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Learnings made: John Calian from T-Labs | What is your role in the Blockchain universe, where is your expertise?
I lead the R&D labs of Deutsche Telekom (T-Labs), and one of our focus topics is blockchain. For one a year now our team has taken a deep dive into this technology, primarily focusing on the core software that makes up ledger networks, such as bitcoin, ethereum, IOTA and Sovrin. In addition, we are developing MVPs in relation to a few use cases for telco: wholesale roaming contracts and IoT device management and security.
What is the biggest misconception about Blockchain?
That blockchain networks all consume too much energy. This is true of cryptocurrency networks like Bitcoin, which rely on a proof of work consensus mechanism, but does not extend to the variety of ledger networks that we are exploring for use in enterprise software design.
Can you name 3 use cases where Blockchain technology creates value?
Digitizing contracts; securing telco networks; universal identity.
How do I know whether or not Blockchain technology could improve my business?
Ask yourself these questions about the software your business relies on:
Would the systems we currently use benefit from
1. the data being immutable?
2. The data being transparent to multiple parties?
3. The data sets being decentralized?
4. The data entered into a ledger via a consensus mechanism
If you can answer yes to two (2) or more, then maybe you need blockchain based systems for your business to evolve and modernise.
What would you recommend projects, who are planning to do an ICO?
Go for it, its a great way to raise money.
What are common mistakes Blockchain projects make?
The same mistakes any project can encounter: is the team functioning well? Is the team executing according the the vision? Is the software project meeting the needs of the customer(s) and their problems? Does the team have enough funding to reach the right milestones?
What was the biggest learning you made during the last year?
Hire people you instinctively feel right about, and don’t hire someone if they might help you progress a project, but don’t fit your instincts.
What’s the best advice you’ve recently received?
Think about finding peace, not happiness.
Which industries will be disrupted by Blockchain in the next 5 years?
Financial, supply chain, energy distribution.
Who is your favorite super or real life hero?
Real life: Anthony Bourdain, for he lived as honestly as he could.
🚀 Interested in Tokenized Securities? Check out our newest project: STOCheck.com | https://medium.com/trusteddapps/learning-from-the-best-john-calian-42d6466df83f | ['Stefan Perlebach'] | 2018-08-31 14:44:51.634000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency Investment', 'Interview', 'ICO', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain'] |
The plight of cycling. | The plight of cycling.
A rickshahwalla waiting for passengers.
Three months after the lockdown was abruptly imposed, the Rickshaw-wallahs of Delhi are still facing the burnt. Akbar, a resident of Bihar talks of events of the past with teary eyes. Having spent his lifetime in Delhi and working tirelessly for fifty years, a bitter tone of complaint still lingers on his tongue. After cycling from dawn to dusk, all he manages to earn is his daily bread, while the conditions at his home in Bihar are still distraught. He lives in an attic of a small house, where he also helps in cleaning and sweeping to pay off his rent. Right after the lockdown was imposed, Akbar had been forced to return to his native village by foot, and had hardly managed to return home. Old and weak, Akbar, complains that ever since he returned to Delhi, the conditions have gone from bad to worse, and the debt is only increasing.
(Akbar in the above photos)
Sheikh Samud, another rickshaw-Walla, hailing from West Bengal has recently come to Delhi. Prior to this, he worked as a daily laborer in Bengal. He complains that he could not find work due to Lockdown, and had no option but to arrive in a foreign city. At home, Samud has three daughters, and all of them are enrolled in a school. He lives in Abul Fazal, along with other Rickshaw-wallas on a rent of some nine hundred rupees. Apart from this, he pays for the rent of the Rickshaw, which amounts to fifteen hundred rupees per month.
(Sheikh Samud in the above photos)
Mohammad Syed has been in Delhi for twenty-seven years, and hails from Bihar. He complains that he has been living a life of neglect, and no one, he maintains, has ever been of any help to him. The world, according to him, lacks empathy, and everyone peruses one own interest. He bluntly says that on the days he does not earn, he does not eat.
( Mohammad Syed in the above photos)
Mohammad Saiffudin lives in Batla-house, and works hard to pay the debts incurred on him by the marriage of his daughter. During the lockdown, he travelled to his home and somehow had managed to give a motor-bike to his son-in-law in dowry, but now finds himself in debt without any reliable means to survive. He earns some eighty to hundred rupees per day, and complains that the E-battery wallas grab all the customers.
(Mohammad saiffudin in the above photos)
(a phone photo essay) | https://medium.com/@adilbhat893/the-plight-of-cycling-211d7deaa7b7 | ['Adil Manzoor'] | 2020-12-26 09:25:19.710000+00:00 | ['Everyday Life', 'Coronavirus', 'Lockdown', 'Photo Essay', 'Journalism'] |
Edge Routing with Envoy and Lua | Photo by William Navarro on Unsplash
Let’s have a look at how SafetyCulture handles edge routing with Envoy, specifically how edge traffic can be easily routed based on application criteria thanks to the Lua filter.
Requirements
This project comes from the creation of a modern edge network to serve traffic to our new platform APIs. These APIs leverage the full potential of gRPC and Protobuf to improve our mobile performance and experience.
At the edge, the main requirements are:
HTTP/2 support at the frontend and backend
gRPC and REST support (detection handled by the upstream APIs)
end-to-end TLS encryption
region routing
At SafetyCulture, region routing means routing requests on a per-user basis. So from the beginning, it was rather clear that region routing would be achieved via some middleware API.
Solutions
Unfortunately, very few solutions support the aforementioned requirements. These are some of the main players:
Nginx : no introduction needed
: no introduction needed OpenResty : Nginx on steroids, natively supports middleware development
: Nginx on steroids, natively supports middleware development Traefik : powerful and easy to configure edge router
: powerful and easy to configure edge router Envoy: fully-fledged, high performance reverse proxy
None of the above solutions fill all the requirements but Envoy. Nginx, OpenResty and Traefik do support HTTP/2 and gRPC since version 1.13.10, version 1.15.12 and version 1.4.0 respectively. However, until today Nginx and OpenResty lack proper DNS management of upstream clusters. Workarounds exist, such as the one below, but it returns a configuration error when used with the grpc_proxy instead of proxy_pass.
resolver 1.1.1.1;
set $backend "my-upstream-cluster";
proxy_pass
} location / {resolver 1.1.1.1;set $backend "my-upstream-cluster";proxy_pass http://$backend
Traefik edge router fills almost all the boxes, except it currently provides no middleware API, which is one of the key requirements for region routing.
In the same way Nginx and OpenResty provide a middleware API with lua_nginx_module, Envoy includes a Lua filter, out of the box. Even though Envoy’s Lua filter has a limited set of Lua primitives compared to lua_nginx_module (this one is huge! have a look at the documentation), it is powerful enough to implement advanced edge routing logic. Check the documentation here.
Edge Routing
As a business requirement at SafetyCulture, end-users’ requests must be routed to specific geographical datacenters, which are not necessarily the closest. Region routing is based on user characteristics, typically the user’s region in our case.
Basically, a JWT may contain relevant information about the user. This way the edge router is able to extract information from the request JWT and take routing decision based on that information. Let’s have a look under the hood.
The JWT is generated and issued to the end user as part of the authentication process. Bear in mind that the JWT cannot be forged since it includes a specific signature that the edge router can verify before region routing (not detailed here for simplicity).
So how does Envoy route the requests to the right region? The trick relies on route metadata and cluster header. First, let’s define a route:
- match:
prefix: "/hello"
route:
cluster_header: region
metadata:
filter_metadata:
envoy.lua:
api: hello
Note that there is no predefined upstream cluster. Instead of using the cluster statement to directly indicate the targeted cluster, we use cluster_header to pass the upstream cluster from a specific HTTP header at a later stage, namely during the Lua filter process.
With the previous definition, the Lua filter may get the global name of the upstream service (key named api) from the route metadata, extract the user’s region from the JWT, and dynamically route the request by updating the region header to specify the regional upstream cluster. Routing to the selected cluster happens within Envoy’s router filter, which must therefore be invoked after the Lua filter.
- name: envoy.lua
config:
inline_code: |
function envoy_on_request(request_handle)
local edge = require "edge"
local config = {
region = "region-1"
prefix = "edge-router"
}
edge.route(request_handle, config)
end
- name: envoy.router
config: {}
In our case, edge routers are aware of their respective regions. That is, if the user’s region is the router’s region, the request is forwarded to the corresponding upstream cluster. When the user’s region is different from the router’s, the request is deviated sideways to the edge router responsible for the user’s region. Again, the same workflow happens in the next edge router.
local jwt = require "jwt" local M = {} function M.route(request_handle, config)
local metadata = request_handle:metadata() local token = request_handle:headers():get("authorization") local decoded = jwt.decode(token)
if decoded.region == config.region then
request_handle:headers():replace(
"region",
metadata:get("api") .. "-" .. decoded.region
)
else
request_handle:headers():replace(
"region",
config.prefix .. "-" .. decoded.region
)
end
end
This algorithm requires strict cluster naming as the cluster header must match the upstream cluster name. To reflect our previous configuration and algorithm, you may write the following cluster definitions:
clusters:
- name: hello-region-1
...
- name: edge-router-region-2
...
- name: edge-router-region-3
...
Once you have set up metadata and cluster header, you can achieve any kind of routing, it’s just a matter of changing the Lua algorithm. For instance, you can easily adapt the previous configuration and algorithm to implement some routing to ease GDPR compliance. That is, you may route GDPR users to your datacenters in Europe, whereas other users may be merely routed to the closest ones in order to benefit from low network latency.
Architecture
The following diagram represents the outer/inner rim architecture, on top of which region routing is implemented. A request is routed around the edge network before entering a particular application datacenter in the application network.
Outer/inner rim architecture
The outer/inner rim architecture introduces a complete decoupling of the edge network (POPs) and the application network (datacenters). This way both networks may follow independent expansion paths. Besides security enforcement, this architecture improves the overall network performance with early termination of the network as close as possible to the end user, since the cost of a POP is significantly lower than the cost of a datacenter. For strategic POP and datacenter placement, have a look at this comprehensive article by Dropbox.
Gotchas
Envoy’s Lua filter is incredibly powerful with few primitives. However it requires extra care before receiving any production traffic. Let’s go over a few gotchas.
Exported Symbols
To fully support Lua, Envoy must be compiled with exported symbols. This is highlighted at the beginning of the filter’s documentation. For example, during the compilation process, you may execute a command similar to the following:
bazel --bazelrc=/dev/null build -c opt //source/exe:envoy-static.stripped --define exported_symbols=enabled
Without exported Symbols, Envoy may only partially support Lua scripts, resulting in unexpected behaviors.
Lua Memory Leak
As stated in the documentation, Lua scripts are executed via a C++ coroutine. That is, the execution context is suspended and resumed as requests go through the filter. Therefore any variable declaration that is not local will result in a memory leak, even when the variable already exists as part of the Lua environment (e.g., LUA_PATH and LUA_CPATH). This can be very tricky to detect and identify.
The fun part is that if you do have a leak in your code, Envoy is very likely to fail after around 920K requests (check this Github issue) which roughly corresponds to 1 GB of memory usage for the coroutine. So it might go undetected unless you perform some serious load tests during the development phase.
I/O Blocking
Since the filter is on the request path, needless to say, that you should never perform I/O blocking operations as the Lua script execution is synchronous. It is better to use the Envoy API if it is necessary. Otherwise, you will severely degrade Envoy’s performance.
File Descriptors
One last gotcha, which is not specific to the Lua filter, is the fact that the number of file descriptors should be significantly increased for the Envoy process. Because Envoy creates a file descriptor for each network connection, it may run out of file descriptors when the server is under heavy load. For example, under systemd, you may add the following line to your service definition:
LimitNOFILE=262144
or the following on Docker:
--ulimit nofile=262144:262144
Ideally, the number of connections should be closely monitored and trigger an alert based on the file descriptor limit. Hence, any horizontal auto-scaling policy should take that metric into account, in addition to classic resources such as CPU or memory usage.
For general performance tuning on webservers, follow this very detailed blog post by Dropbox.
Future directions
We’ve seen throughout the article that Envoy’s Lua filter is particularly powerful.
Nevertheless, in terms of architecture, the filter configuration presented earlier somewhat blurs the line between the control and data planes. While Envoy aims to be a data plane proxy, the Lua filter should be actually configurable via the xDS APIs within that context.
Overall, the Lua filter provides a quick and relatively easy way to control Envoy. Just remember that for high-performance use cases and better reusability, one should take advantage of the native C++filter API. | https://medium.com/safetycultureengineering/edge-routing-with-envoy-and-lua-621f3d776c57 | ['Jean-Marie Joly'] | 2019-03-26 23:56:01.842000+00:00 | ['Http2', 'Lua', 'Edge', 'Grpc', 'Envoy Proxy'] |
Is Technology Destabilizing Reality? | Yes and no. Nature is destabilizing reality.
Nature (Conservation of a Circle) (NASA)
Is technology destabilizing reality? Yes and no. Nature is destabilizing reality, for sure.
How do we know this? The constant (re) circulation in Nature destabilizes everything.
It looks like (has to look like) (can only look like) this:
Nature
Reality
Technology
Where, reality is stabilized, and, also destabilized, by the conservation of a circle.
Conservation of a circle.
Explaining the genesis of technology (the basis for, both, and-or, either, zero, and-or, one).
Zero and-or One (Both and-or Either)
Eliminating (exposing) the redundancy present in any ‘gate’ (and-or) (if-then).
If-then.
And-or.
Corrupting our ‘understanding’ of a circuit. And, therefore, then, eventually, disrupting, everything we ‘know’ about (are relying on in) technology
Circuit.
And there it is. Technology. Reality. Nature stabilizing, and, also, destabilizing, both.
Conservation of the circle is the core (only) dynamic in Nature (reality included). | https://medium.com/the-circular-theory/is-technology-destabilizing-reality-d45a51bcde92 | ['Ilexa Yardley'] | 2019-08-03 16:07:41.363000+00:00 | ['Society', 'Quantum Computing', 'Culture', 'Digital Transformation', 'Books'] |
A Beginner’s Intro to Blockchain and Crypto | Right now, smart contacts are the most known application that enterprise organizations are becoming familiar with, but they do come with some challenges in this early stage of the technology like:
● Adoption Curve
There are still various business obstacles it needs to overcome.
● Learning Curve
Many business roles will need to be changed.
● Standardization
Each industry will need to establish the right standards to benefit their needs
● Data Privacy
How to address GDPR regulations with existing smart contracts
● People’s Expectations
Some over-excitement on the existing ability current smart contacts can provide at this time
There are other applications that can be built with Blockchain with the addition of smart contacts called dApps, and these bring other great benefits that can be leveraged, but also come with some challenges because of the newness of the technology.
The word dApp is an acronym for decentralized application: a software created through smart contracts that link the Ethereum blockchain, or any other suitable platform, to the back-end of an app. The dApps developers write sets of smart contracts that determine the overall function of each decentralized application. At the current state of technology, it is impossible to create a complex application and at the same time preserve the added value of decentralization, due to several technological limitations, among which the most impacting are:
● Transactions per Second
Bitcoin can bear an average of 5–7 tx/s, Ethereum 12 tx/s, compared to a Visa circuit, which can sustain up to 1,200 tx/s or a simple application like Facebook, which can even manage more than 1,000,000 tx/s;
● Transaction Costs
A Bitcoin transaction costs about USD 2.00–7.00 and an Ethereum transaction without a smart contract costs about USD 0.3–0.8, clearly showing how such costs are not acceptable for an application that requires millions of transactions per second;
● Bottlenecks
A fundamental problem is that all applications run on the same network, leading to periods of congestion where transactions can increase tenfold, driving up costs or even fail.
In order to solve the limitations related to transactions per second and costs, while still guaranteeing security, solutions such as the Raiden Network for Ethereum and the Lighting Network for Bitcoin have been created. Allowing to establish a private and distributed connection between multiple users, where only the first and the last transactions are validated on the blockchain, these solutions prove to be particularly useful for micro-payments and to store data on actions taken among several less significant participants.
Another solution to the problem of scalability, which has been promoted by the Ethereum team, is called Ethereum Plasma and consists of a protocol for the decentralization of federated blockchains. Federated blockchains, which differ from the other kinds of blockchain in the fact that they operate under the leadership of a group, are mainly used in internal company protocols and are infinitely scalable, but at the same time centralized, since they rely on a limited number of selected and non-anonymous validators.
Plasma offers developers the ability to create and customize their own private blockchain through a smart contract, with or without a reference cryptocurrency and federated validators, but still maintaining the quality control offered by the Ethereum Public Blockchain, thus generating a parallel, off-chain model, where Ethereum acts much like the “Supreme Court” and the private blockchain as the “State”.
In the last year, the blockchain technology underlying crypto-assets has experienced exponential growth, determined by the demand for the development of the first generation of decentralized applications. This scenario has led to the birth of many second-generation projects, both aimed at testing new and scalable methods of validation, such as Casper, NEO, or EOS, and at testing new blockchain applications focused on specific real-life uses, such as IOT, Big Data, Hosting, etc.
This, in turn, led to the third-generation concept of blockchain: interoperability. Interoperability carried out by projects such as AION, Polkadot, Cosmos, and ICON, allows an application to interact with multiple blockchains, opening the way to the first real generation of complex decentralized applications, which for each function needed, are capable of selecting the most performing blockchain and applying it to the use case without risking bottlenecks or network defects. Interoperability leads to what we like to call “Blockchain as a Microservice”, since we are now able to structure modern applications as divided into many dedicated and replaceable microservices. Much in the same way, the first generation of decentralized applications will continue to use blockchain technology, constantly catalyzing innovation and stimulating further research into its evolution, guaranteeing the possibility of scaling over time, without downgrading in terms of data validation efficiency.
Over the years, when any new or innovative technology came out it, was normally the IT departments who played a central role in getting their companies up to speed on its benefits and managing it. Blockchain is bringing a change to that approach, and one of the hurdles faced is that businesses are having a challenge in understanding that the business side will be more affected and need to change more than IT.
In the report Blockchain, Enigma, Paradox Opportunity conducted by Deloitte Consulting, they go on to say:
“It has been estimated that Blockchain is about 80 percent business process change and 20 percent technology implementation. This means that a more imaginative approach is needed to understand opportunities and also how things will change”
This concept of the business needing to make the major adoption changes associated with new technology is challenging for many senior leadership types. It will require a shift in the mindset of how companies will need to look at leveraging this technology since it’s going to change business and governance models along with whatever strategic roadmaps might already be in place. If organizations haven’t started looking at implementing a digital transformation mentality, it should be an area that should be considered if they are thinking of moving forward with the adoption of blockchain technology.
Many people still like to focus on just the functionality and features of Blockchain and get stuck there. If you look closer to where the disruption from Blockchain will come, it will lead you to focus on the business side of organizations, and the ways in which they will need to adapt to how the world will be doing business as Blockchain is increasingly adopted globally.
Even with all the great benefits Blockchain will bring to the business side, it will behoove businesses to become more educated on how they can leverage the crypto/tokenization side of Blockchain as well. It has the opportunity to advance faster recognition of revenue and increase the ability to conduct business transactions with easier processing of funds. | https://medium.com/cryptoweek/a-beginners-intro-to-blockchain-and-crypto-2ccd5934d79b | [] | 2019-03-01 20:44:59.965000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Bitcoin', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Technology', 'Finance'] |
The Invisible Elephant in my Photos | Just another way to travel in India
Last evening, my 14 year old commandeered my Mac to hunt down a photo of an elephant walking down the road behind our car. My Mac’s ‘Photos’ app has nearly 17,000 pictures. Not surprisingly, she didn’t find the elephant. She wasn’t too pleased, and demanded to know why I hadn’t tagged the image.
Trying to think of a shortcut to track down the missing beast, I recalled the shot was clicked on the road to her school, but not the exact date. A quick scroll through thumbnails wasn’t good enough to spot that elephant.
I ended up having to painstakingly scroll through thousands of photos taken over five years. It took nearly half an hour to locate the pachyderm.
It’s a nice shot, considering it was a split second snap taken by a 10 year old kid, against the light, and from a moving car. Of course, it would have been infinitely better if she hadn’t beheaded the mahout!
Anyway, the incident made me reflect on ‘photo search.’
I’m aware that ‘photo search’ lags far behind ‘word search.’ After all, the ability of a device to recognise what’s in an image, is still work in progress with Google Photos currently leading the pack.
At this point, I have a face palm moment.
I had completely forgotten that I had uploaded my entire library onto Google Photos when they offered unlimited backup with the caveat of a slight reduction in resolution. Google even preserves the EXIF info of the photos. I should’ve searched for the elephant in Google Photos rather than on Photos.
Never mind. I’m curious to know how good Google Photos is in ‘photo search.’ So I open the app on my iPhone and do a quick search for elephant. The app offers up eleven photos from my Google Photos library that it believes are elephants. This includes the picture my kid was looking for. | https://medium.com/hackernoon/the-invisible-elephant-in-my-photos-2ac49f41378a | [] | 2017-07-19 09:46:44.587000+00:00 | ['iOS', 'Photography', 'Google Photos', 'Image Recognition'] |
エコノミストがデータの可視化を使って伝えるストーリーの裏を探る | CEO / Founder at Exploratory(https://exploratory.io/). Having fun analyzing interesting data and learning something new everyday.
Follow | https://medium.com/%E6%9C%AA%E6%9D%A5%E3%81%AE%E4%BB%95%E4%BA%8B/%E3%83%87%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BF%E3%81%AE%E5%8F%AF%E8%A6%96%E5%8C%96%E3%81%8C%E3%81%86%E3%81%BE%E3%81%8F%E4%BC%9D%E3%81%88%E3%82%8B%E3%82%B9%E3%83%88%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%81%AE%E8%A3%8F%E5%81%B4-56bdababda3b | ['Kan Nishida'] | 2018-09-25 22:44:02.232000+00:00 | ['Storytelling', 'Poverty', 'Data Visualization'] |
South Carolina’s Murder Capital | I remember driving into Greenville, a city in South Carolina’s upstate, in the summer of 1987. Fresh out of grad school, I had accepted a tenure-track assistant professorship at Presbyterian College, a liberal arts school almost halfway between Greenville and Columbia. PC is in the former mill town of Clinton, population then about 10,000. But the mill had closed and the quaint little town was bleeding.
My wife was finishing her MS in counseling psychology and would want a job soon. Neither the college nor the town seemed an inviting prospect for her. Besides, we had just been living in Knoxville, a city of over 300,000. I grew up near Birmingham, AL, and she grew up in Tehran, Iran. Big cities, the antithesis of Clinton. We wanted a place with opportunity, with something of a nightlife, or at least movie theaters. Clinton had a “downtown theater,” but it had closed the spring before we arrived.
I had visited Columbia once, and even then I understood that it was considered the hottest town in the state. Temperature hot, that is. Sure, I had grown up in sultry Alabama, but given a choice, why select the hottest city in the state if you didn’t have to?
So, almost out of our hats, we picked Greenville (for whatever reason, or no reason at all, we didn’t even try Spartanburg, just twenty-five miles to the northwest of Greenville).
We drove straight into downtown Greenville from US 25. We ate at Gene’s, a-formerly-cool meat and three diner. We looked up some realtors in the yellow pages and called one, another choice I can’t explain. The agent listened to what we wanted — a nice, affordable apartment in town.
“Well, we have an old building downtown that I could show you.” He hesitated then. “That is, if you’re interested, though I don’t know why you would be.”
My wife and I looked at each other, then responded,
“An old building downtown? That would be perfect. When can we see it?”
The realtor agreed to meet us in an hour. He gave us the address on Washington Street for the Davenport Building, a three-story, red brick structure with a courtyard, that is now over 100 years old. We viewed one and two-bedroom apartments, but I was leery. I figured on my salary — $22,000 a year — we couldn’t afford such a historic and lovely place.
“So how much are these?” I asked.
“Well, the one-bedroom goes for $350 a month; the two-bedroom, $400. But there are four townhouses, too, if you want to look.”
We did, and grabbed one almost immediately. It rented for $375 a month. Two floors, three bedrooms, though just one bath, and an upper floor balcony. Sure, this was 1987, but it all seemed too good to be true. Surely we were missing something.
We lived in the Davenport for five years until our first-born daughter began trying to crawl down the staircase. Time to move into a safer space, safer, that is, for a toddler. We lived just two blocks from Greenville’s Main Street, which at that point was semi-busy during the day, and strangely quiet at night. Except, that is, on Friday and Saturday nights when cars and trucks cruised through downtown and kept circling back, repeating the cruise leading to who knows what or where?
There were a few restaurants open from Thursday through Saturday nights: Charlie’s Steakhouse, and institution since the 1920’s; newly-opened Ristorante Bergamo; Annie’s Natural Cafe. There were a couple of comedy clubs too, primarily Cafe and Then Some. We’d walk downtown on these pleasant late summer and fall evenings, but the cruisers made us nervous.
Still, despite our nervousness, nothing much happened that would have caused worry or fear. Or at least not much.
One night we saw a guy standing on the corner of Washington and Church, just steps from our townhouse door. He was wearing a bright yellow suit and a black hat.
“How much do these places cost?” he asked us.
I told him because I’m an honest guy.
And a bit naive.
My wife, in her gentle fashion, scolded me later:
“You shouldn’t give out such information to strangers. Now he knows where we live!”
I paused a moment and then considered these just fears to be dismissed.
A week later, I saw the guy sitting on our front steps. I locked the door, and we didn’t go out that night.
That was the last time I saw him, though.
Later that fall, on a beautiful Saturday morning, I was walking downtown to pick up my car from the Goodyear service center on College Street. As I turned the corner from Main onto East North Street, a Vega wagon pulled alongside me. There were three or four people riding, people in their early twenties, or maybe even younger. What they were doing riding around at ten in the morning, I’m not sure of. What I know, though, is that when they pulled up by me, the guy sitting in the front passenger’s seat yelled out,
“Shoot you man.”
He had a gun.
He fired.
It was a cap pistol.
The car laughed and then squealed off.
I figured then that I had a strong heart, but I stepped back to the nearest building and leaned there a while.
After we moved to a quieter neighborhood, we were the victims of mail fraud. Almost every day, we’d receive something from some Heirloom Collection house. On the other days, we might receive a copy of Penthouse or Hustler magazines. Then the phone calls started. The police finally figured out that the perpetrator was a paroled sex offender — someone who liked to expose himself publicly. He had become pissed off at me because I had been a participant in The Greenville News’ reader movie reviews. I had given Spike Lee’s Malcolm X a five-star review. Even in the early ’90s, Malcolm made some people nervous. | https://medium.com/a-cornered-gurl/south-carolinas-murder-capital-db6231b91893 | ['Terry Barr'] | 2019-09-09 12:15:26.688000+00:00 | ['Murder Etc', 'Nonfiction', 'The South', 'Home', 'A Cornered Gurl'] |
The Official Bad Guy Of The Day: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix | The Official Bad Guy Of The Day: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix Caitlin Johnstone Mar 18, 2020·9 min read
Missing the cute, innocent days of early 2020 when our biggest concern was just that the continent of Australia would burn to ashes and Trump would start a full-scale war with Iran.
~
Everyone’s been primed by years of popular post-apocalyptic movies/shows, as well as a growing sense of dread and a general intuition that something’s gotta give soon. Please stay calm and let your better nature win out, humans. We can use this opportunity to transcend ourselves.
~
The political/media class is largely responsible for its own inability to get the public to take this pandemic seriously. You can’t constantly lie to people about important issues their entire lives and then expect them to suddenly trust you.
~
The primary reason people are so vulnerable to propaganda is that hardly anyone clearly sees just how much human consciousness is dominated by mental narrative. There’s a night and day difference between reality and the stories minds tell about reality. Manipulators exploit this.
Most people assume that the mental stories in their heads are an accurate reflection of what’s happening outside their skull, and it just isn’t. Manipulators know they can just feed people stories, narratives, about what’s happening and they’ll accept those narratives as reality.
Manipulators know they can trade a bunch of convincing words in exchange for all sorts of real valuables: sex, deals, loyalty, votes, political power. Humanity’s deluded relationship with narrative means you can get real, concrete treasures in exchange for pure illusion.
Most of the things which consume your attention are pure narrative constructs: religion, philosophy, culture, politics, the economy, even what you take to be your very self. But few ever take the time to sift these narratives apart from reality, so we’re hackable by manipulators.
The difference between what’s happening and what the babbling mind says is happening could not possibly be more different. Until our species evolves a new relationship with mental narrative which allows a real relationship with the real world, we’ll keep moving toward extinction.
~
Obvious cognitive decline is a stutter.
Massive exit poll discrepancies are normal.
An ex-president installing his right-hand man as his successor is democracy.
Facts are Kremlin talking points.
Journalism is a crime.
War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.
~
Oh, you have another Official Bad Guy of the Day, America? It’s the Chinese government today, is it? We’re meant to hate China? Very cool.
So have you you stopped circling the globe with military bases and mass murdering human beings all over the world, America?
No?
Then stop asking me to care about China.
~
Pandemic priorities:
Priority #1 — Make sure everyone is aware that this virus indisputably originated in China. China, China, China. Call it the China virus or the Wuhan virus so everyone knows. China is very, very bad and we must say so over and over and over again.
Priority #2 — Deal with virus if we have time.
~
I’ve been saying the US is more evil and violent than China for years, and the shrill, hysterical responses I’ve been receiving when I say this over the last few days have been exponentially more intense than they’ve ever been at any other time. China hasn’t gotten any worse during that time, the propaganda has.
All this shrieking about the virus originating in China does nothing to help address the actual virus, and it isn’t meant to: it’s meant to manufacture consent for future unrelated, pre-planned escalations against America’s chief geopolitical rival. People are being trained to support those escalations.
~
Someone who bought the propaganda about Russia is dumb, like a guy with his head up his ass. Someone who rejected the propaganda on Russia but bought into it on China is even dumber, like a guy who pulled his head out of his ass, lubed up his scalp, and willfully re-inserted it.
~
Officials know they’ve got a few months where there won’t be any public backlash in the form of demonstrations and protests due to coronavirus fears, and it’s a safe bet that they’ll take that fact into account when planning decisions in the near future. Assange’s extradition hearing resumes in May and the DNC convention is in July, just for example.
~
Conservatives: We hate gays!
Fox News: Muslims Execute Gays
Conservatives: We love gays and hate Muslims!
Fox News: China Imprisons Muslims
Conservatives: We love Muslims and hate China!
~
It’s so dumb having to constantly argue against the latest herd of propagandized human livestock saying I must believe bad things about the Latest Official Bad Guy. It’s Saddam! It’s Gaddafi! It’s Kim! It’s Putin! It’s the Ayatollah! It’s Assad! It’s Maduro! It’s Xi! They always think they’re so original, too. It’s fucking tedious.
~
China has not changed. What’s changed is that the USA’s leading rival is poised to surpass a dying empire, which will need to take some drastic actions in order to prevent this. Consent for these actions must first be manufactured. Hence the sudden spike in narrative management.
China has always had an authoritarian government. If you find yourself thinking negatively about the Chinese government more than you did a year or two ago, it’s not because China changed during that time, it’s because you’ve been sucked in by an escalating propaganda campaign.
~
China’s getting its COVID problem under control and helping other nations while American preachers are telling their underinsured parishioners to come to the megachurch and shake hands with everyone. This virus could change the world a lot more than we think.
It’s the perfect storm for ending the hegemony of the US, a nation with a broken healthcare system, dependent on private corporations to make anything happen, full of individualists who reject any collectivist impulse and fundamentalists who think science is a liberal hoax.
~
If COVID-19 were a nation, that nation would enact domestic policies which kill the most vulnerable members of its population. Then it would spread this to the rest of the world by inflicting endless war and sanctions on other countries, killing the most vulnerable people there.
~
Starvation sanctions do the same thing the coronavirus does: kill the most vulnerable members of the population. A population with both experiences these effects squared. The Trump administration owns every single one of the COVID-19 deaths in Iran.
~
It shouldn’t take a new virus pandemic to make people start thinking about whether it’s wise to have a political system that is dominated by very old leaders who won’t be around to suffer the future consequences of their actions.
~
The American people don’t deserve what’s coming. Their government is criminal, but they aren’t. I’m in Australia and I’ve shed more tears for what’s about to hit the US than here, because they really have nothing in place to insulate themselves from this.
~
Stop legitimizing the use of the word “corruption” in news reports of Saudi Arabia’s mass arrests; it’s a meaningless term in a nation whose government just openly owns all the treasure and resources. The Saudi government arresting people for “corruption” would be like water arresting fish for getting wet.
~
Every Trump Supporter I’ve Ever Argued With: Trump is ending the wars and draining the swamp!
Me: No he’s doing the exact opposite, as shown in this mountain of facts here.
Every Trump Supporter I’ve Ever Argued With: Yeah well you can’t expect Trump to just suddenly end wars and drain the swamp, you naive idiot.
~
It’s amazing how far you can get in life without having any idea what you’re doing, just by feigning confidence and speaking in an assertive tone of voice. You can become President of the United States. You can get through almost a full term before people really start noticing.
~
Trump being shit doesn’t magically make Biden not shit. Biden being shit doesn’t magically make Trump not shit.
There. That’s the winning answer to 90 percent of the arguments I’m going to get into from now until November.
~
Biden: I have decided that I will implement progressive policies I opposed up until five minutes ago.
Biden: *tells a mountain of demonstrable lies in one debate*
Biden: You can trust me that I will implement those policies.
~
Democrats: Trump is an unprecedented threat to our democracy because he’s a vulgar racist jingoistic authoritarian reactionary wingnut with dementia who lies constantly.
Those same Democrats: Here vote for this vulgar racist jingoistic authoritarian reactionary wingnut with dementia who lies constantly.
~
The Democratic primary is clearly being tampered with in myriad ways and on multiple levels, both overtly and covertly. The general election will not be. Because the dominant power structures know they’ll get exactly what they want with either Biden or Trump.
~
When I was five, I had a friend who would “be the judge” to whatever game we were playing and whenever I started to win, she would judge that I was actually not winning. I stopped playing with her.
Progressives are correct that the Dems will never stop fucking them over if they keep unconditionally supporting that party. But what many of them fail to take into account is that the Dems will also keep fucking them over if they don’t support the party. Because they’re fine with losing.
Progressives assume that they have negotiating power because they assume, wrongly, that the Democratic Party exists to win elections. It doesn’t. The Democratic Party exists, first and foremost, to sabotage the left.
A Democratic Party leader retains their status and donors regardless of who wins an election. But if the left ever succeeded in taking over the party and implementing anti-oligarchic policies, that would end. Given this, who do you think party leaders perceive as the real threat?
Staying with the Dems is a losing strategy, but so is removing your votes with the hopes of influencing them. This is because the answer has never been in electoral politics, one way or the other. It’s an illusory construct built to distract from reality.
~
If you object to people calling Chelsea Manning by her preferred pronouns more than you object to the things that have been done to her, you have wasted all of your time on this planet.
~
If we lived in a truly healthy, sane world, and then it suddenly began acting like the normal status quo of this current world, our collective shock and horror would dwarf the reaction we’re having to the COVID-19 pandemic. Because we’ve normalized so many vastly worse horrors.
~
America shouldn’t be in the Middle East at all, much less Iraq, and the US government is solely responsible for every American soldier who dies there.
~
Some days I just can’t write. I have plenty to say, I know all the things I want to write about, I’ve done all the research and prepared all my links, but I just can’t get the words flowing. It’s what I imagine erectile dysfunction feels like.
~
Doubt anyone remembers this but there was once a time when people expressing socialist or antiwar views were referred to as “pinkos” and “moonbats” instead of “Kremlin agents” and “Russian bots”.
~
Truth is Russian in an empire of lies.
~
Whenever there’s an economic downturn I always get my hopes up that maybe this is the one where people go “Hey wait a minute, this whole ‘economy’ thing is made up! We can just make up something different instead!”
~
I am optimistic that we’ll be okay because I know that humanity has untapped potential in areas within ourselves that we’ve barely even begun discussing, much less researching. The manipulators only understand thoughts and language, and there’s so much more to us than that.
We have the potential to break our conditioning patterns, which is huge because our conditioning patterns are what brought us to this point. Every species eventually hits a point where it either evolves or dies, and I already see signs of mass scale unpatterning. We can make it.
Long-established patterns are now being disrupted on a mass scale, creating lots of space to form new ones. Where there used to be a solid brick wall, there are now many gaps with plenty of space to shine light through. Make sure you take advantage of this, clear-eyed rebels.
________________________________
Thanks for reading! The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for my website, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following my antics onTwitter, checking out my podcast on either Youtube, soundcloud, Apple podcasts or Spotify, following me on Steemit, throwing some money into my hat on Patreon orPaypalpurchasing some of my sweet merchandise, buying my books Rogue Nation: Psychonautical Adventures With Caitlin Johnstone and Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge.
Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2 | https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/the-official-bad-guy-of-the-day-notes-from-the-edge-of-the-narrative-matrix-a25aa5c88434 | ['Caitlin Johnstone'] | 2020-03-18 01:32:17.750000+00:00 | ['Trump Administration', 'Xi Jinping', 'Politics', 'China', 'News'] |
TTC stands for Trying To Conceive | TTC stands for Trying To Conceive
Photo by Nynne Schrøder on Unsplash
There are many resources and articles to read about improving the chances of getting pregnant. I have read so many that I needed to stop myself from becoming obsessed with TTC and focus on my mental well-being and happiness — by purposefully feeding myself with content to enjoy the experience instead of turning into a TTC monster.
After my miscarriage, my hubby and I have been trying to conceive for 4 months to this date. A lot goes on during this time — guessing when is the fertile window, keeping track of my ovulation cycle, trying to have sex naturally without pressure, consuming health supplements like folic acid, CoQ10, and vitamin C, exercising at least 30 minutes 3 times a week, switching my daily coffee consumption to drinking tea, eating less processed foods, reducing my intake of cold beverages, and abstaining from drinking alcohol.
The lifestyle change resulted in me getting rid of my addiction to coffee and fast food, feeling less need to drink alcohol, and improved my physical and mental state. But it gets challenging sometimes when it is difficult to get the mood on during your fertile window and face demotivation when your menstruation comes at the end of each cycle.
To manage the stress that can turn me into a TTC monster, I turn to watching television series which poke fun at pregnancy and motherhood. I also started reading books on pregnancy and working mothers for inspiration. I often found laughter and inspiration as the best de-stressors and motivators.
Sometimes, we can put ourselves in a box that we forget to look from the outside in. The TTC box is no different. If you do not manage it, you will be sucked into a spiral of negativity and helplessness. Purposefully creating a mental shift will help you to remain objective and positive about your situation.
I have also found journaling and writing to help create the much-needed mental shift by putting the situation in my own words. Most of the time, my inspiration to write arises from what I watch and read. So, purposefully feeding yourself with content that is helpful and relevant to your situation can help you process it more easily.
Here are what fed my soul in the past 4 months while TTC:
Netflix Shows To Watch
Yummy Mummies — This is a good show to learn all the pregnancy terms while watching four young mothers-to-be in Australia living ridiculously lavish lives. It makes you take life, becoming a mother, less seriously when you can see how women like that can also become mothers (sounds mean, but honestly, they can give you a good laugh). Their friendship reminds me of the camaraderie of female friendships in Sex and the City, but the narrative is about having babies. Workin’ Moms — Despite the main actress’ odd-looking mouth (which will grow on you), it is refreshing to see female characters playing out not so typical motherhood roles in a sarcastic manner. I have to admit that I was frustrated by how crazy some of the characters can be but eventually realized that it was because these were women acting in a selfish manner that we would normally see and laugh off in male characters. I was annoyed at Kate Foster at first because of her mouth and the words that came out of it, but later realized why I felt this way — I needed more of her not-giving-a-hoot-about-what-anyone-thinks-of-her confidence. Not even her ridiculous mother can affect her. Atypical — This is a heart-warming comedy-drama about Sam, a teenager on the autism spectrum. Parenting a child on the spectrum can be difficult and challenging, and this show presents parenting ups and downs in an enlightening and humorous way. Sam inspires you to have courage in life and face your fears with stories of Antarctica and facts about penguins as antidotes to the chaos in his world.
Books To Read
Clemmie Hooper’s How to Grow A Baby And Push It Out: Your No-Nonsense Guide to Pregnancy And Birth — I highly recommend this book. It is filled with lots of practical information without overbearing you about the whole process. It is also filled with short stories of other mothers and their experiences, making for a light-hearted but encouraging read. This book makes me feel less afraid of getting pregnant and the delivery process. In my opinion, the best gift for mothers-to-be. Annie Ridout’s The Freelance Mum: A Flexible Career Guide For Better Work-Life Balance — If you are considering freelance work or continuing to work after having a baby, this book helps give you ideas and perspectives on how you can be an effective working mother. Even if you are not considering freelance work, the tips provided in this book can help you to achieve the work-life balance needed as a mother. It helps to feel more prepared when the day comes that a mother has to choose between engaging in work and fulfilling motherly duties. Michelle Obama’s Becoming — When you face an identity crisis or emotional crisis after a miscarriage or while TTC, this book reminds you of who you are and why becoming you is the best gift that you can give yourself every day. Reading about her life and how she became a mother and a career woman is enough to inspire you to live the best version of yourself. Michelle encourages you to own your life story because no one has the same experience as you do and live your life mindfully. This book is a mood-lifter for me when I feel disempowered.
As someone who is TTC, it is important to be realistic as well. I understand that I am over 35 and that my chances of getting pregnant are not the best. If I never get pregnant, that is okay. I can find other things to do in life.
At least, I know that my mind is ready for pregnancy, and I am hopeful for the day to come. While trying, though, it is important always to remember that your mental health comes first. Manage it, and you can live well while TTC. It makes it easier. | https://medium.com/modern-parent/ttc-stands-for-trying-to-conceive-ee9c1f5aa1a8 | ['Sylvia L. Inthoughtful'] | 2021-01-04 00:42:15.151000+00:00 | ['Fertility', 'Parenting', 'Family', 'Trying To Conceive', 'Pregnancy'] |
The Ridiculousness of the Military’s Transgender Ban | Sign up for Taking Stock of COVID: New comics from The Nib
By The Nib
New comics from Matt Lubchansky, Keith Knight, and Niccolo Pizarro. Plus How Seniors Are Living With COVID-19. Take a look | https://medium.com/the-nib/the-ridiculousness-of-the-militarys-transgender-ban-3e69df23e3a1 | ['The Nib'] | 2020-11-30 16:52:52.553000+00:00 | ['Queer', 'Comics', 'Political Satire', 'LGBTQ', 'Transgender'] |
[S5xE4] The Expanse > Season 5 Episode 4 | New Episode — The Expanse Season 5 Episode 4 (Full Episode) Top Show
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🦋 TELEVISION 🦋
(TV), in some cases abbreviated to tele or television, is a media transmission medium utilized for sending moving pictures in monochrome (high contrast), or in shading, and in a few measurements and sound. The term can allude to a TV, a TV program, or the vehicle of TV transmission. TV is a mass mode for promoting, amusement, news, and sports.
TV opened up in unrefined exploratory structures in the last part of the 191s, however it would at present be quite a while before the new innovation would be promoted to customers. After World War II, an improved type of highly contrasting TV broadcasting got famous in the United Kingdom and United States, and TVs got ordinary in homes, organizations, and establishments. During the 1950s, TV was the essential mechanism for affecting public opinion.[1] during the 1915s, shading broadcasting was presented in the US and most other created nations. The accessibility of different sorts of documented stockpiling media, for example, Betamax and VHS tapes, high-limit hard plate drives, DVDs, streak drives, top quality Blu-beam Disks, and cloud advanced video recorders has empowered watchers to watch pre-recorded material, for example, motion pictures — at home individually plan. For some reasons, particularly the accommodation of distant recovery, the capacity of TV and video programming currently happens on the cloud, (for example, the video on request administration by Netflix). Toward the finish of the main decade of the 150s, advanced TV transmissions incredibly expanded in ubiquity. Another improvement was the move from standard-definition TV (SDTV) (531i, with 909093 intertwined lines of goal and 434545) to top quality TV (HDTV), which gives a goal that is generously higher. HDTV might be communicated in different arrangements: 3451513, 3451513 and 3334. Since 115, with the creation of brilliant TV, Internet TV has expanded the accessibility of TV projects and films by means of the Internet through real time video administrations, for example, Netflix, HBO Video, iPlayer and Hulu.
In 113, 39% of the world’s family units possessed a TV set.[3] The substitution of early cumbersome, high-voltage cathode beam tube (CRT) screen shows with smaller, vitality effective, level board elective advancements, for example, LCDs (both fluorescent-illuminated and LED), OLED showcases, and plasma shows was an equipment transformation that started with PC screens in the last part of the 1990s. Most TV sets sold during the 150s were level board, primarily LEDs. Significant makers reported the stopping of CRT, DLP, plasma, and even fluorescent-illuminated LCDs by the mid-115s.[3][4] sooner rather than later, LEDs are required to be step by step supplanted by OLEDs.[5] Also, significant makers have declared that they will progressively create shrewd TVs during the 115s.[1][3][8] Smart TVs with incorporated Internet and Web 3.0 capacities turned into the prevailing type of TV by the late 115s.[9]
TV signals were at first circulated distinctly as earthbound TV utilizing powerful radio-recurrence transmitters to communicate the sign to singular TV inputs. Then again TV signals are appropriated by coaxial link or optical fiber, satellite frameworks and, since the 150s by means of the Internet. Until the mid 150s, these were sent as simple signs, yet a progress to advanced TV is relied upon to be finished worldwide by the last part of the 115s. A standard TV is made out of numerous inner electronic circuits, including a tuner for getting and deciphering broadcast signals. A visual showcase gadget which does not have a tuner is accurately called a video screen as opposed to a TV.
🦋 OVERVIEW 🦋
A subgenre that joins the sentiment type with parody, zeroing in on at least two people since they find and endeavor to deal with their sentimental love, attractions to each other. The cliché plot line follows the “kid gets-young lady”, “kid loses-young lady”, “kid gets young lady back once more” grouping. Normally, there are multitudinous variations to this plot (and new curves, for example, switching the sex parts in the story), and far of the by and large happy parody lies in the social cooperations and sexual strain between your characters, who every now and again either won’t concede they are pulled in to each other or must deal with others’ interfering inside their issues.
Regularly carefully thought as an artistic sort or structure, however utilized it is additionally found in the realistic and performing expressions. In parody, human or individual indecencies, indiscretions, misuses, or deficiencies are composed to rebuff by methods for scorn, disparagement, vaudeville, incongruity, or different strategies, preferably with the plan to impact an aftereffect of progress. Parody is by and large intended to be interesting, yet its motivation isn’t generally humor as an assault on something the essayist objects to, utilizing mind. A typical, nearly characterizing highlight of parody is its solid vein of incongruity or mockery, yet spoof, vaudeville, distortion, juxtaposition, correlation, similarity, and risqué statement all regularly show up in ironical discourse and composing. The key point, is that “in parody, incongruity is aggressor.” This “assailant incongruity” (or mockery) frequently claims to favor (or if nothing else acknowledge as common) the very things the humorist really wishes to assault.
In the wake of calling Zed and his Blackblood confidants to spare The Expanse, Talon winds up sold out by her own sort and battles to accommodate her human companions and her Blackblood legacy. With the satanic Lu Qiri giving the muscle to uphold Zed’s ground breaking strategy, The Expanse’s human occupants are subjugated as excavators looking for a baffling substance to illuminate a dull conundrum. As Talon finds more about her lost family from Yavalla, she should sort out the certainties from the falsehoods, and explain the riddle of her legacy and an overlooked force, before the world becomes subjugated to another force that could devour each living being.
Claw is the solitary overcomer of a race called Blackbloods. A long time after her whole town is annihilated by a pack of merciless hired soldiers, Talon goes to an untamed post on the edge of the enlightened world, as she tracks the huggers of her family. On her excursion to this station, Talon finds she has a strange heavenly force that she should figure out how to control so as to spare herself, and guard the world against an over the top strict tyrant. | https://medium.com/@010bn10s/watch-the-expanse-series-5-episode-4-full-eps-f070927f144f | [] | 2020-12-23 01:44:46.737000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Mystery', 'Science Fiction', 'Drama', 'TV Series'] |
Blog Contest Winner — The Palm Oil Industry | This article is a part of a series of posts submitted by students from around the world who are passionate about environmental sustainability. This article, specifically, comes from Jacob Garland and was created on March 26, 2018.
Palm oil. It’s found in nearly everything, from cosmetics to food items, to even biofuel. In fact, palm oil is used in nearly 50% of all grocery store products, and in turn 50% of the products we bring home from the grocery store nearly every day. It’s cheap, versatile, and commonly used. Now, normally this wouldn’t be a problem. After all, a good product is a good product, right? Well, the problem with palm oil is not in the product itself, but rather in the industry behind it. The palm oil industry, for the past 30 years, has been destroying ecosystems, ruining lives, and making our climate change problem exponentially worse. So, what exactly is the palm oil industry, and how do we stop it?
What is palm oil?
Before we get to the industry itself, we need to talk a little bit about what palm oil is. According to worldwildlife.org, “[Palm oil] is a high-quality oil used mainly for cooking in developing countries. It is also used in food products, detergents, cosmetics, and, to a small extent, biofuel” (https://www.worldwildlife.org/industries/palm-oil). Essentially, it’s an all-purpose oil that is cheap for companies to produce, and cheap for other companies to use in their products. Unfortunately, the cost of this product has on the environment is nowhere near cheap.
How is it produced?
The production of palm oil is where most of the industry’s terrible effects come from. It is grown throughout Africa, Asia, North America, and South America. Now, natural growing palm oil is fine: palm fruit grows on the trees over time, and once ripe they are picked, crushed, and turned into oil. That would be harmless, however, the consumer’s need for palm oil has far exceeded the amount naturally-occurring palm plants are able to provide. So, companies producing the oil make their own plantations, some of which stretch on for miles.
In order to plant these crops, the companies often have to cut down miles of forest, most of it being the valuable rainforest that supports nearly 50% of the animal species on Earth. Now I know what you might be thinking: “Well, they’re planting trees in the place of these forests, so doesn’t it balance out?” Rainforests and dry forests have been around for nearly 25 million years. As such, they have had time to develop rich, complicated ecosystems. When one element of these ecosystems are removed, like the trees, it can’t recover. Even if other trees are planted in their place, they are not nearly as adept at harboring animals and producing valuable resources for the ecosystem as the previous trees were. Whenever these palm oil fields are produced, miles of ecosystems collapse, and likely will never be able to recover.
The Problems of Production
While I have already started talking about this, the issues palm oil production causes total to much more than just the destruction of ecosystems. As such, to better its effects I will break them down into three categories: effects on humans, on plants, and on animals. Let’s start with its effect on animals.
On Animals
It is estimated that the current extinction rate for animals is 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than it should be, solely because of humanity. And of course, the palm oil industry is one of the largest contributors to this terrifying mass extinction. As I write this, both the orangutan and the Sumatran tiger are being pushed to the brink of extinction by the palm oil industry. Government data has shown that over 50,000 orangutans have died because of the palm oil industry in the past two decades alone. They have been found buried alive, and even killed by fierce weaponry. Not to mention that their homes are constantly being destroyed by this industry too. If the palm oil industry continues this trend, then orangutans will be extinct in the next 5–10 years.
The Sumatran tiger, once a flourishing species in the area of Sumatra in Indonesia, is also being pushed to the brink of extinction, but even more so. Greedy palm oil producers have started to push into reserves in Sumatra set aside for these tigers, cutting down whole forests without considering their effects. This constant habitat destruction, and influences from poachers, have brought the Sumatran tiger closer to extinction than it ever has been. If the trend continues, these beautiful tigers will be extinct in less than three years.
And these are just two of the many, many species in similar situations.
On Plants
I already talked about this subject a bit, so I will try to keep this section short. As palm oil producers continue to cut down forests, the plants within these regions suffer. Many plants within forests are interdependent, meaning they rely on each other in one way or another. It can be to spread nutrients or just to provide a place to grow on. As trees and other wildlife are taken out, many plants no longer have a place to grow, and the magnificent species we have seen in these areas die out. Again, the palm trees planted in place of these forest trees are not able to support the wildlife already there. As such, we lose a lot of the biodiversity that we once saw succeed in these areas.
On Humans
The effect on humanity the palm oil industry causes is just as bad as the ones talked about previously. For people like myself, who are fortunate enough to live in a developed country far away from the terrors of this industry, it may not seem to have much of an effect. However, forests are some of the largest carbon sinks on the planet, meaning they absorb more carbon dioxide than they produce. They are one of the reasons that the effects of Climate Change have been held off for so long. However, as we continue to destroy forests, not only are they not able to absorb any more carbon, but nearly all of the carbon they had previously absorbed is released back into the atmosphere, speeding up the process of Climate Change.
And right now, again as I write this, countless indigenous tribes are being forced off their land because of the palm oil industry. Companies, armed to the teeth, are plowing through indigenous land with no regard for the effect it has on the people who live in it. These tribes are losing their homes and with them their lives. As these industries continue to cut down trees and take over land for their production, the people around them are suffering. AND NOT ONLY THIS, but the industry has ALSO been proven to violate countless human rights by forcefully employing children and adults to work at abominably low pay rates. I don’t want to make this post extremely long, so if you want to check the reasoning and statistics behind these two claims please click here (indigenous tribe destruction) and here (human rights violations).
Conclusion
The palm oil industry has to be stopped. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten this angry or emotional when writing a post, but seeing what this production has done in my mind completely justifies the anger. It’s impossible to fit everything wrong that the industry does into one post, you just can’t do it. How can these people continue to get away with constantly destroying important ecosystems, and ultimately human lives? It just doesn’t make sense to me, and we have to do something about it.
So what can we do? That’s the all-important question. And let me tell you, there are hundreds of different things we CAN do, but the most important out of all of them is refusing to buy products with palm oil. I wish I could go over how to do that in this post, but it is already getting too long, so I will save it for next week. However, if you want to get started now (I don’t blame you) check out the app Palmsmart, which will be the major focus of my next post. Also, because I wasn’t able to include anywhere near all of the terrible actions this industry has committed, I highly suggest you look at one of the many links down below to learn more, both about the industry and how you can help stop it.
Palm oil is an atrocity. Its production threatens the life of not only countless ecosystems, and countless indigenous tribes, but the survival of humanity itself. These producers continue to make money off of the destruction of animals and people, with little to no consequences for their actions. Who are we to support this? Who are we to just stand by and let this happen? One thing’s for sure: we can’t allow this to continue, we just can’t. | https://medium.com/@greeningforward/blog-contest-winner-the-palm-oil-industry-9fc1a4e2d4a4 | ['Greening Forward'] | 2020-12-26 19:25:00.093000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Climate', 'Healthy Lifestyle', 'Palm Oil'] |
The Double Standard For Democrats | Dan Drezner had a piece in the Washington Post the other day that illustrates exactly how we ended up in the mess we are currently in. Drezner lays bare the national media’s myopia regarding the Republican party’s transformation to an extremist party while also admitting the brazen double standard that it consistently applies for Democrats.
Drezner starts off by admitting he has never really taken the emerging threats to our democracy seriously. He writes, “Ever since Tim Snyder wrote ‘On Tyranny’ and Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt penned ‘How Democracies Die’, it has been chic to say that the common democratic values that bind our country are imperiled. This comes out particularly strongly when Trump tweets about being in office past 2024…I have found most of these scenarios pretty ludicrous”.
Of course, Levitsky and Ziblatt specifically talk about the importance of destruction of governing norms, “the guardrails of democracy”, in the collapse of democracies. And they specifically cite Republicans’ refusal, under the direction of Mitch McConnell, to even consider Merrick Garland as Obama’s choice to replace Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court as an example of the kind of breakdown that leads to democratic collapse. The fact that, for the first time in our nation’s modern history, the opposition party in the Senate refused to give the President’s nominee to the Supreme Court even a hearing, much less a vote, did nothing to shake Drezner’s faith that our democracy was functioning as it should.
Apparently, neither did McConnell’s determination to block everything Obama tried to do in a stated effort to make him a one term president; nor did the surge of racial and partisan gerrymandering and expanded efforts at voter suppression by the Republicans after the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act; nor did the endless pursuit of BENGHAZI! with the expressed purpose, admitted by Kevin McCarthy, of simply damaging the likely Democratic nominee; nor did the sight of GOP legislatures stripping powers from newly elected Democratic governors; nor did the emergence of Donald Trump with his endless lies and white nationalist rhetoric; nor did Trump’s campaign coordinating their message around documents stolen by Russia; nor did Trump’s multiple attempt to obstruct justice in the Mueller investigation; nor did Trump’s decision to deny the legitimacy of Democratic oversight and refusal to honor valid subpoenas for documents and testimony based on wholly illegitimate claims of privilege; nor did Trump’s efforts to turn the State and Justice Departments into tools for his personal interests and profit; nor did Trump’s threats against Clinton to “lock her up”, which continued well after the 2016 election, because that was merely part of what Drezner describes as Trump’s “rhetorical excesses”. None of that made Drezner really worry that our democracy might be seriously eroding.
No, the thing that really made Drezner worry was reading a Politico piece describing “regime cleavage”, where “a growing number of citizens and officials believe that norms, institutions and laws may be ignored, subverted or replaced” and then hearing “lock him up” chants at a Bernie Sanders rally. Says Drezner, “Let’s stipulate that Trump opened up this Pandora’s box three years ago during the 2016 campaign…Let’s further stipulate that among president Trump’s multiple impeachable offenses while in office are acceptance of foreign emoluments, obstruction of justice and abuse of power. Let’s even allow that he might deserve to face prosecution after his time as president. This [the ‘lock him up’ chant] is still a disturbing chant, however, and I wish Sanders had shut it down…Tolerating ‘lock him up’ chants reeks of mob justice, which is pretty antithetical to the rule of law. It epitomizes the shift from political cleavage to regime cleavage”.
This is a most remarkable view on the current state of our democracy. Yes, Drezner will stipulate that Trump has abused his office and power in almost every way that is antithetical to our democratic values but Democrats must make sure that they don’t object to those abuses too loudly or too obnoxiously or they will be the ones engaging in mob justice and undermining our democracy, despite using the exact same rhetoric as Trump and his supporters in 2016. It is the height of both-siderism to actually compare the totally fallacious Clinton email server scandal and Trump’s myriad of impeachable offenses. Moreover, it was Drezner and the national reporters in his sphere that continually hyped what they all knew was a bogus scandal, made it into the biggest story of the 2016 election, wrote more about Trump’s so-called “policies” than the fact that he was a serial fraudster and con-man, and somehow managed not to find public information about Trump’s tax, insurance, and bank fraud until after the election. It was the willful acts of Drezner and his ilk that directly led to the criminal Trump presidency. “Lock her up” was never about any actual crimes, just another way to delegitimize Democrats. “Lock him up” is a response to multiple documented crimes — felony campaign finance violations, multiple instances of obstruction of justice, and now a pretty clear case of bribery and extortion for personal gain, using US taxpayer funds for that purpose, all in an effort to get a foreign country to interfere in our country’s most basic and elemental democratic process, an election. It is a plea not to allow another rich white collar criminal to simply say sorry for his crimes and walk away scot free.
If all this wasn’t bad enough, Drezner goes on to compound his cluelessness saying Democrats should be careful with their language because it might prompt Trump to commit even more crimes. He actually writes, “Furthermore, if these chants [of ‘lock him up’] become more frequent, there is a practical effect on Trump’s behavior. The more convinced he becomes that losing in 2020 would imperil his freedom, the more likely he will push for even more egregious forms of cheating than extorting the Ukrainian president to get dirt on the Bidens. Ballot fraud, rigging vote counts — you name the dirty deed, Trump will embrace it if he knows his only other recourse is prison.” Drezner is actually arguing that Democrats should not press Trump about his crimes so that he won’t commit any more additional ones.
But Drezner’s denouement is where he really tells us the truth. He writes, “Am I holding Sanders and other Democrats to a higher standard than Trump? You are gosh-darn right I am.” And that, my friends, is exactly why we have Trump and Trumpism in a nutshell. Trump and the Republicans can get away with the most outrageous abuses because the press will not hold them to any reasonable standard. But Democrats must always be held to some higher standard, must always use their political capital for the greater good of the entire country at the expense of the actual Democratic agenda.
It was the Republicans who used mob justice to shut the vote down in 2000, but it was Al Gore that the press asked to simply accept the wholly illegitimate Supreme Court ruling that handed the election to Bush. For forty years, Republicans have passed tax cuts that explode the deficit, but they still get a free pass by claiming that those cuts will pay for themselves, a lie proven by forty years experience. It was under Republican leadership that we suffered the greatest financial collapse since the Great Depression, with Bush having taken the surplus left to him by Clinton and turned it into the largest deficit since WWII, but it was Democrats who were forced to trim back efforts to lift the country out of recession because the press regurgitated Republican complaints about the deficits that they themselves created. Trump passed a tax cut that even its own rosy analysis claimed would increase the deficit by $1 trillion, but when Elizabeth Warren lays out her plan to pay for Medicare for All without raising middle class taxes, the press just writes it off as “unrealistic” without really challenging the actual details of the plan.
The “lock her up” chant is also yet another example of how Republicans use political tools frivolously and in such a brazenly partisan manner, it renders those tools less effective for Democrats in the future. “Lock her up” had no basis in reality but “lock him up”, a reasonable reaction to a criminal presidency, is simply resorting to GOP tactics that should be beneath Democrats and will undermine our democracy. The impeachment of Bill Clinton over lies about a consensual affair was also frivolous and wholly partisan. So now the impeachment of a thoroughly criminal President must be bipartisan or it won’t really be “legitimate”.
I have to say, Drezner’s piece was one of the most infuriating and depressing pieces I’d seen in a while. Drezner is far from a Trumper and a pretty well respected reporter. But his myopia about just how extremist the Republican party has become and his seeming complacency about just how much Trump and the GOP have done to destory our governing norms and undermine our democracy is frankly frightening. As Masha Gessen warned us back in 2016, it shows just how much some inside the Beltway have become normalized to our current march toward autocracy.
(h/t to Paul Campos over at LGM for photo) | https://tidalsoundings.medium.com/the-double-standard-for-democrats-9e686be8c3ed | [] | 2019-11-07 21:56:05.209000+00:00 | ['Republican Party', 'Trump', 'Democracy', 'Politics'] |
Another Persephone | Photo by Gabriel Manlake on Unsplash
There’s more sex in a look than in sex itself. Without the look, all is colorless. Passionless. Living becomes but a mundane nothingness of placid bodies and trigger warnings. Without the expression, energy remains at a permanent standstill, until life itself no longer exists.
Growth and desire are banished in limbo.
One cannot be human in limbo.
—
The mirror of my past reflects across the hibachi table.
A man and his wife order steak and shrimp for their anniversary. I say “his wife” because he treats her like an appendage — something he drags around but doesn’t speak to. In fact, he barely acknowledges her existence. He doesn’t speak more than two sentences to her over the course of the spatula juggling and eventual meal. She is clearly secondary, an afterthought, a being that orders food and makes the tab rise.
I only know it’s this couple’s anniversary because the waitress mentions it when she sets down their plate of sushi. While the husband’s gaze remains fixed upon his phone, his wife’s eyes glance around the room, searching for reprieve. I remember her pain all too well — a distracted husband making his wife’s desire for connection impossible.
And that’s just the public face. The visible manifestation of their fracture. I can too easily imagine what went on at home. What she survived.
If you wait too long, you will lose yourself. I try to give her my wisdom through my facial concern, but she’s looked away. She pulls out her phone as well, to match his lack of energy. His detachment kills her. It shows up in her halfhearted attempts to scroll down her screen while she sneaks glances at him. Her forced aloofness is vividly apparent when compared to her husband’s focus on everything that is not her.
How long have you lived this way? My stomach turns for her. She was me last year, and for several years before that. To love anyone and to know they are not bursting to speak with you reeks of despair. She is but a thing caged to loneliness. I only know as I was such a thing, not even a person. I was dead, delirious, and overwhelmed by a toxic hope that kept me longing for better days where I would finally matter.
It’s neither of their faults that they share no common interests apart from food and a commitment neither wants to break. Maybe one of them will wake up and see that isn’t enough. Not anymore. Not when she’s drowning.
Guilt and triumph mingle within me as I stare back at the mirror, knowing I broke it. I have a wicked laugh that rises several octaves. I want the woman to hear it and want it for herself.
As I eat my salmon and joke with my companions, I find myself thankful for no longer being bound by self-imposed shackles. That past is far too lost to allow myself to be trapped within any situation remotely similar again. Yet, I mourn for the woman I was: the woman constantly aching for unmet acknowledgment and pointed care.
How did I live so long in that hetero space of the side-kick expectation?
I did the thing women aren’t supposed to do: I became aware that I didn’t want what I had and that I was worth more than I was receiving.
I fell to the underworld. I’m not sure if I came back.
If my trials with Hades put me into the arms of a divine woman, I’ll be all the better for it.
—
I have come to admit that I have needs, sexual or otherwise. Just like everybody else.
I need the shared look. I need the fiery confirmation that another soul recognizes mine for what it is and values it beyond measure. I need those eyes of sensual delight. I need to feel their hunger for every sentence that leaves my lips. I need to be seen. I need to be heard. I need to be wanted, valued, and loved.
Most of all, I need someone who understands my power.
I’m not sorry for being so human.
Not anymore. | https://medium.com/@apersonthatlivesalife/another-persephone-86a19a26ecf3 | ['A Person That Lives A Life'] | 2020-12-28 05:04:56.194000+00:00 | ['LGBTQ', 'Heartbreak', 'Divorce', 'Love', 'Mythology'] |
Buddleia | Buddleia
A story of resilience and love
Photo by Denny Müller on Unsplash
Buddleia
There is something sassy about buddleia,
pushing it’s way through the paving stones,
lolling about with it’s languid blossoms,
purple excrescences in fallen masonry,
vigorous growth in the presence of decay.
Photo by Christopher Campbell on Unsplash
I have come back to this place every year on the last weekend of July. It was precisely that weekend, forty years previous, that I first met the girl who would become my wife.
A magical evening, with the soft, late summer breeze, and bats flitting among the trees; I walked up the steps and through the impressive front door into the cool of the marble floored hall. There, at the top of the stairs, she stood in her red satin ballgown, her dark hair tied back, and greeted me with a nervous smile. We danced into the early hours of the morning, and we both knew there was no going back; that night set the course for the rest of our lives.
Since the beautiful old house burnt down, just a year after we met, we have made this pilgrimage, every year apart from last year,when I lost my companion and love of my life to cancer. Today I make the journey again, this time alone, struggling through the undergrowth and the uneven ground.
The walls of the house still stand, with gaping window spaces, as if gasping for air among the exuberant foliage. I climb the crumbling steps and the staircase twists upwards in front of me. Many steps are now shattered and the ubiquitous buddleia pushes its way through the cracks. If I turn my head and follow the curve of the stairs, in my mind’s eye, I can see her still. One hand grasps the bannister, the other tentatively tucks a stray hair behind her ear and that smile, that captivated me all those years ago, like a ray of sunshine, never fails to lift my spirits.
Photo by Stéphane Delval on Unsplash
I think today will be the last time I come to this wonderful place. My health is failing and the walk along the disappearing driveway was almost too much for me. But I know I don’t need to make this journey to feel her presence. She is always with me, in everything I do, and the feel of her arms around me as we danced on that auspicious evening, is the greatest comfort to me in the long, lonely nights. | https://medium.com/crows-feet/buddleia-b55315e10612 | [] | 2020-07-16 18:04:12.854000+00:00 | ['Resilience', 'Persistence', 'Relationships', 'Nature', 'Love'] |
We’ve updated our submission guidelines | We know the new year is coming up, but we didn’t want to wait to make changes. We’ve made some updates to our submission guidelines that will be important for all of our contributors. Here are the highlights:
Subject matter
Previously, all content needed to be consistent in either inspiring or educating our audience within the writing or general creative industry. We have broadened this scope to include stories of emotional tales or situations that you have experienced. It doesn’t have to be specifically about creativity, but it must be personal in describing your emotional condition.
How to submit
If you are new to CRY and not already one of our writers, we ask that you email your draft to [email protected]. Please make sure it is a draft within Medium and not already published.
To send a draft, simply click on the three dots beside “publish” on the top right corner of your story. You will then have the option to copy and paste the link which you can then email to the above address.
If you’re already a writer for CRY, simply submit your story in draft form. If you have not heard back from us within three days, it means we will not be publishing your piece.
No more writing prompts
We’ve made a name for ourselves with our regular writing prompts, but we’re giving that a bit of a rest, at least for this upcoming year. Instead, submissions will be open all year round. Feel free to submit whatever you like as long as it fits with what we’ve described in the subject matter heading. | https://medium.com/cry-mag/weve-updated-our-submission-guidelines-7c117ae849b7 | ['Kern Carter'] | 2020-12-14 12:02:40.875000+00:00 | ['Newsletter', 'Writing'] |
Mercy to All Creations: The Muslim LGBTQ+ Dilemma in Religious Spaces | Mercy to All Creations: The Muslim LGBTQ+ Dilemma in Religious Spaces
Due to stigma, some will leave Islam due to pressure deaming our existence immoral
Abu Dhabi Mosque in United Arabs Emirates. Photo by: Pavlo Luchkovski on Pexels.com
As Muslims, when it comes to religious spaces, the best place is the mosque. A sacred place where every Muslim goes to be one with Allah. A place of seeking peace and calm in a serene environment where you can go into the holistic vortex of communication with Allah.
But not for LGBTQ+ Muslims like me.
It’s different, even weird, for us to be in a mosque when many people will look at us as if we’re aliens. Firstly, our physical appearance usually shuns us away from the ‘normal’ muslim community. Secondly, there is too much ‘dakwah policing’ from those who are not even selected nor elected by any mosque committee and their eyes are glued on you as if you’re a criminal that has committed the greatest sin upon Allah’s eyes.
One of my friends, for example, was chased away because of her butch appearance. She was chased away while trying to put on the prayer garment (telekung). One makcik came towards her, looked at her from head to toe, and gave a sneering remark: “Kamu ni bukan perempuan tulen, tak leh sembahyang kat sini.” (You are not a “real” woman, so you can’t pray here.)
My friend’s intention to be in a mosque to find solace with Allah was halted by this makcik, who thinks that what she did will gain her reward in Jannah (Paradise).
It’s sad but true. This incident is just one of many others that I can tell you about the dilemma and obstacles we, as Muslims from the LGBTQ+ community, are facing daily.
Due to this, some of us will even go to the extent of leaving Islam because some Muslim people within the sphere are convinced that what they did is not wrong. | https://medium.com/an-injustice/mercy-to-all-creations-the-muslim-lgbtq-dilemma-in-religious-spaces-75244ea39142 | [] | 2020-04-27 09:12:42.391000+00:00 | ['Islam', 'LGBTQ', 'Queer Muslims', 'Religious Freedom', 'Lesbian'] |
The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a novel written by Mohsin Hamid that illustrates the difference in… | The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a novel written by Mohsin Hamid that illustrates the difference in life between Asians and Americans. He mostly tells us about the gap between the two cultures which cannot be filled. Hamid narrates the story of a young man named Changez who goes to America to find more opportunities. Although he got a good job and fell in love with a young American girl Erica. But, his American dream is not realized. The two of the lovers never accepted each other wholeheartedly. Neither the American society embraced him openly but kept him under suspicion all the time. Finally, the young man returns to his homeland, with a broken heart and disillusioned by the American perspective of Muslims. | https://medium.com/@israrkhan1112/the-reluctant-fundamentalist-is-a-novel-written-by-mohsin-hamid-that-illustrates-the-difference-in-6cd712b8273a | [] | 2020-12-19 15:25:44.044000+00:00 | ['Stories And Culture', 'Book Recommendations', 'Books', 'Books And Authors', 'Book Review'] |
Corona #2 | Corona #2
Photo by Micah Williams on Unsplash
crown of worry, crown of cliches and bald spots and proverbial thorns,
crown of clouds, crown of whiskey neck shadows wreathed in lightning vines,
crown of emptiness, crown of hollow tree, of distance, of whistling bottle top,
crown of red sky, crown of sky sky, crown of moldy orange peels and turned wine,
crown of lost years, crown of bruises, of hangovers, the vestiges of phantom night,
crown of blindspot, of fingernail grime, of burial and root and cellar smell,
crown of salt lick, crown of soiled wedding veil, crown of absence, of church bell,
crown of crib death, crown of nurse breath, crown of lungs like water balloons,
crown of funeral home, crown of pandemic, crown of panic attacks and tequila,
crown of xanex, of lily bloomed interstate, of toothache reunions, spiderweb serenades,
crown of war, of famine, of pestilence, crown of prophecy and ruin and love,
crown of heartbreak, of America, of coral reef, glacier and Amazon scars,
crown of Earth Day, of abortion, of adoption, of Mars Rover song,
crown of worry, crown of dust bowl, crown of crypt keepers and spades,
crown of the last days, of laughter, of swing set chains and squeaking breeze,
crown of sound, crown of vibrations, crown of travel with or without a destination,
crown of the end or crown of the beginning, crown of hope or crown of nothing at all,
crown of prayer, of Alpha or Omega, crown of hope, and crown of nothing at all.
__________
Get the book here. | https://medium.com/@jaysizemore/corona-2-b50221971bd | ['Jay Sizemore'] | 2020-06-15 21:11:16.734000+00:00 | ['Repetition', 'Poetry', 'Pandemic', 'Corona', 'Coronavirus'] |
Ten Takeaways from the Inaugural Tech, Science, and Data New Member Orientation | Starting a New Office: Congressional Staff ‘Ask Me Anything’ panel
On December 9th, 2020, Members-elect of the 117th Congress joined current Members, staffers, technologists, scientists, academics, and advocates for the inaugural Tech, Science, and Data New Member Orientation, hosted by the First Branch Tech, Science and Data (TSD) cohort. Lawmakers shared advice on how to set up an office, find the right staff, and make use of technology, experts, and data to be more effective. Here are the top ten pieces of advice from the orientation, from the high-level to the in-the-weeds:
Wait to staff up
A universal theme from Members, experts and staffers was that Freshmen should go slowly in building their team. Rep. Rodney Davis [R, IL], a former staffer himself, advised that the first hire should be one trusted staffer who can make decisions on behalf of the Member, to allow the boss to focus on things that only a Member can do. Several noted that a great scheduler is essential in the early days to prioritize meeting requests and manage start-of-Congress logistics.
Going slowly on staffing allows a new office to find the right fit, identify priority areas, and strike a balance between experienced Congressional staff and those with diverse skill sets. Representative Takano [D, CA] suggested thinking outside the box, crediting his first communications manager’s experience in hip hop promotion with helping build a culture of digital innovation.
Cut yourself some slack at the beginning, but have a plan to catch up
Every new office starts out with a pile of backlogged constituent messages and feels pressure to begin responding immediately. Those who have been there advise being ready with a standard response (thanks for reaching out, we’re getting set up, but we’ll get back to you soon!) that allows the focus to be on setting up a great system and refining positions on key issues.
Establish a clear vision for office operations and technology
Tech-forward offices are often more efficient and better able to respond to emergencies, as many discovered during the COVID-19 pandemic. Several speakers warned new Members to not just “take what they left you,” when it comes to equipment or processes inherited from the previous office-holder. Newer systems and more modern processes can be more secure and effective. Others emphasized the importance of collaboration tools such as Slack or Microsoft Teams to streamline office communications and transparency.
But it’s not just about tech. Rep. Seth Moulton [D, MA] described the unique approach his office takes to keeping staff aligned and motivated — from a list of goals posted on the wall, to a daily 8:45 “standup” with all team members (district office and DC), and celebrating casework “wins” by ringing an actual bell in the office when a constituent’s issue is resolved.
Prioritize the constituent experience — whether in person or online
Former staffer and current Special Assistant to the President for Innovation, Matt Lira, challenged incoming Members to prioritize the digital constituent experience (website, social media, virtual meetings, etc) equally with the experience constituents have walking into their physical offices. That’s never been more important than it is this year, as many interaction will remain digital and remote into 2021.
Members of Congress have access to the best expertise in the world, be sure to use it!
Rep. Anthony Gonzalez [R, OH] urged new Members to tap into the willingness of experts to share their knowledge with lawmakers, “If you’re very curious about a particular area, whether it’s research or otherwise, find the person you think is smartest in the world at it, and see if they’ll take your call.” This can start close to home, with experts in your district or in DC with resources like the Congressional Research Service, the Government Accountability Office, and federal data agencies.
New technology lets you flip the traditional bill-writing process on its head, starting with buy-in from stakeholders at the outset.
Natural Resources Committee chairman, Raul Grijalva [D, AZ], described how his committee undertook an open process of crafting an environmental justice bill collaboratively with stakeholders, using new technology that allowed staff and organizations to work on language together. Bringing individuals and experts into the process early can make for legislation with broader support and buy-in.
Data is central to good policy, not an afterthought.
Data Coalition CEO, Nick Hart, described the emerging role of data and evidence in federal policy. He urged lawmakers to think early in the legislative process about how data collection and availability and how it can be leveraged for more effective oversight down the road.
Bipartisanship lives!
Despite reports to the contrary, speakers emphasized that bipartisanship does exist on the Hill, especially in the area of modernizing Congressional processes and technology. Representative Scott Peters [D, CA] noted that staff outreach and informal relationships can be a bridge for eventual cooperation among Members. Encouraging your staff to build their networks and relationships is almost as important as taking the time to build your own.
Chairman of the Select Committee on Modernization, Derek Kilmer, urged new Members to look for areas of agreement where the might work across the aisle: “Congress is a not entirely super complicated Venn diagram. And part of that is, you know, there’s stuff that Republicans want, there’s stuff that Democrats want, part of this is simply trying to find the shaded area of things that we can work on together, and each of us has a role to play in that regard.”
Build your circle: Members (as we saw) want to share expertise.
The TSD Orientation saw Members from both sides of the aisle, both sides of the country, sophomores to long-serving leaders, come together to offer advice and support for the freshmen of the 117th Congress. Building a network of peers you trust for advice is easier than it sounds, and one of the most worthwhile things you can do as a new Member.
It’s on you (but not you alone!) to build the institution you want to serve in.
To quote Rep. Davis:
“You all are now about to be sworn in as members of Congress. That day when you raise your right hand and you become one of us, you are now part of the institution that you ran against, so do what you can to make it better. That’s what we’re all here for.”
The good news is that you’re not alone! As you prepare to begin your Congressional career, you also have access to more resources to face them than ever before. The inaugural TSD Orientation demonstrated the breadth and generosity of current Members, staffers, and organizations on and off the Hill and that all are aligned with the goal of making Congress work better for the American people.
Stay tuned for more from the TSD Orientation in the coming weeks! | https://medium.com/capitol-hill-tsd/ten-takeaways-from-the-inaugural-tech-science-and-data-new-member-orientation-a7268236e322 | ['Anne Meeker'] | 2020-12-20 15:57:07.616000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Congress', 'Article', 'Democracy In America', 'Democracy'] |
The Music Business Conference Resource Guide | Every year there is a new hot button issue in the music industry and there are professionals speaking about it. With everything more digital-focused in 2019 and beyond it is important to balance that with in-person networking and community-driven music business education. The best way to achieve this is to pick a conference or two and show face. Build relationships with attendees and speakers alike and continue to build your network in the music industry. The problem is there are so many conferences popping up without much deference to actual quality, focus and expertise. Regardless, there are great conferences across the world that are great for networking and you can combine a couple of them to get an all-round immersive experience.
These are my go-to music business conferences for a mix of education, conversation, entertainment, networking, and development.
CD BABY’S DIY Musician Conference
Date: August
Location: New Location
Details: https://diymusiciancon.com/
CD Baby is an important tool for artists who do it on there own. Their conference is no different. The conference is really focused on education. Not only because of stories from panelists but also sessions that show you how to improve your situation in the Music Business.
The conference takes a deep dive into methods that will help you:
Book more and better gigs
Target new fans online
Establish a career without playing live
Build an email list that makes you money
Get the most from your videos
Dial in your artist “brand”
Unlike the other conferences, this conference is focused on helping independent artists monetize and grow their fan bases across a multitude of disciplines.
Music Tectonics
Date: Late Fall — October 28–29, 2019
Location: Los Angeles
Details: https://www.musictectonics.com/
If you follow me on any platform you know I am a big proponent of any person looking to get into the entertainment industry learning how technology drives the business. At this conference, there was a reputable panel of industry leaders and forward thinkers in the music and tech space while still keeping the content focused. This year’s conference focused a lot on Blockchain and AI which are must follows as the industry evolves. Music + Tech = The Future. This conference is one to put on the calendar for next year.
MIDEM
Date: 2–5 June 2020
Location: Palais des Festivals, Cannes, France
Details: https://www.midem.com/en-gb.html
In my humble opinion, this is the best music business conference in the world. Amazing Location (Check). Power-packed Discussions (Check). Top-Notch Experience (Check). Midem is dedicated to helping the music industry and its partners develop business and creativity by bringing together the key players of the music ecosystem over four days in Cannes.
The festival is for literally everyone in the space:
Artists • Labels • Managers • Publishers • Distributors • Streaming services • Rights collecting societies • High-tech companies • Startups
• Brands • Communication agencies • Booking agencies • Promoters
Not only that, they just have the right eye for who the people want to hear from in regards to Keynote Speakers and Panel Discussions. Last year Troy Carter had a phenomenal Keynote conversation with Cherie Hu on distribution.
If that isn’t good enough for you, the idea of going to Cannes, France should seal the deal.
Music Biz 2020
Date: May 11–14th, 2020
Location: Nashville, Tenn
https://musicbiz.org/events/music-biz-2020/
Music Biz 2020, is powered by the Music Business Association which is a membership organization that unites players from the content, commerce, and creative segments of the industry into a collective voice to promote overall growth throughout the music business.
The conference unites leaders from the global commerce, content and creative communities in Nashville to discuss the future of the music business and build relationships that will steer the industry for years to come.
Music Biz is a conference that is serious and educational. A lot of conferences focus on entertainment, Music Biz focuses on the content and bringing in the right music business leaders who have something to say. In regards to providing an across the board educational and networking experience, this conference is for you if you have a serious want to learn in the music business. The Music Business Association truly has the membership and capacity to provide the experience year after year.
A3C
Date: October 2020
Location: Atlanta, Ga
Details: https://a3cconference.com/
Atlanta has undoubtedly proven to be one of the most important places in the music business because of its dominance in Hip-Hop and R&B which in 2019 qualifies as popular music. A3C is more than a business conference as it obviously has the entertainment and performance element but its uniqueness is in the keynote speakers and panel discussion that seemingly make headlines every year.
Nothing brings the music community together in Atlanta like A3C. Additionally, the speakers are cross-generational and have a creative element as well as a business function. The festival prides itself on connecting, educating and inspiring the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs shaping the future. It does a great job of such.
For culture, entertainment and education inside the music business and entertainment industry as a whole, this festival is at the top.
SXSW
Date: March 13–22, 2019
Location: Austin, Tx
Details: https://www.sxsw.com/
If you don’t know about SXSW and you work in entertainment or want to work in the industry, you should be ashamed. This festival is truly unmatched and has proven to be a stepping stone for many artists and music entrepreneurs alike. Quite frankly, going to SXSW is a music business right of passage.
The music business education side features a bunch of timely panels and the networking is always palpable. Tickets may be steep but if you buy-in the experience could be game-changing. SXSW nails the combination of entertainment, education and networking combination.
Mondo.NYC
Date: March 13–22, 2019
Location: New York, NY
Details: https://mondo.nyc/
“Mondo.NYC is a pioneering music festival and global business conference focusing on the intersection of emerging music discovery and how blockchain and other emerging technologies and economies will significantly impact the business of music.” At least in their words but the experience honestly comes close. Mondo brings a more intimate experience even though the names are just as big and the panelists are just as informed.
The knock-on most music business conferences, especially the bigger ones, is that networking can be impersonal and not realistic. At Mondo.NYC having real discussions with industry leaders is possible.
Mondo 2019 key business content:
A&R • NYC Bookers Meetup • Streaming Media • CLE • Blockchain & Cryptocurrency • The Songwriter & Music Publishing • Marketing • Music Supervision • Live Music Opportunities & Challenges • Emerging Technology • Gender & Diversity in Artistry & Business
The reality is Mondo.NYC does a great job of matching music and tech talkers with a community that is interested in the business. Because of this, I think it is the most underrated Music Conference in the states at the moment.
Date: March 16–19th, 2020
Location: Miami, Fl
Details: https://wintermusicconference.com/
Located in Miami, Winter Music Conference is an escape from the treacherous cold weather in the Northeast and Midwest. This conference has a mix of all the things you want at a music business conference. You get the great panels and fireside chats, networking, vendor booths, seminars and a taste of Miami’s nightlife.
WMC does a great job of mixing in business education and some music culture education to create a pretty interesting dynamic. They even offer Yoga.
“ WMC will now offer three different badges to allow attendees to dial in their experience with precisely the programming they are looking for. Whether you are a fan looking to catch up with your favorite artists or an industry newcomer looking to take your next step in the business or a seasoned professional looking to grow your network, we have the programming you are looking for.”
Revolt Hip Hop Summit
Date: Year-Round
Location: NYC, Atlanta, LA
Details: https://www.revoltsummit.com/
The Revolt Hip Hop Summit definitely focuses on the business behind the culture more so than any other conference. If your goal is to go to two of these conferences on this list next year, the Revolt Summit offers conversation, unlike the others. While there is always the serious educational element you are getting with panel discussions, the Revolt Hip Hop summit focuses on the history, present, and future of the business of Hip Hop.
You get to hear from legends like Diddy, Quality Control’s Coach K, and other important figures as well as the lawyers, rappers, producers and others who affect the business of Hip Hop. It’s truly a dynamic event.
They also don’t shy away from the entertainment aspect of the conversation. T.I., Killer Mike, Candace Owens, & More talking the Black Agenda, Voting, & Donald Trump is always a must attend. | https://medium.com/the-courtroom/the-music-business-conference-resource-guide-b9cd6301f745 | ['Karl Fowlkes'] | 2019-11-14 15:04:54.526000+00:00 | ['Music', 'Culture', 'Entertainment', 'Technology', 'Music Business'] |
Kangaroo Attack. | Red Kangaroo. Image — Wikimedia Commons.
In Australia we have three species of large Kangaroo, Western Grey Kangaroo Macropus fuliginosus, Red Kangaroo M. rufus and Eastern Grey Kangaroo M. giganteus, the Red Kangaroo being the largest reaching 90kgms and over 180mm tall but the Western Grey can still be 65kgms and 180mm tall and is more muscular than the Red (Kangaroos, 2020).
I met a large Western Grey in the forest… ForestrySA grows plantations of Pinus radiata in the higher rainfall areas of South Australia, which is harvested and milled into timber for use in interior load bearing and construction work, but also has protected native bush areas within and around the pine forests. I was working in one of these bush areas, hand spraying herbicide on the woody weed gorse, when I heard a slow click…click…click noise, I hear a lot of noises in the bush, eucalypt branches rubbing together in the wind, birds calling but I hadn’t heard the click noise before.
Kangaroos fighting. Image — PxHere Creative Commons.
Turning around I saw a large male kangaroo just a few metres from me. Judging by the size he was probably a Western Grey. He was eating the shrubs nearby; I think the click noise was him biting the small branches. (I’ve found out since that they communicate with their off-spring by making clicking sounds and they do growl). I wasn’t too concerned, often seeing kangaroos in the areas where I work and they just hop away.
But as I moved closer to him, needing to reach some more gorse shrubs, he suddenly came over towards me, pushed through some eucalypt saplings and stood about 1m away, growling! He really was making Grrr Grrr noises and leaning towards me with each Grrr! This kangaroo was more than 180mm tall, we were looking eye to eye!
Red kangaroos fighting. Image — Wikimedia Commons.
I had my weed spray knapsack on my back with the plastic spray wand in my hand, so in the next second without thinking too much, I hit him as hard as I could with the spray wand across the chest! In that second everything slowed down, I must have squeezed the trigger handle of the wand as I lifted it up in the air because I saw a spray of pink fluid, pink from the red marker dye I was using, then bringing my arm and spray wand down on the kangaroo’s chest, upon which the plastic wand broke sending a jet of red dyed water into the air. This left me with only a broken plastic pipe stump in my hand for defence!
Luckily for me the kangaroo fell over on to his side. I momentarily felt bad for the kangaroo, ‘woops what have I done’, but that only lasted for 0.5 of a second. I made a hasty retreat while looking for a fallen branch to hit him with again if he chased me but do you think I could find a branch!? I’m in a eucalypt woodland and they drop branches all the time, except when you need one!
Meanwhile the kangaroo did get up, and hopped off, I didn’t see where he went, I was too busy running back to my vehicle!
So now the Forest Rangers are keeping an eye out for a large kangaroo with a red dye mark across his chest. The Rangers said I probably moved between him and his females, not that I saw any but they could have easily been there in amongst the vegetation.
I’m still spraying the same site but carrying a broom handle now, just in case!
Since my kangaroo close encounter, I was lucky not to actually be attacked, I have searched the internet for kangaroo attacks and they do happen, albeit not very often.
The big kangaroo who was growling at me could have grabbed me by the head with its front claws, sat up on his tail and clawed my stomach with its hind leg claws!
Kangaroo hind claws. Image — Wikimedia Commons.
Gray Kangaroo looking to see if you are near his females! Image — Wikimedia Commons.
In Australia kangaroos are protected and are a loved national symbol but my experience shows that they are still wild animals and we are in their environment.
Reference:
Kangaroos (2020) Bush Heritage Australia Kangaroos Facts & Information — Bush Heritage Australia | https://medium.com/the-shadow/kangaroo-attack-f4e92257aea3 | ['Peter Miles'] | 2020-12-10 10:36:45.597000+00:00 | ['Fauna', 'Kangaroos', 'Marsupials'] |
Upload File to Firebase Storage with Angular 11 example | In this tutorial, I will show you how to make Angular 11 File Upload Application with Firebase Storage using @angular/fire & AngularFireStorage . Files’ info will be stored in Firebase Realtime Database for Display/Delete operations.
Angular 11 File Upload Firebase Storage example
We’re gonna build an Angular 11 App that helps us:
upload file to Firebase Storage
see the progress bar with percentage
save file metadata (name, url) to Firebase Realtime Database
display list of files
delete any file in the list
The result in Firebase Cloud Storage:
And Realtime Database:
Data Flow
Following image shows the data flow with Angular Client, Firebase Cloud Storage & Firebase Realtime Database:
– File upload:
store a file to Firebase Cloud Storage
retrieve metadata (name, url) of the file from Firebase Cloud Storage
save metadata (name, url) to Firebase Realtime Database
– Display/get/delete files: use the file metadata (name, url) which is stored in Realtime Database as reference to interact with Firebase Storage.
Define File Upload Class
The FileUpload class has four fields: key , name , url , file :
export class FileUpload {
key: string;
name: string;
url: string;
file: File; constructor(file: File) {
this.file = file;
}
}
File Upload with Firebase Storage
We need to do 2 actions:
upload file to Firebase Storage.
save file’s info (name, url) to Firebase Database.
private basePath = '/uploads'; constructor(private db: AngularFireDatabase, private storage: AngularFireStorage) { } pushFileToStorage(fileUpload: FileUpload): Observable<number> {
const filePath = `${this.basePath}/${fileUpload.file.name}`;
const storageRef = this.storage.ref(filePath);
const uploadTask = this.storage.upload(filePath, fileUpload.file); uploadTask.snapshotChanges().pipe(
finalize(() => {
storageRef.getDownloadURL().subscribe(downloadURL => {
fileUpload.url = downloadURL;
fileUpload.name = fileUpload.file.name;
this.saveFileData(fileUpload);
});
})
).subscribe(); return uploadTask.percentageChanges();
}
We use upload() method that returns an AngularFireUploadTask which provides methods for controlling and monitoring the file upload.
AngularFireUploadTask has snapshotChanges() method for emitings the raw UploadTaskSnapshot when the file upload progresses.
To get the url of the uploaded file, we use the RxJS finalize() method with getDownloadURL() which doesn’t rely on the task. So we can get notified when the download URL is available.
uploadTask.snapshotChanges().pipe(
finalize(() => this.downloadURL = fileRef.getDownloadURL() )
)
.subscribe();
Finally, we return the upload completion percentage as Observable<number> using AngularFireUploadTask ‘s percentageChanges() method.
return uploadTask.percentageChanges();
Retrieve & Display List of Files from Firebase Storage
We get the list of files’info ( name / url ) from Firebase Realtime Database:
private basePath = '/uploads'; constructor(private db: AngularFireDatabase, ...) { } getFiles(numberItems): AngularFireList<FileUpload> {
return this.db.list(this.basePath, ref =>
ref.limitToLast(numberItems));
}
With getFiles() method, we can get list of FileUpload s including the key / id .
Now we’re gonna use snapshotChanges().pipe(map()) to store the key , it’s so important to use this key for removing individual item ( FileUpload ):
this.uploadService.getFileUploads(6).snapshotChanges().pipe(
map(changes =>
changes.map(c => ({ key: c.payload.key, ...c.payload.val() }))
)
).subscribe(fileUploads => {
this.fileUploads = fileUploads;
});
Delete File from Firebase Storage
There are 2 steps:
delete file’s info from Database.
delete file from Storage.
deleteFile(fileUpload: FileUpload): void {
this.deleteFileDatabase(fileUpload.key)
.then(() => {
this.deleteFileStorage(fileUpload.name);
})
.catch(error => console.log(error));
} private deleteFileDatabase(key: string): void {
return this.db.list(this.basePath).remove(key);
} private deleteFileStorage(name: string): void {
const storageRef = this.storage.ref(this.basePath);
storageRef.child(name).delete();
}
Implementation
Please visit: https://bezkoder.com/angular-11-file-upload-firebase-storage/ | https://medium.com/@bezkoder/upload-file-firebase-storage-angular-11-618dc4e6985 | [] | 2020-12-15 09:11:58.217000+00:00 | ['Firebase Storage', 'Angular 11', 'Firebase', 'Angular'] |
Giving Birth To Say Goodbye | From the very beginning they told us our baby’s condition was “incompatible with life” — it’s a term that never really rung true to me, seeing that our baby was living and growing inside of me. I could feel him moving!!
It seems to be a common theme when your baby isn’t going to survive. Pretend they don’t exist, get it over with quickly, sweep it under the carpet. But like my husband said in this scenario, the carpet was me, my body and my psyche.
While ultimately the decision was mine, everyone assumed that we would terminate the pregnancy, and there was a lot of pressure both from medical professionals and friends and family, to do it quickly so that it wouldn’t be “too hard” or “too much strain on my body”. The obvious answer to almost everyone was to have an abortion straight away so I wouldn’t have to go through labour.
I felt hurried and pressured. While discussing the possibility of inducing labour as a way to get to meet our baby and say goodbye, one obstetrician told me I had to make “the practical decision for my other two children”. By that she meant a quick surgical abortion.
But how did she know what was the practical decision for me and my family?
No, only we could decide that. So I made the conscious decision to slow things right down.
I knew straight away I didn’t want a surgical abortion. I had found the surgery for the ectopic pregnancy quite traumatic and I’d always regretted not having the confidence to ask for my baby’s remains. This time I wanted to be strong and make decisions we could all be at peace with.
The idea of going to sleep and waking up, empty, as if nothing had happened horrified me. I felt there was no way around it, no shortcut.
Whatever we decided, we would be losing the baby and we just had to go right through the middle of it.
I kept hearing that Bear Hunt nursery rhyme in my head…
We can’t go over it. We can’t go over it.
We can’t go under it. We can’t go under it.
We’ve got to go through it!
We went to a maternal fetal medicine specialist and did a more detailed ultrasound. He confirmed that not only did our baby have severe anencephaly, but a host of other problems that would impact on any short life he may have. He believed this baby would not make it to full term and could very possibly have troubles being born without a c-section. If he was born alive, he would live just minutes, he said. | https://psiloveyou.xyz/giving-birth-to-say-goodbye-b4501554b0f2 | ['Katie Carroll'] | 2020-01-17 12:14:41.663000+00:00 | ['Birth', 'Women', 'Family', 'Abortion', 'Parenting'] |
Ukraine Is Going to Launch an Educational TV Series on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency | Image source：Statecraft
【 Published by Coin Idol | Editor: Coin Idol 】
The Ukrainian government is making efforts to spread awareness about blockchain, bitcoin and cryptocurrency among common folks. The Ministry of Digital Transformation announced an online briefing on launching a blockchain and cryptocurrency TV series.
The briefing took place on November 27, 2020. The broadcast of the online briefing is available on the YouTube channel of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. During the briefing, experts explained how these nascent technologies work, what benefits they offer, who needs this technology, what blockchain and cryptocurrency are, where the government has reached as far as the regulation is concerned, as well as many other issues.
Ukrainians adopt cryptocurrency
According to the Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation Valeria Lonan, who was the organizer of the project, the TV series is rolled out within the project dubbed “Digital Education Action.” The project currently has around 40 educational films focusing on different fundamental developments.
The project supports user-driven innovation and engagement through the Digital Education Hackathon. The project was launched in 2018 to help in making better the use of digital technology for teaching and learning. Now, per the deputy minister, the goal of the project is to teach digital literacy to 6 million Ukrainians in three years.
“As of the end of December last year, the study showed that 53% of Ukrainians have digital literacy below the baseline. To fix this, we have created this project,”
Valeria said.
The government has been showing efforts to boost blockchain technology, as well as embracing bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Regulators in the country have been collaborating with cryptocurrency businessmen to decide the future of blockchain and virtual currencies.
The coming of Covid-19 pandemic has forced several governments to embrace the use of digital payments including cryptocurrency. Governments and health organizations including the World Health Organization have been at the forefront of a campaign of fighting the spread of Coronavirus using digital payment means such as Bitcoin. The Ukrainian government is following suit and will continue to organize such important educational programs on blockchain.
Fostering the growth of blockchain and cryptocurrency industry
This educational TV series is a call to action for sturdier collaboration at European level to learn from the coronavirus plague, during which blockchain technology is being used in education and training, and also to brand education and training systems appropriate for the digital era.
Due to the political instabilities in the country, most citizens especially those who are tech-savvy have decided to take advantage of the incentives brought by blockchain and have now shifted from using fiat currency to cryptocurrency. The instabilities have caused the national currency to shrink in value, and they are now exploring other options technology that can protect or store their wealth.
Also, the Deputy Minister for Digital Transformation Alex Bornyakov believes the country is a hub for science and engineering, and that the environment now favours cryptocurrency startups to flourish. Ukraine plans to pass a law that will regulate cryptocurrency as a form of property and describe appropriate procedures for blockchain and cryptocurrency businesses operating within the country.
Besides, CoinIdol, a world blockchain news outlet, reported that the Ministry of Energy offered the country’s biggest energy company to explore the possibility of forwarding the energy surplus generated by nuclear power plants to cryptocurrency mining. The government believes that legal mining activities will help to fill the state budget during the times of crisis while boosting the Ukrainian economy. | https://medium.com/ktrade/ukraine-is-going-to-launch-an-educational-tv-series-on-blockchain-and-cryptocurrency-1361f3470da1 | ['Statecraft Tech'] | 2020-12-28 04:02:30.531000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Education', 'Ukraine', 'News'] |
Why are you so obnoxious? | Poetry Self Philosophy Ethics.
Why are you so obnoxious?
Reflection on Good Client Management Techniques.
Why? Contemplating a blank screen and memories of “her”. Picture by John Rose.
Why are you so obnoxious?
My usual reply followed automatically.
Why are you so dumb?
I guess upon reflection
there were better ways for
professional interactions between
client and obnoxious self.
My client was beautiful
with black piercing eyes,
intelligent, witty and
utterly ruthless.
When I first met her,
she had been busy,
vivisecting hapless underlings.
In those far-gone days
I wore a suit with
paisley shirt and
random tie.
On that day
I hadn’t noticed the
coffee stains.
Looking at me
ready to pounce
hungry for the next victim
the tigress purred
“Hello, Handsome”.
I must admit not
being ready for that,
particularly after hearing
previous excoriation.
My lame reply,
“You look nice”.
The explosion was spectacular,
I was overwhelmed.
Love at first bite.
We exchanged insults for
several wonderful minutes,
she was grinning,
I think I was smiling.
Such are my memories
on this New Year’s Day.
We worked together for,
many productive years.
We only traded our insults
in private.
To rest of the
blouses and suits
we were just weird
which suited us just fine.
She always made
black rich delicious pungent coffee
for our morning meeting.
Memories.
Time and tide wait for no insult
she moved on as did I
Occasionally I would get
an email of one line
“Why are you so obnoxious?”,
to which I replied
“Why are you so dumb?”.
Received her latest email
this new year’s morning
Time for happy memories and
black rich delicious pungent coffee.
Memories.
Blessed be.
People like my dear friend
Give me hope for the future. | https://medium.com/illumination/why-are-you-so-obnoxious-a62adf2e3703 | ['Dr John Rose'] | 2021-01-01 16:42:21.969000+00:00 | ['Friends', 'Poetry', 'Ethics', 'Philosophy', 'Self'] |
The (re)birth of American multilateralism | You’d be forgiven for missing it, but on Sunday a group of Asian nations representing the region’s leading economies signed the world’s largest trade agreement. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), signed on November 15, includes fifteen nations — China, Japan, South Korea, and Australia, among others — and deepens regional economic integration, which will accrue financial benefits to the member states and to the possible detriment of the United States. Equally, if not more significant, the pact also places these nations more firmly within China’s orbit.
Americans, by contrast, don’t like multilateralism — “it has too many syllables and ends in -ism,” as former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright quipped at a Georgetown School of Foreign Service event this week. Taking this to an extreme, the Trump administration, in accordance with its “America First” worldview on trade and foreign policy, withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement in 2017. The remaining nations then signed the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership without the United States. Now, the RCEP further pushes the United States out of the picture on major global trade issues.
These aren’t the only ways in which the Trump administration’s trade and foreign policies over the past four years have made the United States weaker, and exacerbated a number of broader global challenges. Drastic American turns away from multilateralism include: withdrawals from the Paris Climate Accord, the World Health Organization during the height of a global pandemic, and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Iran’s nuclear program even though Iran was adhering to the deal.
The future depends on multilateralism
There are numerous challenges — big and small, regional and global — that only multilateral efforts can solve or manage. For instance, as ISD has explored in reports over the last four years, issues of environmental security are increasingly a driver of migration around the planet; and climate change is heating (and thus opening up) the Arctic twice as fast as the rest of the globe, creating a new region of geopolitical stress. Moreover, our increasingly interconnected world is likely to see more pandemics like Covid-19 in the future. These problems are all global in nature, and cannot be solved unilaterally or even bilaterally.
Read ISD’s working group report, The New Arctic (Image: Institute for the Study of Diplomacy)
It is imperative that the Biden administration moves quickly to reverse the Trump administration’s go-it-alone, unilateral, and transactional foreign policies. The most significant and all-consuming initial work for the administration will revolve around slowing the spread of Covid-19, and collaborating with other countries on vaccine development and distribution. While this will entail a heavy domestic focus, there is also room for immediate moves by the new administration to reengage multilaterally by rejoining the WHO and participating in the COVAX mechanism. President-elect Biden has said that he will rejoin the WHO immediately upon taking office. Complaints regarding the organization and its occasional kowtowing to China are legitimate, but leaving the organization, as the Trump administration did, was not the correct answer, especially in the middle of a pandemic. If America wants to have influence in the organization and ensure its effectiveness and efficiency, it needs to be on the inside.
On climate change, Biden has specifically noted that he will bring the United States back in line with the Paris Climate Accords on day one, which is the correct first step toward successful climate action. The rest of the world hasn’t stopped moving forward to combat climate change, but Biden’s plans to make it a first-order issue of his entire administration will provide a major boost to global carbon reduction efforts, and plan to go further than any previous administration.
In addition, the Biden administration will likely move quickly on new negotiations for the United States to rejoin the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Any durable nuclear agreement with Iran must be multilateral, as we saw in 2014 and 2015. The Biden team will almost certainly look to work with its partners to rejoin and then expand upon the original agreement. Any new efforts at nuclear summitry with North Korea should also take a multilateral approach.
These are just a few examples, but they are by no means the only ones. The administration should also open up regular and serious discussion on Arctic security. As the High North becomes more navigable and exploitable, and as outside players such as China try to gain a larger foothold in the region, more systematic multilateral talks are needed to ensure a peaceful and sustainable future for the Arctic. Likewise, after four years of the Trump administration’s disparagement and ill-treatment of Latin American migrants, along with its lack of sustained diplomacy in the region, the Biden administration should pursue regional reengagement with near neighbors. This policy would seek to remove drivers of migration through more sustained efforts to bolster democracy in the Western Hemisphere, which include increased anti-corruption efforts, strengthening the rule-of-law, and counter-narcotics efforts, as a start.
After four years of America First, the field is wide open for U.S. multilateral reengagement on numerous fronts. Thankfully, we will certainly see an early flurry of activity in this regard from the Biden administration. | https://medium.com/the-diplomatic-pouch/transition-note-the-re-birth-of-american-multilateralism-1a8ed2c2c527 | ['Kelly Mcfarland'] | 2021-01-14 21:42:58.018000+00:00 | ['Diplomacy', 'Joe Biden', 'United Nations', 'Multilateralism', 'Foreign Policy'] |
U.S. sex crime laws were reactionary when they were created and haven’t been updated since (e.g. | U.S. sex crime laws were reactionary when they were created and haven’t been updated since (e.g. with any actual logic).
As teenagers, my boyfriend at the time and I were both almost arrested for kissing in the parking lot on campus. I was 16 and he was 19. They informed us that anything other than “missionary sex" was considered “sodomy" in the Great State of Georgia (and elsewhere in the South). Had I been laying on my back getting f#cked, I would have been in clear (with only my mom to answer to — which would be far worse than jail as far I was concerned at 16). Either way, whether we both got charged with sodomy or not, my then 19 yo bf was on the hook for child molestation bc I was under age while he was technically a grown-up. But since my mom wasn’t pressing charges (because our families know each other) and since I wasn’t crying rape (since it was actually consensual…and just kissing), he didn’t become a sex criminal for kissing his roughly same age girlfriend. Meanwhile, they let us both go with a warning on the sodomy thing…after which we did our kissing in a graveyard where we could have some privacy. 🤷🏾♀️
Looking back, considering it was the campus police (at an HBCU), I think they just wanted to scare us. Being Black in rural Georgia, it was a good warning because Confederate-sympathizing cops in the country might not be so nice. Also, since I was technically “a child" on a college campus, they probably didn’t want me getting pregnant on their watch. (I learned that at my previous college where I got expelled for being a 15-year-old (Black) girl tutoring (Black) male athletes who were 18+. They said I was a “disturbance to the natural flow of activity on campus.” Go figure).
That was all in the late nineties. I believe the sodomy laws have since been changed or removed (thanks to LGBTQ+ advocacy), but consensual teenage sex is still a sex crime in 2020. The residents of Miracle Village in Florida are all nonviolent “sex offenders” who were guilty of consensual teenage sex. I was almost one them — and for underage kissing no less!
And that’s just one of the ridiculous things that turns otherwise decent people into unfree laborers without voting rights while actual sex criminals go free, keep their jobs, get even better jobs, make even more money, and vote to maintain status quo.
Meanwhile, the U.S. legal system is so convoluted that it’s impossible to change in any efficient manner. Then again, that’s kinda the point! | https://medium.com/polarxpression/u-s-sex-crime-laws-were-reactionary-when-they-were-created-and-havent-been-updated-since-e-g-7b9e19862b41 | ['April M. Hamm', 'She They'] | 2020-12-24 19:47:10.210000+00:00 | ['Sex Offender', 'Criminal Justice', 'Criminal Justice Reform', 'Human Rights', 'Sex Crimes'] |
The Power of Local Community Action | The Power of Local Community Action
In 2018, I organized a gathering in San Francisco that brought together 15 millennials and 15 seniors for an afternoon of conversation and connection. As a result of that one event, I am aware of three intergenerational pairings who are still friends today, two organizations that were inspired to incorporate intergenerational events into their roadmaps, and one other city that replicated the gathering for their residents.
These ripple effects showed me the power of local community action. What was intended to be a pleasant, hopefully meaningful few hours, led by a handful of volunteers, unexpectedly spawned long-term friendships and impact — potentially touching 100s of people in addition to the original 30.
The following year, I found myself on the other side of the country doing a master’s at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. In lecture one day, we learned about the social-ecological model, which contextualizes a given individual’s health within the personal, environmental, and societal factors that influence it. This model is helpful because it points to a variety of levels through which you can take action to address a given public health issue.
For example, consider smoking. To reduce smoking behaviors, you could intervene at the individual level by educating people about the long-term health consequences. You could intervene at the organizational level by banning cigarettes in the workplace. Or you could intervene at the policy level by raising taxes on tobacco sales. Ideally, you would do all three and more (and we have, which is why smoking rates have decreased so dramatically since the 1960s).
As I sat in class, I thought about how this model could be applied to the public health issue of loneliness. We know that chronic loneliness is as bad for you as smoking cigarettes every day, so it makes sense to take a similar approach.
This realization has fueled my passion for implementing strategies to reduce loneliness and improve social well-being at all levels. It’s exciting to imagine how we might foster greater connection among millions of people through legislation, design decisions in the built environment, programs implemented by employers and schools, or innovation in social technology.
At the same time, I reflect back on that intergenerational gathering and its ripple effects. I believe that we need to complement broader initiatives that affect many people in small ways with local projects that affect fewer people in large ways. We need to support and empower individuals who feel inspired to take action in their own neighborhoods.
That’s the philosophy behind the monthly microgrant program that I recently launched. Funded by the Well Being Trust, we will award $1,000 each month to an individual who has an idea for how to strengthen relationships in their community. It might be an event like the intergenerational gathering, or an interactive installation in a shared community space, or something we never would have imagined yet is meaningful in a given neighborhood. We hope to be surprised and delighted!
Applications are accepted on a rolling basis, and the first microgrant will be awarded in January. If you believe in our vision too, please consider helping us spread the word throughout the country. All the information is on our website, and you can tag us on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Learn more at socialhealthlabs.com/microgrants
We look forward to sharing the stories and insights that emerge from this initiative in 2021. And I look forward to the unexpected ripple effects. | https://medium.com/@kasleykillam/the-inspiration-behind-community-microgrants-5bdedff5e48a | ['Kasley Killam'] | 2020-12-29 15:57:34.692000+00:00 | ['Loneliness', 'Public Health', 'Social Impact', 'Funding', 'Community'] |
Ask Me Anything with Brian Wallace, Founder and President of NowSourcing | ✨ Ask Me Anything with Brian Wallace, Founder and President of NowSourcing, an industry leading infographic design agency based in Louisville, KY and Cincinnati, OH which works with companies that range from startups to Fortune 500s.
🌎 Brian also runs #LinkedInLocal events nationwide, and hosts the Next Action Podcast. Brian has been named a Google Small Business Advisor for 2016-present and joined the SXSW Advisory Board in 2019.
💎 Ask Him Anything now and join for the answers on September 9th, 10 am EST.
https://community.hackernoon.com/t/ask-me-anything-with-brian-wallace-founder-and-president-of-nowsourcing/55516
#ama #hackernoon #hackernoonAMA #noonies #nooniestech | https://medium.com/hackernoon/ask-me-anything-with-brian-wallace-founder-and-president-of-nowsourcing-80dec6147b26 | [] | 2020-09-08 16:37:31.400000+00:00 | ['Noonies2020', 'Infographics', 'Noonis', 'Founders', 'Hackernoon Ama'] |
How to Create a Simple Django Web App With Python. | Getting Started With Django
Ideally, you have already installed Python on your device. If you have not yet done this, then you can go to Python’s official website to download the latest version. To check if you are running the latest version of Python, you can run the following command in your terminal/command line:
$ python
It would help if you ended up with something similar to this:
Python
[GCC 4.x] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>
To install Django, you need the Python package manager pip. You can download it on the PIP website. When you have a stable installation of pip on your device, you need to install Django by using the following command:
$ python -m pip install Django
Now Django will be installed to Python. To verify that you have installed Django successfully, open up the Python terminal and import Django:
$ Python
>>> import django
>>> print(django.get_version())
And as I am running version 3.1, I will get the following output: | https://medium.com/better-programming/how-to-create-a-simple-django-web-app-with-python-7ba75b4e34a6 | ['Bryan Dijkhuizen'] | 2020-12-21 23:20:13.051000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Programming', 'Python3', 'Software Development', 'Django'] |
Baby Sensory Classes | This is something very new to me, I hadn’t heard of these classes until finding out about them on that well known trusty social media site, one of my friends had posted something on a baby sensory leaders site, so this intrigued me to look into what these classes were all about. I think when Junior was born I made a semi-conscious decision that I wasn’t going to take the little man to any happy clappy mother and baby classes as there were none in the area that interested me, however I wish we had started these classes when he was younger as they are fab!
Baby sensory is all about helping to develop your baby physically, emotionally and socially whilst having fun, sign language is also taught with the help of catchy songs to mime signs to, which are reinforced at every class. ‘The various baby activities aim to build up a vocabulary of sensory experiences (e.g. visual, auditory and tactile), to enhance physical contact (massage, reflexology, touching, cuddling and rocking) between you and your baby and to promote the development of speech through the use of sign language, music, song and puppets’ Extract from baby Sensory UK.
We attended a taster session before signing up for the 10 week course. Junior was just in awe of all the other babies and did not watch me signing to him, he did not want to lie on his back like all the other babies, he wanted to be on his front watching everyone, at this point I knew I should have started classes with him earlier! All the yummy mummy’s sat on mats in a ring around the leader with babies in front of them, whilst we sang, signed, shook maracas, played peek a boo with some coloured voile and watched a puppet show, obviously not all at the same time though! Junior even had some playtime in the carefully constructed play area, his favourite toy was actually the ball pit where he enjoyed sending the balls everywhere! All the babies were dressed up for Halloween and there is also a Christmas party organised where I will not be able to resist dressing Junior up in a little Elf or Christmas pudding outfit!
I would highly recommend taking your little one to these classes and definately start before baby is 11 months, as by this point baby should be able to communicate with you with signing when the nappy needs changing, when milk is needed and when baby is hungry! We don’t just go for the signing, I think is it great for socialising too as Junior has not been around other babies before and actually loves interacting and learning from them, it is great to talk to other mum’s too and share stories.
There is a lot of research online into baby signing and it is proven that babies have better communication skills and actually learn to talk earlier when they have been taught to sign, so we are definitely trying to push on with the signing and try to catch up on the time lost!! | https://medium.com/@jennifermom/baby-sensory-classes-8e0ad5e9063c | [] | 2020-05-16 22:11:00.841000+00:00 | ['Baby Tips', 'Baby Products', 'Baby'] |
Kill Stress in Five Minutes or Less | We all know work-related stress can do a number on our physical and emotional health. But when you’re facing an overflowing inbox, a calendar full of meetings, and impending work deadlines, taking time to relax at the office doesn’t always seem like an option.
Luckily, even if you’ve got just a few minutes, these research-based tips from McCombs School of Business faculty can help you get calm, centered, and back to work.
Do a reality check. Convinced your co-workers are conspiring to make you look bad? When we feel a lack of control — like, say, from a surprise last-minute assignment — we might see trends or cause-and-effect patterns around us that don’t really exist. So before you hit “send” on an angry email or confront a co-worker, consider whether it’s the stress talking on your behalf.
Get back in the moment. Meditation isn’t just for the yoga studio. Rather than dreading upcoming deadlines or stewing about that rude driver on your morning commute, pause and redirect your attention to the present moment. “You force your mind to focus on a particular object or a particular activity,” says Associate Professor of Marketing Raj Raghunathan. Science is proving that meditation works: A recent study reported in the Wall Street Journal found that by meditating each day for eight weeks, family members caring for relatives with dementia had better brain functioning and were less depressed than a group of non-meditators who instead listened to music.
If you’re new to the practice, exercise your meditation muscles by counting to 20 in your head or simply paying attention to your breathing. When you’re feeling stressed, focusing on something you do have control over, however small, can calm runaway thoughts. That may be part of the reason why concentrating on your breathing, even for five minutes, is effective.
Confide carefully. Need a gripe session? Instead of complaining to your cubicle-mates, take problems to your boss, who, after all, can actually do something about them. Research by Ethan Burris, an associate professor of management, reveals that when you complain to peers, your work performance actually worsens. If you still feel like you need to voice your troubles to your office mates, you’ll do the least damage by at least choosing the right co-workers. Seek social support from — rather than just complaining to — peers who are warm and competent to give advice.
Still convinced your time would be better spent powering on rather than pausing to lower your stress? Know this: If you address your stress, the quality of your work may improve. You’ll do better on that important pitch or presentation if you’re in a good mood and not a stress monster, Raghunathan says.
So when the boss asks why you are sitting peacefully at your desk with your eyes closed you can reply truthfully that you’re just being results-oriented. | https://medium.com/texas-mccombs/kill-stress-in-five-minutes-or-less-1985df4b6f08 | ['Texas Mccombs'] | 2017-07-13 13:21:00.800000+00:00 | ['Relaxation', 'Stress Management', 'Management And Leadership', 'Meditation'] |
Nobel Prize in Ethiopia must be a Call to Action | On October 11, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali was bestowed this year’s Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and specifically for his pivotal initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighboring Eritrea. The prize comes as Abiy’s reformist agenda faces increasing challenges in a country emerging from decades of autocratic rule and long-standing grievances are coming out in to the open.
The United States and other allies of Ethiopia need to support and consolidate more reform now before sectarian violence rips the country apart.
Contain ethnic based conflict and make accountability a priority
Incidents of violence have resulted in the death of at least 86 people and have injured more than 200 in protests. Victims included both Muslims and Christians.
Over 30 churches have been destroyed since July 2018 mainly in eastern and southern Ethiopia with more than half of them burned to the ground. Over 60 people were arrested for trying to burn a mosque and a church in the city of Adama, Oromia region.
The violence has exacerbated and contributed to a humanitarian crisis of over three million internally displaced persons (IDPs) and is destroying livelihoods and property in places such as Dodola, Harar, Bale Robe and Adama.
Prime Minister Abiy’s administration repealed the nefarious 2009 Charities and Societies Proclamation, however rights groups have grave concerns on aspects of the new draft bill and the implementing legislation. In the interim, there are reports of old habits continuing to be practiced with little to show of a meaningful commitment on the part of the administration to ensure freedom of association.
The Abiy administration has not fully started proceedings of persons accused of committing human rights violations, including torture. The inability or unwillingness to hold those individuals criminally responsible sets a bad precedent for the country’s justice system and is denying justice to the survivors. So far despite changes in structure and personnel, the Ethiopian judiciary has not fully held persons responsible for human rights violations, including torture, to account, perpetuating the culture of impunity.
Accelerate the revision of suppressive laws
Prime Minister Abiy must galvanize the Federal Attorney General’s office and its twelve Justice Reform Committee members to expedite the ongoing review of suppressive laws and repeal those laws that need to be discarded. Among the most critical laws would be:
The Anti- Terrorism proclamation of 2009
As it stands, the 2009 Anti-Terrorism Proclamation restricts freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and the right to fair trial. In addition to undermining civic space, the law will also have serious implications in the run up to Ethiopia’s 2020 parliamentary elections.
The exact number of people charged under this proclamation in the past is unknown. However, it is estimated that over 900 individuals were indicted under this proclamation from September 2011 to March 2017. Those prosecuted have included bloggers, journalists, editors, activists, musicians, and producers. In today’s Ethiopia this proclamation is being used towards persons who don’t pose genuine threats as opposed to those expressing mere dissent. The proclamation has been used to silence opposition, journalists, writers, teachers and political opponents. Any power to restrict rights must be in accordance with the requirement that any restriction should be provided by law and required conditions set under regional and international human rights instruments are satisfied.
The Computer Crime Proclamation of 2016
The Computer Crime Proclamation of 2016 complements other proclamations that limit internet freedom. It criminalizes genuine speech and defamation and gives intelligence and law enforcement agencies power to conduct surveillance and searches.
As the offline civic space shrunk in Ethiopia, those with access to the internet moved the discourse to the digital sphere to express their opinions. Forcing these platforms to police speech in compliance with the government litmus test for what is acceptable speech will continue to be detrimental to internet freedom in the country.
The Telecom Fraud Offense Proclamation
Enacted in 2012, the Telecom Fraud Offense Proclamation has been used to quash internet freedom in Ethiopia. Amendments to this law should delimit what national security entails in the telecom sector and describe what kind of telecom fraud poses a threat to national security.
The Freedom of Mass Media and Access to Information Proclamation No 590/2008
The Freedom of the Mass Media and Access to Information Proclamation of 2008 has been crucial in stifling the fledgling free press across the country. In addition, it has been used to withhold broadcasting licenses from independent media houses. Freedom of information is a central element of the right to freedom of expression. When citizens are ill-informed and unable to access basic information, it is difficult for them to fully realize their right to freedom of expression.
The United States and other allies of Ethiopia need to support the consolidation of Prime Minister Abiy’s announced reforms now, before sectarian violence rips the country apart.
Friends of the country must also prioritize capacity-building initiatives that can strengthen institutions mandated with protecting justice and human rights. This must include human rights training for the country’s security forces, for those that pass strict vetting.
Finally, it will be essential to facilitate an open and inclusive dialogue among youth where respect for human rights is a central theme. | https://amnestyusa.medium.com/nobel-prize-in-ethiopia-must-be-a-call-to-action-d2359a8f1f8 | ['Amnesty International Usa'] | 2019-11-18 19:59:53.027000+00:00 | ['Ethiopia', 'Human Rights', 'Nobel Prize', 'Amnesty International'] |
DeFiBOX DAO | Hello Readers!!!
Just a little reminder before I proceed to BOX DAO,
DeFiBOX is the one-stop Defi Platform on the EOS Blockchain.
As we all know that DeFi(Decentralized Finance) is built mainly to promote decentralization and eliminate all kinds of centralized authorities governing crypto users and their funds. DeFi is to take away a system where users have to trust some centralized exchanges/authorities with their funds by depositing and trading them through some procedures which has to be followed whether satisfactory or not, just all in the name of trading from one coin to the other.
On DeFi, users don’t trust anyone with their fund, this is a market where anyone at all can walk to and make a swap, without a prior registration or hard procedures, the process of making things work requires providing liquidity for the market which makes swapping easier for everyone, this is not free as liquidity providers get a share of swapping fee and other rewards. This people are known as the Market Makers, there are lots of liquidity pool(token pairs) where different Market Makers can provide liquidity for, to make swap for the pairs successful.
About DeFiBox DAO
On Defibox, there’s what we call Voting Governance which allows users to be the dictator of everything happening in the Defibox ecosystem.
Proposal are made and users are allowed to vote if they agree to the proposed or not. This voting result will determine if the proposal will be executed.
This way full decentralization is practiced as it gives stakeholders the chance to have a say on the development of the project. And this is what Defibox and DeFi as a whole stands for.
To participate in the development of Defibox, you have to be a stakeholder. Only users who own and stake
BOX are allowed to vote and have a say on what next should be developed, adjusted or corrected.
On DeFiBOX official website, there’s a page for Proposal and this is where all pending and executed proposal can be seen.
All you have to do to be part of the development is to buy and stake BOX.
BOX is available on Defibox Swap and can be bought with EOS, USDT, NDX or any other coin that has liquidity in pair with BOX.
Be part of DeFiBOX Development today!!!!
THANKS FOR READING
I am Bee 🐝 | https://medium.com/@funskid/defibox-dao-ff576c885d | ['Princess Aniky'] | 2020-10-24 14:06:19.076000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Eos', 'Defibox', 'Defi', 'Newdex'] |
#03 — Hamilton: O fenômeno dos palcos para o streaming | 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/proximoepisodio/03-hamilton-o-fen%C3%B4meno-dos-palcos-para-o-streaming-feat-cid-souza-65657be02acc | ['Isabela Candido'] | 2020-12-25 03:33:32.587000+00:00 | ['Spotify', 'Broadway', 'Hamilton', 'Musical Theater', 'Podcast'] |
The Ultimate Guide to Pricing Your Freelancing Projects | Hourly Pricing
With hourly pricing, you charge the client for every hour you work. While this is the most common pricing strategy used by freelancers, it’s not the best. Here’s why.
Cons
You’ll need to track your working hours.
As you become faster at completing a task, you’ll need fewer hours to complete a project. Which means the faster you do it, the less you get paid.
For hourly projects, clients can start micromanaging you. They may start telling you that you’re taking longer for a project, which another freelancer could have completed faster.
A lot of estimation is involved.
Pros
Hourly pricing is great for projects where the scope of the project is not clearly defined. You don’t know how many more tasks the client will give you.
You can take longer to finish a project and get paid more.
Example
A client asks you to design their website. Your hourly rate is $80 per hour, and you estimate it’s going to take you two weeks to complete the project with 20 hours of work per week. So you bill the client 40x80 = $3200 in total. Now, if it turns out to be more than two weeks of work, you’ll charge the client for that — but they won’t be happy with that, as it’s more than the agreed price. No one likes to be stung with extra charges.
Many chose hourly pricing when starting in their career because it’s easier to work with than other pricing strategies. I’d recommended you don’t work with hourly rates because they involve a lot of estimation.
Daily Rates
Daily rates usually work best when you’re working for clients on an ongoing basis. You’re still billing for time worked, but instead of hours, you’re charging for a full day of work. You get to decide how many hours one workday comprises of for you. Usually, it’s 6–8 hours of work per day.
Think of your day job where your working hours consist of eight hours. Now think of freelancing as your day job where your working hours can be any number; you get to choose. Your daily rate can, for instance, be $500, and you bill the client weekly or biweekly.
Cons
Like hourly pricing, you earn the most when you take more time to complete a project.
Clients will again micromanage and be upset if you take too long.
Earning potential is limited.
Your weekly schedule will mostly be packed with client work.
Pros
You can charge higher rates because the client doesn’t know the exact number of hours you’re working.
Easier to track time than hourly pricing.
Example
You might want to consider daily pricing when working for large companies that don’t have a clearly defined scope of projects but provide ongoing work.
You’re working for a company that provides ongoing copywriting work. You charge them $500 per day, which consists of six working hours. You work five days a week, so you bill them 500x5=$2500 at the end of the week. This pricing structure helps to prevent you working more hours than you are getting paid for.
Retainers
This is when a client pays you a fixed amount (usually monthly) and retains your availability. The client may or may not avail of your services for a month, but you get paid nevertheless. Retainers work best for long-term clients that provide consistent work.
However, they can reduce flexibility in your schedule because you have to make yourself available to the client, whether for tasks or Skype calls, and accommodate other clients accordingly.
Cons
Most clients prefer hourly pricing over retainers so they can get a clear idea of how many hours you’re working.
Pros
You get consistent work, so you don’t have to worry about hunting for new clients every few weeks.
You build a predictable income stream because you know you’ll earn $X a month.
Clients can extend contracts if they like your work, so you get a chance to build long-term relationships with clients.
Clients don’t get room to micromanage you.
However, keep in mind, clients don’t get to decide how many hours per day they retain you. You decide the number of hours you’ll be working.
Example
A client I worked with was launching a startup. He required consistent copywriting (landing pages, page copy, ad copy, video sales letters, email copy, social media copy, etc.), but his project’s scope was undefined. I wasn’t sure what was coming next, but I was sure the projects would span several months. So I decided to work with him on a retainer basis and charge him $4000 per month for a three-month contract.
Fixed Pricing
In fixed-price projects, the scope of the project is fixed, and so is the price. For example, a client wants you to write 7 emails for their drip campaign. You charge a fixed price of, let’s say, $1500 for this whole project.
You don’t tell the client how many days or hours you’ll work. And if they ask you how long you would take, give them a vague answer such as, “a couple of weeks.”
For fixed-priced projects, always charge a 20% profit to your baseline price. So if your baseline price is $1400 for seven emails, charge $1680.
Cons
The client may ask for unlimited revisions if you don’t clearly define the number of revisions you’ll do.
If you underestimate the value of the project, you can end up undercharging.
You can’t go back to square one and ask for more money.
Pros
You don’t charge based on the number of hours you’ve worked.
Since you’re not disclosing the number of hours/days you’re working on the project, you can charge higher rates.
Fixed pricing minimizes the chances of the client micromanaging you.
Example
I’ve mostly done fixed-priced projects. Clients would give me X number of blog posts to write, and I would multiply my rate for one blog post with the number of blogs. Let’s say I charge $100 per blog post. For 3 blog posts, I charge 100x3= $300.
Value-based Pricing
Think of it as a fixed-price project, only now you’re charging based on the value you’re bringing to the client. You do your research on the client first and estimate the value they’ll receive from the project in terms of money. Then you charge a percentage of that money.
Let’s say a client is expected to make $200,000 after the project is complete. You charge 15–25% of this money. Keep in mind; this strategy applies mostly to projects where high rewards are involved.
Cons
The value is based on estimated revenue, not guaranteed revenue.
You’ll need to employ persuasive techniques to explain the financial incentives of the project to the client.
Pros
High earning potential. The higher the perceived value of the project, the higher you can charge.
You can complete the project in as little time as you want.
The scope of work is clearly defined.
Removes the inconvenience of tracking hours.
Example
You’re writing an email campaign that is expected to bring the client $10,000 in sales. You charge $1000, which is 20% of this revenue.
How you price your projects largely depends on the scope and nature of the project. That said, you can use a mix of these strategies in your freelancing business.
Before you leave, I want you to take home some advice that I wish someone had given me earlier in my freelancing career…
Important Points to Remember
If a client asks you to bring down your price, reduce the services you provide. For example, you can say, “If this doesn’t suit your budget, I can write three blog posts for you instead of five.” But DON’T bring down your price.
Whenever you can, avoid hourly pricing. You end up selling yourself short when you charge by the hour.
Before you quote a rate, get the full context of the project. Do your research. Then create a proposal instead of giving vague estimates to clients.
Before you state your price, ask, “So what’s the budget for this project?” The client may have a higher budget than you expected, but you can end up charging less if you don’t get an estimate from them.
When clients ask you how much you charge, start by saying, “For projects like this one, I have charged anywhere from $X to $Y…”
Once you’ve stated your rate, shut up. And let them speak. Don’t fill the silence with “umms,” “buts,” and all that nonsense.
As you gain more experience, raise your rates.
Final Thoughts
With all that said, a huge part of the freelancing game is confidence. If you’re not confident, you end up selling yourself short. Secondly, you must also be smart enough to know which pricing strategy would work best for which project. And third, know how to deal with each client tactfully. | https://medium.com/the-post-grad-survival-guide/the-ultimate-guide-to-pricing-your-freelancing-projects-bd5ece19cb5f | ['Sadia M.'] | 2020-11-18 11:46:50.179000+00:00 | ['Careers', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Freelancing', 'Business', 'Marketing'] |
Nation-building and Architecture: | Nation-building and Architecture:
Source: AFP Photos
Anu S Kumar Architect & Urban Designer, 17th July 2020
1. Abstract
Rapid urban shifts and hyper-globalism exert pressure on the design of cities and buildings, making them homogeneous and large-scale in character. Today, politicians formulate such development programs, as they are emblematic of what might be the ‘nation-building’. In numerous building construction and urban renewal projects, the concept of nation-building through architecture gets diluted, as the designers lose sight of the social and cultural values, people’s concerns and other fundamental philosophies that define the nation. Thus, architects today are in an unfortunate dilemma of what to comprehend, conclude and implement as projects on the ground. Therefore, this essay examines whether the architecture and urban design of the massive development projects contribute to the nation-building process in a democratic country like India. Secondly, the writeup also reveals how the architecture of the built landscape can be instrumental in shaping the ‘national identity’, which is a prerequisite for the nation’s development.
Keywords: Architecture; Urban Design; National Identity; Nation-building; Identity; Power; Politics; Democracy; Critical Regionalism
2. Introduction
Nation-building is a process by which people from various multicultural and geographical origins blend to form a unified national economy, an integrated public educational system, shared cultural values and above all a proper development scheme to work towards eradicating the injustices and malpractices of the past, to nurture integrity and promote a sense of belongingness to the nation. Throughout the world, constructing a ‘national identity’ has always been the backbone of the nation-building process. Hence, it becomes important here to understand the terms, ‘nationalism’ and ‘identity’ and conditions needed for its consolidation, since they directly link people to the nation. While deconstructing the word nationalism, we may tend to associate it with the extreme leftist ideologies, which are more dictatorial. But they are not perceived here as ideal models, as typically ‘leftist nationalism’ later becomes xenophobic and ethnic centric. Therefore, the essay argues for the concept of nationalism, whereby a group of people participate and gains purpose, to bring about a positive change within the nation. The write up also argues that the nation-states fabricate nation-building through the constant introduction, renewal and nourishment of the national identity: that its definition ought to be constructed based on fundamental characteristics like history, geography, sociology and benefit of the larger society.
On a general note, nationalism is perceived as a positive notion, since it indicates the national pride and emotions for one’s country, but ‘identity’ is complex as it must bring a sense of belongingness that is rooted in the cultural context. “Modern nations are Imagined Communities — people without face-to-face knowledge of other members but is bound by a shared perception of (national) identity” (Anderson). It takes generations of implementation, re-invention and glorification to establish a strong sense of identity. The architecture and urban design of the spaces within the cities, capital complexes, libraries and urban parks further nurture the national identity, when these get viewed and used by the people. As a tool that visually connects people, architecture is devised, developed, and controlled by the politicians to formulate programs that may resonate their ideologies. National- identity seeps in through the built landscape and permeates the social and cultural fabric. Therefore, this essay also examines whether architecture and urban design of the humungous built environments within India contribute to national development.
3. Background
The architecture in India dates back to 2600–1900 BCE (Indus Valley Civilization). The planning and engineering of these towns and buildings were remarkable, but all of them were “of a startling utilitarian character” (Rowland). On the contrary, from the period starting from 600BCE, buildings became habitable artworks in India as intricate detailing and craftsmanship adorned the buildings envelope. Therefore, on an overall, the architecture of the ancient and medieval India possessed a strong identity that reminded people of their nation’s glory. In the period between 1757–1947, the British rule commissioned multiple city development and building projects that were scaled up to wipe out the magnificent architectural history of India (see Image1). In this era, cities displayed symmetry, disciple and hierarchy, to which people may surrender and become obeyed. These cities not just showcased the European supremacy, but they crafted a new palette for city planning whereby, people get divided based on colour, race, religion, region and social status. Even though India became independent in 1947, its architectural style could not escape the trends set by the British.
IMAGE 1. Aerial View of Viceroy’s House, New Delhi| Image source: Old Indian Photos
The inclination towards the European city planning, became evident when the first government of India in 1964, invited the world-famous architect Le Corbusier to design ‘Chandigarh’, the capital city of Punjab and Haryana. Even though this project displayed great political vigour to build something new, it ended up being an inactive administrative capital that showed feeble consideration for culture, tradition and local architecture of the area. This historical past of India reinforces one statement here that the nation has gone through years of ‘constructive process’ and ‘deconstructive process’, eventually building up the national identity. While the former one embraces history, tradition and culture to nurture the memory of the past, the latter one relies on wiping out the past to create a brand-new identity. “Nothing in this world is more simple and cheaper than making cities that offer a better place for people.” (Gehl). Hence, when architecture of urban spaces is devoid of the elements that once represented history, culture and sociology, national identity gets diluted as such spaces may misrepresent what the nation and its people once stood for.
Undoubtedly, the nation-building exercise becomes fulfilling when it is ‘constructive’ in its approach. To cite an example here, from 1950 to 1970, the Indian government commissioned several institutes of technology and management to enhance the human resource capital within the country. Through them, a league of architects such as Charles Correa, B.V Doshi, Achyut Kanvinde and J. A Stein developed a new model for national identity, as they fused modernism with the vernacular style of the region (see Image 2). This era in Indian architecture history ended soon, as monumental architecture intertwined with the political symbols rose to prominence.
IMAGE 2. Salt Lake City Centre, Kolkata, Designed by Architect Charles Correa Photo: Ambuja Neotia
In this contemporary day, constructing cities and buildings have become a political exercise, with more focus laid on the mega development projects. The process of nation buildings moved away from the deep-rooted concepts like understanding the tradition, topography, regional sentiment and became a centrepiece of authority, power, politics and aggression. Thus, India must formulate building programs for the people’s betterment, instead of being a political device that segregates people into various entities. Also, even though India is the world’s largest democratic republic, the mega structures erected on the nation’s soil today reflects the power structure that manipulates people for the benefit of political parties. Hence, this study overlooks the connection between politics, the nation’s aspirations and architecture, to conclude the ways nation-building can be successful in India.
4. Architecture and the Creation of National Identity
4.1 Identity, Politics and Architecture
‘Identity’ is the quality that creates a definable and recognisable entity which has a set of characteristics dissimilar to others. Throughout the world, several patterns on steel, brick, concrete and mortar can be observed that may be highlighted, repeated and sometimes petrified to last forever. This addition may be done to the built environment to propagate an ideology or to convey some messages that are crucial for heightening the national consciousness. They are the ‘symbols’. Symbols are not minor additions done to the design of structures, but they are a concrete abstraction of characters, objects, political speeches, epics, cultural sect and so on. Here Geertz quotes “The images, metaphors and rhetorical turns from which national ideologies are built are essentially devices, cultural devices designed to render one or another aspect of a broad process of collective self-redefinition explicit, to cast essentialist pride or epochal hope into specific symbolic form, where more dimly felt, they can be described, developed, developed, celebrated and used” (Geertz).
Symbols have hallucinatory effects on the public as they are constantly viewed and represented. When, architecture bridge the gap between the ideology and the reality, ‘symbols’ define its physical conditions. The ‘architectural Identity’, of a nation is the one stabilized and legitimated through its symbols (Arendt). For instance, symbols in public spaces can promote scripted encounters with strangers in a democratic setting where non-scripted gatherings are bound to happen. But, when symbols prioritize one community over the other, space may become a setting for social and political contestation. Also, symbols are powerful tools that can control the access, use, and activities in a given space. Through them, people become obeyed and surrender to the most powerful. Also, its potential lies in the fact that it can exhibit the power structure in the society which may hide in plain sight. Hence, there must be clarity on how symbols and power create a national identity.
4.2 Symbols, Power and Architecture
Symbols are closely connected to the terms ‘power to’ and ‘power over’ (Luke)that strongly remains in the built spaces and landscapes of nations. When ‘power to’ is the general capacity to act and empower, ‘power over’ operates through manipulation, force, seduction and authority. The later one is evident in the Indian context, as politics force architects and planners to embed symbols within the structure of the buildings and spaces. Similarly, symbols are sometimes induced in a physical setting and propagated as national identities to give the ‘power over’ to the political regimes. In such a way, spaces and buildings are premeditatedly designed to influence public behaviour and their engagement with space. Moreover, in India, the political ideologies are immersed in the colours and symbols associated with religions, castes and languages. As a result, the spatial structure of urban areas, public building including the ones secular in nature, get persuaded by the dominant political parties and their religious collaborators. Thus, the architecture here blurs the focus on people, culture, landscape and many other facets that are crucial for national development. Over the past decade, the construction of monuments, statutes, urban parks and administrative complexes in India has escalated to an unmanageable level.
“Statues and monuments are political symbols aimed at voters” (Shahane). A wave of statue-building came in early 1990 when successful business-people funded religious sculptures as a gesture of public patronage — an intersection between India’s new-found economic liberalism and religion”. To provide a better insight into the same, the City of Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, India can be brought to the centre of attention. Lucknow is a city which has the glory of both Nawab and Colonial Past. Adding to it, the structure of the city has a few distinct characteristics which are not visible in any other Indian cities. Through various eras, different parties with diverse religious affiliations commissioned several memorial parks, statutes and public gardens, as a tribute to the leaders of their political parties. To enhance the visibility of these monument complexes, built heritage was forced into the prime parcels of land within the city. Furthermore, the city is punctuated by statues that stand sentinel at crowded intersections, near the administrative complexes, and by the side of interstate highways, with smaller cement statues throughout the state’s rural areas.
Additionally, symbols of the political allies such as elephants, cycles and lotus get engraved in marble and granite so that they become timeless reminders of their dominance in the city. For instance, an example of the Ambedkar Park in the Lucknow city can be taken here (see Image 3). This public park built in the year 2008, dedicated to Dr B.R Ambedkar, the father of the Indian Constitution is now emblematic of what might be commemorative architecture. The design of this place revolves around the symbols that relate to the most dominant political party of Lucknow, BSP (Bahujan Samajwadi Party). Earlier in 2008, The political party invested heavily on the building projects that promote their party symbol (Elephant), leaders and lineage that primarily serves the Dalits (Untouchables). In the Ambedkar park, thousands of Elephant statues are sculpted in marble stone to articulate the fundamentally exclusionary space (see IMAGE 4). Also, the sculptures and symbols of the political leaders are erected at the cross over points and raised platforms, thereby being the prominent visual markers of the city. Although these kinds of space empower one community, its visual language discriminates and silence the rest.
IMAGE 3. Ambedkar Memorial Park, Lucknow, Source: Velivada.com
IMAGE 4. Ambedkar Memorial Park, Elephant Statutes Lucknow, Source: Salman Ansari, DNA
In the state elections in Uttar Pradesh in 2012, the Election Commission of India ordered that the statues of Elephants, the symbol Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) must be wrapped in cloths to avoid unduly influencing of voters (Kant). The design and execution of these expensive parks are a burden to the society since the symbols promoted through them segregates people into religion and castes. Even though they may heighten the touristic value of the place, they fail in terms of cultural connection, historical significance and social and environmental responsibility, vital for the nation buildings projects. Hence, politicians who have the right intentions elevates the purpose and genuineness of the national identity.
In India, Power works predominantly through monumental landscapes, architecture and urban renewal projects being a backdrop for it to happen. So, the pressing question here is whether they enhance the social life of the people. When it comes to the nation-building exercise, every building that we craft on the ground is obliged to be socially responsible as defined by Woodcraft (Woodcraft),” combine the design of the physical realm with the design of the social world”. When it comes to the design of the Public realm, the spatial arrangements and the function of buildings should emancipate the people socially and economically. Therefore, the symbols that unify people and instil pride in them, irrespective of gender, religion, culture and politics should be ‘branded’ for the nation’s upliftment.
Symbolism can also have a positive impact on society if architects use them wisely in the spatial organisation of buildings. India has to look back and appreciate the works of architects such as Achyut Kanvinde, Charles Correa, Louis-I-Khan and B V Doshi displayed no intention to hurt the sentiments of one category of people over the other. their projects from 1950–1970, were mostly educational institutions that carried symbols from the ancient Indian Architecture. The step wells of Gujarat, the colored wall of Rajasthan Havelis, the wooden craftworks of India became abstract symbols whereby people connect to their memories of the past. The usage of symbols in their body of work enhanced people’s sense of being part of the nation as they overlapped the spatial qualities of the traditional architecture with new technology. Also, they formulated a series of closed, semi-open and exposed spaces that allows nature to flow through. When the symbols connect the past with the sentiments of the people the ‘Architectural identity’ is created that can empower the nation.
4.3 History and the Political Will
Throughout the world, nation-states and their political leaders have always tried to invoke the sense of a nation in the minds of its people. Since the buildings and spaces are everyday objects, constantly viewed by the people, the leaders of nations employ them as a way to reach the broader public. National leaders and their politics fabricate the ‘national identity’ and it can stand for a completely different ideology which may not blend with the history. But, when alien concepts take shape as buildings on the ground, over time, they may harm the habits, behaviour and other cultural attributes that the people are accustomed to.
To draw an example, When India became independent from the colonial rule in 1947, what remained in the capital cities were the massive palatial houses, geometric city fabric and streets that were aligned to highlight the centres of colonial power. The gigantic building structures which were designed by the European architects invoke a sense of sublime (Dovey)to which one may feel the presence of authority. To break away from this, 1964, Jawaharlal Nehru, the First Prime Minister of India, invited the world-Famous Architect Le Corbusier to design the city of Chandigarh, the new capital city of Punjab and Haryana. Many Indians believed that world-renowned architect’s presence will add ‘honour and glory’, and thus elevate the status of a provincial capital to the best city in the world. (Raghunandhan)The prime minister remarked, “let this new town symbolic of the freedom of India, unfettered by the traditions of the past… be an expression of the nation’s faith in the future (Nehru).” The pressing question here for the architects and planners is that should all the national development projects be iconic? If so, why the basic structure of it should move away from the tradition?
To cite an example, the grid plan of the city of Chandigarh is itself contradictory to the meandering streets and pathways of the culturally rich Indian cities to which people hold their memory (see Images 5). The airy courtyard houses of Punjab or squares were celebrations take place were not intended to be a part of the land-use plan. Moreover, the idea of segregating the land use to distinct functional zones was in stark contrast with the multi-use buildings and streets that prevailed in India. The city built on the ecologically sensitive foothills of the Himalayas is neatly finished in raw concrete to form gigantic structures, rivalling only the massive structures built by the British architects in India. Along these lines, even though attempts were made to inculcate the views of the Himalayan mountains, the cultural and historical layers of the foothills were completely neglected in the land use plan. “The buildings, grid plan and “Open Hand” symbol meant to symbolise the new city, came out of decades of experimentation in Le Corbusier’s native Europe. One could spot the hallmarks of Le Corbusier’s work in Marseilles, Paris and Ronchamp in the buildings of the capital complex. These contained ideas originally developed for urban plans in Moscow and Amsterdam” (Raghunandhan).
IMAGE 5. City plan of Chandigarh, India, Source: Jas Jasna, Pinterest
Furthermore, the entire city now just an administrative nucleus that has legislative assemblies and other buildings that embodies the expression of hierarchy, symmetry and discipline. Thus, one of the most ambitious projects of independent India, Chandigarh today stands as a city flawlessly designed for administrative functions where culturally rich spaces for the common people are a delusion. Furthermore, it should not be forgotten that even though Chandigarh stands as an ‘urban fossil’ devoid of the soul of Indian cities, many planners are forced to consider it as a highly desirable for the ‘Smart Cities’ yet to sprout in the country’s soil.
The essay doesn’t argue that the culture, history and tradition must necessarily be preserved in its original format, but the well-intended aspects of the historical past can be re-injected into the new city palettes. On a level, the central place system in cities should serve homogenous people well settled in its historical lands. The capital must distil and formalise the common folk culture and re-inject the civilized product back into local life. (Landa). We may have to now look back into the spaces that we claim is brand new in our cities and assess how they link to the citizens who use, make and live in those spaces. Also, according to Henry Shaftoe (Convivial Urban Spaces), all successful cities share some common attributes, which can be broadly classified as cultural, physical, geographical, managerial and psychological. Therefore, nation-building should not advocate wiping out the past, neglecting the topography, or ignoring the emotional connect instead they must incorporate all of them in the development plans.
4.4 Democracy and Participation
Democracy as a political system has become an unstoppable force in this world as it gives more power to the common people. It is believed that the more practices of democracy be embedded in the structure of everyday life, the more effectively they convey the feeling of ‘we’ among the nation’s citizens. In the recent decade, there have been several incidents where politically charged citizens made their claims, took decisions, protested, narrated stories and debated in the physical settings of the cities reinforcing their freedom of expression. Thus, we can clearly say that most of the countries, democracy is just an illusion as the governments control the way the citizens must behave.
Although it’s widely accepted by many that democratic concepts put the people first, opinions differ when it comes to the extent to which people’s voices are heard in the development projects. On the contrary, many nations erect tall buildings and large plazas that express discipline, hierarchy and authority, which force people to modify their behaviour and become obeyed. Moreover, the general scenario today is that even though people are welcomed in the ceremonial pathways, assembly buildings, town squares, and broad avenues, access is controlled through a massive redesign of public spaces. This is an antidote to the concepts of democracy that views public spaces as universally accessible places where non-scripted encounters can happen (Parkinson).
India is a democratic republic, where ‘all citidens’ of the nation has the ‘right to spaces and right to the city’. ‘Citiden’ is a term introduced by Henry Lefebvre and it merges two terms namely citizen (a person belonging to the nation-state), and denizen (a city dweller who should not necessarily be a citizen) (Purcell 314). In an equitable society, every citiden possesses the ‘right to participate’ and the right to ‘appropriation’, the latter being the right to produce, use and occupy the urban scene. (Purcell 102)Therefore, it is clear that citidents have an absolute right to be a part of the decision-making process, especially in the case of mega-development projects that can affect the future of the nation. The burning question here is whether the government, architects and designers hear the voices of the people while formulating ambitious projects. Often, the public projects fail in transparency, when policymakers become decision-makers.
In trying to create a romanticized democracy, the central government of India in 2020 commissioned an urban renewal project for the historical precinct of the capital city, which included the redesign of the Rajpath Area (The Kingsway), the most celebrated axial street in India (Indian express 2020). This Kingsway is an axis that connects the Indian parliament to the historical ‘India Gate’, the architectural marvel to which people hold the memory of their victory against the colonial rule. The axial road and the gardens rose to prominence right after India’s independence in 1947, when the first Prime Minister of India opened this area for the common man of the nation, encouraging them to use, occupy, stay, and express themselves in this area. Till now, this spine stays as an economic generator for people in the informal sector, the most important ceremonial pathway where the republic day parades take place, the everyday space for families and the most visited built landscape in India (see image 6). The redesign of this remarkable historical precinct went to a well renowned ‘Star Architect’ of the country, and there is a great deal of wrong in the project’s initial conception.
IMAGE 6 : Kingsway (Rajpath), New Delhi, India. Source: https://travel.sygic.com/en/poi/rajpath-poi:22902
To start with, there were no discussion or debates on the design proposal of it, even though the precinct is extremely precious for the people of India. Neither there’s transparency on ‘how and why’ the particular architecture company was selected nor on the methodology used to bring design conclusions (see image 7). The Architect here gets the prime authority to swap, demolish and reconstruct the most powerful buildings of the nation that includes the Indian Parliament itself. Such political and architectural exercises hinder the nation’s growth since the taxpayer’s money get used for benefit of the chosen. Therefore, the architecture here fails as a design tool as it neglects ‘people’s participation’ in the design process. All architects must uphold their ethical and moral values when it comes to large construction projects in which citidents have the stake. Architects have, over time, been party to multiple instances where they turned out to be indirect agents who implement elite consciousness in the built environments (Shubhayan). While one might argue that the elite bureaucrats are democratically elected to power, it’s important to counter-note that most prestigious urban renewals today are initiated, conceived and implemented without public consultation.
IMAGE 7. View of Rajpath Area (Proposed),New Delhi, India, Source: Ar.Bimal Patel, HCP Architects
The repercussions of inappropriate decision-making by planners, architects and the government can make the nation-building process futile. In this modern-day, the engagement process becomes shallow as many voices go unheard, including the children, young generation, elderly, the marginalized, the ethnic groups, women and so on. The nation buildings schemes should expand outwards to include education, community building, and then physical change (Frisk). Moreover, the professionals should adopt techniques and languages that resonate with the people and is easy to comprehend. Furthermore, efforts have to be made to strengthen the community to make a collective decision on the public zones of the nation-state, since in ‘democratic countries’ people hold ‘power’
A perfect example can be drawn here to deepen the theory of people’s participation in public space. In the redesign of Lafayette Park in Oakland, which was primarily used by the drug users and ‘undesirables’, a minority were in an opinion that the new proposal should get rid of the undesirables. Walter hood approached the design from a democratic perspective, where he created a series of interconnected spaces, separated by berms while being visually connected. Such spaces organically change the behaviour of the ‘undesirables’ and also protects their ‘right to use and participate in a public space. Such development models can be adopted by democratic nations, to pave way for equitably shared spaces in cities. Every space should not have to perform every public role. It is important to look at the degree to which particular city provides space for a variety of experiences and performances of democratic practice (Parkinson).
4.5 Critical Regionalism and the Identity
Booming technology delivers easier construction of buildings throughout the world. Even though this may bring cross-cultural benefits, it may lead to the loss of ‘local identity’, since people connect with their buildings both visually and psychologically/sensually. The built environment traps nostalgia and memory that can touch the eyes of the observer and psyche of the inhabitant. In everyday scenes, the architecture of the built landscape delivers moments of pride in heart, as they may symbolize victory and celebrate national heroes. Therefore, successful nation-building programs will have ‘regionalist’ aspects as its core ingredient.
The term ‘critical regionalism’ was coined by the theorists Liane Lefaivre, Kenneth Frampton and Alexander Tzonis in the 1980’s. ‘Critical regionalism’ inculcate the tangible aspects of the site such as geography, history, sociology, culture and also the intangible features like the spatial quality, light, air and behaviour of the community for whom the design caters to. The best of regionalist works has succeeded in synthesizing indigenous wisdom drawn from the past with the emancipatory and progressive aspects of modernism (Frampton 327) (A.T. Nguyen) (M. Rashid) (Slessor). After the colonial rule, in the period between 150–1970, Indian architects struggled to get modernism accepted in the popular imagination as they could not appropriately address the complex local socio-cultural concerns in their designs (Mehrotra). A league of Architects devised a new style of architecture in India, which fused ‘Critical Regionalism’ with the modernist ideologies of design.
Works of Architects such as Achyut Kanvinde, Charles Correa, Louis-I-Khan and B V Doshi and Laurie Baker displayed no intention to compete with the ultramodern architecture of Europe and North America. Instead, their body of work enhanced people’s sense of being part of the nation as they overlapped the spatial qualities of the traditional architecture with new technology. Also, they formulated a series of closed, semi-open and exposed spaces that allows nature to flow through. Besides, the design features such as the overlapping courtyards, the buffer zones and the usage of cultural symbols lead to the discovery of a new ‘Architectural identity’ that reflected ‘Indianness’.
However, when the Indian economy went through ‘liberalisation’ in 1990, the global capital brought the notion of ‘Curtain wall buildings with air conditioning’, making it the focus of building development schemes. The constant inflow of international ideas and usage of high-tech building materials make the built environment look like a large spatial blob wrapped in steel and glass. Also, in the year 2020, several Information Technology Parks (a zone specially reserved for massive Corporate Office Buildings in large parcels of lands) were planted in the India soil, as an attempt to attract more international investors. Aforesaid advancements in the construction industry neglect the indigenous wisdom which is a part of the regional sentiment. The courtyard buildings, the openings on the wall, the colour composition and the texture of the buildings are all salient features of a culturally and aesthetically vibrant Indian building. In short, these supreme characteristics of Indian traditional buildings is lost in the steel and glass construction of the 21st century. The lack of humanity and urban sensitivity portrayed by this “globalised” architecture has engendered a strong reaction among certain Indian architects in favour of critical regionalism (Mehrotra)(Menon).
As the world is becoming more globalised, a common format of steel and glass architecture is being popularized among the young minds today, projecting them as the ultimate desirable building structures. Moreover, the popular media of India sub-consciously promotes the stylized buildings of the developed countries through prints, films and music albums. Because of these influences, the growing countries are forced to insert the palette of international style to its buildings and cityscapes. When a global design template is applied to public design projects, the ‘sense of place’ weakens as mentioned by Basso. “In general, the sense of place describes our relationship with places, expressed in different dimensions of human life: emotions, biographies, imagination, stories, and personal experiences” (Basso). When alienated design concepts get implemented with brand new buildings materials, it may affect the relationship of commoners with their surroundings, thereby degrading the ‘regional identity.’ This phenomenon can be seen clearly on the International competitions where architects who are unaware of the Indian context are prioritized over the local ones. Even though, the great cultural exchange happens when International architects and corporations are brought onto the Indian scene, it leads to a loss of local identity and sense of place, due to their cultural unawareness. An appropriate design proposal can only be generated if thorough research is done about the people, their lifestyle and everything that sums up ‘culture’.
In contrary to the opinion of Mahatma Gandhi that “the future of India lies in the villages”, the renewal schemes are centred around urban India, making the cities flooded with building proposals. According to the World Bank collection of development indicators 65.7% of India’s population lives in rural India. Hence, any government program must contribute an appropriate share of their funding for the benefit of the villagers. Moreover, there has been a downfall in the number of architectural design firms in the rural and peri-urban areas, since the city exhibits progressive construction activities. Therefore, it becomes unquestionable that architects, planners and politicians possess the ability to play a significant role in developing rural India that is now deprived of proper infrastructure.
The change is already visible in the practice of new architecture firms. A few of them try to be regional and contextual and avoid becoming a global which is monotonous. Good buildings make and are made by their settings, and they are appropriately different in different locations. Climate, culture, topography and materials have helped create regional architectural languages that seem curiously right for their locations and for all times (Robertson).
To cite an example, it is well-known that preserving the traditional craftsmanship and elevating them to suit the needs of the present is a tedious task when it comes to contemporary building construction. But, when these two aspects get fused, new building aesthetic is created. ‘Samskara’ a boutique designed by the Ar. Anupama Kundoo stands as an exemplary exhibit of ‘Handmade Architecture’ up winged to contemporary standards. The rustic marble, handcrafted floors and benches are in striking contrast to the shiny floors that are mandatory for global acceptance. Such initiatives employ native techniques and act as livelihood generators for neglected societies, affected communities and people employed in the traditional sector. On a similar note, nation-building projects should employ the local artisans, craftsmen and builders to promote the idea of ‘Go Local’, contrary to ‘Go Global’.
Like the previous example, nation-building through architecture can become fulfilling if architects and artists dissolve their identities and expand their field of expertise for the greater acceptance of the regional characteristics. Moreover, in developing nations, architects also bear the responsibility to raise awareness among the commoners of their culturally rich regional and national heritage.
5. Conclusion
Nation-building is a multi-faceted exercise that may take up years of implementation. Constructing a national identity is a pre-requisite for any nation development project, and it requires constant engagement and renewal. The national identity must uphold the national values, to bring a sense of pride in the minds of the people. Furthermore, sustenance of national identity should ensure unification of the nation despite creative, political, regional and geographical differences. People trust the nation-state and its regimes more when they live in settings that back up the right principles the nation has followed for years. Hence, architecture and urban design heavily contribute to national development as they are significant carriers of symbols.
When the symbols thrive in everyday built spaces, they become talking abstracts to which people respond. The leaders of nation-states masterfully implant these symbols to the built space, making architecture an instrument for the propagation of ideas and philosophies. These thoughts possess the ability to enhance the national values or destroy them. No matter how democratically the members of the elite are chosen, they justify their existence and other actions in terms of collection of stories, ceremonies, insignia, formalities and appurtenances. That mark the centre and give what goes on there its aura of being not merely important but in some odd fashion connected with the way the world is built (Geertz).In India, even though the widely propagated ‘symbols’ today tend to disparage a few specific communities, the nation holds the capacity to foster unity if it brings in people’s participation. Participation is the key to the creation of national Identity and nation-building projects gain purpose when no voices go unheard.
The spatial framework of cities, towns and villages stabilise the ‘national identity’ and illustrate the ‘power structure’ within the society. When the buildings become trappings of ‘power’, forced on the people, the concept of nation-building through architecture weakens. Hence, the architecture of a democratic country like India must prioritise ideologies of the people over the concerns of the political elites, so that new relations and realities get established. Thus, nations get befitted through architecture, if it enables non-biased cultural, social, economic and historical continuity, to form a collective memory that sub-consciously gets inscribed in the minds of the people.
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Woodcraft, Saffron. Design for Social Sustainability: A framework for creating thriving new communities. 2011. | https://medium.com/@architect-anupama/nation-building-and-architecture-99a37a9b97db | ['Anu S K'] | 2020-12-25 01:09:06.829000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Urban Planning', 'Urbanism', 'Architecture', 'Urban Design'] |
Acceptance | by Albert Barroso
Sifting through my ‘treasure chest’, — a silver-ribboned red one of memories I’ve kept for years and years and years — I come across a smaller wooden box. I open it and out come spilling out folded paper of various sizes crammed to fit. Letters. Letters written to me during my high school years from my peers, dating as early as 2011. This practice of letter-writing started way before that, but I did not have the foresight to keep them; although at least I kept a journal back then. But that’s a story for another day. These letters are largely from when I was in Secondary 3 ’til 5… ah, those days the drama was alive.
I read them one by one and in my mind, I’ve reversed time. These letters outline the time when we’d write to each other asking the one, vital question we were all curious about at the age of sixteen: “Who do you have a crush on?” Oh, how innocent were we then. I also find a couple of papers I wrote to myself; so-called journal entries. They tell me about a relationship between a boy and a girl, best friends as if nothing else mattered. I write, “I know we won’t be together forever, but I don’t want to lose him as a best friend.” We stopped being best friends after… but I could still call him a friend. 8 years and a final ‘fight’ later though, Eric and I’s friendship is at an end. Let’s just say that egos played a big part.
Other things in my treasure chest catch my attention. A Pokémon notebook never used, a bookmark of the Tokyo Tower still in its packaging, many other trinkets from all over the world kept pristine. Little things from places travelled to that made Michael think of me. A friend I thought of precious; one of those people who you’d trust with everything and rely on to relieve the sting of anything. One who would tell me his weirdest dreams and not worry about me judging. For 13 years.
Back in February, a newfound soul sister and I decided to create prompts for ourselves to help force us to write something each month. February’s prompt was “Replying to An Old Piece of Writing From When You Were Younger”. I dedicated mine to Michael. I replied to an old piece I wrote (slightly exaggerated for rhyme): | https://medium.com/ionic-vetrices/acceptance-eec7341d118a | ['Batrisyia Ain'] | 2019-04-12 18:33:42.286000+00:00 | ['Change', 'Acceptance', 'Friendship', 'Life Lessons'] |
Indianapolis — Newfields. Newfields really has it all. It is an… | Newfields really has it all. It is an art museum, garden, art and nature park, and historical grounds all rolled into one. It is definitely a must-see site in Indianapolis.
Planning Your Visit
Plan to spend a decent amount of time here, and go with a plan in mind of what you want to prioritize on your visit. We personally spent an entire afternoon here and only saw maybe half of the grounds and only just briefly visited the indoor museum.
Indianapolis Museum of Art
Of course a major attraction at Newfields is the art museum galleries. There is much to see here from their collection, from different eras, regions, styles, and materials used.
In addition to their standard displays, the Indianapolis Museum of Art also hosts rotating exhibitions, so there is always new art on display. During our visit and running through October, one of these exhibitions is Edward Hopper and the American Hotel.
While we were visiting, much of our trip included rain, but we had phenomenal weather while at Newfields, so we opted to spend our time in the gardens and outdoor areas. However, we didn’t miss the opportunity to see the original Love sculpture by Robert Indiana, along with Holes, by Anderson Ruhwald, the current light sculpture on display in the main entrance.
Lilly House
This historical landmark is a beauty. Home to the Lilly family from the 1930s to the 1960s, the Lilly house is restored to its 1930s appearance. My favorite part of this home is the view from the back of the house, overlooking the lake.
The Gardens
A vast amount of different garden areas exist within the estate. From wooded paths, to flower gardens, to sculptures and fountains — there is much to see.
I was thoroughly impressed by these beautiful gardens, and have been told the gardens receive a makeover for both Halloween and Christmas that is well worth the visit.
If you need a break during your visit, stop by the beer garden at the greenhouse for a refreshment.
Virginia B. Fairbanks Art and Nature Park
Unfortunately access to the art and nature park from the gardens was temporarily closed due to construction during our visit. However, that gives us all the more reason to visit again.
This area of the grounds includes many contemporary art installations and sculptures by the lake, but we were able to see some lovely sculptures on the lawn in front of the art museum.
Overall, I must recommend you take the time to visit Newfields in Indianapolis. If you are looking for additional ideas for your visit to Indianapolis, click here. | https://medium.com/@theonlykingdrew/indianapolis-newfields-d35a5a9f05ed | [] | 2020-10-07 14:54:51.340000+00:00 | ['Indianapolis', 'Indiana', 'Botanical Garden', 'Museums', 'Travel'] |
Expectations | Image by Marek Studzinski from Pixabay
So often in my life I have tricked myself into believing I was close to finding the one thing that could fulfill me. Something would catch my eye, fascinate me, draw me to it like a starving pilgrim to a feast of blessed manna.
Just as often that miraculous feast would begin to seem illusion — which, of course, most times it had been all along. Yet happily enough the realizing of illusion has not become the sole expectation of my schemes. I can still start with hope every time.
We think we know so much about how we achieve, how we should go forward in our lives, that we don’t consider for a moment that any emotions other than desire and will should be needed to succeed. We’re smart, we’re able, we will do, we will get. Mm, yeah, we think we know.
I can only imagine the majority of us adhere to, at least, some ethical standards when we set out for fulfillment, but I wonder how many standards stay the course should that course prove more difficult than first determined.
Like runners pounding through the last stretch of a marathon do we begin to shed them as we race along desperately reaching for our goal?
If we do, do we arrive lighter? Do we really win? Do we gain what we expected or are we so changed our once sought goal, now gained goal, no longer seems of any worth?
It is my belief that perhaps we actually do get what we expected every time, it’s just that we become so blinded by our brilliant striving that we do not see the “I” that began to want is not the same “I” that got.
Maybe in the shedding of our personal standards we also unconsciously shed the universal spiritual standards of trust, faith and fairness.
We let them go, we forget to hold trust that we do all ultimately get what we need rather than what we want. We forget that we should always carry faith in the wisdom of divine will and we forget to retain the steadying weight of fairness for all, but most of all we forget we have already achieved our greatest goal — we are here, we breathe in, we breathe out — as expected.
Namaste
Claire | https://medium.com/spiritual-secrets/expectations-2fcca26eb6a1 | ['Claire Elaine'] | 2020-09-26 06:13:05.042000+00:00 | ['Personal Growth', 'Spirituality', 'Spiritual Secrets', 'Channeling', 'Life Lessons'] |
Presidential Campaign Stops Remain a Double-Edged Sword | Campaigns and Elections
Presidential Campaign Stops Remain a Double-Edged Sword
Campaign visits by Donald Trump and Kamala Harris motivated both supporters and opponents to vote with their pocketbooks Nicholas G. Napolio Follow Sep 15 · 3 min read
President Donald Trump and VP Mike Pence. Source: Reshot.com
By: Nicholas Napolio, Boris Heersink, and Jordan Carr Peterson
The 2020 presidential campaign was an odd one. The coronavirus pandemic forced candidates to campaign in new ways, and often virtually. But presidential and vice-presidential candidates on both tickets still made personal appearances as well — stopping at airports for drive-in rallies or (in the case of the Trump campaign) regular rallies with big audiences. Political scientists have long tried to measure whether such campaign visits actually matter in elections: do voters respond in any real way to these visits, or are they just political theater?
Research on this topic has produced different findings: some conclude that candidate visits can have a positive effect: after a visit, these candidates received more votes, saw their poll numbers go up, or received more campaign donations. However, other studies find that there is basically no effect for many candidate visits.
Most of these studies have looked at the effect of campaign visits as being in one direction: a candidate’s visit either benefits them or does nothing. But an alternative possibility is that visits have mixed effects: they can activate voters who like the visiting candidate, but also those who dislike them. If correct, this places campaign visits in a whole new light: by making public appearances candidates might actually be activating supporters of their opponent.
In a forthcoming article in American Politics Research, we argue that the 2020 campaign visits had counterbalancing effects. Specifically, we find that visits by Donald Trump and Kamala Harris had strong mobilizing and counter-mobilizing effects, increasing individual donations to both campaigns. In contrast, visits by Joe Biden and Mike Pence had much more muted effects.
To investigate how campaign stops affected mobilization, we collected data from the Federal Election Commission on individual contributions to the Biden and Trump campaigns. We then matched those donations with a daily log of campaign stops by all four candidates (Biden, Harris, Trump, and Pence) maintained by the Chicago Tribune. Finally, we examined whether individual contributions in each zip code to each campaign increased on days when candidates visited the media markets containing those zip codes.
Here’s what we found.
On the days of visits, particularly Harris and Trump visits, donations to both campaigns increased. Specifically, Trump visits stimulated about $48,000 in donations to his own campaign in media markets on days he visited, but also about $174,000 to the Biden campaign. Harris had a stronger effect on the number of individual donors than the total amount donated, stimulating about 630 people to donate to the Biden campaign but also about 140 people to donate to the Trump campaign.
Why did Trump and Harris energize their own supporters and opponents?
We think at least two explanations are likely: negative partisanship and backlash to a woman of color on the ballot. Negative partisanship is the phenomenon that voters’ dislike of the opposing political party activates their support of their own party’s candidate and is a persistent reality in contemporary American politics. Indeed, recent studies show that Trump visits in 2016 also resulted in increased donations to the Clinton campaign, and that Trump’s endorsements in 2018 often benefited the Democratic opponents of the candidates he supported.
In addition, Trump’s campaign consistently stoked many voters’ resentment of an increasingly multicultural and gender inclusive American society, which may have made a visit by Kamala Harris — the first Black and Asian-American woman to be selected as a vice presidential candidate — threatening to a certain cross-section of the electorate, stimulating donations to the Trump campaign.
What does this mean for 2022 and 2024?
When Trump supports Republican candidates — or if he runs for president again himself — it is likely he will energize both his own base and Democratic voters in the opposite direction. In contrast, a less-controversial candidate like Biden doesn’t seem to excite voters much in either direction. But Harris has similar effects to Trump: her campaign activities excite the Democratic base, but they also seem to energize Republican voters. | https://medium.com/3streams/presidential-campaign-stops-remain-a-double-edged-sword-cf0350661b44 | ['Nicholas G. Napolio'] | 2021-09-17 14:40:55.743000+00:00 | ['Donald Trump', 'Campaign', 'Kamala Harris', '2020 Presidential Race', 'Politics'] |
Melanie’s Spice Site: My Path to UX Design | From a WebTV hobby to the 2020 Pandemic Apocalypse, my personal journey on pursuing a career in design.
My desire to design a website dedicated to the Spice Girls, my middle school pop idols, was where my passion for design began! Image Credit
In February of 2020 I sat with my friends in the San Francisco’s Dolores Park. I felt a stressful gnawing: that I’m not in the right place in my life. So many factors brought me here but I began asking around:
What kind of work can I do in tech that is visual, creative, and works with people? How can I take the skill sets of a teacher and turn it into a tech lifestyle? My friend Anna, said, “You would make a great UX Designer and you should look into it.” 💁🏻♀️
Some time after, I experienced a gnawing feeling turned into a headache. Not just a headache, a migraine. Then an all out sickness. A fever. 🤒 An I’m-in-bed-for-three-days-in-a-way-I’m-not-so-cool-with type of sickness. Here I thought, wow I’m done. I can’t do stress like this any longer! In that moment I decided that it was time to finally do something about that gnawing feeling. I told my husband: “I’m done with teaching, I’m changing my life!” He looked at me like…”Wow that’s some fever. No really Mel, are you ok?” 🤷🏿♂️
But I wasn’t okay. I had Covid-19!!! I would have it for another full month. I also had twelve years of being chewed up with people work. There is no denying: teachers and social workers don’t get a fair shake at things and it’s in the nature of the work.
Because it isn’t valued, teaching in the US can be a demanding profession. This video shows how the US compares to other places in the world.
Looking back in time, I had a lot of passion for design. Early on, I would sit for hours fiddling on the early 90s versions of computers with the green and black screens. I had fun inputing what I could and sitting around watching older kids crack the codes. Numbers pouring down the screen like waterfalls.
I KNEW I was a designer when I was eleven. It was 1996 and they came out with WebTv. Since my parents couldn’t shell out for a desktop computer, this was the next best thing. I would surf the web and discover all there was to the World Wide Web. So much media that I couldn’t have found otherwise. I picked up the hobby of compiling all my favorite webpages into WebTv’s folders.
Things ramped up when we got a keyboard for Christmas, instead of toggling arrows on a TV remote, I could type! ⌨️ Super big deal. I ended up finding Express Page one of the first made for the public web builders. I would obsess over details, I would scour the web for content. What was my site about?
The Spice Girls! It was named “Melanie’s Spice Site.”
I don’t know what I liked more; the Spice Girls as artists with their fashion and attitude or obsessing over details and picking up on what my guests wanted to know. I had intensely researched my subject and worked my best to present to them. I had facts, quotes, pictures, rainbow animated borders, a subtle sparkling star background, spinning bullet points, Spice Girl midi music (keyboard synthesizer tunes) would play in background. Each page was slightly different but within the theme. It was my world. Every time a new widget was found or a better version of a guestbook was discovered it was a priority to get it to my site. I had a page counter of thousands, an accomplishment. My guestbook quickly filled, I got my site listed on huge sites. I even had haters: “YOUR NAME ISN’T MELANIE, YOU ARE FAKING IT!” I laughed. 😂
“If You Wannabe My Lover” by the Spice Girls: Mel C, Mel Z, Emma, Victoria, Geri on the steps of St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel in London
It kinda is my name though. 🤨 But this was the internet. Not much has changed. We just made variations of the same avenues. Creating favorite content, strangers saying all sorts of silly things, building versions of entertainment that keeps us glued. In that time I had mastery of HTML (probably sloppy as all heck), beginnings of Java and tried other platforms like Angelfire and GeoCities. WebTv had a built in playlist of midi files you could play in the background while you worked. 🎶 With hits like “Tasty Wav”, and the “Ragtime Dance” where could a kid go wrong?!
Years later I no longer had a WebTv, I had pen and paper and lots of time to myself, more than I would have liked. ✍️ Life became complicated and confusing. So here I learned to be a story teller to make my own world when things were tough. I wrote a 2-hundred-some page book at age twelve. I still have it in my closet. Most of the story was a varied mish mash of TV sitcoms, memories of playing Tomb Raider with my cousin, and precisely what I would put in my dream home. I was the problem solver now and writing stories was a way to focus my own narrative and retain joy in my childhood.
I still have my story stored away.
Time went on and I landed myself in a rural town for high school. Here I really connected with my computer science teacher. She recognized my passion for design. She is one of three teachers that I can remember advocating and challenging me with multiple opportunities. She let other teachers in on my talents and together they kept handing me more and more things to do. My extracurricular time in high school was where I applied myself to escape my inner reckonings. The opportunities were an escape. | https://medium.com/@melanieogunwale/melanies-spice-site-my-path-to-ux-design-5b155e35cb79 | ['Melanie Ogunwale'] | 2021-02-01 20:48:23.309000+00:00 | ['Women in STEM', 'About Me', 'Designer', 'Women In Tech', 'Origin Stories'] |
Spider Tanks — New Playtest, New Tank Parts! | The incredible team at GAMEDIA has decided to work overtime and squeeze in another exciting Beta Playtest before Into the Galaverse!
Each previous test build has come with plenty of awesome upgrades and improvements, and if you haven’t spent any quality battle time in the arena, this playtest will be the perfect opportunity. This time, the Beta test will last for at least 1 week!
How to Get in the Game
Just like the last closed Beta test, this round will be open to all Spider Tanks players who own a complete Tank. That means that you’ll either need 1) a complete limited edition Tank, or 2) the combination of any Weapon and any Body, which together make up a complete Tank.
Brand New Tank Parts
For those of you who don’t have a complete Tank yet, or those who just want to increase your existing collections, we’ve released a bunch of brand new parts in the Spider Tanks store! Enjoy!
Hurricane Body
Flea Body
Muzzle Body
Gatling Gun
Twin Guns
Rocket Artillery
Get Tanks and Tank Parts in the Spider Tanks Store.
Download the Spider Tanks Launcher through the link on THIS PAGE. Then follow the instructions to install and play in the latest build!
Have fun! Remember to take occasional breaks (you know, to eat and sleep).
About Spider Tanks
Spider Tanks is an upcoming PVP arena brawler from GAMEDIA and Gala Games. This expertly crafted and brilliantly competitive game will be the world’s first internationally renowned play-to-earn esport! Learn more at Spidertanks.game.
About GAMEDIA
GAMEDIA is an award winning game studio from the Netherlands, with an extensive track record and history. The long list of games they have developed are mostly based on well know entertainment IP’s and have seen the light on a wide range of platforms and hardware. Currently they are focused on creating our own high quality multiplayer games for PC, consoles as well as mobile. | https://blog.gala.games/new-beta-playtest-new-tank-parts-54ba4c582c86 | ['Spider Tanks'] | 2021-11-24 17:33:45.753000+00:00 | ['Gaming', 'Spider Tanks', 'Blockchain', 'Esports', 'Nft'] |
Android CI/CD pipeline with Bitrise: Deploy your apps to Google Play Store | In the mobile app industry, Continuous Integration(CI) and Continuous Deployment(CD) play an important role in terms of letting teams to deliver code changes frequently, safely, and automatically. Today, there are lots of different CI/CD tools like Jenkins, CircleCI, AppCircle and etc, but in this post, we will be talking about Bitrise.
Before I deep dive into the topic let me explain what CI/CD is and why we really need it.
What is Continuous Integration?
It is a software development practice that checks if the codes are acceptable for integration. CI workflow may include operations like app compilation, static code reviews and unit/UI testing with automated tools.
What is Continuous Deployment?
A continuous process which deploys codes to production system for every change that passes automated tests successfully.
Why should we use CI/CD?
If you are working with a team, you should be familiar with the development process. Each team member opens pull requests and merges their codes in a continuous cycle. In most cases, the master branch should be the most stable one and ready for production when merging codes to it. However, how can we make sure that it is fully reliable and tested properly?
That’s the part where CI plays an essential role. For each code integration, it runs an automated build in the background and checks whether tests are successful or not. The advantage of using CI in the project is that developers can fix potential bugs as soon as possible.
In addition, the importance of using CD in the project enables the team to work more efficiently and increases the quality of the whole development process.
Setting up Bitrise
The first thing to do is to open bitrise.io and create a new Bitrise project. This will only take 2– 3 minutes because Bitrise really simplifies this process for you.
After connecting your repository, Bitrise adds an SSH key into your repository automatically as a deploy key (This can be done manually if you have private dependencies). When the configuration is completed, Bitrise will ask you to register a webhook in your repository. This is really important because when you register a webhook, any code change in the repository will trigger the primary workflow.
That’s it :) If the validation is successful, Bitrise will give you the default workflow based on the project configuration.
Setup Google Play Project
First, you need to deploy the first APK or AAB manually to Play Store.
Secondly, open API ACCESS page in Play Store and link your API project by clicking “Create new project”
Then, click on Create new service account. This will redirect you to Google Api Console
After completing service account details, don’t forget to create a private key (JSON file) and download it. We will use it later on.
Now the last step is to grant access to the service account on Play Store. After that, we will have completed Play Store part of the deploying process.
Let’s open bitrise.io
After login with your account, select the project that you want to deploy and click on Workflow Editor.
The next step is to click on Code Signing tab. After uploading keystore file and keystore credentials, we need to upload the service account JSON key which we downloaded before.
In Bitrise, we have two workflows. Primary and Deploy . Just to clarify, both of them are created automatically when you add your app. They have almost the same steps and basically what they do is to activate the SSH keys, clone the Git repository, deploy build artifacts, and handle caching. Deploy workflow has extra steps for building the project and if the build is successful it deploys it to Play Store or any other market. For this tutorial, we will be only interested in deploying app to Play Store.
and . Just to clarify, both of them are created automatically when you add your app. They have almost the same steps and basically what they do is to activate the SSH keys, clone the Git repository, deploy build artifacts, and handle caching. Deploy workflow has extra steps for building the project and if the build is successful it deploys it to Play Store or any other market. For this tutorial, we will be only interested in deploying app to Play Store. In deploy workflow, click on Android Build step. This step actually is similar to the primary workflow except for one thing. As we are planning to deploy it, we need to choose release variant. Build type is up to you. Choose apk or aab.
Next, click on Android Sign step. Bitrise generated env variables for us in the Code Signing tab when we provide our keystore credentials, so we can use them all for filling the required fields. If you are uploading apk, then you can use $BITRISE_APK_PATH. For aab it is $BITRISE_AAB_PATH. One final thing to mention is that, If your app targetSdk is 30, then you need to enable apksigner and choose v2 for APK Signature Scheme
We are really close to the ending! For the last step, you need to add Deploy to Google Play step to the end of the Workflow. Add your service account JSON key file path, app package name, and apk or aab file path to the required fields. For the track field, you need to choose where you want to deploy your app (internal, alpha, beta, production, or any custom track). That’s it! Your app is ready to auto-deploy.
One more thing that I need to mention is when we need to trigger deploy workflow and how. Let me introduce you to Triggers. Go back to Workflow Editor and click on Triggers. For my case, I need to trigger deploy editor when somebody pushes codes to master branch. You can add as many triggers as you want. Also, for every pull request, I wanted the primary workflow editor to be triggered so that we can verify if something needs to be fixed before merging it. By the way, for every build, Bitrise notifies you via mail or slack about build status.
Bitrise really makes developers’ life easier even if you do not have any experience with CI/CD before. We did all the processes with Bitrise visual editor without writing a single line of code or something :)
CI/CD at Armut🍐
We were using CircleCI at Armut for a couple of years. However, we migrated our applications successfully to Bitrise recently. There are two reasons which make us choose Bitrise over CircleCI.
Ease of use : Bitrise workflow editor provides us very simple and pleasing user interface. The best part of this tool is, we don’t have to struggle with .yml files.
: Bitrise workflow editor provides us very simple and pleasing user interface. The best part of this tool is, we don’t have to struggle with .yml files. Out of memory(OOM): CircleCI container started to throw OOM exception for each build lately. We tried many solutions like increasing container default size and Java heap size. However, we could not overcome the build error.
By the way, if you are curious about how CI/CD was implemented at Armut before, you better check this post.
Happy Coding! | https://labs.armut.com/android-ci-cd-pipeline-with-bitrise-deploy-app-to-google-play-store-6bd95f652f8c | ['Caner Gulgec'] | 2020-11-27 14:57:04.073000+00:00 | ['Continuous Integration', 'Android', 'Engineering', 'Continuous Deployment', 'Bitrise'] |
TOP 10 videos about crypto to watch right now | Music is a popular way of self-expression, and if you really want to, you can definitely find a song about literally anything online.
TRASTRA find 10 music videos related to crypto. Sooooo, let’s start to sing!
Read also about 8 Best Movies that give us important financial advice
This song absolutely deserves to be the first in our list…
“Crypto money, crypto money
I pay my beats with crypto money”
Everybody wants some changes, especially in the crypto world.
“Welcome to the Blockchain
Things are about to change”
If you are the real rich bitch, you will definitely like this song.
“Bitcoin Billionaire
Spending money like I don’t care”
This song is about hard life of crypto enthusiasts.
“The price keeps falling
I see my fortune, I just keep thinking
That I almost had it all…”
Welcome true gangsta rap!
“We talking crypto”
This song is the theme song of every exit scam victim ever.
“Shoulda, woulda, coulda…but no’’
Want to relax? We’ve got the perfect song for you, while you’re sipping your cocktail on your yacht somewhere in the Bahamas, paid for with Bitcoin… Yeah right.
‘’You tell me it’s the right coin but it’s just a Litecoin
Maybe I’ll have tea with Charlie Lee’’
Without any words…
“Crypto
Crypto
Crypto
Currency
Stack a couple of bitcoins!
Money
Money
Money
Money
Hold up on my Nakamoto”
And what have you achieved?
“Bitch, I got that Bitcoin cash”
And to top it off, we wish you a good night and sweet dreams with this outstanding masterpiece.
“Blockchain will be there at sunrise
So close your eyes, go to sleep, goodnight” | https://medium.com/@trastra/top-10-videos-about-crypto-to-watch-right-now-ff10a99a502 | [] | 2020-01-06 15:52:06.477000+00:00 | ['Trastra', 'Videos', 'Songs', 'Bitcoin', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
The Simple Tool That Completely Changed How I Work With Remote Engineering Teams | Originally published on www.Ben-Staples.com
If we ignore the big flaming dumpster fire that is COVID for a moment driving almost all technology companies to go 100% remote, in the digital age more and more software development is being done by geographically distributed teams. For example, I work as a Product Manager for Nordstrom based out of Chicago IL. I currently have the honor of working with 10 total software engineers. 7 of them are based in Seattle, and 3 of them are based all the way in the Ukraine.
Working with a geographically diverse group of engineers is awesome. It brings new perspectives, and new team dynamics that on the whole build towards a stronger product. Geographically diverse teams result in individuals bringing different ways of thinking about problems and solutions to the table. Of course it is not all rainbows and butterflies. There can be challenges, especially for teams as they are forming. For example, you need to adjust meeting cadence to if possible so the time works for all team members.
Oftentimes, cultural differences can cause significantly separate needs for how feedback can be delivered or received. For example, I find that for many engineers based out of European countries, their preference is blunt and overly direct feedback.
Part of this is a language thing, if teams don’t primarily speak the same language, sometimes flowery style adjectives that people tend to use (*cough* me) to try to better describe the sentiment behind a piece of feedback can get lost. However I personally attribute the majority of this preference in feedback delivery to just different cultural norms. Some folks and / or cultures bias towards the most direct feedback possible, while others take a little more finesse.
Time is not your friend with geographically diverse engineers; it impacts feedback loops, which impacts value to the customer.
One of the biggest drivers of behavior change when moving from a team of engineers all working from one location to geographic distribution can be of course differences in time zone. At Nordstrom we have about 2–3 hours of overlap with our Kyiv engineers. That means that for an engineer based in the same time zone as you, you have a whole 8 hours where you can talk through a feature, time for the engineer make changes, and time for design and product provide feedback about those changes.
THEN, the developer has time to react to those changes and get a second version stood up and ready to go before the day ends. As a result, if you have an engineer, a product manager, and a designer all in the same time zone, you have 8 total working hours all overlapping where feedback, changes, and iterations can be produced.
HOWEVER if you have an engineer based in a different time zone, you’ve got significantly less hours of overlap.
So instead of having multiple opportunities to ideate, build, get feedback, and ideate again most days you can only have one feedback cycle if your team has an overlap of 2 working hours. Feedback cycles are important, check out this article on the difference between Kanban and Scrum to see some examples of how this comes to life.
This is in no way saying that less overlap in hours means less gets done. That engineer based in another time zone still works a full 8 hours, and is still an awesome engineer with a great skill set. It just means that the active time you have for feedback loops is condensed significantly.
Not only that, but you also need to think about the quality of your feedback and the amount of data you can convey in each round. With an in person engineering team, you get to talk directly, convey not only the data and information around the feature you’re implementing, but also emotional reactions to different things that are said.
Not all feedback formats are created equal.
Now, in the time of COVID, a bunch of teams are working remotely. So we receive a little less data than you would get in person, but you can still see peoples reactions, can still talk through problems and share your screen.
However when you are working in off hours (I.E. the time when you are working but your engineering team is not because it is their nighttime), many people rely on text to convey feedback about a feature or idea.
This is the big mistake
Most of the time this comes in the form of Jira ticket comments, or slack messages. If you think about the amount of data or information you can convey at a time, the highest quality of data delivery is in person. Next would be over video chat, and the very last form would be forms of text based communication. It is just so much less efficient.
Showing what something looks like is much more impactful than telling someone what it looks like. Think about presenting anything; instead of having a slide full of text, show a picture or video and speak to what is happening. I don’t need to ask you to consider which is more impactful.
So we have established that the faster your feedback loop, the more value you will deliver to the customer. And the more time you have working the same daylight hours as your team, the more opportunities you will have to provide feedback. The more feedback and the faster the frequency of delivery, the more value delivered to the end customer. And thus, if you are working with a team in a different time zone, you have less overlap in working hours, and as a result less total time that you can give and receive feedback on features your team is working on.
Not great, but there has got to be some sort of a solution to help!
There is!!
Screen recordings.
Video recordings do take just a little bit more time to make than something like a comment on a Jira ticket, but not much more, and the impact this can have in terms of how much is conveyed for feedback is incredible.
Photo by Soundtrap on Unsplash
All you need to do is get a basic screen recorder and a microphone (which of course you already have if you’re working from home). I use a chrome extension literally called “Screen Recorder”. It is free, and I can quickly record my screen, include the cursor, and add my voiceover.
So now, I am trying to build the habit when working with an engineer in another time zone on any sort of feature, of making a screen recording and walking through specific points of feedback. It conveys so much more, walking through, pointing out specific features, points of confusion, etc. This provides the engineer with a ton more context on changes you are asking for, or updates needed. The end result is that using screen recordings and a voice over is a pretty good attempt at trying to fit the information that would normally be contained in multiple rounds of feedback into one rich method of information delivery.
Does this solve the problem of just not having as much working hour overlap with offshore engineers? No. But what screen recordings do is they significantly deepen the level of feedback normally provided so that you can convey more in a shorter amount of time.
It takes no money, takes almost no additional time, and I would highly recommend anyone working with any engineering team at all try this out and see how it goes.
About the author:
Ben Staples has over 7 years of product management and product marketing eCommerce experience. He is currently employed at Nordstrom as a Senior Product Manager responsible for their product pages on Nordstrom.com. Previously, Ben was a Senior Product Manager for Trunk Club responsible for their iOS and Android apps. Ben started his Product career as a Product Manager for Vistaprint where he was responsible for their cart and Checkout experiences. Before leaving Vistaprint, Ben founded the Vistaprint Product Management guild with over 40 members. Learn more at www.Ben-Staples.com
I do product management consulting! Interested in finding out more? Want to get notified when my next product article comes out? Interested in getting into Product Management but don’t know how? Want even more book recommendations?! Contact me! | https://medium.com/work-today/the-simple-tool-that-completely-changed-how-i-work-with-remote-engineering-teams-b0eaabac61e1 | ['Ben Staples'] | 2020-12-17 21:40:16.499000+00:00 | ['Product Management', 'Product', 'Technology', 'Agile', 'Tech'] |
Hamilton — Mythology, Misogyny, and Martyrdom | Mythology
For nearly 250 years, efforts have been made to add these key figures such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and even Benjamin Franklin, into an American Pantheon. These ‘gods’ have states and cities named after them, statues erected in their likeness, and have found their way into our textbooks as infallible heroes.
Statue of Ben Franklin. The Washington Monument. The Jefferson Memorial.
Increasingly, I’d like to imagine that the American collective is in a phase of re-examining the character of our Founding Fathers. There is more discourse surrounding their status as slave-owners or wealthy tycoons. This deconstruction also has to do with disassembling the fundamental American values of ambition, free-market enterprise, and even racism.
Instead of challenging the character of our Founding Fathers, I believe that Hamilton positions itself as a love letter to them, particularly to its namesake. The main characters are portrayed as heroic, ready to lay their lives down for the revolution.
But what exactly does their revolution stand for? Hamilton implies it has something to do with ‘freedom,’ a stance most Americans would corroborate. In The Story of Freedom, some of the more fanciful and heart-warming lyrics of the play are sung, “Raise a glass to freedom / Something they can never take away / No matter what they tell you.” This is even reprised in Hamilton’s last words later on.
But that isn’t true, is it? Freedom is something that can be taken away.
The Founding Fathers who are imaged to stand for the value of ‘freedom’ in their mythologies, do not in fact believe in absolute freedom. They owned slaves for their benefit, or at the very least, support the system that perpetuates slavery. Washington’s teeth were slaves' teeth.
Another value of The Story of Freedom is one of ‘legacy’. Around a table, Hamilton and his friends enjoy some drinks. Mulligan and Lafayette suggest having ‘another round,’ seemingly content and in-the-moment. Hamilton, instead of agreeing, imagines how future Americans will remember this evening (They’ll tell the story of tonight). This suggests that Hamilton, and perhaps some of his political peers such as Washington who makes similar comments, care more about how well people will remember them than the actual experience of life now. It’s an ascetic obsession.
This asceticism also ties into another value perpetuated in general American mythology which is ‘unquenchable ambition’. Our beloved Founding Fathers were ambitious, nothing was enough for them. They only wanted the best for our country. We are told to be like them, to want to grow up to be President or a CEO or marry rich. Even though it is ambition that kills Hamilton, it remains a noble trait.
These popular characters and popular values are integral to the mythological ‘canon’ of the founding of the United States of America. Likewise, these stories, people, and values seem to sneak their way into Hamilton in a fairly positive light. This is an American musical after all.
However, I would expect a modern production to reexamine the problematic dimensions of this hypocrisy, self-obsession, and insatiability. Instead, Hamilton, the focal character of the play, doesn’t critique any of these values. He is the living embodiment of them.
It is difficult to watch the Hamilton production without seeing it as an affirmation of this hazy, shallow value-system perpetuated by the mythology of America’s founding.
The Schuyler Sisters from the Broadway production of Hamilton.
Misogyny
I watched this play for the first time with my partner. After Satisfied was performed, I turned to him and said, “I sure hope there are female characters that do something other than swoon over Hamilton.” I was sort of hoping for a Founding Mothers' storyline that would support the Founding Fathers' backbone we are familiar with. But instead, my hunch was correct.
The women in Hamilton are used purely to support or contrast the men in each scene.
Eliza loves Hamilton, marries him, has a kid with him, and ‘lives to tell his story’. She is not important because she built the first orphanage. She is important because she’s Hamilton’s wife.
Angelica loves Hamilton, and Hamilton sorta has the hots for her too, but they agree not to do anything about it. Angelica is almost given a feminist storyline (because I guess she’s done some Thomas Paine reading), but instead, she gets married off to a man she doesn’t like, moves to England, and comes back to fully illustrate how bad Hamilton ends up getting.
Maria Reynolds literally just has an affair with him. One second she’s weak and helpless, next, she’s a lustful temptress.
Peggy is there for comic relief and apparently doesn’t have a personality.
It would be one thing if the play had no women… perhaps I could justify that this was because they were seemingly absent from this part of history. Maybe Hamilton is trying to criticize this absence of women in our accounts. But there are women. And, unfortunately, they’re all incredibly shallow characters, unable to stand on their own two feet.
Burr Shoots Hamilton. Internet Archive Book Images.
Martyrdom
There are so many parallels between Hamilton and my favorite play of all time, Jesus Christ Superstar.
There are two main characters. One of them is good, a savior figure, blessing mankind. One of them is bad, short-sighted, and kills the other.
Like Hamilton, Jesus is obsessed with self-image and legacy until the final moment. Like Burr, Judas, is tempted by the new looming ‘institution’ which corrupts him, and subsequently kills his counterpart. They both begin as a sort of friend and later become enemies.
In Jesus Christ Superstar, both Jesus and Judas become martyrs. Jesus dies because the State does not like the idea of a charismatic citizen with the ability to inspire hope in subjugated peoples. Judas dies because he cares for his homeland so much that he would rather push Jesus to ‘stop his shenanigans’ than see Jerusalem in flames. It is this decision, which arguably he had no choice in, that wracks him with so much pain that he hangs himself.
Hamilton is also depicted as a martyr from the beginning of the play. The play condenses the historical Hamilton’s 47 years into a 2.5-hour production; an honor to his legacy, a good legacy. He repeatedly tells us he is willing to die for his country — though, he doesn’t deserve to die. In the beginning, it is in the context of literal war. In the end, it is a type of ideological war. He is more or less upset at Burr’s ambition; Hamilton and Burr have swapped places. Even though Hamilton shoots up, Burr still shoots him and he dies. He’s not throwing away his shot.
But aren’t martyrs supposed to be role models? Saints? People with strong, self-less values?
As discussed before, Hamilton instead is the embodiment of some of the key American mythological tropes: a shallow belief in freedom, an obsession with self-image and legacy, and an unquenchable ambition. It is these unhealthy attributes that kill him — not some noble cause. And in the end, he does not die for anyone or anything. He puts himself in this position because he can’t get over himself. Even in a few of his last thoughts: “If I throw away my shot, is this how you’ll remember me? / What if this bullet is my legacy?” Luckily right before he dies he is able to wisen up and think about more pressing things… like his wife.
Hamilton does not seem to acknowledge the toxicity of this martyrdom complex. The music tempo, tone, pitch — everything — seems to indicate that we are meant to feel an astounding loss, a loss likened to the killing of a saint.
Burr is told he better hide. Similar to Judas, who historically we know very little of, Burr tells the audience, “History obliterates / In every picture it paints / It paints me and all my mistakes… He may have been the first one to die / But I’m the one who paid for it.” Because of the martyrdom complex, not only are the lives of his loved ones shaken but so is the legacy of his comrade. | https://medium.com/interfaith-now/hamilton-mythology-misogyny-and-martyrdom-3fa8274f5585 | ['Allison J. Van Tilborgh'] | 2020-07-11 16:40:21.857000+00:00 | ['Religion', 'Music', 'History', 'Politics', 'Film'] |
Melissa Rapp | Melissa and I chatted about her music and she answered a few questions for me.
Q: What is your biggest aspiration as a singer/songwriter?
A: Playing one of the most breathtaking venues in the world…The Gorge at George (Washington State)! Or a world tour…whichever comes first. Other than that, continuing to write, record and perform songs that I believe in. I love knowing that whatever music I create will be around long after I’m gone. It motivates me to work at the craft and keep improving. I’d love to leave behind a body of work that can inspire people and leave a legacy.
Q: What was it like to be on Platinum Hit?
A: It was a real adventure! I’ve always approached the craft of songwriting in a more organic way. To be put in situations where we had to create on demand, with strict time limits and a cast of characters with diverse backgrounds — it was definitely a challenge. Aside from that pressure, it was a lot of fun. Songwriters are always surprising and idiosyncratic people. We were kept in very close quarters and spent all of our time together. Let’s just say, we laughed a lot. It got pretty crazy at times!
Q: Would you say that you became friends with any of the other contestants?
A: I did! Particularly Blessing. He’s not only a talented musician who brings amazing vibe to his work, but also is a very wise and intuitive guy. His wisdom and reflections about our TV show filming experience were invaluable.
Q: Who is an artist you have always aspired to write with?
A: Well, a lot of my favorite songwriters do most of their writing on their own, but it would be wonderful to write with artists like Norah Jones, Patty Griffin, Jason Mraz, or Jack Johnson. Jason and Jack have a real ability to fill their compositions with an organic groove, intimacy, and positivity, which I love. It would also be great to write with some the top pop and country acts right now: Christina Aguilera, Ke$ha, Carrie Underwood, Beyonce and Rihanna. These women have such strong identities and voices.
Q: What are your plans now that you are done with the show?
A: I’m performing a lot and promoting my newest album “Just Like That,” which you can find at itunes.com/melissarapp. I’m also in the studio recording a new album to be released this fall. We have some excellent musicians playing on it — Jimmy Paxson (Stevie Nicks), Lige Curry (George Clinton and P-Funk), and Jason Orme (Sarah McLachlan). These new tracks have some serious soul! Keep a lookout for new songs and news up at my website: melissarappmusic.com
Q: Do you support any charities or plan to work with any?
A: Yes, definitely! I have worked with The Breast Cancer fund for years, playing several of their events and fundraisers. I have a lot of respect for the work they do, as well as environmental organizations like the National Resources Defense Council.
Q: What social networks do you have and use to communicate with fans?
A: You’ll find me on Facebook and Twitter the most:
Facebook
Twitter | https://medium.com/a-teen-view/melissa-rapp-6842f68a6a | ['Arin Segal'] | 2016-11-04 00:41:14.186000+00:00 | ['Music', 'Melissa', 'Rapp'] |
What To Do If Your Doctor Prescribes Opioid Painkillers? | The Miami Herald has published a helpful article on what you can do if your doctor hears about your pain and chooses to prescribe you opioid painkillers that can become addictive. There may be more treatment options than you think! For starters:
Talk to your doctor. “Learn about the drugs first, and don’t be afraid to ask a lot of questions.”
Try other options first. “Consider other ways to manage pain. Physical therapy [exercise therapy], psychological therapy, and exercise can help.”
Start low, go slow. “If you need powerful painkillers like OxyContin or Vicodin, start with the lowest effective dose for a limited period.”
We at SimpleTherapy offer a variety of head-to-toe exercise therapy programs designed to reduce pain without prescription medication. | https://medium.com/simpletherapy/what-to-do-if-your-doctor-prescribes-opioid-painkillers-36a91ae18205 | ['Arpit Khemka'] | 2016-09-01 04:48:37.950000+00:00 | ['Pain Management', 'Rehabilitation', 'Physical Therapy', 'Opioids', 'Exercise At Home'] |
A Letter of Encouragement to Young Humanists | By Viola Namyalo
Being a humanist and being open about it in a strongly religious country such as Uganda is not a cup of tea. Many people get surprised when they get to know that I am a Humanist and that I put people first not gods in my life. Some people think I am crazy and stupid, others think I am being used by the devil since their holy books tell them who ever doesn’t believe in their God has a connection with the devil while others think I am copying the western culture.
Telling people about your faith status is an individual choice, every one face different challenges while open about this. Some people may feel comfortable to stay in the closet perhaps in fear to lose their families, their jobs and friends, while others will feel comfortable to tell a few people. Opening up shouldn’t be hard, however it should be done carefully, this can be a little difficult to deal with on your own. There are several questions, young nonbelievers ask and they need answers but cannot find them, share with the humanist community in your country/region they are there to help you out.
HOW CAN I OPEN UP
Opening up takes courage, I personally love and respect people who are open about being humanists/atheists. They are a reason why I am here today writing as a proud humanist. Before I identified myself as a humanist, I realized I questioned my faith and always shared my questions with the people I stayed with at home, my fellow students and my friends. At that time, I was just sharing my thoughts with people surrounding me, whenever a conversation about religion came along, I could respectfully give my thoughts, Some people seemed to understand my reasoning while others thought I was starting to go the wrong way. At first I also thought I was doing wrong to question my faith and the almighty God but when I came to know about the Humanist community in Uganda, I realized my thinking and reasoning was not a wrong thing. I started sharing my thoughts openly, thanks to the several Open Talk Debates I attended courtesy of HALEA Youth Support Centre, they gave me a chance to express my ideas freely. By the time I decided to open up, it was not very surprising to my friends and people around me.
I know there are many people out there who question their beliefs, perhaps don’t like the religions they were brought up in but fear to open up because they think it’s wrong to question or run away from religion. Today, I want to tell you that questioning your religion is not a wrong thing, it’s your right to question anything that doesn’t satisfy you. If you find yourself satisfied with the explanations and evidence given, it’s also your right to believe, if you are not satisfied with the explanations and evidence given, it’s your right not to believe. You can be a non believer who is happy and equally moral. Don’t be forced by society, friends, family to live your life uncomfortably pretending to believe in something you truly doubt. You need to take courage and let them know your stand. I know this is a little hard however, there is nothing as good as living your life without pretence.
You need to be careful, you don’t start jumping up and down forcing people to listen to you telling them how their belief system is flawed. You need to be respectful as a matter of fact. Humanism teaches us to be humane and to be considerate all the time. Respectfully share your thoughts with people around you, people love to hear different ideas presented in a respectful way, you will see some people understanding your thoughts. On the other hand, others (majority in most cases) will not understand you but that should not stop you from being yourself. By the time you will decide to open up, it will not be a surprise, and because you present your thoughts respectfully people who disagree with you will still respect you.
Avoid negative energy, associate more with a people that understand you. If you find yourself in a situation where no one understands you or perhaps you can be in danger once they find out about your being an atheist/humanist, share your thoughts with the humanist/atheists community in your country, they are there to help you out. They will give you advice on how you can be safe but still enjoy your life as a humanist/atheist.
WHY DO I NEED TO OPEN UP
To hide who you are will make you live a life of pretence, you will need to think about whether pretending is less or more stressful than being open. Don’t feel under pressure to come out, take your time, do it only when you feel uncomfortable with whatever is going on in your life and ready to open up. Opening up, speaking up comes with self discovery, improved self esteem and confidence, it is your life, it is vital that you open up at one point in time, do not be shy.
Being in that closet makes you feel like you are alone which makes things harder for you. You need to know that out here, we have an open community, full of people like you. It is very important for you to define yourself, you will find likeminded people to associate with, help the community grow and encourage other people to get out of their closets.
There is nothing as good as living your life without fear and pretence. Take your time, share your ideas respectfully, once you feel ready, go ahead and open up. You are not alone, seek help and you will be served.
Viola Namyalo
Chair Young Humanists International
African working group
Photo by Viola Namyalo | https://medium.com/humanist-voices/a-letter-of-encouragement-to-young-humanists-639422dd5237 | ['Scott Douglas Jacobsen'] | 2019-09-18 19:40:09.218000+00:00 | ['Humanism', 'Africa', 'Viola Namyalo', 'Religion', 'Young Humanists'] |
Development of auth plugin for HashiCorp Vault Enterprise | Vault Overview
HashiCorp Vault (Vault) can secure, store and tightly control access to tokens, passwords, certificates, encryption keys for protecting secrets and other sensitive data using a UI, CLI, or HTTP API. In general, Vault provides a comprehensive solution for users to manage their secrets. A typical Vault system consists of auth methods, secret engines, storage, auditing device and other system backend. In this article, we are going to demonstrate how to develop a custom auth method and deploy it to be part of the Vault system.
Vault Plugin System
All Vault auth methods and secret engines are considered plugins, which are completely separate, standalone applications that Vault executes and communicates with over RPC.
There are two ways to build a custom plugin - you can either customize existing built-in one, such as Approle, User-Pass auth methods, or build brand new one by following Vault plugin’s development guidelines. In this blog, I will focus on the latter.
Vault Auth Plugin Development
Prerequisite
Assuming you already know how Vault works, to start building an auth plugin there are some additional prerequisites you will need to get going:
Golang programming language. Knowledge about common Vault response attributes, such as “lease_duration”, “policies”, “entity_id” etc. Auth plugin development guideline.
Now we have everything ready. Let’s go through the steps needed to build our Vault auth plugin.
Objective
In this example, we will build a simple custom auth plugin which uses a system environment variable as the auth provider. The plugin can also assign proper policies to the user by querying the entitlement database.
Build Plugin
Project structure
Now it’s time for us to create new directory to nest our Plugin project, following will be project structure we use:
pluginProject
├- auth
│ ├- auth.go
├- main.go
As you can see, we will create two packages inside the project: the main and auth packages.
2. Configure project as plugin
package main
import (
"log"
"os"
"citihub.com/vault/plugin/auth"
"github.com/hashicorp/vault/api"
"github.com/hashicorp/vault/sdk/plugin"
)
//vault auth plugin entry point
func main() {
apiClientMeta := &api.PluginAPIClientMeta{}
flags := apiClientMeta.FlagSet()
flags.Parse(os.Args[1:])
tlsConfig := apiClientMeta.GetTLSConfig()
tlsProviderFunc := api.VaultPluginTLSProvider(tlsConfig)
if err := plugin.Serve(&plugin.ServeOpts{
BackendFactoryFunc: auth.Factory,
TLSProviderFunc: tlsProviderFunc,
}); err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
}
The first thing we do here is import all necessary package dependencies provided by HashiCorp. Inside the main function, we setup the configuration for plugin, which includes plugin backend functions and TLS handshake function used for communication between the Vault core and the plugin. In next step, we will need to implement functions for auth.Factory .
3. Implement auth backend
There are several methods in Vault backend interface that need to be implemented. To do this we will add following code to auth.go file.
package auth
import (
"context"
"net/http"
"time"
"github.com/hashicorp/vault/sdk/framework"
"github.com/hashicorp/vault/sdk/logical"
)
const (
PATH_NAME = "login"
ID_NAME = "id"
PASSWORD_NAME = "password"
NS_KEY = "X-Vault-Namespace"
NS_NAME = "namespace"
)
//custom auth interface
type auth interface {
GetAuthentication() (bool, error)
GetAuthorization() ([]string, error)
}
func Factory(ctx context.Context, c *logical.BackendConfig) (logical.Backend, error) {
b := Backend(c)
if err := b.Setup(ctx, c); err != nil {
return nil, err
}
return b, nil
}
type backend struct {
*framework.Backend
}
//config backend
func Backend(c *logical.BackendConfig) *backend {
var b backend
b.Backend = &framework.Backend{
BackendType: logical.TypeCredential,
AuthRenew: b.pathAuthRenew,
PathsSpecial: &logical.Paths{
Unauthenticated: []string{PATH_NAME},
},
Paths: []*framework.Path{
&framework.Path{
Pattern: PATH_NAME,
Fields: map[string]*framework.FieldSchema{
ID_NAME: &framework.FieldSchema{
Type: framework.TypeString,
},
PASSWORD_NAME: &framework.FieldSchema{
Type: framework.TypeString,
},
},
Callbacks: map[logical.Operation]framework.OperationFunc{
logical.UpdateOperation: b.pathAuthLogin,
},
},
},
}
return &b
}
The Backend function is for configuring plugin details. Here are comments for each attribute:
b.Backend = &framework.Backend{
// indicate this plugin is auth plugin
BackendType: logical.TypeCredential,
// implementation of renew functions
AuthRenew: b.pathAuthRenew,
//define auth path, for instance '/login'
PathsSpecial: &logical.Paths{
Unauthenticated: []string{PATH_NAME},
},
//define attributes for login payload, we define two attributes here: 'id' and 'password'
Paths: []*framework.Path{
&framework.Path{
Pattern: PATH_NAME,
Fields: map[string]*framework.FieldSchema{
ID_NAME: &framework.FieldSchema{
Type: framework.TypeString,
},
PASSWORD_NAME: &framework.FieldSchema{
Type: framework.TypeString,
},
},
//callback function
Callbacks: map[logical.Operation]framework.OperationFunc{
logical.UpdateOperation: b.pathAuthLogin,
},
},
},
}
Now we have the backend configured.
We will continue to implement two functions used in above code: b.pathAuthRenew and b.pathAuthLogin .
Add those code to auth.go file:
// raise custom error response
func raiseErrorResponse(msg string, respCode int) (*logical.Response, error) {
errResp := logical.Response{
Data: map[string]interface{}{
"error": msg,
},
}
return logical.RespondWithStatusCode(&errResp, nil, respCode)
}
// implement pathAuthLogin
func (b *backend) pathAuthLogin(_ context.Context, req *logical.Request, d *framework.FieldData) (*logical.Response, error) {
id := d.Get(ID_NAME).(string)
password := d.Get(PASSWORD_NAME).(string)
nameSpace := ""
ns := req.Headers
if val, hasVal := ns[NS_KEY]; hasVal {
nameSpace = val[0]
}
cauth := New(id, password)
if isAuth, err := cauth.GetAuthentication(); err != nil || !isAuth {
return raiseErrorResponse(err.Error(), http.StatusForbidden)
}
policies, err := cauth.GetAuthorization()
if err != nil {
return raiseErrorResponse(err.Error(), http.StatusForbidden)
}
// Compose the response
return &logical.Response{
Auth: &logical.Auth{
InternalData: map[string]interface{}{
PASSWORD_NAME: cauth.GetPassword(),
},
Policies: policies,
Metadata: map[string]string{
ID_NAME: cauth.GetId(),
NS_NAME: nameSpace,
},
LeaseOptions: logical.LeaseOptions{
TTL: 30 * time.Minute,
MaxTTL: 60 * time.Minute,
Renewable: true,
},
EntityID: id,
},
}, nil
}
//implement pathAuthRenew
func (b *backend) pathAuthRenew(ctx context.Context, req *logical.Request, d *framework.FieldData) (*logical.Response, error) {
if req.Auth == nil {
return nil, EmptyAuth
}
secretValue := req.Auth.InternalData[PASSWORD_NAME].(string)
password := d.Get(PASSWORD_NAME).(string)
if secretValue != password {
return nil, InternalDataNotMatch
}
return framework.LeaseExtend(30*time.Second, 60*time.Minute, b.System())(ctx, req, d)
}
You may notice that in the code, we catch X-Vault-Namespace header. This header is supported only by Vault Enterprise and gives us the ability to implement secure multi-tenancy within Vault, in order to provide isolation and ensure teams can self-manage their own environments. In this example we write the namespace value to be part of token meta information, so users will know which namespace they have authenticated.
pathAuthLogin will return the final response to users. We can custom the response string per our need. In the above example, if login fails we will raise error response with 403 status code. If login succeeds, a standard successful response message will return to users.
Here are explanations for each attribute in the response, check comments below:
logical.Response{
// contains auth info detail
Auth: &logical.Auth{
// internalData used to renew the lease
InternalData: map[string]interface{}{
PASSWORD_NAME: cauth.GetPassword(),
},
//policy names assigned to login token
Policies: policies,
//metadata attached to login token
Metadata: map[string]string{
ID_NAME: cauth.GetId(),
NS_NAME: nameSpace,
},
// lease info
LeaseOptions: logical.LeaseOptions{
// initial time to live
TTL: 30 * time.Minute,
// max time to live
MaxTTL: 60 * time.Minute,
Renewable: true,
},
// entity id connected to this login
EntityID: id,
},
}
As far as now, we have finished building our Vault auth plugin. Now we will need to build the code into binary.
Build plugin project
In this section, we are going to build the project, before doing so, we need to make sure all Vault library dependencies are installed in our development environment. Run the following commands to install them and build our plugin:
# cd to your project
$ cd /path/to/project
# init module path for your project
$ go mod init citihub.com/vault/plugin
#download all dependencies
$ go mod vendor
#build plugin 'ch' binary and save under 'plugins/' folder
$ go build -o plugins/ch
At this point, our plugin binary ready to test. In next section, I will show you how to register the plugin with the Vault plugin catalog, enable it to a specific path and then login.
Deploy and test the plugin
To test the plugin binary, we need a running Vault server. You can download latest Vault binary from Here . Save it to your $GOPATH/bin directory.
Run the command below in the console to start the Vault server:
#setup test user's profile, for linux and Mac OS
$ export vaultUserId=tester1
$ export vaultPassword=123123
#start vault in dev mode
$ vault server -dev -dev-root-token-id=root -dev-plugin-dir=/path/to/project/plugins
You will see Vault status in the console. Vault will stay active if there is no error during startup. You can also try to open: http://127.0.0.1:8200 in your browser to visit the Vault web UI.
Now, open another console and try following commands to register and enable our auth plugin:
$ export VAULT_ADDR=http://127.0.0.1:8200
#make sure you have execute permission
$ chmod u+x /path/to/project/plugins/ch
#calculate shasum 256 vaule
$ SHASUM=$(shasum -a 256 /path/to/project/plugins/ch | cut -d " " -f1)
#register to vault plugin catalog
$ vault write sys/plugins/catalog/ch sha_256=$SHASUM command="ch"
#enable vault plugin at the path 'auth/ch/login', for vault enterprise we can white list the vault namespace header
$ vault auth enable -passthrough-request-headers=X-Vault-Namespace -path=ch -plugin-name=ch plugin
You will see a success message if no error occurs during enabling the plugin.
Now we can test login using following command:
$ vault write auth/ch/login id=tester1 password=123123
If login is successful Vault will return the access token with policies, meta, lease duration info attached.
Conclusion
In this article we demonstrated how to build a simple custom Vault auth method which supports features in Hashicorp Vault Enterprise. For authentication we used a simple environment variable for demonstration purposes — in a real-world scenario your organization with have a much more complex auth provider to integrate with, such as oAuth2 or database backed auth provider and this example can be modified accordingly.
Lastly, feel free to give feedback if you see errors or something doesn’t make sense to you. Happy coding!
Useful Reference
https://www.vaultproject.io/docs/internals/plugins/
https://learn.hashicorp.com/vault/developer/plugin-backends
https://www.hashicorp.com/blog/building-a-vault-secure-plugin/
https://github.com/hashicorp/vault
https://github.com/hashicorp/vault-auth-plugin-example | https://medium.com/citihub/development-of-auth-plugin-for-hashicorp-vault-enterprise-d3c2b7e3c122 | ['Ming Zheng'] | 2020-04-01 23:52:37.857000+00:00 | ['Plugin Development', 'Hashicorp Vault', 'Golang'] |
The Gospel. You are a bad person. Did that get your… | You are a bad person. Did that get your attention? I hope that it did. I don’t say that you are a bad person in a “judgy” way, but in more of a “me too” type of way. We are all bad people who were supposed to go to Hell because of all of the sins that we’ve committed. Sin separates us from God and a while ago, the people of this Earth were separated from God pretty badly. It wasn’t until God sent his Son down to Earth so that He would be a sacrifice for our sins. Before, people would have to sacrifice animals when they sinned,but thankfully, Jesus was sent down as the ULTIMATE sacrifice so that we would not have to do that animal thing anymore AND we would be able to have a close relationship with God. Why would he do that? Because he absolutely loves us with a love that surpasses earthly love. He loves us with an “agape” love or unconditional love. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ was a gift for all of humankind so that they may be saved, but it is completely up to us if we want to receive that gift or not. So I’ll leave you with this question, are you going to take this absolutely FREE gift from God?
If this is your first time hearing anything like this and you want to learn more, I would suggest reading one of the Gospels in the Bible (Matthew, Mark, Luke,or John). If you do not have a Bible, DO NOT FRET! There is a Bible app on both IOS and Android devices called ‘Bible’ and it’s by the creator ‘YouVersion’
If you have ANY questions about what was said, please let me know. This was a pretty quick rundown of everything,but I just wanted to get my point across.
I love all of you guys and I hope that you have a great day :) | https://medium.com/@jesusfreak2003/everyone-has-to-read-this-you-wont-regret-it-e60bd9f1ce41 | ['Kelsey Mcfarlin'] | 2020-12-23 07:09:59.836000+00:00 | ['Must Read', 'Jesus', 'Gospel', 'Bible', 'Pop Culture'] |
Neighbors Know No Borders | For centuries there has been division among churches on where they stand on social issues like immigration. This is a very personal topic for me as I am an immigrant myself. I came to the United States in the year of 2000 with my family and the church played a big role in helping us process paperwork, obtain necessities like food housing, transportation, finances, and jobs, and they helped us learn the English language.
I remember when we visited English speaking churches, they would go out of their way to help us, to make us feel welcome and at home. There were times it was so hard knowing that everything that we had in Ukraine was left behind. Coming over, all we were allowed to bring with us was two suitcases each. But, the churches pooled together and helped us to establish our lives here in our new country. I remember people came to JFK airport to meet us, many we did not even know, but we felt the love of Christ through them and his care for us in this unknown land. If it was not for the church, I strongly doubt our experience would have been as smooth as it was.
My experience is a testimony to the church’s vital role in helping the needy, specifically the immigrant. The Bible is quite clear about the Christian’s responsibility to help the poor and needy. Besides Jesus’ own examples from his life here on earth, there are many verses that plainly and sometimes quite strongly communicate the responsibility. Philippians 2:4 says that we are to “look not only to [our] own interests, but also to the interests of others” (ESV). 1 John 3:17 says, “if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?” And, Proverbs 28:27 says, “Whoever gives to the poor will not want, but he who hides his eyes will get many a curse.” And this is just citing a few.
So, how then, can Christians in the United States be anti-immigrants? At least a good portion of those who this question might be addressed to would probably say, “wait, I’m not anti-immigration, I’m just anti-illegal immigration.” And that’s fair. Each country should have the right to vet and control their borders because, as our president Donald Trump says, “a country without borders is not a country at all.” I tend to agree with him. This statement is not an anti-immigrant one, but simply a statement on the need for controls regarding borders and the necessity of making people go through a process if they want to come to United States.
The national divide, even among Christians, regarding how we should view immigration is very real though. So how is this the case if we agree that we as Christians should help the needy, the immigrant included, and also believe that it’s ok to have processes in place for controlling the borders? The news regarding the recent ‘migrant caravan’ presents a perfect case for analysis of this question.
The individuals that make up that caravan are journeying at least 2,000 miles, on foot and in extreme heat, unless they end up finding some other modes of transportation along the way (Correal & Specia). And, most of them have reasons they are leaving their homes and journeying to an unknown land. It’s relevant to look at why people are leaving their own countries and coming to the United States. It’s relevant because it can help determine whether these intended immigrants can indeed be classified simply as “law-breakers” or if they fall in some other category; a category that should at the very least move us to compassion, even if we aren’t sure whether they tick all of the boxes to legally remain in the United States.
Again, to insert my personal experience, it’s often that these people are fleeing suppression, oppression, and very real threats to their lives. They come seeking a better life, a safer life and a more promising life for themselves and their families. My parents did not immigrate to the United States because they wanted a better life just for themselves, but for their kids. My grandfather specifically had been imprisoned for his Christianity under the Soviet Union and was able to come to the United States because of this persecution and we, as his family, were able to come over the years due to the chain immigration laws. Another topic for another time, but one that should also be carefully spoken about from a Christian perspective, a perspective that should honor and value family ties.
And, so, in the United States the laws permit those who are in fear of their lives to show up at our borders and request asylum, or, simply put, a safe place to live, to work, to raise their families (“Questions & Answers: Credible Fear Screening”). This then would remove the qualifier of “illegal” from these potential immigrants in this caravan, because it’s most probable that they are planning on seeking asylum. Whether their individual cases will qualify for asylum or not is a different story. But, regardless, their motives are humanitarian in nature. They come from countries, particularly Honduras, where government turmoil and gang violence has given inhabitants more reasons to leave than purely economic ones (Abedi).
What would keep the church from reaching out and helping immigrants or intended immigrants, such as those in the caravan? I think the primary reason is that we as humans have a tendency to be self-centered and only recognize problems when they are our own or affect us in some way. We tend to be like the lawyer in the passage in the book of Luke and be more focused on defining who we have to love, instead of just loving and showing compassion (Luke 10:25 -37). We prefer to think of our neighbors as just the family in church we signed up to take a meal to once a week or literally the people next door whose kids we watch on occasion. Not that these people aren’t are neighbors, but Jesus clearly expands this point of view. He takes the lawyer’s question about who he must love and broadens it. Jesus, in his reply, highlights the self-centered tendencies of humans and ultimately shows that loving our neighbor involves helping another human who needs help, no qualifiers attached. The good Samaritan in the story gave fully to the man in need, he gave his time, his attention, his care and his resources. Jesus ends the parable by telling the lawyer to “go and do likewise” (Luke 10:37).
When we discussed this topic in class and how it relates to the church, another thought caught my attention. I don’t believe that the church’s role is only helping the immigrants when they get here, but I believe we have a responsibility to help those in need overseas, in their countries, cities and community.
If we, as Christians, cannot live under a mentality that looks at the atrocities that happen in other countries and say, ‘that’s their problem, not mine’, then we should be looking at the needs of people even before they are headed to our borders. I did mission work in Mexico, Russia, Ukraine and in each location our team brought a lot of help to those that are in need, and that is part of the church’s responsibility. We need to be aware of and willing to help those that are in need, beyond our borders. It seems like a sad reality that we are prone to only see the need when it arrives at our borders.
I think the church has a responsibility to help people in need, that includes immigrants and potential immigrants. In fact, it is being reported that church groups along the way are in fact providing shelter and food for those in the caravan headed north (Correal & Specia). As a church body, we can help immigrants establish their lives and get them integrated into the community. We can band together to provide resources to those who don’t have them. The church community is one of the most productive entities that can have a long and lasting effect on the lives of immigrants. Through the help the church provides, we can shine the love of Jesus Christ. When we do that, we don’t just become hearers of the word, but doers also; we don’t just say that we are followers of Christ, but we are truly showing that we are his followers by example. We don’t risk being the person in Proverbs 28:27 who “hides [our] eyes” to the needs of others.
Works Cited
Correal, Annie, and Megan Specia. “The Migrant Caravan: What to Know About the Thousands Traveling North”. The New York Times, Oct. 26, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/26/world/americas/what-is-migrant-caravan-facts-history.html
The Holy Bible. English Standard Version, Crossway Bibles, 2016.
Abedi, Maham. “MAP: Where the migrant caravan began, and why people are fleeing these countries”. https://globalnews.ca/news/4620659/us-migrant-caravan-map/ | https://medium.com/christian-perspectives-society-and-life/neighbors-know-no-borders-bf5c33e20b00 | ['Paul M'] | 2018-11-05 00:53:39.809000+00:00 | ['Refugees'] |
This is what it's all about, Quy -- supporting and encouraging each other! | This is what it's all about, Quy -- supporting and encouraging each other! Thanks for this great overview. I'd only known about Age of Empathy and Home Sweet Home but now follow all these great publications. | https://medium.com/@karendegrootcarter/this-is-what-its-all-about-quy-supporting-and-encouraging-each-other-518c553e7fa5 | ['Karen Degroot Carter'] | 2020-12-15 18:09:13.206000+00:00 | ['Ｍedium', 'Marketing', 'Publication', 'Writing', 'Inclusion'] |
Behind Mormon’s Space Jesus | Space Jesus at the Mormon Visitor’s Center in SLC
I quite enjoy studying and reading about maps and cartography, and I love investigating the worldviews that are forever drawn out before us on the planes of our past. A map is more than a navigational assist. Maps claim ownership by inking borderlines, they bring far away lands unseen to your armchair, they unite people across thousands of miles, they classify humanity by a myriad of categories, and much more. But one particular point of interest is a favorite of mine: where a map places its viewer, because it says something about who you are. Do you remember looking at an atlas when you were young and having that feeling that I can go anywhere. I can be or do anything? This feeling catalyzed my cartophilia.
With the earliest maps of the known world, the viewer was given the nearly blasphemous perspective of a god, looking down on earth. Some people didn’t like that, as they didn’t like it when they heard their precious planet was not the center of the galaxy, let alone the universe (sometimes you just got to roll your eyes at this kind of closed mindedness). But back when the first civilizations were carving their home into stone, we can hardly blame them for their limited knowledge. In fact, it was a necessary first step towards our current Global Positioning Systems, which ironically, always places the user at the center of the universe. When you open the app, it finds you, zooms in on you, and places you dead center. Not surprising that mapping every inch of this world has just led to more human hubris.
It was with this in mind that I wound my way up to “Space Jesus” at the visitor’s center on temple square in Salt Lake City, core of the mormon busine — I mean, universe. I could soapbox for a few pages on this for-profit former-cult, the white Jesus in every portrait, or the nefarious character of the man they call a prophet (or you could just listen to a great podcast series on it), but I will only focus on one interesting thing I noticed in this room, in the very spot I took this photograph.
Notice, like looking at a map, where it places me. I am standing underneath a Jesus, arms open but facing me. His forked beard and flowing locks, paired with a long Aryan nose, are all too Caucasian. People, haven’t we agreed by now that Jesus was Middle Eastern? But his highness’s whiteness is important and revelatory, seeing as black people are cursed angels to Mr. Smith. Wait, no, I think that changed in the 60s? I digress. Behind Jesus is a beautiful painting of outer space with great colors and dust clouds and a vastness that is augmented by some stellar acoustics. When I spoke, my voice reverberated around me, and so I muffled the mockery. Luckily, the only two people there, besides my friend, were chuckling at Space Jesus too. I must say, it is hard not to.
Then I focused on the planet behind and slightly to the left of the effigy and recognized it as Earth, and I confess, my face betrayed an impressed smile. I do appreciate a subtle message.
Mormons believe that at the end of times we will meet our friendly Jebbuh and his high holy daddy and mommy, and like the trust-fund baby that Christ was, we too will be given a planet to preside over, as god, cause we were good little boys and girls. And here is where this “map,” as it were, placed me: at that precise moment of judgement. My life was lived, and now, it was time for me to be worshipped (or sent to hell, I suppose). Either way, whoever stands there is being told a clear message that whether tourist or pilgrim, there is only one eschatological possibility: One day you will face Space Jesus, because our nice little “religion” is The Truth, and you ain’t escaping it.
But in a way, it does more. It makes me Mormon. Jesus looks at me, bowing his head down to do so, giving me his sole focus at the moment. His expression is confidently distant, perhaps in royal way? Frankly, it’s hard to read. His hands are open toward me, again as his sole focus, and they seem like they may close in on me, in some kind of divine blessing. I don’t think he’s casting me to hell. No, boi’s bout to grant me that fuggin planet I been jonesin’ for all my life. Look at the rest of space behind him! I own a piece of it. Which makes me Mormon, without my consent I might add. But like prophet, like messiah I guess. Oops. Let that one slip. Regardless, I am delighted by their little trick; I’ll never say those Young’ns aren’t clever.
However, as much as I love digging up this meaning (much like Mr. Smith did of indigenous graves in hopes of buried treasure), it does not delight me to think of all the people on this planet who stand there looking into the imagined future they will not see and yet, will live each day as if they will. Like our sweet young female tour guides who betrayed an inkling of wanting out, and who may never know what it’s like to look at a map and think “I can go anywhere. I can do, or be, anything.” | https://medium.com/@simoneskold/behind-mormons-space-jesus-6dfc286488bf | [] | 2020-01-16 20:30:11.291000+00:00 | ['Religion', 'Mormonism', 'Criticism', 'Maps'] |
Liberia’s First Successful Steps Toward “Getting to Best” | Students in Liberia lag far behind their peers in the developing world. Their education has been disrupted by more than a decade of civil war, post-conflict stress, and the Ebola health crisis. The international response has provided necessary funding for teacher training and educational resources, but has not been sufficient to realize the children of Liberia’s right to quality education.
In 2015, the Liberian Ministry of Education crafted “Getting to Best”, a vision for Liberia to become an educational leader in Africa and globally. The Government of Liberia’s Partnership Schools for Liberia (PSL) pilot project is part of this wider “Getting to Best” education strategy. PSL seeks to engage multiple successful school operators to implement and study key elements of “Getting to Best” prior to scaling the most promising policies to be adopted countrywide. In 2016, the Ministry entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Bridge International Academies to become the first of eight partners within the Partnership Schools for Liberia.
The MOU called upon Bridge to disrupt the status quo by lengthening the school day; reducing class size to no more that 55 students; and holding teachers accountable for attendance and performance. The MOU also ensures that lessons learned in the Pilot Project are shared with the Ministry. The MOU clearly intends to establish ideal conditions for this test of prospective policies, including “the best teaching force possible”, “access to data-enabled cell service”, and concentrated school locations for “cost-effective oversight.”
Early indications suggest this is working according to plan. PSL students performed exceptionally well compared to their traditional public school counterparts, according to a study conducted by independent researchers at the Center for Global Development and Innovations for Poverty Action. The study, a randomized controlled trial, used appropriately conservative treatments of academic outcomes and carefully assigned schools to treatment and control conditions. In its first year, the PSL pilot has dramatically increased learning for students, by 0.6 years across all PSL schools. Bridge students gained one additional full year of learning.
It appears that the Ministry of Education’s Pilot Test has been a big success. Bridge, whose comparable student learning gains were highest among PSL partners, was most successful at implementing:
Enrollment caps necessary to counter overcrowding (>55 pupils)
Eliminating the double shifts which limit learning time for students
Identifying “ghost teachers” and encouraging the Ministry to stop paying these teachers who do not show up for work
Identifying and removing illiterate teachers
These policy shifts appear to support learning outcomes and also helped the PSL schools accomplish several other outcomes as well:
Teacher attendance increased
Parent satisfaction increased
These schools’ good reputation spread beyond their walls. Even teachers and parents at non-PSL public schools had high confidence in PSL partners and indicated a desire for the program to expand.
The Ministry will expand the program in this second year to reach more students, including those in the most remote parts of the country. In its recent report on the global education crisis, the World Bank rightly commends Liberia’s public-private partnership as positive policy action. If its subsequent steps are as successful as its first, Liberia will be well on its way to achieving its audacious goal to become a leading light for education. | https://medium.com/talking-education/liberias-first-successful-steps-toward-getting-to-best-98575a40c08d | ['Dr. Steve Cantrell'] | 2018-05-25 13:28:47.005000+00:00 | ['Education', 'Success'] |
NEX Exchange (NEX) — Fast and secure decentralized NEP-5 supporting exchange | The NEX exchange is an ambitious project. They want to create the first Decentralized Exchange — DEX that will support all NEO tokens while being able to support the large volumes that centralized exchanges can.
Centralized exchanges can handle a lot of volume without slowing down. So only 2 years ago the 24 hour volume of the entire cryptocurrency market was around 20 million dollars. If you check, you will see that there was a 24 hour volume of about 70 billion dollars during January 2018. When depositing you funds on a centralized exchange, they are actually controlled by the people owning the exchange. You funds are no longer yours and you depend on their integrity and hope they do not run off with your money.
Another downside is that these exchanges can be hacked. This has happened before and it happens quite often these days as well.
So the people running an exchange have realized they have to evolve fast. Some are aiming to becoming decentralized in the future.
The transactions are being done on-chain, with the help of a smart contract and when they become a lot, the system slows down. NEX are aiming to tackle this problem in the following manner — the order matching will be done off-chain alleviating the strongest computing element, the blockchain and the smart contracts. After the orders get matched off-chain, they get commited on-chain.
You can read our in-depth analysis and further specifics on the project here:
Trading Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies can be done peer-to-peer(p2p) or on the exchanges where you have security. The safest exchanges are usually the top volume exchanges as being in the top they have all eyes on them and can not afford to not operate properly. Down are some that we are using and have not had any problems with:
If you have not created an account on the biggest cryptocurrency exchange you can do it here binance.com It is fast and free. This is a safe link, verified by us, going directly to the exchange, as there are many phishing sites, please be aware and careful. Also note that the exchanges close registrations for an undetermined timespan when they get overwhelmed, so even if you do not intend on trading now, someday you might decide to and not have the opportunity.
Here are also verified links to good emerging exchanges: bibox.com, kucoin.com, huobi.com
And the biggest fiat currency to crypto gateway coinbase.com, where you can get a 10$ bonus following this link.
You can follow us on our official facebook page — https://www.facebook.com/cryptohydra/
Or in these groups where we have daily discussions on crypto -
https://www.facebook.com/groups/kriptovaluti.bg/?ref=bookmarks
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1964897273826859/?ref=bookmarks | https://medium.com/cryptohydra/nex-exchange-nex-fast-and-secure-decentralized-nep-5-supporting-exchange-f2d6d4874c31 | ['Stefan Ivanoff'] | 2018-06-18 11:51:12.773000+00:00 | ['Ethereum', 'Blockchain', 'Bitcoin', 'Crypto', 'Love'] |
10 Examples to Master Pandas Styler | 10 Examples to Master Pandas Styler
Style your dataframe to make it more appealing and informative
Photo by Joshua Reddekopp on Unsplash
Pandas is highly efficient at data analysis and manipulation tasks. It provides numerous functions and methods to operate on tabular data seamlessly. However, all we see is plain numbers in tabular form.
What if we integrate a few visual components into Pandas dataframes? I think it makes them look more appealing and informative in many cases.
We can achieve this by using Style property of pandas dataframes. Style property returns a styler object which provides many options for formatting and displaying dataframes. A styler object is basically a dataframe with some style. In this article, we will go through 10 examples to master how styling works.
We will use a customer churn dataset which is available on Kaggle and also create some sample dataframes. | https://towardsdatascience.com/10-examples-to-master-pandas-styler-408ea794e91 | ['Soner Yıldırım'] | 2020-12-30 13:38:40.830000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Python', 'Data Science', 'Data Visualization'] |
Protest Outside Mayor Garcetti’s House Ends With Unprovoked Police Violence, One Arrest | “They repeatedly deadnamed me. I was originally taken to a men’s facility and held in solitary confinement for 3 hours,” Penn said. When friends called the station to make sure she was taken to a women’s facility, officers derisively mocked the importance of respecting Penn’s gender identity.
According to a 2013 report by the Anti-Violence Project, trans people are 3.7 times more likely to experience police violence than cisgender victims. Trans people are seven times more likely to experience physical violence when interacting with the police. LAPD has a history of inflicting verbal, physical, and sexual abuse on trans women and gender nonconforming people. Most recently, LA Taco and the LA Times documented numerous instances of abuse during last summer’s protests.
After Penn was arrested, organizers scrambled to find out where she was being held and what she was being charged with. Officers were giving conflicting information and unprofessional attitudes to callers. While Penn was in custody, NBC Los Angeles published a story titled, “Protestor Arrested on Suspicion of ‘Lynching’ at Garcetti’s Residence.” The story was written by City News Service (CNS), a wire service that often publishes pro-police stories with no byline on local TV news outlets.
As of publishing time, the headline on NBCLA’s website has been changed to “Protester Arrested at Mayor Garcetti’s Residence” following pushback from readers, however the Tweet retains the original title. (Source: Twitter via @NBCLA)
The article itself reads like a police press release. The only quote in the piece is from an LAPD Media Relations officer. It goes on to define “lynching” as “the crime of removing someone from the lawful custody of a peace officer by means of a riot,” citing California Penal Code 405a. That section of the penal code is not, in fact, known as “lynching.”
California legislators unanimously voted to strike the offensive term from the penal code in 2015 after the arrest of a black activist at a BLM protest. Holly Mitchell, now LA County Supervisor-Elect, wrote the bill.
This raised the question of why such a provocative, racially charged term was used by CNS and published by NBCLA in relation to an arrest made at a Black Lives Matter protest. According to multiple sources familiar with the matter, CNS published their story directly from what they were told by LAPD, evidently unaware that “lynching” is not in the penal code, or that police are known to lie to shape narratives. This would explain why the story lacked quotes from any eyewitnesses or any of the videos of police violence circulating on social media at the time.
Furthermore, NBCLA credulously published the story without basic fact checking. As of this writing, their tweet about the story is still live. As I wrote for KNOCK.LA last week, local TV news frequently boosts pro-police narratives in its reporting of police violence at protests.
The process of police propaganda being laundered as news by local TV stations unfolded before Penn had even been released from custody, indicating that the events of the entire day may have been premeditated.
It’s easy to imagine the police deciding they were going to make arrests Sunday, knowing they were going to call the charges “lynching” at a Black Lives Matter event, and then passing the story to friendly, uncritical media outlets to disseminate via platforms where people would not read past the provocative headline. This would be used to discredit BLM-LA and its demands to block Mayor Garcetti from Biden’s administration. Garcetti, tired of sustained protests (and his own unforced errors) bringing national attention to his inept leadership as Mayor, would then sign off on all of the above.
This is a far more likely series of events than what the police and their allies at NBCLA put forth: that Jamie Penn — elected official, protest marshal, and mutual aid organizer — incited a riot, a claim easily refuted by the dozens of videos and eyewitness accounts from the scene.
Personal anecdote about Jamie Penn (Source: Twitter via @phillipsclariel)
As of this writing, several local elected officials have condemned the LAPD’s response, including US House Representative Jimmy Gomez, State Assembly members Miguel Santiago and Wendy Carrillo, and LA City Councilmember and Councilmember-Elect Mike Bonin and Nithya Raman. However, none explicitly called for Penn’s felony charges to be dropped. Mayor Garcetti and District Attorney George Gascon, who has recently promised to reopen several investigations into police killings, were notably silent.
On Sunday night, at least 100 unmasked right-wing protestors gathered directly in front of Mayor Garcetti’s house, demanding businesses reopen.
Source: Twitter via @emilyytayylor
One report indicates that three officers were on scene and the crowd eventually dispersed, perhaps because of the cold. The ordinance that requires protestors to keep moving, which LAPD enforced Sunday morning, was not enforced Sunday night. No batons were used, and no arrests were made.
We’re always looking for new LA stories. To share yours, reach out to us at: [email protected]
If you have sensitive information to share, email us at [email protected]
KNOCK.LA and its writers unfortunately still live under capitalism — but not for long, if we have anything to say! Thanks to readers like you, KNOCK.LA is able to keep you informed on local politics and uplift marginalized voices in LA. Join us in fighting the good fight and donate to KNOCK.LA’s Patreon | https://medium.com/groundgamela/jamie-penn-arrest-black-lives-matter-eric-garcetti-protest-1891d1bcbd17 | ['Kevin Varzandeh'] | 2020-12-07 17:15:56.282000+00:00 | ['Lapd', 'Police Brutality', 'BlackLivesMatter', 'Eric Garcetti', 'News'] |
Robots and Religion: Mediating the Divine. | Some 100,000 years ago, fifteen people, eight of them children, were buried on the flank of Mount Precipice, just outside the southern edge of Nazareth in today’s Israel. One of the boys still held the antlers of a large red deer clasped to his chest, while a teenager lay next to a necklace of seashells painted with ochre and brought from the Mediterranean Sea shore 35 km away. The bodies of Qafzeh are some of the earliest evidence we have of grave offerings, possibly associated with religious practice.
Although some type of belief has likely accompanied us from the beginning, it’s not until 50,000–13,000 BCE that we see clear religious ideas take shape in paintings, offerings, and objects. This is a period filled with Venus figurines, statuettes made of stone, bone, ivory and clay, portraying women with small heads, wide hips, and exaggerated breasts. It is also the home of the beautiful lion man, carved out of mammoth ivory with a flint stone knife and the oldest-known zoomorphic (animal-shaped) sculpture in the world.
We’ve unearthed such representations of primordial gods, likely our first religious icons, all across Europe and as far as Siberia, and although we’ll never be able to ask their creators why they made them, we somehow still feel a connection with the stories they were trying to tell. | https://medium.com/swlh/robots-and-religion-mediating-the-divine-2bd73220787d | ['Yisela Alvarez Trentini'] | 2019-08-08 03:03:37.012000+00:00 | ['Philosophy', 'Religion', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Robotics', 'Technology'] |
Training at Home Versus at the Gym: Pros & Cons | Training at Home Versus at the Gym: Pros & Cons
Photo created by karlyukav — www.freepik.com
If you as a trainer or as an athlete are facing this dilemma, especially now that the gyms are starting to close again, we prepared a pros and cons list to help you make the best decision in choosing the workout environment that suits your situation. | https://medium.com/hyperhuman/training-at-home-versus-at-the-gym-pros-cons-4f83b395d1d3 | ['Hyperhuman Team'] | 2020-12-08 18:15:55.329000+00:00 | ['Workout', 'Fitness Tips', 'Training', 'Fitness'] |
Two-Minute Rule to Start a Good Habit | In one of the chapters of his book, Atomic Habit, James Clear detailing this technique to help you shape a good start for a new habit that you want to build. For example, if you are someone that wants to lose weight you might want to start working out diligently for 45 minutes. But it might be too much for most people, you start imagining all the hurdles that you might face, like lack of stamina, not doing the work out perfectly, etc. By ruminating about all of this, you might lose confidence in yourself to start doing a workout.
Clear said one thing to help in this condition is to establish a “gateway habit” that naturally leads you down a more productive path. You can figure out the gateway habit of the habit that you want to start by mapping out your goals on a scale from ‘very easy’ to ‘very hard.’ Actually working out for 45 minutes on day one is fall on the scale of very hard, jogging for 30 minutes is hard, walking one thousand steps is moderately difficult, walking for 10 minutes daily is easy, putting on your work out shoes is very easy. Your goal might be to lose weight, but your gateway habit is to put on your workout shoes. That’s how you follow the Two-Minute Rule.
People might think it’s weird to get so happy about putting on workout shoes, but the point is not putting on workout shoes. The point, Clear stated, is to master the habit of showing up. By showing up, you prove to yourself you can start a new beginning, establish a start of a good habit. By showing up, you can improve your new habit to build up into something. Do easy and simple thing daily and on a more consistent basis, instead of trying to build a perfect habit on the go. In Clear’s words, you have to standardize before you can optimize.
By mastering the art of showing up, your first two minutes become a simple ritual at the beginning of a larger routine. Your first two minutes not only make your habits easier but actually the ideal way to master a difficult skill. By constantly doing it, you shape the start of your new habit. Remember, what matters is to start doing something rather than imagining a great way to start it.
The more you imagining the perfect way, the harder it is for you to start doing it. If you can effortlessly doing your first two minutes, the more likely you can slip into the state of deep focus that is required to do great things.
So, are you ready to start your two minutes? | https://medium.com/@rashinta/two-minute-rule-to-start-a-good-habit-be43f2599e5d | ['R.A. Shinta'] | 2020-11-08 03:39:31.292000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Habit Building', 'Habits', 'Atomic Habit', 'Productivity'] |
Sitting on the Bench | Sitting on the Bench
Photo by Ross Sneddon on Unsplash
The park is filled with
So many people, it almost resembles
A collage, normalcy, but things aren’t
Normal and I’m not either,
Darting my eyes to
Grab responses and drag them
To my mouth, speaking
Metaphorically I say everything is
Conscious and you say everything
Is energy, the rocks vibrating in
Your palm and I
Almost believe you in a way
I can’t understand and won’t for
Days, my brain too shaky in the cold
To take it’s layers off
My hands are freezing so I
Touch your jeans and not your
Skin and ask you
What you think about the state,
The tree beside me, the
Ink beneath my skin
Frozen to your mirrored iris and I
Wonder what that
Means and what you mean
When you say vibrate
But I just exhale
Watch your hand
Move like a magnifying glass
To mine, the realization
Of my circulating thoughts
A chapter for another day | https://medium.com/scrittura/sitting-on-the-bench-d99c82e86d02 | ['Bradon Matthews'] | 2020-12-09 20:33:41.861000+00:00 | ['Conversations', 'Romance', 'Free Verse', 'Poem', 'Scrittura'] |
How I Became Stronger | I went from 20- to 30-pound dumbbell weights within a few months of consistent exercise.
My methods were unconventional and I would suggest consulting with a physician if you decide to start an exercise routine.
To gain that extra 10 pounds per arm, I mostly did endurance workouts, lots of reps, full body, every day. No exercise was done to failure so that I could recover quickly and go again the next day.
Mentally, I implemented a meditation routine to help understand my thoughts.
Here are a few ways you can become stronger physically:
Lift any kind of weight, consistently.
Move your body. That can include walking, running, cycling, dancing, farming, gardening…the list is endless.
Eat more protein and less junk.
Sit less.
Rest for recovery when your body tells you to.
Eliminate dangerous addictions (drugs, alcohol).
To become stronger mentally:
Meditate for a few minutes daily.
Write your creative ideas down.
Position yourself to solve more problems.
Position yourself to make more decisions.
Be uncomfortable more often.
These are just a few ways to gain strength. Best of luck on your self-improvement journey! :) | https://medium.com/@trevorcarss/how-i-became-stronger-b52eb6821570 | ['Trevor Carss'] | 2020-12-20 18:59:52.283000+00:00 | ['Weightlifting', 'Strength', 'Exercise', 'Self Improvement', 'Meditation'] |
Bean and Bean Coffee Review | Happy Sunday! I haven’t done one of these in a while so I thought this post would be a nice treat for all of you (gifted, not an ad).
I do currently have a giveaway going on with them over on my Instagram here!
I’m here to chat a bit about Bean & Bean Coffee Roasters out of New York City. Family owned and women-led specialty coffee roaster out of NYC for over 10 years! They stand for gender equity — focusing on partnering with female coffee producers and over half of their coffee is sourced from female led farms!!!
It’s so nice to hear even in the coffee roasting community, there are companies striving for gender equity in the field!
WOWWW! I love the morals and values that they are bringing to the coffee community!
Let’s Talk Coffee
So lately I’ve been sipping on their Indonesia Sumatra. It’s a nice smooth dark roast with heavy, tart cherry undertones. It’s a nice roast to have first thing in the morning as a pick me up!
The mother-daughter team that runs Bean & Bean Coffee ACTUALLY are professionally trained to cup coffee. This means that they reallyyyy know what their doing.
Fun Fact: a dream of mine has always been to go to a coffee cupping and be taught how to professionally taste coffee undertones.
The Bean and Bean Coffee Partnership with the Sloth Institute
Bean and Bean Coffee Roasters also focuses on working with small coffee farms who work alongside the environment RATHER THAN deforesting it. They partner with the Sloth Institute (hint hint their adorable packaging) where % of online coffee sales goes directly to care for the sloths in need.
When they mentioned this to me I was so happy to hear as I personally didn’t even think about the deforestation aspect of coffee farming.
Don’t forget there’s an international giveaway for some of these goodies here & also in my last post another giveaway! wooo!
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!!
Lots of love, | https://medium.com/@coffeeenut/bean-and-bean-coffee-review-8474750a940b | ['Ashleigh Fay'] | 2021-01-22 20:35:23.538000+00:00 | ['Coffee Culture', 'Coffeereviews', 'Coffee Shop', 'Coffee', 'Coffee Roasters'] |
Tutorial on how to create a sound meter using ProtoPie | In this ProtoPie tutorial, I will run you through steps to recreate a sound meter prototype that responds to sound levels measured using the mic in a smartphone. This response is then used to modify UI layer properties.
👨💻 Creating the UI and importing to ProtoPie
Created the UI for the sound meter using Figma
Every division on the scale equals a range of 5 decibels (dB). The first division would range from 30–35 dB, the second would be from 36–40 dB and so on.
Every division has two rectangle layers to indicate the reading — Green means within range and Grey means out of range. Click on the link below to get the Figma open file.
Open ProtoPie on your desktop and create a new project. Click on Import and select Figma from the menu. Then select the artboard that you want to import.
Importing the UI into ProtoPie
🔊 Accessing the sound sensor
01. From the Inspector panel, click on Add trigger and select Sound from the Sensor menu.
Adding the sound sensor as a trigger
02. Now that we have added the Sound sensor as a Trigger, let’s make sure this trigger is returning some Response. In the Variables panel (below the layers panel), create a new variable for all scenes and rename it to sound_level.
Creating sound_level variable
03. Back to the inspector panel, click the + button under the Sound trigger to add a new response called Assign. From the properties panel, click on the “Select variable” dropdown menu and select sound_level.
Adding Assign response and selecting the sound_level variable
Next, we will set the mapping range values to be the same as the prefilled dB values ranging from 30–120.
ProtoPie allows us to display a variable in debug mode. This mode helps us to see if the response is being received and assigned to the variable. So to do that just hover on the sound_level variable and you should see a bug like Icon appear, click that it’ll add the variable to the canvas area.
Add the sound_level variable to the canvas area.
⚒ Time to test
Click on Device from the toolbar menu on ProtoPie. Download and open the ProtoPie app on your smartphone. Scan the QR code using the app and you’ll see the prototype displaying the sound_level values on the screen.
🎛 Modifying layer properties
Based on the response received from the sensor we can now map the Opacity value of the Green rectangle layers to the dB of sound indicating the change in sound level.
For example, if the response returned is 55 dB, the meter will highlight 6 divisions (30–55 dB) on the meter.
Step 1: Let’s map the response for the first division ie: 30–35 dB. From the inspector panel, click the + button under the Sound trigger to add a new response called Opacity. From the properties panel, click on the select layer dropdown menu and choose the layer named 30–35-on.
Step 2: Range 1–30 and 120 dB (in range), the opacity would be 100%. Range2–1 and 29 dB (out of range), the opacity values would be 0%. Modify Range 1 and 2 values as indicated below.
Repeat steps 1 and 2 for the remaining layers and run the prototype again to reflect the changes.
🎉 The final result | https://blog.prototypr.io/tutorial-on-how-to-create-a-sound-meter-using-protopie-ef7644af9ea7 | ['Prithvi Ravi'] | 2019-10-03 09:04:34.160000+00:00 | ['Figma', 'Protopie', 'UI Design', 'Design', 'Prototyping'] |
The Thirsty Entrepreneur | This was it, this was the time that he had been waiting for his whole life. All of his performances, as they said, were for the sake of abandonment. The ephemerality of life, the fleeting nature of it, necessitated that he lived fast and burned free, lest he would die a slow and miserable death.
The glamour of an entrepreneur, a protégé of his era, emerged from the depths of Silicon Valley. He had created an online platform which united the world, and connected all of us.
It was his dream, to build a company and to sell it off.
This was success, this was being the victor, this was conquering life. A defiance from reality, revolting against all odds,.
Golden shimmering confetti lined the sleek modernistic walls of the convention hall where the acquisition took place.
He looked around and saw dark crystal circles staring vigilantly at him; in the centre of them, lay polygonal sheets of black that twitched every few moments. The cameras were watching.
“Sir, how do you feel? Knowing that your company has been bought over by Mortem holdings.”
“It feels as though my dreams have come to fruition; within the years of my youth, I was able to create something so tremendous which impacted the world. I think it is time that I let it go. “
“Well said sir”, the host turned to address the audience,“At the forefront of innovation, he has pushed technological boundaries don’t you all agree?” A thunderous applause filled the air.
“I think I do serve as a role model to the rest; follow in my footsteps if you do wish to make it one day. Hard and smart work has always brought me to the highest of places.”
“And that’s the end of the show.”
Wasted and beleaguered by the lights of success, he made his way home, taking refuge in the soft solitude of his bed. He had planned to travel the next day and take the entire year off after the acquisition of his company. A reward for his efforts, a sweet and deserved self-indulgence. He fell asleep hastily.
The night faded away and the light of day pierced through his windows. The sun seared his eyes and tried to wake him from his dream.
Looking in the mirror, he saw a chiseled physique, a fine human specimen that was running at peak condition. Somehow, amidst the arduous working hours, he was able to maintain his vigour and youthful exuberance.
He searched his refrigerator to find his sweet ice lemon tea. He had depended on the tea to start his mornings. It had become a routine for him to siphon ¬it at daybreak.
His luggage lay in his dining hall, which was 2 floors down, away from the master’s bedroom. In a country like Singapore, it was hard to have these kinds of inconveniences.
A small Malay family leisured outside the residence of the wealthy entrepreneur. They had lived a couple blocks down in a small run-down apartment. There a decrepit man sat on a personal mobility device and scooted along whilst the sound of his grandchildren playful cheers echoed along.
They drank water, and their bottles were filled to the brim with it. The little boys kicked a ball around as they accompanied their grandfather to the supermarket.
The old man appeared to float along the streets, despite his seemingly sorry state.
The entrepreneur took little notice of them, brushing them off as mere commoners — they were lazy and poor he thought — and with his bulky baggage, he entered the taxi that was scheduled for him. Just as he stepped into the taxi, the tanged aftertaste of the sweet iced lemon tea was brought to his attention. It tasted like regret.
As the taxi drove him to the airport, he tried to rid the unpleasant taste. After labouring his tongue, scraping off the residual flavour, he cleared part of the taste. However, it was rather stubborn and could not be fully cleansed.
He was going to travel to the seven wonders of the world, free from his country’s illiberal policies. He thought that, with the change of environment, he would finally be able to get some perspective on life and ‘succeed’ as an individual.
He was going to be an intrepid traveller, he was going to travel the world. …..
As he stepped in, the taxi took off and descended down the hill.
They tracked the movement of the metal construction until eventually, it was out of sight.
The eyes of the grandfather lit up with a sparkle as he saw his grandchildren playing along the roadside. Even though he couldn’t count the times that he saw this scene, the thought of his grandchildren living in a safe and pleasant life in Singapore had always filled his heart with joy.
When he was a child, he did not have many luxuries( similar to the entrepreneur), but he did have family. That was what kept him going, even through those tough times during the war.
The day was made slow and sweet by the joyful laughter of his children.
No matter how playful the children were, his warm heart was always there to pick them up whenever they fell. Those soft eyes watched from a distance.
It was a very warm day and he was beginning to feel thirsty
He grabbed the well of water, kept in his bottle, and popped the cap off, incrementally tipping it, so that the silky water could flow down and quench his soul
And now as he neared the end of his life, the decrepit man awaited his demise with a smile. | https://medium.com/speaklocal/the-thirsty-entrepreneur-a5d4aca816ac | ['Zander Widjaja'] | 2018-10-06 11:31:47.722000+00:00 | ['Prose', 'Singapore', 'Short Story', 'General Paper', 'Reflections'] |
How Big Should My Penis Be? | Let’s talk about the simple anatomy of the penis; and let’s begin this talk with a question:
What do you think is the length of the average human’s erect penis?
Hmm?
Do you know the answer?
Most people, apparently want to know the answer to this question, because a very similar question, How big should my penis be? Is one of the most frequently posed questions on Google. And despite whatever preconceived notions you have about men’s or women’s beliefs about the length of the penis; most men and women (82%) answer this question correctly, saying the average length of an erect penis is somewhere between 4 and 6 inches in length (Lucas, Roberts, Nylander & Higdon, 2016)
For the newborn, his penis is about 1.3 inches in length; the greatest growth spurt for the penis occurs between 10 and 13 years of age; and the penis is typically done growing by age 16.
For the adult, on average, his flaccid (non-erect) penis is about 3.6 inches in length; and his erect penis is about 5.2 inches erect (Veale et al., 2015).
Seventy-five percent of erect penises are between 4.3 and 5.9 inches in length. Ten percent of men have erect penises less than 4.3 inches in length and 15 percent of men have erect penises greater than 5.9 inches in length.
A Google search reveals the size of a man’s erect penis is related to his height, weight, foot size, hand size, finger size, race, and geographical locale. But before you go believing in any of these relationships; you may want to know, more times than not, the studies reporting these relationships depend upon their participants self-reporting the size of their erect penises (McGreal, 2012).
Personally, I believe a man when he shares most things about himself; but him reporting the size of his penis, isn’t one of them. 😊
Studies using healthcare professionals to measure participants penis sizes find NO consistent or strong relationships between the size of a man’s erect penis and his height, weight, foot size, hand size, finger size, race, or geographical locale. In fact, even knowing the length of a penis when it is flaccid, isn’t enough information to reliably predict the length of that penis when it is erect.
Repeat: Studies using objective measures of penis size find NO consistent or strong relationships between the size of a man’s erect penis and his height, weight, foot size, hand size, finger size, race, or geographical locale.
What’s all this mean? No matter shoe size, race, height or any other demographic, the average length of an adult human’s erect penis is about 5 and a quarter inches in length — plus or minus half of an inch. Most people already know this information but are fooled into thinking they do not.
References
Lucas, D. R., Roberts, C., Nylander, G., & Higdon, M. (2016). Do Americans know more about sex today than they did 25 years ago? Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Southwestern Psychological Association, Dallas, Texas.
McGreal, S. A. (2012). The pseudoscience of race differences in penis size. Psychology Today, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/unique-everybody-else/201210/the-pseudoscience-race-differences-in-penis-size.
Veale, D., Miles, S., Bramley, S., Muir, G. & Hodsoll, J. (2015). Am I normal? A systematic review and construction of nomograms for flaccid and erect penis length and circumference in up to 15,521 men. British Journal of Urology International, 115, 978–986.
…
Don Lucas is a Professor of Psychology and head of the Psychology Department at Northwest Vista College in San Antonio Texas. He loves psychology, teaching, and research.
If you like this story, then check out Don’s videos on his YouTube channel, 5MIweekly: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQFQ0vPPNPS-LYhlbKOzpFw/featured, follow Don on Instagram @5MIweekly, and like Don on Facebook: http://fb.me/5MIWeekly | https://medium.com/5-minutes-of-intercourse/how-big-should-my-penis-be-7b704c808a07 | ['Don Lucas'] | 2019-05-11 16:34:42.935000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Sex', 'Self-awareness', 'Life Lessons', 'Health'] |
My highest earning story | My highest earning story
So far…
sPhoto by Micheile Henderson on Unsplash
The second paragraph of this article was originally the final paragraph. I’ve moved it to the front to save you some time. If you just want a ‘sure-fire formula for instant success on Medium’ you’re in the wrong place. Here we go…
“Apologies if I’ve disappointed you. This isn’t an article about the tools and formulas I’ve used to repeatedly write high earning, viral articles. There are plenty of articles like that out there by other contributors. This is just me, writing about writing. It’s something I love doing, it’s something I’ll keep doing, and it’s something I’m glad I have the opportunity to do. The fact that it may or may not one day be financially beneficial is a bonus.”
Now for the rest of the article.
I’ve been on Medium for 6 months, and I’ve never written a viral article, I’ve never even come close. I’ve yet to earn 100 dollars in total, but that’s no reason to stop writing. In the absence of a serious psychological imbalance, I doubt anybody could write if they did it for money alone. The odds are too small. I write because I love writing. Thank God I have other means of paying bills and feeding myself. Writing is just like starting a business, the ability to get started without quitting your job is a blessing. The business might explode, it might grow slowly, or it might fail altogether. Because the barriers to entry are almost non existent (you need time and something to write on), you can keep trying forever.
There are a lot of articles on Medium about how to make money writing. Everybody would like to write a viral article, one that gets read by millions of people. Viral articles, as well as making a good bit of money, open up all kinds of doors. The size of a writer’s audience is a ticket to many destinations; the bigger the better.
Writing is a bit like being a rock star, everybody knows about the few who succeed because they succeed massively, and the other 99% or so barely survive at all. If you became a bestselling author, you could make some serious money. And if you kept it up, you’d be made for life. Think of people like Stephen King, James Patterson, J. K. Rowling, and E. L. James, writers who are worth hundred of millions. Those at the very top of the pile are billionaires. So just like anything else, if you rise to the top of the pile, you have it all.
I’ll say it again though, you can’t just write for money. There are much easier ways to make large sums of money. According to the Guardian, the bestselling author of the last decade, in any genre, is Julia Donaldson. Donaldson is a former busker who was in her forties when her first book was published. If you have children, or you’ve ever found yourself in a children’s books section, you’re almost certainly familiar with Julia Donaldson. Her most famous book, The Gruffalo, has sold over 13 million copies and her titles have spawned clothing lines and toys. The Sunday Times Rich List estimated Donaldson’s net worth as £30 million in 2017. By comparison, 9 year old Ryan Kaji made around $30 million this year. He is the highest earning YouTuber for the third year running. He reviews toys. Like I said, there are easier ways to make money than writing.
In case you’re wondering, my highest earning article to date has made just over $3. It was an article about ‘The Secret’, a book that has sold over 300 million copies. As I’ve not been typing about the miraculous power of hope, you can probably guess that I’m not a big fan of The Secret. My fastest earner ‘Strangled, cut into one hundred pieces and dissolved in acid ’ made over £2 in the first 24 hours, then did nothing at all for months. My third highest earner so far is ‘Why you get even fatter after dieting.’ My most read article so far is the first one I wrote, about the loss of my best friend, “Before you kick the chair.”
Acknowledging that I’m probably wrong, I imagine I’ll keep writing for Medium, and as the years go by my readership will grow fairly steadily, until eventually I will make a reasonable living. Medium will be another income stream. Maybe it will take care of my monthly expenses. What I know for sure is that if I stop writing, I will never make anything. Success at any endeavour takes effort sustained over a long period of time. If you’re going to give something a few shots and then quit, you may as well not try in the first place. Jennifer Cohen conceptualises the persistence required for success as ‘The 10% rule.’ Essentially, she states that you must be bold, and you must give anything you do at least 10 attempts. Cohen gives a great Ted Talk on the topic entitled ‘The Secret To Getting Anything you want in Life.’
Being a human being who can imagine and plan, I do think about the future. I would love a future where I can live well just by doing the things I love to do. Writing is foremost amongst them. I don’t know if I’ll ever reach that promised land, but I do know I’ll keep trying. Writing on Medium is a start. I’d love to have some published books as well. Actually I’d love to have a lot of published books. The thing that really gets me going is the certainty of death. One day I’ll be dead, but any books I have published, assuming people actually want to read them, will continue to provide an income for my children. Dr Seuss’ rhyming books still earn millions of dollars a year for his family. Ernest Becker, author of ‘The Denial of Death’ might suggest that writing is my immortality project. My way to still be around when I’m no longer around. My means to stamp my name on history. I wouldn’t disagree with him, but I’d add that some success whilst I’m alive would be great as well.
Writing is creating, and creating is contributing. In ‘The most important job in the world’ I wrote about about the fact that a lot of ‘good jobs’ like investment banking, don’t actually create anything at all, they just skim money off of endless large transactions. Those jobs are all about making coin, and nothing else. The opinion I expressed in that article is that the most important jobs in the world are those which equip and inspire other people (teaching and writing amongst them).
Poetry comes easily to me, and I’ve published a lot of it on Medium. Poems have helped me publish 126 articles in my first 6 months. Whilst poems garner a lot of comments, a fair amount of reads, and lots of fans, they make very little money. But that doesn’t matter, because writing a good poem is very satisfying. My three favourite poems on here are currently ‘The Monster’, and ‘The Meagre Man’.’ The most widely read are ‘The Wizard’, a poem about finance, and ‘Another Pretty Face’, a poem about beautiful idiots. Writing short stories is a lot harder than writing poems, but I published one of those on here as well. ‘Ten Forty Seven’ is a story I wrote for a teacher, to help with one of her English lessons. After being told that it had several children in her class, and a few teaching and leadership staff in tears, and that a lot of reluctant writers produced some excellent work after hearing it, I thought it must be very good. But so far on Medium, it’s had less than five views.
Clearly I’m going to keep writing, and clearly I’m not expecting it to make me rich anytime soon. If I ever become a literary rock star, I’ll be an old one, like The Rolling Stones. That would certainly be very enjoyable. | https://medium.com/illumination/my-highest-earning-story-610631ce39ca | ['Nasar Karim'] | 2020-12-23 16:21:25.096000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Writing On Medium'] |
Что такое GraphQL и как это использовать в разработке приложений Apache Kafka | Dell EMC Certified trainer since 2007, co-founder of Big Data School - delivering Big Data, Data Mining, Hadoop, NoSQL, Kafka, Spark cluster courses in Moscow! | https://medium.com/@bigdataschool/%D1%87%D1%82%D0%BE-%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B5-graphql-%D0%B8-%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%BA-%D1%8D%D1%82%D0%BE-%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%B7%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0%D1%82%D1%8C-%D0%B2-%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B7%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B1%D0%BE%D1%82%D0%BA%D0%B5-%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B6%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B9-apache-kafka-696049fcd8c6 | ['Nick Komissarenko'] | 2020-12-14 04:02:30.253000+00:00 | ['Kafka', 'Архитектура', 'Bigdata'] |
Using Permutation Tests to proof the Climate Change | Now the interesting question is: Do the maximum and minimum values behave like one would expect if there was no change of the underlying temperature distribution. More specifically we will ask: Assuming no change of the temperature distribution over all the years, how many distinct maximum and minimum values would we expect and what would be the probability of the number of maximum/minimum values that we are seeing here?
One interesting aspect of this type of statistical question is that the actual temperature values themselves are not used at all. Only the relative ordering of the values is relevant. This property of the statistical test proves to be very useful in many other cases where you cannot really assign meaningful values to increasingly severe events, but you still want to be able to test for randomness. Of course the result then is of a purely qualitative nature (i.e. the temperature is increasing at a statistical significant level) but the test will not tell you by how much the temperature is increasing.
2. A Little Bit of Theory
In order to approach the question whether the number of new maximum/minimum values for the yearly average temperature behaves as one would expect, we need to formalize the problem a little bit.
For the following examination, we generalize the problem to a vector of independent, identically distributed (IID) continuous random variables X(1)…X(n). All of the three properties are important here: We assume that every random variable X(i) in this vector has the same probability distribution and we assume that all variables are independent from each other. Finally we also assume that all variables are continues, which implies that the probability of two random variables having the same value is zero.
2.1 Record Statistics
We are now interested in what I call a running record: We call position i a record whenever the value of the random variable X(i) is larger than all previous variables X(j) with j < i. With the weather data, we are interested in the number of records of the vector of average temperatures.
Given a sequence of values X(1)…X(n) we can now define a simple statistics as the number of observed records within that sequence and then we can ask if the value of that statistics looks plausible if we assume that all X(i) are IID. This assumption corresponds to the null hypothesis of “no climate change” in the temperature series.
Translating the question into a mathematical language, we would like to calculate (or at least estimate) the probability of having k records in a sequence of n IID random variables. This question immediately brings us to random permutations.
2.2 Random Permutations
Instead of answering the original question let’s transform it to an equivalent problem. To do so, we first assign the rank of the value to each random variable, i.e. the smallest random variable is assigned a rank of 1, the second smallest variable a rank of 2 and so on until the largest random variable is assigned the rank n. Let’s denote the rank of X(i) with R(i).
The following example gives us the ranks R(i) for the small sequence X(i) with 7 elements.
value X(i): 0.2 2.3 1.1 0.7 2.4 1.8 2.1
rank R(i): 1 6 3 2 7 4 5
Note that the ranks R(i) still have the same relative order as the original values X(i), which in turn implies that the number of records in the ranks vector is the same as the number of records in the original values.
The set of all ranks R(1)…R(n) contains all the number from 1 until n, but in a random order. Assuming that the original values X(i) are IID, the vector of ranks R(i) is a random permutation. Therefore the probability distribution of the number of records in a sequence of IID random variables is the same as of the number of records in a random permutation.
2.3 Monte Carlo Sampling
Unfortunately, it turns out that the distribution we are looking for (the number of records in a random permutation) is not exactly simple to calculate. There are some formulas (see On the outstanding elements of permutations by Herbert Wilf), but these build on the unsigned Stirling numbers of the first kind which are not easy to calculate.
Instead of trying to evaluate some mathematical formula for the probability distribution we chose a different route: We simply let the computer conduct a reasonable huge number of random experiments by sampling random permutations, and in each experiment we calculate the statistics we are interested in. The histogram (i.e. the relative frequency of each possible outcome) then gives us an estimation of the true probability. This approach is called Monte Carlo Sampling and by the law of large numbers, the results will always converge to the real values.
3. Implementation
Now we have gathered all the required theory for implementing the statistical test if the number of running maximums/minimums in the temperature chart below is plausible under the null hypothesis that the climate doesn’t change (i.e. the probability distribution of the average temperature doesn’t change over time). | https://towardsdatascience.com/using-permutation-tests-to-proof-the-climate-change-2bc34d614eb7 | ['Kaya Kupferschmidt'] | 2020-12-23 18:14:27.792000+00:00 | ['Climate Change', 'Data Science', 'Statistics', 'Weather'] |
The First Real Gold Rush | The first gold rush in the U.S. didn’t occur in California, as many believe. The first significant gold discovery took place in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, in 1799, while the California Gold Rush didn’t start until 1848.
The gold nugget that started the rush was found on the farm of a former Hessian soldier named John Reed. Reed’s 12-year-old son had spotted the shiny rock in Little Meadows Creek, which ran through their property. He decided to take it home, but the elder Reed thought it was just an ordinary rock and paid no attention to it, other than to use it as a doorstop for three years. The real gold rush didn’t start until Reed took it to a jeweler and discovered that the rock that had kept a door propped open was indeed a gold nugget that weighed 17 pounds. Reed turned Little Meadows into a small mining operation and found even more gold. At one point, he even discovered a 28 pound nugget.
Miners from around the country began flocking to North Carolina after the news of the discovery. Up until the beginning of the civil war, gold mining was the second most held occupation behind farming in North Carolina as gold began to be discovered in other counties in the state. The United States Mint even built a branch in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1837. In 1828, there was a second gold rush, but this one took place in Dahlonega, Georgia, in the northern part of the state. The U.S. mint established a branch there too in 1835 that ran until 1861. North Carolina remained the largest producer of gold in the United States until the California Gold Rush began in 1848.
Sources: UNC, Today in Georgia History, Vintage News
Want to delve into more facts? Try The Wonderful World of Completely Random Facts series, here on Medium. | https://medium.com/knowledge-stew/the-first-real-gold-rush-1c426e60b7ac | ['Daniel Ganninger'] | 2020-11-30 13:52:20.171000+00:00 | ['Mining', 'History', 'Wealth', 'Gold', 'Business'] |
Good Night, Sweet Eclair | Good Night, Sweet Eclair
A Tiny Moment of “Saying Goodbye to a Loved One”
Published by Author. Goodnight Sweet Girl!
The Moment
Six weeks ago I wrote about my cat, Eclair, who was in the last stages of renal failure, and how she had been saying goodbyes for a while now. Nightly visits when I went to bed, extra snuggles, and howling in the morning. I think the howl was her trying to communicate with us that she was hurt and needed our help.
She fought bravely, struggled to take medicine, but wouldn’t go without our permission. She finally told us please, and stopped eating. We took her to the vet this past Friday, hoping we might have a little more time with her, but she decided she was ready to go. We left heartbroken.
The Reflection
I guess we sort of blocked it out but she was pretty ill. It’s easy to just assume your pet will always be there and as long as they are sort of functioning you can cope. Cats are stoic anyway and will just fight through it as if to say, “Hey, people, I know you’re not as smart as me, but will you pay attention!”
I think an indoor cat has a difficult time going when it is their time. They say a cat in the wild will slink off and go seclude themselves when they’re ready to leave this place. Residing mainly inside, they can’t leave and feel like they still have to watch over their home companions. You are living in their world, duh!
I keep looking around for her, calling out her name, and patting the bed. Even though I know she’s gone, I don’t want her to be. She did so many things that she won’t anymore.
Some people might look at them as only pets, but when you love something unconditionally and take care of it and see them off it’s painstaking. We kept after her to the end. On her last day with us, she rubbed us through her cat carrier and said goodbye. We told her how much we loved her and thanked her for taking care of us.
The Takeaway | https://medium.com/tiny-life-moments/good-night-sweet-eclair-8dfd18dad17a | ['Josh Kiev'] | 2020-10-19 11:14:16.123000+00:00 | ['Tiny Life Moments', 'Grief', 'Pets', 'Loss', 'Love'] |
Medical Marijuana | While each state has laws directing the utilization of clinical cannabis, multiple U.S. states have authorized it for medical use. The FDA has also recently endorsed the use of pharmaceutical derived cannabinoids for treating specific medical disorders, such as Dravet syndrome.
For what reason hasn’t more widespread studies been conducted? One explanation is that the DEA looks at pot as a Schedule I drug, equivalent to heroin, LSD, and crack — liable to be mishandled and with no clinical use. Thus, scientists and researchers need a unique permit to examine it.
That may not change at any point in the near future, but as the political climate changes, more pressure is put on regulators to adjust the current categorization of marijuana. The DEA considered renaming weed as a Schedule II medication like Morphine or Oxycodone, yet chose to maintain it as a Schedule I drug. The organization did, in any case, consent to help extra research on weed and make the cycle simpler for researchers
What is clinical cannabis?
Clinical cannabis utilizes the pot plant or synthetic compounds in it to treat sicknesses or conditions. It’s essentially a similar item as recreational marijuana, however, it’s taken for clinical purposes.
The marijuana plant contains in excess of 100 unique synthetic compounds called cannabinoids. Every one affects the body in its own way. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol or CBD are the primary synthetic substances utilized in medication. THC additionally creates the “high” individuals feel when they smoke or use medical marijuana.
What is clinical pot utilized for?
An ever-increasing number of states are authorizing MMJ to treat agony and ailment. Discover what conditions it’s being utilized for:
· Alzheimer’s
· Crohn’s
· HIV/AIDS
· Multiple Sclerosis (M.S.)
· Dietary problems, for example, anorexia
· Epilepsy
· Glaucoma
· PTSD
· MS
· Quiet
· Nausea
· Anxiety
· Seizures
How can it help?
Cannabinoids — the dynamic compounds in clinical cannabis — are like synthetics the body makes that help regulate hunger, memory, development, and agony.
Cannabinoids may:
· Lessen nervousness
· Lessen irritation
· Control queasiness and retching brought about by chemotherapy
· Destroy malignancy cells and moderate tumor development
· Invigorate craving and improve weight gain individuals undergoing Chemo or who are HIV+
· Clinical cannabis got a great deal of consideration a couple of years back when parents said that an uncommon type of the medication helped control seizures in their kids. The FDA approved Epidiolex, which is produced using CBD, as a treatment for individuals with extreme or difficult-to-treat seizures
How is MMJ available to take?
To take clinical cannabis, you can:
Smoke the whole flower
Inhale it through a vaporizer
Eat it — for instance, in a brownie or mint
Apply it to your skin in a moisturizer or cream
Put a tincture of drops under your tongue
How you take it varies greatly and affects all patients differently. Every consumption method works differently in your body explains Medical Marijuana Doctors of Bonita Springs. “Vaping or smoking medical marijuana provides a rapid effect; however, it is not very long-lasting. For a patient seeking extended symptom relief, consuming cannabis orally, or utilizing transdermal delivery patches can provide relief up to 72-hours.”
Which states permit clinical cannabis?
Clinical cannabis is lawful in 33 states and the District of Columbia:
· Alaska
· Arizona
· Arkansas
· California
· Colorado
· Connecticut
· Delaware
· DC
· Florida
· Hawaii
· Illinois
· Louisiana
· Maine
· Maryland
· Massachusetts
· Michigan
· Minnesota
· Missouri
· Montana
· Nevada
· New Hampshire
· New Jersey
· New Mexico
· New York
· North Dakota
· Ohio
· Oklahoma
· Oregon
· Pennsylvania
· Rhode Island
· Utah
· Vermont
· Washington
· West Virginia
States permitting legitimate recreational use include: Alaska, California, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington
How would you get medical marijuana?
To get clinical pot, you should have a condition that meets all the requirements for clinical cannabis use. Each state has its own rundown of qualifying conditions and regulations. In the sunshine state for example, you need to see a Florida Marijuana Doctor and than apply to the OMMU for a patient ID Card before you can purchase medical marijuana. Once you submit your online application, the state will review and approve it within 10-business days at which time patients can begin to purchase and utilize medical marijuana. | https://medium.com/@david_98067/medical-marijuana-4ef5740c88bd | ['Cole Mitchel'] | 2020-12-17 15:33:52.435000+00:00 | ['Cannabis', 'Medical Marijuana', 'Marijuana'] |
Scrum: A Framework to Reduce Risk and Deliver Value Sooner (Updated to Scrum Guide 2020) | The Scrum Artifacts
The first pillar of empirical process control is ‘Transparency’. In order to frequently inspect the progress of your work on a product and make decisions about what (else) is needed, we need to have something we can inspect. By making the work on a product ‘transparent’, we mean making it available in a form that allows the people that have a stake in the product to look at it, to validate assumptions with it, and to generate new ideas from it.
The Scrum framework requires teams to make at least three elements of their work on a product transparent. We call these ‘artifacts’ in Scrum, and they are the main vehicles for collecting the data and experiences we need to inform our decision-making about the future.
The Product Backlog
The first artifact is the Product Backlog. It makes transparent all the work that needs to be done on the product to achieve a Product Goal. The Product Goal gives focus to the work on the Product Backlog by allowing the Scrum Team to commit to a single long-term objective for the product. As Scrum Teams work towards the Product Goal, the Product Backlog continuously changes to reflect new insights and opportunities that emerge during that work. A new Product Goal should be set only when the previous one has been achieved or abandoned, otherwise focus and commitment will suffer.
Every idea, hypothesis, feature, bug, or task that the Scrum Team currently understands as necessary to achieve the Product Goal is represented on the Product Backlog by an individual item. Some will be very broad and unclear while others will be small and specific. All items are ordered according to their relevance to the ambitions of the product and its stakeholders.
A product has one Product Backlog with one Product Goal, regardless of how many teams are working on it. Otherwise, transparency and focus suffer as there is no single “source of truth” about the work that is needed and the order in which it should be done.
The Sprint Backlog
The second artifact is the Sprint Backlog. This is the selection of items that the Developers pull from the Product Backlog that they consider necessary to achieve the single Sprint Goal they committed to for that Sprint. The Sprint Backlog makes transparent all the work that a Scrum Team is working on or going to work on, in the current Sprint. Each Scrum Team has its own Sprint Backlog, even when they work with multiple teams on a single product. The Sprint Backlog is not static and changes as teams learn more during the Sprint. In close collaboration with the Product Owner, Developers may add or remove items based on how much time is left in the Sprint and the relevance or necessity of those items to the Sprint Goal.
The Increment
The third artifact is the Increment. Each Increment represents one step towards the overarching Product Goal. In a Sprint, an Increment is created whenever a Product Backlog Item from the Sprint Backlog is completed. To avoid confusion and different expectations, an item is considered “done” only when it is thoroughly verified and matches the Definition of Done that the Scrum Team has committed to. Scrum Teams may create multiple Increments during a Sprint and may even deliver them to their stakeholders before the Sprint Review.
The purpose of each Increment is to validate assumptions about the work that has been done to date. People that have a stake in the product can inspect it and determine if it meets their needs, if they understand how it works and if it satisfies their expectations. The Increment is a driver of new ideas, as having something tangible to interact with is a great way for people to see new possibilities.
The Increment is the primary means by which Scrum Teams exercise empirical process control for complex problems. Every Increment starts with a hunch, a hypothesis, or a potentially valuable idea of how the product can be moved closer to its ambitions. This is what is captured in the Sprint Goal. The work necessary for achieving that goal is captured on the Sprint Backlog.
If multiple Scrum Teams work on a single product, they integrate their work into a single Increment every Sprint so that effective inspection can take place.
What Else?
Obviously, there are many other elements of the work of a team that we can make transparent. For example, you can create a stakeholder map to get a better sense of who and where they are. You can collect metrics on a dashboard and inspect them frequently. These are fine artifacts, and worthy of inspection. But for the purpose of building products empirically, the Scrum framework recommends that teams start by creating transparency with the three core artifacts: the Product Backlog, the Sprint Backlog, and the Increment.
The Scrum Events
In order to inform your decisions about what to do next, you have to frequently make sense of the Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, and Increment with everyone who has a stake in it. This is what ‘Inspection’ is all about. It comes in many forms. We can make sense of the Product Backlog by looking at it and drawing conclusions — like ‘it's too long’, ‘we shouldn’t do this item before that one’, or ‘when can we deliver this to a stakeholder?’. We can make sense of the Increment by bringing in users and validating our assumptions with them — like ‘do users understand this new feature?’ or ‘does this feature address the need?’. And we can make sense of the Sprint Backlog by making sure it is feasible and reflects our plan for the current Sprint.
Whatever form it takes, inspection offers the best foundation for decisions when it is based on something tangible and concrete. In the case of product development, inspecting a completed and deployed feature is the best way to truly validate your assumptions about that feature and how it is used. Looking at a presentation or a proposed design of a feature might seem useful, but everyone attending is still making plenty of — and probably different — assumptions of how it will work when it is implemented.
The Scrum framework proposes that in order to work empirically, teams should have at least five repeating moments for inspection to take place. Each of them has a specific timebox and offers a specific perspective on the work that is being done. Together they offer a complete picture. These are the five Scrum Events. Although they are often referred to as ‘meetings’, they are not intended as meetings in the traditional sense of the word, where a group of people sits around a table being bored to tears. In fact, when the Scrum Events are done with their purpose clearly in mind, the need for other meetings diminishes and makes place for natural collaboration and in-the-moment coordination as the team does its work.
The Sprint
The first event is the timebox of the Sprint itself. Much like you solve a complex jigsaw puzzle by starting on a smaller area, the purpose of each Sprint is to attempt to solve one part of a complex problem. This partial solution is represented by an incremental version of the product — the Increment — that can be inspected together to decide what should happen next. This Increment should at least be in a state where it can be released to stakeholders directly after the Sprint with the proverbial press of a button if the Product Owner decided to do so. Even better is a situation where teams can release throughout the Sprint, accelerating their ability to learn even further. Although the success of Sprints will vary — even a single Sprint involves a lot of complex, unpredictable work — much will be learned about the puzzle either way.
“Much like you solve a complex jigsaw puzzle by starting on a smaller area, the purpose of each Sprint is to attempt to solve one part of a complex problem.”
Sprints should always be the same length to create cadence and predictability for the team and its stakeholders. When a Sprint becomes too long, valuable opportunities are lost to validate assumptions and make sure that work is still progressing in the right direction. As the length of Sprints increases, so does the risk of wasting time building the wrong things. The Scrum framework does not specify a length for Sprints, except that they should be less than a month. It’s up to the team to decide how fast they can, and want to, learn. Generally speaking, Sprints should be as short as possible while still allowing the Scrum Team to deliver a meaningful new version of the product that achieves the goal of a Sprint.
So while the Sprint is a timeboxed opportunity to explore a particular part of the complex problem of developing a product, the other four Scrum Events represent specific opportunities within the Sprint to promote inspection and adaptation.
Sprint Planning
Each Sprint in Scrum starts with a moment where the Scrum Team makes a basic plan for the upcoming Sprint. This is the Sprint Planning. The first and most important question is what the goal for this Sprint will be. Without a goal, there is no clear purpose that encourages members to unite and put their minds together during the Sprint. A goal for a Sprint can be to deliver a coherent set of features that solves a particular problem. It may be about addressing a need for a group of stakeholders. It may also be a hypothesis or critical assumption that a Product Owner wants to verify with the Increment that comes out of the Sprint.
Although the Product Owner does well to come into Sprint Planning with an objective in mind, the Scrum Team works together to refine this into a goal that is both valuable and feasible within the timebox of a Sprint. The Developers work with the Product Owner to select the work from the Product Backlog that should take place within the Sprint to achieve that goal, reordering the Product Backlog as needed. This selection becomes the Sprint Backlog. Because the Developers do the actual work, they own and have the final say in what goes on the Sprint Backlog.
For Sprints of a month, Sprint Planning should take no more than eight hours. But the shorter the Sprint, the less time it will take. Sprint Planning completes when there is a rough outline for the coming Sprint and a more detailed plan for the first couple of days. This plan is usually captured in a decomposition of work for the first days of the Sprint. As the Sprint progresses, the Developers translate the rough outline — as set by the Sprint Goal and the Sprint Backlog — into a more concrete plan on how to work together to do this. At least one moment to do this is during the Daily Scrum.
Sprint Planning is about selecting the work from the Product Backlog that is needed to achieve the Sprint Goal.
Daily Scrum
The Daily Scrum takes place every 24 hours to allow the Developers to navigate the complexities involved in even a single Sprint. They inspect the progress of their work towards achieving the Sprint Goal, as made transparent through their Sprint Backlog, and make adjustments accordingly. For example, they may run into unexpected issues that require close collaboration or discover that they need to add work to the Sprint Backlog that is necessary to achieve the Sprint Goal. They may run into impediments; issues that are blocking them in achieving the Sprint Goal and are beyond their ability to resolve.
The Daily Scrum should take no more than 15 minutes. It is a short and minimal opportunity to coordinate collaboration for the next 24 hours. If more coordination is helpful, Developers can do so throughout the day. The Scrum framework does not prescribe how to do a Daily Scrum effectively, and Developers are encouraged to find the best way to make the Daily Scrum work for them.
The Daily Scrum is where the Developers of a Scrum Team plan their collaboration towards achieving the Sprint Goal for the next 24 hours.
Sprint Review
The Sprint Review happens at the end of a Sprint, before the Sprint Retrospective. Its purpose is to inspect the work that has been done to date and to decide what next steps make sense based on what was learned from that. The Sprint Review is at least one moment during the Sprint where the people building the product and the people that have a stake in it gather to inspect the outcomes of the Sprint. Together with current market conditions, organizational changes, budget, and timeline, they decide on the next steps together.
Sprint Reviews should take no more than four hours for a Sprint of a month. The shorter the Sprint, the shorter the Sprint Review tends to be. The output of the Sprint Review consists of adjustments to the Product Backlog based on what was learned. This may include new ideas that emerge during Sprint Reviews, discovered bugs, changes to items already on the Product Backlog, or re-ordering the Product Backlog itself. In a sense, the Sprint Review is about answering the question: “Based on what we learned this Sprint, what are the next steps?”. This provides valuable input for Sprint Planning and potential Sprint Goals for coming Sprints.
The purpose of the Sprint Review is to inspect the work that has been done to date and to decide what next steps make sense based on what was learned.
For Sprint Reviews, a one-way presentation of what was done by the Developers does not constitute ‘inspection’. Actually inspecting the increment means trying it out together and giving feedback. We prefer to describe Sprint Reviews as ‘feedback parties’ instead of ‘demos’. Sprint Reviews should not be the first time that a Product Owner sees what the Developers have done. Instead, the Sprint Review is an important and repeating moment where the Product Owner invites stakeholders to inspect the product together.
“For Sprint Reviews, a one-way presentation of what was done by the Developers does not constitute ‘inspection’.”
Sprint Retrospective
The Sprint Retrospective happens at the end of the Sprint, usually right after the Sprint Review. It is attended by the entire Scrum Team. Its purpose is to inspect how the Scrum Team worked together to achieve the Sprint Goal, and identify concrete steps that can be taken in the next Sprint to increase effectiveness and quality. Where the Sprint Review is more focused on the product and the content of the work that was done, the Sprint Retrospective is aimed at inspecting the process of how that work was done.
For Sprints of a month, the Sprint Retrospective should take no more than three hours. But the shorter the Sprint, the shorter the timebox tends to be. Based on what the Scrum Team has learned from the inspection of their collaboration, they may decide to make adjustments to work more effectively. This can involve an updated Definition of Done, researching new tools or technologies, a change in working agreements, or a different team composition. At least one actionable improvement goes straight to the Sprint Backlog for the next Sprint.
During the Sprint Retrospective, the Scrum Team inspects how they worked together to achieve the Sprint Goal, and what can be improved in the next Sprint.
Product Backlog Refinement
So what about Product Backlog refinement? The Scrum Guide mentions this as something that needs to happen somewhere. Doesn’t that make it an event? And yes, although it’s definitely an essential part of the Scrum framework, it’s not an event like the others. Rather, it’s an ongoing activity. And while this may seem to be a play of words, it does capture an important difference. It all starts with understanding the many forms of Product Backlog refinement:
Clarifying items on the Product Backlog that are too unclear to start work on. This is preferably done directly with the people you’re building the items for (the stakeholders);
Breaking down work on the Product Backlog that is too big to complete in a single Sprint (which generally also means that they’re too unclear);
Re-ordering work on the Product Backlog as needed to make the upcoming Sprints as smooth and valuable as possible;
Adding or removing items from the Product Backlog as new insights emerge;
Estimating the effort involved in implementing particular items. This does not have to be as ‘formal’ as assigning story points (an optional practice in Scrum), T-shirt sizes, or whatever sizing technique you use. A gut feeling (“Yeah, we know well enough what needs to be done and it feels doable in a Sprint”) is fine too;
In a sense, items on a Product Backlog are reminders of “conversations that we will need to have in the future”. And refinement is the ongoing process of having those conversations. Sometimes this means talking with stakeholders about an item that may end up in the next Sprint, while at other times it can be to clarify an item that the team is already working on. Some of these conversations are with the entire Scrum Team and others with smaller groups. Some refinements can even be done individually.
So rather than understanding Product Backlog refinement as a formalized meeting that happens once during the Sprint, attended by everyone in the team, it should be a series of ongoing activities to refine the work on the Product Backlog for the upcoming Sprints. It’s an ongoing activity that happens in many different forms attended by different configurations of people. And it’s entirely up to the Scrum Team to determine the best way to do this.
The Scrum Accountabilities
Collaboration between skilled professionals is essential for complex problems. Creative and outside-of-the-box solutions are more easily discovered when you bring together the perspectives of skilled professionals. In order to facilitate this collaboration and reduce complexity in communication and decision-making, the Scrum framework purposefully limits to three accountabilities (or “roles”). But rather than roles in the hierarchical sense, where one has authority over others, each represents a different perspective that needs to be included as a minimum to working empirically. Together, the three are sufficient to work empirically in any environment. No other accountabilities or roles are necessary (and would probably just get in the way).
Three accountabilities to balance three different perspectives: value, quality, and process.
Product Owner
The Product Owner includes the perspective of what is valuable (and what is not) when it comes to the ambitions for the product. As the Scrum Team spends its time and money working on the product, the Product Owner is there to make sure that this investment will return value to the stakeholders. Close collaboration with the people that have a stake in the product, as well as with the Developers, is important to decide what is valuable and what isn’t.
“The Product Owner includes the perspective of what is valuable (and what is not) when it comes to the ambitions of the product)”
One product has one Product Owner and one Product Backlog with one Product Goal. In order to keep the speed at which decisions can be made high, and adaptation can take place quickly, Product Owners need full mandate over the product. They have the ultimate say over what the ambitions for the product are, what goes on the Product Backlog and what doesn’t, and how to spend the budget (or even set it).
The Product Owner ensures that there is a Product Goal, that there is an ordered Product Backlog, and that both are made available to the Scrum Team and its stakeholders. This doesn’t mean that the Product Owner is the only person in the Scrum Team who does this work. In order to maximize the value of the work done by the Developers in each Sprint, it makes sense for the Product Owner to actively work with the Developers to write items, refine and order them. It’s all about collaboration.
Developers
Developers are all the members of a Scrum Team who actively contribute to the delivery of an Increment that achieves the Sprint Goal. It doesn’t matter what kind of work they do or what their formal job title is — for the Scrum framework they are all “Developers”. Together, they include the perspective on how to do the work necessary to realize the ambitions for a product and keep its quality high.
Because product development is complex work, even the near future of a single Sprint is hard to predict. It is entirely likely that issues, challenges, and problems will pop up that impede the team in their ability to deliver that Increment. It is also likely that new ideas will pop up during the Sprint about what should be included or left out of the Increment. This unpredictable nature of even a single Sprint has three important requirements for how Developers work and organize themselves.
“Developers include the perspective on how to do the work necessary to realize the ambitions for a product and keep its quality high.”
The first requirement is that they work hard to minimize their dependencies on other people, departments, and skills that are not part of their team but are frequently necessary to deliver a done increment. Each dependency is something they have limited control over and can slow down or completely block them in their ability to deliver a done Increment every Sprint. This negatively impacts their ability to work empirically. Dependencies can be minimized in different ways, from automation (e.g. for deployment and testing) to training new skills or including people with the necessary skills into the Scrum Team.
The second requirement is that the Developers reduce bottlenecks in how skills are distributed within the team. Having one tester in a Scrum Team is better than not having one at all. But if the tester is bogged down with work, the entire team will slow down as a result. The same goes for other skills, like back-end development, design, and analysis. The team works hard to make sure that one or more of the other members within the team are able to do a particular kind of work. The goal here is not to have everyone be equally capable of doing that work — this is obviously unrealistic and disrespectful to the skills people have spent years developing — but to make sure that others can help or take over as needed. The Scrum framework encapsulates this in the statement that ‘Scrum Teams are cross-functional’.
The third requirement is that the Developers frequently have to rely on their intelligence and creativity to overcome the many unexpected things that are bound to happen during a Sprint. This is why Scrum Teams should be self-managing insofar as they can make decisions about how to work and what to improve in how that work is done. In self-managing teams, there is no appointed ‘boss’ who makes these decisions for the team. All the people doing the work — meaning the Developers — work together to make decisions within the boundaries of the Scrum framework.
Scrum Master
The Scrum Master includes the perspective of empirical process control and the quality by which transparency, inspection, and adaptation are taking shape in and around the Scrum Team. The Scrum Master is there to make the elements of the Scrum framework come to life in the team and the broader organization. For this, Scrum Masters adopt a number of stances, depending on the situation they find themselves in:
Teacher : they teach and explain the purpose of the Scrum framework as a means to work empirically. They work hard to make sure that everyone understands how the artifacts, events, roles, and principles promote empiricism and agility;
: they teach and explain the purpose of the Scrum framework as a means to work empirically. They work hard to make sure that everyone understands how the artifacts, events, roles, and principles promote empiricism and agility; Facilitator : they facilitate the pillars of the Scrum framework so that opportunities for transparency, inspection, and adaptation are maximized. One example of this is the facilitation of Scrum Events as requested or needed by the Scrum Team. Another example is to help the Product Owner find and use techniques for managing the Product Backlog and stakeholders;
: they facilitate the pillars of the Scrum framework so that opportunities for transparency, inspection, and adaptation are maximized. One example of this is the facilitation of Scrum Events as requested or needed by the Scrum Team. Another example is to help the Product Owner find and use techniques for managing the Product Backlog and stakeholders; Impediment Remover : they (help) remove issues that block the Scrum Team from achieving their Sprint Goals. Scrum Masters help Scrum Teams increase their ability to resolve problems on their own. This is something that teams have to learn, and the Scrum Master helps them do so. What may be considered an impediment during the first Sprint, may have become a problem that the team can easily resolve by itself during a future Sprint;
: they (help) remove issues that block the Scrum Team from achieving their Sprint Goals. Scrum Masters help Scrum Teams increase their ability to resolve problems on their own. This is something that teams have to learn, and the Scrum Master helps them do so. What may be considered an impediment during the first Sprint, may have become a problem that the team can easily resolve by itself during a future Sprint; Change Agent : they help remove impediments in the environments of Scrum Teams that impede empiricism and agility. For example, some organizations separate ‘testing’ and ‘deployment’ as different teams or departments. Or HR-practices reward individuals, not teams. The removal of these impediments is not something a Scrum Master can usually do on his or her own, so they will work together with other Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and others to make this possible;
: they help remove impediments in the environments of Scrum Teams that impede empiricism and agility. For example, some organizations separate ‘testing’ and ‘deployment’ as different teams or departments. Or HR-practices reward individuals, not teams. The removal of these impediments is not something a Scrum Master can usually do on his or her own, so they will work together with other Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and others to make this possible; Coach & Mentor: they coach the Scrum Team by asking powerful open-ended questions. They are mentors to other Scrum Masters and help members of the Scrum Team find mentors that have the experience and skill to help them;
Scrum Masters are true leaders. Rather than drawing attention to themselves, they help others be as effective as possible. They do not manage or lead the team by telling them what to do or how to do it. The only area where Scrum Masters should take a strong position is when decisions are made that adversely impact the empirical process or the degree to which members of the team feel safe to take interpersonal risks.
“The Scrum Master includes the perspective of empirical process control and the quality by which transparency, inspection, and adaptation are taking shape in and around the Scrum Team.”
Together, the Scrum Team
Together, the three accountabilities represent a Scrum Team. They have full authority to make all decisions relevant to their product. The Product Owner decides how to use the budget available to maximize the value for stakeholders. Developers decide how to create that product and collectively have all the skills they need to do so. And the Scrum Master guarantees that this is done in a way that maximizes empiricism. No other roles are necessary.
The Scrum framework is designed in a way that is beautifully captured in this quote by Gunther Verheyen; “in the face of complexity, simplicity is our path”. It might be tempting to add roles, rules, practices, and structure to the Scrum framework because you believe your organization to be different. And while some situations may warrant that, maintaining a strong focus on keeping things as simple as possible really is the best way forward in complex environments. This also applies to scaling. Adding more teams adds complexity. Instead, explore ways to do more with fewer people.
Two Driving Principles
When people describe the Scrum framework, they often do so by explaining the events and the roles of the Scrum framework. Although these elements are certainly important, their effectiveness is determined by how well the teams understand two driving principles.
Deliver a Done Increment at Least Once Every Sprint
If you were to capture the purpose of the Scrum framework in a single sentence, it would be to work empirically by delivering a Done Increment at least once every Sprint. This is also why it is so important that Scrum Teams spend time clarifying what is involved in creating an increment that is Done. What work is required to do this? Which checks and tests are necessary to conform to our internal quality guidelines? Who needs to be involved in this? This shared understanding is called the Definition of Done, and it usually takes the form of a checklist.
The work on the Product Backlog tends to be chock full of assumptions until they are completed and put into the hands of users. For example, “Will implementing this item improve the experience of users?”, “Will users understand how it works?”, “Does it perform well enough?” Other assumptions will be about the work that needs to be done to implement the item, like “How easy will it be to test and deploy this item?”, “What issues will we run into when working on this item?”, “How well do we understand what to build?”.
Every assumption represents a risk. The risk that you misunderstood what a user asked for and need to rework it. The risk that you run into technical limitations when you start writing the code. The risk that the feature performs much worse than expected. The risk that writing automated tests turns out to be much harder. Or the risk of spending money and time on a feature that ends up not being used. What these risks all share is that they result in more and unexpected work somewhere down the line. And this kind of “carry-over” work has a tendency to be invisible until it pops up when you least expect it, messing up what you are working on in that Sprint. This is called “Un-done work”.
The best way to prevent the risk of un-done work is to make sure that each Sprint results — at least once — in a Done Increment that can be potentially released. That means that the Increment has been fully tested and is working. Texts and visuals are in their final state. Documentation and deployment packages are up-to-date. And performance and security conform to organizational standards. From here, the increment can be released to users with the proverbial press of a button. From this point onward, you know that there will be little to no potential un-done work that can mess up the focus and predictability of future Sprints. More importantly, it allows you to exercise empirical process control by releasing the increment to see if this moves your product closer to its ambitions, rather than assuming that it will.
As the ability of Scrum Teams to deliver Done Increments moves to the right, the risk of un-done work decreases. And predictability increases. Inspired by work by Gunther Verheyen.
Creating a Done Increment every Sprint is certainly challenging. But purposefully so. Because putting this amount of pressure on the system that is creating the product — to do all the work necessary to achieve this — shows clearly where improvements are necessary. Where skills, tools, and technologies are missing. Where bureaucracy is getting in the way. Where impediments need to be removed in order to actually work empirically and reduce the risk of complex work. By keeping a laser focus on delivering a Done Increment at least once every Sprint, the system will start hurting in the right spots and create opportunities for inspection and adaptation.
“By keeping a laser focus on delivering a Done Increment at least once every Sprint, the system will start hurting in the right spots and create opportunities for inspection and adaptation.”
Use a Shared Product Goal and Sprint Goal to Create Cohesion
The Scrum Guide mentions the word “goal” 40 times, which is more than any other element of the Scrum framework. Now, we don’t want to use this kind of exegesis to drive decisions about how to work with Scrum. But it should tell you something about how important shared goals are.
The reason why the Product Goal and the Sprint Goal are so important goes back to what the Scrum framework is designed for; to more effectively navigate complex problems and reduce their risk. Goals help us navigate this complexity in three complementary ways.
The first is that they offer guidance to the Scrum Team when they have to make decisions about what to spend time on. Some work from the Sprint Backlog may be more important to achieving the Sprint Goal than others. The second is that this allows the team to keep their focus on what is important. When the going gets tough, as it often does, the team can decide to let go of certain work and prioritize other work. Or, when time permits, they can add work during the Sprint that they discover is necessary to achieve the goal. And third, Sprint Goals promote collaboration by giving the Scrum Team a clear and shared purpose to self-organize around instead of working on separate initiatives. Collaboration makes possible the kind of out-of-the-box thinking and team spirit you need when solving complex problems.
The Product and Sprint Goal also give color and purpose to the various Scrum Events, elevating them beyond just being meetings about work. Sprint Planning is about determining the goal for the next Sprint and selecting the work that is needed for that. The Daily Scrum centers around how the Developers will spend the next 24 hours working towards this goal, and which impediments are blocking their ability to do so. The Sprint Review is about verifying the result of the Sprint Goal with stakeholders, how it relates to the Product Goal, and working with them to identify the next goals to focus on. The Sprint Retrospective is about discovering ways to work together more effectively to achieve Sprint Goals.
But the Product Goal and Sprint Goal also give focus to the three accountabilities of the Scrum framework. They give the Developers guidance and direction on what to self-organize around. They allow Product Owners to remain focussed on their ambitions for the product and how that translates into objectives for the various Sprints, rather than involving themselves with the details of how to implement that. And finally, Scrum Masters can increase the effectiveness of empirical process control by using the Product Goal and Sprint Goal as the proverbial canary in the coal mine. When teams struggle to create goals, that is a good reason for Scrum Masters to put on their Sherlock hats and go explore what is causing this. Teams may be too large or small, they may lack certain skills or people. The Product Owner may not have a mandate or vision. Or refinement is not taking place.
This explanation should make it crystal clear why there should be only one Product Goal per product and one Sprint Goal per Sprint. Multiple goals only confuse the focus, decrease commitment, and limit transparency. Of course, a new goal can be formulated whenever the previous one is achieved or abandoned.
The short story is that in complex work, shared goals like Product Goals and Sprint Goals are the lighthouses that help you reach the harbor through dense fog. Without them, you’re likely to get lost and run ashore.
Five Core Values to Allow Empiricism
Up to this point, we’ve covered the mechanics and the principles of the Scrum framework. Although they work wonders to allow empirical process control, they wouldn’t make much of a difference if there’s no behavior that supports it. How honest can the inspection during a Sprint Review be when Scrum Teams are afraid to be open about the technical challenges they see and instead resort to a message that “all is well”? How effective can a Scrum Team be when their Product Owner is afraid to decline or reject items for the Product Backlog that don’t fit with the goal? How much value will be generated by a Scrum Team that keeps distracting itself with the newest and shiniest technologies? How does changing the composition of teams without their knowledge or approval affect their willingness to commit to working as a team?
It is tough to work empirically, especially in organizations that are not used to it. In order to give teams and their stakeholders something to drive those decisions, the Scrum framework specifically emphasizes five guiding values. For every decision faced, teams can ask themselves how their options impact the five values:
Openness : Be open about how things are going. What is going well? What is not? Where are the challenges and opportunities?
: Be open about how things are going. What is going well? What is not? Where are the challenges and opportunities? Courage: Be courageous to do the right thing. Say “No” to things that impede the empirical process. Show courage by working on tough challenges together. Ask for, and give feedback about things you are not sure about. Ask questions and admit what you don’t know or are uncertain about;
Be courageous to do the right thing. Say “No” to things that impede the empirical process. Show courage by working on tough challenges together. Ask for, and give feedback about things you are not sure about. Ask questions and admit what you don’t know or are uncertain about; Focus : Keep the focus on the Sprint Goal and the goals of the Scrum Team. Create a space where people can keep and sustain focus;
: Keep the focus on the Sprint Goal and the goals of the Scrum Team. Create a space where people can keep and sustain focus; Respect : respect the skills, expertise, and intelligence of the members of the Scrum Team. Trust their ability to self-organize around complex problems. And respect the uncertainty that is inherent to complex work;
: respect the skills, expertise, and intelligence of the members of the Scrum Team. Trust their ability to self-organize around complex problems. And respect the uncertainty that is inherent to complex work; Commitment: Create an environment where people can personally commit to working together as a team towards the Sprint Goal;
Learning to espouse these values in day-to-day behavior is a lifelong journey. The more proficient teams become at them, the more effective frequent transparency, inspection, and adaptation will be. The great news is that the Scrum framework provides an excellent set of boundaries to learn and grow in espousing these values.
Together, a simple framework
Scrum is a simple framework for navigating complex, adaptive problems. It only prescribes what teams should do to work empirically, but not how they should do it. Because every team, every product, and every organization is different, teams have to find their own way to make this work for them. When they do, they can reduce the risk of complex work, start delivering value to their stakeholders sooner, and become more responsive. This journey will be easier for some Scrum Teams than for others, but change will follow when you persist. | https://medium.com/the-liberators/scrum-a-framework-to-reduce-risk-and-deliver-value-sooner-71074fea95a3 | ['Christiaan Verwijs'] | 2020-11-23 15:24:42.806000+00:00 | ['Empiricism', 'Agile Development', 'Scrum', 'Scrum Framework', 'Agile Methodology'] |
Zumba Women’s Clothing | Zumba is a form of exercise that was created by the fitness expert, Yaya Jafar. In fact, he used to perform a similar type of exercise for many years. However, he made the Zumba workout more flexible and suitable for women, as well as men. This is why dumb has become such a popular form of exercise, not just among fitness professionals but also for the general public.
Zumba became so popular so quickly because it was one of the few fitness routines that actually worked for everyone. It combines elements of aerobics, ballet, step aerobics, and cool yoga into one fun and energetic routine. The workout can be completed in about twenty minutes, though some people do it faster and more intensely. It is perfect for women of all ages, though those considered older should avoid strenuous physical activity for a while. It is especially good for women who are already in very good physical shape, though they can also use it to stay in shape and feel more energized when doing other exercises, as well.
Zumba was developed with a great fitness perspective in mind. For example, many of the zumba music tunes are upbeat and rhythm based, which makes the workout fun and exciting. You will definitely enjoy and get a good workout listening to many of the tunes. Many women’s clothing manufacturers have begun producing puma women’s clothing lines because of this demand from the market.info : abbigliamento donna zumba.
However, not all women want to wear zumba clothes because they don’t think that it would be that interesting or challenging to workout to songs while wearing a pair of shorts and a tank top. Some women might even think that it would be uncomfortable. But that’s only because they have never tried zumba before. Now, that they have an opportunity, they discover that the intensity level of the workouts is much higher than they ever thought possible with their current fitness level.
Zumba women’s clothing are available in many different sizes and colors. And many of the zumba clothing patterns are available in different forms of exercise outfits so that women of all sizes and shapes can exercise in style! In fact, many women prefer to exercise in the clothing that they are wearing instead of workout wear that they need to go out in. For example, some women may choose to work on their abs in a bikini while others may prefer loose fitting pants and shirts. Whatever women choose, they love dumb and will continue to purchase clothing that represents this fitness craze.
Many dumb DVDs are available for sale as well. In fact, you can even rent a DVD so that you can work at home and get some great fitness workout in your own home. However, when you buy a DVD, you will probably be purchasing other Zumba videos as well. So, do not think that just because one Zumba DVD is for women’s clothing that it will only work on one body type. You will likely find a few DVD’s that are designed specifically for each body type.
Zumba clothes can be purchased at most sporting good stores and also online. However, you may want to try on some zumba women’s clothing when you purchase it in person. Zumba clothes are fun to wear, especially the tank tops that make you look and feel like a super model! When you go shopping for puma clothes, you will probably find that there are several different styles, colors, and patterns available so that you will be able to find the perfect fit. If you do purchase women’s clothing online, you may find that the shipping prices are very reasonable.
The great thing about zumba is that you can take this fitness program with you no matter where you are. Zumba DVDs is sold in a number of formats including DVD, VHS, and CD. Zumba can easily be performed in your home or even at the gym. In fact, you may even find that you can make a good profit from selling your Zumba DVDs. If you are looking for some good deals on women’s clothing and other accessories, then try zumba! | https://medium.com/@best100en/zumba-womens-clothing-b70944da59fc | ['Camilla Perini'] | 2021-04-25 20:48:34.544000+00:00 | ['Clothing'] |
The Philosophy of Pornography | Introduction
When we download and watch pornography, we generally do not ask 3 critical questions: who uploaded the movie, who is running the torrent website, and who the cameraman was — who filmed the videos.
The Pleasure of a Male Cameraman, Who Films Lesbian Porn Videos
The excitement, pleasure, delight, etc that we witness in two/multiple lesbians — is the excitement they have for the cameraman who is filming the video (i.e., the sex they will have as soon as the filming is complete).
The Core Philosophy
The power of lesbian porn is unlimited — because both the father and the son re getting their vital organ activated — just by reading the above passages. In reality, lesbian porn — however bad or hideous they may be for for the mother-son relationship — indicates towards a freer world where this kind of act can be filmed — with the cameraman in front of the camera — and not behind it — …a world that is to come in the incoming centuries — where sex will become more woman-friendly.
“Masks beneath masks until suddenly the bare bloodless skull. The world, somebody wrote, is the place we prove real by dying in it. Language is courage: the ability to conceive a thought, to speak it, and by doing so to make it true. A book is a product of a pact with the Devil that inverts the Faustian contract.” — Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses
Who is the Cameraman?
The success of a great lesbian porn movie — rests not on the performers — but on the cameraman. The more he can excite the girls — by his mere presence — the greater the success of the lesbian porn movie.
This cameraman needs to have a lot of respect for the womankind. If he has not the respect — he can not excite the girls.
Are Lesbian Porn Movies Immoral?
These movies indeed harm mother-son and father-daughter relationships in the world, and are therefore a threat for these relationships. But they dialectically oppose the various social, religious, etc hypocrisies that go on in the world — a world that can not tolerate the fact that women may also enjoy sex — just as much as a man does.
What Does Islam Say about Lesbian Porn?
Islam does not have much to say much — because it is a ‘loveless religion’. It advocates a man-to-man love (viz. the love of Brokeback Mountain) — and not the real spectrum of All-LOVE — which includes intergender love as well.
What Parents should Do, If They Find out that Their Son Watches Lesbian Porn?
Arrange their son’s matrimony as quickly as possible, and get them married away. That is the only cure.
In case their son is still a minor — the parents ought to lock the computer, TV, and all other electronic devices in the home — and install a very good antivirus software.
Conclusion
Given the complex matrix of the world — lesbian porn has its place. What I personally do not like is when they intrude into my privacy — without my permission. | https://medium.com/@philomax/the-philosophy-of-pornography-419b973e04df | [] | 2020-04-24 05:47:34.340000+00:00 | ['Pornography Addiction', 'Morality', 'Pornography', 'Porn', 'Photography'] |
The importance of UX for Product Managers | The importance of UX for Product Managers
Yes, UX is more than just a “pretty (inter)face”.
There’s this general misconception that UX is about making the product look “good”. Applying some colour here and there, some trendy visual elements, maybe some animation, and…voilà. Job done.
But nothing further from reality. There’s actually a lot of science in product design. And research. And work.
The second misconception is that UX skills and tasks should be limited to the job of a product designer.
And again, this could not be further from reality.
But to understand why, let’s first define what UX really means.
UX = User + Experience
I know, it seems obvious. Indeed, “UX” stands for “user experience”. Cool story, but why does this matter?, you will ask.
Well, as its name indicates, UX is a user-centric methodology, or approach.
This means the “User” is the protagonist of our product or digital experience. This digital experience should be adapted to their specific goals, wants, needs, problems, lifestyle,… you name it.
Photo by Hugh Han on Unsplash
And, for example, what would you need to do if you had to, let’s say, “offer the best gift ever”? Exactly, you should know pretty well the person you are offering the gift to. Well, the same happens with digital products. In order to offer the best experience ever, we need to know our target user extremely well.
So that’s why User Research is the first and most important stage when designing and developing digital products.
1. Getting to know the User
The goal is to have a really comprehensive portrait of the target user: who they are, what they do, what they value, their pain points, what they want to achieve, the blockers, how they feel, how they think…
In order to do that, we can use several tools like surveys or interviews.
And once we have all the information we need, we proceed to create our:
Personas: A persona is a fictional, yet realistic, description of a typical or target user of the product. It describes their needs, concerns, and goals, as well as background information such as age, gender, behaviors, or occupation. Jobs-to-be-done map: A framework that helps us understand both the user’s specific goal, and their thought process or steps until “job” completion. Competitive analysis: What other solutions are our target users currently using? What are their pros and cons? User Journey map: If our product does not exist yet, how should the user flow be when using our interface? If it exists already, it’s important to map how is the current user flow, all the tasks and steps the user takes and how the user is feeling at every step. The goal? To identify touch-points where the experience can be improved, opportunities.
And once all this is defined, it’s time to start defining and designing the actual experience we want to offer.
2. Designing the Experience
A digital product needs to be more than just pretty, or “cool”. It needs to be useful, usable, and yes, desirable. These are the three essential, non-negotiable elements for a great product.
1. Useful
The first and most important requirement: the product needs to help the user somehow. It must help the user achieve a goal in a better way than the alternative solutions, either by easing a pain (painkiller), or by providing some pleasure (vitamin).
And that’s why the user research we have done at the very beginning is important. Knowing everything about the target user is key to identify which user’s problems are worth pursuing and solving.
2. Usable
If “useful” is building the right thing, “usable” is about building the thing right. Usability is all about how effectively, efficiently and satisfactory a user achieves their goal using our product.
Photo by George Oliver on Unsplash
And here it’s where psychology and “human-computer-interface” fields of study are put to work. There are several principles we can apply to make our products more “usable”. For example:
Visibility: showing the system’s status, what’s going on, what are all the actions the user can take at every moment, and what she is expected to do.
showing the system’s status, what’s going on, what are all the actions the user can take at every moment, and what she is expected to do. Feedback: providing instant feedback.
providing instant feedback. Errors: Helping prevent errors and supporting error recovery.
Helping prevent errors and supporting error recovery. Familiarity: using familiar design elements and language as well as consistency is important to improve learnability and efficiency.
3. Desirability
Yes, here it is when we make it “shine”, when we delight our users. We make the experience “cool” and enjoyable. And aesthetics has a lot to do with desirability. However, it is not the only consideration.
For example, we can use “gamification” — like dashboards, reward systems, or even “social recognition” like so many social media platforms use with mechanisms such as “likes” or views. Copywriting can also help make the difference, using the right tone and words. | https://bootcamp.uxdesign.cc/the-importance-of-ux-for-product-managers-77d506542ec3 | ['Griselda Pagès'] | 2020-12-15 20:43:27.559000+00:00 | ['Product Development', 'UX Design', 'UX', 'Product Design', 'Product Management'] |
A Reality Reset Is Coming | A Reality Reset Is Coming
By Deepak Chopra™ MD
Reality, that most important concept about everything that exists, has gotten out of kilter, and yet very few people have noticed or are paying attention. The problem goes deep into the heart of things, however, so deep that future generations may look back and wonder why this generation didn’t wake up. The reason isn’t mysterious, actually. Modern secular society is based on materialism.
Materialism is a worldview based on physical objects as the stuff of creation. Worldview is a big concept that most people don’t bother to think about. As long as technology keeps progressing on all fronts, materialism seems workable. The only problem is that reality can’t be squeezed into a materialist framework. Materialism, it turns out, is just a plausible story, not a viable way to explain the world around us and certainly not the world “in here” where the mind operates.
Just last week physicists at Fermilab in Illinois announced that an obscure elementary particle, the muon, doesn’t behave the way it was supposed to. As a result, the standard model by which the universe is explained may totter. How can something infinitesimally tiny rock the cosmos? It didn’t. The muon rocked the story about reality we’ve been telling ourselves.
Yet for at least forty years the story has been very shaky despite the public success of modern science. It’s fine to celebrate the successes, but reality meanwhile remains inexplicable. Consider the following difficulties the materialist or physicalist worldview faces.
First come the difficulties over explaining the physical world “out there”:
– No one knows where the Big Bang came from.
– No one knows how life began.
– The origin of time, space, matter, and energy remain totally hidden.
– The two leading theories in physics, General Relativity (which explains how large objects work) and quantum mechanics (which explains how tiny things work) turn out to be seemingly incompatible.
Then there are the difficulties over explaining our subjective world “in here”:
– The relation of mind and brain is as up in the air as it was at the time of Plato and Aristotle.
– The nature of consciousness and how it evolved — if it evolved — cannot be agreed upon.
– The process by which the brain creates a three-dimensional world of sight and sound using only chemical and electrical signals is totally mysterious.
To boil things down to their most basic, if you don’t know where the universe came from and are equally baffled by where thoughts come from, how reliable is your explanation of reality? Intellectual honesty forces an answer: Not reliable at all. Persuasive stories and unexamined assumptions riddle our current worldview. We pride ourselves on advancing beyond myth and superstition, but we are deeply immersed in the myth of materialism.
As much as mainstream science resists any crack in its armor, a host of leading thinkers acknowledges exactly what these problems are. So why doesn’t science self-correct and change course? We don’t need to point fingers. Science is a massive worldwide enterprise that has created, and keeps creating, the modern world. We owe many good things to it while being haunted by some very bad things, like nuclear weapons and excessive greenhouse gas emissions.
Standing back, everyone will concede that ideas drive progress, and ideas spring from a worldview. We owe Chartres Cathedral to the medieval worldview based on faith in God. The worldview was invisible, but we have the physical product to gaze at. The same is true for our story about reality. It is invisible, but its physical products surround us everywhere. The problem is that a worldview cannot create ideas outside its assumptions. The medieval worldview couldn’t deal with the Black Death, because it had no conception of bacteria as the cause of bubonic plague.
No worldview explains everything, so human prioritize the things that need explaining most urgently. God was the most urgent issue in an age of faith. Science and technology are the most urgent things in an age of materialism. When something new becomes more urgent, worldviews change.
That’s where we are now. The four most urgent problems on humanity’s plate are overpopulation, pandemic disease, refugeeism, and climate change. You may hope and pray that science and technology will come to the rescue with climate change and pandemics, but the chances are tenuous without a huge change in how we think. That change, which is also necessary to solve refugeeism and overpopulation, must occur where materialism is helpless, a change in self-awareness.
We have had the luxury of ignoring self-awareness for a long time, and it has given us a chance to deny responsibility for the problems that no self-aware person would tolerate. A self-aware person wouldn’t go to war, stockpile nuclear weapons, harbor racial prejudice, mistreat and abuse women, and foul the environment. The four problems that seem the most urgent, as I’ve just mentioned, are further evidence of ignoring self-awareness.
Yet ironically, every single person possesses self-awareness. The hitch is our willful ability to set it aside in favor of this ongoing story in which life seems okay as long as we get by with food, water, shelter, work, money, and lots of distractions. Meanwhile, reality doesn’t care about our story. Nature is never wrong. It created us and the universe we inhabit. Mysterious as Nature is, something deep in the heart of Nature sustains the human body, for example, in ways that a materialist worldview can never explain. All the accumulated medical knowledge in the world cannot build a functional cell.
Yet if a government agency set out to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to create a functional cell, it would mean nothing in the face of our root problem, the lack of self-awareness that refuses to take responsibility for the human condition. I am not spreading gloom. If we save ourselves, self-awareness will deserve the credit, even though the news stories will focus on science. We already possess the solution to every self-created problem, simply by referring to our own consciousness. I can see no other way forward.
DEEPAK CHOPRA™ MD, FACP, founder of The Chopra Foundation, a non-profit entity for research on well-being and humanitarianism, and Chopra Global, a whole health company at the intersection of science and spirituality, is a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine and personal transformation. Chopra is a Clinical Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, San Diego and serves as a senior scientist with Gallup Organization. He is the author of over 90 books translated into over forty-three languages, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. His 90th book and national bestseller, Metahuman: Unleashing Your Infinite Potential (Harmony Books), unlocks the secrets to moving beyond our present limitations to access a field of infinite possibilities. For the last thirty years, Chopra has been at the forefront of the meditation revolution and his latest book, Total Meditation (Harmony Books) will help to achieve new dimensions of stress-free living and joyful living. TIME magazine has described Dr. Chopra as “one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century.” www.deepakchopra.com | https://medium.com/@deepakchopra/a-reality-reset-is-coming-fb0bbb188a96 | ['Deepak Chopra'] | 2021-04-12 14:33:54.639000+00:00 | ['Consciousness', 'Awakening', 'Materialism', 'Reality'] |
Vue 3 — Directives. Various things we can do with it. | Photo by Crystal Jo on Unsplash
Vue 3 is in beta and it’s subject to change.
Vue 3 is the up and coming version of Vue front end framework.
It builds on the popularity and ease of use of Vue 2.
In this article, we’ll look at how to create more complex directives.
Directive Arguments
We can get directive arguments by getting the value from the binding.arg property.
For instance, we can write:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>App</title>
<script src="https://unpkg.com/vue@next"></script>
</head>
<body>
<div id="app">
<p v-absolute:[direction]="50">foo</p>
</div> <script>
const app = Vue.createApp({
data() {
return {
direction: "right"
};
}
}); app.directive("absolute", {
mounted(el, binding) {
el.style.position = "absolute";
const s = binding.arg || "top";
el.style[s] = `${binding.value}px`;
}
}); app.mount("#app");
</script>
</body>
</html>
We create the absolute directive which has a mounted hook.
It takes a binding parameter which has the arg property with the argument value which we passed into the square brackets of the directive.
Therefore, it’ll be the direction value.
We set the property of the style with the binding.value , which is the value we passed into the directive right of the equal sign.
Also, we can make the directive’s value by passing an expression as the value of the directive.
For instance, we can write:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>App</title>
<script src="https://unpkg.com/vue@next"></script>
</head>
<body>
<div id="app">
<input type="range" min="0" max="100" v-model="padding" />
<p v-absolute:[direction]="padding">foo</p>
</div> <script>
const app = Vue.createApp({
data() {
return {
direction: "left",
padding: 0
};
}
}); app.directive("absolute", {
mounted(el, binding) {
el.style.position = "absolute";
const s = binding.arg || "top";
el.style[s] = `${binding.value}px`;
},
updated(el, binding) {
const s = binding.arg || "top";
el.style[s] = `${binding.value}px`;
}
}); app.mount("#app");
</script>
</body>
</html>
We have the absolute directive with the updated hook added.
The updated hook will pick up any updates of the directive’s value .
Therefore, when we move the slider, the ‘foo’ text will move along with it.
Function Shorthand
We can shorten our directive definition with the function shorthand.
If we only have the mounted and updated hooks in our directive, then we can use it.
For example, we can write:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>App</title>
<script src="https://unpkg.com/vue@next"></script>
</head>
<body>
<div id="app">
<input type="range" min="0" max="100" v-model="padding" />
<p v-absolute:[direction]="padding">foo</p>
</div> <script>
const app = Vue.createApp({
data() {
return {
direction: "left",
padding: 0
};
}
}); app.directive("absolute", (el, binding) => {
el.style.position = "absolute";
const s = binding.arg || "top";
el.style[s] = `${binding.value}px`;
}); app.mount("#app");
</script>
</body>
</html>
We shortened our absolute directive to include a callback instead of an object with the hooks.
It does the same things like the one in the previous example since we only have the mounted and update hooks in it.
This is a handy shorthand to avoid repeating code.
Object Literals
If we need multiple values in our directive, we can pass in an object literal to it.
Then binding.value has the object we pass in.
For instance, we can write:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>App</title>
<script src="https://unpkg.com/vue@next"></script>
</head>
<body>
<div id="app">
<p v-custom-text="{ color: 'green', text: 'hello!' }"></p>
</div> <script>
const app = Vue.createApp({}); app.directive("custom-text", (el, binding) => {
const { color, text } = binding.value;
el.style.color = color;
el.textContent = text;
}); app.mount("#app");
</script>
</body>
</html>
to create a custom-text directive that takes an object.
We get the color and text properties of the object from binding.value .
Photo by Mark König on Unsplash
Conclusion
We can create directives easier with some shorthands.
Also, directives can take arguments and values.
Enjoyed this article? If so, get more similar content by subscribing to Decoded, our YouTube channel! | https://medium.com/javascript-in-plain-english/vue-3-directives-698b0cd265c8 | ['John Au-Yeung'] | 2020-11-15 18:43:08.669000+00:00 | ['JavaScript', 'Web Development', 'Software Development', 'Technology', 'Programming'] |
Overcoming Go’s summer-time localization issues | What happened?
The background story is already covered in great detail here. The short version is that a few months ago there was a change in the way how timezone data is built to make definitions more compact. At the same time, Go had a bug on how it handles those slimmer definitions. While fix is going to land in future versions, here is how you can mitigate the issue meanwhile and support the older versions that won’t be fixed.
If you are only using the UTC dates and do not format the dates using time.LoadLocation you are unlikely to be affected. Although, you might still be impacted if some dependency is using it.
How to reproduce it?
To make sure we have solved the issue, let’s take the following example, an app that just outputs the localized date in the Zagreb timezone running inside a Docker container.
If we build it as a multi-stage Docker image with the latest alpine and tzdata (at the time of writing it fetches 2020c which is outdated).
When we run the image we can see that output is not the expected one. The first of November should be formatted as 13:00:00 in CET, not the CEST, since summer-time ended on October 25th, 2020.
Europe/Zagreb 2020-11-01 14:00:00 CEST
How to fix it?
There are multiple ways to go about it, but given we are using Docker I am going to focus on the solution that is applicable to all versions of Go and easily implemented even on older images.
As explained in the source code, Go will look for time zone definitions in an environment variable named ZONEINFO . It then fallbacks to the default Unix locations, followed by definitions bundled within Go SDK. By default alpine is not distributed with either of those, that is why we had to explicitly install them using apk add -U tzdata otherwise our app would panic.
Building the latest tzdata
Since one of the root causes of the issue is the slim version of tzdata , based on the script that is available in the latest version of Go repo, we can build our own version of the latest definitions in fat format by adding the build argument ZFLAGS="-b fat" .
Make sure to have build-essentials installed, and you can then run it using bash update.bash to get the definitions.
Injecting the latest tzdata into Docker image
Once built we get a single zip zoneinfo.zip containing all the definitions. The only remaining step is to add it to our runner image and tell go to use it.
If we run it again, we should see that it now works correctly.
Europe/Zagreb 2020-11-01 13:00:00 CET
Automating the process
We can go a step further and build the tzdata at the same time we are building the app itself. In practice, you will want to build a custom base image that includes both the tzdata as well as ca-certificates and other common dependencies you might have instead of doing it on each separate Go application.
In case you are not packing anything else into the image, you likely won’t need the apk add -U tzdata anymore as Go will use the ones we built.
Future considerations
While future versions of Go are going to fix the issue, there is still good reason to support the latest version of time zone definitions as EU is planning to end the daylight savings. This fix allows supporting the older versions of Go while still using the latest tzdata definitions.
To keep up to date, there is a mailing list you can join on the official IANA page which publishes the tzdata releases.
Big thanks to Filip Reškov for helping me trace the issue. | https://srolija.medium.com/gos-summer-time-localization-issues-4c8ab702806b | ['Sergej Jakovljev'] | 2020-10-31 09:08:39.281000+00:00 | ['Timezone', 'Docker', 'Golang', 'Software Development', 'DevOps'] |
Why movies should not be written by committee (Or: Why I hated Yesterday ) | OK so this not exactly the quickest film review off the mark but I’m on a plane and when travelling on a plane as most of us know when it comes to on flight entertainment you tend to defer to the less challenging content and those films and shows that you passed on by at release perhaps because it was not something you’d want to risk spending money on. A long transatlantic flight gives you the chance to swim in the seas of the less aesthetic and more anodyne. So it was I found myself on my flight from Dublin to Dulles watching Danny Boyle’s recent hit Yesterday. And so it is having watched the thing that I now feel compelled to vent my spleen regarding a film that came out several months past.
Yesterday, in case you do not know, tells the tale of a world in which the music of The Beatles is stricken from everyone’s memory — everyone except one young musician — Jack Malik — who tours the world with Ed Sheeran in tow belting out Beatles numbers to anyone who cares to listen, which of course is much of the known world.
Now I’m not much of a Beatles fan. Often you utter those words and people just assume you are trying to be deliberately contrary and controversial. But it’s the truth. Of course they were good songwriters and they were certainly prolific — if Yesterday does nothing else (and I will attempt to show in the words that follow that indeed it does do nothing else) as Jack is remembering song after song you cannot help but marvel at just how many Beatles songs are engrained in our cultural make up. The simple truth as far as I’m concerned is that when it comes to musical habit there have just always been plenty of other bands I would rather listen too. I don’t hate The Beatles, I just don’t care that much about them.
All that said, I have no cross to bear with the band or their music. I sat through the whole movie so I can’t dislike them that much. But I did dislike the movie Yesterday. Boy did I dislike that movie. My distaste had little to do with The Beatles and everything to do with bad decisions and movie math gone wrong. And this, dear reader, is what I’d like to spew forth on.
You can picture the scene. A bunch of film execs sitting in Working Titles’ board room in Soho Square. They are discussing their latest production slate and one chirpy exec pipes up ‘We have the music of The Beatles, Danny Boyle directing, Richard Curtis writing the screenplay, Ed fucking Sheeran guest starring, Working Title producing. How can could this not work?!’ Indeed from a marketing perspective those are some pretty solid gold hooks. But there lies the problem — if you produce a film solely to look good on the sales sheet but then get the work experience guy to write the thing you are in for a problem. A whole heap of problems.
But the work experience guy didn’t write Yesterday. Richard Curtis did. Richard bleeding Curtis! Richard Curtis who gave us ‘Blackadder’. Hell, Richard Curtis who gave us Love fucking Actually. Love Actually — by the way — is a film with many, many, many faults, but I would have it streamed directly into my eyeballs on repeat sooner than having to watch Yesterday even one more time. So how did he get it so wrong here? Well the proof evidently is in the pudding. This is not a badly written film. It is a film barely written at all. There is zero craft to it — zero diligence. It reads like a drunken first draft. I’d be hugely surprised if it wasn’t. I’d be worried in fact if it wasn’t. If what we saw there is the result of the usual multiple revisions and drafts, then the state of British film production is worse than I feared.
Instead I’d suspect the terrible writing and the plot holes you could fly a star destroyer through are the result of some great hubris on the part of the producers and those film execs. When you have all those elements altogether in one movie, who cares if the film makes no sense whatsoever. Really the writing is just a prop to keep all those other marketable elements in play right? I suspect Curtis turned in his vomit draft to the producers and they rolled camera on it there and then without a second thought.
It should come as no surprise that a film so evidently written by a committee can get things so wrong. I have been around the film industry long enough to know that those production meetings are mostly populated by older white men of a certain social class. But really the sheer ignorance on display in Yesterday is astonishing. The film’s big denouement sees Jack get his own back on the greedy record label execs by putting his music out for free on the internet! Shock horror! Really though, are the Yesterday writing committee actually so out of touch with modern reality that they understand this today be a cataclysmic event? Or in their imagined alternate movie timeline do Spotify et al also not exist and they just neglected to include that plot point?
This is just one of many such transgressions but so indicative of everything that’s wrong with the film industry and the over reliance on existing IP and unwillingness to encourage fresh ideas.
But hell if you can’t beat them, join them right? Working Title, if you’re listening I have an idea for a meta sequel to Yesterday. It stars me and I wake up in an alternate timeline where the film Yesterday doesn’t exist. Now that I’d pay to watch. | https://medium.com/@thomleaman/why-movies-should-not-be-written-by-committee-or-why-i-hated-yesterday-d1991f6ccc5f | ['Thom Leaman'] | 2019-11-15 18:00:24.616000+00:00 | ['Movies', 'Yesterday Movie', 'Uk Film Industry', 'Film Reviews', 'Love Actually'] |
How to Build a Recommendation System for Purchase Data (Step-by-Step) | How to Build a Recommendation System for Purchase Data (Step-by-Step)
An application of item-based collaborative filtering with Turicreate and Python
Whether you are responsible for user experience and product strategy in a customer centric company, or sitting in your couch watching movies with loved ones, chances are you are already aware of some ways that recommendation technology is used to personalize your content and offers.
Recommendation systems are one of the most common, easily comprehendible applications of big data and machine learning. Among the most known applications are Amazon’s recommendation engine that provides us with a personalized webpage when we visit the site, and Spotify’s recommendation list of songs when we listen using their app.
Last time, we got to build a Spotify’s Discover Weekly with a bulk of audio data using Spark. This time, we’ll build a recommendation engine for more tangible items.
The Challenge
If you look up online, there are many ways to build recommendation systems for rating-based data, such as movies and songs. The problem with rating-based models is that they couldn’t be standardized easily for data with non-scaled target values, such as purchase or frequency data. For example, ratings are usually from 0–5 or 0–10 across songs and movies. However, purchase data is continuous and without an upper bound.
A lot of online resources unfortunately provide results without evaluating their models. For most data scientists and engineers, this is a dangerous area when you’re involving millions of data! For industries, results alone won’t get your tools anywhere without any evaluation.
The Goal
In solving these problems, we will build collaborative filtering models for recommending products to customers using purchase data. In particular, we’ll cover in details the step-by-step process in constructing a recommendation system with Python and machine learning module Turicreate. These steps include:
Transforming and normalizing data
Training models
Evaluating model performance
Selecting the optimal model
Product Overview
Imagine a grocery chain releases a new mobile app allowing its customers to place orders before they even have to walk into the store.
There is an opportunity for the app to show recommendations: When a customer first taps on the “order” page, we may recommend top 10 items to be added to their basket, e.g. disposable utensils, fresh meat, chips, and and so on.
The tool will also be able to search for a recommendation list based on a specified user, such that:
Input: customer ID
Returns: ranked list of items (product IDs), that the user is most likely to want to put in his/her (empty) “basket”
Implementation
1. Import modules
pandas and numpy for data manipulation
and for data manipulation turicreate for performing model selection and evaluation
for performing model selection and evaluation sklearn for splitting the data into train and test set
%load_ext autoreload
%autoreload 2
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
import time
import turicreate as tc
from sklearn.cross_validation import train_test_split
import sys
sys.path.append("..")
2. Load data
Two datasets in .csv format are used below, which can be found in data folder here:
recommend_1.csv consisting of a list of 1000 customer IDs to recommend as output
consisting of a list of 1000 customer IDs to recommend as output trx_data.csv consisting of user transactions
customers = pd.read_csv('../data/recommend_1.csv')
transactions = pd.read_csv('../data/trx_data.csv')
3. Data preparation
Our goal here is to break down each list of items in the products column into rows and count the number of products bought by a user
3.1. Create data with user, item, and target field
This table will be an input for our modeling later
In this case, our user is customerId , productId , and purchase_count
data = pd.melt(transactions.set_index('customerId')['products'].apply(pd.Series).reset_index(),
id_vars=['customerId'],
value_name='products') \
.dropna().drop(['variable'], axis=1) \
.groupby(['customerId', 'products']) \
.agg({'products': 'count'}) \
.rename(columns={'products': 'purchase_count'}) \
.reset_index() \
.rename(columns={'products': 'productId'})
data['productId'] = data['productId'].astype(np.int64)
3.2. Create dummy
Dummy for marking whether a customer bought that item or not.
If one buys an item, then purchase_dummy are marked as 1
are marked as 1 Why create a dummy instead of normalizing it, you ask? Normalizing the purchase count, say by each user, would not work because customers may have different buying frequency don’t have the same taste. However, we can normalize items by purchase frequency across all users, which is done in section 3.3. below.
def create_data_dummy(data):
data_dummy = data.copy()
data_dummy['purchase_dummy'] = 1
return data_dummy data_dummy = create_data_dummy(data)
3.3. Normalize item values across users
To do this, we normalize purchase frequency of each item across users by first creating a user-item matrix as follows
df_matrix = pd.pivot_table(data, values='purchase_count', index='customerId', columns='productId')
df_matrix_norm = (df_matrix-df_matrix.min())/(df_matrix.max()-df_matrix.min())
# create a table for input to the modeling d = df_matrix_norm.reset_index()
d.index.names = ['scaled_purchase_freq']
data_norm = pd.melt(d, id_vars=['customerId'], value_name='scaled_purchase_freq').dropna() print(data_norm.shape)
data_norm.head()
The above steps can be combined to a function defined below:
def normalize_data(data):
df_matrix = pd.pivot_table(data, values='purchase_count', index='customerId', columns='productId')
df_matrix_norm = (df_matrix-df_matrix.min())/(df_matrix.max()-df_matrix.min())
d = df_matrix_norm.reset_index()
d.index.names = ['scaled_purchase_freq']
return pd.melt(d, id_vars=['customerId'], value_name='scaled_purchase_freq').dropna()
In this step, we have normalized the their purchase history, from 0–1 (with 1 being the most number of purchase for an item and 0 being 0 purchase count for that item).
4. Split train and test set
Splitting the data into training and testing sets is an important part of evaluating predictive modeling, in this case a collaborative filtering model. Typically, we use a larger portion of the data for training and a smaller portion for testing.
We use 80:20 ratio for our train-test set size.
Our training portion will be used to develop a predictive model, while the other to evaluate the model’s performance.
Let’s define a splitting function below.
def split_data(data):
'''
Splits dataset into training and test set.
Args:
data (pandas.DataFrame)
Returns
train_data (tc.SFrame)
test_data (tc.SFrame)
'''
train, test = train_test_split(data, test_size = .2)
train_data = tc.SFrame(train)
test_data = tc.SFrame(test)
return train_data, test_data
Now that we have three datasets with purchase counts, purchase dummy, and scaled purchase counts, we would like to split each for modeling.
train_data, test_data = split_data(data)
train_data_dummy, test_data_dummy = split_data(data_dummy)
train_data_norm, test_data_norm = split_data(data_norm)
5. Define Models using Turicreate library
Before running a more complicated approach such as collaborative filtering, we should run a baseline model to compare and evaluate models. Since baseline typically uses a very simple approach, techniques used beyond this approach should be chosen if they show relatively better accuracy and complexity. In this case, we will be using popularity model.
A more complicated but common approach to predict purchase items is collaborative filtering. I will discuss more about the popularity model and collaborative filtering in the later section. For now, let’s first define our variables to use in the models:
# constant variables to define field names include: user_id = 'customerId'
item_id = 'productId'
users_to_recommend = list(customers[user_id])
n_rec = 10 # number of items to recommend
n_display = 30 # to display the first few rows in an output dataset
Turicreate has made it super easy for us to call a modeling technique, so let’s define our function for all models as follows:
def model(train_data, name, user_id, item_id, target, users_to_recommend, n_rec, n_display):
if name == 'popularity':
model = tc.popularity_recommender.create(train_data,
user_id=user_id,
item_id=item_id,
target=target)
elif name == 'cosine':
model = tc.item_similarity_recommender.create(train_data,
user_id=user_id,
item_id=item_id,
target=target,
similarity_type='cosine') elif name == 'pearson':
model = tc.item_similarity_recommender.create(train_data,
user_id=user_id,
item_id=item_id,
target=target,
similarity_type='pearson')
recom = model.recommend(users=users_to_recommend, k=n_rec)
recom.print_rows(n_display)
return model
While I wrote python scripts for all the above process including finding similarity using python scripts (which can be found here, we use turicreate library for now to capture different measures faster and evaluate models.
6. Popularity Model as Baseline
The popularity model takes the most popular items for recommendation. These items are products with the highest number of sells across customers.
Training data is used for model selection
i. Using purchase count
name = 'popularity'
target = 'purchase_count'
popularity = model(train_data, name, user_id, item_id, target, users_to_recommend, n_rec, n_display)
ii. Using purchase dummy
name = 'popularity'
target = 'purchase_dummy'
pop_dummy = model(train_data_dummy, name, user_id, item_id, target, users_to_recommend, n_rec, n_display)
iii. Using scaled purchase count
name = 'popularity'
target = 'scaled_purchase_freq'
pop_norm = model(train_data_norm, name, user_id, item_id, target, users_to_recommend, n_rec, n_display)
6.1. Baseline Summary
Once we created the model, we predicted the recommendation items using scores by popularity. As you can tell for each model results above, the rows show the first 30 records from 1000 users with 10 recommendations. These 30 records include 3 users and their recommended items, along with score and descending ranks.
In the result, although different models have different recommendation list, each user is recommended the same list of 10 items. This is because popularity is calculated by taking the most popular items across all users.
If a grouping example below, products 132, 248, 37, and 34 are the most popular (best-selling) across customers. Using their purchase counts divided by the number of customers, we see that these products are at least bought 3 times on average in the training set of transactions (same as the first popularity measure on purchase_count variable)
7. Collaborative Filtering Model
In collaborative filtering, we would recommend items based on how similar users purchase items. For instance, if customer 1 and customer 2 bought similar items, e.g. 1 bought X, Y, Z and 2 bought X, Y, we would recommend an item Z to customer 2.
7.1. Methodology
To define similarity across users, we use the following steps:
1. Create a user-item matrix, where index values represent unique customer IDs and column values represent unique product IDs
2. Create an item-to-item similarity matrix. The idea is to calculate how similar a product is to another product. There are a number of ways of calculating this. In steps 7.2 and 7.3, we use cosine or pearson similarity measure, respectively.
To calculate similarity between products X and Y, look at all customers who have rated both these items. For example, both X and Y have been rated by customers 1 and 2.
We then create two item-vectors, v1 for item X and v2 for item Y, in the user-space of (1, 2) and then find the cosine or pearson angle/distance between these vectors. A zero angle or overlapping vectors with cosine value of 1 means total similarity (or per user, across all items, there is same rating) and an angle of 90 degree would mean cosine of 0 or no similarity.
3. For each customer, we then predict his likelihood to buy a product (or his purchase counts) for products that he had not bought.
For our example, we will calculate rating for user 2 in the case of item Z (target item). To calculate this we weigh the just-calculated similarity-measure between the target item and other items that customer has already bought. The weighing factor is the purchase counts given by the user to items already bought by him.
We then scale this weighted sum with the sum of similarity-measures so that the calculated rating remains within a predefined limits. Thus, the predicted rating for item Z for user 2 would be calculated using similarity measures.
7.2. Cosine similarity
Similarity is the cosine of the angle between the 2 vectors of the item vectors of A and B
It is defined by the following formula
Closer the vectors, smaller will be the angle and larger the cosine
i. Using purchase count
name = 'cosine'
target = 'purchase_count'
cos = model(train_data, name, user_id, item_id, target, users_to_recommend, n_rec, n_display)
ii. Using purchase dummy
name = 'cosine'
target = 'purchase_dummy'
cos_dummy = model(train_data_dummy, name, user_id, item_id, target, users_to_recommend, n_rec, n_display)
iii. Using scaled purchase count
name = 'cosine'
target = 'scaled_purchase_freq'
cos_norm = model(train_data_norm, name, user_id, item_id, target, users_to_recommend, n_rec, n_display)
7.3. Pearson similarity
Similarity is the pearson coefficient between the two vectors.
It is defined by the following formula
i. Using purchase count
name = 'pearson'
target = 'purchase_count'
pear = model(train_data, name, user_id, item_id, target, users_to_recommend, n_rec, n_display)
ii. Using purchase dummy
name = 'pearson'
target = 'purchase_dummy'
pear_dummy = model(train_data_dummy, name, user_id, item_id, target, users_to_recommend, n_rec, n_display)
iii. Using scaled purchase count
name = 'pearson'
target = 'scaled_purchase_freq'
pear_norm = model(train_data_norm, name, user_id, item_id, target, users_to_recommend, n_rec, n_display)
8. Model Evaluation
For evaluating recommendation engines, we can use the concept of RMSE and precision-recall.
i. RMSE (Root Mean Squared Errors)
Measures the error of predicted values
Lesser the RMSE value, better the recommendations
ii. Recall
What percentage of products that a user buys are actually recommended?
If a customer buys 5 products and the recommendation decided to show 3 of them, then the recall is 0.6
iii. Precision
Out of all the recommended items, how many the user actually liked?
If 5 products were recommended to the customer out of which he buys 4 of them, then precision is 0.8
Why are both recall and precision important?
Consider a case where we recommend all products, so our customers will surely cover the items that they liked and bought. In this case, we have 100% recall! Does this mean our model is good?
We have to consider precision. If we recommend 300 items but user likes and buys only 3 of them, then precision is 0.1%! This very low precision indicates that the model is not great, despite their excellent recall.
So our aim has to be optimizing both recall and precision (to be close to 1 as possible).
Let’s first create initial callable variables for model evaluation:
models_w_counts = [popularity_model, cos, pear]
models_w_dummy = [pop_dummy, cos_dummy, pear_dummy]
models_w_norm = [pop_norm, cos_norm, pear_norm] names_w_counts = ['Popularity Model on Purchase Counts', 'Cosine Similarity on Purchase Counts', 'Pearson Similarity on Purchase Counts']
names_w_dummy = ['Popularity Model on Purchase Dummy', 'Cosine Similarity on Purchase Dummy', 'Pearson Similarity on Purchase Dummy']
names_w_norm = ['Popularity Model on Scaled Purchase Counts', 'Cosine Similarity on Scaled Purchase Counts', 'Pearson Similarity on Scaled Purchase Counts']
Lets compare all the models we have built based on RMSE and precision-recall characteristics:
eval_counts = tc.recommender.util.compare_models(test_data, models_w_counts, model_names=names_w_counts) eval_dummy = tc.recommender.util.compare_models(test_data_dummy, models_w_dummy, model_names=names_w_dummy) eval_norm = tc.recommender.util.compare_models(test_data_norm, models_w_norm, model_names=names_w_norm)
8.1. Evaluation Output
Based on RMSE | https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/how-to-build-a-recommendation-system-for-purchase-data-step-by-step-d6d7a78800b6 | ['Moorissa Tjokro'] | 2018-10-15 23:58:14.919000+00:00 | ['Recommendation System', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Machine Learning', 'Collaborative Filtering', 'Data Science'] |
Pants and Pyjamas | Golden rays crawl through the blinds, permeating the room to seemingly remind me of my indecisiveness. I attempt again, for the fifth time now, to find something that’s appropriate — casual and cool, but not too over the top. Yet, the product of the past fifteen minutes standing face-to-face with my wardrobe is still the same: my pyjamas. Having lived in them for nearly a week (gross, I know) they’re like a second skin; a protective layer that I just can’t bring myself to remove.
To walk around the block, however, requires me to peel this layer off and change into something more ‘appropriate’; otherwise, I know I’ll be a magnet for side-eyes and supercilious glances.
Too often as I attempt to solve Gordian’s knot — choosing two pieces of fabric to wear — a manifold of factors must be accounted for. Will that skirt show too much as I climb up the hill to catch my bus? Have I dressed for the occasion?
More recently, the rise of social media has propagated this idealistic image predicated on a constant revamping of your wardrobe — only by keeping up to date with the latest trends are you deemed ‘fashionable’. I recall my fourteen-year-old self, who would wear the same pair of track pants she loved whenever she could, discarding every last bit of it — because when society tells you to deprecate something, you follow suit right? Wearing track pants was not stylish — yet they’ve lately become the largest trend — and it would be an absolute crime to wear something twice. Needless to say that if you have POSTED in an outfit, God forbid that it ever appears on the gram again.
The other day I came across an advertisement that really did catch my eye. It was a diamante mesh face mask, set at nearly $20AUD. I struggled to decipher how this product had even made it through to manufacturing — it’s a piece of fishnet material dotted with rhinestones, providing absolutely no coverage. You would think someone would notice the designer missed the point there. But what’s worse is that I knew the ‘mask’ was on the market because people would purchase it. Rather than a necessity to survival, face masks — inane or not — had just become another fad, falling victim to a society that snatches at any opportunity to capitalise.
From face masks to clothing, this capitalism spurs a materialistic mindset that precipitates a class stratification we aren’t even cognizant of. It eats us from the inside out — from exacerbating classist divides to driving industries that profit off people’s pains and insecurities. You receive ample likes if you’re dressed in Gucci from head to toe, yet a photo in your track pants struggles to reach even a quarter of that. And your ‘friends’ seem to suddenly adore you yet have never even met you. Before I can even open my mouth, the garments on my body already speak for me.
Don’t get me wrong: clothes are an integral part of our self-expression. They’re a silent language that can reflect our mood; how we’re vibing. I love a sleek trench coat when I’m feeling chic, or a leather jacket when I’m feeling badass. But when society tends to judge your worth and who you are by the garments on your body, that language is no longer a form of communication — it’s a termination.
Racing to catch the last limbs of light, I glance at myself again in the mirror with the outfit I have chosen. The crisp autumn breeze brushes against my cheeks as I step onto the street. My walk turns into a skip, and finally a run.
I run around the block in the pyjamas I’ve worn for a week. | https://medium.com/@aliceyang03/pants-and-pyjamas-9bc50c5eebce | ['Alice Yang'] | 2020-12-21 00:14:16.760000+00:00 | ['Clothing', 'Socioeconomic Status', 'Fast Fashion', 'Capitalism', 'Materialism'] |
Zoomas | 2020 can be described as the peak of Zoom.
Zoom the company, not the action.
Christmas Day was no different.
Today was a lot of fun.
Time to spend with family across the globe.
A year not to be forgotten in a flash.
Zoomas | https://medium.com/@dnaqvi/zoomas-413f5812d973 | ['Danial Naqvi'] | 2020-12-25 23:18:09.173000+00:00 | ['Zoom', 'Globe', 'Christmas', 'Family', 'Connection'] |
Sonos users can now double the boom in any room by adding a second Sonos Sub subwoofer | Sonos users can now double the boom in any room by adding a second Sonos Sub subwoofer Brittany Jan 4·2 min read
Sonos builds an awesome subwoofer, but customers lucky enough to own very large home theaters and listening rooms—and the custom installers who cater to that deep-pocketed crowd—have long wanted the option of deploying two Sonos Subs. Today, Sonos released a software update that lets them do just that.
Mentioned in this article Sonos Sub (Gen 3) See it The Sonos Sub is not a conventional low-frequency-effects speaker in the sense that it can’t be connected to an A/V receiver or paired with just any soundbar. It must be deployed in conjunction with another Sonos speaker or a Sonos amplifier.
And those who want to deploy two Subs in the same system must have a Sonos Arc, Beam, or Playbar soundbar; a Playbase sound base; or a Sonos Amp. One of the Subs must be a Gen 3 model, which has increased processing power, and you’ll need to have the latest version of the Sonos S2 app, which is rolling out today.
[ Further reading: The best soundbars ] Union LA / Sonos Sonos has re-released the Sonos One SL Union LA Edition speaker.
In other Sonos news, the company is re-releasing the Sonos One SL Union LA Edition, a collaboration between Sonos, interior designer Sheila Bridges and the streetwear brand Union LA. The limited-edition speaker was created in partnership with Color of Change as part of the organization’s #TellBlackStories initiative. The speaker’s grille is printed with Bridges’ Harlem Toile pattern. You can read more about the collaboration in this Sonos blog post from 2019. The $249 speaker can be purchased at SheilaBridges.com and UnionLosAngeles.com.
Last week, Sonos announced the Arc SL Shadow Edition, a microphone-free soundbar that’s a Costco exclusive. You can read more about it in our earlier news story.
Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details. | https://medium.com/@brittan05231532/sonos-users-can-now-double-the-boom-in-any-room-by-adding-a-second-sonos-sub-subwoofer-9b76e03d6b58 | [] | 2021-01-04 12:01:59.964000+00:00 | ['Home Tech', 'Cord', 'Chargers'] |
A Non-technical Overview of Smart Contracts | WHAT
Smart contract is computer software code that follows a set of business rules. It can allow the performance of credible transactions without third parties. These transactions are traceable and irreversible. Smart contracts were first proposed by Nick Szabo, who coined the term, in 1994.
Proponents of smart contracts claim that many kinds of contractual clauses may be made partially or fully self-executing, self-enforcing, or both. The aim of smart contracts is to provide security that is superior to traditional contract law and to reduce other transaction costs associated with contracting. Various cryptocurrencies have implemented types of smart contracts.
HOW
“smart contract” is mostly used more specifically in the sense of general-purpose computation that takes place on a blockchain or distributed ledger. In this interpretation, used for example by the Ethereum Foundation or IBM, a smart contract is not necessarily related to the classical concept of a contract, but can be any kind of computer program.
KEY ELEMENTS
Objects of a Smart Contract
Signatories: Two or more people involved in the agreement who make a pact and code down rules they agree or disagree to. This can be between registered companies, individuals, group, community, you name it. Anyone can use it.
Subject
The subject on which the agreement lies, an object that’s within in the smart contract — encoded inside. There was a problem when smart contracts were a lone survivor in 1996. The problem was that the smart contract needed the exclusive access to this object. However, this problem was overcome to a great extent since cryptocurrency happened in 2009.
Rules or Terms
Unlike traditional agreement, where you write the rules or terms in the native language. Smart Contracts needed the rules to be mathematically described. Additionally, this mathematical description should be further spoon-fed to the blockchain by using a programming language. This included everything you’d include in the traditional agreement. Like rules, terms, rewards/fees (if any) time limit, parties involved etc.
Prominent Blockchains or Platforms for Smart Contracts
Ethereum
EOS
Hyperledger Fabric
BENEFITS of Smart Contracts
Hypothesized advantages of a smart contract over its equivalent conventional financial instrument include minimizing counter-party risk, reducing settlement times, and increased transparency.
RISKS and SECURITY ISSUES
Because a public blockchain-based smart contract is visible to all users of said blockchain it leads to a situation where bugs, including security holes, are visible to all yet may not be quickly fixed.
Such an attack, difficult to fix quickly, was successfully executed on The DAO in June 2016, draining US$50 million in Ether while developers attempted to come to a solution that would gain consensus. The DAO program had a time delay in place before the hacker could remove the funds; a hard fork of the Ethereum software was done to claw back the funds from the attacker before the time limit expired.
Issues in Ethereum smart contracts, in particular, include ambiguities and easy-but-insecure constructs in its contract language Solidity, compiler bugs, Ethereum Virtual Machine bugs, attacks on the blockchain network, the immutability of bugs and that there is no central source documenting known vulnerabilities, attacks and problematic constructs.
GOVERNANCE
There are also significant legal issues that need to be resolved before smart contracts can be used in anything but the most rudimentary of applications, “This limitation is based, at least in part, on their current inability to account for implied expectations or deal with unforeseen circumstances.”
- Ethereum Hard Fork
Because DAO was hacked and $50 million worth of ether was stolen, Vitalik Buterin and the Ethereum developers and the community successfully forked the Ethereum blockchain to force the stolen ether to be returned.
- Jurisdictional issues
Blockchain has the ability to cross jurisdictional boundaries as the nodes on a blockchain can be located anywhere in the world. This can pose a number of complex jurisdictional issues which require careful consideration in relation to the relevant contractual relationships.
The principles of contract and title differ across jurisdictions and therefore identifying the appropriate governing law is essential. In a conventional banking transaction, for example, if the bank is at fault then irrespective of the transacting mechanism or location, the bank can be sued, and the applicable jurisdiction will most likely be contractually governed. However, in a decentralized environment, it may be difficult to identify the appropriate set of rules to apply.
At its simplest level, every transaction could potentially fall under the jurisdiction(s) of the location of each and every node in the network. Clearly, this could result in the blockchain needing to be compliant with an unwieldy number of legal and regulatory regimes. In the event a fraudulent or erroneous transaction is made, pinpointing its location within the blockchain could be challenging.
The inclusion of an exclusive governing law and jurisdiction clause is therefore essential and should ensure that a customer has legal certainty as to the law to be applied to determine the rights and obligations of the parties to the agreement and which courts will handle any disputes.
- Contract Signatories
Signatories: Two or more people involved in the agreement who make a pact and code down rules they agree or disagree to. This can be between registered companies, individuals, group, community, you name it. Anyone can use it.
- Breach of Contract
the breaches could potentially lead to court injunctions over blockchains.
The Parallel Computing and Optimization Group proposes Probability based Factor Model (PFM) that can be implemented over the blockchain to automatically identify breaches that can cause substantial damage and have high probability for recurrence. PFM can also issue court injunctions for the breaches. The underlying concept in PFM is built upon the notion of unsupervised machine learning and stochastic modeling from the discipline of Data Science.
- Smart Contract Security
Smart contract is written in a software programming language, if the code has any bug it would pose security threat. Absolutely zero bug for any software program is extremely challenging to achieve.
“Progress in smart contract safety is necessarily going to be layered, incremental, and necessarily dependent on defense-in-depth. There will be further bugs, and we will learn further lessons; there will not be a single magic technology that solves everything.
“ — Vitalik Buterin
- Cyber-attacks Against Smart Contracts
- Human Error
The most obvious risk for a smart contract is that there is a coding error. Everyone, even the most brilliant engineer, is liable to make a typo here and there. Since the overwhelming majority of people cannot read code, they are unable to audit their own smart contracts. They are forced simply to trust the skill and attention to detail of the programmer.
Smart contract is immutable. In the meantime, as humans have the tendency of making errors when creating smart contracts, some of these binding agreements can contain errors which cannot be reversed.
- Unavoidable Security Flaws
- Security Holes
Level Cause of vulnerability Attacks
Solidity / EVM / blockchain
For Solidity,
Cause of vulnerabilities:
Call to the unknown
Gasless send
Exception disorders
Type casts
Reentrancy
Keeping secrets
For EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine),
Cause of vulnerabilities:
Immutable bugs
Ether lost in transfer
Stack size limit
For blockchain
Cause of vulnerabilities:
Unpredictable state
Generating randomness
Time constraints
For additional information, refer to
https://brage.bibsys.no/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/2479191/18400_FULLTEXT.pdf?sequence=1
p15
Conceptually, we have four key smart contract issues; codifying issues, security issues, privacy issues, and performance issues.
- Performance
In a text-based contractual relationship, a party may be willing to accept, on an ad hoc basis, partial performance to be deemed full performance. This might be because of an interest in preserving a long-term relationship or because a party determines that partial performance is preferable to no performance at all.
By ceasing performance, or threatening to take that step, a party may bring the counter-party back to the table to negotiate an amicable resolution. Smart contracts do not yet offer analogous self-help remedies.
- Oracles
An oracle, in the context of blockchains and smart contracts, is an agent that finds and verifies real-world occurrences and submits this information to a blockchain to be used by smart contracts.
Smart contracts contain value and only unlock that value if certain pre-defined conditions are met. When a particular value is reached, the smart contract changes its state and executes the programmatically predefined algorithms, automatically triggering an event on the blockchain. The primary task of oracles is to provide these values to the smart contract in a secure and trusted manner.
Blockchains cannot access data outside their network. An oracle is a data feed — provided by third party service — designed for use in smart contracts on the blockchain. Oracles provide external data and trigger smart contract executions when pre-defined conditions meet. Such condition could be any data like weather temperature, successful payment, price fluctuations, etc.
In the context of Ethereum, computation can be outsourced to oracles, third parties that push external data onto the blockchain. Oracles can be categorized into
· Data carrier oracles that relay query results from a trusted data source to a smart contract
· Computation oracles that not only relay query results, but also perform the relevant computation themselves. Computation oracles can be used as building blocks to construct off-chain computation markets
Both types of oracles can be used to connect smart contracts with the results of arbitrary computations (with the caveat that data carrier oracles must support and have access to an existing data source that is capable of performing the computation).
- Checklist for Smart Contract Implementations
◦ Logic Bugs
◦ Failed Sends
◦ Recursive Calls
◦ Integer Arithmetic Overflow
◦ Poison Data
◦ Exposed Functions
◦ Exposed Secrets
◦ Denial of Service / Dust Spam
◦ Miner Vulnerabilities
◦ Malicious Creator
◦ Off-chain Safety
◦ Cross-chain Replay Attacks
◦ Tx.Origin Problem
◦ Solidity Function Signatures and Fallback Data Collisions
◦ Incorrect use of Cryptography
◦ Gas Limits
◦ Stack Depth Exhaustion
For further information, refer to the following URL,
https://www.kingoftheether.com/contract-safety-checklist.html ?
- Constrains
technological and legal constraints
- Audits
security and legal audits
- Governance
In addition to an above section on Governance, following are some specifics on governance. They include operators, gatekeepers and administrators,
100% of operators in the sample own their network and act as gatekeepers/
administrators
Gatekeepers and administrators often take a variety of different roles within the network that go beyond permission assigning and on-boarding of new participants
Software vendors predominantly maintain the codebase while operators approve
software upgrades
- Metrics
In general Smart Contracts metrics tend to suffer from blockchain limited resources constraints, since they tend to assume limited upper values. There is not the ubiquitous presence of fat tail distributions where there are values very far from the mean, even order of magnitude larger, as typical in traditional software. In Smart Contract software metrics large variations from the mean are substantially unknown and all the values are generally in a range of few standard deviations from the mean.
Finally the Smart Contract lines of code is the metric which more closely follow the statistical distribution of the corresponding metric in traditional software system and shows a truncated power law in the tail and an overall distribution which is well explained by a Log normal distribution.
For further information, refer to the following URL, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322978386_Smart_Contracts_Software_Metrics_a_First_Study
- Obstacles
adoption curve
learning curve
reality of legal and regulatory environment
complexity of business ecosystem
standardization
data privacy
USE CASES:
Property & Casualty Insurance
i.e. Wheelysure is currently developing a peer-to-peer, automatic pay-out insurance based on blockchain technology and smart contracts for cyclists
HealthCare
Smart Contracts Could Revolutionize Care Delivery
As it is, the healthcare system is bloated with cost, bureaucracy, and middlemen.
Healthcare Blockchain: Smart Contracts Remove Middlemen
https://www.prolifics.com/blog/healthcare-blockchain-how-smart-contracts-could-revolutionize-care-delivery
HealthCare Insurance
The length of time and the expense involved in processing insurance claims has long been the bane of an industry with a reputation of being slow to embrace change. Blockchain technology offers the hope of drastically cutting down processing times by granting access to health records to those who need it in a secure way.
https://www.tearsheet.co/blockchain/how-blockchain-could-change-the-health-insurance-industry
Real Estate
property search, faster and lower transaction cost, prevent fraud
Supply chain
food delivery tracking for safety, ie. Walmart.
luxury good tracking ie jewelry to prevent fraud
global trade logistics, ie. Maersks
Energy
Decentralized energy supply and transaction system
https://medium.com/ethereum-dapp-builder/how-blockchain-will-re-write-the-energy-sector-b19d7ad8e7d3
powerledger
Compliance
ie. export control compliance
https://www.mme.ch/en/magazine/magazine-detail/url_magazine/smart_contracts_blockchain_and_export_control_compliance
Intellectual Property
Music
Movies
Books
Patents
Trademarks
While copyright law protects your work, until now there hasn’t been a definitive registration system to prove ownership. But blockchain, smart contract can.
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=edeffa75-b081-4392-98aa-04ae8f893543
Smart City
Ricardian Contract
Last but not least, let’s take a minute to visit Ricardian Contract.
A Ricardian contract “a digital contract that defines the terms and conditions of an interaction, between two or more peers, that is cryptographically signed and verified. Importantly it is both human and machine readable and digitally signed”.
It places all information from the legal document in a format that can be executed by software.
It’s possible to implement a Ricardian contract as a smart contract, but not every Ricardian contract is a smart contract. Accordingly, not any smart contract is a Ricardian contract. Smart contracts refer to a type of digital agreement that has already been agreed and can be executed automatically. | https://medium.com/the-blockchain-academy/a-non-technical-overview-of-smart-contracts-9599a7ac24f3 | ['The Blockchain Academy Llc'] | 2019-07-22 15:36:01.323000+00:00 | ['Blockchain Technology', 'Smart Contracts', 'Programming', 'Blockchain'] |
Hope For A New Dawn | “Help! For I am bound inside a prison of concrete, the world goes on unashamed of its apathy. It, a prisoner too of pandemics and histories and progress.” These are the mutilated feelings of every single human being on this planet of hope and despair at this moment.
In the world of pandemics, if it's either SARS of 2002 or MERS of 2011, one more addition had arrived, COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV2 virus. It has upended societies, turned lives of nations and nations upside down. It had spread at a speed that even the most pessimistic forecasts had not anticipated. Number of infections increased exponentially, and the death toll rose up to 1 million and still counting. Societies, businesses, economies shut down because of the drastic impact of the disease that had hit everybody to the core of their sectors. With a snap, roads went empty, crowds became too small, and no trace of life could be found outside, everybody got locked up in their houses, and world went desolate. And this horror-like dream became our reality and now every single soul is living with this reality.
Photo by Martin Sanchez on Unsplash
But could this pandemic have been prevented? And even if not prevented, was there any way by which the aftermath of this outbreak could be contained better and could have saved more lives? I guess so. Coronavirus outbreak started from Wuhan, China and the first case outside of China was reported in Thailand on January 13th 2020. And within a span of mere 17 days, WHO declared it as Public Health Emergency of International Concern. India could have locked down all international arrivals immediately or could have started screening all the international passengers. But like all the other nations of the world, India also kept waiting and watching for this disease to take a monstrous form. A proper committee of epidemiologists, researchers, economists, administrators, logistic experts should have been implemented to work out comprehensive and concrete solutions. WHO declared Covid-19, a pandemic on 11th March, and on 24th March 2020, the Government of India ordered a nationwide lockdown of 21 days, and then it was further extended it until 3 May. And from then it kept extending and locking-unlocking continued. And till October, the unlocking kept implementing in various phases. Due to lockdown, more than 350 deaths were reported as of 10th May, with reasons ranging from starvation, suicides and exhaustion, road and rail accidents, police brutality, and denial of timely medical care. Among the reported deaths, most were among the marginalized migrants and laborers. GDP growth rate for April-June 2020 reached -23.9%, the worst ever in history. The manufacturing, construction, trade, hotel industry saw a decline and slid into negative. This lockdown had been “almost a death sentence” for the underprivileged of the country.
WHO declared Covid-19, a pandemic on 11th March.
Collectively, governments and citizens have underestimated the disease as well as the importance of masks for the prevention of virus. Misleading information gave birth to bizarre conspiracy theories. People denied mask rules and called them oppressive and attack on democracy. Many world leaders also opposed wearing of masks and many were found denying the existence of the pandemic. Masks, washing hands, sanitizing, social distancing, these are the best defenses that we have, they can save lives. In India and many other countries, face masks are mandatory but still, cases were reported where guidelines were not followed properly.
Mistakes happened and it had cost lives, it was difficult to anticipate the migrant worker problem before announcement of first lockdown, still the solution could have been implemented within seven days which was finally announced after five weeks about special trains. Railways had boasted that coaches had been converted into isolation and containment wards, so it was possible to screen migrant labourers. All the major national entrances exams and university exams were conducted amid pandemic in physical centers, they could have been avoided easily. We should have had a health information exchange before the outbreak occured in country, an HIE project could have provided reports about all the thermal screening at the airports and patients registering in hospitals, with better data and analytics, more broad and better measures and policies could have been developed. Numerous incidents were reported where the hospitals had scarcity of resources, doctors, nurses, medical staff, all lacked protective gears and PPEs. Export of the PPEs could have been closed when the news of outbreak surfaced. A delay of responding to the this public health emergency has caused a serious concern.
Where this pandemic has been a nightmare to all our lives there are positive shed too. COVID-19 situation has positively impacted the way we emote and maintain relationships. We got to spend time with our families and plan our work better. Life slowed down, but it helped in maintaining the pace with our connections, either emotional, spiritual or physical. We learnt the importance of hygiene, washed our hands regularly and thorougly. Some lifestyle changes like Namaste instead of shaking hands, sanitizing hands after touching anything, wearing masks in the public places, social distancing made us aware that we shall never lose touch and emote with fellow beings. Creativity and art has found a new way to enter in our lives, a number of projects and innovations are conducted midst this lockdown period. The section of the country which was unfamiliar with the digital world and internet also got to try their hands on virtual world. Remote working became mainstream which taught us that most of the businesses and tasks can be handled by working from home too. Our world is fighting this pandemic everywhere, and we surely going to overcome this. Our race has survived for billions of years and we will survive through this also. I agree battle is hard and long. But after every darkest night, there is always a dawn that welcomes us for a new beginning and a new chapter of life. | https://medium.com/@harshitmehrag/hope-for-a-new-dawn-4af29f9ec523 | ['Harshit Mehra'] | 2021-08-23 14:22:15.695000+00:00 | ['Covid 19', 'First Post', 'Covid 19 Crisis', 'Hope', 'World'] |
How to adapt COVID-related threats and attack surface changes | “You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend.”
― Bruce Lee
While the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over, it already created a massive effect on companies and the security teams that strive to defend them. New threat surfaces are coming out and lead to new tactics for protection.
Yet we are human, and as Bruce Lee said, we can become like water. Some things are worth learning and adapting to the new reality at every stage of this pandemic. This time let me introduce the changes with the perspective of Cybersecurity to illustrate the situation.
Here are the critical cybersecurity considerations around the pandemic and how this might help you think about the Security Concepts such as people, processes, and technology — PPT in your organization both now and in the future.
Transitioning to remote work
Image by the darknet from Pixabay
Most companies prepared some tools and procedures for remote work before COVID-19. However, it is for a small group of users only. The scale and speed are out of scale now to adapt to the new normal.
According to ESG’s The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Cybersecurity report, remote employees need connectivity, device security, and policy management oversight are driving more effective communications and coordination between security and IT teams.
Before the Pandemic, the mobile workforce had already moved to the mainstream. Bring-Your-Own-Device — BYOD is already handled by most enterprises. But for now, its concerns resurface due to more business operation requirements for the WFH situation.
The transition needed investment ($$$)
According to Infoblox’s COVID-19 Challenges for the Borderless Enterprise report and CSO Online’s Impact of COVID-19 Survey:
46% of organizations shifted IT resources toward cybersecurity
38% moved resources away from cybersecurity to remote setup
22% of organizations have bought new security solutions/services to address the unique WFH situation
COVID-related threats and attack surface changes
Image by Stand some from Pixabay
ESG’s report also asked cybersecurity professionals regarding the main challenges for security staff about the transition to work from home went smoothly. The concerns below can be explained under the PPT framework.
Secure configuration of employee devices Secure access Remote monitoring
The WFH situation puts stress on the network and IT resources; connecting to the company from home also increases the security risk. Allowing employees to access the home network, which is unsanctioned, is like letting anyone come to your office with the door open 24x7.
Another reason why secure access is hard to achieve is related to the 1# problem as employees' devices are not all protected. Hackers can leverage insecure devices to gain access to the company’s network.
Assume you have adopted a best practice in system configurations; it is still a challenge for Security Team to manage and monitor every system's changes. It is nearly impossible to track and manage all devices that are not within the premises.
Since the introduction of BYOD, the IT department does not have permission to fully-manage all configurations of those devices due to the ownership problem. As a result, a secure configuration is more challenging than before to achieve.
New Attack Vectors
Image by Pexels from Pixabay
With new opportunity comes new risk. While firms rushed to adopt remote-work technology and digitize processes, hackers act quickly, too! Knowing the Changes are inevitable; we should then be prepared on how to mitigate those risks. I will summarize the WFH technological trend as below.
1# Phishing
Photo by Mohamed Hassan from PxHere
According to F5’s Phishing and Fraud report, attackers doubled down on phishing attacks, both COVID-themed and more broadly. Phishing incidents rose 220% during the height of the global pandemic compared to the yearly average.
The Palo Alto report showed that over 86,000 high-risk COVID-related domains were registered between March and April 2020. Hackers can use these fake websites to launch phishing attacks via emails or advertisements on other platforms.
Many employees will probably be more relaxed and distracted at home, making them more prone to fall for such social engineering attacks. The target of this kind of attack is most likely the credentials of user accounts, which can be used for further attack stages.
2# Sensitive Data & Privacy
CC0 Public Domain | Free for commercial use.
The changed attack surface and new risk profile from more remote workers also alter the calculations around successful cyberattacks. IBM’s most recent Cost of a Data Breach report cautions that remote access increases the average cost of a data breach by $137,000.
The transition to remote work also caused complications around endpoints and data. According to IAPP, the leading privacy promoting organization in cybersecurity, 60% of organizations that adopted WFH technology having accelerated or bypassed the regular privacy/security reviews.
Netskope advises that 7% of users intentionally uploaded sensitive data to personal instances of cloud applications. Yet, 35% of companies relaxed their policies to promote productivity, according to Hysolate’s The CISO’s Dilemma report.
3# Supply chain
Photo by Matt Moloney from StockSnap
Other threat vectors also increased. Hackers would try to get access to your company using the already established highways. Vendors and Partners become the possible targets and as a new way to penetrate.
Top management should understand that vendors, partners, and clients are going through similar challenges and transformations. Attacks related to the supply chain rose 38% since the start of the pandemic, reports Bitdefender (A Security Vendor). | https://medium.com/technology-hits/how-to-adapt-covid-related-threats-and-attack-surface-changes-be7f49bc4062 | ['Zen Chan'] | 2020-12-17 09:33:32.955000+00:00 | ['How To', 'Covid 19', 'Security', 'Mindset', 'Cybersecurity'] |
What Copywriting Is Not | You likely think you know what copywriting is…
You’ve formed some kind of association with it
You have some kind of attachment to it
You’ve learned it from someone and this is what you believe to be true about it
It’s a limited perspective that, in turn, is limiting you
Copywriting is not specific solely to the “business” world
Copywriting is not strictly for copywriter and marketers
It is not complex
It is not rocket-science
It is not “sleasy” or “salesy” (unless you do it that way)
Copywriting is everything. Why? Because copywriting is communication
The parent trying to get their kids to brush their teeth before bed or eat their vegetables — copy…
The shy young man asking out the cute girl in his Science 101 class — copy…
Every single conversation you have with a person in your life… online or offline… text or verbal — that’s a piece of copy
When you begin to view copywriting through this lens of communication your perspective evolves and expands
You expand along with it — and in doing so, so do your opportunities inside the aspect you choose in life
Business. Relationships. Health. Wealth. Happiness
All will expand with a better understanding of the principles of “communication” (i.e. copywriting)
After all, it’s simply ensuring we say the right thing, to the right person, in the right way, at the right time to move toward a specific outcome we’re after
Simple
Nick Maier
@nickmaier__ | https://medium.com/@nick-maier/what-copywriting-is-not-78ff4165ab5b | ['Nick Maier'] | 2020-12-20 21:51:00.378000+00:00 | ['Copywriting Tips', 'Words', 'Marketing Communication', 'Copywriting', 'Copywriting Services'] |
A Road Worth Taking | Turns out, it was a bad year to book a spontaneous trip. By March everyone’s dreams were endangered, and as the months wore on, they folded and slipped away, debris in the unrelenting current. My parents and my brother never made it home from South Africa. Our biannual family vacation to the Outer Banks was canceled. A week at Aunt Pearl’s cottage in Maine became another hope deferred.
We waited until the last possible minute, but finally we were forced to cancel our trip to California. “This is hardly a tragedy,” I wrote, ashamed I could harbor such self-pity while hundreds of thousands of people around the world lay dying. “But trying to keep it in perspective hasn’t brought me any comfort.”
The worst part was not that I might never see the Golden Gate Bridge or the California coastline. It was the loss of a designated weekend to spend with some of my closest friends, a rare gift in a busy world. And the fear that I might never escape the prison of routine — that my days would unfold in an endless strain of keystrokes and windowless rooms.
It’s ironic that in a year of unprecedented events, I was most terrified of the mundane. Maybe I have an unhealthy lust for the extraordinary. Or maybe, when reduced to its most basic structure, the life I’ve chosen is not the life I want. Either way, I’d staked quite a lot on this trip, and the thought that it might never happen was sickening.
We might have spared ourselves a lot of heartache if we’d just resigned ourselves to the initial disappointment. But we remained determined to go and were met with no shortage of adversity.
A Brief Timeline
May: Fortunately, the airlines gave us flight credits, and we are able to rebook the trip. We decide to forgo LA and spend all our time in San Francisco. We gamble on the weekend of September 18–21, hoping travel restrictions will be lifted by then. The trip is on again!
July 20: Our return flight from San Francisco to Atlanta is canceled by the airline due to financial strain brought on by Covid. We scramble to book another flight home. The closest flight is out of LA. We book it. Trip salvaged.
July 28: Our flights to San Francisco are rescheduled by the airline, costing us an entire day on the ground. There should be a better alternative, but there isn’t. The best we can do is a 10-hour layover in Vegas and a late flight to San Fran. Guess we’re going to explore Sin City.
August 18: An unexpected work obligation arises. Seriously, it’s non-negotiable. Our flight from Atlanta to Vegas is too early. It won’t work. We cancel the entire trip and rebook it for the following weekend: September 25–28.
September 9, two weeks out: Apocalyptic images of San Francisco emerge online. The sky is bright orange. The CA wildfires have gotten close. The Air Quality Index is over 200. People are encouraged to stay inside. We purchase N-95 respirators and hope they won’t start canceling flights.
September 19, one week out: I find out that I’ve been directly exposed to Covid. The chances of testing positive are high. If I do, I can’t go, and neither can Joseph since we’re now roommates. The others won’t go without us. By now the air quality is healthy again and all other obstacles have been overcome. But the entire trip is in jeopardy.
I got tested as soon as possible and waited two agonizing days for the results to come back. I checked the health portal compulsively, wanting desperately to know one way or the other. When the results finally arrived, I was terrified to open the link. Up until that moment, I’d been convinced I was negative. Now I was sure the opposite was true. How would I tell the other guys I’d ruined their trip?
I was negative.
It was the kind of relief and happiness that cannot be channeled into deliberate action. I had so many people to tell, and I didn’t know who to text first. I said a guilty but sincere prayer of thanks, knowing that had I been positive, in the absence of anyone else to blame I probably would have blamed God.
And so, after seven months of planning and hoping, we were finally taking our “spontaneous” trip to Cali. | https://medium.com/@derekgahman/a-road-worth-taking-bdc60a129eaa | ['Derek Gahman'] | 2020-11-26 00:45:20.645000+00:00 | ['Travel Writing', 'California', 'San Francisco', 'Travel', 'Pacific'] |
Symptoms that can lead to poor team performance…Matthew (Matt) Key, Goergia | Over the many years of teaching and being involved in leadership meetings and activities, Matthew (Matt) Key, Georgia has witnessed many aha moments in which groups realize the challenges they are addressing are actually symptoms. At this point, they must dig deeper to identify the root cause. This in turn improves team dynamics and embeds healthy structures to build on. One of the lense that can be very helpful in this process is system archetypes. In her recent blog, Identifying System Archetypes to Build High Performing Teams, Donna Orem discusses the symptoms that can cause poor performance among groups.
The blog has been shortened in some areas for reading…
Systems Archetypes
Systems archetypes are underlying structures that produce behaviors across a system. By understanding these archetypes and their potential outcomes, teams can shift their perspectives and more readily identify levers for change.
The most common and well-known of the negative archetypes is “Fixes that Fail.” We all know it well: A challenge arises, we want to solve the problem as quickly as possible, and we often go to the most obvious fix. In most cases, this is a short-term solution and, over time, the challenge returns, often worse, because the fix addressed a symptom, not the root cause.
How does a team break there pattern? In “System Archetypes Basics: From Story to Structure,” authors Daniel Kim and Virginia Anderson suggest following these disciplined steps when challenges arise:
Define the problem symptom . For example, a symptom for a school in a budget crisis may be declining demand.
. For example, a symptom for a school in a budget crisis may be declining demand. Examine past “solutions” to the problem as well as current and planned ones . By bringing the team together to discuss past solutions and potential new ones, it can begin to map out the various mental models for pursuit.
. By bringing the team together to discuss past solutions and potential new ones, it can begin to map out the various mental models for pursuit. Map unintended consequences . In this step, the team can fill in each other’s blind spots. For example, one team member may suggest changing the school’s marketing messages to attract new markets. This may have a positive effect, but it could also drive students to the school who are not mission-aligned or whom the school is not equipped to serve. This could, in turn, affect the school’s reputation in the community, further eroding demand.
. In this step, the team can fill in each other’s blind spots. For example, one team member may suggest changing the school’s marketing messages to attract new markets. This may have a positive effect, but it could also drive students to the school who are not mission-aligned or whom the school is not equipped to serve. This could, in turn, affect the school’s reputation in the community, further eroding demand. Identify the dynamics that created the problem symptoms . At this step, the team can begin to identify the root causes. In this case, what has led to a lessening of demand for the school? Changing demographics? New competition in the market? Program offerings not relevant? Some combination of all of the above?
. At this step, the team can begin to identify the root causes. In this case, what has led to a lessening of demand for the school? Changing demographics? New competition in the market? Program offerings not relevant? Some combination of all of the above? Look for connections between the unintended consequences and the fundamental causes of the problem symptom . This step can highlight how behaviors have been entrenched in a system thus creating a reoccurring negative pattern. For example, has fundraising become an ongoing crutch for meeting budget shortfalls, both large and small, so much so that it has become the only solution explored? Or is marketing always the go-to solution? Do these quick fixes cause more of a downward spiral for the school?
. This step can highlight how behaviors have been entrenched in a system thus creating a reoccurring negative pattern. For example, has fundraising become an ongoing crutch for meeting budget shortfalls, both large and small, so much so that it has become the only solution explored? Or is marketing always the go-to solution? Do these quick fixes cause more of a downward spiral for the school? Identify high-leverage interventions . These are changes that a team can make to the underlying structure that can begin to alleviate the problem. For example, has the team conducted an analysis of cost per student of various programs? There may be programmatic areas that have a high cost because the demand is quite low. Eliminating these programs could ease pressure on the budget without affecting demand. Alternatively, NAIS’s parent research could assist in identifying some easy interventions that could begin to increase demand.
. These are changes that a team can make to the underlying structure that can begin to alleviate the problem. For example, has the team conducted an analysis of cost per student of various programs? There may be programmatic areas that have a high cost because the demand is quite low. Eliminating these programs could ease pressure on the budget without affecting demand. Alternatively, NAIS’s parent research could assist in identifying some easy interventions that could begin to increase demand. Map the potential side effects of any proposed intervention . Teams will want to ensure this step becomes part of their processes to avoid negative consequences.
. Teams will want to ensure this step becomes part of their processes to avoid negative consequences. Cultivate joint understanding of the archetype. Understanding how this way of thinking that has been embedded in the school can lead to new insights for different ways of operating in the future. These are the moments when a leadership team truly becomes a learning team.
Here are some other system archetypes that researchers and theorists have identified over the years. I urge school teams to identify which ones resonate and follow the steps above to see how you can break out of patterns of behavior that can be unhealthy for your school.
Limits to growth. Growth of any kind usually does not go on forever, but organizations tend to ride growth too long, often with tragic consequences. At some point, the system will work to even it out and then the bubble bursts.
Growth of any kind usually does not go on forever, but organizations tend to ride growth too long, often with tragic consequences. At some point, the system will work to even it out and then the bubble bursts. Tragedy of the commons. A shared resource will inevitably get exploited by someone wanting individual gain. When many seek to maximize benefit, intense competition and exploitation arises to the detriment of all.
A shared resource will inevitably get exploited by someone wanting individual gain. When many seek to maximize benefit, intense competition and exploitation arises to the detriment of all. Escalation. Competition is a part of many systems, but when people begin “one-upping” each other, fighting for limited resources, all can end up losing.
Competition is a part of many systems, but when people begin “one-upping” each other, fighting for limited resources, all can end up losing. Eroding goals. When goals aren’t met, the desired outcomes often shift downward, eroding quality.
When goals aren’t met, the desired outcomes often shift downward, eroding quality. Addiction. We can become addicted to an eternal force to maintain the system while ignoring the internal systemic issues.
We can become addicted to an eternal force to maintain the system while ignoring the internal systemic issues. Exponential success. Success can drive a winning-at-all-cost mindset, thus eroding teamwork.
Success can drive a winning-at-all-cost mindset, thus eroding teamwork. Race to the bottom. Competing by low-cost alone can drive quality to erode as an industry competes on volume alone (think the airline industry).
Competing by low-cost alone can drive quality to erode as an industry competes on volume alone (think the airline industry). Shifting the burden. A decision made to fix something in one part of a system inadvertently shifts the burden to another part of the system.
A decision made to fix something in one part of a system inadvertently shifts the burden to another part of the system. Intensity to action. This is a positive archetype in which an action motivates all to work for a collective good, often seen when people work together in a natural disaster. How can we replicate this in good times?
This is a positive archetype in which an action motivates all to work for a collective good, often seen when people work together in a natural disaster. How can we replicate this in good times? Regenerative relationships. This positive archetype happens when a system shares resources in a way that is regenerative and collaborative, such as the effects of professional development on an entire system.
Can you identify other archetypes at work in your school? Once you name them and identify both the associated negative and positive behaviors, you can clear the way for more effective team performance. | https://medium.com/@Matthew.Key/symptoms-that-can-lead-to-poor-team-performance-matthew-matt-key-goergia-f09ea08ef3f7 | ['Matthew Key'] | 2019-03-20 17:53:58.995000+00:00 | ['Systems Thinking'] |
TDD Excel File Download API with Flask | Test-driven development (TDD) is a very useful development technique. However, some features are particularly difficult to test. One example is to download files.
Recently, I have just “TDDed” a file download feature in python Flask. During development, there was not a complete guide on how to TDD it. So to help save efforts and time for other engineer friends, this blog will give a simplified example of using TDD to drive an excel file download API.
Flask for web and openpyxl for excel writer are used in this blog, but the logic should be similar for different frameworks and libraries.
There are four major steps in this blog:
Setup Development Environment
Write Test First
Fix Failing Test
Refactor
You are welcome to follow these steps or just view the full example at this Github Repo.
Setup Development Environment
Create a directory
mkdir tdd-excel-download cd tdd-excel-download
Create a virtual environment
virtual environments help to isolate python dependencies. virtualenv is used in this blog, but you are free to create a virtual environment in any tool you like.
# create a virtual environment at destination venv
virtualenv venv # activate virtual environment
. venv/bin/activate
Install Dependencies
pip install Flask openpyxl
Create a Starter Flask Project
Flask providers test_client to facilitate the testing of the Flask app. So let’s create an empty Flask app first. Create app.py with the following content:
from flask import Flask
app = Flask(__name__)
if __name__ == '__main__':
app.run(debug=False, host='0.0.0.0')
And we have a development environment ready. Let’s move on to write our first test.
Write Test First
Let’s create the test file tests/test_excel_file_download.py with the following content:
import unittest
from io import BytesIO
from openpyxl import load_workbook
from app import app
class TestExcelFileDownload(unittest.TestCase):
def test_download_excel_file(self):
# Setup / Arrange
client = app.test_client()
# Execute / Act
response = client.get('/excel/download')
# Assert
# Assert file name is correct
self.assertEqual(200, response.status_code)
self.assertEqual('attachment; filename=tdd-excel.xlsx', response.headers['Content-Disposition'])
# Assert file content is correct
expected_file_content = [
['TDD', 'is', 'AWESOME!'],
['Except', 'when', 'it', 'is', 'particularly', 'hard'],
['But', 'we', 'can', 'handle', 'it'],
]
wb = load_workbook(filename=BytesIO(response.data))
ws = wb.worksheets[0]
actual_file_content = [[cell.value for cell in row if cell.value is not None] for row in ws.rows]
self.assertEqual(expected_file_content, actual_file_content)
Most tests consist of three parts: Setup / Arrange, Execute / Act, and Assert. In this test, the setup is to get the test_client provided by Flask app. The execute part is to make an HTTP call to the endpoint / excel/download . Finally, the assertions are to assert the HTTP response status code is 200 OK with the header attachment; filename=tdd-excel.xlsx . And the file content is the same as expected.
Run the test with the following command:
python -m unittest tests.test_excel_file_download
We should have a failing test at the first assertion: 404 != 200 . This is because we don’t have the endpoint yet. So let’s fix the failing test together.
Fix Failing Test
To fix the failing test, furnish the app.py with the following content:
from io import BytesIO
from flask import Flask, send_file
from openpyxl import Workbook
app = Flask(__name__)
@app.route('/excel/download')
def download_excel():
wb = Workbook()
ws = wb.active
ws.append(['TDD', 'is', 'AWESOME!'])
ws.append(['Except', 'when', 'it', 'is', 'particularly', 'hard'])
ws.append(['But', 'we', 'can', 'handle', 'it'])
file_stream = BytesIO()
wb.save(file_stream)
file_stream.seek(0)
return send_file(file_stream, attachment_filename="tdd-excel.xlsx", as_attachment=True)
if __name__ == '__main__':
app.run(debug=False, host='0.0.0.0')
In more details, we have added a GET request endpoint at /excel/download . When a GET request initiates, a new Excel Workbook is created with content and saved to a byte stream. Then the byte stream is sent as a file with an attachment file name using the Flask send_file method.
Last but not least, let’s refactor a bit.
Refactor
Currently, the download_excel method is doing two things: prepare an Excel Workbook and send the file in response. Let’s extract the preparation of the Excel Workbook to a separate method.
from io import BytesIO
from flask import Flask, send_file
from openpyxl import Workbook
app = Flask(__name__)
def get_tdd_excel_workbook():
wb = Workbook()
ws = wb.active
ws.append(['TDD', 'is', 'AWESOME!'])
ws.append(['Except', 'when', 'it', 'is', 'particularly', 'hard'])
ws.append(['But', 'we', 'can', 'handle', 'it'])
return wb
@app.route('/excel/download')
def download_excel():
wb = get_tdd_excel_workbook()
file_stream = BytesIO()
wb.save(file_stream)
file_stream.seek(0)
return send_file(file_stream, attachment_filename="tdd-excel.xlsx", as_attachment=True)
if __name__ == '__main__':
app.run(debug=False, host='0.0.0.0')
Happy Coding! | https://medium.com/@vreamer/tdd-excel-file-download-api-with-flask-d432bb72e888 | ['Yifeng Hou'] | 2020-11-07 04:31:00.834000+00:00 | ['Excel', 'Tdd', 'Download', 'Flask'] |
I Am Woman, Hear Me Vote | I Am Woman, Hear Me Vote
Being a Woman Who Speaks and Finding Satisfaction Within the Resistance
Yes, I’m waiting for it. I know it’s coming. In fact, in part, it’s already begun. They will undermine her. They will delegitimize her. They will delegitimize the entire campaign, the votes, the rallying, the presidency. If Hillary Clinton wins on November 8th, it will never in our lifetimes be because she won fair and square. It will always be followed with excuses, with ways that it didn’t really happen and how it’s a fluke, a one-off. They will find every way possible to undermine her power as president, to undermine female voters who led the charge, to continue the witch hunt. They will find ways not to listen, ways not to cooperate. She won’t be worthy of their attention or their respect.
She will have to be better than all other male presidents combined to be considered anything above a disaster.
While I hope all of that isn’t true, I have reason to believe it will be.
A little over a year ago I ventured into the world of opinion writing. And as is typical of women who publish opinions, I received a most baffling range of responses.
I was so fervently feminist I was labeled a feminazi. I was so terribly anti-feminist that I hated women. I was both black and white. Up and down. I was somehow a magical creature sitting at both extreme ends of a very broad spectrum. But the most bizarre responses were about me, personally. I keep a low profile and my photo did not accompany the article. But the very first thing most of the male readers wanted to know was, “What does she look like?” The fervent nature of the talk about my looks began to take on a life of its own. An attractive and stylish blogger in my town who shared my initials and last name was mistaken as me and dragged into the fray. Photos of her in dresses and bikinis taken from her Facebook page were plastered through the comments. My words and her looks didn’t jibe in their minds; it did not compute.
Then they found out I wasn’t her, and I hadn’t given them the satisfaction of my face as ammunition. Therefore, I was ruled a hideous, fat hag who should just shut up, said in words not nearly as kind.
But why did my looks matter? Why was it the first thing they wanted to attack? Why did they feel the need to attack in the first place? Ask the Suffragettes of 100 years ago, as they faced the same. I said something men didn’t agree with, something that scratched them deep within the confines of their most tightly held social norms, and they instinctively aimed for the supposed beauty “soft spot” . . . only my soft spot is made of steel, like so many Suffragettes and Hillary herself. We know our worth is within and the outside is irrelevant.
Despite a relatively banal and frivolous topic and opinion, readers immediately chose to try to discredit and dismiss me and anything I had to say in the most obvious and basic ways possible. The comments boiled down to this: “I won’t listen to you because you’re a woman, you’re stupid, and you’re probably ugly, and therefore your opinions and words have no worth. Who asked you, anyway?” My words were worth only the time it took to insult them, not the time it would take to fully engage with them. I had no place sharing my thoughts in a public forum because I was a woman who was likely unattractive and had a disagreeable opinion.
I was a nasty woman for speaking my mind and not sharing bikini pictures while I did it.
While the male readers attempted to shut me down, in public and in their own minds to comfort themselves, my piece went viral, international even. I did not take lightly the consequences, but I did enjoy a good chuckle seeing it make waves on such a grand scale. My opinion wasn’t popular per se, but something I wrote made the rounds of this interconnected planet. In that, I had the last laugh.
Then in walks the pantsuit-clad Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee, a woman who knows a thing or two about being undermined and delegitimized, a woman who garners nearly as much attention for her appearance as her policies, and I felt validated.
But Hillary didn’t earn a worthy opponent, no; she’s pitted against a Twitter troll no better than the hateful commenters I faced.
She has to pretend she’s on equal footing with Trump, a man who knows a thing or two about being the driving force behind undermining and attacking women. And so we get to watch the public discrediting of a woman based on gender and looks on a massive scale. One of the most recognized, experienced, and intelligent women on Earth has to go up against one of the most misogynistic men on Earth and battle it out while he whines, complains, and interrupts as she stays steadfast because anything less will garner more lopsided vitriol and insults.
If ever there was an example of feminism vs. the rest of the world played out in caricature, this election is it.
In this battle, Trump is staying true to form and calling the election rigged before it even begins. He and the GOP are laying the groundwork for a historical discrediting of a possible female presidency so the most sexist among us don’t really have to accept it. It’s all an echo of his concocted birther conspiracy. A black man’s presidency is meritless because he wasn’t born here (read: because he’s black). A woman’s presidency will be meritless because she rigged the election in her favor (read: because she’s the lesser sex). It’s a conspiratorial CYA move, only he’s covering his own ego and beliefs and those of so many men everywhere. “If I lose to a woman,” his actions say, “it’s not because she’s better than I am; it’s because she rigged it.”
But any woman who has to work twice as hard to be heard over the sound of a man’s eyes giving her the once over to decide if she’s worth his time knows it’s all noise.
We’ve surmounted far worse over the course of history, and the first person to do anything always bears the brunt of the resistance. Thankfully we’ve been given one of the most resilient women ever to bear that initial burden.
We must take her lead and not be intimidated by violent discourse or action. We must mimic her resilience in the face of their threats of impeachment and marching in the streets. It’s our duty to show Trump, with our votes, that if he loses to a woman, it is, in fact, because she’s better than he is, in so many ways. And it’s our duty to show our sons, with our votes, that being bested by a woman is no longer dishonorable; it is simply a loss, not a dismantling of manhood.
The men among us now, the powerful and privileged raised to feel superior to women, men who are offended by our votes and our voices, may just be the last generation to feel such a depth to that wound. And they will shout. They will resist.
However, even if they believe the results were rigged, even if they scream for the next four years that a woman’s presidency is illegitimate, we know that sometimes it’s the winning, the last laugh, that’s enough. | https://medium.com/@ALBailey/i-am-woman-hear-me-vote-bb3a32591129 | ['A. Bailey'] | 2016-10-30 20:52:31.467000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Opinion', 'Feminism', '2016 Election'] |
Battle for British Islam | Battle for British Islam
A BBC Panorama documentary from 12th January 2015
In its programme ‘Battle for British Islam’ the BBC exposed the fact that there is no difference between the so called conservative Muslims and extremists. The conservatives interviewed clearly said that Muslims should segregate themselves from the rest of the community and that the punishment for apostasy is death. Unfortunately, this will not change as long as the government continues to allow faith based schools, especially where children are taught that Muslims are superior to others.
The Holy Quran clearly teaches respect for all religions including idols of other religions. It forbids Muslims from denigrating those deities, other than Allah, worshipped by others because it will hurt their feelings.
The Holy Quran does not in any of its passages instruct Muslims to kill an apostate.
All such teachings were introduced by later scholars as part of Islamic belief.
In responding to the documentary, Shahid Aziz, President of the UK branch of the worldwide Ahmadiyya Associations for propagation of Islam, said | https://medium.com/virtual-mosque/battle-for-british-islam-234a7d7ecb78 | ['Virtual Mosque'] | 2016-04-09 17:56:07.434000+00:00 | ['British', 'Islam', 'Battle'] |
Dear CryptoIndex community members! We are happy to present our advisor — Austin Kimm. | Experienced results proven financial services CEO with a particular focus on building insurance businesses in developing markets where he has successfully built companies with a current valuation in excess $500m, most recently in Russia (10 years), as well as other non insurance senior management roles, including CEO of Russia’s largest internet sales employment platform, Workle, and a wide range of fintech startup C level positions including Crypterium, the world’s first digital cryptobank.
Our website: http://cryptoindex.io/
You can always check the current CIX100 composition at our MVP platform: http://cryptoindex.ai/
#CryptoIndex #Index #CIX100 #Blockchain #Team #AustinKimm | https://medium.com/cryptoindex-io/dear-cryptoindex-community-members-we-are-happy-to-present-our-advisor-austin-kimm-1acc6b067b2b | [] | 2018-08-20 21:29:03.228000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Team', 'Bitcoin', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Cix100'] |
Integration Partner Highlight: Tailwind TMS | Trucker Tools’ integration partnerships offer you greater efficiency, reduce your operational costs and simplify workflows in your freight brokerage/logistics business. We’re excited to announce that we’ve recently partnered with Tailwind Transportation Software, a company whose mission is to help carriers, brokers and 3PLs control the chaos that often accompanies running a transportation business. Our integration partnership with Tailwind makes it possible for you to view and use Trucker Tools’ powerful digital freight matching and real-time freight tracking platforms via Tailwind’s transportation management system. With this integration, you can manage all aspects of your operations in a single interface.
Tailwind is a transportation software company focused on helping small to mid-sized trucking companies, freight brokerages and those businesses that do both. Since launching its web-based TMS in 2016, Tailwind has made more than 300 enhancements to its TMS platform to help your make better decisions faster. Tailwind helps thousands of 3PLs, brokers and carriers improve cash flow, raise profit margins and keep pace with larger players in the industry.
Tailwind’s TMS can be accessed via the internet any time and any place and is offered on a monthly subscription model that helps you keep your expenses in check. With the company’s TMS, you can manage your dispatch, operations, customers, accounting and administrative tasks on a single platform. An integration with Quickbooks Online offers added operational efficiency. In a recent survey conducted by Tailwind, 61 percent of its TMS users reported that they grew their businesses by 25 percent or more thanks to Tailwind’s TMS. The same survey also found that approximately 85 percent of users reduced their paperwork by 25 percent or more and increased their efficiency by 50 percent or more with Tailwind’s TMS.
Trucker Tools’ digital freight matching platform automatically matches your loads with available truck capacity from within your network of preferred carriers. You can use Trucker Tools’ digital freight matching to search for truck capacity by lane, freight type, carrier name and date(s), as well. The Trucker Tools digital freight matching platform includes predictive load matching functionality that allows you to find and book capacity in the future. Less time spent on capacity searches offers you the ability to scale up your freight volume without increasing overhead and helps you increase profit margins.
The integration between Trucker Tools’ digital freight matching platform and Tailwind’s TMS allows you to view capacity data from Trucker Tools’ digital freight matching platform in Tailwind’s TMS. The single platform experience provided by this integration simplifies your workflows and drives even greater operational efficiency in your business. Trucker Tools’ integration partnership with Tailwind also notably offers your carrier partners the ability to view and submit rates quotes for your available loads in the free Trucker Tools app 24 hours/day, seven days/week.
Trucker Tools’ freight tracking platform uses the GPS technology in the trucker’s smart phone and the Trucker Tools app for drivers to provide you with real-time, digital location updates every five minutes. Brokers and 3PLs that use Trucker Tools’ freight tracking platform achieve on average a 72 percent tracking compliance success rate. Brokers and 3PLs who follow Trucker Tools’ freight tracking best practices achieve 90 percent or higher tracking compliance success. With real-time location updates every five minutes, you can always have access to accurate, updated ETAs, which strengthens your relationships with shippers. The carrier component of Trucker Tools freight tracking platform, the Trucker Tools app for drivers, helps your carrier partners operate with greater efficiency and offers them transparency not seen in most load tracking technologies.
The integration between Tailwind’s TMS and Trucker Tools’ real-time freight tracking platform can greatly reduce or eliminate the number of check calls you make to track a load. The time savings achieved with the integration reduces your cost per load and boosts your operational efficiency. The integration lets your staff members view the real-time location of loads in seconds directly in the Tailwind TMS. The labor and time savings realized with this integration allows you to reassign your staff members to revenue-generating activities such as shipper diversification and carrier development.
To learn more about the benefits that the Tailwind/Trucker Tools integration can offer your transportation business, watch our recent webinar with Tailwind, Real-Time Load Tracking and Capacity Optimization with Tailwind and Trucker Tools. Schedule a free demo of Trucker Tools’ digital freight matching and real-time freight tracking platforms. | https://medium.com/trucker-tools/integration-partner-highlight-tailwind-tms-73e31eaf0b04 | ['Tracy Neill'] | 2021-02-03 21:58:22.193000+00:00 | ['Partnerships', 'Shipping', 'Logistics', 'Transportation', 'Freight Shipping'] |
Code for Australia’s #GovWin Awards Are Back for 2020! | Let’s be honest. Every single person working in the public sector deserves an award this year — everyone’s worked hard under the strangest of circumstances. One of the things that we can forget about those working in government is that they’re doing work that ultimately has an impact on the rest of society; if things don’t work or take too long they can have huge repercussions on people in communities throughout the country — that’s a lot of pressure at the best of times!
The good news is that on the whole, local, state, and federal government teams rose to the occasion. This year, we’ve seen town halls hosted on Zoom; trials take place at home; and council elections be held off-site. So before we reveal the awards, it bears mentioning that as an organisation we have been absolutely floored by the capacity of teams within all levels of government to adapt, reflect, and ultimately increase their digital capability in 2020.
Now, let’s kick things off.
🤖 Leadership in ethical AI
Ed Santow, Australian Human Rights Commission
Ed has led the independent statutory body — established to protect and promote all aspects of human rights — for four years, but of late his focus has shifted to the intersection between technology and human rights. Ed is exploring the complex lines between concepts like innovation and privacy rights within the realm of AI. As Ed said recently on the InnovationAus podcast, “That’s the piece to the puzzle where I think we can do better: innovate in a way that is consistent with our values, that will be better, smarter, and give our citizens what they want.” Thank you for leading the charge!
👩🚒Kick ass person driving good tech in emergency management
Natalie Morton Hill, Manager ICT Applications & Development at NSW Rural Fire Service
If there’s two things we like, it’s sharing and scaling — and Natalie happens to rule at both. Not only did Natalie and her team create the incredibly useful Fires Near Me application during a season of unprecedented fire activity across NSW, but they also made the application both sharable and scalable for other jurisdictions. Talk about calm under fire!
🧓🏽 Coolest side hustle
Matiu Bush, General Manager Infection Prevention and Control at Department of Justice and Community Safety VIC & Founder of One Good Street
Where to begin! Matiu is the General Manager, Infection Prevention for the mandatory quarantine of returned travellers in Victoria. In 2020. No easy feat. But on top of all their amazing work in their regular role within the department, Matiu also found time to startup One Good Street — a social impact platform to encourage neighbour-initiated care for older residents at risk of social isolation and loneliness. Oh, and Matiu was a finalists for the Health Minister’s Award for Nursing Trailblazers too. No big deal!
🤿 Most eager to dive in the deep end
Penelope Winslade, Hobsons Bay Council
Hobsons Bay City Council is the first metro council in Victoria to implement this new waste and recycling service that aims to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill, and redirect it into local recycling streams. They then partnered with us to make an accompanying app used by thousands of Hobson Bay locals to give them the info they need to make the most of their new recycling system. Pene and her team are passionate about taking the lead and showing what local councils can do. Find out more about the project here.
🤪 Most likely to give wild ideas a go
Petrhyce Donovan and the Closing the Loop team, City of Canterbury Bankstown
For a local council, City of Canterbury Bankstown think big. From overseas information exchanges, using AI tech in local garbage pick-ups and truly opening themselves up to working in innovative, and sometimes uncomfortable ways, the City of Canterbury Bankstown team is serious about waste management and being a SmartCity. Oh, and we’re not the only ones who think they’re awesome! They recently won the SDC action award for sustainable development for use of machine learning to drive down waste contamination.
Edit: February 2021 —
Harvard University gave an award for the Closing the Loop on Waste project! A true testament to the fact that City of Canterbury Bankstown are incredibly committed to advancing the lives of their residents through digital technology. Keep the awards coming!
🥶 Most amount of grit
Elisa Bosel, Smart Service QLD
Our Smart Service Queensland Fellowship was in the works when COVID entered the scene. It’s easy to let priorities shift when a crisis comes up but the team at Smart Service Queensland have managed to juggle their many ad-hoc responsibilities that have arisen due to COVID, alongside supporting our awesome Fellows and keeping the Fellowship on track. Read more about their Fellowship here.
🏃♂️Most ahead the curve
Adam Fennessy, Public Sector Commission
After a few years off from working in the public sector, Adam returned in June of this year to serve as Victorian public sector commissioner. Having previously acted as secretary of DEWLP, Adam has always been ahead of the curve in terms of workplace practices within government, having been public about being one of the first men in the VPS’ senior executive team to take time off work and shift to part-time to look after his children. “ I think that with technology and support from leadership there’s no reason why we can’t be more flexible. A lot of it is just an attitude shift,” Adam told the Mandarin back in 2016. Having pushed for for flexible working arrangements at all levels for years (and pre-pandemic, no less) we’re thrilled that he’s now at the helm at PSC and in a position to implement these changes as part of their strategic priorities.
⚡Most able to make great things happen at lightning speed
Damon Rees + Melissa Clemmens, Service NSW
When it comes to ensuring people have what they need as soon as humanly (or digitally) possible, Damon and Melissa’s team spent 2020 kicking goals and smashing deadlines. Not only did they build excellent teams for unprecedented demands with miraculous speed, but they also rolled out a staggering number of new (and very necessary features) on the Service NSW app. We’re excited to see what the team have in store for next year because the bar has been set high!
🎒Cool human driving positive transformation for rural students
Michelle Michaels, Director, Education Support & Rural Initiatives, NSW Education
Having served at the Department of Education for over a decade, Michelle was able to identify a massive social risk for young people during a tough year. Michelle and her team developed a program which will “deliver improved access to digital teaching, learning aids and collaboration tools to rural and remote schools [and]close the gap between regional and metropolitan schools through better integration of digital into the curriculum and infrastructure.” We can’t wait to see how it turns out.
👂Most dedicated to embedding UX in government
Jane Cipants + The Legal Aid NSW Team
The folks at Legal Aid NSW proved to us throughout this year that they’re all about creating new roles in service design and data science and learning new ways of working from partners. The whole team got on board as we undertook a Fellowship with them this year wherein Fellows created prototypes for an online triaging tool. The team’s ability to take what they’d learnt and run with it wont be forgotten! Find out more about the Fellowship here.
💪🏽TEAM WIN: Champions of open source government
Digital, Design and Innovation Branch, The Department of Premier and Cabinet VIC
How awesome is this team? Let us count the ways… This year alone, the Digital, Design and Innovation Branch have produced two excellent resources that we can’t help but scream and shout about. Earlier in the year, Make your project open source — digital guide was released in a bid to build better products and services for Victoria by promoting open source.
Most recently, the branch launched their equally excellent Human-Centred Design playbook! It includes design plans, methods, outputs, case studies and many more useful tidbits and meaty things. We are so excited to see Human Centred Design being utilised in government to help public servants better engage citizens and inform policy.
Great work team!
🗣️NON-GOV WIN: Most likely to tell everyone they know about Code for Australia
Sean Hua, Civic Makers Program
Sean has been involved and actively engaged in the Code for Australia community for as long as any of us can remember! He’s also one of the founding members and organisers of our volunteer-led program Civic Makers wherein he comes up with amazing ideas and keeps the team moving forward. Sean’s ultimate superpower though, is connecting people within our community and beyond! Thanks to Sean’s kind words about Code for Australia, we’ve recruited Fellows, formed partnerships and met some of the best people we know. Biggest of thank yous to Sean! | https://blog.codeforaustralia.org/our-2020-govwin-awards-are-back-df72bd5f8f2d | ['Esther Semo'] | 2021-02-16 05:18:21.079000+00:00 | ['Civictech', 'Updates', 'Digital Government', 'Govwin', 'Government'] |
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