”
“See Christopher, you can’t buy my honesty. I have come here to meet you and in order to warn you that you better leave the city for good. Your nefarious activities have harmed the city. If you don’t want to land in jail, you have to give up on your activities.”Vijaykumar’s face had become very stern and he was displaying no emotions.”
“What use is all the enmity? It will not benefit you in any way.” Christopher was taken aback with the sudden warning.
“Till the time I am here as a commissioner you will not be able to carry on with your nefarious activities. It is the last time I am warning you. Otherwise the next time you will be in jail.”
Christopher looked at the five men who had accompanied him. They suddenly took out guns and one of them placed it at the head of Vijaykumar. The other men too placed their guns at the head of the two policemen, even before they could react.
“I had come here to negotiate with you. But it appears that you don’t want to live in this world any longer. We have killed many policemen and you would be an addition in my fair list. My friend! I am really sorry that we have to kill you. Anyone who disagrees with us has no right to live in this world.” Christopher now displayed a crooked smile.
But before the gangsters could do anything, Christopher found a gun pointed at his temple. He turned around to see; it was Cyril.
“Put the gun down. Why you are doing this. You are my most trusted man. Have I not done enough for you?” some tension appeared on the face of Christopher as he was talking.
“Boss I have high regards for you.You are the best boss, anyone can dream of. But you see, money is not everything in life. Relationships also have some value. Ask the men to put down their guns or you would not be alive to talk any further.”
Everyone now dropped their guns on getting signal from Christopher.
“You would be wondering of what relationship I am talking about?” Cyril began to talk again.
“The police commissioner is my elder brother. After your men shot him we made a plan to reach you and I infiltrated your gang. I was keeping a watch on all your activities and arrangement of a meeting was the last part on our agenda. Now you spend the remaining part of your life in jail.If you want I will visit often and play the flute for you.”
Suddenly one of the gangsters took out his gun, but Cyril was alert and shot at him. He was wounded and fell on the floor. In all the commotion the boss found a chance and tried to run away. Cyril shot at his legs and he fell on the floor. The police soon rounded all the gangsters.
Cyril had achieved success in his mission. Most of the crime in Mumbai had reduced and it became a peaceful city. Cyril as usual enjoyed playing the flute, with nothing to bother him. | https://medium.com/illumination/gangster-or-an-imposter-678a508526e8 | ['Deepak Sethi'] | 2020-12-23 02:27:26.053000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Life Lessons', 'Writing', 'Fiction', 'Short Story'] |
he doctor told me as I blinked my eyes open, confused and scared. | Please help us. There must be something you can do to save his leg.
I was in a heavily medicated daze. But I could just about make out that the doctor wanted to amputate my leg.
“We’ve done all we can to
stabilize him…”
the doctor told her,
But it looks like it’s too late.”
I couldn’t believe it. I was hours away from losing my leg to diabetes? I was 59 and had become a proud grandfather for the first time.
I had plans to enjoy my retirement. To spend time with family and travel the world with my wife, Linda. I couldn’t do any of this with one leg.
My life as I knew it would end in a blink of an eye.
I’d be in a wheelchair at my son’s wedding in a few months’ time.
I’d done everything my doctor told me to. And now because I was one of the 30 million Americans with diabetes….
This Horrific Disease Was Going To Rob Me Of My Retirement And Put Me In A Wheelchair For Life
Diabetes had devastated my body and made me a slave to my medication…
The doctor made it clear that my leg needed to be sawn off and the surgical procedure was very risky. There could be complications.
But what he said next was much worse.
You fell into a hyperosmolar nonketotic coma.
Your blood sugar level was the highest I’ve ever seen here when the paramedics brought you in.
It’s only because of their quick response that you don’t have brain damage.
What he said next hit me like a ton of bricks.
We have to be clear about one thing:
Next Time You Won’t Be So Lucky…
And unless you fix your blood sugar that time could be as soon as next week.
So why am I telling you this?
I’m telling you this because I lived to tell the tale…
I Reversed My Type 2 Diabetes
And You Can Too…
And it was all thanks to my adorable 4-year-old grandson, Lucas. He saved my life.
Back then when I was lying in the hospital, about to have my leg amputated, I knew nothing about this deadly disease except to take my medication.
Yet this brush with death was what forced me on the unlikely journey that reversed my type 2 diabetes and changed my life forever.
Since that day, I’ve discovered the scientific proof that you can reverse your type 2 diabetes.
In a moment you’ll see the evidence with your own eyes.
You can be sure it’s NOT what you think.
Forget what you’ve heard about diabetes when they told you it’s caused by:
Your genetics or your family history
Your age, your weight or even…
Eating too much sugar or carbs
The truth, according to a breakthrough American study from the University of Utah, is that the cause of diabetes type 2 is a tiny lipid molecule that makes your fat cells go haywire. | https://medium.com/@fitnesshealthproducts/he-doctor-told-me-as-i-blinked-my-eyes-open-confused-and-scared-f14b090fc128 | ['Saeful Anwar'] | 2021-02-22 08:33:50.226000+00:00 | ['Solutions', 'Diabetes'] |
My weekdays, in pseudocode | So how do you transition from your regular life to a full-time online boot camp?
A lot of folks in my cohort have quit or are about to quit their full-time jobs. I haven’t had an official full-time job since before my teens were born. Instead, I have a lot of little daily tasks that suck up my day.
I do some admin work for the small company I run, I teach four afternoons a week and I drive my teens all over the metro DC area: to and from school, practice, meets, doctor visits and outings with friends.
Doesn’t sound like much, but it’s actually quite complicated. So complicated that I decided to pseudocode it. Pseudocode is a plain English version of what you want your code to do. Writing in pseudocode before writing the actual code is kind of like a framing a house before building it.
I started out by defining a method, homework. For me, that is work I from home, which might include admin tasks, studying coding or doing dishes.
Find_teen2
Before tackling my main schedule, I had to write a helper method, about a huge part of my day: #find_teen2.
I have two teens, one with a serious phone addiction. Parental control software helped … until one night teen2 got so mad about the time limits that he destroyed his phone. Now teen2 does more homework and sometimes even talks to us.
I can’t replace the phone he broke, because that would be bad parenting. He’s in no hurry to buy a new one for himself because he’s shifted his addiction to our home computer (sigh — will tackle that next).
BUT — I miss teen2's phone! Without it, I can’t track or text him. Is practice canceled, ending early or late? Did teen2 skip practice and take the bus home? Is teen2 heading to friend’s house and forgot to say? Without a phone, who knows? Neither one of us is telepathic. Nevertheless, it’s my job to pick him up.
Here’s what it looks like in pseudo code:
Morning
With the find_teen2 block defined, it was easier to pseudocode my weekday schedule. Here’s the morning part. Note: teen1 is in a special program that includes tutors at home and just a few classes a day at the school itself. If all goes well with teen1 and my company, and if there are no snow day/ weather emergencies, school lockdowns etc …. morning gives me about three hours to do Flatiron work.
Afternoon:
I currently teach four afternoons a week. Each class is only one hour long. But they are in different parts of town — some quite close and some not. On teaching days, I’m prepping, driving, teaching or finding teen2 from about 2pm — 6pm. Some of that involves waiting in the car, and sometimes that coincides with a Flatiron study session, so I’ll drop in via phone. Not the best way to participate, but works fairly well.
Evening
Evening, of course, varies by day of week. Evening homework is mostly Flatiron work, and it often keeps me up past 1am …
Here’s hoping I can make this work for the rest of boot camp!
Copyright © Joan Indiana Lyness 2019 | https://medium.com/@joanrigdon/my-weekdays-in-pseudocode-5955dfd95297 | ['Joan Indiana Lyness'] | 2019-09-26 18:50:08.524000+00:00 | ['Teens', 'Flatiron School', 'Ruby', 'Pseudocode', 'Parenting'] |
Our First Month Live! | MARKET Protocol by the numbers:
525 registered users, 2000+ unique website visitors
$200,000+ locked in smart contracts over two contract expirations
250+ trades in SBTC and LBTC
Traded on two exchanges — MPX and DDEX
Podcasts — Listen to Seth Rubin on Wyre Talks and BlockCrunch
We had some great support on twitter from Erik Voorhees, Andrew Keys, Kieran Daniels and more.
Week 1:
We made a bunch of changes to the GUI to address some of our most common questions about leverage and price. Now traders can easily see max gain, max loss, leverage and implied price via tooltip.
Bitcoin ripped! We nearly breached our Price Cap of $14,000 three days into trading before screaming off of the highs. One savvy trader put on some perfect trades I highlighted in the best trades of week with 35x leverage!
Week 2:
The v2 roadmap was posted in our blog post What’s next for MARKET Protocol. We implemented blocknative to handle web3 connectivity states. We released the first version of MP Tools as an easy way to learn more about LBTC and SBTC. You can see the implied price of bitcoin and how much leverage is implied at different prices.
Week 3:
We had our first expiration go off without a hitch settling bitcoin at $10,330.50. Holders of open positions began redeeming their collateral. Next, we launched on DDEX bringing SBTC and LBTC to a new set of users.
We’ve had over 100 people sign up for our MP rewards program. MKT tokens are currently held by over 250 accounts. Read our v2 roadmap for more information.
v2 Roadmap
Week 4:
We were happy to be part of the first AMA in the DeFi the World Series initiated by DeFi Labs, DOS Network and Hydro Protocol on WeChat alongside with Anton from Kyber Network.
We are also proud to have our first third-party implementation — an exciting project building a BTC hash rate index on top of MARKET Protocol. Please take a look at CarboClan’s Tokenized Synthetic PoW Mining Contract.
We would love to get you trading.
Are you hodling Bitcoin? Use LBTC to get 3x the exposure for the same collateral. Think we’re going down from here? Now you can profit from a decline in price.
We are offering one on one help on trading with leverage or anything else. All we ask for it a little feedback. Reach out on Discord, Telegram or Google Hangouts. Please grab 15 minutes here. | https://medium.com/market-protocol/our-first-month-live-291eb121b0f | ['Seth Rubin'] | 2019-08-01 19:26:51.011000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin', 'Crypto', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Ethereum'] |
Why You Should Seriously Consider Keeping a Diary | Why is it important to keep a diary?
Insofar as I’ve written, I utilized my diary to vent my feelings. Still being in a pandemic, I find it necessary to have an outlet for things we fear to speak about. Rarely, we get to discuss our feelings with another person, and even after the discussion, there leaves an impression on us that we might not have been totally understood by our confidant. A diary gives you a sense of security that what you write is not given unfair judgement, or no judgement at all.
Actress Jennifer Aniston, or what her ‘friends’ call her, Jen, has had six separate diaries from when she was thirteen to now in her fifties. Her friends described her relationship with her diaries as therapy sessions.
The beautiful Emma Watson owns 10 diaries of her own!
“I keep a dream diary. I keep a yoga diary. I keep diaries on people that I’ve met, and things that they’ve said to me; advice that they’ve given me. I keep an acting journal. I keep collage books,” she listed. Below are the advantages granted by keeping a diary.
Understand your thoughts more clearly
The mind is the body’s fascinating centerpiece. It carries out body functions, like metabolism, digestion, and involuntary functions, such as breathing. To add, it is able to generate, and release chemicals, or hormones that influence how we think; furthermore, it can conjure imaginary scenarios, or what-ifs that raises one’s anxiety levels to the point of a panic spiral.
Exhaustion of the mind occurs very often in people who are suffering from a mental health disorder. These occurrences are often left unresolved. In coping with my anxiety, and depression, I find comfort in writing. For me, my fears and sadness are somehow validated when they are put into paper. When I write on my diary, a day of suffering is concluded with a period (.) signaling a resolved, or a done deal. The simple dot somehow tricks me in believing that I can be brand-new again for a new day.
Additionally, committing to a diary will keep track of how you feel generally, and in due time, there will emerge a pattern that can explain what makes you miserable, or what causes you elation.
2. Stress Reliever
Scientific studies have shown that writing about stressful, or traumatic events bridges people towards acceptance, and to make peace of such. In a research article published by the American Psychological Association (APA), expressive writing, that includes the likes of journaling, was revealed to reduce denial of negative events.
Co-author Adriel Boals writes,
“At least for fairly minor life problems, something as simple as writing about the problem for 20 minutes can yield important effects not only in terms of physical health and mental health, but also in terms of cognitive abilities.”
In a similar note, we sentimentalize our writing to express anger, and frustration, at least I do. When it happens, we feel even more spiteful than prior, and that combustion somehow alleviates how we feel towards the other person, and in time, we find ourselves calm, and over that hill.
The next day, we open our diaries to revisit what we wrote. In the rearview, we understand that we were enslaved by our own red-hot anger that we thought unfairly of the person, and as much as we hate to admit it, we put the accused under a very bad light. Now, we think we owe the person an apology. This is when the fog that blinded us before is lifted.
This realization can also intercept us while writing. For other people, transcribing emotions into words is enough to make them rethink of their resentments. This is what I’d like to call ‘reflection in real time.’
To add, a diary is very personal; hence, very private. It is very unethical to squirrel a glance in someone else’s diary. Worst of all, to use their words against them.
3. It houses memories
The highlights in a person’s life are documented in a diary, and because there’s no one to impress with it, mundane events, and unsound ambitions are easily accessible to one’s self when writing. It can be about an uneventful pancake flip that makes you feel cool, or grimly, how devastated you felt about the death of a family dog who you’ve treated rottenly before. Whatever memory you decide to store in your diary, it will live in there, perhaps, forever.
Treat it like a vault, or a treasure chest that only you can open. Years from now, when you’re burned out because of work, or undecided for a life-changing decision, you can reenter the days that you were happy, or facing the same struggles, and you’ll see that, just like before, you can move pass, and overcome the predicament you’re in. | https://medium.com/@floranocarlvincent/why-you-should-seriously-consider-keeping-a-diary-8570a1ec6857 | ['Carl Vincent Florano'] | 2021-09-07 21:36:33.289000+00:00 | ['Self', 'Mindfulness', 'Diary', 'Mental Health', 'Writing'] |
Tentpole Days | Photo by Xiaolong Wong on Unsplash
Black Friday and Boxing Day have a couple of things in common:
They are tacked on to a holiday, resulting in them becoming a holiday themselves (to a degree). They are both associated with goods and services going on sale for a limited time.
I want to focus on that second point for a moment.
If i was looking at which of the two days was a more productive one based on that point alone, I’d say Black Friday wins out. Why? Because the sales happening before Christmas are proactive. On Boxing Day they are reactive, with the idea that stores need to offload stock they didn’t sell leading up to Christmas.
But business owners are a savvy bunch. They work Boxing Day sales into their plans, meaning that they don’t necessarily lose money through sales on that day. Instead, they are selective about orders and positioning of products for their Boxing Day sales. If they plan accordingly, Boxing Day can be a solid day for them — even their best sales day of the year.
These two days — Black Friday and Boxing Day — are tentpole days for many retailers (some don’t observe either, such as Costco). When handled wisely, these days can be looked forward to with less anxiety and more anticipation. When handled poorly, they can do the opposite of their intent — keep a business from going into the black, instead leaning (or careening) into the red.
You have tentpole days like this in your life. New Year’s Day could be one. Your birthday could be another. Take some time to plan them accordingly so that they are as profitable — and as productive — as possible. | https://medium.com/about-time/tentpole-days-db2adbd64550 | ['Mike Vardy'] | 2020-12-26 12:21:04.178000+00:00 | ['Attention', 'Intentions', 'Time Management', 'Productivity'] |
The Leftists and Anarchists of DSOC, BLM, and Antifa have been pushing an agenda to deligitimize… | The Leftists and Anarchists of DSOC, BLM, and Antifa have been pushing an agenda to deligitimize American institutions, sow disunity, foment disorder, and start a civil war. They started waves of arson, rioting, and looting in major cities last Spring. Progressive Democrat leaders of these cities were frozen into inaction and capitulation to mob rule. They agreed to police defunding and other dismantling of law enforcement. Crime rates shot up. The Democrat Party has been infiltrated and infested. Some see the need to put a moderate veneer on the front door. Further, many traditional Democrats of all races and backgrounds want no part of the radical agenda. But they are being duped, led along, or scared into conformity by the repressive groupthink and Cancel Culture. By refusing to accept the election of 2016 and calling themselves the Resistance, the Left Democrats set the country onto a dangerous path in which no side automatically accepts the legitimacy of elections. The Trump team has been unable to produce enough evidence of fraud in court to overturn the count. On the other hand, the electoral process this time was shot through with mechanisms, such as mass mailout of ballots, extended deadlines, and ballot harvesting that invite cheating and don’t leave any traces. The lack of transparency means it is hard to show the election was fair. Don’t blame the other side for fighting back when it was Democrats who threw the first punches. Democrat threats to change the rules of the system only promote greater disunity. The way back to unity is clear: Democrats need to purge their Left Wing Progressives, promote more secure and transparent elections, reverse police defunding, stop riots, dismantle the Divisiveness bureaucracy, cancel the Cancel Culture, rein in the Big Tech Giants, and drop all attempts to change the structures of government for partisan advantage. Will that happen? Not likely. But at least let’s be clear it is the Leftists and Anarchists driving these attempts to divide America. | https://medium.com/@caleb-mars/the-leftists-and-anarchists-of-dsoc-blm-and-antifa-have-been-pushing-an-agenda-to-deligitimize-931c0c933368 | ['Caleb Mars'] | 2020-12-27 19:03:42.152000+00:00 | ['Riots', 'Democrats', 'Blm', 'Antifa', 'Politics'] |
Fight Against Fraud And Money Laundering. The Experience of The Cryptoсurrency Platform | What is now happening globally?
The Fifth Directive of the European Commission Against Money Laundering (AML) was issued in July 2018, it deals with the regulation of cryptocurrencies. New rules are more strict, due to ensuring the transparency of transactions conducted by anonymous parties using cryptocurrency trading platforms. EU member states are required to implement the amended rules in their national laws no later than January 20, 2020.
This June, the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) Development Group published the final version of recommendations for the regulation of cryptocurrencies and the activity of cryptocurrency services operators. It is proposed to oblige cryptocurrency service providers (VASPs), including cryptocurrency exchanges, to follow AML and Counter-terrorism Financing (CFT) procedures are quite similar to traditional financial companies. Сountries that are members of the FATF must bring the legislation in line with the new recommendations, and the local VASP needs to debug the transaction tracking process until June 2020.
Many countries have already added the appropriate changes to their laws: ahead of the rest, we have Belarus, Great Britain, Germany, Canada, Netherlands, Thailand, Finland, Switzerland, South Korea, and Japan. Russian authorities have also repeatedly noted that they will regulate the cryptocurrency market joint with the FATF.
Summarizing, we can say that cryptocurrencies are a subject to the transparency standard that governments are striving to set for the entire financial sector.
Unified global cryptocurrency transaction registry
One of the most important statements in FATF recommendations is the obligation of cryptocurrency services operators to transfer information about clients’ transactions of funds. At the same time, this information includes both transfers in fiat and cryptocurrencies. Mainly, we are talking about KYT (Know Your Transaction), which includes checking the client’s cryptocurrencies for involvement in criminal schemes.
To fit this requirement, cryptocurrency services operators will have to create a database of customers. Quite a similar situation was in 2016 when traditional finances by the international SWIFT system started forming the global KYC registry.
Changes and updates in cryptocurrency exchanges work
All cryptocurrency platforms and exchanges need to “change some rules” to fit new requirements:
- an access for users from countries under international sanctions are being limited;
- anonymous cryptocurrencies are being delisted;
- for some countries, branches must comply with local laws;
- the collaboration with analytical services that facilitate the implementation of customers transaction monitoring requirements;
- a cooperation with regulators, creation of own associations aimed at the formation of common international standards;
- interaction with law enforcement and tax authorities.
It is worth noting that even decentralized exchanges such as IDEX is a clear example of fulfilling the requirements and introducing a mandatory verification of all users. Representatives of the platform referred to a statement by Brian Quintans, a member of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), that developers can be held accountable for illegal operations carried out by third parties using their smart contracts.
New cryptocurrency platforms for Trading
At the same time, traditional cryptocurrency exchanges have new competitors created by large corporations. What is important, such exchanges much easier can get the approval of state regulators, and therefore it is easier for them to establish cooperation with some partners from traditional finances, primarily with banks.
The most famous example is Bakkt, it is owned by Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the operator of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The platform received all the necessary work licenses from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Another similar example is the fully regulated Boerse Stuttgart Digital Exchange (BSDEX), launched by Börse Stuttgart (SWB), second Germany’s largest exchange for the trading volume.
Potentially, they can “squeeze out” the usual exchanges and occupy the bulk of the market, attracting new large institutional clients at the same time. In other words, they can become major players at a new stage in the development of the entire cryptocurrency industry.
On the other hand, there is an expectation that the resistance of a part of the cryptocurrency community to the trend towards transparency and deanonymization can stimulate the development and distribution of truly decentralized exchanges (DEX), which at the moment have not gained mass popularity due to the complex interface. True, there is a possibility that the creators of such sites can also be held accountable for facilitating money laundering, as the developers of the same IDEX referred to.
Services helping cryptocurrency companies to feet AML requirements
The need for tracking transactions in the blockchain, together with a check of involvement in criminal activity, contributed to the development of many services, which can help in solving this problem.
For example, EXMO partnered with the world-famous company CipherTrace. The system monitors cryptocurrency flows and assigns 1–10 risk level to wallets, depending on whether this address was received or sent by funds that were previously seen in use by drug stores, terrorist organizations, scam projects or mixers.
There are about 20 similar projects on the market. Both government agencies of various countries and cryptocurrency exchanges turn to get help from such services. Moreover, the sites which belong to SBI Holdings and Rakuten also such.
Many venture investors see prospects in the development of these projects, for example, CipherTrace attracted $ 15 million investment from Galaxy Digital by Mike Novogratz, Aspect Ventures, Neotribe Ventures, and WestWave Capital in early 2019.
So shortly we can expect further development of such services and the distribution of their services at different sites working with cryptocurrencies. At the same time, their influence on the industry will grow.
Blockchain transactions are more transparent than may seem
Governments of many countries are working on their system for tracking and identifying currency transactions in the blockchain. At the G7 summit in July, U.S. Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin argued that the U.S. in 2019 they had enough sophisticated transaction scoring methods to begin the second phase of legislative regulation of decentralized finance.
And the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said that they are happy that cryptocurrencies are used by drug dealers a year ago, as this simplifies the process of tracking illegal transactions.
Curiously, last year Edward Snowden submitted secret documents according to which the US National Security Agency has been tracking bitcoin owners since at least 2013.
Prohibition of the anonymous cryptocurrencies
In connection with all the information outlined above, we observe close attention to anonymous cryptocurrencies, due they are created to increase anonymity.
In 2019, all anonymous cryptocurrencies were officially banned in Japan. The need to implement such a ban is being discussed in other countries like France and Italy.
Some cryptocurrency exchanges prefer to play it safe and remove anonymous cryptocurrencies from their sites in individual countries.
It is worth to note that developers of these projects also monitor the actual situation and strive to meet the requirements for combating money laundering. For example, in 2016, Dash began cooperating with the Coinfirm blockchain platform to comply with the provisions of KYC and AML. The startup announced a new partnership with BlockchainIntel to meet the regulatory requirements of exchanges this year. ZCash team also claimed that with some additions they can meet the requirements while maintaining the anonymity of transactions.
It is worth noting that according to CipherTrace’s study during the first half of 2019, criminals mostly prefer Bitcoins to any anonymous cryptocurrencies since anonymous crypto has more limited options to Buy and Sell. So, talking about illegal trading, Bitcoin is used in 76% of cases, and ransomware viruses — in 98%.
Probability of a banning cryptocurrency ATMs and mixers
Over the past 3 three years, the number of cryptocurrency terminals has grown worldwide in 6 times. But increasingly, authorities are talking about their use for illegal purposes. Spanish police believe that Bitcoin ATMs are widely used for illegal drug payments since they are not spelled out in EU AML rules.
In Canada, the mayor of Vancouver has already proposed banning crypto machines. The local police department notes that criminals can easily establish their crypto machines and use them to launder money. And in Russia, crypto machines were seized in 6 cities at the request of the Prosecutor General and the Central Bank last year.
Also, cryptocurrency mixers are often considered as laundering agents. These are online services that can increase the degree of anonymity in working with cryptocurrency, complicate or make it almost impossible to track transactions in the system.
In early 2019, LongHash website noted that the number of anonymous Bitcoin transactions using mixing technology increased 4 times during the last 9 months. Mixers periodically close in Europe. There are cases when such services decided to close on their own. There were even allegations that North Korea used them to circumvent sanctions.
Moreover, according to Chainalysis, only a small amount of bitcoins passed through mixer services is used for illegal purposes. 8.1% of coins in the mixers were stolen, and 2.7% were used to make transactions on the darknet, another 1.9% are transferred from gambling sites, which may be considered illegal depending on the jurisdiction.
The subtleties of laundering via cryptocurrencies
According to the statement of Rob Wainwright, the head of Europol, at the end of 2018, money laundering through cryptocurrencies accounts for 3–4% of all shadow finances (approximately $ 4–5 billion) in Europe.
At the same time, cryptocurrencies are becoming less attractive to criminals. For example, according to a study by the RAND Center for International Security and Defense Policy of the American corporation, digital assets are not threatened as a tool for financing global terrorism, because it “does not provide proper anonymity, it has limited real-life applications, transactions are unsafe, the turnover is negligible, and crypto exchanges are constantly suffering from hacking.”
What is the market’s opinion on AML policy?
Taking into account the main values and ideas of blockchain technologies — anonymity, freedom, and non-control over the movement of financial flows, I think everyone understands that the compliance with KYC/AML is perceived ambiguously in the crypto community. Also, full compliance with these requirements often entails significant additional costs for companies, and after that, a decrease in resources aimed directly at development.
Market players are aware of the reliability of the site increases, as well as the security of all operations and customer funds, the level of fraud in the industry decreases, and additional security guarantees are provided to users.
Moreover, withdrawals of funds from illegal activities are prevented in real life (such as drugs, child pornography, and more). There is no need in saying that banks, brokers and other representatives of the traditional financial industry are much more willing to cooperate, which forms a favorable environment for the development of new areas of fintech related to cryptocurrencies, such as banking, insurance, and loans.
Of course, the issue of transparency and full accountability in the modern world is perhaps one of the most controversial. However, the positive consequences of introducing AML requirements into the cryptocurrency industry may eventually lead to an unconditionally positive transformation of the entire financial system. | https://medium.com/exmo-official/fight-against-fraud-and-money-laundering-the-experience-of-the-crypto%D1%81urrency-platform-713d29cd69fe | ['Valeriya Kolomiychenko'] | 2019-11-21 09:04:20.682000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Crypto', 'Bitcoin', 'Kyc', 'Fraud'] |
Redefining “Successful” Writing | “A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit” — Richard Bach
Re-Orientation
I found myself, not too long ago, discouraged by the content that had been materializing from the tips of my fingers, realizing that I had, to some effect, sold out. I had been writing click-bait articles that carried little semblance of meaning to anyone, as well as completely uninteresting legal summaries. If I wanted to, I could have immersed myself more to the point that these would provide a very modest income but, demoralized by what I was actually writing, I arrived at a long creative hiatus which prompted a redefinition of this wonderful art that I consider a centerpiece in my life. Money had previously motivated me above all else and, once that became the reality, everything became contaminated.
Upon rekindling the practice of writing, at which point I realized and truly came to know the real reasons behind my passion, financial gain meant nothing. I had been liberated, no longer needing to write in a manner by which I had been concerned about the potential for exposure or bored by the dry content I had merely been condensing and regurgitating. Rather than being a slave to the keyboard and to a task, I had become the champion of a passion.
This article, situated in the manner that it is situated and presented in the way it is, may seem a tad hypocritical; that the notion of success has been weaved into writing is questionable in the first place, though I approach this as the new reality given the far reaching potential of social media. Some of us want to reach broader horizons, share information, etc. All in all, we must worry about writing first, and only once we’re writing in the way that want to, should we worry about success and the nuances that surround it. If we treat writing the way we treat breathing, eating, and sleeping, then success inevitably awaits us sans any desperate we may employ towards attaining it. | https://woronko.medium.com/redefining-successful-writing-ca962e697039 | ['Michael Woronko'] | 2018-11-03 13:47:05.257000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Success', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Writing', 'Writing Tips'] |
I found myself asking this question yesterday | Do the elected leaders of my country, Australia, and of the USA, and the UK, actually want democracy? There is a form of capitalism that sees any restraint on accumulation of capital, be that through taxes, regulation, public ownership of commons assets and essential services, as illegitimate. The purpose is profit over everything.
Democracy interferes with this level of accumulation.
This type of capitalism has become main stream as governments under our watch said, gradually then quickly, yes to corporate money in politics, to media being owned by one family, to the accumulation elites holding the reigns of power, many as elected officials with too many conflicts of interest to be able to hold any form of ethics.
The people with the accumulated financial power (and to be clear this is the only power they have — history has revealed time and again that the real power rests with the masses of people who are awakened to revolution) have little to no interest in democracy.
When a member of parliament votes to allow a country to own a strategic port in our nation, and six months later resigns to be given an $800,000 a year salaried job with the company that manages the port…and no one raises this as a violation of ethics, we have reached the point where revolution is near. When an election that was clearly legal is propagated as fraudulent by an entire party, we are nearing revolution. When lies and hypocrisy are common currency, we are near our ‘let them eat cake,‘ moment.
Democracy says people have rights and responsibilities. But as I have written before, we want our rights but are slow in taking responsibility.
Citizenship is an act, not a spectator sport. Each of us, we the people, are responsible for speaking for democracy.
To begin, our children need to be taught citizenship, stewardship, what it means to have healthy commons, how we take care of our democracy, our home planet, the future.
If we want to live in a democracy, then it is up to us to be a stand for that. To not subjugate our power to the politicians in some naive hope that they will do the right thing.
It is up to us to hold them to account. To break down the Murdocracy. To demand the separation of corporate money in politics. To insist on an integrity commission. To be sure every human can vote.
Or wake up one day and find that democracy died, on our watch.
Photo taken December 15th 2020
#worldwithafuture #businessreimagined #syntropicworld #syntropicenterprise | https://medium.com/@christine-mcd/i-found-myself-asking-this-question-yesterday-3260f7b882d7 | ['Christine Mcdougall'] | 2020-12-14 21:10:54.185000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Power', 'Democracy', 'Syntropic World', 'Syntropic Enterprise'] |
How to Test Mobile Applications With Game Emulators? | Currently, there is a need for more agile application development supported by better testing capabilities across companies since mobile phone usage is escalating worldwide. We make use of phones for almost all activities ranging from socializing to shopping to doing all sorts of recreational activities.
It has immensely increased the pressure on developers and application testers. Thus, every other application that’s produced today has to go through a rigorous phase of testing to trace any bugs and ensure better performance. Moreover, mobile app testing services are motivated to find out better ways to carry out quality testing. In fact, the use of emulators and simulators are gaining popularity for their use in application testing nowadays because of the massive list of benefits attached to it.
What are Emulators?
In computing language, an Emulator is any hardware or software that enables a ‘host’ computer system to behave like another computer, usually referred to as the ‘guest’ system. It enables the host system to run a software program originally designed for the guest system. It basically refers to how a computer program ‘imitates’ another program’s architecture from a different system.
What are Game Emulators?
In gaming, a video game console emulator is a component of software or hardware that allows a computing device to emulate a video game console and run it on the guest system. Under most situations, a gaming emulator’s features can easily surpass the limitations of the guest system’s hardware like broader controller compatibility, timescale control, greater performance, clearer quality, easier access to memory modifications, one-click cheat codes, and gameplay features unlock options. It helps the system run more smoothly.
Gaming Emulators mostly work on a ROM that’s ‘read-only memory,’ which helps store a copy of the original game in the system that can be later downloaded from the cartridge into the system using special hardware.
Why Use Emulators to Test Mobile Applications?
There are reasons why most companies today are switching to the use of emulators in their businesses. Given below are a few of them
Enhanced for CI workflow
Emulators & simulators are best suited for Continuous Integration (CI) pipelines because of their scalability and ease of provision, providing you with comprehensive coverage.
Improvement In Quality
Emulators help reduce build time and iterate more frequently on your mobile applications or websites. It helps find bugs earlier and improve the quality of your application in the long run.
Cost-Friendly Mobile Test Approach
With the help of emulators and simulators, you can easily run functional tests at a fraction of real devices’ cost. With this, you can have the liberty to add real devices at the end of the development cycle when you need to test your app for real-world conditions.
Things to Consider While Testing Mobile Apps on Game Emulators
Having said all about emulators and how it can be beneficial for you as a developer to test your applications on them, you need to consider certain things before proceeding with it.
Legality & Security
While using a game emulator to test your application, you need to be sure that it does not contain any third-party software or proprietary code. You must always check with your company’s legal department for your existing rules in using software to be sure. Even if you wish to be sure, try running your emulator on a separate system, not connected with any of your company’s devices, or having personal or confidential data. Many ways are used to help you much, mimic, or secure code for temporary uses. But be sure to run the test plan with your security team first, or else you’ll be exposing your company to danger from malicious practices.
Variation in Device and Platform
Mostly the gaming emulators we use today are based on the Android operating system as it offers a variety of mobile devices for testing. iOS systems, though exist, are mostly restricted. From the settings menu in Android, you can choose a predefined device profile for any specific type of device that you wish to test on. Additionally, you can also create a custom Android profile and designate a mobile network. This helps QA engineers extend mobile app testing methods onto more available device types without adding cost to their budget.
Game Emulator Tools
Game emulators are easy on the budget and help testing applications across a wide range of devices. If needed, you can always look for a professional testing services provider that can help you make these processes smoother. Meanwhile, you can still use a range of free and paid tools available online for mobile application testing using gaming emulators. A few of them are given below
BlueStack
BlueStacks is popular android emulators that work on both Windows and iOS operating systems. It’s an app that’s routinely updated for bugs and the latest versions that can help you test your mobile software quickly. While it has been designed to support any Android application, it’s excellent for improving the gaming experiences of Android video games on Windows. One of the best features of Bluestacks is its outstanding graphic quality that helps you run high graphic games on your system with ease.
2. NoxPlayer
NoxPlayer is another free Android emulator that works for both Windows and Apple operating systems. Crafted and designed by BigNox, it is comparatively the most stable gaming emulator available in the market, with regular updates and bug fixes that help a lot in application testing. It has a faster keyboard option as it comes with keyboard mapping. It’s easy to download and is used on Windows 10 and Mac.
3. LambdaTest
Lambda test comes with a lot of choices for combinations of browser compatibility and operating systems. It’s excellent with fixing bugs in real-time with the help of its inbuilt developer tool. It has a tunnel feature that provides added benefits for testing both locally and privately hosted pages. It facilitates cross-browser testing on several mobile browsers, such as Safari, Mozilla, and Google Chrome.
4. Genymotion
Genymotion is easy to use and a handy emulator with unique features for a beginner to start with. It comes with an OpenGL graphic card that helps render 2D and 3D vector graphics that make it the fastest Android emulator of all. It’s available on multiple OSs like Windows, Linux, OS and comes with plugins for both Eclipse and Android Studio. It also allows the use of a webcam for an emulated device as a camera. ADB commands can also be performed by using the ADB tunnel.
5. Android Studio
The Android studio comes with a wide variety of tools that help developers design and build dedicated games and applications for Android, along with a built-in emulator that aids in testing your applications. However, the setup is a bit complicated for a beginner while it can be ideal for a developer. It is an intelligent software with unique features like Kotlin and Java support, besides C/C++ languages.
Technology has branched far and wide that now gaming emulators are used effectively for testing mobile applications. You can easily spot renowned software testing companies that have efficiently started using game emulators to perform testing activities. This is a transforming trend that still needs clarity and getting in touch with a professional is any day preferred. | https://medium.com/@impactqa/how-to-test-mobile-applications-with-game-emulators-d9d620960a11 | [] | 2020-12-02 11:31:28.598000+00:00 | ['Continuous Integration', 'Android Games Emulator', 'Qa Engineer', 'Mobile App Testing', 'Mobile Devices'] |
The Secret to a Soft and Spongy Cake | Here is a simple tip that will definitely improve your baking skill. I didn’t know this when I was a beginner.
One day, in the middle of preparing the cake batter, I noticed that I was out of all-purpose flour. I already had everything including the wet ingredients ready, so there is no going back. And a trip to the store is also ruled out.
So it got me thinking of an alternative. I had some wheat flour, cornflour, and oatmeal in my pantry. I wanted something that is neutral in taste.
Out of the three choices, cornflour seems to fit my need. Even though it has a hint of sweetness, it should go well with the cake.
I used cornflour to make up for the missing all-purpose flour part. Then I continued my experiment with everything as usual.
When it came out of the oven, I noticed that cake didn’t rise as I expected. With a bit of disappointment, I tried a slice and it really surprised me. The texture has improved by a lot.
The cake was softer and spongy in texture. And it tasted the same.
I later found out that using cornflour along with the normal quantity of all-purpose flour helped the cake rise and gave it a better texture.
From this point onwards, cornflour became an essential ingredient in all my cakes.
To sum it up.
While mixing the dry ingredients, add cornflour to get a better texture. Use about 4 tablespoons per cup of all-purpose flour.
1 cup = 250mL
Do try this out!!!
Stay in the loop. Follow us on Instagram. | https://medium.com/butter-lane/the-secret-to-a-soft-and-spongy-cake-c572577f1f3a | ['Navya Mohan'] | 2021-01-16 15:10:42.474000+00:00 | ['Cake', 'Food', 'Pastry', 'Baking', 'Home Baker'] |
John Skrodenis of Rainfactory: Five Things Business Leaders Can Do To Create A Fantastic Work Culture | No job, no work, no boss, no amount of money, and no ego is more important than your happiness.
As a part of my HR Strategy Series, I’m talking to top experts in the field to teach prospects what hiring managers are actually looking for, while also supporting business leaders in their hiring and retention strategies. Today I had the pleasure of talking with John Skrodenis.
John is a managing partner at Rainfactory. He has raised enough money to tape out a 28nm ASIC microchip (3.2M) and has also developed and executed comprehensive marketing plans for clients. John holds more than 18 years of experience in building high-performance sales and marketing organizations.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
In my college years, I worked as an activist. I was teaching college students to canvas communities to raise awareness and funding for political campaigns. I found myself falling in love with the creative process of generating funding as this gave me a thrill and provided me with the motivation I needed in my early career. This was something I was passionate about, so I decided to specialize in this, and currently, I am blessed to pursue this as my profession wherever there is Wi-Fi.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
In the early days of Rainfactory, I selected a project for a gadget that rolled out a fresh dog pad and then rolled it up after each use. I learned a lot about consumer behavior on this project. A ton of people liked the idea of not having to come home to let fido out, but in the end, the idea of having a shit burrito in their kitchen was simply not ok.
Are you working on any exciting projects now? How do you think that will help people?
Rainfactory is currently working with a good amount of home fitness and personal electronic vehicle innovations: namely CLMBR, Breakaway, and Onewheel. Consumers are finding these innovations extremely useful during this pandemic and we are happy to partner with companies that are passionate about creating a positive impact in the world especially during these trying times.
How would you describe your leadership or management style?
I am the antithesis of a micromanager. I see my role as helping my employees remove blocks that may be preventing them from moving forward, and putting out fires in their wake.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
In the beginning of the pandemic, we had excess team capacity, and so we provided our services pro bono to Save The Children, one of the largest and most respected charities on earth. I believe this provided a boost to morale within the team, at a time that it was badly needed.
Wonderful. Let's jump over to the main theme of this article. According to a study cited in Forbes, more than half of the US workforce is unhappy. Why do you think that number is so high?
Every individual has a need to truly enjoy what they do, and believe that their product or service serves their community. Unfortunately, this is often not the case. At Rainfactory, we are fortunate to be able to be selective and only work on products that we truly believe in.
Based on your experience or research, how do you think an unhappy workforce will impact company productivity, company profitability, and employee health and wellbeing?
It’s difficult to imagine a scenario where an unhappy or negative person can truly tap into their creativity and think beyond a list of tasks. Happy employees make magic and invent ways to slaughter goals rather than cross off tasks.
Can you share 5 things that managers and executives should be doing to improve their company work culture? Can you give a personal story or example for each?
Managers need to realize the difference between errors of omission and errors of commission. If an employee truly attempts to accomplish a goal, but fails in the end (error of commission), a good manager should praise their effort. Teams have to have fun. If you are not having fun, then you are either working on the wrong product or doing something wrong. Encourage healthy time off. It’s really easy to fall into a constant work grind today. Sometimes, managers may need to actively mandate vacation time upon their employees. Lead employees out of their comfort zone, and encourage them to reach. Always be available. Communication is key to a fruitful relationship and success.
It’s very nice to suggest ideas, but it seems like we have to “change the culture regarding work culture”. What can we do as a society to make a broader change in the US workforce’s work culture?
Have fun and don’t take yourself so seriously. No job, no work, no boss, no amount of money, and no ego is more important than your happiness. I also think at the end of the day that money can’t really buy anything close to emotional fulfillment.
Great advice! One more before we go: What would you say is your favorite “Life Lesson Quote” and how has it been relevant to you in your life?
Work smarter, not harder. There is a fine line between being busy and being productive. Understanding your unique hierarchy of priorities will help you clear out the unnecessary stuff and this will provide you with the sanity needed for longevity.
Thank you so much for sharing your insights with us today! | https://medium.com/authority-magazine/john-skrodenis-of-rainfactory-5-ways-to-identify-retain-top-talent-and-kage-spatz-56fdd0b4e6ec | ['Kage Spatz'] | 2020-12-27 21:35:43.476000+00:00 | ['Work Culture', 'Human Resources', 'Business', 'Careers', 'Workplace'] |
How Uber and Lyft pass on extra costs to consumers | Photo by Dan Gold on Unsplash
Uber and Lyft just announced that the increased gig worker rights and benefits offered under the passed Prop 22 bill will come out of the pockets of the consumers. Consumers in California will begin having to pay a “California Drivers Benefits Fee” as an extra fee on top of their ride fare. That means that both companies who now have to provide drivers with limited benefits and rights have essentially passed on these costs to the consumer. This behavior is indicative of a worrying trend we are seeing from tech startups with deep pockets.
For some context, Uber and Lyft just recently ensured that gig workers in California would never gain employment status with access to full-time benefits such as paid time off, health care, pension plans, and other taxes employers should pay. Instead, they packaged Prop 22 as this amazing deal for gig workers that would ensure they have increased gig worker rights moving forward. And these extra benefits do exist, although they are strictly based on the time spent engaged, which is anytime you spend after accepting a ride to just after dropping of the customer. Furthermore, other benefits only activate once you drive a certain number of hours. While this sounds good for gig workers, it will likely ensure that only a small segment of drivers actually receive the benefits, considering how competitive the landscape is.
Uber and Lyft have perfected a model where hundreds of drivers fight over neighborhoods that can likely only support a dozen drivers full-time. So both companies do employ many contractors, they are all just fighting for scraps. This ultimately has led to 30% of drivers not even earning any money after expenses and taxes and will ensure that most drivers will never earn these additional Prop 22 promised gig worker benefits.
Now I’m sure most of us don’t mind paying a little extra for a ride that is already very cheap. But this isn’t what Uber and Lyft sold to consumers from the start. Rides have been gradually becoming more and more expensive and the money made by drivers has been routinely decreasing over the years as well, partly due to the competitive business model mentioned before. Both companies are clearly showing that they cannot be touched. Being untouchable only stands to benefit one group of people. The shareholders.
It is just so disappointing to see that companies who promise to bring communities together are actually tearing them apart from within. Both Uber and Lyft are perpetuating the capitalist hellish nightmare where rich venture capitalists pay for cool tech companies to create products and services for unrealistic prices based on unrealistic business models. Rock bottom prices are offered to consumers, which seem great at first but gradually are increased while the money to be made for drivers continues to decrease. In addition, these companies use the gig worker model to offset most operating costs and pass them onto their contract workforce. This gig worker model disproportionally preys on those without a college degree and focuses largely on workers from immigrant backgrounds and marginalized communities. We need the government to step in and help the people who are in desperate need of being treated with a shred of dignity and respect.
Interested in the details of Prop 22 and what it could mean for your job? Check out the video below. | https://medium.com/@nielslouwes/how-uber-and-lyft-pass-on-extra-costs-to-consumers-362b31bee0e | ['Niels Louwes'] | 2020-12-15 17:17:20.084000+00:00 | ['Exploitation', 'Lyft', 'Workers Rights', 'Uber', 'Capitalism'] |
XBANC token is now listed in one of the first exchanges in the world! | Bancryp is working hard with the goal of expanding and launching new solutions, in addition to improving the security we offer in our current services. As you already know, in just a few months we were extremely developed and, in November, 2018, we were already operating. And now, one of our biggest efforts has been accomplished, the XBANC token is now listed on the international exchange Bleutrade!
That company, based initially in Brazil, started in 2014 in the cryptocurrency market as an innovative exchange, working with a platform meant to simplify cryptocurrency trading. It is the first Latin American exchange to announce a new office in Malta, and it carries more than 250 thousand users. | https://medium.com/bancryp/xbanc-token-is-now-listed-in-one-of-the-first-exchanges-in-the-world-a5d9ec4a77b8 | ['Ramon Oliveira'] | 2019-04-04 20:02:21.300000+00:00 | ['Android'] |
The Switch | Assalam O Alakium Everyone!
Hope you are doing okay.
Today is the day that I announce that this is from now on my new blogging site. Any new articles would be posted here, the same way as I used to do on Quora.
All things aside, but why did I switch from Quora to Medium? Why did I leave my 70k+ views? Why did I leave afterall?
And the main reason for doing that is the introduction of spaces on Quora. Quora has introduced a new feature called “Spaces”. It is basically your blogs being converted into something alot more public and open ended. What really happens with that is now anyone, literally anyone can post, see and edit to your space and gain from there. As you all know I am a lot more personalized person, and thus required a lot more personal blog, where I can post as I want with no further modifications to be made by anyone but me. What will I do about the 70k+ views? Well, its not something that worries me alot. I have gained a lot of experience over the course of last two years of posting on Quora regularly and that has given me this chance to start once more. This time even better. I see it as a new challenge and with time in hand, it’ll be pretty enjoyable I’m sure.
That’s all for today. Stay tuned for more blogs right here; ON MEDIUM DOT COM! | https://medium.com/@realnabeelnazir/the-switch-cecb8568d630 | ['Nabeel Nazir'] | 2019-08-01 04:09:10.208000+00:00 | ['Switch', 'Blog', 'Médium', 'Quora', 'Experience'] |
C# windows form application that converts the temperature from Fahrenheit to Celsius | C# windows form application that converts the temperature from Fahrenheit to Celsius
(((f — 32)) * 5 / 9);
Code:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Windows.Forms;
namespace code
{
public partial class Form1 : Form
{……..continue code for click here… | https://medium.com/@codeboks/c-windows-form-application-that-converts-the-temperature-from-fahrenheit-to-celsius-5f076f249249 | [] | 2020-12-27 20:30:09.210000+00:00 | ['Assignment Help', 'Coding', 'Beginner', 'C Programming', 'C Sharp Programming'] |
Amish Brothers Rape 12-Year-Old Sister, Get Probation | Amish Brothers Rape 12-Year-Old Sister, Get Probation
Photo source: Missouri Department of Corrections.
Two men who raped their 12-year-old sister, leading to her pregnancy, first faced a long prison sentence only to have it reversed to probation. Then, they violated their probation. Aaron Schwartz, 22, and his young brother Petie, 18, are now in the last place two young Amish men want to be: a maximum security prison.
Initially, the brothers received a lenient sentence because according to the judge they would be “eaten alive” in state prison.
The family includes five children total: Aaron and Petie, two younger sons, and a daughter who was the victim of both incest and rape when she was 12 and 13-years-old.
Protesters have been following this case since the brothers were first prosecuted in June. The twists and turns include a conviction of 15 years, a plea deal to probation, and a reversal of the plea deal a few months later.
The setting
Webster County, Missouri, has just under 40,000 with the largest Amish population in Missouri: 1,500 men, women, and children living as Americans did 200 years ago.
Seymour, where the Schwartz family lives, is not far from big-city Springfield but is also surrounded by Ozark mountain wilderness. It is a rural community ideal for farming or ranching, one reason the Amish have chosen to move here.
The big annual event in town, during the second weekend of September, is the Seymour Apple Festival, which draws up to 30,000 from the region.
The Amish community here is ultra-conservative, following the Swiss rather than German religious traditions. Families ride in traditional, open-top buggies and eschew modern conveniences.
Webster county, where Aaron and Petie Schwarz went to trial, is like much of Missouri — deep within “bible belt” country and overwhelmingly conservative.
Webster County is home to the largest Amish population in the state. Photo source.
The crime
Had it not been for a phone call from doctor who helped deliver a baby, this crime would still be happening.
The doctor phoned a Missouri Children’s Division official on June 6th to report that “Daisy” (her pseudonym) Schwartz was 13 and had recently given birth. She’d told the doctor she’d had sex a half dozen times with both Aaron and Petie.
Both men, in their court-ordered apology letters, made the same statement: “I confess to having had several sexual intercourses with a female under 14 years of age.”
The two other Schwartz brothers, who are both minors, also had sex with Daisy. Due to their ages, they’ve faced no legal consequences.
The first sentence and the plea deal
In June 2020, both men first appeared in court to hear the charges against them: six counts of statutory rape and one count of incest.
The brothers pleaded guilty to third-degree child molestation with a child under the age of 14 in September 2020. The judge handed down 10 years in prison for the first count and five years for the second count.
Then the Webster County prosecuting attorney, Ben Berkstresser, stepped in and offered them a much sweeter deal. He reduced the sentence to five years of probation, 100 hours of community service, a small fine ($250) to be paid to the police restitution fund, and completion of a class.
They were also required to write a letter of apology to the Amish community in their hometown of Seymour.
Both men would be added to the Missouri Sex Offender Registry as Level 3 sex offenders.
The second sentence
After being given the light sentence of 5-years probation, both men went home and promptly violated their agreement. Despite clear instructions, they had contact with Daisy and resided with her, against court orders.
According to Berkstresser, they “[had] contact with [Daisy], after signing the sex offender supervision agreement that prohibited contact with the victim.”
The two brothers attended a second hearing in mid October 2020 in which the prosecutor and judge revoked the plea deal.
Schwartz family leaving the Webster County courthouse. Photo source.
Aftermath
Aaron and Petie Schwartz are currently incarcerated at the Fulton Reception and Diagnostic Center, a maximum security facility in Fulton, MO.
After the first trial, Seymour residents Tiffany Hill and Mel Pleasant started a group called Child Advocacy Against Pedophilia. Hill and Pleasant asked for resignations from Berkstresser and the presiding judge, Michael O. Hendrickson. They have asserted that by allowing Aaron and Petie to return to their home (where Daisy still lived) they made it impossible for the two men to avoid contact with her.
Aaron allegedly told Investigators during his interview, when asked if he would do it again, “not to a little one like that.”
Neither man will ever be removed from the sex offender registry. | https://medium.com/the-true-crime-edition/amish-brothers-rape-12-year-old-sister-get-probation-b6e4ac8cfddf | ['Jean Campbell'] | 2020-12-20 12:15:53.499000+00:00 | ['Rape', 'Prison', 'True Crime', 'Missouri', 'Incest'] |
How you can effectively promote your content from our Writing Challenge | “Remember… only the best masters in the world choose 8–10 hashtags on Instagram.” — Bruce Lee
For those that have taken time to participate in the Dallas Design Sprints 30 minute writing challenge, you’ve probably created an article or two in the past week.
For those of you who hate writing or find it a challenge (especially if English isn’t your native language), consider these first few attempts a really good start. A lot of people just struggle with getting out the gate, trying to find that level of quality they’re comfortable showing to the rest of the world.
If you’re getting okay with being ‘good enough’, you may start wondering how you can showcase your content to a wider audience. You could be writing on an initial platform like Medium, but speculate on how to spread the word for more attention. Or, maybe you just want to be on Instagram but really step up your game with hashtags.
Whatever your situation or desired end state, there’s a proper way to get it done. Let me show you what I would generally recommend. | https://medium.com/dallas-design-sprints/how-you-can-effectively-promote-your-content-from-our-writing-challenge-9d50edd66c77 | ['Robert Skrobe'] | 2019-06-17 15:09:39.603000+00:00 | ['How To', 'Social Media', 'Writing Challenge', 'Kung Fu Writing', 'Marketing'] |
Axial — Observations #41. Get these analyses to your inbox —… | Get these analyses to your inbox — https://axialobservations.substack.com/ This is a newsletter for rough-around-the-edges ideas. More well thought out work can be found at — https://axial.substack.com/
Axial partners with great founders and inventors. We invest in early-stage life sciences companies often when they are no more than an idea. We are fanatical about helping the rare inventor who is compelled to build their own enduring business. If you or someone you know has a great idea or company in life sciences, Axial would be excited to get to know you and possibly invest in your vision and company . We are excited to be in business with you — email us at [email protected]
Observations #41
A set of ideas and observations from a week’s worth of work analyzing businesses and technologies.
Chemokines
Chemokines are the trafficking control system for the human immune system. They act as signposts to get different immune cells into certain organs. With over 50 different chemokines and 20 receptors (which are GPCRs), they are a class of cytokines that induce chemotaxis in nearby cells.
In 1987, the first chemokine cloned was CXCL8 (IL-8) for work around figuring out what factor(s) monocytes were secreting to attract neutrophils: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4459227/ & https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4456961/
This sparked large-scale research efforts to clone chemokines and their receptors in the late-1980s and 1990s. This work led to the approval of drugs targeting CXCR4 and CCR5 to treat HIV and C5aR for ANCA-Associated Vasculitis (AAV). Despite the large number of new drug targets for inflammatory diseases generated from this work, dosing and target selection have been barriers for more successful chemokine-focused medicines.
As a result, there is a large opportunity to develop new medicines that target the chemoattractant system: (1) small molecules, as well as antibodies, to selectively target chemokines and their receptors and (2) engineered chemokines:
For autoimmunity, chemokines direct immune cells to self tissue
Viruses and microbes use chemokines to deceive the immune system
Vaccine responses can be improved with chemokines
Chemokines drive inflammatory diseases like AAV, diabetic nephropathy (DN), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD; targeting CCR9), and rheumatoid arthritis (RA; CCR1)
In cancer, angiogenesis is influenced by chemokines
Other diseases like Type 2 diabetes (T2D; CCR2) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) have also been found to be driven by inflammation where chemokines play a major role
The complex orchestration of chemokines and their various interactions with receptors make this space hard-to-drug. Not only does the target matter but the location and time of intervention are important as well. New opportunities with chemokines are centered around target selection for a disease, chemistry, and in vivo dosing:
Mapping in vivo interactions — figuring out systematically which chemokines bind specific receptors and at what doses and locations
Determining the biological response for each chemokine/receptor pair — different chemokines and receptors can have multiple functions depending on tissue, timing, and pairing. Excitedly, a small set of cells with activated chemokine receptors can lead to a large-scale immune response.
Immune cell subsets — which immune cell subsets respond to individual chemokines? For example in monocytes, CCR2 is a marker for an inflammatory class and CX3CR1 is one for the resident subset of monocytes.
Dosing — figuring out dosing in vivo; most work has been in vitro. Moreover, to generate a therapeutic effect, a large proportion of chemokine receptors need to be inhibited continuously, increasing the required critical dose. This requirement can lead to ADMET issues.
Target selection — determining whether a chemokine is redundant or not for a specific disease. For example, CCR7 is activated by both CCL21 and CCL19. Also, CCL5 activates 3 chemokine receptors: CCR1/3/5. Receptor internalization is different for each interaction. Chemokines have been seen as a hard-to-drug class of targets due to this potential redundancy.
Antibodies / engineered chemokines — develop antibodies for specific chemokines or receptors. Targeting chemokines, and using chemokines as a drug, requires knowing the concentration of the ligands in vivo. Pursuing receptors can become complex since they are GPCRs and have multiple transmembrane regions.
There is a large opportunity to bring new chemokine medicines to patients. The low-hanging fruit is to develop models and tools to predict which chemokine/receptor pair is involved in disease and develop a drug candidate to target the pair. In short, new methods are needed to figure out which part of the control system to block or add to?
The AgBiome Model
AgBiome is a large Agtech company with no managers. Rather, the company uses committees of employees to handle core functions like business development and financials. Eric Ward, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, took the lead to build this unique organizational structure at AgBiome — https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/can-company-succeed-without-hierarchy
Their ideas started off with a management paper — https://cmr.berkeley.edu/search/articleDetail.aspx?article=4776 — to build a non-hierarchical structure at the startup. AgBiome might have the most unique operational structure in life sciences.
Jacob and Monod, and mRNA
With the first authorizations of two mRNA vaccines for COVID-19, mRNA is set up to transform medicine over the next few decades. Decades ago in 1961, Jacob and Monod first hypothesized what mRNA could be — https://www.gs.washington.edu/academics/courses/braun/55106/readings/jacob_and_monod.pdf
What is Life? cont.
In the final chapter (Is Life Based on the Laws of Physics?) of What is Life?, Schrödinger explores how life can emerge from the randomness of physics. The chapter focuses on two frameworks: (1) order-from-order (the traditional physics framework) and (2) order-from disorder (life): | https://medium.com/@axialxyz/axial-observations-41-38aa282f745d | [] | 2020-12-19 03:08:12.045000+00:00 | ['Venture Capital', 'Biotechnology', 'Investing', 'Healthcare', 'Medicine'] |
Technology and The Evolution of Storytelling | It is such an exciting time to be a filmmaker.
I do not believe the notion that the cinema is dying or dead because it’s amazing what technology can do to the cinematic storytelling.
What’s great about film is it constantly reinvents itself. It started as a sheer novelty, those images moving on the screen.
Then it went and every step of the way a new technology started being added — sound, color.
What happens is the film grammar of storytelling evolves and changes as well. The technology goes directly with the evolution of the storytelling.
The way films look —it started with old 35mm motion picture cameras, to color with the three-strip Technicolor, to cameras that weighed hundreds of pounds and had to be on dollies and cranes — that was the film grammar of the day.
The limitations of the technology being used to shoot the films set up what we’ve learned as film grammar.
Then, we came to lighter cameras, to handheld cameras, steady cams, and on and on, all the way down to now.
There’s a unique thing to a GoPro.
There’s a unique thing to an iPhone — the way things are shot and the way it’s held. It just gives it a vibrancy you’ve never been able to have before.
I believe new film grammar is going to come from these things.
It evolves, it changes, and it’s in great part because of the technology.
Walt Disney in 1939 receiving one Oscar statuette and seven miniature statuettes from Shirley Temple for “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”
In my own field, in animation, a seminal film in the history of animation is Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Walt Disney’s first feature-length film.
People thought Walt was insane.
“People aren’t going to sit still for a feature-length cartoon. Are you nuts?”
But Walt was a visionary.
Walt saw beyond what people were used to. They were used to the short cartoon.
It’s interesting how people cannot see beyond what they’re used to.
There’s a famous statement by Henry Ford that before the Model T if you asked people what they wanted, they would say, “A faster horse.”
My own partner at Pixar for 25 years, Steve Jobs, never liked market research. Never did market research for anything.
He said, “It’s not the audience’s job to tell us what they want in the future, it’s for us to tell them what they want in the future.”
If you use technology correctly, you can change opinions overnight.
There’s a great statement I love. It’s that you only get one chance to make a first impression.
First impressions are nearly impossible to get people off of if they have the wrong impression.
I remember when I first saw computer animation. It wasn’t being used for much at the time. It was really geometric, sterile and cold, but I was blown away by it. Not by what I was seeing, but the potential I saw in it.
It was true three dimensionality with a control that we had in hand-drawn animation. I saw the potential in computer animation and was like, “This is great. Everybody, can you see this?”
But everybody was saying, “It looks like… It’s too sterile. No, I don’t like it.”
I realized they were judging from exactly what they were seeing.
People always push back saying, “It’s too cold, too sterile.”
In the early days of computer graphics, it found its way into special effects.
There were some people who didn’t understand the medium and thought it could do everything. There was this company that tried when they were making a movie called Something Wicked This Way Comes.
They had worked on Tron, did some effects, and they had a very charismatic effects guy that convinced them they could create this magical circus that would erect itself — this evil circus comes to town.
Disney bought in on it and they worked for a very long time. I had a very dear friend working on it.
It was way beyond what the computer could do at that time. They ended up cutting the entire sequence out of the film.
That set back computer graphics in the effects world years, because everybody remembered that experience.
It was because people didn’t understand what the technology could do.
About six years after that I was working at Lucas Film’s computer division and Dennis Muren, the brilliant Dennis Muren, Effects Director at ILM, came over to me and said, “We have this effect in a film called Young Sherlock Holmes, and we don’t know how to do it. I’m thinking computer graphics.”
It was only six shots. We said, “Let’s try it.”
It was some of the hardest things we ever did, but I’ll never forget when it came out — the effects industry, people from all over the world, had no idea how it was done.
But it worked. It fit in there. It was nominated for an Oscar for best visual effects.
We were so excited. But it was focusing on understanding the technology and pushing it to places that we couldn’t.
The goal was to make the technology invisible.
When we became Pixar in 1986 and we started working towards our first feature film, I remembered all those projects. I was blessed by, number one, loving the medium of computer animation.
I was just so interested in it and working with the people who basically had invented much of computer animation and we were pushing it all along.
We really understood what the computer could and could not do.
Pixar co-founders Ed Catmull, Steve Jobs, and John Lasseter.
At that time when we rendered things, everything kind of looked plastic-y.
So we started thinking about a subject matter that lent itself to the medium at that time.
“Everything looks like plastic, so what if the characters were made of plastic? What if they were…toys?”
That’s one of the reasons why we leaned into toys becoming alive as a subject for our very first feature film, Toy Story.
It was about the toys that lent themselves to the medium at that time. We chose toys that worked for that.
In fact, it was better in CG than any other medium we could have done because we could make Buzz Lightyear feel like he was made of plastic and ball-and-socket joints and we had screws and scratches and decals and all this stuff you could not have done in any other medium.
When it came out, our main focus was not the technology.
What I was scared about was that people would be like, “Oh, it’s the first computer-animated feature film.”
We made sure Disney, and all around the world, didn’t sell it as “The First CG film.”
You sell it as a great motion picture, because that’s how we made it.
We focused on the story and hiding the technology.
It came out and people loved it. You watch it today and it’s just as entertaining as the day it came out.
Woody and Buzz in the original “Toy Story”
Like I said, you’ve only got one chance to make a first impression.
Unlike Something Wicked This Way Comes, Toy Story was the number one film of the year it came out.
It was a huge hit and everybody started looking at this as a viable filmmaking medium.
Overnight, the opinion changed. Because the technology was used in the right way, telling the right story.
Alfred Hitchcock is one of my favorite filmmakers and one of the reasons why I’ve studied and admired his films is that guy used new technology in incredible ways, but it was completely invisible in everything he made.
You study his films and realize there’s no way he could have made that film, that shot, without that technology.
But he didn’t want you to notice it.
We focus on entertaining people in new ways, and if you focus on the technology too much you get caught up.
It’s not the technology that entertains people, it’s what you do with the technology.
It’s important, I believe, to make the technology invisible, but have it push to do something new.
That’s when you make real breakthroughs.
If you love a technology, if you really, really, really, really love a technology, then dig into it.
Learn as much as you can. It’s fun. That’s what I did with CG.
From left: Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, John Lasseter, and Joe Ranft, nominees, Writing (Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen) (TOY STORY), at the 1995 (68th) Academy Awards Nominees Luncheon.
I was trained by these great Disney artists. I drew. It was all about story, character drawing, all that stuff, but when I got into computer graphics I was like, “Oh, my god, this is so much fun.”
I wanted to learn as much as I could.
The more you dig into the technology and the more you learn it, you are going to get ideas you would never have thought of without knowing your technology.
The kind of shots you can get from an iPhone that you cannot get with any other camera. Use it.
GoPros: use it. Be inspired by it.
Try things. It’s digital. Get another memory card, for God’s sake.
You will start creating ideas that lend themselves to these things and start looking new.
When you start doing something that’s truly new you will hear, “It’s not going to work.”
Walt Disney heard it. I heard it with CG.
“ Computer animation is so cold.”
Really? No, I don’t think so.
You think about it, it’s true for color, sound, feature length animation, CG.
The first feature film shot on an iPhone? “That’s not going to work.”
Yeah, it’s going to work. It’s going to be awesome.
The first feature shot with a GoPro? It’s going to be awesome in the hands of the right people.
The reason why they say this is because it’s not what people are used to.
Before the Model T, you ask people what they want and they’re going to want a faster horse. It’s not what they’re used to.
When I started working with CG, I could not wait for the tools to become commonplace.
In the early days, when SIGGRAPH was the only place you could go and see computer graphics, it was always fun. Everybody would cheer for reflective clear balls floating over a checkerboard and be amazed by it.
It was in a world where all of the art and the CG was being created by the guys who were writing the program.
There was no such thing as off-the-shelf software. There were no tools available.
They were writing their software and then creating it, and they were kind of the artistic guys within the computer world.
They were just showing off the technology. I kept thinking to myself, “Yeah, but they’re really ugly. This is like boring. Let’s entertain people.”
I couldn’t wait because I always viewed the technology as simply a tool.
Can you imagine the guy who invented the pencil and all of the things that that invention has brought the world?
That’s what I was feeling like with CG.
I couldn’t wait to get it in the hands of everybody to see what they would do.
The mediums we use are simply tools for expressing your art.
Your goal as a filmmaker is to entertain. And to entertain people is about story.
It’s about characters.
It’s about connecting with that audience.
It’s making that connection where you really deeply entertain an audience.
But it’s not just an art form that we’re in. It’s a business. Entertaining stuff simply just does better.
If you can make people laugh, cry and feel things with a film you make, you will be successful.
No matter what medium, any way you’ve distributed it — it all comes down to your knowledge skills.
What makes a good story? How can I tell it properly?
People get so excited about new technologies. I’ve had the question so many times from young people, “What software should I use?”
You know what? In your lifetime the software and the technology will change so drastically, it doesn’t matter.
What matters is when you’re young, you get excited about learning the fundamentals.
It sounds so boring to young people when they can make a movie so quickly and release it to the world and get millions of Likes.
“It’s so boring. I know how to do that.”
Trust me, you don’t.
The fundamentals of good storytelling, the fundamentals of film grammar, even though it was made with old Mitchell cameras and stuff like that, learn it.
Learn the fundamentals of animation. Learn the fundamentals of physics and things like that, of basic color, basic design.
This is the foundation of the building of your career.
Then, as you get into new technology, you’ll know exactly what to do.
And your work will not be about the technology. It will be about connecting and entertaining people.
No matter the length of your film — 30 seconds, five minutes, 22 minutes, feature length — it needs a story. It needs a beginning, a middle and an end.
It needs to deeply connect with people.
There are big differences between storytelling at 30 seconds or a feature film. Big differences.
We did a series of short films in the beginning of Pixar and we did television commercials.
We were thinking the next step for us was to do a Christmas special, but Disney threw us in the deep end, and we developed a feature film.
It was amazing what we didn’t know.
But I went back to my traditional training I had learned from my mentors — Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, and the great Disney animators that were still working at the studio when I started there — and the fundamentals of animation they kept talking about.
Ollie Johnston would turn to me and I was expecting something about arcs and lines and silhouette value and all that stuff.
He would turn and say, “John, what’s the character thinking?”
It was amazing to me, just that simple statement. It was not about the drawing.
It was never about the drawing to them. It was about that character and what it’s thinking.
Through pure movement they taught me to bring a character to life and give it an emotion, a personality, a uniqueness, and it was done through just pure motion.
So when I started working with a computer, I just brought that technology with me. As we started developing the story, it was always about emotion. It was always about emotion from day one with Toy Story.
It was about emotion, making you feel.
I’ve admired Walt Disney so much my whole life and part of it is because he entertained people like no other person in history has ever done. The way he makes you feel when you watch his movies, the way he makes you feel when go through that tunnel under the train station at Disneyland and you’re transported.
It’s about emotion and that connection.
Walt always said, “For every laugh, there should be a tear.”
It felt like that core emotion. That became the hallmark of what we tried to do at Pixar — to do it with the new technology.
I think the biggest thing for us is we studied films. We watched films religiously.
With Toy Story, it was a buddy picture. We watched every buddy picture we could find and analyzed it. Good ones, and it’s very important to watch bad ones too.
You start understanding what they did. Don’t copy things. It’s about understanding and learning.
Very, very, very important: Do not work in a vacuum.
You have to surround yourself with trusted people. You get so immersed in your work, you will not be able to see the forest from the trees. Frankly, you’ll be studying the pine needles and worrying about them.
You need someone to help you back up and take a look at the forest and see where things are working or not working.
And you need to surround yourself with people whose judgment you trust and they can be brutally honest with you.
As an artist, showing unfinished work to people is really difficult. It’s really hard. It always is hard. It always will be hard. It never gets any easier, but you have to do it.
Andrew Stanton, my creative partner at Pixar, has this fantastic phrase that I use all the time, “Be wrong as fast as you can.”
Trust me, when you go from an outline to a treatment, your first treatment sucks and you do revisions and talk to people and you get something working really great.
Go to your first draft of the script, it sucks. You do it a whole bunch of times.
For us, we go to story reels, the first story reel sucks. But the longer you say, “I’m not ready yet, give me a little more time, give me a little more time,” and like that, it’s not going to help the problem.
You’re just going to be polishing. You’re not going to see where it’s not working.
Get it up there. Throw it up there as fast as you can, talk about it, tear it back down, put it back up there. Keep doing this.
Surround yourself with people you trust.
Be thirsty for knowledge.
It will always make your work better. The market is changing really, really quickly.
Who knows what the business will look like ten years from now?
I know one thing for sure. | https://medium.com/art-science/technology-and-the-evolution-of-storytelling-d641d4a27116 | ['The Academy'] | 2015-06-25 00:58:48.313000+00:00 | ['Storytelling', 'Technology', 'Movies'] |
A Review of Suggestopedia | Introduction
Suggestopedia was developed in the 1970s by the Bulgarian psychiatrist Georgi Lozanov (1926-2012). It was from the start influenced by Carl Roger’s revolutionary approach to ‘whole person’ counseling and other humanistic approaches in dealing with the human potential. Put simply, language teaching is not considered just as a way of learning a foreign language, but holistically as helping students to develop themselves, increase their self-knowledge and become better persons.
This new approach to leading people, to counseling, and to teaching has led to a number of methodologies and techniques which stressed the humanistic aspects of learning. In such methodologies the experience of the student is what counts and the development of their personality and the growth of positive feelings are seen to be as important as their learning of a language.
Principles
Dr. Lozanov considered suggestopedia as a science. However, Wikipedia writes that it is rather a pseudo-science. I leave the controversy aside for it is not conducive in better understanding the principles of suggestopedia.
In Lozanov’s view, the reason why we are ineffective learners is is because of psychological barriers to learning such as performance anxiety. This is why we do not use the full amount of mental power, and our hidden mental reserves remain untapped. In this sense, suggestopedia lowers the affective filter to help learners obtain a maximized input, and accordingly, the best achievable output.
Suggestopedia is scientific in that it’s based upon neuroscience and brain research. From the start, Dr. Lozanov believed that the ‘alpha state’ best suits the learning process. It’s a focused state with longer brain waves than the mentally active state of the rational mind. Lozanov’s early insight has been corroborated over and over in recent years through the insights about mental processes in lucid dreaming, during hypnosis, and the learning process. Today, we can say that his early research is fully backed up by modern science.
It has been suggested that there are some theoretical components through which desuggestion and suggestion operate. They are:
Authority
People remember best and are influenced when information comes from an authority figure or institution Infantilization
Learners may build self-confidence in a relation of teacher-student that is modeled after the parent-child relation Prestige
The learning environment is considered as of equal importance as the learning method. This means that in the best possible setting, the institution is located in a prestigious building such as an old mansion, villa or castle, and furnished with high-quality equipment, comfortable seating, a high-class sound system, and perfectly up-to-date learning and teaching tools Professionalism
Teachers must be trained and certified, irradiate self-confidence and charm, able to change the tone, intonation, and rhythm of their diction, just like actors do: varying tone and rhythm of presentation frees the instruction from boredom, and presenting linguistic material with music brings about the cooperation of the subconscious mind.
Suggestion vs. Desuggestion
Superlearning can be said to consist of both suggestion and desuggestion techniques. Suggestion is the core; the most important objective of the method is to mobilize the maximum of the learners’ mental potential. This is effectively obtained through suggestion.
On the other hand, desuggestion is used for unloading the memory banks, or reserves, of unwanted or blocking memories. Suggestion then means loading the memory banks with desired and facilitating memories. The combination of both suggestion and desuggestion intends to lower the ‘affective filter’ and optimize the students’ mental potential to learn, aiming at accelerating the process by which they learn to understand and use the target language for communication in a rather spontaneous manner.
Now, let us ask more in detail, what is actually suggestion? Dr. Lozanov believed that in every communication, in every thought, in every feeling, in every perception and in every mental activity there exists one central, clear complex of experiences and many peripheral, background experiences.
In the perception of speech, for example, the content, bearing the specificity, the basic thought, falls in the center of consciousness where it is subjected to critical analysis and logical processing.
But we react not only to the sense specific for speech, but to a whole complex of accompanying and, in some cases, preceding or succeeding stimuli non-specific for this speech. The number of these non-specific stimuli is inconceivably large; they are gestures, gait, facial expressions, expressions of the eyes, diction, intonation, a number of ideomotor movements which are unnoticeable for the mind, environment, the person who speaks with his level of prestige, the physiological state of expectation or biological needs of the recipient and, in general, everything which for the moment is linked with the words that are spoken.
These non-specific stimuli if synchronized can play some suggestive role by a change of the power of the words. The conclusion can be drawn that the suggestive element is a constant and indivisible part of every communicative process. In some cases, it may increase the power of the words; in others, it may decrease; but it always participates in man’s mental and emotional life.
Eight Key Features
Suggestopedia can be characterized, and distinguished by eight key features:
Comfortable Learning
The learning environment is optimized in every possible way to facilitate a comfortable and pleasant learning experience that is relaxed and fun to experience. Besides a spacious classroom where activities can be held, dim lights, soft music, comfortable chairs, and various posters relating to the target language are necessary. Peripheral Learning
The idea is that people perceive much more from the environment than that to which they consciously attend. Students may absorb the foreign language with posters, pictures and decorations containing grammatical patterns, rather than learning vocabulary and grammar. Authoritative Teacher
The teacher takes a role of complete authority and control in the classroom during the teaching. That’s why it’s required that the teacher must be well-trained and certified. To some extent, the teacher is not only a teacher but also a psychologist. Suggestible Students
The students are encouraged to follow the teacher’s suggestions without doubts and assume new roles and names, called ‘new identities.’ That’s a smart way to decrease learning anxiety due to mistakes and accidented performances. This leads to students being more suggestible and open to the learning input. Furthermore, students are asked to close their eyes and to concentrate on their breathing for relaxation, while listening to Baroque string music while listening to the lessons. Dialogue
A Suggestopedia course lasts 30 days and consists of ten units of study. The central focus of each unit is a dialogue consisting of 1,200 words or so, with an accompanying vocabulary list and grammatical commentary. Positive Suggestions
Direct suggestion might be used for the students’ encouragement may consist of a simple affirmation that ‘all learning is joyful and pleasurable.’ No Corrections
Errors are tolerated while the focus remains on the content. The teacher does corrections subtly, by repeating the patterns in variations but he or she is not supposed to directly correct the student, for the simple reason that the latter procedure is counter-productive to high learning input. Thus grammar and vocabulary are only taught by implication, not directly. Activities
Various activities such as music, drama, role play or methods known from Gestalt therapy sessions may be integrated into the learning process as frequently as possible.
In all the features of Suggestopedia, the most conspicuous one is the central place of music and musical rhythm to learning. Suggestopedia has some relationship with other functional uses of music, particularly sound therapy.
The most important is to find the right kind of music for achieving a maximized relaxation response. According to not only Lozanov, but many sound therapists around the world, Baroque music, with its 60 beats per minute and its specific rhythm creates this kind of ‘focused relaxation’ that leads to highly effective learning.
Students are then enabled to take in tremendous quantities of study material due to an increase in alpha brain waves and a decrease in blood pressure and pulse rate. Former East German researchers of Suggestopedia at Karl Marx University in Leipzig observed that slow movements from Baroque instrumental music featuring string instruments gave the very best results.
The Suggestopedia Class
In order to conduct a Suggestopedia class successfully, four main stages are required:
Presentation
Presentation is the basis of conducting a class successfully. In this stage, a discussion of previously learned material could be conducted first, involving micro-studies or macro-studies in the real practice to make an integrated teaching procedure. However, the main aim at this point is to help students relax and move into a positive frame of mind, with the feeling that the learning is going to be easy and fun. Desuggestion and suggestion happen at this stage at the same time. First Wave
The ‘first wave’ involves the active presentation of the material to be learnt. Extended dialogues are read aloud to the students to the accompaniment of music. The most formal of these readings, known as the ‘concert reading’ would typically employ a memorable piece of classical music such as a symphony. This would not be in the form of background music but would be the main focus of the reading, with the teacher’s voice acting as a counterpoint to the music. Thus the ‘concert reading’ could be seen as a kind of pleasurable event, with the learners free to focus on the music, the text or a combination of the two. The rhythm and intonation of the reading would be exaggerated in order to fit the rhythm of the music. Second Wave
Students are now guided to relax and listen to Baroque music. During both types of reading, the learners sit in comfortable seats, armchairs rather than classroom chairs, in a comfortable environment. After the readings of these long dialogues to the accompaniment of music, the teacher then makes use of the dialogues for more conventional language work. The music brings the students into the optimum mental state for the effortless acquisition of the material. Practice
During the practice stage, ample use is made of a range of role play, games, puzzles, and alike in order to review and consolidate the learning. Homework is given to students consisting in again reading the dialogue they are studying—namely once before going to bed and again before getting up in the morning.
Reserve Capacities
Suggestopedia is founded about a key concept called ‘reserve capacities’ by its fonder, Dr. Georgi Lozanov. What are reserve capacities?
Dr. Lozanov believed that the more the brain is used, the more it develops. If this is a well-known fact in relation to muscles, the same applies for the brain, and especially, our memory interface.
There are enough scientific data in the meantime that was collected on the matter. We could inquire into evidence about the mysterious achievements of ancient civilizations, or discuss the information coming from various religions, occults, and yoga schools. But here we are only talking about research done using the modern scientific method. It could then be demonstrated that:
the human personality possesses potential capabilities far exceeding those recognized by generally accepted social norms; various individual achievements can be reasonably expected if not from all, but certainly from most members of society;
Dr. Lozanov’s medical and psychotherapeutic practice showed him that we have fits of super recollection of a number of details from life, which have connection with a disease. Most often this hypermnesia shows a tendency to complete healing. The better, the more systematically and the more emotionally the patient recollects, the more stabilized is their recovery. There are two Bulgarian psychotherapeutic methods, those of Krastnikov (1929) and Cholakov (1933), with which the healing effect is based on hypermnesia.
That is something Lozanov later noticed with suggestopedia. The students have a considerably enhanced memory as a byproduct of suggestopedic learning. | https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/a-review-of-suggestopedia-c5ae2e1f73f8 | ['Peter Fritz Walter'] | 2016-03-11 13:58:16.563000+00:00 | ['Superlearning', 'Suggestopedia', 'Education'] |
Lock Her Up, Build that Wall, Or Take Her Out? | Do not go gently into that good slaughter, Christyl RIvers
He knows up to three words.
But we should not look at him.
Be wary of myopic, misled herds,
And worlds lost on Stone Walled Whim | https://medium.com/resistance-poetry/lock-her-up-build-that-wall-or-take-her-out-e762374a525a | ['Christyl Rivers'] | 2020-01-31 20:51:37.926000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Resistance Poetry', 'Fear', 'Democracy', 'Elections'] |
Introducing the 2021 Civic Innovation Corps members | Introducing the 2021 Civic Innovation Corps members
This week marks the start of the 2021 Civic Innovation Corps! 55 Corps members kicked off the summer on June 14th and will spend the next 10 weeks using their data and technology skills to make government more effective and efficient for all.
The 2021 Civic Innovation Corps marks our inaugural cohort of data scientists, designers, product managers, and software engineers stepping into city and state governments across the country. Several of our team members got our start in state and city governments and have long understood the importance they play in delivering critical services. We’re thrilled to be providing our first cohort of young technologists with similar opportunities.
Corps members will spend the next ten weeks in three states and six cities across the country working on a variety of projects, including several related to COVID-19 recovery. Their summer of service comes at a time when, now, more than ever, we need their skills and we’re grateful for their willingness to serve.
Introducing the 2021 Cohort
55 Civic Innovation Corps members are joining us this summer. Our Corps members reflect the people they will be serving this summer in their diversity of backgrounds and experiences. Our inaugural cohort:
Reflects the diversity of technologists , with a majority of Corps members being women and people of color.
, with a majority of Corps members being women and people of color. Resides in 16 states across the country , from Maryland to Texas, California to Georgia, and Rhode Island to Ohio.
, from Maryland to Texas, California to Georgia, and Rhode Island to Ohio. Holds educational backgrounds from 39 schools and programs , from boot camps and small liberal arts colleges; to certificate programs and large research institutions.
, from boot camps and small liberal arts colleges; to certificate programs and large research institutions. Displays a variety of hobbies and interests, including silent filmmaking, motorcycling, traveling, game designing, bicycling, synchronized swimming, running, figure skating, and much more.
Host Offices
We are so excited to see what this inaugural cohort of Corps members will create, code, design, and build over the next ten weeks. This program would not be possible without our host offices who have joined us in providing opportunities for young technologists to serve with their skills. We would like to thank our partner host offices for making this inaugural summer possible:
As the summer gets underway, we’ll be sharing what our 2021 Civic Innovation Corps members are looking forward to. Keep an eye out for future blogs and be sure to follow us on Medium and Twitter so you don’t miss these introductions. | https://blog.codingitforward.com/introducing-the-2021-civic-innovation-corps-members-a8c8296af308 | ['Ariana Ophelia Soto'] | 2021-08-24 21:22:47.476000+00:00 | ['Coding It Forward', 'Internships', 'Civic Innovation Corps', 'Civictech', 'Local Government'] |
My 10 Favorite Reads of 2020. At risk of adding more to the glut of… | At risk of adding more to the glut of book lists, here are the 10 books I most enjoyed in 2020, with a few honorable mentions. | https://medium.com/@ivantable/my-favorite-10-books-of-2020-e223ccd789e0 | ['Ivan Mesa'] | 2020-12-24 00:56:46.414000+00:00 | ['Christian', 'Reading', 'Books'] |
7 Tips To Help You Spend Less Time On Emails | 1. Automate your responses
Many professionals receive dozens of emails daily. The thing is, many of them usually require similar responses, such as “Thank you,” “Got it,” “Awesome!” “Will look into it,” etc. That’s one reason why G-mail offers reply suggestions when you set out to respond to a message in your inbox. In addition to these suggestions, you can set up your own canned responses to make it easier and quicker to send replies. To do this in G-mail, here are the steps:
Click on the settings gear found at the top right of your email page
2. Select the “Advanced” tab
3. Look for and enable the “Templates” option from the list of items displayed
4. Save changes and exit settings
5. Go ahead and compose a new email
6. Type the message you want to use as a canned response
7. Once finished, click on the three dots located at the lower right of the compose window.
8. Select “Templates” then “Save draft as template”
9. Give your template a name
10. Repeat the process until you have the desired amount of canned responses
When you are ready to use a canned response, you only need to click on the three dots on the compose window, select “Templates” and then select the appropriate template name you want to use. | https://medium.com/illumination/7-tips-to-help-you-spend-less-time-on-emails-849e999ddcaf | ['Casey Botticello'] | 2020-12-15 01:47:54.170000+00:00 | ['Productivity', 'Technology', 'Email', 'Time Management', 'Writing'] |
How to Structure GraphQL/Serverless App Using Typescript. | How to Structure GraphQL/Serverless App Using Typescript.
In this article, I will share a scalable and modular solution to structure a GraphQL application.
Photo by André Sanano on Unsplash
When you create a new project structuring your code is probably the first task.Of course, if you’re using a framework, you will probably have it out of the box. However, when writing micro services, I find frameworks too bloated because they come with many things that you probably don’t need.
What is GraphQL?
GraphQL is a syntax that describes how to ask for data, and is generally used to load data from a server to a client.
In short, it lets you:
Reduce network costs and get better query efficiency. Ensure you’re never sending more or less than the client needs. Describe your API with types that map your schema to existing backends.
In this article I am going to use ApolloServer to build the GraphQL server.
What is Serverless?
With Serverless comes the following:
No server management (no need to manage any form of machine) Pay-per-execution (never pay for idle) Auto-scale (scale based on demand) Function as a unit of application logic
Step 1: Configure the Serverless template
Create a new folder to store your application and create a serverless.yml file.
Step 2: Create config files and install dependencies
Create the tsconfig.json and package.json and run npm install
Step 3: Create handler function
Create a src folder and inside create a functions folder.
GraphQL shrink your APIs down into a single HTTP, so we only need to create a single handler inside the functions folder to handle all the requests, for convention we call it search.ts
Step 4: Create GraphQL service
Create a new folder services and inside create a graphql folder, as the project grow we might need to add more folders like (middleware, utils) so to keep everything clean and tidy we create a subfolder inside graphql called modules
At this point your project structure should look like this:
Inside graphql folder create the following files:
Step 5: Create your first module
We are going to use a collection of albums as an example, inside modules we need to create a folder called album which is going to be our first module and inside we create the following files:
At this point we almost done, we only need to export our module.
Create a file inside modules called index.ts with this:
Step 6: Final step run the application
Run npm start from the root of your application and head over to localhost:3000/local/search you should see the GraphQL playground.
Every example comes from the https://github.com/Mircoguidetti/graphql-serverless-scaffold Github repository | https://medium.com/swlh/how-to-structure-graphql-typescript-app-using-serverless-infrastructure-7f6e19a7973a | ['Mirco Guidetti'] | 2020-07-27 13:45:17.307000+00:00 | ['Serverless', 'GraphQL', 'Scalability', 'Structure', 'Typescript'] |
Sri Lanka vs Ireland, 8th Match Prediction -Dream 11 | Series: T20 WORLD CUP, 2021
Match: 8th match, SL VS IRE.
Team: Sri Lanka VS Ireland.
Venue: Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi.
Time: 20 October 2021, 7:30 pm
Live Streaming: Sony Sports Network and Sony LIV app.
Follow other cricket betting tip
Sri Lanka vs Ireland, 8th Match Prediction -Dream 11
What is the pitch report of Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi?
In this game, the pitch is likely to have a genuine pace and bounce. As it’s the second match of the day, the ball will likely come to the bat better. Since this is the second game of the day, bowling first is a good option.
It is expected that the score will remain between 150–180.
Temperatures are expected to hover around 33°C on matchday, with a humidity of 66 %.
What will be the toss predicted?
The toss: The winning team will choose the bowl first.
What is the head-to-head match status of Sri Lanka VS Ireland?
Teams have played one match together. Sri Lanka has won zero games, and Ireland has won one game.
Team Analysis of Sri Lanka:
With the top three Sri Lankan wicketkeepers dismissed for low scores, Sri Lanka was left reeling at 26/3 in 5 overs. Bhanuka Rajapaksa and Avishka Fernando shared an unbeaten 76-run partnership to take their team to victory. With players capable of batting up to №8, they have a strong batting line-up. The bowlers did well as a unit in the bowling department as they shut down the opposition for just 96 runs. Spinners M Theekasana and W Hasaranga bowled a combined 8–0–49–5. Three Pace bowlers, Lahiru Kumara, Chameera, and Karunaratne, took more probing lines in the match, with combined figures of 11.3–0–45–4. Taking on the bowlers, Rajapaksa raised his team in the chase with a 27-ball 42 runs. His team will look to him similarly aggressive in middle overs to disrupt the opposition’s momentum. Mahesh Theekshana is an exciting young spinner with a lot of spin variations. He bowled 4–0–25–3 in the last game, dismissing both opponents’ openers in the powerplay to set the tone.
Team Analysis of Ireland:
In the end, Ireland defeated England by 107 runs with just under five overs remaining thanks to a 59 run partnership between Paul Stirling and Gareth Delany. Their batting line-up was untested with such a tiny target. With the combined bowling figures of 12–0–49–8, Irish pacers Curtis Campher, Joshua Little, and Mark Adair smashed the opposition’s batting line-up. In addition to Simi Singh and Ben White, Paul Stirling chipped in with some economical overs to support the pacers. Their bowling was outstanding last night as they bowled out the opposition for just 105 runs. In the 10th over, Curtis Campher claimed four wickets in four balls to reduce the opposition middle order from 51/6 to 51/2 in no time, enabling the team to lead the match. Gareth Delany scored 44 runs off 29 balls in his last test, with five boundaries and two sixes. His rhythm with the bat looked great, so expect him to score a lot in this match as well.
Predicted Playing 11 of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka predicted players- Chamika Karunaratne, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dushmantha Chameera, Mahesh Theekshana, Lahiru Kumara, Kusal Perera, Pathum Nissanka, Dinesh Chandimal, Avishka Fernando, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Dasun Shanaka.
Predicted Playing 11 of Ireland
Ireland predicted players- Neil Rock, Simi Singh, Mark Adair, Benjamin White, Joshua Little, Paul Stirling, Kevin O Brien, Andrew Balbirnie, Gareth Delany, Harry Tector, Curtis Campher.
Best Tipper For IPL 2021-
FAIZAL GURU. | https://medium.com/@faizalguru/sri-lanka-vs-ireland-8th-match-prediction-dream-11-c943b8cbe06c | ['Faizal Guru'] | 2021-10-20 10:13:52.039000+00:00 | ['Sri Lanka', 'Ireland', 'World Cup', 'Cricket'] |
Late at Night #1 | Do you believe in future? | https://medium.com/@maarexplosion/late-at-night-1-699a9d80a540 | [] | 2020-12-27 02:54:40.561000+00:00 | ['Reflections'] |
Stream of Consciousness | The past, the present, the future
Stream of Consciousness
it’s a gray day. photo by author.
What today is all about.
It’s about reading Apple News and finding out the Stimulus Package, whatever they want to call it, won’t be enough to stop the evictions.
It’s about knowing we’re safe after spending three years in PTSD-induced poverty. Finally getting compensation from the VA, the Air Force. Finally having more than my social security disability check $775 to live on and being able to breathe and feeling guilty about it because so many people can’t find the money to pay their rent, to buy food and now we can. We almost lost our house, we did lose our car, and life was not a bowl fo cherries, to say the least. The past is gone. Faulkner was wrong, the past is past. Yes, you can argue that point with me if you want to…
https://deadmule.medium.com/southern-neighborhood-living-on-775-a-month-475a64ab861a
That link was supposed to turn into a box with info and link. Oh Medium, ya let me down. Well, the link at the bottom formats correctly.
We donated to 16 charities this year in November and December. We kept most of the money local. Our local Boys and Girls Club, the Food Bank, Veteran’s Christmas fund, Toys for Tots, animal rescue organizations, KIVA, community centers, Feeding America, local arts council (we bought a brick to be inscribed with our name and placed on the sidewalk in front of the building)… it was more fun, more rewarding, I must admit, than buying trivial needs on Amazon. But once I gave the money, I found I wanted to do more. It was like eating popcorn but giving away our disposable income every month is not sustainable because disposable really isn’t. It’s needed by family and friends and there is another story for another day in that fact.
Today is about remembering Christmas when I was a kid. From 1950s through 1960s, my childhood years, it was as magical as it could get. From the decorations to the food to the presents… and then on the 26th we drove through four states to get to Cincinnati, Ohio to see our relatives and we’d spend a joyous week eating Yankee food and visiting with greats and grands. And the cousins!
Today is me publishing the January 2021 issue of the Dead Mule and reflecting upon TWENTY FIVE years of maintaining that website. I’ve managed to publish every month, for the most part, for all of 25 years in 2021. I find such a revelation difficult to comprehend. Honestly, don’t know how that happened, 25 years on. Not sure how to celebrate it. The site averages 500 pages visited a day. A day. The statistics plug-in tells me it’s the front page and then on from there but if we have 150 unique visits (a day!) they’re reading more than the front page. I like the design of the Dead Mule although the “theme” is supposed to be for a store front, the layout for products for sale, not story excerpts. I’ve used it for a couple years and hope to keep it going for quite a few more. I’ve had many iterations of the Mule. This one, while time consuming to format the writing, seems to be the simplest WordPress one so far.
We tried podcasting but it turned out to be not what was expected: the monthly additions aren’t regular but what’s on there now is entertaining and I suggest a listen. Hopefully we’ll get some new stories on their soon.
Today is me remembering. Today is me looking forward because looking back at 2020 is fraught with dismay, isn’t it? I mean, we can all write something about the horrors of the last 365 days. And I don’t just mean politics.
My mom would make oyster stew for my dad on Christmas Eve. She’d make Welsh Rarebit on toast points for my sister, brother and me. When I got old enough to reach the stovetop safely, the rarebit became my responsibility. Daddy would buy Guinness for the rarebit. It’s been 40 years since I’ve had rarebit. I’m not moved to recreate the recipe this year nor have I been for decades. Memories sometimes just should remain so. To recreate a moment can cheapen it, I think. Maybe I’m just jaded because it won’t live up to my expectations — that rarebit. Everyone who enjoyed it is dead. So to try to drum up new support for an old tradition just seems sad.
Christmas Eve gets to be at my daughter’s house with my grandsons and son-in-law. We all have stayed in our houses, no contact, not even with each other, since Thanksgiving in preparation for this event. Only trips to store for necessities, no restaurants, no risky behaviors, always masked, always distant, always washing our hands.
Jane’s doing prime rib, Yorkshire pudding and a Yule Log. We see each other, distant from on another, front porch visits — they live three blocks away but we haven’t shared a meal, been together, in months, as is true of probably everyone reading this. The isolation. I think about that today.
My other daughter, across town, a couple scant miles away, will remain distant. Her 17 year old stepson has what we hope is a cold. His Covid19 test should be in today but since he was previously exposed (daughter/stepdaughter had Covid in May) and had a negative test, I think he’ll be negative again. Just rationalizing here, hoping for the best outcome. He works at grocery store part-time, hangs out with a small group of friends that have been together since last March… probably not the safest person for me to be around these days so we’ll celebrate some gift opening probably with us on their back porch on one side of sliding glass door and them on the other side, inside.
Today is me thinking about what’s good. And getting ready to order groceries “to go” from our local Food Lion grocery store. I’ll pick them up tomorrow, as I’m late with today’s order. I haven’t been in a grocery store in months and I see that as good. I see my dogs, curled up on their blanket on the couch as good. My husband fiddling around with a new MacBook is good. Joseph R Biden will be president next month and that’s glorious.
I don’t write about politics in my blog or my stories, except for when I wrote about how, in 1972, I went to the Republican National Convention as a page and how that experience played out. Man, I was adventurous. I think three years of poverty and one year of a pandemic definitely slow me down. We’d just begun to have a living income when Covid hit. I bought a 2019 Chevy Equinox in May 2019 and have less than 7,000 miles on it, after all this time.
Well, that’s enough about my thoughts, enough of my day. Not publishing this on GiaB, this goes back to personal blogging, back from 2016–2019 Medium posts. | https://medium.com/@deadmule/stream-of-consciousness-dcfa60a1d161 | ['Valerie Macewan'] | 2020-12-21 19:26:17.109000+00:00 | ['Dead Mule', 'Memoir', 'History', 'Gloomy Weather', 'Essay'] |
Remember 2012, the supposed year of Doomsday? | Image Source: Team Latestly
Authors: Rashmini Rathnaweera, Rashmi Jayasekara, Chalani Pradeepika
“What is history? An echo of the past in the future; a reflex from the future on the past” - Victor Hugo
We’re in 2021 now and things really have changed drastically but have it all changed according to what we used to imagine as kids? Do you remember thinking that there would be flying cars and you’d have to start worrying about “air traffic” than your local day-to-day traffic on the road? Road traffic has indeed reduced these days but it is not because people are flying their way to destinations; it is because we’re all stuck at home, working from home, going to school but still from home. With all the things happening in the country and around the world, have you not once thought or even joked around with your family or friends saying “We might actually be on the verge of the End of the World”? And thinking of the End of the World, do you hear an echo from the past? Remember 2012? The supposed year of Doomsday, the End of the World!
For all those oblivious to the speculations; 2012 was the year that marked the end of one of the cycles of the ancient Mayan Calendar but, for those who had a more scientific perspective, 2012 was the year that newly discovered planet Nibiru was supposedly headed towards Earth entailing a catastrophic collision (NASA, 2012). Regardless of the perspective, it all added up to the End of the World in 2012! So 2012 was a year filled with too many end-of-the-world jokes, and also a fair amount of genuine fear. But thankfully you are luckily alive to be reading this article! So 2012 ended up being a typical year for everyone, OR did it? Just have a look at Figure 1.
Figure 1: Population growth of Sri Lanka (annual %) 1960–2018
The above graph depicts the annual population growth of Sri Lanka as a percentage, across the past 6 decades. This decreasing pattern is common for all countries with the decrease in fertility rate (total births per woman); for in an industrialized society, having a higher number of children is considered more of an economic burden and as once stated by the UN — “Development is the best contraceptive”. But presumably, you must have noticed an atypical drop in the population growth, now take a look at the year which the drop corresponds to; 2012! Was Sri Lanka unknowingly on the brink of Doomsday? What sort of a story is the data trying to tell us? Let’s Explore!
So fear not dear reader, this actually has nothing to do with the End of the World. What Sri Lanka experienced in 2012 is more commonly referred to as a short-term population shock. Short-term population shock is an abrupt reduction in human population size; the many causes of it being short-term events such as pandemics, wars, famines, or other catastrophes (Wikipedia, 2021). So what caused the 2012 population shock in Sri Lanka? In the latter part of 2011, Sri Lanka was impacted by the floods described as the worst for the last five decades by the people who were affected by the flood. This affected 1.2 million people and 18 out of 25 districts across the island; flooding through paddy fields, land fisheries, and field crops (IFRS, 2012).
What about 2020?
Sri Lanka has been battling the COVID-19 pandemic since 2020 and the country is yet to recover from it. So it got us curious, what sort of a population shock will be caused by COVID-19? We decided to quantify this through Excess Mortality; the number of deaths from all causes during a crisis above and beyond what we would have expected to see under ‘normal’ conditions. Excess mortality can be measured in many ways, one of them being P-score (Giattino, et al., 2021). P-score calculates excess mortality as the percentage difference between the number of deaths in 2020–2021 and the average number of deaths in the same period over the years 2015–2019. And hence, we used P-score in our analysis considering the time period of one year.
So now let’s get to the FUN part of the article! How did we actually predict the total number of deaths in 2020 and 2021? Well, we considered two components to the total number of deaths in 2020 and 2021; total deaths that would have occurred without COVID-19 and total deaths due to COVID-19 and voilà you get the total number of deaths for 2020 and 2021, assuming all other conditions remain the same (It’s not truly statistics until we have an assumption right?).
Let’s forecast Sri Lanka’s Annual Deaths without COVID-19!
Figure 2: Time series plot of Total Annual Deaths of Sri Lanka 1948–2018
The total annual deaths without COVID-19 was calculated by fitting an ARIMA (Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average) model to the deaths of Sri Lanka from 1948–2018 (Figure 2). An ARIMA model dear reader is a statistical analysis model that enables us to use time series data to predict future trends based on past values.
Initially, the data was divided into two parts as training and testing set with an 80:20 ratio. The model was fit to the training set consisting of annual deaths from 1948 to 2003 and the corresponding model error was calculated through the testing set consisting of annual deaths from 2004 to 2018 . We were able to identify visually an increasing (upward) trend without cyclical variation and hence to overcome the non-stationary pattern of the data differencing was applied. In order to identify the model, Autocorrelation function (ACF) and Partial Autocorrelation function (PACF) plots with 5% level of significance limits for the auto correlations were generated and the results showed exponential decaying pattern on ACF and PACF got cut-off at lag 1 (Figure 3, Figure 4). Thus we can decide on the initial guess of the resulting ARIMA model as ARIMA(1,2,0).
Figure 3: Autocorrelation Function for Total Deaths
Figure 4: Partial Autocorrelation Function for Total Deaths
How did we choose the best model?
Considering ARIMA(1,2,0) as our initial model, we fit multiple ARIMA models and the resulting model fit measures and error rates are as shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Information Criterion (IC) measures and errors rated of fitted ARIMA models
Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) and Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) are both mathematical methods used to evaluate how well a model fits the data it was generated from; accordingly a lower Criterion value indicates a better fit. The Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) is calculated by applying the model to the testing data set. The calculation of the MAPE is defined as follows;
According to Table 1; it can be seen that all the fitted ARIMA models have comparatively similar AIC and BIC values but there is a huge difference in the MAPE values. As it is stated above, it can be seen that both the information criterion values are calculated with regards to the same data that is fitted to the model, in our case the training data set but, the MAPE value is calculated with regards to an additional set of data points, in our case the testing data set. Therefore, giving more prominence to MAPE values; despite not having the lowest AIC and BIC, ARIMA(1,2,0) model was concluded as the best model for our purpose.
Additionally, the fitted ARIMA(1,2,0) model also satisfied the Ljung-Box test at 5% level of significance with a p-value of 0.182, thus validating the model assumption that the data is stationary.
What is the Excess Mortality that we predict?
We obtained the forecasted annual deaths without COVID-19 for each year through our model. The COVID-19 deaths for 2020 were easily obtained through the publications of the Epidemiology Unit (Epidemiology Unit, 2020) and for 2021, the deaths due to COVID-19 were obtained with the aid of the COVID-19 projected forecasts published by the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME, 2021).
Table 2: Calculation of P-Score
So dear reader, after a bit of modelling with the data we were able to obtain the values in Table 2 for the years 2020 and 2021. Accordingly, our model has forecasted a 9% and 17% excess mortality for Sri Lanka for the year 2020 and 2021 comparative to the last 5 years. In the span of just a year, COVID-19 has almost DOUBLED the excess mortality for Sri Lanka. The immediate cause of the increase of excess mortality in 2021 can be considered as underestimating the potential of the pandemic as a country.
In 2020 Sri Lanka managed to get things under control and while the rest of the world was curious as to how Sri Lanka successfully curtailed the coronavirus pandemic (Deutsche Welle, 2020); we Sri Lankans had no idea that the next wave will hit the country in the upcoming months and we would end up teaching the world how not to respond to COVID-19 (The Diplomat, 2021). So by now, it has become clear that having no plans regarding the possibility of a next wave has led to a needless amount of deaths in the country in 2021. In all of this, it is important to keep in mind that these projections and how the future will actually play out will depend on what we are doing today.
On a final note…
Curious as to what the impact of COVID-19 has been on the Population of Sri Lanka, our analysis was carried out using many assumptions and taking a more visual approach towards identifying the best ARIMA model. But, more accurate predictions may be obtained through applying much more elaborated time series models that can capture latent patterns within the data much more efficiently. | https://medium.com/@statsociety-usjp/remember-2012-the-supposed-year-of-doomsday-2d7c3d5481e7 | ['Statistics Society - Usj'] | 2021-08-14 07:31:50.363000+00:00 | ['Excess Death', 'Covid 19', 'Mortality', 'Population', 'Forecasting'] |
Find Money Treasures Right at Your Fingertips | Financial sources and the quality of advice they offer range far and wide. That can be a daunting prospect for those trying to do it themselves to secure their futures.
Wendy Rafferty might fit this profile. A registered nurse, medic and veteran, she draws information from a host of personal finance apps, bloggers and YouTubers to help improve her financial prospects.
“The more information you have, the more empowered you are in building your security,” she said. “I follow a lot of great financial bloggers along with American Consumer Credit Counseling.”
Rafferty talked with financial experts from consumer credit reporting company Experian and Paulina Likos, an investing reporter for U.S. News and World Report. Likos breaks down investing basics for do-it-yourself investors navigating the stock market.
“You can find great personal finance and investing articles on the U.S. News website,” Likos said. “We offer consumer advice to those who seek to have better money management skills.
“The best financial advice I got was to open a 401(k),” she said. “By allocating part of your bi-weekly paycheck to this retirement account — where in many cases your employer matches your contributions — you’re building wealth and securing your financial future.”
Rafferty has drawn key insights from the assorted money tips.
“Save and spend cash,” she said. “I’ve gotten lots of credit report tips and advice such as the better your credit, the more you save.”
Her favorite Twitter accounts that share helpful money and credit tips include Experian, American Consumer Credit Counseling and Credit Karma.
Tactics for Growth
“Shameless plug,” Likos said. “I tweet every day on how you can improve your personal finances and investing tactics to grow your money.”
She also has weekly articles on her U.S. News website.
“There are many personal finance apps on the market,” Likos said. “Acorns, for example, an app that invests round-ups from purchases, has 4.5 million users.”
More traditional institutions match Rafferty’s comfort level.
“I love my bank,” she said. “It’s a credit union that really cares about its members. I’m a paper-and-pencil ‘accountant.’ I like to write it and have my own visual cues.
“I think I am old school,” Rafferty said. “My dad was an accountant, and I still do things in a ledger. I have stuck with spreadsheets. That just works for me. I like to get my thoughts into it.”
Her favorite personal finance blogs are Experian and Wise Bread. Not satisfied there, she reaches out to find other internet gems.
“There are a ton of good credit gurus on TikTok,” she said. “Also search #credit. There are great credit report tips on increasing your score when you search #CreditReport.”
The Experian blog recommends Jeff Rose on YouTube. His Wealth Hacker channel has videos dealing with personal finance topics.
“Millennial Money Podcast hosted by Shannah Game talks about how to build a better relationship with your money,” Likos said. “Each podcast episode offers a wealth of advice to make a difference in your personal finances.”
Covering Emergencies
These sites have valuable takeaways for those doing their best to learn how money works. One of the lessons is the need to set aside funds for the unexpected events.
“Thank goodness for the emergency fund,” Rafferty said. “I learned a lot of great credit tips for improving our score, basics of investing and emergency budgeting.”
That is just one step toward putting money goals in proper rank order.
“Before you start investing, make sure to pay off any debt and build up that emergency fund,” Likos said. “This way you have financial security and can invest with confidence.”
Rafferty said she has received lots of helpful information from Twitter chats.
“Hearing from experts in the field is really the best way to get financial guidance,” she said, recalling this memorable advice:
“Someone wrote, ‘If the gift you receive is worth $30, and someone giving it makes $10 an hour, that person has worked three hours of their life for you.’ Every gift is a gift.”
About the Author
Jim Katzaman is a manager at Largo Financial Services and worked in public affairs for the Air Force and federal government. You can connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Disclaimer
This article is intended for informational purposes only, and should not be considered financial advice. You should consult a financial professional before making any major financial decisions. | https://medium.com/financial-strategy/find-money-treasures-right-at-your-fingertips-f367fe61658a | ['Jim Katzaman - Get Out Of Debt'] | 2020-12-25 14:58:06.046000+00:00 | ['Money', 'Finance', 'Twitter', 'Retirement', 'Social Media'] |
Everything you Need to Know About Posting Bond | At your arraignment, the judge (or magistrate) will read your indictment out loud, find out if you’re already represented by counsel and, if not, let you know that one will be provided if you cannot afford one. At that point, the judge will make an initial consideration of bond. The usual key factors are age, family ties, community ties and type of employment, although there are others. In my case, for example, I was captured overseas. I didn’t have a prayer. The stated goal is to ensure that you’ll return for future proceedings if bond is granted, but they also know how much more difficult it is to fight your case from behind bars — a major advantage for prosecutors. As a result, the government’s knee-jerk reaction is to contest almost all requests for bond (unless it’s been negotiated in advance or the crime is so low-level it doesn’t pass the giggle test). Expect to be called the worst flight risk ever, a menace to society or whatever else they can think of. It’s all part of the process. The judge, of course, is then inclined to defer to your prosecutor’s concerns. While this does not always result in an outright denial, it will at least lead to a higher bond and stricter terms and conditions. So much for “innocent until proven guilty.”
You retain the right to request a subsequent bond hearing(s) if bond is denied or placed exorbitantly high, but you’re back again in front of the same magistrate, so you can imagine what to expect. Although, my codefendant Paul, had his bond request initially denied and later set at $1 million a few months later. So, it’s possible. Prosecutors may also request removal of bond at some later date for a claimed violation of any terms or conditions. Steve G. was hauled in for a rehearing, with the AUSA claiming his home, which he put up as collateral, was in foreclosure. When Steve protested the judge pried further, and the AUSA clarified by saying “well, we froze his accounts, so I assumed……” Steve’s bond was continued but the AUSA, of course, was let off with only mild admonishment. Go figure.
At this point, you’ll benefit greatly if you’ve previously identified clean funds and assets (versus those subject to confiscation or forfeiture) and having hired an attorney. It can be very difficult to make bond unless you’ve already done so. Assuming you’re granted bond, you can either (i) post the entire dollar amount, (ii) pay a bail bondsman 10–15 percent of the bail amount as a non-refundable fee, or (iii) secure the bond with a high value asset like stocks or real estate. If your assets have been frozen or claimed by the government, you can’t use those but may be allowed to have a friend or family member put up bond for you, subject to the judge’s (or magistrate’s) approval. Regarding bond, once you’re adjudicated not guilty or go to prison, you’ll be able to reclaim whatever you’ve posted for (i) or (iii) once your case has been resolved (unless the government decides it still has a right to make a claim against those assets). However, it’s not like the government just hands it over. You’ll need to make a request, and AUSAs are known to delay the process just because they can. Which brings us to another issue. The government gets highly creative in broadly determining what assets are subject to confiscation and forfeiture. In the case of Barry K., a doctor who merely pre-signed a few Scripts for the sake of convenience for his assistant, the Feds showed up years later to confiscate useless old furniture and clothes. As, you’ll unfortunately come to learn, some parts of the process are primarily geared toward inflicting pain.
One final factor worth mentioning applies to people arrested and arraigned in a jurisdiction outside of where the case is pending. I was initially arraigned in Miami, Florida but my case was out of Tampa. I was arraigned and held for two weeks in FDC Miami before being shipped up to Tampa. The magistrate hearing my arraignment in Miami told me that I could request a bond hearing once I made it to Tampa. I never bothered to waste my time.
Lawrence Hartman is the author of (i) GUILTY TILL PROVEN INNOCENT: A Shocking Inside View Into America’s Failing Justice System, (ii) BLIND GREED: From Ivy League to International Fugitive, and (iii) BLIND JUSTICE: The Consequences of Greed. He has also been featured in articles on Forbes.com, including “The Life of a White-Collar Fugitive Not All That It’s Cracked Up To Be” and “A Voice From Prison Weighs In On Drug Addiction And A Solution.” | https://medium.com/@justicefailing/everything-you-need-to-know-about-posting-bond-a2374355ceea | ['Failing Justice'] | 2020-09-22 22:59:14.511000+00:00 | ['Arrest', 'Criminal Justice Reform', 'Prison', 'Criminal Justice', 'Prison Reform'] |
On Emancipation | Aimé Césaire, an Afro-Caribbean socialist author, discussed the narrative of the colonizer and the colonized in his work Discourse on Colonialism. Some mistakenly believe that colonialism benefited us as a people, but a cursory glance at history challenges that notion:
“So-called Western civilization is incapable of solving the two major problems to which its existence has given rise: the problem of the proletariat and the colonial problem. What, fundamentally, is colonization? It is neither evangelization, nor a philanthropic enterprise, nor a desire to push back the frontiers of ignorance, disease, and tyranny, nor a project undertaken for the greater glory of God, nor an attempt to extend the rule of law.”
The colonizer others the colonized in order to justify their colonization. That is why they obscure our true history. That is why they gloss over how we functioned before colonization.
We didn’t need their “civilization”.
Colonization relies on racist and xenophobic frameworks that dehumanise its targets and justifies their extreme and brutal mistreatment, as it erases the history and culture of entire peoples. Césaire also said:
“[Our] societies were drained of their essence, cultures trampled underfoot, institutions undermined, lands confiscated, religions smashed, magnificent artistic creations destroyed, extraordinary possibilities wiped out.”
We do not know the depth of our history and culture.
Our Ancestors
Photo by Phillip Goldsberry on Unsplash
“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” — Marcus Garvey
The way that our ancestors lived prior to colonization is, in many ways, far more humane than our current way of life.
Traditional African societies were, for the most part, founded on communalism. A way of life that centred community independence, self-governance, and full involvement of all individuals in the affairs of society. The horizontally-organized societies had leadership, not based on authority, imposition, coercion, majority-rule, or centralization, but out of common consensus. Consensus was central to decision-making in many African societies.
The settlement of disputes was focused on mutual compromise. Emphasis was on preventing the perpetuation of injustice and enthroning equity, on the understanding that no person should be unjustly enriched or denied the elementary principles of natural justice. There were kingdoms and empires in Africa as well, but the binary narrative of “we were royalty” or “we were primitive” limits the scope of our imagination. There was a wide breadth of social organization in the motherland.
The Effects of Colonialism
Colonialism was a terrible force, but what is worse is the ways we continue to perpetuate it today.
Education
Photo by moren hsu on Unsplash
Our education system is destructive.
Critical thinking atrophies, natural curiosity is broken, and young psyches are damaged as generations are pushed through the system, year after year.
After spending two decades of our lives in school, we graduate as a new generation of followers of the same society that kept us back, unable to challenge the false narrative and devastating system of the colonizers.
Our schools preserve the systems of inequality that we grapple with today. They maintain a society that is hostile towards differences in intelligence and styles of learning that are not profitable. The education system (de)grades, tests, and standardizes our children, ignoring their rich, natural complexity and diversity of thought, development, and ability.
Racism
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
Our so-called melting pot has a racism problem. We have not fully acknowledged how colonial powers designed today’s racial divisions, but it’s time to move forward.
It’s time to confront the overt racism and microaggressions that Afro-Trinidadians face at school, on the street, in relationships, while travelling, and in the workplace.
Racism, and especially anti-blackness, pervades our society.
Our major political parties still stoke racial divides around election times. We need to stand up against the brazen disrespect, racism, and mudslinging so common in our politics.
Colourism
While many of us embrace our pan-African identity, our refusal to address colourism and texturism in this country will be our downfall.
From childhood onward, dark-skinned Afro-Trinidadians have to face aggression from their parents and their peers.
“Yuh so black I cah find you in d dark.” “She hair rell nappy.” “You rell black boy, yuh didn’t bathe?” “She pretty for a darkie.”
In the workplace, black hairstyles face invasive scrutiny, with criticisms of its “lack of professionalism.” Let’s not forget that professionalism, as we conceptualize it, is deeply rooted in colonial thinking. Discrimination in the dating sphere is dismissed as mere “preference”. Our local photographers and Carnival bands continue to lack representation of our darker-skinned kinfolk, so that creamy brown skin and loose coils are practically a modelling requirement.
Even some Indo-Trinidadians face colourism, part of the legacy of the caste system. We need to overturn these divisions. As Malcolm X once said:
“The greatest weapon the colonial powers have used in the past against our people has always been his ability to divide and conquer. If I take my hand and slap you, it might sting you because these digits are separated. But all I have to do to put you back in your place is bring those digits together.”
Sexism
Photo by Suad Kamardeen on Unsplash
The deeply patriarchal society that we live in today is not solely the product of colonialism. While many of our notions of gender arise from our religious culture, forms of patriarchy did exist in some indigenous and African cultures prior to colonization.
However, that is no excuse for the prevalent misogyny that exists in our society today. The flagrant rape culture that permeates the lives of our women from the day that they are born till the day that they die. A culture that assigns the worth of women based on their attractiveness. A culture that has normalized catcalling. A culture that has normalized domestic abuse. A culture that is deeply invested in the control and subjugation of women’s appearance, attire, attitude, and activities.
This, of course, is tied to the toxic masculinity that exists in our culture. Before you groan, recognize, as bell hooks did, that the first act of violence that patriarchy demands of males is not violence toward women. Instead, patriarchy demands of all males that they engage in acts of psychic self-mutilation, that they kill off the emotional parts of themselves.
“Feminist politics aims to end domination, to free us to be who we are — to live lives where we love justice, where we can live in peace. Feminism is for everybody.”
Queerphobia
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash
Queerphobia, that is homophobia, transphobia, and the other prejudices against members of the LGBTQ+ community, is a glaring component of our culture.
Our prejudice is taught, passed down from colonialism. The reality is that queer folks have existed everywhere, including Africa and India, for millennia. Without the deliberate forces of conservativism, we would not have such a hate for the wide range of our people. Our prejudice is unnatural, not the diversity of gender and sexuality that exists.
Parenthood
Photo by Segun Osunyomi on Unsplash
The violence of our present society is the result of slavery.
In pre-colonial West Africa, our people saw children as sacred and pure. Ritualized abuse was not introduced until the advent of slavery and colonialism. Europeans saw children as born evil, so their task as parents was to beat them into goodness.
Our tradition of “lix” came about after the master-slave dynamic perpetuated ritualized violence. Parents would physically harm their children for normal, innocent infractions like getting dirty, playing, and showing “attitude”, all to protect them from the wrath of the slave master and make them good, obedient future slaves.
Normal childhood and teenage behaviour continue to be punished as our method of parenting demands total submission. Yet there is an abundance of evidence that demonstrates the harm of corporal punishment; it raises suicide rates, delinquency, intimate abuse, and depression among youth.
We need to heal.
Religion
Photo by Avel Chuklanov on Unsplash
This is where I may lose some people. Bear with me.
It is hard to deny the damage that some religions have caused. Many demonize our traditional practices and further puritanical and patriarchal attitudes in our society. Some bask in suffering and cruelty in the name of God. Others refuse basic medical science and deny free choice, again and again, victimizing the most marginalized of our world.
Whatever happened to a personal relationship with your deity/deities? Why are people bringing spirituality, and in some cases religious nationalism, into the realm of politics?
We need to do better.
Capitalism
At the root of many of our modern problems is the destructiveness of capitalism, the brother of colonialism.
“You can cuss out colonialism, imperialism, and all other kinds of ism, but it’s hard for you to cuss that dollarism. When they drop those dollars on you, your soul goes.” — Malcolm X
Capitalism, as a mentality, rewards the worst aspects of our humanity. It rewards greed and short-term gratification. It produces alienation, the predominance of the profit-motive and the drive for accumulation, dehumanization of workers as parts of a machine, commodity fetishism (including the commodification of people), possessiveness, and the pervasive inability to see exploitative wage slavery as anything other than freely contracted employment. Most destructive is its normalization of hypercompetitiveness, which castigates genuine compassion, cooperation, and solidarity.
Capitalism is inhuman, anti-democratic, unsustainable, and deeply exploitative.
The hallmark of capitalism is poverty in the midst of plenty.
What Next?
Decolonization of the mind.
We need to rid ourselves of the colonial mentality, an internalized attitude of inferiority.
We try to “change our skin” as a society, attempting to assimilate with the forms of thinking and behaviour of our colonizers, in hopes that we will gain their privileges.
But the privileges of their societies remain in the hands of very few. They are not people we should be trying to replicate.
Our colonial mentality keeps our culture back. Frantz Fanon called for total liberation through organized revolt. Uhuru Hotep saw the core of liberation of the mind through the dismantling of white supremacist beliefs, and the structures which uphold them, in every area of our lives.
We need to educate ourselves.
We need to reclaim our traditions, cultural practices, history, science, language, fashion, ideology, politics, media, and education.
We need to reconnect with our heritage and rethink our future.
I don’t expect this to happen easily. I don’t expect any political parties to help us. You see:
“None but ourselves can free our minds.” — Bob Marley
Happy Emancipation Day. | https://medium.com/andrewism/on-emancipation-ba0425a08176 | ['Saint Andrew'] | 2020-11-21 15:36:24.590000+00:00 | ['Liberation', 'Society', 'Emancipation', 'History', 'Black History'] |
The Biggest Release since Mainnet Launch | The Biggest Release since Mainnet Launch
Team Nimiq is thrilled to release a major update to our apps that will significantly improve how users can use their NIM as well as how developers can integrate Nimiq.
The update comes packed with new features, improved and hardened security concepts, and an open API that allows third-party apps to integrate Nimiq features and handle NIM directly in the browser. And it’s all wrapped in a brand new user interface making it easier than ever to use your NIM.
This post will focus on the top features from a technical perspective. Stay tuned for an in-depth article about the UX/UI/product progress and an article about features and releases in the next weeks.
So, what’s new?
Accounts with multiple addresses
New architecture and Ledger integration
Nimiq Login Files
Changeable passwords
Logout interface
QR-Code generator and scanner
Open API for 3rd-party integration
Nimiq Checkout
Message signing support
One Account, many Addresses
With standards-compliant BIP44 private-key derivation, one seed now supports an infinite number of addresses. That means, with all new accounts you can manage more than one address under one account. For a more in-depth introduction into Hierarchical Deterministic Wallets, please refer to this article.
With this update, it’s now easy to get your funds, payments, and transactions organized without the need to backup and store a key for each of those addresses. Instead, it’s only one account and one backup. While enjoying this convenience, you still have the freedom to create several multi-address accounts and, for example, separate your savings from your daily allowance and your business expenses. This way, you can store the backups of each of these accounts accordingly.
Multiple addresses are now also supported for Ledger hardware wallets!
Old Accounts, New Accounts
With the introduction of multi-address accounts, conventional single-address accounts turn into legacy accounts. They are still supported but will not inherit new features such as the Login File and will not be developed further in the future. Team Nimiq recommends all users to upgrade by creating a new multi-address account and transfer their funds.
Keyguard and Ledger
The overall architecture of the Keyguard has been reworked leading to a new structure: | https://medium.com/nimiq-network/the-biggest-release-since-mainnet-launch-f8096e33dab9 | ['Team Nimiq'] | 2019-08-14 02:43:05.281000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Nimiq', 'Payments', 'UX', 'Bitcoin'] |
The Person You Mean to be: How Progress Requires Activism and Understanding | Listen on iTunes, Stitcher, and Google Play or read the transcript, below!
In this episode, author and professor Dolly Chugh joins the program to discuss the ways in which seeing ourselves as “good” can lead to greater fragility, and introduces the idea of being a “good-ish” person and what that entails. She also discusses the ways in which creating lasting change requires both confrontation and engagement and how leaders can use both for maximum impact.
In this episode you’ll discover:
Dolly’s diversity story of growing up in an Indian family in West Texas (2:00)
The parallel between technology and diversity and inclusion work (11:00)
The value of being able to make mistakes in a safe environment (24:00)
How we often put ourselves in a tight corner and how that leads to fragility (27:30)
Why we should aim to be a “good-ish” person and what that means (31:00)
Why CEO’s can no longer avoid or gloss over DE&I issues (43:00)
Why creating change require both “heat” and “light” (45:30)
The pros and cons of confronting vs. engaging (48:30)
—
Listen on iTunes, Stitcher, and Google Play or read the transcript, below:
JENNIFER BROWN: Dolly, welcome to The Will to Change.
DOLLY CHUGH: Thank you so much for having me, Jennifer.
JENNIFER BROWN: I heard about your book. The title is quite arresting. I know it’s a book about how good people fight bias, but the title is The Person You Mean to Be. And read so much into that because it’s really something that’s on my mind these days — intent versus impact, and our growing awareness that a lot of us might be well intended, and at the same time not proactively addressing the presence of bias in ourselves, around us, and in our world. I just loved it. It was timely and it’s such a practical, fun read full of so much research.
I am delighted to bring your voice to our audience on The Will to Change. We always start with everyone’s diversity story. We say everyone has a diversity story, even those you don’t expect. But you have a really interesting one. You share a little bit about it in the front of the book, but how would you answer that question given the wide-ranging professional and personal life that you’ve led so far?
DOLLY CHUGH: Yes. I so appreciate that question that you ask your guests. I’ve appreciated hearing their stories.
I think my diversity story is one of always being both inside and outside and having that little peephole from one side to the other. I’m the child of immigrants from India. I was born in India, and six months old when my parents brought me here to the U.S. We lived in Texas until I was nine in small towns in west Texas, where we were the only Indian family for miles and miles, for town after town.
Until I was nine, there was no one who looked like me anywhere in my world, my community, or in my school. We moved to New Jersey after that, and for those who are familiar with New Jersey, there are many Indians living New Jersey now, but there weren’t a lot at the time, which is going to make some people wonder how that could be true. Even in New Jersey in the ’70s and early ’80s, I was one of very few.
I think I had a perspective of being on the outside, but I also had insider membership in a lot of ways. I belonged to institutions and schools and communities that were considered the mainstream and had legitimacy in all sorts of ways.
In that way, I feel like I got the benefit of being on the inside, but also the benefit and the perspective of being on the outside.
JENNIFER BROWN: Yes. I think that comes through strongly that you are writing and trying to educate from this place in the middle. That’s a rare place to inhabit for a lot of us. That probably informed The Person You Mean to Be as a title. You say, “How do we empower people to be smart about this work but semi-bold?” I loved “semi-bold.” It doesn’t assume that we’re all activist warriors. It doesn’t assume that we all are going to it into a certain model when we think about a change agent. There is such a pressure that is narrowly defined by what doing enough really looks like.
Especially this year, a lot of our feet have been held to the fire about whether we’re truly living an inclusive life. Are we really role-modeling this behavior? So much has been pointed out to us this past year about how we walk around with inherited privilege and degrees of comfort because of our identity, et cetera.
But your book said, “Hey, get started somewhere.” It’s not about being super radical, it’s about the realistic steps that people can take. I really appreciated that, it’s really needed. I want to ask you, how did you land on that as what hasn’t been written about and why you to write about that?
DOLLY CHUGH: Jennifer, it comes very much from a point of my own grappling with that. I start the book laying on the floor at the Toys R Us — the massive Times Square flagship store when it was open there. I’m lying on the floor in the toy gun section, which I think was on the third or fourth floor. And I’m lying on the floor in the toy gun section because I’m part of a Black Lives Matter “die-in” protest of the shooting death of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy in Cleveland who was playing in a park with a toy gun, only to be shot and killed by the police.
This protest was speaking out against that death as well as so many others. And I’m lying on the floor, it’s the holiday season. This is a few years ago in December, and I remember Silent Night was playing on the Toys R Us intercom system.
Our protest had been very peaceful, very disciplined. It was the first protest I had ever been part of. I was amazed at how thoughtful and careful and well led it was. As I’m lying there on the ground listening to silent night, thinking about this 12-year-old boy. I’m crying because I think many of us are, being struck by the gravity and the magnitude of that moment. I also felt this incredible inadequacy because I said to myself, “This is such an important protest, this is such an important movement. It’s absolutely essential that movements and protests like this happen.” And yet, I know my own personality well enough to know that the amount of courage and gumption it took for me to even show up this one time and to drag along my husband and drag along two other friends, I would not be able to do that on a regular basis. This wasn’t going to be something I did every week.
I wanted it to be. I wanted to be that person. I wanted to believe that I had that level of courage, but I didn’t. This is the semi-bold part of me. I’m a child of immigrants raised to stay under the radar, raised to not make waves, raised to certainly never get in trouble.
So, here I am. I care deeply about the work, I know the work needs to happen, and yet I can’t see myself doing it on a regular basis. So the question is: Is that the only work to be done? Is “capital A” activism the only work to be done? The truth is: No; it isn’t at all. We know for a fact that can’t be the only work. There has to be work that happens at lunch at the office and in our PTA meetings and in our conversations while waiting for the cashier at Walgreens. These are conversations that also have to happen. That’s where semi-bold people like me can do more.
I had the realization as I lay there at Toys R Us that if this is the only work to be done, then we’re in trouble. But the good news is, there’s a lot more to be done and there are a lot of us to play that role who can do that work.
JENNIFER BROWN: That’s right. I love it. It’s starting small. I talk a lot about the continuum of inclusive leadership. I’m writing my second book on that and really trying to deconstruct those small steps, make them clear, and acknowledge that it is a journey. And if you become more of an overt activist as a result of taking all those steps, then that’s where you path will lead. But like you said, that’s probably not a fit for the majority of us and we need all of our contributions — small, large, private, public — even if it’s deciding to take the famous inclusion inventory called the Harvard IAT Test. You talk about the research work out of Harvard. It’s a free test online which measures your bias, and it’s a great place to start to sensitize yourself to how you look at the world — especially if you look at yourself as a good-hearted, well-intended person.
Did you feel like in writing this you were raining on people’s parades in terms of, “Oh, I’m woke. I’m in the resistance” or whatever? I’m active in my diversity stuff at work. Did you feel you were a bit like, “Hey, good job, but –”
DOLLY CHUGH: Yes. Nice try. (Laughter.) I have two teenage daughters, and they’ll certainly tell me that I can suck the joy out of anything.
JENNIFER BROWN: Aw! (Laughter.) Not true. Not true.
DOLLY CHUGH: So true. There is an element of that, but I’ll flip it. I think where I’ve been trying to flip it is rather than people feeling like their parade has been rained on, why not give yourself room to grow? Why do you have to be done? Why do you have to have figured it all out? Why do you have to have been born into knowing all of this?
I’ve found one analogy so helpful. I gave a TED Talk this fall, and the curator at TED introduced me to this analogy, which I’ve stolen from her liberally. Her name is Corey Hajim. It’s that technology is something we assume is changing all the time and that we need to keep up. We assume that whatever our knowledge was in 2018 is not going to be good enough in 2019. We’re going to have to learn, yet again, how to use our remote controls and we’re going to have to upgrade our phones and figure out a different way to back up our files.
If that’s true with technology, why wouldn’t it also be true on issues of diversity and inclusion? As you said in your intro, the world is also moving really quickly in that space and it’s okay for us to need to grow. It’s okay for us to have room to grow. So, I think where I’m trying to bring my voice to bear is not to make people feel shame and that their parade has been rained on, that they weren’t as “woke” as they thought they were, but to say, “Well, of course not. Why would you be? Why wouldn’t you still have all sorts of things to learn in this space just like you do in technology?”
JENNIFER BROWN: I’m going to steal that. That is really good.
DOLLY CHUGH: Good.
JENNIFER BROWN: You’re absolutely right. It’s like relearning or learning a new language or tuning into a new frequency, particularly when you come from levels of privilege. It is the water we swim in every single day.
DOLLY CHUGH: Yes.
JENNIFER BROWN: It requires the ability to step back and look at things more critically or through others’ eyes. It shifts everything. If you’re open to that, then hopefully it shifts the way you look at a lot of things. It shifts the way you lead, it shifts the way you show up at work, how you hire people, how you mentor and coach others. Seen through that lens, it informs everything in such a different way.
Some people complain that the work — they don’t verbalize this, but I think that some of the pushback on awakening to this, it’s more work in a time-compressed world, right? You’ve got to slow down a bit and say, “Why did I make that decision? Was that inclusive? Did I hold that person accountable? Did I hold myself accountable?” And slow down to examine that. We need to, then, build new habits in place of the old ones we’re challenging in ourselves.
We’re doing all of this in a faster, faster world, where we’re dealing with an overwhelming amount of information coming at us.
But you boil it down to some very quick, concrete actions we can take and it’s not complicated. What is your favorite advice for people who might have this verbalized or quiet resistance? Maybe it’s just inaction and being overwhelmed around our own biases.
DOLLY CHUGH: Absolutely. I feel it, too, by the way.
JENNIFER BROWN: Yes. That’s so true.
DOLLY CHUGH: I feel it! I wrote this book for myself.
JENNIFER BROWN: Don’t we always do that? It’s so true.
DOLLY CHUGH: Research is research. I feel that. One great entry point is I tell a story of two people I involved, Sarah Weeks and Gita Varadarajan, and they’re two collaborators who were working together on an excellent children’s book called Save me a Seat.
The story they tell is of how Sarah, who was well established in the children’s publishing industry, and Gita, who was a first-time author. As Sarah was finding herself uncomfortable because she was introducing Gita to various people in the industry, but didn’t know how to say Gita’s last name, even though they were collaborators. It was a long, multi-syllable, south Indian last name.
This was proving to be a real barrier in their relationship and in their collaboration. Sarah was really embarrassed by it and was scared to ask for help. She was stunned when she learned that Gita’s interpretation of people not saying her name was arrogance on their part, as opposed to them being scared or unsure.
That little story, to me, illustrates where we stand on so many of these things — that gap between intention and impact that you were describing is really showing up.
One really easy starting point for all of us is we all know people whose names we don’t know how to say. We work with them, we live near them, sometimes we’re even related to them. And to start with learning how to say their names, and to do it in a way where we accept the responsibility to do the work.
One thing we can all do is we can go on the Internet. If you just type into your favorite search engine “how to pronounce” and then let’s say you put in my last name, C-H-U-G-H. How to pronounce C-H-U-G-H. It will tell you how to pronounce my last name, and it will give you audio files. It will say, “Chugh.” It will give you sometimes multiple audio files where you can hear multiple people say it, you can play it again and again. That way, without asking the person to repeat it, often when people say their own names, they say it so quickly it’s hard to break it down, it’s hard to hear each distinct part. It’s hard to unpack where the emphasis is. But when we do it on the Internet, of course, we can just sit there and do all the things we do on the Internet, which is in the privacy of our own computer, learn what we need to learn.
Back in the days before Google, I used to call people’s voicemails in the middle of the night, their office answering message, to hear how they said their names. Now, we don’t have to quite resort to that.
This is a little easy trick — it’s not even a trick, it’s an actual act of empathy and an act of I would say even activism, that we’re saying that just because a name isn’t familiar to me doesn’t mean it isn’t worthy of me knowing it, saying it, and saying it with confidence.
For most people, their name was the first, most important decision that was made about them when they were born. It had some significance to a family member, to their faith, to their history, to their legacy. If that piece of them is something we are avoiding saying, and that’s frankly what I do when I don’t know how to say someone’s name, I avoid saying their name and I even avoid them. I’m embarrassed to say how often that happens.
Start right there. We can think about three people whose names we don’t know how to say and learn how to say them.
JENNIFER BROWN: So beautiful. This is such a great part in the book, I really recommend it. It’s in your introduction, but that whole story about Gita and being a good colleague in this case means not asking others to do what we often refer to as “emotional labor.” Figuring things out for us and going and doing our own research and homework. Even working within group to ask some of these questions and to do our own learning before we include others.
I’ve been thinking a lot about that, actually, because I’m writing my second book for what we call “majority folks,” which is shorthand in the workplace which might refer to white colleagues, male colleagues, cisgender colleagues, heterosexual colleagues. But getting together and having really honest conversations outside of the involvement of others. There is something very important about being able to be vulnerable to work on your own issues with people who might share those issues before you open up — or maybe alongside opening up the dialogue — for men, opening up the dialogue to having women attend, for example, or if there’s a group of white leaders who want to focus on whiteness and have that conversation.
There is a lot of debate about this. At its heart, it’s a debate about how learning happens, where it happens, and around whom it happens.
DOLLY CHUGH: Yes.
JENNIFER BROWN: Does it happen across difference right out of the gate? Does it happen amongst sameness? Is that an important part of our own education so that we don’t overly burden others with our ignorance? I think this question is coming up a lot. I actually see some calling-out going on online, which you probably have seen as well. Inevitably, there is a lot of opportunity for offense to be taken either direction when we’re doing learning in group or we’re trying to exclude in order to have a certain conversation that needs to happen. And when do you include and create a diverse group of people sitting around the table to continue that learning? I wonder, do you have a viewpoint on that?
DOLLY CHUGH: Yes. I wrestle with that, myself. I think one of the things when I was writing my book, I was having a lot on this issue as well as lots of other issues, having a debate in my mind where I would almost get paralyzed in the writing. Because I just kept hearing the critics of that particular practice that I was advocating.
As you said, we could argue both sides of the issue that you’re raising about where the learning takes place.
I think where I’ve come out is there is no perfection, there is no perfect way to do this. And so, absolutely, if we’re going to limit a group to the dominant group, there will be critiques from outside that group, and vice versa.
Part of it is accepting that when we do this learning, we’re going to be criticized. Part of the work is being able and willing to take some of those critiques.
I do think that there is this aspect of wanting to do this work and be safe from criticism that is unrealistic, that we’re going to have to just accept that there will be some arrows directed at all of us. I don’t like that either. I don’t like the feeling of an arrow being directed at me, but I think the reality is that if we could have crafted the perfect way for learning, we would have done it by now.
JENNIFER BROWN: That’s for sure. Yes.
DOLLY CHUGH: It’s just not there. I will say that I appreciate the value for places where one can make mistakes safely. Unfortunately, the Internet is almost never that place.
JENNIFER BROWN: We know this! (Laughter.) And, yet, we continue to return to it like a moth to the flame.
DOLLY CHUGH: Exactly. So, I think to some extent, tempting as it is to do this work online, it may require more face-to-face or phone-to-phone for that kind of interaction than the Internet can support.
JENNIFER BROWN: I agree. Fundamentally, what you’re talking about is fragility. We just had Robin DiAngelo on the podcast.
DOLLY CHUGH: Yes.
JENNIFER BROWN: She has a book called White Fragility that’s been on the bestseller list now for weeks. Is that the concept you’re describing? How can we learn and experiment and get things wrong and improve without expecting the arrows? Is it our fragility that makes us so sensitive? How do we understand that fragility and where it comes from when we talk about inclusion, particularly well-meaning allies? I will put a point on that. I think those are the folks who feel the most fragile, potentially feel attacked.
DOLLY CHUGH: Yes.
JENNIFER BROWN: Go back into their hole after that attack thinking, “Well, I tried, and that didn’t go very well.”
DOLLY CHUGH: Yes. I’m a big fan of Robin’s work and I’ve had the opportunity to meet and discuss it with her. I think her work on fragility is brilliant and incisive to the point where people’s reactions to her work are so meta, right? It’s that mirror that’s the mirror of the mirror of the mirror of the mirror. It’s so meta. When you watch her present and you watch your own reactions to her presenting, and I’m watching myself saying, “Oh, God, I know exactly what she’s talking about.”
Here’s where I think we get in trouble. We have a really narrow definition of what a good person is. We almost all care about being seen as and feeling like a good person. Psychologists study moral identity and that moral identity is something that many people think is central to who they are. Even if we define “good person” differently, your definition and my definition may be different. But whatever our definition is, we value that good person identity.
In this particular space, a lot of us define good person as not a racist, not a sexist, not a homophobe, not any of the “-isms” and “-ists.”
And what that adds up to is a really tight corner with no windows and no room to grow at all. It’s not scientifically tenable, that tight corner, because what we know, as you alluded to earlier with IAT and Mahzarin Banaji’s work, we know unconscious bias is pervasive. We know systemic bias benefits many of us, and we’re unlikely to see it when it does. These are all scientifically shown phenomena.
If that’s all true, then that tight corner we’ve put ourselves in where the only way we can be considered a good person is if we’re free of all bias and we’re free from all benefits of bias, then there’s nowhere for us to go but fragility when we’re confronted with evidence to the contrary.
In that tight corner, the fragility is real. Our whole identity crumbles, it’s literally fragile if we use Robin’s work. Where the human mind is not build to take on and just sit there in that state of the identity crumbling, we call that self-threat; I call it the “Red Zone.” The human mind just won’t allow that to stay. It’s not an equilibrium state. What it will do is try to find ways to put our identity back together, to justify, to make everything okay again. It needs to feel okay about whatever identity that we value.
So, what ends up happening is I’m in this tight corner with no window, very narrow definition of “good person” identity. Oh, look, here’s all this evidence that tight definition of good person, you’re not meeting that definition. Oh, no, red zone, self-threat, fragility — have to fix it, have to fix it. You know what I’m going to do? I’m going to either ignore that evidence you’ve just shown me or I’m going to deny that evidence or I’m going to say that evidence is actually your fault. I’m going to find all sorts of ways to repair my identity so that I am back to being where I wanted to be, which is seeing myself as a good person. That’s not a great place to be if we want to continue growing, if we want to be on this journey and do this work and be the semi-bold agent of change that we’re striving to be and that so many of your listeners are working hard at being.
That’s where I’ve been pushing the idea of being a “goodish” person instead of a good person. A “goodish” person is a work in progress, it’s not someone who’s done, who’s either a good person or they’re not. A “goodish” person is not a lower standard, I want to be really clear. It’s a higher standard than being a good person, because what it’s saying is when that evidence comes my way of ways in which I fall short, the ways in which I benefit from systemic bias, what I do instead of ignoring it or denying it is I own it. I notice it. I actually go looking for it. And then I figure out what I can do to address it.
So, “goodish” is actually putting responsibility for learning on me. Being a goodish person gives me that room to grow, that space to make mistakes, and then to actually improve.
JENNIFER BROWN: That was beautifully said. How can leaders and organizations who are on a journey, balance the work in progress, communicating that you know you’re a work in progress, admitting what is not yet clear to you or you might not have handled optimally or you didn’t even know existed. I think there are so many leaders right now who are really waking up to so much and so many people in general.
The past couple years have been a huge reckoning and a level of truth that has felt really exciting. I think many of us are really excited by it, but others say, “Wow, there’s so much I don’t know and I feel almost paralyzed.” You described the process of writing this book feeling paralyzed around, “How do I articulate these ideas, admit where I am, talk about my own journey?” And, yet, in the leadership context, I’m always faced with leaders for whom the paradigm was, “I need to know all the answers, I need to do everything perfectly. All eyes are on me all the time. I need to role-model things.”
In many ways, the emperor has no clothes, number one, because leaders are in a feedback vacuum as it is.
DOLLY CHUGH: Yes.
JENNIFER BROWN: But then you add the fact that you’ve got perhaps white, straight male leaders who dominate. The statistics tell us, they dominate leadership roles. They are trying to do their own work. There are kinds of work that should be done in private, and there are kinds of work that should be done in public, but these are all really new muscles and new knowledge. And then to incorporate into how you lead is often a tenuous spot I think.
And then you add on the fire of certain headlines, I don’t like to make things about the impact of Me Too in terms of scaring leaders to do their work in public and to be visible about being works in progress. We’re talking about so much more than just inappropriate behavior. We’re talking about proactive, inclusive behaviors that all leaders can do, right? So, I don’t like to get it mired into just a Me Too conversation, although it’s a very important one.
When we are just trying to introduce more honest, transparent conversations amongst leadership about being works in progress, how do you advise — do you have advice for leaders that are doing this under a microscope? Like it or not, we expect leaders to understand it, get it, put it into action, do it perfectly, get all the awards, right? Meanwhile, I think a lot of people are like the duck on the surface of the water, their feet are just paddling really fast. You’re trying to make everything like okay and you’re just praying that you don’t do something wrong.
DOLLY CHUGH: Yes. Absolutely, I would agree with the summary of the true quandary that leaders face.
I wrote a recent Forbes.com piece about Tim Ryan, who’s the chairman of PwC. I wanted to profile him because of his willingness to make his own learning visible to others. That’s a great model for what leaders going forward are going to need to be doing.
The leader that stands up in front of their people and claims to have no blind spots, that’s where we know where their blind spots are. The leader who tells us they have no blind spots, we know they’re in trouble. It’s the leader who can speak about their blind spots that tells us, “Okay, you’re actually doing something about it.”
What Tim Ryan has done so powerfully is he is a 53-year-old, straight, white male, who by his own confession, had no conversations about race growing up, didn’t have awareness, was fairly stunned when he learned what some of his black colleagues at PwC experienced on a regular basis.
And when he took over as chairman in July of 2016, as we know, that was a really tumultuous summer across the United States with a number of acts of real racial violence, racial tension.
His series of deliberate choices to listen and learn from people around him, and then to share what he was learning with others has become a real model for what other CEOs are trying to do. He’s leading CEO Action, which is a coalition of organizations, mostly Fortune 500 organizations, that are trying to take concrete actions, not just talk, but actions around these issues.
What he specifically is doing that’s even more powerful than forming a coalition or signing a pledge or taking out ads in the New York Times is that he will personally say, “I was scared to death to talk about race. This was really, really scary to me, but I’m going to do it. I’m going to have the conversation.
I elaborate in my Forbes piece about how he did initially do what you were describing about private versus public, having conversations with a very smaller inner circle within PwC, and then as he built his knowledge base, as he built his confidence in his ability to talk about race, he started having conversations with broader circles and broader groups both within the company and without.
I think until we have senior leaders who can stand in front of their people and say, “When I’m putting a diversity and inclusion program into place, I’m obviously asking you to learn something. Here’s what I am learning as well.” Until they’re willing to learn alongside us, nobody’s going to learn anything on their own.
JENNIFER BROWN: True. True. Yes. Regarding vulnerability, Brené Brown is giant for a reason. It was a message that nobody had put such a fine point on. But when I was reading it, I thought certain people might think they have more to lose through being vulnerable depending on their role. I think they have everything to lose if they’re not because when we talk about young people, and you’re a professor so you know, but vulnerability and authenticity and the humility that particularly younger talent are looking for in leaders is such a great business case for this whole discussion.
I know you have mixed feelings about the business case for diversity that people like you and I constantly have to lead with in a left-brain business world. It can’t be a moral case, it has to be a business case — blah, blah, blah.
But I think the vulnerability piece is one that I pull out to say that it’s an expectation or table stakes to be real and be a whole leader, to be a full and flawed person as a leader. It goes much further in terms of generating followership, respect, and love, honestly. What leader doesn’t want that? It’s so counterintuitive to the way we’ve defined executive behavior for example in this dog-eat-dog, capitalistic model.
What is your view on what that generation is ushering in in terms of expectations for leaders around inclusiveness? I always call it “showing your work,” like with math problems. We don’t want to see the leader at the end of the journey. We want to see the journey. How is the sausage made? I think that’s important.
DOLLY CHUGH: Yes. I will say I started teaching MBAs in 2006, we’re in 2019. Even over the last 13 years, I’ve felt a difference in what my students want to see from me even in our little micro-leadership situation where I’m physically in front of them in the class as well as even virtually in the way we lead and communicate through e-mail. Sometimes it’s an eyeroll, and sometimes you can just feel it. I can feel it.
I feel that I get away with less. I really have to be the real deal up there. Let’s use this classroom metaphor as a great little microcosm of what happens out in the real world and what’s happening for CEOs in the organizations.
If I stand up in front of the room and I start BS’ing my students, it used to be that they might each privately be rolling their eyes. They might write a little note that their person sitting next to them will be like, “Yeah, I know.”
But now what is happening is that whatever BS I’m putting out there, all 65 students are group texting each other real time while I’m up there. Real time.
JENNIFER BROWN: Whoa.
DOLLY CHUGH: Students have never told me this about my own class, but I think I want to know, maybe I don’t. I’ve had them tell me about other professors’ classes that they come out of class and there has been 50 texts exchange within the class during that class about the class.
JENNIFER BROWN: Wow.
DOLLY CHUGH: This is the level of communication and transparency. There are no more people just privately wondering if they’re the only one not understanding the BS that’s coming at them. Now, they can just put it out there instantly. That is just a tiny little microcosm of what’s happening in the real world. What’s happening within companies and universities is that the topics that we used to be able to avoid, the things that we used to be able to gloss over, we just can’t anymore. Part of what CEOs, whether it’s on issues of diversity and inclusion or anything else, all the stuff that we avoid talking about because it’s hard to talk about or we’re scared we’re going to get ourselves in hot water, are going to be the topics we have to get better talking about because we’re not going to have the option to dodge them anymore.
JENNIFER BROWN: That’s right. That’s going to be much harder for some of us than others. It is a fact.
I know trying to write a book, like you have and like I am in the process of, to say, “Hey, the water is warm. Come in.” It’s about making sure you’re learning in a safe and sustainable way and that you’re being smart about it. But you don’t have an option to do the learning or not. That’s not the question like you just laid out perfectly.
DOLLY CHUGH: Yes.
JENNIFER BROWN: But you do get points — I don’t know if you ever say this, but I like to encourage people and say you get points for trying. Just taking a step and being uncomfortable and putting yourself out there, however imperfectly, we as a community have to be elastic and breathable enough that we can allow this experimentation learning, bouncing back, trying again. Does it worry you sometimes that there is a little bit of a hardness where there should be softness around forgiveness? Again, I’m not talking about Me Too. Maybe I need a different word than “forgiveness.” However we respond to each other when we don’t get it right, that elasticity that need, do you think there is more of it now or is there a hardening that’s happening amongst us? It’s great that so much anger is being expressed right now. It’s so important and cathartic. It has to come out in society, in politics, in the workplace — all of this stuff is so good.
And, yet, to remain breathable in the midst of that, it seems like a conundrum. Do we need to move through this certain phase before we get to this place where we can hold this space for flexibility?
DOLLY CHUGH: The framework I use in the book is of heat and light and that more breathable approach is the light-based approach of meeting people where they are, understanding and forgiving the mistakes, and then helping them move forward. It’s taking the other person you’re trying to bring along and taking their comfort into account.
Heat is a more confrontational, less breathable, more rigid approach you’re describing. It doesn’t take the comfort of the other person into account. It can be pretty unforgiving of mistakes. It can also be the form of a protest that intentionally creates inconvenience for others.
Personality-wise, I’m a light, breathable person. I would rather not get my $20 back rather than have an argument with the customer service person. For better or for worse, that’s who I am.
The thing that I learned from the little bit of research I did about social justice movements is that those movements that have the heat only or the light only don’t make as much progress as those who have heat and light.
What that says to me is that some of us are going to be more inclined towards light. Some of us are going to be inclined more towards heat. None of us like to be on the receiving end of heat, that’s the whole definition of heat. But if we care about advancement in this work, we should be grateful to those who are willing to bring the heat.
That does mean that sometimes that hardness, that rigidity, that lack of breathability is going to be what’s out there. I think if we go back to our CEOs, when they feel the heat back down or try to squash the are missing the value of the heat. The CEO may not be the one who can bring the heat, but the heat may actually be supportive of what the CEO is trying to do, even if it’s a more light-based way.
This heat and light, once I started thinking in terms of heat plus light, rather than heat or light, it just opened up so much for me. Whenever I started encountering these situations where I would find this little voice in my head saying, “Oh, if they would only,” or “I think the way they’re going about –” those little commentaries that start coming out of my mind, I often realized that what I was doing was critiquing the heat rather than valuing it.
JENNIFER BROWN: And, again, being mindful of fragility.
DOLLY CHUGH: Yes.
JENNIFER BROWN: So, the response to heat is fragility.
DOLLY CHUGH: Yes. Exactly.
JENNIFER BROWN: We have to check ourselves if we tend to be on the fragility side, seeing heat as the catalyst that it is. I love relating this to CEOs. As you were talking, I was thinking CEOs can bring the heat, for sure, as well, right?
DOLLY CHUGH: Yes.
JENNIFER BROWN: They can call out their leaders. They can institute pay equity surveys.
DOLLY CHUGH: Yes.
JENNIFER BROWN: And bring some real heat that will create change in a way that only CEOs and executives can and in a way that would take us years to do.
DOLLY CHUGH: Exactly. That’s right.
JENNIFER BROWN: It’s interesting. When you think that they may be called out pretty directly, and seeing that as a learning opportunity. You know what? It’s honest feedback and many times it contains important truth if you can be not fragile about it. And then what you do with that, though, as a leader is take that on board and think about where you can apply heat, yourself, on your peers and people that look like you.
DOLLY CHUGH: Right.
JENNIFER BROWN: We have to generate some accountability majority member to majority member. I often say I can fight something and make a case 15 different ways, but somebody who doesn’t look like me might be able to walk in and make it one time and be listened to.
DOLLY CHUGH: Yes.
JENNIFER BROWN: I think how we all agitate in the system and how we persuade or pressure or apply these things, each of us needs to have heat and light in our arsenal. Personality-wise, we may gravitate to one or the other, but it’s one binary I really love to think about these days. What are your change tools and what are you most comfortable using? Just being cautious that we don’t see the heat as a counter or as a negative. There is room for calling-in and calling-out and the conversation about where it’s appropriate to apply heat and how and to whom. It needs to be strategic. A lot of collateral damage can happen if social media magnifies something, for example, and entirely ruins somebody’s reputation and goes viral. Some of that is deserved, sometimes it’s not. Sometimes the truth is nuanced.
It’s interesting, as a person on the light side of the equation, like you’ve been saying Dolly, the fight needs all of us. I make that point so often on The Will to Change, that we all have something to contribute. And if we’re relatively more comfortable in this world, we especially have a lot of responsibility to contribute and apply both. This has just been wonderful.
I want to wrap up by directing people to where to find your scholarship, all of the amazing articles you’ve written, your book. Where would you like people to look for your work?
DOLLY CHUGH: Thank you so much. Well, my book, which came out in the fall of 2018, is available on Amazon as well as in Barnes & Noble and other independent bookstores. You can find it there.
If you want to read more about what people are saying about my book and articles I’ve written, you can go to my website, which is dollychugh.com. It’s got press about the book. If you want to hear my TED Talk, you can go to TED.com. It’s available there and it was on the 25 Most Popular TED Talks of 2018 list as well. You can pull up that playlist and find it there.
JENNIFER BROWN: Congratulations. This is amazing. Thank you, Dolly, for your work, your book, and for holding the space for “goodish” people everywhere.
DOLLY CHUGH: Thank you so much. Thank you for being such a powerful leader in this space, Jennifer. It’s a real honor to talk to you.
JENNIFER BROWN: Thank you, Dolly. | https://medium.com/@jenniferbrown_97699/the-person-you-mean-to-be-how-progress-requires-activism-and-understanding-b9125b36c1b6 | ['Jennifer Brown'] | 2019-02-20 14:48:51.751000+00:00 | ['Workplace Diversity', 'Inclusion', 'Workplace Culture', 'Diversity And Inclusion', 'Diversity'] |
How I scored in the top 8% of Kaggle’s Titanic Machine Learning Challenge🚢 | A step-by-step tutorial from exploratory data analysis to model training and fine-tuning
The sinking of the Titanic is one of the most infamous shipwrecks in history.
On April 15, 1912, during her maiden voyage, the widely considered “unsinkable” RMS Titanic sank after colliding with an iceberg. Unfortunately, there weren’t enough lifeboats for everyone onboard, resulting in the death of 1502 out of 2224 passengers and crew. While there was some element of luck involved in surviving, it seems some groups of people were more likely to survive than others. In this challenge, the goal is to build a predictive model that answers the question: “what sorts of people were more likely to survive or die?” using passenger data (i.e. name, age, gender, socio-economic class, etc.)
I have been playing with the Titanic dataset for a while, and I have achieved an accuracy score, back in the time, of 0.78708 on the public leaderboard.
This post is the opportunity to share my solution with you.
To make this tutorial useful so that anyone could benefit, here are the steps I have followed:
Data exploration and visualization: an initial step to formulating hypotheses
Data cleaning and feature engineering
Feature selection
Hyperparameters tuning
Model building
prediction
Submission
— Environment setup
Throughout this Jupyter notebook, I will be using Python at each level of the pipeline. The main libraries involved in this tutorial are:
Python Programming
Jupyter Notebook
Pandas for data manipulation and ingestion
for data manipulation and ingestion Matplotlib and seaborn for data visualization
and for data visualization Numpy for multidimensional array computing
for multidimensional array computing sklearn for machine learning and predictive modeling
for machine learning and predictive modeling Exploratory Data Analysis
Machine Learning
A very easy way to install these packages is to download and install the conda distribution that encapsulates them all. This distribution is available on all platforms (Windows, Linux, and Mac OSX).
— Exploratory data analysis
As in different data projects, we’ll first start diving into the data and build up our first intuitions.
Data extraction: we’ll load the dataset and have a first look at it.
Cleaning: we’ll fill in missing values.
Plotting: we’ll create some interesting charts that’ll spot correlations and hidden insights out of the data.
Two datasets are available: a training set and a test set. We’ll be using the training set to build our predictive model and the testing set to score it and generate an output file to submit on the Kaggle evaluation system.
We’ll see how this procedure is done at the end of this post.
Now let’s start by loading the training set.
We have:
891 rows, 12 columns for train data set
418 rows, 11 columns for test data set
Pandas allow you to have a high-level simple statistical description of the numerical features. This can be done using the describe method.
The count variable shows that 177 values are missing in the Age column.
One solution is to fill in the null values I have used missingno for plotting the missing value, what is missingno? A missingno(nullity matrix) provides a small toolset of flexible and easy-to-use missing data visualizations and allows you to get a quick visual summary of the completeness of your dataset. we’ll see how, pip install missingno(install before importing)
The msn.matrix nullity matrix is a data-dense display which helps you to quickly visually pick patterns in data completion
msno.matrix depicts value in data-dense display, more than 80% of the “Cabin” data is missing and few “Age”rows are also missing
PassengerId: and id that is given to each traveler on the boat
Pclass: the passenger class. It has three possible values: 1,2,3 (first, second and third class)
The Name of the passenger
The Sex
The Age
SibSp: number of siblings and spouses traveling with the passenger
Parch: number of parents and children traveling with the passenger
The ticket number
The ticket fare
The cabin number
The embarkation. This describes three possible areas of the Titanic from which the people embark. Three possible values S, C, Q
EXPLORATORY DATA ANALYSIS
Let’s now make some charts.
Let’s visualize survival based on Survived
The Survived variable based on sex seems to be a discriminative feature. Women are more likely to survive.
Now, we see that:
The age conditions the survival for male passengers:
Younger male tend to survive
A large number of passengers between 20 and 40 succumb
The age doesn’t seem to have a direct impact on the female survival
Let’s now see how the sex affects survival.
As we saw in the chart above and validate by the following:
Women survive more than men, as depicted by the larger female “Women and children first !”.
from the result, it can be approximated that the survival rate of men is around 19% and that of women is around 75%. Therefore, whether a passenger is a male or a female plays an important role in determining if one is going to survive.
Let’s now see how the fare affects survival by binning
qcut : “Quantile-based discretization function. "This basically means that qcut tries to divide up the underlying data into equal sized bins¶
Extracting the passenger titles
When looking at the passenger names one could wonder how to process them to extract useful information.
If you look closely at these examples:
Braund, Mr. Owen Harris
Owen Harris Heikkinen, Miss. Laina
Laina Oliva y Ocana, Dona. Fermina
Fermina Peter, Master. Michael J
You will notice that each name has a title in it! This can be a simple Miss. or Mrs. but it can be sometimes something more sophisticated like Master, Sir or Dona.
Let’s see how we’ll do that in the function below.
Let’s first see what the different titles are in the train set.
Let’s now combine the SibSp and the survival.
Ticket
Let’s now combine the fare and the survival.
Passengers with cheaper ticket fares are more likely to die. passengers with more expensive tickets, and therefore a more important social status, seem to be rescued first.
Let’s now combine the cabin_num and the survival.
Let’s now see how the embarkation site affects survival.
the correlation of survival with cabin_num is -0.06
It seems that embarkation S has a wider range of fare tickets and the passengers who pay the highest prices are those who survive.
We can also see this happening in embarkation c and less in embarkation Q.
Let’s now stop with data exploration and switch to Feature Engineering
FEATURE ENGINEERING
Processing the Names
As we notice that each name has a title in it! This function drops the Name column since we won’t be using it anymore because we created a Title column.
Then we encode the title values using a dummy encoding.
Age
We have seen that the Age variable was missing 177 values. This is a large missing number . Simply replacing them with the mean or the median age might not be the best solution since the age may differ by groups and categories of passengers.
This data frame will help us impute missing age values based on different criteria.
Processing fam_size and Ticket_len
fam_size, This part includes creating new variables based on the size of the family (the size is, by the way, another variable we create).
This creation of new variables is done under a realistic assumption: Large families are grouped together, hence they are more likely to get rescued than people traveling alone.
Let’s first see how the different ticket prefixes we have in our dataset
Processing cabin
Processing the Fare
Let’s impute the missing fare value by the average fare computed on the train set
This function simply replaces one missing Fare value by the mean.
Modeling
In this part, we use our knowledge of the passengers based on the features we created and then build a statistical model. You can think of this model as a box that crunches the information of any new passenger and decides whether or not he survives.
There is a wide variety of models to use, from logistic regression to decision trees and more sophisticated ones such as random forests and gradient boosted trees.
We’ll be using Random Forests. Random Forests has proven a great efficiency in Kaggle competitions.
Break the combined dataset in the train set and test set. Use the train set to build a predictive model. Evaluate the model using the train set. Test the model using the test set and generate an output file for the submission.
Keep in mind that we’ll have to reiterate on 2. and 3. until an acceptable evaluation score is achieved.
Hyperparameters tuning
As mentioned at the beginning of the Modeling part, we will be using a Random Forest model. It may not be the best model for this task but we’ll show how to tune. This work can be applied to different models.
Random Forest is quite handy. They do however come with some parameters to tweak in order to get an optimal model for the prediction task.
Now that the model is built by scanning several combinations of the hyperparameters, we can generate an output file to submit on Kaggle.
— Conclusion
In this article, we explored an interesting dataset brought to us by Kaggle.
We went through the basic bricks of a data science pipeline:
Data exploration and visualization: an initial step to formulating hypotheses
Data cleaning and Feature engineering
Feature selection
Hyperparameters tuning
Model building
prediction
Submission
Future Scope | https://medium.com/@syednauman-sn/how-i-scored-in-the-top-8-of-kaggles-titanic-machine-learning-challenge-2c35e9c00f01 | ['Syed Nauman'] | 2020-10-26 17:28:00.782000+00:00 | ['Kaggle', 'Titanic', 'Board Infinity', 'Kaggle Competition', 'Medium'] |
公館台大咖啡廳-喜鵲咖啡（內有菜單）裝潢chill氣氛佳【欣迪小姐】 | in In Bitcoin We Trust | https://medium.com/@o5o5/%E5%85%AC%E9%A4%A8%E5%8F%B0%E5%A4%A7%E5%92%96%E5%95%A1%E5%BB%B3-%E5%96%9C%E9%B5%B2%E5%92%96%E5%95%A1-%E5%85%A7%E6%9C%89%E8%8F%9C%E5%96%AE-%E8%A3%9D%E6%BD%A2chill%E6%B0%A3%E6%B0%9B%E4%BD%B3-%E6%AC%A3%E8%BF%AA%E5%B0%8F%E5%A7%90-d214a7b52c7f | [] | 2020-12-16 14:29:24.521000+00:00 | ['Taiwan', 'Food', 'Taipei', 'Coffee', 'Cafe'] |
The Sex Worker Community Won’t Let Me Retire My “Happy Hooker” Badge | As my readers bear witness, I officially relinquish my performance as a “happy hooker” in favor of not giving a single solitary fuck.
Just in case you’ve been living under a rock, sex workers are only allowed three roles in our society: victims, criminals, or “happy hookers”. Popular mainstream media continues to uphold and perpetuate these reductive caricatures. “Alabama” in True Romance? Victim. “Belle de Jour” in Secret Diary of a Call Girl? Happy hooker. The depiction of real life murder victim Julissa Brisman in Lifetime’s The Craigslist Killer? A criminal. The list is longer than a CVS receipt, trust. For the remainder of this essay, however, I’m going to focus on the dichotomy between forced victimhood and glamourization of the profession.
This dramatic contrast illustrates a classic example of how the discussion on sex work more often than not has little connection to sex workers’ realities. Are there victims of coercion or circumstance active in the sex industry? Absolutely. But those individuals are sadly either casualties of sex trafficking or are performing survival work out of necessity. Sex workers not only repeatedly consent to the labor they’re performing, but they also typically identify with and engage in relevant sociocultural and political subcommunities. Labeling sex workers as victims automatically dehumanizes us by erasing our personal agency and autonomy. It promotes the idea that we’d never do this kind of work unless we were forced into it, and if we staunchly claim otherwise, well, we’re not qualified to speak on our own behalf anyway. Because we’re sluts! Or something.
A natural behavioral response to assumed victimhood is for sex workers to hide the nuances of the work they do from the public for fear that even the mention of a single “bad day at work” could mobilize a mass savior initiative. So, they instead promote one dimensional representations of themselves flaunting the benefits of their work, taking care not to show a single crack in their glamorous facades. They become “happy hookers”.
We see these representations reflected all over social media. Happy hookers are always physically healthy and mentally stable. They do not engage in behavior that could be categorized as “drama”. They are always either naked (and in excellent shape) or well-dressed (in expensive, flattering attire). They share life updates almost exclusively restricted to meals they’re eating, travel destinations they’re visiting, or gifts they’ve been given. They’re never hurting for money, because their business is always successful. They create online polls asking people to vote on whether their hair looks better “up” or “down”. They never engage in discourse concerning religion or politics, unless it’s to say how “blessed” they are. Happy hookers don’t fart, they don’t shit, and they are perpetually horny and #DTF. Who WOULDN’T want to be a member of that club, amiright?
Far from nuanced, both victimhood and “happy hooker” characterizations rest on a simplistic binary opposition between free choice and coercion. Too often the debate on sexual labor gets sidetracked into questions like “but if they didn’t have to do it, would they?”, “if they could do any job would they choose sex work?”, or, most frustratingly, “but do they like it?”. Requiring that everyone must genuinely enjoy their job — to the point that they would still choose to do it if they didn’t need the money — is absurd.
We don’t hold participants in any other labor industry to the same standard, and that’s a fucking problem. Do you think your waiter at your favorite restaurant would gladly volunteer to work their shift without pay? Are all physicians such bleeding hearts that they’d commit to seeing patients out of pure selflessness alone? Do you need your gas station attendant to convince you of their eagerness to work before you give them your money? Of course not. So why should sex workers be any different?
As someone who’s been militantly “out” since entering the sex industry at eighteen, the excessive labor of having to strategically cultivate the projection of my life on a day-to-day basis takes an enormous emotional toll. While I happen to enjoy my work most of the time, I should not be obligated to be happy in my work in order to have a voice (or for the consensuality of said work to remain unchallenged). I should be able to post a new set of nudes accompanied by text explaining how I’ve been bogged down by depression lately and not have that impact my perceived fuckability. I’m a complex sentient being, after all, not a sex robot.
Rock on!, you may be thinking. Authenticity all the way! Ehhhhh not so fast. Because see, my sex worker community doesn’t actually want me to be authentic. And it breaks my heart.
As a community leader, there’s pressure to lead with my privilege at all times, particularly if I’m calling attention to my own struggles. That concept in and of itself makes perfect sense to me, and I abide by it. However, thanks to the well-intentioned birth of digital phenomenons like the “woke olympics”, public activist shaming and “call out culture”, I’ve been struck down for vulnerably sharing with my own community just as aggressively as I have been by incel trolls.
I once shared vulnerably about being self-conscious around certain physical aspects of my body and was told by several other sex worker activists that because I was able-bodied and had “pretty privilege” my challenges were less valid than theirs’. Another time I was heavily chastised in my DMs for daring to share an experience I had with a shitty client because I’m not a survival worker and could have “easily” declined the session altogether. I’ve been harangued into hiding the reality of what sex work is to me, and boy can I be a fast learner when I’m motivated. What results is a flat, one dimensional digital presence who is stuck in a loop of pure ecstatic promotion, whether I’m promoting my platform or someone else’s. It feels impersonal, sure, but also safe. “Check out my next strap-on class!” “Don’t miss out on special deals in my online store!” “Come visit me at the strip club today!”
That all being said, I do see a shift happening. I see workers with online presences being more transparent about mental health, chronic pain, poverty, trauma, and many more topics that move us away from the “happy hooker” archetype perpetuated by mainstream media.
I’d say that this has a lot to do with two things:
1. Workers consciously rebelling against our current administration’s war on sex work by finding their voices and unapologetically sharing their neutral and adverse experiences of sex work in public spaces while continuing on in the industry, and
2. Increased direct access to sex workers via social media.
Let’s take the porn industry, for example. Gone are the days of XXX performers signing exclusive deals with big agencies and letting hired hands be solely responsible for any branding, promotion or marketing on their behalf. Due to a combination of anti-porn legislation, cost of operations challenges and the media pirating epidemic, big companies are struggling and more performers are choosing to go independent, managing their own businesses and likenesses. This means that porn consumers can easily find their favorite personalities on Twitter or Instagram and connect with them in a way that is both unprecedented and uniquely intimate. The same goes for escorts, professional dominants and submissives, sensual masseuses, dirty panty peddlers, and a wide range of other erotic service workers.
For the very first time fans, customers and clients can be privy to pictures of a performer’s dog, their personal rants waxing poetic on political turmoil, flirtatious exchanges with other industry workers, and much more. This further humanizes the performer in the consumer’s eyes and presents them as a complex, nuanced being as opposed to just a “body built for sin” (or a sex robot!), and many performers are learning how to capitalize off of this increased access.
It’s my sincerest hope that this consumer trend of appreciating sex worker authenticity and vulnerability in digital spaces — as opposed to attacking those who dare to present anything less than three dimensional representations of themselves — will continue in our favor. It is also my hope that we as sex workers create more space for all of our peers to share openly and honestly about their challenges — not just those we personally deem more “deserving” than others — and that we recognize the potential ramifications of unconsciously forcing workers into “happy hooker-dom” as a result of letting our own insecurities and trauma narratives impact our empathetic response to another’s pain.
I love sex work, I’ll jump in front of a bullet for sex workers, and I am continuously grateful to be in a position to perform what I consider to be my life’s work. But y’all are done shaming me for my humanity. | https://medium.com/@AndreShakti/the-sex-worker-community-wont-let-me-retire-my-happy-hooker-badge-1a74a1b666ac | ['Andre Shakti'] | 2019-11-08 18:17:35.845000+00:00 | ['Sex Workers', 'Trauma', 'Sex Work', 'Sex Work Is Real Work', 'Feminism'] |
Evolution of Sadness- The Origin and Life Cycle | What gave rise to sadness in humans? Was it a byproduct of higher intelligence? Or just a behavioural disorder? To track down the roots of sadness, we need to probe into where it all began, during human evolution.
Let us go back in time when there were no human beings on the planet. Everything was in order, each being got what it deserved depending on its needs and efforts. Justice was delivered in a natural way. Happiness and harmony were in the air. The hundreds of varieties of matter, the plant life, and the animal kingdom were not confronting each other for supremacy and everything existed in interconnectedness and balance.
This perfect order led to the dawn of a new species of homo sapiens with complex and evolved physical structures. They had a sophisticated cognitive system equipped with intelligence along with the power of perception and imagination.
Human beings could have abstract thoughts, self-awareness, and self-expression. The power of imagination became a big asset for the human race, it helped establish the great human civilization. It still continues to help the human beings thrive. However, the misuse of the imagination power resulted in barbaric living conditions on the planet for a few of the human beings.
The story of all the negative feelings started when humans got lost in the worldly maze. Their imagination got misdirected and deviated from the natural order.
Using the gift of imagination, human beings could believe concepts as facts (truth in their mind) while they did not exist in reality. They could imagine problems, while in reality, those problems were non-existent. The power of imagination brought about concepts like ownership, heredity, money, etc. These concepts had limited utility but are being followed to date. All these man-made notions gave rise to inequality, mistrust, and conflicts among human beings. Sadness is the outcome of these misplaced and unreal realities.
Banish Sadness from human Life-
Sadness as a feeling is not real but only the absence of happiness. We feel sad when reality is not in alignment with our expected thoughts. We fail to understand as to why something did not work out as it should have.
There are natural laws that are very straight forward with strict adherence and no biases or exceptions. It would be simple to understand them but impossible to circumvent or go against them. Now Human beings keep trying to go as per their own perceived realities instead of correcting themselves.
The feeling of sadness is a state that is not acceptable to a human being and he comes over it whatever be the gravity of the situation. Simple solution to all the sadness in the world is letting every human being a human being and not an owner, leader or in any situation where he has to resort to inhuman acts. Every human being can produce more than he consumes in a natural way. The earth has enough resources to support over 15 billion people and we are only 7.5 billion on this planet. All the production that man does should be eco-friendly and not damage the ecosphere on the planet.
If we take a close look at the plant and animal life, we will find that they are in complete harmony with nature. They never commit suicide. Mental illnesses are not found in the animal kingdom. According to Bjarne Olai Braastad, the Professor of Ethnology at Norwegian University of Life Sciences: “Mental disorders are uncommon among animals in nature.”
In the endless pursuit of ‘better’, man has created a very complex world to live. Despite being the most civilized and advanced, add to it the thousands of years of progress, he could not achieve a simple state of being called ‘happiness’. Man remains the only unhappy organism among all the species on this planet.
Man can maintain humanity by becoming human. First, he must become a happy human individual, the individuals will create a happy human family, and these families in turn will form a happy human society. Once a few people start living in harmony and absolute happiness, it will create a contagious effect leading to global bliss. Human beings owe this to themselves.
If we could create a world where everything is in order and there is only happiness. Who would not want to live in that world?
About the Author
Anand (@ananddamanica) is a Serial Entrepreneur and Startup Advisor with over 20 years of experience in the Manufacturing Sector, International Trade, Custom software, Web & Mobile App. Development. He has provided IT integration guidance to over 200 SME & Startup Clients across the globe.
A Chartered Accountant by education and an Entrepreneur at heart, Anand has a knack for simplifying ‘complex’ problems. He shares his expertise in business and management, and also writes about Philosophy of Coexistence, in his blog: blog.ananddamani.com. You can reach him at: [email protected]. | https://blog.ananddamani.com/evolution-of-sadness-the-origin-and-life-cycle-66da7030931a | ['Anand Damani'] | 2019-08-27 16:12:59.021000+00:00 | ['Philosophy', 'Culture', 'Mind', 'Psychology', 'Sociology'] |
Priya Basu joins GFEMS as new CEO | The Board of Directors of the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery (GFEMS) is pleased to announce Priya Basu as the Fund’s new Chief Executive Officer, effective January 6, 2020.
GFEMS is a bold international fund dedicated to ending modern slavery, including child labor, forced labor and human trafficking by forging public-private partnerships, focused on rule of law, supply chains, and the recovery and reintegration of survivors. The Fund seeks to support transformative programs and technologies and ensure robust assessment of impact across all partners and programs.
Priya Basu, CEO
Basu joins GFEMS from the World Bank, where she has served for 21 years, most recently as the Head of Development Finance and the Head of the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi). She has built a career on complex international development issues focused on ending poverty and boosting shared prosperity. She has a proven record in strategy, program implementation, and resource mobilization and successful executive leadership of new and growing funds.
At We-Fi, Basu spearheaded the vision, strategy and execution of the global initiative. She delivered on an ambitious resource mobilization plan, securing over $350M from 14 countries for the initial rounds of program funding that mobilized $2.6 billion for women entrepreneurs around the world. In previous roles at the World Bank, Basu managed a $21 billion portfolio of innovative, multi-donor trust funds and partnerships focused on global public goods and served as Lead Economist for the South Asia Region. Prior to the World Bank, Basu has worked in investment banking, and at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, International Labor Organization, International Monetary Fund, and Asian Development Bank.
Outgoing inaugural CEO, Dr. Jean Baderschneider, who will continue on as Chair of the Board, said, “I am thrilled to welcome Priya as the new CEO of the Fund. Priya brings a valuable combination of breadth of experience, energy, determination and passion for the role. Her nearly three decades of experience at the nexus of issues like poverty reduction, empowerment of women and girls, migration, and tackling illicit financial flows positions her well to address the systems perpetuating modern slavery. I am confident that her understanding of these issues combined with her experience in mobilizing resources to combat them, will be an excellent foundation for her to build on the Fund’s momentum and to propel us into its next phase.”
GFEMS founding Board member Ernie Allen commented, “Priya has just the right skills to serve as the Fund’s CEO. She has a deep understanding of the global issues perpetuating modern slavery and the right network of partners to meaningfully address them. We are excited to learn from her and work side-by-side to achieve the Fund’s original vision as a truly international fund.”
Board member Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster Cathedral said, “I welcome Priya to GFEMS. She brings a fresh perspective to the fight against human trafficking and, with her experience, will help the Fund continue to develop solutions for combating modern slavery.”
Since its formation, the Fund has raised significant seed funding, launched transformative programs in India, Vietnam, and the Philippines, established a robust approach to prevalence measurement, and built partnerships with stakeholders in government, the private sector, and civil society around the world.
Basu’s leadership will be instrumental in building on this momentum. Moving towards the Fund’s vision of a truly international fund, she will accelerate progress in securing substantial resources for the fight, mobilizing and increasing engagement with the private sector, and deepening the Fund’s partnerships across the international anti-slavery community.
“I am delighted that Priya has accepted the position of CEO of GFEMS. Her experience and drive will enable the Fund to get to the next phase in terms of global impact and influence,” added John Cotton Richmond, Ambassador-at-large, Office to Combat Trafficking in Persons.
“I am honored and excited to lead GFEMS as its new Chief Executive Officer,” said Basu. “Ending modern slavery is not only a moral and ethical imperative but also, it makes good economic sense. I look forward to working with the GFEMS Board and team, and with governments, the international community, civil society, the private sector and other partners to advance this critical and urgent priority and make Sustainable Development Goal 8.7 a reality.”
Looking ahead, there is still much work to do. The future of this fight lies in building, financing, and executing a coherent global strategy with partners. Under Basu’s leadership, the Fund is looking forward to the next chapter.
Questions regarding this announcement may be sent to [email protected]. | https://medium.com/@GFEMS/priya-basu-joins-gfems-as-new-ceo-e95688351136 | ['Global Fund To End Modern Slavery'] | 2020-01-14 15:56:54.309000+00:00 | ['Human Trafficking', 'Sustainable Development', 'Financial Services', 'Sdgs', 'World Bank'] |
The Nightmare I Had About My Husband When We Were Dating | The Nightmare I Had About My Husband When We Were Dating
Dream symbolism, chakras, overcoming trauma, and blocked emotions
Photo by Peter Kasprzyk on Unsplash
It was arguably one of the scariest experiences of my waking or dreaming life. I’ll never forget the dream. It happened a couple of months after we had met. I woke up screaming at the limit of my lungs, my adrenaline pumping. This was the dream:
Walking down a hallway to my apartment door, I looked into another apartment that was next to mine. I knew it was his place. The door was ajar, and so I poked my head in for a moment. There were a few workmen inside, and he was nowhere to be found. The workmen were pulling out pipes and breaking the plumbing, kneeling down like savage beasts under the kitchen counter and tearing up the walls with tools in their hands.
This may seem like a silly thing to be terrified about. And it didn’t make sense to me, either, when I woke up. Why was I so frightened by plumbers?
Since then, I’ve realized a lot about the symbolism in that dream — and a lot about my soon-to-be ex-husband.
Only through loving ourselves can we understand our emotions, and only through understanding emotions can we begin to heal.
Dream Interpretation
Upon googling “plumbing” in dreams, I found that it symbolizes the flow of emotion and feelings. Water in dreams, in general, relates to emotions. I thought about it for a long time.
Emotions should freely flow, and with that movement comes self-knowledge. When we love, cry out in despair, feel relief, and react in anger, our emotions should be unrestricted. That doesn’t mean they should be out of control or unpredictable, but when we feel no reservation about their existence in us, we truly understand our own spirits.
We come to know our trauma by acknowledging emotion. If we can face our past with the willingness to open up to the pain we’ve experienced, then we can begin to work through it. Knowing it is the first step.
If the plumbing of our emotions is blocked, then the flow stops and we are lost in the stagnation of ourselves. We can’t feel the way we should, so we can’t move through life with an open heart and joy.
If the plumbing is being ripped out violently, like in the dream, then someone has sabotaged the flow of emotion. I am an empath, as I have learned recently. I had this dream as a walk through this man’s energy and psyche. I saw with my dream eyes the most terrifying vision I can imagine seeing: the destruction by an outside force of someone’s innocent and functional humanity. You see, someone was in there wreaking havoc on his ability to deal with his emotions, and that person came along before I was ever in the picture. He was ruined before he even had a chance to start. He didn’t even have the self-awareness to rid himself of these evil plumbers.
Chakra Spirituality
Emotions are related to the sacral chakra. In this article by Kimberly Fosu, this chakra is explained: it allows us to relate to the world around us through creativity, desire, and feeling. Not surprisingly, this chakra is also associated with the water element.
We are such complex creatures when it comes to emotion, and we need to be kind to our sacral chakras in order to be good at analyzing and understanding ourselves. Emotions need to be able to flow through us, giving rise to thoughts and actions gracefully, harmonizing our existence with the world.
When the sacral chakra is blocked or out of balance, we lose our ability to solve problems in our world. We can no longer sort through our feelings clearly to be able to see a path forward. We can no longer maintain relationships beneficially, and we begin to destroy what exists around us.
In my dream, I saw the sacral chakra in ruin — the water could no longer flow in the pipes. The emotions were stuck. They couldn’t get to their destination. My soon-to-be-ex has such an out-of-balance sacral chakra, it was truly terrifying to behold. It was like looking at a horror movie.
Photo by Vladimir Fedotov on Unsplash
Final Reflections
What can anyone do about these things? I spent years trying to heal him, but he seemed intent on destroying the love we had. As if there was some gremlin plumber inside him destroying every channel of emotion and love as soon as it began to flow, he would shut down at the first sign it seemed to be working out. He self-sabotaged.
When you sabotage yourself, you sabotage your relationships. When your emotions are blocked or mangled, you cannot find a path forward in life.
This is why it’s so important to look deeply within and start the healing now. | https://medium.com/mystic-minds/the-nightmare-i-had-about-my-husband-when-we-were-dating-6e5a0b0bce47 | ['Emily Jennings'] | 2020-12-31 11:54:42.653000+00:00 | ['Spirituality', 'Mental Health', 'Psychology', 'Self Improvement', 'Dreams'] |
What is the biggest lesson you learned in your travels? | Tales of an Excessive Spender | Someone recently asked, “What’s the biggest lesson you learned in your travels?”
I didn’t have to think twice. The first thing that popped into my mind was…
Do not buy pre-arranged travel packages. Period.
Some of the beautiful ladies from The Solo Female Traveler Network mentioned, 50 Travel Tips on Spending Less, that one of their ways to make sure they stay on budget is to purchase everything in advance — that way, you know what you are getting yourself into.
I would agree if that was done by me as an organizer, using booking.com, Expedia or Airbnb.
I, however, have fallen into the trap that was fed by my urge to make an impulse decision — to book a last minute ticket through a travel agency, Holiday Factory. Apologies to myself for making this decision, and here is why I apologize to myself — and promise her to not ever fall into that trap ever again.
I thought it was a good deal as the price was covering both the flight and the hotel. Silly me who thought it was a good deal. After booking the ticket… and the hotel for that matter, I had second thoughts, and like almost every purchase I make out there, I have the option to refund. Every flight, whether it’s Emirates, Etihad, FlyDubai, EgyptAir, you name it, they will happily refund your money, but with a hinge of penalty. Fair enough.
Holiday Factory, though, didn’t believe in that. It was an offer for public holidays. “Sorry, it is non-refundable.” — they said.
After being disappointed for the fact that I can’t cancel the trip and if I did choose to not go, I would lose all the money I have spent, I discover two things: 1. I have to pay extra $$$ because I was going on my own and 2. I will take the flight from another airport that will also cost me $$$ just to get there and come back to my apartment. The airport I had to go to does not have access via public transportation so it was kind of hands tied situation… meaning, Uber or Taxi.
I accepted the situation and started to plan my trip. One of the things I like to do when I travel is to check out the experiences in Airbnb. It’s not just homes you can rent there. Tbilisi though, where I visited, didn’t have experiences in Airbnb… but here is what I found out, I could have easily got an incredible place with 50% of the extra $$$ I paid for the single occupancy that I did spend with Holiday Factory — that percentage would be much less than 50% if you add up the amount I actually paid for the whole hotel package. I would say that the prices in Tbilisi would have easily been 25%-30% of what I have paid. The illusion that I got a good deal was an illusion — and let’s just leave it there.
Besides the rip-off that I felt from this “deal” package that I purchased, I can’t help but feel how much I hated the baby sitter feeling I got when I arrived at the airport. I don’t know about you, but I love the excitement of not knowing what to do next. Am I going to take the bus? Metro? Train? Taxi? How am I going to go to my hostel/ hotel/ Airbnb? Am I going to take the Metro to this station, then go to take bus number 234, then walk 300 meters and see the hotel on the right side of the road?
Instead, I arrived and found agents waiting for us with Holiday Factory t-shirts. They guided us to a bus that took us to the hotel…
… and it doesn’t stop there. In the ride to the hotel, they kept on talking about the tour packages that they offer and how much money I would save if I decided to take all my tours with them — that was like someone shooting me to my head. I sat there in silence, minding my own business, trying to reach the hotel so I can start off my plans for the trip.
Someone sitting next to me asked me if I will sign-up, and my response? “No way in hell, even if it was actually cheaper, I am not signing up for that. I am doing my own thing”, I said.
Again, waiting patiently after arriving at the hotel to finally get to the room, it took us 3–4 hours to check-in. I am pretty damn certain that if I did a check-in to what I personally booked on my own, it would have taken me a maximum of 10 minutes. I remember the Airbnb hostel I booked in Madrid was a self-check-in. I interacted with Zero people and was taken right straight to my room.
What did that mean to me? I missed my first tour that was supposed to happen at noon — but no worries, I caught the next one in the evening and did have a good time… and that is what matters at the end. Right?
That is not to say that this kind of thing doesn’t work for some people. It does. Some people opt-in for convenience, but that’s just not me. I, on the other hand, opt-in for adventure, for the trill, for the unexpected. Why did I book an impulse trip in the first place then?
So if you ask me what is my biggest lesson? I might come up with more, but this one is so fresh in my mind and definitely on top of my list. Never again am I booking a pre-packaged trip — for both the money… and the thrill. | https://medium.com/tales-of-an-excessive-spender/what-is-the-biggest-lesson-you-learned-in-your-travels-tales-of-an-excessive-spender-b6d7d034ddc4 | ['Sherwette Mansour'] | 2019-06-18 04:06:09.083000+00:00 | ['Georgia', 'Travel', 'Tbilisi', 'Saving Money', 'Travel Tips'] |
FastText sentiment analysis for tweets: A straightforward guide | FastText — Shallow neural network architecture
FastText is an open-source NLP library developed by facebook AI and initially released in 2016. Its goal is to provide word embedding and text classification efficiently. According to their authors, it is often on par with deep learning classifiers in terms of accuracy, and many orders of magnitude faster for training and evaluation. [1]
This makes fastText an excellent tool to build NLP models and generate live predictions for production environments.
FastText architecture overview
The core of FastText relies on the Continuous Bag of Words (CBOW) model for word representation and a hierarchical classifier to speed up training.
Continuous Bag of Words (CBOW) is a shallow neural network that is trained to predict a word from its neighbors. FastText replaces the objective of predicting a word with predicting a category. These single-layer models train incredibly fast and can scale very well.
Also, fastText replaces the softmax over labels with a hierarchical softmax. Here each node represents a label. This reduces computation as we don’t need to compute all labels probabilities. The limited number of parameters reduces training time.
fastText hierarchical architecture for sentiment analysis.
Faster training but similar results
According to the initial paper [1], fastText achieves similar results to other algorithms while training a lot faster.
As you can see below, fastText training time is between 1 and 10 seconds versus minutes or hours for other models.
Bag of Tricks for Efficient Text Classification — Joulin 2016
Open dataset for sentiment analysis
Most open datasets for text classification are quite small and we noticed that few, if any, are available for languages other than English. Therefore in addition to provide a guide for sentiment analysis, we want to provide open datasets for sentiment analysis [2].
For these reasons we provide files with lists of tweets and their sentiments in:
English tweets dataset => 6.3 millions tweets available.
Spanish tweets dataset => 1.2m tweets.
French tweets dataset => 250 000 tweets
Italian tweets dataset => 425 000 tweets
German tweets dataset => 210 000 tweets
These were generated thanks to AWS Comprehend API. For Spanish and French, tweets were first translated to English using Google Translate, and then analyzed with AWS Comprehend. Sentiment is classified to either positive, negative, neutral, or mixed.
For this article, we use the English tweets dataset.
Cleaning tweets for sentiment.
They say that cleaning is usually 80% of a data scientist’s time. Sadly there is no exception here. To obtain the best results, we have to make sure that the data is something close to proper English, and because we work on tweets, this is no easy task.
Example of (funny) misspelled tweets — source: thepoke.co.uk
Our goal is to clean tweets to make them easier to read by a machine. There are many techniques out there to clean text. Most famous ones being lemmatization, stemming and stop words.
The goal of both stemming and lemmatization is to reduce inflectional forms and derivationally related forms of a word to a common base form. (Ex: am, are, is => be / dog, dogs, dog’s, dogs’ => dog.) These reduce the corpus size and its complexity, allowing for simpler word embedding (am, are and is share the same exact word vector).
is to reduce inflectional forms and derivationally related forms of a word to a common base form. (Ex: am, are, is => be / dog, dogs, dog’s, dogs’ => dog.) These reduce the corpus size and its complexity, allowing for simpler word embedding (am, are and is share the same exact word vector). Stop Words filters common words that add noise or provide no value for machines' understanding of a text. Examples: a, and, the….
While stemming and lemmatization helps for sentiment analysis, stop words filtering is not as straightforward. The goal of stop words is to remove unnecessary words, but if you look at available lists of stop words, the one from the NLTK library for instance, you find words that potentially convey negative sentiments such as: not, don’t, hasn’t…. but for sentiment analysis problem we want to keep negative words. It is evident that “It is a good game” and “It is not a good game”, provide opposite sentiment. Hence one needs to either edit the stop words list to exclude words that convey negative meaning or not use stop words at all. We chose the latter.
Furthermore, tweets are short messages that contain loads of emojis, contractions, hashtags, misspelled words and slang. Most of these have little value for sentiment analysis and need to be cleaned:
Contractions/slang cleaning. If we want to simplify our problem, we need to remove contractions and translate slang when there is an appropriate alternative. However, it is hard to find a library or database of words that do that. We had to create a list for that purpose. Check my GitHub page to see it.
#CONTRACTIONS is a list of contractions and slang and their conversion. { "you've":"you have", "luv":"love", etc...}
tweet = tweet.replace("’","'")
words = tweet.split()
reformed = [CONTRACTIONS[word] if word in CONTRACTIONS else word for word in words]
tweet = " ".join(reformed)
Fix misspelled word. Here we use a regular expression, using regex, to remove repeating characters in a word. Apart from regex, you could use other libraries that really detect and fix misspellings. Sadly they are quite slow and this is not acceptable in production when you have thousands of tweets to analyze every day.
import itertools
tweet = ''.join(''.join(s)[:2] for _, s in itertools.groupby(tweet))
Escaping HTML characters: The Twitter API sometimes returns HTML characters. When this happens we need to convert them to their ASCII form. For instance, %20 is converted to space, and & is converted to &. To do this we use Beautiful Soup, a Python package for parsing HTML and XML documents.
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
tweet = BeautifulSoup(tweet).get_text()
Removal of hashtags/accounts: Names through the use of Twitter hashtags (#) and accounts (@) needs to be removed. We wouldn’t want a football player’s name classified forever as “negative” by our model, just because he has been associated with poor comments in our dataset.
tweet = ' '.join(re.sub("(@[A-Za-z0-9]+)|(#[A-Za-z0-9]+)", " ", tweet).split())
Removal of web addresses:
tweet = ' '.join(re.sub("(\w+:\/\/\S+)", " ", tweet).split())
Removal of punctuation: Punctuation is not used for “bag of words” techniques.
tweet = ' '.join(re.sub("[\.\,\!\?\:\;\-\=]", " ", tweet).split())
Lower case: Convert everything to lower case to avoid case sensitive issues:
#Lower case
tweet = tweet.lower()
Emojis/Smileys: In a tweet, Emojis and Smileys are represented with ‘ \\’ or punctuation, and for this reason are not tokenized correctly. To keep their meaning, we need to convert them to a simpler form. For emojis, there is the python library “emoji” that does exactly that by converting the emoji code to a label. For smileys :-), you have to provide your list, which we do on our GitHub page.
#Part for smileys - SMILEY is a list of smiley and their conversion. {"<3" : "love", ":-)" : "smiley", etc...}
words = tweet.split()
reformed = [SMILEY[word] if word in SMILEY else word for word in words]
tweet = " ".join(reformed)
#Part for emojis
tweet = emoji.demojize(tweet)
Strip accents: Limited for English but widely used for other languages, accents are often misplaced or forgotten. The easiest way to deal with them is to get rid of them.
def strip_accents(text):
if 'ø' in text or 'Ø' in text:
#Do nothing when finding ø
return text
text = text.encode('ascii', 'ignore')
text = text.decode("utf-8")
return str(text)
To see everything tied up together, please check the code on my GitHub page [2].
Formatting the data
FastText needs labeled data to train the supervised classifier. Labels must start by the prefix __label__ , which is how it recognizes what a label or what a word is. Below is an example of the required format for tweets with label POSITIVE and NEGATIVE.
__label__POSITIVE congratulations you played very well yesterday.
__label__NEGATIVE disappointing result today.
...
We use the code below to format the data.
def transform_instance(row):
cur_row = []
#Prefix the index-ed label with __label__
label = "__label__" + row[0]
cur_row.append(label)
#Clean tweet and tokenize it
cur_row.extend( nltk.word_tokenize(tweet_cleaning_for_sentiment_analysis(row[1].lower()))) def preprocess(input_file, output_file, keep=1): with open(output_file, 'w') as csvoutfile:
csv_writer = csv.writer(csvoutfile, delimiter=' ', lineterminator='
')
with open(input_file, 'r', newline='') as csvinfile: #,encoding='latin1'
csv_reader = csv.reader(csvinfile, delimiter=',', quotechar='"')
for row in csv_reader:
if row[0].upper() in ['POSITIVE','NEGATIVE','NEUTRAL','MIXED']:
row_output = transform_instance(row)
csv_writer.writerow(row_output) # Preparing the training dataset
preprocess('BetSentimentTweetAnalyzed.csv', 'tweets.train')
Upsampling to offset categories imbalance.
Category imbalance problem occurs when one label appears more often than others. In such a situation, classifiers tend to be overwhelmed by the large classes and ignore the small ones.
Applied to our dataset of English tweets [2], we notice an imbalance of neutral versus positive/negative classes. As a consequence, a primitive strategy of classifying everything as neutral would give an accuracy of 73% (see table below). For the same reason, our model might tend to favor neutral. If unmanaged, category imbalance would make our model simplistic and inaccurate.
Example of imbalance in labels
To deal with this, we have to use upsampling. Upsampling (or oversampling) consists of adding new tweets for the minority classes, positive and negative, to have them reach a number of tweets equal to the majority class, neutral here. We provide a simple code to do that.
def upsampling(input_file, output_file, ratio_upsampling=1):
#
# Create a file with equal number of tweets for each label
# input_file: path to file
# output_file: path to the output file
# ratio_upsampling: ratio of each minority classes vs majority one. 1 mean there will be as much of each class than there is for the majority class.
i=0
counts = {}
dict_data_by_label = {} i=0
counts = {}
dict_data_by_label = {} # GET LABEL LIST AND GET DATA PER LABEL
with open(input_file, 'r', newline='') as csvinfile:
csv_reader = csv.reader(csvinfile, delimiter=',', quotechar='"')
for row in csv_reader:
counts[row[0].split()[0]] = counts.get(row[0].split()[0], 0) + 1
if not row[0].split()[0] in dict_data_by_label:
dict_data_by_label[row[0].split()[0]]=[row[0]]
else:
dict_data_by_label[row[0].split()[0]].append(row[0])
i=i+1
if i%10000 ==0:
print("read" + str(i)) # FIND MAJORITY CLASS
majority_class=""
count_majority_class=0
for item in dict_data_by_label:
if len(dict_data_by_label[item])>count_majority_class:
majority_class= item
count_majority_class=len(dict_data_by_label[item])
# UPSAMPLE MINORITY CLASS
data_upsampled=[]
for item in dict_data_by_label:
data_upsampled.extend(dict_data_by_label[item])
if item != majority_class:
items_added=0
items_to_add = count_majority_class - len(dict_data_by_label[item])
while items_added<items_to_add:
data_upsampled.extend(dict_data_by_label[item][:max(0,min(items_to_add-items_added,len(dict_data_by_label[item])))])
items_added = items_added + max(0,min(items_to_add-items_added,len(dict_data_by_label[item]))) # WRITE ALL
i=0 with open(output_file, 'w') as txtoutfile:
for row in data_upsampled:
txtoutfile.write(row+ '
' )
i=i+1
if i%10000 ==0:
print("writer" + str(i)) upsampling( 'tweets.train','uptweets.train')
With upsampling, you run the risk of overfitting by repeating over and over the same tweets. But if your dataset is big enough this should not be an issue.
Training with fastText
Now the fun part. Time to train our machine for sentiments!
We use the fastText python wrapper to train our model. You can find implementation examples and documentation on Facebook Research’s GitHub page. Please make sure you install fastText using “git clone …” and not using “pip install fasttext”.
As we already prepared our data, all we need to do now is to use the function fastText.train_supervised . There are tons of options for this function, but for sake of simplicity we focus on the following:
input : the path to our training data.
: the path to our training data. lr : Learning rate. We set it at 0.01.
: Learning rate. We set it at 0.01. epoch : Number times we go through the entire dataset. We use 20.
: Number times we go through the entire dataset. We use 20. wordNgrams : An n-gram is a contiguous sequence of max n words from a given sample of text, tweet here. We set it at 2.
: An n-gram is a contiguous sequence of max n words from a given sample of text, tweet here. We set it at 2. dim: Dimension of word vector. We use 20.
The following python code shows the training of our model.
hyper_params = {"lr": 0.01,
"epoch": 20,
"wordNgrams": 2,
"dim": 20}
# Train the model.
model = fastText.train_supervised(input=training_data_path, **hyper_params)
print("Model trained with the hyperparameter
{}".format(hyper_params))
Once trained, we need to assess how good our model is at sentiment analysis. For this, we can use the two measures Precision and Recall which are the output of fastText function model.test . However, due to the nature of our problem, precision and recall give similar figures and we can focus on precision only.
The code below implements model.test on the training and validation data to compare the accuracy of our model. Note that for validation, we take a different dataset on which we use the same cleaning process but no upsampling.
# CHECK PERFORMANCE
result = model.test(training_data_path)
validation = model.test(validation_data_path)
# DISPLAY ACCURACY OF TRAINED MODEL
text_line = str(hyper_params) + ",accuracy:" + str(result[1]) + ",validation:" + str(validation[1]) + '
'
print(text_line)
Overall the model gives an accuracy of 97.5% on the training data, and 79.7% on the validation data.
Not so bad considering we did not tweak the hyperparameters. Furthermore, research estimates that people only agree around 60 to 80% of the times when judging the sentiment for a particular piece of text. So while we could try to reach for 100% accuracy, we have to keep in mind that humans are fallible… and most importantly that we work on tweets!!
Conclusion
We just showed how fastText works and how to train an English sentiment analysis model. We used sentiment data produced by AWS Comprehend. In another article, we explain how to serve your model with a robust cloud infrastructure, using AWS Elastic Beanstalk and a Python Flask application.
Should you want to reproduce the results, just go to my gitHub. For the full English dataset just ask me (too big for GitHub). I’ll be happy to share it with you.
References
[1] Bag of Tricks for Efficient Text Classification, Armand Joulin, Edouard Grave, Piotr Bojanowski, Tomas Mikolov, 2016
[2] https://github.com/charlesmalafosse. My GitHub page with full code for this article.
[3] Facebook GitHub with fastText python wrapper. https://github.com/facebookresearch/fastText/tree/master/python
[4] Deploy a machine learning model with AWS Elastic Beanstalk https://medium.com/@charlesmalafosse/deploy-a-machine-learning-model-with-aws-elasticbeanstalk-dfcc47b6043e | https://towardsdatascience.com/fasttext-sentiment-analysis-for-tweets-a-straightforward-guide-9a8c070449a2 | ['Charles Malafosse'] | 2019-10-06 03:18:32.889000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'NLP', 'Sentiment Analysis', 'Data', 'Python'] |
EXCELLENCE IS NOT JUDGED BY BLACK SKIN COLOUR | The world is full of different and amazing, unknown creatures. It has diversified countries with more cultures, religions, caste, creed, races, fauna and flora, taste and preferences, climatical condition, seasons, natural resources and others. skin colour changes are depended on many factors so whether you have white skin or black skin colour is really doesn’t matter. Michael Jeffrey Jordan a famous American professional basketball, popularly known as MJ. and also the owner of the Charlotte Hornets of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
NEVER ASHAMED OF BLACK SKIN COLOUR
Nobody in this world is foolish or inept. Each one will have a kind of talent. each skin colour whether it is white or black skin colour, religion, size shape maters. Some people would have identified during their schooling time, some will during college days. But there are many cases, who have not yet introspected themselves. Talent is not backed with some physical appearance, status or parentage. It is how you continuously work for things with passion and dedication. It is not material that how you look and what skin colour you have, what material is how you showcase your inner built passion to the world. Hence, work on your likes, overcome your dislikes and enjoy your path of the journey and reach your destination.
to read the full article check out https://shouts.site/your-excellence-is-not-judged-by-black-skin-colour/ | https://medium.com/@zalakmistry2224/excellence-is-not-judged-by-black-skin-colour-10e0c487c577 | [] | 2020-12-23 18:34:16.943000+00:00 | ['NBA', 'Basketball', 'Michael Jordan'] |
Did you just call the Democrats weenies: Donny Deutsch great advice to Democrats to win 2022 | A broken clock is correct twice a day and so is Donny Deutsch with his latest advice for Democrats, They should heed his sound advice.
Advice for Democrats
I have a love/hate relationship with Donny Deutsch. I still remember his statement that upset many Progressives. I wrote then::
My concern is something I heard on Morning Joe when one of the panelists, Donny Deutsch, a purported Democrat & Liberal first said he would vote for Trump if a particular Democrat won the primary. Really. I’ve always made it clear I would be supporting the choice of Democrats. When Bernie lost in the 2016 primaries I made it clear at Daily KOS that I would be all-in to support Hillary and I worked my a$$ off for her. I can sit and drink a cup of coffee with anyone who supports any candidate and still genuinely like the person. It is not hard to do that when one realizes that we live with people and not politicians. In fact, most politicians forget about us, the individual, soon after the election. Politics, Democracy ain’t easy. I sure wish we did a better job teaching it in schools.
But Donny Deutsch redeemed himself many times since including giving some good advice subsequently. I wrote about this one that was on point and still is.
Donny Deutsch, a regular on Morning Joe panelist came up with a great marketing strategy for Democrats. The panel had nervous laughter when Donny was done with the presentation. Deutsch is suggesting that Democrats tag every Republican with the “ASSAULT” moniker. As the party that is a protector of the ability to have assault weapons while not protecting healthcare and other life-saving social efforts, it is a pejorative that fits the bill. Unlike Republicans making the word “LIBERAL” a pejorative that does not live up to the hype, “ASSAULT” does because one lives and sees the effects of their assaults in blood, flesh, tears, and pain.
But the action plan he laid out with Nicolle Wallace is more important than is immediately evident. How do we know that? Because Republicans have used it successfully. While they have not won every race, they have consistently overperformed their politically given the lackluster support for their non-policies.
Deutsch suggests that a well-designed army of well-liked and articulate politicians begin selling Biden’s Build Back Better bill immediately. The bill is middle-class and poor people-centric. People will turn when they realize the Republicans will simply take it away.
Yes! A stopped clock is correct twice a day. Deutsch may have added another dimension because recently he has had some good advice. | https://medium.com/@egbertowillies/did-you-just-call-the-democrats-weenies-donny-deutsch-great-advice-to-democrats-to-win-2022-9dfdc757f975 | ['Egberto Willies'] | 2021-11-27 05:52:09.582000+00:00 | ['Nicolle Wallace', 'Donny Deutsch', 'Messaging', 'Democrats'] |
tMBA Update (16 weeks done!) | Hello there!
If you’re new here, you probably don’t know that I invested a bomb into a personal development course and diligently changed my entire life in the span of 4 months.
You also don’t know that this is a manifestation and spirituality course by Manifestation Babe that I took that helped me manifest the reality of my dreams among others!
I’m a big fan of all things manifestation and spirituality and have delved into various resources on the same be it YouTube Videos or books but nothing gets closer to the course presented by Kathrin Zenkina in what she calls — the Manifestation Babe Academy.
The 16 week program divided into 14 modules, lots of live Q&A calls and 4 breathwork sessions alongside guest speakers will leave you wanting for more if you’re equally obsessed with getting your life into order or want to make that big shift that you’ve been looking for, for a while.
I met some amazing souls who I’m still friends with as accountability partners on this program and I went in with no expectations and boy did it blow my mind! I might have gone through so many resources on the subject available to us on the internet already but the course always went deeper and had something more to offer!
Apart from the dope content and the life-long friendships I also managed to manifest some EPIC stuff which I’m going to list out below! I’ll also write stories for each of them because some are pretty long in another blog post if you don’t mind!
Manifested our dream house Manifested the entire amount I invested into the course back within a week before the course even began. Manifested my soulmate Manifested lots of gifts Manifested high paying clients Manifested a large following on Instagram Manifested a workation in the pandemic Manifested an EPIC birthday gathering with the family Manifested a group of soul sisters who get where I am coming from Manifested speaking on camera more often and becoming confident Manifested long and strong hair, clear skin and a healthy body
11/11! That’s that! Will make separate posts on each of these in the next post! Until then, keep manifesting, angels!
— Desi Manifestor | https://medium.com/@desimanifestor/tmba-update-16-weeks-done-6ced1cfc96ac | ['Desi Manifestor'] | 2021-06-08 12:28:09.493000+00:00 | ['Manifestation Magic', 'Manifesting', 'Manifest', 'Manifestation', 'Manifesting Love'] |
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