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Three Books Every Real Estate Investor Should Read | With so much time, money, thought, and care that goes into real estate investing, it’s best to stay on top of the latest news. In order to do this, however, you need to have a solid foundation on just what it means to be a real estate investor, how to build wealth, and so much more. The books below are some of the best books of all time on the subject. If you’re just starting out or have been in the industry for decades, you will without a doubt find many useful and essential pieces of information to get you started and to keep you going at full force.
The Book on Rental Property Investing by Brandon Turner
This book goes into great depth about the basics of real estate investing. Covering topics such as determining a good rental, buying property, finding reliable tenants, and common mistakes to avoid, this book covers every major aspect of the industry to set you up for success. Not only does the book give lots of useful information, it also provides actual strategy and tools to use to begin generating income from your rental properties.
Retire Early with Real Estate by Chad Carson
Have you ever thought about retiring early? Most people have, but that requires a steady income over time which real estate can provide. This book provides step-by-step walkthroughs on how to achieve financial freedom through your investments in real estate. The book takes its guides a step further by providing multiple real-life scenarios and how those investors were able to accumulate enough wealth to retire early.
Real Estate Investing Gone Bad by Phil Pustejovsky
This book is essentially a guide of exactly what not to do when investing in real estate. The book is comprised of 21 real-life stories about different mistakes investors made along the way and how to avoid them. Hindsight is always 20/20, so learning from another person’s mistakes can bring valuable knowledge to help prevent yourself from making the same ones. | https://medium.com/@wdarrowfiedler/three-books-every-real-estate-investor-should-read-2c4015d99adf | ['W Darrow Fiedler'] | 2020-02-20 18:05:00.453000+00:00 | ['Real Estate', 'Real Estate Investments'] |
In Writing, FEWER Words = MORE Attention | Photo by Filip Mroz via Unsplash.com
Here’s Why:
In our haste, we often use more words and deliver less meaning. We rush to get to the end of our articles and never get to the point.
The proof is in our speech. If you had something important to tell a friend, how long would it take you? One minute, thirty seconds, even less? Why, then, should your writing take five or ten minutes to do so in writing?
No one has the time for that.
Here’s the sad truth that writers of anything need to hear: unless it’s out of pure recreation, very few people like to read. Seriously, our colleagues, friends, and even our mothers all skim the articles we send them. Not because they don’t like us, but because we’re all BUSY! Now, imagine the people you don’t know, like average web surfers or potential customers. How much time are THEY going to give your message?
Here’s how much time the average person spends reading:
Email – 13.4 Seconds – in reality, unless the reader gets hooked, they’re skimming, not reading (Source Litmus Software Analytics)
Blog Post – 10 seconds – not kidding here. All your hard work and care you put in will go for naught if you don’t hook them quickly. (Source: Weidert Group)
Here are, according to Hubspot, suggested lengths for social media posts:
And for Social Media, expect attention spans to be shorter. In fact, Hubspot suggests Facebook posts be no longer than 40 characters.
Forty CHARACTERS, not words!
And for other platforms:
Twitter – 70 to 100 characters
Instagram – 125 characters or less
Linkedin – 140 characters (Yes, I am in violation!)
YouTube Videos – 3 minutes – Title 70 characters
Get to the Point!
If you don’t want your writing ignored, use this scenario: You see your neighbor jogging down the street, and you yell, “Hey Betty, did you hear…” (and whatever you put at the end of the sentence is your post). Think of the point you want to make. Can you put it into a sentence?
When you’re successful, Betty stops her jog, take a breath, and ask you to explain more. If you’re not, you’re lucky to get a smile and wave as she glides past.
Always assume your reader is busy. Show you value their attention by being succinct, and they’ll return the favor by listening to what you have to say.
Don’t believe me? Convince me otherwise in the comments! | https://medium.com/@chris.pawar/in-writing-fewer-words-greater-attention-b906a5b2ea8e | ['Chris Pawar'] | 2020-12-14 22:38:28.566000+00:00 | ['Blogging', 'Writing', 'Editing', 'Content Writing', 'Copywriting'] |
Hello, Houston: One Step Towards Bettering Everyday Lives Through Robotics | When we founded Nuro, we set out to accelerate the benefits of robotics for everyday life. In our first blog post, we discussed our goal of not building fancy gadgets for those who already have everything, but rather developing technology to improve the quality of life for everyone. And for the past four and a half years, we’ve been working on autonomous last-mile delivery to achieve this goal.
We believe that life should be spent on things that matter — not on trips to the store or hours stuck in traffic. And though this past year has been a tough one, it has given us an opportunity to further reflect on why we’re here and why we exist. For us, the answer turned out to be largely unchanged: we are here to better everyday life through robotics.
In service of this mission, we are proud to share an important milestone with a key partner: starting this week, Nuro’s R2 will be delivering Domino’s pizzas to select customers in Houston.
There’s been so much work over the years to arrive at this moment, and much of it isn’t visible to the outside world — from designing and manufacturing a custom vehicle from scratch to testing every aspect of our software stack. All that quiet effort has culminated in something modest but important: getting delicious pizza delivered to real customers.
This launch is really a glimpse of what’s to come. An autonomous pizza delivery to a customer in Houston will translate to deliveries of all kinds to people in all places. We want to build an equitable and accessible future with the promise of lower emissions, safer streets, and more communities that participate in the economic growth of autonomous delivery.
We’re honored to partner with Domino’s, the largest pizza company in the world and an expert in delivery. Dominos’ willingness to incorporate R2 into their service is a testament to their commitment to innovation. It’s proof they care deeply about constantly improving the customer experience, and we’re so excited to take this next step together.
Even though this week marks the beginning of our R2 service in Houston, we have already been in the area for quite some time, mapping and testing and working with other partners using our fleet of custom Prius vehicles. Our team in Houston has been the backbone of this deployment. It’s not a stretch to say that this moment wouldn’t be possible without the Houston locals who are personally invested in making sure R2 is safe for their community. They’ve paved the way for this technology and are growing our Nuro team, adding more jobs that provide stability and opportunities for Texas families.
Thank you, team. And we can’t wait to see what your neighbors think when they try the service. :) | https://medium.com/nuro/nuro-draft-4-a1b4e233362e | ['Dave Ferguson'] | 2021-04-12 11:30:58.519000+00:00 | ['Delivery', 'AI', 'Autonomous Cars', 'Self Driving Cars', 'Dominos'] |
[Crypto] The Case of Hacking on the Exchange in Korea | 20.06.18 BITHUMB
I am John :)
And it happened.
The idea was that even though small and medium-sized exchanges could be vulnerable to hacking, the large-scale exchanges that generated huge profits would be fully prepared from hackers’ attacks.
I thought there would be enough room and capital to defend.
That’s until Bithumb, the largest/biggest floating exchange, was hacked……
5.June 20, 2018 Bithumb 2nd (?) Hacking
Damages amount to 35 billion won (->fixed to 19 billion won)
Bitcoin (13.9 billion), Ripple (2.7 billion), Idurium (1.1 billion) and Bitcoin cash 500 million).
A total of 11 different types of coins were hacked.
As they moved quickly to hardwallet, the damage was reduced a little.
The hacking was a shocking incident in which everyone was robbed of the largest exchange, rather than the damage. And in the aftermath, people were shocked to see the whole price drop in the crypto market.
And It is a second hacking. I told you that it was the second time that the customer information on the exchange was hacked.
Bithumb emphasized security by actively introducing security solutions in the first financial sector, but once again, the cryptocurrency was stolen and security was compromised.
But,
Since Bithumb made more than 500 billion won in revenue last year alone, it was sufficiently compensated for damages and the compensation made by the company does not mean that there is no user damage to hacking
So in the case of Bithumb’s exchange hacking, the cause is that everything is managed through the central server. The personal information of customers using the exchange was also stored on the central server, which resulted in two hacking attacks. The market for cryptocurrency is getting bigger, and the central exchange is vulnerable to hacking, so there are a lot of solutions out there.
Among them, the DeCentralized Exchange (DEX) appears.
Now, I’m going to summarize the hacking incidents on the exchange in korea, and I hope that these hacking attacks are now gone and that people transact cryptocurrency in a safer and better environment.
Let’s keep coming up with a variety of crypto news and industry stories! | https://medium.com/ionia-io/crypto-the-case-of-hacking-on-the-exchange-in-korea-48704b889bd7 | [] | 2018-09-05 09:31:42.421000+00:00 | ['Crypto', 'Bitcoin'] |
5 Smart Financial Moves You Should Make Before 2020 Ends | I think I speak for everyone when I say, “good riddance 2020”.
With the new year so close we can almost smell it, most of us are eager to slog through the holidays and get a fresh start.
But don’t forget that we still have a few more weeks left in the year.
Before you watch the ball drop from the socially distanced privacy of your home, set aside some time to look at strategies to ensure that you are not losing out on money or benefits unnecessarily.
You can set yourself up for a better future by completing five important tasks that can have a positive financial impact for you and your loved ones. Here’s your end of the year action plan:
1. Spend down your flex spending account
If you contribute to a flexible spending account for medical expenses that ends on December 31st, you still have time to spend down your funds. Remember, the money that you contributed must be used by the renewal date, or you forfeit the money.
Go through your receipts and make sure that you have requested reimbursement for any expenses you have incurred so far this year.
If you have already submitted your receipts for all of your 2020 expenses and still have a balance in your account, consider doing this: | https://themakingofamillionaire.com/5-smart-financial-moves-you-should-make-before-2020-ends-9870acc8a817 | ['Rose Bak'] | 2020-12-11 15:01:17.590000+00:00 | ['Personal Finance', 'New Year', 'Financial Planning', 'Money', 'Life Lessons'] |
Who is Nightingale for? | “Who is Nightingale for?”
It’s a question I’ve been asked point-blank by friends and coworkers and one that hovers beneath the surface in certain online conversations. For some it is a practical question: does reading this provide value to me? But for others the question is more fundamental: do I even belong here?
So who is Nightingale for? The easy answer is the dataviz community. But, in the 5 months since the launch of the Data Visualization Society and roughly 80 Medium stories later, a few things have become quite clear.
This community is expansive. We are designers who learned about data analysis and coding; we are scientists who learned about visual design and storytelling; we are computer programmers who learned about color theory and building visualizations. We all learned differently. Some of us have been doing this work for several decades — long before there were formalized programs — while others of us have never made visualizations professionally.
And if the dataviz community is hard to summarize, summarizing our audience is an impossible challenge. The work we create is used across all fields, from public health, to history, to sports, to… Beyoncé. We have used our own hobbies to inform our visualizations, and incorporated visualization work into our most special days. We have used visualization as a tool to challenge the utility of everyday objects, and to measure small victories. Here at Nightingale we encourage people from all backgrounds to submit articles that continue to add new voices to this conversation.
Know someone who’s unsure that Nightingale is for them? Share our homepage or one of the stories above and ask them to come explore. | https://medium.com/nightingale/who-is-nightingale-for-82fbb9c16c80 | ['Alyssa Bell'] | 2019-07-31 19:25:30.844000+00:00 | ['Design', 'Storytelling', 'Science', 'Data Science', 'Data Visualization'] |
The Future of Six Sigma — Machine Learning Is Redefining Industrial Precision | Six Sigma is a set of methods for improving business process capabilities. Following these methods allows companies to define metrics to measure, analyse, improve, and control processes, resulting in increased efficiency.
Machine learning has become a major component of Six Sigma techniques. Companies are harnessing the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse big data and refine their operations.
The use of machine learning may redefine industrial precision when aided by Six Sigma practices. Find out how these two concepts work together to produce more effective results.
What Is Machine Learning?
Machine learning is defined as the process of teaching a computer to predict changes to data by monitoring past and current data. It is one of many examples of how artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionising the manufacturing industry.
Before the use of machine learning, humans had to manually input data into computer systems. This technology allows for the automatic collection of data from various sensors and equipment outputs. The data is then used by AI programs to make predictions of future performance or output.
The uses of machine learning are broad. Companies have used this technology to enhance preventative maintenance, predict variations, and monitor changes in performance based on multiple variables.
Some of the ways that machine learning is already improving smart manufacturing processes include:
Improving the efficiency of processes
Assisting product development
Improving supply chain forecasting
Increased defect detection rates
The extra insight provided by machine learning technology can lead to increased productivity while reducing waste, wear and tear, and overall costs.
Requiring humans to perform the same tasks leads to decreased efficiency and an increased risk of errors. The average computer can handle about two billion calculations per second, making machine learning a vital part of the future of manufacturing.
Improving the Efficiency of Processes
One of the main advantages of machine learning is the ability to improve the efficiency of manufacturing processes. Using data science in manufacturing helps engineers detect bottlenecks that may increase the timeframe for production runs.
Along with detecting bottlenecks, machine learning helps detect issues that may decrease the efficiency of operations. For example, the technology may help uncover unprofitable production lines, equipment malfunctions, and redundant processes.
Assisting Product Development
Machine learning gives engineers more information for improving the development of products. Based on the predictions of machine learning technology, engineers may find ways to yield better results.
For example, along with collecting data from manufacturing equipment, the software may obtain consumer data or market data. This information helps companies analyse the potential profitability of a product before investing in its production.
Improving Supply Chain Forecasting
Most manufacturing processes involve multiple stages. Materials need to be delivered to and from the manufacturing facilities. When a production run takes longer than expected or a vendor changes their order, the manufacturer may be left with unused materials or products. In some cases, errors in communication may result in shortages.
Machine learning helps prevent those problems. Manufacturers can use AI to estimate the needs of the supply chain more accurately, reducing shortages and overages. In fact, machine learning may reduce supply chain forecasting errors by up to 50% and reduce lost sales by 65%.
Increased Defect Detection Rates
Machine learning is increasingly used for quality control. By automatically monitoring quality testing, using machine learning can increase defect detection rates by up to 90% while promising productivity increase in quality control of up to 50%.
The benefits discussed depend on the accuracy of the data used by machine learning technologies. This is where Six Sigma comes in.
What Is Six Sigma?
Six Sigma is a set of methods used to improve processes. It was introduced at Motorola in 1986 by American engineer Bill Smith. In 1995, it became a core part of General Electric’s business strategy.
The overall goal of the Six Sigma strategy is to reduce defects and increase efficiency. The methods used aim to improve the quality of a process by identifying and removing defects or variances. It relies heavily on a combination of statistical analysis and empirical evidence.
There are two primary methodologies used for implementing Six Sigma — DMAIC and DMADV. DMAIC is used when improving an existing process while DMADV is used for creating new processes.
The DMAIC methodology includes the following five phases:
Define Measure Analyse Improve Control
The DMADV methodology replaces the “improve” and “control” phases with “design” and “verify.” Manufacturers looking to improve existing processes often use the DMAIC methods, which start with a definition of the system and the goals of the project.
After defining the project, technology is used to collect and measure relevant data. Machine learning is employed for the third phase — analyse. The machine learning software analyses the data to help detect the causes of defects.
Engineers can then use the results of the machine learning software to improve and control future manufacturing processes.
How Does Six Sigma Support Machine Learning?
The effectiveness of machine learning depends on the accuracy of the data. If you supply incomplete or incorrect information to AI systems, the systems are likely to produce unpredictable results.
Six Sigma supports the accuracy of data collection by reducing variance. Variation creates waste and errors, resulting in a continual cycle of decreased efficiency and additional errors.
Variation is typically defined as a lack of consistency. Consistency is something that manufacturers strive for. Inconsistency can result in reduced quality control, setbacks, and decreased productivity.
Variations decrease reliability and drive up costs. Most variations occur due to changes in processes, environment changes, equipment wear and tear, and measurement mistakes.
Six Sigma provides a way to review every process that is vulnerable to variations. By implementing Six Sigma techniques, you can identify the causes of the variance and find ways to eliminate or account for the variance. This gives you more accurate data for your AI systems to analyse.
Last Thoughts on Six Sigma and Machine Learning
Six Sigma is not a new concept. It was developed decades ago to improve manufacturing processes. However, the use of machine learning and AI has increased the need for an effective way to analyse processes.
Using the standard Six Sigma methodology, you can easily identify variations, analyse the cause, and then prioritise the best method for removing the variation.
The bottom line is that if you plan on implementing machine learning, you may also want to implement Six Sigma. | https://medium.com/neurisium/the-future-of-six-sigma-machine-learning-is-redefining-industrial-precision-f7bce30fc7ad | ['Hedi Hunt'] | 2020-07-14 08:01:53.053000+00:00 | ['Efficiency', 'Machine Learning', 'Six Sigma', 'Data Science', 'Manufacturing'] |
If You’re still using these Fonts… You need to stop. | CREDIT: Getty Images
Like most rational people, I’ve never been a fan of Comic Sans. In fact, I die a little inside when I see that this font is still used on some websites and blogs! Imagine my delight when I happened upon a website called BanComicSans.com, whose sole purpose is to banish this font to the nether regions of the Internet.
Their online petition (that’s right, they started a petition) has attracted more than 5,000 signatures, which leads me to believe that many people really, truly and passionately dislike Comic Sans. But let me be devil’s advocate for just a minute here, because as much as Comic Sans makes my toes curl, it’s not even the worst font out there.
Typography is pretty important — in fact, it can speak louder than words. I liken it to our style of clothing, which speaks to who we are. How many times have you met someone and based solely on how they dressed, instantly thought they were cool and someone you want to talk to?
That same process happens every time someone lands on a website. In a split second, we take in the typography, the colors, the imagery, the white space, the overall style. In that split second, we make a judgment: is this somewhere want to hang out for a few seconds/minutes, or am I automatically discounting this and bouncing away?
Comic Sans makes people bounce. It’s that awful.
But like I said, some fonts are even more offensive and awful. Here are 10 examples Carly Stec over at HubSpot came up — I made a visual out of her list because you have to see these bad boys to truly appreciate just how much they need to die:
Originally published on Inc.com
About The Author
Larry Kim is the CEO of Mobile Monkey and founder of WordStream. You can connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. | https://medium.com/the-mission/if-youre-still-using-these-fonts-you-need-to-stop-637a1b3144d6 | ['Larry Kim'] | 2017-04-28 17:13:07.382000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Startup', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Digital Marketing', 'Writing'] |
On spontaneity and articulation | On spontaneity and articulation
Such is a race of thoughts and words that this phenomenon of spontaneity is seized. Krister ·Dec 24, 2020
Photo by Chris Leipelt on Unsplash
The ability to think and formulate ideas is one thing. The ability to articulate them in an apt manner is another. Such is a race of thoughts and words that this phenomenon of spontaneity is seized by a rather trained person or simply a gifted one. | https://medium.com/@iambryankrister/on-spontaneity-and-articulation-2fd911305f1 | [] | 2020-12-24 04:56:57.324000+00:00 | ['Thoughts', 'Words', 'Spontaneity'] |
ENJOY JOY | Joy is one of the most essential positive emotions. Often it is used interchangeably with happy, but joy is a deeper and more profound state of nature than being happy. Joy is defined as a feeling bright and light. Colours seem more vivid. There’s a spring in your step. You feel playful.*
Isn’t joy wonderful?! Yes, but do we actually pause and allow ourselves to enjoy and experience it enough? Or do we just go on to the next item on our agenda without a moment to savour it?
Most of the joy I experience daily is in small doses of pleasure and wonderful surprises. When I have a short burst of joy, I like to reflect on how fortunate I am for that minor good fortune. This mindfulness automatically makes me pause and count that blessing. And that awareness opens me to more instances in the day where things go my way. My threshold for joy is rather small, like when I get a green light or a glimpse of a well-cared for garden, so I savour it. The more I am prepared to find joy in daily and often trivial activities, the more happiness and wellness I encounter. I find that the trick is to allow for joy, being watchful for joyful moments. The more mini-joys you savour, the more you open yourself to larger moments of joyfulness. Being joyful is intentional: it involves looking for glimmers of promise or surprise. The savouring aspect of joy is the biggest reward.
Being joyful is also non-judgemental or comparative. Judging or measuring our joy against some standard or expectation is counter-productive and diminishes our pleasure. It can rob you of joy altogether, leaving you forever unsatisfied with your lot. As the Smaller Cup idea suggests, the relatively fuller our cup of life is, the more joy we will experience, as we are more easily satisfied. Letting go of judgement and comparison materially enhances our joy.
Physically distance (when required or helpful), never socially distance.
Reflection Source: www.Smallercup.org
Please freely share and widely, there are no copyright concerns.
*: Positivity by Barbara Frederickson | https://medium.com/@smallercup/enjoy-joy-d2d611292951 | [] | 2020-12-18 13:48:06.165000+00:00 | ['Positive Thinking', 'Positivity', 'Joy', 'Pause', 'Enjoying Life'] |
WAX ON: What are the Top 6 Revenue Models and Where Does Blockchain Fit In? | WAX ON: What are the Top 6 Revenue Models and Where Does Blockchain Fit In? WAX io Follow Aug 5 · 3 min read
Video Transcript:
The 6 revenue models in technology.
What is a revenue model?
It’s the way a company extracts value from the consumption of a product or service
It’s how the business generates money.
And there are 6 ways to do that.
But not ALL ways are created equal.
And if you’re in the crypto space, you should know something: The prevailing revenue model in crypto, also happens to be the number one revenue model on earth for creating value.
I want to quickly run through these 6 revenue models, and show why crypto companies are naturally positioned for the best and most valuable revenue model there is.
6.At the bottom of the revenue model stack, is tipping and donations. You can’t create a lot of value with this one. Nothing guaranteed. It’s too difficult to forecast it. You’re a pan-handler.
5.Next is Sponsorship revenue. Hmmmm, nothing much good here either. Long sales-cycle times. Generally not repeatable. You’re basically one step above a charity case.
4. The 4th is the granddaddy of internet company revenue models. I am talking about Advertising. I really hate the advertising revenue model. There are too many reasons to list them all. But I’ll give you my top couple of…. “worst things about the advertising revenue model.” First — you aren’t offering a differentiated product. I mean, there are literally millions of places that advertisers can advertise. AND their two favorite places are google and facebook. Who capture the bulk of North American digital ad dollars.
The other bad thing about the advertising revenue model, is that it has this weird property where you’re charging one group — the companies paying you to advertise on your platform — when an entirely different group is actually using or consuming your product. So who is your real customer? The companies paying you? Or the people using your platform? Now I consider my customers to be, the one who is paying me. See the problem? Who are content sites customers? Well If you define “customer” as the one paying you, then their customers are the advertisers. But the people consuming the content on the site also think of themselves as customers. Non-paying customers. See the tension that creates? It’s why so many content sites feel justified in selling user data.
These 3 revenue models I’ve just mentioned, for the reasons I’ve mentioned, don’t generally create a lot of value.
Now lets move into the top 3 revenue models. And these 3 have something in common, that makes them quite attractive. A direct relationship with the customer.
3. So the 3rd best revenue model is retail and ecommerce. You’ve got that alignment between the customer, and a revenue generation event.
2. The second best revenue model? Subscription. This is like the ecommerce revenue model, with a twist. That twist? Predictability. From customer contracts. Which reduces customer churn. Now when you combine predictable revenue, and low customer churn, you get a very attractive valuation. Now of course in the last 15 years this has become THE popular revenue model for software companies.
1. And finally, the best revenue model on earth. Transaction-based revenue. The gold standard. Google, payment companies like PayPal. These are transaction-based revenue models. Transaction based revenue models are highly valued because they have two very appealing properties. They scale in-line with usage on demand. And they are often perceived as more attractive to customers because they like the pay as you go model. One of the reasons I love the blockchain space is that it fits so well with the most valuable revenue model. A blockchain is designed for transactional based revenues. And this is why, when blockchain-based businesses find their successful niches, they will be valued at very high revenue multiples.
If you like what you heard today, please hit subscribe and I’ll see you soon
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Reddit | https://medium.com/wax-io/wax-on-what-are-the-top-6-revenue-models-and-where-does-blockchain-fit-in-812f4da3d0a8 | ['Wax Io'] | 2020-08-05 16:56:49.788000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain', 'Technology', 'Revenue Mod'] |
A Thanksgiving Moment in the Labor Room | A Thanksgiving Moment in the Labor Room
The full moon brought a downpour of babies that we could not catch fast enough in labor and delivery that hot summer night. I was sweaty, hungry, and tired. The air conditioner appeared not to be working yet again, which only added to my mounting frustration and foul mood.
Almost three decades ago, there were no computers where a resident physician could casually monitor patients remotely as they do now. Back in the day, you had to get up off your butt and physically examine a patient. Insert an IV. Write orders and be able to make a diagnosis correctly.
I groaned and rolled my eyes as another patient entered our crowded triage unit. She was young, perhaps no older than 17 or 18 years old, and was probably from Senegal as Harlem had become the new epicenter for Senegalese immigrants and merchants. We admitted her, and she labored quietly in one of our few remaining beds. When the time came for her delivery, she pushed stoically for a brief period, and then her baby emerged, wailing and in apparent good health. As I cut the baby’s umbilical cord, my young patient sat up from the delivery table, looked deeply into my eyes, and said in halted English, “Thank . . . you.” I fought back tears as I said, “You’re welcome.”
I quickly removed my mask and gown once I knew there were no complications and rushed into the on-call room, where I wailed uncontrollably. It was the first time anyone ever thanked me for delivering their baby. Those two words, “thank you,” brought my life and purpose back into focus: a sweet and humble reminder of why I was training to become an obstetrician-gynecologist.
In this season of Thanksgiving, I challenge each of you to remember the most meaningful moments in your life. Sometimes our greatest gift is a simple yet laudable expression of gratitude.
“In everything, give thanks.” | https://medium.com/@lindaburkegalloway/a-thanksgiving-moment-in-the-labor-room-3f5d15f8fbbd | ['Linda Burke Md'] | 2020-11-25 17:53:17.219000+00:00 | ['Thanksgiving', 'Inspiration', 'Wisdom', 'Black Women', 'Pregnancy'] |
ContentBox Progress Weekly 2018.10.22–2018.10.28 | October 29th, 2018
We are happy to celebrate many technical and product milestones at Contentbox as well as usher in a season of fun-filled festivities for Halloween. Please read on to see some of our updates below.
Tech Updates:
Consensus
Implemented a consensus agreement for Dpos+BFT to quickly confirm blocks
Kernel
Implemented the Sync protocol to support fast synchronization of blocks between nodes Added RocksDB support for transactions Increased P2P node scoring logic to optimize node management
Contract script
Implemented the assembly and parsing of OP_CODE by the script engine Support for standard transfers P2SH and P2PKH Implemented script signature verification
RPC
Optimize address indexing for fast query of transaction history and balance for uncached addresses Enhanced wallet management, support for import and export, and transaction information query
2018 District Pioneer List
ContentBox was invited to participate in the Reconstruction of the World 2018 Block Chain New Economy Hangzhou Summit to be held at the Hangzhou International Expo Center from November 19th to 20th .
Currently, ContentBox is a candidate for the “Pioneer Influencers List 2018” Everyone is welcome to enter and vote: 2018 District Pioneer, to send BOX on the list! View voting details to vote for ContentBox !
1. Find the voting applet
2. Select “Project Group” or search for ContentBox directly
3. Click on “Vote” !
The voting will be closed from October 31, 2018, and with everyone’s help we will send the ContentBox list together !
2018 KOREA BLOCKCHAIN EXPO
On October 23rd, ContentBox Korea partner Jason Lee participated in the “Blockchain: From Ideal to Reality” 2018 KOREA BLOCKCHAIN EXPO (2018 Korea Blockchain Expo) in Seoul, South Korea.
South Korean government officials, Malta government officials, and consulting, technology, blockchain and many other corporate executives attended the conference at the fourth meeting of the Special Committee of the Industrial Revolution in Korea and the Deputy Minister of Science, Technology and Information.
ContentBox Bifrost
Last week, the first edition of the ContentBox Bifrost (Rainbow Bridge) project has basically completed the development of the basic services around the blockchain wallet and entered the system testing phase.
The Bifrost project will reduce the barriers to entry for developers by building a range of blockchain technology products and services, helping developers to develop their own blockchain-related applications more easily and efficiently, and to promote more partners to join the ContentBox ecosystem.
More details about the ContentBox Bifrost project are: Good application, BOX “Rainbow Bridge” takes you to heaven
2018 National Designer Creative Festival
On November 3, 2018, ContentBox will co-host the 2018 National Designers’ Creative Festival in conjunction with Haloha Wenchuang Chain and hold a signing ceremony. Castbox will provide exclusive overseas media support for this creative event.
Well-known designer Wang Xiaoou appeared at the ceremony, and there are also top-level creatives at home and abroad who will share the copyright confirmation and realization of Wenchuang works .
ContentBox What ghost activity
Halloween is coming soon. From October 25th to 31st, ContentBox will launch a Halloween “What Ghost” ghost contest on the official Weibo .
Everyone who goes to the Huobi search box and trading view chart and draws Halloween related elements on top of a BOX one-hour price chart and uploads their work to Weibo and tags @ContentBox will be eligible to win. We will select the three most popular ideas to send out the ContentBox package!
___
Contentbox Website: https://contentbox.one/
Telegram: https://t.me/BoxCommunity
Contentbox Twitter: https://twitter.com/Contentbox_one
Contentbox Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/contentboxone/
Contentbox Medium: https://medium.com/@Contentbox_one
Contentbox White Paper: https://contentbox.one/wp.pdf
Contentbox Bitcoin Talk: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3898690.0 | https://medium.com/contentbox/contentbox-progress-weekly-2011-10-22-2018-10-28-573492d2ddab | [] | 2011-10-22 00:00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Crypto', 'Podcast'] |
How an artist moves from primary to secondary market — The case of Adrien Ghenie | How an artist moves from primary to secondary market — The case of Adrien Ghenie Maecenas Follow Dec 13, 2018 · 3 min read
Moving into the secondary from the primary market is typically key to an artist’s commercial success and can often mean the difference between scraping by and international fame and fortune.
But how exactly does an artist transition from one to the other?
Let us take the example of Adrian Ghenie, a Romanian painter born in 1977 in Baia Mare. Ghenie grew up under the oppressive Communist regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu, where the structure and rules of a Western-style art market barely existed. Only a few artists could live off their works, and artworks were considered intellectual property rather than commercial goods. Very little changed after the fall of the Iron Curtain and it has taken many years to establish a quasi-healthy local art market.
Portrait of Adrian Ghenie by Oliver Mark, Berlin 2014, Collection of the Bukovina Museum
Ghenie was a student at the now-famous University of Art and Design in Cluj, and he was considered an extremely talented painter at a young age. His lush, vibrant and often large-scale paintings quickly became popular among his fellow students and teachers. Nevertheless, finding opportunities for gallery exhibitions in an economically struggling Romania were few and far between. Eventually, he decided to open his own art gallery with his friend, Mihai Pop in 2005. Commercial success and global recognition soon followed as he participated in more and more international art fairs, gaining contacts with foreign curators, including UK-based independent curator, Jane Neal, along the way. His works started to attract the attention of international collectors. In 2009, he famously sold a work to the mega-collector, François Pinault for approximately €60,000, through the help of the now-closed Haunch of Venison gallery in London.
Further solo and group shows followed, including exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (2012–2013); the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kuns (S.M.A.K.), Ghent (2010–2011); and the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest (2009–2010). This all helped make Ghenie more and more popular, to the point where he could no longer meet the growing demand of his collectors. For those unwilling to join the expanding waiting list, there were limited opportunities to collect Ghenie’s paintings.
Recognising the increasing demand for Ghenie’s works amidst his outstanding success, the leading auction houses quickly stepped in to secure consignments from owners willing to sell his artworks via auctions.
Once a painting has been acquired in the primary market directly from the artist or his gallerist and resold, it becomes a part of the secondary market.
Ghenie nor his gallerist remain in complete control of his prices. Instead auction houses’ PR machines take over and the artist becomes part of a much larger market with a much wider range of potential buyers and sellers.
Remember the above-mentioned acquisition by François Pinault? The very same painting, titled “Nickelodeon” (2008), went under the hammer at Christie’s London in October 2016. After a tense bidding war, the diptych was sold for an artist-record of £7.1 million, a price rise of 16,000%!
Adrian Ghenie’s “Nickelodeon,” a 2008 piece. Credit Adrian Ghenie, via Christie’s Images Ltd. 2016
In less than ten years, despite hailing from a country lacking the structures of an operating art market, Ghenie has managed to become both commercially and critically acclaimed. Gaining gallery representation and selling his works in the primary market was the first step in validating his creative production. Being targeted by leading auction houses and entering the secondary market was the second step in his global recognition. Indeed, Adrian Ghenie represents the perfect success story of an artist transferring from the primary to the secondary market. | https://medium.com/maecenas/how-an-artist-moves-from-primary-to-secondary-market-the-case-of-adrien-ghenie-90b5a348c8dd | [] | 2018-12-13 08:01:00.735000+00:00 | ['Ghenie', 'Investment', 'Maecenas', 'Art', 'Blockchain'] |
Create a conda environment to run JavaScript with Jupyter notebook | Photo by Joshua Reddekopp on Unsplash
Jupyter notebook offers an interactive way to execute your code fragments and see results immediately. You can turn your toy codes and sample results into presentable documentation with no sweat. It has become a staple in early-stage ideation and proof-of-concept for Data Scientists. In addition to its predominant use-case with Python kernels, Jupyter also offers JavaScript kernel to help you achieve similar things.
Through my process of installing the JavaScript kernel for Jupyter, I encountered some incompatibility issues that caused trouble starting the kernel. This article shows a working approach on how to install JavaScript kernel for Jupyter notebook on macOS. Hope it can help you so you don’t need to waste too much time as I did.
Before we get started, you should make sure conda is installed on your macOS. If it has not been installed, you can find instructions here. Once it’s installed, you can follow the steps below to create a conda environment with Jupyter notebook that has the JavaScript kernel installed, which runs with node.js.
Install Homebrew and install ZeroMQ using homebrew.
ruby -e “$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
brew install pkg-config node zeromq
Create a new conda environment with Python3.6 and activate it. We’ll call it jupyter-js-kernel for convenience.
conda create --name jupyter-js-kernel python=3.6
conda activate jupyter-js-kernel
Install pyzmq and jupyter.
pip install --upgrade pyzmq jupyter
Install node.js for your conda environment.
conda install nodejs
Install JavaScript kernel for Jupyter with npm.
npm install -g ijavascript
Run the kernel installer script to finish the setup.
ijavascript --spec-path=full
In case ijavascript isn’t recognized, you can find the path to the installer script and run it directly. The path typically looks like the following
/Users/[User]/lib/node_modules/ijavascript/bin/ijsinstall.js --spec-path=full
Now you are all set. Try running your Jupyter notebook and see if you can create a new notebook with JavaScript kernel successfully. Let me know if you run into any problems in the comment section. Have fun! | https://medium.com/@hysk/create-a-conda-environment-to-run-javascript-with-jupyter-notebook-4c0872412681 | [] | 2021-02-06 16:56:00.642000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Jupyter Notebook', 'Conda', 'JavaScript'] |
Investigating Scalping Options on the LTT Giveaway | Photo by Alex Knight on Unsplash
On the 22nd November of 2020, LTT released a video about a Colorful RTX 3080, which they later were going to “give away”. It is in quotes because, in reality, they were going to sell it for one dollar in the next 24 hours. A nice and neat idea.
Linus did, however, say that bots won’t help because the page does not yet exist. This got me thinking — is that really true? If it were that simple then scalping would not be a problem.
The challenge
From the scarce information given it, all boils down to that their merch shop will have some change. Maybe it will be just a new product or perhaps some kind of banner will appear or something completely unimaginable. Spoiler — it was just a product, let us ignore that for now.
As it stands, what we are trying to find seems unpredictable, so a bot might have a hard time purchasing the item, but it can definitely help sense that the site has changed and notify us to take a look.
The solution
It breaks down to a few simple steps:
Go to the site Take a screenshot Compare to the previous screenshot Shoot an email if the screenshots are not the same
Using the NodeJS stack we can utilize a few libraries for completing these steps:
puppeteer — headless browser which can be driven programmatically pixelmatch — pixel-level image comparison library nodemailer — for sending us the emails
There are a few more helper libraries, but the ones mentioned are the gist of the solution.
The code
Ignoring package.json , it required only 175 lines of code for this notify bot to work. All it does is visits 3 pages of their store, save the screenshots, compare them, and shoot emails if something is a miss.
const puppeteer = require("puppeteer");
const fs = require("fs");
const PNG = require("pngjs").PNG;
const pixelmatch = require("pixelmatch");
const winston = require("winston");
const os = require("os");
const nodemailer = require("nodemailer");
require("winston-daily-rotate-file"); const mail = nodemailer.createTransport({
service: "gmail",
auth: {
user: "[email protected]",
pass: "pass",
},
}); const transport = new winston.transports.DailyRotateFile({
filename: "application-%DATE%.log",
datePattern: "YYYY-MM-DD",
maxSize: "20m",
maxFiles: "2d",
}); const logger = winston.createLogger({
format: winston.format.json(),
transports: [transport],
}); const URLS = [
"https://www.lttstore.com/",
"https://www.lttstore.com/collections/all",
"https://www.lttstore.com/collections/all?page=2",
]; const urlToFileMap = {
[URLS[0]]: "home",
[URLS[1]]: "all-p1",
[URLS[2]]: "all-p2",
}; const tDuration = 1000 * 60 * 10;
let counter = 0; async function autoScroll(page) {
await page.evaluate(async () => {
await new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
var totalHeight = 0;
var distance = 100;
var timer = setInterval(() => {
var scrollHeight = document.body.scrollHeight;
window.scrollBy(0, distance);
totalHeight += distance;
if (totalHeight >= scrollHeight) {
clearInterval(timer);
resolve();
}
}, 100);
});
});
} const compare = (url) => {
return new Promise((resolve) => {
try {
const img1 = fs.createReadStream(`./images/${urlToFileMap[url]}-${counter - 1}.png`).pipe(new PNG()).on("parsed", doneReading); const img2 = fs.createReadStream(`./images/${urlToFileMap[url]}-${counter}.png`).pipe(new PNG()).on("parsed", doneReading); let filesRead = 0; function doneReading() {
if (++filesRead < 2) return; if (img1.width !== img2.width || img1.height !== img2.height) {
resolve(0);
} const diff = new PNG({ width: img1.width, height: img2.height });
const numDiffPixels = pixelmatch(
img1.data,
img2.data,
diff.data,
img1.width,
img1.height,
{ threshold: 0.1 }
); resolve(numDiffPixels);
}
} catch (e) {
console.log(e);
}
});
}; const getScreenshotAndCompare = async () => {
const promises = URLS.map(async (url) => {
let browser;
try {
browser = await puppeteer.launch({
executablePath: os.arch() === "arm" ? "chromium-browser" : undefined,
headless: true,
}); const page = await browser.newPage();
page.setDefaultNavigationTimeout(0); await page.goto(url); await page.setViewport({
width: 1200,
height: 800,
}); await autoScroll(page); await page.waitForFunction(
async () => {
return await new Promise((resolve) => {
setTimeout(() => resolve(true), 3000);
});
},{
timeout: 0,
}
); await page.screenshot({
path: `./images/${urlToFileMap[url]}-${counter}.png`,
fullPage: true,|
}); if (counter == 0) {
return;
} const comparison = await compare(url); if (comparison > 0) {
logger.info(url);
await mail.sendMail({
to: "[email protected]",
subject: "LTT Store",
attachments: [
{
filename: "Previous.png",
path: `./images/${urlToFileMap[url]}-${counter - 1}.png`,
},
{
filename: "Current.png",
path: `./images/${urlToFileMap[url]}-${counter}.png`,
},
],
});
}
} catch (e) {
console.log(e);
} finally {
browser && browser.close();
}
}); Promise.all(promises).then(() => {
counter++;
});
}; getScreenshotAndCompare();
setInterval(getScreenshotAndCompare, tDuration);
This could be improved quite a bit as well, this is somewhat of a rough and fast take on things, a lot of the code is just taken from the examples of the corresponding libraries. The full code can be found here, though the full code already is here.
Result
Deployed the script to my Pi 3 overnight, and in the morning I had quite a lot of emails from myself. Some were false positives, the Pi loads images a lot slower so sometimes they just weren’t fully loaded.
the default
Eventually, the correct change was picked up, yay! If only it weren’t already sold.
the Spanish inquisition
Final thoughts
Given that it turned out that the change was just a new product, this is far from the best approach. Just loading HTML and then doing some xpath magic would have found which product to buy and would have been a lot faster than saving screenshots, especially on the Pi.
The ten-minute interval does not help as well, the first image I got with the GPU was already with the sold out badge, but this was more of an experiment than real participation, I would have been deep asleep when the email hit anyway, so I’m fine with that.
I do not approve of scalpers, but the only real thing we can do is to control ourselves and not buy their goods. Websites have a lot of guidelines to follow, be it for SEO or accessibility, but the guidelines can be easily used by bots to do their evil bidding.
Now it is time to delete all the pics of Linus from my Pi, g’day. | https://medium.com/swlh/investigating-scalping-options-on-the-ltt-giveaway-334ddbee15b | [] | 2020-11-24 22:56:35.736000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'JavaScript', 'Nodejs', 'Bots', 'Web Development'] |
Your child’s most important letter this season is not their letter to Santa. | Your child’s most important letter this season is not their letter to Santa.
Here is one example of a holiday card to your elected official
This Holiday season is going to look very different (and I’m not referring to the lack of snow). For some, that may mean giving loved ones extra special gifts to compensate for not being able to celebrate in person. For others, especially those whose paycheque or health has been affected by COVID, it may be difficult to find a way to fill up a stocking.
For many of us, this current reality may allow us to get closer to the real spirit of the season. More than ever, this year, 2020, is a chance to focus on loved ones, to demonstrate your love, your hope and your gladness for having them in your life.
For me, that means, I also need to be worried about my loved ones’ futures. Particularly my children’s (and their children’s).
Twenty years from now, Christmas may look very different as well. My children are unlikely to remember or care whether, in that pivotal 2020 year, Santa brought them a new xbox game or doll, particularly if they are in the midst of unprecedented flooding, heat waves, or god forbid, a war for food or water. This may sound extreme, we are in Canada aren’t we? But unfortunately, these predictions are not far off if we continue to ignore the experts: scientists, physicians, world leaders who are united in the truth: our world is warming and the effects may be catastrophic and felt in our lifetimes if we don’t change our current trajectory. But what they might remember, is the gift of knowing that their parents tried everything to provide them and all following generations with a stable climate future, when they still had the chance.
It is clear that we need to act now. And by “we”, I don’t mean us as individuals using a reusable shopping bag or turning off the lights. These efforts alone won’t save us from climate chaos. I mean “we” as cities, as provinces, as a country, as a world. Ottawa, the nation’s capital, is only putting forth 1% of its city budget towards climate action. Ontario’s Premier has taken away energy retrofit programs, electric vehicle incentives and is currently trying to remove conservation authority powers that protect the natural spaces we need to be resilient to the impacts of climate change. Our Prime Minister has tabled a climate accountability act with no actual accountability and no legally binding emissions targets until 2050 and no plan for the next decade, despite scientific consensus that the next decade is the most critical for action. And why? Because these elected officials think that Canadians are not behind them. Like the cowardly lion in the Wizard of Oz, they need us to say we believe in them and we support them to act — boldly and based on scientific and expert evidence — and to do it swiftly.
All I want for Christmas is a Canadian climate action plan that will actually protect my children from the disasters (natural, financial and physical) that will come if we do not halt further warming by cutting emissions drastically and quickly.
This isn’t a present that Santa can give. But it is one that our elected officials can. So the most important letter that you can write for your child this Holiday Season is not a letter to Santa but to those that are supposed to be representing you and your kids — your elected officials (all of them: your city councilor, your mayor, MP, MPP, premier, prime minister, leader of the opposition, etc). This cannot be a partisan issue, we need ALL levels and members of the government working together. You can send them the same letter.
This may sound like I didn’t hear about the federal government’s recent announcement on carbon pricing. I did, and it’s wonderful but citizens still need to make noise, be vocal and show that we will stand behind climate action. The carbon pricing is only an effective way to cut emissions if we stop moving forward on any new pipelines. And the carbon pricing plan is only “bold” in relative terms, because of how slow our action has been up until this point. It is actually the same plan that was made 5 years ago, a plan that wasn’t particularly bold at that time. To hold our warming at only 1.5 degrees (what experts suggest is necessary), we must massively reduce our emissions well before 2030. For our governments to have the courage to do this, they need to hear from us.
Not sure what to write? Reach out to any of the major environmental groups in Canada: David Suzuki, Environmental Defense, or visit For Our Kids who have set up Holiday Cards for the Climate, which will make sending a letter even simpler and can even involve your children if you choose. And if you don’t want to stop at letter writing (and I hope you won’t), sign up to be a volunteer. Take action and give your kids the best Christmas present of all — a chance at a sustainable future.
As a mother of two young children and a scientist, I cannot remain silent as I see the current and approaching effects of climate change. We need parents and grandparents to step up. We need their voices to speak for our children — to protect their future and their childhood. Children and youth shouldn’t need to be worried about climate change, we, as parents, should be take on the role to ensuring our elected officials take the lead on bold, science-guided climate action. | https://medium.com/@marigane/your-childs-most-important-letter-this-season-is-not-their-letter-to-santa-40ad4980bbd1 | ['Marianne Ariganello'] | 2020-12-23 15:13:53.913000+00:00 | ['Climate Action', 'Cdnpoli', 'Children', 'Christmas', 'Climate Change'] |
I’m giving Linux Mint a try after abandoning Ubuntu earlier this year. | I’m giving Linux Mint a try after abandoning Ubuntu earlier this year. Toward the end of last year, I recycled an old laptop into an Ubuntu machine to play around with .NET Core and Docker in Linux, and I was very impressed. It had been a long time since I’d last touched Linux, and for the most part everything worked right out of the box.
Hardship began when I tried to use it for virtual school in Fall 2020. It was wildly frustrating to not have feature parity with Linux variants of apps like Zoom while teachers were instructing to do specific actions that weren’t available.
The real deal-breaker was printing, though. I spent a day trying and just couldn’t get it working, so I rolled back to Windows. Imagine my delight when the first thing I saw upon logging in with Mint was “adding printer.” How wonderful! | https://medium.com/@adamprescott/im-giving-linux-mint-a-try-after-abandoning-ubuntu-earlier-this-year-d806f5eb01ea | ['Adam Prescott'] | 2020-12-24 00:50:26.721000+00:00 | ['Work', 'Technology', 'Productivity', 'Linux', 'Programming'] |
Running automatic tasks in ASP.Net Core WebAPI | Recently in one of the discussion for our WebAPI project we got into a scenario where we were suppose to update some value automatically without being triggered by any API.
The discussion left me wondering if this is possible in WebAPI project, so I decided to do some search and finally found a way of doing this by using background service in ASP.Net core WebAPI.
IHostedService and BackgroundService
In ASP.Net core, we can implement IHostedService interface to run background tasks asynchronously inside our application.
It provides to two methods “StartAsync” and “StopAsync”. as the name suggested these methods is used to start and stop the task.
ASP.Net core also provides abstract class “BackgroundService” which exposes only one method “ExecuteAsync” which executes continuously in background.
We can write our logic inside this methods so that it get executed in background.
In this tutorial I am going to show demo of backgroundservice implementation.
So let’s get started..
Sample example
Let’s take an example that I want to take backup of data at midnight.
Let’s see how we can achieve this with background service.
Create a new webapi project with visual studio and add the following class.
Now open Program.cs and add the following code to CreateHostBuilder method.
...
.ConfigureServices(services =>
{
services.AddHostedService<WorkerService>();
});
Build the project and run.
You will see the task getting executed without any external trigger from any API.
Console window showing execution of background task
Summary
Background task will be required for many use cases like if you want to take backup or trigger a specific task at certain time or if you want to refresh cache or something else.
For simple background task you can use this technique, but for more complex scenarios you can make use of libraries like Quartz and Hangfire where task management is easy.
Hope this is useful.
Let me know your thoughts below..! | https://medium.com/@niteshsinghal85/running-automatic-task-in-asp-net-core-webapi-d5605b3a1114 | ['Nitesh Singhal'] | 2021-09-06 05:00:22.049000+00:00 | ['Dotnet', 'Webapi', 'Scheduling', 'Aspnetcore', 'Background Service'] |
Am I a Bully ? | Everyone knows what bullying is or what bullies do to people. In fact, many of us might have experienced this from either the victim’s or the bully’s point of view. And, I am confident that any person in his/her right mind, would stand against this immature act. But, have you ever imposed this question to your conscience,
Have I ever been a bully in my life ?
I believe if we could re frame the sentence, it might make more sense.
Do I even know who is a bully ?
People don’t become bullies all of a sudden and not all people become one. My personal opinion is that, these are people who try to conceal their weakness in such a way that they exploit other’s feelings and bring their fears come true. They dwell on the opponent’s fear and this makes poor sods vulnerable to whatever things they say. According to my theory, only a portion of people who explicitly call themselves bullies fall under this category and the rest include the common people. The ones who are unaware of the consequences that arise from their actions. In fact, most of them don’t even act according to their will, rather become preys of the situation.
Let’s say you start fighting a bunch of random people on the street, only few people fight back and most of them would not and rather prefer flight instead. This is a common link that all the members of the animal kingdom share which is even responsible for our survival, FEAR. Also, most people have the tendency to stay in groups for survival. The same goes with people who belong to a gang or pack. If the Alpha in the group wants to do something, the other people are obliged to do it even if they don’t want to. They prefer not to piss off the lead in the group because if they do, then they will also end up like the others. If you cannot find the freedom to express your feelings in a group, it’s better to step out and fight for what you feel is right.
From making jokes based on appearance till mimicking a person’s behavioral traits, everything that corners a person physically and emotionally is wrong. Similarly, no such act should be encouraged for the greater good. A voice should be raised, if the victim requires support.
Not all are perfect. Everyone is unique in their own way. Imperfections are what defines us from one another. No matter what, embrace the type of person you are and your weakness.
Wear it like an armor so that no one could use it against you.
And always remember to stay true to your conscience because that will help you spread love than hate, and stop labeling people based on their differences. Next time if you come across such things, make sure you man up and do the right thing.
Live.Laugh.Love
Originally published at amateurblogger121.blogspot.com. | https://medium.com/@aakash.chandar007/am-i-a-bully-14320203f328 | ['Aakash Chandar'] | 2019-02-06 17:41:06.115000+00:00 | ['Moral Responsibility', 'Love Yourself', 'Bullying', 'Psychology', 'Self Improvement'] |
How Apple Silicon made a Revolution for UX Designers | How Apple Silicon made
a Revolution for UX Designers
Agenda
In the near future there will be no differences between Mobile, Web-app, Desktop or any other kind of prefixes among designers, even in Gaming Industry. What does this mean now for designers like me and you? One simple thing — we have to learn even more and boost up our skills as soon as we can.
Mark D. Weiser, CTO at Xerox PARC till 1999 (RIP), already said in 1996:
“The Ubiquitous Computing era will have lots of computers sharing each of us. Some of these computers will be the hundreds we may access in the course of a few minutes of Internet browsing. Others will be embedded in walls, chairs, clothing, light switches, cars — in everything. UC is fundamentally characterized by the connection of things in the world with computation”.
As you have noticed, device unification is a pretty predictable thing, it will happen sooner or later, but right now Market got a revolutionary solution from Cupertino: completely unified Platform for all specter of Tasks. | https://uxplanet.org/how-apple-silicon-made-a-revolution-for-ux-designers-3ffa993752ff | ['Aleksei Fedorov Kochetov'] | 2020-12-11 06:54:22.385000+00:00 | ['UX Design', 'Apple', 'Future', 'Mac', 'Development'] |
Humanity and Technology Hits | I’m excited to be a new editor at Technology Hits, the newest publication on Medium focusing on all aspects of technology.
This exciting new publication is the dream child of Dr. Mehmet Yildiz.
He has a direct connection to and access to thousands of writers, as well as a large audience of readers interested in all things technology.
‘Technology Hits’ brings these writers and readers together in one place.
I’ve been invited to feature a selection of the latest from the remarkable writers at Technology Hits, many of them have been curated, recognizing their valuable contribution to the tech conversation. | https://medium.com/technology-hits/humanity-and-technology-hits-baa6aeb45e6a | ['Tree Langdon'] | 2020-12-16 16:35:07.262000+00:00 | ['Entertainment', 'Philosophy', 'Technology', 'Arts', 'Self Improvement'] |
Here’s Why You Can’t Keep Those Resolutions | Here’s Why You Can’t Keep Those Resolutions
Photo credit: iStock
By Lina Acosta Sandaal, MA, LMFT
This time of year is always interesting to be a therapist. It is the time when everyone is taking a look at themselves and attempting to see things in a new way and/or trying to change something about themselves, which is what I do with others on a year round basis. My twitter feed is chock full of articles and messages about new this, resolve that, change now, and it fills me with both joy and frustration. The joy comes from feeling that everyone is out trying to get closer to their authenticity, which is my goal as a therapist, to assist others in finding their truest self. I also feel frustration because come February most of those hopeful souls will have already gotten back to old patterns and away from the stream of change and resolution. In the spirit of lasting change, here are my three steps on how you can make sure that this year you stick to keeping those resolutions.
Step 1 — Figure out WHY the action you are trying to change is actually serving you.
Remember Dr. Phil’s famous line, “How’s that working for you?” He used it in sarcasm more times than not, but if you answer this simple question truthfully you will be halfway to eliminating the bad habit or tendency. Ask the question. How does eating a plate full of dinner, Oreos, and ice cream at night work for me? Well, maybe you stayed to your diet all day long and had that green juice smoothie from your new Vitamixer, but then at the end of the day, you fight with your spouse, your child does not cooperate while doing his homework, and when everyone goes to bed you are drained. You fill your heart and numb out the stress and frustration with a plate full of pork, beans and rice and then treat yourself with Oreos and ice cream, taking care of yourself emotionally. This is because at one point in your life your mom took care of you while feeding you. When she did that you felt comfort and safety. Now as an adult after a night like that it makes sense that you would choose to comfort yourself with food. This takes care of the need to feel safe and comfortable. Also, blame the brain because that message of food as comfort is an old emotional memory held in your right brain. So the overeating is working for you because you are stressed, lonely, tired, and hungry and food makes you feel safe and comforted.
Step 2 — Once you know why the old action works for you figure out HOW to replace it
It is almost impossible to change behavior or old habits without replacing them with a new one. The piece that a lot of people forget is that the behavior is linked to a need and/or an emotion. If you did Step 1 correctly then you have figured out the need and the emotion attached to it. In our previous example the need was to be comfortable and the feeling was safety. So the question to ask yourself is if I want to be comfortable and safe and I have a long stressful day, what do I have to do besides eat to feel comfortable and safe? This is not an easy task, coming up with an answer to that question can be excruciatingly painful and sometimes feel daunting. That is why most people just want to change the behavior by ignoring the need and emotion. But I promise you, if you can know the why, the how will come slowly, and soon you will have an answer, such as replacing the food with a soothing, comfortable bath. That leads us to:
Step 3 — Change of any kind comes in bursts and regressions –sticking to your new action WHEN you fail is what brings the greatest change.
The statistics say that 60% of people stick to their resolution past the first month. This is because change is not linear. Once you decide to change and you take step 1 and step 2 I guarantee that you will have good and bad days and that is the human experience. One more time we have to blame the brain. In times of stress or high emotion the neurons that fire quickest are those that have been there the longest. For example feeling safe and comfortable when we eat has probably been in the neural pathway since you were an infant and breastfeeding. Taking a long bath and reading your favorite novel to feel comfortable and safe has been in your neural pathway for only two weeks. Be gentle with yourself when once more you overeat. The task at hand is to start over when you have a regression or “bad day”. There are very few people that can change cold turkey. Think of neural pathways like a path in the grass, the one that has been walked on the longest has no grass and it’s easy to see and take. The new path you are walking on still does not have a clear way; it has hidden rocks, snarling weeds, and unseen roots. That being said if you keep going on the new path eventually it will wear in like the old one. Simultaneously, the old path will grow grass and lose visibility. That’s how the brain works.
Take these steps. Give them a go. If you find that even when you figure out the HOW it still seems overwhelming, get some assistance, call a therapist or a good friend, and keep at it. Change takes time. Here’s to a great new year and to keeping at least one, if not all of your resolutions!
—
The story was previously published on The Good Men Project.
—
About Lina Acosta Sandaal, MA, LMFT
Lina Acosta Sandaal, MA, LMFT began her career at Vista del Mar in Los Angeles. There, she developed expertise in child and adolescent development and infant and early childhood mental health, while strengthening her resolve to support families. She has trained and participated in research studies with Yale’s Minding the Baby, National Child Traumatic Stress Network, and Child Trauma Research Program. In 2015 she was named Mujer Legendaria de Ford for quality in her field. She is the parenting expert for Telemundo’s national morning show Un Nuevo Dia. As part of her commitment to helping all families, she is a member of the Florida Maternal Mental Health Steering Committee and a consultant for the early learning team at MomsRising, a national grassroots organization lobbying for children and family rights in Washington, DC. She brings this expertise to her work at her center, Stop Parenting Alone, and to all the organizations who rely on her expertise and consultation on development and parenting issues. Find out more by visiting www.StopParentingAlone.com | https://medium.com/change-becomes-you/heres-why-you-can-t-keep-those-resolutions-442ac49e9e90 | ['The Good Men Project'] | 2020-12-27 15:42:25.465000+00:00 | ['Resolutions', 'Change Your Life', 'Personal Development', 'New Year', 'Advice'] |
Things to Do Before Your Next Technical Interview | Things to Do Before Your Next Technical Interview
Show how prepared and interested you are
Recently, I’ve had the chance to take part in technical interviews, as the recruiter. To be on the other side of the table, analyzing how candidates perform, is a great experience!
My role was to prepare assignments to give to the candidates, perform the selection of those who did a good job, and interview them on-site.
I only have a short experience in interviewing candidates. But, what I can say is that more than the technical knowledge, what I appreciated the most is to see how candidates present themselves, what they know about us, and how motivated they were to join our team.
It is quite easy to see if someone has prepared the interview or just came because the door was open. Being good at coding is cool, that’s of course the main thing that we are testing.
However, if the candidate doesn’t show a bit of interest in what they will be doing, doesn’t make us want to work with them, it makes the interview very boring. Recruiters do a lot of interviews. Candidates need to think about a strategy to stand out from the crowd.
I was more interested in candidates being super enthusiastic about presenting themselves, what they know about the company, and asking questions than the actual technical knowledge. It is still important, of course, but not in the first part of the interview.
That said, here is a collection of things you can do before going to your next job interview… | https://medium.com/better-programming/things-to-do-before-your-next-technical-interview-d107a349204d | ['Thomas Guibert'] | 2020-02-05 02:03:12.434000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'JavaScript', 'Software Engineering', 'Programming', 'Web Development'] |
7 Relationship Red Flags And What They Really Mean | These red flags are waving like crazy and they’re trying to tell you something.
Photo by Noah Buscher on Unsplash
Unhealthy relationship behaviours can lead down a slippery slope, and quickly. Often words and actions follow patterns and cycles and can escalate into something quite out of control. But, one thing is for sure, all of this had to start somewhere.
The thing about some of these red flags is that they are covert. Meaning, that they can appear innocent or at least be explained away as innocent — by the person doing the behaviour or even by the person experiencing it.
Don’t be so sure that all is what it seems — these red flags are a sure sign things aren’t all roses, and it’s time to listen to your intuition, and be safe.
1. You get blamed for everything
What’s the goal? Avoiding responsibility
Basically, everything is your fault. You will be blamed for all the problems in and out of the relationship. Even things outside of your control will be your fault. You will be blamed for saying how you feel, what you think or even whatever has caused your partner to be upset.
Things will be turned around on you, and you may hear something like “if you didn’t make me so mad, I wouldn’t have to yell. Now look what you’ve done”.
What’s next? No responsibility means no change
Any form of change can only occur when the person admits there is a problem worth addressing. Constant deflection and avoidance of responsibility are not congruent with change.
2. Your partner doesn’t like your family or friends
What’s the goal? Isolation
Your partner will badmouth your family and friends, and accuse your friends of not liking them (which is probably true). This prep work for isolating you is all aimed at seclusion down the track.
Your partner may demand you don’t see your friends or family. Perhaps the only people you soon find yourself associating with are their family. The goal here is concealing all these other red flags and what better way of hiding these than to not have any prying eyes around.
The reality is if your support people are not around they can’t talk you out of leaving — mission accomplished for your partner!
What’s next? Dependence
Eventually, you will be totally secluded from your support network. If down the track you want to leave the relationship, it will be that much more challenging when you have no one to turn to for help.
3. You’re walking on eggshells
What’s the goal: Intimidation
This feeling of tension creates an atmosphere of waiting and wondering when things will erupt. Your partner has created a sense of fear where simply a look keeps you in your place.
Tension makes you do anything to avoid the situation from getting worse. You placate your partner. You feel you can prevent any escalations, perhaps thinking “I’ll just keep out of his way until he calms down.”
What’s next? Escalation
Keeping a lid on the simmering tension can’t last. Eventually, things will boil over, and the abuse will escalate. You simply can not keep another person’s behaviour under wraps.
4. Other people are treated better than you
What’s the goal? To makes you believe it’s you who is the problem
So, your partner treats others well. More the point, you are treated differently to everyone else. Your partner is polite and courteous to their work colleagues, family, and friends.
This behaviour is selective because not only is abuse a choice, but abusive behaviour is about power and control. Friends and coworkers are treated well because your partner simply has no need to assert dominance over them.
What’s next? Creating confusion
Your partner will excuse this behaviour away. They are maintaining their double life and keeping up appearances so that if this behaviour were to surface, no one would believe it anyway. They are so nice, remember?
5. Your partner punishes you
What’s the goal? Control
You may experience several ways to be punished: silent treatment, withdrawal of attention or affection, name-calling or berating. You may find yourself apologising for things you didn’t do, just to get things back to ‘normal’.
This punishment — for anything — plays with your ability to cope, your mental health and makes you question everything.
What’s next? Low-self worth
Being on the receiving end of this behaviour inevitably creates low self-worth and low self-esteem. You begin to believe all the things you are told, and you believe everything is your fault. You begin to believe you deserve all of this.
6. Your partner is always jealous
What’s the goal? Control
Jealousy will come out in different ways — your relationships, accusations of affairs or even your successes. You can’t have friends because those friends threaten your partner for whatever reason.
When it comes to accusations of you cheating on your partner, anyone is fair game (men or women). You are accused of having affairs you have not had. This makes you always have to prove your loyalty which is aimed at furthering control.
Your successes at work can’t be celebrated as this may be a reflection on your partner and how they feel threatened by your achievements.
They feel inferior. Your fault again.
What’s next? Complete isolation
Jealousy is an uncomfortable emotion, and your partner doesn’t want to feel it, who would? To combat this feeling, you may be forbidden to have any contact with people who are perceived to be ‘threatening’. That way, your partner regains control and feels better about themselves, for now.
7. Your mental health is used against you
What’s the goal: To make you feel like you’re going mad
You may have existing mental health conditions, or not. Your partner knows this and will play on it and use it against you. They may purposefully do things that create anxiety, then berate you when you have a panic attack.
They may know you have a history of abuse and say something that will trigger you. You are called crazy if you challenge them — it’s just all in your head.
You are continuously told that no one else will put up with your depression, anxiety or whatever. Your partner is a saint for putting up with all of your shit.
What’s next? Your mental health declines
Rather than supporting positive mental health, your partner only makes it worse, purposefully. You will not be supported to improve your mental health because there is an active effort to make it all worse. To keep you feeling low.
Takeaway…
Unhealthy behaviour now are red flags for further relationship abuses. Violence and abuse of any kind — including emotional abuse s— are a choice.
These are times where you may think, “he’s such a nice guy” or “she’s so amazing” Well, nice guys don’t play mind games or make you feel intimated or scared. Amazing girls don’t make you question your mental health, your sanity and your reality. Nice people — guys or girls — don’t make you feel unworthy.
These are red flags, and they have the power to escalate into more severe and harmful behaviour. You have the right to be in a relationship that feels safe. Trust yourself that you know can make decisions to keep yourself emotionally safe.
Know that you deserve to have a partner who doesn’t make power and control the foundation of your relationship. | https://medium.com/@kirstyarmstrong/7-relationship-red-flags-and-what-they-really-mean-233c47594384 | ['Kirsty Armstrong'] | 2020-12-20 03:06:21.176000+00:00 | ['Equality', 'Relationships', 'Relationships Love Dating', 'Love', 'Women'] |
The Future Of Retirement Planning | As of the end of July, the stock market was still performing relatively well and the Federal Reserve had announced no near-term changes to interest rates. However, other economic news was not as rosy. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the U.S. economy contracted by nearly a third (32.9% annual rate) in the second quarter of this year.
The pandemic has taken quite a toll on the U.S. economy. While eventually the economy will recover, individuals may want to re-assess their retirement portfolios going forward. Long term, it’s important to consider what types of permanent changes may take place post-pandemic, and how to anticipate them for long-term retirement planning.
For example, one of the issues with employer-sponsored 401(k) plans is that they are designed to take advantage of tax-deferred growth. However, given today’s historically low tax rates, that is less of an advantage than it was when the idea was first introduced. Consider a median-income married couple with two children:
In 1980, the marginal federal income tax rate was 43%. Today, it is 12%.
In 1980, the capital gains tax rate was 28%. Today, it is 0%.
In 1980, interest rates were around 15%. Today, they are 0%.
Tax rates could be adjusted upward in light of the debt America continues to accumulate through COVID-19 stimulus efforts. However, they may not rise as high as tax rates were back in the early ’80s.
A leading professional in retirement income research, Olivia Mitchell, executive director of the Wharton School’s Pension Research Council, recommends that more employer retirement plans incorporate an annuity option, and even mandate a 10% allocation to that annuity.4 This would establish a larger pool of insured annuitants to help fund income for retirees who live longer. Until this happens, bear in mind that anyone can incorporate an annuity into his or her personal financial strategy to receive insurer-guaranteed income during retirement. If you’d like to learn more, please contact us.
Another long-term consideration is the status of Social Security. A recent study concluded that potential cuts to benefits could come faster than expected, thanks to COVID-19. Researchers discovered the Social Security Trust Fund may be depleted up four years earlier than previously predicted — as early as 2032. This highlights the importance of saving more toward retirement.
Post-pandemic, there may be significant changes that could impact investor portfolio opportunities. For example, this type of disruption in business models often leads to new innovations, so keep an eye on sectors and industries coming up with new ideas. Also, the newly accepted remote model for both work and school poses interesting opportunities in terms of people living much further away from their employers and colleges, even in different states. This means people could be less inclined to move to urban areas for jobs. Rural regions may see an uptick in populations where young people could purchase homes and start building equity at a younger age.
If you have any questions or want to learn more, please click here. | https://medium.com/@sterlingnationalfinancialgroup/the-future-of-retirement-planning-7ec44a24b8d9 | ['Sterling National Financial Group'] | 2020-12-02 12:59:43.420000+00:00 | ['Retirement Planning', 'Retirement'] |
Emotional Design | These days, emotional design is all the rage and the talk of the town. Paradoxically, though, many designers don’t have a clear idea of what it is. Some think it’s all about wowing the audience with effects, while others go for “cute” photos and illustrations. So they build a brokerage website and then attempt to make it “more emotional” with smiley faces and kittens. But the only emotion they’re likely to trigger is the customer’s rancor. Most of them create designs to elicit emotion in their fellow designers. “That looks awesome!” they say, approvingly. Oddly enough, the users don’t seem to share their excitement.
The more savvy designers have read Don Norman’s book, then tried to apply the new knowledge in practice and also failed. So what’s the problem?
Let’s be honest here. Not everyone has actually finished the book. But many saw this pyramid, which led to a lot of confusion.
What is wrong with it? It’s an equivalent of Maslow’s pyramid for design. But humans have no fundamental need for design; no one’s going to die after seeing an ugly, barely functioning website.
Looking at this diagram, it’s tempting to think that first you need to take care of functionality, followed by reliability and usability, and then create the icing on the cake by making the design emotional.
It doesn’t work that way, people. It’s too late. Emotions are not the icing on the cake. They’re the flavor of the cake. If you’re looking to create a particular flavor, you’ll prepare the ingredients in advance, won’t you? You can change the color palette in the process, but if you need animation or gamification to trigger an emotional response, it’s something you must consider at the outset.
Emotional design is born at the design concept stage based on market research.
No emotional design can be efficient without market analysis, without an understanding the project’s goals and objectives, without knowing your audience and user profiles. The emotions you want your design to broadcast have to be decided upon at the very beginning. Even if the idea is in its embryonic stage. The emo-embryo will grow and develop throughout the work and discussion process, and by the time you get to creating the design it will have an easy birth.
Understanding this is half the success!
Now here’s the other half.
1. Getting to know your target audience
You can’t trigger an emotional response if you don’t know who you’re dealing with. Learn as much as you can about your users. You need to picture them as if they were your friends and family. Use buyer personas to better understand their needs and visual preferences. What is emotionally appealing to this particular target group? What kind of design works for them? Buyer persona templates are very useful, e.g. demand metric.
You can find some tips here:
Web Design With the Focus on the Target Audience
Personality-Oriented Design
2. Determining emotions
You need to have a clear understanding of the emotions you want to appeal to. To be sure, excitement is always a must for any design. Esthetically pleasing, functional, user-friendly — obviously, your design is already all that. All you need now is to add some emotions — but which exactly?
A good idea is to write a list. For example, in designing the abovementioned brokerage website you can have reliability, calm, trust, a relaxing general impression but focus on important details.
But what to do if the customer isn’t sure what emotions they need? Study the subject carefully, immerse yourself in it. Check the competitors’ websites, try to analyze the design with an eye to emotions and user contact points. This is where you can use Norman’s method, described below.
3. Defining the concept
This is about the general design concept. We already know who our users are and what they should feel when they interact with our product. Now let’s take a look at our list and come up with a mental image rather than a fully-fledged design. An essential part of this is color.
Let’s take the brokerage website as an example. Say our target customers are men aged between 25 and 65, mostly conservative, cautious, organized, occasionally impulsive. There’s no need to nudge them along with vivid design and distract them from the business at hand: all these people need is concentration, a plain working background, and no frills. Animation? God forbid. Gamification? Not this time. What works in this case is a subdued blue or green color palette and a couple of contrasting fonts. You’ll need some real customer reviews with pictures, maybe a calendar.
This is the “mental image” of our future design. Now we know where we’re headed.
4. Picking the color solution
Color triggers an immediate, intuitive emotional response, which is why it is so important to choose the right one.
primary color
You can use Robert Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions as a guide to choose the primary color. The farther from the center and the less vivid the color is, the less intensive the emotions.
You shouldn’t take Plutchik’s diagram literally. Please understand that a green background is not enough to make your design trustworthy, and a lilac one won’t be automatically boring. The illustration below shows how contrast works: our attention is drawn to the highlight, which is what makes boring things exciting and sad things joyful.
Emotion does not follow from any one parameter, it is always a comprehensive approach.
color combinations
There are different methods of choosing color combinations. The most efficient are the complementary, the triad, the split complementary, and the analogous color schemes.
5. Finding emotional contact points
Emotion means more than pleasure and excitement.
A designer needs points of emotional contact with the user.
This is where Don Norman’s cavalry comes to the rescue. User contact points are found on three emotional levels:
visceral — appearance, perception at first glance;
— appearance, perception at first glance; behavioral — pleasure of user experience;
— pleasure of user experience; reflexive — conscious attitude to the product, “trying it on” (picturing yourself as the owner), general impression of the product.
Our task is to achieve emotional contact through visuals and microinteractions on every level. Web designers who don’t know their users create wrong contact points or none at all.
Visceral design appeals to the user’s intuition. Beautiful things are perceived intuitively. A designer needs to know what is emotionally appealing to their target audience, what they consider beautiful. The wow factor works at the visceral level.
User-friendliness is also a feature of visceral design. When things are instantly understandable, the user feels gratified. If people don’t understand anything, they feel stupid. This is a very negative emotion!
Behavioral design is about convenience, functionality, microinteractions, and feedback. This is essentially applied emotional experience and the pleasure it brings.
Behavioral design also has to be simple and understandable, but in practice rather than at first glance.
The principle of creating contact points is the same: you have to understand which web design tool is the most attractive to your target audience.
If your website’s goals are user engagement, dynamic user experience, learning, communication, loyalty, you need to choose the appropriate tools and visualization. If your aim is to relax the users and distract them from negative thoughts, gamification and animation will work well. In our brokerage example, we decided against them. But if our core audience was not conservative but young and excitable, we would need gamification.
Look for tools that will give your users a positive applied experience. These are the emotions born out of actions, in practice.
Reflexive design works by triggering associations, memories, special feelings. This is not the visceral level anymore: it’s about perceptions based on personal experiences, culture, and mentality. Reflexive emotional interaction determines the long-term impression of the product. The user understands what he or she likes and why, what advantages they receive, how the product affects their self-esteem and mood. They want to use the product at all costs.
The reflexive emotional level is about craving, desire, the conscious need to own the product.
This is the most difficult level. And it is where designers are the most likely to get confused and make mistakes. Basically, it’s the master class level. To trigger reflexive emotions, it’s not enough to be a designer. You need to be an educated person with a sufficient degree of culture and empathy. Empathy means resonating with other people’s feelings and being able to feel compassion.
An example: a 20-year-old has spent three years working as a designer, totally immersed in his job. He’s given a task to create feelings of calm and hope in elderly people at an old folks’ home. What does he know about it? It’s great if he has a beloved grandmother. It would help him to put himself in her place, although there’s no guarantee he’ll be able to do it. But not everyone has a grandma. And some people just cannot put themselves in someone else’s shoes, regardless of age. Not everyone is empathetic.
To create a good design for a grandmother, you don’t need to be her age. To raise a businessman’s self-esteem, you don’t need to enroll in a business academy. Don’t be discouraged if the interests of your target group are obscure and don’t resonate with you. Learn all you can about them. Try to put yourself in their place. The more you immerse yourself into their world, the closer, more relatable and more likable they will become.
6. Finding emotional images
This follows naturally from 5 above. Once you know the concerns of your target group, you will effortlessly pick the right visuals. It will be much easier to find photos or draw illustrations if you know exactly what you need.
An important point: to generate the desire to use your product and enjoy it, you need to create an image of a happy owner.
A good example is our case with Clover. The “happy owner” is holding a credit card in his hand, thus making it tangible and objectifiable, claiming ownership of it. The user imagines him- or herself in the owner’s place, picturing themselves as cardholders.
To learn more about creating emotional images, read this:
Increase Conversion with Help of Images
7. Finding yourself
Everyone is capable of empathy, and we can and should develop it. Good designers are open-minded. They read books (and not only design manuals), watch movies, travel, socialize with others, think and reflect, develop their minds and emotions. Designers have their strong suit: their imagination and visualization skills. Add to this being empathetic toward your users, and you will always find a way to touch their hearts. | https://medium.com/outcrowd/emotional-design-efe08e03ad23 | ['Erik Messaki'] | 2021-01-05 17:12:34.493000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Web Design', 'Visual Design', 'Design', 'Emotional Design'] |
Anoma is Open-source | TL;DR: Check the Anoma repository or documentation out.
Shortly after Anoma’s announcement at the end of March, the core developers of Anoma released the whitepaper, which provides a comprehensive overview of the design and features of the protocol. Following the ethos of the project and its core developers, the current implementation of the protocol has been open-sourced — paving the way for a more accessible research and developer journey of Anoma.
In the Anoma codebase
From the beginning of the year, the core developers of Anoma have been working continuously on the Anoma ledger, its intent gossip system, and the matchmaker system. The ledger is characterized by its integration with Tendermint BFT consensus and WASM, in addition to basic capabilities such as key-value store, transactions, and a command-line interface. Over the last moon cycle, the support for validity predicates on WASM, gas metering, and storage improvements among other changes were added to the ledger; the intent gossip system is able to broadcast and support simple token barter intents; and the matchmaker is integrated with a WASM matching algorithm, allowing the system to match simple token barter intents. For a more in-depth view of the architecture of Anoma, take a look at the documentation.
Learning by playing with Anoma
As the design of the Anoma protocol is distinct in several ways, some features might appear unfamiliar, especially if you’re accustomed to protocols designed to be cryptocurrencies or platforms for arbitrary computation. Besides learning about Anoma via the growing base of resources, a swifter way for the playful minds would be by trying Anoma out.
If you’re interested in setting up your own local testnet of Anoma, you can find the guidelines for installing, building, operating an Anoma node here. You can also find the Rust docs for the Anoma crates here. Some of the most notable interactions involve validity predicates, creating and submitting intents, and operating the intent gossip and matchmaker systems.
Contributing to Anoma
Nothing would delight the core developers of Anoma more than feedback on the design, code, or documentation from the community at any scale — from typos to reviews on the design. Find the contribution guidelines here and a list of open issues here.
If you feel aligned with the vision of Anoma and would be interested in getting more involved with the project, know that the current team is growing and looking for more team members driven by the purpose of making privacy-preserving and self-sovereignty tools accessible. Take a look at this list of open positions, including but not limited to distributed systems research, zero-knowledge cryptography research and protocol engineering in Rust.
What’s next?
An upcoming development of the Anoma protocol is in the works and it combines the above with proof-of-stake and a dynamic validator selection mechanism. Later, support for Ferveo for front-running protection will be integrated, with other notable features to follow. The prototype is being refined along with the technical specifications and documentation in preparation for the very first experimental public testnet of Anoma. To stay tuned with the progress and updates, find us on Twitter, join the community on Discord, or receive updates. | https://medium.com/anomanetwork/anoma-is-open-source-9c1c8721bb7a | ['Awa Sun Yin'] | 2021-06-01 19:13:21.401000+00:00 | ['Wasm', 'Zero Knowledge Proofs', 'Rust', 'Anoma', 'Blockchain'] |
Components of e-learning content for effective teaching and learning | How to classify learning content? What is the best way to teach content? How can I determine if using a video, animation, or image is the optimal strategy for achieving the teaching goal? Have you ever felt you could not come up with an effective e-learning solution for a specific type of content?
These were some of the pressing questions that I encountered when I started developing e-learning programs in early 2014 at the start of my career. Since then, my work experiences clubbed with the lessons learned from leading e-learning experts like Ruth Clark, Chopeta Lyons, and David Merril helped me better understand the appropriate methods to teach a particular type of content.
Creating meaningful, memorable, and motivational learning experiences is essential to effective e-learning — this visual aid describes the most commonly used five types of instructional components and the best way to teach them.
Have you also experience similar problems while creating online courses? What were the lessons learned? How did you learn it? Is there any other topic on which you would like me to create an infographic? Please share your thoughts in the comment section. Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the newsletter if you want my next infographic in your inbox.
Earlier published in Components of e-learning content for effective teaching and learning (effectiveed.tech) | https://medium.com/@shubhi_thakuria/components-of-e-learning-content-for-effective-teaching-and-learning-8563e13cb4fa | ['Shubhi Thakuria'] | 2020-12-18 05:39:05.915000+00:00 | ['Education', 'E Learning Solutions', 'Instructional Design', 'Online Education', 'Infographics'] |
No String Attached! | The connection has been lost!
No more attachment found
No leftover happiness
No legacy of contentment
No wave of emotions around!
Not in mother
Not in child
Not in prayer
Not in mine!
The road is dark and empty...
No more calling
from a sleeping city,
No more calling
from sparkling stars,
No more calling
from that silver lining Moon,
How incredibly I walked that far!
With big unbelieving eyes
looking at that torn thread...
Love, care and expectations
were passing through that line!
Eyes full of tears
But drops are literally frosted,
as the emotions
became rock hard,
neither any fire can light it up,
nor any heat can melt it down!
Sleepless night,
Dreamless life,
Heartless mind,
leads me to a world of numbness!! | https://medium.com/illumination/no-string-attached-ac21c87576b | ['Fahmida Huq'] | 2020-12-06 02:40:59.026000+00:00 | ['Depression', 'Poetry', 'Heartache', 'Book Of Life', 'Sadness'] |
Rethinking Your New Year’s Resolutions with Julie Haber | When the clock strikes midnight on December 31st, we will enter a (highly anticipated) new year. But after the challenges of 2020, do we really need to play the New Year’s Resolution game? You know the one… we make broad statements and goals to stop to habits we’d like to change, and then find ourselves dropping right back into old routines in just a few months.
After a year where everything has changed, we thought it best to rethink our strategy for 2021. What are some resolutions worth implementing, that have a real, tangible effect on our life? And what are some ways we can ensure success?
We consulted Lake Austin Spa Resort’s Inspiration and Wellness Specialist, Julie Haber, who gave us some tools for putting our resolutions into place as well as a list of her alternative resolution ideas on new ways to level up in 2021.
Julie Haber’s 2021 Resolution Ideas:
Perform one act of random kindness daily (even if it is just smiling at someone) Be grateful for what ‘didn’t’ happen each day — in other words, things could be worse Buy healthy deserts instead of overly processed sweet ones Make a list of people who inspire you and why Aim to watch the sunrise or sunset each night Buy yourself a special gift rather than overspend on lots of things you do not need Drive down more roads you have never taken, take a different route to get where you are going Have a Zoom tea party Listen to inspiring podcasts or talks while you cook or do the dishes Reach out to a friend that you have lost touch with Talk to your plants Install an App on your phone that limits your screen time rather than rely on your own willpower Whenever you have the urge to call your ex, make a deal with a close friend that you will call them instead Create a simple bedtime ritual to help you sleep Humble yourself and find a fitness trainer well suited to your needs Learn a new recipe twice per month Learn one simple breathing technique and practice it daily for 3 minutes Give yourself permission to imagine what you truly want happening once a week, and have faith it will happen Appreciate one thing about yourself daily Spend 5 minutes stretching each day on a soft carpet Commit to eating healthy food that tastes good too Keep a gratitude jar and drop one thing you are grateful for each week into the jar, at the end of 2021 review your year and all that made it special Take $25 of your earnings each week and place it in a retirement fund Stop telling yourself you are too complex for a relationship and start dating Declare war on your inner gremlin voice that convinces you of unworthiness Forgive yourself for not being perfect Give to your spouse or significant other by learning their primary love language Download a meditation App that you like Start to charge what you are worth Realize you do not have to do everything alone and commit to finding a life coach or therapist who can support you!
Julie Haber‘s Tips for Practicing Your Resolutions:
Most New Years Resolutions fail. We set our intentions earnestly and sincerely at the end of the year, yet with each passing month after January 1st, the likelihood that we will follow through on these resolutions gets significantly smaller.
The 2021 resolutions above can benefit people because they are tangible, doable and fun. It is important to get very specific when making new years resolutions. Sure, many of us want to lose weight, get in shape and save money, yet these resolutions are far too wide of a goal. The above works because it considers the larger goal, yet approaches it from a more narrow and specific angle.
As you sit down to make your new years resolutions list, see if you can get very specific and creative.
I recommend the following tips for putting it into practice:
1) Be honest with yourself- do YOU- not what you think your friends and family think you should do
2) Be practical and smart about what is actually achievable
3) Change the word resolutions to intentions — intentions are consciously made and are something you can remind yourself of daily
4) At the end of each day ask yourself if you reached your intention, if not forgive yourself and begin again the next day — Recommit each day!
5) Intend to give back and connect with others- let some of your resolutions (intentions) be more than just something that benefits you personally
6) Be creative and think outside the box
7) Find a coach or counselor! Support and accountability leads to success
Let us know in the comments what your New Year’s Resolution is going to be! | https://medium.com/the-fiske-group/rethinking-your-new-years-resolutions-with-julie-haber-c92d2ca59847 | ['The Fiske Group'] | 2020-12-15 22:14:54.369000+00:00 | ['Intentional Living', 'Mindfulness', 'New Years Resolutions', '2021', 'Lake Austin Spa Resort'] |
BigQuery Flex Slots Pricing: A programmatic approach | Google has recently introduced a new pricing model for BigQuery under the name of “BigQuery flex slots”. What is this new pricing approach and when should you choose for it? This article will focus on this new pricing and on how to programmatically get slots and assign them to your project. The code available here will give you two Cloud functions that can be parameterized with number of slots desired, reservation name and assignment project.
Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.” — Warren Buffett
First things first. I will start with introducing two important concepts before deep diving into the code implementation of BigQuery Flex Slots. These two concepts are BigQuery slots and BigQuery pricing models.
BigQuery Slots. What is it?
What is a BigQuery slot? A BigQuery slot is a unit of computational capacity required to execute SQL queries. You can see it as a mix of CPU, memory and network. BigQuery automatically calculates how many slots are required by each query, depending on query size and complexity.
Maximum amount of slots
For the “on-demand” BigQuery pricing model (I’ll explain more about the different pricing models later), you have a quota of maximum 2,000 slots per project. This means that anytime, across all your queries, you will have a maximum power of 2,000 slots. This might be insufficient depending on your queries workload. In that case, you can either switch to flat-rate pricing or the new flex slot pricing. We will come back to what pricing structure to choose in the next point.
When BigQuery executes a query job, it converts the declarative SQL statement into a graph of execution, broken up into a series of query stages. These themselves are composed of more granular sets of execution steps. BigQuery leverages a heavily distributed parallel architecture to run these queries and each stage is executed by one or many workers. These workers then communicate between each other using a fast distributed shuffle architecture. The “Execution details” of a query looks like this:
This can be visualised as a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) where each stage is allocated some slots based on BigQuery optimisation factors (leveraging speculative execution and dynamic work rebalancing of a stage).
If a query requests more slots than what is currently available, some units of works are queued until more slots become available.
BigQuery Pricing models
BigQuery comes in three flavors as far as pricing is concerned: on-demand, flat-rate and the new flex slots pricing models. Let’s dive into each of these options so you can decide which one is best for you.
On-demand pricing
This is the BigQuery pricing model you get by default, and it works as a “pay-as-you-go” model. You have a limit of 2000 BigQuery slots that can be allocated to your queries. These slots get scheduled automatically as your queries execute.
You are billed on the amount of bytes scanned by your queries (5 USD/TB at the time of writing).
Flat-rate pricing
Once you start having many workloads running and that your “on-demand” costs start rising to the sky, it’s time to consider moving to a more enterprise-grade pricing model. Flat-rate pricing offers you the possibility to commit to a certain amount of slots (starting at 500) at 10,000 USD per 500 slots.
It’s ideal in a situation where all the projects within your organisation have a constant workload nearing a certain amount of slots. The flat-rate pricing model then lets you leverage a fixed amount of slots, to be shared by all your projects under your organisation, at a fixed price.
It is recommended to first monitor your workloads with an on-demand pricing model to get a good grasp on your slot utilisation. By exporting your BigQuery logs, you can for instance build a Data Studio dashboard that will give you the insights you need (default charts showing slot usage exist in Stackdriver Monitoring).
The example below shows the average slot consumption with the total number of queries. In this case there is clearly no reason to move away from the “on-demand” pricing model.
Flexible slots or ‘flex slots’ pricing
Between these two pricing models, there now is a new one that will fit many use cases: flexible slots or ‘flex slots’.
What is “flex slots” pricing? This newly-introduced flex slots BigQuery pricing model is ideal for cyclical workloads or ad-hoc queries that require some extra power for a certain predictable amount of time.
BigQuery flex slots give you the capability to commit to a certain amount of slots, through a reservation, for a duration as short as 60 seconds (billed at $0.04 per slot per hour, at the time of writing).
An ideal scenario to use flex slots would be if you run daily queries that refresh some data marts every morning, and these queries take 20 minutes to run. You can then buy 2000 slots for that short amount of time every day. This will greatly decrease your costs, as flex slots are cheaper compared to on-demand pricing: see graph below.
A valuable benefit of flex slots is that you can share them between projects and folders. Imagine you have various departments and that you want to allocate a certain amount of queries to each department based on their activity.
As you can see, you buy commitments that you then allocate to reservations. After that, you finally assign reservations to either an organisation, folders or specific projects. While slots are split between these departments, for example the marketing department that only has a reservation of 200 slots could use up to 1000 slots, in case the other two departments are not processing any queries and that their 800 slots are thus sitting idle.
Cost Savings with BigQuery flex slots pricing
“Flex slots” is a real game changer in the sense that it gives you full flexibility on your costs, because you can buy and release slots on the fly. If used properly, it can decrease your BigQuery costs drastically. Below is a chart from a Google post plotting the cost of a 5 TB query:
With on-demand pricing it will cost you 15 USD (5 USD per TB), while the same query with the same amount of slots reserved through flex slots will cost you a third of it.
It is however worth noting that buying less than 2,000 slots will in most cases give you slower performance than with the on-demand pricing where you have by default 2,000 slots available.
Code to get you started with flex slots
In order to maximize the advantage of flex slots pricing, you need to be able to start and stop them with ease. The code on this public github repository will jump start you with that.
It gives you two Cloud Functions: one to create BigQuery flex slots commitment, reservation and assignment and the other one to delete these resources. The create function accepts parameters and this will allow you to structure your reservations and assignments.
Once you have the functions deployed on your project using Terraform, you can easily call them within your code. For instance, you could call the “start_bq_flex” function before running a batch of queries and call the “stop_bq_flex” function after the queries are done running.
You could also call these functions through Cloud Scheduler in case you want to have a certain amount of slots always booked at a certain time period (in order to call Cloud Scheduler with authentication, see this link). The “stop_bq_flex” function at the moment removes all the assignments, reservations and commitments; there is definitely room for improvement on more granularity in targeting the resources to be deleted.
Please have a close look at the README.md as this will give you all the necessary information in order to get started with the code.
In summary: BigQuery flex slots is adding a strategic pricing model between on-demand and flat-rate pricings. This new pricing model will certainly play a crucial role in democratizing Big Data analytics with BigQuery for small and medium sized companies. With a sound monitoring system to determine cyclic workloads and a programmatic way of starting and stopping flexible slots, your savings might be as far as 60% as compared to the on-demand pricing model. Hopefully this article will help you master BigQuery flex slots.
Any questions? Need guidance to optimize your BigQuery spend? Contact us! | https://medium.com/google-cloud/bigquery-flex-slots-pricing-a-programmatic-approach-a388e81a466c | ['Charles Verleyen'] | 2020-11-02 19:32:45.964000+00:00 | ['Gcp', 'Bigquery', 'Analytics'] |
Letter to the House | Speaker of the House
Nancy Pelosi
Dear Madam Speaker,
My name is Molly Rogers and I am a resident of New Mexico’s CD1. As you know, my former representative Deb Haaland was selected by President Biden to be Secretary of the Interior. Since her seat will remain unfilled until a special election on June 1, I am currently without an elected representative in Congress to whom I may express my concerns. I am therefore writing to you directly because I believe that I have the right to be heard.
Congress was created to be a legislative body for the people of this great country. We have the House to advance the interests of We the People and the Senate to legislate for States’ governments. In a well-running machine, this allows the people to use their shared resources in the most efficient manner for the most persons possible, while preventing the kinds of damage that come from waste and abuse.
Our machine is out of balance and not working right. We have the resources and knowledge to prevent pandemics, and yet we lost nearly as many Americans in the past year to a virus as we did in the Civil War. For what purpose do we agree to be a union if that union hurts us instead of protecting us from threats that are too great for any one of us to handle on our own?
We all agree tacitly, upon donning the title of “American” to respect the Constitution that gives our organization its legitimacy. And yet too many people fail to understand the obligation that puts them under to respect their fellow Americans.
We have rooms full of laws that attempt to ensure every person is allowed the full measure of their freedoms. But never was a bullet stopped by a piece of legislation. The only assistance our laws can provide is in the form of guidance. When that guidance is blatantly ignored by the people tasked with turning laws into reality, Americans are denied their human rights.
Upon joining the US Navy, I swore an oath to defend the US Constitution and to protect Americans from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Though I am now a civilian, I still take this oath seriously. How can I fulfill my oath if I fail to demand justice for the needless deaths of my fellow Americans? How can I honor my oath if I fail to demand accountability for acts of treason carried out by my fellow Americans?
We came to this land for a lot of different reasons. We all have inherently unique visions of what a perfect America should be. The Constitution is our best attempt at codifying the behaviors we all agreed would give us the best chance to achieve individual happiness for all families while keeping our community strong. People who violate the Constitution steal some measure of peace, security, and in some cases the very lives from their neighbors. For the good of all, this cannot be allowed.
If our democracy is to remain intact, our democratically agreed-upon laws must be applied in equal measure to all Americans. We have a form of apartheid here that protects certain groups from prosecution for breaking our laws. This is cognitive dissonance on a national level.
As I write this, more than 560,000 Americans have died. That doesn’t include the ones who were shot. Or the ones who died from lack of access to healthcare, lack of access to clean water, those who starved to death, nor those who froze to death in their own homes.
I posit that a majority of my fellow Americans find these needless deaths unacceptable and join me in calling for accountability for those responsible.
If our laws are not made manifest through application, how can we know they exist?
I need answers to my questions because I’m trying to raise a child to be a good American and it’s getting harder and less sustainable to do so.
Thank you for your time and service.
Humbly yours,
Molly Rogers | https://medium.com/@mollyrogers8394/letter-to-the-house-a6431604382b | ['Molly Rogers'] | 2021-04-23 02:10:54.120000+00:00 | ['Liberty', 'House Of Representatives', 'Accountability', 'Letter', 'Government'] |
Assets, Not Income Is What Make People Wealthy | Assets, Not Income Is What Make People Wealthy
Breaking down the difference between being rich and wealthy and what you can do to get there
Photo by BP Miller on Unsplash
Pass Go and Receive $200.
Some of the best financial lessons are learned in the simple board game of Monopoly. Everyone knows you can’t win Monopoly by just collecting the $200 and hoping you never land on someone’s property. But why do so many of us end up employing that strategy in our adult lives?
Ask yourself how many ways could you pay your rent/mortgage this month?
My guess is probably only one. That means you are employing the Pass Go and Recieve $200 wealth strategy. That strategy doesn’t work in Monopoly, and it doesn’t work in real-life.
Nobody Becomes Wealthy Off One Salary
There is a difference between being rich and being wealthy. Being rich means, you can go on a nice vacation a couple of times a year, drive a nice car, and live in a big house. But if you lose your job, your way of life dramatically changes like you have to sell your home. In this instance, you are rich, not wealthy. I know there are probably many people who would say that it is a high-quality problem. Still, most people desire that freedom that being wealthy provides, not just the luxuries being rich makes available. The reason I say that is most Americans are rich, based on global standards, and we are still looking for something else.
Being wealthy means you are not tied to one job, and you can weather volatile economic conditions without dramatically restructuring your life. That is the reason wealthy people generally get wealthier in tough times. They have multiple ways to pay their “rent,” so when one of their business is doing poorly, they have other ways to cover the bill. They are also generally able to buy things at a discount from people who have been forced to sell assets to cover expenses.
Also, people who rely on one salary for their wealth leave themselves exposed to workplace disruption. In America, for a long-time, the path to a rosy retirement was to work on the assembly line, make a steady income, and then retire with a pension.
Photo by 珏希 刘 on Unsplash
But, what happened when those jobs moved out of the country? The income engine of an entire region of the US was taken away and still hasn’t come back. We call it the Rust Belt now.
A lot of people are doing the same thing now, except they traded assembly lines for cubicles. COVID-19 and advances in white-collar automation look to unseat people from their income at a rate not seen since the Great Depression.
Assets are the Foundation of Wealth Creation
Now that I have shattered your preconceived notion that a steady job or a high salary is the key to becoming wealthy, you are probably wondering what is?
The answer is assets. If the goal is building wealth, we want appreciating assets. These are things that not only hold value but tend to grow in value.
For this, you need to start thinking about real estate, stocks, or equity in a business/franchise. All of these have the potential to increase in value over time, and can also generate additional income for you to buy more assets. You take income and buy assets, then you buy more assets with the revenue generated by these assets and on and on. Wealth generation has kind of a snowball effect.
Photo by Mirko Blicke on Unsplash
Example:
You buy ten shares of stock A at $100 per share. It pays a 3% dividend that you reinvest into the stock, and it grows 6% annually. That initial $1,000 investment will be worth $75,000 in 50 years!
Imagine if you are investing like that every quarter or every year. That is how people with average to below-average salaries can amass wealth and financial freedom.
Start Now!
I talk to so many people who say they will start worrying about finances once they have more money. That line of thinking doesn’t make sense. I understand that not everyone can put a lot of money down at first, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t start.
That is like saying I will start working out when I am in better shape.
The earlier you can start investing in assets, the better. Having cash in a bank account is not an appreciating asset. The money you put in will stay the same and probably be worth less when you try to spend it because of inflation. Having a cash safety net is essential, but if your goal is to build wealth all of your cash can’t be sitting in a bank account.
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
Start early and be consistent. No matter how much it is. The best time is to start when you are young. Don’t buy into the notion that you can always save later — people who say that have to work in a job they disdain until they are 80.
The Takeaways…
Being reliant on an income alone at best can make you rich, but it will never make you wealthy. You must take this income and invest it in appreciating assets if you plan to grow wealth and reach financial freedom.
Passing Go and Collecting $200 is a lousy strategy to win Monopoly and build wealth in the real world.
Stay tuned for more articles on how to build wealth and gain financial freedom, until next time! | https://medium.com/makingofamillionaire/assets-not-income-is-what-make-people-wealthy-a6dd548bd06c | ['Michael Huskey'] | 2020-09-03 15:12:20.337000+00:00 | ['Money', 'Financial Literacy', 'Finance', 'Assets', 'Wealth'] |
Scared about tomorrow? | We are the generation where the word “romance” has to come with “old school” to make it more meaningful. We are the generation where “moving on” seems easier than “sticking around”. We are the generation where “long term” and “long-distance” have become a myth. But are we really the ones to be blamed? Moreover, should we really be bothered about proliferating it to the extent that it can only destroy us?
Most of us, the hopeless romantics, believe that love is more of an experience than an emotion. All of us remember our first love, right? It’s amazing to reflect on those moments and look at ourselves blushing and feeling the joy within. But the tree of our life starts to branch out sooner or later. And it comes down to a decision, a yes or a no. The “yes” might contain further bifurcations into “good memories”, “a lot of efforts”, “significant time”, “deep commitment”, etc. On the other hand, the “no” might split into “losing priorities”, “repetitive arguments”, “misunderstandings”, “lack of communication”, and so on. A problem with such a high algorithmic complexity makes it difficult for our little brain to process. So either we rely on others to help us set the direction or we take several days to decide it for ourselves. This goes on for a couple of times before we realize how things were never meant to be repaired in the beginning. The loop seems to end there, but does it really? Have you ever felt the fear inside of seeing that person with someone else, someday? Have you ever felt the pain of coming across them and realizing how they have changed for the better but for someone else? Have you ever felt the angst of maybe giving it all up too soon? The trick is, we will never know. | https://medium.com/@sudipamajumdar18/scared-about-tomorrow-19902ae4d90f | [] | 2020-12-22 19:36:16.579000+00:00 | ['Lockdown', 'Love', 'Relationships'] |
Making The Right Arrangement For Birthday Gifting — Send Flower To Nagoya | Flowers are something other than a wellspring of sharing bliss and warmth. It may pivot along the hub as a customary gesture of broadening the delight or compassion, depending upon the event or occurrence or life occasion, however in the genuine sense it is an image of fortifying a wide range of holding between at least two individuals.
Give it a chance to be a night out on the town with your partner, let it be your first Anniversary or your kid’s birthday, flowers are in an approved interest and make each encompass a bit increasingly delightful with its essence and aroma. It is with everything taken into account the best feeling to send flower to Nagoya.
It is completely obvious when we state that need is the mother all things considered. Perhaps such an enthusiastic and required innovation was the start of online flower delivery organizations. Individuals, being a habitual slouch as they seem to be, were and are charmed to discover access to flower shops, sitting in that spot on their couch, appreciating the solace of home. Really, innovation has crossed that extraordinary level, past which human eyes couldn’t think or see.
The advantages of requesting flowers online are:
You don’t need to take the situation of going out, in the event that you are one apathetic individual.
The choices aren’t restricted.
Price reaches differ as indicated by your preferences and what you need, when you need.
Be it day time delivery, or midnight birthday surprise party, you can be guaranteed that you would get the flowers delivered to your doorstep or your cherished one’s doorstep.
Flower classifications are:
Compassion Flowers: Offering compassion and backing through the flowers at significant circumstances such as when somebody from your family or companion is doing combating with life at the clinic, is the least you can do to make that individual feel adored and thought about.
Wedding Flowers: Have you been to a sea shore where you discovered no sand? No, isn’t that so? This is actually what happens when there is a wedding setting enrichment without flowers. Be it an anniversary or the wedding day, flowers are must and henceforth you need flower vendors. What is more superior to an online flower specialist where your choices are satisfied, however the delivery is on schedule and you won’t need to put a foot out of the house!
For what reason are flowers so one of a kind?
It has the ability to turn down all negativities with energetic vibes and can put a grin on the substance of that unique individual who is furious, or is annoyed with you. Accomplished something incorrectly, attempting to express sorry to learn sister? They have the daringness to make any minute significant without being separated. Online conveyances of flowers are just about your convenience as you can opt for making the right birthday gifts arrangement to Japan online without having go out anywhere. | https://medium.com/@florajapan/making-the-right-arrangement-for-birthday-gifting-send-flower-to-nagoya-350593488f83 | ['Flora Japan'] | 2019-11-28 05:46:21.920000+00:00 | ['Flowers', 'Florist'] |
Now we’re just negotiating on a price. | Hello,
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The article will have a link to my client’s site in it. The link must
be do follow and we cant have any disclaimers\advertising tags.
Let me know if this is something you offer, and if so, what do you
charge for it?
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
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Olivia XXXX | https://medium.com/i-reply-to-spam/now-were-just-negotiating-on-a-price-ab30617eb8f2 | ['Alexandra Samuel'] | 2017-10-24 20:21:22.037000+00:00 | ['Email Marketing', 'Marketing', 'Digital Marketing', 'Spam'] |
Why Isn’t Discovery Time Working for Your Company? | Management
Credit: Guzaliia Filimonova via iStockPhoto purchase
Discovery time can spawn major innovation and happier employees — but only if you do it right.
Instituting “discovery time” in the workplace can be a game changer for organizations in competitive industries that are looking for the next disruptive idea. Discovery time is a set period of time during the workday or workweek that gives employees the freedom to innovate and create outside of their current workload. But if it’s not implemented with the employee in mind, you may not get the results you’re hoping for.
I’ve worked with more than one CEO who implemented discovery time in the workplace but told me that it wasn’t working. Employees weren’t taking that allotted time. Or, if they did take that time, they didn’t spend it being productive. They didn’t see an increase in innovation or creative problem solving. Why did it work for other companies, but not for theirs?
The Problem Isn’t What You Think It is!
In every case where discovery time wasn’t yielding results, the problem wasn’t the employee. The problem was the way the program was implemented.
That’s because creativity doesn’t fit into a box. Think about it this way: When you’re trying to come up with a creative solution to a problem, do you find that solution when you’re forcing your brain to think about it? Or is it more likely that the solution arrives when you’re not concentrating on it?
You Can’t Force Innovation
The creative spark hits at weird times. Maybe when you’re hitting the snooze button on your alarm clock early in the morning. When you’re in the shower, or on your commute to work. Suddenly the solution to the problem you were struggling with presents itself, just when it was the last thing on your mind.
Our brains solve problems when we are able to detach from external stimuli and activity. When we can get rid of the constraints of regimented activity, like going to the office and attending the same scheduled meetings every day, our mind is freed to flow where it will — and often is able to solve problems we have been struggling with.
Our Brain Has Default Settings?
Neuroanatomists call this detachment time the “default network.” It’s the part of our brain that works on solutions to gnarly problems. This is described in detail by Adam Waytz and Malia Mason in “Your Brain at Work” (Harvard Business Review Special Issue, January 2019, pp. 12–13).
The “default network” is what some people describe as the part of the brain that can achieve transcendence. It’s the place we can go to in a daydream — we can imagine ourselves in a different place. We may not even be aware of where we are, or any specific problem or idea that we’re thinking about. We let ourselves go and let our brain flow. We let our thoughts flow.
I Get My Best Ideas When I’m not Racking My Brain
The problem with discovery time is that often, employees are trying to find solutions within a finite, scheduled period of time. They are being forced to think directly about the problem and come up with ideas and solutions. Plus, they’re often distracted by external stimuli like their phones or emails. These interruptions are all factors that block creativity, as Eric Doctors pointed out in the article, “Unleashing Employee Creativity: What Matters Most in Sustaining Creativity Engagement?” (Northwestern University, March 2013)
That’s exactly what we don’t want. We want employees to be able to turn off their email, put away their phones, and stop thinking about the problems and the solutions. We want them to relax, experience the moment, and let their brains flow. That is when their brains will be able to start the process of free association of ideas and information that is so intrinsic to the “default network” concept. They’ll process the information that employees already have and allow innovative ideas to bubble up to the surface.
That’s when they’ll have the “a-ha” moments: After they’ve walked away from the challenge or the problem and left their brain alone for a few minutes.
Creating An Innovation Friendly Atmosphere
Creating the kind of atmosphere where the employees can let themselves go and allow their brains to relax is a problem that some of the biggest tech companies in the world are grappling with. It’s why Google installed “nap pods” and recreated sidewalk cafes and pubs inside its offices where employees can relax anytime they need to. “You can’t schedule innovation, you can’t schedule idea generation,” Google’s David Radcliffe told CBS News in a 2013 article. The company even considers color schemes in its building designs that help employees relax, focus and create.
Not every company has the resources that Google does. And now, when so many employees are working remotely from their home office, it’s even more challenging. But those companies that are truly committed to helping their employees discover solutions and new innovations can find ways to help them tune out and turn off for a few minutes.
As a leader, suggest ways that employees can recharge their mental batteries in any available space — such as creating a “meditation corner” to recharge, or to simply step away from their desk and exercise, read a book, or play video games. Further, model that behavior as a leader by pledging to take discovery time and following through. Not only will it encourage employees to follow your behavior, it will allow you to decide whether your implementation of discovery time is actually helpful.
Safe, Secure, and Empowered — Key Factors in Learning and Innovation
Teams need to feel safe, secure and empowered. Foster an environment — both in the office and remotely — where employees are allowed to disconnect and recharge. The boost in brain power — and in problem solving and innovation — will surprise you. | https://medium.com/the-learning-strategist-iq/why-isnt-discovery-time-working-for-your-company-f2ee643d9c45 | ['Susan A. Fitzell'] | 2020-12-12 22:34:18.320000+00:00 | ['Learning And Development', 'Employee Engagement', 'Agile Learning', 'Learning And Engagement', 'Innovation Culture'] |
Michelin-starred chefs bring Korean & Taiwanese fare to State Street Market in Los Altos | State Street Market will also be the site of Bǎo Bèi — the latest concept from chefs Meichih and Michael Kim, who formerly led the kitchen at Michelin-starred Maum in Palo Alto. Bǎo Bèi is in part inspired by their son, their “treasured one.”
“‘Bǎo Bèi’ is what I like to call our son…a term of endearment. Our son is kind of our muse because he’s multicultural, being Asian American,” Meichih Kim said.
“It’s specific to us, different than the other concepts,” she said. “The whole idea behind (Bǎo Bèi) was our cultural identities, Michael being Korean and me having Taiwanese parents. It’s the comingling of the flavors, bringing them together in our concept.”
Chefs Michael and Meichih Kim photographed in 2018 at a Los Altos Hills farm. Photo by Veronica Weber.
Developing unique takes on noodle dishes, seasonal banchan and other dishes, they’ll incorporate both Taiwanese and Korean herbs and spices, such as white pepper, cilantro, black vinegar, fried shallots, sesame oil and gojuchang. Case in point: On the menu is a bao filled with spicy pork belly, gochujang, cilantro and caramelized peanuts.
“The baos were an opportunity for us to show our backgrounds,” Michael Kim said. “In each of the gua baos, it’s not necessarily a very traditional Korean or Tawianese flavor, but it’s a comingling of both.”
The Kims are also selecting beverages to complement the food, with a selection of makgeolli, Taiwanese and Korean beers and yuzu and mandarin sodas.
At State Street Market, food and drink, of course, are a serious focus for the Kims, who’ve cooked in top restaurants across the country. But there’s an appeal even beyond that.
“The big draw was the community aspect,” Meichih Kim said. “Given how the pandemic forced us to stay indoors, I think we lost touch with connecting, and that feeling of being around others.”
Meichih Kim said that they intend to provide that — a space where people from different generations can come together time and time again, and try different foods to suit the appetites of the day.
“There’s a big variety,” she said of the Market. “It’ll make you keep going back.” | https://thesixfifty.com/michelin-starred-chefs-bring-korean-taiwanese-fare-to-los-altos-state-street-market-77f515860a2a | ['Sara Hayden'] | 2021-07-26 21:34:51.113000+00:00 | ['Dining', 'Chefs', 'Bay Area', 'Food', 'Peninsula'] |
Forest darkness helps stave off effects of nitrogen pollution — but this is set to change | Forest darkness helps stave off effects of nitrogen pollution — but this is set to change
Trees act as a buffer to protect the bottom layers of a forest from climate change.
by Aisling Irwin
Europe’s forests are sitting on a pollution timebomb which could rewrite their ecology when it explodes, say researchers.
Delicate forest floor plants such as wood sorrel or violet, and the balance among the tree species that tower above them, are all threatened by decades of accumulated nitrogen pollution. A study has found that the darkness of the forest has subdued the effects of nitrogen. But forests are destined to let in more light in the future as trees succumb to drought and disease.
Forests cover 40% of the European Union’s land area and are expanding in some countries, mostly because of active restoration or the abandonment of agricultural land. Forests provide services such as controlling erosion and cycling water but they are also increasingly threatened by droughts and diseases such as ash dieback.
To understand how they are responding to these challenges it is vital to study the forest floor, says Professor Kris Verheyen, an ecologist at Ghent University in Belgium.
‘This herb layer is very often forgotten. Some people call it the step-over layer — you step over it to look at the trees,’ he said.
Yet, in temperate forests, the life underfoot includes 80% of a forest’s biodiversity. The herb layer cycles key nutrients such as phosphorous, potassium and nitrogen, helps decompose tree litter and filters the next generation of trees — since seedlings need to pass through it to embark on their journey to the canopy, says Prof. Verheyen.
Records
In trying to understand more about the forest floor, he led a team that retrieved records, going back in some cases as far as 50 years, of 4,000 forest plots across Europe. For those whose locations were easily identified, the researchers visited to make updated measurements.
The team also carted forest soils from around the continent to their research station where they incorporated them into outdoor experimental environments, called mesocosms, in which they varied the plants’ access to nitrogen, temperature and light.
‘The basic question we wanted to answer was how do multiple global change drivers determine the trajectories of change over time,’ says Prof. Verheyen, who led the project, known as PASTFORWARD.
Overall, the team found that the key controlling factor in forest life was light, which acts as a bottleneck preventing other changes from exerting an effect.
‘This herb layer is very often forgotten. Some people call it the step-over layer — you step over it to look at the trees.’ Prof. Kris Verheyen, Ghent University, Belgium
Nitrogen pollution
One powerful example of this was the way it has held back the effects of nitrogen pollution.
Nitrogen deposition is a chronic problem caused by ammonia emissions from agricultural fertiliser and the creation of nitrogen oxides as a by-product of burning fossil fuels. It draws certain nutrients out of soils, acidifies land, and causes algae to grow in waterways.
The researchers found plenty of nitrogen deposition in forests and documented its consequences for species. But ‘the effects are not as strong as we expected because … the nitrogen is available but the plants (on the forest floor) can’t really benefit because they are limited by the amount of light that is available,’ said Prof. Verheyen.
Some plants — types that tend to be widespread and can survive in a variety of environments including non-native species — have the machinery to take advantage of an excess of nitrogen and grow more; others — which tend to be specialists with small ranges — do not. In shaded forests they are on an equal footing. But as soon as the canopy opens up and light pours in, those that can exploit the nitrogen pollution have an advantage.
As a result, European forests are already losing their more specialist species and thus experiencing a drop in biodiversity. Prof. Verheyen is concerned that forest canopies are in danger of opening up as trees die from drought and disease which may open the floodgates to nitrogen.
‘That will lead to rapid and very large changes in the herb layer,’ he said.
Drought — itself a result of climate change — has had a ‘massive’ effect killing trees in spruce forests in Germany, Belgium and France in recent years although broadleaf forests have been more resistant for now.
This does not mean that broadleaf forests are free from canopy-opening — one example is ash dieback disease. ‘We do have evidence that because of the dying off of the ash you get a lot of light and then the understorey really explodes because light is no longer a limiting resource,’ said Prof. Verheyen.
‘These large and probably abrupt changes that may happen in the herb layer will affect the tree regeneration and will certainly determine which species will be able to pass the herb layer filter and which not. It will have its consequences for nutrient cycling because this herb layer really impacts rate of decomposition.’
Forest dieback can open up protective canopies. When more light is let in, forests can succumb to drought and disease. Image credit — High Contrast/Wikimedia, licenced under CC BY 3.0 DE
Buffering
The researchers also discovered that forests have so far done a remarkable job of buffering plants against the broader climate change going on outside them.
Temperature measurements revealed that forests often have significantly different temperatures from what weather stations — always placed far from trees — record. In summer, for example, they are on average 4°C cooler. This is not only because thick canopies keep out the light, but also because evapotranspiration of water through the leaves and into the atmosphere sucks heat out of the forest, and the vegetation keeps out breezes that would mix warm air into the cool.
Climate models don’t take into account this buffering, despite the fact that two thirds of the world’s species live in forests and forest processes such as carbon and nutrient cycling depend on temperature, says Professor Pieter de Frenne, a bioscientist also at Ghent University, who is leading the parallel FORMICA project investigating forest microclimates.
This, in turn, explains why, in intact forest, there has been less ‘reshuffling’ of forest species than was predicted as Europe warms, he says — forest-buffering has allowed many species to cling on.
‘We would have expected that forest plants would have responded already to a stronger degree — so that more warm-adapted species would have come into the community and more cold affinity species would have declined or even become locally extinct.’
But the effect can’t last forever and if the canopy is opened up these species will have a rude awakening as their world warms up to the temperature outside the forest.
‘Buffering is buying us time so species get a chance to adapt to the new climate,’ he said.
The work has practical implications for the way forests are managed and the PASTFORWARD and FORMICA teams are now hoping to develop a tool to help forest managers work out how much of the canopy they can remove — for example for harvesting or as part of the cycle of tree-thinning known as coppicing — without triggering this explosive growth.
Some experts consider there to be seven layers in a forest, while Prof. Verheyen’s team have based their work on three interconnected layers. Image credit — Horizon
The research in this article was funded by the EU. If you liked this article, please consider sharing it on social media.
More info
PASTFORWARD
FORMICA | https://horizonmageu.medium.com/forest-darkness-helps-stave-off-effects-of-nitrogen-pollution-but-this-is-set-to-change-c5fe3d5a1dbd | [] | 2020-10-01 15:02:50.066000+00:00 | ['Trees', 'Biodiversity', 'Nitrogen', 'Forest', 'Pollution'] |
Deep Learning Based Emotion Recognition with PyTorch and TensorFlow | Deep Learning Based Emotion Recognition with PyTorch and TensorFlow
In this tutorial we are going to learn how to train deep neural networks, such as recurrent neural networks (RNNs), for addressing a natural language task known as emotion recognition.
In this tutorial we are going to learn how to train deep neural networks, such as recurrent neural networks (RNNs), for addressing a natural language task known as emotion recognition. We will cover everything you need to know to get started with NLP using deep learning frameworks such as TensorFlow and PyTorch. We will cover the common best practices, functionalities, and steps you need to understand the basics of TensorFlow’s and PyTorch’s APIs to build powerful predictive models via the computation graph. In the process of building our models, we will compare PyTorch and TensorFlow to let the learner appreciate the strengths of each tool.
Below is a clip demonstrating what the notebooks contains:
TensorFlow version (Colab Notebook | GitHub)
PyTorch version (Colab Notebook | GitHub) | https://medium.com/dair-ai/deep-learning-based-emotion-recognition-with-pytorch-and-tensorflow-61e831f72234 | [] | 2018-10-18 12:08:53.399000+00:00 | ['Artificial Intelligence', 'Technology', 'Innovation', 'Deep Learning', 'NLP'] |
Official Languages In Nepal: Easy To Understand Guide 2021 | Original blog post: https://ling-app.com/ne/languages-in-nepal/
There are 126 different ethnic groups in Nepal, and approximately 123 languages in Nepal are used as the first language (mother tongue).
For a country with an area of only 147,181 square kilometers, the diversity of Nepal is simply amazing. Nepal is a multi-lingual and multi-ethnic country. Although Nepal has a vast territory, there are many ethnic groups, and each ethnic group has its language. This multi-lingual status of Nepal puts Nepal in a unique position on the world language map and makes Nepal a fascinating region for language research.
Short And Quick Data Of languages Of Nepal
Language in Nepal: There are around 123 languages spoken as a first language or mother tongue reported in census 2011. Nepali language is spoken as mother tongue by 45% (11,826,953) of the total population of Nepal followed by Maithili 11.6% (3,092,530), Bhojpuri 5.98% (1,584,958), Tharu 5.77% (1,529,875), Tamang 5.11% (1,353,311), Newar 3.2% (846,557), Bajjika 2.99% (793,418), Magar 2.98% (788,530), Doteli 2.97% (787,827), and Urdu 2.61% (691,546).
Official Language Of Nepal
An official language of Nepal is Nepali, which is spoken by nearly 45% of the population. The second most spoken language in Nepal is Maithili, and Bhojpuri is the third most spoken language in Nepal. According to the 2011 census, there are more than 123 languages in Nepal, most of which belong to the Sino-Tibetan and Indo-Aryan languages. Most languages are written in Sanskrit (Devanagari script).
Although Nepal uses different languages in the same place, Nepali has become an official language because it is used in communication, education, media, administration, etc. About 60 years ago, until the government and the king adopted Nepali as the primary language, every other area basically spoke its language.
English Language — Languages In Nepal
If you plan to travel to Nepal to explore all these beautiful cultures, you may want to know the status of English in Nepal. In the past few years, English has been used as a foreign language by Nepal. Over the years, among the various languages spoken in Nepal, this language has grown significantly. Nepalese native speakers speak English differently because they have a unique accent and way of using language.
The language is more prominent in cities, and people use English as a second language. In addition, many Nepalese in governments and businesses also speak English. In the capital Kathmandu, Nepali, English, and Nepali Bhasa (the Newar language) are the most widely known languages.
The Regional Nepalese Languages
Indo-Aryan
Nepali: Although the number of Indo-Aryan languages spoken in Nepal is much smaller than the Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in the country, a much larger number (79%) of the Nepalese population speak languages belonging to the first group than those belonging to the second. group (18%). Nepali, the most widely spoken language of Nepal, belongs to the Indo-Aryan language family and is responsible for the higher percentage of speakers in the Indo-Aryan language group in Nepal.
Maithili: Apart from Nepali, Maithili is another common language of the Indo-Aryan family spoken in Nepal. It is the second most spoken language in Nepal. According to the 2011 census, 11.6% of Nepal’s population speaks Maithili. The language is spoken in some areas located in the Terai region of Nepal.
Sino-Tibetan
As it is already mentioned earlier, there are 123 languages in Nepal. Three-quarters of these languages belong to the Sino-Tibetan language family. Some of the examples are:
Nepal Bhasa: Nepal Bhasa is also known as Newari, and the Newars speak the language of Nepal Mandala. Although some people think that it is the same as Nepali, most people in Nepal, Nepali Bhasa is actually very different from Nepali. This language used to be the administrative language of the country, but since the 20th century, its importance has declined, and today UNESCO considers it to be an ‘absolutely endangered’ language.
Limbu: The clans and tribes living in eastern Nepal speak the Limbu language. These people belong to the Kirati tribe and have Tibetan ancestry. This language is spoken by 487,300 people in Nepal.
Other Sino-Tibetan spoken languages in Nepal include Tamang, Magar, Sunuwar languages, and Rai languages.
Dravidian
Kurukh: The Kurukh is spoken in parts of Nepal, India, Bhutan, and Bangladesh. In Nepal, this language is spoken by approx. 28,600 people, including a dialect called Dhangar. This language is listed as a “vulnerable language” by UNESCO.
Austroasiatic
Santali: The Munda subfamily’s Austroasiatic language is spoken by approx. 6.2 million people in parts of India, Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh.
Mundari: It is also a Munda language spoken in Bangladesh, Nepal, and India.
What National Languages Are Spoken In Nepal?
Master Yourself In Nepali Or Any Other Language With Ling App
Simya Solutions’ Ling App can help you learn different languages for free, but you need to be a passionate learner. With this great app, you will find language courses like learning important words and phrases, basic greetings, and vocabulary about transport in the Nepali language that will make you feel at home during your visit to Nepal.
Therefore, Ling App is a platform for you to learn Nepali pronunciation from anywhere in the world. So, install the app on your mobile device now, and you can access different valuable language courses with just one click! | https://medium.com/@ling-app/official-languages-in-nepal-easy-to-understand-guide-2021-c8f6ea787a20 | ['Ling Learn Languages'] | 2021-07-15 15:46:04.266000+00:00 | ['Learn', 'Language', 'Education', 'Learning', 'Language Learning'] |
MAULANA RUMI | Jalaluddin Rumi, the greatest mystical poet of any age, was born at Balkh, in 1207 a.d., and was of an illustrious descent. His mother was of a princely house ; his father, Bahau-’d-Din Veled, was a descendant of the Kalif Abu Bekr, and excited the jealousy of the Sultan, who made it so unpleasant for him that he left the city, taking with him his family, the youngest of whom was Jalaluddin, then five years old. At Naishapur they met the Sufi saint, Attar, who predicted the child’s future greatness. “ He would,” he said, “kindle the fire of divine enthusiasm throughout the world,” for even as a child Rumi had visions and religious ecstasies.
For years these fugitives travelled extensively through the East, and while in Larenda, in Asia Minor, then called Rum, Jelal married. This was in 1226 a.d., and after visiting Samarcand and Constantinople, the family finally settled in Oonia, or Konia (the ancient Iconium of the New Testament). Konia is in the old Roman province of Galatia, hence Jelalu’s name of Rumi, or the “ Roman.” Here the poet’s father founded a college and here he died in 1 23 1. After his father’s death, Rumi, already a great student under his father’s careful tuition, studied at Aleppo and Damascus, where he acquired a well-deserved reputation for learning. On his return to Konia he was professor of four different colleges, and received the title of Sultan-al-Ulema, or “ Chief and Ruler of the Learned.”
Among his spiritual advisers was Shamsi-’d-Din of Tabriz, who gained such an influence over the poet that Rumi adopted his name as his takhallus, or poetical Nom de plume, under which he wrote his Divan or lyrical odes. The people of Konia, disliking the somewhat aggressive characteristics of Shamsi, rose up against him, and in the riot which followed Rumi’s eldest son was killed ; and Shamsi must have been executed, for he was never seen again. These tragic events caused Rumi such melancholy that he renounced the world and founded the famous order of Dervishes called the “ Maulavis. This order was noted for its piety, mystic dances, and its music and songs, making use of such instruments as the flute, drum, tambourine ; and its members also wore a peculiar mourning costume. The Masnavi, Rumi’s great mystic poem, is said to have been written by him at the suggestion of an admiring disciple for the spiritual benefit of his order, whose cloisters are found throughout the Turkish Empire.
Rumi died at Konia, December 17, 1273, and was buried in his father’s mausoleum at Konia. His son succeeded him as the head of the “ Maulavis,11 the leadership of which has been kept in the poefs family for six hundred years. The dying instructions of Rumi to his son were as follows : —
“ My testament is this : that ye be pious toward God, in private and in public ; that ye eat little, sleep little, speak little ; — that ye depart from wickedness and sin ; that ye continue instant in fasting, and steadfast in vigilance; that ye flee from carnal lusts with all your might; that ye endure patiently the contumely of the world that ye shun the company of the base and foolish, and consort with the noble-hearted and the pious. Verily the best man is he who doeth good to men, and the best speech is that which is short and guideth men aright. Praise be to God who is the Only God. “
These precepts were the basis of Rumi’s life, judging by the nature of the work he left behind him. His Masnavi, upon which his literary fame rests, is composed of twenty-six thousand couplets arranged in six parts, or books, dealing with Sufi philosophy in a series of stories having spiritual maxims and interpretations ; certain parts of these have been compared to the Books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Songs of Solomon. As Dante’s poem has been called the Divina, so in India the Masnavi is called the Ma’navi, or “ Spiritual “ ; for it seems to have for its main object the teaching of the “ fatherhood of God “ and the explanation of the origin of evil. These subjects are approached on the moral side through the principle of love ; believing that the more a man loves the more able he is to understand the divine purposes. more able he is to understand the divine purposes.
The “ song of the reed “ is thought to signify the soul’s love for God, and its longing to be reunited with Him. At all events it is the keynote of the celebrated Masnavi. Among the numerous forms to describe this union of God and man Rumi uses the following exquisite apologue: “ There came one and knocked at the door of the Beloved. And a voice answered and said, ‘Who is there? The lover replied, ‘It is I. ‘Go hence,’ returned the voice, ‘there is no room within for thee and me. Then came the lover a second time and knocked, and again the voice demanded, ‘Who is there? He answered, ‘ It is thou. ‘Enter, said the voice, ‘for I am within. “
To know more about his poetry, quotes and rubai, continue here: Maulana Rumi | https://medium.com/@sufinamawebmaster/maulana-rumi-edd6346788e1 | ['Sufinama Webmaster'] | 2021-03-02 08:10:37.134000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Rumi', 'Poet', 'Sufism'] |
#FIXING STUFF AROUND | A messy room equals a messy mind
While doing this activity I was in my bed room, I examined my surrounding and find out that the room was in a messy condition, the bed sheet and blanket were untidy, pillows and cushion were also not in their place. So I decided to clean my room and made up the bed. Making our bed every morning, putting the things back where they belong to, these are the little habits that brings self-discipline in our lives.
A question was asked in the activity that if that task wasn’t assigned to you would you have done it, or not? So the answer is yes, I would have definitely done it. Your room is a place where you start and end your day so keeping it clean makes you an organized person. Your room reflects the type of person you are if your room is untidy then you’re actually sending the vibes that you are a messy and unbalanced person. Here I’ll quote Marie Kondo saying that “The objective of cleaning is not just to clean, but to fell happiness living within that environment”.
Here is a picture of my bedroom before and after doing this activity. | https://medium.com/@kashafali-4023/fixing-stuff-around-11ac960c3dd7 | ['Kashaf Ali'] | 2020-12-19 02:36:51.177000+00:00 | ['Amal Academy', 'Amal Fellowship', 'Tidying Up', 'Fixingstuff'] |
It’s Labour Day in Canada and the United States. | It’s Labour Day in Canada and the United States.
Happy Labour Day. In Canada and the United States, today is Labour Day, a day dedicated to celebrating the workers - the people whose efforts make nations great. In other countries, Workers are celebrated on May 1st, and it's called Workers Day.
(Image source: The Internet)
A day like this brings to focus the contribution of Unions to the Workplace. It was Unions that demanded for the celebration of labour day.
Unions have done a lot to demand for better wages, improved working conditions and make the workplace a better place. It can be argued that it's Unions, not Human Resources Professionals, that have forced the government to make laws that improved the workplace.
In the beginning, there were no Unions. Employees worked for employers, and they were okay with that. Unfortunately, employers created a workplace with 12 hours workdays, demanded employees to work seven days a week and were paid unfair wages. The workplaces and factories were unsafe and also had underaged people working there. People worked in poor, unfriendly, harsh and hazardous conditions. Then employees started to band together to demand more from employers. To date, the Number one reason why people join a union is that they want to increase their powers by leveraging their numbers to get increased benefits, assured health and safety and to be treated fairly.
In many countries, including Canada, criminalised Union membership. This changed in Canada when the Trade Unions Act was passed by Parliament on June 14, 1872, legalising unions. On July 23, 1894, The Prime Minister of Canada, John Sparrow David, passed a new law recognising the first official Labour Day in Canada. So the first Monday in September became a statutory holiday. In the United States,
President Grover Cleveland signed a bill into law on June 28, 1894, declaring Labor Day a national holiday.
I think Unions today need to redefine their relevance. Many Unions have become cogs in the wheel of development as they demand ridiculous items, resist change and act in none collaborative manner. Human Resources Professionals also need to do more advocacy for improved workplaces. Workers need happy, safe and productive workplaces that enable them to thrive.
I celebrate all workers on a day like this. I also commemorate the sacrifice made by many workers as they toil to improve society. Special thanks to all health workers who have helped during this pandemic and the teachers who train our children | https://medium.com/@afawehinmi2/its-labour-day-in-canada-and-the-united-states-303b5667bf39 | ['Abayomi Fawehinmi'] | 2021-09-06 18:57:32.433000+00:00 | ['Unions', 'Labour', 'Labor Day', 'Employees', 'Workplace'] |
December Moon | 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/blueinsight/december-moon-df88d232c19b | ['Victoria Ponte'] | 2020-12-02 20:07:17.496000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Blue Insights', 'Moon', 'December', 'Poetry On Medium'] |
How to Learn Coding: From Theory to Practice | source: Unsplash
Software development is one of the most popular professions today with an average salary of $59,568 a year. As the demand for promising coding professionals is not going anywhere, many people strive to master new skills to join the ranks of developers. But, even if you don’t plan to become a full-time developer, obtaining experience in coding will open up more opportunities and greatly benefit your future career.
In this post, I will help you start your journey in the world of coding — you will figure out the best ways to make the learning process efficient. Following these tips will put you on the right track.
Top Recommendations on How to Learn Coding
There is no single correct algorithm to follow to become a first-class developer. However, I have a few encouraging pieces of advice for everyone who wants to learn to code independently but has no idea where to start.
Let’s get right to the point.
Start with a Brainstorm
Every single process requires thorough preparation. Coding is no exception. Before starting to learn any programming language, it is quite important to decide on the real reasons you want that. Answering the following questions will let you figure that out.
What reasons are there to become a dev?
Am I going to learn just for fun?
Do I want to get a promotion or change my career?
Do I have an idea for my own app and need appropriate skills for it?
What kind of software developer do I want to become?
Do I plan to work in a company?
Do I want to work individually?
Is freelance a better option for me?
What industries am I interested in?
Web development?
Server-side projects?
Game development?
Big Data, or others?
Additionally, do some research among different industries, be it fintech or AI, enquire about what kind of programmers they are looking for, and learn job specifics and salaries to decide where you want to work. Of course, if you already have a preferred industry in your mind, you’re a step ahead.
Answering the given questions will also help you determine the programming language to master. E.g., creating a well-performing OS or alternatives to prominent photo editors may only require studying formal computer science. The latter will give you a clear understanding of C++ language, data structure, memory allocation, and algorithms.
Although, if you want to make a mid-career change to a tech job, it is reasonable to apply for an intensive website development program rather than spend a fortune on obtaining the second degree.
Choosing the Right Programming Language
Now you know the reason for learning to code, so choosing the right language will be way easier.
In a few words, mobile apps flawlessly perform if they are based on Java, Swift or Kotlin. Javascript, in its turn, is suitable for front-end development, while PHP and Python will benefit back-end devs. To create video games, developers prefer C++.
Choosing the programming language requires considering its popularity on the market. Let’s take a quick look at the TIOBE Index. Java has never left the top three most popular coding languages. Two other languages commonly used in many areas of software development include C and Python, which are unlikely to lose their popularity in the coming years.
For a better idea on the most commonly used programming languages, I will give you a quick overview of them.
Java
Java is an easy-to-manage object-oriented multithreaded programming language with a good level of security. It is an independent platform that follows the clue “Write once, Run anywhere”, which means you can transfer the already written app between different platforms. Java also ensures backward compatibility and is easier to keep up with compared to C++ and any other programming languages.
Main uses:
Server-side enterprise applications
Desktop enterprise
Android apps (including games)
Big Data
Embed Scientific Applications Systems
Finances and Trading
Software Tools
Sometimes — Big Games (such as Minecraft)
Python
Python is another high-level, server-side interpreted scripting language. It can be used as an independent language or as a part of another framework. With its constructs and object-oriented approach, it allows developers to write readable code for small and large projects.
Main uses:
Desktop GUIs
Software
AI and ML
Data science and visualization
Web scraping apps and more
C Language
C language is a machine-independent, general-purpose programming language frequently used in various applications, including low-level ones. There is an opinion that it is a base for programming, so if you’ve mastered C language, you can easily master the others.
Main uses:
Embedded systems
System and desktop apps
Browsers and their extensions
Databases
Operating systems
Javascript
JavaScript, abbreviated as JS, determines a high-level and multi-paradigm programming language used for client-side page behavior. JS is also known as one of the key technologies enabling interactive web pages and playing a significant role in building web apps.
Main uses:
Front-end web development
Non-browser applications
Games and APIs
Web-based slide decks
Smartwatch apps, etc
PHP
PHP refers to an open-source scripting language used to generate dynamic page content that supports a wide range of databases. PHP runs on various platforms and is compatible with almost all commonly used servers, including Apache, IIS, and others. PHP files can support text, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP code.
Main uses:
Web development (backend)
LAMP platform used by Facebook and Yahoo
CMS platforms
Form data collection
Encrypted data
Cookies
SQL
SQL stands for Structured Query Language used to work with databases. MySQL, an open-source version of SQL, is the most common way to interact with databases.
Main uses:
Relational database management systems
Data query language
Database transaction management
Manual analysis
Procedures, user-defined functions, triggers, indexes, etc.
Swift
Swift is a six-year-old product by Apple Inc. built using a modern approach to safety, performance, and software design patterns. This general-purpose coding language makes writing and maintaining programs easier for developers.
Main uses:
Mobile and desktop apps for iOS and OS X
Cloud services
A new class of modern server applications
Event-driven network application framework
Server-oriented tools and technologies, comprising metrics and database drivers, etc.
C#
C# language (pronounced “see sharp”) is more or less like Java, but made by Microsoft. It is a type-safe object-oriented language used to build secure and robust apps that run in the .NET ecosystem.
Main uses:
Backend services
Microsoft .NET-connected apps
Windows apps
Server-side web applications
Games with the Unity game engine, etc.
Give Online Courses a Try
If you don’t feel comfortable about an in-person coding-intensive program, there are multiple courses on the web to choose from. Since many of them teach the same coding language in different ways and picking up the right course may be challenging, I’ve put together a few working solutions.
Practical Training
I’ve recently had a talk with fellow developers about what advice they would give to newbies. They all answered that the more practice, the better. So, I’ve decided to put practical training in the first place. Other than theory, coding needs practice that allows for developing problem-solving skills. For this, you need to choose the right platform.
For instance, you can go for coding platforms based on practice, such as:
CodeGym. This online course is directly aimed at studying Java programming and consists of 80% practice. Despite the theory, it offers 1200 small practical tasks of increasing complexity. To get experience and land a job, you need to write tons of code.
FreeCodeCamp with a whole lot of project-based tasks. Also, they have a great News and Forum section. You could get a certification in Python, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, etc.
Code4Startup with an ability to write your first line of code for an existing business.
Codewars addictive assignments that let you test your skills while competing with your fellow developers.
Code Avengers with a bulk of engaging quizzes on different programming languages, etc.
Theoretical Training
Regardless of what you are learning, the educational process is not complete without the theory. I would say you should try Udacity. It is a MOOC-based platform, so everyone who wants to start learning to code can sign up and get an online learning experience right away.
I like the range of courses this website offers. They are in micro-credential form, also known as Nanodegrees. The micro-credentials that are sometimes released for free come with video courses and projects. So, you can choose one to your liking, sorting them by language and level.
If to say about other resources used for theoretical training, I would also highlight books as an additional source of learning. Every learning process requires starting with the details, hence involves familiarization with the theory in one way or another. It is likely to give you a good idea of coding. So, if you are looking for helpful books, I would recommend considering the next three.
Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship by Robert C. “Uncle Bob” Martin
The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master by Andrew Hunt and Dave Thomas
Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction by Steve McConnell
Put Interactive Tutorials and Coding Games on the List
What makes interactive coding tutorials good is that they bring into action the so-called abstract concepts you would read about in a book, so you won’t get bored while obtaining the programming experience.
For instance, the CodeGym platform offers different coding gamified projects in the Games section. The whole course has an exciting plot, vivid characters, and a tricky concept explained through real-life examples, you will keep training without getting bored. For example, there are four cool quests with a robot named Amigo. Every single quest contains ten levels with 12 to 13 lessons and guides through different subjects from Java Core to Java Multithreading.
So, students can’t jump to the next level or more fun stuff until they debug the code while learning, which is very useful, as if you want to become a programmer, you need to code.
The other courses I’ve previously mentioned also offer interactive tutorials, quizzes, and other engaging tasks, such as:
Project Caesar Cipher on Ruby programming at the Odin Project
Mastering different languages on kata at Codewars
Different gamified courses at Code Avengers, etc.
Consider Watching Videos When Learning to Code
People perceive information differently: one prefers reading books or taking courses, while the other chooses to watch videos on platforms like YouTube. Learning to code by watching videos is cost-saving and allows for moving at your own pace — you can either spend more time on the video or skip ahead if things seem easy to you.
YouTube is home to numerous educational videos dedicated to software development. Here you can find coding marathons and solutions that show how to troubleshoot issues within any programming language you can imagine. So, if you are the one searching for decent content, my top-ten list of YouTube channels for coding is at your disposal.
Google the Error
Let’s face it: everyone who learns to code experiences errors that break their code. You are not alone in your problem — there are many users before you who have made the same mistakes and already found solutions. So, if you are struggling to understand why your code is broken and can’t find the explanation, try to google the error. This is a simple yet effective trick that is more likely to give answers to your concerns.
Otherwise, you can leave your question on Q&A or discussion websites, such as Stack Overflow, Reddit, or GitHub.
Unpack Someone Else’s Code
As soon as you get a clear idea of how to code, it’s time to move further and strengthen your knowledge of the programming language. Here we come to the unpacking of someone else’s code. Browse GitHub to find the code file, open it in your code editor, and start working through. Feel free to apply your changes if you see they can improve the outcome. When done, save the edited code and share it back with the community to get feedback from your peers.
Communicate with Other Programmers
Teaching yourself to code and spending hours at the computer can put you out of reality. Even though figuring things out on your own may be the best way to learn coding, sometimes outside help is necessary to get to the solution faster.
Communicate with other developers, visit tech talks of all kinds, hackathons, startups, and other tech events to make useful contacts. Or the simplest way is through online forums. Here they are:
Github is a community where people learn, share, and work together to build software. It allows for managing your open-source projects, contributing to others, showcasing your work, attracting recruiters, and more.
StackOverflow is a Q&A website for both newbies and experienced programmers. It lets you find answers to the toughest coding questions, share knowledge, and even find your dream job.
HackerNews is a highly trusted cybersecurity news platform attracting IT professionals, hackers, technologists, and others. It features the latest security news and builds a bridge between communities like security researchers, business grads, and thousands of security professionals.
Reddit is a social news aggregation and discussion website. It puts together thousands of communities and lets users share the things they care about. All you have to do is find the right subreddits about programming.
Come Up with Your Own Project and Implement It
Building your own project, like a little app or so, is a good idea if you want to stay motivated about teaching yourself to code. Your own project forces you to move forward, keep practicing, and overcome grief and blockages. So, to start:
Set a goal to create a project.
Make sure you and other people need it in real life.
Use the skills you already have.
Work to improve and extend your project’s scope of application.
Plan future features and consider the skills you would need for their implementation.
Extra Tips to Stay Motivated
Coding is not easy — like many other beginners, you may sometimes fail, become frustrated, stop all attempts to cope with lines of code, and give up. That is why you need to create a friendly atmosphere around you while learning to code. Try to avoid becoming a strict parent or primary school teacher who scolds you for mistakes. Be a friend to yourself and remember a few things.
Never compare yourself to other developers. Although the advice has a cliché, it is one to remember. Everyone starts somewhere — those who are on chapter 20 today have started from chapter 1, where you are now, and once wrote their first line of code, just like you.
You’re making much more progress than you think. Have you ever thought you are not progressing? Sure, you have. Everyone who starts learning something passes that. You start thinking you’re not making enough effort, nothing changes, and you are still on the same stage you started with. However, the fact is that every time you study or code, you are growing — just accept it and look back to see how much you’ve already done.
Everyone struggles in the beginning. The learning process is always challenging, but that doesn’t mean you are going to be a bad coder. Feeling frustrated is normal, especially if you’ve just started training and everything seems vague to you.
Let’s Wrap It Up
How long does it take to learn coding? There is no single correct answer, as everyone starts with their own level of training and at their own pace. However, if you follow the given advice, you can get to your first line of code a little bit faster. For this, start with small things, like choosing the appropriate programming language and taking online courses. Then move on to bigger ones, like completing tasks on different platforms, unpacking someone else’s code, and building your own project.
The learning process is not a piece of cake, so make sure to create a friendly environment and support yourself, especially when you want to give up. The understanding that you are in the same boat with other developers who take the same steps during this path to coding will help you stay motivated about teaching yourself to code. | https://medium.com/quick-code/how-to-learn-coding-from-theory-to-practice-265e5ea68bf1 | ['John Selawsky'] | 2020-08-08 04:04:02.021000+00:00 | ['Python', 'C Sharp Programming', 'Learn Coding', 'Java', 'Programming Languages'] |
How to build an MP3 Music Player with Python | Part I: Set the environment and import modules
The first step is to create a directory called environments where to store all your virtual Environments and install the python modules. In this way the program is available only within the set environment and not throughout my computer.
So, open your terminal and create a directory as below.
mkdir Environments
And be sure to be into the directory ‘Environments’.
cd C:\Users\moryb\Environments
The second step is to use a module virtualenv to create isolated virtual environments.
pip install virtualenv
Now, we can create a virtual environment named myenv. If you have installed python 3 you can easily digit:
virtualenv myenv
Inside the directory myenv there is a copy of Python interpreter, the standard library and the various supporting files.
We can activate the environment with the following command:
myenv\Scripts\activate.bat
out:
(myenv) C:\Users\moryb\Environments>
Then, we need to install Pygame. Pygame is a module that is used for creating videogames. For creating our MP3 Music Player we will use the sound component.
pip install pygame
In this second phase, I will use Atom as python editor.
So I will import the following modules. | https://towardsdatascience.com/how-to-build-an-mp3-music-player-with-python-619e0c0dcee2 | ['Papa Moryba Kouate'] | 2020-12-26 19:22:34.600000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Music', 'Data Science', 'Python', 'Development'] |
Sky, Fall Apart | I open all the windows,
all the doors,
then break down
the ceiling
and the walls;
I let the whole sky
fall apart on me,
liquid, fiery;
rain, that’s been
held too long inside
the eyes of an angel
with only one wing;
lightning,
that was used to carve
the path of a nobody's destiny;
clouds,
that used to contain chaos
just seconds ago;
I open my eyes,
I let
my tears and the storm mix,
I let
my fears and skies’ hell kiss;
I let me forget the future
that I saw by mistake;
I let me forgive the past
that was building a staircase
to emptiness;
and then I stay here
in the present
that I feel for the first time
and I wish for it to cleanse me;
so I’m waiting in the storm,
begging for forgiveness; | https://medium.com/scribe/sky-fall-apart-734304d38bf1 | ['Veronica Georgieva'] | 2020-12-30 09:28:37.797000+00:00 | ['Poem', 'Growth', 'Self', 'Poems On Medium', 'Poetry'] |
The Beaten Path, Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness | The Beaten Path, Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness
Fossil Lake and the incredible Beartooth Plateau
Nearly every year, two of my college friends and I go on an epic backpacking adventure somewhere in the West, always a different destination. I made a list of them this year and thought I’d share:
2009: Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
2010: Collegiate Peaks Wilderness, Colorado
2012: Yosemite National Park, California
2013: Trinity Alps Wilderness, California
2014: Weminuche Wilderness, Colorado
2015: Glacier National Park, Montana
2016: Joshua Tree National Park and Idyllwild, California(climbing trip)
2017: Muir Wilderness, Kings Canyon National Park, California
2018: Eagle Cap Wilderness, Oregon
2019: Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska
2021: Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, Montana
(No trips in 2011 or 2020.)
Two years ago, for our 10th trip, we pulled out all the stops to visit Wrangell-St. Elias National Park in Alaska. Last year, our trip was canceled due to Covid. So this year, we were more than ready to return to the mountains for a great week in the wilderness. And with one of our group now living in Bozeman, heading back to Montana was an obvious choice.
We wind up in grizzly country a lot. Out of 11 trips, four of them have been in legit grizzly-bear habitat: Yellowstone, Glacier, Alaska, and now the Beartooths (I also did Yellowstone solo once). I’m happy to report that our “no grizzly encounters” streak continues.
Trip Specs
Route: The Beaten Path — a one-way traverse of the Beartooth Plateau. East Rosebud Trailhead ←→ Clarks Fork Picnic Area.
The Beaten Path — a one-way traverse of the Beartooth Plateau. East Rosebud Trailhead ←→ Clarks Fork Picnic Area. Mileage: ~26 miles (I clocked nearly 30 over five days of GPS tracking)
~26 miles (I clocked nearly 30 over five days of GPS tracking) Elevation: 8,200 gain, 6,500 descent. We chose to do the route from northeast to southwest (East Rosebud → Clarks Fork), so we had net-gain elevation. The opposite direction is net-loss and easier. We wanted to end near Cooke City and enjoy a challenge.
8,200 gain, 6,500 descent. We chose to do the route from northeast to southwest (East Rosebud → Clarks Fork), so we had net-gain elevation. The opposite direction is net-loss and easier. We wanted to end near Cooke City and enjoy a challenge. High/low points on trail: northwest corner of Fossil Lake at 9,958 feet, East Rosebud trailhead at 6,253 feet. (Clarks Fork is about 8k.)
Map
Check out my Gaia folder here with the route and our campsites:
Itinerary
Day 1: Shuttle from Clarks Fork (near Cooke City, Montana) to East Rosebud. Leave 9 a.m., arrive just after noon. On-trail shortly after. (More info on shuttle below.) Hike ~8.5 miles with ~2k gain to southwest side of Rainbow Lake.
Shuttle from Clarks Fork (near Cooke City, Montana) to East Rosebud. Leave 9 a.m., arrive just after noon. On-trail shortly after. (More info on shuttle below.) Hike ~8.5 miles with ~2k gain to southwest side of Rainbow Lake. Day 2: Hike ~6.5 miles with 1.8k gain to northwest side of Dewey Lake.
Hike ~6.5 miles with 1.8k gain to northwest side of Dewey Lake. Day 3: Hike ~3.25 miles with 800 feet gain to northwest corner of Fossil Lake. Day hikes/fishing in afternoon.
Hike ~3.25 miles with 800 feet gain to northwest corner of Fossil Lake. Day hikes/fishing in afternoon. Day 4: Hike ~2.5 miles with ~500 feet descent to southwest corner of Ouzel Lake.
Hike ~2.5 miles with ~500 feet descent to southwest corner of Ouzel Lake. Day 5: Hike ~8.5 miles with ~1.5k descent to Clarks Fork.
We’d hoped to get to Fossil Lake on Day 2 so we could spend a true zero-day there, but it wasn’t meant to be. We wound up with two short backpacking days in the middle, which was fine but not ideal since each day requires full breakdown/packing up of camp and uses up the morning. This put a damper on our day-hike ambitions, but we still had some great downtime at Fossil and Ouzel lakes.
There are a few options to optimize for a zero-day up high:
Get started in the morning on Day 1 instead of afternoon, and go farther than Rainbow.
If you don’t get that early start on Day 1, push through to Fossil Lake on Day 2. (We were glad we didn’t, but others could do it.)
Hike the entire way out to Clarks Fork from Fossil on Day 5, about 11 miles and 2k down.
Alternatively, you can hike the trail the opposite way, from Clarks Fork to East Rosebud. With the easier elevation profile, you’d probably have no problem fitting in a zero-day.
This is, of course, entirely predicated on your fitness, priorities, and setup. Some people do this whole route in one or two nights. We came into this trip with 5 days/4 nights to use.
Shuttle/taxi info
We took the Red Lodge Taxi shuttle driven by Rhonda at 9 a.m. at Clarks Fork. After about a 2-hour drive over the incredible Beartooth Highway (one of the most scenic drives I’ve ever witnessed), we stopped in Red Lodge for gas, then continued on to East Rosebud. We arrived just after noon and hit the trail shortly after.
The cost for the shuttle was $420 before tip. That price tag may cause some sticker shock, but I would definitely recommend the shuttle. A shuttle car situation is prohibitively arduous. Assume you’re starting at East Rosebud: Two cars drive to Clarks Fork → Leave one car, drive 3.5 hours to East Rosebud → Hike to Clarks Fork → Drive one car 3.5 hours to East Rosebud → Two cars drive onward. Plus the cost of gas and your own limited vacation time. So it’s well worth it, especially split between multiple passengers.
The only other option for the one-way hike is to do a key drop between hikers heading in opposite directions and drive each others’ cars to a meeting point after. A lot can go wrong in that situation, but backcountry texting makes it a lot more feasible than it used to be.
Frontcountry info:
The night before we hopped on the shuttle at Clarks Fork, we found a dispersed camping site off the Lulu Pass Road north of Clarks Fork. The campsite was free and nothing special. Note that this is definitely 4WD territory, and it being dispersed camping, you’ll have to bring/filter your water and dig a hole for #2. (Leave no trace, damnit! I’m sick of seeing your toilet paper.)
Cooke City is an old-west mining town just outside the northeast entrance of Yellowstone. It’s home to several restaurants (I’d definitely recommend the Miners Saloon for a burger and a beer or three, but the bistro also looked good), hotels, a gas station or two, and no cell signal. The Log Cabin Cafe two miles west in Silver Gate is where it’s at for breakfast though — excellent coffee and a tasty eggs/bacon/etc. breakfast on Day 1.
On the other end of the trail, there isn’t a damn thing around East Rosebud for miles besides some private houses. Plan to be driving for a while to find even a gas station.
Bear info:
No grizzlies or black bears this time, although we did see a tiny black bear rooting around right next to the road in Yellowstone, causing a traffic jam.
One of our group members called the forest service ranger station before our trip and they had no reports of bear activity on the trail. However, we did spot what we were pretty sure was a large bear track in the mud on our last day.
Bear canisters are not required on this trail (only bear bags), but we brought them anyway because most of the Beartooth Plateau is treeless. There are some low, scattered trees around Fossil Lake, but I was glad to not be trying to hang a bag there. The ranger also mentioned the possibility of hanging from a rock outcropping, but again I was happy to not be messing with that.
We did use a bear bag the first two nights in the woods so that we could leave one bear can at home; we’d eaten enough food by night 3 (when we’d planned to be at Fossil) to fit into our cans.
Everyone we encountered on the trail had bear spray, and many of them also had sidearms (usually in a chest holster).
Day hikes and fishing:
I’m a big day-hiker — one of the biggest reasons I carry a big backpack up high is so I can carry a small backpack even higher. I had a little less time than I would have liked for day-hiking on this trip, but we still enjoyed a fun scramble near the southeast corner of Fossil Lake in the shadow of Mount Dewey (11.4k), where we could spot Granite Peak (12.8k, the highest in Montana) in the distance. Summiting Mount Dewey would definitely be doable if you had a full day at Fossil Lake to make a run at it.
The plateau is easily the best place for day-hiking on this trail, since the terrain opens up dramatically and allows for easy overland travel. Much of the rest of the trail is nestled deep under canyon walls with limited options for extended exploring. You can see this effect on the map, with no other trails intersecting the Beaten Path for the vast majority of its length.
Our lone fisherman had good luck almost everywhere he cast his fly rod, catching some gorgeous cutthroat and small brook trout. I’ll stop there, since according to a sticker I saw in Cooke City, they “still hang backcountry bloggers in Montana.” 😳
Calm before the storm
Lightning
On night 3, at Fossil Lake, our highest and most exposed campsite, a storm moved in. It pelted us with small hail one minute and cleared up the next. We were in and out of our tents three or four times. During one long break, I scrambled up to a nearby ridge to get a look to the west, and we were obviously not out of the woods yet.
After dark, the lightning moved in. Not ideal to be sitting inside an aluminum cage above treeline as thousands of lightning bolts spark in the clouds overhead. Luckily for us, the brunt of the storm missed us to the south, but we had a tense hour or so in our tents. I briefly climbed out to enjoy the show just as it was starting. I haven’t seen such an active electrical storm since growing up on the plains of Nebraska.
Random notes
The scenery on Day 1, southwest-bound out of East Rosebud, was staggeringly beautiful — one of the most scenic entry trailheads I’ve encountered outside of Alaska. One hell of a way to start a trip. The last day into Clarks Fork was considerably less dramatic — the opposite of what I’d expect given their elevations. On Day 2, Lake-at-Falls and Impasse Falls were absolutely stunning, as well (Impasse being perhaps the largest waterfall I’ve seen in the backcountry).
Part of the beauty of this route is that it’s one-way — no backtracking. But if you don’t want to deal with the one-way logistics, you could do an out-and-back. In that case, I would definitely recommend doing it from East Rosebud for the reasons above. The climb to the plateau is bigger, though.
There isn’t an abundance of established campsites on this trail. The terrain is rugged and tight; flat, established spots are precious few. The ones that do exist tend to be clustered in one usable area near a lake. One fellow hiker described the group of campsites near Rainbow Lake as the “Rainbow Lodge” because of the closely spaced 8–10 campsites that during the high season are apparently full every night. Other lakes that had obvious clusters of campsites were Dewey, Ouzel, and Russell. Fossil Lake is massive and the shoreline is never-ending — it would take all day to scout the whole thing for a great campsite. We’d heard the northwestern corner offered more flat and protected possibilities than the east (which is true) and camped there. But there are likely more idyllic sites than ours on Fossil if you’re willing to look.
Water was easy to find but not quite as available as I’d expected. You spend a lot of time on side slopes climbing/descending the canyons, out of reach of the rushing river below. There are plenty of lakes and small streams for fill-ups, though. I brought my BeFree gravity system, which is great for camp, but it slowed down dramatically on Day 2, so I was happy to have my trip-mate’s pump filter on hand. A Sawyer with two bottles would likely be fine if that’s your preferred method.
We did this trip the last week of August and it was already starting to feel like fall. The season is short up here. Go during summer or be prepared for cold and moisture.
Gear/food
Here’s my final gear list.
I brought what has become my standard kit and was pretty happy, although I was a little chilly early in the trip with temps a bit lower than expected (I’d bring my bigger puff next time). And I’d still love to trim some more weight, especially in food, footwear, and luxuries.
The piece of gear I’m most obsessed with right now is my sun hoodie (wore it nearly every day). Very happy that I brought my insulated sleeping pad. And after a few trips, I’m still satisfied with my switch to phone/battery from camera/GPS and won’t be going back. Gaia (my map/topo app) is great, a steal at $20/year.
For food, we did something different this year: Each of us planned and cooked one dinner for the group (plus one dinner on our own). Dehydrated meals were all the rage for a while and I’ll still bring one occasionally, but they’re actually very inefficient space-wise — and not that good. We were able to use significantly less space with our dinners, and they were much tastier. I love the experience of a communal dinner, as well. There are some things that are worth the extra effort, and that’s one of them for me.
Our dinners were:
Quinoa with olive oil, sun-dried tomatoes, pine nuts, and salmon (I usually make this with couscous and that’s a bit better, but we had to be gluten-free on this trip)
GF pasta with tomato-alfredo sauce, chicken, and pepperoni
Spicy pad thai with nuts and other accoutrements
I also changed up my breakfasts and lunches on this trip, trying to go simpler and smaller, which mostly worked but needs a few tweaks. I won’t bore you with the details, but I will admit that after all these years of backpacking, I’m still pretty bad at calculating how much food I actually need.
Mount Dewey in the back
Wrap-up
I didn’t look at many photos of the Beartooths online before this trip, and I’m glad because I was absolutely blown away by the scenery. This mountain range and plateau are much more rugged and dramatic than I expected. A truly awe-inspiring place.
I also had a terrific time in Montana generally, with lots of good beer and great scenery even from the front seat of my friend’s truck. The sky really is bigger there. I’ll be back for sure, maybe next year. | https://medium.com/@msavener/the-beaten-path-absaroka-beartooth-wilderness-338c5315898d | ['Matt Savener'] | 2021-09-10 21:02:16.954000+00:00 | ['Wilderness', 'Backpacking', 'Hiking', 'Montana', 'Nature'] |
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Here’s how I got my first 10 freelance clients — from people I already know | #1. [May 2018] My previous boss hired me
As soon as I went freelance, one of my previous managers hired me for several small marketing projects. He’d worked closely with me before, liked my work, and reached out to see if I had availability. Yep, I definitely do.
#2. [June 2018] My friend recommended me to her friend
After I decided to quit my job, a close friend recommended me to her friend who happened to be hiring for a content marketing role. I’d love to! That gave me 3 months of work at 20%, paying €2000/month.
#3. [June 2018] Someone found my blog on Google
I was hired for a writing project after a project manager found my travel writing online. She reached out to ask about a specific topic they wanted covered — and shortly afterward, I was paid several thousand € to go on a two-day hike and write about it. Why didn’t I do this before?
#4. [June 2018] I did a small piece of work for a company I’d applied for a full-time role with
When I was thinking of leaving my office job, I applied for quite a few full-time roles. One of these resulted in some small writing projects after I turned down a full-time offer. The pay wouldn’t let me do front crawl in a sea of banknotes, but it was decent (€500/article).
#5. [June 2018] Someone I’d worked with at my last company hired me
I then got my first big project: a new brand and website for a business someone I knew was launching. It took me just over a month to finish everything up, but I was able to juggle two other clients around it while waiting for feedback and design iterations.
#6. [August 2018] I was recommended for consulting work at a sister company of my last employer
Three months after I went freelance, I started working with a company I’d help out for the next year. I was tasked with ironing out their business operations and then helping them to scale. I had a few site visits, but most of this was done remotely.
#7. [September 2018] A business contact wanted a project like client #5's
Next came a website and branding project for another new company, just like my fifth client. In the following year, I did quite a lot of recurring work for them.
#8. [January 2019] A family friend hired me to re-do their website
Quite conveniently, I’ve known someone since I was a kid who has a business in my niche (travel tech). After I went self-employed, we decided it was a fine time to do some work together, especially as he needed some marketing first-aid. I created a new website for his company and have done recurring work with him since, including new website pages and advice on scaling his business.
#9. [January 2019] I was recommended in a Facebook group by client #1
I haven’t really marketed myself on social media since going freelance, for better or worse. Despite that, I have had some previous clients talking about my work and recommending me in their networks. This has only turned into one paying client, who I did some content writing for followed by brand and website audits.
#10. [February 2019] A friend I’d previously worked with hired me
One of my main clients right now is a company that one of my friends is working at. They needed support with content writing and thought I could help them. Since early this year, this client has provided about 30–40% of my workload. | https://medium.com/swlh/how-i-got-my-first-10-freelance-clients-and-what-im-doing-to-get-more-4905bce506f9 | ['Lucy Fuggle'] | 2020-03-29 19:10:34.613000+00:00 | ['Careers', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Freelancing', 'Writing', 'Marketing'] |
This is how we create an Android app from 0 | The first thing to mention is that we write these articles as we are still working on creating and improving the app. These series of articles will try to cover both the concept and the technical part. The app is at the moment called Unbore Me!
First step
Creation requires ideas, or at very least problems to solve and that`s always our starting point. The concept behind Unbore Me was inspired by a random and annoying thing: one of us ran out of hot water as he was trying to take a shower.
The concept: if bad things can happen randomly and without being in our control, then how about taking all the good or funny things that can happen and let them be just as random? How about surprising ourselves with something good?
Second step: transform a concept into an actual Proof Of Concept App
We thought that it would be a good thing to validate somehow this idea and to see what other people think about it. So, the first step in doing that was to create a very basic version of the app that would show just the core functionality. A Proof Of Concept.
The UI is very simple right now. Just one button
For that, we took some links with funny content that we had saved on our bookmarks and added them into the app. When a user opens the app he sees a button and when he presses the button, the app will open a random link from the ones we added.
We tried to keep it as simple as possible by opening each one of the links in a WebView and on every press of the main app button a random link will be picked again (so no mechanism to guard against opening the same link twice). Maybe a mistake, even at this stage, as you will see later.
By doing that we learned, that it might take some time to open some links in a WebView and some links are not really great for opening inside an app. (For example, on opening a Youtube link, the sign-in dialog would pop up). But we decided to keep it as simple as possible and see what reactions we will get.
Random external link
Third step: collecting the first reactions and feedback
After we uploaded the app into Google Play Store, we sent it to some friends and of course, they had something to say even about things that were there just to prove how the app works, not to rock their world. 😂 But still, they all said useful things.
They did not like that the app was opening an external link
Even tho we told them it is just a test, a very simple draft, they complained that it was repetitive
They said they would like to have some categories from where they can pick: like quotes, reminders, food recipes
The name Unbore Me did not fit the experience they had using the app;
In the end, they said it is a really cool concept.
Now we ask you the same: What you think about the app and what we should improve next? Leave notes or comments.
Follow up Next
We have to think about how to solve: | https://medium.com/@ganduraci/this-is-how-we-create-an-android-app-from-0-c4fdf1343401 | [] | 2020-12-23 13:48:19.797000+00:00 | ['How To Make An App', 'Android App Development', 'Random', 'App Development', 'App Building'] |
Creating Clean Responsive Apps with React and Styled-System | Creating Clean Responsive Apps with React and Styled-System
A simple tutorial of building a responsive React app using Styled-System based on the Design System.
Styled System
Example Repo
You can view the final working example at:
Component design systems let a team collaborate and provide users a consistent visual and functional UI across different applications. Consistency has four types, visual consistency, functional consistency, internal consistency and external consistency at the UX design principle and I focus on visual consistency in this article.
Front-end Development Issue
Front-end development issues have been around for a while, it’s like:
Inconsistent style
A lot of duplicated UI components
A lot of unnecessary time to design and develop
These happen because each designer has their own style and tone. Each developer creates their own components without noticing it has been developed already.
To solve it, keeping components consistent is the most important even if multiple designers and developers involved in the same project. Designers need to know how to design and to share it with others. Developers need to make reusable components across every part of the project based on a style guide.
Most importantly, on the user’s side, a successful component system provides less confusion, better navigation of the product and better overall satisfaction. Users will learn faster how to use your product.
Design System
Design System
A design system basically includes a collection of the assets and components, like a library of design patterns, rules and UX guidelines to build a product and also provides an evolving map of a brand’s territories with direction to create a new product. It should be centralized and always evolving to keep consistent.
On the developer’s side, to achieve true collaboration with a design system, bridging the gap between design and development through components on the codebase is the key.
Styled System
Styled-System is one of the options to achieve collaboration. It’s designed with a set of utilities that map props to a design system and also has a bunch of API with functions for CSS. It works with CSS-in-JS libraries such as styled-component, emotion and even supports Vue.js.
Let’s take a look at how it works.
Install styled-system and styled-component :
$ yarn add styled-system styled-components
And add some styled-components in your App.js :
import React from "react"
import { space, width, fontSize, color } from 'styled-system';
import styled, { ThemeProvider } from 'styled-components';
import theme from './theme';
const App = () => {
return (
<ThemeProvider theme={theme}>
<Box>
This is a Box
</Box>
</ThemeProvider>
)
} const Box = styled.div`
${space}
${width}
${fontSize}
${color}
`; export default App
ThemeProvider is a built-in provider in styled-components which has full theming support. This component provides a theme to all React components underneath itself through the context API. By using this, styled-system extends the feature as more reusable components. ${space} , ${width} , ${fontSize} and ${color} are the functions to provide a certain style.
Let’s add some style:
const App = () => {
return (
<ThemeProvider theme={theme}>
<Box bg="orange" fontSize={24} width={200} p={20} m="50px auto">
This is a Box
</Box>
</ThemeProvider>
)
}
You’ll get a box like this:
This is a Box
As you can see, some props are passed to Box and styles are applied. This is how styled-system works. You don’t need to write a CSS inside the styled-component’s template literal. (If you want to know the magic of styled-components do in a template literal, check out here)
Other than the above example, there are a bunch of API.
Now that you know how to use it. Next thing you can apply your design system to the components by defining theme .
Let’s edit theme.js :
const theme = {
space: [0, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512],
fontSizes: [12, 14, 16, 20, 24, 36, 48, 80, 96],
fontWeights: [100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900],
width: [16, 32, 64, 128, 256],
heights: [16, 32, 64, 128, 256],
colors: {
black: '#000',
gray: ' #777',
'dark-gray': '#333',
'light-gray': '#eee',
},
// .... and other styles
}
export default theme
This is supposed to be your own design system but for now, we defined it like above.
fontSizes has 12, 14, 16, 20... sizes and let’s suppose apply font-size: 12px to the Box component:
<Box bg="orange" fontSize={0} width={200} p={20} m="50px auto">
This is a Box
</Box>
0 is passed not 12 , which means that you need to pass the index number of fontSizes array. In this case 0 means 12 and 1 means 14 and so on.
But you can make it more declarative in theme.js like this:
const theme = {
space: [0, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512],
fontSizes: {
small: 14,
medium: 16,
large: 18
},
...
}
export default theme
And edit it App.js :
<Box bg="orange" fontSize="small" width={200} p={20} m="50px auto">
This is a Box
</Box>
The way to style component is reasonable and maintainable because as a developer you don’t actually need to think about what size should be applied in the box, just follow the style guideline and pass small to it.
Responsive Design with Styled System
Next, I want to demonstrate how to make components responsive. In responsive design, you basically use Media Queries in CSS. Styled-system provides its own responsive system, which offers a convenient shorthand syntax for adding a responsive style with a mobile-first approach and also alternatively provides you with breakpoints to define your own responsive value.
Let’s add it in theme.js :
const theme = {
...
breakpoints: {
xs: '0',
sm: '600px',
md: '960px',
lg: '1280px',
xl: '1920px',
},
}
I follow the Material Design breakpoints value. These values should work like this:
|0px 600px 960px 1280px 1920px
|xs sm md lg xl
|--------|--------|--------|--------|-------->
| xs | sm | md | lg | xl
Let’s make Box responsive:
const App = () => {
return (
<ThemeProvider theme={theme}>
<Box
bg={{xs: 'orange', sm: 'grey'}}
fontSize={{xs: 'small', sm: 'medium', md: 'large'}}
width={{ xs: 200, sm: 400, md: 600, lg: 1000 }}
p={20}
m="50px auto">
This is a Box
</Box>
</ThemeProvider>
)
}
Responsive box
It’s more readable and helps you understand what value should be used in each device.
Typography
Material Design Typography
Font size is important when you design. As a designer, it’s important to organize a scalable design system and for typography as well, to need to set up heading levels and to create a hierarchy for clear visibility.
As a developer, it’s too much hassle to apply each font to each device even though only mobiles. But in styled-system, you don’t need to write a specific font size to every component.
Let’s suppose some heading level in theme.js :
const theme = {
fontSizes: {
small: 14,
medium: 16,
large: 18, h5: 12,
h4: 18,
h3: 20,
h2: 24,
h1: 30,
},
}
Alternatively, there is another approach:
const theme = {
fontSizes: {
small: 14,
medium: 16,
large: 18, h5: {
sm: 12,
md: 14,
lg: 16,
},
h4: {
sm: 16,
md: 18,
lg: 22,
},
h3: {
sm: 19,
md: 22,
lg: 28,
},
h2: {
sm: 20,
md: 22,
lg: 24
},
h1: {
sm: 24,
md: 26,
lg: 30
}
}
}
A system could have a more limited set of heading levels and specify size per each device.
You can dig into more details at Size in Design Systems, which is a really awesome post.
Responsive Layout
As mentioned above, width can be responsive and you can define responsive layout. But if you prefer layout based on a grid system, alternatively Material-UI has its own Grid layout.
Let’s install Material-UI:
yarn add @material-ui/core
And add it to App.js :
const App = () => {
return (
<ThemeProvider theme={theme}>
<Grid container spacing={2}>
<Grid item xs={12} md={3}>
<Box
bg={{xs: 'orange', sm: 'grey'}}
fontSize={{xs: 'small', sm: 'medium', md: 'large'}}
p={20}
m="50px auto">
This is a Box
</Box>
</Grid>
<Grid item xs={12} md={3}>
<Box
bg={{xs: 'orange', sm: 'grey'}}
fontSize={{xs: 'small', sm: 'medium', md: 'large'}}
p={20}
m="50px auto">
This is a Box
</Box>
</Grid>
<Grid item xs={12} md={3}>
<Box
bg={{xs: 'orange', sm: 'grey'}}
fontSize={{xs: 'small', sm: 'medium', md: 'large'}}
p={20}
m="50px auto">
This is a Box
</Box>
</Grid>
</Grid> </ThemeProvider>
)
}
Responsive with Material-UI
Grid component can take breakpoints like xs , sm , md lg and xl and should be matched with your breakpoints.
Separate Component into PC and Mobile
Next, what if you want to separate HTML into pc and mobile. Then you can archive it by using Hidden .
Let’s create a component that toggles visibility value. I call it Media component and it takes two props, pc and mobile .
Before that install lodash :
yarn add lodash
And add Media.js :
// Media.js import React from 'react'
import HiddenCss from '@material-ui/core/Hidden/HiddenCss'
import omit from 'lodash/omit' const Media = (props) => {
const hiddenProps = omit(props, 'mobile', 'pc') switch (true) {
case Boolean(props.mobile):
return (
<HiddenCss {...hiddenProps} smUp>
{props.children}
</HiddenCss>
)
case Boolean(props.pc):
return (
<HiddenCss {...hiddenProps} xsDown>
{props.children}
</HiddenCss>
)
default:
return <>{props.children}</>
}
} export default Media
And apply it to App.js :
const App = () => {
return (
<ThemeProvider theme={theme}>
<Media pc>
<p>Hi I'm from PC</p>
</Media>
<Media mobile>
<p>Hi I'm from mobile</p>
</Media>
</ThemeProvider>
)
}
Responsive with Media
Now it clearly separates HTML into pc and mobile on component levels.
Composing style
There are a bunch of style functions provided by styled-system. You might find it tough to add them to every component. To solve it, the wrapper component, which has style functions can be used like this:
// utils/styledSystem.js import styled from 'styled-components'
import {
compose,
space,
color,
layout,
typography,
flexbox,
border,
background,
position,
grid,
shadow,
width,
minWidth,
height,
minHeight,
} from 'styled-system'
const styledSystem = (tag) => {
return styled(tag)(
compose(
space,
color,
layout,
typography,
flexbox,
border,
background,
position,
grid,
shadow,
width,
minWidth,
height,
minHeight,
),
)
} export default styledSystem
And wrap styled-component with it:
import React from "react"
import styled, { ThemeProvider } from 'styled-components';
import theme from './theme';
import Grid from '@material-ui/core/Grid';
import styledSystem from './utils/styledSystem' const App = () => {
return (
<ThemeProvider theme={theme}>
<Heading fontSize={{ xs: 'h1' }}>Title here</Heading>
<Grid container spacing={2}>
<Grid item xs={12} md={3}>
<Box
bg={{xs: 'orange', sm: 'grey'}}
fontSize={{xs: 'small', sm: 'medium', md: 'large'}}
p={20}
m="50px auto">
This is a Box
</Box>
</Grid>
<Grid item xs={12} md={3}>
<Box2
bg={{xs: 'orange', sm: 'grey'}}
fontSize={{xs: 'small', sm: 'medium', md: 'large'}}
p={20}
m="50px auto">
This is a Box
</Box2>
</Grid>
<Grid item xs={12} md={3}>
<Box3
bg={{xs: 'orange', sm: 'grey'}}
fontSize={{xs: 'small', sm: 'medium', md: 'large'}}
p={20}
m="50px auto">
This is a Box
</Box3>
</Grid>
</Grid>
</ThemeProvider>
)
} const Box = styledSystem(styled.div``)
const Box2 = styledSystem(styled.div``)
const Box3 = styledSystem(styled.div``)
const Heading = styledSystem(styled.h1``) export default App
All style functions are applied with components.
Another option would be using Rebass, which is a React UI components built with styled-system and highly compatible with the Design System.
Conclusion
You can mostly be prepared to build responsive components. Every component should be readable, maintainable and scalable. Making responsive is hard but it’s worth it for great user experience.
I hope it’ll help you.
You can view the final working example at: | https://medium.com/javascript-in-plain-english/responsive-react-app-with-styled-system-based-on-design-system-a82c6f9d5e2e | ['Manato Kuroda'] | 2020-02-28 08:16:03.278000+00:00 | ['Design Systems', 'Styled Components', 'React', 'Web Development', 'JavaScript'] |
Getting Stranded in an Explosion of Green | Getting Stranded in an Explosion of Green
Our heaven for three hours when our car broke down. (Image by Author)
I have a restless soul, meaning: I can’t sit still to save my life. I am always moving around and always looking for an outlet to let out my too-big emotions.
So you can imagine what the lockdown does to someone like me. I was about to burst after 6 months of being cooped up at home. So, when I had the chance to tag along with some relatives to the countryside, I had to say yes.
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https://kleinoot.nl/irq/videos-malaga-v-ud-logrones-v-yt2-1doz-7.php
http://tanum.actiup.com/vkn/videos-universidad-de-chile-v-huachipato-v-es-cl-1dtt2-14.php
http://mix.gruposio.es/xsb/video-nacional-v-monte-wanderers-v-es-ur-1wmi2-11.php
http://mix.gruposio.es/xsb/videos-nacional-v-monte-wanderers-v-es-ur-1sez-2.php
http://tanum.actiup.com/vkn/videos-Universidad-de-Chile-Huachipato-v-en-gb-1ioc-14.php
https://cartaodosus.info/video.php?video=video-Lanus-Defensa-y-Justicia-v-en-gb-1rlq-5.php
https://kleinoot.nl/irq/video-malaga-v-ud-logrones-v-yt2-1qmp-10.php
http://multi.provecracing.com/fjb/video-LDU-Portoviejo-Aucas-v-en-gb-1fef-3.php
http://mix.gruposio.es/xsb/video-Nacional-Monte-Wanderers-v-en-gb-1rez-.php
https://cartaodosus.info/video.php?video=videos-Lanus-Defensa-y-Justicia-v-en-gb-1ibd-2.php
http://tanum.actiup.com/vkn/Video-Universidad-de-Chile-Huachipato-v-en-gb-1yec-3.php
https://kleinoot.nl/irq/videos-malaga-v-ud-logrones-v-yt2-1xom-16.php
http://mix.gruposio.es/xsb/v-ideos-Nacional-Monte-Wanderers-v-en-gb-1vyd-8.php
http://tanum.actiup.com/vkn/v-ideos-Universidad-de-Chile-Huachipato-v-en-gb-1ukx-6.php
http://mix.gruposio.es/xsb/video-Nacional-Monte-Wanderers-v-en-gb-1hlg-7.php
https://kleinoot.nl/irq/videos-Orense-SC-El-Nacional-v-en-gb-1axg-.php
https://cartaodosus.info/video.php?video=videos-defensores-de-belgrano-v-deportivo-riestra-v-es-ar-1agm-1.php
https://cartaodosus.info/video.php?video=videos-defensores-de-belgrano-v-deportivo-riestra-v-es-ar-1dwk2-4.php
http://tanum.actiup.com/vkn/videos-estudiantes-de-la-plata-v-racing-club-v-es-ar-1vqg2-15.php
https://cartaodosus.info/video.php?video=video-defensores-de-belgrano-v-deportivo-riestra-v-es-ar-1wau2-9.php
http://mix.gruposio.es/xsb/video-america-de-cali-v-independiente-santa-fe-v-es-co-1ddv3-13.php
http://tanum.actiup.com/vkn/video-estudiantes-de-la-plata-v-racing-club-v-es-ar-1lfm-3.php
http://tanum.actiup.com/vkn/Video-estudiantes-de-la-plata-v-racing-club-v-es-ar-1myn-6.php
https://cartaodosus.info/video.php?video=Video-defensores-de-belgrano-v-deportivo-riestra-v-es-ar-1bic2-9.php
http://mix.gruposio.es/xsb/Video-america-de-cali-v-independiente-santa-fe-v-es-co-1mby3-7.php
https://kleinoot.nl/irq/v-ideos-Orense-SC-El-Nacional-v-en-gb-1ofb-16.php
http://multi.provecracing.com/fjb/v-ideos-LDU-Portoviejo-Aucas-v-en-gb-1tbw-5.php
http://mix.gruposio.es/xsb/v-ideos-america-de-cali-v-independiente-santa-fe-v-es-co-1lao-17.php
https://cartaodosus.info/video.php?video=videos-defensores-de-belgrano-v-deportivo-riestra-v-es-ar-1qne-8.php
http://tanum.actiup.com/vkn/video-estudiantes-de-la-plata-v-racing-club-v-es-ar-1kwi-1.php
http://esc.vidrio.org/bka/videos-malaga-v-logrones-v-es-es-1oxn2-12.php
http://tanum.actiup.com/vkn/videos-estudiantes-de-la-plata-v-racing-club-v-es-ar-1vnw2-17.php
http://mix.gruposio.es/xsb/videos-america-de-cali-v-independiente-santa-fe-v-es-co-1zkg3-9.php
http://mix.gruposio.es/xsb/Video-america-de-cali-v-independiente-santa-fe-v-es-co-1edm2-15.php
If I talk about this trip in one word, I’d use the word ‘eventful’. It was raining cats and dogs, we had to travel 280km, and the road was blocked due to heavy rain. This story wouldn’t come into being without this entourage of seven, a storm, a faulty car… and the generosity of strangers.
The Planning
I’ve always believed that the spur of the moment decisions are the best ones. One day, our relatives from the countryside called to invite me to go visit them and stay there for a few days. For me, that is the best kind of invitation. It had been years since we visited and I was absolutely up for it.
So, I gathered some of my relatives who wanted to go and made plans to leave after exactly 23 hours. We rented a micro-bus and started our hours-long journey.
We were seven in total: in which, two were elderly ladies (my aunt and grandma), and one whiny 6-year-old niece. Needless to say, this is the worst type of ragtag group for any journey that is not as smooth as possible.
My Mom was very worried. She had the misfortune of checking the weather forecast that said it’d be raining the whole week. We were going to a place that is very close to where The Meghna, one of the major rivers in the country meets the Bay of Bengal. A level 4 warning signal was announced in port areas. But we were already knee-deep in plans and excitement. No one could stop us from going on this adventure.
On The Road
We started the trip smoothly. Out of the seven of us, six were females. So, I leave the amount of our luggage to your imagination. We stuffed our bags in the back and started the long trip at 5.30 in the morning. It was drizzling then, had been drizzling on and off the whole night. The roads were slick with rain and we were extra nice to the driver so that he’d be careful on the road.
Everything was okay for the first half of the journey. I slept like the dead — as I normally do — for the first two hours. Then I read a few chapters of the book I took with me…or tried to read it in between being forced to entertain my six-year-old niece who was adamant about sitting beside me. I love her to pieces — but never again.
All things went to hell as we were on the last leg of the journey. Just a 2-hour ride would be enough for us to arrive when we heard a loud sound and the front left tire of our car burst. The car swerved and screeched to a halt by the side of the road.
Stranded in The Middle of Nowhere
Image by Author
We all got down from the car. It was still drizzling then, and my cousin held an umbrella over the driver’s head as he changed the tire.
The place was absolutely beautiful. On one side, there was a huge field of crops as far as we could see, and on the other side, the highway split through the heart of the green.
Everything was shining and bright in the rain. We saw a weird-looking shed about 100 paces away and ran towards it for a bit of shelter in the rain. Its tin roof leaked and there were some big puddles in there, making the ground muddy and slippery. But we got to stand in bits of dry ground and we’re lucky enough to avoid getting drenched.
A couple of local men approached our rental car to ask if we needed any help. Apparently, the spare tire was also faulty and another one was in not so good shape. We needed a completely new tire. There were no garages or auto repair shops around. One of the men said that his uncle has a shop at the intersection we had just crossed. So, with no other choice, our driver decided to go fix the car, and the kind stranger stepped up to help him as he wouldn’t be able to find the shop without help.
We were stuck in the middle of nowhere with nothing but the greenery to keep us entertained.
Kindness is Still Alive
A couple of more people came to inquire about what happened. Everyone knew each other and gradually, it seemed like the small number of families that lived alongside this part of the highway knew about our dilemma and wanted to help in any way they could.
They offered us shelter. They invited us to sit in their homes as they knew it’d take some time. We didn’t want to trouble them in these situations — really, the virus has put a dent in visiting people. Every time we called the driver, he said that he was almost done and on his way. So we foolishly waited for almost three hours.
In that dilapidated shed, there was no place to sit. So our only option was to walk along the side of the road when the rain let up a bit. But we had to worry for my grandma and aunt, as they were quite elderly, and the kid in the group, my niece. By this point, she was having a tantrum. She was hungry, tired, and irritated. We all were, but she was the only vocal one.
When the kind people couldn’t persuade us to go to their house, one of them brought chairs for us to sit in. One man brought water. They stood there the whole time, asking if we needed anything else. It was noon and they offered us lunch at their home too (though we had to decline). They stood under the shed with us when the sky got dark and rain poured. The wind wanted to rip the loose she’d from over our heads. When a piece of the rusted metal became too rogue in the storm, a couple of them brought some tools to mend it.
The overcast sky made the midday seem like the evening.
After Three Hours of Stormy Weather
As the sky cleared and the rain finally let up, we saw the car approach. We couldn’t thank the strangers enough. They took us under their wing, even when we weren’t the easiest bunch to help. They helped us even when they didn’t have to. They stayed with us to provide a type of protection that we never could have imagined.
As we got in the car and the car started to move, I felt a strange melancholy. I was cursing the weather, the bad luck that brought this date onto us…but it was also perfect. Being stuck at home all these months, I forgot the genuineness of people, the kindness of strangers.
I had gotten what I set out to find: fresh air, adventure, and human interaction — all the things I had wanted but lacked in these last few months.
We arrived at our destination at exactly 5.30 in the evening, famished and dead tired. Everyone there wanted to know what had happened. Even though they were horrified to hear about our experience, it was a great story to tell. They felt bad for us, but I wanted to smile and say it was a real eye-opener. This experience taught me to give someone a chance, trust them, and look for the brightness even when the sky is dark. I’ll never forget this journey that brought me closer to the people of my country, made me appreciate the unexpected beauty of nature and the kindness of humans.
Journey to the Longest Sea Beach and an Unbreakable Friendship
My very first trip without my family.medium.com
The Worst Car Ride of My Life
When the stranger whose car you get in turns out to be a psycho.medium.com
I Am a Caged Bird
How long till I am free?medium.com | https://medium.com/@yhaiderbbbbh/getting-stranded-in-an-explosion-of-green-139973e5635f | [] | 2020-12-20 13:28:15.603000+00:00 | ['Babies', 'Coronavirus', 'Health', 'Life', 'Mental Health'] |
Serverless GDPR Workflow — From Design to monitoring with Lumigo | Solving the “Right to be forgotten”: A step-by-step guide to AWS Step Function workflows with full monitor and troubleshoot capabilities
This blog was written by Jente Peeraer and Tom Hertogs
Intro
As an enterprise grows, it tends to acquire or develop a few (IT) subsystems containing various forms of personal data about customers. This is perfectly natural and is necessary for the normal operations of a business. But what if you want to delete the data of one or more of these users? How would you coordinate this deletion across the various systems? What happens if one of these systems fails to delete the data of a user, or better yet, how would you know that a system was unable to delete the data of one or more users?
In this blog, we will talk you through a possible way to handle the GDPR regulations of the European Union in your organisation by using a serverless application running on AWS.
We will also talk more in-depth about the difficulties a similar application encounters concerning monitoring, logging and alerting and how to tackle them.
Webinar
Now that you know what this blog post is about; Let us take a short moment of your time to tell you that there is also a webinar for this post.
During the webinar, we have given a demo of the entire workflow and have showed you in detail how Lumgio works and how it can make your monitoring a lot easier. So feel free to have a look at it here.
Outline
What is GDPR?
Before we start architecting a solution, we need to understand GDPR. For this, it’s best to have a look at the GDPR guidelines, or more specifically in our case the “Right to be forgotten”. Making a long (legal) story short, it boils down to: “Enterprises have about a month to delete user data once requested”.
How do we tackle this?
What you need is an overall controlling workflow to manage and monitor the deletion of user data across multiple systems in parallel. You don’t want to wait for one system to have deleted the user data before moving on to the next. You’ve got a deadline to maintain after all. You need to start a workflow once a user has requested his data be deleted, and you need a workflow for each subsystem to request the deletion of that user’s data and monitor the result. This overall workflow could look something like this:
This workflow could delete data in an arbitrary number of subsystems, which would each need a controlling workflow for the deletion in that specific subsystem. These underlying workflows could look like this:
We end up with an overall controlling workflow, managing the underlying workflows, which in turn manage the deletion of a user in a specific subsystem.
Now that we got our high-level overview out of the way let’s deep dive into the implementation.
Technical architecture
Now that we have a general overview of what we need and how it needs to interact, we need to decide which technologies to use, we need:
A way to control the different states/steps in the workflow and manage the transitions To send requests to a subsystem to delete data of a specific user Notify any interested party when something has gone wrong in this process.
We’ve chosen to go for a completely serverless approach by using the following services of the AWS cloud:
AWS Step Functions to manage the workflow AWS Lambda to send the requests AWS SNS to send notifications regarding the failure of a user’s deletion
You might be asking yourself why we’ve chosen these services, and not just created a server specifically for these user deletions, which would then manage the workflow and the deletion in the specific subsystems. Architecturally speaking this would be easier right? Well, yes. Purely architecturally speaking it would be easier, but the combination of the services above has many benefits:
AWS Step Functions will give you a visual representation of where exactly a specific request is at a given time. Along with some information about the various transitions, it went through. We’ll show you what it looks like later! It also gives you a visual representation of which requests are still in progress, which have completed and which failed. A specific workflow can run up to a year (at least at the point of writing this). Since our workflow has about a month to complete, this is more than enough. We don’t need to maintain any state about where a request is at a given time since it’s managed for us, which greatly simplifies what we need to do once the server crashes and the processes need to be resumed from where they left since…. well, there is no server that we manage so… nothing to do here! At least not for resuming the workflow, we still need to handle normal error cases, which can be done by using the retry mechanism built into Step Functions. Since we have a completely serverless approach, we only pay for the moments it’s actually being used. Suppose only one user has requested for his data to be deleted this year, then we only pay for a few transitions, a couple of milliseconds of processing we needed to send the request and a couple of seconds to check whether the user has been deleted. On the other hand, the server would need to run continuously and would continue to increase our billing, why pay for something you don’t use… right? Let’s look at the other side, imagine a million people requesting that their data should be deleted on the same day. While the server would be struggling a lot to comply with this demand and would quite possibly go down a few times, the serverless approach is built for scale and would easily manage this load. You could even add some queuing in between to prevent the subsystems from being overloaded. Because our workflow has been split into various Lambdas, they could be written in different languages or even be maintained by different people. Another one of the benefits of a microservice-like approach.
Now that we’ve chosen our technology stack let’s go a bit deeper into some technical details. For the subsystem, we’ve made a distinction between a synchronous and asynchronous subsystem. The synchronous system would delete the data immediately. In contrast, the asynchronous system simply registers the user deletion and would delete the user over time (possibly with some form of batch processing). Both methods require a slightly different approach regarding the monitoring of a user’s deletion. The synchronous flow is the easiest and is shown below.
The asynchronous flow is slightly more complex and requires a polling process after the delete has been sent, which takes the deadline into account. The flow is shown below.
The last addition is the overall workflow management. In this case, we’ve chosen to start everything on an API request. When someone sends a delete request with his id, we store the id, along with the timestamp of the deletion request. The flow then needs to be completed within 30 days after the original request was made.
Problems
Now we have a fully Serverless architecture managing our GDPR deletion process. Great! Now we’re done, aren’t we? Well, not exactly, while the flow seems to be okay, and most cases seem to be covered, this is only enough in our happy cases. What do we do once we receive an input we didn’t expect? When we misconfigured something? How do we know these things? On top of this, we might want to have an overview of how much activity is going through the system, the number of errors occurring at a given time frame, and if any errors occurred at any given point in time, we’d like to know wouldn’t we? These can be divided into three parts: Logging, Monitoring and Alerting.
Logging
While it’s pretty easy to set up logging using your favourite framework in any of the various programming models of AWS Lambda, consolidating this into one whole is a different story and is not an easy task.
When working with external systems it can also be very useful to see exactly what we’ve received as input at a given time from the system.
Monitoring
The most important things we’d like to know in this architecture would be:
The number of times that our functions are invoked
The number of errors that we’ve encountered
How much of the given memory we consumed
What is our function’s execution time? Did we get any time-outs?
Most of these things are easily visible in the Lambda dashboard in the AWS console, but we’d also like to have a complete overview of all the functions that we manage. To accommodate this we’d need to create a dashboard, which has to be updated every time we create a new function.
Alerting
If something unexpected happens in one of our functions, we’d like to know, or even better, we’d like to be notified. Using the services of AWS itself, we’d need a combination of different alarms and this for every function we’d like to run. While this is all possible, it’s a little cumbersome to do so every time we add a function.
Solution
To provide a solution for the problems above, which arise in most projects when the architecture becomes complex, a framework/tool for monitoring serverless applications becomes more and more a necessity. In this case, the tool we’ve looked at is Lumigo, a monitoring platform specifically designed for serverless applications running on the AWS cloud. We’ll be showing you how to integrate it into your application and how to find what you’re looking for.
Application
We have created an application, which is used to follow the rules imposed on us by the GDPR guidelines. This application will be deployed on AWS and will consist of multiple resources, like API Gateways, Lambdas, DynamoDB, Step Functions and so on.
Organisation
Let’s start by looking at our organisation. We have three departments containing data that should be removed when our deletion process starts. These domains are project, order and customer.
In order to comply with the guidelines, data needs to be removed from all these domains. We’ll have a look at how our application will be set up.
Main Workflow
The main workflow coordinates the process of removing all the user data available throughout the different domains of our organisation.
When we send a rest request to an API Gateway to remove the user data of a specific user, we invoke a Lambda, which stores the provided user id in a DynamoDB table. This DynamoDB table will produce a DynamoDB stream, which invokes another Lambda. This Lambda will kick off the workflow.
As has been mentioned before, our organisation has three domains, which all store user data, the project domain, the order domain and the customer domain. This workflow will send a request to each domain in parallel asking them to kindly remove the data of this user.
In the above image, we see a successful run, the domains successfully removed all user data they had, and all finished executing successfully. However, in practice, things won’t always go so smoothly. What happens if one of the domains is not able to delete the data in time? This flow is illustrated in the flow below.
In this case, the order domain had some problems deleting the user’s data in their systems and failed its flow. This made our main workflow fail as well. Because Step Functions considers the entire parallel step to be failed if the error isn’t properly handled, if you want to know more about Step Functions parallel steps, check the docs here.
Synchronous Workflow
The main workflow invokes three other workflows. The project domain contains very little user data and has a very easy and straightforward way to remove everything they have in a timely manner. Because of this, they can provide a synchronous API to send a removal request.
This allows us to implement a very straightforward synchronous workflow, as shown below.
In the DeleteUserData step we invoke the synchronous API of the project domain, the API returns an error response when it fails to delete the data, which the function in turn translates to a boolean, specifying whether the deletion was successful or not. In this case, the API returned an OK response, and the function translated this to true, so the CheckUserDeleted step goes to the UserDeletedSuccessfully end-stage.
However, this isn’t always the case, as can be seen in the next workflow.
In this example, the project domain wasn’t able to complete the deletion. The CheckUserDelete step will then delegate to the UserDeletionFailed step, sending an email to the admin of the project domain, telling him some manual action is required to get the user data removed.
Asynchronous Workflow
The order and customer domain contain more user data and have it scattered in many places inside their systems. For their domains, queues are being used and you have people doing manual removals of data. Because of this, a simple synchronous call to their API won’t work to request the removal.
An asynchronous workflow has been implemented to alleviate this problem.
The DeleteUserData step will send an asynchronous request to the customer and order domain APIs, which will immediately return an answer marking the request as being submitted.
If the request was submitted successfully the workflow will start polling their API to check if the user data has been removed. If something went wrong during the submission itself, which could be because of network problems for example, the workflow will immediately go to the UserDeletionFailed step.
Then the CheckUserDeleted step says the user hasn't been deleted yet and will provide this information to the IsUserDeleted step. This step will then invoke the WaitForUserDeletion step if our deadline hasn't expired yet. This step waits for a set amount of time before going back to the CheckUserDeleted step.
In the above case, the user was deleted within the allowed amount of time, and the IsUserDeleted step calls the UserDeletedSuccessfully step, ending the workflow successfully.
In the above image the user wasn’t able to be deleted in the maximum defined amount of time. The workflow will fail and an email will be sent to the admin of the required domains, urging him to get a move on with deleting the data. In other words, manual intervention is required.
Integrating Lumigo
To monitor the application, finding out where bottlenecks are, where errors happen and so on we’re going to use Lumigo. Lumigo traces the requests your application receives from source to finish.
Integrating Lumigo into your application is very straightforward, and you have a few possibilities here. We’ve chosen for the lambda layer approach, but you can also auto-instrument your function on the Lumigo site or manually wrap your function using the Lumigo tracer as well. If you want to know more about the different possibilities you can read more here. Since we’ve chosen for the lambda layer approach, we need to include the layer in each of our Lambdas, because it contains all the monitoring code and is fully abstracted away from your application code.
Layers:
- arn:aws:lambda:eu-west-1:114300393969:layer:lumigo-node-tracer:108
If you’d like more information about what the lumigo-node-tracer can do for you, have a look at Lumigo’s Github page, which contains the source code and extra documentation.
Secondly you’re going to need to provide some environment variables, which are used to instrument the layer.
Environment:
Variables:
LUMIGO_TRACER_TOKEN:!Sub '{{resolve:ssm:/${Application}/lumigo/token:${LumigoTokenVersion}}}'
LUMIGO_ORIGINAL_HANDLER: user-api-lambda.handler
LUMIGO_STEP_FUNCTION: true
The LUMIGO_TRACER_TOKEN variable contains the API key we receive from Lumigo, in this case, it's stored on the AWS SSM Parameter Store. When deployed it will be injected from there as an environment variable.
The LUMIGO_ORIGINAL_HANDLER variable contains the handler of our lambda, which is used by the Lumigo layer to trace the function execution.
The LUMIGO_STEP_FUNCTION simply tells the Lambda it's running in a step function.
Now that we’ve added Lumigo to our application, we can set up some alerts. We’ll do so by going to the Lumigo site and going to the Alerts configuration tab. The reason why you can do this now is because alerts work out of the box for most use-cases, as mentioned above.
From here we can add alerts or edit existing alerts, the view should be pretty similar in both cases. Let’s open or create an alert.
Here we can choose which Alert Type we want and for which function the alert should be configured. We can even choose only to get one alert each hour or day in case we’d like to limit the notifications we’ll be getting. When that’s done we still need to set-up where our alarms need to go, we can simply click on the link in the Delivery Channels field.
Here you can choose which integrations you want to enable and configure them. And with that done, your next error will be delivered to you using your preferred channels. For more info on alerts, check the following documentation.
Using Lumigo
We got the set-up out of the way, awesome! Now we can open the Lumigo console and see what we can do with it as a monitoring platform. The best way to see what we can do would be to use our application and see what’s happening. Let’s say we want to delete a user with the id “delete-me-now”, we simply send a delete request with the id in the path.
The request has been sent! Time to open Lumigo, let’s start with the dashboard.
The dashboard gives us an overview about the amount of invocations that we have across our landscape in a specific timeframe. We can also see which functions are most invoked, which functions had a cold start, an estimation of the cost, … . Out of the box, this is already some powerful functionality. Especially if you know that all we did so far was adding a layer and some configuration.
But we want to know more! We need more specific information about how the request we just sent went. We’ll go to the transactions view for that.
Here we can see what transactions just occurred in our system. This already gives us an idea about how long some transaction ran and whether they succeeded. We’ll click on the first one because we’d like to know more about it.
We can see now that our API request saved an item in DynamoDB triggering a Lambda, which started a Step Function, and we can even see the amount of times a given function was invoked. On the right we can also see the logs across all the Lambda functions that ran inside this specific transaction. But we need to know even more, we want to know which response the delete request for the order data received. Let’s click on the API icon.
Here we can see the request duration, response code, request and response headers, request and response body, … . This should be all the information we need to find out why something went south in the system.
Speaking of going south, remember those alerts we talked about earlier. I just got an email and a slack notification.
It seems like there’s an issue in our system. Let’s click on the link and find out what went wrong here.
The link takes us to the transaction overview of erroneous flow. Here we can see which function failed (1) and we can see the logs at the right side to see what went wrong. Clicking on (1) also gives us information about the issue in this case as shown below.
Now we already got deep into troubleshooting: this error indicates that the response from the request was undefined. Weird! Without a strong troubleshooting tool, like Lumigo, finding the root cause might have been a huge time-consumer. Fortunately, we can easily check the call and all its parameters by clicking the AWS API Gateway icon.
Immediately we find the problem: There is no response to this call because this is the wrong api URL! It looks like someone updated the domain name of the external system without checking it properly. Correcting the domain name resolves the issue, and we’re done! Debugging as fast as 3 clicks! Issue solved!
Conclusion
The GDPR guidelines and in our case the “right to be forgotten”, can have a tremendous impact on businesses and the data they have about their users. Failing to meet the deletion policy can amount to enormous fines from the European Union.
By leveraging the power of the cloud and serverless event-driven architectures, you can quickly and cost-effectively deploy a solution which can coordinate the removal of the required data throughout your domains.
To make sure the application is working as intended we integrated Lumigo as a monitoring tool, which worked for us in the background, and abstracted all monitoring, logging and alerting code away, allowing us to focus on what’s important, getting that user data out of our systems before the European Union starts to knock down our doors.
Next steps
If you’re still hungry for more reading material you can check out the next blogs! | https://medium.com/cloudway/serverless-gdpr-workflow-from-design-to-monitoring-with-lumigo-909c04d990fc | ['Jente Peeraer'] | 2020-12-18 08:30:36.004000+00:00 | ['Alerting', 'Aws Step Functions', 'AWS', 'Monitoring', 'AWS Lambda'] |
What is Authority? | Authority is the political legitimacy, which grants and justifies the ruler’s right to exercise the power of government; Power is the ability to accomplish an authorized goal, either by compliance or obedience. However, if a person has power, it does not mean he has the authority, but if that person has an authority, it means he has power.
So what is a Political Authority?
"...the hypothesized moral property in virtue of which government may coerce people in certain ways not permitted to anyone else and in virtue of which citizens must obey governments in situations in which they would not be obligated to obey anyone else." -Michael Huemer, The problem of Political Authority.
Political Authority is supported by the citizens, in a way that citizens treat the government differently than anybody else.
E.g. Governments are allowed to force you to do something that anyone else is not allowed to do, because states have something that we do not have, and that is called moral property.
Natural Law
Legitimacy comes from being the most comes from being the most powerful individual within a society.
Democracy
Lefitimacy comes from the people, who vote for their representatives. (mandate of the masses give legitimacy). Meaning, If one of presidential candidates got elected by votes whether I vote him or not, he still gets the authority to rule over me.
Let’s talk about Democracy!
Remember, voters do not make sure that the elected governors would do better.
During the election of United States, back in November, an article was published with the headline "Trump Legal Team Claims Broad Conspiracy to Manipulate Election."
“There was a plan to execute voter fraud in big cities run by Democrats, particularly ones with histories of corruption,” Mr. Giuliani said. “I am not going to make any final decision until I get there and listen to these people talk to us,” Mr. Shinkle said. “You can’t make up your mind until the end.” -The Wall Street Journal, Politics, Election 2020.
Rousseau's response "Young people need to be educated to certain degree to have the idea or knowledge for the "common interest". But again, people would be questioning "If we are not educated or 'know nothing about politics' then we are not allowed to vote? So how do we find an equality?"
Remember, political authority is not eternal! There is always limited source of legitimacy or obligation of authority if the period or time runs out, and there could be also a reformation where people use their power to knock the authorized people out before their period or time runs out. | https://medium.com/@melania.aseng/what-is-authority-ad6b5728ad70 | ['Melania Sarah Aseng'] | 2020-12-13 10:15:56.485000+00:00 | ['President University', 'International Relations', 'Politics', 'Government', 'Authority'] |
School Colors: The Arbitrary, Inequitable Rule of High School Sports Associations | Andre Bell, Jr.; COVID; Basketball; Student Athlete; James Wiseman; TSSAA; Memphis Secondary
Photo by Brett Sayles from Pexels
My name is Kevin Christopher. I’m a patent attorney in the rural Tennessee town of Cookeville (aka the CrossFit capital of the world). A pre-COVID California expat, I relocated a few years back from Oakland. Because I’m known to enjoy a good pickup game, I was contacted recently to help a young man who’d been ruled ineligible to play his senior season of high school basketball. In doing so, I’ve come to learn a lot about the inequities of high school sports regulation.
Meet two families, the Whites and the Blacks.
Mr. and Mrs. White have college degrees as their parents did before them. They want to see their teenage daughter Alice attend the best possible college, and they have the means to send her nearly anywhere she is accepted. To best position her for success, they transfer Alice before her sophomore year to a nearby school with a greater selection of advanced placement (AP) courses. Alice’s new school appreciates her intellectual curiosity and welcomes her into its honors cohort. Alice is on her way to a top college.
Ms. Black is a single mother who never attended college. Her daughter Alicia is a promising volleyball player but plays in an inferior league at a run-down school. Ms. Black cannot afford college for Alicia, but hopes that Alicia can earn a scholarship playing volleyball. Prior to Alicia’s senior year, Ms. Black manages to place her in a charter school with a robust athletics program. Here, Alicia will have the opportunity to demonstrate to colleges her ability to play against elite competition. Unfortunately, the state high school athletic association rules Alicia ineligible to play and Alicia is left without opportunity to earn a scholarship. Alicia is unlikely to attend college.
The difference in approaches to Black and White education governs Andre Bell, Jr. and countless others’ stories.
Andre Bell, Jr. is a model student-athlete. He has been named captain of his high school basketball team for demonstrating leadership on and off the court. Unfortunately, this team captain can’t actually play because the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA) has ruled him ineligible. You see, Andre committed the unforgivable sin of transferring from one school to another for academic and family reasons. He didn’t transfer because he was recruited, or for more playing time, or because he favored certain jerseys over others. While there were several reasons behind his transfer, the primary reason was COVID-19, the same global pandemic that has upended most readers’ holidays and workplaces and caused the loss of many loved ones.
Andre’s path in life has taken him from Chicago to Missouri, twice over, before his 2019 move to Cookeville, Tennessee. Partially due to his many moves Andre was academically delayed upon arriving in Cookeville. In meeting with Upperman High School prior to registration, Andre’s family was assured that through hard work and attendance in Upperman’s 2019 and 2020 summer programs, Andre would be able to graduate in the spring of 2021 with his peers.
Andre did his part. He passed his courses and completed the 2019 summer school program. He accomplished this despite working through a new environment where, unlike Chicago, less than 3% of his classmates were African-American. Unfortunately, in May of this year Andre’s family was informed that due to COVID restrictions Upperman could not offer the full summer schedule Andre needed to graduate on time. In response, Andre’s father transferred him to nearby Cookeville High School where Andre was provided an opportunity to take equivalent summer courses.
In July, the athletic director at Upperman notified the TSSAA that Andre was in good standing and that his transfer was not for athletic reasons. Nevertheless, the TSSAA ruled Andre ineligible under its “one-year” rule prohibiting varsity play within one year of transferring from one Tennessee high school to another. Cookeville High requested a waiver and was denied. Appealing to the TSSAA Board of Governors, Andre’s father relayed the factors behind the transfer: the lack of diversity at Upperman (6% minority) compared to his new school (22%); the logistical benefits to his large family with limited means of transportation; that both schools supported the transfer; and most importantly, that COVID precluded Andre’s opportunity to graduate on time at Upperman.
The TSSAA Board met behind closed doors, denied Andre’s appeal, and in issuing a bland notice refused to comment or release details of its vote. The 12-member TSSAA Board, which sits in review of athletes of diverse sex and color across Tennessee, is comprised of 10 white males. Maybe this is insignificant. Maybe 6 of 10 white members voted in favor of Andre but he still lost the day. Or, perhaps the viewpoint limitations of the unrepresentative Board consequently resulted in a skewed vote. Andre should know, but because the Board withholds its details he is left to wonder.
Recent NBA draft pick James Wiseman suffered a similarly secretive assembly when transferring during his high school career. The Wiseman experience has led the Shelby County Schools (Memphis) district to threaten breaking free of the TSSAA, a harbinger by the state’s largest school district. Shelby County Superintendent Dr. Joris Ray has vocalized Andre Bell, Jr’s predicament — that the TSSAA’s rules are inequitable and penalize students of color from impoverished neighborhoods.
For 50 years Tennessee courts have refused to interfere with TSSAA rulings, claiming that as a voluntary association the schools and players have agreed to be bound by the TSSAA’s actions and processes, irrespective of cause or effect. The cracks in this fortress of futility are beginning to show. As Chancellor Jim Kyle said of his decision to overturn the TSSAA’s ruling against James Wiseman, “Taking a privilege away from an individual behind closed doors may have worked in 1968, but that is not where we are today as a society.” Unfortunately, even in jurisdictions where courts do review ineligibility decisions, cases are often thrown out with sports play being considered a privilege, well short of a protectable, constitutional guarantee.
The reality is that sports are a privilege for some, a legitimate and honorable means to advancement for others.
It’s past time for our high school sports associations to operate representatively and transparently. There is a way to balance the interests of limiting recruiting and coach shopping with facilitating opportunities for young men and women to experience all development and leadership opportunities available to them. In the case of Andre Bell, Jr., simply trying to accomplish a goal of graduating with his peers has resulted in being stripped of the ability to represent his school, play the game he loves, earn a mark of leadership, and put his best foot forward for college admission. All without the decency of an explanation.
It’s time to change, it’s time to be vocal.
Kevin Christopher is principal of Rockridge Venture Law, a B Corp intellectual property and technology law firm. Kevin is pro bono counsel to the Bell family and is seeking Andre’s reinstatement. He can be contacted at [email protected]. | https://medium.com/@bcorplawfirm/school-colors-the-arbitrary-inequitable-rule-of-high-school-sports-associations-e89a51b201e0 | ['Rockridge Venture Law'] | 2020-12-14 13:35:58.102000+00:00 | ['Basketball', 'Social Justice', 'Inequality', 'Sports'] |
Integrating D3.js, Highcharts with Angular.js and SAP UI5. | So all of us some or other time come across the designs where we have to integrate a bar chart or a density chart in our UI. D3.js and highcharts are few of the coolest libraries where your work can be done on the fly.
Its super easy lets have a look on how can integrate with D3.js first in Angular and then with SAP UI5.
Lets start.
Generate a separate component file for the chart using ng generate component component-name.
ng generate component component-name.
2. Lets go the D3-graph-gallery and select your favorite graph to be rendered.
3. In our case we shall be creating a bar chart. If you go to the link you will find out we need basically two things. One div where you have to provide the id and a function present in the script tag where we write the definition to render this chart.
4. Lets get into the code now. From the command prompt install the d3 library as “ npm i d3 — save”. You can also call it from script as described in the here. But lets install the library; this is a better approach.
npm i d3 --save
5. Select your created component html file will get the below code , a simple div with the id where you want to render it.
<div id=”my_data”></div>
6. Then open your .ts file add and import at the top of the file “import * as d3 from “d3”;” and in the ngOnInit() enter the code from the <script></script> present in the d3-graph-galary.
import * as d3 from “d3”;
And Woo-hoo! you are done, can you believe it. Run your code with ng serve — open. You shall be able to see the generated bar chart like below.
Bar Chart using d3.js
Also i tried few more charts from d3, like a world map. You need to follow the exact process as mentioned above with few more inclusion. If you go through the map you will find out there are two more script that they have loaded geo-projection and scale-chromatic. so do a npm install of these two libraries and include them in your .ts file of your component with import as
import * as d3Geo from “d3-geo-projection”; import * as d3Sca from “d3-scale-chromatic”;
world map using d3.js
D3.js with SAP UI5
The recent version of d3.js is v5.15.0.
In Sap UI5 d3.js is already integrated with version 3. So you cannot use the version 4 and 5; even if you try to load the version 4 or 5 locally it won’t work. Before selecting your chart make sure its from version 3 to save up on your time.
Again working with d3 in SAP UI5 takes few simple steps:-
Open the library for d3.js version 3 and copy the contents from here and paste it in the new file in SAP UI5 application. Create a new folder as libs ; from here we will load all our third party libraries. create a new file under libs as d3.js and paste the content here. Load this library from the manifest file in the resources section as below:-
“resources”: {
“js”: [{
“uri”: “libs/d3.js”
}],
“css”:[{
“uri”: “css/style.css”
}]
}
5. In your view file include the div id as below.
<core:HTML content=”<div id="container"></div>”></core:HTML>
6. Then in your controller at the top add /*global d3*/ , in the lifecycle method onAfterRendering() , include the code from d3 documentation for that particular chart. Make sure that you pass the same id as you have mentioned in your view like this.
/*global d3*/ var svg = d3.select(“#container”).append(“svg”)
.attr(“width”, width + margin.left + margin.right)
.attr(“height”, height + margin.top + margin.bottom)
.append(“g”)
.attr(“transform”, “translate(“ + margin.left + “,” + margin.top + “)”);
And you are done, just run the code the chart should have been rendered. | https://medium.com/@shweta.srivastava010/integrating-d3-js-highcharts-with-angular-js-and-sap-ui5-b642f01cf68a | ['Shweta Srivastava'] | 2020-02-22 08:26:50.739000+00:00 | ['Sapui5', 'Highcharts', 'Third Party Library', 'Angularjs', 'D3js'] |
Hype House and Sway House: Inside the collab-first world of TikTok | Collab houses are trending all over the internet and if you are a video content creator you will know about Hype House and Sway House. If not, I have some bad news for you. You are obliviously ignorant of what is happening on the internet.
There is so much you can learn from all these popular collab houses. By living together, these influencers collaborate and create video content all the while maintaining a video streak, which results in amassing millions of views and followers.
With their combined legion of fans and viewers, their videos hit millions with ease. Hype House can surely vouch for that.
Forming a team of creative individuals does pay off. Look at all the influencers and their shared popularity. Collaborations sure come with a lot of perks, like never running out of innovative ideas, having fun meeting new friends, and discovering new ways to create content.
So grab your cameras and seek your teammates for your own collab house on Rizzle. Put a touch of Rizzle to these collabs and instead of living together, you can collab from your own house, at least while we’re all still quarantined. | https://medium.com/rizzle/hype-house-and-sway-house-inside-the-collab-first-world-of-tiktok-2c23cf4ec5dc | [] | 2020-04-24 14:19:21.945000+00:00 | ['Video Marketing', 'Collaboration', 'Videos'] |
約翰藍儂的歌聲在以色列迴盪著 | 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/hunghungfromtw/%E7%B4%84%E7%BF%B0%E8%97%8D%E5%84%82%E7%9A%84%E6%AD%8C%E8%81%B2%E5%9C%A8%E4%BB%A5%E8%89%B2%E5%88%97%E8%BF%B4%E7%9B%AA%E8%91%97-1d0b4c0f919e | ['Eric Hung'] | 2020-12-09 07:30:05.453000+00:00 | ['以色列', 'Beatles', 'Israel', '披頭四', 'John Lennon'] |
How to Build the Perfect Dashboard with Power BI | How to Build the Perfect Dashboard with Power BI
Photo by Campaign Creators @campaign_creators at Unsplash
As cited by Bernard Marr in this brilliant article for Forbes, we are suffering from data overload. Data is everywhere in many different formats and there is an urgent need to transform this data into information. Information is a key factor in decision-making since it is the most valuable part of the data.
The concept of information is something that is objective, readable, easy to understand, and I will present in this article some tips to extract the best part of data and translate it into useful information in a PowerBI dashboard.
Image by Author: Data vs Information
In data visualization tools like Power BI, the processed data is displayed in reports or dashboards. The development of a good report or panel takes into account many areas such as Programming, Design, UI/UX, Neuroscience, Language, among others. In order to guarantee the effectiveness of the information, it is essential that a connection be made with the user, and hence the concept of narrative.
If it is your first contact with PowerBI or you don’t have experience in that field, I recommend you to read this article below that explains in detail what is PowerBI and how to start it:
Storytelling
Human beings have an innate ability to tell stories, we tell stories all the time since we were children. Storytelling is a tool used to create a connection with the reader and deliver information as effectively as possible.
To create good storytelling we have to guarantee some fundamental factors such as:
Beauty and design patterns in visualization — Humans are very addicted to patterns and perfect shapes. If you use some design pattern concepts like the Golden Ratio and some color patterns it will suddenly improve the beauty of your dashboard.
in visualization — Humans are very addicted to patterns and perfect shapes. If you use some design pattern concepts like the Golden Ratio and some color patterns it will suddenly improve the beauty of your dashboard. Simplicity — Sometimes less is more, limit the number of charts in your dashboard to present the most important ones and not use complex wallpapers and a white background instead could be a good start to achieve simplicity.
— Sometimes less is more, limit the number of charts in your dashboard to present the most important ones and not use complex wallpapers and a white background instead could be a good start to achieve simplicity. Ease of reading and understanding — “A perfect graph is one that needs no further explanation”. A chart has to be very clear and easy to understand in the first look for every key user if you have to spend time explaining the chart it is a high chance that it is not a good chart.
— “A perfect graph is one that needs no further explanation”. A chart has to be very clear and easy to understand in the first look for every key user if you have to spend time explaining the chart it is a high chance that it is not a good chart. Using the same language as the target audience — Sometimes you are presenting a dashboard to a group of students in a university and sometimes you are developing a dashboard to a CEO of an international company and the language used by them is totally different. So, pay attention to your target audience and adapt your approach for each scenario is very important.
— Sometimes you are presenting a dashboard to a group of students in a university and sometimes you are developing a dashboard to a CEO of an international company and the language used by them is totally different. So, pay attention to your target audience and adapt your approach for each scenario is very important. Data reliability — Data presented in a dashboard has to be reliable. The data quality part is very important to every panel, check every number, KPI, filter interaction, charts that vary over time, and try to compare the numbers with other sources within the company. A wrong number can lead to huge mistakes in the decision-making process and discredit your dashboard.
With time and a lot of studies, we acquired the experience to generate dashboards in an increasingly natural way and with good Storytelling development.
The question that remains is, how can I learn to build a good dashboard and achieve good storytelling with less experience? How can I develop my data visualization skills without reading hours and hours of content?
To answer these questions, I’ll present several tips that will help you put together the perfect dashboard for every occasion.
How to choose your chart
It is very important to know which type of graph is best for each type of insight. A wrong choice can increase a lot the difficulty to analyze and understand the insight. The graphical visualization is intended to demonstrate the data in the simplest and most intuitive way possible.
“A perfect graph is one that needs no further explanation.”
Dr. Andrew Abela published a nice diagram helping us to decide about which chart is a better fit for each scenario. Click in the link below to see the full diagram:
https://apandre.wordpress.com/dataviews/choiceofchart/
Dr. Andrew Abela states that:
To Compare data we should use Bar charts if we want to compare data among items
Image by Author
OR use a Line chart to compare values over the time
Image by Author
To show the Relationship between values, we should use a Scatter plot for two variables and a Scatter plot varying the size of the points for three variables.
Image by Author
To analyze Data Distribution, we should use mainly a Histogram chart for a single variable or a Scatter plot for two variables.
Image by Author
To understand the Composition of the data we should use Bar chart or Area chart if the variables change over time
Image by Author
OR a Pizza chart or Waterfall chart if variables are static.
Image by Author
Color palette
Colors are also of utmost importance in your display panel. A poor choice of colors can make your dashboard difficult to read, or visually unappealing. Avoid using too many colors together in the dashboard, if you are going to view from a distance like a PowerPoint presentation choose colors that have high contrast to improve the visualization, view your dashboard from far and up close, show your dashboard to someone else, and look at her feedback, think about whether your audience involves people with color blindness.
Below is a basic explanation of how to use the color wheel to assemble your combinations.
Complementary Colors —Image by Author
Similar Colors — Image by Author
Triangle — Image by Author
Square/Rectangle — Image by Author
Power BI has several themes with predefined color palettes, but you can also find some on the internet, anyway I left some nice ones in the link below:
Photo by Mika Baumeister @mbaumi at Unsplash
How to present your Insights
Insights can be separated into 3 different groups: Business Visibility, Performance Improvement, and Opportunity Discovery.
These 3 different types of insights have different views and optimized for a better understanding in each case and I will explain them better below:
1. Business Visibility
The most common way to present a Business Visibility type insight is through a REPORT.
Reports are one-off reports, which are designed to show answers to a specific question about the business. Reports are usually shared by email or presented at PowerPoint.
A report is a template that aims to provide insight into a simple metric about the facts that have been happening over time in the business. A simpler view, where it does not suggest insights beyond those shown in the chart.
Image by Author
2. Performance Improvement
The device that is commonly associated with the Performance Improvement insight is the SCORECARD.
In Performance Improvement type insights, the graphs are already more elaborated, containing some metrics, showing data that bring values to the target audience such as goals, average, total, maximum and minimum values, so that the team extracts the maximum value from the more practical way. This type of chart uses a lot of KPI (indicators), calculated values , and statistical data.
Image by Author — Report + Scorecards
3. Opportunity Discovery
The device that is usually associated with Opportunity Discovery insight is the DASHBOARD.
Dashboards are data presented in many ways in a complex yet easy-to-understand manner for the end-user. Dashboards show data that has already been processed, with various KPIs, correlations, forecasts, data evolution over time, metrics, among others. Normally this type of visualization is constantly used by analysts, managers, investors, coordinators, people who need a huge range of data to make a decision.
Image by Author — Dashboard
General viewing tips
Some general visualization tips to build your perfect dashboard or report.
Remove borders — try to present your graphics in their natural way, fit it to the background of your report and make it interact, and be an environment with the other graphics, don’t delete it with a border. Embrace white space — avoid cluttering too much on your dashboard, often a little white space is good for the harmony of the whole. Shrink text — try to wrap text in graphics in the form of a caption or title. Cut a few paragraphs into short, easy-to-understand sentences. “A picture is worth a thousand words, and a graphic is worth a thousand pictures”
Demonstration
Finally, I made a demonstration of transforming a Report by applying the tips shown here in the article.
The Report in question brings information about the consumption of beer in the city of São Paulo — Brazil. The first report below presents a long text, with several graphs and indicators on consumption. Colors are standard, the text is too large, graphics are not in standard spaces, a lot of data is difficult to understand. Anyway, it takes a lot of time to understand everything that the report has to go through. | https://towardsdatascience.com/how-to-build-the-perfect-dashboard-with-power-bi-28c35d6cd785 | ['Octavio Bomfim Santiago'] | 2021-06-14 12:46:45.158000+00:00 | ['Data Analysis', 'Data Visualization', 'Data Science', 'Data Analytics', 'Power Bi'] |
89 free movies and shows on IMDb TV this October | 89 free movies and shows on IMDb TV this October
This October is a spooky scary time for many reasons, number one being Halloween — yay! If your decorations have been up since before the first of the month, and you’re eagerly awaiting the new release of Roald Dahl’s The Witches — this list is for you. (True story: The original version of The Witches is the scariest thing I’ve seen — except for The Ring, *shivers*.)
Along with 11 new harrowing Halloween releases for October, there are also many Hidden Halloween Gems from IMDb TV’s full collection including some Jamie Lee Curtis classic horror in Prom Night.
It’s also time to refresh our TV watchlists as the weather turns cooler. If you’re like me and love funny sitcoms right now, you won’t want to miss My Picks for fall TV—including Season 6 of Schitt’s Creek.
October’s Movies of the Week
Kung Fu Panda 1 & 2, October 2
Always a hit with the kids! It’s a standby on IMDb TV for me when I need to entertain all my kids who range in ages from kindergartner to tween. It’s a hilarious movie with Jack Black, and kids love Jack Black, and they also love Kung Fu.
Hunger Games Franchise, October 9 and October 16
I’m pretty excited about this because I’ve only seen the first installment, The Hunger Games, and am pumped to finally check out Catching Fire and Mockingjay. Based on the book trilogy that’s sold over 65 million copies world wide, The Hunger Games stars Jennifer Lawrence, Stanley Tucci, Donald Sutherland and Lenny Kravitz
10 Cloverfield Lane, October 23
10 Cloverfield Lane is the second installment of the Cloverfield science fiction anthology series for people who like creepy viral marketing, monster movies, other dimensions and alternate universes; starring John Goodman, Damien Chazelle, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
Hidden Halloween Gems
The Children
I’m definitely streaming this super creepy British horror film based on it’s tagline, “You brought them into this world — now, they will take you out.” Imagine if your kids caught a virus that turned them into little psychopaths. Well, you know, at least more psychopathic than a normal day. Watch out, Mom and Dad!
The Hand that Rocks the Cradle
Another freaky horror movie involving children. Watch a deranged Rebecca De Mornay pose as a nanny in order to infiltrate the family of one of her dead husband’s patients. She’s taking revenge on a woman she believes falsely accused her husband of sexual abuse.
Prom Night
If you’re a film buff or a horror fan, you know Jamie Lee Curtis is the queen of fright. Watch her and Leslie Nielsen (yes, the guy from Airplane and Dragnet also did a horror movie) in this classic Canadian slasher film that broke box office records in 1980.
My picks for fun fall TV
Schitt’s Creek Season 6
Of course, if you haven’t seen this hilarious crowd pleaser that everyone’s watching, you are in luck, every season is now available for free on IMDb TV.
Alone
Alone is a Netflix reality show where professional survivalists spend 100 days in the Arctic wilderness. They are only allowed to bring 10 items to help them survive amidst a rugged backdrop full of bears and wolverines. I love this show because you learn invaluable information on what to eat if ever lost outside. It’s real-life horror for the couch potatoes among us — me included!
Dead Like Me
I know, I know, I should have watched this popular show ages ago but there were only so many viewing hours in the day when this series came out. Now that my at home hours have increased across the board, I’m excited to delve into this cleverly made show starring one of my favorites Mandy Patinkin.
Haunted History
I’m not really a fan of ghost-hunter shows, but History Channel’s Haunted History is different! It is about real haunted places. It involves real ghosts and real places that are really haunted. Put it on in the background to set the mood while you plot your Halloween plans this year and have fun! | https://amazonfiretv.blog/89-free-movies-and-shows-on-imdb-tv-this-october-75e8e15b94d5 | ['Kathie Holsenbeck'] | 2020-10-16 16:12:07.090000+00:00 | ['How To Watch', 'Amazon Fire Tv', 'Movies', 'TV Shows', 'Halloween'] |
2018’s Funniest Comedy Specials | 2018’s Funniest Comedy Specials
In my opinion. Oh and they’re all women.
Early in the year I asked my friend Conor what he was up to over the weekend. He told me was taking his husband to see a comedian, Iliza someone. “ILIZA SCHLESINGER?!” the 11-year-old child who lives inside my brain exclaimed. Conor had an extra ticket.
I watched Iliza deliver hilarity that would later make up Elder Millennial. To then watch her—honestly fucking flawless—performance on Netflix and see the degree of skill, professionalism and downright polish she puts on her material was inspiring. Her nostalgia-soaked comedy is so vivid, you feel like you just woke up with a guy in your bed after a bottle of wine and 4 hours of sleep and then realize you forgot to take out your contacts. You feel like you’re there.
I love her, I have always loved her, because she tells the fucking truth—about both genders. She also made a goddamn playlist for her special which is the most elder millennial thing an elder millennial has ever done. As a treat, watch her Instagram highlight where she gets a DM from Channing Tatum after he watches this.
Before Ali Wong’s Baby Cobra, I’d never seen a comedian perform visibly pregnant. Then she did it again. It was an Andy Kaufman-esque move where you’re laughing and happy the second you see her, before she’s even started the show.
I bet you never knew you could so thoroughly enjoy a Ted Talk on the sounds a vagina makes after giving birth, but Ali enlightens you. I’m a big fan of her particular brand of filth, the rawness to it that goes beyond sexual raunch and into … I don’t know what to call it, anatomical honesty? And no, 58-year-old-white-dude-who-comments-on-all-my-shit-and-emails-me-his-life-story-for-no-reason, her dirty is not made more “palatable” because she’s pregnant. When she’s talking about period sex, nobody gives a fuck about her belly—we’re just enjoying a brilliant comic. I didn’t think it possible after Baby Cobra, but Ali Godfathered for us, friends. The sequel is somehow better than the original.
This was a special special. If 2018 had a syllabus, Nanette would top it. It is necessary genius at work, and I hope you’ll make yourself a better person by watching it. I don’t know how to talk about this one yet. Press play.
Photo via WWD
Do you enjoy crying from laughing really hard? What about visual aids? Aparna Nancherla (and also Michelle Buteau below) is my favorite comedic discovery of 2018. You need to watch this to realize how uncomfortably dumb and un-funny we all are when compared to this total superhero. You know how someone can come across as very kind and lovely and then also smack right wing politics across the face with a wet trout? That’s Aparna. Follow her on Twitter, it’s important.
If you stand on stage and tell men that nobody wants to see their dicks, you have a fan for life my friend, yes you do. If Michelle Buteau had been my college professor I’d have graduated with colorful satin cords over my shoulder, I just enjoy her delivery of words. I was really happy when Netflix launched The Comedy Lineup and The Standups, giving us lots more comedy content and exposure to new (to us — these people are career comics) comedians to follow. But when I realized Michelle’s 15 minutes were up I was like what is this amuse bouche shit FEED ME NETFLIX. I’m ready for her hour whenever y’all are.
Also a pregnant, Natasha Leggero (and her husband, Moshe Kasher) gifted us a special that starts with an abortion joke and doesn’t stop for red lights. Easily my favorite Comedy Central roaster (though Snoop Dogg is a close second), Natasha really knows how to get to the gizzards of the joke—just stick your hand right in there. She is fearless and covered in sequins and fur, I shouldn’t need to say more.
When Janelle James said that she wants to die with a bagel in her hand, I started believing in soulmates a little bit. The “why are we doing what we’re doing” tone to her work is the kind of honesty I crave when I’m convinced our leadership is guiding us by the earlobe into doom. Her thoughts on reproduction in this political climate need to be freshman year course requirements. This is a comic I want to share a cheese plate with. Or we’ll each get one, whatever.
I love it when a youth is funny. Taylor Tomlinson is really fucking funny. She’s also really fucking young. If she’s this fucking funny when she’s this fucking young, I think maybe in ten years she could be the only comedian and that would be okay. She’ll be the Amazon.com of comics one day and nobody’s going to mind. | https://medium.com/the-hit-job/2018s-funniest-comedy-specials-2746d4d3cc63 | ['Shani Silver'] | 2018-12-12 04:44:59.857000+00:00 | ['Humor', 'Women', 'Netflix', '2018', 'Comedy'] |
Snickers Goes After The eSports Audience By Sponsoring ELeague | Snickers Goes After The eSports Audience By Sponsoring ELeague
What Happened
Snickers is going after the young, male Millennials that make up a large part of the eSports audience as the chocolate bar-maker signs on to sponsor ELeague, the professional eSports league co-owned by Turner Broadcasting and talent agency WME/IMG. As a sponsor, Snickers will run ad spots during the broadcast of season two of ELeague on TBS, sponsor a live pre-game show, and name a post-game bloopers segment after its campaign slogan “You’re Not You When You Are Hungry.” Earlier this year, ELeague struck a deal to live stream its content on Twitch to reach a wider audience online.
What Brands Should Do
Over the past few years, eSports has grown from a nerdy niche into a media platform that attracts a massive audience and generates billions of dollars. The first season of ELeague brought in a huge audience that no brand should ignore, and Snickers is smart to sponsor the series to reach its target audience. Previously, early-adopting brands such as Coca-Cola and Geico have been sponsoring eSports events to reach its young, male-skewing audience who typically shun traditional ads. Therefore, now is the time for brands to include video game streaming and eSports as part of the media strategy via relevant sponsorships. | https://medium.com/ipg-media-lab/snickers-goes-after-the-esports-audience-by-sponsoring-eleague-426ed5d1c564 | ['Ipg Media Lab'] | 2017-07-06 22:09:05.353000+00:00 | ['General Content', 'Esports'] |
Serenity: What Ethereum 2.0 means for blockchain technology. | My first ever cryptocurrency was probably Cardano (ADA), but Charles Hopkins was more known as ‘Ethereum co-founder’ than ‘Cardano CEO’. Funny right? Well, that just goes a long way to explain how influential ethereum is in the crypto space. Arguably more popular than bitcoin amongst technically inclined blockchain enthusiasts. If you got in here for the quick bucks, then it should be bitcoin for you. but that’s by the way…
Trying to dive into ethereum’s technology or attempting to use its infrastructure, one runs into numerous issues. With the size of Ethereum’s archival nodes currently sitting at over four (4) terabytes (4Tb) and the actual blockchain size well over a hundred (100) Gigabytes and each block adding two (2) Megabytes to this already huge figure, the Ethereum blockchain according to many ‘will never scale’ and in 2019, Bloomberg reported the Ethereum blockchain is ‘almost full’. Scalability and memory friendliness are both very appealing features and good ingredients for mainstream adoption, ethereum lacks both.
Chart culled from Etherscan
Your attention must have been drawn to a recent transaction with a transaction fee of over 10,000 ethereum coins to transfer 0.55 ethereum coins to another address. Well, transaction fees are relatively very much lower currently, but compared to most other blockchains, ethereum transaction fees are ‘high’.
Unarguably one of the biggest events expected to happen soon on the crypto space is ethereum moving from Proof of Work to Proof of stake. The upgrade to ethereum 2.0 also known as SERENITY is expected to bring moment-defining changes to the ethereum ecosystem. This upgrade changes ethereum’s consensus algorithm to proof of stake. Time to switch off the mines guys!
Being home to most decentralized applications and smart contract projects on the crypto-sphere, ethereum is a very influential project. This change says a lot about ethereum and could mean a lot for blockchain technology.
But what could these be? Let us know in the comments sections!
Here are my (very) personal opinions:
Proof of stake (POS) wins again
Ethereum moving to Proof of stake and Defi projects springing up seriously lately spells a defining moment in the crypto space. Being the most popular altcoin and only second to bitcoin itself, ethereum blockchain, its ether coin and the numerous smart contracts running on it have seriously rocked the crypto space and is unarguably the most copied project in blockchain technology. Changing its token generation scheme to proof of stake is for sure a big win for the proof of stake technology.
To be frank, I’ve always been a fan of Proof of work coins, to an extent I feel it is a cleverer and a more sophisticated technology than proof of stake, but maybe Vitalik got to school me better. Whichever way, Proof of work still holds a special place in my list.
The move to proof of stake is expected to add more flexibility to the ethereum blockchain, a feature it terribly lacks. Proof of work algorithm is a complex computing protocol. Running a node for a proof of work coin requires enough computing power and of course, a whole lot of electrical energy. Working on computer resources, proof of work operations piles pressure on the device resources, stores an enormous amount of data and consumes the device memory in an outrageous manner. Poorly scaling blockchains like ethereum and bitcoin would consume double to three-digit gigabytes on your device and heat up the device.
Proof stake algorithm is energy conserving in all aspects. Due to its memory friendliness and relative simplicity it makes judicial use of computing resources. Staking process also provides a more flexible token generation algorithm in contrast to the very much complex proof of work. Getting rid of the mining process saves the electrical power required to mine tokens.
Moving to POS spares ethereum blockchain of this turmoil, guess that’s why it was named SERENITY! Well, it’s serenity and peace at last for ethereum believers and skeptics. As amazing move…arguably.
Fate of smart contracts and DApps
Projects built on the ethereum blockchain makes up a very huge percentage of the whole cryptocurrency market. It is unarguably the largest ecosystem in the crypto-space. The upgrade to 2.0 and switch to POS is a very important one and one would wonder what effect it will have on the occupants of this ecosystem.
Ethereum’s rigidity and vast issues have also been a problem for smart contract projects in its ecosystem. A number of them have made attempts to solve some of Ethereum’s issues.
POA network is building a sidechain application which hopes to solve Ethereum’s scalability issue and allow organizations and game developers to build their own networks and deploy their DApps in a faster, more scalable and a lower fee network. Many other similar smart contract projects on the ethereum network are focused on solving the three issues plaguing the ethereum blockchain; poor scalability, high transaction fees and low transaction speed.
Singapore-based ethereum smart contract project, Loopring has developed a couple of working solutions to Ethereum’s issues. Loopring’s technology strives to create a platform for building and deploying high efficiency decentralized exchanges on the ethereum blockchain. Using the Zero Knowledge Rollup (ZK-Rollup) protocol, Loopring have been able to provide solutions to Ethereum’s poor scalability and as well, its slow transaction speed.
Other projects on ethereum blockchain have been limited in many ways by the long-lasting issues the blockchain faces. If the upgrade to 2.0 solves these issues, then things are expected to get even better for these projects and their growth could speed up even more.
Ethereum overpowered by its issues?
Ethereum ran into these issues and have lived with it for so long. It is home to many brilliant developers; however, they only manage to parry these issues for years instead of solving them. The ethereum blockchain has in fact not progressed so much over these years. Attempts at tackling scalability issues are basically management strategies and very little in-roads have been made towards solving the scalability issues it faces.
During this time, a couple of other Proof of work blockchain projects have developed solutions to Ethereum’s issues while ethereum remained stuck. Low transaction fees, infinite scalability, flexibility…most ethereum issues have been solved by different blockchain projects. Pascal blockchain could run for years and add only 26 megabytes of data to its blockchain size. Ethereum blockchain would increase by the same size after only thirteen blocks.
Ethereum have remained dormant over these years and its only solution to solving this issue is a total change of consensus algorithm. It is pertinent to say that ethereum 1.0 was overpowered by its issues and ethereum 2.0 is an escape from the shackles of ethereum 1.0. Being a leading figure in blockchain technology, one would expect ethereum to tackle these issues in a different way without shifting its original form totally…well that wasn’t the case, we got a new blockchain…lol.
Well, anything that solves a problem is a solution. I’d expect ethereum to do something different, but this is a whole lot already and if it solves the issues it faces currently, then its brilliant enough to get an applause from the crypto community.
The upgrade to 2.0 is moving at a good pace and we might see a completion months from now.
Until then, I’ll cross my fingers and read your comments.
Follow me for more!
Well, you can just catch my tweets! | https://medium.com/@joelagbo/serenity-what-ethereum-2-0-means-for-blockchain-technology-60961d71cdb6 | ['Agbo Joel'] | 2020-12-07 03:24:32.043000+00:00 | ['Ethereum', 'Blockchain Technology', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Eth', 'Ethereum Blockchain'] |
I just called to say I want to interview you | By Luke Butcher, Rico Bergemann, heather lanthorn, Syed Maqbool, and Karan Nagpal
Interviewer Suale conducts backchecks in Northern Ghana ©heather lanthorn
This post is aimed at research practitioners experienced at administering in-person surveys and interested in beginning phone surveys.
To continue collecting data despite COVID-19 disruptions, many governments and organizations are increasingly relying on remote methods. At IDinsight, we’re using phone surveys and interviews to help our clients track the effects of COVID-19 and the various policy responses taken by governments in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We’re also switching from in-person to phone interviews for other, non-COVID-specific projects.
As valuable as it is to understand our respondents’ perspectives during these difficult times, there are certainly challenges, both technical and personal. In many contexts in which we work (and live), people are not accustomed to strangers calling and having lengthy conversations about serious topics even during normal times. This means building rapport and seeking informed consent from respondents is even more vital.
In this post, we’ll share practical insights from our recent surveys on what’s worked — and what hasn’t worked — to build rapport with the respondents over the phone, and to seek their well-informed, well-considered consent.
We hope these insights help other researchers to build rapport and seek informed consent over the phone. As these are still early days for us, we would love to hear from you as well on what’s working and what’s not working in phone surveys and interviews. Please share your experiences and lessons in the comments!
Background
Recently, a number of organizations have shared crucial advice for carrying out phone surveys in LMICs. Mathematica’s overview of switching from in-person surveys to phone surveys, and the World Bank and J-PAL’s guidance on phone surveys all emphasize the importance of carefully crafting concise introduction scripts for respondents. In this post, we explain in practical and granular detail how we have developed introduction scripts for our recent phone surveys and interviews. We also explain how we’ve sought consent, and discuss ways to build rapport with our respondents.
This post is largely based on our experience with three projects: one, a structured, quantitative COVID-19 survey in northern and eastern India;[1] two, semi-structured qualitative interviews with banking agents, their supervisors, and their customers in southern India;[2] and three, structured qualitative interviews with refugee and host communities about cash transfers in Uganda.[3]
Piloting how to initiate the call
Before seeking consent and building rapport, we needed to anticipate how respondents might react to the request for a phone conversation. Before the first round of our structured COVID-19 survey in India, we piloted a few open-ended interviews led by some of our most experienced field managers. As part of this pilot, we tried to understand the respondents’ main apprehensions and developed a script to address them. For example, we found people were wondering, “why are you calling me on the phone?” So, we included these sentences:
वैसे तो हम ये सवाल आपके घर आकर, आपसे मिलकर, पूछना चाहते थे। लेकिन करोना-वायरस के चलते जो लॉक -डाउन हुआ है, उस वजह से हम आपसे मिलने नहीं आ सकते| हालाँकि, आपकी राय और विचार हमारे लिए बहुत ज़रूरी हैं, इसलिए हम आपसे फ़ोन पर ही सवाल पूछ रहे हैं। आशा है सब कुछ जल्दी ही ठीक हो जाएगा, और हम आपसे दुबारा मिलने के लिए आएँगे। Ideally, we wanted to come to your house, meet you, and ask these questions in person. But we cannot visit you because of the Coronavirus lockdown. However, your views and opinions are still very important for us, hence we are asking these questions over the phone. We hope that things will go back to normal very soon, and we will come and meet you in person.
Initiating the call and introducing ourselves
Respondents are more likely to trust us with their information if we can establish a connection, including making sure they know who we are and why we are asking questions.
Before giving a full introduction of IDinsight, we found it helpful to quickly develop interpersonal rapport with respondents to build credibility. Establishing rapport looked different depending on whether we had communicated with the respondents previously or not. For our qualitative research with customers of banking agents, we used phone numbers that the customers had given to agents during the program. We never met these customers, but they had signed a sheet indicating that they were willing to speak about the program on the phone. During the call, we explicitly mentioned the names of the customer’s village and their banking agent. We developed this protocol in response to initial interviews with customers, who seemed uncomfortable when the interviewer didn’t know information about their locality. We then introduced who IDinsight is, the purpose of our interview, and what research/policy decisions the respondent’s answers might be used for. We finally gave the respondent an opportunity to ask questions.
In Uganda, we continued working with respondents we’d already interviewed in-person twice. In this situation, we found it helpful to build on and link back to the previous interviews (e.g., “Last time you mentioned that your husband went to Kampala for treatment. How is his health now? Has he returned yet?”).[4] This may help the respondent to remember the previous conversations, and show that we are interested in and actively listening to what they shared with us.
Reaching the correct respondent and obtaining informed consent
We went into each of our surveys and interviews with a specific person/type of person we wanted to reach (e.g., the person we had previously interviewed, or the household’s primary female decisionmaker). Reaching the correct respondent over the phone is understandably more difficult than in person. As Mathematica suggested, interviewers should be prepared for multiple scenarios, including other family members answering the phone.
We often encountered this problem while interviewing customers of banking agents. We wanted to interview equal numbers of male and female customers. However, most female customers had provided the phone numbers of male relatives. Interviewers often had to seek some form of consent from the male relative before they would pass the phone to the female respondent. These conversations were sometimes tense at first and involved more suspicion and questioning than when female respondents answered the phone directly. Since men are more likely to have access to the phone, we will often need to engage in such persuasion. We’re experimenting in various contexts with different message framings to persuade the male household member to pass the phone to the selected female respondent.
In some cases, once connected with the correct respondent, interviewers might only need a short consent script. In other cases, due to IRBs, a country’s legal requirements, or our own ethical judgment, interviewers might have a longer list of consent criteria that need to be covered. Reading out a long consent script can bore and exhaust the respondent, despite its good intentions. To avoid this, interviewers can try to make the consent process more conversational. In our qualitative phone interviews in India and Uganda, this means establishing a list of all necessary consent topics to cover in a more conversational way, rather than focusing on reading the script verbatim. Pausing to ask questions has also helped to make the consent process more conversational.
Emphasizing flexibility, given the respondents’ other commitments, is more difficult over the phone than in-person, yet still central to promoting genuine consent. In India, several banking agents whom we called requested that we try again later in the day. In some cases, they even called us back. However, we later heard from our partner organization that some agents who completed interviews found the timing of our calls inconvenient, because they were dealing with customers at that time. These respondents had still felt compelled to participate, even though the interview was voluntary. We responded by shifting our calls with subsequent agents to later in the day, when they were less likely to have customers. We also started to explicitly ask agents if they were currently serving customers, in order to make sure we did not interrupt their work. Finally, we reaffirmed their ability to reschedule at a time most convenient for them if they were interested.
Keeping respondents engaged throughout the call
From the beginning to the end of the call, it is important for interviewers to remember how much verbal and audio cues matter on the phone, especially in the absence of the visual, non-verbal cues on which we so often train interviewers. In Uganda, we re-trained interviewers to switch from in-person to phone-based data collection. Interviewers were encouraged to pay attention to the mood of the respondents, as well as any background sounds that might detract from the interview or provide additional context, such as a child crying, lots of people, or outdoor noises.
Signals of active listening and verbal encouragement from the interviewer also play a role in developing rapport that sustains an interview on the phone. As part of the same training, interviewers were encouraged to habitually use brief affirmative words that do not interrupt the respondent, as well as to repeat statements back to respondents. Moreover, interviewers may need more concrete phrasing to assure respondents. In our COVID-19 survey, when we wanted to ask their preferences for future government action related to COVID-19, we tried to preface our question with a message of hope: “we sincerely hope that things will be back to normal again and all of us will be safe . . . but in case the government has to . . . ” Whatever the question, more assurance than normal is needed given the highly stressful circumstances.
Finally, we’ve tried to be flexible with the content we plan to cover with the respondent. Given our earlier findings that long phone interviews can distress respondents, we make sure to keep the interviews short and only ask questions that we think will be essential to policymakers. Given the time constraint in phone interviews compared to in-person interviews, we divided our qualitative interview content into different informational buckets for different respondents. We knew that some respondents would prefer to talk about certain topics over others. For this reason, we were always ready to change the subject of the interview if we felt that the respondent was not engaging or losing interest in the conversation.
Overall, ensuring care for respondents over the phone may require more intensive interviewer training or scripted language than for in-person surveys and interviews. As we collect data that will hopefully improve health and economic policy, we have found this extra effort is well worth it to ensure true informed consent and rapport with respondents during a difficult time.
Steps to consider when obtaining consent/building rapport during a phone survey:
Have I piloted my survey with people similar to my intended respondents? Have I created a protocol/script to address potential respondent apprehensions before beginning the survey? Have I ensured my survey is short and only asks important decision-relevant questions, as to not trouble/inconvenience respondents? Have I given a complete explanation of the survey, including: (if my team has NOT met them in-person before) information about how we got their number, a clear explanation of who my organization is, and the purpose of the survey? (if my team has met them in-person before) a reminder of who my organization is, what we have talked to them about before, when we last spoke to them, and an explanation of the purpose of the survey? Have I created different protocols/message framing around reaching the correct respondent, particularly if my team is aiming to speak to women? Am I making the consent process conversational? Am I emphasizing flexibility and calling at times of day that are likely to be convenient for my respondents? Am I giving signs of active listening and reassurance throughout the call? Am I being flexible with time and the questions I ask if the respondent is losing interest?
Footnotes
[1] For our COVID-19 phone survey, we are collecting four rounds of data on health awareness and practices, as well as relief benefits and economic effects. We had met the respondents and collected their phone numbers during previous in-person survey rounds.
[2] We conducted qualitative phone interviews of banking agents, their supervisors, and their customers in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The interviews were part of an impact evaluation for a household savings calendar and also included conversations about COVID-19. We had met agents and their supervisors previously, but not the customers of those agents. Agent and supervisor phone numbers were sourced from the client. As part of the program, customers reported their phone numbers to agents several weeks or months prior with consent to be contacted in the future.
[3] In Uganda, we are implementing an ongoing longitudinal qualitative study as part of an impact evaluation of GiveDirectly’s cash transfer program to people in protracted displacement. Households have experienced multiple co-shocks: health shocks form COVID-19, economic and food security shocks from the lockdown measures, the locusts infestation, and the reduced food and cash aid provided by the World Food Programme. It is important to keep hearing and learning from their experiences and whether and how cash transfers mitigate those shocks. We thus decided to move to phone-based qualitative interviewing. We had met the respondents and collected their phone numbers during previous in-person survey rounds.
[4]See page 22 here: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/24595/9781464809040.pdf | https://medium.com/idinsight-blog/i-just-called-to-say-i-want-to-interview-you-41df1a83b950 | [] | 2020-05-05 12:24:02.945000+00:00 | ['Project Work', 'Covid 19', 'Phone Surveys', 'Remote Data Collection'] |
How To Learn Any New Programming Language Quickly | The Tools
Photo by Fleur on Unsplash
The tools are all the same, and while they can be learned in any order, this is the order I usually take.
Variables
This seems simple enough, but seriously, how do you create a variable?
Operators
What are the operators, and how are they used? You can assume you have basic math operators, but what about logical operators? Is an “AND” operator spelled out as “and” or “AND,” or does it use symbols such as “&&?”
Conditionals
Surprisingly, my most read articles for both Swift and Python have to do with decision making. The next thing you need to know is how you can make decisions in your program. Does the language you are trying to learn use the traditional “if/else if/else” or something more Pythonic such as “if/elif/else?” Does your language have a “switch” or “guard” statement?
Loops
How can you loop through repetitive tasks? Does the language contain for-loops, while loops, do-while loops, or for-each statements?
Functions
Is it possible to create functions? If so, how do you do it? How do you include parameters in these functions? Knowing how to properly use functions will save you time and make your life so much easier.
Classes and structs
Does this language understand the concept of classes or structs? It sounds like a dumb question, but some languages don’t have either, or they have only one. If it does, how do you create a class or struct? Does the class require a constructor or init method?
Error handling
Errors are inevitable. When they occur, does this language have a robust error handling solution and how do you use it? Is it “try/catch,” “try/except,” or something else? Are there other clauses such as “else” or “finally” that allow other options for errors?
Testing
How do you test your code? Is there a built-in library for testing or do you have to download a separate tool?
All of these tools should be in most modern programming languages. Even the older languages such as COBOL have most of these, but they may be called something different, like paragraphs or copybooks. | https://medium.com/better-programming/how-to-learn-any-new-programming-language-quickly-94996895669b | ['Bob Roebling'] | 2019-11-11 03:59:34.905000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Programming Languages', 'Education', 'Experience', 'Projects'] |
Monty Python’s Flying Circus: Complete Series 1 (Fully Restored in HD) • Blu-ray/DVD [Network] | Monty Python’s Flying Circus: Complete Series 1 (Fully Restored in HD) • Blu-ray/DVD [Network]
The 50th anniversary of Monty Python’s Flying Circus is celebrated with the release of the first series on high-definition Blu-ray, restored by Network Distributing… Dan Owen Follow Nov 22, 2019 · 18 min read
Is there a comedy troupe as beloved and influential as Monty Python? It’s hard to remember many before them (except The Goons), and those who followed in their footsteps are always compared to the Pythons. It’s been 50 years since their acclaimed BBC sketch show Monty Python’s Flying Circus was first transmitted in 1969, and the six Pythons remain the doyens of this particular style of comedy.
As university students, Terry Jones and Michael Palin were part of the Oxford Revue, whereas Graham Chapman, John Cleese, and Eric Idle had joined the Cambridge Footlights. Terry Gilliam (the lone American of the group) met Cleese in New York City when the Footlights were on tour overseas, staging their ‘Cambridge Circus’ 1964 revue on Broadway. The Pythons were separately involved in many comedy TV shows and satirical programmes of the 1960s (most famously appearing on the BBC’s The Frost Report), but it was Do Not Adjust Your Set (1967–69) on ITV that was the true precursor to Flying Circus. It assembled Idle, Jones and Palin on-screen, with surreal cartoons created by American animator Gilliam for the later episodes. Cleese was a big fan of this short-lived series (he even attended a studio recording) and so, when the BBC expressed interest in giving him and Chapman their own show, he invited Palin to join them… who in turn roped in Idle, Jones, and Gilliam.
The Pythons officially formed over a meal in a tandoori restaurant in Hampstead on 11 May 1969, before retiring to Cleese’s apartment to discuss ideas for their new group project.
While Flying Circus is hailed as a pioneering comedy, in truth its constituent parts existed in the work of their peers — particularly Spike Milligan’s short-lived series Q… (1969), which was just as irreverent as Python and likewise toyed with the conventions of television itself. Indeed, Ian MacNaughton was hired to direct Flying Circus specifically because he’d directed Q… -although he wasn’t available for the first four episodes, which were handled by John Howard Davies.
Flying Circus effectively found a way to knit many pre-existing ideas and influences together, its machinery greased by Gilliam’s absurdist animations. Jones was particularly keen to ensure each episode flowed from one sketch to the next, nudged along by Gilliam’s cartoons — which helped them to segue from one idea to the next without everything feeling too random and hard to follow.
The Pythons wrote in pairs (Cleese/Chapman, Jones/Palin) with the exception of Idle and Gilliam — who worked alone. Their process was always democratic when they came together to review each other’s work, with only sketches the majority found funny being included in the finished product. Typically, Palin and Jones had a passion for writing the more visual and zany material, whereas Cleese and Chapman specialised in dense verbal sketches (often with a confrontational undercurrent), and Idle was apparently adept at extensive wordplay.
Before Monty Python’s Flying Circus took to the air, the troupe toyed with a number of ridiculous-sounding titles for the show-ranging from Owl Stretching Time and The Toad Elevating Movement to Vaseline Review and Bun, Wackett, Buzzard, Stubble and Boot. Monty Python’s Flying Circus was eventually arrived at because their BBC bosses described them as a “circus” wandering the corridors of Television Centre, “Flying” was added because it suggested a link to World War I (the famous Red Baron’s squadron was known as ‘the Flying Circus’), “Monty” was suggested by Idle in reference to WWII general Lord Montgomery, and Cleese thought “Python” would make an amusing surname because it evoked the image of a slimy theatrical agent. But they only settled on this now-iconic title because the BBC called a halt to their indecision after printing the title ‘ Monty Python’s Flying Circus ‘ title in TV schedules it was now impossible to reverse.
“Whither Canada?”
On 5 October 1969, Monty Python’s Flying Circus broadcast its first episode, “Whither Canada?” (an unused title for the show itself). Five decades later, it’s fascinating to watch this fledgeling half-hour, knowing this was the beginning of a world-dominating comedy that led to beloved movies and launched the careers of six men who became household names (and a national treasure in the case of Palin). The studio audience doesn’t seem to be sure of what to make of it, at least until the “It’s the Arts” sketch when Cleese’s interviewer wastes valuable time obsessing over the correct way to address Sir Edward “I don’t like being called Eddie-baby” Ross (Chapman). By design, there’s surrealism and unexplained weirdness floating around from the start, like the accidental deaths of various pigs, which only becomes funny once the gag’s had time to settle in. It’s not until halfway through that the episode’s rhythm has become apparent, and the episode ends on an early classic — “The Funniest Joke in the World.” This is a beautifully simple and amusing idea, that a man called Ernest Scribbler (Palin) has written a joke so hilarious that anyone hearing it dies of laughter. But rather than leave it there, the Pythons take the concept to imaginative heights others wouldn’t have bothered to explore, with WWII soldiers using the gag as a deadly weapon after it’s been safely translated into German and can slaughter Nazis on the battlefield just by being spoken aloud.
“Sex and Violence”
What’s remarkable about Flying Circus’s first series is how immediately watchable and fully-formed it is, only requiring a bit of tightening as things progressed. The Pythons themselves already slot neatly into the “types” of characters they’d often play to best effect, while the sense of absurdity is rampant from the start and trusts viewers to go with it. “Sex and Violence”, the second episode, isn’t as strong as the first, although it introduces the famous “and now for something completely different” phrase. And it at least has the always gigglesome “Marriage Guidance Counsellor” sketch (written by Idle), where a married couple — Arthur Pewtey (Palin) and Deirdre (Carol Cleveland, the troupe’s go-to “real woman”) — seek advice about their marriage from Idle’s counsellor, who’s instantly besotted with Deidre and blatantly wants to have sex with her, knowing Arthur’s too much of a cuckold to object. There’s a long British tradition of racy sexual comedy and so, while this sketch would be rewritten today to make Deidre more than just an eyelash-fluttering sex object, it’s funny how charming and harmless it feels. The joke’s not at the expense of Deirdre committing open adultery, or the shocking unprofessionalism of the counsellor, it’s on nerdy Arthur and his chronic wimpishness. He’s the caricatured Englishman with no spine, whose equable politeness is taken advantage of.
“How to Recognise Different Types of Trees From Quite a Long Way Away”
This feels about as long as its title, not helped by a courtroom sketch that outstays its welcome and a running gag about identifying a larch that’s irritating set up for an end-credits punchline not worth the bother. But there’s also the escalating mania of the “Restaurant Sketch” (where a minor complaint about a dirty fork is treated as a cardinal sin by the staff), which is a joy because of how calmly Chapman’s diner tries to deescalate matters and regrets ever mentioning unclean cutlery. Amusingly, that sketch ends with a traditional punchline the show draws attention to out of ironic embarrassment — as if ending sketches with a neat bow are beneath Python. And yet the “Seduced Milkman” sketch that immediately follows is arguably even more traditional, as a milkman (Palin) is seduced on the doorstep of a sexy woman (Donna Reading, not Carol Cleveland) and finds himself locked in an upstairs room with other milkmen she’s enticed indoors. Almost every Flying Circus episode contains at least one classic, and here it’s Idle’s famous “Nudge Nudge” (wink, wink) sketch; his innuendo-loving spiv the mould for all the ‘cheeky chappy’ Idle would be called upon to portray.
“Owl Stretching Time”
There isn’t much that stands out about “Owl Stretching Time”, alas, beyond a return for the premiere’s ‘The Colonel’ (Chapman) — who interrupts sketches that dare paraphrase the British Army’s slogan “It’s a man’s life in the Modern Army” (that’s not one you’d hear today). It also provides further evidence for a theory of mine that Idle wrote sketches that involve him canoodling with beautiful women, as he’s licked and fondled in a linking sketch here of him singing “Jerusalem (And Did Those Feet)” while strumming a guitar. The standout for Python fans is the “Self Defence Against Fresh Fruit” sketch — with Cleese at his hoppiest and shoutiest as a gym instructor pointlessly teaching a class how to defend themselves against bananas, orange, apples, etc. It’s not a favourite of mine, as I think it’s a half-amusing idea that goes on too long. This also tarnishes the final sketch, “Secret Service Dentists”, which is less fondly remembered but good cartoonish fun.
“Man’s Crisis of Identity in the Latter Half of the 20th Century”
There isn’t much that stands out about this one either, although the madcap theatrics of the “Confuse-a-Cat” team raised a few smiles — mostly because of how sloppy and obvious the camera editing is! The best sketch of a weak bunch is the “Silly Job Interview”, where Cleese asks Chapman a variety of bewildering questions with no rhyme-or-reason. It was actually written and performed on the 1968 TV series How to Irritate People (with Cleese interviewing Tim Brooke-Taylor, who later formed one-third of the post-Python comedy team The Goodies). There’s a slightly tedious reliance on vox pops in this instalment, too, as if to distract us from the lack of sketch creativity elsewhere. The “Newsreader Arrested” sketch could have developed into something special, as it presents a bizarre scenario where a news anchor (Idle) is unaware his own doppelganger is wanted for questioning by the police (in scenes playing out behind him on a big screen). But it’s doesn’t go anywhere interesting and feels like a malformed idea. I guess it’s mildly interesting that a sketch where sex is insinuated by suggestive footage (of phallic objects rising or entering holes) was probably the inspiration for the same joke in The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear (1991) decades later.
“It’s the Arts (or: The BBC Entry to the Zinc Stoat of Budapest)”
The surprisingly famous “Crunchy Frog” sketch appears during this instalment, but I was more taken with “The Dull Life of a City Stockbroker”, where a boring suburbanite (Palin) travels to work, oblivious to all the exciting things happening around him (from a spear-throwing neighbour to bombs detonating around his double-decker bus). It’s not the cleverest of sketches, but I appreciated the visuals — and no, that doesn’t specifically mean the topless woman (something it’s hard to imagine seeing in a modern sketch show). We certainly wouldn’t see someone in brownface today, which happens when Idle plays a Red Indian for another sketch; a clear sign of how times have changed since 1969. The rest of the episode’s a little lacking for memorable moments, although I enjoyed the lunacy of the closing “20th Century Vole” sketch (written by Cleese and Chapman) about a loud American film studio executive who can’t be pleased by his fawning underlings (one of whom is played by Gilliam in a more overt on-camera appearance). And I didn’t even mention “Herr Gambolputty de von Ausfern- schplenden- schlitter- crasscrenbon- fried- digger- dingle- dangle- dongle- dungle- burstein- von- knacker- thrasher- apple- banger- horowitz- ticolensic- grander- knotty- spelltinkle- grandlich- grumblemeyer- spelterwasser- kurstlich- himbleeisen- bahnwagen- gutenabend- bitte- ein- nürnburger- bratwustle- gerspurten- mitz- weimache- luber- hundsfut- gumberaber- shönedanker- kalbsfleisch- mittler- aucher von Hautkopft of Ulm.” Sorry.
“You’re No Fun Anymore”
If one thing’s characterised the season thus far, it’s the randomness, as most sketch shows tend to be. That changes with “You’re No Fun Anymore”, as the opening salvo of sketches (most linked by the titular line of dialogue being used to end them) give way to a longer wheeze that spoofs alien invasion B Movies. It’s here the seeds for Python’s big-screen films were possibly sewn, with a story about alien blancmanges turning Englishmen into kilted ginger Scotsmen. The Scots are immediately drawn back to their homeland, causing a terrible case of overpopulation above Hadrian’s Wall (three Scots to a caber!), while England becomes a ghost town with a low populace keeping things running as best they can (one-man football matches, a commuter driving his own bus, etc.) It’s ultimately about extra-terrestrial blancmanges wanting to win Wimbledon because Scots are notoriously bad tennis players (how times change — eh, Andy Murray?), and this mad idea gives the Python’s an extended narrative to play with. It makes for a welcome change of pace, even if some of its ideas aren’t especially funny or have dated badly-like Chapman’s imperious scientist twice whacking his sexy assistant (Donna Reading) over the head for being a vain dimwit. But seeing this again did make me wonder why the Python’s never made a sci-fi comedy film. One can only assume they didn’t have a passion for the genre, unlike medieval legend and organised religion.
“Full Frontal Nudity”
Entering the second half of Series 1 and it’s clear Flying Circus is hitting its stride. “Full Frontal Nudity” brings back Chapman’s Colonel, who I find oddly hysterical whenever he interrupts sketches to reprimand the performers for letting things get “too silly”. It’s a brilliant way for the writers to effectively stop themselves from taking things too far, by having a literal disciplinarian step in to save them from themselves. The Colonel first appears in his own sketch, “Army Protection Racket”, being threatened by two cliched gangsters in pinstripe suits (“you’ve got a nice army base here, Colonel… we wouldn’t want anything to happen to it”), before going on patrol of all the other sketches to keep them in order. I’d be remiss not to mention the “Dead Parrot Sketch”, of course — inarguably the most famous thing Flying Circus produced over four series. It became one of sketch comedy’s most enduring skits. But while it’s an undoubted classic, everyone willfully forgets it begins with a clunker (Cleese’s complainant mistaking Palin’s petshop owner as a woman?!) and continues on for minutes past its peak. Everyone only remembers the sublime middle, peaking with Cleese’s euphemism-filled rant (“‘E’s expired and gone to meet ‘is maker! ‘E’s a stiff! Bereft of life, ‘e rests in peace! If you hadn’t nailed ‘im to the perch ‘e’d be pushing up the daisies!”) This is a cornerstone of Python. And this mid-series episode even has “Hell’s Grannies” to follow, and the less famous but still amusing “Buying a Bed” sketch, where each salesman has a peculiar quirk-like exaggerating numbers by ten, or putting a paper bag over their heads if anyone says “mattress”.
“The Ant, An Introduction”
Flying Circus had been on-air a few months by the time “The Ant, An Introduction” was shown, and in 1969 there wasn’t much competition for viewers, so one can sense the team getting more confident. There’s now an edgier sketch called “Homicidal Barber” (written and performed by Palin and Jones) that concerns a hairdresser frightened to give haircuts because he may be tempted to kill customers with razors and scissors, for instance. This segues into the famous “Lumberjack Song”, the first of many ditties Python would weave into their work, adding another strand of appreciation for their talents. (And yes, that’s Cleese’s then-wife Connie Booth as the wannabe lumberjack’s gal, who’d later co-create Fawlty Towers with her husband.) There’s also the first appearance of another bit of Python iconography, the ‘Gumby’ (a monumentally stupid man wearing a tank top and knotted handkerchief on their head), and one of my favourite lesser-remembered sketches called “The Visitors” where Chapman’s romantic night in gets rudely interrupted by all manner of boorish people — including Idle’s “Nudge Nudge” character, amusingly, here known as Arthur Name. While not the greatest of episodes, the nods to running gags and characters from previous sketches help give this half-hour a feeling of belonging to a series that’s rapidly developing and improving.
“Untitled”
After the soaring highs of the preceding episode, it’s down to earth with a bump for “Untitled”, the weakest episode thus far. I liked the meta-comedy of a sketch where someone gets invited by the BBC to appear in the next sketch, but the “Bank Robber in a Lingerie Shop” sketch itself isn’t funny. The only entertaining sketch is “Ron Obvious” (Jones), where an ordinary man is exploited by an immoral manager (Palin, almost reprising the Sicilian gangster from the “Army Protection Racket” sketch) into undertaking impossible tasks: jumping the English Channel, eating Chichester Cathedral, tunnelling to Java, etc. The only other noteworthy thing is seeing Palin’s crooked pet shop owner return from the “Dead Parrot Sketch”, but for a much less amusing and tedious sequel-of-sorts. A poor episode that’s best forgotten.
“The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Goes to the Bathroom”
Disappointingly, the downward spiral gets worse with “The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Goes to the Bathroom”, as it only has a loose smattering of half-decent sketches — the best being an Agatha Christie spoof where various sleuths keep getting murdered while trying to deduce the culprit of a non-existent murder. There’s a bit of a dark streak to this episode, actually, as there’s also a recurring “Undertakers Film” with pallbearers offloading a corpse to lighten the load of a heavy coffin. There isn’t much else here that stands out, and no classics to make the mediocrity go down better, making one wonder if the Pythons were creatively spent and should have stopped after six or seven.
“The Naked Ant”
The penultimate episode isn’t a return to form, but it’s somehow interesting to me to see depictions of Adolf Hitler so close to the end of World War II, as they haven’t changed all that much in decades. Cleese plays “Mr Hilter” in the “Visitors from Coventry” sketch that segues into “Mr Hitler and the Minehead by-election”, and on some level that’s always good for a laugh, or just to see Palin’s obvious bald cap as “Bimmler”. But really, the only thing in this half-hour that registers is the “Upper-Class Twit of the Year” sketch, with an assortment of posh idiots performing various easy or ludicrous tasks like it’s an Olympic sport. Quite fun, if a touch too long. I also like the image of Chapman dangling upside-down in an underground cave in the “How Far Can a Minister Fall?” sketch, where his character has to keep a Party Political Broadcast going through extreme circumstances. But, truthfully, this was only a mediocre episode at best.
“Intermission (or: It’s the Arts)”
We mercifully end the first series on a positive note, although there are few classic sketches or memorable moments (with the exception of Cleese in “Albatross” selling said bird as a cinema snack). But it does have a better sense of sustained absurdity and good visuals, like a policeman inflating a criminal in a striped shirt and mask in “Probe-Around on Crime” — which leads to a foot chase and, unexpectedly, the use of magic wands. I also liked the oddity of the “Psychiatry” sketch (by Cleese and Chapman), which breaks down the conventions of sketch comedy writing as it goes along. The “Operating Theatre” sketch is also amusing for the ridiculous visual of Idle playing a spaced-out hippy who’s been squatting inside Palin’s stomach, causing him auditory hallucinations. There are quite a few crackpot ideas, as one might expect, but nothing gains enough cohesion to rise above their brief spurts of inspiration.
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Blu-ray Special Features:
Network Distributing have remastered series 1 from its original elements, in celebration of Monty Python’s Flying Circus’ s 50th anniversary. The result is the show’s first high-definition release on 1080p/AVC-encoded Blu-ray presented in 1.33:1 aspect ratio. (It’s also available on a new DVD again).
Flying Circus, like most British TV shows of the era, was filmed on videotape for the studio-based footage and they used 16mm film for everything shot outdoors. This means Network’s remastering is at its best with the scenes filmed outside, as there’s more visual information being captured for a more pleasing upgrade to the modern eye. But the videotaped sketches, which make up the majority of each episode, aren’t an eyesore in comparison.
It’s impossible to make a show from 1969 look like it was made yesterday (certainly a low-budget BBC sketch show), but colours are certainly more vibrant and the footage less grotty looking. The 2-inch videotape masters and surviving negative prints have been scanned in 2K and cleaned up, scene-by-scene, utilising the careful application of noise reduction to remove distracting levels of grain and print damage. The results are pleasing to the eye without betraying its vintage status, as episodes are still a little rough around the edges, but everything’s far crisper and less muddy. There’s no doubt the show has never looked better than here.
Here’s a nice video of Terry Gilliam being shown the fruits of Network’s labour, with particular attention on his famous animations (which arguably benefit the most from having their colours restored properly). He’s clearly delighted by what’s been achieved.
Given the effort that’s gone into restoring this classic and debuting it on Blu-ray, it’s a shame the menu screens don’t take advantage of what the Python iconography could deliver. Animated menus aren’t as popular these days, so anyone hoping for Gilliamesque animations inspired by the episodes will be sorely disappointed. The menu screen is a boringly orange and static, but also functional and fast-loading. It gets the job done, I suppose. But I’d have loved something more creative and fun. Imagine if Network had commissioned Gilliam to make some new animations!
The sound presented is a lossless Linear PCM 2.0 mono track and it’s not going to wow anyone, but it’s a faithful rendering of what audiences in ’69 would have heard. Only we now have better speakers to enjoy it! There are no hisses or pops with the audio, which again makes this restoration a treat for fans.
“Sex and Violence” Studio Outtakes (HD, 10 mins.) This is exactly what it sounds like; quality footage of the Pythons filming various sketches from the second episode, but fluffing lines, corpsing, or having problems on-set (like Palin’s moustache falling off while dressed as a Frenchman). It’s always fun to get a peek behind-the-scenes, and this also gives an insight into the working relationship of the Pythons and their rapport around each other. There are also some unused Gilliam animations, which is a treat.
This is exactly what it sounds like; quality footage of the Pythons filming various sketches from the second episode, but fluffing lines, corpsing, or having problems on-set (like Palin’s moustache falling off while dressed as a Frenchman). It’s always fun to get a peek behind-the-scenes, and this also gives an insight into the working relationship of the Pythons and their rapport around each other. There are also some unused Gilliam animations, which is a treat. “Full Frontal Nudity” Studio Outtakes (HD, 7 mins.) More of the above, for a different episode.
“The Ant, An Introduction” Studio Outtakes (HD, 5 mins.) More of the above, for a different episode, with a focus on a missing element of the “Homicidal Barber” sketch.
More of the above, for a different episode, with a focus on a missing element of the “Homicidal Barber” sketch. “Untitled” — Extended Ron Obvious Material and Clean End Titles (HD, 9 mins.) This is an elongated version of the “Ron Obvious” sketch, sometimes absent sound (but subtitled). It’s not substantially different (no new challenges for Ron), just less edited. The End Titles for the episode also appear but without the credits rolling over them.
Cast & Crew
writers: John Cleese, Michael Palin, Graham Chapman, Terry Jones, Eric Idle & Terry Gilliam.
directors: Ian MacNaughton & John Howard Davies.
starring: John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam & Carol Cleveland. | https://medium.com/framerated/monty-pythons-flying-circus-complete-series-1-fully-restored-in-hd-blu-ray-dvd-network-f24a6c2d8435 | ['Dan Owen'] | 2020-01-19 12:58:53.184000+00:00 | ['Culture', 'Television', 'Monty Python', 'TV', 'Review'] |
Neden “Arjantin Bardak”? | in In Bitcoin We Trust | https://medium.com/@gizemb/neden-arjantin-bardak-ed87282fd403 | ['Gizem Belen Akgüney'] | 2020-12-12 13:56:06.531000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Copywriting'] |
Forget Millennials — this is what Gen Z expects from the workplace. | Excerpts from a completely unscientific, unofficial study from the LEGO Workplace Experience team.
Let’s talk future of work, shall we? Credit: James Pond, Unsplash
A lot has been said about the implications of the entrance of so-called Millennials into the workplace. From The New York Times lamenting how entitled, addicted to social media and downright lazy they can be to Forbes Magazine heralding them for being driven by social impact, personal growth and a strong sense of community. They’ve been accused of being the reason why every tech startup office now features a slide, free food and jelly-bean machines. But also led to places of work that are more purpose driven, open and collaborative, environmentally friendly and flexible, allowing employees to work from home in order to improve work-life-balance or from co-working spaces in order to foster external connections and inspiration.
But with the youngest Millennials now in their mid-twenties, a new generation is starting to join the workplace; the Generation Z, born from the late 1990’s, includes young people who are just coming out of university and getting ready for the world of work.
So, what then, are the expectations of Gen Z? Many articles conflate them with Millennials, but at the LEGO company we wanted to explore whether there might be a more substantial difference between the two generations. Hence we ran a couple of workshops with university students at the Danish School of Media and Journalism in Copenhagen and Aarhus University’s IT Product Development department (thanks again peeps!).
Here’s what we learned from our very unscientific, unofficial study:
Firstly, yes — the physical workspace DOES matter
The physical workspace helps to create an impression of the company, its culture and values, and can influence whether a candidate decides to apply for a job there. Does it feel corporate, fun, youthful, modern? For all the students the workspace mattered more than other perks and benefits, like company phone or car. Especially if it “feels like a place that you want to be, a place that makes you almost want to move in” as one participants said.
Gen Z are social animals
Just like their Millennial predecessors, the Generation Z care deeply about being part of a community and the social aspects of work. When asked about what made a good workplace in their minds, both groups immediately mentioned “a cosy sofa corner where you can hang out and socialise with colleagues” as one of their top priorities. Other social activities, like a Friday bar or sports clubs, were equally highly ranked.
Eco-friendliness is key, but “greenwashers” need not apply
Our participants were very passionate about companies being genuinely environmentally conscious and this being evident throughout all aspects of the workspace — from paper recycling and greenery to encouraging sustainable transport solutions to and from work. The students were very adamant that this had to be genuine and not just a case of “greenwashing”; claiming that you’re eco-friendly just for the sake of brand.
Having the newest tech shows that the company is “on trend”
Interestingly, there was limited interest in getting cool gadgets, like the newest iPhone or Macbook, and more focus on the workspace itself being “smart” or interactive. As one student told us:
“When a company has the newest technology, like I was in an office where the coffee machine was operated by an iPad, then it shows that the company is “on trend” and “gets it”, but then it’s even more important that the stuff actually works!”.
Allow for personalisation
Gen Z’ers want to be in charge of their physical workspace and continuously shape and personalise it to their needs, even if they don’t expect a dedicated desk of their own. Ideas ranged from moving whiteboards around to create flexible workspaces, to decorating shared spaces and meeting rooms.
Personal development as well as career development
Progression and development are high on the minds of the Gen Z. They appreciate a workplace where you are always learning, where there is active coaching and mentorship offered and where you can progress and develop, both in your career but also personally. Hence, while many companies now offer employees days off to do volunteering work, our participants instead requested dedicated annual leave to pursue individual learning (“interessedage” in Danish), which could or could not be immediately relevant to their current job.
And finally, perks and gadgets just aren’t that important
In contrast to the assumption that today’s young people are driven only by getting the latest tech gadgets or outrageous office perks, our research showed that the expectations of young people were actually quite modest. They want an eco-friendly, social and tech-forward workplace that allows them to personalise their surroundings and grow in- and outside of work.
I guess that’s not really too much to ask for. | https://timahrensbach.medium.com/forget-millennials-this-is-what-gen-z-expects-from-the-workplace-335b931c0c14 | ['Tim Ahrensbach'] | 2019-04-12 09:46:57.913000+00:00 | ['Millennials', 'Future Of Work', 'Workplace', 'Workspace', 'Gen Z'] |
What is ZenCash? | ZenCash is perhaps best known for its emphasis on privacy, but its strengths also lie in governance, economic incentives and engineering ingenuity. The first to offer end-to-end encryption and with close to 13,000 nodes, it is the world’s most decentralized and anonymous blockchain for the transmission of money, media and messaging. A fork of zClassic, ZenCash builds on the system to address security issues while providing exponentially increased scalability. Users get to decide whether their transactions should be conducted in private or on the public ledger.
Think of ZenCash as the paranoid friend in an action thriller — sometimes it pays to have the paranoid guy watching out for you. With governments known to be collecting and reading the communications of citizens, ZenChat offers a messaging platform that protects the content of the messages for secure commerce and communication. ZenPub is a publishing platform for publishing and accessing anonymous documents. These two features are huge in countries that actively censor their citizens. ZenHide uses domain fronting to hide connection endpoints to get around crypto-commerce blocking, essential for providing economic access to users in countries hostile to cryptocurrency. | https://medium.com/acreapp/what-is-zencash-c511c49da0ea | ['Meredith Davis'] | 2018-06-27 14:07:51.253000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency Investment', 'Zencash', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Bitcoin', 'Crypto'] |
Why Machine Learning? | Machine Learning, AI, Deep Learning… these words need no introduction at the moment! We all have an opinion on, or sometimes even fantasize about AI taking over the world, thanks to numerous movies and TV series.
Image source : https://i.imgflip.com/1b7szd.jpg
But what makes AI and Machine Learning such a buzz topic? Why are so many people interested in that? Here’s five reasons why I love ML so much and want to start a career on it!
My love for mathematics!
Ever since I was a kid, I loved mathematics. The reason was partly because I was good at it, and partly because it was so interesting. I would like to quote Neil deGrasse Tyson from his famous book, “Astrophysics for People in a Hurry”. He starts the book by saying “The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you!”. That’s true, but we have used our 3 pounds of grey matter in our head to invent Mathematics. And Math is the language of the universe. All of our accomplishments as a collective human race wouldn’t be possible without our understanding of mathematics.
With no surprises, every concept in Machine Learning has it’s deep roots in the concepts of mathematics. In fact, every other algorithm in computer science is actually a subset of the ocean, that is, mathematics.
Image source : https://medium.com/nybles/understanding-machine-learning-through-memes-4580b67527bf
Advent of Data
In the 50,000 to 300,000 year old human civilization, data or information has never been readily available ever, as we have it now. We have managed to generate more data in the last half a century, than we have in the previous 50 centuries. There is not only such huge amounts of data, there is also huge variety of data.
The real question is, what have we managed to do with so much information? That’s when Data science and Machine Learning comes into picture. With so much data and so many different types of data, it was only a matter of time before we began to think about doing something useful with it. And the insights we get from the data, has helped us make informed decisions in so many crucial places.
image source : https://quantumcomputingtech.blogspot.com/2019/05/big-data-analysis-meme.html
Cricket(Sports) and Data Science
I live in India, and here there are very few things which has the same influence on society as Cricket. The amount of people who sit and watch a World Cup match in India is easily in the billions. Cricket sure did have an influence on me. I grew up watching cricket and even imagined being part of the national team, although that remained a dream for me.
I took up computer science as my under grad, and around the time I was in my first year in college, I got to know about a really cool job. I came to know that there is a data scientist as part of every IPL team, who analyses players’ data and comes up with a game plan or strategy to improve the team. This was a revelation for me, as I thought it was only the coaches, support staff and the captain who make decisions. Little research got me to realise that there is a data scientist for the Indian Cricket team as well, and data scientists actually play a crucial role in every sports team in the world. This amplified my interest in Machine Learning as I could combine two things I love and start a career with that. How cool!
Image source : https://www.timesofmedia.com/dhoni-will-always-be-my-captain-kohli-reiterates-6863.html
Possibilities are endless
Once I was into Data Science, I started exploring the various algorithms and techniques. One thing that struck me the most was, there was no fixed algorithm for a particular domain. The number of parameters you can tune to improve your algorithm is endless. This gives us a playground to explore so many endless possibilities given the amount of data we have. You want to improve your accuracy? Try getting more data. You cannot get more data? Try amplifying the data you already have. You think this algorithm is not fitting the data properly? Try a different one. You think this is the best algorithm that can fit this data? Try tuning the parameters to improve it. This gives an excitement to building algorithms.
There are also endless possibilities in the domains you can apply machine learning. Since data is omnipresent, and in such huge volumes, machine learning cannot be restricted to any particular part of our lives. This has led to humans using machine learning in sports, weather forecast, stock market prediction, AI based robots and machines, health care, Image recognition, Speech recognition etc. The world is your oyster!
Image source : https://memegenerator.net/img/instances/43802050.jpg
…Cause it’s really interesting!
The reason why machine learning is a buzz word these days is just because it is so damn interesting. And for me, the most interesting part of machine learning has been Image Processing! Here, we segue into Deep Learning. The various algorithms in Deep Learning tries to mimic the way the human brain works.
We all learn from our experiences. Deep learning algorithms are no different. Given enough examples of a particular class of images, the algorithm can learn various features of the image and predict a completely new image under the same class. If we understand linear algebra, the underlying mathematics behind this is pretty easy, but the fact that we somehow applied that to images, to actually build various algorithms is very interesting and fascinating. And trust me, image processing has actually taken over our everyday lives. Facial recognition systems are available in our phones, our offices, and it is used in crime investigations (we have all seen in movies :P). Moreover, the insights we get from analysing data and the process we follow to get there, is something very engaging.
Image Source : https://www.analyticsvidhya.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/10-ceo.jpg
And there we go. That’s some of the reasons I love Data Science and Machine Learning!
I believe ML and AI is gonna rule the future, as we have still not mined all the data and information we produce. And as a consequence, there will be demand for more data scientists in the near future. I hope to see huge advancements in Machine Learning in the next decade!
Here are some useful courses to begin your Machine Learning journey :
Happy learning! :D | https://vvenkataramanan12.medium.com/why-machine-learning-c9b8e73bd467 | ['V Venkataramanan'] | 2020-12-16 13:59:55.473000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Mathematics', 'Artificial Intelligence'] |
7 Summer House Cleaning Tips You Don’t Know Yet! | The summer season is hot and humid. This means that it can be difficult to keep your home clean and healthy as the school year winds down. These simple tips will help you keep your home looking great throughout the summer.
Summer Cleaning Tips — Majestic Cleaning Pros., Perth
These simple tips will help you keep your home clean and tidy throughout the summer.
Clear out your gutters
Make sure you are ready for summer storms by clearing out your gutters. This is also a good time to stock up on emergency supplies if your area is susceptible to flooding or severe storms.
2. Keep Odors Away
Although trash is never pleasant to the nose, it can become very unpleasant in summer. Because heat and humidity provide the ideal environment for bacteria growth, this is why trash cans can smell unpleasant. This problem is made worse by the humidity in summer, which traps bad odors and keeps them around longer than normal.
Baking soda can be used to prevent this from happening. Baking soda absorbs bad odors before spreading throughout your home, causing you to have a miserable summer.
3. Dust more often
Let the sunshine through your windows bring natural light into your home. It can also cause dusty omissions in your home. Dust can cause an allergic reaction that can make it difficult to enjoy the summer. This problem can be avoided by making an effort to dust less frequently during the summer.
4. Enjoy a cleaner ventilation system
All the dirt, dust, pollen, and animal hair that gets tracked into your home eventually make their way to your air ducts. They can build up over time and become a breeding ground for mold and mildew that is recirculated in the air you inhale. Dirt and dust can also clog your AC system’s filter, making it more difficult to cool your home. This will increase your energy bills. While you can clean your filter by yourself, COIT professionals will come to clean your air ducts every 2–3 years.
5. Clean the Mattress
You should take out all bedding and vacuum the top of your mattress twice a year, once in winter and once in summer. Flip it over and vacuum the top. This along with regular washing of linens in hot water reduces the likelihood of getting dust mites.
6. Prevent Mold Growth
In humid summer temperatures, mold and mildew can grow more quickly, particularly in areas like the washing machine. When the washing machine is not in use, leave it open to keep mold and mildew away. This will dry the machine and reduce humidity so mold and mildew don’t grow.
7. Fix Stains
Summer foods can cause damage to carpets and upholstery, from grass stains to Popsicle drips to melting ice cream. For tips on how to get summer foods off furniture, check out our previous blog. | https://medium.com/@majesticcleaningpros/7-summer-house-cleaning-tips-you-dont-know-yet-e1c20ead9a7e | ['Sujan Shrestha'] | 2021-12-14 15:41:22.826000+00:00 | ['Cleaning Company', 'Cleaning', 'Summer Cleaning', 'Cleaning Services', 'Cleaning Tips'] |
Your RDBMS won't scale and what you should do about it by Danny D. Leybzon | Are you building a data-driven web application that needs to serve data to your users with low latencies? Are you using MySQL, Postgres, or another traditional RDBMS as the backend for that web application? If so, you’re inevitably going to run into scalability issues as your dataset expands and your usage demands grow. These scalability issues will result in massive performance degradations for your users if you don’t find a solution that scales to meet your growing needs. Fortunately, Apache Druid is exactly what you need to keep costs down while enabling hundreds of your users to simultaneously query terabytes of your data with sub-second latencies.
These scalability issues occur because traditional RDBMSs simply aren’t designed to handle massive datasets or high concurrency. They are natively single-server, single-threaded, and are designed to only scale vertically (by increasing the size of the server) rather than horizontally (by increasing the number of servers). Although recent versions of Postgres have introduced parallel queries (still missing in MySQL and most other RDBMSs), even Postgres servers are still unable to handle even dozens of concurrent queries, let alone terabytes of data or complex query plans. As the Postgres docs themselves point out, “Many queries cannot benefit from parallel query,” leaving engineers with no option but to find another database.
With your growing user base and dataset, it’s important to think about how your backend will scale to meet your demand.
A quick history of backends for custom data applications
Once upon a time, all data was stored in traditional database systems. Data would be generated either by a user interacting with an application or from some source external to the application, stored in the database, and then surfaced to the user through the application.
Alice interacts with an application, which generates data, which gets stored in an RDBMS, which then gets surfaced to Alice via the application
This works well enough at first, but things quickly change when internal users want to run analytics on that data as well. Product managers, engineers, and even executives inevitably want access to usage data (such as the number of active users, number of interactions, etc), which means that business intelligence (BI) reports get run directly against the database. This increase in query volume and concurrent requests results in performance degradation for external users, making applications run slower and decreasing user engagement.
Bob wants access to information from the RDBMS, so he queries it directly. Unfortunately, his usage degrades the performance of the application
In response to this, we began to see the rise of data warehouses, ETL, and data engineers. Data warehouses are data storage systems which are explicitly created to service those internal users, offloading that burden from the traditional database which could still be used to power front end applications. Data engineers would write ETL (Extract-Transform-Load) scripts to process and move the data from databases into data warehouses, thereby enabling BI functionality without negatively impacting the performance of the user facing application.
Now Bob is able to access data from the RDBMS without querying it directly. This removes the performance degradation for the application but still doesn’t solve for RDBMS being unable to scale
The introduction of data warehousing helped to offload the burden from the databases powering the application, but ultimately even horizontally scalable data warehouses couldn’t totally replace RDBMS systems. Simply put, data warehouses like Redshift, Snowflake, and BigQuery, were developed to power BI reporting and what’s called “cold analytics”, where queries can return in the matter of minutes and concurrency is low. They aren’t built to power interactive applications, where you can have dozens of users submitting requests simultaneously and wanting their results back in less than a second.
With horizontally-scalable data warehouses unable to service data-driven applications, where should developers look when their Postgres or MySQL database starts to fail? One approach that engineers have tried is to pre-compute the entire range of possible query results and store them in a key-value store like Apache Cassandra or Dynamo.
The RDBMS wasn’t able to scale, so the architect decided to try pre-aggregating results in a key-value store and surface only those pre-aggregated results
This approach has the advantage of being able to handle lots of concurrent requests while maintaining low latencies, but has some obvious drawbacks. One drawback is that pre-computing query results is a computationally expensive operation, as all possible permutations of filters and groupings must be computed, which means either limiting the types of questions that users can ask of their data or spending inordinate amounts of compute resources on pre-computing these queries. The other drawback is that new data coming in won’t be added to the query results until the query pre-computation operation has run again, meaning that any semblance of real-time ingestion is lost.
In summary, the options for backends that we’ve explored all have limitations. RDBMSs such as Postgres and MySQL are easy to stand up and offer great interactivity, but simply can’t scale beyond a single server, limiting your ability to grow your application. Data warehouses such as Redshift, Snowflake, and BigQuery can help to offload some of the BI workloads from your RDBMS, but ultimately aren’t built to support interactive, custom data applications. And although the key-value store gives both scalability and fast latencies, the need to pre-compute data means that you’re limiting the breadth of questions that your users can ask and won’t be able to surface new data to end users in real time. So, does there exist a solution which will give us the interactivity of an RDBMS, scalability of a data warehouse, and the concurrency of a key-value store?
Druid to the rescue
Apache Druid was created explicitly with the limitations of these prior systems in mind. Imply cofounders Fangjin Yang and Gian Merlino were working at Metamarkets, a data platform for advertisers, when they surveyed the marketplace and saw that no existing tool or solution provided the features that they needed to act as a backend for their custom data application. That’s why Apache Druid was designed to allow users to continue having a conversation with their data, just like they’re used to having with an RDBMS backend to a data-driven application, while also enabling massive scalability beyond the limitations of a traditional RDBMS.
The key-value store architecture was too limiting, so the architect is using Apache Druid to surface data to the application in real time, without compromising on interactivity
Druid scales both horizontally and vertically, meaning that as your concurrency demands and the size of your data increase, you can just add more servers to the cluster or increase the size of the current servers.
Druid is also built for speed AND redundancy. The data is stored on the local server much like a traditional database. This provides for fast queries because latency between disk and CPU is minimized. Additionally, a copy of the data is stored in HDFS or an object store which means that the data is already set up for redundancy and disaster recovery.
Druid’s optimized data format allows for fast querying of the data regardless of the question the user is asking of the data. Gone are the days of limiting what users’ can ask based on what indexes exist in the data schema.
Another example of how Apache Druid is designed for custom data applications is its ability to ingest data in real time from streaming sources like Apache Kafka and Amazon’s Kinesis. These message buses have become mainstays in event-driven and streaming architectures, allowing users to access data almost as soon as it’s created. None of the tools discussed above are able to ingest data quickly from these streaming sources, meaning that the real-time capabilities that these message buses should provide are lost if you’re not using Druid.
What Druid is and what it isn’t
Of course, any system isn’t without its tradeoffs, and it would be disingenuous to pretend that Apache Druid is a magic bullet database that will be the best tool for every job. Druid allows for incredible scalability, incredibly low latencies, and incredibly high concurrency, which makes it the perfect tool for data-driven applications that need to rapidly surface data to their users. However, Druid is an OLAP database, so it’s great for analytical workloads but not transactional ones.
This means that if you’re frequently updating or deleting individual rows in your database, Druid isn’t the correct database for you. Simply put, Druid stores data in a columnar data format, which means that modifying a single row means opening and rewriting multiple files to make those changes. For this reason, Druid works best when replacing Postgres and MySQL for analytical workloads, which simply append new data to an existing dataset rather than modifying the rows in the existing dataset.
I’ve seen Druid be incredibly successful at replacing traditional RDBMSs for fully analytical workloads or working side-by-side with a traditional RDBMS where transactional workloads are handled by the RDBMS and analytical ones by Druid. Transactional workloads represent a fraction of the current usage of RDBMSs, so if you’re primarily using your RDBMS for analytical workloads, I highly recommend looking into Apache Druid as the new backend for your custom data application.
It’s time to move on from RDBMS
I decided to write this post because I’ve been seeing so many companies use an RDBMS as the backend for their custom data application, run into huge performance issues when their application began to scale, and then rescue their product with Apache Druid. I’ve seen Postgres DBAs try every trick in the book to hack their way into scaling Postgres way beyond what it was intended for, and then reap the consequences when those hacks inevitably failed. Rather than go through the same growing pains that so many have gone through, I invite you to reach out and see whether Apache Druid and Imply might be a good fit for powering your data-driven application. | https://medium.com/@dleybz/your-sql-database-wont-scale-f9d9aae4e6b5 | ['Danny D. Leybzon'] | 2021-02-11 21:39:42.137000+00:00 | ['Postgres', 'Big Data', 'Data Warehouse', 'MySQL', 'Postgresql'] |
Of No Avail — Web of Wedlock. Blurb | Of No Avail — Web of Wedlock
Blurb
Lured by the pitch — All marriages are made in heaven but some are delayed on earth: We endeavor to hasten them all — Priya goes to Renuka Marriage Bureau.
Scanning the prospects, when she spotted Venu, whom she slighted long ago, she rushes to him to bring about a dramatic encounter.
What brought about Priya’s change of heart to seek her former suitor and how Venu responds to his old flame’s fresh overtures lend suspense to their romance in this eclectic novella.
Dedicated to –
the flawless Bullipapa, my distant cousin,
with whom I had savored the fruits of our platonic love
before she attained moksha at the young age of twenty-six.
Part 1
ALL MARRIAGES ARE MADE IN HEAVEN BUT SOME ARE DELAYED ON EARTH:
WE ENDEAVOUR TO HASTEN THEM ALL.
So read the billing at Renuka Marriage Bureau.
Rushing to Venu, Priya reread the same.
‘Oh, how fortuitous!’ she thought excitedly as she walked up to her car. ‘So, I could wed him now. Going by his photograph, he looks handsomer than ever; if anything, that streak of grey hair only lends him an aura of its own! It’s as well that he doesn’t dye his hair as most dandies would, more so while seeking a bride. Isn’t it true to his character; being truthful to himself, and to others as well. So, he’s divorced, which means that he was married; what was his wife like; could he have wed on the rebound? How long would’ve their marriage lasted; what could’ve gone wrong with their wedlock? By the way, have the roughs and toughs of his marital life affected his amiable disposition? May not have been, given the softness of his visage in that picture; oh, how I was tempted to flick it from that folder! But why did my sense of decency tie my hands when fate itself played foul with me; didn’t it make me reject his hand out of hand?’
Having reached her car, and sitting still at the steering, she continued to take the clock back in time, ‘How I used to like him in those days, but fate made me blind to his marital charms. But now he’s nearing forty-four and I’m touching thirty-nine; so what, as age has seemingly spared us both its ravages of time to afford us a hectic time to make up for our lost time. Maybe that’s why he looks at his handsomest best and my allure too is at its peak; wont’ all those ogling eyes tell that? Now that his picture has brought my loss to the fore, nearly two decades after our parting of ways, is it that fate has come to repent its thoughtless act? But is it going to redress its wrong doing? If so, when he sees me now, won’t it induce romantic impulses in him replacing his bitter memories of our parting? And for all that, ours could be one such marriage made in heaven that got delayed on earth. Maybe his divorce portends that. But still, given his past hurt and my present proclivities, would he like to own me? Well, I would know that soon enough, won’t I? But come what may, I won’t lose him this time for I can’t bear his loss anymore.’
Having resolved thus, she started her car to steer it to her newfound destination. In time, as the address led her to a middle-class setting, parking her car by the roadside, she rushed to Venu’s first-floor flat only to hold herself at the threshold. Soon though, as the doorbell couldn’t clear the hurdle, seeing the irony of it all, she went back to the car to continue her wait.
‘Would he be able to recognize me at all?’ she thought as his fortuitous absence made her lose the ecstatic momentum his memory had generated. ‘Surely, he would’ve pushed me out of his memory; if not for anything but for peace of mind. Moreover, twenty-years are too many for any to nurse an unrequited love. But once I announce myself, how would he react to my visit? Maybe for old time’s sake, he won’t turn me away straight away but surely he may not warm up to me, why should he? In that case, what could be the outcome of our cold encounter? Won’t he try to get even with me if I were to propose? Won’t hurt egos tend to go wayward in weird ways? Haven’t I seen that happen with Rekha’s hubby? So I should not let his temptation to score over me ruin the opportunity that life has at last presented to us. It makes sense to soften his hurt and win his trust to bring him around. But what if he tries to dismiss me at the doorstep itself? Well, he would know I’m no pushover of a gatecrasher.’
Checking the time, when she looked into the rear mirror, she saw a motorbike zooming near, and as it passed her by, turning her gaze through the windscreen, she saw the helmeted rider steer it through the compound gate. Sensing that it was Venu, she readily got down from the car to catch up with him but as her common sense cautioned her to allow him time to refresh, she got back into her car to wait for a while.
Soon though, as her eagerness got the better of her patience, with her heart in her mouth, she set out for a date with her destiny; but having reached the threshold, unable to decide about the period of a decent wait to cross it, she stood rooted there for long. At last, though driven by an irresistible desire for his espial, yet she knocked at the door tentatively but as Venu opened it immediately, she lost her way with the words that she had been rehearsing relentlessly.
However, seeing his face acquire that look, which the first look at a desirable woman induces in man, she readied her eyes to discern the nuances in his demeanor even as hers followed suit as an enamored female of a male. Soon, seeing the evolving signals of recall inevitably progress into signs of surprise, she presented him her smile dimples.
“What a surprise,” he said excitedly.
“Your face tells,” she said coyly.
“Come on in,” he said wide opening the door.
“But I seek a customary entry?” she said standing still.
“I don’t get you,” he said confusedly.
“Can’t wait till you get it,” she said flirtingly and stepped in.
“You haven’t changed much,” he said closing the door behind them.
“Your eyes said that much,” she said coquettishly.
“May know I’m wiser to your teases,” he said smilingly.
“I was afraid you might’ve forgotten me,” she said sitting in a sofa.
Then the doorbell rang as if to afford him an interlude to respond to her gambit.
‘He hasn’t taken my name as yet,’ she thought following him with her eyes to the front door. ‘Is he buying time with generalities to try to place me? Maybe his desiring look is more to do with my allure than with his recollection of me. But still, isn’t it good enough for my mission?’
Greeted by a salesman of doormats, Venu was not irritated for once, and having seen him off, he tried to come to grips with the sudden development.
‘What a bolt from the blue?” he tried to figure out his situation. ‘But how on earth she has managed to find me out, and for what purpose? What am I to make out of her peculiar overtures now? Is it her courtesy call after that discourteous send off? Or has she come to take my material stock to revalidate her rebuff then? If so, seeing my setting, won’t she feel vindicated? Why won’t that make a day for me for not giving her a cause for regret? Surely she has realized that I’m bowled by her charms, but how my enamored eyes could’ve hidden the urge her allure surged in me. What a sextraordinary thirty-nine she has turned into now! Whatever, I shouldn’t make a fool of myself yet again; I should see her off before my weakness for her grips me all again.’
“Sorry for coming in the way of your guest,” she said smilingly as he rejoined her.
“Never mind, it’s a trespasser,” he said sitting in the nearby sofa.
“Like me I suppose,” she said feigning to move closer to him.
“What do you mean by that?” he said unable to suppress his mirth.
“You haven’t taken my name as yet,” she said heartily.
“I felt it could embarrass you in my pronunciation,” he said dryly.
“Go ahead, and let me see,” she said coquettishly.
“Priya,” he said in spite of himself.
“I love it, don’t you see that?” she said coyly.
He merely looked at her for a clue to her flirtations.
“Glad you haven’t forgotten me,” she said tentatively.
“I forgot you in the sense that I hardly think about you,” he said unassumingly.
“No faulting you for that,” she said melancholically.
“I’m sure, it wouldn’t have been any different with you,” he said nonchalantly.
“Are you still bitter with me?” she said taking his hand.
While the sensuality of her touch raised the pitch of his flesh, the sensitivity of it insensibly induced empathy in his despondent heart.
“I’m sorry if I’ve sounded so,” he said pressing her hand.
“I know, you’ve every right to feel jilted by me,” she said still holding his hand.
“I was sad for losing you but never felt ditched by you,” he said withdrawing his hand, as if recalling his resolve.
“Don’t tell me that?” she said as much in surprise as in relief.
“You should believe me,” he said.
“I know you don’t lie, so do I,” she said taking back his hand.
“I know that but how do you do now?” he said letting her hold his hand.
“You would know that by and by,” she said mirthfully.
“There could be many threads for us to pick up,” he said in spite of himself.
“But two would do to twain it,” she said tantalizingly.
Beset by doubts all again, unable to enthuse himself, he withdrew his hand.
“Since I’ve taken the lead, I’ve the first right to gather,” she said regardless.
“It’s the same one-upmanship,” he said resignedly.
“So be it,” she said moving closer to him.
“First let me prepare some coffee for us,” he said getting up.
“May I steal the pleasure of it,” she said following him into the kitchen.
Soon, watching the fumes of the coffee decoction she was preparing, he envisioned the similitude of his evaporated marital dreams with her. But equally, as her loving looks and affectionate manner began dissolving his reservations about her, he found himself genuinely warming up to her.
“I never hoped to see you again,” he said taking her hand.
“Sometimes I thought I could,” she said pressing his hand as if demonstrate the reality.
“But what for,” he said.
“That’s for the end,” she said smilingly handing him a cup of coffee with a covetous look that surged his urge.
Then, sipping their coffee without a word, they stared at each other in turns, and having drunk to the dregs, they returned into the drawing room to continue their tête-à-tête.
“I’m all ears now,” she said as they settled in the sofa together.
“If you recall, we first met when I was a in the engineering final year and you, still in the intermediate,” he began his recap, “It didn’t take me long to realize that I was madly in love with you and that your feeling was no more than liking for me. So to say, that enabled me to grasp the nuances of liking and loving — to like is to savor someone’s presence and love is but misery of someone’s absence. Whatever, I nursed our marital hopes as there was no caste hurdle to cross and a status barrier to break for my love. So, wanting to propose to you after your graduation and to be nearer to you till then, after I got my degree, I took up a job in a small-scale unit in your town. Naturally I didn’t have a second thought about giving up some lucrative offers from elsewhere that would’ve afforded a head start to my career,”
“Sorry for being a spoiler in more ways than one, but why didn’t you tell me about it then?” she said grasping his hand as if to convey her pain through her touch as well.
“I didn’t want you to see that as my sacrifice,” he said reminiscently. “Moreover, seeing that your liking was yet to crystallize itself into love, maybe I was afraid that you may even goad me to go my career way. That way, you can say that it was all owing to the selfishness of my love. Whatever, I took you for granted and waited for your graduation to propose to you; so, when you declined my hand, I was as much shattered as surprised. But in the hindsight, we both were still raw then; you were barely nineteen to my nearly twenty-four.”
“So, you felt that I led you up the garden path,” she said ruefully.
“To be honest, that thought never crossed my mind,” he said pressing her hand. “Even otherwise, I always believed that it’s unfair to dub one’s genuine change of heart in the course of courting as jilting. I did realize that the closeness of courtship could expose the chinks in the armors of the enamored, giving rise to second thoughts in either, or both about the tenability of their wedlock. So, your reluctance to accept my proposal made me wonder what it was in me that made an unassuming girl like you think that my hand was not made of the right marital material for you to hold onto. Believe me; it’s no more and no less.”
“Though it’s no excuse,” she said apologetically, having been affected by his magnanimity. “I was too young to have either the foresight or the hindsight of life. What’s worse, I was in an impressionable age then, and as my life would have it, shortly before you proposed, I became friendly with Sudha, who came from an affluent family. As we readily took to each other, I began spending more of my time in their bungalow, which afforded me a first-hand experience of luxurious living. So, enamored of that life-style, I insensibly started craving for the same, and what’s worse, I came to see our middle-class life as wasteful existence. That’s how I came to raise my marital bar that was beyond even my immense liking for you to clear. Moreover, your contended visage viewed from my ambitious prism seemed too pale for my coveting.”
“Had you opened your mind then, my brain would’ve been spared of so much racking,” he said reminiscently.
“I thought why rub salt into the wound,” she said nostalgically.
“Maybe it’s a good turn from you as otherwise my monetary outlook could’ve got buggered in that nascent stage of my life,” he said philosophically. “Anyway, I hope you’ve got what you wanted.”
“Yes and no, and we’ll come to that later; but tell me what happened with you later,” she said exhibiting an uncanny urgency in her tone.
“After having lost you, it made no sense for me to stick around there,” he picked up the threads of his life all gain. “So, I readily moved over here but it took me quite a while to put all that behind me. But as that only brought the vexations of my bachelorhood to the fore, I let my parents look for my prospective bride. I told you that I was born very late into their marriage and so ever since I got employed, they were keen to marry me off, more so my father, who, by then, was fast nearing his retirement age. I may say in a lighter vein that besides his paternal concern for me, there was a middleclass mindset at work as well for one’s retirement would adversely impact the quantity as well as the quality of the wedding gifts. That is apart from the bargain prices for the related goods and services one’s proportionate position ensues. So, I readied myself to ascend the altar with my dream bride to supplant the desired one but the dynamics of arranged alliances kept me in the limbo for far too long to my material discomfort.”
He paused for a while as if to come to grips with the impediments in the way of timely marriages.
“To start with, notwithstanding our social inconsequentiality, my father was proud of his pedigree and so was averse to devaluing its progeny by default of an inferior nuptial,” he said nostalgically. “Besides, he was very status conscious, never mind he was but a petty government servant, oh, what vanity! But worst of all, he was a staunch believer in matching the horoscopes of the prospective couple to foresee whether it’s going to be a smooth sailing or the rough weather in their marital waters. Why single him out as that has become an article of faith of one and all, and the hitch is that if the groom’s astrologer predicts a batting wicket, the bride’s jyotishi lays a wet pitch for the same match. As if these impediments are not enough, there are peculiar community constraints and pecuniary family restraints to reckon with that is besides the whims of the bachelors and the fancies of the maidens. And the net outcome of all these human fads and foibles is that weddings tend to remain nonstarters for everyone’s discomfiture.”
“Do you believe in astrological predictions?” she said.
“Least of all matching horoscopes for mismatches,” he said. “If not a fraud, certainly it’s a farce as my own case proves. If the planetary configuration in the seventh house indicates one’s marital course, then astrologically speaking, he or she would only wed the one who would take him or her, on that predetermined path, which means one’s fate ensures that one willy-nilly shuns those not conducing one’s marital destiny and likewise gets slighted by such for the same reason. So, of what avail are these futile astrological exercises proving to be inimical to timely weddings.”
“May I contribute my bit to your philosophical astrology?” she said in all admiration.
“But before that,” he said, “I may say that instead, it would make sense if the psychic profiles of the prospective brides and grooms are sought to be matched for mental compatibility. Say, other persona specifics being more or less the same, two misers form a better wedlock than say, a miser and a moderate. So, we need psychoanalysts and not astrologers for matrimonial advice but still even if one believes that his future is cast in his horoscope, then he should be able to see the irrelevance of these misleading matching exercises. This reminds me of a funny remark about our peculiar penchant to simultaneously pray to a variety of gods and goddesses, which only means that we don’t believe in the power of any of them to fulfill our desires.”
“Some food for thought though,” she said smilingly.
“Over to your examined life,” he said inquisitively.
“Won’t the broken engagements and nays that prelude wedding vows prove that destiny too is prone for second thoughts?” she said meaningfully.
“Maybe that’s destiny’s own course correction,” he said wondering about the import of the moment. “While the combination of idiocies put my wedding on hold, my father’s retirement further impaired my aura in the wedding arena. By then, the dwindled number of matchable brides came to see their would-be in-laws as some sort of a marital overburden they would rather do without. No faulting the nucleus family’s free stirrings as the trappings of the joint family could indeed be oppressive but at the same time, one shouldn’t lose sight of the moral pinning of life itself. If the in-laws were to remain hard nuts to crack, maybe, its fine for the wife to scoot as the burden shifts to her man to rein in his folks, but to per se object to their presence in her home itself, never mind their amiable nature, is socially alarming.”
“Sadly, life fails to balance itself, so it seems” she said melancholically.
“Maybe that’s true about individual life,” he said noticing her changed demeanor, “but when it comes to life as a whole, it has a way of balancing itself. Even as my eligibility as a groom was getting degraded by degrees, so as to make her a match for me, life had contrived to keep Chitra’s marital dreams on hold. She was the second girl in the line of marriage in that middle-class household that held her four younger brothers as well. Besides the meager dowries their father could place in their wedding platters, the elder one had only plain-looks to offer to the prospective grooms. So, as the first wedding was not in the offing and as custom too wouldn’t let Chitra’s glamour jump the marriage queue, the second ritual was not even on the family agenda. However, while her sister, lacking an employable qualification to uphold the family dignity in the office corridors, sat at home cursing her fate, Chitra had double graduated to become a lecturer in some women’s college. But still her frustrating wait for her nuptial night seemed unending.”
“That apart, what to say about our family custom of marrying the girl first that puts paid to her elder brother’s marriage?” she said.
“Like most things in life that too has two sides to it,” he began reasoning the age-old customs. “The wed girl first idea is a relic of the joint family system that’s on a different footing but the sisterly seniority level-fields the matrimonial ground for the not so well endowed elder ones; just the same, it’s unfair to the juniors as it tends to deny them what life has granted them. This reminds me of the lines in Benign Flame — ‘when maidens cross their mid-twenties, they find to their consternation that men whom nature meant for them by the logic of natural selection, were indeed bending towards the younger ones, tending them to fend for themselves as singles’. That apart, can parents ever ensure equal quality of life to all their children? Well they may enable them all obtain the same degree but would that ensure them the same career station in life? It’s no different on the matrimonial front. As all have to be on their own at some point of time, I think it’s better for the parents to let their children run their individual courses driven by their destinies.”
“Have you become a Socrates of sorts or what?” she said in all admiration.
“It’s not like that,” he said in all humility, “and simply put, life teaches us all through though we refuse to learn, but in my case, maybe, fate forced me to grasp its hardest lessons. So to say, nature devised food and sex not only to sustain life but also to make it joyous to the living and towards that end it endows the earth to cater to the former and contrives the sex ratio to ensure the latter. However, in nature’s scheme of things, and by the very character of their functions, food furnishes life from birth to death while sex, as it is a latecomer, makes an early exit albeit after an exhilarating run. So instead of lamenting on the lackings of life, prudence lies in making the best possible use of its limited sexual span, of course buttressed by one’s libido. Surely the elders, privy to this aspect of life, should advise the youths to pick up the low hanging sexual fruits to satiate themselves, as other wants of life can wait for their eventual fruition.”
“Oh, what lessons of life!” she said admiringly.
“Now I want to hear about your learnings,” he said.
“But our agreement is different, isn’t it?” she said smilingly.
“Why are you so adamant?” he said exhibiting his curiosity.
“Why read the last page of a mystery beforehand?” she said turning coquettish as if alluding to her intended ending of their current encounter.
“You always have a way to stump me,” he said reminiscently.
“But now the ball is in your hand, isn’t it?” she said half in jest.
“So to continue my tiresome tale,” he said in resumption, “at last, as if Chitra’s fate was fed up of the tortuous wait, it induced a widower to own her sister’s older hand. So with the decks to her marriage thus cleared, and the astrologers having concurred, soon she entered into my life to celebrate her thirtieth birthday as my wife, and that was ten years back. I plead guilty for revealing a woman’s age.”
“Pardoned, because it’s not mine,” she said smilingly and added endearingly. “You’re lighter than your forty-four.”
However, noticing that he checked his instinct to lend his voice for the admiration for her gorgeous looks that his face has been conveying to her, she presented him her guilt-filled visage, which only stirred his innate feelings for her.
“Priya,” he said, “let me picture the material arena into which I ushered her in from the altar so that you can have a true perspective of our marital life. You know neither money enamored me nor ambition courted me, but strangely my professional qualification became the bane of my career. My search for a proper job landed me in a state government undertaking that has since gone under; so no use taking its name now. Since I loved that job as a purchase officer, I exerted myself to excel at it, and my boss, for his part, was keen to see me making great strides on the career ladder. However, when he had all but set the stage for my crucial promotion, unfortunately for both of us, he was sidelined by the minister to bring in the sibling of a political bigwig as the departmental head. Somehow, the new arrival was averse to engineers in what he perceived as a commerce domain, and so he sat on my promotion as if he was on an indefinite sit in. The fact that I made a late start in the corporate world too didn’t help me to make it to the greener pastures that anyway my love for this place further restricted. So, with no progress on the marital as well as the career fronts, it may not be hard for you to picture my plight then.”
“What an irony that a superior education should yield inferior career returns and no wonder that company had gone under,” she said equally affected.
“Whatever, when my father came to know that my salary was no better than that of a bank clerk then, he wondered of what avail was his ordeal in financing my technical education, with hostel bills and all,” he said feeling sad for his disappointed dad. “Likewise, after an agonizing wait, marriage led an unwary Chitra into a failed career setting, and it showed, readily at that. Yet I couldn’t fault her as it was I who failed to deliver what my qualification had promised in her dream marital home. So, soon after she came into my life, she entreated me to refurbish this flat and refurnish it, and held that her earnings would lighten the debt burden. Though it was against my nature to live beyond our means, but still, against my better judgment, I went along with her to try to set the right marital tune in our home. Yet, setting her sights much beyond the monitory reach of our home, and thereby lamenting over its material lackings, she made us miss most of its marital offerings at that vantage station of our life. Oh, what a hell of a companion a sulking spouse doth make!”
“I can see it from your face,” she said pressing his hand.
“That being the case, what else I could do then than sharing my philosophy of life with her,” he said holding her hand. “But while the averments of the have-nots on the irrelevance of wealth lack credence, the hypocrisy of the well heeled on that count carries conviction in public perception, and that’s the irony. Yet, I tried to make her see that everyone’s life is a unique package of creature comforts and emotive kicks; the former displaying the standard of living and the latter defining the quality of life. If only the ethereal facets of the packages that have a bearing on the quality of life were also to be visible for public view, then possibly people would suffer less in material comparison for it would be apparent then that life gives with one hand and takes away with the other; what’s more, adverse times dent its bigger packages more than the smaller ones. So to say, I tried to make her see reason to make our life as amiable as was possible but to no avail.”
“Had I married you then, I’m sure my wooly head wouldn’t have let me fare any better than her,” she said and thought ‘so whatever happens happens for good.’
“Maybe, you know that better,” he said and paused as if to come to grips with the pain his recollections caused him, and she was gripped by guilt for being the cause of it all.
“So we dragged our marriage into the second year thus,” he resumed his woeful tale. “But even as our life became a farce, fate imparted an inimical twist to it. Latching onto my colleague’s jesting about the under-the-table worth of my purchase desk and my naivety in not realizing that, she began pressing me to become worldly-wise. Oh, the tricks she played to seduce me to graft our way to happiness would surely make a treatise on the subject. Yet, finding me unyielding, she first took to moral blackmail — though in a position to take her on joyrides in sedans, how unfair I was in reducing her into a pillion rider etc., etc. Since I remained stubborn even then, she took to sexual blackmail to heighten my frustration, but as that too didn’t bring about my surrender, she became unimaginably cantankerous that is to put it mildly.”
“In spite of it all, what gave you the strength to stick to your moral ground?” she said as much in surprise as in admiration.
“Like with nature so is the case with human nature, it has some invariable dimensions to it,” he philosophized. “It’s possible that my innate disregard for money enabled me to withstand that irresistible feminine pressure of an amorous woman that too in the prime of our life. But still, as captured in Jewel-less Crown, it’s the character of money to corrupt the ardent, tease the vacillating, and curse the indifferent, and curse it did.”
“Oh, how true it is,” she said in the flashback her own life.
“Finally, on the third wedding anniversary that symbolizes the flexibility of marital durability, she chose to roll the dice on its longevity. That day when she said that she would quit her job, her idea of idleness was a ruse to make me fall in line for shorn of her salary my budget would be in the topsy-turvy. She knew that deprived of her contribution, I would be really hard up to repay the loans I took to cater to her whims and fancies, and so she reckoned that I would fall in line as I won’t be able to make both ends meet with my income alone. Well, she thought that she called it right but still as I hedged my bets, she quit her job and what’s worse resorted to wasteful practices to further strain my finances.”
“Wonder how you could endure all that,” she said taking his arm and holding it endearingly.
“While my patience wore thinner, the threshold of her impatience too became lower,” he continued to recap his matrimonial predicaments, “and in the end, she threatened to sue me for divorce and her maintenance to boot. So to say, her threat of divorce made me only feel relieved for I always believed that it’s unfair for man to ditch a woman at any time, more so past her prime, when she would be most vulnerable to attract another mate. Maybe she wanted to make me realize that my uprightness at office wouldn’t let me square it up at home, and surely the prospect of providing for her maintenance out of my overstrained financial position unnerved me. But still I thought I’ve had enough of her and so didn’t yield to her, maybe making it untenable for her to hold onto our marital ground. So, ending our over two year marital ordeal, she walked out on me to sue me for divorce with maintenance.”
“Since she had nothing against you, wonder why she brought things to such a pass?” she said.
“I think it all started with her obsession to lead the so-called good life and a burning desire to have the goodies of life never mind they were beyond our material means,” he said ruefully. “So, when she came to know that my bribe money could be the source of her material fulfillment, it became a ‘so near and yet so far’ situation that insensibly made her insane. Then, as they say, one thing led to the other in the vicious marital cycle of our life. But to give devil its due, she was kind and considerate to my parents who came to stay with us right after our marriage.”
“Pursue if thou wants with zeal / Instincts then would spin thy mind,” cautioned us Krishna in the Gita but seemingly to no avail,” she said ruefully.
“Sadly so but equally true are William Congreve’s words,” he said in all vexation, “that heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned. Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned. Given my horrid life at that torrid juncture, while seconding the second line, I would paraphrase the first as; court has no rage like marriage to divorce turned. Oh, how she tried to picture me in the hall of justice as a suspicious character! Besides, she suffered no qualms in lying on oath that I abetted my parents, dead and gone by then, to routinely ill-treat and humiliate her at every turn. Worst of all, in a et tu, Brute moment, she sought to justify her case for divorce as well as maintenance by stating that I forced her to give up her job suspecting her fidelity. What’s worse, as her lawyer was wont to drag the case, of course aided, in no small measure, by his lordship, who prided himself as a master of reconciliations, it became apparent that neither she was in a hurry for divorce nor the judge to grant it to me. While the lordship’s intention seemed altruistic, hers was to keep me in the limbo so as to bar a fresh nuptial for me as she knew how miserable I could be without a woman in my life. Besides, as the Damocles’ Sword of maintenance hung over my head, I never felt as hapless in my life of adversities.”
“Isn’t it sad and strange in the same vein?” she said affected no end.
“Maybe that’s life,” he said in all vexation, “and if anything, the unending hearings at the court hall seemed to testify to that. However, sensing her mischief, and seeing that she wasn’t put up with her parents, I smelt a rat at last. Well, she was wont to tell me that though a rich and handsome man used to pester her to marry him, owing to her inhibition of wedding out of caste; she had forgone that God-given opportunity. I used to think that she could have made up that story to highlight my material mediocrity as a way to humiliate me but given the turn of events, I started wondering whether it was all true and that he got hold of her in the meantime; and for all that, she might have sought him on her own to fulfill her unfulfilled dreams. What an irony it would have been had she cast me away to make it with him by shedding her caste inhibitions; so I was constrained to engage a private detective to find that out to counter her strategy in the court.”
He stopped at that as if the findings were distasteful for their recollection leave alone narration.
“Skip that if it’s hurting,” she said pressing his hand.
“It really hurts but so be it,” he continued uninhibited. “When it came to light that she was living with that man after ruining my life, I was devastated to say the least though her unseemly conduct would make her case for maintenance collapse like a house of cards in the court hall. Yet it didn’t appeal to my sense of decency to go to town with her dubious character to score over her; so I sought her in the court premises and told her that her only saving grace lies in setting me free without any strings attached to our separation. Luckily for me, she saw the writing on the wall and saved me the shame of shaming my wife to save my skin.”
“Are you bitter feeling betrayed?” she said.
“Not after I could view the web of our wedlock through her marital prism,” he said. “She believed that the material fringes make value additions to life without which she saw it merely as a wasteful living. Maybe, one can fault her outlook of life that too at the cost of being judgmental but can’t really blame her for wanting to lead a life she wanted to live. But the moot point is the way she went about it which of course depends on one’s nature and character in the given circumstances, and that’s in the realms of morality which is a different subject altogether. Anyway, all that helped me to see life in more ways than one.”
“Now it helps me too?” she said.
“Anyway, after that four-year court ordeal my lawyer managed to get the court’s nod to untie our nuptial knot, and that tells a different story about the judicial apathy,” he continued. “You would’ve read a lot about our country’s judicial jigsaw but I’ll tell you something about its innate stupidity. On any given day, the so-called cause list, containing more cases than a Bakasur of a judge can bite, consumes much of, if not all, his pre-lunch session in routinely granting adjournments on one ground or the other. That only leaves the post lunch session for him to masticate a couple of cases at best with witnesses, arguments, and such. What a colossal waste of scarce court, nay public, time and yet wonder why it won’t occur to the wisemen in the black robes to take only that much in their judicial plates at a time as they can bite and chew as well.”
“Why, the insiders seldom have an outside view,” she said.
“That apart, the very idea of change is an anathema to the status quo,” he said. “It didn’t take me long to realize that our Byzantine system suits the culprits in the criminal cases, vexes the righteous in the civil suits and hurts the hurt in the divorce matters. That’s how I felt that I should try to contribute my little bit to hasten the justice delivery; moreover as our company was in doldrums by then, I saw the legal profession as a long-term career option for me. So, I opted to study law in an evening college to eventually enroll myself at the bar.”
“I do remember that your grandfather was a lawyer,” she said.
“A law author at that but wonder why he didn’t advise me to step into his shoes then,” he said.
“Better late than never and I’m sure his genes are serving you well at the bar,” she said.
“Maybe my impulse to serve at the bar itself owes to them,” he said with a sense of satisfaction. “You may know he was known to fight on the right side of justice so much so that the judges tend to pre-judge the cases that he had advocated, but on the flipside, it didn’t yield him the monetary returns the profession is known to yield to its protagonists. Possibly, my career graph too could follow his curve, and I won’t grumble about that but anyway that’s in the realms of the future.”
“I hope ethics and wealth would blend in your career,” she said.
“That is practice willing,” he said smilingly.
“By the way, have you ever tried to find me out all these years?” she said.
“Frankly, no for I always felt that while gentlemen remain cold to their old flames, blaggards inflame them,” he said with conviction.
“It’s gentlemanly, really,” she said taking his hand.
“Glad you appreciate,” he said pressing her hand.
“Be good to show me her picture,” she said smilingly.
Having handed over his marriage album to her, he went into the kitchen as it occurred to him that he missed his smoke all along.
‘Won’t her manner suggest that she is thinking in terms of picking up the threads?’ he began to contemplate as he prepared some coffee for them. ‘What could be her marital status? Given her rich manner, she could’ve married a well-heeled man. What if she’s either divorced, or god forbid, widowed? But seeing my net worth won’t add up to much why would she marry me now? By any chance, is the idea of an affair with an old flame moving her? If so, what a bonanza it would be with her enhanced allure. Or has she simply come to see me driven out of mere curiosity? Whatever, I shouldn’t be too eager as it’s wise to be once bitter twice shy.’
“Oh, thanks,” she said as he handed her a cup of coffee, “but surely she’s a good looker.”
“It’s no use crying over spilt milk,” he said. “The irony of it all is, having lost your hand; I had to wait so long for a like hand. Maybe, a lesser hand would’ve served me well but that’s about ifs and buts of life. Well, what about showing me the picture of the man you gave your hand to?”
“Why jump the gun, first let’s go to my place,” she said.
“Let me have a shower then,” he said heading for the bath.
While he had his bath, speculating about the possibilities of her current station in life, she leafed through his marriage album all again.
“What about hiring a cab for us,” he said all ready to go.
“I’ve come in my car,” she said.
“Then I’ll follow you on my motorbike,” he said tentatively.
“What if you lose me in the traffic; I’ll be back to square one,” she said smilingly, and added. “So, I’ll take you in my car tied with the seat belt.”
“You can take me blindfolded if you wish,” he said as he led her out of his apartment.
“If you come with an open-mind that would do,” she said overtaking him to reach her car.
Part 2
As Priya drove him into the sprawling compound of an elite complex, Venu began to see the futility of his daydreams entertained in his modest dwelling.
‘Is not our status gap too wide to fill?’ he thought as she drove the car to her duplex villa. ‘Surely she would’ve known that the moment she stepped into my apartment. What for then has she brought me to her arena than to show me my place? Didn’t she hint that I’m better open-minded? What a tease it is? Oh, how I brought it upon myself; instead of being formal, I got warmer to her. Why the women in my life are so cruel to me. What if I deny her the vicarious pleasure by bidding her adieu at her doorstep itself? Won’t it serve her right?’
Parking the car in her portico when Priya nudged him towards the main door; he looked at her as if to read her mind for a clue to her intentions.
‘Am I seeing the devil in a Devi,’ he began to rethink on his vacillating ground. ‘Why am I not being able to give allowance to her genuine change of heart? Willy-nilly, have I become a misogamist without my knowing about that? Maybe that’s the damage my aborted marriage caused to my psyche, but I should not allow that to ruin my life. Why place the cart before the horse, let her show her hand now. ’
Thus as he stood at the doorstep, she stepped in to usher him in.
“Oh my man, tell my name,” she said in all smiles.
Her strange welcome made him co-relate it with her ‘customary entry’ statement at his place, and that brought to the fore the fuss his folks made to force him and Chitra to tell each other’s names to grant visa to enter his apartment. So it dawned on him that she could be alluding to the just weds’ entry into their marital home, and that raised his hopes all again.
“Oh, Priya,” he said tentatively as she took his hand.
“Welcome, though belated,” she said pressing his hand.
While she led him round her luxurious villa, to his dismay, he saw their economic disparity in full view.
“It’s frightfully rich,” he said as they returned to the drawing hall.
“Don’t frighten me like that,” she said as if pleadingly.
“Again I’m sorry, if I’ve sounded so,” he said taking her hand.
“Do you know what it cost me?” she said leading him to a sofa.
“I’m not yet into the real estate business,” he said in jest taking his seat.
“The price I paid for it is the self-imposed tax on my life,” she began by taking his hand, “After you stopped seeing me, as I started missing you, I developed second thoughts, and even as I was slowly veering towards you, as luck would have it, Veda my cousin visited us after a long gap. After her graduation, even as she wanted to marry her classmate for love, her father forced her to tie her life with a better qualified though oldish looking man, twelve years her senior. Though I was five years her junior, she treated me as a friend and used to confide in me a lot, so she was wont to lament then that as her uninspiring man fails to excite her, she lies as cold fish in her nuptial bed; that was shortly after her marriage but as if fate didn’t intend our union yet, she changed tack during that fateful visit. She said that it’s as well that her father derailed her love for she came to realize that there are other womanly wants that only a man of means can meet; so she maintained that in the long run love alone is of no avail to woman’s life. And that was that.”
“Won’t my story vindicate that, so no faulting that,” he said melancholically.
“Never mind women’s outcry about their lot in the man’s world,” she said after pressing his hand with empathy, “with a little bit of looks and a fair amount of luck, marriage tends them into exalted settings. However, save a slave of Razia Sultana, that could seldom be the case with men for woman tends to look up her station for her mate. Thus, banking on my good looks, even as I raised my matrimonial bar beyond the reach of the suitable boys of the middle class but the upper class parents either cold-shouldered my father’s overtures or pegged the dowry over the moon. Yet it took me quite a while to realize that the marital bar I set was beyond me to cross over onto the higher material zone. So, when my hopes became dupes, giving go ahead to my sister’s out of turn wedding, I came here to increase my social height by becoming a chartered accountant.”
“Wonder how you grew so much in a short time!” he said admiringly.
“But it took twenty years for the world to become small for us,” she said wryly. “So, I plunged myself headlong into the accounting field with a single-mindedness that even surprised me. Goaded by my aptitude and guided by my guru, I reached my chartered goal in the top gear that is even as I pursued the company secretary course to its fruition. Soon, I began my journey in the corporate world to improve my clout on the marital front that too with great expectations. But lo, as I upped the ante, my aura upended my marital equation; so with no right man in sight, I became an old maid in the end. See the irony of worldly success as it affects the sexes; it helps man make a cut with women, the higher his status all the more he attracts women, but it fails the fair sex by constraining men from courting them, and what’s worse, the lower a female on the social ladder, even more she’s a game for all and sundry.”
“Don’t tell me that you couldn’t find your right man in the right time,” he said.
“Maybe I might’ve but I couldn’t recognize him even if I had chanced to meet him that is after losing you,” she said melancholically. “It’s not just the case with me alone nor is it peculiar only to women. It’s natural for both sexes to eye a dream match but the hazard lies in their inability to picture it on the canvas of reality with the colors of probability. If done, that would enable them to have an idea of the vaunted one for face recognition as and when that one turns up to ring the wedding bells; if not, it would be a case of passing over an optimal match in time in one’s vague lookout for something better that is till the law of diminishing returns catches up. More than boys, girls seem to be losers in their search for a better match, and it is equally lost on both the sexes that their best probable mates appear in first batches.”
“Why this feature of life is memorably captured in Benign Flame,” he quoted from his memory. “In case of man, ‘with his eligibility on the wane and despondency on the raise, he lands up with a languid dame for all the sprightly in the race would have married by then’ and with regard to woman, ‘it does often happen that a maiden would shun a Gog in time, only to opt for a Magog, past her prime, wasting her time in the meantime’, and that’s sad indeed.”
“What about opting for the Gog past her prime?” she said affecting to be jovial.
“That could be an interesting story, if there’s any,” he said half in jest.
“Isn’t that possible to make it interesting?” she said smilingly, “but getting back to my past; after we parted, my daydreams made me chase the mirage of a better match for over three years and then my dream career that followed only raised the bar of attrition for my bridal hand even more. Maybe, my manner too conveyed my contempt for the ‘not so well to do’ to act as a barrier to keep the unsuitable boys at bay, so none bothered me with their advances. It’s thus, catapulted into the material zone, as I looked down upon the also-rans in the rat race of life, I lost my way to the altar even when it was high time to ascend it. Yet, as the goodies of life that I was able to acquire and enjoy afforded me a sense of material fulfillment, I got used to live in a make-believe world blissfully unaware of what I’ve been missing.”
She paused as if to regrasp what she had been losing.
“But the hour of reckoning came at the dawn of my thirtieth birthday,” she resumed her recap of the way she had waded through the web of wedlock. “That’s nearly ten years after life first took me to the crossroads of marriage, and some parallel here with Chitra for it’s at that age she entered your life. By then, winning the trust and confidence of one of the bigwigs of the business world in town, I became the company secretary of his corporation of amalgamations. Early that morning, the old man came to our ladies’ hostel with a greeting card and a birthday cake to grant me the leave of absence for the day. After he left, being on cloud nine, as I read a letter tucked in the greeting card, I was nonplussed.”
“Did he propose to you or what?” he said in jest.
“Well, his thirty-five year-old heir to his business empire lost his wife after she delivered a still born boy, and simply put, he wanted me to fill the void in his son’s life,” she said. “But knowing that I thought of his son, our director without a portfolio, as a good for nothing, he penned a rosy picture of mine wielding the real power as the future empress of his vast enterprise and all that goes with it. Not failing to address the maternal weakness of the feminine gender, he made me envision the scepter being passed on to the one borne out of my womb. In short, that long letter carried everything to seduce any woman, more so an ambitious one, into that corporate wedlock.”
“So, you became Mrs. Somebody,” he said withdrawing his hand that she was holding all along.
“You can relax for now,” she said in all smiles taking his hand all again. “Somehow, wedding the widower didn’t appeal to me, in spite of his wealth and status not discounting his good looks. Though I was old enough to be objective in these matters, yet I allowed myself to be swayed by this girlish whim on that count. That apart, as I started delving into the matter, so to say, I began to rediscover myself; true, to begin with, I craved for a rich lifestyle and hoped to facilitate it through matrimony, and when I realized its improbability, at least in my case, I strived to improve it on my own accord, and succeeded too, to the extent possible. After all that which made me an old maid, my fate seemed to beckon a life of unimagined riches and high social profile but with a rider, as would often be the case, that is to wed someone whom I didn’t admire. So, realizing that even as I made money the crux of my life, the core of it was the quality of my mate, I declined the proposal.”
“How strange, after ignoring my hand devoid of means, you gave up his in spite of its plentiful wealth! Surely it requires a rare strength of character that I never credited you with,” he said in all admiration.
“Thanks for your appreciation,” she said pressing his hand. “Then as it occurred to me that we could’ve as well built a material edifice on our marital ground, I realized my stupidity in nixing you. Hoping against hope, even as I made up my mind to try to reach you, slighted by my snub, the old man made it untenable for me to continue in his employment; so I had to resign to retain my self-esteem. So, even as I looked around for my proper relocation, my father had finally managed to fix my sister’s marital destination; well, unlike me, she remained rooted to the ground and was no mean a looker either but yet for long she too couldn’t wade through the complex web of wedlock that you so well described. Whatever, that led me to the station of our separation to try my luck to ascertain your location, but I came a cropper at the factory you worked and the room you tenanted not to speak of the college you attended.”
“It’s all the more painful that I wasn’t married as yet then,” he said in vexation, “So as to put my disappointing past behind me, I distanced myself from my acquaintances there. But for that, maybe it would’ve been a different story and that brings home the truism that our nature is our fate.”
Wanting to smoke, he withdrew his hand that she still held, and added, “If you don’t mind, I would like to smoke.”
“Surely I would, if you smoke alone,” she said mischievously.
She picked a Gold Flake King on offer and he lighted it for her before lighting his.
“What about some whisky as a return of favor?” she said taking a puff.
“Why not if it adds flavour to your narrative,” he said smilingly.
“Soon after my sister packed off to her marital home, my father bestowed a like amount on me that he spent on her wedding,” she resumed as they started their drink. “With my staying power thus enhanced, I set up my private practice, and what’s more, dabbled in the stock market to augment my income in the meantime.
Soon I happened to run with the bulls at the bourses before catching the scrips at their tails in their bear hugs only to triple my stock holdings before the former ran amuck all again. Maybe, I owe that as much to my luck as my nature for I always believed in a definitive today rather than an unknown tomorrow. Whatever, with part of that windfall, I booked this villa still on the drawing board then.”
“I’m sure you’ve added your touch to its interior décor,” he said admiringly.
“Without realizing that possibly it could please you,” she said looking at him endearingly and continued to recap her past, holding her glass. “Soon, as my practice picked up, so to say, I had no time to breathe. But as I made my small bucks, my profession enabled me to have a closer look at the big bucks, and that changed my outlook of the moneyed. I could see that manipulation is the underpinning of undue wealth and fraud is the architect of the filthy riches. What is galling is that when it comes to the entrepreneurs, the system succors the fraudulent among them on the specious ground that if they were to be squeezed hard then their enterprises go bust leaving the employees high and dry. That way, the bigger the business entity, the greater would be the leeway for its promoters to loot the banks and scoot with the public wealth with impunity that is. So, is the case with the unscrupulous officials, the higher their position in the system all the better protection from prosecution! Thus it dawned upon me that I wasted my youth wanting to wed someone with a potential to game the system with utter disregard for the public good not to speak of the national interest.”
She emptied her glass as though to exhibit her state of emptiness she experienced then and refilled it as if to show him the urge she has developed to redress the situation.
“How I cursed myself then for losing you I only knew,” she said wiping her wetted eyes. “I was about to touch thirty-five then, and realizing that crying over spilt milk would only make it worse, so as to get the best out of a bad bargain, I looked around for a decent man never mind his financial position. But it didn’t take me long to realize that the phenomenon you quoted from Benign Flame is not peculiar to men alone as most of them nature intended for me had already tied the knot by then. However, as someone suggested one who seemed right for me; he not only looked decent but also carried himself well, so thinking that I could at least be lucky the second time, I began dating him. But soon I could see through him, credit woman’s sixth sense, that as much as he liked me, he had an eye on my money as well. Yet, as I didn’t want to let my surmises spoil my second chance, I got his background checked, which revealed that he was neck deep in debts being an inveterate spendthrift ever fond of an easy life. So that was that.”
Mixing another drink for them and discerning a sense of ease in him, she was amused at the value men attach to the virginity of their brides never mind their own nocturnal forays into women’s sexual fortresses.
“What next in your marital suspense,” he said as she remained silent for long.
“Not the climax,” she said smilingly.
“When we reach it, maybe that could be engaging,” he said prognostically.
“Let’s hope so,” she said looking at the antique clock, “but it’s time I cooked something for dinner.”
“If it’s not my goose, I love to assist you,” he said in jest.
“Am I a fool to have brought you all the way for that?” she said coyly.
Confining their talk to generalities, they went about preparing some sambar and alu fry, and when finished, she excused herself to have her bath.
‘So far the script is promising but what after the interval,’ he began to review their exciting encounter. ‘No doubt she sounds sincere in whatever she says. It takes some strength of character to say no to such a rich man’s hand never mind his meager mind. She comes out as a highly evolved and principled person, won’t that make her an ideal foil for my philosophical disposition. Moreover, hasn’t she rekindled my old flame with a burning desire for a conjugal life with her? But the only hitch is our economic disparity that might discomfort both of us; but sensible that we are, maybe we can talk about it if we come that far, won’t we? All said and done, if I were to miss her again now, life could be more burdensome than ever for the hopes she has raised in me; let me see what it holds in store for me. Won’t I know that soon enough?’
It’s thus he waited for her return in all anticipation.
‘So far so good but what after I disclose that,’ she began thinking after recalling the sequence of events starting from that heartwarming moment of seeing his photo in the divorcee’s folder in the marriage bureau. ‘Surely he’s on track but what if he backtracks after knowing my doings. Am I not neck deep in love with him already, in a girlish way; better late than never, and what a feeling it is to fall in love. Oh, what an extraordinary man he is to have foregone the marital joys that too with a sexy dame just to uphold his moral uprightness. Hats off to him and given my own disposition, won’t I gloat over being his wife that too seeing him adorning the bar in a principled manner. No way am I going to lose him now, at any cost that is. What if I don’t disclose? Well, besides being unfair to him, I cannot reconcile myself with such falsity. I shall kiss and tell and, if need be, beg him to have me now and here.’
Reaching her wardrobe after her bath, she scanned it for an appropriate wear and having zeroed in on a white voile sari with a thin gold border to adorn herself with a maroon sleeveless blouse, she set out on her seductive mission. Thus dressed to kill, when she reached him tentatively, he kept staring at her as if in a trance.
“Hi, Venu where are you lost?” she said coquettishly.
“Oh, Priya, you look splendid in this dress!” he said admiringly.
“So, let me thank my sari,” she said smilingly, and kissed its pallu mischievously.
“You’re impossible,” he said feigning helplessness.
“Why give up dear,” she said sitting beside him.
“I’m all eager to hear,” he said gluing his eyes on her.
She refilled their glasses as though to provide fillip to her narrative and he offered her another fag as if to let their smoke-filled puffs herald that to his ears.
“Don’t mistake me as a drunkini, I just want to shed my inhibitions,” she said coyly.
“You’re welcome to have more of both,” he said smilingly.
“That’s lovely; soon after that fiasco of a date, Rekha became my personal secretary to redraw the lines of my life,” she began blushing to the core. “In my depressed state, her vivacity drew her closer to me though she was ten years younger than me. Not wanting her to tread on the perilous path of vacuous maidenhood, even as I made my confused life an open book for her, she took me into every recess of her exuberant mind, and that brought us even more emotionally closer. Besides, the way I handled the grapes of wrath made me her role model, and what’s more, she came to develop affection for me bordering on fetishism. By then this villa too was ready for occupation and she too was bowled over by its splendor; so I suggested that she may as well stay with me; and true to her character, not wanting to take advantage of my liking for her, she insisted on becoming my paying guest. So to say, my admiration for her and her adoration of me insensibly fused in the ambience of this exotic setting that we shared thereafter.’
She asked for another cigarette and began puffing away at it as if to puncture the smokescreen to bring into his view the secrets her place contained.
“That night, when I complained of body pain that didn’t yield to the Dolo,” she said bowing her head. “Rekha set out to massage me but hindered by my clothing, she undressed me in stages, and finding it exciting, I wasn’t inclined to resist her from embarking upon that erotic course. Soon, as if to rest her hands that massaged my naked frame, she supplanted her mouth to do their bidding, and that made me feel even more ecstatic. But when she started sucking my assets, her sensual act acquired a sexual slant to my immense delight. So, it’s only time before I too turned her nude to savor her luscious figure in my erotic mood, which set us on a lesbian course. Lying fulfilled in our embrace, as we exchanged notes, it became apparent that it was a chance encounter, brought about by her adoration for me and my admiration for her that robbed our virginity, if it can be said so.”
“It may not be fair to ask for her picture but..,” he said hesitantly.
“I wouldn’t show that to anyone else but you,” she said coyly.
“I swear I’ll keep your secret, hers included,” he said gesturing his intent.
“You don’t need to do that for you’ve proved yourself to be a gentleman twice over,” she said getting up from the sofa.
“I’m glad you regard me well,” he said as she moved towards the staircase.
‘Seemingly he’s not scandalized by my lesbian leanings, and it’s but natural that he wants to have a measure of my mate,’ she thought on her way to her bedroom.
Having picked up the photo album of her pictures with Rekha from a cupboard, she thought, ‘Why not I let him have a full measure of both of us; won’t that tilt his scale of temptation in my bisexual direction? It would for sure.’
While she was weighing her options thus, Venu took stock of the peculiar situation.
‘What charms life holds and what turns it takes,’ he began thinking. ‘But why is she making a clean breast of herself? Is it that she wants to start life afresh with me; or is it to alert me about her lesbian character? It’s all so intriguing, let me see how it all ends.’
About to step out of her bedroom with her laptop containing the folder of her intimacy, she went back to her wardrobe to pick up her light blue nylon lingerie to foretell him what was in the offing. Thus, displaying her provocative figure in that enticing attire, when she descended the staircase, espying her wide-eyed, he became ecstatic in divining her underlying figure. Thus reaching him enchantingly and sitting beside him coquettishly, as if to steady his nerves, she shared her drink with him; but soon, having placed the laptop in his lap, she leaned on his shoulder as though to guide him through her lesbian course with Rekha.
“Both of you shame those Playboy girls,” he said without taking his eyes off the very first picture.
“I’m sure Rekha would also love to kiss your eyes,” she said in utter relief.
“Thanks for your extraordinary openness,” he said pressing her hand.
“Move the cursor for more of it,” she winked at him.
As he went on feasting his eyes on the lesbian doings of the mates, she kept on looking at him in all desire.
“Maybe these are among the most sensuous acts ever pictured,” he said in all admiration, “but who has captured this sexual intimacy so vividly!”
“I’ll come to that later but for your current account these are last year’s figures,” she said coquettishly.
“You’re really impossible Priya,” he said pressing her bare shoulder.
“Now that you hold the sketches of its physicality, I shall paint them with the emotionality of lesbianism for you,” she said eloquently. “You know that the essence of lovemaking lies in the pleasure of giving and the ecstasy of receiving; in man-woman coition, given the differing physical means of give and take, the attendant emotional experiences that invariably vary are beyond each other’s grasp. As I’m a virgin in that sense, it’s only my visualization subject to your correction (she winked at him). But in the lesbian union, the biological medium of giving and receiving being the same, it affords the mates an emotional equivalence on an unvarying libidinous plane. I suppose the same cannot be said about the gay get-togethers.”
“Why, you make me feel like a sexual midget,” he said in great awe.
“I would withdraw my words then,” she said in jest.
“Jokes apart, your understanding of sexuality is remarkable,” he said.
“Better brush up your vocabulary for adjectives as I’m going to quote Dhaatri, the Lady Vātsyāyana, who clicked those pictures you savoured,” she said smilingly. “She’s Rekha’s close acquaintance during her hostel days; last year she came here to attend some wedding but stayed with us to catch up with her, and instead she latched onto us both. Sensing our intimacy, she seduced us into an orgy with her own threesome tales of manly kind. After clocking over twenty years in a loving and trustful wedlock, her husband wanted it opened for double-teaming her with a younger male. Though excited herself about its sexual potential, yet she was skeptical about the marital blowback; the possibility of their threesome farce inhibiting his libidos key to open their wedlock even for their twosome fare.”
“I’ve read that such sexual adventures are psychologically hazardous,” he said in interruption.
“But he asserted that given her innate biology and imbibed sexuality,” she continued unabashedly, “woman could achieve her full sexual potential only when double-teamed in a threesome and as for the husband, if he fails to facilitate it for her, at least on occasion, he would be failing her and himself as well. Seeing her soften a bit, he maintained that inherently women are as promiscuous as men and assured her that he was mature enough to appreciate that it is but natural for woman to enjoy sex with any man other than her man. When he capped his sexual logic with the emotional appeal that she may see him joyous espying her threesome joys, even she mentally readied herself to be double-teamed, he set out to find a suitable stud in the dating sites. Soon as their first threesome went as envisaged by him, which thrilled her to the cores in both ends, on and off, he was won’t to fetch a stranger to fend for her sexual ends sans emotional hiccups.”
“Remarkable couple to say the least,” he said.
“What is more relevant,” she said, “while enjoying her threesome sexual fare, strange it may seem, she found herself becoming emotionally closer to her man with each such encounter, and he too became more loving and desirous of her, as such a highly desirable woman.”
“So, the altruism of threesome is man’s realization that it’s in the nature of sex that his wife enjoys it with other males as much as with him, and vice versa,” he thought aloud. “But as it could be way beyond the weak hearts, its better that the couples look before they leap, isn’t it?”
“No denying it calls for nuanced thinking with marital bonding,” she said shedding her own inhibitions. “So, enjoying lesbianism with us and extolling the ecstasy of double-teaming, she revealed to us how physical attraction and sexual chemistry play their part in sensual enjoyment; while the physical attraction induces sexual desire, it’s the sexual chemistry that imparts quality to lovemaking; and as if to underscore the potency of our sexual chemistry, she had extended her stay by a week for our threesome thrill.”
“Mature stuff, really,” he said.
“Have a measure of Dhaatri as well,” she said opening a new folder, “though not in nude.”
“What do you take me for, a compulsive voyeur or what?” he said smilingly, “but surely, she wouldn’t have been an odd woman out in your threesome.”
“If I get a chance, I would convey your compliments to her,” she said coyly. “But shortly after she left, leaving those snaps behind, Rekha went to her native for the first death anniversary of her sister two years older to her. That being our first separation after our union, as I was finding it hard to cope with that loneliness, she returned to announce her engagement with her widowed brother-in-law, induced by her family.”
“What, in this age and times!” he said.
“To start with, he was no oldie of a filmy b-i-l,” she said. “Actually he was quite handsome besides being well healed and was known to be kind and considerate as well. Moreover, as he became a part of their family, her parents were keen to keep him in her wedlock, and she too had no earthly reason to negate him; so, ironically, I had to supervise her post-nuptial bidai ceremony. Whatever, she said her marriage won’t hamper our intimacy in any way for she made him privy to our affection for which he had no objection. Thus, sometime after their honeymoon, when she wanted to be with me, he wanted to accompany her for sight-seeing, and as she saw no more into it they came in tow. But as it transpired, the very first night, when she bid him good night to make it to my bed, he wanted her to persuade me for our threesome failing which, he made it clear to her that we have to forego our own lesbian joys. Needless to say, she was utterly shocked at his sexual blackmail of a different kind.”
“Maybe that album could’ve caused that temptation,” he said amusedly.
“It’s not the case as that’s confined only to my laptop and opened to your eyes only,” she said coyly. “Seeing her shamefaced, though I pressed her for long, she didn’t open her mouth that was until he called for her; but when she revealed, I was raveled, and as he called her again, I managed to mutter that if only he tried to woo me, then maybe I would’ve allowed myself to be seduced by him. However, she told me to expect her later as she would put him to sleep with a sleeping pill or two for he was habituated to drink milk before going to bed. Well, we always kept a stock of them at home, just in case, and that came in handy; and we both felt that it was a fit case for use as there was no other way.”
“I’m coming to admire you more and more,” he said taking her hand.
“So, sometime thereafter, she sneaked into my bed for the last time,” she said reminiscently. “She said that she herself was taken aback by his weird proposition and jokingly blamed my charms for his out of character behavior. She said though she can’t fault him for coveting me, she was embarrassed by his crassness in going about it all. She hoped that as and when the devil gets out of his head, he may come back to his senses to regain his understanding nature, and said that in the meantime, we’ve to keep our amour on hold as it made no sense for her to antagonize him.”
“I can’t but admire her for her sensible resolution to such a conflict of interest,’ he said.
“True, and I too didn’t grudge her when she told me that she has realized that for a bisexual, lesbianism though a value addition is no substitution for copulation,” she said amorously, “So, exhorting me to have a man in my life before it’s too late, she said that as an honorable exception, she would love to join me in a threesome with my husband as and when I take one. She said that as her man won’t be in a hurry to send her here, she suggested that we may make love in some hotel in her town and hoped that it would be sooner than later; and to avoid any communication gap, she gave me half a dozen cell numbers of her friends and relatives to reach her, just in case. But don’t think that I told you about her threesome intent to incentivize you in any way; it’s just that I don’t want to filter out anything, now or ever. So, as though driven by the thought that we’ve to keep our love on hold indefinitely, we indulged to the hilt all that night. But the next day, as he led her out in a huff, I felt as if my soul has sapped from my body.”
She paused as if to retrieve her lost love.
“I can feel you loss,” he said taking her hand.
“I can feel your empathy,” she said pressing his hand.
“What a woman you’re Priya!” he said pressing both her shoulders.
“Thank you but sorry for starving you,” she said leading him to the dining table.
When she set the table, immersed in their own thoughts, they started having their meal.
‘What’s on her mind, would she propose now?’ he began thinking. ‘It’s quite likely she would, but won’t her economic clout leave me playing the second fiddle to her. Even for love, I won’t like it for sure, besides that would sour our love party much before the seven- year itch. And what about her lesbianism that could only complicate matters; but would it really? Why that may even open up my own sexual frontiers courtesy her threesomes, is not Rekha already waiting in the wings to extend our honeymoon with her bisexual fare? It may not be long before Priya would like to experience the Dhaatri thrill in our threesome bed, or even seek wife-swap with her man. Well, when she’s a game to give me, why not I let her get it; and we’ve her guru’s word that it does a world of good, isn’t it? Well, whichever course our life may take, I cannot afford to lose her all again for whatever reason; am I not already dying to possess her forthwith.”
He looked at her as if to see through her mind.
“What could she be thinking about?” he thought on second thoughts, “Is it about how to bring the curtains down after opening up of her stage? What if all her sexual overtures are unusual flirtations; is it possible that she’s a habitual flirt? Maybe she had flirted with me and the others she mentioned; worse still, is she a lesbian averse to men? But am I not being unfair to her, oh, why am I letting my imagination run amuck? Has my troubled marriage robbed trustfulness without my knowing it? Could be, but I can’t let it affect my future; I shall be open minded for sure, and that’s what she expects, doesn’t she?’
While he was lost in his thoughts thus, she tried to grapple with his doubts.
‘After all the warmth, what if he develops cold feet?” she thought nervously. ‘Not on account of my lesbianism for he’s seemingly reconciled to it but given his nature, he would be averse to live off me, and that could be the real hurdle to our wedlock. But then, why can’t I move into his flat as a way out, surely I would, if that’s the only hitch. Anyway, I won’t lose him this time; surely I shall have him whatever it takes, now and here. What about him, is he not sex-starved for so long; why not I broach the topic to set the tune? ’
After dinner, as if to make a statement, he began assisting her in cleaning the table.
“If I may know,” she said and paused.
“I too will make my life an open book for you, if I haven’t already done,” he said.
“I mean your sex life,” she said coyly.
“I hope much of it lies in the future,” he said smilingly.
“Are you not shifting the burden?” she said coquettishly.
While he made her privy to his brief encounters with the call girls, she set out to prepare pan for them, but soon finding only one cigarette in his packet, when he offered to fetch some more, saying that she kept stock at home, she led him into her bedroom; and after they had their pan and finished smoking, wanting him to protrude his tongue, she did likewise.
“As yours is blood red, it portends love for you wife,” she said coyly.
“If the saying is true then your man too won’t be in want of it,” he said smilingly.
“That way it is tempting isn’t it?” she said heartily.
“I’m eager to hear the rest of your story?” he said lighting another cigarette.
“Well, as I was living in a void ever since her loss two months back, my life began craving for a companion,” she began as though in a hurry to finish it. “Maybe owing to Dhaatri’s narrative and Rekha’s advice, as my urge took the heterosexual turn, I toyed with the idea of marriage all again. So, I looked around for marriage bureaus, and impressed with Renuka’s pitch — All marriages are made in heaven but some are delayed on earth: We endeavor to hasten them all — and hoping that I could be third time lucky, I’ve been to her place this evening. Lo, leafing through the files, when I came across your picture, I couldn’t believe my eyes. So without much ado, I rushed to you with my application.”
“Somehow my registration has gone out of my mind,” he said.
“Would you mind taking my hand now?” she said extending her hand.
“Don’t you think it’s beyond my economic grasp?” he said in spite of himself.
“I’ll give up all to be your wife,” she said taking his hand.
Holding her hand and staring into her eyes, he thought for long that seemed ages for her.
“Glad you’ve said that,” he said at length, “but as you’ve lost so much in acquiring all this, it would be unfair to ask you to forego it for my sake; maybe the real issue is the male ego that I’ve to tackle myself.”
“Well, I only made some money at the cost of my life, but even imperiling your marriage, you’d enriched ethics by resisting the lures of the graft. So, as I see, that settles our score once and for all in your favor, and moreover, won’t the Gita aver, ‘Wise neither want, nor they shun / That’s how they give up ever engaged’. So do become my wise head.”
“I understand that but still.. “
As though more of his apprehensions were of no avail, closing his mouth with her palm and pushing him on the sofa, she sealed his lips with hers to wade through the web of wedlock.
NOT THE END, JUST A BEGINNING | https://medium.com/@bulususmurthy/of-no-avail-web-of-wedlock-fe8e1f10d9 | ['Bs Murthy'] | 2021-04-25 15:14:24.309000+00:00 | ['Literature', 'Novel', 'Lesbian', 'Indian', 'Love'] |
The Impact Of Gender-Neutral Muisjes | The Dutch have a solid reputation for having some very strange kinds of foods in our culture. Kroketten, drop, hagelslag, stroopwafels, kruidnoten… you know the drill. Across the board, most of our strange foodstuffs that aren’t deep-fried are sweet. Sometimes sickly sweet. And one of those things is muisjes.
Muisjes (“little mice”), as seen in the image above, are traditionally eaten on beschuit (Dutch rusk). Usually with some butter to make sure they don’t fall off. And not only that, this tradition is widely associated with the birth of a child. “ Beschuit met muisjes “ has become firmly ingrained in our minds as a childbirth-related thing. So much even, that can use it to announce your pregnancy by saying that you’ll be serving beschuit met muisjes later that year.
The muisjes controversy
But however charming this little tradition sounds, it’s also fraught with controversy. Controversy over a sickly sweet rusk topping, you might ask? Absolutely.
You see, as with a lot of things in western culture, pink muisjes are associated with girls, and blue muisjes with boys. So if you have a girl, you serve pink-and-white muisjes, and if it’s a boy, blue-and-white muisjes. Expecting parents also use it to reveal to other people what gender your unborn baby is going to be, once you’ve found out at the OB/GYN.
Traditions aren’t sacred
To most, this probably sounds innocent enough. But now that our knowledge about sex and gender is expanding, it’s time to critically scrutinize this tradition. After all, traditions stem from the past, by definition. And since our perceptions of what’s normal and what’s ethical are continually progressing, that means that some traditions may end up seriously outdated.
After all, owning slaves was also a ‘tradition’ of sorts: something that was deemed normal, a part of the culture, and that was passed down through the generations. It was also a ‘tradition’ that women didn’t work but stayed home to take care of housekeeping and of the children.
Luckily, that has all changed, for the most part. But there are still some cultural revolutions in progress that aren’t well understood yet. And one of those is the concept of gender neutrality.
A short while ago, Dutch muisjes manufacturer De Ruijter announced that it doesn’t rule out the production of gender-neutral muisjes in the future. And as you can imagine, Facebook blew up.
Most of the comments were somewhere along the lines of ‘the world has gone mad’, or ‘why do we have to change everything for those snowflakes?’. And I understand that it might seem like a nonsensical, tiny thing, to create special gender-neutral muisjes. Who cares about the color of a sweet rusk topping, right? The baby isn’t even capable of noticing it anyway, right? And a baby doesn’t know what their gender is going to be, right?
Well… it’s a little more complicated than that. Let me explain.
Pink for girls, blue for boys?
In general terms, most people agree that pink is a girls’ color and blue is a boys’ color. We think of pink dresses and barbie dolls and hairbrushes, and blue toy cars and superhero suits and building blocks. But what came first, our association with pink for girls, or the assignment of pink as a girls’ color? It could be a chicken-and-egg story, but in this case, there’s an answer.
Already eight years ago, LiveScience published this blog post, examining why we associate these colors with these genders. As it turns out, there’s no real biological explanation for the assignment of these colors.
Cohen adds that […] all other evidence indicates that, today, we differentiate children by gender much more than we did 150 years ago, when babies of either gender were typically outfitted in white dresses. The recent strengthening of gender-color associations must be cultural, he argues, leaving little room for the notion that each sex has evolved its own color preference.
There were times when pink was advised for boys. That was mainly because its proximity to red made it a stronger and more aggressive color. Blue was more subdued, and considered more delicate and therefore more associated with girls.
But however it came to be, the fact remains that the only real reason we associate colors with gender is just because we do. That might sound like circular reasoning, but that’s because it is (see what I did there?). It displays how social constructs perpetuate themselves. We’ve gotten so used to seeing pink associated with girls, that we associate pink with girls. We don’t feel ‘boy’ when we see blue, and we don’t feel ‘girl’ when we see pink. So we buy and advertise pink stuff for girls, and blue stuff for boys. And since the girls now mostly have pink stuff and the boys have blue stuff, we associate pink with girls and blue with boys. And so the cycle continues.
Sex and gender
The assignment of a certain color to a certain gender is fairly arbitrary. Nevertheless, it’s accepted by almost everybody. But that’s problematic.
The problem is that we assign these colors to certain genders. We think that we assign them to sexes, but in reality we assign them to genders, not sexes. And this is a very important distinction to make. They’re still used interchangeably very often, but by having two separate words, we have the opportunity to separate two equally separate things.
What does sex mean?
Of course I’m not talking about that thing that (usually) happens in the bedroom. In this case, sex is the overarching term describing the biological differentiation between humans. That differentiation is mostly based on genetics, anatomy, and the type of gametes it produces.
Most of these differences are caused by sex chromosomes. A chromosome is a DNA molecule that holds your genetic information. Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes, so 46 in total, in each cell. Two of those 46, so one pair, are your sex chromosomes. There are two types of sex chromosomes: X and Y. And females have XX, and men have XY.
Those sex chromosomes determine the way parts of your body are going to develop. Usually, that ends up in women getting a womb and a vagina, and men getting a penis, a pair of testicles, and a prostate. In later life, hormones cause women to grow breasts, and men to grow a beard and chest hair.
But it’s not always so simple. By saying you’re either a boy or a girl at birth, you’re leaving out a lot of naturally occurring diversity.
Intersexuality
Sometimes, errors in cell division during the creation of eggs and sperm cells can cause people to receive too many or too few X’s or Y’s. For example, people with Klinefelter syndrome have too many X’s next to their Y. People with Turner syndrome have only one X, and are either partially or completely missing a second X.
And sometimes, errors during development can cause changes in the physical development of the foetus. Abnormal influences of hormones and other chemicals can change the way the body or the brain develops in the womb.
And those are just a few of the causes of what we call intersexuality. And the birth of an intersex person occurs far more often than most people think.
The Intersex Campaign for Equality states that intersexuality occurs in an estimated 1.7% of the population. That’s roughly 1 in 59 people. According to these numbers, intersexuality is just about as common as having red hair (1–2%).
Around 1 in 2,000 to 5,000 children are born with ambiguous genitals. And these children are almost completely overlooked by society. While sex is still for the most part simple male or female, you can’t think of the human species as being truly sexually dimorphic.
Then what does gender mean?
And then there is gender. Gender is the societal and psychological part. That can include gender roles, characteristics or behavior perceived as masculine or feminine or anything in between, and gender identity. Gender isn’t black and white, or pink and blue for that matter. It actually exists on a spectrum.
It’s a complex concept, but in simple terms, you can think of sex as anything physical. Gender is anything psychological, such as gender identity, or socially constructed, such as gender roles. And sex and gender don’t necessarily have to conform.
Transgender
That’s where it becomes complicated. A common expression of a gender identity that doesn’t conform to physical sex, is the transgender identity. That means that someone who was born in a body that was either biologically one sex or was assigned one sex, but psychologically doesn’t feel like or identify with the according gender.
Someone who was born in what we’d perceive as a man’s body, might feel more like a woman, and might identify more with being a woman than with being a man. And, accordingly, that person might choose to undergo a sex-change operation so they can live in the body that corresponds with how they feel.
Non-binary
Another term that we hear more often is ‘non-binary’. That refers to anyone who doesn’t identify with the exclusive gender binary. These can be genderfluid people, who might feel more like a woman one day and might feel more like a man the other day. They can also be people who don’t wish to have a gender at all, or any other flavor your can think of.
So what’s the problem with color assignment?
As you can see, there are a lot of different sexes and gender identities instead of just the two familiar ones. If you feel like it’s complicated, you’re right. It is. But humans are complicated, and can’t be defined by just fitting in either box A or box B. Hopefully, the concept of having only two colors to indicate someone’s sex or gender with has started sounding a little illogical. Or at least a little limited.
The assignment of blue for a boy generally persists throughout their childhood. In almost every clothing or toy store, there’s a clearly visible separation of colors. You can easily distinguish the items intended for girls, and those intended for boys.
There’s a number of toys that aren’t specifically gendered. But the remarkable thing is that, the older the child gets, the more marketing turns towards their expected gender roles. And that’s where it gets sticky.
Marketing towards gender roles
Boy products aren’t just often blue, they’re more often marketed as tough and cool, emphasizing strength and activity. For example monster trucks and superheroes.
Girl products are more often marketed towards being kind and caring. They emphasize what we see as a ‘softer’ inclination, and more often focus on looks and aesthetics. Girl products therefore often include dolls that you can fuss with and dress up.
There’s at least some grounding in biology here. From an evolutionary standpoint, men were more often the hunters, the fighters, the defenders, fueled by testosterone. Women more often those that cared for the home and for others, most importantly their offspring.
The impact of gendered marketing
But marketing products according to gender roles doesn’t leave room for those who don’t fit into that category. And don’t even get me started on the unrealistic ideals some of these products create for children ( looking at you, Barbie!). But maybe more importantly: these kinds of toys perpetuate the gender role stereotypes.
Marketing products this way perpetuates the idea that boys should be tough and aggressive. It presupposes that girls should be caring and nurturing and should care about their appearance. And while the colors of the muisjes don’t specifically say anything about those things, they’re a small part of the bigger social construct. A construct of assigning rather fixed gender roles to someone with a certain sex.
There’s a reason this is a problem. It leaves little room for children to find their own preferred way of expressing themselves. They’re expected to play with toys that are associated with their sex, and to dress in appropriate colors. Luckily, wearing a pink shirt is steadily becoming more and more normal for businessmen. But a lot of schoolchildren are still harassed, made fun of, and bullied for doing or wearing things that are associated with girls.
The damage of sex and gender assignment
Boys that wear nail polish often have to endure a lot of scorn and bullying at school. Girls that cut their hair short, and run around playing in the mud with monster trucks, hear from society that it’s not how a girl should behave.
Women in the military are perceived as mannish. Men that earn less than their wives are sometimes still perceived as emasculated and weak. Bonus points if they stay home to care for the child while the mother is off to work.
These cultural perceptions of gender roles are all results of our persistant compulsion to think of sex and gender as purely binary things with very distinct characteristics.
There’s nothing wrong with identifying different sexes and genders in general. And there’s nothing wrong with acknowledging a broad set of characteristics that we generally see more often in one sex than in the other. That’s not the issue.
The issue is the way we force those ideas onto people who haven’t formed their own yet. The issue is that we expect these characteristics from someone purely based on their body parts.
Of course men are generally stronger than women. The strongest woman on the planet can beat all other women and most of the men, but the strongest man can beat every other person on the planet. Testosterone does a good job at that.
Of course women are often more nurturing and caring. Evolution has primed us to feel that way, to ensure that we take care of our offspring and therewith ensure the survival of our species. You can thank hormones for that too.
Expectations vs. reality
But what we’re doing now, is putting the cart before the horse. We’re putting expectations before reality. We see on the ultrasound that our baby is going to be a girl, so we paint the child’s bedroom pink and adorn it with frilly pillows and dolls and a toy kitchen.
That child is going to grow up in that stuff. But what if it turns out that their gender identity is male, and not female? What if it turns out that they don’t like baby dolls and pink dresses? That they would much rather wear cargo shorts and go skating?
You might think ‘no harm done, right?’, and oftentimes that’s true, but the child will also have lived in confusion for many years. Especially in families and environments where transsexuality isn’t discussed or isn’t viewed as normal.
Time and time again, children from these kinds of environments develop gender dysphoria. They fear to truly be their authentic selves. They’ll try to fit in that mold until they can’t take it anymore, often developing severe depression and anxiety. But growing up in a gender-neutral environment could prevent all of that.
The main problem is all those expectations. They set you up so that you either conform to those expectations, or you’re a deviant. Either you’re normal, or you’re an outlier. And it should no longer be normal that those expectations define what normal is.
Gender-neutral doesn’t mean genderless
Now, I want to be very clear about something.
Raising your child in a gender-neutral way absolutely does not mean that you call your child an ‘it’ and dress it in drab grey. It doesn’t mean you pretend that your child is non-binary. It doesn’t mean you raise your child without the concept of gender as if it doesn’t exist in the world.
Gender neutrality doesn’t mean that men and women no longer exist. It doesn’t mean that you can’t call anyone ‘he’ or ‘she’ anymore.
What gender neutrality really means
Gender neutrality means that everyone has access to both ‘he’ and ‘she’ and all other pronouns if they wish to. That everyone has access to whatever type of expression they want, regardless of whether society deems it feminine or masculine. It means that everyone has access to high heels and skirts and make-up, without fear of ridicule or harassment.
Gender neutrality only means that your child has equal access to any and all different gender identities and gendered concepts. It means that your child isn’t expected to play with dolls if they’re female. It means that your child doesn’t have to think they’re strange for wanting to wear hot pink nail polish if they’re male.
Gender neutrality means freedom from expectations. Freedom from the thought of having a ‘right’ and a ‘wrong’ way to express yourself. A freedom that means there isn’t anything you should or should not do or like based on your gender.
It means that your child can just walk into the toy store, and pick the toy they want to play with, without fear of scrutiny when a boy walks into the doll section. It means that they can grow up and do, wear, and play with whatever they want.
Gender neutrality means that masculinity is no longer exclusively thought of as a guy thing. That femininity is no longer exclusively thought of as a girl thing.
The concepts of masculinity and femininity will still exist, but everyone has equal access to them. And that access will depend solely on what they feel like, and no longer on what society expects of them.
Gender neutrality means that people of any sex or gender can do what feels good to them. That they don’t have to conform to the gender role that society expects of them.
It means that talking about your emotions is no longer a ‘girl thing’. That men are no longer expected to be macho. It means that men no longer have to feel weak when they’re suffering from depression because they think they should be strong.
The benefits of gender neutrality
Decreased suicide rates
First of all: decreased suicide rates among men. I kid you not. Because society so often expects men to be strong and tough, many men feel they can’t open up about their feelings, leading to many men suffering from depression in silence.
Men are more likely than women to be unable to recognize their feelings, or to push them away, often subconsciously. Because society particulary doesn’t pay enough attention to emotional skills in men, a lot of men are poorly equipped to deal with their feelings in a healthy way.
Men are four times more likely to commit suicide than women, mostly because signs of depression go unnoticed for too long, and because men don’t seek help as early or as easily as others.
And of course: decreased suicide rates among people who are transgender, intersex, non-binary, gender-nonconforming etc. Gender dysphoria leads to suicidal ideation in almost half of all cases, and suicide attempts in almost one in four of them. Confusion over who they are, where they belong, or what they are supposed to do with themselves is a big contributor.
But not only that: a large part is societal stigmatization and discrimination against anyone who doesn’t conform to the standard binary norm. If depression is already hard to talk about as a man because it’s deemed too feminine, how hard would someone’s life be if they feel like a woman in a man’s body? Or don’t even feel like either a ‘man’ or a ‘woman’? Combine that with the lack of support and safe places to express themselves, and you have a recipe for depression and suicide.
More gender equality
Gender neutrality also contributes to equal opportunities and possibilities in careers. Luckily, we no longer think it strange that women have full-time jobs. But society is still more likely to expect the man to earn more and work harder, and the woman to stay at home more and take care of housekeeping, cooking, and caring for the children.
And on top of that, women are still structurally paid less than men. But if we stop differentiating between the two in places where it really isn’t called for, that might disappear too.
More personal freedom
If all the world was open to you, instead of just those things that suit your gender, you would have far more freedom. More freedom to be who you really want to be, regardless of the body you were born in. Because gender neutrality offers everyone equal access, you have more freedom of expression.
More possibilities for hobbies and personal interests. It will be easier for women to get into martial arts, and for men to get into dance. Men can be ballerina’s if they want to, and women can play the male roles if they want to.
Better understanding
Nowadays, there’s a certain schism between the male and female worlds. The prevalence of gender jokes in sitcoms shows that it’s still too common for men and women to misunderstand each other’s perception and experience.
But of course, if you come into contact with things from the other gender’s side more often, it’ll be easier to understand all of that. If you rarely come into contact with sports because your culture sees it as a predominantly male thing, you won’t learn that much about it.
Growing up in a gender-neutral environment greatly decreases the amount of bias you’ll have in later life towards others. Especially if others in your environment grow up that way too.
By comparison, if you grow up in a sexuality-neutral environment, you like won’t be as biased towards gays and bisexuals as others who grew up in a predominantly heteronormative environment.
Conclusion
Society still has a consistently binary view of gender, aside from often confusing it with biological sex, which also turns out not to be purely binary. It’s human nature that anything that isn’t deemed ‘normal’ is bullied into conformity or otherwise shunned and rejected. These behaviors stem from times long gone by when our ancestors still lived in tribes, and they might have contributed to our continued existence.
But now it’s time we move forward from that history, and recognize that the human race comprises of a colorful spectrum of all kinds of different configurations. From sex and gender to sexuality and from neurodivergence to skin color, they all exist on a spectrum.
We’re learning more about the human experience every day, so it’s only fair that we adjust our views and preconceptions accordingly. And producing muisjes in only pink and blue therefore becomes a thing of the past. | https://medium.com/@blackbirdsfeathers/the-impact-of-gender-neutral-muisjes-c40bf41a34fc | ["Blackbird'S Feathers"] | 2020-11-29 16:05:53.496000+00:00 | ['Gender Identity', 'Gender Roles', 'Gender Neutrality', 'Gender', 'Gender Assignments'] |
Givers & Takers | Photo by Sebastien Gabriel on Unsplash
For Jews, we’re in the middle of “counting the Omer”. It’s not a commonly-known tradition, even among Jews, so here’s a brief explanation:
This tradition of Counting the Omer is rooted in the Biblical mitzvah of counting the 49 days between the Jewish holidays of Pesach and Shavuot when the first sacrifices of the barley and wheat offerings were made. Kabbalists added their own psycho-spiritual context to it.
Shavuot is when God gave the Torah to the Jewish people on Mount Sinai.
The Omer is counted every evening after nightfall.
On the 33rd day, there’s a tradition of celebrating with a bonfire.
I had a daily writing habit here on Medium in April 2018 and regularly used this tradition as a writing prompt. Here’s the first one. I want to go back and link to each of them in each of them, but not right now.
In Kabbalah, each of the seven weeks of the Omer-counting is associated with one of the seven lower sefirot. Sefirot are divine attributes or emanations which are manifested in each of the Four Worlds and are the source of the corresponding ten faculties of the soul. Each day of each week is also associated with one of these same seven sefirot, creating forty-nine permutations. The Kabbalists explain that the 49 days that connect Passover with Shavuot correspond to the 49 drives and traits of the human heart. How do you get 49 from 7? 7x7.
The seven attributes assigned to each week are also assigned to each day of the week and combined. The first attribute is “loving-kindness,” and so both the first week and the first day of each week are associated with loving-kindness. The first day is associated with loving-kindness within loving-kindness. Read more in this piece that I published last year.
I haven’t paid as close attention to it this year, but I have noted a couple of inspiring thoughts from Chabad’s “Omer Counter” app. One that I noticed two weeks ago:
The notion of givers & takers.
The daily meditation in the app says this:
Our view of the world and its Creator’s view are very different. From our perspective, there is always a giver and a taker. Whether the merchandise be knowledge, affection, or money — somebody always comes out on top and the other on the bottom. In the Creator’s view, giver and taker are one. The taker is really giving and the giver, receiving. For without the opportunity to give, the giver would be forever imprisoned within his own self.
I put this writing prompt on my content calendar last week, but it seems relevant to what I wrote about yesterday.
The giver and the taker are one.
This is similar to statements such as, “It’s better to give than to receive”.
In the context of yesterday’s post, sharing one’s experience — “industry secrets” as some much call that knowledge — helps everyone involved, including the giver.
Of course, a rabbi would talk about the Creator’s view about giving and taking. No one can say for sure what the “creator’s” view would be, but we can interpret that view from texts such as the bible. It’s all interpretation.
Religion is traditionally based on love. Regardless of whether you’re Jewish, Christian or one (or more) of many other faiths, loving each other and loving the idea of “god” is at the core. God is often characterized as benevolent. According to both Old and New Testaments, “God” created us in their image.
I see the bible/Torah as a storybook full of metaphors.
I don’t know what Rachel (of yesterday’s post) believes in the context of religion, but her husband is actively Jewish, and she is clearly a good person that knows the joy of giving. She recognizes the importance of sharing.
In a post that I published in March and titled “Do You Have One True Passion In Life?” I revealed that helping people is one of the two things that make me happiest in life. Some variation of the word “help” appears 24 times in that 3,355-word post. Here’s a word cloud that I’ve generated with the text of that post:
I also said, “If people close to me decline my genuine offer to help it often hurts me, and I have to remind myself that this is my issue, not theirs.”
I also admitted that while my desire to help often comes from the heart, it also often comes from the ego. A heart-centred willingness to help is so much better. It’s more god-like. A desire to help can also be motivated by boredom, and that’s not good either.
Not long ago, someone physically took over a task that I was doing while I was doing it. She said, “I’ll do that, I’m not doing anything right now.” As she walked away I muttered, “Yeah, but I was doing that.”
Her actions were oblivious and selfish in a negative way, prompted by boredom rather than selflessness.
It took away my purpose at that moment.
If I wanted or needed help, that would have been a loving moment. Instead, it was one that resulted in resentment.
You also have to respect when it’s not the right moment to step in and the action should, ideally, come from the right place. As the reality TV show cliche goes, you should be there for the “right” reason.
Rather than feel resentment, I chose to flip the script and rewrite the scenario in my head to be grateful. I never 100% found gratitude to apply to that moment, but I see it. It’s there in theory but it never fully absorbed because it didn’t feel authentic.
As I often quote, including in that post from March, “To love for the sake of being loved is human, to love for the sake of loving is angelic.” | https://medium.com/@andrea-toole/givers-takers-7042a184e71a | ['Andrea Toole'] | 2019-05-09 19:53:20+00:00 | ['Gratitude', 'Giving', 'Judaism', 'Personal Growth', 'Self-awareness'] |
Indo-Thai Fusion Curry: A Poem | Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook time: 20 minutes | Total time: 35 minutes
Servings: 4 | Course: Entree | Cuisine: Indian and Thai fusion, Vegan, Gluten-free
Ingredients:
2, 14-ounce cans light coconut milk (substitute full-fat for a creamier texture)
2 cups chopped broccoli florets
1 cup chopped potatoes
1 cup beans (whole or chopped)
1 cup diced carrots
8 oz firm tofu, cut into small cubes (optional)
1/4 cup water or vegetable stock to steam the vegetables
4 tsp Everest Chicken Masala/ Curry Powder (affiliate link)
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp red pepper powder (optional)
1 tsp Lemon (can be substituted with soy sauce or any other souring agent)
Salt to taste
Instructions:
Heat a deep pan on the stove
Get ready to pour in some love
Let’s cook an Indo-Thai Yellow Curry
But remember, we’re in a bit of a hurry
Dinner’s at half-past eight
The family’s headed home straight
So we’ll use a recipe unconventional
I promise the taste will be sensational
In, go the water and lots of vegetable
Carrots, potatoes, beans, anything’s acceptable
Sprinkle a dash of turmeric and salt
Steam them veggies till slightly soft
Some like their vegetables crunchy
I like my broccoli to be bunchy
Now add coconut milk from a can
Gently stir the ingredients of the pan
Everest chicken masala is the key
At any Indian grocery store, it should be
Don’t let the ‘chicken’ in the name fool you
It’s completely vegan; I assure do
Now throw in the masala you got
Add powdered red pepper if you like it hot
Let the curry simmer and then check for taste
Add your favorite spices, but make haste
Lastly, squeeze in some lemon
And your family, summon
Switch off the stove and allow it to cool
By now the aroma has everyone in a drool
And there your have it nice
Serve it with Thai Jasmine rice
Try this recipe, it’s sure to be a hit
Enjoy your meal, wish you a bon appetit! | https://medium.com/ninja-writers/indo-thai-fusion-curry-a-poem-aeae575b216c | ['Manasi Kudtarkar'] | 2020-12-07 20:48:06.844000+00:00 | ['Vegan', 'Creativity', 'Poetry', 'Food', 'Recipe'] |
Image classification on CIFAR 10: A Complete Guide | Now that we can understand a neural network is just replaying logistic regression (and also executing some nonlinear function each layer), it becomes a lot easier to code.
PyTorch for Neural Networks
Again, just like in the logistic regression code, we modify the nn.Module class to accommodate our model.
In PyTorch, nn.Module holds the nn.Linear command, which makes a one layer neural network (= logistic regression) model by passing in the features and output size (in log. regression, output size == number of classes). nn.Linear(features, outputs) would create a weights matrix of size (features, outputs) and a bias of size (outputs).
Passing something through nn.Linear would be equivalent to multiplying the input by the [randomly initialized] weights and adding the bias.
>> model = nn.linear(features, numClasses) # data must have input size of 'features' - be size (x, features) -
x is batch size. >> model(data)
nn.Linear has one method, forward(), which fits (matrix multiplies) data to the model. Since there is only one method, we don’t need to specify nn.Linear.forward() — nn.Linear() will suffice.
Now, we can edit the definition of forward() to run linear regression twice, and to automatically create and randomly initialize our weight and bias matrices for both W1, b1 and W2, b2.
>> import torch
>> import torch.nn.functional as F
>> import torch.nn as nn
We’ll be using ReLU as our activation function. I’d strongly recommend you view the diagrams from earlier and follow along the matrix multiplications as you read through the next few paragraphs.
>> class CIFAR10model(nn.Module): """ feedforward neural network with single hidden layer""" >> def __init__(self, inSize, hiddenSize, outSize): super().__init__() # creates the weights and biases for the first layer. self.linear1 = nn.Linear(inSize, hiddenSize) # creates the weights and biases for the output layer. self.linear2 = nn.Linear(hiddenSize, outSize) >> def forward(self, xb): # flatten the image tensors (xb.size[0] gets the batch size,
-1 adapts to whatever fits all units) xb = xb.reshape(xb.size(0), -1) # get intermediate outputs from hidden layer out = self.linear1(xb) # apply activation function element wise on the outputs from
self.linear out = F.relu(out) # get predictions using the output layer. out = self.linear2(out)
return out
Let’s step through the first part, the instantiation, slowly.
>> class CIFAR10model(nn.Module): """ feedforward neural network with single hidden layer""" >> def __init__(self, inSize, hiddenSize, outSize):
super().__init__()
self.linear1 = nn.Linear(inSize, hiddenSize)
self.linear2 = nn.Linear(hiddenSize, outSize)
Our new class CIFAR10model builds off of the parent module ( nn.module )
First, we use __init__ to instantiate an instance of our new class CIFAR10model. A successful instantiation of CIFAR10 model requires the input size ( inSize ), hidden layer size ( hiddenSize ) and the output size ( outSize ). self is required, and represents the instance of the object itself.
super().__init__ helps inherit the methods from the parent class nn.module.
Then we define self.linear1 and self.linear2 , which are both defined using the nn.Linear method that we gained through the parent class.
Recall that nn.Linear required the inputSize and outputSize to create a logistic regression model (an appropriately sized weight and bias matrix). Just like the mathematical intuition, we can practically run logistic regression twice.
self.linear1 creates W[1] (size: 3072, 32) and b[1] (size: 32, using two inputs — features (3072) and hidden layer (32). Remember that our hidden layer, if viewing this just as a logistic regression, is our output.
creates W[1] (size: 3072, 32) and b[1] (size: 32, using two inputs — features (3072) and hidden layer (32). Remember that our hidden layer, if viewing this just as a logistic regression, is our output. self.linear2 creates W[2] (size: 32, 10) and b[2] (size: 10) using the size of the hidden layer as inputs (32) and the number of classes as outputs (10).
Now, let’s step through the second part, redefining the forward(xb) method, or how your model fits data to the weights and biases created by self.linear1 and self.linear2.
...
>> def forward(self, xb): xb = xb.reshape(xb.size(0), -1)
out = self.linear1(xb)
out = F.relu(out)
out = self.linear2(out) >> return out
forward only requires the batch of training examples (size: batchSize, features) to be passed.
First, xb.reshape (interchangeable with xb.view ), similarly to logistic regression, reshapes the input data to fit the model. Our untouched xb’s will be of size (100, 3, 32, 32), which can’t be multiplied by any of our weights.
What reshape does here is forces the amount of rows in the new xb to = the batchSize (taking the length of our batches, xb.size(0)).
Then, we use -1 to adapt to this — basically, the -1 solves for what amount of columns would hold the same amount of items as our previous matrix of size (100, 3, 32, 32). Since we must have batchSize (100) rows, how many columns would be needed for the matrix to fit (3 x 32 x 32 x100 ) items? This is equivalent to solving for x in 100x = 307200.
out is our running variable of outputs. Our steps are:
out = self.linear1(xb) is to get the values of the 32 intermediate nodes in the neural network, by multiplying our 3072 inputs by W[1] and adding bias b[1].
is to get the values of the 32 intermediate nodes in the neural network, by multiplying our 3072 inputs by W[1] and adding bias b[1]. out = F.relu(out) runs the activation function ReLU element-wise on all values in the intermediate layer — if we’re dealing with batchSize 100, this would be on a matrix of size (100, 32).
What we’re doing with the past two steps.
out = self.linear2(out) gets the values of the 10 output nodes in the neural network, by multiplying our intermediate values by W[2] and adding bias b[2]. These will be a matrix of logits that we will have to use softmax on, where the rows are the training example (100) and the columns contain the logit probabilities for each class (10).
This is what we did in the previous step. Notice I didn’t include an activation function — that’s because we haven’t calculated it yet.
We don’t need to run our activation F.relu since we will be using softmax to convert our logits into concrete probabilities. In binary classification (where the output is just 0 or 1) we would use the sigmoid instead.
since we will be using softmax to convert our logits into concrete probabilities. In binary classification (where the output is just 0 or 1) we would use the sigmoid instead. we then return out, which is a[2], the matrix product of our weights and biases in the second layer. a[2] is a matrix of logits where each row is a training example, and each column is a prediction for the corresponding class.
We can now create an instance of the training model we defined in the previous few blocks of code. We just need to pass three arguments: the features, or inputs ( inSize ), the hidden layer nodes ( hiddenSize ) and the amount of classes, or output size ( outSize )
>> inSize = 3072
>> hiddenSize = 32
>> outSize = 10 >> model = CIFAR10model(inSize, hiddenSize, outSize)
We can now check the size of the weight and bias matrices linear1() and linear2() inside our instance of CIFAR10model, model.
>> for t in model.parameters():
print(t.shape) torch.Size([32, 3072]) # W[1]
torch.Size([32]) # b[1]
torch.Size([10, 32]) # W[2]
torch.Size([10]) # b[2]
These match the diagrams exactly, except for the bias sizes. That’s because, as I explained briefly beforehand, the biases aren’t actually matrices, but vectors (not 100, 32 but 1, 32). They were drawn like that to mostly avoid the additional confusion of Python’s automatic ability to broadcast vectors onto matrices while doing matrix operations.
Let’s do a little check-up on our model so far.
>> for images, labels in trainDL:
print('images.shape: ' + str(images.shape))
outputs = model(images)
loss = F.cross_entropy(outputs, labels)
print('loss: ' + str(loss))
break images.shape: torch.Size([100, 3, 32, 32])
loss: tensor(2.3392, grad_fn=<NllLossBackward>)
Let’s go over the first batch in our training set (trainDL) — we end the loop with a break statement so that it only iterates once.
We can print the shape of our batch, which itself is a four-dimensional matrix of size ([100, 3, 32, 32]) .
We can then fit our model on the 100 images in the first batch, and get our outputs (the 100, 10 logits matrix). We can then calculate our loss using cross entropy.
Printing our loss, we see that it’s 2.3392. This number is pretty useless on it’s own, but speaking that we have not trained our model yet, this is about the highest the loss will be — when we train our model correctly, we should see it decrease from here. We can use some accuracy metric if we’d like to see it in a more tangible form, like accuracy.
>> print('outputs.shape : ', outputs.shape)
>> print('sample outputs :
', F.softmax(outputs)[:2].data) outputs.shape : torch.Size([100, 10]) sample outputs :
tensor([[0.0930, 0.0877, 0.0894, 0.0983, 0.1081, 0.0955, 0.1214, 0.0973, 0.1011, 0.1083], [0.0934, 0.0964, 0.0836, 0.1114, 0.1005, 0.0903, 0.1178, 0.0988, 0.1045, 0.1032]])
We can then check the shape of our outputs to see if it matches our prediction. Indeed it does — with shape [100, 10].
Finally, we can check out some sample result vectors outputted by our simple neural network — let’s print out the results for the first two images in our batch.
They won’t actually be logits since the PyTorch F.cross_entropy automatically computes softmax on the logits vectors before calculating loss.
Now that we’re fitting to a more sophisticated model, our computer’s CPU won’t cut it — it just can’t calculate the matrix operations fast enough. That’s why we need to load to a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) before training.
Loading to a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)
What is a GPU?
In 1999, NVidia released the GeForce 256, the world’s first Graphics Processing Unit, for the main purpose of improving frame rates in 3D games for the PC.
GeForce 256.
GPUs aren’t better than the standard Central Processing Unit (CPU) in your computer — in fact, they’re probably a lot worse when it comes to general tasks.
GPUs were built to do one thing. Render graphics for 3D PC games fast, very fast. This meant very fast mathematics. GPUs do calculations in parallel (many calculations at the same time), as opposed to CPU’s, which do calculations serially (one calculation at a time).
GPUs for machine learning
The foundation of machine learning is very fast matrix operations.
It felt natural to draw this connection between GPUs and machine learning. The time came as part of the resurgence in interest in machine learning in the 2010’s, pioneered by the likes of Geoffrey Hinton, Yann LeCun, Yoshia Bengio, Illya Sutskever, Alex Krizhevsky, and Andrew Ng, upon countless others.
In 2009, Rajat Raina, Anand Madhavan, and Andrew Ng from Stanford published Large-scale Deep Unsupervised Learning using Graphics Processors, possibly the first official proposal for using GPUs for the purpose of machine learning.
Many soon followed, climaxing in 2012 with Geoffrey Hinton, Ilya Sutskever, and Alex Krizhevsky’s ImageNet performance, widely thought of as a critical turning point for the feasibility of deep learning. Partially due to the novel use of GPUs, the team blew away any other’s accuracies on the test set.
Loading to a GPU in PyTorch
Utilizing a GPU to speed up your own algorithms, only a decade after their debut into the machine learning community, is shockingly easy.
Google Colab and Kaggle (funnily enough, both owned by Google) both supply their users with free, remotely connected GPUs (and TPUs) to utilize.
in Colab, go to Runtime > Change Runtime Type > GPU
go to Runtime > Change Runtime Type > GPU in Kaggle, go to the three ‘more’ dots in the top righthand corner of the interface, then go Accelerator > GPU.
First, let’s define a helper function that tells us whether we should be using a GPU or a CPU, based on the availability.
>> def getDefaultDevice():
""" Pick GPU if available, else, CPU"""
if torch.cuda.is_available() == True:
return torch.device('cuda')
else:
return torch.device('cpu')
Using torch.cuda.is_avaliable(), we can get a boolean True or False depending on if a GPU is available. CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) is simply the NVIDIA platform for GPUs — CUDA allows operation on both the GPU and the CPU.
If you’re working in Colab/Kaggle and haven’t enabled a GPU, you should get the following:
>> device = getDefaultDevice()
>> device
device(type='cpu')
Now, let’s create a function that moves are data (here, our training set DataLoader) to the GPU if it is present.
>> def toDevice(data, device):
""" move tensors to a chosen device """ if isinstance(data, (list, tuple)):
return [toDevice(x, device) for x in data]
return data.to(device, non_blocking=True)
the if isinstance(data, (list, tuple) line means that if our data passed into the function is in the form (thus, is an instance) of a list or a tuple, loop through the list/tuple and transfer each piece of data into the GPU. It actually refers to itself return [toDevice(x, device) for x in data] , which is fine — all the contents of the list will instead pass through the final return data.to(device, non_blocking=True) statement.
We can then test out this function by transferring the first batch of our images to the GPU and checking if they have moved correctly.
>> for images, labels in trainDL:
print(images.device)
print("transfered to GPU")
images = toDevice(images, device)
print(images.device)
break cpu
transfered to GPU
cuda:0
Just moving our images to the GPU using the toDevice() function we defined, we can see we successfully transferred them.
Finally, let’s create a loader that loads data to the GPU right before they are processed [trained on]. We don’t want to throw all the data to the GPU at the beginning of our program — we only want as limited amount of data on the GPU as possible to speed up runtime.
Let’s create a new class that does just that.
>> class DeviceDataLoader():
""" Wrap a dataloader to move data to a device"""
def __init__(self, dl, device):
# add attributes. self.dl = dl
self.device = device def __iter__(self):
"""Yield a batch of data after moving it to device""" # loop through dataloader attached to self. for b in self.dl:
yield toDevice(b, self.device) def __len__(self):
""" number of batches """ return len(self.dl)
This is a bit complicated. Let’s break it down into smaller parts. First, the __init__ statement.
>> class DeviceDataLoader():
""" Wrap a dataloader to move data to a device"""
def __init__(self, dl, device):
# add attributes. self.dl = dl
self.device = device
...
We don’t actually need to build off of a parent class, so we keep the class DeviceDataLoader(): argument-free. We then instantiate an object of class DeviceDataLoader() , and define it to require two arguments: dl , some DataLoader, and device , the device you would like to load it to.
We then define two attributes of our DeviceDataLoader() object, which are directly obtained from our arguments.
Let us now define our first function for our new type of object, __iter__.
...
def __iter__(self):
"""Yield a batch of data after moving it to device"""
for b in self.dl:
yield toDevice(b, self.device)
...
Since we’re starting from a blank slate (no parent class) we have to define a way to iterate through our DeviceDataLoader() object.
We do this by defining __iter__ , which only requires itself (self) .
We loop through the batches b in the DataLoader dl attribute of our DeviceDataLoader() object — which is just our old training DataLoader.
For each batch, we yield it to the function toDevice(data, device) , which transfers it to the specified device ( self.device ).
Yielding is practically iterative returning — each time this for loop is run, the next item in the yield is returned. In this example,
The first time we run the for loop we put the first item in self.dl to self.device.
to The second time we run the for loop we put the second item in self.dl to self.device
to And so on…
Basically, __iter__ lets you iterate through the DeviceDataLoader() object to transfer the batches to the GPU one by one.
And finally, the final, and simplest function we must define in our new class, len().
...
def __len__(self):
""" number of batches """
return len(self.dl)
This function returns the length of the DataLoader attribute ( dl ) of the object. Since the DataLoader is measured in batches, this returns the number of batches in our data.
We don’t have to take things off the GPU since there is an automatic process in which data that is not being operated on is removed, although there are methods to manually remove data that’s being pesky.
We can now wrap our DataLoaders within our new class, and utilize our new methods that we defined.
device = getDefaultDevice():
>> trainDL = DeviceDataLoader(trainDL, device)
>> validDL = DeviceDataLoader(valDL, device)
Now that we have a way to efficiently compute our calculations, we can begin training our neural network.
training the model
The code implementation of training is nearly identical to that of logistic regression, although the mathematics is a little different. I’ll explain the mathematics of backpropagation in another article I’ll link to at the bottom, but I’ll just give the intuitive explanation and code here.
We still use softmax + cross entropy to calculate loss in a completely identical manner (since we are still dealing with 10 classes) so you can read on that in the previous article.
The main difference is we have essentially a chain of two logistic regression algorithms before we convert our logits into probabilities and our probabilities into a total cost. | https://ai.plainenglish.io/image-classification-on-cifar-10-ii-shallow-neural-network-941b670fbbd0 | ['Adam Dhalla'] | 2020-12-06 19:07:31.190000+00:00 | ['Cifar 10', 'Pytorch', 'Image Classification', 'Machine Learning', 'Neural Networks'] |
June Newsletter | Happy summer! As you gear up for the pool, the beach, or whatever fun vacations you have planned, we’re sending you our monthly newsletter to remind you that developing on the Oasis platform is just a click away. Developing makes for a great weekend adventure and our documentation is a breezy beach read.
In all seriousness…some updates on what we’ve been up to and what’s going on in July below.
Office Hours on Blockchain WASI
In May we released an RFC on our proposal for a Blockchain WASI design and this month the engineers behind the proposal walked through our thinking and shared some of the new development work we’ve done to the Oasis Devnet including:
New WASI runtime 🏃♀️🏃♂️ (coming soon!)
🏃♀️🏃♂️ (coming soon!) Our new Mantle SDK ⛰, a new Rust development library that seeks to abstract away many of the nuances of blockchain for easy development.
Don’t worry if you missed it — we have a summary of the office hours here and a full recording here.
WebAssembly Debugging
Oasis engineer Will Scott outlines some new tips and tricks for the best ways to debug WebAssembly. Read more in Will’s blog post here.
Developer Spotlight: DAPPS Inc.
This month, DAPPS Inc built a new integration that makes Oasis Labs available to Salesforce developers. You can read more about their integration here.
Upcoming Events
Sign up for any of these events below. We’d love to see you there!
#ICYMI: Past Oasis events and press
We’re Hiring
Come join our team and help build the future of data privacy technology. If you like midday walks, views of the bay, and in-house espresso, you’ll fit right in. | https://medium.com/oasislabs/june-newsletter-a97fa812588c | ['The Oasis Labs Team'] | 2019-06-28 16:19:33.905000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Privacy', 'Ethereum', 'Updates', 'Rust'] |
Kaleidoscopic Dreams | I have always been enchanted by that image of a million colors splashing whenever I close my eyes. As a kid, I used to believe that it is magic. A part of me still want to believe that it is magic. Unfortunately the adult self know that it's a phenomenon called Phosphene and we are not wired in a way to forget things that we want to forget. Nevertheless I find that it is a fascinating way to be present at the moment. I squeeze my eyes in different ways and try to produce different patterns and colors. At that moment, I never think of anything else. All I want to see is the most amazing patterns and the only regret is that I cannot capture that beauty in any way.
Until now, I never thought of it as something that makes me feel grounded. Today after a session of playing with this phenomenon, it struck me that I briefly forgot about everything else in the world. During that time, the only thing mattered was the changing patterns inside my head. I have been practicing meditation for a few months to calm down my overactive mind. Even though it has helped me in its own way, I never experienced this sort of complete presence while doing meditation. In that mode, it is more about being aware of what thoughts comes to me and how I need to let it go. Even though this peacefulness was not new to me, I never associated it with being present and mindful.
It got me thinking that may be all of our life's problems can be resolved if we keep a child like enthusiasm with us. We don't need elaborate morning routines or exclusive guidance from the meditation gurus. All we need to do is to point our internal compass to the emotions we used to have as kids and channel it properly. | https://medium.com/@chembarathi/kaleidoscopic-dreams-7b9949575b80 | [] | 2020-12-16 11:16:26.189000+00:00 | ['Personal Growth', 'Personal Development', 'Life Hacking', 'Mindfulness', 'Life Lessons'] |
Burnt out | It’s horrible and insidious, and the words carry a crushing weight that describes what it does to you.
Whatever light you had inside get’s smothered until it’s almost gone, you don’t see it coming, but you know it’s there.
A gathering, creeping, clawing shadow.
It makes you doubt yourself, it makes you point the blame elsewhere.
I’m just tired.
It was a long week.
It was only delayed two hours this time.
It makes you see hope where it might not even exist.
It’s not so bad.
It could be worse.
Next week will be better.
Slowly, slowly it changes the texture of things. Everything.
It’s voice whisper in a deadline, an ugly truth in an email, an overheard lie in a conversation.
It constricts you relentlessly and unexpectedly.
I left my headphones in the office.
I need to stay another night.
Sorry, i’ll not be there for your birthday this year.
How was the school play?
It creates its own gravity, drawing in the things that feed it, casting its torturous pall over whatever it touches.
You touch.
You know what light and lightness you had is being eroded.
Effort is monumental.
Every video call is climbing out of a pit.
10 minutes sitting in a car park telling yourself to just move.
Every notification another roll of the dice.
Despite it’s darkness it’s invisible.
Mostly.
“Man you look exhausted”
“You seem a bit off”
“What do you mean you don’t want to come out? C’mon!?”
Then it’s normal.
But it isn’t.
You’re surrounded by it, trapped in it and unable to see how to get out.
You have small moments to push the dark out, create a small space in it.
A pint. Two pints. Three pints.
You see hope that isn’t there, and when it doesn’t push away the dark, the dark somehow get’s thicker. So you chase the the hope again. Again.
You focus on the things that stop you thinking. You act. You do. You do over.
Responsibilities become life or death, goals are imperatives, problems are body blows, you become tied up in the hopelessness and the failure.
Anger and rage follow.
Small issues explode into catastrophic nightmares.
Doors get punched.
Chairs get flung.
You find yourself dropped to the floor, unable to breath.
You need to change. You have to.
I’ll get out. I’ll go somewhere else. You build a plan. You’ll make some changes.
What if it’s the same? What if you can’t?
Its voice is yours now.
So you don’t do anything.
You look for hope that isn’t there.
The density increases.
You go on holiday.
It goes with you. After a few days its effect is diminished.
You don’t even realise it but you’re free.
You feel better.
It’s fine.
Until it isn’t.
You don’t have your own time anymore. Your world is responsibilities, obligations, tasks,
It whispers again. But its voice is your friends, your family, your kids.
‘What are you up to man, we’ve not seen you in ages? <nothing im worthless, i’ll just bring you down>” “Will you put down the fucking phone <this is important. i think. its not. fuck you>” “Are you back early this week?<>”
The effort increases, its density and gravity pull you down further and further.
Constantly. | https://medium.com/@rory80hz/burnt-out-a9668ae0e0d8 | ['Rory Hanratty'] | 2020-12-01 14:53:18.117000+00:00 | ['Mental Health', 'Burnout'] |
5 Tips for Traveling with a Group | Go on a hassle-free vacation with your favorite people — keep these helpful tricks in mind
Traveling with a group means getting a chance to make wonderful memories with your loved ones. In reality though, it also means creating conflicts that extend beyond your vacation. Fights over itinerary, hotel expenses, and time management can turn fun into stress easily.
Despite possible hassles, you shouldn’t hesitate booking a trip soonest. With these tips, you can enjoy a relaxing getaway with family and friends (yes, it’s absolutely possible):
1. Let majority rule.
If there are seven people in your group, it’s pretty much impossible that everyone can get to do what they want especially on a short vacation. Democracy goes a long way, so have everyone pick a must-see site or a must-do activity and go with the choices that get the most votes.
2. Divide and conquer.
Most likely, small groups within your group will be formed based on shared interests and priorities. This actually makes traveling much efficient, so leave no room for FOMO. Some can head to a historical museum while the others check out the local shopping district. Just make sure to meet up at some point — eat dinner together to swap stories on how the day went.
3. Communicate.
Land and sea transfers may divide up a big group. Make sure everyone has a copy of the itinerary. Create a plan on where to meet in case you get separated unintentionally and there’s no signal in the area for chatting with the group online.
4. Include downtime in your itinerary.
Moving from one area to another and doing various activities with a group can get strenuous. Squeeze in some alone time within the day so everyone can do their own thing, like visiting a local café, watching a concert, or just lounging at the hotel. This is a good way to re-energize for the rest of the trip.
5. Opt for travel packages.
Traveling DIY-style is exciting when you go solo, but being with a group is a different story. Organized tours are your friend, as they save a lot of effort and money. Have a reliable travel group manage all the logistics for you — lodging, food, van and boat transfers, sports equipment, and tour guides — so you can enjoy the whole trip without having to worry about every small detail.
Exploring a new destination with a group can be challenging, but wise planning and openness to adventure result in the most incredible memories. When it comes to traveling, the more, the merrier, indeed. | https://medium.com/@camsuradventure/5-tips-for-traveling-with-a-group-2c0502056c74 | ['Camsur Adventure'] | 2019-03-21 03:47:02.416000+00:00 | ['Adventure Travel', 'Philippines', 'Travel', 'Adventure', 'Visit Philippines'] |
Guides to Adoption — OpenChain ISO/IEC 5230 | We define effective open source compliance
Interested in adopting International Standard for open source license compliance? There are detaIled self-certification, independent assessment and third-party certification webinars available. Check them out below.
You can also get reference material, engage with the community, or find official service providers on the project website: https://www.openchainproject.org/
Self-Certification
Independent Assessment
Third-Party Certification | https://medium.com/@shanecoughlan-opendawn/guides-to-adoption-openchain-iso-iec-5230-50be3fab711d | ['Shane Coughlan'] | 2020-12-10 05:17:21.783000+00:00 | ['License Compliance', 'Supply Chain', 'Openchain', 'Compliance', 'Open Source'] |
The Silver Bracelet: a Non-Binary Celebration | The bracelet that my family picked out for me. Photo by the author
Thirty-six years ago, I had recently graduated from college and lived in the San Francisco Bay Area. I had a job working in a lab and lived in my own apartment in Oakland. I was active in some self-actualization groups that just started to crack open who I was outside of my intellectual world. It was a good year to grow before heading off to graduate school. For reasons that were not clear to me, expressing myself as purely male didn’t seem complete. I asked a female friend if I could try on her eye makeup. She told me it’s a bad idea to share eye makeup because of the risk of transmitting bacteria and the like, but she showed me how to apply mascara after I bought my own. A man on the subway got angry at me because I was wearing mascara. Perhaps what was threatening was that my dress in other ways was very bland, clearly masculine, and conformist. Somehow, that bending of gender rules was frightening, even in downtown San Francisco. In fact, I was a very gentle young man who didn’t want to upset the world — I just wanted to live a freer life in a way I didn’t yet understand.
I also had an image of myself wearing a silver bracelet. I looked at the hand-crafted bracelets on display at the vendor tables on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, but never quite found the right one before moving to the East Coast in 1985. The desire to explore my gender expression slipped away after moving away from San Francisco, immersing myself in my studies, and having my first long-term, cis relationship.
If someone had asked why I wanted to wear mascara and a bracelet back then, I doubt I could have verbally expressed any reasons why. I was only aware of a yearning inside, not too loud, but there. Living near San Francisco, I was aware of transgender women back then, but didn’t really think about what that meant and had no models of gender nonconformity. Until just a few years ago, I did not know what non-binary meant. Reading about the difference between sexuality and gender was a revelation, and when I learned about the ways that people experience being non-binary, I laughed, realizing that I had that experience long, long ago. The word was new, but not the feeling that went with it.
About three years ago, I rediscovered my non-binary self, as part of the process of healing from childhood trauma. I remember walking in to my therapist’s office one day, seeing her bright red toenails, and announcing to her, “I wish I could have toenails like that!” Of course, now I know that I can have red toenails. My feminine parts are exuberant and joyful, they are strong and patient, and they help heal all the rest of me.
A month ago, on a family Zoom get together, my daughter asked what we all wanted for Christmas. I knew what I wanted — that silver bracelet that I had never gotten for myself. I decided in the moment to ask for a silver bracelet. Back in 1985, I was looking for a simple band of only silver, but in 2021, the female side of me is more confident and present, and I asked for a bracelet with some gem stones. And, in 2021 I have a much better understanding of why I want to wear jewelry and nail polish. Feeling safe and full of joy and deserving is part of the message the bracelet carries, and all of that is important in healing childhood trauma. These little acts are also a small outward sign of welcoming the female parts of me into the outer world and acknowledging how they are a core part of who I am. It’s Christmas Day as I write this, and I’ve been wearing my bracelet all day. That the bracelet came from my accepting family is very touching to me too. | https://medium.com/@deanripple2/the-silver-bracelet-a-celebration-of-being-non-binary-ab9fb07cbb93 | ['Dean Ripple'] | 2021-12-31 20:03:02.866000+00:00 | ['LGBTQ', 'Jewelry', 'Transgender', 'Gender Identity', 'Non Binary Identity'] |
Are You Sure You Want to Work There? | When I was in law school, I attended a seminar that was “highly encouraged” for women-identifying law students: The do’s and don’ts of professionalism from a ‘professional’ career coach. I had a nose ring and a handful of tattoos (I’ve accumulated a few more since then), but I was eager to see how I could fit into the industry. Despite that I normally wouldn’t care at all to be accepted by Big Law firms, I felt obliged to go because, well, my employability hinged on playing the part.
Amongst the warnings of our intonation (“women tend to intonate at the end of the sentences!”) and what the appropriate length of our skirts and dresses should be, chills ran down my spine. What will seasoned lawyers think of me? Is it time to enroll in golf lessons? Do I need to ‘invest’ in a $500 suit for interviews? While these questions seem ridiculous now, these were my genuine fears as the thought of repaying my student debt loomed in the distance.
When you’re just beginning your career you, understandably, don’t have much leverage with future employers. In other words, you can’t get away with as much shit because you don’t have the experience to back up your skills. Employers are looking at you with fresh eyes. But before you go and make ‘investment purchases’ and suppress the best parts of your personality, ask yourself a few questions.
Does this job appeal to me?
Before you spend an ungodly amount of time preparing hundreds of cover letters, ask yourself this: Do you actually want to work in this position? Do you like the job because of the salary or because you think it’ll genuinely advance your career?
When I was in law school the Canadian legal market was bad (although it’s probably worse now), but law students were applying to hundreds of random places in hopes that they’ll get something. The scarcity mindset was real. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t immune either. The time that I went in for an interview at a personal injury firm, somewhere I had no desire to be, and was asked, “Why do you want to work here?” in which I responded with a ten-second pause, still haunts me. In hindsight it’s now obvious that I wasted both of our time, but at the time I needed work and naively thought that firms would take any student with a vague interest (or at least that’s what I told myself). What I didn’t realize is that no one was going to hire me if I didn’t have a demonstrated interest or a compelling reason to be there.
Instead, focus on the handful of organizations that you actually want to work at and devote your energy to mastering the hiring process. If you prepare 10x more than the other applicants, you’ll stand out during the interview and show that you’ve put in real effort into landing the job.
Do I want to work with these people?
Workplace culture matters more to worker satisfaction than we think. There will be times where you will get discouraged at work, and that’s when it’s important that you have supportive colleagues and mentors that will get you through it.
I hear horror stories about partners at law firms throwing their junior associates under the bus when mistakes are made for the sake of appeasing clients.
I also know plenty of lawyers who work long hours solely because their managers expect that they work late every single day. Although most associates don’t mind, I’ve always been skeptical towards measuring productivity in terms of hours worked. Lots of successful people end work at 5:00 p.m.
On the flip side, I’ve seen firsthand the impact that collegial & collaborative work environments have on superior work. Although at times inconvenient, maintaining an open-door policy fosters a culture where workers can bounce ideas off one another. I can attest that some of my strongest arguments were developed after multiple conversations with smart people I respect.
Remember: You are spending the majority of your time with these people. Depending on your industry, you might yourself stuck eating dinner, having drinks, or participating in whatever other unpleasant social obligation that your office calls for. Choose your environment carefully.
What direction (not destination) do you want to be going?
We can’t control the labour market, but we can control what industry we’d like to work in or what skills we’d like to acquire. Sure, you’re not qualified for your ideal job today, but what can you do today that will make you qualified for that job in 5 or 10 or 15 years?
We’re not floating specs of dust moving whichever way the wind blows.
We have the cognitive capacity to loosely conceptualize where we want to end up, and then create a comprehensive strategy as to how to get there. We can ask those who have already accomplished what we hope to accomplish. We can go to school or find a mentor and develop the skills that the job necessitates. We can accept an entry-level job in that field today, so that we can move up the ladder and come within arms’ reach of where we hope to end up.
Establish boundaries for your career but remain flexible on the specifics.
I knew that I wanted to earn a living by helping marginalized populations, but I wasn’t too picky about how or where that would happen. I was open to whatever opportunities that came my way, but I was dead set on where I didn’t want to end up: At a private law firm focusing on profit over impact. Real estate, corporate commercial, and other transactions between two entities didn’t interest me.
Falling into workplace law was a happy accident, but it’s the fact that I get to help a specific vulnerable community (which falls within the boundaries of what I wanted) and work in an environment that doesn’t care about tattoos or expensive suits, that makes my job so well-fitted to me. I get to be me, doing work that I find meaningful.
Reject career ambivalence. Review your current job, where you’d like to end up, and whether what you’re doing now is pushing you in the right direction. A rewarding career can be yours, but it’s a mistake if you think you can stumble your way to get there. | https://medium.com/simple-not-easy/are-you-sure-you-want-to-work-there-cd3eb7e9d3a1 | ['Jennifer Taylor Chan'] | 2018-09-07 01:19:06.591000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Work', 'Productivity', 'Life', 'Life Lessons'] |
SciManDan VPN Coupon Code — 82% Off | SciManDan is a famous atheist on Youtube who explores the world of science, logical thinking and promotes the proven natural history of life as we know it, of the earth we live in.
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This VPN also offers fast servers worldwide, so anyone will find what they need and will be able to enjoy fast surfing and HD streaming. Also it offers P2P servers for those who want to use torrents anonymously. Talking about streaming, Surfshark manages to bypass geo-restrictions on such streaming platforms such as Netflix, Youtube TV, Disney+ and many others. And all sorts of other restrictions online like firewalls.
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Get Surfshark with 82% discount here | https://medium.com/@timmycox495/scimandan-vpn-coupon-code-83-off-105d09df11f8 | ['Timmy Cox'] | 2020-09-11 07:53:54.310000+00:00 | ['Coupon', 'Discount', 'Deal', 'Deals And Discounts', 'VPN'] |
Europe still leaves it to UK and US media to tell its story globally. | This is the summary of a conversation about Europe’s journalistic vulnerability which started with this tweet: “Macron sees a need to write an open letter to the Financial Times, challenging an earlier opinion piece in the FT. He also could have responded via a continental European English-language newspaper of similar global influence — if only there were one“
https://www.ft.com/content/8e459097-4b9a-4e04-a344-4262488e7754
This tweet was met with a question (in a private capacity) by Steven Everts, Senior Advisor on Strategy and Communications at the European Union’s Foreign Security and Policy Service, i.e. the EU’s Diplomatic Service:
My reply, edited for style:
“Yes, I don‘t see a business model that could finance the quality of journalism this would require, i.e. to create an English-language news organisation that could rival the global influence and reach of the most influential UK and US-based newspapers. Even if the funding were not an issue, we do not have the time it would take to establish such a new brand. It would be better now to work with existing national ‚papers of record‘ across the political spectrum in the European Union on increasing their abilities to create and then (crucially) also to distribute their English-language journalism to multinational audiences.
What is missing most in the EU is not one more English-language general news publication, such as France24 or DW, but more English-language analysis and high-quality opinion journalism, covering European as well as global affairs from continental European points of view.
Currently, the ‚stories‘ of the EU — the European Union’s history, its raison d’etre, its current challenges and future options — are told to the world primarily by UK media organisations whose global audiences and social media accounts — as crucial vehicles for content distribution — dwarf most continental European news organisations.
And don‘t get me wrong, UK news organisations often produce world-leading journalism which I admire. In my view, the FT currently is the world’s best English-language newspaper. Increasingly, though, the UK‘s strategic interests will no longer be aligned with those of the 27 EU member states, and it would be naive to believe that this won‘t influence the views of British journalists and journalism over time. It already does.
Or to put it more bluntly and in terms of geo-politics: Imagine the world’s primary news organisations to provide us with news and analyses on US affairs (business, politics, culture) were all based in Canada. We would find that completely absurd while the EU‘s situation is not much different with journalists in the US, Asia and Africa mostly having to rely on UK media to find out what is happing in and with the EU or in individual EU countries.
As you may know, I have been working on this topic for many years now, and over time my views have changed in two aspects:
Firstly, I no longer think we should launch new pan-European publications for this purpose but rather work with existing trusted national publications across the European Union.
Obviously, the EU is made of nation-states which will and should all remain hugely important reference points for identity and culture. A typical misunderstanding in much of British journalism is that one’s own nation-state identity and one’s identity as an EU Citizen were mutually exclusive. They are not but rather rely on each other. Having a regional, national and European identity is a feeling which the majority of EU Citizens express, as measured since many years now in the Eurobarometer surveys. With that in mind, and in the interest of time, I find it smarter to create English-language media spheres in the EU that are anchored in the already trusted national news organisations of each member state versus trying to create new pan-European brands, even if they had teams on the ground in all member states.
Such a network approach would also be more aligned with the networked nature of the European Union itself.
Secondly, I no longer think that simply translating already published content from a newspaper’s local language into English or cross-sharing content between the news organisations of different countries will be sufficient.
Translating and publishing key pieces into English is an important first step and has taught many news organisations that this can help remind the world of their existence and get them quotations in other news organisations. To achieve journalistic authority and global influence, though, such new English-language networks from continental Europe would need to go beyond just translating their local content or forging content-sharing alliances.
Content sharing across publications and languages is always a good start as that helps establish translation workflows and build personal relationships and trust across different newsrooms. For journalism to resonate with non-domestic readers and viewers, though, it has to be structured and written differently compared to journalism that was meant for domestic audiences only. Very often, cultural or historical references in a text will only work in one country but mean nothing in the other country or, worse, cause confusion there. This is why participating national news organisations would need to be able to finance specialised editors and audience development experts who can adapt their local content for their international audiences, and also commission, edit and curate new English-language journalism so it can ‘function’ well abroad.
source: jakubmarian.com, based on Eurobarometer data.
In our time, though, when most all news organisations struggle financially and see their biggest future revenue opportunity in subscriptions from their most loyal, and thus mostly domestic audiences, this is a difficult pitch to make. At the same time, external funding — philanthropic or governmental — would immediately raise questions about journalistic independence.
Something has to give, though.
The last four years with Donald Trump or the foreseeable blaming of the EU by much of British media for the damages done in the UK by Brexit only give us a first taste for how incredibly exposed the EU is, journalistically.
Without having domestic English-language news organisations whose global reputation, influence and distribution power on the various social media platforms can match those of the UK or US, continental Europe will remain at a disadvantage.
Until then, a French President has to keep writing letters to an editor in London, which is no longer in the EU, if he wants to set the record straight with the world and reach the right audiences. (see also further notes below)
President Macron’s letter to the Financial Times.
— — — further notes — — — — — —
I am preparing to give a talk on this topic next year. Some obvious other aspects and questions I’ll include then:
Why start in English? Isn’t the very idea of the European Union to be multi-lingual? Yes, it is. Publishing in English or in local languages is not a binary choice or mutually exclusive.
What is more elitist, to also publish in English or to stick to the view of Umberto Eco by which ‘the language of Europe is translation’?
Who would be the target audiences for such publications, and why?
Who reads non-domestic journalism anyway?
What about the work done already by various important news organisations, such as Politico Europe, El Pais English, The Local, Spiegel Online, Euronews, Deutsche Welle, France24?
Wouldn’t this rather be the task of the comparatively well-funded public broadcasters in Europe? Is there maybe a service the public broadcasters could provide the privately-owned news organisations with, such as coordination and translation services in the interest of providing readers/viewers with a broader array of European analyses and opinions on international and European affairs?
Why is it that international press reviews — where they still exist — hardly ever mention the comment pieces of broadcasting organisations from different countries, but only of ‘newspapers’? And what does that say about the importance of internationally known brands in reaching non-domestic audiences?
Does it really matter where a news organisation is geographically headquartered and where the majority of its staff live?
Isn’t this just a question of waiting for machine translation to become good enough?
What are the ethical ramifications of this proposal: Should journalism and journalists even worry about their nation’s or the European Union’s perception by the rest of the world?
Are there data points on how many per cent of journalists in key newsrooms in the US, the UK as well as Asia, South America and Africa can read in languages other than their own and English?
What do we know about the consumption of non-domestic journalism by citizens of the EU?
If this comes down to giving financial support from the EU Commission to participating news organisations in the EU so that they can publish key texts and videos in English much more frequently, could this be done in a way that does not raise any questions about government influence on journalism? If the EU supports cultural institutions across Europe, can it also support journalistic institutions at least with translation budgets and in a politically neutral way?
Have I forgotten that the Republic of Ireland is an English-language EU member state? No, I have not. Amongst many other topics, the coverage and analysis of Brexit by RTÉ and by the Irish Times, specifically by Fintan O’Toole, has been hugely helpful.
What could motivate reputable national newspapers/news organisations in any EU member state to take part in such a networked approach? Or, as Gian Paolo Accardo, the Co-founder of Vox Europe has asked me: ‘What’s in it for them?’
Does it really matter or influence its journalism and views on the world where an English-language news organisation‘s management HQ and primary newsroom are geographically located?
Does Habermas have anything to say on the issue? Well, Professor Jay Rosen and I had that conversation already a few years ago: https://www.niemanlab.org/2015/04/is-there-a-european-public-sphere-waiting-for-politico-europe-or-can-it-help-create-one/
Are there institutions coming to similar conclusions? See this policy paper by Germany’s largest foreign policy think-tank SWP Berlin, published after my initial post here. Page 4, right column: “In case of a no-deal Brexit, the EU will need an English-language communication strategy as the world will mostly look to English-language media then”. Source: https://www.swp-berlin.org/fileadmin/contents/products/aktuell/2020A94_NoDealBrexit.pdf
If a key disadvantage of European news organisations lies in their comparatively smaller social media accounts as an important tool to reach global audiences, how could continental news organisations collaborate and cross-promote their content for each other on social media to optimise the distribution of their key pieces? (For reference, here are the Facebook follower numbers of some major news organisations’ primary accounts, as their Facebook accounts are still important drivers of audience discovery, next to Google. Gathered in Nov. 2020)
CNN, US: 37 million
New York Times: 17 million
Fox News: 22 million
The BBC, UK: 54 million
Daily Mail, UK: 20 million
The Independent: 10 million
The Economist: 9.5 million
The Guardian, UK: 8.4 million
The Telegraph, UK: 4.4 million
The Financial Times: 4 million
Deutsche Welle: 2.6 million
BILD, Germany: 2.5 million
ARD Tagesschau: 2 million
Spiegel Online, Germany: 2 million
Zeit Online, Germany: 0.8 million
Sueddeutsche Zeitung: 0.8 million
Le Monde, France: 4.6 million
Le Parisien, France: 3.3 million
Le Figaro, France: 3.1 million
France24 English, France: 1.7 million
El Pais, Spain: 6.1 million
El Mundo, Spain: 2.7 million
ABC, Spain: 1.6 million
La Reppublica, Italy: 3.8 million
La Stampa, Italy: 1.4 million
Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland: 0.7 million
De Telegraf, Netherlands: 0.5 million
(end)
Original tweets: | https://medium.com/@wblau/europe-still-leaves-it-to-uk-and-us-media-to-tell-its-story-globally-23b3a4dc01b2 | ['Wolfgang Blau'] | 2021-02-18 10:38:34.727000+00:00 | ['Journalism', 'European Union', 'European Public Sphere', 'Social Media', 'Public Sphere'] |
A security that capped early investor returns would benefit employees | The proposal for a employee-friendly TREE security
TL;DR — Join me for a thought experiment
Equity ownership is a zero sum game. Companies would prefer to retain equity value for shareholders (e.g. employees) who contribute creative capital rather than continuously pay an equity “tax” to already enriched early investors whose capital contributions no longer have meaningful impact on the business. The introduction of a new security type–the TREE –could cap early investor returns at pre-determined thresholds and free up cap table value for employees, providing a potential win-win solution. This instrument would likely not work for the structures of current early stage and venture capitalist investors, but could represent an alternative fundraising approach for companies and their future employees. This blog imagines how such a security could work in today’s market. It’s an exploration of an idea vs. a perfect solution.
Create more owners.
At Carta (my employer) we believe in the mission of “creating more owners.” Employees and workers should have equity participation in the value they create, rather than just receiving a wage while other owners reap the higher rewards for that effort.
There’s two ways to do this:
The total number of companies offering equity ownership to employees increases The amount of ownership offered at each company increases
The first is already showing promising change. The number and types of companies offering employees equity as part of their compensation grows each year. A normal occurrence in the technology industry, equity grants in the form of options, RSUs, and other awards are becoming more commonplace in the US and abroad. This has driven more ownership for more people.
A reexamination of the second point–changing the terms of ownership within companies–is where additional innovation can and should happen. Instead of divvying up the pie the way it always has–along with the natural questions of confusion and feelings of unfairness–employees and other value creators challenge the status quo.
Equity investments are a permanent company tax
Imagine this scenario: A group of people have an idea and form a company. They accelerate their idea with a capital raise. They can’t get a loan, nor do they feel comfortable having a debt burden yet. Instead they sell 25% of the company to an investor for $100,000. The group takes that $100,000 and builds a great product. Years later, the company is worth $10 million. The creative team who built the business are happy–they have created $7.5 million of value for themselves. The investor is happy. Their investment has returned 25x from $100K to $2.5M.
A few years later, the company is worth $20M. The investor is thrilled! The $100K investment has 50x’d to $5 million. The company team is also happy since they now own $15 million in value. But, they’re also perplexed. Getting their company from $10M to $20M was hard work that their sweat and creativity made possible. The investor’s $100K investment helped kick-start their business, but it hasn’t been relevant in years. Nor was the $100K particularly unique–it was capital that could have come from anywhere. Yet the investor just captured $2.5M of the additional value created. What’s going on?
It feels like the company has sold ownership over its labor to the investor indefinitely. They wonder: I’m proud we’ve been able repay the trust our investor placed in us, but haven’t we returned enough value? That $2.5M of value could have been distributed amongst the company’s employees rather than further enriching an already well-compensated investor. Long after returns on the investment have been realized, the company continues to pay out value to this early financier. The equity stake is a perpetual “tax” on the company.
The company and society begins to wonder why the people who are providing new ideas, finding creative solutions, and creating new value aren’t capturing more value. Employees–the company’s “creative capitalists”–are losing out to this tax placed on the company years earlier.
Even the investors might be surprised–albeit pleasantly. Wow, this investment was better than I expected! While still accounting for other investments that didn’t pan out, the investor’s total portfolio might come out ahead given the returns on the size of their investment. And they get to keep earning even more if the company continues to grow its value.
Financial capital is fungible; creative capital is not.
It’s easy to see why the founders took on capital via an equity round. They were looking to fast track growth, and outside financing gave them access to cash more quickly than building a profit-generating business on their own over many years. An equity investor had more risk tolerance than other risk-averse capital allocators like banks or lending institutions. The investor filled a gap on the investment capital spectrum. Their investment likely followed a venture or growth capital strategy of investing in many risky ideas. While many of the investor’s equity investments would fail, the returns of the successful ones more than cover these losses.
But what unique good did the financial capital provide? And how impactful is it over time? The investor provided an accelerated growth by providing cash without the burden of near-term cash repayment. Over time, however, its direct impact on value creation drops. At a certain point, it’s hard to see how the $100,000 check is responsible for any value creation. In our example, the company is perplexed that the investor continues to gain 25% of all value creation with no new inputs affecting that value. Even if early investors are diluted–which most real world investors are likely to be via stock plans increase, employee grants, etc.–they’re still capturing significant value.
The ideas and problem solving abilities of the company’s intellectual and human capital–creative capital–remains consistently impactful on the company’s value creation. That’s as true when the company just started out as it is when the company increased its value from $10M to $20M.
Here’s a (poorly draw) diagram of how different types of capital affect value creation over time:
Investors will disagree. Some would argue they provide unique insights built from years of experience and industry-specific expertise. Many are right. Investment professionals–like those at venture capital funds–are oftentimes successful founders and entrepreneurs who help companies navigate their way to success. Other investors provide ancillary services like marketing and recruiting help to relieve the burden of companies having to build these costly functions in-house. Their impact is felt even after cash has transferred between accounts.
Research on value-add perceptions between founders and VCs highlight this gap in thinking. A study done by Hackernoon, Newfund, and the University of Chicago “repeatedly point to VCs overvaluing how much time they spend with their portfolio companies as well as their contributions compared to the founders’ perspectives.” Additionally, “VCs generally overestimated how much startup founders valued the impact of their operational support.”
My point is not that impact doesn’t exist, just that it likely decreases the further one goes from a fundraise. It’s oftentimes true that early investors (angels, seed round) eventually get phased out by newer investors (venture, growth) who help companies through a period in which they have an expertise.
Another way of comparing the relative importance of impact from creative capital and financial capital is their fungibility. Funding generally provides cash, not the creativity and ingenuity that drives forward the success of a company and solves a customer need. Financing is dollars, and dollars are generally the same regardless of which financier provided them. Money in a bank account generally looks the same. The creative capital from founders and employees working directly on problems is a less fungible asset. While employees from the CEO down can be replaced, this group is most capable of solving company-specific problems over the long haul.
This again seems intriguing from a risk and reward perspective. As noted above, the business of capital allocators is to invest money into attractive ideas. Some will fail, but the ones who succeed create enough value to cover these losses and then some. Funds have the opportunity to vet hundreds or thousands of companies and can invest into dozens of them from a single fund. In addition to protecting against downside risk through each negotiated investment, risk is also mitigated by spreading funds across a diversified investment portfolio. To top things off, most funds charge a fee based on assets under management to make sure its own employees (partners, back office, etc.) are compensated regardless of returns.
Greater risk is assumed by creative capitalists. Each creative capitalist has a limited amount of time and opportunity to invest their skills into valuable problems. Imagine a 20 year-old who starts working today and wants to diversify their career in the same way a VC diversifies risk across investments. If they work a max of 4 years at any technology job that offers them equity (since most vesting schedules are 4 years in length, this allows them to fully vest their initial grants), they will work at only 10 companies over a 40 year career. While employees protect their downside via earning a wage from companies, there’s much less risk diversification in a career and therefore a reduced opportunity of outsized or transformational rewards compared to the investor model.
And yet, current financing negotiations treat the parties exactly the opposite. The less risky VCs protect their downside and maximize their value capture. Creative capitalists–particularly the employees who don’t even get to participate in negotiations–take what’s left, generally in the form of an equity pool that the board (mostly those same financiers and founders) allocate. While employees can and do benefit from receiving equity rights at a steep discount when a company’s value grows, they also have service minimums (vesting cliffs and vesting schedules) and other tax requirements (upon exercises and sales) that make their value capture less easy than it first appears.
Frustration with current options
Looking back, our fictional company feels frustrated. Over time the creative capitalists of the company–they and their employees–should capture more value, right? They’re the ones providing the greater impact on value creation relative to checks that were written years earlier and they’re the ones taking on risk in their careers by dedicating a portion of it to a company that might not be viable.
Thinking back on its negotiations, the company would have preferred a structure wherein financing was equity-like in the early days and debt-like when value had been created. Equity liabilities in the early days obviated the risks of debt default. As they created value, however, they’d prefer early liabilities to be debt-like and repayable by the value they’ve generated and repaid to investors. After they paid back the financier–and very generously–they could once again fully own the valuable fruits of their labor. And they could divide that value more fully amongst their employees–their creative capitalists.
But the company was only presented with the opposite options from investors: equity investments and convertible note financings functioned like repayable debt in the early days and like non-repayable equity in valuable later years. When I say “repayable debt,” I don’t necessarily mean debt in the form of loan with interest and regular repayments. Rather I refer to how investors capture value early in the lives of companies. Convertible notes and preferred shares with liquidation preferences give first claims on the company’s assets when values are low. Early payouts are indistinguishable from those of debt as shown in the following examples looking at a $15M bank loan, $15M convertible note, and $10M preferred equity investment with 1 1.5x liquidation preference:
As the company’s value increases, investors capture valuable upside from their equity investments and ownership in the company. Preferred shares represent ownership directly. Convertible notes and SAFEs entitle holders to convert their debt and quasi-debt instruments into valuable equity and ownership. Both are efficiently structured to capture upside value. For example, preferred shares might have higher conversion ratios entitling them to convert their preferred shares into more common shares and capture outsized ownership. Convertible notes build on what is owed to them via interest and then convert into shares at a discount via a conversion discount of valuation cap.
When one looks at the payout diagram of a preferred equity investment with a valuation cap, you can see the debt-like and equity components. At first all of the value is extracted by investors: the slope of the line is 1. In the long-term, investors earn value based on their ownership percentage. If they own 40% of equity, then the slope is 0.4.
To companies this game design is unfortunate. Investors only invest when they can limit losses via first claims on value and assets while also participating in large upsides when value is high. Investors are in the business of maximizing returns for their funds by allocating capital to the most promising founders and their companies. When investors enter negotiations, they look to manage risk by protecting against downside outcomes while capturing upside whenever possible. This is built into fund construction models (loss ratios, etc.) and therefore the fund’s business model. Investors have structured securities over time (like preferred rounds and convertible notes) that accomplish these dual goals.
Capital raises and term sheet negotiations therefore often take place with investors having set the agenda of decisions to be made. Even when a company receives multiple and competitive term sheets, they’re still couched in the language of capital providers.
This makes sense when one considers that investors are highly incentivized and very knowledgeable on how to have their needs met in negotiations. VCs and other professional investors assess hundreds of deals each year. That’s a lot of negotiating reps for structuring capital investments on your “terms.” A founder on the other hand might only have this experience a dozen times in their entire career. Venture capital fundraises are set by venture capitalists. Preferred shares and convertible notes are their inventions. Companies transact in the currency investors provided.
Who decides who owns what
Ownership over assets is a zero-sum game. Increased ownership for one group must by definition come at the expense of another group. If creative capitalists are to own more, that means another group of current owners–mostly professional investors and founders–must own less. However, that doesn’t mean both can’t still be compensated well for the amount of capital (creative or financial) that they put in.
How ownership gets divided comes down to the moment when the terms of ownership are negotiated. Ownership discussions typically happen during capital raises. At this moment, companies and potential investors decide how they’ll split up the pie–both now and in the future. The most popular investment securities in startups today are preferred shares, convertible securities, and warrants.
It is my belief that to create more ownership for a company’s creative capitalists — or a payoff that feels more fair — one must understand the dynamics of negotiations and the menu of security types for investment. Riskier companies and ideas might see investors contract for more conservative terms with downside protections. Companies with exciting opportunities, proven results, and high demand will find more favorable terms from investors. More or less, securities can and do reflect the ultimate compromises between those accepting and providing capital.
Can’t there be an investment security that improves the risk and reward dynamics of creative capitalists while meeting the business needs of financial capitalists? I think there is and that the solution can be found at the initial fundraising negotiation table. By rethinking what we accept as truth about the types of investment securities today, we can create a new paradigm that truly does create more owners.
A new investment security — the TREE
Founders would love to keep control of their companies if they could or maintain more ownership for their creative capitalists, i.e. employees. However, companies struggle to find debt financing in early years because investors and lenders are afraid they won’t get paid back. Instead fundraisers turn to more risk tolerant investors who take equity investments in the company with the reward of unlimited potential upside. It solves the problem of cash, but the founders have been forced to give away potentially valuable equity for themselves and their employees forever as we’ve already seen.
But what if investors and companies agreed that the benefits of equity ownership extended only up to a point? A pre-agreed returns cap could enable high returning equity to eventually convert into debt-like securities. Creative capitalists would own everything they’ve created once they’ve paid back sufficient returns to an investor. This seems counterintuitive on first-reading. For example, convertible securities convert debt into equity, not the other way round. Most financiers think of the debt to equity mechanism as a one-way door.
It is via this radical re-imagination that I’m proposing the creation of a new fundraising security: the Targeted Returns for Equity Exit (TREE) security. With this security, parties agree to allow investors to participate in the equity upside of a company up until a point. If a company performs extraordinarily well and returns a high, predetermined multiple to investors, then they can free themselves of a perpetual equity liability. The tax of financial capital for accelerating creative capital would be repaid. While this would probably not work for early stage and venture capital structures today, it could represent a new investment and fundraising approach for others.
Since the continued value-add of the original financial capital at this point is likely marginal, this makes sense. Thereafter the creative capitalists have the greatest impact on the future value and performance of the company and capture the additional value creation in the form of accelerating equity ownership (which corresponds to the leveling out of investor value capture).
The TREE security proposes the exact opposite of the current dynamic. Today, investors hold debt-like securities in their portfolio until it’s valuable to convert them to equity. TREE securities enable creative capitalists to hold obligations as equity on their balance sheet until it’s beneficial to convert them to something debt-like.
How it works today
Let’s see how this would play out in a real world situation. Imagine a company is looking to raise $10,000,000 of financial capital to grow its business.
In today’s world, the company and potential investors would hash out a term sheet. Let’s say they settle on the following: a venture fund will invest $10,000,000 in exchange for a 40% ownership stake, implying a post-money valuation of $25,000,000. Let’s also imagine that founders retain 45% of the ownership while 15% is set aside for employee ownership in an equity pool. Other considerations between the parties might center on the liquidation preferences of the preferred investment and whether the shares are participating or participating preferred depending on how much downside risk is to be negotiated. At a 1.5x liquidation preference, the payout diagrams will be familiar to venture capitalists and transactions advisors:
Payout Diagram for Preferred (Non-Participating) Equity Investment:
Payout Diagram for Participating Preferred Equity Investment:
In the early years the downside risk of the investors is protected via the liquidation preference–the first 1.5x of value (or $15,000,000) is theirs. Thereafter, value is divided between creative capitalists (founders and employees) depending on their ownership stakes and whether the investor’s preferred shares are participating or non-participating.
In the preferred (non-participating) scenario, the investor waits for the creative capitalists (founders and employees) to catch up in value capture at an EV of $15,0000,000. At $37,500,000 of EV (when the investors $15M represents 40% of value), all stakeholders continue to capture value at their respective ownership percentages.
In the participating preferred case, the investor captures the first $15M of value, then continues to capture 40% of additional value until a participation cap is reached. Let’s say the participation cap is 2.5x. This implies that the investor will stop and wait for creative capitalists to catch up at once they’ve captured $25M of value, which happens at $40M of EV. At $62,500,000 (when $25M represents 40% ownership), all parties earn according to their ownership percentage.
These models do a great job of allowing multiple options for investors to protect their downside risk. But what about when large amounts of value are created? At $100M of EV, investors capture $40M (40%) for a 4x return multiple, founders capture $45M (45%) and employees capture $15M (15%). At $200M, investors capture $80M (40%) for an 8.0x return multiple, founders capture $90M (45%) and employees capture $30M (15%).
These are the typical equity investments early stage investors use today. Their downside is relatively protected since they get all the value in extreme downside cases. And their returns continue to grow with the company indefinitely.
How the TREE could work
Let’s imagine now that creative capitalists decide to utilize a TREE security. Instead of the investor earning returns indefinitely, terms are written wherein once the investor achieves a 6x return, it no longer continues to participate in equity upside. How is this accomplished? The conversion ratio of its preferred shares dynamically readjusts such they must convert into a fewer number of preferred shares. In other words, investors own a piece of pie that grows proportional smaller relative to a growing pie, keeping the size of the slice exactly the same.
For this example, let’s imagine the same fundraising scenario as before, but with a TREE used in place of a traditional preferred fundraising round. All parties agree that once the investor achieves 6x returns, the company’s obligation to them is complete. At this point, the company decides any additional value is captured by employees to create strong recruiting incentives. All the preferred and participating preferred negotiations remain the same to protect the investor’s downside. Also, let’s imagine that the fundraising ends with the company having 10,000,000 fully diluted shares–4,000,000 for investors, 4,500,000 for founders, and 1,500,000 for employees–at a priced round of $1.00.
At lower enterprise values, our payout diagrams look exactly the same as before. However, when enterprise value reaches $150M, investors achieve their 6x return multiple (40% ownership of $150M = 6 x $10M = $60M). At this point they no longer continue capturing value, they’re agreed upon outsized returns have been achieved. The conversion ratio of their shares starts to decrease, while the conversion ratio of employee shares increases, allowing employees to achieve more ownership and value capture over their efforts.
Here’s what the new payout diagrams would look like:
Payout Diagram for Preferred (Non-Participating) TREE Investment:
Or viewed another way:
Payout Diagram for Participating Preferred TREE Investment:
Or viewed another way:
Let’s revisit our high EV scenarios from earlier. At $100M of EV, investors capture $40M (40%) for a 4x return multiple, founders capture $45M (45%) and employees capture $15M (15%). Investors continue to capture equity since their multiple target of 6x hasn’t yet been achieved. At $200M, investors capture $60M (30%) for a 6.0x return multiple, founders capture $90M (45%) and employees capture $50M (25%). Investors achieved their 6x multiple and no longer capture value. Instead employees creating new value capture more of this value.
This goal can be accomplished without having to issue or repurchase new shares or grants. Conversion ratios on TREE shares are dynamically adjusted based on the enterprise value.
At $100M of enterprise value, stakeholders earn:
Investors : 4,000,000 TREE shares10,000,000 fully diluted1 converted shares1 share$100M enterprise value = $40M value
: 4,000,000 TREE shares10,000,000 fully diluted1 converted shares1 share$100M enterprise value = $40M value Founders : 4,500,000 TREE shares10,000,000 fully diluted1 converted shares1 share$100M enterprise value = $45M value
: 4,500,000 TREE shares10,000,000 fully diluted1 converted shares1 share$100M enterprise value = $45M value Employees: 1,500,000 TREE shares10,000,000 fully diluted1 converted shares1 share$100M enterprise value = $15M value
At $200M of enterprise value, stakeholders earn:
Investors : 4,000,000 TREE shares10,000,000 fully diluted0.75 converted shares1 share$200M enterprise value = $60M value
: 4,000,000 TREE shares10,000,000 fully diluted0.75 converted shares1 share$200M enterprise value = $60M value Founders : 4,500,000 TREE shares10,000,000 fully diluted1 converted shares1 share$200M enterprise value = $90M value
: 4,500,000 TREE shares10,000,000 fully diluted1 converted shares1 share$200M enterprise value = $90M value Employees: 1,500,000 TREE shares10,000,000 fully diluted1.67 converted shares1 share$200M enterprise value = $50M value
One can model the conversion ratios of shares at different enterprise values:
The creative capitalists have paid the cost of acceleration and once again are owners of their labor and creativity. The “tax” of the early equity has been paid–an in multiples.
Iterating on the TREE
What does an investor do with their TREE security once it “maxes” out? There’s many options here that could be explored. If a company had enough cash, it could repurchase these securities and restructure their cap table. There’d be fewer hoops to jump through since the value of the stake would be known and easy to estimate. Or the TREE securities could continue to pay a cash or stock dividend, enabling the investor to sell their stake to an investor with more fixed-income needs. Or savvy financiers could create a structured Payment-in-Kind (PIK) product wherein the stake continued to earn interest or dividends in the form of some other asset that made it re-sellable.
One could also scrap the idea that investors stop earning altogether and instead just earns less at successive targets. In our example, an investor could agree that at 6x, their ownership accumulation rate halves. At 10x it halves again. At 15x, once more, and so on.
Below is what such a permutation could look like for the preferred (non-participating) TREE using our previous criteria along with the required conversion ratios. As you can see investors still earn upside at the target multiple, they just earn less relative to employees whose ownership is increasing more rapidly.
Or alternatively viewed:
The dynamic conversion ratio is tightened as a result.
It would require more terms structuring, but there are an infinite number of permutations for investors and companies to consider. One last example on this to show how it might work.
One could ask why current employees seem to benefit while the investor is capped. Doesn’t that just create the same situation of older employees piggybacking on the efforts of new employees while contributing less relative to the total value created? Also, don’t employees also get paid a salary, protecting their downside already?
If that’s a concern, instead the TREE could be modified so that value above the investor’s cap didn’t go to existing employee ownership, but rather went to a pool for new employees. This could help companies fulfill goals to be more employee-owned.
Why the TREE could work
Two hours later, the pros were meager and the cons were abundant, even if a few of the, in my estimation, were quite petty. “Well,” I said. “It was a nice idea. But I don’t see how we do this.” “A few solid pros are more powerful than dozens of cons,” Steve said. –Meeting between Bob Iger and Steve Jobs regarding a Disney-Pixar merger
There are obvious criticisms that people will raise with the TREE security’s payout structure. However, since the goal of this is to consider how a new security could work, I think it’s worthwhile to approach with an open rather than closed mind. Since we started with the premise that a TREE security is the exact opposite of security structures today and take the needs of companies as preeminent, this is to be expected. Let’s focus on what could work rather than focus on what couldn’t.
Why would investors ever go for this? It completely upends the way angel investors, venture capital firms, and growth equity firms are structured to invest. By limiting their upside, investments become less attractive, and investors are unlikely to invest at all.
This would require a rethink of the current fund structure model. That’s not crazy considering how quickly the venture investing structure has changed in the last 60 years. If TREEs became part of an investment portfolio, upside would be capped with each deal via a targeted return multiple. To compensate for reduced return, traditional VC and early investors would likely require increased risk reduction to make their fund model work.
One way to accomplish this would be for higher early ownership stakes via lower enterprise values during equity negotiations–i.e. investors initially pay less for more. If companies want the benefit of ownership in the long run, investors would want more guarantee of ownership up front to limit potential losses. This would change the way funds build their target loss ratios, but it could still be a sustainable model. Companies and creative capitalists wouldn’t lose their incentive to hit home runs either–in fact, this model encourages the creation of outsized returns.
There’s also the chance that this isn’t a security fit for the investors and investment models of today. However, aspiring and different-minded investors with a different model, thesis, or fund goals might find the TREE an attractive idea. There’s already a rise in new fund model types like those created by Indie.vc.
Could companies even propose something like a TREE?
All fundraises and investments are ultimately negotiations. That leaves ample latitude for parties to find agreement. Term sheets today include all sorts of non-standard things that parties felt important enough to include. Typically, if one side has asymmetric bargaining power or a deal non-negotiable, there’s room to explore new terms.
You can already see the way bargaining power has changed security structures today. Historically convertible notes were the favored debt-to-equity security of investors. As we saw before, it gave the benefits of debt when they needed first claim on value in downside cases and converted to valuable equity at a discount when the company’s value increased. Recently, new convertible types like SAFEs and KISSs have made an emergence. These securities aren’t debt and therefore don’t strap young companies with interest or the chance or the threat of repayment. Even while the economics of the investments remain the same — generally driven by the size of the principle — the change and new vernacular of clearer negotiation terms is significant.
SAFEs and KISSs were created by the startup accelerators Y Combinator and 500 Startups respectively, who represent young companies and their founders. Because these accelerators controlled access to a desirable pipeline of investments, they had increased bargaining power when it came to capital raises with investors on behalf of those companies. While SAFEs and KISSs once seemed new, they now represent the mainstream convertible investments in venture-seeking companies. AngeList noted that nearly 80% of early-stage financings on its platform were now done via SAFEs.
Companies have also shown an appetite for an expanded financing menu. This is clear with the growing deployment of venture debt, revenue-based venture capital, and profit-based venture capital solutions. All represent different models of fundraising for companies and their investors. In short, equity may not be the right (or sole) solution for all startups.
While I won’t delve into the full spectrum of new financing instruments, it’s worth noting that there is appetite for a changed ownership and funding options. While the bargaining power continues to rest with investors–you still see more companies fail from lack of funding than investment funds from lack of capital deployment–the dynamic could be changing. If more money continues to flow into the early stage investment arena, it could reach a point where capital is so abundant that companies gain more power for negotiating which funds they choose rather than which choose them.
Lastly, there actually aren’t that many businesses that become billion dollar, generational companies. Indie.vc’s research shows that only 10–20 companies a year make the jump. That means most companies could benefit from a funding structure that helps them build a great business without needing to achieve unicorn status to justify the investor returns. Great ideas and businesses that would benefit from a lower risk-reward structure than is currently offered by many venture capitalists and seed investors.
Investment funds, like those in venture capital, ultimately are beholden to the return needs of their limited partners. Wouldn’t you have to change the minds of LPs to accept potentially lower returns?
There’s two ways to approach potentially flipping this narrative. First, LPs could invest in funds that have switched their models to better support TREE securities. Those funds would have lower outsized returns, but also lower risk as well. It’s a different type of investment, but not necessarily one for which there’d be no appetite.
Second, now and in the future, not all limited partners are strictly motivated by maximizing returns. Many investors elevate other considerations to guide their investments–creating net positives for society, funding non-profits, etc. Many branches of the federal government take such an approach, as do some pension funds, retirement funds, endowments (like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundations), university tech incubators, sovereign wealth funds, and other high net worth individuals. There are many parties who might want to see more ownership given back to employees and creative capitalists compared to padding the returns of investors. This is particularly true in the current environment where investors and societies are looking to create more owners among historically underrepresented ownership and minority groups–women, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and others.
It’s also worth noting that there are already LPs willing to invest in funds using alternative financing structures like revenue-based capital. TREEs could offer fund managers a differentiation in attracting LP dollars in a crowded field where the biggest funds already tend to reap the lion’s share of the rewards.
Would companies go for it?
“I’ve built something I never thought would be such a success, but I cannot think of Chobani being built without all these people… Now they’ll be working to build the company even more and building their future at the same time.” –Chobani Founder and CEO Hamdi Ulukaya on granting all 2,000 employees equity stakes in the company in 2016
Using a TREE financing, companies might expect to give up ownership earlier on in exchange for more ownership in the long term. That might scare some founders away, whereas others are willing to take the trade. In fact, some companies might think that their ability to offer greater returns to creative capitalists via a TREE financing round could act as strategic recruiting. The message of “we’re aiming to becomer more employee owned” and “the better we do, the better you’ll do at an accelerated pace” might be a noticeable differentiator in a crowded talent market.
A TREE-backed company could attract employees who aspire to maximize their personal earning potential or feel like they want to work for a company with an employee-centric cause. If a company can attract the best employees, this in turn could make them a more attractive and less risky investment. A TREE could be a talent and value-creation accelerant.
Companies have goals beyond just growth and value maximization as well. Many founders and companies aspire to create more ownership for employees and underrepresented segments of societies. TREEs could provide a long-term path to returning ownership to employees. This isn’t a new idea. Employee-owned enterprises have existed for over a century. Even larger corporations are recognizing employee ownership as both a differentiator and societal good.
Would companies lose brand capital by eschewing the old model?
Companies point to their investor base as a positive signal to potential executives, employees, and follow-on investors. Brand name investors create a strong perception of viability to the market. Would a TREE hurt this signal? More often than not, the company’s growth will be driven in the long-term by its fundamentals rather than the source of the dollars in its bank account. Brand name VCs may not utilize this type of security, but they represent just a sliver of the market that very few companies actually get funding from.
Why not just raise venture debt instead of creating a new security?
TREE securities would be better than venture debt. For companies that perform poorly or fail, investors would still receive the same preference in value payout via either the terms of the debt or the liquidation preferences of the TREE securities. In cases where the company does well, investors can make multiples of their initial investment, rather than just a higher interest repayment. Companies would opt for the TREE over debt given it doesn’t come with the restrictive covenants or personal liability of debt. | https://medium.com/@rysullivan/a-security-that-capped-early-investor-returns-would-benefit-employees-e4326b5d63aa | ['Ry Sullivan'] | 2021-02-23 18:28:37.510000+00:00 | ['Venture Capital', 'Equity', 'VC', 'Startup', 'Finance'] |
The People vs. Personal Gain | Former Georgia Rep. Tom Price, who later went on to become the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) in the Trump Administration, offers an excellent example of why Senators Merkley and Brown want to prevent members of Congress from investing while in office. In January 2017, on the eve of Price’s HHS confirmation hearings, the Senate Finance Committee released a memo describing a range of questionable activities, with the most notable line relating to investments made by Rep. Price in Innate Immunotherapeutics, an Australian pharmaceutical company. Not only had Rep. Price under-reported his holdings in the company by up to $200,000, he had also invested based on the advice of another congressman, Rep. Chris Collins of New York. During the hearings, Rep. Doug Lamborn of Colorado also decided to buy shares in Innate Immunotherapeutics, and three more members of Congress soon followed suit. Collins, who initially recommended the investment, was later charged with insider trading for using his knowledge that the Australian company’s key drug had failed an FDA test to tell members of his family to sell their stock before it plummeted.
So, despite the fact that members of Congress are barred from insider trading, they still find ways to engage in unethical investment practices. Some, like Rep. Collins, have had charges brought against them. Others, like Rep. Price, have gone on to become cabinet secretaries of important government agencies (before resigning when the private charter of military planes for personal usage was revealed). These stories are just some of the many that were reported in recent years, and they make one rationale for the Ban Conflicted Trading Act quite clear: Banning insider trading activity by members of Congress is not sufficient to prevent scandal and unethical behavior. But, another reason for the bill is a broader belief that representatives and senators should be wholly focused on serving their constituents without becoming distracted by the ability to line their pockets. | https://medium.com/payoffs/the-people-vs-personal-gain-431a525a6ddb | ['Joshua Potash'] | 2019-01-04 15:14:43.866000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Money', 'Corruption', 'Finance', 'Stock Market'] |
Tips and Tricks for Handling Logging Files in Python | 1. Basic Usage
Import
You need to import the module before you can use it. Add the following import statement:
import logging
Next, you can log the messages by utilizing the available functions based on the severity level.
Logging levels
There are altogether five levels provided:
DEBUG — Detailed information, typically of interest only when diagnosing problems.
— Detailed information, typically of interest only when diagnosing problems. INFO — Confirmation that things are working as expected.
— Confirmation that things are working as expected. WARNING — An indication that something unexpected happened, or indicative of some problem in the near future (e.g. “disk space low”). The software is still working as expected.
— An indication that something unexpected happened, or indicative of some problem in the near future (e.g. “disk space low”). The software is still working as expected. ERROR — Due to a more serious problem, the software has not been able to perform some function.
— Due to a more serious problem, the software has not been able to perform some function. CRITICAL — A serious error, indicating that the program itself may be unable to continue running.
You can call them as follows:
logging.debug('Debug')
logging.info('Info')
logging.warning('Warning')
logging.error('Error')
logging.critical('Critical')
Let’s test it out by setting up a simple Flask server and running the log messages.
Save the code above in a file called log_test.py . Open up a terminal and point it to the directory and run it via the following command:
python log_test.py
Open up a browser and enter localhost:5000 , you should be able to see the Hello world response and the following output in the console.
Image by Author
You will notice that the “Called hello_world” is not logged. This is mainly because the logging level has been defaulted to warning and above. Debug and info messages will not be logged.
We can easily change the logging level via the basicConfig function during the initialization. Let’s test it by adding the following code right above the app.route decorator and below the app = Flask(__name__) initialization .
logging.basicConfig(level=logging.INFO)
You should be able to see the following output.
Image by Author
Initialization via basicConfig
The basicConfig function also accepts a filename parameter which indicates that it should use a FileHandler to log it to a file instead of a console.
Create a new directory called log and modify the basicConfig code to the following:
logging.basicConfig(filename='log/flask_server.log' ,level=logging.INFO)
A file called flask_server.log will be generated once you access localhost:5000 in the web browser.
Image by Author
The logging system will append the log messages to the file for the subsequent call to the URL.
Variable data
You can use format string to log variable data. Example as follows:
data = 'hello_world'
logging.error('An exception occurred at %s', data)
Format
You can specify the format of the output based on your preferences. The following example will log the time, the severity level of the message, and lastly, the output message.
logging.basicConfig(filename='log/flask_server.log' ,level=logging.INFO, format="%(asctime)s - %(levelname)s - %(message)s")
You should get the following output:
Image by Author
In the next section, we will be exploring two other main components of the logging module. | https://betterprogramming.pub/tips-and-tricks-for-handling-logging-files-in-python-b48be3d553ad | ['Ng Wai Foong'] | 2020-11-09 05:01:11.543000+00:00 | ['Python', 'DevOps', 'Debugging', 'Flask', 'Programming'] |
The Queen's Gambit | The Queen’s Gambit is a Netflix original 7-episode miniseries that tells the story of Beth Harmon, an orphan girl who learns to play chess from the janitor at the orphanage she was brought up and ends up becoming a genius chess player.
The series was inspired by a book of the same name, written in 1983 by Walter Tevis. He passed away in 1984. I have no idea if it is a good adaptation, I have never read the original story, but after seeing the series I was very interested in going after the book.
The adaptation was written and directed by Scott Frank, also known for another Netflix miniseries called Godless — which has been on my list for a long time — and also Minority Report (2002).
Anya Taylor-Joy has the lead role portraying the young Beth Harmon. You must know her for roles in The Witch, which I haven't seen, and she also did very well in the movie Split.
Who's the Queen?
The name “The Queen’s Gambit” is a reference to a chess move, which I will not dare to explain here to you.
Beth Harmon is a character who grows up between the 50s and 60s, and ends up having to deal with addictions, abandonment, drug abuse, alcoholism, sexism… It's an interesting build-up.
The series also shows tensions between the Soviet Union and the USA. During the height of the Cold War, which also happened in the world of sports. Even in real chess disputes during the 70s.
Some of the best things in the series for me are the art direction and cinematography. The color of the Cold War is something that I always enjoy in movies or series. It has so much mystery of a time I have not lived but heard so much about it.
What about chess?
To build the exciting games of chess and accurate plays, the production had the advice of two legends of the sport. Garry Kasparov and American coach Bruce Pandolfini, who guaranteed a reliable representation of everything we watched.
Photo by IMDB
Anya Taylor-Joy had to really learn how to play chess along with all actors who also received basic training, from how to move the pieces to start the clock naturally. You can definitely see all this preparation on the screen.
They were able to create exciting chess games with awesome editing and an amazing soundtrack. Speaking of the music, it's just incredible. I just can't stop listening to it.
One last thing
If you haven't given The Queen's Gambit a chance because it's about chess, think again. It's so much more than that. It's just good storytelling. I don't know about you but I am always up for that. | https://medium.com/post-credit-stories/the-queens-gambit-eb6632ecae7e | ['Felipe Xavier'] | 2020-11-24 18:27:10.834000+00:00 | ['Chess', 'The Queens Gambit', 'Miniseries', 'Netflix', 'Series'] |
My journey to $1,000,000 | Disclaimer: This is not financial advice. None of you will be able to take this exact same path. All our stories are unique. This is mine. Not a native English speaker, so sorry for any grammar mistakes.
This is not a get-rich-quick story. There were periods where I worked my ass off for months. Periods were I was incredibly lazy for years.
Periods where I gained $100k’s in days and then lost it back in the span of a few hours. Times were I took a lot of risks and times when I played things very safe. Phases where I knew what to do and how to achieve it and phases where I lost every purpose I had in my life.
I’ll start off with a brief history of my background. I grew up to the lower end of your standard European middle class. My parents never struggled to provide us with housing, food and education, but we were not able to save too much besides that. When I was 16 I had about $5k to my name. Mostly savings from Christmas, Birthday gifts and Caroling.
I’ve always had a knack for business from a young age. From trading playing cards, marbles, etc. on the playground to putting my first $1,000
investment in an index fund at the age of 12. I’ve been fortunate enough to have a father who had some stocks, but was by no means an expert.
I did some student jobs during summer holidays from 16–20, which made me save another $5k. By the time I was 21 I had about $10k to my name, mostly from savings and a bit of work. I decided it was time I invest it all since I didn’t really need the money anyways. I put almost $8,000 into 5 different banking stocks. Those stocks were down 40% from their peak and financial stocks were the highest returning, safest options ever. This was in 2008 and…
I lost all of that money.
I was almost broke at 21 and barely had enough to go on a holiday with my girlfriend. I only had one year left until I would graduate university and I knew I needed to find some way to be self-employed. I always hated my student jobs and absolutely dreaded the idea of working for a boss my whole life.
Enter poker. My friends invited me to play some home games. Loved the game instantly (I always loved card games), but I was a total noob. However I am very competitive so that night I started looking for poker strategy online so next time I could crush my friends. Not because I wanted their money (although I wouldn’t say no to that) but I wanted to be the best. Then I stumbled upon some sites that teach you poker strategy. I was completely hooked. They had a special offer: if you completed their introduction course and passed their quiz, they would give you $50 to play with. For the next months I lived and breathed poker. I played hours and hours per day, watching educational videos, any type of poker content I could get my hands on.
Talking strategy with friends I made on the poker strategy forums. I climbed the limits. Started playing for $2 stacks and within months I was playing for $25 stacks. It wasn’t enough yet to justify doing it as a main source of income, but I was making $700-$1000 a month. As a 21 year old living with his parents, I felt like I was making big bucks.
However my hunger only became stronger. It wasn’t all about the money for me. It was about the game. Beating your opponents. Winning… Being the best… No amount of money could replace that feeling of successfully bluffing your opponents over and over again.
I kept being completely obsessed with the game. My university grades suffered under it and it probably was a main catalyst to me breaking up with my girlfriend. I would skip parties just so I could play more poker. One night I stayed up all night and played from 9pm to 7am, just when my dad woke up. I won my first big tournament. Entered a $22 tournament and won the first prize of $10,500. More than doubling my net worth at the time. My dad, who always thought it wasn’t anything serious, just left for work and couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe it. My best friends couldn’t believe it.
I asked myself: “Is this enough for me to become a professional player? Honestly… I don’t know. I only have a few months of university left. Let’s at least finish my Masters and see if my poker earnings can become more consistent.”
A few months later I graduated university (barely). Poker was going good and I was making $2k consistently, which was about the same amount I would receive as a salary if I would decide to start getting a ‘real’ job. Still I wanted a bigger safety net, but also didn’t want to get a job since I would have little time left for improving at poker. I decided to focus on poker for a few more months and see what happens.
This was probably one of the best decisions I ever made. I continued my grind. Both in terms of playing poker and working on my strategies. I kept increasing my winrate and I kept climbing the stakes. At this point I was playing for $200 stacks, 16 tables at a time. Everything was going smooth. I just needed that one month where I could say: “Ok, this is it. I am becoming a full-time professional.”
4 months after graduating that month happened. I had my best month ever. Total winnings of $15,000 in barely 25 days. Also with great consistency. I knew this is what I needed. I ended up not applying for a job (and I never did ever since).
Now, I was still living with my parents and it was time to change that. I wanted to go somewhere new, somewhere far away, somewhere exotic…
I messaged some poker friends and told them about my dream. It wasn’t too hard to find some people who wanted the exact same things. Three of us were set on the journey, we just didn’t yet know where.
One of them wanted to go to Asia. One of them wanted to go to a place with a low cost of living. I wanted to go somewhere where they speak English. So we picked Philippines.
We moved to Philippines. Rented a big mansion with a pool, employed a maid and a cook. This all for $500/month, we felt like kings. At this point I was consistently making $2-$10k/month and as most people who get a sweet taste of financial freedom for the first time in their life, my work ethic started to slack little by little. We went partying twice a week. Travelled a ton. Explored the world around us and only spent maybe 2–3 hours a day on actually grinding and improving our game.
View from Taal, Philippines
If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing. I had a great time and it’s important to not let something overtake you completely like it did to me for half a year prior to that. I needed this break, but I would never in my poker career get that initial hunger back. I had times where I worked very hard and times where I barely did anything for weeks. I had about $80,000 in net worth and I was getting too comfortable. I didn’t need this much money as I lead a relatively minimalist lifestyle. I also thought that poker would always be there for me so if I needed money, I could just go and play.
However this was far from the truth. In the next years governments started to crack down on online gambling. More people started reading poker strategy and every month it became harder and harder to make money with poker.
The year was 2013 and I finally had some money that I wanted to put into investments. Poker requires a large bankroll and only now I had extra savings that I could put somewhere. I was still hesitant to invest in stocks because of how hard I got burned in the Great Recession. Now there was this new form of currency everyone in the poker world started talking about.
It was called bitcoin... It went from $30 to $100 in just a month, what was this madness?! A new form of digital money or something? Fascinating! I thought it was too speculative, but I started going down the rabbit hole.
I was definitely hooked on the decentralized aspect of it. At that time I was thinking about gold, because of how it isn’t controlled by any government. But this? This sounded even better! One issue… the price increase was way too much, too quickly. I was going to wait till the bubble crashed and then I would scoop up some cheap internet money. Price went to $150, to $200. Oh my! Maybe I should just buy it already? No, I held firm. It will crash and yes finally after reaching $260, it dropped like a rock, almost instantly filling my bids at about $100–120. I put $10,000 in it, getting about 80–100 btc. Quite a big bet considering my net worth.
I didn’t care, I loved what it stood for. F*** the government! F*** the Federal Reserve and their bailout of the crooks that lost all my savings before!
Back to poker. I had been lazy for several months and the games got tougher. I decided to go on another intense multi-month work marathon. I played and studied all day long. I got better and better and instead of playing for $200 stacks, I was now playing for $1000, $2000 and sometimes even $5000 stacks. At this point the monetary amounts I would win or lose during one day became substantial. +$32,176 in a few days to lose -$28,239 the next were a common occurrence. Unlike some of my colleagues I was never too faced by it. This is also when I realized it wasn’t really about the money for me.
Money is a good motivator when you have absolutely nothing, but once you start having enough to meet your basic needs, it does not incentivize people much anymore. You’ll need to enjoy what you are working on.
This is what happened to me with poker. I had been playing for 7 years and I was bored of it. I had about $200,000 in savings (Made a fair bit more, but spend a lot on parties and travels).
A poker friend of mine recently got into an entire different field of work.
E-commerce. He was selling his privately labelled products to Amazon costumers and he was doing very well making much more money at this than he was making from poker. This caught my interest… Not just the monetary aspect but from a young age Iwanted to build my own company. Poker always kind of felt like a game to me and perhaps it was time for me to get more serious. This could be a way to do that.
I told my girlfriend this is what I wanted to do. She decided to also quit her job and join me in this venture. For months we went into hardcore work mode again. This drive and passion that I used to get from poker, but hadn’t been present for many years…. It was back. I went down another rabbit hole. Learning about finding suppliers. Taking samples of your products.
Redesigning them. Negotiating better product prices with suppliers, forwarders, banks. Looking at Amazon competitors, listings, reviews, feedback. How to improve on every aspect of this. How to design better products than they do. How to be able to have a lower selling price, but keep high enough margins. How to use pay-per-click ads to you advantage to net you extra sales, and so much more.
For half a year we lived and breathed Amazon. After a few months of hard work, we had our first organic sale. That feeling was indescribable. The sale was only worth $19.99 and we didn’t even have any profit at that price. But that sale meant more to me than winning a $10,000 poker hand.
We were fortunate enough that our first product took off right away. After just 2 months we had a $80,000/month in revenue (About $20k in profit). Little did we know that this would be one of our best months ever.
Now the same thing what happened to me with poker, happened again: we were getting complacent. We can just sit here all-day, becoming rich while we sleep? And the only thing I have to do is manage my inventory a bit?
At this time I should have realized that I actually did not enjoy what I was doing. We were just excited to start something new and run our own business, but we ended up starting a business that we weren’t particularly excited about. Now I didn’t realize this until much much later.
We got lazy and I was mostly to blame for that. We were making good money, more than what we needed to live a nice and fulfilling life. As I said earlier though: money isn’t a good motivator. Combine this with not actually enjoying building our company and I went through quite a dark period. I was on the verge of depression. Basically just playing video games all day (daarn you Dota!) for almost 2 years. My girlfriend was a travel blogger so we did still go on quite a bit of travels which was always nice to unwind, but on a professional level I had no ambition or any goals anymore. Even though I was financially much more successful than my peers, I wasn’t happy with life, my relationship and my work. Everything felt so dull and I knew something had to change.
For multiple reasons my girlfriend and I broke up. I didn’t want to live alone and messaged some old poker buddies to ask what they were up to. A few messages later I was on a plane to Ecuador. I was going to live together with 3 old poker buddies, one of which I knew from the Philippines. He was also really into crypto and was making his own market-making bots.
I wasn’t tech savvy enough (or interested) to start doing as well but I ended up spending a lot of time learning how to trade. Coming from a poker background, trading actually felt quite familiar. There are a lot of similarities between a successful trader and a successful poker player. This was in 2017 and crypto was booming. I was going irresponsibly long on a lot of coins. Joining several ICO’s. Some worked out really well, others went to shit or just rugged us from our money.
At this point I was probably already a millionaire if you take into account the value of the company (that we still had together). I didn’t really care. I found a new passion and was having a lot of fun exploring it.
Again it wasn’t the money per se that drove me, but this was about changing the world through technology. I wasn’t smart enough to build the tools myself, but I could put my money into the projects that I thought were revolutionary. Things were going really well. It took me 30 years to get to my first million. The second one took me, give or take, 3 months. The end of 2017 was approaching and I was longer than ever. A new paradigm is coming.
I ended up staying good friends with my ex and she asked me if I wanted to join for one of her upcoming trips. This trip was her biggest assignment to date and was planned 8 months in advance. Since we were still together when she was approached, it was a trip for 2.The destination was… Antarctica. Hell yes, I will join! This was December 2017, an infamous crypto month. We barely had any internet on the ship but I was a degen. I didn’t care. I needed to trade.
Each day we would have two expeditions. A morning and afternoon one. It usually involved wildlife and it was absolutely amazing. Probably the most special trip of my life. I love nature, hiking and this place was an oasis of serenity. But in between the expeditions, I was in our room, trading… It didn’t matter that it took me 10 minutes to place an order because of the slow internet. The markets were moving like crazy and there were insane returns to be had. I grinded my 80–100 btc stash up to 300. Reaching almost $6,000,000. Tripling my net worth in less than a month, all while I was freezing my balls off next to a million penguins. This is life-changing money. I was the greatest trader who ever lived (or so I thought), but I didn’t for a second think about taking profit.
Spending the night, camping on Antarctica
Then 2018 started and the markets started dropping. My euphoria, however, was not. I kept buying the dips, longing irresponsibly. Just a matter of time until we break a new ATH. Don’t forget, this is the new paradigm!
If you think that this idiot deserves to lose a lot of money. You are right and so he did. I lost everything back that I gained in the past months. Not only losing a lot of $$, but losing a lot of btc as well in the process.
The market dropped 85%, but I dropped even more. My crypto portfolio fell to maybe $200,000 and I fell well below 50 btc. So after spending almost 2 years full-time on trading, I managed to actually lose money instead of gaining any.
Luckily I had extra savings to fall back on and we still had our company, which we barely spend any time and effort on, but overall I was still quite healthy financially speaking.
I lost a lot of money but I gained some very important lessons as a result:
- Always practice risk management
- A $$ loss hurts much more than the equivalent $$ win
- Diversify, diversify, diversify
The last few years I have spent considerably less time on work. Hanging out with friends multiple nights a week. Focus on listening and playing music. Reading more books, meditating. Playing video games again, but more casually.
We sold our company for $200,000 in 2020 since we weren’t doing any work on it anymore. We could have gotten a lot more for it if we decided to sell it earlier, but it is what it is. I decided to put most of my savings and money I received from the company towards stocks. Mostly in the biotech, cannabis, uranium space.
Then Covid19 hit and we all had to spend more time alone again. Here I picked up crypto again more actively. I got into yield farming which honestly suits me much better. It is much less risky than trading and if you diversify in a lot of different platforms and pools, your overall risk is very low, while still making very nice yields. After yield farming I found NFT’s and that pretty much brings us back to today.
Ok this turned out to be a lot longer than I initially planned. If you made it this far, I am impressed. I left a few of my smaller ventures out since they didn’t really became a success:
- Started a yacht party business in Singapore. We rented a yacht and took care of housing and entertainment. This failed because we started with too many partners (7) and had a lot of disagreements.
- Started a Dota 2 team in Philippines. Managed a 5 person team with trainer. Took care of equipment, sponsors and tournament schedule. Failed because gaming is a very competitive business and we launched a few months before Covid, putting a halt to all tournaments.
- Started an angel investing venture in Philippines. Didn’t end up finding any potential interesting projects. Failed because I did not put in enough work to gain name recognition
- A few others that I can’t think of right now.
As promised this was my story on how I got to my first million. I could have easily gotten 50x the wealth I have now or I could have been broke. I could have done a LOT more work if I wanted to. Instead I was lazy for many years. However I am still grateful for the wealth I acquired and am happy I’ve seen a lot of the world in the process. At 30 I was a millionaire, visited over 50 countries and all 7 continents in the world.
I’ve had my ups and my downs. It’s not a perfect story, but it is mine.
Joenaes | https://medium.com/@joenaesvb/my-journey-to-1-000-000-9f5bca45bf0 | [] | 2021-12-26 11:21:57.828000+00:00 | ['Poker', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Financial Freedom'] |
Bubbletone to Showcase its BIockchain-based Platform at GITEX Technology Week 2018 | Bubbletone will participate in GITEX Technology Week 2018 — the biggest and boldest technology show in MENA and South Asia — that will take place in Dubai on October 14–18. The Bubbletone team will present its decentralized platform for the telecom industry to investors and industry experts and enter pitch competitions.
GITEX (“Gulf Information Technology Exhibition”) is an annual consumer computer and electronics trade show, exhibition, and conference that takes place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, at the Dubai World Trade Centre. The 38th edition of Gitex Technology Week will bring together over 4,000 exhibitors and 140,000 attendees from over 90 countries around the world and will shine a spotlight on four major technological sectors — Smart Cities, AR and VR, Internet of Things, and Smart Manufacturing.
The Bubbletone team will take part in GITEX Future Stars, a segment of GITEX for startups, and represent the newly-formed Blockchain sector. This region’s biggest startup show (850+ startups from 75+ countries and across 19 sectors) provides its participants with opportunities to pitch for funding, find a route to market and scale up their operations by pertaining with governments, global investors, established technology companies and the private sector.
Among the investors will be prominent organizations from Europe, Asia, and Silicon Valley such as Amazon, Google Ventures, NorthZone, 01 ventures, European Business Angel Network, MustardSeedVC, Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), Rising Fund Tide, and others.
At the company’s booth, Bubbletone’s CEO Yuri Morozov and Project Director Alexander Yakovenko will showcase the Bubbletone blockchain-based platform, explain what benefits it brings to mobile operators and end users worldwide and network with investors and decision-makers. They will also participate in the Supernova Challenge pitch competition and other industry-sponsored Innovation Cups for startups.
We invite everyone who is interested in our cutting-edge solution to visit us at GITEX Technology Week at Hall no. 5, Startup pod F6! | https://medium.com/bubbletone-blockchain-in-telecom/bubbletone-to-showcase-its-biockchain-based-platform-at-gitex-technology-week-2018-978ea9a80de7 | ['Bubbletone Blockchain In Telecom'] | 2018-10-16 13:43:15.782000+00:00 | ['Exhibition', 'Gitex', 'Blockchain Startup', 'Blockchain', 'Conference'] |
passing remarks for lasting impressions | passing remarks for lasting impressions
we were made to believe
believe that it will soon be okay
for things come
but you have to let go to clear your way
because the clock is still working
although the the needles are rusted
you’re told to run with the wind
for the long absent calm of the breeze
is now becoming unsettling
you have to be moving
making, breaking, creating
don’t settle until you find your calling
don’t stop till others tell you that you’re deserving
weren’t you told
that nothing lasts
that fragility is a given
in this world made of shattered glass
and the irony of the hustle is what keeps us going
going through the delusional days
of half hearted greetings and pride ridden endeavours
the blink of an eye
the melting of a glacier
nothing is as easy as it sounds
and nothing is what’s left to be saved here
so you go on running till you catch up with the setting sun
because the heat is now made of harmful rays
and your breath is part of history
history of simpler days | https://medium.com/@ayushikapoor62/passing-remarks-for-lasting-impressions-dd640cb91b59 | ['Ayushi Kapoor'] | 2019-11-15 12:49:56.198000+00:00 | ['Sunset', 'Poetry', 'Environmentalism', 'Death And Dying', 'Transience'] |
The trials and tribulations of Saudi Arabia’s showpiece railway line | Taking shape: the replacement roof at Jeddah’s Haramain station. Photo: @Osama_333
When Saudi Arabia’s Haramain railway opened in 2018 it was hailed as a triumph of technology and engineering. The 450-km line linking the holy cities of Mecca and Medina was designed to carry passengers at 350 km an hour. It took 10 years to build and cost more than $16 billion. A year after its opening, though, disaster struck and the line was shut down when fire devastated one of the stations on the route.
The blaze, in Jeddah, swept across the station’s roof, dropping smouldering debris on to the concourse below. Firefighters took around 12 hours to bring it under control. Fortunately, no deaths were reported though several people were injured.
The fire at the station in 2019
It soon became clear that repairs would take a long time, so in order to reopen the railway a new 1.5 km section of track was hastily constructed, bypassing the damaged station. After a brief reopening train services were suspended again because of the Coronavirus pandemic and it was a further year before operation resumed.
The Jeddah station is still out of service but photos posted on Twitter show the replacement roof — with a different construction method — is nearing completion.
The original roof covering consisted of fibre-reinforced plastic (FRP) panels which burned fiercely and emitted huge clouds of black smoke. One question this raises is why a station supposedly built according to the highest and most modern standards had been fitted with a flammable roof.
Immediately after the fire the Saudi authorities promised a full investigation but the outcome is still unknown.
Who will pay?
In February transport minister Saleh al-Jasser said repairs to the Jeddah station will be paid for by “the contractor”. Exactly where the money will come from is still unclear, though.
The original contractor for the Jeddah station was Saudi Oger, headed by Lebanese politician Saad Hariri, but it never completed the job. Saudi Oger ran into financial trouble, stopped paying thousands of its workers and eventually went bankrupt owing more than $10 billion. A Turkish firm, Yapı Merkezi, was then called in to finish the work.
All five stations on the Haramain line are of a similar design with similar roof panels — which raises the possibiity that they are also a fire hazard. However, the panels used in Jeddah may not have been exactly the same as others, because instead of buying them from a specialised manufacturer Hariri’s Saudi Oger company decided to make them itself.
There was an account of this in the March 2104 issue of Shape magazine (pages 22–23) which described it as “quite a unique approach”. Saudi Oger’s project manager for composites, Souhail Alla, told the magazine:
“Rather than contracting the manufacture of the composite roof panels out, we decided to bring this key manufacturing process in-house, as we believe there is great future for composites in architecture.”
To that end, they set up new a production facility in Jeddah specially to manufacture the roof panels. This was “quite a big challenge”, the magazine said, because “many process aspects called for first-time innovative answers”. It meant developing special machinery and equipment — all of it produced in-house by Saudi Oger.
Manoeuvring one of the original composite roof panels into position at Jeddah station
According to the magazine, the panels were “fire retardant”. Some technical help was provided by a French company, Méca, though it appears to have been mainly concerned with ensuring the panels were strong enough. Méca’s website said the fire specification was ASTM E84 (which checks for surface burning), with a flame index below 250 and a smoke index below 450, but it gave no details about actual testing.
The Jeddah station was not Saudi Oger’s first venture into the composites business. It had previously constructed a very large dome for the Princess Nourah University in Riyadh.
Combustible panels have also been involved in several fires in the UAE. One broke out at a 63-storey hotel and residential complex in Dubai on New Year’s Eve in 2016. Everyone escaped but there were bizarre scenes as cheering crowds and a fireworks display greeted the New Year while smoke and flames billowed from the skyscraper nearby.
In Britain, 72 people died at Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey apartment block, when fire spread through external cladding panels in 2017. Numerous other blocks were found to have similar panels and there are continuing arguments about who should cover the cost of replacing them. | https://medium.com/@brian-whit/the-trials-and-tribulations-of-saudi-arabias-showpiece-railway-line-debe9ab9ef13 | ['Brian Whitaker'] | 2021-06-10 10:18:16.830000+00:00 | ['Saudi Arabia', 'Railways', 'Fire Safety'] |
Remote Company Culture: Ugly Holiday Sweater Contest | Remote Company Culture: Ugly Holiday Sweater Contest
We share our experiences, detail how to hold a virtual ugly sweater contest, and we share our Google Form Templates for you to use with your own team. Kelsey Opel Follow Dec 18, 2020 · 4 min read
On Thursday afternoon, the Squared Away team hosted their usual all-hands meeting. This time, we included our teammate’s ugly sweaters.
We’ve seen time and time again questions about how to build an engaging and supportive remote work culture or any remote culture for that matter.
Coordination of the Event
Whenever we have an event take place, we notify the whole team. We have bi-weekly team-wide calls within Squared Away, so when we do a fun event, we make sure it takes place on a team-wide call day for the best facilitation of everyone’s schedules.
In our Company Culture: Zoom with Pets blog, we shared what we learned from doing a team-wide call where we have volunteers offering to do an intro. We learned that prep before team call day is paramount to a seamless experience for the whole team.
Google Form Entries and a Template
The team had notice of the event 1-month prior to the actual event, so they were aware it was coming and had time to prep. We sent the following update email to the Squared Away team 2-weeks prior to the event. It was accompanied by the form (shown below). Need Our Template? Head here (example below).
Email and Form Example
If you would like to enter, please fill out this form (example below) by 5:00 pm EST on Wednesday, December 16th. You will need to upload a photo of you in your sweater to allow for seamless voting.
Reminders About the Event
We reminded the team weekly starting the first week of December. We sent out an email reminder, a few Slack reminders, and an email reminder directly from the Google Form to sign up.
Ugly Sweater Contest Time!
We had a total of 11 teammates that joined the Ugly Sweater Contest along with about 10 additional teammates who joined in ugly sweaters or other holiday costumes to participate in the fun.
I had a list readily available of who we were going to have participate in the contest, so they were the first to share their holiday sweaters. Each participant took themselves off of mute, shared about their ugly sweater, then the team added comments in the chat box, or shared their thoughts. Everyone was respectful and encouraging.
Voting for the Contest
After the call was over, we shared a Google Form with photos of each participant’s ugly sweater. If the participant didn’t enter into the contest, we got a screenshot while on the team call and uploaded their photo to be entered. We had a few teammates join the team this week, so we wanted to ensure everyone who was interested was able to participate.
Below is an example of the Google Form we shared with the team over Slack, we had 10 total photos and participants.
We had the settings on multiple choice, limit each response to 1 entry, we removed “edit after submit” to keep it fair, and we announced the parameters (due time) for the form.
We sent the voting form in our team’s Slack #general channel and are emailing it to the team in a team-wide email.
Need our voting template? Head here.
Building Remote Culture
Our goal was to continue to support and build our team’s remote culture. We saw a lot of participation, excitement and smiles on our Ugly Sweater Team call. We hope you and your team have a safe and happy holiday season! | https://medium.com/squaredaway/remote-company-culture-ugly-holiday-sweater-contest-936cd9fd3c69 | ['Kelsey Opel'] | 2020-12-18 18:52:26.985000+00:00 | ['Teambuildingactivities', 'Team Building', 'Holiday Season', 'Remote Working', 'Remote Work'] |
Why Integrate Diversity in the Energy Sector with AI and more? | Why Integrate Diversity in the Energy Sector with AI and more?
Integration of technologies and diversity in data sources can act as catalysts towards the energy transition, but it’s easier said than done
Photo by Scott Umstattd on Unsplash
What does it mean to “Integrate Diversity”?
It starts with understanding and recognizing that everyone but also every technology is unique, with a different set of strengths, capabilities and experiences. Integrating diversity is first, recognizing it and then creating environments where you can bring out the best aspects so that when they work together, the sum is much greater than the parts.
In this article, I want to focus on the Power sector, where the integration of technologies and diversity in data sources can act as catalysts towards the energy transition, while restrictions and “adversarialisation” (or simple rivalry) of technologies would break the whole process apart.
In order to come up with cutting-edge solutions, you really need to have different perspectives and skills. We all know that, on a team, if you have the same type of people working on something (all-male, all-old, all- from the city, etc.), you’re limited to the types of solutions you can create. By integrating differences, it actually allows you to expand your horizons and push the boundaries. Artificial Intelligence can contribute to the integration of different solutions and widen the spectrum of possibilities.
AI from books and film have been around a long time in different forms. They are portrayed as sometimes friendly and sometimes menacing. But in real life, we like to think of AI as Augmented Intelligence. Over the years, AI has proven itself useful in many different domains. Before AI, the idea of a computer recognizing people in photographs based solely on examples was unheard of. Today, we even use AI to examine medical images to rapidly identify abnormalities, saving patients’ lives.
Andrew Ng, Co-founder of Coursera and formerly head of Baidu AI Group / Google Brain, compares the transformational impact of AI to that of electricity 100 years back, and I surely agree with him.
Professor Andrew Ng is the former chief scientist at Baidu, where he led the company’s Artificial Intelligence Group. He is an adjunct professor at Stanford University. In 2011 he led the development of Stanford University’s main MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) platform and also taught an online Machine Learning class that was offered to over 100,000 students, leading to the founding of Coursera.
In fact, AI means different things to different people. For a video game designer, AI means writing the code that affects how bots play or how the environment reacts to the player. For the majority of us, the AI we see is more likely to be an app on your phone than an intelligent robot (or an Android!). It’s used behind the scenes to manage finances, suggest your next Netflix film, identify credit card fraud, read medical imaging, and find appropriate clinical trials for patients. Artificial Intelligence is involved in the decisions we make each day.
Worldwide spending on artificial intelligence (AI) systems is forecast to reach $35.8 billion in 2019, an increase of 44.0% over the amount spent in 2018. With industries investing aggressively in projects that utilize AI software capabilities, the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Semi-annual Artificial Intelligence Systems Spending Guide expects spending on AI systems will more than double to $79.2 billion in 2022 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 38.0% over the 2018–2022 forecast period.
But still, it has a lot of mileage to do in the energy world. In the Power sector, more than in many other sectors, we can use Augmented Intelligence to extend human capabilities and accomplish things that neither humans nor machines could do on their own. Some of the challenges we face today come from an excess of information. Faster communications, Distributed computing and Internet of things (IoT) have lead to (an exponentially growing) generation of massive amounts of data, while IoT itself and social networking has encouraged most of that data to be unstructured. There is so much data that human experts cannot keep up with all the changes and advancements.
Photo by Jose Fontano on Unsplash
Unlock the intelligence
With Augmented Intelligence, we can “unlock” much more of the substance and interrelations in the data while putting the information that needed at our fingertips, and back that information up with evidence, so that the stakeholders can make more informed decisions. This will allow experts and the decision makers to scale their capabilities so they can better service their customers. The machines doing the time-consuming work so that we’re able to do the things that matter.
In traditional programming, everything is deterministic, and the if-then-else loop determines how the software responds to varying conditions. That works well when you are comparing known values, like temperatures, text strings or numbers in a spreadsheet. But when you want to classify objects/decisions/variations into categories, simple if-then statements won’t work. The world is far too complex, with shades of grey and multiple correct answers, and probabilistic answers become a requirement. In the power sector, almost everything is Probabilistic (weather, consumers behaviour, peak management, wind turbine or solar PV output, etc.). Whereas a deterministic system can tell you, “The answer is X because this comparison succeeded”, such as the temperature on a thermostat, a probabilistic system is required in Load Leveling or Renewable Power Generation because you need a system that can tell you, “I’m very confident this is the correct answer, but I also have evidence to support these alternatives” (e.g. to store energy for later use, to slow down wind turbine because wind might exceed limitations, etc.).
So, even if for Hollywood, AI generally means a character that acts like a human with some trope computer features mixed in. For a data scientist, and especially in the Energy sector, AI is a way of exploring and classifying data to meet specific goals. But no matter who is defining AI, the crucial point is that AI means intelligence. How do we define intelligence? There are many aspects of AI, each of which is influenced by advances in the sciences and philosophy. Computer science and electrical engineering determine how AI is implemented in software and hardware. Mathematics and statistics determine viable models and measure performance. Because AI is modelled on how we believe the brain works, psychology and linguistics play an important role in understanding how AI might work. Philosophy provides guidance about topics like what intelligence is and ethical considerations. It is the fusion of all these fields of study that make it possible for us to build systems that act intelligently. Power grids, especially with Renewables, need that intelligence.
Photo by Arthur Poulin on Unsplash
Data learning applied to the Power sector
What is AI good at, and what is it not good at? The answer to that often comes down to data. AI technology improves just like any technology does, so today’s limitation may be tomorrow’s breakthrough, but current AI technologies are very good at classification and translation (interpretation).
Whether you are talking about natural intelligence or artificial intelligence, nothing is intelligent that cannot learn. Humans are born with some level of innate intelligence, and we can build on that intelligence through learning. The only innate intelligence machines have is what we give them, and common sense is not currently on that very short list of items. What we do provide, though, is the ability to examine examples, and create machine learning models based on the inputs and desired outputs. For supervised learning, we provide the AI with examples. Unsupervised learning is where you provide inputs, but not labels, and let the machine infer qualities. This type of learning can be useful for clustering data, where data is grouped according to how similar it is to its neighbours and dissimilar to everything else.
Once the data is clustered, you can use different techniques to explore that data and look for patterns. Reinforcement learning is where the machine makes a decision and is given a reward or retribution depending on whether the decision was a good one. You could use reinforcement learning to teach a machine to play chess or navigate an obstacle course such as a demand-side management or power generation scheme. Deep learning is a subset of machine learning that applies to neural networks. Deep learning networks refer to the arrangements of the nodes, and that could definitely be the next generation of energy-related AI application
When choosing sources of data for training your machine models, it is important to sample data that is representative of the data that will be encountered in production. One challenge that can occur is when training data will not predict future input data. This has to be addressed soon in the process. Not necessarily that you need all the answers, but rather that you identified a process to take care of the situation. Because garbage in equals garbage out, no AI solution can give good results from bad data. What you can do if some of your data is bad, however, is to identify and keep your usable data, and collect (or build) new data that can be used in your solution. You should be considering the amount, quality, and sensitivity of the data you have to work with.
The integration of Renewable Energies, easier said than done
This is becoming more and more complex for the grid operator, but also for the smaller facilities or communities. It now involves integrating renewable energy production assets into self-consumption (solar thermal and/or photovoltaic, production of heat from biomass or biogas, geothermal energy, …), to enable manufacturers or communities to reduce their carbon footprint, to diversify their energy mix and reduce their dependence on fossil fuels, which should allow better control of energy-related budgets over the long term.
It is, in any case, the lever to activate in priority: “the unspent energy costs nothing and does not pollute”. On the other hand, even if there are some good successes or more specifically attractive sectors, the deployment of renewable energies and recovery technologies is still too little advanced in the industry. There are many brakes to overcome: significant investment costs, competition current with fossil fuels and cheap electricity, the fear of operational risks associated with these innovative technologies, the lack of technical knowledge or operational capabilities, etc. And this is where AI and data science can help greatly. Many positive experiences can be analysed and can be considered as examples to follow in the “learning” phase. That would aim to provide the industry with a light on the possibilities offered in the short term through recovery technologies and renewable energy, focusing on major sectors and a set of technologies.
For example, we can think of the optimization of a decentralized power generation (solar PV or wind turbine) with an intelligent energy storage system (IES). In this scenario, if the next day’s weather forecast is communicated to the AI, the storage capacity can be prepared according to the expected state of the network. The AI can decide to unload the storage unit (hybrid energy storage, for example) overnight so that a maximum of current can be stored there the next day. Thanks to this control function, it would also be possible to know the status on the higher voltage grid levels. The distribution side (Lower voltage grid) can then help maintain the voltage on the higher grid levels (and even at transmission level with a sufficient amount of capacity involved). In surplus to that, the electricity produced is either consumed directly (priority 1) or injected into the grid or stored temporarily according to the state of the grid. In case of local voltage problems, the locally stored electricity (battery) can be fed into the grid. In a wider scenario, the energy provider can actively control the intelligent modules based on certain signals (weather forecast, balance group, etc.). That way, the IES positively influences the maintenance of local network voltage and, more generally, the security of supply (local and decentralized system services). It is also an ideal platform for energy suppliers in terms of customer loyalty and the development of new products (services, assignment of contracts, etc.).
Photo by Stephen Dawson on Unsplash
State of play: a smart dashboard of innovative technologies, integrated and tailored to the needs
First, alongside conventional solutions there are numerous relatively mature innovative technologies to produce and self-consume energy, be it heat (at temperature levels compatible with the most uses), cooling or electricity. And, “vis-à-vis” each unitary need, there are even several alternative solutions.
In the first approach, these technologies can be classified into three complementary categories:
Technologies providing so-called low-temperature heat, such as geothermal energy (very low energy), recovery on drying steam or solar thermal, which are adapted to uses such as domestic hot water production, space heating, or low-temperature industrial processes, such as pasteurization in the food industry. As a reminder, Concentrated solar power, geothermal heat with very high heat (shaded part), and that low and medium energy geothermal energy are presented in the cartography but are not this study.
Solar Energy Generating Systems (SEGS) solar complex in northern San Bernardino County, California. The first commercial parabolic trough power plants with a total of 354 megawatts went online in California. By USA.Gov — BLM — BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT — http://www.ca.blm.gov/cdd/alternative_energy.html, Public Domain https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15957890
2) Technologies providing so-called high-temperature heat, such as biomass, biogas or smoke recovery from certain furnaces, which make it possible to respond to needs, particularly those that can be found in metallurgy, glass or chemistry.
3) Technologies to produce electricity, useful for all processes studied. These can be covered for example with solar photovoltaic, wind energy or biomass or biogas cogeneration unit.
Source: Adapted from The National Energy Education Project (public domain)
Issues related to the integration of technologies: carbon footprint, competitiveness, conditions integration and exploitation
A survey carried out in 2018 among many manufacturers in Europe (ref: www.ademe.fr/mediatheque), showed that these technologies are already deployed on the ground, often successfully, despite the difficulties encountered. The interviewed industrials evoke a first family of stakes: the reduction of CO2 emissions, the development of a responsible corporate image, which can confer a marketing advantage, while coherence with their environmental and societal commitments.
The authors added:
« Le niveau de déploiement de ces technologies est assez inégal, notamment du fait du niveau historique de leur compétitivité respective face aux énergies conventionnelles, et cela, malgré la visibilité sur les coûts de production qu’apporte une solution EnR&R (indépendants de la fluctuation du prix des énergies fossiles). » or, in the Shakespeare language: The level of deployment of these technologies is quite uneven, in particular because of the historical level of their competitiveness compared with conventional energy sources, despite the visibility on the costs of production that brings a Renewable Energy or Energy Recovery solution (independent of the fluctuation of the price of fossil fuels).
However, even if the industrials interviewed mention environmental and branding issues, they agree that competitiveness issues are of the first order: in other words, the deployment of Renewables, or Energy Recovery technologies are only done if it contributes to their competitiveness.
Photo by paolo candelo on Unsplash
On the road to competitiveness
For renewable energies (RE), it’s always a challenge to be considered an add-on to competitiveness. Especially when there are no subsidies available, under current market conditions, with a very low gas price, and apart from a few special cases, they are globally less competitive than traditional reference solutions (electricity and natural gas). It can be noted that these conventional energies are often accessible at even lower cost for large consumers, benefiting from better supply contracts. In this context, public policies, and the support mechanisms associated with them, but also maximization of the outcomes with AI and energy storage (IES) play a major role. Under the impetus for subsidies and technology integration, many solutions can bring competitiveness to industrial. But RE coupled with IES should be seen as a team member into the bigger competitive race.
In addition, investing in an energy asset is often a mid-term or a long-term choice, with longer depreciation period. A choice today will have consequences for the next 5, 10, 15 years or more. Choosing to invest in one or more Renewable or Recovery assets today may be a long-term paying choice because it allows to diversify the energy mix and decrease the dependence on traditional energies, whose prices may be particularly erratic. Moreover, such a strategy allows also, at least in part, to overcome the increase in the price of fuel, electricity or even to a lesser extent the CO2 credit market.
The integration of technologies must be part of a global reflection on the needs and possibilities of a site. Integrate on an industrial site a solar installation, a wind turbine, a biomass boiler, or a methanization plant, demand for space and adapted infrastructure and even more a good evaluation (if not a good prediction) of the future outcomes. The integration of the cleantech assets may also require a significant overhaul of distribution associated with it. Depending on the topology of the site concerned, integration constraints, location of needs, changes may not be marginal. In a number of cases, it can even be necessary to deploy new grid or to install storage capacities (because of the time lag between when heat recovery can be achieved and when energy recovered can be used, or because of the variability of some RE). Artificial “augmented” Intelligence is required to efficiently perform all this. And this is emphasized by the fact that, in general, due to their relative lack of flexibility, Renewables require more specific operational know-how than their traditional competitors (electricity grid, conventional power generation, heat produced from natural gas).
Credit: Optimizing power generation with Hybrid Energy Storage and AI (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0), © Smart Phases Inc. (DBA Novacab)
The strengths of one counterbalance the weaknesses of the others
Indeed, conventional technologies have the advantage of being (almost) always available, responsive and flexible. They easily adapt to even rapid fluctuations in load and activities and are therefore able to provide load curves with a lot of responsiveness. This is not the case for the majority of Renewable technologies. Solar and wind technologies, on the other hand, are typically variable, producing only electricity and/or heat in the presence of sun and/or wind. It is the same with the global process of production and combustion of biogas or biomass, which may be subject to the availability of resources local (liquid effluents or various wastes). However, it is possible to overcome these difficulties by intelligently combining energies technologies with heat recovery technologies and renewable energies, to provide the different uses of the site. As an example, we can consider the association of district heat with energy storage solutions to cope with the variability of production of certain renewable energy assets or asynchronous heat recovery solutions. To facilitate the integration of renewable energy, industrialists will have to rely on the contribution of all the ecosystem: technology providers, service providers, financing actors through innovative business models, in order to share the risks and overcome the difficulties mentioned.
Such projects might seem quite complex to implement for us mortal human, but with the help of AI, they can bring high-performance levels, both from an economic and an environmental point of view. In order to give the most value, it is important to focus on improving training times for our AI and squeezing the most insight from smaller quantities of data. The end results are solutions that require fewer data to build, are faster to train and deploy, and that protect your intellectual property.
In short, a mix of energy storage (electric, thermal, hybrid, mechanical, etc.) and AI are jointly able to solve this downside of RE. The combination of conventional technologies and Renewables with Intelligent Energy storage technologies facilitates the integration and exploitation of these. Indeed, while all these technologies might appear implicitly in a competitive situation to each other, these technologies must above all be seen as complementary to the each other, just as they can be complementary to conventional sources (electricity and gas in particular). The whole challenge lies in the construction of an energy system in which the assets complement each other so that the strengths of one counterbalance the weaknesses of the others (each technology brings its share of advantages and disadvantages, which need to be assessed and taken into case by case, at each industrial site), to enable the deployment of efficient energy solutions of an operational and economic point of view. And at each industrial site corresponds a specific solution. Multiple data sources are key here to optimize the solution and AI is necessary to deal with this mountain of information.
As Edmund Hillary once said: When you go to the mountains, you see them and you admire them. In a sense, they give you a challenge, and you try to express that challenge by climbing them. The Energy Transition is the mountain range ahead. It challenges us, we need to better join our strengths and “augmented intelligence” to climb it the best way possible!
Photo by Hu Chen on Unsplash
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This article is part of a series on Artificial Intelligence and Energy Storage by Stephane Bilodeau, ing., P.Eng, PhD, FEC. Chief Technology Officer, Smart Phases (Novacab), Fellow of Engineers Canada and expert contributor to Energy Central.
You can find other articles here: | https://towardsdatascience.com/why-integrate-diversity-in-energy-with-ai-and-more-468517e09b76 | ['Stephane Bilodeau'] | 2019-06-03 12:45:53.218000+00:00 | ['Towards Data Science', 'Renewable Energy', 'Data Science', 'Energy Storage', 'Artificial Intelligence'] |
Here’s What You Should Know About a New Menopause Treatment | Here’s What You Should Know About a New Menopause Treatment
It’s unproven, and it comes with potential risks
Credit: Jasenka Arbanas/Moment/Getty
A British fertility clinic in Birmingham, England, says it can stave off the unpleasant effects of menopause for 20 years by freezing a piece of a woman’s ovary when she’s young, then reintroducing it in her body later in life through transplantation.
The clinic, ProFam, reports that nine women aged 32 to 39 have undergone the freezing procedure, which costs £7,000 to £11,000 (about $8,500 to $13,300) and involves a small incision in the abdomen, called a keyhole surgery. Surgeons removed a piece of an ovary, cryopreserved it, and years later, plan to transplant it back into the women in a second surgery.
The procedure, called ovarian tissue transplantation, is nothing new in the world of fertility medicine. It has been performed for the past two decades as a way to preserve fertility for women and girls about to undergo chemotherapy and radiation, which can damage the ovaries. (For cancer patients who freeze ovarian tissue in their teens and twenties, the transplanted tissue can restore fertility later on for five years or more.)
But this is the first time it’s being used in an attempt to delay menopause. Doctors, however, are wary about offering the procedure to healthy women because it hasn’t been shown to be safe or effective.
“This is not ready for prime time,” says Dr. Stephanie Faubion, medical director for the North American Menopause Society and director of the Women’s Health Clinic at the Mayo Clinic. | https://elemental.medium.com/heres-what-you-should-know-about-a-new-menopause-treatment-2d870596d963 | ['Emily Mullin'] | 2019-08-13 17:54:34.442000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Women', 'Menopause', 'Body', 'Profam'] |
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