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An argument against transmasc and transfem labels
As promised, here are a few thoughts about transmasculine and transfeminine as labels. Disclaimer: if you are a person who uses these words to describe yourself and you find it empowering, I’m glad for you. This piece does not apply to you. As with most content I have up so far, this is explicitly for cisgender people and their relationship with these terms. Here we go, time to make this personal again. It took me a very long time to come out. I began to think of myself as nonbinary almost as soon as I learned the word, probably late 2014 or early 2015. I had a good friend who was nonbinary and we had so many talks about what it meant and I found myself really identifying with it. But, I let popular logic about the topic get to me and told myself, “You just want to fit in. You have this new friend that you adore and you just want to relate to them more. You’re projecting. You don’t get dysphoria, shut up and be a good ally instead.” So I was. I started talking to my cisgender friends and advocating to the extent that a younger, shyer me could. In 2016, I took a course at my university about Buddhism and sexuality. It seemed like I was the only person in the room who definitely wasn’t straight and who knew anything about trans* issues, so I found myself speaking up a lot in class (and getting a lot of weird looks from my classmates). During that class, the professor informed us of a performer called Yozmit. The professor really struggled with describing her and using her pronouns because her philosophy of gender was incredibly abstract. In class, we listened to her song Sound of New P*ssy (censored because I’m not sure what the rules are on Medium for that kind of language). It would take a lot of space to describe why that song had such a profound effect on me, but as we watched it together, I cried in class. Almost ugly cried. In front of over 20 people. We had spent so long talking about her philosophy, how it related to my religion, the symbolism in the video, her personal struggles, and I remembered that time I dared question my own gender for the first time and… phew. I just broke down. The professor noticed, and I am eternally grateful that he didn’t make it a big deal in front of the others. I walked out of class that day knowing I was nonbinary. For sure. I told one person. I was scared to come out, I didn’t know what that would look like for me, so I kept up my cisgender façade. But I was comfortable with that, because I knew who I was finally. I stayed in the closet until 2018. I didn’t choose to come out. By this time, I was beginning to feel dysphoric about my cover persona. I had also discovered that certain things I took for granted as normal, run of the mill self hatred were actually dysphoria that I had been experiencing for years. When I couldn’t hold it in anymore, I told my partner at the time… who then proceeded to tell our entire friend group in the most confusing way possible, forcing me to come out to them and clarify things. It ended up working out in the end because it meant I had the confidence to come out during grad school and create a professional social circle for myself that was accepting, but those were very dark days for me. Suffice to say that most people in the social circle I was outed to were not the most accepting. I was called names. Jokes with slurs were thrown around. I was interrogated about issues like “trans women in women’s sports.” It was heavily implied that I was mentally ill or confused. They didn’t know how to see me as nonbinary so I was misgendered constantly (I still am sometimes, to be honest). And it was so frustrating because the only terms I could get them to understand were in the binary. They weren’t great about binary transgender people, but they at least had a frame of reference for what “man” and “woman” were, socially, and how a binary transgender person could exist. So I started defining myself in those terms. I started trying to alter my voice to be more consistent with the “opposite” gender. I bought gear that would flatten things that needed flattened and bring out aspects that needed to be brought out on my body to present more typically for the “opposite” gender. Like a light switch had gone off, I was suddenly being gendered correctly. The cisgender people in that social circle were complimenting me, telling me how much they were starting to read me as the “opposite” gender. They started using compliments that were stereotypically used for people of that binary gender. Suddenly, I was a transmasculine/feminine nonbinary person. Sorry if that’s confusing, but I’ve said that I will not be disclosing my assigned gender at birth (agab) and I plan on sticking to it- fill in the previous with either transmasculine or transfeminine and you get the idea. And at first, that went really well with me. I’m not an agender person, I do definitely have a feeling of gender (even if it isn’t much of one), and it definitely leans a little bit towards either masculine or feminine. I actually felt empowered by it for a while. I was being recognized! I wasn’t being misgendered really anymore! I had found phrases that they understood! Then the invasive questions started. Was I getting surgeries? Was I starting hormones? In social situations I was still considered “one of the girls” or “one of the guys” (the one that correlated with my agab). It felt like I was being treated either as a spicy version of my agab or a lite version of the “opposite” gender. I started feeling tired. I remembered what it was like to pretend to be cisgender for those years that I knew I was nonbinary initially and this feeling was exactly the same. I was pretending so much to be so like the “opposite” gender for their comfort that I wasn’t being myself. So, cis people. Please be aware of this implicit bias you have. There is no “opposite” gender. There is no correct way to look nonbinary. There is no correct way to sound nonbinary. It is actively nonbinary-phobic to try and force nonbinary people into binary boxes for your comfort. There are nonbinary men and women, and I don’t mean to discount them, but that experience is not all of our experience. If a friend comes out to you as nonbinary and you automatically start using “opposite” gendered words for them you are not being a good ally. You are preserving your own comfort at the expense of ours. Ask us how we would like to be described. Have a conversation with us about what words are comfortable and which ones aren’t. And then respect that. Not every nonbinary person who was assigned female at birth is transmasculine. Not every nonbinary person who was assigned male at birth is transfeminine. Anyway, that’s it for today. I hope me talking about my experiences has helped someone understand what it can be like to be nonbinary in this world. I’m thinking about talking about tokenization in the next one or about queer characters in popular media. We’ll see. Anyway, that’s it for today. I hope me talking about my experiences has helped someone understand what it can be like to be nonbinary in this world. I’m thinking about talking about tokenization in the next one or about queer characters in popular media. We’ll see.
https://medium.com/@leecrwll8/an-argument-against-transmasc-and-transfem-labels-d2f3f8c5b5e6
['Lee Crowell']
2020-12-08 22:42:00.705000+00:00
['Gender Identity', 'Transgender', 'Nonbinary', 'Transphobia', 'Gender Equality']
The future of accessibility for custom elements
When users of assistive technology, like a screen reader, navigate a web page, it’s vitally important that the semantic meaning of the various controls is communicated. For example, if a screen reader visits a login button: <button>Sign in</button> — it would announce, “Sign in, button”. This tells the user about the affordance available to them — whether something is a button that may be pressed, for example, or if it’s just a block of text content with no other semantics. Additionally, built-in elements support keyboard-based usage, which is important for users who can’t use a pointing device — whether they are unable to see the pointer, or don’t have the physical ability. This is why accessibility experts always urge developers to mark up their pages with the built-in elements. Custom elements, by contrast, have no implicit semantics or keyboard support. When you define a new tag, the browser really has no way of knowing if you’re trying to build a button, or a slider, or just a fancy text container. Adding these features back in requires a fair bit of work on the developer’s part and it can be difficult to reach parity with the native equivalents. <howto-component> Recently we launched a project called HowTo: Components which demonstrates how to build accessible custom elements. Many folks have since asked us why we’re bothering to implement things like checkbox since there is already an accessible, native version. Taking an even cursory look at any web framework shows that developers are going keep building custom checkboxes, even though it’s arguably more work than using a built-in element. We’ll get to why that is in a moment, but given that’s the case, we’d like to educate developers on the best practices for doing so. Here we take inspiration from the ARIA Authoring Practices Guide, and in fact all of the HowTo: Components are based on their examples. We just want to illustrate how to do them as custom elements. So, why do developers keep reinventing this wheel? Built-in elements are great. Until you try to style them. <input> is like the Swiss Army Knife of elements. It contains multiple different types (text, date, file...) and each of them is difficult to style. Have you ever tried to style an <input type="file"> ? It sucks. Here's how Mark Otto, co-creator of Bootstrap, recommends styling them on his site, wtfforms: The file input is the most gnarly of the bunch. Here’s how it works: We wrap the <input> in a <label> so the custom control properly triggers the file browser. in a so the custom control properly triggers the file browser. We hide the default file <input> via opacity . via . We use :after to generate a custom background and directive (Choose file...). to generate a custom background and directive (Choose file...). We use :before to generate and position the Browse button. to generate and position the Browse button. We declare a height on the <input> for proper spacing for surrounding content. for proper spacing for surrounding content. We add an explicit label text for assistive technologies with an aria-label attribute. In other words, it’s an entirely custom element, all generated via CSS. Not fun. I think a large reason so many sites are inaccessible is because developers run into these styling limitations and decide to just roll their own controls — without adding back in the necessary semantics and keyboard support. So why is it so hard to style the built-in form elements? Can’t browsers make this as easy as styling a <div> or an <h1> ? Not really. Elements like <input> and <select> aren’t always implemented in terms of regular DOM elements. Sometimes they are, which is why there are articles on CSS hacks for styling <input type="range"> . Other times they are rendered directly by the operating system - this is why a standard <select> comes up looking like any other native drop-down list on the platform you’re using. They are specified as a kind of black box, meaning it’s up to the browser to figure out their internals, so exposing styling hooks for them is quite difficult and often very limited. It is entirely possible that we may never be able to style these elements to the degree we want. The alternative is to expose the magic behavior that these elements have as new web platform APIs. Not only will this allow us to create more flexible versions of <input> and <select> , but we can also expand the grammar to include other elements like <multi-select-autocomplete-thing> . This is why I am so passionate about custom elements. In my mind, it is where the future of accessibility lives. I deeply want to be able to stop hacking CSS on top of <select> . I want to make my own badass, extensible, styleable, accessible elements that are just as good as the built-ins! So as well as modeling best practices with today’s technologies, I’m hoping that HowTo: Components can help us identify areas where we can create better APIs for the next generation of web technology. We want to get to a point where we’re not forced to choose between the impossible task of styling the existing set of built-in elements, or the fiddly, error-prone and largely forgotten job of re-implementing accessibility for every new custom element. How do we get there? The first step is to make sure our custom elements have the right semantics. I’m excited for the potential of the new Accessibility Object Model (AOM) proposal to help us out here. AOM lets an element define its semantics directly in the accessibility tree. What’s the accessibility tree you ask? Ah ha! We have a article for you! As I mentioned before, a custom element is, semantically speaking, just a <span> , whereas the native <button> element has built-in accessibility because it has an implicit role of "button". While we could have our <custom-button> sprout ARIA attributes to define its semantics, this can get ugly fast. To recreate a <input type="slider"> as a custom element would end up looking like: And because ARIA is exclusively an HTML attributes API, it means we need to touch the DOM every time we want to update our semantic state. For an individual element this isn’t so bad, but if you have hundreds of controls (perhaps inside of a table or list), having each of them call setAttribute() multiple times at startup could lead to a performance bottleneck. With AOM your element can just define its semantics in its constructor like so: — and the consumer of your element doesn’t have to see it sprouting attributes all over the place. Effectively, <input type="slider"> and <custom-slider> become indistinguishable at the semantic level. Some folks have even proposed giving custom elements access to a special “private” accessibleNode so the author can define immutable default semantics. This would mean that one could safely override an element's role, then delete that override, and things would safely fallback. For example: But wait, there’s more… Another major pain point of using ARIA is the fact that all relationships must be defined using ID references. On numerous projects I’ve had to auto-generate unique IDs to make this system work: Furthermore, new standards like Shadow DOM create scoping boundaries for IDs. If you need to point aria-labelledby or aria-activedescendant at something on the other side of this shadow boundary, you're out of luck! AOM fixes this by allowing you to build relationships using object references. In the above example we could rewrite our listbox with: The accessibleNodes in the above example just come from referencing other elements on the page. No more generated IDs or cluttering up the DOM. Nice! Wait, wasn’t there something called is=”” for custom elements? A counter proposal to adding all of these semantics yourself is to just inherit from the built-in elements. For custom elements this idea was specced as “customized built-ins”. With customized built-ins you could inherit from something like HTMLInputElement and then do <input is=”custom-checkbox”> . Unfortunately customized built-ins have not really caught on with all of the browsers, mainly because they suffer from a few gnarly issues. Chief among these is the fact that if you inherit from another element like <select> , and add your own shadow root, it will blow away all of the default styling and behavior of the element. Since the primary reason you were extending the element in the first place was probably to style it, this just ends up creating more problems. I think in the near term, new primitives like AOM and an as of yet unspecified form submission callback offer a better alternative when it comes to replicating the built-in elements. Because custom elements still require JavaScript to boot up there are still open questions around progressive enhancement, but my hope is that increasingly exposing primitives will help us find other ways to solve that issue. Wrapping up These are not entirely custom element concerns. Really, any component (React, Angular, etc) should be able to benefit from proposals like AOM. But custom elements are the only standards-based way to define a component that can be shared amongst frameworks, so solving things at that level seems very useful. Our plan with HowTo: Components is to continue to build custom element equivalents of the built-ins so we can educate developers, and push these standards forward. We’ll also be updating the docs to explicitly call out the limitations custom elements currently face, and when using a built-in might make more sense. We would love help landing all of the ARIA Authoring Practices examples as custom elements and plan to push things even further in future quarters by exploring more complex widget types. If you’re interested in pitching in, please feel free to open up a pull request over at the HowTo: Components repo and if you want to learn more about AOM you can check it out in the Web Incubation Community Group repo. Big thanks to Alice Boxhall, Matt Gaunt, and Surma for reviewing this blog post.
https://medium.com/dev-channel/the-future-of-accessibility-for-custom-elements-291cfb3ffabe
['Rob Dodson']
2017-10-04 17:18:20.839000+00:00
['Accessibility', 'JavaScript', 'Web Components', 'HTML', 'Web Development']
SupraOracles 2021 Recap: Mastercard, Berkeley Blockchain, and Partnerships Galore
The team at SupraOracles believes that blockchain technology has the potential to completely transform the future, especially in the fields of finance, self-governance, and human coordination. Blockchain technology offers individual users and businesses the chance to completely change how they can store and manage information through the use of a digital ledger that is available to everyone around the world. SupraOracles is looking to utilize blockchain technology and smart contracts to build the financial infrastructure of the future. DeFi is Making Waves DeFi has the potential to upend the current financial markets. In traditional financial markets today, control of the global currency supply rests with banks and other centralized agencies. Blockchain technology eliminates the need for these middlemen, giving people control over their finances and financial decisions. While there is speculation that DeFi could eventually replace traditional financial systems, DeFi can work with traditional finance, completely transforming the space, with DeFi powered financial applications set to gain momentum as we move into the future. Bringing DeFi to the Mainstream Blockchains suffer from a peculiar problem: You cannot easily bring external data onto the blockchain due to their inherent structure. The solution to this problem is cross-chain blockchain oracles that allow blockchains to connect to external data, create communication channels or even create interoperability between multiple closed-loop systems. However, current oracle solutions have their own set of problems. We have already seen over $1.4 billion lost to DeFi exploits in the last year. In fact, such DeFi exploits are relatively common — due to the limitations of current oracles — such as: Price delays Lack of transparency Lack of accountability Lack of true decentralization The True Potential of SupraOracles Blockchain oracles have long struggled with finding the right balance between scalability, decentralization, security, and finality. However, none have been able to crack the dilemma until now. Supra allows you to have the perfect balance of all four. SupraOracles is more than your typical middleware solution, with the team behind the project having brought something truly revolutionary to the market. SupraOracles is a powerful cross-chain oracle capable of seamlessly bridging real-world, off-chain data to both public and private blockchains, enabling interoperable smart contracts. Supra offers developers a unique toolset, allowing them to create, deploy and manage their applications while also giving them superior performance and increased robustness. The solution offers instant finality, cutting-edge cryptography, and unmatched interoperability. Looking Back at the Year SupraOracles has had a significant and eventful year, with several key milestones reached and many new partnerships confirmed. These partnerships are a testament to the ongoing efforts of Supra, and the trust put into the product by other projects that have or are looking to partner with Supra. Partnerships Announced In August, Supra announced its first major partnership with blockchain ride-hailing app DRIFE. The integration saw hyper-accurate geodata from both riders and drivers on the blockchain, thereby enabling a transition away from a traditional centralized hub that would make decisions on behalf of its participants. Since then, SupraOracles has confirmed partnerships with some of the most innovative projects in the crypto space, such as: InsurAce — A decentralized insurance protocol that addresses industry challenges regarding accessibility, underlying risk, and capital inefficiency. Injective Protocol — Allows users to create any financial market on their cross-chain, low fee, and fully decentralized exchange protocol. KILDE — Operates as a two-sided platform connecting institutions and high net worth individuals with securitized private investments. Nahmii — Effectively provides solutions for a variety of dApp projects, from supply-chain management systems to NFT platforms. NFTfi — The marketplace for NFT collateralized loans, where you can put your NFT assets up as collateral for a loan or offer loans to other users on their non-fungible tokens. Metis — Integrates the Decentralized Autonomous Company (DAC) framework within its Layer 2 infrastructure to make it easy for developers to build their applications. Strips Finance — Interest rate derivatives protocol for fixed-income interest rate swaps. Unbound — The ‘First-Ever-Debt-Free Liquidity Provision System’ that collateralizes LPTs to generate synthetic assets, including UND and uETH. In fact, Supra has announced over 70 partnerships this year, all of which you can find here. Mastercard Global Startup This year saw SupraOracles be included in Mastercard’s Start Path cryptocurrency blockchain program, which was undoubtedly a momentous occasion for the founding team at Supra. SupraOracles is the only oracle solution included in the list of innovators from the blockchain space, and sees the project rub shoulders with other promising projects like Avalanche, Domain Money, STACS, and Uphold. Nasdaq Guest Contribution: Supra On Nasdaq Joshua Tobkin, founder and CEO of SupraOracles, was invited as a Guest Contributor on Nasdaq. The article, published on the 15th of December on the Nasdaq website, talks about DeFi, and how it has become the fastest-growing sector in the crypto market. Joshua also spoke about DeFi’s oracle problem and the issues that plague current oracle solutions. They range from incorrect price reporting, oracle attacks, and how the need of the hour is an oracle solution that solves the oracle dilemma — offering scalability, security, finality, and decentralization. You can read the entire article here. Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator SupraOracles was also selected into the Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator Cohort this year. The application process was one the most competitive to date, with SupraOracles going up against 199 other applications for 21 highly coveted spots. The spots included diverse verticals, ranging from metaverses, decentralized finance, crypto-investment tools, oracles, and others. Berkeley Blockchain Accelerator is a joint venture between Berkeley Haas School of Business, Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, and Blockchain at Berkeley. Cross-Chain Ecosystem Growth SupraOracles also secured a grant from Polygon, with the grant being utilized towards building a bridge so that SupraOracles’ oracle solution can service their growing ecosystem. Polygon is looking to focus on key areas, such as blockchain gaming, NFTs, marketplaces, and DeFi, which are areas that SupraOracles is looking to service. SupraOracles has received over $1M+ in non-diluted grants from a variety of ecosystems and networks including, but not limited to, Dfinity, NEAR, Tezos, and Zilliqa. The Supra Roadmap 2018 SupraOracles established its core team in 2018, then made the following important breakthroughs: Expanded research team Random Number Generator (RNG) Oracle research breakthrough Completed RNG “die harder” tests Completed research for RNG Oracle Protocol Consensus Protocol Research Breakthrough 2019 In 2019, Supra confirmed their novel Ledger design and early consensus algorithm performance results and continued research and development into Web 2.5 consumer applications. Supra also started work on a non-custodial DeFi platform, while successfully applying its consensus algorithm. 2019 was rounded off with the initial setup for the Entropy Foundation and Supra Labs. 2020 In 2020, Supra completed its core consensus protocol research, established the Entropy Foundation, and began applying their consensus algorithm to solve the Oracle problem. 2021 In 2021, SupraOracles expanded significantly and grew to a team of over 40 individuals. The technology, product, and marketing teams were all bolstered significantly — with experts from around the crypto space — in preparation for a series of upcoming product launches. What to Expect in 2022 and Beyond In 2022 and beyond, SupraOracles is gearing up to hit the following milestones: PR for the numerous partnerships across DeFi Whitepaper goes live Alpha testnet goes live Strategic fundraise Tactical data partners and node operators enabled Testnet goes live First tranche of DeFi project integration Public fundraise Beta mainnet goes live SupraX accelerator goes live Ongoing exploring blockchain applications related to stocks, derivatives, and real estate Product Growth: What To Expect SupraOracles is on track to launch an alpha testnet in the first quarter of 2022. The testnet will enable Supra to demonstrate the throughput, oracle data stability, and finality. Supra also plans on holding an event for potential users where it will demonstrate the technological capabilities of the product. Afterward, Supra will enter the testnet phase — and once the necessary tests and preparations are completed — the team at Supra will finally launch their solution on the public mainnet later in the year. Closing Thoughts The team at Supra has managed to reach several significant milestones during 2021, from important achievements regarding product development — to closing significant partnerships with companies across a host of industries — and being selected for the Mastercard Global Startup program. This is just the beginning for SupraOracles, with the project having significant rollouts set for 2022. It will focus upon the SupraOracles testnet, mainnet, and set its eyes on enterprise solutions as well. Join the SupraOracles community: Website | Twitter | Telegram | LinkedIn | Announcements | Medium
https://medium.com/@SupraOracles/supraoracles-2021-recap-mastercard-berkeley-blockchain-and-partnerships-galore-d6938ae4b66a
[]
2021-12-31 07:15:43.113000+00:00
['Web3', 'Blockchain Oracle', 'Year In Review', 'Mastercard', 'Supraoracles']
Stop dreading performance reviews and set powerful goals
Photo by Fab Lentz on Unsplash Work performance reviews, school grades, Lyft ratings, and test scores are a source of some dread. These externalities where other people assess how well you’re doing all matter. Performance reviews are data points around how others view you and how good you are at your job. Often they also correlate to financial success. Your performance rating will affect the promotion, the size of your bonus, or the number of new customers who try you out. Your high school grades and SAT scores directly affect which college you get into. Yet what happens when your self-accomplishment doesn’t map to the performance review you’ve received? What matters more, the internal sense of satisfaction or someone else’s validation that you are doing well in their system? They both matter, yet many of us fall into the trap of passively awaiting our grade with a sense of dread. I’m sharing a different perspective, where you as the heroine of your professional accomplishments can work through 5 points and set powerful goals in service of your own accomplishments. Do the work that you love and the rewards will follow Understand the company’s context Know your context Common fallacies What matters most for you Do the work you love and the rewards will follow I worked at Facebook for over four years. I’ve written countless performance reviews, and had even more conversations with individuals wanting to know how to be successful at the company. I helped to run a process of product design calibrations where each half, all the managers would assess each designer’s accomplishments to determine what is a fair rating for each person, especially compared against how their peers are doing. The consistent piece of true advice that’s often considered a trope is “Do the work you love and the rewards will follow.” What this is intended to do is to have the designer focus less on the grade she might receive and focus instead on the work itself — the people and the products, plus the craft of the work that she’s creating. If you do this well, you will get your positive rating. If you do this well over a period of time, you will get your promotion. Yet often this advice feels trite and a brush-off. It requires a longer term patience and investment in your career, and it also requires trust with your manager and the company that you’re working at. I’ve been at multiple ends of the performance review spectrum of delight & disappointment—I’ve had halves where I thought I excelled and received a Meets Most. I’ve also had halves where I had so much going on personally that when I got a promotion and a Greatly Exceeds, I realized how little it meant to me in the overall balance of life. Most importantly, my various coaches and mentors have taught me that valuing my own sense of powerful goals and being able to reflect on my learnings matters more than an external rating. If I am able to do the work I love, serving the designers I care about, then I am successful. (Brief overview of Facebook’s performance review process). Understand the company’s context To understand your performance review, first understand the rubric by which the company values success. Hopefully you have access to a written guideline for expectations and skills in your role. If not, it’s something you should co-design this understanding with your manager. For Facebook product design, there are 7 core skills covering hard design skills as well as collaboration and leadership skills that each level of product designer should exhibit. For assessment in each half, managers write a brief outlining what each designer has done in the last 6 months. This is split into 1. individual impact on the team’s product goals, 2. strategy impact which may include visioning design work for the future, and 3. leadership/culture impact on the product team or elsewhere within Facebook. For more Facebook-specific measurement, see what it takes to be a designer at Facebook and how Facebook hires designers. While a written rubric is a good starting point, it’s a guideline, which means that it’s open to interpretation and individualization. The most important conversation is the one between you and your manager around shared understanding of the success guideline and how it applies to you individually. This conversation and shared understanding will ideally be based on a mutual relationship of trust and respect. I’ll dive more into how to create that ideal relationship in a future blog post. Know your context What matters to you professionally or at your work over the next six months or year? What would you like to do personally to help your team achieve their product goals? What new skills do you want to develop? What would you like to learn? What relationships do you want to nurture? For example, a designer who wants to work on building his prototyping skills may focus on 1. learning framer, 2. setting up a base prototype to match his product structure, and 3. committing to showing every single design in a prototype, and 4. sharing his learnings with others via a post or a lunch & learn talk. Another designer who wants to improve relationships with her product manager and key engineers chooses to 1. invest time in informal coffee meetings & 1–1s, 2. organize team events to build a sense of team culture, and 3. deliberately schedule whiteboard sessions to co-create requirements with her PM. Your goals should be self-driven and personal. You may also choose to work on feedback received from others, either about your passions & strengths, or areas of growth. Ultimately, they should be personal and powerful, mapping to what matters to you in your life, not simply driven by what your work needs from you. Also be aware of what else is happening with your life in this period. Are you dealing with health issues? Do your immediate friends and family need extra support from you? How much of yourself are you able to bring in to work? There is no shame in choosing to hang on at work for a period of time and not have big stretch goals. Your whole self has to look at work and non-work together. If you have a draft of your powerful goals and what success means to you for the upcoming period, bring them as a conversation point to your manager. She can provide additional company context and help map these goals back to what the company needs. She can provide feedback for you, and the two of you can co-create these personal success metrics together. You can check in over the period to see how you’re doing, and then at the end of the period, you will have a a sense of accomplishment or learnings about your powerful goals. Common fallacies If I work more hours, then I will be more successful. I grew up in a school system that equated hours of rote practice with achievement. If I spend 5 hours reviewing biology terms on flashcards, then I will do better in the test. If I put in 3 all-nighters in service of this project or client, then I will be more successful at work. This is a fallacy. Hours do not equal success. First, identify what impact means for your company and for you personally, then work on those items. For people in a creative field, the gestation time away from the continual grind allows for ideas and inspiration to blossom. Once I get that promotion, rating, etc. then I will be happy. We are a culture of achievers, and can live in a mindset of scarcity. Right now I don’t have X, so I am unhappy. X can be a stand-in for a raise, a promotion, a rating, a grade, or closing a certain number of clients. Have you ever strived so hard for X, then managed to achieve it, and felt a sense of hollowness or emptiness because simply achieving it wasn’t enough? Did you immediately move to create a new Y that was an even bigger goal?Instead, celebrate the powerful goals that you’ve set that you’re moving towards. Savor the feeling of achieving X and congratulate yourself for the learnings. What matters most for you Each year of your life is different. You will have different energy and a different balance of personal/professional life. There will be years where professional achievement is the #1 thing — you want to devote the time to climbing the ladder, getting that rating, achieving that title and promotion. If you’re in that state, also consider some other questions: How much fun am I having? What relationship do I want to cultivate with coworkers? How much energy do I have at the end of each day? What am I intentionally saying “no” to in order to say “yes” to work? There will also be years where life comes first. Yes, you will show up fully at work and do a more-than-competent job with your responsibilities. Yet you are also choosing to spend more time with your kids, your side hustle, or supporting your community outside of work. If you are choosing “yes” to these options, be gentle to yourself about your performance review and know that’s the important choice you are making with your time and energy. Finally, in an atmosphere of continual learning, perhaps the most useful question you can ask yourself at the end of each period of assessment is: What learning can I take away from this? That question will generate the most powerful goals to sustain energy and provide long-term fulfillment.
https://uxdesign.cc/stop-dreading-performance-reviews-and-set-powerful-goals-b9042c190ba0
['Tutti Taygerly']
2019-12-13 23:01:19.447000+00:00
['Startup', 'Design', 'Product Design', 'Technology', 'Goals']
2021: A year of hope and happiness
COVID-19 came when the world was least expecting it. No country was ready to face it. But together as a community we came forward and battled coronavirus by staying at home while the frontline workers and the social workers stepped out of the home to protect us all. This is where the word “Being Grateful” comes into play. Being thankful is appreciating what the god almighty has given us. Be thankful to people around you and be thankful for each and everything that happens in your life’s journey. In a world where there are people who don’t even have adequate access to basic needs such as food and shelter express your gratitude as you get access to all the basic needs including the extravagances. Failure is not an eternal occurrence, you must learn to soar above it and choose to be better than you were junctures ago. Perseverance is the capacity to go on when things seem miserable. It is a measure of victory and the amount of sacrifice one does in order to taste success. Though 2020 has been a year filled with several hurdles and thorny paths for the plurality of us I would say we all have understood the fact that your tomorrow has great possibilities because of the steps that you take today. Every action has its equal and opposite reaction so hard labor has no alternative. This year has been a difficult year personally as well as professionally for many people but if we start practicing perseverance in our daily life it is sure that we’ll be successful one day or the other. There is no substitute for hard work hence stop procrastinating and start persevering. Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding in the 20th attempt. 2020 has been a year of hardships but that doesn’t mean 2021 will be the same. There’s something about hardships, if you can make it through the murky places it has the tendency to lead you into the path filled with glee. I’m sure that this blog would help you have a better 2021 filled with exhilarating joy and peace of mind.
https://medium.com/@aswinibalasubramanian/2021-a-year-of-hope-and-happiness-9e6d107015bc
['Aswini Balasubramanian']
2020-12-27 07:30:20.326000+00:00
['Newyear 2021', 'Love', 'Happiness', 'Perseverance', 'Change']
How to use Design Thinking to run a steakhouse
1. The Strategy level If I want to run a steakhouse, I should be clear of what my business goal is, and this is also what’s included in the strategy level. Of course I’d like to get revenue from my business, but except this, I also should be aware of who my target users are, aka who I want to serve. On the other side, to make my business valuable in the long run, I should think about the brand as well. Once customers think about steak, they will think about my steakhouse. Why do customers go to a steakhouse? Maybe they really love steak, spend time with family or friends, or even it’s as simple as they are hungry. Anyway, all of these are the reasons. In other words, that’s the “problems’’ my steakhouse can solve for them. Thus, building the Strategy level includes business goals, strategy, target users, problems it solves and the brand. After figuring out my target customers, I should think of what I want to serve them, only steak? Apparently no, comparing to other steakhouses, yes, my competitors, I found they all serve other food. My target customers also want more than steak, so I should satisfy them as well. To be clear of the scope is what I need to do next. For example, except steak, I’d like to serve red wine for sure, then side dishes, appetizer and dessert at least. Meanwhile, I should be more specific about each category, such as what kind of red wine, the price, year and etc. However, how about serving fries and fried fish??? Serving fries might make sense, if my customers really want, but fried fish is not. At least I would like to serve beef related food for maintaining my brand. Otherwise, it hurts and it’s hard to win customers back when they have a negative image. 2. The Scope Level People come to the steakhouses for different reasons and also at different times. For example, some people come for lunch and others come for dinner, so I should be ready at night and spend most of my resources, like human resources and materials. Basically nobody comes in the morning for breakfast, so I don’t open the door at 8 a.m. If I do, either I will definitely start losing money, such as human resources cost and utilities, or I can change it to Wendy’s lol…just kidding, I know it’s open for 24 hours haha…. but you know what I mean. As the owner, I should be clear of the user scenarios and prioritize them for maximizing the business value. Therefore, figuring out the scope of business and their key user scenarios are the core of Scope level. 3. The Structure level Then let’s think about the Structure level. From my point of view, it covers two sections. First, the structure of all the processes and the structure of each part. In a product, it’s the interaction of a workflow and the information architecture on a screen or page. Let’s use the workflows of cooking and bringing the food to customers as examples. The process is that a chef gets an order, and now he’s in the kitchen. He passes the food to a waiter, and the waiter brings it to the customers. Then the whole process is done. The structure here is like how the chef receives the order, who is going to take the food when it’s ready to serve and how that person brings the food to the customers. Even more specific like at what time the waiter takes the food and using which tray, which path that person goes to bring the food, from which side of the table that the waiter puts the food and etc. The general order of the whole process, and the specific orders of each behavior is what the structure level covers. 4. The Skeleton level Now we finally come to the last one, the Skeleton level. As the steak or other food are what customers pay for, we treat them as “the products”. At this level, we can talk about the layout, what food we should provide and how to present them on a plate. If we say the three levels above are the logic and foundation behind the scenes, the presentation is basically what customers see once it’s on the table but without visual design. For example, if a customer orders a steak with mash potato as the side dish. Should we use one big plate for two types of food? Or on two plates to separate them? If two plates, how are we going to arrange them on a tray? The layout, left and right? Up and down? Where to place the steak on a plate? On the side or in the center? That’s what we should solve at this Skeleton level. In the end, we have the Surface level left. Even though visual designers should take care of this part, l’d like to mention it a bit by using the same example. It’s like the colors of the food. If I order medium rare, once I cut the steak, it should look pink or red inside. If it’s brown, sorry, it’s overcooked :P. Except those parts I mentioned above, of course there are tons of details an owner should take care of, such as the location, vendors, marketing, menu design and customer services. In the end, if you are a designer or have design background, I hope you have a clear view of the elements; and if you are not, I hope you have learned how designers work. Thanks for reading! #designthinking #ux #userexperience #interactiondesign #design
https://medium.com/@ChenLiu1/how-to-use-design-thinking-to-run-a-steakhouse-9278812f4801
['Chen Liu']
2020-09-21 08:26:20.057000+00:00
['Design Process', 'User Experience Design', 'Interaction Design', 'UX Design', 'Experience Design']
Relations with Buckinghamshire & Italy.
Relations with Buckinghamshire & Italy. I envisage my anxiety like a puck of fat in a ubend. Stopping a flow of water making the machine inoperable. In this instance, my mind is blocked and everything becomes muddled. Just being here, in Italy on a week’s holiday is chipping away at my anxiety. I’m trying to not think about the kitchen in London; or the pandemic, or the government. I was last in Lucca ten years ago. Outside Puccini's house, I called my father and told him this. I knew what I was doing I knew he’d envy me. “You cunt” he said. Always a poet. It’s still early on Monday, two out of three chefs I work with would likely be hungover. The kitchen doesn’t open on Mondays and Sundays are long shift, it’s very easy to stop for a drink. Ellika will be heading to work. Tomorrow she goes to Sweden. I miss her company, I think about my life in London. Working in a kitchen again. Living with my girlfriend. My cooking job stopped and started. Three years ago, I was single and hadn’t cooked for the paying public in two years. I took a week’s work at the Wilderness festival in Oxfordshire. A week’s work totaling 120 hours, Cooking banquets for 400 people. Twice a day, for three days. Menus by Tommi Miers, Yotam Ottolenghi, and Nuno Mendes. Dropping names of London Chefs is a currency I cannot spend here. The relevance is maybe food. My mind drifted to a Labour party rally in Milton Keynes I passed. I was living at my mother’s My father had died, My brother’s health was fragile and left London to help. In Tuscany now, a bell was ringing in the distance. The Labour party were distant, London kitchens were distant. I was more inclined to think about Lorenzo the magnificent except a refuse collection truck rolled by kicking up dust. Lorenzo was dead long ago, there was a poster for the current politician on a billboard nearby. Unfortunately, I had only traveled to Italy of now, I wasn’t in the renaissance era. You see the point though, Holidays are Holidays, no Twitter, no waiting for the last table to order no fridges full of Mis En Place. Just Swimming pools and very good peaches. The fat of my anxiety was dissolving. My father never came to Italy. Although in a way attributed to growing up In Linslade, he knew it, or elements of the country. I don’t mean this as Linslande’s canal is reminiscent of Venice or some such. In the 40s, my Grandfather Leonard and his friends drove the fascists from Italy and went home with a newly found fondness for Gelato and opera. Furthermore, the towns near where my family is from. Places like Luton, Linslade/Leighton Buzzard, and Aylesbury have a good representation of the Italian diaspora. Almost hidden now. Gandolfini, Cippaleli, and Coelli were names called at in my form at school. Mortadella was bought from Mamma’s in Aylesbury and my mother used to drive to Buckingham to go to Lido Romeo for her haircuts. Italians came to make red London Bricks at Calvert Brickworks. The redbricked suburbs of London were in part built by Italians. In this sense, we have enclaves of Italian diaspora just as the Welsh do and Scots do. Less well known than the Italians in New York but they’re there, and the signs are there. Hence Joe Calzaghe the boxer, Angela Hartnett the chef from that country. Nardini’s ice cream in places like Greenock and England’s talismanic rugby player Lawrence Dallaglio. My Grandfather explored Italy with his friends in Khaki, and in this way added to the Italian Linslade connection. I never met the man, he died before I was born, but when I was in front of the Puccini statue in Lucca, I like to think of Puccini's music drifting from his shop, down the grand union canal. I like to think of my father eating Coppa bought from someone’s nonna in Aylesbury. Which why I felt right at home eating cecina in Lucca. Or picking Sangiovese grapes in the hills of Emilia Romagna and my stress-inducing life as a chef. A job I have left and gone back to. Holidays remind me that food is important. it is something we share, with composers of operas and our ancestors we never meet. As such, I had a new lease of life and went back to a kitchen. That is in one way how found me in a tent plating food next to Yotam Ottolenghi. A roundabout sort of tale. Much of being a chef, isn’t worthy of photographs. Much of it is actually taking pucks off congealed fat from pipes of rationale ovens, or cleaning planchers, or pulling grain from the stomachs of small birds. Cooking for a living is a Sisyphus task, with bouts of wondrous food at sublime events. Endlessly doing the same thing time after time after time. Though Sisyphus had no end result cooks do. Jonny Wilkinson the rugby player that crafted England’s world cup in 2003 with a drop goal in extra time, by practicing incessantly. One hundred kicks with his left foot one hundred with his right foot. After practice. After everyone else had gone. Aside from Rugby, I don’t follow sport much, but I do love to watch compilations of goals. In Ken Loach’s film looking for Eric. Eric Cantona is asked “favourite moment ever”. Was it this goal, or was it another? Cantona says it was a pass, not a goal. “You have to trust your teammates” he says. Now Cantona played for France and Manchester United. I’m unsure comparisons are really a good route to go down. Who is the Jonny Wilkinson or Eric Cantona of cookery? Come on, let us not be silly. That however is reasonable. Knowing who is the right temperament to be in a big job like Wilderness. It need not be a selection of Cantona's maybe it’ll be a rabble of people in aprons who are able to work long hours and wake up the following day and do it again. I know what Cantona meant. Not because of my time with my collar popped with Old Trafford singing my name, but because when I was looking for a Maurice because my apples were caramelising too fast my friend passed one for me. We do this thing day after day after day. We do while trusting our co-workers. We place our trust in surly people who sleep too infrequently and wear aprons. After two years out of kitchens, I wasn’t sure id ever want to go back, but I sure as I’m writing this now, did. My brother was no longer unwell, I was (thankfully) redundant as a carer. Also, I was stony broke. I knew I needed to do something, and anything requires money. Reluctantly perhaps I remembered what it is I do for money. No, not dancing. I checked various groups advertising for positions as summer was coming. I thought id work at events as a hired hand. Temping, Or as I prefer, being a Mercenary. A hired spoon. A lone gun for hire, a moron willing to work 100 hour weeks. Also, I didn’t really have another choice. I made some phonecalls and placed some speculative adverts in Facebook cooking groups. Then one Monday, I was in a kitchen in a railway arch with assorted others. Deliveries arrived after us. To illustrate this, think about food relief at emergencies. Half of Brazil’s pineapples arrived for Thomasina Mier’s salsa. All of the Pomegranates of the Levant’s harvest came in by crate For Ottolenghi and the pasty department were in deep consultation about what seems like to me, very good Ice cream. I now realise, it was not acceptable. But that’s where the standards were. White Milk Ice Cream had to be Dulux emulsion. We had been sent, off white. A touch to Farrow and Ball jersey cream. From Monday to Thursday twenty or more we stood at benches and repeated tasks for hours after hours after hours. Then Thursday some of us, went to Oxfordshire. To cook the food, finish the food, and plate the food. What in god’s green earth had I gotten myself into. Cooking again. The dining tent was row upon row of tressel tables being decorated, There were hay bales and flowers. The shelves of the bar were being filled with glassware. Final touches were being made and staff in matching t-shirts were being addressed. A fraught business. Each day, 400 for lunch, and the same for dinner, and 6 chefs and one name with his or her protéges who’d come in wearing their branded apron and tattoo combination. Incessant activity, Grilling grapes for burrata, cutting sourdough, piping cultured butter, heating through soft tacos, and loading them into warm boxes, Mixing baba ghanouch, seasoning salads, finishing with nasturtium leaves. Balling Dulux white milk ice cream onto cubes of smoked cucumber jelly. It’s a blur and a frenzy. I remember thinking, I’m never doing this again. (A phrase I say at least once at every event, to date I’ve worked at 6 such events). My job has taken me to horse racing events in Italy where I worked up the despotic Chef Nasser. The personal chef to a friendly dictator from the UAE. I’ve worked in Buckingham Palace, Canapes for Lawyers. Blowtorching Italian meringue in the George III kitchen next to the young chef making soup for someone he couldn’t say who. (My guess is Prince Phillip but ive nothing much to go on). I’ve worked in some amazing places, I’ve cooked in Neasden. To say This is what I do now or did pre covid times. Three years as a freelancer. Or Mercenary which is the term I prefer. Cooking food for thronging masses of well to do headdress wearing festival goers, or Sheiks watching endurance horse racing, or Lawyers and Princess Anne. Going away for a few days in in a van full of equipment and food and gumption, coming back pale faced and running on fumes. Three years of freelancing went like nothing, although sometimes when the deliveries were arriving like helicopter delivered food relief. This is work, this is what freelance chefs, do. Days later, I wake up in London. I’ve moved into my friend’s spare room. I’ve invited a woman over for Saltimbocca and Gelato, This being what I love to cook and eat, the food I know from the Italian parts of Buckinghamshire. There is stress but unlike Sisyphus, my day's end, and new days start. It’s a blessing to have been involved in big events with some very significant chefs. When the day is done, the best is to relax, maybe like my grandfather and father did, with a little of the best around you. In their case and music from that man in Lucca and it was food from the Italian deli, that’s subjective. If you must work hard, make sure you are rewarded. Don’t let grease congeal in your pipes, metaphorically or otherwise. Puccini. In Lucca.
https://medium.com/@jackfaulkner/relations-with-buckinghamshire-italy-4a1fd144902b
['Jack Faulkner']
2021-01-20 12:43:36.906000+00:00
['Wilderness Festival', 'Linslade', 'Buckinghamshire', 'Lucca', 'Italy']
10 Movies To Get You Coding Again
10 Movies To Get You Coding Again If there is one thing most developers have in common, it has to be the fact that they sometimes lack motivation. And no wonder. The projects most developers have to engage in often times take a toll on them. So how can we deal with the pressure? How can we reignite our passion for coding? What if we could do that through something we all love to do, Watch Movies. Here is a list of 10 movies you could watch to get you coding again. TL;DR — Watch any of these movies to get motivated to code again. SILICON VALLEY If you want to understand Silicon Valley, watch Silicon Valley — Bill Gates If you are a programmer and you haven’t seen this movie then I urge you to take time and watch it. Silicon Valley is an American comedy series about a small team of developers at an Internet startup called Pied Piper. You watch them struggle to figure out their strategy, build their product, raise money, and take on Hooli, the tech giant that bears an obvious but superficial resemblance to Google or Microsoft. It is an amazing movie suited for developers aiming to build a tech-based company one day. Silicon Valley
https://medium.com/the-andela-way/10-movies-to-get-you-coding-again-3d463b1bd9af
[]
2019-04-02 11:25:10.514000+00:00
['Dev Movies', 'Movies For Developers', 'The Andela Way', 'Motivation', 'Movies']
Your PWA is going to break in August 2021
My (totally random) prediction: 52% of all PWAs will break with Chrome 93 UPDATE: On April 14, Google announced they would be pausing their plan to roll out this feature. Check out my follow-up article here. If you have a PWA and you’ve recently looked at your console or app manifest, you may have noticed this message: Page does not work offline. Starting in Chrome 93, the installability criteria is changing, and this site will not be installable. https://developer.chrome.com/blog/improved-pwa-offline-detection for more information Or if you’re using Edge: Site cannot be installed: Page does not work offline. The page will not be regarded as installable after Edge 93, stable release August 2021. You see, before Chrome 93, all you had to do for Chrome to make your app installable was to pretend to listen to the fetch event in your service worker. You didn’t even really have to do anything at all. All you had to do was register a listener. And that was it. Easy-peasy. I guess Google took issue with the hack. Truth be told, there are probably too many sites — many of which probably shouldn’t even be installable in the first place— that used ugly hacks like this: Nope, this won’t work anymore! With the upcoming release of Chrome, you’ll have to actually make use of the cache or your PWA will no longer be installable. Why is this happening? Google’s dogma is that a PWA should never display the Chrome’s default offline screen. Instead, all PWAs should either be available offline or show some sort of offline page as a fallback. Thanks to the hack above, you weren’t actually forced to make your PWA work offline. Now you will be (or you’ll have to find an even uglier hack to not have to). A PWA shouldn’t show the Dino page… for some reason Now, why a custom page that pretty much does nothing useful except say “you’re offline” is a better fallback than the default dinosaur page is a bit unclear. People do know what that page means. It offers clears directions on what to do to get back online. And it’s built by Google itself (so it’s not like it’s redirecting traffic to some unrelated third-party site). But apparently, Google doesn’t like its own solution. So instead you’ll have to build one yourself (which — in all likelihood — won’t be as good as Google’s. That is, unless you can do better than the Dinosaur Game obviously). Fix your PWA! Side note: I’m building Progressier, specifically so that you don’t have to deal with Google/Apple/Microsoft/Samsung/Firefox latest whims (we take care of that for you — and it’s free), but if you absolutely insist on inflicting that on yourself, below is what you’ll have to do for your app to become compliant. What can I do to fix this? First, you’ll have to populate your “fetch” handler so that it actually does something useful, i.e. cache resources. There are two main ways to go about this. With the Network-Falling-Back-To-Cache strategy, your service worker will first try to retrieve the resource from your server. Then when it can’t do that — because for example, you’re offline — retrieve it from the cache (if it exists there). With the Stale-While-Revalidate strategy, your service worker first looks into the cache while also issuing the request to the server. If the resource exists in the cache, it will send it back to the client right away — resulting in a seemingly instantaneous load. When (and if) the server responds to the request successfully, it will save the updated response in the cache. The main drawback of this approach is that resources that you’ll serve will always be one version behind. There are a couple of other marginally-useful strategies. With Cache-First, you don’t revalidate resources at all. Resources can never be updated once they’re in the cache — but the strategy can also lighten your AWS bill. With Network-Only, you don’t make use of the cache at all, so that resources are always fresh. And there is also a Cache-Only strategy, which is pretty much useless. Secondly, you’ll also likely have to precache resources in the “install” event handler. Fun fact: this event fires when the service worker is installed. Not when the user has installed your app. For some reason, I see many developers getting these two concepts mixed up. The issue with resource caching So there is one main issue that remains with the way service workers handle offline. As you update your app and create new resources, you’ll have to remember to precache them too if you want everything to always work offline. That’s potentially a lot of headaches — although a library like Workbox does make things a bit easier. Regardless, this highlights one of the worst aspects of PWAs. Making a PWA is not a one-time effort. There are a bunch of things you’ll have to update regularly or they’ll break. At Progressier, our solution (as of March 2021) is currently partially Chrome 93 compliant. Most PWAs that have Progressier already work offline — although it depends a bit on the exact structure of your app. We’ll be fully compliant by the time Chrome 93 is released so that every single app that’s running Progressier is available offline regardless of how they’re structured. How we’ll fix the problem above: our bot will regularly visit your app and inspect network requests. When we see new resources, we’ll automatically add them to the list of resources to cache. With Workbox, you have to manually build caching strategies. With Progressier, strategies are built for you automatically. Do you have any questions? Or need help making your PWA Chrome 93 compliant? Comment or email me at [email protected]
https://javascript.plainenglish.io/your-pwa-is-going-to-break-in-august-2021-34982f329f40
['Kevin Basset']
2021-04-23 01:42:51.389000+00:00
['Web Development', 'JavaScript', 'Progressive Web App', 'Web', 'Pwa']
E-commerce and its development now and in the near future should be Visa Part II.
Visa e-commerce and its development now and in the near future — probably the most interesting block at the Innovation Week conference. Mr. Petr Fuka and Lukáš Hanžl spoke on behalf of the Visa company, and they entered this issue beautifully. In the first part of the article, I focused on e-commerce and the SCR solution on which Visa cooperates. Now I will focus on Visa’s cooperation with Fintech companies, especially Minna Technologies. Minna Technologies is FinTech, which aims to save time and money for the modern consumer. It does this by cooperating with retail banks and creating a new generation of financial products that it wants to make people’s lives easier. How does Minna Technologies do it? Believe in subscription management! Subscription management is one of the biggest megatrends in society, transforming personal finances. Makes life easier for consumers. Subscription management is an area where banks have the best opportunities to help meet the needs of their customers. The advantage for the bank’s client is the added value of managing all subscriptions in one place. One household has an average of 25 subscriptions, which thanks to this implementation the bank’s client can manage in one place. For example, cancel a subscription to Netflix with a single click in your bank’s application. Of course, it is not enough to suspend the payment alone, Minna Technologies will handle the cancellation of the subscription on the other hand, ie at Netflix. This will not give rise to any future obligations. Minna goes so far as to analyze your subscription and try to offer you a better one. Which, of course, is difficult for Netflix, but it’s mainly about payments for electricity, telephone and other standing payments. You regularly pay CZK 500 for a mobile tariff and the software analyzes this payment and offers you the same or a very similar tariff for a lower price. There is also room for banks, which not only bring added value to their users and keep them longer in their application, but also receive a conversion fee from integrated partners. A few words in conclusion. Subscription management is a very welcome service that can make it a lot easier to find different subscriptions. Now you will not forget to unsubscribe and pay unnecessarily another month / year. In addition, this implementation will allow banks to keep users in their application and serve as another monetization tool. Revolut also jumped on this wave with its own solution, which, however, is not so elaborate yet. They cannot compare offers, they do not unsubscribe from you, they only cancel the payment. However, it is a step towards customers (and monetization).
https://medium.com/@machac/e-commerce-and-its-development-now-and-in-the-near-future-should-be-visa-part-ii-ee6c84586af4
['Ondrej Machac']
2020-12-14 21:54:15.289000+00:00
['Payments', 'Technology Trends', 'Fintech', 'Subscription', 'Visa']
I Mean Seriously.. But Still What Can I Do?
I Mean Seriously.. But Still, What Can I Do? The ups and downs are the part of our lives, but we care about downs mostly and sometimes ignore ups. While just analyzing these I just thought about writing my heart, I mean our heart saying, with a question we all think “But Still What Can I Do?” I’m not going to write it professionally but I’m just writing whatever comes to mind. It will be great if you like it, if you think I wasted your time, you can curse me in the comment section also.. What’s all happening around me? Office Frustration.. What can I write I don’t have to write anything, life is so fucking tough not the life actually but whatever is going around in life. Huh it is not easy at all just to sit on a chair for fucking 9 hours. You just keep looking at the watch when the clock reaches 6 and I will leave for the home. Huh I don’t wanna come here seriously I’m so fucked up. What else can I say? The Furniture:- I’m not the kind of guy who gets bored at all no matter what the situation is or even if I don’t have something to watch or do, I never get bored. But the matter is that I can’t even do what helps me not to get bored of anything and also look at their chairs, I mean seriously u are making me sit on this chair lol fuck off who is interested in sitting on these shitty chairs (in very bad condition). I mean seriously, but what can I do? Wanna Leave.. I will leave everything today, what? No not my life, everything means job, working 9–6, waking up at 6 in the morning, and sleeping at 12 lol, but how can I leave it, my parent will look at me like I’m the ghost who has left his body away and has started walking, dad will say “wo sharma ji ke bete ko dekho usko tune nokri pe lagaya tha wo kamm kr raha hai to tune kyu choda” neighbours, friends, relative will say you left the job? We mean seriously “log kya kahenge” (arey chup/ kuch toh log kahenge, logo ka kamm hai kehna). I mean seriously? But still, what can we do.. Save for Future:- But still, it is not as easy as it seems, we have already climbed more than half of Mount Everest and now you can’t even think about going down, Yeah right.. And also looking forward to the future “aur waise bhi nokri nahi karega to shokri kese milegi” and keep it in mind if I have to do the job then i will have to sit on that broken chair (pappi pait ka sawal hai malik) but still what can I do.. Respect I don’t know what soil our parents are made of who is doing the same work all their life, mom is busy cooking all the time and father stays on his job till late night, even before he sleeps at 12’, says wake me up early I have some work left to do, I mean seriously? Hats off to all the parents.. But still, what can I do.. The Burning Nature:- The climate change is making our Environment cripple day by day, I think maybe some people have nightmares about it, maybe someday they will wish that the temperature decrease to 99-degree Celsius for today, because it already too hot today, maybe they see the ocean and tell their children not to touch the water because it is poisonous on the edges of the beaches or the water has risen on the surface of the earth in last few years. If I have a nightmare like this, I’m sure I will see humans have almost destroyed our planet and have killed more than 70% species of animals in the last 10- years.. Seriously sad, I felt crying, despite knowing I’m able to do nothing. This is too much I don’t want to say, “what can I do”.. But still what can I do??? Technology is Everywhere:- People have money, time, patience, and everything they need to buy technology, but they don’t have time for their family, friends, relatives (talking about all of us). But still, we manage to meet some people now but in the coming years no will visit their known for the months or years. Technology, AI, Robots will be working everywhere and humans will be just looking and visit the same offices, again and again, to apply for a job (no more jobs will be left) when we will see this we’ll say but still, what can we do? Ending.. Not only these where I’m feeling frustrated or bad, but also millions of things are there that make all of us feel sad. I just wanted to write and share it with you as my first writing on the medium. I know there are thousands of mistakes and grammatical errors, but still What can I Do? Thanks for reading (If you did)..
https://medium.com/@amandip.singh/i-mean-seriously-but-still-what-can-i-do-7bdf61b649d6
['Amandip Singh']
2020-05-27 12:27:28.643000+00:00
['Climate Change', 'Sad', 'Frustrated', 'Office Routine', 'Earth']
Trying to say…
Photo: Duc Nguyen When people look at me, many would like to see a success story. From the outside, what they want to see is a penniless refugee who made good for himself in this wonderful country. But in truth, I’m not that all together inside. I don’t have a steady job, no assets, a virtual unknown. Although, I’m running on one conviction- to tell the world my story. Why? Because it was fucked up. After so many years, I still feel angry about it. I couldn’t find the cause of my misery but the fact that people don’t really care to listen made me want to say it louder. More so, the mere reason that I survived is enough for me to bring my story to life. Being a refugee is submitting yourself to the ranking by others. To the West, refugee is an image. He is not real. He is something Westerners read or heard about. One time, I came to a Thanksgiving dinner at the home of my friend’s parents. As I walked in, her mother quietly whispered something into her friend’s ear while both holding wine glasses in their hands. The expression on the listener’s face changed. She went from being festive to dead serious. She came to me and with such earnest sympathy delivered a greeting. Later during the dinner, the guests began to explore my story. When I rendered my voyage to here, the United States, the mood changed from festive to sadness. I felt as if I was bringing the party down. Quietness arrived at the table as the chunk of ham in the center of the table was getting cold. Then suddenly when I stopped, the table returned to laughter and joy as they resumed their little exchanges. I read something that really rang true to me. “The world is full of refugees, and Western countries that have helped create them (as well as those that haven’t) must deal with the fact that to reject them in inhumane, to accept them by millions is impractical, and to create humanly decent criteria for those who qualifies and who doesn’t is all but impossible. That is the West dilemma.” For many years I felt as if I couldn’t talk about my past. I couldn’t tell people who I was. Because if I do, it only brought people down. I didn’t want to be a refugee with a painful sorrow story. That was my dilemma. I couldn’t be who I was. I learned over the years that I can’t force people to listen to my story. I have to make them want to hear it. So, I do what is necessary and become a story teller. I left for Hollywood after getting a degree from a trade school. Knocking on Hollywood’s door is like digging a Panama canal with a plastic spoon, especially if you are a penniless refugee. But I was determined. I had no clue how I was going to deliver my tales. Simply hoping to figure it out by learning from the source, I roughed it out in Tinsel town. I worked as a laborer, at the bottom of the Tinsel pit. I searched, I learned and I worked at it some more. I even wrote a Hollywood script, drew up a story but they remained undiscovered. Then I realized I cannot stay silent. Starting with one, then two and three. I started to tell my story. Little did I know there are other out there who have similar stories. But they didn’t want to be the only one who tell their stories, risking unfavorable reactions. But once they heard my story, they stood up and told theirs. Like birds sang in unison, our voices are stronger when we spoke together. That is the lesson I learned after so many years of trying to say…
https://medium.com/@righthereinmypocket/trying-to-say-81b692bc8ed9
['Duc Nguyen']
2020-12-22 19:28:08.755000+00:00
['Hollywood', 'Refugees', 'Storyofmylife', 'Storyteller', 'Vietnamese Americans']
Things I’d Tell My 19-Year-Old Self After Seven Years Working And Wanderlusting
I remember when I was 19-years-old I saw a TED Talk whose topic was about personal growth in your 20s. The main premise of the talk was that in your 20s you expect to change, just not the rate at which you expect because it’s a lot faster than you could ever imagine. It’s the reason why people decide to get rid of tattoos in their late 20s that they got earlier in their decade or they change who they decide to surround themselves with. Your 20s are a unique time where you are old enough to know when to change and young enough to go through with them in a meaningful way. Trying to anticipate how you would grow in your 20s is similar to The World’s Fair trying to make predictions of what the future would look like. The “what you think you would become” and “what you became” divergence is vastly different. It’s crazy to look back at my mindset when I was 20. I was beginning to figure out who I was, take a stride in my step, and figure out what I think I wanted in life. Being young allows you to have the greatest flexibility and my priority like any young millennial was to travel. When I was 19, I went to Brazil for the first time and it changed my life. Brazil ultimately showed me a world that could be. People with hearts as open as their arms before they go to embrace you. It was magical and deeply altered my perspective on the world and where I wanted my life to head. I made I promise to myself and implanted an idea in my head that would be a part of my identity for years. I said to myself you will come back to Brazil and you will stay for a long period of time, completely immerse yourself with no attachments and no worries. So, I came back from Brazil, and I started to live my life but with that idea always in my head, always idolizing the time I had in that country. I would finish my junior and senior years of college and graduate from the University of Massachusetts. Four months later I found myself taking a one-way ticket across the country from North Jersey to work at an exciting new startup called Everipedia in the one and only city of Los Angeles, California. I grinded for years there doing whatever needed to be done and even through the toughest of times I knew my coworkers were by my side to lift me up when I needed them. The first year in LA was the hardest. New job. New city. I was just trying to get accumulated with myself and my surroundings. Hell, I was living in a situation of what could be considered to be a crossover of The Facebook Movie and Fight Club, sleeping on a bunkbed and thinking to myself “well, this is my life now, better get used to it.” I didn’t know where we were heading, but I knew deep down in my heart that the destination would be worth it. The second-year I started to hit my stride more. For the first time, I began to meet more people in LA and make new friends outside of work. I discovered the awesome electronic music scene LA had to offer, and the startup I worked for made the news for having the raise it was always destined to have to build a blockchain encyclopedia and knowledge ecosystem My third year in LA had to have been my favorite. Living with two of my best friends in Santa Monica a short walk away from the beach. I remember walking out the door every morning to walk to work and pinch myself because it felt like I was dreaming, walking down the palm tree-lined streets like they were out of a postcard. Santa Monica, California. It’s one of the most iconic places on earth where people all over the world come to witness the pier that they have seen in movies and it was in my backyard. It was in my third year that I really started taking more responsibility at work and my social life was blossoming, for what it felt like for the first time in my life I become truly comfortable with my identity and who I was. Not too shabby Yet, with so many positives going on in my life, I always had Brazil in the back of my head. Even as I established myself and dug my roots further in the city that I started to really enjoy my time in, that “what if I just dropped it all and moved there” was still in the back of my head. Why couldn’t I just work remotely in paradise? I even said to myself before I moved to LA in 2016 “work 4 years here, establish your career, then go” and that idea was burned into my head like I was in Inception and Leonardo DiCaprio hacked my mind and spun his totem in the deepest part of my unconscious. I wouldn’t acknowledge it fully then, but this idea would go on and drastically affect many relationships in my life. I would never fully commit to relationships because in the back of my head I knew I would be leaving, why would I commit? It really started to hit me after my third year when both my roommates moved out of our apartment and I was scrambling to find new ones. I realized how transient life could be and that nothing lasts forever. Being a guy in his 20s, time is precious. Do I just want to be going through the same old routine and the same city when there is a whole world out there to explore? In my 4th year in LA, I focused on building on the momentum that was pushing me through the past three. Everything was going great and then… COVID hit. Saying COVID changed everything is a severe understatement. Never before in our lifetimes has a single event affected every aspect of our lives for an extended period of time and we are still in the middle of it over a year later! It was during these three months in my life where the wheels were in motion for me to move out of LA; A breakup with someone I cared about deeply, a lease that was set to expire, and remote work becoming an accepted norm. It was time to pursue the adventure I have been craving since I moved out to LA back in 2016. I knew I couldn’t exactly go to Brazil right away but the next thing was to drive cross-country which was another bucket-list dream of mine. So, in May I decided to fully send it and began to decouple myself from the city which I grew to love. It felt surreal throwing everything out, giving stuff away, and selling everything I could before my lease expired in June. It didn’t really start to hit me that I was leaving until I cleaned out my entire apartment and all that remained was a mattress in my living room. I remember the night before I left smiling ear to ear dancing around to Kid Cudi’s Pursuit of Happiness blasting through my speakers in my empty apartment because my vision actually came to fruition. I was about the embark on the journey that I envisioned all those years ago. Now for this journey, I really didn’t have much planned, all I knew was that I was going to live in Idaho for a month and I was going to end up in Brazil at the end of it. That’s it. June 26th came and with my car packed to the brim, me and two friends set off for Coeur d’Alene to live on our coworker’s chicken farm. “Just me and my hen… just me and my hen…” Over the next 108 days, I would proceed in driving all around America stopping in 17 different locations for different periods of time. I hiked the beautiful mountains that overlooked the Salt Lake Valley in Utah, climbed the red rocks that painted Sedona’s ancient ocean floor, bolted it across the endless plains that made up this magnificent country, and even got to stop by the great American cities of St. Louis, Fort Wayne, D.C., and Boston. With all the sites I saw, what truly made my journey was the people, both old friends and new ones, that I met across the way. I can look back with nothing but amazing memories that I can carry with me for the rest of my life. And even during all of this traveling, I really broke through a glass ceiling at work and was getting partnerships that were not thought possible. I’ll never forget having to pull over in the cornfields of Illinois at a random gas station to hot spot my laptop in order to get some emails done. I felt incredible and through all this madness, I was able to move the last piece of my journey in place and booked my long-term stay in Brazil. My dream was finally coming true. I remember coming home in October feeling on top of the world. Also, after traveling for so long, it was nice to take a step back and spend time with friends, family, and my parents’ new pup, Tesla. The month before I left for Brazil, I laid low with some friends in Key West, and then from there I took a one-way flight to the place I’ve imagined being for the past +6 years. Tesla causing trouble I was in Brazil for two months and although I enjoyed my time there, it felt different than how I felt all those years ago when I arrived for the first time. It wasn’t that the country has changed, but I had. When I first arrived, I was a student halfway through college and when I arrived again, I basically decided to step off the escalator of a fast-growing career. It was a much-needed gut-check though, “do I really want to be doing what I’m doing?” and “are you happy with your life.” I came to the conclusion and the answer was yes, I knew who I was because I was carving myself into the person I wanted to be for the past several years while in LA. I am 26-years-old, it didn’t realize how much I have grown. Brazil is a beautiful country and it will always have a place in my heart but I realized maybe all those years not being there I may have developed an unrealistic escapism fantasy from my normal life which isn’t healthy for anyone. Halfway through my time in Brazil, I knew what I needed to do for myself. Things happened in my life which made me cut my trip home from Brazil early, specifically, I had to be by my family’s side during an emergency when they needed me most. I ended up staying back in New Jersey for two months, regrouping myself as I get ready for the next stage of my life. I got a new job and it was time for me to grow up and decide to settle in order to build my life. March 27th came and I hit the road again, trying out new cities like new pairs of shoes until I decide what place I want to tie the knot with. In a month alone, I’ve hit North Carolina, Orlando Miami, San Juan, Pensacola, won some roulette at the shoreline casinos in Biloxi, hit Bourbon Street in New Orleans, and now I’m writing this in my Airbnb in Austin. I haven’t truly had a home base in 10 months and all I can say is I’m tired. I’m thankful for this journey but I feel like I’ve learned all the lessons I need to and I’m just had enough of the road. I’m ready to set my spot, wherever that may be, and start building my life. Will that be Austin, the city I am now, Los Angeles, the city that I’ll always have love for, or be another guy in crypto to move to Puerto Rico. The decision will be made very soon! Not going to lie, this recent leg of being on the road alone mainly has been the toughest. I realized I pretty much dismantled many of the support structures I had in life when I lived in LA. A steady location, a steady work environment, steady groups of friends. I am also in the process of figuring out my priorities and my “post-wanderlust” identity and that whole thing feels like trying to build a functional airplane while you are falling out of the sky. I definitely am setting out to be more organized and be more accountable to myself, make noticeable advancements in my career, and have a positive work-life balance and not let one extreme become too extreme. One motivation that has guided me in life since I was 19 though is there is nothing out here more fulfilling to me than inspiring people around me and letting them know in return how they inspired me. Whether it was starting blogs in college, throwing shows in LA, or even this journey I went on now, the only thing that really keeps me going, even through all the bullshit, is seeing people take positive action from my action and vice versa. This all comes full-circle from one of the first blog posts I ever wrote titled “What It Means To Travel Alone” and even years after writing it friends told me how it inspired them to embark on solo journeys themselves. Writing and sharing my experiences, whether it’s a 10-day trip or 10-month adventure, is like opening the door for people showing that there is a way, there is a life that is possible, all you need is to walk through. What I miss most about being in one spot is having consistently having good genuine people around. They keep you going through the hardest of times because adversity is a given in life, it's just a matter of when. And when the tough times do hit, you have that support system to keep you afloat. They say you are the five people you surround yourself with the most and you don’t understand how true that is until later in life. Wherever I settle, that’s definitely a top priority of mine. For the first time in my life, I can proudly say I’m don’t want to “escape” anymore. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to stop having adventures, quite the opposite actually. But I would rather do it from a solid foundation than just wandering from place to place. I don’t know where I’m gonna settle but wherever I end up, I’m going to do my best for myself and others around me. I’ll also want to get a dog too. But I’ll worry about that once I sign the lease.
https://medium.com/@daveliebowitz/things-id-tell-my-19-year-old-self-after-seven-years-working-and-wanderlusting-64a0c8c19cc3
['David Liebowitz']
2021-04-26 01:54:12.607000+00:00
['Advice', 'Journaling', 'Autobiography', 'Wanderlust', 'Life']
Why do Indians like to study in the UK?
Britain will soon formalise its exit from the European Union. According to studies, this gives Indians good reasons to opt for postgraduate studies in the UK. When Britain voted to leave the EU, educational experts gauged that non-EU students did not have to worry about any sudden impact of this change, at least for the next two years. Higher study options have always been a big consideration for Indian students. It plays an important role in defining their career choices and determines the value of the degree that they earn. Famous Indians educated in the UK Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation studied law at the University College of London The great mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanujan, FRS, worked and studied in Cambridge. Two of India’s Prime Ministers studied at the University of Oxford — Ms. Indira Gandhi and Dr. Manmohan Singh India’s first Prime Minister Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru and the eminent Nobel laureate and economist Amartya Sen are alumni of Trinity College that is part of Cambridge University Indian economist, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist World Bank, Kaushik Basu is a graduate from the London School of Economics Why do Indians like to study in the UK? Indian students consider UK for their undergraduate, postgraduate and research programmes for the following reasons: Internationally reputed universities Not just Indians, but students from around the world, popularly choose the UK for their studies because three of the world’s top 10 universities are right here. A degree from a university in the UK will be recognised across the globe. Employability quotient is also extremely high, especially with a degree from a reputed UK university. Good quality education TheUK comes with a long-standing tradition of providing high-quality education. Universities and educational institutions are routinely audited and assessed by officials to ensure that all stipulated benchmarks are well-maintained. Individual departments in an institute may also be reviewed by professional bodies to guide the curriculum. QS Rankings in 2016 rated London as the 5th best student-friendly destination in the world. Flexibility Studying in the UK comes with the benefit of a wide range of courses to choose from. There are, approximately, 150,000 courses offered by colleges and universities across Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and England. Students can also contact the institutes directly for a prospectus. You can also choose to save an additional year, by combining the Master’s programme with the PhD. The education system in the UK is highly interactive where the lecturers and the students freely communicate with each other thus providing learners, the freedom of combining different subjects into a single study course. Research infrastructure 6.4% of the global journal articles, 15.9% of the world’s most highly cited articles and about 11.6% of the citations come from the UK. An evaluation of the quality of research conducted across 154 foremost universities by the REF or Research Excellence Framework revealed that 46% was ‘internationally excellent’ and 30% of the research was classified as ‘world-leading’. Financial support Imperative for almost any international student, those who are worried about expensive tuition fees, can always apply for scholarships especially at Postgraduate and Research levels. Work while you study Part-time jobs, internships, volunteering, and placements are available for the deserving. These are also some of the best ways of developing all the skills that you require, which can be translated into your CV. International students can choose a university or college that provides placement and work assistance after completion of their course. Work permit Students can opt for post-study work visas after completion of their graduation. If you possess a job offering an annual salary of £20,800 or Rs. 18.3 Lakhs, then you can stay in the UK upon completion of your course. Alternatively, switch to a Tier 2 General Visa from a Tier 4 in order to work in the UK. Health care The National Health Service or NHS proffers free medical treatment to Indian students in the UK when you are enrolled in a full-time study course. If your spouse, partner or dependents live with you, during the course of your study programme, then you may also be exempt from certain payments. Originally published at https://edvoy.com.
https://medium.com/@iecabroad/why-do-indians-like-to-study-in-the-uk-c8da4d70fd15
['Edvoy India']
2020-12-21 12:55:33.166000+00:00
['Study Abroad', 'Students', 'UK', 'United Kingdom', 'Study In Uk']
Last Year
Last Year Photo by Jp Valery on Unsplash Dear last year lover, I know you, you’re like this. You’re excited by nice things Pretty things Young things. Is it their energy you need? Their heart to fill your holes? Their innocence to replace what was ripped away? Last year’s vibration — was it mine or yours? When we collided, who spoke first? Who broke first? That night in December we went to a comedy show, we laughed. You wore that purple v neck shirt and we drove home. We played some piano, then you cried. You cried hard. Not saying much about why. But the words you spoke had weight. Heavy like a god damn anchor. “I’m not worthy of love” you said. Seeing your pain has not left me. It’s here. Because I know not how its changed. If it’s changed. You share so little with others, I feel I carry a burden. The other lovers you’ve had, we all share you. If I met them now or in the future, I’d empathize. With Lindsay, Caitlin, Shauntae, and Teagan. Even if she lasts or doesn’t, she already knows. And so we share this. We share you and we carry you. I can see the night you left in the dark, in the purple v neck and your new winter coat. I will always be a witness to you. Of you. Of the pain. But not of the climb up; the progress; the change; the light. I have to hope it rises anyways; rises without me. Dear last year lover, The year is almost done. December’s early dusk is upon us. The bright snow has fallen. The ice formed. If I hadn’t run into you in the street in the summer, I wouldn’t have seen you since March. You live just across the river; we’re separated by time. I’ll check on the red jeep to make sure you’re still alive. We’re leaving this calendar year. In 2021, our connection expires in its completeness. No recent memories, jokes, missed calls; no mutual friends, no co-working space. No space at all. Dear last year lover, I guess this is it. 2019 will always connect us. But once we hit next year, it’ll feel far away. Very far, indeed. So here we go, last year lover. Take a deep breath and let’s dip underwater, in a space that suspends time, and think once more about the loving we had. The memories, jokes, missed called and mutual friends. The co-working space and the space at all. It’s time for our New Year’s Eve. And this year, we’re kissing other people.
https://psiloveyou.xyz/last-year-a5d98aa09ee3
['Julia Rose']
2020-12-21 17:52:12.392000+00:00
['Breakups', 'Poetry', 'Poetry Sunday', 'Relationships', 'Love']
This Week in Blockfolio Signal — Dash, Solana, Tezos, Elrond, Kyber, Perpetual Protocol
Dash and African Exchange Naijacrypto to Bring Cryptocurrency to Haiti “We are pleased to announce that Naijacrypto, Dash Haiti, and Dash Core Group have launched the first cryptocurrency market in Haiti, a country beset with a lack of financial infrastructure.” Read More — Mark Mason, Dash Press Room Summary African exchange Naijacrypto and Dash Core Group have joined forces to launch the first cryptocurrency exchange to service the Haiti market. Naijacrypto is a P2P exchange operating across Sub-Saharan Africa and headquartered in Nigeria. This is Naijacrypto’s first foray outside the African Continent and the first exchange to formally offer the Haitian local currency, the Gourde, in exchange for cryptocurrency. This new Naijacrypto exchange is significant in that Dash, the most established cryptocurrency in the payments sector will operate as the first currency to allow for on-ramp transactions in fiat to exchange for crypto. Significance Haitians can now buy Dash with their national currency and participate in cryptocurrency markets. Previously a Haitian had to trust someone abroad to buy crypto for them or buy it with a credit card, but credit cards are only accessible to a minority and incur high fees. This improves inclusion in the crypto markets and is a win for Dash’s awareness and adoption globally. Price at the time of Blockfolio Signal: $133. View DASH on Blockfolio. Solana Powering Free-Floating Tokenized Stocks “Free-floating tokenized stocks, including Apple, Google, Netflix, Tesla, and 50+ others, are coming to Solana! Digital Assets AG launches tokenized equities, available with near-instantaneous settlement times with 24/7 market hours. Minted as SPL tokens, any dex, dapp, or exchange can add support.” Read More — Austin Virts, Marketing & Growth Summary Switzerland-based token issuer Digital Assets AG, or DAAG, has officially launched its stock-tokenization infrastructure on the Solana blockchain, offering users of the FTX trading platform a novel way for accessing traditional equity markets. Tokenized shares of Facebook, Google-parent Alphabet, Netflix, Nvidia, PayPal, Square and Tesla will be available to trade at the launch. FTX users who have completed KYC documentation will have access to 55 free-floating stocks, available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The tokenized stock offerings are valid in the European Economic Area via a prospectus endorsed by Liechtenstein’s Financial Market Authority. Significance Haitians can now buy Dash with their national currency and participate in cryptocurrency markets. Previously a Haitian had to trust someone abroad to buy crypto for them or buy it with a credit card, but credit cards are only accessible to a minority and incur high fees. This improves inclusion in the crypto markets and is a win for Dash’s awareness and adoption globally. Price at the time of Blockfolio Signal: $34. View SOL on Blockfolio.
https://blog.blockfolio.com/this-week-in-blockfolio-signal-dash-solana-tezos-elrond-kyber-16ff2cce4a4e
['Jason Hamlin']
2021-07-03 03:47:44.358000+00:00
['Defi', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Solana Network', 'Dash', 'Blockchain']
Fresh Air Production and Pacific Content announce a new global partnership
Fresh Air Production and Pacific Content announce a new global partnership in response to brands’ demand for podcasts that speak to global audiences. Pacific Content Pressroom Sep 8·2 min read Fresh Air Production and Pacific Content are peas from the same pod on different sides of the pond. We’re all about partnering with brands to tell stories that audiences love listening to. And now, as leading podcast consulting companies in Europe and North America respectively, we’re teaming up to create a truly global partnership on behalf of brands in the audio storytelling space. So what? Well… We’re working together with our global clients to make podcasts an integral part of their communication strategy. We prove that podcasts can both drive business goals and be a compelling listen for audiences wherever they are. We’re collaborating on some big commissions and new creative projects to produce podcasts that tell extraordinary stories with global perspectives. Tales you won’t get anywhere else. We’re pooling our talent, experience, and insight from both sides of the pond to create a centre of expertise on podcast production, measurement, promotion, and distribution. Wherever your brand is based in the world, you’ll get the leading experts on your podcast. We’ll create global partnerships with the podcast platforms, tech platforms, global media agencies, and brands. We’ll work together to ensure we continually improve how we track impact and measure success. We’re rather excited— Steve Pratt, founder of Pacific Content says: I knew from our first call that Neil and the Fresh Air Production team are kindred spirits who share the same passion for making amazing, creatively brave podcasts that deliver real business results for brands. Together, we are going to be able to better serve global brands with world-class production teams, strategists, and our unique audience development expertise in North America, Europe, and the Middle East. Neil Cowling, founder of Fresh Air Production says: ‘In Steve, I’ve found my favourite Canadian since Leslie Nielsen. He’s a legend in the podcast industry, so it’s thrilling to now be coupling up to lead the world of podcasts for brands. Together we’ll work even harder to make our podcasts more creative, more global, and more impactful for our clients. For all the context and why this is such a big deal, take a listen to the special episode of our Fresh Ears podcast: smarturl.it/freshears
https://blog.pacific-content.com/fresh-air-production-and-pacific-content-announce-a-new-global-partnership-139cb89bade4
['Pacific Content Pressroom']
2021-09-08 10:03:54.091000+00:00
['Audio', 'Press Release', 'Brands', 'Podcast', 'Brand Strategy']
Is Biden’s Choice of an All-Female Senior Press Team Sexist?
Is Biden’s Choice of an All-Female Senior Press Team Sexist? President-elect Joe Biden recently chose a senior press team composed entirely of white women. Thank goodness for progress, right? Nevertheless, one might wonder how diverse such a team truly is. Where are the transgendered individuals? Where are the men? Where are the African-Americans? Biden’s senior press team will be led by his campaign communications director Kate Bedingfield. She will be assisted by Jennifer Psaki, a long-time Democratic spokesperson. Both are white women. Bedingfield and Psaki, two members of Biden’s hand-picked communications team. In only one respect does the decision seem to be a throwback. Both Bedingfield and Psaki are Obama administration veterans. Two cheers for progress! On its face, this is an extremely progressive move: Put women in key positions within the new administration, roles that have traditionally been occupied by men. It’s tantamount to affirmative action. If women have been historically underrepresented and/or actively excluded from these positions, then let’s even the score! Two cheers for progress! However, in the past 20 years, Communications as an academic discipline and as a professional field has become increasingly dominated by women. Presidential press teams typically have more than 50% women. PR firms too. So, women are not in danger of being railroaded away from Communications or excluded from the field. The affirmative action rationale is, therefore, weak. Biden’s announcement How then should we interpret Biden’s decision? In a recent statement, Biden team offers an explanation: Communicating directly and truthfully to the American people is one of the most important duties of a president, and this [all-female] team will be entrusted with the tremendous responsibility of connecting the American people to the White House. Are women especially well qualified to communicate directly and truthfully? Do women perform better than men and transgendered individuals when shouldered with such “tremendous responsibility”? Are women, more than men or transgenders, exceptional liaison officers between the government and citizens? Is female generally a qualification for public service? Biden continues: These qualified, experienced [female] communicators bring diverse perspectives to their work and a shared commitment to building this country back better. Are the best communicators always women? If so, why? Does being blessed at birth with female sex organs necessarily give someone a diverse perspective? Note that Biden’s senior communications team is by definition not diverse. It is composed of one kind: white women. The housekeeping model of governance In the field of Public Administration, there is an administrative model — sometimes called “social housekeeping,” “civic housekeeping” or “municipal housekeeping” — that explores housework as a metaphor for governing. The dirty streets, contaminated water and overburdened sewer systems, as well as poorly lit, ventilated, cluttered, unsanitary working conditions all lead to disease, chronic health conditions or tragic accidents. These are conditions that have counterparts in the household: dirty floors, cluttered living rooms, unhygienic kitchens and bathrooms. Cleaning up these messes is a responsibility traditionally delegated (by men) to women. According to the housekeeping model of governance, governments should care for their citizens by cleaning up their messes. Who better to govern than the traditional housekeepers: Women, of course. Isn’t that sexist? Cleaning up Biden’s messes is women’s work If open and honest government communication is comparable to good housekeeping, then sexism motivated Biden’s decision to appoint an all-female senior press team. Female isn’t a typical qualification for being an effective and truthful communicator. However, it might still be a qualification for being on Biden’s communications team. How so? It’s a throwback to a bygone era when women traditionally cleaned up after the messes of men. According to Biden’s dated views, females make good housekeepers. Having a woman vouch for your sincerity or authenticity is something powerful men do. It’s called ‘reputation laundering’ for a reason. Thus, women are supremely well qualified to clean up Biden’s messes — you know, those that make us question his sincerity and authenticity. Biden has a solid track record of communications gaffes. It’s a history of messes that begs for women to clean up after him. So, consistent with the housekeeping model of governance, women are then the natural choice for the Biden administration’s senior communications team. Before giving Biden credit for his progressive choice of an all-female senior press staff, we should first critically interrogate his rationale — and fault him for his sexism.
https://medium.com/the-controversial-idea/is-bidens-all-female-senior-press-team-a-veiled-form-of-sexism-5c184204b22f
['Shane J. Ralston']
2021-01-02 06:52:05.350000+00:00
['Government', 'Communications Strategy', 'Sexism', 'Politics', 'Presidential Campaign']
7 Things You Didn’t Know about Prince’s Roots
It’s still hard to believe that Prince Rogers Nelson — better known simply as Prince — is no longer with us, though his music and talent will linger forever. As today would have been his 60th birthday, it seems a fitting time for a modest tribute looking into his past — and by that, I mean his pre-Minnesota, pre-purple, ancestral past. Here are a few of the discoveries I found scattered in the branches of his family tree: Among the surnames that appear in Prince’s family tree are Bonnell, Brooks, Hardy, Head, Jenkins, Nelson, Phillips and Shaw, so those sharing these names could be related. List of Freedmen “that desire land under the provision of the homestead act” including Presley Shaw, Prince’s great-grandfather, Sept 1866, Bienville, Louisiana (FamilySearch). Please help transcribe these valuable records. As with other gifted musicians such as Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Prince has a concentration of Louisiana roots. In fact, all four of his grandparents were born there, though Minnesota, Georgia, Arkansas, and North Carolina can also claim a piece of his heritage. Within Louisiana, Prince has roots in Claiborne, Webster, Bienville and Lincoln parishes. More specifically, the towns of Homer, Cotton Valley, Arcadia and Vienna, are all ancestral hometowns. Twins run on both sides of Prince’s family. His mother was one, and there were also twins in the Nelson branch on his father’s side. World War I draft registration for Frank Shaw in Valley Junction, Iowa (FamilySearch) Due to the Great Migration, his once mostly Louisiana-based family dispersed to Arkansas, Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey and Tennessee. His maternal grandfather, a Pullman porter named Frank Shaw, went north to Minnesota by way of Iowa. Though this might sound like a peculiar route, this same pattern can be seen in the family tree of Cory Booker, whose ancestors were drawn from the South to Iowa for mining jobs. As a result of all this meandering, one of Prince’s great-uncles is buried at Burr Oak on the outskirts of Chicago, the same notorious cemetery where one of Michelle Obama’s uncles is buried. Prince’s paternal grandfather had 11 children by two wives over a 36-year period. This same grandfather’s parents also had 11 children, but in a more concentrated 14-year period. 22 offspring from just these two generations means that Prince undoubtedly has dozens, if not hundreds, of Nelson cousins in both Arkansas and Minnesota. Six of Prince’s eight great-grandparents were born into slavery, and as was unfortunately so common, one of his great-grandmothers was apparently the daughter of her one-time owner. 1880 marriage of Ed Nelson to Emma Hardy, Claiborne Parish, Louisiana (FamilySearch)
https://smolenyak.medium.com/7-things-you-didnt-know-about-prince-s-roots-77b0ec569a7c
['Megan Smolenyak']
2018-06-07 15:39:23.171000+00:00
['Prince', 'Louisiana', 'African American', 'Genealogy', 'History']
The New Paxos Platform: Move from PAX to Dollars Instantly
PAX is a digital dollar we built so money can move fast. Now, PAX can move even faster. We’re pleased to announce instant redemptions for PAX. PAX is the only crypto asset to offer this functionality, immediacy and level of confidence with no minimums, maximums or fees associated. This development comes because of our commitment to offering the most reliable, regulated and protected digital dollar to our customers. Our latest technological advancements make it possible for our users to move with ease between USD and PAX ensuring they have access to their own assets in the form they need — whether for convenience or peace of mind. Paxos created the Paxos Standard (PAX) stablecoin to bring together the stability of USD and the efficiency of blockchain technology. We launched PAX with a 1 day redemption window, which was groundbreaking. Then we moved to four-hour windows. Now, we’re setting precedence again by offering immediate redemptions today. (Immediate creations coming soon!) This means whenever you deposit PAX on the Paxos platform, it is immediately available as USD. For that reason, there will no longer be any distinction between your USD or PAX balance on Paxos; all will be held as one, unified USD balance on our platform, and available 24/7 to send as either USD or PAX. Transact at the speed of the internet, unlike ever before. And we’re bringing this to you within a new platform experience that lays the foundation for the future of our company. It offers a scalable architecture that not only brings our PAX and itBit products closer together, but also makes way for us to add more assets, offerings and integrations that will change how you use digital assets well into the future. With today’s news, we’re a step closer towards building the platform that will power the future of finance. Take a glimpse at the new Paxos and get insight into how we’re envisioning a global, frictionless economy. The new Paxos platform provides a holistic view of your digital assets.
https://medium.com/paxos/the-new-paxos-platform-move-from-pax-to-dollars-instantly-846ff0d731e0
['David Wells']
2019-05-13 14:27:26.576000+00:00
['Blockchain', 'Paxos', 'Paxos Standard', 'Cryptocurrency']
The Sharp Startup: When PayPal Found Product-Market Fit
Reflections on the 20th anniversary of a $100+ billion product Twenty years ago this month, PayPal found product-market fit. I remember the moment vividly because it’s a dramatic example of a strategy that still works today. I call it “going Sharp.” Whereas the average startup launches a bunch of features for a bunch of use cases to appeal to many possible users, the Sharp Startup focuses on a few killer features for the most desperate customer segment. In short, it finds a wedge into the market. The Sharp Startup focuses on the most desperate customer segment. It finds a wedge into the market. While it’s important to have a larger vision, the Sharp Startup remains opportunistic and agile enough that when it spots this kind of opening in the market, it drops everything else and drives all of its troops through it. I recall the moment that happened at PayPal. I was sharing an office with Luke Nosek at the legendary 165 University Avenue in Palo Alto. Luke ran marketing while I was in charge of product. It was a contrast in styles as Luke was terrific at brainstorming new ideas whereas I was obsessed with getting the product to work. Crammed into a tiny office, our impromptu jam sessions resulted in some great collaborations. In November 1999, our customer service rep forwarded me an email from an eBay power seller. The eBay seller had turned the PayPal logo into a nice-looking button for her auctions and was asking our permission to use it. Ironically I was forwarded the message not for product reasons but because I was temporarily handling the company’s legal affairs, owing to a law degree I’ve hardly ever used. It was a potential trademark infringement question. At the time, we were vaguely aware of the auction use case but it was discussed along with splitting dinner tabs, student allowances, and a bunch of other nebulous value props. The truth is that we thought “emailing money” was a terrific product idea but we had no idea who would actually use it or what the market would be. Luke had come up with PayPal’s now-famous $10 signup and referral bonuses to encourage the product to spread. But without a clear picture of the ideal user, we didn’t know who to target, and adoption had been tepid. I brought up the email with Luke. It seemed extraordinary that an eBay seller had taken the time to create her own PayPal auction button. If she cared that much, how many others did too? It seemed extraordinary that an eBay seller had taken the time to create her own PayPal auction button. If she cared that much, how many others did too? We went to the eBay website and searched for ‘paypal’. Hundreds of auctions appeared in the search results because PayPal was mentioned in the item description as a possible method of payment. Our minds were blown! eBay sellers were desperate for a solution because their alternative was to wait a week for a check to arrive in the mail and then wait for it to clear. Some of them had already found PayPal on their own. One of them cared enough to make an auction button and ask our permission to use it. We were giddy. We knew we had just found signs of initial product-market fit. Now how could we accelerate it? First of all, you can use our logo, we told the auction seller. Better yet, we’re going to give you an even nicer one. We pulled in our web designer, who was none other than Chad Hurley, the future founder of YouTube. PayPal’s famous Buy Now buttons were inspired by a customer service email. Chad quickly created a pay-me-with-PayPal button that eBay sellers could embed in their auctions. They just had to copy & paste the HTML. To reduce friction further, we allowed sellers to enter their eBay credentials and we would automatically insert the button into all their auctions. In other words, we productized the idea. Fueled by the powerful incentive of the referral bonus, the program spread like wildfire in the tight-knit eBay community. Soon, most auctions were advertising PayPal. We rolled out other features for auction sellers that made it even more convenient to use PayPal. We dropped other plans and went all-in on the eBay use case. We dropped other plans and went all-in on the eBay use case. Results were immediate. At the end of 1999, PayPal had less than 10,000 users. By the end of January 2000, we hit 100,000 users. A few months after that, 1 million. By the summer of 2000, 5 million. It felt like the servers were melting. The growth curve looked like a perfect hockey stick. It was a classic Sharp strategy: we identified the most desperate customer segment, went all-in on their use case, and found ways to turbo-charge the adoption. Notably, many of the key features were distribution tricks, not just product enhancements. As a result, we captured the key beachhead market of the nascent online payments space, ahead of our many competitors. Admittedly, we were very lucky. After casting a wide net, we stumbled onto the break-out use case. But at least when fortune smiled on us in the form of a customer service email, we didn’t send it to the spam folder.
https://medium.com/craft-ventures/the-sharp-startup-when-paypal-found-product-market-fit-5ba47ad35d0b
['David Sacks']
2019-11-11 19:01:53.936000+00:00
['Startup Lessons', 'Marketing Strategies', 'Marketing', 'Venture Capital', 'Startup']
Possible 2024 Election Candidates
The 2020 Election is finally over as votes are finished counting. The presidential election went for The Democrat Candidate Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris. The House of Representatives also was a democrat victory — although a very narrow one — But The Republicans currently lead the senate, being only just one seat away from a majority, which is required to win. So, 2020 was a very wild year for American Politics. Now that its over, lets talk about The 2024 Election. More specifically, 2024 Election possible candidates. Now, to get the elephant out of the room, We have to talk about Donald Trump. Trump lost This years election, being The First Incumbent President to lose re-election in 28 years, since George Herbert Walker Bush. He was very angered at his loss, claiming election fraud and That The Democrats “stole the election from him”, Supporting his cause to the point of asking for many recounts in close swing states such as Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. To this day, December 17, he continues to claim fraud on Twitter. Anyways, we got carried away a little bit. So since hes so angered and furious at his loss, wouldn’t that mean he would want to attempt another run? Well yes, and he has in fact teased another run for President in 2024, so he probably would run, right? Well, we dont really know. I mean, yeah he is eligible to run in 2024, and it seems like he would with all the outrage over this years election, But, There remains a few questions. If he got voted out by The American People, why would they vote him back in? And, Would he sustain all his fame and tens of millions of supporters, or would he just be a forgotten president? And what about his age? If he runs in 2024 he would be 78. If he won, He would even break Bidens record of Being The oldest president by just a few months. Would he even be alive by then? We don’t know. Anyways, forget about Trump and lets talk about the other candidates. We are going to do This by party. Lets begin with The Republicans. So, Biden winning the 2020 election would trigger a huge and very intense republican primary. Some possible republican candidates are Mike Pence, Current Vice President of The United States under Donald Trump and Governor of Indiana. Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey and 2016 republican candidate. Nikki Haley, US ambassador to The UN. Mike Pompeo, Current Secretary of State of The Trump Administration. Ted Cruz, Senator from Texas, and 2016 republican candidate. And Ben Sasse, A Senator from Nebraska. And a lot more candidates to come. Thats a lot of candidates. Now lets move on to The Democrats. Lets talk about Current President-Elect Joe Biden. After a good 2020 campaign and victory, would Biden run in 2024? The most common answer to this question is no. And The most common reasoning to That Answer is his age. Joe Biden will be The Oldest president ever when he gets inaugurated in January 2021. To give you an idea about how old Biden is, The Previous Oldest President, Ronald Reagn, was 77 when he left office, and Joe Biden is entering office at 78, 1 year older than when Reagan left. So, will Bidens age and health prevent him from running in 2024? There is even evidence of Biden signaling an early stage of cognitive decline. Some people don’t even think Biden can make it to the end of his term. So, we aren’t entirely sure if Biden could even run in 2024, since he would be 82. Now lets talk about other Democrat Candidates. 2 potential Democrat Candidates are Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Congresswoman from New York. And Kamala Harris, Vice President-Elect under Joe Biden, Senator from California and 2020 Democrat Candidate. Now, the one that really sticks out is Kamala Harris. She ran as A Democrat this year but failed to get any recognition in The Primaries, and dropped out really early in December 2019. But, she was chosen To Be The running mate of Democrat Nominee, Joe Biden. In 2024, when she would be The Incumbent Vice President, she would have a lot more attention and recognition needed for her campaign, unlike her 2020 run. Many people think She is likely to run in 2024. As for AOC, one might make the argument that she would be 34, too young to begin her campaign, But, what most people don’t know is that the requirement of being 35 to be president applies for inauguration day, not the starting of your campaign. So you could be 33 when you start your run but as long as you’re 35 by inauguration day its ok. AOC would be 35 years and 3 months old by January 20 2025, making her eligible for a 2024 run. So, those are The potential candidates for The 2024 Election. A lot of exciting new potential candidates in This race. Still, 2024 is way too far away for anyone to actually start an official campaign/run, so we will have to sit and wait for quite a while.
https://medium.com/@penguinpolitics1/possible-2024-election-candidates-639c8d721a0
['Penguin Politics']
2020-12-20 04:58:05.508000+00:00
['Biden', 'Politics', '2020', 'Trump', '2024']
The Reputation Formula
By definition, your reputation is the general belief or opinion that other people have about you. It is the general BELIEF or OPINION that OTHERS have about you. Whether or not you have that belief or opinion of yourself does not matter. At Brand Builders Group, we believe reputation is actually a formula that looks like this: REACH X RESULTS = REPUTATION There are people in this world that are amazing self-promoters. They have mastered the ‘humble brag.’ This person knows the right time, place, and medium to share an accomplishment that helps shape the perception that they want people to have of them. And that is really important to do. Because here’s the thing, if no one knows what you’re doing (results) then your reputation is flat. It is neutral. When you have a flat reputation, it is equivalent to not having one. On the flip side, there are people who have a lot of influence (reach). They may have built a large social media following randomly or they are natural born connectors, but they have never thought about creating something to serve their built-in platforms. ALSO: The Reputation Formula: Our Article In SUCCESS Magazine For example, we have a client that built a Facebook page to over 550K followers in just a few short years. She started it as a book club and it exploded due to the popularity of the book. This client had the attention of more than 550K people and had no idea what to do with it to the point that she almost turned it over to a friend because it wasn’t something she was passionate about. The point is, even if you already have a large audience, if it is not in line with your passion, then you end up doing a whole lot of nothing. When people don’t know what to associate you with or attach you to, again, your reputation flatlines. The Formula Another key point to this is the formula does not say the words Positive or Negative. It just says reputation. It’s simple. It works like this: Good Results x Large Reach = Positive Reputation Bad Results x Large Reach = Negative Reputation Good Results x Small/No Reach = No Reputation Bad Results x Small/No Reach = No Reputation. If you are trying to build a brand or raise the profile of your business, you must have a reputation. To learn more about how to build your reputation, click here to request a free call. Author: Elle Petrillo, Brand Strategist, Brand Builders Group
https://medium.com/@thebrandbuildersgroup/the-reputation-formula-cac9b3bf1a95
['Brand Builders Group']
2019-04-12 17:57:41.205000+00:00
['Personal Branding', 'Branding', 'Reputation Management', 'Business', 'Social Media']
Announcing SQLDelight 1.0
Heads up, we’ve moved! If you’d like to continue keeping up with the latest technical content from Square please visit us at our new home https://developer.squareup.com/blog SQLDelight started as a project 4 years ago on the ContentValues and SQLiteOpenHelper APIs from Android with the goal of making writing SQL easy and safe. The library was an early adopter of Kotlin internally, but has been generating Java since its inception. We love Kotlin and weren’t satisfied with a Java API that we knew could be done better in Kotlin, so a year ago we embarked on a complete rewrite focusing entirely on Kotlin. At the same time Kotlin multiplatform was newly announced and promised easy and safe code sharing across Android and iOS. For Cash App it was the perfect first step to sharing meaningful code, once the schema is shared everything above it could be too: creating viewmodels, syncing with the server, running tests. So, after over a year of rewriting SQLDelight from the ground up, we’re excited to start talking about the new version and what changes it brings for Android and multiplatform development. The premise of SQLDelight is unchanged: Write SQLite and let the Gradle plugin generate APIs to run your queries for you. SQLDelight files use the .sq extensions and are contained in your src/main/sqldelight folder in a Gradle module. A simple file with some CREATE TABLE , INSERT , and SELECT statements is all you need to get started: -- src/main/sqldelight/com/sample/TennisPlayer.sq CREATE TABLE TennisPlayer( name TEXT, points INTEGER, plays TEXT AS Handedness ); insert: INSERT INTO TennisPlayer VALUES (?, ?, ?); top10: SELECT * FROM TennisPlayer ORDER BY points DESC LIMIT 10; SQLDelight will generate a TennisPlayerQueries class which can run these queries. val tennisPlayers: TennisPlayerQueries tennisPlayers.insert("Naomi Osaka", 5270, Handedness.RIGHT) tennisPlayers.insert("Aryna Sabalenka", 3365, Handedness.RIGHT) tennisPlayers.insert("Simona Halep", 6641, Handedness.RIGHT) val top10: List<TennisPlayer> = tennisPlayers.top10() .executeAsList() println(top10[0].name) // prints "Simona Halep" Getting the TennisPlayerQueries object requires a platform driver. SQLDelight includes drivers for SQLite usage in Android, JVM, and iOS platforms. For more in depth information refer to the readme. For previous users of Square’s SQLite libraries, the code generation has been overhauled using Kotlin, which means a new API generated off of SQL for Kotlin users. To migrate your code from an earlier release of SQLDelight we published some artifacts and have a short guide. The compiled code also keeps track of active queries and will notify downstream when the results have changed. There’s an extension available to expose this behavior as an RxJava Observable, meaning this release also deprecates SQLBrite. We’ve also added an Android Paging extension to allow exposing queries through a DataSource . There’s a lot of other features like migration verification, custom types, and set parameters which are all documented in the readme. Give it a try and reach out if you run into any problems!
https://medium.com/square-corner-blog/announcing-sqldelight-1-0-d482aa408f64
['Alec Strong']
2019-04-18 20:40:51.606000+00:00
['Kotlin', 'Android', 'Engineering', 'Cash App']
The Impact of Breaking Silence
The Impact of Breaking Silence Shame In Silence Is Why Violence Continues. Abusive people really hate transparency and people practicing it. People who do bad things definitely don’t want other people to know about it — That’s why people who use violence against others try to silence those who speak out against it. I won’t apologize for things I’m not sorry for. I will not compromise with someone who wants to disagree in debate with factual reality. If I know something is right, I will not change where I stand, nor say I was wrong if it isn’t true. I will not live in lies. Never regret telling the truth. To withhold truth is to lie. To lie is to become a liar. To be a liar is to help others who lie. Those who lie destroy life. If people think badly of you, or say you’re wrong because you told the truth in good faith, then they are not trustworthy people. Not allowing someone to speak, trying to silence their free speech of truth, is violence. It’s an attempt to prevent a target from reasonable measures of protection or self-defense against other violations of human rights. Autonomy is stripped so they can hold power over you. Abusers want to push the victim off the deep end; They thrive on hostile reactivity of their target’s fighting back against violence. They want you anxious, sad, suicidal. They want to break you, make you unhinged. Feeling afraid depletes rationality, so they can control you. Intense gaslighting present in violent family dynamics is suffocating; If they can successfully take away your voice, by altering it, to convince that you did something wrong…then Truth will remain hidden in silent darkness, feeding demons. This is real violence. Violent men who hurt women call their target’s taking back of basic human rights an “attack.” But, that’s not true at all. Why? Because abusers strip you of autonomy to disempower you in the relationship, and if you’re a woman, you’re already deprived of equality. Under the constant pressure of stress from living in violence, the body will begin to break down. Many women who’ve been subjected to violence all their lives have been made to accept it as a mere reality, when it’s not proper behavior. They remain unknowingly drenched in attitudes that enable it to continue, by giving aggressors a beautifully painted face. Until we step outside of the war zone, we really cannot see or fully understand what violence looks like from the outside looking in. For those who’ve been brave enough to step outside the matrix, we have chosen to become healers.
https://medium.com/we-are-warriors/the-impact-of-breaking-silence-f6b243a84bd0
['Samantha Clarke']
2020-08-17 06:12:35.032000+00:00
['Relationships', 'Violence', 'Mental Health', 'Psychology', 'Criminal Justice Reform']
Web3 and why it matters to the world
As technological advancements reach further heights and exceed expectations from decades ago, the rest of the world continues to catch on. In an effort to understand our gradual entrance into the revolutionary web3 era, it is key to look back into the Internet’s history and know where the digital world is headed. The past & the present: Web1 through Web2 THE INTERNET has been around for over three decades now, with a history that dates back from its origin in the 1990s as the web1. This version of the internet was decentralized with community-governed open protocols. At the time, there was a lot of value generated by the network’s users and developers. If you were around this period, you might remember prominent web1 sites like MySpace and LiveJournal where users enjoyed simple static websites. These were primarily informational to us at work and beyond. It was all about static websites which only displayed information and databases. You could only see web pages having texts, pictures, and an email by which you can find other newer websites. It was only by then that search engines became a feature. At this point, the world has yet to know of the miles-deep potential of the internet. Entering web2 began with the goal of global interactivity and information sharing across users, services, and businesses. It was the next generation of the internet, primarily corporate-run and centralized in its services. This took user experience to the next level through the doors it opened up for extensive features and platforms across web applications. Among the corporations that have taken the most value out of the web2 era are the Big Tech companies including Google, Amazon, and Facebook. At this time, the internet amassed global success in networking a huge block of the world and it took consumer services to the next level, as it gave birth to many newer markets such as social media and e-commerce that took the multiple traditional industries by storm. However, technology continues to prove its never-ending pursuit for innovation. With a lot of budding ethical issues around user data and centralized services, the future of the Internet finds its way in web3. Easing into the Web3 and the future As a sophisticated hybrid of the previous versions of the internet, web3 combines the web1 ethos of a decentralized, community-governed network with the advanced and modern functions of web2. We are currently living it now and it is gaining momentum in its early stages. Powered by the open-source breakthrough technology, the Blockchain, web3 is all about the decentralization of data and data servers, internet of value, and access inclusivity through permissionless networks run by tokens that may be fungible and non-fungible (NFTs). Users and developers of the web3 can own parcels of internet services by owning the mentioned tokens as these give individuals various property rights. For instance, NFTs grant owners the ability to own digital objects and assets that may be in the form of art, photos, code, music, game items, access passes, and beyond. This new tech frontier is brought by Blockchain technology geared at decentralization, where individuals are entitled to a unique code that enables them to share data across multiple special computers which are then encrypted and infallible from manipulation. This is unlike the soiled centralized data servers in web2 which are massively run by specific giant tech companies such as Google. As a result of the new innovation, the mechanism by which data is stored and exchanged across the world is revolutionized, affording everyone the right to preserve and protect their privacy. Once more users join the network, the deeper problems brought by previous versions of the internet will soon be mended by the prominence of web3. All that said, Web3 changes the internet digital game. Beyond gaining back full control over our individual personal data through the decentralization of servers, the cyber world it introduces us to is one where inclusive access, goodwill, and security are generated, and new technologies are adopted with an open mind. Web3 is the internet’s future, and it has already arrived. It does matter and it is here to stay in the long haul.
https://medium.com/@femic.io/web3-and-why-it-matters-to-the-world-a47b8dd03fad
[]
2021-12-31 07:48:51.952000+00:00
['Web3', 'Technology', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain', 'Nft']
Looking to Live Well?
There are some questions you can ask yourself repeatedly each day that can make you a better person and can make you life better in the process Am I in self judgment mode or self acceptance mode? Does this hurt anyone else that I am possibly aware of? Does this bring me instant gratification or pleasure or will it bring lasting happiness? Am I being my best self in this moment? These are important questions to ask yourself each day that might help you to. Let us take a slightly deeper look at each of these questions and I can share some of my own struggles with them too. Am I in self judgment mode or self acceptance mode? This is one of the trickiest since judgments flow from our consciousness far to easily and appear so rational and normal that we are unaware that they are judgments. Judgments come from one of two positions, right , or wrong. I immediately ask — whose perspective is that? I have been under the assumption that I have been deeply wronged ad done deeply wrong things in the past. And yet over time I have found that those very things that ‘hurt’ me so deeply turned out to have been for my benefit. So even my own mistakes can be viewed as someone else’s potential to turn their lives around, since my motivations were almost certainly not vindictive but mostly either defensive or misjudged. Can I or do any of us need to beat ourselves up about getting things wrong? I think not. we simply need to accept our self as flawed but a work in progress. This perception certainly does not allow for complacency though in terms of personal growth or development. It is all an opportunity for learning to be better, or more skilful, which is the buddhas term for our tendency to goof, and sometime badly. I have rarely intentionally wanted to hurt anyone or if I did, not to act on it. But I can be unskilful at times, like everyone else. That is where humility comes in, allowing ourselves to be mistaken and to learn from it with self acceptance rather than judgment and denial. And always to look at the bigger picture. Does this hurt anyone else that I am possibly aware of? Following on from above, is how I behave, the choices I make and the behaviours I enact harmful to someone else, and is that what I want to do? Stepping aside from the above points, there are many other areas of behaviour that can be and possibly should be part of this process. Is how I consume hurting others? Do I check for modern day employment slavery and appalling employee terms and conditions. Am I condoning cruelty to animals, to indigenous people I will never meet? Am I assisting in environmental destruction. Motivation is what matters more than anything. We can make mistakes but we should attempt not to be intentionally unkind. and we can consider the longer or wider implications of our choices. Systems exist on this planet which do bring great harm to many living beings, human or otherwise, and to live a good life we should attempt to avoid contributing and sustaining them as much as possible. Those systems would crumble if enough people said no and just stopped accessing them, educating themselves between want and need and responsibility to all other living beings who co exist with us and without whom we could not survive. By hurting them we also potentially greatly hurt ourselves. We can only do as much as we are individually able to respond to , which we are responsible for, but by being responsible more mindfully or thoughtfully we can do a lot less harm in this time Does this bring me instant gratification or pleasure or will it bring lasting happiness? I love this teaching and have used it more often than anything else. The example I use is mostly for myself is chocolate cake. I love chocolate. I love cake too, but as I get older I am less and less able to consume unessential calories without detrimental effects on my body else where. Although still pretty physically active in my mid 60’s I am a lot heavier than I was easily when two decades younger. I do have excellent overall fitness for my age so am not worried about flexibility, heart, blood pressure and other major killers, though dementia figures highly in my family and also diabetes. So eating chocolate cake for me — with all that sugar, could be seen as potentially very harmful to me longer term, sugar being connected with neural damage in the brain. So what should I do? Enjoy a piece of cake once a week and no more, abstain completely or indulge and blow the consequences. This outline can be applied to almost everything I do consume or decide not to do. Exercise, eating, buying, spending time doing - they all come under this decision. Am I being my best self in this moment? My best self. Who might this person be? I am still getting to know her but actually she is unfolding or evolving every day anyway. All I have to do is to keep up. I have had a hard challenging journey through life, so have many others. I have learned a huge amount along the way. So my best self is the one who is best able tp put that learning into practice as much as possible. Walk the talk myself as it were, since I write about these topics too. But my ‘best self’ gets knocked sideways sometimes by triggered re-traumatising events an experiences, and sometimes anticipations also. sometime I come from fear or anxiety and then my less skilful reactions kick in and I am less responsive and more likely to make a mistake. Which brings me back to my first point. Not to judge that vulnerable self who messes up from a position of fear but instead to hold her firmly and calmly and re-assure her that it will all be ok in the end. She can release those layers of fear inside herself and work towards disempowering the triggers a little more and use the experience not to beat herself up in but to grow and become an even better best self. In conclusion then, this cycle of questions to ask yourself, to live by, can be enormously powerful healers as well and building your sense of self worth and love for all that exists. It breaks down our self interest and enables us to become part of the collective to which we already belong, and to contribute to that collective more effectively for the greater good from which we benefit the most. It can be our way of living with love in our hearts rather than fear, greed, ignorance. It can be the basis of living a very good life.
https://medium.com/mindfully-speaking/looking-to-live-well-fd10d775d8f
['Sylvia Clare Msc. Psychol']
2020-01-02 12:49:36.549000+00:00
['Mindfulness', 'Self', 'Compassion', 'Relationships', 'Love']
How to Restore WhatsApp Backup
WhatsApp giving options to create your WhatsApp backup and store your backup (message, image, videos) on google drive and restore from google drive. You need your old email id where your data is saved to restore from there. Follow the step-by-step guide to restore WhatsApp backup from google drive. Restore WhatsApp Backup from Google Drive — Android 1. Reinstall WhatsApp app. You can restore WhatsApp media and messages, just reinstall the WhatsApp application on your smartphone. 2. Enter your WhatsApp mobile number. for confirmation and select done. 3. Here Select Restore button. Below the restore button, you can see your backup data size. and above you can see your email id. Backup is coming from the same email id. 4. Download the backup. Just wait few minutes to download backup data. 5. Restore Backup. Now backup is downloaded. Tap on next button. 6. Tap next. Here you can see your profile as it was previously. 7. Select Continue. 8. Restoring media. It will take some time to restore your media (Messages, images, videos). It depends on your backup data size. Wait for few minutes. Now it’s Done. This way you can restore your backup from google drive. Now you can enjoy your WhatsApp with your old data. WhatsApp latest feature is hide your private chat in WhatsApp, recall your mistakenly send WhatsApp message, blue tick and so on.
https://medium.com/@iqbal.sirhow/how-to-restore-whatsapp-backup-eee348978c43
['Easy Guides']
2021-12-21 06:07:37.392000+00:00
['WhatsApp']
Velox: The Algorithmic Trading Bot
Velox is a fast-paced, user friendly automated trading bot for the Uniswap and Sushiswap decentralized exchanges. Utilizing foundational “if-then” commands, this bot executes buy, sell, and cost-minimizing trades more effectively than any other public trading software. The system features a state-of-the-art execution sequence providing Velox with over 99% accuracy on all previous-block trades without requiring any 3rd party software to be installed, no deposits into a contract, and no need for a Velox-token. Within its current iteration, Velox will provide you with professional level swap efficiency on an intuitive user interface. The program offers three basic trading commands for all high-volume ERC-20 based tokens: Velox is optimized for desktop and mobile usage 1. Buy or Sell when a tokens price hits a user-specified price 2. Buy or Sell when a tokens price rises by a user-specified percentage 3. Buy or Sell when a tokens price decreases by a user-specified percentage over a given time period. The initial release of Velox will limit this third functionality to the “last block” as the reference point. Another feature primed for integration with Velox after its launch is the Dynamic Transaction Threshold. This dynamically adjusts the amount of tokens bought and sold above or below a certain, user-defined price threshold. For example, you may program Velox to sell tokens when the price goes above $1 and only sell enough to bring it down to that $1 dollar limit. It would then wait for an increase above that price to again sell down to that threshold. This will continue until the total amount of the users tokens committed to the strategy are sold. Another powerful feature of the Velox platform is that it will dynamically measure the required minimum slippage and gas fees to execute transactions quickly and efficiently. This benefits you by keeping transaction related costs as low as feasibly possible. Allowing Velox to calculate your transaction costs frees more capital in the aggregate for trade executions as well as providing more control over profit margins. Velox will establish a maximum gas limit based on existing gas prices or give you the option of manually setting a maximum gas limit. MetaMask and More Wallets Coming Soon The non-custodial platform simply pairs with a MetaMask wallet and executes swaps on the ERC20 coins that you choose to trade. The platform will also include other wallet integrations which are currently in testing. In the event of a failed trade, the system will notify you of the error prior to swapping your tokens and inform you of what parameters need to change. It is not necessary to download any form of software to utilize Velox and will feel the same as bot trading on a centralized exchange. The system will never ask for you private keys giving you assurance that your high-efficiency trades are as secure as they are straightforward. The industry defining feature for Velox is that it requires absolutely no token purchasing, holding, or staking. Velox is an entirely token free system which promises to deliver rapid, effective transactions without any type of coin speculation. Velox will be available for use in January of 2021 at Velox.Global. While the software will initially launch for Uniswap and Sushiswap, Velox will expand to include more DEXs as it grows. The industry leading token analytics platform, DEXTools, has agreed to an integration deal concurrent with the launch of Velox. All premium and standard tier DEXT holders as well as subscribers will receive a 25% discount on Velox transaction fees when using Velox on their platform. A comprehensive, two week announcement schedule will be released after the New Year to keep all future Velox users up-to-date on the newest platform news. For more information please visit the Velox website, Velox Twitter, or Velox Telegram.
https://medium.com/@veloxglobal/velox-the-algorithmic-trading-bot-c01113c08881
[]
2020-12-28 08:03:05.770000+00:00
['Sushiswap', 'Dextools', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Bots', 'Uniswap']
Every Father’s Day I Remember…
It’s getting on seven o’clock Saturday night. I’m sitting in the kitchen, by myself, a pot of ribs in the oven, a pair of dinner settings on the table, thumbing through an out of date newspaper. There’s no sign of Andy anywhere. We had planned dinner at six so we could be finished before an eight o’clock football game he wants to watch with his friends, but he called around 5:30 to tell me he was running late. I am feeling squeezed; not an uncommon feeling when it comes to Andy. Andy is my nineteen year old son, back in Cambridge after a rocky freshman year at Cornell where he learned what he doesn’t want from life — Ivy League pressure, fraternities, Engineering. He’s taking a year off, living with his mother, working part time as a lifeguard, taking two courses at a local college, and planning to hike the Appalachian Trail with some high school buddies come spring. Since being home he and I have dinner together once a week, a schedule I pronounced the day he returned, in a parental voice that disallowed negotiation. For me, it seems a paltry amount of time after spending three afternoons a week plus alternating weekends together for eighteen years. But to an adolescent fresh from a year of independence, I suspect I’ve created a burden. The oven clock dings seven and my temper stirs. Maybe when he finally arrives I’ll remind him how important it is to keep appointments. But he did call, which was polite. Maybe I’ll demand a bigger time slot in the future so I’m boxed in between other plans. Maybe I’ll… The basement door opens, shuts. I catch a deep breath. Maybe I’ll just put my temper on hold, skip the disciplinary tone and let the evening evolve. After all, how many times did my father expect to have dinner with me when I was nineteen? Exactly never. Which is why I think it’s important. “Hey Dad, sorry I’m late.” Andy bounds up the stairs, flushed from hurry. The kitchen throbs with youthful energy that smothers my anger. Andy stands taller than me, leaner too. He drapes a casual arm around my shoulder and smiles with an easy confidence I’ve seen him throw in a thousand directions. Still, when he tosses it my way, it makes me glow. Perhaps someday I will look at this young man, so different from me, without being dazzled. But the mystery of genetic fate made him my son, and my wonder has yet to wear off. Where I am rock, he is wheel; where I am Woody Allen, he is Brad Pitt; where I am the infield fly, he is the long ball; and although the world tolerates solid chumps, nebbish comics and spiked parabolas like me, it idolizes Andy’s fluid beauty and grace. My son has a huge but simple appetite — long on protein, tolerant towards vegetables and salad, short on dessert. Dinner is ribs, ribs and more ribs plus a few raw carrots, rice and a mix of romaine, parmesan and Caesar. He is full of talk; he’s on to a new venture. Seems he did the math and realized that part-time lifeguarding was not going to generate the money he’ll need to spend four months hiking the AT. Although an extended walk in the woods is a valiant undertaking, his mother and I agree it’s not the same as sitting in a college classroom, so we’re not underwriting his adventure. His entrepreneurial response has been to post notices around the neighborhood seeking out odd jobs. I smile at the naiveté of telephone pole posters in an Internet world, but sure enough, Andy’s phone has been ringing. He spent the afternoon putting together furniture for a local business, will be painting a porch tomorrow and cleaning out an old woman’s basement on Monday. “I already have jobs lined up for next week; if I didn’t have classes on Tuesday and Thursday I could make a killing.” After Andy reports his business news, our talk falls into a predictable pattern. I ask about his classes, he responds: They’re a breeze. I ask about lifeguarding, he responds: It’s the easiest job in the world. I ask about college transfer plans, he responds: I saw my old guidance counselor, I’m on track with paperwork. I ask about his sister, his high school buddies. There’s an interview quality to our exchange that reflects our father/son status. We’re close by the measures applied to that relationship, but far from friends. Some evenings, towards the end of the second helping, some thread of interest will take hold and our conversation will linger beyond the meal. We might latch on to politics, where Andy is well informed but uninterested; or science, on which he is keen; or even religion, which he finds incomprehensible. On those magic nights we transcend our litany of logistics and single-sentence responses. We explore ideas unbound from our prescribed roles. But Andy eyes the clock. It’s almost eight, and I accept this will not be one of those nights. “Do you want any dessert?” I ask in the dim hope of delaying his departure. “You know, some ice cream would be good after the ribs.” Ice cream is a staple in my house, on hand with greater predictability than milk or bread. I scoop us each a dish and ask if he’s seen any movies. “No time, but I’m reading this cool book at the pool, a Harlan Corbin mystery.” Lifeguards have long breaks, which Andy finds good for reading. Andy introduced me to Harlan Corbin. I am deep in Les Miserables, the annual novel selected for my Great Books group. I explain how contemporary I find the style, the participatory narrator, and the tangential detours Victor Hugo takes to immerse the reader in 1830’s Paris. Andy relates my comments to his freshman seminar at Cornell. The clock slips past eight. Although he may consider his Ivy League year a waste; his critical thinking skills are keen and sharp. Our spoons scrape the bottom of the ice cream bowls. Andy stands up, grabs mine, heads to the sink and starts to wash them out. I don’t even have to ask. I grab a towel and begin to dry. We stand side-by-side, silent in our simple tasks. I’m thankful that we never got in the habit of an automatic dishwasher. “Dad, do you mind if I ask you a question?” Andy’s voice is measured, thoughtful. My heart stops. Only a terrible question could require that preamble. But there is no choice in how to respond. “No, go ahead.” “How did you do it? I mean, how did you and mom do it?” He struggles for words, which results in a question so broad I am baffled and a little worried. “Do what?” He was three years old when his mother and I split. He’s never asked a single question about it. Even though she and I have one of those odd, lucky divorces where we remain civil and sometimes friendly, he must know that at some time in the past, a time proximate to his birth, a volcano erupted and two reasonable people who had committed their lives to one another forever, crumbled under the folly of such optimism. We’ll never know how the separate lives she and I carved out of our diminished, if more realistic, expectations, affected the children we raised. “How did you teach me and Abby to be responsible? How did you know when to give us what we wanted and when to hold back?” “Do you mean why didn’t we give you money for the Trail? I know some of your other friends’ parents are contributing.” “No, that’s not it; I mean I guess that’s part of it. You see, I have to make the money and so I am making it, and they don’t have to make it and so they’re just hanging around. How did you know that it would be better for me to make the money myself?” I pushed the well of sentiment in my chest aside; this would be a poor moment to cry. I focused on his words. “There is no formula, Andy. Your mother and I make it up as we go along, just like you do.” “No you don’t.” He sets a dripping plate in the rack and looks me in the eye. “You and mom are not random. You’re the furthest thing there is from random.” I laugh. It’s rewarding, but also creepy, when your children come to know you so well. “It’s about consistency, and having guidelines. Some things are easy. We pay for college, but we don’t dole out party money. The grey areas are trickier. Like last year when you were having a tough time and so I paid for your spring break trip; but this year we figured if you really wanted to do the Trail, you have the time and ability to make the money yourself. Sometimes you’re still a kid and need a little extra help; but sometimes it’s good for you to shoulder your own load.” “Well, just for the record, you should know that you’re doing it right.” Andy looked out the window as he said this, which I appreciated. Compliments between guys are always awkward. “Thanks.” This was enough deep bonding for one evening. I had gotten more than I could expect from our dinner; it was time to set him free. “So, where are you guys watching the game tonight?” ______________ Thanks for reading. Please hit the green “recommend” button below if you liked it to make it easier for others to find. Follow the Culture Club Collection and check us out on Twitter and Facebook too. You won’t regret it. Other essays by Paul E. Fallon you might like include: $5.77: The roots of our problems are illustrated by how we make change It’s My Party — Come Any Way You Want
https://medium.com/thsppl/every-fathers-day-i-remember-7b475ad54b18
['Paul E. Fallon']
2015-03-15 14:54:27.118000+00:00
['Fathers Day', 'Parenting', 'Fatherhood']
Running Postman collections in Jenkins as a part of CI/CD
In this article, I would like to demonstrate how Postman can be used as an automation framework in CI/CD pipelines running on a Jenkins. We are going to use containerized versions of Jenkins and Newman. Newman is the CLI version of Postman. We’re gonna have to apply “Docker in Docker” approach to run Newman container inside of Jenkins container. The volume mechanism on Docker will persist data and we are going to use that for two purposes. First, to be able to run the docker container in another docker container (docker.sock will do that job) and second, to be able to send postman collections into Docker container. So, we need to define the path on the host machine so that container can retrieve the data from there (Of course we need to put the postman collection we want to run into that path). After the colon, we need to add the container path which is the part we want to target on the container. -v ${host_machine_path}:${container_path} Step 1: First of all, we install a docker image for Jenkins from dockerhub. We should customize our Jenkins image so that it can mount the host machines’s docker socket to Jenkins container. We also should install docker ce into our container. In order to do that, we are going to build an image by extending official Jenkins image as below: FROM jenkins/jenkins:lts USER root RUN curl -fsSL RUN add-apt-repository \ "deb [arch=amd64] $(lsb_release -cs) \ stable" RUN apt-get update && apt-get install docker-ce=17.12.1~ce-0~debian -y RUN usermod -aG docker jenkins RUN apt-get update -qq && apt-get install -qqy apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl gnupg2 software-properties-commonRUN curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/debian/gpg | apt-key add -RUN add-apt-repository \"deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/debian $(lsb_release -cs) \stable"RUN apt-get update && apt-get install docker-ce=17.12.1~ce-0~debian -yRUN usermod -aG docker jenkins Only thing you need to do, is creating a Dockerfile, then run the following command on the same path to build an image: docker build . -t my_customized_jenkins:latest Step 2: Run the image to create a container: docker run -p 8080:8080 -p 50000:50000 -v jenkins_home:/var/jenkins_home -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock my_customized_jenkins:latest Once the installation is finished and set up is done, we’re gonna have a Jenkins server on our local, up and running. Step 3: As a final step, we create a job for running Postman collections within a container by navigating to the “New Item” section. The only thing we need to do is to add the following command on the “Execute Shell” field. docker run -v path_on_host:/etc/newman -t postman/newman run "test_postman_collection.json" Here we are! We can run Postman collections with Jenkins containers as a part of CI/CD.
https://medium.com/@aytactas/running-postman-collections-in-jenkins-as-a-part-of-ci-cd-58069199ee26
['Aytac Tas']
2020-11-22 16:21:29.129000+00:00
['Jenkins', 'Postman', 'Docker', 'Continuous Integration']
Top Proof of Stake Coins for 2020
You are about to see my top list of proof of stake coins for 2020. This post might just be the pointer to where you can start on your passive cryptocurrency income journey. Attaining financial freedom is at the top of the list of almost every person. This can only happen when one has several streams of income. If you are among people aiming at financial freedom, you have probably come across several passive income options. Some of them include stocks, selling eBooks online, network marketing, creating apps, and affiliate marketing. Of all the passive income streams in 2020, cryptocurrencies remain the best one. Under crypto passive income, we have mining, staking, lending, and affiliate programs. However, the easiest and best option is staking. Staking is a process where one holds crypto coins in a Trustwallet to receive rewards. The concept behind this is the proof of stake. This is where new blocks in a chain are validated through staking and therefore does not rely on mining. The more significant the number of coins one stakes, the higher the chance of being chosen as a block validator. In this article, we’ll bring you closer to your financial freedom by introducing you to the best proof of stake coins for 2020. So, here’s the top list. 1. Fusion (FSN): 19% Annual ROI Fusion (FSN) is on the top of the list for several reasons. Fusion is a crypto platform aimed at bringing all blockchains together. It provides cross-organization, cross-data source, and cross-chain smart contracts, thereby providing an inclusive crypto platform. Additionally, it provides the infrastructure for financial functions on the blockchain. Connecting to the fusion network is quite easy, all you need is to buy some Fusion coins. You have different options for staking — staking with one of the Fusion pools, staking with wedefi.com, staking on exchanges, or running your own node. Staking Fusion With Pools Fusion has few community pools all offering great service they charge a small fee of around 5%. All you need to do is send you timelocked Fusion to the pool and they will do the rest. Fsnpool.com Gofsn.com Nodenetworks.org Pooltogether.io Bitnordic.com Staking With Wedefi Wedefi.com is a great and easy to use app offering easy staking with just a few clicks. You need to install the app and make a new wallet (please write down your seed words). Once you have the Wedefi wallet access and your main wallet, send your timelocked FSN coins to your Wedefi address. When you have coins in Wedefi you can stake and get returns daily at around 19% RIO at the moment. Staking on Exchanges Some exchanges offer staking to their users too — currently Hotbit offers this type of staking for Fusion more exchanges will be added soon. You need to buy FSN coin on Hotbit (or transfer your FSN to your Hotbit account) and then simply stake on the platform. Your tokens will be locked for a month. Returns are paid monthly Hotbit charges small fee currently they are offering 15.93% RIO for FSN Fusion coins. Running Fusion Node If you have more than 5,000 FSN you can run your own node. Setting up a node is pretty easy it can be done in minutes but you will need some basic technical knowledge to do it. You start earning in seconds while improving the security of the Fusion network at the same time. There is a very good article explaining how to set up your own node. Currently, if you are running your own node you will receive a 20.2% reward per year. There are more reasons why Fusion is on the top of the list of POS coins for 2020, but I’m going to write about them in one of my future posts. 2. Fantom (FTM): 42% Annual ROI Fantom (FTM) is another Proof of Stake coin that focusses on solving speed and scalability. It aims at providing fast transactions and a secure network. Fantom uses the POS algorithm to secure its system as well as validate transactions. You can participate by staking FTM as a crypto passive income source. In exchange for staking you will be rewarded with FTM tokens. In staking, one doesn’t need specific devices or hardware. You can stake from your smartphone or your home computer. The steps for staking FTM involve downloading a mobile app if you are using an android powered phone. You can also access a web wallet from the browser on your PC. The second step is transferring FTM from an ERC20 wallet or an exchange to the new opera address. The last step is finding a good validator and clicking on the stake. Fantom encourages users to stake by locking rewards until the lowest staking amount within the network is reached. This smallest staking amount reduces by 1% every week. It is exciting that the percentage interest you earn for staking FTM is as high as 42%. This makes it one of the best crypto for staking. 3. Chromia (CHR): 20% Annual ROI Chromia is a crypto platform that focusses on solving the problem of scalability for decentralized applications. The platform is relational and designed primarily to facilitate the generation of decentralized applications (dApps). CHR is the utility token for Chromia. The current use of the decentralized app in Chromia involves real estate, finance, healthcare, and gaming. Chromia has put in place strategies that are likely to increase its popularity and use. These strategies include hosting gaming conferences, meetups, and workshops within the blockchain. Secondly, they will provide tutorials to interact with decentralized Apps developers. Continually engaging the crypto community through the various social media channels and facilitating staking for the Chromia CHR. Chromia’s blockchain consensus is realized through delegated POS. Investors have the opportunity to leverage their crypto through staking. Chromia is currently offering staking rewards. Staking CHR is where earning that passive income comes in. Now, the yearly staking reward for staking CHR is at 20%. The latest news on Chromia shows plans to team up with Pool X (crypto exchange platform) for a staking campaign. The campaign is about users staking CHR and earning up to 30% APR. Also, the users will be given daily mining rewards of 250,000 POL during the staking period. As it continues to gain users, CHR seems to be a good investment opportunity. 4. Tezos (XTZ): 6% Annual ROI Tezos is a crypto platform for applications and assets, and it evolves by upgrading itself. It is usually ranked very well on many lists of best Proof of Stake coins and there are several reasons for that. Here are some of them. The consensus mechanism that Tezos uses is called Liquid proof-of-stake. Liquid POS refers to the fact that your balance is not locked and can be transferred at any time. Investors or token holders have an easy time staking with Tezos. This is because they can delegate managing accounts to the validator (also referred to as bakers in Tezos), who will do the staking for the investors. When the investor is rewarded, the validator charges a small validator’s fees. Staking of XTZ became more popular in 2019, and therefore more exchange platforms (such as Binance, Kraken, and Coinbase) engaged in providing validation services for users. Currently, Coinbase is the leading validator with XTZ stacking of about 65M XTZ For the first time you stake XTZ, you receive rewards after 21 days. Afterward, you start receiving rewards as soon as within three days. If you are thinking of crypto passive income, Tezos XTZ should be one of the POS coins you invest in this year. 5. Algorand (ALGO): 5.1% Annual ROI Algorand blockchain and ALGO token aim at solving scalability, security, and decentralization at one go. The blockchain consensus is achieved through pure POS meaning investors and users can earn passive income through staking ALGO. Also, the project focusses on transparency to ensure the success of all ALGO users. This pure POS ensures high speed of transactions, full participation, and protection within an entirely decentralized network. Algorand is competing with popular payment and financial systems but may have a competitive advantage due to decentralization. Staking ALGO simply involves sending ALGO to a personal Algorand wallet on your smartphone. Holding ALGO in the wallet automatically generates rewards. The required minimum amount for staking is 1 ALGO. Holding 100 ALGOS for a year will probably earn you 10 ALGOs as a reward depending on your frequency of transacting and changing your balance. Currently, the yearly interest of staking ALGO is 5.1%. 5. Decred (DCR): 6.16% Annual ROI Decred attempts to yield the best results by using both Proof-of-stake and Proof of Work in an innovative hybrid. This makes it more secure than blockchains using pure POS or pure PoW. It has a system that allows the blockchain to change at stakeholders’ will while incorporating new technology gradually. The DCR rewards are divided such that POW miners get 60% of the rewards while POS DCR ticket holders get 30%. Ten percent goes into the project treasury. Stakeholders delegate validation work to Stakepool. Stakepools cannot steal or spend DCR. Stakepools don’t get any access to your funds. Delegation is suitable, especially since for passive income, you don’t have to be online always. The Decred website provides a list of voting service providers that one can delegate to. Currently, DCR staking annual reward is at 6.16% and would be a good investment. The required minimum for staking is 138 DCR. The minimum lock-up period for DCR is 28 days. 6. Cosmos (ATOM): 8.34% Annual ROI Cosmos focuses on addressing scalability, usability, and interoperability. Concurrently, Cosmos allows for an innovative blockchain network. It will enable developers to create new blockchains as well as applications. The various blockchains communicate with each other through the Tendermint protocol which Cosmos is based on. Tendermint core is made up of 4 modules, namely; POS module, governance module, fees and rewards module, and inter-blockchain interaction module. Cosmos ATOM is one of the POS coins that investors can leverage through staking. Ownership of ATOMs gives you the right to delegate, vote, or validate. There are two options for earning that desired crypto passive income and staking rewards investing in Cosmos. You can either delegate Cosmos ATOM or run a validator node. The delegation is a way of staking. When one stakes their ATOM tokens, the rewards are generated automatically. Currently, the annual rewards are at about 8%. Considering Cosmos relevance in solving both interoperability and scalability, it is bound to become more popular with time. 7. Synthetix (SNX): 52.5% Annual ROI Synthetix is a platform for trading tokens and is built on Ethereum. It allows users to create real-world assets such as stocks, valuable metals, shares, currencies, and other crypto assets. SNX investors earn rewards every week. The latest report on Synthetix Dashboard showed that by February 2020, approximately 80% of SNX tokens were staked. To receive rewards, you need to maintain your ratio of collateralization above 800%. However, some services can monitor this for you, such as Staked. They send you to reward updates as well as updates on your collateralization ratio. Synthetix has been performing well, especially in 2019 that it nearly reached $1b in trading volume. Also, there has been a rapid growth in the collateral value of SNX and numerous dApp upgrades. Synthetix aims at competing against wall street who are the major players in stock and other assets exchange. Since it offers more in terms of security and transparency, the adoption of SNX may increase rapidly soon. The annual reward for staking is 52.5% which is a high percentage compared to other POS coins. Considering how well investors received this token, now might be the time to include SNX staking as part of your passive income source. 8. Loom (LOOM): 17% Annual reward Loom Network is a crypto platform intended to enable Ethereum-based dApps to run on sidechains. It aims at making scaling dApps easier and faster while still on the Ethereum network. For Loom, blockchain consensus is realized through Delegated Proof-of-Stake. Staking is the only way of earning passive income within the Loom Network. The available LOOm token is approximately 300 million. The percentage of staking rewards will increase depending on the period of staking. It will range between earning 5% reward for two weeks to earning 20% for a staking period of one year. At the time of writing this post, Loom Network has a 24 hours market volume of $6,528,923, and the staking annual reward is at 17%. Just like most of the other POS coins on the list, it employs delegation for staking. The process is easy. 9. Icon (ICX): 13.43% Annual ROI Icon focusses on building a decentralized network of blockchain that is powered by cryptocurrencies. Often, it is referred to as a ‘digital nation’. Icon uses a Delegated POS consensus mechanism to choose the nodes that can add blocks to the blockchain. Users can leverage their ICX by creating new blocks or voting. You can earn more Icon coins trough staking ICX, running a sub-P-Rep Node, and running the main P-Rep node. Of the three, staking has the highest reward. At the moment, the Icon’s annual ROI is 13%. Conclusion Having gone through the top list of Proof of Stake coins for 2020, I believe you are ready to start investing. What is more existing is that 90% of the coins in this list use delegation. You, therefore, do not need to be online all through. You can stake and sit back as your rewards stream in on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis. Crypto passive income may just be the best income source so far.
https://medium.com/@humbledtrader/top-list-of-proof-of-stake-coins-for-2020-534816e9a715
['Karlo Abart']
2020-06-04 08:16:02.545000+00:00
['Proof Of Stake', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Altcoins', '2020', 'Top List']
Don’t wait to create
Playing with paint Reclaiming a relationship with art after midlife As we edge towards 2021, no one needs to be told that it’s been a dark season. I trust the light will be returning soon, but I don’t want to wait. I need color. I need to make art. Last year, I would never have said, “I need to make art.” Any invitation to make art sent me running in the opposite direction. I was one of the millions of school children who decided, early on, that they had no talent for art and, as a result, they couldn’t “do” art. I made my decision in October 1961 in Mrs. Willoughby’s art class. I decided that the world was split up between those who could draw and make art (my friend Toni Squitieri) and the mediocre, untalented rest of us. Case closed. I stuck to my story for close to sixty years. But then this year, a lot start shifting. People started teaching who had never imagined they’d be forced to teach art online. That’s how I was able to take classes with my friend Dana Lynne Andersen of the Academy for Art and Consciousness based in Assisi, Italy. Dana had encouraged me to try her method and I was fascinated. Assisi was on my bucket list for a trip, someday, far in the future. Dana has worked with thousands of us who “don’t do art” as well as with professionals who want to kindle a different relationship with their art. I decided that the risk of taking a class with her was minimal, given that no one would be able to see my work and I couldn’t compare myself with others. I’ll fast forward the story. Suffice to say a door cracked open. All it took was a shift from “Is this any good? to “Is this feeding my soul?” In a judgment-free environment, a part of me came out of hiding. I no longer say “I don’t do art.” My father had left some paints when he died. As I riffled through his tubes of acrylics I found magenta, aquamarine, orange, carmine red, cobalt, and black, which I mixed into jars for sloshy pours. My dad, who died twenty years ago, had been an amateur artist. Scratch amateur. Dad was an artist. How we demean ourselves with labels. As I started working with his materials, my relationship with my father shifted–another story for another day. In my first program with Dana, she eased the class into the creative process through movement and meditation. I felt the rhythm of my own body responding to music. With my Zoom audio off, I crooned and sang. Energy, buried deep within this year, opened up. I took that movement to the page. I approached the paper which was to be my land of experiments. As I became involved in the creative process I used multiple sheets. I wasn’t going for a finished product. If the paper tore, well, that was part of the process, too. I became entranced by the movement of colors traversing a wet page. At the end of class, I was ready for more. I felt full, shifted, tired, and more awake. My intuition felt more alive. I paused to eat an orange, and my first bite (with a follow-up bite of chocolate) felt transcendent. I walked outside with my dogs, and, like them, I sniffed the air. Suddenly, I was overwhelmed with the fragrances of honeysuckle, lavender, and even the smell of the compost bin. My senses were dancing. I could go on describing my experience and Dana’s class. If you want to taste Dana’s work, she’s offering a four-day program over the New Year’s holiday. (No worries, I’m not getting a commission here!) Don’t wait to open the door to your creativity! That's what I really want to say. Fifty years is too long to wear a shirt that was always too small and constricting. Now is your best time to paint, sing, dance, write, or creatively fix your car. Whoever said you weren't creative was flat out wrong. The new year with its new hopes is a perfect time to take one small creative step. Last year, I poured cobalt blue onto a piece of newsprint and the rest was history. If you’re interested in expanding creativity and awareness in a time of uncertainty, please pop over to www.engagingpresence.com. And do check out Dana Lynne Andersen’s work at the Awakening Arts Academy.
https://medium.com/meeting-the-muse/dont-wait-to-create-8f4f04d84e96
['Sally Fox']
2020-12-23 03:07:28.408000+00:00
['Consciousness', 'Creativity', 'Art', 'Aging']
Learning to Focus by Bootstrapping.
Learning to Focus by Bootstrapping. Time traveling back to review advice I gave in 2006. I recently went back and found some old blog posts I did in 2006. At that time, we had sold our startup to our publisher, and our team was brought in to form the foundation of the GarageGames internal game studio. I wrote the post to help the community of game developers on the GarageGames site. The post itself was focused on making games. Over the course of the last 14 years, I learned a lot, and what I wrote below still holds true. Writing it now, I would expand the concept to not just talk about game development and startups, but to broaden the language to frame it as leadership development. Becoming a leader, in my opinion, is a learned skill. One of the challenges of being a leader is making decisions. You decide what to focus on, and what not to focus on. You decide what resources to deploy and how to deploy them. In a resource constrained environment, you are forced to make hard decisions early and are constantly faced with feeling that you do not have enough. Existing in this environment is like a whetstone to a blade. It is the practice of making those decisions that makes you sharp as a razor. Running lean helps you to learn to move fast, to focus, and to say no to a bunch of things that are nice to have but not essential. My own leadership development happened in this pressure cooker environment. Making a successful startup is the end result of thousands of good decisions. You become a better leader by practice. Startups are often focused on raising money. At the earliest stages, especially for first time entrepreneurs, I think that bootstrapping, at least initially, can teach a founder valuable lessons. These lessons subsequently make any capital raised go much further and create greater impact. Below is the post I made. It was awesome to go back and reflect on what I learned, to remind myself of where I was at then, and to take my blade and do a few scrapes on the sharpening stone to get back my razors edge. by Joe Maruschak · 11/07/2006 (9:11 am) boot-strap-ping To promote and develop by use of one’s own initiative and work without reliance on outside help. As part of my planned series on game prototyping, I am feeling that I need to lay out my opinion and theory of game development and project management, because I feel that one cannot divorce the two topics. Game Development cannot be separated from decision management. Creating a game is all about making many small good decisions during the creation of the game. Good games are the result of not one brilliant idea, but thousands of small good ideas and thousands of small good decisions. The best way to get better at making good decisions is to practice making them. The best metric for seeing whether or not you are making good decisions is to make decisions in an environment that rewards good decisions and punishes bad ones. Bootstrapping is such an environment. If you start with very little, it forces you to immediately make a decision that will get you moving forward. If you make good decisions, your project will move forward. If you make bad ones, you will not make progress. If you can make a game while bootstrapping, you are getting the best practice that one can get in making good decisions. It may be a fairly brutal and darwinian process, but it really rewards those who have what it takes to manage projects and complete games. Bootstrapping forces you to ask yourself, what is important right now. You can cut through the crap and cut to the chase. What is really important? What about cutscenes? sound? music? When you don’t have the resources to pay for all of these things right away, you are left to contemplate the core of the game you are trying to create. What is at the core of it may not be immediately apparent. Bootstrapping forces you to think about it and decide where you are going to focus your precious resources. What is most important to focus on now. If you make the right decisions, you will be rewarded with success. Your game will slowly come together, becoming more fun and more engaging each day, and it will gather its own momentum. If you make the wrong decisions, it will seem like an uphill climb, with each task a chore, the game not progressing, and motivation waning. When you have little or nothing to work with, or when you are working alone, you have little you can waste. If you spend all of your time on things that really matter, you will have optimized your development process so that when you tackle bigger, harder projects, you have the skills to make the right decisions more often than not. Often I read threads about developers who ‘don’t have enough funding’ or ‘the team I have cannot complete the design we have’ and I almost tear my hair out in frustration. If the first decision one makes is to undertake a project that they have no chance of completing and they are fully aware that they are resource constrained coming off the starting blocks, how are they ever going to learn how to make good decisions? My own theory of how to make games the ‘right’ way deal specifically with forcing decision points at the right times, and assessing and addressing the risk level associated with each implementation item. Often times, it is experience that allows one to understand what are ‘big’ features and what are small, and what constitutes a risk to the project. Knowing what is a high risk item and what is low risk will help you to properly assess what should go into your priority queue. What constitutes a risk is different for every team. Every collection of ‘resources’(people) comes with a unique set of skills and experience. Knowing what you can and cannot achieve is key to understanding what might constitute a risk to a project. Knowing your team is step one, knowing the project is step two. I try to break whatever I am working on into small understandable chunks, or work items, so that I can look at them objectively, and break them down into implementation items. Implementation items allow me to look at each one and decide, this item is very important, and these other items are not so important. As an example, the external art design of the GUI for a racing game needs to be done, but without a driving model, there is no game at all. This is an example that is very obvious, but I have seen many examples of projects that have gone very far down a path where the core gameplay was not yet proven. Bootstrapping forces the issues to the surface. If you have little resource, you need to be selective about what to work on. In order to be selective, you need to have items to select and you need to have some process to select what you think is important. Good decisions happen when you can pick the right things to work on and don’t waste time. Many of the agile development methodologies are based on the ideas of iterative prototyping and rapid development, and give one the tools and process to help decide what one works on and what is put off until later.. I highly recommend looking over some of them and lifting whatever you can from any of them and incorporating them into your workflow. I would not suggest blindly following any of the methodologies, as they are just tools. Pick up anything that seems useful, discard anything that is not helping you to focus on the task at hand, which is deciding what you need to work on to get your project done. I am not going to go into many of the agile methodologies in depth as I go over my ideas about prototyping. I am going to keep it very general and very high level. The main idea behind everything that I feel is important when prototyping and creating a game is to know what is important and what needs to be worked on next. To me, it is all about setting priorities, and keeping them in order. If you are making good decisions and keeping your priorities straight, you will make progress. If you don’t, you won’t. It is important during the process that you are aware that every decision you make about what to work on (and what not to work on) and what is important (and what is not) contributes to your success or failure. When in bootstrap mode, any failure or bad decision hurts, and it is immediately apparent. Time is of the essence, so learn not to waste any of it. If you start with very little, you have very little to lose, so move forward and learn to make the decisions that will take you to the top, and not leave you stuck.
https://medium.com/the-innovation/learning-to-focus-by-bootstrapping-d57b9735353b
['Joe Maruschak']
2020-10-19 17:13:56.861000+00:00
['Startup', 'Startup Lessons', 'Game Development']
Run your own personal campaign for Bernie Sanders
If I could get one idea through with this essay it’s an idea about mindset- think of yourself as running a campaign for Bernie localised to your friends and relatives. Approach it with both discipline and initiative, just like you would if Bernie made you a county organiser. Exactly what tactics and strategies are best will vary for each person but I want to give some broad hints about what such a campaign might look like. Targeted persuasion: plan your strategy and identify your targets The most important aspect of your campaign should be narrow-spectrum persuasion- targeting individuals. Create a spreadsheet with a list of the people you want to reach. Include brief notes about how persuadable you think they are, and what strategies and contact methods could work. Work through that spreadsheet. In planning your strategies, generally speaking, more personal and intimate communication = better. A text is better than a general Facebook status, a call is better than a text, a meeting in person is better than a call. However, this must be balanced against your time commitments. You probably know far more people than you can plausibly meet up with in person before the vote. Triage this on the basis A brief point on flipping It’s worth remembering in planning your priorities that it’s twice as good to flip a supporter of another candidate into voting Bernie than it is to get someone who otherwise wouldn’t have voted to vote Bernie. This is because flipping not only gets a vote for Bernie, it removes a vote from someone else. HOWEVER, this is of limited relevance in practice because people are usually much easier to persuade if they don’t already have a preferred candidate. Broad-spectrum persuasion In addition to speeching with individuals, it is very important to engage in “broad spectrum” persuasion, where you let your acquaintances, friends and family know that you’re supporting Bernie en masse. This is because of the way people work- just knowing that a trusted person believes something makes that thing much more plausible, even if only unconsciously. Options include shirts, yard signs etc. Think of yourself as publicly endorsing Bernie Sanders. While your endorsement may matter less than a celebrity or politician’s endorsement overall, it probably matters more to your family and friends. Facebook One extremely important form of broad-spectrum persuasion is Facebook and Facebook statuses. It has a huge reach, and you can be much more detailed than with other forms of broad-spectrum persuasion. A lot of Bernie supporters are too young and/or hip to make a lot of use of Facebook. There are a lot of salt of the earth types on Facebook who are exactly the people we need to reach. The big advantage of Facebook over other social media is that you have a guaranteed in, even if it’s only very small, with everyone on your friend’s list. So go on Facebook and writeup a heartfelt status about why people should support Bernie. Combine reason, passion and ethical values, often with a dollop of personal experiences, and you can’t go too far wrong. In addition to making a status update you might want to use the Bernie endorsement maker here: http://www.iendorsebernie.com/ Principles of persuasion I’ve previously written a guide to persuading people of things here: https://deponysum.com/2019/05/24/thinking-about-persuasion/ Recursivity Don’t just campaign for Bernie, campaign for your friends to campaign for Bernie (if that makes sense). Talk people into wearing shirts, into making their own spreadsheets of who to target. Maybe even send them a link to this essay. Don’t Pokemon Go to the polls alone On the day of the vote itself, try not to go to the polls alone. Bring a group of friends and/or family with you. Particularly target people you think might flake out of voting.
https://medium.com/@sumdepony/run-your-own-personal-campaign-for-bernie-sanders-a50d248e8683
['De Pony Sum']
2020-03-07 02:13:07.129000+00:00
['Campaign', 'Bernie Sanders', 'Democratic Primary']
Download Windows 10 ISO without Media Creation Tool
You can download the Windows 10 ISO without Media Creation Tool to update or clean up the new version of the operating system, but Microsoft hides the option for Windows users. The company makes available ISO files for every release of Windows 10, including Windows 10 May 2020 Update (version 2004), the only issue is that when you go to the support site, you don’t have the option to download the ISO file directly. Instead, you just have the option to get a MCT or an Assistant Upgrade. The explanation is that Microsoft’s support website will recognise the operating system installed on your laptop, and if you are using Windows 10, then Microsoft needs you to use the Media Creation Tool. However there is a workaround to download the Windows 10 ISO file directly without the need to use the Media Creation Tool if you don’t want to go through the extra steps. It’s just a matter of letting the support site believe you’re using a different operating system. In this guide, you will learn how to download the Windows 10 ISO file directly from Microsoft servers without the Media Creation Tool. How to download Windows 10 ISO without Media Creation Tool using Edge (legacy) To download the official ISO file to install Windows 10 with the legacy version of Microsoft Edge, use the following steps: Open the Microsoft Edge (legacy) tab. Copy and paste this link to https:/www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO in the address bar, and press Enter. (If you get diverted, this is the expected behavior.) Right-click on the page and select the option to inspect the object. Fast Tip: If you don’t see the option, open about:flags from the address bar and check the option “Show ‘View Source’ and ‘Inspect Element’ in the context menu” Tap on the Emulation page. Change the user agent string to Apple Safari (ipad) under the “Mode” line. If the browser does not reload automatically, refresh the tab. Please pick the version of Windows 10. Click the Confirm button to confirm Use the drop-down menu and pick the language of the product. Tap the Confirm button to confirm. Click the Windows 10 ISO update icon. Read Also: Here’s How You Can Access Control Panel in Windows 10 (20H2) To Download the official Windows 10 ISO directly from Google Chrome, use the following steps: Open Chrome now. Copy and paste this link https:/www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO in the address bar, and press Enter. (If you get diverted, this is the expected behavior.) Right-click on the page to select the Inspect option. Click the three-pointed menu button on the top right and pick the Network Conditions option under More Tools.” In the “User Agent” area, clear the Automatic Select option. Use the “User Agent” drop-down menu and pick the option Safari — iPad iOS 9. If the browser does not reload automatically, refresh the tab. Please pick the version of Windows 10. Tap the Confirm button to confirm. Use the drop-down menu and pick the language of the product. Tap the Confirm button to confirm. To download the ISO directly from Microsoft servers, click the button. How to download Windows 10 ISO without using the Firefox Media Creation Tool You can also download the Windows 10 ISO without the Media Creation Tool with the following steps on Firefox: Open Firefox, please. Copy and paste this link to https:/www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO in the address bar, and press Enter. (If you get diverted, this is the expected behavior.) Use the Ctrl + Shift + M keyboard shortcut to open the “Responsive Design View” feature. Ctrl + Shift + M in Firefox mode Click the Sensitive button at the top of the list, and pick the iPad option from the list. Please press the Refresh button. Then pick the version of Windows 10. Tap the Confirm button to confirm. Using the drop-down menu to choose your language. Tap the Confirm button to confirm. Click the Windows 10 ISO update icon. After downloading an ISO file, you can use software such as Rufus to build Windows 10 bootable media. Also Read: How to Add Con­text Menu Key­board Short­cut in Win­dows 10
https://medium.com/@xclusivebyte/download-windows-10-iso-without-media-creation-tool-cad597e0accd
['Xclusive Byte']
2020-11-24 07:50:42.395000+00:00
['Windows 10']
“ Life Lessons, Compliments of Taiwan”
I have a love affair with anything asian. I once enjoyed living in Japan and after so many years I decided to venture out a bit to Taiwan. Japan has always captured my heart with its, ‘Omotenashi’(hospitality). I honestly never thought I would find any other place to compare. Japan with it’s attention to detail, perfection and obsession with esthetics kept me craving for more as I basked in my endless pursuit of perfection . Japan offers picturesque cherry blossoms, the greenest bonsai trees, the cleanest lakes and rivers, regal castles and gorgeous traditional architecture that still speak to my soul. How would I ever do without that beauty in my life? Japan had been a large part of my life until I discovered a new way to see and experience life through the eyes of the Taiwanese. Things that used to be so serious for me doesn’t matter nearly as much, if at all now. Soon after relocating to Taiwan I discovered an early bloom of cherry blossoms right in front of my building. The same things I loved Japan for were being discovered here in Taiwan. I slowly started to get off of my soap box about my former love and allowed myself to see something new. Who wanted new, I wanted what I was used to, yet it was not there anymore. Now what? My first visit to Taiwan was most memorable and shaped my image of the Taiwanese culture. I was warmly greeted by a Taiwanese man offering samples of Taiwanese tea. His gracious manner and passion for what he was doing was quite pleasant. It was as if he had anticipated my arrival and needs. He sat me down and proceeded to educate me on all the proper tea etiquette as well as impress me with the history of each. It was reminiscent of a Japanese Tea Ceremony I once knew and loved. I thought that it might be an isolated event. Now it was time to find my way to my hotel on the train. Although the train is easy to navigate, I had many bags and was exhausted. I stood staring for a second as I needed to transfer to another train and in that brief moment a sweet Taiwanese woman walked up to me concerned and offered me her map. She showed me how to navigate in perfect English. That was helpful as I did not speak Mandarin. She refused to leave my side until my train arrived. Was this really happening? I found it all so refreshing and here I am two years later and still feel that way about the countless interactions with Taiwanese. The list goes on… I have learned so much from Taiwanese as a people because they don’t do drama and avoid confrontations. They live a simple, happy life. I have learned to stop living in the past and to let go and enjoy what is right before me. I let go of trying to make everything Japanese and discover what Taiwan has to offer. Taiwan still has little pockets of Japanese influence and caters to Japanese tourists. It’s not uncommon to find Family Marts as well as MUJI, Daiso and Komeda Coffee throughout different parts of Taiwan. I was pleasantly surprised to discover some of my old favorites, SOGO , Isetan and Mitsukoshi Department Stores. Taiwan offers a calm, relaxed, stress-free environment where one can allow a sheer metamorphosis to take place. Shed your worries and plan your trip early before the word gets out. Honesty, I feel like I am in another world. It is so rare these days to experience such a calm culture that places such high values on family and the ‘quality’ of life. Taiwan and its people are so laid back and easy going. They love to say ,’ it’s ok, it’s ok.’ They avoid any conflict and tend to play down imperfections and mishaps in others. Taiwanese are peacemakers. Their kind demeanor is what contributes to the peace one feels while being here. Whether you are eating your way from one end of the island to the other, as most people do, surfing, hiking, swimming, enjoying a ferry ride to Tamsui Fisherman’s Wharf or Bali, watching a sunset at Sun Moon Lake, having a nice tea brunch in Jioufen, catching your breath as Alishan views attempts to steal it away, eating yourself into a food coma at Shilin Night Market, falling in love on The Lover’s Bridge or Love River, dining at the top of Taipei 101, you will be completely convinced of Taiwan and it’s healing nature. Taiwan is a foodie’s dream with its bustling night markets and countless international restaurants and cafes. I never knew how eclectic and diverse it would be, demographically speaking. With such diversity in culture, it’s no wonder you can find authentic flavors from all over the world. From Michelin star to hole in the wall Mom and Pop restaurants , Taiwan is a Food Paradise! Some may be wondering how will you afford to travel to Taiwan after the pandemic with a family of four or more… Have no fear because everything here is so inexpensive in comparison to the US, Europe and Japan. You will be pleasantly surprised as to how well you can enjoy the island and all that it has to offer on a modest budget. The climate temperatures are pretty moderate and I find that it is never too cold but it does get a bit hot so pack your sunscreen, drink tons of water and you will be fine. Taiwan offers the best of both worlds, combining nature with city life and easy accessibility to either. You can rent a car or ubike and also feel safe to take trains and high speed rails throughout the island easily. No crime. No worries. I’m fully aware that many families are currently suffering due to the global pandemic. Stress levels are high and some are losing hope to see beyond their four walls. Fear, doubt and uncertainty loom in the air yet it doesn’t have to rob you of planning life beyond the pandemic. I can’t claim to have all the solutions to life’s challenges however, I do know of a wonderful island that is largely overlooked. Taiwan is a gem and deserves to be a vacation destination for all. Once the flight restrictions are lifted, do yourself and your loved ones a favor and book a trip to Taiwan. I would like to invite people from around the world to plan a trip (post pandemic) to Taiwan. I am a firm believer that you will discover a ‘new you’ in Taiwan as I have for myself. Taiwan offers a calm, relaxed, stress-free environment where one can allow a sheer metamorphosis to take place. Shed your worries and plan your trip early before the word gets out.Treat yourself to this peaceful little island. Thank you Taiwan for life lessons and all that you have shown me, now I endeavor to share you with the world.
https://medium.com/@KatExpression/life-lessons-compliments-of-taiwan-a506def47f3d
[]
2021-05-05 20:35:57.075000+00:00
['Vacation', 'Foodies', 'Post Pandemic', 'Life Lessons', 'Taiwan']
May 2019 Gap Funding: Rahoo Baby
For new and expecting parents, preparing for the developmental process of your child can be a scary and worrisome experience. With the importance of “tummy time” and its benefits top of mind, Rahoo Baby co-founders Matt, Erica, and Tom saw a market opportunity that could one day become a full-fledged business that would create innovative tools that would maximize babies’ and infants’ learning and development. For the team behind Rahoo Baby, their collective professional experience as healthcare providers afforded them the knowledge and drive to develop these functional products. As full-time pediatric occupational therapists at Boston Children’s Hospital, Matt and Erica saw the most common developmental issues with babies which sparked their entrepreneurial idea into what today is known as Rahoo Baby. Tom, their long-time friend, and doctor brought to the team added value with his medical background. Some time and plenty of market research later, the team is eager to launch their “tummy time” product and continue innovating to maximize development during a baby’s first year of life. With a new venture and business plan in mind, the team sought out IDEA in the hopes of gaining advice and perspective from non-healthcare professionals that had experience launching a business. After developing a fleshed out launch plan, Rahoo Baby received gap funding twice this year, in February and May. When asked what the plans for the funding were, the team expressed their desire to launch a Kickstarter campaign, fund their initial manufacturing run and establish a solid go-to-market strategy. Their advice to other ventures in the program? Take advantage of the connections and resources given to you, and accept any and all feedback as good, as it may be helpful in the long term! Rahoo Baby plans to launch their Kickstarter campaign in September 2019, to sign up for launch updates, click here. For more information about Rahoo Baby and their plans to develop additional products, you can reach out to co-founders Erica, Matt, or Tom.
https://medium.com/nuidea/may-2019-gap-funding-rahoo-baby-ea4f167d0a6c
['Maria Lisac-Ramirez']
2019-07-05 15:16:31.064000+00:00
['Startup', 'Boston', 'Tummy Time', 'Baby Products', 'Entrepreneurship']
Dirt.
Playing in the dirt is a favorite past time of youth. From playing with toy trucks in the mud, to riding bicycles on dirt tracks, or playing in my grandpa’s garden, I have fond memories of being a child and getting dirty. Watching my own kids play in the dirt brings back a lot of those memories for me. When my wife and I bought our home in the Seattle area 10 years ago and started planting a garden, I began to look at it much differently. Most people don’t really think about it, but dirt in the form of soil is alive. During my time in academia, soil was discussed as the medium that holds nutrients and that plants grow in. Our perception of soil has definitely changed from then. Now, we view it as being full of life. It is said that one teaspoon of soil contains more living organisms than all the people in the world. Without that life, it is just dirt. One could devote a life time to study soil and still not understand every aspect of it due to the sheer volume of information and because discoveries about it are still being to this day. Fortunately though, we don’t need to have a PhD in agronomy to use the information out there. In following the 5 key principles of soil health we can manage the land to be productive and profitable. And through using observation, we can have a good idea of how we are doing at managing the soil. Before I head into the principles of soil health, a quick discussion on soil organic matter (SOM). SOM is all of the organic matter in the soil from plant and animals in various states of decomposition. As I discussed in the last month’s article on water, a 1% increase in SOM allows the soil to hold up to 25,000 gallons more water per acre. It also increases the soil’s fertility by allowing more nutrients to be retained, reduces soil compaction and crusting, and helps to build and stabilize the soil (soil aggregation). Those last 3 things are critically important as they allow water to infiltrate into the soil instead of running off. Once SOM reaches a point where it no longer breaks down and is stable in the soil, it becomes humus. Essentially that organic matter is carbon and is now stored in the ground. That’s carbon sequestration and why healthy soils are usually a dark brown to black in color. According to a UC Davis study, it is the best long term way to store carbon, contrary to the popular belief that planting trees is the best way. When wildfires come, trees burn releasing carbon. The carbon in the soil is untouched, that is until man puts a plow or other tillage equipment in the ground and exposes it to air. And while the study of soil is somewhat mudded (pun intended), the 5 principles of soil health have been shown to provide quantifiable benefits. The first principle of soil health is to keep armor on the soil. That armor is living or dead plant material. Think of it as the skin on your body. It helps to regulate temperature which allows for a more hospitable place for life to exist. In addition, it slows down water as it hits the ground which allows the water to enter the soil and reduce the crusting on the soil surface. The second principle of soil health is to minimize soil disturbance. That doesn’t mean eliminate it because at the core of the soil health principles, it is my belief that we are trying to replicate nature. Nowhere in nature is a place completely static. And while I do see a place for the plow and other tillage equipment, in my opinion it has been one of the most destructive technologies that man has ever invented due to its overuse. When used judiciously, it can have benefits. As I traveled back and forth across the state over the years, I would see large dust clouds coming from field equipment plowing fields. Not only does that pose environmental and health concerns, but that’s the farmers ability to grow a crop floating away. Plant diversity is the third soil health principle. Having a diverse species mix allows for feeding soil life. I would say the majority of the population would agree that a carrot is a healthy food item. But if all you ate was carrots, that wouldn’t be healthy. The same thing goes for the soil. The diversity in plants also attracts a diversity in animal species, both harmful and helpful. Having the diverse plants also allows for making the most of from the available sunlight through photosynthesis. Different shape leaves and plant structures allow for this to happen. The fourth principle is having a live plant root in the soil. Just like how plant diversity feeds the soil different types of food, having a living roots in the soil gives a continuous supply of food for the soil. Last, and my favorite part of 5 soil health principles, is integrating livestock. Even though I received a degree in Horticulture, it wasn’t until I had my first taste with the livestock gateway drug, aka chickens, that I developed an interest in farm animals. Plants and animals evolved together, and it’s the ability of animals to cycle nutrients that makes them so important to the soil. How we manage them also plays a vital role in whether or not the livestock help or hurt soil health. Those of us involved in raising livestock have to understand that we are continuously being scrutinized by government, various activists, and the general public in what we do. The better we manage the land and livestock, the less we open ourselves up from unwarranted criticisms. As an added benefit, the attention we devote to our management leads to increased productivity which pays off in higher profitability. Alex Case Cohen, Natural Resource/Farm Planner with Stevens County Conservation District, sums up the importance of the 5 principles of soil health best by saying “The more we simulate nature, the better our soil will be. If we incorporate perennial and annual plants, minimize disturbance, and re-introduce livestock in a pattern reminiscent of pre-historic grazing, then improved soil health is absolutely attainable”. Taking soil samples and sending them to a lab for analysis is going to be the ideal way to see how we are doing at taking care of our soil. You really should be taking a soil test before you do anything to it. But in lieu of a soil test, there are a few things we can look for. It starts with using a shovel to take a scoop of soil out of the ground in profile. If it looks dark in color and has a consistency like cottage cheese, job well done. That dark color is organic matter in the soil which is helping to form aggregation, or that cottage cheese texture. After that, look and see if you can find white branching filaments like a spider web which is mycorrhizal fungi. Mycorrhizal fungi has a symbiotic relationship with plants to increase water and nutrient absorption by the plants. (As a side note, plants can also communicate with each other via mycorrhizal fungi.) Now break up that soil and look for earthworms. Earthworms are like a keystone species for soil life. There are a few other beneficial insects you might see like springtails, pillbugs, and spiders, but it is what you can’t see unless you have a microscope that is truly amazing. Next, take a big whiff of the soil. Does it smell putrid or have a neutral to sweet almost bread like smell? The putrid smell can be an indicator that the soil is lacking oxygen. With these quick observations, an individual can make a quick assessment how their soil is doing. I do not even attempt to consider myself an expert on soils. My formal education on the topic ended with my Agronomy 101 class. There are many much more qualified people to talk about the subject in further detail but I would like to suggest to those of you who are interested on the topic to look up Ray Archuleta, formerly of the USDA-NRCS if you don’t already know him. He has a multitude of presentations on YouTube that are extremely informative and I highly recommend them. I have spent many a late night watching his presentations, to which my wife can attest to. She probably thought I was watching something else… Following Gregg on Facebook, Instagram, and twitter @olaainafarms or email him at [email protected] Published in Volume 12 Number 2 of the Silverado Express
https://medium.com/@gregg-deponte/dirt-3913cd60f817
['Gregg Deponte']
2020-02-16 05:14:45.047000+00:00
['Farmers', 'Farm', 'Regenerative Agriculture', 'Soil Health']
UiPath helps build proficiency in Robotic Process Automation with Koenig
Bengaluru, December 10, 2020: UiPath, a leading enterprise Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software company, has collaborated with Koenig Solutions, an IT training organisation, to offer courses aligned to UiPath Certified Professional (UCP) certifications. As a Learning Partner (ULP), Koenig will develop training programs that will be a combination of in-person, online and blended sessions. This year has seen growth in the adoption of AI and automation at an enterprise level, thereby increasing the demand for employees with these skills. With the rising need for more trained resources, upskilling and reskilling employees are becoming increasingly critical. While these courses are designed to meet learning requirements for existing employees at an individual and organizational level, it will also help prepare new entrants that require experience as RPA Developers, Business Analysts, Solution Architects, RPA Architects and others. “India has always been a key technology hub and global destination for enterprises in search of a skilled taskforce. I am happy to say that our partnership with Koenig will help place India’s workforce at the forefront for automation talent”, said Manish Bharti, President, UiPath, India and South Asia. Speaking about the significance of the partnership, Rohit Agarwal, CEO, Koenig Solutions added, “Collaboration is a powerful tool. By working with UiPath, we will be able to expand our reach and cater to the increased skill development requirements in the RPA ecosystem.” Alok Shrivastava, Vice President — Learning Alliances and Certification, UiPath went on to say, “UiPath has been fostering the next generation of automation task force with various programs and initiatives. This collaboration is another nod in our commitment toward furthering the RPA learning ecosystem, and increasing accessibility across segments.” ULP courses offered by Koenig Solutions will be delivered through an instructor with valid UCP credentials and the technical and instructional expertise required for instruction. The courses will provide participants with a holistic and structured training experience including preparation guidance for the certification exam. The courses will comprise of lectures, hands-on practice sessions, capstone projects, UiPath software and industry best practices. About UiPath: UiPath has a vision to deliver ‘A Robot for Every Person’, one where companies enable every employee to use, create, and benefit from the transformative power of automation to liberate the boundless potential of people. Only UiPath offers an end-to-end platform for automation, combining the leading Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solution with a full suite of capabilities that enable every organization to scale digital business operations at unprecedented speed. About Koenig Solutions: Koenig Solutions is a leading IT training & education company, renowned all over the world for offshore IT training. Koenig is an authorized training partner of UiPath, Microsoft, AWS, Oracle, Cisco, Red Hat, VMware, EC-Council, Adobe, Apple, among others. Koenig has offices in India, Dubai, UK, US, Canada, and Australia. Koenig provides Live Online Training Globally. Koenig is unique in offering 1-on-1 training.
https://medium.com/uiacademics/uipath-helps-build-proficiency-in-robotic-process-automation-with-koenig-56fe0c3f49f8
[]
2020-12-14 06:27:45.300000+00:00
['Roboticprocessautomation', 'Uipath', 'Robotics Automation', 'Learning Ecosystem', 'Rpa']
13 Delightful Canadian Dishes You Have To Try In Canada
When you think of Canada, you’re more likely to think of stunning natural landscapes, filled with lakes and forests than you are of food. However, there are a lot of wonderful Canadian dishes that are equally famous. From poutine to maple syrup, here are 13 of the best Canadian dishes toy have to try when you visit: Poutine Often called the Canadian national dish, poutine is a French-Canadian classic. A combination of fries, cheese curds, and gravy, it was created in the 1950s in Quebec, but can be found around the country today. Nanaimo Bars Originating in Nanaimo in British Columbia, this sweet treat is made of three layers — a crumb base layer, buttercream custard, and a thin layer of chocolate on top. It requires no baking and can also be found in Australia, Spain and Laos. Montreal Smoked Meat Montreal-style smoked meat is made by salting and curing beef briskets, which are seasoned with peppercorns and sugar. It is usually served on rye bread with yellow mustard and is a bit similar to New York’s pastrami. A popular place to try it is Schwartz’s Deli, a Montreal institution. Saskatoon Berry Pie Saskatoon berries (often just called Saskatoons) are found throughout Canada, especially in British Columbia. Though they look like blueberries, they taste more like apples and are extremely popular in pies, which are baked with a buttery crust. Tourtière This traditional French-Canadian dish dates back to the 1600s and is usually served during the holiday season. It is a meat pie (fillings are usually pork, beef, veal, or game) with a flaky pastry base and spiced with cinnamon, allspice, and clove. Beaver Tails These pastries were created in the 1970s by a family in Ottawa. The deep-fried dough pastries are flattened to resemble beaver’s tail and can be topped with a variety of flavours and toppings. These include cinnamon, sugar, and chocolate. Split Pea Soup Split pea soups are a winter speciality in Canada. Though they are now many variations, the most authentic version is made with whole yellow peas, salted pork, and herbs. You can also try Newfoundland Pras Soup, a variation with more vegetables (such as turnips and carrots) as well as dumplings. Butter Tart These small pastries are filled with a mixture of butter, sugar, maple syrup, and eggs. One baked, it turns crunchy on top, and are often topped with pecans. However, the origin of these treats is a bit hazy, with some believing that they date back to the 1600s. Montreal-Style Bagels Montreal bagels are quite different from regular bagels. They are cooked in a wood-fired oven and tend to be smaller, thinner and denser. They are also quite a bit sweeter, as the bagels are boiled in honey-sweetened water before baking, and are often topped with poppy and sesame seeds. St Viateur and Fairmont are the most famous bagel shops in the city. Taffy-on-the-Snow This delicious Canadian treat (also called tire d’érable sur la neige) is made by pouring hot maple syrup into fresh snow. It cold caused it to harden, creating a gooey maple taffy that you can then roll up onto a popsicle stick and enjoy. Nova Scotia Lobster Rolls Located along the east coast of Canada, the maritime province of Nova Scotia is famous for its seafood. Be sure to try the delicious lobster rolls here, a Canadian favourite. You can also taste their smoked salmon and arctic char. Caesar Cocktails Said to have been invented in Calgary, the Caesar Cocktail is extremely popular across the country. It is a Canadian take on the Bloody Mary, and is made with vodka, clamato juice (a mix of tomato juice and clam juice), hot sauce, and Worcestershire sauce. Donair This is a variation of the Turkish/Greek doner kebab. It was introduced to Halifax, Nova Scotia, in the 1970s and really took off. Donair usually uses beef instead of lam, along with a sauce made with sugar, garlic, condensed milk, and vinegar. BONUS: Maple Syrup Though it’s not technically among the many Canadian dishes, Canada produces almost 75% of pure maple syrup around the world. A lot of it comes from the province of Quebec, and you can even visit the many maple syrup farms to see how its made. Once you’ve tried the real deal, you’re sure to get hooked. There are lots of other delicious authentic Canadian dishes you can try (such as the famous ketchup chips, and all-dressed chips). Be sure to tell us your favourites in the comments below.
https://medium.com/@Travel.Earth/13-delightful-canadian-dishes-you-have-to-try-in-canada-c21431ab3475
[]
2019-03-13 09:02:13.394000+00:00
['Cuisine', 'Food', 'Foodies', 'Canada', 'Food And Drink']
Active Shooter: When you can’t run, can’t hide, and can’t fight
The guidance from police departments across the country is to Run, Hide, and Fight during an attack by an active shooter. If you can run away, that is the best option — get as far away from the danger as possible. If you can’t run, you can try to hide from the shooter — lock and barricade yourself inside an office, closet, bathroom, storage room, or anywhere away from the shooter. If all else fails, fight the shooter in any way possible. This simple guidance generally makes sense except for situations when all three options are nearly impossible. Areas with limited means of ingress and egress — combined with open layouts — remove the option to run or hide. Wide open areas allow the shooter to maintain distance and fire across the space preventing victims from closing the distance to fight back. These types of open areas with limited egress are common locations for public gatherings and have been the site of numerous attacks. These places include: Outdoor Concert Venues and Arenas: To make sure that everyone entering a concert venue or arena pays for the show, there are limited points of entry to collect tickets. The stage, court, or playing field is in the center of the venue and the densest crowd is at the farthest point from the exits. The Las Vegas shooting is the most recent example of a concert shooting but there have also been explosive attacks (e.g., Manchester Arena suicide bombing during Ariana Grande concert) and stampedes. At an outdoor concert venue, there is no place to run away and nowhere to hide. If the shooter is firing down at the crowd from a high-rise hotel, there is no way to fight either. Even without the panic of an attack, crowds exiting these venues are bottlenecked due to the large number of people leaving at the same time which prevents rapid evacuation. NFL fans leaving a stadium under normal circumstances Nightclubs: Similar to concert venues, nightclubs are designed to funnel the crowds to central dance floors and alcohol service areas. Nightclubs usually have single points of entry because that patrons need to pay cover charges or wait in line to enter. There is normally less security and fewer staff members at a club compared to a live concert or sports arena but this varies greatly based on the size, economy, local laws/ordinances, and history of violence. The Pulse nightclub shooting is the most significant example of this type of attack in the United States. Fatal fires have also occurred at these locations including the Station Fire that killed 98 people in 2003 Rhode Island. Inside the nightclub, there are too many people and too few exits to run. There are few or no places to hide. If the shooter is firing across the venue, there is likely no way to fight. Movie Theaters: Theaters normally have doors on the sides and aisles leading up stairs to access stadium style seating. To exit the theater, everyone needs to walk down the stairs toward the screen. A shooter standing near the screen cuts off the exits and the open room full of seats does not offer anywhere to hide. In the case of the Aurora, CO shooting during Batman, if the shooter is standing in the front of the screen and shooting at the crowd, there is no way to reach the shooter to fight. Churches: The design of almost all churches is the same. Large doors at the front lead down a long aisle to the alter. Rows of chairs or benches line both sides of the aisle. Patrons are seated with their backs to do door, facing the religious leader speaking from the alter. Prior to the murder of 26 people in Texas this past weekend, 26 other people have been killed at four different mass shootings churches since 2007. If the shooter enters through the main doors, the primary exit is cutoff and the open area does not provide a place to hide. When the shooter enters from behind the victims, the shooter has the element of surprise and the ability of victims to fight back is limited by the tactical advantage of the shooter. Shopping Malls: Large concourses with multiple levels and open layouts connect the stores inside shopping malls. The limited numbers of entrances and exits are normally located at the edges of the building so that patrons need to walk past as many retailers as possible to reach them. In many cases, patrons need to pass through large department stores to reach the exits. The central corridors, food courts, and areas of congregation inside shopping malls are a long distance to run and do not offer places to hide. The shooter can maintain distance from the victims and prevent the ability to fight. Underground Subway Stations: Street level entrances and exits lead down stairs, escalators, and elevators to fare gates. Patrons congregate on open platforms to wait for trains. Long distances to the exits, some escalators can be 200 ft or longer, prevent patrons from evacuating quickly. Open spaces in the stations do not offer cover. Open Offices: This modern office design removes private spaces and individual offices to create a workplace where people can easily interact and collaborate. Spaces for breakouts and private meetings often have all glass doors and windows to maintain the visual aesthetic of openness. By removing private spaces, the offices also remove locations to hide from an active shooter. The open space limits the ability to run or fight if the shooter has clear sight-lines across the entire office space. What to do when you can’t run, hide, or fight? If you can’t get away or stop the shooter, you — or the other people around you — are probably going to get shot. The good news is most active shooters attacks end in less than 2 minutes. The bad news is EMS care normally takes 8–12 minutes to arrive. I have written previously about the basic trauma kit that can save lives in these situations. Severely injured people need rapid treatment to stop bleeding. Quickly assess the scene around you to determine who is deceased, critically injured, and walking wounded. START offers as simple system to conduct triage. If you don’t have any EMS equipment, improvise with what you have. Tampons can be used to stop bleeding from gunshot wounds. Belts can be used as tourniquets. Excess clothing can cover and control severe bleeding. The first arriving police officers and other responders will not know where the shooter is and the status of the victims. The first priority for police officers will be to find the shooter while EMS providers will usually stage away from the scene. In many cases, the shooter immediately kills himself after shooting the first group of victims. If you have witnessed the shooter killing himself (yes himself, the shooters are almost always male), try to share this information with responders. If the shooter is down, try to drag severely injured victims out of the building. Their best chance of getting emergency medical care is away from the immediate vicinity of the shooting. Anytime you encounter police officers, be sure to keep your hands up and follow any directions — there will be a lot of chaos and confusion until the status of the shooter is determined. Harsh Reality Active shooter attacks will continue to occur and many of the places that we frequent on a daily basis do not provide the options to run, hide, or fight. It is critical to understand your vulnerability in these situations and the limitations of first responders to immediately stop an attack or provide emergency medical care. If an attack occurs, your only option may be to take action and try to save lives when the shooting stops.
https://medium.com/homeland-security/active-shooter-when-you-cant-run-can-t-hide-and-can-t-fight-938d5d106340
['David Riedman']
2017-11-14 05:06:16.955000+00:00
['Mass Shootings', 'Violence', 'Security', 'Terrorism', 'Guns']
Why Mastering Vanilla JavaScript Will Make You Stand Out as a Developer
Why Mastering Vanilla JavaScript Will Make You Stand Out as a Developer Be better than seasoned developers by having the knowledge that many of them miss Photo by matthew Feeney on Unsplash. Despite being one of the easiest languages to learn as a beginner, JavaScript is eccentric enough to be truly hard to master. It allows you to write full-scale programs while still scratching its surface, discouraging you from truly understanding the language deep’s capabilities. It’s both a simple tool and a complex set of empowering mechanics. But what can it do for you if you truly master it? Let’s try to answer this question.
https://medium.com/better-programming/why-mastering-vanilla-javascript-will-make-you-stand-out-as-a-developer-a99ae8c36d38
['Piero Borrelli']
2020-10-01 15:51:05.246000+00:00
['Technology', 'JavaScript', 'Programming', 'React', 'Learning To Code']
QUOINE company: one of the future main actors in the new digital economy?
Credits: Kelly Belter QUOINE is one of the leading fintech companies in Japan working in the cryptocurrency industry. It was founded in 2014 by Mike Kayamori, MBA from Harvard Business School and previously Senior Vice President at SoftBank Group, and Mario Gomez-Lozada, previously CIO at Credit Suisse Asia and CTO of Merrill Lynch in Japan. QUOINE is established under the laws of Singapore and offers various products: 1. QUOINEX is a crypto-fiat exchange with a monthlyvolume of over $5B that emphasizes security and a rich trading experience through low fees and sophisticated trading tools (e.g. customizable panels, fast execution matching engine, and API). In addition to the transparency they offer about their team (unlike some of the major exchanges) and operations, it is the first fully regulated (by the Financial Services Agency) global crypto exchange in Japan. 2. QRYPTOS is a secure crypto-only exchange and ICO listing platform that aims at providing a complete solution for token issuers to list and trade their tokens. In fact, some ICO platforms do not offer the necessary security measures, for example, not doing due diligence of teams listing new tokens. As a result, many cases have led to multimillion dollars’ worth of theft. 3. QUOINE LIQUID, initiated with an ICO in November 2017 (350,000,000 QASH sold which corresponds to 350,000 ETH or more than $100M) and which at press time has a market cap of $600M. This platform aims at facing the current liquidity problem existing in the crypto economy. The liquidity problem according to QUOINE - While some pairs offer high liquidity (e.g. BTC against USD, EUR, CNY, etc.), others present low or none, raising a barrier for holders of minor currencies to enter the cryptocurrency market. - Liquidity is offered in “silos”, as exchanges may have liquidity for some pairs, but that liquidity is only accessible for users of this exchange. There is no partnership across multiple platforms. The Liquid platform is being designed to tackle these problems by bringing two main innovations: A world book (an order book across multiple markets) and a prime brokerage (set of services to reduce counterparty risks and increase ROI). More details about the implementation can be found in their whitepaper. We had the opportunity to visit their office and have an interview with Katsuya Konno, CFO of this fast-growing startup that has now about 100 employees Interview with Katsuya Konno, Chief Financial Officer of QUOINE When did you join QUOINE? After working for 7 years at Softbank where I was in charge of M&A and venture deals, I joined QUOINE in November 2016. Could you tell us more about QUOINE? Where are you based? QUOINE is a leading fintech company, offering various products, including the first global exchange licensed by the Financial Services Agency (FSA) in Japan. Our Headquarters are in Japan and we have a subsidiary in Singapore. We also have our development center in Vietnam, including core developers and customer centers. De facto, Vietnam is becoming a great hub for Blockchain and AI development. However, we do not offer any crypto-related service there, as the Vietnamese regulations are stricter. QUOINE has QRYPTOS and QUOINEX. What is the difference between these exchanges? QUOINEX is global, it is offered to both Japanese and non-Japanese people. Crypto-only exchanges cannot have a license here in Japan. The Japanese government cannot study all cryptocurrencies and regulations are therefore stricter. For the coins that we list on QUOINEX Japan, we need to consult with the FSA. Not for QUOINEX global and QRYPTOS. Therefore, we decided to split in two parts. QRYPTOS is offering more than twenty cryptocurrencies, Besides, for practical reasons we are currently listing mostly post ICO tokens based on Ethereum (ERC-20) as we plan to transform QRYPTOS as ICO Self Service platform. You offer negative fees on Qryptos. Why? On QUOINEX, we are doing the market making. On Qryptos we cannot do it, there are so many coins and we prefer avoiding taking position in order to reduce risks for now. Therefore, we decided to go for a fee design that would incentivize market makers by offering half of the fees. In addition, the exchange area in Japan is very competitive and most propose fees close to zero, which is good for users, so even half of the fees is comfortable for us How difficult was the process of getting the FSA license? We spent almost 18 months to get the license, having weekly meetings with the Japanese FSA, and calls every morning. We have spent significant resources for this license, working with law firms and accounting companies. As a matter of fact, it was an important milestone for us. In the end, cryptocurrencies will be regulated in most (all) countries. I think that exchanges should embrace regulations. However, many are startups that do not have the connections with governments. It is important to create these bridges so they can participate in these decisions. We have established that direct connection with the top of the FSA and it is benefiting all parties involved. What are you trying to achieve with the Liquid platform backed by the QASH token? We started our QASH ICO in September. This is the first regulated ICO by a licensed exchange. We successfully raised over $100M. Through our ICO, we would like to build a new platform called Liquid , aggregating order books with partner exchanges, creating a big large liquidity pool. We believe that crypto will become mainstream in the financial industry but in the current situation there is an important problem within the crypto-economy: there is a lack of liquidity. The Liquid platform will resolve this problem and enhance the diffusion of the technology. We plan to build the beta version of this platform in early 2018 and offer the service in early 2019. After that, we would like to expand to crypto-based financial services such as global remittance, lending and insurance services to every user. Our objective is getting a banking license at the end of 2019. Credits: Kelly Belter Basically, we are trying to be the Tokyo stock exchange of cryptocurrencies. We would like to create this ecosystem in the crypto-space. To complete this mission, collaboration with other exchanges is needed. As a consequence, we see more partnerships with exchanges, market makers, investment banks, and other relevant actors in the long term. In terms of Roadmap, what are you focusing on at the moment? ICO self-service platform on QRYPTOS. We are also building a team dedicated to developing the QASH blockchain. However, we realize that there is a lack of good blockchain developers in Japan, forcing us to look for potential abroad in order to sustain the fast rate of innovation in this industry. Currently, QASH is an ethereum-based token but we will replace with our own blockchain. It will therefore become a coin and not a token anymore. On top of the QASH blockchain, new fintech companies will be able to easily implement their financial services, using our basic financial features such as credit scoring, automation KYC, and trading algorithm. We are also considering expanding our market. We are now entering the Filipino market as we believe it has a huge potential for remittance, due to the numerous citizens living abroad. We want to use cryptocurrencies for remittance as it would offer lower fees than existing players in this field. Recently, the Korean exchange Youbit got hacked and it is not an isolated case, as some of the main exchanges including Bithumb and Bitfinex also ran into troubles in the past. How do you feel about these threats? Does that bring you to reconsider your security settings? It is clear that there will always subsist a non-zero risk. But we have very strong security measures. This is something we are allocating a lot of resources into. Although we have never experienced any hack, Distributed Denial-of Service attacks (DDoS) often happen. However, we are using a private server instead of the public cloud, and a cold wallet only with multi-signature. I would even say that with putting such a great emphasis on security, the user experience is sometimes harmed. What do you think about decentralized exchanges? Do you think they will bring a new paradigm and replace centralized ones? No, I do not see how they could scale and deal with latency. This is a very different model from the traditional financial world. I believe that the centralization is needed to a certain extent. Nevertheless, there could be collaboration between centralized and decentralized exchanges, and that would be interesting. What is your opinion about Chicago futures? Do you have any plans to introduce futures? We are currently talking about this possibility. On the one hand, due to speculation on the short-term it may increase volatility. On the other hand, I believe it should stabilize bitcoin price in the future. — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — If you want to learn more about Bitcoin Center Korea, please visit our website or our other channels down below
https://medium.com/bitcoin-center-korea/quoine-company-one-of-the-future-main-actors-in-the-new-digital-economy-5a6ddc212105
['Raphael Hannaert']
2018-02-05 08:58:54.599000+00:00
['Trading', 'Bitcoin', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain', 'Finance']
How To Write a Cover Blurb
How To Write a Cover Blurb A simple 3-part structure to give impact to your next book Photo by Anita Jankovic on Unsplash Writers have issues with blurbs. For every writer who complains about the blurb that’s been written for their book by the publisher, you’ll find another agonising over how to do it themselves. Personally, if you get the opportunity to write your own cover blurb, I say seize it. For a start, this is your sales pitch and you get control over the way it’s presented. Second, it’s a really useful exercise to try and distil what your book is about into 3 or 4 snappy sentences. When writing a new novel, I always write the blurb up front — it gives me a focus for the story I’m trying to tell. Once you have a blurb you’re happy with, you can use it (or parts of it) to promote your book in all sorts of marketing contexts — in your guest posts, social posts, email newsletter, on your website, Amazon and elsewhere. An example There are various ways to do a blurb. My approach falls into 3 steps, illustrated here with the blurb of my current work-in-progress, The Wolf in the Woods. THE WOLF IN THE WOODS What if the secrets you keep from each other… are the only things holding you together? [1] When Andrew and Colleen head off for a week at the seaside in a bid to save their marriage, they are amused to discover that their elderly landlord Wolf appears to be spying on them. But their fragile peace comes under pressure as Wolf’s attentions intensify, and the secrets that emerge threaten to tear their world apart… [2] The Wolf in the Woods is a dark comedy about love, marriage and betrayal — and just how much wrong you can do for the right reasons. [3] Part [1] is the tagline or hook. It’s a question the book raises, or it could be an intriguing quote from a character. It doesn’t have to make complete sense or provide a full explanation — its job is to grab the casual browser’s attention and draw them in. A famous non-fiction example: ‘Warning: Do not read this book if you hate money.’ Part [2] is the plot bit. But this is not an exhaustive summary or technical synopsis. It’s more an elevator pitch, which again is designed to whet our appetite, set up the drama or mystery, and leaves us with that cliffhanger feeling of wanting to know how it all works out. Typically it ends with ellipsis (…) or a question mark. And no spoilers! Part [3] is more about context and background. This is where you can give an idea of the book’s genre, tone, and themes, and add a critical (if inevitably very positive) evaluation. You might mention another book the author is famous for, or locate this book among others in a similar area, or hint at the kind of people who would enjoy it. Another example: ‘Compulsively readable, The Girl on the Train is an emotionally immersive, Hitchcockian thriller and an electrifying debut.’ Blurb-writing tips You can apply the above structure to pretty much any type of book. Here are a few more pointers: Aim to write the blurb in a tone and style that matches that of the book. If your book is zany and playful, get some of that into your blurb. Be patient. Blurbs aren’t very long but they can take ages to get right. I carry mine around and tinker with it whenever I get a few spare minutes. Look at the blurb of other books in your genre. Your words should be fresh, but they should also fit in with the style your market expects. Aim for a word count of 100–250 words. (Mine above is 102.) Don’t get into subplots or internal character journeys — focus on key conflicts, high stakes, and external events. Dan Brotzel (@brotzel_fiction) is author of a collection of short stories, Hotel du Jack, and co-author of a new comic novel about an eccentric writers’ group, Kitten on a Fatberg (Unbound). You just read another exciting post from the Book Mechanic: the source for writers and creators who want to make more work that sells and sell more work they make. If you’d like to read more stories just like this one tap here to visit
https://medium.com/the-book-mechanic/how-to-write-a-cover-blurb-fb513cb1133f
['Dan Brotzel']
2020-08-02 10:21:00.898000+00:00
['Promotion', 'Creativity', 'Writing', 'Fiction Writing', 'Marketing']
Cluster Randomized Control trials in mHealth
Authors: Nathan Begbie, Charles Copley, Eli Grant Photo by Hush Naidoo on Unsplash When an experiment is conducted on a population that interact with each other, experimentation using individual random assignment (i.e. a participant is randomly assigned to a treatment) runs the risk of a participant from one experimental condition describing their experience with another participant. This is known as contamination. Contamination can affect the behaviour of individuals not assigned to the experimental treatment, including those in the control group, thereby making it more difficult to correctly measure the impact of the treatment. For example, a participant assigned to the control group could feel cause resentment towards a service upon hearing that another participant (from the treatment group) received monetary rewards to use the service. The control participant could then end up using the site more (to find incentives) or less (due to resentment). Because these effects on unassigned participants are not observed or measured they simply add noise to the impact measurement. One method to reduce the risk of contamination is to randomly clusters of individuals, like entire clinics or schools, rather than the individuals within them. This design is called a cluster randomised control trial (CRCT) [More on this here. ] A CRCT necessarily increases the user sample size (but introduces another effect that is examined below). The reason sample size needs to be larger in CRCTs, is because the participants working at any given location or work environment are likely to be similar to each other. In an urban clinic, nurses (for example) are more likely to live in an urban area and may therefore have systematically different characteristics to nurses working at a rural clinic. A rural clinic nurse may use less mobile data because of costs or lack of network coverage, while valuation of financial incentives may differ between urban and rural settings. Overcoming contamination using CRCTs introduces a new problem. Their greater sample size is more likely to increase the risk of imbalance between trial arms where cluster assignment means there are a smaller number of assignment units. See the diagram below. If you imagine eight clinics with different population sizes (as above), then a cluster randomized control trial would draw randomly at the cluster level i.e. draw random clinics (see diagram on left below) whereas a randomized control trial would draw randomly at the individual level (see diagram on the right below). This has a few consequences: The sample sizes in the two conditions are more likely to be imbalanced as can be seen by comparing the two diagrams above where the CRCT has 62 patients in one arm and 361 in the other whereas the RCT has a more balanced 219 against 204. Randomization reduces the effect of systematic differences on a result by assuming that random allocation will even these effects out between the two arms. An example would be that rural clinics may have different results to urban clinics, but if you evenly distribute nurses from rural clinics and urban clinics, this will not affect the overall outcome. In the case of a CRCT however, you increase the likelihood that you will not have these systematic differences averaged out. A CRCT reduces the risk of contamination since there is lower likelihood that someone from Clinic 1 will speak to someone from Clinic 2 than communication within clinic. See http://bit.ly/2HgS2PE and http://bit.ly/33DSLUB for further details.
https://medium.com/patient-engagement-lab/cluster-randomized-control-trials-in-mhealth-9e6b34a44961
['Charles Copley']
2019-10-02 14:07:34.562000+00:00
['Health']
Your Secret
Your Secret I am a whisper that sits on your lips, dying to escape the confines of your arrogant smile I hide in your shadow, so you appear brighter and bolder like the bachelor you are I am the unsaved number in your phone, my thoughts stay anonymous I am your nobody, your no one You need me, you don’t want me So you keep me, your secret
https://medium.com/@lilywrites/your-secret-8aec7fdce70
[]
2020-12-14 08:23:15.156000+00:00
['Breakups', 'Poetry', 'Relationships', 'Poem', 'Love']
Austria enabled
in Both Sides of the Table
https://medium.com/blockchain-academy/austria-enabled-14f46a1231a2
['Blockchain Architect']
2016-11-26 23:46:24.266000+00:00
['Sidechains', 'Crypto', 'Bitcoin', 'Blockchain Technology', 'Blockchain']
How Brand Advocacy And Quality Reviews Support SaaS Hyper-Growth
This content was originally published on WebEngage. Customer reviews have revolutionized the way that consumers make buying decisions. The vast majority of consumers are actively seeking out reviews — and won’t even consider making a purchase until they like what they read. That said, these reviews don’t only impact the buyer’s experience. They actually have a massive effect on the reviewed company itself, and it’s potential for growth. In the world of SaaS, this is particularly true, as authentic reviews have become increasingly important. If buyers are expected to shell out tens of thousands of dollars for a software subscription, you can most certainly bet they’ll be doing their research first. In this article, we’ll cover the importance of customer reviews and how your customer’s authentic insights can drive growth. Table of Contents: 1. Reviews drive product improvement 2. Reviews authenticate your sales pitch 3. Reviews help you turn customers into advocates 4. Time to start gathering reviews Reviews drive product Improvement I’d bet that Salesforce looks a little different today than it did when it launched in 1999. In fact, I know it does. Based on the image below, it’s quite obvious that Salesforce’s user-interface has had a facelift (or two) over the years. In an industry that’s as saturated as the one surrounding software-as-a-service, these improvements are necessary to stay relevant. And as companies become increasingly innovative, meeting your customers’ needs is crucial to achieving high-growth. That all said, don’t fall into the trap of making updates just for the sake of, well, making updates. If you’re going to devote manpower to making changes, you should be sure that it’s based on your customers wants. Is this new feature going to make their life easier? Will it make them more productive at work? If not, why bother? This begs the question: how can we best understand our customers’ pain points? Enter customer reviews. Customer reviews offer incredibly valuable (and free) insight into your customers’ experiences. By focusing on the not-so-good reviews, you’ll get the best possible understanding of the features and fixes your audience is actually looking for. This isn’t to say you need to implement every suggestion received — you’d never be able to. Instead, try to identify the most common themes. If a single customer asks for customization, it may not be a true priority. On the other hand, if 80 percent of your negative reviews express disappointment with the same feature, it’s likely something worth looking into. In SaaS, being a customer-first company isn’t just a bonus — it’s essential. By letting customer reviews guide your product roadmap, you’re doing just that. Reviews authenticate your sales pitch Your company can’t experience hyper-growth if it doesn’t have any customers. In order to have customers, people need to buy your product. In order for people to buy your product, somebody needs to sell it. Okay — duh, right? Unfortunately, people often underestimate the modern consumer. And that means the sales pitch you’ve rehearsed in your head over and over again probably isn’t going to cut it. When somebody is choosing between two restaurants for dinner, they go check out their respective ratings on Yelp. If a busy pet owner is trying to decide which vacuum will actually pick up the dog hair from the white couch, they’ll go and read Amazon reviews from like-minded individuals. People aren’t scouring magazine ads or watching infomercials. Instead, they’re actively seeking social proof. So why — and I can’t stress this enough — are we assuming companies don’t shop for the software the same way? Well, they are. And the sooner your team embraces this, the better. Incorporating customer reviews into your sales pitch adds a much-needed layer of authenticity. Instead of hiding reviews, embrace them by featuring some real quotes in your sales deck, like in the example below. Your software likely isn’t the perfect tool for every business, and your prospect knows that. Instead of pretending it is, use customer reviews to show exactly how well it will cater to their company’s unique needs. Start by taking a deep-dive into the reviews you already have. Can you find a reviewer whose role, industry, or company size is similar to that of the prospect you’re pitching? If so, you’ve struck gold. Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, you’re able to cater your sales pitch to the individual prospect. In doing so, you’re leveling expectations for the future and proving that you’ve done the research necessary to truly help them succeed. Reviews help you turn customers into advocates Next time you’re seeking out that perfect case study candidate, turn to your product reviews. Customer reviews aren’t just an addition to your sales pitch. They’re also an incredible way to keep a pulse on your user’s happiness, manage relationships, identify high-risk accounts, and turn your happiest customers into full-fledged brand advocates. SaaS companies typically operate on a subscription basis, which means each customer’s purchase agreement contains a unique contract with its own start-and-end date. As opposed to on-premise software options, which require a significant payment up front, SaaS companies receive more modest payments at regular increments throughout the lifecycle of their customer relationships. Now, say one of your customers leaves a negative review, and you realize their contract isn’t up for another three months. If you regularly monitor your company reviews and catch this early on, there’s a chance you could still salvage the relationship before they opt out of their next renewal. While we don’t necessarily want to see a negative review, they can be incredibly valuable in helping you identify high-risk customers and make the necessary changes. On the other hand, customer reviews help you identify your happiest customers. What that really means is that they help you identify the customers who are most likely to become your brand’s most loyal and excited advocates. While SaaS tools aren’t quite as susceptible to influencer marketing as the hair vitamins you see all over Instagram, it’s still essential to your company’s growth to have a few key customers who aren’t shy about singing your praises. Your most glowing customer reviews will help you identify these individuals, so you can work on building and maintaining that relationship. Time to start gathering reviews If your team hasn’t started actively seeking out customer reviews, I have one question for you. What are you waiting for? Need help gathering reviews? Consider investing in an online reputation management software and watch the reviews roll in.
https://medium.com/@kinjal-shah/how-brand-advocacy-and-quality-reviews-support-saas-hyper-growth-3b833299280a
['Kinjal Shah']
2020-04-23 07:21:44.655000+00:00
['Growth Marketing', 'SaaS', 'Customer Service', 'Advocacy', 'Feedback']
Learn Decorators in Python in 5 Steps
Learn Decorators in Python in 5 Steps Add additional functionality to one or more functions Foto von Dids von Pexels Intro As we dive deeper into Python, we see many interesting features. One of them is decorators. As it is known, the ability to use many features exactly when we need them takes us forward. So let’s take a closer look at decorators in this article. 1. What are Decorators? Python has a concept called decorator that allows you to take advantage of the extra functionality quickly. Decorators are structures in Python that allow the use of other functions included in a function separately. This makes it easier to add additional functionality to one or more functions. When we want to use a simple function more functionally, we encounter two kinds of problems: The new function is added to the old function. However, in this case, the problem arises of not recalling the original function. When you copy all the old code and create a brand new function that you added later, you will have to recreate the entire functionality. This is also not an ideal way. So we need a more functional code structure that is both included in the function and has the option to be used when deemed necessary. Something like the following defines decorators: 2. Which function does it perform? If you are particularly interested in creating Web pages in Python, you’ll love using this. Because in Flask and Django, which is a more popular frame than Flask, you can prepare your web page in a way that is compatible with decorators. In real-life applications, you may not often see decorators achieved with most code builds. Especially in popular Python frameworks, it is sufficient to just add ready-made decorators to your projects. However, in this post, we would like to discuss what is the basis behind decorators. image created by the author 3. What are the advantages? We can list the advantages as follows: Avoiding designing complex code blocks Creating faster workspaces with less memory Facilitating the use of automatic functions related to the frontend in a certain order Using new code quickly within a function The decorator with the ‘@’ sign is used in the top line of the function and can be disabled (converted to the comment line) if it is desired not to affect the subfunction. So it can be controlled depending on how much and how you want to work with the original function. Then it’s easy to delete this in just one decorator line if you don’t want that extra functionality. 4. How can I understand better? Check the examples below to better understand its usage. First, let’s try to understand how it can be used by defining a simple function by assigning it to another variable: When we call the function, we get the result as follows: When we assign this function to another variable, we again get the same result: Now let’s delete the main function first: And then let’s call x again: Even though the original function has been deleted, x is still running. This is how the Python function allows assigning to another variable. Well now let’s go ahead and try to understand it with another example. Let’s examine the code blocks that have other functions. For example: As you can see, Python did not recognize the sub-function in the result section. We’ll use print to achieve this: We have also shown the indented function. Now let’s add another function. When we call the welcome () alone, which we defined in hello (), we actually get an error for it: So we can make below to call the functions within the ‘hello’ function separately: Or if we call it with the default name in the function, Kurt to give the other option: As you can see, we were able to view only sub-functions. This; is the idea of returning another function within a function. Let’s give another example: Now let’s define a new function as if we needed a decorator. I’ll call this func_needs_decorator: Now let’s combine the two with a variable: Now let’s see if we can get the same result thanks to the new_decorator we created. For this, we will make use of the special syntax used in the display of decorators, namely → @. If you wish, you can get rid of it thanks to the comment line with the open-close logic. Then it will look the same as before: Essentially, what decorators do here is surrounding. 5. What are the examples of its applications? As we briefly mentioned above, let’s discuss some of its applications for Flask. For login requirement: It facilitates the structure of the code that queries the real person’s fulfillment of the opening instruction for a login process. For example, we can see this while repeating the password and authentication section before logging in when the required condition is not met. For ideally cache: Let us assume that an initialized cache object exists. If you are also curious about creating a cache, you can get information from here. When you want to keep the cache usage limited, decorators can be adapted to what they want to do here. After generating the cached key, it calls the desired time and memory usage according to this key. Then the original function enters the environment after the decorator for the other state. Thus, the decorator provides the advantages of using limited memory. For auto template: In addition, template maker decorators are also widely used today. Basically, it allows the values obtained from the view function to be returned in dictionary format. In this use, decorators act as automatic formers. For flexible endpoint: When you need a distribution dispatcher, it appears when you want to adopt the ‘werkzeug.router’ system to more flexible work. In the distribution of the URL address with ‘Rule’, the endpoint decorator is included in the parenthesis by synchronizing the index.
https://medium.com/python-in-plain-english/5-steps-learn-to-use-decorators-in-python-cf5ef20e17ff
['Kurt F.']
2020-12-22 15:28:01.483000+00:00
['Software Development', 'Coding', 'Programming', 'Python', 'Data Science']
The High Canning
Brooks Range, what it’s like flying in, Flickr, Larry Scott Saturday, August 18th, 10:35 P.M. — Weathered in by wind and snow at the Waldo Arms, the little hotel in Barter Island, which is really no more structurally than a modular/mobile home conglomerate. This entry is as much to keep from losing track of the day as it is from having anything to say. I talk to people, those who live here, tour operators, other travelers, always with the hope of picking up information about this country I can use. I’ve been at this kind of thing for a while now, and I expect little. It’s curious, the more eager a person seems to give you something, the less likely it is to be useful. Unearned truth too often holds little value. I equate it with the riddles of the Fae. It can be understood, but too often the truth is only appreciated far too late to either turn back or do me any real good. It’s only a goad, a glimmer in the night to tease me. People want to ask how I plan to deal with the bears, but when I listen closely to what they don’t quite say they’re happier to hear me state I’m clueless. There’re too many useless tourists in this world, not enough bears. Guess which they’d rather see die? Sunday, August 19th, 5:09 P.M. — Yesterday, this part of the Arctic coast was too fogged in to fly into the Canning River. Walt Audi, the pilot, couldn’t drop off a party in the foothills. Walt and Meryln Audi’s little hotel in Barter is a charmed place. The food is good and the company better. Except of course for Walt and Meryln, they’ve dealt with too many tourists for too many years. They have information I could use. I’m sure of it, but the greatest kindness I could do them is just to leave them the hell alone. Speak, when I’m spoken to. I’ve fallen in with a pair of internationally traveled long bow hunters. Their talk is of Siberia, Africa, the far flung reaches of the world. They wouldn’t have spoken to me, but at airport security in Fairbanks when I had to uncase my rifle for inspection, and they saw the Model 1886 40–65 made in 1887, they took notice. Had it been a modern bolt action .300 magnum with a telescope, they would have pointedly ignored me. They don’t quite understand my reason for the massive old Winchester lever. I have nothing in particular against the .300 magnums. It’s the rifle for the man who is going to make the shot he should by rights have passed. It’s not the rifle I would choose for an encounter with a bear in the dark. That’s not the best use of the small thirty caliber bullets. The ’86 points with an almost mystical rightness when there’s neither the time nor the light to acquire the sights. Three times with the old Winchester levers in hand, I’ve forgotten in the excitement of the moment that I didn’t carry a shotgun and plucked a wild turkey out of the air. This worn white ’86 has a memory of the men who carried it before. When it’s my life, I’ll draw on those memories I feel but cannot quite touch. The long bow hunters believe I share a kind of commonality with them by intentionally eschewing the best in modern technology to handicap myself. They’re wrong. I use the old because I don’t trust the new. One of them had a Nalgene jar full of rare old Scotch. Last night I convinced him he didn’t need the extra weight in his backpack and that a ridge over the Kongakut River in grizzly country was no place to be drunk. In a backroom in this dry village, we traded stories about our travels, and drank it all. It was a heady time. 4:22 P.M., Finally in the Brooks Range on the Canning River — The sky has clouded over; the wind has picked up, and it’s colder. I’ve been organizing gear all afternoon, and except for the coaming, the raised border made of aluminum that fits around the hatch and works to keep the water out, I have the Folbot together. I’ve quit for the day and gone inside the tent. I still have gear I can’t find. My gear wasn’t organized for a quick start. Some of it was in the two bags I mailed to Barter Island in July — winter gear I didn’t need in Virginia. I’ve unpacked the food from the Barter Island store: the coffee, the sugar, and fifteen pounds of flour still unpacked in the unusable containers or paper sacks straight from the store. The guides from the group of sheep hunters, who are also using this airstrip, came down to visit. They said I shouldn’t encounter anyone on the trip out to the coast on the Canning. These weren’t the first guides I’d met, and anyone who has read in the outdoor literature is familiar with how it romanticizes the guide. In the rich tradition of hunting guides, as recorded by Hemingway, Ruark, and years of Outdoor Life stories, this ear-ringed kid didn’t stack up to much. He assessed me just as hard — a thing a man feels on his skin, doesn’t like it much but feels it — before he said, “None of them back up there would have the balls to do what you’re doing.” If I suspected he was right, I was just as confident he didn’t know, a kid’s judgment of men, meant nothing to me, the traditional Alaskan contempt of the outsider. If I had paid his outfit for a week’s sheep hunt, nothing I could have done in that week would have been enough to win his respect. Respect of the guide, and the winning of it, has always figured as a cornerstone in the outdoor literature. Which is kind of the reverse, I suspect, of the way it really is. People who drop that kind of money don’t lose sleep over the opinions of temporary employees. Guide, as owner-operator, is all but gone. These cats were employees, paid on a shoestring. Anything extra they came away with was going to be from tips. Any attitude they had about their clients was going to be carefully concealed. I would have never heard it if they thought I was apt to spend time in their camp, and they pointedly didn’t invite me. I didn’t invite them either, but more than likely they were down here to find out if I was here to hunt sheep and explain that this was their territory, and when they learned I intended to leave as soon as I could, they relaxed. My initial impulse to leave this place quickly when I discovered this campsite was tainted by the presence of others would have never worked. I’m still not ready. Monday, August 20, 5:37 A.M., The landing strip camp — The coffee is on. Outside, under a low cloud ceiling, a light rain mists. The wind is up somewhat from last night, and it’s cool, but there’s no ice in the pot of water I brought in the vestibule last night for this morning’s coffee and oatmeal. If conditions hold, I should be able to move. I’m always quiet in campsite, especially so this morning. Noise might be taken to suggest I’m open to visitors and conversation. 5:58 A.M. — Reorganization is a priority. I need to pack my gear to protect it, protection of the matches being a major priority. With the fire striker, they’re no longer needed for the stove, but to rely on a fire striker entirely would be to have fewer fires. There’s no way around it, the fire striker requires more skill and drier tinder than an actual match, When used to light anything other than the stove, the kind of dry tinder required too often takes forever to make, if it’s available at all. In favor of the striker, it’s waterproof, and the matches aren’t. Scrub willows grow thick at this airstrip, but the area close in to camp appears picked clean of easily used dry sticks. People have camped here before because of the airstrip, and they’ve used the easy wood. It should be better further down. 6:18 A.M. — The quality of these strike-on-anything matches is poor. Some already have blackened heads, and others were manufactured without the white phosphorus part that strikes. I thought shipping them in the unopened box was the thing to do. I was wrong. Trust nothing. 8:40 A.M. — The merlin made a pass by my campsite. It has been many years since I’ve seen one. According to the range map in Peterson’s, I’m pushing the northern edge of their range and lucky to see this tiny falcon. Snow has blown hard all morning. With the Folbot together, I can consider moving today. Fog blankets the upper elevations. I relocate gear. By the time I found the filet knife, I had accepted that I didn’t have it. Tension mars the moment. I try to tell myself there are mistakes I can’t make, that I will not make, but I know better. Between what I packed on the flight up, mailed from home, and bought quickly in a supermarket in Fairbanks, and in the little store in Barter Island, I’m perfectly capable of making any kind of mistake. I made exhaustive lists of every item in every bag, but I long ago learned that just because an item appears on a list doesn’t constitute proof it’s really in the bag. The mind is given to strange lapses, a thing to accept and expect. The filet knife is something I could have done without. If I were down to one or two knives, it would never be included. The thin, flexible blade lacks backbone for heavy cutting and is too vulnerable to breakage. I can prepare a fish for the pan without it, although it wouldn’t be as neat or as quick. I do the vast majority of my actual cutting with the filet knife. If I try never to be out of reach of a knife, I keep the actual cutting to a minimum. I don’t want a dull blade when I need one because I’ve been whittling on something I didn’t need to cut, and every slice or chop with a blade is a potential accident. More telling, a cut with a tool is an unnatural thing in nature, and it leaves behind a signature to the world, or to anyone capable of reading, of the man who made the cut. More important than the filet knife is wondering what else I either forgot or didn’t know about that I’ll need. 10:07 A.M. — An attempt to move against this driving snow strikes me as foolish. It’s going to stick at the higher elevations. I’ll feel better when I see how this gear packs up in the boat, and after I feed myself for the first time off the country. 10:40 A.M. — I started one of Lorrie’s books, Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior by Chogyam Trungpa. She made a special visit to leave this book with me. She said she didn’t need it back, that I could use it for fire starter if I needed. I know little of her beyond the obvious, that she’s a stunning beauty. We met in the weeks running up to this attempt on the Canning. She writes a column for the local paper, self-publishes books of poetry, and she’s in every environmental group I’ve ever heard of and plenty more I haven’t. Her marginal notes interest me more than the book. In certain circles, there is a deep belief in the hidden wisdom of the East. I can’t say it isn’t there, but I can’t help thinking of Private Ken McCoy, Killer McCoy, a China Marine, a character in W.E.B. Griffith’s Marine series. Killer called this “The thousand years of culture crap.” I’m not about to say there isn’t wisdom in the East, ancient wisdom if you must, but it doesn’t particularly show up in their governments. This western fascination with the trappings of the East, aside from the true Orientalists, and their years of research, strikes me as insipid New Age Wu-Wu imitation. An entry I find myself looking at again and again reads: “Coltsfoot out, February 29.” No reasonable person would make anything out of that one cryptic line, except perhaps in passing to wonder why she thought such a common occurrence, a thing that is going to happen anyway, whether it’s noted or not, was worth recording. Yet, I find myself wondering how much she knows about coltsfoot. It’s widely enough distributed. I’ve found it in the Yukon and in the Territories, as I wandered valleys that no one else wanted that year, and I’ve found it all over Southwest Virginia. Technical botany, though, is not my interest: coltsfoot has its dark side. For centuries it has been associated with witches. I ask myself, if Lorrie possessed that arcane fragment of knowledge. I have no way of knowing. Nor does it much matter. Possession of trivia tells less than a person’s intuitive response to the world around them. Had she lived in the 17th century, would have been labeled a witch? It’s for damn sure, she’s going to be judging my reactions to her marginalia. She drops tidbits to test my understanding. She couldn’t have missed that I’ve read a book or so, here and there, but so far as I’ve told her, I’m another high school dropout, something of a recluse, socially backward. Mentoring appeals to her. Will I ever see her again? In the past, when I have done these trips, my appreciation of what I faced was reduced to the brown and blue lines on a topographical map. This time I don’t face a complete unknown. When I flew up here from Barter with Walt Audi, he traced the coastline for a time. Flat unprotected country of little vegetation, its most obvious wealth the massive mounds of driftwood from the great Mackenzie. But back to the question that really interests me, whether I will die tomorrow or next week isn’t a particularly new way for me to live. The more interesting question is, if I do survive my immediate future, will I see her again? I think I shouldn’t count on that. There is an elusiveness to her, a fear. She searches for a man of sensitivity who may not be real. She sees herself as deeply spiritual, a quality I’m completely devoid of, and she looks for her like. A wandering rifleman, past his best years, hardly fills the bill. Meeting her a few weeks before this trip couldn’t have been worse timing. I would have preferred to have the possibility of any budding relationship resolved and put behind me. 2:52 P.M. — The snow for the moment has stopped, and the cloud ceiling has raised, but the wind if anything has picked up. Out of the wind it is pleasant. This is the trap: the season closes; the weather worsens. I’m unfamiliar with this country. Do I dare wait for better weather that might not come? 2:58 P.M. — I dreamed last night of becoming a better man. A man of substance, valued by those around him for the work his wealth represents, or for the scholarship of years, that lay behind his words. I no longer hope. I know myself better. There is the next hill, the next river, and there is no caution in my heart. Neither is there much give. The rigidity is dangerously brittle. 6:05 P.M — I’ve been out walking in the wind. I released Lorrie’s little white feather. I almost didn’t. I made sure not to let it slip out of my hand, as I placed it firmly in the current of the Canning. I watched it for a few minutes before turning to scramble back up the bank. When I looked back it was gone. I could go back to the moment when she handed me the white feather and asked me to release it an Arctic river and do it better. I might have shown a reaction beyond stunned silence. So historical imagery is not her forte. When a woman hands a man a white feather it is a judgment and an accusation of cowardice. It’s beyond challenge. The man will never be offered a chance to respond. She slips out of his life. Symbolism, even unintentional, weighs too hard with me. She didn’t know. Was I a coward? That’s always a view from the outside. In the wilderness I understood how to calculate odds and advantage and act in my interest. I’m as happy to sidestep any opportunity to prove myself. She meant to impress her poetic soul on me, if she had already judged me and found me wanting. When she showed me her poetry, I muttered, “Nice.” She paused for me to try to tell her what it meant. At the very least I might have latched onto a stray image, elucidated it, offered some bone, some sense of feeling. I didn’t. Too much MFA, too little reading. I mouthed to myself if not loud enough for her to hear, “September 1939. Yeats is dead. Poetry is over.” That wasn’t fair. Poets lived, but that meant nothing to me. Were I to meet one, I had nothing to offer in return. It could be that I had too little education to understand what I read, but with the real thing, it was possible to feel something first. Hers made no syntactical sense. And she had no sense of the difference between the insight and the cliché. The image of the released feather in the stream was too painfully common. The image of those long, toned legs in motion wasn’t. Some images were timeless. They haunt long after the moment is passed.
https://medium.com/lit-up/the-high-canning-96e984f419a3
['Edd Jennings']
2019-04-30 12:30:25.668000+00:00
['Memoir', 'Travel', 'This Happened To Me', 'Memories', 'Alaska']
Blockport Business Update
As our product teams are making huge steps in the right direction, we want to provide you with a short update on what is going on behind the scenes of Blockport with regards to the compliance and business side. Risk & Compliance A while ago we stated in one of our product updates that: “We are basically building a bank” and this is essentially true from a security and regulatory perspective. Last weeks we have been working hard to bring even more structure to our organizational governance, and will keep doing this in the coming years. For a startup that is not even a year in existence, this may sound very counterintuitive, nevertheless extremely important in order to prepare for long-term collaborations with established organizations and regulatory agencies. Therefore, we created an initial organizational risk assessment which encompasses risks on the level of operational and internal integrity, credit, environmental, liquidity matching, legal, outsourcing, marketing and IT. The goal of such assessments are to provide guidance and structure to our team and external parties we closely work with, as well as becoming a solid and trustworthy actor in the fintech ecosystem. For example, credit risks are mitigated by setting up enhanced KYC (Know-your-customer) checks that are in place at Blockport when accepting credit card payments that serve to protect the organization from possible credit card fraud and the ramifications that arise from fraudulent credit card transactions. Think of costly chargebacks and potential damage to our company’s reputation. We develop this organizational governance framework by closely working together with risk and compliance specialist Geert Blom from Enigma Consulting and Johannes de Jong from Osborne Clarke, to set up the first policies step by step, which we can then use to train and educate our team. Blockport visiting Malta In line with preparing the Blockport organization for long-term collaborations with financial institutions, the founders of Blockport will visit Malta next week, where they will be meeting with potential financial partners. Recently we also made first contact with Maltese officials from the Parliamentary Secretariat for Financial Services, Digital Economy & Innovation to discuss the regulatory landscape of Malta regarding cryptocurrency trading. During the week we are meeting with payment service providers, banks and e-money institutions to explore the possibilities of a collaboration. Therefore Blockport is also exploring the possibility of incorporating Blockport in Malta so that we are ready for future collaborations with these parties. As some of you know, Malta offers a more friendly regulatory framework than most European countries, which allows us to move quicker towards our goal of becoming a globally accessible platform. We are exploring opportunities in Malta in parallel with our current financial partners in the Netherlands to optimize our chances of success. Hilton Midtown NYC (Consensus 2018) Attending Consensus (NYC) and TNW (Amsterdam) Last week we attended Consensus in New York City, where the Blockport team had a lot of meetings with interesting parties ranging from liquidity providers to companies developing trading solutions. Additionally, we attended side events where we got the chance to meet with multiple crypto influencers and founders from other blockchain startups. On the first day of Consensus our CTO Zowie Langdon took the stage in the ARK room and presented Blockport’s current status and future challenges. Although we were not on the official agenda, we had a good attendance where people were very involved. During the presentation we revealed designs of the Social Trading features that have only been tested and shared with interviewees until now. We uploaded the slides of the presentation here so that you can check them out! (download the pdf for better quality) Blockport presentation in ARK room at Consensus (Solomon left) At Consensus we finally met one of our most famous community members, Solomon! We had some interesting discussions with Solomon and the others that attended. Thanks to everyone who took the effort to come to our presentation and meet us. Although we just got back from New York City, we are already hosting a Blockport booth this week at The Next Web (TNW) conference in Amsterdam on the 25th of May from 09:00–13:00! At the booth we will be showcasing our latest concept designs, handing out promotional content and last but not least: showing people the working Beta on our private network. Additionally, we will be meeting with teams from other exchanges that are also attending the conference. The Next Web is one of the biggest tech conferences in the world with over 15.000 people attending each day. If you are attending, look for the Blockport branded flags to find our booth and come say hello! Beta contest results so far A few weeks ago we kicked off our marketing with the Blockport Beta Access Contest (BBAC) and we can all agree that the response from our community on the BBAC was enormous and overwhelming! In the first weeks after the start of the contest we have received over 300.000+ new and unique visitors on our website, 14.000+ Telegram members, 20.000+ Twitter followers, 17.000+ Facebook page likes and over 850.000+ BBAC contestants. Despite all these new followers, we noticed that some BBAC contestants have scored enormous amounts of points, and therefore the team of Blockport is currently investigating these cases for validity. Therefore, contestants that have been performing fraudulent activities will be disqualified from the contest and fake accounts will be deleted. Although we noticed that contestants have been falsely informed by third parties as the BBAC being an airdrop, the contest created a lot of base exposure and therefore our marketing activities that are following up will have a better reach throughout the market. Blockport’s quest for top talent As many of you may have noticed, we are exponentially growing by the minute. We currently have eleven job openings ranging from Brand Manager to Senior Back-end Engineer. If you are highly ambitious and love a fast paced startup environment in the center of Amsterdam, feel free to apply for one of our openings, or share our careers page with your professional network! http://jobs.blockport.io We have also assigned more of our resources to attain more experienced tech consultants from various tech consultancy companies that bring in even more team knowledge and experience when it comes to setting up and maintaining security, testing and documentation. This is a necessary act in order to make sure that we can sustain our immensely fast product development process, while maintaining a highly secure environment that also offers our second generation of developers the tools to quickly understand how Blockport works. Creating these guidelines and documentation in collaboration with experienced consultants will give our existing team members more structure and provides newcomers a quicker on-boarding process as well. The next steps Leading up to the open beta, our next update will elaborate more on our roll-out plan and includes more information on the current status of the private Beta.
https://medium.com/blockport/blockport-business-update-da786cd40461
['Sebastiaan Lichter']
2018-05-23 09:30:51.474000+00:00
['Fintech', 'Business', 'Blockchain', 'Ethereum', 'Exchange']
5 Ways To Be Less Wasteful For New Parents in 2020
When was the last time you honestly asked yourself — am I a wasteful person? How much waste have I created in the past month? The truth is, most of us don’t think about how much value we get from the things we use everyday — ESPECIALLY once parenting becomes your full time gig. If you’re getting ready for a new addition to the family, here are 5 tips on how to be less wasteful: 1. Re-use as much as possible Cloth Diapers: Diapers are one of the biggest culprits when it comes to creating waste for new parents. According to Babylist.com, newborns go through around 700 diapers in the first 3 months — and every single one ends up in a landfill. Reusable diapers are hands down the way to go. Babylist.com suggests having around 24 cloth diapers for newborns. We recommend buying quality cloth diapers to help contain those unforeseen natural disasters heading your way. Bumgenius is a good choice — the award winning cloth diaper company offers a 30 day guarantee on all their products at a great price point. Rent Baby Clothes: Why waste money buying when you can just rent? Newborns out grow 8 sizes within the first 2 years. That means a completely new wardrobe every 4 months on average. Evita Leto is a Brooklyn based start up giving parents the opportunity to rent brand name baby clothes for a fraction of the cost. After filling out a quick style profile, our team curates a custom order and sends clothes as the child continues to grow. It’s like Rent The Runway only for babies. 2. Inventory Check-list Try not to freak out about buying things until AFTER having the baby shower. Registries make it easier for new parents to plan what additional items they still need. Pro Tip: Make sure to invite YOUR ENTIRE WORK FAMILY to the baby shower ;) Also, avoid stocking up on anything with an expiration date such as formulas and other perishables. Remember, you’re having a baby — not preparing for a zombie apocalypse. 3. Maintenance We tend to only take care of high priced items such as cars or houses — but it’s usually the little things that end up being a huge problem in our landfills.
https://medium.com/the-green-new-parent/5-ways-to-be-less-wasteful-for-new-parents-in-2020-8815b87deaf0
['Walter Ruilova']
2020-06-11 16:30:29.111000+00:00
['Money Management', 'Baby Clothes', 'Sustainability', 'Parenting', 'Baby Products']
What does the bride need right now?
Ten years ago this July, I got married. It was back in 2010 but it feels like yesterday; I certainly have vivid memories like it was yesterday. Memories of the excitement, the joy, the beauty, the connections, the gratitude for having friends from all over the world travel to share this special day with us. For this July of the year 2020, a lot of brides and grooms experience excitement too, but of a different kind — and definitely less joy. It will be an unusual July because we are (and may still be three months from now) cooped up at home, practising social distancing, unable to connect, deprived of the joy of anticipation, unable to have friends travel from all over the world. I know a thing or two about the questions these brides and grooms ask themselves today — because they ask me those questions. I help out with managing a wedding location, which usually is one of the best side jobs in the world: you meet lots of enthusiastic young couples, very much in love, very excited, very happy. You contribute to making them even happier by providing a century-old location with bohemian charm - as a backdrop for them to write the first chapter of their lives together. These days, it’s not so great a job anymore. The couples that are usually so happy are now anxious, insecure, confused. They don’t know whether their wedding in July (or August, or September) of 2020 will even be allowed to go ahead; they don’t know whether to commit to a caterer; they don’t know whether their best man from Hong Kong will be allowed in the country any time soon. I have been dealing with a lot of this anxiety and confusion, and it takes a big toll: emotionally, and because big money is at stake on both sides. For us as a wedding location, we’re also anxious: will the couple reschedule by a year? Will they cancel altogether? Will they ask for their deposit back — money which has already been reinvested in upkeep and improvements, because a century-old building is a bottomless pit? Just last week, I was on the phone with one such couple. They had both been furloughed, were on benefits instead of their usual double income, and knew there was no way they could pay for a wedding this year. They were anxious; and so was I. The bottomless pit was beckoning. On the phone, I was just listening and not making any promises. In my head, I was thinking about the legal implications: yes, Covid was a problem — but whose problem was it, theirs or ours? Would we be allowed to keep the deposit, or claim the full rent despite a cancellation? The couple was talking about postponing to 2021, but they also needed money, right now, so indeed they were asking for their deposit back. What to do? It took me a week to figure out. In hindsight, it wasn’t that difficult — but it took a week nonetheless. One morning I woke up with the realization what it actually means to run a wedding location. You’re not renting out a space. You’re not providing a service. It’s much bigger than that: you are part of a couple’s dream for their big day, and the happiness of all their guests. So the only thing that mattered was: What Does The Bride Need Right Now? Thankfully, she had told me herself. She needed money. She needed respite. She needed to feel no pressure so she could get back on her feet, financially and emotionally, in her own time. So of course we paid back the entire deposit. It was hard, because really we had already spent that money; but it was what the bride needed, and catering to the bride’s needs is the right thing to do and the very reason our business exists. You cannot begin to imagine the relief and gratitude when we told them. Once they get their finances back in order, they will book our location again, that’s for sure — because they felt the connection, felt the empathy of us taking their side and taking a long view. And while the bride and groom are certainly still hurting about the disruption of their plans — in the end, it is not going to matter whether they get married in 2020 or 2021. Ten years from now, in 2030, it will feel like yesterday, either way.
https://medium.com/@bodo.krugvonnidda/what-does-the-bride-need-right-now-f510ac4ed98c
['Bodo Krug Von Nidda']
2020-04-23 12:47:40.700000+00:00
['Covid 19', 'Weddings', 'Wedding Planning', 'Wedding Locations']
Goddess of the Mediterranean
I conquer dreamers’ hearts and minds. I conquer conquerors. I know the magic to spellbind the darkest sorcerers. It’s dim and cozy in my soul. At core I’m tender. I rule my sea from shore to shore in sweet surrender. My waves run by in blissful motion but I love danger. I favour with discrete devotion courageous strangers. My waters know the cruel wars of dying cultures; the tragic drowning of lost souls in search of fortune. I know that humans are not bad. They act from fear, but fear is the biggest threat. It nurtures evil. My sea is made for love and sailing, and happy living at the coast. I beg you: stop the nasty reigning over what was never yours.
https://denicayay.medium.com/goddess-of-the-mediterranean-151cdbb3067f
['Denica Yay']
2018-12-04 19:43:08.918000+00:00
['Poetry', 'Mediterranean', 'Sea', 'Migration', 'God']
Were the 2018 Elections Hacked?
Q&A with Eileen Donahoe, the first US ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva and currently the executive director of the Global Digital Policy Incubator at FSI’s CDDRL. Written with Aine Tyrrell. We’ve all heard about how the 2016 US election was compromised by Russian interference. But what about 2018? Were the elections “hacked” this time around? How did tech companies respond to digital threats, and how can we prepare for 2020? To answer these questions and more, we spoke with Eileen Donahoe, an expert on the intersection between the tech world and government. In your opinion, did the U.S. democratic process work on Tuesday, November 6th 2018? In broad strokes I would say yes — our system basically worked. And I would add that I think we should all feel relieved that there was no catastrophic attack on our election infrastructure. Before the election, there was considerable concern that such a catastrophic attack might occur. Such an event could easily have created widespread chaos and completely eroded confidence in the integrity of the outcome of the midterm elections. On the other hand, there were many scattered incidents of hacking so no one should feel at ease about the experience in the midterms. Just in the period between August 1 and election day on November 6, over 160 different state, local, and county election officials reported that their machinery was infiltrated by foreign hackers. In addition, on the disinformation front, a federal indictment just a few weeks before the election showed us that the Russian Internet Research Agency was still trying to undermine the integrity of civic discourse around the U.S. election and sway voters through disinformation campaigns. This form of disinformation has the potential to wreck havoc on the body politic….Deep fakes are coming and we need to prepare the public. We should all have a sense of urgency about the need to re-think security for our election infrastructure and processes. The hard part here is that the political leadership in the United States is not yet fully unified behind this idea, but the bottom line is — we got past the midterm election, and it wasn’t the disaster it might have been. On a positive note, we should feel relieved that there were no reports of deep fake videos being utilized to fabricate stories about politicians and candidates saying or doing things that they did not do. Deep fakes are a new form of synthetic AI-generated disinformation that lets malign actors patch the head of a person onto the body of another. This form of disinformation has the potential to wreck havoc on the body politic. A number of researchers were wagering before the election that deep fake videos of candidates would seriously affect the election outcome. We dodged that threat this time, but deep fakes are coming and we need to prepare the public. The midterm elections saw the highest voter turnout in decades. Is this a positive sign for American democracy, or was this merely reactionary, proof of polarization in US politics? I would say the massive turnout was a very positive sign. I would much rather have greater enfranchisement, with people being energized and excited about voting. From my vantage point, with so much noise and disinformation, the bigger risk is that people disengage or turn off. If the prevailing sense in political discourse is that nothing is true, or that candidates can’t be seen as reliable or trustworthy, then citizens will give up and pull out of the democratic process. This is one of the primary goals of foreign information operations: to get people not to care. So while increased voter turnout on both sides of the aisle was, to some extent, a reflection of growing polarization, it’s much better than the alternative. There were reports that Facebook removed 115 accounts across Instagram and Facebook itself hours before the midterm election. Said account are reputed to have been in French and Russian, and to have had connections with foreign entities. Do you think these accounts impacted voter turnout or voting patterns? Or did this incident impact public confidence in the democratic process? We know that foreign information operations have been ongoing. The Facebook evidence you just cited is just further proof that these disinformation campaigns are still happening. The basic effect of these info ops is to exacerbate polarization, undermine trust, and erode the quality of civic discourse. This report was not enough to erode overall confidence in the election outcome, so I would argue this was just a drop in the bucket. Campaigns to manipulate citizens’ views do work. They are slowly eroding the quality of civic engagement and trust in information or candidates. But while we don’t have direct evidence of causality — in other words, we can’t prove that voters are actually changing their votes based on disinformation — there is no question in my mind that disinformation has a dramatic and negative effect. My general sense is that these campaigns to manipulate citizens’ views do work. They are slowly eroding the quality of civic engagement and trust in information or candidates. One strange twist here is that, in the days immediately before the election, rather than denying involvement, the Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA) was publicly claiming that they were manipulating voter opinion. It’s hard to know what they wanted with that admission. Are they trying to show us that they are messing with our election, so we feel manipulated, regardless of actual impact on the vote? Is that, itself, the trick? The level of manipulation here is sometimes hard to fathom. Hear more from Eileen Donahoe on digital threats to US elections on World Class, a podcast from the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies:
https://medium.com/freeman-spogli-institute-for-international-studies/were-the-2018-elections-hacked-e59a25bba190
['Fsi Stanford']
2018-12-11 20:21:11.140000+00:00
['Hacking', 'Election 2018', 'Fsi Scholars', 'Democracy', 'Elections']
The right to parent
Should a couple, where both parents have Down syndrome, be able to procreate? If you watch Australian Story, you’ll know what I’m talking about. If not, let me give you a brief synopsis of the episode “Tough Love”: Michael Cox and Taylor Anderton are two world-class swimmers who are in love, recently engaged, and excited at the prospect of having children. Now if you’re like me you’re reacting in a way similar to this: However, this was not the reaction that was seen from either of these youngsters parents. Why? Because Michael and Taylor both have Down syndrome. What is Down syndrome? There are 3 different types of Down syndrome: Trisomy 21: where there is the presence of an extra whole chromosome 21 in every cell in the body (occurs in 95% of people with Down syndrome) Translocation: where there is an extra part of chromosome 21 attached to another chromosome (occurs in 4% of children with Down syndrome) Mosaicism: where there is the presence of an extra whole chromosome 21 in only some body cells (occurs in approximately 1% of people with Down syndrome) Diagnosis of Down syndrome The diagnosis of Down syndrome is usually made soon after birth due to the baby’s appearance, with some of the physical features of a baby with Down syndrome including a flat facial profile, eyes that slant upwards and outwards, and a below average birth weight and length. Effects of Down syndrome A person with Down syndrome also has exposure to many health-related risks that put immense emotional and financial stress on the affected person’s caregiver and/or family. For instance, a significant number of people with Down syndrome will have: Hearing and sight issues Poor immune systems Respiratory problems, coughs and colds Obstructed gastrointestinal tracts An increased risk of getting infections Heart problems at birth, which may require surgery Down syndrome, in the majority of cases, is not an inherited condition, and the syndrome does not discriminate; affecting people of all ages, races, religious backgrounds and economic situations. So Michael and Taylor have Down syndrome? They’re human beings, they deserve to make their own decisions about what they do with their lives and bodies. Hell, it’s even recognised by a UN Convention, prescribing that persons with disabilities have the right ‘to marry and to found a family on the basis of free and full consent of the intending spouses’. Why should having Down syndrome affect their right to want, and eventually have, children? This was the question that led my original internal rant on the subject, but once I got past my emotionally clouded judgements, I realised that the parents of the two highlighted some very important points regarding the suitability of two Down syndrome people raising a child. These points, combined with further research into the contentious topic, revealed to me that there are some serious factors to ponder before immediately jumping on the pro-baby wagon… #1 The Caregivers One of the main arguments made by Taylor’s Stepfather, was that the grandparents, as caregivers to Michael and Taylor, would have to play a significant role in the upbringing of a child. It is no surprise, after already spending over 20 years raising children of their own (one of which is disabled) that the couple’s parents aren’t thrilled about the idea of being responsible for yet another child — of which may also have Down syndrome. This argument is applicable to any caregivers of a Down syndrome person who has already experienced the intense routine of appointments, from physio, to speech, to special check-ups, and the other pressures that come from caring for a disabled person for their entire life. To me, it’s understandable that a caregiver may be resistant to the idea of this person, who already requires increased support, wanting to introduce another huge responsibility into their life. #2 The Baby The fertility of people with Down syndrome is significantly lower than a non-disabled person, making it very difficult for Down syndrome couples to conceive in the first place. However, should a couple like Michael and Taylor successfully conceive, there are many associated risks: Higher chance of miscarriage Increased likelihood of a premature birth, or need for a caesarean Higher chance of the child having Down syndrome The last point is probably the most contentious in that it begs the question, should a Down syndrome couple have a baby if there is a high chance that child will also have Down syndrome, even though they know full well what that entails? For those of you that are curious, where one parent has Down syndrome, there is a 35–50% chance that the child would inherit the syndrome, and where both parents have the syndrome, these chances increase significantly. #3 The Parents This particular section deals with one big question; are a Down syndrome couple capable enough to care for a child? As one of the main causes of intellectual disability, Down syndrome is responsible for about 15–20% of the intellectually disabled population. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, over 60% of people with intellectual disability in Australia experience severe or profound limitation in core daily living activities like self-care, self-direction, safety, communication and socialisation. Should a couple who requires so much assistance with their day-to-day activities really be responsible for a child? Or would they even be able to be responsible, wouldn’t it instead be the duty of the caregiver as stated above? Those in Australia characterised as intellectually disabled have an IQ quotient below 70, the average is 100. This illustrates that those with Down syndrome experience delayed development and some level of difficulty learning new things, understanding concepts, solving problems, concentrating and remembering — most of which are skills that are required of a competent parent. Would a Down syndrome parent be able to help their child with maths homework, or remember dentist appointments without outside assistance? These points illustrate the increased difficulty in having Down syndrome and being a parent, but we must also remember that there is a high chance that these couples would be parents to a disabled child. If parenting whilst affected by a disability wasn’t hard enough, parenting a Down syndrome child whilst being a Down syndrome person yourself adds so much more pressure to the job. To answer the question are people like Michael and Taylor going to be able to cope with this responsibility…I’d like to say I hope so, because no one should be deprived of the right to have a child. However, I also understand why many people close to this situation, like Michael and Taylor’s parents, are opposed to the idea. There is a reason that it is not uncommon that Down syndrome people choose not to have children. In many of their eyes, it isn’t fair to the parents’ caregivers or the resulting child. So, I’d love to give you a straight answer, but unfortunately this is one of those things where it’s not society’s place to judge. For more information, visit: Down Syndrome Association of Queensland — http://www.dsaq.org.au/
https://medium.com/the-isthmus/the-right-to-parent-b34089ebb61d
['The Isthmus']
2016-10-31 00:09:57.830000+00:00
['Controversy', 'Intellectually Disabled', 'Disabled', 'Australian Story', 'Downsyndrome']
Trump’s Military Coup Moment Has Arrived
If you’re not slightly terrified, filled with a state of unease at the present moment, you should be. What’s so special about this moment, you might ask? One can only guess at what must be going on in the mind of U.S. President Donald Trump, as he contemplates his options. Over the past five years, anyone with a sound mind and rational thinking capabilities has been downright alarmed at the president’s autocratic tendencies, his complete inability to understand the basic functioning of our government, and his insistence on using the proverbial broad sword of the military where the surgical precision of political savvy is necessary. If there was ever a time that many of our fears would be most likely to materialize, this would be it. As President Trump scrambles to buy time and figure out a way to overturn the legitimate election that unseated him, the President who’s shared all of the traditional hallmarks of the autocratic tendency is looking for any way to cling to power. And Trump has a lot of unsavory characters in his orbit these days. Between Sidney Powell, the lawyer who stood in front of the nation and talked about “releasing the Kraken” before espousing a series of conspiracy theories that sought to explain why Trump lost the election; and Michael Flynn, the disgraced former National Security Advisor who now spends his free time talking about a military coup on live TV; it’s safe to say the better characters in Trump’s inner orbit have jumped ship. Senators like Mitt Romney have long stood against Trump’s antics. And now even Bill Barr, Trump’s hand-picked attorney general is fleeing and making statements that distance himself from the President’s lies and undemocratic pronouncements. It seems like just days ago I was reporting on Michael Flynn’s live TV interview where he said the President could just install the military in the battleground states where he didn’t win, force them to hold another election — one where Trump, not Biden would win — and thus steal the election from the duly elected President-elect Joe Biden. That was bad enough. But the three members of Trump’s dark inner circle had a meeting Friday morning, Trump, Powell, and Michael Flynn, where they discussed Sidney Powell being elected to the position of a special council to uncover perceived election interference, interference that there’s zero evidence for (and all evidence points in the opposite direction). But beyond this, Flynn apparently may have raised the point of implementing martial law, using the military to functionally enact an American coup. While Senator Romney and others decried the meeting and said there’s no way possible any of this would fly, it is alarming to stop and think, “We’re here.” We’re at this point, the do-or-die moment, as Trump stands before the American Rubicon, barely treading above water in his last 700 hours in office (at the time of this writing). He’s likely desperate, confused, and volatile. This may very well be the first moment in Trump’s life where he’s met a problem he can’t buy, lie, or cheat his way out of. The voters have spoken. His sentence has been finalized. He’s committed to being a one-term President who oversaw several of the biggest catastrophes in American history. Not only that, he stoked the flames of each, from COVID-19 denialism to anti-mask rhetoric, to fanning the flames of the George Floyd protests and sending in unmarked federal troops to clash with protestors (and rioters, to be fair) in the streets. Make no mistake, the stuff Michael Flynn has been talking about over the last few weeks are dangerous. He said Trump could give the order to steal voting machines in order to hold a new election, a mock election, functionally undoing the vote of the American People. And Trump asked about the idea, poking around for details that might help him in his quest to remain president at all costs. Trump seems to have forgotten the raging pandemic that’s claimed over 300,000 American lives. One has to wonder what’s going through the minds of these people. Can they not accept the fact that they lost? For me, it’s hard to put myself into the mental state of the kind of person who would burn down the Republic because they couldn’t handle losing, but it seems that Trump, Flynn, Powell, and the surprising (read: alarming) amount of followers who’ve still clung to the Trump brand like a fading trend they’d invested their life savings on, are just those kinds of people. Incapable of accepting reality as it is. The Republican Party Chair of Arizona is even urging Trump, in those words, to “cross the Rubicon,” an obvious reference to Julius Caesar’s crossing of the Rubicon River and starting of the Roman Civil War of 49 B.C. This is just one more statement in a long lineage of Confederate apologetics and civil war rhetoric. None of this is new for much of the Republican base. It makes me wonder… What are they really thinking? What are they really planning? And could it really work? For what it’s worth, I think we have a good hunch about what the answer might be to the first two questions. And fortunately, to the last question, I think it’s just about next to impossible. Trump would have to find military generals willing to carry out such commands in his name. Here we’d have a draft dodger ordering career military to essentially undo the American nation. Something tells me that conversation wouldn’t go over so well. There is also the problem of checks and balances, something that was thankfully built right into the American system. “He’s leaving Washington with a whole series of conspiracy theories and things that are so nutty and loopy that people are shaking their head wondering what in the world has gotten into this man,” said Senator Romney about these final weeks of the Trump presidency. Romney followed up by saying, “It’s not going to happen. That’s going nowhere. And I understand the president is casting about trying to find some way to have a different result than the one that was delivered by the American people, but it’s really sad in a lot of respects and embarrassing.” I can’t see how this doesn’t inch us closer and closer toward the moment where they finally declare themselves, along with their own social media networks like Parler, their own media channels with partisan facts, and entire ecosystem of hyper-partisan eco chambers, to be a separate country altogether. Or, even worse, to be “the real United States.” But the real question still lingers… Where does this all go? What does this point to? Will it just be a fracture in the Republican Party, a surface-level shift as the party rebounds post-Trump? Or does this signify a larger, deeper fracture in our society as a whole? Time will tell, but I suspect that with the separation of truth and dogma as such with hyper-partisan media, it’ll be more of the latter. Assuming Trump can’t pull something off. But it’s scary that Trump’s military coup moment has arrived and the discussions about such a coup are literally underway.
https://joemduncan.medium.com/trumps-military-coup-moment-has-arrived-9737caad1f79
['Joe Duncan']
2020-12-21 18:58:56.945000+00:00
['Election 2020', 'Trump', 'Politics', 'United States', 'Military']
How to run and optimise a 360-degree feedback in a small team
“I need to review two members of the team before the end of the week and I haven’t prepared a single thing — help me!” This is how a 360-degree feedback process started at GoSquared (all-in-one growth platform for SaaS businesses), when James and I caught up in June. I’ve been supporting and advising James Gill and the rest of the leadership team for 3 months by that time and found out that they have never run an “official” feedback process at GoSquared, yet alone for the whole team. In other words, not even the co-founders really knew how well they’ve been performing this entire time. It didn’t take James much convincing that we don’t just review the 2 members of the team, but the whole team instead, including the 3 co-founders. For those who are unfamiliar with a 360° feedback process, here is a good definition (stolen from Wikipedia — the source of all truth, obviously): “A 360-degree feedback is a process through which feedback from an employee’s subordinates, colleagues, and supervisor(s), as well as a self-evaluation by the employee themselves is gathered. Such feedback can also include, when relevant, feedback from external sources who interact with the employee, such as customers and suppliers or other interested stakeholders.” In other words, you try and get as much feedback from different sources and angles as possible, to build a 360 degree view of employee’s strengths, weaknesses, performance at work, cultural fit and so on.
https://medium.com/@ingadriksne/how-to-run-and-optimise-a-360-degree-feedback-in-a-small-team-a1006691165c
['Inga Driksne']
2021-01-13 17:41:43.136000+00:00
['Optimisation', 'Startup Lessons', 'People Operations', 'HR', '360 Degree Feedback']
What is wine?
Wine is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented grape juice. There are also fruit wines, like apple wine, that are made from fermented fruits. But, strictly wine is made from wine grapes. The difference between table grapes and wine grapes, among others, is that wine grapes are smaller, have thicker skins, more sugar and acidity, and more flavor. Actually, this is what gives wine structure and flavor. But of course you know this already. What makes wine so special and aspires to be more than an alcoholic drink is their expression of place and time. Wine can tell you a lot about a vineyard, the year of the harvest and the work of a winemaker. In searching to grow the perfect grape, the viticulturist has to remember certain indelible facts. He or she must be extremely aware that grapes require very specific growing conditions to be successful in wine making. The essential factors consist of the following: · Soil conditions · Temperature · The number of days of sunlight · The angle of the sun · The variety of grape · Vinification — the changing of grape juice into wine The final factor in making wine that does not taste like rotgut is the skill of the vintner. He or she must utilize his or her skills to produce the best wine possible. In the process, the viticulturist must select plants that work into the schedule. Usually, the only grapes selected for wine come from 3rd year vines. With love Brenda
https://medium.com/@brenda-galaviz/what-is-wine-3eceabd89e55
['Brenda Galaviz']
2020-10-13 23:47:26.843000+00:00
['Winemaking', 'Wine', 'Wine Tasting', 'Wineries']
The Invasion of Time By Eternity
Who have we missed during this year of “new normal?’’ Time played all sorts of tricks with us in 2020 — all our understandings of life, habits, history, routine, and ritual were halted. As years close, we wonder what we accomplished, what we missed, and what’s next. We wonder where we were one year ago, and where are we now? “Where will be one year from now — and five years from now?’’ What do we need to do when given a chance? A record 77 percent of Americans tell pollsters the nation has an existential crisis, questioning whether our lives have meaning, purpose, or value. In the latest annual Gallup survey of mental, emotional, and physical health, self-assessments hit a 20-year low. The only demographic group to see mental health assessments rise over the past year? Americans who attend religious services weekly. The invasion of time — today and 2,000 years ago Certain events transcend time, playing out in our hearts and minds over and over, impacting and changing everything from that point forward — whether we choose to think about them or not. One such transition occurred more than 2,000 years ago. Then, as now, the Star of Bethlehem cast a towering light in the night sky, and everyone from rulers to the lowly soon had an inkling that all the rules were changing. “Christmas is not an event within history but is rather the invasion of time by eternity,’’ theologian Hans Urs Von Balthasar famously wrote. Joe Sobran argued the Western World — built on the foundations of Christianity, “has turned Christmas into a bland holiday of mere niceness…His bitterest enemies weren’t atheists; they were the most religious men of his age, the Pharisees, who considered His claims blasphemous — as, by their lights, they were.’’ Both the greatest believers and the greatest enemies of Christianity know its power. The great vast, uncertain middle in between, he added, forgets how revolutionary a personal relationship with the Son of God is, changing the meaning of everything. Most church-goers “tune out’’ when the genealogy of Jesus is read from the Bible at Christmas time because it seems like a list of unfamiliar, hard-to-pronounce names. Still, people who knew those names realized they represented a new relationship between God and the most famous and infamous people in history they knew well. Rahab, one of the people in that list, was a known prostitute, Bishop Robert Barron explains while Jacob wrestled with God with some of the same questions we ask, and “like them, we’re flawed, compromised, but He chose to become our brother anyway. He chose to be part of our human family.’’ Then and now, Sobran stressed: “he was a threat. He still is. We honor him more by acknowledging his explosive presence than by making him a mere symbol of nice manners. At every step of His ministry, He made enemies and brought His crucifixion closer. People weren’t crucified for being nice.’’ Eternity seems to invade time during the messiest, most difficult moments in history, always choosing the most unlikely writers and actors to live out and share this story. If we think 2020 was a mess, what about the mess Jesus entered into? How quickly do we move from recalling the glory of His birth to recalling the Feast of the Innocents? One day, you’re hailed as the new king of kings and soon after, the existing Establishment is trying to murder you. St. Augustine taught that Jesus’s birthplace, that now-famous manger, was designed to be the primary source of food for animals. Christ, Himself becomes our food, our source of spiritual nourishment, and eternal life. The Greek word for manger means “to eat.” Christ started His earthly life in a feeding place for animals and began His Church at the Last Supper, starting the Eucharist and the priesthood over a dinner table. “I’m so glad that Jesus was born in a stable. Because my soul is so much like a stable. It is poor and in unsatisfactory condition . . . Yet I believe that if Jesus can be born in a stable, maybe he can also be born in me.” — Dorothy Day. That first Christmas, Mary, Jesus, and Joseph were awake, changing the world while most of the world around them slept, unaware of what was happening. We are taught not to conform ourselves to this age but to be transformed by the renewal of our mind, so we may discern the will of God, finding what is good, pleasing, and perfect. “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans, 12:2, NIV). The mess is part of the gift Life has always been a mess, but we’ve become even more aware of how broken we are in the past year. One of the modern world’s widespread myths — that we no longer need God — has been shattered. Everything we receive in this life, good and bad, even the messiest challenges we are given are part of our gifts. Only our own sins are something we can truly call our own. The rest of life is a gift, a chance to turn messes into something magnificent, a chance to turn something joyful into something that will matter even more. And when God gives us a gift, He splits it in two, so that both giver and beneficiary will gain from the experience and know and understand gratitude, which is connected to the gifts of life. If you take the God out of the picture, all we’re left with is the mess,’’ Father Joe Campbell adds. “Our savior is not in science, money, or politics. It’s in Jesus Christ. The place of our difficulty drives us to rely on God.’’
https://medium.com/this-shall-be-our-story/the-invasion-of-time-by-eternity-41efc4ebd982
['Joseph Serwach']
2020-12-26 22:00:09.335000+00:00
['Religion', 'Christianity', 'Self', 'Christmas', 'Spirituality']
Social Media Broke My Parents
My story mirrors many others. I’m a member of Generation X, the sometimes “forgotten” generation sandwiched between the more dynamic Boomers and Millennials. Others often perceive us as riding on our parents’ coattails while indulging our kids way too often. There’s some validity to those thoughts. Not wanting to repeat our parents’ hands-off, stoic aspects, some of us went too far the other way and helicoptered our kids. Those nasty pendulum swings get so many of us every time! As several recent articles have noted, we were the ones who began without cable and internet but quickly embraced the new technology, incorporating all its aspects into our work and personal lives. We accepted and even encouraged the trends towards more information, more seeming connection, more consumer choices, more and more. We were the children of the ’80s, after all. The tech companies and marketers were only too happy to oblige. Savvy individuals produced algorithms that fed each of us exactly what it thought we wanted. Initially, this may have seemed good marketing, providing the consumer with the desired result. Later, the insidiousness of confirmation bias grew more and more evident. The Boomer’s Dilemma My father is a man of principle. He’s always believed in personal responsibility and taking care of those around him. He accomplished this with years of work with one company, consistent attendance at his church, and active participation in many volunteer associations. He is a shining example of his time. He’s an educated man, finishing his chemical engineering degree from Georgia Tech in the ’60s, working at the same company his entire work life while developing chemical processes that gave him several patents, building a log house with his own hands, raising a family, and dealing with tragedy, all while keeping a firm grasp on his faith. He’s more than admirable; he’s astonishing. His day-to-day commitment to responsibility gives me pause. It’s what his generation held in high regard, and it’s what they accomplished well. He’s one that would be described as “…one of those quiet heroes that we have all across America. They’re not famous. Their names aren’t in the newspapers. But each and every day they work hard. They look after their families. They sacrifice for their children and their grandchildren. They aren’t seeking the limelight — all they try to do is just do the right thing.”- Obama. Of course, the irony is that by the time Obama was becoming well known, my father was well on the way to being convinced, this man represented nothing he understood or wanted to support. In the late ’90s, he retired. While continuing his volunteer efforts and keeping his toe in the job pool with some consulting, he began winding down. He had more time on his hands, and as a good Republican, he believed the new cable news show Fox was the outlet that most spoke to his belief system. And so, it began. Slippery Slopes and All That Everyone has heard the ‘slippery slope’ argument. As Texas State’s Dept. of Philosophy notes, a slippery slope entails, “…a course of action is rejected because, with little or no evidence, one insists it will lead to a chain reaction resulting in an undesirable end or ends…(it) involves an acceptance of a succession of events without direct evidence that this course of events will happen.” The article goes on to note that examples include marijuana use (the erroneous belief that it leads to hard drugs), being perpetually late (the times get longer and longer), banning of alcohol in all forms (after one drink, individuals want more and more), and, among others, the ‘insidious’ idea that pro-choice will lead to infanticide. Yes, according to the slippery slope idea, one drink, one puff of pot, and one DNC medical procedure will lead to a nation of cracked out drunks with all the women killing their babies. Sigh… But this is the argument used on a continuous basis on right-wing networks opinion pieces and especially on social media. The slippery slope idea takes advantage of confirmation bias and ill-advised coincidence, not true cause and effect. Change isn’t a Slippery Slope I’m going to show my age here and note, many years ago, I read and resonated with Scott Peck’s Road Less Traveled. I was in the prime of my Christian identity, trying to mesh what I felt I “should” do with what felt honest and authentic. I loved the idea that someone who was outside the faith somehow talked themselves into the faith as an adult. Granted, it was confirmation bias. I get that. I understand that I read EVERYTHING through my lens of experience and categorize it accordingly. I think there were many things about Peck’s work that don’t work for me now; however, I do love the idea he expressed at the beginning. Peck believed that each of us has an internal map. He stated that we could either continuously update this map throughout our lives or we can find a map that suits our beliefs and biases and solidify it. Obviously, Peck believed that healthy individuals constantly take in new information and update their maps throughout their entire life. Peck had his areas of arrogance (don’t get me started on his whole demon possession idea!), but, like most, he had elements of wonderful truth in his work as well. My father and I shared a love of Scott Peck. But my father’s map now seems old and staid. His map seems to reflect fear of change and fear of diminishing relevancy. His map feels stuck. Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash Social Media’s Algorithms and Confirmation Bias Bonnie Kristian wrote an excellent article in “The Week” discussing how the internet has sabotaged many relationships and frustrated those of us from Generation X as we try and discuss how algorithms work with our Boomer parents. Noting Nicholas Carr’s book The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, both Carr and Kristian state that just as substance abuse, certain foods, exercise, and meditation can alter brain chemistry, so can excessive use of the confirmation bias tools used by social media. As the human race has always been evolving to accommodate progress, it should be noted that not all changes are negative. The birth of the internet was lauded with hopes of greater access to information, more democratic notions of knowledge sharing, and making it easier to connect or stay connected with others. After all, it’s much easier for me to send my dear friend in England an email than to wait for up to three months to send an Air-Mail letter and receive one in return as we did in the ‘90s. And answering questions of trivia or passing interest makes the conversation more enjoyable. (My partner and I looked up the attributes of absinthe and the synopsis of Dorian Gray last night to enhance our binge-watching. Yes, we’re re-watching Penny Dreadful on Showtime. LOVE the myths and fairy tales.) But, of course, as with any substance, internet usage can be misused and altered in frightening ways. A New York Times article by Charlie Warzel, What Facebook Fed the Baby Boomers, depicts the very different feeds of two individuals, based solely on what links each clicked and what the algorithms noted as points of interest. My parents have fallen down the same rabbit holes with not only Facebook but YouTube. First, let me note that YouTube’s feed suggestions make sense if you’re looking into videos regarding hobbies or DIY. Do you like fixing old cars, quilting, gardening, or home improvement? Watch one video, and tons more will fill your feed for your viewing pleasure. However, as many of us obsessively search for information about politics, the pandemic response in our area, and other news as we socially isolate at home, the algorithms are creating a nasty and insidious byproduct…brainwashing. A classic definition of brainwashing encourages isolation of the subject coupled with intensive and biased viewing of propaganda. Enter the pandemic, and voila, algorithms and biased reporting are having a field day. Now, you have to actively search for unbiased reporting or take the time to review options from both sides of the argument. That means looking at newsletters like The Factual, Tag the Flag, or a number of other news sources that try to objectively present information or give both sides with a level of credibility that encourages high-end journalism. It takes time and effort and the ability to put emotions to the side while listening or reading things you don’t necessarily agree with initially. It requires an open mind, and more importantly, an open heart. It means suspending the knee jerk reactions and listening. As Kate Murphy notes in You’re Not Listening, listening is one of the hardest things we ask our brain to do, but always talking keeps us from learning. And we’ve got to figure out a way to hold not only those in social media accountable for the biases (and no, I don’t mean trying to change Proposition 230), but we also need to find a way to label news programs as opinion-based, in bold, blinking letters… “This is the opinion and view of this one person, that’s all!” Check your facts, folks and your resources. Just because there’s a video or it’s on tv doesn’t make it true. Reality television is scripted. Our parents grew up obtaining their news through radio, newspapers, and television. They don’t necessarily understand the blurring of the lines between reality/opinion journalism and high-end journalism. It’s time to pay attention, not only for ourselves and our children but for our parents. We can do better!
https://medium.com/passive-asset/social-media-broke-my-parents-8797ee97384f
['Liz Mcleod']
2020-12-08 17:46:49.670000+00:00
['Generation X', 'Bias', 'Social Media', 'Millennials', 'Baby Boomers']
Becoming Part Of The Picture In Machu Picchu
Becoming Part Of The Picture In Machu Picchu GiaB writing prompt #7 – man-made wonders of the world Several years ago I read a travel article that captivated my attention. More to the point, I was mesmerized by the pictures that accompanied the article. Machu Picchu had never been on my list of places to go — and that is surprising because my list is lengthy indeed. Still, those pictures placed it at the top of the list, and before long I found myself planning a trip to Peru. Machu Picchu stands 2,430 meters above sea level, while Cusco is at 3,400 meters. You go to Cusco first. Yes, you first go to a higher point to make sure you adapt to the altitude. I didn’t adapt. At least not easily. I was miserable the whole time I was in Cusco. I wondered at times if that desire to see the scenery in those pictures was worth it. The train ride to Machu Picchu was great, seeing mostly the landscape but occasional scenes of life in Peru. There was extreme poverty, but lots of color in clothing and much joy on the faces. I still didn’t feel great, but I loved it all. When we arrived in Machu Picchu I was in tourist mode. Let’s get out and see what there is to see, take pictures, and do this thing! Kim, the tourist, only lasted moments. It didn’t take long for me to be in my own world. I slowed down and simply breathed as I tried to take it all in. I even ditched my friend so I could experience the wonder by myself. Machu Picchu was built by the Incas in the fifteenth century and abandoned when they were conquered by the Spaniards in the sixteenth century. Located between the Andes and the Amazon, the scenery of Machu Picchu is spectacular. The city was said to be only known to the aristocracy and never discussed outside certain circles, thus keeping it safe from looting and destruction by the Spaniards. Even today, you can see the remnants of the Inca's intricate planning. They built it without mortar and cut blocks of stone into trapezoids that fit together and then fell back into place even after earthquakes. There was an area for farming and one where they lived. They had no roads into the city and it had its own aqueduct, keeping it quite self-contained. The terraced agriculture system was brilliant. Though this was fascinating to see, there is something spiritual about the place that is indescribable. I sat in awe, just taking in the scenery. I felt close to God, and to these magnificent people from so long ago. I hiked around and imagined what life was like back when this was home to the Incas, so intelligent and productive. I tried to avoid other tourists, which was difficult, but not impossible. I smiled as the llamas came close and laughed as they ran away. They’d always come back. Sometimes you go places and say to yourself “Pictures could never capture this” or get home and tell people “My pictures don’t come close to letting you know how amazing this really was.” My own pictures for this trip were indeed inadequate, but those pictures from the magazine I had seen were spectacular. They had profoundly captured the beauty and mystery of the place. There I was, right in the midst of that scenery that had called to me. They had come alive. I felt as though I was a part of the landscape, though inadequate to the people who created it. Could I ever use my brain in the ways they had? Machu Picchu is indeed a wonder of the world. It was created by genius. We’re still learning from it. I will forever be changed from having been there. This hidden city was saved against logic so we can get into the brains of the Incas. That’s quite an interesting place to be.
https://medium.com/genius-in-a-bottle/becoming-part-of-the-picture-in-machu-pichhu-ab83f891d515
['Kim Mckinney']
2020-11-24 14:52:00.001000+00:00
['Travel', 'World', 'Self', 'Nonfiction', 'Giabprompt']
Mexican Midterms 2021: A Survey of the Opposition
In June 2021 AMLO’s political movement, the Fourth Transformation, will face off with its opposition in the largest Mexican elections yet, competing to dictate the political conditions for the latter half of AMLO’s presidency — that is, if he survives the recall referendum in 2022 and other attempts to destabilize his government. “Central strategy: promote a Broad Opposition Front to advance in two moments. ONE, win the lower house in 2021 and TWO, remove AMLO from the presidency through the recall referendum of 2022”, quoted the President’s Press Secretary from a leaked document on national television. “This is a confidential document. It is called Rescuing Mexico and the project is Broad Opposition Front [BOA]”, he had stumbled through his words seconds before. Press Secretary Jesús Ramírez reads from a leaked document. The slide focuses on the proposal for an opposition lobbying strategy in Washington. The document, presented on June 9, 2020, allegedly outlined an opposition strategy of hybrid war for the next two years to dislodge the Fourth Transformation (4T) from power, employing mechanisms of multidimensional conflict like manipulating social media; inducing foreign intervention; deploying psychological warfare; and weaponizing judicial instruments. The blueprint identified key allies and presented a plan of action to achieve its objectives: the ruling leftist party, Morena, would lose its majority in the lower house in 2021 and the President would be ousted by 2022. Page 3 of “Rescuing Mexico: Project BOA”. Opposition figures questioned the document’s veracity, while other opposition commentators scoffed at the thought of any scandal, since the document did not describe any explicit lawbreaking, a notion even the government knew to be true. Neither President López Obrador, nor his Press Secretary, Jesús Ramírez, explained how the government acquired the document or who wrote it, but they presented the hybrid war blueprint as damning evidence of a conniving opposition plotting the President’s ouster. Truthfully, the document could have been elaborated in the smoky war rooms of the business elite, or in the polished offices of a trendy Mexico City political consulting firm. It is also plausible it could be written by operatives at the Secretariat of the Interior (Gobernación), tasked unofficially with producing political intelligence, in this case to anticipate the terms of discussion for the 2021 midterms, forcing the opposition into a defensive position operating in the open. Regardless of its authorship, its content is categorically relevant, as it provides a tentative map of the occasionally overlapping, sometimes coordinated and intermittently competing opposition political projects. The opposition landscape ahead of the historical midterms in June is populated by the interlocking trajectories of these projects. All of them culminate with the removal from power of the first leftist president of Mexico in 80 years. Economic Elites Capitalists and Coca Cola Central among the players in the Broad Opposition Front is the Business Coordinating Council, or Consejo Coordinador Empresarial (CCE). This behemoth is the ultimate chamber of commerce, a confederation of 7 large business associations and a primary organizing arm of the Mexican capitalist elite. It is part of the historical record that the CCE bankrolled and developed the anti-AMLO “dirty war” in 2006. Coparmex, also mentioned in the leaked paper, is the Mexican employers association; its membership represents approximately 30% of Mexico’s GDP and it is a central node in a complex network of civil society fronts. Page 6 of the document listing possible allies. The Monterrey Group receives a special mention, specifically FEMSA, better known as Coca Cola in Latin America. Grupo Monterrey is a powerful economic group with a significant margin of maneuver economically and politically. Oddly enough, the document mentions only FEMSA by name, even though several other companies make up this economic consortium; chief among them, international giants like Cemex (construction) and Gruma (agrobusiness). Notably, FEMSA has pragmatically avoided outright confrontation with the López Obrador administration. They denied participation in the Opposition Front and days later disavowed alleged comments by an executive alluding to financing the President’s ouster: “We’ll pay our taxes, but I’ll pay twice as much to get rid of AMLO in 2022”, José Antonio Fernández Carbajal, president of FEMSA’s board of directors is quoted as saying in response to a government crackdown on tax evasion in June of 2020. In August, FEMSA went to court to challenge the federal government’s new health and labeling regulations that required warning labels on food products with high contents of fat, sugar, sodium and calories. FEMSA issued parallel legal challenges to more stringent legislation from Morena in the states of Oaxaca and Tabasco which prohibited the sale of “junk food” to minors. In a surprising turn of events, President Lopez Obrador met with Coca Cola global CEO James Quincy on September 21. A week later, FEMSA announced it would abide by the new regulations, though the legal challenges are still being processed in the courts. Mexican president and Coca Cola CEO, center. Alfonso Romo, Chief of Staff, far right. Photo: Industria Mexicana de Coca Cola. The September meeting with high level Coca Cola executives was attended by the President’s then Chief of Staff, Alfonso Romo (far right in the photo), an agroindustiralist magnate and financier with close ties to Grupo Monterrey. Despite the businessman’s resignation from the cabinet on December 2, President López Obrador clarified Romo would remain as his principal liaison with the business community, a position he’s entrusted the Monterrey industrialist since 2011. He has done a remarkable job, not necessarily converting the capitalist class into AMLOvers, but convincing them AMLO’s project does not threaten their fundamental interests: “far from Chávez and closer to Lula”, is one of Romo’s key sales pitch to “sell” AMLO to business elites. Playing by the Rules… For Now The apparent truce between sectors of the economic elite and the current administration suggests the continuation of a pragmatic approach to AMLO’s victory in 2018. These sectors recognized the inevitability of change and thus sought to guarantee advantages in renegotiated arrangements with the newly governing coalition forged by AMLO. This pragmatic coexistence between factions of the economic elite and the Lopez Obrador administration can be observed in the cases of Grupo Monterrey, Grupo Salinas and even Carlos Slim’s Grupo Carso — despite the frequent, bad-faith speculation regarding the President’s relationship with the billionaire. The President and Mexico’s richest man supervising construction of Mitla-Tehuantepec highway in the isthmus. Photo: Presidencia de la República. On the contrary, the Fourth Transformation’s development programs and infrastructure “megaprojects” accommodate opportunities for capital to expand into new markets and consolidate existing ones. While activists and Morena’s own constituencies criticize these massive infrastructural investments, they generate expectation and palm-rubbing among powerful economic players. BlackRock, for example, the largest asset manager in the world, wants to invest in the geostrategic Isthmus of Tehuantepec project, a transoceanic corridor that will exponentially multiply North American connectivity. Both AMLO and foreign capital are committed to pushing forward the Isthmus Project. Considering AMLO’s high popularity and political capital; Morena’s legislative majorities; and the opportunities for win-win cooperation, significant sectors of the business elite continue to express a willingness, on one hand, to sit at the table, and secondly, to play by the rules of the game — at least until it is no longer convenient. Currently, the configuration of risks and opportunities complicates the possibility that a critical assemblage of business interests will operate openly and in concert with the opposition during these midterms. This is with the exception of Coparmex and CCE, which are already committed to the opposition electoral project this cycle. A more plausible scenario — one reproduced at the subnational level, like the state of Chihuahua — is that the business elite will focus on backing candidates in races for governors, mayors and state legislators, while selectively supporting federal legislative candidacies across party lines but with immediate returns at the local level. Given that the alignment of risks and opportunities will likely be different going into the recall referendum of 2022, key economic players might recalculate their strategy after the June midterms, especially if the opposition acquires and consolidates gains. This will be an exceptionally attractive opportunity to regroup for some elite sectors that will not commit to opposition projects before the elections. Besides the timing, this also opens the possibility to end AMLO’s presidency prematurely and without the necessity of dragging the country through a risky parlimentary coup or controversially deploying lawfare strategies against a popular president. Electoral Opposition Complicities and Class Restoration On December 22, 2020 the three main opposition parties announced an electoral alliance for the midterms. This brought to fruition the first two points in BOA’s plan of action, inaugurating a new space in the hybrid war targeting the López Obrador administration. The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the National Action Party (PAN) and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) coalesced around Va por México for 11 of 15 governorships and 166 of 300 federal legislative districts, as well as numerous local candidacies from over 21 thousand races. Millionaire Claudio X. González meets with PAN party president Marko Cortés. Photo: Partido Acción Nacional. The coalition is backed by the millionaire-funded Sí x Mexico, a network of more than 400 opposition civil society groups and far-right outfits involved in issues of checks and balances, religious activism, transparency, and anti-corruption. The network is led in part by Claudio X. González Guajardo, influential businessman and capitalist philanthropist with sway inside various elite business associations, like the CCE and the Mexican Business Council (Consejo Mexicano de Negocios). His father, Claudio X. González Laporte, is an old guard oligarch of Kimberly-Clark fame. Both father and son finance multiple civil society groups, though their most important proxy is Mexicans Against Impunity and Corruption (Mexicanos Contra la Corrupción y la Impunidad). Sí x Mexico is co-sponsored by Gustavo de Hoyos, influential former president of the aforementioned employers’ union, Coparmex. Both Claudio X. González and Gustavo de Hoyos’ pursuit of a presidential candidacy in 2024 has come to be defined largely in terms of class restoration, as documented by veteran journalist Álvaro Delgado, expert on the Mexican right wing. The far right ecologies of the Mexican political space also host a number of civil society groups, nominally non-partisan but choleric in their hatred of the President. The National Anti-AMLO Front, or FRENAA, embodies this type of group. It is led by far right archconservative Gilberto Lozano, who notoriously threatened the President by declaring he had established a testamentary trust and hired a team of mercenaries to posthumously “eliminate anyone who needs to be eliminated” if anything happened to Lozano or his family. The organization serves mainly as an astroturfing front that mobilizes the conservative upper middle class, and it lends its structure to opposition media ops. For instance, FRENAA’s occupation of the Zócalo (main square) and Avenida Juárez in Mexico City famously consisted of empty tents and few people. As one of the most far-right voices with a mainstream platform, FRENAA traffics in perceptions and narratives, making it a key player in the hybrid war against the 4T. Empty tents for FRENAA’s media ops in September 2020. The Eternal Question of the Dubious Referee Unsurprisingly for observers of Mexican politics, the impartiality of the electoral authorities has been called into question ahead of the elections… and it will likely be questioned afterwards, like in every electoral cycle. For its part, the National Electoral Institute (INE) has done little to generate trust, particularly the president of the electoral authority, Lorenzo Córdova. Lorenzo Córdova, president of the electoral authority, contrasts significantly with his father, renowned Marxist academic Arnaldo Córdova. Photo: INE On January 12, 2021 the president of the INE announced the suspension of the President’s daily morning press conference to safeguard the elections from meddling by the federal executive. Morena sympathizers saw it as a political move by a discredited electoral authority; the President called it censorship and the federal government filed a legal challenge in court. The morning press conference is a critical part of the President’s communicational strategy. Effectively commanding the news cycle, López Obrador uses the morning conference to set the agenda and speak directly to the Mexican people. By limiting this space the electoral authority incapacitated a strategic informational tool at the president’s disposal. Agenda setting and communication strategy drive AMLO’s daily briefing. Córdova explained the decision was based on the electoral tribunal’s ruling on what constitutes government propaganda, which is limited during electoral times by law. On January 15, with 9 votes in favor and 3 against the INE ratified the President must avoid speaking about political parties, candidacies, campaigns and polls during his morning conferences between April and June. Despite his position as head of the electoral authority, Lorenzo Córdova’s behavior is consistent. He secured his 9-year term as INE president in 2014 through the congressional machinations of the Pact for Mexico, a legislative coalition secured by the Peña Nieto administration with kickbacks and payoffs in the form of suitcases full of cash. Córdova’s election was a negotiation of dividends between the PRI, PRD and PAN, all of them part of the opposition electoral bloc in 2021. A year into his presidency, a leaked audio surfaced of Lorenzo Córdova candidly expressing his racism and classism: “Not even kidding, from the dramatic meetings with the parents from Ayotzinapa to this dude — I won’t lie — I’ll show you how this dude talked”, snickered Córdova in the recording before doubling down on a racist impression of an indigenous man he had just met at an official function. This electoral cycle, the INE suspended multiple Morena ads, ruling they violated electoral rules. The electoral tribunal overturned at least 4 of these suspensions. One ad in particular, criticizing the PRI-PAN-PRD alliance remains “banned" by the INE, making it a viral sensation on social media, especially since it appealed to a shared “common sense" conception of political society as irredeemably corrupt irrespective of party differences. “Banned” Morena ad criticizing opposition collusion. Additionally, this past December, outspoken INE councilor Ciro Murayama presented a book with an unspoken but discernible dedication; it was titled: “I, the People. How Populism Transforms Democracy”. Councilor Murayama pontificated on the dangers of populism in a clear indictment frequently and disingenuously leveled against the left in Latin America. Days later, President Lorenzo Córdova went further, warning that “populism dismantles democratic guarantees.” While academic discussions of populism can be expected from electoral authorities, both the timing, the bad-faith arguments and the media coverage fit into a wider pattern to discredit leftist movements and parties with liberal mischaracterizations of populism. Similarly, the Federal Electoral Tribunal (TEPJF) does not come out unscathed from allegations of bias. The tribunal played a suspiciously zealous role in Morena’s internal elections to choose its state and national chairs. First, in October 2019, it revoked the guidelines the party set for itself in its leadership renewal process. In early 2020, it determined the internal selection process for national chair would be through opinion polls conducted by phone, an easily manipulated method that is not contemplated in Morena’s party charter. Having postponed the election twice, the TEPJF then forced an electoral timeline for party leadership at the state level, over any logistical or statutory consideration. The tribunal’s interference into Morena’s selection process for its party leadership ahead of an election year generated resentment and stoked factionalism within the governing party. It was widely speculated both by party members and outside observers that the agitation whipped up by the tribunal inside Morena was an act of sabotage. Towards the end of the selection process in October of 2020, the TEPJF’s apparent favoritism for one of the party factions, led by veteran politician Mario Delgado, finally sealed any doubts regarding the electoral court’s pragmatic partisanship.
https://medium.com/@huizarflores/mexican-midterms-2021-a-survey-of-the-opposition-bcfb345b41b
['Huizar Flores']
2021-03-28 21:56:53.206000+00:00
['International Relations', 'Mexico', 'Political Science', 'Politics', 'México']
Welcome To October, Ghouls
Haunt yourself a little happy. Photo by Cederic X on Unsplash Welcome, ye who enter here, to October. Macabre Month. Scary Christmas. The month where those of us who live in the dark at last have our time in the spotlight. It’s pumpkins and chilling movies and all manner of treats dressed as body parts. It’s falling leaves and cool air and plastic spider rings just kind of everywhere. It’s a general layer of sinister fog enrobing the entire month and I don’t mind telling you I’m excited. Naturally, my decor went up September first, but I don’t expect anyone to get it. September is a garbage month full of hot weather when we don’t want it and no discernible enjoyable traits. Additionally, how can I be expected to bask in the orange and purple glow of my twinkle lights for just 31 days per year? That hardly seems like enough. I buy skulls in bulk for heaven’s sake. But today is October 1st, officially the start of Halloween season, a spooky and sinister time that brews great personal joy within my cold, black heart. My black faux candelabra is on as a write this. Dance, little orange flames, dance. Photo by Shani Silver. Why do we like this crap? Why are the shelves of Target bedecked with increasing quantities of battery operated novelties and home exterior decor to rival the Griswolds? I have a theory that everyone loves a little creepy, it’s just that October is the only time they feel confident saying so. Nobody wants to be a weirdo, but in October, we all are. There’s a safety to the scariness of October. Even those who don’t leave the faux raven skeletons out all year have a laugh as they dabble in the darkness. We want to be scared, but safely. Like we need the confidence that the chainsaw is fake to have a good time, you know? I have fake tombstones and a skull in a snow globe in my living room and this month is the only time I can have people over and not have to explain them. This is maybe the only month of the year I can thoroughly relax. October is a month that, when you think about it, uses death as decoration and yet somehow we’re all remarkably upbeat. It’s indulgence in weirdness of the highest order and it’s a beautiful thing to see and offer candy to out of an automated bowl. October is the only month human bones are funny. I’m not asking for an explanation I’m just stating the facts. So go forth, gremlins. Haunt on, you spirits. Jump into this cobweb-covered month with both feet—better still if they’re wearing witch shoes at the time. I celebrate October with reckless frivolity, coating my home in black and white striped accents and draping creepy cloth over anything that will keep still. I’ve been running makeup trials of my costume for two weeks and I’ve owned it’s major components since summer. But for a horrible error on my part and the cat would be resting in a tiny haunted house of her own right now. Dammit for selling out. Anyway—what I’m saying is, embrace your inner creep, celebrate your sinister side, and have a very, very happy Halloween, starting right now.
https://shanisilver.medium.com/welcome-to-october-ghouls-e3e7d7cbf3a5
['Shani Silver']
2019-10-01 10:55:23.776000+00:00
['Halloween', 'Writing', 'October', 'Weird', 'Humor']
BUSINESS LISTING IMPORTANCE KEYS IN SEO
Business Listing plays an important role in SEO. This makes the site easier to find and create back links. Search Engine Optimization and Business listing has greater importance. The business listing consists of our business name and index of our business. w e are listing our business online to get more visitors and traffic to our website. Local SEO Focus on our local customers to view our website compared to your competitors. What is a business listing in SEO ? Adding and Validating your business to local business listing in SEO because of this increase traffic to the website, getting more customers, reduce marketing costs also. For our business growth.We must properly list of our business in proper local business directories. There are new visitors and people come to us and know about our products or services. We must pay attention to check the websites where you listing your business. When you are going to start SEO to your local business clearly understand that what business listing with SEO and its importance.
https://medium.com/@riainstitute/business-listing-importance-keys-in-seo-94892fc3c6ea
['Ria Institute Bengaluru']
2020-12-16 16:33:07.647000+00:00
['Training', 'SEO', 'Software Development']
This Woman’s Work
This Woman’s Work Paintings by Berthe Morisot now command some of the highest prices at auction of any woman artist, but it wasn’t always this way… This small oil painting of a mother and child, by Berthe Morisot, was shown at the first Impressionist Exhibition of 1874, where it appeared alongside the work of exclusively male contemporaries including Cezanne, Degas, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Sisley… Morisot had already shown paintings at the Paris Salon and she was the first woman to exhibit with the Impressionists. Today, it’s perhaps her most famous painting but was never sold and remained with the family until her death in 1895. ‘The Cradle’ (1872) by Berthe Morisot [view license] The subject of mother and child, of course, is everywhere in Western art, particularly as Madonna and child. In Morisot’s time, the woodblock prints of Japan’s Edo period had reached Paris, and also showed intimate mother and baby scenes in a more natural, domestic way. Morisot’s painting is very intimate and yet restrained. It’s a portrait of Berthe’s sister, Edma, and her first child, her daughter Blanche. Berthe and Edma were remarkably close as children, and both had studied painting together. They were granddaughters of the French Rococo painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard, their family was affluent and encouraging of their talents and employed Camille Corot, an important landscape and figure painter, to teach them. His style influenced the impressionist movement, although he never joined it. So, as his pupil, Berthe showed independence when exhibiting with the impressionists. Yet Edma had married which at the time meant choosing, with rare exception, the path of domesticity and motherhood. Edma’s expression is ambiguous as she watches over the sleeping child — she is exhausted like all new mothers, tender, and perhaps with a touch of melancholia. The responsibility of bringing a new life into the world is daunting, yet these thoughts will be chased away by smiles of delight when her baby awakes. When Berthe painted this portrait in 1871, Paris had been occupied by the Prussians during the Franco Prussian War (1870–71) and a civil war had led to the establishing of the Paris Commune, which was brutally suppressed in May 1871. Berthe had remained in Paris throughout these troubles and so this Mother and Child image presents a complete contrast, a symbol of calm and peace and renewal of hope. The portrait is very much a la mode of its time. Edma is dressed in the height of Paris fashion, and the cradle itself was a relatively new style of nursery furniture. The structure of the painting, the triangular veil, and the triangle formed by Edma’s body, shows the protective bond between mother and child. The position of Blanche’s left arm is mirrored by Edma’s own. The delicate veil is painted in soft gestural strokes, as is the background behind Edma, so that the textures of oil paint capture the light. Morisot was to become famous for her ‘unfinished painting’ technique, gestural mark-making, and the subtle suggestions of her images that usually stemmed from a figure and their intriguing, ambiguous expressions. ‘Self-Portrait at the Easel’ (1885) by Berthe Morisot [view license] As with all Impressionism, this explores and conveys the way the eye sees the image of the outside world, reproduced on our retina, interpreted by our brains. Most detail processed by the retina and brain is devoted to the centre of the field of vision — the face we survey and its expression that we hope to interpret — while our peripheral vision is sketchy, rendered in just enough detail by the brain to suffice. Often, we do not see as much as we think we see. Berthe’s facility to suggest this with paint — as shown in Berthe’s later self-portrait, for example — caused controversy and admiration just as it did with Rembrandt, or Turner. The mother and child is a subject she continued to explore — at the time women could not easily paint en plein air or in the bars of Paris Society which her male contemporaries could access unchaperoned, and so her domestic scenes contrast with the subjects chosen by Degas, Lautrec, Manet, for example. However, the Impressionist circle often met at her family home so that she could take part in their discussions. Berthe and Manet became close, their families regularly visiting each other, and he painted her often.
https://medium.com/signifier/this-womans-work-99908ae277e8
['Kim Vertue']
2020-09-13 11:17:58.731000+00:00
['Art History', 'Impressionism', 'Art', 'Painting', 'History']
The Cause: Loving Activism
I won’t be your cause nor, can you be my cause but, you can be your cause and I’ll be my cause then, we can support each other’s cause. Patsy, 2018
https://medium.com/resistance-poetry/the-cause-loving-activism-8fc4a8cbedca
['Patsy Starke']
2018-03-09 11:30:34.569000+00:00
['Resistance Poetry', 'Transgender', 'LGBTQ', 'Activism', 'Gender Identity']
The global push to find a vaccine for COVID-19 is unprecedented, but this urgency can not outweigh the importance of vaccine safety and efficacy.
The global push to find a vaccine for COVID-19 is unprecedented, but this urgency can not outweigh the importance of vaccine safety and efficacy. Goussama Nov 25, 2020·3 min read Asthe world awaits the results of COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials, we need to invest now in systems to ensure equitable global vaccine delivery. Sixteen vaccine experts from the vaccine industry, academic and regulatory agencies interviewed… https://www.reddit.com/r/Mancityvsolympiacos/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Liverpoolvsatalanta/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Mancityvsolympiacos/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Liverpoolvsatalanta/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Mancityvsolympiacos/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Liverpoolvsatalanta/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Mancityvsolympiacos/hot/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Mancityvsolympiacos/new/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Mancityvsolympiacos/top/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Mancityvsolympiacos/rising/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Liverpoolvsatalanta/hot/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Liverpoolvsatalanta/new/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Liverpoolvsatalanta/top/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Liverpoolvsatalanta/rising/ A safe and effective vaccine is a critical tool for stopping the spread of COVID-19. While there are still things we don’t know about the COVID-19 vaccine, we do know that there is much we can do now to prepare, and we are not starting from scratch in Vermont. We will build on a strong existing primary care and medical home infrastructure, our experience with vaccine distribution in past public health crises, and valuable partnerships across the state with health care and community partners to help make sure all Vermonters have access to the vaccine. Putting Safety First The global push to find a vaccine for COVID-19 is unprecedented, but this urgency can not outweigh the importance of vaccine safety and efficacy. That is why we keep a close watch on the vaccine development process and put science above all else when it comes to distributing any vaccine in Vermont. Before it is given to anyone in Vermont, a vaccine must meet strict U.S. Food and Drug Administration safety standards and be recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)(link is external). All newly developed vaccines must also be monitored continuously for safety. Identifying Priority Groups Based on what we know now, it is likely that the initial supply of COVID-19 vaccine will be limited, and will be distributed to states in phases, with early vaccine going to certain groups of people. Those groups may include: people who provide direct care to others (for example, health care professionals) people who are critical to the COVID-19 response (for example, people who work at COVID-19 testing sites, people who process COVID-19 specimens at laboratories) people who are essential to maintaining a functional society (for example, first responders) older adults and people who have chronic illnesses and are at the highest risk for developing severe illness from COVID-19 We will look to recommendations from the National Academies(link is external) and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices(link is external), and gather input from organizations and partners across Vermont, to determine what these groups will be in Vermont. Ensuring Equitable Access When a COVID-19 vaccine is more widely available, we will work closely with the health care providers, pharmacies, and others who will provide the vaccine in Vermont, to ensure access across the state. We will also collaborate with community organizations and other partners to make sure people who are disproportionately affected by COVID-19, including Black, Indigenous and people of color, have equitable access to the vaccine. Sharing Information with Vermonters We are committed to sharing ongoing updates with Vermonters as we make plans for vaccine distribution, and as we learn more about strategies at the national level. Below you will find our draft interim COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan for Vermont. For a quick look at the plan, read the executive summary.
https://medium.com/@goussama327/asthe-world-awaits-the-results-of-covid-19-vaccine-clinical-trials-we-need-to-invest-now-in-116e3a7931c8
[]
2020-11-25 16:45:52.479000+00:00
['Covid 19', 'Vacation', 'Sports', 'Social Media']
Investing in the Data Science Market Map
The natural evolution of big data investment that many companies have made over the last few years is finally starting to bear fruit. The combination of tools like NoSQL and Hadoop, the ever increasing power of Moore’s Law, plus continued advancement of machine learning techniques have pushed the world beyond traditional analytics. The world of the Data Enterprise is here. Companies will use data as a competitive weapon and those with the largest data sets, best teams, tools, and platforms ultimately will win. It is because of this shift to a Data Enterprise, we are spending a lot of time thinking Data Science and Machine Intelligence. At Drive, we take a view that combines several different technologies and concepts into the world of Data Science and have built our own internal market map to help be our guidepost for this area of investment. As we continue to develop our thinking around this market, we wanted to share with entrepreneurs how we view Data Science technologies and encourage companies interested in the space to reach out and speak with us. We believe that Data Science, broadly speaking, will continue to be one of the most interesting and rapidly evolving spaces in technology. It touches upon, and even underlies, so many of the innovations that are driving tech right now, and yet we’ve also found that the market can be very clouded, misunderstood, and convoluted as various tools and platforms emerge. Below we have outlined how we segment and understand the Data Science market right now at Drive, and welcome feedback and insights from anyone working in the space. Application of Data While there are big aspirations for the use of data inside the enterprise or in a consumer setting, we are still in the early innings. Most enterprises have bought “big data,” but have no idea why or what to do with it. On the consumer side, companies have built bots for just about everything and are still figuring out the model. Drive is still refining our approach to the market as well, and we’re trying to talk to as many startups and customers as we can to gain a perspective. We have spoken to 487 companies and done a bottoms up analysis on several hundred buyers of data science applications and tools. The biggest insight to date, similar to the world of engineering, is that a new “stack” of data science is emerging. The promise of machine intelligence is exciting because you can drive new and faster outcomes. The Data Scientist leverages everything from programming languages, tools, packages, applications, and visualization to deliver better, faster outcomes. The New Stack Like most things at Drive, we started with a bottom-up approach and looked at the enabling technologies, data, and applications that will shape the world of Data Science. Based on our work to date we broke the stack into five main components and went deep on each. These components are: Inputs (data), Management, Analysis, Outputs, and Applications. What we found from speaking with over a hundred corporate buyers is that there is no one-size-fits-all approach. *This is just a representative sampling of companies, not an exhaustive list What seems to be shaping up is a crawl, walk, run, fly journey that most companies (buyers) are just beginning. A company like Amazon or Google has been leveraging data science for decades and is well down the path of fly (quite literally). The other observation is that this market is moving quickly, as are the supporting technologies. In under five years “big data” enabling technology has gone from the next big thing to table stakes. Building Blocs: Inputs For most data scientists, the first step in any process is wrangling the source data. For simplicity we have broken inputs into 3 categories: Private (self-managed data), Applications (Salesforce, Hubspot, Zendesk, etc), and Other (IoT, wearables, locations, etc). While there are lots of ways to get information from these sources, it’s still limited insight and not data science until you can contextualize this data under a single point of view. Vertical applications and systems of record are great at insights about that specific application, like SalesForce. You can query each of these sources and data warehouse for specific information, but most companies are looking for ways to combine these sources to drive better outcomes. While necessary to the data science stack, this layer isn’t really “data science” and is better served by companies emerging as the system of record for specific verticals. Wrangling the Inputs: Management In our view, data science starts to get interesting when you consider all the management and merging of these different data sets. At Drive we have broken down the management of data into three key categories: Transport, ETL, and Data Lake + Data Backup. In the early Nineties there was the concept of ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) to get all of your data normalized and moved into an Enterprise Data Warehouse. Today there are thousands of data sources and hundreds of repositories to store your data. A simple ETL process doesn’t take into account the explosion of APIs and endpoints that need to be handled to move your data around, not to mention handling the security and governance of that data. We’ve found that a majority of time spent on any data science project is spent in this step. We often heard the term “data wrangling” to describe the process of managing, moving, storing, and securing data. As we look at this layer a few things are apparent. First, moving data is hard. Second, securing data in flight is hard. And finally, the natural place for this data to move is the cloud. Entrepreneurs tend to build great companies where things are hard. We see the movement, security, and normalization of all this data as a big problem to solve. We are meeting with entrepreneurs in this space and continue to learn more about how hard this function is for the Data Science team. Drive believes a big company can be built in this layer of the stack. The Data Science: Analyze The high level description here is tools. This is the layer of the stack where the data science really gets done. We have interviewed multiple data science teams, and they have a combination of tools both open source and commercial. One thing that is clear though: it’s all about the right tool for the right job. The real ‘work’ for the data scientist happens in this area and often starts with tools such as R or Python. Model generation and experimentation falls into the Model category, while things like TensorFlow tend to be one step closer to outcomes as you move up the stack. When Drive spent time with the data science teams thinking about this layer of the process, it was clear that tools are crucial, but they need to be focused on getting the data scientist to an outcome quickly. This layer is dominated by open source or very inexpensive as-a-service offerings from the top cloud vendors like Google, Amazon, or Microsoft. At Drive we think this is a critical consideration for a data scientist, but are still forming an opinion on the right approach. We continue to try to meet with as many companies in this area as possible to learn more. Value: Output This layer of the stack is where data science becomes the most visible to people, both literally and conceptually. This is where the models and intelligence are able to be consumed in a visual representation of the data. All of the companies we have spoken to have a visualization platform to consume data. The big difference is that the tools that people are using to visualize data are not Data Science tools, but rather Business Intelligence tools. From our perspective, the key new area that data science adds to the output equation is taking the world of data science into production. In the post-analysis stage of data science you can do two things with the information: you can react to it (report + visualize) or you can make the data proactive. Making the data science work proactive requires the model to be integrated into production. The companies we have spoken with define production in many different ways. Some companies want models running in real time for transactions, while others would like the models informing supply chain or dealing with risk decisions. Trusting and utilizing your models in the real world requires a new way to think about what it means to deploy. HFT has been using this technology for years and there are still runaway algorithms and software issues that have substantial impacts on world markets. At Drive we believe there will be big companies built managing models in production. This includes general management, security, and interaction with a real-time production environment. We are actively trying to meet with as many companies in this area of the stack as possible. We feel that this is moving quickly and are spending time trying to talk to great entrepreneurs working on this problem. Putting it all together: Applications and Outcomes Drive is currently working on an entirely new market map that is a combination of the data science stack as it relates to vertical applications across multiple industries. Currently this map is focused on things like Aerial Robotics, Marketing, Customer Success, Financial Services, Transportation, Agriculture, Industrial, Legal, and Healthcare. These applications are using both data science and the technology stack to drive outcomes that weren’t possible just five years ago. Drive will continue to make investments in the Data Science-enabled applications driving proactive outcomes. We believe that this area has the largest opportunity for multiple market-defined companies to be built leveraging data science. In Summary We have spent the past year speaking with, and building, a perspective on the new and emerging world of Data Science. We have already made three investments, and continue to see this as a core focus for Drive moving forward. The areas of interest for us are specifically in the Applications, Output, and Management of data. We also include Security as a necessary vertical that runs along each of these areas. While the market has some very fundamental building blocks for machine intelligence and the Data Scientist is better enabled today than ever before, it is still early. We believe this market offers to be an opportunity similar to the shift of SaaS over the next 5–7 years, and we will continue to learn from the people building this market. We would love to hear from you if you have comments or would like to add your company to the market map for future revisions.
https://medium.com/performance-matters/investing-in-the-data-science-market-map-1481fc68b66f
['Andy Jenks']
2017-02-02 21:09:16.829000+00:00
['VC', 'Investment', 'Data Science', 'Big Data', 'Enterprise Technology']
5 Best Selling Parts for Your Cooler and Freezer
5 Best Selling Parts for Your Cooler and Freezer Does the refrigerator or freezer compartment have parts that need updating? Then we have an easy solution for you that comes at a great value. Walk-In Cooler Parts is an online retailer of parts and accessories for coolers and freezers. The online platform allows you to easily search for the part you need and quickly place an order! Orders processed within 1–2 business days and shipped directly to you. It’s that easy! Check out our 5 bestsellers: 1. Door Closer — Spring Action KASON 1095 Anyone and everyone who owns a cold or freezer room needs a good door closer to their unit. The KASON 1095 is an excellent choice and it’s our bestseller! There are several benefits to upgrade your door near KASON 1095: · Allows the door to be closed quickly. When the coolant door is closed or left to close on its own, it is important that the door closing mechanism is fast acting and holds the door in place. This helps maintain temperature and energy efficiency. · Quiet. The rubber roller on the door quickly locks the door in place without making any loud noise. This is important to reduce kitchen noise, especially for chillers that may be in an environment close to customers. No one wants to hear a heavy cooler door shutting during dinner! · solid. The KASON 1095 is completed with a simple spring mechanism that allows the door to have the closest long-term and hassle-free life. Completed with a patented solid steel housing and anti-bend hook, this closer ensures that it has a long life, even with heavy use! · Easy to install. This door lock is easy to install by simply placing it on a concealed mounting plate and can be used for many brands of coolers or freezers. Package includes closer, hook, mounting bracket and screws. 2. Floor plate screed The floor screed is a “U” track that can easily be located under the cooler side panels in the cabin. This is a must-have for coolers without floors. Our floorboard screed comes in 5-foot sections making it easy to handle and install. The Walk-In Cooler Parts screed comes in your choice of black or gray to keep the cooler looking sharp! A 2-inch screed has several benefits, but not limited to: · Effective. Energy efficiency is one of the most important aspects of air cooler. Without proper insulation, coolant can become an expensive asset for your business using the extra energy. Installing a screed at the base of the radiator will keep cool air inside, allowing it to work efficiently! · Easy to clean. The screed is made of synthetic standard vinyl that is durable and easy to clean. This is important to keep a clean cooler that is free of bacteria and mold. 3. Miljoco Vapor push thermometer Knowledge is power, which is why you need to be able to know the exact temperature of a coolant or freezer at all times. This Miljoco steam-fired dial thermometer will keep you fully informed of the exact temperature of your cooler or freezer. · Versatile and versatile. With a temperature range from -40 ° to 65 ° F, the Miljoco Steam Thermometer is a great choice for a wide variety of applications. Whether you have a flower cooler or a meat freezer, this thermometer is for you! · Flour. Through steam operation, this disc thermometer is not subject to indicator error due to changes in ambient temperature beside the tube system. You will get an excellent reading both above and below the ambient temperature. 4. Drain line heater wire Every room needs to have a properly functioning drain line. This part helps the unit drain any excess condensate that collects in the drain pan without freezing the line. The drain line heating wire has a length of 12 feet to meet your coolant needs and it does so efficiently. · Effective. The drain line heating wire heats up precisely where there is cold, and only uses wattage when temperatures drop. By using the low wattage, it can successfully keep your drain from freezing and save you money on energy costs. 5. Magnetic door collar The door gasket is an important part of your entry closet that you will need to ensure that it is routinely replaced. It may seem like a minor part of the unit, but it plays a big role in keeping your cooler or freezer running efficiently. You can check to see if this part needs replacement by checking the gasket for any lacerations or lacerations in the material. There are several benefits to installing a good magnetic door gasket on a refrigerator or freezer compartment: · Effective. The many parts that allow your cooler or freezer to work efficiently and the door gasket is one of those parts! The vinyl gasket creates a seal that prevents cold air from escaping from the unit. If the gasket is in poor condition, your unit may lose cold air and cost you more money in energy costs. A bad gasket can cause temperatures in a cold room or freezer to fluctuate resulting in food safety hazards and bacterial accumulation. · Help close the door. The gasket keeps the cool air inside when the door is closed, but a magnetic gasket can help the door close more quickly. A magnet inside the vinyl will automatically lock the door if left open 1 inch from the radiator. · Easy. It is easy to upgrade the gasket with a new one. For more information on spare parts for your chiller or freezer, please feel free to contact us by visiting http://newyorkwalkinbox.com/, or call us at (212) 653–8733. Our friendly staff is here to help you find the spare part you need for your unit! Our Serives Walk-in Coolers New York, walk in cooler price New York, Walk-in Freezer New York, freezer restaurant new York, commercial fridge for sale, walk-in refrigerator New York, commercial refrigerator and freezer in New York, Custom Size Walk-in Cooler New York, Custom Size Walk-in Freezer New York, walk in cooler for sale near me, best prices on walk in coolers New York, business refrigerator for sale, walk in cooler box New York, commercial walk in freezer for sale New York, walk in coolers prices New York, outside walk in cooler New York, outdoor commercial freezer New York, large walk in cooler in New York, walk in cooler and freezer for sale New York,
https://medium.com/@newblogs/5-best-selling-parts-for-your-cooler-and-freezer-95d9af996579
['Online Quran']
2020-12-22 13:26:31.558000+00:00
['New York', 'Freezer', 'Walk In Coolers']
Do I need Big Data? And if so, how much?
Do I need Big Data? And if so, how much? Photo by Jan Antonin Kolar on Unsplash I call myself a “Big Data Expert”. I have tamed many animals in the ever growing Hadoop zoo like HBase, Hive, Oozie, Spark, Kafka, etc… I helped companies to build and structure their Data Lake using appropriate subsets of these technologies. I like to wrangle with data from multiple sources to generate new insights (or to confirm old insights with evidence). I love to build Machine Learning models for predictive applications. So, yes, I would say that I am well experienced with many facets of what people would call “Big Data”. But at the same time, I became more and more skeptical of blindingly following the promises and the hype without understanding all the consequences and without evaluating the alternatives. What is “Big Data”? Before jumping into a discussion, let me first explain what I understand by the term “Big Data”. If you asked someone on the street, what he thinks the term “Big Data” stands for, you probably get very broad answers about “huge amounts of data which is continuously generated by peoples interacting with computer systems which then is used to analyze personal preferences”. There is a very well known more formal definition of “Big Data”, which focuses on three specific aspects of data: High volume — the amount of data that is stored High velocity — the speed at which new data arrives High variety — the variety of formats and types (images, text, structured data) It’s interesting to see that this definition really is only about the data itself and not about the processes to analyze the data. That is in stark contrast to the imagined answer above, which also contains the usage of the data. From my experience, the analytics part is the most important aspect of “Big Data” both from a companies and from a societies point of view. In this article, I want to focus on the technology aspect of “Big Data”, i.e. on the software and hardware stack required to work with high volume, high variety and possibly high velocity data. This includes both Hadoop but also scalable NoSQL databases like MongoDB, Cassandra etc. Big Data Promises A couple a years ago, I had the impression that big software and consulting companies sold the “Big Data” hype to their customers by promising the creation of a new level of insights from data. Today I would say that only a small fraction of companies actually succeeded in implementing a successful Big Data strategy, most other companies failed or are happy that they didn’t follow the hype. Simply think about Cloudera, one of the huge proponents of building Data Lakes, which almost went bankrupt although they had all the technology at hand to generate the insights to create the right decisions. But this situation doesn’t mean that Big Data is useless — I would argue that it was massively oversold by creating the expectation of a simple button that had to be pressed in order to generate new insights. We are still very far away from this single button solution and we even might never get it at all. The secret of the companies who successfully created a Big Data strategy is very simple and down to earth: They didn’t simply follow the hype and instead analyzed their problems and searched for tools to address their issues and only used Big Data tools where it made sense. That is they started from specific technical problems to find solutions and they didn’t start from a specific solution in search of a business problem to solve. Asking the Right Question Before jumping onto the bandwagon of “Big Data” by implementing Hadoop and Spark you should ask yourself a very simple question “Do I actually have Big Data?”. Just because you setup a Hadoop cluster, the amount of data generated by your operational systems doesn’t magically increase. Big Data and Technology It is really important to distinguish between Big Data itself (like the definition I gave above) and some technology which promises to support you with handling Big Data by almost unlimited scalability. Of course it absolutely makes sense to follow the “variety” of Big Data by combining data from different sources to gain new insights. But does that already require new technology? The answer simply depends on the volume of the data and if your current system can handle the load. Where does “Big Data” Technology come from? To give an idea when to use Big Data technology like Hadoop and Spark, let’s shed some light onto the origin of these technologies. Yahoo didn’t start the Hadoop project, just because they though it could be useful — they started the project, because there existing technology (probably some classic relational databases) couldn’t cope with the amount of data any more. That is,Yahoo reached a hard limit of their software and hardware stack that prevented them from moving forward. In this situation they decided to implement a new technology that could scale better with their data and —this is really important to realize— at the same time they accepted to lose 90% of all the convenient features of a traditional database. They started the Hadoop project, and got the following: Scalability in terms of data Scalability in terms of CPU power At the same time they lost the following features with Hadoop: SQL Tables Relations Indices Transactions Simple programming model (have you ever used Hadoop Map/Reduce?) Tools and integration Formally they lost more than they got. But there was no alternative, since Yahoos amount of data and their scaling requirements could not be handled any more by the then-existing technology. They had no other choice if they wanted to continue to work with their data. Of course the situation has changed since the inception of Hadoop: Nowadays traditional databases scale much better (although they are often still limited in this aspect). On the other side, the “Big Data” technology also catches up like for example atomic upserts for data lakes (DeltaLake and IceBerg) and continuous improvements on SQL support. So both sides (traditional databases and Big Data technology) improve by learning from the other side. Gradual move to Big Data With keeping in mind that first you actually already need to have Big Data before it makes sense to scale out, it often makes sense to follow a gradual approach: Don’t put all your bets on Big Data technology from the very beginning, as this will have many negative implications (more on them below). Instead follow the agile mindset: Get things working with a reasonable development effort. If this means to use MariaDB, then that is perfectly fine. If you find that using Cassandra is a better long term decision and doesn’t hurt development costs too much, that is also perfectly reasonable. But don’t try to build a super scalable financial transaction system using HBase when you just don’t have the transaction volume to justify that approach. When you started using “simple” technologies like MariaDB or Postgres and you find yourself limited by these technologies, then again, don’t immediately jump onto a completely different stack. Instead carefully analyze the overall situation and find out, which scenarios don’t perform as desired and what options are at hand. Those may include to move some analytics stuff into a more scalable NoSQL database or into a Data Lake. This may also include investigating the scalability options offered by the existing technology. As I already mentioned above and as I will explain in some more detail below, NoSQL databases and Data Lakes aren’t the cheap universal silver bullet. They really shine in certain use cases but are much less flexible than a traditional database. The best strategy is to use a mixture of appropriate technologies depending on the use case: Use RDBMS for relational data and master data like CRM Use highly scalable NoSQL databases for high volume data like IoT events or customer interactions Use data lakes based on cheap storage and scalable CPU power (for example S3 and Spark) for analytics Implications of Big Data Technology Now that I explained that both worlds (the old relational SQL database and the shiny new Big Data technology) will continue to exist for good reasons, let me discuss the implications of using Big Data stuff instead of a relational database. Costs of Big Data Big Data stuff is expensive. If you asked random people on the street, what they think is more expensive: A simple database or Big Data, they would probably answer “Big Data”. That term already sounds expensive. But nevertheless many companies already pay premium prices for their DB2 or Oracle databases, and apparently these systems are so expensive that managers cannot imagine that “Big Data” is even more expensive. I have no idea, how much a license for Oracle costs (apparently a lot of money), but going down the “Big Data” route isn’t cheap either. First of all, most bigger companies insist to use a “Hadoop distribution” (i.e. Cloudera as the only survivor) which also impose license costs. But unfortunately the full story doesn’t stop here, it just began. When you buy a traditional database, you get a well-integrated package of a storage-backend, a query execution engine, a SQL query frontend, indexing, foreign key relationships, aggregation, transactions and much more. When you implement a Big Data stack, you get HDFS (or S3, or Azure Blob Storage, or…) as storage backend, YARN (or Kubernetes, or Mesos, or…) as a cluster OS, Spark (or Map/Reduce, or Tez, or…) as an execution engine, Hive (or Impala, or Presto, or Drill, or…) as an SQL frontend, Solr (or Elasticsearch) as an index engine, HBase (or Cassandra) as a column store for fast single record access and transactions. You essentially get a set of disintegrated building blocks waiting for a developer to glue them together to provide 20% of the functionality of a traditional database system. Agility of Big Data This doesn’t mean that Big Data technology is scam, it’s really the opposite: All these components work really great and scale very well, both with the amount of data and with the number of machines in a cluster. Each Big Data component is an expert in its domain — but often completely useless in all neighbor domains. Often there are multiple concurring candidates within a single domain (like Hive vs Impala vs Presto vs Drill vs Spark for an SQL query engine), each of them with specific strengths and weaknesses. Therefore you really need to understand each technology very well as a basis to a good decision. At the first sight, this situation might look scary. And I have to admit, it really is scary at the start of the journey into Big Data. Having to chose between so many competing technologies is not easy. But after some time, you’ll understand the fundamental concepts which helps you to judge most products simply by look at their spec sheet. Once you reached this point, you will understand that all these options provide you the freedom to separately chose the technology that is best for each problem. This is a completely different approach than the well integrated package offered by relational databases. If you actively realize the choice (instead of buying a complete Big Data package with all the choices being already made for you), it will give your projects a huge agility. For example I am a really big fan of Spark, which can well run on a “Spark standalone” cluster without YARN, Mesos or Kubernetes or which can run even completely non-distributed on a local machine. Eventually you can mix and match individual components (like Spark, Presto, S3, Alluxio) to precisely fulfill your requirements.
https://towardsdatascience.com/do-i-need-big-data-and-if-so-how-much-ef29fc30e561
['Kaya Kupferschmidt']
2020-11-17 08:13:20.560000+00:00
['Hadoop', 'Big Data', 'NoSQL']
💻 — 🔋Get Laptop Battery Name and Battery Power Status using C# Console Application
First of all, Let me just explain to you in short about WMI & Win32_Battery! What is WMI? Windows Management Instrumentation(WMI) is the infrastructure for management data and operations on Windows-based operating systems. You can write WMI scripts or applications to automate administrative tasks on remote computers but WMI also supplies management data to other parts of the operating system and products. What is the Win32_Battery Class? The Win32_Battery WMI Class represents a battery connected to the computer system. Let’s create a simple Console Application in Visual Studio Click on Next -> Button Give a sample solution name and then click on Create -> Button. Add the System. Management package into our project. System.Management Namespace: project Provides access to a rich set of management information and management events about the system, devices, and applications instrumented to the windows management Instrumentation(WMI) infrastructure. Applications and services can query for interesting management information (such as how much free space is left on the desk, what is the current CPU utilization, which database a certain application is connected to, and much more), using classes derived from ManagementObjectSearcher and ManagementQuery or subscribe to a variety of management events using a ManagementEventWatcher class. The accessible data can be from both managed and unmanaged components in the distributed environment. Program.cs using System; using System.Management; namespace BatteryPercentage { class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { // Title Display Console.Title = “Info about Laptop Battery”; //Retrieves a collection of system management objects based on the below query! ManagementObjectSearcher mos = new ManagementObjectSearcher(“select * from Win32_Battery”); foreach(ManagementObject mo in mos.Get()) { // To print the Battery name Console.WriteLine(“Battery Name\t:{0}”,mo[“Name”]); // To print the Battery charging status Console.WriteLine(“Charge \t\t:{0}%”,mo[“EstimatedChargeRemaining”]); } Console.ReadLine(); } } } Run the application to get the result of the battery name and battery status. Source Code: https://github.com/JayKrishnareddy/BatteryPercentage ….Keep Learning!!!!
https://medium.com/@jaykrishnareddy/get-laptop-battery-name-and-battery-power-status-using-c-console-application-3540e91d6590
['Jay Krishna Reddy']
2020-08-10 04:48:36.685000+00:00
['C Sharp Programming', 'Dotnet Core', 'Battery', 'Charging']
ILEANA DCRUZ is a CRIMINAL of BJP MAFIA ‼️
ILEANA DCRUZ is a CRIMINAL of BJP MAFIA ‼️ BJP MAFIA EXPOSED 👇 https://dwichakraalemaaritruth.wordpress.com/blog https://bjpmafiaexposed.substack.com ✨🤡✨ Respected Madam, WHY are you SILENT about the MURDER of DK RAVI & GAURI LANKESH & DISHA SALIAN and SUSHANT SINGH RAJPUT & RAJ KAUSHAL & DILIP KUMAR & SIDDARTH SHUKLA by BJP & BOLLYWOOD MAFIA & YOUR FAMILY ❓ For EXPOSING their DRUG MAFIA and CRIMINAL CELEBRITIES and for me being from SCHEDULED TRIBE ➡️ ⚫ BJP MP TEJASVI SURYA & his uncle RAVI SUBRAMANYA who stayed just 7️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ metres from my HOME, ordered my HARASSMENT by ACP KV SRIDHARA for WHOLE last year‼️ ⚫ BJP BLOCKED more than 5️⃣9️⃣ of my TWITTER, FB, INSTA & YOUTUBE ACCOUNTS 🤭 WHY has your BJP BLOCKED me from POSTING on INSTA HANDLE ➡️ truthyawatchin and TWITTER HANDLE dwichakra_alemaari, after I asked BJP LEADERS about them HARASSING me because I'm from SCHEDULED TRIBE, by their CRIMINALS in my old BUILDING and continue it even around my NEW HOUSE , for EXPOSING their MAFIA TRUTH❓ For EXPOSING their DRUG MAFIA and CRIMINAL CELEBRITIES, BJP BLOCKED my 6️⃣ TWITTER ACCOUNTS back to back on SEPT 3️⃣0️⃣th and OCT 3️⃣Rd, 3️⃣ on each day 🤭 BJP just BLOCKED my insta account dwichakra_alemaari_2 for EXPOSING their DRUG MAFIA and their CRIMINAL CELEBRITIES 😂 Tell your FANS about the women whom you TRAPPED in your PROSTITUTION RING 😎 Your PARTNERS IN CRIME - BJP, FILM INDUSTRIES, DUBAI mafia You DRUG INNOCENT WOMEN, your LOTUS MAFIA makes DIRTY PERVERTED VIDEOS of them when they're UNCONSCIOUS, later BLACKMAIL their FAMILIES for 💵 You use same tactics to DRUG INNOCENT FAMILY MEMBERS of OPPOSITE POLITICAL PARTY and later BLACKMAIL them for POLITICAL LEVERAGE 😐 How many GOOD PEOPLE you've KILLED with your POLITICAL BLACKMAILING (CCD SIDDARTHA, CHIRU, DISHA, SUSHANT, SPB) 😮 GAURI LANKESH and VIKAS SHARMA was KILLED by YOU for STANDING UP against BJP MAFIA 😠 You SLEEP with POWERFUL PEOPLE, make DIRTY VIDEOS of them to BLACKMAIL them to join your BJP (KARNATAKA 11) 🐕 You're getting MOVIE OFFERS by SELLING your BODY 😉 You're INVOLVED in DRUG CIRCULATION, BLACKMAILING RACKET and WOMEN TRAFFICKING 🤑 You're ACTIVELY INVOLVED in OPERATION LOTUS of BJP 🥰 Your ENTIRE FAMILY are FILTHY CRIMINAL PIMPS who should be ARRESTED for the SUICIDES of those WOMEN and their FAMILY members 😤 CHIRU, DISHA, SUSHANT, SPB and LOTS of people had CONFESSED their CRIMES and wanted to EXPOSE you. So you KILLED them ☠️ The MAFIA that you're a PART of is HEADED by the BJP🕷️ MODIJI is the KINGPIN of the LOTUS CARTEL for now 💣 COVID LOCKDOWN was a SMOKESCREEN to HIDE the LOTUS MAFIA connections by BJP and use it as an EXCUSE to KILL those who are EXPOSING their DRUG MAFIA 🤖 REAL STRINGS of LOTUS MAFIA are getting PULLED from DUBAI 🦇 I SHIFTED to a NEW HOUSE, but the HARASSMENT around my building and surrounding ROADS continues. BJP BUGGED my house with HELP from PHILIPS bulbs SOLD by AMAZON, HACKED my phone, desktop and ALL online accounts 😑 PROOF - They are DESPERATE to STOP ME from putting further names as these same CRIMINALS are INVOLVED with BJP in their DRUG MAFIA. BJP has kept PEOPLE in and around my BUILDING to make NOISE and HARASS me for REVEALING their DUBAI MAFIA roots 😈 Since, I put BJP LEADER names in my POSTS and as I'm from a SCHEDULED TRIBE, from early MORNING... 💣 BJP CRIMINALS in my OLD ENTIRE building who were HIDING in the LIFT & STORAGE ROOM on my TERRACE were continously BANGING on my TERRACE and pulling HEAVY TABLES. 💣 BJP CRIMINALS in my OLD ENTIRE building & adjacent building were continously making NOISE right beside my ROOM WINDOW. 💣 BJP CRIMINALS in my surroundings are constantly making NOISE, even around my NEW BUILDING. TEJASVI SURYA ➡️ ALL this ATROCITY & HARASSMENT was happening just 7️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ metres from your HOUSE. What were YOU doing as a LAWYER & a PEOPLE REPRESENTATIVE❓ BJP CRIMINALS around my old BUILDING were continously HARASSING me from past 7️⃣ months for being from SCHEDULED TRIBE and EXPOSING their MAFIA TRUTH and CONTINUE it around my NEW HOUSE also. BJP was continously cutting POWER in intervals from MORNING to THREATEN ME for REVEALING their DUBAI MAFIA roots and BJP CRIMINALS hiding in my TERRACE were HARASSING me by BANGING on my TERRACE, pulling HEAVY TABLES, making NOISE right beside my ROOM WINDOW and in my ROAD 😁 WHEN will you RETURN those BLACKMAILING VIDEOS❓ CONFESS your SINS and SURRENDER to the LAW ma'am 🤫 SAVE those WOMEN from your PROSTITUTION RING 🤡🥶🤡 I KNOW you're planning to KILL me. I'm ready to DIE for my TRUTH. Are YOU ready to undergo an INVESTIGATION and face the LAW for your LIES❓ To LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES ➡️ BJP CRIMINALS in and around my BUILDING HARASSED me from past 7️⃣ MONTHS in my OLD house and doing the same around my NEW house also. They were HARASSING me day and night EVERYDAY and ALL this was HAPPENING right in the BUILDING where ACP K.V. SRIDHARA was staying and also in ALL SURROUNDING buildings. REAL REASON for KV SRIDHARA being SILENT about my HARASSMENT from past 7️⃣ months - HE was sent by BJP to HARASS and THREATENED me for EXPOSING their CRIMINAL DRUG MAFIA 💥 ACP KV SRIDHARA and his BJP CRIMINALS kept BANGING on my TERRACE AND in their HOUSE to THREATEN me. WHEN will the POLICE DEPARTMENT ARREST him and his CRIMINALS ❓ I have enough PROOF to prove this. Even now, BJP SHAMELESS CRIMINALS continue HARASSING ME in and around my building. Even after ALL this, POLICE DEPARTMENT is SILENT means... I got my ANSWER. #BEGGARhasNOTHINGtoLOSE #JusticeForSSR #BJPFails #BJPHataoDeshBachao #CONFESSANDSURRENDERCULPRITMAHIMA #HOPEyouCOMECLEANbackstabberAPEKSHA #OPERATIONLOTUSexposed #LOTUSMENhaveZEROBALLS #TRUTHwillNOTsetYOUfree #KARMAistheBITCHwhoisALWAYSwatchin #JUSTICEforeveryVICTIMofLOTUSandDUBAImafia #JusticeForSushantSinghRajput #JUSTICEforeveryVICTIMofLOTUSandDUBAImafia #JusticeForSushantSinghRajput #Love4SSR #Revolution4SSR #WorldUnitedforSSRjustice #CBIEnquiryForSushant. #CBIMustForSushant. #CBIInvestigationForSSR #Warriors4Sushant #whokilledsushant #WorldFight4SSR #worldSushantEarthday #302ForSushant. #SSRCulpritsRoamingFree #Oath4SSR #BoycottBollywoodMovies #boycottbollywoodmafia #BoycottBrandBollyWood #Sandalwood #sandalwoodmovies #SandalwoodActress
https://medium.com/@dwichakra.alemaari_2/ileana-dcruz-is-a-criminal-of-bjp-mafia-%EF%B8%8F-dbb6d69d0443
['Dwichakra Alemaari']
2021-12-18 07:32:11.684000+00:00
['Ileana Dcruz', 'Rrr Movie', 'Bollywood', 'Bjp Mafia Exposed', 'Tollywood']
Hyper-Collaborative Business Processes in the Wake of a Pandemic
Hyper-Collaborative Business Processes in the Wake of a Pandemic Logistics aims to achieve seamless connectivity between constituent processes. Supply Chain Processes have always been labor-intensive, especially in inventory management (handling, inspection), production, and shipping. However, as social distancing has become the norm due to the current pandemic, businesses have been forced to reevaluate their processes to adapt. Effect of Restrictions on Supply of Goods As social distancing becomes the new norm, warehouses take a major hit in inventory. Staffing restrictions have reduced the amount of inventory that can be handled at any given point in time. This has reduced the amount of material moving out of warehouses and into production lines, inadvertently causing delays in fulfilling orders. Delayed orders are further exacerbated by shipping delays due to restrictions placed on the movement of goods and transport. This causes supply to further be pushed back, causing a rise in prices. As prices rise, demand for the goods is affected, thus, inadvertently affecting demand planning that businesses may have done. The current pandemic has been one that has hit companies out of the blue and has crippled many small businesses. Building a Business Ecosystem The supply chain has benefitted from advances in technology. By opening up distribution, wholesale and retail markets, connecting them has been effective in reducing costs. This has allowed for the integration of business processes. No more are manufacturing, distribution, and markets separate entities. Rather, each of these is integrated into the supply chain. Technologies such as the internet of things and computer vision have given way to automated manufacturing and computer-based inspection processes. This system allows for lower staffing at any production line, greater control over manufacturing and inventory, brings down administrative delays, and prevents compromises in business processes. Even in the event of a compromise, a technological system can sift through process logs and establish a cause for such compromise. Moreover, distribution networks and retail benefit from such partnerships by instantly regulating supply in the wake of any assignable cause for a reduction in demand. As supply chain models increasingly become collaborative, forming strategic supplier partnerships, markets ultimately improve, with newer suppliers joining in. Recognizing the shift to manufacturing in India and schemes such as Make in India, there is ample scope for manufacturers to restructure their processes and adopt increasingly collaborative ecosystems. Digital Infrastructure for a Hyper-Collaborative Environment The advantage of building a digital ecosystem is that it does not require a complete restructuring of business processes, rather, it acts as an extension to existing infrastructure, allowing for comprehensive cloud monitoring and control. This enables businesses to interface with each other and seamlessly make an integrated supply chain, all the way downstream from the manufacturer to the market. This monitoring is effectively real-time, allowing for greater flexibility and control in all processes. This way, human interaction is reduced and cost savings can occur due to a reduction in administrative processes and management. Adapting to Government Regulations The current situation has seen government regulations related to travel and staffing change over the months, to take steps to allow for social distancing. Changes have been made to the documentation and approval process for carrying out business. This affects production since such processes have been established in keeping with policies that were mostly offline or paper-based. With the advent of digital solutions to verification, approvals, and transactions, requisite reports and documents can be printed instantaneously at any location. This allows any stakeholder in the business access to such documents, should they need to evaluate the current status and make critical business decisions. Important documents, such as e-passes, shipping orders, and approval certificates can be accessed instantly, which can be shown for verification purposes and these can be digitally signed as proof of authenticity. How Online Documentation can Push for Better Communication As documents can be accessed online by all stakeholders, there is no hassle of archives and no need for staffing for organization and retrieval of data. This push for access to online documents also means that the system is much more secure since encryption helps for unauthorized access. This is especially relevant for manufacturing sectors that have gone digital and use IOT based processes for control. Any unauthorized change in databases may cause severe production inconsistencies and cripple businesses. Also, in the transport sector, government documents can be evaluated at a distance and can be shared using systems like near field communication. This is similar to systems like FasTag, where RFID chips are used to determine access control at checkpoints. The Move to a Transparent and Open Market- A Hyper-Collaborative Business Model Supply chain processes have integrated process planning and manufacturing operations. The move to a digital ecosystem can benefit businesses that rely on manual processes for inventory, distribution, and transport. The current pandemic may have caused tighter restrictions on the movement of goods and preventive measures like social distancing may mean fewer persons in factories. With the right technological infrastructure, businesses can remotely control their processes. By integrating their processes to the cloud, they benefit from the real-time feedback and control. By moving distribution and markets to a digital model, businesses benefit from increased transparency and can compete better in the market. These measures ultimately benefit all the stakeholders, right from the supplier to retailers and finally the consumers, who can get a wider variety of products and can benefit from increased competition.
https://medium.com/@transoblog/hyper-collaborative-business-processes-in-the-wake-of-a-pandemic-6fcaf1128b6
[]
2020-12-21 06:02:55.502000+00:00
['Supply Chain', 'IoT', 'Digital Transformation', 'Logistics']
Gentil the blogger
Evans Ankomah Well known as Gentletheblogger Student of University of cape coast and affiliated to Casford Hall.He is a multi talented guy in the field of blogger who manage,promote,and boost social media handles..
https://medium.com/@afrobusinesses/gentil-the-blogger-7559352240c4
[]
2020-12-23 03:30:20.368000+00:00
['Ankomah', 'Gentletheblogger', 'Evans', 'Evansankomah', 'Blogger']
Film The Lodge / Avis et Critique
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://justaword.fr/the-lodge-5e35d8ff9f82
['Nicolas Winter']
2020-12-27 16:43:00.683000+00:00
['Movies', 'The Lodge', 'Severin Fiala', 'Veronika Franz', 'Horror']
67 STEPS TO GETTING ANYTHING YOU WANT OUT OF LIFE: HEALTH, WEALTH, LOVE, & HAPPINESS
“HOW I WENT FROM BROKE TO BUYING A LAMBORGHINI” Turn off the lights CLICK HERE TO CLAIM YOUR SPOT click here to learning disc 60% 239479 67 STEP MEMBERS AND COUNTING 5,922,196 PAGE LIKES 306,767 FOLLOWERS 2,800,000 FOLLOWERS 677,973 SUBSCRIBES AS SEEN ON Results may vary and testimonials are not claimed to represent typical results. All testimonials are real. These results are meant as a showcase of what the best, most motivated clients have done and should not be taken as average or typical results. You should assume that products, programs or personal recommendations made by me, Tai Lopez, may result in compensation paid to me by those I recommend. I recommend resources that I use myself, unless it specifically states that I do not use that resource. I do recommend many products and services to my clients which I do not use myself. If you would rather that I not be compensated for these recommendations, go to Google and search for the item and find a non-affiliate link to use. You should perform your own due diligence and use your own best judgment prior to making any investment decision pertaining to your business. By virtue of visiting this site or interacting with any portion of this site, you agree that you’re fully responsible for the investments you make and any outcomes that may result. Do you have questions about 67 Steps, Book of the Day Summaries, or general questions about TaiLopez.com products or services? Are you wondering if the program will work for you? Give us a call! You can contact us at 800–604–2587. We will be happy to discuss your goals and how the 67 Steps program may help you. EVERYBODY WANTS THE GOOD LIFE, BUT NOT EVERYBODY GETS THE GOOD LIFE… THE MORE YOU LEARN THE MORE YOU EARN! The average American makes $51,017 a year yet is $225,238 in debt¦ As they say in poker, if you’ve been in the game for 30 minutes and don’t know who the sucker is, you’re the sucker. You never want to be the sucker. Imagine if you could have back the years you have wasted dating the wrong person; get back the money you lost on bad investments; take back the lost decades you spent in the wrong career. The greatest wish of every human is to have their wasted years back, but how? I asked myself many years ago, If there aren’t 3 steps to get whatever you want, how many steps really are there? And if you can’t get success overnight, how quickly can you actually make a big change? Like the self-made billionaire Warren Buffett says, You only learn from mistakes. But they don’t have to be your mistakes. It’s a hell of a lot easier to learn from the mistakes of others. Start by asking yourself, are you so excited about life that you can’t wait to wake up? Not many people are. CLICK HERE TO CLAIM YOUR SPOT INVEST IN YOUR OWN BRAIN. DOUBLE DOWN ON YOUR MIND. Since I was 16 years old I have traveled to 51 countries, read thousands of books, been mentored by 5 people (three millionaires and two closer to the billion dollar level). Started or invested in over a dozen multi-million dollar companies. I regularly charge training, coaching, and consulting anywhere from $1000 up to $1,000,000 per year. My collection of principles, thoughts, and sayings has grown over the years. The problem now is that when I try to refer back to all this wisdom, the list has become too long and too hard to sort through. I narrowed the list down to a more manageable number. I chose the number 67. That number’s based on new research by the University College London that found it takes about 66 days to form a new habit. So I added one more for good luck & came up with 67¦ These Steps came from the teachings of powerful and famous people like Bill gates, Charlie Munger, Peter Drucker, Gandhi, and my personal mentors. Some are from my own personal experiences as an entrepreneur and from in-person meetings with some of the greatest minds around the globe. These 67 Steps will be your guide to avoiding the pain of a wasted life. THE 67 STEPS GIVES YOU INSTANT ACCESS TO THE FOLLOWING The “67 Steps” Program to The Good Life: I want to shave years off the painful learning curve to find The Good Life and accelerate my goals. Video Archive Vault: I get immediate access to over 100 hours of videos Tai recorded specifically for the Twice-a-Month Coaching Calls where he reveals the key secrets found in the 150 most important books on achieving The Good Life. VIP Membership to Tai’s Exclusive Twice-A-Month Live Coaching Calls: I will also get direct access to Tai to get my questions answered. Book-Of-The-Day Premium: I will receive the “Book-Of-The-Day” premium video and audio summaries. Now I am getting his personal library of premium book summaries not available anywhere to the public. Super Bonus Content: I get immediate access to the one-time bonus material including: Investment Secrets; Speed Reading Wizardry; Access to the Private Facebook Social Networking Group; and Tai’s App List. CLICK HERE TO CLAIM YOUR SPOT READ WHAT OTHER 67 STEPS MEMBERS ARE SAYING MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE I so strongly believe that the 67 Steps will revolutionize your health, your wealth, your love life, and your happiness — just like it has countless other people around the world — that I’m willing to give you a 100% no questions asked money-back guarantee. But let me say one thing, I guarantee you that the 67 Step video series will take your quality of life to a level it has never been before. I guarantee you that it will shave years off life’s painful learning curve and help you reach your goals two to three times faster than normal. I guarantee you that this program will be full of things that you have never heard of before. DOWNLOAD THE IDEAS FROM THE GREATEST MINDS My goal is to change the world and I know that by making these 67 Steps essentially free I will reach a wider audience. The 67 Steps are not a get-rich-quick scheme, although I am sure they can make you richer than you’ve ever imagined. You will not lose 30 pounds overnight, although you can use these steps to get in the best shape of your life. One of the most common questions I get is, Tai what is the best investment I can make? Warren Buffett made $60 billion dollars as an investor in dozens of different industries but he still says, The Most Important investment you can make is in yourself. You are probably already imagining the new and exciting life you are about to embark on. I say go for it. Let your mind wander and imagine the possibilities that fear has locked away from you for so long. As the great UCLA basketball coach John Wooden said, Be quick but not in a hurry. Start immediately on these 67 Steps, don’t procrastinate. But also understand that these are deep concepts designed to rewire your brain. Because once you do (and I’m counting on you to do this), it will be a good life for you¦ Stay strong, Tai CLICK HERE TO CLAIM YOUR SPOT 67 STEPS ACCELERATOR STORIES BLOG MOVIES BOOKS ABOUT CAREERS MODEL TRAIN HELP LOGIN PRIVACY POLICY TERMS OF USE 1.800.604.2587 | 8581 Santa Monica Blvd # 703 West Hollywood CA 90069 ©2011–2019, Tai Lopez
https://medium.com/@abdullahismapeti18/67-steps-to-getting-anything-you-want-out-of-life-health-wealth-love-happiness-5326e235a1d4
[]
2020-12-19 23:53:30.702000+00:00
['Succession Planning', 'Success', 'Financial Planning', 'Entrepreneurship']
How to Stop Being Overwhelmed by Self-Help Advice
I think most of us reach points in our life where we realize things could be better and we turn to self-help. Maybe we’ve gotten too caught up in binge-watching TV shows, put off too many personal goals, settled on too many fast-food meals, and the like. We know it’s time for a change, but where to start? It’s natural to start with an internet search, so you type whatever your particular challenge is into Google. You find all kinds of articles with useful advice on how to have perfect mornings, what to eat to have energy and lose weight, how to set and keep SMART goals, how to have better relationships and what apps to use to block apps so you stop wasting time on your phone. Maybe a few concepts resonate with you enough that your next stop is Amazon.com. Soon you have downloaded three books to your Kindle, one paperback is on its way, and you’ve bookmarked 17 articles to review later. The Overwhelm Congratulations, you’ve just entered The Overwhelm. Just from reading the articles, you likely already have so many new ideas swimming around in your head that you haven’t any idea where to start. Once you begin reading the books, there will be even more options to consider. They all sound promising and exciting. You could start on your new life tomorrow…if only you could decide what to try first. I’ve taken a number of online courses and collected enough self-help books to understand the tug-of-war between the glamor of change and the self-protective instinct to leave things as they are. The easiest thing to do at this point is to do nothing except possibly read through the books, nodding in agreement at the wisdom being imparted, but never actually doing the exercises suggested or taking any action. Don’t do that. Instead, try one of these things: Make a Choice Choose just one book and follow the advice in that book. Take notes as you read it. Do the exercises. Take the actions recommended. Leave the other books and articles for another time. Focus on the one book for a set period of time, perhaps three months, or whatever time period seems realistic considering the content and what you are working towards. and follow the advice in that book. Take notes as you read it. Do the exercises. Take the actions recommended. Leave the other books and articles for another time. Focus on the one book for a set period of time, perhaps three months, or whatever time period seems realistic considering the content and what you are working towards. If using a book feels overwhelming, try following the advice of just one really good article . . If you have so many things you want to work on that you can’t even choose a single book or article, write a list of all the behaviors you want to improve, then select one that is most likely to have an impact on the others. For instance, if you want to be healthier, sleep better, lose weight, and have more energy, the goal of regularly getting exercise would impact all of these areas. It’s exciting to think about constructing a new life, but don’t sabotage yourself by taking on too much at once. If you love the idea of creating a great morning routine, such as the one organizational psychologist Benjamin Hardy writes about, but you also want to start writing a book and communicating more effectively with your kids and spouse, choose just one activity to start working on now. Give yourself at least a month to experiment with the new behaviors and incorporate them into your life before considering adding anything else. Be Attentive As You Learn As you work your way through the book or article explaining the new habits you need to acquire, check in with yourself frequently. Are you trying new behaviors? If not, why not? If so, how do they feel? Keep in mind what motivated you to take action. You have to be your own teacher and your own cheerleader. Figure out what’s working and what’s not and adjust as needed. If the changes still feel overwhelming, slow down, and reduce the number of habits you are working on at one time. Some books suggest a lot of changes at once. Don’t worry about doing it the “right” way — going at your own pace is better than giving up because you were overwhelmed. I admit that in the past I was a serial reader, not a serial doer. I’d read the self-help books, but then not follow through. Following the advice in a book takes effort and dedication. It means comprehending the lessons, understanding the actions needed, and figuring out how to schedule the new activities into your life. I think a lot of us read but then don’t take action. I’m warning you of this pitfall so you can avoid it. Go into this project knowing it will require work, having your notebook ready for notetaking, and opening your mind to learning. The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. - Lao Tzu Commit to even just one simple action for a month and see where it leads. All habits, good and bad, start with one behavior repeated over time. Take the responsibility to build one new good habit for yourself to see how powerful you really are. More from Dakota… Are you a writer or dream of being a writer? Do habits like procrastination and perfectionism keep you from being the productive writer you want to be? I’m an author and I also help people overcome self-defeating habits so they can work towards becoming the writer they dream of being. Click on the link below to find out about the video course that I am currently offering for free. Find out about my free video course — Stop Procrastinating Write Now.
https://medium.com/live-your-life-on-purpose/how-to-stop-being-overwhelmed-by-self-help-advice-f259a8ff9740
['Dakota Duncan']
2020-07-29 23:01:00.914000+00:00
['Mental Health', 'Self Help', 'Productivity', 'Happiness', 'Self-awareness']
Village Face Lift
Jenny Jedeikin’s work has appeared in The San Francisco Chronicle, Rolling Stone, The Advocate, The UK's Oh Comely; read more at jennyjedeikin.com. Follow
https://medium.com/spiralbound/village-face-lift-9569510cdd5b
['Jenny Jedeikin']
2018-06-14 13:01:04.741000+00:00
['Neighborhoods', 'Cvs', 'Comics', 'Jenny Live', 'Jenny Jedeikin']
Opinion: There is a virus plaguing the U.S.
Change my mind My best friend in school — who will remain anonymous — was my first real best friend, and even though we rarely talk I still consider him a good friend of mine. I’ve known him since we were in 7th grade, where we met in Mr. Hudson’s Science class. We really got to know each other and found out we both shared very similar interests. We played Minecraft until 4 AM (Until my mom got mad at me for playing video games so late on school nights), we would talk about the latest Apple product, blab about random technology, etc. We were nerds, hardcore. Until one day during my Sophomore year of High School, I received an email at 2 AM. I found out he sent individual emails to myself and our other mutual friend. That email was his way of coming out to us as gay. But one line in the email that I received shook me to my core and made me realize that my way of acting was hurtful and toxic: I was afraid to come out to you because of how you talk about gay people. Needless to say, I was appalled at my behavior. I, who considered myself a Christian that didn’t judge people for who they were or what they chose to believe, was called out by my, now gay, best friend for judging people. From that point on I decided I needed to not change my beliefs, but handle them differently. We supported each other through high school, graduated, and even went to some of the same college classes, and while he knew my views sometimes differed from his he also knew I wasn’t going to judge him or say anything rude or offensive, because it wasn’t my place. I learned very quickly to not let other people’s views compromise my integrity, moral and ethic values, or personal and spiritual beliefs. That doesn’t mean that I stopped believing in God because I was friends with a gay person. That doesn’t mean I started interpreting the Bible in my own way to justify the fact that I supported someone important in my life who really and truly embraced who they were. What it did mean was that I didn’t let politics or personal beliefs affect what I knew in my heart was morally and ethically right: allowing people to be themselves, and not thinking different or less of them because they were different than me. What I did was love them as a person, and not as anything else.
https://medium.com/@natereprogle/opinion-there-is-a-virus-plaguing-the-u-s-c72b8dd2511b
['Nate Reprogle']
2020-06-27 13:47:18.665000+00:00
['Virus', 'Be The Change', 'Politics', 'Opinion']
A Chronicle of Closeted Sex Acts
1.There is a picture of me as a toddler kissing a little boy named Jack. We are sitting on a miniature white wicker chair on the front porch of my house. We both have short, wispy curls, his blonde and mine brown, that fall just above the base of our necks. He’s wearing a light blue t-shirt with dark blue stripes. It’s covered in drool and dirt stains. I’m not wearing a shirt at all, and the corner of my diaper peeks out at the bottom of the frame. My eyes are closed and Jack’s are slightly open. Our lips are millimeters apart. They are clearly about to touch. I’m not wearing a shirt at all, and the corner of my diaper peeks out at the bottom of the frame. I don’t know why Jack and I decided to kiss in that moment, whether we were emulating the mommies we’d seen kissing daddies and the princes we’d seen kissing princesses or if we were just two babies exploring our surroundings and gender had nothing to do with it. I can’t help but wonder, though. If Jack had been a girl, would this picture exist? Or would whatever adult snapped this photo and likely shouted, awww, how cute have had a different reaction to seeing two little girls doing the same? 2. They don’t teach gay sex in sex-ed. They don’t even mention it. The penis is inserted into the vagina. That is sex. That is it. As a sixth grader it doesn’t occur to me to question what they tell me. In our final class we all get to write anonymous questions on slips of paper and place them in a fishbowl at the front of the room for the teacher to pull out and answer. Someone, not me, has written, “how do lesbians have sex?” I don’t remember if there are giggles when my teacher reads this one aloud. Probably. I don’t remember perking up or being especially interested in the answer. I don’t quite remember how the teacher answers it either, but I do vividly remember this question being pulled out of the fishbowl, even though I can’t remember any others. I can still hear my teacher reading it out loud in her low, scraggly voice. That has to mean something. 3. In both high school and college, I spend a lot of time Googling pictures of hot guys in an effort to convince myself I feel attracted to them. I only do it at night, with the lights off, when I am alone in my room. I search anything from “Usher Shirtless” to “Sexy Ryan Gosling” to “Hot Naked Men.” I stare and I stare and I stare and I order my brain to feel something. Look at those abs, I tell it. How badly do you wish you could rub your hands all over that chest? I manufacture butterflies in my stomach, assemble a series of tingles throughout my body. I perform this ritual too many times to count. One night, though, I decide to try something new. It’s one of those nights when I’ve decided that maybe I could be gay and maybe if I was it wouldn’t be so bad. I have moments like this every once in a while — periods that last an hour or so where I allow myself to freely gaze at beautiful girls and test the way my body and mind react before furiously beating myself up for ever thinking I could possibly be gay when I am so clearly straight. So during this night when I have decided being gay would not be an epic disaster, I decide to Google photos of one of my favorite actresses, Shay Mitchell, who happens to play a lesbian on a TV show I love, Pretty Little Liars. My heart pounds as I type the letters to her name in the search bar. My stomach aches like I am searching for ways to bury a body or purchase large amounts of heroin. A barrage of pictures covers the screen. Shay and her menacingly sexy stare wearing jeans and a tank top. Shay in a bathing suit, in a sparkly dress, in almost nothing at all. I mentally run my hands over her smooth skin and through her long, silky hair. I examine the curvature of her face, the suppleness of her lips. I imagine what it might feel like to kiss them. Would it feel better than kissing a guy? I stare at her chest. Am I attracted to it? I don’t know. I think I could be. There’s something easier about looking at Shay than looking at Ryan Gosling or Usher. I don’t have to tell my brain what to do. Before I go to sleep, I erase my computer’s search history, as if someone would see Shay Mitchell in the search bar and put all the pieces together. By the time I wake up the next morning, I’ve assured myself yet again that I was acting ridiculous and I am very much straight. 4. I grip Sam’s cheeks the way an insect clings to the windshield of a truck whooshing down the interstate. I let his body weight sink onto me as I lay back onto the beer-stained grass. The ground throbs to the beat of the song blasting inside the fraternity nearby. The adjacent streetlight displays Sam’s black curls. Perhaps I’m illuminated, too. His tongue presses into mine and at the time eighteen-year-old me does not know that I feel nothing. Because at the time I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel, aside from the gooeyness of his mouth exploring the gooeyness of mine. “Finally!” I shout to the bully who lives inside my left ventricle. “I’ve made out with a boy so I can’t be a loser anymore. You have no more reason to pester me.” The bully hangs his head and sulks off into the shadows. The next morning I awaken alone beneath my black and white flowered comforter in my dorm. I make my way to breakfast with the new friends I’m pretending so hard to love because it’s the first week of college and aren’t I supposed to be having the time of my life? I am beaming about last night and how I’m not a loser anymore. There’s a hot air balloon bursting out the front pocket of my backpack pulling me up toward the sky. I force myself downwards into my seat in the dining hall and grip the table so I don’t float away. New friend number one takes a break from slurping up eggs and begins to speak: “Those boys we met last night were such jerks,” she says. New friend number two chimes in: “I know. They were so creepy and weird.” I let go of the table. No chance I’m going anywhere. The bully perks up. He slips on his boxing gloves and begins throwing punches and I can feel the blood stop flowing through my body. “Do you think they know?” I whisper to him. “Maybe they didn’t see the two of us go outside.” He can’t seem to hear me over all that pounding. It turns out there is still more work to do before I’ll no longer be a loser, a lot more boys to kiss, mostly strangers, a lot more liquor to singe the back of my throat and help convince me to let them put their hands wherever they want because it’s also exactly what I want. It is, isn’t it? 5. The first time I ever touch a penis is the one time I give a boy a handjob. I don’t ever really see it because it’s dark inside the fraternity house and we are pushed together against a wall. His tongue roams around my vodka-stained mouth while I move my hand up and down his shaft. It’s softer than I thought it’d be. His skin feels like a cotton t-shirt moving back and forth in my palm. I don’t remember his name. I don’t even remember his face. I remember leaving, deciding suddenly and with no explanation that I had to go, and rushing out the door. I remember washing my hands over and over when I got home, desperate to destroy any evidence of where they had been. 6. “It feels like I’m trying to rape you,” says the boy from the bar in this thick Mozambique accent as he launches himself away from me and sits up. “I don’t think I can do this anymore.” It’s our third attempt at having sex, and I suppose he’s grown tired of the way I cringe when he pulls my legs apart and how dry it is when he jostles his way inside me and the way I can’t stop my hands from pushing his away anytime they get too close to the places I think I want them to be. Why me?” he asked a few nights earlier when I first brought him home and he realized he, a stranger, would be my first. “Why not?” I replied, shrugging my shoulders and flashing him a smile. He looked skeptical. Maybe he guessed my real reason, that graduation was in a month and I couldn’t bear walking across that stage a virgin. Well, I won’t have to. Instead I will receive my class of 2013 diploma stung by the memory of him sitting on the edge of my bed, completely naked, he and his perfectly chiseled body talking me through the fact that we were finished as I wished more than anything that he would put his clothes back on.
https://gay.medium.com/a-chronicle-of-closeted-sex-acts-6c7ba933fbbc
['Molly Sprayregen']
2019-09-04 13:01:01.707000+00:00
['Pain', 'LGBTQ', 'Queer']
What if I told you that focus on the nuclear family has caused more harm than good?
The suburb as we’ve come to know and loathe it (I speak for myself, obviously, but feel free to jump on my cranky bandwagon), is a mid-20th century invention. Before that, only farmers and wealthy people populated rural or picturesque areas outside cities. Yes, I may be exaggerating. There may have been other folks who lived outside cities. But by an large, if an area was attractive enough to people who could afford country estates, it tended to attract people wealthy enough to own country estates. Arable lands were reserved for agriculture. The rest; the fields that weren’t worth farming or building a lovely country estate on, they just sat there unwanted, collecting weeds. They would have to wait many decades to see their first Walmart supercentre and get paved all over. Normal people, neither farmers nor landed gentry, the kind you see today driving around shiny suburbs, used to live in or near the city centre before the second half of the 20th century. They owned townhomes, or rented apartments, ideally near enough their workplace so they could walk or take the tram. Individual car ownership was out of reach for most normal people back then. It only became widespread at around the same time as the first suburban developments went up. Life in the city wasn’t all that great back then. It was crowded, dirty and smelly. There was a lot of pollution; that was before we realized ditching our trash anywhere we liked was a bad idea. I’m not blaming people for wanting a patch of grass their kids could play barefoot on, and cleaner air to breathe around a brand-new house fitted with the latest appliances. I would have wanted it, too. But. What they left behind, life in a dense city where the street or lane is the backyard, had advantages too, and those were lost. True, laneways are not as pleasant underfoot as freshly mowed suburban grass. But on the other hand urban children get exposed to a whole slew of experiences and people they wouldn’t see if they played alone or in small groups in their fenced-in yards. Some of those experiences are desirable, such as larger and more diverse groups of friends, whereas some are less desirable, such as pollution and street gangs. But one undeniable benefit of growing up in a dense city is that children learn quickly how to navigate complex transportation systems and how to interact with a wide variety of people of all ages and social status. It’s not just kids who benefit from dense cities. Streets are also a common space for adults, where they naturally congregate, chat, share news and play their part as members of a community. Sometimes that means bringing food to a grieving widow, or looking after kids when a mom gives birth to a new baby. The street becomes an extension of everyone’s living room, where complex relationships create a rich tapestry for any individual’s private life. Dense city neighbourhoods encourage a sense of fellowship and community where keeping an eye on the welfare of your fellows isn’t seen as nosy. They make chronic isolation difficult. In a dense city, people walk to work, or take transit, but whatever mode of transportation they choose no commuter is alone for very long. Everyone is forced to make eye contact every now and then with other commuters, if only to avoid bumping into them. Eye contact is a critical part of communal life; without it we become isolated pods who care for no one except ourselves. Like sullen hooded teenagers hunched over their phone. In the suburbs of the nuclear family where the father is the breadwinner and the mother stays home to look after the family’s needs, every commuter is alone in his car for extended periods of time twice a day every day. Yes, I know life in the suburbs in 2019 is different than the June Cleaver model. Now both parents tend to work, and share domestic chores better than people used to in the 1950s. This is all to the good. But it’s irrelevant to my point, which is that a focus on the nuclear family of the kind social conservatives are nostalgic for constitutes pining for the wrong solution to a very real problem.
https://medium.com/@brigittepellerin/what-if-i-told-you-that-focus-on-the-nuclear-family-has-caused-more-harm-than-good-5b7921e9b39
['Brigitte Pellerin']
2019-10-23 20:10:39.886000+00:00
['Suburbs', 'Society', 'Conservatism', 'Isolation', 'Family']
How to Make Art Every Day
I wrote this essay because Bud Smith told me to. Look for yourself: the chapter on pg. 184 of his memoir from, Work, says so. There aren’t any chapter numbers or titles because who cares about that? I mean, some people probably do. Maybe people who like to study things. But in this, in what he’s trying to tell us about the act of creating, I feel like there’s a time and a place. People can make that call as they see fit. Bud’s entire chapter is about making art when you can. Once every day. 5 minutes here, 15 there. If you’re lucky, maybe an hour or so. But that can be tough — I get it. Life happens, as he described in the chapter: “Between working a full time job and all of the other things that living a life means, it feels easy to put the act of making some art on the back burner. But hey, blink your eyes and you’re gonna be dead and sitting in a coffin down in the ground and you’ll still be thinking about that idea you had for a novel. Only problem is, you can’t move your arms now, because the coffin is so small. Plus there’s no pen or paper down there.” The key is to take those moments. Hold them by the throat and squeeze. Don’t waste time on Instagram or with formatting chapter numbers for final publications that no one will care about. Seize the moment in creative diem. He continues: “The most important thing is just to be moving in the direction of working on something creative, even if it sucks.” Art is what makes life beautiful. Making art is what makes life worth living. And everyone’s art is different. That’s the beauty of it. (Some have yet to even realize what their art is. But they’ll figure it out. One day.) I’m inclined to agree with Bud here. Sometimes you have to be diligent and take those 15 minutes while everyone else is hurrying out the door at 5pm to sit in rush hour. Take those 10 minutes while your wife is finishing her hair, even though you were ready on time. She’ll probably even yell at you for being on the phone, pecking away at that novel. She’s been waiting for you because she’s now ready to go and has been this whole time. But that’s okay. You spent those 10 minutes wisely, making life beautiful in your own way. Art is a meditational therapy that no one believes in until it touches multiple hearts. If making art is what makes you happy, then by all means, go and make! Be genuine about it. Good art comes from the heART. It doesn’t matter if it sucks. Great art makes people feel something they’ve felt before, in a way they’ve never felt it. Don’t take my word for all this though. I’m a nobody, still trying to figure out his own art. I teach future generations how to read/write legibly, cause the internet certainly won’t do that. I write books that few people actually read. I make art of my own, of course, but who’s to say it isn’t dumb. Maybe it is. And maybe I’m dumb too for putting it into the world. But who cares? It makes me happy and I want to share that. Bud wants me to share that. That’s all art is. It reminds us we’re not dead yet. That we’re still lucky to be alive and breathing on this planet with billions of others who are also stuck in their heads. All of us making our own art. Sculpting our own lives — consciously or not — in pursuit of purpose. Because life doesn’t have chapters. Life is what you make of it. Life is what you learn from it. Life is what you write it.
https://medium.com/writers-guild/how-to-make-art-every-day-1b264a888dea
['Glen Binger']
2018-11-10 20:38:37.009000+00:00
['Creativity', 'Writing', 'Writer', 'Art', 'Consistency']
If Dogs Can Have AR Glasses That Reinforce Good Behavior, Why Can’t I?
AR doggles are a thing now The United States Army recruited Seattle-based company Command Sight to develop a prototype for military-grade AR goggles for dogs (“doggles”) via a Small Business Innovation Research investment. The goal is to create an XR (extended reality) environment that allows soldiers to better command military dogs remotely through visual cues and avatars. Like most dogs, military dogs are trained with commands, hand signals, and positive reinforcement. But these methods all require close proximity between dog and soldier. In operations such as explosive device detection or dangerous rescue hunts, the only remote communication solution is to strap a walkie-talkie to a dog’s back, which not only leads to canine confusion but also can risk unwanted exposure. Command Sight’s doggles allow soldiers to initiate visual cues that can appear silently within a dog’s line of sight. The project recently received a green light for phase-two funding. An extended-reality existence sounds pretty Jetsons to me. But as it turns out, XR simulations using both virtual and augmented reality have been leveraged for years now to enrich workplace environments. Both the U.S. Navy and Air Force were early adopters of head-mounted displays (HMDs), creating hyper-realistic VR simulations for combat training. Boeing implemented an XR training simulation for the complex task of electrical wiring installation on jets and improved engineer productivity by 30%. Walmart purchased 17,000 Oculus VR headsets to incorporate into their employee onboarding experience. Other corporations are in hot pursuit. A 2018 survey from the Harvard Business Review found that 20% of executives already had mixed-reality technology in production at their company, and 68% of them believed it was important to achieving their company’s strategic goals over the next 18 months. All this workplace innovation is certainly exciting. But it’s these damn doggles I can’t stop thinking about. If AR doggles can influence the behavior of man’s best friend, will a human version do the same for me? AR, I’m begging you: Change my behavior This might be the quarantine-induced record levels of screen time talking, but most online content doesn’t really get a rise out of me anymore. I need something more visceral and realistic, and XR environments reinvigorate my nerdy love for technology in ways that meticulously scripted TikTok footage cannot. Video courtesy of the author. Oculus play from ‘Affected: The Manor.’ XR even did a bang-up job salvaging our Halloween thrills this year. We downloaded the immersive haunted house game Affected: The Manor to our Oculus Quest, and at one point, we were screaming so loudly that the neighbors came over to check on us. My VR-induced screams were girlish and genuine, and a similar level of emotional depth may be achievable in the partially immersive world of AR. Research from Stanford found that social cues hold up in AR environments: In one experiment, participants unanimously chose not to sit in a chair that had previously been occupied by an artificial avatar. And a study published in the journal Education and Information Technologies found that AR simulations in college business ethics classes were more effective for increasing “moral imagination,” which leads to greater moral sensitivity. Augmented reality appears to feel real enough to change our behavior. This is key, and the “realness” of XR environments is so important scientists have a term for it — social presence theory — which measures the authenticity of a virtual simulation. Imagine a notification of positive reinforcement appearing on the corner of your lens whenever you take a desired action or an alert gently vibrating your eyeglass frames whenever you appear to be going off course, whether it be while following directions on a map or deviating from a previously uploaded nutrition plan. (I personally want a virtual Chris Hemsworth to appear in my periphery and shake his head disapprovingly whenever I bring a cookie to my lips, which these days is about once every three hours. But I digress.) Seeing how popular wearable tech has become in recent years as a vehicle for self-actualization, I totally see smart glasses taking guided behavior change to the next level. It feels scary but also exciting.
https://debugger.medium.com/if-dogs-can-have-ar-glasses-that-reinforce-good-behavior-why-cant-i-728b60b6fcd9
['Nick Wolny']
2020-12-01 12:15:01.566000+00:00
['Augmented Reality', 'Gadgets', 'AR', 'Technology', 'Psychology']
How the Night I Struggled for Breath Changed My Life
How the Night I Struggled for Breath Changed My Life A sudden deterioration in your health might be the best wake-up call out there. Photo by Daniel Torobekov on Pexels It was the first week of December and I hadn’t been feeling well all week. I was 23 and couldn’t breathe freely anymore. Every breath hurt and my lungs felt like they were burning. My heart didn’t feel right and I had random palpitations that no doctor could explain. I suddenly had no idea what was wrong with me. My mother sat by me terrified, reading the Qur’an until it became gibberish and I couldn’t understand what she was even saying. We went to the doctor. We did all the tests. I still couldn’t breathe properly. I heaved and gasped suddenly throughout the day, crying for my ability to breathe in and out normally. My mother was convinced it was black magic or a curse at one point when there seemed to be no explanation for how badly my lungs were doing. She was desperate for an explanation, as was I, but we weren’t given one. This culminated in me being rushed to the hospital on the night of Saturday, December 9th, 2017.
https://medium.com/be-unique/how-the-night-i-struggled-for-breath-changed-my-life-568406269dcb
[]
2020-12-25 02:07:03.567000+00:00
['Self Improvement', 'Self', 'Self-awareness', 'Health', 'Encouragement']
New Demand in Web Hosting Services Market is expected to Reach US$ 275.15 Bn by 2027, With Rising Number of Websites Worldwide, says Absolute Markets Insights
New Demand in Web Hosting Services Market is expected to Reach US$ 275.15 Bn by 2027, With Rising Number of Websites Worldwide, says Absolute Markets Insights purvesh jain Dec 21, 2020·4 min read The Internet has expanded exponentially over the last decade, and there are no signs of slowing down. In 2014, the Internet saw billions of websites. Today there are more than 1.5 billion of them. In just five years, the total number of websites has grown by half a billion. With rising demand of websites day by day number of websites is substantially increasing this in return is propelling overall demand of web hosting services market worldwide. Web hosting is an infrastructure service that allows you to design, integrate, operate and manage all of the infrastructure components needed to run web-based applications. This includes Web server farms, network access, data staging tools, and security firewalls. Web server farms are used in a web hosting infrastructure as a means of building flexible and highly accessible solutions. One of the key issues with web server farm management is content management and load balancing. Owing to the exponential growth of the web and the growing demand on servers, the hosting of web content is an increasingly common activity. In web content hosting, providers with a significant amount of resources, such as Internet bandwidth, discs, processors and memory, amongst others, offer to store and provide web access to documents from organisations, businesses and individuals that lack the resources or expertise to manage a web server. Thus such factors are propelling the demand of web hosting services market. Request for Sample Copy of This Report@ https://www.absolutemarketsinsights.com/request_sample.php?id=253 Cloud hosting is a new type of hosting platform that enables customers to host efficient, scalable and secure hosting based on clustered load-balanced servers and utility billing. Cloud hosted websites can be more stable than alternatives, since other cloud-based machines may compensate for the downtime of a single piece of hardware. Local power failures or even natural disasters are also less troublesome for cloud-hosted sites, since cloud storage is decentralised. Cloud hosting also allows providers to charge users only for services used by the user, rather than a flat fee for the amount that the user plans to use, or a fixed upfront hardware investment. Cloud platforms provide major advantages over conventional hosting. Traditional hosting solutions enable customers to purchase or lease the equipment they need to run their applications. Such infrastructures are also built to cope with optimum utilisation, which means that more capex is required as they expand. In a downturn situation, under-utilized servers this process is costly. Therefore, there is a rising adoption of cloud technology in the web hosting services market. Worldwide emerging technological innovation penetration in developing economies such as India and China is observed to be one of the prime factor propelling the market demand of web hosting services market. Developing Asian countries are witnessing significant rise in total number of small to medium sized enterprises that extensively rely on online business model. Continuously increasing demand of online business approach is anticipated to drive the market demand in the forecast time frame. More than 98% of the enterprises in Asia are small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Thus such factors are driving the growth of web hosting services market. Enquiry Before Buying @ https://www.absolutemarketsinsights.com/enquiry_before_buying.php?id=253 The detailed research study provides qualitative and quantitative analysis of the global Web hosting Services market. The Web hosting Services market has been analyzed from demand as well as supply side. The demand side analysis covers market revenue across regions and further across all the major countries. The supply side analysis covers the major market players and their regional and global presence and strategies. The geographical analysis done emphasizes on each of the major countries across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa and Latin America Request for Customization@ https://www.absolutemarketsinsights.com/request_for_customization.php?id=253 Global Web hosting Services Market · By Type o Free Web Hosting o Shared Hosting o Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting o Dedicated Hosting o Cloud Hosting o Others (Colocation Hosting, Self Service Hosting etc.) · By Deployment o Public o Private o Hybrid · By Connectivity o Ethernet o XDSL o MPLS o VPN o Fiber · By Application o Intranet Website o Public Website o Mobile Application o Others · By Service Type o Managed Service o Professional Service · By Region: o North America · U.S. · Canada · Mexico · Rest of North America o Europe · France · The UK · Spain · Germany · Italy · Nordic Countries § Denmark § Finland § Iceland § Sweden § Norway · Benelux Union § Belgium § The Netherlands § Luxembourg · Rest of Europe o Asia Pacific · China · Japan · India · New Zealand · Australia · South Korea · Southeast Asia § Indonesia § Thailand § Malaysia § Singapore § Rest of Southeast Asia · Rest of Asia Pacific o Middle East & Africa · Saudi Arabia · UAE · Egypt · Kuwait · South Africa · Rest of Middle East & Africa o Latin America · Brazil · Argentina · Rest of Latin America Get Full Information of this premium report@ https://www.absolutemarketsinsights.com/reports/Web-hosting-Services-Market-2019-2027-253 About Us: Absolute Markets Insights strives to be your main man in your business resolve by giving you insight into your products, market, marketing, competitors, and customers. Visit … Contact Us: Email id: [email protected] Contact Name: Shreyas Tanna Phone: +91–740–024–2424
https://medium.com/@purveshjain8/new-demand-in-web-hosting-services-market-is-expected-to-reach-us-275-15-1a6ebe57f014
['Purvesh Jain']
2020-12-21 07:32:47.693000+00:00
['Web', 'Market', 'Research', 'Web Development', 'Hosting Service']
Reactionary ideology and Fascism: an analysis
How can one define Fascism? What are the origins? How does it come by? These are brilliant questions which are to be responded with great analysis. Fascism is more than state repression and terrorist disruption against the working class. Fascism is a form of tightened capitalist rule in it’s most aggressive and extensive form. Under Fascist rule, imperialism is at the most necessary and the safeguarding of capital is put to a priority. Fascism is a type of capitalist rule, it is the ‘emergency form’ of capitalism. Fascism attempts to merge civil life into political life with a mixture of corporatism to save capitalism. As great Bulgarian revolutionary leader Georgi Dimitrov states: “Fascism is not a form of state power “standing above both classes — the proletariat and the bourgeoisie,” as Otto Bauer, for instance, has asserted. It is not “the revolt of the petty bourgeoisie which has captured the machinery of the state,” as the British Socialist Brailsford declares. No, fascism is not a power standing above class, nor government of the petty bourgeoisie or the lumpen-proletariat over finance capital. Fascism is the power of finance capital itself. It is the organization of terrorist vengeance against the working class and the revolutionary section of the peasantry and intelligentsia. In foreign policy, fascism is jingoism in its most brutal form, fomenting bestial hatred of other nations…. The development of fascism, and the fascist dictatorship itself, assume different forms in different countries, according to historical, social and economic conditions and to the national peculiarities, and the international position of the given country.” — Georgi Dimitrov Georgi Dimitrov, Bulgarian communist revolutionary and anti-fascist. The synthesiser of the United Front. Fascism comes in all shapes and sizes, but what can be agreed upon, whatever the ‘type’ of Fascism it is a common understanding that Fascism is nothing more but a relentless, merciless and blatantly aggressive rule over the working masses and those who toil. Fascism is an excellent method to secure capitalism for various reasons. The first one being that Fascism relieves the crowded markets with war and plunder. Secondly, with the antagonistic contradictions ever so heightened, disempowering individual capitalists saves capital. Capital does not need individual capitalists to flourish. The Dictatorship of the Bourgeoisie (rule of capital) can greatly benefit by getting rid of individual capitalists. Capitalism can sustain it’s rule through various ways. Capitalism is a mode of production as we know, therefore resources, production and distribution are allocated through the motive of profit. Various so called ‘free-market’ regimes like Japan, USA and South Korea to name a few, with each of their respective year plans increased their productive forces by a huge amount. Capitalist countries indeed do government planning. No such free market is capable of sustaining itself without government intervention. One can always talk about what a free market would or should do, but not what capitalism actually does. Everything is private property and exchanged according to principles formulated by smith, Ricardo, and Marx. Colloquially, the free market is generalized commodity production. A real “free market” does not exist, but it is rather an ideological construct. However one needs to remark that planning has it’s own limitations under a free-market regime. A planned economy under capitalism would be steering the investment of capital. Capitalism isn’t truly fully planned, notably because of it’s anarchic mode of production. Anarchy in production will remain, it can just be lowered to some extent. Regardless of planning capitalist countries still suffer an overproduction crisis. Therefore resulting in the unsustainable means of allocating resources which causes a waste in resources that can be utilised by those in need. Planning steers investment only by a little bit, no economy can really be what we call “mixed”. The entire terminology of mixed economy is indeed too an ideological construct. On this regard, it is also good to point out the character of Fascism and those who look up to it. Fascism doesn’t simply come because the people choose so, it is inevitable that in imperialist states Fascism is yet to be the phase that truly introduces itself to our eyes through time as it has already done today in the United States of America with constant wars and constant attack on the working masses of America. The state does not simply naively pronounces it has became Fascist, but it rather remarks that anti-fascists are now the enemy of the state… That organisations in favour of the working class in any shape or form are the enemies of the “people”… It carries a dangerous offensive on emancipation and nations. Fascism, is the destroyer of nations, not saviour. Fascists make use of xenophobia, racism, homophobia and the like to target different sections of the population to be put to prejudice and discrimination and finally exclusion from society to further install the blast of division between the working class. This division helps the accumulation of fascistic rule and the total disbanding of the little democratic elements left in a liberal country. Including, the empowering of capitalism and the crushing of workers movements. Another element of Fascism is Populism. Populism, is neither left or right. the “people” at a given point in time, this could be anti-capitalism or could be reactionary ideas and actions like racism. What has to be realised is that the injustice and exploitation that is happening in our world, in our time, in our country needs to be analysed scientifically and not dogmatically. Therefore, to recognise the injustices of our society one needs to first analyse the very system that our society is lead by. Today, it is under capitalist rule. Analysing thoroughly the contradictions of capitalism for what it is: is what one needs to do, and not simply condemn something simply because the majority condemns it. It is very important to point out the alienation and incorrect line of people. There is no black and white answer to things, there is no right or wrong. On the other hand, there are concrete answers that are more legitimate than others. Opportunism is a serious issue, when Socialism was popular — various opportunists from various backgrounds exploited the term to occupy power, eventually re-installing the rule of capital through Revisionism. Fascists use populist rhetoric to occupy power and help the terrorist phase of capital to quicken and tighten more than ever. After fascism, lies a society in ashes with all of emancipation and progressive movements suppressed to the ground. Unless these progressive and emancipation forces unite in an anti-fascist popular struggle against the roaders who want to derail the installation of a workers state for full emancipation and human liberation. Fascists exploit the alienation of the people to further crush them once the Fascists win the people’s support. Fascism hides in all types of shades, colours and slogans. How to point out a reactionary? Recognise their inconsistent and flawed view of reality via understanding society around us with dialectical materialism, that stands in opposition to the fascist worldview, idealism. Fascists proudly defend the exploitative system of capitalism whilst giving it another name. Fascists also want to establish a rule that persecutes any unions or worker organisations that are independent of their ideal fascist regime. So that this Fascist state is able to lay hold over organisation in society and smash any opposition to capital while breeding reactionary unions to serve the bourgeoise state and not the proletarians, as a union was first initially used for. In summary, “Fascism is the open terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary backward sections of monopoly capital” — Georgi Dimitrov Another important reference from Dimitrov’s works: “What is the source of the influence of fascism over the masses? Fascism is able to attract the masses because it demagogically appeals to their most urgent needs and demands. Fascism not only inflames prejudices that are deeply ingrained in the masses, but also plays on the better sentiments of the masses, on their sense of justice and sometimes even on their revolutionary traditions. Why do the German fascists, those lackeys of the bourgeoisie and mortal enemies of socialism, represent themselves to the masses as “Socialists,” and depict their accession to power as a “revolution”? Because they try to exploit the faith in revolution and the urge towards socialism that lives in the hearts of the mass of working people in Germany.” — Georgi Dimitrov “No, fascism is not a power standing above class, nor government of the petty bourgeoisie or the lumpen-proletariat over finance capital. Fascism is the power of finance capital itself.” — Georgi Dimitrov Imperialist states need to shift their burden that has been generated by themselves on the working masses. Imperialists attempt too resolve their crowding markets by plundering weaker nations, by using the means of colonial regression and constant war. Fascism aids imperialism at it’s core. Reactionary philosophy had developed in response to progressive politics. Bourogusie ideologies have been developed by the intelligentsia of the ruling classes, for the established bourogusie class to preserve the rule of capital. Such as: Julius Evola, Giovanni Gentile, José Antonio Primo de Rivera, Benito Mussolini, Carl Schmitt and Adolf Hitler. Reactionary ideology that is in favour of Fascism (we must note that Fascism by itself is not an ideology, as Fascism is a form of capitalist rule) makes use of an idealist perspective. For instance, there is a reason why many reactionaries make use of religion. To alienate, to coerce via the engraved idealist influence within the people. Chauvinist attitude towards approaching social issues, too, plays a role within reactionary ideology. Reactionaries are against emancipation, attempt to derail any revolutionary struggle for they deny the material science of class struggle. Reactionaries deny the existence of contradiction itself! There is a reason why these idealists praise the state completely and reject the materialist analysis of the state, that being, that the state is an organ of class rule. Idealist bourogusie ideology can therefore be considered fascist. Ideology in favour of Fascism is in favour of terror, slaughter, imperialism, chauvinism, anti-communism and idealism. There is a reason liberalism lets Fascism take power without problem, it is because it is the next phase in-coalition with liberalism! It is inevitable in capitalism, Fascism can only be defeated once capitalism is! Resources: The Fascist Offensive and the Tasks of the Communist International Unity of the Working Class against Fascism
https://medium.com/voice-of-the-youth-malta/reactionary-ideology-and-fascism-an-analysis-7548df136d93
[]
2021-03-18 15:48:17.179000+00:00
['Socialism', 'Malta', 'Fascism', 'Georgi Dimitrov', 'Capitalism']
How I landed my first internship at a San Francisco startup
As a college sophomore who had recently declared a computer science major, I knew that I wanted to find a summer internship, but had no clue where to start. In the past, I’d held jobs over the summer and developed some skills with web development and SEO, but I had only taken a few CS courses and didn’t know if I had the technical skills to land a software engineering internship. For the first couple of months, I did what many people do. I applied to as many internships as I could find. I waited around, got denied by some places, and got ghosted by others. I knew that I didn’t have much experience, so what could I expect? When applying to these internships, I felt like I was putting my application into a black hole and was unsure as to if anyone even saw my resume. What I decided to do next may come as a surprise: I looked for internships on Craigslist. I wanted to find a way to get my application seen by someone and knew that applying to job postings on Glassdoor, LinkedIn, and Indeed wasn’t working for me. I wanted to put myself into a smaller pool of applicants where I wouldn’t be competing with hundreds of others for a role. While applying for internships on Craigslist, I would always follow the instructions in the job listing to a tee. This was important. Often, we are drawn to taking the easy way out, but showing that you’ve put effort into your application goes a long way. I soon found a listing for a business development internship at a conversational AI startup called Augment CXM. In this role, I would be able to leverage my web development and SEO skills while learning more about business. I made it clear early in the interview process that I was also interested in data science and was ultimately able to work on some really cool data science projects as well. Below are some key insights that I gained during my first internship search that I’d like to leave you with:
https://medium.com/dev-genius/how-i-landed-my-first-internship-at-a-san-francisco-startup-aaa70497e1e4
['David Peletz']
2020-06-14 19:48:33.142000+00:00
['Technology', 'Software Development', 'Startup', 'Job Search', 'Internships']
This Father’s Day, let’s talk paternity leave parity.
The normalisation of paternity leave could be a significant step towards the achievement of workplace equality. After all the hoopla of the hallmark holiday, certain issues of modern fatherhood remain largely taboo. One such issue is paternity leave. While increasingly normalised in the corporate world, it’s fair to say that there are serious steps that must be taken before we achieve parity in acceptance between maternity and paternity leave. This isn’t wholly inexplicable when you consider the difficulty involved in normalising maternity leave in the first place; however, it is important that it be brought to the foreground as an issue that impacts society as a whole. Why do we need to tackle it? While ‘paternity leave’ officially focuses on the male in the parental relationship, its practice rewards families, women and kids everywhere. How so? Paternity leave benefits women’s careers. When childcare responsibilities fall disproportionately on women, their wages and career prospects are impaired — this effect is lessened when the burden is shared with the father in the relationship. One Swedish study showed an earnings increase of much as 7% for women whose partners took paternity leave. Where once the priority of women's rights campaigners was to raise maternity pay, the paradigm is today shifting towards encouraging paternity leave to level the playing field for working women. As the slogan of second wave feminism dictates, “the personal is political”. Where is that more true than in childcare, a traditionally gendered practice? Society benefits from incentives for parenthood, particularly with declining birth rates in developed countries. Where the aim of investment everywhere is to improve future returns, there is no better place to look than the next generation; studies show that children whose fathers took paternity leave in their infancy perform better at secondary school level. Fathers who take paternity leave build stronger relationships with their children; while not directly correlated, a more egalitarian relationship between parents also results in lower rates of divorce and a higher likelihood of daughters pursuing non-gendered careers. Fathers who take paternity leave are happier. Happiness is itself a positive thing, but in a more cynical sense, happier employees are more retainable. Progressive policies act as a strong incentive for potential hires to join your company. In a competitive talent market (read all about it!), anything that attracts skilled workers to your company is a huge advantage. Why don’t more fathers take it? While workplace policies favouring gender-neutral parental leave are increasingly common, the real issues here are structural and societal. Woman or man, corporate culture tends to favour those workers who can get back to work as soon as possible following childbirth. Even in companies with progressive policies, internal culture can be a stumbling block to achievement of parity. This is particularly true in competitive environments such as investment banking, where relationships and face time are important for success. To quote Bloomberg: Paternity leave can be “easier to get than to take”. Hiring managers continually view career breaks with a suspicious eye. As the retirement age becomes later and the length of our working lives extends further into old age, greater acceptance of gaps along the way is merited. Leave in general can be difficult for startups, as with leaner teams the absence of a given team member is particularly pronounced. Thus accommodating paternity leave, or indeed maternity leave, can be challenging. How can it be overcome? No magic bullet solution will solve the ingrained societal and cultural norms that prevent the achievement of paternity leave parity; however, certain steps can be taken to lessen the stigma surrounding its practice. Make it compulsory. Do as the Swedes have done — ever upheld as the model of civilised social democracy, Swedish fathers are forced to take their share of the 480 days’ leave entitled to both parents. The result is a society where stroller-wielding ‘latte dads’ are a common sight. It’s hard to stigmatise a practice enforced by the state, but there is no need to relocate to Scandinavia. This can also be successfully enforced on an individual-company basis. Encourage your senior employees to set an example. Humans are fundamentally led by example. When senior employees take their paternity leave, it sets a positive example to others that its practice is acceptable. Practice flexibility. This is less an issue of paternity leave per se, but more a matter of making your workplace more parent-friendly in general. Need to do the school run? No problem, come in at 10. Violin recital? Leave at 4. Your child is sick? Take a remote day. Old-fashioned adaptability combined with considerate parental leave policies can make a world of difference to a busy parent. Consider the use of fixed-term contractors to take the place of the employee on leave. This solution works in the short term and on an individual case basis, and is common practice for women taking maternity leave. It prevents productivity loss that may be suffered in the absence of a given employee, and may benefit your company in other ways (see 5 — Consider Contractors). Refrain from criticism of individuals whose CVs contain justifiable gaps. As outlined above, there is an unfortunate tendency for hiring managers to view career gaps through suspicious lenses. This is to the detriment of individuals — both male and female — who have been forced to take career breaks when their company’s parental leave policies have been unviable. All in all, there remains much to be done to normalise paternity leave. No magic bullet solution will suffice to remedy an issue that is structurally, societally and culturally entrenched; however, there are plenty of positive steps that can be taken to lessen the gap between the practice of maternity and paternity leave. After all, it could be the ultimate solution to the gender pay gap — and a great attraction and retention tool to boot.
https://medium.com/@reecho/following-fathers-day-let-s-talk-paternity-leave-parity-a9f0b2092b4a
[]
2019-09-10 11:49:08.686000+00:00
['Working Parents', 'Paternity Leave', 'Equality', 'Working Moms', 'Startup']
BitBoxApp for Android: who needs a computer anyway?
After extensive testing, we released the BitBoxApp for Android. It provides all features of the desktop application, as it is built from the same codebase. If you want, you never need to touch a desktop computer with your BitBox02 hardware wallet again. Get it on Google Play! BitBoxApp: the companion for your BitBox02 hardware wallet Every hardware wallet needs a companion app. The BitBoxApp was launched back in 2018, as the companion for our BitBox02 hardware wallet. The minimalist design includes a beginner’s user guide that helps you with every step, from setup to regular usage to answering more technical Bitcoin questions. Still, we were able to include native Segwit, coin control and custom full node support, a first for hardware wallets back then. From the same source code, we are able to compile executable applications for Windows, macOS and Linux. And we can compile it for mobile devices as well! Of course, small screens need adjustments in the user interface. To gather feedback and refine the mobile experience, we published the BitBoxApp as an Android Early Access version last year. Although not yet fully optimized for mobile usage, the feedback was good. The option to use the BitBox02 hardware wallet without a computer made some users switch completely. BitBoxApp now available for Android This week, we officially released the BitBoxApp for Android. This means you now have all the features of your BitBox02 hardware wallet available on Android devices. Thanks to the USB-C connector, on most devices you don’t even need a cable or an adapter. Just plug it directly into your phone and use Bitcoin on the go. Use the BitBox02 everywhere you go A few main changes in the user interface were needed to accommodate using the wallet with a small touch screen. This includes proper scaling for different screen orientations, bigger buttons and for example using toggle switches instead of checkboxes. The cool thing about our software architecture is that we use the same codebase for all devices. This means that the mobile version is not a limited information-only app, but the real deal. You can set up the BitBox02 from scratch, update the firmware, send and receive transactions, connect it to your own Bitcoin full node, even over Tor, without ever touching a desktop computer.
https://medium.com/shiftcrypto/bitboxapp-for-android-who-needs-a-computer-anyway-dfed63adb159
['Shift Crypto']
2020-07-21 12:31:51.233000+00:00
['Mobile', 'Wallet', 'Bitcoin', 'Android', 'Crypto']
So about those TPS reports…
Transcript WAILIN: Twenty-five years ago, Tom Quinlan had just moved to Milwaukee and was looking for a new job after almost 20 years working at a Chicago company that sold office furniture. One day, he ended up on the phone with someone back in Chicago that he knew through his old job. TOM: Someone asked me, he said: “I’ve got a bunch of furniture here. Would you be interested in taking it?” And I said, “Oh, okay.” So I, I drove to Chicago and they walked me back into this warehouse and I think there was like a hundred chairs, and the guy goes, you know, “Will you take these hundred chairs for me?” WAILIN: They were red guest chairs, the kind you might find in a reception area or a waiting room, and they were made by Steelcase, a big office furniture manufacturer. Tom’s old job had been managing the warehouse of a Steelcase dealer, and he knew they were well-made chairs. TOM: And I said: “Okay, I don’t have to pay for these hundred chairs?” “No, just take ’em because it’s gonna cost us more money to throw ’em out than it’s worth. We just want you to take ‘em.” Oh, okay. I think I can probably sell those chairs. WAILIN: Tom loaded the hundred red chairs into his rental truck and put them all in the basement of the two-flat in Milwaukee that he and his wife, Suzanne, were renting. TOM: And then, you know, Suzanne, who came home from work and she went down to the basement and she said, “What the hell are you doing with all these damn chairs? What’s gotten into — that’s crazy!” WAILIN: What Tom did with all those damn chairs was start a business called Office Furniture Resources, or OFR. This year, it celebrates 25 years of buying and selling used office furniture, everything from cubicle panels to credenzas to filling cabinets to carpets. If cubicle walls could talk, what stories would they tell? Well, we’ve got one of those stories today, and you’ll hear it on The Distance, a podcast about long-running businesses. I’m Wailin Wong. The Distance is a production of Basecamp. Introducing the new Basecamp Three. Basecamp is everything any team needs to stay on the same page about whatever they’re working on. We use Basecamp to run our show, and I should mention that OFR also uses Basecamp. As a general rule, we do not feature Basecamp customers on The Distance. This was an oversight on my part and I apologize for it. We’re still sharing this story because I really like it. So let’s get back to Tom Quinlan and the hundred red chairs in his basement. TOM: I said, “You know, there’s an opportunity I just couldn’t say no to, and I think I can sell these chairs.” And then, at the same time, I had a friend who lived in Milwaukee. She had some time on her hands, and I said, I think if I taught her what I know about furniture, I bet you she’s gonna be able to go around to local businesses and sell these chairs. WAILIN: That friend was Nancy Kidd. NANCY: My name is Nancy Kidd, and I am employee number one. WAILIN: At the time, Nancy had a bunch of different jobs, like working at the local YMCA and selling ads for a fitness publication. Tom put two of the red chairs in her car and told her if you sell these, you can keep half the proceeds. NANCY: I went into this print shop and I actually had to get some printing done and I said, “Hmm, you guys don’t have any place to sit down in here while you’re waiting.” And they said, “Oh yeah we know, we should get some chairs.” And I said, “I have a couple in my car.” I said, “These are Steelcase 454 guest chairs. They weigh about 75 pounds each. They are built like a brick shithouse and they’re gonna be 75 bucks each.” And he said, “I’ll take ‘em.” I said great. So, took them out of the car and they gave me 150 bucks. I drove over to Tom and I was just like—that was so much money to me. When he gave me that 75 dollars, I was like oh my God. Whatever. I’ll do whatever. WAILIN: That was how it all started. Tom and Nancy sat in the basement — Tom on a big leather chair, Nancy on a little green chair that belonged to Tom’s toddler son—and they worked the phone. NANCY: I would call people and I would say, um, “Hey you know, I was wondering if you had any 30-inch deep cantilevers. Oh, you do?” And Tom would nod and say, “How much?” And he’d write something on a paper and I’d say, “How much are you asking for those? Oh, 5 percent? Five cents on the dollar? The list price? Oh yeah, okay, um.” And he would, like, hand signal and tell me what to say and do and I would say it and do it and buy stuff. WAILIN: It was just Tom and Nancy in those days, so Tom would drive around picking up furniture himself. TOM: We would go into a building and we would buy a floor of furniture and at the time, back 25 years ago, we didn’t really have a warehouse or a facility to bring it out, so we would try and flip it. So we would take it out of the building and then try to resell it to another dealer, used furniture company that’s in our business, and that business could be in Chicago or it could be in California, Texas, Ohio. It didn’t really matter. WAILIN: Eventually, OFR got big enough that Tom needed to rent a warehouse in Milwaukee. Today, the business has locations in Milwaukee, Madison, St. Louis and Chicago. When companies are looking to get rid of their office furniture, usually because they’re upgrading or moving, OFR comes in, takes everything apart and hauls it away. It then resells those used chairs and desks, either to another furniture dealer, to a business that’s looking for office furniture, or to shoppers that walk into an OFR retail store. Whenever big corporations jump on new trends in office furniture, like going from tall cubicles to more open spaces with lower walls, it’s good business for OFR. TOM : You have the Fortune 100 companies. All this product that they decide it doesn’t work for them, trickles down to the rest of us. And there’s a lot of the rest of us. We don’t sell used furniture to the Fortune 100 companies. We take their furniture, we work with them because they have to get rid of it, and then we basically trickle it down to small, mid-sized firms, 50 to 200 employees, that they don’t have the budget but they have the need. And that’s our typical customer profile. A lot of people think that we get the furniture from companies that are going under or are bankrupt or out of business. That’s not the case at all. Ninety-nine percent of the furniture that we get are from companies that are redoing their space for whatever reason. WAILIN: The process of removing office furniture is known as liquidation or decommissioning, and it’s intense, physical work. A single workstation — that’s the industry term for a cubicle — can consist of hundreds of individual parts that have to be taken apart. TOM: So we’re doing a job downtown and it might be like, maybe a floor or two. Square footage is maybe 30, 50 thousand square feet, so you know, an average downtown building floor is anywhere from 25 to 50 or 70 thousand square feet. You can fit about a hundred workstations on an average floor. WAILIN: The decommissioning is usually done at night. The furniture is loaded onto trucks and transported to a warehouse about 15 minutes from downtown Chicago. OFR might shuttle 15 to 20 truckloads of furniture to the warehouse on any given night. After 25 years in the business, Tom can estimate with uncanny accuracy how many truckloads are needed for a job. Nancy remembers when she and Tom did a walkthrough of a big downtown office. NANCY: We must have walked 30 floors of the building. I mean, it was just like (sound) crazy. We got to the end and somebody said, “Well Tom, how many trailers do you think are gonna come out of this building?” And Tom said a hundred and five, and I think a hundred and six or a hundred and three came out of the building at the end and I’ll never forget it. His mind is just a trailer load. WAILIN: The used office furniture business is heavy on logistics and manual labor, but it’s also built on human relationships because Tom and his staff need to know which Fortune 100 corporations are planning to move or redecorate. In the Midwest, OFR is tight with the big commercial real estate firms that manage office buildings. It also has contacts at new furniture dealers and local moving companies and installers, all of which can recommend OFR to their customers. The network that OFR has built is one you only get by being around for many years. And it all started with Nancy and a recipe box. NANCY: Tom said we need to connect with every installation company in Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri. So I would go to to the library and get the Yellow Pages or the microfiche and get on those machines and write down phone numbers and then make phone calls, hey this is what we do, you know, do you ever have a need for this, do you have a garage full of stuff we can buy from old de-installations. I had four-by-six index cards and I had like a recipe box, and I alphabetized it and I would get on an airplane with my recipe box. WAILIN: The result of all those phone calls and relationship building can be seen in OFR’s warehouse in Des Plaines, Illinois, a few miles from O’Hare International Airport. It’s just one of the company’s warehouses, and it’s packed to the brim. TOM: This is 50,000 square feet of office furniture. There’s probably easy, a thousand workstations in here. There’s probably 1,500 chairs. There’s probably a couple thousand filing cabinets. WAILIN: For OFR, the ideal liquidation is one that yields a lot of furniture with a high resale value, like Herman Miller chairs that are just five years old and have probably another 15 years of life left in them. On the other end of the spectrum is furniture that is outdated, like wood laminate surfaces that were designed to hold clunky desktop computers or big filing cabinets from the days when cubicle walls were higher and companies stored a lot of paper. There’s just not demand for that kind of furniture anymore. So the wood laminate goes to a landfill, along with stuff like fabric. Metal gets taken to a scrap yard for recycling, although it’s kind of a bad deal for the company right now. TOM: The price of metal is really going down. The last time I looked, it was like 15 bucks a ton. A year ago at this time, it was 275 dollars a ton. So that’s a huge deal in our business because people always ask that question: “Am I gonna get any credit back for metal?” Well, at 15 bucks a ton, it costs us more money to put it on a trailer, bring it to the scrapper, than we’re getting back, so it’s a losing proposition for us, so we have to charge for that. When you were getting 275 a ton, you could actually give back to the customer credit for the metal. WAILIN: OFR has faced other economic pressures, like Chinese imports that sell for the same price, new, as gently used furniture from Steelcase and Herman Miller. Then there was the most recent recession, when Fortune 100 companies kept decommissioning their offices but smaller businesses stopped buying furniture. It was incumbent on OFR to show customers they could create a nice space for a fraction of what it costs to buy new furniture, like $200 for a Steelcase chair versus a list price of $1,000. There’s another, more abstract sales pitch too, one that’s about convincing businesses that a more inviting office space leads to happier workers and increased productivity. TOM: When you sell your house, the day of the open house, you always have a fire going in the fireplace, right? You’re trying to make people feel like this could be my space. Wouldn’t it be nice to be sitting there on Sunday with a nice fire? You’re just trying to give them that warm and fuzzy. Commercial furniture is the same feeling. You want people, when they get off the elevator, to feel like, I can spend the next eight to ten hours here. WAILIN: OFR doesn’t just extol the virtues of used office furniture to potential customers. It furnishes its own corporate headquarters with chairs and workstations from liquidations. Last year, it decommissioned Google’s former office space in downtown Chicago. Google took all its chairs when it moved further west, but the company left behind some very nice Herman Miller workstations that convert from regular to standing desks. TOM: Those are really hip. Everybody wants those; those are great. WAILIN: Tom’s wife, Suzanne, who’s in charge of OFR’s finances, uses one of those sit-to-stand desks. Nancy Kidd has a special piece of furniture in her office too — the little green plastic chair that she used to sit on in Tom’s basement. The green chair originally belonged to Tom and Suzanne’s son, Jack, who was just a toddler when the business was founded and is now 26 and works in the Milwaukee warehouse. TOM: You know, actually, in the last few years, he’s really probably the one that really makes it all work for us. He’s autistic, so for Suzanne and I to watch him grow and have a social environment at work, it brings tears to your eyes. WAILIN: Tom has watched other long-time employees grow up and raise families of their own while working at OFR, and those are relationships he takes seriously. He believes in promoting from within and having everyone try each other’s jobs. Like if someone gets hired as an accountant, they might spend some time offloading furniture from trucks, just so employees understand every facet of the business. TOM: Suzanne and I, we’re there all the time and there’s nothing that is above us. You have to maintain those relationships and be willing to do whatever you’re asking someone else to do. You should be willing to do and that is true when you’re 21 and that’s true when you’re 65. People have to understand that you’ve done that and you know what you’re talking about. They’ll respect that. I would say 80 percent of my day is communicating to employees. The other 20 percent, I’m getting coffee. The interaction with your employees is like what makes me come to work every day. That’s the fun part. You’re watching them grow and you’re giving them the ability to grow. WAILIN: As a used furniture guy, Tom never gets to see what the new spaces look like after a customer moves. But he always tells them, it’s okay. I’ll see the stuff in 10 years. And he knows better than most people that there’s still a lot of value in old furniture. TOM: The reason why we’re successful and we started this business was the fact that I walked in that warehouse 25 years ago and I saw an opportunity to sell those chairs. I want everybody that works for me to feel the same way. They have to be able to recognize and see opportunity and then jump on it, and then live with it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But if you don’t do it at all, you’re dead. WAILIN: Nancy saw an opportunity, too, when she walked into the print shop and asked if they wanted to buy the two red chairs in her car. Those chairs are still at the print shop. Tom’s thinking of paying them a follow-up visit. TOM: For our 25-year anniversary, we thought maybe we should go back and see if we can buy those chairs back and replace them with something a little bit nicer. I’d make it worth his while. And I’d bring him nicer chairs, too. I’d replace ’em. Wanna make sure that he’s happy. WAILIN: The Distance is produced by Shaun Hildner and me, Wailin Wong. Our illustrations are done by Nate Otto. You can find us online at thedistance.com, where we have links to episode transcripts, and on Twitter at distancemag, that’s @distancemag. The Distance is a production of Basecamp, the leading app for keeping teams on the same page about whatever they’re working on. Your first Basecamp is completely free forever. Try the brand new Basecamp Three for yourself at basecamp.com/thedistance.
https://medium.com/signal-v-noise/so-about-those-tps-reports-dc4a436f7e0b
['Wailin Wong']
2016-07-21 18:57:34.613000+00:00
['Thedistance', 'Office Furniture', 'Work']
Tabeer
The body knows itself to be pure water or pure burning. — Emmanuel Levinas, Proper Names Content Note: Abuse, death, harm, mental illness and s*icidal ideation mentions I navigate an illness that makes me a protagonist of clichés. Sometimes, the thought of release is a dream of falling through clouds. My friend excitedly speaks about watching the northern lights from the cockpit of a plane — the whole kaleidoscopic spectacle; every inch of that cursive diffusion. I remember wondering if death was anything like that kind of calm yet intense speeding through varying degrees of colours. A plumed disappearance into a bird of light. Light is what’s missing in the moments when I sink. The undertows are always thick with a darkness that is both velvet and ink. Its pulsating fabric wraps me, mummifies me alive. I am pulled into the mouth of a large, ravenous fish. I can feel my hair entangled in its jaws. I can hear the sharp, snapping urgency of its teeth. Soon, I am slick from the oil of its belly. I am doused and imprisoned in a slow consumption. At other times, it is an almost practical requirement to interrupt the welling that threatens to rupture the apparatus between my ears. That is the worst part — the unclean bargaining with what would be a lesser shame because I know from experience that there is no lesser shame. That any threshold of shame where my knees crack against their own unhinged sockets, is always a ready punisher upon crossing. The ease of certain kinds of sadness occupies me on a daily basis. I try to strategize the occurrences of migraines in the same Google calendar as appointments with my clients for therapy. I satirize the antithesis with doodles about “Would you like to book a dis-appointment today?”. I look forward to a good cry as a reward. A stubbornness to defeat Grief wills me to exist even as it weakens my existence constantly. Hours are blurred into tinnitus. I explode in combustion of routine sounds — stalled traffic, babies crying on the streets, a muezzin’s cry, temple bells deafening god and man alike, my mother’s rapid-fire prayers for my wellbeing. Even from the earliest hour of childhood, I could only experience anything in a scattering of anachronisms. I felt someone sit within me with a balled up fist and drowsy eyes, pounding at every jagged edge of my consciousness with a slow but consistent knock. When my friends and I first saw Kill Bill, the scene with the Bride trying to escape after being buried alive in that coffin came so close to visually reproducing what I had felt forever. I could feel my stomach shrink. In the theater, I giggled with friends and shoved large handfuls of really terrible caramel popcorn into my mouth — inside, I could hardly state out loud that some kitschy Tarantino movie had just summarised so many years of my own psychological internment. Depression is a schism between the mind and memory. Things fall through this gap quickly and with an irreversible gusto. A colouring book from 2nd grade. The first pair of silver anklets my grandmother bought me. My father’s suicide. Politicization of memory exists. I am a woman of colour whose access to her own recollections is determined by a social ego. Trauma as radiant as a pulled tooth. Do not ask where the pain came from. Do not chant the repetition of these identity bracelets. Do not plant your instrument in my mouth’s swollen apogee after I have gargled with my own blood. I talk myself through dental extractions by reminding my body of the times it howled through consecutive depressive cycles without any Novocain to numb the crooked nerve. I come from a long line of women who have bodies of silt and practice the grief of rivers. Except, these fluid dispatches are molten and erosive. We have been told not much can grow along these banks. Once the sun was angled right above us as violent as abuse — a stepfather’s cowardly hand slapping its hard defeats into the soggy clay of my adolescence. I remember sitting under a canopy of rain, locked into a terrace full of rusted masonry equipment and rose plants, arms badly bruised from a beating — hallucinating that each rose had the face of Looney Tune’s cartoon character and it was talking to me. This is how I first learned that fiction triumphed experience. This is why I have to keep telling myself stories of survival. Childhood: two birds, each the matted thickness of school bus yellow. Cassia flowers ripening inside the lungs of an Indian summer. I am confronted by the joy of a colour so unashamed of celebrating its own anaphora. I immediately decide against liking it because it is too happy, too wild and yet I can’t stop chasing the golden rasp of this colour. There is a woman from my childhood — hair the colour of dirty eggshells, left leg swollen to a bell as a reminder of untreated elephantiasis; her skin gleaming in the sun like a wet gunny bag. Gowda, I call her. Gowda Maiyya. I am too young to pronounce “r” fully. Technically, I want to call her Gowra Maiyya; Mother Gowra. Gowra is a deformed version of Gowri, one of the many names for the goddess Durga — protecting energy, mother goddess, my watcher. She helps us at the house and I love her because she brings me cassia flowers from a tree five houses away from mine. Every evening I stand by the gate and watch her climb up the thick torso of that tree. I watch her descend with arms full of canary-colored petals. This is happiness. This outlives the nights where my stepfather throws me at walls and my body becomes a bare echo. In a house peopled with doctors, no one speaks about mental health. I hear dinner table conversations about lumbar punctures and meningitis symptoms but no one will explain to me why my mother cries in the bath, daily. We speak of visible, evident lacerations, injuries, fevers and a volley of diseases that are treatable through Band-Aids, Paracetamol or surgeries. In this sound universe, I haven’t yet been given the language to verbalise my corrosion. On certain days I am a stray limping, stalking every passerby in hopes of a single scrap that breaches the thin paper of their grocery bag, a bare piece of sustenance. Anything that tells me someone saw me and my hurt, someone cared even if it is a floating illusion, a sleight of hand. I want to stop apologising for this sadness. I want people to stop telling me how not to be sad as if it doesn’t occur to me on my own. I want to feel less ashamed of asking for help just because there is no physical proof that I am even going through this and I have been raised to believe that brown women don’t have the right to be depressed. I want what Peter Levine once recommended — an empathetic witness to my trauma Except maybe there is but I have also taught myself to tuck it beneath a heavy layer of concealment as someone does an old photograph under a mattress. There are days yellowing between my thumbs, wet wounds, crusty along the edges. The kind I once got on my leg and my stepfather poked his finger into to prove to me what “real” pain is. There are days musty like piss-stained walls along Bombay’s local railway tracks where living is a placeholder for the right time to jump. There are days where 5am fades into 8pm without a whisper and I forget to eat breakfast. The days where I can’t switch on the light bulb in my room. I can’t finish half a toast without sobbing into a loud emptiness. These days exist and I am stunned to learn that this is not proof enough of my rapid disappearance. I can’t explain the conditions of this experience. Almost everything I swear by exists as a hallucinatory surrogate for feeling. Whatever is entered, is altered. I feel the kind of anger that has its mouth wired shut. I walk through the length of a shit-littered beach and the dusk unveils itself against the horizon as if to remind me of the möbius strip of infinity and reality. I am trapped in this impossible diagram. I am being stretched through its flux. I have to pay rent and buy milk. I can’t bring my limbs to stop shaking. I am thinking of this Welsh word hiraeth which though mostly untranslatable means a kind of homesickness for a home you can’t return to. My whole life has been a burning hiraeth. A few days ago, I spoke with a woman who runs a powerful and important project on sexual harassment and women’s rights in India, and she casually asked me — what is the most harrowing part of being a psychologist? My answer is akin a reflex action — to watch myself mirrored. I told her how homemakers from small towns could not even use the word depression because the snap response they received was : what are you “sad” about? You don’t even have go out and face the hardships of the world! You are nice and snug in a house. What is your unhappiness about? I can and can’t perceive the tonguelessness of this emergency. What is worse — to suffer or to be denied the right to speak of how you suffer? In Bombay, trained psychiatrists tell me that depression is merely a western subterfuge. They tell me this despite knowing I am a clinical psychologist myself and work in the same field. I sit in an utter panic watching them invalidate me with a verbose confidence. Someone in the family once took a razor to her wrist and the guardians proposed electro-convulsive therapy in the very first session without batting an eyelid. This was to “cure” her since she was approaching the ‘marriageable’ age. In this country, women are more scared of admitting to a mental health condition than actually having to live with one. In a poem, Mahmoud Darwish talks of shadows behind a dispossessed place. I take turns to be both — the shadow and the dispossessed place. I remember that in my boarding school, I felt free for the longest time. This thing — this automatic encroaching — didn’t really stop but somehow I gained more land, planted more gardens than at any other time in my life. We lived in a hill-station crowded with fragrant Eucalyptus trees. At night, the girls in my dormitory tell each other ghost stories and laugh because each of us have met and lived with people far more violent and harmful than any poltergeist. We compare the collages of scar tissue, make shoddy lemonade, plot midnight adventures escaping stealthily from the backdoor in the common bathroom when the matron-in-charge is snoring as loudly as a pond frog. Once we do manage to sneak out only to have a chance encounter with a shimmering ghost peeking from a Eucalyptus tree. Frozen in our paths for 5 minutes, the moment the slightest of feeling returns to our feet, we buzz away like bees from a broken-into beehive. The next day, we realise that it was the incharge’s freshly washed zari-bordered saree that was flying its ghostflag from the skeletal Eucalyptus. On the phone, I tell my grandfather this and he chuckles — You should befriend your ghosts! They are lonely and want to share a sandwich! The last time I thought of exiting the pain, I thought of my grandfather asking me to befriend my ghost. He would know — as a young wrestler who specialised in the Indian hand-to-hand combat martial art of Kushti, he would often go to a crematorium next to his training ground for nightly jogs. He said he felt like spirits kept him company as he trained in the old-fashioned open gym next door. He often said that the darkness could be worn like a talisman and its inhabitants knew how to see without the bias of light. Whenever I remember this conversation, I invoke Anna Kamienska and her brief proclamation — ‘I received the grace of shadows. The grace of remaining in the dark’. I know that there will always be a dichotomy of days when my depression will cling to my hand like a lost child because I look safe enough for it and days where it hunts me slowly like a lazy predator. I can’t decide the order of days so when they do pass, I remind myself it is significant to unswallow, unconsume, unafford. This. Psychoanalysis is my lipskin peeling in winter — I don’t like it but I also can’t resist tugging at it with my teeth. It alludes to the idea of The Real — that which is authentic, the unchangeable truth in reference both to being/the Self and the external dimension of experience, also referred to as the infinite and absolute — as opposed to a reality based on sense perception and the material order. I sometimes absolve this term of all its academic infractions and simply hold it close to me so I can live inside it without constantly reducing my mind to some kind of dissonant hum. Urdu gifts me another word — Tabeer. The interpretation of the meaning of a dream. On days, I can’t emerge fully, I try to offer my life to Tabeer. A dream still unfolding, a rose unfurling the first of its many tongues. I teach myself a deepened vehemence for : chance, curiosities, pluralities. I don’t fight for space in the world. I build one of my own. Elsewhere that is also here. Scherezade Siobhan is an award-winning psychologist, writer and a community catalyst who founded and runs The Talking Compass — a therapeutic space dedicated to providing mental counseling services and decolonizing mental health care. Her work is published or forthocming in Medium, Berfrois, Quint, Vice, HuffPost, Feministing, Jubilat, The London Magazine among others. She is the author of “Bone Tongue” (Thought Catalog Books, 2015), “Father, Husband” (Salopress, 2016) and “The Bluest Kali” ( Lithic Press, 2018). Find her @zaharaesque on twitter. Send her chocolate and puppies — [email protected]. Tweet at her @zaharaesque.
https://zaharaesque.medium.com/tabeer-50c0e31fa1e2
['Ʇsnſ Ʇuıɐs']
2020-06-17 17:36:38.961000+00:00
['Mental Illness', 'Childhood', 'Depression']
Ultimate Guide to Cleaning Windows
We spend a lot of time cleaning our cars and looking for new ways to make them look their best. Many of us have tried out an impressive selection of different polishes, waxes, wheel cleaners, and detailing tools, and we’ve all got cabinets packed full of chemicals to show for it. One area that doesn’t get the attention it deserves is our glass. Most of us are content to pick out a glass cleaner (or use the bottle under the kitchen sink) and call it a day. If you give your glass the attention it deserves, though, you’ll be rewarded with a noticeable improvement in your car’s appearance. Image Via Cam VanDerHorst We’ve assembled a collection of videos, which cover the removal of hard water spots, cleaning the outside of the glass, and cleaning the inside of the glass. We’ve also made a handy list of the supplies you’ll need: a collection of microfiber towels a large bath or beach towel an empty cup or container a warm water source glass cleaner Bar Keeper’s Friend paint cleaning clay paste wax Mr. Clean Magic Eraser or similar If you’ve got everything you need, let’s start with the outside. This first video, by YouTuber more jello please shows how easy it is to remove hard water stains on your glass. We see this type of staining most often on sunroofs. First, you need to clean your glass with a microfiber towel and the cleaner of your choice. We prefer a foaming aerosol cleaner, but whatever you like best is just fine. Image Via Cam VanDerHorst Once the glass is clean, mix up a solution of Bar Keeper’s Friend and warm water in your empty cup, as shown in the video. Dip a microfiber cloth into the solution, and work in a circular motion using light pressure. Next, you can finish up with an up and down motion, followed by a side to side motion. Wipe off the residue with a clean, dry towel, and clean your glass again. Repeat as necessary until your hard water spots are gone. Image Via Cam VanDerHorst Next, we’re going to make the glass shine like you’ve never seen before and repel water, too. This video from ChrisFix will show us how to get it done. First, clean your glass with a microfiber towel and your glass cleaner. If you already cleaned it after getting the water spots off, you can skip this step — just be sure you cleaned the edges of the glass, near the trim. Dirt tends to collect in those areas. After a good cleaning, you’ll use some warm water to lubricate paint cleaning clay to remove contaminants embedded in the glass. After you’ve finished up with the clay bar, clean the glass again. Image Via Cam VanDerHorst The final step may surprise you. Buff some regular old-fashioned paste wax onto your glass with a microfiber towel or an applicator and let it sit for a few minutes. Be sure to remove any wax from the trim quickly so that you don’t end up with unsightly white spots. When the wax is completely dried, buff it off with a clean microfiber towel. This leaves an incredible clear shine, and as an added bonus, it repels rain water, too! Be sure to clean your windshield wiper blades, or else you’ll just get the glass dirty again. We think this is a perfect time to replace them. Image Via Cam VanDerHorst Next, we’ll clean the inside glass to that same standard. After cleaning and waxing the outside glass, the haze on the inside of the glass is more apparent than ever. Cleaning the inside of the glass is a perfect final step for making your car look its absolute best. To start off, simply wipe the glass down with a clean microfiber towel to prepare it for the deep clean. If your windows have been tinted, just use soap and water to clean them to avoid damaging the film. Otherwise, get some warm water in a cup and your Magic Eraser, and start scrubbing. Image Via Cam VanDerHorst It’s a good idea to place a large towel on your dashboard and interior panels to catch drips. You don’t want the cleaning chemicals to discolor your interior trim. After you’ve scrubbed with the Magic Eraser, clean up the water left behind with a clean microfiber towel before it dries. As a finishing touch, clean the glass one more time with glass cleaner. When you’re working on the inside glass, it’s a better idea to spray the cleaner directly onto your detailing towel. That way, you don’t risk discoloring plastic with the overspray Image Via Cam VanDerHorst Now, your glass should be crystal clear inside and out. Your glass looks great, repels rain, and best of all, it’s easier to see out of. Happy cleaning!
https://medium.com/motorious/ultimate-guide-to-cleaning-windows-a043913c7966
['Sam Maven']
2020-11-16 21:15:04.730000+00:00
['Featured', 'Newsletter', 'Classics']
The Victim-Mentality Is The Root Of Most Of Our Problems
I understand that many people go through some harrowing, horrifying experiences in life. I also see that the younger we are when we go through these experiences, a deeper impression is made upon on our personalities, and our perceptions of self, and reality. In a sense, the earlier we are victimized, as well as the intensity and the frequency with which the victimization occurs, the more likely we end up with a more extreme and pervasive “victim-mentality”. What is a victim- mentality? A victim mentality is the perception that life is happening to us, and that we must take a self-protective, tactical approach to how we are, and how we do everything. It is an expression of believing we don’t have the power to ensure we don’t keep having the experience of being dragged about by our emotional responses from disappointments, challenges, and conflicts in our life. The victim mentality is when we go to a healer, psychic, or doctor and expect them to fix us, without being willing to gain greater self-awareness, and address the core issues we keep playing out, that cause us to keep our self sick, in pain, or stuck. A victim mentality is the pervasive conscious and unconscious perception that we are not safe, and thus must be prepared with all sorts of excuses, assumptions, perceptions, and responses that protect us from having to take responsibility for partly causing what we are experiencing. We view others as responsible for our feelings and believe they are too much, not enough, or simply wrong, when they perhaps attempt to point to our own culpability for co-creating a dynamic. The victim mentality is a black and white, us versus them, perception of the world, where if we were to acknowledge any fault for co-creating chaos, pain or negative consequences, we might then believe we are “bad”, and a “perpetrator”. So, we then default to ascribing that “badness” to the other, the group, or the situation. We believe we deserve an apology first, and our actions are justified by someone having done something first, because we were simply just “protecting” our self. In extreme cases, victim mentality is when we have had so many screwed up, painful things happen to us in life, we believe we are entitled to, and have somehow earned, a privileged status for being exempt from fault for our experience or behaviors, no matter how harmful or destructive we are. And, in these circumstances, we might spend a whole lot of time complaining and blaming every situation, everyone and everything for why we are in pain, rather than acknowledging we are STILL in pain because on some level, we are making a choice to be. And, finally, victim- mentality is believing there is an unlimited amount of time available to us to be a victim, and to not take responsibility for the fact that destructive consequences often urgently require corrective action. Why is it important you read this? This victim-mentality creates SO many destructive consequences on this planet. In fact, I can gaurantee many of you reading this were instantly triggered by reading what I wrote above. Why were you triggered? Because you likely take the victim-mentality to some degree in your life, and it feels harsh to read about it. In fact, I think perhaps many people have bypassed this article because it would have been too triggering to read. There are destructive consequences to the reality we surround ourselves with, by avoiding accountability and awareness, in order to maintain our safe little victim existence. We get to put off engaging responsibly in life, while life responds with victimizing us through consequences of our actions, which further perpetuates our justifications for maintaining a victim stance. We get to point the finger at others for being too much or too little of something, and exclaim they are at fault for how chaotic, destructive, imperfect, bad, or wrong current environmental, global, political, communal, economic, financial, social, cultural, work systems are, and feel smug and comfortable in knowing we have unloaded any shame we might have if we could be implicated in any way, on to the “offending” party. And, we go about living in our own little world, where we are the center, and are entitled to use the environment, the privileges and resources available to us, and the people around us, to go on being victims, who daily “triumph” over forces trying to bring us down. When, we are the ones bringing us down. What to do as a means to not participate in victim-mentality? Well, this is where it is important to recognize WE ARE ALL programmed to participate in victim-mentality, to some degree. In fact, I would say we all hold a position of victim-mentality, on a spectrum. So, the first step to increasingly overcoming where you are on the victim-mentality spectrum is to drop the black and white thinking. The second step is to realize when you are making others and external situations responsible for your pain. Especially realize when you give yourself permission to not need to be accountable for your actions, because someone metaphorically or literally slapped you first. The third step is to begin to realize the beliefs that encourage you to hold on to your pain, as a badge of honor. Realize the beliefs about yourself and reality that cause you to accept and continue to perpetuate what keeps occurring for you in your life. And finally, the fourth step is to begin a practice to work on self-love, self-worth, self-acceptance, and self-compassion. This will allow you to begin to change your experience of your self, will help you overcome fear and shame, and will also help you begin to practice deeper, truer love, valuation, acceptance, and compassion of others, the planet, and in varying situations. I wish you the best in your journey toward happiness, empowerment and freedom!
https://apommerenk.medium.com/the-victim-mentality-is-the-root-of-most-of-our-problems-772bcbd2540a
['Dr. Ava Pommerenk']
2019-02-15 21:19:22.713000+00:00
['Self Improvement', 'Self-awareness', 'Life Lessons', 'Self', 'Social Justice']
Fermented
“34…35…36…37…And now off the fire. Quickly.” He had way a of talking through me that reminded me my place here was mechanical. Another instrument alongside the metal clamps and glass tubes. “Do you even comprehend what I am doing here?” I am aware enough by this point to understand the question was a prompt for himself and not for me. “When the wind drops a neglected apple, and it lays on the ground. The maggot inside isn’t yet aware that its entire world is about to alter.” His gestures made clear that for him the shelves and specimens had transformed into distinguished figures of power. “The conditions mean that the very nature of the apple is shifting, and soon the maggot will find itself with a feast. The rot feeding new life.” I could feel the metaphor escaping him, he could try and wrestle it back but it was long untethered. My arm knows the rhythm. I watch as the metal stirrer in my hand cuts through the continuously forming skin of the mixture. The earthy colour and sharp stench so familiar as to almost be a comfort. ReplyForward
https://medium.com/@holniel16/fermented-3012b808eef
['Holly Nielsen']
2020-12-27 16:17:58.265000+00:00
['Microfiction', 'Short Story', 'Fiction']
Why do Bitcoins Have Value? and How Can We Get Bitcoins?
Before you know bitcoin and how you get it, you must know and understand what bitcoin is. I will explain in a detail. ilustration bitcoin What Is Bitcoin? Bitcoin is a digital currency created in January 2009. It follows the ideas set out in a whitepaper by the mysterious and pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto.1 The identity of the person or persons who created the technology is still a mystery. Bitcoin offers the promise of lower transaction fees than traditional online payment mechanisms and, unlike government-issued currencies, it is operated by a decentralized authority. Bitcoin is a type of cryptocurrency. There is no physical bitcoin, only balances kept on a public ledger that everyone has transparent access to. All bitcoin transactions are verified by a massive amount of computing power. Bitcoin is not issued or backed by any banks or governments, nor is an individual bitcoin valuable as a commodity. Despite it not being legal tender in most parts of the world, bitcoin is very popular and has triggered the launch of hundreds of other cryptocurrencies, collectively referred to as altcoins. Bitcoin is commonly abbreviated as “BTC.” Who invented bitcoin? In 2008 the domain name .org was bought and an academic white paper titled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System was uploaded. It set out the theory and design of a system for a digital currency free of control from any organisation or government. The author, going by the name Satoshi Nakamoto, wrote: “The root problem with conventional currencies is all the trust that’s required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust.” The following year the software described in the paper was finished and released publicly, launching the bitcoin network on 9 January 2009. Nakamoto continued working on the project with various developers until 2010 when he or she withdrew from the project and left it to its own devices. The real identity of Nakamoto has never been revealed and they have not made any public statement in years. Now the software is open source, meaning that anyone can view, use or contribute to the code for free. Many companies and organisations work to improve the software, including MIT. Peer-to-Peer Technology Bitcoin is one of the first digital currencies to use peer-to-peer technology to facilitate instant payments. The independent individuals and companies who own the governing computing power and participate in the bitcoin network — bitcoin “miners” — are in charge of processing the transactions on the blockchain and are motivated by rewards (the release of new bitcoin) and transaction fees paid in bitcoin. These miners can be thought of as the decentralized authority enforcing the credibility of the bitcoin network. New bitcoin are released to the miners at a fixed, but periodically declining rate. There are only 21 million bitcoin that can be mined in total. As of June 2021, there are over 18 million bitcoin in existence and less than 3 million bitcoin left to be mined. In this way, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies operate differently from fiat currency; in centralized banking systems, the currency is released at a rate matching the growth in goods; this system is intended to maintain price stability. A decentralized system, like bitcoin, sets the release rate ahead of time and according to an algorithm. What is the purpose of bitcoin? Bitcoin was created as a way for people to send money over the internet. The digital currency was intended to provide an alternative payment system that would operate free of central control but otherwise be used just like traditional currencies. Are bitcoins safe? The cryptography behind bitcoin is based on the SHA-256 algorithm designed by the US National Security Agency. Cracking this is, for all intents and purposes, impossible as there are more possible private keys that would have to be tested (2256) than there are atoms in the universe (estimated to be somewhere between 1078 to 1082). There have been several high profile cases of bitcoin exchanges being hacked and funds being stolen, but these services invariably stored the digital currency on behalf of customers. What was hacked in these cases was the website and not the bitcoin network. In theory if an attacker could control more than half of all the bitcoin nodes in existence then they could create a consensus that they owned all bitcoin, and embed that into the blockchain. But as the number of nodes grows this becomes less practical. A realistic problem is that bitcoin operates without any central authority. Because of this, anyone making an error with a transaction on their wallet has no recourse. If you accidentally send bitcoins to the wrong person or lose your password there is nobody to turn to. Of course, the eventual arrival of practical quantum computing could break it all. Much cryptography relies on mathematical calculations that are extremely hard for current computers to do, but quantum computers work very differently and may be able to execute them in a fraction of a second. And.. Why do Bitcoins have value? Bitcoin offers an efficient means of transferring money over the Internet and is controlled by a decentralized network with a transparent set of rules, thus presenting an alternative to central bank-controlled fiat money.1 There has been a great deal of talk about how to price Bitcoin, and we set out here to explore what the cryptocurrency’s price might look like in the event it achieves further widespread adoption. First, however, it is useful to back up a step. Bitcoin and other digital currencies have been touted as alternatives to fiat money. Scarcity, Divisibility, Utility, and Transferability Aside from the question of whether it is a store of value, a successful currency must also meet qualifications related to scarcity, divisibility, utility, transportability, durability, and counterfeitability. Let’s look at these qualities one at a time. 1. Scarcity The key to the maintenance of a currency’s value is its supply. A money supply that is too large could cause prices of goods to spike, resulting in economic collapse. A money supply that is too small can also cause economic problems. Monetarism is the macroeconomic concept that aims to address the role of the money supply in the health and growth (or lack thereof) of an economy. 2. Divisibility Successful currencies are divisible into smaller incremental units. In order for a single currency system to function as a medium of exchange across all types of goods and values within an economy, it must have the flexibility associated with this divisibility. The currency must be sufficiently divisible so as to accurately reflect the value of every good or service available throughout the economy. 3. Utility A currency must have utility in order to be effective. Individuals must be able to reliably trade units of the currency for goods and services. This is a primary reason why currencies developed in the first place: so that participants in a market could avoid having to barter directly for goods. Utility also requires that currencies can easily move from one location to another. Burdensome precious metals and commodities don’t easily meet this stipulation. 4. Transportability Currencies must be easily transferred between participants in an economy in order to be useful. In fiat currency terms, this means that units of currency must be transferable within a particular country’s economy as well as between nations via exchange. 5. Durability To be effective, a currency must be at least reasonably durable. Coins or notes made out of materials that can easily be mutilated, damaged, or destroyed, or which degrade over time to the point of being unusable, are not sufficient. 6. Counterfeitability Just as a currency must be durable, it must also be difficult to counterfeit in order to remain effective. If not, malicious parties could easily disrupt the currency system by flooding it with fake bills, thereby negatively impacting the currency’s value. How can I get Bitcoins? There are two ways if you want to own bitcoin, buying it or mining bitcoin. If you want to know how to buying bitcoin, read my article “How to buying bitcoin?”, and if you want to know how to mining bitcoin read my article “How to mining bitcoin?”. Thank you! :)
https://medium.com/@youvandra/why-do-bitcoins-have-value-and-how-can-i-get-bitcoins-4c415dfa628e
['Youvandra Febrial']
2021-09-08 10:35:14.571000+00:00
['Mining Bitcoin', 'Make Money Mining Bitcoin', 'Bitcoin Value', 'Buying Bitcoin']
Build a GOAT-Inspired Animated Dismissing TabBar: Swift 5 With UIKit
NotificationCenter Here is how Apple describes the NotificationCenter: “A notification dispatch mechanism that enables the broadcast of information to registered observers.” I decided to use NotificationCenter over the delegate protocol method since the latter requires very strict syntax. Using NotificationCenter allows for fewer lines of code and is very easy to implement. We just need to ensure we deallocate the NotificationCenter observers we will create. We will first declare a global variable for the notification name. For this example, we can do it outside the HomeViewController class. public let tabBarNotificationKey = Notification.Name(rawValue: "tabBarNotificationKey") Next, let’s post the notification and pass the boolean based on the scroll direction. After reworking the scrollViewDidScroll function, we get this: We create a variable called isHidden . If the user is scrolling up, it will be false . If they are scrolling down, it will be true . We post a notification and pass the boolean using a dictionary through userInfo . Next, we will go to the tabBar class where we will add an observer. We can add this observer in viewDidLoad : NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self, selector: #selector(self.notificationReceived(_:)), name: tabBarNotificationKey, object: nil) Creating this will require us to create a function where we can access the boolean we passed from the posted notification: Run the project. If you scroll, you will get the tabBar to hide, but it’s very abrupt: Before we continue, we need to deallocate the NotificationCenter observers we created in the same class:
https://medium.com/better-programming/build-a-goat-inspired-animated-dismissing-tabbar-swift-5-with-uikit-bd6506f3af01
['Diego Bustamante']
2020-07-24 15:28:05.117000+00:00
['Programming', 'iOS', 'Mobile', 'Swift', 'Uikit']
Deep dive into multi-label classification..! (With detailed Case Study)
With continuous increase in available data, there is a pressing need to organize it and modern classification problems often involve the prediction of multiple labels simultaneously associated with a single instance. Known as Multi-Label Classification, it is one such task which is omnipresent in many real world problems. In this project, using a Kaggle problem as example, we explore different aspects of multi-label classification. DISCLAIMER FROM THE DATA SOURCE: the dataset contains text that may be considered profane, vulgar, or offensive.
https://towardsdatascience.com/journey-to-the-center-of-multi-label-classification-384c40229bff
['Kartik Nooney']
2019-02-12 08:49:14.226000+00:00
['Machine Learning', 'Python', 'Nltk', 'Scikit Learn', 'NLP']
Episode 5: A beer, please!
Episode 5: A beer, please! Storing transactions in a distributed ledger Our friends at The Blockchain Bar just introduced their own bar tokens. But how will they manage them? Carol: “I don’t want to handle my tokens all the time for each drink. I’m used to paying when I leave the bar.” Oscar has an idea: “Easy! Everyone remembers how many drinks they had. At the end, they give away the right amount of tokens.” Bob is sceptical: “And what if someone ‘forgets’ a beer or two?” Again, Alice has the solution: “We all keep a list of all drink orders. If you want a beer, you shout ‘one beer’ and everybody takes a note.” When someone leaves the bar, our friends just have to count the number of beers since the last visit and collect the respective amount of tokens. The best thing: You cannot game the system by “forgetting” drinks, because many others have the correct list and would find out. Bitcoin works very similar: If someone wants to send money, they just inform other computers in the network about whom to send what amount, and the computers all record the transaction. These records are called “distributed ledger”. But what happens if there is an error? How do they notice? Find out in the following episodes … Or maybe you first want to learn some more about distributed ledgers on TheBlockchainBar.com.
https://medium.com/blockruptions-blockchain-bar/episode-5-a-beer-please-f32a94ad2aea
['Collin Müller']
2018-08-30 14:27:46.242000+00:00
['Distributed Ledgers', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain', 'Bitcoin']