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The Hottest Swimwear Trends This Season For Every Body Type | These sizzling styles are available at awesome prices, too.
In recent years, we saw the one-piece swimsuit make a huge comeback. It’s still a staple this summer of 2017, along with the tried-and-tested two-piece bikini, but there are now so many exciting versions of them that are just too cute not to try. Thankfully summertime is almost here, the perfect time to go on a swimsuit buying spree — and the best season to flaunt your body in them!
To get more fab swimwear without overspending, we’ll let you in on a secret: Install free browser extension Piggy, which automatically applies coupon codes as you shop and gives you cash back, to get really awesome deals from thousands of online stores!
Download Piggy here.
Check out our swimwear style tips:
If you’re pear-shaped…
go for a bikini or a one-piece swimsuit with a clean-skirted bottom that falls just below the largest part of the upper leg to balance your proportions.
Hot discount: 10% off on select swimwear styles + free shipping on Rosegal, plus 3.0% cash back
If you’re athletic…
get the illusion of curves with sheer swimwear or sexy rashguards. They just ooze s-e-x-i-n-e-s-s without making you look like you’re trying too hard.
Hot discount: Extra 12% off swimwear at Zaful, + 6.0% cashback
If you have a small bust…
playing around with tassels, fringe, and prints will do your figure wonders.
Hot discount: Free shipping on orders $150+ on Unique Vintage, plus 3.0% cash back
If you’re curvy and/or you have a large bust…
stock up on one-piece cutouts or high neck pieces. These will add an elegant flair to your body shape.
Hot discount: 90% off on vacation swimwear at Milanoo, plus 5.0% cash back
If you want to conceal your tummy…
don a swim dress! This two-piece suit covers up your problem area fabulously. Being covered up strategically is as sexy, if not sexier, than baring all.
Hot discount: 15% off select swimwear at Bare Necessities, plus 2.0% cash back
We can’t blame you if you’re having a hard time choosing just one swimsuit. But the good thing is they’re all available at cool prices when you shop with Piggy (install it today)! Enjoy your new chic finds and don’t forget to take lots of photos — we bet those are going to get lots of double taps when you post them on Instagram. | https://medium.com/easysimplemore/the-hottest-swimwear-trends-this-season-for-every-body-type-245bd2ed9fd2 | ['Katrina Angco'] | 2017-05-23 08:49:02.635000+00:00 | ['Fashion', 'Style', 'Beach', 'Summer', 'Swimwear'] |
Stop Being Nice to People Forever | As we made our way through our childhood and early adolescence it was only inevitable to have heard the phrase be nice an ungodly amount of times. This was typically said to us when we were being rude, aggressive, or downright malevolent to other children or adults. And if the adults in our life had any success in guiding our little socially untrained brains then we learned how to be nice. To this day we carry the lessons of being nice around with us in our everyday interactions. This should stop today. We ought to ditch nice and swap it out with kindness.
What's wrong with being nice?
We use the word nice to describe just about everything:
“Yeah, I've met her before shes nice.” “Wow, that's such a nice car. How much did does something like that set you back?” “He has such a nice house.” “Such nice weather we’re having.”
Notice that all of these things are physical? They're all in the outside world.
In essence, nice always remains on the outside.
Seneca
What do you mean by that?
Being nice is an act. It is not something that comes from within. You can be nice to someone by complimenting them, holding the door open for them or doing them a favor and on the outside others can observe and say “that was nice of you” or “you’re so nice.” While on the surface everything is fine and dandy you could be completely indifferent on the inside.
This can become dangerous. If we suppress what we really want to say or do just to be nice then we are hurting ourselves. Acting a different way on the surface while feeling the opposite inside is an act of violence towards yourself.
Being nice is fake. We are not behaving in a particular way because we want to but because we should. Because it is the norm.
We should strive to be kind instead.
The state of kindness
Kindness is a state that can be seen in acts, while niceness is nothing more than a superficial act. No doubt our ancestors were kind to each other before they were nice to each other.
“Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness.” — Seneca
Kindness radiates from within and can be seen in the way we treat ourselves and the people around us. While being nice is fake and motivated by acting how you think you should, kindness is a genuine and raw human state. So going forward let’s not be nice to people anymore, but instead adopt a state of kindness towards ourselves and our fellow humans. The world doesn't need any more nice people but it yearns for kindness to manifest across its surface. | https://medium.com/mind-cafe/stop-being-nice-to-people-forever-28cd5cc57aea | ['Daniel Esparza'] | 2019-11-10 11:14:33.753000+00:00 | ['Self Help', 'Self Improvement', 'Life Advice', 'Life Lessons', 'Kindness'] |
Brave Rewards Its iPhone Users | News by Altcoin Buzz: David Abel
Brave Browser has finally launched Basic Attention Token (BAT) rewards for its iPhone users.
Sequel to the announcement, Brave iPhone users now get. the opportunity to earn Basic Attention Token (BAT) tokens. The users get rewarded for watching privacy-preserving advertisements with the blockchain-based Brave Browser.
Besides, only iPhone users didn’t get the feature on their browser. Thus, making it highly anticipated by the community.
Also, users get access to the Brave Rewards by clicking the triangular BAT icon in the URL bar. However, Brave users still get the option to choose the ad-free browsing experience by disabling the feature in the settings.
About Brave
BAT stands as an Ethereum based open-source, decentralized ad marketing platform. Before now, Brave Payments made use of Bitcoin to allow users to reward content creators. As well as, websites like YouTubers and Twitch streamers with BAT tokens.
In addition, the free web browser developed by Brave Software works on Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, and Android devices. The current version also hosts five search engines by default. This includes their partner, DuckDuckGo.
Although, Google Chrome remains the leading browser in terms of internet browsing. But, the open-source web browser, Brave, consistently draws consumers from Google’s immense market share and adds it to its user base. Head of developer relations at Brave, Jonathan Sampson, also revealed that the crypto-friendly chromium web-based browser now boasts of over eight million active users monthly.
To remind, blockchain-based internet browser Brave announced the launch of its cryptocurrency wallet for ether (ETH). As well as, Brave’s native coin Basic Attention Token (BAT). The wallet’s named “Crypto Wallet”. | https://medium.com/@gte.io/brave-rewards-its-iphone-users-89a3dbfc6695 | ['Gte Io'] | 2019-11-15 03:14:22.415000+00:00 | ['Wallet', 'Bat', 'iPhone', 'Brave Browser', 'Crypto'] |
The BRIGHT Union token economy | The BRIGHT Union token economy
While most of the world is still trying to wrap their heads around how Bitcoin and Ethereum work, the innovators in the crypto industry are using tokens to create radically different business models. Instead of pyramid-shaped ownership, tokens make it possible for communities to partly own and control the apps that they love.
We have designed our token with exactly this principle in mind. With our native BRIGHT token, Bright Union users can have a stake and say in the development of our risk coverage platform. Ultimately, the token will enable Bright Union to become a full-fledged DAO and thus a truly community-owned protocol.
What BRIGHT can be used for
The BRIGHT token is at the heart of the Bright Union protocol. It functions as a coordination mechanism through which contributors are rewarded for adding value to the platform. In turn, BRIGHT holders can use their token to vote on important decisions of the platform and manage Bright Union’s treasury. Let’s take a closer look at these unique token utilities.
Membership: join the Union
The BRIGHT token also functions as a proof of membership of the platform and will join the Union. Members enjoy priority access to our regular products and are eligible for Bright Union’s premium services. As the protocol evolves, other membership perks can be added to reward the community.
DAO Governance
Users who stake BRIGHT tokens can also vote on various important decisions regarding the platform. This is the feature that will ultimately transform Bright Union into a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO). Aspects token holders can vote on include:
Governance topics (where the DAO should focus on)
Treasury fund allocation
Parameters for the Bright Risk Indices
Parameters for the Liquidity products
New yield-generating products to be included
The protocol roadmap
BRIGHT Staking
BRIGHT holders can lock their tokens on the platform with BRIGHT staking. This reduces the number of tokens in circulation and helps stabilize the Bright Union token economy. In return, stakers can receive rewards for helping out. Because we like to practice what we preach we will be offering embedded coverage with Bright Staking, meaning that staked BRIGHT tokens are protected from hacks and smart contract failures.
BRIGHT Treasury
The treasury of Bright Union is a dynamic pool of capital that will be used to strengthen the economics of the platform and to accelerate the crypto risk markets. This is done by introducing some well functioning principles from real world insurance into the decentralized alternative for insurance (“coverage”). The Bright Treasury will be kickstarted with a significant part of the tokens in circulation, and will keep growing by receiving a part of the commission fees of the Bright Union aggregation modules and the other Bright Union risk products.
Bright Union DAO
This treasury will be managed by rules decided on by the DAO. The Bright treasury will support a wide variety of products by providing capital: a staking pool, a liquidity pool and an investment pool. Capital that is provided to these products leaves the treasury in exchange for a fee. The staking pool is used to pay for the returns of BRIGHT staking.
The investment pool
The investment pool will primarily take positions in the crypto risk markets and will create (derivative) innovative decentralized risk products. For example the Bright Risk Indices (BRI), where the Bright Treasury will stake coverage to diversified positions in the market and will subsequently create a sliced package of covers for investment purposes by issuing tradeable EC20 tokens. The Bright Risk indexes will ensure maximum return at minimum risk for crypto investors, and will greatly boost the liquidity for the entire crypto risk markets. Bright Risk Indices are being developed as part of the ETH Global HackMoney2021 hackathon and are scheduled to go live In Q3 2021.
Future products
As an accelerator of the market for decentralized covers Bright will provide liquidity to the market. Currently the risk platforms put barriers for users to leave their staking position in order to lock their funds. For these situations Bright Union will create a liquidity pool. This can be used to create a secondary market for risk coverages, and will help stakers to leave their positions earlier.
With more reserves, the treasury can be taking positions and used to invest in products and services that strengthen the platform. This means that a bigger treasury can both be beneficial for the community, but also for the market as a whole as Bright Union is an accelerator, creating a positive reinforcement loop for the entire crypto risk markets.
BRIGHT numbers
110,000,000 (110 million) BRIGHT tokens will be issued. 7.7% of the tokens are reserved for the various rounds of token sales, during which the token is sold for $0.10 a piece. Seed investors received a 40% discount and private a 20% discount on this price for taking on the early risk. Another 2% is reserved for decentralized exchanges listings.
Furthermore, 25.8% is reserved for the founders, team members and advisors and are all subject to 36 months and 24 months vesting schedules.
Finally, 36.8% of the tokens are allocated to the treasury and 27.8% is reserved for the Bright Union community.
Bright Union Token Economics
A BRIGHT future
The BRIGHT token is a versatile asset essential for the functioning of the Bright Union risk coverage platform. With the token, users can earn rewards, enjoy a premium membership, can vote on important decisions of the platform and manage the Bright Union treasury. Together, these utilities of the token turn Bright Union into a DAO, a platform that is owned and controlled by the community. By owning BRIGHT, you can benefit from the growth of the DeFi risk markets. | https://medium.com/@brightunion/the-bright-union-token-economy-25cf02545c31 | ['Bright Union'] | 2021-07-30 06:58:18.785000+00:00 | ['Token Economy', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Insurtech', 'Blockchain', 'Risk Management'] |
We Need To Abandon This Piece of Relationship Advice | We Need To Abandon This Piece of Relationship Advice
We’ve all heard it before — but is it serving us?
Photo by George Gvasalia on Unsplash
I think back to all of the advice I’ve been given over the years about love and I can’t help but feel deceived. Wisdom is passed down to us in many forms and when it comes to love, it finds its way to us in bad clichés: love means never having to say you’re sorry, love will set you free, love is blind. I learned to accept that life is not fair and that it could be hard, but for most of my life I fervently refused to accept that love would be anything but idyllic when I finally found the right person.
It frustrates me to think of how for many years I believed that when I met the right person that it would be easy. I can’t count the number of times someone gave me this advice or some variation of it. When you meet the one it will just feel right or you will be surprised how easy it all is. Looking back I can see that part of the reason I never questioned this advice — and rather clung to it with determination — is because I desperately wanted it to be true. | https://medium.com/wholistique/its-time-we-abandon-this-piece-of-relationship-advice-ff7f843226c7 | ['Casey A.'] | 2020-12-24 16:30:06.355000+00:00 | ['Relationship Advice', 'Relationships', 'Relationships Love Dating', 'Love', 'Personal Growth'] |
I Wrote Every Day for 30 Days, and Here’s What Happened. | But, something always kept me wondering.
Could I?
And should I try my luck with words one last time?
By chance, I rediscovered Twitter this year.
And, oh boy, how much I enjoy the space. People use the power of words to express themselves.
On Twitter, I came across a challenge called “Ship 30 for 30”.
The idea was to join the community and write 30 atomic essays every day for 30 days.
We had to pay $50 but will get it back if we stick to writing for 30 days.
The challenge had a few guidelines:
Choose a topic you have an interest in or knowledge about
For 30 days, you will ship 30 atomic essays about that topic.
Share the atomic essay in public.
After 30 days, you will have established a writing habit
I completed the challenge last night. And was itching to share my findings from the experience.
Here are just a few observations from my journey:
1. Don't try to create a masterpiece every time
I’m new to writing and sharing online. Hence my first thought was — I have to make it perfect.
The unbelievable pressure of being perfect can stop you from writing forever.
My solution was to simply write, read once and publish. Don’t try to make it perfect. Aim to share to write.
And it worked.
I struggled with this concept for a couple of days but then realised that no one was criticising. No one cares. I’m just a small fish in this big ocean.
But I wasn’t on my own.
I was surrounded by people with the same aspirations and struggles.
2. Don’t do it on your own. Join a community of like-minded people
During this particular challenge — we’re divided into groups of 4 people. The people with the same writing experience. That was very reassuring and helped me to have enough courage to share my essays.
The community was there for me, holding my hand when I struggled and wasn’t sure I could keep going.
Sharing your content every day, allows you to learn how to cope with certain content creation situations.
At the end of the day, communities are built to unite people with the same interest and help to flourish.
3. Don’t be afraid to pivot. Change can create more writing.
Writing every day allowed me to discover my passion.
Originally I decided to write about Artificial Intelligence (AI). I thought that was a subject I like and gathered it will be easy to come up with new ideas every day.
But after 13 days, I realised that the topic of AI was interesting but I wasn’t passionate enough about it. That means I didn’t have an itch to write about it every day.
And that’s ok to change direction.
That’s what I did.
I quickly understood that to keep writing consistently, I had to write about the subjects that excite me, the ones that I’m passionate about.
These subjects can differ every day. Get excited every time you have to start writing.
The aim is to create a writing habit. Don’t let any excuses persuade you in a different way.
4. Work out the routine that fits best with your writing schedule
My idea was to try and write while my 1.5 years old son would nap. Use the rest of the day for the research for another day’s topic.
Intentions were sincere, but life sometimes dictates its own rules. I managed maybe one day to accomplish this routine.
Only one day from 30 -that’s all.
But I’ve discovered that the best time for me to work and concentrate is late in the evening when kids are asleep. I was and still am a bit surprised about it as I’m a morning person, but I guess it works better this way at the moment.
Adjust and adapt that works best for you.
It takes time to figure it out, but that’s’ ok.
The journey of writing is a marathon, not a sprint.
5. Writing every day creates a habit.
It absolutely does.
I can’t say I’ve mastered a habit of writing every day yet. But I can easily assure you that I know what I will do every evening — I will write.
Yes, sometimes it’s more a chore than a pleasure.
But it’s ok.
I don’t have to procrastinate or find any other excuses, why I can’t write today.
It’s like a habit of brushing my teeth before going to bed.
I know now I have to write.
I catch myself talking notes during the day about ideas that I could write about.
Writing is my daily companion and it’s at the back of my mind at all times. | https://medium.com/@karolina.rickard/i-wrote-every-day-for-30-days-and-heres-what-happened-66761bec0bfa | ['Karolina Rickard'] | 2020-12-18 21:36:07.983000+00:00 | ['Challenge', 'Writing', 'Everyday', 'Dream', 'Persistence'] |
The most effective instrument in investment | A robust and comprehensive database is a basic requirement for a financial firm’s system infrastructure to be able to produce accurate data when needed, and a data infrastructure needs to be reliable and accessible. Data innovators constantly seek to obtain accurate data and develop processes to utilise data at an optimum level. Data infrastructure is, therefore, a fundamental pillar of a competent and efficient trade lifecycle, including but not limited to investment compliance.
Data infrastructure and its importance in effective investment compliance:
Data infrastructure is significant in the financial services industry, due to the inherent monetary risk and the need to protect participants’ financial data. Participants include retail banks and building societies; investment banks; pension funds; insurance companies; fund managers; stockbrokers; wealth managers, platforms and financial advisers; custodians; and third-party administrators (TPAs).
The constant development of complex products and increased regulatory governance of financial institutions have required that companies recalibrate and streamline data feeds and usage to achieve optimum control and efficiency with minimum or no spillage.
An investment compliance function ensures adherence to rules and regulations and investment norms, and it is, therefore, imperative that such functions have a robust data infrastructure in place for effective and comprehensive control.
The way companies source and consume data varies. Many use data from market vendors such as Bloomberg and Reuters without making many changes and with universal identifiers, while others transform and customise the data according to their need. Neither scenario guarantees a perfect environment, as the data is tailored to fit a particular purpose.
Data infrastructure is the most critical element of an investment compliance function. Investment managers manage a large number of assets, based on their investment strategies and policies. It is, therefore, essential that they have all the relevant data points for the investable instruments to ensure
Governance and control to invest in permitted instruments
Adherence to rules and investment restrictions, as agreed with clients
Compliance with regulations for investor capital protection
Return and revenue generation
The investment compliance function plays a vital role by assisting the investment managers to keep their portfolios in compliance with the rules and regulations via rule creation, monitoring and reporting.
Problems with not having a proper data setup: 1. Incorrect classification of companies’ UPIs:
Data issues related to securities due to incorrectly capturing the ultimate parent issuer (UPI) of the securities. For example, Chinese securities incorrectly reflect their UPI as the “People’s Republic of China”. In addition, false alerts are raised when restricted/permitted securities use their UPI.
2. Internal ratings for securities:
Data issues can also result from the type of data fields maintained by a company’s data team (TSCF-Custom Fields). For example, they may miss updating, incorrectly update, or delay updating the internal ratings of a security on a compliance engine, which can raise alerts during monitoring.
3. Dependence on external systems:
Data issues can also be related to cash; for example, Bloomberg research depends on external systems such as Hi-Port, and delays in updating data or the operations team posting incorrect cash entries could affect the data/create problems in monitoring alerts.
4. Data misinterpretation:
Data issues can also arise when the data related to a security is misinterpreted in the compliance engine, for example, when transactions/trades related to FX spot contracts are also flagged as FX forward contracts in Bloomberg.
5. Dependence on client database:
Data issues can also result from having no access to data maintained by the client. For example, custodian reports (required to cross-check breaches), confirmation of pending markets and counterparty checks require data from the client’s database.
6. Other issues:
Issues can also arise when the rule in the compliance engine is coded to consider uploaded NAV/custom NAV that needs to be input manually
A trade entry keyed in twice by a trader with the same quantity can also cause issues, for example, if sell trades are keyed in twice and the position held turns negative in quantity and a short-sale alert is raised
Concentration rules may be raised even if there are no active transactions due to delays in refreshing the benchmark
Data relating to private securities cannot be obtained in a straightforward manner, due to their complex nature; this results in numerous issues in monitoring alerts relating to their security type
For effective investment compliance, an investment bank should have data infrastructure that
The following diagram explains instruments and their data points that need to be considered when designing integrated systems for investment managers:
Source: www.cisi.org
The importance of instrument data infrastructure in an effective compliance system:
When designing a compliance system, a number of functional requirements and infrastructure elements are configured to interact with each other to monitor different instrument types that funds manage; this helps in monitoring risk (credit/market risk) and adhering to rules and regulations.
Data infrastructure also helps with the investment compliance activities mentioned below: 1. Attributes:
Attributes are instrument characteristics — e.g., security type, country of incorporation, sector/industry, exchange and identifiers — that are important in order management and compliance systems. Attributes help create rules based on permissible and non-permissible guideline restrictions.
2. Analytics:
Valuation helps to create analytics for compliance systems and rules based on percentage guidelines/restrictions, e.g. benchmark weightage, market capitalisation, counterparty exposure and hedging rules.
3. Risk analytics and external values:
The compliance team checks or creates and modifies rules using internal values integrated from other system outputs, e.g., credit rating analytics, OTC derivatives and counterparty exposure. This helps expand the efficiency and depth of compliance activities by automatically incorporating risk analytics.
4. Pricing and valuation:
Valuing an investor’s holdings as per the type of securities held is top priority when designing data infrastructure; therefore, pricing and valuation methodology is crucial for valuing investments and adhering to investment guidelines. As per the regulatory framework, all investment companies need to adopt a pricing and valuation policy that considers the best interests of investors.
Conclusion:
Data infrastructure is significant for investment managers and compliance functions, and they need to adopt best practices for rule and regulation monitoring. Every financial organisation would, therefore, need to assess their technology and ensure data quality — that it is from a reliable data source and is able to meet investment objectives effectively, while protecting clients.
Acuity Knowledge Partners’ solution:
We tailor-make dynamic functions with a robust, responsive and proficient control framework and process delivery. Our tool-agnostic team is experienced in providing support on investment compliance, trade surveillance, and corporate, forensic and crime compliance. We are also experienced in providing unique solutions with the help of our state-of-the-art technology.
Our pool of subject-matter experts handles process delivery, training, projects and automation to mitigate costs. Our established compliance capabilities help clients identify problems and opportunities to navigate through challenging business environments. | https://medium.com/@acuityknowledgepartners/instrument-data-infrastructure-its-importance-in-an-effective-investment-compliance-environment-b68117c7f63 | ['Acuity Knowledge Partners'] | 2020-12-02 06:36:09.702000+00:00 | ['Asset Management', 'Compliance', 'Risk', 'Investment', 'Compliance Management'] |
XSN-Core Dev Update July 12 2020 | SUMMARY
We have had a great month of development progress as we executed our first community DEX beta tests which resulted in success as over 50+testers were on boarded with no significant errors hit. Our team is proud to have stabilized the technology behind our P2P Lightning DEX swaps, successfully showcased them to our community and now are able to look ahead to next developments. The first and foremost being the integration of Raiden, Ethereum’s off chain client into our ecosystem. Updates on this and more below
DEV UPDATES
Aggregator partners have connected with external exchanges
Verified API’s behaving properly, handling requests from both external exchanges + DEX
Confirmed Stakenet DEX has the ability to support third party arbitrage/ liquidity
We have proven not only that we can launch with initial liquidity, but confirmed ARB taking place on traditional /central markets is able to migrate onto Decentralized Exchanges as well. We see this as a significant step for the progression of DeFi & blockchain as a whole ahead (see GIF of the aggregator at work connected with Binance below)
Raiden Integration into the DEX has begun
As the DEX and wallet are now stable, developers have begun work on integrating Raiden into the DEX. This will bring…
Stablecoins (such as DAI)
Leveraged trading (FTT + FTT Tokens )
DeFi (COMP + more)
We have already executed cross trades from BTC to ETH via Lightning and Raiden and have a proof of concept in place. We look forward to working with the Raiden developers and community for this task of creating a much needed BTC<>ETH bridge over these 2nd layer protocols
Error Improvements/ UX Improvements
Improved UI/ UX error handling in the wallet
Downsizing the steps in wallet
Updated channel rental UX
Through our closed beta feedback we have simplified certain things to allow for a more clear and intuitive user experience. Including an upgrade to our channel rentals UI, wallet interface and more
XSN VORTEX [ROADMAP UPDATE]
With DEX technology stable we are able to look ahead now at various features and tools that become available. One of them is a DeFi feature we believe will have a very large impact called VORTEX, when enabled it will allow any funds in Lightning, Raiden etc to be Arbitraged with external exchanges directly from your wallet via our DEX
when enabled it will allow any funds in Lightning, Raiden etc to be Arbitraged with external exchanges directly from your wallet via our DEX Provide the user with simple and easy to use interface where they can create and test strategies for the best possible results and returns. Easily run the strategy with the push of a button
Up till now banking, trading, and investment firms have had a monopoly on Arbitrage, with a very high barrier to entry being required. Vortex will give the everyday users the tools and ability to compete against these firms. We see this as an important target as it effectively decentralizes the current multi trillion $ automated trading industry
Looking ahead…Post launch DEX roadmap
Our post launch roadmap will have 3 stages. GAIA, PROMETHEUS, and HYDRA
GAIA (DEX launch) At launch HUB network will start small with some restrictions in place. This is for final testing and to ensure security. DEX HUB’s act as routers, it is not possible to steal funds even if only 1 HUB exists, funds remain in users wallet at all times.
(DEX launch) At launch HUB network will start small with some restrictions in place. This is for final testing and to ensure security. DEX HUB’s act as routers, it is not possible to steal funds even if only 1 HUB exists, funds remain in users wallet at all times. PROMETHEUS Add multi hubs and expanding the network. Multi Hubs allow redundancy for uptime and greater liquidity
Add multi hubs and expanding the network. Multi Hubs allow redundancy for uptime and greater liquidity HYDRA Final phase is dubbed HYDRA. Network offloaded to XSN HYDRA nodes (nodes run on top of the Stakenet blockchain) for a global unstoppable network
All current XSN Masternodes will be upgraded to XSN HYDRA nodes during Stage 3
Next Milestones
Working with our aggregating partners to increase depth/liquidity + backend connections (to other exchanges, both decentral and centralized)
to increase depth/liquidity + backend connections (to other exchanges, both decentral and centralized) Raiden integration onto the DEX allows for Ethereum + all Ethereum tokens to be added to the DEX, for instant exchanging into BTC
onto the DEX allows for Ethereum + all Ethereum tokens to be added to the DEX, for instant exchanging into BTC Trezor/Ledger integration into the LW will allow trading on the DEX directly from your HW device. Trade with your keys safe and protected at all times
into the LW will allow trading on the DEX directly from your HW device. Trade with your keys safe and protected at all times Launch date Setting official launch date for the DEX
For more information, updates, and news follow us on Twitter or join the Stakenet Discord | https://medium.com/stakenet/xsn-core-dev-update-july-12-2020-72cac6050377 | ['Stakenet Team'] | 2020-07-12 13:17:14.958000+00:00 | ['Xsn Articles', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Bitcoin', 'Lightning Network'] |
Long-Distance Couples in Quarantine | Does distance still make the heart grow fonder? I talked to long-distance couples around the world to see how their relationships are affected by the pandemic.
MONKEY BUSINESS IMAGES/SHUTTERSTOCK
“We’re accepting that we’re just victims of circumstance. It gives us some sort of peace. We are doing the absolute best for each other, and no matter how minuscule it may seem, it speaks greater volumes with the relationship.”
Ozz, 24, eloquently described this wise realization he and his longtime, long-distance love, Nur, came to recently. “It’s been a little harder. There’s little to no freedom to make plans to see each other,” Ozz continues. Ozz lives in Kelowna, Canada, and Nur lives in Vancouver. Though they’re only four hours away from each other, the precariousness of travel during the COVID-19 health pandemic makes them feel worlds apart.
“It's like the ultimate test. How genuine is this love? Is it really just lust? Or true companionship?”
I sat back and thought about Ozz’s final contemplation. How genuine is this love? Is it just lust or true companionship? Like Ozz, I’m in a long-distance relationship. I live 7,540 miles away from my boyfriend. Our lives are filled with carefully coordinated Facetime calls (usually when he’s going to bed or when I’m eating lunch), Netflix party dates, and thoughtful voice notes to say good morning, good night, or “I love you”.
Our relationship is unique, but for all of its hardships, there are surprising benefits — the biggest being, in my experience, the strong communication and transparency distance can foster. We don’t have the luxury of relying on physical closeness as a means of conflict resolution. We only have our words, expressed through iPhone and laptop screens, to resolve any issues or grievances we have. It can be difficult, but pushing ourselves to be honest and open helps us grow as a couple and as individuals.
The COVID-19 health pandemic, however, has complicated our relationship’s harmony. Life as we now know it is filled with unknowns. We’re not sure what the world will look like a month from now, six months from now, or even a year from now. We’re not sure how we’re going to get through this — financially, socially, or mentally. We’re not sure when we’ll see our friends, families, and loved ones again.
All of these unknowns and more add pressure and tension to relationships, especially long-distance ones.
“In the beginning, there was a huge wave of anxiety. I thought, if something happens, I won’t be able to get to him because our borders were completely closed.” Sarah, 26, tells me. Sarah lives in Saudi Arabia and her boyfriend Mikey lives in Ireland. “I’ve been in a long-distance relationship for almost 4 years. Now that my anxiety has mostly passed, things are back to normal.”
I identify with Sarah’s experience. When the realities of COVID-19 first hit, my anxiety pulled me down a rabbit hole. I thought about my boyfriend and my family, all of whom are halfway across the world. I thought about what would happen if my boyfriend and I couldn’t reunite in the fall. I thought about how our relationship would survive without seeing each other for a year. For a while, I didn’t know how to block out my fears. I felt buried under them and it was difficult being present and happy in my relationship.
“Long-distance is so brutal,” Marlene, 23, shares with me. “It’s been so hard and lonely. “If this wasn’t happening, we'd be going on dates and seeing each other a lot, but I’ve only seen him 3 times since he’s been here.” Merlene lives in Nairobi, Kenya and her boyfriend, Mat, lives in Atlanta, Georgia. Mat’s family lives in Nairobi, and he traveled back to be with them just before the pandemic hit. They’re finally in the same city, but they can barely see each other.
“We’ve luckily been able to cope relatively well,” Kara, 24, tells me via WhatsApp message. She lives in Sydney, Austalia and her boyfriend, Jason, lives in Toronto. “It’s been harder because Jason was planning to move to Sydney for 2 years at the end of March. Then BAM, the Australian border closed and now I’m alone in our apartment waiting until he’s allowed to come.”
It’s hard. Really hard.
But, like with all things, there is a silver lining. Sarah articulated it perfectly when she explained that “people used to question the legitimacy of [our] relationship. Now all those people that did question it are forced to be away from each other. They finally see that long-distance relationships are valid, and require a lot of work.”
Long-distance relationships require so much work, patience, understanding, and commitment. They also get a lot of flak — people question the role we play in each other’s love and whether that love can stand the test of time apart. But now that we’re all forced to maintain relationships, both platonic and romantic while apart, everyone is starting to understand the validity and strength of long-distance love.
As COVID-19 continues to complicate life as we know it, we’re doing what we can to keep hope and love alive. “We have a date night once a week! Paint night, movie night, baking adventures, walks together etc...I think people admire how creative we are, but I think long-distance couples tend to do their own thing based on what works for them,” Kara proudly shares with me.
I couldn't agree with Kara more, and I’ll definitely be ripping a page from her book! Creative long distance dates are a paramount reminder that a connection can survive, even thrive through, prolonged distance.
To all my fellow long-distance lovers out there, I see you, we got this, and we are going to make it through. | https://kuikmwai.medium.com/long-distance-couples-in-quarantine-5f0dae304286 | ['Kui Mwai'] | 2020-06-01 13:46:10.301000+00:00 | ['Long Distance', 'Dating', 'Relationships', 'Love', 'Quarantine'] |
150 years of bank credit expansion is near its end | By Alasdair Macleod
The legal formalisation of the creation of bank credit commenced with England’s 1844 Bank Charter Act. It has led to a regular cycle of expansion and collapse of outstanding bank credit.
Erroneously attributed to business, the origin of the boom and bust cycle is found in bank credit. Monetary policy evolved with attempts to control the cycle with added intervention, leading to the abandonment of sound money. Today, we face infinite monetary inflation as a final solution to 150 years of monetary failures. The coming systemic and monetary collapse will probably mark the end of cycles of bank credit expansion as we know it, and the final collapse of fiat currencies.
This article is based on a speech I gave on Monday to the Ludwig von Mises Institute Europe in Brussels.
Introduction
So that we can understand the financial and banking challenges ahead of us, this article provides an historical and technical background. But we must first get an important definition right, and that is the cause of the periodic cycle of boom and bust. The cycle of economic activity is not a trade or business cycle, but a credit cycle. It is caused by fractional reserve banking and by banks loaning money into existence. The effect on business is then observed but is not the underlying cause.
Modern banking has its roots in England’s Bank Charter Act of 1844, which led to the practice of loaning money into existence, commonly described as fractional reserve banking. Fractional reserve banking is defined as making loans and taking in customer deposits in quantities that are multiples of the bank’s own capital. Case law in the wake of the 1844 Act, having more regard to the status quo as established precedent than the fundamentals of property law, ruled that irregular deposits (deposits for safekeeping) were no different from a loan. Judge Lord Cottenham’s judgment in Foley v. Hill (1848) 2 HLC 28 is a judicial decision relating to the fundamental nature of a bank which held in effect that:
“The money placed in the custody of the banker is to all intents and purposes, the money of the banker, to do with it as he pleases. He is guilty of no breach of trust in employing it. He is not answerable to the principal if he puts it into jeopardy, if he engages in haphazardous speculation….”
This was undoubtedly the most important ruling of the last two centuries over money. Today, we know of nothing else other than legally confirmed fractional reserve banking. However, sound or honest banking with banks acting as custodians had existed in the centuries before the 1844 Act and any corruption of the custody status was regarded as fraudulent.
This decision has shaped global banking to this day. It created a fundamental flaw in the gold-backed sound money system, whereby the Bank of England, as a prototype central bank, could only issue extra sterling backed entirely by gold. Meanwhile, a commercial bank could loan money into existence, the drawdown of which created deposit balances. The creation of these deposits on a system-wide basis meant that any excesses and deficiencies between banks were easily reconciled through interbank lending.
Bankers’ groupthink and the credit cycle
While an individual bank could expand its balance sheet, the implications of all banks doing the same may have escaped the early banking pioneers operating under the 1844 act. Thus, when their balance sheets expanded to a multiple of the bank’s own capital, there was little cause for concern. After all, so long as a bank paid attention to its reputation it would always have access to the informal interbank market. And so long as it can call in its loans at short notice, the duration mismatch between funding by cash deposits and its loan book would be minimised.
Since the Bank Charter Act, experience has shown the expansion of bank credit leads to a cycle of credit expansion, over-expansion, and then sudden contraction. The scale of bank lending was determined by its management, with lenders tending to be as much influenced by their own crowd psychology as by a holistic view of risk. Of course, the expansion of bank credit inflates economic activity, spreading a warm feeling of improving economic prospects and feeding back into increasing the bankers’ confidence even further. It then appears safe and reasonable to take on yet more lending business without increasing the bank’s capital.
With profits rapidly increasing due to lending being a multiple of the bank’s own capital, confident bankers begin to think strategically. They reduce their lending margins to attract business they believe to be important to their bank’s long-term future, knowing they can expand credit further against a background of improving economic conditions to compensate for lower margins. They begin to protect margins by borrowing short from depositors and offering businesses term loans, reaping the benefits of a rising slope in the yield curve.
The availability of cheap finance encourages businesses in turn to enhance their profits by increasing the ratio of debt to equity in their businesses and by funding business expansion through debt. By now, a bank is likely to be raking in net interest on loan business amounting to eight or ten times its own capital. This means that an interest margin of a net two per cent is a 20% return to the bank’s shareholders.
There is nothing like profitable success to boost confidence, and the line between it and overconfidence is naturally fuzzed by hubris. The crowd psychology fuelled by a successful banking business leads to an availability of credit too great for decent borrowers to avail for themselves, so inevitably credit expansion becomes a financing opportunity for poorly thought out loan propositions.
Having oversupplied the market with credit, banks begin to expand their interests in other directions. They finance businesses abroad, oblivious to the fact that they have less control over collateral and legal redress generally. They expand by entering other lines of banking-related business, assuming their skills as bankers can be extended into those other business lines profitably. A near-contemporary example was Deutsche Bank’s failed expansion into global investment banking and principal trading in foreign securities and commodities. And who can forget Royal Bank of Scotland’s bid for ABN-Amro, just as the credit cycle peaked before the last credit crisis.
At the time when their balance sheets have expanded to many multiples of their own capital, the banking crowd then finds itself with lending margins too low to compensate for risk. Bad debts arising from their more aggressive lending decisions begin to materialise. One bank beginning to draw in its horns, as it perceives it is out on a limb, can probably be weathered by the system. But other bankers will stop and think about their own risks, bearing in mind operational gearing works two ways.
It may be marked by an unexpected event, or just an apparent loss of bullish momentum. With bad debts beginning to have an impact, groupthink quickly takes bankers from being greedy for more business to fearful of it. Initially, banks stop offering circulating credit, the overdraft facility that lubricates business activity. But former lending decisions begin to be exposed as bad when the credit tap is turned off and investments in foreign lands begin to reflect their true risks. Lending in the interbank market dries up for the banks with poor or marginal reputations, and banks begin to report losses. Greed turns rapidly to fear.
The cycle of bank credit expansion then descends into a lending crisis with increasing numbers of banks exposed as having taken on bad loans and becoming insolvent. A slump in business activity ensues. With frightening rapidity, all the hope and hype created by monetary expansion is destroyed by its contraction.
Before central banking evolved into acting as the representative and regulator for licensed banks, the credit cycle described above threw up some classic examples. Overend Gurney was the largest discount house in the world, trading in bills of exchange before it made long-term investments and became illiquid. When the railway boom faltered in 1866 it collapsed. Bank rate rose to 10% and there were widespread failures. Then there was the Baring crisis in 1890. Poor investments in Argentina led to the bank’s near bankruptcy. The Argentine economy slumped, as did the Brazilian which had its own credit bubble. This time, a consortium of other banks rescued Barings. Nathan Rothschild remarked that if Barings hadn’t been rescued the entire banking system in London would have collapsed.
Out of Barings came the action of a central bank acting as lender of last resort, famously foreseen and promoted by Walter Bagehot.
In the nineteenth century it became clear that crowd psychology in the banks, the balance of greed and fear over lending, drove a repeating cycle of credit boom and slump. With the passage of time bankers recovering their poise from the previous slump forgot its lessons and rhymed the same mistakes all over again. Analysts promoting theories of stock market cycles and cycles of economic activity need look no further for the underlying cause.
In the absence of credit expansion, businesses would come and go in random fashion. The coordinated expansion of credit changed that, with businesses being bunched into being created at the same time, and then all failing at the same time. The process of creative destruction went from unnoticed market evolution to becoming a periodic violent event. Monetary institutions still ignore the benefits of events being random. Instead they double down, coordinating their interventions on a global scale with the inevitable consequence of making the credit cycle even more pronounced.
It is a huge mistake to call this repeating cycle a business cycle. It implies it is down to the failure of free markets, of capitalism, when in fact it is entirely due to monetary and credit inflation licensed and promoted by governments and central banks.
The rise of central banking
Following the Barings crisis in 1890 the concept of a lender of last resort was widely seen to be a solution to the extremes of free markets. Initially, this meant that the bank nominated by the government to represent it in financial markets and to oversee the supply of bank notes took on a role of coordinating the rescue of a bank in difficulty, in order to stop it becoming a full-blown financial crisis. When the gold standard applied, this was the practical limitation of a central bank’s role.
This was the general situation before the First World War. In fact, even under the gold standard there was significant inflation of base money in the background. Between 1850 and 1914 above ground gold stocks increased from about 5,000 tonnes to nearly 24,000 tonnes. Not all of it went into monetary gold, but the amount that did was decided by the economic actors that used money, not the monetary planners as is the case today.
It was against this background that the US Federal Reserve Bank was founded in December 1913. Following WW1, it became a powerful institution under the leadership of Benjamin Strong. Those early post-war years were turbulent times: due to war time inflationary financing, wholesale prices had doubled in the US between 1914–1920, while the UK’s had trebled. This was followed by a post-war slump and by mid-1921 unemployment in the UK soared to 25%. In the US, the Fordney-McCumber tariffs of 1922 restricted European debtors from trading with America, necessary to pay down their dollar debts. A number of countries descended into hyperinflation, and the Dawes plan designed to bail out the Europeans followed in 1924.
While America remained on a gold standard, Britain had suspended it, only going back on to it in 1925. While the politicians decided overall policy, it was left to central bankers such as Strong at the Fed and Montague Norman at the Bank of England to manage the fallout. Their relationship was the most tangible evidence of central banks beginning to cooperate with each other in the interests of mutual financial stability.
With the backing of ample gold reserves, Strong was an advocate of price targeting through the management of money supply, particularly following the 1920–21 slump. His inflationary policies assisted the management of the dollar-sterling exchange rate, supporting sterling which at that time was not backed by gold. Strong also made attempts to develop a discount market in the US, which inflated credit markets further. One way and another, with the Fed following expansionary money policies and commercial bankers becoming more confident of lending prospects, monetary inflation fuelled what came to be known as the roaring twenties.
That came to a sharp halt in October 1929 when the credit cycle turned, and the stock market crashed. Top to bottom, that month saw the Dow fall 35%. The trigger was Congress agreeing to the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act on 30 October, widely recognised at the time as a suicide note for the economy and markets, by raising trade tariffs to an average of 60% from the Fordney-McCumber average of 38%. President Hoover signed it into law the following June and by mid-1932 Wall Street had fallen 89%.
With such a clear signal to the bankers it is not surprising they drew in their horns, contracting credit, indiscriminatingly bankrupting their customers. All the expansion of bank credit since 1920 was reversed by 1934. Small banks went bankrupt in their thousands, overwhelmed by bad debts, particularly in the agricultural sector, as well as through loss of confidence among their depositors.
The depression of the 1930s overshadowed politics in the capitalist economies for the next forty years. Instead of learning the lessons of the destruction wrought through cycles of bank credit, economists doubled down arguing more monetary and credit inflation was the solution. To help economic sentiment recover, Keynes favoured deficit spending by governments to take up the slack. He recommended a move away from savers being the suppliers of capital for investment, with the state taking a more active role in managing the economy through deficit spending and monetary inflation.
The printing of money, particularly dollars, continued under the guise of gold convertibility during the post-war Bretton Woods system. America had enormous gold reserves; by 1957 they were over 20,000 tonnes — one third of estimated above-ground gold stocks at that time. It felt secure in financing first the Korean then the Vietnam wars by printing dollars for export. Unsurprisingly, this led to the failure of the London gold pool in the late 1960s and President Nixon suspending the fig-leaf of dollar convertibility into gold in August 1971.
Once the dollar was freed from the discipline of gold, the repeating cycle of bank credit was augmented by the unfettered inflation of base money, a process that has continued to this day.
The current position
Since the turn of the millennium there have been two global bank credit crises: the first was the deflation of the dot-com bubble in 2001–02, and the second the 2008–09 financial crisis that wiped out Lehman. It was clear from these events that the debate over moral hazard was resolved in favour of supporting not just the banks, but big business and stock market valuations as well. Furthermore, America’s budget deficits were becoming a permanent feature.
The cyclical rhythm of bank credit expansion and crisis was taking place against a background of increasing wealth transfer from the productive sector by means of an underlying monetary inflation. The beneficiaries have been the government and non-productive finance as well as large speculators in the form of hedge funds. The evidence of this transfer of wealth through the effect on the general level of consumer prices was increasingly suppressed by statistical method. While the official consumer price inflation indicator has been pegged between one or two per cent, independent analysts (Shadowstats and Chapwood Index) reckon the true figure is closer to ten per cent.
That being the case, the use of a realistic price deflator tells us that the US economy, and presumably others, in recent years have been contracting in real terms. Furthermore, GDP, nominal or real, is an appalling indicator of economic progress, being no more than a measurement of the increasing quantities of government funny-money inflating the economy. It does not tell us how that money is used and the benefits that actually flow from it, nor the degree of price distortion it generates.
It is hard to avoid concluding that manipulating the statistics to hide the evidence is the last throw of the fiat currency dice, just as the Emperor Diocletian collapsed the Roman economy by suppressing evidence of rising prices through his edict on maximum prices in 301 AD.
This brings us to the current position, which is increasing looking like being on the edge of another cyclical crisis. If so, it marks the end of a period of far greater monetary and credit expansion than seen in previous cycles, coinciding with a Smoot-Hawley lookalike in the trade war between the two largest global economies.
The following big-picture factors are relevant to the likely timing for a credit crisis:
Global debt has accumulated to an estimated $255 trillion, up from about $173 trillion at the time of the Lehman crisis An alarming proportion of it is unproductive, being government, consumer borrowing, and funding for financial speculation as well as owed by unviable businesses.
With annual debt payments already accounting for most of the US budget deficit and that deficit getting larger, any rise in dollar interest rates would be ruinous for Federal government finances. Eurozone governments are in a similarly precarious financial position. Governments are ensnared in a classic debt trap.
An estimated $17 trillion of global bonds are negative yielding, which is unprecedented. This is a market distortion so extreme that it cannot be normalised without widespread financial disruption and debtor destruction. There is no exit from this condition.
The repo market crisis in New York indicates the banking system is in intensive care. The start of it coincided with the completion of the sale of Deutsche Bank’s prime dealership to BNP. It would be understandable if large deposits failed to transfer with the business and went to rivals instead. The problem has continued, indicating senior bankers’ groupthink is already turning from greed to fear.
US bank exposure to collateralised loan obligations and the leveraged loan market, comprised mainly of junk loans and bonds, is the equivalent of most of the estimated $1.9 trillion sum of bank capital. It confirms this article’s thesis that the level of ignorance over banking risk is late stage for the bank credit cycle and likely to be catastrophic.
The share prices of Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank indicate they are not just insolvent but will need to be rescued — and soon. Banks in other Eurozone jurisdictions are in a similar situation. However, all Eurozone countries have passed bail-in laws and do not expect to bail out individual banks. The upshot is at the first sign of a bail-in being considered, a flight of large deposits will very likely be triggered and bank bond prices for all Eurozone issuers will collapse. The room for error in crisis management by central banks is considerably greater than at the time of the Lehman crisis eleven years ago.
The forthcoming credit crisis could repeat 1929–32
An extreme amount of monetary creation over the last ten years and the US-China trade war over the last two is horribly reminiscent of late 1929, when the combination of the end of the credit cycle and escalating trade protectionism combined to wreak financial destruction on a global scale. We face a possible repeat of the 1929–32 experience and the depression that followed. The long-term expansion of global trade has already come to a halt. The secondary impact on economies such as Germany’s is beyond question.
Even if a halt to the trade war between the US and China is agreed in the coming weeks, the crisis has been triggered and our empirical evidence suggests it will get worse. It appears that common sense on trade policies is unlikely to prevail, because the conflict is far deeper than just trade, with the Hong Kong riots as part of the overall picture.
The Chinese believe America has destabilised Hong Kong with good reason: the US Treasury has become dependent to receiving the lion’s share of international portfolio flows to support the dollar and finance the US budget deficit, and China’s own investment demands are a threat. With the dollar’s hegemony under attack and China seeking those same portfolio flows to invest in her own infrastructure projects through the Hong Kong Shanghai Connect link, Hong Kong had to be destabilised.
For this and other reasons, trade tariffs are only part of a wider financial war, which is increasingly likely to escalate further rather than abate. With his trade policies having backfired badly, President Trump is now under pressure with time running out ahead of the election in a year’s time. He is threatened with impeachment by Congress over the Ukraine affair, and his popularity ahead of an election year remains subdued. He has even appealed to Jay Powell, Chairman at the Fed, to introduce negative interest rates to boost the economy. Backing down over China is unlikely, because it would be a presidential policy failure.
What will the developing crisis look like?
Clearly, central banks will respond to the next credit crisis with an even greater expansion of money quantity than at the time of the Lehman crisis eleven years ago. The consequence of this monetary inflation seems certain to lead to an even greater rate of loss of purchasing power for fiat currencies than currently indicated by independent assessments of price inflation.
Monetary inflation is likely to be directed at resolving two broad problems: providing a safety net for the banks and big businesses, as well as funding rising government deficits. Therefore, the amount of quantitative easing, which will be central to satisfying these objectives, will soar.
The effect on markets will differ from being a rerun of the 1929–32 example in one key respect. Ninety years ago, the two major currencies, the dollar and sterling, were on a gold exchange standard, which meant that during the crisis asset and commodity prices were effectively measured in gold. Today, there is no gold backing and prices will be measured in expanding quantities of fiat currency.
Prices measured in fiat currencies will be determined ultimately by the course of monetary policy. But in real terms, the outlook is for a repeat of the conditions that afflicted markets and economies during and following the 1929 Wall Street crash. A further difference from the depression years is that today western governments have extensive legal obligations to provide their citizens with welfare, the cost of which is escalating in real terms. Add to this the cost of rising unemployment and a decline in tax revenue and we can see that government deficits and debts will increase rapidly even in a moderate recession.
This brings us to an additional problem, likely to be evident in a secondary phase of the credit crisis. As it becomes obvious that the purchasing power of fiat currencies is being undermined at a rate which is impossible to conceal through statistical method, the discounted value of future money reflected in its time preference will rise irrespective of interest rate policy. Consequently, borrowers will be faced with rising interest rates to compensate for both increasing time preference and the additional loan risk faced by lending to different classes of borrowers.
Besides closing off virtually all debt financing for businesses and increasingly indebted consumers, this will play havoc with governments accustomed to borrowing at suppressed or even negative interest rates. Prices for existing bonds will collapse, and banks loaded up with government debt to benefit from Basle regulations will find their slender capital, if they have any left, will be quickly eroded.
The world of fiat currencies faces no less than its last hurrah. Indeed, some of the more prescient central bankers appear concerned the current system is running out of road, with the dollar as the world’s reserve currency no longer fit for this purpose. They want to find a means of resetting everything, exploring solutions such as digitising currency through blockchains, doing away with cash, and finding other avenues to try to control the vagaries of free markets.
None of them will work, because even a new form of money will be required to rescue government finances and prevent financial and economic failure through inflation. The accelerating pace of monetary creation to address these problems will remain the one problem central to the failure of a system of credit and monetary creation: the impossibility of resolving the debt trap that has ensnared us all.
Just as Germany found in 1923, monetary inflation as a means of
funding government and other economic liabilities is a process that rapidly gets out of its control. Eventually, people understand the debasement fraud and begin to dispose of the fiat currency as rapidly as possible. It then has no value.
The ending of the fiat currency regime is bound to terminate the repeating cycles of bank credit legitimised since 1844. The socialism of money through inflationary debasement will be exposed as a fraud perpetrated on ordinary people.
Got gold? | https://medium.com/goldmoney/150-years-of-bank-credit-expansion-is-near-its-end-1769731855cd | [] | 2019-11-21 19:51:21.562000+00:00 | ['Geopolitics', 'History', 'Gold', 'Economics', 'Monetary Policy'] |
Trump’s tariffs and the WTO | Wikipedia
As Trump became the president of the United States, one of his most controversial actions was to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium. He invoked Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. On a global level, his tariffs were invoked by GATT’s Article XII. This led to retaliation by the countries that the tariffs were applied to. There seemed to be a global consensus that these tariffs by Trump were not justified, yet nobody was capable of stopping it. In this paper, I will discuss whether a response to the United States is possible by analysing Simon Lester and Huan Zhu’s paper, Closing Pandora’s Box.
In the first section, I will explain in detail how Trump applied these tariffs. In the second section, I will discuss the challenge this presents for GATT and WTO. In the third section, I will analyse the goals of rebalancing for these types of tariffs. These three sections will help us question the rule of international law for radical economic policies.
Before Trump, there was an unwritten rule of ‘good faith’ amongst nations, which helped in export controls over Eastern Europe during the cold war, an embargo of Argentina led by the European Community related to the Falklands War, and the U.S. embargoes on Nicaragua and Cuba. (Lester, Zhu). This unwritten rule is written over Article XII. Simply put, the Article XII states that a country can apply economic restrictions if they believe their national security is at risk. This seems to be a sensitive rule, since it is easy to create an excuse to gain political leverage. The unwritten rule, however, proved to be successful in the start of the 21st century. Everyone seemed to comply, since there were no cases between 1999–2016. This changed rapidly after Trump became president. He applied 5 tariffs on steel and aluminium. The tariffs apply to 45 billion$ worth of steel & aluminium import. The purpose of these tariffs was deemed damaging for foreign policy & excessive by the military, which only needed 3% of domestic production to satisfy their needs. (Lester, Zhu) It is concluded that the true motivation behind these tariffs is unclear. Many retaliated to Trump with their own tariffs, deeming the use of Article XII by Trump as an excuse.
This is a massive challenge for the credibility of GATT and WTO. A great metaphor to describe this problem is Pandora’s Box. United States decided to weaponize their leverage in free trade by applying tariffs. Their justification seems incredibly ridiculous, considering that they are one of the strongest political forces, if not the strongest, in the world. Any person can realize that their national security is not at stake. These tariffs are unjustified. This creates a problem: any country can now claim ‘national security interests’ to create leverage against other countries. This has the risk of opening up like a Pandora’s box, exponentially and without control. If, let’s say, that all countries in the world decided that invoking Article XII for these tariffs were unjustified, what would happen then? It is highly unlikely that anything would change, considering the political power that the United States have.
In this case, it seems that the United States can steamroll past any moral justification with ease. How can this be avoided in the future? How will the WTO and GATT respond? The article by Lester and Zhu states that a rebalancing is needed. It is unclear what kind of policy will follow. There is no technical detail in this matter. I will discuss the goals of rebalancing instead. The first is transparency. In the future, any article that seems to be used as an excuse for leverage needs to be called out. All loopholes in international law should be avoided. And second, economic compensations should be created for the victim countries of tariffs. For instance, it is argued that Iran should be helped by other countries once it is determined that they have been unjustifiably attacked by the United States. Third, if compensation is not possible, retaliation against the United States becomes morally justified.
References:
Simon Lester and Huan Zhu. “Closing Pandora’s Box: The Growing Abuse of the National Security Rationale for Restricting Trade.” GATO Institute, June 25, 2019. | https://medium.com/@emrearduman/trumps-tariffs-and-the-wto-aaaf11f85453 | ['Emre Arduman'] | 2020-12-12 15:04:30.397000+00:00 | ['Trading', 'International Relations', 'Law', 'Politics', 'Economics'] |
Harmonic quanta: DEX order matching that generates no change | One of the snags in atomic swaps is that if you place, say, 1 BTC on sale, and a counterparty takes 0.3 BTC, then the remaining 0.7 BTC would be sent to a change address in your wallet — but this would render the remainder of your order unspendable until it is at least a few blocks deep in the chain, which would make quite a mess if you want to liquidate the entire order quickly. Now while it would be simple enough to solve this by splitting your coins into small amounts at many addresses in your wallet, this would still create change for at least one of your addresses, which means that you would not generally be able to sell all your coins in one go. Worse still, it would create additional complexities in the order book, as it would have to continually check for change and reduce order sizes by any change generated. Because of all these drawbacks, I thought I’d try a little trick to generate no change whatsoever.
Fragmentation issues? Time to quantise.
Let’s start on the simple end of the problem, with a straightforward story in BDD. The story describes the behaviour of a script that Block DX may run in order to correctly determine quanta for tick size and transaction input size.
##Runs on each trader’s instance of Block DX (if they don’t run it, then they generate change, effectively DOSing themselves)
##Splits coins into equal tiny amounts per input
##Uses an amount per input, “x”, which functions as a minimum transaction size and is (a) above the dust threshold of the coin, and (b) harmonic with (specifically, a standardised divisor of) a calculated tick size, “y”, for the market.
##Sends the remainder from the splitting tx to a separate trade-fee-paying address
##Makes sure the total balance in fee-paying addresses is ≥ the maximum trade fee (0.2%) a trader would pay if (s)he sold all coins
##Ensures that tick sizes and minimum transaction sizes do not require re-running this script when changing to a new coin pair. Given
Block DX autoconfig script has run on a wallet integrated to Block DX, so that the wallet has:
— addresses (recorded in .conf) from which it pays trade fees
— addresses (recorded in .conf) from which it swaps coins When
Block DX launches
And
Either (a)
All trade-fee-paying addresses hold < 0.2% of the wallet
balance
Or (b)
Any input in any wallet holds over x coins Then
When (a)
Reserve 0.2% of the total coins in trade-fee-paying
addresses
When (b)
Create a tx that consumes all current inputs (excluding
trade-fee-paying addresses) that do not hold exactly x
coins, and create outputs of exactly x coins each
And
Send any remaining coins as change to a trade-fee-paying
address
Determining “x” and “y”
To determine x and y in the above script, several size-thresholds will be considered in turn: the dust threshold, the tick size, the minimum order size, and maximum price precision. Following this, the discussion will proceed through stages to a specification of x and y in the above script. The intention is to quantise certain critical minimum sizes at standardised levels above the dust threshold, in such a way that they are always factors or divisors of one another. If order sizes may only be whole quanta of some minimum order size, and if changes in price may only be whole quanta of some minimum tick size, then it is possible to split inputs into sizes that will always result in whole inputs being consumed in a trade.
1. Handling Dust
A very small trade may spend a single input at the value of x. In order to avoid creating unspendable transactions, x must always be above a coin’s dust threshold, or else at least one side of the transaction will be unspendable and the swap will cease to be atomic.
The most valuable coin on Block DX is Bitcoin. Hence, for every trade, it can be expected to be the coin with the smallest units of currency traded. All else being equal, it is thus reasonable to assume that it is the most likely coin to hit its dust threshold.
The worst case scenario for this design would be in cases of a sudden stratospheric rise in price unaccompanied by the usual lowering of the dust threshold. For example, assume Bitcoin goes to $200k and its dust threshold is not lowered; as per current Core dust rules, a dust threshold of 546 Satoshis (for non-segwit transactions) would then equal $10.92.
(Note: this figure shall be used throughout this blog post as a nominal shorthand for “dust threshold.” However, if a bail-in transaction consumes both a fee input and a trading input, the dust threshold would be somewhat higher, and a real implementation would need to accommodate this. Whatever the actual dust threshold, it need only be the lowest dust threshold for any atomic swap transaction, since in swap transactions that use more than one standard-sized input, the transaction amount increases to a greater degree than the dust threshold increases.)
In such a scenario, the total transaction value for a Bitcoin transaction would have to be > $10.92.
For Block DX, this transaction value would include:
the value of a matched order
the trade fee (in cases where the fee system includes fee txs in the bail-in tx itself)
the network fee
To generate no change, orders would have to be in regular multiples of some value >$10.92, and the smallest permissible change in price would have to be harmonic with this value (for example, if a sell order of $10.92 worth of BTC fetches 0.5 BLOCK, then the smallest change in price must be at least $10.92, or else a quantum smaller than $10.92 would be required in a trade — for, say, 0.51 BLOCK — and this would thus generate dust.)
How might fee transactions affect the scenario? Well, the largest proportion of a trade that could be charged as a trade fee is currently 0.2%, for takers. For a $200k Bitcoin, a single trade at the dust threshold would incur a trade fee of $0.02184. In an implementation where fees are paid in separate transactions from swap transactions, this would impose a significant limitation on the minimum trade size, as the fee would have to be >$10.92.
Assuming that, instead of independent fee transactions, a protocol that spends trade fees as an output of the bail-in tx is implemented, then only the total value of the transaction would be significant. This is obviously advantageous to the scalability of the solution across sudden changes of coins’ value — a phenomenon perhaps uniquely frequent in crypto.
As such,
in an atomic swap, the minimum bail-in transaction amount shall be >546 Satoshis,
trade fees shall be one output of a multi-output bail-in tx, spendable upon revelation of the swap’s secret;
its total output (i.e. including the trade fee) shall be returned to the user upon nlocktime maturation, or else in some circumstances, traders will pay a fee when no trade completes. (In terms of antispam and anti-DOS incentives, this is acceptable because it would not be necessary to charge malicious parties a trade fee if, instead, their coins get locked up until nlocktime maturation, as the opportunity cost of capital lockup is far more significant than a fee. For background on this assumption, see this post.)
2. Tick size and maximum price precision
One “tick” on an exchange is the minimum amount that the price of a given coin in a currency pair may increase or decrease. “Price precision” is the number of decimal places permitted in an order. It should correspond to tick size and, in traditional designs, should have an explicit rounding logic so that when, for a given trade, a calculation of (coin A @ price y ) / (coin B @ price z) generates a value of either coin extending beyond the maximum price precision, the number will be rounded up or down to some value that falls within the bounds of price precision permitted. Of course, in this post, we are aiming at a non-traditional design with the convenient property of eliminating the need for rounding.
Tick size and maximum price precision are useful for:
eliminating tiny, trivial orders (a kind of spam).
eliminating trivial competition when traders (usually bots) place a minimally better-priced order (e.g. a difference of 0.000001 BTC) in front of their competitors. This activity does not stimulate demand because minimally better-priced orders do not create a significant increase in incentive to take an order. Hence, it produces a minimal increase in trading volume at a high bandwidth cost for the order system, and it gives bots an unfair advantage over human traders.
avoiding the dust threshold.
avoiding rounding errors by specifying either bounds of precision, or in our case, by precisely harmonising quanta in both coins so that traded amounts never need to be rounded.
avoiding creating change (and confirmation times) by using tick amounts that are always multiples of wallets’ input sizes.
3. Cryptoeconomics
Nothing in this spec need be enforced by network protocol, because all logic reduces to counterparties’ order book rules and no party stands to be penalised except those whose quantisation scripts do not conform with those of the rest of the network. If a trader uses different rules, then either (a) the trader will end up with change, or (b) other traders will not parse orders as valid, since the offending party’s orders will involve coins with fewer confirmations than the threshold set by other traders.
The only check required in this system is that traders should conduct a UTXO check on coins prior to updating an order on their order books, which is already implemented in Block DX.
4. High level strategy
Rounding errors and change can be eradicated by using minimum transaction amounts and tick sizes with carefully-chosen divisors that correspond to coins’ input amounts. Furthermore, by adopting, across all coins, standard minimum transaction amounts and tick sizes that have many common divisors, where each input size in any coin’s wallet will always be a divisor (simple example: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8 are divisors of 24, 36, and 72), not only will all trades on a given coin pair generate no change, but when a trader switches to a new coin pair, (s)he need not re-run the above input script for different values of x and y.
5. Specification to determine x and y
The minimum transaction amount shall determine x.
For a given coin, its minimum transaction amount shall be defined as either 0.36*10^n or 0.72*10^n, whichever is the next number higher than its dust threshold, where n is the number of decimal places counted little-endian up to the last nonzero digit of the lowest dust threshold.
(For example, if the dust threshold is 546 sats, then n is 3 and the minimum transaction amount will be 720 sats.) Tick size determines y.
For a given coin pair, one tick shall be defined by the lowest common multiple of their minimum transaction amounts. Tick size shall be denominated in the least valuable coin of the coin pair, while the most valuable coin shall be termed the “base currency” henceforth.
(For example, if coin A’s minimum transaction amount is 720 sats and coinB’s is 3600, then their market’s tick size shall be 3600 sats, denominated in whichever is the least valuable coin.)
(UX note: base currency in this calculation is independent of the user’s choice of base currency, which may be inverted at will.) For a given coin pair, maximum price precision shall be defined by y, as in (2) above. In other words, not only shall prices increase or decrease by the tick size, but no order’s price may be smaller than one whole unit of the tick size. For a given coin pair, the input size shall equal x, the minimum transaction amount, as in (1) above. Input size will thus differ from coin to coin, but in all cases, inputs will be exact divisors of y.
To combine the above into an example, if Bitcoin’s minimum transaction amount is 546 Satoshis and the Blocknet’s is 0.00002000 BLOCK, then for the BLOCK:BTC currency pair:
The next good choice of divisor is 0.00000720 for BTC and 0.00003600 for BLOCK.
Their lowest common multiple is 0.00003600.
Exchange rate shall now vary by a tick size of 0.00003600 BLOCK:BTC
All transaction amounts (and of course orders too) shall be multiples of 0.00000720 BTC or 0.00003600 BLOCK. Due to the tick size, every 0.00000720 BTC input will always be equal to a certain number of whole BLOCK inputs.
6. Why this ensures zero change
From the preceding section, the higher-valued coin will always have inputs exactly proportioned to the market’s maximum price precision, y. The lower-valued coin will always increase or decrease in value relative to the higher-priced coin in increments of their lowest common multiple, y.
(For example, if 50 BLOCK inputs buy 1 BTC input, and then the price increases by one tick (0.00003600), then 49 BLOCK inputs buy 1 BTC input.)
The result: one input of the higher-valued coin will always buy some number of whole inputs of the lower-valued coin.
7. Novel points worth noting
If price increases enormously, so that, for example, 1 BLOCK input buys 1 BTC input, then a further increase or decrease in price would result in one tick doubling or halving the input:input ratio. As such, this design has the novel property of decreasing price resolution (the size of the smallest increase in price in dollar terms) as the lowest common multiple increases in real-world value. This will not be problematic outside of the most garish cases of poor coin maintenance, however. As a lower-priced coin increases in value, its fee and dust thresholds ought to be adjusted down so that micropayments remain feasible and users do not inadvertently find that their transactions do not get accepted into a block and their coins are stuck. This adjustment, then, would cause the tick size and minimum transaction size in Block DX to return to a normal level, where a “smooth” or near-continuous variation in price is experienced. In exchange for a variable price resolution, this solution offers Block DX the ability to create zero change for all trades. I believe this is a desirable compromise. Note that this system is independent of network fees and network congestion. Changing network fees will have further effects on users’ incentives to trade.
8. Weaknesses
Currently, the principal weakness of this design is that it has not been turned into mathematics and tested. Until it is implemented, there is a chance that this idea is a mere flatus vocis and I am confused.
A secondary weakness is the need for wallets to be aware of coins’ prices (specifically, which coin is the more valuable one) in order for the script to run. This adds complexity and may lengthen setup time somewhat.
A further weakness is that if, at any point, different wallets run differing versions of this script, then it is possible that they could end up with incommensurable xs or ys, which would generate change.
Finally, transactions that consume many inputs are more expensive than single-input transactions. This will not affect the calculation of input size though, because a single-input bail-in transaction will have a low cost, and multi-input transactions will have higher amounts with only a nominally higher cost. As such, this drawback is limited only to increasing the network fee for trades. | https://medium.com/flatus-vocis/harmonic-quanta-dex-order-matching-that-generates-no-change-f7cbbd26ded9 | ['Arlyn Culwick'] | 2018-07-30 22:08:50.711000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin', 'Blockchain', 'Dex', 'Atomic Swap', 'Blocknet'] |
BARRIER — FREE LANDSCAPES: ALEXANDERPLATZ | WHAT IS UNIVERSAL DESIGN?
It is generally agreed that the term universal design ( or barrier-free design) first entered into usage in the mid-1980s by United States (US) architect, Ronald L. Mace. Universal design aims to create accessible, readable, safe, sufficient, comfortable and independent living spaces that are suitable for all ages and genders. These environments are designed to be used by all people at the widest possible scale without the need for adaptation and expertise. In this way, an environment will be accessible, understandable and usable by everyone regardless of the age, size, ability or disability of the individual.
Good public spaces are designed by primarily considering accessibility. Accessibility by design can provide more opportunities to people for work independently, shop, travel and play.
Observations and studies of social scientists and designers such as Kevin Lynch, Gehl, Clara Cooper Marcus and Barnes show that the most important requirement for public spaces is utilization. As a result of these studies, It turns out successful urban open spaces are areas that can respond to the needs of users, are democratic in their usability, and can make sense for a large part of the society.
GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE AREA
Alexanderplatz is a square and transportation center located in downtown Berlin, Germany. At the end of the 19th century, the square gained great importance with the Alexanderplatz station built near it. And nearby markets stimulated trade. The bright times of Alexanderplatz began in the 1920s with the start of nightlife in Potsdamer Platz. Square is called Alex among the local people.
Alexanderplatz in Berlin 2009.
There is two landmark very close to square. One of them has over one million visitors per year, Germany’s one of the most popular attraction center, the 388 m high Berlin television tower. Other is the World Clock in the square, which shows the current time of 148 major cities. World Clock has been a tourist attraction and meeting place since its foundation in 1969. In July 2015, the German government declared the clock as a historically and culturally important monument. The Friendship Fountain is another important structure in the square. | https://medium.com/@betulbekmez/barrier-free-landscapes-alexanderplatz-9075799457e1 | ['Betul Bekmez'] | 2020-12-27 20:17:21.650000+00:00 | ['Barrier Free Environment', 'Landscape', 'Urban Environment', 'Urban Planning', 'Climate Change'] |
WEEK 16 NFL POWER RANKINGS | Introduction
What a weird week in the NFL. The winless Jets won, but at what cost? Only the Jets can lose at winning. Then the next day the Bengals defeated the Steelers on Monday night and surprised the world behind Ryan Finley’s great quarterback play. Maybe now we can stop watching Juju dance on the opposing team logos for TikTok because clearly that’s not helping the Steelers win games. My Patriots also got eliminated this week and I’m still getting texts from people I haven’t spoken to in years rubbing that in my face. Seriously guys, it’s Christmas, spread a little cheer or something. Anyways, here’s my updated power rankings going into Week 16 of the NFL.
32. Jacksonville Jaguars (1–13)
Previous Ranking: 31
Analysis: I wanted to keep the Jets as the worst team because I really cannot comprehend the logic in beating the Rams. Seriously why did they do that? But the Jaguars now have sole possession of the first overall pick in the upcoming NFL draft unless they win a game again this season. They play the Bears this week and the Bears need to win to try and get a playoff spot. The Jaguars then play the Colts in week 17 in an important game for the Colts, so I don’t see them losing their spot as the number one pick in the draft come April. Jacksonville needs to send New York a thank you card or something because that’s the best Christmas gift any Jacksonville fan could ask for.
31. New York Jets (1–13)
Previous Ranking: 32
Analysis: What a time to be a New York Jets fan. I would say I feel bad for the Jets, but I don’t, because I hate the Jets. Somehow, some way, the Jets won this past week against the Rams, but at what cost? They now have the 2nd pick in the NFL draft this upcoming April and I can’t wait to see how they find a way to mess this up, too. I still think they are arguably the worst team in the NFL, but they beat a very good Rams team and that win is more impressive than the one win for the Jaguars this year. This is probably the only time I’ve ever been happy the Jets won a game. Thank you Adam Gase.
30. Cincinnati Bengals (3–10–1)
Previous Ranking: 30
Analysis: I wanted to move the Bengals up in the rankings this week after their win over the Steelers on Monday night, but they still have a terrible record and I think that game was a fluke. The Steelers looked horrible on offense and the Bengals clearly wanted to win that game much more than the opposition. The Bengals have a chance to move up in my power rankings this week, however, if they can win against the 4–10 Houston Texans.
29. Atlanta Falcons (4–10)
Previous Ranking: 28
Analysis: The Falcons really shouldn’t be this bad, but they are. I don’t see how it’s possible to lose as many leads as they do in games, but they found a way again this week to blow it against Tom Brady and the Bucs. How hard is it to close out a game? This would’ve been a great upset against a divisional rival that’s playing for a playoff spot and seeding, but they choked again and lost. They should all be ashamed of themselves.
28. Houston Texans (4–10)
Previous Ranking: 26
Analysis: This team needs a lot of work to get back to being competitive in the NFL as the Texans have looked very poor as of late. Deshaun Watson is not to blame, but just about every other player on the team is to blame. JJ Watt hasn’t done much to help the defense that ranks as one of the worst in the NFL and I don’t think they’re going to get much better for a while. Like I said, this team needs a lot of work in the offseason to gain some ground in the AFC.
27. Detroit Lions (5–9)
Previous Ranking: 27
Analysis: As expected, the Lions lost again this week. Matt Stafford is playing through injury, which is nothing new because he’s usually playing while injured during this time of year about every year. He’s banged up, the defense sucks, and there’s just no spark on either side of the ball to bring some light to this team. I’d be surprised if they win another game this season.
26. Carolina Panthers (4–10)
Previous Ranking: 25
Analysis: The Panthers are really missing Christian McCaffery and I don’t think he is going to play again this season. He might as well wait until next year because the Panthers don’t have much to play for. I like this team, though, and I think they could be a lot better next year with coach Matt Rhule making some changes to improve in the offseason.
25. San Francisco 49ers (5–9)
Previous Ranking: 22
Analysis: How do you lose to the Cowboys after going to the SuperBowl last year. Seriously, I want to rank the 49ers lower on this list because they should be ashamed of themselves for the season they’re having this year. Granted, they’ve had a lot of injuries, but so have the Cowboys! There was no reason for them to be this bad and let the Cowboy’s offense put up 41 points. The Cowboys didn’t have Zeke Elliot OR Dak Prescott this game. Get it together, San Fran.
24. Dallas Cowboys (5–9)
Previous Ranking: 29
Analysis: I’m surprised the Cowboys were able to defeat the 49ers this past week with the amount of injuries they’ve had, but they actually look pretty solid on offense going forward. Andy Dalton is playing well enough to keep America’s team in the playoff hunt. I can’t believe this team still has a chance at the playoffs, but you never know. They would be the worst playoff team I can think of in recent memory, but hey, kudos to them.
23. Denver Broncos (5–9)
Previous Ranking: 23
Analysis: The Broncos had a tough task in facing the red hot Buffalo Bills Saturday night, but they didn’t even really keep it close. The Bills dominated this game and the Broncos seem to be focusing on getting the best draft spot for next year to help improve in the offseason. This is another team that might not win another game this year.
22. Los Angeles Chargers (5–9)
Previous Ranking: 24
Analysis: Two weeks after an embarrassing loss to the Patriots, the Chargers are winners of their last two games and look to win out and end the season on a positive note. The lone bright spot of this team is Justin Herbert and he should continue to be the bright spot of this team for years to come. They need to improve on defense, but this Chargers team is trending in the right direction.
21. New York Giants (5–9)
Previous Ranking: 21
Analysis: The Giants need to work some magic these next two weeks if they want to make the playoffs as I now have them ranked as the third best team in their division. They didn’t have Daniel Jones on Sunday night against the Browns, but I don’t think that would’ve changed the outcome of the game if they did have him. This defense is average, but they should be great with the talent that they have on their roster. I kept them in the same spot at 21, but they’re trending in the wrong direction at this point in the season.
20. Philadelphia Eagles (4–9–1)
Previous Ranking: 20
Analysis: Jalen Hurts looks significantly better than Carson Wentz and it looks like there’s a new quarterback in town in Philly. They weren’t able to defeat the Cardinals, but Kyler Murray looked stellar in that game and it’s impressive enough that Jalen Hurts and the Eagles were able to keep this one somewhat close. I think the Eagles are going to possibly win this division if they can get some help around the league. If not, they have their new quarterback to start building around in the offseason in preparation for next year.
19. Washington Football Team (WFT) [6–8]
Previous Ranking: 19
Analysis: I said last week that this team is fun to root for, but I might have to take that back. Alex Smith and Ron Rivera are fun to root for, but that’s about it. I like Chase Young, too, but I’m bored watching this team play when Alex Smith or Chase Young isn’t on the field. Dwayne Haskins is in the news now for having strippers sent to his house and not wearing a facial covering to help limit the spread of COVID-19, but I’m not really surprised. What else is a man to do when he’s being benched for a guy who has one and a half leg? He got the start this past week due to injuries, but he sucks and probably won’t earn a starting role again in his career. I wouldn’t be surprised if this team doesn’t win another game this year and misses out on the playoffs.
18. New England Patriots (6–8)
Previous Ranking: 16
Analysis: Ugh. I’m disappointed in this season for the Patriots because I really thought we might make the playoffs at one point this year. With a loss on Sunday to the Dolphins, the Patriots were eliminated from playoff contention and I officially am no longer a fan of Cam Newton. He’s not the only reason for the Patriots’ lack of success this year, but he made a couple bad plays that lost a couple games this year that I think could’ve been prevented. If he would actually play like he says he’s going to, everything would be fine. He’s all talk right now and I hope he isn’t under center for the Patriots next year.
17. Minnesota Vikings (6–8)
Previous Ranking: 18
Analysis: I got a lot of hate from the handful of people that read my posts about picking the Bears to beat the Vikings this past week, but suck it, I was right. The Vikings’ offense is fine behind Dalvin Cook, but their defense needs a lot of work. They’re just not the same defense that dominated the NFL not too long ago and they need to find a way to get better in the offseason. We’ll see how they finish out the year, but letting Mitch Trubisky put up 33 points is not a step in the right direction.
16. Las Vegas Raiders (7–7)
Previous Ranking: 15
Analysis: I like the Raiders, I think they’re fun to root for, but this past week’s loss to the Chargers was not what they needed to help them make the playoffs. Derek Carr got hurt pretty early on in this game, but Marcus Mariota stepped in and played great. The defense is the problem for the Raiders as it was a lot to ask of Mariota to be constantly playing from behind despite his impressive play. If the Raiders want to be competitive in the AFC, they need to get better on defense first.
15. Chicago Bears (7–7)
Previous Ranking: 17
Analysis: DAAAAA BEARS. This past week was a solid win for the Bears as they are inching closer to securing a spot in the NFC playoffs. Mitch Trubisky has looked pretty good as of late and the defense is doing just enough for the Bears to be winners of their last two games. They had a bad loss to the Lions three weeks ago, but they seemed to have recovered and now look to finish the season on a high note. I have faith in this Bears team and I’ll keep rooting for Mitch Trubisky until he’s no longer on the field.
14. Arizona Cardinals (8–6)
Previous Ranking: 14
Analysis: The Cardinals did just enough to hold off Jalen Hurts and the Eagles this past week and that was thanks in large part to Kyler Murray. Kyler looked fantastic this week and his shoulder doesn’t appear to be bothering him much anymore. They finish off the year against the 49ers and the Rams, so they might be able to sneak up in the rankings with two solid wins. I thought the Rams were legit, but a loss to the Jets doesn’t make me nearly as confident in them being one of the better teams in the NFC. These next two weeks should be very telling for who the best team in this division is.
13. Los Angeles Rams (9–5)
Previous Ranking: 4
Analysis: Do you smell that? It smells like garbage or something. Oh, wait, it’s the Rams playing against the Jets. Garbage. Absolute garbage. How? How can you lose to the J-E-T-S. C’mon LA, this is brutal. The only way this makes sense to me is that Bill Belichick made a deal with Mcvay that let the Rams beat the Patriots two weeks ago in exchange for the Rams letting the Jets win so the Jets don’t take Trevor Lawrence and the Patriots don’t have to face him twice a year. I don’t know, but what I do know is this Rams team should be ashamed of themselves. They fell 9 spots in my rankings thanks to that piss-poor effort.
12. Miami Dolphins (9–5)
Previous Ranking: 13
Analysis: The Dolphins handled business on Sunday and eliminated the Patriots from the playoffs behind Tua’s quarterback play. He looked great against the Patriot defense and the Dolphins inched one step closer to the playoffs. They now play the Raiders who are desperate for a win in what is sure to be an interesting contest. The Dolphins play the Bills in week 17, so they need to win this one if they want to solidify their spot in the playoffs
11. Pittsburgh Steelers (11–3)
Previous Ranking: 3
Analysis: I predicted, like many others, that the Steelers would dominate the Bengals in a game that they needed to win after dropping their previous two. Boy, did they screw that up. They looked TERRIBLE against a pretty bad Bengals team and I don’t know what they can do to be dominant again. They already clinched a spot in the playoffs but it’s looking like it’ll be a first round exit at this point. I dropped them 8 spots this week to number 11.
10. Cleveland Browns (10–4)
Previous Ranking: 12
Analysis: The Browns continue to take care of business as they beat the Giants Sunday night with ease. Baker Mayfield looks great and I don’t expect the Browns to skip a beat as they play the Jets this week. I’m looking forward to their week 17 matchup with the Steelers because I think they’re playing much better football now. This should be a fun team to watch heading into the playoffs.
9. Baltimore Ravens (9–5)
Previous Ranking: 10
Analysis: The Ravens destroyed the Jaguars on Sunday, as expected. They have looked good the last couple weeks, but I’m not exactly convinced they can play from behind. They get to face off against the Giants this week and finish the season against the Bengals. Barring an upset, this team should finish 11–5 heading into the playoffs.
8. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (9–5)
Previous Ranking: 9
Analysis: Tom Brady did it again. Down 24–7 in the 3rd quarter, the Bucs found a way to come back and beat the Falcons on Sunday. Antonio Brown finally caught his first touchdown on a 50 yard bomb from Brady and it looked like they found their groove in the 2nd half as an offense. This team has a pretty easy schedule the rest of the year and should be hot going into the playoffs.
7. Seattle Seahawks (10–4)
Previous Ranking: 11
Analysis: Seattle is slowly creeping up the rankings as the rest of their division tries to keep up. Russell Wilson has not been as stellar as he was in the first half of the season, but the defense is showing improvement when it matters most, which is promising for this team. I think they’ll find a way to put it all together and finish the season strong heading into the playoffs.
6. Indianapolis Colts (10–4)
Previous Ranking: 8
Analysis: The Colts are playing some great football lately and continue to perform in all aspects of the game. This defense is very good and the offense is scoring plenty of points to keep them in any game. They face off against a struggling Steelers team this week and end the season playing the Jaguars, so they might be looking at a 12–4 season. Bravo.
5. New Orleans Saints (10–4)
Previous Ranking: 6
Analysis: It feels a bit odd putting the Saints in my top 5 after they lost to the Chiefs on Sunday, but they have Drew Brees back and their defense is still one of the best. If they can get healthy before the playoffs, this team is dangerous and hungry to make a SuperBowl run in what could be Drew Brees’ final year. They finish up this season playing the Vikings and the Panthers, so they should finish 12–4.
4. Tennessee Titans (10–4)
Previous Ranking: 5
Analysis: Derrick Henry is so scary and so good. He’s a grown man amongst children and I love watching him tear it up. We get to see how good this team is as they face off against Aaron Rodgers and the Packers this weekend. The Packers aren’t very good at stopping the run, so this game should be high scoring and fun to watch. Get excited.
3. Green Bay Packers (11–3)
Previous Ranking: 7
Analysis: Jumping all the way up to number three on my rankings, the Packers deserve to be recognized as the current best team in the NFC. I don’t know what I was thinking having them ranked as 7th, but what can I say, I’m an Aaron Rodgers hater. He’s proving me wrong, but he’ll have to continue his success against a tough Tennessee Titans team this upcoming weekend.
2. Buffalo Bills (11–3)
Previous Ranking: 2
Analysis: Josh Allen is my MVP this year, I don’t care what anyone says. What he’s done this year is very impressive as he has put all of the haters to rest and dominated in most of his games. The Bills are red hot heading into the playoffs and I anticipate that they win out the rest of the year behind their fantastic play on both sides of the ball.
1. Kansas City Chiefs (13–1)
Previous Ranking: 1
Analysis: The Chiefs solidified their position as the best team in the NFL with a great win against the Saints on Sunday afternoon. They lost Clyde Edwards-Helaire, though, but Le’Veon Bell filled in nicely in CEH’s absence. They finish the year playing the Falcons and the Chargers, so I expect them to continue to dominate and finish the regular season with just one loss. They still have to play the games, though, so we’ll see what happens. | https://medium.com/@mattmorley12/week-16-nfl-power-rankings-9d5123ad058e | ['Matt Morley'] | 2020-12-24 14:33:26.762000+00:00 | ['Power Rankings', 'NFL', 'Rankings', 'Football', 'Sports'] |
How to analyze PowerBI logfiles automated using REST API with Logic Apps and Azure Log Analytics Workspace | Preconditions
You need an Azure Subscription and Azure AD (AAD) admin privileges. You need a PowerBI Service subscription and PowerBI admin privileges.
Step 1: Register PowerBI App within Azure AD
There are two possibilities to register your PowerBI App within Azure AD. The first is to use the native PowerBI GUI. The other is to use Azure AD Admin Panel (Described below the following subchapter) here you will have more control what is happening.
Please note: The following Steps need Azure Admin privileges. Make sure you have those permissions or you can give this instructions to an AAD-Admin within the organization.
Go tho the “App Registrations” Page in Azure Active Directory.
Select “New registration”
Register the app name with the name that fits for you. In my case I use “Azure Power BI Integration App”.
Choose the supported account types that will be allowed to access the app. In most cases the first selection applies. In some scenarios e.g.: if you are a consultant coming from a trusted AD tenant you would probably select the second option “Multitenant” for instance.
The Redirect URI we leave open by now. This information we will get at a later point in time from the custom logic app configuration.
Now you are redirected to the app settings page. At the top of the page you can see important information like
App Client ID -> Note the ID, we will use it later
-> Note the ID, we will use it later Tenant ID -> Note the ID, we will use it later
Head to “Certificates and Secrets” in this settings page.
Click the “+ New client secret”
Enter a description that allows you to remember for whats the secret for.
Enter an expiry date that fits for your case. (In my case I don’t want any surprises in one or two years)
Now you have generated a new secret that can be used. Make sure to note the Secret Value, we will need this later on.
You should now have the following values in hand:
App (Client ID)
Directory (Tenant) ID
App Secret Value
Now, we head to the point “API Permissions”. Click “+ Add a permission”.
Scroll down to the point, where “Power BI Service” is listet and select it.
See the PowerBI Service URL at the top? Please note it down, we will use it later!
https://analysis.windows.net/powerbi/api/
Select “Delegated Permissions”
Select your needed permissions (depending on the log file topics you want to investigate).
In my instance I just want to read everything and don’t need any write permissions.
Please note: there is one special permission on tenant level, as shown in this picture. If you select those permissions, you need to grant admin privileges.
Confirm by clicking “Add Permissions” and you should now see the following:
Please note: I experienced some problems in accessing PowerBI datasets from Logic Apps in the following steps, that can be fixed at this point. For this I needed to click “Grant admin consent”. You can keep it as and maybe come back to this point if you experience the same issues or fix it right away here by clicking “Grant admin consent”.
Now we leave this configuration area to create a custom logic app. Please use a separate window since we need to return later on to enter and configure the redirection URL that will be generated from the custom logic app.
Step 2: Create an Azure Logic App Custom Connector
In this step, create and deploy a new custom connector via the Azure Portal that later can be used for connecting the PowerBI REST Webservices.
To start. We add a new resource in the azure portal and type in “Logic Apps Custom Connector”, click it and hit the “Create” Button.
Here we use the defaults, give a meaningful name like “Logic_App_Custom_ Connector_PBI”, click “Review / Create” and wait for the deployment.
After the deployment, we open the EDIT mode of the Custom Connector, in the “1. General” tab stick with the default settings (REST, OpenAPI File, and the Standard Swagger JSON File)
In the part just below, if you like you can choose to upload an icon (optional). Give a meaningful description and use “HTTPS” as Scheme. The most important point here is to put “api.powerbi.com” as Host. You can stick with the standard Base URL “/”
Now head to the “2. Security” tab…
In the “2. Security” tab, make sure you enter the following information:
Authentication Type: OAuth 2.0
OAuth 2.0 Identity Provider: Azure Active Directory
Azure Active Directory Client ID: Here we use our App (Client) ID we noted down in the step above…
Here we use our we noted down in the step above… Secret: Here we use our Secret Value we noted down in the step above…
Here we use our we noted down in the step above… TenantID: common
common Resource URL: Here we use the noted resource url from the step abvove (https://analysis.windows.net/powerbi/api)
Here we use the noted resource url from the step abvove (https://analysis.windows.net/powerbi/api) Scope: openid
openid Redirect URL: This will be generated, once you hit the “update connector” button (this we will need later to configure the App in AAD app registration menu.
Now we hit the “Update connector” button that generates us the Redirect URL:
https://logic-apis-westeurope.consent.azure-apim.net/redirect
This value shoud be copied since we need it for the AAD app registration finalization later on.
Now we head to the next section “Definition” …
Here we add a new Action and define some general information about the API we want to use.
Here you can find the API documentaion if you have a special API in mind: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/power-bi/
In my case I want to get the history of data set refreshes to see if everything is refreshed without any problems. So I navigate to https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/power-bi/datasets/getrefreshhistory.
Here you will find the reference that is need to get the latest (top 1) refresh of a dataset:
Everything that needs to be done now is to click “+ Import from sample”, define “GET” according to the documentation and the URL defined by the documentation, then click “Import”.
Finally we get the variables directly mapped to the fields. Those we can define in the later logic app that calls this logic app.
Don’t forget to click “update connector” that your changes are saved. | https://medium.com/@lukas-fuchs/how-to-get-powerbi-logfiles-automated-using-rest-api-with-logic-apps-and-azure-log-analytics-1faa960b020b | ['Lukas Fuchs'] | 2020-12-23 12:56:25.448000+00:00 | ['Log Analytics', 'Logic Apps', 'Azure Monitor', 'Power Bi', 'Azure'] |
20 Go Packages You Can Use in Your Next Project | Golang-Set
An attempt to mimic the primary features of the set data structure from Python into Go. An example of the use:
You can know more about it here.
Go kit
It is a toolkit to implement microservices. It handles the basic about a distributed system, so you can focus on your business logic.
If you want to adopt a microservice architecture in your solution, “Go kit will help you structure and build out your services, avoid common pitfalls, and write code that grows with grace”.
Check out here.
GRequests
It is a Go “clone” of the famous Python requests library. You can easily do a HTTP request, upload/download a file, or serialize a response into JSON or XML.
If you have worked with Python, you will feel very comfortable using it.
Ws
The package ws implements a client and server for the WebSocket protocol. It has some nice features, such as zero-copy upgrade and low-level API in case you want to write your own logic.
You can know more about it here.
Email
A robust and flexible email library. It provides a more human interface to send emails using Go.
You can add attachments, send text / html messages, or add custom headers, in a very clear way.
You can know more about it here.
Gin
With more than 44k stars on Github, it is one of the most popular Go library. It is a web framework, and it focus on productivity and performance.
It has a lot of features, such as middleware customization, serving static files, handle multiple data formats, and HTML rendering.
If you want to develop an API or a Web application, you should definitely consider using Gin.
Fuzzy
Go library that provides a fuzzy string matching in the same style as Sublime, VSCode, etc.
It only depends on the Go standard library, and it is fast. It is a good choice if you want to add a search functionality to your application.
Github here.
Authboss
Authentication is a mandatory part of any modern web application. Creating all the necessary boilerplate can be cumbersome, and you can actually miss something.
This library aims to help you implement an authentication system, saving you time and avoid some mistakes that you might do.
Check the documentation here.
Uuid
This package provides a pure Go implementation of UUID, supporting both creation and parsing.
It supports from version 1 to 5, and it is simple to use.
More information here.
Gorm
If you are implement an API, there are good chances you will need to connect to a database. While you can do this by hand, using a ORM can save you a lot of time.
Gorm is a fantastic ORM library for Go. You can create models, associations, hooks, transactions, and a lot more nice features.
It is also a mandatory library if you want to work with a database.
Graphql
If you want to add support to GraphQL, then this is your package. It supports queries, mutations, and subscriptions.
Check the Github here.
Source here.
Ginkgo
One of the biggest complains of the community is the poor native Go testing packages.
Ginkgo extends standard testing package, allowing expressive BDD (Behavior-Driven Development) style tests.
Check the documentation here.
Errors
Outstanding library for error handling. The main feature is to handle the error identical to the official way, but with the addition of an annotation without losing the original error context (files and line numbers).
As stated in the documentation, the error handling becomes:
if err := SomeFunc(); err != nil {
return errors.Annotate(err, "more context")
}
This can save a lot of time during your development or even when trying to find that annoying bug.
Source here.
Cobra
It is both a library to create CLI programs as well as a program to help you create a well-structure application.
It has great features as nested commands, flags, intelligent suggestions, help generation, and more.
If you need to create a CLI program, cobra is the only tool you need.
Logrus
Another popular library for Go, Logrus is a structured logger that provides a comprehensive extension for the native logging package.
You can also add some hooks to be executed when a certain error level occurred.
Check the documentation to see how to use it.
Dateparse
With this library you can parse date strings without knowing the format. It reads the bytes and uses a state machine to find the correct format.
t, err := dateparse.ParseAny("3/1/2014")
Check the documentation for more examples.
Gonum
A set of numeric libraries for Go. It contains libraries for matrices, statistics, integration, differentiation, among others.
If you need to include some mathematics in your code, you have to use it. It saves you time and gives you a consistent scientific code.
Check the documentation for how to use.
Gopsutil
Another library that was inspired by a Python package. You can retrieve information about running process and system utilization on different platforms.
It is useful to monitor your system resources and processes.
Check the documentation here.
Source here.
Fyne
You can create a beautiful GUI application for desktop and mobile using the nice Fyne package.
It is based on Material Design, so it has nice features of usability, widgets, layouts, and it is designed to be easy to develop.
Check out the documentation.
Ants
A nice feature of the Go language is the concurrency support and the goroutines . But managing all the routines in an application can be really challenging.
The ants library implements a pool that manage and recycle a massive number of goroutines, automatically. It has nonblocking mechanisms and handle panic without crashing an application.
If you need to create an application that uses concurrency, you should definitely check this library out. | https://medium.com/vacatronics/20-go-packages-you-can-use-in-your-next-project-7515426559c0 | ['Fernando Souza'] | 2020-12-13 10:50:06.941000+00:00 | ['Curated Lists', 'Go', 'Software Engineering', 'Programming', 'Libraries'] |
What Can AR Do for Climate Change Communication? | By Ballori Ghosh & Rahul Bhargava
AR has emerged as a popular approach to interacting with technology — creators are leveraging it for video games, educational experiences, live filters and more. We are motivated by this development to explore how AR is being used for pro-social communication. What can AR offer to things like communicating climate change data? What AR does to help motivate people to take action on personal, collective, or governmental challenges? This blog post shares what we have found so far, and what it suggests for a path forward.
Google image search results for “augmented reality climate change”
An Established Technology
Hundreds of millions now have the ability to run AR apps in their pocket; it is an established technology with a vast user base. A dominant form of use has turned out to be in the world of filters, thanks to social media and our collective obsession with selfies! SnapChat and Instagram are perhaps the best example of this. Their platforms have popularised AR filters.
A few examples of filters on Instagram and Snapchat.
AR filters such as these are massively popular, but are mostly used for entertainment purposes. In parallel to this growth we’ve seen rapid development in the tool space for creating these AR experiences — with Apple’s ARKit, Google’s ARCore, and higher level tools like Snapchat’s LensStudio, Facebook’s Spark AR Studio, and others. The barrier to creating AR experiences is rapidly falling.
Current Approaches to Using AR to Fight Climate Change
Having fun with silly selfies is great, but we think there is an under-explored design space here. Climate change is one of the most pressing challenges of our time. In the US politicians are divided, but the public is not — survey data shows us that the majority of americans believe the government isn’t doing enough about climate change, and that it should be a top political priority. Data plays a central role in assessing and communicating the risk and scale of the impacts, but the barriers to effectively communicating climate change with data have been well documented and discussed for years (see Moser 2010 for a good summary).
People throw every new technology that emerges at climate change, and AR is no exception. We’ve seen a few patterns in the small set of AR projects that have focused on climate change over the last few years:
Reflecting on our present conditions
Imagining the future of our climate
Designing resilient cities
Here’s a quick run down of some of the projects we came across in our survey of work.
Reflecting on our present conditions
A standard approach of data visualization is to “make visible the invisible”. We came across a set of projects that attempt to do this, showcasing the climate change happening around us already.
Screenshots from the AiR research app
We also found a number of academic researchers are investigating how to best use AR to show pollution levels. “AiR — An Augmented Reality Application for Visualizing Air Pollution” from Matthews, et al overlays your view with virtual smog based on local pollution levels. “Aire: visualize air quality” from Torres, et al last year similarly adds moving virtual pollution particulates on top of a live camera view via AR.
Imagining the future of our Climate
A standard way to imagine the future is to show it — AR makes that possible by modifying our view of the world around us. Numerous projects we found are using AR to show us the world of the future if no action is taken. The most common approach we saw to this was sea level rise. In fact, we saw so many examples that we’re pushed to call sea-level rise AR apps a cliche at this point.
The Snapchat / UN Environment Programme lens demo
Here is a quick sampling of the apps we found that showed sea level rise:
Designing Resilient Cities
In the US at least, due to the lack of national action on climate change, cities have become a central organizing unit for our response. This has led to large, well-funded efforts like the Resilient Cities Network. Accordingly, we saw a number of AR apps that focused on climate-proofing the city.
Screenshot of Earthwatch’s app
Earthwatch Europe took an approach similar to SimCity in building an AR app that allows uses to try build a “climate proof” city by altering the makeup of land use, water supply, drainage, and more. The Klikovand task force worked with others to build an AR app that allows users to place green terrain in their built environment to provoke conversation about long-term climate resilience and day-to-day public works decisions. Artist Juan Carlos Gallo and others created an AR-connected mural in Miami to warn about climate change danger to localities.
An Opportunity for Evaluation and Impact
After exploring this space of climate change AR experiences, we are excited because we believe it has a lot of potential. We offer this blog post as a call to arms to study and explore the opportunity more! For instance, we saw little study of what people take away from these experiences — no assessment of whether their feeling of risk has increased, or if they are more motivated to support some policy, or even to share the message of warning with their friends. We are left feeling that there is more we can try out here.
We need to experiment and study more. Perhaps AR can actually be an effective tool to help us communicate and motivate action to the dire threats of climate change that are all around us. We just don’t know yet. Our next steps on this project are to audit the rapid prototyping tools we mentioned earlier to see what their design affordances are.
A screenshot of using Spark AR Studio- Ballori’s new look!
After that we’re hoping to build a simple experiment to study how people respond to AR experiences that are built around climate change data. Our key questions involve comparing AR experiences to other techniques like flat data visualisation, infographics, or journalism-like narratives. We want to investigate question such as:
Does AR communicate the threat more effectively?
Are participants more motivated to act on a threat after an AR experience?
Drop us a line if you have a project we can learn from, or feel free to reach out if you’d like to collaborate with us. | https://medium.com/data-culture-group/what-can-ar-do-for-climate-change-communication-95ad284ab674 | ['Ballori Ghosh'] | 2020-12-07 21:16:52.539000+00:00 | ['Augmented Reality', 'Storytelling', 'AR', 'Data', 'Climate Change'] |
#koolreview 03, great leap forward | 2001
“It doesn’t matter if the cat is yellow or black as long as it catches the mouse.” Comrade Liu Bocheng. “I have come here to study money” Stephanie Smith.
2001 was productive for OMAMO who released 4 books that year. In its complete anticipated form, Great Leap Forward and Harvard Guide to Shopping were printed. Or so it looks that way. Two other modules from the Project on the City did not get published (*back page gossip). Mutations, a summary of the exercise leaves traces behind of Lagos and a ‘systematic’ Roman City. All these are studio reports, fieldwork, conducted by thesis students of architecture, landscape architecture and urban design at the Graduate School of Design. The last one from the press for the year was Prada, Works in Progress, an AMO pursuit (chronology for the year is assumed here). The necessity to piece this information is to answer the question, how does going East happen for OMAMO?
The East at a time for them seemed urgent. There was some amount of incomprehensible construction activity going on that did not fit into patterns of the West. The document is a telling of a reconnaissance mission by 6 individuals who travelled across the Pearl River Delta/ PRD, investigating its infrastructure, ideology (@Shenzhen), architecture (@Shenzhen), politics (@Guangzhou), landscape (@Zhuhai), and money (@Dongguan) as thematic urban situational conditions. Christening it as City of Exacerbated Difference© or COED©, the project compiles a set of observations to help explain whatever was on in 1996. It is around 72/3ish copyrighted terms (a glossary) starting from Architecture© to Zone©. These are found between the site photographs, descriptive essays, letters, interview transcripts and even footnotes. They are meant to create a “cloud of unknowing”, an envelope to help describe whatever is understood as an exercise of imagining a version of globalisation as interpreted in another part of the globe.
This model though seems quite like the dictionary in S,M,L,XL but now titled, branded in a way, something how an SEZ does it. Books by Koolhaas/ OMAMO are sites of #koolnarratives, when compiled together create #koolknowledge. For this Great Leap Forward© other than the colours the form presented looks borrowed. Pace repetitive. A second-hand iteration of what is already sold by the agency. It depends on how you take it. Either it works in a way or it looks contradictory to the ideas already presented in other #koolresearch. You could argue there is a bit of Delirious New York in the glossary, just that it is presented as an exacerbated “©” situation here. And its all red and nice, not that nice though. First, it was a grid in Manhattan, then they shifted the grid a bit when showing it from Rotterdam and now in the PRD, the #koolredeast a messy blob (found operating in stealth mode).
The study happened in 1996 around the time S,M,L,XL came out. They/ he was understandably overworked and there was an aura of the #koolbigbook in the air then. It is imperative to question at this juncture, are #kooltheories on the city creative reinterpretations of #koolfacts malleable as per #koolcontexts they are found? Most of the #koolcontent expired by the time it got to print in 2001. Thus, after 25years, is the glossary the only part of the project still worthy of consideration? Or should we consider it dated too? Would Glossary 2.0© of a Great Leap Forward© exacerbated eastern city be no longer the stealthy blob but a #koolgreatwall? | https://medium.com/@isaacmathew/koolreview-03-great-leap-forward-98c4a386d123 | [] | 2020-12-07 12:31:55.462000+00:00 | ['Rem Koolhaas', 'Research', 'Design', 'Urban Planning', 'Architecture'] |
Data Processing Inventories — A few tips to get you through it. | Under GDPR most business have an obligation to keep an inventory of their data processing activities in relation to personal data. This is no mean feat and it is more onerous than it looks at face value. Trust me, I know, I’ve been through it.
In this post I will share my experience, best practice and tips on how to go about building your own inventory of data processing activities.
Tips, Considerations, Do’s and Dont’s
As with any project of this size and please do not underestimate the enormity of this undertaking even if you are a small business, it is important to define the scope .
. Limit yourself to only those processing activities that concern Personally identifiable information (PII).
(PII). Business to business may still be applicable . Do you work with self employed, free lancers, companies whose employees email addresses contain their name and surname? News Flash that is still PII.
. Do you work with self employed, free lancers, companies whose employees email addresses contain their name and surname? News Flash that is still PII. IP s are considered personal data, so be sure to check with your IT what monitoring activities are carried out on your systems and whether the IP numbers are collected. One commonly used tool that escapes notice is Google Analytics or similar.
s are considered personal data, so be sure to check with your IT what monitoring activities are carried out on your systems and whether the IP numbers are collected. One commonly used tool that escapes notice is Google Analytics or similar. Do not forget about logs . Most systems nowadays keep logs for auditing and debugging purposes — if they don’t they should. Logs may sometimes be more detailed than you would expect and some PII may be lurking in there.
. Most systems nowadays keep logs for auditing and debugging purposes — if they don’t they should. Logs may sometimes be more detailed than you would expect and some PII may be lurking in there. It is not only about the service or product you provide, you have suppliers and employees .
. Don’t forget that for data concerning your employees you are the controlle r and you may even have sensitive data related to health for health insurance purposes and financials for payroll processing purposes.
r and you may even have sensitive data related to health for health insurance purposes and financials for payroll processing purposes. Marketing activities may come from HR as well in the form of recruitment drives .
. Your Finance department may be sharing more information than you realise to apply for grants and tax benefits which may require disclosing information about employees to government authorities.
more information than you realise to apply for which may require disclosing information about employees to government authorities. Spreadsheet programs won’t cut it for this type of record keeping. Source out a good GRC tool . I recommend LogicGate.
. I recommend LogicGate. Don’t forget that processing activities, include Collection, input into systems, output, manipulation, analysis, extraction of statistics, and storage .
. Don’t forget that inputting of data into a system that is hosted with some other company is considered a transfer of data requiring even more information to be recorded.
requiring even more information to be recorded. Build a simple questionnaire with the basic questions to send to all business units. Do not try to gather all the information in one questionnaire as most will get discouraged or have other priorities and won’t have time to fill it up.
try to as most will get discouraged or have other priorities and won’t have time to fill it up. Build further questionnaires based on the answers of the initial questionnaire to be sent to business units, if and when clarifications are required.
Legal is your friend. A lot of the information you will need can be found within contracts and data processing agreements.
Do not have a processing activity per department if it is the same thing. Group them as it is a never ending and thankless task. For example if both your support team and developers investigate defects and require access to client data for this purpose consider that as one activity.
as it is a never ending and thankless task. For example if both your support team and developers investigate defects and require access to client data for this purpose consider that as one activity. Do take the time to segment and group the information you require to avoid as much duplication of data as possible. Believe you me, you will have more data than you will know what to do with it. Scouring through duplicates and repeated information is not an activity you need to do.
as possible. Believe you me, you will have more data than you will know what to do with it. Scouring through duplicates and repeated information is not an activity you need to do. Do cross check your data processing activities with the risk department . They may already have recorded risks that help you discover processing activities that no department mentioned.
your data processing activities . They may already have recorded risks that help you discover processing activities that no department mentioned. Do cross check with your IT department , they usually have a record of all IT systems used be it internally or externally for the purpose of controlling access. If a system exists there is a good likely hood that some processing activity is being performed.
, they usually have a record of all IT systems used be it internally or externally for the purpose of controlling access. If a system exists there is a good likely hood that some processing activity is being performed. Storing of data can occur in the physical realm . Don’t forget to ask about any filing cabinets or drawers where hard copies may be stored.
. Don’t forget to ask about any or drawers where hard copies may be stored. Usernames for the purpose of accessing a system are also considered personal data.
for the purpose of accessing a system are also considered personal data. Do take the time to explain to each business unit the importance of this exercise and what is the expected outcome.
Do take the time to provide each business unit with relevant examples. As you may not be an expert in their area, they may not be experts in compliance and GDPR.
That’s a lot of things to consider and that is only the tip of the ice-berg. I guess this topic warrants another post or two, perhaps to identify the specific information one would need to gather for each activity.
If that sounds like what you need, drop us a comment or stay tuned.
Image Credits: Image by Claire Dela Cruz from Pixabay | https://medium.com/@gelvella/data-processing-inventories-a-few-tips-to-get-you-through-it-ed9af7ce6f40 | ['Angele Vella'] | 2019-05-08 12:36:00.810000+00:00 | ['Process Improvement', 'Process', 'Business', 'Gdpr', 'Privacy'] |
Why are People so Mad about AOC’s Vanity Fair Cover? | Why are People so Mad about AOC’s Vanity Fair Cover?
A dive into Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s fourteen thousand dollar wardrobe
December 2020 issue of Vanity Fair with AOC on the cover
Vanity Fair recently revealed its December cover which is starring U.S Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC). On the cover, AOC is wearing a custom made white suit by Aliette, a New York based designer, and her signature red lipstick. On the face of it, nothing about the cover seems scandalous or controversial. So why exactly are people so mad about it?
Well, it all comes down to the price value of AOC’s Vanity Fair wardrobe. It has been the subject of many contentious debates online. Some critics (mainly Republicans obviously) felt that the fourteen thousand dollar wardrobe worn by AOC negated her socialist campaigns and supported elitism (everything that AOC stands against during her campaigns).
Before delving into the debates surrounding the cover shoot, it’s important to have an understanding of everything worn in the Vanity Fair shoot.
AOC’s Vanity Fair wardrobe included:
Aliette suit — $1000
Loewe suit — $2850
Carolina Herrera suit — $3000
Wales Bonner dress — $815
Christopher John Rogers suit — $2500
Christian Louboutin slingbacks — $695
Mateo diamond, gold, and floating pearl earrings — $1450
Bulgari earrings — $2000
Is the backlash founded?
Example of the online backlash surrounding AOC’s Vanity Fair photoshoot
As explained earlier, the backlash surrounding the Vanity Fair shoot is the value of AOC’s wardrobe. Critics believe that AOC should have remained true to her socialist roots and worn more affordable clothing. On Twitter, some have even made suggestions that the politician should have worn clothing from Target or Kohls. It’s been argued that,
By wearing designer clothing with exorbitant price tags AOC is a hypocritical socialist who gets to enjoy the fruits of capitalism.
A lot of the backlash surrounding the Vanity Fair wardrobe has been peddled upon a false narrative that AOC purchased the clothing that she wore in the magazine spread. This narrative is simply not true and exhibits a lack of understanding about how the fashion industry works and in particular how a magazine shoot comes together.
AOC did hit back at the critics, explaining that she would do the shoot again and it was worth it. She explained that the clothes were not her own and were borrowed by the magazine for purposes of the shoot. She refused to let the allegations made by Republican critics go unchecked and tweeted:
The backlash experienced by AOC isn’t unique to her. It raises larger questions around why there is always so much negativity surrounding people of color living their best lives and enjoying luxury. Recently, trolls came for Cardi B and her Birkins, accusing her of bringing down Hermès’s luxury brand status. An accusation that is racist and completely unfounded. Although Cardi B and AOC are in completely different industries, parallels can be drawn between how people treat them when it comes to access to luxury. The same negative energy is not experienced by Caucasian women or men.
It is unlikely that AOC’s critics had anything bad to say about Melania Trump’s Vanity Fair cover which involved extravagant jewelry and flouted the luxurious life she lives. Nobody, in that case, suggested that Melania wear clothes from target. These same critics have probably never questioned what brand of suits, Donald Trump wears. Is it because white people are more entitled to luxury than people of color? The racial bias cannot be ignored!
The hidden messages behind AOC’s Vanity Fair cover
The criticism behind AOC’s vanity fair shoot has somewhat overshadowed some of the great aspects the shoot was meant to highlight. The details of the shoot were well thought of. The white suit which was worn by AOC honors suffragettes. But instead of focusing on this powerful point, some people have chosen to focus on the suit’s price tag rather than the message behind it.
The Vanity fair shoot had numerous people from different backgrounds working on it, including the use of numerous designers of color. This was at AOC’s request. She wanted to bring attention to some amazing designers of color that have often been ignored. An example is the white suit worn on the cover of the magazine. It was designed by Jason Rembrandt, an African American from a district AOC represents, Queens. This move exhibits that AOC is constantly thinking about the people she represents, a fact that has been ignored by most of her critics. | https://medium.com/an-injustice/why-are-people-so-mad-about-aocs-vanity-fair-cover-9eff1f7bef1d | ['Justannet'] | 2020-11-03 20:14:07.461000+00:00 | ['Feminism', 'Politics', 'Women', 'Racism', 'Fashion'] |
The Ouroboros | The Ouroboros, one of the oldest mystical symbols in the world [1], is an ancient symbol of a serpent or dragon eating its own tail. With no beginning nor end, it represents the cyclical nature of reality, self-sustaining, making it immortal and infinite, continual renewal symbolized by the sloughing of its skin.
Figure 1: Ouroboros via MystiChakra
Plato invoked the image of the Ouroboros as the first living creature in existence. From Plato’s Timaeus:
For the Creator conceived that a being which was self-sufficient would be far more excellent than one which lacked anything; […] and he was made to move in the same manner and on the same spot, within his own limits revolving in a circle[.] Such was the whole plan of the eternal God about the god that was […] in every direction equidistant from the centre, a body entire and perfect, and formed out of perfect bodies. And in the centre he put the soul, which he diffused throughout the body, making it also to be the exterior environment of it; and he made the universe a circle moving in a circle, one and solitary[.]
The Mayans too had Mixcoatl, the “cloud serpent”, Father of Quetzalcóatl, the creator of the world and mankind, whose shape was manifest in the Milky Way, with the inner mass of stars resembling the snake’s head consuming its tail. Captured therein is also the womb of the Great Mother, the cauldron of Creation. Thus symbolizing both creation and destruction, the Great Mother and Serpent, suspended in the galaxy above [2].
Figure 2: Milky Way va NASA
The earliest representations of Ouroboros are Egyptian and represent the union of Ra and Osiris the Egyptian Gods of the Sun and Underworld respectively. From The Duality of Ra and Osiris:
The perpetual cycle of existence — the cycle of life and death — is symbolized by Ra (Re) and Ausar (Osiris). Ra is the living neter who descends into death to become Ausar, the neter of the dead. Ausar ascends and comes to life again as Ra. The creation is continuous: it is a flow of life progressing towards death. But out of death, a new Ra is to be born, sprouting new life. Ra is the cosmic principle of energy that moves toward death, and Ausar represents the process of rebirth. Thus, the terms of life and death become interchangeable: life means slow dying, and death means resurrection to new life.
Throughout the mythologies, the Ouroboros acts as a unifying force across multiple dualisms. Those of male or female, birth or death, light or darkness all manifest within the symbol or mythologies of the Ouroboros. Each extreme yielding to the other, anchoring the cyclic processes embodied in the Myth itself. Each cycle a new layer of skin to be shed, or burned with a purifying fire, yielding not ash, but a rising Phoenix.
The Yin Yang symbol may be the most distilled version of the Ouroboros. Here too, the symbol unifies an interplay of opposites, with black and white representing each dualistic extreme, each yielding to the other via a ‘seed’ of the other planted at its most dominant portion of the cycle. Here, it is darkest before the dawn, and within this darkness, the faintest glimmer of light cracks, broadening until the noonday sun radiates the world, just before fading into obscured darkness once again.
Figure 3: Yin Yang Symbol via Wikipedia
There are a lot of similarities, regardless of the cultures, eras, or forms that the ouroboros manifest. It embodies the eternal, consuming only itself, requiring no other sustenance.
Its various manifestations balance multiple dichotomies. These dichotomies, wether they represent the extremes of masculine and feminine, or of light and dark, are projections from this underlying Myth onto the material plane.
Finally, its circular shape implies the infinite, cyclical, unbroken chain of causation [3], making it a symbol which gives rise to not just the universe itself and its dichotomies, but also the very forces of transmutation between them.
Time and space have always been intertwined. Whether in the form of recent scientific discoveries, or the mythical Ouroboros, it is, like the myth itself, a concept humanity returns to over and over again.
[1] https://mythology.net/others/concepts/ouroboros/
[2] Maya Cosmogenesis 2012 p271
[3] See Dali’s interpretation to see the Ouroboros’ immortality interrupted. | https://medium.com/@outoftime/the-ouroboros-680692e66e70 | ['Misc Debris'] | 2020-12-24 02:26:28.471000+00:00 | ['Mythology', 'Time', 'Ouroboros'] |
We Need a Hero | We Need a Hero
Erev Rosh Hashanah 5777
Lately, I’m seeing Superheroes everywhere. It’s possible that they’ve always been there: Batman symbols on water bottles at Target, Captain America logos on grown men at the farmer’s market, a Superman cape sailing from the back of my son’s sweatshirt as he flies down the sidewalk on his scooter. It’s probably just marketing genius at work, but recently wherever I look I’m meeting one hero or another.
If only superheroes were real. It has been a very hard year. I hold my breath when I check the news, afraid of what it might be today.
Since last Rosh Hashanah, we’ve witnessed an inordinate number of young black men die at the hands of potentially overzealous law enforcement officials, a tragic sniper attack targeting police officers in Dallas, news stories about our presidential election that feel frantic and frightening. We are haunted by the image of a dazed Syrian toddler pulled from the rubble of a damaged building. Orlando. As I wrote this sermon, I had to keep adding sentences to this paragraph: explosions in New York, the troubling death of a black motorist with his hands up in Tulsa, riots in Charlotte.
As we read each headline we break a little. We break and we break a little more until we are ready to shatter. I am struggling with the feeling that our world is spinning out of control. I want to fix something. I want to feel as though there is something, anything I can do. Instead, I feel weak, powerless.
Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Where is our hero?
Writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster introduced Superman to the world in 1938. At the time, Americans were just emerging from the uncertainty of the Great Depression. Fascism in Europe was on the rise. And for two young, bespectacled, first-generation Jewish boys from Cleveland, Siegel and Shuster struggled with latent and overt anti- Semitism. In their time, both the government and surrounding culture were wary of immigrant families like theirs. Superman, a transplant himself to the Planet Earth, represented power and strength in a world where the weak, meek stranger had none.
Some say that Superman was a direct symbol for Siegel himself as he mourned his own father’s murder. Rich Goldstein writes that “the oldest surviving artwork featuring Superman shows the caped hero “flying to the rescue of a man being held-up at gunpoint by an armed robber . . . The link with Siegel’s father [is] painfully clear.”
The Man of Steel expresses our longing to rescue, to change, and to return the shattered pieces of a broken world.
No wonder that superheroes are more appealing today than ever.
I don’t want to be afraid in public spaces anymore. I don’t want to worry about bad guys lurking in corners. Each day I hope that the news will bear some evidence of the tides turning towards an era of global good. When I don’t find it, I worry that we are raising a generation of children who are fearful instead of brave, hopeless instead of hopeful, hard instead of open hearted.
Thanks to mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent, the residents of Metropolis always had a news story to remind them that Superman would protect them, defend them, and keep them safe. We are lucky here on the Peninsula — we, too, feel safe thanks to strong, community-oriented police departments that keep our best interests at heart. But read the newspaper, and we know that the whole world is not the Peninsula. We, here, are fortunate.
This evening, we chanted in unison Atah gibor l’olam Adonai, You are eternally heroic, God. You support those who have fallen; You free those who are captive. These words ring out from our liturgy. In a time where so much of our world seems broken, we yearn for fulfillment of this ancient prayer.
The idea of Adonai Gibor, God as our Hero, long predates Superman as a Jewish narrative. God, with an origin story as old as time has all the markings of a classic hero. In our Torah, the Israelites were tied to the train tracks of Egypt, and God found a way to rescue them just in the nick of time. God opens the sea to allow the Israelites passage through the towering walls of water. God heals Miriam from devastating disease.
God does not seem to intervene heroically in our lives today, at least not as obviously. In his book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, Rabbi Harold Kushner considers his relationship with God following his son’s death, due to a rare degenerative disease. He writes¹:
…I recognize [God’s] limitations. [God] is limited in what [God] can do
by laws of nature and… human moral freedom… I no longer hold God responsible for illnesses, accidents, and natural disasters … I can worship a God who hates suffering but cannot eliminate it, more easily than I can worship a God who chooses to make children suffer and die, for whatever exalted reason.
In other words: It’s awful that it happened — whatever this week’s it is, but it was out of God’s control. When we feel powerless in our pain, God is crying, too.
In the weeks following 9/11, I came across this piece from the Onion, a satirical newspaper, and it has stayed with me ever since:
God Angrily Clarifies ‘Don’t Kill’ Rule. Responding to recent events on Earth, God, the omniscient creator-deity worshiped by billions of followers of various faiths for more than 6,000 years, angrily clarified His longtime stance against humans killing each other Monday. “Look, I don’t know, maybe I haven’t made myself completely clear, so for the record, here it is again,” said the Lord, His² divine face betraying visible emotion during a press conference near the site of the fallen Twin Towers. “Somehow, people keep coming up with the idea that I want them to kill their neighbor. Well, I don’t… “Not only do I not want anybody to kill anyone, but I specifically commanded you not to, in really simple terms that anybody ought to be able to understand…” Upon completing His outburst, God fell silent, standing quietly at the podium for several moments. Then, witnesses reported, God’s shoulders began to shake, and He wept.
Every time I read this I’m stunned by the visual. The All-Powerful, powerless to stop us from destroying ourselves. Are we God’s kryptonite?
Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, God was creating. Light and dark, heaven and earth, sea and sky. A whole manner of heavenly things, growing things, crawling, flying, swimming things appeared. People followed, made for this world in God’s own image. Tov m’od, God said. It was all very good.
We mortals are created in the image of God — the powerful, good-seeking, but imperfect God. Like Kushner’s God, our power is not without limit. But also like God, we possess tremendous power of our own.
We have some powers that are tangible, regular, human: Powers like time, money, and influence. We might have more of one than another, or we might feel like we never have enough of any. These powers are mundane, and of this world. But in the moments of creation, we also received holy, divine, God-given superpowers. When we combine these powers, the mundane and the holy, we can restore the broken pieces of our world.
Rabbi Jeff Salkin teaches about the first of our Torah-inspired superpowers.
After yet another mass tragedy this year, this time a shooting in San Bernardino, Salkin shared a truth that few of us dare speak out loud.
I’m almost embarrassed to tell you. I am starting not to care. I am starting not to notice. I am starting to feel numb.
He wrote this last December. It was after Columbine and after Virginia Tech and after Sandy Hook and after Isla Vista and after Charleston. It was before Orlando, before whatever city will next become synonymous with bloodshed and heartbreak. Salkin points out that feeling numb is a normal response to tragedy, but that we are now “in an … advanced… state of existential numbness.” And when we feel numb, we can’t protest.
It is time to rouse ourselves from our grief. Let the blast of the shofar be our awakening. It is a wail of warning, a cautionary cry.
Salkin implores, “. . . Prayer and good thoughts are too easy. They are cheap. I want to hear screaming. I want to hear crying. I want to hear moaning.” Torah reminds us that, ‘the Israelites cried out.’ Va’yizaku, they wept as they feared for their children under Pharoah’s rule.³
We, too, are enraged.
We, too, have the power to make unbearable noise.
We, too, have the power to scream.
In the 1978 movie, Superman held Lois Lane’s limp body, and released a primal sob so heart-wrenching that it was heard across the universe.
We need to scream until our throats are raw and stinging.
Until the numbness gives way to pain.
Until our silence becomes outrage.
Until our voices are heard across the universe.
We make this holy noise with our time, our money, and our influence.
We scream out our message by using our time to vote for the candidates who will bring us towards a better, and more just world. By using our time to volunteer with those who are in need. We scream out with our money: giving what we can to support the institutions that help us sleep at night. We scream with our influence: we are intentional role models as we interact with our children, parents and friends.
We will make noise in every way that we can. And here, there is power.
Va’yizaku — We will not be silent. We have the raw, painful power to scream.
We can scream with our love. Our second superpower.
Rabbi Jonathan Saks tells a story about a black family that moves into a white neighborhood in 1966.
Sitting with his two brothers and two sisters on the front step of the house, he waited to see how they would be greeted. They were not. Passers-by turned to look at them but no one gave them a smile or even a glance of recognition. All the fearful stories he had heard about how whites treated blacks seemed to be coming true . . . As he was thinking those thoughts, a white woman coming home from work passed by on the other side of the road. She turned to the children and with a broad smile said, ‘Welcome!’ Disappearing into the house, she emerged minutes later with a tray laden with drinks and cream cheese and jelly sandwiches, which she brought over to the children, making them feel at home. That moment, the young man later wrote, changed his life.⁴
It’s not a grand act — it doesn’t save a life, at least not immediately. So often our instinct is suspicion, holding one another at arm’s length. We are wary before we are loving, we are hesitant before we trust. Treating others with kindness and love is brave. To step out of our comfort zone and truly love a stranger is a power we receive from Torah itself. V’ahavta l’reiecha kamocha. Love your neighbor as yourself.⁵ It’s not always easy, and it’s not always simple. It takes strength to love in a climate like this one.
There is a power in taking time to share hellos and sandwiches with strangers. There is power in letting someone else know that they matter.
Sixth-grade teacher Rebecca Lee had the impossible task of talking to her students about the death of Terence Crutcher, a classmate’s father who was killed last month by a law enforcement officer. In a viral Facebook post, the teacher shares her message to her students in their moment of grief: “We have different skin colors,” she said, and “I love you. You matter. You are worthy. You are human. You are valuable.”
In this tragic moment a teacher summoned her tremendous power to love, and she saved a small piece of the world.
Torah gives us the power, and the responsibility to love without limit, to love even when we feel afraid. To love loudly, with a full voice and a full heart.
The power to let our love change someone else’s world.
But neither our love, nor our voice will make a difference if we don’t make the difficult choice to summon these strengths. Our third superpower.
We read in the book of Deuteronomy: “I have set before you life and good, death and evil.”⁶ God has created for us a world filled with good, and given us the tremendous power to choose it. “U’vcharta b’chaim,” God urges us. “Choose life that you may live.”⁷ We can choose silence. We can choose to remain numb.
Or, we can choose to scream and call out injustice, to love fiercely and assertively. We can choose to live wholly and bravely in this world, even when it terrifies us.
God created both light and dark. Even when it seems like the darkness is settling in, we can choose — not only to find the light, but to be the light.
My four year-old son, Charlie, whizzes around the block on his scooter, wearing his bright blue and red Superman sweatshirt. The shiny cape soars as he flies down the sidewalk. Strangers sweetly say, “Look at that! There goes Superman!” And my son sighs, as if he just can’t be burdened with the silliness of adults. “I’m not Superman,” he calls back to them, halfway down the block by now. “I’m CHARLIE!”
He knows that superheroes are pretend. But he doesn’t know yet the true depth of his own power.
Each one of us has, in varying combinations, some amount of time, some amount of money, some way to influence others. Being God’s partner means taking these trappings of humanity and spending them with holy purpose.
In the v’ahavta prayer, we promise to love God with all of our heart, with all of our soul, and with all of our ‘m’odecha,’ which we usually translate as all of our might.
But the word m’od really means ‘very,’ Like when God says the creation of the world was ‘tov ‘m’od,’ it was very good. So m’odecha then is our very-ness.
This is what we have to give: all of our essence, our everything, our very-ness. All of our power — both holy and mundane.
We will never be able to bear the weight of the world alone. We are not Superman, standing solo in the center of the frame, arms above his head, effortlessly balancing the whole world in the palms of his hands.
But the inability to solve the world’s problems on our own does not render us powerless.
As individuals we make the difficult choice to use the awesome powers we’ve been given and accept the heavy responsibility that comes with them: both our mundane powers: our time, our money, and our influence, and our holy powers: The power to scream, the power to love, the power to choose.
But it is not until all of us use all that we’ve got that we burst open the limits of our power.
We are, in fact, the heroes of this story. Each one of us is responsible, but not one of us more than any other.
When we hold the world together, each one of us offering to support our share, we possess extraordinary powers both mundane and holy. Ours is a communal mission. And when we bear this worldly weight together, we are divinely powerful. | https://medium.com/rabbinic-writing/we-need-a-hero-sermon-ac145e43a431 | ['Rabbi Sara Mason-Barkin'] | 2017-10-15 21:11:10.978000+00:00 | ['Jewish', 'High Holy Days', 'Hero', 'Comics', 'Sermons'] |
Revenge | Photo by Stanislava Stanchy on Unsplash
revenge is a very common term which is used for almost every situation. We all are meat bags with a unique processing chip known as emotions. This processor tends to defy moors law and elevates exponentially along with frequent contractions at different and irregular intervals. It’s not uncommon for us to go hyper at the first sign of being offended or cheated, double crossed, wronged etc.
We all wish to hack the opposition to pieces. We all wish to let out our spew of anger onto the defiant opposition. Many of us succeed while many fails in the process.
You can consider me as a person with an unofficial doctorate in the art. I have learnt through experience and observation.
We come across many different situations. The most common cliche that we have been used to is ‘move on’ and ‘get over it’. There are millions of people on this planet who at any second wish to take a nuke and shovel it up somebody’s glutes. Sadly, that is not a more readily viable and possible solution.
You are sick of the term; you can’t do anything about them and that they are busy enjoying their life while here you are sad and grumpy on your spilt milk. We all want to locate those people who have wronged us and lose our humanity on them. Their existence has become a pain for us.
To hurt a human being, you need to have basic etiquette and empathy. You need to be able to empathize with the person. To understand the human that you wish to slaughter in any possible way, you need to understand what they think of the situation and what are their beliefs of right and wrong.
It is said that’ ‘the person you are trying to kill today will be breaking bread with you tomorrow’. It is also true that the person you are breaking bread with today will be out to kill you tomorrow.
Have you heard the saying — ‘you get what you deserve’.
If that is true then if you manage to hurt someone, did they get what they deserved from their earlier sins?
for more info on the Art of revenge do read — Successful Vengeance (Coming soon to Amazon and bookstores) | https://medium.com/@krishnabhagia1161/revenge-d6db8e764444 | ['Krishna Bhagia'] | 2019-10-09 14:54:32.221000+00:00 | ['Cynicism', 'Health', 'Revenge', 'Relationships', 'Positivity'] |
How Accurate and Reliable is COVID-19 Testing? | COVID-19 / MEDICINE / HEALTH
How Accurate and Reliable is COVID-19 Testing?
PCR-based nasal swab testing and serological antibody testing both have certain limitations.
As more and more state health departments and private enterprises continue to ramp up testing capacity for COVID-19, several health experts warn that test results are not 100 percent accurate and should be interpreted in the context of clinical presentation and exposure risk.
The most commonly used PCR-based nasal swab test to detect SARS-CoV-2 is highly specific but not very sensitive, meaning positive results are more useful than negative results. In other words, a positive result almost guarantees infection with the novel coronavirus but a negative result cannot rule out the presence of infection.
“The issue with the tests for the SARS-CoV-2 virus is that there has not been time to test them rigorously before deploying them in the field,” says Dr. Gary L. LeRoy, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians.
“Most polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and antibody tests have years of laboratory testing before they are used. We just don’t have that kind of time. The major concern for false negatives is someone who tests negative, thinking they are not infected, could unknowingly spread the virus into the community.”
Healthcare worker administers nasal swab test for COVID-19 at a drive-thru facility (Photo by Zstock)
An article published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings draws attention to the risk posed by over-reliance on COVID-19 testing to make public health decisions. Priya Sampathkumar, M.D., an infectious diseases specialist at Mayo Clinic and study co-author, writes that healthcare officials should anticipate a “less visible second wave of infection from people with false-negative test results.”
Based on preliminary evidence from China, quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) COVID-19 testing on nasal swab samples may produce false negatives up to 30% of the time when testing is conducted 0–7 days after illness onset. After 15 days of illness, the chance of receiving a false negative result shoots up to 50%.
That false negative figure may be even higher in the US, according to Harlan Krumholz, M.D., a professor of medicine at Yale. In an opinion piece for The New York Times, Dr. Krumholz expounds:
“There are many reasons a test would be falsely negative under real-life conditions. Perhaps the sampling is inadequate. A common technique requires the collection of nasal secretions far back in the nose — and then rotating the swab several times. That is not an easy procedure to perform or for patients to tolerate. Other possible causes of false negative results are related to laboratory techniques and the substances used in the tests…If you have had likely exposures and symptoms suggest Covid-19 infection, you probably have it — even if your test is negative.”
Nasal swab sample for COVID-19 test in the laboratory (Photo by Robert Kneschke)
Dr. Alain Chaoui, head of Congenial Healthcare, a practice with 50,000 patients across five locations in Massachusetts, told The Boston Globe, “A lot of my patients who have symptoms, who I clinically think have COVID-19, are testing negative.” Chaoui is nonetheless advising all his patients who test negative for the virus to assume they are infected and self-quarantine until symptom-free for at least 72 hours.
Michelle Taylor tested negative for COVID-19 twice despite presenting with concerning symptoms, including loss of taste and smell. Several doctors have said the long swabs inserted deep into a patient’s nose could miss the virus if the patient is not showing many symptoms at the time of the test. Dr. Paul Pottinger, an infectious disease physician at UW Medical Centerm explains,
“The one caveat like we talked about before, if you go in to get tested too early — for example if you have no symptoms at all — then the test may not work very well. It’s really designed and validated for people who are having symptoms of infection when they have the test.”
According to Dr. Lee Harold Hilborne, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at UCLA, the high rate of false negatives may be due to improper sample collection rather than inaccurate analytical laboratory techniques. Hilborne elaborates,
“The majority of issues contributing to error in diagnostic testing are pre-analytic. These occur during specimen order, collection, and transport, before the specimen ever reaches the lab. We know that collection methods do not always pick up the virus. Studies suggest current swab collection may have sensitivity in the range of 60 to 75 percent. That means the specimen submitted to the laboratory from a patient with the infection will not contain the virus roughly 25 to 40 percent of the time.”
RT-PCR test kit to detect presence of 2019-nCoV in clinical specimens (Photo by tilialucida)
To address the risks associated with false-negative test results, Dr. Sampathkumar and colleagues outlined four evidence-based recommendations:
Continued strict adherence to physical distancing, hand-washing, surface disinfection, masking and other preventive measures, regardless of risk level, symptoms or COVID-19 test results, must be emphasized. Development of highly sensitive and specific tests, including improved RT-PCR tests and serological assays to detect antibodies, are needed to minimize the incidence of false-negative results and the risk of ongoing transmission based on a false sense of security. Risk levels should be assessed prior to testing. Negative test results should be interpreted with caution, especially for individuals in higher-risk groups, such as healthcare workers. Risk-stratified protocols must be put in place in order to properly interpret negative test results. These protocols should employ statistical data on diagnostics, transmission, and outcomes.
“For truly low-risk individuals, negative test results may be sufficiently reassuring,” says Colin West, M.D., Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic physician and the study’s first author. “For higher-risk individuals, even those without symptoms, the risk of false-negative test results requires additional measures to protect against the spread of disease, such as extended self-isolation.”
2019-nCoV IgM/IgG antibodies diagnostic laboratory test (Image by science photo)
What about blood tests to detect antibodies, the body’s response to the virus? These tests have limited utility from a diagnostic standpoint, as the body may not have had enough time to produce detectable antibodies in the early stages of infection, leading to false negative results. However, serological testing may be used to detect previous exposure, evaluate community spread, and assess antibody titers. But for now, testing results are fraught with uncertainty.
While individuals who recover from viral infections usually emerge with some degree of immunity, it is not yet known to what extent and for how long immunity to COVID-19 may last. Researchers are still unclear as to whether the presence of antibodies necessarily confers immunity to the novel coronavirus. Higher levels of antibodies generally indicates the mounting of a stronger immune response, but the levels of antibodies needed for COVID-19 immunity has not yet been established.
The reliability of antibody testing is another point of contention adding to the confusion. In Laredo, Texas, a purchase of 20,000 rapid COVID-19 tests was recently seized by the federal government after local health department officials discovered the tests were only accurate about 20 percent of the time. Generally, antibody tests that utilize a technique known as ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) tend to outperform point-of-care (POC) lateral flow tests in terms of both sensitivity and specificity. | https://medium.com/medical-myths-and-models/how-accurate-and-reliable-is-covid-19-testing-41cbc97c1d47 | ['Nita Jain'] | 2020-09-30 01:41:53.451000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Education', 'Science', 'Ideas', 'Covid 19'] |
Meizu Zero, World’s First Holeless Phone Goes Live On Indiegogo Crowdfunding For $1299 | CROWDFUNDING / TECHNOLOGY
© Meizu/Digital Trends
Chinese phone maker Meizu unveiled the Meizu Zero flagship concept phone a week back and now it has gone live on Indiegogo crowdfunding for $1299. The orders are expected to start shipping in April.
Meizu zero: World’s First Holeless Phone
Meizu Zero comes as the world’s first smartphone without any physical buttons or ports and also the first one phone to carry support for 18W wireless charging.
Some of the features that make Meizu Zero so different from other smartphones in the market.
The Meizu Zero offers eSIM as there is no SIM card slot on the device.
It sports no external speaker or any audio jack for earpiece but has mSound 2.0 technology that makes it possible for the smartphone to emit sound from the screen.
Meizu Zero is equipped with linear motor-powered pressure-sensitive virtual buttons for power and volume.
You can see the full phone specification here.
©Meizu/Indiegogo
The crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo is looking for 100 backers for the version which has the 1299 price tag. It has been almost just a day and 21 persons have already backed the model as at the time of reporting. That means there are just 79 units left. The crowdfunding campaign will be open for the next 31 days.
Meizu says the model is dubbed “Exclusive Engineer Unit” and is handmade by Meizu’s engineers. This claim definitely leaves a question behind in ones mind regarding company’s ability to mass-produce the model. There is one more version tagged “Exclusive Pioneering Unit” and with a $2999 price tag but that has been sold out. Don’t be disheartened, there was just a single unit available.
It comes as no surprise that the phone is priced above our expectations but when did innovation come so cheap, may it in terms of time, money or hard work.
Would you be there early adopters?
Sources:
Meizu Zero now available on Indiegogo crowdfunding for $1299 — Gizmochina
Read more- 10 Crowdfunding Principles You Do Not Want To Miss | https://medium.com/@catapooolt/meizu-zero-worlds-first-holeless-phone-goes-live-on-indiegogo-crowdfunding-for-1299-9baeedbbbbaa | [] | 2019-02-07 07:23:31.246000+00:00 | ['Holeless Phone', 'Smartphones', 'Catapooolt', 'Crowdfunding', 'Meizu'] |
What to Know About CBD | Over the past few years, CBD has become an increasingly popular health product. There are CBD snacks, drinks, and skin products. Businesses that sell CBD promote the calm and relaxation that these products impart. However, while the use of CBD has become common around the world, there are still many people who do not have a full understanding of exactly what it is.
So first and foremost, what is CBD? CBD is short for cannabidiol, which is a compound from the Sativa plant, otherwise known as marijuana. The substance occurs naturally and is a key active ingredient in marijuana alongside THC.
Will you feel high if you use CBD?
It is important to note that CBD is the non-psychoactive part of the plant and used alone does not produce any altered or sedated effect. However, similarly to how there are low numbers of people who react differently to Tylenol or Ibuprofen, there are also some people who may be the exception to CBD. When using a new supplement it’s important to do it safely as people can experience different side effects.
It is also equally imperative to understand that the FDA does not regulate CBD. Due to this, there is the possibility that a CBD product will contain very small amounts of THC. When purchasing any type of CBD make sure to go through third-party tested CBD providers to assure the quality of actual CBD versus THC.
Are there real benefits of CBD use?
There are a plethora of people who swear that CBD has helped to alleviate health ailments, such as osteoarthritis, back pain, and anxiety. CBD has largely gained recognition due to its relationship with marijuana. In fact, studies have revealed that cannabis has the potential to help people modulate cognition, sleep, appetite, pain, and reproduction. Furthermore, cannabis has been used to help those suffering from depression and anxiety disorders.
The field is continuing to gain momentum and has immense potential to offer in the different areas of pain management. In the future, as more medical studies are completed there will be much more clarity and guidance.
The most supporting and significant research has shown that CBD oil can help people who experience seizures. Currently, the FDA has only approved one CBD medication: Epidiolex, which has been used to treat specific types of epilepsy.
This blog was originally published on Dr. Kayvan Haddadan’s website. | https://medium.com/@drkayvanhaddadan/what-to-know-about-cbd-df270a6ceb6d | ['Dr. Kayvan Haddadan'] | 2020-08-07 20:51:59.787000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Pain Management', 'Cbd', 'Doctors', 'Dr Kayvan Haddadan'] |
WhatsApp Amazing Tricks You Should Know! | Published On: https://pakinform92.blogspot.com/
Article Link: https://pakinform92.blogspot.com/2020/12/whatsapp-amazing-tricks-you-should-know.html
Asslam Ao Alikum
In today’s article, I will tell you some such tricks of WhatsApp which will be useful for you and everyone who uses WhatsApp. So let’s start without wasting time.
1- See When Your Friend Seen Your Message.
Guys if you sent a message to a friend and you want to know when he saw this message and when he read it then you have to hold down on this message for 1 to 2 seconds. When you hold it the background of the message will turn blue and a little bit above you will see that some options have appeared, then you have to click on the third option in them. When you click on that option, a page will open in front of you which will contain all the information.
2- Send Message Without Saving Number.
If you want to send a message to someone without saving their number, all you have to do is open any browser on your mobile and type “ wa.me/Number “ in the address bar and then their number. But remember that you don’t have to write + at the beginning of the number but you have to write your country code number at the beginning and then you have to search. When you do this, a page will open in front of you, This page has an option called “ Continue To Chat “ you have to click on it then you can chat very easily without saving the number.
Open Browser > wa.me/number > Continue To Chat
3: Hide Message Information
Guys, whenever you read someone’s message, a blue tick appears on that message and they know that you have read the message, but if you want this blue tick not to appear and they don’t even know it. If you have read the message then you have to follow the settings that I am telling you. If you look at the top of your screen, you will see three dots. As soon as you click on them, some options will appear in front of you. In these options, if you look, there will be a setting option. You have to click on it then you have to click on the account option After clicking you have to click on the privacy option then you will see there an option called Read Receipts it will be enabled then you have to disable this option.
Three Dots > Setting > Account > Privacy > Disable Read Receipts
For More Visit: https://pak92inform.blogspot.com/2020/11/Whatsapp-Tricks.html | https://medium.com/@pkinform/whatsapp-amazing-tricks-you-should-know-75bf72a1e2ae | [] | 2021-01-01 04:22:36.250000+00:00 | ['Tips And Tricks', 'Whatsapp Tips And Tricks', 'WhatsApp', 'Android', 'Android Tips And Tricks'] |
A brief introduction to Classes and Instances in JavaScript | A brief introduction to Classes and Instances in JavaScript
Wu-Tang Clan + JavaScript Classes = Wu-Tang Class
When I first started working with JavaScript, I had a hard time understanding classes. I didn’t understand what they were, how they worked, or why you would use them; in this article, I am going to cover just that.
I like hip hop, so let’s say that we want to create an object that represents my favorite hip hop artist, the RZA from the Wu-Tang clan.
We could create an object literal that looks like this.
That’s pretty straightforward, right? Now, what if we want to make an object that represents each member of the Wu-Tang Clan?
This might take a while. Now, this is where a JavaScript class would come in handy. A class is a basic template for creating objects in JavaScript. Each instance of a class will inherit key-value pairs and methods from the class. I like to think of a class as being like Chipotle; people go in, and they come out with burritos. What about those burritos, though? The burritos are different from one another, but they are still burritos. Let’s see how we can use a class of WuTangClanMember to create the rest of the members (rather than using object literals).
Step 1: Class declaration
Next, we will need to add a constructor method, the constructor() method is a special method that gets called when an instance of the WuTangClanMember class is created. I like to think of the constructor as the burrito artists at Chipotle. They accept certain parameters such as tortilla, rice, beans, protein, veggies, etc . If you give them the following arguments flour tortilla, brown rice, pinto beans, sofritas, and stir-fry veggies, you will get a burrito with those things in it. Now, let’s take a look at how this works with our WuTangClanMember class.
Step 2: Add a constructor method
Now that we have our constructor set up, let’s look at how we can use methods with classes — after all, our objects would be boring if they didn’t do anything.
Step 3: Add methods
Now that we have our class of WuTangClanMember set up, we can use that to create instances of all of each Wu-Tang Clan member (This is also known as instantiating a WuTangClanMember). In order to create an instance of WuTangClanMember, we need to use the new keyword. Now, instead of creating an object literal for each Wu-Tang Clan member, we can instantiate instances of our “WuTangClanMember” class and save ourselves a lot of code.
Step 4: Instantiating instances of a class
Now, if you call the getWhatRulesEverythingAroundMe() method on each of our WuTangClanMembers, you can see that cash rules everything around each of them.
This has been a brief introduction to classes and instances in JavaScript. It doesn’t cover everything there is to know about classes, but hopefully, this article has shown you how to declare a class, how to use the constructor method, how to instantiate an instance of a class and the advantages of using classes over object literals. In my next post, the extends keyword to create child classes that will save even more time and code. | https://medium.com/javascript-in-plain-english/javascript-classes-4c6ed9fede4b | ['Joseph Haefling'] | 2020-11-04 18:46:30.375000+00:00 | ['Coding', 'Programming', 'Oop', 'JavaScript', 'Web Development'] |
Inviting The Changes at Scene & Heard | Inviting The Changes at Scene & Heard
August 17th 2018
Dear Sentients,
Following up on my last letter without ado, I would like to deliver the news about the changes that have been made at Scene & Heard.
We want to provide the best possible media platforms for our readership and contributors. To achieve this objective, in a cluttered world of print and digital media, we are faced with the challenge of not only standing-up but standing out. To keep standing and stand-out, we know we must offer a very unique reader experience.
Facing the challenge to achieve the objective of reaching farther and wider, we need to, and, are re-visiting and re-inventing the form of Scene & Heard.
The process of re-invention requires us to take a step back from the print scene for the immediate & foreseeable future. Nonetheless, we plan to re-introduce the print version, in it’s new form once we have solidified the re-invention, envisaging this to take anywhere fro 9–12 months. I will duly post the updates as we progress.
Standing in for the print version, is a digital version of the publication available for download and reading on screened devices.
In short, effective September 2018, we will continue to produce the publication as a scheduled digital publication (5 times a year), AND publish accepted work submitted to our online platforms on medium.com as well as on our SNH Tavern web page (snhjournal.com) on a roll-in basis.
To accelerate our online presence, a robust social media and online marketing plan is also being developed and will be rolled out methodically over the next 12 months starting with the SNH web site being given an over-haul to better accommodate and showcase our contributors and readers.
This is the way we aim to increase our readership and thus exposure to reach a far greater audience than what we are currently able to do through the print medium. | https://medium.com/the-scene-heard/inviting-the-changes-at-scene-heard-a47568f80006 | [] | 2018-08-17 21:27:17.198000+00:00 | ['Letters', 'Writing', 'Thesceneandheard', 'Art', 'News'] |
How to Build a Ship to Overcome Adversity | Sharon Pakir at Leadership Masterclass 2020
Life was going well for Sharon Pakir when out of the blue, her uterus ruptured while she was six months pregnant with her second child. It was a life-threatening complication that affects only one in 14,000 pregnancies. By the time she made it to a hospital, she was already on the brink of death, and her newborn was also not breathing.
Before that turning point, Sharon’s life was the archetype of a success story. She moved to Australia and started two businesses at just 25 years old. After building a family with her husband, they were blessed with wonderful careers. But in an instant, the rug was pulled out from under her. On top of struggling with her physical and emotional pain, she had to attend to her two young children while running her businesses at the same time.
A few years later, Sharon is able to share her experiences with us, about how she adapted and overcame this unexpected adversity, and what it took to prevail in the long and strenuous journey of recovery. Referencing one of her favourite metaphors on preparing for adversity, you are the captain of your very own ship and you have the responsibility of ensuring that your ship is strong enough to navigate through adversity.
Here is a guide to building your very own ship!
1. Anticipate All Weather Conditions
It is impossible to anticipate all weather conditions, and challenges may arise when you least expect it. When things are smooth-sailing, remember to channel energy into self-improvement. Actively seek methods and strategies to grow stronger every single day, be it physically, emotionally, or mentally.
Resilience is an invaluable resource in the face of adversity, as being able to adapt and persevere would make the biggest difference in determining whether we emerge victorious. For Sharon, developing a positive mindset was imperative.
Sharon decided to focus on the silver lining instead — things could have been worse. She could have passed away, her baby could have died as well. She chose to view recovery as a job, investing an immense amount of effort, time, and energy in the process. Part of her job scope was to also make the situation better for herself and the people around her every single day.
The journey of overcoming adversity differs for everyone, and it is often overlooked that recovery may take much longer than expected. So be sure to pack enough for the long haul!
2. Having A Safe Inner Deck
Along with dealing with situations as they come, it is important for you to find a safe space to reflect and seek solace. For people who don’t have the luxury of a physical haven, the best place to retreat into would be your own mind. Cultivate your mind such that it becomes a safe space to retreat to in times of crisis.
But even as you withdraw yourself from situations, remember your responsibility to your loved ones and peers, and find the motivation to pick yourself up again.
It is common to have urges to channel frustrations to others, and when you catch yourself falling down that spiral, that safe deck in your head will come in handy. Reflect on the reasons why you are acting out as such, find a safe avenue, be it a person or activity, to vent and remove the negative energy. After this, find the appropriate reaction to the situation at hand, without the irrationality that may be associated with strong emotions.
Finding inspiration you can always tap on within your inner deck is paramount too. For Sharon, she had her father as her role model. He was a tenacious fighter, impeccable communicator, and above all, filled with kindness and respect for others. Other than her father, Sharon shared her secret of drawing inspiration from everywhere — strangers, friends and co-workers. She found that her curiosity paid off in profound ways, as she picked up interesting perspectives that she had not considered before.
3. Bring Your Trusted Crew
Sharon found herself doing something she had never done before — asking for help. Even though she was not used to it, her intimate social circle was a group that she heavily relied on. Tying this back to the ship analogy, if your ship is sinking, there comes a time where you should be willing to accept help from external sources. However, be selective about who you spend your time with and who you let into your inner circle.
People in your close circle should have similar outlooks, but still be able to challenge you when need be, while being a safe space for you when you are down. Sharon’s group of friends had created a Facebook group for her, working out a schedule to assist Sharon with her everyday essentials. For six months, Sharon was able to receive practical help with her specific needs.
Even after choosing who you allow onboard your ship, you can be selective with where you allow your energy to flow. Choosing what you want and need to hear, and from who, is also crucial to preserving your already limited energy. Like an onion with you as the core, structure your social circle in layers, where you allow the negative energy to flow out, and only have positive energy flowing towards you.
4. Being the Best Captain
As the leader, it is important to remember that leadership starts with you, and not a title or designation. Even while filling your ship with like-minded people, it is common to have a vision that others don’t see. In the face of such frustration, having the right mindset is important to press on in the face of loneliness. Choosing the path of leadership can be one of solitude as well, but trusting in the process as well as what you believe in, the leadership journey can always become an exceptional voyage.
Conclusion
After three years, Sharon can now safely say that she has largely recovered from the trauma, with a healthy mind, body, and family, along with booming businesses. Although it may not be the conventional success story, her tale has conversely become even more inspirational. After making a comeback from her struggle, she now has amazing insights into the value of living with gratitude and leading with empathy.
Our problems come in different shapes and sizes, and no approach can offer a one-size-fits-all guarantee. However, if you make the conscientious effort to make your ship stronger every day, when difficulties do arise, you will be better able to overcome it with resilience.
These tips were shared as part of the Leadership Masterclass series, held in collaboration with The Birthday Collective.
Find out how Halogen Foundation can partner you to build greater resilience. | https://medium.com/halogen-foundation/leadership-masterclass-episode-1-272831e43a3 | ['Isabella Yuki Ho'] | 2020-12-22 02:59:24.166000+00:00 | ['Mindset Shift', 'Leadership Development', 'Motivation'] |
A Portrait of the IAS as a young Man. | A Portrait of the IAS as a young Man.
Something was very strange about the morning that day, I had just woken up but somehow it felt I was already up & getting ready for sometime now, like I had woken up hours ago, it was not a lazy morning. There was a clear sense of urgency in the air too, I remember I haven’t slept properly either, restless the whole time, just wanting to be on time & everything to be perfect. Still, I didn’t feel tired, somehow the excitement and nervousness had trumped everything else. It was going to be my first day at my first job & the job had not come easy.
So my first hint should’ve been the surprise in the voice of my driver when I called him & asked him to reach my home by 8:30 am in the morning. I remember him saying, “Sir, aapnake officaer aage kothaou jete hobe?” Or something on the same lines, meaning “sir, do you have to go anywhere before office?”. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I wasn’t yet good enough with Bangla, and Bangla spoken in a typical Rural Bangla accent was even tougher that I didn’t get that he was not trying to ask but tell me.
So, I was ready & in my car at sharp 08:50, I still clearly remember the time as I had forgotten my watch which gave me a mini heart attack as I thought I’ll definitely get late. I saw the time on my phone & rushed back up to get my watch. Though the office was like 5 minutes, I still wanted to be there sharp at 9 am. As the car approached the main entrance of the collectorate (the office of the District Collector), I got my second hint. There was literally no one there, not a soul.
I have been to a collectorate before, and you can almost sense one from a mile before you actually reach there, it’s like almost the entire city is headed there was some reason. But there was no one there, not just people but no guards, no security, no one. So I ask my driver, “where is everyone?” and he replied, expecting this situation, “sir, it’s too early, no one will come for another 45–50 minutes”. I have heard about it before coming to the state, that the day starts a bit late in Bengal and so does the office, but I was expecting it to be a myth.
This whole work culture of the state, was a hot topic of discussion in the academy, once you got your cadres, rumours about every cadre would get a fresh breath of life. They were almost like part of the snow, they’d come down every year, and every year, the innocent and fresh OTs would be taken by surprise. Bengal has its own set of rumours, as a matter of fact, if there is a single state which is talked about the most, it is West Bengal.
So, I get out, open the gate and call my orderly. I am sure I caught him in his sleep. He ensures me he’ll be there in 30 minutes. I was only lucky that my chamber, for some reason, wasn’t locked. So I get there and wait. I wait for the entire office to arrive, 9 in the morning. One by one people start coming & I could sense them talking about this “weird, new officer” who had come at 9. | https://medium.com/@n.chandra248/a-portrait-of-the-ias-as-a-young-man-a02638af3ec1 | ['Naveen Kumar Chandra'] | 2020-12-26 18:33:31.225000+00:00 | ['Upsc', 'Portait', 'Tales', 'Ias', 'Stories'] |
Reinforcement learning with Skinner | Reinforcement learning with Skinner
A friendly introduction to the problem of reinforcement learning with examples from neuroscience
Reinforcement learning has entered the spotlight recently with accomplishments such as AlphaGo, and is supposedly one of our best shots at Artificial General Intelligence — or at least more general intelligence. In this post, I will trace some of its history back to the study of operant conditioning by Skinner.
The real question is not whether machines think but whether men do — B. F. Skinner
B. F. Skinner working with an Operant Conditioning Chamber of his creation. Image taken from Here.
Skinner wanted to understand how animals develop adaptive behavior, what were the rules underlying learning. Many other scientists were interested in conditioning around that time, such as Ivan Pavlov — famous for showing that after pairing a bell with a beef, dogs salivated to the sound of the bell.
The main difference between Skinner and his counterparts was his thoroughness in making very controlled experiments. Skinner developed a chamber — now called operant conditioning chamber, or just Skinner Box — in which the animals, typically rats and pigeon, could be isolated from external sound, smell and light, and stimulated precisely for each experiment. Marvin Minsky jokingly compares Skinner’s meticulousness with Pavlov’s experiments in a lab full of caged dogs, far off in terms of care and control.
Rat inside a conditioning chamber. There are two lights that can be used to stimulate the animal, and two levers the animal can use to respond. The sucrose solution is controlled by an automated system. Image taken from Malkki et al. 2010
Reward and repeat
The animals would receive a specific stimulus such as a light, sound, or smell, and the information from the stimulus could be used to gain some food or water (a reinforcer). But the rat needed to execute some specific action to be rewarded with the reinforcer, choosing correctly between the small set of possible actions to be undertaken. There could be a discriminatory task where a single light would go on, and if the light was green the animal would be rewarded for pressing the lever right below. On the other hand, if the light was red the animal would be rewarded for pressing the contralateral lever.
T-Maze for an operant conditioning task. Image from Smith, Kyle S., and Ann M. Graybiel, 2013
After some trial and error, the animals started behaving in such a way to increase their rate of reward, as if understanding the rules guiding their rewarding, as if understanding that red means “the other lever”. Moreover, if the animals were rewarded at a higher rate, they (generally) learned faster. A large number of controlled spaces have been created inspired by the Skinner box. Take or example the T-Maze show here, with a starting location and a decision point. Depending on the sound played (the tone cue), either the left or right arm would contain its respective reinforcer. The animal eventually learns to go to the right arm depending on the sound, increasing its rate of reward.
Responses that produce a satisfying effect in a particular situation become more likely to occur again in that situation, and responses that produce a discomforting effect become less likely to occur again in that situation — Thorndike’s Law of Effect
The study of operant conditioning is still very active, with a lot of branches in development such as on the dynamics of habituation, e.g. how much training it takes for a behavior to lose flexibility — becoming resistant to devaluation — and what are the underlying processes involved. Without getting too much involved with the possible algorithms our brains use, this post focuses more on delineating the problem. Of special interest to those studying artificial intelligence are sequential tasks, in which many actions need to be taken before rewards are attained.
Sequential tasks
A great example of a sequential task is a maze. There are many others, in which the contingencies at each step depend on previous ones. But in the labyrinth, the sequential aspect is spatially distributed, so it is as clear as it could be. Imagine the animal runs exploring the maze until it finds the reward (and is removed from the maze to start again). Following strictly the law of effect, the animals would try and repeat the same quasi-random jug around the maze until they found the reward again the same way, but this is clearly inefficient. In fact, it is clear from experiments that animals get more efficient with training, up to the trial when they go directly to the reward without making any “mistakes”.
The problem that animals contend with is the Credit Assignment problem, viz how to reinforce those actions that truly help to bring about the reward without reinforcing those actions that just happened to be enacted close to the reward? In fact, there are many registered cases of pigeons and cats making repeated and completely unnecessary actions before pressing levers (e.g. Guthrie 1946), cases where the credit assignment was evidently not optimal. The problem is a big one, and each advancement in this direction is a potential huge improvement for reinforcement learning systems of our creation.
To be clear, this is not a marginal problem: it is the central complication tackled by Reinforcement Learning. In this setting actions are distant from rewards, and the “perfect response” may not even be well defined. Compare this with supervised learning — where the “correct” response is specified and shown at each step. The additional difficulty is exactly what makes Reinforcement Learning so broad, and our proposedly best shot at Artificial General Intelligence.
Reinforcement Learning Formalism — A sketch
RL resembles the skinner box. An Agent has access to one state from a specified set of States (in the previous example this could be a specific left green light on) and may choose some Action (pressing the left lever, right lever, not pressing, …). Then, after acting in the environment the Agent receives a Reward (e.g. food, nothing, …) and perceives itself in a new State.
Learning is: increasing the rate of rewards
Image from Sutton & Barto, 2018
To increase the number of rewards during a task, the agent must have an account of “which is the best action at each state”. This originates an optimal policy — a program to decide actions — , that reaches the maximum expected rate of reward. The existence of an optimal policy is mathematically well-defined when either one of the two following criteria is met:
The task is finite, or Rewards later in the future are less valuable than rewards closer to the present (there is a discount rate).
In the case of operant conditioning, the tasks are obviously finite, but this does not imply a lack of discounting. In fact, there is a very contemporary discussion around delay discounting and its implications for human living, for example, its relationship with drug abuse (Bickel and Marsch, 2001).
On the other hand, for artificial agents training to perform a continuous task (like playing Minecraft, which is not finite), it is important to have a small discount factor, to ensure that there exists an optimal policy for the agent to learn.
Using the algorithm
Ok, so we could not end a Reinforcement Learning introduction without a little snooping into the equations that make it possible in computers. I will bypass the formalism, giving instead a small and intuitive derivation of an algorithm that can be used to find the optimal policy. I do this to illustrate how fast we can go from the theory to an algorithm. Before going into the image, we need only build a small intuition on values for actions:
The best action is the one that maximizes the future expected reward. If we know the future expected reward for taking each action, then we can always choose the best action. If we can always know the best action, then we have reached the optimal policy.
The idea here is then to find this Value function that outputs the expected return value of taking an action in a state. You will see that we start with the definition of the value function in (1), and end up with the algorithm in (5).
SARSA algorithms with some simplifications. The last equation can be used on-line in a loop of interaction with the environment. Here the discount rate is set to 1, and the Q-function is called V for simplicity.
With this algorithm, it is possible to iteratively learn by interacting with the environment. In each step, the agent observes its state s and takes an action a, updating its Values according to the received reward and to the next state-action pair. Remember the maze problem? Because it has a discrete and finite set of states (decision points, the bifurcations) and actions (e.g. go left, go right), we can solve it using a Q-table like the one below.
Using this Q-table, the agent will take the left in the third bifurcation, since the value of action 1 is the highest. The table will be updated at each step, eventually converging to an optimal policy. Here I show a very simple agent that learns how to hold a pole using this algorithm!
You can see that it needs a lot of repetitions to perform acceptably, but this is because there are a lot of improvements that can be made for this setting.
Truncated Q-Table for the discretized CartPole. With a not-so-fine discretization of 20 bins for each dimension, there is a humongous total of 20⁴ = 160.000 states. In these cases, function approximators are the way to go.
Because the states are continuous, we could improve a lot over the discretization, using instead a continuous function approximator such as a neural network! Nevertheless, the formulation of the problem is still the same, and introducing the problem was the central aim of this blog post.
Conclusion
This post was a very short bridging introduction to reinforcement learning and operant conditioning and I intend to write follow-ups going deeper into the theory and math underlying both, showing increasingly better and more complex algorithms and relate them to neuroscience.
I hope to get you as interested in Reinforcement Learning as I am! I believe (as a lot of people do) that neuroscience has a lot to offer the field of Artificial Intelligence, especially with high-level insights. Please comment and give feedback, and thank you for reading!
Further reading
This post by neptune.ai has a lot of interesting resources to dive deeper into the field of reinforcement learning, from tutorials to full courses.
If you want to learn more about neuroscience, try The Spike here on medium.
References
Bickel, W. K., & Marsch, L. A. (2001). Toward a behavioral economic understanding of drug dependence: delay discounting processes. Addiction, 96(1), 73–86.
Dam, G., Kording, K., & Wei, K. (2013). Credit assignment during movement reinforcement learning. PLoS One, 8(2), e55352.
Guthrie, E. R., & Horton, G. P. (1946). Cats in a puzzle box.
Malkki, H. A., Donga, L. A., De Groot, S. E., Battaglia, F. P., & Pennartz, C. M. (2010). Appetitive operant conditioning in mice: heritability and dissociability of training stages. Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience, 4, 171
Smith, K. S., & Graybiel, A. M. (2013). A dual operator view of habitual behavior reflecting cortical and striatal dynamics. Neuron, 79(2), 361–374.
Sutton, R. S., & Barto, A. G. (2018). Reinforcement learning: An introduction. MIT press. | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/reinforcement-learning-with-skinner-deacef0a281a | ['Estevão Uyrá Pardillos Vieira'] | 2020-12-02 18:55:53.751000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Neuroscience', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Psychology', 'Reinforcement Learning'] |
GUIDE TO BUY SILVER/ OXIDISED JEWELLERY ONLINE | Oxidised jewellery is the most preferred sort of jewellery nowadays as they are affordable and available in contemporary as well as traditional designs. You can shop either gold plated or the plain silver version of this jewellery as they are the most coveted piece of accessory.
Oxidised silver jewellery contains a beautiful appeal. Therefore, the speciality of it is that it enhances the beauty of the wearer without empowering. Likewise, gold plated oxidised jewellery could be a perfect alternative to the expensive gold and diamond jewellery.
Finding the perfect jewellery is an exhausting task. I have always been a jewellery lover, so, with this idea, I have listed down some brands to shop oxidised silver jewellery from online as well as Instagram stores.
Silverline Jewellery
Instagram: @silverlinejewellery
Website: www.silverlinejewellery.com
KK Store
SOURCE: INSTAGRAM
Instagram: @the.kk.store
Website: www.thekkstore.com
Unfoldself
SOURCE: INSTAGRAM
Instagram: @unfoldself_
Suhana Art and Jewels
SOURCE: INSTAGRAM
Instagram: @suhana_art_and_jewels
Oshri by Amita
SOURCE: INSTAGRAM
Instagram: @oshri.accessories
Website: www.oshri.in
TEEJH by Joker & Witch
SOURCE: INSTAGRAM
Instagram: @teejhindia
Website: www.teejh.com
Amama
SOURCE: INSTAGRAM
Instagram: @amama_loves
Website: www.amama.in
Hope this blog helped you in some way. Also, stay tuned for more such blogs in the near future. | https://medium.com/@sohanimittal/guide-to-buy-silver-oxidised-jewellery-online-3acb5030d149 | ['Sohani Mittal'] | 2020-12-17 08:43:26.877000+00:00 | ['Oxidised Jewellery', 'Online Shopping', 'Silver Jewelry', 'Online', 'Fashion'] |
Miss Oink Face - Neighbourhood Celebrity | Animal Anecdote
Miss Oink Face - Neighbourhood Celebrity
A Hampshire pig living her best life
Photo credit by author — Miss Oink Face taking part in the favourite morning activity — basking
This beautiful lady is Miss Oink Face; I first came across her month ago on my bicycle ride to work.
I was so taken by Miss Oink Face that I almost cycled straight into the car in front of me. (who had slowed right down, I assume also to look at Miss Oink Face) Since this first day, I have started to see Miss Oink Face rather a lot on my rides to and from work and she always makes me happy.
I have never seen a pig with such unusual markings, but after some research, I think I can identify Miss Oink Face as a type of ‘Hampshire’ a very long way from home here in Saigon.
At first, I was fearful that Miss Oink Face could be there for reasons that might be rather upsetting. However, on further investigation, I am happy to confirm that Miss Oink Face was rescued by a Vietnamese family who also fell in love with her rare beauty.
She now lives a very happy life with this family alongside some dog, cat and chicken buddies. | https://medium.com/creatures/miss-oink-face-neighbourhood-celebrity-2c48033de271 | [] | 2020-11-27 16:02:32.603000+00:00 | ['Creativity', 'Anecdotes', 'Animals', 'Lifestyle', 'Love'] |
[AGT] America’s Got Talent — S16e3 “Auditions 3” Full Show On NBC’s | ➕Official Partners “TVs” TV Shows & Movies
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America’s Got Talent — Season 16, Episode 3 || FULL EPISODES : A weekly talent competition where an array of performers â from singers and dancers, to comedians and novelty acts â vie for a $1 million cash prize. .
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⭐A Target Package is short for Target Package of Information. It is a more specialized case of Intel Package of Information or Intel Package.
✌ THE STORY ✌
Its and Jeremy Camp (K.J. Apa) is a and aspiring musician who like only to honor his God through the energy of music. Leaving his Indiana home for the warmer climate of California and a college or university education, Jeremy soon comes Bookmark this site across one Melissa Heing
(Britt Robertson), a fellow university student that he takes notices in the audience at an area concert. Bookmark this site Falling for cupid’s arrow immediately, he introduces himself to her and quickly discovers that she is drawn to him too. However, Melissa holds back from forming a budding relationship as she fears it`ll create an awkward situation between Jeremy and their mutual friend, Jean-Luc (Nathan Parson), a fellow musician and who also has feeling for Melissa. Still, Jeremy is relentless in his quest for her until they eventually end up in a loving dating relationship. However, their youthful courtship Bookmark this sitewith the other person comes to a halt when life-threating news of Melissa having cancer takes center stage. The diagnosis does nothing to deter Jeremey’s love on her behalf and the couple eventually marries shortly thereafter. Howsoever, they soon find themselves walking an excellent line between a life together and suffering by her Bookmark this siteillness; with Jeremy questioning his faith in music, himself, and with God himself.
✌ STREAMING MEDIA ✌
Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a provider. The verb to stream refers to the procedure of delivering or obtaining media this way.[clarification needed] Streaming identifies the delivery approach to the medium, rather than the medium itself. Distinguishing delivery method from the media distributed applies especially to telecommunications networks, as almost all of the delivery systems are either inherently streaming (e.g. radio, television, streaming apps) or inherently non-streaming (e.g. books, video cassettes, audio tracks CDs). There are challenges with streaming content on the web. For instance, users whose Internet connection lacks sufficient bandwidth may experience stops, lags, or slow buffering of this content. And users lacking compatible hardware or software systems may be unable to stream certain content.
Streaming is an alternative to file downloading, an activity in which the end-user obtains the entire file for the content before watching or listening to it. Through streaming, an end-user may use their media player to get started on playing digital video or digital sound content before the complete file has been transmitted. The term “streaming media” can connect with media other than video and audio, such as for example live closed captioning, ticker tape, and real-time text, which are considered “streaming text”.
This brings me around to discussing us, a film release of the Christian religio us faith-based . As almost customary, Hollywood usually generates two (maybe three) films of this variety movies within their yearly theatrical release lineup, with the releases usually being around spring us and / or fall respectfully. I didn’t hear much when this movie was initially aounced (probably got buried underneath all of the popular movies news on the newsfeed). My first actual glimpse of the movie was when the film’s movie trailer premiered, which looked somewhat interesting if you ask me. Yes, it looked the movie was goa be the typical “faith-based” vibe, but it was going to be directed by the Erwin Brothers, who directed I COULD Only Imagine (a film that I did so like). Plus, the trailer for I Still Believe premiered for quite some us, so I continued seeing it most of us when I visited my local cinema. You can sort of say that it was a bit “engrained in my brain”. Thus, I was a lttle bit keen on seeing it. Fortunately, I was able to see it before the COVID-9 outbreak closed the movie theaters down (saw it during its opening night), but, because of work scheduling, I haven’t had the us to do my review for it…. as yet. And what did I think of it? Well, it was pretty “meh”. While its heart is certainly in the proper place and quite sincere, us is a little too preachy and unbalanced within its narrative execution and character developments. The religious message is plainly there, but takes way too many detours and not focusing on certain aspects that weigh the feature’s presentation.
✌ TELEVISION SHOW AND HISTORY ✌
A tv set show (often simply Television show) is any content prBookmark this siteoduced for broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, cable, or internet and typically viewed on a television set set, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are usually placed between shows. Tv shows are most often scheduled well ahead of The War with Grandpa and appearance on electronic guides or other TV listings.
A television show may also be called a tv set program (British EnBookmark this siteglish: programme), especially if it lacks a narrative structure. A tv set Movies is The War with Grandpaually released in episodes that follow a narrative, and so are The War with Grandpaually split into seasons (The War with Grandpa and Canada) or Movies (UK) — yearly or semiaual sets of new episodes. A show with a restricted number of episodes could be called a miniMBookmark this siteovies, serial, or limited Movies. A one-The War with Grandpa show may be called a “special”. A television film (“made-for-TV movie” or “televisioBookmark this siten movie”) is a film that is initially broadcast on television set rather than released in theaters or direct-to-video.
Television shows may very well be Bookmark this sitehey are broadcast in real The War with Grandpa (live), be recorded on home video or an electronic video recorder for later viewing, or be looked at on demand via a set-top box or streameBookmark this sited on the internet.
The first television set shows were experimental, sporadic broadcasts viewable only within an extremely short range from the broadcast tower starting in the. Televised events such as the 2020 Summer OlyBookmark this sitempics in Germany, the 2020 coronation of King George VI in the UK, and David Sarnoff’s famoThe War with Grandpa introduction at the 9 New York World’s Fair in the The War with Grandpa spurreBookmark this sited a rise in the medium, but World War II put a halt to development until after the war. The 2020 World Movies inspired many Americans to buy their first tv set and in 2020, the favorite radio show Texaco Star Theater made the move and became the first weekly televised variety show, earning host Milton Berle the name “Mr Television” and demonstrating that the medium was a well balanced, modern form of entertainment which could attract advertisers. The firsBookmBookmark this siteark this sitet national live tv broadcast in the The War with Grandpa took place on September 16, 2020 when President Harry Truman’s speech at the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference in SAN FRAAmerica’s Got Talent CO BAY AREA was transmitted over AT&T’s transcontinental cable and microwave radio relay system to broadcast stations in local markets.
✌ FINAL THOUGHTS ✌
The power of faith, love, and affinity for take center stage in Jeremy Camp’s life story in the movie I Still Believe. Directors Andrew and Jon Erwin (the Erwin Brothers) examine the life span and The War with Grandpas of Jeremy Camp’s life story; pin-pointing his early life along with his relationship Melissa Heing because they battle hardships and their enduring love for one another through difficult. While the movie’s intent and thematic message of a person’s faith through troublen is indeed palpable plus the likeable mThe War with Grandpaical performances, the film certainly strules to look for a cinematic footing in its execution, including a sluish pace, fragmented pieces, predicable plot beats, too preachy / cheesy dialogue moments, over utilized religion overtones, and mismanagement of many of its secondary /supporting characters. If you ask me, this movie was somewhere between okay and “meh”. It had been definitely a Christian faith-based movie endeavor Bookmark this web site (from begin to finish) and definitely had its moments, nonetheless it failed to resonate with me; struling to locate a proper balance in its undertaking. Personally, regardless of the story, it could’ve been better. My recommendation for this movie is an “iffy choice” at best as some should (nothing wrong with that), while others will not and dismiss it altogether. Whatever your stance on religion faith-based flicks, stands as more of a cautionary tale of sorts; demonstrating how a poignant and heartfelt story of real-life drama could be problematic when translating it to a cinematic endeavor. For me personally, I believe in Jeremy Camp’s story / message, but not so much the feature.
FIND US:
✔️ https://www.ontvsflix.com/tv/4551-16-3/america-s-got-talent.html
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✔️ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com | https://medium.com/@agt-2021-audition-3/agt-americas-got-talent-s16e3-auditions-3-full-show-on-nbc-s-853413cb2b35 | ["America'S Got Talent", 'Auditions', 'Full Show'] | 2021-06-16 00:33:40.078000+00:00 | ['Talent', 'Reality', 'Music', 'Dance', 'Family'] |
8 Best Make Money Online Apps || Earn Money Online 2021 | These applications empower you to bring in Make Money Online while sitting at home. In the event that you believe that mobiles are just utilized for calling and utilizing the web, at that point you are incorrect as a few applications permit you to bring in cash, cashback, and rewards. Prominently, some applications are now accessible on the Android and iOS stages. On that track, we will list every one of those applications that give Make Money Online and prizes while utilizing it.
All Money Making Online App Give good Money, And you make money from home without and extra work like automation so you can earn money online. So lets, start journey of finding best make money online with you provide money fast and free.
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1. Roz Dhan (make money online)
Roz Dhan application is known as the best application for bringing in cash. The application is offering its administrations to 10 million clients and to bring in cash from the application you simply need to mess around, share articles, and read the news.
The application offers you moment Make Money Online of Rs. 50, nonetheless, to get the money, clients need to follow these tips and deceives. You need to download the application and sign up with the portable number. From that point forward, you will acquire Rs. 25. In the first place, you need to go to the profile symbol and add the welcome code alongside the reference code 013GVD.
At that point, you can procure 20 to 50 coins each day. From that point onward, you need to fill altogether the subtleties and procure 200 focuses.
2. Loco (make money online)
Similar to the Roz Dhan application, the Loco application empowers clients to bring in cash. This Make Money Online acquiring application is totally free and clients are permitted to mess around in a few dialects, like Bengali, Hindi, Telugu, Marathi, and Tamil.
Aside from games, it offers you doubts that clients need to answers to bring in the earn Money Online on the Paytm wallet. Loco offers you games like Ghatak, IND Snax, Xyaa, Jonathan, and then some.
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Make Money Online The exchanging application is a standout amongst other procuring applications in the country. This application is uncommonly intended for the individuals who need to do a side business. Numerous ladies are as of now utilizing this application.
To profit, all advantages clients ought to have a cell phone alongside a web association. The application permits you to share pictures on your Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram. The application permits you to procure up to Rs. 25,000.
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Datagenie is known as an Android application that offers you free re-energize and Make Money Online. The application permits you to save 25 percent 2G, 3G, and 4G information consistently. Aside from that, this application permits you to profit money up to Rs. 28 and you can share entertaining pictures, cites, images, GIFs jokes by means of WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram.
To bring in cash from the application, you need to download the application first, at that point you need to enlist yourself and enter your Paytm number. From that point forward, you will get the OTP and acknowledge read messages. Rundown Of All Apps Those Are Offering Rewards To Customers
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Google Pay is driving regarding moving Make Money Online in a flash. It is a computerized wallet stage, empowering clients to make installments. It is accessible on the two stages like Android and iOS. In any case, to get the prize from Google Pay, you ought to follow these means.
You need to download the application first and register your versatile number, which is connected to your bank. You need to send some money to one of the Google Pay clients to get the Rs. 51. Moreover, the application empowers you to get a scratch card worth Rs. 1,000.
6. Amazon Pay
It is probably the quickest approaches to get the acquired cashback after every installment and in the event that a client is new, the individual can get Rs. 75 in the Amazon Pay account. To get this offer, first, you need to introduce the application and snap on UPI ID.
At that point, you need to enroll your portable number and from that point onward, you are permitted to move the Make Money Online to your companion and you’ll get the cashback.
7. PhonePe
PhonePe,a computerized wallet is an online installment application, which is settled in Bengaluru. It was set up in 2015 however began its tasks in 2016.
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8. Paytm
Paytm is set up in Noida in Uttar Pradesh India. It is accessible in 11 Indian dialects and permits you to make installments for all movement, motion pictures, versatile re-energizes, take care of bills, supermarkets, cafés, stopping, natural products, shopping, and that’s just the beginning.
To benefit the cashback by means of Paytm, clients need to initially introduce the application through Google Play Store and Apple Store. I suggest paytm is best app Make Money Online.
You Also Like This : Take Advantage Of 7 Best Money Making Applications For Fast Money In 2021
https://www.techscos.com/8-best-make-money-online-apps-earn-money-online-2021/ | https://medium.com/@gayatrinipampatel/8-best-make-money-online-apps-earn-money-online-2021-8b771f37e0ed | ['Gayatri Patel'] | 2021-02-22 07:21:02.617000+00:00 | ['Earn Money Online', 'Loco', 'Make Money Online', 'Datagenie App', 'Amazon Pay'] |
“Anything else you want to tell us?” is not a valid substitute for “do you need an accommodation?” | “Anything else you want to tell us?” is not a valid substitute for “do you need an accommodation?”
Photo by Sigmund on Unsplash
In the first of two articles I have recently published on accommodations, I addressed what accommodations are. The second focused on what can happen when an organization turns down a valid request for an accommodation. This final article focuses on HOW to ask someone whether they need an accommodation.
The first thing that any person with mobility issues, a person with a service animal, or a person with vision/hearing loss looks for on a conference registration form is “Where do I tell them what I need to participate equally?”
The majority of conference registration forms I fill out don’t include a place for this information. Instead, they have a cheery, catch-all question at the end that says something to the effect of “anything else you would like to tell us?”
Here is why that is problematic.
Accommodations requests for conferences are important.
Without them, the people making the requests have zero chance of equal participation in the event. People want to know whether their disability needs can be accommodated before they commit to spending time or money on a conference registration that might be difficult to get a refund for.
Accommodations requests for events can include things like:
Captioning/CART/Sign Language Interpretation for people with hearing loss
Advanced copies of accessible presentation materials for people with vision loss or reading disabilities
In-person event (we will have those again someday, right?) accommodations including food, hotel, service animal, and assistant-related requests.
“Anything else?” as the only place to request accommodations is a sign that you really aren’t thinking about participants with disabilities and certainly NOT thinking about those individuals’ authentic inclusion at your event. This also indicates that the organization doesn’t consider disability accommodations important and that the request can be rejected.
Read this article to find out what happened to a conference organizer who turned down a deaf woman’s request for an ASL interpreter. “She Should Run” Has Been Accused Of Not Accommodating A Deaf Woman. She Should Run is now facing a DC’s Office of Human Rights complaint plus bad publicity.
Conference registration “Anything else?” requests are difficult to convert into action.
Because “anything else” is a catch-all, it will include things ranging from accommodations to “will the recordings be posted” or “my favorite color is red.” A human has to read ALL of these comments and figure out which ones need action. Also, if you don’t have a specific section in your registration on disability-related accommodations, chances are you don’t have an individual in charge of disability-related accommodations. That is a problem, given that 18 % of the US population has a disability.
Conference registration “anything else?” requests are difficult to turn into analytics.
Because of the reasons above (“anything else?” can be used for literally ANYTHING), it is challenging to derive any actionable data intelligence about your participants with disabilities.
If you want to know things about the disability status of your registrants, you have to ask:
Do you have a disability? Do you need an accommodation for your disability? What accommodation are you requesting?
When you ask those three questions independently, you will be able to guarantee that you can generate business intelligence about your attendees’ disability-related needs. This includes measuring whether paying attention to the disability needs of your attendees results in more disabled people attending (chances are it will, we do talk to each other) and will also give you data that you can then use to apply for grants related to your accommodation costs, such as captioning.
In addition:
Avoid asking for a medical diagnosis. Let people indicate they need captions for hearing loss, don’t ask for an audiogram or degree of deafness.
Use people-first language. Don’t have a check box that says, “I am hearing impaired.” Have a checkbox that says, “I am a person with hearing loss.”
Next Steps
If the person on the receiving end of the accommodations request doesn’t know what to do:
They should ask someone who does, generally speaking, this person will be in Human Resources or possibly a different manager who has experience with this, or; They should continue to engage with the person making the accommodations request.
Pretending that the request didn’t happen is never a valid response. It is also the response that will potentially get your organization in the most hot water. | https://medium.com/@sheribyrnehaber/anything-else-you-want-to-tell-us-is-not-a-valid-substitute-for-do-you-need-an-accommodation-958e75bd0ca4 | ['Sheri Byrne-Haber'] | 2020-11-19 16:29:29.596000+00:00 | ['Events', 'Event Planning', 'Conference', 'Accommodations', 'Disability'] |
How Decision Fatigue Is Silently Killing Your Productivity And What You Can Do About It. | What is Decision Fatigue
If you have ever been to a gym pulling up weights, or if you have ever been out running, you probably have reached moments where you’re so tired that you cannot simply continue.
Thus, you Give Up.
In other words, you are physically fatigued and you lose performance drastically.
Fatigued Muscle is Analogous to a Fatigued Brain — picture by Stephen Wood
The precise same thing can occur to your mental faculties.
Decision fatigue is the state where you are drained of all your willpower due to making decisions.
Decision fatigue hunts everyone from ordinary prisoners to the prestigious supreme court judges.
The Hefty Costs Of Decision Fatigue
There are too many people, and too few human beings. — Robert Zend
Most of what we consider the feats of the human brain — imagination, self-control, analytical thinking, decision making, etc. — is regulated by a brain region called prefrontal cortex (PFC).
Your PFC needs a specific fuel to work and that fuel is glucose — A simple sugar that your body manufactures from the food you eat.
When you make decisions, you are burning this limited fuel.
Hence, your PFC — the region that gives you the power to think and decide, monitor your behavior, and control your impulses — is now left with an empty fuel tank.
As a result, after a decision-heavy workday, you come home feeling depleted and you simply procrastinate on whatever you had promised yourself to do.
You might have wanted to go running around the block but now, you don’t feel like it.
You might have wanted to muster up your willpower to attend to your side hustle and craft your next blog post, but your brain defaults to the path of least resistance and you find yourself sitting on the couch rewatching another episode of Game of Thrones.
Penalty on productivity is one of the consequences of decision fatigue. There are darker impulses can be left unchecked in a state of decision fatigue.
When governor of New York, Eliot Spizer hired a hooker that led to his downfall, when governor of South Carolina snuck off to Buenos Aires to visit his girlfriend, and when Bill Clinton indulged in making up with his intern, they were all subject to the occupational hazard that comes with being, as President Bush once described himself, “the decider.”
But, fortunately, you can outsmart your willpower and avoid the traps of decision fatigue.
How to Prevail Decision Fatigue and Increase Willpower
1. Routines: Automate the Garbage Decisions
I put it so bluntly because there are daily decisions we have to make which are utterly unimportant and yet, they consume from the very same precious and limited willpower supply we have for a day.
Such decisions are: What do I wear? what do I eat? Do I take the bus to work or taxi? Which task should I work on?
Extraordinary Achievers Eliminate Daily Unimportant Decision Making
This is why all extraordinary achievers like Obama, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, etc., always wear almost the same clothes and they all have very specific morning routines. So, make a list of such decisions and plan for them once and for all. Save your precious willpower for more important tasks.
You’ll see I wear only gray or blue suits. I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make. — Barack Obama
2. Circumvent Decision-Fatigue by Committing
Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort — Paul J. Meyer
The sheer thought of wanting to do something is profoundly fickle. If you want your thoughts and resolutions to crystallize into action, schedule them and write them down.
Whenever I find myself procrastinating on some idea, I guarantee its execution by writing it down and providing it with a precise schedule.
The effectiveness of writing my plans down is bombastically fascinating. So much so that I went a step further and adopted the bullet journaling system which is now an extension of my brain.
My Bullet Journal — Blurred Due to Privacy
It is now my conviction that writing down elicits commitment and commitment crystalizes into action.
3. Prioritize Your Commitments and Remove Micro-Decisions
“If you have more than three priorities, you don’t have any.” — Jim Collins
If you make a list of tasks, make sure you prioritize them. Otherwise, you will fall back into the same trap: having to decide which task to carry out first.
Thus, prioritize your tasks, preferably the night before. This will minimize the decision you have to make regarding your productivity.
4. Bypass Decision-Fatigue by Precommiting
I have taken a solemn, enduring oath, an oath to be kept while the least hope of life remains in me, not to be tempted to break the resolution I have formed, no living man, or men, shall stop me, only death can prevent me, But death — not even this; I shall not die, I will not die, I cannot die! — Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa’s Greatest Explorer
Precommitment is an effective strategy that would prevent you from having to rely on willpower in the first place.
The Essence of the strategy is to lock yourself into a virtuous path.
You anticipate that you will face lucrative temptations to stray you from your path; so, you make it impossible — or somehow make it disgraceful, sinful, or unthinkable — to leave the path.
Precommit to Stay Immune to Temptations
Precommitment is what Odysseus did to get passed the luring and deadly songs of the Sirens. He had himself lashed to the mast with orders not to untie him regardless of how hard pleaded to go to the sirens.
His men precommited differently, by plugging their ears that would make them oblivious to the enchanting songs of the Sirens.
Do you want to prevent yourself from indulging in the social network while you have to focus on your projects? Precommit by blocking your access to them.
Do you want to make sure you go to the gym? Precommit by promising a friend that you will be at the gym.
Keep precommiting and you will be endowed with something valuable that relieves from having to precommit or rely on willpower anymore: A HABIT.
5. Eat Your Way Out of Decision Fatigue
Never trust a glucose-deprived brain for anything important.
If decision fatigue is the result of making decisions and losing glucose, then we can refuel our willpower by providing more glucose.
Studies on willpower show that drinking a coke swiftly boosts willpower and thus, provides the brain with the fuel it needs for analytical thinking, decision making, etc.
But, sweets are the worst in terms of providing willpower fuel because they provide a quick boost followed by an immediate crash which will leave you craving even more sweets.
The better options are the foods that will provide you with a gradual and steady fuel such as most vegetables, nuts (e.g. peanuts and cashews), many raw fruits. (e.g. apples, blueberries, and pears), cheese, fish, meat, olive oil, and other good fats.
So, if you had a decision-heavy day and still have more important decisions to make, eat your way out of the decision fatigue.
6. Leverage Your Environment Against Decision Fatigue
A man is not rightly conditioned until he is a happy, healthy, and prosperous being; and happiness, health, and prosperity are the result of a harmonious adjustment of the inner with the outer of the man with his surroundings. — James Allen
If you are about to go on a diet, and if your home is filled with lots of tempting sweets and snacks, you are going to have to constantly make the decisions to avoid eating them.
This will immediately lead to decision fatigue and leave you wide open to the claws of upcoming temptations.
Ironically, studies show that people with the most self-control spend less time resisting temptations than others. That’s because they’ve leveraged their environment to empower them by removing the temptations.
7. Remove the Required Micro-Actions to Ensure the Real Action
Whenever you entertain the thought of doing a task, your subconscious mind quickly measures the sum of all the required mico-actions towards that task.
Let’s break down a popular action to its comprising micro-actions: practicing music, let’s say Guitar. Here are the required micro-actions:
Grabbing you Guitar case Opening it up Pulling out the Guitar Putting away the case Setting up to note sheets Holding the Guitar Starting to play
Micro-actions 1–5 add up to a lot of decisions to be made and your subconscious dissuades you by inducing a feeling of resistance.
Thus, to ensure execution, simply remove as much micro-actions as possible. In the practicing Guitar example, put your Guitar, out of its case, and put it on its stand in your room.
Next time you decide on playing guitar you only have to take two micro-actions: Grab it and start to play.
Final Words
Willpower is not something you can wrestle with. To tap into its endless benefits, and also to avoid its perils, you will be better off outsmarting it.
Happy thriving | https://medium.com/swlh/how-decision-fatigue-is-silently-killing-your-productivity-and-what-you-can-do-about-it-7d869f455321 | ['Amir Afianian'] | 2019-01-07 08:59:14.845000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Psychology', 'Productivity', 'Personal Development', 'Self Improvement'] |
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Ableism Awareness During the Month of CF Awareness | Ableism is sometimes subtle.
Story time: the summer after I graduated college, I was an intern at Hoboken City Hall. I had a job set up in September and need something else to do a few days out of the week besides going to open mics in Manhattan and Brooklyn. One day, I decided to make the travel (a six block walk) to my favorite pizzeria in Hoboken. If you’re from North Jersey, you know which pizzeria I’m talking about.
I sat down with my pepperoni slice and Diet Coke, but first I had to take my medicine. While taking out the pills I needed to take, I looked over my right shoulder as I could feel eyes darting at me. Lo and behold, there was a woman staring at me as I was going through my medicine.
That’s subtle. A stare, sometimes, is really subtle.
At the same time, I got it. It’s not often you see a young person take a lot of pills, especially by themselves. So, I’m sure she was taken for a loop. We’re all guilty of people watching, too. We’ve all done it.
What was weird was that she didn’t break her gaze. Usually, when people are caught people watching or staring, they’ll immediately look the other way. It’s the polite way to say, “I didn’t do it.” But this woman didn’t break her gaze.
She just kept staring. Then, she followed up with a head shake and a tisk.
Maybe five or six years before this, I would’ve said something. Maybe. I’m not so sure, but I’d like to think that when I was a teenager full of anger and adrenaline, minus brains, I would’ve said something. I didn’t. I actually froze up.
What followed was that I ate my pizza and left. I called my Mom and just vented my frustration. My life is already made harder so, why do people make it harder?
Ableism, also, isn’t subtle. It’s very direct. Sometimes, you’re too young to know what you’re dealing with or facing.
I had a hard time in 6th, 7th grade, and 8th grade. I wasn’t popular. I wasn’t well liked. I can also admit, I was really annoying and defensive. I just wanted to be a regular kid, but I wasn’t. The annoying and defensive parts of me that manifested around 2005, mellowed out by the time I graduated college.
Since then, I’ve done some reflection as to why I was the way I was. The summer of 2006 wasn’t the first time I faced ableism. However, there’s a huge difference when it comes from a peer compared to an adult. The trauma is heavier.
Recently, I was featured on the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s Instagram doing my Tobi nebulizer. That medicine, as much as its dramatically improved my life, also caused one of the more defining moments of my life.
That summer, I enrolled in a summer program for young boys who were on the precipice of graduating 8th grade. That summer, my lung function was the worst it had been in years and, before my doctor wanted to admit me into St. Vincent’s Hospital, she suggested I do the Tobi nebulizer.
One of the side effects of the Tobi is that your voice gets raspy and, in some cases, you can lose it for a while. Combine this with puberty and you can imagine my lack of desire to speak…or read…or do anything that required me to speak.
Well, I didn’t have a choice. In an English class that wasn’t taught by an actual teacher at the school, but someone who had enough cache to spend their summers moonlighting as a teacher, I was chosen to read out loud. I remember it was a short story by Langston Hughes.
So, here I am, standing in front of this class of people I barely knew. The second I opened my mouth to start reading, I started coughing. That’s nothing abnormal with CF. Then my voice, raspy as all hell, started to crack. Then I started coughing again
The guy looked at me and said, “Bro, do you smoke? Jesus Christ, you must smoke a pack of cigs a day or something!” The whole class started laughing. I forced myself to nervously laugh along. I told him it’s a medicine I’m taking that causes it to happen.
“Okay, Winston,” he said.
I kept trying to read, but couldn’t finish on account I was coughing a lot and well, my voice. He told me to leave and forget about it. I watched him shake his head and laugh to himself. When I closed the door, I heard laughter. Now, I’m not 100% sure it was about me, but I was at a minimum of 99% it was. I went to the bathroom and cried. I didn’t feel like I could tell anyone that an adult, affiliated with the school, made me feel this way. He wasn’t a legitimate teacher and I was looking to go there in the Fall of 2007.
I’m glad I was right that this one guy wasn’t an accurate representation of the school, its values, or the employees they hire(d) to be teachers. There’s a difference between making someone feel bad about themselves and getting a kid to laugh at themselves. It’s not a thin line.
There are a lot of other instances of ableism I’ve faced. I know other people with CF have probably faced questions/comments like “Are you going to die young?/You’re going to die young,” or “Why are you so skinny?” or “What’s with that cough?” etc. It’s not fun. The fact that we have to rise above our disease on top of dealing with insurance, treatments, having barely any energy to do anything, lack of institutional/government support, dealing with pharmacies that are inept, is enough to deal with. Don’t make it harder.
I’m not trying to pity party myself, by the way. My life is good now. I’m married and I’m healthy. She and I have two great dogs (the best in the world). I have great family and friend support. If you told me 10 years ago what my life would be like, I’d laugh. Here I am, though.
This year, during this month of cystic fibrosis awareness, be more considerate and aware of the language/verbiage you use and how you interact with us. I’m not going to say please. I shouldn’t have to. | https://medium.com/@willfromjersey/ableism-awareness-during-the-month-of-cf-awareness-c0ab3bc58f38 | ['William Ryan'] | 2021-05-04 17:14:16.867000+00:00 | ['New Jersey', 'Cystic Fibrosis', 'Ableism', 'Ableist'] |
Benefits of Blogging in your Career | Presently we are in 2020, and this year will stay in our brain and heart in the up and coming future. Due to Covid-19, a significant number of us experiencing a brutal circumstance at the present time. Particularly a visionary like me, who has loads of dreams for the future, yet additionally have inquiries on the impact of this pandemic. But, one beneficial thing occurred during this time, we began utilizing Try and Tested strategy on our hobbies.
Regardless of which hobbies you are thinking to use in your career, I will reveal how you can pursue blogging as a career that can assist you in shaping your leisure activities for your better future transporter.
Benefits of Blogging
Build Confidence
Writing has the power to influence people. Blogging helps you to construct certainty in your writing. It allows you to share your thoughts, criticisms, and positive vibes. Consistently around 409 million individuals see in excess of 20 million pages of online blogs and around 70 billion blog entries being distributed. The number itself demonstrates how much a blogger can reach with their writing and can fabricate their confidence level.
Improve Writing Experience
Persistently blogging about your preferred theme can improve your writing experience. It encourages you to catch up on essential standards of composing like syntax and spelling. It takes 3.5 hours on normal to compose a blog, and 46% of individuals alter their own work. It will urge you to compose all the more regularly and discuss it effectively with others.
Self Improvement
Blogging is nothing but a diary writing, where you will write your own experiences and mistakes. It takes you through your own life cycle where you will be experiencing again with your mistakes and allows you to unravel it which improves your self-development. Bloggers who compose 2000+ words article are unquestionably bound to have solid outcomes.
Create a Community
Building a community is one of the most significant factors these days. With your blogging, you can be a piece of such sort of network, where individuals will value your perspectives and you will make a Brand of Yourself. Every month roughly 77 million blog remarks are created, so you can comprehend there are such huge numbers of individuals to energize your enthusiasm.
Creativity & Knowledge
Consistently nurturing your blogging aptitudes can assist you with thinking creatively. It gives you new plans to connect with your crowd. You will increase enough knowledge which encourages you to set up expert in your locale. Blogs have been evaluated as the 5th most reliable hotspot for social affair online data these days.
Brand your Business
Blogging is one of the most supportive bits of gear to mark your business. With blogging, you can really take care of people group issues, which will expand the brand esteem and individuals will begin to recognize your products and services. 77% of internet users read blogs daily and organizations who blog, get 97% more links to their site.
To Earn Money
There are such huge numbers of people who do blogging to earn money. By blog affiliate marketing, Ads arrangement on your blog can allow you to get monetary advantages from your blogging career. By and large, a blogger can earn around $300 to $400 every month, except to arrive at this position you need to look over your aptitudes persistently.
Create Opportunities
We as a whole love those careers which offers us the opportunity to follow our hearts & drive us through an effective way in our life, Blogging is one of those careers. It creates opportunities like if you want, you can work as a freelancer in this career, and also it can help you to get your dream job. Following your passion through blogging can help you with your networking which gives you more opportunity to invest your time in good individuals.
Much obliged to you for investing your important energy with this article. I have put effort to write this blog, so if you like my article, follow me on social media platforms to know more.
Linked in — https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhik-mandal-148b82111/
Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/abhik___rony/?hl=en
twitter- https://twitter.com/abhik_rony | https://medium.com/@abhik.rony/benefits-of-blogging-in-your-carrier-249107e369b3 | ['Abhik Mandal'] | 2020-06-04 09:09:22.873000+00:00 | ['Blogging Tips', 'Blogging', 'Articles', 'Self Improvement', 'Carrier'] |
3 Ways You Can Master The Content Marketing Mindset | 3 PRINCIPLES FOR CONTENT MARKETING SUCCESS
Educate
These are the principles I follow when creating a content marketing strategy for our clients. These principles are back by scientific research on human behavior. I learned about this when reading a book called “Why Things Catch On” by Jonah Berger. He provided research as to why things go viral.
So we mimicked the principles into our content strategies with our clients and the results have proven themselves to be successful again and again.
“Education” gets shared mostly because of the practical value it provides and the social status people gain from sharing this information with others. It gets massive amounts of engagement because of the relevance it has in your audiences life.
Let’s take the fitness example, you’re an entrepreneur in the fitness clothing industry. You created a Facebook and Instagram to reach out to your audience but you don’t know exactly how to make the “connection” between your product and audience. This is where content becomes most beneficial. If you can provide FREE value in their life before asking for the sale, the conversion rate greatly increases.
If you created content giving people tips about how they can optimize there workout performance or show them how they can get the best sleep for muscle regrowth, you would be providing that value and making that connection.
In this strategy you’re creating a CUSTOMER, not a SALE.
Whats the likelihood of getting a repeat customer if you provide tremendous value in their lives on a DAILY BASIS? Very high.
Customers now want to build a personal relationship with the companies they cherish. They want to feel special and appreciated. This goes beyond the scope of advertising. This is a method to create long term marketing success.
Entertain
This is the most obvious and common of our principles because we see it everyday. People share funny videos and memes all the time. We adore humor and stop at nothing to get it. This principles crosses with Encouragement due to the natural effect of emotions at play. People laugh and want to share the same emotions with their friends so they tag them in the post or picture. It also makes the “sharer” seem funnier to their group which can also inspire the action of sharing.
I agree, being humorous is not easy if you don’t have that quality naturally. If you don’t find yourself funny, try being light-hearted or casual. If this doesn’t click for you, I would advise you hire those funny guys, Steller Creative, to come take the load off your back.
See what I did there? Funny. Maybe not Knee Slapper Of The Year but it converts.
Look at it this way, celebrities are the most viral people on the planet because they ENTERTAIN.
Encourage
Encouragement inspires people to MOVE. To take action towards a desired goal or result. Its an emotional stimulus that’s been driving sales for centuries. Most people don’t act unless you tell them. Similar to “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take” or “If you don’t ask, you won’t receive”.
You have to get your audience excited about what you have to offer. This is communicated in the subtlety of your marketing message. How many smiling faces does your customer see before checking out?
Is there way for you to generate excitement on your website or social media pages?
“MOTION CREATES E-MOTION!”
One of my favorite quotes ever was from the man, the myth, the legend, Tony Robbins. This quote has taught me about motivation and what gets people (even me) moving!
I even went so far off the deep end with this, I created a ritual for generating the kinds of emotions in my body that gets me moving. Not just physically but mentally.
How often do you wake up and not want to go to work? For most of America, that’s everyday. Nothing wrong with a little morning slug but when you lack the ability to influence your emotions, your performance can suffer.
I created this ritual based on knowing who I was and the type of work that I do. I’m not a morning person at all and often find myself extremely stifled and in my head. I also do a lot of networking and consulting throughout the day so being stifled is not an option when I leave my home. So in the morning, I do deep bellows and laugh as much as I can. Bellowing allows me to stretch my vocal cords which leaves me feeling relaxed and socially ready to engage. The laughing unstifles me and floods my brain with dopamine so I can think sharply and with clarity.
This is how I encourage myself to take action toward a result or goal for the day. It’s effective even though it was a little weird at first.
Learning how to encourage myself spark a catalyst in understanding how to encourage consumers. We’re all humans and share more in common than we do differences. Everyone needs the right kind of emotion to get them going. The challenge is in figuring out how to implement this science on your website and social media.
Share this with an entrepreneur who needs better content!
You obviously like this article, follow me to get more articles highlighting everything social media, marketing, and success. I dish out awesome content weekly!
This article was originally posted here | https://medium.com/steller-media-marketing/3-ways-you-can-master-the-content-marketing-mindset-341a9449c146 | ['Darrell Tyler'] | 2017-08-08 20:25:00.261000+00:00 | ['Content Marketing', 'Startup', 'Content', 'Content Strategy', 'Social Media Marketing'] |
Why did I buy Soundviz? | Not sure if I say this to my future self or to my kids, but my goal has always been about building an Online Asset Portfolio. The Ultimate dream is to have enough sites generating Passive Income.
By Online Asset PortfolioI mean websites that are generating Revenues through those 3 channels (in order of preference):
Print on Demand eCommerce; Affiliation Marketing sites (not Drop-shipping); eCommerce with Inventory.
I do NOT go for Drop-shipping websites as I believe its Profit Margin is way too low (15–20% gross profit at best). To advertise correctly and provide a value-added service (online chat + information content), I do need 50%+. To get 50%+, I clearly need my Balance Sheet to get the Inventory upfront. I usually can ease the risk using Payment Terms.
I purchased Soundviz.com through a well established Website/Business broker named FE International. Their value-added are:
the Audit/Control of the site Financials;
the escrow management of the transaction;
The insurance that the Buyer has enough cash to proceed.
So far with FE International, I only have been a Buyer. Nowhere in my personal Strategy is about Exit; I’d rather build for long-term revenues.
So will I give up on Online Business Projects?
No, I will NOT give up on running and participating into Online Shopping projects. This is the best way to keep up with the industry as you can learn a lot from your clients. Stakeholders from customers like the Trusted Family Office Platform have a lot of experiences that can help make better choices on future investments.
Adding the Soundviz Sound wave Generator to our Portfolio has forced us to learn new skills as well as understanding new conversion. The Soundviz founders, Tyler and Chelsea Davis, have built an almost fully automated Marketing Automation system. They also used all the state of the art tools for managing a Website project.
In the meantime
In the meantime, we are continuing to build more Assets, mainly in the Food Ingredients Business.
If you too want to grow your Online Asset Portfolio, you should be starting your website now. There is no excuse your eCommerce shop is not yet online: get a Domain name, a Hosting and install a Wordpress instance. You’ll deal with the doubts later. Pace is the key. | https://medium.com/@stpi/why-did-i-buy-soundviz-9e64e4ef8244 | ['Stephan Pire'] | 2021-07-26 06:15:22.280000+00:00 | ['Passive Income', 'Soundwave Art', 'Asset Management'] |
Ansible in real world! | Ansible use case in real world-
1-NASA
NASA needed to move 65 applications from a traditional hardware based data center to a cloud-based environment for better agility and cost savings. The rapid timeline resulted in many applications being migrated ‘as it is’ to a cloud environment. This created an environment which spanned multiple virtual private clouds (VPCs) and AWS accounts that could not be managed easily. Even simple things, like ensuring every system administrator had access to every server, or simple security patching, were extremely cumbersome.
The solution was to leverage Ansible Tower to manage and schedule the cloud environment.
Hence, to solve the problems that NASA had with lack of centralized management and a diverse environment, they evaluated multiple solutions and decided on an implementation of Ansible Tower. NASA is now leveraging Ansible Tower to manage their environment in a very organized and scheduled way.
Ansible Tower provided with a dashboard which provided the status summary of all hosts and jobs which allowed NASA to group all contents and manage access permissions across different departments. It also helped to split up the organization by associating content and control permission for groups as well.
Ansible Tower is a web-based interface for managing Ansible. One of the top items in Ansible users’ wishlists was an easy-to-use UI for managing quick deployments and monitoring one’s configurations. Ansible management came up with Ansible Tower in response.
Further, Ansible divided the tasks among teams by assigning various roles. It managed the clean up of old job history, activity streams, data marked for deletion and system tracking info
As a result of implementing Ansible, NASA is better equipped to manage its AWS environment. Ansible allowed NASA to provide better operations and security to its clients.
2- Hootsuite
HootSuite is a social media management system for businesses and organizations to collaboratively execute campaigns across multiple social networks from one secure, web-based dashboard. More than 75% of Fortune 1000 companies now use HootSuite for social media management, social marketing, social customer service, and social selling. Customers include PepsiCo, Virgin, FOX, Sony Music, and WWF.
The Problem:
The infrastructure is not scripted, repeatable or immutable. Rebuilding a server relies on limited documentation and mostly memory. Lack of repeatability made automating the infrastructure and application deployment difficult.
The Fix:
They mostly use Ansible core at this time. They currently are applying Ansible to all of their servers, in order to build any server from scratch and repeat this as many times as one wants to. Their future plan is to use Ansible for app deployment, and maybe even ad hoc production server management.
3-Cisco Automation
The Problem:
They had three different reasons they looked at Ansible originally. One was to remove non-value-add work that’s wrapped around user management, things of that nature. The second thing looked at from an Ansible perspective or automation perspective was we were starting a Cisco ACI journey. How do we deploy Cisco ACI in a way that was consistent and reliable and we trusted? The last one was, how to make our engineers’ lives better? Our engineers do a lot of work that’s again, non-value-add, but takes time from them.
The Fix:
So originally before they had Ansible, they had a number of different configuration management tools to do some level of automation. The other thing we had a lot of was engineers having their own scripts, their own methodologies for running their own automations, but it was very siloed, so an engineer may have one automation, another engineer may have another automation. There wasn’t a lot of sharing.
BENEFITS ACHIEVED BY USING ANSIBLE:
One of the things that Ansible has really allowed us to do is develop a common language of ground IT that works for people of all skillsets. For people that are more experts in the operation specific details of their jobs, they can continue to work at a very high level with the abstractions that Ansible already has in place. By contrast though, if we really need to dig under the hood and do something as a power user, Ansible still relies on common tools like Python and PowerShell that people can still get into.
One of the things that Ansible has really allowed to do is develop a common language of ground IT that works for people of all skillsets. For people that are more experts in the operation specific details of their jobs, they can continue to work at a very high level with the abstractions that Ansible already has in place. By contrast though, we really need to dig under the hood and do something as a power user, Ansible still relies on common tools like Python and PowerShell that people can still get into.
One of the things realized when we started using Ansible is not just the cost of what we are doing, but the opportunity cost of what we were leaving on the table. Now that we’ve started automating away the mundane, we’re able to move the organization forward working on initiatives like Cisco ACI, and so some innovative routing things with F5 and other technologies that really leave our organization on the cutting edge.
Because Ansible is so accessible, everybody is now speaking that common tongue when they go to automate their stuff and they’re able to build more things in more impressive ways because they have so many more skillsets. | https://medium.com/@vibhanshusharma13/ansible-in-real-world-be47b9ddcdf8 | [] | 2020-12-11 07:15:44.043000+00:00 | ['Vimal Daga', 'Industry', 'Arth', 'Ansible', 'Linuxworld'] |
Look forward to this. | Look forward to this. Looks to me this is the next gen of social media – a frictionless sharing of momentariness, that is at once not contrived or carefully curated yet well considered. This is where the “phone” as my natural extension of the hand, mouth, mind, ear, eye will play its role in creating stories. Stories that are spontaneous, true, transparent, momentary yet a memory.
Looks like Hardbound has figured _that_ space well. Can’t wait to see. | https://medium.com/thoughts-philosophy-writing/look-forward-to-this-d9217c15c143 | ['Arindam Basu'] | 2016-04-13 20:13:54.797000+00:00 | ['Hardbound', 'Storytelling'] |
5 Key Things to Check Before Holding Any Type of Event | Planning an event, no matter how small it may be, is a stressful job.
In order to plan and organize a great event, it’s best to create an all-encompassing checklist and even then it will need to go through a lot of changes. To help you ensure that you’ve got everything covered, here are five key issues to take into account in your planning.
1. Take COVID-19 restrictions into account
Every country and region has different coronavirus restrictions when it comes to who can enter the country, what types of gatherings are allowed, and other policies. You need to know everything there is to know about the COVID-19 rules of the country or state where you’re planning your event.
Inform yourself of all the regulations you must follow, like how many people can attend, do they need to have a negative PCR test, how many staff are you allowed to employ, whether you can serve food, and more.
These restrictions tend to change from season to season, so stay up to date on all the rules and make sure to share all the rules and regulations with your speakers and attendees. If you don’t want to have your in-person event replaced by a virtual event, prepare yourself well in advance.
2. Ensure your budget is realistic and approved
When it comes to event planning, it is difficult to set a budget and stick to it, because there are hidden expenses everywhere. That’s why you should always have a transparent talk with the person responsible for the budget to let them know how vendors need to be paid as well as what types of situations may require you to pay more in the end.
Any type of destruction of property, overtime, security policies and more may result in a higher cost, so be sure to discuss these issues and get a realistic budget approved.
You need to ensure that all new expenses are approved and justified. If you get any ideas on, for instance, the decor after the fact, don’t realize any changes without making sure you’re allowed to spend more money.
Budget is a tricky subject since many people don’t like discussing the amount of money they can allocate to a specific project, and tend to underestimate costs, so if you run into any problems in the early stages of event planning, try suggesting an amount rather than asking for an assessment that you fear may be unrealistic.
3. Check and recheck speaker availability
This may seem like an obvious step, but trust us, speaker availability should be checked more than once. Speakers may have a lot of offers for events on dates that conflict with your event.
If there is a lot of travelling involved, they may run late or have to cancel. To help you avoid situations like these, use SpeakerHub. It helps you find speakers on a variety of topics to fit your budget.
By using SpeakerHub, you can find reliable speakers and check their availability in a few steps. With useful testimonials available for speakers, you can check who will be the best fit for your audience.
If you have booked your speakers long in advance, you’ll need to remind them the event is coming up at least a couple of weeks ahead of time. This is an important step as you don’t want to hold an event without key speakers.
4. Offer alternative food options
With so many people having food allergies and/or having to stick to special diets, nowadays, it’s a must to include alternative food options for your guests. Ask your attendees to advise of any dietary preferences or needs at the time of registration so you know what is required.
That way, you’ll easily create a menu with your caterers that is inclusive and doesn’t leave anyone out. Once the food is out and on the table, make sure everything is properly labeled so that there is no confusion.
Another thing to think about is will you be serving alcohol and what kind. Depending on the type of the event, you could opt-out of alcoholic drinks and have people buy their own if they want them.
5. Is your ticket selling/registration software reliable?
Choosing the right ticketing software is extremely important. It has to be easy to use, has to integrate with your registration process, be mobile-friendly, and accept a variety of payment options.
It’s important that you keep a close eye on the sale of the tickets as the event approaches. If they’re not selling, you will need to ramp up your marketing efforts.
A good tactic to use is scarcity: Once you get people in your sales funnel you can entice them with a good offer. We suggest creating newsletters and social media ads focusing on how many tickets are available and how quickly they’re selling out. Event proposal will help you present your offer in a way that is engaging and relatable to clients. It ensures you communicate the details of what’s included, when it’ll take place, etc.
Seeing a ticking clock creates a sense of urgency with people and they’ll be more likely to buy tickets if they fear missing out. Use pictures and videos from your past events to show how great they were, and include a few reviews and social proofs.
It’s always great to bring the human factor into your marketing efforts, so it’s a great idea to ask your speakers to film short videos inviting people to the event. Ask them to share invites on their social media and create buzz around the event with their followers.
Conclusion
Organizing everything upfront is the best way to tackle event planning. However, there are always unexpected situations that pop up and force you to come up with a solution on the spot.
That’s why it’s important to stay on top of things and work with reliable people and software. The more effort you put into the early stages of your event planning, the better your chances of success.
Be sure to capture fun moments from your event to use for promotional purposes in the future. After all, if it’s not on Instagram, did it even happen?
About the author:
Petra Odak is a Chief Marketing Officer at Better Proposals, a simple yet incredibly powerful proposal software tool that helps you send high-converting, web-based business proposals in minutes. She’s a solution-oriented marketing enthusiast with more than 5 years of experience in various fields of marketing and project management.
This was originally posted on SpeakerHub Skillcamp. | https://medium.com/@speakerhubhq/5-key-things-to-check-before-holding-any-type-of-events-1c7ccbcf8e3b | [] | 2021-11-26 23:55:13.035000+00:00 | ['Public Speaking', 'Event Planning', 'Event Marketing', 'Speakerhub', 'Events'] |
A First for Tokenization in Mexico; The US SEC is Paving the Way to Digital Asset Adoption; Institutional Players & the DeFi Sector | A First for Tokenization in Mexico; The US SEC is Paving the Way to Digital Asset Adoption; Institutional Players & the DeFi Sector RedBlock Nov 12, 2020·6 min read
RedBlock Newsletter: Week Ending November 15th
First off, this week has been one to celebrate because, as you may have read if you’ve been on our Twitter, we are now officially operating out of Shenzhen! This momentous development positions us perfectly and reaffirms our commitment to being industry leaders.
You can read all about it in our full press release.
This week’s research report covers our partners at Securitize! Check that out in our digital securities research hub: https://www.redblockcap.com/research
Our newsletter has more developments from the US in terms of regulatory clarity, a groundbreaking development from our partners at Vertalo, and more strong indication that institutional players are embracing DeFi and digital asset technology. Read on to get those stories and more highlights from the world of digital assets in our newsletter below! | https://medium.com/@redblock/a-first-for-tokenization-in-mexico-the-us-sec-is-paving-the-way-to-digital-asset-adoption-fcd851fd44ef | [] | 2020-11-12 21:04:33.196000+00:00 | ['Regulation', 'Defi', 'Tokenization', 'Digital Asset', 'Tokenized Real Estate'] |
Sadhguru | Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more
Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore | https://medium.com/sadhguru-jv/sadhguru-5eef1283b3a5 | [] | 2020-12-25 13:06:08.639000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Yoga', 'Life Lessons', 'Meditation', 'Quotes'] |
CES 2021 day 1 highlights-Lenovo smart glasses, Sony 360-audio speakers, Dell curved monitor, and… | CES 2021 is here and, like every year, we are back with our Day 1 highlights. From futuristic massage chairs to smart glasses, this year is packed with cool tech updates as usual. This blog highlights our favorites from the first-ever virtual CES, starting with Day 1.
The first-ever virtual CES 2021 is here and we have been super excited by all the announcements we have seen so far. As expected, there are lots of new smart TVS, wearable tech, smart home devices, and unbelievable concepts. In fact, we’ve not just been blown away by the new Bang & Olufsen massage chair but also the Samsung digital cockpit for cars.
Related: Samsung’s Digital Cockpit transforms your vehicle into an entertainment hub
Samsung’s Digital Cockpit transforms your vehicle into an entertainment hub
So, without further ado, let’s dive into the best announcements from CES 2021 Day 1. We’ll be doing our regular CES series every day of this week, so come back to the blog tomorrow for more updates.
QUANTUM Audio Speakers by Bang & Olufsen massage chair
The QUANTUM Audio Speakers by Bang & Olufsen massage chair takes your regular massage chair one step further with unbelievable features. This chair aims to excite the senses of hearing and touch for its user with features like zero gravity mode, ventilated cooled and heated seats. Other features include a new uninterruptible power supply (UPS) and updated structural design.
Sony SRS-RA5000 speaker
Boasting 360 Reality Audio technology, the Sony SRS-RA5000 speaker contains seven drivers in total. Three of the drivers are up firing, three are side firing, and one is a center-mounted woofer. The 360 Reality Audio allows it to produce ambient room-filling sound, beaming audio in all directions. And, even if you listen to non-Sony-360 content, the Immersive Audio Enhancement algorithm can transform it.
ArcX sports ring
Accessing your phone while riding your bike just got easier with the ArcX sports ring. This wearable sports ring comes with a small joystick at one end. With the help of that joystick you can easily answer calls, change tracks, or just about do any activity from your phone without it being a distraction. You can also place the ArcX inside a series of cases which makes it easier to strap it to a handlebar or oar, as required.
Cync Indoor Smart Camera
The Cync Indoor Smart Camera is designed to keep your home secure and your information private. In fact, you can easily disable both the camera and microphone when you want extra privacy. What’s more, this indoor cam stores all content locally on the built-in SD drive. Boasting Full HD 1,080p resolution video, the Cync Indoor Smart Camera also has a night-vision setting. So you’ll be able to see what’s going on even when it’s very dark in your home.
Sonnet eGPU Breakaway Pucks
With their compact design, the Sonnet eGPU Breakaway Pucks portable Mac docks act as an all-in-one solution. Depending on your needs, choose the Radeon RX 5500 XT or the Radeon RX 5700. The former gets you moving up to 3.3 times faster than a 15″ MacBook Pro, and the latter operates up to 4.4 times faster. Recommended by Apple and certified by Thunderbolt, they’re a GPU, dock, and charging station all in one.
Lenovo ThinkReality A3 lightweight smart glasses
If you want to transform the way your business operates, the Lenovo ThinkReality A3 lightweight smart glasses are a great choice. Comfortable and lightweight, these AR glasses offer an exciting way to collaborate with remote teams. From 3D visualization to AR assisted workflows, these smart glasses facilitate work across an entire business. Just plug them into your PC to bring immersive qualities into your everyday work.
HP Elite Dragonfly Max laptop
Coming with AI-driven audio software, the HP Dragonfly Max laptop is a perfect fit for your work from home life. This business-focused laptop features a 5 MP webcam for improved video conferencing. It also has HP Eye Ease, a low-blue-light filter that’s always on and protects users from harmful blue light. Furthermore, with 4G or 5G connectivity and the new 11th-generation Intel chips, your work will get the power it needs.
HP ENVY 14 laptop
Get the power and graphics you need for your work setup with the HP ENVY 14 laptop. It boasts a powerful 11th-generation Intel Core processor, so it moves as fast as your big ideas. And with NVIDIA GeForce GTX graphics and a 14-inch display, you get images that you’ll love looking at each day. Plus, with a 16:10 aspect ratio, this is one immersive display.
Kensington SD5700T Thunderbolt 4 Dual 4K Dock
The Kensington SD5700T Thunderbolt 4 Dual 4K Dock powers all of your peripherals at once. That’s thanks to 90W of power delivery for a premium Thunderbolt solution. This impressive docking station connects up to three additional Thunderbolt devices directly (up to a total of five additional) while delivering 40Gbps of total bandwidth. Furthermore, this gadget comes with 11 ports, including four Thunderbolt 4 ports, four USB-A ports, one Gigabit Ethernet port, one UHS-11 SD 4.0 card reader, and more.
V-MODA M-200 ANC over-ear headphones
Boasting hybrid active noise cancelation technology, the V-MODA M-200 ANC over-ear headphones give you customizable control through the app. In fact, the V-MODA app gives you an EQ tool that lets you create just the right signature. More than that, though, its ANC controls include 10 different levels depending on your surroundings. You can easily activate Voice In with the touch of a button when you need to hear the world around you.
Lenovo Yoga AIO 7 all-in-one desktop PC
The Lenovo Yoga AIO 7 all-in-one desktop PC has a rotating hinge that lets you swivel the frame from horizontal to vertical. Moreover, you can tilt the viewing angle from completely flat to up to 20 degrees! With the built-in wireless casting hardware, you can control the Lenovo Yoga AIO 7 using your tablet or smartphone. Don’t worry-the content on your screen rotates automatically to make it easy to use.
motorola one 5G ace mid-tier smartphone
Designed for the mid-range phone user, the motorola one 5G ace mid-tier smartphone has impressive features. Boasting AI-driver performance, it can handle intense tasks. More than that, though, this motorola phone uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G 5G Mobile Platform to provide super-fast 5G speeds. So you can download, stream, and video chat without any lag or slow down.
Panasonic JZ2000 OLED TV
Use the Panasonic JZ2000 OLED TV for gaming, as it features a low latency so that there’s little display between pressure the button on your control and the action displayed on the screen. And it even comes with a dedicated picture mode for an enhanced viewing experience. In addition, the Panasonic JZ2000 TV features upward-firing and front-firing speakers, which is also known as the 360° Soundscape Pro.
JBL SA750 Integrated Amplifier
A celebratory 75th-anniversary edition, the JBL SA750 Integrated Amplifier boasts an impressive integrated amplifier. The Class G amplifier delivers 120W of power per channel, providing impeccable sound quality and efficiency for audio that’s incredibly detailed and accurate. Moreover, the JBL SA750 Integrated Amplifier boasts a retro-inspired aluminum face panel that complements any home’s decor.
JBL LIVE PRO+ true wireless headphones
Made with three microphones in each earbud, the JBL LIVE PRO+ true wireless headphones boast echo-canceling technology. This means you’re sure to get super clear calls even when your surroundings are noisy. With a stick design, these earbuds offer Adaptive Noise Canceling with Smart Ambient, a technology that lets you have natural conversations without taking them out. Designed with Device Action support, they let you use voice assistants with a tap or voice commands.
AirPop Active+ Smart Mask
The AirPop Active+ Smart Mask helps you stay healthy by monitoring your breathing and the quality of the air around you. This high-tech face mask has a built-in sensor — called the Halo — that monitors your breathing rate as well as the installed filter’s lifespan. This filter blocks allergens, dust, and particles, and you want to make sure it’s always up to snuff.
Dell UltraSharp 40 Curved Monitor
The Dell UltraSharp 40 Curved Monitor is aimed at creative workers and those searching for a screen that offers excellent attention to detail. In particular, it features a wide WUHD resolution of 5,120 x 2,160 and an aspect ratio of 21:9. And it has a total of over 11 million pixels. These specifications make the Dell UltraSharp 40 Curved Monitor wider than a traditional 4K display without the same width of a gaming monitor.
Samsung 2021 Neo QLED Accessible TV Lineup
Upgrade your TV experience with the Samsung 2021 Neo QLED Accessible TV Lineup. An exciting offering on CES day 1 roundup, this series features a new Quantum Mini LED light source, taking QLED technology to the next level.
Samsung The Frame 2021 Lifestyle TV
Transform your display into a work of art when you have the Samsung The Frame 2021 Lifestyle TV. This model is thinner than previous models, making it look just like a picture frame. You’ll love the attachable bezel options in five color choices and two styles: Modern and Beveled.
COLOP e-mark Mobile Printer
Print barcodes, logos, and more on various materials-including ribbons and wristbands-with the COLOP e-mark Mobile Printer. This gadget works like a stamp to transfer prints onto any material up to 5.9 inches in width. Best of all, you use your own images and texts with the help of the e-mark app.
BenjiLock By Hampton Keyless Fingerprint Entry
Keep your home secure with the BenjiLock By Hampton Keyless Fingerprint Entry, another cool product on our roundup of products from CES day 1. This smart lock stores 10 fingerprints and 25 user codes so that you can lock and unlock your front door without a key.
LG InstaView Refrigerator 2021 Series
Tell your fridge what you want it to do when you have the LG InstaView Refrigerator 2021 Series. It responds to voice commands to open or check the status of the water and ice dispensers. You can also view the day’s agenda on the built-in panel.
LG Display 48-Inch Bendable CSO Gaming Display
Bend the LG Display 48-Inch Bendable CSO Gaming Display for immersive gaming or smooth it flat to watch TV. This gaming display has a curvature radius of up to 1000R. What’s more, this OLED display vibrates and produces sound without speakers thanks to its ultra-slim film exciter.
LG 2021 InstaView Range with Air Sous Vide Air Fryer Oven
Make comfort foods healthier when you the LG 2021 InstaView Range with Air Sous Vide Air Fryer Oven. This CES day 1 kitchen gadget helps you cook lighter versions of your favorite recipes since you won’t need to use oil. And with zero preheating required, you’ll have meals ready in no time.
WOWCube System Handheld Game
Immerse yourself in a game wherever you go with the WOWCube System Handheld Game. This handheld gaming system encourages playing and learning thanks to 24 high-resolution screens and eight autonomous modules. It also has magnetic connectors and a built-in CPU.
LG Autonomous Robot
A great option for hotels, schools, restaurants, and corporate sectors, the LG Autonomous Robot disinfects high-touch areas using ultraviolet light. Best of all, it sanitizes multiple areas in just 15 to 30 minutes on just one charge.
Vaonis Vespera Lightweight Telescope
Explore the cosmos from the comfort of your patio when you have the Vaonis Vespera Lightweight Telescope, another great product on our CES day 1 roundup. This powerful telescope is also a camera, letting you share your discoveries with family and friends.
Samsung 100″ MicroLED TV
Split your TV screen to watch four shows simultaneously when you have the Samsung 100″ MicroLED TV. This way, multiple users can watch their entertainment while using other apps. Also, this impressive television offers stunning visuals with 4K HDR content.
LG QNED Mini LED TV
The LG QNED Mini LED TV combines quantum dot and NanoCell technologies with Mini LEDs to produce intense contrasts, accurate colors, and deep blacks for incredibly lifelike images. And with a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz, the TV renders motion smoothly and naturally.
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The Gadget Flow Daily Digest highlights and explores the latest in tech trends to keep you informed. Want it straight to your inbox? Subscribe ➜ | https://medium.com/the-gadget-flow/ces-2021-day-1-highlights-lenovo-smart-glasses-sony-360-audio-speakers-dell-curved-monitor-and-fa1f8c8591f2 | ['Gadget Flow'] | 2021-01-11 18:51:51.043000+00:00 | ['Tech', 'Consumer Electronics', 'CES', 'Gadgets', 'Technology'] |
Resilience | May 26, 2020
In the midst of this pandemic, people are anxious and uneasy, uncertain about what the future holds. There are plenty of reasons to be, especially if you live in the U.S., let alone New York — double-digit unemployment; trillion dollar federal deficits; many months if not years of social distancing; and dire predictions for the restaurant, hotel, travel, and entertainment industries.
How can we be optimistic in the face of such circumstances? Is it rational to be hopeful when all of the data suggest otherwise? Yes, it is. Optimism, as it turns out, is essential for mental health. In two different studies of war prisoners, optimism was actually identified as the single most important predictor of resilience, that is, how successfully they recover from adversity. (1, 2)
Resilience is more than just survival. It’s thriving in the face of hardship and loss, even unimaginable loss. Resilient people and organizations can lean into a setback, even with limited resources, relying on their own strengths and skills, to see opportunities in setbacks and rebound as stronger and more resourceful.
Resilience is how we look through a crisis with determined, dispositional optimism to form the most positive vision of what’s possible on the other side. Absent resilience, we remain mired in the crisis and waste valuable energy looking behind us rather than in front of us, when forward is actually the only direction we can go.
Looking Backward Doesn’t Get You Anywhere
Years ago, we lived next door to a family with a three-year-old son. Whenever they would leave the apartment, a complicated process would ensue, which seemed to involve removing all their belongings from the apartment, piling them in the corridor, then putting many of them back into the apartment before eventually being able to leave. They once explained to us, apparently feeling the need to rationalize this ritual, that Ben wasn’t “good with transitions.” These parents weren’t fostering resilience in Ben. If he wasn’t being taught how to successfully manage leaving the apartment, what foundation would he have for navigating more stressful situations he may encounter in the future?
Today, Ben may be deciding what to do about attending college in the fall — in light of COVID. He may be thinking that fall semester will likely not be what he expected six months ago. If his parents are willing to support him, he may be considering a gap year, even though his options for how he might spend this particular year (with limited travel opportunities, economic uncertainty, record unemployment) are admittedly dim. Basically, he is literally considering putting his life on hold, waiting for the world to fit his expectations.
Looking Ahead Isn’t Easy
Christina Paxson, president of Brown University, wrote an op-ed in The New York Times about reopening Brown and other universities this fall. Her argument was based upon the dual premise that, first, remote learning has presented untenable financial, practical, and psychological challenges for students; and second, failing to reopen would throw higher education into an existential crisis.
She explained it won’t be easy. “Our students will have to understand that until a vaccine is developed, campus life will be different. Students and employees may have to wear masks. Large lecture classes may remain online even after campuses open. Traditional aspects of collegiate life — athletic competitions, concerts, and yes, parties — may occur, but in much different fashions…. Taking these necessary steps will be difficult and costly, and it will force institutions to innovate as we have never done before. But colleges and universities are up to the challenge.”
In an op-ed in The Harvard Crimson, Carine M. Hajjar, class of ’21, expressed her opinion on the matter more bluntly. “…I do not, under any circumstances, want to waste a semester at Harvard online. And frankly, it seems that nobody does….” Of course, not. No one wanted this pandemic either.
“Let’s face it — if we go online,” she continued, “a huge portion of the student population will seek time off…. Going online is not only a terrible idea; going back to campus without a social life will not suffice either. In each of my classes, professors and students alike spend a moment each class lamenting the loss of the in-person authenticity that is undoubtedly a highlight of our education.”
I do not want to underestimate the toll that this disruption has taken on society, least of all on students. But we would all be better served looking ahead rather than looking back. The college experience for the class of ’21 will simply not look like the experience for the class of ’19, no matter how or when Harvard elects to reopen. The world has been changed irrevocably beyond our control.
Looking Through A Crisis Is Even Harder
The way forward then is to focus on what we can control, and the only thing we can really control is how we choose to respond to external forces and events. Resilient, adaptable people will lean into this crisis to see the unanticipated opportunities that present themselves.
The obvious place to start is taking stock of the ways in which this pandemic has changed our lives in a positive way. I’ve heard people say they actually have more meaningful, more intentional contact with friends and colleagues. They are more aware of the need to communicate and connect on a regular basis. Is it possible that we are more conscious of showing empathy? Of being kind to one another? Now when we say, Be well, we mean it literally.
We’ve also learned how quickly and effectively we can adapt, if forced to. Things that might have been unheard of a few months ago, actually happened. My daughter is taking ballet and Pilates via web conference. I’ve attended super fun Zoom birthday parties, enormously engaging virtual galas, and genuinely moving remote graduations. Obviously, it would have been our preference to be together in person, but challenging ourselves to celebrate meaningfully in more creative ways yielded surprising results.
Companies that didn’t believe in working from home, suddenly had no choice but to embrace it. Brokerage houses that always required large, open trading floors for efficient trading are now seeing record-breaking trading volumes with brokers working from home. We’ve seen a world without commutes and witnessed the planet beginning to heal itself.
Perhaps the most responsive professionals to crisis by training, healthcare professionals adapted in ways unimaginable — creating, renovating, and retrofitting spaces into intensive and critical care units; converting conference rooms and parking lots into testing and triage facilities; rapidly enlarging emergency rooms, adding ICU beds, and increasing oxygen supply capacity — all to take care of people with a disease they’d never seen before.
Of course, it’s not all good. And we need to be realistic. But according to David Rothkopf, professor of international relations and journalist, “Optimism is realism.” He explains, “That may be a hard concept to embrace in the middle of a rapidly worsening global pandemic and a crushing economic crisis. But history shows it is the right one. In fact, without that point of view, there very likely would not be any history at all.”
Seeing what we are capable of — and letting go of the impossible — allows us to access our emotional strength and move forward with intentional and determined optimism about the future. If we can’t envision a positive, new kind of future for ourselves, it’s even less likely that we’ll ever be able to make it a reality.
1 Segovia, F., Moore, J.L., Linnville, S.E., Hoyt, R.E., & Hain, R.E. (2012). Optimism predicts resilience in repatriated prisoners of war: A 37-year longitudinal study, Journal of Traumatic Stress, vol. 25, issue 3.
2 Southwick, Steven M.; Charney, Dennis S. (Cambridge University Press, 2012). Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges, 1st Edition. | https://medium.com/@beaueverett/resilience-fe725155a7a1 | ['Beau Everett'] | 2020-12-18 19:44:18.252000+00:00 | ['Pandemic', 'Resilience'] |
Growing Up in the Shadow of Addiction | Growing Up in the Shadow of Addiction
Children who grow up with addiction and the relational trauma that surrounds it can carry the imprint of that pain for the rest of their lives.
And as adult children of addicts (ACoAs), we can be very confused about just what we’re healing from and just how we should go about healing it. Many of us think that we can read a couple of books, “understand” what went wrong and be able to think ourselves into inner peace. Some or us feel like victims and resent any implication that we need to do anything at all. Sill others who begin to realize just how affected we were by growing up with adverse childhood experiences like addiction, are incensed that we have to do all of this work to get better from “someone else’s” illness.
So we want to by-pass the years and years of the cumulative effects of relational trauma. We want to think ourselves better. We feel that if we understand what happened, we will be over it. We want to grieve once, to sob once, to hit a tackle dummy with a bataka once and get rid of all those years of pain. And all too often, we sell ourselves the bill of goods that we have. But make no mistake about it, like it or not, wherever the “illness” began, it is ours to deal with and get better from in the here-and-now.
I made the connection in my book The ACoA Trauma Syndrome, that ACoAs have a post traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) in which pain from childhood, is reemerging and being experienced in adult relationships today. This is a relationship illness. Much like a soldier returning from war hits the dirt when he or she hears a car backfiring, the ACoA goes numb, implodes or explodes when we experience relationship cues in the present, that trigger our unresolved pain, from a time in our past. When we enter intimate relationships in adulthood, feeling the vulnerability and dependency that adult intimacy inevitably requires of us, triggers all of those feelings of what closeness meant from early in our lives, for better and for worse. We can feel “little”, vulnerable” and anxious all over again, as if we have to shut up and go along, or keep our needs and desires to ourselves, rather than risk ridicule or rejection. But we don’t really know why and we think it’s the other person in the present, who is “making” us feel that way because we’re unaware of what we are bringing into our relationships from our pasts.
The Terrified Mind:How the Brian and Body Process Relational Trauma
The nature of trauma is that the extreme stress or even terror of living with the alarming mood swings, rage and chaos of addiction, abuse or neglect, have the dual effect of both shutting the thinking mind down and creating lifelong hypervigilance. The fact that our thinking mind was not processing and making conscious sense of frightening or dis-equilibrating events and relational dynamics from our childhoods, means that many of the feelings and much of the information from those events remain unconscious. In other words feelings never got processed, thought about and elevated to conciousness through words. We never talked them over, right sized them and came back to a place of understanding what was happening. I mean how many of us as kids with drunk parents had someone telling us, “don’t worry about being raged at and hit, Dad or Mom is just drunk or high, you did nothing wrong, give it a few minutes, they will be fine.” The shame and unconsciousness associated with our parents’ behavior, generally meant that it never got talked about. And more often than not, while we were being terrified, we were also being blamed for their out of control behaviour. So our fear, anxiety and pain just went underground, it remained locked within us in a frozen, unconscious state.
That’s why as ACoAs, we don’t know what we don’t know,
or even that we don’t know.
We need to bring unconscious feelings related to the events of our childhoods to a conscious level, so that they can be processed, understood and made mature sense of, brought into closure and understanding. And this can hurt. It can catapult us back to the most painful parts of our growing up, the parts that we hid from because they hurt too much to feel. The parts that we threw out of consciousness, because we found them so frightening. And when we re-feel these forgotten emotions, we can feel young, vulnerable and defenseless all over again, just as we did as kids.
And this is why ACoAs want to get better in their heads, so we don’t have to white knuckle our way through all of the distressing and disturbing emotions that we thought we’d left behind.
But here’s the test, do the things that used to trigger you, still trigger you? Healing has occurred when:
· You can direct your attention to or away from the painful material or the trauma, at your own will.
· When your spontaneous response to situations that used to trigger you, is fundamentally different, when your spontaneous reaction changes and lightens (without your lying to yourself).
Doing “all this work” can feel threatening to us as ACoAs. Repressed emotion was repressed for a reason, it was too overwhelming to feel at that time in our lives, when we were kids, so we got rid of it by shutting down, going numb or dissociating. Going back and feeling all of those feelings that we repressed or dissociated, feels scary all over again. When the feelings get triggered, either in life or in therapy, we want to get rid of them today, just as we wanted to get rid of them yesterday. The easiest and most common or convenient way to get rid of them, is to make them about someone or something else, “you hurt me therefore I am enraged and my rage is justified,” or “you’re being so mean that I am in a flood of tears, how can you hurt me like this, my tears have a reason, and the reason it probably, you.” But sadly, this does nothing to connect them to their original source, it does not trace our reaction or more often our over-reaction to that child inside of us who still longs to get angry or enraged or to collapse in heap of helpless and infuriated tears.
But out of sight is not out of mind.
Unfelt, unacknowledged emotions that have never been made conscious, come out sideways. Some of the ways in which they reemerge and disturb our relationships are through:
Projections: We get rid of pain we can’t sit through by making it about someone else, you’re the problem, if only you’d change, I’d be fine. I keep choosing the wrong people. We see as belonging to another person, what we are blind to in ourselves.
Reenactment Dynamics/Passing Down the Pain: In a convoluted attempt to avoid pain we’re hypervigilant or we over react or we see problems that could be managed easily as unmanageable. Our stress sensors our set too high. By over-reacting, we wind up recreating old, painful relational dynamics in new relationships e.g. with partners and children.
Transferences: Transferring unconscious pain from relationships in the past onto new relationships in the present. We see qualities in a person person in the present in the same way that we felt them as children but we fail to recognize that we may be transferring pain from childhood, onto today’s relationships.
Acting Out Old Childhood Pain and Abuse Through Our Behavior Today: If we lived with rage (silent or overt) as a child, we become the rager to our own children. If we were abused as a child, we abuse our own children or spouse today. If we were neglected as children, we over react or under react by being either overbearingly absorbed in our children or neglectful.
I find that framing this “work” as a spiritual challenge, a path towards greater enlightenment, gives it a higher purpose and meaning. If you need to heal this kind of ACoA pain, the world is full of resources. Do read a book or two and get the lay of the land, but check out twelve step meetings in your area. They are free, life changing and create a path out. Meetings tend to be different in different areas of the country or world, the meetings that can be relevant for ACoAs are alanon, Codependents Anonomous (CODA) or ACA or ACoA meetings. Google can likely come up with what’s available in your area, check several out before deciding which meetings feel right to you, helaing is around the corner.
for further information on COAs, log onto nacoa.org | https://medium.com/thrive-global/its-children-of-addicts-week-so-how-does-growing-growing-up-in-the-shadow-of-addiction-3f0e5623cb56 | ['Tian Dayton Phd'] | 2019-02-12 17:38:05.322000+00:00 | ['Codependency', 'Emotional Intelligence', 'Mental Health', 'PTSD', 'Acoa'] |
I interviewed at six top companies in Silicon Valley in six days, and stumbled into six job offers | Introduction & Statistics
I knew I wanted a job in the Bay Area where I could really grow from a mobile perspective at a larger company. I’ve worked at startups before and I’ve loved it, but for a few reasons, I was looking at the big fish this go-around (in terms of valuation, not strictly team size). I also knew that I wasn’t positive where I wanted to work or how much compensation I’d need to match what I’m making now. I also knew I didn’t want to apply to 100+ places like I did when I was graduating from college.
All told, I applied to 20 companies. I was explicitly rejected by 4 of those companies (Reddit, Nest, Stripe, Uber) after applying. Of the remaining 16, 10 companies never responded to me either way (Lyft, Airbnb, Dropbox, Instagram, YouTube, Square, Robinhood, Twitter, Snap, Slack). Math dictates 6 companies followed up with a recruiter screen. Of those 6 companies, I was able to get phone screens with 6, onsites with 6, and offers from 6.
Reviewing my Google Calendar, I believe I had (approximately):
7 recruiter screens in 10 days
7 technical screens in 11 days
29 onsite interviews in 8 days
3 follow-up phone interviews
Adding up the above says I had 46 interviews in 73 days (including gaps between each step). It was exhausting and it meant that most of my lunch breaks were just interviews for multiple weeks. I had to start going into work very early so I could leave earlier to take calls at home. Making sure I was still meeting all of my commitments at work was a challenge, too, but I made sure to prioritize that over interviewing, rescheduling when necessary. I wouldn’t phone it in for the purposes of interviewing. It makes you look bad, it’s unethical, and if you don’t get a job, you’re now a lower performer.
The Companies, in order
LinkedIn (Sunnyvale, CA)
Link to my heart rate during my onsite (normal resting rate of 60).
LinkedIn’s mobile apps are actually pretty slick and they have some solid contributions to the open source community. I was very impressed throughout the entire interview process with LinkedIn from both a culture perspective and an engineering perspective. They rose the highest on my mental list of iOS Prestige™ from the start of the process until the end.
Yelp (San Francisco, CA)
Link to my heart rate during my onsite (normal resting rate of 60)
Yelp has a really beautiful app with tons of iOS subtleties that show an understanding of the platform. I loved the vibe onsite. They have a beautiful building and I’d love to work with any of my interviewers. They’re much smaller than any of the other companies I applied to and it showed in all of the good ways. It seemed very tight knit and the process moved fast.
Apple (Cupertino, CA)
Link to my heart rate during my onsite (normal resting rate of 60)
Apple’s been an important part of iOS for a while (har har). I grew up an extreme Apple fanboy (since the age of 12, at least). The Mac originally got me into programming. The iPhone SDK encouraged me to build and ship my first app. It was absolutely surreal to have them invite me onsite and later extend me an offer. I don’t know what else there is to say on that front.
Amazon (Palo Alto, CA)
Link to my heart rate during my onsite (normal resting rate of 60)
I wouldn’t consider Amazon a “mobile-first” as a company (at all). This position/team, though, met the criteria I laid out to start. I wasn’t in love with the Palo Alto building I was in specifically, but it’s a temporary office until they move into a more Amazon-y building, so it’s mostly poor interview timing on that front. The people I spoke to seemed pretty dedicated to their product. Although every company loved telling me that “it really feels like a startup!”, it rang the truest at Amazon.
Facebook (Menlo Park, CA)
Link to my heart rate during my onsite (normal resting rate of 60)
I interviewed Facebook’s newest building. I thought it was really cool overall, although I’m somewhat hazy on the details about how the interview itself went because I was on my fifth consecutive day of interviewing with inadequate sleep. I do remember really enjoying the people I spoke with and having a very insightful lunch interview.
Google (Mountain View, CA)
Link to my heart rate during my onsite (normal resting rate of 60)
Google, to my understanding, does pretty “generic” interviews for a given role. I spoke to a lot of members from one of Google’s biggest products on iOS, but I wasn’t interviewing for a position specifically with that team. After I passed through Google’s hiring committee I moved on to the team matching phase and ultimately matched up with a team. It’s a very loooooong process relative to the rest of the companies I spoke with, so I definitely had to keep everyone updated on where Google was. I also had to let Google know where I was with everyone else.
Study Plan
To be clear, I was starting from a position where I could probably do most Leetcode Easy problems in ~30 minutes, and I could maybe solve 25% of Leetcode Medium problems with infinite time. Solving Leetcode Hard problems were akin to trying to solve P=NP. In short, I had a large gap to bridge.
To study algorithms I began first with Cracking the Coding Interview. On Sunday mornings I’d wake up and go to a coffee shop and grind out some problems in Objective-C. Once I did enough problems in CtCI (I think I solved ~35 problems) I would review a handful of Leetcode problems in the chapters I’d gone over. After a few weeks of this, I felt I had “the basics” down and moved on to my next phase.
With the basics down, I moved on to Elements of Programming Interviews. This book is considerably more difficult than CtCI. The book has recommended study plans that I stuck pretty closely with. I think there was one that planned on four weeks of studying and I got through almost all of it. It is critical, in my opinion, to either whiteboard problems with someone or mock a phone interview with someone. Not critical as in “very important”, but critical as in you should consider it an absolute requirement when studying. I’m sure you can get a job without it, but it’s the single best form of practice I had.
If anyone wants to mock phone interviews for iOS I’d be happy to help out — you may be able to find me on CS Career Hackers and maybe we can work something out, time permitting. If not me, there are plenty of others there willing to help out. It’ll be awkward. That’s the point. If it were natural you wouldn’t need to practice it, would you? If you start practicing on the phone or on a whiteboard and it’s embarrassing or awkward, it’s a sign you’re doing exactly what you should be: practicing. It was pretty awkward for me until it wasn’t, and the practice absolutely paid off.
After about a month of consistently practicing problems each day (maybe 2–3 hours/day, more on weekends) I moved on to doing primarily Leetcode’s “Top Interview Questions”. I didn’t do them all but I did “enough”. The key to preparing algorithm interviews is to get yourself to a point that you can figure out a problem during the interview, not necessarily to know how to do every problem. That’s impossible. Almost all of the questions I heard over my week of onsites were “new” to me yet similar to questions I’d seen. That’s how most development goes in the industry, too. You have a lot of similar problems but your particular use case has special constraints.
Lessons Learned
I’m going to present a bunch of lessons I learned as bullet points in no particular order. Everything listed below is something I wish I knew beforehand, both in terms of preparation on the technical side and in terms of scheduling and other non-technical tips. These lessons are not iOS-specific and I’d imagine are generally applicable to all interviews in our industry.
📚 Stick with it. When I was looking for a job out of school I gave up after one or two weeks of studying. I reasoned that I simply was not cut out to learn the stuff. There was minimal progress from when I first started for weeks, so what was the point of wasting any more time? This time around, I figured I didn’t have a choice. Eventually, things started falling into place. It’s a lot of work, but the willingness to learn is what separates successful candidates from the rest.
When I was looking for a job out of school I gave up after one or two weeks of studying. I reasoned that I simply was not cut out to learn the stuff. There was minimal progress from when I first started for weeks, so what was the point of wasting any more time? This time around, I figured I didn’t have a choice. Eventually, things started falling into place. It’s a lot of work, but the willingness to learn is what separates successful candidates from the rest. 🤓 Practice is almost everything. You certainly need a baseline of innate ability, but practice (i.e. learning) can fill in very wide ability gaps. Companies don’t hire people based on the knowledge they were born with. They hire those that can perform their duties and perform them well, regardless of where/when they cultivated the knowledge.
You certainly need a baseline of innate ability, but practice (i.e. learning) can fill in very wide ability gaps. Companies don’t hire people based on the knowledge they were born with. They hire those that can perform their duties and perform them well, regardless of where/when they cultivated the knowledge. 👫 Practicing with a friend is everything else. Whether on a whiteboard or on something like Codeshare, simulating an interview environment with someone over a period of time takes a lot of the scariness out of interviews. You get over the awkwardness of verbalizing something totally stupid to someone because your brain slipped. The best is if you can make sure someone understands a problem you haven’t seen before, as they can give you hints to push you toward a solution. Seriously, that kind of practice is invaluable.
Whether on a whiteboard or on something like Codeshare, simulating an interview environment with someone over a period of time takes a lot of the scariness out of interviews. You get over the awkwardness of verbalizing something totally stupid to someone because your brain slipped. The best is if you can make sure someone understands a problem you haven’t seen before, as they can give you hints to push you toward a solution. Seriously, that kind of practice is invaluable. 📊 It’s a numbers game. You can practice — effectively, even — and not land a job because the right person didn’t see your resumé or you just didn’t see a solution to a whiteboard problem in time. The best you can hope to do is maximize your odds. This means applying everywhere you would like to work and fit a job req and not just your top choice. I applied for my top 20!
You can practice — effectively, even — and not land a job because the right person didn’t see your resumé or you just didn’t see a solution to a whiteboard problem in time. The best you can hope to do is maximize your odds. This means applying everywhere you would like to work and fit a job req and not just your top choice. I applied for my top 20! 🤔 Focus on the problem solving, not the solution. Memorization isn’t enough. Of ~20 algorithm problems I saw in a week I had seen maybe one of the problems before (and I let my interviewer know, though many would disagree with that choice). I just saw lots of common patterns and I was able to come up with solutions on the fly.
Memorization isn’t enough. Of ~20 algorithm problems I saw in a week I had seen maybe one of the problems before (and I let my interviewer know, though many would disagree with that choice). I just saw lots of common patterns and I was able to come up with solutions on the fly. 😣 Don’t get discouraged. There were multiple interviews I had where I didn’t know the solution and interviewers had to shepherd me towards a solution. I still got offers from everywhere I interviewed. Also, I felt I absolutely bombed one of my interviews (four of my five that day I thought were solid “no hires”) and the company later extended me an offer. Anything can happen, evidently. :)
There were multiple interviews I had where I didn’t know the solution and interviewers had to shepherd me towards a solution. I still got offers from everywhere I interviewed. Also, I felt I absolutely bombed one of my interviews (four of my five that day I thought were solid “no hires”) and the company later extended me an offer. Anything can happen, evidently. :) 🤯 Don’t be quick to disregard problems. There were multiple times I was practicing with a friend of mine and he shrugged off particularly difficult problems as pointless to know. Curiously enough, of the four types of problems I recall him saying would “never” come up, two of them did. Not in the exact form we were going to practice, but very similar. If your practice shows a certain concept come up frequently, learn it.
There were multiple times I was practicing with a friend of mine and he shrugged off particularly difficult problems as pointless to know. Curiously enough, of the four types of problems I recall him saying would “never” come up, two of them did. Not in the exact form we were going to practice, but very similar. If your practice shows a certain concept come up frequently, learn it. 🧐 Don’t underestimate the importance of behavioral questions . I think I enjoyed a lot of success because my (honest) answers were what companies wanted. It’s my theory that many developers have strong technical skills and still struggle to find their perfect job because they’re rude, dishonest, or uncomfortable speaking to people outside of a technical setting. These are all justifiable reasons to reject a candidate, in my opinion. Practice them just as you would technical questions.
. I think I enjoyed a lot of success because my (honest) answers were what companies wanted. It’s my theory that many developers have strong technical skills and still struggle to find their perfect job because they’re rude, dishonest, or uncomfortable speaking to people outside of a technical setting. These are all justifiable reasons to reject a candidate, in my opinion. Practice them just as you would technical questions. 🧠 If you know more, show it. There were multiple examples during my onsites where I would answer a question and mention some other knowledge I had but explain that I didn’t have time in an interview to fully implement that solution. Answering a question about strings? Show off your Unicode knowledge with your solution or explain how to support Unicode. Implementing a private method? Talk about the Objective-C conventions for methods. Updating a table view? Talk about the different animations you can support. Don’t bring something up if you can’t talk all about it, but if you can, it allows you to show knowledge outside of the narrow window provided by the question and gives you a leg up on anyone that sticks strictly to the beaten path.
There were multiple examples during my onsites where I would answer a question and mention some other knowledge I had but explain that I didn’t have time in an interview to fully implement that solution. Answering a question about strings? Show off your Unicode knowledge with your solution or explain how to support Unicode. Implementing a private method? Talk about the Objective-C conventions for methods. Updating a table view? Talk about the different animations you can support. Don’t bring something up if you can’t talk all about it, but if you can, it allows you to show knowledge outside of the narrow window provided by the question and gives you a leg up on anyone that sticks strictly to the beaten path. 💪 Don’t strive to clear the bar, strive to set it. Interview performance obviously helps decide if you get an offer from a given company, but it also helps decide what that offer looks like. If you get to a point where you think you know enough to get an offer, that’s great. But keep in mind there’s a big difference between “barely good enough” and “absolutely good enough”. Strive for the latter! My initial (i.e. not negotiated) offers came in pretty solid despite my relative lack of experience and I believe interview performance played a big role.
Wrap-Up
So that’s that! It was a crazy ride and I have no regrets. I truly, genuinely hope that the above can help someone get over the hump when it comes to landing a job they’ve dreamed about. If there’s particular interest in iOS-specific help, I can publish some tips, so please comment and let me know.
If it’s of any use: I was interviewing for my second job out of college with about two and a half years of experience without any particularly notable internships or employers on my resume; I went to a very small school that had zero known software companies at their “career fair”; I started preparing in late April and started applying in June/July; and, lastly, a few months in, my job is everything I could have possibly dreamed of.
I’d like to shout out the CS Career Hackers community one last time. If you’re looking for a place to practice and talk with others in similar situations (or those that have been through it on either side), please do check it out. 👍 I didn’t find it until a few months after I signed my offer, but it’s a great place nonetheless.
Happy studying, everyone! | https://bayareabelletrist.medium.com/i-interviewed-at-six-top-companies-in-silicon-valley-in-six-days-and-stumbled-into-six-job-offers-fe9cc7bbc996 | ['Bay Area Belletrist'] | 2020-11-26 20:26:55.292000+00:00 | ['Silicon Valley', 'Technology', 'Interview', 'iOS', 'Job Hunting'] |
I Designed and 3D-Printed a Newtonian Reflector Telescope. The Views Are Amazing | When I pointed this thing towards the sky for the first time and peered through the eyepiece, two thoughts immediately struck me: 1) holy s*** it works!, and 2) wow, space is awesome.
Regarding my first thought… I wasn’t so much shocked that it worked, but I was shocked that it worked so very well. There’s a lot that goes into engineering a good telescope, and I was not sure if 3D-printing with plastic filaments would measure up. To my surprise, this thing works great.
To be fair, with its 6" (153 mm) primary mirror, this is considered a small reflector telescope, and the engineering problems increase dramatically with larger telescopes. Nevertheless, even in this size class, mirrors have to be collimated, the optical tube can’t flex when you tilt it, the focal length has to be measured and engineered accurately, and the primary mirror has to have proper plate and edge support.
I’ll show you how I solved for these engineering requirements, but first it’s time for a little background.
What’s a Newtonian Telescope?
A Newtonian telescope is a type of Reflector telescope invented by Sir Isaac Newton in or around 1668. Today, this type of telescope is popular with amateur and DIY telescope makers because it has a relatively simple design (when compared to Refractor telescopes). Newtonian telescopes are usually less expensive than comparable quality/size telescopes of other types.
Generally speaking, there are two broad categories of telescopes: Reflector and Refractor. As a reminder, the 3D printed telescope we will be discussing is a Reflector. There are tons of great resources online that go into great detail about differences (and similarities) between the two. But for this article, I’ll keep it simple and say that Refractors use lenses to gather and focus light, while Reflectors instead use mirrors.
A Reflector telescope has two mirrors: the Primary (also called the Objective) and the Secondary. The primary mirror has a concave or parabolic surface and it is located at the tail end of the telescope. Its job is to reflect incoming light (which enters through the front of the telescope) towards a smaller secondary mirror positioned closer to the front of the telescope. Because of the parabolic shape of the primary mirror’s surface, the light is reflected along a cone-shaped path, towards a very specific focal point near (but just beyond) the secondary mirror. That secondary mirror is positioned at a 45-degree angle so as to reflect that light out towards the side of the telescope tube, where an eyepiece is attached. If the positions of the mirrors are accurate, the cone-shaped light comes to a point (the focal point) within the viewing limits of the eyepiece.
Light enters the tube and is reflected from the primary mirror, to the secondary mirror, to the eyepiece.
Downloading and 3D Printing My Telescope.
I designed this telescope using Autodesk Fusion 360. It’s an absolutely amazing piece of software. If you’re a Fusion 360 user, you can download my Fusion 360 project file and customize the design as needed. Or, you can simply download the STL files and send them directly to your 3D printer.
All of the project files are available on my website www.BigBigSpace.com. You’ll see two telescopes (at the time of this writing) on that website. The article you are reading now will focus on the telescope titled “Newton to See Here.” This scope is the second iteration of my 6" Newtonian telescopes, and a significant improvement over the first scope.
My first scope, named “Reflector? I Hardly Newt Her!”, is available for free. It’s a fine scope and works great, but I’ve learned a lot since then through field tests and studying proper telescope design. Those learnings are applied in the newer scope.
Is Everything 3D-printed?
The two mirrors and the eyepiece (focuser) are not 3D-printed. Additionally, the truss tubes are also not 3D printed. The truss tubes in my project are 16mm (outer diameter) x 500mm (length) carbon fiber tubes which I purchased from Amazon. I chose them because they are light and very strong. You can substitute extruded aluminum tubes if you want to save a few bucks. Everything else (except for some screws and fasteners) is 3D-printed.
The Primary Mirror
Obviously, you can’t print a mirror (yet). You’ll have to purchase a mirror or source one from a refurbished or discarded telescope. I purchased my mirror new from AngenaAstro.com. This one is guaranteed to fit the dimensions of the telescope, and has the proper focal length (750mm) for the truss tube design in this project.
Knowing the focal length of your mirror is critical. The focal length and tube diameter will determine your mirror placement. For our mirror with a 750mm focal length, we’ve placed our secondary mirror 540mm away from the primary mirror, leaving us 210mm to account for the radius of the tube and the length of the focuser.
The 3D-printable mirror box and upper optical assembly (UOA) includes truss tube connectors angled precisely so that our truss tubes (positioned at angles for rigidity) separate our mirrors by 540mm.
Primary Mirror Cell
The primary mirror rests securely in the Primary Mirror Cell. This is an important part of the telescope that has a lot of responsibility. It must hold the mirror in place, making sure that it does not misalign as the telescope is moved on your alt-azimuth mount.
Primary Mirror Cell with 3-Point PLOP and Whiffletree Edge Support
The mirror cell has to hold the mirror very gently and only touch the mirror in certain spots. Because as it turns out, mirrors are solids but not solid enough! They actually flex and change shape as pressure is applied. If the primary mirror flexes too much or in the wrong way, your view of the stars and planets will go from Wow! to Blah.
Fortunately, people way smarter than me have created formulae and software to help us design the optimal mirror cell. The most popular software is PLOP (PLate OPtimizer). PLOP can be used to calculate floating support points for the rear of the mirror. In other words, the primary mirror will rest on the support points (which are calculated to precise locations) in order to minimize deflection.
3-point PLOP with 31.4 radius for 150mm Primary Mirror
Using PLOP, I opted for a simple 3-point support design. PLOP tells us that the support points should be 31.4mm from the center. With our 6" primary mirror, this is more than adequate. Larger mirrors typically require more complex arrangements and floating 18-point designs are very common.
In addition to the rear support, the edge of the mirror must also be supported so that as the telescope is tilted, the mirror stays in place and does not warp (too much) as the pressure shifts to the edges. PLOP won’t help us here, but there are other tools and well-established best practices that will. Read this if you want to learn more. With our scope, I went with a modified whiffletree design — four edge support points separated by 45° (22.5° and 67.5° from the vertical).
Note that a true whiffletree design should pivot at the midpoint (45°), but I opted to keep it simple (no pivot), since this is a small mirror.
The Optical Tube (a/k/a Truss Tube)
I chose to use Carbon Fiber tubes on this telescope, which I purchased from Amazon. I chose them because they are light and very strong. You can substitute extruded aluminum tubes if you want to save a few bucks. The trusses need to be 480mm. The tubes I found on Amazon are 500mm, which means you’ll need to cut those down 20mm. No big deal. Easy to do. | https://medium.com/swlh/i-designed-and-3d-printed-a-newtonian-reflector-telescope-the-views-are-amazing-2b41ed42bf58 | ['Rafael Fiol'] | 2021-01-14 14:20:22.882000+00:00 | ['Astronomy', 'Telescope', '3D Printing', '3d Modeling', 'Fusion 360'] |
Salvation Army Donations | The best thing about retirement is wearing whatever goddamn clothes I want to. Nothing grated on me more during 21 years in the Foreign Service than getting dressed in the morning. Swinging open the wardrobe doors greeted by a line of pedestrian business suits, off-the-rack and frequently ill-fitting dress shirts, and a collection of khaki pants either black, gray, blue or tan made me nauseous. You might make the sensible argument that if I hated my clothes so much, I should simply shop for new ones. I did. Repeatedly. And time and again I bought the same shit, usually from J.C. Penney, Jos. A. Bank, or T.M. Lewin, and always on sale.
Thing about the stuff on sale is that you’re rummaging through an inventory of sizes and colors that didn’t sell at retail. I always managed to find functional — if not particularly inspiring — pants and shirts suitable for work. Mission accomplished with minimal damage to my wallet.
But why buy clothes I hated wearing? Why not spend money for the spiffy stuff on the website landing page or sported by the stiff, compliant mannequins in the window display?
Truth is I hated them all. Whoever coined the cliche “Clothes make the man” likely wasn’t aiming at irony but squarely hit the target. In my experience, high style compensates for a deficiency in substance. That’s not really true; I know plenty of hyper-competent, supremely capable people who dress well. But I have to admit that I am instantly skeptical of anyone who walks into a room dressed in an outfit that costs as much as I make in a week. It just screams inauthenticity.
That’s complete nonsense. I’m projecting my own issues with authenticity on to Mr. Brooks Brothers. The reason I hate my wardrobe — the reason I hate any clothes that would be considered appropriate for inclusion — is that they aren’t expressions of my individuality; they’re costumes.
Ugly, hideous, conformist straitjackets.
Whenever I could get away with not wearing a suit, I skipped it. In the later years of my career when I no longer gave a damn as to whether appearance affected my prospects for promotion, I deep-sixed ties as well.
Clothes did make the man. Or more accurately, made a mockery of the man. Rather than express my personality, they concealed it. And the wrong clothes warp behavior. Without a doubt. I uttered things the real me would slap someone else for saying, and acted and moved with a milquetoast bureaucratism that makes me retch if I think too much about it.
When I opened the drawers this morning, I pulled out a favorite t-shirt and a pair of well-worn jeans. I swung open the closet and snatched a navy blue flannel off the hanger that predates my diplomatic career. None of it is particularly fashionable or attractive.
So what. I’m not wearing these clothes for you or my boss or the office. I’m wearing them because they are comfortable and relaxed. I’m wearing them, because they feel like home. I’m wearing them because they accurately express who I am.
Clothes that make the man are tyrants. Man must make the clothes. | https://medium.com/@keenekomeskleen/salvation-army-donations-599c6a1cd3e2 | ['Matt Keene'] | 2020-12-03 14:06:19.338000+00:00 | ['Clothes', 'Salvation Army', 'Authenticity', 'Bureaucracy', 'Retirement'] |
Immigration and Inherent ‘Goodness’ | Immigration and Inherent ‘Goodness’
Many self-proclaimed ‘leftists’ and ‘socialists’ in the Western world choose to support immigration, largely as a reaction against the anti-immigration narratives espoused by conservatives and fascists alike. This is an incorrect approach to comprehending the way in which immigration works, the interests that it appeals to, and more.
A photograph of a Syrian refugee camp in Athens, Greece. (Photo by Julie Ricard on Unsplash)
To fully understand how immigration functions and its perceived inherent ‘goodness’, it is imperative to analyze the questions of why immigration happens in the first place as well as why they choose to go to countries like Canada or the United States. The former question largely deals with why innocent civilians are faced with the reality of needing to leave absolutely everything behind for the perception of what can typically be described as a “better life”.
The premise of immigration as a concept deals with the notion of an individual or group of individuals leaving their home country for a new, perhaps more prosperous, permanent home. Let us take a look at a number of case studies, specifically ones that are deemed to be located in the “developing” world. The net migration rates of the majority of the world that is considered developing are negatives, largely because of the desire for a better life, or so it seems.
In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, many people left following the catastrophic events that took place in the late 1980s and 1990s, due to a lack of economic and political security, a steep rise in poverty and organized crime, and the false allure of Western neoliberal capitalism. In Yugoslavia, the wars that occurred forced people from all ethnoreligious backgrounds to grab whatever they could and run to the nearest point of safety.
The majority of these people left for Western countries, examples being Canada, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Most of the time, this was out of pure necessity, as opposed to the superficial wish of simply wanting to move to a new country.
In Central America, working class civilians to this day feel the need to embark on a treacherous path to safety, navigating through drug lords and cartels, right-wing neoliberal countries backed by the United States government, and the consistent threat of human rights violations for everyone that dares to go through such a devastating path.
Many might argue that a series of pro-immigration policies within countries like Canada and the United States might fix the problems associated with the working class within the aforementioned regions, but they would be severely misguided and outright wrong with this analysis. The issue is not with people trying to leave, but instead with the exploitative political and economic relationship between the authorities in both areas.
Again, to consider the former as truth would signify the lack of responsibility that the United States — in particular — has for the deterioration of social and material conditions in the geopolitical area. For instance, the Honduran coup d’etat in 2009 oversaw the military ousting the broadly left-leaning leadership of Manuel Zelaya and the creation of conditions that caused a mass migration crisis from the country to the United States.
According to a 2013 report by Jake Johnston and Stephan Lefebvre of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) surrounding post-coup developments, the following conclusions were gathered with regards to the conditions of societal progress within the country:
12.3% increase in the Gini coefficient in only two years (2009–2011), the most in all of Latin America for this time period;
Between 2010–2012, poverty rose by 13.2% while extreme poverty rose by 26.3%, results that are far different than what occurred during the leadership of Zelaya;
A strong decrease in social spending, as the “reduction in expenditures on health and education” had a strong and “visible impact in Honduras”.
With the steep rise in poverty and income inequality, it should be understandable that many Honduran civilians desired to leave and move to the United States. But the both the coup and new governments since the ousting of Zelaya have been supported by the United States, as they stood on the sidelines, eerily quiet as the democratically-elected government was overthrown. The military coup was supported by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton alongside officers from the Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies, the latter reported on by The Intercept.
In Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria, the situation is one that greatly differs of the conditions in most of Eastern Europe and Central Asia or in Central America. The open military warfare that is present there, predominantly due to the involvement of the United States and their imperialist policies, directly poses the threat of life or death if one decides to not leave the region. The bombing and presence of the United States across both the Middle East and Africa as a whole, the latter through the function of AFRICOM, is directly connected to the lack of stability and progress that could possibly present itself if foreign involvement is to be thoroughly rooted out.
This does not even begin to dissect the very strong issues that migrant workers tend to face, whether it be Honduran migrants in the United States, or Polish workers in the United Kingdom, or Iraqi migrants stuck in Turkey. The notion of being pro-immigration has little to no grounding in achieving far better conditions for the working class within these areas.
Should one be in support of achieving better status and rights for workers who are already located in these “new” homes? Absolutely.
Should this devolve into supporting immigration for the purpose of getting access to cheap labour under the guise of “helping” the “poor civilians” from the over-exploited world? Absolutely not.
Ultimately, the well-versed socialist should not incessantly be in support of immigration policies, but instead be in support of the local resistance to oligarchic developments and in support of grassroots movements that exist within these over-exploited countries. Rather than being necessarily pro-immigration, one should be in support of proletarian internationalism.
Striving to develop and improve the national economy and productive forces of these over-exploited states through progressive forces will assist with getting rid of the problem of rising immigration in areas that are economically and politically subjugated to the desires of the imperialist powers. In regards to supporting the working class in countries or territories that are being bombed without an end in sight, anti-imperialism serves as the primary ideological foundation that one can utilize to ensure open and justified hostility towards the actions being taken by imperialist governments.
All of the aforementioned themes have not even covered the problem of the brain drain phenomena, something that plagues many countries of origin, due to the ‘skilled workforce’ leaving the home country in pursuit of a better life. As such, this results in the production of generational problems that can only be addressed by improving the quality of life, as well as the quality of education to a degree which is on par — or at least close to — with the global powers. In the era of increased interconnectivity, this serves as a major challenge for the over-exploited world.
Immigration is not a positive conception solely because of the fact that the far-right are opposed to it. To consider it as such would be to have your ideological positions be developed at the whims of the right-wing forces within your country. What is a positive conception, however, is the internationalism of the working class, that is, striving for the success of proletarian movements throughout every single part of the world. | https://medium.com/discourse/immigration-and-inherent-goodness-d2f95570914a | ['Martin Barakov'] | 2020-12-08 19:50:31.624000+00:00 | ['Government', 'Socialism', 'Politics', 'World', 'Immigration'] |
5 สิ่งที่ทำให้คนทำงานรุ่นใหม่ไม่คิดย้ายงาน | in In Bitcoin We Trust | https://medium.com/@jobthai/5-%E0%B8%AA%E0%B8%B4%E0%B9%88%E0%B8%87%E0%B8%97%E0%B8%B5%E0%B9%88%E0%B8%97%E0%B8%B3%E0%B9%83%E0%B8%AB%E0%B9%89%E0%B8%84%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%97%E0%B8%B3%E0%B8%87%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B8%E0%B9%88%E0%B8%99%E0%B9%83%E0%B8%AB%E0%B8%A1%E0%B9%88%E0%B9%84%E0%B8%A1%E0%B9%88%E0%B8%84%E0%B8%B4%E0%B8%94%E0%B8%A2%E0%B9%89%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A2%E0%B8%87%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%99-8fc5cd312718 | [] | 2020-12-25 06:23:42.914000+00:00 | ['สมัครงาน', 'HR', 'หางาน', 'New Gen', 'Jobthai'] |
How Do You Hide a 100″ TV? | Integrating a display of this scale into a project is a challenging prospect for any interior designer. This is why we’re excited to showcase a variety of options to mount and fully conceal this display from view. Our solutions give clients access to the latest technology without the permanence of a traditionally mounted display interrupting the aesthetic of their space.
As Future Automation has in-house design and manufacturing teams they can customize their standard range of mechanisms to pair perfectly with this 100″ display.
WALL MOUNTING:
Two-Way Motorized Display Mount
This motorized wall mount is based on the same design principles as Future Automation’s award-winning QA2 and can rotate the Sony 100″ up to 43° left or right. This allows the display to rotate to face multiple directions, making it ideal for open-plan office spaces/meeting rooms. When the display isn’t being used it can be retracted to sit parallel to the wall like a traditional fixed bracket.
One-Way Motorized Display Mount
The heavy-duty version of Future Automation’s popular PSE90 wall mount angles the Sony 100″ up to 80° in a single direction. This solution is great if you are installing this display in the corner of a room if you don’t need the bi-directional rotation found in the HQA2. Future Automation’s HSE90 also benefits from the ability to retract the display to sit parallel to the wall when it isn’t in use so it doesn’t permanently consume valuable floor space.
Manual Articulating Display Mount
Future Automation’s iconic scissor-arm design perfectly counterbalances the weight of the display so that you can effortlessly pull and rotate the large 100″ display to achieve optimal viewing angles for consuming and delivering content. The PS80 also functions as an excellent service mount as the 28° of bi-directional rotation gives engineers fast access to the rear IO without the need to remove the display from the wall. Limiting disruption is paramount when performing servicing and upgrades on-site, so being able to access the rear of such a large display without having to remove it from the wall makes the process fast and simple.
We can also pair the PS80 with Future Automation’s WB80 (in-wall box). This gives you storage directly behind the display for AV accessories and also allows the display to sit just 18mm (0.7″) from the surrounding wall. We can also create a custom-sized wall box so the entire display can sit flush with the surrounding wall for a cleaner look.
CEILING HINGES:
Ceiling space is a highly under-utilized area in many projects. Future Automatin’s range of Ceiling Hinges takes advantage of this area to lower the Sony 100″ display as required. With options for a telescopic drop and 180° of bi-directional swivel, this is a versatile addition to open-plan areas with limited wall space as the display can be angled to face any direction if desired.
Superyacht owners can also benefit from this show-stopping design with Future Automation’s Marine range of Ceiling Hinges which can be installed in both indoor and outdoor environments. Both ranges have additional Marine Locking Mechanisms so the display is safely secured while the yacht is in motion. The Outdoor Marine model is fully weather-sealed and crafted using stainless steel to protect it from the elements in demanding environments.
FLOOR LIFTS:
A 100″ display can also be recessed into the floor in indoor commercial and hospitality spaces. Future Automation developed a proprietary Servo Driven System in-house, that gives us the capability to lift heavy displays (such as the Sony 100″) out from within a floor recess with precision and speed. The following floor lifts utilize this technology to raise the Sony 100″ display from within a floor in a variety of unique ways.
Future Automation’s design team re-engineered every aspect of their existing PLF mechanism to create the new SRV-PLF-SONY100. While this lift performs a similar movement to their PLF, under the hood significant design changes were implemented so the lift would handle the additional weight and size of the Sony 100″ display. A highlight of this brand new design is the servo drop and slide flap which was engineered to be solid and robust over greater widths.
The SRV-PLFS model adds 180° of bi-directional swivel to the mechanism so that the display can face any direction making it perfect for open-plan spaces.
If you need the display to raise up high, Future Automation’s telescopic model lifts the display to a customisable height for optimal viewing in educational facilities and conference halls.
CABINET LIFTS:
Installing the Sony 100″ display inside a piece of bespoke cabinetry allows clients to maintain a cohesive aesthetic in their space while still benefitting from convenient access to technology on command. This customized version of Future Automation’s TSL benefits from a height-efficient design that requires minimal spatial requirements to integrate into a project.
In 2019 we demonstrated the power and versatility of our Servo Driven Technology by building the world’s fastest display lifts. This range showcased the speed, precision and power that we can harness to effortlessly move larger and heavier structures. The SRV-LS raises the display out of a cabinet with the option to add a 180° bi-directional swivel. This discreet lift can be used to conceal and reveal large the Sony 100″ display in under 8 seconds
This freestanding cabinet lift’s unique parallax scroll movement is more height efficient than a fixed lid design, which makes the SRV-SBL ideal for larger displays. The ‘floating lid’ allows the display to be revealed with less vertical travel. This keeps the viewing height of the display less than a traditional cabinet lift.
MOVING PANEL/DOOR MECHANISMS:
Bespoke mechanism
This bespoke ‘Retract and Lift’ mechanism conceals the Sony 100″ display behind a moving panel so that the entire display can be hidden from view when it isn’t in use. Known internally as the ‘James Bond Lift’ this mechanism is straight out of an action movie and is a show-stopping way to start an event or meeting. This mechanism is also a great way to protect the Sony 100″ display from damage or theft when it isn’t being used as it’s completely hidden from view until it is required.
Concealing the Sony 100″ display behind Future Automation’s splitting pocket door/sliding partition system is a simple yet effective way to conceal it from view. Two sliding doors glide in front of the display which can be finished in materials that blend into the surrounding environment. The MDM-SPLIT is designed to be hidden within a wall or ceiling so the mechanism is completely hidden from view. This discreet solution can be integrated into fitted cabinetry to add additional functionality to an office or boardroom.
If this has been something you have been considering, we would be glad to advise you on the perfect solution for your space. Let’s talk.
The Extraordinary Lutron Alisse
Transform the ordinary into the extraordinary with a single touch — spark the senses and curate magical experiences using light as your canvas. The Alisse wall control integrates cutting-edge technology and timeless design that is intuitive and completely personalized to your needs. Hand-crafted with meticulous attention to detail, the Alisse wall control delivers a truly unique…
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Things to Consider Before Investing in Video Conferencing
Just in case you were not aware, video conferencing has been growing for the past decade. Yes, we’ve all been using FaceTime, WhatsApp, and many other apps on our phones to make casual one-on-one connections and group connections but 2020 has changed everything. This year many of us have found ourselves having to dive deeper…
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Introducing the ioty Cloud
Leave your spotty and unsecure network behind. Say hello to the ioty Cloud; a 24/7 cloud-based managed network system. Unlike the networking equipment available from your internet service provider and retailers, enterprise-level systems from ioty are designed, engineered, and manufactured by networking experts to deliver better speed, reliability, coverage, and consistency. One network solution does…
READ MORE | https://medium.com/@ioty/how-do-you-hide-a-100-tv-51b47809cb80 | ['Ioty Inc'] | 2021-07-02 13:48:34.531000+00:00 | ['Home Automation', 'Home Improvement', 'Smart Home', 'Miami', 'Sony'] |
Decision-making Hack: Always Bet Against the “Experts” | Experts: bias for the status quo.
Every innovation that had a lasting impact on the world has been in a form or another a direct and fundamental challange to the status quo.
Also, before any innovation can reveal its actual impact on the world, there is a point when people get exposed to it and start wondering what it is and how to make sense of it.
In moments like this, people tend to turn to “experts”.
Not surpisingly, these “experts” ARE the status quo and, by extension, are directly threathened by the said innovation.
Because of that, they will take a conservative position and will usually point out all the ways in which said innovation will fail. They will look and act confident and will sometimes expose detailed theories and point to charts.
I am pretty sure the guy with the wheel was laughed out of his cave by the tribe’s experts in moving things by brute force. I haven’t checked, but I am ready to take bets that when the printing press was invented, the day’s “experts” explained how it all was useless since the unwashed, illiterate masses don’t have much use in reading, nor much to read anyway.
Relevant: Underlying Trends > Great Products
And so it has been, always.
The early days of the internet had their share of experts explaining all the ways in which a world-wide computer network is useless. People like this guy.
To benefit early, you have to act quickly
Which brings me to my point. Like most people with an interest in the world, I get exposed to new ideas and innovation every day. As much as I would like to, is is really impossible to dive deeply into every new idea that I come across. So I need some sort of shortcut to decision-making, that will help me act fast and move on.
I have tried to follow “influencers” but I learned quickly that is a realy bad heuristic. I tried to refer back to some “fundamentals” but I learned quickly that “fundamentals” are relative.
Eventually I settled on a hack that has so far never failed me. It will surprise you by its simplicity:
I learned that the most useful framework for decision-making when it comes to innovation is to listen to “experts” and do exactly the opposite of what they are saying.
Double down on this every time the expert is a dude past his 60s wearing a suit and being interviewed on TV.
Will this work every time? No. But i can guarantee it will work more often than it will fail.
I am writing this on a day when Bitcoin’s price in US Dollar is at the all time high of $22,800. To celebrate, here is a short video of experts in suits over the last 3 ytears explaining why Bitcoin will fail: | https://medium.com/@circo/decision-making-hack-ignore-the-experts-63bc080d231d | ['Iulian Circo'] | 2020-12-17 10:11:04.508000+00:00 | ['Innovation', 'Life Hacking', 'Decision Making', 'Bitcoin', 'Expertise'] |
When You Have a Sunday School Dream About Perhaps the Most Powerful Man in Utah’s Government | Utah House Speaker Greg Hughes says he’s leaving office. He made for a dream that even after a year (as of May), hasn’t gone away, even when dreams usually do. Except for one where I was in Trump’s quarters. I digress, though. Hughes was teaching Latter-day Saint (commonly known as “Mormon”) Sunday School. As is seen across the Beehive State, he was before a whiteboard surrounded by frizzy, light-purplish walls, before a crowd of folks pushed together in metal chairs.
And at first, there was the usual talk: Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon.
But then he veered off.
He started going deep into why capitalism, even unbridled, was truth. He started making a case for why money was more than neutral and that the account of Jesus throwing money-changers out of the temple was among those parts of the New Testament gospels that were added after other parts.
Then he did the same for Machiavellian behavior. He said that taking advantage of others was part of the way to prepare for godhood, as that will happen as part of eternal progression.
(One thing I can’t remember from the Sunday School portion is exact quotes, though I do remember that there were occasions in which he made particular sayings.)
My ** was with me and we decided that we would not subject our toddlers to this (why they were in Sunday School and not Mormon Primary, I’m not sure). So then we started walking to our apartment complex.
But then Hughes came around the corner at the complex, asking why we left. We were startled he was there. But then we gave as brief an answer as we could. The high-profile elected official in a state nearly two-thirds Mormon replied by saying that he needed the Sunday School teacher position to be able to endear himself to constituents, starting with his ward as the epicenter. And having a visible position within that epicenter, he viewed as advantageous.
Then he asked about our toddlers and I said that I would not tell him a thing about them, concerned that he would use it for a political purpose somehow.
Perhaps it’s not surprising that folks are having dreams about this guy when Utah Gov. Gary Herbert perhaps has similar dreams — it’s been said that Herbert wanted Trump to hire Hughes, as Trump considered, since Hughes would no longer be a thorn in the side of Herbert, more moderate in policy and tone.
Perhaps I’ll no longer have dreams of Hughes since he won’t be running again. Until he campaigns for governor. After all, he “might be the most powerful man in Utah politics (if he could just stay out of trouble).”
— -
Even if you no longer affiliate with the church but enjoy sociality with family and friends as before, you can still find social settings organized by the Utah Valley PostMormons. There, you can find your people. And of course, if you don’t enjoy those relationships like before, the many UVPM events that happen each week can be even life-saving.
Led by wonderful people like Kirsten Barksdale and Larissa Norman, UVPM is also for folks who just are struggling with it or are “never Mormons” seeking a break from the predominant culture. Find their events on Facebook and Meetup.
This piece was originally seen in The Good Men Project.
— -
For more articles like this, please support The Seer Stone at the Hero’s Journey Content Patreon page. | https://medium.com/the-seer-stone/utahs-house-speaker-isn-t-running-for-re-election-i-had-this-sunday-school-dream-about-him-991c3e9a4d8f | ['Rhett Wilkinson'] | 2020-07-12 00:42:43.250000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Mormon', 'Psychology', 'Dreams', 'Utah'] |
Hacking Data Discovery in AWS with Amundsen at SEEK | Jacking into Data @ SEEK is easier with Amundsen
Twice a year SEEK encourage their people to leave their teams behind, self organise and come together with people from other teams to brainstorm ideas for Hackathon.
This time for Hackathon 15, members from the five Asia and ANZ Data Teams and some fellow ❤️ers of Data, came together to stand-up Amundsen by Lyft.
Amundsen is an Open Source Data Discovery and Metadata Engine for improving the productivity of data analysts, data scientists and engineers when interacting with data.
We called our hack “Google for Data”.
Our purpose, to give back time. Time, of which 30% is wasted in data discovery during the creation of a data driven decision making process, according to Lyft. That is, finding the right data to use.
Time for our fellow SEEKers to spend on their next task and get on with their real jobs, to increase their velocity and deliver outcomes to their customers sooner.
So, we stood up Amundsen in AWS and loaded it with metadata. We did this in 48 hours. The speed with which we could do this surprised us.
This speed talks to the ease of use, succinct documentation and the elegance of design by the Lyft Engineering Team and the Amundsen Open Source Community 🙏 | https://medium.com/seek-blog/hacking-data-discovery-with-amundsen-c55d262014f4 | ['George Pongracz'] | 2020-12-07 19:33:36.262000+00:00 | ['Data Governance', 'Engineering', 'Data Science', 'Business Intelligence', 'Data Discovery'] |
Industrial Strength Evolution, Genetics, and AI | Commercializing Genetic Algorithms | Towards AI
Bringing Scale and Commerce to Genetic Algorithms
Using genetic algorithms in commercial AI applications has taken a back seat to deep learning neural net technologies. Machine learning has captured all the headlines and the experiments of a few years ago are now real-world applications. This has not happened with genetic algorithms. They are certainly a lot of fun to play with. On a quick YouTube tour you will find examples that play Flapping Birds, Mario Brothers, drive cars and get both simulated soft and hard-bodied creatures to walk. How do we make the same transition from science experiments to industrial practice? Any commercialization is going to require this level of rigor.
We theorize about applying genetic algorithm techniques to AI. Can we evolve meaningful solutions that compare to the results being achieved by more commercial machine learning technologies? You can evolve very simple and small scale experiments. It is great fun to evolve a solution to playing a video game, however, where do those experiments lead?
You run into a wall when you start to think about genetic algorithms at a commercial scale. The idea that you can take a few hundred thousand simulated neurons, design a great fitness function, let it percolate overnight and get something as smart as an ant simply doesn’t work. It clearly does not work on a more complex brain (no disrespect to the ant brain). We can’t even simulate the few hundred neurons in a worm.
HERE is a great list of animal species and their neuron counts. The aforementioned ant brain has about 250,000 neurons. A modern Nvidia GPU has enough horsepower to simulate a network of that size. I have a poorly implemented neural simulator, running on a 5-year-old laptop that clocks in at processing one million fake neurons per second.
How do we take genetic algorithm technology and ideas and push it to a level of scale we see in nature?
It’s About Process
Genetic algorithms are attempting to be inspired by nature. We create phenotypes, genotypes, and chromosomes. We simulate genetic breeding (crossovers) and invent ways to determine ‘organism’ viability and breeding likelihood. It doesn’t function exactly like nature, but this inspiration does yield results.
There is a part of the natural inspiration that is missing. The history is missing. A typical GA experiment involves creating the mathematical model for the problem, creating a chromosome representation and a ‘fitness function’ that decides who gets to breed. You fire it up and see what emerges.
Human beings are specialized fish. Much of what we carry around inside trace back to our watery ancestors. Our brains are the same. We have layers and parts that have been passed down to us. The reason we run from danger and want to mate is driven by our amygdala. We’ve had that since we were all lizards.
Our model for GA development is not taking this into account. We run our experiments, get fun and sometimes useful results, then start over. That is a fundamental problem that limits scale.
An Evolution Platform
I’m going to take off my evolutionary biologist hat (I am a naive amateur) and put on a software engineering hat (fits better). This cries out for a platform solution. There is a need for a consistent platform. We are seeing that emerge in machine learning (TensorFlow, Google.ai, FaceBook’s FAIR). Matlab has GA tools available and there are a few other tool kits. However, there are no large scale platforms focused on neural simulation, genetic algorithms, and this historical component.
Key Features:
A set of standard interfaces and methodologies. Let’s define the basics of how a neural simulation works. We can create a definition of the chromosomes including how to vary it. You can imagine a standard mechanism for defining fitness functions. The ability to base work on past work. Nervous systems and parts of the nervous system can be used and reused. Artificial brain source control should show lineages and the kind of branching you see in nature. Each experiment does not begin from scratch. An environment for multiple and disparate contributions. The software world already knows how to do this. We need to create a repository of code (fitness functions, simulated environments, connection to other systems, GA rules, etc.) and evolved data sets that can be used by the community.
Prototype Environment
To test some of these ideas, I have built an experimental platform. There are links to demonstration videos at the end as well as the source code. This project is not meant to form the basis of any system but to test out ideas for how to build such a platform. I apologize in advance to anyone looking through the code. I have been out of the coding scene for 15+ years, so my skills are a bit rusty and my tool choice might seem quaint and very old school. Everything has been done in C++, MS Visual Studio 2017 and targeted as a Windows desktop app. A real platform would take a more modern approach. Consider this an invitation for others to join.
In this experiment, I have evolved creatures ranging from simple filter feeders to ones that swim around and can avoid objects. This prototype platform features a general purpose GA platform, a simple neural simulation model and data management tools.
Step One — A GA Platform
I first developed basic frameworks for creating controls and displaying results. I then implemented a basic set of C++ objects that can execute genetic algorithms. To test this, I had it solve the Traveling Salesman Problem.
The goal was not to solve this problem but to create and test the scaffolding needed to build a larger platform. This object set allows for the overloading of things like; the fitness function, crossover methods, breeding selection, and chromosome design. The platform retains the ability to run the TSP.
Step Two — Design a Neural Simulation Environment
The video presentation goes into greater detail. A brain is made up of a set of neurons and connections that behave in a very simple fashion. Each neuron simply determines its state by summing its inputs. This sum is then passed on to the next neurons it is connected to.
A chromosome for the purposes of GA is simply a pointer to a simulated synapse. A synapse has a start neuron, an end neuron and a polarity (plus or minus). Evolution occurs in the recombination of this list of synapses, not neurons. This may need to be revisited. The resulting neural simulator if fast and small. As stated before, I get a performance of about one million neurons per second before I’ve optimized any of the code. I am currently adding the ability to have nodes on this network reference other networks.
Step Three — Let Nature Take Its Course
I layered this neural simulation environment on to my GA platform and began to evolve little creatures. I created little filter feeders of varying sensory capability and creatures that can swim around and navigate obstacle courses. Again, check out the videos at the end to see these in action.
One of the key aspects of this experiment was to embody a historical approach. Each creature is not the result of a stand-alone experiment, but a collection of stepwise evolutionary successes.
This is a picture of all the filter feeders, called critters that I evolved. They all share bits of neural hardware that were evolved earlier. Each one more capable of sophisticated food sorting and based on a previous and successful organism.
My swimming creatures, called guppies, feature movement and eyes that can detect objects in a simulated world (Episode 2 — Video). My plan is to see if I can take this basic brain and add an associative learning capability, post-evolution.
Interested?
Building commercial applications and solving larger AI problems using evolution and genetic algorithms are going to take an industrial platform approach. My goal is to start that conversation.
You can follow the journey and sign up for updates etc at danlovy.com/critter
Facebook group:
Bio — A.I.
Episode One features a full description of the platform and first creatures: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaAqFHr0nts
Episode Two features the swimming guppies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D6B1sU_Fiw
Episode Three features a more capable swimming creature: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6fmkZW9JCM
Some of the funniest YouTube videos featuring GA solutions: Mario, Soft Body Creatures, Driving Car, Flapping Birds. There are dozens more. | https://medium.com/towards-artificial-intelligence/industrial-strength-evolution-genetics-and-ai-db2d8c9b861 | ['Dan Lovy'] | 2019-05-20 15:25:10.189000+00:00 | ['Artificial Intelligence', 'Technology', 'Cellular Automata', 'Neural Networks', 'Genetic Algorithm'] |
Algo Trading and Signals — Part 6 | In this article, I want to share another very effective trading-signal combination. Its entry conditions are comprised of trend-following signals and an attack signal, which is derived from the same source as the exit signal.
Looking at backtesting results, one can easily observe that losing trading mostly occurred when the Bitcoin market direction was unclear. However, the magnitude of the losses was well confined. With good enough invested capital in this trading-signal combination, it can potentially double the portfolio value over time steadily.
In the result section, there are 2 scenarios, in which different assumptions for the initial portfolio cash value, and size. As usual, in order to exclude the impact of a seemly outlier, among each scenario, the timeframe is dissected into 2 periods, one dating from 2017 to 2020, the other dating from 2018 to 2020. | https://medium.com/coinmonks/when-to-go-long-on-bitcoin-algo-trading-and-signals-part-6-5fb3d256e8d0 | ['Jamie Keng'] | 2020-12-28 13:05:39.555000+00:00 | ['Trading Ideas', 'Trading', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Bitcoin', 'Algorithmic Trading'] |
Best Indoor Home Security Camera - Buying Guide | That just leaves security cameras inside your home, and here’s a basic breakdown of the major home security camera systems.
It’s best to choose a camera that you can monitor. If it’s an outdoor camera that you won’t be able to monitor inside your home, it won’t offer the level of security you’ll need.
Here’s a home security camera buying guide for the typical home. Click to expand.
How Many Cameras Do I Need?
Indoor home security cameras usually capture motion, so you’ll need at least one camera for each room you want to monitor. At a minimum, you’ll need at least two cameras outside the home (if you want to monitor outside the home), and more cameras will allow you to monitor more than one room at a time (if you don’t have enough cameras outside to cover all the areas that may need it).
Not all cameras fit a single room though. Outdoor cameras will usually fit at least two or three rooms (some outdoor cameras can actually fit four rooms). Indoor cameras usually have multiple cameras and can work with multiple indoor cameras for more coverage. Indoor cameras will typically have a limited motion detection range that won’t cover all the areas that you need them to. Some indoor cameras will also have several zoom features that allow you to zoom in to areas that may not be as bright as the other parts of your home.
Accessory Cameras
Accessory cameras add additional features to your home security system. These are used to add additional security, but they’re not included in the price of your home security system. In most cases, you’ll be able to add an accessory camera at a discounted price from the manufacturer of the home security camera you already have.
Accessory Cameras
Accessory cameras will generally be part of a home security system that you buy for your own home. You’ll need to check with the manufacturer of your current home security camera system to find out if it will be compatible with the accessory camera you buy.
Accessory cameras can include items like doorbell cameras, security cameras that sit on your windows, or security cameras that sit outside your home (if your home security camera system is aimed at the exterior).
Accessory cameras are often less expensive, but there are some important limitations. Accessories will typically only work within a certain range of the home security camera system. There may also be limits on how high the camera can be mounted or how long it can monitor a certain area.
Accessory cameras that sit outside the home can generally work on existing indoor security cameras. The most common way to set up the cameras on your home security system is to add them to an indoor camera unit.
Accessory cameras can also be added to outdoor security cameras. In most cases, these cameras will connect to your existing indoor cameras (again checking to see if the home security system is compatible) for additional coverage.
Accessory Cameras for Home Security Systems
Accessory cameras are often just as expensive as a home security system. They typically cost $60 or more, although some models will cost a lot more.
Accessory cameras can range in price from $25 for a small camera that connects to your existing indoor security camera (less than a minute of video, no zoom, and an indoor range of 30 feet) all the way up to $120 for a top of the line security camera system that offers a range of multiple cameras, multiple video recording options, and multiple monitoring options.
Accessory cameras are not designed for active home security systems. You won’t need to add an accessory camera when you’re leaving your home. However, if you have an active security system (like a security system that comes with cameras or doors) you’ll probably need an accessory camera to monitor your home (or nearby areas) if you have an intruder in your home. | https://medium.com/@bestgadgetstech20/best-indoor-home-security-camera-buying-guide-33b300a6ce3f | [] | 2021-05-12 20:07:02.289000+00:00 | ['Security', 'Home Security Systems', 'Security Camera', 'Home Security', 'Indoor Camera'] |
Quentin Tarantino’s ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD Shouldn’t Be Historically Accurate | We know from Inglourious Basterds (2009) and Django Unchained (2012) that Quentin Tarantino has a penchant for mixing hyper-violence with historical fiction. A movie “based on true events”, that deviates from the facts, may rub some people the wrong way, but, at the end of the day, movies are movies. Even documentaries have their skewed perspectives and dramatic flair. And when it comes to the infamous Tate-LaBianca murders of 1969, there are nothing but slanted angles…
Reportedly, Tarantino’s screenplay centers on Sharon Tate (to be played by Margot Robbie). All the better. Most depictions of these crimes — and their stiff attempts at accuracy — have come up short. They rarely capture the cultural magnitude of the ‘Tate murders’ at the time, and how the media became so fascinated with Charles Manson’s ‘Family’ that their notoriety supplanted that of the prominent victims.
1976's Helter Skelter TV Movie remains the benchmark (adapted from Vincent Bugliosi’s best-selling book), which did nothing short of exalt the true crime genre to what it’s become today. Its success is partly because its swagger was still ‘of the times’ (hard to beat with decades-later recreations), but mainly because Steve Railsback’s portrayal of Manson remains the most hypnotic.
The myth of Manson (a figure who’s joined the annals of American criminality next to Billy the Kid and Bonnie & Clyde), refused to die with the 20th-century… and we’re all complicit.
The past 17 years alone have seen numerous renditions of the seven murders Charles Manson allegedly ordered members of his ‘cult’ to carry out. While Helter Skelter focused on his investigation and trial, recent dramatisations have attempted immersion (however vain) into the cult-y atmosphere of Manson’s ‘Family’.
Helter Skelter (1976) © Lorimar Television
Helter Skelter (2004) © Warner Bros. Television
Manson, My Name is Evil (2009) © New Real Films
House of Manson (2014) © Micro Bay Features
Aquarius (2015) © NBC
Manson’s Lost Girls (2016) © Asylum Entertainment
House of Manson (2014), written and directed by Brandon Slagle, was one of the few takes that surprised me. You can tell it was made by a younger filmmaker not old enough to have been affected by the paranoia that saturated the 1970s. It was a bold attempt in not just a biopic of Manson, but of the Family itself, humanizing the unitary hippie gang as to dispel the myth.
Still, these narratives take plenty of liberties as it is, abridging nuance and facts while claiming to do justice to the actual events.
The result is they become hard to tell apart; clumping together into 1960s-nostalgia panoramas of actors in glorified Halloween costumes. It’s always the same cast of caricatures, with Manson as the unhinged cult leader, and the girls as nothing more than lobotomy-eyed sister wives — which was all the public gleaned during the trial.
You can never see why these upper-middle class, college educated girls would be so drawn to this skulking elf of an ex-con — equal parts cherubic and demonic. Or how the formation of the Family was more of a volatile cocktail of militant minds, rather than some crusading power trip for world domination. (Sounds hokey, don’t it).
Unless we relinquish Manson of the boogieman archetype — and stop giving him so much credit — we’ll never pierce the veil. Maybe that’s why our fascination lives on.
With some retrospect, it seems as though each of these renditions are taking cues from the previous one, like a bad game of Telephone, without mining the weird, long-abandoned corridors of the source material.
It’s hard to imagine a filmmaker like Tarantino succumbing to the same pitfall. Of course his version will stand out from the rest, so long as he doesn’t try to replicate reality.
If he, in true Tarantino fashion, shamelessly took liberties that deviate from official accounts, maybe he’d crack through the mystique, free us of our ideological shackles, and give us something that doesn’t border on the campy and reductive?
Django Unchained faced some critical backlash for its apparent affront to historic accuracy. Tarantino commented on this criticism, saying:
“When slave narratives are done on film, they tend to be historical with a capital H, with an arm’s-length quality to them. I wanted to break that history-under-glass aspect, I wanted to throw a rock through that glass and shatter it for all times, and take you into it.”
The movie’s unflinching violence is often highlighted—which, Tarantino noted, was nowhere near the levels endured during actual slavery — but underneath that is the disturbing subtlety of the characters’ indifference to said violence. (Violence, after all, is as American as cherry pie, as expressed by the late black power activist H. Rap Brown.) In the film, when the German bounty hunter (Christopher Waltz) shows disgust in the mauling of a black slave by dogs, Django (Jamie Foxx) flatly tells slave master Calvin Candie (Leonardo Dicaprio) his friend “ain’t used to America like I am.”
This merely glimpses the bad and bloody weirdness of the pre-Civil War Cotton Kingdom, and the ravenous neurosis that possessed the Jacksonian South over the prospect of social upheaval.
‘Accuracy’ in cinema is inconsequential, what it hopefully does is push people to dig at truth for themselves. Imagine this auteur turning his keen eye back toward Los Angeles, a city he hasn’t revisited onscreen for 20 years! If his Manson project is only half as good as Jackie Brown (1997), it’ll be worth seeing. | https://medium.com/framerated/tarantino-s-take-on-manson-murders-shouldn-t-be-historically-accurate-315c3a2c436c | ['Brent L. Smith'] | 2019-05-18 19:15:54.284000+00:00 | ['Movies', 'Hollywood', 'Culture', 'Features', 'Film'] |
Scientists discover never-before-seen particles in the blood of septic patients | This timelapse image shows the appearance of an ENDS and how it curls over time — Image Credit: Alex Marki, M.D., Ley Laboratory, La Jolla Institute for Immunology.
MEDICAL DISCOVERY
Scientists discover never-before-seen particles in the blood of septic patients
These mysterious particles break off immune cells & change their shape as they move through the body
As it turns out biology is far more complex than we are led to believe. It was only recently that scientists discovered a mysterious organ — a set of salivary glands hidden inside the human head. You can now add a mysterious particle found in the bloodstream of septic patients, to this list. Researchers at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) observed the sausage-shaped structures in mice with sepsis.
Sepsis occurs when the immune system overreacts to infection by flooding the body with dangerous chemicals. In addition to fighting the invading infection, these chemicals also trigger organ damage. In fact, septic “shock” is the most common cause of death, once you are in the hospital.
The team leader of the research came across the mysterious particles while studying neutrophils — a kind of immune cell that moves through the bloodstream and slips into tissues to fight infections. The long, thin shaped particles sticking to the walls of blood vessels in mice had no description of them in the medical literature and therefore were named Elongated Neutrophil-Derived Structures (ENDS).
ENDS were named as such since they are created by immune cells, neutrophils, which are basically the first line of defense against the invading pathogens. Tubes called tethers are attached to neutrophils as they roll on the blood vessel wall. The team then used advanced imaging techniques to figure out how these tubes eventually transform into ENDS.
“We actually found a new particle in the human body that had never been described before. ENDS are not normal — they are not detectable in healthy people or mice, But ENDS are very high in sepsis, and I would not be surprised if they were high in other inflammatory diseases.” ~ Alex Marki, First Author of the Study
To learn more about how ENDS formed and degraded, the team developed new techniques. According to the observations, tethers get longer and thinner as they roll over the blood vessel wall — just 150 nanometers (around 1/500th the width of a human hair).
Eventually, they break off in the middle. Part of the tether stays with the neutrophil, while the broken segment flies away in the bloodstream, off to forming an ENDS. These little structures have so far only been detected in culture cells, live mice, and human patients with sepsis — ENDS are around 100x more detectable in septic patients than in healthy subjects.
Researchers see the potential of using ENDS as a biomarker for different diseases in the long run. However, the technology to make this happen is not available yet. The team hopes to collect more blood samples from patients at various times during the progression of the disease to better understand the function of the newly found particles.
Complete Research was published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.
Stay informed with the content that matters — Join my mailing list | https://medium.com/technicity/scientists-discover-never-before-seen-particles-in-the-blood-of-septic-patients-60bcd0689d4b | ['Faisal Khan'] | 2020-12-28 23:13:36.378000+00:00 | ['Science', 'Innovation', 'Future', 'Technology', 'Health'] |
The Battle of Ten Kings | Ahi-Kshetra - the ancient capital of Northern Panchala — Wikimedia Commons
The account in the Ṛg Veda and the legacy for modern India
The seventh maṇḍala of the Ṛg Veda was largely composed by the Rṣi Vasiṣṭha Maitrāvaruṇi, well-known from later literature too, especially for the mutual antagonism between him and Viśvamitra. It commemorates some events leading to the hegemony of the Bharata people in India. In particular, sūktas (hymns) 18, 33 and 83 of Ṛg Veda Book 7 provide elements of a historical account of the ‘daśarājña’, that is, the Battle of the Ten Kings, which seems to have been a pivotal event in early Indian history. Professor Michael Witzel has undertaken detailed research into the historical importance of the Rig Veda, the events of Vedic India and the ongoing relevance of the Vedic tradition for modern India (see here, here and here), and I will draw heavily on that research in this article.
Although it seems to be slightly unclear exactly who the ten kings were who took part in the battle, it is clear that the battle was between the Tṛtsu-Bharatas on one side and the Pūrus and their allies on the other side. The Tṛtsu-Bharatas were originally one part of the Pūrus but later split off to form an independent grouping. The spiritual head of the Tṛtsu-Bharatas was Vasiṣṭha and that of the Pūrus was Viśvamitra. Based on R.V. 7.33.3, Prof. Witzel describes Vaśiṣṭha as “an immigrant from across the Sindhu” and speculates that -
“other tribes began to unite against [the Bharatas], either due to the intrigues of the ousted Viśvāmitra, or simply because of intratribal resentment. This led to the famous battle of the ten ‘kings’ which, however, is not mentioned by book 3, as Viśvāmitra (its author) had by then been replaced by Vasiṣṭha as the purohita of Sudās. There is even the possibility that it was Viśvåmitra who — in an act of revenge — forged the alliance against his former chief. Whatever the reason, however, the alliance failed and the Pūrus were completely ousted (7.8.4 etc.) along with Viśvāmitra (= Bhgu, 7.18.6) … The crucial point is the alleged change of sides by the Pūrus who were formerly allies of the Bharatas, as well as by a Bhṛgu, who was probably Viśvāmitra, a Bhṛgu pupil.”
In this historic Vedic battle, the alliance of Bharatas under the Tṛtsu (Bharata) king Sudas were victorious in battle against their opponents, the Purus and their allies. This leads to an era of dominance by the victors, the Bharatas, who subsequently also came to be known as Kurus or Kauravas.
They went to their end; it was a bad end; They arrived at the Paruṣṇī [modern Rāvi river] and they went down injured; Sudāsa, Indra, annihilated the enemies, the unmanly among men, as they rushed on. [Ṛg Veda 7.18.9 of Ṛṣi Vasiṣṭha; my own translation] Indra instantly [and] powerfully tore apart all their forts and seven cities He divided the foreign loot amongst the Tṛtsus; May we vanquish the Pūru adversary in the contest (vidatha) [Ṛg Veda 7.18.13 of Ṛṣi Vasiṣṭha; my own translation] These Tṛtsus supported by Indra flowed down like waters released The enemy, exhibiting very little knowledge, abandoned all possessions to Sudās [Ṛg Veda 7.18.15 of Ṛṣi Vasiṣṭha; my own translation]
This historical event was later also drawn on and adapted to create the core story of the Mahābhārata, with, however, significant and somewhat perplexing differences. As Prof. Witzel explains -
“In the RV this [daśarājña battle] is fought between the Bharata chieftain Sudās on the one side, and the Pūru chief with his nine ‘royal’ allies on the other. It took place on the Paruṣṇī in central Panjab. The Mahābhārata battle, however, is fought between the Kaurava (of Bharata descent) and the Pāṇḍava, both of the new Kuru tribe, near the Sarasvatī in Kurukṣetra (modern Haryana).”
Prof. Witzel describes a transition through three periods of early India. Classifying the period of composition of the Ṛg Veda as the old Vedic period, Prof. Witzel describes it as a period when there were some 50 small tribes in constant conflict. The major event towards the end of this period was the above-described Battle of Ten Kings.
The third and final period, termed the late Vedic period, was the period of composition of the Brāhmaṇas, Upanishads etc., and was dominated by the larger-scale Kuru-Pañcāla and Kosala-Videha social groupings. There was, however, also an intervening middle period, or mantra period, that is, a period of the mantra language, about which Prof. Witzel writes -
“This “gap” between the Ṛgveda and the other Vedic texts is one of the major dark periods of Indian history … in my opinion, it is this period (together with the slightly earlier formation of the Bharata realm), which is of crucial importance for the development of all later Indian culture and civilization. It is at this moment that the social “raw material” present in Ṛgvedic time was intentionally transformed into what became the core and the pattern first of Vedic and, later on, of Hindu culture … Includes the mantras in verse and prose of the Atharvaveda (PS, ŚS), the Ṛgveda-Khila (RVKh), the Sāmaveda Saṃhitā (mostly taken from the Ṛgveda) and the Yajurveda Saṃhitās. All these texts form a new type of Vedic, largely unstudied and unrecognised as a distinct entity. They contain the oldest Indian prose.”
Subsequently, under such visionary leaders as Parikṣit and Janamejaya, fondly remembered in the Mahabharata and other later literature, a new phase of Indian civilisation began, in which the Kurus, together with their close allies, the Pañcālas, were able to establish a stable Kuru state including many other tribes as a single people.
This involved the compilation of the Ṛg Veda text in the form we now have it by bringing together the religious literature of various stakeholders and social groups into a single collection, arranged according to the interests of the new society, yet remembering the provenance of the hymns amongst the various earlier social groups. As Prof. Witzel explains -
“In order to carry out many of the religious and social reforms mentioned so far and as to achieve the general purpose of overlordship in northern India, the Kuru kings initiated also a collection of the major poetic and ritual texts … Many if not most of the traditionally remembered old hymns were included in the “national” collection of hymns, the Ṛgveda, though the hymns of the Bharata and the Pūru clearly dominate the collection.”
Indeed, Prof. Witzel describes the Puruṣa Sūkta (R.V. 10.90) as the “first constitution of India” and goes on to explain -
[Aside from possibly the Harappan civilization] “… we are, I believe, entitled to call the Kuru realm the first state in India … the developments which brought about the Kuru realm were lasting and not transient ones as those under the Ṛgvedic Pūru or Bharata. In effect, many of the changes in religion and society then carried out shape Indian society even today.”
If the Puruṣa Sūkta is indeed a first constitution, then certainly any proper understanding of constitutional rule in India should begin with a study of this text and its legacy in subsequent history and practice. We may end with the final two verses from the final sūkta of the final book of the Ṛg Veda, 10.191, which Prof. Witzel describes as “The Hymn to Unity” - | https://medium.com/desiretothink/the-battle-of-ten-kings-4bd531662d8a | ['Peter Sahota'] | 2020-02-08 19:19:53.232000+00:00 | ['India', 'Vedas', 'Mahabharata', 'Sanskrit', 'Hinduism'] |
How I Get Instant Equity On My Home Purchases | I've purchased two homes in my lifetime. The first of which I purchased when I was 23 years old. I've found myself speaking to many friends my age (late twenties) who are starting the home buying process themselves. They all come to me with a variety of questions, and I find myself giving the same advice to many of them—one of which I would like to share with you here.
If you’ve ever bought a home, you know the home buying process can be a very exciting process. You might hop on Zillow to look through the homes in your price range and dream about what it will feel like to own your own property. Since purchasing my second home about 2 years ago, I have found myself becoming a bit addicted to browsing homes online — it's kind of my thing now.
Going through the home buying process twice early in life taught me many things. I made a few mistakes, but I also made a few great decisions that I would like to share with you.
Like most home buyers, I wanted a great looking home with the features I desired in a great neighborhood. I think most homebuyers would say the same thing, but I also wanted to make sure I was making a good investment. In fact, not only did I want to make a good investment, I wanted to make an exceptional one. But how was I to go about that?
I knew I needed to try to find a good deal. I knew I needed to find a home that was priced below market value, so if I wanted to sell in a few years, I could make a bit of money when I did, but the real estate market where I live was red hot (and continues to be) so finding a great deal was no small task.
Everyone selling their home knew they could ask top dollar, and the crazy thing was, most of them got significantly more than what they were asking. I was new to the real estate game and didn't know how to become an insider — someone who knew what homes were hitting the market before they did so they could capitalize. Upon further investigation, I found out that most of these pre-market deals happed with cash transactions, and I certainly didn't have that kind of money lying around. That option was out.
The more time I spent browsing realtor.com the more I realized there was a common theme to the homes that would stay on the market longer than 2–3 days. They all were a bit dated, possibly had some underlying problems, or were just overpriced. I had no intention of buying an overpriced home, and I certainly didn't want to run into underlying problems, so I decided to give a little more attention to the homes that didn't look all that great.
I scheduled showings for homes that looked a bit run down or dated. I saw a lot of interesting properties — properties I would never purchase, but I also saw some homes that weren't all that bad.
What do I mean by not all that bad? Let me explain …
There were a lot of houses with pink bathrooms. There were many properties with orange shag carpet. There were a lot of homes that just plain smelled weird, but one thing I realized was that many of the weird smelling and dated properties were in pretty good shape.
Now, I am by no means a master carpenter. In fact, I never even took “shop” class, but one thing that I have always taken pride in is my ability to learn. This, coupled with the fact that I'm cheap and never want to pay a contractor to anything, I typically teach myself via YouTube and online articles to do most home and auto repairs myself.
I had good self-awareness, so I knew what projects I could handle and which ones were a bit over my head. I felt comfortable painting, replacing vanities, installing new light fixtures, refinishing floors, building fences, etc. I did not feel comfortable tackling extensive electrical issues, messing with foundation problems, repairing roofs, etc.
With this in mind, when I went to go see these run-down properties, I took a tally of the things I could and couldn't do. I would then analyze the price the seller was asking and see if the deal made sense. Mind you, both properties I have purchased were for my primary residence. These were houses my wife and kids would live in. They were not to be rental properties.
I also started noticing that these homes I started looking at typically had one thing in common.
They were owned by older people.
Now, there is something that I know to generally be true about older generations. While they may not have the most up-to-date style, they certainly know how to maintain their homes. They take pride in this maintenance, more so than my generation, it seems, and that pride in maintenance really shows. Again, many of these homes smelled a bit funny and were VERY dated, but they were structurally sound.
This correlation was a revelation to me and has lead me to talk to many peers about buying their first home. Of course, I talk to them about the financial responsibility of homeownership, but I also give them the biggest tip I could give a home buyer looking to have instant equity in their purchase …
Buy homes from older people.
You would be amazed how many home buyers can't see past pink walls, orange shag carpet, or a funny smell. If you’re able to, you’re putting yourself in a rare group of people, and you’re more likely to find a home that, with minimal work, will produce a fantastic looking property in great condition. Sometimes the extent of the work you need to do is just redecorate! Again, you would be shocked at what potential home buyers can’t look past. It seems everyone today desires a move-in ready home with new light fixtures and granite countertops.
If I could give you one piece of advice, it would be to look at a property through the eyes of an investor when you can. Of course, you may be buying a home for you and your family, so not everything needs to be about ROI, but when you’re able to look past what your fellow buyers can’t, you will find your way into a great situation.
By the way, the first home I bought I sold 4 years later for $50,000 more than what I bought it for (the original purchase price was just over $100,000), and the second home I still live in, but it was recently appraised for $35,000 more than what I purchased it for just a little over a year later.
Talk soon,
Jarod Dickson
www.millennialecon.com | https://medium.com/makingofamillionaire/how-i-get-instant-equity-on-my-home-purchases-9262e5838cd6 | ['Jarod Dickson'] | 2020-12-06 15:01:04.298000+00:00 | ['Investing', 'Inspiration', 'Real Estate', 'Financial Freedom', 'Personal Finance'] |
How Are Security Camera Systems And Network Cabling Installed? | Security cameras and network cabling are always going to be linked when you have a major installation done in your building. Your security cameras use cables that connect back to your central monitor, or they could connect to the network cables to send a digital signal to the screen that your security staff watches. Also, you need to have all these cables hidden and out of sight when you have people come into your building. In addition, these cables can be serviced and repaired by the same people. Ensure that you have a quality installation completed so that you can get all the benefits that are listed below.
Security Cameras Deter Crime
Security Camera Systems and Installation often deter crime when the cameras are obvious. You can use these big and foreboding cameras at your entrance, gate, or in the hallways so that people know that what they do will be recorded. There are times when you need to hide the cameras, or you could choose to use a globe camera that sits in the ceiling and is often so inconspicuous that people forget it is there. The cables for the cameras will be sent throughout the building to the place where all the cameras are checked, and you should have those cables installed in places that will be easy service if you ever need repairs.
How Do Your Network Cables Work With The Security Cameras?
When you request Network Cabling Services, you will find that it is very easy for you to tie the network cables to your security camera cables. In some cases, your cameras will use a WiFi signal that is created by your network cables, and you can get a clear signal because you place your T-1 lines near each camera. Someone who is requesting both services can have the cables tied together, or you may ask your installer to run your network cables alongside your camera cables so that they are easy to find and service.
You Need Routine Service/Repairs
You need routine service for your cables and cameras because they need to be checked for any damage or slowdowns you have had in the system. It is very easy for you to set up routine services when you buy the system, and you can make time for the company to come out at least once a year to check on the cables and the system in general. When you have services completed at least once a year, the system will last longer than if you simply installed it and hoped for it to work
You also need a local company that can help you if you need emergency repairs to your system. You do not want to go without security cameras or your network, and you should have their number on your speed dial so that you can reach them the moment that you realize there is a problem with your system. If you use a local company, you can even ask for the same person who did your service the last time. When you work with someone you already know, you have a lot of peace of mind that you will not get from a national chain that swoops in and out without the same level of customer service.
In Conclusion
You must have your security cameras and network cables installed by a professional who knows how to hide your wires, check the system, and complete repairs when needed. Plus, you need to get a good price from a company that will give you an upfront estimate, explain what you need, and make the installation and your facility look clean. | https://medium.com/@smartdigitaltech01/how-are-security-camera-systems-and-network-cabling-installed-81f4fa3507df | ['Frank M'] | 2019-09-04 12:08:50.620000+00:00 | ['Security Systems', 'Cctv Security Cameras', 'Security Camera', 'Internet of Things'] |
6 Effective Tips For How To Choose A Career Path In 2020 | Don’t know what to do with your life? I’m gonna share with you six tips to help you figure out what career pathway to choose and if you are lacking a bit of direction if you feel like you have to have it all figured out don’t worry because I do think that these 6 tips are going to give you a bit more clarity and just help you to find a bit more direction so let’s get straight into my tips now to get the most out of these six tips.
I highly recommend that you actually map everything out on a big piece of paper and this is honestly what I did when I was trying to figure out what to do with my career because I think if we write down our thoughts and all of our intentions and values it’s going to help us in steering us in the right kind of direction. Here are 6 tips to help you decide on a career path.
Choose a Career That Makes you Happy
Choose a career based on Skills
Choose A Career, you Love
How to Choose a Career Path
Choose a Career Choose Life
Why is it important to Choose A Career | https://medium.com/@alfazspanwar/6-effective-tips-for-how-to-choose-a-career-path-in-2020-f1095bd14191 | ['Alfaz Khan'] | 2020-05-09 10:24:58.927000+00:00 | ['Career Paths', 'Careers', 'Career Advice', 'Career Development', 'Education'] |
Accessing source code of object in python🐍 | As we know, everything in python is an object, even function we define is also an object in Python. As a programmer, we write so many functions and also do use functions written by others.
When we define the function, we know what is written in function and how exactly it works, but when we use functions of other module we don’t know what’s the source code of it.
In this short article, you will learn method to get source code of functions in python.
To get the source code of functions in python, use inspect module. Inspect module have a set of functions using which you can get source code, documentation string, and path of file where method is defined.
Let’s understand it with simple example:
```
import inspect
import random
print(inspect.getsource(random.randint))
```
Output:
```def randint(self, a, b):
"""Return random integer in range [a, b], including both end points.
"""
return self.randrange(a, b+1) ```
But one thing to keep in mind, inspect won’t return the source code of built-in objects and object defined interactively.
To get the code of object defined interactively you can use dill.source.getsource function.
Built-in methods of python is written in C and can only be access by directly looking into python source code. | https://medium.com/@codingpilot25/accessing-source-code-of-object-in-python-87554656a964 | ['Keerti Prajapati'] | 2020-12-20 07:45:23.736000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Methods', 'Python3', 'Python Programming', 'Source Code'] |
How excessive content on social media is killing creativity | How excessive content on social media is killing creativity
Photo by Mishal Ibrahim on Unsplash
How can you think and be creative while trying new things when someone else is thinking for you? While scrolling different social media platforms do you encounter the same content? Do you feel that you are brimming with so much information that it blocks your way into your own creative sphere?
Phewww…. I know I can relate to it.
Every time I come up with an idea and to know more about it I go to one of the search engines and then what? That idea or something similar to it already exists and it hinders my process to think differently about it.
Trust me once you start scrolling your brain just slips into some slow deactivating mode closing all the doors for creativity because it gets busy in interpreting the profuse amount of information which also leads to a drop in focus.
That moment when you decide to just have a look at your screens for a few minutes generally results in long periods of zero productivity with some extra load of trivial information which destroys the entire atmosphere to make decisions and utilise the information.
We tend to lose our actual perspective amidst all the chaos and are left completely hollow and bland. Instead of living our life in our own ways and achieving all what we ever wanted we just go off-track because of the unreasonable influence.
“I am not who you think I am; I am not who I think I am; I am who I think you think I am ” ― Cooley
This quote by Cooley correctly describes our current state. We are so lost that we actually fail to figure out our own self and are just riding in some boat with no determined goal or destination.
What’s the solution to come out of this turbulent sphere?
1.) Turn off all the notifications-
To maintain your calm and sanity this step will help you a lot and will increase your productivity and your me-time.
2.) Start writing a journal -
This keeps you on track and helps you in reminding about your goals and your passion. Helps you to decrease your dependence on mobile applications to do the same task. And trust me writing on a paper gives more satisfaction.
3.) Plan a detox from the entire Social media -
This is not an easy one but after you separate yourself from all the clutter your creativity really gets a boost. And after so much stillness you’ll find it difficult to go back and become a part of the trifling hustle again.
4.) Unfollow all the people or platforms which disturbs your state of mind-
Doing this will completely cut you off from that aura of negativity and will allow you to just focus on the good. Follow people who provide valuable content and bring positivity to your life.
Don’t let this product of mankind destroy you. Be powerful enough to switch it off whenever it starts messing up with your frame of mind. Push all the social media aside to look inside you, to listen to your own thoughts and work on your goals. | https://medium.com/@kanupriya17jan/how-excessive-content-on-social-media-is-killing-creativity-fb6e10c0e09c | ['Kanupriya Agarwal'] | 2020-10-07 17:49:19.039000+00:00 | ['SEO', 'Solutions', 'Technology', 'Social Media', 'Creativity'] |
A Developer’s Guide to Flutter: Step by Step | Since it’s much-awaited launch, Flutter has caught a lot of attention, and we’re excited about it too! I’m hoping that a massive chunk of non-game apps will transition to flutter, and in anticipation, we are therefore training our team on it as well.
Since there are new, but few, resources scattered over the internet to learn flutter — we’ve compiled our Flutter tutorial to get developers off their feet and start developing apps for Flutter.
In this Flutter step by step guide for beginners, we will cover:
Flutter: What, How, and Why?
Setting up Flutter
Dart Basics
Flutter Basics
Widgets
Layouts
Interactive Widgets
Designing an app: Forms, Gestures, and Images
Lists
Navigation
Networking
JSON and Serialization
Dependency Management
State Management
Testing (Unit and Integration)
1. Flutter: What, How, and Why?
What is Flutter, and how is it different? Being Flutter app developers, you need to just remember this — Flutter was built to work for any device with a screen and works with:
iOS and Android
Web and Desktop (Mac, Windows, and Ubuntu) — Even support PWA
Auto
Raspberry Pi (POC stage)
Check out this video from Google; it’s a great place to get a grasp — comparing Native Development, Hybrid App Development, React Native Development, and finally, Flutter App Development.
Here is the latest news on the launch of the new version of Flutter and Dart programming language-
2. Setting up Flutter
Flutter is relatively straightforward to set up and depending on what OS you’re using; you can check out the steps in this official Flutter tutorial: https://flutter.dev/docs/get-started/install
But in case, you do run into something, check out here: https://github.com/flutter/flutter/wiki/Workarounds-for-common-issues#flutter-installation
The reason we ask that you setup Flutter before Dart is because when you install Flutter, you install Dart too, and while you can separately install Dart, it would be an unnecessary step. Flutter will decide which Dart version will be used, so installing different Dart version will be ambiguous as well.
Once you’ve downloaded and unzipped Flutter, you should see something like this on running the Flutter command at the console:
If you’re new to mobile development in general, you will need to download Xcode and Android Studio (and toolchain), as well. Once you’ve setup Flutter, scaffolding a new project is just one command.
3. Dart Basics
Flutter uses Dart language to build Apps. To understand why Flutter uses dart, check out my previous blog and down to the section — How Flutter was born
Flutter and Chrome use the same rendering engine — SKIA. Instead of interacting with native APIs, it controls every pixel on the screen, which gives it the much necessary freedom from the legacy baggage as well as the performance it has.
Do give the official doc a read, but I found this one to be good at explaining dart
P.S. You can follow up with Dart updates on their medium account
Now, you know why Google choose Dart — so let’s get your hands dirty!
Learn Dart
Check out the official docs of Dart language, a tour, and their language samples.
Once you have an overview, head over to http://jpryan.me/dartbyexample/ and do all the examples religiously.
Practice, Practice, Practice!
Edit your code on DartPad for starters and get a better grip. I’m sure you’ll be up and running in no time!
My First Hello, World! in Dart 🎉
After, you’re done with dartbyexample, head over to exercism, and complete their dart track. It’s trendy, so in case it’s full, you can do the practice track too.
4. Flutter Basics
Now that you’re familiar with Dart, it’s finally time to move on to Flutter
Let’s start this Flutter tutorial with the technical overview here:
And scaffold a new Flutter app with:
flutter create app_name
And you should see something like this:
Open the project on the Android Studio, download the emulator, and an Android version if not done already and run the project — and et voila!
Understand as to how should you structure your project directory and understand which files are meant for which purpose
Now that you’ve setup flutter, another step in this Flutter Tutorial is to do what all developers do! Use other’s code 😆 — what I meant is to set up the package file: pubspec, written in YAML
5. Widgets
Remember — Everything’s a widget in Flutter
If you’ve not read the technical overview as we asked you before, go back and read it :) You will get a fair idea of what widgets are. Widgets come in two flavors: stateless and stateful
Stateless Widgets are those whose state doesn’t change like a button or an image. As the name states, it doesn’t change its state when an action is performed on the screen.
Check out the short video series, and it’s documentation by Google to explore in-depth (I’m attaching the first video in the series).
When a widget needs to hold some state like a current page in PageView, the currently selected tab in a BottomNavigationBar, Stateful widgets are the right choice to make.
StatefulWidgets can hold the current state of a Widget. Instead of a widget build method, a Stateful widget has a State build method which calls each time we explicitly call setState.
And Similarly, check out the documentation (it has the video inside) for the stateful widgets here:
Flutter 1.9 was released at GDD China with a host of new features and a mark that the community is multiplying (and that you can’t ignore China now)
6. Layouts in Flutter
As we discussed earlier in this Flutter guide, everything is a widget in Flutter — including layout models.
Check out the documentation here:
Widgets such as the rows, columns, and grid are layout widgets (which we don’t see on screen) that helps other visible widgets to arrange, constraints, and align.
And, Some more Widgets!
Flutter comes with a suite of powerful basic Widgets such as Text, Column, Row, Stack, and Container. The basic widgets will help you creating custom views as you want.
If your app follows material design guidelines, Flutter has a lot to cover by default. Flutter provides several widgets that support Material Design. It includes widgets such as MaterialApp, AppBar, Scaffold, etc.
Material Navigation Drawer (https://material.io/components/navigation-drawer/#)
Flutter also includes the iOS-centric Cupertino component package. It covers widgets such as CupertinoApp, CupertinoNavigationBar, etc.
Cupertino NavigationBar (https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/ios/bars/navigation-bars/)
7. Interactive Widgets
So far in this Flutter step by step tutorial, we have seen Widgets that display information on-screen or arrange other widgets. For the real app, it is equally essential to make the app interactive and get user’s input in various forms like Gesture, taps, etc.
To achieve this, Flutter has numbers of StatefullWidgets such as Checkbox, Radio, Slider, InkWell, Form, and TextField, etc. These widgets are capable enough to maintain their state (e.g., Text we are entering in TextField, whether a CheckList is checked or not.)
Go and check out the below example to add Favorites/Non-Favorites functionality to your app.
⏰ Time for Codelab: Write your First Flutter App : Part-2 As you have reached here, you should be clear with What is Widgets ? and Types of Widget
Now you must be curious about what are all widgets available in Flutter?
So here is a Widget Catalog, Check all the Widgets that make Flutter development relaxed and Fun 😍
Flutter Cookbook
And here we go, it’s time to learn Flutter for real apps with the help of Flutter Cookbook. I mean Apps that have Multiple screens, Images, Network dependency, and all.
So, let’s begin.
8. Designing an App
Check the below app illustration.
This Simple looking app has these features 👇
Navigation Drawer
https://flutter.dev/docs/cookbook/design/drawer SnackBar
https://flutter.dev/docs/cookbook/design/snackbars Custom Fonts (A Text have its own Style 😉)
https://flutter.dev/docs/cookbook/design/package-fonts A Text-based on Orientation (Bigger fonts in Landscape)
https://flutter.dev/docs/cookbook/design/orientation And, Multiple Tabs
https://flutter.dev/docs/cookbook/design/tabs
Note here: OrientationBuilder is independent of the device’s orientation. Instead, It calculates the current Orientation by comparing the width and height available to the parent widget. To determine the device’s orientation you can refer MediaQuery.of(context).orientation
8.1 Forms
Flutter has a Form widget that helps to build a form that efficiently manages the essential requirement of a Form, e.g., State of a Form, Validation, etc. Check out the complete guild in the below documentation.
8.2 Gestures
To get the user inputs and some-time to make the app super interactive, we maximize the use of Gestures. Flutter has pre-built widgets to cover this.
Adding Material Ripple Effect
https://flutter.dev/docs/cookbook/gestures/ripples Handle Taps
https://flutter.dev/docs/cookbook/gestures/handling-taps Swipe to Dismiss
https://flutter.dev/docs/cookbook/gestures/dismissible
8.3 Images
To make apps beautiful and engaging, we use Images. Flutter provides an Image widget to display an image in the Flutter app from various sources.
Display Images from Network
2. Display Image with Placeholder & with Fade-in Animation
3. Sometimes it’s handy to Load image from network and cache it in local storage to make it quickly available next time.
9. Showing more data using List
To accommodate more data, we use List to show them. The list can be horizontally or linearly.
Flutter has a GridView and ListView. These are basic widgets with different contractors to identify how they can be used.
Create a grid list
2. Create list horizontally
3. The list can have different types of Item. E.g., a header & items to it. Check here how you can cover such cases in ListView.
4. Floating app bar and Nested scrolling using SliverList
Don’t forget to check out this awesome article by Emily Fortuna to understand Slivers in depth
5. Sometimes we have predefined arbitrary items to be placed in a List. e.g., Setting categories. In ListView, you can pass custom items (in the form of Widgets) to its children.
6. Sometimes a List has more items then the viewport of a screen. In such cases, it makes no sense to build all the items at once. Flutter has ListView.Builder that uses the Lazy rendering approach to create list items efficiently.
If you have more items in a list and looking to paginate them. Here is a good article I found 👇
10. Navigating between screens aka routes
Most apps contain multiple screens to display data in a well-organized manner.
In Flutter, we can do navigation-related operations using Navigator.
Check below diagram to understand how Flutter manages multiple routes, and later, we will discuss how to navigate up and forth between them.
Flutter route stack
Navigate to a new screen and back
2. Pass data to new screens and retrieve results.
So far, what we have seen is Flutter suitable for small projects. But when the project grows, we want to manage all routes at a single place. Also, we might need to address below questions
1. How many routes we have?
2. How to initialize each route?
3. What data is required by each route?
etc..
3. To manage all this efficiently, Flutter has named routes.
4. Pass arguments in named routes.
And, What about this animation while navigating to a new screen?
Hero animation (https://flutter.dev/docs/cookbook/navigation/hero-animations)
5. Animate a widget across screens
11. Networking
Most apps we come across nowadays, are generally connected with third party server and makes requests to the server to fetch or post data.
In Flutter, we can use HTTP as a third-party pub to do such stuff.
Fetch data from the network
2. Make authenticated requests
3. Work with web sockets
Flutter has few more pubs available, which do such stuff more efficiently. Don’t forget to take a look at the below pubs.
13. Using JSON and Serialization
In Flutter, we generally have two strategies for JSON serialization. Manual parsing and automated serialization using code generation.
Runtime reflection is disabled in Flutter, resulting we cannot have libraries like GSON , Jackson or Moshi
Check out the full guide with both strategies here:
For manual parsing, don’t forget to check out this online tool to auto-generate boilerplate for the model class.
Data Persistence
Sometimes we need to persist data in local memory to quickly available whenever we need them.
1. If you have a relatively small amount of data to be stored in a key-value pair. Consider using shared-preferences. Below is the detailed guide to achieving the same using Flutter.
2. You can also read and write files on disk.
3. If an app needs to persist a large amount of data and also it requires to query them. It is advised to use an SQLite database
Flutter app can use the SQLite database via sqflite pub.
For easy to use, reactive persistence, check out below pub. Moor is a wrapper around sqflite.
14. Dependency Management
We use so many pubs in the Flutter app. It’s a great way to work collectively and share code across apps without having to develop everything from scratch.
You can find all the useful packages from here.
With multiple pubs, you might faces issues like conflicts in the version resolving. You can find all the best practices here to be followed while using pubs. | https://medium.com/solute-labs/flutter-tutorial-for-developers-step-by-step-guide-to-building-apps-28a70040edb9 | ['Karan Shah'] | 2020-08-17 11:16:05.983000+00:00 | ['Tutorial', 'Flutter App Development', 'Developer', 'Flutter', 'React'] |
Every Time You Lie, My Love | Every time a lie wisps out of your mouth, my love
A flower grows through the soil
A rainbowed bubble floats over freshly fallen leaves
Penumbra takes another step forward, quietly
Every time a lie steeps through your malignant broth, my love
The stars glitter dangerously
Flakes of blue turn their wayward silhouettes back to silver
A finger draws a heart on the condensation of your soul
The fickle, fickle lies you tell, my love
They stand guard, sentries on the mantelpiece
Shooing away visitors night and day
Crumbling tiny edges around the corners of my heart
The lies you hold so dear, my love,
they are your right and your liberty, all rolled in one
But each time you choose a lie, remember there’s a hush
A finger of silence draws a line in the sand
Lies have a price, my love.
Sometimes one you cannot foresee. | https://psiloveyou.xyz/every-time-you-lie-my-love-703b78c8257 | ['Paroma Sen'] | 2020-12-13 13:03:34.572000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Relationships', 'Poetry Sunday', 'Love', 'Lies'] |
TEN SIKH GURUS ENGRAVED ON CORIAN FOR WALL ART | TEN SIKH GURUS ENGRAVED ON CORIAN FOR WALL ART Rmndeepg Follow Mar 22 · 8 min read
TEN SIKH GURUS ENGRAVED ON CORIAN FOR WALL ART
Age of the ten masters or gurus of Sikhism, a religion which belief on single god that teaches us to doing good throughout life and recognize all human race as one.it all began with the birth of guru Nanak Dev ji in 1469, get through Guru Gobind Singh ji. At the time when tength guru release his soul from this materialistic world in 1708, Guru Gobind Singh ji entrust his designation of guru to the holy Sikh scripture, dhan shri Guru Granth shaib ji.
Sikhs and other communities respects ten gurus of Sikhism as the incarnation of one divine gleam that flow from each guru to his inheritor. That divine gleam now live in the holy scripture dhan Guru Granth Sahib ji . with my small mind and knowledge i ll try to tell something about ten gurus i hope you find this article useful as per you seen in image i engraved ten gurus on corian and back lit it i will describe how i make it in following after describing about ten gurus.
Founder of Sikhism Guru Nanak Dev ji
Guru Nanak Dev ji, known as founder of Sikhism and mention the theory of one God. his father name is Kalyan Das ji (Mehta Kalu ji) and mother name is Mata Tripta ji, and the brother of Bebe Nanaki. He was wedded to Sulakhani ji and had two sons, Siri Chand ji and Lakhmi Das ji.
Guru Nanak Dev ji was brought into this world at Nankana Sahib, Pakistan, on Oct. 20, 1469. He was ceremonial made guru in 1499 at about age 30. He merge his soul in Kartarpur, Pakistan, on Sept. 7, 1539, at the age of 69.
Second Guru Angad Dev ji
Guru Angad Dev ji organize the saying and writings of guru Nanak Dev ji and establish the Gurmukhi script. his father name is Pheru Mall ji and mother name is Mata Daya Kaur (Sabhrai) ji. He was wedded to Mata Khivi ji and had two sons, Dasu ji and Datu ji, and two daughters,bibi Amro ji and bibi Anokhi ji.
The second guru was brought into this world at Harike, India, on March 31, 1504, became guru on Sept. 7, 1539, and merge his soul in Khadur, India, on March 29, 1552, 48 years old.
Third Guru Amar Das ji
Guru Amar Dasji reject caste system with the help of langar, pangat, and sangat.He was brought into this world at Basarke, India, on May 5, 1479, his father Tej Bhan ji and mother Mata Lakhmi ji. He wedded to Mansa Devi and had two sons, Mohan ji and Mohri ji, and two daughters, Dani ji and Bhani ji.
He embellish the third guru at Khadur, India, on March 26, 1552, and merge the soul at Goindwal, India, on Sept. 1, 1574, at the age of 95.
Fourth Guru Raam Das ji
Guru Raam Das ji take up the unearthing of the Sarovar in Amritsar, India.He was brought into this world at Chuna Mandi (Lahore, Pakistan), on Sept. 24, 1524, his father name Hari Das ji Sodhi and mother name Mata Daya Kaur ji. He wedded Bibi Bhani ji and they had three sons, Prithi Chand ji, Maha Dev ji and Arjun Dev ji.He embellish the fourth guru at Goindwal, India, on Sept. 1, 1574, and merge the soul at Goindwal on Sept. 1, 1581, at the age of 46.
Fifth Guru Arjan Dev ji
Guru Arjun dev ji fabricate the Golden Temple (Harmandir Sahib) in Amritsar, India, and organized Adi Granth in 1604.He was brought into world at Goindwal, India, on April 14. 1563, to Guru Raam das ji and Mata Bhani ji. He weded Raam Devi, who was issueless, and Ganga ji, and they had one son, Har Govind ji.He was emblleish the fifth guru at Goindwal on Sept. 1, 1581, and merge the soul in Lahore, Pakistan, on May 30, 1606, at the age of 43.
Sixth Guru Har Gobind ji
Guru Hargobind ji erected the Akal Takhat. He elevated an army and kept two swords that represent earthly and divine command. Jahangir detention the guru, who contract a rescue for whoever could remain to his robe.The sixth guru was brought into world at Guru ki Wadali, India, on June 19, 1595, and was the son of Guru Arjun dev ji and Mata Ganga ji. He wedded Damodri ji, Nankee ji, and Maha Devi ji. He was the father of five sons, Gur Ditta ji, Ani Rai ji, Suraj Mal ji, Atal Rai ji, Teg Mall ji (Teg Bahadur), and one daughter, Bibi Veero ji.He was become the sixth guru at Amritsar, India, on May 25, 1606, and merge the soul at Kiratpur, India, on March 3, 1644, at the age of 48.
Seventh Guru Har Rai ji
Guru Har Rai ji, is seventh guru of the 10 gurus, generate the Sikh faith, conserved a troopers of twenty thousands as his personal guard, and constructed both a hospital and zoo.He was birthed in Kiratupur, India, on Jan. 16, 1630, and his father Baba Gurditta ji and mother Mata Nihal Kaur. He wedded Sulakhni ji and was the father of two sons, Ram Rai ji and Har Krishan ji, and one daughter, Sarup Kaur ji.seventh guru embellish at Kiratpur, March 3, 1644, and merge the soul at Kiratpur, Oct. 6, 1661, at the age of 31.
Eighth Guru Har Krishan ji
Guru Har Krishan ji entitled with guru gaddi at the age of 5. He was birthed in Kiratpur, India, on July 7, 1656, and his father Guru Har Rai and mother Mata Kishan (aka Sulakhni).He entitled guru on Oct. 6, 1661, and merge the soul during smallpox disease at Delhi, India on March 30, 1664, at age 7.
Ninth Guru Teg Bahadar ji (hind di chaddar)
Guru Teg Bahadar ji, was unwilling to leave meditation and designated as guru. when all is said and done he immolate his life to save Hindu kashmiri Pandits from compulsory change to Islam.He was birthed in Amritsar, India, on April 1, 1621, his father Guru Har Govind and Mata Nankee ji. He wedded mata Gujri ji, and they had one son, Gobind Singh ji.He embellish guru at Baba Bakala, India, on Aug. 11, 1664, and merge his soul at Delhi, India, on Nov. 11, 1675, at the age of 54.
Tenth Guru Gobind Singh ji
Guru Gobind Singh JI give birth to Khalsa panth. He immolate his father, mother, sons, and his own life to rescue Sikhs from compulsory change to Islam. He finalize the guru Granth sahib ji, presenting upon it the designation of living and final guru of sikhs. He was birthed in Bihar, India, on Dec. 22, 1666, and his father Guru Teg Bahadar and mother Mata Gujri ji. He wedded Jito ji (Ajit Kaur), Sundri, and Mata Sahib Kaur ji and had four sons, baba Ajit Singh ji, baba Jujhar Singh, baba Zorawar Singh ji and baba Fateh Singh ji. He entitled as the 10th guru at Anandpur, India, on Nov. 11, 1675, and merge the soul at Nanded, India, on Oct. 7, 1708, at the age of 41.
i ll try to describe all ten gurus in minimum words count if i ll start to write about them in brief i cannot write about one guru in my life.
now i will describe how i engraved ten gurus imaginable picture on corian
what is corian. Its mainly use is as a corian countertops(what is corian countertops) surface, now a days so many companies making solid surface.LG and samsung one of them.it has property to translucent light white corian originated by dupont mainly in different thickness.we can purchase 12mm and 6 mm from market it is eaisly available now a days and several corian color options are there too corona or corian cutting is hard task to do i can describe in following steps how to do it properly According to need of your home interior for corian work you can contact us.
usually artist like me gaze on latest trends, estimating the price value of trend which guiding the market and which things are gaining access to the business. usually, when a new trend is in we uses 3d softwares like artcam corel etc and start designing these latest things.this design made of 3d software give command into another software which make programmed to use by cnc machines.firstly i searched high quality pics on google or another search engines like pint-rest etc after that i choose one of the best picture in position or in quality.Then after enhancing picture quality on Photoshop i ll import that pic in 3d software to make 3d model.
DRAWINGhow to engrave wood for double front entry doors
after exact measurement we start to create basic drawing we can create in given size we make 2d drawing first according to sizes after that we execute 3d models in which we describe thickness of design and size or make things according to client wish.
ENGRAVINGarea of a circle used at house
after selecting material and design we start to engraved or embossed design on corian sheets for example we take 12mm sheet of corian we can engraved it only 7mm to make design left material is used as base of design in sheets which give strength to sheet and design itself.
PAINT-JOB
On corian wall there is no need of paint job otherwise if we choose another material like mdf or wpc only then we required paint-job .When frame hanged on wall we start sanding of design to give good finish because paint finish depend on base material finishing if base material is not properly finish paint will not look good in quality after completion of sanding paint-job started as per client choice of color scheme or duco , pu and polyester paint we can do depend on client budget polyester is expensive as compare to pu and duco. corian do not required such paint-job it has almost 40 shades.
L.E.D LIGHTS
in some of our designer wall we use l.e.d lights to back-lit and to enhance the mystic look of given wall it raise grace of wall as well as costing of wall too. color of light we choose according to color scheme of wall or interior designer consult client to which color is suitable.i hope you got some good information from this article kindly share with others too.Feel free to comment.If you have any question regarding this article. you can drop message in comment section or mail me @ [email protected]
thanks and warm regards
from rmndeep g | https://medium.com/home-interior/ten-sikh-gurus-engraved-on-corian-for-wall-art-83454164de10 | [] | 2020-03-22 16:18:16.390000+00:00 | ['Design', 'Blog', 'Blogger', 'Art', 'Articles'] |
Lyft Data Science Interview. As of January 2018, Lyft could count 23… | Subscribe to our Acing AI newsletter, I promise not to spam and its FREE!
Thanks for reading! 😊 If you enjoyed it, test how many times can you hit 👏 in 5 seconds. It’s great cardio for your fingers AND will help other people see the story.
The sole motivation of this blog article is to learn about Lyft and its technologies helping people to get into it. All data is sourced from online public sources. I aim to make this a living document, so any updates and suggested changes can always be included. Please provide relevant feedback. | https://medium.com/acing-ai/lyft-data-science-interview-questions-463f2d5bdea4 | ['Vimarsh Karbhari'] | 2020-02-26 05:45:25.215000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Machıne', 'Interview', 'Data'] |
Central Air | Central Air
Yesterday, Juan Luis Ramos of El Sol de México revealed that Pedro Ferriz de Con is in active negotiations with Eduardo Henkel to buy XHINFO-FM 105.3, Mexico City’s Aire Libre. The station would obviously broadcast the Central FM program, and one wonders if the entire format would change as a result.
Central hasn’t had a broadcast outlet in the all-important Mexico City area since XFM’s bitter — and, according to Ferriz de Con, intentional — collapse, which has since sent Central FM Equilibrio, S.A. de C.V., into a legal battle with Grupo Siete Comunicación.
The news of sale talks throws another layer onto a station whose future is looking ever more confusing. Last month, a column in another OEM newspaper, La Prensa, revealed that the Unidad de Inteligencia Financiera (UIF) and IFT were investigating the 2017 award of the 105.3 MHz frequency to Henkel, with the very concession said to be at stake, and with the entire award still being challenged by a rival contender, the Maccise family:
Aire Libre has formally been on the air just under two years now. The FM transmitter was turned on August 9, 2018, and under a lease agreement to Más Radio Telecomunicaciones (NextMarketing, S.A. de C.V.), programming began November 1, with Víctor “Brozo” Trujillo — who has since left — as the biggest name on this eclectic music station.
Ferriz’s interest in XHINFO, as a potential carrier for his program or otherwise, was first reported in early April by El Economista. With the station’s current format, Central would be an odd fit, for sure. Aire Libre’s current morning show is branded with web site Sopitas.
Sure, it’s been a weird two years. (The promised Riviera Maya station, XHPTUL-FM 94.7, has never launched; it was last said to be signing on in July 2019.) And this is nothing compared to the limbo in which this station lived for an entire decade, from the collapse of Radio Monitor to the short-lived La Mexicana to the surprise migration.
However, one wonders how a FRENAAA member and the avant-garde Aire Libre format can fit together, if they will, or what Central FM would do instead programming a full-time station instead of just a few hours in the morning, as it did with XFM. One also wonders if the risk of buying a station already known to be under federal investigation is even worth it for someone so publicly against the president. | https://medium.com/en-frecuencia/central-air-ec2bfb29c959 | ['Raymie Humbert'] | 2020-10-13 18:39:16.066000+00:00 | ['Mexico City', 'Radio', 'Mexico'] |
Why I “WOW” at Chromecast with Google TV? | Why I “WOW” at Chromecast with Google TV?
On September 30, 2020, Google released its newest Chromecast with Google TV. Ever since then I have been absolutely obsessed with it for three reasons! Peter Liu Oct 19, 2020·3 min read
Chromecast with Google TV Source: The Verge
First, Google understands its users and our problems, and it shows!
After a long day of work, no one wants to go through more hoops to find something to watch on TV. With the previous Chromecast and many other casting sticks, users like me had to use a phone or tablet to cast contents on TV. To name a few problems with this:
I often had to first find the TV remote hiding below the couch, turn on the TV with the remote, wait for the TV to initialize, unlock the phone, open the streaming service app and then find something to cast. This process is cumbersome and tiring. Native apps such as Disney Plus, Spotify, or HBO have their own glitches that interfere with the casting experience. iOS users often have compatibility issues.
The new Chromecast with Google TV is a product designed to solve these problems. With Google TV on Chromecast and the remote, I now can turn on the TV with google’s remote and get rid of the TV remote. I now can select and stream videos from apps like Disney Plus, Netflix, Youtube, and many others on a single, consolated home screen view. And, I would never need to worry about why the video doesn’t cast correctly from the Disney Plus iOS app.
Second, Chromecast with Google TV is a great product because it possesses something unique. And this competitive advantage is in its remote!
With the Google Assistant button on the remote, users can press the button and use voice to access Google’s powerful search and recommendation functions. It shows movies, shows, and music. But more importantly, this button is Google’s gesture to empower users with its powerful ecosystem of Search, Photos, Calendar, and other apps. This not only makes a more integrated user experience but also a product that prompts for more use frequency, making the product “sticky” in users’ lives.
Third, Chromecast with Google TV is a product that shows Google’s excellent business insights.
The product is positioned at a competitive price of $49.99. Comparing to Apple TV HD($149) and Fire TV Stick 4K($49.99), Chromecast matches most of the competitors’ offerings and offers more unique functions such as Google Assistant and Watchlist.
Also, the product is promoted with a bundle offering with 6 months of Netflix for $89.99. This partnership shows Google is open to collaboration and shares profits with its competitors. With Netflix on its side, the product makes a big statement to show its intention to grab the market share in face of the competition with Apple TV and Amazon Prime Videos.
Lastly, while I rave about the product, there is room for improvement.
First, the product team needs to consider improving user experiences by allowing users who do not want to see paid content on Youtube by giving users the option to turn off paid suggestions. Without this option to change in settings, users will go into individual apps more frequently instead of staying on the consolidated home page. Users will miss out on this distinguishing feature of the product.
Second, the product team should continue to improve the google home integration experience by allowing Chromecast to communicate with Google Home speakers and Nest products more seamlessly. This will provide a better smart home experience and product continuity.
Lastly, to promote the product, implementing a new referral program might be effective. For example, refer a friend to a new Chromecast and get three months of Youtube Premium for free. Chromecast has the potential to create a strong network effect and its implementation should be further studied. | https://medium.com/@peterxliu/why-i-wow-at-chromecast-with-google-tv-4dbe062e9e57 | ['Peter Liu'] | 2020-10-21 07:40:13.773000+00:00 | ['Chromecast', 'Product Management', 'Google', 'Design', 'Product'] |
5 Conseils d’une Polyglotte pour Apprendre une Nouvelle Langue | 5 Tips From a Polyglot to Learn a New Language
If I had a superpower it would be to speak all the languages in the world.
You’ve tried for the fifth time to pick up French but you just can’t figure out how to learn it. If you’re asking yourself what you are doing wrong, here are five tips to help you learn a new language.
Consistency is key
As for any new skill you are learning, practising everyday will help you get better. And this is even more true when learning a new language. I can already hear you thinking “Sure but I don’t have time everyday”. Really? I’m sure you have five minutes to spare everyday to learn a few words.
It is not about the amount of time you spent learning but if you are doing it every single day. From five minutes to one hour a day, consistency will help you learn. For example if you learn five words everyday you will have quite a vocabulary by the end of the year. You might not see the result right away but if you keep practising every day you will progress.
Motivation
Let me ask you a question: why are you learning this language?
I learned Arabic for my grand-mother. Arabic is not an easy language and I cannot count the number of times I wanted to quit. But I learned it because I wanted to be able to communicate with my grand-mother who only speaks Arabic.
I kept going because my motivation was clear. I decided to learn Arabic to build a relationship with my grand-mother without having to ask for translation all the time. If you have a strong reason, be it traveling, having a relationship, watching your favorite movie without subtitles it will be easier to learn the language. So find that motivation and keep it in mind.
Start with the most common words
The French language has around 30 000 words that are commonly used but for daily and basic conversation you only need around 300 words. If you learn those words you will be able to have a basic conversation with someone. Moreover, by achieving a small level of comprehension and communication it will motivate you even more to continue.
Don’t get stuck on vocabulary that is too complicated.
Try different methods
We are all different. Some of us have auditory memories, others visual memories. It is important to try different methods and use the one that works for you. Maybe you can just watch a show in the language you are learning and pick up vocabulary like that. Maybe you need flashcards and you don’t need any context to remember vocabulary. Maybe listening to songs is enough for you. Maybe you just need to start speaking as soon as you know some words. Everybody learns differently and there is no magic method.
Design your own method, the one that works the best for you.
Keep it fun
This tip is one of the most important. If you are bored when you learn the language or you get pissed at those awful grammar lessons, you will start to associate bad emotions to learning that language. Sitting down to learn French will become a burden. I would advise you to keep it fun to still enjoy the process of learning. For example, I was learning Italian and I found a show about soccer in Italian so I watched all the episodes and got a lot of vocabulary from the show. Sure, it’s vocabulary about soccer but it was fun! | https://medium.com/@thebilingualfrenchy/5-conseils-dune-polyglotte-pour-apprendre-une-nouvelle-langue-c1f0d0a011ff | ['The Bilingual Frenchy'] | 2021-01-03 10:37:55.164000+00:00 | ['Competence', 'Bilingual', 'Skills', 'Language Learning'] |
California-based Bigfoot Biomedical raises $37M Series B to develop AI-powered insulin delivery systems | California-based Bigfoot Biomedical raises $37M Series B to develop AI-powered insulin delivery systems
Luna DNA raises $2M to build the first and only blockchain based genomic database; Curisium raises $3.5M to be the blockchain enabled contract company in healthcare The Health Prospect Global Dec 20, 2017·2 min read
Image Credit: Bigfoot via MobiHealthNews
California-based Bigfoot Biomedical raises $37 million Series B co-led by Janus Henderson Investors and Quadrant Capital Advisors; Raises $72.5 million to date; New funds will be used to develop AI-powered insulin delivery systems, as well as to support its clinical trials.
The startup offers a solution to treat Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) combining an insulin pump, a continuous glucose monitor and a mobile app, using an algorithm to automatically dose insulin in the right amount at the right time; Also, the firm is to integrate its solution with Abbott’s FreeStyle Libre glucose sensing technology as announced earlier this July. (MobiHealthNews) | https://medium.com/@The.Health.Prospect/california-based-bigfoot-biomedical-raises-37m-series-b-to-develop-ai-powered-insulin-delivery-426a2e8ade5e | ['The Health Prospect Global'] | 2017-12-20 17:12:30.840000+00:00 | ['Diabetes', 'Digital Health', 'Blockchain', 'Medical Devices'] |
An Inspiring Story of Perseverance — A Review of Oluwatosin Ajibade’s Olori Supergal From Social Misfit to Social Media Hero | Book Title: Olori Supergal: From Social Misfit to Social Media Hero
Author: Oluwatosin Ajibade
Publisher: Kachifo Limited
Year of Publication: 2018
Number of Pages: 184
Category: Memoir
When things don’t work out, do you give up too soon and too often? Do you feel lost or overwhelmed or exhausted? Does fear, doubt, and failure begin to invade your thinking? If not, how do you react when things become difficult?
Oluwatosin Ajibade is a pioneer in the online media movement. In her book she shows those striving for success how to persevere through challenges in their personal lives, workplaces, and other areas in her memoir titled Olori Supergal.
In it, Ajibade tells no-holds barred stories with themes that span entrepreneurship, work, giving up, failure, patriarchy, domestic violence etc.
Drawing from her personal experience Ajibade candidly chronicles her life journey from an extremely shy child to becoming a bold source of information. This insightful memoir (180 pages of it) is divided into 9 quick chapters each representing a particular stage in Ajibade`s life. The first set of stories in the collection are from Ajibade’s childhood with clear chapter titles made to describe the events covered in each.
Ajibade’s angle here isn’t telling readers to do something — rather, it’s to share her own experience in hopes of inspiring young and aspiring media entrepreneurs by drawing lessons from the challenges she faced. Ajibade is seen holding on to hope even during difficult times, as well as being willing to learn from mistakes. She provides hope and wisdom. She also zeroes in on the negative energy and challenges that can, over time, cause us to lose focus on the greater goals.
As one of Nigeria’s celebrity bloggers, Ajibade describes her early eye-opening stint in online media, giving an analysis of the life of Nigerian celebrities and social media while providing a guideline for running one’s business on social media.
Finally, Ajibade shares that perseverance not talent is the true key to success.
This book may appeal more to younger media entrepreneurs or anyone looking to start up a business and wants to learn from someone who has gone a similar route. | https://medium.com/@bookreviewbyteetee/an-inspiring-story-of-perseverance-a-review-of-oluwatosin-ajibades-olori-supergal-from-social-cdebbd3b0d87 | ['Bookreview Teetee'] | 2020-12-22 11:38:29.196000+00:00 | ['Online Marketing', 'Social Media', 'Perseverance', 'Media Entrepreneurship'] |
NIGERIA AWARD SCHOLARSHIP (NA) 2020/2021 TENABLE IN NIGERIA PUBLIC TERTIARY INSTITUIONS | The Honourable Minister of Education (HME), Mallam Adamu Adamu, hereby invites interested and qualified Nigerians to participate in the 2020/2021 Nomination Computer Based Test (CBT) for the Federal Government Scholarship Award for:
NIGERIA AWARD SCHOLARSHIP (NA) 2020/2021 TENABLE IN NIGERIA PUBLIC TERTIARY INSTITUIONS
THE ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR NIGERIAN AWARD AS FOLLOWS:
Applicants for Postgraduate studies should possess a minimum of first degree with Second Class Honours Upper Division. Applicant must be registered Full-Time students of Federal or State Universities. All other applicants (UG, HND & NCE) must be registered full-time students in their second year or above in Federal or State Universities, Polytechnics, Monotechnics and Colleges of Education. All undergraduate Scholarship applicants (Physically challenged inclusive) must have at least 4.0 Cumulative Grade Points Aggregate (CGPA) on a five (5) point scale or its equivalents or 5.0 on a 7 point scale.
All NCE and HND applicants must have a CGPA of 3.5 and above on a scale of 4.0 IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
✓ The scholarship is tenable in Nigeria and take effect from the beginning of the academic
session. ✓ It shall not be held at the same time with another Award nor for part-time studies.
✓ Change of course or Institution is not allowed while enjoying the award. FIELD OF STUDY TO BE CONSIDERED FOR THE AWARD ARE AS FOLLOWS:
A. Science and Technology B. Medicine and Para-medicals C. Education D. Agriculture E. Liberal Arts/Social/Management Sciences F. Entrepreneural Studies,
G. ICT
H. Environmental Sciences
I. Law
How to Apply for the Scholarship:
Visit the Link: https://jobreaders.org/nigerian-award-scholarship/ | https://medium.com/@nnanyerevalentine/nigeria-award-scholarship-na-2020-2021-tenable-in-nigeria-public-tertiary-instituions-3522e573136 | ['Valentine Nnanyere'] | 2020-12-14 13:57:45.091000+00:00 | ['Nigeria', 'Awards', 'Scholarships'] |
“JavaScript is easy!” They Told Me 🔊 | Junior Developer: Ok, now I’ll learn how to program in JavaScript! Where should I start?
"Senior" Developer: That's very easy, you don't even need to write a lot of code! Just go to npm, install the Zebra and Koala Open Source modules, and you're done!
Junior Developer: Cool!
npm: Hi little grasshopper how can I be of assistance?
Junior Developer: Give me the Zebra and Koala modules.
npm: Of course, here they are.
Junior Developer: All tied up. Now my work is done!
*One day later*
Junior Developer: Now I need to add this feature. Where should I start?
“Senior” Developer: That’s very easy, you don’t even need to write a lot of code! Just go to Zebra's Github repository and ask them to implement it!
Junior Developer: Hi Zebra, I need to add this new feature, would you help me out?
Zebra: Of course, create a Pull Request.
Junior Developer: Here it is.
*2 days later*
Zebra: Your Pull Request is not good, you need to fix a few things.
Junior Developer: Here it is.
*2 days later*
Zebra: Now your Pull Request is good, I have merged.
Junior Developer: Thanks. Now my work is done!
*3 hours later*
Junior Developer: Now I need to fix this bug. Where should I start?
“Senior” Developer: That’s very easy, you don’t even need to write a lot of code! Just go to Koala’s Github repository and report it!
Junior Developer: Hi Koala, there's a bug in your module.
*2 days later*
Junior Developer: Hi Koala, are you there?
*1 week later*
Junior Developer: Is anybody maintaining this module?
*1 week later*
Junior Developer: I'll fork and fix it. Done.
*6 months later*
Junior Developer: Now I need to add this other feature. Let's look up which module I need to change first:
The diagram of the Junior Developer project's dependencies. It's a bunch of scratches forming an unreadable spaghetti.
Junior Developer: Err… I guess something went really wrong… JavaScript is so hard and complicated! What should I do now?
Real Developer: The problem is not JavaScript.
An external dependency tends to be too generic and therefore has a lot of complexity to account for edge cases you probably don’t have.
As a principle, you need to reduce your dependency on an external code as much as you can. Over time dependencies will incur a cost of change if you rely on them for the core purpose of your project.
Evaluate their need critically.
It’s possible to write your own code for things a generic module can already do for you without having to reinvent the wheel, as long as you design it correctly. That includes (but is not restricted to) no side-effects, low coupling, high cohesion, proper interface, enough affordance, no crap testing tools, code that can be deleted, no "over-engineering", no copy/paste, strict, small and without false positive tests.
If you don't design it correctly, you'll end up in the same mess, or even worse.
If you’re a plumber and the pipe leaks, it’s your responsibility to fix it. Not somebody else’s.
It’s all about applying software principles and techniques. It’s about learning how to program.
Don't blame the scalpel.
Junior Developer: Ok, now I’ll learn how to program. Can you help me?
Real Developer: Yes.
*7 years later*
New Junior Developer: Ok, now I’ll learn how to program in this popular language! Where should I start?
Former Junior Developer: I can teach you, but that's not easy.
I've been through this.
Sit down.
Let's talk. | https://medium.com/free-code-camp/ok-now-ill-learn-how-to-program-in-javascript-2c7847414830 | ['Fagner Brack'] | 2020-09-09 04:05:49.567000+00:00 | ['JavaScript', 'Software Development', 'Agile', 'Programming', 'Web Development'] |
Have Our Heroes become Our Villians? | Due to a series of unforeseen incidents and a string of unexplainable deaths, the panic and unrest within the community has been heavily present and strongly opposing the practices of law enforcement.
Citizens no longer feel safe or protected by the local police.
They feel like they are targeted by those that seek justice based on generalizations, and not misdeeds. they see themselves as if they are a hindrance to the world.
There’s an endless of victims killed by police brutality
On the other hand, those within law enforcement have begun to mirror that same feeling. Police are on edge when carrying out their protocol and normal procedures.
That’s largely due to the increase in officers being killed in the line of duty.
Many policemen are fearful to go work because the option id apparent that they might not make it back home.
One example would be the Mandeville Police Shooting that transpired a couple of months ago. Police were pulling over a suspicious car. A simple check turned into a deadly shootout.
Two policemen were shot. In the end, one would die from his injuries and the other was hospitalized for quite some time.
However, the aftermath split the community.
A majority of citizens agreed that the one responsible should be punished severely for their heinous crime. The others looked at it from a different perspective. With all police who have gotten off with little to no consequences for killing civilians, who punish would justify the leniency that the police have.
On December 10th, another police casualty occurred while responding to distress calls due to the ignorance which involved gunfire. The recent New Jersey Shooting only exemplifies the danger that police stress about that awaits them at work.
The number of casualties from both sides placed them in opposition to the other because of the fear of possibility. One wrong move or one careless mistake from either side can result in a life loss.
Quite frankly, a bad apple doesn’t spoil the whole bunch.
Prejudice and stereotype are two primary factors dealing with the disorientation and conflict that resides in socially divided societies in America today. | https://medium.com/views-from-the-mazi/have-our-heroes-become-our-villians-48c199b337e6 | ["O'Shon Fairley"] | 2019-12-11 08:20:26.146000+00:00 | ['Equality', 'Police', 'Community', 'Justice', 'Acceptance'] |
What Did I Think of ‘Before the Wrath?’ | Should I really be reviewing this movie?
Most people don’t believe that the rapture will occur. What if there was evidence to prove that it will? — Before the Wrath
These are the words and the thought that this movie, Before the Wrath, begins with.
When I was presented with the opportunity to review this movie, I wondered if I should take it. End times prophecy has never been all that interesting to me. It’s never been that important to me, given that I know Jesus is coming back for me before the end (I am a pre-tribulation rapture believer).
What happens after that is pretty much irrelevant to me.
But, see, I believe in the rapture. I believe it will occur, just as Jesus said. As the above quote indicates, most people don’t (which I find rather startling; it’s in the Bible, clear as anything). If you believe the Bible, you should believe in the rapture. If you don’t believe the Bible, well, then, you’ve got some other things you need to work out first. But maybe the “evidence” presented in this movie will be enough to spark something inside you that will turn you back to God and the truth of His word.
As for me, I decided to give this move a try because I do, after all, love movies … and especially ones that deal with biblical ideas and themes. I was not sorry I chose to review this one.
After all, it is the #1 Christian movie in America right now.
I don’t want to give too much away
I’m going to stay as vague as possible in this review because I don’t want to give away “the secret.” I want you to see the movie for yourself.
But I will say that it mainly has to do with the fact that Jesus was from Galilee, and pretty much everything He said and did was colored by that cultural background. Because He was mainly hanging around and sharing things with people who also came from that background.
Also, we have to take a look at His first recorded miracle … at a wedding. That’s significant, for more than one reason. I’ve already explored this idea a bit in a popular Medium article.
So, this movie hit on some things God had already been showing me in my own studies of Jesus. And, within the first few minutes of the movie, we hear these words:
“…I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8, NIV)
A few weeks before I saw this movie, I had been studying those words in the Bible, and they stood out to me in a major way. I knew then, without a shadow of a doubt, that God wanted me to watch and review this movie … and probably learn some things from it (I did, like the bride in an ancient Galilean wedding had a lot more power than we might realize).
Still from ‘Before the Wrath,’ courtesy of Ingenuity Films
My overall impression of ‘Before the Wrath’
In addition to being informative (and I love that in a biblically themed movie), the movie was well-acted. The cinematography was skillful and beautiful, and the music was intriguing and haunting. The narration by Kevin Sorbo just brought it all together perfectly.
This is an excellent production, and I highly recommend it. Will it change your mind about Jesus, the Bible, or the rapture? Will it make you a believer? I don’t know. Only God knows that.
But if you are already a believer, this movie, which highlights the importance and impact of biblical prophecy, will strengthen that belief and give you a brand new, exciting perspective on what Jesus has done for you already … and what He is going to do for you.
You’re not going to want to miss this movie!
How do you watch ‘Before the Wrath?’
You can get the DVD right now from Walmart for less than $10. Or you can check out the retailer’s “buy” page for more purchase options.
And, just because you read this review, you have a chance to win a digital code that will enable you to watch this movie online for free! Just leave me a comment, telling me about your most memorable wedding moment.
Please note, this giveaway will end on December 4, 2020, at 11:59 PM EST. And, as Before the Wrath tells us, if you want in, you have to get in while you can … because once the door is shut, it’s shut.
And be sure to check out the free YouVersion 5-day reading plan available here.
Canva creation from the ‘Before the Wrath’ movie poster, courtesy of Ingenuity Films
“Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”):
Many thanks to Ingenuity Films for providing this prize for the giveaway. Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.
Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway. If you have won a prize from our sponsor FlyBy Promotions in the last 30 days, from the same blog, you are not eligible to win. If you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification. | https://medium.com/koinonia/what-did-i-think-of-before-the-wrath-890ad1955b26 | ['Mishael Witty'] | 2020-12-01 01:38:51.542000+00:00 | ['Prophecy', 'Christianity', 'Movies', 'Review', 'Creativity'] |
Online Shopping — 5 Biggest Online Shopping Myths | The invention and widespread use of the Internet has revolutionized the world of shopping. These days you can find almost anything you can think of online, including online stores. While about 80% of Internet users shop online, another 20% are still lagging behind. If you are one of those 20%, these are probably some of the top reasons why you did not join the online shopping craze. These are also five great stories of online shopping that we will now really challenge. straight talk coupon codes
1. Myth: Confidential information is at risk
Data theft is always very high, so many avoid shopping online because there is great concern that your data is at risk. Buying online requires that you be as careful as you are when shopping at a brick and mortar store. In a visible place, you would not leave your car bag in the cart while browsing the racks or aisles. When shopping online, simply make sure you do so in a secure network that encrypts your personal information, such as your credit card number, before placing your order. Secure websites usually have a secure icon at the top or bottom of the website to indicate that your information is secure.
2. Myth: It is very expensive
Many consumers believe that the extra cost of shipping and handling makes online shopping more expensive than store-bought. If you are a smart internet buyer you can reduce your shipping costs or avoid paying shipping and management completely. Many online stores offer free shipping if your order meets a certain price or offers a much lower shipping rate, for which you can pay a few dollars per shipping at a full price.
3. Myth: Retaliation is a nightmare
Return orders usually come in the shipping box when you receive your order. While return orders vary from merchant, returning an item is usually as simple as pasting a pre-paid shipping label into the same box your order entered and sending it back to the online store where you originally purchased it. Some stores require you to pay your postage, so it may require a trip to the post office, the equivalent of making a trip to the store where you bought it to return the item anyway.
4. Myth: You Can’t Find What You Need
With millions of online stores, including online stores, you can literally find what you want and more online. If you know the name or model number of the item you want to purchase, you can easily enter this into your favorite search engine to find a list of websites where the item is for sale. This is much easier than going to one store in town that can handle the item to find out that they are not for sale. The Internet provides endless access to the products and services you want.
5. Myth: Easy to go to the Store
It may be a matter of opinion, but you have to get dressed, get in the car, make sure the car has enough gas, fight the road and find a parking space before you have a chance to see what items are sold in a brick and mortar store. Shopping online requires you to turn on your computer and connect to the Internet to begin your shopping trip. Which sounds easier for you? Now that the truth is revealed through online shopping, you already have the information you need to decide if online shopping is for you.
With almost endless opportunities for what you can buy online, will you join 80% of Internet users who shop online or continue to be part of the other 20% left behind? | https://medium.com/@gestfive-com/online-shopping-5-biggest-online-shopping-myths-61dc39c4593d | ['World Health Center'] | 2020-12-19 15:10:27.489000+00:00 | ['Online Shopping'] |
What if I Told You There is an Altcoin You Can’t Lose Money On? | What if I Told You There is an Altcoin You Can’t Lose Money On? Bas Musk Aug 25·6 min read
It is just simple math combined with a little bit of compound magic.
As a crypto investor, it’s likely that you want to put your money into something that will give you more money back and has a low risk, (If you don’t, then this article is not for you ;).
Some risk taking investors put money into small market cap altcoins in the hope that they bought the winning lottery ticket, with the risk of losing their full investment.
But what if you can buy that same ticket and if you don’t win, you can get a full refund of the ticket price?
Well, I found a small cap altcoin on which the odds of losing money are close to zero, and I will explain it to you mathematically, because numbers don’t lie ;).
This gem is called DRIP💦. Because this article is based on pure mathematical facts, it is important that you have a basic understanding of how DRIP works, (if you haven’t please read this article first).
At the time of writing DRIP trades around $24. This price must be divided 61 times within 1.5 years in order for you to lose money on your investment.
This means that one DRIP will be worth $0.39 in only ONE POINT FIVE YEARS!?
As the number 61 might seem a little odd to you, I can provide you with the mathematical evidence that this number is not as odd as it seems. This part requires some concentration, so please read the following part carefully.
If you buy 100 DRIP today, you pay 10% interest for a deposit, so 90 DRIP will be deposited. After your deposit you will receive 1% interest per day for the next 365 days. Then, compound interest combined with a little bit of DRIP magic, and BAM! After one year of daily hydrating your deposited amount of DRIP is now 2,838. That is a 28.38x (because you bought 100 DRIP) in one year (See Appendix 1).
But 28.38 is still not 61…
In the next ~365 days, you will be able to claim 3.65 times your deposited amount (2,838) minus the DRIP you already claimed equals 7,611 (See Appendix 2) worth of DRIP.
When you withdraw DRIP you pay 10% tax, and when you sell DRIP you also pay 10% tax, so you are able to convert (7,611*0.9*0.9 =) 6,165 DRIP to BNB (Appendix 2), a.k.a. 61.65*100.
The price of DRIP needs to do a division by 61 somewhere in your second DRIP year in order to NOT make profit.
Somewhere within the second year is derived from the fact that you start selling after one year compounding, and every DRIP that you sell above $0.39 is profit. You only start losing money when the price dips below $0.39.
Now please have a look at the DRIP chart from its beginning until today, and tell me how likely it is that the price of DRIP will be worth less than $0.39 after around 540 days:
(Screenshot from DRIP price bot. It explains how the price went up too fast, then there was a correction and now we seem to have found our level of support around $24 per DRIP.)
This is why DRIP positions itself as a LOW RISK, HIGH REWARD project. The risk of losing money, as you can see, is extremely low. The rewards are high, just look at the potential. DRIP currently has around 5k holders and belongs to the small cap altcoins.
The difference between DRIP and the same cap altcoins, is that the chances of losing all your money on most altcoins are huge, (happened to me a couple of times), whereas losing money on DRIP seems very unlikely to me.
I already did the math for you, and to reach the price of $0.39, DRIP must decrease 1% per day in price for 410 days in a row (Appendix 3).
So if the chances of losing money are close to zero, why not give it a shot?
💦💦💦💦How to get started?💦💦💦💦
1. Have BNB in your Metamask or other wallet. If not, go to PancakeSwap and buy BNB.
2. Go to https://drip.community/fountain and buy at least 1.12 DRIP.
3. Go to Faucet page and enter a buddy. Consider adding the Cryptozoa team member Bas Musk’s address for your Buddy: 0xA290FE5300e73550eC3d08439DA5DFF32CC49dF6 . You will become a member of the Cryptozoa team. Join the Telegram on the bottom of this page.
4. Deposit your DRIP into the faucet. Also, make sure to leave some BNB so you can pay gas fees and hydrate. The gas fees are normally around $1.
5. The last thing to remember is to come back and hydrate your 1% daily ROI.
6. If you have any questions, please ask them in our team telegram portal:
https://t.me/joinchat/T6qY_JrfbL82MWRk
Appendix 1
When hydrating (recompounding) you pay 5% interest. This means that you have to multiply your deposited amount daily with 1.0095 instead of 1.01. This lead to the following equation:
For the people who aren’t mathematicians, that is a 28.38x on your initial 100 bought DRIP ;)
Appendix 2
After one year of daily compounding your initial bought 100 DRIP will have grown to 2,838. You can withdraw 3.65 times your total deposited DRIP minus the amount of DRIP that you deposited through compounding (because you already ‘claimed’ those DRIP). This leads to the following equation:
Note the minus 90 in the equation because that is the number of DRIP you deposited, so you did not claim them.
So after one year of daily compounding you can still claim 7,611 DRIP. Now you have to pay two times 10% tax (10% for withdrawal and 10% for selling) in order to convert your DRIP to BNB. This leads to the following equation:
Voila, you started with 100 DRIP and you sold 6,165 DRIP. That is where the magic number (6,165/100 = ) 61 comes from…
Note that these equations don’t take into account the gas (transaction) fees of hydrating and claiming your DRIP.
Appendix 3
To calculate how many days DRIP must decrease 1% in price to reach the price level of $0.39 I used the following equation:
with x representing the number of days that the current price of 24 needs to decrease with 1% in order to reach the price of 39 cents. The next thing I did is get rid of the 24 in the equation by dividing 0.39 by 24 which equals 0.01625. Now the equation is:
x is now calculated with the following equation:
We can recalculate whether this number is correct using the following equation:
Join our Team Gateway before you can participate in Team Cryptozoa. The fastest growing DRIP team at the moment: https://t.me/joinchat/T6qY_JrfbL82MWRk
DRIP Light paper — https://www.docdroid.net/0i3RJTu/drip-lightpaper-pdf | https://medium.com/cryptozoa/what-if-i-told-you-there-is-an-altcoin-you-cant-lose-money-on-b82004f7da5d | ['Bas Musk'] | 2021-08-25 14:01:01.301000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Binance', 'Mathematics', 'Passive Income', 'Drip'] |
$5000 Google IDOR Vulnerability Writeup | Hey amazing Hackers! its Raidh_Here
After many month, I decided to write writeups regarding my bounty from Google of worth $5000. So without wasting any time, lets begin the story!
The Story :
After getting many duplicates and N/A from H1 & Bugcrowd, I decided to write about my journey and started searching for VDP programs. I got many bugs and reported to them but till then no reply . Finally, I decided to start hunt on google.
Started searching google subdomains using Google dorks. I know its piece of a shit but never mind. I found few domains and nothing work for me. So finally, I decided to test on google cloud.
While scrolling down in the google cloud market place I found an interesting application called Dialogflow
again you need to clean up your mind raidh….
I started searching more about the application. Dialogflow is a natural language understanding platform used to design and integrate a conversational user interface into mobile apps, web applications, devices, bots, interactive voice response systems and related uses.
I started searching common bugs like xss,sqli,htmli.. etc.
But it didn’t work! :(
After doing a lot of search, I got an interesting Option
and started creating the phone gateway :)
It also has a delete option. I turned on my proxy and started intercepting the requests and I found a request like this .
its easy to create a wordlist for that random number of strings and able to do brutforce to exploit the vulnerability :)
How i did the wordlist for bruteforcing the random string ?
i send the request to burp intruder and added the points to some strings and created a-z character in the payload section. but it is very hard to get a hit. while checking the dialoglfow cx i saw the same Phone Gateway.
we can see there is a area code option to get specified phone numbers for that particular area.
i selected the area code 205 so i got the active list of numbers belongs to 205. we can select all available area codes and able to fetch the all active random strings to create a word list.
I sent the request to burp repeater and replace the phoneNumbers/<randomstring> to the victims <randomstring> and submit the request.
BHOOOOOOOM!. The victim number got deleted and created a poc and reported to Google. But they closed the report as intended Behavior. Then, I was like ??!!
intended Behavior
After explaining the attacking scenario and impact, they reopened and accepted the bug. Whooo hooo! and rewarded with $5000.
Timeline
May 4, 2021 06:28AM — Reported
May 4, 2021 04:19PM — Status: Won’t Fix (Not Reproducible)
May 7, 2021 06:30PM — Status: Won’t Fix (Intended Behavior)
May 12, 2021 09:10AM — Status: Accepted (reopened)
May 18, 2021 04:20PM — Rewarded $5000 bounty
Aug 28, 2021 01:29AM — fixed. | https://medium.com/@asterfiester/5000-google-idor-vulnerability-writeup-c7b45926abe9 | ['Raidh Ĥere'] | 2021-09-15 07:31:42.596000+00:00 | ['Bugs', 'Cybersecurity', 'Information Technology', 'Infosec', 'Bug Bounty'] |
2020: What We Learned (Updates to our Work-Bench User Manual) | What’s Your Biggest Motivation?
JESSICA LIN: “For me, I still get the best high when our Work-Bench community just works. Even after 7 years in the making and now being virtual, I continue to be so touched when our community of portfolio companies and others help one another, and I get to witness our founders and operators connect, ask each other questions, provide their own lessons learned, and truly become a support group for one another as they traverse the ups and downs of scaling an enterprise software company. As just one example, we recently hosted a Head of Sales Roundtable, where a CFO and CRO of one of our late stage portfolio companies completely opened up about hard learned lessons they’ve acquired around pricing their platform. Given this is an area so many of our earlier stage companies are working through right now, it was so valuable for them to get this tactical real talk from a trusted member of the broader Work-Bench family. I’m truly grateful for our #nextgenterprise community who are so willing to be honest and vulnerable — only then can you truly help lift one another up.”
JONATHAN LEHR: “I love each and every day of Work-Bench because we get the best parts of VC and also the thrill of building a startup. Jess and I as co-founders set out to fundamentally rethink enterprise VC, and during the course of our days between working with incredible portfolio companies, sourcing new investments, engaging with our corporate IT community, and so much more, we experience the highest highs and at times the lowest lows. Our jobs are definitely not for the faint of heart, but I love a good underdog story and find the job very thrilling. Between continuing to scale Work-Bench and our impact, as well as growing the NYC enterprise tech community brick by brick for 9 years running, I wouldn’t trade my job for any other in the world.”
PRIYANKA SOMRAH: “At Work-Bench, we are all about flipping the script and experimenting with new and creative ways to step up our sourcing, research, and community strategies. What excites me the most is that while we do take the time to celebrate the small wins, we don’t let ourselves get too comfortable. We continue to ask ourselves, ‘how do we keep improving on our craft?’ It’s why we’re constantly working towards the next thing: there’s always a new deal in the making, there’s always a new content piece in the works, there’s always a new founder to meet. There’s no dull moment with the Work-Bench crew and it’s why we continue to grow and thrive as a team.”
What Challenge(s) Are You Tackling?
JESSICA LIN: “The most challenging question that I have had to tackle is ‘how do I keep my learning reps up?’ It sometimes feels like there are not enough hours in the day :) whether it’s a new technical area of investment, forward-looking research, or strategies, tactics, and challenges facing our portfolio companies…there’s always something new to learn. I’ve really had to learn how to make time to not only read and research, but continue meeting new people and connecting and sharing. Back in 2018, I wrote a blog post on a similar topic around how to best accelerate board expertise: “Growth Hacking Board Experience as a VC” and it still stands.”
KELLEY MAK: “The area where I’ve been trying to grow the most is being open minded. After spending time in one technical area for a while, it’s common to get preconceived notions that will make you immediately say yes or no. But part of the magic of this job is when you think you know a sector or something has played out, and then an incredible entrepreneur paints you a vision of the world that makes you rethink everything.”
KIRA COLBURN: “The quality I admire most in people is their creativity, but I also find it to be the biggest challenge to achieve. I’d argue creativity isn’t in everyone’s DNA, yet it’s important for everyone to have. In essence, it’s all about challenging yourself and your work to be like nothing else out there, all while staying true to your personal and professional brand. While there’s a clear link between creativity and content (which is what I lead here at Work-Bench), it’s also important for all aspects of business as it helps solve problems, boost productivity and confidence, and just generally make the work day more fun.”
What’s Your #1 Lesson Learned from 2020?
JONATHAN LEHR: “You’ve gotta enjoy the ride, and the best way to do that is by working with amazing people. I’ve written before how true team chemistry is a superpower, and it’s especially true for a small team who punches way above our weight class in the deals we do and value add we provide to our portfolio companies. I find it ironic that many VCs talk about creating great culture at startups, but barely talk about building culture at their own firms, and it’s something that we’re very intentional about at Work-Bench.”
KELLEY MAK: “My biggest lesson learned so far is how to take the ups with the downs. We often joke that VC is a sinusoidal wave, or the craziest ride in a theme park — a mix between a roller coaster, maze, and haunted house. While we obviously want to win, the fact is there are losses along the way. I’ve learned how to improve from them, celebrate the victories, and continue to enjoy the process.”
PRIYANKA SOMRAH: “One of the biggest learnings for me has been the importance of cultivating a strong network of trusted relationships with fellow VCs who support and elevate each other. While building authentic relationships is a lot of work and takes time to mature, I’ve come to realize that having a close-knit group of people that I can trust and turn to for advice and feedback has been so critical to my growth both as a person and as an investor.”
KIRA COLBURN: “Writing is whatever you want to make it. While there’s a ton of buzz of what’s worked for others and what’s most popular now, there are truly no boundaries or rules to what you can and can’t do with your own content. In fact, it’s better to break out of the norm and differ your brand and voice as much as possible. Whether through tone, language, format, visuals, etc. the sky’s the limit, so get creative.” | https://medium.com/work-bench/2020-what-we-learned-updates-to-our-work-bench-user-manual-35996141d90d | [] | 2021-01-05 00:17:00.412000+00:00 | ['Enterprise', 'Teamwork', 'Wbvc', 'Venture Capital', 'Lessons Learned'] |
Writing Down What You Want Always Makes It Come True | You thought about it, didn’t you?
When you clicked on this article, you thought about all the things you want most from your life.
What popped into your head?
Maybe it was getting to do what you love for a living, and becoming successful and influential in what you put out into the world.
Maybe it was travelling the world, seeing every continent and experiencing life in different colours, countries and cultures.
Maybe it was your dream home, designed and built from scratch by you.
It could be anything, but you thought of something.
The truth is, you can have whatever you want.
If you can dream it, if you can take actionable steps to achieve it, and if you can show up for yourself every day and make it happen in tiny increments then the only thing standing in the way between you and your wildest dreams is time.
I truly believe this.
I believe it for myself, and I believe it for you.
I believe in it as much as I believe in my physical body and my own existence.
You can realise this too.
Magic or science, it’s all up to you
You don’t have to be spiritual to adopt this mindset.
You also don’t need to have a PhD in psychology to understand why adopting this outlook works.
You just need a pen and paper.
Call it ‘the law of attraction’, the power of positive thinking or the infamous Harvard business study, however you choose to believe that you can make your goals reality is up to you.
The act of writing down your goals makes you more likely to remember them. This is known as the generation effect, which says that information is better remembered if it is self-generated, rather than simply read.
The act of remembering the goals you write down also results in them being encoded within your subconscious mind. Without consciously realising it, from the moment you write down your goals, your unconsciousness starts to wake up.
You start to become aware of opportunities and possibilities that would’ve passed you by before, hidden in plain sight.
Every decision you take is made with your goals in mind, unconsciously or not.
A study by Dominican University found that those who wrote down their goals were 42% more likely to achieve them, regardless of gender, age or background.
Isn’t this enough for you to start writing your own?
My experience
At the beginning of this year, I wrote down a list of 20 things I wanted to do. I called it “20 for 2020.”
I remember completing that list at the beginning of the year and looking over it and- perhaps somewhat naively- feeling excited for everything the year had in store for me.
Well, in spite of the whole global pandemic thing, I want to say that I did actually achieve most of the things I wrote down. Some of my favourites are:
Learn a new skill and hobby and partake regularly: This year I started learning Italian, and I can now read and have basic conversations in the language.
This year I started learning Italian, and I can now read and have basic conversations in the language. Travel: I had planned to travel solo to Southeast Asia this year. This didn’t happen, but I did travel solo by myself for a week across Italy. Yes, even despite the pandemic.
I had planned to travel solo to Southeast Asia this year. This didn’t happen, but I did travel solo by myself for a week across Italy. Yes, even despite the pandemic. Run and train for a sub 2 hour half marathon: Since August, I have run not one, but three sub 2 hour half marathons.
Since August, I have run not one, but three sub 2 hour half marathons. Get a distinction in my masters: I completed my studies in August and received my distinction last month.
I completed my studies in August and received my distinction last month. Start my career in the field my master’s degree is in: I got a job offer I accepted in January. I started working full time, in renewable energy, in September.
I got a job offer I accepted in January. I started working full time, in renewable energy, in September. Start a side-hustle: During the first six months of the year, I worked as a freelance maths and physics tutor. In September I started writing alongside my job.
I don’t write any of this to brag.
I write this in an attempt to show you, that writing your goals works. I came back to my list now and again, but for the most part, I just tried to make the most of the opportunities this year gave me, and do the best I could.
You can take my word for it, based on what happened for me in the list above.
Even better, you could try it yourself.
This is how you make it happen
I want you to sit back for a minute just now, and imagine your life if you had achieved that one thing you want more than anyone else.
How would you spend your time?
How happy would you feel waking up every day?
What could you do now, that you can’t do at the moment?
Now I want you to write all this down.
Don’t limit yourself. Don’t question yourself. Just write it all out.
Don’t be afraid to be a little outlandish. Don’t be afraid to write what seems impossible now. Just write all of it down, because you’re going to amaze yourself in a few years’ time.
Once you have a list, think about the smaller actionable things you can start doing now to get closer to your dreams. Make a list.
If you want to travel think about opportunities abroad in your field and how you can get closer to them. Think about ways you can save money today so that you can travel in the future.
If you want to meet the love of your life, think about how you can meet new people. Think about who you know that you could get back in touch with. Think about all the things that make you amazing and worth loving.
Then write it all down. Repeat it. Say it aloud. Read it again. Write it again. Think about it in the shower.
I guarantee, if you want it enough, you are going to get there.
Hope is what we all need right now
If nothing else, what the act of writing down your goals and wishes for the future does is make you optimistic. It makes you hopeful. It makes you believe that better days are coming.
We all need this right now.
The next time you feel anxious or stressed or overwhelmed, take out a pen and paper and just write down the things you know you will achieve in the future.
Write them down as if they have already happened to you, and your subconscious mind will believe that they will.
Make a conscious choice to adopt a positive mindset about the future. Trust in your abilities to work towards your goals, and your chances of achieving them will increase exponentially, regardless of whatever the current state of the world.
Hope and optimism are what we all need right now. Write down your goals and start working towards them today. You owe it to your future self. | https://medium.com/never-fear/writing-down-what-you-want-always-makes-it-come-true-b42311077a6 | ['Ruth Matthews'] | 2020-11-16 21:26:01.341000+00:00 | ['Personal Development', 'Life', 'Motivation', 'Goals', 'Positive Thinking'] |
Survey — JupyterLab and beyond | The 2020 end-user survey is live!
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LCB7GBF
Survey Goals
The purpose of this survey is to gather information from the community in order to enable data-driven decision making about the future of JupyterLab.
The content of the survey focuses on the following categories:
Use Cases — who are they, what are their usage patterns, and what are they doing?
Tooling — what type of data & tools are they using for data science, and what are their pain points in doing so?
By participating in this survey, end-users will guide the roadmap of JupyterLab toward their use cases. Even if you don’t use Jupyter, your input is welcome (see initial questions).
Please share with your teams and friends.
Thank you. | https://blog.jupyter.org/survey-jupyterlab-and-beyond-88c7fbd27a79 | ['Luciano Resende'] | 2020-12-14 21:30:09.475000+00:00 | ['Jupyter Notebook', 'Jupyterlab', 'Surveys'] |
How to Sleep Better: Sleep Hacks That Actually Work | Sleep Hacks I Would Recommend:
Only go to bed when you’re sleepy (heavy eyelids) rather than just tired
Maintain a regular wind-down routine at least 1h before bedtime (TV is okay, a book is better, nothing that will engage your brain too much).
This brings me to the next hack.
Read a book
Reading a book is one of the best ways I’ve found to get to that comfortable sleepy state. It is the last thing I do every day before turning the light off.
But not all bedtime reading material is created equal. Choose fiction above non-fiction and avoid mystery or action plots that might stimulate your brain too much.
Wake up at the same time every day
What’s the use of going to bed at the same time every day if you’re not sleepy enough to fall asleep right away? It’s annoying just to lie there and wait for sleep to descend — and the more annoyed you are, the less likely you are to fall asleep.
What does work for me though, is being very consistent with my waking-up time. When I consistently get up at the same time every day, I naturally feel sleepy at the same time in the evening.
Pick a time that works for you (and no, you don’t need to join the 5 a.m. club) and stick with it. You will need an alarm clock at first, but your body will get up naturally within a few weeks.
My advice is to be consistent, even on the weekends and holidays. If I had a night out, I still get up at the same time and have a long nap after lunch. It disrupts my rhythm less than sleeping in.
Mind your naps
Afternoon naps are good for you but try to keep them anywhere between 20 to 40 minutes, says Harvard Health.
If you allow yourself to fall into a deep sleep, not only will you have a hard time waking up, but you’ll also feel groggy all morning. If you love napping in the afternoon, make sure it’s not in the late afternoon because that can interfere with your sleep cycle even more than napping over 40 minutes earlier in the day.
If I’m feeling sleepy after lunch or had a short night, I go for a 28-minute nap. If everything is fine and I’m not tired, I nap for 12 minutes. I can’t explain those numbers! I tried different nap lengths, and these work best for me.
Cool off your bedroom
Scientists have found that “heat exposure increases wakefulness and decreases slow wave sleep and rapid eye movement sleep.” The REM (rapid eye movement) phase is crucial because that’s when most of our dreaming occurs.
According to Sleep.org, the best room temperature to initiate sleep is between 60 and 67 degrees Fahrenheit (or 15.5 to 19.5 Celsius). As for me, I sleep best when the temperature is between 18 and 21 degrees Celsius.
Invest in some sound-proofing
One of the most impactful decisions I made for improving the quality of my sleep was to invest in some insulated double-pane windows.
Sound-proofing your bedroom is one of the best investments you can make in your home. If that’s not possible, try earplugs.
Eliminate any source of light
Light tells our brain to wake up.
There are differences between natural and artificial light, the latter being detrimental to our sleep cycle. While daylight helps regulate sleep timing, artificial light is a whole different story.
So, if you want to have a good night’s sleep, you should stay away from any light sources once you’re in bed (laptops and mobile phones included).
I recommend putting on a sleep mask, preferably one with silk fabric.
Forget about the booze
Contrary to popular belief, alcohol won’t make you sleep better. To be more precise, while you might fall into a drunken slumber, the quality of sleep will not be good.
“Alcohol prevents entry into deep sleep and therefore makes a person more susceptible to sleep disturbances,” says a study from 2015. The results showed “that rapid eye movement (REM) sleep was suppressed during the first half of the sleep cycle.”
The reason why REM sleep is so important is that it helps form “new memories, stimulates the central nervous system, and restores brain chemistry to a normal balance.” (Psychology Today)
Alcohol has a very direct effect on the quality of my sleep; far more than caffeine does. It makes me restless, and I wake up feeling exhausted the next day.
Have a proper shutdown routine to end your workday
If your next day’s objectives are clear, you won’t have to think about them when you go to sleep.
In his book, Deep Work, Cal Newport recommends a strict shutdown ritual:
“You must then accept the commitment that once your day shuts down, you cannot allow even the smallest incursion of professional concerns into your field of attention.” (Newport 2016)
At the end of my working day, I usually define two primary goals/tasks for the next day that will have the most impact on my personal or professional life. Once those goals are set, it’s time to stop thinking about important things.
Breathing exercises
How often do you catch yourself lying in bed at night and thinking about something that happened years ago?
All too often, our thoughts get stuck on something that doesn’t matter anymore (if it ever mattered at all). As we enter this perpetual vortex of unnecessary thinking, sleep becomes impossible.
So, when you’re about to enter this stage, do your best to keep things in perspective. You simply can’t change anything by thinking about it at 11 p.m. Divert your attention to something else, try imagining a beautiful outdoor location or anything else that makes you relaxed.
If you still have difficulties quieting your brain when in your bed, lie down on your back. Start by inhaling, taking a deep breath. Hold your breath for a few seconds (5 or so). Exhale. Repeat. Do this for 3 to 5 minutes. That’s it. You should feel more relaxed and ready to drift off. | https://medium.com/publishous/how-to-sleep-better-sleep-hacks-that-actually-work-7feb54a20442 | ['Eric Sangerma'] | 2020-06-15 13:24:52.688000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Insomnia', 'Sleep', 'Health', 'Self'] |
If not now, when? | “ Care a little more.
Show up.
Embrace possibility.
Tell the truth.
Dive deeper.
Seek the truth behind the story.
Ask the difficult question.
Lend a hand.
Dance with fear.
Play the long game.
Say ‘no’ to hate.
Look for opportunities, especially when it seems like there aren’t any left.
Risk a bigger dream.
Take care of the little guy.
Offer a personal insight.
Build something magical.
Keep your promises.
Do work that matters.
Expect more.
Sign your work.
Be generous for no reason.
Give the benefit of the doubt.
Develop empathy.
Make your mom proud.
Take responsibility.
Give credit.
Play by a better set of rules.
Reward patience.
Leap.
Breathe.
Because we can.
It really is up to us.
Which is great, because we’re capable of changing everything if we choose.
All we can do is all we can do, but maybe, all we can do is enough.”
Shared post of Seth Godin. | https://medium.com/the-blessed-hub/if-not-now-when-64ebae0d9720 | ['The Blessed Hub'] | 2016-12-02 20:08:45.602000+00:00 | ['Seth Godin', 'Tips', 'Islam', 'Personal Development', 'Muslim'] |
AdSomeNoise is looking to hire a creative media hero | We’re looking for a hero because we want to hire someone who does good to the media world. Who wants to make a difference. Fix media. Integrate buying with creative. Skills are important but attitude is king. Full description below.
AdSomeNoise is a digital campaign agency that wants to make a genuine difference for its customers. That is why we are fully committed to a different, integrated approach where media play a pivotal role. Within our plug-in method of working this will often result in collaborations with other parties that manage media; more and more often this means the advertisers themselves. We want to respond optimally to this trend so we are looking for someone who can plug in when the media side is being handled by another agency but who also possesses the insight and the knowledge to manage and oversee the process when we do it ourselves. We are looking for someone who is not afraid to get his/her hands dirty but who can also brainstorm strategically on the highest campaign level. The ultimate goal: create the best campaign possible that dovetails perfectly with the needs of the client/the brand…
Your typical Tuesday…
For AdSomeNoise, media is a growth area where we want to make additional strides in the coming months and years. This means we are looking for someone who wants to grow with us in this area and who can oversee the media side of a campaign, whether it’s being organised externally or in-house. Ideally we’d like to hire someone with several years of experience in a media agency, someone with enough experience to perform at a decent level yet still fresh enough to want to make the difference.
What we need:
Good knowledge of the media ecosystem: the market, the agencies, key players and suppliers. Good contacts with technology vendors and publishers are a major asset!
The ability to manage and upgrade the relationship with other media agencies
Motivated to gain a deeper insight and with a passion for research: you want to know everything down to the smallest detail so your next campaign will be even more successful.
Strategically skilled but with a pragmatic, hands-on attitude. You know how to design and carry out a plan but you can also tweak it if necessary.
Hands-on, you can and want to work with the tools yourself.
A feel for creation: how can we ensure the whole is more than the sum of its parts ? How can media and creation reinforce each other?
A feel for clients and their campaigns and a good sense of balance in particular. A bigger budget is not always the answer.
Being able to manage a budget.
The necessary commercial skills to help the client understand what can sometimes be a complex media component of a campaign or a sales trajectory. And — just as important — the ability to explain this properly to your colleagues in order to allow an integrated approach.
Finding the right balance between performance and branding. The best campaigns don’t need to hide behind one of those terms.
Always looking for ways to boost the relevance of individual campaigns.
KPIs are a means, not an end.
The ability to evaluate an existing plan, call it into question and make adjustments if necessary.
Interpreting results, drawing conclusions and establishing reports.
Bottom line: we are looking to recruit someone with a keen mind, common sense and a great deal of motivation to make the difference through media.
Your abilities:
Good knowledge of the Google / Doubleclick stack is very important.
A must: display advertising (DV360, premium / programmatic guaranteed, ..) and social advertising.
An asset: knowledge of adwords.
Knowledge of Analytics (Google, Moat, …)
Knowledge of tag managers and DMPs is a plus
E-commerce experience would also be interesting
AdSomeNoise boasts strong DCO skills so if you have no first-hand experience this will be your №1 priority.
Knowledge of other tech vendors, ad servers, adops lingo, … would come in handy.
Dashboards help you and others keep a finger on the pulse.
The more languages you know the better. French is not unheard of, especially in media. English is an alternative if your French is a bit rusty.
You can work independently but you are also a team player.
In short, you have to be a bit of a nerd and proud of it.
What are we offering? A hell of a ride. We are a fun company — that’s what our staff say when they ask us for a raise — but above all we have one clear and firm mission: to do better. We want to improve the industry and we support anyone who shares this goal. AdSomeNoise wants to lead by example, get its hands dirty, prove that online campaigns can be pretty damn cool… campaigns that work, that are creative and that respect instead of disturb consumers, campaigns that aim for maximum relevance.
In a restaurant you’d never ask a vegetarian if he’d like a juicy steak so why would you ask someone online to buy a pair of shoes he or she obviously doesn’t like? We have to do better as an industry and we will do better because you want to help us make the difference.
Interested?
Stop wasting time and send your resume and cover letter to Steven Verbruggen: [email protected] | https://medium.com/@minorissues/adsomenoise-is-looking-to-hire-a-creative-media-hero-11562f9af0b5 | ['Steven Verbruggen'] | 2019-06-18 07:38:57.478000+00:00 | ['Belgium', 'Advertising', 'Agency', 'Job Search', 'Digital Media'] |
Jayway ‘Bäst i Test’ — Week 3. Task #13 Weekend challenge: Score a… | Week 3 was the final week of November, and the week we most appreciated the boost of seeing people’s challenges come in.
Task #13 Weekend challenge: Score a goal. Best goal wins. Bonus points for the best goal celebration.
This was the peak of the competition and the entries were incredible! Commitment from animals, children, family, braving the freezing weather in ridiculous outfits, assembling IKEA furniture and toothpick goals. For anonymity sake I can’t show you any of that — but you can enjoy a small taster of some of our goals.
Task #14: Paint/draw the best blue thing. You may ONLY use the colour blue. You have a maximum of 15 minutes to execute your idea. Best picture wins.
Getting people out of their Tuesday brain with a quick art challenge! Constraints give the best creativity, and we had some awesome subissions in paint, VR, code and good old paper and pen. | https://medium.com/studiohallonet/jayway-b%C3%A4st-i-test-week-3-f8a0d0226179 | ['Chloe Nauta'] | 2020-12-03 14:39:00.756000+00:00 | ['Remote Working', 'Team Building', 'Task Master'] |
Come Try Out CoinMesh Alpha! | CoinMesh: The Startup Kit for LTC and BTC app development.
Pre-requisites
You must have Node, NPM, and Docker installed in the environment you are working on
NPM Dependencies
Install gulp and jspm globally through NPM -
$ npm install gulp -g
$ npm install jspm -g
This is for the build tooling in the client application currently. We plan to simplify that process.
Download and Run Coinmesh
Clone the CoinMesh repo.
Next, you can run the app locally with npm start in the root directory. This installs all of the required npm packages in all child directories.
Once the process has finished, open up localhost:9000 on a browser to see the following UI.
Create a New Project
CoinMesh will now guide you through the process of setting up the environment for your Litecoin or Bitcoin application.
1. Select "New Project" on the left sidebar.
2. Create a new directory by scrolling to the bottom. It should appear at the bottom of the list.
3. Select the circle to the left of the directory you just created then scroll up and click "Select Directory."
4. Give your project a name and description.
5. Select a data source and pre-packaged wallet skeleton for your project. In the future, you will be able to customize your own stack between various data sources, logic services, and client application. But for now, we've packaged the data sources with logic services via http and a web-based aurelia skeleton.
6. Finally, review the options you selected.
7. Click create.
The browser will refresh and you will see your project successfully mounted on CoinMesh. This is what it will look like if you chose bitcoind and lnd wallet skeleton.
From here, you can use your favorite text editor (ex. VSCode, Sublime, etc.) to start building out your project!
You can also click on Start all Containers and run the wallet skeleton for your app. You should see the status of the containers updating in the UI as well as the status of each 'project' on the left hand side. Once the client-application shows a status of green with a check it's time to open up the wallet in the browser or by clicking the Open UI button on the App container.
Mount a Project
One of the great things about CoinMesh is that developers can easily share apps with one another to use by mounting it on CoinMesh. Most of the libraries BlockFuse will provide will use docker. Simply download the shared project, click on “Mount a Project”, and select the directory of your project. Also, join us on slack if you want provide feedback or have any questions! | https://medium.com/blockfuse/come-try-out-coinmesh-alpha-a5f598b9850b | [] | 2018-10-23 18:52:36.261000+00:00 | ['JavaScript', 'Litecoin', 'Docker', 'Crypto', 'Bitcoin'] |
Forging a new partnership with design higher education | Forging a new partnership with design higher education
Fjord’s Immersion Program with Parsons School of Design is changing the future of design higher education
For the past two years, Fjord and Parsons School of Design have been collaborating on a new higher education learning model by including Design and Technology Master’s Students in the one-week Fjord Immersion Program.
The idea for the immersion program came up at a breakfast meeting with Anezka Sebek, faculty member at Parsons and one of the designers of the curriculum for the BFA and MFA Design and Technology Programs. The one-week Design Study intensive is a Fjord exploration method that often sits outside of client work and is a perfect vehicle to plug students into an intense, structured process. Traditional months-long summer internship programs can sometimes be a strain on company resources, or even a waste of time for students. As companies look for the right way to engage students in meaningful work to achieve valuable outcomes, an immersion program becomes a perfect option.
The approach drops students into an established team with a specific process and outcomes defined. Because the program is set up before or after a semester, more students can be considered than would be available in a traditional internship. It’s a huge benefit to both parties and guarantees a truly memorable, enriching learning experience for students and Fjord design teams.
“The program helps to drive specific types of students forward by plugging them into an intense design environment focused on insights and learning,” Sebek said of the program. “They can’t get this kind of real-world experience in the classroom, and they often are not finding it via more traditional internships.”
To date, five students have participated in the program.
The Design Studies Process
A Design Study begins by exploring a specific human-centered theme, such as zero UI (designing interactions without screens), designing for relationships, extending community interactions, and privacy. The week-long exploration in our studios focuses on defining hypotheses and experiments, immersive research, hands-on making of ideas and a report-out of the results. Several of the Design Studies with Parsons have advanced to patents and product prototypes, including our VR Wheelchair.
The student has the opportunity to present the design study theme and experiments at the end of his/her immersion — a presentation, which is part of the Friday Design Clinic at the Fjord studio. The Design Clinic is a forum for continuous learning at Fjord where designers share new techniques, points of view and guest speakers are often invited to work with the studio.
Another unique aspect of the immersion program is that Parsons chooses the student based on who might benefit most. Fjord then sets up the design study topic and team, and plugs the student into the process for a week.
The Fjord side of the program is co-led by Roman Kalantari, the Design Technology lead in the New York Studio. “This has become a way to tap into the skills and enthusiasm of design students to focus on unsolved problem in design. Fjord gets quite a bit of value out of this great program,” he said.
In January 2017, the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) formed a collaboration with Accenture to help shape how the fashion industry integrates technology and consumer insights into its business practices. Part of this collaboration includes connecting CFDA fashion students with the Fjord Immersion Program. This will allow the selected CFDA Design Graduate to further extend his/her Senior Thesis Collection by participating in the 1-Week Immersion Program at the Fjord studio. Areas of interest will include consumer behavior, new business models for designers, behavior in spaces, sustainability, social engagement, fashion and technology.
The mission for the Fjord Immersion program and Design Studies is that we can help influence the future of design, shape future designers and shift our own design capabilities. | https://medium.com/design-voices/forging-a-new-partnership-with-design-higher-education-c1a547aeb44a | ['John Jones'] | 2018-11-12 14:26:54.995000+00:00 | ['Design', 'Internships', 'Collaboration', 'Education', 'Higher Education'] |
Week 4: feature engineering | Photo by The Honest Company on Unsplash
Week 4: feature engineering
A dataset to focus on data cleaning and feature prep!
Fourth week of Pyrentena! I came across with this great video of a lesson on feature prep and data cleaning. Short, straight forward and yet very well explained! Available on YouTube. Inspired by the new things I learned on this video lesson, I decided this week’s dataset would be focused on feature engineering. It was nice to take a look at how all this data preparation could really impact the results on my model.
“Census Income” is the dataset of the day and has features such as gender, race, age, native country, etc. It’s available at UCI Machine Learning, who already proposed a question for everyone who decided to work with it: Predict whether income exceeds $50K/yr based on census data.
After importing pandas and numpy to read the .csv file, it looked like this:
Image 1: head()
Lots of columns, needed them to be all numeric, so my first step was to convert my target variable INCOME to a 0–1 binomial and split into 2 dataframes.
# Transforming the column into 0 or 1
# Assign outcome as 0 if income <=50K and as 1 if income >50K df['income'] = [0 if x == '<=50K' else 1 for x in df['income']] # Spliting into 2 dataframes: one with all features (X) one with target variable (y) X = df.drop('income', 1)
y = df.income
Basic Data Cleaning
Time to transform all categorical features into numerical (so my model can learn from them). To accomplish that, I used the method get_dummies, from pandas, to transform this categories into a binomial 0s and 1s. I applied to the ‘education’ feature to test it out:
# Use get_dummies in pandas to transform this categories into 0 & 1
print(pd.get_dummies(X['education']).head())
# outcome 10th 11th 12th 1st-4th 5th-6th 7th-8th 9th ? Assoc-acdm Assoc-voc \
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Bachelors Doctorate HS-grad Masters Preschool Prof-school \
0 1 0 0 0 0 0
1 1 0 0 0 0 0
2 0 0 1 0 0 0
3 0 0 0 0 0 0
4 1 0 0 0 0 0
Some-college
0 0
1 0
2 0
3 0
4 0
It worked! Still had lots of categorical features, lets take a look on how many:
# use for loop to go through categories and print the ones with type == 'object' for col_name in X.columns:
if X[col_name].dtypes == 'object':
unique_cat = len(X[col_name].unique())
print(f'Feature {col_name} has {unique_cat} unique categories') # output Feature 'workclass' has 8 unique categories
Feature 'education' has 17 unique categories
Feature 'marital_status' has 7 unique categories
Feature 'occupation' has 15 unique categories
Feature 'relationship' has 6 unique categories
Feature 'race' has 6 unique categories
Feature 'sex' has 3 unique categories
Feature 'native_country' has 40 unique categories
Yes, that was a lot. It didn’t seem smart to do the ‘get_dummies’ for all the categories I had, so I learned in the YouTube video how to build a function that would do a for loop and transform the values properly and much faster.
# Create a list of features to 'dummy' so you dont have to do the same thing for all the variables todummy_list = ['workclass', 'education', 'marital_status', 'occupation', 'relationship', 'race', 'sex', 'native_country'] # Function to dummy all the categorical variables used for modeling using a loop for def dummy_df(df, todummy_list):
for x in todummy_list:
dummies = pd.get_dummies(df[x], prefix=x, dummy_na=False)
df = df.drop(x, 1)
df = pd.concat([df, dummies], axis=1)
return df
Cool! With all of our features as numeric type, It was time to handle the missing values.
# How much of data is missing? X.isnull().sum().sort_values(ascending=False).head() # ouput fnlwgt 107
education_num 57
age 48
education_Doctorate 0
education_7th-8th 0
dtype: int64
Again, quite a few missing data. I decided not to drop those since they could have some impact on the model. My next estrategy was to replace with either mean or median. In order to do that, I imported Imputer from Scikit-Learn:
from sklearn.impute import SimpleImputer # imputing with median imp = SimpleImputer(missing_values=np.nan, strategy='median')
imp.fit(X)
X = pd.DataFrame(data=imp.transform(X) , columns=X.columns)
I don’t have a recipe here for when to go either way, that has been my biggest struggle so far: now that I know all of this techinics, when to use what?! I try and research and also experiment to see what works best, so I learn as I go.
Data Exploration
Now that there aren’t any missing values and everything is numeric, is time to explore our data to see if we have outliers that could possibly temper our prediction model. I learned in the YouTube class to use Tukey IQR to detect those, It’s a function that basically finds out what values are lower or greater than the 1st and 3rd quartile (If we applyied a describe() method, would be the values lower than 25% and greater than 75%). Let’s see how it works:
# function to find outliers using tukey def find_outliers_tukey(x):
q1 = np.percentile(x, 25)
q3 = np.percentile(x, 75)
iqr = q3-q1
floor = q1 - 1.5*iqr
ceiling = q3 + 1.5*iqr
outlier_indices = list(x.index[(x < floor)|(x > ceiling)])
outlier_values = list(x[outlier_indices]) return outlier_indices, outlier_values
I am in love with this function, so glad I learned that. That are other ways to detect outliers such as Kernel’s density, but this is the one I understood better, so I’m going with that. Now lets call it and see what it tells us:
tukey_indices, tukey_values = find_outliers_tukey(X['age'])
print(np.sort(tukey_values)) # output [76. 76. 76. 76. 76. 76. 76. 76. 76. 77. 77. 77. 77. 77. 78. 78. 79. 79. 79. 80. 80. 80. 81. 81. 81. 81. 82. 88. 90. 90. 90. 90. 90. 90. 90.]
According to Tukey, our outliers regarding ‘age’ are between 76 and 90 years old. We can apply this for other columns and decide if we will drop those values, or some part of it, or if we are keeping it. In my case, I decided to keep those.
Feature Engineering
This for me is the most abstract part, still have to study to really understand how it works. We basically have two options when it comes to feature engineering: increase dimmensionallity (add features to hopefully make the model more precise) or decrease dimmensionallity (remove features so the model is more accurate). If you are familiar with the dataset, increase new features isn’t such a random thing — and sometimes, you can even do it by hand. For instance, you have the total amount of something, and you want the average amount of this something to be a column in your data, so your model can use avg as a feature.
In my case, I had no idea what features I could create, I only knew I had to increase the dimmensionallity since I only had 15. Luckily, there are functions to help us do that! Polynomial features was the techinic used in the YouTube class and It’s a really cool method: it creates two-way interactions for all features. Let’s see how to do that:
# Use PolynomialFeatures in sklearn.preprocessing to create two-way interactions for all features from itertools import combinations
from sklearn.preprocessing import PolynomialFeatures # function to add interactions def add_interactions(df):
# Get feature names
combos = list(combinations(list(df.columns), 2))
colnames = list(df.columns) + ['_'.join(x) for x in combos]
# Find interactions
poly = PolynomialFeatures(interaction_only=True, include_bias=False)
df = poly.fit_transform(df)
df = pd.DataFrame(df)
df.columns = colnames
# Remove interaction terms with all 0 values
noint_indicies = [i for i, x in enumerate(list((df == 0).all())) if x]
df = df.drop(df.columns[noint_indicies], axis=1)
return df
It seems a little abstract now, but once you call the function and print out the results, is easier to make sense of the relationships:
X = add_interactions(X)
print(X.head()) # output race_White_native_country_United-States sex_Female_native_country_Other \
0 1.0 0.0
1 1.0 0.0
2 1.0 0.0
3 0.0 0.0
4 0.0 1.0
sex_Female_native_country_United-States sex_Male_native_country_Other \
0 0.0 0.0
1 0.0 0.0
2 0.0 0.0
3 0.0 0.0
4 0.0 0.0
I printed out only a small part of the output because it generates quite a few relationships, but is enough for us to see: race-white-native_country, sex-female-native_country (and loads of others). By identifying that, the function establish some relationships that the model will take under consideration when predicting values.
Feature Selection and Model Building
Finally! It took us a while to get here, but I learned so much on how to clean and prepare my data. Besides, you are gonna see the positive effect on our model!
# Use train_test_split in sklearn.cross_validation to split data into train and test sets from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split X_train, X_test, y_train, y_test = train_test_split(X, y, train_size=0.70, random_state=1)
With the large set of features we generated with polynomial features, now is time to do some feature selection so we don’t cause overffitng — and also slow down my computer. To do that, Sklearn has a feature selection we can call to help out:
import sklearn.feature_selection
from sklearn.feature_selection import SelectKBest select = SelectKBest(k=15)
selected_features = select.fit(X_train, y_train)
indices_selected = selected_features.get_support(indices=True)
colnames_selected = [X.columns[i] for i in indices_selected] X_train_selected = X_train[colnames_selected]
X_test_selected = X_test[colnames_selected]
The ‘k’ paramater defines the number of features we want to select in SelectKBest(k=15). There is no rule on how exaclty this number should be, so I tryied with different ‘k’ and evaluated the results. With k as 20, the accuracy was around 0.71 — not bad. But with k as 10, the accuracy jumped to 0.85! It became clear that the best numerical range for k to be was in between 10 and 20, so a tryied out with 15. Let’s see how it worked and take a look at the selected features!
# list of selected features print(colnames_selected) # output ['marital_status_Married-civ-spouse', 'relationship_Husband', 'age_education_num', 'age_marital_status_Married-civ-spouse', 'age_relationship_Husband', 'education_num_marital_status_Married-civ-spouse', 'education_num_relationship_Husband', 'hours_per_week_marital_status_Married-civ-spouse', 'hours_per_week_relationship_Husband', 'marital_status_Married-civ-spouse_relationship_Husband', 'marital_status_Married-civ-spouse_race_White', 'marital_status_Married-civ-spouse_sex_Male', 'marital_status_Married-civ-spouse_native_country_United-States ', 'relationship_Husband_sex_Male', 'relationship_Husband_native_country_United-States ']
Nicely done. Time to fit our model with a Logistic Regression algorithm and measure its performance.
Measuring Performance
To measure the performance, my YouTube class choose Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristics (AUC ROC) to evaluate its accuracy. I had nerver heard of it yet, so I did some research and found out when is useful:
When to use AUC:
when it comes to a classification problem
When we need to check or visualize the performance of the multi — class classification problem
Seems like exaclty what I need: classify between >50k or <50k and It was a multi class problem. Since I’m into best practices of software engineering lately, I built a function that I could use again at other projects:
# Function to build model and find model performance
# using Logistic Regression from sklearn.linear_model import LogisticRegression
from sklearn.metrics import roc_auc_score
def find_model_perf(X_train, y_train, X_test, y_test):
model = LogisticRegression()
model.fit(X_train, y_train)
y_hat = [x[1] for x in model.predict_proba(X_test)]
auc = roc_auc_score(y_test, y_hat)
return auc
Calling te function to see the result:
# Find performance of model using preprocessed data auc_processed = find_model_perf(X_train_selected, y_train, X_test_selected, y_test)
print(auc_processed) # output 0.8821631097523177
0.88! I was so happy with this result. Since the class was focused on feature engineering, we learned how to compare our result (with processed and cleaned data) with the results when using unprocessed data. Let’s compare:
Build model using unprocessed data for comparison
We started dropping missing values and removing non-numeric columns so it does not result an error. By doing it, we had the following dataset:
# Take a look again at what the unprocessed feature set looks like print(X_unprocessed.head()) # output age fnlwgt education_num capital_gain capital_loss hours_per_week 0 39.0 77516.0 13.0 2174 0 40 1 50.0 83311.0 13.0 0 0 13 2 38.0 215646.0 9.0 0 0 40 4 28.0 338409.0 13.0 0 0 40 5 37.0 284582.0 14.0 0 0 40
Age, education, capital gain, capital loss, hour per week: those were our numeric features that the model was gonna use.
# Split unprocessed data into train and test set
# Build model and assess performance X_train_unprocessed, X_test_unprocessed, y_train, y_test = train_test_split(
X_unprocessed, y_unprocessed, train_size=0.70, random_state=1)
auc_unprocessed = find_model_perf(X_train_unprocessed, y_train, X_test_unprocessed, y_test) print(auc_unprocessed)
0.6119711042311662
0.61, dropped quite a bit. Let’s organize this result in a nice print so we can have it on record:
# Compare model performance print(f'AUC of model with data preprocessing: {auc_processed}.')
print(f'AUC of model with data without preprocessing: {auc_unprocessed}.')
per_improve = ((auc_processed-auc_unprocessed)/auc_unprocessed)*100
print(f'Model improvement of preprocessing: {per_improve}.')
The ouput:
AUC of model with data preprocessing: 0.8821631097523177
AUC of model with data without preprocessing: 0.6119711042311662
Model improvement of preprocessing: 44.15110511804314%
By doing data cleaning and feature prep, feature engineering and a bit hiperparameter tunning, we improved our model by greater than 44%!. More work, better results! This sets the difference between winners on Kaggle competitions. And is also a great practice! | https://medium.com/joguei-os-dados/week-4-feature-engineering-4787fca0f809 | ['Letícia Gerola'] | 2020-06-04 15:21:52.663000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Data Science'] |
I Is an Other: The Secret Life of Metaphor and How It Shapes the Way We See the World | I Is an Other: The Secret Life of Metaphor and How It Shapes the Way We See the World
What do Aristotle, Elvis Presley, and Shakespeare have in common
Image by M Blackman
If you think of metaphor as merely a device used in literature, think again. James Geary delves into the realms of behavioural economics, psychology, and neuroscience to present a fascinating insight into metaphor’s role in our world. His book, I Is an Other, explores the role of metaphor in human language, creative thinking, and more. You will never look at a metaphor the same after reading this. You might start spying metaphors everywhere. Oh look, there’s one in the previous sentence!
I Is an Other is arranged in thirteen easily digestible chapters, each given a straightforward descriptive title with an intriguing subtitle (‘All Shook Up’’ accompanies the chapter ‘Metaphor and Thought’). The writing is authoritative but humorous and grounded in the real world. I am a former English teacher and so I loved it, but this book has a broad appeal.
Geary explains metaphorical thinking with the help of Aristotle, Elvis Presley, Rimbaud, and Shakespeare. Metaphors can be defined mathematically as X = Y, in the Aristotelian tradition of “giving the thing a name that belongs to something else”. This is evidenced in Elvis Presley’s song ‘All Shook Up’ when he describes his lover’s lips as a volcano (what a poet!), Rimbaud’s metaphor manifesto of I = other, and of course, Romeo’s famous line “Juliet is the sun”. Naturally, philosophers, songwriters, and playwrights will utilise metaphors to create comparisons with rich imagery, but this metaphorical thinking is also what enables creativity in the sciences. Scientists and inventors need to compare what they know about a subject with what they don’t know. For creative thinking to occur, we need to be able to see beyond the literal and metaphorical thinking allows that.
The world of finance and economics, which you might think of as being purely about numbers and statistics, is full of metaphorical description. Think of stocks soaring, surging, climbing, or, plummeting, sliding, plunging. Wall Street may be gripped by a bear market or a bull market. Geary cites psychologist Michael W. Morris’s research into financial commentary and identifies two primary market metaphors, agent and object metaphors. Agent metaphors describe price movements “as the deliberate action of a living thing”, whereas object metaphors describe price movements as “non-living things subject to external forces”. The way that we use agent and object metaphors to describe mostly random events feed into the human brain’s expectancy bias. We are programmed to recognise patterns where they might be none whatsoever. If stocks have gone up for six days in a row (as described by the agent metaphor of climbing), we expect them to continue to climb on day seven. Metaphors can be dangerous if unexamined — beware of your expectancy bias when looking at stock charts!
If you have ever been to a toddler’s tea party, you will know that young children’s pretend play is full of wonderful metaphors. Between the ages of 12–24 months, children develop the ability to pretend, which researchers call “double knowledge”. From the age of two years, children start to play make-believe games. When a child hands you a banana so that you can answer a phone call, there are now two bananas; the real one (held to your ear) and the copy (transformed in the imagination so that you can talk as if you are using a real phone). Young children are adept at this as their brains’ pattern recognition circuits are rapidly building and developing, although their understandings are mostly based on simple perceptual similarities. As they grow older, they have difficulty with more sophisticated metaphorical language, until they acquire enough experience to make sense of their world.
People with Aspergers Syndrome or other Autism Spectrum Disorders typically have difficulty with metaphorical thinking and Geary provides sound research into the ways ASD affects socialisation and communication. Although he writes sensitively about his subjects in ‘Metaphor and the Mind: Imagining an Apple in Someone’s Eye’, I wish he could have asked an actual person with ASD about these social difficulties, instead of referencing ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime’ by Mark Haddon (2004: Vintage). Haddon is a neurotypical author writing about a child with Aspergers, in ways that are often very ableist; Christopher, the main character, is treated terribly by his parents and others around him which is normalised as he has a disability. However, this is balanced by the inclusion of anecdotes from other people with Aspergers who discuss the challenges they face, but also their strengths.
There are so many topics touched on in this book and the research and examples are all highly interesting. Metaphorical thinking pervades every aspect of our lives, without us even realising it. When reading a work of literature we are attuned to the use of figurative language but our brains are also tuned into the metaphors that surround us in everyday life, satisfying our brain’s need to create patterns. As Geary states, “the logic of metaphor is the logic of our lives”.
As a former English teacher and an evergreen lover of literature, I expected to enjoy reading this book. I certainly did but I also found it intellectually stimulating, prompting me to examine some of the biases and assumptions I have about the world. In the words of the great Elvis Presley, I’m all shook up. | https://medium.com/the-innovation/i-is-an-other-the-secret-life-of-metaphor-and-how-it-shapes-the-way-we-see-the-world-james-geary-c54b75247f29 | ['M Ainsley Blackman'] | 2020-12-30 12:54:40.352000+00:00 | ['Thebookmark', 'Reading', 'Psychology', 'Creativity', 'Books'] |
Most Valuable Player (MVP) by CricHeroes | Most Valuable Player (MVP) by CricHeroes
Why MVP?
One of the primary objectives of the CricHeroes App is to give recognition to passionate amateur Cricketers. We believe they are the real HEROES of Cricket. Because of them, Cricket is a religion in countries like India and cricketers have a GOD-like status.
The most important and obvious way to give recognition is to declare Player of the Match automatically at the end of every match getting scored on CricHeroes. Players can further share this achievement on social media and others can appreciate this award on the CricHeroes App. We are doing this since the beginning and cricketers love it!
Now, so far the calculation of declaring Player of the Match was very primitive. It was not taking into account various aspects of a match like the number of wickets, batsman strike rate, bowler strike rate, fielder contribution, etc. To solve such discrepancies and recognise heroes of the match fairly, we have designed a comprehensive algorithm to find out Most Valuable Player of the match and tournament.
We have tried to take into account as many parameters as possible but since Cricket is a very complex game, we may have missed some scenario. And hey, this is just the first version of MVP so if we have missed something, please let us know.
So without further ado, let’s explore how CricHeroes MVP calculation works.
Batting MVP Score
First, let’s see how MVP Points for a Batsman are calculated.
For the sake of simplicity, we are considering 10 runs as 1 MVP Point.
Now for a batsman, the most important thing is the number of runs scored but we should also consider his batting order. E.g. Top-order batsmen get more opportunity to bat so they are expected to score more runs than lower-order batsmen. That defines the concept of Par Score.
This is how we have defined Par Score for an 11-player team.
Batting Order — Percentage of Team Total
1–14.00%
2–13.00%
3–13.00%
4–12.00%
5–11.00%
6–9.00%
7–7.00%
8–6.00%
9–4.00%
10–3.00%
11–2.00%
So if the team scores 300 runs in 50 overs, Par Score for an opening batsman is 42 runs (14% of 300 runs). If that batsman scores more runs than his Par Score, he should get a bonus for the same. Here is how it works.
Match Type — Par Score Bonus
0–20 Overs — 2%
21–35 Overs — 4%
35–50 Overs — 6%
51+ Overs — 8%
Test Match — 8%
If the opening batsman scores 60 runs, his basic MVP score will be 6 and his Par Score bonus will be (60–42) * 0.06 = 1.08.
But now what if the batsman has scored these runs faster (or slower) than overall team strike rate? He should be rewarded (or penalised) for that too.
Match Type — SR Bonus / Penalty Percentage
0–20 Overs — 8%
21–35 Overs — 6%
35–50 Overs — 4%
51+ Overs — 2%
Test Match — 2%
Continuing the same example, let’s assume he took 70 balls to score 60 runs. That means his Strike Rate (SR) is 85 and since the team scored 300 runs in 300 balls, team’s SR is 100.
Here is the formula for calculating the SR Bonus / Penalty.
((Player SR) / (Team SR)) * (Player SR) — (Team SR) * SR Bonus Percentage
As per our example,
(85/100) * (85–100) * 0.04 = 0.85 * (-15) * 0.04 = -0.51
He gets negative points as SR Bonus because he scored slower than his team.
Finally, the formula for calculating total Batting MVP points is:
Total Batting MVP Points = Basic MVP Score + Par Score Bonus + SR Bonus
Putting values of our example, it will be:
Total Batting MVP Points = 6 + 1.08–0.51 = 6.57
Bowling MVP Points
Now let’s calculate MVP Points for a Bowler.
For that, we need to define base runs per wicket for different types of matches.
A standard T20 match score is 162 runs. This is based on thousands of matches scored on CricHeroes so far in various locations, circumstances and players. Keeping this as a starting point, let’s define base runs per wicket.
First, we can’t distribute 162 runs evenly between 11 players. You can’t expect the first and the last batsman to score an average of 15 runs in a match. But we can distribute them as per the following table.
Batting Order — Percentage — Runs
1–100.00% — 18 runs
2–100.00% — 18 runs
3–100.00% — 18 runs
4–100.00% — 18 runs
5–80.00% — 14.4 runs
6–80.00% — 14.4 runs
7–80.00% — 14.4 runs
8–80.00% — 14.4 runs
9–60.00% — 10.8 runs
10–60.00% — 10.8 runs
11–60.00% — 10.8 runs
Generally in a team, the top 4 batsmen are the strongest and score most runs. So if we consider their strength as 100%, we can consider the strength of middle-order batsmen as 80% and lower-order batsmen as 60%.
Based on the above logic, here is the Base Runs Per Wicket for various types of matches.
Match Types — Base Runs Per Wicket
0–7 Overs — 12 Runs
8–12 Overs — 14 Runs
13–16 Overs — 16 Runs
17–20 Overs — 18 Runs
21–26 Overs — 20 Runs
27–40 Overs — 22 Runs
41–50 Overs — 25 Runs
51–99 Overs — 27 Runs
Test Match — 25 Runs
This means, in a T20 match, if a bowler takes the wicket of an opening batsman, he gets rewarded 18 runs per wicket i.e. 1.8 MVP Points (Remember, the base is 10 runs for 1 MVP Point). But if he takes the wicket of a number 9 batsman, he gets rewarded 10.8 runs per wicket i.e. 1.08 MVP Point.
But before giving points, we also need to consider if the wickets are assisted or unassisted.
Bowled, LBW, Hit Wicket, Mankaded is examples of an unassisted wicket for which the bowler gets full MVP points. In case of the assisted wicket like Catch Out, Stumped, the bowler gets full MVP points and the fielder also gets an additional 20%.
(UPDATE: Till 31st January 2020 we used to divide MVP points 75/25 between the bowler and fielder(s).)
We also reward bowlers for taking more than 1 wicket in a match. For every additional wicket, they get a 10% bonus of that wicket’s MVP Point.
A bowler gets a bonus if he gets the batsman out before he reaches his par score. Percentage of the difference between batsman’s par score and his actual score is awarded to the bowler as a Par Score Bonus. We have defined percentage for various Match Types in the following table.
Match Type — Par Score Percentage
0–20 Overs — 2%
21–35 Overs — 4%
35–50 Overs — 6%
51+ Overs — 8%
Test Match — 8%
So if an opening batsman scored 25 runs in a 50-over match before getting out bowled, which is less than his par score of 42 then bowler’s bonus will be as below:
Par Score Bonus = (42–25) * 0.06
Now same as a batsman, a bowler is also rewarded/penalised if his Strike Rate (SR) is lower/higher than team’s SR.
In this case, Strike Rate for bowler is different than Bowling Strike Rate. Here we are only concerned about how many runs a bowler gave in how many deliveries. It has nothing to do with wickets. This way we reward a bowler who has given less runs compared to other bowlers.
Here is how it distributes:
Match Type — SR Bonus / Penalty Percentage
0–20 Overs — 8%
21–35 Overs — 6%
35–50 Overs — 4%
51+ Overs — 2%
Test Match — 2%
The formula is:
((Team SR) / (Player SR)) * (Team SR) — (Player SR) * SR Bonus Percentage
But in case of maiden overs, we can’t calculate SR bonus as Player SR will be 0. So we have devised a different mechanism to reward bowlers for this.
Basically, in a 7-over match, we give 1 maiden over the same value as 1 wicket and it goes on from there for different types of matches as per below table.
Match Type — Number of Maiden Overs to be considered as one wicket
0–7 overs — 1 maiden overs
8–12 overs — 2 maiden overs
13–16 overs — 2 maiden overs
17–20 overs — 2 maiden overs
21–26 overs — 2 maiden overs
27–40 overs — 3 maiden overs
41–50 overs — 3 maiden overs
51–99 overs — 6 maiden overs
Test Match — 6 maiden overs
So the final formula is:
Total Bowling MVP Points = Wicket Base MVP + Additional Wicket Bonus + Par Score Bonus + SR Bonus + Maiden Over Bonus
Let’s take a final example to calculate total bowling MVP points.
A bowler takes 3 wickets in 4 overs conceding 40 runs in a T20 match. He also bowls 1 maiden over. His team scored 120 runs. 1. He bowled the opening batsman out in 15 runs.
2. His second wicket is number 5 batsman at 10 runs as Catch Out.
3. His third wicket is number 9 batsman as Caught Behind at 1 run.
Now, let’s break this point by point:
1. First let’s calculate Basic Bowling MVP Points = 1.8 + 0.72 + 0.54 = 3.06
2. Since he took multiple wickets, we need to give him Additional Wicket Bonus = 1.8 + 0.72 + 0.072 + 0.55 + 0.055 = 3.186
3. He also gets Par Score Bonus for getting the batsmen out cheaply
Par Score Bonus = (16.8–15) * 0.02 + (13.2–10) * 0.02 + (4.8–1) * 0.02 = 0.036 + 0.064 + 0.076 = 0.176
Revised Bowling MVP Points = 3.186 + 0.176 = 3.362
4. Now he gave away 40 runs at the strike rate of 167 while his team’s SR is 100 so he gets penalised for this.
SR Bonus / Penalty = (100/167) * (100–167) * 0.08 = -3.2
5. And he bowled 1 maiden over in T20 match. Now we are considering 2 maiden overs as 1 wicket in a T20 match. So he gets (1.8/2) = 0.9 as maiden over bonus.
So finally we have,
Total Bowling MVP Points = 3.362–3.2 + 0.9 = 1.062
Complex? Yes, we know but fair too!
Fielding MVP Points
Let’s not forget fielders now. Fielder gets points in assisted and unassisted wickets.
In assisted wicket types like Catch Out, Stumping, fielder gets 20% of the total MVP points for that wicket based on formula explained above in Bowling MVP.
(UPDATE: Till 15th June 2018 we used to divide MVP points equally between the bowler and fielder(s). After 31st January 2020, we are giving an additional 20% to the fielders and giving full MVP points to bowlers for assisted wickets.)
In case of an unassisted wicket like Run Out, fielder gets full points for that wicket (if it is a direct hit) along with Par Score Bonus same as a bowler.
So to continue above example, if a fielder gets the opening batsman run out (direct hit) in 15 runs and the team’s total score was 120 then that batsman’s par score was 16.8.
In this case, fielder’s bonus will be as below:
Par Score Bonus = (16.8–15) * 0.02 = 0.036
Total Fielding MVP Points = Wicket Base MVP + Par Score Bonus
Total Fielding MVP Points = 1.8 + 0.036 = 1.836
Finally, how do we decide the Player of the Match?
So far we saw how we calculate MVP Points for each player in the match. Now for declaring player of the match, the winning team gets the precedence.
So if a winning team player is in the Top 3 MVP list, he becomes Player of the Match.
In case, there is no player of the winning team in Top 3 MVP list, the leader becomes the Player of the Match even though he is from a losing side. There is a great chance that he played outstandingly even though his team lost.
Alright, that’s it then. As mentioned before this is just a start and we will get better from here. If you have any doubts or comments, please ask us in the comments section. Also, all the tables in this article are for example purpose, we may keep tweaking them so don’t try to calculate your MVP points using the above tables as a reference.
Let’s reward the real HEROES of Cricket with CricHeroes. | https://medium.com/cricheroes/most-valuable-player-mvp-by-cricheroes-b74e0833f5d4 | ['Abhishek Desai'] | 2020-03-19 09:31:01.901000+00:00 | ['Cricket', 'Apps', 'Algorithms'] |
Dockerizing Angular App With NodeJS Backend | Dockerizing Angular App With NodeJS Backend
Learn How to Dockerize and make it a deployable image
Photo by Bench Accounting on Unsplash
Docker is an enterprise-ready container platform that enables organizations to seamlessly build, share and run any application, anywhere. Almost every company is containerizing its applications for faster production workloads so that they can deploy anytime and sometimes several times a day. There are so many ways we can build an Angular App. One way is to dockerize the Angular app with nodejs backend and create a docker image so that we can deploy that image any time or sometimes several times a day.
In this post, we look at the example project and see the step by step guide on how we can dockerizing the Angular app with nodejs as a server.
Introduction
Example Project
Dockerizing the App
Running The App on Docker
Summary
Conclusion
Introduction
Nowadays, it’s very common to dockerize and deploy the Docker image in the production with the help of container orchestration engines such as Docker Swarn or Kubernetes. We are going to Dockerize the app and create an image and run it on Docker on our local machine. We could also push that Image in to Docker hub and pull it whenever and wherever we need it.
Here is the complete guide on how to develop an Angular app with nodejs as a backend server. If you are not familiar with the process or you want to know before studying this guide, I would recommend you going through it.
Prerequisite
As a prerequisite, you have to install Docker for Desktop (whatever your OS is). Please follow this link to install Docker on your laptop. Once installed you can check the Docker info or version with the following commands. | https://medium.com/bb-tutorials-and-thoughts/dockerizing-angular-app-with-nodejs-backend-85e9d332335d | ['Bhargav Bachina'] | 2020-03-16 03:09:15.358000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Angular', 'JavaScript', 'Software Development', 'Web Development'] |
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